Good evening. I'm glad we're
all here today. I hope I have a comforting message
to you. We, uh, some of these points
I've studied this week, you may have heard them before. And if
you have, and you're sitting here, you probably agree with
these points. And it was a great blessing to
me, but I want us to look at our text first in Romans chapter
one. Romans chapter 1 verse 15. All rights to the Romans here.
So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to
you that are at Rome also. Paul was... I'm going to comment
on these a little bit as we go through them. Paul was ready
to preach at Rome. That's easy to read over. That was the lines then. and
today that area still is but he was in eventually was a prison
in Rome wasn't he? He knew what he was what he was
ready to do he knew where he was ready to preach the truth
across that and he had a good idea what the consequences would
be there's a reason for that there's a reason that he was
ready in verse 16 it says for I am not ashamed We're going
to look at today as some reasons that some people would be ashamed
of the gospel, some offense of the gospel to our nature. Paul says, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. That's from His faith to our
faith that's given to us. His spirit to our spirit. We
worship God in the spirit, don't we? That's how it's conveyed.
It's revealed to us from God, His righteousness. As it is written,
the just shall live by faith. I read this this week and certain
points kept coming to mind. I spent a few days on this and
a few times I was about to water it all up and throw it away.
But the Lord just kept me to it. And I got a phone call today
from a faithful pastor. And I told him, I said, here's
my predicament. He said, oh, that's perfect.
Those people need to hear that. And I said, that's what I needed
to hear. But I wanted to know, while I'm ready, am I ready to
come here to California? A lot of people have asked me
that. Are you sure you want to do this? And I am fully confident
the Lord has a work. in San Diego County. There's
not a doubt in my mind, hands down, the Lord has a work here.
There's a revival right now in Southern California. Most people
wouldn't agree to that. There's, what, 12 people here
tonight? 12 out of, I looked it up today,
in San Diego County there's about 3.3 million people. There's 12
people. Is that a revival? Was there
a revival in Sodom and Gomorrah? It was one righteous man come
out of there. What a privilege it would be
to me if the Lord would send me across the country so one
saint could hear the gospel of Christ. Well, wouldn't that be
worth it? But this gospel that Paul was
ready to preach, the gospel that we preach here, and I'm confident
the Lord will continue in this area for a long time and it will
continue. This gospel will go forth until
that last sinner comes to know Christ. But there's an offense
in that gospel. It offends men and women. It
offends their pride, their nature, their ideals of who God is, what
God is, what they are, what they are as a person. And when we
preach that I don't try to be offensive, and I don't want to
be offensive. I don't want to go on the attack,
and I don't want to offend, but the gospel itself will be offensive
to men and women. So let's look at these things.
We're going to turn a little bit tonight. That will keep all
of us awake well. The first thing, many have listed
these as stubborn statements. The first one is either These
scriptures, this book that we have in our hands, holy scriptures,
either they are the holy, inspired, infallible word of God or it's
not. It's a work of fiction. Might
as well read Tom Sawyer. It's either the word of God or
it is not. And we know that through the
scriptures the Pharisees never argued if the Old Testament,
the writings of Moses, were true. They didn't prove that the scriptures
were true. Satan goes against the scriptures,
may use them incorrectly, but Satan doesn't deny that these
holy texts are real. He used them against Christ in
the wilderness, didn't he? He quoted scriptures to him. There are 66 books written by
40 different men on three continents over a period of 1,500 years.
And all of those men, and all of these writings, have one message. Christ. Let me look it up real quick.
Bob read it today. They all do. We may not see it, but that's
the message. There in Psalm 23, Brother Bob
read, He restoreth my soul, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
for His namesake. Who gets all the glory? His namesake
does, doesn't it? That's why I'm led into righteousness.
But there's a mountain of logical evidence to support the Bible
is fact. These scriptures are fact. And
it's the inspired Word of God. But convincing men and women
that the scriptures are true does not convince them of the
truth. It won't do us a bit of good
to argue. The Holy Spirit must perform
that. That's the one that does it. Is that good enough? Let's turn
to Psalm 138. These scriptures have been magnified
above anything else. Psalm 138, there in verse 2 it
says, I will worship towards thy holy temple and praise thy
name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth for thou hast
magnified thy word above all thy name. If we keep looking in the Psalms,
you don't have to turn there, but stay in the Psalms. Psalm
119 says, Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all
things to be right, and I hate every false way. That's what
happens if the Lord convinces you of who you are, who Christ
is, and that these scriptures are real. I love these precepts,
I love these scriptures, and I hate everything that's false.
So we know Either these scriptures are true, either God's true and
every man is a liar, either these scriptures are true or they're
not. Secondly, either God's holy high command is completely sovereign
in all things or it's not. Either He rules all and in all
or He doesn't. I want to be careful to not use
words that people Everyone here probably understands that. Someone
could be listening in a year from now or tuning in and not
know what these words mean. What does sovereign mean? We
use that a lot. Sovereign grace, sovereign God. Sovereign means a supreme ruler,
an absolute authority in all things, and this is my favorite,
self-governing. They don't have a boss. We studied
a lot of history there in the in England, and the Queen there
is the longest-setting monarch in, I think, history, especially
for that country, but they call the Queen or the King in England
the Sovereign. That's because they do, before,
not so much now, but they do anything they please. They're
self-governing and almighty in that area. Our God is either
self-governing and almighty in all things throughout this earth,
or He's not. So what do we do? How do we face
that? David said, but our God's in the heavens, and he hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased. Still there in Psalm? Look over
in Psalm 135. Psalm 135 and verse 5. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all
gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that he did in heaven and in
earth and in the seas and all deep places." I want to stop
there. The seas and all deep places.
Even now, there's a lot of the areas of the ocean we've never
seen. Can't see. We can't get there. But that's
a beautiful picture. All the things we can't see,
the Lord controls that. Where's those fish and those
crabs and we got a good idea where the tuna is to go catch
them, but we don't know. The Lord knows. He controls that.
He controls all unseen things physically in this earth. I saw
on the news that SARS or something, some disease is spreading out
throughout China. My God is the God of germs. God
of this Bible controls all things, microbes, elements. We don't need to fear those things.
He's in control of that. There in verse 7, Psalm 135,
7. He calls us the vapors to ascend
from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for rains.
He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. Who smoked the firstborn
of Egypt, both of man and beast? Who sent tokens and wonders into
the midst of the old Egypt? Upon Pharaoh and upon all his
servants. Who smoked great nations and
slew mighty kings? Sion, king of Amorites, and Og,
king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land
for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people. Thy name,
O Lord, endureth forever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout
all generations. If man, either man's sovereign
or God's sovereign, one of the two, but if man's sovereign and
can reject God if he wants to, Don't you think some of those
Amorites wouldn't have been allowed to be killed? They'd have postponed
that, wouldn't they? About those Egyptian soldiers
that drowned in the Red Sea. You think a couple of those people
could have decided to not let God kill them? I don't think they'd be a man
or woman that's ever died, would they? Job said this, seeing his
days are determined, the number of his months are with thee,
thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. So common
for people to say, well, if it's my time to go, I'm used to that
would burn me alive and I'd want to argue. But I'm comforted by
that. And people that say stuff about
Christmas, at least there's a there's a moment in time people have
to acknowledge the Lord's sovereign. People have to acknowledge Christ
came into this world. I'm thankful for those times.
The Lord may use that to teach them the truth. But our God is perfect and the
total ruler of all things. In Romans 11 it says, For of
Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory
forever. Amen. Christ is the source. He's
the executor and all the glory is going to go to Him. Our God,
the God of this Bible, is a sovereign God. So we've looked at those. Thirdly, and a lot of people
will agree with those. A lot of people say, yep, the
Bible is the inherent Word of God. We may think there's contradictions,
but we don't understand yet. And I say, well, God's sovereign,
and don't make them let Him be sovereign. But you can get along
with a lot of people on those. The next one offends people. Either man is totally depraved,
totally sinful, completely helpless because of his nature, because
of who he is or who she is, or they're not. They're either dead
or alive. thought of this illustration.
Most people don't mind having help in anything, but they don't
want to be saved. Because that means they're helpless.
They don't mind a helping hand, a co-pilot, or something of that
nature. They have no desire to be totally
saved, because to be totally saved you have to be totally
helpless. You have to be dead. You have to be unable. Unfortunately,
we breathe. So we know that we're physically
alive and that makes us think that we're spiritually alive
in our natures. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, the
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? That struck me today. I spent
a lot of time on that. Who can know it? What does that mean?
That means we don't know what our heart is. We think we know,
but we don't know. I don't know how truly wicked
My heart is. How did us Gentiles get that
way? Romans 5.12 says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. Our seminal head, Adam, fell. What happened in the garden?
Adam plunged the whole human race into sin. I told you before,
if two zebras have a baby, it's a zebra. We know that. If two
sinners have a baby, it's a sinner. There's a lot of things about
that people don't like. Also, and this day it's very frowned
upon, but as proof that Adam did that, Eve ate of the fruit
first, didn't she? Did she know she was naked? She
didn't know she was naked, did she? Not until Adam ate. When
Adam ate, then they both knew they were naked, because he was
the head. Husband was ahead of the house Adams ahead of Eve.
He's our seminal head through him. We all fail by nature and
Thanks be to God that our husband our Savior Through him what he
does reflects on us to them. That's when we're made alive
same as we fell in Adam But I turn to Genesis 6 real quick Genesis 6 It says in verse 5, and God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. All the imaginations of my heart,
even the parts I think is good, it's evil continually, always. That's offensive. I was offended
in that when I was younger. The first time I truly heard
that, I'm not that bad. God says I am. Well, my grandma's
a good woman. She ain't that bad. She's not
always evil. The Lord says she is. It doesn't matter what you
think about grandma. It doesn't matter what I think about me
or my family. The Lord says we're always evil
continually. That's our hearts. That's our
nature. Alright, so we know that these scriptures are true or
they're not. God's sovereign or he's not. Man's dead or he's
alive. He's either wounded or he's dead.
One of the two. Next thing is either God chose
a people in Christ to save or He doesn't have a people at all.
These same scriptures that are perfect in declaring a holy and
sovereign God clearly declare that Christ had a people that
He died for. That's not something to be argued.
I wouldn't, as Barnard said, I wouldn't waste five minutes
arguing a doctrine. You declare it. That's the truth. Read the
scriptures. If you reject election, you have
to reject the clear doctrine of redemption by Christ. If you
reject election, you have to reject the doctrine of regeneration
by Christ. And if you reject those, you
have to reject eternal life in Christ. Those are bold statements,
but it's absolutely true. Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will." And it says, why? To the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. I don't know how in a good conscience,
even if I wanted to, I could stand in front of a group of
people and tell them that means something different. The Lord's
made this clear, hasn't He? You can turn a second Thessalonians,
one more scripture on this. It's all throughout. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 But we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. For unto He called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sanctified of the Spirit
through Him. And He has chosen us. Has He
chosen you? People say, that's not fair.
Maybe I ain't one of them. I don't think it's fair that
He chose me. He did. Thanks be to God that
He did. The Lord has a people. Fifthly, either Christ effectually
redeemed those people on the cross or he failed. He didn't make it possible. He
didn't. And you have to make it effectual.
Either he did the redemption or he didn't. In Matthew it says,
and she shall bring forth a son and his name shall be called
and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. We don't use that word enough
anymore and I like it. The shalls of the Bible. He shall
save his people. If it said he shall save all
people, all people is going to be saved. He shall save his people. There's not a possibility in
shall of failure. Long time ago we looked at, read
the Ten Commandments. That's a declaration of me and
you Bob. It's the shalls that we will
do. You have done them because of Christ what he accomplished.
Isaiah 42 said he shall not fail nor be discouraged. He's not
going to fail and he's not even going to get discouraged about
the trials he has to go in front of. Let's turn to John. We'll stay there for a little
bit. John chapter 10. Verse 14 says, I am the good
shepherd and I know my sheep and have known of mine. As the
father knoweth me, even so know I the father and I lay down my
life for the sheep. The Lord didn't make it possible,
and we make it effectual. He accomplished redemption in
His people. He laid down His life for the
sheep. He rose again for those same
sheep, weren't He? But does that mean everyone?
Some people say, well, the sheep's just us, humans, and anybody
that wants to partake in this, He's made it available. Does
Jesus love everybody? That's one of those sayings that
still burns me pretty bad. I don't know, I'm not seeing
anywhere in these scriptures that speaking of a God that tries
to do things, that wants to do things, or a God that loves everyone. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I what? Disliked some? No, have I hated?
God hates sin. There in John, turn over to John
chapter 17, a few pages. The Lord loves you, everything's
all right. I have full confidence in telling
anyone that. If you're the Lord's, He died
for you and He loves you, everything's going to be just right. And you'll
know it. God doesn't love everybody. If
Christ prayed for me, I would imagine I'd be in good shape. Wouldn't you? It says here in
John 17 verse 9, Our Lord said this, I pray for
them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. And I have come to thee. Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given
me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in
the world, I kept them in my name. Those that thou givest
me, I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of
perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. None of them
is lost. People say, well, Judas fell
away, didn't he? Christ answered that before it
happened. He said, but the son of perdition that the scripture
might be fulfilled. He came and fulfilled all those
scriptures, all the prophets. The Lord has a people. Either
God, the Holy Spirit calls sinners irresistibly by his grace and
power, or he does not call sinners to Christ. Lazarus is a wonderful
example of that. John 11 says, Then they took
away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And
Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that
Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest
me always. But because of the people which stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent me. That's wonderful,
isn't it? Christ didn't have to speak out loud. He didn't
have to speak out loud to Lazarus. He could have just thought it.
Many miracles occur in the Scriptures where they weren't even present,
like the centurion. He wouldn't even show up. He
sent one of his soldiers to Christ and said, Lord, if you will,
you can heal my servant. He was in a town a couple of
towns over. And the Lord said, let it be so. And his servant
was healed. But he said it out loud so those
people standing there can hear. He called them. He goes on saying,
I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus,
come forth. And he that was dead came forth. Not him that was wounded, him
that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes,
and his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus saith
unto them, Loosen, let him go. Whenever He ascended, He said,
I must leave that the Comforter may come to you. The Holy Spirit
comes to men and women now, as He did then, as He does today
in San Diego County. The Spirit goes to men and women
only through the preaching of the gospel. It's preached, they
come in, pierces the heart, quickens, gives life. It doesn't give more
life, it gives life. It quickens them. And what happens? It frees saints. Looses us and
lets us go. Freezes us from that law, that
bondage, that worry, helplessness. We're loosed. Turn over to Matthew
chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4 verse 18. And Jesus, here's how that calling
happened then and here's how it happens now. And Jesus, walking
by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter
and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they
were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men. And straightway they
left their nets and followed him. Straightway. Let's read on. And going on from
thence, he saw other two brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and
John his brother, in a ship, with Zebedee their father, mending
their nets. And he called them, and immediately, they immediately
left the ship, and their father, and followed them. There's a
movie, that fellow's kind of slow, he's on a shrimp boat,
and he sees his buddy, and he says, hey, come see me. And he
waves, and just walks off the boat. Every time I see that,
I think, they straightway left the boat. When the Holy Spirit,
when that Comforter comes, and through His Word, pierces a sinner's
heart, they straightway leave their boats. They straightway
leave their nets, and they follow Him. They probably don't know
it. Those people around them, Zebedee knew, didn't he? He started
to watch his boys walk off the boats. We can go park it first. Calm down. But those around us
see it more so than we do ourselves. But immediately, There's a reaction. That's how sinners are called
then and how sinners are called now. The Lord speaks to them. Seventh, either all of God's
elect will persevere to the end or none of them will. A lot of people call that once
saved always saved and that means if you make a profession or you
walk an aisle, you say a prayer, You make a decision for Jesus
or something, you can go out and live any way you want to
and you'll be okay at the end. It's not what preservation means. I don't confuse the two, I can't
say them right. Preservation and perseverance,
that's the same thing. If you're preserved like a can
of green beans, you're kept. That perseverance and faith is
not from our will or works, it's from the object of our faith.
It's not our faith that does it, it's the object of our faith.
And we persevere by the free grace and sovereign will of God
Almighty. Not our grace and our will, our
faith. His grace, His faith. If it were possible that one
of God's elect could die, could perish, then Christ has died
in vain. It's not possible, is it? He
shall not fail. Turn over to John chapter 10,
verse 26. John 10, 26. But ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Notice he didn't say
they're not his sheep because they're not believed. That's
common today. Well, you gotta believe on Christ. Well, you do, but is it your
belief? No, he says, but ye believe not because ye are not of my
sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I will
give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. That sounds pretty secure, doesn't
it? I've had people get mad at me
my whole life. They say, well, you think God just saved a handful
of people? Yeah, but it's God's hand. That's
a big handful, isn't it? Turn back a few pages to John
chapter 6. John chapter 6 and verse 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me." Many people say, well, I wish
I knew the Lord's will. Oh, I'd like to know what this
God that they let sovereign, what He'll accomplish. I wonder
what His will is. Lord tells us right here John 639 and this
is the father's will which hath sent me that none I'm sorry that
all of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but
should raise up again at the last day and this is the will
of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the
last day that's hope You believe election, you're
a Calvinist or something like that. I said, well, what do you
mean by that? Do I think that the Lord keeps His people forever?
I hope so. That's when He'll raise me up
and give me eternal life. I have it now, but I'll experience
it then. That's hope. I don't want that
to be in my hand. I can't accomplish anything. She knows. The Hebrew writer wrote, he was
talking about the faith of the old saints, by the same gospel
we're saved by. It says, by faith Abel, by faith
Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah. Speaking
of each of those, what they did. It says in Hebrews 11, these
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off. and were persuasive of them and
embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims
on this earth. All of those old saints written
in the Old Testament, they saw this salvation, but it hadn't
come to fruition yet. It hadn't played out yet in Providence.
What do we have? We have the New Testament, don't
we? We don't have a bag of bones. We have an empty
tomb. The cross is risen, and we know it has. We have proof
of it. through these Scriptures. How much more if they've been
kept to the end and they've been given eternal life. We saw all
the promises of the Old Testament play out according to the Scriptures. How much more security should
we have? We should trust the Lord more,
shouldn't we? That He can keep us to the end.
Alright, finally. With all this, kind of a culmination,
Either salvation is completely by the grace of God or there's
no such thing as salvation. Either or. If salvation depends
in any way on the works of man, all men will perish. Psalm 14
says, they're all gone aside. They're all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. There's two commas there. There's
none that doeth good. Well, no. Not one. But I, no, not one. None doeth
good. No, not one. Job wrote, how much
more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like
water. I don't pay attention. I drink
water. I don't drink a lot of water throughout the day, I don't
think, but I'm not conscious of how much, how much I drink. Why? It's just something you
do. It's just natural. I don't think how many swallows
it takes for me to drink a glass. I'd be worried about myself if
I thought those things. That's how we drink iniquity.
That's how we drink sin. It's like water. Swallow it up. So no man can depend on our works
for salvation. No man can come to God under
his own will. All will perish. No man left to his own will can
come to Christ. And John 6.65 says, And he said,
Therefore I say unto you that no man can come unto me except
it were given to him of my Father. No man could come to the Lord
looking to his own faith. Well, I have strong faith. I
mustered up some faith. I grew my faith. Faith's a gift,
isn't it? Ephesians wrote, In Ephesians
2.8, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. And it continues, there's
a colon there. So it's going to list something
concerning this faith that's a gift. It says, Not of works,
lest any man should boast. I've heard a lot of people, especially
nowadays, they make faith that faiths are work. I've also met
some people that make a work out of not working. And I'm not talking about the
Sabbath. We don't do those things, but they make a work out of not
doing things. We can see in these scriptures
plainly. I gave you a couple examples under each of these
points tonight. We can see plainly. It goes on
and on from Genesis to Revelation. We see plainly in the scriptures
that salvation is not by man's works, it's of God's work. It's
not by man's will, it's of God's will. Salvation is not by man's
faith, it's of the faith of Christ that's given to us in the gift.
So I ask you, I ask myself, is this the holy word of God?
Is God sovereign in all things? Guys back home say, is man graveyard
dead or is he alive? Did Christ die for a particular
people? Did cross death and resurrection get the job done? That's what
effectual means. Did it work? Did the Spirit call
you and give you life? Did He say, against my will with
my full consent? Are you persuaded that He is
able to keep you from falling? And with all these facts stated,
Is salvation by grace of Christ alone, or is it something we
do? I hope I've read tonight more
than I've talked to you. These scriptures declare themselves,
don't they? Christ declares Himself. I'm
just an earthen vessel. I'm a tongue that He's moving.
I pray that the Lord gives me and gives you and all His sheep,
and He will. Prayer gives us the heart to
see these things, to rejoice in these things. That's liberating.
People talk about freedom and liberty and all these things.
Lord's done it all. He has accomplished beforehand.
His hand in providence is riding everything through. Whether I
like it or not, I'm happy or not, His will will be accomplished. And thanks be to Him that in
the end, what does that mean? I'll be lifted up to the last
day. I'll be given life. You're giving something I don't
deserve. I hope that's a blessing to you. Let's pray together. Father, thank You. Thank You
for not leaving us to ourselves. Thank You for Your Word. Thank
You for Your providence. Lord, let us understand how thankful
we need to be that You are sovereign and holy You don't do what's
right, what you do is right. I ask to bow to you. Bow to your
providence and trust you Lord. Thank you for Christ. Thank you
for Him condescending and being made flesh and living in this
world perfectly and bearing all the punishment that your people
deserve. He bore it. He swallowed up the
wrath and rose again. Thank you that He's sitting on
the right hand, ruling and reigning. Lord, preserve us. Only you can
keep us until that day we're made to be like Christ and we
get to see Him face to face. Keep us always in your hand,
Lord. Give us a heart to be ready to preach these, to be ready
to declare salvation by your hand only. man doesn't have a
part in it, and allow us to declare that it's accomplished. Our warfare
is over. We ask these things, Lord. We
know you'll accomplish them. We ask them through Christ's
name. Amen.