Good evening. So good to be here
tonight as always. Brother Chet was reading that
portion of scripture. There's a portion that fits right
in with tonight's message. It said in verse 18 of Proverbs
28, for surely there is an end and an expectation shall not
be cut off. That word there is for expectation
is hope. Hope. The name of the message
tonight is Patience of Hope. Turn, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians
1. We'll continue our study tonight
in this wonderful book. Last week we covered verse 1,
touched a little on verse 2, and we'll continue our study
tonight looking at verses 2 and 3 tonight. Let's read the first
five verses of 1 Thessalonians so we can get a context of the
verses we'll be studying this evening. Paul and Silvanus and
Timotheus, unto the Church of the Thessalonians, which is in
God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We
give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you
in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and
labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only,
but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance,
as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. Now, every born again, Blood-washed
believer will echo the words of Jonah saying salvation is
of the Lord. We'll echo those words. It's
all of him. It's all of our King. And we
delight, every born-again believer delights in giving God all the
glory and all the honor and all the praise for what he has done
for us. And we see that Paul brings forth
in verse 2 this wonderful truth He says, we give thanks, that
being Silas, Timothy and himself, we give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Beloved of
God, it's a good thing for God's people to pray. It's a good thing
for God's people to pray. It's a good thing for God's people
to give thanks to our great God. for the wondrous things that
he's done for us and in our lives. And it's especially true that
we should give great thanks to our God for the unspeakable gift
of eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see that
Paul, Silas, and Timothy, just as all God's sent preachers do,
they thank God and they prayed for these brethren in Thessalonica. And they had a very close relationship
with these brethren. because Paul and Silas and Timothy
were the instruments that God used to preach the true gospel
of His amazing grace to the Thessalonian saints. And never let us forget
that God the Father is the one who chose the saints of God,
the elect of God, to be recipients of His grace. He chose, if you're
a believer, He chose you to be a recipient of His grace. God did this based upon absolutely
nothing in us and all by the free and sovereign grace of God
in Christ. And God the Son is the one who
redeemed those who were given to Christ by the Father. God
the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the one who redeemed them
by the shedding of His precious blood and all by His grace. And the Holy Spirit of God is
the one who regenerates them by His almighty power and gives
them faith to believe on Christ, all again by God's amazing grace. Listen to the words written by
Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14. Again, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, he writes, We are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved. So he's writing
to the Thessalonians for a second time. And he says, we give thanks,
we're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses
13 and 14. Now these words apply to every
born-again believer. God hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. That's true for every believer. So every believer can
has reason to give thanks to our great God and every believer
has reason to give thanks for our brethren in Christ too as
well because it's God who from the beginning chose us to salvation
again through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the
truth so how thankful we should be knowing this blessed truth
how thankful we should be to our sovereign God for those who
have been delivered from the power of darkness including ourselves,
how thankful we should be. We've been translated from the
kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the eternal sun, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And notice Paul told the Thessalonian
believers that he prayed for them and he gave thanks for them.
He gave thanks for them. Again, this all has reference
to the saints at Thessalonica. And Paul said, we make mention
of you in our prayers, not just his prayers, but when they pray
together. And when him and Paul and Silas
pray, they pray for the saints at Thessalonica. Just like we
pray for one another and we pray for other grace churches too
and the preachers and the saints that are gathered together there.
We pray for them because we love them. Our hearts are knit together
in love. And Paul and Silas and Timothy were knit together in
love with the saints at Thessalonica. I'm sure they spent time in their
private devotions as well. I'm positive they did that. But
it also tells us in this text that they spent time together
praying. They spent time together praying. Silas and Timothy were
with Paul at Corinth when this epistle was written. And they
had again also assisted him in the foundation of the Thessalonian
church, which we saw last week when we looked in Acts chapter
17. And we know that they were just
instruments in the hands of the Lord, weren't they? And the Lord
was pleased to establish a church at Thessalonica. And we saw last
week many Gentiles and many noble of the Jews, the Lord saved.
They were elect, chosen vessels of our great God. And again,
Paul's official title, as we look at in the introduction to
this wonderful book, Paul's official title of apostle is omitted. It's omitted. In the address
of both this epistle and most other epistles, all except Philippians
and Philemon and this one were the only ones where Paul didn't
use his title. And the reason for its omission
is in every case with Philemon as well as Philippians, Paul
appears to have the intimate and affectionate character of
his relations with the parties being addressed at hand. He has
an intimate relationship with them. He didn't need to appeal
the fact that he's an apostle. He didn't need to appeal to that.
He didn't need to appeal to the authority that he had from the
Lord. No. These folks knew him intimately.
They knew who he was. Especially here at the Thessalonian
church, because again, he was the instrument used by God, him
and Silas and Timothy to establish the church. And in the word of
God, we see clearly that God God's people are to pray to our
great God. Even our Lord Jesus Christ admonishes
his people to pray in the model prayer. He tells us to pray our
Father who art in heaven. He tells us that. He gives us
a model. We should pray for one another's needs as we do here
in the church. And that's another thing. Zane
talked to Zane just yesterday and he said, please tell the
saints I'm thankful for their prayers. It's wonderful. It's
absolutely wonderful. God's people are thankful when
we hear others are praying for us and we're thankful and we're
more than happy to pray for our dear brethren, aren't we? More
than happy to pray for them. Oh my. So we should pray for
one another's needs. We should pray for our daily
bread. We should pray for our daily needs. We should pray for
our unsaved loved ones. We should also pray for grace
to forgive those who have offended us, or pray for grace for others
to forgive us if we've offended them. And we should pray for
those who preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace,
to make his gospel effectual, praying for an increase in the
Lord's eternal kingdom, if it be his will. But we should never
think that our prayers can change what God has purposed. Our prayers
cannot change what God has purposed. The Apostle John said this, if
we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Our
Lord Jesus Christ in one of his prayers to his father said, oh
father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless
not as I will, but as thou will. Matthew 26, 39. The scriptures
also say God searches the hearts. and knoweth what is in the mind
of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according
to the will of God, Romans 8, 27. So when you make a statement
like that, that our prayers can never change what God has purposed,
some might foolishly say, well, then why pray? You may have heard
that before. Well, then why do you guys pray
then? Well, prayer is God's will for the saints. Prayer is God's
will for the saints. The scripture says this. in everything
in this book, in chapter five, verse 18, in everything give
thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. How do we give thanks? When we
pray to our Lord, we give him thanks and praise. Also the scripture
says this in Hebrews 13, 15, by him, by Jesus Christ, therefore
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to our God continually,
continually, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
So God, the scriptures command us to pray. And I'll tell you
what, you don't have to tell God's people to pray. They want
to pray. They want to talk to our great
God in King. And praise and thanksgiving comes
from the heart, beloved, and expresses itself in words that
come from the mouth. And we give thanks and praise
to the One who is the source of all our blessings, spiritually
and physically. And it is God who is not only
able, but most assuredly shall supply all your need according
to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Never forget, beloved
of God, that our great God's riches are inexhaustible. They are inexhaustible, inexhaustible. Therefore, all that we need is
found in Christ. All that we need is found in
Christ Jesus, our Lord, again, who's God incarnate in the flesh.
And His wisdom and His works both relate to the salvation
accomplished by His Son. So all good things flow from
God through Christ to His people. And they will redound to His
glory. They will give Him praise. They
were given praise, given glory for the salvation of the elect,
for the salvation of his people. And this is why we pray to him
with thanksgiving. We know what we've been saved
from. We know who saved us. We've been
saved from our sins, beloved. We've been saved from the penalty
of our sins. We've been saved from the power
of our sins. And we know who it is that saved
us. It's none other than God incarnate in the flesh, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the one who saved us. God
has saved us. And so it's natural for we who
are born again to give thanks to him, to give thanks to him,
to give thanks to he who alone is worthy of our praise or no
one else worthy of our praise. No one else. Only our Lord Jesus
Christ. He's worthy of our praise. I'll
ask you this. Do we not tell our loved ones,
those we can see with physical eyes, that we love them? Of course
we do. Do we not communicate with them?
Do we not tell them how thankful we are that they are in our lives?
Of course we do. Yes, we do. And we do that, if
that love is true, we do that, don't we? We do that. Then that
is an expression that comes from our hearts. If it's true, true
love, then that's an expression that comes from our hearts, beloved.
Peter said these words, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, whom
having not seen ye love. Speaking of our great God. We've
not seen Him, but we sure love Him, don't we? We who are His
people. Though now ye see Him not, yet believing, we don't
see Him, but we believe on Him. We believe on him. You rejoice
with what joy unspeakable and full of glory, given all the
glory to our king, given him all the glory and honor and praise.
So every child of God should delight in communicating with
God in prayer as we love God because he first loved us. And
again, prayer is just speaking to our Lord. And no one else
even has to know you're doing it. Oh, my. Just talking to our
Lord. just speaking to him. Let's look
at verse 3. It says here, remembering without
ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. Now we see in verse 3 that Paul
is commending the saints at Thessalonica for some things that accompany
salvation. He's bringing forth some things
that accompany salvation. True saving faith produces good
works for the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. And we know
from our study a few weeks ago in Matthew that God's people
don't even know when they do those works. They have no idea. But God knows them. Because the
scripture says this, and this is true, we know that true saving
faith produces good works for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The scripture proclaims that we are God's workmanship created
in Christ Jesus, unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Now, faith works by love, and
true, saving faith is God's gift to his people. We know without
faith, it's impossible to please God, the scripture declares in
Hebrews 11.6. And true, genuine love for God is the first thing
that's listed in the fruit of the Spirit. Turn, if you would,
to Galatians 5, and let's read there. We'll read, first of all,
the works of the flesh, And then we keep reading down to, we'll
read from verse 18 all the way to 26, and look at this. But
if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. What a
wonderful verse. That alone should make us praise
God. Now the works of the flesh, so
what Paul's going to do here, he's going to give a contrast
between the works of the flesh and between the fruit of the
spirit. And remember, now the works of
the flesh, they're ours. We don't we don't have to try
to do them. They come naturally. They just come naturally, beloved.
And as we read the list, we'll find out they come naturally.
But the fruit of the spirit is not something that we can muster
up. It's a work of God, the Holy Spirit in the believer. Let's
look at these verses again. Verse 19. Now the works of the
flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
have you ever hated anyone without a cause? Variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, divisions, that's divisions, heresies, envians,
murders, drunkenness, reviling, And such like of the witch I
tell you, as I have also told you in times past, that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now
before we're saved, we're found in various categories there.
Even after we're saved, we still struggle with the flesh, don't
we? Oh, the flesh, the flesh, the flesh. Look at this next. But the fruit of the Spirit is
what? Look at the first one, love.
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live
in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
And see, this warning is in Scripture. because we're all prone to it.
We're all prone to these things. Now, the love spoken of there
in Galatians 5.22, that's the love of God shed abroad in the
believer's heart. That's the love of God shed abroad
in the believer's heart. And without this love spoken
of in Galatians 5.22, we're nothing without this love of God shed
abroad in our hearts. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
13 and we'll see. Without this love of God shed
abroad in our hearts of the believer, one's merely an empty vessel. So if one doesn't have the love
of God shed abroad in their hearts, they're an empty professor. Basically,
if they're not born again, they're just a mere professor. But if
this love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, which we know
is a love for the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, a love for
the brethren, A love for the scriptures. See, there's all
kinds of things have changed now. Oh my. And this is all the
fruit of the Spirit, beloved. It's not something we can muster
up. Satan can counterfeit a lot of things, but he can't counterfeit
the love of God that's shed abroad in the heart of a believer. He
can't counterfeit that. He can counterfeit a lot of stuff,
but he can't counterfeit that. Listen to what Paul writes here
again by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God in 1 Corinthians
chapter 13. And every time it says charity,
I'm going to say love, because that's what the underlying Greek
word is. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels and have not love, I am become a sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal. Brother Henry says, irritating
noise. Irritating noise. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not
love, I am nothing. Now remember who's writing this
too. This is Paul the Apostle. And he's writing this by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
and have not love, it profit me nothing. So if they're not
born again, if the true love of God's not shed abroad in their
hearts, people who are supposedly martyred for their faith, but
have no love for Christ, the scripture here says it means
nothing. It profits them nothing. They may think they're gonna
get great rewards, but it doesn't profit them at all. Not at all.
Now think of that with religion, beloved. My oh my. Love suffereth
long and is kind. Love envieth not. Love vaulteth
not itself. It is not puffed up, doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity or wickedness, but
rejoices in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth. But whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they
shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
And the reason that is in there is Paul has been writing this
letter exhorting the Corinthian believers in love that they're
misusing spiritual gifts, misusing them. And so isn't that interesting
that that's put right in there? For we know in part and we prophesy
in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When
I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought
as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now, this is when we're here on this earth, we see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. Right now we see through
a glass darkly, beloved, but when we're in glory, we'll see
our great King face to face. Oh, what a glorious time that'll
be. Now I know in part, right, we're learning, we're growing
in the wisdom and knowledge of our great King, but then shall
I know even as I am knowing. Oh my. And now abide with faith,
hope, and love. These three, but the greatest
of these is love. And again, this is the love of
God shed abroad in the believer's heart. That's what this is. Paul
is writing about the love we looked at in Galatians 5.22.
If we do not have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts,
God-given, heartfelt, brotherly love, a true root of love for
man which flows from a true love for God, then we are nothing
but a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. If we have not this brotherly
love, one can say, I am nothing. I may be great in the eyes of
man, but in the account of God, I'm nothing. I'm nothing. And
beloved faith and love that comes from God go hand in hand. Faith
and love go hand in hand. hand in hand. If you love the
Lord, you're going to love his gospel, you're going to love
his word, you're going to love his people. And you can't have
one without the other, therefore any work of faith is what? A
labor of love. Pastor Henry Mahan said this,
he said, true faith is a working grace. Faith that does not produce
good works and obedience is not saving faith. Now in no way do
these works, these good works, in no way that we don't even
know we do, in no way do they justify us. It's not that. Faith
without works is dead. It's just fruit. It's fruit of
the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts. Why do we come
here? Why do we come here on Wednesdays, on Sundays, Sunday
mornings and Sunday evenings to hear the gospel preached and
proclaimed? Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts. We love the Lord. We love the
Lord. There's so many people we know
and we used to be part of them. They're doing stuff, whatever
they desire to do, they're doing it. It's all the flesh, but we
can come here and this is our refuge, isn't it, beloved? This
is our refuge. We come here and we glorify God
in song and in our hearts. Sometimes you don't even have
to say anything and you're glorifying God in your heart after hearing
the gospel message. Just giving God thanks and praise. It's been said that people cannot
live on love, that love won't pay the bills. One preacher said,
I say that you cannot live without it. And this is speaking of the
love of God shed abroad in our hearts. I'm not talking about
what the world calls love. The scripture tells us that men
are lovers of self and lovers of pleasure more than lovers
of God. True love is what we're looking at with this tonight,
that true love of God shed abroad in our hearts as believers. Those who love Christ because
he first loved us. And what but love would make
men and women Come to hear a man tell them that their righteousness
is as filthy rags and tell them that they have no works or worth
to commend them to God. What but love would make us come
and hear that? What but love for Christ? It
is a love that causes sinners to deny themselves and causes
them to lay no claim to anything in themselves and to find Christ
is all their righteousness. It is the love of God shed abroad
in the heart that makes souls count everything that we were
and all that we did before the Lord saved us as dumb. It's that
love of God shed in our hearts that makes us feel that way.
What but this love of God shed abroad in the believer's heart
would cause, again, men and women to bring their hard-earned money
and give it to support the ministry of their assembly, to support
one another, and give to those in need? What but this love of
God would cause men and women to do that? It's because we love
the Lord. And God's put that love in our
hearts, beloved. It's a fruit of the Spirit, as
we looked at in Galatians 5.22. People say you can't live on
love, but this love you can't live without. This love the believer
can't live without. And again, men may counterfeit
many things, but God's love cannot be imitated. Either you have
it or you don't. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and
knoweth God. 1 John 4, 7. We see then that the active operation
of the grace of God is the love of God shed abroad in the believers'
hearts. And Paul is writing that when
one has this love, things that we do for Christ are labors of
love. Labors of love, beloved. And
we do it to glorify our King, don't we? We do it to further
the gospel, to further the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
so Paul's writing here that all this glorifies God. Our labors
of love glorify God. Listen to the statement by our
wonderful, merciful Savior, and we see that it's come to pass
in the believers' lives. And we know it comes to pass
in each true born again believer. Our Lord said this in John 15
8. Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit to bear
much fruit. I'll read it again. Herein is
my father glorified that you bear much fruit. Love is a fruit
of the Spirit. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.
Peace is a fruit of the Spirit. Our Lord said, the Father is
glorified when we bear much fruit. And we don't even know when we're
doing that. We don't even know when we're doing that. This is
just natural for the believer to love the gospel, isn't it?
It's natural for the believer to love one another. It's natural
for the believer to love gathering with the saints. Now think of
this, when we were in the flesh, we had no desire to do any of
that. That's a miracle of grace. That's a miracle of grace, beloved.
That's the fruit of the spirit. That's the fruit of the spirit.
And we are only fruitful, we who are the branches, we're only
fruitful because we're united to the vine. We're united to
the vine. Who's the vine? The Lord Jesus Christ. And the
only way we produce fruit is from all that nourishment that
comes up through that vine, beloved. That's the only way. That's the
only way. all by God's power. So thereby
we have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts and it comes
from our great God and it's all for His glory. It's all for His
glory. Oh, and our love that we have
for His gospel, our love that we have for one another, our
labor of love for the furtherance of the gospel, all is the fruit
of the Spirit, beloved. And it all glorifies our great
God. And our great God is also glorified
through the preaching of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ.
So we see tonight, beloved, in verse three, that the saints
at Thessalonica were motivated by love for Christ. They were
motivated by love for Christ. That's why you often hear we
grace preachers say the love of Christ constrains us from
sin. It's the love that we have for Christ that constrains us.
And that love, again, is the love of God shed abroad in our
hearts by God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And the
saints, Bethesda and Lyca, were motivated by love for Christ,
love for his gospel, love for one another, as they labored
in God's vineyard. They labored in the portion of
the vineyard where God planted. When I moved out here, Brother
Norm said, well, you're just moving to another portion of
the vineyard, Brother Wayne. Just a little further away from
me, he said. But you're in the same vineyard. So each gospel
church is a little outpost in the vineyard of God, beloved.
little outpost in the vineyard of God look at the verse 3 again
remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of
God and our Father so Silas and Timothy had went to Paul who
was at Corinth and had given him a report of the Saints at
Thessalonica and it was a good report it was a report of their
ceaseless work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope
and the Lord Jesus Christ. And they did this in the sight
of God and our Father. Remember, our great God is all-knowing
and all-powerful. All things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, seeing then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
Christ. the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." So
consider those things that characterize these saints at Thessalonica.
They manifest patience of hope, the scripture says here. Patience
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.
These saints had a good hope. They had a good hope through
grace given unto them, which was founded in the Lord Jesus
Christ in His person, in His blood and in His righteousness. He was their anchor, sure and
steadfast, and their faith was in Christ. It had Christ and
Christ alone as the object, just like every believer, just like
every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And their hope was in
Christ and Him alone. There was a hope of interest
in Him, in Him. of being with him forever, of
his second coming, and his glorious appearance of eternal life and
happiness through him. Again, he was the object of their
hope. We see that this hope was attended
with patience. They patiently waited for him,
just as we patiently wait for his return. We're either gonna
see him when he returns a second time, or if he tarries, we'll
see him at the moment we breathe our last breath. We're gonna
see him, though. Oh my. And so they patiently
waited. They patiently waited. A patient
bearing, and remember too what they're going through. Some think
that this was written during the times of Nero when he was
using Christians as candlesticks, human candlesticks. So they were
being persecuted for their faith, persecuted for their faith, reproaches
were poured out upon them, afflictions, all for the sake of Christ. And
yet they had a patient hope, a patient waiting for His coming,
a patient waiting for His coming, a patient waiting for his kingdom
and glory. And Paul said that he constantly
remembered these Thessalonian saints and their work of faith
and of love and patience of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ when
he prayed in the sight of God and our Father. How could he
forget to pray for them? How could he forget to pray for
them? Again, he was the instrument that God had used to deliver
them from that awful pit that they were in. They, beloved,
they were knit together in love, like Paul wrote Philemon, when
he said, our hearts are knit together in love. Their hearts
were knit together in love. And what was that love? That
love was the love of God shed abroad in their hearts. They
were born again, blood-bought children of God, just as Paul
was. So he's writing, he's writing to fellow born-again believers,
blood-washed believers, purchased with the same blood as he is,
granted the same faith that he had, The object of their hope
was the same object of his hope and faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And remember too, once again, these things are written to the
saints at Thessalonica, apply to all of God's saints in any
location and in any generation. So they apply to us too, they
apply to us too. If the love of God has been shed
abroad in our hearts, again by the life-giving power of God
the Holy Spirit, then you will love the Lord Jesus Christ and
will manifest that love for him by your love for his gospel and
your love for his chosen blood-bought people. God help us to manifest
works of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father,
all for the glory of our risen, exalted King, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and our Savior." We're closed with these words of Peter,
again inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. He penned these words
in 1 Peter 1, verse 22. He writes this, Seeing you have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit
unto unframed love of the brethren, see that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently. Amen.