I would ask you this morning
to turn in your Bibles to the eleventh chapter of the
book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter eleven. I want to talk to you about faith
this morning. that faith that pleases God. I'll begin reading in verse 1
where the Apostle says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for. He has just said back in verse
38, Now the just shall live by faith. And so he says, Now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. For by it the elders obtained
a good report. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being
dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death and was not found because God
had translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony,
that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible
to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him." Now, some weeks ago I came across a statement by an old preacher
and writer that really struck me as being
not only true, so very well put, so very eloquently spoken. And it had to do with faith. He said, faith is the brightest
star in the firmament of grace. High in its origin, for it is
born in heaven, lowly in its abode, for it dwells on earth
in the hearts of the redeemed. Mighty are its deeds, for it
prevails with God and over sin and Satan. It treads down seeming
impossibility. It strides to victory over mountains
of stupendous hindrance. It speeds to its haven through
oceans in which each billow is an overwhelming difficulty. It braces the Christian warrior
for every combat. giving a shield to screen and
a sword to subdue. It has a keen eye to discern
things invisible. It reads the mind of God as written
in the tablets of eternity, as emblazoned on the cross of Christ,
as wrapped up in the folds of providence. It enthrones Jesus
as King of the inner man. It kindles and fans the flame
of love. It opens the lips of prayer and
praise. It turns the current of life
into a strong stream of spiritual service. It endures until the
gates of light open at its touch, it only expires when it sees
the Lord face to face. That is faith. And I thought about how often,
how in so many ways, by both those who would be considered
religious and also those irreligious in this world. A lot of folks
talk about faith. But faith, as it is used in this
book, the faith that is described as
The faith of God's elect is used in two ways. First of all, it is called the
faith. And when we read about the faith,
it is talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of
grace. the gospel of God. And it is distinguished from
every other by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 4 when he says this,
There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one
hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith. There are not many
faiths. He says there is one faith because
there is one Lord. So that when Saul of Tarsus was
confronted by Christ, and brought to a saving knowledge of the
Lord Jesus, those that had heard of Him prior to that, they only
knew that He persecuted the faith. And we read in Scripture that
after that, that He which persecuted in times past, that He now preached
the faith. which he wants destroyed. The faith is the gospel. Paul says in Philippians 1, "...only
let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ,
that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear
of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one
mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. This is the gospel. But the other way in which it
is used, and maybe most often is used, faith is used in speaking
of that grace. or that means by which God's
people are enabled to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To have faith is to believe on
Christ. It is to believe the gospel of
Christ. It is to believe God. I noticed again as I read that
third verse where the Apostle says, through faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. You see, if we believe in something
man-made, or if we believe even in some kind of evolutionary
process, we reveal that we do not have faith. By faith, we
believe just what God says, just what really is obvious, that
God, out of nothing, simply by His Word, spoke this world into
existence. We believe that. And yet, at
the same time, biblical faith, the faith which Christ spoke
of when He said to one, thy faith hath saved thee, is not the possession
of all people. Rather than saying, as most believe,
that all people have faith if they'd only exercise it, the
Bible says just the opposite. All men have not faith. And yet even those who say that
they have faith, they seem to have a problem with what Christ
said there when He said to that person, thy faith hath saved
thee. That can't be a problem if we
understand what the Scriptures teach about salvation in Christ
and the faith that most people have is nothing more and maybe
much less than even what James said the devils have and believe. He said to some and all who'd
read what he wrote, thou believest that there is one God, thou doest
well. The devils also believe, and
they tremble. So, to believe is evidently much
more than to believe that there is a God, or even that there
is one God, or even to believe it and tremble at the thought
of it. That's not faith. And really,
when you stop and listen to what people are saying, their believing
is little more than a believing in their self, a believing in
their believing, or a relying on their act of believing, and
a believing, really, of what they want to believe. In the Old Testament, The prophet
said, their God is not like our God as they themselves have said. You listen to what men and women
say when they talk about my God and you will find out that their
God is not the God of this book and not the God of those who
truly believe. You see, true faith, this faith
that pleases God, is said in Scripture to be the gift of God's
grace. It is the gift of a sovereign,
absolute God who does what He will and who gives to each one
as He will. The Apostle Paul, writing of
this very thing in Ephesians 2, he makes this as clear as
it can be stated. He says, For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God. This faith that pleases God is
the gift of God. It's the gift of His grace. And He gives this faith to His
people. He acts in this as He has done
in every other thing in His grace. He gives faith to those He chose
in Christ before the world began. He gives this faith to those
He has loved with an everlasting love. He gives this faith to
those that Christ came into this world and died on that cross
for. He gives this faith by the operation
of His Spirit to His people. and that when he quickens them
by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. As a matter of fact, if
I had to say what is the biggest central difference between the
unregenerate soul and that person who is said in Scripture to be
born of God, it would be this thing. One does not believe And the
other does believe. And when men and women start
to distinguish the difference by things that people do or abstain
from doing, that's when they get in trouble. That's when they
try to make a person who is born of God to be something that they
really are not in themselves. The difference is they now believe. They believe God. And the reason that this takes
place is because that they now live, being given spiritual life
by God, and therefore they believe. And though they happen simultaneously,
they are set forth in Scripture in this order. They live and
therefore they believe. just like a baby. When that baby
is born, it doesn't cry in order to live. It cries because it's
alive. And so our Lord says to this
woman in John 11, He says at the resurrection of Lazarus,
Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Does what? whosoever lives and
believes in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" In other
words, if she believed this, if she believed what Christ said,
that was an evidence that she was a living soul and had faith. And the Spirit of God gives this
gift of faith in an inseparable connection to the Word of God. You don't just have faith because
to have faith is to believe something. It's to believe on somebody. And that somebody and what we
are to believe concerning them as well as ourselves and everything
else is declared and set forth in the Word of God. And so, therefore,
this is a necessary conclusion. Therefore, those who have not
heard the gospel, that is, they have not heard the true gospel,
they cannot believe the true gospel. Is that saying too much? Not according to Paul in Romans
10. Because he actually quotes out
of the Old Testament the truth that is always the same after
he has just said, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Immediately he follows that with
this. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? That sounds logical, doesn't
it? How then can they call on Him
in whom they've not believed? They can talk about God. They
can talk about Jesus. But if they've never heard of
the true Jesus, if all they've ever heard of is this, as he
says, another Jesus, how can they call on Him in whom they've
not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they've not heard. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? You can't believe on one of whom
you've not heard. You cannot hear unless you hear
the gospel of Jesus Christ. One cannot preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ, he says, unless he be sent of God. Paul goes on. He says, "...but
they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord,
who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God." You can believe a lot of things.
As a matter of fact, you can believe almost everything and
not have faith. You can have what you call my
faith. You can have much faith, a lot
of faith. You can have been a so-called
believer for a long time. But if it's not a belief in the
report of God. It's not about sincerity. Faith's
not about sincerity. Faith's not about feeling. Faith
is really about The facts. The facts of God. He said, who
hath believed our report? He said, so then faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. True faith is not
what some people call blind faith. When the Apostle begins to speak
about faith here, what does he begin in the very opening verse
about this? He says faith is substance and
evidence. You say, well, if you can't prove
it to me, let me tell you this, God has proven to everyone that
He wants to prove to, or will prove it to them, that this is
substance and evidence. We're not believing some historian
here. We're not believing some fantasy
writer. We're not believing some myth
or something like that. Men like to reduce it to this.
But standing for so long, immovable through everything imaginable,
standing the test of time again and again is the Word of God. And men who believe, they believe
God. That's what Paul said when he
spoke to those men, those sailors in the midst of that storm. I
love what he said to them. He said, I believe God. Well, the storm is raging. They
say, we've seen this before, not this bad, but we know it's
going to be this way. We're all going to be destroyed.
Everything is going to be lost. Every soul is going to be lost. He says, I believe, God, that
it shall be as He said unto me. What was that? that nothing,
that is, not one soul would be lost. That's what I believe. I believe that everyone that
God says in this book that he will save I believe that not
one of them will be lost. I believe that everyone that
he sets his affection on, everyone that Christ died for, everyone
that the Spirit of God calls to faith in Christ, I believe
it will be just exactly as he has said. And the things of God's
mercy and God's grace in that salvation which is in Christ
Jesus are not the possession of any by their act of faith,
Because when the Scriptures say by faith, they mean through faith,
and that is through the Christ who is believed upon and received
through faith. That work that he accomplished
when he came into this world and lived and died is the person
and work of Christ that is stated in the gospel. You see, faith comes out in the
mouths of so many for just what they really believe it is. It's
something that men do. No faith has to do with what
Christ did. And so, the importance of faith
cannot be overstated or its value overstated because it is infinitely
and eternally not only necessary, but most significant. I want
you to look down now at this fifth verse. He says, by faith. As a matter
of fact, that's the way just about all these verses are going
to start. By faith. By faith, Enoch was translated
that he should not see death. All that means is that God took
Enos into His presence without the natural state of death, without a natural
earthly death. And he was not found because
God had translated him. He just took him up. Now, this
is a man. who I know had problems. You
go back and you find out he's a man who had a family, he had
children. I know he had problems. He was a man who was a son of
Adam, born in sin and shapen in iniquity. He was a man who
lived in this world, and my friends, after the fall, I don't care
how far back it was or how recent it was, when sin entered in,
it's all the same deal. But before the Lord took him, before his translation by God,
he had this testimony that he pleased God. Now, let me tell
you this. There's only one who can give
that testimonial toward a man, and that's God Himself. You can think you please God,
and I can think I can please God, and I can tell you I know
you please God, and I can drag on you all the way until they
drop you into the ground. Billy, you've seen it lots of
times, I'm sure. No person at a funeral service
is ever going anywhere but heaven. But there's only one who can
give this testimony towards you. that you please God, and that's
God Himself. And that's exactly what was said
of Enoch. Enoch, a sinner. Enoch, a father. Enoch, a husband. Enoch, a man
living and working in this world. He pleased God. That's what it says. Look in
the next verse. But without faith, it is impossible
to please Him. You see that? That's awful important. I don't, that means I don't care
how good you think you live, how good I think I live, or what
a good person. You know, we've just rehashed
this stuff. I'm okay, you're okay, everybody's
good, we're good. You got your ideas, I got my
ideas. Why can't we just live, get along,
and all this kind of stuff? Do you ever wonder why our social
remedies don't work? After all these many years, after
all this long a time as a nation, with all the people, with all
the bright minds, with all the things that have been done, with
all the money that's been spent, do you ever wonder why our social
problems don't get any better, but things get worse? Do you
ever ask yourself that question? We've had the Republicans. We've
had the Democrats. We've had the Whigs. We've had every other kind of
party. Now we're on the Tea Party process. Do you ever wonder why
it doesn't work? Because everyone denies the real
problem. Why can't we just get along? Why can't we just all share the
wealth. And why can't we all just? Because
we are sinners. Because all the evil of this
world rises up and out of who and what we are. And my friend,
you will live a lie all your days with all the rest of this
world unless God gives you faith. to believe Him. You see, you're not who you think
you are. You're exactly who and what God
says you are. And He says that we've all sinned
and come short of His glory. We don't think we're that because
we have no faith of ourselves. We run to these foolish remedies
offered by man or to self-improvement or whatever it is because we
don't believe God. But here is a man by the name
of Enoch who was a fallen son of Adam. One who was born in
sin, and who had a nature of sin, and who actually sinned
against God, and yet it says he pleased God. He pleased the
holy God. He pleased the righteous, just
God. Somebody says, doesn't that make
faith a work in itself? No, because the character of
faith is exactly the opposite. It is a ceasing from our work
and a believing God, a believing on Christ. But without faith,
Is it hard to please God? No. It's impossible. Impossible. Faith is in the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. Faith in Him who alone is the
One who is described as the Lord, our righteousness. Faith in the
One who is the God-pleaser. He's the one with whom God is pleased. He's
the only one that God spoke all to thee from heaven and said
of him, this is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God is pleased with His Son in
every aspect. He is pleased with who He is.
He is pleased with everything He did. He is pleased, so pleased
that He highly exalted Him even above His essence as God the
Son. He exalted Him because of what
He became in human flesh. He exalted Him because of what
He did in His mediatorial work. And this is the only way that any sinner has ever pleased
God, is in Christ. Faith in Christ. Turn over to Romans chapter 14. Romans 14. When Paul is talking about eating meat or not eating meat,
causing your brother to stumble, he just immediately injects into
that Do you have faith? Do you have faith? He says in verse 23, And he that
doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith. He said, here's a person who
doesn't feel that he can eat this particular meat. He maybe
is untaught altogether in the Scriptures in this particular
area of life and whatever it is. And he says, if he eats it,
he doesn't do it in faith. He does it just because you tell
him to. Then he gives us this principle.
For whatsoever is not of faith is sin." You see that? Whatsoever is not
of faith is sin. That's just the way it is. Nothing that we do before faith
in Christ And nothing we ever do apart from a looking to God
through faith in Christ is ever anything but sin. It's all sin. Everything we've ever done, everything
that we ever will do, Everything that we are in ourselves, since
we are sinners, is sin. So that the only thing that pleases
God is what we have through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe, if we have faith,
first what God says about Himself, and we believe by faith what
He says about us. Will we ever believe those two
things? We'll believe on His side. we'll find that faith has legs
that run to Christ. Faith has hands that reaches
out and takes hold of that eternal life in Him. Faith has eyes to
behold the glory of His grace in the face of Jesus Christ. And faith is not believing on
some mystical person, but a believing the record that God has given
of His Son as He died as the substitute of His people in order
to satisfy the very justice of God in our behalf. You say, well, I don't know anything
about that righteousness stuff. I don't know anything about God
being just, or I don't know anything about substitution, or Christ
standing as our surety. I don't know anything about that
stuff. But I believe God. You're lying. I'm sorry. Because that's what faith believes. That Christ came to make an end
of the sins of His people and to bring in everlasting righteousness. That's why it says that this
faith is faith in His blood. Somebody could say, well, when
Christ came along in the New Testament, He's here now, and
that means it's just faith in Him. No. When the Apostle says
faith in His blood, he ties Christ and His death to every one of
those Old Testament sacrifices. That's why Paul said, I preach
to you what I first received myself, how that Christ died
according to those Old Testament Scriptures." What was that? A price, a sacrifice,
an atonement made for a particular people in the matter of their
sin. You see, the faith of God's elect,
not only as a gospel, but as the belief in itself, has to
do with Christ crucified. Well, I get tired of singing
about this death and hearing about this redemption and this
blood. Why don't we have something inspiring?
Because what we need is something saving. You can go to your grave inspired,
feeling good about yourself, and dying your sins. You say, well, Richard, don't you ever have
anything good to say about me? Only compared to me. I will say
you're probably better than me, but not good enough for God.
You can't please God. Of yourself. And so it ought
to be of the greatest interest to us. to find out how it was that this
man, Enoch, and not only him, but Abel before him, not only
him, but Noah, and all these others we read about here in
chapter 11 of Hebrews, how that they pleased God by faith. He had this testimony, by faith
he pleased God. Everything that's not given by
God and received of the sinner through faith in Christ crucified
is sin. I've said it before. It's either
Christ and His blood, for sin. No middle ground. It's either
saved in him and by him or lost. It's either accepted in the beloved
or rejected as sinners and cast into outer darkness. is either
saved through faith in Him or condemned to eternal punishment
forever, because God must punish sin. And the Spirit of God has to
destroy our every false refuge and cause us to flee to the Lord
Jesus Christ as the Lord our righteousness alone. And He has
to do that work in us by which we are made to lose our grip
on everything that we thought in us or done by us or received
by religion for us as righteousness. And to count it all as what?
Sin. Sin. You see, this faith, somebody
says, don't call it saving faith. Well, now, wait a minute. Christ
did. I'm not going to fit your little
compartment and deny what He said. I've spent all the time
in my life I want to believe in and being afraid of what men
say. You get afraid of what men say,
and that's what the Bible calls a snare. The fear of man brings
a snare. Hooks you and traps you and keeps
you right there. Well, preacher so-and-so doesn't
believe it that way, or Dr. Gill didn't write it like this
or explain it like this. I don't care. I believe God. I believe God. But this faith glorifies God
because it brings nothing. It offers nothing. but seeks
all from God in Christ, and desires that God in all things may be
glorified in him." And my friends, faith in Christ, belief in God, is what the Apostle
John calls doing righteousness. You say, well, without faith
it's impossible to please God. What does that mean? It means
it's impossible for us to do righteousness. Can we really do righteousness?
Well, it says that we do when we believe on Christ. When we
look to Him, when we believe God, I'll read it to you. He
says, if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone
that doeth righteousness is born of Him. That sounds almost scary, doesn't
it? Well, it goes on. Little children,
let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous even as he is righteous. You're fixing to preach works
here, aren't you, Preacher? No? You see, doing righteousness. It's not man doing works. It's
just exactly the opposite. I'll give you another, and he
says, "...in this the children of God are manifest, and the
children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God." You say, well, the reason why
that God rejected Cain was because he rose up and slew his brother.
No. The reason that Cain rose up
and slew his brother was because he didn't do righteousness. He
didn't believe on Christ. He's still mad about his works.
God rejected him. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Christ, by which he obtained
witness that," what? He was righteous. Are you righteous? Say you don't
look like it. Well, this is not something you
see, and this is not something you do in the flesh. It's what
God enables all His people to do, and that's to believe on
Christ. Abel believed God. That the only way that he could
be accepted by God was through a sacrifice for his sins. And this sacrifice of sin that
God had appointed was a representative and picture of the one who'd
come and die on that cross to put away his sin. And he believed
God. He said, I'm offering up this
sacrifice. Because he said to Him. He didn't
believe that animal blood was going to put away his sin. But
he knew that this was the only way God would put away his sin,
by the sending of his Son. You see, it is a resting in and
a receiving of Christ and what he's done. Actually, it's doing
exactly what God has done. Turn over to Ephesians, the first
chapter. Ephesians chapter 1. Look down in chapter 1 at verse
12. He's just talking about God,
the One who works all things after the counsel of His own
will. He said that we should be to the praise of His glory
who first trusted in Christ. Let me ask you this. Was God
right to trust in Christ to glorify Him and save His people? You bet He was. Now, look at
this. In whom ye also trusted. You see, God believed in his
Son to save his people and at the same time magnify him in
all his attributes. He believed in Christ to save
his people from their sins and at the same time do so on his
behalf as a just God as well as a saint. Well, look at this. in whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation." What does that mean? It means
that every one of God's people who's given faith and brought
to believe on Christ, they are right to trust Christ to save
them from their sins and yet deal with them for what they
are also in themselves. God did righteously. The one who believes does righteousness. You know, Abraham is described
as the father of the faithful, the father of them that believe."
Well, turn over to Romans chapter 4. You know, of all that could be
said about Abraham, I've thought about this many times, of all
that could be said about Abraham, What is the most often repeated
thing about Abraham? What did the Spirit of God direct
these writers in the New Testament to say about Abraham more than
anything else? Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God. That's what Paul is talking about
here in Romans 4. Look down at verse 5. But to
him that worketh not, but believes on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. I was thinking about this this
week. Most grace preachers that I know
of, they can't hardly read that last phrase without stopping
to qualify. But you know what? You read that
tomorrow morning. You read that Wednesday at noontime. It's going to say the same thing.
His faith was counted for righteousness. That's what it says. All right? Look down at verse 9. He's talking about blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Comes this blessedness. then upon the circumcision only
or upon the uncircumcision also. For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness." Faith was reckoned or counted
or imputed to Abraham for what? Righteousness. Look down at verse 11. And he
received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of
the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might
be the father of all them that believe. Though they be not circumcised,
that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. What righteousness? The righteousness
of faith. Look down at verse 13. For the promise that he should
be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed
through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. You see, the righteousness of
faith. Abraham believed God, and what? It was counted to him for or
as righteousness. It wasn't his act of believing, but it was his believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Abraham believed God, Paul writes
in Galatians 3, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Romans
10, he wrote, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. That's why I say, when God speaks
of that new birth, He says in those old covenant promises,
I'll give them a new heart. What's a new heart? A new heart's not a new nature. It's the heart
of faith. You say, well, if you're born of
God, you'll never do this, that, and the other. You're subject,
if God leaves you to yourself, and maybe if you get a little
self-righteous, He will. If He leaves you to yourself,
you'll do anything in this flesh that you would have done before.
But you won't quit believing on Him.
You can't. Because faith believes God. Peter stood up in Acts 10. He says he opened his mouth and
he said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. He doesn't look on the outside
like men do. But in every nation, He that
feareth Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him." Now, has
God ever accepted any person based on the life that they lived
or? No. And yet it says in every nation,
everyone that fears God and works righteousness, they're accepted
by Him. How? They're accepted in the
Beloved. Because they're brought by God
to believe, to trust only in the same One that God has trusted
in. And this will always be the case, that whatever we do of ourselves
is just sin. But believing on Christ, believing
on the One who is the Lord, our righteousness, the One who established
righteousness, The one that God was right to save those Old Testament
saints in, and the one He's right to save all who believe on. They're accepted. They please God. We can kind of try to separate
that if we want to, but it says that Enoch pleased God. That's what it said. That in no way conflicts with
what Paul says, that not by works of righteousness which we've
done. And yet to believe is righteousness. To believe
on Christ pleases God. Paul said, I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith." Now, I wouldn't just nail this
down as the way it's got to be, but it sounds like revealed from
faith to faith. I know as the gospel is preached,
it's revealed from one person that the Lord's given faith,
and he's therefore preaching it to the one that he gives faith
to and believes it. But it says the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith to faith. from God to believe in Christ,
and to that sinner that he brings to also believe in Christ. Because he's quoted immediately,
as it is written, the just shall live by faith. In Acts 16, The man cried out to the apostles. He said, Sirs, what must I do
to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I can't give you faith. And don't you ever rest in any
kind of faith. other than faith in Christ and
Him crucified alone. Because that's the righteousness
of faith. And those who believe on Him, they do righteousness. Father, this day we give You
thanks. And we praise you for the simplicity
that's in the Scriptures, if we were unable to just believe
what you say. That you were right to save all
who believe in Christ, through Christ, and Him crucified. And all these, your people, are
right to look to the same one that you trust. We thank you and we pray that
this day, for your glory and for our eternal good, you bring
us to look more completely and to
be able to see more clearly. The one that you've set forth
in this book as our only righteousness. Calls us to forsake all and every
other hope but Him. Give to us the gift of faith. Even as those who have it must
pray, Lord, increase our faith. For we ask it in Jesus Christ,
through His blood. Amen.