If you'll take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, as we continue
our study in this matter of faith. Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll
begin in verse 13. My text is going to be in verse
18. 17-19, but let's go ahead and
begin reading here, because I want to deal with this matter of enduring
faith. Let's read this. The Scripture
says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but have seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims in the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a The first thing I want to ask
is this, how long does true faith last? How long does true faith
last? This text plainly gives us the
answer. These all died in what? Faith. True God-giving faith
is enduring faith. Enduring faith. When one believes
in Jesus Christ, It is not a one-time decision. It's not made based
on our emotions. It's not made simply as an acknowledgment
of sound and true doctrine. But faith is the work of God
upon the hearts of sinners. Faith is the work of God upon
the hearts of sinners. True faith is the result of two
things. The will of God and the power
of God, the will of God. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to become the sons of God, which were born.
How were we born? Not by blood, not by the will
of the flesh, not by the will of man, but of God. The new birth is a product of
the will of God. and it is a product of the power
of God, the power of God. Read this, you don't turn here,
we've got so many places to go, but I thought of this scripture
earlier, Ephesians 1, it says this, The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His
calling, what is the riches of the glory of His saints, the
inheritance of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, what
is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe,
according to the working of His mighty power. Faith is a product
of the new birth, which is of the will and power of God. For
by grace you are saved through faith, and that faith is not
of yourself. It is a gift. It is a gift of
God's grace to you, you who believe. Consider that even your faith
tonight, that you are continuing to believe simply because it
is the will and the power of God that you continue. Therefore,
there is no glorying in ourselves. If we endure to the end, if we
believe until our death, all of the glory belongs to God who
gave us the faith and who kept us in the faith. True faith is a result of spiritual
life. Just as the breath you're breathing
is evident you're alive. Now, without breath, you can't
be alive. So it is with faith. Faith is
the evidence. Faith is the breath. of spiritual
life. And just as you're going to live
as long as you breathe, so it is with faith. We live
as long as we believe. And so it is we're going to continue
in this. These all died in faith. Over in John chapter 8, our Lord
spake these words to these people, and it says, many believed on
Him. John chapter 8, verse 30. The Scripture says, as He spake
these words, many believed on Him. They made a profession. They decided to believe His Word. And this is what Jesus said to
those who made that profession. He said this to those Jews that
believed on Him. Here's the condition of true
faith. you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And what's the result of this
true continuing faith? It is this, you shall know the
truth. You shall know me. You shall
know me and the truth, me, I will set you free. This is what faith
is. So when Jesus, knowing those
who profess faith, who only pretended, He reveals the character of true
faith is this, if you continue. That's the character of true
faith. If you continue in my word, then it is evident you
are my disciples indeed. You see, someone that comes in,
makes a profession of faith and goes away. You know what's evident?
They are not His disciples. That is not His disciple. They
were mere professors. They did not possess true life
or faith. And you shall know Christ. Do
you know Christ this evening? Do you know Him? John says to
know Him is to have life. He shall set you free, free from
the guilt of sin, free from the power of sin, and one day free
from the presence of sin. He shall set you free. We know
the bondage of our soul and need of His blood to set us free.
Therefore we are free indeed. Thus like these who went before
us in our text, we too shall endure to the end. All true faith
endures to the end. What then is the object, the
hope of true faith? These all died embracing the
promises of God, confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims
looking for a country. We who are believers in Christ
this evening, we are looking for a country. We are looking
for a city that's not here. True faith has its eyes fixed
on eternity, on heaven. And listen, they were not mindful
from the country from when they came out, that says in verse
15. They might have, if they were
mindful, they might have had opportunity to return. But now
they desire a better country, that is in heavenly, whereof
God is not ashamed to be called their God. For He hath prepared
for them a city, prepared for them a city. Now, true faith
as it endures in this world is looking for a better country.
We are strangers and pilgrims in this land like Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. We have come out of this world,
and we have no desire to return. Do you have any desire to return
to the former ignorance before you came to faith? Do you have
any desire to return? No. No, Paul said, I press toward
the mark of the high calling of God that's in Christ Jesus.
We press on toward a higher calling. These saints look forward to
the promised land, not Canaan, but heaven. Even so, to disciples
of Christ, as we endure in faith, we long not to return to our
sins of ignorance, but true belief has no desire to remain here,
but rather to continue in this faith until it is brought to
sight. Now, remember in John 6, the
Lord, he preached that message of grace. What a wonderful message
of grace John 6 is. I think one of the greatest sermons,
any sermon Christ preached was the greatest sermon. But this
truly was a great sermon. You had all of those thousands
of people who made a profession of faith, wanted him to be their
king. They said, this is the prophet,
this is the one. And he preached that message to them, of grace
and love. He said, I'm the bread of life
that came down from heaven. Anybody who believes on me, he
shall never hunger or thirst for righteousness. He's talking
about spiritual things. And they're all thinking physical.
Our Lord said this about man. He said, you know what? You know
why you won't come to me? Because you can't. No man can come unto
me except the Father which sent me draw him. He testified that
they would not believe because they were dead. But in witness of His victorious
work, Jesus said that all that the Father had given Him should
come to Him, and none of them should be lost. To which message
those who professed to be His disciples turned away from Him.
They heard that message of salvations of the Lord, and their faith
disappeared. They did not endure in faith,
because their faith was false. They left the Lord. But consider
this. He was not only proving the false
faith of these that profess, He was also proving the true
faith of those that believe. Those disciples, they didn't
fully understand what Christ was saying, but they said this,
Lord Jesus said, are you going to go away also? They said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Have you been there? Well, you
just don't understand anything. is going on around you. You are
oblivious to any understanding of what the Lord is doing. And
you are tempted to turn away. And you just resign. Where else
am I going to go? You have the words of eternal
life. And we believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the
living God. We've got no place else to go and don't want to
go anywhere else. That's true faith. That's enduring
faith. And it was tried in these disciples
and found to be true. These disciples, like these of
old, they didn't consider returning to their former country. They
had nothing to return to. Like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress,
would he ever have thought to return to the city of destruction?
No, there was nothing there. But death and sorrow, he had
no mind to return. And neither does true faith have
any mind to return, because we have something that God has prepared
for us. Jesus said this in Luke 12. He
said, Little fear not, little flock. Listen to this. It is your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Is that not some of the most
astounding words you'd ever heard in your life? It is God's pleasure
to give this vile man the kingdom by making me acceptable to Christ. It's your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Believer in Christ, this life,
this world in which we live is full of trouble. Our old man
is full of sin and not getting any better. Our enemies are full
of hatred and violence, seeking our hurt and destruction, but
we embrace these promises as we journey here. God has prepared
for us a kingdom, and it is his good pleasure to give it to us,
and it is our longing to have it. It is our desire to be there. Therefore fear not, nor be troubled
by the providences of time. Fear not the hatred of the world,
and fear not even the sin of the old nature. God has taken
all that into account, and put away thy sin in Christ. This
is what faith embraces as we journey here. And so like these
saints We too must leave this land of sorrow and tears, but
go into a place of eternal glory. But now I want to talk about
the in-between time. Now I want to talk about, we
have this conversion, we have this faith given to us. This
faith is going to endure all the way to death. We seek a country
because God promised it. We are going to inherit the kingdom
of heaven because it is God's good pleasure to give it to you.
for Christ's sake. Now consider that. Not because
of you, but because of Him. But in between the time of our
conversion, until the time of our death, something's taking
place. Something is taking place in
the midst of all this between heaven and our conversion. And
now I want us to look in verse 17 and see what it is that takes
place in our lives. It's the same thing that happened
to Abraham. Look at verse 17. The Scripture says, By faith
Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son. Now the Holy Spirit
by the Apostle is shining another light on this very important
aspect of faith, which is this, the trial of our faith. The trial of our faith. Everyone who has true God-given
faith, that faith will be and must be tried. It will be tried. It must be tried. The trial of
our faith. A true faith that endures to
the end, before the end, will go through many trials. Listen to what the psalmist said
in Psalm 34 and 19, and see if this isn't true about you. Many
are the afflictions of the righteous. Is that your experience? You
who have faith, is that your experience? Many are the afflictions
of the righteous. But what is the hope of faith?
The hope of faith is this, the anticipation of faith is this,
but the Lord delivereth him out of all his trials. The Lord delivereth him out of
all these afflictions. This vain religious self-righteous
world, this evil world of false religion, They believe that God wants all
of His saints to be healthy, wealthy, and happy in this world. Have you found that to be true?
You who believe, you found that to be true? You suppose Abraham
found that to be true? When he was tried, he had to
offer up his son. You suppose that made him happy
and healthy? Lazarus begging at the gate of
the rich man, Well, God wanted him to be, it must, he just didn't
have enough faith. What religion would tell you?
What a, I don't want to tell you what it is. But nowhere in scripture is this
promised to us. Nowhere in scripture does God
promise you should be happy in this world. Nowhere in scripture
does God promise you health or prosperity in this world. Nowhere.
He does promise all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. You have that promise. You have
those things. He says you have the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Now you've got that. What are
the unsearchable riches of Christ? Forgiveness of sins. Pardon. Peace with God. Righteousness,
sanctification, redemption, wisdom. These are the unsearchable riches
that are promised you, that are given to you. They are yours. They are yours. And we receive
these by faith. But our Savior said this in John
16, verse 33, In this world, though I have given you all spiritual
blessings, though I have suffered and died for your sins, though
I have given you the promise of heaven, in this present world
you shall suffer tribulation. You shall suffer. It is not an
option. God's saints suffer. in this world. We have tribulation. What did our Savior, the Son
of God, experience while He was here? Isaiah says He was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. Jesus said, The Son of Man hath
not where to lay His head. Paul said, Though He were a Son,
yet Learned he obedience? How? How did Christ, the Son,
learn obedience? Through the things he suffered.
Through the things he suffered. Let us then, being servants of
Christ, expect nothing less than to suffer so that we, through
suffering, might, like him, learn obedience. Suffering has a purpose,
friends. It's not random. It has a purpose. The whole of a believer's life
is full of a series of trials, a series of troubles and difficulty. Yes, there are joys mixed in. God does give his people joy,
seasons of joy. Matter of fact, Hearing the gospel
is the greatest joy of our hearts. He gives us these seasons of
refreshment. But most of our days are spent
in the other, trials and afflictions, pains and sorrows. But I want
you to know, this is important, as Abraham was tried, was he
tried on purpose or was it accidental? Was it intended? or was it happenstance? We know it's true that God ordained
this trial for Abraham. Even so, each one of us, our
trials are specifically given to us from God. They are given to us. They're
not meaningless events of chance, but rather designed of God for
a purpose of testing or proving our faith. I believe it's in 1 Peter 1 and
7. He says that the trial of your
faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found to the praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The trial of your
faith, why is it precious? To you who are believers, why
is the trial of your faith precious? because you know the importance
of true faith. I do not want to be a pretender. Do you? Would you want to be
found in that category of people, those goats who have been set
on His left hand, who expected heaven and found only hell? No, I want to know Do I believe
on the Son of God or not? Is my faith God-given or self-given? Self-given faith is useless.
I need God-given faith. How do you know this except God
try your faith? prove your faith. These trials
are not intended to separate us from God, but rather to draw
us to God. To draw us. And that scripture
in our text says, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. So the first thing is the necessity
of trials. Necessity of them. All true faith, God-given faith
will be tried and tested of God. Now here, it reads, when he was
tried. Scripture says, but by faith,
when Abraham was tried. Now, you can go over to Genesis
chapter 22. Look over there. Look at Genesis.
This is the historical account given to us in Genesis chapter
22. And you look at verse 1, it says
something a little different. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham. Now, Paul, in our account in
Hebrews, said that he was tried. But in the original account,
it says he was, God did tempt Abraham. Now, we know that the
trial of Abraham's faith was not God tempting him to sin. James tells us specifically that
God tempts no man with evil, but when he is tempted, he is
drawn away of his own So then this word here means,
when he says tempt, he means to test or prove. Now what is he testing? What
is he proving about his faith? He is testing either one of two
things. He is testing either the presence
of true faith or God is trying or proving the sin that is in
one's heart. When God tests us, when God does
tempt us as He did Abraham, tries our faith, He is proving one
of these two things. Now, the testing or proving of
sin in our heart, this I believe you can see in King Hezekiah. Hold your place here. Go to 2
Chronicles 32. 2 Chronicles 32, and look at
verse 31. I hope I got that right. I think I did.
Let's see. He said, Howbeit the business
of the ambassadors and the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him
to inquire the wonder that was done in the land, God left him
to try him that he might know all that was in his heart. And this King Hezekiah was a
believer in Christ, was a good man. God did many miracles by
him, but when these ambassadors came, these ambassadors came,
he did not testify of God's great He did not testify of God's deliverance. What he did was he sinned. He testified of his own greatness
to these Babylonian people. He bragged on himself. And here
we see the testing of God was not accompanied with power to
overcome that sin. What did it say? God left him. To do what? Why would God not
give him the strength to prove something, to prove the sin that
was in his heart? Believer, we confess that any
trial put before us, no matter how great or small, if God leaves
us to our own strength, we'll fail. Is that not true? If God left you to overcome any
obstacle, Could you do it? No. We would all fail. So why does
God give such trials to us who can do nothing but fail? The
same as He declared to Hezekiah that Hezekiah might know all
that was in his heart. God wasn't doing this for His
own information. Don't even, that's foolish to
even think that God wouldn't know what's in his heart until
after it was over. Oh yeah, well now I see Hezekiah was a sorry
son of a gun. No, he was doing it so Hezekiah
would know the sin of his own heart. Oh how true that we are
such sinners by nature that we can do no good. We could not
keep ourselves in the faith. So in times of prosperity, like
Hezekiah here, most likely are being tested to show our lack
of strength, our lack of faith in God. Why? Listen, to humble
us. To humble us. Why would God allow
such horrible things that we ourselves, we sin. Why would God not give us strength
to overcome such evils in our hearts? The same reason He did
it to Israel in Deuteronomy 8, He said, when you shall remember
that the Lord led you all this way to humble you. Remember all the failures they
had, Israel had on their way to the land of Canaan? Why did
God allow such failures? to open up our eyes to see our
utter vileness of our nature, to show us our need of Him, to
humble us, so God tests us, God tries us, so that He might show
us the sin of our nature. Do you know the full measure
of the sin of your nature yet? Have you found the end of your
nature? and how vile and corrupted can
be? No, God shows us these things.
And what does this do? Does it drive us from God? No,
it draws us to God. If you have true faith, it draws
you to God. Now, the second type of temptation
is what is here in our text, the trial of Abraham's faith,
is to prove the existence of our faith, the strength of our
faith that is in Christ, which we constantly need. Since faith
is the only evidence of our election and redemption, to believe it,
to the believer, it is vital to know that our faith is genuine,
that our faith is a product of the work and power of God in
our hearts. Therefore, for our benefit and
our comfort, God sends trials. even as he did to Abraham, who
is the eminent type of every believer. Now, consider the greatness
of this trial. Look at it again in your text.
Go back to your text. Hold your place there in Genesis
now, because we'll read there in just a second, but consider
this. The Scripture says, By faith, when Abraham was tried...
Now, what was his trial? To offer up Isaac. And he that
had received the promise offered up his only begotten son. God had promised Abraham that
in Isaac Christ should come. That was a promise. In Isaac
shall thy seed be called. Isaac was the promised vessel.
He was the only begotten son of Abraham. Ishmael had been
cast out. He was the only heir. And then
all of a sudden, out of the blue, for no apparent reason at all,
God says, take your son, your only son whom you love, take
him to the mountain and kill him for me. Look at your text. Go over to
Genesis 22 now and read the account. In verse 1, it came to pass that
he tempted Abraham. God did tempt Abraham and said,
Abraham. He said, Behold, here am I. He
said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom you love, and
get thee to Mount Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. It's here
men begin to reproach God for such a thing. They even blaspheme
God for commanding such a horrible thing as killing his son. But
who is meant to bring God before their judgment bar? Is God who gives life? Is God
who takes life and He takes it the way He chooses? It's here that Abraham might
have balked at this trial. Or he might have tried to reason
his way out of it. Consider that the demand of God
was to slay the one whom Christ should come, and not only slay him, but Abraham
was commanded of his own hand to cut the throat of his own
son, and burn his body. Reason would ask this, how could
this be? Isaac was the chosen son, the
promised seed. Surely God must be mistaken. Well, how often does God command,
the commands of God, oppose the logic and reason of man? How often does God's commands
oppose our logic and our reason? Preaching to dead sinners. You know, the preacher has no
power to save anyone, and yet he is commanded to preach to
dead sinners. That appears to be against logic. And yet this is what we do by
faith. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together as a matter of... Why do you come here? You
listen on video, can't you? Why come here? See, men's logic,
they say, well, why should I go to church? I can just listen
anywhere I want to, right? First of all, you won't. You won't. That won't last long. But we
do this because God commands it, regardless of what we think
or feel about it. Love your enemies. That just
totally goes against natural logic, isn't it? Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you
and persecute you. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Does not
the alarm of reason go off into our natural minds? Someone loses
their son. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. God says the day of one's death
is better than the day of one's birth. Now go figure that out. Only by faith can you see these
things to be real and true and good. So what is the response
of Abraham? What is the response of such
a such a command, such a trial? Look at the response of Abraham.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning. He rose up early in the morning.
He sat on his ass, he took two young men with him, and Isaac
his son. He claimed the wood for the burnt offering, rose
up, and went out to the place that God had told him. Abraham
showed no objection, but immediately took to the place that God had
told him, and he had offered his son. He offered up his son. Now we know that in the end,
he really didn't, did he? We know that there will be a
ram caught in the thicket, and that ram was offered in the place
of his son. But to Abraham, and in his heart,
Isaac was already dead. And he came to that place, he
tied up his son, he raised that knife to slit his son's throat. And it was only then that the
angel of God, that God said, Put not your hand on the lad. He raised that knife and he would
not be stopped had God not stopped him. Why? Because he believed
the promises of God. He believed the promises of God.
The promise of God was clear to him and the command of God
was clear to him. And Abraham, by faith, the promise
of God and the command of God, did not contradict one another.
In the eye of faith, the command of God and the promise of God
never contradict each other. In the mind of human reason,
they always do. But in the eye of faith, they
never contradict one another. Look at verse 19 in Hebrews,
it says, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even
from the dead. He believed, he had that promise
that Isaac, this is the one, this is the one by which Christ
is going to come and I don't care if I slit his throat and
I don't care if I burn his body, God is able to raise up this
man and do what he promised to do. So Abraham in the faith had
already in his mind and heart killed his son, believing God's
promise. See then believer this, the example
of true faith in Abraham, The wisdom of true faith is to
close our eyes to all difficulties. The wisdom of true faith closes
its eyes to all difficulties. When it can by no means see any
way through it. True faith commits itself unto
the authority and power of God in His commands and His promises. Therefore, faith must cast out
all objections that it cannot solve. Can you solve many of these trials? Can you figure out what God's
doing? You don't have to. Faith doesn't look for the to
solve problems. Faith believes God, the promises
of God, regardless of how it appears or how it feels, regardless
of the circumstance. Faith casts all that aside and
simply believes God, trusts God. But I want you to know this,
your faith is not blind. is no means blind to the promises
of God. We do not blindly do such things
on our own. Abraham, if he went out on his
own and killed his son, that would be stupid. That's not faith. If God didn't command it, he
shouldn't have done it. A lot of people, this happened
mostly in that pagan early church. They'd go around, you know, they'd
be with witnessing to these heathens and these heathens say, OK, well,
if you're God's real, then you should be able to take, you know,
walk on fire or something. And they say, OK. Dummy. You have no promise that God's
going to deliver you from that fire, that's not if you had a
promise, you could surely walk on it. But you had no such promise,
why do it? It's foolish. So faith is not blind to these
promises. We don't invent these things
and blindly follow them. Gil says this, Abraham did not
go and offer his son without thought, yet he did not consult flesh
and blood. His reasoning was the reasoning
of faith, and his conclusion was that God would raise him
from the dead. fast in the word and promises
of God. Those who do so, when they are,
when their faith is tried, they will receive the blessing and
assurances of Abraham. Look at verse 12 of chapter 22
in Genesis. God says, Lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only Son, God surely knew Abraham's faith because he gave
it to him. Some translators would translate
it like this. Now I have made thee to know
thou fears God. Thus when we are tried, when
hardships abound, when all seems to oppose the word and promises
of God led us by faith, no matter the cost, the obedient. Let us count the cost of following
Christ. What is the cost? I am crucified with Christ. I am crucified to this world,
and this world is crucified to me. I'm dead to it, and it is
dead to me. Let us in faith follow faithful
Abraham. And when we are found faithful,
when we are found faithful, when our faith endures, when we are
tried and afflicted, when we cast aside all reason, when we
cast aside all that we see and feel and think and trust in God, who then receives the honor and
praise for such faith? the one who gave it. God, then, we see, is worthy
of all praise. I'm going to give you this last
thing. The trials of our faith, like Abraham, they reveal something
even greater and make it more precious to us, and that's the
gospel of Christ. When we are tried and we are
trusting, what are we trusting in? Who are we trusting in? Who
are we leaning on? It's Christ. And what strengthens
our faith is the gospel of Christ, isn't it? It's the hearing of
this message of His grace, of His death, of His burial, of
His resurrection, of His ascension, of His victory. This encourages
our faith. And when Abraham was finished
with this trial, you know what he could look back and see? He
can see a clearer message of the gospel. Through that trial,
he was given a message of the gospel. Consider that Abraham
himself was representing the father. As God, the father, as
Abraham loved his only begotten son, how much more did God the
father love his son? And yet, for the sins of his
people, God was willing to offer his son. And then you see the willingness
of Isaac, right? Isaac, he said, Father, here's
the wood. Here's the fire. You've got the
knife in your hands. Where's the lamb? And Abraham
said, Son, don't be afraid. God will provide himself a lamb.
You know what? He said, that's enough. And he
went on. How much more willing was Christ
to lay down his life? You know, Isaac offered no objections
to this. When he laid out that wood, he said, here's my answer. He bound him, willingly. He laid
himself on that altar. He tilted up his neck for his
dad to lay that knife on him. How much more willing was Christ
to bear our sins in his own body on the tree? And consider this, the picture
then switches, that Isaac, when God says, lay not thy hand upon
the lad, and he looks and he sees the ram, the picture then
switches. We become Isaac, right? We become Isaac. We deserve to
die. And yet what now Christ is pictured
as the ram caught in the thicket. Purposed of God from eternity
to die for our sins. And can you imagine the joy of
Abraham? How does it ready to kill his
son? And God says, stop, look, I found
rents. Oh, what joy. How much joy filled
the heart of our father. when he found a ransom for his
people. When he had to offer his son, the joy of his father
was this, that he should lay down his life for his people. He cut Isaac loose. He cut us
loose. And Christ died in our stead. Oh, what a picture. And I want
you to know this, after the trial of our faith comes the joy seeing
clearly the gospel of Christ. That's the object of faith, isn't
it? Seeing Christ. And trials, what they do is give
us a clearer picture, a deeper longing for Him. Are you tried? Listen, you've
never been tried because you don't have any faith. You have faith, it'll be tested.
It'll either show you the sin of your own heart and the failure
of your own flesh, or in victory, it'll show you the grace of God
in sustaining you. Trial of our faith, they're necessary,
not to separate us from God, but to draw us, to strengthen
us. And so help us, I pray God give
us grace then give thanks for our trials. We just sang that hymn, didn't
we? Every joy or trial falleth from above, traced upon our dial
by the sun of love. I pray that God would help us
in our trials, sustain us, keep us, help us not look at the circumstance
Not look at how we feel about it, but look to Christ, and He'll
sustain you through it. We have that promise. I pray
that God blesses this to you. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our Father, I pray You'd bless
Your Word according to Your mercy. Forgive us our sins. Help us
in our trials and difficulties, Father, to keep our eye fixed
on Christ. who has removed our sins as far
as the east is from the west, so far hath removed him from
us, so thankful that he has robed us in his righteousness, and
promises us to keep us in the faith until he comes. I pray
that you would bless your people, forgive us our sins in his name
I ask. Amen.