Episode Transcript
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As we turn now to God's word
in Jeremiah thirty one. Let's do so.
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I'm trusting, trusting in his word. I'm to work in US,
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but to teach us, to help
us to grow and to find life.
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Jeremiah thirty one verses thirty one through
thirty four. This is continuing our a
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series on Christian wisdom, and I
think this is going to be the last
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one, for now anyway. So
Jeremiah thirty one, thirty one through thirty
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four. Behold, the days are
coming, declares the Lord, when I
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will make a new covenant with the
House of Israel and the House of Judah,
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not like the covenant that I made
with their fathers on the day when
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I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt,
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by covenant that they broke, though
I was their husband, declares the
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Lord. But this is the covenant
that I will make with the House of
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Israel after those days, declares the
Lord. I will put my law within
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them and I will write it on
their hearts, and I will be their
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God and they will be my people. In the longer shall each one teach
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his neighbor and his brother, saying
know the Lord, for they shall all
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know me, from the least of
them to the greatest, declares the Lord,
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for I will forgive their iniquity and
I will remember their sin no more.
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The God blesses word. You may
be seated in the Bible, you
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will occasionally find passages that are very
important. That's not exactly what I want
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to say it. I'm struggling a
little bit here. I guess there are.
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There are paradigmatic. They are they
have a way of structuring other things
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that we read, and they do
that because they tie together so many things.
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They they speak, in a way, you might say, at an
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architectural level right there. They're sort
of beams and framing in which the House
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of the knowledge of the Lord is
built. They are major things and help
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us to understand major things. There
are the roads by which we travel to
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other places in terms of of our
doctrine, and Jeremiah th one, thirty
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one through thirty four, is one
of those one of those places, a
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place in scripture that helps us in
a loomin so much of the rest of
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scripture so clearly from this one place. Of course, it's not that all
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of scripture hangs on Jeremiah thirty one, thirty one through thirty four. We
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can find the truths that are taught
here all throughout the Bible. In fact,
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we find other passages very similar to
this passage in other places in the
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scripture, in the prophets in particular, but this one is for on our
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is. I want to turn our
attention to today as we think about wisdom.
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I've titled This sermon the end of
wisdom, and I don't mean the
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ceasing of wisdom or the stopping of
wisdom, but I want but in another
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way, like the goal of wisdom
or the tell us of wisdom. Where
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does wisdom get us? Right,
we've been talking a lot about a different
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aspects of wisdom. In this last
sermon I want to focus on sort of
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what's the goal? What is it
ultimately bring us into? And this passage
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Jeremiah thirty one, thirty one through
thirty four is interest. Is An interesting
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passage to consider in this regard because
at first it seems to talk about the
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end of wisdom in the sense of
ceasing of Wisdom, the stopping of wisdom,
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in the way that Jeremiah says and
in verse thirty four and no longer
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shall each one teach his neighbor and
each one his brother, saying no Lord,
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for they shall, they shall all
know me. It might first it
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seemed to talk, seem to talk
about the end of wisdom, is ceasing
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to exist, or at least ceasing
to be saught, but what it really
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teaches us is the end of wisdom
in terms of the goal of wisdom.
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The passage is not about wisdom stopping, but about what the new covenant brings
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us into in terms of wisdom,
and I want to help you understand that.
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This passage tells us about what our
lives in the new covenant is like,
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and something about it relates to knowledge, to wisdom. The way that
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jet the this passage addresses this issue, just to give you a little bit
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of context, is it's Jeremiah's talking
during the old covenant about something that is
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coming. Now. The Old Covenant
is that Covenant that God made with Moses,
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and we see that it's defined in
that way here in verse thirty two.
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He says this new covenant that's coming, it's not like the covenant that
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I made with their fathers on the
day when I took them by the hand
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to bring them out of the land
of Egypt, my covenant that they broke.
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So here is a reference to that
great moment in history when Israel,
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who was enslaved by Egypt, was
brought out by the mighty hand of God,
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brought out for a particular purpose,
not just to rescue them out of
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slavery, but to bring them into
something, to bring them into life.
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You remember what Moses said when he
went to Egypt and he went to Pharaoh
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and he told Pharaoh, in the
name of the Lord, let my people
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go. Why? So that they
may go and worship Yahweh. The purpose
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was to leave in order to worship, in order to gather, in order
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to belong to him. That's why
they were brought out and they're after the
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exodus. God brought them with a
mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He
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brought them out of Egypt to Mount
Sinai and there he established his covenant with
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them. He established a covenant in
which he promised them long life in the
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land of Canaan, blessings of all
kinds, fertility and in the wombs of
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their women, on the in the
vines and the fields and the cattle.
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The land would be a blessed place, flowing with milk and honey. It
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would be a place that would be
free of of plagues, it would be
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free of of UNHOLINESS, it would
be free of enemies, it would be
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safe and it would be comfortable and
it would be wonderful. It would be
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heaven on earth, pointing forward towards
an eternal heaven if they would only obey.
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That's all they had to do,
and God would not make this unclear.
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He would spell out his law very, very, very clearly, giving
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command after or command after command.
And not only would he give all of
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his laws very clearly, he would
make the promises of blessing, but also
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the threats of curse very clear.
They would know and hear what would happen
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for obedience, but also what would
happen if they disobeyed the even as the
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law was given, we read that
it was a terrifying thing. Perhaps you've
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been in your house with your parents
when they were really, really angry at
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you and laying down the law.
Right, they are yelling, maybe they're
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screaming, they're taking you will not
do this anymore. Okay, right,
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this is what happened on Mount Sinai. We read that as God gave the
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law to his people the mountain was
shaking, that it was on fire,
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that a cloud enveloped it, that
the voice of God was booming and in
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fact the holiness of the Lord and
of the law was so clearly a proclaimed
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that they were told if anyone even
touches the mountain, they would die.
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Moses was terrified, we read,
and as he was the one person who
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was called up onto the mountain to
receive this law, the holiness of the
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law, the goodness of the law, the threats for disobedience to the law,
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these were all very visually auditorily.
It was all very, very compelling.
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Not only was the giving of the
law in this way, but the
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number of lessons that they learned along
the way. Even before they reached the
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land of Canaan, even before they
left the foot of Mount Sinai, they
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created a golden calf idolatry and things
like this already started setting in, and
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God's threats and curses came upon them. And not only do they have all
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of this, but they also had
the book of proverbs. Eventually, the
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proverbs were given as a way to
teach them that obedience to the law was
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not just about doing this thing and
this thing and this thing and this thing,
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piling them up one on top of
another, but about living all of
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life, recognizing its patterns, patterns
of holiness, patterns of obedience, patterns
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of Righteous Living, and then the
proverbs continually promising if you live in this
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way, you will really live,
you will enjoy life, you will be
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successful and all of these wonderful things. This was the old covenant that they
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broke, that they broke Jeremiah is
talking to them after all of these things
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had been had had happened, after
Solomon was a distant memory, at least
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a moral in terms of morally.
What will be done? How will God
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have how will his people dwell with
God, be with God? This promise
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I will be their God and they
will be my people. That's not just
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a promise of the old covenant.
That's a promise of the even older covenant
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with Abraham. How would that promise
be fulfilled? How would the promise to
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David be fulfilled, that God would
establish his a son on that throne that
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would last forever? What would require? A new covenant that wouldn't depend on
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the People's obedience, wouldn't be tied
to the land for a temporary time in
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a temporary way, but it would
depend on God's obedience and it would establish
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eternal things. A kingdom is,
Hebrews says, unlike the mountain on Sinai,
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a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Zion, not Sinai. So that's
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what Jeremiah is talking about here.
He's he's addressing the people after everything went
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wrong, after all his sort of
fallen part and been bad, after the
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great promises of blessings, the threats
of disobedience, it's all fallen on deaf
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ears. They fallen into all kinds
of idolatry. They broken the Covenant and
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they're about to pay and they are
paying the penalties. And it's at this
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moment when God says, behold,
the days are coming when I will make
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a new covenant with the House of
Israel. This is Gospel, right,
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this is good news. While we
were yet sinners, God did something great.
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God establish something new. He gave
a new promise. This wouldn't be
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like the old covenant that I made
with the fathers, their fathers, on
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the day when he took them out
of Egypt, the one that they broke,
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but this covenant, he says in
Verse Thirty Three that I will make
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with the House of Israel. He's
going to put the law within them,
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he will write it on their very
hearts. He's not going to just put
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it on tablets of stone and placard
it in front of them, both literally
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and that way and in all kinds
of other ways that it's embedded in the
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old testament economy, but he is
going to put it on their very hearts.
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He's going to change them. He's
going to make his people not just
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ones who are called to obedience,
but ones who are enabled to obey,
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not because of something that's strung wrong
within them, but because of something that
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he has, something that he is
done. Well. It's in this context
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that I that Jeremiah says I will
be their God and they will be my
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people. There will be closeness,
there will be communion, as the old
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law is obeyed, as there is
a true obedience. And he goes on
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to say, and no one shall
eat and and no longer shall each one
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teach his neighbor and his brother and
each his brother, saying know the Lord,
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for they shall all know me,
from the least to the greatest,
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declares the Lord. This is going
to be the focus of the rest of
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our time. What does he mean
by this? And in Verse Thirty Four.
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Now, this obviously relates to wisdom
because, as we see in proverbs
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and in so many places, wisdom
is something that is learned. You learn
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by paying attention, by being wise. You don't learn by despising those who
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teach you. We are told to
get instruction. These are the kinds of
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things that are prescribed to us in
proverbs. These are the kinds of things
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that wisdom calls us to. So
the question and is is wisdom is teaching?
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Are these things excluded from the new
covenant? What are we supposed to
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understand? Is the thing that we
are entering into? Well, we know
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that from scripture that wisdom doesn't happen
automatically. Teaching is required. Luke to
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fifty two tells us that even Jesus, when he was a child, quote,
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increased in wisdom as he grew in
according to his human nature. So
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what happens when Jesus comes? Does
teaching and wisdom disappear? Does instruction and
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Knowledge Go Away? Well, the
answer, I'm would guess you can guess,
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is no. But I want to
give some a brief defense of that.
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We have to begin by saying that
no, teaching itself does not disappear
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after Christ, nor does it need. Its need disappear, nor does it
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need to disappear. The goal of
teaching is to lead us into wisdom,
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and the Bible is clear that the
goal does remain the same even after the
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new covenant is stain. The has
come. We are called to still grow
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right. Wisdom is a part of
obedience, as we have been learning about
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service, it is connected with the
law. When Jesus comes in, the
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new covenant comes, do we throw
out the law? Do we say obedience
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no longer matters, I have nothing
more to learn, no more way to
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grow? This is really important to
mention because throughout the history of the Church
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and continuing today, there have been
people who have denied this and, if
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used passages like this to build themselves
up, then a baptist from the reformation,
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some pentecostals and evangelicals. Today there
are people who will insist that anything
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related to teaching, anything related to
doctrine, anything that smacks of you have
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something to learn, is not of
Christ. They'll point to a passage like
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this and say that learning, that
knowledge, that those who instruct are not
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biblical. They do not have Christ
and that if you hear, if you
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belong to a church that is teaching
you things, belonging to a church that
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says there are doctrines, that you
need to learn, things that you need
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to grow in, that you should
run away. That's a faith rooted in
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learning, in growing, in discipleship, is unbiblical. Well, I think
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this is laughable and I hope you'll
laugh too. And here's why. Because
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of course they themselves are teaching a
doctrine. Even as they argue against teaching
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by saying here is the teaching,
that there is no teaching, they're teaching
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and undermining themselves. And of course, our Lord specifically told us to be
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disciples, to make disciples in his
commission to the church. Teaching is clearly
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a part of the new covenant and
could be argued in a hundred different ways.
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Jesus tells us that he gives us
teachers as gifts to his church after
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his ascension. Paul says in Second
Timothy Three hundred and sixteen, that teach,
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that scripture itself is profitable for correction
and Instruction, training in righteousness.
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We are explicitly told in Colossians to
teach one another that the word of Christ
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may dwell richly in us. We
could go on and on and on with
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both explicit commands, ways in which
it's wrapped up in the history of the
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church, in the offices of the
church, in the nature of scripture.
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You could come at the almost any
angle and prove this to be true.
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So those who teach against doctrine,
who teach against denying the basic commands of
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scripture, who deny even common sense, should be mocked and and pitied as
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well. The command against teaching is
that. Let me say that more clearly.
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The command against teaching, to command
against doctrine is at best ignorance and
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it worst, and is often used
as a pretense for fooling others. You
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don't need any teacher, just listen
to me. is usually how it goes.
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Is usually what's happening in the background. So all this to say,
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we're of course not saying that Jeremiah
is wrong, that God is wrong,
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when he says in the new covenant, no longer shall each one teach his
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neighbor and each his brother, saying
know the Lord. What we're saying that
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those who interpret Jeremiah in this way, that I've been describing are wrong,
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and this should be obvious enough.
So then, what does Jeremiah mean?
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If teaching is clearly an important part
of life under the new covenant, how
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are we to understand this? Well, the way to understand this is this
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way. What Jeremiah means is that
when Christ comes and when we come to
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him, our knowledge with God,
our intimacy with God, our closeness with
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him, will be different than that
under the old covenant, different in some
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significant ways. For example, in
Isaiah two three, we read this another
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new covenant promise. And many people
shall come and say, come, let
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us go up to the mountain of
the Lord, to the House of the
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God of Jacob, that he may
teach us his ways, that we may
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walk in his paths, for out
of Zion shall go forth the law and
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the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. You see the picture there. The
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picture is very different than that of
Sina and Sinai it was don't touch the
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Mountain on Zion. It is come, let us go hand in hand up
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the hill of the Lord that he
himself may teach us. There are these
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important psalms. I call them catechism
songs because they ask this question, like
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Psalm Fifteen, for example. They
ask this question. Who shall ascend the
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Holy Hill of the Lord? WHO
shall ascend and go up to it's like
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this question Isaiah two three, and
then the rest of the Psalm is an
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answer, and the answer is everyone
who does all of these things. That's
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who gets to ascend, that's who
gets to have connection and closeness, that's
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who comes into obedience and communion with
God, the one who is righteous.
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So this is an amazing thing that
Isaiah says here. Before there was this
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great separation between the people and God. Do not touch the mountain, you
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are not righteous. The law will
come to you and even at you and
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against you. But Isaiah two three, when the promises of the New Covenant
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and Mount Zion are mentioned, it's
let's go hand in hand up the hill
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of the Lord. How, how
is that possible? On the basis of
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what righteousness? On the basis of
what law keeping, on what wisdom?
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How can we have that kind of
communion with God? How is it that
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we can be taught his ways directly
by him and not through an a whole
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system of priests and sacrifices and the
temple system them and the various ceremonies and
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feasts and all the rest. You
remember, in Israel there was always separation
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from God, even as he was
close to them. There were various courts
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around the temple in which it got
more and more holy the closer you got
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inside, and many people could never
come in. Only one person in all
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of Israel, the high the appointed
high priest for that year, could go
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into the most holy place, and
that only once a year, and that
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only after multiple sacrifices and all kinds
of things that had to go on in
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order for him to go into that
place and just him and just one time.
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There's always a even in the Old
Testament or even under the old covenant,
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in which God had brought his people
out of Egypt and wasn't so many
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ways with them, he still remained
separate to a great degree, to such
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a degree that the prophets will say
the new covenants going to be different.
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God is going to write the law
on your hearts. If you go to
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a luke chapter a ten, there
are some important verses here. I'd like
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to read to you a luke ten
versus twenty three and twenty four. Here
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there, our Lord confirms us some
of these things that we've been discussing here
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now is the new covenant is short
of breaking forth like the dawn in the
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morning, he says, turning to
his disciples privately, he says, blessed
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are the eyes that see what you
see. For I tell you that many
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prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah,
and kings like Solomon, desired to see
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what you see and did not see
it, and to hear what you hear
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and did not hear it. There
have been ages passed when God has been
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speaking, and yet he has been
speaking in ways that even those who were
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speaking his word wanted to hear more. And now that Jesus has come,
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people are hearing that Jesus is saying
to his disciples, the things that Isaiah,
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the Prophet of the Lord, the
things that Jeremiah, the Prophet of
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the Lord, the things that Solomon, who spoke these proverbs, and others
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who spoke the word of the Lord, they were wanting to hear and to
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see what you are seeing. Now
they are being taught in a new way.
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And who are they being taught by? By God. They are coming
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to know the Lord in this amazing, amazing new way. I remember reading
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one commentator commenting on the book of
soul alms. I can't remember who it
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was anymore, but he said that
we who belong to the new covenant and
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when we read the Psalms, he
said, we breathe. I think her
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phrasing probably. He says we breathe
a pure error than even David breathed.
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What he means by that is,
in a way, even David who wrote
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the psalms, there's a way in
which we understand them, know them a
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way that even he didn't because of
the ways that they are fulfilled in Christ,
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the way that we are taught them
by the spirit of God who's come
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to us after the ascension of Christ. So, getting back to wisdom,
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to know God is to obey God
right it's to be close to him,
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it's to love him. Love is
about obedience, it's about service, it's
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about connection, about communion. To
Love God is to obey Him. To
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obey him is to love him.
To have fellowship with him is to serve
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him, to be with him.
The Ten commandments teach us this, the
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law teaches us this, the proverbs
teach us this, and yet we know
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how far we fall short of that
love of that obedients. This has been
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the promise ever since the Garden of
Eden, that if we are righteous,
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we will be close to God.
That's what the tree of life represented.
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It was kind of a sacrament of
that, all of that first covenant that
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God made with Man, a guard
and sacrament in which the promise of life
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was held forth to Adam and Eve
if they were to be righteous. And
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that promise of the tree of life, even eternal life, continues to be
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held out throughout the Old Testament.
Consider some of the proverbs, consider the
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direction, the goal that tell us
of wisdom. Listen to proverbs three thirteen
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through eighteen. Blessed is the one
who finds wisdom and the one who gets
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understanding. Right thumbs up. That's
a good thing. Blessed for the gain
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from her. That's wisdom. The
gain from her is better than gain from
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silver, and her prophet better than
gold. She is more precious than jewels
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and nothing you desire can compare with
her. Long life is in her hand,
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and in her left hand are riches
and honor. Her ways are ways
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of pleasantness and all her paths are
peace. She is a tree of life
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to those who lay hold of her, those who who hold her fast and
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are called blessed. That's a pretty
good description of heaven, isn't it?
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The tree of life, pleasantness more
a valuable than gold and silver and jewels.
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Honor, wealth riches, wisdom,
understanding, peace. This is a
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description of heaven and that's what you
get when you get wisdom. So no
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wonder he begins by saying blessed is
the one who finds wisdom, in the
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one who gets understanding, for all
of these things are the goal of wisdom,
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the end of wisdom. You See, if wisdom is reading and living
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the patterns of life, well,
you see how that perfectly fits with the
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end of wisdom. The the tell
us of wisdom, because it is living
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well. It's living well honor and
wealth and and pleasantness and hope and peace
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and all the rest. Proverbs thirty, the fruit of righteousness is a tree
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of life, and whoever captures souls
is wise. Proverbs one thousand, three
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hundred and twelve. Hope deferred makes
the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is
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a tree of life. Proverbs fifteen, for a gentle tongue is a tree
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of life, but perverseness in it
breaks the spirit. So wherever you have
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unrighteousness, where you ever you have
going against the grain of God's moral order,
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wherever you have a foolishness and ignorance, you have pain, suffering,
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death, perverseness. But wherever you
have going with the grain, wherever you
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have working within God's moral order,
whereever you have righteousness, you have abundance
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and peace and joy and and hope
and more. That's where wisdom leads and
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that's what the new covenant gives in
this kind of intimacy and closeness and connection
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the Israel, the Israel didn't have, at least in this corporate sense.
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In a new way, God comes
to us as his people, Israel,
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and he blesses us. Sin Stood
in the way. It blocked the path
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to wisdom. It allowed us,
maybe a God's grace allows us, to
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see in a glimpse, say Oh, that's a good thing, I should
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do that, but then sin in
our hearts always goes the other direction.
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It perverts us. We're crooked people. To remedy that, in the old
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covenant, God put in place all
kinds of things, a priest plee system,
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sacrifices, a temple and all of
these things various ways in which we
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could have some kind of access to
God, peace in the land, communion
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with him. Where are those things
now? Where is your priest? Where
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is the sacrifice? Where's the Great
Temple System? It's not here, is
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it? Where is it? How
can we have communion with God? How
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is it that we can come into
worship this morning and pray directly to him
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to come into the heavenly places with
boldness, into that most holy places with
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God? How can we know him
in that way? How can we serve
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him in that way? It's because
the new covenant has donned. We have
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no priest standing before you today,
no one. And I am not mediating
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for you on behalf of Christ,
because Christ is your mediator. He is
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in heaven, where he has and
and by his spirit he has united him
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to you so that you are,
said Colossians a three, to be in
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the heavenly places with him. You
remember, when he died, that great
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curtain that was in the temple,
that separated the holies from the most holy
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place, ripped into the dividing wall
that separate did the Jews and the gentiles.
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The scripture says, was toppled down
and God said come on in and
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here we are, these promises of
Isaiah and Jeremiah and many other places,
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the gentiles coming into Israel. This
law that was made known, and especially
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made in Israel, disseminated throughout the
nation's disobedience written on our hearts. We
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could go on and on and on. The thing is that to know God,
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this essential thing, is now known
so easily, so freely. You
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don't have to move to Israel and
get circumcised and and and and learn a
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whole set of sacrificial systems and various
things and find a certain allotment of land
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and all of the rest to become
part of God's people, from the littlest
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to the greatest, can know the
Lord. How? How? Simply through
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the word of the Lord speaking.
That's my job, not to be a
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priest mediating between you and Christ,
but just to say this is the Gospel,
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this is the word of the Lord, this is the new covenant,
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this is Jesus Christ, who is
offered freely to you. And whether you're
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really young or whether you're really old, from the least to the greatest,
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whether you are very dishonorable in Scia
society or whether you are a great person,
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the promises for you want to look
at my watch? There we go.
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Okay, then I want to read
you a quote from Augustine. He
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says, isn't the finger of God
to be understood as being the Holy Spirit?
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Read The Gospel and see that we're
one evangelist has said the Lord saying
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if with the spirit of God cast
out demons, another says if with the
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finger of God cast out demons.
So if that law to was written by
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the finger of God, that is, by the spirit of God. So
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you see what he's saying. He's
saying that in the Gospels of the finger
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of God is described as casting out
demons and he's making a connection with the
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Old Testament accounts of the law of
the Ten Commandments being written, is said
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to be, of written by the
finger of God. He then he also
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connects that with the spirit. When
we read the spirit of God, when
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we read he continuing the quote,
the spirit by which fair rose magicians were
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defeated. So they said, quote, this is the finger of God.
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So if that law to indeed,
because that law too was composed by the
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spirit of God, that is,
by the finger of God, why can
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it not be said of it,
for the law of the spirit of life
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in Jesus Christ has delivered you from
the law of sin and death. So
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the law of the spirit of life, written on the heart, not the
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stone, in Christ, Jesus,
in whose person was celebrated the ultimately the
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ultimate real, ultimately real and genuine
Passover, has delivered you from the law
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of sin and death. These points
is that these two covenants are not at
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odds against one another. In their
author the spirit of God was at work
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at both but the spirit of God
has worked differently and in a new way
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in the new covenant, writing this
Law on our hearts. So do you
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want wisdom? Do you want to
be able to live life in a way
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that go that lives in accordance with
God's law, that goes with the grain
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of the order he is set in
the world, that pleases him, that
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brings joy to yourself and to your
neighbors, that gains riches and honor and
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wealth and and and and peace and
hope and all the rest? If you
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want those things, the Bible says
you will never ever find them by striving
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in your own obedience. If you
need to see why that is, just
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go read about the old covenant.
Go see how Israel strove failed, broke
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the Covenant and did not achieve even
the temporal blessings that God had promised them.
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or how Adam had failed. How
Adam failed, I'm not because of
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well, I won't get into that, but Adam also failed in achieving,
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in gaining of righteousness. How can
we have the righteousness of God? Through
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the wisdom of God himself, who
is Jesus Christ. That's why, early
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on in these series of sermons,
I've been talking about Jesus as our wisdom.
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He is the one through whom we
come to know the promises of the
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new covenant, through whom the New
Covenant is made. We do have a
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priest and his name is Jesus.
He is in heaven, but he continues
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to work in our lives and he
continues to establish us by his by means
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of his spirit working in our hearts. The end of wisdom, the goal
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of wisdom, the reason of wisdom, the purpose for wisdom is life,
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even eternal life. You can't get
it on your own, but you can
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receive it as a gift. Through
Christ. We experience the blessings that wisdom
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live to. The wisdom leads to
a little bit in this world, but
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it's only a small taste, the
small foretaste, of the eternal life to
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come that is given to us in
Christ in revelation. I'll conclude with this.
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We have at least four places where
the tree of life appears again.
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It happens at the beginning, happens
in the middle, happens at the end.
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The beginning, the tree of life
was there and promise to Adam and
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Eve a life for their obedience.
But in the end we who are gathered
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up into the heavenly places, who
know God and are with God, who
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shine under the brightness of God and
his son, who live with him in
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eternal peace and happiness forever, enjoying
all wisdom, living and knowledge, acting
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perfectly according to his will for all
time they're the tree of life is not
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held out for us as a promise
of something that might be achieved, but
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something that has been achieved and even
belongs to you now, who are seated
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with Christ in the heavenly places.
God gives to us his wisdom. In
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Christ God gives to US himself,
not just a depositive knowledge so that we
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mean it might obey him, but
he gives to us the very life that
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wisdom promises through the spirit in the
sun. So if you want wisdom,
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you need to do what God says
to do in James Five, and that's
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ask God for it. Go to
him in the power of the spirit,
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in the name of Jesus, and
receive the gift that is freely offered to
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you. And as you receive it, he will not only save you and
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regenerating your heart, but he will
begin to cause you to walk in his
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ways from a heart of true obedience, one that will continue on and on
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and on until one day God glorifies
you and you will walk perfectly and wisely,
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enjoying all the benefits of that forever. Let's look forward to that day
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together, my brothers and sisters.
Let's receive those things in Christ and in
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him alone. Let us pray
