In today’s sermon, Pastor Babij explains that, despite how the situation appeared when Jesus was arrested, the Lord was in complete control. Pastor Babij shows that Jesus perfectly set up His arrest in fulfilment of the Scriptures. Pastor Babij also teaches that the gospel cannot be advanced by fleshly coercion but only through spiritual means; any religion that uses force of arms to advance its cause is a false religion.
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okay let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Mark the gospel of Mark chapter 14 and we’ll be looking at verses 43 to 52 if you are looking in our Pew Bible it’s on page 104 Mark 14 verse 43 5 actually two let’s pray Lord this morning as we look at the word of God I pray that again Lord you would take it you would cause us to be attentive to it and I pray Lord Jesus you would help us to further understand the things that had to be done for us to be redeemed thank you Lord Jesus for being faithful to the plan of the father to do everything that needed to be done so we can be saved and I pray this in your name amen let me read verses 43 to 52 and it says this immediately while he was still speaking Judas one of the 12 came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders now he who was betraying him had given him a signal saying whom whomever I kiss he is the one sees him and lead him away under guard after coming Judas immediately went to him saying Rabbi and he kissed him they laid hands on him and seized him but one of those who stood by Jewish sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear and Jesus said to them have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against a robber every day I was with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me but this has taken place to fulfill scriptures and they all left him and fled a young man was following him wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body and They seized him but he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked all right so we come to this passage of scripture and we see again that it is leading this is of course this is very late on Thursday in the passion week and very into very early Friday morning of that that week so Jesus is really uh as he approaches the final hour up to the up to this point no one was allowed to harm Jesus but because it was uh and the reason why is because it wasn’t his time yet it wasn’t the right timing so he was protected divinely protected by the father until that time until the time Jesus would be arrested and then of course treated like a a common Criminal by his enemies and then of course uh he would have to go to the Cross alone and there he would bear the weight and the burden of our transgressions now last week we witnessed Jesus suffering uh along in in his long a Agony in the garden of geetam the disciples could not watch with him they all fell asleep because of the weakness of their flesh and three times Jesus went to pray to the father and each time he prayed the same prayer and that prayer was ABA father all things are possible for you remove this cup from me yet not what I will but what you will so now at this point it is Friday morning long before Dawn possibly 1 to 2 or 3 uh 1 to 3:00 a.m. in the morning and so we learn today that this on this Lord’s day about jesus’ betrayal and his arrest by his enemies and so we’re going to learn more about what Jesus has done in uh the gospel El so he can carry out the work of redemption and so the first thing that we see in verse number 43 is Jesus is approached by his betrayer now there’s really only two people named in this narrative one was Judas es scariot and the other one was Jesus every everyone else really is nameless almost faceless uh so the first thing that we see in verse 43 is that Judas leads the crowd to the location where Jesus is and notice that while Jesus in mids sentence uh Judas burst in Upon Jesus and the other 11 disciples verse 43 immediately while he was still speaking Judas one of the 12 came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs so in other words uh it’s mentioning Judas as one of the 12 apostles that was picked by Jesus himself he was considered to be a close companion of Jesus But Here In this passage of scriptures it’s used more in a negative sense that he gave up something that was given to him that would have been uh tremendous blessing to him not only from this time forward but in the future but he gave that up and now he is actually betraying Jesus so Jud Judas is actually finally carrying out his premeditated plan Judas is of course followed by an arrest Squad and by the looks of it they came prepared for anything they came accompanied with swords and clubs now in other words they they may sure that they came with enough Force to take care of any situation in order to accomplish their ultimate goal and their ultimate goal is to lay hands on Jesus their ultimate goal is to seize him that’s what their ultimate goal is everything is planned out uh it has been planned out prior to this time and they want to take him and so they made sure they came with with this Force to take hold of Jesus and this Hell bount Bound uh crowd of faceless people most likely included a Detachment of soldiers who actually were on loan from the Romans and they accompanied what they call the Temple Police possibly up to 200 or more people were In This Crowd now remember in Jerusalem there were millions of people but this was at night this is early in the morning so we know that short swords were the regular weapons of Roan Roman legionaries however clubs would be the weapon of henchmen those are the weapons of underlings and rabble rousers these people came prepared for a fight they wanted a rumble that’s what they wanted to do and so there were two kind of of groups of people there but nonetheless they all came and uh to take Jesus that was the whole point of it the size of the crowd would be able to deal with any of the eventualities that should arise with swiftness and force but not so large of a group that it it would draw suspicion because they wanted to do things privately second thing that we see here is that the Sanhedrin are the instigators of the event and who remember who are the Sanhedrin well if you look in verse 43 it says notice how it’s listed it it says who who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders now the reason why it’s written like that is because Judas and his crowd had the full approval and force of the high ruling and religious and political body of Israel now with such a powerful group behind them this crowd is really empowered by them to do anything that they needed to do in order to accomplish their ultimate desire and that ultimate desire was to arrest Jesus now remember the ruling religious body were of the Jewish people were now outright enemies of Jesus Christ and remember what it says in the Gospels it tells us that Jesus came to his own and his own did not did not receive him so here we have this working out before us now when a person concludes wrongly about Jesus it leads to a it really leads to a plan to eliminate him that’s really what it does whether somebody doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ and just sets him aside whether there somebody just believes Jesus was just a common uh good teacher uh and good moral of good moral character and would be somebody worthy to follow or emulate whatever a person would think about Jesus in the end they really want to eliminate him they want to get him out of the way because of who he is so this leads up to their elimination and what is that Jesus is arrested in verse 44 to verse 47 several things going on here first Judas arranged the signal beforehand so no mistake would be made as to who Jesus was now Judas had arranged this signal signal because some of those in the crowd like the soldiers probably would have not recognized him and they were the ones who are going to were going to actually take hold of him and seize him and arrest him so Judas worked out a signal as to who they should seize and hold and of course what he chose was really a sign of affection and love and what was that sign well if you notice in verse 40 verse number 44 it says now he who was betraying him had given them a signal saying whomever I kiss he is the one seize him and lead him away under guard verse 45 after coming Judas immediately went to him saying Rabbi and kissed him now an act of Love is performed for a mission of hate so Judas the leader of this hostile multitude pretends to be a beloved disciple of Jesus and I think this manner of betrayal becomes the first example of a mockery towards Jesus actually judas’s greeting is an exaggerated one and why do I say that because Judas did not just kiss him once the force of the language is that Judas showered him with kisses and that was used so there would be no doubt as to the identity of the victim in the gospel of Matthew it says immediately Jud Judas went to Jesus and said hail Rabbi and kissed him and Jesus said to him friend do what you have come for so Jesus treats his enemy with kindness and calls Judas friend now another thing we see in our passage in verse 46 is that Judas Jud judas’s kiss marks the AR arrival of the sting operation that was planned beforehand now this is something they wanted to do to Jesus for a long long time but by Divine protection were unable to and what was it verse 46 they laid hands on him and seized him now that would really be the central part of this whole passage because the word seiz is really the operative term in this text and it really means to take into one’s possession to arrest or to apprehend and Jesus is Led away under guards so that he will not Escape or be rescued they were trying to take every precaution possible so Jesus would be taken this time now the leadership of Israel longed to seize Jesus but they could not because they also feared the multitude they feared what people would do if they if they actually took him publicly but most of the multitude was asleep so jesus’ enemies really contrived to get him on the cross before the rest of the Town woke up on Friday that was their plan matter of fact by 9:00 a.m. Friday morning Jesus would be on the cross so that means that this arrest is in this out of the way place under the cover of Darkness was entirely necessary as far as his enemies were concerned to keep things as quiet as possible and in their as much as in their control as possible so when Jesus is is tested the Disciples of course want to protect Jesus so the Bible tells us in verse number 47 if you notice the response of the unnamed disciple in verse 47 but one of those who stood by Drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear now that seemed to be a pretty radical move on uh the side of the the disciples the apostles uh to be able to protect Jesus now he’s not named here but we know from the Gospel of John uh and I’m calling this the slasher disciple uh is Peter for it tells us in in John chapter 18 Simon Peter then having a sword drew it and struck the high priest slave and cut off his right ear and the slave’s name was malacus so Jesus said to Peter put the sword in the into the sheath the cup which the father has given me shall I not drink it in other words Jesus was saying to him is not this the hour I came into the world to take care of this to suffer in behalf of my sheep and then ultimately to go to the Cross but another thing was going on here too Peter remember was having a rough time with Jesus one second he was saying I’ll die for you the next section he’s denying him it so right here Peter is showing that he is willing to die for Jesus however Peter and the disciples do not see that Jesus is actually a willing prisoner he’s not resisting at all Peter’s love for Jesus has not not actually listened or or obey to what was been what has been going on so Peter’s Act is Noble yet it is nothing but fleshly and worldly it is not what the Lord intends his disciples to do also we know that in the gospel of uh Luke matter of fact why don’t you turn there why don’t you turn to the Gospel of Luke it’s Matthew uh Mark Luke is the next gospel look at chapter 22 and we’ll look at a few verses there Luke 22: 38 so Luke actually tells us that the disciples had two Roman short swords in their possession you know people did carry weapons in those days They Carried usually short swords uh and the reason why is because You’ be walking down one of these uh small paths and robbers would be there to to take your stuff so usually people carried the sword not only for that reason protect themselves but for other reasons too you needed some kind of item to cut things up uh to chop trees down to you know cut up food all kinds of reasons they had this particular uh tool on them but if you notice in verse 30 it 38 it says that they said Lord look here are two swords and he said to them it is enough so in other words they did have the on their possessions uh the Disciples of course asked Jesus should we strike with the sword notice in Luke CH 22: 49 it says when those who were around him saw what was going to happen they said Lord shall we strike with the sword now before the Lord even gives an answer at that moment Quick Draw MRA comes to the mine and that’s of course is Peter all right Peter draws and slashes now some have suggested that Peter was not intending to cut the high priest servant’s ear off he was intending to split his head open all right he was not in so the guy must have ducked because he saw it coming now of course Dr Luke who writes The Gospel Luke was actually a medical doctor uh mentions what Jesus did to reverse Peter’s act look notice what it says in verse 51 of Luke CH 22 but Jesus answered and said stop no more of this and he touched his ear and healed him on the spot now to me it’s amazing that scripture gives just a little sentence to say that Jesus took this ear put him put it back on his head and he was completely healed but nothing more is said about it and so but I would I would assume that that was being lost HED in by the disciples and especially Peter all right that Jesus actually rescued him from not just killing almost killing someone and and cutting off their ear but much more things could have happened to him legally for his act against he could have started the riot right there if Jesus didn’t do what he did there now again to set things in context the gospel of Matthew you know need to turn there I’ll just read it to you informs us that if it were the plan of God to use sufficient Force against these people everything was at the disposal of Jesus listen what it says in Matthew the same incident it says in Matthew 26: 50 it says then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized him and behold one of those who were with Jesus reached and Drew out his sword struck the slave of the high priest cut off his ear then Jes Jesus said to him put your sword back into its place for all those who take up the sword Shall Perish By The Sword and then he said this or do you know do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 Legion of angels to fight on my behal so see Jesus had all the resources available to him from Heaven uh from his father but that is not the way God is going to carry out um his work in fact the the strong lesson that we learn here is that spiritual the spiritual battle is not fought or won with Earthly weapons like swords and clubes the Lord does not call us to take up arms and fight with guns and tanks and armies that’s not how we accomplish God’s will we accomplish God’s will in a very peaceful manner by preaching the word of God right by teaching the word of God by witnessing the gospel all over the world all to everybody that we meet so Judas as well as the chief priest and scribes and even jesus’ disciples could not get away from the idea that they thought that the messiah’s kingdom was merely a worldly Kingdom and was supposed to be held up by worldly means they still haven’t gotten away from that thought however the advancement of the gospel of Christ in his kingdom needs no armies needs no governments needs no powerful or influential religious or political people to carry it out we will do well to remember that the advancement of True Religion is not propagated by violence or the arm of the flesh see the weapon of our Warfare are not carnal in fact if you if you your mind is moving if you thought of a passage of scripture like in 2 Corinthians chapter 10:3 where it tells us for though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our Warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses we are destroying speculation and every lofting thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to The Obedience of Christ and that word their thought is really it’s it’s speak speaking of the mind that is all the theories that are hostile to the word of God will come to nothing that thoughts that cause spiritual blindness thoughts that cause unbelief thoughts that prevent saving faith in Christ and of course right thinking would lead someone right into The Obedience of Christ that’s where it leads everything being pulled down that is false and everything that is is true being raised up Christ being lifted up knowing that Jesus is the only way uh to be saved from the condemnation of sin and to be made right with God because of his sacrifice on the cross so nor are are the weapons that we have are in our own or by our own power it stands by the power of the Holy Spirit alone even in the Old Testament where it tells us in uh Zechariah then he said to me this is the word of the Lord to the rubbable saying not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts that is by the spirit of God that the things of God get accomplished and that Warfare Fair gets accomplished in the spiritual realm as we put on the whole armor of God and we’re able to stand up against the Ws of Satan and that part of that armor is truth be put on trth truth first and Truth holds everything else on our armor so the cause of Truth does not need Force to maintain it or to advance it this also means for sure a short tell sign of a false religion or a bad cause in a religion is to use Force by what ever means to advance and to maintain it so any any particular religious system that uses Force to accomplish its end is false because that is not what the Lord uh has given us in the scripture to actually accomplish what he wants us to accomplish True Religion Grows by the hidden influence of the Holy Spirit on people’s hearts and consciences when people hear the gospel their conscience uh is grieved they’re convicted of sin and God shows them that they cannot save themselves and therefore the only way to save themselves is not to run to a religious system not to run to any one person but to run specifically to Christ who becomes their substitute and their sacrifice on their behalf in their place so they can be saved that’s the only answer and so it is not by any other way that the Lord will accomplish his will so there are no attempts This Time by Jesus to slip away and back to the gospel of Mark and if you notice in verse 48 and 49 Jesus actually peacefully surrenders he peacefully surrenders but he gives them some criticism about the wrong way they have handled this concerning him the first thing he says is this to them listen guys isn’t it a bit of Overkill he says in verse number 48 of Mark chapter 14 and Jesus said to them have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me in other words they came against Jesus expecting some resistance or even a battle as if he was some kind of rebellious criminal right they were wrong about that second thing he says listen you’ve missed who I am in the middle of verse number 48 what do they conclude as you would against the robber you have concluded that I am a robber or it could also mean a zealot a religious zealot there is in other words he is in by way of a question am I leading a rebellious here no but we do gain some insight here we gain insight into the mind of the one who has rejected Jesus because an evil mind felicious reasons incorrectly because of their hypocrisy and their blindness and their greed and they judge the character of Jesus incorrectly in this case they concluded he’s just a regular robber he’s just a regular criminal like everybody else he needs to be arrested and he needs to be taken care of the next thing that Jesus says is this Hey listen the way you did this was unnecessary he says in verse number 49 every day I was with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me in other words I was with you face to face every day teaching the word of God I pose no violent threat to you there so in other words this this arrest is an out of it’s really an an out of thee way Place done in an out of way place under the cover of Darkness it was entirely unnecessary for this to actually take place since he was teaching them in the temple every day they could have seized him then and then this is the place he was really heading when he was making a criticism of them and it was this you guys haven’t even read the script and you’re totally ignorant of the plan of God now that was an incredible slap in the face Jesus and notice what he says in verse 49 in the the second part of the verse he says every day I was with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me and then he says but this has taken place to fulfill the scriptures see this large group would have been they would have been able to to capture Jesus if it weren’t for God God’s prophetic plan recorded in scripture they They seized him because it was God’s plan to seiz Jesus so I think we learn here that how things in our Lord’s passion happened according to the word of God in fact we can go to several scriptures and we can glean from the Old Testament that things that were going to happen in the passion week things were going to happen to Jesus and it’s already been recorded in the Old Testament 700 years before it even happened like it says in Isaiah 53 which I’ve been reading all throughout this in verse number nine his grave was assigned with Wicked Man yet he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth and then also in Psalm 20 two where it says they divided my garments among them for my clothing they cast lots we know all these things happened all this really marked was was marked out hundreds of years before it actually took place all had been forn all had been foretold about what would happen to Jesus now just imagine that you had the ability to predict the future and you predicted to an expectant mother eight things about her unborn child you predicted its sex the date of the birth the name and weight of the birth the college the child would attend the occupation the child would have the manner of death and the age of death now the chances of all eight of your predictions being fulfilled is one in 10 to the seventh power that means that’s 10 with 17 zeros behind it now some suggested a way to illustrate the chances of all eight predictions being fulfilled as follows cover the state of Texas two feet deep with silver dollars mark an x on one of the silver dollars stir them all up blindfold the person and send him across the state as far as he wishes to go instruct him to pick up one of the silver dollars the chances of his getting the coin marked X would be one in 10 to the 7th power that is of course 10 with 17 zeros behind that number is very hard to get in our minds now some would say that jesus’ predictions of his suffering in the Old Testament were manifold um that he would be born the seed of a woman um he would of course come and establish the established from Abraham that he would be mocked in Psalm 22 that he would be drink Gall and vinegar given to him to drink on the cross in Psalm 69 the intensity of his suffering is is listed in Psalm 22 and his suffering being for others in Isaiah uh 53 in the passages that are mentioned there in 712 BC Isaiah wrote some 700 years before anything took place and some have suggested uh it’s not just a few or eight predictions about Christ in the Old Testament but but up to 333 predictions about Christ now that the chances of all those being fulfilled in the person of Christ is mindboggling we can’t even do the math on it in other words God is in control of everything the Lord is taking care of every single thing possible so nothing would go wrong throughout jesus’ passion it becomes clear that je Jesus demonstrated himself to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove Jesus orchestrated the events that we’re reading in the scriptures of his passion so that it would unfold precisely how and when the father intended it to since the second cleansing of the temple on Monday remember this is Friday Thursday Friday morning Jesus has been deliberately galvanizing the hostility within the religious body of Israel he was inflaming them that’s what he was doing and once all the enemies were uh and their murderous hatred all came together it only took five days to get Jesus on the cross so the events really happened rapidly when God wanted it to so the Lord was in control so you see really the rejection of jesus’ claims was not a matter of confusion it was a matter of unbelief and Rebellion the official rejection of Jesus grew steadily and now it was exploding into a forceful display of hatred so Jesus in other words in our passage accepts all the IND indignities all the shame all the suffering all the agony that could be heaped on him by evil men he took willingly all that took place was only the working out of God’s Great design to provide an atonement for the world’s sin all these things took place in other words for us for his children for those who would come and believe in him well if you look back at Mark chapter 14 how did the disciples respond to all this well if you notice in verse number 50 This Is How They responded verse 50 and they all left him and fled that’s how they responded in fact the this the way it’s written here because it’s short it’s really written to be emphatic that everyone deserted him soon as they saw this happening soon as they saw Jesus was giving no resistance at all they thought possibly he should they were gone now maybe they were hoping that right at the end Jesus would work a miracle and set himself free from their clutches they did not see that the whole series of events were actually Miracles that God was in control of everything see if we were there we would have fled also if we believe what the Bible says God the creator has not abandoned us we have abandoned him thank God our heavenly father has worked out a plan so that repentant Sinners can have a relationship with him through Jesus Christ but another thing that we should think of here is that and something we ought to learn is how much the faith of True Believers may give way under pressure see the fear of man does indeed bring a snare it is real to us it is real to everyone see when and how Temptation may come we don’t know we also don’t know to what extent our faith may give way under certain life trials again the admonition should come from what we looked at last week we need to stay alert spiritually we need to be prepared we need to be ready we need to be good soldiers in uh life as we walk through trusting all that God has done and said to us and the spirit of of God gives us the strength to stand up against what would come against us and the only thing that’s going to free us is the truth we know the truth and we can the truth can detect what is deceitful or what is a lie now Mark is the only one who mentions the incident at the end of this passage and I want you to see it because it’s it’s quite unusual all right take a look at it in verse number 51 it says a young man was following him I’m calling this one the streer him wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body and They seized him verse 52 and he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked now this is uh very odd no none of the other gospels record this uh it’s not mentioned anywhere else in scripture so of course we would have have to say well what’s going on here well the Greek word of course for young man is probably a man between 24 between 20 and 24 probably the age of this person is around 20 all right uh it says here that he pulled free from the linen sheet and escaped naked and of course the word naked uh does not necessarily mean naked it was also used to describe a person clothed only in an undergarment however the scripture tells us that the linen sheet or the undergarment fell away from him as he escaped so it’s hard to get around the fact that this young man escaped yes bare but all right now but who was this young we can only infer but most say that this is this unnamed young man is Mark himself in place it’s placed very in a very significant place in the narrative it’s placed along with all the other disciples fleeing it’s like an anonymous signature of the author of The Gospel here now that’s probably the top one some say no it couldn’t be some of the patristic fathers say no Mark was neither a disciple nor a witness of the Life of Christ others say he became a witness at the end of jesus’ life and so he comes in at the very end of things so some say here was an uh an interested follower of Jesus which showed himself as a disciple that spiked the interests of the authorities and they tried to seize him in order to arrest him also so the the men only got hold of the loose sheet around him and was unable to apprehend him and so he just escaped the clutches of their arrest now again could be a picture of we all escape narrowly from the arrest and the the clutches of evil others say that it represents all who flee from Jesus when Mayhem breaks out not yet ready to suffer as a follower of Jesus Christ represents all our Readiness to abandon Jesus and it could be an illusion here of a passage in Amos chapter 2 where it says even the bravest among the Warriors will flee naked in the day declares the Lord see it could also mean that nakedness was a sign of Shame so disgrace behind the disciples desertion Jesus as it says in Isaiah 20 it says and the Exiles of kush young and old naked and Barefoot with butocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt and then in Revelation 16 behold I am coming like a thief blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame well again I can only infer all those uh some of those are and there’s other possibilities that came up what we do know though is that John Mark who is the writer of the Gospel of Mark had Direct access to the eyewitness Peter that’s where he got his material from and so that there is direct continuity of the transmission of what Jesus did to Peter as a witness to Mark now as the writer of the Gospel so don’t know who he is I think the first one has a lot of weight to it it’s probably an anonymous signature of the author saying I was just like the rest of the disciples I would have fled also but I got I got away so what do we take away from this this morning well first of all spiritual battles are fought and won not with Earthly weapons but spiritual weapons like prayer in the word of God secondly all things concerning Christ and God’s plan to redeem Humanity happened according to God’s word thirdly the faith of True Believers will be tested at times it may give way but continue to follow Jesus because he is faithful to finish what he started Jesus will finish everything everything he started what we commit to him he will finish and that is a great encouragement to all those who follow Jesus Christ let’s pray Lord this morning as we do consider this text Lord we have been reminded in scripture of the control that you have over all events that you are sovereign Over All all things and that Lord even Jesus suffering and ultimately his death on the cross was something that you organized and you planned before this world was even created before anyone was ever born Jesus died before the foundation of the world and so Lord we thank you that we get this sense that you can be trusted that you can be believed that you can be followed that everything you say in your word will come to pass even those things that have not come to pass yet will come to pass just like everything else has so Lord increase our faith make us good soldiers of Jesus Christ help us to realize that it is the preaching of the Gospel that advances the kingdom not Wars not weapons fleshly weapons but spiritual weapons like prayer and the word of God so Lord make US soldiers who spend a lot of time in prayer praying about everything Lord make us people who know the word of God so we can detect the deception that’s coming from our own flesh the world and Satan himself and his minions and I pray Lord that you would enable us to be faithful followers of you no matter what comes Lord make our faith strong no matter what trial is thrown at us no matter what event of in life can no matter how severe it can be Lord make us disciples who stand firm and trust you in all things knowing Lord that once you take hold of us you will never let us go thank you for the security we have in Christ and I pray this in your name amen am