We're going to be looking at
1 Peter 1, beginning at verse 9 today. And I've entitled today's
message, Receiving the End of Your Faith, the Salvation of
Your Souls. This is taken right from the
scripture, the end of your faith. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly
Father, we pray, Lord, that you would give us this faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, and give us, according
to your will and by your word, what you, what pleases you, the
end of our faith, the salvation of our souls. In his name we
pray, amen. Let's read these verses of scripture
together in verse nine. It says, receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls. of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied
of the grace that should come to you. Searching what or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when it or he testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. Unto whom, unto the prophets,
it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they
did minister the things which are now reported to you by them
that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost
sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look
into. I want to pause there. These are very powerful words.
We've seen just in this first chapter of 1 Peter, the power
of God's blessings, the greatness and the power of God's blessings
on his people. Receiving the end of your fate,
the salvation of your souls. Now, what you see here is that
there is an end. to faith. There is an ultimate
realization, an ultimate purpose that God has in view in this
gift he has given to us, this faith. And that end, that ultimate
purpose, is the salvation of our souls. If you look on in this same text,
it says, after it says, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation
of your souls, it goes on to expound on that, of which salvation,
you see that? So salvation here is mentioned
twice in just those first few words. It says that the prophets
inquired and searched diligently into this salvation, which was
the grace of God, this grace that should come to you, those
who hear it and believe it, as the apostle Peter wrote here.
And he said those prophets in verse 11 were searching, what
is this salvation? And when should it come? What
manner of time? Which they understood by and
spoke by the spirit of Christ who was in them. So the spirit
of Christ in the prophets spoke of this salvation. So the subject
here is the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls. And
notice he goes on. He did signify they were constantly
searching what this salvation was and when it would come. When
the Spirit of Christ in them did testify beforehand, what? What did he testify about the
salvation? How it would come. Who would
accomplish it? How it would be accomplished?
In what we would be saved? And what is that here? The sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. This is very plain,
isn't it? Our salvation is given to us
by God. We realize it through faith.
at a point in time that faith will receive the end of that,
the object of our faith, which is what we've believed God for,
the salvation of our souls, and it's accomplished by the sufferings
of Christ, and that accomplishment is known by the glory of Christ
that followed his sufferings, and all of this is testified
by the Spirit of Christ in the speaker, to those who hear the
gospel. See how plainly the word of God
reinforces the fundamental truth that we're saved by Christ through
the preaching of the gospel with God-given faith. And that faith
has as its object the sufferings of Christ, Christ who in his
glory now reigns victorious because he actually accomplished that
salvation. We have it now, but we have it
now by faith. It's ours, but we haven't realized
the consummation of it, the full experience of it. That's to come. And that salvation will come
in its ultimate consummation when we see the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's when we will receive the end of our faith. Now, in the
Old Testament throughout, Many believed God for deliverance. Noah, as Brother Amel was just
reading to us from Genesis, believed that God would deliver him and
his family from the flood, from the destruction that would come
upon the world by the flood. And God did. Israel, believed
that God would deliver them from bondage in Egypt. Oh yes, there
was much unbelief, but they ultimately did. Not all, but those who were
believers did. And Israel also believed that
God would bring them through the Red Sea and through the wilderness
into the promised land of Canaan. These were God's promises. Israel
believed God to save them from their enemies in the land of
Canaan, from the Syrians, and the Assyrians, and the Babylonians,
and all these peoples of that land who would be their enemies. They trusted that God would save
them from their enemies. And Judah and Jerusalem later
believed that God, who had delivered them into the hand of the Babylonians
into captivity, would one day bring them out of that captivity
and free them from it. Those who, when Jesus came into
the world, who came to Jesus, they believed him that he would
heal them or their loved ones who were blind and lame and sick,
diseased, leprous, mute, bowed together, paralyzed, maimed,
demon-possessed, and even dead. They believed him to heal them
from that, but the end The ultimate thing that we need, the purpose
of God for sending his son into the world. What we need most
and what we believe him for is the salvation of our souls. Salvation from sin. I need to
be saved from my sins. I do. And so do you. This is the one big need that
you have. It trumps all other needs. And this work excels all other
works of God. In this work, we see the glory
of God. This is the ultimate work. This is the thing for which the
Son of God came into the world to accomplish. When he came into
the world, he said, a body thou hast prepared me. Not in burnt
offerings and sacrifices did God take pleasure, but in the
sacrifice of his Son, that he offered himself to God for our
sins. That's the reason he came. I need to be saved from my sins.
And it is for this that we cry to God daily, don't we? Salvation
is something Christ accomplished, but we experience it, and in
the experience of it, we don't believe God once. I used to think
when I was growing up, because of what I was hearing in church,
that if I just somehow accomplished this act of accepting Christ
or asking Jesus into my heart, I would somehow be converted.
And that was it. That was good to go. But salvation
is something we experience in a daily walk and a daily crying
and supplication to God. For what? For what we need. And
what is that? The salvation of our souls. And
so for this, we look to Christ at all times. Not just once,
but at all times. And in spite of our inward corruptions. Because we have so many, don't
we? and in spite of the denial and the false claims of this
world's false religions, in spite of the opposition of an unbelieving
world, and in spite of our own body that is failing and dying,
in spite of all these outward evidences that would contradict
the Word of God, we have believed on the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to save us from our sins, haven't we? To save our souls. S.O.S. Mariners at sea send out
the distress signal when their boat is sinking and their lives
will be most certainly lost unless someone comes to save them. S.O.S. Save our souls. And this is the
call God has put in the heart of every one of his children.
Lord, save me. save our souls. A daily cry,
constantly going to the Lord, to the throne that is now, because
of his accomplishments, a throne of grace. Lord, I need the grace
to live today. The life I need, I come to receive. And so everything in life argues
against our salvation because of the evidences we have. The
world is failing. Our bodies are failing. The philosophies
of this world fail us. The religions of this world fail
us. Politics cannot do anything to save us. There's no one in
this world who can save us. That's the issue. We couldn't
save ourselves and no one else could. And that's when God sent
his son into the world. This is so important that we
speak of it constantly. To fail to speak of this constantly
is to fail to exalt God and ascribe to Christ all of the glory in
our salvation. It's to deny Him of the glory
due to His name. And it's to deny sinners of the
only comfort and salvation and rest and peace that's available
to them. Now think about this. Our sins
separate us from God. What then is salvation? Salvation
is to have our sins taken away and be brought back to God. Our
salvation. That's what we need to be brought
to God. And salvation therefore is being
brought to Him again. by the propitiation of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the washing of our sins. Jesus alone came
to save us from our sins. How? How did he do this? Well, as we just read in verse
10, the prophets of old inquired and searched diligently to understand
both the what and the when of this salvation. And the spirit
of Christ himself was in them, and he testified to this salvation. And what did he testify? Of the
sufferings of himself, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
would follow. That's what those needing to
be saved looked for. What is it? Why do we come to
the Lord Jesus Christ? Many came to Him to be healed.
Do we come to Him for physical healing? Once a lady came to
me when we were at the church in the Bay Area, and she needed
help. She came to me after the service,
and she was asking me, can you help me? My adult children have
taken my money, and they don't regard me. They don't respect
me. They live in my home, and they trash the house. And I'm
just terrible. Things are terrible. And I could
sympathize with that. And I'm sitting there, and I'm
wondering, how can I help this woman? And I reflect on how the
Lord Jesus helped people. So I thought I would ask her
a question. And I asked her, what is the one thing, the one
thing that you need most? She said, well, the one thing
I need most is for my children to respect me. And I looked at
her sadly and I said, I cannot help you. I can't. Because there's
only one thing that I have. It's the gospel of Christ for
needy sinners. And if that's not the one thing
you need, then everything else is going to keep you. It's going
to distract you and deceive you. Because when you receive that,
you'll still be unsatisfied. Why do you spend your money for
that which satisfies not in your labors? These things cannot satisfy. If you're thirsty, you must thirst
for Christ and find your thirst met in his salvation. This is
why the spirit of Christ speaks of this. This is why God sent
his son. This is why Christ came. in order
to accomplish our salvation from our sins. This is why he was
born. This is what he lived to do.
This is what he accomplished in his death. And this is why
he died to justify the ungodly, his own chosen people that he
loved. He died for the unjust in order
to bring us to God. He was made under the law to
redeem us from the law. And He did redeem us by His own
blood. And the saints in heaven will
cry out in glorious triumph and praise to Christ on the throne
as the Lamb, Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy own blood. His name, this is what his name
is. The angel told, the angel Gabriel
told Mary that his name would be called Jesus. And the angel
told Joseph, thou shall call his name Jesus. And that very
name means he shall save his people from their sins. God left
it, he didn't leave it up to us to interpret it or understand
it. He gave it explicitly. This is his name. This is why
we come to him. You go to the doctor, he has
the sign over his door. A doctor. A spine specialist
or a cancer, an oncologist, a cancer specialist. Or he's an internal
medicine doctor. That's the reason you go to that
doctor. Because you have that problem. You go to the lawyer
to help you with the law. You go to Christ to be saved
from your sins. That's why you come to Him. The
salvation of our souls. That's why He came. That's why
He died. This is His name. And this is
His work. Therefore, it is to His glory. He must give it. He accomplished
it. He alone did. And He obtained
it for His people. What a glorious thing it is.
Jesus, God with us, he shall save his people from their sins. Let's read a few scriptures that
the prophets were able to give to us and we see now. Look at Luke chapter 2. I was
glad that Ramel pointed out these scriptures. Look at Luke chapter
2. Here in Luke chapter 2, very familiar to us this time of the
year, but I love just to listen to the words of what happened
here. Look at verse 8. The shepherds
were in that country, abiding in the field, verse 8 of Luke
2, keeping watch over their flock by night. It wasn't to the kings
and the politicians. It wasn't to the rich. It wasn't
to anybody in general, but it was to the shepherds in particular.
Lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the
Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. God's
glory shining from heaven in the presence and the message
of the angels. Listen to what he says. And the
angel said to them, fear not, For behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you
is born this day in the city of David, note, note this well,
a Savior, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. We just sang
about it. And can it be that thou, my God,
should die for me, the one we offended? has undertaken his
own initiative out of his own character and motives to save
us from our sins at the highest cost to himself alone. He undertook the work and he
accomplished it by himself and therefore he is a savior. And this shall be a sign, verse
12, to you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger. From his conception, to his birth,
to his life, to his sufferings, to his death, to his resurrection
and ascension, all of it was designed by God for him to be
our savior. He was made under the law that
he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of children. This is why he came. And suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth,
peace, goodwill toward men. Amazing, isn't it? That's what
he did. Look over at verse 28. We'll read through this again
where Ramel directed our attention. It says in verse, actually 25,
and behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,
and the same man was just and devout, waiting for what? The consolation, the comfort
that Ramel pointed out. Noah's name meant comfort, peace,
rest. The consolation of Israel and
the Holy Ghost was upon him, and it was revealed to him by
the Holy Ghost, there's the Spirit of Christ that was in them, that
he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents
brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of
the law, because he was made under the law for us, then Simeon,
notice, this old man, who himself was a sinner, he took the Lord
Jesus Christ as a baby into his arms, and he blessed God, and
he said, and every believer joins in his cry, Lord, now let thy
servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. Every sinner take such comfort."
There's the consolation, isn't it? This one, my Savior, your
salvation from my sins. The salvation of my soul is in
Him. This is He. He's the One. Not me. I can't accomplish it. I need a Savior. That's who He
is. And salvation is my great need. That's why I come to Him. That's why I trust. I trust Him
for this. I have ventured the entire weight
of my eternal soul, my worthless, helpless soul, on the One alone
who is good and able to save me from my sins and save me to
the uttermost. I expect Him to do it. I wait
for Him to do it. I'm looking to Him to accomplish
it in all of its parts and to bring me to that ultimate consummation
of it. When I see Him, when He gives
me that resurrected soul, that body and soul and spirit to be
able to behold His face in righteousness. That's why we come to him. This
is his name. This is why we glorify him, for
saving us from our sins. And this is how we worship God. This will be his praise for all
eternity. The Lamb on the throne, thou
has washed us from our sins in your own blood. That's what they
say in Revelation 1.5, in glory, This is the one that we look
to, the one we rejoice in. What an amazing thing. What an
amazing thing this is. Look over at Hebrews chapter
1. Hebrews chapter 1. He says, we talked about the
prophets searching, trying to understand what this salvation
was, how it would be accomplished, who would accomplish it, when
it would come. He says in verse one of Hebrews
1, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past to the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days, this
is it, there's no more message. There's not gonna be another Era. Another age. This is the
last one. The Savior has come. God's own
Son. This is the ultimate. He has
in these last days spoken to us in or by his Son, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world,
who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of
his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,
This is God, the Son, when He had by Himself purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. That's an
accomplished salvation. When did He purge our sins? Before
He sat down. And when was that? When he rose
from the dead, when he told his disciples, I go to my father,
when he took his place in glory at the right hand of his father
and was enthroned in all the majesty and the authority and
the power of the sovereign God of this universe as man and God
in one person, our sins were already purged. Look at chapter
10. In chapter 10, he says the same
thing. He says in verse 6, well, in verse 5, wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, isn't that the incarnation? He
saith, A sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, all the Old Testament sacrifices, thou hast had no
pleasure. They never once took away sin
or made satisfaction to God. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, that wood
is not, neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by
the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. By the which will, that he did,
We are made holy, sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all, for all perpetual, eternal ages. This one offering in the accomplishment
of God's eternal will by one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, has put away the sins of his people forever. God
is satisfied, and God looks at his work, and he is absolutely
pleased. And he tells us about it. And
now he gives us this grace in the gospel to be satisfied with
his work. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. In Hebrews 2, this is speaking
about the purpose for which he came. He says in verse 5, unto
the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come,
whereof we speak not to angels, But to who? But one in a certain
place testified, saying, What is man, that thou wert mindful
of him? Or the son of man, that thou
visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels, thou crownest him with glory and honor, and
did set him over the works of thy hands. This was in the beginning.
God spoke this in prophecy. that has put all things in subjection
under his feet." Again, a prophecy, like Rommel said, about Noah.
For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that
is not put under him, but now we see not yet all things put
under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels for a time, for the suffering of death. That's why
he came. He was made lower than the angels
for a period of time for this purpose, for the suffering of
death that he might, that he should taste, by the grace of
God, should taste death for every. And the word man was added by
the translators. It should just say every. Everyone. And later he explains who the
everyone are. The many sons. Those for which
Christ is the captain of their salvation. Those he sanctified. Those who are called the brethren.
Those who were the church. All these that were given to
him by the Father. These are the children. That's
the every for which Christ tasted death by the grace of God. This
is why he came. He's the one God had in mind
in the beginning when he said, all things are made subject to
man. He's the son of man, and God
having put all things in subjection to him in prophecy, fulfilled
it when Christ fulfilled the will of God, and he sat him on
his throne. And in Christ, all of his brethren,
have that blessing from God of being elevated with Him to be
given all things with Him. And so in 1 Corinthians 3, the
Apostle Paul says, the world is yours. All things are yours.
Life is yours. Death is yours. The apostles
are yours. Everything God has for sinners,
He gave in His Son. Why would He then not give all
things to them for whom He gave His Son? With His Son. God's
logic is explained in scripture. In Romans 8, 32, he says, it
has to be this. So what we need is a salvation. What we long for is a salvation.
What we come to Christ for is a salvation. What we praise him
for, what his name is, what we worship God by is our salvation. And what we look for, for him
to give to us in consummation is this salvation. And this salvation is made known
to us when he gives us faith to hear his word as our prophet,
when we see his work as our high priest, and when we see his place
as our king who is victorious and now reigns over all as the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 and verse 31,
the promise that Gabriel, the angel, made to Mary. Notice in
this promise is the promise of our salvation and Christ's reign
because of what he accomplished. He says in Luke chapter 1, And
in verse 26, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from
God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, espoused
to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the
virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in to her
and said, hail thou that are highly favored. The Lord is with
thee. Blessed art thou among women. Not an idolatrous kind
of blessedness that the Catholic Church places on her. but a blessing
of grace, a blessing of favor that she was chosen by God to
be the one in whose womb God would conceive his son in human
form, in human flesh, body and soul. Verse 29, and when she
saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind
what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said
to her, fear not, Mary. See how the gospel always comes
to us with these first words? Fear not. Fear not. Why can God say that to us? Because
Christ has taken away the wrath of God. He's taken away our sins. There's no reason for fear. Not
that fear of cowering, that fear of intimidation. Now there's
a fear of holy awe and respect that God would be so gracious
to us to make himself our father at the expense of the death of
his son and give us his own spirit. The angel said, fear not Mary,
for thou hast found favor with God. It's the same words that
are translated in Ephesians 1.6, God has made us accepted in the
beloved Now has found favor, grace. Verse 31, and behold thou
shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call
his name Jesus. Don't you love that name? He
shall save his people. Save his people. That's what
I need. He shall be great. He shall be called the son of
the highest. He's the son of God. And the Lord God shall give
to him the throne of his father David. This is the real throne.
David's throne was on earth. David's throne was over a people
physically born, physically descended to Abraham. Christ's throne is
in heaven. And his people are spiritually
born. And they believe on Christ as
their justifying righteousness, just like Abraham. Verse 33,
and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom,
of his kingdom there shall be no end. There's not another king
coming. This is him. He's come. He reigns. He's successful. What a blessed
thing this is. What a blessed thing. He died,
these are the words of scripture, listen, Christ died for our sins. Don't you love those words? Can
you remember that? If you can't remember that, ask
someone to read it to you. Would you read this place here?
Remember the man dying, he said, find this place here. Lord, remember
me. When I'm dying, read these words,
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. I have got
God's written word on it, and I trust it as an ungodly sinner
who has no hope and no strength to save myself. I have one hope,
that Christ the Savior would save me from my sins. That's
what I look to him for. That's what I trust him for.
Look at Psalm 35. Psalm 35, when we come to that
throne, that auspicious place at the throne of judgment, and
we stand before the Lord of glory as our judge, what will we say
there? What will we think? How can we
even begin to speak? And yet God will require, and
the Lord Jesus Christ will require of us. What will we say? Psalm
35, notice what the Lord Jesus Christ said in prophecy. Under
the weight of our sins in our nature, trusting God as our surety
and as our Savior, he cries out, plead my cause, O Lord, with
them that strive with me. Fight against them that fight
against me. And who were they? Satan and
his kingdom. Take hold of shield and buckler
and stand up for my help. draw out also the spear and stop
the way against them that persecute me." Notice these words. Say
unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Don't you long for this? And
so the believer who follows Christ, he asks the Lord Jesus Christ,
plead my cause, O Jehovah, with them that strive with me, and
who are they? My sins. He's the savior of his
people from their sins. Fight against them that fight
against me. Take hold of shield and buckler
and stand up for my help and plead my cause. Draw out also
the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me and say
unto my soul, I am thy salvation. It doesn't mean anything if you
say it to all the rest of people on earth if you don't say it
to my soul. And so we take the Word of God
in hand and come as sinners and say, Lord Jesus, say it to my
soul. Today, over my sins, until the
end of my life, cause me to live on your broken body and your
shed blood. and say to my soul, I am thy
salvation. This is the end of our faith.
The end, the deliverance for which we have believed Christ
is the salvation of our souls from sin and death. Let no other
doctrine take the place of Christ's sufferings and death and the
glory that followed. Don't let anything else take
his place. There is no other salvation. There is no other
Savior. You need to be saved from nothing
else but your sins. And having been saved from your
sins, being justified in the sight of God, who is He that
can condemn you? Who? Christ has died. Now, how does this salvation
come in our experience? Well, in 1 Peter chapter 1, he
says, receiving the end of your faith. And in 1 Peter chapter 1 and
verse 12, it says, unto whom it was revealed that prophets,
not unto themselves, but to us, they did minister the things
which are now reported to you by them who have preached the
gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
So it's through the preaching of the gospel with the Holy Spirit
sent down by Christ in the preaching of the gospel that we're given
this faith. Look at Acts chapter 16, one
more verse. You know the story, Paul and
Silas were in prison in Philippi. There was other people in prison. There was a jailer there who
was charged to keep the prisoners. They were all locked up. There
was a great earthquake. All the prison doors popped open.
The Philippian jailer, having heard Paul and Silas singing, and also fearing that he would
lose his life, because it was certain. If the prisoner escaped,
you received the punishment of death. So he took out his sword,
thinking he would surely die. I'm going to take my own life.
I'm not going to wait for the cruel death that the Romans will
bring on me. And in chapter 16 of Acts, I'm
in the wrong book, Acts 16. In verse 27, the keeper of the
prison, awaking out of his sleep, seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried out with a loud
voice, do thyself no harm, for we're all here. And he called
for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down
before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what
must I do? What must I do to be saved? Notice Paul's answer. Not you,
but Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. He turns his focus away from
his own strength and from the condemnation that he deserved.
Look to the Son of God, the Savior. He's come. He accomplished the
salvation. He sits on heaven's throne. What
a great Savior. What a great salvation. May the
Lord give us this grace to give Christ the glory due His name
by coming to Him to depend on Him for who He is and what He
did. That for which He receives all
glory, the Lamb on His throne who saved us from our sins, May
God be pleased to give us this grace today. Let's pray. Father,
we thank you for your gracious words. Sent the angels, sent
your prophets, sent the apostles, sent the preachers to preach
the gospel of Christ and his glorious person and his glorious
achievements for sinners to the glory of God in our salvation. From our sins, that which offended
God most, he in his love and grace has covered by the death
of his son. And the Lord Jesus Christ takes
no greater delight than to make us joyful with his joy, that
he would have an interest in us, that he would love the church
and give himself for it, that he might present her to himself
spotless and unblameable in his sight. and we would know his
joy over us and so our joy would be filled and he would be joyful
in the ultimate sense because now we see his joy over us and
his love for us in saving us from our sins and bringing us
to himself and clothing us in his own righteous beauty. What
a glorious Savior. Give us this grace of faith that
we might enter into this by the strength of your Holy Spirit. Give us life, give us faith in
Christ. Clothe us in his righteousness
and cover our sins by his precious blood. Give us this nature that
we might know and believe and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ
with his life living in us. And may we in this time of the
year Praise our Savior, who took a body that He might lay down
His life to save us from our sins. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen.