Please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to John chapter 12.
We've made it to the end of John chapter 12, not to the end of our sermon series,
but the end of the first half of John's Gospel.
So when you found it there in your Bibles, our text this morning is John 12, 36 through 50.
If you would stand and follow along as I read the Word of God.
You know, every week I ask you to have your Bibles open.
And this week especially, I mean, we're going to be jumping around several places.
So please, John 12, 36 through 50, let's stand in reverence of the Word of God.
While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.
Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.
So that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.
Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Therefore, they could not believe.
For again, Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart.
Lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.
Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him.
But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
And Jesus cried out and said,
Whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.
And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.
I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him.
For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge.
The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
For I have not spoken on my own authority,
But the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment.
What to say and what to speak.
And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.
This is God's word.
A lamp for our feet and a light for our path.
If you would be seated, let's pray once more.
Father,
We ask now as I stand here to preach your word.
Would you work through me, a weak servant,
To do infinite good for this people.
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I wonder if that was a new song for you.
God moves in a mysterious way.
I listen for the ways that y'all sing.
And you actually do pretty good singing new songs.
And so sometimes it's hard for me to tell.
I could tell this morning.
That was a new one for you.
I love the lyrics that we just sang.
God moves in a mysterious way.
His wonders to perform.
He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.
Blind unbelief is sure to err.
And scan his work in vain.
God is his own interpreter.
And he will make it plain.
Church, our passage this morning is difficult.
This is, there's no way around it.
This is a hard text.
I'll confess to you this week as I studied and prepared this text.
We've preached maybe 30 something sermons in John so far.
This was the hardest text that I had to study.
Up to this point in the gospel of John.
We may not love everything that this passage says.
We may not understand everything that this passage has to say.
But we trust in God's way and God's time that God is his own interpreter.
And he will make it plain.
We've come to the end of the first half of John's gospel.
And here as John ends the first half, chapters 1 through 12, brings that first half to a close,
he zooms out of the narrative and he starts to provide a bit of commentary for us.
John's aim throughout the book, you remember, he's writing these things that we might believe
that Jesus is the Christ.
And by believing that we might have life in his name.
That's the point of the book.
All are invited to believe.
And yet John has shown us not all believe.
He told us all the way back in chapter 1, verses 11 and 12.
He, Jesus, came to his own people, the Jews, and his own people did not receive him.
This is shocking.
This unbelief, this rejection.
It demands an explanation.
But, verse 12, the glorious invitation of the gospel to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God.
All are invited to believe, yet not all believe.
So this morning, as we look at this passage together, I want to ask two questions about belief in Jesus.
This will be our outline this morning.
Two questions about belief in Jesus.
Question number one, why don't they believe?
Question number two, will you?
Question number one, why don't they believe?
Question number two, will you?
First, why don't they believe?
How do we explain unbelief?
Verses 36 through 43 are a condemnation of the unbelief of the Jewish people.
We saw last week, Jesus, he called them, he invited them,
while you have the light, believe in the light, that you, even you, may become sons of light.
Yet we know that by and large, the Jewish people rejected Jesus.
And so John says that when Jesus had said these things, he departed.
He hid himself from them.
This withdrawal from them is in itself judgment on their unbelief.
One of the major obstacles for the Jews in John's day, as well as in our day, to belief in Jesus,
is the question, well, why should we believe that Jesus is the Messiah
if all of the Jews, most of the Jews who saw him, who heard him, who were closest and nearest to Jesus, rejected him?
If they rejected him, why should we believe him?
Why did they not believe?
It's a good question.
And John answers that question in two ways.
And we're going to see them both here.
The one reason they don't believe is because in their sin, they have chosen willfully to reject the Messiah.
There is no excuse for this.
They are guilty for this decision.
The light of the world walked among them, but instead they rejected the light of the world and chose to live in darkness.
They have loved the darkness rather than the light because their works are evil.
That's what John told us, Jesus told us in John chapter 3.
That's reason number one.
They are willfully in their sin choosing to reject the light.
But he gives us a second reason here.
Reason number two, why they don't believe.
He says they don't believe because God has hardened their hearts.
So they could not believe, verse 39 tells us.
Now the first reason John gives, that's easier for us to understand, isn't it?
We grasp that a little bit better.
We have an easier time understanding reason number one.
But in explaining the unthinkable rejection of Jesus by his own people,
John gives us both explanations here.
They have willfully rejected the Messiah in their own sin.
And in God's infinite wisdom, this willful rejection was all part of his good, sovereign plan.
Now again, we've seen this throughout the Gospel of John.
This isn't new information for us.
But again, in this passage, we're coming right up against the tension, the biblical tension,
between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.
And you remember, we believe both.
The Bible teaches both.
Our responsibility as Christians is to submit ourselves to the truth of this Word,
not to reduce it to our level of understanding.
Some things in this Bible, some things in the Word of God,
what he reveals to us, remain a mystery.
Which means they're bigger and broader and more mysterious than our limited understanding can grasp.
Nevertheless, he teaches both.
And so we believe both.
Let's look at both of these reasons here.
Reason number one why the Jews didn't believe is because they willfully rejected the light.
And whatever the reason for their unbelief, the answer cannot be that they didn't have enough evidence.
John tells us in verse 37, he says,
Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.
Just recap what we've seen in the first 12 chapters of John's Gospel.
This should stun us.
Seven signs of his divinity.
Seven signs played out right there in the public eye before them.
Do you remember what they were?
He turned water into wine.
Cleansed the temple.
Healed the nobleman's son.
Healed the lame man.
Fed the 5,000.
Gave sight to the blind man.
Raised Lazarus up from the dead.
And all while declaring, speaking, saying openly, clearly,
I am the bread of life.
I am the light of the world.
I am the gate for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the resurrection and the life.
The evidence is overwhelming.
Yet, they choose willingly to reject him.
This rejection, of course, is no surprise to God.
And it shouldn't be a surprise to us either.
If we're familiar with our Old Testament,
the rejection of the Jewish people to the Word and the power of God is nothing new.
John says in verse 38,
this rejection was, in fact, a fulfillment of prophecy.
So he helps us to understand this unbelief by quoting from two passages in Isaiah.
This is why I need your Bibles open, because we're going to be flipping there.
Keep your place in John chapter 12, but flip over to Isaiah chapter 53.
And this is the first quotation he gives us.
You know this passage well.
It's the passage of the suffering servant.
Isaiah chapter 53, verse 1.
That's the first verse quoted there in John.
Again, I'm rambling, so you can get there.
I want your eyes on the page.
He says,
Isaiah was lamenting the fact that his message,
the message given him by God to be declared to the Jewish people,
was in Isaiah's day, by and large, rejected.
John quotes that passage, copies and pastes it into Jesus' day,
and says,
Nothing has changed.
The words of Christ are clear.
Whom has believed what he has heard?
And the signs, the arm of the Lord has been clear.
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
And yet, you have rejected it.
700 years of history of the Jewish people,
and nothing has changed.
John says,
The Jewish people have been rejecting God's word and God's power for centuries.
This rejection of Jesus in John's day was preceded and prefigured
by another rejection in Isaiah's day.
This is nothing new.
Not only this, he goes a little further.
John says,
This specific rejection of the Messiah,
it's not only preceded,
it's prophesied by Isaiah 53.
This specific rejection of this specific individual,
Jesus Christ,
was prophesied 700 years before it happened.
Look there, Isaiah 53, verse 2.
He says,
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And as one from whom men hide their faces,
he was despised,
and we esteemed him not.
Now, we don't know exactly what Jesus looked like physically.
We don't know.
But Isaiah draws our attention to something significant here
that we should understand,
is that Jesus was not attractive.
You know, all of the images,
you know what I'm talking about.
The television shows,
any movie representation of Jesus,
they all normally,
there is an attractive man,
nice, clean, fair skin,
nice, straight, white teeth,
a beautiful smile,
long, luscious locks of hair,
perfectly kept beard,
muscles for days,
blue eyes,
soft, beautiful eyes.
We don't know exactly what Jesus looked like,
but Isaiah tells us,
clues us in,
that to the physical eye only,
he was nothing special.
He was not anything special to look at.
No form or majesty that we should look at him,
no beauty that we should desire him.
There was nothing impressive about Jesus
to the natural, physical eye.
Why does this matter?
Because when Jesus arrives on the scene 700 years later,
what happens?
The Jews look at him with natural,
physical eyes,
and they are utterly unimpressed.
What are they looking for?
They're looking for a Messiah with a capital M.
Someone tall and strong and capable,
a political leader,
a military leader,
someone with charisma,
who can gather the people and overthrow the Romans.
They're looking with physical eyes only,
and they're unimpressed by what they see.
Well, Jesus comes in on a donkey,
humble,
and lowly.
They see him with physical eyes only,
and so they reject him.
But John explains to us in verse 42
that the issue,
it even goes deeper than that.
It goes deeper than simple physical sight.
Their rejection of the Messiah ultimately
is because they love the glory of man
more than the glory of God.
Look there to verse 42.
John chapter 12.
Flip back there for me.
John says,
some of the authorities believed in him,
but we should be skeptical
of the genuineness of this belief
because he goes on to say
that they wouldn't confess it
because they feared the Pharisees.
Why?
Verse 43.
Because they love the glory that comes from man
more than the glory that comes from God.
This is a scathing indictment,
and it's true of every non-believer on the planet.
This is the root of all unbelief.
It's love.
The unbelief is not primarily an intellectual issue.
Not mainly.
It's a heart issue.
You can put all the evidence you want
in front of an unbeliever.
Seven signs.
Resurrection from the dead.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
Yet if their eyes are spiritually blind
and their heart is spiritually dead,
they will not love the glory of God.
They will prefer the darkness
and love the glory of man.
They do as Romans 1 describes.
They exchange the truth about God
for a lie and worship and serve
created things rather than the Creator.
From the heart,
they worship and serve whatever it is
that they perceive to be beautiful.
All of us do.
You know, we often wonder
about our unbelieving friends and family.
We just wish.
We don't understand.
We think they've heard the Word.
They've seen the power of God at work.
Why won't they believe?
I think this tells us that
what they need is not necessarily
more evidence.
The only hope for a non-believer
is that God by His grace
would give them a new heart
that loves His glory more than their sin.
Answer number one.
Why don't they believe?
John says in the blindness of their sin
they don't see the beauty of Christ
and they love the darkness
rather than the light.
So they don't believe.
But John doesn't leave it there, does he?
He goes on.
He gives us a second reason
for their unbelief.
He says,
God has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts.
John 12 verse 39.
He says,
Therefore they could not believe.
Could not believe.
For again, Isaiah said,
He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart
lest they see with their eyes
and understand with their heart
and turn
and I would heal them.
The unbelief of these Jews,
it was not just prophesied by Isaiah.
John says it was purposed
in the wise plan of God.
Here in verse 40,
John gives us a second quotation from Isaiah.
This time from Isaiah chapter 6.
If you flip back there with me
to Isaiah chapter 6,
you ought to know this passage as well.
This is Isaiah's vision of the glory of God.
Do you remember what happened?
He sees the glory of the Lord
and what does he do?
He falls down on his knees
and he says,
Woe is me.
I am unclean.
I am sinful.
We are a people of unclean lips.
We need atonement.
We need forgiveness.
And this vision of the glory of the Lord,
it changes his life.
He volunteers.
He says,
Here am I, Lord.
Send me out.
I want to go tell everyone.
Let me be your messenger.
Send me out to your people.
I want to tell them about your glory.
And so he's sent.
But the Lord tells him in Isaiah chapter 6,
he says,
Go and say to this people,
what does he say?
Keep on hearing,
but do not understand.
Keep on seeing,
but do not perceive.
Make the heart of this people dull
and their eyes heavy
and blind their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts
and turn and be healed.
Isaiah is sent to proclaim a message
of sin and judgment for sin
and glory.
And God says,
Be prepared because this message,
as you preach it,
will not be received.
In fact,
the message itself
will harden and blind those who hear it.
What was the message?
Flip back to John chapter 12
and make the connection with me.
What was the message that Isaiah preached?
Look at John 12 verse 41.
What does it say?
Isaiah said these things
because he saw his glory
and spoke of him.
Whose glory?
Whose glory is John pointing us to
here in this passage?
John, I believe,
is telling us that
Isaiah saw the glory
of the Son of God.
It was Jesus' glory
that Isaiah beheld.
Isaiah beheld the glory
of the Son of God.
He preached of the glory
of the Son of God.
He preached a message
of the glory of the Messiah.
That's who he saw.
That's who he proclaimed.
He proclaimed a glory
of a man of sorrows
acquainted with grief.
Not the Messiah they wanted.
Not the Messiah they thought was coming.
Not the strong-armed military leader
conquering king.
A message of a Messiah
who will come and suffer
for the sins of his people
because their sin has earned judgment.
God knowingly,
purposefully sent
an unimpressive,
undesirable,
even an offensive Messiah.
The one who didn't play
by the Jewish customs,
didn't come from the Jewish schools,
didn't look like what they thought
the Messiah would look like.
He did so purposefully,
sovereignly,
knowing that apart
from a gracious change of heart,
this Christ would be rejected.
Therefore, John says,
they could not believe.
But this rejection
was purposeful
in the mind of God.
But we need to ask,
why would God do this?
Why would God
work out His plan of redemption
in this way?
And here again,
to be perfectly honest with you,
I don't completely know the answer.
This is a mystery.
Paul calls the gospel a mystery.
Who can know the mind of God?
God moves in mysterious ways.
But I do have a few thoughts.
As I was studying this passage,
I flipped through a few commentaries,
especially in difficult passages like this.
I love to read people
who are smarter than me,
which gives me a lot of material
to sift through.
And I found one this week
from D.A. Carson,
who I love.
I love D.A. Carson.
He listed out four considerations.
Four considerations.
If it's okay with you,
I'm going to summarize his points
because he writes
like he's smarter than me.
So four considerations.
Consideration number one.
God's sovereignty
is never contrary
to human responsibility.
God's sovereignty
is never contrary
to human responsibility.
I hope we've seen this.
And yes, again,
this is beyond our comprehension.
Our minds can't reconcile
this completely,
but the Bible holds both together
and so should we.
No one is sent to hell
in innocence
or against their will.
We, in our natural state,
apart from the grace of God,
our default mode
is to love the darkness
and hate the glory of God.
All of us are guilty.
Consideration number two.
God's hardening of sinners
is giving them
exactly what they want.
God's hardening of sinners
is giving them
exactly what they want.
A willful rejection of God,
it brings about His judgment
and is, at the same time,
it is His judgment.
Unbelief not only earns
the judgment of God,
but persistent unbelief
is the judgment of God.
Often, the way that God judges
a sinner's love of darkness
is by saying,
you can have exactly what you want.
Jesus, the light of the world,
hides Himself.
Consideration number three.
God's sovereignty and salvation
is the only hope we have.
God's sovereignty over salvation
is the only hope we have.
If God is not in complete control,
why do we pray
and ask Him to save the lost?
God's sovereignty and salvation
combined with His heart of mercy,
combined with His inclination
towards grace,
combined with His desire
to save sinners
seen supremely at the cross of Christ,
His reason for hope
and confidence
and prayer
and faithfulness in evangelism.
It's the only hope that we have
that any sinner might be saved.
Consideration number four.
God has a plan for good.
The mystery of the gospel,
the plan from before the ages began,
was for the Son of God
to enter into His own creation,
to live perfectly
in the place of sinners,
to die in the place of sinners
and to rise from the grave,
to offer eternal life to the world.
His rejection at the hands of the Jews
is in ways beyond our comprehension,
all part of the plan.
In God's wisdom,
as Paul argues in Romans,
through their trespass,
salvation has come to the Gentiles.
Through their trespass,
salvation has come to you
and to me.
The Great Commission,
that to go therefore
and make disciples of all nations,
is made possible in the wisdom of God
by the rejection of the Jewish Messiah.
As Paul says again in Romans 11,
a partial hardening has come upon Israel
until the fullness of the Gentiles
has come in
and in this way,
all Israel will be saved.
There are a hundred sermons to preach
from that verse,
but just know this.
God is not sitting on His hands
hoping that His plan of salvation
just works out on its own.
God is working it out
and it will not fail.
And the wisdom of God,
the rejection of Israel,
opens up the invitation
for all the world
to hear and believe
the message of the gospel
and receive eternal life.
Which brings us
to question number two.
Will you believe it?
Verse 44,
as you're reading this passage,
it just sort of comes out of nowhere,
doesn't it?
It seems sudden.
It seems abrupt.
We don't know where Jesus went.
We don't know where He's hidden Himself.
We don't know who He's speaking to here.
But I think that that is part of the point.
John's wrapping up this section
of this gospel
and Jesus is calling out
to anyone who would hear.
He's speaking to you this morning.
He says,
whoever believes in Me,
believes not in Me,
but in Him who sent Me.
Whoever sees Me,
sees Him who sent Me.
I have come into this world as light
so that whoever believes in Me
may not remain in darkness.
This is a free and broad
and gracious and wide invitation
to anyone who would hear
that you are welcome
to come to Christ.
You are invited
to have your sins forgiven,
to be washed clean,
to be made right with God,
to be made new
and to receive eternal life.
See, from God's perspective,
He alone knows who will be saved
because He alone
is the one who works salvation.
It's His work.
We don't have that perspective.
From our perspective,
we don't share God's sovereign knowledge
of all things.
We don't know who will be saved
and who will reject the Gospel.
So what do we do?
We do as Christ does
in these verses.
We call sinners to faith in Christ.
We go to the ends of the earth
and we scatter the seed of the Gospel
broadly, freely,
with confidence
that rejection does not stop
the plan of God.
Some seed will fall on rocky soil.
Some seed will grow up among the thorns.
But we praise God
that some seed will bear fruit.
So we go.
Now our privilege
in light of the sovereignty of God
is to proclaim the message of Jesus
as freely
and as broadly
and as openly
as we possibly can,
trusting that even through weak vessels
like us,
God will work salvation.
Him we proclaim.
Warning everyone
and teaching everyone
with all wisdom
that we might present
everyone mature in Christ.
For all who call upon the name of the Lord
will be saved.
This is our message, church.
Will you believe it?
And will you call upon His name
and be saved?
The late Scottish pastor, John Murray,
He says it much better than I can.
Listen to this.
Imagine it with a Scottish accent.
He says,
It is by the sovereign grace
that He is so freely offered.
Sovereign grace
is not then incompatible
with the free offer of the gospel.
It is rather sovereign grace
that makes the gospel free.
The fount of grace freely offered
is grace sovereignly devised and framed.
And not only is sovereign grace
the fount,
but sovereign grace
is also the stream on the bosom
of which Christ is born
to the very door
of our responsibility
and opportunity.
To change the figure,
but a little,
it is upon the crest
of the wave
of the sovereignty of God
that the free
and full overtures
of Christ in the gospel
break upon the shores
of lost humanity.
Isn't that beautiful?
We want everyone
to listen and consider
and believe what Jesus says
about Himself here
in verses 44 through 50.
Look there with me.
What does He say?
He says,
To believe in Jesus
is to believe in God.
You cannot have one
without the other.
Whoever believes in Me
believes not in Me,
but in Him who sent Me.
Jesus Christ was sent by God
to be the revelation
of God in the world.
The living Word of God
made flesh.
Jesus says,
I and the Father are one.
I am the way,
the truth,
the life.
No one comes to the Father
except through Me.
Will you believe this?
He says,
To see Jesus
is to see God.
Whoever sees Me
sees Him who sent Me.
We'll see you in a few weeks,
Lord willing.
As we get to John chapter 14,
Philip asks Him,
Lord,
just show us the Father
and it's enough for us.
You remember this conversation?
And how did Jesus respond?
Have I been with you so long
and yet you still don't know Me,
Philip?
Whoever has seen Me
has seen the Father.
Will you believe this?
Will you look to Jesus
not just as a man,
not just as a prophet,
not just as a moral example,
but look to Him
as the very Son of God
Himself in the flesh?
Would you plead
with your non-believing friends?
Will you see Jesus
for who He is?
He says,
To believe in Jesus
is to be in the light
and to reject Him
is to remain in darkness.
The call of the Gospel is this.
Would you come out
of your sinful darkness?
Would you turn from your sin?
Would you not remain in darkness?
Would you leave it behind?
Would you love the glory of God
more than the glory of man?
Would you love the light
more than the darkness?
He can do it.
He can change your heart
so you love what's eternally good
and turn from what's eternally foolish.
Would you come to the light?
We call them to believe
and to come to Christ.
And we call them with urgency
because he says
to reject Jesus
is to reject God.
If anyone hears my words
and does not keep them,
I do not judge them
for I did not come
to judge the world
but to save the world.
The one who rejects me
and does not receive my words
has a judge.
The word that I have spoken
will judge him
on the last day.
For I have not spoken
on my own authority
but the Father who sent me
has Himself given me
a commandment
what to say
and what to speak.
You cannot love God
and reject Jesus.
Despite what our
Jehovah's Witness friends say
when they come knocking
on the door,
you cannot say you know God
and yet deny that Jesus
is who He says He is.
If you reject Jesus,
you reject God.
And Jesus says
if you leave here
rejecting my words,
I'm not here to judge you
just yet
but when I return,
these very words
that you have rejected
will be the grounds
of your judgment
on the last day.
To reject Jesus
is to reject God
but
He says
to receive Jesus
is to receive
eternal life.
Look there to verse 50.
He says,
I know,
He says in verse 50
that His commandment
is eternal life.
Will you believe this?
The invitation of the gospel
is free and available
for any sinner
who hears and heeds
the call of Christ
to come to me
all who are weary
and heavy laden
and I will give you rest.
Will you believe this?
Church,
I love
this difficult passage
because it helps us
to see that God's
sovereignty
and salvation
and the free offer
of the gospel
go hand in hand.
They are friends.
And we may not fully grasp
the mystery
of how these truths
work together
but please don't make
the mistake
of reducing God's mystery
to our level
of understanding.
God is sovereign.
We are responsible.
And the offer
of the gospel
is freely made
to any sinner
who would hear.
You may have heard
of William Carey.
He's known as
the father of modern missions.
Do you know that name?
He came to a gathering
of other Baptist pastors
and he said,
brothers,
if we founded
a missionary society
and we worked together,
if we pulled our funds together
and put our minds together,
we could reach
the ends of the earth
with the gospel.
We could establish
the Baptist missionary society
and we could reach
the ends of the world.
And the chairman
of the council replied,
he said,
son,
sit down.
When God is pleased
to convert the heathen,
he will do it
without your help
or mine.
Thankfully,
William Carey
had a much more accurate
theology of God's sovereignty
and the mission of evangelism
than the chairman.
He went to the nations
with confidence
in a sovereign God
with a zeal
to share the gospel
with the lost.
Listen to what he wrote
in 1805
as we close.
He said,
we are firmly persuaded
that Paul might plant
in Apollos water
in vain
in any part of the world
did not God
give the increase.
We are sure
that only those
ordained to eternal life
will believe
and that God alone
can add to the church
such as shall be saved.
Nevertheless,
we cannot but observe
with admiration
that Paul,
the great champion
for the glorious doctrine
of free and sovereign grace,
was the most conspicuous
for his personal zeal
in the word
of persuading men
to be reconciled
to God.
In this respect,
he is a noble example
for our imitation.
Let's pray.
God,
we praise you
for your wisdom.
We praise you
for your power,
for your sovereignty
that while we
don't necessarily
understand
how you work,
Lord,
the mystery of salvation,
we trust
and we know
that you are good
and you are sovereign
working all things out
according to the counsel
of your will.
And we pray,
Lord,
if there are any here
who are rejecting
the message
of the gospel
and living in unbelief,
we pray
that you would
even now
turn their hearts
to love
the glory of God.
We pray
for our non-believing
friends and family
and neighbors,
those in our community
who don't know you
to the ends of the earth.
We pray,
God,
by your grace,
would you save them,
turn them to Christ,
we ask,
in Jesus' name.
Amen.