every year about this time, Fred
and Mary Jane, leave us and go back up to Chicago for
a few months. We'll miss you guys so much.
We love you all. We're so happy you're here. And
we'll try to remember to wave to you from time to time. They
watch the services, of course, when they're up there. Oh, you would love that? She told me that Friday night.
She said, when we're watching, we can't see everybody, but we
know where everybody's sitting. Psalm 46. Next Sunday, we're gonna have
lunch together after the service, so plan to come prepared for
that next Sunday. Psalm 46. Verse three, though the waters
thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with
the swelling thereof, speaking of the turbulence, that we all
experience in this life. But now look at the next verse.
There is a river, and it's not a raging river, it's a gentle
stream. A stream, wherefore, whereof
shall make glad the city of God, that's where we are right now,
the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the
midst of her. and she shall not be moved, God
shall help her, and that right early. This is that stream that
John saw coming from the throne of God, clear as a crystal, that
the Lord would be pleased to quench our thirst with the water
of life in Christ this morning. Let's stand together. Tom's gonna
come and lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Vain are the hopes the sons of
men On their own works have built Their hearts by nature are unclean
And all their actions guilt And all their actions guilt Let Jew
and Gentile stop their mouths without a murmuring word. And the whole race of Adam stand
guilty before the Lord, guilty before the Lord. In vain we ask God's righteous
law to justify us now, since to convince and to condemn is
all the law can do, is all the law can do. Jesus, how glorious
is thy grace when in thy name we trust. Our faith receives
a righteousness that makes the sinner just. That makes the sinner
just. Please be seated. Good morning. Our scripture reading
is going to be in Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. Then drew near unto him all publicans
and sinners to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. Aren't we glad that he does receive
sinners? And that's all he receives, sinners.
He came to save sinners, sinners like us. And he spake this parable unto
them, saying, one man of you having a hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the 99 in the wilderness and
go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he
layeth on his shoulder rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them,
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. More than
over 99 just persons which need no repentance. This is a joyful
revelation of what happens in heaven when one of us gets found,
when one of his sheep is found. This is what it's all about.
Greg, Pastor Greg says this is what's holding this war that
hasn't finished yet is because not all his sheep have been found. Father God, we come before you.
Thank you, Father. We come before you in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for this opportunity
that we have for listening to the gospel of getting together
with the burden, having communion with them, and worshiping you,
Father. We pray for all the preachers
like Greg that preach the gospel, Father. May the Lord Jesus Christ
be glorified. May the gospel be clear, Father
God, in our need of you to pour your Holy Spirit upon them and
upon us, the hearers. We need your Holy Spirit to be
able to see Jesus, to be able to see the Lord Jesus Christ's
glory, Father God. Bring us to look to Him, which
is our desire, Father. But we need your Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand together again. Hymn
number 352 from the hardbacked hymnal. Hymn 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring, Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is Thy name, I
am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life the fountain
art, Freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart. Rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Will you turn back with me in
your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2? I don't know if you saw this
or not, but Bert came up to me during between the services and
said, boy, the answer to all that's in verse 13, and I said,
yes, that's where I'm going next. I hope the Lord will speak to
our hearts from this passage of his word. In verses 13 and
14 and 15, God gives us seven reasons for having a good hope. A good hope. Life is full of
disappointments. We put our hopes in people. We
put our hopes in things. We put our hopes in events. And
oftentimes those hopes are dashed. They are disappointed. The Lord
speaks here in verse 16, now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which hath loved us and given us an
everlasting consolation. He's consoled our hearts and
given us a good hope. through grace, a good hope. This is a hope that won't disappoint.
This is a hope that you can rest your soul on knowing for sure
that it's going to be fulfilled exactly as God promised. Nothing else, no other promises
in this world, no other hopes that we might have are sure,
but this is a good hope. This is the only hope that will
comfort your soul. Oh, we might get temporary moments
of peace and hope and joy from our circumstances, but this hope
will give you a place to rest your soul for all eternity. Look what he says in the next
verse, comfort your hearts. The Lord told Isaiah, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to them. Tell them their warfare is accomplished
and their iniquity has been forgiven. Their sin has been put away. This is the only comfort All
other comforts are temporary. No other comfort will sustain
your soul for all eternity than these reasons for hope that God
gives us. Comfort your hearts and establish
you. That's where I need to be. This
world is not established. My flesh is certainly not established. The circumstances of my life
are not established. I'm talking about nailed down. I'm talking about something that
won't move, that won't move. Let the seas rage, as we just
read in the Psalms, all they want. This is an established
hope. This is an established comfort
that will give your heart a place of rest. Establish you in every
good word. This is the word of God. This
is not my word. This is not the word of some
philosopher. This is not a empty promise. This is the Word of God. I'm not here to prove that to
you. I'm here to declare it to be so. And I know that if the
Lord does a work of grace in your heart, you'll believe it
as God's Word. You'll receive it as God's Word.
You won't need what we just read in 1 John 2. You have an unction. by the Holy Spirit, and you need
not that a man teach you. For that one who's in you will
lead you into all truth, and he will convince you that this
is different from every other word that's spoken by men. This is the Word of God. Seven
reasons for a good hope. The first one is seen in verse
13. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord. That's the first reason for having
a good hope, is that God's love is particular and God's love
is effectual. He has loved his people with
an everlasting love. to suggest that there is a sense
in which God loves all men is to say that two things. Number one is to say that God
is mutable, that he's capable of having different levels of
love, and that his love is fickled. It'd be like our love. And what
does God say? You thought that I was altogether
as you are yourself. And he's not that way. He's holy. He's other than we are. He said, I change not, and therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. The immutability of God's love,
the effectualness of God's love is reason for hope. It's reason for hope. Any other
kind of love is not reliable. It would be like you saying to
your spouse, honey, I love you. And I love everybody else in
the world the same way I love you. Well, that's not, love has
to be particular in order to be, in order to mean anything. This idea that God loves everybody
is contrary to what the scriptures teach, and it's contrary to the
very nature of God. God himself said, Jacob, I have
loved, and Esau, I have hated. His hatred is perfect, his love
is perfect. He's perfect. He doesn't mutate. And he's sovereign. He's omnipotent. To say that
he loves everybody in a certain sense is to say, well, his love
can be spurned or somehow he can extend his benevolence to
someone in hopes that they're going to respond and be disappointed. So now we've got a God who is
not only mutable, but we've got a God who is impotent. And that is not the God that
exists. the hope that we have. You say,
well, how do I know that God loves me? Don't worry about that
yet. Don't worry about that right
now. We'll get through these seven things. The most important
thing here, if the Lord, if the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart
these seven comforts of hope, then he'll enable you to say,
Abba, Father. He'll reveal the love of Christ
in your heart. But the important thing to know
is that God's love is effectual. And God's love is particular. It's particular. It's not a general
love. It's not an offer. When the Lord
Jesus Christ hung on Calvary's cross, He did not do it as an
offer of salvation to the whole world that He loved. He did it
for His people that He loved in the covenant of grace before
the world ever began. Now the Lord's given us reasons
for hope. He says, we are bound to give. You remember how this
ends up? He says, this is your consolation. This is your good
hope. In a world where nothing is sure,
this is something that is sure. What is sure is that when God
places his love on a people, that love is going to be effectual. And the reason it's effectual
is because it is particular. I've loved them with an everlasting
love. There's never been a time that
God hasn't seen His people, that God has seen His people outside
of Christ. Never been a time. He's loved
them. And the Lord Jesus Christ, before
He ascended into glory, what did He say to the Father? He
said, Father, I've loved them to the end. I've loved them to
the end. He's not going to stop loving.
And there's nothing you did to make him love you, and there's
nothing you can do to make him stop loving you. That's what,
that's the gospel. That's our hope. Oh, if God's
love is mutable, if God's love is ineffectual, If God's love
is fickled, if somehow the love of God is determined by something
I do or something I don't do, I've got no hope. I've got no
comfort. I've got no place to rest with
surety because I can't be sure that I did it right. Beloved, beloved of God. That's the first reason for a
good hope. And it's the first cause of our
salvation. When you think of cause and effect,
when you think of what God does, He does eternally. We're not
talking about time here. We're not talking about events
in time. We're talking about events by
cause. And the cause of all, the first
cause of our salvation is the fact that God chose to love a
particular people in the covenant of grace and he placed them in
Christ before the world began and put his love on them. That's
the first cause. Everything else that happens
in salvation is motivated by the love of God. What? What hope? What hope? Look at the rest of this verse.
Brethren, you're beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation. There's the second reason for
a good hope, that God has chosen you to salvation. David said,
this is all my hope, this is all my desire, this is all my
salvation. What? That God has made with
me an everlasting covenant. He's ordered it in all things
and sure, if my salvation is determined by me choosing God,
I've got no sure hope. Any more than if my salvation
is determined by me loving God, I've got no sure hope. The surety
of my hope is based on the fact that God has loved me and that
He has chosen me. And that's what the Lord, He's
saying, here's your consolation. Do you need to be consoled? Do
you need to be comforted? Do you need to have a place where
you can sit down and take a deep breath and rest? The very salvation
of your soul. This is the place. It's the love
of God. And it's the sovereignty of God. And electing a people chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. There's my hope. If God looked down through the
corridors of time and saw who would choose Him, and then determined
in eternity to choose those who would choose Him, I've got no
hope. It was my choice, sincere enough. Did I do it with all my heart?
How can I, being dead in my trespasses and sins, make a decision? Electing grace is the only kind
of grace there is. If grace is not sovereign, it's
not grace. If grace is not electing, it's
not grace. You see, it's contingent on something
I do. It's the lie. The hope that we have is that
the purpose of God in election must stand. It's what the scripture
says. It must stand. It cannot fail. If God loved a people in the
covenant of grace and chose them in Christ Jesus before time ever
began, you can be sure You can be sure that all those he loved
and all those he chose will be saved. And if it's determined
by anything else, there's no place to be sure. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
his disciples, you did not choose me. I chose you. I chose you. I know you've heard
me say this so many times, but it's so important, and maybe
this will be the first time somebody's heard it. I'm becoming more and
more aware of how you can say things to people, and they don't
hear it. They don't hear it. But here's the truth. Coming
to Christ is not a choice. If you have a choice, two or
more options, You will always choose against Christ. The only
way you're going to come to Christ is if God shuts you up and takes
away all other choices. The only way you'll come to Christ
is to say, Lord, we've got no place else to go. You alone have
the words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. We've got no place
to go. I didn't come to Christ because
I chose one day to come to Christ. You did not choose me. I chose
you. God has shut up his people so
that they're left with no choice. No choice. That's what it says. Beloved,
we thank God always for you. Why? Because you've beloved of
the Lord and because God has from the beginning. And when
the scripture says from the beginning, that's a phrase in the word of
God that means before time. Before time. Doesn't mean it
started at the beginning of time, it means that it happened in
eternity past, before time ever was. God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. I'm amazed at the number of people
who say, well do you believe in election? You believe that
God has, and yet they call themselves Bible-believing Christians, you
know, and then they question the very sovereignty of God in
electing a people. Of course I do. There it is right
there. Well, you know, it's not really
what it means. Yes, it is what it means. God
has chosen you. That's something to rest your
soul on. The sovereign choice of God. Third, number three. Chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. Now, now we're going to begin
to get into, well, am I chosen? Am I loved? This matter of being sanctified
by the Spirit is to be made holy. to be made perfect, to be set
apart. It's the work of the Spirit of
God. Sanctification cannot be progressive. It cannot be progressive. The only people that believe
in progressive sanctification are people who have not been
made sinners. All they're doing is they're
interpreting their sin as behavioral problems, and they're seeing
that, well, you know, there's certain things I used to do that
I don't do anymore, so therefore I'm getting better. If God's
made you to be a sinner, you know that your sin problem goes
much, much deeper than your behavior. And the more you grow in grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more you see
of your sin and the bigger sinner you become. And the more dependent
you become on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ for
all your salvation and all your hope before God. Have you been
sanctified by the Spirit of God? Has he taught you that? That's
what the Lord Jesus Christ said when He said, when the Spirit
comes, He said, it's expedient for you, it's good for you, it's
necessary for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter
will not come. But when He comes, I'm gonna
send Him, and He did on the day of Pentecost. And now, every
time God regenerates a lost sinner, He gives them His Spirit. And
what's the first thing that Spirit does? The first thing the third
person of the triune Godhead does in the hearts of God's people. He will convict the world of
sin because they believed not on me. Lord, there's my problem. There's my problem. My flesh
is so full of unbelief. Lord, there was a time when I
could not believe. I couldn't believe the gospel.
I was just like those who are under the strong delusion, who
have believed the lie. And when things were said to
me, they just went right past me. Right past me. Tricia reminds me of this experience,
oftentimes, about Two years before Todd Nyberg came down and preached
the gospel to us, Todd's sister Susan and Ed invited us to go
to a beach house with them for a day or something. Well, they
had an ulterior motive. I mean, we weren't there five
minutes and Susan was sticking a DVD, I mean, back then it was
a VHS tape in the machine and sat us down on the couch and
wanted us to watch a message by Henry Mayhem. And we couldn't hear it. Tricia and I on the way home
thought, that's the most boring thing we've ever experienced.
We did. We didn't hear a word of it,
Susan. Did not hear. You remember that? Couldn't hear. Wasn't until the Lord unstopped
our ears that we heard the truth. Sanctified by the Spirit of God. This matter of being sanctified,
it's the work of God the Father, it's the work of God the Son,
and it's the work of God the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1,
verse 4, it says, according as He has chosen us in Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy,
sanctified, and without blame before Him in love. That's the
work of the Father, that He's chosen that to be. That we should
stand in the presence of God, holy, perfect in Christ Jesus,
without blame. Without blame. And then in Hebrews
chapter 10, the scripture says that we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Sanctified. So when God chose
a people in the covenant of grace, they were sanctified in that
covenant. They were set apart, they were made holy. When the
Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross and cried,
it is finished, through that offering, the scripture says,
for by one offering, he hath perfected forever them which
are sanctified. The sanctification of the Lord
Jesus Christ's death took place on Calvary's cross for all his
people. And then when the Spirit of God
comes, what does the scripture say? Chosen you to sanctification,
chosen you to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit. It's a work of grace where the
Spirit of God opened your ears, opened your eyes, enables you
to find your hope, not in the lie, but in the truth in Christ. The fourth reason for a good
hope. Belief of the truth. You see
that? Belief of the truth. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Do you believe that? I mean,
do you really believe? I mean, when I say you really
believe, I'm not saying, you know, to evaluate the depth and
sincerity of your faith, but I'm asking you to evaluate the
object of your faith. Do you believe with all of your
heart, like that Ethiopian eunuch, that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God? Believers believe that. They
just believe it. Their flesh is so full of unbelief,
but their new man is thoroughly convinced that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God. They don't question that. They
question themselves. They question whether or not
He's their Savior. They question their own experience. But they have no doubt, they
believe the truth. They believe that they're sinners.
They believe that they have no righteousness whatsoever of their
own. They believe that the only hope
of having their sin put away is to have it covered by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ is that lamb that was slain before the foundation of
the world. That God established the covenant of grace in eternity
past and nothing could change that. They believe that when
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world that He lived a perfect
life on behalf of His people and presented Himself before
the Father as their righteousness. They believe that He satisfied
the demands of all the law of God. They just believe that.
They believe the witness that God has made of Christ. They believe who He is. Do you
believe? And I'm not asking you, are you
able to define all these things? Are you able to argue them? Are
you able to prove them from scripture? I'm asking you, when you hear
about the testimony that God has given of his son, do you
say, amen? Yes, there's my, he is my hope. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed.
I've committed everything to him. Or do you say, like so many people
do? I had two people do this to me
this week, in sharing the gospel with them, as kindly and gently
as I could, well, yeah, I see what you're saying, but, but, are you gonna but the gospel?
Are you gonna object? to what God has given witness
to? Or do you just bow? You're either going to bud or
you're going to bow. Which is it? Are you budding
or bowing? You say, Amen. That Christ is
the Son of God. And He's my only hope. I just believe Him. I've got
no place else to go. He's shut me up to Him. I believe
He's sovereign in salvation. And I know that my only hope
is that He will keep me and present me faultless before the throne
of God. If He takes His hand off of me, I know I will depart. Last ones, I promise to do these
quickly. Seven of them, here they are.
The particular effectual love of God, the sovereignty of God
and salvation, the sanctifying work of the Spirit, the belief
in the truth, and verse 14, whereunto he called you by our gospel. Have you heard the voice of God?
I mean, you've just heard it. You're not an audible experience,
but the convincing voice of God. You've been called. There's two
callings spoken of in the scripture. There's the outward call. That's
what we're doing right now. We're calling men to come to
Christ. And then there's the inward effectual call. That's
the irresistible call. I've been irresistibly drawn
to Christ. I've got no place else to go.
The Lord said, my sheep will hear my voice and they will follow
me. They'll just come to Christ.
Lord, that was a... Just come. Yes, He's called. He's called. How did He call me? He called
me with a word of truth. Of His own will. of God's own sovereign will begat
he us, birthed us into the family of God by the word of truth. I heard the gospel as the gospel. I'd heard about Jesus all my
life. I'd heard about the death, the resurrection, the ascension
of Christ, the coming again. I heard about the miracles. I've
heard all those things all my life. I knew the acts of God
as they were recorded in the Bible. But now I know why he
did what he did. Now I know his ways. Why? Because he's called me. I've
heard the gospel now, as the gospel. I never heard it before.
I had some truths, I had some doctrine, I had some information.
But I didn't, I hadn't been called. My ears were stopped. I couldn't
hear, I couldn't see. I was like Mephibosheth, hiding
out in Lodabar, and the king fetched me, and he brought me
to his table, and he sat me down, and he fed me with the bread
of life. I've been called. And I had to say to the king,
what would you have to do with such a dead dog as I? Why did
you make me to differ? Why did you call me? Why did
you come to that place and get me? I don't understand it, but
I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful to be sitting here
at the king's table and eating the king's food. For it is my
only hope. The call of God is not an invitation.
An invitation, you can RSVP. An invitation, you can reject
it or accept it or ignore it. The call of God cannot be ignored
and it cannot be rejected. It must be received. If God's called you, he's left
you with no other option but to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Sixth, it's called you by our gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. To
obtain means to take hold of. It means to have possession of
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means
that my only hope is that as He is, so am I. That the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ is all my righteousness before God. He's my life. He's my Savior. I've got possession
of Him. The prophet said, she shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. He's put his name on me. That's my only hope. All the blessings of God, all
my blessings are in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. I've taken possession
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. His glory is my hope. Christ in me is my hope of glory. It's the only hope I have. And
my hope is that one day, one day, God's going to put this
body where it belongs. This flesh is going to get what
it deserves. It's going to die. And I'm going to be given a new
body. And on that day, I'm going to see him, not through a glass
dimly as I look now, but I'm going to see him as he is and
be made like him. Oh, what a glorious day that
will be. of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And finally, look at verse 15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the tradition which you have been taught, whether
by word or by epistle. Paul put it like this in Philippians,
being confident of this very thing, and this is my confidence
for you and for me, being confident of this very thing that he which
began a good work in you. What is that? That's the work
of faith. How did you come to faith? He's
the originator of faith. I'm confident of this very thing,
that He that began a good work in you will perform it until
the day of His coming. He's going to keep you. He's
going to keep you. Keep you where? Keep you standing
fast. in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made you free. Keep you from being entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Keep you from believing the lie.
Keep you trusting Christ all the way to the end. That's the
only hope we have. But what a sure hope it is. There's no Look at verse, we'll read verse
16 and 17 again in closing. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given
us an everlasting consolation. Oh, I can be consoled there. So many things in this life that
are not consoling. This is a good hope through grace. Comfort your hearts and establish
you in every good word and work. They said, what work can we work
to perform the works of God? And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
say? This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. Has God done a work in your heart?
Has He caused you to have a good hope? To rest in His effectual love? In His electing grace? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would minister that grace to our hearts
by your spirit and enable us to rest in Christ. For it's in
his name we pray. Amen. Number 42 in the Sop Act
Hymnal, let's stand together. In myself I have no merit, nothing
good have I to give, that a holy, just, and perfect God could ever
let me live. Sin defiles my best performance,
Guilty, vile, and rude I am. Yet my heart breaks in repentance,
By God's grace I see the Lamb. See the Lamb of God, our Savior,
bearing all our sin and shame. By eternal love and favor, Jesus
died bearing our blame. Bruised and wounded and forsaken,
as our substitute he died. It is finished, sin's forgiven,
justice now is satisfied. Here's my hope and consolation,
Jesus died for sinners' sake. Trusting Him, I have salvation
and the cup of blessing take. All is well, I cannot doubt it,
God who gave His Son for me, Rules this world and all things
in it, For my good eternally. So I'll trust my God and Savior,
Though my joy is mixed with pain. He is worthy, worthy ever, That
in me His peace should reign. Faith in such a great Redeemer
gives my soul a blessed call. Christ is near. He's my protector. He will keep me from all harm. Please be seated. I want to ask Gigi and Clayton
if they'll come up here. These two young people, they have been sitting under
the gospel all their life. all their life. They've never
heard anything else. Not like a lot of us. And I want us to
pray for them this morning and ask the Lord to never let them
forget what they've heard. They're graduating from high
school right now and they're going to be moving on to different
things in the world. And our hope is that the Holy
Spirit will just enable you to believe what you've been listening
to all your life, and that he will protect you from the lie
that's in this world. So, Clayton, here's a copy of
God's Word for You with Gigi. All right, let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful for your mercies. We thank you for Clayton and
for Gigi. We thank you for having them
here these many years to sit under the sound of the gospel. We pray, Lord, that you would
protect them. We pray that you would never
let them forget the things that they've heard and that you would
give them the faith to believe upon Christ and to give them
hope and rest. We know, Lord, that there are
temptations and trials in this world that they're going to face,
and we ask that you would spare them from those things that would
do such damage. Pray you'd give them wisdom. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.