We're turning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5. We'll read from the verse 12 of the chapter here. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and we'll read from the verse number 12 of this epistle of the apostle Paul. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and we'll read from the verse 12. Let's hear God's precious word. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit. Despise not prophesying. Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. And we'll add our own amen to the reading of his word. Let's unite in a word of prayer. Our loving Father, our gracious God, here we are around the word of God. We're here for public worship. Lord, we come to the central part of that worship. Oh God, the preaching of thy holy infallible, unchangeable Word. We pray, Lord, that our hearts might be blessed, encouraged, challenged, as we meet together. Mix, O God, the preached Word with faith, that it might be brought to our hearts with profit. Grant, dear God, help and enabling, and therefore I pray for the infilling of God the Holy Spirit. Grant unction, that I might properly function even in this pulpit today. Let none be seen but Christ alone. May none be glorified but him alone. And Lord, bring us to that position where we would say like Samuel, speak for thy servant heareth. Lord, come, speak to us in these days, and help us to be faithful to Thee. For I pray this in our Savior's precious name. Amen and amen. The theologian B.B. Warfield presented the entire spectrum of God's work in salvation within a single paragraph. He said, the work of Greece must begin with quickening the dead. Once implanted, the still slumbering life must be awakened by the call. Thus awakened, man finds himself in a new life. He knows himself to be justified. Being justified, he lets the new life result in conversion. Conversion then flows into sanctification. Sanctification receives its keystone through the severing of sin and death. And in the last day, glorification completes the work of divine grace in our entire person. All the events that Warfield spoke of with regard to a person's salvation, and I speak of that term salvation in the broadest of senses, the quickening of the dead, the implanting of new life, the effectual call, conversion, sanctification, and glorification. In all of those events, God the Holy Spirit plays a pivotal and a most significant role within our lives. Now today we come to another important doctrine with regards and has leanings towards the work of God the Holy Spirit. It is a work that God, the Holy Spirit, is presently working within our lives, a work that He plays a significant role in, a leading role, a pivotal role in, namely the work of our sanctification. It is that work, the work of sanctification, that was primarily assigned to Him, the Holy Spirit, in the council of eternity. when the God had purpose to save a people from their sin. While the work of God the Son saves a sinner from the penalty of their sin, it is the work of God the Holy Spirit, subsequent to a person's conversion, that saves them from the pollution and from the power of their sin. This office work, as some refer to it as, is a work that the third person of the Holy Trinity agreed to within the Council of Eternity. Back then, he agreed to sanctify the objects of the Father's eternal choice, the elect of God, God's people. Today I want us to look at this most important subject. And in doing so I want to set really simply a foundation to what we will consider over the coming weeks as we make our way through the month of July. And really today is but an introductory message as we think today about the Holy Spirit as our sanctifier, the Holy Spirit as our sanctifier. By way of introduction, let me say that the doctrine of sanctification, as with many other doctrines and biblical doctrines, they have been taught by those in a manner that is not faithful to the teaching of God's precious word. There are two main extremes that people have adopted when they have come to preach and to present this doctrine of sanctification. On the one hand, there are those who go to one extreme, and that extreme is that they belittle the work and the need for sanctification. These are people who ignore the subject entirely. They underestimate the necessity and the importance of this work of sanctification in the life of the child of God. Now these people often arise and often agree with those who present antinomianism. They come from the school of those who really view God's law as being irrelevant for today. Because according to them, they believe that they're no longer under the law, but they're under grace. And so the law really has no importance in the life of the child of God. But if that individual would only but read the Word of God, they would understand that Paul deals with such erroneous teaching at the end of Romans chapter 5 and then into Romans chapter 6. Because at the end of Romans chapter 5, he speaks about the superabounding grace of God, where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound. But then in chapter 6 he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And so the Apostle Paul, he speaks, yes, about their justification in chapter 5, but he also reminds these individuals that just because the grace of God has triumphed within the life, does not mean that an individual then is to continue to live in their sin. No, rather, the believer is to reckon themselves to be dead on to sin. And so those who ascribe to antinomianism, they see little need for this progressive growth in holiness. And that's what sanctification is. A progressive growth in holiness. Holiness of life. Holiness of behavior. holiness in every aspect of our living. And so those who go to one extreme, they say, well, I'm under grace. I'm no longer under the law. I can live as I like. I can do what I like. I can say what I like. And really, it's all under the grace of God. That's one extreme. Then on the other extreme, there are those who would follow an ultra-Armenian line of teaching that views that sanctification is not a work of a lifetime, but it is a once and for all act that occurs in a moment of time. Such speak of a second work of grace. or the second blessing, in which a person is fully sanctified in a moment of time. Now within that school, there are, yes, divergent views, but there are some go to the very extreme of sinless perfection, boasting that from the moment of their full sanctification, they have never sinned. And they're unable to make such a claim because they make a differentiation between sin and infirmity. They make a differentiation between sins of ignorance and sins of willfulness, and yet the Bible makes no such distinction. Sin is sin, whatever it is. It may appease their own conscience to say this is but an infirmity, but it's sin. It's sin. This idea of a sinless perfection, well, we don't believe that the Bible teaches such a thing. And so lest we stray into the territory of any two of those extremes, and those extreme schools of thinking, we need to get a hold of what the Bible what the Bible, what God's Word has to say with regard to this doctrine of salvation. Because people can boast about their spiritual experiences, but we always need to bring those experiences to the Word of God and see if they're verified as a genuine experience or not. And so we want to look at this subject of sanctification over the next number of weeks. Now, by commencing, we want to think, as we look at the Holy Spirit as our sanctifier, we want to think primarily, initially, what sanctification is. What is sanctification? Now, it's not my intention to reinvent the wheel. It's not my intention to do that when coming to define sanctification. Such has been done for us within our own confession of faith, within the larger and shorter catechisms. If you don't have a copy, You'll find copies there, the Westminster Confession of Faith, at least on the top rung of our magazine stand. Chapter 13 is the chapter that you should read when it comes to the biblical teaching of sanctification. But let me bring you to the larger and the shorter catechisms. Question 75, larger catechism, what is sanctification? They give the answer, sanctification is a work of God's grace. were by they whom God hath, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in the whole man after the image of God. having the seeds of repentance unto life and other saving graces put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as they more and more die unto sin and rise unto newness of life. The shorter catechism gives a little more concise definition in answering the question, what is sanctification? Sanctification is a work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man the whole man, the whole man, after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die on to sin and live on to righteousness. Now what I glean from those answers, which, folks, are but the summary of the Bible's teaching on the doctrine, and they are, as it were, our creed, that which we adhere to? What I glean from those answers is a number of things. First of all, sanctification is a work, not an act of God. As one person put it, justification is the act of a moment, but sanctification is the work of a lifetime. Justification is an act of a moment, a moment of time. A man passes from death to life, darkness to light from sin to God happens in a moment of time justified in a moment think of that publican went up to the temple to pray praise to God God be merciful to me a sinner or as the original has it the sinner and what does it say the next verse this man went to his house justified. There in a moment of time, changed by the grace of God. Justification is an act of a moment of time, but sanctification is the work of a lifetime. The second thing I notice is that this sanctification is forwarded in the life of the believer by the operation of God the Holy Spirit. I will be thinking next week in the will of God Concerning that, is it all God? Is it all God? As someone said, they asked the question, if you were to ask a Christian, who lives your life? The Christian would have to stand back and wonder how to answer that particular question, because if they say, God lives my life, Well then what about all the inconsistencies within? What about all the failures? Do we ascribe that to God? They certainly don't want to say that they live their Christian life, but I suppose there is the balance. God gives his people to live out the Christian life. And so we're thinking here, but it is primarily this work of God's grace. This is the work of the Holy Spirit within our lives. The third thing I notice is that this work leads to our forsaking of sin. and our pursuing of righteousness and holiness. This is what this work does. It leads us to abandon our sin and to pursue after righteousness and after holiness. J.C. Ryle, we often go to him, that great Anglican bishop of Liverpool, he defines sanctification as that inward spiritual work. Which the Lord Jesus Christ works in the man by the Holy Ghost. when he calls him to be a true believer. He not only washes them from his sins in his own blood, but he also separates him from his natural love of sin and the world. It's a new principle in his heart and makes him practically godly in life. This is what the Spirit of God does. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones defines sanctification as that gracious and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit by which he delivers the justified sinner from the pollution of sin, renews his own nature in the image of God, and enables him to perform good works. Robert Shaw in his exposition of The Westminster Confession of Faith, he said, the sanctification of believers consists in the purification of the pollution of sin and the renovation of their nature after the image of God. Now, all of these things may have confused you a little, so let's go to the Word of God. Let's think about the words that the Holy Spirit uses. And I believe that as we consider those words, both in Old and New Testament, this doctrine is presented, this idea of sanctification is presented within both Old and New Testament. As we look at those words, it starts to become a little clearer what sanctification is and what is actually involved in this work of God the Holy Spirit. Let's use, then, the Old Testament. Let's look at the word used there. The root word used in the Old Testament for sanctify is the Hebrew word qadash. It appears 171 times. It's an important word. Not just a few times, but on a number of occasions, 171 times this word qadash is presented. Now, it has two meanings. The first meaning is to cut or to separate. That's the first meaning. The second meaning is to shine. To cut, to separate, The second meaning is to shine. One example, let me give you one, Exodus chapter 28 and the verse number 41. Now, this portion is with respect to Aaron and his sons, how they're being separated for the work of the Levitical priesthood, Exodus chapter 28 verse 41, and thou shalt put upon Aaron thy brother and his sons with him, speaking off the coats and the girdles and the different vestments for ministering, and shalt anoint them and consecrate them and quadesh them, sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. What a challenge that is to every servant of God. God has sanctified a grouping of men to preach the gospel, to be officers within his church, and the requirement of that individual is that they would be sanctified, separated, cut off, set apart to minister unto God. This is the idea here. They're set apart from the rest of Israel. God has severed them off, cut them off, isolated them, set his electing love upon them, called them, consecrated them, and now he's sanctifying them that they might minister in the priest's office. But what about this thought of shining? This thought of shining, well, I tried to do a little bit of study with respect to it, and Martin Lloyd-Jones helped me again. He put the two together. He said, I'm ready to put the two meanings together, to separate, to cut, and to shine, because I think the two aspects do come into the whole question of sanctification. There is a cutting off, he said. There is a separation. Yes, but true sanctification also involves a shining. The sort of thing that was seen on Moses' face after he had been up on the mountain of God. There is a sort of brightness about holiness. Something of the Shekinah glory itself. There's a shining when a man and a woman, they find themselves separated from the world and on to God. Surely, surely there's something bright about that individual. Surely there's something different about a holy man of God. This is what I need to be. I, and yes, this is what you need to be as an individual Christian. Think of Peter, or sorry, Stephen. When he was stoned to death, there by the council, we read about his face shining. Moses' face shone. Oh, for the glory of God. Oh, for holiness of life. So there is this idea of cutting, of separating. It is also the thought of a shining. We come into the New Testament, and the word used in the New Testament to sanctify is the word Hagiazio, Hagiazio. And really it has the same meaning as the Old Testament. It means to separate, to consecrate, to purify morally. There are many verses that contain this word. John 17, 17, Christ in his high priestly prayer, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word. is truth. Ephesians 5, 25 and 26, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word. And we read another incident there in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, and the very God of peace sanctify you partly. The vast majority of you, wholly, every part, sanctify you, separate you. And so what we learn from these words in both Old and New Testament is that there is a thought, firstly, of a separation from, and secondly, a separation unto. A separation from and a separation onto. A separation from what? From sin. A separation onto what? No. A separation onto who? Onto God. A separation from sin, a separation unto God. To put it another way, a separation from that which is evil and a setting apart for that which is good. It is the separating from everything that is profane, everything that is evil, everything that is unclean, everything that is impure, in order that a person might be entirely devoted to God and to His service, a service that we're all called to. Not just preacher. but a service that we're all called to. And so this doctrine is a very practical doctrine. It's a very soul-searching doctrine, because it is a doctrine that touches every part of our lives as children of God. What one of us could say here today, that we don't need the sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit in our lives. Who among us could claim that they're beyond needing this work of sanctification when it comes to their own personal walk with God? Who among us would even dare to claim that they have attained to a point in their Christian lives where all sin has been driven out and they're walking in perfect step and in perfect harmony with God? Which one could say that today? Because this preacher couldn't. And I'm sure you couldn't say it either. None of us could. Regardless of how long we are on the Christian road and how much we think our lives to be conformed to Christ, there is always the need for more of His sanctifying work within all of our lives. Sadly, sadly this doctrine, a doctrine presented in the Word of God, has fallen out of use, fallen into great disuse. within the church of Jesus Christ. Maybe that's due to the fact that the preacher needs as much to be sanctified as the congregation. We like to preach something that's maybe not so hard against the flesh, preacher included. And so we steer away from it, we verge away from it, because we want to save the flesh. We don't want the flesh to be crucified. We don't want to relinquish our hold on the world. No, we want to keep the world close to us. We want to live like the world. And so the preacher, he stays clear of it. And yet sanctification is that applicable doctrine to our entire living. Think of it. Justification. It happens in a moment of time. God saves us. I don't know when he saved you. Maybe as a child, maybe later on in life. And then we think about glorification. Think of glorification here. Think of justification here. But what about everything in between? We all look back to the day we were saved, and we all look forward to the day that we're going to be glorified. But folks, God has a work to do in between. And it's called sanctification. This conformity to Jesus Christ, this likeness to the Savior, this putting off of sin and living on to God and on to righteousness. There's a grand work to be done throughout all of our lives. Oh may God help us then to consider this great doctrine. Now we've thought about what sanctification is. Really, it is our progress in holiness, which is accomplished by our separating from sin and our separating of ourselves onto God. That's as simple as I can put it today. But as I thought about this, I thought about, well, how could it be explained even more simply? This sanctification, this work of sanctification, it is but an introductory message. And so I thought about how the work of sanctification is pictured for us within the word of God. Now, there are young boys and girls here. Do you know what type of books you like the best? Those with no words and all pictures. And that's the type of book that I liked, to read all pictures, no words. And you know, God's word, and I'm speaking disrespectful here, but God's word is like a picture book. And God gives us different pictures because he knows how simple we are. And I'm not underestimating how intelligent you may be. You may have degrees, you may have titles in front of your name, but we're all very simple. And God knows that. And so God gears his word to the most simplest of minds, and so he presents various pictures, how this work of sanctification goes on in the life of the child of God. And I want to look at a number of them today as I, well, I'm going to say close, but we're not closing just yet, so don't be getting too comfortably. But we'll look at a number of them. Let's consider, first of all, this work of sanctification in the word picture of the potter's wheel. the potter's wing. One of the most powerful analogies in the Bible regarding our sanctification and our transformation is the analogy of the potter and the clay. The Bible says that God is the potter and we're just the clay. We need to remember that. We're just the clay. And the prophet Jeremiah is commanded by God in Jeremiah chapter 18 to make his way down to the potter's house. Chapter 18, Jeremiah, the word which came on to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again. another vessel, as seemeth good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. We are in his hand. We are in God's hand. If you know Christ today, you're in his hand. And you're just like this clay, and I'm just like this clay. God has thrown us to the wheel. And God has centered us on the wheel. And as he shapes us and as he fashions us, just the same way as in the mind of the potter, there is a finished article, there is a finished piece of pottery within his mind, as he shapes and as he fashions the clay, so in the mind of God, God is something in mind as he shapes and as he fashions and as he moulds us. And what is in his mind? It's Christ. His own Son. You see, he's trying to shape us and fashion us with respect to the prototype, the initial image, the initial item, and that is Christ. And he has this image of Christ, and he wants to shape every child of God. Now at times there are resistant parts within the clay. And so the potter, he has to take out his knife and he has to remove those resistant parts because they are conflicting with what he desires to fashion. They're contrary to what he wants to do. He's wanting to form an image, some particular shape upon that clay. And so God, in our lives, there are parts that are resistant, and so he takes the clay and he cuts out that resistant part, he removes it, he casts it off, and he takes it again. Now sometimes we become even more than the hand of the potter. Sometimes our lives become a mess. So far as our departure from God, so far as our backsliding, that we find ourselves like that old lump of clay with deformity in it, with absolutely nothing of the likeness of Jesus Christ. What does the potter do? Does he throw out the clay? No. Because this is God who's the potter. I tell you, many a Christian would throw out the clay. Whenever the clay is put on the wheel, Is the end product there? Of course it isn't. But you know, some of God's people expect the end product to be there. Now that is no excuse for us to live in sin. But the end product is not there and it will not be there until we find ourselves in the glory. But folks, through life, he's shaping us and he's molding us. And maybe you're here today and you've made a mess of your life. Some sin has come in, and you look at the clay, and you look at your life, and you see yourself just to be like that deformed lump of clay. Thank God the potter will take you again, and he'll shape you, and he'll mold you again. Maybe you're here today as a believer, and you're resistant to the shaping of the potter, and the fashioning of the hands of the heavenly potter. Maybe God has been speaking to you about some relationship that needs to be ended because it has led to spiritual decline in your Christian life. Maybe some practice needs to be halted. because it's marring your relationship and fellowship with God. Maybe some association, some affiliation that you have with things within this world you need to be separated from because it's grieving to God. Instead of resisting His work, yield. Yield to the hand of the potter. I think of that verse there, 2 Timothy 2 verse 21, vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work. Is that not what you want to be, child of God? To be a vessel unto honor? To be sanctified, set apart, and meet, prepared for the master's use? God brings us to the potter's house. But the second place that we're brought to that I believe vividly portrays what God does in sanctification, that second word picture, it's found in various portions of God's Word. Job 23 is one, Isaiah 48 is another, Malachi 3 is another. It is the picture of the refiner's fire. Job 23 10, but he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Isaiah 48 verse 10, Behold, I have refined thee not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Malachi 3 verse 3, And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto God an offering in righteousness. In these verses, the Holy Spirit conveys the reader to the refining process that God brings His children through in order to remove the dross of sin and worldliness. Taking from our lives, extracting from our lives, removing all that is vaccine to God. It's like the refining process of the gold and silver brought into the crucible, brought into the fire in order to obtain a pure metal free from contamination. Our hearts at times can be full of corruption, full of the world, full of sin, full of evil. And so God takes us to the fire. brings us in to the crucible to refine us, to purge us, in order that he might present us faultless before the throne. One preacher put it like this, a refiner has his furnace to the heat to which he subjects the precious metals for the great purpose of sanctification or purification, so Christ has his furnace to purge his people from the dross of sin, as seen sometimes by their worldly conformity, by their declining love, by their lethargy in the cause, and by inefficiency in spiritual warfare. And so he puts them into the furnace of affliction, to wean their hearts from the earth, to teach them its vanity, to cause them to seek a more enduring substance. Maybe you're in the refiner's fire today. Maybe the fire seems to be seven times hotter. Maybe you're in the furnace of sickness, the furnace of affliction, the furnace of bereavement, the furnace of poverty, the furnace of tribulation, the furnace of criticism. If it does, remember this. The refiner sits before the furnace. He watches the process. He regulates the heat. And he waits to deliver you from the fire when his purposes are fulfilled in your life. You know, the amazing thing is, whenever the gold and the silver is put into the fire, do you know what the amazing thing is? That nothing that is worth anything is lost in that process. The dross isn't sold off. There's no profit, there's no value to the dross that's removed from the gold. Nothing of value is lost in the refining process. And folks, as God sanctifies you and I, nothing of value is lost. Nothing. You may think it is, but nothing of value is lost. The third and final, I could speak of the sieve. I was reading off it just last night. Read about the sieve there. Amos, let me give it to you. Amos chapter nine, verse number nine. For though I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not a least grain fall upon the earth. That sifting process, the removal of the chaff, it's a little bit like sanctification. God just wants to remove the chaff. That's all he wants to do. The grain will not fall to the ground. That'll be kept, that'll be preserved. But the chaff will. But the final incident, the final picture is that of the athlete's regime. Hebrews 12 verse one. Wherefore seeing, we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us." The picture is that of the athlete, that athlete who divests, who strips him or herself of everything that would slow them down in the running of the race. The inspired writer speaks about laying aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us. And as God works in sanctification, he, by his Spirit and by grace, enables the believer to lay aside their sin, enabling them to run the Christian race. The apostle Paul, he uses Maybe a little similar idea when he writes there in Colossians 3 verse 8 to 10. But now ye also put off all these, anger, malice, wrath, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him. There is a putting off, and there is a putting on. This is sanctification, sanctification. And so God would have us to lay aside, lay aside the sin which doth so easily beset you and I. As I close, let me ask you, is there something that needs to be laid aside? Something that is hindering, something that is hampering, impeding your progress with God. That's all the minister wants to see, people going on with God. But maybe there's just something that needs to be laid aside. Well, let me encourage you, let me exhort you to cast it aside. Run the race. Win the prize. Win the prize set before you. Let all impediments be surrendered up to God and you'll find, you'll find God's blessing will accompany such an action on your part and on my part. My time is gone. We've simply laid a foundation We'll maybe lay a little bit more of the foundation next Lord's Day, but I trust that what I've said, what sanctification is and how it's pictured for us in God's Word, that'll give you a little idea, a greater understanding of what we're speaking about here, about this role of God within our lives, this important work that God is doing. the separating of us from sin and on to Christ. May God sanctify me. May God sanctify you that we might be sanctified vessels, meat for the Master's use. May God bless His word to our hearts. Let's bow our heads in prayer and seek the Lord O God, our loving Father, we come before Thee. And how dear God we need. We need to hear, God, what it is to be a Christian and our responsibilities, what God expects of us, what is required of us. We pray, Lord, that we'll not be like those who just look back to a moment of salvation and really there's nothing Nothing else happens. There's no desire for God, no desire for holiness, no desire for the Word, no desire for God's house. Really, Lord, there's no desire for Thee. Lord, come and sanctify, sanctify this body of believers who help us to be those who are separated from sin and separated on to God. And maybe, dear God, there be one here today not saved in their sin. Oh God, by thy Spirit, separate them in this meeting. Help them to understand the great gulf that exists between them and God. And may they find in Christ the one who spans the gulf and who reconciles God to man and man to God. And so answer prayer. Bless thy word to every waiting soul. We offer these, our petitions, in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen.