For our Scripture reading this morning, turn with me to Romans 1. Romans 1, we read together verses 18 through the end of the chapter, verse 32. Romans 1, 18 through 32. We also consider this morning, we continue our consideration of the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 4, which you may recall is the last of the three Lord's Days dealing with man's sin and misery. In some respects, as we've said before, heavy stuff. Stuff, material that doesn't always make us feel so good. But then again, it's not necessarily supposed to, is it? But as you may have noticed in your bulletin, on the back of the brief outline, You have printed for you, Lord's Day 4, the three questions and answers. And the reason for that is, in the back of our Psalter Hymnal, we have the 76th edition of the Psalter Hymnal with a little more recent version of the Heidelberg Catechism. And the 59th edition of the Psalter Hymnal has a little bit older version of the Catechism, which I think is more faithful, is better. There are good things about the 76th edition in that it's probably a little more readable, maybe easier for us to recite. We give up that a little bit. And it's been written in such a way to help us maybe understand things a little more clearly. But in many cases, we find out that the rewriting of it, things have been lost, some of the beauty of the catechism. And I found that to be true with Lord's Day 4. So this morning, I've decided to have it printed for you and may continue to do it this way in the future. First of all, we read together Romans 1, beginning at verse 18, as we give our attention to the Word of God. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, They not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. And now turning to the insert in the bulletin, Lord's Day 4, questions and answers 9 through 11, as I read the question and together we confess what we believe using the words of these answers printed there. Question 9 asks, Does not God then wrong man by requiring of him in his law that which he cannot perform? Not at all. For God made man capable of performing it. But man, through the instigation of the devil, by his own willful disobedience, deprived himself and all his posterity of these gifts. Will God suffer such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished? By no means. But He is terribly displeased with our original as well as actual sins. and will punish them by a just judgment, temporally and eternally, as He has declared, Cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. Is then God not also merciful? God is indeed merciful, but He is also just. Therefore, His justice requires that sin which is committed against the Most High Majesty of God be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, So far in our necessary study of Scripture's teaching of man's sin and misery as we have considered so far in this first section of the Catechism, we have seen that man's sinful, depraved condition is not God's fault. Man tries to blame God at first. But God didn't make man that way. As well, it's not anyone else's fault. Yes, Adam and Eve were the first to sin, but because Adam was our first father, because he represented the entire human race, we too, in a sense, took a bite of that forbidden fruit. It's our fault. We cannot blame anyone else. Each and every one of us is to blame for our wretched condition. But as Lord's Day 4 clearly points out, we're not quite ready yet to accept the full responsibility for our lack of performance to God's law. We still want to try to throw out some excuses. We're not quite ready to say, Lord, it's my fault. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Instead, as the questions of Lord's Day 4 make clear, we want to first of all challenge God's expectations. Question 9 does that. Then we want to challenge the necessity of His Word. Question 10. And then finally, in a last-ditch effort, we also want to challenge His very being as we do in question 11. And all of this, beloved, points to the fact that what we really want is we want God to change. With the questions that are put forth in this Lord's Day, we are essentially asking that God's righteousness not be so righteous. And that His justice not be so just. After all, that always works out for our advantage in this life, doesn't it? For example, when others lower their standards or don't stick to their work, that can work for us to our advantage. That can make our life a little bit easier, a little bit better. For example, boys and girls, when your parents threaten you with a spanking, promise you a spanking. Or young people, if your parents promise you a grounding for disobeying them and for breaking their rules, but then they don't carry out that promise. They don't go through with it. That saves you pain and agony and inconvenience, doesn't it? At least for a time. But we need to understand it works the other way too because by not carrying out their punishment, your parents have not taught you the lesson that you needed to learn in that particular situation. As well, sometimes in the class, if the class didn't do so well on a test, the teacher might decide to grade on a curve in order to help out all the students with their grades and I myself benefited from that and didn't mind one bit benefiting from that. But even in our court system today, many are not punished according to what they truly deserve. Depending on the kind of cooperation that they give, the sentence might be reduced and criminals are allowed to plea bargain for a lesser charge so that in many cases the punishment doesn't fit the crime. And that's what the sinner tries to do with God. He tries to plea bargain for a lesser charge to reduce the punishment. But that cannot be congregation because our God is righteous in all His ways. He upholds what is right. He is just. What He says He must and He will do. God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the psalmist confirms this when he says, the counsel of the Lord stands forever. And James says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. We consider this Word of God this morning, God's unchangeableness seen in His absolute justice against the sinner. We consider these things. First of all, the absolute justice of God's demand. And then the absolute justice of His wrath. And then finally, the absolute justice of God's mercy. Congregation, what we have before us in these three questions and answers are really three objections to God and the way that He operates. We don't like the way He operates, the way He deals with mankind. Question 9 again asks, Does not God then wrong a man by requiring him in His law that which he cannot perform? Isn't he being unfair? After all, we were just taught in question and answer 8 that we are so corrupt and totally unable to do any good and instead we are inclined to all evil. So how in the world can you expect someone to do something that they are simply not able to do? That doesn't make sense. Even we don't go so far as to expect that of each other, do we? We don't expect an infant to be able to drive the car, do we? That may seem absurd, of course. We don't expect someone who has never touched a piano, for example, or never taking a piano lesson to sit down at the piano and play a beautiful sonata, do we? And we don't expect someone who cannot see to perform brain surgery, do we? In fact, even in the business world, we wouldn't hire someone who is not qualified or capable to do the work or is not trainable to do the work. We don't do these things. These things would be ridiculous. So how can God expect us to keep His law which we simply cannot keep? Beloved, wouldn't it make more sense if God would come down to man's level and be satisfied with what man is willing and able to do? But we know the answer to that question right off the bat, don't we? Man is not able or willing to do anything in favor of God. But you see, if he could be satisfied with the best that we can do, then everything would be great, wouldn't it? At least it would for us. Congregation, what is the sinner trying to do here? Well, he is attacking God in essence by saying that God has treated him, the sinner, shamefully and unjustly. And the sinner is trying to relieve himself of his obligation to serve his Creator. Man is saying that God has violated man's rights. And now there is a word as well that we all like. Rights. We are a rights-driven society. Our society loves that word rights. How much of our judicial system's time is taken up by cases involving the violation of people's rights? Indeed, we ought to be thankful for many of the civil rights that we enjoy, but we all know that they're being pushed to the extreme. But what's the answer to all of this? Beloved, if God had acted like an employer who, for example, hired someone to do carpentry work without the proper tools, without the necessary training and skills, yet expected that one to do the work of a carpenter, that would have been unreasonable. That would have been unfair. That would not be just. But He didn't do that. He gave man at creation, as we talked about before, and as answer 9 says, He gave him the necessary tools and skills to live according to His law. Isn't God being unfair? Not at all. For God made man capable of performing it, but man, through the instigation of the devil, by his own willful disobedience, deprived himself and all his posterity of these gifts. Man's rights weren't violated. His rights, if you want to call them rights, were to be what God created him to be, to do what God created him to do, and that is to love God above all and our neighbor as ourself. And the fact is that by creating man good and after his own image in true righteousness, holiness, and knowledge, God was helping man and making him able to enjoy the rights that God had given him. The rights to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Those are the rights that we enjoy. God's rights were violated. He protected man with the boundary of the law of love. Boys and girls, you remember that the boundary for the fish is that water. That's where the fish is meant to live. Inside the water. That's where the fish is the most free. Outside the boundaries of the water, the fish is going to die. God gave to man the boundaries of His law. That's where we enjoy the most freedom. That's where we are intended to live. Outside of the boundaries of the law of God, there's only death. And God had and God still has the right to our knowledge and to our abilities. the right to our relationships and to our money and possessions, the right to our desires and the affections of our hearts. He has the right to our love and commitment to Him. He has the right to our all. And God made man capable of performing all of this. In fact, as John says in 1 John 5, verse 3, His commandments are not burdensome. Beloved, in the beginning, God's requirement was not out of line because man was custom-fitted to the law. But man violated God's rights when through the instigation of the devil by his own willful disobedience, man deprived himself and all of his posterity, all of humankind of these gifts. God has never violated man. He has never ever demanded more or less from man than what He made man capable of giving. But man changed. Man turned his back on God. He wasn't satisfied with the riches that he already enjoyed, but willfully and disobediently fell for the devil's let's make a deal scheme and put his hand into the devil's pocket expecting greater riches than what he already owned. And what happened? He deprived himself and all of his posterity of the gifts that God had originally given to him. We need to remember and understand that man's fall was not done out of ignorance as if he didn't know what he was doing. He did know. And just as he was able to choose to follow Satan's lie, he also could have chosen to resist the devil, but he didn't. He willingly closed his eyes to the signs of danger and pushed forward with his own agenda. Now, we may not fully understand how this could be. We may not fully understand how that could be a part of God's plan. But we're not called to either. We are to go according to God's revealed will, His Word. And Paul gives evidence of the willful disobedience of man and its result in Romans 1. Man suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, as some versions say. This version says he suppresses the truth by his wickedness. Man is not ignorant about God because God has made Himself known to man and in man, and therefore man is without excuse. Notice again verses 21 to 25. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Beloved, God has never lowered or changed His standard for man's obedience. Never. But man changed. God is not unfair or unjust for requiring of man in His law that which God made man capable of performing. In fact, His absolute justice requires that He demand from man that which He owes to God. The fact that we don't obey God's law of love is because we are not willing to, and we are not willing to because we have deprived ourselves of God's riches, and therefore we are not able to. God's demand from you and me is absolutely just. It has never changed, and neither has His necessary wrath. In a second effort, the sinner challenges the necessity of God's Word. Question 10 asks, Will God suffer such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished? In other words, does God really have to punish the sinner? Does He have to? Can't He just look the other way and give me another chance? After all, we do that for each other. We often give each other a second chance. But the answer makes it clear, according to the teaching of Scripture, that God won't look the other way because then He wouldn't be God. It talks about the absolute justice of God's wrath. By no means, but He is terribly displeased with our original as well as actual sins and will punish them by a just judgment temporally and eternally. Or as the New Version says, both now and for eternity. as he has declared, cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. Beloved, sin is a violation against the holiness and righteousness of God. It is an assault against his very being. To sin against God is in essence to ignore him. He cannot, he will not be ignored because his requirement for man is that he, that God, be the focus of man's attention. He hates sin with a perfect hatred and His righteous indignation cannot and will not allow sin and the sinner to go unpunished. God has the right to be angry. God has the right to exercise His wrath against the sinner because the wicked trample the glory of His name underfoot and refuse to give Him the glory due His name. Sin is an attack against and a challenge against God's sovereignty as if to say, God, are you really who you say you are? Well, we'll see about that. We'll see what you do about my sin. His justice seeks to honor His perfect righteousness and holiness, upholding and maintaining that which is righteous and holy. And therefore, congregation, all sin must be punished, both original and actual. Why? Because God said so. You see, not only do we sin, as we call them actual sins, but we are sinful through and through thanks to our relationship with our first parents. That original sin infiltrates us, staining every part of us. But with regard to our actual sins, we need to understand that God doesn't grade those sins differently. What I mean is we speak of sins of commission, that which we commit, that which we do. And we speak of sins of omission, that which we omit. That which we do not do. He doesn't say that our sins of comission are more offensive than our sins of omission. We often do that. If we omit what we are to do, somehow we quickly rationalize that and say, well, that's not as bad as committing what we're not supposed to do. But God doesn't distinguish between sins of doing what we are not to do and not doing what we are supposed to do. Reglecting to do what God commands is just as offensive as practicing what God prohibits. And he will punish sin in the sinner by a just judgment temporally and eternally. That means, beloved, that the punishment will fit the crime. There's no plea bargaining for a lesser penalty. Man wanted to live apart from God and the just judgment is that to live apart from God is death. You see, God gives us what we have earned. We all know that in this life, if we earn something, we expect to be paid. We expect our paycheck. But Paul says in Romans 6 that the wages of sin is death. And therefore, death is the sinner's paycheck for a life wrongly spent. And the punishment for disobedience and apostasy is both temporal and eternal. God may very well punish the unrepentant sinner in this life with sickness and disease, with natural disasters, with physical and financial hardship. Notice what I said. God may very well punish the unrepentant sinner in this life with these things. In fact, Paul points this out in Romans 1, verse 18 again. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. And then verse 24, Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. Verses 26 and 27, Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. God may very well punish the unrepentant sinner in this life with these evils and adversities. And this morning, I'm so thankful for Adult Sunday School because I was reminded as well with Psalm 73. If you notice there that not only does God punish the wicked with adversities, But He punishes the wicked with those things that the world sees as blessings. What happened to the wicked did Asaph say? All these blessings, quote-unquote, things which cause you and I to draw closer to God, these blessings, I'm using that term loosely, for the wicked, drive them further away from God. And the end result is they are driven to ruin. Indeed, God may punish this sinner in this life with all of these different things, but He definitely punishes them in this life with a foretaste of His eternal wrath. And that is through spiritual death. The very fact of being separated from God is punishment because the unrepentant sinner does not know the favor and love of God. And therefore, for him, there is no comfort in hardship or in sickness or in death. No comfort whatsoever. The most beautiful testimony from the believer on his or her deathbed or in the midst of suffering and pain, and we've heard that recently from a number of our brothers and sisters. The most beautiful testimony is that they trust in God's everlasting goodness. And many of us have heard these testimonies and they also then include these words, oftentimes, I don't know how an unbeliever can deal with this without God. And the point is they don't. They can't. And often they take their life into their own hands. Yet the unrepentant are so numb to God that they don't even realize that they are being punished. But one day they will. You see, beloved, for the unrepentant sinner, the wrath of God in time, in this life, prepares for God's wrath in eternity. The everlasting punishment of body and soul that answer 11 talks about is hell. We know how the Bible describes hell. The lake of fire. The place of unquenchable fire. The place where the worm does not die. Where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth to point out to us just how terrible and treacherous hell will be. Of course, there are many different false conceptions regarding hell and the reality of hell. And these false ideas have been thought up, no doubt, at the leading of their master, the devil. and these things give false comfort. For example, some believe and teach that all will be given a second chance. Yet Hebrews 9 verse 27 says, and as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. Others say that no one will really be lost, but that there will be universal forgiveness. Yet Matthew 25 verse 46 says, and these, speaking of the goats, will go away into everlasting punishment for the righteous into eternal life. And still others believe that there will only be a conscious eternal existence for believers, that after this life only believers will know what's going on consciously, but the wicked will be annihilated, completely destroyed, so that there will be nothing left of them to suffer. But John 5, verses 28 and 29 says, Do not marvel at this, For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. Beloved of the Lord, young and old, hell is very real. When one is at the point of physical death and maybe has suffered something terrible, much pain, we are comforted in the fact the sooner it will be over for that one. The pain will be removed. Yet eternal punishment is being always at the point of death yet never dying. Always suffering misery and torment but never having it released. That's what the unrepentant sinner has to look forward to. The congregation for the child of God one redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ there is no punishment. Temporal or eternal. No punishment. Now some of you might say, oh really? What about this disease? What about this family difficulty? What about this poverty or any adversity I'm dealing with? What about that? Isn't that punishment? No. Not for one who is born again by the blood of Jesus. God may allow His people to suffer from the effects of sin from time to time, but we can never say that my diagnosis with cancer is because of a particular sin. The believer does not and will not ever experience God's wrath in punishment. Why? Because Jesus Christ was for us and He is for us today. He stepped outside of glory that we might enter glory. He descended into the depths of hell in order to bring us to the heights of heaven. He was willing to be accursed in the place of His people who were accursed because of their faulty relationship to the law of God. Because of their sin and misery. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And therefore, congregation, since Jesus took our punishment, since the justice of God for our sin was meted out against Him. Every single last bit of it. We cannot label our adversities and infirmities as punishment. You see, beloved, that would be undermining the work of Christ. And it would be an insult to God because He does not punish twice. You see, I think we sometimes get confused. I do, I know, because we often use the word punishment and the word discipline as one and the same thing. But there is a difference. One who is punished is suffering the consequences for what they have done. In essence, paying for what they have done. Whereas discipline is meant to restore, to correct. Yes, God chastises His people at times. Why? Because He considers them His sons and daughters. And as Hebrews 12 says, the purpose of His chastisement is to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, whereas the purpose of punishment is to make one suffer. God chastises His children out of His love, and indeed, it sometimes hurts. Just like when a father or mother needs to discipline their child, they should explain, first of all, I love you, that's why I have to spank you hard. In this way, parents teach their children the urgency of sin, that it has painful consequences, That it needs to be corrected. Indeed, God may discipline you and I as believers with sickness or adversity. But other times, sickness and adversity may not be discipline in that negative sort of sense, but simply discipline in the sense that He is drawing His people closer to Himself for which we are to be eternally grateful. But God does not change His punishment. It fits the crime according to His Word. Jesus Christ took the full force of that punishment. God did not change it for Him. He has not changed it for us, but Christ took it. His wrath is absolutely justifiable. But there's one last challenge, and that's to God's very being. Isn't God being unfair? Well, does God really have to punish? Well, finally, well, is then God not also merciful? Finally, the sinner is starting to sink to his knees a little bit, trying to grasp the mercy of God. In other words, what about God's pity? Won't His pity for the sinner overrule His justice? Come on, parents, let's be honest here. We have oftentimes suspended the punishment for our children because they were crying so hard and we did pity them. And whereas we may have punished them one way, we might have lightened the load a little bit. Maybe that's good as well. But you see here, with this question, the sinner tries to separate God. To play off His mercy against His justice as if they were opposing forces which they are not. But the answer, reflecting the teaching of Scripture, reveals to us the absolute justice of God's mercy. God is indeed merciful, but He is also just. Therefore, His justice requires that sin, which is committed against the Most High Majesty of God, be also punished with extreme that is with everlasting punishment of body and soul. He is merciful. But you cannot play that off against His justice. His mercy was demonstrated and proved over and over again with Israel, you recall. Falling into sin was a habit for them. But in His mercy, God often forgave them and restored them. And we too can see that in our lives. Those who profess to be born again by the grace of God And indeed, by God's grace, we do believe, but we sin day after day after day. But every day we can come to God's throne of grace, asking for forgiveness, claiming His promise. As well, every day in this life is a day of God's mercy and that God is long-suffering and He continues for the time being to withhold from the wicked that which they truly deserve. Therefore, each and every day is a day of grace. It's a day of salvation. The Most High Majesty of God is that He is perfectly good and whatever is not good in relation to Him must be punished. Because justice maintains, justice upholds that which is right and good. God is not like a soft-hearted grandfather who winks at the sin of his grandchild and might even laugh about it a little bit. God sticks to His Word. And He demands the same from man, from you and me. And that's why sin committed against the Most High Majesty of God is punished with extreme, with everlasting punishment of body and soul. Body and soul. Have you ever heard someone say that God hates sin but loves the sinner? That's simply not true. Because sin is never separated from the person except in Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Psalm 7, verse 11, God is a just judge and God is angry with the wicked every day. In Psalm 5, verse 5, You hate all workers of iniquity. Sin is only separated from the person in Jesus Christ. God's justice and His mercy cannot be separated because His justice congregation is the foundation of His mercy for His people. How? Since He is just and sin must be punished, in His mercy for His people, God would rather have one die for His people than that the entire people would be lost. His mercy flows to His people through His justice poured out on His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. Jesus Christ took the just judgment for our sin. Every bit of it. He suffered that extreme, everlasting punishment in body and soul in the place of those who believe on Him by grace through faith. You see, the greatest demonstration of God's mercy accompanied was alongside of His demonstration of justice on the cross. It was there that God's justice and wrath and mercy came together. The cross is a picture of the harmony between God's justice and mercy in that justice was satisfied as His wrath was poured out for our sins and at the same time, in His mercy, God did not give us what we deserve, but instead laid our iniquity on the shoulders of Jesus. He poured His mercy out on His people by providing another to endure. His justice. Beloved, indeed, this is heavy stuff. This ought to bring us to our knees. But we ought not to stay on our knees. Why? Because once again, God is just. Therefore, our sins must be punished. But also, God is just. Therefore, He never punishes sin twice. That's our comfort. Jesus Christ has endured it all. And therefore, we will never have to. Beloved, those who challenge the expectation of God's demand, isn't He unfair? Those who challenge the necessity of His Word, does He really have to punish? And those who challenge His very being, but isn't He merciful? They will lose. To ask God to change is to ask Him to be something less than He is. It is to ask Him not to be God And congregation, that is to take away all hope. Because if God can change, then His Word isn't sure, is it? If God can change, then there is no comfort that Christ's sacrifice is eternally sufficient or even sufficient at all for that matter. And there is no comfort, no assurance that He perfectly fulfilled God's just demand or that He endured God's just wrath or that He earned God's just mercy. If God can change, there's no comfort of any of that. Yet for the child of God, He has given us His assurance by grace through faith that He is changeless. And just as His Word is sure, so are His promises because Jesus Christ paid it all. For those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, this word of warning goes out that God's unchangeableness is seen in His absolute justice against the sinner. That means that those who do not acknowledge and confess their sin and misery and do not heed God's solemn warning, they will be punished with extreme. That is everlasting punishment of body and soul. But to those who belong to God by grace through faith, His unchangeableness is seen in His absolute justice against Jesus Christ. And it is seen in God's love for His people whom He has clothed with Christ's white robes of righteousness. And whereas the unrepentant will suffer everlasting punishment in body and soul, God's people will enjoy everlasting joy with a glorified body and soul in the presence of the Savior. Beloved, is your God changeless? If He is, then bring Him wholehearted thanksgiving for His marvelous deeds. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, indeed, what a blessing Your Word is to us, especially this morning again, as it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Your Word, which sets us straight and sets us on the narrow path that leads to eternal life. Father, when we are tempted to complain and to think that our condition apart from you is not our fault, that we're really pretty good people, may we be reminded of who we are in and of ourselves. May we be brought lower and lower each and every day in humility because of our wretched condition apart from Christ, but then only to be raised to exalted heights of joy and to rejoice in our position in Christ, a position of grace, a position of glory. And Father, that when we are tempted with Asaph in Psalm 73 to look at the grass on the other side of the fence, to think that we've been wasting our time, that indeed we might be shown by the power of Your Spirit what is in store for the unrighteous, but that your people enjoy grace for today and glory for eternity. Father, we praise you. We thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayer. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.