that this time we'll read in the Bible from 1 Peter 1. This time we'll read 1 Peter 1. There we read this word of God in 1 Peter 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whom having not seen, ye love. In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. Who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you? Searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Which things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeinted love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. Grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. As far as we read in the word of God, may he bless us in that reading. Read that in connection with Lord's Day Nine of the Heidelberg Catechism. Lord's Day 9 of the Heideberg Catechism. This begins the section then on the treatment of God the Father, which is Article 1 of the Apostles' Creed. Question number 26 asks this, what believest thou when thou sayest, I believe in God the Father, Almighty, maker of heaven and earth? The answer is that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of nothing made heaven and earth with all that is in them, who likewise upholds and governs the same by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son, my God and my Father, on whom I rely so entirely that I have no doubt but he will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body, and further, that he will make whatever evils he sends upon me in this valley of tears turn out to my advantage, for he is able to do it, being almighty God and willing, being a faithful father. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe that the triune God is Father. We believe that because the scriptures teach us that, first of all, in the Old Testament, in Isaiah chapter 63, verse 16, where we read, doubtless thou, that's Jehovah, art our, Israel's, Father. though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer. Thy name is from everlasting. That God is our Father, confirmed by Isaiah in chapter 63, is already prophesied by the prophet earlier in his ministry, according to Isaiah chapter nine, verse six. God our father there is prophesied to be revealed as father through the coming of his child, his only begotten son, whose names are, in Isaiah nine, verse six, wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. And so the church of all ages understands and has understood already from the Old Testament that God is our Father. And when Jesus then came into our flesh, he made that very clear that yes, the triune God is our Father. That is the God to whom you must pray. When ye pray, Jesus said, say, our Father which art in heaven. And that name Father there doesn't merely refer to the first person of the Trinity, and then we just kind of ignore the second person and the third person, but we're only going to pray today to the first person of the Trinity. No, in that particular name, in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus is referring to the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who together are our Father. Jesus makes that clearer when speaking to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection in, according to John 20, verse 17, in that verse, When Mary is about to embrace him out of a love for her Lord and Savior, Jesus said to her, remember the words, touch me not. I am not yet ascended unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. referring to and emphasizing himself as Jesus, the son of man. And according to his human nature, Jesus was instructing Mary, as the man, Jesus Christ, God is my God, my father, and the same one is your God, your father. That's the triune God, which is perhaps hard to comprehend. Many questions we may have about, well, how can that be? How can Jesus, whose person is the second person of the Trinity, say, I am to pray, and Mary, you must pray to the triune God also, and so he is, in his human nature, praying to himself? Yes. Do we comprehend that? No. But that's the truth. We believe that the name Father, here in Lord's Day 9, refers to the triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that God is your Father. That fatherhood of God, then, in the second place, in our introduction, is revealed according to the catechism in three different ways. First of all, his fatherhood is revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ. Of highest priority in the Lord's day and in scripture, we confess the fatherhood of God in the truth of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the birth of Jesus and seeing him in our flesh by faith that, yes, God is our father. There is the firstborn of God in our flesh to fulfill all that the father sent him to do. Secondly, we also confess the fatherhood of God according to the catechism and that which it mentions in the parentheses. the creation of heaven and earth. In the original creation, we see God bringing forth by his word and spirit all of the creatures of the creation. Still today, we can see by faith, according to the scriptures, God as the origin of all of this life, the living things, the crops, of all of those things. He is the begetter of them. in a creational way. That is a picture, beloved, what you see in the creation and a sign of something far more glorious. That's what we emphasize in the sermon this morning, the third way in which God reveals to us his fatherhood. And that's in his relationship with his new creation in Christ Jesus, with his children, with his people. That relationship is not an impersonal, harsh, abusive, miserable, cold relationship. Beloved, we enjoy and confess by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ that God is We say personally, my father, our father, who has begotten us as his children unto a living or lively hope. Call your attention to the Lord's Day under this theme, then, the fatherhood of God with his people. Notice that as a blessed relationship. Secondly, we'll notice its divine cause, Thirdly, its distinct characteristics. And then finally, its resulting obligation, which is also mentioned and implied in the Lord's Day. The triune God has revealed himself as Father, the catechism teaches, in the beginning of his children, the beginning of us as his children, which is a miracle. That's amazing. That's a wonder. In a certain sense, God has begotten us from an earthly or physical point of view as the creator. He brought forth his creatures in the beginning Then on the sixth day, he brought forth our first parents, Adam and Eve. First Adam, and then a little later on the sixth day, that sixth 24-hour day, he brought forth Eve as the last crowning work of that original creation. And when they were unfolded from the counsel of God by his word and spirit, when they were brought forth as living souls, having the spirit breathe into them the breath of life, God, by his almighty power and will, instantly in those creation of Adam out of the dust of the ground and Eve out of the rib of Adam, he made our human nature, our physical existence, and by his providence through the generations controlled, governed, and brought us forth through the conception and birth of our parents and our births. And thus our father in heaven is the origin of our physical existence. Our father is the origin of every heartbeat, every firing of the nerves that we have in our bodies, all 77 trillion of them. God controls them all. We owe our physical existence to him. He's the origin of that. But more importantly, as the catechism teaches us, our father is the begetter of us spiritually. And that's remarkable, because we know the history of Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve fell into sin. And their fall into sin, we've learned earlier in the catechism, they lost the image of God. They were no longer righteous and consecrated to God, nor longer did they speak the truth. Very evident they didn't speak the truth when Adam and Eve were asked, what did you do? They didn't tell the truth of the situation and said, yes, I have sinned, but pointed their fingers at Eve or at the serpent. And when they fell into sin then, though they had not fully developed in sin as man has today, yet in principle, they became dead in sin, totally depraved, apart from Christ, at enmity against God and fully mature in principle in that sin as an enemy of God. Nevertheless, The wonder is God miraculously took that which was fully dead and fully dead set against him and begets them unto new life with him, a family life. He adopted them, and thus the begetting of his people presupposes that aspect of adoption which is legal. He declared himself to be their father. And he adopted to himself a people who were not of themselves innocent, or somewhat innocent, like a little child, a little baby, but God legally adopted, declared to be father those who were ungodly, totally at enmity with him. To try to understand that, think of the process of adoption. Normally, in our experience, parents may adopt a little child, a little baby, go through the whole process of receiving the approval of the courts, and legally that child is theirs. And as members of the church, they may then have that child baptized. We must understand when God adopted us to be his children, he did not take to himself these innocent, what appears to be innocent, little children and brought them into his family. By his mighty work of adoption, God took to himself what sometimes happened in the Roman Empire when Paul, under inspiration, is writing about adoption. Men who had no heirs and had a fortune would often sometimes adopt to themselves men out of the army, grown men, and adopt them to their family, to be their son, to have heir, the inheritance of the fortune of that childless, wealthy man. Similarly, God adopts us into his family. He adopts those, as it were, who are grown men, grown, fully mature criminals in sin. Fully mature, before the law, murderers, thieves, adulterers, liars. And says, you are my son. That's amazing. A childless couple do not go for someone to adopt to the jail at the correctional facility and say, where is the worst criminal here in the jail? And say, that's my son. You never see that. That's what God does to us. That's astounding. And having legally adopted us, God takes us who are dead in sin against him, dead set against him, and changes that which is dead and makes us new creatures, his sons and daughters, his little children, in life with him. You see, beloved, the wonder of what God does to you, isn't that amazing? That's astounding. God brings us into his relationship of love and life because of his goodness. And indeed, that relationship is very, very blessed. It's a glorious relationship, first of all, meaning, as the catechism indicates, we are begotten in his image now, the original image we lost in the fall with Adam and Eve. God makes us new in his image of righteousness, holiness, and truth, and specifically in the image of Christ. And with that image, we have an image that cannot be lost, one that is preserved, and one that is revealed. with Christ so that we are like him, our elder brother in the family of God. Secondly, we're begotten then as the children of God to an inheritance of glory. Our inheritance and that inheritance upon which we set our heart is not an earthly thing because that we can lose. It's corruptible. It can be stolen. There can be a crash in the financial markets and whatever value may have been stored up could be instantly wiped out. Not so with your inheritance with the father. That inheritance doesn't fade away. As 1 Peter teaches, it doesn't change. Its value does not diminish. In fact, its value can never be calculated. It is so vast, so glorious, so beautiful, so joyful. That's the inheritance, beloved, which you have the right to because God has adopted, has begotten you as his sons and daughters. Though this life is full of tribulation in every side, so that it looks like we're not the sons of God and there isn't much of an inheritance awaiting us, as far as we can tell, that the scriptures teach that as sons and daughters of God, as believers in our seed, we have Because of the Father, a glorious inheritance awaiting us, the beginning of which God has already bestowed and worked in you in principle. It is marked out with gracious care. It cannot be destroyed. It cannot be stolen by the devil. It is an inheritance to which you are sealed, guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. So that in the third place, this relationship is so glorious, you have hope in the midst of what appears to be hopeless. You have hope, sure hope, in the midst of death, troubles, misery, whatever it may be, that your elder brother The elder brother of the father's family will soon appear, and when he appears, you will be like him, full of grace and truth, no sin, no darkness, no misery, full to overflowing with the blessings of the father. Amazing. It teaches us then in the second place about this blessed relationship. It is a relationship of total dependency. We learn to confess in this Lord's Day that dependency when we say in the middle of Lord's Day nine, on whom I rely. That phrase is not an admonition. You must confess that. You must rely on him now. Here the catechism doesn't state it as an admonition, but as a statement of fact, of truth. This truth is enduring. Being begotten of the Father, you rely on him. That's the relationship. And that's pictured when the mother holds the little child in her arms or the father holds the child in her arms. That little baby depends, relies upon mother, relies upon father to have food, to have their diaper changed, to have everything done to it for its health and care. And that's true of you and me. Once begotten of the father, it is forever true. I rely on God. That's the reality. As the Apostle John teaches in 1 John, he calls you and me little children. That's true now and forever. Fathers, little children who rely always upon him. just as this church building relies on the foundation for the walls to stand up and the roof to be in its position. And without that foundation, things would go horribly wrong with the building. We wouldn't be able to worship in this building. So also, we, as the children of our Father in heaven, stand in this life before him, before the world. We have life with him on the foundation of the Father himself, the triune God. He is our fountain. He is our foundation for everything in body and soul. Secondly, regarding that relationship of dependency, we confess in the Lord's day the full extent of that dependency. By the words, so entirely. Often we foolishly think, well, yes, we rely upon God most of the time. Someone would ask you that, is that really your confession? We would probably say no, but by our behavior, certainly true. We don't always pray as we should. There are days in which we might not even pray. And so by our behavior, by failing to come to our Father in prayer, we are really saying, well, this particular day, I don't need the Father. I can get along today just fine without Him. Really? Or we might think, well, for very significant things in life, a wife, a husband, children, the raising of children. Yes, certainly I rely upon the father for that. But the other things in life, going to work, being a faithful employee or employer, as the case may be, there are certain things, well, I don't need to Rely on God for that. I can do that myself. I have my own wisdom. I can handle that. That's not right, beloved. That's foolishness. We rely upon our Father in heaven so entirely with an extent that is complete. My earthly life, your earthly life, entirely depends on him. And the Lord reminds us of that very clearly when he makes us sick. Break a leg, surgery, cancer. It could be a chronic illness or a very short illness. But in whatever that circumstance may be, the Lord makes very plain to us, you cannot even live in this life without me. Every heartbeat. Every movement of the nerves in your brain, every movement of the blood vessels and the blood inside you relies upon Him. That's even more true spiritually. I cannot even believe without my Father. I can't repent of my sin, be sorry for my sin. without my father. I cannot love him without the father. Everything, all that I am spiritually as his little child depends on my father in heaven. Do you believe that, beloved? You must. And then also believe that that relationship that you have with your Father in heaven has its cause, not in us, but in Him. The deepest cause of that being a little child of your Father in heaven lies in the foreknowledge of God. As 1 Peter 1, verse 2 taught us, which we read, We are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. God knew you from eternity. That's the deepest foundation. God knew you long before you knew him. Even before the foundation of the world, he knew you. Was that election based on what you would do today or whenever you sit under the preaching, how you respond to the gospel that is brought to you and me through the minister? And then God thought, well, if he believes, oh, then I will choose him. They didn't under the preaching. OK, I won't choose them. There have been some in history who have taught that. It's a conditional foreknowledge. God foreknew those whom he could see into the distance, whether they would believe or not. The scriptures don't teach that, beloved. They teach that the cause of our election, the cause of everything that flows out of that election, all of the benefits and the fruits and the work of salvation which flows out of that fountain of election has its cause in the Father. That's brought out in Ephesians 1, verses 2 through 5. In Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul makes the statement, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In verse two, there the apostle and we with the church of all ages with him confess God as our father. He's the father of Jesus Christ. Because the church is the body of Christ, he is also our father for Jesus' sake. Now the question is, what is the cause of his fatherhood of you? Ephesians 1 verse 4 teaches why or the cause of why we are blessed by the Father as His dear children, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Is that based on anything we would do as His little children? Verse five answers that question and says, no, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. According to the good pleasure of his will. Not according to the good pleasure of your will or my will, but his will, his sovereign, his almighty will. That is the cause. God as your father, you as his little children. Then raises the question, well, how can that be? How is that possible? God can be our father and that which is in his counsel and will, he can bring that out, unfold us out of that counsel and make it a reality. How do we explain that? After all, he is spirit. He's the most high God and he's righteous and holy besides. How can that which is creature and that which is sinner be a child of God? The first answer to that question is it's possible for God to be father because he is the triune God. What does that mean? It means that within the Trinity, there is family relationship. There's the Father and the Son and the bond of the Holy Spirit, infinitely, perfectly. He is the ever blessed triune God who knows family. And because there is that family life in the Trinity, within himself, he knows And it is possible then for that family God to have family outside of himself in the mediator with you and me. The will and the mind and the power of God is the mind and the will and the power of the Father, the family God. He knows. what a child is and how to be father. He makes that possible with us then through his only begotten son whom he sent into our flesh. Sent him to be a man, to be just like us except sin. Came into our flesh as the firstborn of Mary and his firstborn therefore. And Jesus himself, being begotten of the Father, delighted in that father-child relationship his whole life. That was the most precious thing to him. And that becomes very clear on the cross when he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And since it is possible for the triune God to have that father-son relationship with his only begotten son, he is able to have that same similar relationship with those whom he adopts in Jesus Christ to be his children. And thus in the third place, addressing the problem then of how can God who is holy and righteous have a family of sinners How is that possible? Through Jesus Christ, God also reveals the wonder of how that's possible. He would receive into his family. He would adopt, as it were, 60-year-old criminals, hardened criminals, and murder, and adultery, and lying, and stealing, adopt them into his family. How does God do that? Through Jesus Christ alone, beloved, Through Christ, he has redeemed us and reconciled us unto himself through that shed blood of Jesus Christ, which paid for our sin, washes away the guilt of all of our crime before the face of the Father, and establishes that legal foundation for your adoption. And our elder brother also arose from the dead into the life of heavenly glory with the Father and the life of perfection with Him, and did that as our covenant head. And so for the sake of the wonder of that death, He by the Holy Spirit then puts that new life in us, giving us that lively hope through the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. so that by that work of His regeneration and renewal within us and the setting of the image of Christ within us, we rely on Him for that relationship of being a child to our Father in heaven. It's through the Spirit that we become living children of our Father. Through the Spirit, we receive all the benefits of that salvation. That relationship, beloved, whose cause, its establishment, its maintenance, its preservation is in the Father, that relationship isn't for everyone in the earth and in history. It is not true today that mankind is part of the family of God and all mankind are in the image of God even, still today. Beloved, those who do not have the image of God, natural man, cannot call God Father, do not know God as Father, never will know God as Father. wouldn't even want to call, as we read in Romans 8, God as father, Abba, father. They hate him. By nature, that is true of us as well. The number of those whom God, by the wonder of his grace, gathers into his arms of everlasting mercy is governed by election. Though the number is infinite as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the night sky, as God said to Abraham, nevertheless, it's not everyone. A remnant God gathers to himself into his family through history. And when he gathers his people whom he has determined must be his sons and daughters, once that relationship is established, it is unbreakable. That's the second distinct characteristic. unbreakable. It means for you children who adore your fathers and your mothers, we're reminded that those earthly relationships, as much as a blessing they are to us, and we're very thankful for them, how God uses our fathers and mothers in our lives, those earthly relationships are breakable. can be breakable by sin, by abuse. The father can ruin that relationship, that earthly relationship, by his own sinful actions, yes. And the father-child relationship can be broken also by death. The father's relationship to us Our Father's relationship to us as his beloved children can never be broken. The devil may try to cut you loose from the family of God and will use countless ways and temptations to do that. Nevertheless, the bond of family with the Father in heaven established by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, for the sake of Christ, that relationship the scriptures teach cannot be broken. Even when you pass the valley of the shadow of death, even then, when your body goes to the grave and your soul goes through death, even then, God is still your Father. so that as Romans 8 verse 39 teaches, it is true. Nothing, absolutely nothing, not even the devil himself, not even your own sin shall separate you from the Father and the love of Jesus Christ. That is true because in the third place, the distinct characteristic of that family relationship you have with the Father, which will never deserve which we can never merit, is enduring. That's emphasized by the second last word in the Lord's Day, by the word faithful. The Lord is faithful in himself. The Father and the Son are faithful to one another in the faithful Holy Spirit, since God is faithful infinitely. He's also faithful to you. whom he loves in Jesus Christ. Think about that for a minute. He is faithful to me. Then think about, for a few moments, about yourself, me. That's remarkable, isn't it? We think about ourselves, how often haven't we been disobedient to our Father in heaven? didn't follow his word, ran ahead of him, transgressed his commandments, complained against him. Though we daily sin against him. Though daily you sin against him and I sin against him. Has he forsaken you? Has he? What did he tell you this morning? What did he call you? Rebels? Know my beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, because as a father pitieth his children, so I am merciful or pity you. I will not forsake you. I will rescue you from your sin. I will bring you to repentance by the power of my spirit. I will work in you faith. to believe in me. And that's very clear, you see, when we forsake him in sin. God doesn't forsake us. He will chasten us to bring us to our knees. His mercy does endure forever. It brings before us the understanding that we have then an obligation to our Father in heaven. But obligation stands before the reality of God's fatherly care over us. The catechism teaches our Father in heaven is willing, always willing and able, capable of caring for you and me. He is willing to be your Father, for Jesus' sake, because He is sovereign. He is capable of being your Father, because He is almighty. Is there anything too hard for your Father in Heaven, in His care over you, His little child, Do you think there's anything too hard for Him? He has decided and that He wants to do in your life for your good. What's the answer to that? The answer is no. He will provide your daily bread as He in His wisdom has decided. He will work in you faith and salvation in Jesus Christ according to His will and by His almighty grace in Christ Jesus. When we as foolish sheep stray into sin, He will take hold of you and bring you back repentance and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will rescue you and me from our unbelief. He will restore and does restore your soul by the streams of living water. He does clothe you in the robes of righteousness and sets a crown of glory upon your head. He will and He does turn all things to your advantage. Now that doesn't mean He answers all of your questions. Why? He doesn't need to do that. But He does turn them to your advantage. And He will lead you through all of this life, all of the twists and turns in life, unto your appointed place at the table of the Father in His house of many mansions. He will. so that there will not be one chair empty when God gathers his sons and daughters before him in life everlasting. Not even your chair will be empty. Eleven, you must trust then in him. Do not doubt. His power, nor His sovereignty, to accomplish His work of grace in you. Do not doubt His care over you. Never do that. Do not ever doubt, because doubt means what we're really saying about the Father's not being faithful to His oath concerning me. His commitment from eternity, well, that's beginning to waver in my life. We dare say that about the father who's unchangeable, who is truth, who never changes the promise which has gone out of his mouth. And yet that's what doubt does, denies the father's commitment, denies the sufficiency and the power of the blood of Christ. and ignores the total power and work of the Holy Spirit of the triune God to make you, to preserve you, and soon to glorify you as His children. Do not doubt the Father's care over you. Trust in Him. Trust in His wisdom. Trust in His word. Where is the proof, we might say? Where is the proof that's going to conquer that doubt? Beloved, look to Romans 8, verses 31 through 32. We with the apostles say, what shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? If God be for you, who can be against you? He that spared not his only begotten son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things, all the things that we need? Understand, beloved, what that means. Since the Father gave up His only begotten Son for you to be adopted into His family, understand what God gave to adopt you. God gave everything that He had with His Son, life. Sent Him to the cross and forsook Him in the blackness of His infinite wrath. And that hell of the cross sacrificed him entirely. And did all of that for you. Don't you think then that being purchased by that precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Father is now going to treat you like, well, I don't care about you anymore. Or, eh, you don't love me? I'm not going to love you anymore. No. Having given us that, His only begotten Son, surely, beloved, He will give you everything that you need in body and soul, not according to your definition or my definition of what I need. but his perfect definition and wisdom of what you need and I need to get from here to there with him in the house of many mansions. Beloved, the Father is faithful beyond our comprehension. He'll never disappoint you. We will disappoint him, as it were, because of our sin. He will never disappoint you. He will never put you to shame, never. Trust, beloved, in him, your faithful father, our triune God. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious and faithful Father in heaven, we pray for the grace and the work of the Spirit to work that faith in us and the fruits of that faith for the glory of thy name and for the welfare and prosperity of our souls. We may live within life with thee and walk with thee in newness of life. Grant us that blessedness and joy. For Jesus' sake, amen.