God's Good Purposes

I don't know why it just hit me again as you mentioned we're ending Genesis. The sadness hit me again that we're having to say goodbye to two dear friends here for the second time having to say goodbye. Let me see if I can squeeze some more sermons out of Genesis later though. How do you preach the gospel to yourself? How do you preach the gospel to yourself? I've talked about this a lot, and I fear it's probably still somewhat confusing, still somewhat of an abstract idea. Even though we've talked about it quite a bit, it's a grand ideal. It sounds right, but how do we really do this? How do we let the gospel define who we are, what we believe, how we desire, what we think, who we are? How do we do it? Really, if we think about it, Preaching the gospel to yourself is just a new hip way of saying, be renewed in your mind. Paul talked about it in Ephesians 4 and Romans 12. Really what that phrase is, it tells you the exact instrument by which you renew your mind. See, we can train our mind with lots of things. We can train our mind with evil thoughts. We can train our mind to be more perverse and more deadly. We can train our mind with happy thoughts. We can think about unicorns and rainbows and pretend this world really isn't as bad as it really is. We can train our mind with a law. And that will only end with self-righteousness or despair. And only one thing truly renews our minds. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only one thing truly lets us think God's thoughts after Him properly and correctly. It's the Gospel that declares we're sinners and God loves us anyway and He died for us and He rose again and gives us hope. Only one thing renews our minds. We're supposed to have our minds renewed by the Gospel so we think God's thoughts after Him. We're supposed to be thinking God's thoughts after Him, so that those thoughts then change our desires, and then we begin to desire like God. Our desires are changed, and we love Him more than the things of this world. For by doing this, we'll only be taken away by our sin and our self-righteousness. This morning, we're going to see a hard test case. A hard, concrete example, I believe, of how one counsels themselves with the gospel. Our sermon really has two parts. God's promise should give us confidence and his power should give us courage. God's promise should give us confidence and God's power should give us courage. Our primary text this morning is Genesis 50, verses 15 and 21. But as I have promised for many weeks now, I'm going to begin with Genesis 49, 22 through 26. I try to always give some kind of a historical background to our Genesis sermons because each little part is based upon what's happened previously. And I think Genesis 49, verses 22 through 26 give us a good background to understand the importance of Genesis 50 15 through 21. And a summary of Genesis 49, 22 through 26 is that God keeps who he is called. Here, the context is Jacob is called all the brothers together and he's going to bless them. He starts with Reuben and then Simeon and Levi and then he gets to Judah and Judah is going to be the tribe through whom the lion will come, the king will come. And Judah gets the second most attention. The more words each brother gets, the more important they are. Joseph gets the most attention. Verse 22, Joseph is a fruitful bough. A fruitful bough by a spring, his branches run over the wall. The arsons bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely. Yet his foe remained unmoved. His arms were made agile. By the hands of the mighty one of Jacob, from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. By the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breast and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents. up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers." Now, here we see, in verse 22, three descriptions of Joseph. He's likened not to a donkey or a lion or a snake. He's likened to really a vine or one of the heavier branches of the tree. Here, believe it's a vine and it's a fruitful vine. It's a fruitful vine by a spring. Its branches overrun the wall. There's three sentences here that parallel one another to emphasize how fruitful and mighty and strong this vine is. Verse 23 contrasts this. This mighty vine is an attack. Three lines together emphasize the attacks. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely. How about the archers and the attackers? They're his own brothers. They're the ones that sold him into slavery. They're the ones that harassed him and fought against him, denying his proper place of rule. Yet he remained unmoved. He remained unmoved, verse 24 says. Why or how did he remain unmoved? By the hands of the Mighty One This is what he did to the right wing, the mighty right hand of God kept him, the mighty right hand of God kept him unmoved. We see a further description of this God, the God who is the shepherd of Israel, or the shepherd and the stone of Israel. There's two images here. Shepherd, obviously, these are all shepherds. They know that God protects and leads his people. But the stone is an unusual one because this isn't referring to God the rock, the mighty boulder that we think of. No, it's a different word that most likely refers to stones. I believe the best interpretation of this may be the stone pillars that Jacob has been setting up over time. Every time God reveals himself, Jacob builds an Ebenezer, a reminder, a pillar out of stone to remind himself who God is, how great he is. A reminder of God's faithfulness. The God who has kept Joseph is a God who is a shepherd, who protects and leads his people, and a God who has been faithful. His blessing has been great. Now, one of the great applications here is We want to be unmoved by the gospel. We don't want to be tossed and turned by every different doctrine that comes from the world. We want to be steadfast, kept by God and sustained by Him. To have the courage to face every enemy. One way to be unmoved is to have absolute assurance that God has called you and is keeping you. Now, many people will say, if you want assurance of the gospel, you want assurance of your salvation, you need to look inside of you. You look inside of your heart and see what God is doing there. I think that's dangerous. You should look inside of you. You should do self-examination. But don't just look inside. Look up. Look up to God. Look up to see what He's been doing. Look up to hear what He says. Your salvation doesn't start here. Your salvation starts with what God has said, what God has done. Your heart is full of lies. And while the Spirit is there testifying, if you are a Christian, you need to look up to see His grace and His love. Let's look to Genesis 50, verses 15 through 21. Our background was simply here. Joseph has been kept by God. He has been attacked. And now we're going to see how he keeps these two ideas in mind. Evil has been all around him and God has continually been good to him. Let's look at verses 15 through 21. Let me read those in their entirety. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father gave his command before he died. Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear. For am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones.' Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them." Now this is the end of Jacob's funeral. The brothers don't take long. They're quite the plotters. They look around and realize it's just us. It's us, the brothers who sold the most powerful man in all of Egypt, other than Pharaoh himself. It's us and just him. And Jacob has been protecting us all this time. Maybe it's out of Jacob's kindness and his care that he hasn't shown his vengeance. And so they plot. They come up with another lie. Their guilt overwhelms them. But we don't know what life was like for these last few years in Egypt. Joseph, his brothers, and his father. How often do they talk about what happened? Do they ever apologize for what really happened? Do they ever apologize and say, we are sorry for throwing you in a pit, ripping your coat off, and wanting to murder you, but instead, you're welcome for selling you to slavery? How often were they overwhelmed with guilt when they saw Joseph, or a fancy coat, or a pit? So they did admit their guilt once before. You can go back to Genesis 42 verse 21 and 23. They admitted their guilt when they didn't know it was Joseph. When they came to Egypt, they were being treated harshly. They admitted guilt. They just didn't know that it was Joseph standing there because he was clean shaven and had grown over the years. We can look at Genesis 45 for a little bit more of the history when he finally reveals himself. In verses 4 and 5, he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. Joseph already has a divine perspective. Joseph already thinks God's thoughts after him. Joseph already counseled himself with the good truth of God to not have vengeance. but to show mercy. He's already told them, all right, you are the ones who committed evil against me, but do not be distressed. See, the brothers, they may have heard those words, but they didn't sink in. As that chapter ends, Genesis 45, the reunion. Remember, Joseph weeps with his brothers. And Moses contrasts that weeping with the brothers of Joseph to the brothers they taught. Now, granted, the brothers are in shock. The brothers are in absolute shock, but we don't see a proper reconciliation. And I think we see here in Genesis 50 the fruit of guilt. Their past sin has crept in and it has created guilt. Even though Joseph has given the declaration of freedom, it has not become their personal truth. Calvin diagnosed their condition well. He says this of the brothers, an evil conscience is its own tormentor. Our guilt for our own sin is its own tormentor. An evil conscience is its own tormentor, Mentor Calvin says. He says this happens so that they will be humbled by their sense of guilt and they will be overwhelmed by how much worse the great tribunal of God will be when they are faced with Him, the Holy God, in their guilt. They lack any confidence because they have not believed the word of Joseph. They have not believed Joseph or God. We see here the dangerous consequences of sin. Sin keeps us from peace. Sin causes mental and spiritual distance. It keeps us from our loved ones. It keeps us from the life that God has called us to. These brothers are carrying around guilty consciences and they're going to destroy the family if they do not find peace. They heard that word of forgiveness, but they let it fall like onto a seed on the rocky ground or a seed that is choked out by weeds. One application when you look at this is that Do we hear God's truth and not let it sink deep into our hearts? Do we let God's word of declaration, His declaration of forgiveness, do we let it fall into rocky ground? Do we let it get choked up by weeds? Another way of analyzing this, Christian, what defines you more? Guilt or freedom? If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, You should be defined by the freedom you have in Christ. But are you overwhelmed with guilt? Are you so overwhelmed with the shame of your sin that you do not boast in the gospel? We should feel shame because of our sin. That's a proper working out as the Spirit convicts us of our sin. It's shame. But the shame should have taken us to more guilt and more burden. The shame should take us to the cross where we hear forgiveness. and freedom. When we harbor sin and its guilt, we create a feeling of distance from God and from others. Here's some key questions to consider as we think about, are we more overwhelmed with guilt or with the forgiveness of Christ? The first relates to how we pray. Do we pray boldly to God as our welcoming father? Do we pray boldly to God as our welcoming Father, or do we pray believing He's out there, but He's distant? He's a God we don't talk to personally, as the One who has forgiven us of our sins and invited us into His holy presence. Are your prayers more like approaching Sinai, which is scary, or approaching Zion, which is a celebration? As Christians, we are no longer to fear God's wrath. We are to fear sin and its consequences. We are to go to God in awe, but knowing that Christ is taking us up to His ear with love. Second question. Are you keeping yourself from real conversations about sin in the gospel? Are you keeping yourself from real conversations about sin in the gospel? This is what happens when we don't look at our sin in light of the gospel. We become afraid of it. We become ashamed of it. The gospel should give us courage to talk about sin because the gospel forgives us of sin. When we don't look at our sin in light of the gospel, we become overwhelmed by it and think, well, the only way is like this. No, we're all sinners. We should not be afraid to talk about our sin because we should realize we're all sinners who are in need of Christ. And He has provided a great forgiveness for us all. If we are truly living in light of the gospel, the declaration of God's forgiveness, we are not going to be afraid of having real conversations about our sin in the gospel. Third, are you carrying around guilt that God has forgiven? Is there something that makes you think, I am not worthy to take communion? I know Jesus loves me. I believe in the cross. I believe in the resurrection. But I'm still just not worthy because of that thing that I did. You're thinking your sin is more powerful than the gospel of Christ. Christ died for all of our sin. There is nothing outside of His scope. The scope of His mercy. You're not allowing yourself to enjoy the real benefits of the gospel. Finally, are you keeping yourself from enjoying peace? and fellowship with others because of either bitterness towards them or the fact that you have sinned against them and are guilty. So, we remove ourselves from each other. Maybe somebody's sinned against you and you've let that bitterness so overwhelm you that you avoid them. You refuse to forgive them. Or you've sinned against them and you refuse to acknowledge it and repent of it and ask for forgiveness. That is not the way Christians are called to live. We are called to live in the gospel. It unites us together as we forgive one another and confess our sins to one another. If you are overwhelmed with guilt, know this. If you confess your sin, God is faithful and quick in His mercy to forgive you. Let's look at our second point where we'll be spending most of our time. This is looking at just verses 19 through 21. God's power should give us courage. God's power should give us courage. Let's look at verses 19 through 21. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I'll arrive for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. This is a great gospel moment. Joseph knows these guys are coming back to him with another lie. And he speaks to them a great word of encouragement. The way God always speaks to his people. Every time God comes to confront or direct his people, he begins by saying, fear not. These brothers are coming with fear that they will have the wrath of Joseph upon them. And he begins his word of instruction and encouragement and comfort by saying, fear not. It should settle their anxiety. And then he asks this great rhetorical question, for am I in the place of God. Now, we're going to look at this more in depth later on in the sermon, but we need to remember Pharaoh was like God in Egypt. And he is second to Pharaoh. Joseph has a great amount of power. He can do almost anything he wants. But here he's putting himself under God. He's limiting his power and his desires based upon who God is. He's submitting to God. Verse 20 is one of the most amazing confessions about God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. What you intended to do was to harm me, to kill me, to sell me off, to get rid of me. But God used your evil actions to accomplish His great plan. And there's verse 21. Notice he says it again. Do not fear. Do not fear, because I will care for you and your little ones. He's going to abound in grace to these brothers because he has experienced the abounding grace from God himself. In this passage, we see great gospel counsel. He's counseling his brothers with the gospel because I believe he's already been counseling himself with the gospel for many years. So we can see how he's able to show forgiveness, how he's able to show great mercy to these brothers who are trying to kill him out of the logic of grace and love. We're going to look at how Joseph thinks through this, I believe, but most of all, let's begin with our thoughts about God. Let's look at what is being declared about God here. That's the most important thing we can ever talk about or think about. Verse 20 is one of the most bold and daring and awesome confessions of God in Scripture. It confesses both His power and His goodness. What you meant for evil, God meant it for good. You meant those things for evil, but God. That corner of the conjunctive is so great when it's transitioning from our sin to God's mercy. It contrasts our sin with God's grace. What you meant for evil, but God, He meant it for good. He is able to even use evil for good. He's perfectly good and perfectly powerful. Let's look at these two doctrines. Let's look at these two attributes of God. He is good. All that God does is good. All that God says is good because His very nature is good. We would not know what good is unless God told us. Without God, there is nothing good. What He wants is always perfectly good. To think about the fact that without God, there is nothing good. If there was no God, there is no morality. We believe there are good things in this world. We believe there are good truths, there are good ways of living because we believe God is true. He is the one who tells us what is good. This is not Immanuel Kant's postulation of God so that he can bring God into the back door to prove morality. No, Kant only wanted morality and he used God to that end. Rather, we confess God and then we follow God. We seek to think His thoughts after Him, and His thoughts are always good. His ends and His goals are always good. What He determines to do is good by nature. He is good, and evil is not a problem for Him. As we look back to Genesis 3.15, He is going to conquer evil. He is going to destroy evil because He is good. What's amazing about God is that He is good to those who are evil. Like a lifeguard who jumps in to save a drowning person. A drowning person oftentimes will go into shock and they'll fight against the person who's actually trying to save them. God is that lifeguard who jumps in and tries to save the person while they're kicking and fighting and fighting and punching against them. What He's doing is for our good and He's being abused by our evil while He is trying, while He is accomplishing it. He is good. He is good by His very nature. Everything He says and does is good. Secondly, God is powerful. This is an understatement. He's omnipotent. He's all-powerful. A great definition of God's omnipotence is this. He is able to do what He wants to do. He is able to do what He wants to do. Ask yourself, can you do everything you want to do? No. You are limited. We are all limited as human beings by our bodies, by our minds, by our strength, by our energy. We are all limited. And those limitations are good because our hearts are evil. If we could do what we wanted to do, we would be absolutely corrupted and corrupting the entire world. God is all-powerful. He is able to do what He wants to do. And what He wants to do is good, and He is able to do it. We praise the God who wants to do what is good and is able to accomplish it. This really speaks to the bigger picture of God's sovereignty because we see God who wants good, who purposes good, who is able to accomplish good, but yet there's evil all around us. And what's amazing here is Joseph is confessing that God is actually able to use evil to accomplish His good purpose. He is sovereignly working out His good intentions by directing even our evil intentions that are opposed to His plan. He is sovereignly working out His good intentions by directing even our evil intentions that are opposed to His plan. Think back to Joseph when he had his coat torn off of him. Joseph was going around bragging, hey, you're all going to bow down to me. He wasn't a wise person. He was bragging about the promise that God had made to him. And his brothers said, we're not going to bow down to that fellow. When he comes, we're going to kill him. Their evil intentions were trying to thwart, to stop the plan of God. But God actually used their evil intentions to accomplish his will. By taking him into Egypt and by establishing him as the head of the entire government, God was able to change our direction and our desires. God is sovereign even over our sinful desires. If he's not sovereign over our sinful desires, he's submissive to them. To be clear, God is not the author of evil. We are the author of evil. Evil came when Adam, who had a will-free choice, chose to rebel rather than obey. And ever since then, all of us have gone astray with him. Our hearts bent towards sinfulness. Our hearts bent towards selfishness rather than being bent towards God. We, our hearts, if you want to know where evil comes from, it's here. It bubbles up and comes out in our words and our actions. We are the cause of evil, but God in His power is able to intentionally direct our evil intentions. He's able to bring about His good plan even when we are intending to oppose Him. As we see this great gospel truth worked out, but before we do, I want to look at a very important logical connection. It's verse 19. The great truth in verse 20 is that God is good, and He is able to even use our evil to accomplish His good plan. But verse 19 is how I think Joseph begins to counsel himself with this truth. Because he's had to acknowledge, I'm not in the place of God. He's had to realize that he is under God, that God is good, that God is trustworthy. Even when these brothers come with another lie, He doesn't harm them. He comforts them. He speaks kindly to them. His first words are really the most intriguing. Am I in the place of God? It's a rhetorical question that has the obvious answer, no, I am not in the place of God. He has great power. He could throw him in a pit if he wanted to, just to see the scared look on their face. I'm assuming if he's anything like me, he's thought about that. For 17 years he has been wrestling. How do I treat my brothers? How do I continue to show them grace? He remembers the pain and the suffering he went through. And it's our simple inclination to say, let them experience it as well. I believe it's only the fact that he sees himself as under God. He recognizes the proper place of absolute sovereignty to only be God's. He sees that God is in control. That God has been working out a bigger plan, that God is worthy to be praised because of this bigger plan. I believe Joseph had to have constantly been thinking, I am not God. He has the power to kill them and be innocent of anything wrong. But then he looks and sees what God is doing. And he sees that God has been working all these things so that he can keep them alive. As we think about this great God who uses evil for good, as we think about how we are supposed to be thinking like Joseph, I think we should think about our different problems. We should be thinking about all the different evil that we face, all our different sufferings. Many have lost their money, their cars, their physical possessions because someone has done evil to them. Many people have lost their life savings, maybe even in this room. Some have been worn down and fatigued by constant physical trials. Maybe then again, your health continues to fail you and you see this as a constant trouble that worries you and puts you in despair. You ask, how could God possibly use my physical condition for his glory? Some have been slandered and gossiped about by their own friends and loved ones. Your reputation has been attacked. And you ask, how can God use that slander for my good and his glory? Some have marital problems. Your spouse is being unfaithful. Maybe your spouse is not a believer. Maybe your spouse is untrustworthy. How can God use that problem for His glory and for His good plan? Some have parents who reject God, and maybe even you have parents who reject you. How can God use that for His good plan? Some have children who reject the gospel and rebel against them. You ask, how can God use that for my good and His glory. Some have lost children. Some have had miscarriages. Some have lost grandchildren. How can God use these things for His glory and our good? When we go through various trials, we're invited to ask why these things happen. We're invited to courageously and boldly go into God's presence and say, God, why? Why is this happening? How is this happening to me? The psalmist models this for us. God invites us to ask, why are these things happening? The psalmist also models that after we ask why, we remind ourselves of God's goodness, of God's power. That He's even able to use all evil for good. That all things work out for the good of those who love Him. We ask the good why question. But then we remind ourselves of God's goodness to us. The third step is to say, how can this situation work out for my good? I wish I could answer that for people. If I could have one power, When you're going through suffering and have evil done to you and you ask, how can this be for good? I wish I could answer that question, but it's the one that's the most difficult to answer. Very few people get to be in Joseph's situation and see how all the things worked out for the good of God's people. While I do not know typically how things are going to work out, I know two things. One, When we are called up to see God face to face, we will see Him in His glory. We will see Him in His holiness. We will see what He accomplished by directing the evil that we have done, the evil that's been done to us, and the evil that's done all around us for His glory and for our good. We will see all of that evil, and we will only be able to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, because you took that evil, you used it for our good and for your glory. We'll only be able to bow down and worship Him, because we'll see His perfect power, His perfect goodness, and that all things really have worked out. for the good of those who love Him. The second thing that I can affirm with absolute certainty is that while we sojourn now, we can receive great comfort as we ask that how question. I can't tell you exactly how every evil and every suffering is going to work out for good, but I can tell you that you can receive great comfort If you, in the midst of your suffering, you go to the one place that gives an answer, and it's the cross. There's one place to go in the midst of suffering that gives you comfort and gives you assurance that God is absolutely able to work good out of evil. You see, the cross is the greatest work of good that glorified God the most by using the greatest evil. Jesus Christ, an innocent and perfect man, was led to die a cursed death, as if a sinner, as if by wretched he was hung, he was nailed to a tree. A perfect man was put to death by perverted sinners in order to purify those same sinners. This is the greatest evil, not because it's just an innocent man, but it's God himself. It's the Son of God who was killed for us. He was tried and judged and condemned by sinful men. The holy, glorious God condescended, took upon Himself our nature, and allowed sinners to try Him and condemn Him as if a sinner. This is absolute evil. But God was able to use it for the greatest good for us in His greatest glory because it's the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins that we can be forgiven. The fact that Jesus Christ, the innocent one, He died on the cross, we now can receive life instead of the death we deserve. He takes upon God's wrath and we receive His righteousness. When we question if God can use our The evil done by us and to us and all around us. There's only one place to go to get an answer, and it's the cross, because it's there that we see God using great evil for our greatest good. Friends, let me close. There are two ways to live. One is like the brothers. One is like Joseph. You can continue to live like the brothers. You can live with guilty consciences that will torment you, that will torment you today, will torment you when you die. If you're not a Christian, you are guilty before God. If you are not a Christian, if you have not confessed faith in Jesus Christ, the one who has died for sinners and risen again, your guilt is still upon you. Your sin still goes up before God and is a stench. His wrath will be poured out upon you because He is perfectly good and He is the good judge who punishes sin, who judges sinners. You will be judged unless someone stands in your place. And Jesus Christ is the only one who can stand in your place. You can believe in Jesus Christ. You can place your faith in Him and what He said. You can place your faith in what He declared on the cross, that you can be forgiven, that God's wrath can be removed from you by His blood and by His resurrection. Only Christ can deliver you from the wrath of God. If you confess to be a Christian this morning and you feel guilty, You're living like the brothers. You're not trusting in the power of the cross. Stop looking inside to see if you're showing enough fruit and look to the God who declares. You're forgiven. Let those words penetrate your heart. Let those words change your heart. Stop walking around feeling guilty when you are called to be free. The second way to live is to believe God's Word like Joseph. It's to look to God's Word and see it as the most sure and perfect promise we have. To remind ourselves regularly of that Word. When we see sin all around us, when we see impossible situations, when we see despair, we don't focus on it and wonder how will God ever do anything. No, we look to God. We look to His Word. We look to what He has accomplished for us. And we trust Him. We let His Word change us. We let His Word change the way we think. We let His Word change the way we desire. So that we will be more sharpened to be faithful instruments in His hands. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask for Him to change us. Change us by His perfect Word. That is the most sure and perfect promise we have. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, Your goodness and Your power is beyond our comprehension. We thank You, Lord, that we can see just a glimpse of how perfectly good and perfectly powerful You are in this passage. And we pray that we would see it more as we look to what You have done on the cross. In Your perfect power, in Your perfect goodness, You purified all sinners who profess faith in You. God, we thank You for this. We thank You for that sure Word that is our foundation. May that declaration be our foundation. May it be our head. May it guide and direct everything this church does. May you be with each believer. May they be encouraged and have absolute assurance in what you declare, not what they have done. May you be with anyone who is wrestling with the gospel. May they see their guilt and your wrath in perfect light by Your Spirit. And may You reveal to them the perfect power of the cross to forgive them. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.