To Take Away Our Sins

Let’s open our Bibles to 1 John, chapter 3. And we’re going to look at verses 4 to 6. This is part 2, the reason Christ came. We are looking at the reasons Christ came. And this morning we are going to look at to take away our sin. Christ came at Christmas to take away our sin. 1 John, chapter 3, verses 4 to 6. And I encourage you to follow very closely in your Bibles. 1 John 3, verses 4 to 6. He came to take away our sins. Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for your Word, we pray that as we open this marvelous passage that you would speak to us, we thank you that at Christmas you sent your son, Father, that he came to give his life on the cross that me might be forgiven of all of our sins. And we pray that at Christmas we would understand the significance of being forgiven and free, that we would live lives that are holy and pleasing to you, and that we would rejoice and celebrate the gift of forgiveness and what it means to really be free of sin and forgiven of sin. Lord, any that are here this morning that need forgiveness, that we would, that they would experience the forgiveness of their sins, that no one would leave here today without having experienced sins forgiven. So Lord, speak now, we pray, we ask it in the name of Jesus. And everyone, agreeing, said amen.

I want you to follow with me in your Bibles. 1 John 3, beginning in verse 4. John says “Whosoever commiteth sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” Verse 5. He says “And you know that he was,” that is Jesus, “manifested” or appeared, “to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abides in him sins not: whosoever sins has not seen him, neither knows him.”

Now it is Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year. And it’s the time of the year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, amen? But the question we need to ask is why did Jesus come into the world. I think that it’s easy to get caught up in all the hustle and bustle and excitement of Christmastime, and it’s a wonderful thing to do that. But we fail many times to think about the real meaning and significance of why Jesus Christ came. Number one, who he is and why he came.

Well I picked this text this morning out of 1 John because it tells us in verse 5 specifically why Jesus came. It tells us that he was manifested, verse 5, or appeared to take away our sins. Christmas means that God gave his only begotten son, so that he would die on the cross and our sins might be forgiven. The Angel of the Lord spoke unto Joseph and said concerning Mary, “She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” You see, the very name Jesus means just that. The name Jesus means “Jehovah is salvation.” In the Old Testament the name Joshua is the Hebrew to the equivalent Jesus. The name Jesus means “Jehovah, or God, is salvation.” Jehovah-shua [phonetic], God is salvation. So his very name is an indication of why he came.

He came not to just be a good example, he came not to just be a great teacher, he came not to just be a moral leader. He came to give his life upon the cross to bear our sins, to pay the penalty for our sins and to take away our sins, so that we might be forgiven and we might be free. So when you think about Christmas and the meaning of Christmas and the true significance of Christmas, you are never going enter into the to the full meaning of Christmas unless you realize God sent his son so that my sins, so that your sins, so that our sins can be forgiven. That’s the meaning of Christmas. And what a glorious truth that is.

But the question is... Sin is not a popular subject today. And the question is what is sin? You know, today you don’t hear sermons on sin. If we had a marquee in front of the church and I put up a sign that said “I will be preaching on sin,” I doubt that people will be flocking into the church to hear about sin, right? A little boy in Sunday school was asked what is sin? He said it’s anything you really like to do. [laughing] One preacher announced in a sermon that there were something like eighty nine sins, mentioned in the Bible, and he was besieged by the congregation for a list the next the Sunday. Everybody wanted to know what they were so they could kind of just find out what they were.

But what is sin exactly? What is the essence of sin? And why is that we hear so little about sin today? I think today we hear so little about sin because we live in a world of relativism today. We live in a world today where there are no real moral absolutes. Culturally today we have really bought the lie that there is no truth. That nothing is really absolutely true, that nothing is right and nothing is wrong. That your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth. You can’t tell me I’m right or you’re right and I’m wrong. Your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. Nothing is really right and nothing is really wrong. And that there are no real moral absolutes. We’ve eliminated the concept of God. And if there is no God then there is no sin. And if there is no sin then there is no need of a savior. And if there is no need of a savior, there is no need of Jesus Christ because that’s the reason for which he came into the world. So you eliminate God, you eliminate sin. You eliminate sin, you eliminate the need of a savior. A logical conclusion.

But the Bible teaches there is a God. In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. The Bible teaches that He is a holy righteous God. The Bible teaches that he has a moral standard. And the Bible teaches that sin is a violation of his moral standard. The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fallen short of that moral standard and that the wages of that sin is death. Or we are going to say that God has made provision for man’s sin in the person of his son Jesus Christ. Now sin is man’s great problem and I believe that Jesus Christ is man’s greatest need.

I believe that sin is man’s greatest problem. Man’s greatest problem is not social, it’s not economical. A man does need more money, doesn’t need a new coat, he doesn’t need a new house, he doesn’t need education. Now he does need those things but that’s not the root cause. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. Give him more money, you can give him food, you can educate him, you can put him in a nicer house, but if you don’t change his heart, you haven’t really changed the problem. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. And only God can change a person’s heart, amen? And man’s greatest need is Jesus Christ.

So in this text that we are going to look at this morning, we are going to see three things. We see, first of all, in verse 4, the nature of sin is lawlessness. What is sin exactly? And we have a definition of sin in verse 4, we find that sin is basically lawlessness. Go back with me in your Bibles to verse 4, and let’s break this down. “Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” Now notice he starts with a whosoever. So this is universal in application. The word whosoever actually means whosoever. I studied all week to figure that out. It’s universal in application, anyone. No one is eliminated here. Anyone who transgresses the law is a sinner. Sin is a transgression of the law.

Now the Bible gives several definitions of sin. Romans 14, verse 23. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Proverbs 24, verse 9, “The thought of foolishness is sin.” James, chapter 4, verse 17, “To him who knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.” By the way, this what is called the sin of omission. They have in a Bible what’s called the sin of commission, when you do something that is contrary to God’s Law you commit a sin. When you don’t do something you know you should do, you are omitting...a sin, omitting a good thing that you are supposed to do, then you are committing a sin of omission. So there is a sin of commission and a sin of omission. In other words, to know to do good and not to do it is sin. So you can sin by doing nothing. In other words, “I didn’t do anything.” And yet you sinned, because to know to do good and to do it not is sin. But in this text we have the very essence of sin. It is defined as lawlessness or transgression. Lawlessness, verse 4, is the root, not the fruit. It’s the very essence of sin.

Now where did sin come from? As far as we can tell in the Bible, sin originated in the heart of Satan. Satan was a created being, he was made by God, he was an angel. And sin originated in Satan. And then in Genesis, chapter 3, sin came into the world when Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. That’s how sin came into the world. There was an actual garden of Eden, there was a first man and first woman, Adam and Eve, created by God. And God placed a tree in that garden, Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and God actually told them, “You’re not to eat of that tree. The day that you eat of that tree, you will surely die.” You will die spiritually, be separated from God, and eventually you will die physically. So sin and death, moral corruption, decay and everything and all the problems in the world today came into the world as result of man’s sin, which is disobedience to God.

So the essence of sin is disobedience. In this text it is called transgression, which is a willful, deliberate, disobedience, stepping over the line. God draws a line and we say “I’m going to disobey.” We step over the line. It’s not just a missing the mark. That’s when we’re trying to obey God but we fall short. That’s a sin as well. But it’s a rebellious, willful, deliberate transgression. We say to God “I don’t care what you want, I don’t care what you say, I am going to do it my way.” The essence of sin is self. Started in Satan, when he said, “I will exalt myself above the throne of God. I will be like the Most High, Isaiah, chapter 14. The five “I Will’s” of God. Essence of sin is, “My way. I want it my way, I will do it the way I want.”

I was thinking this week about my Australian pastor friends. When they first came over to visit me here in America, I took them out for breakfast and we got eggs. And I’ll never forget how freaked out they were when the waitress asked them how they wanted their eggs. And my Aussie pastor buddies were looking at the waitress like, “How else would I want them? On my plate.” Now, she says like, “Do you want them sunny side up, do you want them scrambled, or over-medium?” And they looked at me like, “Help, please. I don’t know what she means, I don’t understand. In Australia you don’t get a choice of how you want your eggs, you just get your eggs on your plate.” But in America you get it your way, right? You get your eggs exactly the way you want. I have another friend, when he goes into a restaurant, he doesn’t even look at the menu, he just tells the waitress exactly how he wants his food. I have told him, “Why don’t you just go into the kitchen and cook it yourself?” He said, “What’s the use of going into a restaurant if you can’t get it your way, right?”

And that’s really the essence of sin.“I want it my way. I want it now. I want it the way I want it. I want it my way.” That’s the essence of sin, we are so self centered. And sin is a transgression, a rebellion against God’s will. Satan said “I will…” When Jesus came he submitted to the Father’s will and he said “Thy will.” So you either say to God “Thy will” or “my will.” That’s the essence of sin. You either say to God “Thy will” or “my will.” And today you are either saying that to God, in your heart, you’re either saying, “God, it’s my will or Thy will.” You are either submitting to God in obedience to God or you are in rebellion toward God and disobedience to God.

Sin is a defection from any of God’s standards, it is missing the mark, it is the lack of conformity to the moral law of God in either act or disposition. You need to understand as well that God looks at our hearts, it’s not just an action. Sin is not just an action, it’s an attitude. You may be here saying, “Well, Pastor John, I haven’t done anything to disobey God.” But you know that God looks at your heart as well? God looks at your heart. Jesus said that if you look at someone with lustful longing desires, you commit adultery in your heart. Jesus said that you can commit murder with your heart if you have hatred in your heart towards someone else that you have already committed murder. The Bible says, “Thou shall not murder.” But if you have anger and hatred in your heart, you’ve already committed murder.

God looks at our heart. So the Bible says, “We’ve all sinned, we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God.” The Bible says, “There’s no one righteous, no not one.” And sin is that which separates us from God. But there is a solution to man’s problem, and that is the savior Jesus Christ, verse 5. That is the solution to man’s problem, verse 5. Notice it with me in your Bibles. John says “and you know…” Of course he is coming against the Gnostics that felt they had a superior knowledge, false teachers. “You know that he was manifested,” that is Jesus appeared or was manifested, “to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” And here’s a Christmas verse. Why did Jesus Christ come into the world, why did he appear. And by the way every time you that word “manifested” in 1 John, it indicates his preexistence. That Jesus Christ preexisted Bethlehem. He wasn’t created, he didn’t come into existence at Bethlehem, he was manifested or he appeared. He already existed before Bethlehem. And he appeared or he was manifested. Because he is the eternal God, right? And he was manifested. It speaks of the incarnation. Why was he incarnate? To take away our sins. I don’t know about you but that’s music to my ears. To take away our sins. To take away our sins. Praise be to God.

Now I have a lot of sins that I needed taken away. And I’m so glad that he took them away. Now that image of taking away our sins takes us back to the Old Testament. They have what they called the scapegoat. They had two goats, they would kill one goat and the blood would be taken from the goat that they killed and they would place the blood on another goat. And the blood on that other goat, then the priest would put his hands on that live goat with the blood and he would pronounce the sins of the people on that live goat. And then they would release that goat, it would be called the scapegoat, and they would release that goat to run off into the distant hills.

And they would just let that goat go running off unto the hills and when that goat disappeared over the distant hills it was a picture of their sins being carried away. If that thing turned around and came back, they’d throw rocks at it, you know, like, “Get away, get away, get away… Go away, scapegoat.” But what a beautiful picture that must have been as they watched that little goat disappear off the distant hills. And they’d go, “There goes my sin,” you know, “disappearing off that distant hill.”

The Bible says as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. You know, if you go east and you go west, you never join. East and west never come back together. And so what a beautiful picture that is of how God separates, as far as the East is from the West, our sin, our transgressions from us through the work of Jesus Christ. He takes away the sins of the world. John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus when he was baptizing down by the Jordan river, he pointed at Jesus. “Behold, look. The Lamb of God who carries away...” And he used the very same phrase that we find here in 1 John. “He takes away, he carries away the sins of the world.” So Jesus was God’s lamb who would carry away the sins of the world. Now how would he take away the sins of the world? Three things.

Number one, by the incarnation, so we have the picture of the manger. There are three pictures I want you to get in your mind and carry them with you this Christmas. Number one is the picture of the manger. We see manger scenes at Christmas time. That is to remind you of the incarnation, the Latin meaning “becoming flesh.” God became a man. In order to take away your sins God had to become a man. The second way by which God would take away your sins was the crucifixion. And I want you to get a picture in your mind, the picture is that of a cross. I think that on the top of all of our little manger scenes we should actually have a cross. And when you look at the manger you should always see it through the cross. Jesus was incarnate in order that he might be crucified. He went to the cross so he could bear our sins. And on the cross his death was a substitution. He died in our place. Your sins, my sins were placed upon Jesus Christ.

But there is a third picture you need to keep in your mind. And that third picture is that of an empty tomb. An empty tomb. And that picture is of resurrection. So we have the incarnation, we have the crucifixion, and we have the resurrection. Now if all you think about is a little baby in a manger, then you sentimentalize Christmas. And you don’t get the whole picture. But you need to remember that the reason that baby came into the world and became flesh was to die on the cross for our sins. And he was buried and he rose again from the dead victoriously from the grave and he’s ascended back into heaven and that he’s exalted at the right hand of God the Father, and that he’s able to save and to forgive our sins, amen? That he is God risen from the dead.

So you have to keep all three of those pictures in mind. You have to keep the manger, the cross, and the empty tomb always in front of your mind. And because of that God then justifies the ungodly. Justifies the ungodly. That means God declares righteous those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you are here today and you haven’t believed in Jesus Christ or received Jesus Christ or trusted in Jesus Christ, your sins can be forgiven. You can have all of your sins forgiven before God. And you can be justified before a holy righteous God. Now, he came to forgive us from sin “the root” and sins “the fruit.” Notice in that passage, you find the word sin singular and then you’ll find the word sins in plural. Whenever you find the word sin singular, it’s talking about the root of sin. And all of us inherit a sin nature from Adam at birth.

Did you ever notice your kids when they are born just kind of have a propensity to be naughty? You go, “Not my kids.” Yes, your kids. Did you ever notice you don’t have to teach your kids to be naughty, you don’t to teach them to lie? Just flows naturally. Did you eat those cookies I told you not to eat? Crumbs all over their mouth. “No, not me.” Who taught them that? Adam did. It’s the adamic nature, it just flows, it just comes natural. That’s sin inherited from Adam. And then the sins, plural, that’s the fruit. It manifest from the sin nature. So we sin because we’re sinners. You got that? We sin because we’re sinners by birth.

We’re born sinners. So Jesus Christ came to deliver us, to take away both our sin and deliver us from sins. Now, let me give you three words you need to write down if you are taking notes this morning. He came to save us from sin’s penalty. Sin’s penalty is death, eternal separation from God. Physical death, we will all die. But in Christ we will live again and we will never have to be separated from God, we will have eternal life, we looked at that last Sunday. He came to give us eternal life. And life more abundantly. And the moment you are born again you have eternal life, and you will never have to be separated from God. So he came to take away sin’s penalty. Secondly, he came to deliver us from sin’s power. Write down the word power. Sin’s power.

He came to deliver us from the power of sin, sin no longer has to control your life. It needs not to have to control or the power over your life. This is the sanctified life. Doesn’t mean you’ll be perfect, doesn’t mean you won’t still falter and fall. But it means that God will begin to control you and empower you, and the sin need not have to shackle you anymore. And thirdly, He will free you from sin’s presence altogether. That is when you die and go to heaven, or you’re caught up in a rapture and you see Jesus face to face. That’s the third stage of salvation, known as glorification. When you see Jesus face to face and you are in heaven. But it’s not until we get to heaven that we will be free from the presence of sin, amen? But what a glorious day that will be, when we are absolutely free from the very presence of sin altogether. Sin’s power, sin’s presence, and sin’s penalty. Jesus came to forgive us of sin.

A story is told of the great British preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon. They brought him into what was called the Crystal Palace in London at that time. It was a large building, a big edifice that held six thousand people. They held operas there and big orchestras. And they wanted to test out the acoustics in the building. It was still under construction. And so they put Spurgeon upon the stage, and it was before the days of microphones and PA systems, and it was before the days of electricity, they didn’t even have electronic PAs and sound systems. And Spurgeon was known for his powerful voice. And Spurgeon stood on the stage there at the Crystal Palace, and as he stood on the stage he began to just quote the scripture that “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” He just kept repeating that statement. As his voice echoed through that large auditorium, there was a man working on a building, and unbeknownst to Spurgeon. He was way at the back of the auditorium, he was painting in the corner of the auditorium. He was up high on a scaffolding and he heard the words of Spurgeon. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And Spirit of God convicted him. He put down his painting brush and got down oh his knees and repented of his sins and accepted Jesus Christ as a savior and got right with God. Oh, the power.

Power of Jesus Christ to forgive and to cleanse the sinner from sin. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Nothing could be more wonderful at Christmas than to come to Jesus Christ, and to experience the forgiveness of your sins. You miss Christmas, you miss God’s gifts at Christmas if you haven’t come to the cross, which is God’s Christmas tree, and experience the forgiveness of your sins. What a blessing!

But thirdly and last thing I want you to look at verse 6. The logical conclusion. The logical conclusion to John’s reasoning. John says, “Whosoever abides in him does not sin: for whosoever sins have not seen him and does not know him.” Now, these are powerful words that John concludes with. John is saying here that if the eternal nature of Jesus is sinless, and if the purpose of his historical appearing was to remove sin, then whosoever abides in him does not habitually, continually, ongoingly, intentionally, purposely practice sin. Well, on the other hand, whosoever does habitually, continually, purposely, ongoingly practice sin, has not seen him and does not know him.

Now, if you read verse 6, many people read that verse in my King James translation, they get confused. Because in the King James translation they miss the tense of the verb here. “Whosoever abides in him sinneth not.” And they think, “Oh no, I must not be a Christian, I must not be abiding in him because I’ve sinned.” But the phrase “sinneth not” is in the present tense. And what it means is continually, ongoingly, habitually practices sin. It’s not talking about falling into sin or committing a sin. It’s talking about the habit or pattern of your life. It’s talking about willful deliberate intentional sin. You do not practice sin if you are a Christian. You do not willingly, deliberately, purposely practice sin.

John is making it very clear. Sin is man’s great problem. God has given a solution to the problem. He’s sent his sinless Son who became a man, who died on the cross, who took our sins, who was buried and rose again from the dead. Now, those who know him and are in fellowship with him, they don’t willingly, deliberately, intentionally, habitually live a life of sin. They don’t practice sin. Do they sin? Yes. And in 1 John 1:9 , “If you sin, you confess your sin.” And he’s faithful and just to forgive you of your sin, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar and truth is not in us. So is you sin, you confess your sin. And God is faithful and just to forgive you. But if you know Him, if you are child of God, you don’t willingly, deliberately, purposely practice sin.

Look down with me really quickly verses 7 and 8. We’ll peek at these next Sunday. He says, “Little children, let no man deceive you.” These are the false teachers. They were telling the Christians it doesn’t matter how you live, God’s not concerned with your bodies, you can sin with your body. He said, “He that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” But “he that commits sin,” and again, he that practices habitually sin, “is of the devil.” John is laying it on them. “For the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested...” This is the purpose that Jesus came. “...That he might destroy the works of the devil.” So you are of the devil if you practice sin. You are not of God, you are not abiding in God. You are actually of the devil. Now John is writing these words in his 90s. You know, when you get old you don’t mince words anymore, right? Something about really getting really old, you don’t care what people think, you are going to die anytime anyway. Listen, I’m going to be dead in a few weeks, I don’t care what you think. You are of the devil. Earlier he said “You’re a liar.” When you are young, just starting out, you go, “You’re in error. You’re misguided.” When you’re in your nineties you just go “You’re a liar.”

John wants to make it clear that if the purpose of the Son of God was to come to save us from sin, it’s utterly inconsistent to think that a child of God can practice sin. It’s inconsistent. I love what John R.W. Stott said. He said these verses teach the utter incongruity of sin in the Christian. To see and to know Christ, the sinless savior of sinners, is to outlaw sin. To sin is to deny Christ and to reveal that one is not abiding in him. Sin and Christ are irreconcilably at enmity with each other. Christ [INAUDIBLE 00:35:36] sinless person and saving work is fundamentally opposed to it. You look at verse 6 for just a moment and ask yourself these questions. Are you in fellowship with him? If so, you will not practice sin, verse 6. If you are practicing sin, then, verse 6, “You have not seen him and you do not,” what? “Know him.” Now all I’ve done is convey the text to you. That’s all I’ve done. This is what John says. If you are in fellowship with him, you do not practice sin. If you are practicing sin, you haven’t seen him. And you do not know him.

So my question in closing this morning is do you know him? Do you know Jesus Christ? Do you know the savior of the world? Do you know him? Is he your savior? Do you have eternal life? Are your sins forgiven? I don’t want anyone to leave here today without an opportunity to say, “Jesus, come into my heart and forgive my sins and be my savior.” For God so loved the world he gave us only begotten Son that whoever believes in him would never perish, but have everlasting life.

God wants to give you a gift today. The greatest gift you can ever receive. All of your sins, all the blackness, all of the filth of your life, all of the dark hidden secrets of your life, all of the pain and all of the shame of your life, all the things that God knows that no one else knows. God loves you in spite of those things. God’s love is uninfluenceable. God loves you no matter what, but God doesn’t want you to continue to live that way. He wants to forgive you and change you from the inside out. And salvation is a free gift. God will give you salvation today but you must open your heart and receive Jesus Christ as your savior. The Bible says, “By grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” And Bible says unless you repent, you change your mind about your sin, and turn to Jesus and receive him as your savior, you will perish. Jesus came to save us from the penalty of sin. But if you do not accept what he did for you on the cross, you will experience sin’s penalty, eternal death. You will pay the price for your own sins. Why not receive what he did for you and experience forgiveness of sins? He’ll free you from the power, penalty and one day the presence of sin altogether. Let’s bow our heads in a word of prayer.

Father, I thank you for this beautiful text this morning, 1 John, and the message that he was manifested to take away our sin, and in him is no sin. And if we really know him and are abiding in him, we will not be practicing sin. And if we are practicing sin, that's an evident sign that we are not born of God, that we do not know God, that we are not the children of God. And I would just pray this morning, Lord, if there’s anyone here that does not know You, that they would come to You today, Lord, and that they would surrender to You.

I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, that they would come to know You as their savior, to know You as their Lord. And that they would know the salvation that is found alone in Jesus Christ. That they would have their sins forgiven, that they would experience eternal life. That they would know the joy and the peace and the love that only You could give. Lord, there’s no one here today by accident, You brought each one here today to hear this message. And Lord, convict and convince them today of their need of you. Speak to every heart. And right now while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, if you are here today, you say Pastor John, I want Jesus Christ to come into my heart, I want him to forgive my sins, I want him to be my savior. I want Jesus Christ to come into my heart and to be my savior and be my Lord.

I want to receive him now. I want you to side your hand up and back down, just say, “Pray for me, pastor John.” God bless you. Anybody else? God bless you, God bless you. Say “Pray for me, Pastor John. I want Jesus Christ to come into my heart.” Hold your hand up and back down. God bless you on this side over here, anybody else? Hold your hand up high, I’m going to pray for you. Don’t be afraid to hold your hand up, I’m going to pray for you, anybody else? Just say, “Pray for me. I want Jesus Christ to come into my heart.” God bless you, anybody else? I want him to forgive my sins and to be my savior. Anybody else? Hold your hand up this morning and say, “Pray for me.” God bless you, anybody else? Anybody else, before we close?

Father, I pray for those that have raised their hands, I pray that You would touch and strengthen them and, Lord, I pray that You would give them the strength and the grace and the ability to stand for You today and to confess You before men. And I pray for any that are still here that are, in their heart, Lord, they know that they need to receive You, they need to believe in You, they need to follow You, they need to confess You before men. Lord, give them the strength and the ability today to say “Jesus, I will follow you. Jesus, I will stand for you. And Jesus, I want to believe in you today, I want to surrender my life to you.” So Lord, I pray for those that have raised their hand and those that have not raised their hand, that You will help them to make this commitment today of their lives to You. Lord, touch them and help them today. We pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.