Our Bibles, brethren, to Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians, the fourth chapter. Let's begin reading. Let's begin reading in verse
8. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
up on high, when Christ ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive, and he gave gifts unto men. Verse 11. And he gave some
apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers. Now our text is verse 13. This
tells us how long Christ gave or will give His pastors. Till
we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. Our subject this morning is till
we all come. He says till we all come. The
main point that the Holy Spirit is making here is that Christ
shall continue to give his preachers till all of God's elect are called
to faith in Christ through the preaching of the gospel so that
Christ's body shall be complete. His body shall be complete. It
tells us first here that Christ shall give his preachers till
we all come in the unity of the faith or till we all come into
the oneness of faith in Christ. God-given faith is a faith of
union. Whenever God gives faith, we're
united to God and to our brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
united in Christ. The whole context of this passage
of Scripture is telling us there's one body. and he's telling us
that Christ is sending preachers to bring his redeemed, God's
elect, into that one body through faith. Now the we spoken of in
the text here, it says to we all come. The we is the elect
of God. It's the elect, those God elected
unto salvation in Christ Jesus. God wrote the names of each of
his elect in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Look at 2 Timothy and verse 1.
2 Timothy verse 1. We're told here in verse 9 that
God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according
to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. This
grace, this purpose of God was given us in Christ before the
world began. Look at a few pages to your right
to Titus chapter 1 and look at verse 1. Paul, a servant of God,
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. This is what our text says. We'll
be called to faith in Christ, and of the knowledge of the Son
of God. He says, according to the faith of God's elect, and
the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, in
hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before
the world began. but hath in due times manifested
his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according
to the commandment of God our Savior. Whenever Paul was called
by the Lord Jesus, to be an apostle you had to be called directly
by the Lord Jesus. But even when he was called by
the Lord Jesus, the Lord sent Ananias to Paul. And he sent
him with this good news, the good news that Christ speaks
into the heart of every believer that he saves. The good news
that he sent Ananias to declare to Paul was this, the God of
our fathers hath chosen thee. He's chosen thee that thou shouldest
know His will and see that just one, and shouldest hear the voice
of His mouth. For thou shalt be His witness
unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. Now that's what
God does for us in our hearts when He speaks into our hearts.
He doesn't send us the Holy Spirit to make us children. He sends
us the Holy Spirit because we are children by God's divine
election. Galatians 4, 6 says, Because
ye are sons, because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit
of his Son into your hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
So the we that we're talking about here is all God's elect. That's the first thing we need
to understand. This is all God's elect. Now the second thing that
the Spirit declares here in this phrase, clearly as it can be
stated is, All God's elect shall be called into the unity of faith. All shall. So we all come in
the unity of faith. We must believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We must believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That includes repentance. Repentance
and faith are two sides of the same coin. We must repent. Remember when the tower of Siloam
fell and men were doing what we do. You see some tragedy like
9-11 and they were coming around. That was their 9-11 in that day. This tower had fallen. A bunch
of people were killed. And they said that tower, they
were saying that tower fell on them because they were sinners.
And Christ said don't think that. Don't think that's why they died.
He said this, I tell you, except you repent, except you repent,
you shall all likewise perish. That's one of Christ's accepts.
Except we repent, we're going to die. What do we repent from?
What do we turn from? We turn from our vain works,
our vain self-righteousness. We counted filthy rags before
God. That's our chief sin, brethren.
I know when you think of sin, you think of immorality. But
the chief sin is men think they're good. That's what's keeping men
from a Savior, from a sovereign Savior, is the men think they're
righteous. We have to repent from our righteousness. We have
to repent from all our vain, idle gods that we imagine God
to be and come and believe on Christ. Look at John chapter
6. John chapter 6. Jesus, in verse 29, the Lord
Jesus is speaking here, and I just want you to see that He says
faith is a necessity. Look here, John 6, 29. Jesus
answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. Look at verse 40. And this
is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth
the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life. and
I'll raise him up at the last day. Look at verse 47. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. This is how we're given life.
It's through faith. Look at verse 53. Then said Jesus
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you believe,
except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. Whosoever eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I'll raise him up at
the last day. Now some people think, some preach
this, primitive Baptists preach this, some of the primitive Baptists
preach this at least, all the folks on my my father's side
of my family, a primitive Baptist, and they teach that if a man
is elected unto salvation, it doesn't matter if he ever hears
the gospel or if he ever believes or not. He'll be saved regardless.
But that's not so. That's not what the Scriptures
teach. Paul said in Hebrews 10.38, the just shall live by faith. We read that repeatedly in Scripture.
The just shall live by faith. He said, but if any man draw
back, If any man proved that he never believed on Christ from
the beginning, he proves he was a fraud by going back, and going
back to his works, and his vain religion, and his vain will,
and his vain wisdom, and leaves Christ, he said, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him. No pleasure. Why? Because Hebrews
11, 6 says, without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe. He must believe that God is and
that God alone is the rewarder of those that diligently seek
Him. The whole body of Scriptures
agrees with this. All those whom God the Father
chose to save in Christ Jesus shall be brought to faith in
Christ Jesus. God the Spirit declares this.
Look at 2 Thessalonians. All the way through Scripture,
continually through Scripture, there's a distinction made between
those who believe, those who perish in unbelief, and those
who believe. There's always a distinction.
God never in His Scripture speaks of those who depart this life
in unbelief as being saved. He never does. He never does. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 and
verse 12. He says here that they all might
be damned who believed not the truth. Now there's an awe that
they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. But the same Holy Spirit then
declares to us, He says there, if a man leaves this world in
unbelief, there's nobody to blame but the sinner. And then He turns
around and tells us, but if you do believe, there's nobody to
praise and honor and glorify but God for His grace. Look at
verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation." But he doesn't stop there. He
doesn't say he just elected you to salvation. He chose you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, through being
regenerated by the Holy Spirit and brought to faith in Christ.
Look, and belief of the truth. Where unto? A man is dead in
sin, so how is he going to be made alive and brought to believe
on Christ? Where unto? He called you. How? By our gospel. To the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God's election unto salvation
always includes sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Peter said in 1 Peter 1-2, he said that we are elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. The word means
foreordination, the foreordaining of God the Father. And it's through
sanctification of the Spirit and it's unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. When the Gentiles heard the Gospel,
Acts 13, 48 says they were glad and they rejoiced. And the Scripture
says, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Who's
going to believe? As many as are ordained to eternal
life. Romans 8.29 says, For whom He
did foreknow, whom He did foreordain, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that His Son 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. Salvation beginning to end is
by God. He foreordained His people to
eternal life, He predestinated them unto the adoption of children
to be conformed to Christ, and He called them, and He justified
them, and He'll glorify them. Now note the context of our scripture. It's unity, oneness of the faith,
which Christ brings us into. This unity, this unity is what
the Holy Spirit declares that believers already have. We already
have this unity. And what we're urged to endeavor
to keep. We couldn't be told to keep something
if we didn't already have it. We have it. Now there are some
that think that this text is teaching that all religions will
one day be made one. Some folks will teach that those
who believe even under Christianity, that those who believe in free
will works religion and those who believe the sovereign grace
of God, that one day our differences are going to be laid aside and
we're going to be made one. But listen to the scripture.
The reason they argue this is they look at all the divisions
under the banner of Christianity. Look at all the divisions and
they say because these folks claim to preach Christ and claim
to believe Christ and yet they don't get along, they're not
in agreement. They say that's proof right there that we don't
have this unity of faith. We're going to keep hearing the
gospel until we're brought to this unity of faith. But brethren,
Where they err is they look at men to determine how God operates. Don't ever look at yourself,
your experience, or other men to determine how God saves sinners. Look at God's Word and read God's
Word and submit to God's Word. This is how we're going to find
out how God saves. Believers are one right now. We have the
unity of faith right now. Look back up at verse 3, Ephesians
4 verse 3. He tells us there, endeavor to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You see,
we have this unity. It's of the Holy Spirit. He says
there's one body, one Spirit, even as you're called in one
hope of your calling. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all who's above all and through
all and in you all. See, we have this unity. 2 Peter
1.1 says, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
to them that have obtained like precious faith. We have like
precious faith. He says, them that have obtained
like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. Every believer already has been
called into the unity of faith. We have it. And it's Christ's
lost sheep that are blind and dead in sin that he's making
alive and calling into this unity of faith. This unity was promised
by God through the prophets. He said in Jeremiah 32-39, I'll
give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever
for the good of them and of their children after them. This is
what God does. So no doubt we're going to have
a more perfect unity when we put off this body of death and
we're perfectly conformed to his image and we're brought to
oneness with him. Then we're going to right now we have unity
with the spirits of just men made perfect but we're on earth
and they're in glory. But then we'll all be together
and we will all be one in Christ Jesus. But the point I'm making
to you is, believers have this unity. And everyone that Christ
redeemed, that God chose, they're going to be sanctified by the
Holy Spirit. They're going to be brought to faith in Christ.
Every one of them. And He's going to send preachers
till we all come. Now, the second thing He shows
us in verse 13 is this. Christ shall give His preachers
till we all come of the knowledge of the Son of God. The same folks
who tell you that you don't have to believe will also tell you
you don't have to hear the Gospel. You don't have to hear the Gospel
of Christ. If you're elected, it doesn't matter. You don't
have to hear the Gospel, they say. But listen to Romans 10. I want you
to see it. Romans 10 and look at verse 14. It's true that whosoever calls
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now look at this. Romans 10,
14. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have
not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? This is what our text is teaching
us. When Christ arose, He sent preachers, and He's still sending
preachers, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God. He's going to bring His people.
He doesn't just bring us into a blind faith. It's not just,
well, I believe God. The devils believe God and tremble. But this is a unity in knowledge,
in truth. All God's elect shall come to
knowledge in Christ Jesus, the true knowledge of the Son of
God, as well as in the true knowledge of God the Father. And they'll
do it through the preaching of the gospel. Christ said, this
is life eternal that they may know thee the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom thou sent. There's no salvation apart from
faith and there's no faith apart from knowing who God is and how
he saved. Believers are taught the truth.
John said this, you have an unction from the Holy One and you know
all things. He's speaking to believers. And
he says, I've not written unto you because you know not the
truth, because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
No lie is of the truth. Men will say, I've heard men
say this, we don't have, we don't, and we don't have a perfect knowledge
of God. We see through a glass darkly,
then we're going to see face to face. But this is the truth.
You do know God. And you know His Son, you who
believe Him, because the Holy Spirit revealed Him to you. And
you know Him in truth. You know Him in truth. This knowledge
is given of God the Father and given of God the Holy Spirit.
We looked at this last week. Christ said this, No man can
come to Me except the Father which has sent Me draw him, and
I will raise him up at the last day. It's written in the prophets,
They shall be all taught of God. They shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." How many
is included in that every man that hath heard? Well, but when
it's over with, it'll be all of them. He said they shall all
be taught of God. Every man therefore that has
heard comes to me. Look at 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
look at verse 4. And hold your place there because
just right across the page, I'm going to come back here to Romans
16 in a moment. Look here at 1 Corinthians 1
and look at verse 4. I thank my God always on your
behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ,
that in everything you're enriched by Him. in all utterance and
all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,
so that you could come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the
end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship
of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." And this is by God the
Holy Spirit too. It's by God the Father, it's
by God the Holy Spirit that we're given this knowledge. The Lord
Jesus said, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide
you into all truth. Because He won't speak of Himself,
what He hears, that's what He's going to speak. He's going to
speak that which glorifies Christ. But our text here gives this
glory to Christ. Notice it says we're going to
come to the unity of the faith We're going to come to unity
in faith, but we're going to come by of the knowledge of the
Son of God. We're going to have knowledge
in the Son of God, and it's going to be by the Son of God that
we're given this knowledge. He prayed this in John 17. He
said, Father, the hours come. Glorify thou me that I may glorify
thee. And he says, as thou has given
me power over all flesh that I may give eternal life to as
many as thou has given me. This glory to be the head of
the church, to give all of His redeemed life through the preaching
of the gospel has been given to Christ as a reward of His
obedience from God the Father. So this is His glory to do this.
The scripture says that God not only predestinated us unto the
adoption of children, He not only predestinated us to receive
the spirit of adoption, He predestinated us to receive it by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Peter
said, the God of all grace who hath called us into His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus. That's how we're called. And
likewise, our fruit and our growth in grace is of Christ. In Philippians
1.11, he says, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which
are by Jesus Christ. And then our text in verse, or
down below our text in verse 16, he says this, From whom? From Christ. The whole body is
joined together and the whole body makes increase. This is
all from Christ. He's working this. He's the head
of the body. So men, I've heard this, men
will object. They'll say, well, what if a
man dies before he hears the gospel? Or what if a man is in
some remote place, so remote that the gospel is not preached
there? God is the one who determines where a man is going to be born.
God is the one who determines where a man is going to live.
God is the one who sets the appointment the very time for which the man
will die. God is the one who has all power
working all things in earth as it pleases him. God can bring
the gospel to his people. That's no problem. That's no
problem with God whatsoever. Look at Romans 16. This is what
the scripture says. Verse 25. Now to him that is of power to
establish you according to my gospel. You mean he's of power
to do that? He's of power. And the preaching
of Jesus Christ. According to the revelation of
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but is
now made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according
to the commandment of the everlasting God, is made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith. Who's this power that's going
to do this? To God only wise be glory. through Jesus Christ
forever. He's of power to establish His
people. So we don't have reason to lament
as to whether or not God's going to send forth laborers into the
vengeance. Sometimes we look around and we think, is God going
to send more preachers? You see the faithful men get
older and they're dying out and you think, is God going to provide
preachers? Is Christ going to send more preachers? Remember
what He told His disciples? He said, you go forth into all
the world preaching the gospel. Baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And he said, And
lo, I am with you. Until when? Till the end of the
world. Till the end of the world. We take the Lord's table. And you know what Paul said?
He said, As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you do show the Lord's death till he come. We're going to
keep worshiping under the sound of the gospel until Christ is
called the last one. And then he'll return. But this
gospel is going to go forth to the end of the world. Now look
at, here's our text, Ephesians 4.13, and here's the third thing. Christ shall continue to give
his preachers till we all come unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, it does
begin to speak here of our personal growth as believers as we hear
the gospel. But that's going to be spoken
of more in the next verse. So we're going to look at that
more next time. But what this verse is speaking more of is,
it says there, till we all come to the fullness of Christ, to
a perfect man, the stature, the measure, the stature, the fullness
of Christ. You remember what Ephesians 1.23 says? His body
is the fullness of Him. The text is telling us that when
each and every member of Christ's body has been called to faith
in Christ, then Christ's body will be full. His body will be
complete. It will be full, but not till
then. Now, that's great assurance for us, brethren. That's great,
great assurance, because Christ is going to hold all things in
store in this earth by His Word. As long as there's a lost sinner
who is one of God's elect, one Christ redeemed, the gospel will
continue to go forth. Men that are lost, they don't
want to hear the gospel, they don't like it, they don't want
to have anything to do with it, they just want to go out and
enjoy themselves in this world, kick up their heels. They ought
to like the gospel because that's the one reason that the world's
not destroyed yet and they're not in hell. Because God has
a people. God has a people. God will not
destroy this world till He's called them. Look at 2 Peter
3. Do you remember in Noah's day? God looked down and the
whole world was corrupt. The thoughts and the imaginations
of their heart were only evil continually. And God told Noah
to build an ark. And Noah built that ark. And
the whole time Noah's building that ark, he's preaching. And
this is a beautiful picture of what we're doing. We're building
an ark. We're preaching Christ the ark.
That's what we're doing. We're preaching Christ the ark.
And God did not send one drop of rain. Not one drop of judgment
fell. Not one spring of judgment came
up from under the earth. Nothing happened until God had
put everybody that He would save into that ark. And it said, and
God shut them up in that ark. And then the judgment came. But
not till then. 2 Peter 3 verse 7 is telling
us this right here. The heavens and the earth which
are now, verse 7, by the same word are kept in store, reserved
under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly
men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. One day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise." What has He promised us? Remember in Isaiah 54, He
said, the hills and the mountains shall not depart. My everlasting
mercy shall not depart from you. They will depart, but My mercy
shall not depart from you. His promise is, He's going to
keep sending preachers until we all come in the unity of the
faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God through the stature
of the fullness of Christ until His body is complete. And He
says, and He's not slack concerning His promises. Some men count
slackness, but He's longsuffering to who? To us. to the same ones
who are the we that are going to be called into this body to
his elect. He's long-suffering to usward,
his elect, not willing that any should perish. He's not willing
that any should perish, not any of those that he put in Christ,
not any of those Christ redeemed. He's not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. Are you sure this
is saying that we should count that because He's not willing
that any should perish, that they're all going to be saved?
Look at verse 15. And account, reckon, that this
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. It is salvation. He will not fail. Listen to this. Christ said in John 6, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. He said, I came down from heaven,
not through my will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will that sent me, that of all which He
has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. If this was as men say, If 2 Peter 3 is as
men say, that God is sitting in heaven and He's walking the
floors of heaven and He's wringing His hand and He's saying, oh,
I'm just not willing that any of these sinners perish, I just
wish they'd all come to repentance. If that's what this longsuffering
of God is, and God doesn't Himself come in sovereign power according
to His eternal will and purpose and make His people repent and
believe, then he'll just go on wishing because nobody will.
Nobody will. That's not what the text means.
If he's not willing and he should perish, they're not going to
perish because God does his will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can say to him, what
are you doing? He does what he will. He does
what he will. Why would men reject this? Why
would men deny this truth, brethren? Well, number one, men who have
not been born of God will deny it. They haven't been given a
heart to submit to God's Word. Those who've been given a new
heart, bow to God and believe Him. Number two, natural man
doesn't want to support a missionary. He don't want to support a preacher.
The natural heart of a man is covetous. That's his idolatry. He don't want to bow to God.
He don't want to part with his money to support a preacher. There was a man, since I've been
here, there was a man who had listened to Henry Mahan and Darwin
Pruitt and rejoiced in what they were hearing them preach. And
they preached the same thing I preach. Exact same. They preached
this message I'm preaching right now. And just would send them
notes of commendation, how much he enjoyed the message. And one
of those men said, Clay Curtis is right there within driving
distance of you now. You can go there and support
the gospel and be a part of that congregation. And the first message
he sent me, first letter he sent me, he found fault with this. He said, you think God's going
to send preachers forth to his people and save them through
the preaching of the gospel? I said, yeah. That's what you've been
saying you rejoice to hear? Yeah, he is. He said, well, I
don't believe that. Why? Because I don't believe
I was saved through the preaching of the gospel. I believe I was
saved by my own searching. And so he didn't come hear me.
He never has been. And I thought, wow, I know he's
heard this same message. It's driving distance. It's distance
where he can actually come. He couldn't go to Henry's or
Darwin's, they're way off. He'd come here, so he's got to
find a reason not to. A man's covetous, he won't part
with his money. Number three, they love their
loved ones more than God. More men are more willing to
take mama and daddy who grow from this world, believe in lies
or believe in nothing, and cursing God and say, rather than bow
to God's Word and take sides with God, they're willing to
say, well, if they were elect of God, they'd be saved. They
were saved anyway if they were elect. That's not true. Be in the Word of God to make
it say something like that. How do you know if a man's elect
or not? Paul said to the Thessalonians, Brethren, beloved, knowing your
election of God. How? Because our Word came to
you, not in Word only, But in power, and in spirit, and in
much assurance, you believe the gospel. That's how you know a
man's elect. He's saved. He's saved. And here's the fourth reason
men deny this truth. They try to make disciples after
themselves. You remember that fellow a few
years ago that was telling everybody that the world was fixing to
end? He told them that two or three times. He's telling everybody
that the church age is over. God's not sending preachers anymore.
If that was true, brethren, this world would be over. This world
would be burning up right now. That's not so. Try to make disciples
after themselves. But what I'm showing you, this
is why we don't deny even one article of truth, brethren, because
it opens the floodgates for all error. Look at God's Word and
see what God said. But this is assurance to us.
Christ is going to send this gospel. We got loved ones we
want to see saved. We got family we want to see
saved. We want to see sinners saved
by God's grace. But this is what we know, brethren.
Christ is going to send forth His preachers, and He's going
to bring each and every one of His redeemed children to faith
in Christ, to the knowledge of the Son of God, and He's going
to bring everyone so that His body is complete. And knowing
that, we know, thy God reigneth. He reigns. And we can rest. We can do this. We can just preach
His gospel and bear witness of Him to anybody that'll listen.
Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Our great God and our Father,
how we do thank you that you've trusted the whole work of salvation
into the hand of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We're thankful,
Father, that in Him all the works are finished, and that He's calling
faithfully, through the preaching of the truth, all His elect into
His body, giving us faith and repentance, making us rest in
Him. Lord, we're thankful that we
don't have to listen to men, we don't have to listen to the
scientists so-called and all the things they say about the
world and how it's going to be destroyed, fall apart if we don't
do something. We can rest in Your Word. Trust
that You're going to hold it in store for the very reason
of calling out Your people. Lord, glorify Your name through
the Gospel. Glorify Your Son. Glorify Him
in our hearts. Forgive us of our sin. Forgive
us of our doubting. We ask it in the name of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.