I'm glad for last night, for
the message we heard, the blessing we received through the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the man whom God has brought
to our little place to declare these things. I almost said I
wish I'd have been here, but I was. And I'm thankful that
I was. But yesterday's blessings are
yesterday's blessings. and would to God that he might
bless us again tonight through our brother, my friend, and cohort. Brother Jotaro, you come please. Alright, if you would open your
Bibles to Romans chapter 9 and we'll look at one verse. Romans chapter 9. Tim was absolutely right. You can't live on yesterday's
grace. You can't preach on them. I pray that God will help me. The only way you're going to
be blessed is if He blesses me to say something. That is the
only way you're going to be blessed through preaching tonight is if God will
bless me to preach. Verse 33 of Romans chapter 9,
As it is written, and thank God it was, When you consider that
for the first, oh what, about 2,000 years of recorded human
history, there was no written word. It doesn't mean there wasn't
a word. The word of God has always been. But God had not inspired
any of the prophets to write down what they were teaching. But it's written now. And you
and I, many thousands of years from the events recorded, can
nonetheless read about them, learn them accurately, and know
what God has said. And not be dependent on the honesty
of those of whom Paul said, let God be true and every man a liar.
as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and
rock of a fence, and whoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. Now the gospel is a message of
objective reality. It is a declaration of truths
that are true regardless of what people think about them. Kind
of like this statement, two plus two equals four. You know something,
even if you don't agree with it, it's still true. If you pick
up two rocks, and then pick up two more rocks, you've got four
rocks. I don't care what you think about
it, you've got four rocks. And the gospel is like that. It's
objective reality. For example, if you look back
at chapter 5, verse 1, here's one of these powerful objective
statements. Therefore, being justified by
faith does not mean justified by the act of believing. He's pointing to the object of
our faith, but he's contrasting faith as to the works of the
law. being justified by faith we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now did you notice
he did not say being justified by faith we feel at peace with
God. He did not say being justified
by faith a calm falls over our mind and our hearts and our He
speaks in terms of an objective reality being justified by faith. If indeed our relationship with
God and our having been declared righteous by Him, if that came
by virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ and we look to Him, then we have
peace with God. And we have peace with God on
two counts. We're agreeing with Him. Faith
agrees with God. In fact, I think that would be
a pretty good definition of it. Faith simply agreeing with God
about who we are, who He is, and who Christ is, what He did,
and what that means. That's faith. And so we have peace with God
because if indeed we have faith, We have been given a spirit of
repentance which has caused us to put down our weapons of warfare
against God, and we've said, God, you're right. And we have peace with God because
through the Lord Jesus Christ, that which engaged the wrath
of God against us has been put away, to wit, our sin. We see Him as God, as He really
is. We're in agreement with Him.
And he sees us as righteous by virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace. Whether or not
we feel at peace. Whether or not we're troubled
in conscience. Whether we live in fear. It is
absolutely unchangeable truth. Having been justified by faith.
We have peace with God. Now look over at chapter 8. Verse 1. I notice that I do a
lot of preaching out of verse 1's, but that's because the guys
did a pretty good job of dividing it up in chapters, you know.
When they got to something really important, I mean, you know,
a conclusion or something, they'd start a new chapter. But it says
here, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. And we'll stop right there, because
that's as far as we need to go to understand what's being said
here. Now it says, there is no condemnation to them who are
in Christ Jesus. Now that's an objective statement
of fact. It does not admit any alteration
according to what we or anybody else thinks about it. If we are
in Christ, There is no condemnation, even if we feel condemned, even
if we know we full well deserve to be condemned, and even if
we go around with a fear of condemnation, if we are in Christ, there is
none. We are being afraid of a figment. And we do that. That's just the
facts of it. But the declaration of the gospel
is a declaration of objective realities. Paul said, I deliver
unto you the gospel which I first told you. How that? Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and
rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. Now find anything
in that that is subject to anything else. It's just a statement of
historical facts. There's nothing about the gospel
message that depends on anything in us or about us. It does not depend on our works
for sure. It does not depend on our will,
for if it did, it would be as useless as anything can be. It does not depend on our feelings
or on our experiences. Therefore, we look to none of
those things for confidence. Yes, I would like my works to
be good and I have tried to make them that way and have failed at it. That is
in righteous works. I have a will to follow Christ,
and I've got a will to leave Him. And those two wills are
in constant struggle all the time. Sometimes I think about,
and my wife will tell you, I can just get downright morbid about
this, counting the years. I'm amazed at how fast they've
gone by. And I'm thinking, well, you said, you know, we've known
each other 30 years. You're out another 30 years, neither one of us is
going to be here. Or if we are, you know, Guinness is going to
be knocking on the door saying, you know, you're all about to
set a record or something, you know. It seemed like yesterday I met
you. That means tomorrow I'm gone. I think of those things. And I think to myself, really,
I don't want to die yet. I want to live long. And then
I think, wait a minute, do I want to struggle any longer than I
already have? I keep thinking will I be able
to hang on for another 30 years believing God. It's not of my
will. Feelings, there are times when I feel as though I've already
arrived in heaven and there are times when I feel as if I'm about
to step into hell. Now which one of them feelings
am I going to believe? I've had experiences. Good ones, bad ones. What am I going to believe? No, the gospel's objective, but
that does not mean that these things that we don't depend on
are feelings and our experience of His grace as though we have
no desire for them. Faith is that which knows the
truth and relies upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And faith in reality
is a very objective thing. It was born in us by the Word
of God and the work of God, and it continues whether or not we
feel like we believe. Do you realize even when you
feel like you don't believe, you still are? And you know what's
the proof of it, or one of the proofs anyway? When you feel
like you don't believe, you cry out to God for faith. Why would
you cry out to someone you don't believe in? You won't. The very
fact you cry out to Him means that's where your hope is. But faith is an objective thing
and it looks, not in itself, but at another objective thing. But all of us would like to experience
the truth and remove the doubt that dogs us on a regular basis. We would like to have the same
level of confidence regarding eternal things that we have,
by the way, without warrant, that we shall be here tomorrow.
You know, I'm not at all worried about whether I'm going to live
till tomorrow. Truth be known, I have less warrant for confidence
that I shall survive till tomorrow. that I have from God's Word that
my soul is safe and secure in Christ. But I'm not worried about
living until tomorrow. I'm pretty confident it's going
to happen. We don't rely on our feelings,
but we do desire to be confident in Christ in every part of our
being. We want to be saved. We want
to know we're saved. And we would like to feel that
we have been saved. In every part of our being, we
want to believe. We desire that sense of peace.
We know we have peace. We like the sense of peace. That
peace and well-being that comes from a confidence in Christ and
our connection to Him. We'd like to walk around like
that all the time. Well, the scriptures give us
a word of assurance for them that believe. And that word is simply this,
whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now, language
changes over time. And the word ashamed no longer
means what it used to mean. In all reality, the word ashamed
is being used here is an objective word. He's not talking about
a subjective feeling. Say, I'm never ashamed of Christ.
Oh? There's never been a time somebody
confronted you about the gospel, something about the gospel, and
you just kind of backed away or backed down, and you didn't
really want to tell them exactly what you believe? Or maybe you've
never done it outwardly that anybody else could tell, but
there's never been a time that you wandered in your mind or
kind of wished that the way we believe was more accepted by
others and we were held in higher esteem in the eyes of the world? No, it does not mean that the
one that believes in Him will never be embarrassed in this
world. What it means is that when this
matter of the soul salvation comes to that critical time which
we call judgment. The one who trusts in Christ
will not find that his trust has been ill placed. And the
best way to illustrate that is to show its opposite. For the
Lord said, Many shall say unto me on that day, Lord, Lord, did
we not do this, that, and the other? Now, in as much as that's
what they brought forward in the presence of Christ, to argue
as a reason why they should be entering heaven, instead of being
in the other line, what's that prove? Well, that's what their
boast was. That's where their hope was. That's where their
trust was. And you know what happened? They
will be put to shame. They're going to have the rug
pulled out from under them. They trusted what they had done.
And the interesting thing is Christ never argued with them
about whether they had done those things. He did not say, no you
never did that. Why? Because it was irrelevant
whether they had done that. He said, depart from me, I never
knew you, you workers of iniquity. And their boast, they will be
humiliated in that day, for the very things in which they trusted
shall on that day be proven foolish. You ever told somebody that you
had a sure fire way to make money? And you made big boasts about
what was going to come of it? And then nothing came of it?
and you went around with your tail between your legs, ashamed. Because that in which you had
hoped or trusted with regard to your finances proved untrustworthy. But when it comes to your soul,
if you have trusted Christ in that day, in the sight of all
creation, in the presence of God and His angels, and the devil,
and his angels, and everyone you knew in life, and everyone
else that's ever lived, you will not be put to shame. Then shall the Lord say, these
are mine. I have known men forever. I knew them before I created
them. I knew them when they walked
in rebellion against me. I knew them after I changed their
hearts. They are mine. I have redeemed
them. I have loved them with an everlasting love. All of you
who have made a claim to me through your own works, I never knew
you. I knew about you. I created you. But I never entered
into any relationship with you. I never ordained anything good
for you. I rejected you while you were
walking in rebellion and even as you thought you were walking
in harmony with me and boasted of your harmonious walk, you
were in rebellion against me and I didn't know you then. And
I don't know you now and I never will. Depart from me. You others,
enter in. Right now, those who walk in
a way that shall bring them to shame are confident in their
walk. And we who walk in a way that
shall never lead to our humiliation in the presence of God. We sometimes walk around like
it will. But here's the word. Here's what God says to every
one of you that believes. You will never be put to shame.
You will not be put to shame in that day. You will not be
put to shame as to your eternal destiny. You will not be put
to shame because I'm not going to play a movie of your life
like they used to threaten me. I'm going to put up a big screen
and play a movie of your life and let everybody else know all
you've done. Really? Why? Are they better than me? God
already knows everything I've done. I've been pretty open. I don't tell you all that I've
done, but I'm open enough to tell you. I'm glad you don't
know all that I've done. We're all like that. We know
that fact about ourselves. But they'll scare you with that.
Be careful what you do in private. God's going to make it public. Not if you're in Christ. Not if your hope is in Him. What
would God get out of that? Let me ask you this. Here's just
an interesting illustration and you know he calls us our father. God says he is a father to us.
Now do you go out and publicly humiliate your children and air
their dirty laundry in the presence of the world? Why do you think
God would do that to you? Especially you would not do this
if whatever your child had done in disobedience to you he had
owned up to it and the two of you are reconciled over this
matter. You wouldn't say to him, now just don't ever do that again
or I'm going to call a newspaper and have it published. Or I'm going to kick you out
of the house. No. Now if we can do, treat our
children with any measure of decency like that, how much more
God? This is the word, this is the
assurance. Whoever trusts in Him, who believeth
on Him, will not be put to shame. He will not be humiliated. He's
not going to have the rug pulled out from under him. He's not
going to find out in the last day his trust was misplaced. What is the object of divine
assurance? As it is written, back in verse
33 of Romans 9 again, the Lord said, behold. Now what is he
saying here with that word behold? Some translations just use the
word see, and that's okay, but it's stronger than that. I guess
they use the word see because we don't use the word behold
in modern language, but we probably should. But here's what the word
means. Look at this. Look at this. Observe this. Gaze upon this. Fill your hearts and minds with
this seeing. Now I want to stop here and make
a point. that I think is very important for us who believe
in sovereign grace. God says, behold, and this is
at the end of a chapter, the only chapter in scripture I know
of where the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty and in particular
his sovereignty and salvation is laid out in kind of a polemic
fashion. That is, he argues the point
and proves the point. The rest of the Bible just assumes
it. Just says it and doesn't even try to prove it. But Paul
takes the time here in chapter 9 to make the case. And he gets
to verse 33. Having shown Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated, it is not of him that wills, or him that
runs, but of God that shows the mercy, and is therefore, he'll
have mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens. Some
pretty strong stuff, isn't it? And when he says, behold, he
does not say, look at election. So I have assurance because I'm
God's elect. How do you know that? Did God show you the book? We know he's got one. I mean,
not literally, but the names of God's people have been written
down from eternity. God knows who they are. The foundation
of God stands sure having this seal, the Lord knows them that
are his. I don't. In fact that's the question,
that's the issue isn't it, over which we are sometimes in turmoil
in our heart. Am I one of God's? So there's
no use God pointing us to his work of election as a reason
for us to be assured because we have no way of knowing directly. whether we are his elect. He says, Behold, I lay in Zion,
a stumbling stone and a rock of a fence. What is this? Well, there's several things
to note about this. First of all, he says, Behold, I. He doesn't say, Behold, anything
about us. He says, you want the assurance
that you shall never be put to shame? Behold what I have done. And that's what we must do. We
must fix our eyes not on what we have done, but on what God
has done. What we have done, it's just
like so much dew on the ground. As soon as the sun comes up,
it's gone. Now I was raised in free will
fundamentalism. Maybe many of you were too. I
really don't know your all religious background but they were always
having us make commitments. And I made a lot of them on Sunday
night and I'll tell you they didn't last through Monday morning. And I feel sorry for those that
are yet trapped in that situation because They are relying on their
emotions, and the preachers, whether they realize what they're
doing or not. Those evening services, when people's emotional system
is weary, they are easily manipulated. And there in the evening, you
know, the evening service, they can get you to think, yes, I'm
going to give my life to Jesus. And on Sunday night, it looks
like the most wonderful thing to do, and you're full of a sense
of, I can do this! And you wake up Monday morning and the system has been reset. And you may try, just out of
a sense of obligation, to do what seemed like falling off
a log just last night. The scriptures, to my knowledge,
never point us to ourselves. If they do, it's only for this
purpose, to make us never look there again. It's kind of like,
I'm one of these fellas, I can't leave a closed door closed. I'm
just compelled to see what's on the other side. Shortly after
I'd come to, or moved to Iowa, I was walking around the city
of Rock Valley and I looked down an alley and here's this great
big truck. It was sitting by the meat locker. I thought, what
in the world is in that truck? And so I went and opened the
back gate on it. It was a rendering truck, if
you know what a rendering truck is. That's the truck that goes
around and picks up all the dead animals. I wish I had never opened that
truck, and I have never opened a rendering truck since. And
if God ever directs your view to you, it'll be for the purpose
of realizing you are nothing but a rendering truck full of
rotten carcasses with the hope that you'll never open that gate
again. Don't go back there. He says, I have done something. I lay in Zion a stumbling stone. Now you say, wait a minute. Alright,
I'm to look at the work of God, but it looks to me like the work
of God is something that's going to trip me up. No. Not if your trust is in Him.
It's a stumbling stone and a rock of offense to many. And it was
to you at one time. But not anymore. It is Jesus Christ. And in all
reality, it's not Jesus Christ. It's Christ in Him crucified.
We say we trust, and it's a good point to make, we don't trust
a doctrine, we trust a person. And that's true. But we trust
that person because of what he did. I mean, he was the son of
God before he ever came here. But he wasn't our Savior until
he came here. You see what I mean? If he could
have saved us from heaven, he would have done it. He came here
and performed the work that he did because he could not save
us without doing that. Well, that was the work of saving
us. So we say that the stumbling block is not just the person
of Christ, though that's stumbling block enough, but it gets even
more stumblier because we talk about what he
did and why he did it and what that means. See I lay in thine a stumbling
stone. One of the things that goes through
my mind that causes me doubt is this. What if I'm just wrong? It's not like I'd be the first
person to be wrong. There's a lot of people that
read this Bible more than I do and are wrong. Our Lord said
to the Pharisees, He says, you search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. And they did. They were
people of the book. Nobody knew the Bible better
than those guys did. They knew the Bible but they
didn't know the word. They knew the book but didn't
know the author. Didn't even know the subject of the book.
It was about the one that was standing right in front of them
and they couldn't tell. So I keep thinking, well what if I'm wrong?
You know one reason, and it's not an ironclad thing, but one
thing that makes me think I'm Nearly all the world thinks I'm
wrong. It did not say I lay in Zion, or set up in Zion a banner. It said a stumbling stone. And this Christ that Tim and
I preach, and I assume all of you believe, have you ever noticed
that they stumble over Him everywhere? For different reasons, but they
stumble over Him. You say the name Jesus and you'll
get a lot of friends. You start to describe the Jesus
you believe in, then friends will start to fall off. Don't
they? At least they won't be friends
over that part anymore. The world does not like the Christ
of Scriptures. They do not, even if they say
they like the Christ we preach, they prove that that's not really
what they like because they go elsewhere where another Christ
is preached. He's a stumbling block. Everybody
stumbles over Him until they're given grace to stand on Him. I lay in Zion a stumbling stone.
Look over here at 1 Peter 2. This same scripture is quoted
more at length. He said, I lay in Zion. What that means is he set forth
Christ. Whenever you built a building back then, they didn't have concrete. Not at the time that particular
scripture was written. So they couldn't just dig a trench, fill
it full of liquid concrete and wait for it to turn to a rock
and make a foundation out of it. So what they did was find
the largest stone they could manage to move And it's amazing
some of the stones they were able to move. I don't know how
they did it. But they'd start with the biggest rock they could
and they would lay it right at the corner, the chief corner
of that building. And it was called the chief cornerstone.
The reason being, for several things, a foundation stone on
which the weight of the building rested. It was the corner from
which all other dimensions were taken. It was the reference to
everything. And God says, I lay one, and
what he laid, of course, was Christ. So it says here, verse
6 of 1 Peter chapter 2, Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, that is chosen. They went out, you know, when
they're going to build, they went out and looked for the right one.
They didn't take just any old stone. They had to find one that
didn't have cracks in it. Of course that they could move,
that they could chisel out of the side of the hill or whatever
and move that thing in place. It was a chosen one, precious.
There weren't any others like it. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Not be put to shame. Not have
the rug pulled out from under him. Unto you, verse 7, unto
you therefore which believe he is precious. But unto them which
be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the
same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed." When
Jesus Christ came into the world, there were those who would have
come under the classification of builders. The chief priests,
the scribes, the Pharisees, these men of the law. These workers in the temple,
they should have recognized Christ, laid down the tools of their
trade, and worshipped Him, and set Him forth to the whole world,
and said, this is all that we've been doing has been pointing
to Him. But they didn't. God set Him forth, and they rejected
Him. They said, not that cornerstone.
We've got one. His name's Moses. Well, Moses
is a stone in the temple, but he's not the cornerstone. He may be elect, but he ain't
precious. And so Christ came and the builders
rejected him. But God said, I don't care. He is still the chief cornerstone
of my temple. God set him forth in eternity.
We read that Jesus Christ would be born in Bethlehem, but that
one who would be born was from everlasting. His goings forth
have been from everlasting. He was set forth in time in his
birth. God called the angels and had
them go tell the shepherds, this is the one. Unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. One of them went and told Joseph,
name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. He set him before the world.
He laid that stone in Zion. When he moved John the Baptist
to point to him and say, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away
the sin of the world. He set him forth in Old Testament
Scripture. And every faithful prophet of the Old Testament
was pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. He set forth Christ as
that cornerstone in Zion, set him forth, laid him there in
the works that he enabled Christ to do. That's why the Lord said,
the works, my works testify of me. He set him forth when he uttered
or spoke from heaven, said this is my beloved son, but most of
all, He set him forth when he hung him on a cross, poured his
wrath upon him, killed him, had him buried, and then brought
him back out of the grave and seated him on the throne. He
set him forth. That Christ who bore the sin
of many who gave himself a ransom for many, who died under the
wrath of God, who was buried, who came forth from the tomb
because God said it was all right for him to. He's a righteous
man. Righteous people don't belong
in a tomb. That Jesus who was called to
glory and seated at the right hand of God And now rules all
things until all his enemies are made the footstool for his
feet. If your trust is in him, you won't be put to shame. And
you know why? Because he will never be put
to shame. Now, what is it to believe in?
Real quick, it just makes up three things. Paul described
it in 2 Timothy. Chapter 2. No, I'm sorry. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12. For which cause? That is because
of being a preacher and apostle of the gospel. for which cause
I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed."
He said, I'm not being put to shame. Oh yeah, they're trying
to. They're putting me in jail, they're
whipping me, they're making me a public spectacle. He said,
but I'm not humiliated. I'm not being put to shame in
the presence of God. For I know whom I have believed. First part of faith is knowledge. I'm not talking about a vast
and intricate theological knowledge. I'm talking about the knowledge
of a person. I know that you can't know the person without
knowing some things about him. But you don't need a seminary
degree to know Christ sufficiently for salvation in him. I know
whom I have believed and I'm persuaded, that's the second
part, I'm persuaded. Persuaded of what? That he is
able to keep. We know him, we're persuaded
of what he is able to do, not what we're able to do. So it's knowledge, it's persuasion,
it says he is able to keep that which I have committed entrusted
to Him. Now this is a critical point
here. You can know who He is. You can
believe in His power and still be lost because you never called
upon His name and committed your soul to His care. Now I say that
theoretically. I actually believe if anybody
knew Christ and really believed in his abilities, he would call
on him. But I make this point simply to impress this point
on your mind. Faith is not an idol sitting
there or being idol as you sit there absorbing doctrine and
saying amen. It involves calling upon the
name of the Lord. It involves with purpose and
heart crying out to Him for salvation and casting the care of your
soul upon His strong shoulders. You see the distinction I'm trying
to make? I hope I'm getting it across. Believing that Christ
died is not trusting the Christ who died. Believing that Christ
rules everything is not the same thing as entrusting yourself
to the Christ who rules everything. So it's knowledge. I know Him.
I know who He is. I know what He did. It's persuasion. I'm persuaded. He's able. He
can do this. He can keep me. And it's commitment,
and I don't mean commitment like I'm committed to this cause.
It means commitment like you commit money to a safe or to
a bank in order for them to take care of it because you're afraid
if you put it in your own pocket, you'll either spend too much
or somebody will steal it from you. You commit it to His care. You deposit your soul in His
care. Now, if you have believed Christ
after that fashion, here is the word of assurance. He that trusts
in him, no matter what else may happen between the time he trusts
in him and the day of judgment, no matter how much sinning goes
on, no matter how much guilt is felt upon the conscience,
no matter how many transgressions history could rightly call forward
and lay at your feet. He that trusts in Him will not
be put to shame. Everyone else will. I don't really believe that anybody
goes to hell thinking that's where he's going. If he does, he's insane. He's
insane. who believe there is such a thing
as heaven and hell, believe they're on their way to heaven. Some
believe there isn't such a thing. They're going to be humiliated
too because they're going to find out there is such a thing. Those who believe
there is no God, they're in for a big surprise and their hope
of nothingness is going to be humiliated. into a realization that they
will experience an eternal somethingness that is not at all pleasant. But he who trusts in him will
never, not now, not on the day of judgment, not a thousand years
after, not a million years after, never will the rug be pulled
out from under him. Never will his trust prove untrustworthy. Never will he be humiliated.
Brethren, I don't know what more God can say to assure us of things
to come. Does that mean that we'll never
doubt? No. As long as we're in their flesh, we're going to wrestle
with the flesh, and the flesh says, I don't see it, so I don't
believe it. But whenever or when we hear
it, doesn't that sure just for a while shut up the flesh? Oh,
to hear the gospel, to just hear someone say it. He that trusts
in Him will never be put to shame. I think that's right. That's
the way it is. Well, may God give you assurance
or a sense of assurance for a little while. You've got assurance.
It's objective reality. May God give you a sense of it
for a while longer and then send you someone else to preach the
gospel again to you and strengthen you up for a while longer. Thank
you. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not cross the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand All other ground is sinking sand All other ground is sinking
sand Father, thank you for your word which sets things in the
right order and give us faith to believe and trust Lay hold
of and rest in that perfect assurance that you have declared in your
word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.