Sovereign Redemption Applied

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well I want to encourage you to open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. We’re going to be exclusively there this evening. No cross references, nothing. I love Ephesians chapter 2. I was talking with Mr. Higgins about it this morning. Sorry I’m around students a lot. Reverend Sean. And he was saying, but doesn’t Ephesians 2 like preach itself? Well, when I used to teach a Bible class, I would have my sophomore Bible students, it was a systematic theology class, we would memorize Ephesians 2 because just on its face, just by simply reading the words, there are few chapters in Scripture that will lay you flat and will divest men of any sort of pride, any sort of temptation to rob God of His glory in terms of their own salvation, as will Ephesians 2.

these words are potent. And as we have opportunity on these Sunday evenings to be looking at a handful of epistles, we are now in the second installment in Ephesians. So we are hence in Ephesians chapter two. And the whole of the chapter is my aim for tonight. You might recall when we finished chapter chapter one some time ago that Paul wrapped up chapter one with a pretty lofty prayer. Verses 15 through 23 show us that and he’s kind of already in motion. There’s no chapter breaks in the original text of course and so the transition from the end of chapter one to the start of chapter two is rather smooth if we would read it that way.

So when chapter two begins, he’s, like I said, already going, and is talking about the work of Christ and its implications for us. You may recall as well, if you look back at it, that Paul’s prayer was that the work that God the Father had done in Christ for our redemption would be enacted in those believers themselves. And that’s pretty crazy when you think about all of the work, the degree of work, not necessarily that God was tired, but the magnitude of the work that the Father did in redemption, and then for that work to be done in the believers too would be profound. But here the focus of his prayer, especially in the first part, is regeneration.

And regeneration is the bringing to life, granting of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. As I mentioned, this is one of the clearest passages then in all of scripture regarding this, the means and then the implications of salvation. Namely, who does the work of salvation and what happens when he does? You might also recall that as with a number of other Pauline letters, this is divided rather neatly into two major sections. This book is, chapters one through three are mostly doctrinal, theological, and then chapters four through six are application oriented. And that clear divide happens in a number of other Pauline epistles too.

And so chapters one, two, three, chapter two is firmly right in the middle of that doctrinal section. Nevertheless, I’ve entitled this evening’s message, Sovereign Redemption Applied. Not necessarily looking at theology applied, but the application of redemption to sinners and to nations. The chapter itself is divided pretty neatly as well into two longish paragraphs. We find them in verses one through 10 and then in verses 11 through 22. And so those fit neatly with our main headings for tonight. So for chapter two verses one through 10, I want to look at redemption as applied to sinners, or what I’m calling micro-redemption.

And then in verses 11 through 22, we see redemption applied to the nations, or what I’m calling macro-redemption. Micro-redemption, macro-redemption. If you’re looking for two big headings, those will be it. And there’s also going to be parallel outlines within each of those two big headings too. And we’ll get to those in just a moment. So to begin, I’m going to go ahead and read Ephesians two verses one through 10. And then we will examine micro redemption. So let’s look at Ephesians two one through 10. I’ve got the ESV before me here. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So in this paragraph, I want us to consider the objects of redemption, the fact of redemption, and then the purpose of redemption, and we’ll look at those in turn. And in order to do so, I will be reading more from the text itself. So let’s look again at verses one through three. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

Now obviously when you’re trying to take a look at an entire chapter in one talk, you aren’t afforded the opportunity to zero in or drill down too deeply at individual words. We’re looking at chunks of the text itself. And so we just have to sort of take that bird’s eye view in order to get the look at the whole chapter. Paul is writing his letter to Christians. That’s important. That’s important to know. They are themselves among the redeemed. And for sake of their own faith and for Christ’s glory, he wants to remind them of their situation prior to their salvation. So he wants to remind them of what they were redeemed out of, what they used to be, like.

And stated very plainly, they were absolutely dead to spiritual things. Being dead in their sins, being dead in the trespasses and sins in which they once walked. Now I’m not really sure that Paul could have used clearer or stronger language to express that they had absolutely no hand whatsoever in their salvation.

But, many evangelicals today suppose that Paul is overstating his case just a little bit here. The trendy notion among many Christians today is that salvation is cooperative. That God does his 99%, maybe even more. We definitely need grace. Men can’t save themselves. God does all his work, but he can’t do everything. And to do so would actually make him just a slave driver or would reduce us to robots or automatons. So we have to do that infinitesimally small percentage of receiving the work that Christ has done for us, of receiving that gift. God does his part, we do the rest and simply showing up and receiving.

Well, as it turns out, there’s a difference between sickness and death. A man who’s sick actually might be able to do that, but a man who is dead cannot. Many of you know, are familiar with Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I read it again this last Christmas season. I’ve read it a bunch of times. I read it every couple of years anyway. And it is very funny that, well, it’s not a very funny start to the story, but if you’re watching people reading it in the movie, in the movie, they never read the first couple of sentences. The first couple of sentences establish one very clear fact, namely that Scrooge’s business partner, Marley, was dead.

He wasn’t sick because a sick man in the county house is quite different from a dead man. And he says, there’s no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story that I’m going to relate. It’s almost like you can hear Paul here saying, guys, you have to understand this. You were dead dead. And if we can’t establish that you were spiritually dead, then nothing wonderful can come of the story that I’m about to relate. You were dead and God gave you life. It wasn’t a matter of healing spiritually sick people.

It was a matter of bringing to spiritual life those who once were dead in their trespasses and sins. So, if we fail to recognize that as natural men, we were dead, we fail to marvel rightly at what God has accomplished in giving us spiritual life, and we ultimately fail to honor Him as we ought, if man can share any of God’s credit for salvation, then basically our salvation is not such a big deal. If it’s a cooperative effort, then we also deserve a clap on the back. Men have then reason to boast. So we, the redeemed, like those Gentiles at Ephesus who embraced Christ, we like them, were once spiritually dead, haters of God, followers of the devil, and those outside of Christ are not only disinterested in righteousness, they’re actually under the influence of the devil.

That also seems like strong language, but it’s not mine. They followed the prince of the power of the heir. And really other than that, we had everything going for us. So spiritually dead, followers of the devil, and we’re rescued. Lest there be then any confusion, Paul’s indictment of mankind extends beyond those Gentiles of Asia Minor to include all of humanity among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. So we, Christians in 21st century America, are absolutely included in that indictment apart from redemption. We look second at the fact of redemption, we find this in verses 4-6. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

This is the statement then of what God has done for individual sinners. We can see a lot here about the character of God. These verses are instructive about the nature of God. I’m not going down that path too much, but we can see that God is in fact rich in mercy. We see as well that He loves us even when we sin, which is important later on when we we find out the purpose, the purpose is great and cannot be separated from his love for us even if it is to showcase his own attributes. We see as well that God is no tightwad when it comes to the blessing of his people. He pours out on his people lavish blessings that surpass description in the New Testament.

So while dead in our trespasses, God gave his sheep new life And these are all ways of saying the very same thing. Verse six, again, don’t want to drill down too much tonight, but it’s a little bit tricky, but we, and we won’t take too much time to go into it, but it does have to do with our positional situation in Christ. It’s been said before that the whole of the Christian life is about becoming what you already are. Positionally, we are already sanctified. We are identified with Him, we are set apart, and then that’s already happened spiritually, Practically, as the Christian life goes on, and as we worship and God uses our worship and other Christians influence and his word to conform us more to his son’s image, we become more practically sanctified.

So over time we become practically more like Christ, while positionally we’re already, we’ve already received his righteousness, and so positionally we’re already sanctified. Positionally, we’re already in the heavenlies with Christ. It’s a done deal. And what Christ has done, what God has done for Christ, He’s also done for sinners as well. So we’ll leave it at that for now, but speaking plainly, verses four through six tell us that God saved wicked sinners. He gave them spiritual life. And in the verses that follow, we find out the why and the purpose of redemption. Look first at verse seven. This is the purpose of redemption.

It’s verses seven through 10. I wanna look first at verse seven. So that, I think it’s a great so that. There’s a great sermon by Martin Lloyd Jones on, but God, and that’s, we actually just read that and I skated right over it. If he can go off for a while on but God, I can go off on a while so that. Because in this study, these two words jumped off the page to me, because they tell you purpose. There’s a reason for what’s come before this. So that, in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God saved us to show off the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

That’s a comprehensive statement. And what that means is what God purposed in our salvation is summed up in that. He desired to show off for the cosmos and for the spiritual powers, his gracious nature. Now, that is true. That does not mean that’s everything that is shown off, but it is true that that is why we are saved, is to show off his gracious nature. It does not explain, for instance, what attributes of God’s nature are showcased in the condemnation of the wicked, or the damnation of the wicked, for instance. Nevertheless, it does talk about the purpose behind salvation, which is Paul’s aim in these verses.

Paul wanted his readers to do their best to try to wrap their minds, to fathom, to wrap their minds around what God had done on their behalf. And he’s gone to great length to showcase his grace to us in Christ. Salvation, as you’ve already established, is monergistic. There’s one worker, there’s one agent, and that is God. He initiates, He gives us the ability and the interest to respond. Unless and until He works, we have no interest in spiritual things at all. And then He enables us and gives us His Spirit to live differently in the world, showcasing the work that God has done in us. And we see in verses 8 through 9 how that plays out.

Verses 8, actually, let’s go all the way through verse 10. For by grace you have been saved, this is verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them.” So again, this represents then what God has done in order to show off the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He has saved us by grace through faith. He’s prepared good works for us to walk in and given us the energy and the desire to go ahead and do that.

why Christians look different in their conduct in the world. And it is all to show off the immeasurable riches of His grace. I’ve been thinking about the confession meditation for this morning. The way that Christians conduct themselves as free from the confines of sin, from the trappings of sin and all that they look like, that just the freedom that Christians enjoy and practice should make the world jealous. Should cause them to look and say, I don’t understand how that person can be so free but I want that. And it’s not about a shiny car, it’s not about a big house, it’s about a freedom that cannot be purchased because it’s already been bought. It’s It’s about a freedom that is characterized in joy, and it’s on the long list of things that God has prepared beforehand for us to simply walk in.

God gives us saving faith. It’s not a reward, it is a gift. And in his sovereign grace, God has actually prepared beforehand the good works in which we are unable to walk. But remember again, the stated purpose of verse seven, to show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God saves us for Himself and for the expression of His glorious grace. Now there will no doubt be some who think that this colors God as egomaniacal or that it cheapens the value of man. It’s popular even in our culture to tell people, man God is so crazy about you. He loves you like crazy. So much that He gave Jesus because He wanted to have a relationship with you.

I’m not going to talk. It is true, according to verse 4, that God loves us. Absolutely. But it is orienting in a different way to realize that God has saved us to showcase His graces, to showcase His gracious character. The greatest expression of God’s love for us was the bringing about of our salvation, and all that that entails, Christ’s work on the cross for our redemption, is an expression of His grace. Further then, we are instruments of God’s grace to be showcased to the cosmos, to all creation. And we can only say that that diminishes the value of salvation. We can only say that that cheapens the view of man, that we’re just tools in God’s cosmic game.

We can only say that if we actually believe that the showcasing of God’s grace is no big deal. But if we believe that God is God, if we believe that He is sovereign, if we believe that He is supreme, ultimate, and preeminent, then all of the aspects of His character, all attributes of who He is need to be expressed. And we play a very, very valuable role in the expression of His grace. God is great and His glory must be expressed. Our glory is not as great as we think and we would do well to gain a little bit of humility. But the God of Scripture saved the Ephesians sinners all by Himself. He didn’t need any help.

He didn’t need their help, certainly. And He gave them, and He gives us, love and grace instead of what we deserve. Now I want to take the helicopter up 30,000 feet and look at not just individual sinners, but the Jews and the Gentiles. So we’ll look at redemption applied to the nations or macro-redemption. I’m thinking about coining that. I want to get a quarter every time somebody says it. Macro redemption. All right, let’s look at the longest paragraph. Ephesians chapter two verses 11 to 22, I’ll read the whole thing. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in flesh, in the flesh by hands.

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Now in this paragraph as well, I want us to consider the same three headings, the objects of redemption, we’re gonna find that in verse 11 and 12, the fact of redemption, verse 13 through the first half of verse 15, and the purpose of redemption, that’s the second half verse 15 through the end of the chapter.

And I think it’s pretty easy to overanalyze this paragraph and to get too far down in the weeds, supposing that it’s some sort of eschatological silver bullet for covenantalists or dispensationalists in their theological gunfights or sparring matches. Well, I think that misses the point that Paul’s making. In fact, I think a child can understand what Paul’s getting at. In Christ, salvation has been extended to the nations. The people of God comprise Jews and Gentiles alike. Where Gentiles were once strangers, they’re now brothers. Where Israel was once a solitary voice to the nation, she is now joined by millions of adopted brothers.

And Christ is a cornerstone of this building, this one new building, that’s it. And the people of God now include Jews and Gentiles, which has been God’s plan all along. And it is for God’s good and for our glory. And we’re gonna watch Paul unpack this briefly. This is pretty, The more time I spent in the paragraph, it seemed like the simpler and simpler and simpler the message got. And hopefully it is clear as we look at it this evening. First look again at verses 11 and 12. Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the circumcision, but it is what is called the uncircumcision which is made in the flesh by human hands.

Remember you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Yeah, it’s no secret that apart from Christ, the Gentiles were separated from Christ, alienated from the common mult of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. They had no hope for salvation and they hated God. The heart of man is an idol factory. Gentiles had very, very firmly established polytheistic religious practices, no matter in all the different cultures, across all of antiquity, and then there’s this little tiny pocket in antiquity called Israel.

And they had no hope for salvation. Their laws reflected that, their worshipers reflected that. For at best, they were just trying to pacify their gods. And salvation has come now to the Gentiles through the Jews. Now, we have to acknowledge that Gentiles, and I think even in some of our circles people can miss this, Gentiles have always been a part of God’s plan. The scripture is emphatically clear about that. He has always intended to save the Gentiles. His salvation has always been aimed at the nations. In fact, Israel was supposed to be a mouthpiece to the nations and they failed miserably. But we’ll get more to that in chapter 3.

I don’t want to steal too much of my own thunder when we get to that and the genius of God on display in the church. But it is clearly too small a thing for God to simply redeem the lost house of Israel. We know that. He wants for His salvation to extend to the nations. And we see some interesting Gentile characters in the Old Testament too from Melchizedek to Rahab, to those Ninevites that Jonah did not want to preach to because he knew, he just knew, he knew that God was going to be merciful to them and he didn’t want that. So those Ninevites were, they were Gentiles. And he continues to have, I’m sorry, we see that throughout the Old Testament and he continues to have obviously mercy on the Gentiles today, but it’s no piece of news that the Gentiles could be saved. And now Now after the cross and with the arrival of the church age, the plan of God to extend salvation to the nations has really taken off.

I mean, that’s a good thing. Paul is himself an apostle to the Gentiles and though he continues to have particular affection for his Jewish brothers. We know that from Acts, we know that from Romans. And of course Paul’s Ephesian readers were Gentiles living in Asia Minor. I showed you a cool map last time, like what modern day Turkey is and where Ephesus is and all the rest. And they were now gloriously numbered among the redeemed, right there with redeemed Jews to whom salvation had come first.” So we’re looking here at the objects of redemption were Gentile sinners nationally, not just Jews to whom salvation came first.

Look at me at verses 13 through the first half of verse 15 at the fact of redemption. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our Peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances This whole paragraph is seasoned with the gospel spices of peace and reconciliation I just love it. In Christ we are reconciled to God and He has destroyed the hostility that once existed between Jews and Gentiles. Now where men reject Christ today, this dividing wall of hostility still remains.

Very starkly you see it in Palestine today. But by the blood of Christ, Paul’s Ephesian readers, just like us, have been brought near. But this is different from the grafting into Christ that Paul speaks of elsewhere. This is more than simply the Gentiles being brought into the same spiritual building as the Jews. This is a new structure, an entirely new structure. We’ll see now that in the following verses, we’ll see that now in the following verses, the purpose of redemption, the first second half of verse 15 through verse 22. I’ll start with the first three verses. That he might create in himself one new man, in place of the two, so making peace, and he might reconcile us both to God in one body, through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and he preached peace to you, who were far off, and peace to those who were near. God has done this to create one people of God, comprising Jews and Gentiles. There’s no room for hostility in that same body even now. And now in Christ, there is one figurative body in place of the two Jewish and Gentile bodies.

So if the Jewish and Gentile damned and the Jewish and Gentile redeemed alike or on the same footing, and especially when Paul wants for his readers to consider that they were spiritually dead and were made alive and the way that they’re saved is exactly the same way as the Jews were saved. Two dead people who were brought to life really ought not to have reason to be fighting. But the cross is an instrument of reconciliation. Jewish and Gentile Christians both come near to God only by their having been redeemed. At the cross, Christ bought us and paid for our sins, and that is the same for all believers alike. Verse 18 says, for through him, We both have access in one spirit to the Father.

I’m fond of remarking, especially my kids are around, that because one spirit indwells us all, you get a group of people like this, and people who otherwise don’t have anything in common, can be closer knit than biological family in many cases, because one spirit indwells us all, and the spirit will never be at odds with himself. If one spirit brings near Jews and Gentiles alike, then there is reason for harmony and unity among them. When believers are united to God and empowered by the same spirit, then there will necessarily be no division among them. Now, it also has to be noted that this new building that Paul is speaking of is not just a remodeled job on the old one.

Verse 19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built, not remodeled, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, and whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. And him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. This is a new structure. This is a new foundation, a new, and a common cornerstone. Of course that cornerstone is Christ. Cornerstone is laid in such a way as to lend strength to the two walls that are connected.

The cornerstone is Christ and the two connected walls are the Jews and the Gentiles. And it’s an illustration. It does break down eventually, but it’s a pretty good illustration. There’s probably more than two walls in this temple, right? So if you got the Jews into everybody else’s walls, then what other walls are there? But it’s inspired. I didn’t come up with it. But there’s still walls. It’s not as though the Jew wall was ground down into dust and then rebuilt with some Gentile pieces mixed in with it. They remain distinct parts of the same structure, but it’s one structure.

And the deeper we drill, the really, the illustration does make sense. The macro effect then is that the nation of Israel and the Gentiles are brought together in Christ and they enjoy blessings that they never could have known before. And if they do retain some semblance of their same identity then it does follow necessarily and the rest of Scripture would support this too, that creating one new body does not mean that he’s forgotten or changed his mind about the distinct promises he’s made to the Jews in the New Covenant, which is in the Old Testament. He has created one new body without destroying either of the old ones.

It is one new united structure with walls that retain their uniqueness. But like the adoptive children that we are, our identity is determined not by how we were born but rather by who owns us, whose sons we are. the Ephesian Christians Paul was addressing, we belong to God because of the redemptive work of Christ. So I think if we’re like the Ephesian readers, we would do well to remember these things and look to apply them. And thoughts have consequences. And theology has implications. There’s no doubt that Paul was trying to shepherd these Ephesian believers from afar. He was pretty invested in that church personally.

He had spent a good deal of time there. And they, notwithstanding, they’re still first generation believers and have a lot to learn. So he probably wanted for, there’s a good reason why a lot of his letters are so instructive in terms of just information and then following up with application. Sure, he wanted them, he wanted to teach them theologically. And it still seems though, as though these thoughts are intended to have consequences and application. They are to be orienting thoughts. So how is it orienting? I’ll finish by considering briefly just three ways that an examination of the principles of redemption here can be orienting. First, the doctrine of redemption humbles us.

Lest we be inclined to believe that we have done anything meriting salvation, Paul lays us in the dust with the teaching that we are spiritually dead apart from Christ and we are completely incapable of any righteousness. We owe our salvation wholly to God. And I would add, it’s still under the same heading, that should make us grateful. Because truly humble people are going to be grateful, and grateful people are gonna be humbled. When we examine God, when we understand, we can fully fathom what we’ve been saved from, then that should result in our deep humility and gratefulness. The doctrine of redemption energizes our evangelism.

There’s a purpose to everything that God does, and if God saves us, if God saves at all, when he does, then our job is to be faithful and to get the gospel out there. The outcome is His, and He has even laid out the good works for His sheep to walk in. The doctrine of redemption also helps us to understand God’s purpose. As we’ve already established, there is a purpose to everything that God does. and our redemption is no exception. God has a purpose to showcase His glory in our salvation. So may that be orienting for us as well, as we go about our humdrum little lives. May we recognize that understanding our being made in God’s image and our understanding that God is using us to showcase the immesible riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus is significant, and so we are important, but we serve a big, sovereign, and good God.

So let us be humble, thankful, energized of angelism, and understanding of God’s purposes. Let’s pray. Father, please increase our appetite for your word, that we may know it, and not just to know it, but then to love it. May we teach that to our little ones as well, not just knowing what we’re supposed to do, but loving what you have said. That is a different thing altogether. Far too often we know the right thing to do, but we are not faithful to do it. We pray that that would change. And like Paul’s readers, may we be oriented in our minds by the understanding that we were dead and you rescued us from that.

We pray that we would be patient with one another as there is a common spirit in dwelling assault, we’d be sensitive to His promptings, and if we do, then we’re going to lead peaceful and quiet lives. But the world does not understand it, does not understand the peacefulness and the freedom that we enjoy. And so we pray that rather than being hostile, they would be inclined to want it as well. Use us for your purposes, and we pray this in Christ’s name, amen.