All right, let's look again at
Psalm 78. The title of the message this evening is Teaching God's
Children. The title of the psalm says a
mashal. I don't know if I'm saying that
right, but a mashal of Asaph. And that means it's a psalm of
instruction for Asaph. Asaph is told in this psalm what
Israel is to be taught. And as we've read, it speaks
about teaching our children. And I want to talk to us this
evening as children in plain, simple language that children
can understand. I have found out a long time
ago that that is the best kind of preaching, just preaching
in simple language that children can understand, because that
is always the preaching that blesses the hearts of God's children.
And that's who we're always preaching to. In these first eight verses,
David gives us four truths that we are to teach our children,
both our children and God's children. And the first thing is this,
we are to preach the gospel to them. Verse one, he says, give
ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words
of my mouth. Now, you know, the most important
thing we can do every single week is to hear the gospel preached. I know everybody's got a busy
life. There's so many things that are pulling on our time,
so many things that we have to do. But we need to remember this
so God don't have to remind us. The most important thing we can
do every week is hear the gospel preached. The most important
thing a preacher does all week is to prepare to preach, just
to give his time to it and then to preach. Now, there's an urgency. in this matter of the hearing
and preaching of the gospel. And there's a compassion for
people in it too. David says, Oh, give ear to my
people. Oh, give, you have to excuse
me. Oh, give ear my people. David says this is urgent, but
there's a caring in there too. Oh, give ear my people. God's
preacher has a love for people. Now listen, listen to the message
God's given me. I spent all week seeking God's
face, begging God to give me a message for you, for your heart. Now listen, listen to the message
that God has for us. You know, we never preach and
say, no, that's just the truth. And I don't care whether you
believe or not. That's just the truth. No, we don't preach that way at all.
I can tell you, I care. I care if you believe the gospel
that I preach. So come, give ear to it. There's
nothing more important than hearing and believing the gospel. Hearing
and asking that God give us a believing heart when we hear it. There's
an urgency in this matter of preaching and hearing the gospel.
Davis says, incline your ear to me. He means just get your
ear right up so close to my mouth that none of the words drop down
between us and drop down in the floor. Just so you don't miss
one. Pay attention now when the gospel
is being preached. Ask God that He'll give you an
attentive mind that you don't miss anything that's being said.
This is God's message for us. Now this is to our children and
to God's children. First, let me say something about our children.
The best thing that we can do for our children is to preach
the gospel to them. It's the best thing we can do
for our children. I know they got to get educated,
they got to get all the things they got to get. But now I'm
telling you, none of that amounts to a grain
of sand on the size of the beach compared to the importance of
hearing the gospel, being taught the gospel. There's nothing that
our children need more than to know Christ. And I'll tell you
how they're going to know him, how they're going to believe
him. God says it's going to happen through the preaching of the
gospel. You parents, I implore you. I know, I remember having
little ones at home. I know it's a hard job. I implore
you to make sure your children are in these Bible classes every
Sunday, that they're in Bible school every year, that they
are in these services that we have every week. I can assure you, I think about
our children as I'm preparing. I think about one of our 10 year
olds. Do they understand that? And
if I think they won't, I change the words of it. They can get
something here now. And when they get to be teenagers
and you need the very wisdom of Solomon and being parents
of a teenager, let me tell you something. Don't ever let your
children have the choice of whether or not they come to service or
not. Don't ever do that because they'll make the wrong decision
every time. And the worst thing we can do
for our children is let them not hear the gospel. Their souls
can't be saved any other way. And you know the best thing we
can do for God's children? Always just preach the gospel
to them. God's children are born how? Through the preaching of the
word. This is the seed God uses to give spiritual life to his
people. We want to see God give life, don't we? And the best
thing we can do is preach the word. God's children grow in
grace through the preaching of the gospel. The best thing we
can do for God's children to grow them up and strengthen them
is preach the gospel to them. This is the children's bread.
This is how they're going to be fed. And the hearts of God's
children are comforted through the preaching of the gospel. God's preachers are commanded
comfort you, comfort you, my people. that we've got to preach,
because God's people are going to be comforted through the preaching
of the gospel, through the preaching of His word. Sooner or later, the Lord is
going to bring every one of us to the end of this life. At that
time, you know, you think so many things in this life matter
right now. I get tickled at myself. I got to check my phone every
so often. to see about this government
shutdown. I think that's important. It really is. The king's on the
throne. The government of the king's
running just fine. We think all this stuff matters,
but the Lord's gonna bring every last one of us to the point that
absolutely nothing matters but knowing Christ. And I don't want
it on my conscience or the conscience of this congregation that we
weren't faithful to preaching. God help us to preach the gospel
to children, to ours and to God's children. Number two, here's
the manner in which we're to preach. We're to preach simply
so people understand what we're saying. And I want people to
understand what I'm saying. I told you, I look at these words
and think, can a 10-year-old understand that word? I want
people to understand what I'm saying. But what we want more
than anything is for them to understand and believe what God's
Word's teaching. That's what David says in verse
2. He says, I'll open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark
sayings of old. And we've got to remember we're
teaching children. We've got to use language that they can
understand. And that's true of our natural
children. And that's true of God's spiritual children. We've
got to use language that they can understand. We can't get
so intellectual that people are really impressed with everything
that we know and not understand anything we say. That's the worst
thing that can ever be said about a preacher. We must always preach
so that people are impressed with Christ, not us. That's the
goal. Now we want people to understand
what we're saying. But you know, that's easier said
than done. It takes the Spirit of God to make that happen. And
the reason for it is what we're teaching. We're not teaching
math. We're not teaching science or
history. We're not teaching something
that the natural mind can comprehend. We're teaching dark sayings of
old. And the dark sayings, I look
that word up, it means a puzzle or a riddle tied in a knot. Now,
a riddle tied in a knot is something not easily understood. If we're
going to understand it, God's going to have to give us an understanding
of the riddle that's tied in a knot. And the gospel is simple,
the simplicity of Christ, but to the natural mind, it's a riddle
tied in a knot. We're teaching the scriptures
that are a mystery to the natural mind. We're teaching pictures
of Christ in the Old Testament law and ceremonies, and those
are are dark sayings hidden in the dark shadows. And David uses
the word parables here. We're teaching a parable. Well,
that word means a simile. It's a picture of Christ. I turn
over to Galatians chapter four, and I give you a really good
illustration of what I'm talking about here. You all know the
story of Isaac and Ishmael. God promised Abraham that he'd
have a son. Abraham and Sarah were too old
to bear any children. Years later, Abraham and Sarah
still had no son. And Sarah got the bright idea.
Tell you what we'll do. Let's help God out. Abraham,
you go into Hagar, my servant. She's a young woman and her childbearing
years. It's just natural to think she
can give birth to a son. And somehow Sarah thought she
would be able to consider that child to be her child. Certainly
it would be Abraham's child, but couldn't be done. Couldn't
be done. And it couldn't be done for a number of reasons, but
I can tell you the main reason, that wasn't the child of promise.
Ishmael was not the child of promise. He was not the child
supernaturally produced by God. Now, a little while later, in
his time, God sent the promised son. Isaac was born to Sarah
when she was 90 years old. Now, that's a good story, isn't
it? and left to our own devices.
You know what we'd think? We'd think that's a good moral
story. That's got a good moral to it. To wait on God. Be patient on God. That's a good
moral story to tell us God always keeps His promise. And the Apostle
Paul tells us that's not what that story is about at all. This
story is a simile. It's an allegory teaching us
the difference between grace and works. Look here at Galatians
4 verse 22. This is what the Apostle says.
Or it's written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid,
the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, after the power and the ability of
the flesh. But he of the free woman was by promise. Which things
are an allegory? The purpose of all this is an
allegory. For these are the two covenants,
the one for Mount Sinai which gendereth the bondage, which
is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage
with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. For it's written,
Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not. Break forth and cry, thou
that travailest not. For the desolate have many more
children than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. All of God's people,
his spiritual people, are children of promise. But as then he that
was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. Nevertheless, what sayeth the
scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her son, for the son
of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free
woman. So then brethren, we're not children of the bond woman,
but of the free. Now Paul tells us what this allegory
means. It's the gospel. It's the difference
between salvation by grace and salvation by works. Hagar represents
salvation by our works of the law, by the power of what the
flesh can do. That's how Ishmael was born.
Not by the supernatural working of God, but just by the natural
strength of the flesh. And what the flesh could produce
has been a curse to mankind ever since. And that's our works of
the law, our attempts to keep the law, to make God happy with
us, produce death every time, bring a curse upon us every time. That's what Ishmael represents.
Now, Sarah and Isaac represent salvation by grace. Sarah was
too old to have children. If Sarah's going to give birth
to a son, God's going to have to do a miracle in him. And that's
just exactly what he did. Isaac represents salvation by
grace. Salvation by the power of God,
causing a new man to be born of the Spirit. A new man to be
born from the dead. We have spiritual life. This
is what Isaac teaches us. God's people have spiritual life
by God's grace, not by our works. That's what this story teaches
us, the spiritual significance of it. And the apostle tells
us now, if we believe Christ, if we believe him, we're free
from the bondage of the law. The law can't put bondage on
you. You gotta do this or God's gonna get you. You're free from
the law. Christ kept the law for you.
Christ satisfied the law for you by his debt to the law. The
law was not given so that we could earn salvation by keeping
it. The law was given to show us that it's impossible for us
to keep the law. Our nature's opposed to it. It's
impossible. So the purpose of the law is
to drive us to Christ, to make us see my only hope of obedience
to that law is in Christ obeying it for me. My only hope of satisfying
that law is that Christ satisfied it for me by his death as my
substitute. That's the purpose of the law.
But you know what? In a million, million years,
we'd never understand that. Unless God gave us understanding.
Unless God told us. That's what this is. We've got
to have God-given understanding to see Christ in all these scriptures. Janet told me when she was teaching
the little ones in that class, she would teach them the story
of Abraham offering Isaac upon the mountain. And she said, you
could see the look come over their face. That was a dark scene. Who can understand that? Abraham
longed for this son and God told him to kill him. Abraham lifted
up that knife to kill that son. How can that be? It's a dark
scene. And I know they didn't understand
it all yet, but she told him how that dark scene is a picture
of Christ. This is a a riddle tied up in
a knot, but it's a picture of Almighty God killing His Son
as a substitute for His people so His people could live and
go free. That's the parables, that's the
simile, the pictures of the Old Testament that gives us all pictures
of Christ. And I love to preach from those
Old Testament pictures. I have to really make myself
seek out God's will in a message. Somebody calls me, goes somewhere
and preach. First thing I want to do is go to the Old Testament,
find a picture of Christ. I just love Him. But you know,
I'm in good company. Look at Matthew chapter 13. Our Lord Himself taught in parables. Often He taught in parables.
And here in Matthew chapter 13, He gives us the parable of the
sower and the seed. In verse 9, He finished giving
that parable and he tells them now who hath ears to hear, let
him hear. And when the disciples came and said unto him, why speakest
thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them,
because it's given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven. But to them, it is not given. See, just like the Lord, we teach
in parables or these dark sayings and these pictures of Christ.
And no one can ever understand the true spiritual meaning of
these things unless God gives us an understanding heart. I
could see on your faces, I talked about that story of Isaac and
Ishmael. You know the meaning of that. That was a blessing
to you. If you believe those things, God's given you that
understanding. He's given you life. That's the
only reason you understand Him. Now look at Matthew chapter 21.
This kind of goes back to my first point When we preach, we
must preach so simply that people understand what we're saying.
Even if someone does not believe what I'm saying, I want them
to understand what I'm saying. Look at Matthew 21, verse 42. Jesus saith unto them, Did you
never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders
rejected, the same has become the head of the corner? This
is the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. Therefore,
I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and
given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever
shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief
priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived
that he spake of them. They understood exactly what
he was saying, but they didn't believe him. Verse 46. But when
they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because
they took him for a prophet. They understood what the Lord
said, but I know they didn't believe him because they wanted
to kill him. And even if somebody doesn't believe what I'm saying,
I want them to understand what I'm saying. Because this is what
I know. We can only teach the head. This
is as far as I can get. Only God can teach the heart.
We can only teach the head, but only God can teach the heart.
But God teaches the heart through the head. Nobody believes on
Christ unless they understand who's being preached. God teaches
the heart through the head. So we must preach simply, so
people understand. Even if you refuse to do it,
look to Christ. Look to Christ. All right, now,
the third thing is the content of our instruction. It's the
old, old story of God's grace. Look back here, verse 2 again,
Psalm 78. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark
sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers
have told us. Now, we don't teach our children,
and we don't teach God's children, stories that have a good moral
to them, like the Aesop fable. We don't teach our children and
we don't teach God's children to be good little boys and girls
and keep the law so they'll be happy with you. We teach our
children the old, old story, the ancient story of God's covenant
of grace. We teach them the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make them wise unto salvation. David gives us
three specific things about this old, old story we're to teach
our children and God's children. First, we're to teach him this.
Salvation is an ancient work. That's the word he uses, an ancient
work. Salvation is older than us. Salvation is older than our fathers
and our grandfathers and our great grandfathers all the way
back to Adam. Salvation began in eternity. God's electing love before God
created anything. That's where salvation began.
Salvation began long before God created the world. When God chose
a people and put them in Christ, He saw them in Christ, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, and He was satisfied
with them. He saw them as righteous and
perfect. That's where salvation started,
before anything was created. And salvation was purchased a
whole long time before you and me came along. Two thousand years
ago, Christ purchased the salvation of His people with His blood
upon the cross. Salvation was purchased. Christ
bought it. He bought it for His people when
He willingly shed His blood to pay for their sins. See, salvation
can't be purchased by you and me starting to act better. Salvation
can't be purchased or made effectual by our decision. Salvation was
purchased by the death of God's Son upon the cross for His people. And we can't make ourselves holy
by starting to sin less. We can't get rid of our sin by
starting to sin less. That can only come from the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which cleanses us from all sin. Cleansing can only be found in
the blood of Christ. Now look to Him. And this is
the old, old story. It's the ancient story. Salvation
by grace is the message of the apostles. It's the message of
the prophets first, then of the apostles. Then of the reformers,
then of all the old preachers that we used to know, it's the
same gospel. That gospel hasn't changed in
all these years because salvation is the old, old story of God's
grace. That's what we're to teach. Salvation
is an ancient work. And then we're to teach them
the effectiveness of God's eternal work of salvation. Verse four,
we will not hide them from their children. showing to the generation
to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful
works that he has done. Let's teach them the effectiveness
of God's eternal work of salvation. God's salvation that he has purposed
for his people shall be done. Well, let's begin teaching the
children, showing them the praises of the Lord. Somebody maybe could
teach us that no matter what it is that's going on in our
lives and going on with little old me, God's to be praised. Let's start there because of
the effectiveness of his eternal work of salvation. Let's preach
the strength of God's wonderful works, which we have done. And
if you want to talk about something effective, I'll tell you where
you can start. You can start with Adam's sin. Adam's sin in
the garden was so effective, it killed 100% of his race. That's a good place to start
with something effective. He killed 100% of his race. But then, let's
go on from there, teaching God's wonderful works of grace, which
he's done. Let's teach folks the effectiveness of God's election. The purpose of God, according
to election, shall stand. Everyone God chose shall be saved. There's not a chance. There's
just not even the remotest possibility that they'll perish. Let's teach
them the effectiveness of Christ's obedience. The obedience of Christ
to the law. He gives it to his people and
his obedience gives righteousness and life to 100% of his race. Adam killed 100% of his race
by his disobedience. Christ, by his obedience, gives
life and righteousness to 100% of His race and we don't have
to contribute anything to make it full. Christ did it all. Let's
teach them that. Teach them the effectiveness
of Christ's obedience so we don't go about trying to establish
our own righteousness. Then let's teach them the effectiveness
of Christ's blood to blot out all of the sin of His people
and to wash them white as snow. Oh, I've got a problem with sin.
I've got so much sin. You just don't know it. What
can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
The blood of Christ. His blood cleanses from sin.
If He shed His blood for you, the Father sees His white as
snow. That let you lay down on your pillow and go to sleep tonight?
What if I lay down on my pillow and die in the night? Get choked
and something and snore and die? Appear before the judgment seat
of Christ. What am I going to do? Well,
I'll tell you what, I'm going to lay down and go sleep in peace.
I know Christ shed his blood for me. It's effective. Let's teach them the effectiveness
of the Holy Spirit to give life and the new birth to all of God's
elect. See, salvation is not in starting to act better. Salvation
is in a new nature. It's a new nature. Almighty God
causes to be born by the power of the Holy Spirit where God
gives life to the dead. There's life that was not there
before. And in the new birth, the flesh
is unchanged. It's as sinful and rotten and
powerful as ever. But there's a new man. That new
man is going to reign. He's going to reign. I tell you
how you know he reigns. The old man used to make it where
you couldn't believe Christ, didn't he? God causes a new man
to be born in you. He's going to reign. you're going
to believe. That's how he reigns. And those
people, they're going to live. They'll never die. Let's teach
them the effectiveness of the gospel. The gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. And let's just turn it loose
by preaching it plainly. And just don't worry about what
happens. God's people are going to be saved by it. You don't
have to talk your mind into anything. Just preach the gospel. God will save
His people and He's going to do it through the preaching of
the gospel. Please God, by the foolishness of preaching, to
save them that believe. Now let's just teach them the
effectiveness of the gospel. All you need to know is Christ.
Let's teach folks the effectiveness of God's grace. You know, the very moment that
you believe on Christ, brother, your problems just started. I
mean, that's when they start. And I want to tell you, God's
grace is going to be sufficient to take you all the way to glory.
His grace will keep you all the way to the end. His grace is
all we need. Let's teach folks the effectiveness
of God himself. Christ is salvation. It's not
just that Christ is all we need for salvation. Christ is salvation. Salvation. You'll have salvation
if you have Him. And he will provide everything
else you need to along the way. He'll provide grace and comfort
for every trial, just like he gave you faith and provided faith
for you to believe. The third thing David says we're
to teach in this old, old story of God's salvation is salvation
in God's eternal covenant. Verse five, for he established
a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded
our fathers that they should make known to their children.
God established his testimony, or his covenant of grace, not
with Jacob. He established it in Jacob. In him. Jacob represents all
of God's elect. God says, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. And that's true of all of God's
elect. Just like Jacob, for reasons known only to God, God loved
Jacob. God often calls himself in scripture,
the God of Jacob. You know why he calls himself
the God of Jacob? Gene, nobody but God would say Jacob. Nobody
but God could. He's the God of Jacob. Jacob
was a cheat. Jacob stole the birthright from
his own brother, Esau. You know, like we kind of categorize
things. All right, you're going to cheat somebody in business,
cheat some stranger. Don't cheat your brother. Jacob cheated his
brother. Jacob was a sinful man. I mean, what he did to his brother,
he did to everybody he met. Buddy, you better not enter in
a business agreement with Jacob. You're coming out on the short
end of that deal. Jacob was a sinful, deceitful man. God saved Jacob. Because God promised to save
Jacob. That's the only reason he would.
God promised to save Jacob before he was born. God's covenant is
his promise. God's covenant of grace is his
promise to save his people by his grace. That's the only reason
God would save Jacob. It's the only reason God will
ever save you and me too. It's because of his promise of grace. I love it that way. Don't you?
Don't you love it that way? Salvation by God's grace, by
His eternal grace, by His grace that began before we were born,
grace that cannot be earned by anything we do. That gives hope
to sinners like Jacob, like you and me. Sinners can have a good
hope through God's grace. And the only thing we can do
is beg God for mercy. His mercy and grace, His eternal
covenant of mercy and grace is saving mercy and saving grace. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Everything we do has got to have a goal. I just, I can't
do anything if it's got, I don't have a goal. I tell Jan, the
only people who can get anything done are people who got a goal. They
gotta have a goal about everything. Well, there's a goal for our preaching.
There is. Here it is. That the children
will hope in God. Verse six. That, and here's why
we do all this, here's why we teach this and make this known
to their children. The generation to come might
know them, even the children which should be born, who should
arise and declare them to their children. They might set their
hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Let's just keep preaching the
gospel to the next generation. I am convinced of this, that
God still has a people he's saving. God still is raising up the next
generation of his children. And our prayer is, Our children,
our physical children, will be part of that spiritual generation.
That's our prayer. And that's why we faithfully
teach them the scriptures. Well, let's just keep telling
them about Christ. Let's just be sure we keep preaching
Christ to the children. Let's tell them who Christ is. Let's tell them what Christ did.
Let's tell them why Christ did it. Let's tell them where Christ
is now. Let's keep telling them that salvation is all in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you look to Him. You run
to Him. And they won't understand what
we're saying, but let's keep saying it. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Christ.
Go to Him. The goal of our preaching is
that they put their hope, their trust, and their confidence in
the Lord. And my friend, that salvation is putting your trust,
putting all of your eggs in one basket, Trusting it all. Trusting all of your eternal
soul to the Lord. That's God-given faith. And that's
the goal of our preaching. That God's people, His children,
would obey God's commandments. Now, what commandments are they
to believe? Are we going to start preaching the law here? No, sir.
This is God's commandment. That you believe on the name
of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It could be they'll believe on
Him if we keep preaching Could be, if we teach this next generation,
the Lord might be gracious. He might raise up a next generation,
they teach the one coming after them. And I thought, in this
congregation, we have been blessed to have seen that, haven't we? And the illustration I thought
of was Sandy and Tara. I was a little guy, and I remember
sitting in Sandy Thornberry's Bible school class. And I thought
then, man, she's a tough teacher. I mean, she expected you to remember
what she taught you. I mean, she gave you tests afterwards.
Be sure you did. I mean, you know. And I look
back now and say, oh, she was such a good teacher. I'm so thankful
for her. And I've heard Tara teach in
her class. What a great teacher. I'm so
thankful. You know what she's doing? teaching
the very same gospel for mother tongue. Now, ain't no two ways
about it, that's a blessing. I mean, I'm thankful anybody
does it, but when God raises up our children, oh, what a blessing. And I want to close with the
absolute necessity of preaching the gospel. Look at verse eight.
And this is part of the goal of preaching, that they might
not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, a
generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit
was not steadfast with God. How on this earth can our children
not be like their fathers? How can our children, our children
and God's children, they're already stubborn rebels that have a heart
that's full of sin. It's too late, isn't it? We've
already passed on to them our nature. We've given them the
same sinful, rebellious nature that we have. Well, I tell you,
the only thing that can be done, the only way that next generation
will not have a stubborn, rebellious, sinful heart is if God gives
them a new one, a new birth. And I tell you how he's going
to do it, how God always gives life, how he always gives the
new birth, how he always gives a new heart. It's through the
preaching of his word. This is the seed God uses to
give life and faith. in Christ. Well, this is my prayer
that God would be pleased to make us both good teachers and
good students of these vital truths of his gospel that God's
been pleased to reveal to us. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank You that You did
not leave us to our own devices to try to figure out our own
way to God because it would always be wrong. But that You've given
us Your Word to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ, to reveal salvation
in Him. Father, how we thank You for
the many pastors and teachers that You've given us who have
faithfully declared to us Your Word. Oh, how we thank You. for faith to believe. Faith,
a God-given faith to believe and to understand. We couldn't
understand Your Word any other way. The carnal mind could never
conceive the greatness and the glory of Your grace to sinners.
But You've given Your people faith to believe. Father, how
we thank You. Father, I beg of Thee that You
bless Your Word as it's been preached tonight. Bless Your
Word. Someone here that as of yet hasn't
believed you, hasn't seen. Father, use this message. Use
your word to give them life and faith in Christ. Father, use
your word to strengthen the hearts of your people, to cause them
to grow in faith and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Use
your word to comfort the broken hearts of your people. Nothing
can soothe the broken, wounded heart like your word. Use your
word to draw us ever nearer to our Lord Jesus Christ and comfort
us with the sight of him. Bless your word, Father, we pray.
Forgive us for our stumbling and our bumbling and our weakness.
Father, bless us for Christ's sake. It's in his name we pray
and give thanks.