Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4. Let's begin reading in verse
1. Genesis 4 verse 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife. This is just for the next message,
but you see that word knew? He loved his wife Eve, he knew
Eve. We're going to come to that in
the second message. I just want to point that out,
what that word means. He knew her, he loved her, he
conceived a child in her womb. Adam knew Eve, his wife, and
she conceived and bear Cain and said, I have gotten a man from
the Lord. And she again bear his brother
Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time
it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the
firstling of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel, and to his offering, but unto Cain and
to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his
countenance failed." Now, this was a worship service, is what
this was. Cain and Abel came to worship
the Lord just like we've come here today. That's what this
was. The Lord put an altar a two-edged
sword at the edge of the Garden of Eden, and Adam had been taught
the gospel, he taught his sons the gospel, and these are men,
they're men, they're grown now, and they come there to worship.
This was a worship service. Cain comes with the fruit of
the ground, and Abel comes with a lamb, the blood of a lamb,
and the fat thereof. God received Abel, and God rejected
Cain. Now, in these two men, we see
the only two religions there are in the whole world. You know,
just forget about who's right, who's wrong, what about this? Religion, what about that religion?
All these different questions that come up when men start debating
about what to believe and who to believe and all of that. Forget
all of that. There's only two religions in
the world. And they're right here. They're
manifest right here. This is the beginning of the
world. There's these two men and God's showing us right here
the two religions there are in the world. There is the way of
works, and the way of grace. The way of works and the way
of grace. The way, and I'm tired of this,
Cain works, Abel grace. That'll help us to get it. Cain works, Abel grace. The way
of Cain is the way of salvation by man's works. The way of Abel
is the way of God's grace. Salvation by God's grace. And Cain represents salvation
by the works of a man. Every sinner by nature, every
one of us coming into this world, we do not have to be necessarily
taught what Cain's religion was, because we all by nature desire
to come to God the way Cain came to God, by our works. I remember
the first time I picked this book up, I had a little red Bible
that had my name on the front of it, I was probably about the
age of Kezia, and I remember picking the Bible up and looking
at it, and I remember the first thing I thought when I picked
that Bible up was, let me see what I must do. What must I do? That was my thought. What works
must I do? This is the way that's false. The way of Cain is false. We
can't be saved by our works. This is what the Lord is speaking
about when He says, there is a way that seemeth right to a
man. It just naturally seems right
to a man. But the end thereof are the ways
of death. The very best works that any
of us can do, the very best works any of us can do will never satisfy
God's offended justice. Never. Never. And that's the
issue here. We have offended God. We have
offended God. God declares that any offering
made to Him, any offering made to God, He says it shall be perfect
to be accepted. There should be no blemish in
it. Any offering, any sacrifice that any makes to God, for God
to receive it, it has to be absolutely perfect. Absolutely perfect. Paul said, he asked this question,
he said, what then, are we better than they? He said, are we Jews,
Israel, political Israel, throughout the world to be God's children.
Are we better than they Gentiles? The whole world can be divided
into Jew and Gentile. Are we better than they? This
is what, you know, folks come and they hear the gospel and
they say of all religious, you religious folks just think you're
better than everybody else. Well, works religion, the way
of Cain, that way of religion does think they're better than
others, because that whole religion is based on comparing themselves
with others, and trying to show themselves to be better than
others, and hiding their sin from others. But it's not so
with God's people. God's true people will tell you,
no, we are not better than anybody else. No, Paul said, no, and
no wise. The Lord's people will tell you,
we're sinners. We're sinners saved by grace.
I am a sinner saved by grace. I'm not better than anybody.
And none of God's people are. No sinner is better than any
other sinner. Here's the truth. We have both
before proved, both Jews and Gentiles. Actually, look at this.
Romans 3. I want you to see it. Romans
3. Here's the truth of everybody right here. Romans 3. Look at
verse 9. He's quoting from Old Testament
Scripture, but let's just look at it right here, very concise.
He says, verse 9, he says, No, and no wise we proved before,
both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. That's all of us. He says, as
it's written, there is none righteous, no, not one. He says, there is
none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God. They are all going out of their
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Now that's God's word on the
matter. That's so of everybody in this world. That's so, right
there. None righteous, none understand
God, none are seeking God, none that doeth good, no not one.
We're talking about what God calls good, what God calls righteous. It must be perfect to be accepted
of God, and there's none righteous, no not one. So we can't be accepted
by our works. We cannot be accepted the way
Cain came. We cannot. Woe unto them that
have gone the way of Cain. That's what scripture says. Now
Abel represents the true way, salvation by the grace of God. by grace, unmerited favor of
God. God doing it all. God saving
us by his grace, by his son, by his mercy. God saved by his
grace. And these two, it's one or the
other. We either believe we're saved
by works and we're coming the way of Cain, or we believe we're
saved by grace and we're trying to come, or we're coming the
way of Abel. It's not a mixture, it's one
or the other. So now Romans 11, 6 says this,
if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is
no more grace. You can't be saved by grace and
works. It's grace. If it's grace, it's
no more works. Works are out of the picture.
God, he makes his child do good works, but we're not saved by
our works. If it's grace, it's no more works. But if it's of
works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
They're mutually exclusive. We're either trusting we're saved
by our works, or we're trusting we're saved by grace, one or
the other. Now, let's look at these. First
of all, let's see how each of these men approached God. Let's
see how they came before God. Verse three says, Genesis 4.3,
in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the
fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel also
brought, but he brought of the firstlings of his flock and of
the fat thereof. Now Cain was a tiller of the
ground. It says there he was a tiller
of the ground and Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering to the Lord. Now here's what we have pictured
right here. From where did God make man? He made us from the
dust. Genesis 2.7 says, the Lord God
formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils and the breath of life and man became a living soul.
But by Adam's sin against God, because Adam represented everybody,
when Adam sinned, God said this, in Genesis 3.17, God said, curse
it is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. You ever wonder why there's briars
and the land's all scarred and corrupted by man and you have
to sorrow and sweat and work and the life is so hard? It's
because of sin. Cursed is the ground. So the
picture we have here, by God's design, Adam was our head. He was the head of all men. Adam
was, and when Adam sinned against God, we sinned against God, we
became guilty. He represented all his people.
Just like a father represents his whole house, Adam represented
his whole house, which is, everybody came from him, so he represented
everybody. And we sinned in Adam, and we
became guilty before God in Adam. And the nature we got from Adam
is sinful. It's sinful, it's corrupt. So
the picture here we have, here you have a son of Adam, Cain,
who he's guilty because of what his father did, and he has got
a corrupt nature, sinful nature because of what his father did.
He's religious. You don't have to be, God doesn't
have to do a thing to you for a man to be religious. He's religious,
but he's bringing his own works, he's bringing the fruit of the
cursed ground. And this is a picture of a man
trying to come to God by works he's worked himself from his
cursed flesh, his sinful flesh, and trying to present those to
God and expect God to receive him. God will not. The issue
here is this. Cain is not coming to God with
blood. He's not coming to God trusting
the blood of God's son, the Lord Jesus. He's not coming by faith. He's not coming by grace trusting
the Lord, the blood of the Lord Jesus. He's coming by the works
of his own tillage. He's tilled this ground. This
is, you know, we're gonna talk about, well, are you bringing
forth fruit? Every, all fruit that a dead sinner brings forth
is just dead fruit. It's cursed, it's cursed fruit
from the cursed earth, this cursed flesh, this dead sinful flesh. And that's what Cain brought.
He probably brought beautiful, they brought some big beautiful
tomatoes or big beautiful turnips or whatever. But there was no
blood. What's that about? Why blood?
The wages of sin is death. Romans 6.23 says the wages of
sin is death. You know what a wage is? You
earn it. We sinned. We sinned. And the wages that
we earned is death. Not just physical death. We're
talking about death under God's justice. We're talking about
the condemnation of God. That's what we earned by our
sin. And Exodus 34, 7 says this, God will by no means clear the
guilty. Now, the first thing that we
need to get settled here is we just saw what God said about
us all in Romans 3. There's nobody better than anybody
else. There's none righteous. There's none that understands
God. There's none that seeks God. There's none good, no, not
one. We're guilty. We're coming to
this world guilty. And listen. God will by no means
clear the guilty. Get what that means now. Everybody
is guilty, and everybody shall suffer the just judgment of God. Everybody's gonna suffer condemnation. Everybody's gonna be, everybody
will. Everybody's gonna suffer hell.
You say, well, how can everybody suffer hell, yet some people
be saved? Because Christ Jesus suffered the condemnation. He
bore the justice for guilty sinners. He bore it. He bore it and satisfied
God. That's the only way. Life is
in the blood. You know, God said that in his
word a long time before the medical field caught on to that. Before
they ever realized that, God said it a long time before. Life's
in the blood. without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. That means if you're going to
die, you're going to have to, somebody's going to have to take
your place and die in your place under God's justice and satisfy
God. Die the death you owe to divine
justice so that God is satisfied because he's not going to clear
the guilty. Somebody's going to have to die in your room instead
and satisfy God for you so that you can go free. Because life's
in that blood. Without that bloodshed, without
a life dying in your place, you can't be saved. You can't be
saved. See, Cain didn't come with blood.
He brought no God. He brought no blood. The Son
of God came down. This was God's purpose. The reason,
you know, men don't like to be told that, don't tell me I sinned
in Adam. I want to be responsible for
myself. No, you don't. No, you don't. God set Adam up
as the head to be a picture of his son, the Lord Jesus, called
in scripture, the last Adam, the last Adam. And we're going
to be in one of these two heads. We're either going to be in Adam
or we're going to be in the Lord Jesus. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
he came, the son of God came down. And the Lord Jesus Christ
came down for this reason. He took a body like his brethren. And he was made of a woman like
his brethren. He was made under the law like
those he came to save. And he, from the womb he was
holy. You gotta be holy and sinless
from your mother's womb. We were all conceived in sin
because natural generation From Adam on down to us, we were born
of a man, and we got to make nature of a man. Sinful. But our Lord Jesus, God prepared
a body for him in the womb of a virgin without the aid of a
man, and the Son of God took that body. That's the purpose
of her being a virgin was because he wasn't born of a man like
you and me. There's two men in this world
that started their life out perfect. and the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Adam sinned and we all sinned in him, but the Lord Jesus Christ
had a people in him by God's grace, and he came and represented
his people, and he's the only perfect man since Adam. He's
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. That's who he is. He's called the spotless Lamb
of God, because he knew no sin. Why is he called the Lamb of
God? Because the Lamb that God provided that died in the place
of Israel and made atonement, ceremonial atonement to God for
Israel, that Lamb pictured Christ Jesus, the Son of God. When John
the Baptist saw Him, he said, behold, the Lamb of God. Here's
one God's been talking about this whole time, the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus willingly took
the place of guilty sinners. He willingly came down and took
the place of guilty sinners. The Lord lived perfectly holy
and righteous before God under the law. And at the time appointed,
he went to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Lord, somewhere from
the Garden of Gethsemane to the cross, the Lord laid on him. the iniquity of a whole bunch
of guilty sinner. He took the sin of his people
and laid it on Christ. And when he did that, Christ
was made sin for us. This one who knew no sin was
made sin for us. He became worthy of the justice
of God being poured out on him because God's manifesting. He
will not clear the guilty and he won't punish a righteous man.
He would not have poured out his wrath on the Lord Jesus,
the holy, sinless, spotless Lamb of God. He wouldn't have done
it. Before he made him a curse, he made him sin for us. And then,
in righteousness, God poured out justice on his son. He poured
it out in full. The Lord Jesus bore the full
fury of God's wrath, and he satisfied the justice of God. When our
Lord Jesus cried from the cross and said, it is finished, he
fully satisfied justice. Now let me ask you something.
We get the law of our land from God. That's where it came from.
God gave the law at Sinai. We get the law. He gave a law
in the garden. We get the law from God. That's
where we get this notion of law. And even in our laws, as corrupt
as our judges and our system is, we know this. There's a thing called double
jeopardy. If a man has been cleared, he can't be tried for that same
crime again. That's double jeopardy. We know
this. If a man has died and suffered
the death penalty, the law has nothing else to say to it. He
suffered the ultimate penalty. The law can do say nothing else
to him. The Lord Jesus Christ died, having been made the sin
of a particular people, and he satisfied justice for that people. And God will not pour out justice
on that people a second time. He will not do it. He will not
do it. Are you one of them? Are you
one of them that Christ died for? How do I know, preacher?
God's people say, I am a guilty sinner. I can't save myself. I can't make myself righteous.
I can't expect to be saved by anything I have done. Do you
fit the bill? Christ said, I didn't come to
save righteous men. He said, I didn't come. I'm not
interested in your sacrifices and your offering. I didn't come
to save the righteous. I came to save sinners. I seem
to call sinners to repentance. Repentance from what? Repentance
from all your vain attempts at making yourself righteous by
your works, and thinking you're good, and thinking you understand
God, and thinking that you're seeking God. Nobody does by nature. Nobody. This is the great offense
of a sinner trying to come to God by his works. He denies he's
a sinner. He calls God a liar. God says,
we're sinners. And the man who tries to come
to God by his works says, I don't believe I'm the sinner. God says,
you can't be saved by your works. You're not righteous, and I won't
receive you. The sinner who tries to come
by his works is saying, I think I can. I think I can save myself
by my works. The sinner that's coming to God,
trying to save himself by his work, Cain was saying, I don't
need the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he was saying. I
don't need God to save me. He rejected everything God said
about him. He rejected. But Abel came with
the blood of a lamb. This is what, this is, look at
Abel, verse four. He brought of the firstlings
of his flock and of the fat thereof. The firstling, Abel, later God
requires this in his law. But you see, God didn't have
to give, he doesn't have to give us a written law to make us understand
what's required. He writes it on your heart. He
gives you the spirit of God and teaches you in your heart. And
he taught, he taught Abel before he gave this law, that Abel,
you're gonna have to come with the very best lamb you got. And he gave, scripture tells
us, in Hebrews 11, it tells us, by faith, Abel offered to God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He did this by faith. He came believing, he saw by
God's grace, by God's Spirit, he saw the Lord Jesus before
has yet the Lord ever come into this world. He knew, God had
taught him, God showed him. This lamb represents my son.
And so he chooses the very first, the best, the firstborn lamb,
because Christ is the firstborn son of God. He chose the very
best. And later God would say, you
put that lamb up and you look at him from head to toe and make
sure that lamb's without any blemish. If there's a hair off,
you can't use that lamb. If there's just one little mark
on it, you can't use that lamb. It has to be perfect. And Abel
was given faith to know that picture's the spotless lamb of
God Christ Jesus. So he brings the first thing
of the flock, and Abel brings that lamb, and there's an altar. We know that because he offered
fat. This was a burnt offering. He comes there with this lamb,
and Abel, with faith in his heart, he says, this lamb is representing
me. Because that's what Christ is
going to do. He's going to represent me. And this lamb, and later they would put their
hand on that lamb. That was signifying all their
sin being put on that lamb. And then that lamb was slain. Abel slew that lamb and killed
that lamb. And by that, Abel's saying, that's
what I deserve from God. I deserve to be slain for my
sin. But God has provided his own
son to die in my room instead. And by that, he's made me righteous
before God's holy law. He satisfied his own justice
for me. What's this fat represent? The
fat's the good part. The fat's the good part. You
know, when you're younger, you don't really like the fat. You
get a little older, and you get a little taste of it, and you
realize the fat's good. You still don't like it, so the
fat's the good part. It's the good part. And you take
that fat, and you drop it on that fire, and it'll send up
a sweet smell. What's that represent? perfect
righteous obedience of the Lord Jesus even unto that fiery Death
of the cross to glorify his father and to glorify and to save his
people That's what it represents the Lord said in Ephesians 5
to he said Christ also hath loved us and have given himself for
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. That's the fact. That's that
perfect offering, that perfect sacrifice, that perfect obedience.
He's the only one that ever pleased God. The only man that ever pleased
God is the God-man mediator, the substitute of his people,
who served God in the place of his people and pleased God with
perfect obedience to God. He's the only one. He's the only
one. By faith, Abel offered to God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. God testified of his gifts. God
said he was righteous. And by he being dead yet speaking,
God's using Abel today to preach the gospel to you and me, right
now. He's still speaking. But those that come like Cain
did with their work, Hebrews 6.6 says they crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. Really
and truly, if you try to come to God by your works, this is
what you're manifesting. If you're saying you're saved
by anything you've done, you're manifesting. If the Son of God
was standing here today, you would nail him to a cross just
like they did when he walked this earth and trample him under
your feet. That's what we're saying. If
we're saying we're saved by anything we've done, that's why it's an
offense to God. That's why it's an offense to
God. Who made these two men to differ? Now, we can't just leave
it here because if we leave it here now, this is where the world
will turn to you and they'll say, now, won't you accept Jesus? Won't you by your will now accept
him? He's done all this for you and
it's up to you to accept him. That's worse. That's putting
it in your hand. That wouldn't offend you. If
you can accept him or reject him, you can do with him what
you will, that wouldn't offend you. Who made these boys to differ?
Who made these men to differ? God alone did. God alone did. Listen, Cain and Abel were sons
of Adam, so they were all sinners. By one man sinned under the world
by Adam, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
because in Adam all have sinned. So there it is. Both of them
are sinners. Both of them are equally just guilty, lost, undone. Who made the difference? Well,
Hebrews 4 said, by faith, Abel made a more excellent sacrifice.
All right, where'd he get the faith? Go with me to Ephesians
2a. I usually start in eternity and
work down to the center. Let's start with God's work in
Abel, and let's work back to eternity. Let's start right here,
look here. I'm out of time already, so I'm
gonna go real quick. All right, here it is. Ephesians
2.8 says, here's where faith comes from, by grace, see that,
grace, by grace. Ephesians 2.8, by grace are you
saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. All right,
so if he was given faith, that means he had to have been made
alive spiritually to be able to believe God. Well, look back
up at Ephesians 2.1. and you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sin. See, none of God's people were
better than anybody. We were all dead in sin. Look
down at verse four. But God, who's rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sin, quickened us together with Christ by grace, so you
say. Now listen, if you was dead in sin, and God gave you spiritual
life, and gave you faith to trust Christ, and he did it all by
grace, that means you didn't do anything to merit that. You
didn't do any works to merit that. Ain't that plain? I mean,
even just a carnal man ought to be able to reason that. God
has to do it. We have to be born, Christ said,
of the water. That's born of the word, washed
by the word, and born of the spirit of God. All right? But
knowing that's the case, let's back up a little bit. He had
faith, God gave him, because God made him to be born again.
Well, Christ said that's through the water of the word, the preaching
of the gospel. Alright, look here. Look here. God preached the gospel to Adam.
Adam sinned, but God found him hiding in the trees. And I'll
let you read this in Genesis 3. You can read it in 8 through
21. God found him in the trees. and God made him confess his
sin, and God slew a lamb, and then God clothed him with the
skin of that lamb. That's a picture of Christ dying
for his people, and God clothing us in Christ's righteousness
so he can accept us. And then he declared to him,
he said, this is what my son's gonna do. He said, in Genesis
3.15, he said, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. He's speaking to the devil. He
said, I'm gonna put enmity, hatred, between you and the woman. between
thy seed, your children, and her seed, her child. And it's
gonna bruise your head, and you're gonna bruise his heel. God told
the devil, right there in front of Adam and Eve, he told the
devil, he said, there'll be hatred between you and the woman's seed. And only one woman that had a
child without a man, that's the Lord Jesus. He's the woman's
seed. So Adam preached this to his children. He preached this
to Cain and Abel. How do you know that? Look at
Romans 10.13. Here's how to know he did it,
because this is how God saves. Look, Romans 10.13, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? All right,
there's the faith. God gives the faith. How shall
they believe in him in whom they have not heard? There's the preaching
of the word. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? The
Lord sent Adam, taught him the gospel, and he preached this
gospel to Cain and Abel. They both heard the same good
news, salvation by Christ, just like you're all hearing the same
good news. Who made one of them to believe?
God did. God didn't do anything to Cain.
He left. Man wants to be saved by his
will. Here's the closest you're going to get to a free will in
this life. Your will's bound by your nature, just like every
other creature is. And here's the closest you're
going to get to a free will, is God leaving you to your will
to do what you will. And he did that with Cain. And
Cain said, I don't need a lamb. I don't need blood. I can produce
fruit. And that's what we'll all do,
unless God works his work and makes us to differ. Well, now,
if God did all of that for Abel, then it had to have started somewhere,
didn't it? God, before the world was made,
chose to save Abel, just like he chooses all his people. Look
at 2 Thessalonians 2.13. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. We are bound, speaking to believers
here who got it, made this difference in, he said, we're bound to give
thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit, being born again, and
belief of the truth here in the gospel, and believe in it by
faith, by God-given faith, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Preacher,
you just said God does it all. That's what faith confesses.
Faith confesses God the Father chose me in eternity by His grace,
not because of something in me. Faith confesses the Son of God,
redeemed me by His blood, made me righteous with God by His
grace. And as faith confesses, the Holy
Spirit of God regenerated me, granted me repentance and faith
so that I believed God and did it all by grace. Salvation is
of the Lord. That's what true faith in Christ
is confessing. Salvation is by grace. Now listen. Scripture says, who maketh thee
to differ from another? Either we think I made myself
to differ by something in me, something God saw in me or something
I did, or we say, God alone, God did it all. You see, if I
say I did it, I'm giving myself glory for something, praising
myself for something, and God won't have that. If I say God
alone did it, I'm giving him all the glory and all the praise,
and that's how God saves. That's what all his people are
gonna do. What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Everything you have ever been
given was given you by God That's so that's so everybody listen
who has first given to him. It'll be given to him again for
of God and And through God and to God are all things. It's of
him. It's through him and it's back
to him What he what he what you gonna give to God he first gave
it to you and he's only going to come to him and his son. Now,
what did God do to these two men? He received Abel, and Abel's
with him today, and he's still speaking. We're seeing him right
here today, how God saved him. And Cain, he cast him out. Cain got angry at this because
God wouldn't receive his works, and Cain killed Abel. The first
murder in human history was a self-righteous, will-working, arrogant, proud
sinner trying to come to God by his own work. And when he
was told salvation is by grace, he killed the child of God's
grace because he hated God. He couldn't get to God, so he
killed his child. That's what Ishmael did to Isaac.
And the scripture said, just like he that's born out of the
flesh persecuted him that was born out of the spirit, even
so it is today. Even so it is today. I pray,
I pray, God give you grace to believe him. Listen, listen,
with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth
confessions made the salvation. We confess Christ did it all
and we believe and God says you're righteous in my son. Isn't that
so much better than trying to work and trying to do all that's
junk The same religion tries to tell people to do. All right, brethren, let's go
to the Lord. Father, we thank you for this word. Thank you
for your mercy and your grace. Lord, make us to truly hear you.
Make us to believe you. Even those you've already given
faith, make us hear you again today and believe you like it's
the first day. Keep us believing you, Lord.
We depend on your grace continually. Don't let us be proud and arrogant.
Don't let us act like we're something we're not. Keep us humble, trust
in Christ to save us. And Lord, we pray, we ask you,
Lord, reveal this in one of our lost friends and family. Lord,
make them know it. Make them know what you've done
for them. We know you will in all your people. We wait on you
and trust you. And thank you for all this grace
in Christ's name. Amen.