Alright, if you would, open your
Bibles again to John chapter 17. The title of the message this morning
is The Faith That Christ Gives. Salvation is received. It's laid
hold upon by faith. Salvation is received by faith
that believes Christ, that looks to Christ only. Salvation is
received by faith that relies wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ
for all of our salvation. If you would be saved, you must
believe the Lord Jesus Christ. If you would be saved, you must
have faith in Christ. Scripture says the just should
live by faith, and without faith it is impossible to please But
this faith that we're talking about, saving faith, is not something
that you can conjure up. It's not something you can stir
up and create in you. No one can just decide one day,
I'm going to have faith. I'm just going to decide I'll
have faith. Saving faith is a gift of God. Ephesians 2.8, For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
this is the faith that our Lord describes in his high priestly
prayer. He describes the saving faith
that he gives to his people. And the first mark of the faith
that Christ gives is this is the faith that Christ gives to
all of his elect. Verse 6, he says, I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. I told you earlier in our study
here of John chapter 17 that six times in this chapter our
Lord mentions his elect. Verse 2, as many as thou hast
given him. Verse 6, I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Verse
9, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me. Verse 11, Holy Father, keep to
thine own name those whom thou hast given me. Verse 12, those
that thou gavest me, I've kept. And verse 24, Father, I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. This is the prayer of the high
priest for his elect. But now election is not salvation,
is it? But God's election. Guarantees
that faith will be given. Christ came and died for those
people. Put the sin of those people away
and the Holy Spirit will come and give those people faith.
Now look in Titus chapter 1. Every saved person has the exact
same faith. They're not different faiths.
There are different strengths of faith, but every saved person
has the exact same faith. Titus 1 verse 1. Paul, a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. Every
same person has the exact same faith. All of God's elect have
the same faith. That's why scripture calls it
the faith of God's elect. Every one of God's elect wholeheartedly
believes that I am a depraved sinner. I'm completely filled
with sin, so there's nothing I can do to please God. I'm completely
sinful, so I can't do anything to save myself, and I can't do
anything to make myself even more savable. If I'm going to
be saved, Christ must do all the saving. Now, if you'll notice
in his prayer, this is what he does for his people. He does
all the saving. He makes them perfect through
faith in him. At the end of verse 6, he talks
about those that thou gavest me, they have kept thy word."
Now, when you and I read the account of the Gospels, we see
the disciples much like ourselves, don't we? Very weak, doing the
wrong thing, saying the wrong thing. Our Lord does not make
any mention of their sin. He speaks of them as having perfectly
kept God's word. How'd they do that? Through faith
in Christ. who did perfectly keep God's
word. Every saved person believes in my total depravity. Every
saved person believes in God's election. God had to choose me
because in my sin nature, I'd never choose God. He had to choose
me. And God didn't choose me because
I'm any better than anybody else. Matter of fact, I'm the chief
of sinners. There's no reason found in me for God to choose
me. God chose me in spite of my sin, in spite of who I am. That's God's election. Every
saved person believes that. Every saved person, every person
that Christ saves believes in limited atonement. I know this. Christ did not die in vain. Christ
did not die for anybody in hell. Everyone that Christ died for
shall be saved because their sin is put away under the precious
blood of the Lamb of God. So God's justice demands they
be saved. I believe in limited atonement
completely. Everyone Christ died for shall
be saved. And if somebody's in hell, it's
because Christ didn't die for them. Every saved person believes
in perseverance of the saints. No one that Christ died for can
be saved if they ain't lost tomorrow. That's an impossibility. They
cannot be lost if Christ died for them. Christ saves His people
and He keeps them saved. He makes them righteous and He
keeps them righteous. Every saved person believes wholeheartedly. The only reason I believe God
is God gave me faith to believe. That's the only reason. God gave
me life and faith in the new birth and I believe and that's
the only reason. I told you this last week. Let's
review this just for a moment. Our Lord said, I have manifested
thy name. That word manifest, it means
to make known or make understood. Well, to know someone's name
is to really, truly know who that person is. Christ came to
make men understand exactly who God is. The only way a sinner
can know that, the only way we can know who God is, is by faith. God can't be known with human
knowledge. Human knowledge is dead. The carnal mind is enmity
against God, so God can't be known with human knowledge. The
only way God can be known is through the faith that Christ
gives His elect. Saving faith knows the name of
God, so saving faith calls upon the name of the Lord. To call
upon the name of the Lord is to call upon the name of Christ
because I know Him. I know myself and I know Him.
So I call on Him out of my need, out of my weakness. I call on
Christ my righteousness because all I am is sin. I don't have
any righteousness. So Christ must be my righteousness. If I'm going to have any, He
must be my righteousness, so I call on Him. I call on Christ
my prophet. I'm too stupid to know anything
on my own. I don't care how smart you are.
You cannot discern and understand God's Word unless God gives you
faith to see Christ. He must be my prophet to speak
and tell me what God says. I call on Christ my priest because
the only way. I'm so sinful, so just completely
sinful. I've just been preaching a few
minutes. There's enough sin in this message to send me to a
hundred thousand hells. I'm so sinful, I call on Christ,
my priest. The only way someone like me
can be justified is if Christ is my sacrifice. And if Christ
is the high priest that offers the sacrifice, and Christ is
the high priest that offers the sacrifice upon the altar of himself,
I call on Christ, my priest. I call on Christ, my king, because
I'm too weak to come to Christ on my own. He must draw me to
him. And if he draws me, I'm coming.
I call on him. This is the faith of God's elect. Every saved person fully, wholeheartedly
believes those things. Secondly, saving faith, faith
that Christ gives, keeps God's word. He says that in verse 6,
Thine they were, thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy
word. Now, the word kept, it means
to attend carefully. Saving faith attends carefully,
listens carefully to God's Word. You know how I'm going to find
out what I believe and what I know? Somebody's going to tell me from
God's Word. And when they tell me from God's Word, I say, yep,
that's what I believe. That's it, exactly. I attend it carefully. The only way I can know who God
is, is through his Word. The only way I can know who God
is, is by hearing who God says he is. Now God's not who I think
He is. God is who He says He is in His
Word. The only way I can know how God
saves sinners is through His Word. Salvation is not the way
that the Catholics say or the Methodists say or the Presbyterians
say or the Baptists say. What does God say? That's what
we need to find out. I promise you this. God saves
sinners the way He says He saves sinners in His Word. Well, shouldn't
we attend it carefully then? Find out how God's going to save
a sinner like me. The only way I can know Christ
the Savior is through the Word. The only place Christ is revealed
is in His Word. And just like the Father, the
Lord Jesus Christ is not who I think He is. Christ is who
God's Word says He is. Then I want to attend carefully
to God's Word because the only way I can know Christ It's through
God's Word. And I attend it reverently and
carefully because it's important. It's all important to my soul. It means to attend carefully.
And this word kept, it also means to guard. To guard. Now, a week ago today, my daughter's
house, Holly and Savannah's, their house was broken into.
They came home from service. Clark walked in. There's somebody
in the house. Clark ran that guy off with a
kitchen knife. And you know what he did after
that? He guarded that house. Now you think, Clark, he's mild,
he's a soft-spoken, kind young man. You'll see the change in
him when somebody's in the house. Clark stayed and guarded that
house. Clark, you wouldn't let anybody
hurt anybody living in that house. Not if you could help it, would
you? He guarded it. This is the way a believer who
has faith guards God's Word. When you guard something, you're
not going to let somebody take it away from you. This Word is
all-important. If I can help it, I'm not going
to let anybody take it away from me. If you guard something, you
keep it safe. You keep it from being corrupted.
That's what faith does with the Word of God. We're not going
to allow it to be corrupted. The babes are fed Not with the
corrupted milk of the word. Not with the watered down milk
of the word. The sincere milk of the word. We're not going
to allow God's word to be taken away from us. And we will not
allow grace and works to mix. We're not going to allow man's
works to mix with God's grace. If we do that, we take away the
power of the gospel and the Christ of this book has become of no
effect to you. Isn't that what Paul said in
Galatians? We're not going to take the edge off of God's word. We won't take the edge off the
truth of God's electing love. Aaron, that's my only hope. My
only hope is that God chose me and sent his son to die for me.
I'm not going to allow that to be taken away. I'm not going
to take the edge off a particular redemption. I'm going to guard
that carefully. Christ only died for his elect. Not those who choose him by their
free will. If I've got to choose God by
my free will, friend, I'm lost. The only way I can be redeemed
is if Christ died for me, particular redemption. And faith guards
that word. Faith guards the word of God.
Not out of doctrinal hardness, not out of hardness, not out
of a hard, mean spirit. But out of love for Christ. You
find some soldiers who are defending their home country. I mean, they're
on home soil. They're protecting the country
that they love. They're protecting the people
that they love. Those soldiers are going to fight
with a fierceness, a fierceness, not just out of military discipline,
but out of love. They're going to be tough to
beat because they're defending out of love. That's the way the
faith guards God's Word. I guard God's Word because God's
Word tells me who my beloved is. God's Word reveals the glory
and the beauty of my Savior. And as much as I can stop it,
I will not allow God's glory, the glory and beauty of my Redeemer
to be corrupted. I will guard His name. Christ
has manifested the name of the Father to me. He's manifested
His name to me. And I love that name. And I will
not see that name, that precious, almighty name, drug through the
mud by saying God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody.
Yet God's going to send you to hell if you don't choose him.
That's dragging God's name through the mud. That makes God a monster
and takes away the glory of his name. Saving faith guards that
word, guards that name, because it's precious. Thirdly, saving
faith that Christ gives is a faith of knowledge. Look at verse 7.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given
me are thee. Now this word know means to understand. I understand how God saves sinners. You know why? Because I know
the Savior. I know the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I know how God saves sinners. That's not a mystery to me. And
it's not to you either if you have faith. The word no, it also
means to approve of. If Christ has given me faith,
I approve of the way God saves sinners. I wouldn't change it
if I could. I approve of it. This word no also means the love
of a husband and a wife, the union of a husband and a wife
where they become one flesh. Saving faith understands and
knows Christ because we have a union with Him. We're one with
Him. He's the head and we're the body.
Now, there's no such thing as blind faith. I know whom I have
believed. And I understand what someone
means when they use the term blind faith. They mean that I
trust, I believe implicitly. No matter what's going on, even
if I don't see any reason to keep believing, I believe. Well,
saving faith does believe, no matter what, no matter the circumstances,
even if we don't see a reason to keep believing. Saving faith
believes. But we believe because we know Christ, whom we have
believed. We're not believing blindly.
We believe because I see Christ and I know Christ, and when I
know him, I believe, no matter what the circumstances, the circumstances
don't have anything to do with it. It's who I believe, who I
know. And he says, Father, I've manifested
your name. They know your name, so we believe.
Now, there are some things every believer knows. Look in 1 John. We're going to look at a few
verses in 1 John. Begin in 1 John, chapter 2. There are some things
every believer knows, and no one can tell you Any of these
things I'm about to read to you are not so, if God's given you
the gift of faith. 1 John 2, verse 3. And hereby we do know that we
know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and
keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him. You know if you know Christ or not, because you keep
his commandments. What's his commandment? You know
if you believe Christ or not. You know if you know Christ or
not. Look at verse 13 of chapter 2.
I write unto you fathers, because you have known him that is from
the beginning. I write unto you young men, because you have overcome
the wicked one. I write unto you little children,
because you have known the Father. You notice that the message here
is the same. Every believer knows the same thing. The Father and
the little children. Both know the same person. You
know the Eternal Father. Look at verse 20 of chapter 2. We know this. But ye have an
unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not
written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye
know it, and there is no lie in the truth. That's not talking
about me. I don't know all things. Well,
yeah, you do. If Christ has given you faith
in him, you know all things. And here's how you know it. When
you hear it from God's word, you say, yeah, I know that. That's
true. How do you know that's true?
God's given you faith in Christ. I look at chapter three, verse
two. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it does not
yet appear what we shall be, but we know. that when he shall
appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is every
believer knows that he's coming back and when he does he's going
to make me just like him body and soul verse 14 we know that
we pass from death unto life you can't pass from death unto
life from sickness to hell without knowing it you know you pass
from death unto life because we love the brethren he that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. Verse 23, And this
is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. He
that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.
And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he
hath given us. If God has given you faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, you know there is a new man born in you.
He dwells in your heart. You know that. Every believer
does. Look at 1 John 4, verse 2. Hereby
know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit, and this is preachers,
every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God. You know when a man's preaching
the gospel or not. If God's given you faith in Christ,
you know that. If he's not preaching the gospel,
maybe you can't exactly lay your finger on what he said wrong,
but if he's not talking about your Redeemer, you know it. You
know when someone's preaching Christ or not. Look at 1 John
4 verse 13. Hereby know we that we dwell
in him and he in us, because he's given us of his spirit. If Christ dwells in your heart,
you know it. Someone that great cannot dwell
in your heart and you don't know he's there. You know he's there.
Verse 16, And we have known and believed the love that God hath
to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. You know his love. Chapter 5, verse 13, These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And that
you may believe or continue believing on the name of the Son of God. You know if you have eternal
life. This life's not all there is.
You have eternal life. And in verse 19 of chapter 5.
And we know that we're of God. And the whole world lieth in
wickedness. And we know that the Son of God has come and given
us an understanding. How is it you know all these
things? There's a lot of things to know. Because Christ came
and gave you an understanding. He gave you faith so that you
understand. That we may know Him that is
true and that we're in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Every believer knows those things.
If you look back in our text in verse 8, our Lord says they
have, in the middle of the verse, He says, they have received them
and known surely that I came out from thee. Every believer
knows these truths surely, fully knows them. I'm fully persuaded.
That's why Paul told Timothy, Timothy, I know whom I believe. And because I know him, I'm fully
persuaded. I know these things fully. I'm
persuaded. He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. To know Christ surely
is to be so convinced of Christ. You don't look for another salvation.
You don't look for another salvation. Not only do I not look for another
Savior, H.B., I don't want one. I know Christ. He's given us
faith to know Him. Four. Saving faith that Christ
gives receives God's Word. Verse 8, John 17. For I have
given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have
received Now, our Lord, when he says here, I've given them
the words that you gave me. What he means is I've given them
the meaning of God's word. Father, I've given them the message
of your word. And they received it. As word
receive, it means to welcome. Every saved person welcomes God's
word. You don't find a saved person
say, don't read God's word to me. No, they welcome God's word. They receive it. They welcome
the good news of God's word. I welcome what God's word says
about me. I really do. As ugly and horrible
as it portrays me, I welcome that news. I welcome what God
says in his word about himself. I welcome what God's word says
about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's altogether lovely. Oh, what
a husband, what a Savior, what a friend. Oh, I welcome what
the Word says about Christ. I welcome what God's Word says
about how God saves sinners. When I read what God's Word says
about how God saves sinners, oh, I welcome that. I mean, this
is a salvation that cannot fail. I mean, if God saves somebody,
they're saved. I mean, that's why reading God's
Word, I welcome that. It is good news to find out how
completely sinful and dead that I am. That's good news. I welcome
that. You know, that takes all the
pressure off. I can't do anything. There's no point in me trying.
I can't do anything but beg. That's good news. Because once
I hear the truth about myself, now I can trust Christ. And that's
good news. I welcome that. The word receive
also means this. to take to oneself or to claim
for oneself. Every person, Christ saves, takes
God's word to himself. This is not just some doctrinal
theory, you know, that I don't really understand. I might say,
yeah, I guess that's true. You know, somebody's pretty smart
saying so I can see the truth. No. I claim this for myself. This is why Paul says it's my
gospel. It's mine. I take it to myself. I claim
Christ for myself. I claim the truth. I'm a sinner. I claim the truth that Christ
Jesus came into this world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. I don't have any righteousness,
so I claim Christ my righteousness. I have no works of my own. So
I claim Christ who finished all the work for me. And then thirdly,
this word receive, it means to choose. Every saved sinner, they've
got a new nature, so they choose God's way of salvation through
Christ alone, without any input from me, without any of my works
whatsoever. I choose God's way of salvation. that leaves me as a beggar and
leaves Christ as all. I choose that because Christ
has given me faith. Now, the only way any son of
Adam will receive God's Word is if Christ gives it to you. Now, I can tell you what God's
Word says. Sometime I'll be gone, Eric will
preach, and he can tell you the message of God's Word from a
particular passage of Scripture. But Eric, we can't make him our
receiver. Well, I can tell you by God's grace, I mean, I read
and study and pray and I can tell you what God's word says,
but only God can make that word being grafted in your heart so
that you take it with you. You will receive God's word when
Christ gives it to you. You'll receive it. Look at First
Corinthians chapter two. You can't receive it otherwise.
These things are foolishness to you. to your nature, but when
Christ gives it, you'll receive it. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 12. Now we've received, not the spirit
of the world, but we've received the spirit which is of God, that
we may know the things that are freely given to us of God, which
things also we speak. Not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. And here's why I said in your
natural self you'll never receive God's Word. But the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But when Christ gives you faith,
when he gives you the new birth, Now you've got something to the
spiritual man. Now you've got something to put the word in.
Now you've got someplace Christ will dwell and you receive his
words. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. And when Christ gives us faith,
we receive God's word gladly with thanksgiving and meekness,
knowing this is of God, not of me. Fifth, saving faith that
Christ gives Believes God. Verse 8, back in our text. For
I have given unto them the word which thou gavest me, and they
have received them. And they have known surely that
I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me. Now this word believed, it means
to have confidence in. Stating faith has total confidence
in Christ. And no confidence whatsoever
in the flesh. In mine or yours, either one.
It's total confidence in Christ. To believe God, this word believes,
it also means to entrust. Saving faith entrusts Christ
with all of my salvation and entrusts none of it to me. That's
why Paul told Timothy, I'm persuaded. He's able to keep what I've committed
unto him against that day. Paul, what have you committed
to him? Absolutely everything. I entrust it all to Christ because
I believe God. And the word believed also means
to credit. Saving faith credits Christ with
all of my salvation and gives me none of the credit. That's
how you can tell the person has faith in Christ. They give him
all the credit, all the glory for their salvation. In this
word believed, it means something that you're compelled to do from
within. Saving faith is a force that
believes within you. Because faith comes from the
new man that's born in you. It's born in you from the new
birth and you can't help but believe. You just believe. Because
that's the nature of the new man that's born in you. Now,
this believing. It's not believing because you
saw all the logical evidence. So you say, yeah, I see the logic,
I see that's true, so I believe that. I remember being a little
boy, I had to First, you memorize your addition, you know, and
you have to memorize your multiplication tables. Well, I memorized 2 plus
2 is 4. And I believe that. But you know
why I believe that? Because I take 2 and I take 2
and I can count. That's 4. That's not saving faith. That's just saying, yep, 2 plus
2 is 4. Saving faith believes God. believes God's Word. The only
ground of saving faith is the Word of God. Now, let me tell
you what that means. The only ground of saving faith
is the Word of God. Saving faith believes what God's
Word says, just because God's Word says it, and only because
God's Word says it. Look back in Genesis chapter
15. Here's the first example of believing. Genesis 15, verse 1. After these things the word of
the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am
thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said,
Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and
the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram
said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born
in my house is mine heir. Abraham said, Lord, what will
you give me? What did the Lord give him? He gave him his word. Behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven,
and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said
unto him, Abraham, so shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed
in the Lord, and he counted it to him, for righteousness, Abram
said, Lord, what are you going to give me? The Lord gave him
his word and Abram believed God. God didn't take Abraham out and
said, look at the stars, Abraham, count them and that's how many
your seed will be when Sarah was pregnant, did he? Years before
Sarah ever became pregnant, God said, Abram, count the stars.
That's how your seed is going to be. He had no evidence that
was going to happen except the Word of God. And he believed. That's what saving faith does.
It believes. And our Lord praised his father.
He said, Father, they have believed. My people, all of them have believed
that you sent me. And we touched on this last week.
I'm going to rehearse it again. This is a whole lot more than
believing the Father sent the Son into this world. Many people
in this world believe that God sent a man named Jesus into this
world about 2000 years ago. They believe he was born in a
manger and laid in a cattle trough and that he grew. He was a good
fellow. He did some miracles and he died
on a cross. Many people believe that, but
they're not saved. They don't have saving faith.
They don't know God. They don't believe God. So what
does this mean? Father, they believe that you
sent me into this world. It means the saving faith believes
that the father sent his son into the world to accomplish
something specific. To accomplish God's will of the
redemption of his elect. And saving faith believes that
Christ did exactly what he came to do. He came and saved his
people from their sins. He finished the work that the
father gave him to do. Now I want you to listen to me. This is, I feel like this is
an important point. He finished the work that the
father gave him to do. Saving faith believes Christ.
All right. Saving faith does not rest in
the finished work of Christ. Saving faith rests in Christ
who finished the work. A man told me this one time,
it was after a service in the parking lot, right after hearing
preaching. He made this statement to me.
And I just went home and cried. He said, all I know is this.
I'm resting in that work that Christ finished at the cross.
All I know is I'm resting in that righteousness that Christ
finished at Calvary. And I said, no. No. We have to trust Christ. We must believe Christ. We don't
trust his work. We trust him. Does that make
sense? I hope it does. It didn't to
him. I pray this makes sense to you. We do not trust his work. We trust him who finished the
work. We don't trust the righteousness
of Christ. We trust Christ our righteousness. I hope that makes sense to you.
God help us. We do not trust a thing. We trust a person. We don't trust a thing to save
us. The person, the Lord Jesus Christ who saved us from our
sins. That's who we trust. We trust Christ who is our sacrifice,
not the sacrifice of Christ. There's a big difference. We
trust Christ who is our salvation. One last thing about saving faith.
I think this will help you, it helped me. The Lord prays. He said, Father, I've got these
disciples. They have saving faith. Father,
they believed. Father, they do believe. I've
given them saving faith. They know who you are. They know
your name. They know who I am. They know
my name. They have saving faith. Our Lord said that, didn't he?
In just a few hours, Peter's going to deny with an
oath that he even knows the man. All the other disciples are going
to desert the Lord. The only way we know these are
saved men, the only way we know these men have faith is our Lord
said they did. The only evidence we have is
the Word of God. They had faith. Well, it might
be weak, wasn't it? Is that ever you? It's me. Here's our comfort. when our
faith is as weak as theirs was. Our faith ought to be strong
because of who we believe. But very often it's just being
honest. It's not. And when that happens, this is
our comfort. It's not the strength of faith
that saves. It's the object of faith. Just like we don't look
to the work of Christ to save us, don't look to your faith
to save you. Look to Christ by faith. He's
the Savior. Look to Him. Believe Him. Cling
to Him. Embrace Him. I pray this morning
that the Lord will give us faith. Every one of us faith. Faith
that will keep and guard God's Word. That will attend to God's
Word carefully. Faith that knows Christ. Whom
to know is life eternal. I can teach you all the doctrine.
But if you know Christ, you'll have life eternal. Knowing Him
is eternal life. I pray the Lord give us faith
that we'll receive God's Word. Whatever God's Word says, I receive
it. I believe that just because God's
Word says it. I pray God will give us faith
that believes Christ and Christ alone. He's all of our salvation.
I hope the Lord will bless that for you. Let's bow in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
your Word. How we thank you that you and
Your mercy and grace and goodness have preserved this precious
portion of Your Word, this high priestly prayer of our Savior
that You've given it to us to read and to study and to read
over and over and over again to see the glory and the sufficiency
and the love of our Savior, the love that He has towards His
people, the work that He finished, that He accomplished, for the
salvation of your people. Father, we're so thankful. And
we're thankful for the faith that You give. Faith is a gift
of God. We thank You for such a precious
gift that enables us to believe and lay hold upon the Lord Jesus
Christ who is life eternal. Father, we beg of Thee that You
give us this faith, that You give those who are here this
morning who've heard The Gospel of Christ preached. I pray you'd
give us faith. Get each one. Those who don't
know you, Father, would you give them this gift? It's a gift that's
yours to give. We beg of thee that you give
it. That your people would lay hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ
and by His power and by His grace never leave Him. It's in His
precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen.