A Sanctifying Prayer - 18

So you just got another sermon and song, which in many ways is a summary of the text that we're going to be looking at today in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24. Most of you are aware that the apostle Paul customarily closed his epistles with a benediction. And what is a benediction? One commentator defined a benediction as an expression of good wishes or the invocation of a blessing. And what is an invocation? An invocation is a petition or a prayer. And so a benediction is a prayer, a request, a petition for blessing, which is why we don't talk about a benediction of blessing because benediction is blessing.

That's what it means. A benediction is a petition for blessing upon God's children, the invocation of a blessing. And Paul occasionally employed two closing benedictions, as he has here, always one and only a couple of times two. The second one and the final one is the most familiar one is found in verse 28, where Paul concludes his epistle by saying, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Amen. It's been a good number of years ago now, and I don't even remember which epistle we were concluding in our study, but we came to that closing benediction and I took one Sunday to analyze all 13 of Paul's benedictions. You may remember that. We categorized them into three different classes. There were the long ones, the short ones and the middle sized ones. And we looked at what was similar and what was different.

It was a very profitable study, I thought. But this is a very familiar one. The wording we all find very, very much like this in all Paul's epistles. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amen. That's a prayer petition for God's grace to rest upon them, his closing benediction. But the first benediction is found in verses 23 and 24, and this one is unique.

You'll find nothing like this in any of the other epistles. He says, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. And here is a benedictory prayer for the sanctifying work of God's Spirit. The blessings of sanctification invoked and explained.

Invoked, that is petitioned, prayed for and explained. In examining this text of two verses, I see three things. Number one, a basic petition. Number two, an explanatory repetition.

And number three, an ironclad assurance. It begins with a basic petition for sanctification. Again, verse 23, the first part. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And of this first part, we are going to ask who are the objects of sanctification and who is the author of sanctification. The objects of sanctification are the Thessalonian believers and by extension all other believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the petition for these believers is that God will sanctify you completely. What is sanctification? It is a word that means to set apart. There are actually two aspects of it. To be set apart from sin and to be set apart to God.

The two go together. Sanctification draws us away from sin and draws us unto God. The word holy is virtually a synonym for the word sanctify. And so to sanctify is to make holy or complete.

It also carries the idea to consecrate. The priests in the Old Testament were sanctified by the anointing of olive oil and others in the Old Testament were anointed, set apart for God, set apart for special service. They were sanctified, they were consecrated to God for special service. But what is, and here's another phrase, entire sanctification? As you'll find the phrase in some of the translations, my Bible would use the word complete sanctification. Now may the God of priests himself sanctify you completely. Sanctify you entirely, says some of your translations. Sanctify you wholly, say other translations. Sanctify you through and through, is a translation that some of you may have. What is this entire sanctification?

It is total with an emphasis on the fact that no part of us will be excluded from this process. Entire, whole, total, completely sanctified, and sanctified in all our parts until the final goal is achieved. Entire sanctification does not mean, as some have misunderstood it to mean, sinless perfection in this life.

That is not what this is teaching. And we'll see why in a moment when we get into what part of us is sanctified, spirit, soul, and body. And when people talk about entire sanctification, which is a mistake, the Bible doesn't teach that, it doesn't teach it in this life, it does teach it. It teaches entire sanctification, but that entirety, that completeness awaits the future. In fact, it's not complete until the day of Jesus Christ, as our text makes clear. But that process is going on now in our life, but nobody reaches sinless perfection in this life. No one reaches entire sanctification in this life. And one reason that's obvious is because, according to our text, the sanctification not only ministers to the spiritual side of us, our spirit and soul, but it also addresses our body. And I don't know many people who are willing to say that our bodies are made perfect in this life. If they were, we'd never die.

Right? So this is not talking about sinless perfection in this life. This is not talking about perfect sanctification in this life.

It's talking about something else. And I pause, therefore, to point out that most of the errors that are taught in the Christian religion are based upon a biblical word or phrase. And here, the phrase entire sanctification, as it's found in some translations, are based upon a biblical word or phrase removed from its context and infused with an imported meaning.

Ah, see there? It says entire sanctification. That means that we are made sinlessly perfect, or at least have that potential. We can, if we will trust God, if we'll try hard enough, if we'll work at it sufficiently, we can become sinlessly perfect. And that erroneous idea is imported into that phrase as the phrase itself is removed from its context and therefore made to mean something that it clearly does not mean in its original setting.

And most errors are like that. A related error is the error of the potential for perfect healing of the body as a matter of guarantee, if we will believe God for it and trust God for it, because we are told that healing is in the atonement. Healing is included in the atonement.

Have you ever heard that phrase? Is healing included in the atonement? Yes. Does that mean that the healing that's included in the atonement can be achieved in this life?

No. The healing that's in the atonement awaits the second coming of Jesus Christ when our bodies will be raised glorified. Glorified bodies are perfectly and forever healed. And that's in the atonement. But it's not now.

It's then. You understand how these things go? It's so easy to take something and get it almost right, but just close enough to make it wrong and then to teach something that is not true. And I will just simply say, without giving any illustrations for it, that it appears to me that a lot of the errors relating to eschatology happen in a similar fashion.

A word is taken, removed from its context, infused with meaning from someplace else that may also not be as clear as some people think it is, and there it is. This is what the Scripture teaches. Back up, look at it more closely, examine it in context, and see what the Bible is actually saying. The objects of sanctification are believers. May the God of peace sanctify you completely. The author of sanctification is clearly God. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. God is the one who sanctifies. Sanctification is first and foremost a work of God, because his power alone is able to accomplish this, to make us perfect.

Only God can do that. The God who does this is described in this passage as the God of peace. Why that particular phrase for the God who sanctifies, the God of peace. The term the God of peace as a broad general description would be an accurate description of the character of God himself. God is the God of peace because God is the peaceful God. In his presence there is peace and joy and no turmoil and no worry and no anxiety and no conflict. That is his character. That flows out from him.

That is what surrounds him. Don't we long for that because we don't have much of that in this world. And furthermore, he is the God of peace because he's the author of human peace. Wherever human peace is to be found, God has created it there. Wherever there's a lack of peace, either in society or in your heart, it's because at that particular point God is not ruling your affections, your thoughts, your activities, or those that are going on in society. And therefore peace has not been produced because only God can produce peace.

You can't achieve that by social action. Isn't it strange we're going to create peace by rioting and so forth. I mean it's so counterproductive but if you don't know where peace comes from and don't know how to achieve it, then you do the best you can and the best the humans do turn out always to be the opposite of what they say they're trying to achieve.

And that's the blindness of sinful hearts. But peace comes from God, the God of peace. But as to its contextual emphasis, this God of peace, why he is called the God of peace in this text on sanctification, it is because of the following thoughts that relate to God.

Number one, God effects reconciliation by the cross of Christ. Where are we in our sin? We are at war with God.

The Bible calls that being an enmity with God. We are rebels against him. We are unwilling to submit to his rightful rule. We are pushing against him, defying him, questioning him.

That is our normal condition. So we are at war. We are in turmoil.

We are at anything but rest and therefore for God to bring about peace in our lives, it has to begin by reconciling us to himself. That sinful enmity has to be dealt with. It has to be removed.

And how is it removed? It is removed by the work of Christ upon the cross who bears the judgment for our sins. And when we trust in Christ, we are justified. A simple child's definition of that is just as if I'd never sinned.

I've got a deep, accurate, full theological definition, but that will do for right now. Justification is just as if I'd never sinned. The enmity is gone. My sin is gone. My war with God is over.

I'm at peace with God. So God affects reconciliation by the cross of Christ. And reconciliation through justification must come first.

And then restoration of sanctification follows. Justification deals with our record in heaven. Justification deals with the day of judgment. Justification deals with the judgment bar of God, when God will open the books and he will either judge us guilty or he will judge us cleansed, righteous. And when we are justified in Christ and our record in heaven is as perfect as the record of Jesus Christ himself.

Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, how can that be? But that is the truth. But the fact of the matter is that here upon the earth we are still wrestling with remaining sin, right? We haven't been fully sanctified. But sanctification is that process by which we are gradually being made more Christ-like, little by little by little, until the day when we shall be completely Christ-like.

When the day when our state matches our standing. Our standing before God is perfect, justified. Our state is that we're not yet perfect, but God's working on that too. But he has to start with justification. And so God affects reconciliation by the cross of Christ through justification and then restoration, which is sanctification follows, because sanctification occurs only in the lives of subdued rebels.

Or another way of putting it is those who are no longer rebels because they have surrendered. I yield. I bow.

I submit. Now the work of restoration, sanctification begins. And we are told in our text that it's God alone who does this and the word himself is emphatic. Now may the God of peace himself, if you have a Greek testament, maybe one or two of you do, himself is the first word in the text and that's the emphatic position in Greek. God alone is able to do this. God himself will do it because God alone can do that. God alone is able to fulfill this petition of sanctification. God alone can justify the condemned sinner. God alone can restore the ruined sinner. All human efforts are vain without him. I'm not saying all human efforts are wasted, but they are in vain without him.

Human efforts by those who are not justified make no progress at all. Human efforts by those who have been justified are working together with the sanctifying power of God to accomplish this purpose. That is a basic petition.

But the text goes on in what I've called an explanatory repetition. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and, here we go, may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In a sense, this is repeating the basic petition with new information. Paul prays for their sanctification. Paul now repeats that petition in different words that give us more information, it's another way of petitioning for their sanctification, an explanatory repetition.

And I have three questions to ask of this part of the text. Number one, what will be sanctified? Number two, how will we be sanctified? And number three, when will we be sanctified? What will be sanctified? Short answer, our entire being.

That's the entirely or wholly part of the first part of the text. Our entire being. This explains what Paul meant by that phrase, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. That is your spirit, your soul, your body, all of you.

That's what completely means everything that makes one a human being, both the material and immaterial part of man. God is sanctifying our inner man. God is sanctifying our outer man. God is sanctifying our soul and spirit.

We'll talk about that in a moment. God is sanctifying our body and that will be entirely sanctified at the coming of Christ. All of the parts that make a human being a human being will be sanctified.

Now that gets us to the, what shall I say, the college dormitory debate about this text. Is this Paul teaching that man is a tri-part being or is it more accurate to think of a man as a bi-part being? Should man be thought of as constituting three parts, body, soul and spirit or is it more accurate to think of man as being two parts, the material and the immaterial, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul and spirit? This is the main text for those who lean toward the tri-part position.

The other text that would point in that direction is the familiar one in Hebrews 4.12 that says the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So there are the only two texts I know that tend to teach a tri-part position. What you need to know is that texts that refer to man as a bi-part being are far more numerous. If you're counting texts, how many lean toward tri-part? Two. How many lean toward bi-part? Probably at least 10 or 12.

I'll just give you one. In Matthew 10.28 Jesus said, And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Christ is also talking about the wholeness of man.

Don't fear those who can only kill the body because they can't touch the spiritual part, but you need to fear God above who is able to cast both the spiritual and the material part, the soul and the body into hell. And there you have man envisioned as a two-part being. And I can also tell you, and I listed a number of other texts, but I'm not going to take time to go into them now, but I can also tell you that you can find a number of texts where the term soul and spirit are used interchangeably. It's impossible to tell any meaningful distinction between them. In fact, sometimes you will find the same words that are given in one gospel using spirit and another gospel using soul. Obviously, they are intended to be the same in that setting. So which is it? Is man tri-part or bi-part?

I've got my own theory. I'm not going to go into that now because that takes us a field of the main point of the text. The main point of the text is simply to point out that sanctification includes not just the soul of man, but also his body.

We talked about that earlier. That's why this idea of sinless perfection in this life really can't be taught from this text, even though it speaks about entire sanctification or complete sanctification. But in the context, what that completeness means is the completeness of man's being, his physical part equally to his spiritual part. And until all of man, body and soul, are completely sanctified, the work has not been done. And we're told here when that will occur at the coming of Jesus Christ. So what will be sanctified?

Answer, our entire being. How will we be sanctified? Answer, we will be preserved blameless, that is, through divine preservation and through divine perfection. Preserved preservation, blameless perfection. We will be sanctified through divine preservation.

God will preserve us until we reach this goal. The truth of the matter is, if you haven't learned this yet about yourself, you need to know it. The truth of the matter is that left to yourself, you would destroy yourself. You would cast off your faith in Christ. You would go another direction.

You would plunge yourself back into sin. You would lose your salvation long before you die if God didn't preserve you. But He does. He protects. He preserves. He restrains. He pulls you back. You're getting close to the cliff. He pulls you back.

He doesn't let you go over. That's what God does. He preserves us.

He keeps us. He protects us in the faith until this work is done, until we are presented blameless. As Paul said in another place, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, we are presented finally in that day as the bride of Christ. And so through divine preservation, we are preserved from premature destruction, which we would bring upon ourselves. And through divine perfection, we are brought without blame to the final condition so that there is nothing to blame because not only have we been justified, but we will be entirely sanctified, which means all of the flaws and imperfections and sins and sinful thoughts and directions and desires and propensities that will be gone will be perfect in that day, blameless before the throne of God in that day.

Can you imagine that? That's what we're taught. And I am told that there have been discovered in Thessalonica on some of the ancient tombs of Christians, the two words preserved blameless. They believed that they would be preserved blameless until the day of Christ. Paul told them that in this epistle. So what will be sanctified?

Answer, our entire being. How will we be sanctified? Answer, through divine preservation and divine perfection. Number three, when will we be sanctified? And our text says at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that tells you the end conclusion. But the text also teaches, not as clearly in the English translation, that we are progressing now in a sanctification that will be completed at the coming of Jesus Christ.

We are progressing in sanctification now. And here I have to lean upon the scholars. It was Edmund Hebert who put it this way. He never said similar things but without telling me exactly what was the basis that underlies what is said.

And he said that this is an aorist active optative. And I scratched my head and said, can I remember that phrase at all for my two and a half years of Greek, some 50 years ago? I don't even remember that phrase. If it was there, I didn't remember it. I maybe never heard it.

That's a rare one. But that's what he says. I take his word for it. It is an aorist active optative, which he takes to mean a realizable prayer wish for their future. But he says, this is Edmund Hebert continuing, the action is, and here's another big word, constantive, which means the process is going on and will be consummated at Christ's return. Now, I say you don't see all that clearly in the English, but I'm convinced that that's what is found in the Greek text for those who understand it.

I'm taking that by faith because I don't understand that myself. So if you will take my word for what I'm taking Hebert's word for, then we will agree that that's what this text is teaching because that conforms with what is taught elsewhere in scripture. That's in perfect accord with the teaching of scripture. We are progressing now in sanctification. The question was, when will we be sanctified?

And the answer is now and then. We will be in a process of being sanctified now, and that process will be completed at the return of Jesus Christ. Then we will be sanctified entirely or completely.

But there's another question. Why can we not say that we are entirely sanctified at death? When we die, we enter into the presence of the Lord. We say accurately that our soul at that time is entirely sanctified. We are without sin or we couldn't be in the presence of the Lord.

We couldn't be in heaven. Our sanctification of our soul is complete when we enter into the presence of the Lord at death. But why then do we say that this process is not complete until the second coming of Christ?

Because of the body. The work of sanctification includes soul and body. And therefore, our body is not sanctified at death. Our soul is, but our body is not. The sanctification of our body awaits His return. And then when our bodies are raised glorified, like Christ's body out of the grave, and united with our already sanctified souls, we will be entirely sanctified. We'll be entirely perfect.

We will be without flaw in any part of our human being, body and soul. And thus made fit to stand in the judgment. Remember Psalm 1? Sinners shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous. They can't stand there. They can't stand before God, the righteous God. Only those who have been justified, cleansed, redeemed can stand in the congregation of the righteous in the presence of God. And so the sanctification makes us completely fit to stand in the judgment of God without blame.

Without blame. And made fit to share in Christ's glory because we are perfect without blame. This text is teaching us in regard to sanctification, progress now, perfection then. Which brings me to number three, an ironclad assurance.

Can we be certain that this will take place? Verse 24. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. It's an ironclad assurance because it rests upon God's character. He is faithful. He is trustworthy. He is reliable. He always keeps his word. He never fails to keep his promises.

And he has made promises to his children and therefore he will fulfill them. He who calls you is faithful. He who calls you. That's a way of identifying the people of God.

He who calls you. When the Bible talks about the call of God, it's generally talking about what we refer to as the effectual call. There are a couple of references that could be properly labeled a general call.

When the gospel goes out indiscriminately, it invites people to believe in Christ. That's a general call. And anyone who hears that call and responds to it will be saved. Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's the general call. But this cannot be talking about the general call.

Why not? Because this tells us he who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. The one who makes this call is going to accomplish something unerringly, unfailingly in the lives of those whom he calls.

Right? He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. This, therefore, is talking about the Bible doctrine of election. It's talking about the elect of God who are called into life. It is talking about those who are regenerated, who are born again. It is talking about those who understand and embrace the gospel because of the work of God's Spirit within them.

It is talking about those who have new spiritual desires and delights because God has changed their heart. We don't have spiritual desires and delights in our Adamic nature. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're foolishness to him because they are spiritually discerned.

We can't desire and delight those things in our old man. But those who have new spiritual desires and delights created by God are those for whom this promise is in effect. Those who, by the work of God, are lifelong repenters. We don't just repent once of our sins. We repent over and over, not necessarily the same sins over and over, though sometimes that may be the case, but that's not what I'm talking about. But we repent regularly. The more sanctifying work God does in our hearts, the more conscious we are of our sins, the more sins we didn't scarcely notice before now begin to loom large. And we say, oh no, I have dishonored you in this, oh Lord, I have displeased you in that, oh please forgive me. We become lifelong repenters.

Why is that so? Because he who calls us works this within us. We who have a concern for the salvation of others. Unconverted people aren't concerned about the salvation of others.

They're not even concerned sufficiently about the salvation of themselves. This belongs to those who long for the return of Christ. The final conquest of sin, the fulfillment of all of our spiritual desires, which still are unfulfilled as we are longing for Christ to come. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Even so come, Lord Jesus. Those who have desires like that are the ones that Paul is talking about. He who calls you, and this is how we can tell if we have been called.

These are the evidences, some of them, of that calling, that effectual call. He who calls you is faithful who also will do it. And so this ironclad assurance rests upon God's character. It is promised to God's children, but it depends upon his performance. Who will bring it to pass? He will. He who calls you is faithful who also will do it.

He will bring it to pass. Because whatever God begins, he completes. You got that? God isn't like us. Any of you men have projects around the house that you started and you really thought you would have been done with a long time ago, but there they sit.

Are they ever going to get done? Only God knows you don't. But God never starts anything that he doesn't complete. How did Paul put it in Philippians 1 6? Being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Whatever God begins, he completes.

And so it depends upon his performance. He will bring it to pass. But we need to understand that God engages our participation in this process. God is doing it. God is guaranteeing it. God is guaranteeing success because if it depended upon us, we couldn't guarantee success. But it depends upon God and therefore success is guaranteed. But God works in the operation of sanctification in what is called synergism unlike his work in regeneration which is accurately called monergism. Are you familiar with those terms? Very simple.

Monergism means one alone. Who regenerates? God. How do we enter into that? We have it done to us by God.

We don't contribute to that. God does the work of regeneration. God brings dead souls to life. God steps up to the tomb of our dead soul like the tomb of Lazarus and says, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus didn't do a thing to bring life to himself. It was done to him. That's monergism.

That's regeneration. But by design, by divine design, sanctification is done in a synergistic fashion. God does it in cooperation with us. He involves us in the process. He includes us in the mix, but in such a way that he's in perfect control and he makes sure that it will get accomplished. He engages our participation, but it doesn't depend upon our efforts. It depends upon God's guarantee. It will happen.

He will bring it to pass because he is superintending the process. So I come to my conclusion, but don't think I'm done. It's a long conclusion, and I've saved enough time for it. I start by answering some questions.

These are now review. Who sanctifies us? Answer, God does. Question number two, who endeavors to grow in sanctification? Answer, the believer. The believer desires to grow in sanctification.

The true born again believer does. Question three, who creates those desires within us? Answer, God.

That sure didn't come out of fallen Adam. Question four, who guarantees that these desires will be fulfilled? Answer, God.

So let me go through that again. Four questions, four answers. Who sanctifies us? Answer, God.

Who endeavors to grow in sanctification? Answer, the believer. Who creates these desires within us? Answer, God. Who guarantees that these desires will be fulfilled?

Answer, God. So would you say that sanctification is God's work? He involves us. He engages our participation.

He engages our efforts. But it truly is the work of God. Which brings me, therefore, to make a few observations about salvation in general. Salvation, you understand, is more than a decision. It's more than an act of the will.

Though that's included, it's not less than that. The Holy Spirit of God brings us to a place of decision. He brings us to an act of the will where we desire Christ. But salvation is so much more than that.

It is that, but it's so much more. Salvation is more than a ticket to heaven, though it does include that, praise God. When we've been saved, we do have our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

And the ticket's in our pocket, and we're on our way. And we're assured of it as if we were already there. But salvation is a divinely designed process to make sinners who are fit only for hell into children of God who are perfectly suited for heaven. That takes a lot of work. It's more than just writing our names down in the Lamb's Book of Life. Praise God, that's true. But there's other work going on to get us ready before we get there. And God superintends the process from beginning to end, all the way from eternity past to those that He chosen Him before the foundation of the world. Through all of the processes of salvation, everything that was necessary, including Christ coming, dying on the cross, and the Holy Spirit coming and working in our hearts and bringing us to understand the gospel and to desire Christ and to decide for Him and to exercise our will and to choose Him, yes, all of that too.

And then this gradual work of making us more holy little by little by little by little by little until we die and enter, our souls enter into the presence of Christ perfectly holy and then we await the resurrection of the body and the completion of the process. And when He comes, then it's all complete. God guarantees that every elect person will complete the process.

It's His work. Here is assurance. Believers will be saved because God guarantees it.

Here is encouragement. Believers will experience full and final salvation. As frustrated as we are now with our remaining sin, here is encouragement. Believers will experience full and final salvation.

Here is examination. Listen to me. You say you are a Christian. Do you manifest spiritual desires now? If you're waiting until you get to heaven to start being spiritually minded, you will have waited too late because the process that God does starts those desires in that direction now. They don't become perfect until we get to heaven, but they do begin with the new birth.

Do you manifest spiritual desires now? You see, God has designed the end, complete sanctification at the coming of Christ. God has designed the path that takes us to the end, progressive sanctification along the path of life.

And no one reaches the end who bypasses the present process. Why not? Because that's the way God designed it. Why not? Because that's the way God does it. Why not? Because that's the way God guarantees it. Why not?

Because the almighty, all powerful God works this way to bring it to pass, that's why. So I ask you, are you progressing in holiness now? And is that what you truly desire? Because sometimes people who are making progress in holiness because of the sanctifying work in their hearts, it's making them more aware of their sin, makes them feel like they're not making any progress. So the question is, do you have those desires? Do you know that within yourself you have a serious desire to become more like Christ, to become more holy, to become more pleasing to the Lord? Do you find yourself confessing your sins and asking God for help to do them no more? Because that's what God is doing in this work of sanctification to all of those who are going to heaven. And if you don't have those desires, why not?

And the answer should be obvious. It's because you need to be born again. No matter what you profess, no matter how many aisles you've walked, no matter how many hands you've raised, no matter how many prayers you've prayed, evidently you haven't really yielded your stubborn heart to God. You haven't surrendered. You haven't given up your fight with God for control of your own life. Therefore, you need to recognize your need and go to Christ, shall we pray. Father, take your word, apply it to every heart as needed. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.