We are going to use a recorder
today to make the music since Kaylin is gone down to her family. We don't really know how to,
we can program it, but we're having problems getting it to
remember and play all the songs in order. So we'll probably just
sing one song this morning for the service and then He'll program
it, we'll do one at the end, because until we figure that
out, how to keep the memory and make it work properly. So let's
turn to John chapter one. Every so often, I like to preach
a message for the unbeliever, for the skeptics, for the agnostics,
An agnostic is somebody who claims neither faith nor disbelief in
God. They claim to be neutral. They
claim that nothing can be known or is known about the existence
and nature of God. A few years back, a brother from
Lexington was here and I met him over at Princeton and we
had dinner and he brought a business associate with him who claimed
to be agnostic. And I was declaring the gospel
to him, and he was just neutral. Just neutral. And I got the feeling
I could have been talking about the hot sauce bottle on the table.
And it would amount to about as much to him. Now, there's
no neutrality when it comes to Christ. There is no neutrality. Men can claim to be neutral.
But this is what Christ said. He that is not with me, is against
me. That's what the Lord Jesus said.
There's no neutrality. Now, I want to show you four
things this morning in this message that are very reasonable. Anyone
with common sense would have to agree these things are so.
These things are so. I'm simply meeting the unbeliever
where he is. That's all I'm doing. It's going
to take God to give faith for us to believe Christ. By the
Spirit of God, by divine revelation, it takes God to give faith. What
I'm going to say today is reasonable. And a man may believe these things,
but that not be faith. It takes God to give faith, to
truly trust Christ. But I do pray the Lord would
use this, like everything we preach, to plant the incorruptible
seed, to give life, and to give faith. Now, we're told that script
that in creation, looking at creation, man can know that God
is. That's what we're told. You'll
have sometimes people ask, how do you know God is? Listen to
what Romans 1 tells us. Romans 1.19 says, that which
may be known of God is manifest in them or to them, for God has
showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. So you can look at creation,
and there are things that are taught in creation. So we're
going to use that. We're going to use creation.
And I'm going to give you four words for our divisions, and
I've tried to use alliteration to help us make it easier to
remember. These four words right here.
Logos, life, law, and love. These four things prove God is. Logos, life, law, and love. And I'll show you what I mean.
Now first is logos. Logos. That's the Greek word
that is translated word in the scripture. It's where we get
the word logic, intelligence, the ability to reason. All creation,
everything is created, including man, You have to see the design and
the order and you have to conclude there's an intelligent mind behind
it. There's an intelligent mind behind it. We're told here in
John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word. That's Logos. In the
beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. The intelligence of men. And creation. You look at the
cosmos, everything. We see design and we see order
in everything that's made. The distance of the sun from
the earth is what creates the seasons. It's why we have four
seasons. It's been working this way since
creation. The moon affects the tides. All of this is by design and
all of this is order. And design and order does not
come about by chance. You know this. You know this. All men, if you're going to do
something in your life and have some amount of order in your
life, you have to plan it. You have to work very hard to
try to bring it to pass. As much as we're capable of.
It does not come about by chance. It's by design. It's by an intelligent
mind. Well, in creation, the intelligence
that men have The ability to reason, that comes from the Lord,
just naturally speaking. We fail, we sin, and our conscience
is defiled, but we do have some. Unless a man's born with a mental
inability, most, and even then, there's usually some ability.
But all reasoning of the mind came from the Lord. That's what
he says there. In him was life and the life was the light of
men. That's where we get our mind,
our ability to reason. Order and design never comes
by chance. It comes by an intelligent being,
a mind. And we operate on this principle
every day. If your car breaks down, you're
going to take it to a mechanic, because why? He studied the car. He knows how the engine operates.
He knows how the different parts of a car operate. And he has
the intelligence to put it back in working order. If your body's
out of order, you don't go to a mechanic. You go to a physician,
because he studied the body. And he spent years studying it,
he or she. And they know what medicine to
use that will put the body back in working order. As you see,
behind order and design is always an intelligent mind. Well, he
says, all things were made by the word and without it was not
anything made that was made. And the mind in men, the life
was the light of men. Now, consider salvation. Now, consider salvation. The
same as natural light, natural intelligence comes from the Logos,
the Word. That's where spiritual understanding
comes from. We can't have spiritual understanding
unless God gives us spiritual understanding. When we failed,
we lost it. We lost spiritual understanding.
That's what spiritual death is. We don't know the true God. Now
you have some natural ability and you can agree with something,
but you can't believe God. You can't know God is and believe
Him and that He is all-salvation unless God makes Christ your
wisdom. Look over at 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30. It says, of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. He has to be made
to us wisdom. Look at chapter 2 there. Chapter
2, he said in verse 11, what man knoweth the things of a man
save the spirit of man which is in him? I don't know what
you're thinking unless you tell me. He says, even so the things
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received
not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. Which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. That means
we look into the Gospel, into the Word, and we compare Scripture
with Scripture. This is the Word of God. It says,
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. That natural flesh
that you're born with can't receive the things of God. That natural
flesh that's still with you as a child of God doesn't receive
the things of the Spirit of God. There's a natural old man within
us that doesn't believe God. That's why we have unbelief.
He that is spiritual, the new man created within a sinner,
judgeth all things. You discern all things, yet he
himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ. Christ did make wisdom to us.
This is how you know the things that are freely given to you
of God. And when God reveals Christ in us and makes him our
wisdom, Hebrews 11.3 says, Through faith, through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. He spoke it
into existence so that things which are seen were not made
by things which do appear. This is when we really know and
believe is when God's made Christ's wisdom to us. But even better
than that, when he reveals Christ to us and makes Christ our wisdom,
now we understand salvation. Now we believe Christ is the
salvation of his people. We see the design in, just like
he designed God purposed everything in salvation
from the beginning before the world was. Go home and read Ephesians
1. It tells us that God blessed
his people with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ according as he chose us in him. He did this before
the world was created. It was on purpose, it was by
design. He put it all into Christ's hand
before the world was even made. Just like you, if you're going
to do something that's very important, you plan it, you purpose it before
you begin. We can't always bring it to pass,
but God's sovereign and He never fails to bring His purpose to
pass. And so, when He shows you that from eternity He trusted
His Son to save His people, that's how we know That salvation is
all of God. Look at Romans 8. I want you
to see this design and this purpose of God. This is what He brought
to pass in the salvation of His people. Look here, Romans 8,
verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. What's His purpose? That's His
design from eternity. Here it is. For whom He did foreknow,
who He loved beforehand. That's what it means. He loved
beforehand. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom
He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Do you see that design from eternity? And then God brought all that
order to pass by His Son. It's all by His Son. That's the
purpose of God. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He's before all things, and
by Him all things consist, and He's the head of the body, the
church. That's Christ, our wisdom. And so through faith, look at
what He did for us. Ephesians 1, let's go there.
Look what He did for us right here. Ephesians 1, verse 8, it
says, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself. that
in the dispensation of the fullness of time, when all things are
said and done, he might gather together in one all things in
Christ. That's his people, those that
are in heaven and those that are on earth, he'll gather together
in him. In whom? In Christ also we've
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. That's the wisdom of God. He
did it, He determined the end from the beginning, He designed
it, He ordered it, and He brought it to pass. So men are without
excuse for not believing God because creation declares the
order and the design came from an intelligent mind. And salvation
is all, everything in creation is to show us a picture of God
making His people a new creation. And it's all about order and
all about design according to God's purpose. He's the word,
logos. All right, the second word, how
we know God is, is the word life. Life. Now you think about this.
Life always comes from life. Life always comes from life.
Plant life, human life, animal life, life comes from life. Matter
and energy never produce life. Matter and energy, that's what,
you know, the so-called educated guess, that's an oxymoron, an
educated guess, that's a theory. That's what men say, that all
life came from matter and energy. Matter and energy do not produce
life. Life produce life. If you go out in these woods
out here and you look under an oak tree, you're going to see
some acorns on the ground. That seed, that came from the
oak tree. And if you look around the circumference
where the big limbs go out, you'll start seeing some saplings growing
up. The seed fell from the oak tree,
went in the ground, life sprung up, and another oak tree was
born. Life comes from life through the seed. Where did the first
fruit-bearing plant come from? You know that people ask the
question, what came first, the chicken or the egg? The chicken
or the seed? I can answer that. God answers
it. The chicken did. Listen, where
did the first fruit-bearing plant come from? God said, let the
earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself
upon the earth, and it was so. He made a tree with seed in it.
Where did animal life come from? Genesis 121 says, God created
great whales and every living creature that moveth which the
waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged
fowl after their kind. It says God made the beast of
the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and everything
that creepeth on the earth after his kind. And it says in Genesis
122, God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. Well,
where did human life come from? Genesis 1.26, God said, let us
make man in our image after our likeness. Let them have dominion
over all living things. So God created man in his own
image. In the image of God, created
he him. Male and female, created he them. And God blessed them and God
said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth
and subdue it and have dominion. Life only comes from life. Life
only comes from life. Life never comes from dead things.
The inanimate never produces the animate. We never see non-living
matter and energy produce life. Never. Another important principle
about life is not only does life produce life, life produces life
after its kind. You go back over there in Genesis
1, he made the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind. He made
the fish and the animals to yield after their kind. Now Adam was
made in the image of God. Upright, no sin. But when Adam
broke that one law in the garden, His nature was corrupted. God
took his spirit from Adam and his nature was corrupted. So
when Adam produced a son, he produced a son after his kind.
It says Seth was born after Adam's image. And it went on down the
line to you and me. Corrupt, defiled sinners because
we're born of corruptible seed from our father. That's how we
come into this world. The Word of God is the incorruptible
seed. This is the Word by which the
Gospels preached unto you. That's 1 Peter 1. You can read
that. This is the Word which by the
Gospels preached unto you. We must be born again of the
incorruptible Word by the Spirit of God. This is what Christ told
Nicodemus. Nicodemus come. He's a religious
man. He had some knowledge, just natural
knowledge of things. But he didn't know God and couldn't
know God. And that's what Christ told him.
He said, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again
of God. And the Lord told him, he said,
except a man be born of water. That's the word, water. You have to be born of the water
of the word, because it washes you. That's why it's called water.
You're born of the water and of the spirit. Except you are
you can't enter the kingdom of God why that which is born of
flesh is flesh flesh Sinful man produced a sinful man after his
kind And your father produced it in you my father produced
it in me But that which is spirit that which is of the Holy Spirit
of God is spirit. He produces after his kind Marvel
not you must be born again, so Look around you, you see life
producing life. Who's the original life? Christ
said, I am the life. All life came from him. And life
produces life after it's come. And if we're gonna be spiritual,
we're gonna be created anew in the image of God, we have to
be born again of the word of God. We can't do that by our
will, we can't do that by our works. Scripture is abundantly
clear on that. Abundantly clear. To those that
believe God gave the privilege to become the sons of God, which
were born. They were born not of the flesh,
not of the will of man, not of blood. It was nothing of man. It was of God. It was of God. You see, this offends natural
man. That tells you right there that
this word is true because a natural man hates to know I can't save
myself. I can't make myself be born again.
Could you make yourself be born the first time? You had nothing
to do with it. You have nothing to do with this
new birth. We're at the mercy of God. That's why he tells us
to preach this. We're at the mercy of God. We're
going to have to be saved by God. And this is what he does
through this word. When he does regenerate you, he brings you
to cry out to God to have mercy on you and save you. He's going
to get the glory. That's why. You're gonna get
the glory. Now the third word by which we know God is, is law.
Logos, intelligent mind behind all order and design and intelligent
mind behind salvation. All determined from the beginning.
We know it by life. Life only produces life. And
the life is Christ and he's the one that produces spiritual life
in his people. The third word's law. In this
world, there are some moral absolutes. There's a lot of things that
are gray, ethically gray, but there are moral absolutes. There
are some things that are black and white. For instance, murder
is murder. There are no two ways about it.
Murder is murder. Where did that law come from? Why is it in our
conscience we know murder is wrong? Where did that come from?
Where did that come from? God gave the first law in the
garden. God did. In Genesis 2.15, the
Lord God took the man, put him into the garden of Eden to dress
it and to keep it. That was God's positive command.
He put Adam in the garden, told him to dress and keep the garden.
And then he gave a negative command. The Lord commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of
it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die. And Adam ate of it. And by breaking
that one law, he became guilty. He became guilty. He became unrighteous. by that one law. And every man
that's born in this world, every man, woman, child born in this
world came from Adam. We were in him, he was our head,
he represented us, and we all became guilty in Adam. Every
one of us. God's only looking at two men. He's looking at Adam and he's
looking at Christ. And you're going to meet God
one day and you're either going to be found in Adam, guilty,
or you'll be found in Christ, righteous. He gave the law. He gave the
law. And then what about the law at
Sinai? Everybody's trying to come to God by the Ten Commandments.
Why'd He give that law at Sinai? Scripture says He gave it that
the offense might abound. That you might see that in the
garden, in Adam, you became guilty. He didn't give that law for you
to be able to keep it and come to God by it. He said in Galatians
3, if there had been a law that could have given you life, then
righteousness would have come by law. There is no law that
could have given you life when you were already guilty before
God. Already guilty. And that law,
because we were guilty, you know what that law demanded? We're
talking about God. Now you don't separate the law
and God. God is the law. He's righteousness. And what does God demand because
he's holy and because he's been offended and been sinned against? What does the just judge of heaven
and earth demand of everybody that's broken the law? You must
die. That's the wages of sin is death.
Now there's no exceptions. Everybody has broken the law
and everybody shall die. And we're not talking about just
physical death. He's talking about everybody
shall die under the justice of God. And again, we're either
going to die, meet God in Adam without Christ and be cast into
hell and suffer the justice of God for eternity ourselves, or
we'll be found in Christ. And here's why it's so important
that Christ came into this world, that Lord Jesus came into this
world to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. You know, you and me both know,
it's defiled, your conscience is defiled, but you have a consciousness
of right and wrong. And you know, tell the complaint
about the preacher, he needs to preach on how to live. You
know how to live. You know what's right and what's
wrong. Let's look at Romans 2.14. Let me show you something. Romans 2.14. Romans 2.14. When
the Gentiles, which have not the law, that's everybody outside
of Israel. They didn't have the law. That
would be you and me if we were living in that day. Everybody
outside did not have the law. So by nature, when they do by
nature the things contained in the law, these having not the
law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness
and their thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one
another. You see that? They don't have
the written law of God, and yet they know right and wrong. Why? We all have the law written on
our conscience by nature. It's defiled. It's defiled. That's why we'll be real hard
on somebody else, and we'll commit the exact same sin, and we can
always justify it. We can always figure out a way,
or our children will. Oh, it's not as bad when our
children did it. Because we're defiled. We're defiled. But only the Spirit of God can
write the law of the gospel on your heart, the law of faith
and the law of love and make you hear God's word and hear
and understand that God sent his son into this world to live
under that law for his people. Just like all his people were
in Adam and we sinned and we were guilty, all his people were
in the Lord Jesus Christ of God are you in Christ Jesus. We were
in Christ and when Christ lived under the law, we did everything
Christ did. That's what God says. And so
then he went to the cross and here's where you see it really
it's all fulfilled at the cross because here you see the fulfillment
of the law is love. And you see perfect love at the
cross. Christ Jesus laid down his life
for God his father and for his people. He laid down his life
for God to declare his righteousness, to honor his law. to satisfy
the justice of God so God's holy to be merciful to you and me.
And He loved us in that He went and took our sin and our guilt
and bore the wrath of God in our place for us so that He justified
us and reconciled us to God. Do you see the love of God? You
may want to talk about fulfilling the law. That's the only way
the law is fulfilled. You can't do that and I can't
do that. He's the one who did that. He's the one that fulfilled
the law. The Lord Jesus. This is what He does by the Spirit.
Look at John 16. So here we are. We're dead in
sin. Christ has accomplished His work
for His people. So if we're dead in sin, we're
not going to believe it. We're not going to trust Him.
We're going to keep on trying to come to God by our works of
the law and not trust Him. How are we going to know He did
the work and it's finished and we're righteous and accepted
of God in Him? How are we going to know that?
He sends the Spirit of God, and He sends this Word, this incorruptible
seed, and He makes you be born again. And this is what the Spirit
convinces you of. John 16.8, when He has come,
talking about the Spirit, He will reprove the world. Now,
He's talking about His people throughout the world, because
this is the only ones that He convinces. That word reprove
means convince. And the only ones He convinces
of this are those for whom He accomplished it. Christ said
in his high priestly prayer in John 17, I pray not for the world. I'm not praying for all men in
the world. I pray for them whom thou has given me, Father. That's
who he prays for. That's who he died for. He said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. We say that, we declare that
because it's the word of God, but we also declare it because
we're declaring Christ did not fail. Well, that offends me. I don't care if it offends a
man. Christ did not fail, and that's more important than whether
or not me and you are offended. Christ accomplished justifying
his people. He did it. That's the best news
you'll ever hear if you are the vile sinner. And if you're not,
that won't be good news for you. I tell you the reason men won't
come to Christ and believe on Christ, it's not because they're
sinners. That's not what's keeping you
from Christ. It's because men are too good
to come to Christ. Men really think they're good
and able to save themselves or at least contribute. And you're
not, and I'm not either. We have to be convinced by the
Spirit of God. And here's what He convinces
us of, John 16, 8. When He's come, He will approve the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because
they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and you see me no more. Of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is judge. When He gives you faith, and
He makes you hear the Lord declare you totally guilty, He convinces
you of sin. And you know what you do? You
agree with God. For the first time in your life,
you agree with God. God, you're just. I am the sinner. You have judged me to be the
sinner. You're right. You're just. I am the sinner. That's all I
am. That's all I can produce. I'm
nothing more. We take sides with God and we
confess that by Adam's one transgression, we became guilty sinners. And all we've ever done is transgressed
against God. And as long as you, so long as
you do not believe on Christ, that will be true of you. The only way that's not true
of us, the only way it can be said that we are righteous and
without sin is through faith in Christ. He will convince you
of sin because you believe not on Christ. Now get what that says. That
means believing on Christ means faith is saying, I'm not contributing
to my righteousness. It's all Christ. He is my righteousness. I said, don't separate the law
from God. Christ is our righteousness.
He came and fulfilled his own law. He honored it and magnified
it. And then what does He do? By
giving us faith, He convinces us of righteousness because Christ
came and died and He rose again. He's with the Father. God received
Him. He was raised again for our justification. And He makes
you see God received Him because He accomplished the work God
sent Him to do. He is the righteousness of His
people. And you trust Him alone. And He convinces you through
faith that judgment's settled. on the cross. The law demands
death to those that transgress. But you can't die but one time.
And all his people died in Christ, and the law is satisfied. Judgment
settled. There are not multiple judgments.
There is one judgment. You're going to come before God,
and you're either going to be found in Christ, your judgment
being settled over 2,000 years ago, or you're going to be found
in Adam. But for God's people, your judgment's
settled. It was settled at the cross.
There's therefore now no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not out of the flesh, but out of the spirit, because
the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the law of sin and death. So that's, and here's the fourth
word, love. Love, I need to hurry. Love didn't
originate with man. Scripture says God is love. Go
to 1 John 3. Even fallen sinners have a natural
love. They have a natural love. They
love their family. They love their friends, you
know, naturally. It's defiled. A mother will kill
her child. A man will kill his children.
They'll kill their parents. But there's a natural love. Where'd
that come from? It came from God. As defiled
as it is, love is of God. We have to have a spiritual love,
and that's of God. Verse 7, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God, and he that loveth not knoweth not God,
for God is love. Love there is agape, and that
word is commitment. commitment. God is committed
to the objects of His love. God is committed to His Son to
glorify His Son and God is committed to His people in His Son and
for the sake of His Son. He gave His only begotten Son
not to He gave His Son because He did
love His people. That's why He did it. He already
loved His people. Look at this, verse 9. And this
was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent
His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through
Him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved
us and sent His Son to propitiation for our sin. Christ is love. And you know what love did? Love
covered the multitude of our sins. by his own blood, and he
promises, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you, committed
to you. And by forming Christ in us in
the new birth, we have the love of God in us. And now his love
constrains us to be committed to him and to be committed to
our brethren. Look at verse 11. Beloved, if
God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has
seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit,
and He produces two things by His Spirit. He produces faith
in Him, and He produces love for Him and love for brethren.
Here's faith. We've seen and do testify that
the Father sent the Son, the Savior of the world, and whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God. That's how you have faith. God
took up residence in you, and you are dwelling in him too.
And then here's love. We've known and believed the
love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. When his love dwells
in you, Christ, through His love, covered the multitude of our
sins. He did that for us, and when He's in us, He makes you
cover the multitude of sins in your brethren. Because you know
they're righteous in Christ. That's what makes you do it.
His love for us made Him commit to us forever. And His love in
us makes us commit to Christ and to our brethren forever.
And only the love of God creates this. Only the love of God. This
is the law of grace, the law of faith which works by love. And another obvious proof that
goes along with this is the world's hatred of God of His Christ,
of His Gospel, and of you and me who is brought to believe
on Him. That's proof that God is. The
hatred of men against the true God. John 17, 14, Christ said,
I've given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because
they're not of the world, even as I'm not of the world. If we
were of the world, the world would love his own, Christ said.
If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but
because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. What a blessing God's given
us, brethren. John said, behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. So next time anybody asks you,
well, how do you know God is? You can give them these four
things, by the logos, by life, by law, and by love. And you know what the truth of
the matter is? God, our savior, is all four. He's the logos,
he's the life, he's the law, and he is love. He is, he is. I pray he'd give you faith to
believe him. Father, we thank you for this word. We pray, Lord,
you keep us. Help us to be witnesses of you.
Give us wisdom to speak to men who are against their own selves
by not believing you. Give us patience. Lord, we pray
You bless Your Word, create life in Your people, make us see You're
the Word, You're the life, You're the righteousness, and You are
the love by which we're saved. Thank You for this Word, Lord.
Forgive us our sin, forgive us our unbelief, forgive us for
not following You as diligently and carefully as we ought. Make
us more careful to maintain good works. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen.