It is so good to be at home with
you, and I am at home with you. Turn with me, if you will, to
2 Corinthians chapter 5. If you're taking notes, the title
of my message is Faiths Because. And you'll see the reason for
the title when I get to the last point. Maybe that'll keep your
attention. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse
14, the Apostle Paul declares that all who are born of God
are constrained, motivated, ruled, governed in the totality of their
lives by the love of Christ. That's what makes us tick, what
you just sang about, Matt. That's what moves us, governs
us. Not law, not rules, not regulations,
not trying to make a religious impression with folks. His love
shed abroad in our hearts by his spirit who's given to us
the love of Christ. The love of Christ rules in our
hearts, he tells us in verse fifteen, because we have been
born again, and we have been born again because Christ died
for us. The death of Christ is our substitute,
obtained eternal redemption for us, and guaranteed our birth
in him, guaranteed our regeneration. secured our everlasting life
by His grace. And being born of God, we live
not unto ourselves, but unto Christ who died for us. Now that's true of every heaven-born
soul. We live not unto ourselves, but
unto Christ who died for us. Our Lord Jesus said, you give
up your life. You follow me, you take up your
cross and follow me, and you lay down your life, you lose
your life to me. Being born of God, because Christ
died for us, we live not unto ourselves, but unto Christ, our
Redeemer. And then in verse 16, the inspired
writer tells us that our knowledge of Christ has nothing to do with
any form of carnal, intellectual apprehension of Him. Our knowledge
of Christ is not a carnal, intellectual apprehension of Him, but it is
the gift and the revelation of God the Holy Spirit. Knowing
Christ has nothing to do with how smart you are, how talented
and gifted you are mentally, how much you study, how well
you comprehend things. Nothing whatsoever. Nothing. Nothing. Make sure you understand that. has nothing to do with natural
reason and natural intellect and natural ability. 1971, I
was 21 years old. I was preaching Randolph Street
Church where I met Brother Don Williams and his family. A fellow
got up in front of me. I was to preach second on the
schedule. Brother McNeil thought I was
41 instead of 21. I always looked over. But a fellow
got in front of me and he made this statement. I can't obviously
remember his exact words, but I'm pretty close. He said, in
order to be a Calvinist, of course, I don't care for that term to
begin with, but in order to be a Calvinist, you've got to have
some gray matter. You've got to be a thinker and
you've got to study and read. And I was ready to bite nails
into. And I got up and I said, I don't know anything about what
it is to be a smart Calvinist. I don't know anything about what
it is to have a lot of gray matter. I don't know anything about academic
brilliance. Know nothing about those things.
But in order to know God in Jesus Christ, you've got to be a sinner
who meets him. And that's all. That's all. This thing of faith in Christ
has nothing to do with what you can learn and apprehend and understand
by your brilliance or by your diligence. Let's see if that's
not what this says. 2 Corinthians 5, 16. Wherefore, henceforth, know we
no man after the flesh. Wait a minute, Paul, are you
saying we don't know folks in a natural way? Yes, we certainly
do. But we don't know God's people
in a natural way. I have no business thinking about
you in any way except as you are in Christ. God teach me that. Each esteem the other better
than himself. Because we see one another and
deal with one another and know one another in Jesus Christ. That means it is my privilege
and my delight and my responsibility to look upon you, my brothers
and sisters, perfect and holy and righteous, sinless before
God Almighty. He says, henceforth know we no
man after the flesh. Now look at this. Yea, though
we have known Christ after the flesh, Saul of Tarsus knew who
Jesus Christ claimed to be. He knew his historic person.
He knew that he claimed to be the Messiah and was put to death
for claiming to be the Son of God. He knew all things historic
about Jesus Christ the man. That's the reason he hated him.
That's the reason he persecuted the church that was promoting
his name. He says, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him No more. He said, my knowledge of the
living God has nothing to do with my flesh. My knowledge of
Jesus Christ has nothing to do with my academic training or
my academic brilliance. It has nothing to do with my
study. It has everything to do with God revealing his son in
me. He came to know him on the Damascus
road. when God knocked him off his
proud horse and revealed his Son in him. Being born again
by God's omnipotent, irresistible grace and mercy, all who are
taught of God, knowing Christ after the Spirit and not after
the flesh, understand and rejoice in the fact that all who are
in Christ are new creatures in Him. Verse 17, Therefore, therefore,
seeing as how we know Christ after the Spirit, seeing as how
we have been redeemed by the precious blood of God's darling
Son. If any man be in Christ, we know this, he is a new creature,
a new creature. Now, the words of this text may
properly be applied in some sense to our experience of grace, but
that's not what this text is talking about. This passage,
the entire passage, is talking about what Christ has already
done for us and declaring to us the basis upon which we, knowing
the terror of the Lord, persuade sinners to believe God. What's
this mean that He's a new creature? Old things are passed away. Are
there any of you here who can lift your hand and say, everything
about my old nature is gone? They haven't passed away at all.
They've just gotten worse. They've just gotten worse. That's
not what it's all about. What's it saying? This is what it's
saying. I, even I am he that blocketh
out thy transcription. What you read about God's covenant
promise, I will forgive their iniquities and their sins will
I remember no more. Everything's passed away. Everything
has to be. Oh, what would you give to walk
out of here tonight with a conscience not guilty of anything before
God Almighty and no possibility of guilt ever returning? Oh, pastor, I'd do anything for
that. Would you do nothing? Believe on the Son of God. And believing Him, this is the
thing God declares in revealing His Son. Your sins are gone. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. And behold, all things are become
new. I stand before God, a new creature
in Jesus Christ, one with Him, perfectly united with Him. I
can't begin to put into words. I don't even understand the words
to use to describe the believer's union with Christ. But Clare
Sheridan, what Jesus Christ, the God-man, our mediator is,
you are in Him. Everything. Nothing like it. Nothing like it. Now, before
I get to my message, I want to deal with some things. Some things
need to be dealt with. I don't spend any time talking
about heresies and chasing rabbits and dealing with things that
folks, people I preach to, aren't going to ever have to deal with.
Some years ago, some fellow out in California Decided that the
Lord Jesus had come and put an end to the church age. And some
folks got to writing books and stuff. And this one fellow who's
quite an academic fellow, he wrote a book about it and asked
me if I would write forward to it. And I wrote it back and I
said, I agree with everything you said in this book. Everything you said. And out there where you are on
the west coast or the left coast, it needs to be said. The folks
in Denver, Kentucky have never heard of this nonsense. And if
I put my name on it, I'm just going to cause them to hear about
it. So, no. No. But if I recognize you're likely
to be confronted with something that's damning to the souls of
men, I am duty-bound to deal with it. I got a note last week. Someone had sent an article.
A man who is a self-appointed imaginary theologian thinks he
knows something. And he made this statement, and
there's nothing on this earth except Arminian fundamentalism,
freewillism, works inside and out. It's the old heresy of Gnosticism. And put that very simply, it
is just this. He said, his words exactly, knowing
truth in doctrine equals faith in Christ. To give assent to truth, he said. is to have faith in Christ. When
I was a seven-year-old boy, the end of a Sunday morning service,
the church had an altar down in front, they called it, and
I forgot what they were singing, but everybody was scared to death,
going to hell, and folks making a confession of faith, and I
came down in front like everybody else did. And a man I've known,
I knew him then since I was as far back as I can remember, and
I knew him until I moved away from Winston-Salem when I was
18, 19 years old. And a fine man, sincere man, he came down
front and he knelt down with me and he went through what they
call the Roman's Road Plan of Salvation, you know. All the
sin that comes short of the glory of God. Don, you know your sin,
haven't you? What do you mean? Well, did you ever tell a lie?
Yeah, I've done that. And on he went. The wages of
sin is death. That means if you die in your
sin, you go into hell. You don't want to go to hell,
do you? Oh, no. No. And by this time, I was bawling
crocodile tears. The gift of God is eternal life.
And look here. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Will you repeat after me now
and say you believe in Jesus? And he went through the whole
silly mess. And I repeated after him. And
he put his arm around my shoulder, and he said, Praise the Lord,
son. You've been saved, and you're born again. And I didn't know
God from a gourd, and he didn't either. Now we recognize that
in our many and free will works religion. Nothing but works.
Nothing works. But there are a good many in
these days who would tell you they believe what's called Calvinism,
the doctrines of grace. They believe doctrinal truth.
And they will tell you that salvation is nothing more or less, that
faith in Christ is nothing more or less than agreeing with truth
revealed in this book. In other words, it takes nothing
of the work of God the Holy Spirit. Doesn't involve anything called
regeneration. Doesn't involve anything called
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Doesn't involve anything supernatural. All it takes is a work of your
brilliance, a decision, the exercise of your will. This book does
not say, if you know this or that, you have eternal life.
This book says, This is life eternal, that they might know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent." Now, I'm fully aware that God uses His Word to give life
and faith to sinners. But it is altogether errant and
in direct contradiction of this book to state to one or to think
yourself that the basis of faith is the knowledge you can acquire.
That's not what this book says. That's not what it says. In fact,
it says exactly the opposite. Hebrews 11, verse 3, by faith
we understand. And you don't understand anything
written in this book at all except by faith. I sometimes take the
time to listen to or read comments about folks that tell us about
the newest theory of evolution. And boy, it's brilliant. I mean,
brilliant. You've got to go back several
billion years. I want to see the clock, for
one thing. They've got brilliant things.
And it changes every year or two. And they look at you and
they say, You don't believe God created this, like I've said
in Genesis, do you? Yeah, but I don't expect you
to. Don't expect you to. And if I could convince you to
believe exactly what God says in Genesis, and you say it's
all right, okay, I believe in creation, believe in literal
24-hour days, if I could convince you to believe it, I wouldn't
bother trying. But if ever you get to know God,
you won't have any trouble believing Him. By faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God. This faith is that
which God the Holy Spirit works in us by that which is called
the effectual, irresistible call of His grace. It is that which
He works in us by God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
shining in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And I want you
to know that faith. I don't waste my time arguing
with and debating with little theological imps. I'll let them
play religion with themselves. But I'm interested in you knowing
God. I'm interested in you knowing something about the blessedness
of life and faith in Jesus Christ. So let me show you some things
clearly set forth in the Scripture that always accompany saving
faith. Our Lord Jesus said to that woman
in Luke chapter 7, verse 50, Thy faith hath saved thee. Go
in peace. I want you so to believe on the
Son of God right now, that you go out those doors tonight in
peace. Peace that passes understanding. Faith always, always has these
things. First, faith has a cause. Turn
back to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11. Faith has a call. I sometimes hear folks talk about
Daniel's faith and faith to stop the mouths of lions, and that's
all right, but I haven't had any lions to deal with lately,
and I'm not too concerned about faith to stop the mouth of a
lion. I do need faith to set a watch before the door of my
mouth. and keep the door of my lips
from murmuring against my God. I hear folks talk about faith
that moves mountains. Well, I haven't had any great
mountains to have to move. And it's of no great concern
to me whether I can pick up mountains over the sea or not. I do need
faith to cope with the daily molehills I create in my own
doubt and fear and unbelief. He talked about Noah's faith,
faith to build the ark. God never commanded me to build
an ark. He just called me to enter into one. And I need faith
to enter into that ark that God has built for me, Christ Jesus,
and rest in Him. How about you? It's not faith
to perform miracles that interest me, but faith to experience and
know the wondrous grace of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. And
that faith begins with a call. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and
went out, not knowing whither he went. Paul wrote to Timothy
and called on him to fight the good fight of faith. whereunto
thou art also called and hast professed a good profession."
Faith in Christ is always the result of God the Holy Spirit
calling a sinner by almighty, irresistible grace and sweetly
forcing him to do what just a moment before he was totally unwilling
to do. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. God
the Holy Spirit sends in covenant mercy to chosen redeemed sinners
to reveal Christ in you. And when God pours out His Spirit
upon you, the Spirit of grace and supplication, you'll look
on Him whom you've pierced and you'll weep for Him and mourn
for Him and fall in love with Him if ever you see Him. When
I was 16 years old, I started dating that pretty blonde back
yonder. And we hadn't been dating just a couple of weeks. And I
told her, I want to marry you. And she looked at me and said,
well, you don't know what you want. And she didn't take me
seriously. And I proceeded to court her.
You fellas know what that is? That means you put on deodorant
and cologne and shave regular and do everything you can to
show your good side and show nothing bad. And I would drive
clean across town. I lived on the other side of
town. She was going to school. I'd drive clean across town to meet
her before I went to school in the morning to carry her books
a half a block from her dormitory to class. Quoted her every day. Every day. Didn't miss a one.
Called her before I'd come courting her to make sure she understood
I was coming. We were going to go out tonight. And I'd take
her to McDonald's and ask her what flavor of milkshake she
wanted. I'd buy her the flavor she wanted. And it wasn't long. We were out
visiting my aunt and uncle up in Spruce Pond, North Carolina,
in the mountains. Everybody going to bed. We were sitting on the
sofa talking, and I knelt down on my knee in front of her, took
her by the hand, and I said, Shelby, I love you, and I want
you to be my wife. You know, she about jumped out
of the chair to say yes. Well, what happened? I began to work on her will.
until she was willing to have me. And all she could see was
something she wanted. And here he is. Now listen to
me. Listen to me. When the sinner
is made willing in the day of Christ's power, God the Holy
Spirit puts Him in you, and makes you see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ, and He whom you hated, you now love. And you can't even begin to explain
it, except I know Him. I've seen Him. Well, what do
you know about Him? I know that God Almighty, in
absolute holiness, justice and truth, through His precious blood,
has put away all my sin and made me righteous in Him." Well, I need something more than
that. I'm sorry, I don't. I don't. I'll tell you something
else saving faith has. Saving faith always has a sacrifice. Look here at Hebrews 11.4. a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts, and by it being he being dead yet speaketh."
Abel, believing God, trusting Christ, offered to God the sacrifice
that God Himself had provided and accepted. Wait a minute,
Christ hadn't died yet. Go back and read this book again,
I beg your pardon. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And by believing God's testimony
concerning His Son, Abel received witness that he was righteous. He received this testimony. Not
a testimony that he gave to others and others would say, look at
how good Abel is. No. He received witness from
God Almighty that he was righteous because he offered to sacrifice
Christ Jesus the Lord. And that's what's pictured in
Abel's sacrifice. The only way a sinner can approach
God, worship God, find acceptance with God, find an offering of
righteousness with God, is to offer him that sacrifice that
was typified in Abel's offering, Jesus Christ crucified. I must needs go home by the way
of the cross. There's no other way but this. I shall ne'er get sight of the
gates of light if the way of the cross I miss. That's it. That's it. Religion may serve
you pretty well while you walk on this earth for whatever reasons
you want it to serve you. But I'm telling you, I've watched
a few folks die in my lifetime, believers and unbelievers. And
nothing will do your soul good when the cold sweat of death
is on your brow and you're about to meet God Almighty in eternity. except the precious blood of
Jesus Christ. I'm told that the horrible atheist,
Voltaire, when his son was dying, Voltaire sat by his bed and gripped
his head and he said, Hang on, son, hang on. And his son looked
up at him gasping for his breath and said, Dad, there's nothing
to hang on to. I went to visit with a dear friend
of mine, a dear friend. Shelby and I drove several hours
to go visit him just before he died. The last word he spoke
to me, thank God for the blood. Thank God for the blood, the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. Thank God for that man in glory
who is my Savior. And I left in rejoicing. Everything's
all right, because Christ died for me. And I want to tell you
something else about faith. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter
1. I realize folks can talk too
much about experience and feeling, but saving faith has an experience.
We don't base our confidence on our experience, or our feelings,
or our emotions. But if your religion is a religion
without feeling, without experience, without emotion, your religion
ain't worth spit. It's just as empty as nothing
but intellectual liberalism. It's useless, like a bucket without
a bottom. You can't carry anything with
it. Love should have brought in your heart something you feel.
You try to convince your wife you love her, but you don't feel
it. Pardon? Find me a man who's been
found guilty and then set free with pardon, and he doesn't feel
the pardon. Hope? You get yourself in danger. I'm talking about in danger.
So that you just, it looks like you're just about to die. little
hope. I've been there, and you feel
it. You feel it. Faith has an experience. It is the blessed experience
of God's grace. Faith in Christ is the experience
of what Christ accomplished. Look at it. Please ask these
116. The wise man says, I communed
with my own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and
have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before
me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience
of wisdom and knowledge." Wisdom is that one who speaks in Proverbs
chapter 8, as he who was brought forth from eternity, whose delights
were with the sons of men, who is himself the delight of God,
our Redeemer. And knowledge is life eternal
in him, knowing the true God by faith in Jesus Christ. Well,
that can't be what it's talking about. Let's see. Turn to Romans
chapter 5. Romans 5. Let's see. Paul has just declared that we
are justified by Jesus Christ who was delivered because of
our offenses and raised again because of our justification
accomplished. Verse 1, Romans chapter 5, therefore
being justified, and put the comma right there. One of the
worst mistakes in the English translation of Holy Scripture
is the place of the comma in Romans 5 verse 1. Therefore being
justified, By faith we have peace with God. See what difference
that makes? It's not justified by faith we
have peace. No, no. Therefore, being justified
by Christ, we by faith have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into Him, faith
into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience
and patience. Well, look at that horrible word,
experience. And experience, hope. And hope
that maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Now listen
carefully. Faith doesn't justify us. Christ did that at Calvary. But
faith experiences justification. And you will never know anything
about it except by faith in Him. Faith doesn't reconcile us to
God. Christ did that when He died
for us. But faith experiences it being reconciled to God. Faith doesn't give us a standing
before God in His grace. That was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, by whom we were made accepted into belonging. But faith experiences the blessedness
of this standing in grace, wherein there is nothing but grace. Faith
does nothing to make atonement for sin. Christ did that alone
at Calvary. But you won't ever know anything
about atonement. until by faith you receive the
atonement and experience it. Romans chapter 5, verse 11. Faith
doesn't cause God to love us. Oh no. A thousand times no. But faith does experience the
love of God shed abroad in our hearts. Believing Him, Brandon, I walk
In the sweet experience of this knowledge, the eternal God loves
me with everlasting love. Nothing ever caused it, and nothing
can ever change it, in me or outside me. Now that's an experience. Tell you something else faith
has, faith has a walk. In Romans chapter 4, verse 12,
you'll return there, you can look at it later. We walk in
the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had
yet being uncircumcised. We have the same faith Abraham
had, and we walk in the same steps of faith, trusting Christ
alone for righteousness before God. We walk by faith, Paul says,
not by sight. Walk. What's he talking about? Faith in Christ is not an event
of life. Faith in Christ is not something
that happened yesterday or 37 years ago. No, sir. Faith in
Christ is the believer's way of life. We live by faith. Well, how does it you walk before
God by faith? The whole religious world will
have you to, you know, exercise your spiritual muscles until
you get so good you're walking on the clouds above everything,
pressing on the higher way, new heights I'm gaining every day.
No. No, no, no. How did you first come to trust
Jesus Christ, John of Jericho? A helpless, empty-handed, naked,
doomed, damned, worthless, wretch of a sinner with nothing to plead
but heal. That's how you walk with Him. Is that what it says? As ye have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. If you ever grow above that,
you've grown too big. That's it. That's it. And the
Scriptures speak of the obedience of faith. When Paul stood before
Agrippa, telling him about his experience on the Damascus Road,
he said, and I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. What
is the obedience of faith? This is his commandment that
you should believe on his side and love one another as he gave
us commandment. What is faith? It is obeying
God's command. It is giving up all righteousness
and all claim to righteousness in yourself, by yourself. It
is believing Christ alone for everything. And by faith, we
establish the law. Turn over to I Peter, chapter
one. Saving faith has a trial. Did
I say atrial? Let me tell you something about
the trial of faith. From the day a child is born
into this world until the day as an old man or an old woman
it leaves this world, that child is going through a continual
series of trials in life. Just the first breath comes with
pain. And that's the way life is. And
the life of faith, while we are in this world, is a life of constant
trial. Now we commonly think of things
that cause great heaviness and sorrow as a trial. And they are. But sometimes faith
is far more severely tried by what we call blessings and blessed
times. But whatever the trial of your
faith is, Peter says here in verse 7, I Peter 1, the trial
of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. You may be in heaviness now.
If not, hang on, tomorrow you will be. Great heaviness through
manifold temptations. Sometimes troubles and heartaches
you can't share with husband or wife. Nobody but you and God. But the trial of your faith That
that keeps you clinging to Christ as your only hope before God
is more precious than gold that perishes. Though it be dragged
with fire. And when it's over, heaven's
going to be better because of it. It'll be sweeter because
of it. Christ will be more highly honored
because of it. Father alone will know all about
it. Father alone will understand
why. Cheer up, my brother, live in
the sunshine. We'll understand it all by and
by." And then Paul, in Philippians chapter 1, in verse 25, while
he's a prisoner at Rome, wrote to the Philippians about the
joy of faith. He said, I'm a straight twitch
too, sir. To depart from Jesus Christ is
far better, but to stay here with you is more needful. That
you might know the joy of faith. The joy of faith. In the midst
of trial, the joy of faith. I think about you and your family.
Try to pray for you and your family, your mom. Circumstances,
so painful. So painful. Whether Marvin Sonica
is dead, rest home, Alzheimer's disease, his mother every day,
over there two or three times a day, all day long taking care
of him, pray for him, hurt for him. And yet, there you smile with joy in the midst of this. The joy of faith doesn't depend
on the events of providence. The joy of faith is the joy of
the grace we have received, pardon and forgiveness and righteousness. The joy of faith is the joy of
the knowledge of God our Savior. The joy of faith is the love
of God shed abroad in our hearts. The joy of faith is the confidence
that our Father does all things well, even when we don't have
a clue what He's doing. And it hurts horribly. The joy
of faith is faith in Jesus Christ, God's darling Son. Now, look
over here at John chapter 11. John chapter 11. I'll wrap this
up. Of course this book talks about
the reward of faith. I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worth to be put in the same scales
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. I have not seen,
nor heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for them that love him. But what's the
cause? Now look at this. Here's faith's
cause. Our Lord Jesus He's standing
at the tomb of Lazarus, about to raise him from the dead. And he says, after he's finished
praying, I knew, Father, he said, that thou hearest me always.
But because of the people which stand by, I said, I said, Father,
I know you hear me. He said, I knew that. I knew
that. You always hear me. But I said it for the sake of
Mary and Martha and these folks standing here, that they may
believe that thou hast sent me." The cause? Brother Don, how is it that you
can believe God? Doesn't matter how. How can you
trust God? How can you cast everything on
the broad shoulders of Jesus Christ? Because God has written
in His Word, He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. And God the Spirit bears witness
with our spirit that we are the sons of God. He bears witness
with our spirit by His Word. These things have I written unto
you, that believe on the Son of God, that you may know that
you have eternal life, and that you may just go right home, believe
Him on the Son of God. And this Word came to you, not
as the Word of a man, Don Martin, if I can convince
you to believe anything, there's a lot of fellows smarter and
slicker than I am that can convince you not to believe it. Oh, but
if God will speak through this empty, rusty, worthless, broken
pipe to your soul, His Word. Now, you receive it not as the
Word of a man, but as it is, the Word of God by which we believe. God give you now the blessed
joy of faith and give you grace to walk in the joy of faith through
the days of your pilgrimage, for Christ's sake. Amen. I ask
Brother Paul to lead us in number 226, I think it is. I am not
skilled to understand what God hath willed, what God hath planned.
Number 226.