Address—R. Thonney
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Return this evening to John's Gospel Chapter 14.
I am the way, the truth.
And the life no man come up unto the Father.
But by me?
John's Gospel is a wonderful gospel, one of the most simple to understand.
Yet one of the most profound in its meaning here is a verse that stands out, especially in this gospel, the Lord Jesus.
Responding to a question from Thomas, one of his disciples. Because he said I'm going away.
And if I go, I'll come again to take you to myself, Thomas.
Asked Lord, how can we know the way we know not within our gods? And how can we know the way and the Lord Jesus says.
In those words of such simple truth.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but.
By me. Oh, tremendous words of truth. I hope you're listening tonight. I know that all times there's people who sit.
In meetings like this.
Yeah, they're listening. They hear something with their ears, but they're really not carrying it in their heart. And I want to ask you tonight, please, whoever you are, wherever you're sitting in this room.
To please open your ears to the words of the Lord Jesus.
What I may say may be helpful.
Or maybe it's not helpful.
But listen to what he says, because he's speaking, and he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. I want to speak tonight about that word, the truth.
It's a statement.
Of what is. But it's more than that. Sometimes people, when you get involved with a discussion about truth, think you're talking about a doctrine or a philosophy or a religion. I want to say tonight that we're not here to talk about any such thing.
We're going to talk with the Lord's help about a person.
It's right down to where you are sitting.
The God of the universe became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth. You can know the truth tonight in the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. No other religion in this world deals that frankly with the matter of truth.
Mohammed never made such a statement. I am the truth. Buddha never made such a statement. No, only the Lord Jesus Christ made that statement. Let me tell it to you again. It's so vital.
All right, he said. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
We live in a day of almighty humanistic relativism. In other words, people instead of.
Basing their thinking on God and on his word. Because in John 17 the Lord Jesus Christ said Sanctify them through thy truth by word is truth.
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So we can say in an absolute way the word of God is true.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, in the most absolute way, is the truth. You can know the truth.
When we use that word absolute, we are talking about something that is beyond all appeal. It is the final word there should be. If you really understand what the truth is. There should be no reasoning beyond that.
That is the final word, and you know what's good for you. You will simply unreservedly accept it. Again, I want to make clear a statement here that what I say may be helpful or may not.
I've made mistakes before and I can still make mistakes, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, what He says. Listen to it. That's why we have our Bibles open in your laps.
Making sure that whoever is talking is talking according to what that book says, because that book is true.
I think it's so important for us to get that settled in our souls because in our schools of this country, it is sad to see that people think that truth is just a matter of the way you think about it, the way it impresses you. That has nothing to do.
Or as much as I may ignore the truth, or as much as I may despise the truth, for as much as I may totally reject the truth, it changes the truth.
In nothing, the truth remains the truth. It's not a competition.
And sometimes I said it this way, the truth is the most exclusive thing in the whole universe.
It excludes every other option.
And that's why it's so important to know the truth. Again, I say the truth is not a mere philosophy that it takes some intelligent person to comprehend. Know the truth is a person.
That came into this world through the same channel that we came into this world and you can know the truth in the person of the Lord Jesus how through what he has written in his old precious word. We have 4 gospels that tell the story of the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. How he came into this world.
How he was born of the Virgin Mary.
He had no human father, for his God is his father. He was born miraculously of a virgin.
And he came into this world God manifest in flesh. Tremendous to think about it.
I'd like to go back to the first chapter of John's Gospel now to look at a few verses that deal with this matter of truth.
John, Chapter one.
In the beginning.
Was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Verse 14.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth.
Oh, this is beautiful, John. Better witness. This is John the Baptist.
John better witness of him and Christ, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, or He was before me. The Lord Jesus and the flesh was born after John the Baptist, But John the Baptist recognizes that even though he came in the flesh after him, he was before him. Who could that be?
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Except one who had his existence from all eternity.
The Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of God.
And of his fullness have all we received, and grace, for grace for the law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Oh yes, the law. Law was a perfect moral standard that God gave in the Old Testament.
But sorry to say it, no one ever measured up to that standard. But when the Lord Jesus came, it says here grace and truth.
By Jesus Christ, you're not going to get the full picture by looking at the law. The law is a perfect moral standard. I didn't say, but you're going to get the full picture by looking at the Lord Jesus. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, though I love to think about it as the Lord Jesus passed through this world.
In this pathway down here.
You know, we tend to be given to extremes. Either we go to one side or to the other. Sometimes we're real gracious and we're so gracious that we forget about the truth.
And sometimes we are so right and truthful that we forget about grace.
But in the Lord Jesus there was the perfect balance.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Oh, how wonderful it is to know the Lord Jesus and you know.
We have a God who is gracious, but like we've been talking about today, there is a lot of preaching that goes on that says that God will allow you to live your sinful life and be saved after all.
I want to say that that is not so.
No, you want to know God. God is a God of grace. We read about it this morning. God is a God of all grace.
And he's fully able to meet you in your knee. But when you meet him, you must deal with the matter of truth you cannot ignore.
What has taken place in your life, you can try to cover it up, but it will come out in the end. A verse that came to mind today in our meetings.
It's found back in the book of Numbers. It says be sure.
Your sin will find you out. You may have sins that you've never told anybody else about.
You kind of put them on the back burner in your conscience.
You have a nurse your conscience not to face them. You know there's things that are not right in your life, but instead of getting them out into the light of God's presence, you are hiding that.
Verses mentioned today. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesses and forsake of them shall have mercy.
And I want to encourage you, if you are here tonight and are still hiding things in your life, I don't know your life sufficiently to be able to tell you you're writing things. But you know, maybe there's things you put into the back and you don't want to face the truth of the matter. There was such a woman.
In the time that the Lord Jesus was here.
In John's Gospel chapter 4.
The Lord Jesus.
Sat on the side of a well outside of a city.
And as he sat there, here comes a poor woman of scenario.
She had come because she was thirsty. It's been suggested she came at a time when there was not a lot of other people around.
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Because she had something that she wasn't very.
Thankful for it was a sad, sad story she had to tell, but she thought that she could keep it.
Getting a little bit she doesn't realize who that person was sitting on the edge of the well.
And so as she's about to draw water, Jesus says to her, give me to drink. And she starts a religious type of conversation. How is it that you are asking the Jews and the Samaritans, they don't have any dealings with each other.
And the Lord Jesus doesn't really answer her question. You know, you may have lots of questions.
I want to tell you something.
That if you just simply come to Jesus.
Your questions are going to be cleared up because he is the truth. And when you see things in your life in the light of Dietrich, it's going to be all clear. Remember the story of a young man.
Who came to a gospel meeting?
Was not safe.
He said to a brother as he came into the Gospel hall. Got lots of questions, like somebody to answer for me. And the brother said that's fine, young man, have a seat. We're going to listen to the gospel message first of all, and then afterwards we'll take up the matter of your questions.
And he heard the gospel, and during the course of the meeting, he opened his heart to receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
And the end of the meeting, the brother came up to him. Young man, you said. You asked some questions.
Oh, you know what?
I've let the Lord Jesus come in.
And I really don't have any more questions now. They're all answered. That's the way it is when you really let the Lord Jesus into your eye. The truth.
And so that poor woman, she sat there.
She stood there looking at the Lord Jesus and speaking with Him. He talked to her about living water that could satisfy her forever.
She's interested.
You have a heart that is longing for something.
A heart that is not satisfied. The Lord Jesus wants to satisfy your heart. But then as.
She sat there where he sat there and talked with her. She says give me this wife. And he says.
Go call your husband.
If you're going to deal with God, you cannot have secret.
Reserve pockets.
That are dark in the recesses of your heart. So you can't do it. It doesn't work. It does work. God is light and then the light that you try to hide things, you only make yourself that much more conspicuous. If I stood up here tonight.
And I now behind my back, underneath my sweater, some kind of a package that I didn't want anybody to know about, and I start seeing you. Look at me. Can I suspiciously, I only make myself that much more conspicuous trying to hide things like don't try, it won't work.
And so that poor woman, she said. 1/2 tree says I don't have any.
And so the Lord Jesus.
There is no contest in the truth is the truth. It's not a matter the contest young people between one religion and another, between one denomination and another.
No context at all. The truth is the truth.
And so the Lord Jesus simply made a statement. I think it's so wonderful how he did it in a way that didn't condemn her.
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But that let her know.
That she knew that He knew every detail of her life. Absolutely nothing. Can you hide from our God? I don't know the story of your life. There's a God that's looking right down at you tonight, and he knows everything he did of your life.
Lord Jesus said to her, thou hast have my husbands, and the one you have right now is your husband that you said true, that was the truth.
Pretty shameful history to have to admit to, but that was the truth, that she really didn't want out of the open. What is it in your life that you don't want out of the open?
To bring it out into the light.
That heightening is only interfering your blessings. I want to tell you to come to Jesus.
He is a merciful God, but if you're going to deal with him, you're going to have to deal with him in truth as well as a mercy. God will have loose young, but it has to be on the ground workout.
And God sets the standards. People think today that they can set the standards.
Heard that statement, blasphemous statement of a man the other day, he said. When I get before God, I'm going to tell God to hear you.
That's the moral humanistic relativism of the day we live in, and it's affecting us. It's affecting young people. They think they have our rights. I tell you what right I have. I tell you what right you have. Since we're all sinners before a holy God, we have a right to go to the lake of fire.
That's the right you and I have.
Beyond that, we really don't have any right. We forfeit it every right.
We forfeited the right to life because the wages of sin is that you can't avoid that you cannot avoid.
That's the truth of the matter.
That poor woman was so impressed when she met the Lord Jesus there that day she left her water pot. She went into the city. She said to those men in the city, I suppose some of them she said with. She said, come see a man, and told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?
The light has shined into her soul and oh, it's wonderful and you don't have to hide anything anymore. What liberty is gifts.
It says in the 8th chapter of this book, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. It's wonderful to see a person that doesn't try to have to hide things in their life any longer. They've gotten it out into the open. There's liberty in their conscience now because they dealt with the matter squarely.
In the presence of a God who knows every single.
Detail their lives.
Time is going fast. I want to go on to chapter 8. We have another woman that is brought before the Lord Jesus by the Pharisees. She also was a woman taken in a very serious immoral immorality in the sin of adultery.
Sexual sin is very common in the day we live in people.
Justify it today because of their humanistic orientation. But I say adultery is sin that God condemns because it destroys.
Sin destroys. Don't try to think that sin is fun. There is.
Those two brothers concerning the word of God, I think you would get the same answer.
She said yes, you would, but then she referred to one of them, she said.
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He doesn't look down on anyone and his life shows the pleasure and sin, but it brings destruction and serious destruction.
And so here this woman is taken and brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus. There they are in the temple, and Jesus is there, and the Pharisees come and scribes, and they bring this woman taking in adultery.
Verse four They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what saith thou?
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him, that Jesus stooped down with his finger rolled on the ground as though he heard the knot. Isn't this wonderful?
They wanted to accuse him, but you can't accuse the truth. If you accuse the truth, you only condemn yourself.
And so here they are. They are demoted.
We're not right. They wanted, they brought her only to be able to accuse Jesus.
And I don't know what kind of motives you're at play in your heart for being here at this conference. Maybe some special person that you wanted to see, that's why you're here.
Maybe some other reason is the reason you're here, but I want to say that the Lord Jesus knows those things that are at play in your soul, and you need to get into His presence.
He knows it all.
And she was guilty. Buried.
But if he was going to condemn her as they suggested, he would have to condemn a whole lot of them.
And so he just scoops down and writes on the ground and they continued asking and he says at the end of verse seven, he that is without sin among you, let him verse cast a stone at her.
Then he Stoops down the rights again on the ground.
And they all verse nine, they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience without 1 by 1 beginning at the eldest, even into the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the mess, when Jesus had lifted up himself and signed him, but the woman he said unto her woman.
Where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemning?
All those that wanted to condemn her were God. There was one left there. It was the blessed Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He was without sin. He, yes, had a right to condemn her, but He did not come to condemn.
We came to forget it and declined. And so he says, my love is.
She said No man, Lord, and Jesus said unto her and herself, Neither do I condemn me. Go.
Single, I didn't make light of her sin and dear young people sin, the sin of adultery, sexual sin is not a light thing. We cannot make life and the Lord Jesus didn't make life for this woman sin. He was going to have to pay with his own life. You think he may light it? No.
Just and sin no more. Oh the preciousness of how the Lord Jesus may in every situation. We could go case after case through the life of the Lord Jesus here in John's Gospel to see how he met it perfectly in grace.
And truth. But again, I want to say, I really believe that many times what is hindering blessing in the lives of those who are sitting here is that they don't want to be completely outright and truthful in the presence of a God who knows every detail of their lives. They're still covering up stuff. And it's Henry, I want to say to you, if you're here doing that tonight.
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Don't do it any longer, you're only hindering yourself.
God wants to fill your heart with.
You'll be so happy, so supremely happy. You won't be able to contain it, I guarantee you. I've experienced it in my own little nature.
But I know what it means when I hold things back and I don't want to get them out into the light. How it hinders It hinders.
Let's go on. In John's Gospel, chapter 18, the Lord Jesus and his pathway down here shows the truth.
To all and he wasn't appreciated for it.
And now he stands that he condemned.
First of all before the hybrids and then.
Pilots their own governor.
Let's read verse 33 of chapter 18. I'm sorry, John chapter 18 and verse 33. Then why? Whatever it is to the judgment Hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell you nothing? I would answer.
Am IA Jew, thy no engaged from the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done?
Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my Kingdom not from his pilot? Therefore said unto him, Art thou a Kingdom? Jesus answered, Thou says that I am a king.
To this end was I born for this God should came I into the world.
Then I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth, Hearth My voice Are you hearing everyone that is of the truth, Hearth my voice? Wasn't Pilot hearing his voice?
What happened?
Verse 38 Pilot says unto him, What?
Is truth. And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
Did he hear what Jesus said? He heard with his ears, but he really didn't hear. He didn't know what the truth was. There was the truth standing right before him.
But in the political system of that day, he was giving him a trial, and the voice of the people prevailed. People praised democracy.
Sometimes the statement is made the voice of the people, the voice of God. What a serious thing to say.
Hear the voice of the people prevailed. And what did Pilate do?
Verse one of chapter 19. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus.
Back.
And the soldiers flooded the crown of thorns and put it on his head, And they put it on purple roll, and said, Hey, old king of the Jews. And they smiling with their hands, Biden therefore went forth again and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that he may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns in the purple robe.
Fire said unto them.
Behold the man. When the chief priests therefore an officer, saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, Crucify him. Why not said unto them, Take him, and crucify him before I find no father.
Jesus answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
He's kind of therefore heard that saying. He was the more afraid, and when I get into the judgment, Hall said unto Jesus.
Whence are?
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Verse 16 then delivered, gave him therefore unto them to be crucified, and they took Jesus and LED away.
He comes down.
The truth. And in condemning the truth he condemned not only himself, but the whole system. The whole world system is under condemnation now, because the truth of God came into this world in the person of the Lord Jesus, and it was from death, not only condemned, but given the most horrible death.
Think of crucifixion.
Verse 17 And he buried his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is in the Hebrew God Gaza, where they crucified him and to other with him on either side one and Jesus in the next.
Oh, how terrible history of this happened. You know, when man first placed his foot on the moon, President of the United States said this is the greatest happening in the history of the world since the creation.
He missed something. The greatest happening in the world since the creation is the cross where truth was rejected, where truth was let out of the city of Jerusalem, that religious city, and now to a cross.
And left to hang, to die. Ah.
Oh yeah, the way a man treated.
Their God and the person of the Lord Jesus.
Is the Lord Jesus?
Going to vary from the tree.
Straight on to me the whole question of sin and the presence of God. When the Lord Jesus was hanging there on that cross, man was shown to be all that he is in his own being. The religious people were the first ones to pass before the Lord Jesus.
The hurdle episode into the face of their savior God.
After three hours of that treatment.
The sun was darkened and for three hours there was darkness on that hill outside of Jerusalem.
At Calvary. At Golden.
And nobody could see what was happening, but it was then that Jesus was dealing in all truth with the matter of my sins, the matter of your sins, it says in Isaiah chapter 53.
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with His stripes we are healed as He hung there on that cross, those things that I would be ashamed if anybody here knew that I had done.
Those things were laid on the spotless, sinless.
Of my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he met those things in truth. He didn't hide them. They were laid on him and God poured out.
All his righteous judgment that would have crushed.
A world of hell. It fell on Jesus, that judgment for my sins.
He bore it all. He paid the price in full before he died, he said It is finished all the judgment that was rightly against me. He dealt with it in the truth of the matter.
Nothing was hidden there. He saved his rights and both Jesus died off of the thing that our creator God hung on that cross and as a man gave up his life.
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In price of our redemption the soldier came up that hill and pierced his side, and out came blood and watered. The only thing that will cover sin from the eye of an all see God is the blood.
Of Jesus Christ.
Says in First John 1/7.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Friend, it is so important that you get the truth of the matter of your sins out in the presence of God. Don't put it off, please. I plead with you to deal straight on with the matter of your sins. God dealt with the matter in the person of the Lord Jesus of sins at the cross of Calvary the Lord.
Done.
If God had not been satisfied with what Jesus did on that cross, he would have never raised him from the dead. But Jesus rose again from the dead the third day, and he sits there in the glory of God at God's right hand. Now the testimony to the fact that the work is done forever to be done.
Praise God.
I'm saying because Jesus died and rose again, and he lives at God's right hand.
I want to go before we close to a very serious matter. Don't want to touch briefly on before we close Second Thessalonians Chapter 2. It's a matter of truth as well.
Talking about another person here.
This person is called in verse 3.
The man of sin, the son of Perdition and other scriptures. He's called what we believe to be the Antichrist.
And the apostle Paul is writing here to these believers, telling them about this person who is coming.
And he says there's something that's hindering steps verse six. And now you know what withhold us that he might be revealed in his time for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now let us will let until he be taken out of the way. That word lettuce is really hindrance. He that now hindrance will hinder until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that wicked the Antichrist be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that varies.
Because they received, not.
The love of the truth that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. They all might be damned who believe not the truth.
That have pleasure in unrighteousness. Just want to set this warning before you before we finish this evening.
You've heard about the truth. I'm not the truth, the Lord Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. Perhaps you're here and you still have a reserve. You still have an unreservedly come to the Lord Jesus to accept them as your Savior. I want to warn you.
That you are in line to be DC.
I was amazed the other day my wife was reading the book about the Second World War.
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And what happened over in Germany in the Holocaust, what we know to be the Holocaust?
And in the book it said that 20% of Americans no longer believe that there was any such thing as a Holocaust in Europe.
What has happened to our country? You know what's happened? The truth and lies are representing in the media in such a way that people don't discern between what's true, what's false anymore. They don't know. They see the news.
And then they see a program that has nothing to do with truth and they don't distinguish any longer.
I mean, it is extremely serious. We're living in the days when the mystery of iniquity already works, and it's going towards an end one of these days.
That which hinders is going to be taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked one be revealed, who the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth.
And he's the one who it says, verse 9, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders with all these feebleness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth.
You know what the truth is, The Lord Jesus has been presented not only tonight, but in many other times that you've heard the message of the gospel and you do not accept it.
You still have that reserve.
How serious are you going to tell you?
You will feel you a lie if you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is here tonight and he's saying those simple words that are so easy to understand.
I am the Way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father.
But by me?
It is amazing to me how people are so easily led to believe a lie down in Bolivia.
To tell the story before we close, there was a man that appeared in the city of Santa Cruz while we lived there.
He came under an evangelical banner that is called in the Spanish Christ. Is the answer pretty good?
Saying I would say. And they told me that when he first came, he preached.
Something of the gospel as we have it in the Word of God. But it wasn't long before there was a change in his message.
And he changed his message to say I am Christ.
His name is Julio Alvarado.
And since his name begins with the J like Jesus name, you will see signs around Bolivia with a big circle with a big jail in the middle of it and around the side it says Christ is the answer but that Jay does not stand for Jesus.
That space, that J stands for Julio.
And he actually stands up in front of his congregation and they changed the hymns of worship that are directed to the Lord Jesus and puts his own name in there. And he receives worship from his people that followed. I can't believe when I heard of the terrible things he has done in the city of Santa Cruz.
The immoral lifestyle he lives.
The swindling of poor innocent people takes place. That he does. He can't believe that people follow him. One day a young man came into our bookstore in Montero. I happen to be there at the time, and he told us that he was a follower of this man.
And I tried to warn him. I said the.
Careful, the scripture says that when the true Christ comes from heaven, every eye shall see him. And I haven't played hives on this man you docked on me about. Scripture says that there's going to be false Christ.
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You listened to me for a while and then he shook his head and he said, just like it was the first time Jesus came.
And you won't accept it. The more you talk against him, the more I adore him.
He turned around and walked out of the store.
Spirit of iniquity already works a young man, intelligent graduate of university that city.
I warn you again, if you don't simply accept the truth as it is in Jesus, you will be deceived. Please tonight, before we close, open your ears. Let this word penetrate right down into your hearts. It comes from the living God.
I am the way.
The truth and the light. No man comes under the fire, but I need.
That's great. Blessed God our Father, we thank you.
Or thy gracious.
Blessed, we pray in the hearts of those that have listed.
Bother with your concern about someone here who still isn't right, and we ask the Father to make thy word penetrate. Strive by thy Spirit until that person becomes it's simple thing to the Lord Jesus. We ask Thy blessings and that most worthy of our Lord Jesus.