I invite you to turn with me tonight to Hebrews chapter 11, as we read together that chapter through chapter 12, verse 3. I indicated in the bulletin that this portion is not only our scripture reading, but our text, and lest you should get worried that this morning I preached on one small verse, and tonight there's a long, daunting text. Don't worry, it's a little bit different. We consider faith, more considering a summarization of the Word of God that we have here. A survey, we might say, of the heroes of faith that we find recorded in Hebrews chapter 11. But we read together the entire chapter through verse 3 of chapter 12. Hear now the Word of God. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith, he still speaks even though he is dead. By faith, Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear, built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren, was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man and he as good as dead came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones. By faith, Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger. He persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith, the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after the people had marched around them for seven days. By faith, the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith. Yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. May God add His blessing to the reading and preaching of His Word and encourage you to keep your Bibles open before you tonight. Beloved in Christ the Lord, justification, as we said this morning, is God's declaration, God's verdict with regard to the believer's legal status before Him. It is God declaring those for whom Jesus died to be not guilty. And of course, we know that those are the words that every accused criminal longs to hear. As sinners, as the worst of offenders as we consider this morning, Those are the greatest words of assurance, comfort, and hope that we as sinners saved by grace could ever hear, not guilty. This morning we also talked about the benefits earned for us by Jesus Christ through His atoning work. And we're talking about all of the benefits that are included in such a great salvation. For example, that our sins are paid for and forgiven. That God's wrath is removed from us and our guilt is also removed. That we are righteous. We have the righteousness of Christ in the sight of God. That eternal security from Satan, sin, death, and the grave is ours. And that indeed eternal life is our very own precious possession. These summarize the benefits or the gifts that are freely given to us. They're given. Nothing in my hands I bring. And tonight we want to consider how it is that we as believers take possession of how we receive these gifts. What is the means? And understanding that that means itself is a gift. So we consider the gift that receives God's gifts. You want to notice the gift defined, the gift demonstrated, and the call to exercise the gift. Now very simply, that gift that receives God's gifts, which is no surprise to us, I trust, is faith. As Paul says, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Well then how do we define faith? Well, I think we can define it as to what it is and to what it does. These things are not mutually exclusive. They're like a hand in a glove, but we can make a bit of a distinction. Faith is not something that we work up in ourselves. It's not a feeling that we conjure up. It's also not a good work on our part. It is God's gift to us. And it functions as the instrument or the tool by which we receive all the blessings and the benefits that Christ earned for us. Our Reformed Confessions clearly teach this truth, that it's given to us and what it does. The Belgian Confession, Article 22, entitled Our Justification Through Faith in Jesus Christ, says, we believe that to attain the true knowledge of this great mystery, the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts an upright faith which embraces Jesus Christ with all His merits, appropriates Him, and seeks nothing more besides Him. Heidelberg Catechism question and answer 21 says that true faith is created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel. Question and answer 60 of the catechism says that we are right with God only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Then question 61 asks, why do you say that by faith alone you are right with God? And the answer includes, it is not because of any value my faith has that God is pleased with me. Only Christ's satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness make me right with God. And I can receive this righteousness and make it mine in no other way than by faith alone. Boys and girls faith is an instrument not an instrument not a musical instrument that plays beautiful notes but a tool kind of instrument maybe a simple example might be a baseball glove a baseball glove is the instrument the tool used to catch the baseball faith has been described as that open hand that receives god's gifts some have described faith as as a conduit as a pipe and through that Through that conduit, through that pipe, the Holy Spirit pours all of the blessings of salvation into the believer's heart. That was included, those very words of pouring those blessings were included in Romans chapter 5 that we read this morning. But then as an instrument, how does it work? What does it do? Hebrews 11.1 says, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. You might say faith believes and faith receives. Some of our Bible versions that we are more familiar with translate that first verse something like, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. You see, it's more than just being sure. It's the assurance, or others translated, faith is the substance of things hoped for. And then it goes on, and the conviction of things not seen. And first of all, the idea behind being sure or assurance is really the idea of a foundation. The word translated from the Greek relates to documents or papers that attest or provide evidence of ownership. We might say like a title to a car or a deed to a house. Those documents, those papers that prove that you own that car or you own that house. Proof of ownership. Ownership of things hoped for. And that proof which serves as the foundation of our hope is the very Word of God, isn't it? Heidelberg Catechism, Answer 21, says it correctly. True faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true. Our being sure of what we hope for is founded on the truth of God's Word which tells us exactly what is included in our living hope. Tells us exactly those things that belong to us in Christ Jesus. Those things we own. But there's more than just knowledge of this ownership. There is a certainty, there is a conviction of what we do not see. That's the second part of that verse which builds on the first. Here the idea of proof is extended and drawn out a little bit further. Faith provides the reality or faith is certain or convicted of the reality that the things we hope for but cannot see with our physical eyes are real. That those things that the Bible says we own, indeed, they are real. Now we all know that physical eyesight as well as the other senses that we have, the senses of touch and taste and smell and hearing, that these produce conviction or evidence of visible, physical things. Well, in somewhat the same way, we speak of the eye of faith. Faith is the instrument that enables us to see the invisible things that await us. And along with the knowledge and conviction of the truth of God's Word, answer 21 says faith is also a deep-rooted assurance created in me by the holy spirit through the gospel that out of sheer grace earned for us by christ not only others but i too have had my sins forgiven have been made forever right with god and have been granted salvation what you might say beloved faith is clinging to the promises of god it is depending on the word of god and it is remaining faithful to the son of god faith is without a doubt trust that all of the the benefits of christ taught in scripture are for me too they are for me too not just knowing Being told, I had knowledge that I own them. Being convinced, convicted that they are for me too. It is a firm persuasion that my salvation in Jesus, for Jesus' sake, is real today. And it is also a confident expectation that God will perform all that He has promised to us in Christ, both for this life and for the next. That confidence is so strong that through the exercise of faith, The believer's soul is, as 1 Peter 1.8 says, filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. That's what the saints of old, the Old Testament heroes of faith, as we call them, that's what they enjoyed. We are to look to them. We are to look to the great cloud of witnesses, as Hebrews 12, verse 1 calls them, to see, in the second place, the gift demonstrated. You see, maybe we don't give enough attention to the result of faith working throughout life. Maybe we don't give enough attention to what it does. We sang about that just a moment ago. But that too is a precious gift, that outworking of faith in the circumstances of life. And with these heroes recorded in Hebrews 11, we see a unity displayed. It's a unity of witness to the same faith. And it's a unity of practice of the same faith. Now we obviously don't have time to consider the details of each of these heroes. We don't have time to consider this whole portion verse by verse. But for many of us who have enjoyed the privilege of growing up in homes where Bible stories were read. And attending Sunday school. Just hearing the names Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and the others brings back a flood of memories from our childhood of the history and the events of God's people that are recorded in the Old Testament. We want to do a little bit of a survey here tonight to be reminded of what it was they did by faith. And again, even with the ones we consider, we cannot say everything there is to say about them, but we'll do a bit of a survey. Now, one of the things that we do learn from all of these heroes of faith who lived in the time of shadows and promises before the Messiah came is that they demonstrated a persevering faith. They did not shrink back. They did not lose hope, but they held steadfast to God's promises. They knew, as we sang in the song service, Lord, to give up, I'd be a fool. They understood that. You see, persevering faith holds on to the promises of God, even if those promises are not fully realized, made fully real for us before death comes. Now, the first hero mentioned is Abel. Verse 4. By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings, and by faith, he still speaks even though he is dead. Now, of course, we understand that with each of these individuals listed here, we can go back to the Old Testament and read about them. We can read the episode that this is pointing back to, talking about. And in order to understand why Abel's faith offering was better, why it was acceptable to God, we need to go back to Genesis chapter 4. And if we would do that, there we see that Abel gave of the first fruit of his flocks. But Cain did not give of the firstfruits of his produce. By faith, Abel gave, trusting that God would continue to provide. Next, notice Noah, verse 7. By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Now, no doubt, Noah had to endure much criticism and taunting, laughing at him as he built the ark. We know that it took him over a hundred years to build it, which meant that he had faith in what he could not yet see. Now, as I thought about this, when we think about time, sometimes we say time flies. Other times it seems to drag on so slowly. Think about a hundred years. Indeed, he was busy. He was building this ark, but yet, For all that time, he had faith in what he could not see. He had faith that God would keep his word even, who knows, when it may have seemed a little bit far-fetched. We cannot skip Abraham and Sarah. We find words recorded about them, verses 8-12 and 17-19. And if you notice, as we read it, really what the author of Hebrews did was picked out three segments of the history of Abraham and Abraham and Sarah. First of all, Abraham had faith that God knew where he was leading Abraham, even though Abraham didn't have a clue. And we also see, secondly, that in Abraham and Sarah, on this side of glory, our faith is not yet perfect. Remember they thought they needed to help God out to fulfill His promise? Especially through Hagar. And then, but they show us that faith, even though it doubts at times, it does not give up. And then finally, the third section, when Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac, that seemed to contradict God's promise with regard to this child of promise. Yet Abraham trusted in God that God knew what he was talking about. That he had all things worked out. Jacob, we read, exercised his faith by worshiping God as he faced death. After passing on his faith, blessing Joseph's sons, his grandsons, we're told he worshiped God as he faced death. Moses, verses 24 to 28, these couple of verses pack in a whole lot of history. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith, he left Egypt not fearing the king's anger. He persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Egypt. Now think about it. Moses had it made in Pharaoh's house at least as far as earthly honor and power and fame and riches. He had it all. But by faith, he knew that God's promises and he knew that the eternal reward that he looked forward to was worth so much more than the riches and the fleeting pleasures that this world could ever give to us. And he wasn't afraid to suffer on account of his faith because he knew that the greatest safety was being covered by the blood of the sacrificial Passover lamb. By faith, the Israelites trusted the way that God opened for them through the Red Sea with the walls of water on both sides. And they saw firsthand how their faith was confirmed as the ignorant Egyptians who tried to take advantage of God's path without faith were destroyed. And the same thing will be true for all those in this life who do not see God's hand of blessing in the rain, in the sunshine, in the crops, in hell. They do not see God's blessing in these things and these things will then be for them a curse one day. Rahab. Rahab is a demonstration that one lost in terrible sin can be overpowered by the grace of God to exercise true faith. She, as a hero of faith, is described, if you notice, by what she was before the spies came. The prostitute. Not a prostitute, but the prostitute, as if she was the one and only, as if to highlight how despicable her sin. But by faith, she enjoyed the calling and the conversion of God. And then we read in verses 32 to 34, And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword whose weakness was turned to strength and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Again, as we read some of those things, we are reminded of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace and of Daniel and the lion's den. And one of the things that we recall about each of these men, at least most of them listed, the names that are listed, is that not one of them was perfect. Not even David, whom the Bible describes as being God's friend, a man after God's own heart. In fact, some like Samson, we would have even considered questionable. Yet each one demonstrates for us how true faith deals with sin, repentance, and a desire and a determination to press forward in obedience, clinging ever more fervently to the promises of God. In verse 35 and following, we read about torture and persecution for the faith. Jewish tradition says that Jeremiah was stoned to death in Egypt, that Isaiah was sawn in two and half. History also teaches that there were many martyrs in the second century before Christ, as we said this morning also in the time of the Reformation. Paul himself in the New Testament and gives a litany of the tortures and the attempts on his life, being stoned, being flogged, being left for dead. The saints of old, beloved, understood that to deny God's grace and sufficiency was far more deadly than any torture or abuse that the hands of men could exercise upon us. You see, they feared the one who was able to kill both the body and soul more than those who can kill just the body even if it cost them their lives they had faith that they would rise again to a better life now again beloved there's obviously so much more that could be said here but not only are these heroes placed before us in scripture as demonstrations of true faith but they were all commended for their faith as verse 39 says They had that faith that persevered, faith that didn't let go of God's promises even as they endured hardships and trouble far worse than most of us have or ever will have to endure. And these heroes are commended to God's people today, to you and to me, for us to consider them, to learn from them, and to be encouraged by them as we are called to exercise the gift of faith. That's our third point. tonight we live in the day of fulfillment in many respects enjoying so much more than our brothers and sisters in the old dispensation enjoyed we live in the day of fulfillment jesus christ the promised messiah has come yet our faith is still being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see we still look forward to the holy spirit's work of sanctification being completed in us one day in glory. We still look forward to seeing our Lord face to face. We still look forward to our Lord Jesus Christ returning on the clouds of heaven to put all of His enemies under His feet, to present His bride without spot, without blemish, without stain to His Father and to usher in the new heaven and the new earth. And as we wait patiently for all of that, we are called to exercise the gift of faith that we have been given. And we're talking now about a faith-filled life. How one who knows and is convinced of the truth of Scripture by God's grace and who has the assurance that his sins are forgiven and that God sees him as righteous in Christ Jesus, how does that one who has faith in God's promises exercise that faith in the midst of this world? How does he live by faith? How do we live according to what we sang a few minutes ago? Well, again, we are to be encouraged by and we are to learn from the testimony left to us by those heroes of faith. True faith is a faith that perseveres until that faith becomes sight one day. It holds on to the promises of God even if those promises like Christ's return won't be realized for one or two or ten thousand years after we die to this life. True faith doesn't get tired of waiting and therefore start to question God. That's because our benefits in Christ are so very precious. Just like Abel, our faith trusts in God's provision in times of bounty or in times of want. They trust in God's provision. That's why we faithfully bring the firstfruits of our income. And we give the firstfruits of our time to the Lord. As well, true faith strives to please God in all things, but especially by confessing the truth of Him. Verse 6 says in relation to Enoch, And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Not only does true faith believe that God is real, not only does it believe that God exists, but it lives that way before the eyes of a watching world. It lives according to the truth, witnessing to the truth that God exists, that He is real. Just as Noah waited over a hundred years for the hard-to-believe flood, We are called to trust that Christ will come again with that unimaginable sight of the clouds rolling back and the sound of the heavenly trumpet. Oh, indeed, we trust that He is with us daily to the very end of the age, as He has said, that He lives in us by His Holy Spirit who guards and guides and directs us. We trust that, we believe that, we know that, but we also trust that He will come again, even as the angel said, as He left this earth, He will come again. Like Abraham and Sarah, faith that perseveres trusts God to direct us even when we may not know where He is leading. Or even when we don't understand why He is leading us there. You see, true faith may not exactly know what the future holds, as the saying goes. But it definitely knows who holds the future. As well, again, like Abraham and Sarah, even though our faith may seem weak at times, and we think that we need to help God out. We know better than He does with regard to this work situation or moving here or there or what college to go to. We'll just help God out a little bit. Yet true faith will endure through and conquer over doubts. And as we said last week in connection with God's sovereign providence, even when providence seems to result in inconsistencies and things that to us contradict each other. Like for Abraham being commanded to sacrifice Isaac. True faith believes that God can do the impossible. That His faith, or that His plan is indeed perfect. That He knows best and every detail of my life that He has in store for me, good or bad, happy or sad, whatever it may be, is the best for me. That indeed all things, he does work for my good. Just as Jacob worshipped God while on his deathbed. Again, after having blessed Joseph's sons, those with the confidence of faith, exercised that faith in an attitude of worship through all seasons of life. Through all seasons, young or old, and whatever we may face, even with our dying breath. And you and I know that that is the beauty, really. A being by the bedside of a saint who is nearing death. It's the confidence that that one has even in the moment of death. But also, beloved, as God's people, as Jacob with regard to Joseph's sons, we understand, true faith understands, that the greatest legacy that we can leave to our children and our grandchildren is not the things of this earth, but our faith, The testimony of that faith. Along with Moses, those with persevering faith will forfeit temporary blessing for the way of suffering for Jesus' sake. You see, true faith does not avoid obeying God's call, especially when it may lead to hardship. As we anticipate the promised eternal reward, true disciples of Christ will proudly bear, if necessary, Temporary disgrace and the rejection of the world that come with following Christ. Again, as we said last week, we must ask ourselves, am I proud to be God's calling card out there in the world? Am I proud to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ before the eyes of a watching world? Or am I ashamed? Would I rather disguise my faith and my identity with Christ for the eyes of a watching world. If that's the case, then you don't just wear a mask on Halloween. It's a part of life. You see, we must confess that this world offers us many distractions. Things to lure our attention and our interest away from where our eyes are supposed to be focused. The writer of Hebrews in verse 2 of chapter 12 says, us fix our eyes on Jesus. Fix our eyes. That means to look intently upon Him so that we don't look to the left, so that we don't look to the right. But when we're fixed on Jesus, then these things, these temptations are not able to distract us. There are many temptations, especially for our flesh, temptations before our eyes and before our ears. Yet true believers will live a life that is more and more characterized by choices in favor of God and again even the hardships and the uncertainties of faith over the choices that favor the comforts of the world. True faith avoids anything that would compromise our relationship with the Lord in favor of friendship with the world. Now the difficult question having heard all this having heard what true faith is how do you fit into that? How do you fit into that? Rahab demonstrates that true faith has the comfort that there is no sinner, no matter how great the sin, who cannot be forgiven if they would but turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. True faith has that comfort. We do fall. We do look to the left and to the right. At times we do fall into grievous sin. But the comfort for those who have true faith is all we need to do is look up to the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance and faith. And at the same time then, true faith actively demonstrates how a believer deals with sin. Again, repenting of that sin. Asking for God's forgiveness and then striving to not commit that sin again. And you know it works that way between people, between believers as well. If you have sinned against another, True faith demonstrates how to deal with that sin. You go to that other. You repent of your sin. You ask them for forgiveness. Reconciliation. Finally, true persevering faith is more interested in and cherishes more what God thinks of me than what the world thinks of me. Oh, that's hard. Boys and girls, young people, each one of us in certain situations of life, we do worry, don't we, about what people think of us. Let me say it again. True persevering faith is more interested in and cherishes more what God thinks of me than what the world thinks of me. You see, beloved, God bases His thoughts about me not on how good I am, not on how talented I am, not on how much I put in the offering plate, but He bases His thoughts of me on what do you do with my Son? Do you have faith in Him that He has accomplished everything that you needed to have accomplished for you? Nothing needs to be added and you can't do it anyway. Do you have faith in my Son? And how is it exercised and demonstrated in life? Beloved, we need to examine ourselves. Am I truly a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? Does my faith show that? Or are my feet too firmly planted on this earth and in this life? And does the world consider me to be its friend? You know that. You know the answer to that. We all do. Does the world consider you? Does it consider me to be its friend? Each one of us knows how to answer that. If by faith I have the confidence and assurance that my sins are forgiven and that I stand in a right relationship with God only for Jesus' sake, that will be visible. It will be evident in my life. We are called to live our faith by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. He is the one who gives us the gift of faith. He is the one who works that faith in our hearts by His Holy Spirit through His Word. And He is the one who will bring it to completion. He will complete our faith one day by making it become sight. And all that we do and all that we say, beloved, must show that He is not only our Savior, but that He is also the Lord of our lives. He sets the directions. He makes the rules. And it is His glory that counts. True faith confidently confesses that indeed all things work together for good to those who love God. And therefore in life or in death we have nothing to fear. This comfort is only for those who truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and are able to claim His promises by grace alone through faith alone. If you don't have that comfort yet then once again tonight you are being urgently and earnestly called to look to the Lord Jesus Christ you are being called with your ears you hear it you hear it but is that call reaching your heart look to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation because only in him is there true peace and lasting joy for all eternity what a blessing those who confess and possess true faith live in freedom they are not bound to slavery trying to earn their salvation but they live in the freedom of Christ living for Him who has accomplished all righteousness for us so that we are free to be all that He made us to be which in all things is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever Amen shall we pray Father, as we come before You at the close of this service, at the close of this day, we thank You again for the truth of Your Word. We thank You, Father, we praise You for that precious gift of faith with which we might receive all the blessed benefits earned for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, salvation, full and free. And Father, we pray that you would continue to protect us and lead us and work in us by your Holy Spirit that we might ourselves demonstrate and exercise that gift of faith in this life, each and every day. Father, when we are tempted to doubt, when we are facing temptations, we pray, Father, that you would cause us to cling to that faith that you've given to us. We pray that you would bless us in this week ahead that we might go forward as your people marching together with the saints of old for the glory of God. In your name alone, in Jesus' name alone we pray. Amen.