Let us together turn in the word of God to Genesis chapter 1 verse 27. As our first reading, we'll be reading 27 to 31, then Genesis 2 verse 7, and then we'll turn to Romans 5. Genesis 1, 27. So God created man. in His own image. In the image of God, created He Him. Male and female, created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, and the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat. And it was so. And God saw everything. that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." And then in chapter 2, verse 7, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And then if you would turn, please, to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, beginning with verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come, namely the second Adam. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift, For if, through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more, they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, As by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. There are reasons why people don't like to go to a doctor. After all, they say to themselves, this way I won't hear bad news. Well, that may be a comfortable approach to one's health, but it certainly could prove costly in the long run. Better it would seem to hear the bad news early, when a condition might be treatable, than to wait till the symptoms indicate that it's too late. Of course, there are people who go to the opposite extreme. Every ache, every pain, a mild headache brings a trip to the doctor, a trip to the ER, until they begin to realize, if they do, that what's afflicting them is common to many and is not a matter of serious concern and it may be nothing less than getting old and becoming frail. It would seem that a middle-of-the-road approach would be sensible, don't you think, children, that we live our lives prayerfully, we depend upon the Lord for good health, but every now and then, at wise intervals of time, we have our health assessed, by a doctor, we keep abreast of things, and if something serious does arise, well, then we avail ourselves of the appropriate health care providers. Now, some of us have experienced, and undoubtedly others of us will, that sometimes the trip to the doctor does bring us bad news, a diagnosis that's troubling. Might be a needed surgery. Might be a test that reveals serious cancer. Other things. No one wants to hear such news. But we need to hear such news. Because how else will we prepare ourselves for what is likely to come? I trust we would all agree, whatever our approach to our health care might be, I trust that we would all agree that it would be utterly foolish to take kind of a head-in-the-sand approach to our spiritual welfare. As serious as the condition of our body might be, I think we all understand that the condition of our soul has consequences not just for this life, but for eternity. And those consequences, to say the least, are massive. And yet, if we're honest, don't we all, some to a greater extent, perhaps some to a lesser extent, don't we tend to put off or downplay or ignore altogether our spiritual condition? And I say this because when we think of the amount of time we spend thinking about so many other things, one would think that our spiritual condition should be a top priority. But then the question is, is that what our daily life shows? Or were we perhaps like that person who waits to see the physician until it's too late? Our text for tonight, there are two. Genesis 1, 27, in the first part of 28, and Romans 5, verse 12. The first text, So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them, and God blessed them. And then in Romans 5, verse 12 we read, Wherefore, as by one man sin entereth into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Tonight I would encourage you to open your Psalter book to the back pages, 11 and 12, because we're going to be taking a fairly detailed look at Article 14 of our Belgic Confession. So pages 11 and 12 in the back of the Psalter, and I would encourage you to keep it open on your lap for reference during our time together. The title of this article is, The Creation and Fall of Man and His Incapacity to Perform That Which is Truly Good. The article reads, We believe that God created man out of the dust of the earth, and made and formed him after his own image and likeness. good, righteous, and holy, capable in all things to will agreeably to the will of God. But, being in honor, he understood it not. Neither knew His Excellency, but willingly subjected himself to sin, and consequently to death and the curse. giving ear to the words of the devil. For the commandment of life, which he had received, he transgressed, and by sin separated himself from God, who was his true life, having corrupted his whole nature, whereby he made himself liable to corporal and spiritual death. And being thus become wicked, perverse and corrupt in all his ways, he hath lost all his excellent gifts, which he had received from God, and only retained a few remains thereof, which, however, are sufficient to leave man without excuse. For all the light which is in us is changed into darkness. as the scriptures teach us, saying, The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. For St. John calleth men darkness. Therefore we reject all that is taught repugnant to this concerning the free will of man, since man is but a slave to sin, and has nothing of himself unless it is given him from heaven. For who may presume to boast that he of himself can do any good, since Christ saith, No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. Who will glory in his own will? Who understands that to be carnally minded is enmity against God? Who can speak of his knowledge, since a natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God? In short, who dares suggest any thought, since he knows that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but that our sufficiency is of God. And therefore, what the Apostle saith ought justly to be held sure and firm, that God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. For there is no will nor understanding conformable to the divine will and understanding, but what Christ hath wrought in man, which he teaches us when he saith, Without me ye can do nothing." So we're going to consider together, with God's help, the creation and fall of man. And those are our two thoughts, the creation of man and the fall of man. Young people, you might be thinking, we are so used to the creation account that there's hardly anything more to be said that hasn't already been said. But that would be a little bit like the man who once told me, I said I love you to my wife this morning. I can't understand why she needs to hear it again. We do need to be reminded often about how we were created. Because we are sinners living in a broken world, we become used to sin. We become used to lies. We become used to lust. We become used to frustration. We become used to disappointment and disillusionment. And even we get used to hurt. And we begin to think all of this is somehow normal, even though so much can be unpleasant and even painful. But this isn't normal. It was never meant to be normal, in one sense. None of this was normal at the beginning. When man came from the creating hand of God in the Garden of Eden, there was none of this. And in fact, Article 14, you'll notice, begins addressing creation this way. We believe that God created man out of the dust of the earth and formed him, and made and formed him, after his own image and likeness. What was man like? Good, we read. righteous and holy, capable in all things to will, that means to want to be, agreeably to the will of God. Since we have just a bit of time together tonight, we want to drill down and to consider what we were then. We believe it says, God created man of the dust of the earth, Genesis 2.7, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. Boys and girls, take a look at your hand. Okay, look at your hand. Does it look like dust? Does it look like dirt? No, you're shaking your head, no. It doesn't look like that. And yet, when God made the first person, Adam, He took dirt, or if you want, dust, and He made out of it the kind of body which you have now. That's truly remarkable. That shows us how almighty and how wise and how good God is. But boys and girls, I think you know that was only a part of how God made us. Because then we read, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. So that even though there was this body made of the dust and of the ground, it wasn't alive until God breathed life into it. And that shows us, children, that we are not just a body, just a physical being, but there is something else in us, something very important, an important part of us. Now we can't see what we call our soul or our spirit like we can see our hand, but that part of us, that part we can't see, actually makes you and me the person we are, makes you different than other people, makes you unique, and it's that part of us that continues on either in heaven or in hell after we die. But there's something else, something very special and something very important about our creation children. Because we know that birds have life, we know that cows have life, we know that all of the animals around us have life, but at the time of creation God did something very, very special only with man. He would make us different than every other creature. And it's that part of man that is so important that God speaks of it not once, but speaks of it twice in Genesis chapter one. Listen. And God said, let us make man in our image. after our likeness. And then we read again, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And by the way, you may have noticed how God says, let us create him in our image. We already at the beginning of the Bible get a sense that God is made up of more than one divine person. It's very likely we are hearing the Father and the Son addressing one another about the creation of man. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Now children, I know sometimes it's hard to to stay alert, you get close to your bedtime. So if you don't remember much else what I say tonight, I'd like you to remember this. What God is saying about man in this verse is so very important. When you think about the vast creation of God, you think about the stars, you think about the sky, you think about the clouds, you think about the trees, and all the millions of varieties of animals and plants and insects and all of that, only one creature, just one, man and woman, did God create to reflect His image. To be like God Himself. Not to be God, but to be like God in a creaturely sort of way. And we were created to be like God in several ways. Now we don't have time tonight to go into all the ways that we were made like God. The young people who are on the Sunday night book study you are learning about those ways that God made us like Him. We call them the communicable attributes. But what an honor, children, what a privilege, that God created man in His own image to be like Him. And that's male and female, the Bible says. And honestly, congregation, Can't all of us plainly see the difference between animals and people? Now, sure, you can train a dog to do things and, you know, a monkey might be able to carry out some simple tasks, but man is the only creation of God that has, for example, a vast vocabulary or that can write literary works, or invent things, or so many other things that no other creature can do. And yet, what do we find today? We find this growing number of people who deny all that. Who think, well, we're just not much different than any other creature. But do you realize how serious that is? That's trash-talking the image of God in man. That's saying that we're no different than the other beasts, that there is no such thing as an image of God in people, and for that matter, there's no God. And that lie is no small lie. That lie, believed by mankind, has had devastating effects. the devaluing wholesale of the value of man's life has led to unspeakable horrors. And more so as time goes on. So much so that today in the eyes of many people are disposable. You just get rid of them when they have no more use, like a used container. But to go back to creation, And I want us to think this through. Imagine living without worry. Imagine living without shame, without pain, without disappointment. Imagine having a crystal clear mind to think with. Imagine not needing a winter coat. not needing a summer wardrobe, not needing heating or air conditioning, but living in a perfect climate all year round. Imagine having all the food you could ever want without having to work hard for it. Imagine never being hungry. Imagine God giving you something to do, but not something you have to puzzle over, and not something you have to break a sweat to do. Imagine being married to the perfect spouse whose mind is as clear, whose love is as deep, whose life is as holy as yours. Imagine no selfishness, imagine no lies, imagine no unkind words, not even an unkind thought, never an unkind deed. Imagine relationships where you understand each other at the deepest levels, having the closest relationship, because there's no sin between you. And as wonderful as all that may sound, there was something far better still. Children, imagine being able to speak and to walk with God without being afraid. Imagine being able to talk to God without the struggle that we often feel when we try to pray. Imagine never being ashamed before God. That when He looks at you, you don't have to worry that He sees something wrong with you. Because there isn't anything wrong. Imagine God loving you, because there's nothing in you not to love. Now what I'm saying are words. I'm giving you a description. But imagine this being real, because it was real. Imagine, boys and girls, And I want you to know why I'm saying all this. Why would I say all this? Why would I describe a world, a life, a relationship with God that doesn't exist anymore? Well, let me give you an example. Just picture for a minute, boys and girls, that your parents or a close friend, they save up money, they plan for a long time, they get you this magnificent gift, this wonderful gift. and then picture you taking that wonderful gift and they're standing there and you smash that gift into a thousand pieces right in front of them. How would they feel? That would be terrible. That would be incredibly cruel. That would be so unthankful. That would be so sinful. Children, We did that. We did that very thing. Not to parents, not to friends. We did that to God. The God who said, I don't need to create anything. I'm perfectly happy within myself. The God who didn't have to make man in his image and likeness. The God who did it all, who made it all, because he is kind, because he is generous, because he is good, not because we deserved it. And what did we do? Instead of listening to him, we listened to a lie of the devil. We turned our back on God, thinking that God was lying, that God was deceiving us. that He couldn't be trusted. We'll get to this a little more deeply in the next article of the Belgic Confession, but before we say goodbye to creation as it once was, I want us all, beloved, to stand here and to look in our mind and to look at all we had. To consider what life would be like now had we never fallen. Compared to what life is now. And beloved, God did not create sin. We did. And God did not create hell at the beginning. He made it because of angels who disobeyed and men. And because of that disobedience, there had to be a place where such sins against such a great and good-doing God could justly be punished. Before we leave the Garden of Eden, have you ever thanked God for the way He made us, for the way He created us. And that even still today, as scripture says, as the canons of Dort say, we still have, He still gives us what's called glimmerings of natural light. That even after Adam and Eve's fall, We read glimmerings whereby man retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, of the differences between good and evil, discovering some regard for virtue, good order in society, maintaining an orderly external department. In other words, if God hadn't left us something of that original image, this world would be chaos. People would be killing each other. It would be lawless. So God restrained us by leaving a little bit of that image. And children, if you want a picture of what I'm talking about, this is what I'm talking about. Picture a beautiful mirror, a big beautiful mirror. And when you look in that mirror at yourself, you see the image of God. You see a likeness to God, that you are like God. And now take that mirror and smash that mirror on the floor into thousands of pieces, little shreds of glass. And then you know where we are today? Take one of those little slivers of glass. Maybe you can see just a tiny bit of yourself in that sliver. That is the image of God and man today. We are far from what we once were. Have we ever thanked God for how we were made? It's no wonder the Belgic Confession about this paraphrases Psalm 49.20, and I quote, "'Man that is in honor, and understandeth it not, is like the beasts that perish.'" The Confession puts it this way, but being in honor He, Adam, understood it not, neither knew his excellency." So he didn't even realize how good he had it, but willfully subjected himself to sin and consequently to death and the curse, giving ear to the words of the devil. Yes, beloved, we should return from time to time in our minds to the Garden of Eden. because that would be spiritually profitable for us. How? First, to let it sink in what we once had from the hand of God. Second, that we might realize how much we have lost because of sin. How much we have lost compared to what we have now. And thirdly, comparing what we had and what we have and what we go through, what we experience every week, every day, on account of the fall, that that would cause us to long for a new heaven and a new earth where we will be one in the presence of God where all is righteous and perfect and immediate communion with God can be had, better than paradise, because we can never fall again. Yes, beloved, we want to hold those two things before our eyes, what we had and what we have, so that we may long for what we may gain. what we will gain by faith in Jesus Christ. Let us pause to sing a moment before we consider the fall of man. It is nearly impossible to mention all the ways that the fall of man affects us. And as I said before, it is so easy for us to become used to our present condition. And there are some who even dismiss that there ever was a fall, believing instead, as many blindly do, that in man there is some inherent good. It just needs to be released and that that good is corrupted by our surroundings. But Beloved, for our sake, if we ever want to come to grips with our need for mercy, if we ever are going to appreciate the grace of God in the Gospel, we must not tune out the reality of our awful condition. To put it simply, boys and girls, staying away from a doctor or not paying attention to what he tells us never cured anybody. And since Article 14 so well and so thoroughly summarizes the teaching of scripture about the fall of man, I would like us to simply consider it piece by piece. We'll start with the words, For the commandment of life, which he, Adam, had received, he transgressed, and by sin separated himself from God, who was his true life, having corrupted his whole nature, whereby he made himself liable to corporal, that's physical, and spiritual death. Now children, to make it simple, all of this is referring to God's warning that he gave to Adam and to Eve. Don't take of the forbidden tree. Why not? Because that tree represented, it stood for God's authority over man. And the disobedience, the taking of the fruit of that tree, was Adam and Eve's rejection of that authority. But notice here, and it's rightly called, the commandment of life. And it's called that because if Adam and Eve had obeyed, the understanding is they would have continued to live forever. Instead, by disobeying, he separated himself, he turned his back on God, who is his life. And that one statement, beloved, that condemns any of us who think to live our lives apart from God. It cannot be. And just as God warned Adam and Eve, so it came to pass. Adam and Eve died immediately, spiritually, sometime later, physically. And the confession continues, and being thus become wicked, perverse and corrupt in all his ways, he hath lost all his excellent gifts, which he had received from God and only retained a few remains thereof. which are, however, sufficient to leave man without excuse. So what are those leftover gifts? We can still speak, we can still reason with our mind, things like that. We still, to a limited degree, exercise dominion over the creatures and over this earth, but how little do we resemble who we once were. We know enough about God and about His ways to render us no excuses. But we have so little, we could never possibly save ourselves from what we've done to ourselves. And then Article 14, echoing both Old Testament and New Testament texts, it takes us still deeper into our natural condition, saying, and I quote, we reject all that is taught repugnant to this, opposite of this, concerning the free will of man. Why? Since man is but a slave to sin and has nothing of himself unless it is given him from heaven. The ironic thing is The deeper we look into the depravity of man, the harder it is for man to believe. I still remember when I first heard about total depravity as a young man, I didn't believe it. I thought, I'm not that bad. The way they just—hating God and hating my neighbor? Come on. But as God begins to open our eyes spiritually, As we begin to learn something about our heart naturally, these chilling descriptions of total depravity become a burdensome reality in our lives. Man is but a slave to sin. And I want to ask you, Have you ever experienced that? That try as you might, if you do try, you can't escape it. You can't just turn off sin. You can't just wake up one day and say, I'm not going to sin today. And you're able to do that. We truly, as it says here, have nothing, nothing of ourselves unless it is given to us from heaven. And look, the reason it's so hard for people to believe in total depravity is because we tend to measure ourselves by our own standards or by the standards of others, people. But we will never, boys and girls, we will never, ever, ever live up to God's perfect standards. Especially since God looks way down deep into our heart to see the reason we do what we do. It may look good, it may look like we're serving Him, but He sees exactly why we're serving Him. He sees the motive of our heart. And so the Confession asks, who can boast? Jesus said, and it's quoted here, none, nobody can come to the Father except the Father draw him. No one can come to Christ except the Father draw us, John 6.44. The Holy Spirit, through the writings of the Apostle Paul, says the carnal or natural mind is enmity against God. That means we are enemies of God. We're not just passive. We're not just indifferent. We're enemies. We're against Him. We're His foe. Romans 8, 7. And what can we truly say we know when the Bible says the natural or unsaved man does not receive, doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God? 1 Corinthians 2.14. In fact, it goes on to say, we are not subject, we are not obedient to the law of God, neither indeed can we be. That's how bad. You won't even, like some people say, well I want so badly to be saved but God doesn't save me. That is a lie. That's just a flat-out lie. You're deceiving yourself when you say that. There is no way you truly want to be saved and God has not already worked in you. There's no way. So don't ever say to anyone, I want to be saved but God is not willing. You may have reasons why you think you want to be saved. You may want to avoid the wrath of God. You may want to be saved for a hundred different reasons. But you are not right with God. And you will never put the blame on Him for your condition. What then? What do we do? Is there any hope? There is. But only in God. not in ourselves. For Philippians 2, verse 13, could not be plainer. It is God who works in us both the willingness to do good and the ability to do good. Therefore, Jesus made all of what we're talking about so plain when he said, Without me, you can do nothing. Meaning, nothing that is truly good in God's sight. A Christless life is a life of 100% depravity. You can do nothing apart from Jesus. So, As we come close to the end of our time together, what will our response be to these devastating realities? The realities that I didn't make up, that you didn't make up, the realities that God says are true of us. What do we respond? Will we, as some try to do, blame God for not converting us? You know what that is? That is a depraved sinner accusing God, taking God and putting Him in the witness stand, and I'm going to judge God. Me. A sinner, a fallen sinner. I'm going to judge God. You, God, have to answer to me. That will never happen. Others, They simply shrug. They simply dismiss the whole idea of depravity, man's depravity. That's just exaggeration or worse, that's a falsehood. And such people, they trust in their own evaluation of themselves or what other people think of them, and they live their whole lives that way. Scripture has an expression for that way of living, the fear of man. The only thing you care about is how you feel about yourself and how other people feel about you. That will never get you into heaven. Or, the proper response, and that is to fall down before the righteous judge of all the earth and confess that everything he's said about us is true. and that he would be righteous to condemn us, to dispatch us to eternal misery. He would be right to do that because of a lifetime of rebellion against him, notwithstanding our fine thoughts about ourselves. You see, beloved, how can I make this even simpler? We have all heard that the word repentance means a turning. It means a change of mind. Well, that begins with a change of mind concerning ourselves. It means coming to grips with who we really are. Because if we never do, how are we ever going to really value the good news of the Gospel? Why would we value the Gospel if we don't have a need? Why would you go to a doctor if you're not sick? And we're more than sick. We're dead by nature, spiritually. We need a spiritual resurrection, a spiritual transformation. And I want to go one step further with you. I want us to share the concern, for example, that the prophet Jeremiah had about his people, the people of Israel. When he saw how far Israel had fallen away from God, his concern was the fact that his people were trying to paper over their sins to say, well, that's not so bad. In fact, he says in Jeremiah 6.14, They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Children, it's like somebody getting in a terrible accident, and they've got this big gash on their arm and the blood is coming out, and you come to them with a little band-aid. I'll fix it. No, you need to get to the hospital right away. You need a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. You need some vigorous response, not a band-aid. Jeremiah said, no band-aid here. And he wasn't alone with this concern, dear friends. King Agrippa was almost persuaded by the Apostle Paul, but in the end he was not persuaded. And he ended his days on earth far from Christ. Acts 26, 28. Paul, We find him standing as a prisoner in front of the Governor Felix. Reasoning, we read, of righteousness, temperance, judgment. The governor trembled. The sermon really affected him. But he never changed. He never repented. He said, Paul, come back another time when it's a little more convenient for me. And that never came. That other time never came. Even the barbaric Herod, the son of the Herod we heard about this morning who killed all those babies, the son of that Herod, we read, feared John the Baptist. Feared him. A prisoner. He was afraid of him. Why? Knowing that John was a just man and a holy. And he observed him. That means he watched John the Baptist very closely. And when he heard him, when he heard John presumably his preaching, Herod did many things. And he died with the ungodly. And today is in hell. Beloved, if you have never come to that place where your spiritual condition is desperate where total depravity becomes total reality, where sin has become an enormous burden, an enormous struggle daily, then you've got to ask the question, Am I not one of the five foolish virgins in Jesus' parable, the ones who had no oil, who at the very last were shut out of the feast, thinking they would come in? Have you never heard the cries of the desperate who came to Jesus for so many things, falling at his feet, besieging him for mercy, besieging him for a cure, besieging him for forgiveness. Do you think that somehow you're going to slip into heaven without a whole lot of trouble, without experiencing spiritual warfare, while The people of God everywhere experience warfare often. Is the way to heaven less narrow now? Is the gate no longer straight? Are we now no longer with much tribulation to enter the kingdom of heaven? like it says we would in Acts 14.22? Do you share the concern of the Apostle Paul when he writes in 1 Corinthians 9.27, I keep under, literally I wrestle under my body, I bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Parents, Are you going to stand before God, having told your children how they're supposed to live, what they're supposed to do, make sure you say your prayers, make sure you go to church, and you are going to be lost, pointing the way to others, and you a castaway? Or 1 Corinthians 3.18, he says, let no man deceive himself. Or 1 John 3 verse 7, he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he, Jesus, is righteous. I can just hear the Apostle Paul. This I say, brethren, for the time is short. Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of us be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Let us consider one another and provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more. as we see the day, the last day, approaching. God sparing us, we're going to see, through the lens of Scripture and the Belgian Confession, how God can and how God does change this dreadful reality of depravity. by His powerful, sovereign Spirit to a picture of hope, to a picture of joy, to a picture of reality with God. But tonight, in God's providence, we want to see the beauty and glory of the creation of man at the beginning, and we want to see what we did through sin before we look at what God does through re-creation. And then, and only then, will we truly look forward to that place where he prepares this place for all those who love his appearing, a place with God and no sin, seeing Jesus face to face, experiencing mercy to the full, meeting the Lord without terror. Consider what I say, the Apostle wrote. And O Lord, give Thee understanding in all things. Meditate upon these things. Give Thyself wholly to them, that Thy profiting may appear to all. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you and inheritance among all those who are sanctified through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.