Propitiation — Tony Miano

Ministry Transition and the Gospel Mission

Over five years now. Indirectly, for closer to eight or nine years, Granada Hills Community Church parented a church plant that I pastored up in Valencia back seven or eight years ago called Pico Canyon Community Church.

If anyone in my family was absent, the church attendance was about 10 people, but it was a blessed time. I learned a lot, and this family shepherded us through that process. And then in 2002, when the Lord chose to bring that little church plant to a close, and we started 10, four ministries, well, Granada Hills Community Church was right there to support us and to hold our hand and to make sure that needs for our family were met when we launched out to serve in that missionary work.

Well, Granada Hills Community Church is gonna be with us during another transition in life, beginning Wednesday. I've been offered and I've accepted a position with Living Water's Way of the Master on their full-time leadership staff to start a new aspect of their ministry to bring training to street evangelists and to network like-minded ministries and churches around the world.

And so with that, 10, Four Ministries does not draw to a close, and we're very thankful for that because it was never our ministry to begin with. It was always the Lord's. He just allowed us to have stewardship over it for a time.

But there will be new leadership. Young man by the name of Travis Yates, a captain with the Tulsa Police Department who's on the advisory board for 10, Four Ministries is going to assume leadership. I didn't think this would do this.

Is it going to assume leadership of 10, Four Ministries so that I can start this new work that the Lord would have me do? And so we covet your prayers, and we know we will continue to enjoy your love and support as we try to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world and to the law enforcement family.

So, but I thought you should know that before anybody else. That won't be public knowledge for another couple of days, but I thought I owed it to my church family to let you know first what's happening in our lives and in our ministry, so we appreciate your prayers.

Do I need to turn this on, Chris? What? Open your Bibles, please. Open your Bibles. Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. This morning, we're going to talk about the most important word in the Bible.

The most important word in the Bible. We're going to be reading verses 21 to 26 in chapter three. We're going to be all over God's word this morning. I'll be asking you to turn to some passages. Others, I'll just ask you to sit and listen.

But we're going to cover quite a bit of ground this morning. God's word tells us this. But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith, this was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed.

For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. Father, I'd ask that you'd be with me this morning and you would help me to rightly divide it before my family.

Father, I will say much today that I hope will be an encouragement. I hope it will give us all a greater sense of your holiness and your justice and your love. Father, I'd ask that you'd remove as much of me as possible from this message.

My opinion about you and about your word means nothing in comparison to the truth of your word and we want to know your truth. Father, I pray that you would soften our hearts before your word this morning, that you would bring correction where it is needed, that you would bring encouragement where it is needed, that you would draw us closer to you by the power of your Holy Spirit as we open and read and study your word together.

Be glorified, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Now, I wanna begin by asking you a question. If I were to ask you this morning to tell me what you believe the most important word in the Bible is, what would your answer be?

Now, don't start shouting things out, but I'm sure a number of different words come to mind. My answer might surprise some of you. Others of you might nod your head in agreement. Still others of you might not know what the word means and that's okay.

That's one of the reasons why we gather together corporately to open up God's word and study it together. But before I share my answer with you and for some before my answer will make sense, we must all come to terms with two great truths in God's word.

One is the truth about the nature of mankind and the other is the truth about the nature of God's wrath and holiness. Now, these are weighty subjects, I know, subjects that might not leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling necessarily, but you're not here to get your ears tickled, right?

That's not why you're here. You want to dig deep into God's word and to mine the precious truths of his word that will draw us closer to our Lord and Savior. And in the time we have together this morning, we will likely only scratch the surface of these massive and critically important topics, but we must thoughtfully consider these things if we are to have any hope of understanding why a particular word in the Bible is the most important word.

Human Depravity and the True Nature of Mankind

So let's begin by taking a look at the true nature of mankind. Apart from genuine repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ, which is a gift of God, mankind is evil. Mankind is not evil occasionally.

Mankind is not evil only when provoked. Mankind is not evil only to a degree. Mankind is evil to the core, through and through, without a speck or hint of inherent goodness. Now, if you balk at what I just said, if you find yourself already offended and becoming angry, if you're ready to shout, I don't believe that, your problem is not with me.

It's not. You simply do not believe what the Bible says about you, regarding either your present condition, if you're not saved, if you're not born again, or your previous condition, if you are now a born-again follower of Jesus Christ.

Hear what the word of God says about the pinnacle of his creation, the human race. Genesis 6 .5 says,. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Not only does God see the actions of people as wicked, he sees the thoughts and the intentions of man's heart the same way. Now, it's important we understand, we're not looking at the condition of man through the lens of our own sinfulness, through our own fallible perception of what we see about one another.

Certainly, when we look out upon our own family, we see aspects of goodness when we love each other, when we do things for one another. We certainly look at some people as more evil than others. We might see others as more good than others.

If we were asked, how would we define ourselves? We would probably say, well, I'm better than some, and I'm not as good as others. But we're not looking at the goodness of man through the lens of man.

We're looking at the goodness of man, or the lack of man's goodness, through the lens of a holy, righteous, perfect, and good God. If you balk at what I'm saying, again, your argument is not with me. Now, I usually don't use visual aids when I preach.

I just don't. Ty has often made slide presentations for us, during worship, during the message. What if Ty flashed up on the screen a new slide presentation, and the title is, Your Thought Life, Your Thought Life.

And for the next 10 minutes, everything that flashes on that screen is every secret thought you've ever had over the course of your entire life. If this were indeed a CD that chronicled in video form, like a reality show, every thought you have ever thought during the course of your life, what would it show us?

Would we see purity? Would we see that you are basically good? What would we see? If your thought life can be in video form for the world to see. You know what we would see. And the thought of having such a record of your thought life made public, probably frightens you, and it should.

It certainly would frighten me to have every thought I've ever thought on a screen for everybody to see. God weighs not only your actions against the perfect and holy standard of his law, he sees the total depravity of your thought life too.

Does anyone in this place of worship this morning honestly believe that you can stand before the creator of the universe, the one and only God, and declare your own righteousness, and say to God, I am good?

If you really believe that, then with love and care for you, I must tell you that although you may very well be sincere, you are living and believing a lie. Genesis 6, 11, and 12 says, now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.

God looked on the earth and behold, it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that the world and the people in it are any less corrupt today than they were in the days of Noah?

Anyone believe that? Anyone believe that the world has gotten better? Okay, I submit to you that not only is today's depraved society every bit as wicked as in the days of Noah, but it is even more so today, I would say.

Why? Well, the world's population alone attests to the greater amount of wickedness in today's world. There are so many people acting wickedly today, so many more today than in the days of Noah. Numbers alone makes this world a more wicked place.

And we've become so sophisticated, and so intellectual, and so technologically advanced, that we have many more ways to indulge our secret and public sins than the people did in Noah's day. Genesis 8, 20 to 21.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.

Paul Washer is a name that many of you probably know. Probably aren't familiar with. But he is a man who has discipled me to a great extent over the last couple of years from afar. I've never met the man.

He's an itinerant preacher here in the United States and around the world. For many years served as a missionary in the Peruvian jungles. And I recently heard a message by Paul Washer in which he explains what we just read in Genesis 8, 20 to 21.

And he explains these verses with a series of rhetorical questions. He said, quote, do you have to teach a child to lie? Do you have to teach a child to be self-centered? Do you have to teach a child to be selfish?

Do you have to teach a child to be brutal to other children? They learn that on their own. Set them free, discipline them not, and see what you have in 10 years, a monster. Why? Because what scripture says is true, end quote.

Now I can affirm what Washer said as a gang and juvenile crime investigator for a number of years. I saw firsthand the results of parents who never disciplined their children, who treated their children as peers instead of teaching their children their rightful place in the family structure.

Time after time, I would interview these young people ranging in age from 10 to 20. In fact, on one occasion, I interviewed a nine-year-old who planned, who masterminded, and executed a residential burglary with a bunch of his friends.

Nine years old. And there was a reoccurring theme in all those interviews over the years, no remorse. Their only concern was how they would be affected by what they did. They had no concern whatsoever for their victims.

What they did was right in their own eyes and therefore completely justified in their little depraved minds. From before the time of your first memory, you dishonored your parents too. And so did I. We disobeyed our parents.

Even as toddlers, we harbored angriness and bitterness in our heart toward others because someone wouldn't immediately give us what we wanted. We coveted that which belonged to or was in the possession of another, and maybe we would try to steal it from them, take it from them.

Today, we don't call this dishonoring your parents anymore. Today, we call this a tantrum. Today, we call this a phase, a phase. Now, those of you who are parents can answer this question for me. Aside from mama and dada, what was one of the first words your child learned?

Well, mine's a good one. That's not the one I'm thinking of. No, no. Mine is probably a close second. No, the word was no. Now, did you sit with your child on your lap and playfully repeat the word over and over again so that you could impress your friends and family members with your child's intelligence?

Come on, Johnny. You can say it. Say no. Come on, come on, Sally. No, no. What a good girl. You didn't do that, right? Tell me you didn't do that. If you did, you're one of the reasons why I had so much job security in law enforcement.

Of course you didn't do that. Children do not need to be taught sinful disobedience. They inherited that trait from Adam and Eve. No one had to teach it to them. Let's return to the scriptures now and see what God thinks of this notion that man is basically good.

Turn in your Bibles to Psalm chapter 14. Psalm chapter 14. It's a passage that will be familiar to some of you, I am sure. Psalm chapter 14, verses one to three. God's word tells us this. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.

They are corrupt. They have committed abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. Listen to these two passages from Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 7 .20 says, indeed there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

Ecclesiastes 8 .11. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. Jeremiah 17 .9. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.

Who can understand it? Now, if you think these passages are all relegated to the Old Testament, Jesus said this in Matthew 15, 17 to 18. Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated?

But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile the man. It's not uncommon when I take someone through the law of God, when I take someone through the 10 commandments, whether or not they profess to be a Christian, that they quickly downplay their sin, saying something like, well, God knows my heart.

And when a person makes a comment like that, I smile and I politely say, you're absolutely right. God does know your heart and that's your problem. That's your problem. Some Christians are uncomfortable with the idea of holding another person accountable for their sin or going as far as to question another person's salvation.

They will often turn to and misinterpret Matthew 7, 1, one of the verses that every unbeliever in the world seems to know. Do not judge so that you will not be judged. The verse is not a prohibition against all forms of judgment.

It's a prohibition against hypocritical and self-righteous forms of judgment. It's a prohibition against condemning forms of judgment, meaning that a person assigns another person to hell for a particular sin, but yet they exonerate someone else because their sin is acceptable to them or because they commit the sin themselves and they love the sin and they overlook, they love to overlook that sin and commit that sin more than they love God.

Have you ever done that? Are you doing that right now? Do you think of certain sins and you say, that person's going to hell because they committed that sin, but yet if you're wallowing in a certain kind of sin and you see someone else doing it, guess what you want to do?

You want to extend grace and mercy and say, well, that's not that bad. Yeah, I've caught myself doing that. At times I've done that. Now, the kind of judgment we are allowed to employ is a discerning kind of judgment, a loving kind of judgment.

And if you study the parables, you will see that very often the parables distinguish between true and false conversion. And Jesus throughout the gospels is never shy about pointing out the hypocrisy of religious people.

We are being no one's friend if we see habitual sin in a person's life and we do nothing more than assign them the title of carnal or backslider. They very well may be unregenerate. They very well may be living with a false faith, a false hope and a false relationship with God.

But if we truly care about people, then we will speak the truth in love. We will warn people about the reality of false conversion and we will encourage them to examine themselves just as we are supposed to examine ourselves.

And one of the best pieces of evidence about the true condition of a person's heart is what comes out of their mouth. So many times I have had people strongly, even angrily defend their assertion that they are a Christian while at the same time holding beliefs such as I don't believe the Bible is true.

Or I'm a Christian, I believe in evolution, not creation. Or I'm a Christian, Jesus was a good man, but he wasn't God. Or I'm a Christian, God's not a judge. Or I'm a Christian, homosexuality is not a sin.

Or I'm a Christian and it's a woman's right to choose to murder her baby. Or I'm a Christian and there are many ways to heaven. I've heard all of these things and more. Of course, they are quick to call me judgmental, which is a rather judgmental thing to say, when I dare to question the validity of their faith.

But it's not me that's condemning them. I'm merely pointing out the evidence against them that condemns them, the words coming out of their own mouth. And if you're here this morning and you profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ, yet you do not believe what God says about himself in his word, and you do not believe what God says about his word in his word, and you do not believe what God says about you in his word, and you do not believe what God says about the only way of salvation in his word, then you are not a Christian.

Now, that's not according to me. It's according to the truth of God's word. You may be religious, you may be spiritual, but according to scripture, you are not born again, you are not saved. Repent, turn from your sin, and believe the gospel while you still can.

First John 5, 11 to 13 says, and the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son of God does not have the life.

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. One more passage about man's condition, his fallen condition, and then we'll move on.

Turn to Ephesians 2, one to three. Ephesians chapter two, one to three. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. When I was a young Christian, someone taught me go eat popcorn, or General Electric Power Company for those epistles.

Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Ephesians chapter two, verses one to three. The apostle Paul wrote this, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Apart from the regenerating, life-changing, life-saving work of Jesus Christ, every person on the face of the earth is not a child of God, but a child of wrath.

That might rub some of you wrong, too. This brings us to the next important point. Yes, in order to truly understand the meaning of the most important word in the Bible, we must first understand the true nature of mankind, but we must also understand the truth about God's wrath and his holiness.

God's Wrath, Holiness, and Justice

Now, you might be sitting there thinking, when is this going to end? I don't wanna think about this. Just get to the most important word of the Bible. I wanted to hear something today about a New Year's resolution.

I wanna make another New Year's resolution I'm not gonna keep past February. Talk about New Year's resolutions. Sorry. We're not ready yet to talk about that most important word in the Bible. It's not enough that we realize that we are all sinful.

Romans 3 .23 does say, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We know that verse. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. We sin because we are sinners, and because of our sin nature, we all fall short of the glory of God.

And because we fall short of the glory of God, if we are unsaved, if we are not born again, then the wrath of God abides on us. Apart from the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God alone, we are children of God's holy and just wrath.

Apart from Christ, no person is a child of God, no matter how good they feel about themselves, and no matter how much we love them. We need to tell people this truth. With love in our hearts, we need to tell people this truth.

Sadly, the vast majority of people in the world run around claiming to be a child of God while denying the reality of God in virtually every aspect of their lives. And there are pastors and churches who feed such idolatry by pronouncing that everyone is a child of God.

Now, it might be soothing to the unsaved ear, but it is a lie. It's a lie. That only serves to lead people one step closer to the gates of hell. If a person is not a born-again follower of Jesus Christ, then according to scripture, not according to Tony, he or she is not a child of God, but a child of wrath.

John 3 .36 tells us this. He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Now, when we think about this word wrath, many things probably come to mind.

So let's define the word. Here's a definition that comes from the New Bible Dictionary. Quote, it is the permanent attitude of the holy and just God when confronted by sin and evil that is designated his wrath.

It is a personal quality without which God would cease to be fully righteous and his love would degenerate into sentimentality. It is as permanent and as consistent an element of his nature as is his love.

Scripture defines God's wrath as his righteous anger. Numbers 32, 10 to 13 says this. So the Lord's anger burned in that day and he swore saying none of the men which came up from Egypt from 20 years old and upward shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, for they did not follow me fully except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua, the son of Nun, for they have followed the Lord fully.

So the Lord's anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness 40 years until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord was destroyed. Scripture tells us that God's wrath is great.

Zechariah 7, 12 to 14. They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by a spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.

And just as he called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen, says the Lord of hosts. But I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth for they made the pleasant land desolate.

Scripture tells us that God's wrath has been revealed and continues to be revealed. Romans 1, 18 to 19. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them.

But God has yet to unleash the full fury of his wrath. Scripture tells us that his wrath is being stored up. Romans 2, verses five to eight. But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to each person according to his deeds.

To those who by perseverance and doing good seek the glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

And scripture tells us that the wrath of God will be accomplished. Revelation six, 15 to 17. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of the wrath has come and who is able to stand?

And again, maybe you're even thinking more now, Tony, I don't wanna hear this anymore. My God is a God of love. My God is not angry. My God is not wrath filled. My answer, you're absolutely right. You're right.

Your God is not angry because your God is not the God of the Bible. Yes, God is love. God is love. But if the God you worship is not also a God of perfect justice, then your God is a figment of your imagination.

Your God is not holy and God is holy. And if you say that God is not angry, then again, your argument is not with me. It's with God. It's with him. Not only is God angry, but God is hateful with a holy and righteous hatred.

Psalm 5 .5 says this. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all who do iniquity. What does that say? Psalm 11 .5. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates.

Turn with me to Proverbs 6 .16 -19. Proverbs 6 .16 -19. I want you to not only hear, but also see what this passage says. We have to deal with this. We're not gonna fully understand the most important word of the Bible until we deal with these things.

Proverbs 6 .16 -19. God's word tells us this. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.

Look at what it says. Now, we've all likely heard the adage, God hates the sin but loves the sinner, right? We've heard that. We might've said that. I've heard it countless times. That adage is not entirely true, at least not the way the adage is typically used by believer and unbeliever alike.

God is love. And I worry about some of you. I worry that as I talk about the judgment and wrath of God, and I talk about the sinfulness of man, that that's all you're gonna hear. And I emphasize every time I say that God is love because I want you to hear that too.

Have open ears, have open hearts. Don't have hearts of stone this morning to what you're hearing. Have hearts of flesh. God is love. But God is not love because he has shown you love. God is love because he is perfect, because he is holy.

His character is absolutely perfect. God's love is perfect and so is his hatred, perfect. The only conflict between God's love and God's hatred is found within the confines of our fallible sinful minds, because we struggle to see hatred through any other lens than the lens of our own sin, because our hatred is often so very, very sinful.

And so then we assign all hatred as sinful, but God is not sinful. God is holy. God is holy. Look again at the passage. Look at it closely. Look at it honestly. Look at it, if you can, without the influence of the American church's tradition that have so infected much of our thinking.

Look at what it says. God does not simply hate what haughty eyes do. God hates haughty eyes. God doesn't simply hate the lies we utter. He hates the tongue that lies. God doesn't simply abhor evil, violence.

He hates the hands that shed innocent blood. God doesn't simply hate the wicked plans of our hearts. He hates the heart that devises wicked plans. God doesn't simply hate the evil toward which our feet run.

He hates the feet that run toward evil. God doesn't simply hate the lies people utter. He hates the false witness. God doesn't simply hate strife among brethren. He hates the person who spreads strife among brethren.

It doesn't matter whether or not you agree with me. What matters is whether or not what I am telling you is true. And if I were merely sharing with you my opinions, what I am saying would mean absolutely nothing.

What matters is whether or not what I am telling you is the truth of God's word. What matters is what the Bible says. What the Bible actually says, not what we want it to say. Truth matters. Truth matters.

Now you might think that if God is love, He cannot hate. But scripture makes it clear that because God is holy, He must hate. And because God is holy, He hates everything that is not in perfect, direct compliance and perfect alignment with His holy, holy, holy character and nature.

And God's holy hatred in no way whatsoever minimizes or overshadows His holy and perfect love. There's no disparity with God. There's no inconsistency. With God, He is holy. Now what we have here is called the divine dilemma by some.

If God is holy, righteous and just, and He is, then He cannot simply forgive your sins against Him. In order to remain perfectly consistent with His nature and character, He must punish sin. But at the same time, we know this is true.

That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. We know that is true. The word of God is true. God is love. But if God sets aside His holiness, if God sets aside any portion of His justice, if God diminishes His wrath against any form of evil in order to extend to you His grace, mercy and love, then His grace, His mercy and love would be unjust.

And if His grace, mercy and love are unjust, then God is less than holy. And if God is less than holy, then He ceases to be. God, may it never be. May it never be. Being holy, God's justice is therefore holy.

Turn to Proverbs chapter 17. Proverbs chapter 17, verse 15. I love you, by the way. This isn't easy to do. This isn't easy. Please don't think I get off talking this way. I didn't sleep last night. All I could think of was you.

All I could picture, you sitting in the chairs you always sit in. My heart trembled before God, because this is hard. I love you. God's word tells us this. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.

An unjust judge is an abomination to Almighty God. How do you react when you turn on the news or you turn on the radio or you read a newspaper and you read about a judge letting a pedophile go with probation?

How do you react? How do you respond? Do you not demand justice? Have you ever been the victim of a crime? I've met all too many victims of crimes. They expect and they demand justice. An unjust judge is an abomination to God.

So does it not make sense that God would never do anything he considers to be an abomination? If he did just once, then he too would be an abomination and instantly cease from being God. And we know that could never happen because God is the same yesterday, today and forever.