About this sermon
Psalm 115 gives glory to the Lord’s name and answers the nations that ask, ‘Where is their God?’ The idols of silver and gold have mouths that cannot speak and eyes that cannot see, and those who trust in them become like them. True religion comes from God’s revelation, while false religion comes from human imagination. Israel, the priests, and all who fear the Lord must trust in him as their help and shield, and his people will bless him forever.
Sermon transcript
Indeed, our Lord and Father in heaven, we do look forward to Jerusalem, the golden, the heavenly Jerusalem. But we thank you, Lord, that in this age you give us a foretaste of that heavenly glory by your word and through your spirit. We ask, Lord, that as we come to this portion of Holy Scripture, that your spirit would indeed give us such a foretaste of the glories of the age to come. And we pray, Lord God, that you would bless the reading and proclamation of your word this evening. We pray that through this word, read and proclaim that your spirit would root and establish us more firmly in Christ, that you would transform us by the renewing of our minds. And we pray that this sermon this evening, this preaching this evening would be spiritual milk to those who need the milk of the word.
May it be meat to those who need the meat of the word. but may it be manna from heaven for all of us, Lord. We ask that you would grant unto me the grace, Lord, to speak forth your word with clarity, faithfulness, and power, and set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful in your sight. We pray these things through Christ our Lord, and all of God’s people said. Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. As we continue to study and consider various Psalms from the Book of Psalms, this evening we consider another one of the Hallel Psalms, Psalm 115. This psalm does not have an indication of author or superscription, but it is a psalm that is relevant to God’s people in all ages of redemptive history.
Let us hear God’s holy word. Psalm 115. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your loving kindness, because of your truth. Why should the nation say, where now is their God? But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear. They have noses, but they cannot smell. They have hands, but they cannot feel. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small together with the great. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth he has given to the sons of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. But as for us, we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever.
Praise the Lord. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. You may be seated. Title of my sermon on this Lord’s Day evening is The Living God Versus Lifeless Idols. And children, if you wanna listen for key words this evening, what I encourage the children to do is pick a few of these key words that are on your sermon outline and pick a few of those words, count the number of times that I say those words. Words are idols, idolatry, religion, trust, worship, sovereignty, life, death, and praise. Hey, it doesn’t matter. We all worship the same God anyways. Friends, I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve heard this or similar kinds of assertions being made, usually in the context of having friendly, informal conversations with unbelievers who find out that I’m a pastor, or sometimes with professing Christians whose theology I know to be radically different from my own.
Perhaps you’ve had similar comments or encountered similar comments in your conversations with those outside of an orthodox understanding of the faith. And what do you say to that? Sometimes it’s brought up in conversation really to kind of derail the conversation and get it back to more mundane things. That’s sort of a way that many folks will say something like that as a way of saying, you know what, I really don’t want to talk about this. Can’t we just go back to talking about the weather, right? Well, perhaps you’ve encountered similar types of comments in conversations that you’ve had. The truth is, friends, that many today have bought into the pluralistic belief that says all religions ultimately lead to God or to ultimate reality, quote unquote, whoever or whatever that ultimate reality might happen to be.
This common theology of religious pluralism tends to see all religions as equally valid, as equally, quote, true. And that’s the case whether we’re talking about Christianity, or Judaism, or Islam, or Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age mysticism, Mormonism, Wicca, some would even say Satanism, or what have you. The idea is, well, these are all just different paths to the same ultimate goal. Now, closely connected to this theology of religious pluralism, meaning the belief that all paths lead ultimately to God or to the divine, is the commonly held belief that says, well, it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere. And so, for example, if I wanted to create a new religion, let’s say it’s the religion of the sacred tomato. And I say that the sacred tomato is the source of salvation. Those of a religious pluralist mindset might say, well, that’s fine if that’s what you sincerely believe.
And if you create a religion around the sacred tomato and develop a theology around a sacred tomato and proclaim the sacred tomato as the savior, well, that’s just your way of finding God. As long as you’re sincere, it doesn’t matter what you believe. The dogma of religious pluralism, and it is a contemporary dogma, and its related doctrine of salvation by sincerity is very popular today, especially in our postmodern world of moral relativism, and especially with its emphasis upon diversity and inclusion and tolerance as the highest of ethical virtues. Now don’t get me wrong, properly understood things like inclusion, intolerance, and so forth are good things, properly biblically understood. But dear ones, the God revealed in the pages of the Holy Bible would strongly disagree with the theology of religious pluralism and its related doctrine of salvation by sincerity.
In fact, Throughout its sacred pages, the Word of God clearly, unambiguously, and unapologetically teaches that there is only one true and living God, namely, the sovereign triune God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the blessed Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that Bible-believing Christians worship and seek to serve and obey. And of course, Our Lord Jesus Christ claims that He Himself is the only way of salvation, the only way to God, as Jesus makes that claim in passages like John 14, verse 6. Very familiar passage. Jesus says, I am the way, not a way, not one of many ways. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by me.” And, of course, the apostolic writers of the New Testament Scriptures preached the Lord Jesus Christ as the only name given under heaven by which we must be saved, the one and only mediator between the holy God and sinful humanity.
And furthermore, the Bible is equally clear that the so-called gods worshipped by those who reject the true and living God revealed in the Bible are, in fact, non-existent, lifeless idols, which implies that those religions which promote the worship of such false deities are not, quote, equally valid paths to God, but rather are false deceptive, soul-destroying, eternally damning religions that are actually animated by demonic spirits. Now I read a passage earlier in the service from 1 Corinthians and later on in 1 Corinthians as Paul is dealing with problems with some of the believers in the church in Corinth who were continuing to frequent idol ceremonies and idol worship. Paul makes it clear that those who worship idols, that idols are non-existent, but behind those idols is actually demons. That’s not a very popular view today. It would be very offensive to many today to suggest that religions that promote deities that we as Christians do not recognize are actually animated by the demonic realm. but that’s what the word of God teaches.
Friends, as offensive as this truth may be in today’s pluralistic postmodern context, It is the very unchanging truth of the unchanging God. And friends, one of the clearest passages of Holy Scripture that reveals this sharp and irreconcilable contrast between the true and living God on the one hand, and false, lifeless idols on the other hand, is the passage that we are considering on this Lord’s Day evening, namely Psalm 115. Now it is clear from the structure of this powerful psalm that it was written to be used in the corporate worship assemblies of God’s people. It was likely used in the temple liturgy, perhaps during one of the annual festivals in Israel’s religious calendar. What characterizes this powerful divinely inspired poem is its affirmation of Yahweh, Israel’s God, as the one true God, in contrast to the many lifeless idols of the Gentile nations that surrounded Israel.
In terms of who wrote this psalms, in terms of its human author, and in terms of when it was written, we really can’t be too dogmatic about that. You notice that some of the psalms have superscriptions or titles that indicate an author and sometimes even explain a historical setting out of which the psalm arose, but we have no such superscription or title here in Psalm 115. It is technically anonymous and we’re not given really many clues in terms of the historical setting that led, that the Holy Spirit used to lead this psalm writer to pen this beautiful psalm. Nevertheless, some scholars are very insistent that it must have been written after the Babylonian exile, that is to say that it is post-exilic, and some are very, and I could show you commentary, some are very dogmatic in that assertion.
But others suggest that perhaps it makes better sense to view this as having been composed before the exile, perhaps in the early period of Israel’s monarchy. But really, in terms of when it was written, that doesn’t impact how we understand this psalm, whether it was pre-exilic, exilic, post-exilic, or what have you, though it probably wasn’t written during the exile. In terms of the type of psalm, again I quote from Willem van Gemmeren, he says, Psalm 115 may be classified as a psalm of communal confidence. The psalms of communal confidence are closely related to communal thanksgiving songs and to communal laments. The psalms of communal confidence convey a sense of need as well as of deep trust in the Lord’s ability to take care of the needs of the people. And then Van Gemeren goes on to say that Psalm 115 had a liturgical place in the worship of ancient Israel.
The alteration between the first and second persons suggests the variation between communal recitation and priestly blessings. There’s sort of an antiphonal call and response structure to this psalm. And that’s instructive, by the way, in terms of our worship of God. Well, with all of this in mind, let’s dive in, and I want us first to focus on the opening section of Psalm 115, namely the first eight verses. And what we find in these verses is the ultimate contrast between true and false religion, the ultimate contrast between true and false religion. You see, friends, ultimately speaking, from a biblical point of view, there’s ultimately only two religions. There is true religion, the religion revealed from God through Christ, what we would call the gospel, and false religion, which arises from human imagination animated by the demonic realm.
Now, the psalm opens up with a cry to the Lord. The psalmist says, not to us, O Lord, not to us. but to your name give glory. Notice, not to us. This is a communal cry to the Lord. Not to us, O Yahweh. Notice the name Lord is in all capital letters indicating that the psalmist is appealing to God as the redeeming covenant Lord, the faithful, redemptive covenant Lord of Israel. Not to us, O Lord. Not to us, but to your name give glory because of your loving kindness, because of your truth, your covenant faithfulness to your people, in other words. Now verse 1 is perhaps a cry for vindication from God as God’s people faced scoffing and mockery from Gentile enemies who taunt them with the words of verse 2, the words, where now is their God?
From this language here, we may perhaps infer that perhaps Israel has experienced some national crisis or trouble. Maybe they’ve been defeated in battle by some Gentile enemies, or they’ve experienced a famine, or they’ve had locusts devour the land, or whatever the case may be. And their Gentile enemies and neighbors interpret Israel’s distress as weakness or impotence on the part of Israel’s God. Now one of the things that makes it difficult for us today in the 21st century to appreciate this kind of supernaturalistic worldview is that we are saturated with a naturalistic worldview. We live after the Enlightenment, the so-called Enlightenment, and even as Orthodox Presbyterians, even as Bible-believing Christians who recognize and confess God’s supernatural works as revealed in the scripture, we tend to be influenced more than we’re aware of by the secular naturalism that is all around us.
And one of the things to understand is that in the ancient world, If a nation defeated another nation, if a king defeats another king, that was interpreted in the ancient Near Eastern context as, well, our gods, the gods of the victorious nation, defeated the gods of the other nation, of the defeated nation. So the gods, the divine realm, the supernatural realm was viewed as being intricately interwoven with and involved in the life of the nation. Now of course we know that in the case of the Gentile nations with their false gods, that was not literally true, but in the case of Israel, Israel was God, they were God’s people, and God had made a covenant with them. And God is often presented, even in the Psalms especially, as the divine warrior who fights for his people.
And we have many instances in the scriptures where God does indeed use his people, Israel, as his instruments of judgment to defeat the enemies of his people. And so, again, we need to understand this framework as we try to understand why would it be that the Gentile nations taunt the Israelites and say, well, where now is your God? If the Gentile nations look at Israel and Israel is experiencing famine or military defeat or crisis or distress, ah, your God, Yahweh, is weak, impotent, and so forth. But then we have the response. But our God, verse three, but our God is in the heavens. Our God is not just a tribal, nationalistic deity. Our God is in the heavens. And then he does whatever he pleases. So that means that if Israel is in distress, that’s because Yahweh, the sovereign Lord of his people, has willed for Israel to be distressed.
God has reasons for doing what he does. Here in verses 2 through 8, again, true religion is contrasted with false religion, for the true and living God, the God who is transcendent, sovereign, and omnipotent, as He’s revealed to be in verse 3, is contrasted with the lifelessness, the impotence, and the powerlessness of the vain, man-made idols of the Gentile nations. Now, as verse 3 tells us, unlike the lifeless idols of the pagans, who were confined to an earthly temple, or within the sinful human imagination in the case of idols of the mind, mental idols. In contrast to all of the idols of mankind, whether material or mental, our God, Yahweh, the true and living God, He is in the heavens, meaning He is supramundane. He is transcendent spirit, as we confess in our shorter catechism in answer to that question four, what is God?
And I’m sure some of you can recite it. Follow along with me if you’d like. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. He is an infinite spirit, the transcendent creator of heaven and earth. And then it says of this God, this God whom we love and worship and serve, He does whatever He pleases. God’s ultimate reason for doing and decreeing whatever he does and decrees is his own sovereign good pleasure. It is his good pleasure for God is good and everything he ordains is right. But friends, this statement, he does whatever he pleases, this is one of the clearest statements of God’s absolute sovereignty over all and his power, his omnipotent power to accomplish all of his good pleasure. But then we have the contrast with the idols of the nations.
And before I just briefly take us through verses four through eight, I’ve sometimes had folks approach me and say, you know what? Why don’t we just focus on the positive? Instead of decrying the falsehood of false religions, just present the true God. Just be positive and not negative. And I understand that sometimes maybe I can be a little too negative and maybe you’ve had that experience as well. Why do you have to keep talking about the wrath of God and judgment and things like that? Why can’t you just focus on the positive? And certainly we need to be balanced in the way we talk about our God and the way we witness about our Lord. But look at the scriptures. The scriptures are often very negative in their criticisms of false religions, such as in this passage.
Here, the psalmist, in response to the taunting of the Gentiles, as recorded in the words of verse 2, Well, the psalmist, again, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, engages in sort of a satirical mockery of the false gods worshipped by their Gentile neighbors. Their idols are silver and gold. Our God is in the heavens. He’s sovereign over all. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They are creations of man. Our God is sovereign in the heaven. He’s the maker of heaven and earth. Their gods are creations of man. And then he goes on to, in great detail, to continue his satirical mockery of these false idols. He says, they have mouths, but they cannot speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear.
They have noses, but they cannot smell. They have hands, but they cannot feel. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat. What’s the point of all of this, this litany of these idols? The point is they’re lifeless. The God of Israel is the living God. Their gods are lifeless, worthless, vain. Again, in reply to the taunting question of the godless nations in verse two, the psalmist replies, as I said, by satirically mocking the false idols worshiped by these Gentile nations. Now, is this the only place in scripture where we find this kind of satirical mockery of paganism, this kind of anti-polytheistic polemic? No, there are many other passages in scripture that engage in similar types of satirical mockery of false religion. Isaiah 44, 9-20, I’m not going to take the time to read that this evening, but I’d encourage you to read that passage in the book of the prophet Isaiah.
Or consider Psalm 135, verses 15-18, which is very similar to Psalm 115. In Psalm 135, verses 15-18, you’re welcome to turn there if you’d like, I’ll briefly read this. And these words should sound quite familiar. The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them. Yes, everyone who trusts in them.” You say, well, that sounds very familiar. Well, it should because it’s almost word for word the same as what I just read for you in Psalm 115. So friends, notice also verse 8 is especially piercing in the truth that it presents.
It says, those who make them, those who forge and fashion these idols, and all idols, all material idols start in the human imagination. the imagination of sinful fallen man. Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. Friends, those who make and worship these vain idols become like them. And what does that mean? These idols, well, they are lifeless, they’re impotent, they’re vain. Those who forge idols from their own imaginations and worship them, sooner or later, they themselves become spiritually lifeless. In fact, it is because they are spiritually dead, dead to the things of the true and living God, that they would dare to fashion false, lifeless idols. They become impotent, they become vain. This points to the fact that idol worship is actually not a small thing. Religion, false worship, is not a little thing, a light thing.
It is in fact dehumanizing and degrading. As one commentator puts it, when people construct their own gods, they make them in their own image. As they worship these gods, they are more and more conformed to their likeness. That is the catch-22, if you will, of idolatry. Notice also, by the way, that there’s a contrast, a sharp contrast going on here between the idolaters gods who are made by them. Again, verse eight talks about those who make these idols, these idols that have eyes but they can’t see, ears but they can’t hear, and so forth. Those who make them will become like them. Focus on the word make, but then skip down and look at verse 15. which is probably part of a priestly blessing upon the gathered congregation, where the priest says, may you be blessed of the Lord, and Yahweh the Lord is described as what?
Maker of heaven and earth. You see the contrast? The idolaters, those who fashion idols, make them. But the Lord, Yahweh, is himself the maker of heaven and earth. Dear ones, what do we learn here? Well, we learn many things, but The point here is that true religion is grounded in the reality of the true and living God, whereas false religion and idolatry are grounded in false theology. Indeed, friends, idols, whether we’re talking about material idols or idols that are mental in nature, all idols are ultimately expressions of false theology. Furthermore, true religion, the religion that brings us back into fellowship and communion with the true and living God, the true religion that is known as the Gospel of Jesus Christ, originates from God’s revelation given to us in His Word, whereas false religion arises out of sinful man’s imagination.
You see the contrast? True biblical Christianity is rooted and grounded in the revelation of God. It comes from God to us. False religion comes from man’s imagination, influenced and animated by the demonic realm. So it’s man trying to work his way up to whatever he perceives the divine to be, but it comes from man, not from God. Dear listener, are you following the true religion revealed in Holy Scripture, the religion that comes from God and leads back to God through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Or are you following a false religion that flows out of your own feelings, your own sense of personal identity, your own imagination, your own desires? God’s word calls us to repent of false and vain religion and to turn to Christ alone as He has revealed to us in the Gospel.
And that brings me to our next section, verses 9 through 15. Consider next, what we have here is a call to trust in the Lord who blesses His people. This is the second main point in your sermon outline. We find here a call to trust in the Lord, to trust in Yahweh who blesses His people. Verse 9, it says, O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Why this repetition? Well again, what’s probably going on here is an antiphonal call and response of the worshiping assembly in the temple. Here is a call to all of God’s people described in their various categories, including both laity and leadership, including both the priests and the people.
The sons of Aaron, that was the priestly line. Whether priests or people, whether clergy or laity, all are called to trust in Yahweh their God as their help and their shield. Help can be more of an offensive word in the sense of God intervening and acting, providing for his people. Shield is more of a defensive term. God is the provider and the protector of his people. And again, the call response structure of these verses is likely due to their antiphonal use in public worship. And by the way, as an aside, you may wonder, why is it that we at Grace Church, why do we do a responsive reading? for example, in our morning worship service. That’s been our typical custom. And how does that fit in with the regulative principle of worship, if you’re familiar with that?
Well, we find hints and instances in scripture of this kind of call and response pattern of worship in scripture. And so there’s nothing wrong with, in our prayers and praises to God, alternating between leader and congregation and so forth. But then it goes on to say in verse 12, the Lord has been mindful of us. So Israel, the house of Aaron, all of God’s people are called upon, summoned to trust in Yahweh their God, the true and living God, the maker of heaven and earth. And then we have these words of promise and assurance. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small together with the great. Though God’s people apparently, as I’ve mentioned in verse one, may have been suffering from a national calamity or distress that is, and we don’t know the nature of it, but the psalmist is crying out, not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory.
And by the way, one thing I forgot to mention about verse one, notice the God-centered focus. Essentially what the congregation does in verse one, even though they’re distressed about their present circumstances, their focus is on the Lord. This is essentially an old covenant way of saying, hallowed be thy name. Lord, hallow your name. To God be the glory, great things he has done. But in any case, in response to this cry to God for help, for relief, for the glory of his name, The psalmist then goes on to express confidence that yes, the Lord our God hears us and He will act. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small and the great together.
And then verses 14 and 15 contain what are probably the priestly pronouncement of blessing upon the gathered congregation. Again, there seems to be a call and response structure to this going on. And here in verse 14, may the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. Yahweh can be relied upon to bless his people and to grant them increase. And again, it may be, like I said, that verses 12 and 13 were recited by the congregation and that the words in verses 14 and 15 represent a priestly blessing pronounced upon the people. Well, beloved, in light of all of this, this call to trust in Yahweh, the true and living God, let us turn from the idols of our age, including the idols of religious pluralism and salvation by sincerity.
Those are idols. Let us turn from all idols, whether in our culture or in our hearts. By the grace of God, let us turn from our idols. Instead, let us put our trust in the Lord to bless us with his grace and salvation as he promises to all who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. As the word of God says, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And that brings us to the close of this beautiful and powerful psalm. This is the final point in your sermon outline. Consider, finally, the never-ending praise of those who trust the ever-living God. We have, in verses 16 through 18, we have the psalmist describing the never-ending praise of those who trust in the ever-living God. Verse 16, the heavens are the heavens of the Lord.
But the earth he has given to the sons of men. Now this does not mean that while God is only sovereign in heaven, he has no sovereignty over the earth. That’s not what it’s saying, but it’s speaking here of Yahweh being sovereign over all. He reigns in transcendent glory, but he has given mankind as his image bearers the responsibility to steward the earth for his glory. That is what is being spoken of here. And then verse 17. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. Now some of a more liberal theological persuasion will latch onto verse 17 and will say, well see, in the Old Testament, they didn’t believe in life after death. It says the dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence.
This is proof, they would say, that in the Old Testament, believers did not expect life after death. But of course, that is to take verse 17 and yank it out of its context because In the very next verse, verse 18, but as for us, we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever praise the Lord. And so the psalmist here in verse 17 is not denying life after death, nor is he denying the reality of heaven. Now it is true that God’s people living under the old covenant did not have as clear a view of what would happen after death as we are privileged to have today. living after the coming of Christ and especially living after His death on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead and the promises, the so, the very clear promises of life and salvation, eternal life and salvation for those who believe in Him.
But nevertheless, This verse points to the reality that when we die, our physical tongues fall silent. It reminds me of that statement in that William Cooper hymn that when we die, our tongues lie silent in the grave until the resurrection. This is speaking of this present life. It’s saying those who die, And when death happens, your soul is separated from your body. So the tongues that God gave us, tongues that are meant to extol and confess and praise and witness to God and his reality, those tongues will be silenced, but not forever. Again, that’s the point here. One day we will be raised from the dead. Our tongues are intended to extol and praise God. In this life we do so, but in physical death our tongues lie silent in the grave until the resurrection.
And while verse 18 does not directly or explicitly predict the truth of the resurrection of the dead, it certainly implies it. This powerful psalm closes by pointing us to eternal praise that we will offer to the Lord, which implies, by the way, that our tongues will not remain silent forever. but will one day be raised again in glory so that we indeed will be able to bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. And so, beloved, because we serve the true and living God, the God who has given to us believers in Christ the gift of everlasting life, we look forward to praising Him forever. Let us make it our intention to bless and praise our God while we have breath, the one true and living God, from this time forth and forevermore. If we know Christ as Savior, that is what we have to look forward to.
Do you, dear listener, do you know Christ? Come to Him today if you don’t. Believe upon Him and you will be saved. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, We thank you that you are indeed a God who hears our cries because you are the true and living God. We pray that these truths that we’ve considered this evening would find a lodging place in our souls and bear much spiritual fruit in our lives. And we pray that you would grant us the grace to faithfully confess, extol, praise, and adore you. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen.
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