Join me, if you would, in the
book of Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 9. The gospel according
to Zechariah. We find all over the scriptures,
and I find in this passage of scripture that we're going to
read tonight, in this ninth chapter of Zechariah, that every obstacle,
every obstacle to the salvation of God's elect, He removes. Every obstacle that comes between
God's elect and God, He removes. We cannot do it ourselves because
we're incapable in our dead and undone state. Salvation is of
the Lord. And along with that, we find
that He is the author and finisher of our faith. And we pray that
God would grant repentance. So everything is from God. Everything is from him. God would
grant repentance to the Gentiles. He granted repentance to some
Jews. Then the prayer was God would grant repentance to some
Gentiles. And the only ones he grants faith
to, the only one he grants repentance to, the only one that really
understand the salvation is of the Lord is his elect. And that's
his intent. to save every one of them and
lose none. Well, we're here in the ninth
chapter of the book of Zechariah, and we find in this passage of
scripture, as we read last week, in verse nine, and it's a passage
of scripture that is presented in the New Testament. The Lord
is the one that brings this up in the New Testament, to go over
to a street called Straight, and there they will find a cult,
or they will find an ass, and the foal of an ass, and that
he was going to ride this into town. Well, over here in the
book of Zechariah, we have it mentioned in so beautiful a language,
as it's mentioned here, Zechariah 9, verse 9, rejoice greatly.
And the ministry and the message of Christ to his people is truly
a point of rejoicing. It is that which encourages us
every day. It is that which puts us in a
positive frame of mind every day, is to rejoice greatly, O
daughter of Zion, the church, and shout, O daughter of Jerusalem,
behold, thy king cometh. Now he came, he is coming, and
he will come again. He comes every day for his people. He is the king of their life.
He is the king of their salvation. He is the king of their joy.
He is their end all and be all to our salvation. Behold, thy
king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation. As last week we mentioned that
these are the criteria of our Savior. This is the character
and attributes of our Savior. He is just and the scriptures
spend a lot of time declaring about the just or the righteousness
of Christ. And then it tells us that he's
having salvation, that he is actually going to save some people
from their sins. He's actually going to ransom
some people. He's actually going to redeem
some people. He's actually going to be merciful
to some people. He doesn't put them into a position
that if they consent to it, but he knows. And it's foolishness
on my part sometimes to just bring this up, but God knows
our condition. And he knows what must be done
in order to save them out of this condition. Lowly and riding
upon an ass, upon a colt the full of an ass. So he is king,
and yet he is lowly, and yet he demonstrates here his kingship
over every kingdom. You know, he's king over the
mineral kingdom, he's king over the plant kingdom, he's king
over the animal kingdom, and he's king over every human being
that has ever lived. Now, many do not recognize him
as such, but the church recognized him as king of kings and lord
of lords. Now, we get into verses 10 and
11, and we find that the Lord, God's care of his elect. This
is what he's going to do for them. He is king, he is just,
he has salvation, he is lowly, he's king over all things, and
this is how he's going to demonstrate it. Now he does it so many times
in the scripture, but these two verses of scripture just exemplify
what the Lord does on the behalf of his people, how he demonstrates
that. It tells us here in Zechariah
chapter nine and verse 10, and I will cut off the chariot from
Ephraim, and the horse from jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut
off and he shall speak peace unto the heathen and his dominion
shall be from sea even to sea and from river even to the ends
of the earth as for thee also by the blood of thy covenant
i have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no
water. Now there is a lot said in those
two verses of scripture about what God does on the behalf of
his people. Now it's interesting here we
have a name that's mentioned it's the name Ephraim and if
you remember Ephraim he's one of the sons of Joseph and these
two boys Manasseh and Ephraim they are in many respects adopted
by their grandfather, and they get the same blessings as his
children had. Now, Levi is left out of the
inheritance, and on good reason, he's left out. But the rest of
those guys are going to inherit, and Joseph is going to really
inherit twice through each of his sons. You remember the experience
that as Jacob was going to bless the sons, He crossed his hands
and put the blessing, the right hand blessing on the youngest.
And guess what? That's Ephraim. Now, Ephraim
is mentioned 160 some odd times in the Old Testament by name.
So he's going to represent something. He's representing more than just
a son of Joseph and a grandson of Jacob. He has a place that
God speaks about him And here we have it again in this passage
of scripture. It's interesting if we go to
the book of Hosea that in the book of Hosea alone Ephraim is
mentioned. Now that's only 10 chapters long.
Ephraim is mentioned 38 times in that book alone. Now, he's
mentioned more in the book of Hosea than any other book in
the Old Testament. Quite a number of times in the
book of Genesis simply talking about this one person, but in
the book of Hosea. Now, I would like to read a couple
of passages in the book of Hosea to share with us what Ephraim
represents. It's going to make a significant
impact on us when we read here about what God is going to do
to Ephraim in verse 10 of Zechariah chapter 9 so if you'll back up
to that book right after the book of Daniel the book of Hosea
Now the book of Hosea has a wonderful story in it truly the account
of our Savior the Lord Jesus going after a very unfaithful
bride and Who is he talking about? you and I the church and unfaithful
to God before we were ever brought to the knowledge of salvation,
unfaithful to God in our acts, unfaithful to God in our deeds,
unfaithful to God in our mind, unfaithful to God. And yet Hosea
is called on to hedge her about. And we just see the demonstration
of the love of God in Christ Jesus towards the church, towards
his elect in this person. But in this book of Hosea, Some
38 times the book name of Ephraim is mentioned. And would you turn
with me first of all to Hosea chapter 4. I'm not going to read
all of these accounts, but these couple of verses share with us
what Ephraim has spoken of in the book of Hosea and much of
the places that he has mentioned here in the Old Testament. The
book of Hosea chapter 4 and verse 17, it says, Ephraim is joined
to idols. Let him alone. Now, I read some
that Ephraim represents the ten tribes of Israel. Now, whether
that's true or not, there is some semblance to what they did.
Remember that Jeroboam said, if I don't do something, these
folks are going to go down to Jerusalem and worship. So we'll
put a bull over here, and we'll put a bull over here and surely
they'll stay here. Well, this is brought out when
Jesus Christ is speaking to the woman at the well. You say, ah,
we say in this mountain we're to worship and you say to go
down to Jerusalem. Well, the Lord reveals himself
and that's where we worship. Well, anyway, that's still in
effect many, many, many years later. So here in the book of
Hosea chapter, if you'd look with me to chapter five, Chapter
5 and verse 3, twice this word is mentioned, Ephraim is mentioned
in this verse of scripture. It says here, I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hid from me. For now, O Ephraim, thou committest
whoredom, and Israel is defiled. So we see this view that is brought
out in the scripture concerning Ephraim. He's after idols. He is, and I believe that the
whoredom that he's committing here is the whoredom and worshiping
false idols, not worshiping God. You know, in reality, he couldn't.
without the grace of God. Salvation is of the Lord. And
then in verse 5 of that chapter it says, And the pride of Israel
doth testify to his face. Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim
fall in their iniquity. Judah also shall fall with them.
So we're going to find that pattern throughout the book of Hosea
and much throughout the Old Testament. So when we get over to the book
of Zechariah, chapter 9 and verse 10, it says, I will cut off the
chariot from Ephraim. Now, what is the chariot used
for? It's used for warfare. The chariot is used for warfare.
And the horse from Jerusalem, what is the horse used for? It's
used for warfare. What is God sharing with us?
He goes on to say, and the battle bow shall be cut off. And he
shall speak peace. So this is God's way of describing
what he does for the elect. I will take care of the warfare.
I will cut it off. Now, we don't cut it off. We're
at war with God. We're called at enmity with God
over there in the Book of Romans. And that's our natural state,
to be enmity against God. And you know, the best demonstration
of enmity towards God is what we had with regard to the Word
of God before we're saved. I don't believe that. I don't
care what you tell me about that. I don't want to believe that.
I've believed it this way all my life, and I'm not going to
change now. Heard that before. That's enmity against God. His Word, His Word, having enmity
towards the very Word of God is such a demonstration about
true enmity. So I can say myself, God has
done a great big deal and I can take care of the rest of it,
and on and on it goes about how we demonstrate enmity. And then,
you know, it just boils down to when we bring the gospel to
someone and say, I don't care about that, I can care less.
That's enmity against God and God's word. So that's truly a
demonstration. Well, here we find out that God
is going to bring the peace. We don't sue for peace. He brings
us peace. And how does he bring us peace?
He brings us peace in the resurrection of us from our dead spiritual
state. And in that resurrection, we
are brought to peace. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me, if you would, over
to the book of Psalm 46. Psalm 46, back up to the Psalms
in Psalm 46, and we find a number of places in the Old Testament
as well as the New Testament that God is going to speak about
the subject of causing war to cease. Now, natural man would
like to think of this, that eventually there will be no warfare in this
world. Well, that's not going to happen.
It just seems to be a natural state of man to get jealous about
someone else or their possessions and want it. We see it all about us all the
time. And, you know, we have to be
careful in our own state not to be jealous. God help me not to be jealous,
because that just brings on a warfare. Well, here in the Psalm, Psalm
46, verse 9, let's read this passage of scripture as we find
that it is God Almighty that does what He needs to do on the
behalf of His elect. He's the one that brings peace.
Psalm 46, there in verse 9, it says, He maketh wars to cease. Now, He may do that literally,
We find a number of times in the Old Testament when Israel
is afraid. Here is all of the enemy against
them. And God says, don't worry about it. I'm for you. They go
into battle. It's over. Or he sends them the
noise of chariots and they leave anyway. He's able to do that.
But the real place that he is able to cause war to cease is
with us. our attitude towards God, our
attitude towards His Word, our attitude towards Him being in
charge. We really like to think we're
in charge, but we find out in salvation that He is in charge
and we learn to be thankful for that. He maketh wars to cease
until the end of the earth. God is going to take care of
the salvation of his people wherever they are. And he will cause the
war that is between natural man and God, he will cause it to
cease. He is going to bring peace. We're
going to have ourselves saying, as the Saul of Tarsus said on
the road to Damascus, Lord, what would you have me to do? We will
find ourselves desirous to be bondservants of the Lord, because
He is the one that has brought peace. He has brought the end
of warfare. It tells us there in Psalm 46
and verse 9, As we finish that verse, he said, he breaketh the
bow and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot
in the fire. What a blessing God does on our
behalf to take care of all the enmity and warfare that we have
and every instrument of warfare. You know, some of the instruments
of warfare that I had, I had to throw away. That's some of
the books I was reading. Instruments of denying the very
God and the Godhead of God. You know, we get enamored. We
get enamored by writers. We get enamored. And yet, when
God saves us, He changes our reading habits. We can't read
some of the stuff that we used to read. We can't go where we
used to go. And I'm talking more seriously
about where we go to church. We just can't go there anymore.
It is not the truth of the gospel. We just cannot enter into that
anymore. God does that. He causes the warfare to cease.
Well, and then as we heard read not too long ago in the book
of Luke, he brings variance between the dad and the son and the mom
and the daughter. He brings, you know, he didn't
come to bring peace, but variance or warfare. And what that is
is, and I've never known of a believer that has an interest at breaking
up the relationship that they have in the family. It's always
the other way around. It's someone else. I can't be
around you. There's where it comes from.
It's that enmity that people have against God. And when we
give all the glory to God, all the salvation to God, I didn't
do anything. He's the one that handled me. He's the one that
broke the chariot. He's the one that broke the spear. He's the one that caused fire
to burn and brought peace to me. People cannot handle that
because they want to be involved in their own salvation. Well,
looking at that verse, turn over to the book of Isaiah. This is
a wonderful verse of scripture here in the book of Isaiah as
we find what God does. He's the one that takes care
of every obstacle. We've got this chariot in our
hand. We got run by horses. God comes along and destroys
the chariot and removes the horses and breaks the spear. Well, here
in the book of Isaiah chapter 2 and verse 4, we have this passage
of scripture with regard to what God does on the behalf of his
people. He says, and he shall judge among the nations and shall
rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares.
You know what at one time was a very, it's what at one time
brought up trouble. Oh my goodness, they were right. You know what I had to say about
Henry Mahan. I hate that man. And God brought it about where
I could, it was, what's it going to tell us here? Isaiah chapter
two and verse four. He says, and they shall beat
their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning
hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war anymore. When I was a kid in elementary
school, we used to sing about that, learn war no more. Well,
it's not gonna happen physically, but thank God it can happen spiritually. And he is the author of peace. He is the author of the destruction
of what is between us and God. He's the author to put away enmities,
the author of peace. This is his job, his business
on behalf of the church. So we are interested in peace. not warfare, combat. He takes away that interest of
challenging people. He takes that away. It's not
in our interest to challenge people. Now we're going to be
faithful to the gospel and we're going to present the gospel and
declare the gospel as it's found in the scripture. But we're not
going to run people off just because they don't agree with
us on some point. We're going to encourage them.
Stay. Stay. Listen. Listen. Well, beat their
spears into pruning hooks. It's the harvest time. That's
what he's talking about. It's the harvest time. We're
not going to be doing that. And another thing that we want
to notice here is the Lord never used external means. Never. He never used a sword
and he never used a physical spear to convince anybody of
anything. People and their warfare over
religion never convinced anybody of anything. A man convinced
against his will is of the same opinion still. Now when God convinces
us, it is for good. It's over. But when we convince
somebody, They have just as easy to change their mind and go on.
Well, this is brought up a number of times. Let's look at the book
of Micah for just a moment. The book of Micah. The book of Micah chapter 5.
Micah chapter 5 and verse 10. Micah chapter 5 and verse 10.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will cut off
thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I'll destroy the chariots.
And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all
the strongholds." Isn't this interesting that God does all
this activity? He's the one that overthrows
the cities, us. He's the one that brings us down.
He's the one that brings us to repentance. He's the one that
brings us to faith. He's the one that does it all.
We're in this mode And yet God is so gracious to us to come
against all of the things, all of the enemy that we have between
us and God. He is the one that comes down
and dispels it. He breaks it. And then it says,
and I, verse 12, will cut off the witchcrafts out of thy hand
and shall have no more soothsayers. Isn't that interesting? God's
gonna do all of this on the behalf of the church. We're nothing
more when it comes to religion, soothsayers and witches. We're
just nothing more. We just have all of these imaginations,
all of these things that we have built up in our mind, or we've
been trained to be built up in our mind, about what religion
is, and what God is, and what salvation is. And thank God,
he comes in with a clean swath, cleans that out, washes us of
all that imagination, that filthy stuff about religion, and God,
and the Bible, and everything else, and causes us to see it
for what it is. Now we have battle every day
about this, but God is merciful never to lose us or let us go
in that. So he just continues. God never
uses external forces to bring anybody to repentance, never
uses sword or spear, never use the open hand, slapped hand,
or the law. Never has, never will. He's not
going to do that. He brings his power to bear. He brings His power to bear with
us. And with our deadness, He raises
us, and in that instant, He gives us these things. He takes away
all the offense. He takes away all of the chariots,
and all of the horses, and everything that we're depending upon, and
He causes us to trust Him, and trust Him alone. Going back over there to the
book of Zechariah. Zechariah. There in chapter 9 of the book
of Zechariah, it's said there in verse 10 again, and I'll cut
off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem.
Two religious... You take what Ephraim, or the
ten tribes, and you take what the two tribes believed, and
you could throw them in the air and there wouldn't be a nickel's
worth of difference. They had turned the worship in the temple
into idolatry. And the 10 tribes, they didn't
worry about it. They just turned it into idolatry.
There's not a nickel's worth of difference. You know, when
Nancy and I were overseas, we went to some of the best architectures,
churches. I love it. It's so beautiful.
How you can stack up rocks that high without falling down over
500 years is just pretty engineering feat. All of that, you know,
the whole mess of it. You take what they say they believe,
and you take what they said they believed in the religion I grew
up in, and you put them in a sack and you pull them out, you couldn't
tell the difference. We just may have a different, we may
not have a spiritual quote unquote leader in Rome, but we're gonna
have somebody that's really important to us. And we don't believe God,
we don't believe the word, we don't believe anything. We're
all in the same boat. It's all up to works. And then
God comes and cleans the slate and gives us everything we need. And we don't argue about it.
You know, it's mentioned over there in the book of Revelation
chapter 12. Would you turn with me to the book of Revelation
chapter 12? Revelation chapter 12. It has
some things to say about Satan in this passage of Scripture.
And, you know, it's foolishness on anybody's part to say that
they can overcome this being, this created being of God. But
we find here in Revelation chapter 12 how he can be overcome. And
this is the only way. God's going to take care of the
chariot and the horse Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 the scripture
share this and I heard a loud voice saying in heaven Now has
come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God now. There's
a couple of messages right there There there's room to ruminate
right there for a long time just right there And the power of
his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren, is cast down, which
accused them before our God day and night. Thank God he's been
cast down. How? By the cross. And they overcame
him. Now, this is the only way. They
overcame him by the blood of the lamb. We're not in a warfare
against him. The blood of the lamb is no warfare
against him, and all he stood for. And by the word of their
testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore
rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto
you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a
short time. What is the overcoming? The blood
of the lamb. Not our blood, not our sweat.
the blood of the Lamb. Now, going back there to the
book of Zechariah, let's look at verse 11. We have a little
time left here. Zechariah chapter 9 and verse
11, and we just continue on with God overcoming all the obstacles,
everything that is in the way. It reminds me of what we find
with regard to the cities of refuge. Someone else got rid
of the debris. Every valley was exalted and
every mountain was made low. That's just a beautiful picture
of what God does. Someone else takes care of the
debris. Someone else takes care of the path. Someone else takes
care of getting there to the city of refuge to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here in the book of Zechariah,
chapter 7, verse 11, look at this. Chapter 9, verse 11, it
says, As for thee also, we're continuing
on, as for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have
sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
Now isn't that interesting? A couple of things are mentioned
there. It is a pit, and in that pit
there is no water. We're not looking to the scriptures
in that pit. If we have a Bible, we're not
looking to the scriptures. We're looking to our own faith,
we're looking to our own works, we're looking to our own interests.
But it's not the living water, it's not Christ that we're interested
in. We cannot, we will not be interested in Christ in our dead
and undone condition. It is only after regeneration
that we get interested in this. And it is given, it's a gift
to us that God gives. Now remember the last words of
David mentioned in the book of 2 Samuel? Comes toward the end
of his life. to be able to say this towards
the end of your life when things have not gone very well. You
look at David's family. You look at David. And yet he
is a man after God's own heart. Remember what God had to say
about him. It doesn't matter what we think about him. God
had that to say about him. What does that mean? He's one
of my child, one of my children. I paid for him. I will never
lose this thought about Him that He is a man after my own heart. What? I created His heart. I
gave it to Him. I'm the creator of life in this
man. He's mine. Well, let's look over
here in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 23. There's three or
four verses of scripture that we want to look at there, that
it brings out what David was thinking towards the end of his
life. And this, he's just saying, God is, Christ is all my hope
and all my salvation. It's not the same in my family.
You know, we may raise them the best we can, but it doesn't mean
that the outcome is going to be good on their behalf. Here
in the book of Second Samuel, chapter 23, verse 1, it says,
now these are the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse,
said, And this man who was raised up on high, the anointed of God
of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. Now that's what God
had to say about this man. And you know, sometimes we're
troubled by his life and what he did and his actions. I can't
get too concerned because I have God's word on it. This is what
he said. He's a man after my own heart.
Take God's commentary on it. Why? Because that's what God
thinks about every one of his children. He overlooks all of
the nonsense, all of the futility, all of the sin, all of the degradation. He's a man after my own heart,
I gave him. Goes on to say there, the spirit
of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. He understood
how he wrote the Psalms. The spirit of God gave it to
him, it wasn't his. And the God of Israel said, the rock of Israel
spake to me. What an interesting thought.
The rock of Israel spake to me. That rock is Christ. That ruleth
over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall
be as the light of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning
without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth
by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me." Oh, to say those words. He hath made
with me. Now David never said, I made
a covenant with him. He understood. He hath made a
covenant with me. An everlasting covenant. In the
everlasting covenant, God spoke of David. Every one of his children
every one of the elect was spoken of by God in the everlasting
covenant And he goes down here says although my house be not
so with God yet with he hath made with me an everlasting covenant
You remember what we just read over here in the in the in the
book of Zechariah Chapter 9 verse 11 it said there and as for thee
also by the blood of thy covenant Have I sent forth thy prisoners?
I got him out of the pit and by the blood of the everlasting
covenant. I got him out of the pit. What's it say there in the
Psalms? I was in a horrible pit, in a
miry clay. He hath brought me, he hath lifted
me out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet
on a rock, a solid rock, established my goings and put a new song
in my heart. So I have set forth thy prisoners. Now they are really
prisoners, bound hand and feet by sin. They can't speak, they
can't see. I remember, I read an article
just recently by a pastor down there in San Diego. He said, I could shoot an arrow
into a corpse, the arrow of truth, and he's not even going to move. I could shout the truth, and
he's not going to hear it. but when he's made alive. All
right, it goes on to say here, with regard to David, although,
yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things. One thing about this covenant,
it has order to it, it is God the creator of it, it's the God
the author of it, he's the author and finisher of this covenant.
He hath ordered in all things, ensured, for this is all my salvation,
And all my desire, although he make it not to grow. Now, you
just look at some of the children of David, probably some of his
wives. But with me, with me, he hath
made an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and you
know what? It is sure, it will be carried
out. The blood of Jesus Christ avails. Going back there to the book
of Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 11. As for thee also, by the
blood of thy covenant, he brought me out of a horrible pit. He
set me on a solid rock. This is God's actions. Nobody
climbs out. We're taken out. It is the everlasting
covenant that works upon. God removes every obstacle. Everything that is between us
and God, He removes it. And then he creates life. He gives us the new birth. He
regenerates us. He causes us to see him, hear
him, to be in him. He does it all. He just does
it all. He does everything that is required.
And he brings it out here in figurative language in this book
of Zechariah. I'm the king. I'm just and I
have salvation. I'm lowly. I'm going to come
down to this earth. And I am going to give my life a ransom,
though I'm king over all kingdoms. I can demonstrate that by what
I'm gonna do to that donkey. I'm gonna ride it, and I won't
have any reins on it, and I won't have to move my feet to kick
it on one side or the other side. It's going to follow my absolute
will. into that city. And guess what?
A whole bunch of rabble is going to break those vines down or
those palm leaves down and throw and straw the street with their
clothes and yell, Hauzana! And it's not going to be long.
Those same people are going to be in the street crying, Crucify
Him! Crucify Him! So, rejoice greatly! I will cut off the chariot from
Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut
off. Then he shall speak peace unto the heathen, and his dominion
shall be from sea even to sea. I like that, everywhere. Nothing's going to escape from
him, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. As
for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant have I sent forth
thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. That's what
God does. And he does it so grandly, so
perfectly. And we have demonstration of
that in every one of the disciples, all the Old Testament prophets.
And today in the church of the living God is a demonstration
of what God continues to do and will continue to do until the
last one of his lost sheep is found, regenerated, brought into
the fold. And hallelujah, this is all gonna
be folded up. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and
on the right hand, welcome thou good and faithful servants, and
on the left hand, depart from me. Amen. We pray for our families. We pray for our children and
grandchildren. We pray, Lord, that we might be faithful to
your word and faithful to the gospel, faithful to our Savior,
knowing even in times that we're not, you are faithful. You have
delivered us. You will deliver us. You will
present us spotless. that does not give us a license
to go out and sin against you oh lord forgive us where we have
fallen short but we're thankful for the salvation we have in
christ and we thank you in jesus name amen