Let's turn back in our scriptures
to Acts chapter 20. Part of preaching the whole counsel
of God is warning about false teachers and the scriptures In
fact, the New Testament in total exists in large measure because
of the false teachers who oppose the gospel in all of those places.
And so every letter is a declaration, a proclamation of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace of God in him. But
it's also a warning about false teachers. And we are told, as
these Ephesian elders were told, we're said in verse 28, take
heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock. over which
the Holy Ghost has made you overseas, to feed the church of God, which
he has purchased with his own blood. For I know this, verse
29, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among
you, not sparing the flock, and also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after themselves. Therefore watch, so we're told
to watch twice. Therefore watch and remember.
We're told you can only remember something you've witnessed and
experienced and seen. You are to remember how Paul
had lived. Remember that by the space of
three years. I cease not to warn everyone,
night and day, with tears. It was a part of his ministry
all the time to not only declare the truth but therefore necessarily
to declare everything that denies the truth of who the Lord Jesus
Christ is and what he has done and what he has achieved and
the glory of his successful work. It is anything necessarily which
opposes his character and his work, Jesus Christ and him crucified. is necessarily false and deceitful
and harmful to souls. So there are warnings, necessary
warnings in scriptures, but also there is In the midst of the warnings
there are great declarations of the sovereign hand of God
and truly He will, as Romans 8.28 says, He will work all things
together for the good of them that are loved, the ones that
are called according to His purpose. In verse 32 I wanted to spend
our time looking at these words in this verse because This is
how Paul leaves the Ephesian church and it's how all faithful
pastors leave all of the people in their care. They commend them
to God. I commend you to God. I entrust
you to God. I deposit, as it were, you in
the hands of God, which is where you've always been, of course.
But nevertheless, that's where his hope is, isn't it? I commend
you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Now I'd like to put a proposition
for you to to hear and to ponder and maybe the Lord might make
it clear to us today that the false teachers deny every single
one of those statements in there. They deny the character of God. They pervert the Gospel of the
grace of God. And they turn the modern gospel
and the gospel of the false teachers in Galatia and the false teachers
that were going to harass the church throughout all the New
Testament age and for this last 2000 years, they're going to
harass the people of God with a perversion of the grace of
God where they add something of works to it. You cannot mix
grace and works at all. And then they deny the ability
of our God, they deny the power. That word is the word we get
our English word dynamite from. The Gospel is the power of God
under salvation. It's able to build you up and
to give you an inheritance. See who does the building? God
does the building. What does man do? Man builds. Man builds his religious institutions
and his religious edifices, but God does the building of his
church. I will build my church, says the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the gates of Hades won't prevail against it. The gates are defensive
weapons. The Lord Jesus Christ goes into
Satan's camp and he says, they're mine and I'll have them, thank
you very much. They're mine and I'll have them. And to give you an inheritance,
say how do you get an inheritance? How do you get an inheritance?
You get an inheritance because of your relation to someone.
and their relationship to you. You get an inheritance not because
of what you do, you get an inheritance because of your relationship
with someone. And this inheritance is given among all them, and
look at that phrase at the end of it, which are sanctified. Religion and our flesh says that
by our activities in cooperation with God, we will finally get
ourselves to a place where we're fit and right for heaven. Let
me remind you, brothers and sisters in Christ, salvation begins with
God revealing to you that you are perfect and complete and
that you have no sins. Salvation, real salvation, God's
salvation, God's salvation proclaimed in the Gospel of free and sovereign
grace begins with that, that religion finally wants people
to get to. So let's, by the grace of God,
look at these things. But firstly I want us to remember
that the false teachers of this world, and they proliferate,
and they are subtle. and they speak perverse things,
they twist the Word of God. The false teachers are under
the sovereign hand of God, like all of the trials and tribulations
that the Lord will take all of His people through. They are,
as it were, a flood that sweeps God's people into the hands of
the Lord Jesus Christ and into His arms. No harm will befall
God's people. The Church of God has never been
harmed by the false teachers. And as I said earlier, it doesn't
mean that we have a cold indifference to these things. We grieve and
we shed tears over people who have rejected the Gospel and
walked away from it and gone back to a Gospel of works. And
we grieve over what happens in this world. We have every reason
to shed tears. But nevertheless, we have every
reason to trust the fact that our God is sovereign and faithful. So I don't want to spend a whole
lot of time looking at the false teachers this morning, I want
to look at the true. You know how in America they train people
in the old days to detect counterfeit notes? And how do you train someone
to detect a counterfeit $100 bill? What they did was they'd
sit them in a room and sit them down with a genuine $100 bill
and they would stare at it and stare at it and stare at it and
stare at it on both sides and they had to examine it for days
and weeks and weeks until they had this extraordinary intimate
knowledge of it. And then when a false one came
along, they would know that it was false. They may not be able
to find out exactly where it was without some examination
but they know that it was false. So how do we protect ourselves
from the wolves? How do we protect ourselves from
the false teachers? We look again and again and again,
again and again and again, and we go back and we look at who
the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He's done. And we realise
that in this world, as Peter and the others finished their
life's ministry here, they were grieving over what was happening
and they were promising what was happening. And 2 Peter, if
you read 2 Peter and Jude, you'll see that they are full of warnings
about false teachers. But in the midst of all the warnings
there is a glorious description of the fact that this is God's
work to do. It says in 2 Peter 2 verse 9,
the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,
out of trials, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment
to be punished. God knows how to do it. God knows
how to do it. The false teachers, as evil and
as wicked and as responsible as they are, and as responsible
as those who follow them are, ultimately, to the Church of
God, they do not harm them. the Church of God is secure in
the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's go back and look at
these characteristics of Paul's words of commendation, his final
words to them. And now brethren, I commend you
to God. He has faithfully declared who God is and you can read it
in Ephesians chapter 1. He declares the God who is a
triune God. He declares the God who has electing
and predestinating love. He declares a God who redeemed
his people successfully. He declares a God who made an
eternal covenant and in that eternal covenant the Lord Jesus
Christ and his people and his church were always seen as one. And then Blessed Holy Spirit
has promised that at the time of love He will come and He will
take the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and He will reveal them
to His people. And He will reveal them, as Paul
says in that prayer that we read in Ephesians chapter 1, He will
open the eyes of their understanding. And they might behold, as Moses
said, the seed of Moses, He saw Him who is invisible. How do
you see Him who is invisible? We see Him through the eyes of
faith as the Scriptures are revealed to us. So Paul commends them
to God. He commends them to the word
of His grace. The word of His grace. Grace comes to us as a word from
our God, doesn't it? The word of His grace. It is a declaration of the gospel
of His grace. And like all terms that are misused
by people, the word of His grace or the word the grace is a word
that needs to be defined, doesn't it? I love all of the notions
associated with the grace of God. Sinners love the grace of
God. Sinners really do love the fact
that God is gracious. The first thing we have to say
about grace is that always grace is saving grace. It's always
saving grace. There's no such thing as grace
that doesn't save. Grace in the scriptures is always
sovereign grace. Grace in the scriptures is always
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is always electing grace. It's a reflection of the character
of our God. Grace is necessarily opposed
to works. Romans 11.6 is a verse that we
quote often, and you should know it well, for those who think
that works mean anything in any way in terms of salvation. As
if by grace, there's a remnant according to the election of
grace, says Paul in Romans 11.5. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. If it be of
works then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. You cannot mix grace and works
together. Grace presupposes that the recipients
of grace have no merits in themselves whatsoever and no merits that
they might be able to do. Grace is the demerited favour
of God. It's the favour of God shown
to people who have lost all ability. have sold themselves for naught. See, grace, the grace of God
is always blood-bought grace. It's the gospel, as Paul says
in verse 24, he says, this is the ministry he's received of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to testify, to bear witness to, the gospel
of the grace of God. And Paul says in 1st Timothy
that he's a pattern of all those who believe. He's a pattern.
So how did that grace of God work in Paul's life? Galatians
1, he gives a biography, doesn't he? He says, you remember me,
you remember me. And no doubt he reminded them
of his of his conversion. He says, you've heard, verse
13 of Galatians 1, for you've heard of my conversation, my
life in times past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure
I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews' religion
above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous for the traditions of my fathers. And how was Paul
saved? But when it pleased God. Salvation is always when it pleases
God. And Paul was made to realise
that this God had separated me from my mother's womb and called
me by His grace. When God calls, He always calls
in grace. So all he ever can do is call
in grace because there are no merits in you and he can't get
anything from you. That's what grace is about. That's why it's
so glorious. And what happened in verse 16?
What was the revelation that Paul realized? He met the Lord
Jesus Christ on the Damascus road and when his eyes were opened
to see who he really was in that saving act, to reveal his son
where? He saw the Lord Jesus Christ
as glorious. He saw Him as God. He saw Him
seated on the throne. He saw Himself in the very right
and proper place of someone like Paul, in the dust, blind and
being led by the hand. And where was the Lord Jesus
Christ? In Him. In Him. To reveal His Son in
me that I might preach Him among the heathen. See, it's... To go back to that issue of inheritance,
it's always got to do with the fact that we're always, we're
always in Him, in Him. That is the most common definition
of believers in all of the New Testament. The word Christian
is mentioned twice. The word in Him, the phrase in
Him is used 170 times, I think. 80 of them, I think, are in direct
reference to our union with Him. When did he do it? When did he
do all this? This is why this Word of Grace
is so extraordinary and special, isn't it? He says to Timothy,
who went to pastor the church at Ephesus in 1 Timothy 1 verse
8, he says, Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. But be thou a partaker of the
afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God." When the
Church of God is afflicted, they turn and realise that God is
powerful and God is sovereign in these afflictions. They are
for our good. We won't see them with any clarity
except by the eyes of faith. But all according to the power
of God. And listen to this verse, 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. Who has saved us? What happened
first in this order? He has saved us. finished work,
past tense, and called us. So he saved people and called
them with a holy calling, not according to our works, not according
to what we have done, not according to my activities, but according
to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ
Jesus. When was it given us in Christ
Jesus? God says it was given us before
the world began. Why can He give us an inheritance?
Because we are in Him and united to Him before the world began.
And now this is made manifest. It's made manifest. So the preaching
of the Gospel is the revelation of the character of God. It's
like those curtains. We can put these blinds down
on this room and we can't see the mountains and the clouds
and the trees outside. It doesn't stop the mountains
and the clouds and the trees from existing. So when the Gospel
comes and that light enlightens the hearts of God's people, all
of a sudden they see. They see what was really there
and they see what was there from all eternity. It was made manifest
by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished
death and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the Gospel. Why would the Church of God ever
want to do anything else than preach the Gospel? Why would
you be wanting to be involved? Everything else will happen. It's the glory, isn't it? Paul
was going to his death and saying goodbye to these Ephesian elders.
And he knew that God had sent him to them. And he knew that
God had brought and raised up that church and other churches
there in Ephesus and all throughout that area. God is the builder. And it's the word of his grace
by which he builds people. So he commends them to God and
he commends them to the word of his grace. His grace is God's
to give. And the giving of grace reflects
his character. And he sits on a throne of grace
and he calls us to come. Come to a throne of grace. We
don't come to a throne of works, brothers and sisters, according
to Hebrews 4. We come to a throne of grace that we might receive
help in our time of need. It's given. It's His grace. It reflects His character. It's
given to His people. And it comes and is revealed
by the Word of God. And this grace is powerful grace,
isn't it? Because our Saviour is a powerful
Saviour. It's able to build you up. That word, to build up, means
to build a house. He's building a spiritual house,
isn't he? He says to those Ephesians, those words are almost extraordinary
to comprehend and beyond our comprehending, isn't it really?
It says, in whom, verse 21 of chapter two of Ephesians, in
whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy
temple in the Lord. in whom you also, you Ephesian
church, you also are builded together for a habitation of
God. God's habitation, God's place
of dwelling and revealing himself in this world is promised to
be in his church. And it's a spiritual habitation,
the habitation of God through the Spirit. And it's built. It's
built. You're built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. It is. The Church is built, isn't
it? on the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, as promised in the Old Testament, as revealed
in his life and as declared by his apostles. He says, I'll build
my house. He warns people in the Sermon
on the Mount, you build your house upon a rock. You build
your house upon a rock, you don't build your house upon sand. And
the house that's built upon the rock, the waves will come and
the storms will come and they'll beat against that house. And
that house will stand, not because of what man has done, but because
it's built on a rock. No wonder the psalmist said,
lead me to a rock that is higher than myself. Lead me to a rock. It's the rock upon which the
Lord Jesus Christ declared Peter's confession. And Peter's confession
didn't come from him. He said, the Father's revealed
this to you, Peter. You're not going to know these
things by your intuition and your intellect. It is that rock
that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
And it says, and this is the Lord's doing. And it's marvelous
in our eyes. The churches are built and it's
built as a body, isn't it? The head from which all the body
by joints and bands having nourishment minister is knitted together
increases with the increase of God. We keep getting asked, don't
we, how many people are in your church? It only matters that
one's here. With two or three or more gathered, he says, I'm
in the midst of you. Wherever the Lord Jesus Christ
is, He'll gather His people together, and we find ourselves resting
in the glory of who He is and what He's doing. As the Old Testament
warned, isn't it? Except the Lord build the house,
they labour in vain. They labour in vain. See, whatever man builds will
be destroyed by God in time. And whatever God builds, will
never be destroyed by man or Satan or all the contrivances
of man and Satan mixed together. So it's the word of grace that
builds. This word of grace builds and
it's able to give you an inheritance. To give you an inheritance among
all them which are sanctified. The inheritance is given, isn't
it? That's what it says. The inheritance is given by God. It's always a grace gift. It's
given by God. The inheritance that we receive
is common with all others, isn't it? Paul said that he's receiving
a crown of righteousness. And who else receives a crown
of righteousness? all the others in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who
is the crown? What is the crown? When we came
back from India, people told us, we're going to have bigger
crowns and we're going to have more jewels in our crowns. What a load of
rubbish. You can't have extra jewels in your crown. You can't
have a closer seat to the throne and salvation have anything to
do with grace whatsoever. Paul said that everyone receives
them. All the believers receive that same crown. You go to Isaiah
28, you find that the crown is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the crown. It's an inheritance. The inheritance
is not of the law, said Paul to the Galatians. It's not of
the law. Because if the inheritance is
of the law, if the inheritance that you get has got anything
to do with your working, it is no more of the promise. So we
receive an inheritance because God has promised an inheritance
in His word, the word of His grace. God gave the inheritance
to Abraham by promise. And when Abraham got to that
physical land of Israel and he looked around, he said, this
is not my home. This is not my home. What's Hebrews
11? He was looking for a city. His
builder and maker was God. He was looking for a city, it
says, that had foundations. All of those cities in Israel
were going to be gone. He knew that, Abraham. He'd seen
the Lord Jesus Christ. The promise is received. He is,
as Hebrews 9.15 says, he is the mediator of the New Covenant,
the New Testament, that by means of death, the inheritance always
comes by death, that means of death. For the redemption of
the transgressions that were under the first testament, which
are called, might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. The inheritance is received by
the word of grace, becoming spirit and life to God's people as the
Lord Jesus Christ is revealed as our inheritance. It's an inheritance,
Peter says, that's incorruptible. undefiled, that fadeth not away."
And where's our inheritance? Peter says, it's reserved in
heaven for you. No wonder the psalmist could
say, the lions have fallen to me in pleasant places. Brothers
and sisters in Christ, the lions mightn't seem good to your eyes
and they mightn't seem good to the eyes of others, but the lions
have fallen to me The boundary lines, the inheritance lines
have fallen to me in pleasant places. I have a goodly heritage. And the psalmist goes on in Psalm
16 verse 5. So the Lord himself is the portion
of mine inheritance. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ,
you have everything. You have everything. You own a universe. You're going to inherit a universe.
How much more do you want? The streets up there are paved
with gold. You're going to be walking on gold. Why on earth
would you want to be collecting pennies and other stuff down
here? The Lord himself is the portion of my inheritance. Thou
maintainest my lot. This is the inheritance of the
servants of the Lord, says Isaiah 54, 17. Their righteousness is
of me. How good do you have to be to
get into heaven? Only holy things ever get into
heaven. Perfectly holy things. And all
of God's children, as Revelation 7 says, they're there in these
white robes. These white robes. It's the righteousness
of the saints. Christ is their righteousness.
The Lord is the heritage of his people and the Lord The Lord's
people are His heritage, His inheritance. They break in pieces,
thy people, O Lord, and afflict thy heritage, thy inheritance. No wonder the Lord says, touch
not mine anointed and do my profits no more. It's an inheritance. This inheritance
is ours. by our relationship to the one
who gives it. He signed a will and testament,
and all of his children inherit, and they all inherit exactly
the same. I find it offensive these people
that say that you'll have these layers in heaven. We'll have
all the really serious saints and pull them, all the apostles,
up there close to the throne and the rest of us will all be
down the back looking, peering over the heads of all these more
sanctified people in front of us, wondering how we get a look
at the Saviour. It's rubbish. It's just rubbish. It's not in the Scriptures at
all. We are all around the throne of God. We are all seated on
that throne together. The inheritance comes to all
of God's people. I'm running out of time, but
I'd love you to think about that lovely picture in the Old Testament
when they went into that promised land, that land was divided up
for them. All the 12 tribes received a certain inheritance, certain
portion of the promised land. And then within that tribal area,
each family lot received their portion. And some were successful,
and some were unsuccessful. And the ones that failed, lost
their inheritance, didn't they? They lost everything that they'd
worked for. They'd lost everything that their
ancestors had worked for. You know some of the pain that
the farmers these days feel when something that's been in their
possession for generations and generations has been lost by
the vagaries of weather or their incompetence. And they're distraught
because they've lost it. But the Israelites lost it. What happened when the Jubilee
trumpet was sounded? Every 50 years, the Jubilee trumpet
was sounded. What happened? Everything that
you had lost and squandered by your wickedness and your failings
and the vagaries of living in this world was returned to you. You got it all back. And when
you bought property, you bought it on the basis that you could
only have it for 50 years because it had to return to the others.
It's a beautiful picture of the inheritance of God's people,
isn't it? We've lost everything in the fall and we've lost everything
by the sin that indwells us all the time. But our inheritance,
when the jubilee trumpet sounds, and that glorious trumpet sounds.
That's the gospel trumpet, isn't it? It's a gospel trumpet that
the Lord Jesus Christ sounded. See, we, like the prodigals,
have sold ourselves for nothing. We've mortgaged our inheritance.
We've lost it to bankruptcy. And the scripture says you're
redeemed without money. You're redeemed without anything
you do. You're redeemed by a sovereign act of grace. We are redeemed
without money. The Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed
us. You can go back and study the book of Ruth and read it
and delight in the fact that Ruth had no right to anything
other than through her marriage and Naomi had lost absolutely
everything. And they go back and they find
themselves in the hands of a kinsman redeemer, a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they have everything restored
to them. And they're better off than they
ever were. God's children now are better off than Adam and
Eve were in the garden. We're infinitely better off than
Adam and Eve were in the garden. We're maintained and sustained
by grace, brothers and sisters. Adam and Eve had their place
in the garden because of their works of obedience. We have our
place and our inheritance because of the works of the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's good news in that for
sinners, brothers and sisters. I pray the Lord to cause us to
rejoice. There is just one final thing and we'll have to be brief.
It says that inheritance is among them which are sanctified. are sanctified. That word sanctified
is really the word that we get our word holy from. It means
to be separated from this world, to be dedicated to God's service
and God's glory. And that's when the Lord used
that word, didn't he? Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. It's a declaration of the holiness
and the glory of God. It is. It is. To go back to what we thought
about earlier, it is one of the issues, isn't it? The false teachers
deny every one of these things. They deny the character of God.
They deny the grace of God by adding some works to it. They
deny the ability of God. They deny the power of God to
build His church. It has to be built by man's activities. And most of all they deny the
sanctification of our God. So we're sanctified by a triune
God. We are sanctified by God the
Father, says Jude, and we're preserved in Jesus Christ. We're
sanctified, as Hebrews says, by the offering of the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ once for all. And then he goes on to say
in that same chapter, Where this is, there is no more offering
for sin. You can't make any offering.
God has accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his offering. And he's
very happy with what his son has done. He's very happy with
his son's offering of his broken body and his shed blood. We are
sanctified by God the Father, we are sanctified by the Body
of the Lord Jesus Christ once for all, and we are chosen to
salvation, says 2 Thessalonians 2.13, through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you
by our Gospel, to the obtaining, ought to read it brothers and
sisters when you have time, to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. to the obtaining, that's the
inheritance. We are sanctified. The modern
world tells us that our sanctification is progressive. That somehow
we start on this journey that God has dealt with all of our
sins in the past and once He's saved us we're now on this journey
and now we're involved in a cooperative activity, us and God. And as we work hard on that cooperative
activity by our Bible reading and by our prayer and by our
witness and by our giving and all of these things, we become
more and more ripe and finally we're like a piece of ripe fruit
that's ready for heaven. That has got nothing to do with
sanctification, brothers and sisters. That has got nothing
to do with it. That is just works righteousness. It is, as those grievous wolves
do, it is that heavy burden that they lay upon people's shoulders.
I want you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, to walk out that door
knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ has done it all. He's done it
all, and all of his people are complete in him right now. We're
sanctified. What do you say to those Corinthians
that lived in absolute wickedness? They'd be kicked out of nearly
every church in the country these days. He says, but you, you wicked
Corinthians, you're washed. You are sanctified. You are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our
God. Your sanctification is as complete
as your washing. Your sanctification is as complete
as your justification. And we have that verse printed
on our Bibles, thanks to dear Colin, and it says, of Him are you in Christ Jesus
who of God is made unto us. 1 Corinthians 1.30 He's made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. You're in Him. You're completely
and perfectly sanctified. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is our sanctification in total. He did it all by himself. He
did it completely. He did it eternally. He did it
effectually in the hearts of his people. No wonder the prophets can say,
the angels sing, don't they? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. You're washed. You've been given,
says Peter, all things which pertain to life and godliness,
and you're made partakers of the divine nature. John declares
that his brothers and sisters in Christ not only are complete,
he makes this remarkable statement. He says in 1 John 4, 17, he says,
herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness on
the day of judgment, which means we have confidence on the day
of judgment. We can go to the throne of God and stand before
a righteous and holy God with confidence. Not because of anything
we've done, but because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done.
Because, he says in that verse, because as He is, so are we in
this world. Is He holy? Is He accepted in the Beloved? Is He righteous? Has He obeyed
the law of God perfectly? So are we in this world. Is He loved of the Father? So
are we in this world. So are we in this world. He is our sanctification. He is. He is our inheritance. He is able to build us up. He's able to put us on a rock.
And all of the blessings we get are in Him. And all of the blessings
and all of the inheritance that all of God's people ever receive
are blood-borne blessings. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you might grant us a simple and childlike faith
to just simply believe Your Word, Heavenly Father, and to find
in the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ that we might be
able to say with Paul, I know whom I have believed, and I'm
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've entrusted
unto Him against that day. Father, work in our hearts that
we might entrust the entirety of our eternal souls into His
hands, and the entirety of our walk in this world before You
into His hands. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
that shed blood might be sprinkled and sprinkled afresh upon us,
that You would apply the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
to our hearts, and we might go away rejoicing in who He is. Keep our eyes fixed on He, our
Father, who is, as you declare Him to be, the author and the
finisher, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for
the joy set before Him went to Calvary's tree and bled and died
there for His people because He was one with them and rose
glorious and victorious. cause Him, Heavenly Father, to
be all of our inheritance and all of our sanctification in
this world. May we go away declaring with
the psalmist that the lines, the lines, the boundary lines
have fallen to me in pleasant places because of His finished
work. Bless your word to our hearts,
Heavenly Father, for we pray in Jesus' name and for His glory.
Amen.