The primary purpose in preaching
the Gospel is always the glory of God and the honour of His
dear Son. But beyond that, Gospel preaching
is to comfort the people of God in the midst of their trials
and their afflictions. And these usually, according
to 2 Timothy 1a, are afflictions for the sake of the Gospel. Because our lives are full of
opposition, aren't they? It may come from men and worldly
circumstances. It might just come from spiritual
places, like Ephesians 6 tells us. It can come from without
us, but often also, Romans 7 says, it comes from within us. And
no matter what the source of our affliction is, no matter
how varied and the variety that the circumstances are that afflict
us, our comfort only ever comes from one place, from the fact
that our God reigns supremely over all things. And that's including even the
greatest of our trials. Throughout the first 10 chapters
of Hebrews, the apostle proclaims that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the complete fulfilment of all Old Testament prophecy. All the
traditions, all the types, and all the sacraments of the law,
all of them are just promises. promises that an all-sufficient
Saviour will be provided by our all-loving Father in Heaven for
the sure saving of our souls. Here in Hebrews 11 we're now
encouraged to rest or to believe in our Saviour. And he does so
there with the many examples of faith throughout biblical
history. Did you notice, as Graham read, that there's a variety of blessings
that God bestows on His people through faith? And did you notice also that
the trials and the afflictions are different for each one of
them as well? I truly believe that Hebrews
11 is an encouragement that no matter what's going on in our
lives, what circumstance we're afflicted by, no matter what
we're experiencing in this world, even in the midst of great opposition
for the gospel, our faithful God will bless us with the faith
that he instills upon us. If our Lord's willing, I just
want us to consider the term things not seen, because there's
many things in this world that are not seen, aren't there? Science
is continuing to discover new things every day, and any scientist
that's worth his salt, he can only ever say that this is what
we think at the moment, based on the things that we've found,
the things that we know so far. There are so many things that
we don't understand that go on in every instance and every event
that have ever taken place in this world, from the greatest
of them even to the least of them. Our only hope in this world
is that all these things, as out of control as they seem to
us, are subject, ultimately, to the sovereign hand of our
God. And remember, this is a God that promises to take every one
of those things and use them for the good of His people. And
this is why Isaiah 52 summarises our Gospel so wonderfully. With
thy God reigneth. I'd like us to begin today just
with one verse out of Hebrews 11, verse 3. Through faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so
that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. I want to have a look at that because
all those inner workings of creation, both initially and continually,
are attributed not to an event, not to a circumstance, not even
to a created being. All of them are attributed to
our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the word of God in this
verse. According to John 1, he's the one that created the worlds.
And according to Ephesians 1, he's the one that worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will. Our Lord is the object of our
faith because the only hope that we have of salvation, both temporal
and eternal, is that we have favour with God
by Christ's blood and righteousness, by his advocacy and intercession
on our behalf. It's his faithfulness to the
promises of God towards believing sinners like ourselves. That's
why he's the object of our faith. Turn in your Bibles now to Genesis
2. Because that's the point, isn't
it? We are sinners. We're sinners in everything we
do. No matter how much we think we
get right, no matter how much fleshly religion
tells us, we can get right. We sin even in our most righteous
works. We all fell in our father Adam
a long time ago. But even today we continue to
produce the fruits of that fall in every word, every feeling,
every thought, and every action of our lives. We are sin. In 2 Corinthians 5, the Apostle
Paul tells us that all true believers walk by faith and not by sight. They walk trusting themselves
into the hands of God instead of trusting themselves to their
own wisdom and their own abilities. And that's our problem, isn't
it? So often, daily, usually moment by moment. We reject the
grace of God and we rely upon our own strength, our own discernment. So let's read a bit of scripture
and hopefully we'll see where we went wrong. and why we have
such a great need of a savior. So we're gonna read in Genesis
2, we're actually gonna read from verse 23. From verses one
to seven, God made earth, forming the man out of the dust of the
ground. In eight to 17, God made the
garden of Eden and put man in it. And in 18 to 22, Adam names
all the creatures and God makes woman. So from Genesis 2.23,
and I want you to remember that this is a practical illustration
of something, but as we read, we'll see that there's a whole
heap of parallels spiritually. So I want you to look for the
gospel in it, and I want you to look for the spiritual things
in it, and I want you to realize, or hopefully you'll realize as
we read, that they're patterns that we know from our own lives.
There's nothing new under the sun. This experience of Adam's
parallels our own in so many ways. Okay, reading from 23. And Adam said, this is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Now, we're all naked
before an all-seeing God. We're only kidding ourselves
if we think we're not. But wonderfully and amazingly,
the grace of God doesn't depend on our merits at all. It never
has, and it never will. 3.1 Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, You shall not eat of
the tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch
it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the
day that you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open and you
shall be as gods. Now I want you to just listen
to this and remember, as gods, knowing good and evil. And when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her
husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them were
both opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed
fig leaves together and made themselves aprons." They were
ashamed now, weren't they? They saw themselves in a sense
as God sees them. And because they're sinners now,
what did they do? They made futile attempts to
cover themselves from an all-seeing God. That's the substance of
religion, fleshly religion. Nothing's changed. Verse eight,
and they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in
the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from
the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. How often do we hide ourselves
amongst the trees of life? Become engrossed in life and
hide from our God, in a sense. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. See, now his conscience is condemning
him. Now, because of his inability,
he feels guilty in the presence of God. And it's no wonder the
preacher said in Ecclesiastes, In much wisdom is much grief. And he that increases in knowledge,
increaseth in sorrow. See, we all fell, and we are
only ever continue to fall under our own strength and responsibility.
Verse 11, and he said, Who told thee that El was naked? hast
thou eaten of the tree, wherefore I commanded thee that thou shouldest
not eat? And the man said, The woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did
eat. And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that
thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, Because thou hast done this, Thou art cursed above all
cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly
thou shalt go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." See, there's an enmity
already between us. That's that enmity of Ephesians
6, that spiritual wickedness that sets itself against us.
Now, that came from God's hand, didn't it? God put that enmity
there. It's interesting to consider
again spiritually that often when we see the woman or certain woman,
it's a reference to church, it's a reference to the bride of Christ. And we see it most particularly
in Revelation 12. See, this bringing forth children,
this could be a reference also to the affliction of the people
that the Lord brings forth in the gospel, the children that
come forth as the church witnesses on this world. It's just a suggestion,
but it is a spiritual book, and we need to continue to look that
way at it. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto
the voice of thy wife, not trusted the grace of God, trusted someone
else, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake." So let's just start there for a moment. The ground's cursed.
It used to produce Whatever was needed for Adam and Eve, whatever
was pleasant to the eye, whatever was good to eat, but now it's
cursed. In Romans 8 it says that the
world was frustrated as a consequence of our sin. Thankfully Romans
8 also tells us that all things work for the good, for the sake
of the Lord's people. He goes on, in sorrow shall thou
eat of it all the days of our life. This is because we've taken
responsibility for ourselves, and we are finite creatures. Not only that thorns, verse 18,
and also thistles shall it bring forth unto thee. Satan plants
tears in the church of God, doesn't he? So there's a frustration
there, not only in the way the ground produces, but in what
the ground produces now for us. And thou shalt eat of the herb
of the field, in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground. For out of the ground, out of
it was thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto thus thou shalt
return. See, that's the labor of our
work, the sweat of our face, the work to become righteous,
to enter God's presence. This whole world, even the spiritual
element, has been subject to frustration. And before us, it's
just opposition and it's difficulty. And Adam called his wife's name
Eve because she was the mother of all living. And there's a
great article in our bulletin this week where Clay Curtis just
makes a suggestion there that Adam's renamed his wife, because
she's the mother of all living, saved people of God. And it is worth thinking deeper
on. Again, it's spiritual. So Adam called his wife Eve,
his wife's name Eve, because she's the mother of all living.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of
skins, and he clothed them. So this is an all-seeing God,
but somehow he's been able to clothe these guys, and they're
right in his sight now. Only God can do that. And the Lord God said, Behold,
the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. We
may be like gods, but only in that element, only that we know
good and evil. Now lest he put forth his hand
and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever,
therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden
to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he, this is
God, drove out the man. See, we're prevented from returning. especially this way, and he placed
at the east end of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life." And that's the law of God. So that same knowledge of
good and evil, which we desired so much to make one wise, is
in essence the same thing that prevents us from entering God's
presence. All it can do is judge us. So
there are a number of things here that are relevant to our
subject of things not seen. If we put it simply, we rejected
the unconditional grace of God in our father Adam. And what
did we do? We went it alone. And we went
alone guided by our newfound knowledge of good and evil, didn't
we? This is the state that we were
in when we left the garden of God's grace. Sorry, actually
when we were driven out of the garden of God's grace and when
we were prevented from entering. First, we died spiritually, which
means we're unable to discern spiritual realities. We're blind
to the light of the gospel by which all life comes. And as 1 John says, because of
that, we're unable even at this point to fellowship with God.
Two, we began to die physically. And we compromised our inability
to sustain ourselves all the more. And all we can do is add
condemnation to ourself in every feeling, word, thought, and action. Three, let's not forget Job. God has put enmity now between
Satan and his seed and the seed of the Lord. Now, it is directed
at the Lord Jesus Christ, but we're in him and we're one with
him and we are the target of his attacks. So there's a spiritual
realm set at opposition to us. Number four, we now enter a world
that has also been frustrated and frustrates all our efforts. Everything, everything is set
in opposition to us. And it's been set in opposition
to us by a God who doesn't fail. So in those famous last words,
but wait, there's more. There's one other point I want
to make. We left this garden, and yes, we now have that knowledge
of good and evil, don't we? But all that can really do is
reveal an infinitely offended God. and the helpless sinner within
each one of us. Now that's what the law does,
that's all the law does. And that's what the knowledge
of good and evil does. So this is why the Apostle Paul
in 1 Corinthians 1 says that God has made foolish the things,
the wisdom, sorry, of this world. Because as much as we thought
or still think today, that we're equipped to present ourselves
fit for heaven, and especially to enter God's presence. We just
find ourselves convicted by our conscience. We find ourselves
growing in offense to God. And we find ourselves in desperate
need for righteousness that we can't produce ourselves, but
we desperately need to enter heaven. Now that's our natural state.
And unless God does a work in us, we'll continue, according
to Romans 1, to suppress the knowledge of God. And according
to Romans 10, to set at work in forms of righteousness for
ourselves. The natural man no matter what state he's in,
can only ever reject God for the fig leaves of his own religion. We have no choice, that's how
we are naturally, that's our disposition. And we seem to hope
somehow to avoid meeting God in judgment. In reality, by fleshly
religion, we just continue to increase our offense to God. and we continue to gather more
condemnation to ourselves. That's how we are in the natural
state, walking by sight, trusting in our own wisdom and abilities,
and yet for the people of God, the people that God chose from
the foundation of the world, for those people, God has provided
a covering, a refuge, And that covering is the perfect righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by that covering, by that
covering, we can boldly, even confidently enter the presence
of our God. This is the gospel by which we
must be saved. And it's must because it's a
desperate need. If you want salvation, this is
the only avenue of salvation, is God's grace, His will and
His work. This is the gospel light that
now guides believing children throughout the course of their
world, especially in the midst of all their difficulties. Now
by the grace of God, we walk by faith. We're guided by God
the Holy Spirit. We're now discerning all things
in our lives in regard to the Word of God. And as the Holy
Spirit strengthens us in faith, we look to our Father and His
precious promises as all we need for life and immortality. And
it's just the same way our Saviour did. Now this is important to
notice, in Matthew 26, it's the Lord Jesus Christ that agonized
over becoming sin for us and being separated from His Father
in Heaven. But as He did so, He prayed,
O my Father, if it be possible, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as Thou will. See, even in the greatest affliction
and agony ever recorded, our mighty Substitute and Saviour
still walked by faith and not by sight. With all that He was
as the God-Man, sovereign over all things, our Lord Jesus Christ
trusted even this agony unto His Father, and in doing so He
established a perfect faithfulness on behalf of every one of these
people. Because of our Saviour's perfect
life and sin-attaining death, every one of the Lord's children
right now are fit for heaven and fit to enter His presence. It doesn't always seem to be
the case though, does it? So much of the world opposes
that good work of God within us. So often Satan, the world,
and especially, especially our own flesh drives us back to relying
on ourselves. So often we find ourselves walking
by our own fallen knowledge instead of by the wisdom of God. And
it's for that reason And by the grace of God, we have so many
encouragements in the scripture, not to improve ourselves, but
to wait on God, to rest in Christ, and to live by His promises.
So I just want to read some of these scriptures, and I want
you to let them wash over you. You don't have to turn there.
But it's God's Word and it's God's encouragement to put away
our wisdom and knowledge and look to Him. The first one's
pretty famous, it's Exodus 14 verse 13. You know the one where
the people are there before, the Red Sea's before them, they
can't go forward, they can't go back. What a great description
of life, the frustrations of life. And Moses said to the people,
fear not. stand still, let's look at it
spiritually, stop your work, stop your labour, stop trying,
stop using your wisdom, and see the salvation of the Lord, which
He will show you today. For the Egyptians, now the Egyptians
represent Satan, bondage, the law, the difficulties, the impossibilities,
the frustrations of our lives. For the Egyptians who you have
seen today, that's in this life, you shall see them no more forever. Psalm 111 verse 10, another one
you know I'm sure. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. This is when true knowledge starts.
A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. How do we do His commandments?
We did His commandments in the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't we?
And that's why the verse goes on to say, His praise endureth
forever. Psalm 119, verse 105, again,
I'm sure you know it. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path. One John, walk in the light.
Proverbs 3.5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean
not unto thine own understanding. Now we left that garden leaning
on our own understanding. Micah 7.8, now Micah, if you
read it, he laments the corruption in the world from the highest
point, right to out in the rural district, even to that which
lies in his own heart. And he's dejected by it, and
he laments it, but then he says, rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. And notice that's singular. When
I fall, he knows he's a sinner and he knows he'll fall. But
when I fall, how confident is this, I shall rise. And when
I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. Angus read
from Habakkuk 2.4 a few weeks back, Behold, his soul which
is lifted up in him. That's the pride of the natural
man, isn't it? That's the pride that we left the garden with.
That's the pride by which we rejected the grace of God. Behold,
his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just
shall live by his faith." And notice they're just before they
live. They live because they're just. Romans 8, verses 6 and 7, and
you couldn't say it more plainly than this, for to be carnally
minded is death. That's Genesis 3, isn't it? Carnally
minded is the knowledge of good and evil. But when we got it,
we died spiritually, didn't we? But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. And the reason? Because the carnal
mind is at enmity against God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So God says that no matter
how much you work at your religion, you can never, you can never,
through carnal-minded thinking, through legalism, through the
bondage of religion, you can never be in fellowship with God. Romans 12.2, be not conformed
to this world, and that's what we do when we hide ourselves
amongst the trees, isn't it, of this world, when we become
engrossed in the world. and our own sin and our own selves,
rather than look to the Lord. Be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed. And how? By the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and
perfect will of God. See, by believing, we prove the
will of God. The Lord told us in John 6 that
the will of God is to believe. Okay, another one's Colossians
3. Now, this is the start of Colossians 3, and so often so
many people would say this is where the rubber hits the road.
This is a religious term. This is law. This is where you
start your practical Christianity. And it's interesting to see where
Paul starts practical Christianity, if that's the case. He begins,
if ye then be risen with Christ, if you're a believer, seek those
things which are above. where Christ sitteth at the right
hand of God. Now he begins with this, Christ
sits because the work's finished and he's at the right hand because
he's favoured. So Paul first directs us to our
great advocate and saviour for his intercession before God.
Then he goes on, set your affection on things above, not on things
of this world, this earth. For you are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is all our life,
who is our life, sorry, shall appear. See, he's unseen at the
moment again, isn't he? But when he shall appear, Then
shall you also appear with him in glory. 1 Peter 1.13, Norm read this the
other week. He says, Wherefore gird up the
loins of your minds. Now that girding up your loins
is a preparation for battle, that's setting yourselves ready
for battle. But this is spiritual again, isn't it? Gird up the
loins of your mind, be sober. That means think sensibly. And
when we're talking of thinking, that means think spiritually.
Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Again, things unseen,
things we're waiting on. Just like all those pilgrims
in Hebrews 11, Okay, we can't do this without one quote from
1 John. So 1 John 1, 6 and 7, he says,
if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
now to walk is to be guided by, to put your trust into here in
the context, and to walk in darkness, to trust in darkness, to trust
in that ignorance, that knowledge of good and evil which is blind
spiritually, If we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as
He is in the light, and our Saviour is in the light because He walked
by faith, and His Father raised Him up, and His Father sat Him
next to Him at His right hand. If we walk the way He walked,
it's by faith. And if we do so, we have fellowship
one with another, and what John's talking about there is fellowship
even with God Himself. We have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
our sin. In Ephesians 1, the Apostle prays,
and it's a beautiful prayer, but it is his priority. And so
I just want to read this prayer as well, and note some of the
language. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the
Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him. the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know, you might not be able to
see it, but that you might know what is the hope of His calling.
What is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints?
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe
according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at
His own right hand in the heavenly places? far above all principality, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in the world which is to come.
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." Isaiah 52 again, thy God reigns. Even our Savior, when he was
tempted by Satan, he answered him in Matthew 4.4. It is written,
man shall not live by bread alone. Remember that bread that we,
by the sweat of our face, will eat it? No, man doesn't live
by bread alone. Man lives by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God. There's our guiding light. There are so many more verses
like this in the scriptures, they're prolific. Because salvation
is not of our work, is it? It never was. Salvation is a
work of God. And all these scriptures, this
whole book encourages us to look away from ourselves and look
to Him. There's one more scripture I want to finish with, but I'd
like you to turn with me to it. Please, it's 2 Corinthians 4. We began talking about the saints
of God and the comfort that faith in the gospel brings to them
in their trials and their afflictions, and I can't think of a better
encouragement than to look at Paul's words at the end of this
chapter. In 2 Corinthians 3 he explains
how looking to the law only ever blinds us from seeing God's salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He finishes chapter 3, though,
reminding us that the transformation of God's people, the transformation
that everyone is so captivated by, the transformation that seems
to occupy most of false religion is attention and activities. That transformation, he says,
is actually the work of God the Holy Spirit. He begins chapter 4 declaring
that he preaches the gospel faithfully and that while it's Satan that
does blind men, it's God that opens the eyes of his people
to reveal his glory in the face of his son. And then from 7 to
14, Paul reminds us that he too, just like us, is a man who is
frail, he's helpless, and he's afflicted for the gospel's sake.
He's a man just like us, waiting every moment on the grace of
God. But now at the end of chapter
four, Paul encourages us to look beyond our trials, beyond our
afflictions, beyond the things of this world, beyond our own
inabilities. This man that suffered all these
atrocities for the gospel's sake, In fact, he suffered these atrocities
for us. I've quoted him so much here
today in the pulpit. We think of him and we read his
word. It is God's word, but God's used him, and he suffered for
it. The man who suffered all these
atrocities for the sake of the gospel, he encouraged us to look
away from ourselves, to look to Christ, to look to heaven's
glory, and especially to look at our place there in Him. So let's read from verse 15.
He says, for all things are for your sakes, for our sakes, Romans
8.28, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving
of many rebound to the glory of God. For which cause? That's the glory of God, we faint
not. But though our outward man is
perishing, we left that garden dying, and we continue to die. That outward man is perishing,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. That's that fresh
manner of the word of God. For our light affliction is but
for a moment, sorry, which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding weight and eternal weight of glory.
But he says, while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen. We look away from heaven
and we look back to ourselves and we sink as quick as Peter
did on that water. He says, this is the reason,
for the things which are seen are temporal. The Lord will destroy
all of this. The only things that will remain
are the works of the Lord, because he says, but the things which
are not seen, they're eternal. We all fell in our father in
Adam, and we left that garden of God's grace frail, helpless,
vulnerable, spiritually blind, and physically decaying. We entered
a world, and that includes that spiritual realm, that was set
in absolute opposition to our God and to ourselves. And now God made it that way. And while we took full responsibility
for our own souls, all we were equipped with was a convicted
conscience and a constantly rebellious nature. Brothers and sisters, Genesis
3 is not just one-off. This happens to me so often. And just when I think I'm getting
better, I find myself again going it alone, resting on my own wisdom, my own understanding. May the great God of our faith. May he bless us by opening the
eyes of our understanding. May he bless us by revealing
his glory in the face of his son. May he bless us by causing
us to realize that Christ, 1 Corinthians 1.30, is all our wisdom. May he do it now. and every single
time we fall until we see him again face to face. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we truly, by your grace, we truly know that we're sinners. We need
to be reminded so often, reminded and brought back to that reality.
I know we do, and I'm sorry, Father. We're rebels at heart
and rebels by nature. We don't know what's good for
us. Pray, Father, you'll cause us to look beyond this world,
beyond the things of this world, beyond our wisdom and our activities,
and look to you and just set our eyes on you. Father, you've
got to do it, because we can't do it. And it's part of salvation.
You promised to do all things necessary for our salvation.
So, Father, please, work by the power of your Holy Spirit amongst
us, by the preaching of your gospel, and by Christ within
us. Cause us to see Him and rest
in Him. And to look away from all these
things, and as much as they hurt us, and as much as they worry
us, and as much as we suffer by them, help us to look to You
for comfort, Heavenly Father. And give us that comfort by the
power of Your Gospel. Cause us to look beyond this
world. Cause us to look away from the things that are unseen,
Heavenly Father. Cause us to rest completely.
and absolutely by our souls in the finished work of our great
King and Saviour. I do pray in your mercy Heavenly
Father you go before us all this week and you would just apply
these truths to our heart and just settle us and cause us in
the midst of the greatest unrest to see that you are a God that
reigns from in the midst of a whirlwind. have us to just trust you like
little children in the Father. Pray your mercy upon us in Christ's
precious name.