Janet and I were pulling into
the parking lot just before the parking lot this morning. I told
her, I really believe I have a message from the Lord today.
A message from the Lord to His people whose hearts are troubled. The title of the message is Comfort
for Troubled Hearts. Our Lord in the preceding chapter
just told His disciples that he's going away. He told them
that one of them will betray him. He told them Peter would
deny him three times. And he's going to go away and
they'll search for him, but they won't be able to find him because
they cannot go where he's going. And our Lord knows their hearts
are troubled. He knows everything. He knows their hearts are troubled.
They shouldn't be, but they are. And our Savior has compassion
on them. He's touched with the feeling of their infirmity. He
feels their sorrow. So he gives them words of comfort
for troubled hearts. And I hope you'll listen to these
words. These same words of our Lord that comforted the hearts
of his disciples then will comfort the hearts of his disciples today.
He says in verse 1 of John chapter 14, Let not your heart be troubled."
Now the Word of God makes it clear that we will have trouble
in this life. No avoiding it. Job said man
is born of woman as a few days, and those few days are full of
trouble. Our Lord, later on in this conversation
He's having with His disciples, tells them in the world you shall
have tribulation. Not you might, not some of you
will, but you shall. All of you shall have tribulation.
Just as sure as we're breathing, we will have trouble in this
world. So our Lord doesn't say you won't have trouble. You won't
have trial. You won't have heartache. You
will. And he doesn't say in that time of trouble, trial, he doesn't
tell him you won't feel sorrow. He doesn't tell him you won't
feel pain or loneliness. You will. He says, don't be troubled
by it. Don't be overcome with sorrow.
in this time of trouble and trial. The word troubled, our Lord uses,
means to be anxious to despair. Don't despair. A child of God
has no reason to despair. This word also means not quiet,
like a troubled sea. That sea is just constantly,
constantly turning and foaming and waving and crashing. Don't
be troubled. Don't let your heart be in such
turmoil. All right. How do I do that in
this? Time of sorrow, trouble and trial,
how do I not be upset? How do I not be anxious? There's
a one word answer. Faith, faith, the best cure for
a troubled heart is faith. That's my first point, three
points. The first one is this comfort for the troubled heart
is faith. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God. Believe also in me." Look back
at Psalm 42. Psalmist David knew something
about having trouble, didn't he? Look what he says here about
comfort. What was his comfort in time
of trouble? Psalm 42, verse 5. David's talking to himself. Have
you ever talked to yourself? He says, why art thou cast down
on my soul? And why art thou disquieted in
me? Hope thou in God. Have faith in God. Hope thou
in God. For I shall yet praise him for
the help of his countenance. And if you have a center reference
there, you see, I shall yet praise him for his presence is salvation. Believe him. Have faith in him.
Look at verse 11. He's still talking to himself.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God. Have faith
in God. For I shall yet praise him who
is the health of my countenance in my God. Look across the page,
Psalm 43, verse 5. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God. Have faith in God. For I shall
yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God."
The cure for a troubled heart is faith. It's faith that believes
God. Faith that believes on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith that believes God comforts
the heart of a believer. Because we know faith is the
gift of God. Our Lord tells His disciples,
you do believe in God. You all do too. You believe in
God. Well, you believe. Why? Because God gave you that
faith. He gave it to you as a free gift
of His grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's what? The gift of God. God gave you the gift of faith. Well, then you belong to Him.
God only gives faith in His Son to those people that belong to
Him, to His elect. If you believe, be comforted. You're one of God's own. He made
you His and He only gives faith to those that are His elect. And if you have faith in Christ,
your heart should be comforted. If you have faith, Christ died
for you. God will only give faith to those that Christ died for.
And God's going to give you every other spiritual gift, too. He
gave you the gift of faith. He'll give you every other spiritual
gift. He will bring you straight through
to glory. He has begun that good work in
you. He gave you faith. He begun the work. He'll finish
it. He'll bring you safe through. You will not, you cannot ever
be lost if God's given you faith. Now that comforts our hearts.
Let not your heart be troubled. Don't be overly anxious so that
you're in despair. We only despair when we don't
believe God. If I believe God perfectly, if
my faith was perfect, I'd never despair. I'd never be troubled.
Because I know whatever it is He's doing is right and good.
If my faith is perfect, I'd rest in Him, regardless of what I
see going on around me. I only despair when I don't believe. And the disciples here are troubled
because their faith is weak. And every one of us understands
that. We all understand weak faith. You know why they're troubled? Because they cannot see past
the pain of the moment. They can't see past their pain
and see the result of the death of Christ. If they could see
past the moment, if they could see past their pain and see when
Christ goes away and He gives Himself as a sacrifice for His
people and their sin was forgiven in that, if they could see past
the pain of the moment and they could see all of God's elect
justified by Christ because He went away, if they could see
past this Just this little moment and see Christ crucified and
see sinners drawn to Him because He's lifted up. If they could
see past their pain and their sorrow and see all of God's elect
being brought to glory because of the death of Christ, they
wouldn't be troubled. They wouldn't be filled with
sorrow. They'd be rejoicing. And they're filled with sorrow
because they think the Lord said He's going away. We'll seek Him. We'll find Him. And they think
that everything they've been doing for the past three years
is going to be lost. They think their ministry is
going to be lost. When in fact, they're going to have the most
glorious message of grace. They're going to have a message
of grace through the death of the substitute because Christ
went away. And they're going to turn the
world upside down with this glorious message of grace because Christ
went away. And they'd rejoice if they could
see that. Well, why can't they see it? Because they can't see
that far ahead. They can't see past their pain.
And you know, they should have known this. Our Lord telling
them he's going to go away, he's going to suffer and die. That
shouldn't have been a surprise to them. God told us all throughout
the Old Testament, he saved sinners through the death of his son,
the death of the Messiah. They'd not be surprised. To hear
that the Lord's going to go away and he's going to die. If they
remembered Old Testament scriptures. But because of weak faith and
lack of faith, they doubted God and they didn't see that because
they can't see past the moment. Weak faith not only doesn't trust
God, weak faith can't see very far, can it? Can't see past this
moment. And when we're troubled, we're
troubled for the exact same reason. because we can't see past the
moment that we're in. Now, the moment is painful. Believe
me, I'm not denying that. The moment's painful. But God's
doing something far greater than anything we can see or understand
in this moment. And if we could see what God
sees, if we could see God's purpose in this thing that's causing
me some pain and discomfort for the moment, if I could see God's
purpose in it, I'd rejoice. If my faith was stronger, I'd
rejoice. Because I just believe God, just
rest in Him. Faith doesn't have to see. Old
Frank has to see. Faith doesn't have to see. Faith
believes. Faith rests when it doesn't see.
So it's faith that comforts the troubled heart. And faith that
comforts the troubled heart is faith in the person and the work
of Christ. I don't think I've ever seen
this more plainly than I've seen it this week. Here's my second
point. Comfort for troubled hearts is
faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also
in me. He says you do believe in God.
Believe also in me. Don't believe in the doctrines
of grace. Believe in me. Believe in Christ. Don't come
to the doctrines of grace. You come to Christ. Now you do
believe in God. You believe in His holiness.
You believe in His power. You believe in His sovereignty.
You believe in His grace and mercy. You believe in God. But
you can't approach Him. You cannot approach Elohim. You can't approach Him in His
deity and in His holiness and His power. Look over to 1 Timothy
chapter 6. You believe in God, but you cannot approach God in
his holiness and power and his awesome presence. 1 Timothy 6, verse 15. Which in his times he shall show
who is the blessed, and only potentate, the King of kings
and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality. dwelling in the
light which no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen nor
can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting." You believe
in that God, the God that no man can approach unto. You believe. Well, then believe also in the
Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. When our Lord says also, He's
putting Himself on equal footing with the Father, and He can do
that. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is God. He is God. He's one with the
Father with all the same attributes as the Father. He's eternal.
He's holy. He's all-knowing. He's all-powerful.
He is God. And God became a man. God the Son became a man. He came in our flesh with our
nature so that He can be our representative And He can be
our substitute. And that's so comforting because
sinful man, we can't go to the Father and His deity, His holiness
and His power. But we can come to the Son, God
in the flesh. We can come to Him. When Moses
asked God, He said, show me your glory. God said, Moses, Even
you can't see my face and live. For there shall no man see me
and live." We can't come into the presence of God, can we?
We cannot see God and live. But look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. We can't see God and live, but we can come to Christ and
live. 2 Corinthians 4, beginning in verse Five, we can't
see the face of God and live. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We can't see
the face of God and live, but we live when we see the face
of Jesus Christ. O souls, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see? There is light for a look at the Savior, and life more
abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim. All this pain and sorrow and
trouble will grow strangely dim, strangely quiet in the light
of His glory and grace. Turn your eyes upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, His person. Faith looks to Christ for salvation. It looks to His person. Faith
looks to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His person,
He's the only holy man to ever live. Yet He cares for and loves
sinners. Faith looks to the person of
Christ, who in His person was perfectly obedient to the law
in thought, word, and deed. He's perfectly obedient. Can
you imagine how intolerable we'd be? I mean, you talk about Eddie
Haskell. I mean, we'd be intolerable.
This man, who in his person was perfectly obedient, forgives
those, not just who sin, but who sin against him. Look to
his person. The Lord Jesus Christ, who in
his person had perfect faith, yet here he is comforting those
who have such weak faith. The Lord Jesus Christ in his
person is despised and rejected of men, yet he tells sinners,
ìAre you thirsty? Come to me and drink.î Men despise
him and reject him. He says, ìAre you weary? Come
to me and rest.î The person of Christ is so precious. God became
a man so he could be our representative. He came where we are so that
we can go to him, to his person. And every sinner that goes to
him is accepted because that's the kind of person the Savior
is. I did, I spent about 15 minutes watering Janice's flowers for
her last night. She still can't get out and do that kind of stuff.
She said, thank you for doing that. I said, that's the kind
of person I am. That's the kind of man I am. Every sinner, without exception,
that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ is accepted. That's the
kind of person he is. Harlots were comfortable eating
with the person, God, who became man. That leper was filled with
leprosy. He couldn't go to the priest.
The priest wouldn't have him. But he felt comfortable coming
to the Lord, God in human flesh. He felt comfortable falling at
his feet and worshiping. He could go to the temple and
worship. He could worship at the feet of this person, this
man. He felt comfortable saying, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Now, what kind of person is he?
God, who became a man, touched him and said, I will. Be thou clean. The woman with
his sheer blood She couldn't get help from any man. She couldn't
go to the priest either. She couldn't go to any man. Nobody
could help her. She was not even allowed by the
law to go out in public. She couldn't go to the temple.
She couldn't be around people. She couldn't touch anything.
She had the issue of blood. Everything she touched was defiled.
But she felt comfortable. She was confident in crawling
up in the dust behind the Savior. Because she knew if I could just
touch but the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. And she crawled
in the dust up behind him in faith to that person. Everything she touched would
be defiled. But when she touched this man, she didn't defile him. She was made whole. She couldn't
touch God, could she? She couldn't come to the priest.
Certainly she can't come to God. that she could come to God in
human flesh, to the person of Christ. And she with a troubled
heart. Her heart was troubled. She had
the issue of blood. Now she's healed and her heart's troubled.
She's always going to find me out. She had no hope. Her heart is troubled. And the
Savior looked into her eyes and said, daughter, what a term of
comfort. Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And every sin-sick sinner here
who has no hope can crawl in the dust of the Savior in faith,
and be made whole because of His person. Look at Mark chapter
5. Mark 5, verse 1. And they came over unto the other
side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he
was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs
a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the
tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because
he had often been bound with fetters and chains and The chains
had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces.
Neither could any man tame him, and always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself
to stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, What
have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, that thou
torment me not. said unto him, Come out of the
man, thou unclean spirit." Now, men couldn't have anything to
do with this man because he's demon possessed. Men couldn't
have anything to do with him. The demons couldn't have anything
to do with God, could they? They said, don't torment us before
our time. Men couldn't have anything to
do with him. The demons couldn't have anything to do with God.
But God, who became a man, could have something to do with him.
He cast those demons out and he set that man free, closed
him, put him in his right mind so that he could say to him in
verse 19 that the Lord's going to go away and the man said,
let me go with you. Verse 19, howbeit Jesus suffered him not,
but saith unto him, go home to thy friends and tell them how
great things the Lord had done for thee and hath had compassion
on thee. Only God who became a man could
say that. I just imagine this fellow went
home to his family and he started telling all the doctrinal ways
and how he was healed and the demons were cast out and the
power of this. He had a real doctrinal treat.
I don't think so, do you? What did he tell his family about?
Let me tell you about this person. This man. This God-man had all
power who set me free. He clothed me. He put me in my
right mind. You know the picture. This is
a picture of a sinner. Are you a sinner? Anybody here,
are you a sinner? Bound by sin. So you can't set
yourself free. You're bound by a sin nature
that makes you self-destructive. You believe in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He has compassion on sinners
and the power to set you free. And He's not just going to set
you free and leave you naked the way you are. He's going to
clothe you. He's going to clothe you in His righteousness. He's
going to put you in your right mind. He's going to give you
a new mind and a new heart and a new birth and set you free
to go and tell your family what great things this person, the
Lord Jesus Christ, did for me. You believe, you trust in, you
rest in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all that
God requires and you're complete in Him. Why should my heart be troubled?
Believe in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'd believe
a man who's honest, wouldn't you? I'd like to think I have
the reputation of being an honest man. I hope you believe me when
I tell you something. You believe this man, this honest man, his
person, he's honest. Look at verse 2 in our text,
John chapter 14. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. Now, these
mansions our Lord speaks of here, these are not gigantic ten million
dollar houses. The word means a dwelling place.
Matthew Henry says it means an apartment. It's just a little
apartment, not much. Who really knows? And who really
cares? Mike, I don't care about the
house. I care about the neighbor. What I want more than anything
Not to live in a mansion, but to live face-to-face with the
Lord Jesus Christ. The dwelling place doesn't matter.
Now here's comfort for the troubled heart. Your earthly house, this
flesh that we're sitting here in, is just a tabernacle. And
you're just going to live in it a short while. Pretty soon
it will fall down. And you'll die. No matter how
much you patch it up, or paint it up, or prop it up, it will
fall down. going to die. Well, what are
you going to do after that? Well, a believer is going to
go to the mansion that Christ has already prepared for him
in glory. An eternal house that will never
fall down and it will never die. Let not your heart be troubled.
Even if this trial takes my physical life, let not your heart be troubled. That's a blessing. I believe
Christ. If I have faith in Him and this
body dies, all I'm going to do is lay down this hole-filled
tent that's moldy and full of holes and leaks water when it
rains, and I'm going to go live in a mansion that Christ has
prepared for me. I'm going to rejoice over that,
not weep. Wednesday night, Isaac was telling
me he'd been to a cross-country camp up in Hocking Hills. Now,
you all know what that means. These kids went up there and
they ran around the hills, the Hawking Hills, for however many
days you're up there, getting in shape for cross-country season.
But while they're there, they also slept in tents. And I don't
know if that's being mean to them or toughing you up or what,
but they're sleeping in tents. And I thought that was fun for
a few days. But if it was me, and my father
came to pick me up, I'd be awful glad to leave and go home. Go home to a house with all the
comforts of home and not sleep on the ground anymore, but sleep
in a bed with sheets that are fresh. They've just been washed
and dried. They smell good. Abby had those
on there. She's happy for him to be home.
She put those on. Oh, he slept in that bed. The sheets smelled
good. Oh, the food tasted so good. Because he's home. That's what every believer who
trusts in, believes in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ will
do. You're going to go home. When
I think of home, I think of two or three things. Home is where
the family lives. Your family's at home. And home
is where a place where your family lives together in peace. And
home is where you can go and your love for who you are. You're
just accepted for who you are. That's what a believer's going
to do. Go home. Where the family lives. In peace. In unity. And you're loved for
who you are. For who you are in Christ. Accepted
in the Beloved. Accepted in His person. And our
Lord is honest. He cannot lie. Well, I just told
you He's not a fairy tale. If that was not true, He would
have told us. Because He's honest. And if his
people deceive themselves, he'll undeceive them with his truth. What's his truth? His person. I am the truth. He said he'll
take care of everything and take you home. That comforts my heart
because of who he is, his person. Third, comfort for the troubled
heart is faith in the person and in the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at verse 2 again in our
text. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And
if, and that word should be when, when I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am, there ye may be also. Now the work of Christ is going
away and preparing a place for you. Preparing a place for his
elect. That's the work of redemption.
Christ must prepare a place for us. And secondly, he must prepare
us for the place. Christ must prepare a place for
his people by going away. If this place is going to be
prepared, he's got to go away. He's got to be made sin for his
people. He's got to suffer everything that that means. Now, God can't
do that. God can't be made sin. God can't
suffer and die. God can't shed blood for the
redemption of his people to put away their sin. But a man can. So God became a man. So that
he could be made sin for his people. So he could be the substitute
for his people. So he could suffer the penalty
of the broken law for them and put all that sin away under the
blood of his sacrifice. The blood that was shed of a
perfect man. God became a man. So He could
be made sin for us and suffer and die for that sin. And that's
exactly what He did. But now the work's not finished.
If we're going to be prepared for the place, we must be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Isn't that right? He must be
made sin for us. But we must be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And when God the Holy Spirit
comes in power and gives life and a new birth, There's a new
man born. A man who's perfectly righteous.
A man who cannot sin. A man who's born of the Spirit
of Christ. And that man, when he's born, is as righteous as
he ever will be. He'll never be more righteous.
He'll never be more holy. He'll never be more sanctified.
That new man is prepared for the place. He's fit. He's meet
to inherit glory. But we can't go there like we
are, can we? A new man can, but we can't. In this flesh, we can't
go there now. So all that needs to happen for
a believer to walk into glory, to walk into the presence of
God, is to be changed. And we'll be changed. Either
in death, when we lay down this body of sinful flesh, we'll be
changed. Or we'll be changed when Christ
returns, when we're changed in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye. But either way, Every believer will be changed so that
we're made just like Christ, body and soul. So when we face
troubles in this life, and we think this is going to destroy
my life, why should we be troubled? I want to be changed. I'm waiting
to be changed. Why should I be troubled? The
only reason that we're troubled is we can't see past this moment.
When this life ends, all of our trials, All of our troubles,
all of our heartaches, all of our pain, all of our tears are
going to end too. And you know why they'll end?
Because sin's gone. By the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the result of the work of
Christ is this. The Savior says, I'm going to
go away. I'm going to do this work. I'm going to accomplish
the work of redemption for you. But I won't be gone for long. I'm coming back. I'm going to
come back. He, this man, this person, the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself will come and receive His people to
Himself. That where He is, there may we
be also. I don't know where that place
is, but I'm telling you it's heaven. Wherever He is, wherever
I am with Him, that's heaven. He will be heaven for me. And
Christ will be heaven. He'll be glory for everyone who's
been given faith in Him. And Christ is going to come.
Christ Himself is going to come and get His people. Gather them
to Himself. And it's either going to be in
death or when He returns and the whole world sees Him. You
know, when a body of a believer dies, I've done this, I've done
this. Somebody calls and says, so-and-so
has died. And I say, oh, what happened? When this is a body of a believer,
you get to call someone, a beloved friend of yours, a believer.
You get the call and say they died. You can get a call one
day and say Frank died. Don't say what happened. I can
tell you what happened. I wish I never would have said
that. I can tell you what happened. The Lord came. Took that beloved child to himself. Not to glory, not to the streets
of gold and mansion and pearly gates and wealth and eternal
vacation. He took him to himself, to his
person, to his bosom. Let not your heart be troubled. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. If we knew that, we'd never shed
a tear. We'd rejoice. I can tell you
that one that the Lord came forth rejoicing, and we would too if
we could see past this moment. And if we remain until Christ
returns, we're going to see a commotion. You know, I read scripture and
I don't understand everything that I read about that, but it
sounds to me like it will be quite a commotion. And people
make the return of Christ, seeing the end of the world seem like
it's going to be this horrible, frightening affair. If you have
faith in Christ, in His person and in His work, let not your
heart be troubled. If you have faith in the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, why would your heart be troubled
standing before the judgment seat of Christ? He's already
been judged for you. Let not your heart be troubled.
Everything, whatever it is that happens, all that's going to
happen is this. Christ is going to return and He's going to gather
His own to Himself that we may be with Him where He is. So let
not your heart be troubled, but rejoice in anticipation. I'm
ready for that day to happen. What's the Lord waiting on? He's
waiting on His purpose to be finished. He's preparing a place
for us. Now, He's not up there frantically
building subdivisions and streets so there'll be enough places
for everybody to live when they get there. No. The work's finished. God
became a man. He went away. For a time, he
went away. He accomplished the work of redemption. He rose again.
He came to his disciples and gave them their marching orders
and he sent them back to glory. And when he got there, Eric,
he took possession of heaven. He purchased it. It's his. And
he's going to fill it with people. With his people. Everyone he
died for, he's going to fill heaven with those people. When
and only when the purpose of his salvation for those people
is complete. And by that, I mean this. When
every person that Christ died for is brought to faith, brought
to faith in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's going to wrap this thing up. But not before. Because His
purpose of redemption is not complete. And when He wraps it
up, every mansion that's prepared in glory is going to be occupied.
There won't be one vacancy and there won't be one homeless person
looking for a place to sleep. There will be exactly as many
mansions as there are people that Christ died for. Not one
of them will be missing. Not one. Because of the work,
the person. Who is it that did the work?
The glorious, holy, perfect, righteous person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because of his person, well what
work did he do? The work of redemption. He shed
his blood to put the sin of his people away and imputed his perfect
righteousness to them. He cannot fail. He cannot fail
because of the person and work of our Savior. So I implore you,
believe Him. Look to Him. Come to Him. Trust
His person and His work. Let not your heart be troubled.
The comfort of the hearts of God's people is Christ, His person,
His work, full and free, complete salvation in you. Let not your heart be troubled. It wouldn't be if we looked to
Him. When we're looking to Him, our heart's not troubled. Peter
never noticed the raging sea when he's looking at the Savior.
We won't either. Let not your heart be troubled.
Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we don't have words to
thank you for the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the precious person, God Almighty, who became a man, that we could
come to him, that we could touch him, that we could lean on his
breast, that we could crawl up in the dust behind him just to
touch the hem of his garment and be made whole. Father, we're
thankful. And how we thank you for His
perfect work. His work of salvation, His perfect
obedience that we don't need to add one thing to. It's perfect. It's complete. His blood that
He shed, that perfect blood of that precious person that washes
His people free from every sin, every stain. Father, we're thankful. and how thankful we are for your
infinite mercy and grace that you chose a people to put in
your son. And we are complete in you. Father, I pray that you bless
your word as it's gone forth. Father, bless your word. Cause
it to give faith to someone here this morning. Cause your word
to strengthen the faith of your little ones. We live in a difficult
world, you know. Give us faith that comforts a
troubled heart by looking to the person and the work of our
Lord Jesus Christ.