But to turn back to Acts chapter
21, I have entitled this message, Paul
and James. I believe I have an understanding
of this passage. The Holy Spirit inspired Luke
to record this in this detail. And I do not want to darken counsel
with words without knowledge. I always have a fear every time
I preach, a hope of misrepresenting the Lord. I don't want to do
that. And I don't want to Do as God said to Job, who is this
that darkeneth counsel with words without knowledge? So pray for
me, I hope you always do. Pray that the Lord would be my
teacher, that he would cause me to be a man after his own
heart and a pastor after his own heart. And pray for yourselves
that you'll be able to understand this passage as well. And I hope that through this,
the Lord will use this to cause us to understand, love, believe,
rely on, and appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ more than we did
when we walked into this place. Now, wouldn't that be a blessing
if that's what takes place? When Paul said in 2 Timothy 3,
verse 16, all scripture, is given by inspiration of God. Literally, God-breathed, inerrant,
said exactly as God would have it said. The word order, the
grammar, everything is inspired by God. Let me remind you. If God is
able to create the universe, and He did, He is able to inspire
men to write a book and keep it preserved. That's not hard
for the Lord. Somebody says, how do you expect me to believe
that the Bible is the inspired Word of God? Well, free country,
do what you want, but I do. I do. When Paul made that statement,
he was speaking primarily of the Old Testament Scriptures,
when he said, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
But I want you to listen to what Peter said about the writings
of Paul. He said in 2 Peter 3, verse 15,
an account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even
as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom
given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things. in which are some
things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned
and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures. You see, the early church recognized
these writings of Paul and the writers of the New Testament
as scripture. So, there are nine different men
that were used to write the New Testament, which is just as inspired
as the Old Testament inerrant. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul,
Peter, James, Jude, and whoever wrote Hebrews. We don't really
know who wrote Hebrews. And all these men had different
personalities. and different gifts and ways
of thinking which were evident in their writing. Now, listen
to this very carefully. What they wrote was infallible. God-breathed, inerrant, but the
men themselves were sinful, fallible men, just like me and you. You know how sinful you are?
That's how sinful the writers of the New Testament and the
writers of the Old Testament were. Now their words are inspired
by God, inerrant, but the men themselves were sinful men, no
different than me or you. and their actions quite often
were wrong. Now, the acts of the apostles,
that's what it's called. This passage I just read from,
the acts of the apostles. While their writings were inspired,
their acts quite often were wrong. Now, take the very first act
of the apostles. Peter picks out two people and
he said, show us which one of these you've chosen. Well, he
didn't choose either. But Peter said, show us which
one you've chosen. And then they cast lots to figure
out, and it ended up being Matthias. And he is the 12th apostle. No, he's not. No, he's not. He's the one Peter chose and
manipulated and strong-armed into the position, but God chose
somebody else to be the 12th apostle, the apostle Paul. And remember, In the book of
Revelation, we read of the 12 apostles of the Lamb, not the
13 apostles. There were only 12. And Matthias
was never counted an apostle. So the very first act of the
apostles recorded in Acts chapter one was a wrong act. And somebody says, how could
that be? Well, how can you do wrong things?
That's how they did wrong things. Now, two of these personalities
were Paul and James. Paul and James. Now, James was the brother of
the Lord. In Galatians chapter one, Paul
tells us about him going to see James, the Lord's brother. He was one of the men that the
Lord appeared to after the resurrection. He appeared to his brother. You
read that in 1 Corinthians 15, 7. This is during that 40 days
that the Lord stayed on earth before his ascension. He appeared
to this man, James, who was his brother. I think it's interesting
when James wrote James, he never says, I'm the Lord's brother.
I would, but the Lord inspired him not to do that. He wasn't
using any fleshly connections to try to, I mean, it's not a
fleshy connection with the Lord's brother. I'm not saying that,
but I'm saying he wasn't trying to use things to add authority
to what he was saying. He speaks very differently than
Paul in his writing. You read the book of James and
you read any of Paul's letters and they don't seem a whole lot
alike, do they? As far as what they had to say. And James says
things in a way which Paul would have never said them. And James
says things exactly as God purposed for him to say, and breathed
through him to say things this very way. Now, how many times
have you been trying to talk to somebody with regard to the
gospel? I'm gonna take you straight to James chapter two. What about
faith without works? What about where it says a man
is justified, not by faith only, but by faith and works? And James
does use that language. And if you don't know what he
meant by that, you can hang yourself on that. Many have. And I have
no doubt that the Lord allowed him to write things in such a
way as to give people enough rope to hang themselves if that's
what they want to do. But his writings are still inspired,
perfect, said as God would have them say. And his doctrine is
in complete alignment with Paul. You just have to understand what
he's saying in the first place. Very few do. James was the pastor of the church
at Jerusalem. When Peter was miraculously delivered
in Acts chapter 12, he said, go tell James. James was the
one that was behind these four decrees we read of that came
out in Acts chapter 15. You remember where the Gentiles
were told they don't have to keep the law. All they need to
do is don't commit fornication, don't eat things that have been
strangled, don't drink blood, and what was the other one? Well, we'll get to them in a
minute, but there's four of them, and they're all very important. And the people
who came to Antioch with a false message about circumcision in
Acts chapter 15, you know where they came from? The church James
pastored. Paul speaks of the people that
Peter caved into. Remember in Galatians chapter
2, where certain from James came? And Peter caved in. And when
he went and sat with the Gentiles instead of the Jews at this time,
feeling under pressure from these people, and Paul said this is
a denial of the truth of the gospel. And he rebuked Peter
about it, but it's interesting how he says certain from James
came. It was from the church that James
pastored that Paul said certain false brethren came in, unawares,
to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus. These
people were from the church that James pastored, and perhaps Paul
could have even thought, James might be partially at fault for
all this. I can see where he would think that. Now, the setting
of this passage of Scripture is the end of Paul's last missionary
journey, and he would shortly be arrested in Jerusalem and
brought to Rome. Verse 17, and when we were come to Jerusalem,
the brethren received us gladly. And the day following, Paul went
in with us, unto James. Now, I can't help but think that
in some measure there was some kind of tension between James
and Paul. He did say certain from James
came in. Now, maybe I'm reading too much
into that. I don't know. What I'm saying
now is not inspired, but it's what I think, just what I think.
There seemed to be some tension between James and Paul, and we're
going to see why as we go on reading in this passage of Scripture.
And the day following, Paul went in with us unto James, and all
the elders were present. And when he had saluted them,
he declared particularly what things God had wrought among
the Gentiles by his ministry." And isn't that what the gospel
is, the things God has done? Is your salvation what God has
done, or is it what you have done? Is your salvation what
you've let God do or what God has done? Any believer knows
that their salvation is what God has done. In every, he chose me, he redeemed
me, he regenerated me, gave me life. Salvation is of the Lord. And that's what Paul had to say
to these people. Verse 20, and when they heard,
They glorified the Lord, this is really good, and said unto
him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there
are which believe and that are zealous of the law. Now let's
think of what these men were saying. First, it's almost like
we're one up on you. Thousands of Jews believe. I
mean your ministry has been limited to a few Gentiles here and there.
Small churches, look at the number of these Jews which believe. Thousands. Thousands. You know when people use numbers
today, don't you find it irritating? First thing people ask, how many
people go to your church? How many you got? Things like that. I mean, that's just the way people
do. And that's what they were doing
at this time. Thousands. of Jews, which believe, now,
they would have been good if they left it right there. There
are thousands of Jews which believe, I love that, but this almost
sounds like nails going against a chalkboard. Thou seest, brother, how many
thousands of Jews there are which believe, and they are zealous
of the law." Now, the first part is good.
They believe. The second part doesn't fit with
the rest of the scripture. They are zealous of the law. They believe and they are zealous
of the law. Now, what is meant by the law?
Well, you have the moral law, the Ten Commandments. You have
the civil laws with regard to how we're to treat one another
and what to do for reparation and so on. We have the ceremonial
and sacrificial laws, the laws of the Pentateuch, the law. Now, zealous of the law. And let me say this also, the
law cannot be separated. I don't know how many times I've
heard people say, well, we're not under the ceremonial law
and we're not under the civil law, but we're still under the
moral law. You can't separate the law of
God. It all goes together. And the
Lord shows us that in the 10 commandments in the sense that
even in the 10 commandments, you have a ceremonial law, the
Sabbath day. Now the rest are with regard
to doing what's right and what's wrong, but the fourth commandment
is a ceremonial law, the Sabbath day. And that lets us know that
you can never divide the law. You can never separate it. It's
a whole thing. That's why anytime a preacher
says, well, we're not under the ceremonial law, but we're still
under the moral law. Well, you're not gonna get that
from the word of God. You can say that, but that's not what
the scripture teaches. But these men were zealous of
the law. Now, what must we do that we might
work the works of God? John 6, 28. Good question, isn't
it? This is the work of God. Anybody know the rest of the
verse? That you believe on him whom he hath sent. You know what comes after that?
A period. He didn't say that you believe
on him whom he has sent and be zealous of the law. Acts chapter
16, verses 30 and 31, serves what must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be zealous of the law, and thou
shalt be saved." Doesn't say that at all, does it? BELIEVE
ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED. ROMANS 10, 4 SAYS CHRIST IS THE
END OF THE LAW, THE TERMINATION OF THE LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. ROMANS 6, 14 GIVES US THIS PROMISE,
SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU. WHY? FOR YOU'RE NOT UNDER
THE LAW, BUT YOU ARE UNDER GRACE. Galatians 5 18 as many as are
as many as are led of the Spirit are not under law I Love what
Paul said in first Timothy chapter 1 listen to this real carefully
The law was not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and the
disobedient for ungodly, for sinners, for whoremongers, for
murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers. You know, the law
is for criminals. It's for, that's what the law
is for. If a man is righteous, he does not need law. Somebody
that loves God, you don't have to give them a bunch of laws.
It's just not necessary. The law was not made for a righteous
man. The strength of sin is the law. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Now, I feel like Paul was probably
kind of shocked when he heard this. What have you been teaching
these people? I believe he was shocked when this man came from
this position. Verse 21, and they are informed
of thee. I think that's an interesting
word. They're informants. They're informants. THEY ARE
INFORMED OF THEE, THAT THOU TEACHEST ALL JEWS WHICH ARE AMONG THE
GENTILES TO FORSAKE MOSES, SAYING THAT THEY OUGHT NOT TO CIRCUMCISE
THEIR CHILDREN, NEITHER TO WALK AFTER THE CUSTOMS." NOW, WAIT
A MINUTE. PAUL IS THE MAN WHO SAID, IF
YOU BE CIRCUMCISED, CHRIST SHALL PROFIT YOU NOTHING. Tell me you that desire to be
under law. Don't you hear the law? Whosoever
you are justified by works, you've fallen from grace. Now, he wasn't preaching against
physical circumcision in the sense that he was physically
circumcised and he couldn't reverse that. That's not what he was
talking about. If you think anything you do is the reason why God
responds to you. If you think God cannot do something
for you until you first do something that enables him to do it, that's
law. That's law. That is the meaning
of circumcision. Now, he did say to forsake any
way of thinking you can be saved by Moses and the law, the Lord
said, The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. What a powerful statement that
the Lord gives us regarding that. Now, I love God's law. I'm not speaking against the
law in any way, but it's been fulfilled. It's been done away
with. Christ honored that law. When he died, all sacrifices
were over, but look what takes place. They are informed of thee
that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles
to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise
their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it
therefore? The multitude must needs come
together, for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore
this that we say to thee." Not what God tells him to do. Do
what we say to you. We have four men which have a
vow on them. And what he's talking about is
the vow of the Nazarite. You can read about the vow of
the Nazarite in Numbers chapter six. You remember Samson was
a Nazarite. Remember how his hair became
long, the razor wasn't to touch your head until the time was
over, then they'd shave their head. Also involved in this vow
was a blood sacrifice. An animal was to be slain. Now he says in verse 23, Do therefore
this that we say to thee, we have four men which have a vow
on them. Take them and purify thyself with them and be in charges
with them. You pay for everything that needs to be done to show
how you're all the way behind this. That they may shave their
heads and all may know that those things where they were informed
Concerning thee are nothing but that thou thyself also walkest
orderly and keepest the law." What? Thou walkest orderly and thou
keepest the law. Show everyone that. Do what they're doing and pay
for it all. That's touching the Gentiles
which believe we've written and concluded they have observed
no such things save only that they keep themselves from things
offered to idols, from blood, from strangled and from fornication.
Then Paul took the men and the next day purifying himself According
to the commandments of Numbers 6, went with them and entered
into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of
purification. Until that, an offering, a blood
sacrifice, an animal slain was to be offered for every one of
them. Now in Hebrews 1.3, We read,
when he by himself purged our sins, he sat down. You see, the sins were purged. There's no need nor place for
another sacrifice. After he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, He sat down. When he offered that one sacrifice,
there is no other sacrifice needed. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Now, an animal sacrifice would
deny that. It would say something else is
needed. When Christ said, it is finished,
it wasn't completely finished. There is something else that
is needed. And that makes the gospel unrecognizable. That's all it does. All these things did was point
to His coming sacrifice. And you know, the writers of
the Hebrews calls all the economy of the Old Testament weak and
unprofitable. Now, God inspired this to teach
us the gospel, to teach us our need of Christ. But if you take
those things in and of themselves and divorce them from the gospel,
all they are is weak and unprofitable. There's no saving efficacy, no
saving benefit in any of them. You know, as far as wanting to
be a Nazirite or taking the vow of a Nazirite, that really refers,
there's only one true Nazirite. Jesus of Nazareth is the true
Nazarite. You know, he's called the Nazarene
from Nazareth. It has something to do with his
vow of a Nazarite. I don't know what all the connection
is, but that's who he is. And you know, when people have
plays, religious plays, and somebody supposedly plays the part of
Christ, I mean, that's cringeworthy. I mean, do you think you have
any business playing the part of Christ? No, that's idolatrous. That's wrong. Don't do that.
What's the same thing as somebody saying, I'm going to take the
vow of the Nazarite? This is Christ. He's the only one who
fits this description. But here they are taking this
vow. Now, he says in verse 25, in
verse 24, you need to show everybody that you're walking orderly and
keeping the law. Now, it's touching the Gentiles
which believe, we've written and concluded that they observe
no such thing. Now, here he makes a distinction between Gentile
believers and Jewish believers. Now, the Gentile believers don't
need to mess with any of this stuff. We've already given them
this fourfold decrees to keep, and actually they're what they
needed to keep too. He talked about them, save only that they
keep themselves from things offered to idols. And what that means
is we're not to derive spiritual nutrients and benefit from any
kind of idolatrous religion. Don't, it's not just talking
about the, you can eat all the meat-sacrificed idols you want
as far as, Paul said, you're not better or worse for eating
that as far as the physical act of it, but it's what it's represented.
Keep yourself from drinking blood. You see, the blood's not for
you, it's for God. That's so important. Don't think
the blood is for you. It's for God. For God to do something
for you, the blood of His Son had to be shed. It's not for
your consumption. It's for God. Stay away from
things strangled. bloodless. The only hope we have
is the blood of Christ at all times. A bloodless sacrifice
won't do me and you any good. Stay away from things strangled
and stay away from fornication. And well, yeah, you ought to
stay away from any kind of sexual sin. There's no doubt about that.
But the reference is spiritual fornication, looking for some
kind of assurance and hope outside of the covenant God made with
Christ before time began. Now, those are four good decrees,
and they took them all over for the churches to keep. They're
good, and they would be good for these Jewish believers, too. But he makes this distinction,
and remember when Peter made that distinction in Galatians
chapter 2 by simply getting up. He was at the table with the
Gentiles, and when those fellows from James Church came, he didn't
say a word. He got up and walked over and
sat down with the Jewish believers instead of the Gentiles, and
he was saying by that, there's a difference. There's a difference. And Paul called it a denial of
the truth of the gospel. You see, that's a denial that
Christ is all in salvation. If there's a difference, Christ
is not all in salvation. Something you do makes a difference,
and that is a denial of the gospel. Now, then Paul took the men,
verse 26, the next day, purifying himself, entered into the temple
to signify the accomplishment of the days of the purification
till the offering should be offered for every one of them. Now, James, why are you doing
this? Paul, why are you submitting
to it? Well, let me ask you a question.
I'm asking myself this question. Why do we do things that we clearly
know are wrong? We do. Somebody says, I don't. I don't believe you. It's never
right. It's never okay. But James should
not have made this requirement for Paul. And Paul should not
have done it. They were both wrong in this. And I think, Paul, you can understand
this. He got tired of the conflict.
I mean, everywhere he went, there were bonds and afflictions abiding
in him, and he got tired of the conflict, and I guess he just
thought, well, I'll give him this one time, maybe more people
will hear me if I go ahead and do this. If I go ahead and submit
to this, these Jewish believers will hear me. And he did it,
and it was wrong, clearly wrong. Now, verse 27, when the seven
days were almost ended. Now, after seven days, a sacrifice,
an animal sacrifice would be made, a blood sacrifice. But before Paul could do it,
God had him arrested. He prevented it from happening. Aren't you thankful for what
the Lord prevents you from doing? You do it if he didn't prevent
it. Thank God for preventing prevenient
grace. He had Paul arrested before that
sacrifice could take place. What grace? And another thing
that I think is very interesting is that Paul was in this temple
in order to do something wrong to avoid conflict but it was
through being in the temple waiting for the sacrifice that he got
all the conflict and they come in and bust the doors down and
arrest him, drag him out and start beating him through his
efforts to avoid this. And we all learned something
from that. He had it worse. Now let's go on reading, verse
27. And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which
were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all
the people and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel,
help! This is the man that teacheth
all men everywhere against the people. He says there's no saving
benefit in being a Jew. Against the law, he says you
can't be saved by your law keeping. Against this place, he says God
doesn't dwell in a physical place made with hands, but he dwells
in the church, the people of God. And all these things he
was accusing them of, we're gonna consider that more next week,
about their accusations. Here's what I'd like to leave
you with. The Holy Spirit had this event
recorded for our benefit. You cannot possibly think that
James was right in doing what he did. You cannot possibly think
that Paul was right in submitting to what James said to do. That is very clear. There's no
way it is ever okay to offer a sacrifice that's clouding what
Christ's sacrifice accomplished. You see, Christ's sacrifice,
when he said it is finished, all the salvation of everybody
he died for was finished. Offer another sacrifice? There's
nothing right about that, but the Holy Spirit had this recorded
for our benefit. Now, three things in closing. Thank God for prevenient restraining
grace. Paul's intention was to go through
with this. And the only reason he didn't was because God had
him arrested. Thank God for his prevenient,
restraining grace. And the second thing, the best
of men are men at best. Paul, James, me, you, the best
of men. are men at best. I hate it when preachers talk
about somebody and they're referring to this great man of God. There's
no such thing as a great man of God. There are very weak men
that the great God uses for his own glory. But to speak of a
great man of God, all of us are so weak, weak, we're gonna do
the wrong thing unless he restrains us. I'm thankful for his restraining
grace. And isn't that what we're taught
to pray? Lead us not into temptation. Don't let us even be tempted.
Don't let us be put in a place where we could be tempted because
we know what will happen if we are. That should be our thinking
all the time. Lord, put a hedge about me. Get me arrested if that's what
it takes. And the third thing, is that
salvation, and we see from this, salvation is of the Lord. James, are you saying James is
not saved? No, I'm not saying James is not
saved. But I'm saying this, the only
reason James is saved is because the Lord saved him. Same thing
with Paul. Paul, salvation is of the Lord. Now you think of how we admire
Paul. Paul's my hero, humanly speaking. But the only reason
Paul is saved is because salvation is of the Lord. Now, salvation in the beginning is
of the Lord. The reason you're saved, if you
are saved, is because God saved you. It's not because you've
opened your heart up to Him and gave Him your heart and asked
Him to enter your heart or made a decision of your free will
to where you decided you were going to let Him save you. That's
foolishness, and any believer knows it is. Salvation is of
the Lord in its beginning. Salvation is of the Lord in the
middle. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, there are a lot of people,
a lot of preachers, who would teach that you can become more
holy and less sinful through your acts of obedience. If you
get in the Word, read the Word more, seek to suppress the flesh
more, spend more time in prayer, stay away from bad influences,
you'll become more holy and you'll become less sinful. That's not so. That's not so. As a matter of
fact, all that is is progressive sanctification. If you can become
more holy, you can end up becoming perfect. If you can become more
holy. And that is just another form
of salvation by works. It might take this form. And
I've had this on my mind because a young man wrote me about this. I mentioned it last week. A young
man listened to the message on Spirit willing and the flesh
weak and I I talked about how some people look at the two natures
and say well, it's like a black dog and a white dog and the Dog
will prosper the most that you feed the most if you feed the
black dog. He'll get stronger and If you
feed the white dog, he'll get stronger. If you don't feed the
white dog, he'll get weaker. If you don't feed the black dog,
he'll get weaker. Which nature are you feeding? Now, there's several problems
with that. Number one, there is no difference between a good
angel and a demon on your shoulder, and you're listening to what
they're telling you to do. I'm gonna listen to the demon,
or I'm gonna listen to the good angel. That's foolishness, you know
that. The second problem with it is it introduces a third entity. You've got the flesh, you've
got the spirit, and then you've got somebody else that makes
the decision which nature to feed. And here's the biggest
problem with that way of thinking. It makes your growth ultimately
dependent upon you, your works. Now, it's true. The Bible says,
resist the devil and he'll flee from you. It says, mortify the
flesh, crucify the flesh. Scripture makes those admonitions.
And I wouldn't in any way say, tell you, don't worry about that.
You don't need to read the Bible. You don't need to pray. Well,
of course we're not saying that, but I love the way Paul put it. He said, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling, for it's God that worketh in you,
both to will and to do His good pleasure. Faithful is he that
calleth you. 1 Thessalonians 5, 24. Faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it. Whatever he's calling
on you to do, he will do it. Everything God requires, he provides
in everything. And so when we're talking even
about the struggle between the two natures, Aren't you thankful
that it's God that works in you, both to will and to do His good
pleasure? What if it was up to you? What
if it was up to you which nature to feed? Well, you know what
you'd end up doing. Thank God for His grace that every aspect
of salvation in the beginning, the middle, and the end, when
I'm brought into glory, you know who's gonna get all the glory
in my salvation? Christ Jesus the Lord. There's not going to be any judgment
of believers' works where they're going to be rewarded a higher
place and somebody else is going to be brought into the slums
of heaven because they didn't do well enough. That's blasphemous. I am justified in Christ Jesus. That means I have no guilt. And
that is the work of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. So
James, he messed up here, didn't he? Paul, he messed up here,
didn't he? I'm sure of it. Todd, he messed
up here. Everybody in here, you've messed
up. Thank God salvation is by grace. And let me tell you something
else about this. Paul being brought into this temple, he shouldn't
have been there. There he was arrested. He got
thrown into prison as a result. That's what the rest of the book
of Acts is about. And while he was in prison, he wrote Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, and Thylaemon, because God does what
only God can do. He brings good out of evil. Now, what he did was wrong. There's
no justification for it, and I think he felt guilty about
it and knew it was wrong. Over in Acts chapter 23 is when
the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul. I think
Paul was depressed. He saw what he'd done, how he'd
used fleshly policy was wrong, but the Lord stood beside him
and said, be of good cheer, Paul. As you've testified of me in
Jerusalem, you're going to testify of me in Rome also. So we're
going to look at the last half of this chapter next week. But
the Lord had this recorded for our good and for His glory. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would take
your word. We're so thankful for what you
revealed in your word. We ask in Christ's name that
you take your word and bless it. Teach us to see more of the
glory of your son, to rest more completely in him. And Lord,
we could be and would be as James and Paul and both of these things.
We ask that you would keep us by your grace. and cause us to rest only in the sacrifice of
your Son, and teach us to preach only Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Bless us for Christ's sake. In
His name we pray.