I'll turn to the book of 2 Corinthians
chapter 4 for our scripture reading this morning. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair,
persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of
faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have
I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak. Knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus,
and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. Let's pray. Oh, our kind and gracious and
merciful Heavenly Father, we join our hearts together this
morning and we thank you for your blessed word that we've just read, how it speaks
to our hearts and stirs us up. And Lord, we endeavor to Lift up our Savior this morning
in the reading and teaching of your word. For we know it speaks
of him, his fullness and his completeness and his doing and
dying. His satisfaction is our substitute. How we do thank you for him. May our eyes be drawn to him
this morning. May our hearts be lifted up in
admiration and praise and worship of him this morning. No one else is worthy, but he
and he alone, our Lord Jesus Christ. We bow before him. We
anticipate his presence as we are gathered together to bless
us and teach us. As we look at those things which
are not seen, but they're eternal, they're lasting. Help us, Lord,
and give us faith. Give us the ability to believe
your word, to trust your son, to fall prostrate at his feet
and continue to sue him for mercy. And if we've not yet done so,
may today be the day that we fall down. lay down our arms
of warfare, submit to him and cry out of the depths, Lord,
save me or I perish. Meet the needs of every heart
and every home that's gathered here this morning. Lord, we look
to you to provide every need. We're helpless and hopeless. We can do nothing. But you are
almighty in all powers in your hand and your will shall be done
and your purpose shall be fulfilled. And we bow before you in your
good providence. We pray for those that are sick,
those that can't be with us. And remember our pastor and his
wife as they travel home. Bring them back safe, we pray. Come and meet with us, Lord,
and get Thyself honor and glory and help us to worship. In Christ's
name, Amen. I love to hear that sung. Let's
turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I was thinking over the last
day or so that I'm so thankful that we
have a place to come and meet together like we do here this
morning. We're doing here this morning
and we do three times a week. It's such a privilege, blessed
privilege, to be able to open God's word and read it, hear
it preached, sing about it, and pray under our God. Our lives
are so full of busyness and running to and fro, and we've got bills to pay, and mouths to feed,
and houses to take care of, and family and friends to take care
of and tend to. It becomes taxing at times on
our minds, on our hearts, on our energy. I wish it were not
so much that way, but it is. What a blessing to be somewhat
removed from that physically. We're all here physically. I
hope God allows our minds and our hearts to be removed from
it for just a few minutes. I'll not be long this morning,
I don't believe. But when we read the word and
we hear the song sung like we just did, it does something to
you. And there's nothing like gathering
together. Our Lord has promised to meet with us when two or three
are gathered in His name. And there's nothing like hearing
the Word preached. And it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I mean, we should read
our Bibles at home. We do. We get blessings from
that. Oftentimes we don't get at a scripture and at its meaning
and what it means to us until we hear someone preach on it.
So I'm thankful. And another thought that's been
pressing on my mind as I prepare to stand before you today, that I'm a dying man preaching
to dying men. As I look out on your faces this
morning, I see Some old, some young. And I know,
I've lived long enough to know that we deal with a lot of things
in this life. But we're dying, and all that
we see, we talk about here, the things which we see are temporal.
All that we see is being dissolved, it's fading away. You can see
it if you can touch it. It's temporary. But this is a solemn thing. to
talk about eternal matters, to deal with the word of God in
regards to men's souls, and talk about salvation and sin and heaven
and hell and the Lord Jesus Christ. And it weighs heavy on my heart
this morning, and I hope God will allow each of us to hear
from God as we study His Word. That's the only thing. This is
the focus. Everything else is shut out, I pray, that we can
focus on what's before us. But I draw our attention this
morning to our text we read a moment ago. Let's go back and read there
beginning in verse 5. Paul says, we preach not ourselves,
What's a preacher to preach? Right there it is, but we preach
Christ Jesus the Lord, a person. And ourselves, your servants,
for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair,
persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. This is the reality of the life
of a believer. You know, we sing the song, Jesus,
lover of my soul, in which there's a verse that says, hide me, oh
my Savior, hide, till the storm of life has passed. And so it
is. The life that we live is a storm. There are trials and troubles
and afflictions and burdens. We're living through a mighty
storm. And it's often a fierce storm. And it's often relentless. And many times, just as we descend
a mighty wave of trouble, we see in front of us the next wave
rising before us. And it picks us up. And it swallows
us up. And it throws us headlong into
the deep. Helpless to fight its powerful
current and force. No power to deliver ourselves
from it. And I know if you've lived very
long, you know what I'm talking about. There was a time when
I was a young man, I didn't know much about this. I guess I had
a sheltered life. But I've lived long enough now
to know some things about this. Many of you, most if not all
of you, do as well. And have been in much deeper
waters than I have ever been. But I know if you've lived very
long, you know what I'm talking about. And if you're a believer,
these types of things are common to all men. But if you're a believer,
We experience troubles and perplexities and persecutions and being cast
down beyond those troubles that all men experience, that come
upon all men. For we experience something that's
foreign to natural man. We experience the conflict and
the trouble brought about by the two natures that lives within
us. where inward sin troubles us.
And it troubles us at every turn and in every situation. And it
would destroy our peace. And it would take away our rest
and assurance. And would ultimately cause us
to despair and lose hope. That inward sin that the world
knows nothing about. The struggle with the two natures.
We as believers have a special trouble, it's called sin trouble. And the world has no problem
with sin. But we have a problem with it,
don't we? That inward sin. And it's not the sin that we
see out there. There's lots of sin out in the
world and we see it. And we're troubled by it. And
it saddens us. It's heartbreaking to see the
sin that folks are involved in in this world, and especially
when it involves someone we love. It breaks our heart. And we're
troubled about it. We're troubled from without,
but we're more troubled from that which lies within us. You
know, when we look at others and say, oh my, what an awful
thing. There was a time I'd say, I would
never do that. I would never act that way. But
I'm starting to learn about myself a little bit. I find myself seeing
that nature, that tendency in me. And I cry out, oh, wretched
man that I am, Lord, keep me. Deliver me from doing the very
same thing. My heart is nothing but sin. That natural
man, that natural heart can do nothing but sin. There lies within us our mortal
enemy. Our mortal enemy is within the
camp. We have one within us that would
forever destroy us. and it's in our own heart. Sin
and despair, like the sea waves cold, threaten the soul with
infinite loss. We live with that. We deal with
that. We struggle with that. In verse 8 and 9, let's read
it again. We're troubled on every side,
from without, from within, yet not distressed. We'll talk a
little bit about that. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. We sometimes say, and I've said
this, we don't know how folks get through the trials of life
if they don't know Christ. And that's right. Not only are they troubled, they're
distressed. Not only are they perplexed,
but they're in despair. No hope. How does a man get through the
trials of life if they don't know Christ? He's not only troubled, but he's
distressed. That means he's under pressure
that won't let up. Sorrows without hope. My oh my,
that's a deep, dark place, isn't it? not only perplexed but in
despair, forsaken by God and soon to be destroyed. That man will resort to anything
to relieve that distress and hopelessness they are in, and
we see it all the time. We see them resort to many different
things. Religion's one of them. And they
go into deep, dark places and avoid the Scripture, avoid the
Word of God, avoid preaching. They don't want to be faced with
their hopelessness. But an old believer, troubled
on every side, but not distressed, perplexed, don't understand everything,
understand very little, perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted,
but not forsaken of God. Cast down. Oh, we get cast down,
don't we? But not destroyed. Not destroyed. Well, first thing, turn over
to 1 Peter chapter 5. I want us to see some things about
these troubles, these afflictions. these hardships, these pains.
1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 9, we read, Whom resists steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. The same afflictions
are accomplished. That is to say, our afflictions,
our hardship, our pain, it has a purpose. It's accomplishing
something. It has an end. We often become distressed when
a hardship or trouble comes upon us and we question, why has this
happened to me? And we wonder if we could have
avoided it or how we can quickly get rid of it. How can I fix
this? And there's no rest in that.
There's no peace in that. No comfort in that thinking.
And how foolish it is for us to try to comfort ourselves with
our own thinking and our own devices and our own doing. But dear believer, there is rest
in trials by remembering and knowing this first of all. It
is your Heavenly Father that hath sent it with a good purpose
and a good design. For our good and for His glory. Rest in that first of all. All
things that come to you come from the hand of God. Rest in that first of all. It's
not that you messed up or I messed up. We probably did. But the first cause is God. Isaiah
45 verse 7 says this, and listen to this. Men don't believe this
about God, but Isaiah 45 verse 7 says, I form the light and
I create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.
Do you believe that about God? The world doesn't. And I'll say
this, if that's not so, well, let's just pack it in right now
and go to the house. Because if you're dealing with
something that God did not send or would not allow if He could,
it's all over. And all that's left is despair. That's the truth. Rest in that.
You're dealing with what you're dealing with. God sent it to
you with a good design and a good purpose. But our text says we're perplexed.
That doesn't mean we're not puzzled or perplexed or don't understand
it. But we're not in despair. We're
not in despair. This thing's not out of control.
It's out of our control. It's not out of God's control.
He could change your circumstance in the blink of an eye. But He
doesn't. Turn over with me to 1 Peter
1, verse 5. who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. If it's necessary, You're in
heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. If need be, you're in heaviness. And then look quickly back in
our text, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 17. It says, For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. It worketh. Our light affliction
worketh for us. There's purpose in it. It's working.
It's accomplishing that for which God had sent it. The trials of
the believer are sanctified unto us in that they help us. They instruct us. They correct
us. They create faith in us. They
strengthen faith, they encourage faith. The life of a believer
is a life of faith. And God sends these trials to
destroy everything we look to. He sends these trials to destroy
everything we have pleasure in. He sends these trials to destroy
our idols. to destroy all trust and confidence
that we place in people, in things. And He's bringing us to the place
that there is nowhere to look but Him, to Him, where He shows
Himself a rock, a mighty rock, in a weary land. The whole life of a believer
is designed and meant to create faith, a life of faith, and we
walk by faith, not by sight. Look back at 2 Corinthians 4
again, verse 6. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. God has revealed to us the Lord
Jesus Christ as all in all to God. He's all in all to God. And he's all in all to us as
believers. But as I mentioned before, there's
a but there, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We as earthen vessels cannot
contain and hold God and absorb all that He is. God has so ordered it that the
weaker the vessels are, the stronger His power may appear to be. For this reason, that the treasure
itself should be valued the more. Our Lord Jesus Christ and His
Gospel, that's the treasure. We're weak. And we speak of the
treasure, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whom we have
faith and in whom we trust. What does man do? He speaks of
his faith. My faith got me through. They talk about faith as if it's
the act of a strong, holy, consecrated man. The act of faith is the
act of a weak man who can't do anything for himself. It's the
exact opposite. It's the act of a man who's fallen
down before God. And God's put him in the dust.
And all he can do is look to God in faith and sue for mercy. Faith's not a meritorious act.
We're weak vessels. No strength. None whatsoever. Can't help ourselves. We cannot
believe God. Isn't that a sad commentary on
human nature? That a natural man cannot, will
not, not only will not, but cannot believe God. Incapable of believing
God. The life of God must be imparted
to that soul that he by faith can lay hold upon eternal life
in Christ the Savior. So, the treasure itself is what's
to be valued. Turn over to Psalm 73. Let's
look at that together. This speaks of the weakness of
a man. The psalmist says here, In verse
26, Psalm 73, 26, My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is
the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Look over in 2 Corinthians 12,
verse 9, Here, Paul is speaking, the Lord
gave Paul a thorn in the flesh that he not be exalted above
measure. And Paul said, I prayed three
times, the Lord removed this from me. But the Lord said unto
me, my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength, it's made
perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, my weakness, that the power of
God may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. We're weak, but in Him we're
strong. My grace, the Lord told Paul,
is sufficient. You're not sufficient. I'm not
sufficient. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength, it's made perfect. When you have no strength, isn't
that a blessed thought? Because I can identify with weakness. You know, in similar manner,
how we see that Christ shines more brightly against the blackness
of our nature, against what we are. He shines more brightly
when we see Him in His beauty, so as His strength seemed to
be a perfect strength when our weakness is brought to light. The psalmist says in Psalm 42
verse 5, Why art thou cast down on my soul? And why art thou
disquieted in me? Hope thou in God. I shall yet
praise Him for the help of His countenance. Psalm 37, 24 says, Though He
fall, He shall not be utterly cast down. Why? For the Lord upholdeth him with
His hand. He's our strength and He upholds
him with His hand. How often do we read in Scripture, be still and know that I am God. Stand still and see the salvation
of God. Wait upon the Lord. How many
times does the Scripture say, Wait upon the Lord? You know,
that's the hardest thing to do. To just wait. Cry out of the
depths unto Him and wait. Wait. Wait for Him to deliver. Wait on the Lord. Psalm 27 says,
verse 14, Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, And He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Proverbs 20 and verse 22 says,
Say not thou, I will recompense evil. I'll fix this. I'll restore
this. I'll make restitution for this.
Say not thou, I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord. and
He shall save thee." The Lord is my salvation. He will come
and will not tarry. He'll be right on time. Well, from whence does this help
come? How do we avail ourselves of
this help? From His Word. What He says. Look at John 14 with me, verse
25. Our Lord is about to go to the
cross. And He says this to His disciples
beginning in verse 25. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you, But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach
you all things." And look at this, He'll bring all things
to your remembrance, whatsoever I've said to you. That's where
we get this peace, this assurance, this help
from what He says. This is all we have. We don't
speak to Christ face-to-face. We've never seen Christ. But
He speaks to us through His Word. How do we avail ourselves of
this help that He sends us? From His Word. Comfort, assurance,
faith. All these things come from what
He says. And He gives us faith to believe
what He says. And causes our spirit to witness
with His Spirit as we read the Word of God. These things are
true and faithful. And our God is true and faithful.
And we're convinced of that. Because God has revealed Himself
to us and taught us. He Himself has taught us. The Word of God is our only source
of help. And we touched on this a while
ago, the preached word is the greatest means, for He's promised,
where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I. You believe
that? God's here. He's here, He's promised
that. We believe that, because He said
it. Not because we see something
or we feel something. We may not feel anything, and
thank God, none of this depends on our feelings. We believe God. God's to be believed. There's no question. There should
be no hesitation. I understand what we are. But
God's to be believed. He's God. Created all things. Upholds all things. Purposes
all things. Bringing everything to pass for
His glory and for the good of His people. Oh my, how often have you and
I been blessed by the Word preached? I'll attend to the Word in private,
but especially, especially when God's people are gathered and
we meet together with one heart, one mind, and a God-sent preacher
opens the Word of God. And God sent this preacher, our
pastor, many pastors, It's no small thing. And it's not something
we should take for granted. How often have we been blessed
by the Word preached? We sure have here, haven't we? Oh my, the preachers that we've
heard, the preaching that we've heard. But we need to have, as
our Lord said to His disciples, the Spirit will come and He'll
bring to your remembrance. You're going to forget. You're
going to get tied up in the world and the things that you see in
your flesh gets taken up with those things and you start looking
at yourself and doubting and become, you know, full of unbelief. We need to
be reminded of God's promises, what God has said. And He said
to us in His Word, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake
you for yet a little while. You're in the midst of trouble.
We all are to one degree or another, He says, in a little while. And
He that shall come will come, and He will not tarry. He's not
tarrying. He'll come in His time. Well, there are sometimes great
sorrows to be born. I hope I'm not making light of
trials and troubles and sorrows. Oh my, they're hard. I mean hard. And it brings with it a broken
heart. And we're made to weep. And we
are to weep and to mourn for such things. But we sorrow not as others which
have no hope. Isn't that a blessing? You can
sorrow with hope. Imagine sorrow without hope. What do you do? Just lay down
and die. We have been begotten again unto
a lively hope. And our heart lives in heaven. Our heart's in heaven, and it's
not on earthly things. Shall our heart live upon that
which shall be taken away? Oh my, the disappointment, if
we are. Remember, we read a minute ago,
all that we see is temporary, temporary. And the things that
we don't see are eternal. Oh, let's not fix our heart on
that which shall be taken away. Only a fool would do such a thing. But a man that doesn't believe
God, that doesn't trust Christ, he is a fool. And I'll go as
far as to say he's insane. And that's the truth. Regardless
of what he is by nature and what he's able to do and not to do,
a man that's outside of Christ is insane and he's a fool. And he'll be shown to be a fool
and insane when eternity comes. If our heart lives on earth,
these losses make us rebel against God. It tells us a lot about
where our heart is. They cause us to murmur. and
to think that God deals hardly with us. I deserve better. I don't deserve this. And we often run to wrong means
to escape from difficulties if our heart's on the things of
earth. But we as believers whose hearts
are in heaven, our heart is after heaven, long for heaven, We,
by God's enabling, must trust in the Lord and relying in sure
confidence upon the faithfulness of our covenant God who has promised. And He said this, let not your
heart be troubled. You're dealing with trouble.
Don't let your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. Don't
be afraid. Nothing to fear. They can't hurt
you. The flame shall not hurt thee.
We sang that a minute ago. Thy dross to consume, thy gold
to refine. That's my purpose in these trials. If we're distressed and in despair
and without hope, we're not looking to Christ. Where are you looking? Look unto Me. Looking unto Jesus,
the Scripture says. Come unto Me, our Lord says.
I'll give you rest. You can rest in trials and troubles. You remember when Peter was come
down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, the Scripture says, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried,
saying, Lord, save me. And the Scripture says this,
and I'll read what it says, and immediately, Not later on, but
he let him go under a couple times and said immediately, Jesus
stretched forth his hand and caught him and said under the
hymn, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Lord,
save me. Cry unto him out of the depths
and wait. He'll deliver. He that shall
come will come and will not tarry. Immediately. He'll lift up your heart. He
may not remove that thorn in the flesh like he told Paul.
My grace. He'll come in His grace and He'll
reach out His hand and grab hold of you. Children of God, remember this.
Oh, remember this. Help me to remember this, that
things are not as they appear to be. What we see is not the
way things are. I look at myself, God says of
me and Christ, that man never sinned. I can't see that in me. Only by faith, based upon what
God has said. I'm seated in Christ at the right
hand of God, yet I stand here before you. Things are not as
they appear to be with these physical eyes, but things are
as God says they are. And that's what we believe. We
believe what man cannot believe, what flesh cannot believe. We believe the unbelievable.
But we're given faith to believe things as they are. And God tells
us the reality of things. Hear this scripture, beloved,
now are we the sons of God. I'm a son of God. Don't feel
like it, don't look like it, don't act like it, don't smell
like it, but we now are the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear
what we shall be. I don't see it, but we know. We have faith. We believe God.
We know this, that when He shall appear, we're going to be just
like Christ. We'll be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is. Oh, for a heart of faith that
really, really believes God's Word, that can lift me up in
these troubles and trials, and not as they appear to be. Our text says, while we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. Only by faith can we see what
we can't see. Only by God-given faith. And
those things are eternal and lasting, and carry eternal weight. Well, I'm going to close with
this. I said I wouldn't take too long. I hope I haven't taken
too long. Let me say this. I must say this. It's a simple phrase that I love.
It just does something to my heart when I hear there's a song
called There is a Redeemer. And that's what I want to say
to you. There is a Redeemer. You know, it's a blessed thing
for me as I think, I need a Redeemer. There is one. There is a Redeemer. And He came willingly and gave
Himself a ransom as a sacrifice for sin. And I'm a sinner. That's
why I need a Redeemer. Precious Lamb of God slain for
sinners. God's own Son from the heart
of God, from the bosom of God, sent into this world as a substitute. The only reason He came, He came
to die. To give His life an offering
for sin. And it's to Him that I bid you
this day to look to and be saved. Look, life in a look. There's life in a look. Look
to Him and be saved. And believer, it's to Him I bid
you to look to be kept. It's to Him I bid you to look
to endure, to be encouraged, to be strengthened, to be given
faith. In your weakness and inability,
lift up your eyes and behold the Savior, the blessed substitute
for sinners. There's nothing else. To whom
shall we go? He has the words of eternal life. Can you by faith see in Him all
that your soul needs and all that your soul desires? God make
us that way. In Him, in Christ, our Redeemer
is all hope and all help We cannot help ourselves. We have no strength.
We're weak. We are unable to do anything
to deliver ourselves from the trials of this life, much less
deliver our souls from sin and death and hell. We're held captive
by all these things. And we're in the hands of God.
Go to Him. In Him is all hope. In Him alone
is all help. and cease from your labor, cease
from your own righteousness, give it up, lay down your weapons
of rebellion, and enter into His rest in His blessed Son. Let's read a few verses and we'll
close. First Peter chapter 1 and verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ, whom, having seen him, ye love. in whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing, we believe him, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls." We've received the end of our faith. It doth not yet appear, but we
know. When he shall appear, we'll be
like him. We shall see him as he is. The
end of our faith will be realized. I hope God is pleased to bless
that to the hearts of his people. And he's been honored and glorified.
Gary, come and lead us in a closing hymn. Let's stand and sing a couple
of stanzas of number 352. 352.