Certainly a delight to be with you this morning. We've enjoyed already a wonderful evening of prayer and message from our brother Ray Routley. This good weather, I already feel better after coming out of the smog of California. I feel like I've gotten a new start in life. And this is something of what I want to speak to you about this morning from Philippians chapter three, verses thirteen and fourteen, getting a new start in the Christian life. As Paul presents it, the third chapter of Philippians, verses thirteen and fourteen we'll only be looking at two other passages outside of this one so keep your marker here this will be our home base passage shall we give attention as we read the word of God from Philippians three thirteen through fourteen brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I personally believe that one of the things that people want most in life is a new start. They'd like to just be able to throw the file of the past away, to have a new start, the slate, white, clean. And I think this is quite evident around New Year. when people will make New Year's resolutions. And what they're really hoping for is that somehow the coming year will be better than the past year. But as it turns out, usually the year that follows is worse than the year before. They hardly make resolutions before they turn right around and break them. Now this is concerning the world in general. But do you realize there may be times in the Christian life when we need a new start? And you can't become a Christian all over again. Jesus Christ said, you must be born again. He didn't say you must be born again and again and again. Regeneration can only happen once. The new birth cannot be undone, never needs to be redone. So regeneration is once and for all and good forever. But there may be times in the Christian life when a person needs to experience restoration, a new start in the Christian life. David had to experience that, Psalm And I really believe that these two verses give us the formula for a new start in the Christian life. And the first thing I would observe here is that it requires a right attitude towards the past. Looking again at verse thirteen, the latter part says forgetting those things which are behind. Now the Apostle Paul had forgotten his past pre-salvation attainment. And if he lists these in the early verses of chapter three, we really can conclude that he may have been the most religious, purely human man who ever lived. He had tons and tons of religion, but not one ounce of salvation. He would match his credentials with anyone, and I think he would have come out on top. When it comes to self-righteousness, good work, legal righteousness, Paul was the king of the mountains. But when he met the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, all of his self-righteousness and legal righteousness were shattered. It must have been like a giant vase just breaking into thousands of pieces. I mean, this man was demolished. He was physically blinded. He was lying on the ground. But he'd met the Lord of Glory. And he says in verse nine of chapter three, and be found in him not having mine own righteousness. And this is what he was clinging to before he was saved. He thought he was saved and heaven-bound, but he was just as lost as a goose until he met Christ. End of verse nine. But that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God thy faith. And no matter how good or how bad you were before you were saved, if you are saved, forget it. It's in the past. It's forgiven and it's forgotten. But I believe in a sense, Paul also does not fall into the danger of resting upon Christian accomplishments in his life. I mean, good works that this man had done since his salvation for which he would receive reward. We cannot even rest upon that. You see, yesterday's manna would smell today and not be fit. Christ talks about praying for daily bread. Christ talks about taking up our cross daily and bearing it. He says, I die daily. We cannot rest upon past blessings. As a matter of fact, he's picturing the Christian life here as a foot race. What part of the race do you forget? The part you've already run. Even that very last step you took and you simply look daily to the Lord Jesus and towards the future. We forget. So it's pre-salvation, non-meritorious works. We even forget our post-salvation accomplishments acceptable to the Lord and subject to receive reward. And by application, I might say, we forget our past sins and failure. Number one, if we've trusted Christ and number two, if we've confessed all known sins. And let me stop just a moment or two and distinguish between two different types of forgiveness. There's what we might term judicial forgiveness. Now, the moment a person trusts in Christ's Savior, he is no longer guilty. He's acquitted. He's justified. His sins are not imputed to him, but the very righteousness of Christ is imputed to him. And you see, as a believer, you're all dressed up in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, ready to walk in the front door of heaven. And Colossians two-thirteen says, having forgiven us all trespasses. Now this judicial position and forgiveness pertains to our eternal, unchangeable, heavenly positions as sons. That's sonship. And once you've got sonship, that can never be taken away. You say, well, what if one of God's children sins? Well, God doesn't deal with that by kicking the son out of the family. God deals with that through what we term from Scripture chastisements or discipline. Now there's another type of forgiveness that we might call relational forgiveness. And this does not have to do with our eternal, unchangeable, heavenly position wherein the Father sees all sin, past, present, and future forgiven in Christ. This relational forgiveness has to do with the relationship of a child to the father within the family. And this is what First John One Nine speaks of. It's all present tense. If we are confessing our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. First John One Nine has nothing to do with sonship except First John One Nine is for those who have sonship. But it doesn't change the sonship. First John one, as first John chapter one teaches, is related to fellowship. And if you don't distinguish between sonship and fellowship, you'll be confused on your eternal security. Your eternal security rests on unchangeable regeneration, which gives us eternal sonship, our eternal, unchangeable, heavenly position. But you see, when it comes to First John, one, nine in terms of our daily fellowship, that's where it comes into operation here. Now, if I've trusted Christ as my Savior, there's no unknown sin, but I've confessed any that the Lord's brought to mind to Him, then I can count all my sins forgiven and forgotten. Now, I would just like for us to think in terms of some of the Old Testament passages. These passages I'm going to quote should be interpreted primarily of the redeemed remnant of Israelites. But at the same time, if God could say that of them, how much more could He describe our forgiveness of sins in the church age? And you may just want to note the references. We won't turn to the passages. In Isaiah forty-four, twenty-two, he says He's blotted out our sins as a cloud. If you'd picture your life as on a giant... Chalkboard, God's erased it, a clean slate. And then in Isaiah thirty-eight seventeen, he's cast all of our sins behind his back. Put out of sight, out of God's sight. Psalm one hundred and three, verse twelve. He's removed them as far as east as from west. Micah seven nineteen, he's buried them in the depths of the sea. I once heard the illustration of a certain nation that would take all of their garbage, put it in a huge metal container, and then weight it and sink it in the depths of the sea. I don't know if the ecology law still allow that or not, but that's what this nation did. And they never had to worry about that garbage coming floating to the top if you happen to be out in a rowboat in that area, you see. Buried in the depths of the seas, never to come to sight again. But I really feel that the strongest verse is the one we've kept mentioning, Hebrews ten, seventeen. There are sins and iniquities. Will I remember no more? God not only forgives them, he forgets about them. This is so different than human forgiveness. Often humans will say, a brother or sister, I'll forgive you, but I won't forget about it. And what they're really saying is, you did something bad to me. And since you did something bad to me, I want you to feel bad about what you did bad to me. So I'm not going to forget about it. And it's holding grudges. God doesn't hold grudges. He forgives and he forgets. He puts the sins out of sight and he puts them out of mind. There are sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And the reason I'm going on this theme so heavily is because guilt is the most emotionally crippling emotion among Christians. And you find many Christians who are not able to deal with this problem because they're not really trusting in God in terms of what he said. He has done with their sins according to his word. And Satan has his biggest ticket counter for the guilt trip. That's where he sells more tickets to Christians than any other ticket counter. the guilt trip. And the way Satan works on this is he may take the believer and say, let's go back in your past and pull out some of those skeletons out of the closet. Do you remember that low spiritual point in your life when you really fouled up terribly? Let's relive it and we let him take us and relive that spiritual nightmare, that low point. And it just spirals us in a vicious cycle and circle deeper into depression and discouragement and failure to be used of the Lord. Now, if the Lord has buried those sins, what business do we have to go digging them up? Suppose someone here today said, after the services today, I have an exciting activity we can participate in. I know where there's some fresh graves. Let's go grave digging. Well, some of us would probably have a meeting and say, well, I think we better take this brother and see if he's mentally and emotionally okay. Well, friends, it's just as spiritually abnormal to go digging in the graveyard of our past where God has buried the sins and failures as it would be mentally and emotionally abnormal to go digging in some fresh graves tonight. If God has buried it, leave it there. Don't go digging in it. Why should we feel guilty for what the Lord has told us he's forgiven? And why should we bring to remembrance that which God has forgotten? And why dig up what the Lord has buried? There is no way that you and I can effectively live for the Lord today if we're still being emotionally and spiritually crippled by guilt for the sin and failure of the past. And if you have a heavy burden of guilt on your heart today, And it's because you've looked at the cross, you've seen Christ pay the price of your sin, make provision, remove the guilt, and have not trusted him, do it right now. And if you're a believer here, there's a verse that's the perfect repair kit for fellowship with the Lord. It's first John one nine. Most of us have memorized it. All of us have heard it. But you see, that verse is not for the person behind me or next to me primarily. It's for me personally. You know, First John is the verse that we most recommend to other people and least use ourselves. It's for me and it's for you personally if you need it right now. You can start from start right now. Now, getting a new start in a Christian life not only means we have a right attitude towards the past, sins and failures, forgiven and forgotten. It means that we have a beautiful past by seeing ourselves in Christ. When I look back at the past, God wants me to take Psalm one hundred and three, verse two, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. I'm supposed to forget the sins and failures, but I'm not supposed to forget his blessings. So as the believer looks to the past, he forgets his bad things, but he remembers the Lord's blessings. And we can count our failures as forgiven and forgotten, but remember God's faithfulness. And in that sense, the believer has a beautiful past but only in Christ. And the second thing we need to do if we're going to get a new start in the Christian life is to take right action in the present. And Paul picks up on that in the end of verse thirteen. He forgets those things which are behind and he says, reaching forth unto those things which are before. As we've already hinted, this is the language of a foot race. And this could be translated stretching out with fullest intensity here. Looking ahead, giving it all that we've got. And the easiest thing to do in this foot race is to start well but not to continue and complete it well. How many great Christians have started well but then made shipwreck of the faith or been shelved because of immorality coming into their lives or some other sin that tainted their ministry and service for the Lord? There are Christians who start out just as hot as the firecracker on the fourth of July and end up as cold as a frozen pickle. What happened? And it does happen. Again, we're not talking about the loss of salvation. For Scripture speaks of the idea that our love can be left. We don't lose it. We leave it. Revelation two. And that first warm devotion for the Lord Jesus Christ can cool off. And our zeal for the Lord can begin to wane. It's not only important that we commence well, it's important that we continue well and we complete the course well. And there's a passage that tells us how to do it. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter twelve, verses one and two. Hebrews chapter twelve, verses one and two. This passage likewise deals with how to run the Christian race in terms of our Christian life and service. Hebrews chapter twelve, verses one and two. Beginning at verse one of Hebrews twelve, we read, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which thus so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and have set down at the right hands, of the throne of God. The crowd of witnesses here, I believe, are the heroes of faith in the preceding context of chapter eleven. Actually, the word witnesses in Hebrews twelve one is the same basic word as Hebrews eleven thirty nine, a good report or a good witness. See, the heroes of faith, they ran their race. They finished it. They not only commenced it, they continued it and they completed it successfully and it's a race of faith. Now they're examples for us as we are running our race. The first suggestion he gives is lay aside every weight. Now we know what a weight is in a foot race. If you saw a fellow on the track getting ready to run and he had ten pounds on each ankle. twenty pounds of weights on his back and five pounds in each hand, first thing you would tell him is get rid of the weights if you're going to run because you're going to surely be a loser if you try to carry that extra baggage. See, the runner strips down to the least amount of decent clothing. He doesn't want an extra ounce to hinder him running the race. Very easy to decide what a weight is in a foot race, but the rub comes in determining what is the weight in the Christian life. Very subtle. A weight in the Christian life may be something that's not evil in itself, but may become a hindrance. Take a job, for example. God wants us to work in order to eat. Paul had a very simple principle, no working, no eating. We're to work, to eat. We're to have a job. We're to earn our living to provide things honest before all men. But you see, to some people, the job is more than a living. The job becomes their life. And we have what is termed a workaholic. God wants me to do my job as hardly as unto the Lord. And to put in a good day's work. But if my job becomes my life instead of my means of living, it's become a hindrance, a wait. And time for the Lord's assembly and my family is pushed out. And priorities begin to suck us. A hobby can become a wait. A hobby may be very useful. It can be a diversion. recreation, refreshment, away from the routine. But if my hobby controls me, instead of me controlling it, it becomes a weight. Even a relationship may become a weight. And I would speak to you who are young people, possibly some who are older, and mention Very often at our college, Bauer University, we run into young people who are going with each other, we might say. Some are going steady. I don't know all the terms now, but sweet on each other, I guess we'd say. And they will honestly admit to me, I, as an individual Christian, have seen my life deteriorate since coming into this relationship. Now, if relationship between two people causes the individual Christian lives to deteriorate. Something's wrong. That relationship either needs to be corrected or else it needs to be broken off in love, friendliness, and understanding so the two individuals can begin to see their Christian life begin to grow. Now, if a relationship is of the Lord between two people, I honestly believe it will cause the two individuals to grow more individually than they could grow apart from each other if the Lord is really in it. Now, maybe you say, my job is not my weight, my hobby is not my weight, my relationship is not my weight. Well, whatever is hindering your Christian life or mine, friends, that's a weight. And we need to deal with it and deal with it severely. Got any weights in your Christian life? If you're going to run to win, we need to cut them off or correct them so they're no longer a weight. Paul says, all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful. But I will not be brought under the power of any and let none master me, but the Lord Jesus himself. Now, the second thing we need to lay aside is the sin which does so easily beset us. And he's speaking of a specific sin, and I admit to you that commentators are quite diversified in their viewpoints here, but my conviction is the sin he is focusing on is the sin of unbelief. Chapter eleven, previous context, he has emphasized the importance of faith in all of these heroes of the faith. And throughout the book of Hebrews, you see it coming in a cycle, the warning, watch out for what? Watch out for unbelief. There are people who need to watch and examine themselves to see if they come across with a genuine saving faith in Christ. He warns against those who come right to the edge, full knowledge about salvation, but never come across with a saving faith and shrink back to perdition. Some children of Israel came right to the border, but unlike Joshua and Caleb, they never did what? They never came across with that genuine faith. If you're on the border, step across by faith. So you could go through your whole life just right on the edge, just next door to salvation, but never entering in. Always knocking on the door, but never entering in. Be like the person jumped out of an airplane with the parachute that opens on impact. It's too late. You don't wait till death to get on the gravy train. That doesn't work. The point that a man wants to die and after this the judgment. So he warns about those who have not come across with a genuine saving faith. Now he's got another problem. He's got some people that he writes to in that audience who have come across with a genuine saving faith. And he addresses them as holy brethren. I believe the writer to the Hebrews assumes that the majority of those professing salvation are genuinely saved. And with them it's not an issue of getting saved all over again. Remember what we said, you can't undo and you never need to redo regeneration if it's for real. This is a problem of growth. And again, again, he tells them, let us go on unto spiritual maturity. And the hindrance that can happen in the Christian life in terms of faith is failing to live by faith. As you therefore receive Christ Jesus the Lord by faith, so walk ye in him by faith. The danger here of unbelief. He says it easily besets us. Have you ever found it a real struggle to doubt? I don't find it and struggle at all. It's just as easy as landing on the earth. Gravity puts you there. Doubt is our natural tendency. We have to exercise faith. Doubt just automatically happens. And there's some things that promote doubt. We begin to look at circumstances. We begin to doubt. Peter looked at the circumstances, the waves, and he sunk in the very circumstances he was afraid of. And someone says, but... My, that's something I have to walk on water. But you see, God expects us by faith to live above the circumstances. As one person was asked by a great Bible teacher, how are you today? And the person said, very well under the circumstances. Then the rebuke came, and what do you mean by being under the circumstances? Don't you know that by faith in the Lord Jesus we can walk on the circumstances? We recognize they're there, but we can walk in victory over them. But you say, that's walking on water. That's right. Peter did it by faith in Jesus Christ. If you look at the circumstances, you'll doubt every time. Now, if you look at other Christians, you'll be disappointed. And sometimes we see the case where a young convert has an older Christian who's discipling them. And they make that mistake of making that older Christian who's discipling them Mr. or Mrs. Perfect Christian. And soon as they stumble, it causes that young convert to stumble, you see. Now we are to be models to those whom we're discipling. But let's make it clear to them that we're not perfect like the Lord Jesus' ultimate model. Paul said, be imitators of me as and insofar as I imitate the Lord. First Corinthians eleven one, he made that qualification very clear. But ultimately other Christians will disappoint us. That will stifle our faith. And thirdly, if we look at ourselves, we'll really be discouraged. You look at circumstances, you doubt. You look at other Christians, you'll be disappointed. You look at yourself, you'll be discouraged. What's the cure? Verse two, looking unto Jesus, away from circumstances, away from other Christians, away from ourselves. Verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, And it's set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The Lord Jesus has finished his race. Now he is the wonderful goal of our race. And the sprint race is one of the first things you learn is you do not look back to see how the other runner is doing. You look back to see how he is doing and you find out fast he just passed you. You keep your eyes on the goal on the case. And again, it's not just how we commence the race. It's how we continue the race and how we complete the race. Even the Apostle Paul was fearful, lest in his Christian service he be disapproved and a reprobate. But he followed these principles and at the end of life he could say, I finished my course, I fought a good fight. Came in in victory. And if you and I lay aside every weight, the sin which does so easily beset us, The Lord Jesus fills our vision. We'll not only commence well, we'll continue well, and we will complete well, and the Lord will say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. A right attitude towards the past, sins forgiven and forgotten. A right action in the present, running the race, looking unto the Lord Jesus. And thirdly, in Philippians, three, thirteen and fourteen, he tells us in verse fourteen of Philippians three, that are pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Again, this is a passage that interpreters have presented many different viewpoints. I will simply give you my conclusion. This high calling of God in Christ Jesus is the calling to be conformed to the image of His Son. That's God's ultimate purpose for us. Romans eight twenty nine predestined Every believer to be conformed to the image of Christ. We shall be like him. And you see this very day, God in heaven is not satisfied. He's satisfied with his son. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And he's satisfied with the work of the son. Christ died. He said it is finished. It is paid in full. By the Father's raising him from the dead, he demonstrated he was satisfied and accepted his work. So the Father is satisfied with the person of the Son. He's satisfied with the work of the Son, but he's not yet satisfied with you and me. And he won't be until we're just like his Son. Well, even David says in Psalm seventeen fifteen, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Now, obviously we can say from what I've just said here, someday we will be just like the Lord Jesus. But we forget He wants us to be more like Him right today than we were yesterday. It's operation transformation. And you see, this is the main upward calling of the Father to be like Christ. Or if someone says, what the Lord really wants us to do is be better prayer warriors. You see, if we're more like the Lord Jesus, we'll be more like him who had a perfect prayer life. The Lord wants us to be more dynamic witnesses. But if we're more like him, we will be witnessing the Nicodemus at night and the woman at the well at noon. But the Lord wants us to get into the Word more. Yes, he certainly was in the Word. He lived by every Word of God that cometh out of the mouth of God. Well, the Lord wants us to be more obedient. He always did. the Father's will. The first greatest and highest calling we have, brothers and sisters, is to be like Christ. And the New Testament incontrovertibly teaches we must be spiritual before we do spiritual. If we're going to live like Christ, we must be like Christ. I'm quite concerned over what Dr. Lewis Ferry-Chaper predicted would someday happen, and I believe it's happening now, people are substituting philosophy and psychology for spirituality. There's no substitute. You can't do this through mental gymnastics, you see, or just psychological formulas. Psychology has its place. But spirituality is supernatural. It's Christ in you and Christ in me. And if Christ is not in it, it may imitate the Christian life, but you cannot duplicate it. It must be the work of the Lord Jesus. Let's take a moment or two and see how the Father is transforming us daily into a greater likeness of Jesus Christ. Greatest process is happening in your life and my life. Let's go to Second Corinthians three eighteen. Second Corinthians chapter three and verse eighteen. In some sense, to me this is one of the greatest, if not the greatest passage in the New Testament after you become a Christian, because it's what the Father is seeking most of all to do in your life and my life. Second Corinthians, three-eighteenths. But we all, all believers, with open faith beholding us in a glass of mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now the Word of God is the mirror of the glass. James chapter one. And furthermore, we see the glory of the Lord when we look at him revealed in the Word of God. If I look in this Bible as taught by the Spirit, I see Jesus Christ as he really is, but I also see myself as I really am. And there's a tremendous gap between the two. It's what we might call the spiritual gap. And the Father is supremely interested in closing that gap. Now, he's going to close it in a moment at the rapture. But let's don't wait until then to start desiring to be more like Christ today because that's what the Father is purposing to do it. Now, in a practical way, it works so that when we look into the Word, for example, James, I'm reading James one and I look at verse twenty, the wrath of man worked as not the righteousness of God. And maybe just that day, you, me, some father, has told one of his sons to go and change the oil in the lawnmower. And so he drains the oil and he puts a nice port of pins oil in it, only forgot to put the plug in the bottom. And a few hours before you just clean your driveway and now you have a port of oil floating on the top of your driveway. What do you do? The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. You lose your temper, you lose your self-control. And when you read that passage that night, James chapter one and verse twenty, you can do one of two things. You can let the word strike home with power, confess that sin and ask God by His grace to conquer it and see a great victory in changing your life. Or you can do what we call playing spiritual dodgeball. In this case, here comes a truth from the word. It's heading right for your heart or my heart. And we dodge very quickly and say, that one almost got me. And some of us are going to be doing that as we're sitting out here. Brother Jim and Brother Ray are going to be preaching. We're going to be sitting out there and we'll duck real quickly and it'll hit the person behind us dead center. That one almost got me. He probably needed it more than I did. And seriously, what we're playing is spiritual dodgeball. When we come to the word of God, we need to come to the word looking for the Lord Jesus. Furgent said he took the shortest route that legitimately led to the Lord Jesus. Don't go around legitimate principles of interpretation. We want to make sure the scripture is actually saying it. Shortest legitimate route to the Lord Jesus. And then let's say to the Lord, Lord, if there's a commandment, I want you to enable me to obey it. If there's a warning, help me to heed it. If there's a promise, give me faith to claim it. And if there is a teaching, Lord, help me to learn it. And the Lord will take the sharp edge of the sword, the Word of God, as the sword of the Spirit, and the hands of the Spirit. And he will take black letters on these white pages and transform it into flesh and blood spirituality. And it's the Spirit who does it because at the end of the verse it says, Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It's like the Word of God is the Spirit of God's sculpturing tool. And the model is Jesus Christ. and he's cutting off a little bit here and he's adding some there and often that growth process is very painful but the goal is great more like Christ he says from glory to glory I believe that means from one level of glory to a greater level of glory from one degree of Christ likeness to a greater degree of Christ likeness and the more you like him the more you live like him that's our third thing that's our ambition for the future to be like Him. Our attitude towards the past, sins forgiven and forgotten. If we trusted Him, all-known sin confessed, action in the present, running, looking unto the Lord Jesus, and our ambition for the future to be more like Him. And you see, if that's what we're operating on today, we won't need a new start in a Christian life. We'll have a new start. And I suggest that we put these principles into operation, any of us that are not doing it right now. You can't become a Christian all over again, but you can sure get a new start in the Christian life. And maybe someone here is saying, I don't need a new start in Christian life, I need a new start in life, serious. And a start in life begins with a birth. That's why you're here. You had a physical birth. And the start in the Christian life begins with a spiritual birth. There's no other way. You must be born again, not nice but necessary to be born again. Let's look at the most familiar passage in dealing with those who desire to trust Christ as Savior, John I, verses twelve and thirteen. If so familiar, I'll just start reading it right away, John I, twelve. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, who were born not of blood, literally not of blood, not of family descent. Being born in a Christian family does not automatically make you a Christian. Any more than be born in a garage would make you a car. It's not by family descent, which were born not of blood or blood, nor of the wills of the flesh, not by fleshly human effort. There's nothing that you can do to be saved other than trusting Christ. And the third part here, there's nothing that someone else can do for you to make you saved. The end of the verse says, nor of the will of man. I shook a preacher's hand. I've been baptized and if you believe you should be baptized. But if you're baptized without believing, it just makes you a wet loss center instead of a dry one. It doesn't save you. There's nothing that I can do or you can do to save someone else. It's what the Lord Jesus has already done. And if you or I are tending in works to try to make it, we're very late for the appointment. We're over two thousand years too late. Now, some of us are ten minutes late for a doctor's appointment. We shouldn't be, but I'll tell you when you're almost two thousand years late, that's late. It is finished. It has been paid in full. The work has been done. We're not to build it. We're to believe on it and believe on Him, the Lord Jesus. Believing means we reach out and receive Him, the gift of eternal life, all packaged in a wonderful person, Jesus Christ. He who has the Son has life. And when you get him as your Savior, you'll have a new start in life. And it'll never end because it'll continue forever in eternity in glory. Shall we pray?