Alright, if you would open your
Bibles to Luke chapter 2. I'm going to start reading in verse 41.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the
Passover. And when he was twelve years
old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child
Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew
not of it. But they, supposing him to have
been in the company, went a day's journey. And they sought him
among their kinfolk and acquaintance, and when they found him not,
they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him." What I would like
us to look at tonight is the idea of them supposing him to
have been in the company, and the danger of making that supposition,
supposing that he was there. So what I'd ask you to do for
a minute is to imagine yourself finding out that you're sick.
You go to the doctor, to the hospital, and you find out you're
really sick. It's worse than what you thought.
And then you find out it's even worse than that. You're going
to die. And you start to think about how you're preparing yourself
for this. Then finally someone comes to you, the doctor, and
says, well, there actually is one medicine that can treat what
you're going to die from. But the problem is it's very
rare. It's very hard to be found. There are many things that are
out there that look like it, that are fake, that are counterfeited
to try to gain money because of to look just like it, but
it's not real. And even sometimes when you find
the real thing, the person that has it will dilute it down and
not give you the pure drug. And that won't be enough to save
you. And there's only one chance at this. So if we can find this,
then you can be cured and you'll live. Now I ask you, with what
care would you seek out that medicine if you were the person
who was going to die? You would seek it out with great
care, with great concern, and you would want to know, is this
the real thing I need to know? I can't just suppose that it
is, because the danger of supposing that it is, is both deadly and
permanent. And so, what I'm asking is, how
many people make this supposition every single day about what we're
doing here tonight? that make many suppositions about
God, and about His word, and about His law, and about how
God deals with men and women. What they've done, what they're
doing, what their plans are, what God's plans are for their
life, they say. Many suppositions about how God
views that. They say God must be here. They
look to signs. This is a growing place. Look
at all these people. How could we all be wrong? God's
working in our midst. They examine their motives and
they say, I know what's in my heart, I know what I'm doing,
but I think if you know, if you're honest with yourself, I certainly
with myself, I can be honest and say that I self-justify anything
I want. So almost every instance in Scripture
where the word supposed is used, it's used saying, but they supposed
and it was not so. The word can also be translated
as think not. So, thinking wrongly. If the
Lord came back tomorrow, and we have to ask ourselves this
question, where would we stand? Is my faith, has my foundation
been put in something that I've been supposed, something that
I've assumed, or is it something that I know? Let me give you
the two great supposes that this world has. First, one suppose
is you may suppose that you're okay. You don't understand it
all. You say, but I'm doing my best.
But somehow, I have to believe that God will make it okay. Nobody
can keep the Ten Commandments as they are every chance of your
life. God has to see that what I'm
doing is okay. He has to know that I'm trying.
I just have to believe. He'll work it out all in the
end. After all, no one is perfect. The other big supposed appeals
more to the intellectual. They say, I'm a student of the
scriptures. I know this front to back. I
know all the facts, and I deal honestly with them. God chose
a people. Christ died for a people. He's
risen again. You would even say maybe that
they're Calvinistic. This seems to be a popular resurgence
right now in our age, that going back to the scriptures, the original
scriptures. I think because as men, we look
at what preaching is going on today, and it's bad. And a thinking
person can even look at it and say what they're saying is not
even in the Word of God. So there's even a resurgence
today of the intellectuals look back to only the Scriptures.
In verse 44 of what we read, that's kind of where I'm zeroing
in, but they, supposing him to have been in the company, it
says they went a day's journey. And anytime we read about in
the scriptures it referring to going a day's journey, that can
be in reference to a lifetime. So they went a day's journey.
So you can figuratively look at that as a lifetime. And when
they went this day's journey, you kind of read the passage
and think how in the world with six or eight people could you
have missed him? It wasn't six or eight people. This was thousands
of people that had migrated to Jerusalem to go through the feasts
and the sacrifices and were now all leaving going back to their
homes. So there were thousands of people going through here.
So it wasn't just the six or eight of them walking along there.
And so I kind of tried to put myself in that scene. It's that
morning, Joseph, Mary, the children, they all got up. They had some
sort of breakfast to assume and they start walking on their way.
You get mingled in with the group and you keep going and you're
supposing that everybody's going the right way. We're all there.
They probably stopped, walked all day, kept going, then they
got there that night. All the time supposing he was
there. setting up camp, and then the families gathering together
to bed down together. And it was then that they found,
again, supposing that he was there. But he was not there. But I thought he was the whole
time. But he never was, and that's what they found out. And what
I'm asking you tonight is, will you have to go the day's journey
as well before you find out he may have not been there? We don't
want to find that out in the end that we've supposed that
he was when he really wasn't. So I asked myself, how did this
happen? How did they get where they're at here? Well, first,
I believe it has something to do with following the crowd.
When you're in the crowd, you're all going one way. Recently,
some of us went to, some friends, we all went to a Rolling Stones
concert in the middle of the Indianapolis motor speedway.
When it was over, 50,000 people start pouring out of there. If you tried to go against the
flow of the way people were walking, you'd get pushed down. At some
point I realized, I guess we're walking out of here because I'm
walking where everyone else is going, not really looking at
where I was going or considering where I might end up. This is
the way everybody's walking, so I'll walk with them. I think
this has something to do with following the crown, the danger
of supposing. The second thing clearly we can
see is they weren't looking for him. Had they been looking for
him, they would have found him. Had they kept their eyes on him
during the journey, they would have been with him, but they
weren't, because it says, and when they found him not, in verse
45, they turned back again to Jerusalem, and it was only then
were they seeking him. So they weren't seeking him.
They weren't looking for him. So of the two people who suppose
here, the one who suppose that God's just going to have to figure
it out and make it all right with me somehow, and the intellectual
that says, based on what I know and have figured out here, somehow
I'm going to have an advantage over somebody else and God will
deal with me differently. They suppose this to be true.
Well, first, based on what? The one who figures that God
will just work it out? Based on what? What evidence do you
have that's true? That's a big supposition. And secondly, the
one who bases their salvation based on the facts they know
or knowing the scriptures and knowing everything about it,
we don't have any evidence in scripture of anyone saved by
what they knew or what they didn't know or what they thought. This
is what these people supposed. It's not what you know, it's
who you know. Christ saves, not what you know. My message tonight is to the
lost. And to the lost, you have to
start here. The God of the Bible is real.
He's not the God of our comfort level. That's what these two
gods were to these people who supposed. The one who thought
God would just work it out and the one who thought God would
deal with them based on something they'd done. That's the God of
our comfort level. That's not who he is. The God
of the Bible is described as the one who scorched the complete
top of the mountaintop. You couldn't get near it. You'd
hear the thunderings of His voice. You couldn't even touch the mountain.
You'd die if you did. You could not approach unto Him.
He's the one that this world says is too big, He's too mean,
and He's too angry. He's the God of the Old Testament.
You can't approach. This is the God of the Bible.
And His law, it means what it says, and not my interpretation
of it. People always pick out the, you
know, thou shalt not lie. Can it really mean that? That
can't be true. Nobody can do that. That's what it says. Do
we have any evidence that there's anything different from that?
No. The law was written in tables of stone. It was unbending, it
was cold, and it was hard, and it did not change. So we can't
look at that and say just because maybe we are more intellectual
at this point in our life that somehow we deem it not valid.
There's no evidence for that. So we have to go with what's
there. There's no changing the law and there's no lowering of
the bar. The law applies to all without
exception. No one is different. The consequence
of supposing on this is both deadly and permanent. So we can't
suppose things about God that he doesn't tell us in his word.
One or two things are true here about God's law. Number one,
it's either impossible for anyone actually really to be able to
keep the law outwardly and inwardly. It is impossible. All will fall
short. No one can be saved by the keeping
of the law. Either that's true or we say
it doesn't really mean that. Now, we don't have any evidence
that it doesn't really mean that. We say that because that's a
big supposed. Based on what? Because I don't
like it? Because I can't do it? That's
the only reason you'd say that because there's no evidence in
scripture to say otherwise. But yet millions believe this.
They say it can't really mean that. God doesn't mean what he
said and God must give me a lower standard because I can't do it.
That's what they're saying in preaching. The scripture said,
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So all
the law can do for you and I is expose what we are, that we can't
keep it, that we're sinners, and that we're guilty. It can't
help you. You can't keep the law. Well, if you can't keep
the law that God gave, then what can you do? Well, if you keep
the law in all the way of what it is, you're holy. If you can't
do that, then you're a sinner, and you can sin, and that's all
you can do, and the only thing God can do that is just for you
is punishment. If you will turn over to Isaiah
45. Let's look at verses 9 and 10 here. Bow unto him that striveth with
his maker. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay said to him that
fashioned it, what makest thou? Or thy work, he hath no hands.
Woe unto him that saith unto his father, what begettest thou? Or to the woman, what hast thou
brought forth? This is the blame game. This
is saying, Look at me. I can't keep the law. I've got
to find somebody to blame. You made me this way. What have
you made? He has no hands. Or shall he
say to his mother, what begattest thou? What did you bring forth?
Look at me. So it's pointing the finger anywhere but itself. So this is when some people choose
to blame God because they can't reach his standards. So then
we start finding fault with God, start finding fault with the
Word because we don't add up and we don't meet the bar. And
you might suppose and feel justified in doing so. If the circumstances
were right, many people would say, then I could keep it. Turn
with me back to Job chapter 40. I'm going to read a little bit
here. I think this highlights what I'm trying to say. Verse
1 of chapter 40, "'Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said,
"'Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct him? "'He
that reprove with God, let him answer it.' "'Then Job answered
the Lord and said, "'Behold, I am vile. "'What shall I answer
thee? "'I will lay my hand upon my
mouth, Once have I spoken, but I will not answer. Yea, twice,
but I will proceed no further. Then the Lord answered Job out
of the whirlwind and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man,
and I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou
disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou
mayest be righteous?" Isn't that what we're reading here in Isaiah
45 where he's blaming God for what he was? Hast thou an arm
like God? Canst thou thunder with a voice
like him? Deck thyself now with majesty
and excellency and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad
the rage of thy wrath and behold everyone that is proud and abase
him. Look upon everyone that is proud and bring him low and
tread down upon the wicked in their place. Hide them in the
dust together and bind their faces in secret. Well, I also
confess unto thee that thy own right hand can save thee." What
the Lord's saying here unto Job is, you can't do anything. I'm God, I'm all-powerful, and
you can't make the smallest movement, the smallest change in what you
have, and yet you're finding fault with me for doing things
the way I am. You can't even save yourself."
He's saying, if you can't do these things, then don't even
come to me and say you're going to find fault with me the way
I do things. The message I said is to the lost. And to those
who looked around or maybe thought of someone else who needed to
hear this, it might be that you are the lost and don't know it. You may be one of the ones who
traveled the day's journey and found out at the end that you
supposed he was there and he wasn't. May the Lord open our
eyes and our ears and give us the eyes to see so that we're
not supposing that he's there when he wasn't before it's too
late. This is the most dangerous place for a man to stand is right
where I am. He supposes that he has God's
Word. The people that he preaches to
suppose that he has God's Word. But it's only at the end of the
day's journey that you find out that he never was, that you supposed
he was there, but he wasn't. The Lord said, many shall say
to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? Have we not cast out devils in thy name, and in thy name
done many, many wonderful works?" They supposed this. All these
supposed deeds were judged by their standards and not God's.
He says unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that
work iniquity. Our suppositions may make us
reassured, comforted, and easier to accept. And no doubt they
might, but are they worth dying for? Because this is the consequence
of supposing in these matters. Then let's find out what things
are not supposed. You've seen, I hope, some of
the danger of supposing. So what things are not supposed?
Turn with me to 2 Timothy 1. Paul said, Christ Jesus came
into this world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. And you ask
yourself then, if he came to save sinners, then what's a sinner?
This world would say a sinner is someone who has done some
bad things. But there might be some good
things in there, too, because I know what my motives were.
But that's not how a sinner is defined in the Scripture. When
you actually look up that word, sinners, it says it's people
who are devoted to sin. They are not free from sin. So
if you're not free from it, it's all you can do. but yet we get
fixated on that, on the narrowness of only people who can do nothing
but sin. But Christ Jesus came in the
world to save those people. That's the message of the gospel.
So in 2 Timothy 1.9, This is a foundational passage of what
the Scripture speaks to. Where does it start, though?
It starts a little bit in verse 8 where it says, Be thou partaker
of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. It has to start there. It has
to start with the power of God. There is no power like God's. All things are of Him, by Him,
and for Him. Anything that we could say to
try to even describe or define or understand the power of God
would break it down from what it is, and I'm not even going
to attempt that, but it's greater than what we can imagine, and
we're seeing here that everything in salvation starts with the
power of God, and in verse 9 he says, who hath saved us? This is not a doctrine. Salvation
is a person who hath saved us. Christ saved us. Well, how did
he save us? Well, that's past tense. Saved
before the world began according as he hath chosen us in him before
the world began. So that happened past tense.
He hath saved us. And then what did he do? It says
he called us with a holy calling. I lost where I was. He saved it according as it is
chosen, but don't you have to believe to be saved? That's the
question we're asking. So he's called this with a holy
calling, but don't you have to believe to be saved? Well, absolutely
you do. You have to believe to be saved, and no one is saved
without belief. You must trust in Christ. But
belief is not a condition of salvation. That's a supposition
this world makes and sets. Belief is evidence of salvation. It's not a condition for salvation. Belief is evidence that God's
done something for you. If God saved you, then in verse
9, he must call you. Well, how would he call you?
He calls you with a holy calling. And what do you get with that
holy calling? This is the giving of the Holy Spirit. He gives
you a new nature, a new heart, eyes to see and ears to hear,
thereby enabling you to call, to ask for salvation, Lord save
me. And just in case anyone's thinking
that they did something to do this, the scripture tells us
here that it's not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. So I'm saved and I'm called outside
of my influence altogether. And so what this leads us to
believe that people of this world would say, well then don't your
works count for something? Well, they certainly do. So I
want you to look at two passages, scriptures that kind of contrast
this. Look at Romans chapter four. This is speaking of Abraham in
verse one through five here. For if Abraham were justified
by works, he if were of the glory, but not before God. for what
saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith,
Abraham's faith, is counted for righteousness." So now turn over
to James chapter 2. in verse 20. But what will thou
know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not
Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered
up Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works and by works was faith made perfect." Now how
do we explain this? Because in one passage it says
Abraham was justified by his faith and now it's saying Abraham's
justified by his works. So how do we reconcile these
two things? Well we know this. There are
plenty of people in this world you can look at that you can
say have works, but they may have no faith at all. But one
thing you can't have is you can't have faith and not have works. Faith without works is dead any
more than you can have life and not have some evidence that there's
life there. So that's the evidence of life
is that you can see life is there. Works are a byproduct of faith,
not grounds for faith. This is what false religion teaches
and supposes. As soon as someone joins the
church, they give them a job. As soon as someone comes in and
visits, they give them something to do. So they get them working,
get them working. That's going to lead to eventually,
by being around them, faith. It doesn't work that way. Faith
is a byproduct, not grounds for faith. Why then do you do good
works? And this is kind of a linchpin
in all this. If you'll turn to John chapter 3, I think this
sums it up. in verse 20 says, For everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God." So let's read that again. He that doeth
truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God. So his deeds, his works are wrought
in God. That word in is the same word
as by. So if we look at this, if they are wrought by God, So
if the only reason you performed a good deed is because it was
wrought by God, that's which He chose to perform in you, who
gets the credit? Who gets the glory? Well, He
does, because He wrought it in you. So that's why we could have
no glory even if we do works. Faith without works is dead,
but those works that we do, that's nothing that I can glory in than
anything I've done. It's what He's wrought in me.
That's what that passage is saying. Who gets the credit? You do works
because you've been given faith. It's evidence of life. You've
been given faith because the Holy Spirit enabled you to believe. You've been given the Holy Spirit
because God saved you. And you've been saved because
you've been in Christ from the foundation of the world. You
can take that forward and backward and it says the same thing. There's
no supposing here. I've preached unto you at this
point the truth, but these are facts, what we've preached up
to this point. Facts never led anyone to Christ. No one ever sought out facts
and was led to Christ. The scribes and the lawyers,
when they courted the Lord, they would ask him lots of questions
about procedure, about facts, about what was lawful, what was
okay, what was not. What was his question back to
them? What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?" That was the
Lord's question to them. And it's only in seeing Him,
seeing Christ, who He is, and what He's done, that you can
see yourself for what you are and what you've done. And that's
what leads you to Christ. That's what causes you to run
and flee to Him. not facts, it's seeing in His
face, the Holy One of God, seeing His holy nature, all He's done
for us, that He stood for us in eternity, He came to this
earth, He died for me, and then I look at myself, that's the
only hope I've got. If I stand in and of what I've
done, I'll be lost. So it's only in seeing Him that
way that's what drives me to Christ. Those facts become alive
in the person of Christ. The doctrine of election, sure,
you can look at it as a fact, but that's the only hope I've
got is that I was in Him. Yes, that's a doctrine of the
gospel, but to me it's alive in the person of Christ. So our
salvation is a person, it's not a series of things. Well then
how can I know and not suppose if he's with me? Because really
that's what this is about. Because we looked at his family,
they walked away, they went and they didn't know that he wasn't
there. They supposed he was. I need to know that he is with
me and that's the only comfort I'll have that he's with me.
What tools do we have at our disposal as human beings? You have your senses, your five
senses. So I kind of summed it down to this. Can you see Him? Have you seen Him? Has He given
you sight to see Him in the Word? This book is full of Christ.
You can go to anywhere in this book, and all roads lead to Christ
in this book. So I've seen Him in His Word.
Does He speak to you? There's times that the Holy Spirit
has not quickened me in terms of being able to hear, and I
know you've sat there at times and not heard anything, and be
yet those times when he has. He's given you ears to hear,
and you know you're hearing the truth, and it's speaking to your
heart. I've seen him, or I've heard
him through the preaching of the gospel. I've felt his touch. David said whenever he cut off
Saul's skirt, he said his heart smote him. How did Peter feel
whenever he denied the Lord the third time? The Lord didn't touch
him. The Lord didn't say a word. The Lord just looked at him.
He felt the Lord's touch at that time. That crushed him when that
happened. So have you felt his touch? Have
you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? How can we know
the sweet except we've tasted the bitter? I see my sin, I see
what I am. That gives me such a sweet taste
of who He is, as He's my righteousness. He's given me everything, and
I haven't to bring no money. I'm to come freely and to take
and to ask. So have you tasted and seen that
the Lord is good? Have you smelled the sweet savor
of His sacrifice? This is the only thing that silences
my flesh. When I look at myself, all I
see is guilt. I can't see the new man. I can't
see anything in me that God would look at me and want anything
to do with me. But yet, in smelling his sacrifice,
the sweet savor that God demands from the sacrifice, that's that
smoke that went up, that's that smoke that went in his nose,
that's what he smells and says, that's the accepted sacrifice.
Your sins are forgiven because of the accepted sacrifice. I'm given far less sensory information
from you right here sitting in front of me, and I'm sure you're
sitting there. I've been given all those things
through the preaching of the gospel, through reading of His
word, through prayer, through the voice of the Holy Spirit
speaking to me to know that He is with me, and I don't have
to suppose that. My confidence is He is with me,
and if I'm someone who's not seen Him, how can I come to Him
and not suppose that I have when I really haven't? The last scripture
I'd like us to look at is Genesis 32. Starting in verse 24, and Jacob was left alone, and
there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the
hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out
of joint as he wrestled with him. So how do I come? You come just like Jacob did.
You see your sin, you know it condemns you, you know that if
you stand in of your sin, you're going to be destroyed for it.
In verse 26, the Lord says unto him, let me go, the day breaketh,
and he says, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." I've
got nothing in me. I've got no merit. I've got nothing,
nothing, no, I have no power. I can't force you to do anything.
He overpowered Jacob. All it took was him touching
the hollow of his thigh to show him you have no power at all
in this. But yet in this wrestling with him, Jacob is brought low.
He's brought to see that he's powerless, and the only thing
that he can do is cling to the Lord. He can only cling to him. This is the only way we can suppose
that we've been with him and not miss him, is cling to him.
Seek Christ. Seek at his face. Jacob clung
to him, letting go. He said, I'm not going to let
you go. I've got nothing else. I've got nowhere to go. You're
the only place I have to go, and I will not let you go until
you bless me. going to have to kick me off."
This shows us what our need of Christ is, and so in seeing our
need of Christ, this gives me every confidence to know that
I'm not supposing. I need him for everything. Jacob
saw that in clinging to him. So we see next what the Lord
will do unto all those to whom he blesses." Look at verse 28,
or sorry, 27. He says, he said unto him, what
is thy name? And he said, Jacob. Heal, supplanter,
no good. There's nothing in that name
to recommend him. And this is what the Lord will do first.
He said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for
as a prince thou hast power with God and with men and hast prevailed.
If the Lord does something for you and blesses you, He's going
to give you a new name. You're not going to be who you
are standing in the things that you've done in this life. Your
new name is going to be Jehovah Tzedkenu, the Lord our righteousness. You will be known by the deeds
of Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. There's no
cause for shame. There's no cause for worry. There's
nothing to be afraid of. It's only good and it's only
acceptable. Everything that is tied to a
name. The second thing he said he's
going to do in verse 29, Jacob asked him and said, Tell me,
I pray thee, what is thy name? He says, why is it that you're
asking after my name? And he blessed him there. The
second thing the Lord's going to do is he's going to bless
you. He's going to reveal himself to you through the Holy Spirit
in giving you a new heart, a heart that can believe, eyes that can
see in the word, ears that can hear the gospel. He's going to
make you a new creation, something that you were not before. The
third thing he's going to do in verse 30, and Jacob called
the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face. The third thing that he's going
to do is that he's going to show you his face. And the only way
that he can show you his face is for you to be in Christ, because
he says earlier in this book, no man shall see my face and
live. So how is it that I can be shown his face? The only way
that I can be shown his face is if I'm one to whom he desires
to look upon, and that's his son in whom he's well pleased.
If I'm united to His person, to the person of Christ, I am
one with His body. There's no Andy and Christ, I
am one with His body. When He looks at me, He sees
the person of Christ. And if you're in the person of
Christ, that's how He sees you. And you can look to God face
to face because He can see, that's how He can show Himself to His
son. And the son's the only one who can see Him that way. And
the last thing it says he'll do in the end of verse 30, and
he said, my life has been preserved. He's going to preserve your life
by the blood of his son. The everlasting blood of his
covenant is the one thing that he's going to look to and that
you can know that sin has been forgiven, sin has been paid for
because of the blood. Your life has been preserved.
That's what the Passover was, the preserving of life through
the shedding of the blood of another. That's why the blood
was put over the door. I'm in the house with the blood
over the door, and that's the only way I can ever be seen by
God. and him pass over me." So he's
going to look first for that blood, and that's how your life
will be preserved. This washes away all my sin. There's no supposing here. This
is what the Scripture's teaching us. You'll be like the toad on
the road to Emmaus who said, did not our heart burn within
us while he talked with us by the way? He opened to us the
Scriptures. If you've not supposed, he'll
talk with you the whole of the rest of your life to the end
of the journey, to the end of the day's journey, and there's
no supposing. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. There's no supposing
here, you are commanded, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our heavenly Father, we pray
to you in the high and holy name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Lord,
we thank you for your word. Lord, we ask that you'd reveal
yourself to us through your word. Don't let us be caught supposing
in anything regarding this. Lord, open our eyes, open our
ears, give us a heart that can receive your word. Lord, if you
don't do this for us, we will certainly suppose and assume
and be lost. But Lord, we ask that you put
us in Christ. Lord, draw us out. Cause us to
believe and to trust in the Lord. It's in his name we pray and
ask these things, amen.