Good evening. As you remain sitting,
let's begin by singing Just As I Am, 249. Just As I Am. Oops, we got the wrong one. Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come
to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, and waiting
not To rid my soul of one dark blot To thee whose blood can
cleanse each spot O Lamb of God, I come, I come Just as I am, though tossed
about, With many a conflict, many a doubt, Fightings and fears
within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am poor, wretched,
blind, Sigh, richest healing of the mind, Yea, all I needed
be to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, Thou wilt
receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, Because Thy
promise I believe, O Land of God, I come. Let's be turning to Romans chapter
5 Romans 5. Therefore, being justified, by
faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not
only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, Yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, We shall be saved from wrath through him. For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank You for Your great grace, Your all-sufficient salvation
which You've accomplished in and by Yourself for all Your
people. And Lord, we thank You and we
praise Your name because we see have experienced the grace of
our God in Christ Jesus, the risen Savior. Lord, we thank
you for this mercy. We thank you for this gathering.
We thank you, Lord, for blessing us to hear your gospel preached
again. Lord, that you would feed us
and keep us and teach us and bless us all in these rich spiritual
blessings of Christ. And Lord, we think of our brethren
who are sick, who are healing and going through various troubles
and difficulties. Lord, we ask that you would remember
Brother Scott, that you would heal him, that you would strengthen
his leg, that you would strengthen his arms, help him to get about
and do the things that he needs to do and getting stronger and
stronger every day. And Lord, that you would bless
Johnny as she prepares the home and opens her home to help Scott
in this time. And Lord, that you would help
him to keep on growing and getting stronger. We pray for Brother
Ron, that you would heal his body of the sickness. Lord, strengthen
him. And Lord, all the other troubles
and difficulties that we have are in our minds, our mental
struggles, our physical struggles, our spiritual struggles. Lord,
you know all things, and you know the things spoken and unspoken.
And Lord, we pray that you would indeed, that you would teach
us, that we would learn, that we would grow and be settled
and established in Christ. that your gospel would flourish
among us, that you would send it forth into this community,
and that you would call out your sheep, and that you would bring
them here together, that we might have the fellowship with them
in Christ and rejoice in these things, Lord. Father, we thank
you for your grace and your mercy. We ask that you would bless your
word. We ask that you would bless the
gospel preaching tonight, Lord. Receive the singing, help us
in our worship of you. Let us be mindful of our God
who we do worship, knowing that you do all things well. How perfect,
how glorious, how wonderful you are. It's in Christ's name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. Our second hymn will be 242,
Jesus I Come 242. of my bonded sorrow and night. Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come
into Thy freedom, gladness, and light. Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of my sickness into thy health,
Out of my want and into thy wealth, Out of my sin and into thyself,
Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shameful failure and
loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come, Into the glorious gain of Thy
cross, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of earth's sorrows into Thy
balm, Out of life's storms and into Thy calm, Out of distress
to jubilant song, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of unrest and arrogant
pride, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come, Into Thy blessed will
to abide, Jesus, I come, Out of myself to dwell in thy
love, Out of despair into raptures above, Upward for aeon, wings
like a dove, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the fear and dread of
the tomb Jesus I come, Jesus I come Into the joy and light
of Thy home Jesus I come to Thee Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of the sheltering fold, Ever Thy glorious face
to behold, Jesus, I come to Thee. Thank you. I really liked that
one. YouTube looks good. Facebook
is struggling, but YouTube looks good. Returning to John 17. John 17. We're focused on verse nine. That's what we're gonna be looking
at is verse nine. And in this verse, we see the
distinguishing grace of God in our Lord's prayer for his disciples. It's a very, it declares God's
distinguishing grace for his beloved people. I've titled this,
The Pattern of the Gospel in Christ's Prayer. Because we see in our Lord's ministry, when
he was here in the flesh, there's many examples of his prayer,
of him praying, and how he prayed. And in those examples, we see
a picture, we see the very gospel our salvation, the gospel of
our God, to save his people from their sins by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so, let's read verse 9, where
our Lord says, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. For they are thine and In this prayer, when I read this
verse, I was struck by the distinguishing grace. Our Lord is very specific
in what he says. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world. He could have left that off and
just said, I pray for them. I pray for my disciples. But
he's very specific in saying, I pray not for the world. And so if you think about it,
who wasn't there at that time? When they were there, who was
not there? Well, one of the twelve wasn't
there. Judas. Judas wasn't there. He wasn't praying for Judas,
and he wasn't praying for the inhabitants of this world for
whom he did not come to save. You see, anything that the Lord
does that does not lead to our salvation, any interaction that
he has with us, because he interacted with Judas, he interacted with
the Jews, the Jews heard him preach the gospel. Judas even
heard the interpretation of the parables. But anything that our
God does for us that does not lead to our salvation is not
grace. And everything that does lead
to our salvation, however contrary it is to this flesh, is grace. But if it's done for us, no matter
how good it seems, if it does not lead to salvation, it's not
grace because the grace of God leads to the salvation of his
people. And so when Christ is praying
here, he's praying for those for whom he gave his life. He's
praying for those for whom He gives and gave His life on the
tree, propitiating the wrath and anger of God against us for
our sin, what we rightly deserve, that punishment, that wrath of
God, Christ turned it upon Himself, turned it from us, put it on
Him to pay our debt. to put away our sin, to obtain
forgiveness for his people, to give them life by his redemption. And so, I understand that when
we come here, he does have in his mind his apostles here He
is praying specifically for his apostles. He knows what they
are about to go through. He knows the trial of their faith
that they are soon to endure. And so our Lord prays for them
to the Father that the Father would bless them. He's praying
for them. I pray not for the world. He's
praying for the grace of God for his people, his bride, his
body whom the Father gave to him." Now, having said that,
this prayer does not only concern the Apostles, but it concerns
you that believe. These words hold just as much
meaning and power for us as it did for them in their day. You see, John, in John 20 verse
31, he tells us that these things, all these things concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ, all these things were written that ye might
believe. that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His
name. And so, everything that our Lord
did, He did as the mediator. When you hear Him praying in
this way, yielding to the Father, asking the Father for these things,
it's because He's praying as our mediator, as the one who
came in the flesh, who came in weakness, that He would die laying
down His life, that He subjected Himself to death, even the death
of the cross, as the mediator. As eternal God, He doesn't die,
but as the mediator, He was put to death to put away our sins. And so, He's here as the mediator
of His people to give them life. And so, He faithfully submits
Himself to the Father in all things, in all things. And that's
witnessed in the prayer that our Lord makes for His people,
in His continued faithful prayer in all things. Now, having said
that, and seeing that he's praying here, I began to think, you know,
our Lord has a ministry of prayer. He prays. His prayers are recorded
his times of prayer, how he prayed, when he prayed, is recorded for
us in scripture. And I want to look at a few of
these to see this pattern of prayer as displayed and as done
by our faithful Savior, our faithful Lord and Savior, that we might
eventually also see the pattern of grace, the pattern of grace
for you, his child. So turn over to Matthew 14. We'll
look at a few verses in Matthew. We're going to begin in Matthew
14, verse 23. There we read, And when he had
sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart
to pray. And when the evening was come,
he was there alone. And so one thing that we see
that our Lord did was he prayed privately. He said a part time
and he prayed privately unto the father. This is the Lord
of glory and he's praying to the father and he prays privately
to the father. We don't know what was said there. It was between him and his father. Now turn over to Matthew 11.
Matthew 11 and we're going to go to verses 25 and 26. There's
a couple examples of this, but here we read, at that
time Jesus answered and said, now he's speaking in a crowd,
and he said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Now he said this prayer publicly. This he said publicly in the
midst of a mixed congregation, disciples and Jews who hated
him and did not believe him. And he gave thanks unto his father
for blinding the eyes, blinding the hearts of the self-righteous
and for blessing. with faith, eyes that see, giving
eyes that see to his saints, of his choosing. Another example
that I didn't use is when he thanked God for the bread and
the fish and distributed that to the multitudes, 5,000 men
plus. He prayed publicly. Now, let's
turn to Matthew 26. Matthew 26. We're going to pick up in verse
36 and in this passage we see our
Lord praying that when he's most burdened, when he's most burdened,
he prays frequently and fervently. He prays frequently and fervently.
Then cometh Jesus, verse 36, He comes with them unto a place
called Gethsemane. He's about to be taken to be
crucified. He's in the garden. And he saith
unto his disciples, sit here while I go and pray yonder. And
he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, John and
James, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he
unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. tarry ye here and watch with
me." Pray with me, pray with me. And he went a little farther
and fell on his face and prayed. He's weighed down, he's burdened. He is sore distressed. So that
he fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And then we know he returns and
he finds his disciples asleep. And he wakes them and asks, can't
you watch with me? Can you not pray with me for
one hour? And then he goes and he prays a second time, verse
42. He goes a second time and prayed
saying, oh my father, if this cup may not pass away from me,
except I drink it, thy will be done. And he comes again and
finds them asleep again. And he went away again, verse
44, and prayed the third time. saying the same words. And so
we see here when our Savior, when he was burdened and weighed
down, he prayed frequently and he prayed fervently. Now in that
same passage, we also see his submission to the will of the
Father. He trusted the Father perfectly
in all things and submitted himself to the will of the Father. Even
though he was sorrowful and very heavy, at the end of verse 39,
he said, not as I will, but as thou will. In verse 42, oh my
Father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it,
thy will be done. And so here we see how that he
submitted himself to the will of his father in all things,
even to his own physical hurt, because he trusted the father
perfectly. Now let's go to a different book.
Let's go to Luke 23. Luke 23, just a few more. Luke
23 in verse 33 and 34. Here he is on the tree being
crucified. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. And
the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. Here we see how our Lord prayed
for his enemies, prayed for his enemies. Now, let's go to Psalm
22. This cry of the Lord's prayer
from the cross is recorded in the Gospels, but let's see it
in Psalm 22 in verse 1. Here, our Lord, even when he
was forsaken of all others, all his disciples had forsaken him,
and he was there alone, and the Father, forsook Him, and He was
there alone, yet He faithfully prayed from the cross in that
solitary state alone. When He said, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? Why art Thou so far from helping
Me and from the words of My roaring? And so we see here that when
our Lord was making an atonement for our sins, not for any sins
he had committed, but when he was atoning for the sins of his
people, he prayed alone. He prayed all by himself. He prayed in a solitary manner,
being left alone. Now, returning to our text, let's
see the last one here. Returning to our text in John
17, verse 9. He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Now, think about this. His disciples,
Peter, James, and John, they are all the 11 here. They're within earshot of the
Lord. Think about how touching that
was for them to know that My Lord cares for me, and he's praying
for me. He's saying these words for me.
It was unmistakable to them that he's praying for them. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. And it's a comfort. It's a great
comfort to all who are troubled. who are burdened, who are heavy
with fear, heavy with doubts, heavy with trials, heavy with
difficulties. It's a great comfort to know
the care and the provision and the grace of our Savior. Now,
when He was in the flesh, He prayed to the Father. When He's
ascended to the Father and seated on the right hand of the throne
of God, it never describes what he says in prayer, but as intercession. Now he intercedes for his people. And we see the blessing of that
intercession. So that, there was seven different
examples or manners in which our Lord prayed. We see how he
prayed. We see how he prayed privately. how he prayed publicly, or that
he prayed privately, that he prayed publicly. When he was
burdened, he prayed frequently and fervently. When he prayed,
he prayed in accordance with the Father's will. He prayed
for his enemies. He prayed faithfully even when
he was forsaken and left all alone. And here we hear him praying
for his disciples, the care that he has for his disciples. So
as I was looking at this, how the Lord prays, I began to see,
you know, I see a pattern of the gospel here. for the Lord's
people. I see a pattern of the Lord's
grace here just ministered to us in the prayers of our Savior. And so this prayer, just off
this last one, John 17, 9, how it's a distinguishing, gracious
prayer, that in and of itself is a picture of the gospel and
it's throughout It's declared even in the prayer of our Lord,
which is recorded in the Gospels. We see distinguishing grace,
distinguishing grace, how our God has ministered his salvation
to you, his believing child. You that believe, your God has
ministered this distinguishing grace to you, for you, and it's
a blessing. So first, let's take his private
prayer. And here's what I mean. Privately,
apart from any knowledge of our knowledge, before we were ever
even formed, before we were ever created or brought forth in the
earth, before the pillars of the earth were even laid in the
Godhead, as a mystery to us, unknown to us, our God determined
and purposed to be gracious to a people. privately to us. He between the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. They determined that they would
be gracious to a people of God's own choosing. This mystery is
that God chose a people and gave them to Christ and that he would
save them and deliver them entirely in grace without any requirement
resting on their doing. or then bringing forth something
to Him, or then doing something first, or something last, or
anything, God did it all. And in His own mind, He purposed
to be gracious to a people. The Scriptures tell us that it's
according as He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. God did this in private, so to
speak, without us knowing anything. And so, We see how this is even
described when he speaks of Jacob and Esau. God privately chose
whom he would be gracious to and he would, he loved Jacob
but hated Esau. It says, 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. So that's the first one. That's
where we see the privacy of God, just like where Christ prayed
privately to the Father. We don't know what he said, but
we know it was perfect. We know it was absolutely perfect
and for our good. To the praise and glory of his
name. Second, there's a public declaration. A public declaration
of that which God has done in private, he makes known powerfully
through the preaching of the gospel publicly being declared
and calling out the lost sheep. scattered throughout the world.
He does this publicly, declaring his love and his salvation for
his people. Just as Christ prayed publicly,
so he declares his love publicly to you through the preaching
of the gospel. And he does this so that wheresoever
his people are, who are lost, who are walking according to
the course of this world, who are walking under the power of
the prince of the air, who are doing the things that the children
of disobedience and the children of wrath are doing, because that's
how we all were when he found us, but he declares this word
and he brings this word home to our hearts with power so that
by the Holy Spirit attending that word and making it effectual
in our hearts, he calls us out of death and darkness. He calls
us from that broad road which leads to death and destruction
and brings us into the way of Christ to follow him. Christ
speaks of this effectual call in John 10, verse three. when
he says to him, the porter openeth. And that porter is the Holy Spirit,
who takes of the things of Christ in the preaching of the gospel,
and he prepares the heart, that heart soil of his child, so that
they are prepared, ready to hear and to receive that word, so
that it takes root and grows up strong and brings forth fruit,
fruit of the Spirit. to the praise and glory of our
God. His sheep hear His voice, and
He calleth His own sheep by name and leadeth them out." Leads
them out of that death, out of idolatry, out of trusting in
things that cannot save. Christ always delivers His people
from death. Out from the halls of Babylon's
wicked church. And Christ died for his sheep,
not just among the Jews, but also among the Gentiles. He did
this for the Gentiles because there is one salvation. There's one Savior. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. And God doesn't have one way
to save the Jews and another way to save the Gentiles. It's
all by Christ. One way, one way. And it says
in John 10 verse 15 and 16, as the Father knoweth me, even so
know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And that's why he would pray
for his disciples. That's why he prays for his people,
his apostles, and for those who would believe on him because
of their words. because of their witness he prays
for them and those for whom he prays and those for whom he intercedes
now those are the ones that he laid down his life for and other
sheep I have Gentiles which are not of this fold them also I
must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one
fold and one shepherd now third Christ will remind you of this
salvation, of your salvation, of what he has done for you,
how desperately we are in need of him, and he'll do so fervently
and frequently. He will remind you. He will declare
this word to you fervently and frequently. Over in Jeremiah
3, verse 15, he tells us, I will give you pastors according to
mine own heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. I'll feed you. I'll give you
what you need. I'm going to follow up and make
sure that you know all you need to know about me that I am your
salvation and I will stir your heart and I will cause you to
look to me and I will give you faith to believe on me. I think
of even what Paul said to the Philippians Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord, to write the same things to you. To me, indeed,
is not grievous, but for you it is safe." He's going to follow
up fervently, frequently, declaring this gospel to you, making you
to hear it, because we need to hear it. We know what we are. We know how quick we are to forget,
how easily indifferent we are to the things of grace, to the
things of our God, to what we need, how desperate we are. And
so he says, I'm going to tell you again and again and again,
because for you, it is safe. And if speaking of me, I miss
things all the time. And so I need to hear them again
and again and be reminded because one time he'll make me to hear
And so that's why we preach it. And that's why Paul went on to
say, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Those that would teach you to
cut the flesh, cut this out, cut that out, stop doing this,
start doing that. Cutters of the flesh that cannot
save because it does not get to the heart. It doesn't save
us, only God gets to the heart. And so fervently and frequently,
even Jude, when he was writing his epistle, that short epistle,
only one chapter, he said in verse three, beloved, when I
gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,
this one salvation, this is it. And by nature, we're gonna run
off and look to this thing and look to that thing and be charmed
with that thing over there. But there's one salvation, one
common salvation for all God's children. It was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And so we see here, just as Christ
prayed fervently and frequently, so he declares this gospel. and makes you to know with fervency
and frequency your need and what your God has done for you and
showing you again and again the love of Christ for you. The love
of Christ for you. Fourth, this salvation by Christ
is according to the will and purpose of God. God is pleased
to save you. Christ isn't doing this on his
own. He's saved us in accordance with the will of his Father. and the Son is pleased, and the
Spirit is pleased, so that the Godhead is well pleased to save
His people from their sins. John 3, 16 and 17. For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might
be saved." And the difference of the world here and the world
when Christ says, I pray not for the world, is that when Christ
was speaking of God's love for the world here, he's saying,
I didn't come just for the Jews. You think, you Jews think that
we're gonna set up an earthly Jewish kingdom and we're gonna
step on the necks of our enemies, the Gentiles, and rule over them?
No, God loves the world. That is, he has his sheep scattered
throughout the world, both Jew and Gentile. And when he says,
I pray not for the world and over him, In John 17, he's saying,
all those who are of the world, those for whom I do not come
and lay down my life for, those for whom I provide no redemption
and propitiation. And so we see here, the father
is well pleased and it's according to his purpose to save his people.
We see how that Christ prayed for his enemies. That's exactly
what he does for us in delivering us from death. We are our enmity. In our flesh, we are enmity against
God. By nature, we are enmity against
God. We hate God by nature. We don't
know the true and living God. We're happy to worship some God,
some false God, but it's in darkness and it's in death. And even in
that, Christ died for his sheep who were enemies against him.
So, look at Romans 5. Romans 5, verses 6 through 10. Romans 5, 6. For when we were
yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Not those who had raised themselves
up to a certain level of acceptability. The ungodly, the foolish, the
corrupt, the vile, the wretched, the totally depraved. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet perventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. That happens in war or in things
that just go bad and a friend jumps in the way and dies in
the place of a friend that he loves. But God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, enemies
of our God, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him. For
if when we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the death
of his son. Much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life, his resurrection power. Sixth, Christ
obtained our eternal redemption with no man helping. That's exactly
how He saved His people. Hebrews 1-3 describes this sacrificial
work of our Savior, saying He had by Himself purged our sins. We didn't lay a finger. God doesn't
receive one single work, not even so much as a word or a whisper
that helps us. Christ did it all by Himself. And so his death alone saves
his people to the uttermost satisfaction of God. God is well pleased with
his son. He is well pleased in his son. And all who come to him in Christ,
God is well pleased and he receives them. Hebrews 9, 14, how much
more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. And so that's why
we have no confidence in the flesh. We don't trust those things
that we once toyed around with and thought, this is my salvation.
Surely God will quiet my conscience now because I did this. I've
turned over a new leaf. I've started doing this. And
it wasn't long before we were guilty again and troubled and
afraid and burdened and in bondage under the thumb of the accuser
of the brethren. Thanks be to God. By the preaching
of the Gospel, He brought it with power by the pouring out,
the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, making this Word, the
blood of Christ, effectual to us, applying it to our consciences,
to see that's not my salvation. Christ is all my salvation. He's
my Savior. I am set free from dead works
that cannot save. And then seventh, because of
this work of Christ, as the mediator of his people, just as the apostles
heard him pray for them, so all his disciples know, you that
believe this day, you who have no other righteousness but Christ,
you who are justified not by anything you did, but are looking
to Christ, believe in the promises of God, That's because Christ
interceded on your behalf. That's because Christ laid down
his life to put away your sins. This is the fruit. Your faith,
your hope, your love for the Savior is the fruit which is
born in us by the Spirit because we have the seed of Christ in
us. We are born again by the grace
of God. You that believe it's because
Christ prayed and accomplished this work then and he intercedes
for you now. He intercedes for you. That's
a joy to think about. I'm here because of Christ, because
he loves me and gave himself for me. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13
and 14. 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 through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Your faith is a testimony that
Christ laid down his life for you. Otherwise, you wouldn't
believe. Otherwise, you would trust other
things. Otherwise, you would hope in other things in addition
to or beside the blood of Christ. And so that's the pattern that
we see in the prayer of our Savior. We see that pattern that just
as he prayed, so we see these things wrought in us, this distinguishing
grace made made manifest in us who this day believe. He prayed
privately, he prayed publicly, frequently and fervently in accordance
with the Father's will for his enemies even when he was forsaken
and all alone he was faithful, faithful to to the will of the
Father to lay down his life for us and you believe because he
intercedes for you in love. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your grace. We thank you for this
beautiful picture of your distinguishing grace. Lord, we see how what
you determined to do without our knowledge, without our participation,
Lord, you You worked the whole beautiful covenant of salvation
out, and you established it in the blood of Christ, so that
it was certain, founded, sure, a perfect salvation, holy and
righteous, in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It cannot be shaken. It cannot be removed. It cannot
be changed. It is eternal in the blood of
Christ. Lord, we thank you for this glorious
good news. Lord, we see how that you've
brought it out publicly, how you teach us over and over again,
how you turn us from our own will to the will of the Father
to lay down our confidences, our foolish works to believe,
to trust in Christ, to hope only in Him. And Lord, we see how
you delivered us from enmity and give us life in Christ. Thank
you, Lord. We pray that you will bless this
word to all your people, that you would settle them and establish
them in Christ, even as you do for all your saints. It's in
Christ Jesus' name that we pray and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be 332.
My Jesus, I love thee. 332. Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou
art mine. For Thee, all the follies of
sin, I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior
Thou art. If ever I love Thee, my Jesus,
this now. I love Thee because Thou hast
first loved me. And purchase my pardon on Calvary's
tree. I love Thee for wearing the thorns
on Thy brow. If ever I love Thee, my Jesus,
this now, I love Thee in life, I will love
Thee in death, And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath. And say when the death do lies
cold on thy brow, If ever I love thee, thy Jesus test now. In mansions of glory and endless
delight, I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright. I'll sing with a glittering crown
on my brow. If ever I love thee, my Jesus,
this now. Thank you.