We'll be in the book of Hebrews
chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. What makes our gospel different
than all the other gospels? What makes our gospel different
than the other gospels that are in the world? Well, number one,
our gospel is good news. Did you know that's what the
word gospel means, is good news? If you could tell me news about
something I must do, in order to please God, that's not good
news to me. But if you tell me that Christ
successfully redeemed his people, Christ successfully saved his
people from their sin, that Christ put away my sin, that's good
news. That's good news. Why is our
gospel different than any other gospel? Because it's the truth
and it's truly good news. Secondly, we can define it clearly.
In religion, there was times where people would say, you'd
ask, well, what's the gospel? And they would say, well, the
gospel is that Jesus came and that he died and he rose again. That's not the gospel. It's how
that Christ died according to the scriptures. It was the purpose.
of him dying, the purpose of him being risen again. It wasn't
just that he did that, he actually accomplished something. That's
the gospel. That's the difference in our
gospel. We say not that he attempted, not that he made a way. No, we
say he is the way. And he is the only way we can
come to God is by him. So we can define our gospel clearly.
That's what makes it different. Lastly, we declare it plainly. We declare our gospel plainly
in its simplicity. We don't complicate it. We don't
put man to it or put works to it. We don't add or take away
from it. We just declare it plainly. That's what I've titled this
message. Those words are found in our text, declared plainly. All other religions have a common
denominator of their preaching being confusing or their preaching
being open-ended, open to interpretation. What must I do to inherit eternal
life? And they say, well, you have to do this and you have
to do that. But have I done enough? You remember, Mr. Rogers, the guy had Mr. Rogers'
neighborhood. You remember me telling you this
account before. He dedicated his life to children
and he was a religious man as well. On his deathbed, he looks
at his wife and he says these words, have I done enough? Have I done enough? Of course,
his wife wasn't going to tell him, no, you haven't done enough.
It's too late then anyways, wasn't it? So he got comfort knowing
that he heard he had done enough to please God. That's not good
news, is it? No, not if it's dependent upon
me doing. That's not good news. No, we're
sinners and we need a savior. Christ did enough. Christ did
more than enough. He saved his people from their
sin. Our gospel is not open-ended.
It's not open to interpretation. Our gospel is clear and it's
plain and it's simple. It is God saved his people. Not that we chose him, but he
chose us. It's that God saved his people
by his own purpose, by his own power, for his own glory. That's
good news. We declare that salvation is
of the Lord, we declare that it's by his choice, his power,
his purpose, and his glory. That's not complicated. It takes
us completely out of the equation. We're complicated creatures,
aren't we? Complicated in our thoughts, complicated in our
actions, complicated in our doings. We're so, we're wavering, aren't
we? There'll be moments we'll feel happy, we'll feel elated,
we'll feel Rejoicing and then they'll be in just a few moments
later. We'll be depressed. We'll be sad. We'll be angry
I mean, we just we're emotional roller coasters, aren't we? It's
just how we are not God. He's the same yesterday today
and forever and if he chose to save and he did Then we know
that he accomplished that it doesn't depend on my emotions.
It doesn't depend on my doing it doesn't depend upon what I
think or don't think What said what thank you Christ whose son
is he? The only way that we're going to thank Him as being the
Lord and Savior of Jesus Christ is if the Lord gives us faith
to believe. The Lord gives us faith to believe. This is what
we declare plainly. That's the title of the message,
declared plainly. And I want to read this two verses here
in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13 and 14 says, these all died
in faith. not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country." Here we have faith. He said they died in faith. They
had received faith. And upon receiving faith, they
receive promises, the promises of God. What does that result
in? Number one, it results in us
being persuaded of God. You've heard me tell you this
before. If a man can talk you into it, another man can talk
you out of it. But if you're persuaded of God, no man can
talk you out of it. God persuaded you. God made you
believe it. So to receive the promises by
faith, we're persuaded of God. Secondly, We embrace his promises
by faith. That's what he says right here.
We received the promises and having seen them afar off and
we're persuaded of them and embraced them. We're the same as they
were back then. Now we don't embrace them looking forward.
We embrace them looking back to the cross. We know that we
have the fullness. The fullness of Scripture, the fullness of
Scripture fulfilled, the Savior has come. We see all of that
now in the Scripture and we embrace the truth. That's what faith
does. It causes us to cling to the
Lord. You remember when Jacob, he wrestled
with the Lord all night long, didn't he? And we looked at that
a few, maybe Wednesdays or Sundays ago, maybe you'll remember. That
word wrestle, that doesn't mean grapple and fight and claw. No,
it means he was clinging like a baby clings to a parent when
they're afraid. He was clinging to the Lord.
He said, I can't let you go until you bless me. And what is the
blessing? Christ is the blessing. Faith
to believe him is the blessing. That's the blessing of the Lord. And that is what the third thing
is here that we see the promises do. It says, and confessed that
they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth were made to confess. This is not my home. This is
not my home. We confess Christ. We confess
the kingdom of God. Now we don't confess our our
kingdom, our earthly kingdom. No, we don't. We don't look to
that. We look to the Lord, don't we?
Scripture says, well, first of all, we don't seek our own anymore.
We used to seek after self-righteousness. We used to seek after self-glory. We don't do that anymore. That's
what the gospel does when it's plainly declared. It takes all
of us out of it, takes all of us out of it and gives God all
the glory. Christ said this, seek you first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. All these things will be added
unto you. What things is he talking about? Well, whether it's things
that you're worried about or things that you desire, the Lord
said, seek Christ. Seek Christ. The Lord knows what
you have need of. Seek Christ. That's what he's
saying. Seek the kingdom of God. Seek his righteousness. And if
you have his righteousness, oh, you have everything, don't you?
I have everything if I have his righteousness. That means nothing
can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ, if
I have his righteousness. To seek after righteousness is
to seek after Christ by faith bestowed, not seeking my own
glory. And that is something so important that men and women
do, and they don't realize they do it, but we are idol factories. And what I mean by that is, is
we worship ourself. We come out of the womb, we worship
ourself. We wanna be seen, we wanna be heard, we want recognition.
We want glory in our flesh. When the gospel comes plainly
declared, it abases the flesh, shows us that we're a sinner,
that we don't deserve any glory. And if we hear the gospel by
faith, we say, truth, Lord, you get all the glory. Truth, Lord,
I am a sinner. Truth, Lord, I am a dog. I need
to be saved. I need a savior. And he says
unto his people, fear not, for I have put away your sin. You
shall not die. You shall not die. That's the
good news of the gospel, isn't it? We didn't have any part in
it. We didn't put away our sin, He did it. And if He did it,
it's gone. It's gone. We're not getting better, are
we? We're becoming more dependent upon Him. If anything, we're
getting worse. Paul, he regressed, didn't he? He went from, he said,
I'm not worthy to be compared as one of the saints. Then he
said, I'm the least of all the saints. Then he said, I'm the
chief of sinners. So he's regressing. He's not progressing. Why? Because
he saw himself more and more as he was. a wretched, vile creature
in need of mercy, in need of grace. And when you see yourself
as less, who do you see more of? The Lord Jesus Christ. We see him as more glorious,
more precious. He becomes, I would say, more
valuable. But I don't know if that's the
right way to say it. He's invaluable. There's no who could put a price
on the blood. No, it's priceless. And we see
more and more of that, that it was given freely by grace to
his people. And, oh, we rejoice more and more in that not having
any confidence in the flesh. This is what we declare plainly. Now, being a believer, being
one of the Lord's elect, it doesn't mean that you don't have anxiety.
It doesn't mean that you don't have worries, you don't have
fears, you don't have doubts. But a believer believes God saved
his people. If you'd ask Peter on that night,
whenever he was talking to that little girl he was scared to
death of, 12-year-old little girl, said, you're one of the,
you're with them, you're from Galilee also, aren't you? He's
like, I don't know what you're talking about. 12-year-old girl, scared
to death. If you'd ask Peter right then, who's Christ? He
would've told you, because his faith couldn't have failed. His
faith couldn't have failed. Why couldn't his faith fail?
Because Christ said, I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith
fail not. And it won't fail them, will it? Faith that the Lord
gives us causes us to look to Christ. And even though we have
these anxieties, we have these worries, we have these fears,
we have these doubts, and we're constantly running with this
sin that does so easily beset us, the unbelief that we're full
of, yet a believer still believes. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God, the one that successfully redeemed your people.
That's what a believer believes. Being a believer means you just
believe God, that He is faithful, that promised, and you cannot
lie. He's faithful to redeem, and He did, and He cannot lie.
He said over in Isaiah, I have bought you, I have redeemed you,
I have chosen you, I've saved you, you're mine, you're mine. We didn't have anything to do
with the transaction, did we? We were just the creature that
He chose to purchase. He created us, and then He bought
us. What a gospel. What good news if you see that
you're a sinner. Even in times of fear and doubt
and worry and heartache, a believer believes God over self. A believer
believes God over self. We see Peter is a good example. Again, he walked on the water. Now you and I, It was all the
Lord, wasn't it? I mean, there's no other explanation,
but he really walked on the water. He walked on the water, and as
soon as he took his eyes off of Christ, he began to fear, didn't
he? There's us, that's our problem.
We take our eyes off of Christ all the time, and it's unbelief
that's so easily beset us. No, I see this, so I'm worried
about this, but we don't see him seated. Remember, he's seated. He's not gotten up since he sat
down. He's not gonna get up until he returns for his people. The
job's done, it's finished. He's seated. Nothing's taking
him by chance or by catching him off guard. There's no surprises
with him. He knows everything. Everything
that's ever happened, he's purposed all things. Nothing takes him
off guard. He's not playing chess with the
devil. No, he's God. He's God. Satan's God's devil, and he does
whatsoever he wants to with him. A believer believes God, that
when he died for his people, he really redeemed them. He really
saved them. He was successful. He died on
purpose. I wrote that down. I don't know
if I've ever said that before. He died on purpose. He didn't
just die for a purpose. He died on purpose. He meant
to do it. He meant to do it to redeem his people. It wasn't
an offer to man. It wasn't an offer to you and
I. It was an offer to the Father. And the Father was satisfied
with the blood of Christ and redeemed all of his chosen people.
This is what we declare plainly. He's successful. He's successful. We see him now as the seated
sovereign King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We see him as the Alpha
and Omega, meaning he's the beginning and the end of salvation and
everything in between. We have, we didn't, we didn't
have to do something to obtain salvation and we don't do something
to keep our salvation. He does both. He obtained salvation
on the cross of Calvary for his people and he keeps his people
into the very end by his own power. This is what we declare
plainly. He alone is salvation. Salvation's in no other name
but the name Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. No other name
given above men, whereby we must be saved, the scripture says.
He alone is salvation. This is what we declare plainly.
This is what a believer believes. We don't have all the answers,
do we? Somebody asked one time, asked me, you have all the answers? I don't know. But I have the
answer. I have the answer. I know who's
seated on the throne. I do know that. How do I know
that? The Lord's given me the ability to believe it. I believe
he's successful. I believe he saved his people.
And you ask any believer what they believe, that's what they're
going to tell you they believe. Do you believe any good is in you? No, not at all. Do you have any
confidence in your flesh? No, but I have confidence in Him, confidence
in what He accomplished. This one thing I know, I was
blind, and now I see. I don't know everything, but
I know that. I was blind, and now I see. This one thing I know,
I was a blind beggar, I was lame on both of my feet from birth,
fall from Adam, and the Lord came to where I was, and he saved
me by his grace. That's how he saves sinners.
Saved me by his grace. Now I can walk. Now I can see. It's one thing I know, whereas
I was blind, now I see. The life that we now live in
this flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us
and gave himself for us. We live by his faith. We no longer
live looking to establish our own self-righteousness. We look
to Christ who is our righteousness. We no longer look to justify
ourself before God or before man. Christ is our justification
before God. We look to him. The Lord has given faith to believe
our faith will not fail because he cannot fail, cannot deny himself. He's gonna keep you looking.
He's gonna keep you looking. You're gonna stay justified.
You're gonna stay righteous. It's not gonna change. If he
made you his righteousness, it's never gonna change. It's never
gonna go away. You can't get rid of it. Nobody would want
to. It's a believer, but you understand what I'm saying. You
can't mess it up. You can't break it. It's unbreakable. The covenant
of grace is unbreakable. This is what we declare plainly.
Plainly. Think about Peter now. I used
him as an example a while ago, but think about this. He's afraid
of the little girl, talking about being worried and frightened,
fearful. He's afraid of the little girl, so he denied affiliation
with the Lord. He never did deny who Christ
was. He just denied affiliation with him. That was the difference
between him and Judas. Judas never believed God. Peter believed. How do we know Peter believed?
Well, on the day of Pentecost, Peter gets up and speaks with boldness.
What does boldness mean? Was he arrogant? Was he prideful?
No, boldness means he had full confidence in the Holy Spirit.
He had full confidence in God. The Lord said, Peter, do you
love me? Feed my sheep three times to him. The last time Peter
was grieved, he said, Lord, you know, I love you. But what he
was saying was, I can't trust my love for you, but I can trust
your love for me. That's what he was saying. Lord,
you know, I love you. He said, feed my sheep. Lord,
I can't count on my love. We saw what that got me a couple
of days ago whenever I denied you. Can't count on my love. Lord, you're gonna have to love
me. You're gonna have to keep me. And the Lord did. On the day
of Pentecost, Peter gets up and preaches. He said, you men. Now this is what he tells these
men. Think about this, 5,000 men. not including women and children,
5,000 men. He gets up there and he looks
at them and he says this. Now, some people might think this
could be fighting words, you understand, because he's accusing
them. These are the men that crucified Christ. He said, you have taken
and with wicked hands have crucified and slain the King of glory by
the determinate counsel of God. Now, some of them, I mean, in
my mind, they might have got mad hearing that. You're not
gonna tell us that. No, that's not what happened at all. What
happened, God gave them faith. They said, well, what must we
do? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved and be baptized. Confess him. Confess him in baptism. That's what he tells them. He
had full confidence in the Lord. His faith did not fail because
of Christ for no other reason. And our faith does not fail because
of Christ, no other reason. The reason we haven't fallen
on our face completely, we haven't utterly been rejected the truth
and ran away. I know somebody that attended
faithfully to a church for several years, and they quit coming.
And one could say they went off the deep end. doing something
totally different, have no need for the gospel anymore. And that
doesn't make me, it saddens me because that's scary. Lord, are
you gonna remove your hand from me? Am I taking this for granted?
Me and we're talking about that this morning, weren't we? We
take everything for granted. Lord, am I taking this for granted?
Do I believe? Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. So now I need
to stop examining myself, I need to look to Christ, that's what
we need to do. Look to him, he's the one that's gonna keep you.
We don't keep ourself. Somebody told me one time, said, well,
I know I'm a believer because I do this and because I do that
and because I don't do this, I don't do that. That's not evidence
of being a believer. That's evidence of self-righteousness.
That's what that is, evidence of self-righteousness. A believer
believes God. A believer looks to Christ as
all. That's what a believer does.
A believer looks to Christ in all things. And I would say all
the time, but you know, faith does look to Christ all the time.
A new man always looks to Christ, but you know good and well in
this flesh, we take our eyes off of him. You know, that's true.
That new man constantly is looking to and constantly resting on
the Sabbath. The new man is. Thank God the Lord keeps His
people by His power, by His power. Let's read this again, verse
13 and 14. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they
that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. Those that receive the promise
Live by the faith of Christ. Live by the faith of Christ.
Now understand, receiving the promise and receiving faith is
passive. It's not a work that we do. It's
not something that we've merited. It's the gift of God by grace.
For by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves.
Just took us out of the equation. Not of yourself, it is the gift
of God, not of works. Why is it not of works? He tells
us, because we would boast. lest any man would boast. We
would brag about our choice. We would brag about what we've
done. We would brag about obtaining. We would make a law out of it. We would be self-righteous because
of it. The Lord says, no, it's not of works, lest any man should
boast. It's by grace alone. By grace alone. All of the gifts
of God are by grace alone. Every one of them. If you love
God, it's because he first loved you. It's according to his grace.
If you believe God, it's because he gave you faith by his grace.
If you have obtained mercy, it's because he chose to give you
mercy. He delights in mercy. It's all
by his grace. The good news of the gospel is
they're always given freely. Freely. You know, we go and,
there was a, An ad I got on my email that said, you won a free
gift. And all that stuff, you know,
that stuff's not true most of the time. But I kind of got excited.
I was like, well, this is pretty nice. Maybe I should just click
on this. Well, I did. Well, guess what? It wasn't free. I had to
do all kinds of stuff to get that gift. It wasn't free. If
it had been free, they would have just sent it to me. Well,
I wasn't free. They were trying to get my information.
They were trying to get me to do surveys. OK, now I'm working
for it. That's not free. Free is free. And we preached
free grace of Christ, only found in him sovereign grace that he
saved his people freely by his own blood. Not by our merits. There's nothing for us to do.
It's finished. There's nothing for you to work
on to obtain salvation. It's finished, it's already accomplished.
Matter of fact, if you add to it, or you take away from it,
you taint the sacrifice, you ruin it. It's not gonna work.
leave it alone and look to Christ. We look to Christ. It's given
freely to his people at his expense. That's why the Lord said, whosoever
will let him come, take of the water of life freely. Come by
without money and without price, come by milk and honey, without
money and without price. Why? Because it's been paid for
by the blood of the lamb. It's already been bought. This
is the only way someone can receive faith. The only way somebody
can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is if he gives us faith
to believe, if he causes us and enables us to believe. He says,
come, I've already paid for everything. And you know what's amazing?
We live in a society right now where people really want, they
feel like they're entitled about a lot of things, you know what
I'm saying? They want free things, they want handouts, they want
this and they want that, but they don't want the greatest
message that's ever been given, the free gospel of God's grace.
They don't want that, why? They get no glory in it. It abases the flesh completely.
But this is what the Lord's saying, come, come unto me. If you're
labored and heavy laden, I will give you rest. But you have to
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. What does that mean? There's
no work to be done, that's the point. He's already done all
the work. If you're yoked up with Christ, you're resting.
You're resting. This is what we declare plainly.
This is what we declare plainly. We now embrace Christ by faith.
We cling to him as all of our righteousness before the throne
of God, all of our acceptance before his before his throne. We have but one singular confession,
now the Lord Jesus Christ, he is our confession. We confess
Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father. And what a
gift by grace that is to be able to do that in this life rather
than the life to come because every knee's gonna bow and every
tongue's gonna confess it. But oh, for the grace to confess
it now. Right now in the heart by faith,
he did that. He gave that all for his glory. That's why the writer said, the
life we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son
of God who loves us, gave himself for us. Now the difference, the difference
now versus back then, whenever they're talking about Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, that's who we were just discussing, says
they all died by faith. The difference now versus then,
is that they had the promises afar off. And that's what he
tells us here. These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off. So they seen what
was going to happen, but you and I, we have received the promises. We have obtained the promises
by the Lord bestowing them. We really see what Christ actually
accomplished. we have more reason to believe
than they did. I mean, if you want to think
of it that way, we have the full canon of scripture. There's nothing
hidden now. What God was going to do, he gave them faith to
believe what he was going to do, but they didn't under, Abraham
didn't fully grasp the concept of the substitutionary ram rather
than sacrificing his son. He didn't He didn't realize that
the Lord Jesus Christ was literally going to hang on a cross. That
wasn't mentioned. We just know that he was, he had to die. The lamb had to die. And so Abraham
believed God by faith. He believed the promise that
a Messiah would come by faith. You and I, we've received those
promises. We received the word that God
said, I have saved you. I have bought you. You are mine. It is finished. Those are the
promises. You're mine. The most glorious part, we see
in Romans chapter nine, I read that back there in the men's
study this morning. So the children, not being born yet, having done
no good and no evil that the purpose of election might stand,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. That rubs a lot of people
the wrong way because it's the truth. God loves his chosen people
and God hates the workers of iniquity. But isn't it amazing? You and I look at Esau and we
see, I can see why God would hate him. But why oh why would
he love Jacob? Why would he love Jacob? Why
would he love you? Why would he love me? If we have a reason
that pops into our mind other than free grace, we think too
highly of ourself. Because that's the only reason,
grace. He chose in his sovereign purpose,
according to his will before the world began, he said, I'm
gonna make you a vessel of honor. I choose you. Not because you're
pretty or not because you're ugly. But he says, I'm gonna
make a trophy of my grace. You're polluted in your own blood.
You're a disgusting creature. The scripture, that's what we're
described as. He said, but I'm going to swaddle you. I'm going
to take you into myself. I'm going to rope you with my
rope and put my ring on your finger. I'm gonna make you my
son, my daughter, and I'll put you at my table and you're going
to eat at my food for the rest of your days. This is what our
gospel declares. Christ Jesus did it all. He did
it all by the power of God. He saved his people from their
sin. This is what we declare plainly.
Plainly, we seek God by faith. Now, we don't look to our outward
lifestyle to prove whether we believe the gospel or not. We
just believe the gospel. Look to Christ. And do you know,
looking to Christ, the life that we live by faith? There'll be
some evidences that we believe God. What? Like what? Like, I
got to be here on Sunday morning. That's one. If a man has a need
to come hear the gospel, that's a good thing. Not everybody has
that need, but the Lord gives that need, doesn't He? I have
a need to confess Him. That's an evidence, to confess
Him. Now, do we look to these evidences? Never, never ever,
but I can see them in you, and you can see them in each other,
and that's how it works. We see the love that the Lord put in our
heart, one for another. We saw that Friday. We were all hugging
up on each other, hoping we all don't get sick from it. It's
worth it. That love that we had. You can't buy that. You can't
teach that. God's the one that's gotta teach it. I can't teach
that to you. Either you have it or you don't. The Lord gives
that. When he gives faith in his son, he gives love for God
and for the brethren. That's what he does. That's what
he does. So what do we look to? We look to Christ. We look to
Christ in all things, saying, Lord, teach me your ways. Lord, cause me to know the truth.
Teach me your precepts. Cause me to have your understanding.
calls me to forsake my way, calls me to seek your way. That's what
we pray, isn't it? And that last thing I'll tell
us in closing is we declare plainly, just like these did, that they
seek a country. We declare plainly by how we
live. How do we live? Oh no, he's gonna
talk to us now about moral cleanup and get this right and this right.
How do we live? We live looking unto Jesus. That's
how we live. That's how you live as a believer.
You live looking unto Him. That's how we live. And what
does that do? It speaks plainly that you are looking for a country.
You're looking for the kingdom of God. You're not looking for
your own anymore. You're looking for Him. You're
seeking Him. That's how we live. Looking unto
the Lord. Not looking to ourself. Not looking
to others. Looking unto our blessed Redeemer,
who loved us and gave Himself for His people, His chosen people.
We're declaring that we're pilgrims and we're strangers in a foreign
land. We're going to hear the next hour, We're declaring that
Egypt doesn't have anything for us anymore. We don't want bondage
anymore. We want to be free to worship our Heavenly Father. We want to be free in Christ.
We seek a country. There will be trials, there'll
be tribulation, there'll be heartaches, there'll be pains, but He remains
faithful that calls you. He cannot deny Himself. He cannot
deny Himself. This is what we declare plainly.
Everyone That was in him when he died, we'll receive the same
promise, the same promises. What's the promise? I love you.
I bought you. I put away your sin. You're mine. That's the promise. That's the
promise. I've saved you. When you were
unsavable, I saved you. When you were unlovable, I loved
you. I redeemed you. You're mine. Because he said, I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore, he said, you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
I'm going to keep you by my power. We're persuaded of God, not man.
We embrace and cling to the promises of God, not man. We don't even
cling to the promises of ours, do we? We cling to his promises.
We hope in his promises, his word. We confess Christ to the
glory of God. We confess Christ as all to the
glory of God. We have no confidence in this
flesh. This is what we declare plainly. This is what our gospel
declares. It gives him all the glory. This
is the difference between our gospel and all the other gospels.
This is why we declare it plainly. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful
that you have caused us to look to you. We pray that you continue
to be your will to continue to do so. We ask that you bless
us to our understanding for your glory in Christ's name. Let's
take a break.