I begin this morning with a couple of sobering thoughts. The first is this. Half of the doctors practicing medicine today graduated at the bottom of their class. Here's another. The plane that you ride on was built by the lowest bidder. Not too secure, not too safe feeling, is it? In 1933, construction was built on the famed Golden Gate Bridge, with an initial cost of $35 million taken out in bonds, plus interest, which was paid off in 1971. The total cost for that bridge was $74 million. In today's dollars, 558 million. One bridge. It was built in two phases. The first phase went quite slowly because 23 men fell to their deaths. So then an ingenious soul said, hey, what if we build A safety net. And they did. The largest ever built. And as a result, phase two went so much faster. 19 men fell from that bridge. Yet, because of the safety net, their lives were spared. We all long for, pray for, eagerly desire that kind of safety and that kind of security, do we not? If you were to join, and I would encourage you to do so, join our Wednesday night group of faithful prayers, you would find very regularly prayers for safety and security. Life is fragile, and we are weak. It's a normal thing for us to be looking to the Lord in dependence for that kind of safety, that kind of security, that kind of safety net. This morning in our continuing study through the fourth gospel, we find ourselves again in John 17. John 17 is unique to the Gospels, all four of them. We find many references to Jesus being in prayer, but this is a whole chapter where we are able to participate in the actual praying of Jesus. A whole chapter's worth. Now this particular chapter is often called Jesus' high priestly prayer. We often will refer to the prayer that Jesus modeled for his disciples, that prayer that begins, our Father who art in heaven. We frequently call that the Lord's prayer when really that's the disciples' prayer. This is the Lord's prayer. This is when he is actually praying. Now this is not to be confused with the prayer that we find from Jesus' lips in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus says famously in that prayer, not my will, but thine be done. This is a different prayer. This prayer, we're gonna spend a month looking at these words. Last week, as we began looking at this chapter, we looked at the first section where Jesus is praying for himself in the second section that begins in verse 6, which we will read together in just a few moments. This is a section where Jesus is praying for his disciples. And in some spots, we can find that Jesus is praying for all of his people, but primarily, he's talking about the 11. Now, Judas Iscariot is long gone from this core of disciples. These are the men that will be Jesus' apostles. These are the means, the ones, we don't call them apostles yet because they haven't been sent out by the Lord. When they are sent out, they are then officially Jesus' apostles. The third section, beginning in verse 20, that we'll look at in two weeks, Lord willing, that's a section to the end of the chapter where Jesus is talking about his church. He's talking about all believers. He's going well beyond those that are standing in front of them. This particular chapter takes place after Jesus has celebrated the Passover with his men, his 11, and it's in that upper room that Jesus gives his, what we call the upper room discourse, that's chapters 14, 15, and 16 of John's gospel, then before they leave, Jesus, according to chapter 17, verse one, lifts his eyes up to heaven and begins praying. and His men are standing there, and they are listening to what their Lord and Master is saying. It's such a unique set of words for the disciples to listen to God the Son speaking to God the Father. Listen to what he says. Chapter 17, verse 6. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. For the words which you gave me I have given to them, and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you, and they believed that you sent me. I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine. and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name. The name which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are, while I was with them, I was keeping them in your name, which you have given me. And I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the scriptures would be fulfilled." Oh, I hate to do so, but I'm going to stop right there. That's all the, our time will be exhausted by just gently scratching around these verses to begin to understand what they contain. I want you to notice in this paragraph I just read, in verses six through the beginning of verse 11, Jesus gives us the stimulus for His prayer. This is the impetus, the reason for why He is praying. And then beginning in verse 11, and it will continue into the section we look at next week, Jesus gives us the substance of His prayer. The stimulus and then the substance. The impetus and then the items. The reason for his prayer and the specific prayer requests. The why and then the what of Jesus' prayer. Let's begin looking at why is Jesus praying? What's going on in his mind that caused him to say these words? You'll notice in your notes that there are blanks here for three reasons why Jesus prayed. Oh, there are more, and we will talk about those, but here's the three big ones. First, Jesus prayed as he prayed. This was the stimulus. This is the impetus that caused him to pray, first. These men belong to the Father. They belong to the Father. Look with me at verse six. Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. I manifested your name. That phrase, your name, is a figure of speech, a synecdoche, where the part stands for the whole. Let me give you a couple of examples. If I was to say to you, oh, you got a nice set of wheels out there in the parking lot. Wheels stand for the whole. The part of the automobile stands for the whole. Or if I was to say, you have a nice pair of threads on, threads stand for the whole, clothing. Or if I was to say, there are this many boots on the ground, you would know that I was talking about soldiers, part for the whole. The name represents the whole of who God is. When we speak of the name, we're talking about His character. We're talking about what He does. We're talking about the fullness of God. Now, this is a direct reference. The Jews would immediately have got this. This is a direct reference to the encounter that Moses had at the burning bush that was not burning in the Midianite wilderness. You remember when God called Moses to be the one who was to lead the children of Israel out of their Egyptian captivity, Moses asked God, what is your name? And God said, let me spell it for you. My name is W-H-Y-H. How do you pronounce that? Oh, you think you know, because you've heard me, but it's only because I think I know. Scholars say we don't know. Why is it that we don't know how to pronounce that? Well, there aren't any vowels in it. Let's start there. Secondly, Moses handed to the Israelites the third commandment among the rest of the 10. The third one says, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Well, the Jews took that very seriously. So much so that they refused to even utter the name of God. So for centuries, and centuries, and centuries, no one pronounced the name of God given to Moses. Y-H-W-H. That four-letter word we call the Tetragrammaton. And we don't know how to pronounce it. Well, when a good Jew would come across that name, the name of God, the Tetragrammaton, when they would come across that name in the text of Scripture, they would never pronounce it, even if they knew how to. Instead, they would pronounce another name for God. They would replace in their speech the name Adonai. So they would come across this text, Y-H-W-H, and they would say, Adonai. They would thereby, they thought, not violate the third commandment. And for centuries and centuries and centuries, it has always been that way. Now in your English text, particularly if you have King James translation, you see frequently the name for God rendered Jehovah. That's a mongrel name for God. It's not a biblical name. How we get there is we have the four letter, name for God, YHWH. We have those consonants, and we take the vowels from Adonai, and we put these two together like a pair of gears, and we come up with an anglicized Jehovah. That's not the name of God. The name of God is YHWH. Usually we think it's pronounced something like, maybe, Yahweh. It means I am. So when Jesus said, I manifested your name, Jesus said, I revealed in what he did and what he said the eternally existent one. If you remember back in John chapter 14, this is part of the upper room discourse. This is the beginning of that. This is after, very soon after the Passover meal was complete, Philip said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father and that's enough. And Jesus said in verse nine of chapter 14, have I been with you so long and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? Verse 10, do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works. Jesus says to Philip, what you see in me, you're seeing the Father. What you see me do, what you hear me say, these are the words of the Father. These are the deeds of the Father. To see me, Philip, is to see the Father. So Jesus says, verse six of our text, I have manifested your name. I have put it on display. I have revealed it. I have unveiled the existence of the great I Am. The eternally existent One has been known, manifested. John says in the prologue of his gospel in verse 18, chapter 1, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. He has declared Him. So Jesus says, I've done it. The task with which I have been assigned has been completed. I have manifested your name to these guys. He says in the next phrase, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me. And we looked at this idea last week from chapter 17, verse 2, where Jesus says, he's speaking in the third person about himself, and he said, you gave, speaking of the Father, you gave him, speaking of the Son, authority over all fresh, and to all whom you have given him. You remember last week I redirected you to John chapter 6 and verse 37, where Jesus says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. From eternity past, God has written the names of those whom he would redeem in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those individuals the Father gave to the Son and gave responsibility to the Son to redeem them. Jesus died to save those individuals whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I have manifested your name, Jesus says, to these men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me. and I have completed the task." Verse 9, I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine. Jesus prays as He prays in this chapter. First, because these men standing in front of Him belong to God, belong to the Father. And Jesus is concerned about honoring the gift of these men to Him from the Father. They believe on the Son. They belong to the Father. They believe on the Son. And in that belief, they glorify the Lord. You'll notice at the end of where I just stopped reading at verse 10, Jesus says, I have been glorified in them. Over in chapter 5, verse 23, Jesus is speaking and He says, all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. There is a tremendous sense of mystery with the Trinity. How is it that we have one God and he manifests himself in three persons? I haven't found anybody who is able to completely and sufficiently explain that. Neither can I fully explain how God is completely sovereign, completely sovereign. There's not one molecule in the entire cosmos that goes rogue and does not conform to the will of Almighty God. How is it that God is completely and absolutely sovereign, absolutely sovereign, and yet man is responsible to respond to the gospel call? I am charged with the responsibility to repent and believe. How do we put these two together? I spent, I think, about six months this last winter and spring talking, discussing, dissecting, analyzing. What is it that we find in Scripture having to do with the redemption of mankind? We spent months and months talking about that. Did we ever get to the bottom of it? No. There was so much mystery. I affirm that because this is what we find in Scripture. I can't let my own logic trump Scripture. I can't let what I think might have to be the case, right, to violate what is clearly already here in black and white. There's a great deal of mystery here. But these men, we know with certainty, came to faith in Christ. Verse 7, they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. They get it. They understand. They have submitted to the Lord. that we might not understand all of the particulars of how the Holy Spirit works in His work of conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment. We may not understand fully how God is chosen from the foundation of the earth those who would be redeemed. how that fits together with man's responsibility. But we know all of what I've said is true because it's written right here. Not by the hand of men, even though men have written this. All these words in scripture have been superintended by the Holy Spirit. We know we can count on this 100%. All right, so the reason for Jesus praying, as He prays. First, because these men belong to the Father and they believe on the Son. Third, second page of your notes. And these were among the redeemed. They did indeed, truly, thoroughly, completely believe the Son. Look at verse 7 again, and I want you to notice as I read this again, if you have the New American Standard Translation like I do, I want you to notice the words, know, K-N-O-W, understood, and believed. I want you to find those words as I read verses 7 and 8. Now, they have come to know, that everything you have given me is from you. For the words which you gave me, I have given to them and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you and they believed that you sent me. Know, understand, believe. Martin Luther, the reformer, said of saving biblical faith, he called it, of course writing in Latin, said, our faith is fides viva, meaning our faith is a vital faith. It is a living faith. Our faith is not a mental ascent to a set of dry, dusty propositions. Our faith is alive because it's focused on a person. There was a relationship there. It was his younger associate, Philip Melanchthon. who penned the first systematic theology for the Reformation, 1521. Philip Melanchthon did a careful study of Scripture. Melanchthon was the one who made Lutheranism Lutheranism. It wasn't Martin Luther. turned aside from Martin Luther on many occasions in many different ways, but they focused primarily on the work of Melanchthon. Now, he did his homework. And from his study of scripture, he said, this is what saving biblical faith is all about. Now, for those of you who have been with us through this study, this is not new material. This is a review. And let me say as a footnote, many people will argue, many commentators will argue that John 17 is a recapitulation of Jesus' entire earthly ministry. They will also say this is a recapitulation. And the reason why John inserts it here is it is an overview again. It's a repeat of what John has included in his gospel record. So I'm gonna take that idea of repeating, recapitulating what has been said before and I'll say it again. Philip Melanchthon. argued that biblical saving faith has three components to it. And again, writing in Latin, he said, they are notitia, assensus, and fiducia. Dealing with the mind and the heart and the will. And one of the passages of scripture that he gets that information is right before us this morning. Let me translate those words in English and you can connect them to the Latin words if you choose. Know, understand, believe. Now sometimes we use the word belief to include all of this. but we're gonna be a little bit more specific with that word belief and do so in just a minute. Months ago now, I crafted a homespun acronym to, acrostic rather, to help you remember what true biblical saving faith is. You remember what it is? And I remember I used the word cat, C-A-T. Okay, same three ideas, notitia, sensus, fiducia, mind, heart, will, know, understand, believe. Here's the three using my little acrostic. Content, affirmation, trust. Biblical saving faith begins with correct content of who God is, what he has done, and why I need this. Second, affirmation, a sensus, understanding. This is my affirmation that what the content is is truly true. I am affirming, I am understanding, I need this content in order to be rescued from God's coming wrath. The third part, C, content, A, affirmation, T, trust. Here's where we involve the will. I am actively trusting. submitting to, depending on the Lord for what only He can do. And biblical redeeming faith includes all of it. It's one big package. But we can see that there are three portions to this package as we take off the wrapping paper. Well, here we have these three men, I'm sorry, these 11 men have done these three things. They have known, they have understood, and they have believed. They get it. Is their faith perfect? By no means. But they have crossed the line. They are no longer in the world. They are no longer marked by worldliness. They are changed people, transformed people. They have been born from above. They're different. They have come to know that everything you have given me is from you, for the words which you gave me, I gave to them, and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from you, and they believed that you sent me. Verse 9, Jesus says, I ask on their behalf. Oh, he's setting us up for what he's going to pray for them. He's not there yet, but he's getting close. I ask on their behalf, looking at the 11 right in front of him, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you've given to me. Does that mean we should not pray for anybody in the world? Jesus says, I'm not praying for people in the world. Should we take that attitude that we don't pray for people in the world? No, and neither does Jesus. There is a difference between general intercession and particular intercession. General intercession is for the people of the world. And we could look at, oh here, I printed it out. In 1 Timothy 2, Paul says to his young protege, first of all then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions, thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men. General prayer. Jesus says to us, Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, I say to you, pray for your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. General intercession. And Jesus does that very same thing on the cross, does he not? Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing. He is praying in a general sense for people of the world. It's not wrong to pray for people that are marked by the world at all. Indeed, that is a means by which God is pleased to work by means of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of unbelievers to bring them to repentance and saving faith. We find from the lips of Jesus that the bulk of His praying, the vast bulk of His praying, is designed, directed toward His own. Jesus prays specifically and particularly for His people. I want you to look at a key verse with me over in the book of Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7, find verse 25. Therefore he, author of Hebrews is specifically identifying Jesus here, he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him. since He, get this, since He always lives to make intercession for them. The primary focus of Jesus in His praying is for those who are already redeemed in time and space and who will be redeemed, but are not yet in time and space. Their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I heard of a gentleman just this morning who in his late years came to faith in Christ. Oh, there are a lot of people who probably said prayer for him is wasted. Oh no. It was the prayers of those people, Holy Spirit empowering them, Holy Spirit using them to bring that man to faith. But that's where the focus of Jesus' ministry in prayer is. Look at verse 11. I am no longer in the world. Jesus is speaking proleptically here, like we talked about last week. He's not having an out-of-body experience. He is standing right there. He hasn't died yet, but it is as though he has stepped back and looking outside of time. He is saying, I'm not here. He knows that he is leaving. And yet, middle of verse 11, they themselves are in the world, and I come to you. So here, Jesus prays what he prays, because these men belong to the Father. And they believe in the Son. And thirdly, they are indeed among the redeemed, They know, they understand, they believe. And Jesus realizes, or acknowledges, it's not like it just dawned on him like he never knew before, but he is affirming that he is leaving. And he's concerned for his men. We might sum up all of what I've said in one simple word. Jesus prayed as he prayed for his men out of love, out of a deep, deep abiding love for these men. It crushed him, in a way, to have to walk away. He was just hours away from praying in the garden, being arrested, going through this mock trial, and then being strung up on an execution stake. Certainly, he would come in his resurrected body, and he would appear to many, hundreds, over a period of 40 days, but then he would return to the Father. That's when his mission of redemption would be complete, but he'd be leaving his men whom he loved. Point number two, the substance of Jesus' prayer. So now in the middle of verse 11, Jesus begins, Holy Father. Okay, now we're getting to the substance. Now we're getting to the meat. We understand why Jesus was praying. Now we're beginning to see what exactly he was praying. And he says this, keep them in your name. The name which you have given me. Now we find here in verse 11 the phrase, the name. We've talked about that before. Here in this paragraph, he talks about keeping them in your word. That's at the end of verse 6. Those two phrases are largely synonymous. We can make some distinctions here to be sure, but when we talk about the name, the name of the Father, the name of God, we're talking about His character, His deeds, His perfections, and then when we talk about His name, I'm sorry, His word, we're talking about all of those character qualities and actions and priorities and promises of God written down in Scripture. Jesus says, Father, keep them in Your name. Guard them. Protect them. Provide for them. Build a safety net for them, consistent with Your name, who you are, which will include all of God's qualities, all of God's promises. Act in that way, dear Father. Jesus prays. I'm going to read a series of texts of Scripture. I want you to follow along through this thread. I printed them out in your notes, and I hope that you'll go back and you will reread these. And they're not necessarily in any specific order, but I want you to see the kind of confidence and the kind of certitude that we find not only from the mouth and the revelation of God, but we find among God's people as they write and they testify to the work of God. Psalm 138, the Lord will fulfill His purpose for me, David writes. Your love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not abandon the works of your hands, which would include God's work in David's life. Isaiah 46, even to your old age, I will be the same. Speaking of the people on planet Earth, even in your old age people, God says, I, of himself, will be the same. And even to your graying years, I will bear you. I have done it, and I will carry you. I will bear you. I will deliver you, says the Lord. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 is the New Testament repeat of what I just read in Isaiah 46. For I am confident of this very thing, Paul writes, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Jeremiah chapter 32. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turn away from them to do them good. I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me." God is going to provide, guard, protect, build a safety net for His people. Romans chapter 11. So we can conclude from a divine point of view, the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 2 Timothy 4, Paul testifies, the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. he will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. So Jesus prays, keep them in your name. Notice at the end of verse 11, this purpose clause. That so that they may be one even as we are. There's a bit of confusion with that. What does that mean? Is Jesus praying that the believers become one? No. More that they continually manifest that they are one. Those who belong to God, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, those who believe, heart, mind, and soul, these are, by the Holy Spirit, molded, enveloped in God's body. In the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul says, even as the body is one yet has many members, even all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. There is an essential oneness in all who come to faith in Christ. Verse 12, while I was with them, again, Jesus is speaking proleptically, he's standing right there. While I was with them, I was keeping them in your name which you have given me. Jesus says, I have been their guard, I have been their protector, I've been their safety net. And I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." Of course, he's talking about Judas, the man from Kiriath. We call him Judas Iscariot. He is the Son of Hell. He is the Son of Destruction, the Son of Perdition, all synonymous words, synonymous phrases describing this One. Jesus is not saying that He somehow dropped the ball. That sometime, that in this particular instance, with this particular individual, he failed in some sense. He's not admitting failure. Jesus is acknowledging that there is this one, Judas by name, who was indeed called, called to be among the 12 with Jesus. Judas lived with Jesus, spoke with Jesus daily, walked with Jesus, went to the grocery store with Jesus, did everything with Jesus. And though he was called to be among the 12, he was not called to be saved, as according to the scriptures. He was assigned a particular role. He was assigned the role of betrayer. He was sovereignly directed to be that betrayer. Ah, here's where the mystery comes in. And yet, it was of Judas's own choice, and only of his choice, he was not coerced to do anything against his will. He chose to betray the master, and for that he is held responsible. Sovereignty, responsibility, they have to go together. How is the mystery? Jesus guarded them. Jesus protected them. And now he prays, Father, you keep them. Keep them in your name. Keep them in accord with who you are. Now, listen very carefully because what I am going to say right now is of immense importance. That Jesus prayed as he did. that he prayed as he did is not an acknowledgment that there is the potential that some of these eleven would fall away. The fact that Jesus prays as he does, Father keep them in your name does not tell us, does not communicate to us in any way that there's a possibility that they might slip away. Rather, it is a recognition that we are utterly dependent upon the Lord for everything, specifically and most importantly for our eternal salvation. He will care for us. He will provide for us. That is a certainty. Jesus prays as He prays in humble recognition that God is the One who must work. He's not begging God the Father to work. He knows the Father will. It is a recognition that it is the Father who does the work. of keeping, guarding, protecting, and building safety nets. John chapter 10, oh, what a glorious chapter. Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. That's security, my friends. That's safety. Conclusion. Thanksgiving is, for many people, a holiday that includes three things. Family, feasting, and football. Namely, Dallas Cowboy football. In 1993, while that game was broadcast into our home, as it usually is, there was a commercial, a Chevy truck commercial, that captured my attention. And I liked it so much. Liked is probably not the best word. I had to capture it, and I wrote it down. And I'm going to read it to you in just a second. But I want you to picture this guy standing by his Chevy truck, wearing dirty clothes, worn out boots, and a cowboy hat. And this is what he says. This is the substance of the commercial. Trucks are kind of a spiritual thing for me. I need something I can depend on. Newsflash, it doesn't matter who the manufacturer is, every truck that you could buy is going to be undependable at some point. Now that commercial was made and aired in 1993. That's 30 years ago. Where do you think that truck that was featured in that commercial is today? In a wrecking yard, maybe? We might not even call it a truck. We might rather more accurately call it a rust bucket. I don't know. But my safety, my security, what is dependable, what I can count on, is not found in the stuff of this world. I need something better. I need someone who is stronger, enduring. I need one who is sovereign. I need someone who is far bigger than me. to guard and protect. I'm only gonna trust him to build the right kind of safety net. I leave this image with you. This comes from a book by George Vandeman titled Touch and Live. He writes this. A young stranger to the Alps was making his first climb, accompanied by two stalwart guides. It was a steep, hazardous ascent, but he fell secure with one guide ahead and one following. For hours and hours they climbed, and now, breathless, they reached for those rocks protruding through the snow above them, the summit. The guide ahead wished to let the stranger have the first glorious view of heaven and earth and moved aside to let him go first. Forgetting the gales that would blow across those summit rocks, the young man leaped to his feet, but the guide dragged him down. On your knees, sir. He shouted, you are never safe up here except on your knees. Whether we're on a mountaintop or a bridge being constructed, even on the sidewalk, there's always a danger of falling. Our best position where we will find safety and security is on our knees. Let's pray. Our blessed God, how thankful we are that you have saved and redeemed So, so many people. And many in this room would say that they are among that list. There may be those still in our midst. There may be those that are hearing this tape. Tape, that shows how old I am. This recording at another time that have not yet put their faith in the Lord Jesus. Might they know with certainty the content of biblical truth? Might they understand? Might they affirm the truth of that content? And may they believe, trust, and by an act of the will submit to You for their eternal salvation. This is our only hope. You are our only hope. This we pray in the name of the Savior, amen.