The Word Of God Blesses Us

The book of James is full of practical teaching on how to live the Christian life.

We are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Today, three things to do to get the most out of hearing or reading the Word of God. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. Today, Dr. Lutzer brings more of a six-part series he's calling Changed by the Word. After our music, we'll turn to James chapter 1 to find out how the Word of God blesses us.

Here now is Dr. Lutzer. We're here today to be changed by the Word of God. Let's open our life to him right now. Let's pray together and ask the Lord to speak to us and may we be ready to hear his voice. Father, where there is anxiety and struggle and need, meet that right now so that your Word can have free course. In this moment, we dedicate ourselves to you for worship and for the joy of celebrating your greatness. In Jesus' name, amen. My faith has found the resting place, that it divides your dream. I trust the ever-giving God, his works for me shall be.

I need no other movement, I need no other free. Praise be to the flesh, Jesus, God, and God be died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name, salvation through his blood. I need no other argument, I need no other meaning. It is in that that Jesus, God, and God be died for me. My position is the same, the thoughts he came to say. For he his precious condition, for he his time he gave.

I need no other argument, I need no other meaning. It is in that that Jesus, God, and God be died for me. Amazing grace, the sweet, the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found.

Was blind, but now I see. The Lord has promised yours to be. His word my hope secures. Beware my shield and torture me as long as my hand moves. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I am already gone. His grace I've come to save us all, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand years, my shining hands are strong.

We know that it's late to see the things that we've learned before. Wonderful, merciful Savior, Precious, Redeemer, and Friend, Who would have thought that of them? Rescue the souls of men. Oh, You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give our healing and praise. Oh, our hearts have been conquered. You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give our healing and praise.

Oh, our hearts have been conquered. Speak, O Lord, as we come to You, to receive the good of Your only Word. Take Your truth, plant it deep in us, shape and fashion us in Your kindness.

And the light of Christ, white we see today, in our acts of love and the nature of faith. Speak, O Lord, and for billions, all Your presence, for Your glory. Teach us, Lord, all the Indians, all the rebels, through liberty, Test our thoughts and our attitudes in the radiance of Your beauty, cause our faith to rise, cause Your kindness to see, Your kindness to love, and Your kindness be. Words of love that may never end, let their truth prevail, all who come to Thee. Speak, O Lord, and in Your light, God must rise, rise, rise, rise. Truths and truth from the love of time, God will ever love, He will return. And by grace we'll stand on Your promises, and by faith we'll walk as You walk in Christ. Speak, O Lord, till our chances build, and we'll understand, with Your love only. Lord, help us to do Your will and to listen to Your word.

Amen. John, chapter 15, verses 1 to 17. This is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His disciples before He goes to the cross. And He says this, I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes so that it might bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he brings forth much fruit, for severed from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Herein is My Father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy might remain in you and that your joy might be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give you. This I command you, that you love one another.

Amen. As the storm falls from heaven, as it guns and swirls in showers from the sun, so is My word. As the rains bring the water to the earth that is thirsty and dry, so is My word. And the word of My love we shall not return empty, it will bless the earth wherever it is heard. This is My word. As the rains bring the new one and the tender ones begin to come, begin to come, my soul is My word. Giving seed to the slow world and a bread to the hungry till they fry, so is My word, so is My word. And the word of My love we shall not return empty, it will bless the earth wherever it is heard. This is My word. This is My word. O Lord, when I am weary, when I feel the days I'm living are in vain, My God, help me be faithful to the work you have done to grow, grow, and grow the world. O Lord, when I am weary, when I feel the days I'm living are in vain, you'll be grateful, brave, and true, for I will go before you and wake you when returning here is done. I'll save the poor, I'll save the poor, I'll save the poor and the poor.

As the snow falls from heaven and the rain comes in showers from the sky, this is My word, My word. Let me begin today with a question. Have you ever been deceived? I'm sure we've all experienced that, and the reason is because we believed a lie. So let me follow up with another question. Have you ever deceived yourself?

Have you ever believed your own lies, lies that you perhaps want to believe about yourself or about your situation and you've talked yourself into it, or you may not even know that what you have come to believe is a lie, deception? Well, we're going to plunge right into the Scriptures. Would you take your Bible and turn, please, to James chapter 1? James chapter 1. And as always, it is so important that we see the text because I want you to understand the text and the sequence of the text. James chapter 1, and I'm going to pick it up directly in verse 22. It says this, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Well, there it is, deceiving yourselves. Greek scholars tell us that the word that is used there, hearers, is a word that could be used for auditors. Don't be an auditor. Now, you know what an auditor is. An auditor is somebody who comes into class, doesn't want to take any exams, doesn't write the term papers, and if he audits all of his classes, he won't graduate, but he's there just in case there's something very interesting for him to learn, but there's no follow through. I used to teach. I didn't like auditors.

You know that we're there, well, as long as it's interesting, I'll come and hear you, but I don't have to come to class. I can skip because I'm just an auditor. The problem with auditors are the ones who confuse knowing and believing, and they are oftentimes deceived because they think to themselves, I've heard the lecture, I've heard the class, somehow they think in their minds, therefore they have done it. If you want an unbelievably chilling story in the New Testament about deception, it is the words of Jesus. Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?

Lord, have we not done many miracles? And I will say to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. Keep in mind that these people actually thought that the door of heaven would swing open for them, but they discovered that it didn't because at the end of the day, they were ones who heard the word but didn't understand, didn't really believe, and didn't follow through.

They were auditors. Well, your Bibles are open to James 1 because what we're going to do in the next few moments is to give you instruction on how to make sure that you benefit from the word of God. And this message applies to listening to a sermon. That, of course, is very important to me to emphasize that. But it also applies to those of you who are listening to the scriptures. Many of you who are listening here for the first time may not know that here at the church, we are committed to listening to the New Testament in 40 days or reading it. And you're involved in that.

And what you want to do is to make sure that you won't just be an auditor deceiving yourself. About 35 years ago, I read a sermon by the great 19th century preachers Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And whenever I think of that text, I think of his outline, and I'm using his outline. And I didn't have to check his sermon to see what the outline was. I remembered it. Because it is so easy to remember, so logical to remember, that I believe, for those of you who will still be alive in 35 years' time, that somebody should say, now, what was that outline that Pastor Lutzer used that he took from Spurgeon on this passage? And you'll know it just like that. Can you believe that 35 years from now? I think so.

I think that there may be some skeptics present, but God will overcome that skepticism. Are you ready for it? It's this simple and easy to remember. Spurgeon says that this passage of scripture teaches us what to do before a sermon or a Bible reading, what to do during a sermon, and what to do after a sermon.

Easy to remember, and it's all in the text. Thanks for joining us on this journey. First of all, Spurgeon says the text helps us to understand what we should do before a sermon. Well, I'm actually in verse 21. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.

Wow, that's quite a statement. We don't even like the word filthy. And yet James here is talking about issues in our life, sinful issues of unconquered sin that he refers to as filthy.

Now, some of those sins, of course, may be in the preceding verse. Know this, brothers, let every one of us be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. The fact is that many of us are quick to speak because we want to hear the sound of our own voice. Furthermore, we're having a conversation with someone, and we are not slow to hear because we don't care what their story is.

All that matters is our story. James said no, become interested in other people's story. Be swift to hear, slow to speak, because you know that what comes out of your mouth is representing the king of kings who redeemed you, so you don't want to be flippant in the sense that you just say the first thing that comes into your head, but you are slow to speak, and you're very slow to anger. Now, that, of course, would be included under the word filthy or excess of wickedness, the two terms that James uses here.

But, of course, many other things are there as well. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you, is there filthiness in your life? Or is there, as our translation says, rampant, out-of-control wickedness? James says lay it aside, weed the garden before you get to the Word of God, because if you and I come to the Scriptures, and we have all of these issues and all of these sins that we've not confessed before God, and all of these issues and our relationship with other people, when we come to listen to a message or to hear the Word of God, we'll discover it'll be something like water on a marble slab.

It will not affect us. That's why you find that there are people who memorize Scripture, and they go to Bible camp, and they learn all the verses, and then they turn away from God, because what they are is auditors. Now, let's talk very, very bluntly and clearly. I believe that in many families, and remember, Rebecca and I used to have small children. In many families, the most unholy hour of the whole week is preparation to go to church Sunday morning. Isn't that true?

Anybody identify with that? You know, the kids, they don't eat breakfast. They want to sleep in because it's Sunday morning. Father is out in the car honking the horn because he knows he's late. Mother is upset because she's saying, well, Father didn't help much, and therefore, you know, well, he can take his breakfast with him, they say of the kids. And everybody comes, and then it's difficult to park, and then you come in. Listen, on a Richter scale of one to ten, in terms of unholiness, that hour might be a number eight, at least.

How do you circumvent that? Well, first of all, you get started earlier in the morning, and I know all that, too. But the least thing that you and I should do is when we come into this sanctuary, what we should do is spend a few moments, hopefully you get here early. Listen, those of you who are here early, can I just say a word of encouragement to you? I believe that in heaven your crown is going to be so heavy that your head will be tilted.

Which also says something about the latecomers, but we can slide over that. This sanctuary is not a place for you to meet with your friends before the service. Do that out in the hallway. When you come into this place, what you should do is to say, God, I've had a difficult morning, I've had a difficult week, and I know it's going to be, last week, with all of its difficulties, was much better than the one I'm going to have. So, Lord, would you just quiet my soul? Help me to confess and deal with issues that are standing here as a barrier, because soon we're going to be singing praises to God, soon we're going to be asked to listen to your holy word, and I am here to meet you, and I'm preparing my heart. James says, if you don't want to be an auditor, lay aside all filthiness, all excess of wickedness. Some translations say excess of malice. Lay it aside, and then, during a sermon.

So, first of all, you want to remember this outline. Before a sermon, cleansing. During a sermon, humility. Receive with meekness the engrafted word that is able to save your souls. Meekness means humility. What you do is you come and you say, Lord, speak to me.

I want to learn. I'm not here to oppose you. I tell you, it's very dangerous business to oppose God, and the Bible says God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. I, for one, do not want to be in opposition with God because I know who's going to win and who's going to lose. So, James says come and do it with submission. Are you willing to listen to God's word to really hear what he has to say to you today? You know that it's so important to do this.

Let me give you an example and an illustration as to how you and I should listen to the word of God, whether preached, listened to, or read. Let us suppose that you had a very, very wealthy aunt. Some of you say aunt, but I'm talking about the same person. And once casually, when you're over there, she happens to say that she's remembered you in her will. She hasn't said anything beyond that. You know that rich relatives often make bad friends, but they can make wonderful ancestors.

And so, you know, now the attorney has called a meeting and her will is going to be read, and you're present. You wouldn't care whether or not he was well-dressed. You wouldn't care whether or not his outline was as clear as the one I'm giving you today.

You wouldn't care about anything. What you're doing is you're listening for your name. That's what you're listening for. Did she leave me some money or did she leave me a debt?

What did she do? When you come to hear the word of God, you are listening for your name. You're coming and you're saying, oh God, what do you have to say to me today?

My soul is thirsty, my need is great, and I need to hear your voice. Vance Havner was a country preacher who had all kinds of witticisms that he used to roll off in his sermons. You know, he'd say things, you know, most church services begin at 11 o'clock sharp and they end at 12 o'clock dull. He'd say things like that. But I also remember something else that he said.

He said, I've never yet had a sermon where I didn't get anything. But he said, I've had some mighty close calls. We've all had our close calls. I'm sure I have preached my share of forgettable messages.

We've had close calls. As God would have it, this morning I was in the church early, as I always am on Sunday, and I was looking through some of the mail that arrived and there was a letter from somebody who said that in our church, the preaching, he's talking about his church, he said that the preaching is about 2% milk, the 2% kind. Now folks, no matter how bad the sermon may be, no matter how imperfect it may be, listen for your name. I quoted Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

I'm using his outline today. And he was once walking through the snow. He got to this little church, and the preacher wasn't there.

The preacher couldn't get to church on Sunday. So there was a layman who stood up and said, look on to me all the ends of the earth and be saved. Spurgeon, the age of 17, sitting in the back of that little church, heard that and was converted, and was one of the greatest preachers this world has ever seen besides Jesus and Paul. You never know when you hear God's word.

So James says, all right now, remember, 35 years from now, I want you to remember this outline. Before a sermon, cleansing. During a sermon, humility. After a sermon, well, obviously, the word that you're expecting me to say, and I will say, is obedience.

But let's look at the text, OK? Verse 22, But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and perseveres being no hearer, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he is going to be blessed in what he is doing. James says it's like a man looking in the mirror. Now, I need to tell you that in Greek, there are two different words for man. There's one word for man, which means mankind.

It could include women. That's not the word that James is using here. He's using a word that can only be translated male. He has a man in mind. Now, whenever you approach the gender issue, you begin to get a little nervous. I mean, after all, we're living in a day and age where we can't even build a snowman anymore.

It has to be a snow person that has to be built. But I'm going to skate across this really fast. Now, just tell me honestly, one on one, who is it that spends more time in front of a mirror, the male species or the female species? I mean, is there any debate about that? I don't think so.

I don't think so. You see, James knows that it's not like a woman to look in the mirror and then go her way and forget what she was like. Men will. They'll look at the mirror.

They'll maybe use a little bit of mouthwash, throw on some cologne, and hey, they're fine. And they forget about all the rest. James says that's the way auditors do it. You see, what they do is they look at the law.

They're there on Sunday. They listen to a sermon, and then they go their way, and they forget about it, and they don't apply it, and they forget the truth of it. The Word of God is a mirror, and it tells you the truth about yourself.

It is not bent. Years ago, when I was a little boy, I was in what in Canada would be like a state fair, and I was in a house of mirrors. I don't know if you've ever been in one of those, but you are in some rooms, and you're just as tall. You're like Jack and the Beanstalk.

You're up, and then you're in some other rooms, and you discover that you are short and very rotund. You know, there are some people who are running around trying to find a mirror that makes them look good. The Bible is a mirror that tells it the way it is. It reflects. It reveals who we are. Years ago, I remember a missionary telling this story, and I believe it to be true because the missionary told us that they were in a primitive tribe that had never seen mirrors. In their life.

So here they are. They bring a mirror to these people, and a woman looked in the mirror. Obviously, she had never seen her face before. And according to their translation in English, and I'll give it to you just the way they gave it when they told us, she looked in the mirror, and then she looked away and said, who is this hag that has come into our village?

She'd never seen herself before. You see, and the Word of God tells us who we are. It reveals God, but reveals us, but it also reveals God, and it becomes redemptive. You see, in the Bible, and I want to be clearer than what I just simply said, we not only see ourselves, we also see God. Beyond the sacred page, I see the Lord. So the mirror not only reveals, the mirror also sanctifies. It brings us transformation.

That's the word I'm looking for. You remember 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18, the Bible says, we also with open face, beholding us in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory into glory, even as by this word, the Spirit. What the Word of God does is it reveals us to ourselves as to who we are, but then it also reveals Christ, and there in the word we see His grace, and we see His power, and we see His love, and we see His redemption. The Bible contains in itself all that we really need from now to eternity.

It's all there. And then that's why James says that what we have to do is we have to look intently into the law of liberty. We have to persevere in it, and then he says that person will be blessed in his deeds, and then he gives us some deeds that we should be doing. For example, in verse 26, he talks about the tongue. He says, if you can't control your tongue, I don't care how many sermons you've listened to, I don't care how many songs you've sung, your religion basically is vain.

James puts a tremendous amount of emphasis on the tongue. And then he says he deceives his heart because he thinks once again, look, I've heard the word, I've memorized the Scripture, but it hasn't gone down into his heart. And then it says in verse 27, take care of the orphans and the widows. And today we may include in that preborn infants and their mothers, and in this way James says we live out our faith so that it becomes practical and it becomes real because we have been gripped by God's holy Word. And by the way, all of the statistics indicate that there is a tight connection between people who are in the Word consistently and people who serve in the church, people who are committed to the church, people who are loyal to God's ministries, people who are generous. There is a direct connection between the Word of God and the way in which we live. And so James says that what you need to do is to look intently and persevere in the Word. And by the way, in the next message in this series, I'm going to be talking about meditation, the meditation in the Scripture so that we understand how we can persevere in the Word. How do we nail this down for ourselves so that we can leave here today not just merely as auditors?

First of all, keep in mind the outline that I want you to remember. First of all, before a sermon, cleansing. During a sermon, humility, teachability.

After a sermon, obedience to what God has said. First of all, let me put it to you this way, glancing. Glancing is not the same as gazing. Glancing is not the same as gazing.

I don't know how to put that more clearly except to say being present doesn't mean that you're experiencing transformation. You know, years ago when they had transistor radios, now, of course, I'm sure that technology has passed way beyond them, but transistor radios was really quite a big thing because you could carry a radio in your pocket and there was this man who went to a concert with his wife, a symphony concert, and she appreciated the fact, because he didn't really want to go, he didn't enjoy those kinds of things, that he didn't complain at all. He seemed to enjoy it and he'd smile and participate, and she thought later on on the way home, I want to commend you for the fact that attending the concert isn't your big deal, but nonetheless, you were such a good companion tonight. He said, well, he said, honey, I have to confess to you that I had a little earpiece and I was actually listening to a baseball game. That's the way some people come to church.

It may not be the transistor radio, it could be the phone, it could be other distractions, and even if it's none of those, their minds are somewhere else and what I'm saying to you is glancing is not the same as gazing. You look at the Scripture of those who encountered God. Now, they encountered him in ways that you and I don't, but we encounter God through the Word. What did Peter say? Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Job, after he encountered God directly, he said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees thee, therefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes. The Word of God will slay you. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. It takes us apart. It lays us on the table. The imagery there in the book of Hebrews chapter 4 is a medical kind of imagery. It takes us apart and shows us our need. But glancing is not the same as gazing with a heart that is intending to obey.

You see, the man who looks in the mirror and walks away, he's a man who does not look deeply into himself, nor into God, nor into redemption. So glancing is not the same as gazing. Hearing is not the same as doing. Hearing is not the same as doing. Jesus repeatedly talked about those who heard, but they really didn't hear. They listened to the words. They had those words come into their hearts, but nothing really happened beyond that.

There was no follow-up. And then I have to emphasize something else, and that is that we should remember that knowing and hearing is not the same as believing. You know, in the fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews, we have an amazing passage of Scripture that I want to remind you of. It is a marvelous example of how a nation of Israel heard God's Word, understood what He said. There was no doubt about the fact that they all heard the same thing, and yet they turned away from Him because they didn't believe what they heard.

Listen to this. The author of Hebrews is writing about those people, and he says, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

I want to pause there for a moment. It's possible even when it comes to sermons that the sermons can harden your heart. Every time you hear about the need to receive Christ as Savior and to receive His grace, you can continue to harden your heart because you say, No, no, no, no. And the more often you do that, pretty soon you discover that it no longer bothers you and it no longer brings any conviction because your heart is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin is incredibly deceitful. It promises one thing and then gives us another, but we go bumbling through, thinking to ourselves, This has to be right because I want what I want when I want it. And the author said, Beware lest you heard the word of God and all that it did is harden you rather than soften you.

And then you'll notice it says in chapter 4, it says this, you don't need to turn to it, but listen carefully. For good news came to us just as it came to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. I memorized the book of Hebrews in the King James Version many, many years ago and it just simply said this, the word preached to them did not profit them because it was not mixed in faith. And what happened? They died in the wilderness and did not experience God's best.

You see, it's a tragic story. Jesus said in the Old Testament, and of course he says it explicitly in the New, through his own words and through the writings of the Apostle Paul and other writers of the New Testament, that I am offering you grace, I am offering you forgiveness, I'm offering you the promised land. The words of James say that whoever is intent in the law of liberty and obeys will be blessed in his deeds.

That's what I'm offering you. But it's possible for our hearts to be so hard, so indifferent that we harden them against God and the word preached is not mixed with faith and it profits none and we are the losers. So as we think about our own commitment to listening to the word of God in 40 days, that is to say the New Testament, or reading it and if you're behind, you continue to go ahead and some of you I know are behind, I have to believe that you're behind because I'm a day behind. And if I'm a day behind, I'm sure I represent many within the congregation, but we're all going to persevere. Why? Because James says that when we do that, we will be blessed in our deeds.

Here's my concluding plea to you. Don't harden your heart. That's what it says in the book of Hebrews. It says, harden not your heart if today you hear his voice.

Don't bring so much anger to the situation. Don't bring so much love of sin. Don't bring so much unbelief to the situation that you cannot benefit from God's holy word and his most blessed promises of forgiveness and hope and help and fellowship and all those things await those who look intently and continually in the law of God. It's a very sobering thing to realize that there are people who sing the same songs because they're singing in the same church, people who listen to the same scripture read, people who listen to the very same sermons, and yet one group of people is on a trajectory to heaven and to blessing, and the other people are on their way to a place that the Bible refers to as damnation.

And the problem is that we frequently can't tell the difference because to us, they look so much alike. Could I ask you as a result of this message how inadequately it might have been preached to simply ask God to search your heart and ask you where are you on the continuum? Are you a true believer? Or are you a believer but you have also hardened your heart? Don't do that.

Remember that old story about the $50 bill, the fake $50 bill, the counterfeit $50 bill that was used to buy some groceries, it helped a child buy some shoes, it did a lot of good along the way, but when it got to the bank totally disqualified because it was fake. Only you know your heart. You don't know it as well as God knows it, but where are we? James says when you listen, don't be an auditor. Receive with meekness the word which is able to save your souls, and it does, it's the implanted word, it's the word that God has sown in our hearts. And in response to that, what is the promise that James gives? A man like this, he says, who obeys, will be blessed in all that he does. There's nothing but blessing for those who pursue God and His word. Father, we ask today in the name of Jesus that you might take these remarks and help all of us to understand that we have been brought to this moment with this great opportunity to be involved in your word. We pray, O Lord, help us. Help us, Father, to come to it with the same reverence and openness with which we come into your presence.

Help us to listen, to learn, to respond. For those who have never trusted Christ as Savior, no matter where they are, we pray that they might believe on Him right now and be saved. And for those of us who know you, make our hearts tender toward you and your word.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Change by the Word can be yours on CD. We'll send the entire series as our thank you for your gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Call 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry. Call 1-800-215-5001, or you can write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.