On Christ the Solid Rock We Stand

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Amen, and I want to invite you to remain standing and open your Bibles.
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We're going to be this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
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Our focus is only going to really be on one verse, but so that we read it within its context, we're going to read verses 1 to 5.
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1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 1.
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For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
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And all ate the same spiritual drink, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
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Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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This morning, as we look into your word and see the Son, not only as he is so gloriously given to us on the pages of the New Testament, but as he is hidden in signs and in shadows in the Old Testament, I pray, O God, that you would, by your mercy and grace, grant me first and foremost, Lord, your Holy Spirit, that I might preach with the power and conviction of a man under the power of the Spirit.
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And Lord, might I preach to these people as it were I was a dying man preaching to dying people.
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And I pray, Father, that you would keep me from error, for Lord, the danger of being a teacher is that not all should be teachers, for teachers will be held at a higher standard.
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And I pray, Lord, that that which has been prepared to preach today would be fitting with your truth.
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And Lord, anything that is wrong would be kept from my mouth and, Lord, from the hearts of your people.
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And I pray, Father, that as the word is preached, that it would be mixed with faith and that it would go out into the hearts of the believer and, Lord, encourage them toward a closer walk with Christ, toward repentance of sin, towards trust and commitment.
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And for those, Lord, who know not Christ, who came today and have not yet bowed the knee to him, Lord, that they would see him today as the only one worthy to be worshiped, the only rock that we can build our eternity upon.
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For there is one rock and that rock is Christ, and we pray it in his name.
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Amen.
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Have you ever come to a passage of scripture that left you scratching your head? If you're like me, it probably happens to you more often than you want to admit.
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One of the doctrines that was argued for during the Protestant Reformation was called the doctrine of perspiscuity.
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The doctrine of perspiscuity is simply the doctrine of clarity, that is to say that the Bible is given to us in such a way that that which is to be known for salvation, that which is necessary knowledge, is clear and unambiguous.
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The Westminster Confession of Faith says this, those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of scripture or other, that not only the learned but the unlearned in a due use of the ordinary means may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.
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Simply stated, the Bible is sufficiently clear in regard to the essential things, but that doesn't mean the Bible is equally clear about everything.
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In fact, there are some parts of the scripture that are not clear and are a little confusing.
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Peter even expresses this when he's talking about the writings of Paul, he says, To count the patience of our Lord is salvation, just as our brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.
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There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruction.
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Isn't it interesting when we look at the history of the church, how much Peter's words there have happened that the people who twist the scriptures often twist the writings of Paul? They twist them because Peter says they are unlearned and unstable.
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They're ignorant and unstable.
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It's interesting that the scripture acknowledges that not all of it is as equally to understand as other parts.
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Some passages take time to dig into their meanings and discover their truths.
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And today, I think we've come to a passage that has the capacity for a little bit of confusion.
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And I preached last week for those who are not a regular attender or a person who maybe it's your first Sunday with us.
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I preach verse by verse through books of the Bible.
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We happen to be in First Corinthians and we've been in it for many, many months.
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And we've just been going passage by passage.
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And last week I preached verses 1 through 13 as an overview.
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And as I was preaching it, I came to verse 4 and I said, you know what, I've got to come back to this.
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I don't have time in an overview to really dig out the meaning of this and help you to understand it.
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Because what Paul says in verse 4 is a little peculiar.
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He's talking about the fact that in the wilderness wanderings, as Israel left Egypt on their exodus and they went to the promised land, there was a 40 year period that they were left in the wilderness by God and the entire generation that left Israel or left Egypt that was among Israel that was 20 years old and older died in the wilderness.
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Literally, there were deaths happening every day.
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There were funerals happening every day in every camp.
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And there were people dying and there were corpses strewn throughout the wilderness of these people who died.
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An entire generation died.
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And Paul is telling us in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1 to 13, this is an example to us of people who begin but do not complete the life of faith.
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These are people who begin but do not follow through.
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And Paul tells us in verse 12, let him who takes, he stands, take heed lest he falls.
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Well, in the midst of this admonition, Paul says something very peculiar.
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In talking about the blessings that Israel received, he talked to them about the rock that gave them water.
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In verse 4, he says, all drank from the same spiritual drink.
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They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ.
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Well, beloved today, those four words are our subject.
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Paul says the rock was Christ.
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I want to seek to answer some questions about this passage.
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I want to seek to hopefully clarify its meaning and understanding.
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And I want to challenge us by what Paul means when he says that the rock was Christ.
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I want to show that Christ is the fountain of life and the foundation stone for all men, whether they be men of the new covenant or men of the old covenant.
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Christ is the foundation of faith and the rock upon which we all stand.
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And we're going to do this in a series of questions.
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I've come today rather than an outline of didactic points.
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I've come with an outline of questions.
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I'm going to ask a question and then answer it.
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The questions will be on the screen.
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So we'll begin with the first question.
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Is Paul pointing in this passage to a physical or a spiritual reality in the life of Israel? Is Paul pointing to a physical or a spiritual reality in the life of Israel? Well, some folks don't even know what I'm talking about because you're unfamiliar with the history of the Exodus and the story behind what Paul is saying.
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The Israelites had left Egypt under the leadership of Moses.
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They were pursued by the Egyptians until God parted the Red Sea and they made their way across on dry land.
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That's in Exodus 14.
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After this, the Israelites were traveling through the desert toward the Promised Land.
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And in chapter 16 of Exodus, God provides for them bread from heaven.
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Do you guys remember that? Do you remember what that bread was called? Manna.
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Do you know what manna means? What is it? They didn't know what it was.
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So they said, what is it? And that phrase in Hebrew is manna.
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What is this? And so that's what they called it.
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And the scripture says that it looked like coriander seed and it tasted like wafers made with honey.
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So God provided the food for them to eat.
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And you would think that if God supplied us with a food from heaven that literally was raining down on them every day to fill their need, you would think that they would trust God to fulfill all of their needs.
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You would think.
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You would think that they would be thankful and filled with praise.
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You would think.
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You would think that they would be in awe of the majesty and wonder of the angel's food that they're now being able to eat themselves.
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That's coming to them directly from the hand of God.
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You would think.
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But instead, in chapter 17, the very next chapter, we find Israel again complaining and griping and bemoaning.
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This time not food, though they would eventually complain about the manna.
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But this time they're going to complain that they have nothing to drink.
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So turn with me to Exodus 17.
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I actually want you to see this because, again, if you're unfamiliar with it, I want you to have seen this in the text.
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So in Exodus 17, we get the reference that Paul is pointing back to when he says the rock was Christ.
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This is the rock and this is the narrative behind the rock.
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It's in Exodus 17, beginning in verse 1.
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I'm going to read down to verse 7.
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Verse 1 says, All the congregation of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages according to the commandment of the Lord and camped in Rephidim.
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But there was no water for the people to drink.
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Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink.
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And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water.
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And the people grumbled against Moses and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? They're almost ready to stone me.
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And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and taking your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
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Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and people will drink.
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And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
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And he called the name of that place Massa and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, Is the Lord among us or not? So here we see the narrative.
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A water-giving rock is a physical reality in the life of the people of Israel.
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This is a physical reality.
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It's not, as some have suggested, simply a metaphor.
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This is an actual event.
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It's not just a spiritualized version of something that happened.
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And I'm careful with this type of interpretation, because if somebody spiritualizes this story, and says, Well, it wasn't really a rock.
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It wasn't really water.
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What really happened was Moses found a spring, and he took the people to the spring.
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He said, Look, God provided this spring.
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And later the people realized that Moses was really smart, because he was good at finding springs.
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And so what he did was he found a spring, and later on they created this myth about a rock that was giving them water, because the spring maybe had a little bubble that was popping up out of it.
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And that's what they saw, and that's what they believed had happened.
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It wasn't a miracle.
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It was just really good navigation skills on behalf of Moses.
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Well, that's a dangerous path to go down in interpretation.
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Because eventually you have people who want to conclude that everything in the Bible is spiritualized.
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And there really wasn't an Adam and Eve.
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They're just spiritual representatives of our evolutionary ancestors.
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There really wasn't an ark.
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That was just a spiritual representative of God protecting his people from some kind of a watery ordeal.
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And there really wasn't a Tower of Babel.
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That was just a story for us to be able to understand why there's different languages, and so on, and so on, and so on.
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And the Bible becomes a hodgepodge of mythological stories, rather than telling us what really happened, a narrative of history.
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It seems clear to me that this rock was physical, and the water was physical.
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There is nothing to indicate in the course of this narrative that this is anything but a physical rock.
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But it served a spiritual function.
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So when I say it was physical, that doesn't mean it wasn't also spiritual.
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Because Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10, says it was a spiritual rock, and there was spiritual water coming out of the rock.
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He's not saying it wasn't real.
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He wasn't saying it wasn't physical.
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He was telling us there's a spiritual component to the purpose behind this rock.
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What is it? What is the spiritual component? It is a reminder of the ever-present, sustaining providence of Almighty God.
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The rock represents God's present, sustaining providence in the life of His people.
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Outside of air, there's nothing in the world we need more than water.
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We can go days without food, some of us maybe more than others.
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But you can't go very long without water.
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A few weeks ago, we had to take Cody to the hospital, had to take him to the ER.
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You know, he's got a job in construction now, and he works outside in the heat of the day all day long, and he hadn't been drinking like he was supposed to, and he was dizzy, and he felt peckish, and he didn't look good, and he was hot to the touch.
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And we said, boy, there's something wrong with you.
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Took him to the doctor, he was completely dehydrated.
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They had to give him fluid in his veins, just to bring him back to normal, so that he could begin to drink again, and to replenish his fluids.
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And that could have killed him.
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Water is an absolute necessity of physical life.
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And by providing the people with water to drink, God was sustaining them.
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He was showing His sustaining grace to them.
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But there is a question, though, that comes up.
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The question is this.
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Was the rock an ever-present thing, or was the rock something that happened this time, and one time later? I want to show you the later.
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If you still have your Bibles open to Exodus, or rather where we were, we were in Exodus 17.
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Turn to Numbers 20.
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Because we see this situation happen again in Numbers 20.
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It's a very similar situation, but it happens in a different location.
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So we know that it's a different event.
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It's later in the life of Israel.
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It's later in the history of their wilderness wanderings.
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And here we say, in Numbers 20, in verse 2, it says this.
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Now there was no rotter for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and Aaron.
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There seems to be a pattern there.
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When there's a problem, we go against God's chosen leadership.
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And the people quarreled, in verse 3, with Moses and said, Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord? Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? Why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? There's no place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.
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Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
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And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.
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So you shall bring water out of the rock for them, and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.
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And Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he commanded him, and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock.
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And he said to them, Hear now, you rebels! Shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their livestock.
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And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.
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These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.
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Notice, this is an important moment in the life of Moses.
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This is actually the moment where God says, You're not going to be the one who takes him to the promised land.
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For what reason? Within the narrative, Moses is given a very specific command.
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Go before the people of God and speak to the rock.
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Now remember in the first narrative in Exodus, he was told to strike the rock, and he did, and water came forth.
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But this time he was not told to strike the rock.
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This time he was told simply to speak, and that water would come forth.
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And yet he came before the people of Israel, and I do believe that Moses was frustrated with them.
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And boy howdy, can't we understand.
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I'm not besmirching the character of Moses.
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Because you read through the narrative of those 40 years, and it was a constant cycle of anger, complaining, hatred.
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Moses intercedes, God gives a blessing, the people are happy for a minute, and then they're angry, and they're complaining, and it cycles through over and over.
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And so Moses goes in front of the people and he says, Shall we bring water? That's a huge moment, because at that moment, there's a sense in which Moses is equating himself with what's happening.
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Rather than God alone doing the miracle, Moses is attaching himself to what's happening, we.
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But he strikes the rock, and it says he strikes it twice.
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It doesn't say the reason for the second strike.
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It could be that he struck it once and nothing happened.
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Because he wasn't told to strike it.
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That's a bit of speculation, but the text simply says, he struck it twice and water came forth.
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But God was unpleased with this entire situation.
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Now the reason why I point out both scenarios is because within the narrative of the wilderness traveling, these are the two scenes that have this rock.
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However, there is a belief among the Jewish people that the rock traveled with them as they went.
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That it wasn't just one time in Exodus 17, and one time in Numbers 20, but that there was this ever-present rock that was always with them.
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And Paul actually seems to indicate that in 1 Corinthians 10, because he says in 1 Corinthians 10, the rock followed them.
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Look back at it just very quickly.
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Looking back at 1 Corinthians 10, he says, And all drank from the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that what? Followed them.
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Some people believe this is Moses acquiescing to a Jewish myth.
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I'm sorry, Paul.
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Some people believe Paul is acquiescing to a Jewish myth, meaning this, there was a Jewish myth among the people, it wasn't a real thing that happened, but he's acquiescing to it because that's what they all believed.
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I think that's kind of a tough argument to make, but some do make it.
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Others argue that this was a physical reality that wasn't miraculous at all.
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Have you ever heard of a sailing stone? If you ever watch National Geographic, there's actually these stones in the desert that when there's moisture at night, the moisture freezes because the deserts drop below freezing temperatures at night, but in the daytime, it's blasting hot.
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And as the water begins to melt, it causes rocks to move.
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And they've actually had rocks that move meters at a time during the day.
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And some people say, well, this is just what it is.
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It's a natural geological phenomenon.
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There's a sailing stone that just happens to be following Israel.
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I don't think that's true either because I don't think this is a geological marvel.
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I think that this is a God designed miracle.
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I don't think this is just some geological accident.
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I think God is doing this.
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And some people say the rock didn't move.
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And they argue that again, Paul is simply acquiescing to a myth.
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I have to go with Paul on this one.
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I think the rock was an ever present reality in their life to remind them of the presence of God.
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And at the end of the day, this is what's important.
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The rock gave them water, physical water.
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Exodus 17, Numbers 20, no doubt.
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There's no reason to allegorize that.
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And Paul says the rock followed them.
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I'm just going to go with Paul on that.
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But Paul also says the rock was spiritual in nature.
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And here's what I believe.
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I believe in the literal sense, the rock provided the resource of water.
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But in the spiritual sense, the rock provided the resource of reminder.
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Of the ever present sustaining power of God.
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So if somebody asked me and said, Pastor, do you think the rock was physical or spiritual? I would say yes.
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Because I don't think we have to distinguish.
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I think it can be physical and have a spiritual component.
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Now, the next question that we're going to address.
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How was the rock a type of Christ? Because Paul doesn't just say there was a rock that followed them.
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And the rock gave them water.
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And that it was a spiritual rock.
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He says the rock was Christ.
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Now, it is important.
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That when we hear those words.
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That we do not immediately jump into crass literalism.
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I don't believe in metaphoric or allegorical interpretation.
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But I also don't believe in crass literalism.
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Meaning that some people actually do believe.
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That the rock was physically Jesus of Nazareth.
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Like a physical person.
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They're a very small minority.
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But they're out there.
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People ask me all the time.
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Do you believe the Bible is literal? I say I believe the Bible is written in all kinds of different language.
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It's written in poetry.
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It's written in prophecy.
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It's written in narrative.
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It is written in didactic language.
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And you have to interpret the Bible according to the language that's being used at that time.
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Isaiah 55 says.
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For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace.
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The mountains and the hills before you shall break into singing.
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And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
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Trees ain't got no hands.
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And mountains don't have a voice box.
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But that's what's called anthropomorphic language.
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The ascribing of physical human traits to that which is inanimate.
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And we see that throughout the Bible.
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The Bible says God girds us under his wings.
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Some people think God has feathers.
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That's wrong interpretation.
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You understand? Jesus said I am the door.
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I am the gate.
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I am the bread.
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I am the way.
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This is the language of analogy.
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So when Paul tells us the rock was Christ.
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What I believe he meant was the rock was a type of Christ.
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In that when we study the Old Testament.
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What we find is that Jesus Christ is seen to us.
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Often times through types.
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Now in our Sunday school class.
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We actually started a series this morning.
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On seeing Christ in the Old Testament.
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And the subject is called typology.
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Typology is the study of types and antitypes.
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A type is something that represents something else.
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And the antitype in Greek terms.
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It's that which represents something.
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And that which it was represented by.
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And it's usually given to us in the as and so.
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If you read the New Testament.
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It says as in Adam all die.
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So in Christ all shall be made alive.
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As in the days of Noah.
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So will the days of the son of man be.
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As Moses was lifted up.
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As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
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So shall the son of man be lifted up.
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As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.
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So will the son of man be three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.
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You see how that works.
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The language of as and so.
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And we see this throughout the Old Testament.
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Think about how many types prefigured Christ in the Old Testament.
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The ark that Noah went into.
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Was a type of Christ.
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It was the wrath of God raining down outside.
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And eight souls were saved by what? The ark.
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And the ark represented Christ.
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Because if we are outside of Christ.
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When the wrath of God comes it will fall upon us.
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But if we are in Christ.
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We are protected from the wrath of God.
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You see.
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The brazen serpent.
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Was a type of Christ.
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Those who looked on the serpent.
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Believed and were saved.
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The Passover lamb.
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John said behold.
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The lamb of God.
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Who takes away the sin of the world.
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The scapegoat.
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Where the people of Israel prayed their sins.
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On the head of this goat.
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And the goat carried their sins away from them.
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Think about when Isaac was on the mountain with Abraham.
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And there was a ram.
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That substituted.
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That ram.
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Took the punishment.
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Took the sacrifice.
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That Isaac was going to receive.
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And thus became a picture of the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Old Testament is filled with types and anti-types.
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The pictures that would later have their great fulfillment in the person of Christ.
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So when Paul tells us the rock was Christ.
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We know how this fits into our understanding of Scripture.
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The rock has a characteristic among God's people.
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That prefigured a characteristic that Jesus himself would have.
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Jesus stood up in John 7.
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And said if anyone thirsts.
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What? Come to me.
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And drink.
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What did he say to the woman at the well? If you knew who it was who spoke to you this day.
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You would have asked him.
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And he would have given you.
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Living water.
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Third question and final question.
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What does this teach us? About Jesus and the Old Testament Scriptures.
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What does this teach us? I believe that this passage reminds us.
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Of the necessity of a Christ-centric view of the Bible.
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What do I mean by that? I mean that when we read the Bible.
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We understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is at the center of it all.
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Now that doesn't mean we shoehorn in things that are.
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And we talked about this in Sunday school.
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Sometimes people shoehorn in things where they're not intended to be fit.
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And that's not appropriate either.
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We don't want to be extreme on one side or the other.
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But we have to understand.
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There's a center to the scripture.
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And the center is not physical national Israel.
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The center is Jesus Christ.
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I think that's where the big issue comes up.
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Is people who get so focused on national Israel.
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That they miss the importance of the one who was the seed of Abraham.
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Remember Paul said he didn't say seeds.
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He said seed.
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And the seed is Christ.
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He's the center.
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He's the focus.
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I've had people tell me this is wrong.
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I've had people tell me you cannot read the New Testament back into the Old Testament.
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And I say beloved.
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There is a relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
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And that relationship is found in Jesus Christ.
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You don't have to look too hard.
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To see that passages like Isaiah 53.
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Are so pointed to Christ.
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That they can't be about anyone else.
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This is on my heart.
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It really is.
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Because one of the great truths that we have.
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That confirmed to us the promises of scripture.
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Is the cohesion of this book.
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This is a super naturally super intended work.
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It was written by men.
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But it was super intended by God.
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It was overseen.
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Holy men spoke.
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As they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
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And from the first page to the last page.
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The meta narrative of scripture.
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Is God's plan of redemption through His Son.
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And if you tell me I'm wrong about that.
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And I can't look at Christ as the center of my scriptures.
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We just have to disagree.
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I'm not ashamed of saying I have a Christocentric hermeneutic.
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Meaning that's the way I look at the Bible.
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Graham Goldsworthy wrote a book called Gospel Centered Hermeneutics.
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I want you to hear just a quick snippet of what he said.
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And remember hermeneutics is the study.
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How we interpret the Bible.
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The study of interpretation.
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And this is what he said.
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He said the hermeneutical question.
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About the whole Bible.
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Correlates with the question.
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What do you think of Christ? The hermeneutical center of the Bible.
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Is therefore Jesus and His being.
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And in His saving acts.
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The Jesus of the gospel.
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We can say that while not all scripture is the gospel.
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All scripture is related to the gospel at its center.
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The Bible makes the very radical idea inescapable.
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That not only is the gospel the imperative norm for the whole Bible.
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But there is an important sense in which the Jesus Christ.
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That Jesus Christ is the mediator of the meaning of everything that exists.
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In other words the gospel is the hermeneutical norm for the whole of reality.
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The gospel is a world view.
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It's not just how we interpret the Bible.
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It's how we interpret life.
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It's how we interpret the world.
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It's why we can look at the evil in the world.
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And understand that yes there is evil.
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Because they are rebelling against God.
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And yes God images on people.
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And this is why we do see people who seek to do good things in the world.
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Because God's image is still on them.
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Even though they are rebelling against it.
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And this is why we know.
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That there is no other name under heaven given among men.
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By which we must be saved in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.
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And every tongue shall confess.
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That he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
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Because the Bible says that God has called all men everywhere to repent.
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And that there is no other name.
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There is no other way.
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There is no other rock.
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People ask sometimes.
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How are the Old Testament saints saved? And I understand the reason for the question.
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People say how are the Old Testament saints saved? Because they hear us say this.
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You got to believe in Jesus to be saved.
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And they say but wait a minute now.
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The vast majority of world history exists B.C.
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Before Christ.
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The vast majority of world history exists before the life and death of Jesus Christ.
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How can you say it is necessary to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved? And the answer is this.
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And you need to hear this and you need to understand this.
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The answer is this.
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Every person who has ever been saved from Adam to Christ.
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And from Christ to now.
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And from now until the end of the age.
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Every person who has ever been saved has been saved by the work of Jesus Christ.
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He died on the cross at a point in history.
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But he is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
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All the promises of God are founded on Jesus Christ.
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There is no other rock.
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There has never been another rock.
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And there will never be another rock.
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The rock in the midst of Israel typified.
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Prefigured and pointed to the final and great rock which would come.
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And that rock was Christ.
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Beloved.
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Since the day Adam fell.
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To this very day and until Christ returns.
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There will never be another rock upon which you can build your life of faith.
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And I want to tell you this morning.
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If you try to build your salvation on anything else.
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If you try to build your salvation on your good works.
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The Bible says all your good works are like filthy rags.
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If you try to build your salvation on the philosophies of men.
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The Bible says that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
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If you try to build your salvation on the religions of the eons gone by.
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The Bible says there is no other name under heaven.
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By which we must be saved.
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Jesus tells us when the winds of judgment come.
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Those who build on anything else will fall.
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But those whose house is built upon the rock will stand.
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And that rock is Christ.
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Let's pray.
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Father I thank you for the rock.
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I thank you for our savior.
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I thank you that you have given us such great confidence in him.
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And in the work that he has done on the cross.
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I pray now Lord as we respond to the message by participating in communion.
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That Lord we would have our hearts joined with you.
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That we would draw close to you in this time.
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And Lord that you would bless the believers.
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To understand the foundation of their faith as Christ.
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And Lord for those who do not know Christ.
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That they would bow the knee to him today.
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That they would understand that the call of repentance.
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The call repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Goes out to all men indiscriminately.
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And we know Lord it is the work of the spirit that would cause a man to come.
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And we pray Lord that this morning.
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That your spirit would grant them repentance that leads to life.
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In Jesus name.
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Amen.