If you would, turn your Bibles
to 1 Timothy 3. We'll begin in verse 1. This is a true saying. If a man
desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop
then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober,
of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine,
no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler,
not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his
children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not
how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church
of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted
up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover,
he must have a good report of them which are without, lest
he fall into the reproach and the snare of the devil." Tonight, I would like to go through this text verse by verse, and
I pray I can show you what the Lord revealed to me. I have a
co-worker who I think he got a theology at-home hobby kit. He likes to talk to me. We were
talking about preaching one day and he said, Kevin, you meet
all the requirements listed there in 1 Timothy except for one. And I said, no, I fail at all
the requirements. As far as the world is concerned,
I failed all the requirements but one. I said, I don't have
a thorn in my flesh. I have a little flesh in my thorn. I'm not as high and mighty as
they think I am. But we talked about that for
a while and what it meant. I went home and I studied this
passage. And I truly feel the Lord has given me a message for
it and given me a message to you for it. Scott Richardson
always said that preaching is receiving a message from God's
heart to my heart and then giving it to your heart. So I hope I'm
able to do that today. But some of you, you may feel
a need not to listen. Like, well, I'm not a preacher.
Why do I have to? I'll just tune out for this one. But I beg to
differ on two points. First, you're a local assembly
that's looking for a pastor. You need to know what to look
for to allow someone to stand in this pulpit, whether they're
just coming to preach or to hold the office of pastor in this
pulpit. You need to know that. Scripture
tells us that if you give a false prophet a nickel, or you bid
him Godspeed, you're as guilty as they are, aren't you? Secondly,
you are the ministers of Christ, each of you that believe Christ
and know Him. Paul tells the Thessalonians that they are the
epistle of Christ in the flesh. A believer's whole life is a
testament to Christ's work in them. And with that said, there
are many people in my life and many people in you all's lives
that the only exposure they'll ever have to the truth is through
you. It's through me, my family, my
co-workers. The only time they'll ever hear
the truth of Christ is what I tell them. So it's important to understand
where these qualifications come from. So I want to help you if
you let me. I want to show you the requirements of a bishop.
What a bishop must be. A bishop there is a shepherd,
a pastor, or a preacher. I want to go through this text
a few times. So it will go quick, but be patient with me. I want
to look at it morally, worldly, what these things mean. If we
just read through it, what does that mean to the world? And we'll
see it spiritually what they mean, truly what they mean. And
I hope to teach you for a bit. And if the Lord will aid me,
I hope and I pray that I'm able to preach to you a little bit.
Somebody asked me the difference between teaching and preaching.
I said, oh, there's a difference. It would be a whole lot quicker
for me to show you than it would be for me to tell you. My horrible words
trying to explain it. But morally, here in this text,
these first seven verses, there's 18 requirements for a pastor,
for a bishop. We'll look there and start in
verse 1 and work our way down. First off, he desireth the good
work. A man that's going to preach
has a desire to preach. I don't know anyone that's had
Christ revealed in them that didn't have some type of notion
or unction to tell someone else. I was telling Mike the other
day, I got a new weed eater line and I'm anxious to tell people
about this new weed eater line. How much more so, if the Lord
did a work in me, how much more would I want to tell someone
about what Christ accomplished? And it's work. It's very good
work. It's a labor. But he wants to
do it. He's not coerced into it and
he's not forced into it. And he doesn't do it because
he failed at everything else. I couldn't do this job and I
couldn't do that job, so I guess I'll just preach. It's a good
work that he desires to do. Next, there in verse 2, it says,
a bishop must be blameless. Does this mean they're sinless?
No, we know better than that, don't we? No man is sinless. This only means that they have
no obvious outward reason to bring reproach on the gospel.
It says there is a husband of one wife. Some say that this
means they must be married. I think that's debatable, but
I believe we can agree that he's not to be a womanizer. Paul wrote
this in a time when polygamy was really big. It's a common
practice with the Gentiles and in some religions throughout
the world today it still is. But he must have one wife. Next
there it says, vigilant, watchful over the church. He has his eyes
peeled. Keeps a good lookout. He's not
a lazy man. Sober, and Paul deals with drunkenness further down
here in the text. But sober means they are serious,
they're level-headed, mature, they're conservative in the way
they walk, in the way they dress. They look like an old man, dress
like an old man, act like an old man, don't they? They don't
act like a child. It says they're of good behavior,
how they react to people at the grocery store. Are they kind
to folks that don't have to be kind back to them? given the
hospitality to let people into their home. They welcome them
to come to service with them, come to church with us. They're
not standoffish. They're open, they're happy.
Apt to teach. Now this is an obvious ability
to stand up in front of men and women and speak to them, but
the ability to put it into terms that aren't too lofty, not to
make it so complex you can't understand what they're saying.
They're able to meet people where they are and apply it to them
to what they're saying so those folks can understand it. Not
giving the wine means they're not a drunk. Not that they cannot
drink, they can't have a glass of wine or a beer or whatever,
but with moderation, that's with the soberness. They're moderate
in all things. No striker, one that doesn't
lash out with his tongue, someone that's hot-headed. We know those
folks, don't we? Quick to jump on to you. Not
greedy, a filthy lucre. They're not looking for a paycheck.
Which church can I go to that will pay me the most money? And
if I stay there long enough, can I upgrade to the next one?
And then to the next one and get more people under me. They're
not looking for that. Patience, long-suffering. They're
gentle to the Lord's people, kind to them and to others. Not
a brawler. Yes, they don't go out and fist
fight people. I don't go to the gas station
and pick a fight with some stranger. But it's referring to someone
that doesn't argue over every little thing. There's times you
don't have to fight every battle. He doesn't go looking for a fight.
Not covetous. He doesn't desire what everyone
else has. He's got a job to do, and preaching needs to be his
main desire. He's not worried about getting
what everybody else has. Studying is his focus. Not one
that is busy looking at the other interests and hobbies of other
people. Ruleth well his own house. A
person who has their house in order. What's that mean? They
keep their children in order, their day-to-day lives pretty
well in order, nothing to comment on really. Their finances are
in order, they pay their bills. They don't have a bad reputation
outside the home looking into the home. But the man must be
the head of his home. That is not popular nowadays. And I hate that for those folks,
but it's the truth. That's the charge that they're given, but
he should lead his home well. His children are in subjection.
Adults don't like unruly children and other children don't like
unruly children. And also, if he has all these
above listed qualities, he probably has children that are in subjection. What do you have to do to get
a child to mind? You have to be long-suffering. You have to
be able to teach. You have to be patient. You have
to be kind to them. That's the only way you can make a happy
child that's well-behaved. But Paul puts all his comments
next in parentheses about the family law. To put it in perspective
for us, if a man can't rule his own house, if he can't lead the
ones that are loved by him and are his family, how can he lead
the church? Next, not a novice. Worldly, this means he didn't
graduate high school, go straight to seminary, and go straight
to a pulpit. That's what career politicians do nowadays. They
come straight out of it, and they go into leading. They have
no experience. But this man would have some
experience. He knows what it is to work for a living, to earn
his living by the sweat of his brow, to go out and labor in
the world. But you can't relate to a person
A pastor can't relate to a congregation for your struggles, your everyday
life. This is the instruction portion
and you experience it out in your daily life. You can't relate
to them if you've never experienced those things. Or it's like to
get up early. But in a worldly man, if he's lifted to leadership
without ever having been led, they haven't followed, it's hard
to lead and they'll get puffed up with pride, won't they? In
the military, we called those lieutenants. A man that's in
authority and has no experience is not fun to deal with. He's
more of a headache than a head. And it says, a good report of
them that are without. Simply put, he must overall be
a good guy that's respected in the community. How would someone
want to come to church and listen to a man that was a crook, didn't
pay his bills, and was rude? hard to deal with, hot-headed,
and he can't convey what he means to say to people. Now, there
will be a lot of people that don't like him. That's the nature
of it. Not everyone's going to love
you, but they won't have an excuse to not like you. They can't have
anything major to lay against them. So that's morally. If we
just read through that, and look at this as only what
the text says, those are good points. Those are faithful sayings,
something to look for. But if that's all we've got,
we'd be in trouble. So spiritually, what do these
things mean? What could this outline give us? We'll start
back up at the top. If a man desire the office of
a bishop, he desireth the good work. God's preachers are sent
by Him and are after His own heart. They have a desire to
be about the Father's business. To labor in the fields. They're
made willing in the day of His power. And they understand the
magnitude of the work. The labor of the work. They labor
in the Word. They commit themselves to studying,
to prayer, and to preaching. And nothing else can get in the
way. That desire of good work. It says a bishop then must be
blameless. We know this doesn't mean sinless,
but what is blameless? Spiritually, how would that affect
us? That man has to be blameless in the eyes of God. He has to
be one of God's elect. He has to know the Lord. We don't
make ourselves blameless, we're made blameless through Christ's
work that He performed that night. He was made sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God. He has to know the Lord. And how can I tell you about
someone that I've never met? How can I tell you about someone
I don't know? It'd be hard to do. Impossible. It says he must
be the husband of one wife. God's preachers must have one
gospel, one message to those people he's put over. Not a blend
of several, but one true good news message that is given to
him and is his forever. Paul said, this is my gospel. It's ours, isn't it? It's your
gospel. He must be faithful to it and bound to it, just like
a bride is to Him. He must also be dedicated to
the assembly that the Lord marries Him to. He must be solely focused
to commit to that bride that He's been entrusted with. It's
much like a lectern. As one wife, Clay told us that,
he said, if he'd come home to his wife and said, honey, I love
you. I love you just like I love every other woman in the world.
That wouldn't suit too well, would it? But don't get me wrong,
we love our brethren in other churches. And I'm thankful that
we have conferences and men fill in for other men. We're thankful
for that. But there's a special relationship between the pastor
and his congregation that the Lord sent him to. Next it says
vigilant, watchful. The same thing as morally, to
be on guard and have your eyes peeled, but more than that. He
must be diligent to guard the Lord's people from false teaching
and false doctrine. And as far as not being lazy,
he must labor for a message. It's easy for me in the past
to say that. It's another thing to live it.
It's a little tougher to work and pray for that. Pray for a
word from God for you. Praying in all things for the
church members. Praying for those lost sheep that's not yet had
Christ revealed to them. Praying the Lord will call them.
Vigilant, always. It says they're sober, serious,
level-headed. That's true. But there must be
no distraction from the work at hand. Childless action, the
flesh, are not much different than childless action, the heart.
He can't be wishy-washy on that one that is the object of our
faith. He has to know his point and
be aimed at it. Not soon removed. Christ and
His person and work are not to be made light of. It's not a
joke either. It's a life and death matter
what we deal with right now. Most important thing in your
life. The gravity of me standing here and speaking to you doesn't
go over me lightly. I speak on behalf of the Lord.
That is a weighty, weighty thing to lay on someone. And so you
work diligently and you're level-headed. And it's not a joke. It's not
something to take lightly. And any man that does take it
lightly and doesn't take it seriously is not a sin of God to you. Be
mindful of those things. of good behavior. Now this is,
for most churches, most sermons, this is a very lengthy point. It's the microscope that they
can watch you with, you know. Correct everything you do in
your life. Boy, that's not good behavior. But I'll keep it short
because it's a pretty clean cut to me. But he needs to act like
a man that believes God and follows Christ. If a man knows Christ
and is following Him, why wouldn't I follow that man if I'm following
Christ? If two brothers are going to
the same house, they're pretty well in step. They're taking
the same road, isn't it? So it should be easy to follow
someone that is following Christ. Next it says, giving to hospitality. You're kind to people in giving.
Yeah, that's true. But spiritually, a pastor has
to be eager to share that bread of life. have to give that wisdom
of Christ to others. And he trusts the Savior to do
it. The hymn says, "...suffer a sinner whose heart overflows,
trusting his Savior to tell what he knows." So bear with me as
it just comes out of me and I have to tell you. They were given
the grace that was freely given to them. to what could be more
hospitable for me to share the grace of God with someone. That's
hospitality. That's true love. It says they're
apt to teach. Spiritually, this means the Lord
uses them to speak to the hearts of His children. Even if I tell
you the truth, if I preach to men and women, eternity-bound
souls, All I can do is tell you something. The Lord has to make
it applicable. He has to make it effectual.
He has to use it like that two-edged sword. I don't know what goes
on in your life every day. The nuances that touch you and
set you off or make you happy, I don't know. But the Lord does.
And so He'll use my words and what He's given me, use that
to you. So I have to teach. I can't take
a course on learning how to do that. The Lord has to use you
for that. But the only way a person hears Christ, and that's not
hears of Him, but hears Christ, hears from Him, is through the
foolishness of preaching. That's the only way it's going
to happen. You can't lock yourself in a basement somewhere and study
for six months and understand this. A man has to tell you. I was asked again this time,
seems like about every trip, I said, where are you going this
weekend? I said, I'm heading to San Diego, flying out there. I'm not too
bashful about telling them why or how I'm coming here. And folks
would say, oh, that's so far away. Think how many millions
of people are between New Jersey and San Diego. Why would you
go out there? That's just crazy. I said, well,
yeah, it is to most folks. It's pretty foolish, isn't it? That's what the Lord sends His
people and He gives them a message if He sends them. He says they're
not given to wine. This is drunkenness. When we
hear the word lust in the Bible, we always assume it's a sexual
desire for the life that we live in now, the society we live in.
But it's not. Lust of the heart is a desire
for anything other than Christ's glory. It's self-serving and
self-soothing, selfish. But drunkenness here in the scripture,
it's consuming something that dulls your heart, like a drug.
Something that dulls your heart and your mind from the reality
that is the gospel. The reality of a sovereign God.
God of creation, of providence, of salvation. Anything else to
depart from that is drunkenness. You're drunk on yourself. Men can become drunk on wine,
yes, but they can also become drunk on anger. on power, on
greed, and on false religion that exalts the man and not God. It's easy to get addicted to
those things. But a pastor can't be addicted
to anything but the work that's been given to him and the message
that's been given to him. Next it says, no striker. So
opposite of hot-headed and lashing out is long-suffering impatience.
So just because someone says something to you, this is for
you too. Just because someone says something to you or asks
you a question, doesn't mean you have to respond. Doesn't
mean you have to answer. Mike and I were talking about this
today. Don always says the dynamite
is what the power of the gospel is. You light it, you throw it,
and you get out of the way. You don't have to check on it.
You'd be better off if you didn't check on it. But you don't have
to argue doctrine. You don't have to argue if the
scriptures The real word of God, you just declare it. That's it.
The Lord makes that effectual. Not greedy of filthy lucre. They're
not looking for an unmerited payment. What is that? Pride, accolades, being lifted
up in the flesh. What are all those things? That's
a man's own glory. Something to lift himself up.
A filthy lucre. God's messengers desire all the
glory and all the merit go to Christ. That the Lord receives
all the glory. He wants Christ to be exalted,
not man. Patient, long-suffering. Spiritually, a man understands
that the Lord has to do the work. If I can talk you into something,
somebody else can talk you out of it. But spiritually, the Holy
Spirit has to come in and has to do the work. And that doesn't
happen in a day sometimes. It doesn't happen in a few years.
You have to be patient and wait on the Lord. Patient with others,
but patient with the Lord's work. And you have to know what the
Lord's providence is and how He does that to be patient. Next,
not a brawler. It's much like striking, that
you don't argue with people. You don't want to hash it out
and wrassle it out and argue over every little thing, over
spiritual matters. You just tell the truth and you wait on the
Lord. That's where that patience comes in. And if we talked this
morning at breakfast, and Bob knows this from first-hand experience,
if a dog gets in a fight with a skunk, it may whim, but it'll
come out smelling like a skunk water. That stuck with me since
you said that this morning. Next is not covetous. When Christ
is revealed in you, all your other desires go away. Everything
else you want, they start to fall away. And as you grow in
grace and grow in the knowledge of Christ, less everything else
looks. It diminishes. You don't have
a desire for those things. Worldly people understand that
too. As you get older, you understand more of what's important and
what's not. And you stop paying attention to those things that
aren't as important, and you can give yourself more to the
things that you know through experience are important. How
much more so spiritually, the more we understand of Christ,
the more we understand of what the Lord did for us, how much
more should we see as we grow as He teaches us to look to that
and everything else goes away. So we don't covet other things,
our glory and our being exalted and puffed up. We seek those
things for the Lord. We want him to have all the glory.
Rules his own house well. What are the responsibilities
of a husband and a father? To provide for his family, protect
them, and is responsible for them, accountable for them. Does
that mean that everybody has to be strong and they have to
have a lot of money? Of course not. But you work to provide
a place to worship the Lord, to hear Christ lifted up, and
you're watchful that your family is set underneath the sound gospel. And this is all done in love
and compassion, not with an iron fist, not with a heavy hand,
but through loving and being compassionate to your family.
Same thing spiritually with the church. You have to love them
to submission, love them to Christ, not beat them to Christ. It says
that, for a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall
he take care of the church of God? So how a man leads his home
is how he will lead a local assembly. Henry used to say, as goes the
pulpit, so goes the pew. And Don elaborated a little bit
on that, and he said, when the pulpit has been dedicated, the
church has been dedicated. When the pulpit has been strong,
the church has been strong. When the pulpit has been faithful,
the church has been faithful. But when the pulpit has been
careless, weak, and unfaithful, the church has been careless,
weak, and unfaithful. Those are important things. It
says next, not a novice. I had to clarify this to somebody
once back home. When I started preaching, I preached
in New Jersey and a couple places in Kentucky, and I may have told
you all here too, I said, I'm nervous and I'm a novice. I didn't
consider what words I was using, but I was new to preaching. This
isn't something new that's to me. But spiritually, what a novice
is, it's referring to a man that's just come into the knowledge
of Christ, that just learned what the gospel was. It's a new
convert and the Greek word there and in the Arabic translation
too is a new plant. So it's like a weak little plant.
You've got a sprouting and you can blow on it and knock it over.
But someone that's not sat under a faithful pastor for a good
while and has not been pulled through some trials repeatedly
to be forced to look to Christ only at the end of it. It's easy
to get swooned to something else. You don't know what the outcome
is going to be. In verse 6 it says, "...not a novice, lest
being lifted up with pride, he fall into condemnation of the
devil." The translators could have worded that, he fall into
the same condemnation the devil fell into. A man has to be humbled
thoroughly many times to know that the only thing keeping him
is Christ. Christ has to give the message,
He has to make it effectual, and He has to keep those that
you're preaching to. And it takes some hard knocks to learn that,
to really get it into you. In the past, I've heard others
say, and I've thought it too, I don't want to lift my pastor
up too high. I don't want to compliment him
and get his head big. He can handle it. It'll be alright.
The Lord knows how to keep him in his place. About 200 years
ago, John Russ wrote this. said, I want an experimental
preacher, one who, when he has had one meal, has tried how he
shall get his next. One who is tormented with devils
fit to tear him limb from limb. One who feels hell inside himself
and every corruption in his nature stirred up to oppose God's work.
One who feels so weak that every day he gets over, he views as
next to a miracle. That doesn't sound fun, does
it? But that's what it takes. You have to go through that and
experience this for a while to be able to preach. And the Lord
knows how to keep His servants right where they need to be.
They need to be brought low. You can't look up to somebody
unless you're underneath them. And so we're brought down to look
up to Christ, don't we? It says there, a good report
of them that are without. Spiritually, a true gospel preacher
will be assaulted on every side for who he preaches. But he's
to only be found fault for his message and not for who he is,
not for the way he lives. But none of the Lord's elect
wants to bring reproach on the gospel. Whether it's, if you
are a novice or you're the oldest brother in the world and sat
under the gospel the longest, no one, they don't want to bring
reproach on the Lord. But all these qualifications are pretty
high. That's a scary part. I've heard
a lot of faithful pastors, it's been a long time, they said,
if that's too hard, don't do it. Do something else. But morally
to the world, that would be a hard task to maintain outwardly. Spiritually,
it's impossible with men. The Lord has to provide those
things. But who's able to meet these? Who's able to do that? Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
he said, For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them
that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the
saver of death unto death and to the other the saver of life
unto life. Who is sufficient for these things?
So at this point, I hope I've taught you something here. And
if I stopped there, there wouldn't be any benefit to you really
if you walked out of this room. I've taught you something. But
I haven't preached to you. I haven't told you anything good.
There's some facts here that you don't have to dig too deep
to see. Morally and worldly, you can just read through that.
Read it out loud to your co-workers or anybody. An 8th grader could
tell you what that means. Spiritually, they'd have to have
a little bit of understanding of the scriptures, and that there
is a God, and kind of how that worked, but don't know any truth,
really. And they could probably get close to some of those points. But who is this speaking of?
Is this me? You talk about awkward. Is this
me preaching to you about preachers? I whined and cried to my pastor. I said, I have to preach. This
is what the Lord gave me. It excited me and I saw it and
I wanted to tell somebody. And he said, I have a hard time
preaching about giving. how you give to the church. He
said, if I'm the one standing there and it's my church, that's
hard to preach. He said, you'll be alright. I
said, okay. But of these things, who is that speaking of? And
in whom are these men made sufficient? So let's turn to 1 Peter chapter
2. 1 Peter 2, we'll look in verse
21. We'll begin in 21. For even here unto where you
called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that you should follow in His steps. This is speaking of Christ
who did no sin. That's blameless. Neither was
guile found in His mouth. That's a good behavior and not
a striker. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered,
he threatened not. He's not a brawler and he's patient.
But committeth himself to him that judges righteously. He's
sober. Who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live
unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as
sheep gone astray, but now returned unto the Shepherd and the Bishop
of your souls." Christ is our Bishop. That's who we're speaking
of. That's the requirements, the
qualifications. He's our High Priest. We were
put into the hands of Christ, the Almighty God, before the
world was. He desired to be the Bishop of our souls. He must
be about his father's business. And he said, not my will but
thine, didn't he? He walked this earth blameless
and perfect submission to God's law. He was holy. He lived that
life for who? Who did he live that life for?
For one bride, the church. He was the husband of one wife.
He was ever vigilant and watchful over us and still is. He hedges
us about. He was sober, steadfast, and
serious in His work for the church. Given to hospitality and being
made sin for us that we may be made righteous. Apt to teach. He's the only one that can make
it effectual. He's the only one that can truly teach. No striker. How patient and long-suffering
is our Lord when He deals with us. I can't remember if we were talking
about it this morning or last night, but the apostles would say, after Christ would
give a parable, he said, if you had the ears, hear. Well, after
they get through, sometimes the apostles would go to him and
say, Lord, what did you mean by that? Did he lash out at him
and get on to him and say, you should know better than this?
No, he sat down with him and said, alright, let's reason together.
Not giving to filthy lucre. Let's look over in John 17. John chapter 17, look in verse
4. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and Thou gavest them Me, and they have kept Thy word
through Christ. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given
unto them the words which Thou gavest Me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they
have believed that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them, I pray
not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me, for
they are Thine." Our Lord rules His own home as the perfect husband
and the perfect father. And He's the reason that the
children are kept in subjection. He is not a novice, because He
is the author of salvation. He that created all knows all,
doesn't He? He must have a good report without. This will be our last text. Turn
to Philippians chapter 2 and I'll let you all go. Philippians
chapter 2 and verse 10. That at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth. That every tongue should confess
that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's a good
report, and there will be, at the end of this world, there
will be a good report. Every knee shall bow, and every tongue
will confess that Christ is Lord, won't they? So if you look into
a man's abilities, if you look to a man's knowledge, if you
look to a man's drive, the gifts that he has, his ability to speak,
you will be sorely disappointed in finding a bishop. But, if
you look to Christ, knowing that He's able, and that He knows
all things, and He's committed to keep His children in subjection
and watch over them and hedge them about, and that He's the
author and the finisher of our faith, then He will surely provide
that those things are met. He has saved us, He is saving
us, and will continue to save us until the end. He's the one
that keeps us. I hope that was a blessing to
you.