May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
Epistle of Paul to the Romans, and chapter nine, and we'll read
the first five verses. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans,
chapter nine, and reading the first five verses. I say the
truth in Christ, I lie not. my conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption
and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and
the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of
whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all,
God blessed forever. Amen. As we read such verses, they
follow on of course from the end of the 8th chapter, and I'm
sure as most of you know, in the original there weren't any
chapters, so it just followed on. And the end of that 8th chapter
of course is a very glorious end to the words that the Apostle
brought to the Romans when he came and said, Now in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' And
that of course is a very comforting statement. and a very blessed
word for us to lay hold upon. And now he comes and says this,
and obviously he is concerned that it may be taken very seriously,
because he commences by saying, I say the truth in Christ, I
lie not. We would not expect, of course,
the Apostle to lie, but nonetheless he lays it on so that there's
no doubt that he is telling the truth. And he's not lying. And
then he tells us, my conscience also beareth bearing me witness
in the Holy Ghost. So he was being very honest and
very straightforward. He wasn't making anything up.
He was speaking the truth. And of course, his great burden
really was the salvation of Israel, the Jewish people, because they
had been so wonderfully favoured right through history. We know
that the Lord's people, the Jews, were wonderfully blessed. And
of course, now what had happened was that Jesus had come as the
promised Messiah, the promises had been fulfilled, and for the
most part, the Jews had turned away from the Saviour. They'd said, we will not have
this man to reign over us. They would not acknowledge that
he was the true Messiah. And the problem was, they had
their own ideas of what the Messiah would be like. They thought he
would come as a natural king, a great ruler who controlled
everything. He did in one sense, but it wasn't
evident. He hadn't come in glorious robes. No, he was just born in a manger
in very humble circumstances. And therefore, the majority of
the Jewish people could not accept that. And so the apostle here
is very burdened about that. He's very burdened about them.
He's burdened about them being lost and not being saved. And not coming to the knowledge
of the truth. upon that which they had been brought up to believe
in the religion of Judaism and not have realised the glorious
Gospel which had now been declared and which had come to pass. And
we can imagine, can we not, how he was in great heaviness and
continual sorrow in heart. I suppose, I hope we have the
same understanding today and perhaps the same concern. for
people that may come and pretend to be Christians but really are
not and they're just happy to roll along and just wither just
a few words but there's no reality and surely that should be heaviness
and those who perhaps come and then go away those who do not
want to believe the truth of God well if we have such and
we know there are such Does it not produce, I hope it does,
great heaviness and continual sorrow in our heart? And you
may say, well why? Why should we be worried about
that kind of situation? Surely we should let people continue
as they want to. The tragic reality is that you
and I are on this earth living in time. But there will be a
time when time will be no more. And then you see, we shall all
be in eternity. And that's what it says. It is
eternal. It's not something that just
lasts for a few years. There's no truth in annihilation. The fact is that everyone who
is born in this world has a never-dying soul. And that is true. It is never dying. People don't
want to acknowledge it. They don't want to think about
it. They want to enjoy their life on this earth. They want
to live life, as they say, to the full, and hoping that there
is no afterlife. And if there is, to hope, well,
they'll go to heaven and everything will be happy and pleasant there.
Well, the Bible tells us very differently. The Bible, which
we should be very thankful for, tells us very plainly, that there
is an end of our natural life, but there is no end to our spiritual
life. And the end of our spiritual
life, our spiritual life, therefore, does not end, and we must be
found in either of only two places, either in heaven or in hell. We can understand, therefore,
that with this in front of the Apostle Paul, Very obviously he understood
it and he preached it and he was therefore concerned about
those people who had heard the truth, had seen, many of them
had seen Jesus, had even seen the miracles and heard his words
and they turned away. And so here he is telling us
this statement, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow
in my heart. And we all should have a great
heaviness and continual sorrow of heart with the contemplation
of anyone not being a believer. How important it is that we,
as we come into contact with one another, we should be able
and desire to speak of the truth of God and to not be ashamed
but to have the evidence that we know whom we have believed
by the grace of God, that we do believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He did come into this world to
save sinners and it is through his death that we have hope of
eternal life and eternal happiness and eternal blessedness in heaven. It is a wonderful, wonderful
prospect that we have. And it's a place where there
is no sorrow and no crying and peace and enjoyment forever. Enjoy! What a time that will
be. And of course the great asset
will be that Jesus will be there in the midst. We shall be able
to thank him and praise him for his great love, for his great
grace, for his great mercy. And all those things are very,
very true. And if you just think of it, that the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the Son of God, who is the second person in the trinity,
who is very God, that gracious, glorious Saviour came down in
order that he might save our souls, and indeed, as we're told,
to deliver us from the wrath to come. And so we have a wonderful
prospect before us only if we are blessed with that true spiritual
understanding of our own condition before God, that is, we are a
lost and ruined sinner and we need a Saviour and we come to
Him in all our destitution pleading for His mercy, pleading for His
favour and that we find there is rest in Christ and we have
the confirmation in our own hearts that we are amongst those for
whom he came to deliver from that wrath to come. Well, that
really is the essence of what the Apostle Paul here was concerned
about, that all his, or most and least of his brethren, indeed,
according to the flesh, were not blessed with this favour.
He says, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ
for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.' Now this is not
an easy verse, and it's not easy actually to analyse the truth
here, but this word accursed from Christ, of course a true
believer, can never be accursed from Christ, because Christ didn't
die for any in vain, and therefore no one can be accursed. So in
actual fact, although you might say, for I could wish, that I
myself were accursed. In actual fact, that could never
come to pass. But nonetheless, it could be
read in this way, this word, accursed, could mean to be banned. Banned from, as it were, the
natural Church of God, but not the true Church of God. That
could never occur. And so, remember this as we ponder
such a word as this, but the Apostle is really trying to emphasise
his great concern for his brethren, for those brothers and sisters,
naturally, which were of the flesh. He was very concerned
about them. And that was a real burden that
he had. For I could wish myself that
I myself were accursed from Christ, separated, for my brethren, my
kinsmen, according to the flesh. And then he explains who they
are and what the benefits were which they had. He says, who
are Israelites, to whom he gives us a list, whom pertaining the
adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the
law and the service of God and the promises. And if we're going
to think, well, what's he referring to here? Well, he's referring
really to that time when the Israelites were in Egypt. And
the Lord came and brought them out as he promised 400 years
previously. He said that they would go down
into Egypt which came to pass. He said they would come and be
delivered out of Egypt and it came to pass. Of course it came
to pass in a very wonderful way as we think of Moses. There was
Moses born in Egypt and his mother hid him in the bulrushes and
As it happened, Pharaoh's daughter came along and found him and
took him and brought him up as her own son. And so Pharaoh was
brought up in Pharaoh's palace and therefore knew all the rules
and all the situation which existed in Egypt. And then when he was
40 years of age, he thought he would go about and speak to the
Israelites and then he There was that person who was fighting
between the Israelites and the Egyptians and he rose up and
slew him. And he realized that he'd done that which was wrong
and Pharaoh won his life. So what happened was he went
for another 40 years into the wilderness. And he'd had the
first 40 years being taught all the rules of the Egyptians, and
now he had 40 years being taught the rules of God by the Lord
himself. And then it was the time the
Lord had ordained that Israel should be delivered, and therefore
he came and he spoke to Moses from a burning bush, so that
Moses couldn't mistake who it was. He realized it was God speaking
to him. And God told him to go. And he
would be the one who would bring Israel out of Egypt. And of course, at that time,
Moses, he then thought he wasn't equipped. He wasn't able. 40
years before, he thought he was. But now he thought he wasn't.
But God ordained that he should. And of course, he came then and
was the person that, under God, brought Israel out of Egypt and
across the Red Sea and into the wilderness. there when they were
in the wilderness God gave them wonderful commands and wonderful
ordinances where he ordained how the tabernacle should be
erected and what should be placed inside the tabernacle and how
the Lord had appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai and given him
the Ten Commandments and all the ceremonial law. So here was
a little company, the Israelites. I know there were over a million,
but nonetheless they were relatively few compared with the vast number
of people in the world. And it was to them, therefore,
that God gave all these glorious truths and all these promises. And they were wonderfully favoured
with it because the truth was that the tabernacle and all that
it contained pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. and what he would be as that
sufficient sacrifice. So that's what the Apostle here
is speaking of in these words when he tells us, to whom pertaining
the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving
of the law and the service of God and the promises. his forefathers had had, and
they were aware of it, because as a race the Jewish people were
very confident with the law. But of course they were relying
on the law, and that means they were relying on their own works
to justify themselves. So they might be then found fit
to enter into heaven because of their own works. But that
of course was not the plan of Almighty God. Because we are
told, not of works lest any man should boast. So here they were.
They didn't want to have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
didn't want such a very simple and yet blessed solution as to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They wanted to justify themselves. They wanted to fit themselves
for heaven. But they weren't able to. And
Paul was very aware of this. You may remember just very briefly,
of course, the Apostle Paul was an anti-Christian at one time. He went about doing all he could
to destroy Christians. But God, in his wonderful mercy,
came and called the Apostle Paul. He called to him as he was travelling
on the road to Damascus, and he called him in this way, a
great light shone into his heart, and he fell down on the ground,
And he asked who it was, and the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. Well, many people today, and
they did in Paul's day, persecuted the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
the Apostle Paul then, he was then, he went into the wilderness
for, into the desert for three years, and there no doubt he
was taught the truth of God by God himself. That's why we have
such wonderful letters written to the various churches and also
to the Hebrews, a wonderful explanation of the great truth of God. And
so here we have the position of the Apostle now speaking to
his desires. He writes to the Romans. Remember
the Romans weren't Jews, generally they were Gentiles. But here
he's speaking to them in this way and he's telling us now whose
are the fathers, and of whom is concern in the flesh, Christ
came, who is over all, God bless for evermore. The Lord Jesus
Christ did come as a Jew. So we can see from these verses
that they were wonderfully blessed as a nation. But the trouble
was, and this is what concerned the Apostle Paul, that they were
not believers. They did not believe. in the
Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour. And they turned away from him.
And that's why the Apostle was so concerned about it. And that's
why we have these verses which explains his concern. Having just outlined that briefly,
he then goes on to say, Not as though the word of God hath taken
none effect, For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. You see, God's word does have
an effect. God's word blesses and God's
word condemns. And if we turn away from the
word of God and ignore it, we are condemned because of that. So he tells us then, not as though
the word of God hath taken none effect, For they are not all
Israel, which are of Israel. And what he means by that is
the spiritual Israel are a chosen people. They are the people of
the promise. The promise which was given to
Abraham. And he really expounds this.
It's worthwhile just following this through so that we understand
the great truth of scripture. And he says, neither because
they are the seed of Abraham, Are they the children? But in
Isaac shall thy seed be called. Isaac was the seed of promise. Remember that Abraham was given
that promise that he would have a son and that his children through
that son would, in the years to come, would be as the sand
of the sea or as the stars in the sky for multitude. They were
going to be very, very many. And so the Apostle reminds them
of this great truth, but also tells them this, but in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. And that, of course, is the spiritual
calling. And that's why he comes and says,
that is, they which are the children of flesh, these are not the children
of God, just because they were Jews, just because they could
trace back their hereditary situation to Abraham, it didn't mean that
they were, in fact, the children of God. And yet they were relying
on that. We are Abraham's seed, we are
Abraham's children, and therefore we must be alright. No, not at
all. And that's the same today. You
may say, well, what's the relevance of that? Well, sometimes people
today, they rely on their genealogy. Perhaps they rely on their parents,
perhaps they rely on their upbringing, and they rely on that which they've
perhaps been taught in their minds, and they think therefore
they are safe and secure, and that they can do what they want
in this life, and live a reasonably good life, and then end up in
heaven at last. Well that is the same theory that these Jews
were working on at this time. Well it's not so, because the
Apostle tells us, he says, neither because they are the seed of
Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall a seed be
called, that is, they which are the children of flesh, these
are not the children of God, but the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. The seed, the true seed. Those
whom God reveals himself to as the children of God are the true
seed. And then he goes on to explain this. And you see many
people today are not willing to accept the truth of God. Many
people say, well, I think the Bible is unfair. I don't think
it gives people a chance. I think it's unfair. Well, we
should just remember the basis of the truth, and that is, as
the Bible tells us, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. All of us have sinned, every
single one of us. And what does that mean? That
means before God we are all guilty. And what does that mean? That
means if we remain in a guilty position, then we shall never
go to heaven. Because there is no sin in heaven. Heaven is a holy place. And so
you say, well, so what's the alternative? What's the situation? Well, the Lord Jesus tells us
when he was speaking to his disciples in the upper room, just before
he was to die, he instituted the Lord's Supper, and he tells
them this. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. See, God had chosen,
God had ordained, God had called, and therefore, why should those
who are not called object? Because they've fallen short
of the commands of God. If we keep the law 100%, then
we should save ourselves. But no one can in fact save themselves,
because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So
the Apostle goes on here and he tells us this. That is, they
which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children
of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise.
At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not
only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. Naturally, we tend to think,
well, we face a God who is not fair, a God who is unrighteous. But the Apostle Paul didn't agree
with that sentiment. And the word of God doesn't agree
with that sentiment. And so he tells us, for he saith
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. So what do we conclude from that?
Well, we conclude surely that we all need Mercy. We all need God to look upon
us and have mercy. That's why we have that lovely
little prayer in that parable that the Lord Jesus spoke between
the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee was very pleased
with his prayers. He was very pleased with his
life. He thought he was a great guy. But he wasn't. And the reality was there was
a publican The publican, of course, in those days was known as a
tax collector. And they were usually not very
moral people, they usually charged the people too much, so he was
a despised man. But there was this man, this
publican, he came and he didn't come right up to the temple,
he stood a far off. And he prayed a very simple prayer,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And that's what all of us need.
Mercy. Mercy. Because if we receive
mercy, then we shall receive that salvation. And if we receive
that salvation, it will be well with our souls, because we will
come to know that the Lord has looked upon us, and he has forgiven
us all of our sins. And it will be well with our
soul. So, as we read this word, realizing
that we're not dealing with a man, We're dealing with Almighty God,
realising that Almighty God spoke the Word into being, a truth
that people don't like to accept today. They want to try and theorise
things and work out how things happen. Of course they can't
and they never will, because the truth is God created the
world, God spoke the Word into being. And that one who spoke
the word in the being, just try and imagine it. It's beyond our
comprehension, isn't it? We cannot understand a God who is so great. We cannot understand a God who
is so mighty and so powerful. But nonetheless, it is true.
And as we follow the word of God, we know it's true. And if
we read in the 17th of John where the Lord Jesus was Praying to
his father, he tells us this in the 17th verse of that 17th
chapter, thy word is truth. Now, if God gives you and me
faith to believe the truth of God's word, that would bring
a great comfort to us, to realize tonight that there is mercy with
God. Because the Lord has said that
those that seek shall find, those that come to him he will in no
wise cast out. But so many today will not come
to the Lord. They're rebellious, they're hard-hearted.
Well, if God tells us, the Lord spake himself when he said, come
unto me. Nowhere else. Come unto me, all
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There we have the great, wonderful,
whosoever comes to the Lord in heartfelt sincerity and with
faith will be heard. The Lord does not turn away,
does not turn away his face. I will have mercy and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. The reason for this plan of salvation
is very simple. It means that you and I are not
able to work out a plan for ourselves. We have to come to God just as
we are. We have to plead for his mercy. We have to cry for
mercy, believing that he will not turn us away, and then to
have the blessed understanding, confirmation, that He has looked
upon us, looked upon us, how? With love to our souls. A very well-known verse, of course,
in the third chapter of John, tells us this, verse 16, For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life.' Is that not good news? Is that not wonderful to be able
to appreciate? To realise that we, sinners of
the earth, we're nothing good in ourselves really. We may think
we're a good person, but we're not a good person. And so here
we have this truth set before us in the Word of God. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. And the Lord is a very powerful
God. He is the sovereign God. And
he goes on to tell us, as we read together in this chapter,
for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this purpose,
same purpose, have I raised thee up that I might show my power
in thee. that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth.' Pharaoh did not believe the word of God. Pharaoh did not believe those
things that Moses told him would happen. He would not let Israel
go until of course that time in that last plague when all
the firstborn were slain. And then he let Israel go. And
then of course they all, the Egyptians chased after the Israelites,
but they all lost their lives in the Red Sea when it overflowed
after Israel had got across. So you see the Lord allowed Pharaoh
to be in that position for that purpose, for the scripture set
under Pharaoh, even for this same purpose. Have I raised thee
up? that I might show my power in
thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth.' And surely ever since that day, when the Egyptians
were overthrown, when Israel came out of Egypt, there was
that power of God wonderfully displayed. And it is still, of
course, recorded in the Word of God, and Jew and Gentile are
able to read about it, and how true it is that we have such
great almighty God. And so he carries on, he said,
therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he
will he hardeneth. Pharaoh's heart, we're told,
was hardened. It was hardened. But what a blessing
if you and I have been blessed to receive his mercy. And we haven't been left to rebel. We haven't been left to not believe
the gospel. You see, we live today in a gospel
day. The gospel is good news. What a wonderful thing it is
that we do have the gospel. And so we're told that, Therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why
doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his will? Again, you see, natural man tries
to find fault with God. They argue against God, always
has been, always will be, down to the end of time. They try
to find fault. But then, you see, the apostle
tells us, Neighbour, O man, who art thou that replies against
God? You and me, who are very small,
insignificant things, how can we argue with God? Neighbour, O man, who art thou
that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? And then we
have the illustration, which is easier for us to understand,
the same illustration that was given in Ezekiel's day and that's
of a potter. A man who makes pots out of clay
and he takes a lump of clay and he moulds it as he wants and
it forms the shape that he desires. We can understand that, we don't
argue with that, do we? We recognise that the person
has a power to do what he will with a lump of clay. Well, the
Apostle Paul tells us then, why hast thou made me thus? That's
the argument people say. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and
another unto dishonour? It's quite obvious, isn't it?
Quite clear, quite simple. And so he says then, what if
God willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels, the people of wrath,
fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches
of his glory on the vessels and the people of mercy, which he
had aforeprepared unto glory. These things haven't just happened. They don't just occur. Because we are told in the Word
of God that in eternity past, before the world was formed,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, they agreed what was
to happen and what was to occur. throughout the history of this
world, indeed throughout the history of the universe. And
how we like naturally to think, well, I don't understand that,
I don't believe it. The truth is, it is true, and
as God gives you and me faith to believe in such a truth as
that, we then have faith to believe in this same almighty God who
has a perfect right to deal with you and me as he sees fit. And that's why we have this illustration
here. But what a blessing for us today
if we've heard the gospel, we've heard the good news, and we've
cried to God for mercy. That's a good beginning. And
if we then have cried that from our hearts, that will be because
God has given us faith to pray such a prayer and that prayer
will be answered. God will not turn us away. He
will not turn his back on us. What a mercy that is. And so
the Apostle goes on to say, even us whom he hath called. The Apostle Paul was called by
God on that Damascus road. And God's people today are called,
perhaps not in the same amazing way that Paul was, although sometimes
that can still occur, but it may be that the Spirit of God
just nudges our heart and causes us to think, well, perhaps these
things are true. Perhaps I am a sinner. Perhaps there is an eternity
before me. Perhaps I do need to plead for
mercy. Perhaps I do need to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And what really is this? Is it
not God calling us, calling our hearts, speaking to us in our
hearts about these great truths, And placing a concern there,
so that we do come, and we do cry, we do pray to God. You see, coming to God in that
way, God be merciful to me a sinner, is prayer. Prayer to God. Wonderful, isn't it? That we
can call unto God. Think of Him, high and lifted
up, and yet you and me can pray, can call upon the name of the
Lord to look upon us. to remember us. And the fact
of the matter is that every single person that comes to heaven will
have called upon the name of God. And they won't be able to
say, well, of course I dreamt it all up and I thought all about
it. They will acknowledge it was God that put the thought
into their mind. put the desire in their mind,
put the concern into their mind, to pray unto the true God, not
the false gods. My friends, there's many false
gods, but what a blessing it is we have the true God before
us in the Word of God. And the fact is that we will
then be able to appreciate The wonderful plan of salvation which
was that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. Jesus Christ came into this world
to die in our place. We could not be justified ourselves.
We are sinners. We could not make ourselves just
before God. And no unjust person gets into
heaven. So how were we to make ourselves
just? We can't. What do we need? We need someone to justify us,
and that someone is the Lord Jesus Christ. He died that glorious
death upon the cross at Calvary to atone for the sins of all
his people. He was the just one. He was never
unjust. He lived a perfect life. He was
just, and therefore he died in your place and my place, if we
are amongst those who are truly called upon God for mercy. And
so then, we are just. We're made just. And because
we are just, we are clothed with his righteousness. What a wonderful
thing that is. We have no righteousness ourselves.
The Bible describes it. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. But bless God, if he's given
us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he died to
atone for our sins. And what a death it was, that
sin-atoning death. What agony he endured in order
to redeem our souls. Now, as the Holy Spirit then
gives us that belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we look to
him as the only way of salvation, and we believe in his sin-atoning
death, then it is that we find ourselves in union with Christ. He is then the one that we desire. And what do we observe? We observe
in all this is great love. It's a love which is so amazing
that the blessed Saviour should have come into this sinful world
to save such sinners, such wretches as you and me. Wonderful plan
of salvation. And it is so because of his love
toward us. And what is the result? The result
is this. We love Him because He first
loved us. And what is it? It comes down
to this. It's all of grace. What is grace? The free, unmerited favour of
God. Ah, grace is precious. The plan
of salvation is precious. The Saviour is precious. God
is glorious. And we bow down before such majesty
on high. And so tonight as we ponder these
wonderful truths in the Word of God, remember the Apostle's
great concern was for his brethren, that they might come to know
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was concerned for the well-being
of their souls. My friends, may we be concerned
about the well-being of our own soul. and be concerned about
the well-being of others' souls. Because if we are amongst those
who are called and brought to a saving knowledge of the Saviour,
we will want then to spread the Word of God. We will want then
to tell others about what He has done, how He saved our soul.
And we will be concerned that many may be brought into the
fold of Christ and redeemed. redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ. Well, may God instruct us and
direct us and bless us and may we glory tonight in the wonderful
plan of salvation. Amen.