Times change, and all the word power appears,
and we associate power with strength and might.
But sometimes the word power in the King
James has not so much the force of
strength or might, but rather of authority, and
it is important for us to gain that
distinction.
Matthew chapter 8 and verse number 5.
And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there
came unto him a centurion beseeching him, and
saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick
of the palsy, grievously tormented.
And Jesus said unto him, I will come
and heal him.
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am
not worthy that thou should come under my
roof, but speak the word only, and my
servant shall be healed.
For I am a man under authority, having
soldiers under me.
I say to this man, go, and he
goeth, and to another come, and he cometh.
And to my servant do this, and he
doeth it.
When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said
to them that followed, truly I say to
you, I have not found so great faith.
No, not in Israel.
He recognized the authority of the Lord Jesus.
In his own sphere, this centurion knew what
it was to be under authority, and because
he himself was under authority, he could express
authority, and he could speak with authority, and
he could expect obedience.
And that when obedience, Pilate therefore said to
Jesus, you do not speak to me.
Do you not know that I have authority
to release you, and I have authority to
crucify you?
Jesus answered, you would have no authority over
me, unless it had been given you from
above.
For this reason, he who delivered me up
to you, had the greater sin.
You would have no authority over me, unless
it had been given to you from above.
Romans chapter 13 please, reading
from verse 1.
Let every person be in subjection to the
governing authorities, for there is no authority except
from God.
I take it that all true authority derives
from God himself, who is the absolute authority,
and any real, genuine authority owes its origin
and its power, its strength to God himself.
For there is no authority except from God,
and those which are which exist are established
by God.
Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the
ordinance of God, and they who have opposed
will receive condemnation upon themselves.
For rulers are not a cause of fear
for good behavior, but for evil.
Do you want to have no fear of
authority?
Do what is good, and you will have
praise of the same.
For it is the minister of God to
you for good.
But if you do what is evil, be
afraid, for it does not bear the sword
for nothing.
For it is a minister of God, an
avenger who brings wrath upon the one who
practices evil.
Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection,
not only because of wrath, but also for
conscience sake.
That is not only because you will be
punished by the authority if you do not
submit.
That's not the only reason you should submit.
You have a conscience which has to be
in communion with God.
Your spirit has to be communion with God.
Your spirit cannot be in communion with God
if your conscience is defiled.
It is necessary to be in subjection, not
only because of wrath, but also for conscience
sake.
For because of this you also pay taxes.
For rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves
to this very thing.
Render to all what is due to them.
There was some very cruel exaction of taxes
in the day in which Paul wrote these
words, but he says, render to all what
is due to them.
Tax to whom tax is due, custom to
whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to
whom honour.
Now the following case histories are not the
exact stories of any individual, but they are
plucked from my own experience from meeting and
talking with people, Christian people.
Harry Brownlow bought five tyres on a special
deal last year.
Then he sold the odd one, the spare,
to a neighbour.
As a self-employed travelling salesman he claimed
the total purchase on his income tax return.
It was such a small evasion that he
hardly gave it a second thought.
He saw himself as cheating a corrupt government
who would misuse his money anyway.
He had forgotten Proverbs 14 and 2 which
reads, he who walks in his uprightness fears
the Lord, but he who is crooked in
his ways despises him.
In fiddling with those small figures he revealed
that he despised a divinely established authority, and
therefore was despising God.
Mrs Penman was deeply distressed over the family's
debts.
She tried to change her husband's wrong decisions
by arguing with him, and when this failed
she decided that she must go out to
work to help overcome their problem.
She knew that George didn't want her to
do this, but she rationalized there's no other
way out.
While she prayed earnestly for God's help, she
flew right in the face of an authority
that God had established over her, but didn't
recognize it.
Jerry Ernest wanted to spend a year and
a half serving in southern Italy with missions
unlimited.
His elders did not encourage him.
He tried to convince them that he had
recently had a transforming experience as a result
of attending some spiritual uplift meetings.
Then the Lord too had given him a
verse, he said in his daily reading.
It was Acts 23 11.
So must thou also bear witness at Rome.
Deeply impressed that this was the word of
the Lord to him, he kept plaguing his
elders that they might let him go.
They remained unmoved.
MU was breathing down his neck.
They wanted to know whether a decision had
been reached.
Jerry went through the MU crash training course
on his own money, and when he had
finished the course at his own expense, he
had convinced the MU people that he was
in a fit spiritual spiritual state, and he
went out to Spain or to Italy.
He's home now.
Things did not go as well as he'd
expected on the field, but he has successfully
covered that up.
When he gives reports of his work, he
does not tell of the frustrations that he
faced and the difficulties, but rather he tells
mostly of sweet souls that were won and
the work that he believes was established.
But it's doubly hard now for Jerry to
work with his brethren.
They seem awfully suspicious of him, and he
wonders why.
He forgot a verse, Hebrews 13 and 7,
which says, obey your leaders and submit to
them, for they keep watch over your souls
as those that must give account.
Now I want you to do a little
bible study with me.
I want you to begin in Genesis, and
we're going to go right through the bible.
Of course we won't have time to read
all the scriptures, but we're going to read
a selection of scriptures, beginning in Genesis, and
we're going to look at the whole subject
of authority, and try to lay a foundation
this morning for what we want to share
with you during these days.
Chapter 2 of Genesis, and verse 17.
And the first statement I wish to make,
if you are taking notes, and I would
like you to put this down if you
are, and the statement is this, and I
want you to prove it and hold it
fast if it's good, reject it if it
isn't.
Man can only enjoy what God has for
him while he is submissive to divine authority.
May I say that again?
Man can only enjoy what God has for
him while he is submissive to divine authority.
Genesis chapter 2 and verse 17.
But from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, now
there is authority, for in the day that
you eat from it you shall surely die.
Now there's a sanction attached to the word
of authority.
This word must be obeyed.
Man's happiness in this condition, in innocence, in
the garden, depends on his obedience to that
authority.
Now Eve rationalized, and I'm not blaming the
ladies when I talk about Eve, it's a
fact of history.
Eve rationalized and blew it.
Chapter 3 and verse 6.
When the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and that was true, and
that it was a delight to the eyes,
and that was true, and that the tree
was desirable to make one wise, and in
a sense that too was true, only partly
true of course.
She took from its fruit and ate, and
she gave also to her husband with her
and he ate.
Now that's very relevant to your experience today,
and that's why God has put it in
his word.
2nd Corinthians chapter 10, you don't need to
turn to it because you'll be going through
exodus in a moment, and I know I
don't want your fingers to get tired.
2nd Corinthians chapter 10, let me read this
to you.
Paul says we are destroying speculations and every
lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of
God, and we're taking every thought captive to
the obedience of Christ.
That is, Paul saw his ministry as being
a ministry that was bringing the thoughts of
men.
This was one way of looking at it.
This is the way he expressed it in
this context.
His ministry was a ministry bringing the thoughts
of men into captivity to the obedience of
Christ, and that's the ministry of every true
servant of God.
Now I know this verse is often personally
applied.
That is, as if we were to bring
our own thoughts into captivity, and in a
sense that is true, but it's only an
application.
It seems to me that the interpretation of
this verse is that Paul saw his ministry
as reversing the rebellion that was expressed by
Eve in the garden.
He saw his ministry as bringing men and
women back into captivity, not to bondage, but
bringing their thoughts back into captivity to the
obedience of Christ, being submissive as he himself,
when he was here, was submissive.
Now just turn over to chapter 11, or
at least I will.
Verse 2, For I am jealous for you
with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you
to one husband, that to Christ I might
present you as a pure virgin.
But I am afraid, now this shows how
relevant Genesis is for us in this regard,
I am afraid lest as the serpent deceived
Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be
led astray from the simplicity and purity of
devotion to Christ.
I espoused you to one husband, and in
Paul's thinking this meant not only a relationship
of love, and it was that, and thank
God it is that, but a relationship of
subjection.
And so as he thinks of this, he
says, I am afraid lest as the serpent
beguiled Eve, he may beguile your minds, that
you may be led astray from simplicity and
purity of devotion to Christ.
He saw that as a real danger for
the Christians.
So authority is a basic question in Genesis.
The rebellion against authority affects the rest of
the history of the Bible as we know.
We move on to Exodus, and it was
really the question there.
Exodus as we know is the book of
redemption from Egypt, and in chapter 5 a
very challenging question is asked by Pharaoh.
Chapter 5 and verse 2, but Pharaoh said,
who is the Lord that I should obey
his voice and let Israel go?
I do not know the Lord, and besides
I will not let Israel go.
Now here's the question of authority again, and
Pharaoh recognizes it.
He is a man himself who has authority.
He knows what authority is, and he questions
the authority of this God of the Hebrews.
Who is the Lord?
He says that I should obey him.
Again he challenges divine authority and suffers for
it.
Just as there was suffering consequent upon the
disobedience in the garden, so now there is
suffering for Pharaoh and for his hosts.
And we read about their demise at the
Red Sea, and then we see the people
are set free.
But they are set free to obey.
They are not set free to do their
own thing.
Now there's a very real sense in which
we should do our own thing.
If you're talking about spiritual gifts, then you
should certainly do your own thing.
But doing your own thing today seems often
to express not finding out what God wants
you to do and doing it, but rather
finding out what you want to do and
doing it.
Happily those two things may be the same.
If you're a spiritual person they will be.
But if we are not spiritual, what we
want to do and what God wants us
to do will be two different things.
And we find here that these people were
free, but they were free to obey.
Exodus chapter 20 tells us that the Lord
brought them to the Mount, to Mount Sinai.
And then stating that he was the Lord,
he commanded them what they should do and
what they should not do.
They were redeemed, brought back for God, brought
back to him.
But the purpose of all this was that
they should be submissive to him, and that
they should express their freedom in doing the
will of God.
They were freed from Pharaoh's bondage in order
that they might be brought into captivity to
Jehovah, that their thoughts and their will might
be subject only to him.
They were to have no other gods beside
him.
He was to be their Lord.
Leviticus is the book of holiness.
Let us look at the 18th chapter please.
I'm sure that if you're a Christian you
are interested in holiness, because the Holy Spirit
comes to indwell us when we're saved, and
he gives us a desire to be holy.
And Leviticus is the handbook on holiness, as
it has often been called.
Leviticus 18 and verse 2, speak to the
sons of Israel and say to them, I
am the Lord your God.
What the Lord goes on to say here
is based upon the fact that he is
the Lord, their God.
You shall not do what is done in
the land of Egypt where you live, nor
are you to do what is done in
the land of Canaan where I am bringing
you.
You shall not walk after their statutes.
You are to perform my judgments and keep
my statutes, to live in accord with them.
I am the Lord your God.
Now as Leviticus is a standard work on
holiness in the Old Testament, so the book
of Romans, particularly the 5th, 6th, 7th and
8th chapters are a handbook on holiness in
the New Testament.
And it's interesting to me to make a
comparison here.
Notice that in Leviticus chapter 18, he says,
I am the Lord, and this is why
you are to do this and that and
the other.
And then he closes the remarks by saying,
I am the Lord.
In other words, my signature lies under all
this, my authority is behind it all.
Now if I want to be a holy
Christian in a practical sense, if I want
to learn the meaning of sanctification and living
for the Lord, then I must recognize the
validity of that word and the strength of
that word, I am the Lord.
Romans chapter 5, 6, 7 and 8, as
I have said, emphasize the truth of devotion
to Christ, holiness unto the Lord, bringing forth
fruit unto God, reaching a place of fellowship
with God in likeness to Him and in
likeness to Christ.
And it begins in chapter 5, and I
want you to notice this, don't turn to
it if you don't wish to, but I
want to notice this with you, and you
should make a note of this if you
haven't noticed it before, because it is important.
That at the end of those instructive chapters
on how to be a holy Christian, how
to be practically holy, he begins those instructions
by stating that we are under authority.
Chapter 5 and verse 21 reads like this,
that as sin reigned in death, even so
grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life
through Jesus Christ.
Now notice the words, our Lord, through Jesus
Christ, our Lord.
In the sixth chapter he goes on to
unfold these truths, and at the end of
the sixth chapter, in the 23rd verse, we
have those well-known words, for the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
In the seventh chapter, verse 24, in that
chapter where a discovery is made of the
wretchedness of man, and the believer is found
not only hating the sins which he committed,
but hating the man that he is, for
he has committed them, discovering that he is
under sin that he is dominated by evil
habits which he would like to reject and
put away.
He says in verse 24, wretched man that
I am, who will set me free from
the body of this death?
Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
Chapter 8, and notice that as we come
to the climax of this teaching, he says
in verse 38, I am convinced that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created
thing, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord.
Now, no word from God is insignificant.
The very fact that the Lord Jesus is
so titled, Jesus Christ our Lord, at the
end of each of these chapters, and the
dominant theme through these chapters is the triumph
and the lordship of Jesus Christ.
It teaches me this, that just as in
Leviticus, the Lord says I have a right
to give these commandments, I have a right
to expect obedience, and in obedience to these
commandments you will find true holiness unto the
Lord.
So in Romans 5, 6, 7, 8, in
the New Testament, under grace as we say
and not under law, the same principle applies,
that we must come under the authority of
our Lord Jesus Christ if we are to
experience deliverance day by day in our lives.
I move on for the sake of time,
the book of Numbers gives us illustrations of
rebellion and its consequences.
In the book of Numbers, we're introduced to
delegated authority.
Oh, it's there before that, but particularly we
notice what happens when you come and you
clash with divinely established authority.
Numbers chapter 16, we read that they, the
sons of Korah, rose up before Moses together
with some of the sons of Israel, 250
leaders in the congregation, chosen in the assembly,
men of renown.
And they assembled together against Moses and Aaron
and said to them, you've gone far enough
for all the congregation are holy, every one
of them, and the Lord is in their
midst.
So why do you exalt yourselves above the
assembly of the Lord?
Now that was not what Moses and Aaron
were doing.
God had given them their authority and Korah
here was indirectly challenging the authority of God,
expressed to Korah through Moses' leadership and the
leadership also of Aaron.
And the consequences that follow teach us that
very important lesson, that if you challenge divinely
established authority, God himself will not stand on
your side, he will be against you.
The book of Deuteronomy confirms this very truth.
I shall not look at one verse there,
but again and again through the book of
Deuteronomy we are told that there will be
blessings for obedience.
There are curses attached to disobedience, simply because
the Lord is the Lord.
Hebrews 2 reminds us that every transgression received
its just recompense of reward and makes application
accordingly.
When we get to the book of Joshua,
we learn that entrance into and possession of
the land of Canaan was dependent upon obedience,
submission to the word of the Lord.
You'll remember Joshua chapter 1, won't you?
How it says that this book of the
law shall not depart out of thy mouth,
but Joshua and those with him were to
meditate on it day and night, Joshua 1
and 8, so that you may be careful
to do according to all that is written
in it, for then you will make your
way prosperous and then you will have good
success.
The book of Judges gives us an illustration
of what happens when people don't do that.
When they say I have a right to
make my own decisions about spiritual things, I
believe things should be done this way and
instead of meditating in the law of the
Lord and finding what the Lord has to
say on that subject, they listen to the
voice of their neighbors or listen to the
cry of their own rebellious hearts and every
man does that which is right in his
own eyes.
And the book of Judges is characterized, and
you may note this both at the beginning
and the end of the book, we are
told that in those days every man did
that which was right in his own eyes.
The book of Ruth is a lovely contrast
in that you have a Gentile, an outsider
who lived in those very days when anarchy
prevailed in Israel.
She was brought into the blessing of knowing
the provision that the Jehovah of Israel could
make for her.
And although she was a Gentile, she came
to trust under his wings.
It involves submission on her part.
She said to Naomi, my God shall be
your God.
And as a result we have a lovely
picture, a very human, touching, domestic picture of
what it means to be under authority.
She found deliverance and she found security in
being under the authority that God so graciously
provided for her in the land of Israel.
First Samuel through Second Chronicles, you get the
same lessons taught again.
These books establish a new order of delegated
authority, the authority of a king.
Not now Moses leading the people, nor Judges,
nor prophets as with Samuel, but now a
king himself.
We read a very important principle there and
I want you to look at it.
First Samuel please.
First Samuel and chapter 13.
And here is another thing that I would
like you to make note of under that
other little sentence I gave to you.
I would like to suggest that this teaches
that a man's authority is only meaningful as
he himself submits to authority over him.
Notice First Samuel chapter 13.
And Samuel said to Saul, who is now
established as king, you have acted foolishly, you
have not kept the commandment of the Lord
your God which he commanded you.
For now the Lord would have established your
kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom
shall not endure.
What horrible words for us to hear, what
terrible words shall I say.
They were the words of God, but how
terrible they would sound on the ears of
Saul.
Your kingdom shall not endure, your authority is
going to be broken.
Why Saul?
The Lord has sought out for himself a
man after his own heart and the Lord
has appointed him as ruler over his people,
because you have not kept what the Lord
commanded you.
Now you see the practical implication of this.
Spiritual authority can only be exercised by those
themselves subject to the word of God.
I'm speaking today to a number of people
who are elders, or if they would not
call themselves elders, they have to take responsibility
in local churches.
May I remind you, if you need reminding,
we all do really, that we can only
win the respect and we can only expect
submission to our word, to our decision on
things.
And the church must have decision givers, it
must have leaders, but we can only expect
response to our guidance, to the help that
we seek to give to those who are
younger, as we ourselves are submissive to the
word of God.
If young people discern that their elders are
not in areas which are not related to
them as young people, but in other areas
which are related to the elder, maybe in
the management of his home, maybe in his
conduct in business, maybe in his attitude towards
fellow elders.
If young people sense that you yourself are
not submissive to the word of God, you
cannot expect that they will be submissive to
you.
But I will tell you something, when you
learn to tremble at the word of the
Lord, those who are under your care will
learn to tremble with you.
When you learn to swiftly obey, they will
learn to swiftly obey as well.
Authority in the spiritual realm like that is
very very sensitive.
It can only really meaningfully be exercised while
those who are to exercise that authority are
themselves submissive to authority.
A tremendously important principle.
Now in Ezra and Nehemiah, we're brought into
an atmosphere of absolute subjection to the word
and thus to God.
Nehemiah chapter 10 verse 29, we know that
these are books of revival.
All those who had knowledge and understanding are
joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, and are
taking on themselves a curse and an oath
to walk in God's law which was given
through Moses.
Now notice that, hundreds of years have passed,
but what are they doing?
They're going back to that which is written
in the beginning.
God's authority has not changed.
God's word has not altered with the years.
There is no doctrine of development here.
There is no idea that God began this
way in man's immaturity and historically in man's
infancy.
And now man has matured, there will be
a development, things will be changed.
No, they're going right back to that which
was written to their nation in the beginning.
And there is authority in doing that, and
there is blessing always in doing that.
You remember they came to ask the Lord
Jesus about divorce, and he says as he
speaks with authority on that subject, in the
beginning it was not so.
Goes right back to that which was written
in the beginning.
And that's what we have to do as
Christians.
We have to dig back to the foundations,
for they've been come encrusted sometimes with tradition.
And our thinking has become foggy as we
have assimilated ideas that are prevalent in the
world around us.
And we have to go back to that
which was written in the beginning, for that
has authority.
And I want to say from a word
of personal testimony that this word is God's
word.
It is the word of authority, and in
this word I find unspeakable blessing, but it
demands absolute submission on my part.
The psalmist said, I made haste and delayed
not to keep thy commandments.
Oh, he says how I love thy law.
What does all that mean?
It means that he had learned to love
a place of submission, for he had learned
to love the God who expressed authority over
him.
And so we could go on through the
Bible.
Time, I see, forbids for us to go
through all the books, but in Esther we
find there a book which reveals the abject
shame and contempt of a people who had
rejected authority.
God's name is absent, as you know, in
that book.
And then we go through Job, Song of
Solomon, those books of poetry right the way
through there, where history is for us, as
we read through the Bible, interrupted.
But Psalm 1 and all the Proverbs spare
out the same lesson.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and don't be afraid of that
word fear.
You should fear God.
Now I know that perfect love casts without
fear, but it develops another kind of fear.
And it's right that we should fear the
Lord.
The prophetic books, what do they tell us?
Well, we could go through one after the
other, but I think that mainly their teaching
is summarized by what Isaiah says in the
first chapter.
If ye consent and obey ye will eat
the best of the land, but if you
refuse and rebel you will be devoured by
the sword.
Truly the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
And so through the whole of the Old
Testament, we are impressed with the fact that
God has the right to speak.
His is absolute authority, and we do well
to be submissive to it.
When we come to the New Testament, it's
first of all the story of one who
said, lo I come in the volume of
the book it is written of me, to
do thy will, O God.
And it is by that will, God's will,
expressed so perfectly and completely in the life
and ministry and the death and burial and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, it's in that
that we are sanctified and set apart to
God.
By that act of obedience on his part,
we are brought back to God.
As he submitted to the will of his
father, a will with which he was in
complete harmony, as he submitted to that will
and rejoiced in doing the will of his
father, he obtained for us eternal redemption.
And what is redemption for?
We are freed, as Israel was freed.
Freed to obey.
Ye were the servants of sin, says Paul
in Romans chapter 6, but God be thanked.
You have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine or teaching which was delivered to
you, and to which you have been committed.
You obeyed from the heart that teaching.
And the New Testament simply teaches us that
under grace we learn to obey from the
heart inwardly, because we are born again of
the Holy Spirit, but we learn to obey
just as Israel was told to obey.
The Christian life is a life of obedience
and of being under authority.
As a matter of fact, our reaction to
the teaching given to us in the New
Testament epistles is a test of our spirituality.
You know, there is a thinking abroad that
you can be spiritual by talking about the
Holy Spirit, and I'm not against talking about
the Holy Spirit.
I reverence the Holy Spirit.
I want to learn to acknowledge more and
more his gracious ministry in the life of
God's people and in my own life.
But you are not really a spiritual simply
because you talk a great deal about the
Holy Spirit, nor are you spiritual simply because
you talk about the Lord Jesus a great
deal, nor are you spiritual because you happen
to be a preacher and stand behind a
platform and talk at the Minneapolis conference.
The Apostle Paul says, and this is the
acid test, if any man among you thinks
he's a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge
that the things which I write unto you
are the commandments of the Lord.
There's the test of spirituality.
There's the test of whether you are really
walking in the Spirit.
What made me begin thinking along these lines?
Well, years ago, while I was in the
United States somewhere, and I forget where it
was now, maybe Chicago, I believe it was,
I was talking to someone who was a
leader in the field of education.
I was privileged to travel in the same
taxi to the airport, and that's how we
got into conversation.
And the remark was made by this person
who I presume could speak with authority.
Our educational systems in the West have lost
their moorings.
Schools were started by men, this isn't exactly
what she said at the time, but schools
were started by men who recognized the authority
of the Scriptures.
Philosophers, and this is what was said to
me, philosophers have raised a devastating question and
left it unanswered.
Who has the authority to say what should
be taught?
Do you see how devastating that is to
your educational system?
If you have no authority, if you have
nowhere to which you can turn to find
out what should be, if there is no
standard, if everything is open to question, everything.
Now there are lots of things that are
open to question, but if finally you have
no authority to which you can turn and
say now this is it, this is where
we must begin.
If you have none of that, then your
whole educational system is about to fall apart.
We need to remember the word in Colossians.
It says there, see to it that no
one takes you captive through philosophy and empty
deceit, according to the tradition of men, according
to the elementary principles of the world, rather
than according to Christ.
I want to say one word in closing
this particular study with you, and I hope
it hasn't been too heavy.
It's an important foundation to the practical application
of this that I want to get into,
God willing, later today.
But let me summarize by saying this.
In proper subjection to God's authority, wherever we
may find it expressed, whether we find it
expressed as vested in the ruler who has
authority over our country, in the elders of
a church or the head of a household,
as we learn to be submissive to that
authority which God has for the time, not
for eternity, but for the time placed over
us, we will find stability in society, and
the individual will find security in being submissive
to that which God has arranged for his
good, as well as for God's own glory.
Let us pray together.
Our Father, we come to you this morning
in our weakness.
We confess our need of grace from the
Lord.
The natural, the carnal man cannot enter into
these things, and the fleshly mind is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be.
We thank you Lord that we have been
given life together with Christ, and we have
learned the truth as it is in Jesus.
We have come to one who himself was
submissive to the will of his Father, and
he is our Lord.