In the sermon titled 'If We Believe on Him,' delivered by Steve Hopkins, the speaker emphasizes the importance of faith and prayer in a believer's life. He encourages believers, including children, to understand that even the most mundane tasks are a service to the Lord. The sermon underscores the necessity of consistent prayer and Bible reading, suggesting that even a few minutes dedicated each day can lead to transformative blessings. Hopkins recounts a story of a young man who began a prayer routine and experienced significant spiritual growth. The sermon further delves into the concept of justification by faith, using Abraham as an example. Abraham was justified by faith before the law was given, illustrating that righteousness is imputed through faith and not by works or circumcision. The promise made to Abraham, that he would be the father of many nations, is fulfilled through faith and not the law, and this promise extends to all who believe in Jesus. The speaker calls on the congregation to trust in God's promises and to believe in the resurrection of Jesus for their justification. The importance of being clothed in Christ's righteousness is highlighted as essential for salvation. Finally, the sermon concludes with a call to partake in communion, urging self-examination and confession of sin, while placing trust solely in Christ's redemptive work.

Turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Romans, where in just a moment we will be, Lord willing, picking up with Romans chapter 4 and verse 18 and going through verse 25. Before we do, a couple of pre-message short messages. Before we talk about prayer, I want to talk to the children. Some of you little ones, young ones, look at me. And even the older little ones look at me.

Did you know that in that everything that you do, if you are a believer, if you can say, I believe in Jesus, the most menial tasks, that means even the most, the things that you do that seem like they're the most insignificant things of life, that you're serving the Lord. Did you know that when you read the books about the great missionaries that are going out and serving the Lord on the mission fields, they're doing great things, but even the most menial tasks, even the smallest things that you're doing in life, that you're serving the Lord. Are you serving Him well? Are you serving Him well when you're doing those tasks throughout the day? It's all serving the Lord, okay?

So don't feel like, well, I'm just getting up and I just don't have any purpose in my life. You have purpose in your life. You're serving God. You're serving Him all day long. When you're feeding the chickens, you're serving the Lord.

You know, when you're cleaning up after the animals out there, you're serving the Lord. It's all service to the Lord. The question is, are you serving Him well? And are you serving Him with the right heart? Are you serving Him with the right heart?

So serve the Lord well. And then I've been talking about prayer. How many of you remember me talking about the young man that I spoke with at the conference? And I asked him, you know, I said, you know, I spoke to you a year ago and I talked to you about prayer. Did you ever resume or ever start actually a prayer life?

And he was like, no I didn't. A whole year has passed and I never did start praying. Anybody remember talking about that? Talked about that last week? Yeah, okay.

Well guess what? I got a voicemail this week and it was from this young man that I had talked to at the conference and he said, I just wanted you to know Mr. Hopkins that I'm so grateful for you talking to me at the conference. Now for over a week I've been praying and reading my Bible every morning. That really convicted me that you talked about spending two and a half minutes.

I guess it was convicting because you know we have a little bit of a guilty conscience when we sing sweet hour of prayer, right? And we're not even spending two and a half minutes in prayer in the morning and in the evening. And he said I was kind of under conviction, and I started spending that two and a half minutes in the morning and two and a half minutes in the evening in prayer and in Bible reading. He said the blessing really that has come upon me, he said it's just unbelievable. I've been so blessed to spend that two and a half minutes to five minutes in the morning and in the evening Spending it in prayer and in Bible reading every morning and every evening It's I just been so blessed and my life has just changed so much in the last week.

Thank you so much So it does matter. It does matter And I just want to encourage everyone again, right now, you know, don't make that excuse that so many people make where they turn lack of obedience into virtue. You know how we do? We'll take our lack of obedience and we'll turn it into a virtue. We'll say, well, you know, I'm not going to do it because if I don't do it with the right heart I don't want to do it at all So we don't do it.

So well, I'm not gonna do it because I'm not doing it with the right heart You know sometimes this is what I told that young man Sometimes you have to force yourself to be obedient, and then after you're obedient, the desire comes. You obey, and then the desire comes. That's what happened with him. He forced himself to obey, and then the desire came. Sometimes that's what we have to do.

So again, you know, I want to ask you today, if you're not spending that sweet two-and-a-half minutes of prayer in the morning with the Lord, will you consider giving two-and-a-half minutes, is God worth two-and-a-half minutes of prayer in the morning? Will you say, you know, the first thing I'm going to do in the morning is give God two and a half minutes. God's worth two and a half minutes of prayer in the morning. I'll give Him that two and a half minutes. Because you remember what I was talking about was the five, what should be the five non-negotiables of the Christian life.

Just five things that every Christian should be engaging in. Prayer, personal prayer and Bible reading in the morning, right, and then family worship with your family. Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6, right, everybody should be engaging in that, having a time set aside, non-negotiable with your family for prayer and Bible reading with the family, or with your wife if you're not married, washing your wife in the Word and getting the bath at the same time, so to speak, and then going to church, okay, and then being in the prayer meetings of the church. Those are just the five kind of non-negotiables of the Christian life. Everybody in all of Christian history did those things.

Just those five basic things. If you're not engaging in those things, then you wonder, why are things going the way they're going in my life? Why are things not going the way that they should be going in my life? Okay? It's not that things are going to go perfect in your life if you do these things, but the one thing is for sure, if you're not doing these things, then you're adding to the troubles of your life, okay?

You're going to be blessed if you're engaging in these things that are just the basic non-negotiables of Christian life. Blessings will overtake you. Things will go smoother even when they go rougher. You understand that? Things will go smoother even when they go rougher, okay?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Things are going to go better. Even when the waters around you are raging, you're going to have still waters that you're going to be experiencing. Even when the pastures around you are dry, you're going to be lying down in green pastures. You understand what I'm saying?

Because you're engaging in those things that are just the basic elements of Christian life. I guarantee you, your family relationships won't starve. Your finances are not going to starve if you spend two and a half minutes in prayer and Bible reading in the morning and two and a half minutes at night. If you give God five minutes of your life every day, your finances are not going to suffer. They're not going to suffer.

And what's going to happen is that two and a half minutes in the morning, that two and a half minutes at night are actually going to grow, because your desire then is going to grow, and it's going to grow, and it's going to grow. So, and then what about the prayer meetings? What about prayer meetings? Are you involved in the prayer meetings of the church when the church is having prayer meetings? All the churches used to, they used to be, they used to be full.

Why? Because the church was under persecution. The church was suffering. Why is it that Christians have to be in times of persecution? There have to be bodies strewn in the streets.

There has to be times of famine. There have to be times of trouble, they have to be thrown out of their jobs before people go to prayer meeting. Why is it that in times of prosperity and when things are going okay, people don't go to the prayer meetings of the church? Remember the prayer meeting where in the first church there was 120 people that were gathered together and they were at the prayer meeting of the church and Peter was where? How many remember where Peter was?

Peter was in prison. Peter was in prison. Why does somebody in the church have to be in prison? Why does somebody in the church have to be in the hospital? Why does somebody in the church have to be in prison?

Why does somebody in the church have to be in the hospital? Why does somebody in the church have to be on their deathbed? Why do they have to be looking for enough people in the church to bury their church members in the cemeteries like they were when the pilgrims came over that first winter before the church house is full on prayer meeting night. Why is that? Why is it when things are going well, people don't pray together?

Why is that the case? It shouldn't be the case. So, I just want to encourage the church to be with the church praying, not because you have to, not because you're driven to your knees, but because you want to, because you want to be with the church when the church is praying together. The church prayer meeting nights are blessed. It's blessed.

If you can't be there, hit the Zoom meeting button and be there in spirit and be there praying with the church when the church is praying together. But don't wait until the time when you're driven there, when your spouse is sick and in the hospital, you say, well, I think I'm going to join with the church in prayer on Wednesday night. Or when you're in, you know, a situation of persecution or where you've lost your job or what have you, you say, you know what, it's serious enough to me now, I think I'll be with the church in prayer. Go now. Be with the church now in prayer before those times come.

So I've already spent 10, 11 minutes before, but these are important things. And in the sessions to come, I want to start talking about the elements of prayer. So when you go to that two and a half minutes of prayer in the morning and two and a half minutes of prayer in the evening, and I hope it ends into five and ten or fifteen minutes, and you don't know what to pray, we start to know what to pray for. But I want to talk about the Lord's Prayer and the elements of the Lord's Prayer and why Jesus said pray after this manner and how important those things are, the elements of the Lord's Prayer. Let's now open our Bibles to Romans chapter 4, and if the congregation would stand with me for the reading of the Word of the Lord, Romans chapter 4, and we'll read together verses 18 through 25.

So if you would, read together with me. Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, When he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him But for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

Let's pray. Father, we once again just humble ourselves before you and ask, O God, for a work of your spirit in our lives. O Lord, for illumination. O Lord, for understanding. Lord, that you would open up the understanding of our hearts, oh God, that you would give us understanding of your Word, oh God, that you would conform us more to the image of Christ in this time, oh God, that you would just do a work in our lives.

Lord, we need your presence and we need your help, O Lord. We look to you for everything and we ask all these things in the name of Jesus, our Savior and our Lord. Amen. Let's be seated. In our last session, the apostle drove home the point that Abraham was justified before God when he was still uncircumcised.

He drove home the point that justification, that the blessing of justification and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to ungodly sinners comes not only upon the circumcised, as the Jews believed and the Judaizers, among the early professors of Christianity, were teaching at that time, but also upon the uncircumcised. Everybody remember? At what point in time was Abraham's faith reckoned or imputed to him for righteousness? Remember? When he was a circumcised man, was it?

Or when he was an uncircumcised man? How many remember? Okay. Not when he was living in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. How many remember the years he lived in uncircumcision and he was a justified man, right?

Not when Abraham was living as a circumcised man, but when he was living as an uncircumcised man, he was imputed to him for righteousness. I stress the point that Abraham lived a justified man, a saved man, that he was justified in the sight of God, that the righteousness of Christ was imputed to him by faith. How many years? Fourteen years before he was circumcised. Abraham lived in a justified state before God, having believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness for fourteen years before he was circumcised.

Therefore, circumcision could not have anything whatsoever to do with one's justification in the sight of God. Abraham received the sign of circumcision and the seal of the faith he had 14 years after he was justified by faith, 14 years after his faith was imputed to him for righteousness, so that he might clearly be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised. Okay? Righteousness therefore is very, very clearly imputed to the uncircumcised by faith as well as the circumcised because Abraham lived as an uncircumcised man for 14 years before receiving the sign of circumcision and the seal of the faith he had. So again, circumcision does not justify.

This is what the Apostle Paul was driving home. Neither are men justified in the sight of God by any works. The righteousness that is imputed to them that believe comes upon the uncircumcised as well as the circumcised. This is what the apostle Paul is teaching. And Abraham is the father of them all.

The father of us all, right? The father of all that believe, whether they be circumcised or not. And in review, we looked at Galatians 5, okay? Remember we flipped over to Galatians 5 verses 2 through 4 to emphasize further what Paul is saying here, and I'll read it again. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, okay, that is, if you get circumcised because you think it's going to save you or in some way aid you in your salvation or your justification before God, Paul said, Christ shall profit you nada.

That's Spanish for nothing. Okay? Zero. Nothing. For I testify, verse 3, Galatians 5-3, I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

Not that you couldn't get circumcised, but if you're putting your trust in circumcision, you are now indebted to keep the entire law. Christ, verse 4, has become of no effect unto you, no value to you whatsoever. You just threw Christ out the window. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace." Powerful words, end quote, from Galatians. The only circumcision that matters before God is what?

Who knows? Right, several people pounding the heart. Circumcision of the heart, right, which is what? Regeneration, the new birth, being born again. That's the only circumcision that matters before God.

And our proof text was Romans 2.29. We could have gone to the Old Testament to Deuteronomy. We could have gone to Jeremiah, but we went to Romans 2.29. But he is a Jew who is one where? Inwardly, inwardly.

And circumcision is that of the what? Of the flesh? Of the heart. In the what? In the spirit and not in the letter, okay, of the law, whose praise is not of men but of God.

And then we looked at verse 13 last week and how it was promised to Abraham that he would be heir of the world and how the fulfillment of that would be by faith and not by the law. And we looked at exactly what that meant because it was a little bit confusing. How many remember that? Last Sunday evening we had several people at our at our home. We always have sermon review and there were several visitors there and I said you know I really I really blew through this part of the sermon.

Kind of got rolling there watching the clock and really blew through this part of the sermon quickly. And I wonder if this part really stuck with anyone. So I want to make sure we all understand it here this morning, because It's really important what the Apostle Paul was bringing out. The promise to Abraham that he's speaking of here came from back in Genesis 12. It was the promise that Abraham would be heir of the world, and he was given the promise that he would be heir of the world, meaning that he would be the father of an innumerable multitude, and that that innumerable multitude of children that would come from him, from his body that was now dead, okay, being almost a hundred years old, and he and his wife coming on to a hundred years of age, that this innumerable multitude would take over the land of the heathen, would possess the land of Canaan, and that through his seed all of the families of the entire world, all the nations of the entire world, were going to be blessed.

And that the fulfillment of this would not be through the law, but by faith. Okay, so what was Paul trying to get through to us? Well, we flipped over to Galatians chapter 3 again. We went over to Galatians, because Paul exposits, continues to exposit so much of this through his letter to the church of Galatia. And we look to Galatians chapter 3, beginning with verse 16, to get a clearer picture.

How many remember what we found in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 16? Who is the seed through which all the families and nations of the earth are going to be blessed through Abraham." Who remembers? Who's the seed? Christ. Who said that?

Raise your hand. Okay. Very good. Christ. Christ.

Remember? We read in Galatians 3.16, Now to Abraham and his seed, singular, not seeds, were the promises made. He says not, and to seeds, plural, everybody hang with me, we got to get this, He says not to seeds, plural, as of many, Paul writes to the church of Galatia, but as of one, and to thy seed, and to thy seed, which is Christ. He just spells it out. He just lays it right out there.

God was going to bless all the families of the earth through the seed, singular, of Abraham, that is through the seed or offspring that would come from his body, okay, and that through the son who's not even come yet, through Isaac, who's not even been born yet, and Abraham's got to believe that this is even going to happen Through his body which is now basically dead with regards to reproduction in his wife's body. They're both approaching a hundred years of age. Okay, is now dead with regards to reproduction and you're going to fill the entire earth with with our seed with our children. We're going to take over the land of Canaan, and then all the earth is going to be blessed through this seed that's going to come from our bodies which are now dead. And I'm supposed to believe this promise?

Yes, and he does. He does. God blesses all the families of the earth through the seed of Abraham, through the offspring which will come from his body, the body of his wife Sarah, and that seed or offspring or child that would eventually descend from Abraham would be Jesus. Got it? Everybody got it?

Everybody got it? So I wanted to make sure that we didn't just blow through that again. So now Abraham believed the promises of God. Way back in Genesis 15, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Abraham is saved.

Abraham, before he is circumcised, before he keeps any of the law of God, and before the law is given, is saved, okay? Remember what we found last week when we went on to Galatians 3.17? When was the law given? How many years later? See we kind of just went through this really fast.

How many can remember? How many years later was the law given? After Abraham was justified. Abraham was justified by faith in Christ and it's imputed to him for righteousness. Fourteen years later he gets circumcised, okay?

Ishmael is circumcised first and then Isaac, right? Ishmael is excluded from the covenant. Isaac is the son of the promise. And then how many years later does Moses come down the mount with the law of God? Who knows?

We went through it last week. Four hundred, as they say in Texan, four hundred and thirty years. Four hundred and thirty years. Moses doesn't come down from the mount with the law of God in his hands for another 430 years. That's what we read in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 17.

The law comes 430 years after the promise. Everybody got it? We can't go forward until we get this through our thick head, through my thick head, okay? So the law comes 430 years after the promise, and after the faith that justifies in the imputation of the righteousness of Christ that comes upon Abraham after the faith and the justification of Abraham so that, as a note in my Bible commentary says, quote, since the law came 430 years after the promise, the promises cannot be dependent upon the law. Promises can't be dependent upon the law.

Abraham's counted righteous by faith back in Genesis 15. He believes God. It's imputed in for righteousness. Abraham receives the promise by faith, not by the law. Does everybody got it?

Not by the law. The law will not come for another 430 years. Therefore the promises cannot be dependent upon the law. And we see in verse 14, as we go back to our text in Romans 4, that would render the faith of Abraham by which he was justified in Genesis 15 void to make the promise of God of no effect. And that ain't gonna happen.

And it didn't happen. Why the law works wrath. It brings in the knowledge of sin exposes the guilt of sin you remove justification by faith and the imputation of righteousness Okay Back 430 years earlier, and then you bring in the law, all you have is left is exposure to the law of God and the expectation of divine judgment. No. Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness.

And this is what the Apostle Paul was driving home. Justification in the sight of God is not by the keeping of the law, but by faith. It's a faith, and it's a faith that it might be clearly understood to be by grace, that is, by the free, unmerited, undeserved gift of God. Abraham didn't do anything. The law hadn't even come in and neither had circumcision.

He didn't do nothing. I know, double negative. That's okay. I wasn't home schooled, so I didn't learn that good stuff. So, to pick up with verse 18, we read that Abraham against hope believed in hope.

How many understand that couples who are closing in on their 100th birthday don't have kids? Okay? You're around 100 years old, you don't have kids, right? Some people say, well, maybe Sandra, maybe your wife, you know, because you have 16 kids. No, you don't have kids.

She just gave me a look. When is the last time you heard of a 90-year-old person conceiving and bearing a child? 90-year-old woman bearing a child, okay? This is against hope, believing in hope. This is trusting in the Word of God in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances.

Okay, and that's supposed to be the Christian life, right? We trust in the Word of God in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. We trust in the Word of God. Verse 20 tells us three things. First it tells us number one, Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.

Number two, it tells us that Abraham was strong in faith. Third, it tells us that in doing so it was a means of giving glory to God. He didn't stagger at the promise of God through unbelief, Praise God. He was strong in faith and in doing so this was a means of giving glory to God. The imagery here, the picture here is of a man not staggering at the promise of God.

It's a man not getting off balance. Think about this, a man who staggers, you think of like a guy who's like drunk or something, right? A man who staggers reels. A man who staggers moves or sways back and forth from one side to another. A man who staggers is not steady.

A man who staggers is a man who is wavering. This isn't Abraham. Abraham isn't any of these things. Abraham isn't doing any of these things. Abraham didn't stagger at the promise of God.

He's steady. He's steady. The picture is of a man who is not wavering at all. He's not wavering at all. Abraham's faith is firm and Abraham's faith is strong.

Okay? Abraham has no doubt in his mind, in his heart, that God both can and will fulfill his word. Did you catch that? Abraham has no doubt, and this should be us as well, has no doubt that God both can and will fulfill his word. Abraham trusted in the word of God, and God received glory thereby.

Oh that we would live in the same way today, giving glory to God daily through the course of our lives by trusting in the promises of God. Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was also able to perform. Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised he was also able to perform and it was imputed to him for righteousness. It was credited to him for righteousness. Abraham laid hold on the promises of God by faith.

Remember the promise had to do with the seed, the seed singular of Abraham as he read in Galatians 3, not seeds plural. Abraham trusts that God will provide a child through his body and the body of his wife Sarah which are effectively now dead with respects to childbearing and yet he trusts God that through his offspring the one seed which is Christ all the nations of the world will be blessed as we saw in Galatians 3 8 and 3 17 all the nations of the world would be blessed and guess what all the nations of the world will be blessed. As we saw in Galatians 3, 8 and 3, 17, all the nations of the world would be blessed. And guess what? All the nations of the world have been blessed through the offspring, through the one singular seed that came from loins of Abraham and from Sarah.

All the nations have been blessed. Revelation 7, 9 through 10 speaks of a great multitude which no man can number of all nations. Of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, " these are saved people folks, and palms in their hands saying what? Salvation. These are saved people.

Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. These are saved people standing before God from all the nations and tribes and kindreds and peoples and tongues of the earth. This is a fulfillment. This is a fulfillment of what the promise of God was given to Abraham, the fulfillment of that promise. So the fulfillment of the promise was made to Abraham.

Would be great and it is great. And so our text goes on. And it was not written to Abraham's sake alone, as we close, that righteousness was imputed to him on account of his faith, verse 24, but for us also. It wasn't written for his sake only, but for us also, for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him." That's the title of the message today, if we believe on him. That raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

Listen, in conclusion, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ is promised to everyone who believes the testimony of God concerning his son. Do you understand that? Do you understand that? What about you children? Children listen to me.

The imputation, being clothed in Jesus righteousness, okay, is promised to you today if you believe what God says about his Son in simple terminology. If you believe what God says about his Son. And the first thing that's inferred in this passage here of what God says about his son is the necessity of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. You need to be clothed, you need to be covered by Christ's righteousness. If you're not clothed by Christ's righteousness, if you're not clothed in the righteousness of Christ, That's what's inferred here in the text.

If you are not clothed in the righteousness of Christ, if you're not covered by His righteousness, you're not going to do well on the day of judgment. If you're not covered by Jesus righteousness On the day of judgment, you're not going to survive the judgment without judgment. Clothed in our sins and our self-righteousness will be cast into the fires of hell. If we are standing before God on the day of judgment, clothed in our righteousness, our self-righteousness, and in our sins before God on that day of judgment, we're going to be cast into hell. There is an eternal judgment that awaits those who are clothed in their own self-righteousness and in their own sins and not clothed and covered in the righteousness of Christ.

Who do not have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, who are not covered by his righteousness. You need the righteous covering of Christ. You need the righteous covering of Christ. All the way back to the garden, Adam and Eve needed the righteous covering of Christ, and God made coats of skins for them, and He clothed them. You need the righteous covering of Christ to be accepted by God.

You need His righteous covering. If you believe on Him, we read, we have in the text before us, who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead says much You must put your trust in God and his promise to save you Your trust must be in God who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead. You must believe the testimony of God concerning his son Jesus that he is Lord. Look what it says there, our Lord Jesus from the dead. You must believe that he is Lord.

The text says our Lord Jesus and it's a term of deity. You say, well I believe Jesus came, I believe he was a man, but do you believe he was also a deity? You believe that he's Lord. That is a term of deity. You must believe that Jesus is God the Son, come in the flesh, that he came from heaven, from God, that he is God the Son, the eternally begotten Son of God.

And You must believe that Jesus died and that he rose again from the dead. And you must believe that the purpose of his death was for our offenses. Look at what the text says. He was slain for our offenses, for your offenses personally, in that you have offended God. You must understand and believe that you have offended God personally by sinning against Him and that God delivered him for your offenses.

Look at what the text says. He was delivered for your offenses, not just delivered by Judas, not just delivered by Pilate, not just delivered by the Jews, but that he was delivered by God, Delivered up for your offenses, delivered to be taken for your offenses so that you would not have to be taken for your offenses for all eternity or punished for your offenses for all eternity. You wouldn't have to be delivered to hell for your offenses for all eternity. You understand what he's saying here? God delivered him up for your offenses, for your sins and trespasses, and the sins and trespasses of all his people.

And that he died for your sins and the sins of his people and was raised for our justification. You must believe that. That is that his resurrection proved that his sacrifice was accepted to God as payment in full for your sin debt and for all our offenses. Our, when it says our here, being the people to whom the apostle wrote the book of Romans. Go back to chapter 1, to the people of God.

Jesus was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. If we believe on him who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us and we are clothed in his perfect righteousness. His death has atoned for our sins. And friends, his obedience in life and death is ours. If we believe on him who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead and God forever looks on us as he looks on his son that's good news do you believe that that's good news I hope you believe that I hope you believe let's pray father we just want to once again humble ourselves before you and thank you for the gospel, the gospel of the Lord of Christ, our Lord Jesus.

God, we do believe on you, God, who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead. We do believe that he was delivered for our offenses. We do believe that he was raised again for our justification. We do believe that his righteousness is imputed to all those who believe on his name. Our trust is in Christ and in Christ alone.

Lord, we thank you for this gospel, the only gospel that can save the good news that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners like us, and we thank you Lord that we are among the sinners he came into the world to save. We praise your holy name Lord, and we thank you Lord. We're so grateful God for the work of our Lord Jesus, and we want to just praise you and thank you for it now. Lord, especially as we approach this table, Lord, this communion table, the Lord's table, where we will be eating and drinking, Lord, showing the Lord's death for us, eating of that bread and drinking of that cup, the symbol of Christ's death for us, where we will be feasting on Christ spiritually, not physically, but spiritually, and saying, Jesus died for me. Oh Lord, we want to ask that you would help us to examine ourselves before we approach this table.

Lord first to see if we are truly in the faith and then Lord to ask ourselves if there is any unconfessed sin in our lives and to help us Lord to come to a place where we confess any known sin in our lives Lord and look to Jesus, look to Jesus, look to Jesus. Our trust is in him and in his name and in his work alone, in his life and in his obedience in life and death alone. We love you