7 Things We Can Know

00:00 We want to give glory to the Lord this morning. Let the church say Amen. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. And I want to invite you today to turn in your copies of the Scriptures to the book of Romans, the eighth chapter. 00:14 I want to look this morning not just at Romans 8:28, but at some other passages of Scripture to remind us of some things from God's Word that we know, that we know. I'll tell you what, there's a lot of people who think who know a lot of things, not all of which are true, 00:36 as we heard from the testimony this morning. When we think we know something and we're off base, or there's another group of people who think you really can't know anything, all you can do is just have experiences, but there's no objective truth out there to really know something. We can surmise some things, 00:56 we can think some things, but then we find out that people really don't believe that they can know anything. Well, I'm here to tell you this morning on the authority of God's Word that there are some things that we can know, that we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that we can understand, that we can perceive, that we can sink our teeth into, 01:18 as it were, that we can stand on, that we can rest upon. There are some things that we can know. And one of those things this morning in our text is that we know, verse 28, that all things work together for good to those who love God, 01:37 to those who are the called according to His purpose. Do you know that this morning? Do you understand that? Do we understand that? Can we perceive that to be true? And on what basis do we know this? We know it because of the authority of the Scriptures that tells us, 01:58 and the Word of God, this comes from the lips and heart of God. And He is telling us to communicate to us this morning that we can know that in everything God is at work. There's a couple different ways of translating this. 02:15 You'll notice in many of your copies of the Scriptures that it may have a footnote that it says something like this that can also be translated, that we know that in all things God works, or all things God is working together for good. 02:34 And so there's a variety of nuances here, but the thing that we know this morning is that as Christians, God is at work. He is at work in our lives, and He has not left us just to have a hodgepodge of unrelated experiences in life that have no meaning, 02:53 no purpose, no substantive purpose, but we can know that God is at work. Now, I want to just leave that thought with you this morning and have you go with me to several passages of Scripture, one from the Old Testament and then several from the New Testament, 03:14 to show you some things that we know this morning about the power and purposes of God. And so if you want to turn to the book of Job, chapter 19, we're looking at the seven sure things that we know, that the writer of Scripture says, 03:34 "We know," or, "I know." I am assured of, I am convinced of, I know, we know. And there are at least seven. Many times in Scripture, the word "know" is used. Over 200, around 250 times in the New Testament, the word "know" is used. 03:55 But these seven sureties are when the writer of Scripture says, "I know it, we know it," no discussion, no need for a lot of pandering back and forth with different ideas, but we just simply know these things to be true. 04:14 And they're based and rooted in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're rooted in the Gospel. They're rooted in what we call the verities of the faith, the sure things of the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so here's some things this morning that we know. 04:33 And Job refers to this way a long time before most of Scripture was written. Job made this declaration because this is believed to be one of the oldest books of the Scriptures, the oldest recorded experiences of man with God. And Job, 04:53 with divine revelation, says this about the resurrection, the resurrection from the dead. He says, "For I know that my Redeemer lives." Do you know that this morning? Do you know, like Job knew, that our Redeemer lives? 05:15 Now, I want you to just back up a verse or two here before that. He said, "Oh, that my words were written, oh, that they were inscribed in a book, that they may be engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead forever." And they are. They're included in Scripture. They are written here in the Word of God that will never, 05:36 ever pass away. And then he says, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at the last on the earth." In other words, this world is not just going to spin out of control and someday just burn up, blow up, pass away. It will, 05:55 it will eventually at the judgment. 05:58 But he says, "I know that my Redeemer is living and that he is coming back, and after my skin is destroyed, this I know that in my flesh I shall see God." Now, notice he says, "In my flesh," 06:17 means there's an elementary understanding here of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and not only the resurrection of Christ, but of the resurrection from the dead. We know this. We've never seen it. Yes, 06:35 we've seen in a measure through the eyes of faith and historical evidence, we've seen the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 06:43 But what is coming in the resurrection of the just and the unjust, the resurrection of the dead, what is coming has never, ever been seen before in reality or in magnitude of what he's talking about here this morning, 06:58 that in the flesh of those who have deceased and who have died and who have had skin worms destroy their body, what a graphic picture of what happens to the body in the grave. But in spite of that fact, in our flesh, we shall see God. 07:19 And we know this. This is one of the sureties of the Christian faith, is that there is a coming a day, and we don't preach about this enough. There is coming a day when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth. Do you know that? 07:39 Do you believe that? I believe that that's one of the things that keeps us going, is the hope of the resurrection, the hope that the sufferings of this present age, of this present world, this present day, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that awaits us, not just as spirit beings, 07:59 but one day having our bodies resurrected from the grave. I remember what the pastor at my grandmother's funeral said in such a beautiful way that just gripped me at the time when he said it. As we were standing around the grave of my departed grandmother at her funeral and burial, 08:21 he said this, and I've never forgotten it, these very words. He said, "And we know that this grave, which is now being occupied, will one day be empty." Think about it. 08:42 Will one day be empty? All of us in this group have lost loved ones. Others of us in this group have loved ones that will die. Others of us in this group will ourselves occupy a six by eight or five by eight or whatever plot of real estate. 09:03 But we know that sure as Christ raised from the dead, we also shall rise from the dead. This is one of the cardinal doctrines of the Word of God that gives us hope and joy that in the latter day, the last day, 09:22 we shall in our flesh see God. Of course, the rest of Scripture makes this much more, unfolds it even more. But this was Job's conviction, and I trust that it is ours. 09:37 The second thing, if you go with me to John 4:42, John 4:42, there is another thing that people know and that I trust that you know this morning, and I know, and we know together. Jesus had an encounter with a woman at the well, 09:57 a Samaritan woman, and this encounter brought her to faith in the person of Jesus Christ, in the person of himself. And I'm sure later, as he finished his work, that she was one of those early Samaritan believers that had put her faith and trust in Christ. 10:18 She went after her encounter with Christ, and she began to tell the people in the Samaritans in the city to come and meet this man. The Bible says that many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans had come to him, 10:40 they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. The disciples must have been chomping at the bit because they were saying, "What are we going through Samaria for anyway? 10:51 We don't have to go through there," but Jesus said, "It is necessary that I go through Samaria because I need to have an encounter here with this woman and with these Samaritans." And so he stayed a couple extra days from what they expected him to stay. They thought a fast trip through. This is forbidden territory. 11:11 This is no man's land here between Israel in the north and Israel in the south, Judah in the south, and that Samaritan area, but we got to get through there pretty quick. But Jesus had people that he wanted to share some things with, and then they said, after they had encountered Christ themselves, many believed because of his own word. 11:31 They heard it, not just the testimony of someone else, but their own personal experience. And verse 42, "Then they said to the woman, 'Now we believe not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him, and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.'" Do you know that this morning? 11:54 Are you fully convinced this morning that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Savior of the world? If you miss that point, you miss the entire Christian faith. If you miss that point, you miss heaven because this is eternal life. 12:13 Jesus said it in John 3, 12:17 John 17 rather, "And this is eternal life." He was praying to his Father, "That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." That is eternal life. We're talking about this morning is to be utterly and totally convinced of the sure things of the faith. 12:40 And they said, "We know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world." Do you know that this morning? Have you become convinced of that? Do you know that so much, not just in your head, but in your heart, to know that this is something you can stake your life on? 13:00 And not just this life, but the next. You see, everything about heaven and hell, everything about eternity, everything about where you will spend eternity and how you will spend it is summarized and contingent and dependent on knowing this fact experientially. 13:23 Not just knowing it here, but knowing it to the degree that we are willing and able and ready and experiencing that where I have completely staked my entire eternal existence on this fact. 13:41 I'm here to tell you this morning that that does change things eternally. To know this, to be utterly and completely convinced of this, and to stake our reputation, our lives, our property, 14:00 our life calling, and our eternal existence on this knowledge, 14:08 that is eternal life, to know God and Jesus Christ. The third thing I want you to know this morning is found in 2 Corinthians. So turn to 2 Corinthians 5. 14:21 It just keeps getting gooder and gooder, better and better. Do you realize how life-changing this is? Because there are some people who don't know anything of the sort. They think, they hope, they might, they surmise, or they think that you can't even know anything. 14:41 And even the things that are scientifically proved in the day that we're living in, they don't even they're not even sure about those things. Postmodernism believes that there is no truth but truth that you experience and that is true for you. There's no kinds of propositions out there. 15:00 There's no kinds of beliefs out there. There's no kinds of experiences out there that are true for everybody all the time, everywhere, in every age. This is revolutionary. 15:09 He says, "I want you to know this." Interesting how many things that he talks about that we're talking about this morning about knowing are rooted in 15:22 the future for the believer. And so here he says in 4:16, "Therefore do not lose heart. We do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing. Even the inward man or yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 15:40 is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Eternal, more exceeding, he says, verse 18, "While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal, for we know." There it is. 16:03 There it is again. We know this. We know this by revelation. We know this by Scripture, the revelation of the Holy Spirit to the apostles, prophets, Scripture declaring it to us, finding this confirmed in Jesus Christ, in his person and work. We know that if our earthly house, 16:24 this tent, is destroyed, he's talking about our bodies. Remember, this should link us with Job 19. He's talking about our bodies. We know that if this tent is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, 16:46 which is from heaven. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now, he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 17:06 So we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. I had a funeral message about a year and a half ago in another community, 17:28 and I referred to the fact that the deceased was not in this body anymore, and he's not going to be in the ground out there. He's in the presence of God. Went back to that community some other time, and a man told me, he said, "Do you realize what kind of feathers you ruffled that day?" That's one of the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, 17:49 that to be absent from the body, be present with the Lord. To be present in the body is to be absent from the Lord. What don't we get? 17:59 He said, "Well, there are people there that day that believe that their loved ones are laying out there in the cemetery until the resurrection." Wow. 18:08 The only thing that's out there, brothers and sisters, is a shell, 18:13 a tent that has been put off, and the person is in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. 18:23 If they know him, like we talked about in John 4, is in the presence of Jesus, and I believe they are fully aware. Now, to what degree they are functioning, we don't know. There's a lot that happens beyond that veil that we are not privy to, 18:44 but we know that they are aware. They are in the presence of Jesus. They are in a place of bliss and paradise. They are in heaven, as it were. Now, their body has not yet been fully resurrected. And so I made a statement about Brother Marion that his healing, 19:04 partial healing, 19:06 most of his healing took place when he died on August the 15th. 19:16 But his complete healing will be completed at the resurrection when he puts on the new tent and in his flesh sees God. So eternity and heaven, we know this is real. 19:36 This is real. This is not made up. This is not something that is just somebody's keen imagination working. This is not just a wish or a hope that, boy, we'd really like this to be true at the end, but we're not quite sure. No, we are sure. We are sure. 19:59 Number four, 2 Timothy. 20:06 2 Timothy 1. Well, I hope you know this today. 20:12 I hope you know this because of all the things that we need to know. This is one of the most important. "For this reason I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, 20:35 and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him until that day." Another thing that we know. The apostle Paul, having a lot of things in his background of which to be ashamed, 20:58 a lot of things in his background of which to wonder when he comes and stands before God how God will judge those things. Brother Reinhardt read this morning of his conversion. 21:14 I often wonder what Paul often thought about when he thought about his former life. What will God do with that? What does God do with that? What will I answer to God about that on that day of resurrection? 21:32 But with that came this assurance to Paul that I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he, that is Jesus, is able to deal with those things and to keep those things that I've committed unto him, 21:53 the good, the bad, and the ugly. To commit those things to the Lord Jesus Christ by confession and repentance so that our sins are forgiven and washed clean. And even the good things that we do as believers, the walk of righteousness, the deeds that he did as an apostle, 22:13 he committed those things to the Father and said, "God, you take care of these things as well. You reward according to your plan and your purpose, Lord. To the degree that I have been faithful, may you be the judge of the quick and the dead. 22:31 May you be the judge of the things that I've committed to you at the cross of Jesus Christ, receive forgiveness for them, and may you be the judge of how I walked and lived and worked and served and pleased God." And so he says back in our other passage there in 2 Corinthians, 22:52 he says, "So that whether absent from the body or present with the body, we make it our aim to please God, and we lay those things that we do at his feet, and he judges those things." And we can have perfect confidence, confidence in him, 23:14 not confidence in ourselves, but confidence in Jesus Christ to deal with those things that we have committed unto him against that day, until that day, however you want to translate that. We know that he is able to deal with those things and that he, 23:34 the righteous judge, will deal with them justly and righteously. And that the blood of Jesus Christ and the atonement that he made at the cross is sufficient. And so I want you to think about with me as we review these things. Number one, the resurrection, Job. 23:54 Number two, the incarnation, Christ, the Son of God. Number three, Paul talking about heaven and eternity and now talking about the sufficiency of the atonement that those things that are committed to Christ are secure. 24:12 We're talking about some of the basic doctrines and principles and beliefs and realities of the Christian faith, are we not? 24:21 Now, let's go over to 1 John 3. 24:28 Here you get two for the price of one, two knowledge, two knowings in the same chapter, two knowings in the same chapter. Second, coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice how many of these have to do with the future? 24:44 Many of them have to do with the future. 24:49 3:1, "Behold what manner of love the Father bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, 25:08 or it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know." Say that with me this morning. 25:13 "But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." What a tremendous thing to know that there's coming a day when we see him, 25:33 there will be a complete transformation. Now, the transformation that is happening in the life of a Christian is an ongoing transformation. It's called progressive sanctification where more and more and more we are being conformed into the image of Christ as believers. 25:52 That ought to be happening. In fact, I'll be so bold as to say it is happening in the life of a true believer. For we all, with open face, beholding us in a glass, are being transformed or are being changed into the same image of the glory of God and of Jesus Christ. 26:13 We all, those who know Christ, are in this process of becoming like him. But this process will not just go on and on and on and on and on. There will come a day when it is complete. 26:27 And he says, "At that day when we see him, we know that we will be like him." The process will be completed. 26:39 The transformation will have been accomplished, and out of the struggles and trials of life will emerge a carbon copy of Jesus Christ. We know that. Now, 26:59 that kind of leads us where we could go back to Romans 8:28 because we know that all things work together for good or that God is working in all things or that God works all things together for good to them that love God and that are called according to his purpose. And in just a few moments, 27:18 I'm going to take you back there and show you what his purpose is. But it has to do with this very thing of conforming us more and more and more to be like Jesus. 27:30 I said you get two for the price of one. Go down to verse 14. 27:35 Sometimes we don't know our hearts. 27:40 Sometimes we don't know because we can't see it. Am I really saved? Do I really know Christ? Am I really on my way to heaven? When I die, will I be ushered into the presence of God? 27:59 This has to do with personal assurance of salvation in 3:14, "For we know." We know. There you have it again. "For we know that we have passed from death to life, from death to life, that the translation has occurred. 28:21 It's in process. It's begun. We've been transferred from the presence of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. We know that. How do we know that? Because we love the brethren." And he gives in this book of 1 John, as you know, he gives several different tests of faith: the test of obedience, 28:42 the test of love, the test of truth, the test of confession, and others. But he says, "We know." This is one of the ways that we know that we have passed from death and life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death, and whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 29:04 And so we know. We know that. We can evaluate how we love, how we live, how we relate, how we walk, and compare that with the word of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and we can know that we're saved. 29:20 In fact, he goes on a little bit further in chapter 5. Chapter 5, he talks about knowing this. 29:33 These things, verse 13, "I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." Why did he write the book of 1 John? Why did he write the Gospel of John? 29:47 "That you may know that Jesus is the Christ and that believing you might have life through his name and that you may know that you have eternal life." Assurance, the assurance of salvation, not based on our performance but based on the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of Christ in our lives. 30:10 Now, let's go back to Romans 8:28. 30:17 If I were to ask you this morning, "Do you know there's going to be a resurrection?" I would believe that most, if not all, would say, "I know that." Do you know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Savior of the world? Most of us, if not all, would say, "I know that." Yep, I got that. Do you believe in heaven? Do you believe in eternity? 30:37 Do you believe that there's coming a day that we'll be in the presence of the very presence of God himself? Yep, we know that. Do you believe that Christ's death and resurrection was sufficient, that the things that we commit to him are secure until the day of judgment? Yep, we know that. Do you believe that Jesus is coming again? 30:58 Yes, we know that. Do you have assurance of your salvation? Yeah, most of the time. 31:03 I would hope that we could say, "Yes, we have assurance of our salvation because of the finished work of Christ as given evidence of a changed life." But this may be the hardest one to swallow, especially when we see what looks like a world out of control, 31:24 especially when you see disasters, when you see destruction, 31:32 when you see hurricanes, when you see fires, when you hear of people who have their house burned, when you hear of three men that are on their way to Colorado who are killed instantly when they run into the back of a truck and their vehicle goes up in flames. 31:46 When you hear those things happen and when they happen to you and to your family and to your kin and to your community, it's kind of easy for us to doubt verse 28. 32:05 But I'm here this morning to say that just like you can know there's a resurrection, just like you can know that your sins are forgiven, just like you can know that when you die, you'll go to heaven, just like you can know that Jesus is the Son of God and that he's coming back one day, those sure foundational things of the Christian faith in the same verbiage, 32:25 the same kind of language, the same kind of emphasis, we know this. That all things, even the bad things, even the things that we don't know where they come from, even the things that may be thrown at us as fiery darts from the enemy. 32:46 But in all those things, God is at work in the lives of those who love him and who are committed and called according to his purpose. 33:00 It's a little hard to stand, I'm sure, 33:07 at the wreckage of a home that's just burned into flame, burned up in flames. 33:14 It's difficult to stand at the casket of one who's died what we would consider a premature or untimely death. 33:24 It's difficult, and you don't know what to say when you see people in third world countries that are hungry and starving and that are being persecuted, more specifically persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. It's difficult to know what to do with some of those things, but we have to come back to the fact that in the lives of a Christian, the life of a believer, 33:44 the one who loves God, the one who's called according to his purpose, that God is at work taking the ugly and making something beautiful out of it. Do you know that? 33:58 This is where we cannot trust our hearts. 34:00 We must trust the word of God because our hearts will scream out in pain and say, "You can't know anything." At those times when the foundation is the very foundation of your life and of your personality and of your emotions is being challenged and is being thrown into upheaval, 34:21 you can't trust your heart for what you know. You got to trust the word of God for what we know. 34:31 People in depression, people in death, people in dire straits and circumstances, it amazes me the capacity of the human spirit to be in pain. 34:46 It amazes me of the capacity of this world to throw things at us that completely and totally could knock us off of our equilibrium and send us into despair. 35:02 Were it not for things like this to trust in the sovereignty of a good God 35:09 who the Bible says later on in this chapter 35:15 loves us with an unending love, with a profound love? We know. 35:27 We know that whether it be financial adversity or sickness or death or loss of relationships or age or childbearing or child rearing or equipment malfunctions or devastations or fears or worries, we know. 35:43 Whether it even be things that Satan causes, we know that God is at work in it all to accomplish something. What is he trying to accomplish? It's amazing to me how often we disconnect verse 28 from 29 and 30. 36:05 He tells us what his purpose is. His purpose is, "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." There's the purpose. And it goes on to say, "Moreover, whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, 36:26 these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified." That's the purpose. Are you committed to it? If we're committed to it and we love God with that kind of love which makes him as the object of our affections and him as the sole subject of our worship, 36:47 this is true. Now, if you're one of the neighbor kids, you can't claim this verse from the father, okay? If you're one of the father's neighbors, you don't get this verse. 37:00 You only get it when you're a son, when you're a daughter, when you're a child, when you love God and are called according to his purpose to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. To those, he is at work accomplishing a greater work. 37:21 Do you know that this morning? Can you say, "I know it. I know it," even if I don't feel it? And not is he trying to not only is he trying to teach us something, but he's trying to create in us something, and that's a step beyond just being taught. 37:43 Sometimes we say, "Lord, what do you want me to what do you want me to learn? What do you want to teach me?" as if this process of growth will one day be ended once I learn it. No, once you learn it, it just takes you to the next process. But what we need to be asking is, "God, 38:02 not just what you want me to learn because he does have things he wants us to teach us and to show us about himself, but I think the more appropriate prayer is, 'God, what do you want me to become?'" And that process will never end until the day of Jesus Christ, 38:19 being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it or will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ. And so, brothers and sisters this morning, do not despair. God is in control. 38:41 God is in charge. God has a purpose. God has a plan. God has not left you just spinning out there without a foundation, without a voice, without concern, 39:03 but he loves you, 39:06 and he has a plan for us beyond just a hodgepodge of unrelated experiences. His plan is to make us like his son. 39:23 And if we get that, we qualify for the verse that we can know that in it all, God is working. We are in a battle, brothers and sisters. We are in a battle. Some people say we're in a battle for our country. Be that as it may, we're in a battle for men's souls. 39:45 We're in a battle for the souls of young people. We're in a battle for the souls of older people. We're in a battle for the souls of middle-aged people. We're in a battle for souls. We're in a battle for our own soul. 39:59 But we know. We know that God is good. God has a plan. God is in charge. God is powerful. God is taking us somewhere, and he's creating in us something. 40:14 That one day when the canvas is taken off of the painting and it is displayed for all to see, we will step back and say, "Wow, God did that with this?" And the answer will be, 40:33 of course, we knew it all along. Let's pray. 40:42 Father, how many times the potter or the clay says to the potter, "What are you doing?" How many times the clay says to the potter, "Why have you made me thus?" So many times we as cracked vessels say, "God, what could you do with me in my brokenness, 41:05 my failures?" Lord, 41:09 let us sink let this sink deep into our spirit today that we know that God is at work. You are at work. 41:24 And we choose today to cooperate and participate in the work that you are doing in us and through us. 41:36 And if there's somebody this morning that is going through a particularly difficult time coping with the things that are happening in your life or the things that are happening in the world or the things that are happening in your family or even in your own heart, and you would just be willing to say this morning, 41:58 "I need the prayers of God's people, 42:00 and I want to be willing to allow God to do with me what he's doing to form Christ in me." And you'd like to ask for prayer this morning, would you just slip your hand up to the Lord? God bless you. 42:20 God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. 42:27 Thank you. God, for those who have responded and asked for prayer, we pray for each other this morning. We pray. We intercede that our faith would not fail in the time of testing and in the time of development. 42:48 Let us not short-circuit the process, and let us be as clay under the loving hand of the potter. 43:02 And as someone has said, "Blame it on the devil we might, but see God in it," we must. 43:13 To that end, we pray for each other this morning that transformation would continue to happen in our lives for the glory of God 43:26 and the refining of the image in us of our Lord Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.