Okay, let's turn with me in the
scriptures to Acts chapter 21. Paul had given his account, particularly,
one by one that word means he's given his account, particularly
of everything that happened. The things that God had done.
Don't you love it when God does things? The things that God has
wrought. Man is very busy. Man is particularly
busy in religion. And in real saving faith, we're
looking for things that God wrought. And when they heard it, verse
20, they glorified the Lord and said unto him, thou seest, brother,
how many thousands of the Jews there are which believe, and
they are all zealous of the law. They'd heard these stories about
Paul which we read earlier. I'd like us to spend a little
bit of time examining some of these words. Paul had been, wherever
he'd been, there'd either been a riot or there'd been repentance. There either been a work of God
in the hearts of people or they are, as he says of the Jews in
Acts 19.9, he says, they were hardened and believed not. They were hardened. What an awful
word, what an awful thing to contemplate that God will harden
the hearts of people in judgment and judiciously And they believe
not. Their believing not is an active
activity of theirs. And so when men believe not,
they are fully responsible for their not believing. There is,
as there were in Acts chapter 15, there are these Jews which
were in Acts 15.5, there arose a certain sect of the Pharisees
which believed. And what was their believing?
It was they were believing that it was needful to circumcise
the Gentiles and command them to keep the law of Moses. Here we are. a good number of
years later, and we have in Jerusalem yet another group of people. In fact, it's not a little group,
it's thousands. In fact, the word in Greek is the word myriads,
which means maybe 10,000. And so we have in the Jerusalem
church, we have this huge number of people that now live in Jerusalem
and live alongside the Jews of Jerusalem. and live alongside
the Jews of Jerusalem and the priesthood of Jerusalem and live
there in peace with them. And a peace such that these four
men that take on this vow are members of the church. We have
four men, says James. We have four men, they're members
of the church. But the members of the church can undertake a
Nazarite vow and the members of the church can go into the
temple and to the priesthood of the Jews and offer sin offerings
before God, as they say. I suppose my point is there is
a believing and there is a believing. You might recall some of the
incidents from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter
6 there was an enormous crowd that followed him. They followed
him because of the food and no doubt it would have been extraordinary
to see loaves and fishes multiplied to feed thousands. It would have
been extraordinary to see people raised from the dead. It would
have been extraordinary, as it was for the people in Nazareth,
to be amazed at the wonderful words, the gracious words that
proceed from his lips. He drew crowds. In John chapter
6, if you recall, he actually then proclaimed who he was. and
proclaimed who the father was and he said he and the father
are both God and God the father has given to God the sons and
people and they'll come to him. He declared his deity and those
followers left him. In John chapter 8 just turn there
very briefly in John chapter 8 I'd like us to be able to explore
these verses in more detail but in John chapter 8 He speaks wonderful words. He
speaks words of warning. He speaks words about who he
is. He speaks words of truth. He speaks Those words in verse
23, he says, you are from beneath and I am from above and you are
of this world and I'm not of this world. Verse 24, I said
therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins if you believe
not that I am he. If you don't believe that he
is God, is what he's saying, you shall die in your sins. He spoke hard truths and he says
to them in verse 28, When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then you shall know that I am He. You'll know that I am God
when you've lifted me up. That I do nothing of myself,
but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things. And He
that has sent me is with me, and the Father has not left me
alone, for I do always those things that please Him. Who else
could ever say that? What other man on this earth
could ever say that with any honesty? He speaks the truth.
He does always the things that please him. And as he spoke these
words, listen to it. Words, extraordinary words, not
words of peace to people, but words of seriousness. And many
believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then you'll
be my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, that's
him, the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, and the truth shall
make you free. And then they said, we're Abraham
seed, we've got a heritage, we've got a religious heritage. And
we are never in bondage to any man. You see what religious heritage
and religious righteousness does to people? You immediately start
lying about yourself. They've never been in bondage
to anyone. They were in bondage to the Egyptians for 400 years.
They were in bondage to the Babylonians for 70 years. They've been in
bondage to the Romans for the last 40 years. We've never been
in bondage to anyone. Give me a break. That's what
religion does to people. You think you have a heritage
and you think you have some righteousness. He says to these people who had
believed on him, he says, you are of your father the devil
and the lust, verse 44, and the lust of your fathers you will
do. He was the murderer from the beginning. My point is that
these people believed. If you go down to the end of
the chapter, verse 59, he says, he says in verse 58, he says,
verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, before Abraham
was, I am. He said, I'm Abraham's God. is
what he's saying. So these people had believed. Then they took up stones to cast
at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going
through the midst of them, and so passed by. There is a following,
and it's not a following, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said to
those people in John 6, he says, you can go too, you apostles.
You can go as well. The door's open. Go. And Peter
turns to him and says, we've got nowhere else to go. You alone
have the words of eternal life. The people that stay with him,
all that lot that left him, but the people stay. Why? Because
they couldn't go anywhere else. The people that he gives faith
to will believe because the faith is the gift of God. He said earlier
in the earlier message, isn't it, there is a doing that people
can do. And it's not a doing that honours
God. There is a preaching that people
can do. Paul says to the Galatians, he
says, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you
have preached, let him be accursed. He says to them, even if an angel
from heaven comes back and changes the gospel, you're not to believe
him. He said, if I come back and preach another gospel to
you Galatians, he's accursed as well. The people in Nazareth wondered
at his gracious words. They heard him preach, didn't
they? They wondered at his gracious words. And then he declared the
absolute sovereignty of God. in saving who he wants to save.
There are lots of lepers in Israel and God chose to save an Assyrian
Naaman who was a leper. There were lots of widows and
God chose to save one. People are offended, you see,
these people that believe and follow and do and preach, they're
offended at the character of God. They are prepared to follow
him a certain way and then they find something in his character
that is offensive. And then they say, we will not
have that man to rule over us. There are people who have experienced
extraordinary mercy like the Jews. What an extraordinary mercy
to have been rescued out of Egypt. What an extraordinary thing to
do to see that pillar of cloud. What an extraordinary thing to
walk through the Red Sea on dry ground and see these pillars
of water on either side of you and walk through there as if
it was dry ground. And what does God say about them?
They didn't believe and their carcasses fell in the desert. My point is We have to define believing. These men believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ and they believed in their law keeping. They were
zealous. You read it there, don't you?
And they are all zealous of the law. Exactly the same as the
people in Acts chapter 15. They were all zealous of the
law. And they're offended. these people
in Jerusalem, they are offended about what happens when Paul
goes preaching. Wherever Paul goes preaching,
as I said to you last week, he goes into the synagogue and the
synagogues were mixed congregations. They were Jews. Abraham's children
and there were proselyte Gentiles in the synagogue and wherever
Paul went, he went into the synagogue and preached in the synagogue
because he went where he had an invitation to speak. And he
went into the synagogue and when he'd spoken, there was a gathering
of people that came out of that synagogue, weren't they? And
they were Jews. proselyte Gentiles and then there
were Gentiles on the outside that believed as well and you
can read it again it's repeated all the way through the book
of Acts in everywhere he went so when Paul preached there was
either a riot or repentance but where Paul preached the gospel
where God sent him to preach the gospel there was a gathering
of people and the Jews remained offended And the proselyte Gentiles, who
became Jews as it were, they were offended. And their offence
never stopped. And so the churches that Paul
had planted and he'd witnessed to were churches that were gathered
in this controversial way, weren't they? Wherever there was a trial
and a trouble, the Lord blessed it. And the Jews believed. Some of the Jews believed and
some of the Gentiles believed. And the churches that Paul had
ministered to as the apostle to the Gentiles were all this
mixed congregation. And they all worshipped God together.
And Paul wrote his letters to them. You can read the letter
of Philippians, can't you? He describes himself and he describes
all of his Jewishness to the Philippians. All the wonders. He had all of this amazing credit
to his balance in fleshly terms. and he says to them, he says,
beware of the dogs, verse 2, Philippians 3, beware of the
evil workers, beware of the concision, beware of those who preach circumcision,
for we are, now he's talking to the Philippians, he's talking
to Lydia and the Philippian jailer and the others that were gathered
in their church in Philippi, for we are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit. Our worship is a spiritual worship. It's a spiritual worship of faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you worship God in the
Spirit, you'll rejoice in Christ Jesus. You'll rejoice in who
He is. You'll rejoice in what He's done. You'll rejoice in
what He's doing. You'll rejoice in His coming.
You'll rejoice in His law or obedience. You'll rejoice in
His blood sacrifice. You'll rejoice in Christ Jesus.
has God made you to rejoice? If your sins are put away, brothers
and sisters, and you have the promise of eternal life in the
presence of God forevermore, because of something that was
done completely outside of you, are you going to be rejoicing?
You ought to be rejoicing. People, we are commanded to rejoice. I like that. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. That's what it
is to worship God, isn't it? You worship God spiritually,
you rejoice in Christ Jesus, and you have no confidence in
the flesh. So these people were zealous. They were zealous of the law.
They were zealous of the law. So what's
the purpose of God's law? Why did God give his law? A couple
of things you need to know about God's law. The first one is that
the law that they're talking about is the law that came when
the people of God were gathered at Mount Sinai. Exodus chapter
20. And people think the law was
given to bless people and people think the law was given to show
them how they can live moral lives. And there was a time when
you'd have the Ten Commandments plastered around the place and
people would think that the more you looked at the law of God,
the more righteous you could become in obedience to it. Let's
just read some verses. Romans 3, 19. The law is given
that every mouth might be stopped and the whole world become guilty
before God. This is the law that these men
were zealous for. They were zealous for the law
of Moses. Romans 3. Romans 5. And this is a letter
Paul had written before he'd gone on his journey to Jerusalem.
Romans 5.10 says, the law was introduced, the law came that
sin might abound, the offence might abound. Romans
7.13 says, but sin, that it might appear
sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful." So the law brings a sinner guilty
before God. The law brings a sinner to the
place where God can be justified. in his righteous sentence of
condemnation on people. The law comes that the sinner
might be speechless, with his mouth shut. The law comes that
the sinner might not ever dare to justify himself, but he'll
justify God. The law comes that the sinner
might feel the sentence of death passed upon him. So when the
commandment comes, says Paul, sin revives, Romans 7. Sin revives and the law, and
the sinner dies and the law that which he thought would bring
life actually brings death. brings death to him. For sin,
verse 11, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me,
and by it slew me." So the law shuts the mouth of people. The
law holds people in bondage before God, seen as sinners. There's no fleshly hope. It declares
all works to be no good. Romans 3 says there's no flesh
going to be justified in God's sight. Therefore by the deeds
of the law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's why Romans 4.15
says the law works wrath. When Paul's writing to his Corinthian
brothers and sisters in 2 Corinthians 3, for those who think that the
law is something you can turn to and delight in and find reassurance
in, Paul says the letter kills. The letter of the law kills,
but the Spirit gives life. We're held captive by the law,
Paul said to the Galatians in Galatians 3, 22. We're held captive
by the law until faith comes, until the faithful one comes.
See, the law brings God's children guilty. It brings them to have
their mouths shut. It brings them to a place where
all their hopes are cut off. It's stripping away their fig
leaves in the garden, brothers and sisters. And it works wrath
in their soul and it passes a sentence of condemnation on them. And
it holds them fast until faith comes. And faith comes to deliver
them. For Christ came to deliver His
people. to deliver them. So the activities
of the law make the saviour a more precious saviour. They make him
a more precious saviour and faith lays hold of him and not anything
else and it embraces him and hope is anchored on him and what
he's done. They love what is said, isn't
it? Let him loose him and let him
go, says God. I've found a ransom. I've found
a way to set these people free which honours my justice and
honours my holiness and honours my character and makes people
to see what they really are. That's why the Shulamite in the
Song of Songs, she said, I'm black, I'm black. And then she
says immediately, but I'm comely, I'm beautiful. You can read about
it in Ezekiel chapter 16. They have a beauty, God's people
have a beauty that God puts on them. They cry, I'm desolate, and then
they hear the Lord say, your maker is your husband, your redeemer. Our Lord Jesus Christ entered
that covenant. See, people think they can go
back to the law to be fruitful. That's the purpose of it, isn't
it? You wouldn't do it for any other reason, would you? You
would do it because you think this is fruitful. It's fruitful
in your life, and it's fruitful towards God. Let's turn back
to Romans chapter 7. There's a glorious picture of how you
bear fruit to God in Romans chapter 7. And he's speaking to people
that know the law. He's speaking to people who've
been trained in the law. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. If he's dead, he has no longer
any dominion over her, does he, in any way at all. So then if
While her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she
shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, you also
are become dead. to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to
another, even to him who is raised from
the dead." So who are you married to? You're married to the risen
Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters. And the purpose of it
is that we should bring forth fruit unto God. there is a real marriage. So
the Lord Jesus Christ was born of a woman and He was born under
the law and He perfectly obeyed that law. And everyone that was
in Him perfectly obeyed that law in Him. And when He was hung
on that cross of Calvary and the curse and the wrath of God
fell upon Him, it fell upon all of us. And when He died, we died. Legally we died. See, we're united,
we're married to the Lord Jesus Christ who's fulfilled the law
and perfectly kept it to the perfect satisfaction. He could
say at the end of his life to those jolly Pharisees, and they
had Judas with them to help, he could say, can any of you
accuse me of any sin? Anyone ever dare say that before?
Before a bunch of religious legalists who were watching him like a
hawk to find out when he might fall. He had no sin. He was holy before God. And we
had no sin. We were holy before God in Him.
And then all of our sins were put on Him. And He said, He says
in the Psalms, in Psalm 40 and Psalm 69 and Psalm 80, He said,
they're My sins. Why were they His sins? Why were
they His sins? See, they were legally His sins.
He bore their sins in His own body on the tree. It's because of what we keep
talking about, the blood of the everlasting covenant. He says
in Isaiah 42, he says, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness
and I will hold thy hand and will keep thee and give thee
for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles. See, we're in that covenant,
brothers and sisters. Colesley on him here couldn't
claim any Jewish heritage. The rest of us are pagans, we're
heathens, we're Gentile dogs. Not according to God. Our God,
he said, I've given thee for a covenant of the people. See, we're united to him. were
united to him, which is why Paul would say to the Romans, but
now, Romans 3.21, but now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. And it's a righteousness that
just comes by faith. It's a righteousness, the righteousness
that Abraham had. What did Abraham have? He had
a promise from God. And he believed God and it was
credited to him, it was put on his account for righteousness,
the righteousness of God. That's why this fruit and this
righteousness that law-keeping people think that they're going
to attain is not what the saints of God lived under. They couldn't
live on the basis of their works anyway at all. Abraham was dead.
He couldn't produce any fruit for God. Sarah was dead. She
couldn't produce any fruit for God. How did they become productive? By a promise. By a promise from
God. That's why it's by faith that
it might be by grace, says Paul in Romans 4. the promise might
be sure to all them that believe. It's a sure promise. And that's
why Isaiah would say, isn't it, this is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, Isaiah 54, 17, their righteousness is of me, saith
the Lord. He's covered them with the garments
of righteousness. He's covered them with the robe
of righteousness, the garments of salvation. In union with our
Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father doesn't see anything different
between us and Him. So you know those verses in Jeremiah
23 and 33. Jeremiah 23, 5 and 6 says, In his days, behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, I will raise unto David a righteous
branch, and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is a name whereby he
shall be called the Lord our righteousness." That's his name,
the Lord, our God, our righteousness. And over in chapter 33, verse
16, In those days he will be called
that. In those days, same words, and at that time I will cause
the branch of righteousness to grow up. Jeremiah 33, 15. Grow up unto David and he shall
execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall
Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. See the children of God by faith,
by their union with the Lord Jesus Christ, by the simple act
of faith, by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God coming and
revealing to them what they are and revealing to them what is,
they are declared to be one with Him. So how then, how then do Christians
live regarding the law? How then do we live? The Lord
Jesus said that all things that are written in the law of the
prophets, all things are going to be fulfilled. So he came to call, he didn't
come to call the righteous, he came to call sinners to repentance. Paul writing to his Romans, And
I love the fact that his heart breaks, and I pray that the Lord
would cause us to have hearts that break for the lost around
us. He says in Romans 10, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them
record that they have a zeal for God. These people in Jerusalem
had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. That's what Paul
said to the Galatians. If you want to be under the law,
don't you know what the law says? Don't you know its demands? Don't
you know that even with a Nazarite vow, if you make one tiny little
mistake at the end, you've lost the whole lot? The law demands
perfection. The law was a bondage to the
children of Israel. Do you realise what the law was?
That's what he says. Do you know what the law says?
Do you realise that when you woke up in the morning, you might
have sinned in the night when you were asleep? And then you
had to be careful about what you put on your feet. And you
had to be careful about the clothes you wore. And then you had to
check the walls of your house to see whether there was any
mould on. Then when you had your breakfast you had to check your
pots and pans. And when you walked outside you didn't know whether
you were going to tread on something that was defiled. You looked up to
the sky and you would see defiled birds. You went to sit by a beautiful
stream and there were unclean animals in there. Everywhere
you looked, all of your life, The law binded, bound you. And the purpose was that it would
drive you away from thinking that you could ever do this by
yourself. And the law was given in judgment of those people at
Mount Sinai. Three times at Mount Sinai, on
either side of the giving of the Ten Commandments, they said
to God, you just tell us what to do. It's a piece of cake.
You tell us what to do. We can do it. God says, I'll show you what
you have to do. And I'll show you how well you have to do it. They've been ignorant of God's
righteousness. They have a zeal of God but not
according to knowledge. They don't know themselves, they don't
know the character of God and they don't know the holiness
of his law. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Because for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth."
For those who don't believe, their law-keeping is the means
of their righteousness, isn't it? And they'll be very happy
to tell you about their righteousness and their religious activities.
And you'll feel guilty in their presence because of their devotion
and their holiness. And do you know why you feel
guilty? Because that's exactly what they want you to feel. being
ignorant of God's right, and going about to establish their
own right, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end. Christ is the termination. The
law goes that far. That is the end of the law for
righteousness, to everyone that believeth. So let's just quickly, and obviously
we've run out of time and I don't want to be sort of pushing all
of us too far, That brings us back to the situation in Acts
21. What was going on? What was going
on in the Jerusalem church? And what was going on with the
Apostle Paul? You can imagine what happened
that morning that he went into the temple. He was having breakfast,
wasn't he? Luke was there. Trophimus was
there. Aristarchus was there. All these
Gentiles having breakfast in Mason's house. What are we doing
today, Paul? What are you doing today, Paul?
I'm going down to the temple. I'm going down to the temple
today to participate and pay for these men to have a blood
sacrifice. And, Trophimus, you can't come.
because you're not allowed in there. And Luke, you can't come
because you're not allowed in there. Why are you doing it,
Paul? Why are you doing it? One of the things that I think
this passage of Scripture makes abundantly clear to us, and Lord
willing we might have to look at it in more detail next week,
is that all of God's servants and all those that the Lord has
ever used have been seen to have been frail, and their frailty has several
purposes. Their frailty comes about, as
Peter did in Antioch, from fear of men, from wanting to appease
men. Their frailty has several purposes. One is, of course, that God's
children are saved by the righteousness of another. And David, like all
of God's children, will have the prophet come along to him
as Nathan did to David and says, you're the man, you're the guilty
one. And then you'll hear those remarkable
words in the gospel, the Lord has taken away your sin. One of the reasons that God exposes
the sins of his servants in the scriptures, and he lays them
bare and their failings, he lays them bare before us. is that we might be humbled.
Because what do you think? What do you think when you read
of David's fall? I'll tell you what you think.
I wouldn't have done that. When you hear of Moses' fall.
When you hear of Peter cursing and swearing to show that he
had nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ because he was frightened
of a little serpent girl. Where does your heart go? I wouldn't
have done that. That's mine, I can be honest
about mine. See part of the reason for these gospel, these falls
and failings of people in the gospel is that we might be exposed. We might be exposed ourselves. The God exposed all of the sins
of all of his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they were
open and naked before him. And God in great glory and mercy
says they're gone altogether. You see, God in faithfulness.
not only exposes his people and exposes the saviour of his people,
but he also sets a limit. He sets a limit to the sins of
his people. And the limit here is a really
clear limit, isn't it? At the very place where they
had their shaved hair and their blood sacrifice in their hands,
God says no. God says no. God did it. God caused the uproar. God shut
the doors of the temple so none of them could get in there again.
God shut the doors of that temple. And God worked in the heart of
Paul to give one of the most remarkable declarations of the
gospel. All that they had tried to do by appeasing men, by compromising
And in fear of men, all of it was undone. And Paul stood up
before that crowd of angry Jews and the self-righteous religionists
amongst them. And he did what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. In repentance, I believe. and
in trust in his saviour he just declared this is who God is and
this is who I am and this is how he saves sinners and I'm
off to the Gentiles and let them be enraged and let the Jerusalem
church cop all of what comes from this riot and them being
enraged at me because our God is absolutely sovereign. Our God speaks in promises of
I will and they shall. But God also holds the blood
of his Son as a precious thing in his sight. And man in religion makes the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ a common thing to be trampled
underfoot. And the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a precious thing. And God the Father honors the
preciousness of his blood. And he will not allow his servant
Paul to offer a blood sacrifice. He will not allow it. And he
sends his apostle, having proclaimed the gospel in Jerusalem, he sends
him to proclaim the gospel in Rome. There are so many lessons in
this, I trust the Lord might give us time next week. But one
of the things is that if we fear men and we try to join with other
men to appease religious people, we will always fail all the time. We will always fail all the time.
And sanctification, the purification of God's people, is always the
dividing issue and ultimately it comes back to who our great
God is and what He has done. He'll magnify the law and He'll
make it holy. and He magnifies the law in the
hearts of His people and He makes it holy to them. Our great God
and Saviour will have His gospel honoured. The Jerusalem church
was dying. The Jerusalem church was going
to be destroyed completely in just a few years time when all
of the Christians left that place. We, the children of God, have
another mother. It's the Jerusalem above, says
Paul. She's the mother of us all. We
are married, as Paul says in Romans 7, we are married to a
resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. I'll just finish with one of
my favourite verses in all of the scriptures. I trust it might
be yours. Paul says, verse 19 of Galatians
2, and let's close with these words. He says, for I through
the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. And then he says, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. who loved
me and gave himself for me. He says, I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, if righteousness
comes, if you think you have any righteousness by anything
you've ever done, is what that means, then Christ is dead in
vain. The life I live now, I live by
the faithfulness of the Son of God. Is he faithful? Has he been
faithful to you? Has he hedged your path as he
did with Gomer? Has he hedged your path with
thorns that he might hedge you into the arms of his son? He's
got to keep doing it all the time, brothers and sisters, because
we like sheep are wandering all the time. We have a Great Shepherd. We return to the Great Shepherd
of our souls. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
You for Your Word and we thank You for Your honesty in dealing
with Your people, Heavenly Father. And we praise You for the glory
of the Gospel of Your dear and precious Son. The wonder of His
death. The death that we deserved to
die, He died for us. The wrath that we earned by our
sin fell on Him and fell on us in Him until He cried out, and
the justice of God cried out, it is finished. Heavenly Father,
cause us to rest in a perfect and finished work of your dear
and precious Son. Cause us, Heavenly Father, to
have the joy and peace of believing, just simply believing the testimony
of your dear and precious Son. simply believing those remarkable
promises that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Save us, our Father. Save us
for Jesus' sake and for His glory, for we pray in His precious name.
Amen.