120. From Christ there flows a mighty
stream. 120. Let's try that again. O lusty, sparing sinners, here
come thirsty, sin-sick souls drawn near. From Christ there
flows a mighty stream to quench your thirst and make you clean. Reach far beyond all human thought. The fountain is Emmanuel's blood. Thus in atoning crimson flood,
Yes, Jesus' blood, the boundless sea, Washes our guilt and filth
away. Bathe here your soul and be made
clean, Drink now and never thirst again. To this blessed fountain
now I come With all the sins that press me down Guilty and
vile and thirsty I Unceasing to the fountain fly Let me not
from this fountain move until I reach its source above. Thank you. Good evening. I'll be reading
tonight from Ephesians chapter 4. We'll read from verse 1 through
16. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and
one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all who is above all and through all
and in you all. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore
he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is
it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things. And he gave some apostles, and
some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, 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. that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love,
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working
and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy. We thank
you, Lord, for this evening, this time to, as brethren, come
together as one body, in our one Lord, by one spirit, worshiping
and praising and thanking you for all your many blessings,
all the blessings given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
thank you for this time to sing hymns of praise worthy of our
God's honor and power and glory. We thank you, Lord, for your
word. to be able to read it, to hear it, that all our eyes
have a Bible that we can look at and see the words of our God. And Lord, we ask that you would
bless this word to our hearts, give us understanding, help us
in our knowledge and understanding of the things of our Lord, that
we may see Jesus. And behold Him who is the sufficient
Savior, able to save us to the uttermost, and has done all things
well and perfect. Lord, give us faith. Help us
to continually look to Him, believing Him in all things. Lord, encourage
our hearts. Bless us in Christ. Lord, we
are so thankful for him. We're thankful for brethren.
Lord, we pray for Brother Scott that you would help him, help
him to push himself and to gain as much ability in the rehab
center as he can before he leaves. Lord, help him to do the things
he needs to do. Bless Sister Johnny as she prepares the house
and gets things ready and in order to be able to so that Scott
can be as independent as possible. And Lord, help us to help them
in any way that we can. Lord, let there be unity and
love and helpfulness, joy and gladness and peace in our hearts. You know all things, Lord. And
you know your sheep that are scattered about here and there
around us in this community. And we pray, Lord, that you would
bless us to be faithful, bless us to continually preach the
word faithfully, exalting the Lord Jesus Christ above all,
and that he would be declared the only salvation of God and
the perfect sufficient salvation of God from this pulpit. And
Lord, we pray that you would gather together your people that
you would establish this work and that you would send it forth
clearly and boldly to the hearts of your people. Help us now,
Lord, we know that it's late and there's many burdens and
we're tired and there's various issues and struggles, but Lord,
open our hearts and minds to hear the word and to receive
it gladly. It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks, amen. Our second hymn will be 118,
Fast Beyond Imagination, 118. As beyond imagination is the
host of God's election, more than all the sands of oceans,
more than all the stars of heaven, Here they seem a small assembly,
weak and poor and ever needy. But when all are brought to heaven,
what a mighty congregation. Mighty through the land they
conquer, Lord let me be in that number. Fixed in your predestination,
Savior grant me your salvation. Thank you. Let's be turning to John chapter
17. John 17. We're covering verses
12 through 15. Now, as believers who are gathered
together here to hear the Word of God regularly and to come
and hear of your Lord, understand that when He brings you together,
He's teaching you repeatedly. He's showing you that Christ
Jesus is sufficient to save you to the uttermost. He is your
sufficient Savior. He's all that you need. There's
nothing lacking in him, and that means there's nothing lacking
in you. He's doing all things necessary
for your good, for your benefit. And you that believe Christ know
this also, that you have been called according to purpose. Each of you has been called according
to purpose, the purpose and will of God to be gracious and merciful
to you. And he's gathered you into his
body so that you shall indeed fulfill that purpose for which
he's called you, for which he saved you and brought you into
his fold. and is using you in his body. Now, in tonight's passage, Christ
is revealing to us in these verses, in each of these verses, we'll
see four things, four spiritual blessings that are given to us
freely by our God in the Lord Jesus Christ. First, we'll see,
and this goes along with each verse that we'll look at, first
we see that Christ, Christ is the keeper of his people, meaning
we are not the keeper of ourselves, Christ keeps us, we are kept
by him. Second, we see that he accomplished
the redemption that God sent him to do. Christ the Mediator
accomplished the redemption that God the Father sent him to do,
so that we are delivered from death. We are delivered from
our sins and the wrath of God against our sins. Third, we see
that because of his redemption gifts, because of what Christ
obtained in his work of salvation, he received gifts to give unto
men. He obtained gifts to give unto
men so that he makes this gospel word that we preach effectual
in your hearts. He gives you wisdom and understanding. knowledge in the things of your
God, to know what your God has done for you. And then fourth,
our purpose for being here, the reason why the Church of God
is still here. is because we are called to preach
that same gospel word that was effectual in the hearts of the
believers 2,000 years ago and is yet effectual unto us. That is made more clear now in
the New Testament dispensation. And so God blesses that word
that is preached in truth to the hearts of his people and
to the lost sheep he's bringing in. Yep, bringing in to the fold.
So let's begin now in verse 12. Our Lord says, so he's praying
to his Father, while I was with them in the world, I kept them
in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have
kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that
the scripture might be fulfilled. Well, let's break this verse
down. So in the world, we are often
tempted. So tempted in the sense that
we often connect our struggles the difficulties, the struggles
that we're having, we often connect those things to our SIM. We connect
them as a result of our weaknesses, our foolishness, some folly we've
done. We often tie the struggles that
we're feeling and going through, we think back and say, I've done
this. I've done this to myself. This is because of me, because
I made this choice when I should have made that choice, when I
should have went this way, I went that way. All these problems
are coming to me now because of something that I did. And so what we do is, We then
chase in ourselves. We reprimand ourselves and speak
harshly in an effort to coax a better result the next time.
Yeah, we do that. We try to beat ourselves up verbally
in our minds and bring ourselves through the wringer in thinking
that this is going to now make me better the next time. I'm
going to do better because I'm really raking myself over the
coals. And I know that because that's
what I do. I see it in my own self. And
so I know it's true of my brethren. But the Lord is here making known
to us, and as he's praying, as he's praying, because this is
recorded for us, as he's praying, he's making it known for our
good. It's for our good. And he's saying,
I'm your keeper. I'm the one who keeps you. and protects you and provides
for you everything you need. He says, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. And there's times where
we feel really alone and we feel forsaken, even though we know
the word of our Lord who said, I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. You're mine. You're mine. But
we, there's times where we go through dark valleys and difficulties
and hard times and we feel really alone. And we often think that
it's because I'm, how can God save me? I'm such a sinner. I'm
so weak. I'm so unbelieving. I'm so difficult. I've, how could God, why would
God, I know God can do it, but why would he save me? Why would
he do this for me? And so we have this sense that
we need to improve ourselves, and if we could just improve
ourselves enough, then I'll feel okay about calling myself a Christian
and believing the promises of God are effectual unto me. But
if I can bring myself up to that point, that's what we're doing.
But the reason that you are a believer, the reason why you are a Christian
is not because of anything that you do. Not because of some decision
that was made or some good choice that you made. In other words,
it's not because of our works. It's not because of our righteousnesses.
It's because Christ. Our God is gracious to us in
Christ. Christ is the one keeping us.
Christ is the one who prayed for us. Christ is the one who
redeemed us and laid down his life for us. Christ is the one
who has given us his spirit and revealed himself to us. We're saved because of Christ.
We're his because of what he has done. Now fruit follows faith. But we're always going to walk
in the Spirit by faith. And do you understand what that
means? It means that it's always going to be a walk where we don't
find any confidence in ourselves, but must look to Him to find
all our hope and confidence in Him in spite of what we see around
us, in spite of the waves coming at us, in spite of the turmoil
within us, in spite of the struggles and the weaknesses. because we
are weak and we are insufficient to save ourselves. And so in
spite of this, it's going to be a walk of faith so that you're
going to see, I am weak. Why would God save a sinner like
me? But you're going to call out upon him because you do believe
him. Who else can you turn to? There
is no other savior. And so it's going to be faith
where you are going to cry out. And we do confess our sin. Lord, forgive me. Lord, have
mercy on me. Save me, Lord. Have mercy on
me. Please don't deal with me as
my sins deserve. Please have mercy on me. So it's going to be a walk of
faith as long as we're in this flesh. And so I want you to consider
a few things with me for a moment. And we'll see in the scriptures
how that the Lord does keep us. And we'll see, we'll see that
from the scriptures. Now we're rightfully grieved by our unbelief. When we doubt God, when we doubt
Him, and we see how regardless He has fulfilled His promise
to us, He's blessed us more than we deserve, and we see that and
we look back and we look back at our unbelief during that time
and think, Lord, forgive me. Thank you. Thank you for saving
me in spite of me, in spite of my hardness or coldness or forgetfulness
or indifference. You were gracious and merciful
to me. And we're rightfully grieved
when we do doubt our Lord. And yet it's recorded in the
scriptures concerning two disciples that our Lord came to when he
said to them, oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken. and yet they were his disciples. So we see in scriptures that
there are. His disciples do forget. His disciples are unbelieving
at times. They do doubt. They do tremble.
They do fear. They do worry. And yet they are
his disciples. Another one, we're ashamed of
our foolish pride. And we think, the child of God
would never think like this. They wouldn't say that. And yet
here I'm saying that. And here I'm thinking that. How
can I call myself a Christian? How can I call myself a Christian?
But recall that there was a time when the Lord called out his
disciples for their folly. He asked them, what was it that
ye disputed among yourselves by the way? Oh, it stung them. It says that they were silent.
They held their peace, for by the way they had disputed among
themselves who should be greatest among them. And we see in ourselves,
I'm like that. I'm like that. I think too highly
of myself. I think I deserve better than
what I'm getting. And I see my pride and how embarrassing
that would be for the Lord to call me out in front of everybody
and showcase my pride in that way. And yet, they were his disciples. They were his disciples. And
then, one more, we weep over our worst sins, and we convince
ourselves when there are dark days, when we've sinned grievously,
and we go down into sorrow and to the point where we feel despair.
And we ought not to be in despair, but we feel despair, and we feel
all is lost, and that's it. I'm undone now. But remember
that Peter denied his Lord three times. And before he denied the
Lord three times, Christ told him, Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan
hath desired to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fell not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. Strengthen thy brethren. So all
these low points we see in the disciples are things that resonate
with us because we see them in ourselves. And we think there's
no way that a believer would fall into these things, one of
these things, let alone all three of these things, and yet we see
them in our own hearts. We've dealt with them, and we
do deal with them, and we do struggle with those things. And
yet Christ prayed here. while I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name." That means even while they were
going through all those things that exposed their weaknesses,
that exposed their sin, that exposed their pride, that exposed
their folly, Christ was keeping them. Because that's what he
says, I kept them. And it wasn't that they weren't
without those things, it's that even in the midst of those things,
we are kept by Christ, our sufficient and perfect Savior. It's right
there in the Word. And what he's saying is, I didn't
harden their hearts. and your hearts haven't been
hardened either. Even though we deserve it, even
though we deserve, if God cast us into hell, what could we say? He's just, He's just. And yet
our hearts have been softened and He's broken our hearts and
He keeps turning us from our wicked ways and going the way
of the world back to look to Him. and to cry out to Him for
mercy. As that publican, beating his
chest, cried out, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Because He's
made you to know that. It's a mercy. He didn't leave
you to not know that. He didn't leave you to harden
yourself and to be indifferent to your sin. He has given you
a soft heart. a heart, a new heart, made of
flesh, as he calls it, a soft heart that's pliable and moldable
by God. And, you know, sometimes we have
this idea that there's some sins that we pick out and we say,
I'm never gonna do those things again. I'm committing that I'm
never gonna do that again. And then, what do we do in the
flesh? We rest our hope that, well,
if I don't do those things again, I'm a Christian. But if I do
those things again, then I'm saying I'm not a Christian, right?
And we get ourselves into these predicaments and these ridiculous
things. And the problem is if you rest
your hope on that as your salvation, neither one is good. Because
if you do it, now you're just getting more confidence in the
flesh. And if you don't do it, now you just heaped on all kinds
of sorrows upon you and fears and doubts and worries. So it's
not about your fortitude, your strength of will, your ability
to never do another thing again. Not that we should want to do
sin, not that we should give ourselves occasion or use our
profession of Christ as a cloak of unrighteousness to do that
which is evil and wicked, but what the Lord is showing us is
that Christ is all our hope. It's not our doing, it's not
our not doing, It's not our resolve. It's not our stopping something
or starting something up again. That's our hope or our salvation
or our loss of salvation. It's Christ. Christ is the one
that keeps us unto the end. And so the Lord is teaching us
here in the scripture that He's the one that keeps us. So look
to Him. Pray to Him. Cry out to Him. Confess your sin to Him. Don't
hide it, He knows all things already, even before we think
it or do it. He is the surety of His people. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. We are saved by grace, not by
our perfect obedience to the law, though we are perfectly
obedient to the law in Christ. We've fulfilled all the law by
faith in Christ. But we in our flesh have not
done that. Christ has done that. And we
in Him, believing Him, trusting Him, And so he's the reason that
we're children. He's the reason we have a hope.
He's the reason why we follow him and continue to look to him.
Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths. And so even when Peter said something
that glorified Christ, when he said, thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God, Christ, even for that thing, didn't say,
good job, Peter. He said, blessed art thou, Simon. Arjona for flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee another man didn't teach you that Your
own flesh didn't even teach you that but my father which is in
heaven So God is the one that's teaching us everything. He's
the one that's keeping us. He's the one that reveals the
truth to us He's the one that gives us a heart to believe,
a heart to come and worship Him, a desire for His righteousness
and for His glory, and that we would be useful and fruitful
in His kingdom, and a help to the people of God. We desire
that because God the Father has revealed that to us. He's given
that to us. Not our own flesh. Not our own flesh. And so, the
strength of our own flesh is insufficient to save us. We have
a refuge, and that refuge is Christ. We have an ark to deliver
us in the stormy wrath of God, and that ark is Christ. We have
a stronghold to run to, to flee to in the day of battle. When
the army of the enemy comes against us, we lift up the standard of
Christ and he is turned back. We run to the tower, and that
tower is Christ. He says, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. And the name of the
Lord is as a strong tower. The righteous runneth unto it,
into it, and they are safe. They are safe in him. That name
is Christ. That's the name that our God
has given to us. The name of Jesus Christ, whom
he has sent to save us from our sins. And then he adds, those
that thou gavest me I've kept and none of them is lost but
the son of perdition that the scriptures might be fulfilled.
Now I just want to point this out because I know that some
tender soul is thinking, and I'll be the one additional exception
along with Judas. because I'm just so bad, so terrible,
so rotten, but none of the elect can ever be lost. Your God promises
that you whose name he's written in the land's book of life shall
never be removed. You're his forever. He's very
particular in when he calls him the son of perdition, that one,
that one according to the scriptures. And he's spoken of in the scriptures
in Psalm 41 verse 9, it says, yea, mine own familiar friend
in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lifted up his
heel against me. That's Judas, that's Judas. He said in John 6, And if there's
some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were, that believe not and who should betray him, that's
Judas. Judas betrayed him. And Jesus
answered them, Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is
a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot. He named him the son of Simon,
for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. And so the scriptures named that
one who was lost. But you that are his, that believe
him, that have no other hope but him as your righteousness,
you shall never be turned away. You shall never be turned away
from Him. You believe Him. You believe
Him. Now, having spoken of having kept His disciples safe, Christ
speaks of the second spiritual blessing. So the first there
is He keeps us, not us, not our strength. The second one is that
His death accomplished our deliverance from eternal death. His death
delivered us from our sins and the punishment of our sins. He
says in verse 13, And now come I to thee, and these things I
speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in
themselves. And so, our Lord here is taking
great care for his sheep while he's here in the earth. And he
does that to this day. Because now he's seated at the
right hand of the throne of God. where He is interceding for us.
He's ruling and reigning and implementing the will of God
here in the earth for His people. And He said, these things I speak
in the world. And so the words that our Lord
spoke in the flesh have been recorded in these Gospels for
you to hear. If He didn't intend for you to
know this, he wouldn't have recorded it in John here. But it's recorded
so that you know why he's speaking these things, that your joy would
be fulfilled, that you would rejoice in what he's saying here,
praying to the Father. You see, the gospel declares
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief. And every sinner knows what they
are. That they are the chief of sinners
because we know our own heart. We know our own thoughts. We
know that I'm the worst. My brethren are wonderful, but
I'm the sinner. I'm the chief of sinners. And so there's only one reason
why Christ who came and did all these wonderful things in the
flesh, there's only one reason why he left the world and returned
back to the Father. and it's a rejoicing reason,
it's a joyful reason why he's left the earth and why he's returned
to the Father. You see, shortly after he prayed
this prayer, he would accomplish that redemption by the death
of himself as the Lamb of God, as your substitute, you that
believe, he would accomplish your redemption. He would put
away your sin forever. He would silence the law and
silence the accuser against you so that nothing can come against
you. No one can charge you with sin
because it's all been put away in Christ. And you are righteous
in Him. You are righteous before God
because of the work of salvation that Christ accomplished here.
And for your joy and rejoicing, he sent the Holy Spirit. But
first let me just say concerning what he accomplished, by his
own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And so when Christ rose from
the dead, God is declaring to us that you are justified. You that believe Him, that believe
the promise of God, you are justified. You are right for believing Him.
You are right for trusting Him and not trusting your own selves
because you heard the Word of God and you believed God rather
than the voice of man. Rather than the flesh of man,
you believed God and you're justified. Christ has justified us putting
away our sins, having accomplished our redemption, having accomplished
and obtained life for us. And for our great blessing, he
sends the Holy Ghost to give us life, so that we too would
call upon the name of Jesus Christ. Now in Hebrews 10 verse 15 through
17 says, where of the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts. And in their minds will I write
them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And
so the resurrection of Christ and his returning to the Father
is the confirmation that that promise of God has been accomplished
and is true and is yours. He has fulfilled it unto you
in Christ. And that's what the resurrection
declares. That's what his ascension to the Father declares is that
everything that needed to be done has been done. And so in
time it'll all be worked out in your hearts. It'll all be
revealed to you by the Spirit of God. Now, adding to those
blessings which God gives the people, and they're rejoicing
and made joyful about it, we see that Christ confirms this
power of God to us in the preaching of the word. There's the gift
of the gospel being brought unto you. So look at verse 14. I have
given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. because
they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. And so the word of God is the
gospel. That's the word of God. That's
the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Jesus Christ. This is God's
righteousness that he's revealing to us through the word preached
unto us. We need to hear it. We need to
know what God has done. And he's making it known through
the declaration of the gospel. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Those gifts are given to you,
which includes the gospel and the preaching of that gospel
and the Holy Spirit attending that gospel and making it effectual
to your hearts so that you hear and know what God has done. And
he reveals it to you with power so that you believe that God
has indeed accomplished this and fulfilled his promise unto
me made by the prophets in the scriptures. It's all done. It's
all finished. It's all accomplished by him.
Now the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but to us which are being saved, it is the power of God. And so we see that what Christ
has accomplished is that authority to make this word powerful to
us, to make this word living to us, so that we hear it in
faith. And therefore, the world hates
you. The world hates you. Why? Just as Cain hated Abel. Because God was favorable to
you. God was gracious to you. To make
you to know what Christ has done. To make you to know his salvation.
to give you hope, a good hope, an everlasting hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Apostle John tells us when
he wrote his epistle, in 1 John 4, 5, and 6, he said, They are
of the world, therefore speak they of the world. And the world heareth them, right? The world rejoices to hear motivational
speeches. The world rejoices to hear, tell
me what I got to do, and I'll go do it. The world rejoices
to hear what they can do to save themselves, and that it's their
decision. It's their choice. But they don't
want to hear that it's God's work, and that we're dependent
on Him. Cry out to Him for mercy. None
of us deserve this salvation. Yet he's gracious to whom he
will be gracious, and he's gracious to all who call upon him. And
so John says, we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us.
He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error. And so through the preaching
of the gospel, God manifests in the hearts of his people what
he has accomplished in Christ, and his people hear it and believe
it. They receive that word and rejoice.
And so this brings us to the final spiritual blessing that
we'll see tonight, which is the purpose of the church. You are
the light that God has set on a hill. He's given you this gospel,
this ministry of reconciliation. to declare the same word which
blessed the believers back then in the early church, 2000 years
ago, blessed the Old Testament saints that heard and saw the
pictures and types, spoke of Christ, and bless us today in
Christ. It says in John 17, 15, I pray
not that thou shouldest take them out of the world. but that
thou shouldest keep them from the evil. And so this is the
gospel. This is the whole purpose for
us being here. This is the whole purpose for
us, young and old, to be gathered together in this part of Missouri,
this part of the world, to declare this gospel, because it's good
for you, to settle you, to comfort your hearts, to know to not be
turned to your flesh, but to know God is my keeper. And he's
given me all these wonderful spiritual blessings to comfort
my heart, to turn me to Christ, to encourage me in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and not to trust this flesh and to believe false things
that cannot save, but to trust Him. We've been given this ministry
of reconciliation because God uses it to deliver His people
in bondage, in fear, in doubt, afraid of dying, laboring under
the harshness of the devil. He's giving you this word to
preach it because He delivers sinners through this word and
comforts the hearts of His people in it. So knowing the Savior
of men, believing in Him that He's all your righteousness,
that's how you're kept from evil. The evil is looking to and trusting
our flesh, is trusting something we've done. But it's good. to hear the Word of God. It's
good to believe that Christ is all, and we rejoice in Him, and
we're glad in Him. So He's telling us in His Word
first that it's Christ that keeps His people. It's not you. It's
not your strength. You're never going to do it.
And you're going to see your weaknesses. You're going to see
your sin. You're going to see things that bring us low in ourselves,
that we would be humbled before our God. But He exalts us in
Christ. And He does that because Christ,
secondly, has accomplished our redemption and makes it effectual
unto us. And he does it through the preaching
of the gospel, through the preaching of the word and the spirit attending
to that word, making it effectual to you. All these are spiritual
blessings that he's speaking of here in this prayer to the
Father. And finally, our purpose for
being here is to preach that same word. Tell others exactly
what the Lord has used to comfort your heart. Christ, Christ, Christ
alone. I pray he bless that word to
you, brethren. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
that you have provided everything, that your son is indeed sufficient
to save us to the uttermost. Lord, you know our weakness.
You know how easily we look to ourselves and we play foolish
games, attaching some hope, some belief to something that we do
or have done or will do. rather than looking to and trusting
your Son, your Savior alone. And Lord, you tell us to seek
you for these things, to pray to you, and to wait upon you,
to trust that you hear us, and heal us, and that you keep us. And Lord, we pray that we would
see fruit, but not by something we've done or said or stopped
doing, but that we would see fruit looking to Christ, believing
Him, walking by faith in the Spirit, and that You would bless
all Your people and establish this work here. It's in Christ's
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be 111.
111. And then we're going to sing this to the tune of Amazing
Grace and not repeat that last verse. So we'll just sing that
once. Grace enough for me, 111. When looking through my tears
one day I saw Mount Calvary Beneath the cross there flowed a stream
Of grace enough for me While standing there, my trembling
heart, once full of agony, could scarce believe the sight I saw
of grace enough for me. When I beheld my every sin nailed
to the cruel tree, I felt a flood go through my soul of grace enough
for me. And I am safe within the veil
My portion there will be To sing through all the years to come
Of grace enough for me Thank you.