There are very, very few people,
preachers or others, who recognize truly, who recognize truly that
our only assurance of life, salvation, and faith in Jesus Christ is
faith in Christ the Lord. Our only assurance of salvation,
of redemption, of God's grace, of saving faith, is faith in
Jesus Christ our Lord, the only grounds. The only evidence of
faith is faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. I am very familiar
with the scriptures that men often use to point to various
things. Legalist wants you to look back
to the law and to the Ten Commandments. And if you sort of mostly keep
the commandments outwardly and you profess faith, then you have
assurance. Others would have you to look back to your experience,
look back to yesterday to prove that you're alive today. Others
would tell you to look to your works, to things that you do. As you serve the Lord faithfully,
then you have assurance. If you're lacking in faithfulness,
then you have none. Others would tell you to look
to your love for your brethren. And truly, if we love God, we
love his people. But my love for you, There's
not any kind of love that gives me assurance before God. And if you're honest, the same
is true of you. The only assurance of salvation
is the assurance of faith. Preachers who preach just what
I've said to you, Very often when they see people start to
miss services or start to fall off on this thing or that, take
out the whip of the law. And they say, now, if you really
love God, this is what you'll do. Or they will say, folks who
are real believers, folks who really are faithful, they'll
do this or they'll do that, they'll be here, they'll be there. The
only evidence of faith is faith. That's all, that's all. I recognize
there is a presumption by which men are damned. I'm fully aware
of that. But all who believe that Jesus
is the Christ are born of God. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Not a substance, the substance
of things hoped for. And the evidence, the singular
evidence of things not seen. I know that my name was written
in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of
the world, only because I believe on the Son of God. I know that
Jesus Christ died as my substitute only because I believe on the
Son of God. I know that I had been born again
only because I believe on the Son of God. I know that I am
justified, sanctified, and holy only because I believe on the
Son of God. God in giving his law to Moses
gave a very strange law by which he teaches this very fact. You'll find it in Numbers chapter
5 verses 11 through 31. The Lord God calls it the law
of jealousies. The law of jealousies. That's
my subject this evening. So jealous is our God and Savior
for us that he established this law in Israel called the law
of jealousies to show us how he who hateth putting away keeps
his beloved from leaving him. Let's read about it here in this
passage of scripture. Numbers chapter 5 verse 11. The Lord spake unto Moses saying,
speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, if any man's
wife go aside and commit a trespass against him, and a man lie with
her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and
be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against
her, neither she be taken with the manner. and the spirit of
jealousy come upon him, her husband, and he be jealous of his wife,
and she be defiled. Or if the spirit of jealousy
come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled.
If it's just suspicion, no grounds for it, just suspicion. Then
shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall
bring her an offering for her. The tenth part of an ephah of
barley meal, he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense
thereon, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial,
bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her
near, and set her before the Lord. And the priest shall take
holy water in an earthen vessel, And of the dust, the dirt that
is in the floor of the tabernacle, the priest shall take and put
it into the water. And the priest shall set the
woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman's head, take her veil
off of her, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which
is the jealousy offering. And the priest shall have in
his hand the bitter water that causes the curse. And the priest
shall charge her by an oath, And say unto the woman, if no
man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to
uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free
from this bitter water that causeth the curse. But if thou hast gone
aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled,
and some man have lain with thee beside thy husband, Then the
priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing. And
the priest shall say unto the woman, the Lord make thee a curse
and an oath of cursing among thy people when the Lord doth
make thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell. And this water
that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy
belly swell and thy thigh to rot. And the woman shall say,
amen. Amen. So be it. Let my belly
swell and my thigh rot if I'm guilty. And the priest shall
write these curses in a book. And he shall blot them out with
the bitter water. And he shall cause the woman
to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse. And the water
that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. Then the priest shall take the
jealousy offering out of the woman's hand, and shall wave
the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar.
And the priest shall take a handful of the offering, even of the
memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterwards
shall cause the woman to drink the water. and when he hath made
her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass that if
she be defiled and have done trespass against her husband,
that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and
become bitter, and her belly shall swell and her thighs shall
rot, and the woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the
woman be not defiled, but be clean, then she shall be free
and shall conceive seed. This is the law of jealousies,
when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is
defiled. Or when the spirit of jealousy
cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set
the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon
her all this law. Then shall the man be guiltless
from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity. As I said to you Sunday morning,
this was part of our scripture reading last Wednesday. After
breakfast Shelby asked me about it and we looked at it together
and she said, what does that mean? What does that mean? How
did that work? And I said, I don't know that
I can answer that. I was a little embarrassed. I'm
always embarrassed. Somebody asked me something about
scripture, and I'd say, I don't know. But there's a lot in here
I don't know. So we got Hawker's commentary
out and read what Hawker had to say. It wasn't much, not that
much. And then got gilled out and read
what he had to say. And it was a whole lot, but it
still wasn't much. Didn't give much answer to it. And after
I got to the office, I looked up Spurgeon's sermons, and he
didn't have any sermons on it. And I couldn't find anybody else.
It's been my experience, after preaching the gospel of God's
grace these last 50 years, that scripture that gives me trouble
usually gave other men trouble, too. If I had trouble understanding
it, they did as well, but I had it on my mind, and I thought
I was prepared to preach this to you Sunday, and obviously
the Lord stopped that, and I'm glad he did, because I've learned
some other things today. I believe God's given me a message
for you. If the wife was seen speaking
with another man, or spending too much time with another man
in the eyes of her husband. She maybe just spent a little
too much time with another fellow and he began to be a little suspicious.
Then he could bring his wife to the priest with an offering
and she would be given this test. The test was designed to prove
her innocence or to establish her guilt. It would either prove
her innocence or establish her guilt. It was a matter of evidence,
but evidence that could only be given by divine intervention. We shouldn't fail to observe
that the test was only available to the husband. No such test
existed for the woman if she suspected her husband of adultery.
The burden of proof or innocence was altogether upon the woman.
We are nowhere told that adultery was more common among women than
it was men, though that seems to be the common opinion of the
commentators and the historians, because barrenness was considered
among the Jewish women a curse, and having children was considered
a blessing. But be that as it may, if the
husband became suspicious of her fidelity, if he was jealous
of his wife, God ordained this Very strange law. And you read
it, it almost reads like witchcraft. It almost reads like some kind
of barbarian idolatrous practice. Very, very strange law. It wasn't
necessary that the woman be caught in the act of adultery or even
that she be guilty of it. All that was necessary, all that
was necessary was for her husband to be jealous. If in his mind
there was just a suspicion of infidelity, this test, this law
was to be applied to this woman. We're told in verses 12, 13,
and 14. This test did not involve being
put on trial in a court of law before the Jewish elders. If
that had been the case, it would be involved both the man and
the woman taken in the act. Both would be tried and those
found guilty of adultery would be put to death. If a man was
suspicious of his wife, he would bring her to the priest with
an offering. Now notice in verse 15, The offering was to be supplied
by her husband. He brings his wife, brings her
to have this test before one of the priests in Israel, but
he brings the offering. It's her offering, but her husband
provides the offering. That was unique. The offering
was to be a tenth part of an effa of barley, about three quarters
of dry measure. And she was required all the
time she was being tested to hold this three and a half quarts
of dry measure. I'm gonna guess that amounts
to about five pounds in an earthen vessel before the priest. It was designed to wear her down,
to make her weary. perhaps to squeeze a confession
from them. Everything about the offering
was significant. It wasn't an offering that was
designated to expiate or atone or remove or transfer sin. Rather,
it's specifically called in verse 15, a jealousy offering, a memorial
offering, and an offering to bring iniquity to remembrance. The amount of barley meal was
exactly the same as the daily ration of manna for one person
in Israel. The same measure of meal used
in the meat offering. But unlike the meal offering,
this offering had no fine flour and no oil and no frankincense
with it. All of that pointed to the righteousness
of Christ and the work of the spirit and the sweet-smelling
savor of the grace of God. This offering had none of that
in it. The fine flour was food for the priest. Barley was food
for the beast. The earthen vessel was a vessel
of dishonor, a common vessel, something used only for a period
of time and then thrown away or smashed to pieces. Every element
of the offering was designed to cause the woman to remember
her sin. This jealousy offering showed
the effects of suspicion. The woman was suspected of a
common, beastly, dishonorable act. And let me state it as firmly
as I can state it. Would to God the world would
hear it. And I urge you mamas and daddies
to repeat it to your sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters
often. Adultery is a beastly, a beastly
dishonorable act. But as I said before, the offering
was provided by her husband for her. The priest would take the
offering, and take some holy water, water taken out of the
brazen laver, and he would mix in that holy water some dirt,
just some dust from the floor of the tabernacle. And he would
pronounce a curse upon the woman. The ramifications of the curse
were contingent upon her being proved guilty. The curse declared
the woman declared to her, and she was required to agree to
it. She was required to, as that
priest said, if you're guilty, while you drink this water, your
belly's going to swell, and your thigh is going to rot, and it's
right. Now you say amen, and she would
say amen, amen. So be it, so be it. She was saying
that if she was guilty, she deserved the judgment that came. Then
the priest would write out the charges of the indictment on
a piece of parchment. And he would take the water that
was mixed with the dirt and blot it on that parchment. And he'd take the ink of that
parchment and squeeze it into the mixture so that this concoction
in the earthen vessel was a mixture of water dirt from the floor
of the tabernacle and ink blotted from the parchment upon which
the indictment was written. That strange concoction was designed
of God to reveal whether she was guilty or not guilty of adultery. It searched her from within. Searched her from within. manifesting
either guilt or innocence. But either way, the outcome was
determined by divine intervention. The outcome was a miraculous
thing. If she was innocent, she could not be injured by the mixture
except by a miracle. And if she was guilty, she could
not be punished except by a miracle because there was nothing in
the concoction to hurt anybody. We don't like to admit it as
adults, but I chewed on a lot of stuff when I was growing up,
as most of you did. It wasn't unusual for me to chew
on something, particularly a cheap ink pen, until I had ink all
over my mouth, and I never got sick from it. I used to play
mumbly peg, a root to peg. And I got a lot of dirt in my
mouth, but I never got sick from it. Didn't bother me a bit. And
I never got sick from drinking water. Just never bothered me.
There was nothing in this mixture to do any harm to her. Yet, if
she was innocent, she couldn't be injured except by miracle. And if she was guilty, she would
not be punished except by miracle. because the mixture had nothing
toxic or poisonous in it. It could only discern her guilt
or innocence. It could only discern what was
inside the woman by divine intervention, by a miraculous thing. And we're
told plainly in 1 Corinthians 10 that these things are written
in the scriptures to teach us gospel lessons. The things written
here were written by divine inspiration as events and laws given to the
children of Israel to teach us spiritual things, to teach us
gospel truths. Things designed of God to be
instructive to God's church with regard to our relationship with
our Redeemer and our redemption by his blood and our acceptance
of God in him. Let me show you just three or
four things about this law and I won't be very long doing it.
First, only the wife could be suspected of adultery and this
law be applied. Is that because men never committed
adultery? Of course not. We have example
after example in the scriptures, Old Testament and New. But no
law was given concerning the possibility of the husband's
infidelity. Had God intended for us to look
upon this law relating to natural affairs, and I read a lot of
stuff over the last week that men have written and preached
and said about this, and it all was just related to natural things,
just related to husbands and wives and adultery or fidelity. If that's all it intended, the
law would surely have had something to say about a man's adultery,
but it doesn't. It only speaks of the woman being
suspected of adultery. Both the husband and the wife,
as you and I know, were adulterers and adulteresses. Because that's
what we are. Adulterers and adulteresses. Every one of us. That's our nature. The scripture says it, and your
heart verifies it. The law, in its entirety, is
spiritual. Oh, wouldn't it, God? I could
get folks to understand this. The law of God. in its entirety
is about spiritual things. The carnal adherence to the law
is not spiritual. The law speaks of spiritual things. It speaks about Christ, his person,
his work, his accomplishments for us, and our relationship
with him. The husband was not suspected
of anything in this law. He could not be brought with
suspicion because the husband speaks of the Lord Jesus, our
Savior, ever without sin. He who knew no sin, he who had
no sin, he who did no sin, who was made sin for us, but who
himself was altogether without sin. never could sin. He is ever our faithful husband. Thank God for his faithfulness.
Ever faithful and true to his people, his bride, his wife,
his church. And any problem that exists,
any harm to our relationship with him, any injury done to
our communion with him, Any breach of fellowship, any breach of
joy in our union with him, any breach of the peace of that marriage
bond, any breach of any kind is never his fault, but always
ours. It's never his fault. but always
ours. That's what the Song of Solomon,
the whole eight chapters, is all about. It's a continual display
of you and I, his bride at fault and our sin. and of His faithfulness,
His forgiveness, His righteousness, His mercy, by His blood, by His
grace, and Him coming to restore us from our wonderings, to restore
us from our languishing, to restore us from our indifference, to
restore us from our falls, to restore us from our running from
Him. He comes to restore, to revive,
and to refresh. Any breach is caused by us. He who never lies, he who cannot
lie, loves his bride unconditionally. He will never leave her nor forsake
her. Oh my soul, hear God and believe
him. I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Not for any reason. Not under
any circumstance. He's with her always. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. He loves his bride with an everlasting
love, and he lives for her. He lives to intercede for her,
to protect her, to watch over her. If a possibility of suspicion,
any hint of unfaithfulness exists, he can only be with us. Here's
the second thing. The Lord Jesus, our blessed Savior,
is jealous for his glory, and he's jealous for his bride. He
will countenance no rival to her affection for him. He will
countenance no rival for our affection to him. Jealousy with
men is always evil. It is always cruel. It is always
ill-founded, because jealousy implies entitlement, and no man
has that. Listen to the words of our Redeemer.
You don't need to turn there, you can write it down and look
later. In Zechariah chapter one, the prophet of God tells us,
the angel that communed with me said unto me, cry thou saying,
thus saith the Lord of hosts. I'm jealous for Jerusalem and
for Zion with a great jealousy." The word jealous is actually
the same as the word zealous. Because of his great jealousy
for his people, the Lord God swears that he will destroy all
the enemies of his church. He says, therefore, thus saith
the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall
be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be
stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Cry yet saying thus, saith the
Lord of hosts, my cities through prosperity shall yet spread abroad,
and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem. In chapter 8 of that same book,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with a
great jealousy. I was jealous for her with great
fury. As I said, jealousy, the very
emotion of it has to do with a sense of entitlement. And the
law given here has to do not with a sense of entitlement,
but with a just entitlement. The Lord Jesus, our husband,
our savior, our bridegroom, is entitled. We're not. He has both the claim and the
right to unconditional affection and unconditional allegiance
from us. Oh my God, you're entitled to
it. He says, give me thine heart. and he's entitled to it because
he's earned it. He's entitled to it because he's
worthy. He has the right to be jealous
because he's entitled. We all proudly presume that we're
entitled to the love of a husband or wife, but we're not. We're not entitled to it. I thank God for the love of this
woman, but I'm not entitled to it. You see, none of us are without
sin, and none of us love unconditionally. There's a ton of yak about unconditional
love. There's no such thing among men,
not among parents, not among husbands, not among wives. There's
no such thing as unconditional love except for the love of God
that's in Christ. That's free, unconditional, unalterable
love. Here's the third thing. We must
acknowledge that we often, dare I not say
constantly, we constantly give our Savior Our completely devoted
husband calls for jealousy. If you don't, please stand up
and tell me right now. We constantly give him calls
for jealousy. The believer's love for Christ
is genuine. With Peter, every believer can
rightly look the Savior in the face and honestly say and comfortably
say, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Now, when our Lord Jesus asked Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me? You can read it in John 21. He
asked the question three times. And three times, Peter answered
and said, Lord, I love you. You know I do. But the third
time, he asked the Lord the question using a different word for love.
He used the word that's commonly used for brotherly love. the
strongest, tenderest word for love there is in scripture, in
the language of man, Greek, Hebrew, or English, brotherly love. And Peter was grieved when the
Lord said to him the third time, lovest thou me, using that word
phileo, brotherly love. And when he answered that third
time, Peter said, Lord, you know what nobody else can know. My
actions don't show it. James and John haven't seen anything
that looks like it. The other disciples have every
reason to question it. and looking at myself, I have
every reason to question it. But this is my comfort. Lord,
you know all things. You know that inside me, in that
new man you created in me, in here, something that nobody else
can see and nobody else can know. Nobody can. Nobody can. You know
that I love you. The believer is like the Apostle
John. He says we love him because he
first loved us. He loved us from everlasting.
He proved his love for us in redeeming us with his precious
blood, in calling us by his grace, and he causes us to love him. He created love for him in us
with the gift of faith. We love him because he first
loved us. Philip Doddridge wrote a hymn
a long, long time ago, nearly 400 years ago. This is how he
put it. Do not I love thee, O my Lord? Behold my heart and see, and
turn each odious idol out that dares to rival thee. Do not I
love thee from my heart? Then let me nothing love. Dead
be my heart to every joy which thou dost not approve. Is not
thy name melodious still to mine attentive ear? Doth not each
pulse with pleasure beat my Savior's voice to hear? Hast thou a lamb
in all thy flock I would disdain to feed? hast thou a foe before
whose face I fear thy cause to plead. Thou knowest I love thee,
dearest Lord, but, oh, I long to soar far from the sphere of
mortal joys that I may love thee more. Yes, we love our Redeemer
who loved us and gave himself for us, and yet our base Corrupt,
evil hearts are ever straying from him. How often we go astray
from him and go a-whoring after others, prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. prone to leave
the God I love, here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it
for thy courts above. Yes, God's church, Christ's chosen,
his blood-bought, dearly beloved bride often gives reason to be
suspected of an alienation of affection, to be suspicious of
her, would be both feasible and reasonable. To be suspicious
of me is both feasible and reasonable. The possibility of us being untrue is always on the surface. The fact of it is evident. So
the Lord Jesus, our ever faithful, ever true, ever gracious, ever
loving husband puts an offering in our hands, a jealousy offering,
a memorial offering, an offering to bring iniquity to remembrance. Now, here's the test. This is
the last day. We must be proved, not for his
sake, but for our sake. We must be tested. We must be
tried. We must be searched, not from
without, but from within. We must drink the water mixed
with the dust and the ink of accusation. The water representing
the word of God. The dust representing death. The indictment representing the
law and its curse. And the very law of the indictment
is the means by which the indictment is blotted out. God, by the sacrifice of his
Son, declares his righteousness, that he may be just and the justifier
of him that believeth. So that God, by the very law
that cadiums, is the law by which God declares his people justified
through Christ's death, which is our propitiation. So that
the very eek of the indictment is mixed with the sacrifice,
and it's all put into an earthen vessel. representing a gospel
preacher. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. We're just broken clay pots that
carry the gospel of God's grace to you. The gospel of Christ
sets forth the death of Christ as a substitute for sinners,
condemned by the law. The gospel is the food and drink
of God's church. the feast of fat things, fat
things, wine upon leaves well refined. It is the singular drink
both for the true believer in his greatest joyous experiences
of faith and the one who finds himself unfaithful as we constantly
do. The drink reveals both. That's
exactly what the preaching of the gospel does. You remember
in the Song of Solomon, both in Chapter 3 and in Chapter 5,
the bride whose fidelity is obvious. Her infidelity is obvious. Her lack of fidelity, obvious. And she finds the Savior has
withdrawn himself and she arises and goes about the streets looking
for him. And she finds the watchman. You remember what the watchman
does? He takes her veil off, exposes her shame, exposes her
for what she is, not to others, but to herself. The drink offering,
the drink of death, searches out the faithful too, and gives
them the freedom to bring forth fruit unto God. The fruit, which
is the calves of our lips, praise and thanksgiving to God. The
preaching of the gospel, is the thing by which God searches us
out and proves us. Go back to Psalm 139, that text
I read to you at the beginning of the service this evening.
Read it again. Verse 24. Loving the light, we come to
the light that we may have our deeds reproved. Verse 24, Psalm
139, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my
thoughts. This word of the gospel is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Often I'll be preaching, I like
to hear it every time I preach. Were you talking to me? I intended
to, I intended to. And if the word speaks to you,
bless God, I was talking specifically to you. Search me, oh God, and
know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked
way in me. Again, you ought to write this
down somewhere. See if the way of the wicked is in me. and lead
me in the way everlasting. The offering that was brought
was barley, the food of beasts, because you and I come to Christ
with nothing of value. It speaks to the fact that the
believer stands before God, trusting him to reveal the truth about
himself. God, make me to know by your
word the truth about myself. The body also pictures the gospel
and that it is the food of beasts again, food for sinners. Christ came into the world to
save sinners, beastly men of whom I'm the chief. And when
the church is tried by the gospel, When the believer is tried by
the gospel, when the child of faith is tried by the gospel,
he is always found by the miraculous work of God, innocent, holy, righteous. When he's searched, by the word
of God, searched by the gospel, he's always found just, righteous,
holy innocence. You see, death and the law are
both elements of gospel preaching, and both are swatted up by it. The gospel is a heavenly cordial
for our souls. It is the sweet wine of the spirit
to enumerate our souls. Because the Lord God declares,
I am jealous for her. Here is the mixture that declares
us righteous. The death of Christ was my death. The indictment of the law had
been blotted out for me. Blotted out, blotted out justly
at Calvary and blotted out in my conscience by the sprinkling
of the blood by the Spirit of God through the water of the
Word. So that God says there is therefore
now no condemnation to Don Fortner. There is therefore now no condemnation
to Don Fortner. How do you know? because I believe
that Jesus is the Christ. The Lord God, our Savior said,
I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in
mercies. That's all he's doing. And I
will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness. and thou shalt
know the Lord. Now this is God's witness concerning
the matter. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. This is what God says. This is
the record that God has given to us eternal life and this life
is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that believeth on the Son
of God is not condemned. I conclude, therefore, that I
have life and that I'm not condemned. How
about you? For one reason only. Not because
of anything yesterday or 50 years ago. Not because of any experiences
I've had. Not because of any work I've done. Not because of
any knowledge I have acquired. I am confident that I have no
condemnation and that I have life with God because God has
given me faith. Faith by which Abel obtained
witness that he was righteous. That's what the book says. Faith
by which Abel obtained witness that he was righteous. What did
Abel do that Cain didn't do? What did he do? Cain brought
an offering, the best he could bring. Abel brought an offering,
I'll guarantee it was the best he could bring. It was an offering
that represented faith because it was a lamb. One of the flock,
Cain brought the work of his hands, but Abel didn't do anything
that Cain didn't do. Abel came to God, believing God,
and God accepted Abel and his sacrifice. That's something. God accepted Abel and his sacrifice. I don't have any idea how that
was demonstrated, except perhaps Abel walked with God in peace,
and came, brought the best he could bring, the best he could
do, the best he could experience, the best he could know, and he
couldn't get any peace from God. Enoch walked with God, and he
believed God. And believing God, he obtained
this testimony, that he pleased God. Now, without faith, it's impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he's the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. That's what the law of jealousies
teaches us. That's what the whole thing means.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of
things not seen. Oh, bless, bless, bless your
holy name, our God. for the revelation of your Word,
for the gift of faith in your Son. Amen.