Published: January 14, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 33 | Scripture: Romans 7:1-6
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return with me please to Romans chapter 7 this
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morning going to read the first six verses and I'd like to ask Abe if you'd pray for the ministry of the word this morning Romans chapter 7 beginning in verse one or do you not know brethren for I am
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speaking to those who know the law that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives for the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living
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but if her husband dies she is released from the law concerning the husband so then if while her husband is is living she is joined to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her
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husband dies she is free from the law so that she is not an adulteress though she be joined to another man therefore my brethren you also were made to die to
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the law through the body of Christ that you might be joined to another to him who was raised from the dead that we might bear fruit for God for while we were in the flesh the sinful passions
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which were aroused by the law law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death but now we have been released from the law having die to
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that by which we were bound so that we serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter let us
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Amen we've H often had occasion to mention especially in our Sunday School classes and Plum line that every trans translation of a language into another language is is by necessity also an
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interpretation this I think we've all understood and experienced if we've taken any foreign languages that we're aware that there is rarely a onetoone correspondence between a lang a word in
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one language and that word in our language languages like Hebrew and Greek the languages of the Bible especially Hebrew but both of them are less
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complex languages words are made to do more Duty and that means that when we come to translate a word in the Greek there are
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often multiple English words that would all equally well translate that one word so the translator has to make a choice that's an
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that's an interpretation he or she has to decide which English word fits better now that's not usually a problem though when we compare translation to
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translation which we have the privilege of being able to do in our day or if we read uh one or two good commentaries we can see how that word might mean
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something a little bit different or perhaps the same Greek word within the context has been translated by our English Bibles in into different words
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and we can sort through that but this also applies not just to the word that we have in our English versus the word that we have in the Greek but whether or
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not that word is capitalized now most of you know that in the Greek papyrus in the Greek manuscripts they were either all capital
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I guess that meant the author was angry or there were no capitals in fact there were also no spaces between the words because Papyrus was expensive and
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there were no punctuation marks so once again there's a matter of interpretation that goes even into the punctuation and the capitalization of words in our James
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Study we noted that in James chapter 4:5 we read a very enigmatic phrase he says he jealously desires the spirit
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which he has made to dwell in us well do we capitalize Spirit there or not well some of your Bibles do and some of them
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don't but there's a big difference isn't there between a capital S which is the Holy Spirit and a lowercase s which is your spirit so it does matter whether
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it's capitalized and and the reason I bring this out is that I'm I'm reading from The New American Standard where in verse one the word law is
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lowercase but starting from verse 4 it's 4 it's capitalized until we get to verse 23 where it is then lowercase again what's happening there our
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translators are interpreting for us aren't they is there a difference between a lowercase law and a capital l law well yes there is a lowercase law is
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just law you know common law legislation within the Roman Empire capital l means to right capital l means God's
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law and so I just wanted to point that out that as you read your English Bible you're reading a translation and so as you read a translation you know that you're seeing some interpretation going on maybe a bit
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subtle maybe you didn't notice that lowercase l in the first verse then capital l in the fourth and all the way through until we get to the law at work in the members of our body that's
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lowercase L again well should it be one should it be the other or does Paul not know what he's talking about is Paul just bouncing around
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between Concepts here to the point that we almost can't follow him well as Paul would say may it never be we have to make a decision don't we
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just as we do in James chapter 4 we have to decide looking at the context trying to understand as best we can what James is saying is he talking about
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the spirit that God made to dwell in me my spirit or is he talking about the holy spirit that he made to dwell in me my regeneration and here we have to make
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the decision should I capitalize L throughout or keep it lowercase throughout or is there some contextual reason to bounce back and forth well the
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these people who translate our bibles are are not stupid and they're not in spite of contrary opinion generally malicious right they're not they're not
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seeking to mislead us there's a reason why it is lowercase in the first verse and that's that little parenthetic statement by the way parentheses are not
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also not in the originals but Paul writes in parenthesis at least in The New American Standard for I am speaking to those who know the law well the translator looks at this
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and says well he's writing to the Romans right well right well Roman population was mostly Gentile so there's an assumption this is
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part of the interpretation that goes on there's a conclusion made that that since he's writing to a church that mostly Gentile he couldn't be talking about
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them knowing them knowing Torah so therefore he must be talking about them knowing the the law okay about marriages especially
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okay the the problem with that assumption is it was made at least in in the translation of The New American Standard it was kind of made on the basis of a
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false demographics of the Roman Church in fact most of the churches within the early Century of Christianity even within the Gentile World began with two
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groups first Jews we notice in Acts how Paul began his mission in any City at the synagogue or if there was no synagogue he would go to where the Jews
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met on the Sabbath and that's where he would teach so they were Jews but in this time in the second temple era there was also a large population of what they
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called god-fearers these were Gentiles who had attached themselves to the synagogue and supported it they had adopted Judaism up until the point of circumcision they
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said said nah we're not we're not going that far okay Cornelius for example was a god-fearer these were Gentiles who by their own volition had learned tah they
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had learned the law these were the two natural demographics for the gospel to reach first the Jews of course whose Heritage the Messiah was but then also
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those who among the Gentiles who had attached themselves from Paul's gek readings in Romans 16 there seems to be quite a wide mix of both Jews and
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Gentile names there meaning that there were probably quite a number of god-fearers in Rome we know this from from extra Biblical history as well for example Josephus and so there's no reason to not
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capitalize law in verse one there's no reason to assume that these Gentiles would have no knowledge of Torah if they had been god-fearers before they became
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believers they would know tah and so as we look at this I think we have to consider um what Paul's doing here he he uses an analogy in verses 2 and three
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regarding the marriage law now if we assume that in verse one that he's merely talking about common law with regard to marriage or even Roman
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legislation then we have Paul doing something like this he's he's reasoning from Human law up to God's law now that would afford or Accord
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human law a dignity that Paul would not give it a wisdom and an Enlightenment that Paul would not acknowledge he doesn't argue that you know basic common
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law is sufficient to teach us Divine Law it doesn't work that way or Divine Law would not have been necessary if we could have simply reasoned all of this
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for ourselves so Paul is not moving from some general law to the divinely given Mosaic law as the translators of The New American Standard are doing see they're
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moving from lowercase L to capital L between verses 1 and 4 Paul's not doing that in fact he has actually introduced the law in chapter 5
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and he makes it clear in chapter 5 which law he is talking about he's talking about Adam's sin having brought death to all the human race
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because in Adam all sinned so in verse 13 He says for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there
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is no is no law until the law that is a point in time that throughout Paul's letters and in the history of biblical Revelation means Mount
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means Mount Si not not just law the Sumerians had law right you know hamar robi's code and the the um the Babylonians the ancient
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Babylonians they had laws there were laws in the beginning it was against the law for Cain to have killed his brother and he knew it so until the law is
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introducing Paul here he's introducing Torah but as we've noted before Paul tends to intr produce things and then leave them for a while
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picking them up later because in Romans 5 what he's really introducing is the Advent of sin that in Adam all sinned so that in Romans 6 he's talking about how
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we who died with Christ have died to sin and he he deals with that in depth but then in Romans 7 he picks up that second part of Romans 5 the law
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and he deals with it in depth but we can't just change our lowercase to uppercase as we want we have to be very careful that we are following Paul's
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logic and I think therefore it's best to take Paul as referring to trra the Mosaic law Mosaic law throughout although that does again
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leave us with the difficulty I mentioned last week and that is to the conundrum that something good something very good something holy and righteous and good
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has turned out very bad the law but even if we do assume that most of the Roman Believers were Gentiles
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with no knowledge of Torah Paul's analogy in verses 2 and three concerning the marriage law is not
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Gentile in fact even within Roman Roman law the Widow was not as free as Paul indicates here in many cases the Widow
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was responsible to maintain the estate and the memory of her deceased husband and was not free to remarry also we know that in Hindu
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cultures often times the woman the Widow is not free to Remar she is to throw herself on her husband's funeral p she
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is to perish with him so many cultures even in that day and and in our day did not have this law that Paul refers to that with death a married woman the
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death of the husband frees her from the marriage bond but indeed Deuteronomy 25 teaches us without any doubt that this is the case for the Jewish woman whose husband
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passes away so I again the the context leads us not only right here in the passage itself but starting from Romans 5 and
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moving on through Romans 7 to the conclusion that Paul is deing dealing with God's law he's dealing with pah and that would make sense as we saw last
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week him having been a Pharisee means he was a was a devote with the law he was obsessed with the law but is Paul teaching here that only
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death can dissolve the marriage bond that is actually the common focus of many sermons and many commentaries on this
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passage attempting to show that what Paul is teaching here is that only death can dissolve the marriage bond well first of all that's not what Paul's
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talking about he's not talking about marriage but he's talking about the believer's status in relation to sin and the law the law he's not talking about marriage per se
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he's talking about how marriage is an illustration of a principle that he's establishing here with relationship to the believer and the law
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secondly that death dissolves the marriage bond is the only point being made it does not rule out other causes
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for which the marriage bond can be deserved D to mention one truth does not rule out others and so the those who preach that a marriage cannot be ended
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except by the death of one of the spouses not only are they taking this passage out of context and therefore missing the missing the point they are ignoring other biblical
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contexts Paul of course would not do that in in fact in 1 Corinthians 7 Paul teaches very clearly and listen to
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his language even though this isn't what he's getting at I if that if you've heard that kind of a sermon or if that thought has entered your mind I would just as soon put it to bed now Paul writes yet if the unbelieving one
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leaves let him leave the brother or sister now listen is not under bondage in such
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in such cases he's talking about a believing spouse living with an un believing spouse that the dissolution of that marriage should not be the initiative of
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the believing the believing spouse but rather that if the unbelieving spouse says I'm having none of this and leaves the believing spouse is not under bondage that is the same
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language that Paul uses here referring to the death of the spouse and so at least there abandonment constitutes a Biblical ground for the
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dissolution of the marriage covenant okay so putting that aside that is not Paul's point he's talking about marriage here
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but why is he choosing marriage now we know that marriage is a favorite metaphor for Paul that he constantly and frequently speaks of the relationship
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between the church and Jesus as a marriage but here he's using the word differently he's using it in a in a different context than the the union of
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the church and its Lord Jesus Christ and what makes it a little bit more difficult and this is somewhat typical with Paul you may notice that the
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parallelism in this is not really exact you see in verses 2 and three it's the husband that Di
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okay and the wife is free to remarry she's no longer under the law of
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marriage but the husband's dead and is not likely to remarry okay so now get get the principle here this is called the uh well you know this is the beginning this is the first part of the analogy or the parallel that he's
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drawing the husband dies the wife is free to remarry but in verse four it's the believer who dies and then gets
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remarried what you see the parallel is not exact that the law does not die you see if the parallel was exact
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then the law would die but we're going to this is important as we get through Romans 7 because the law doesn't law doesn't die we die to to the
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law okay so he's using an analogy here but we can't make a onetoone connection between verses 2 and three and verse four the point is someplace else and I
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think it's rather clear in spite of Paul's not quite so clear parallelism between the two but I want to point that out because it it's very
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important that in verse four as he as he closes up the loop and ties up the analogy it's the believer who is made to
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die but not like the husband in the first part who's dead and gone that the wife might remarry but now the believer is made to die why so that he or she
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might be joined to another okay and and in the first part if the wife is joined to another while her husband lives what is she she's an adulteress but in the second part we are
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joined to another who has been raised from the dead uses the same language that's really the connection there that phrase joined to another up in verse
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three and then in verse four okay so why does he use marriage why is he using this analogy when then even using it he cannot make a direct point-to-point
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contact or parallel between the two well first of all marriage joins two people in Union as
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one marriage is a covenant that is not to be divided and yet even as we say in our
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vows we marry what till death do us part so first of all marriage joins and brings about a union but
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secondly marriage and I think consequently marriage is the best example of how a living person can be freed from the law that's what he's
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saying in verses 2 and three that the wife the Widow is no longer bound by the marriage law she is free to Remar okay
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those two phrases or words not under bondage that's one thing then there's the other the other free whenever Paul uses that he's
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talking about an absolute trans ition in status concerning the believer they are no longer what they once were they are now something else in Christ no longer
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under bondage now free now marriage then is the best example of how a living person can be freed from the law however it requires
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that someone that someone die that's his point in verses 2 and three the the wife is not not free to remarry unless her husband dies well we
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can pull that statement over into verse four and say the same is true for the sinner the same is true for the believer that their freedom from the law requires
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that someone must die it remains if you remain this is kind of the principle if you remain alive apart from Christ then you are
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bound to the law to sin and to death there's no breaking that bondage we were brought under bondage
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and if you know anything about slavery especially as it was here in the United States it was hereditary we were brought into bondage by Our Father Adam that's Romans 5 so we
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are born into bondage and there is no escape from from that bondage apart from our own death which will do us no good
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or the death of another and that's where Paul is driving as he is describing to this church that he has not yet met his
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gospel as a former Pharisee he's going to teach us how what it meant to be under bondage to the law but he's not going to teach us that oh God just took
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the law out of the way as far as we're concerned the law died no the law does not die we die to the law L later he'll say
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a similar way in Galatians the world doesn't die but I have been crucified to the world you see there's there's a perspective that Paul has by the
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inspiration of the spirit that is really very much a part of what he says in Romans 12 that we be transformed by the renewing of our mind to understand understand that our status as Believers
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doesn't mean the law goes away or sin goes away or the world goes away that's not what he's teaching what he's teaching is I'm dead to sin I'm crucified to the world I have died to
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the law though they still exist and have power they do not have power over the one who is in Christ and that's what he's talking about here he's not talking
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about what we do and do not do he's talking about powers powers to kill powers to condemn sin the law
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death and he's talking about how the victory of Christ's death and Resurrection has delivered all who are in Christ from those Powers so if you
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remain alive apart from Christ you're bound to the law you're bound to sin you are bound to death but if you are united with Christ in death then
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living you are free from the law free from sin and free from Death that is as Paul would say my gospel
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sin well it seems rather obvious that even though Paul is using the analogy of a physical marriage he's speaking of a non-physical reality as
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the the object to which this illustration sheds light the physical marriage law Bears witness to as he says in Romans 8 the law of the spirit of life in Christ
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Jesus he hasn't said much about the holy spirit yet but he introduces him here in verse six listen for while we were in the flesh now he's going to make a lot of
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comparisons going on through seven and 8 between the Flesh and the spirit he's transitioning he's taking taking us from the history that started with Adam and
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its impact upon the human race he's gone through the faith of Abraham and that Covenant he's bringing us through the entire Redemptive story and now he's
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going to talk about us in Christ flesh and spirit become the dichotomy that Paul is going to elaborate as he moves forward so for
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while we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the law he's going to pick that up a little bit later in the chapter we're at work in
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the members of our body to bear fruit to death but now we have been released from the law having died to that by which we were bound so that we serve how in the
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newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter later on he's going to say that to walk it by the flesh is death but to walk in the spirit is
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life okay so you you follow where he's going here he's transitioning his logic even though he doesn't always get his analogies tight his logic is
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tight and yet we have to follow it to understand and I think the the key again to understanding Paul's use of marriage is that phrase repeated in verse three
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and verse four you see in verse three if if the husband has died the wife is free from the law and she is not an adulterate
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though she be joined to another and then in verse four he says therefore my brethren you also were made to die to the law through the body of
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Christ that you might be joined to another now hopefully it's the same phrase in your English Bible in both verses because it is absolutely the same
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Greek word and when you see that I don't know if you if you mark your Bible some people don't um I do and I don't have a problem with that I think you should
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highlight those two because you're see you're following Paul there Paul's helping us by using the same phrase joined to another so the believer having
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died with Christ is forever free of the former Union to sin and to the law that's what it meant to be freed in Christ Adolf Schlatter says from the
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marriage law Paul only extrapolates the principle that for him was of Paramount significance and was linked closely with his interpretation of the cross of Jesus
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namely that death alone effectively and ultimately cancels the bond decreed by the law someone has to die if you die
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and the rabbis taught this you're freed from the law what you weren't free from was judgment the writer of Hebrews says the same thing it is appointed unto man once to die and then comes the Judgment
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so your death outside of Christ May free you from any further sins does and the law certainly has no jurisdiction over a
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corpse but your sins go before you and there is yet the Judgment so your death doesn't cut it because as Paul says in
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the last verse of chapter 6 you're just getting paid your due for the wages of sin is death so you're getting paid off
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but you're not getting anything more than that but if someone else dies someone who himself was sinless and someone also who happened to be the Son of God then that
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death redeems all for whom he died and that's the status that's the transition that Paul is getting here that anyone who has died with Christ back in Romans
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6 is forever free of the the bondage of sin and the bondage of law we are not free from the presence of sin or of law
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sin has not died the law has not died this is what we have to get our mind around as it's being metamorphosized being transformed and renewed is that yes sin
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still lives Paul's going to get into that later in chapter 7 it still lives within our members it certainly still lives within our world world and yet the
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truth in Christ is we have died to sin we have died to the law we we kind of understand though we may not understand
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we accept that we're all still probably going to die right we hope the Lord's return is before that but given the path of
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History there's a pretty good chance that that all of us will go the way of our fathers but we understand that that that's not the end that though we die yet we shall live well you know what
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though we sin yet we are not bound by sin though the law still lives and is holy and righteous and good we are not
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under bondage to the law these three principles of sin the law and death are at the heart of Paul's teaching Paul's gospel what Jesus Christ has done for us
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on each of those points is the focus of Romans and Galatians and 1 Corinthians 15 and so many other passages because I think it's the heart of his message that Christ having been
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born under the law lived a sinless life and died of Icarus death law sin
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death Jesus that's how we should think about what Christ has done that's how how Paul thought about how Christ was what he did and so therefore dying in Christ were
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free from sin from the law and from death but not as it were to continue in wanting single
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wanting single widowhood Paul is talking about being joined to another not just living a free wild and crazy life on your own again schlauer says because he died bodily on
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behalf of human beings the those for whom he died are freed from the law but not in order not to belong to anyone and
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to be lost in tyrannical lawlessness but rather to belong to the one who was raised from the dead I think it's it's important that
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Paul doesn't say we died to the law he says in verse four we were made to die in other words God God had an arranged marriage
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intended for every believer but first he needed to anol the marriage into which they were born that
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born that marriage was sin the law and death and he made us to die to that but for a
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reason not that we would go on living in lawlessness and saying there's no condemnation there's no problem I walked the aisle you know I raised my hand I signed the card but I can live like I
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want no he terminated one relationship to initiate another he broke the bond that joined you to sin and death that
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you might be joined to the one whom he raised from the dead and his analogy again of marriage is so perfect because while we say at
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the alar when we are being married till death do us part we know as we're maybe we don't think of this but we do know that death will do us
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part but now we're joined to the one who has been raised from the dead what does that mean it means our husband cannot
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die which means our marriage cannot be en olded that that's his point here we have been freed from that which would bring us to death Eternal death but he
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has joined us to one who now can never die and therefore that relationship that Union that bond that marriage represents cannot be en olded it cannot
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be broken it is forever that that's his point here and I think that's why there's a des disconnect between the analogy in
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verses 2 and three and the point that it illustrates in verse 4 and it's it's quite amazing and important because what he's talking about vers 2 and three is just everybody's
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just everybody's experience in any married couple the chances are that one will predes the other leaving the other free to join themsel to another without any worry
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that the law will condemn them as an adulteress or an adulterer but he is saying that Christ to whom the Believers are now joined
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it goes beyond being just delivered from the law or delivered from sin it's not merely a second marriage for the Widow it is a union that death can no longer
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part Believers died with Christ because they were incorporated into his death yet this is not the end of the story they were also Incorporated with him in
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his resurrection and thus death is not the final word now he's already said that in concern with death sin in chapter six in baptism we are buried we
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are united with Jesus in his death and we rise to walk in newness of life so with respect to sin which still exists and it still retains power and
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seductive influence Paul says no renew your minds no longer present yourself as instruments of unrighteousness to sin
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now let's look at the law because it still exists and it is still holy and righteous and good to the point that many Christians want again bring themselves under it and they want to
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obey its statutes and observed its dietary restrictions and honor its feasts and Paul says no he says to the
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Galatians if you do that you have fallen from Grace we might look at it this way if you do that you have gone back into the Shadows you you're now living again in darkness you have tied yourself to that
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which will bring about your death because again as James says he who would keep the whole law but breaks even one commandment is guilty of the whole so
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Paul says no yeah these things are still there we're not born again into sinless Perfection we we're not born again into such a situation that law is is no
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longer important to us because we do everything right everything right anyhow we are born again in Christ into a deliverance from that
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which still exists and I believe and and this is my conjecture that our time in this body is much like the Wilderness journey of of the Israelites it was a
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punishment and ours is not a punishment but it was a punishment for their rebellion and their unwillingness to trust God and go into the land but it was also a punishment that providentially was intended in order for
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this this generation to grow up under Yahweh with his presence and his statutes there to train them not only in monotheism but also in war so that they
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might be ready to take the land when the time came well we're not just going to go to heaven the way we are we are being Sanctified we are being our minds are
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being transformed and they are being done it like in a gym you know you don't go into a gym and there are no weights there are no treadmills you just stand there and get healthy and
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fit that would be nice yes but you know we Christians think that that's how it should be I'm a Believer now I'll just stand here and get holy no there are
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weights there are treadmills there are hikes there are swims you know there are there there's exercise of our faith there is the purifying our faith which
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the word says is more precious than gold though though purified in fire seven times there is a purpose for us to still be in this realm of sin and law and
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death but it's not our Master we are free from those things and I think that is the absolute fundamental point that
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Paul means when he gets to Romans 12 and he says therefore be transformed be metamorphosized by the renewing of your mind think about these things even When
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sin the law and death are ever present around you in Christ you are free from all of them this is our status for now
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we remain alive in our flesh yet in Christ we are dead to sin and to the law we are dead in Christ but Paul says we are also risen in him and we are now
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joined to one who cannot die which means that Union is imperishable but we have been given the means by which to now walk in this flesh
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According To Jesus Christ Paul says in Romans 8:1 but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you
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he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead you ever wonder why he says that twice in the same sentence this is our power this is the power of God within us
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to live according to our new status as free from sin free from law free from Death he who raised Christ Jesus from
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the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit which indwells you let us
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pray father we we simply praise you for for this marvelous salvation you have left nothing undone you have addressed every issue and every enemy that stood against
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us you have condemned sin in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and you have caused us to die with him and also to be raised with him
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that we might walk in newness of Life by your spirit and so father we do pray that though we struggle with sin though we do not always understand our relation
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to the law and though we die yet we would live as those who are free from sin no longer under bondage to
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the law crucified to the world and though we die yet we shall live teach us how to walk by the spirit
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teach us how to bring ourselves under the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus for it is in his name we pray
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amen please rise for the benediction from the letter of Jude now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with
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great joy to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ Our Lord be glory Majesty dominion and Authority before all time and now and