Please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 7. We will begin with verse 1.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged:
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye;
and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
neither cast ye your pearls before the swine,
lest haply they trample them under their feet,
and turn and rend you.
Enter ye in by the narrow gate:
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many are they that enter in thereby.
For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life,
and few are they that find it.
Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name,
and by Thy name cast out demons, and by Thy name do many mighty works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:
depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.
Every one therefore that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them,
shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock:
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock.
And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand:
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.
And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these words,
the multitudes were astonished at His teaching:
for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee once again for gathering us together here this morning. We thank Thee for Thy amazing love toward us. Thou dost love us, and love us to the very end.
We praise and thank Thee for giving us Thy own life, and Thou dost desire that we should have it abundantly. We come to Thee this morning, open our hearts to Thee, and ask Thee, Lord, that Thou wouldst once again speak to us.
Lord, unless Thou dost speak, we are as if dead, for Thy words are life and spirit. So we just humbly ask Thee to give us understanding, give us vision, and give us revelation, that we may be brought into the reality of Thy word, and that Thy word truly will become our very living.
Lord, we do desire that Thy will will be done in us, as it is in heaven, and that Thy kingdom may come. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We do want to thank the Lord for bringing us together again this morning. I do feel that the Lord really loves us, that He will not let us go, and He wants to bring us to where He is.
Now, this time our burden is on the so-called Sermon on the Mount. The Bible tells us that when the crowds came to the Lord, our Lord Jesus went up to a mountain. By this very action, He is trying to tell us that we have to go to a higher plane.
Then the disciples came to Him, and He began to open His mouth and teach His disciples. To me, I feel that as our Lord sat down, it indicates to us that what He is going to say is based upon His finished work.
You do not sit down until your work is done. Our Lord Jesus sat down, and that shows us that what He is going to say to us is on the foundation of His finished work of redemption.
He addresses Himself to His own disciples. Now notice here: these are not only believers. Of course, they are believers, but it is more than just believing in the Lord as their Savior. These believers are disciples.
That is to say, they answered the call of our Lord Jesus to follow Him. They put themselves under the lordship of Christ Jesus, and they come to the Lord to learn of Him.
What the Lord is going to say to them is intended to train them as His disciples. The purpose is that they may be as He is.
Dear brothers and sisters, here we find in the Sermon on the Mount all kinds of things. Our Lord is not giving us a new law. It is not like Moses giving the law to the children of Israel, that if they kept the law, they would be God’s people and God would be their God.
But the Sermon on the Mount is not giving a new law. He is not now giving a higher law that we must keep in order to become sons of the kingdom of heaven.
Neither is the Sermon on the Mount the proclamation of Christian ethics, as if our Lord Jesus were giving us a higher moral standard for us to imitate. It is not so.
We believe that the Sermon on the Mount is of grace. He has already given us His own life, and He is trying to tell us what that life really is. He tells us that all the potential is in us. It is all there; it needs to be expressed and released.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is the kingdom of heaven? The kingdom of heaven has its geographical and historical side, but basically it is a spiritual reality.
The kingdom of heaven is none other than the kingship of our Lord Jesus. He has His kingship over His own people.
The kingdom of heaven is what our Lord Jesus Himself is, and the kingdom of heaven is where His people are being transformed to be like Him. This is the reality of the kingdom of heaven.
What grace the Lord has, that He should not only give us His kingly life, but wants that kingly life to be developed into a kingly character. When that character is manifested, there is the kingdom of heaven.
Our Lord Jesus began His word to us with the Beatitudes. We have already said that the emphasis is on being, not on doing.
Blessed are the poor in spirit:
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
When you manifest poverty in spirit, you are in the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of heaven is yours. His life is already kingly, but His character needs to be developed within us in order that the kingdom of heaven may become a reality to us.
The Sermon on the Mount is a description of our Lord Jesus. That is what He is. While He was on earth, He lived such a kingly life. He lived a life of heaven upon this earth, and this is the way that He wants us to live.
Our Lord Jesus came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets. He came to fulfill them—that is to say, to fill them to the full.
The law may demand certain things, but grace will bring us far above what the law demands. The law can only touch the outward appearance, but our Lord, His life, His grace, will touch our inward life.
That is why our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is all external. They may be outwardly correct, and yet there is no inward reality.
They keep the letter of the law, but violate the very spirit of the law. So our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
We remember that our Lord Jesus said to us that we shall seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us.
How do you seek the kingdom of God? What do you mean by seeking the kingdom of heaven? It simply means this: that you want to be like He is.
You are not satisfied just having His life in you. You are not just contented by going to heaven. You want to be what He is. You want to have His character in your life.
This is what is meant by seeking the kingdom of heaven. If you really want to be what He is, allow His life to really take hold of you. Then naturally it will be followed by His righteousness.
First of all is the being, and then you have the doing. If you are like Him, then you will act like Him. Your action will not be something that is put on; it will be the overflow of life.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is also what we have been sharing together. The Christian life, or kingdom life, has that secret part, that hidden part.
Because we are living that heavenly life upon this earth, there is a heavenly hidden part. That is the very source of our life upon this earth.
On this earth, you find there are three dimensions: relationship with the world and with men, relationship with God, and relationship with ourselves.
These are represented in giving alms, in prayer, and in fasting. But in whatever area it may be, you find that our motive is toward God. It is not just toward men.
When we are giving alms, we should do it in secret. It is for God to see, not for man to see. Our reward is in heaven, not upon this earth.
A Christian life is not lived for man. A Christian life is lived unto God. Therefore, we must cultivate a hidden life. We shall live a life that is face to face with God.
If we have that hidden life first of all, then we find our life toward men will glorify God.
The same is true with prayer. Prayer is unto God. Prayer is seeking the will of God. Prayer is to glorify God.
Therefore, when we pray, we should go into the closet, close the door, and pray to the Father who is in secret. Our Father who is in secret will hear us, and He will reward us.
When we pray, we shall pray first for the kingdom of God and for His will. Then we shall pray for our needs, whether those needs are spiritual or physical.
When we are fasting, we should always do it as unto the Lord, not to try to draw attention from people.
It is very important to live the kingdom life. There must be a hidden life. The stronger the hidden life, the stronger will be our testimony on this earth.
All who live in the kingdom of heaven live a life of faith. Good brothers and sisters, we mentioned before that the life of faith is not just for a chosen special few. The life of faith is required of all of us.
Why? Because we are a heavenly people upon the earth. We are strangers and sojourners. The world is not our home; we are just passing through.
Our life on earth should be symbolized by living in tents. We do not get our roots deep into this earth.
In order to deliver us from being earthly, the Lord said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, but lay up treasures in heaven.” On earth, you find there will be moth, rust, and thieves; but in heaven there is no moth, no rust, and no thief.
What are our treasures? They include everything that means life to your soul. It is something that you look upon as most precious, something that you really depend on, something that you will not let go.
Whether it is riches, position, or people, the Lord wants to set us free. He wants us to lay these treasures in heaven—in other words, to give ourselves and all that we consider treasures to Him.
Let Him have the right over all these treasures. We are on earth as stewards of His gifts, to be faithful to whatever He wants.
That is the way we are delivered from serving mammon, because we serve the Lord Jesus. He alone is the One whom we serve.
If we live such a life of faith, then we do not need to worry about what we should eat, what we should drink, or what we should be clothed with.
We know that our heavenly Father knows everything. If we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things shall be added unto us. What a life that is.
Now this morning, we will go into chapter 7. As a matter of fact, chapter 7 gives us the conclusion.
When we read Matthew chapter 7, probably the first impression it gives us is that the Lord touches upon a number of things that seem unrelated. It gives you the feeling that you are reading Proverbs: here a little, there a little; here a line, there a line; here a precept, there a precept.
As if they are all unrelated. But as you really study it, you will find that there is a theme that goes through it.
The theme is that the Lord wants His disciples to live a disciplined and obedient life. If we live such a life, what will be its consequence? The consequence is the reward of the kingdom of heaven.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged:
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.
Brothers and sisters, we are all tempted to judge. That is a temptation that we are always facing. So far as our natural man is concerned, we like to judge, because in judging it gives us a feeling that we are superior.
Now, what is meant by “Judge not”? It does not mean that you should not discern. We need to have the spirit of discernment, because if you cannot discern, you cannot choose. If you cannot discern, you do not know which way to go. If you do not discern, you are not able to help anybody. There will be no ministry at all.
Judge and discern are two different things. If you turn to Luke 6, the word continues with, “Condemn not.” So the judging here is condemning people. It has the spirit of judgmentalism. It is critical, it looks down upon people, and in a sense it is an arrogant spirit.
One brother says, when you are saying something about people, what is your inward feeling? If you say something bad about someone, is your feeling within you mournful, or is your feeling one of joy?
When you are judging a person, are you trying to criticize him, or are you trying to restore him? It depends upon our inward sense.
If we judge our brother or sister with a bad feeling, we are criticizing them and looking down upon them. If we judge in this manner, the Lord said, “You will be judged.”
Not only will our Lord judge you, but He will allow other people to judge you likewise. With the measure you mete to others, it will be measured unto you.
According to Luke 6, when they measure it back to you, it will be pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing. In other words, you will get a worse judgment.
You remember the scribes and Pharisees in John 8. One morning they brought to the Lord a woman caught in adultery.
They brought her to the Lord and asked Him, “Lord, what should we do to her? According to the law of Moses, she should be stoned to death.”
They tempted our Lord Jesus. They knew that our Lord Jesus is love, and they wanted to challenge Him. If the Lord said, “Let her go,” they would say He violated the law of Moses. If the Lord said, “Stone her to death,” they would say He did not have love and compassion.
When they brought that woman to the Lord, they put her in public shame. But what was the reaction of our Lord? He bowed Himself down. He would not even look at the woman. He would not say a word, but He used His finger and wrote on the earth.
We do not know what He wrote. People are very anxious to know what He was writing. They pressed Him and said, “What do You say we should do to that woman?”
Our Lord raised Himself up and said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then He bowed down again. He would not even look at these men. He felt shameful for them.
One by one they left, from the oldest to the youngest. Then our Lord raised Himself up and said, “Is there no one condemning you?”
There was One there who could condemn her, and that is our Lord Himself. But the Lord said, “Neither do I condemn thee. Go thy way.”
In doing that, He was thinking of Calvary. He was going to bear the sin of that woman. Here you find our Lord Jesus, how full of mercy He is. He will not condemn.
But we, who are sinners, how quickly we judge and condemn.
The apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4, says:
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment:
yea, I judge not mine own self.
For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified:
but He that judgeth me is the Lord.
Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come,
who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
and make manifest the counsels of the hearts;
and then shall each man have his praise from God.
Actually, Paul uses the word “examining,” which is a little lighter than the word “judging.” Examining is the first step; after you examine, then you judge.
The apostle Paul says that it is a very small thing for him to be examined by anybody or by man’s day. He says, “I do not even examine myself.” Why? Because the One who really examines him is the Lord.
Do not try to judge, because there are many hidden things of the heart that we do not know. We have to wait until the Lord reveals these things.
When we come to the judgment seat of Christ, every hidden thing and every counsel of the heart will be exposed. Then each will receive his praise from God.
If we try to judge others, there are many hidden things that we do not know. We can only see the outward appearance. Only God knows the heart. Therefore, our judgment will not be accurate.
Judgment is God’s government. It is God who judges, and only His judgment is just. Wait until that day, and everything will be clear. Everything will be judged accordingly.
This does not mean that because Paul said, “I do not even examine myself,” we should not know where we are.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11, “If we judged ourselves, we should not be judged.” Is there any contradiction here? Not at all.
There is a self-examination that is introspection. If we try to examine ourselves by ourselves, such examination is futile, because we do not even know our own heart.
Self-introspection is unprofitable. It will come to either result: either it will press you down so that you become negative, or it can elate you and make you proud of yourself.
Only in His light do we see light. Psalm 36 says, “In Thy light shall we see light.” We should bring ourselves into His light, not try to examine ourselves by our own light, because our light is darkness itself.
He is the light of life. As we bring ourselves to His light, then in His light we begin to see light, and this will be helpful to us.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to be careful not to judge others, because God loves mercy, not judgment.
There is another reason. If we judge other people, we are actually playing hypocrites.
The Lord tells us that if you see, or profess to see, the mote in the eye of your brother, and do not see the beam in your own eye, and then tell your brother, “Let me cast out the mote from your eye,” are you not playing the hypocrite?
You have the beam in your own eye. How can you see clearly? Maybe the mote in your brother’s eye is only a reflection of your beam.
You are not only playing the hypocrite; you have no way to help your brother. You are the one who needs help.
Every time you see something in your brother, the first thing you should do is go to God and ask the Lord whether there is a beam in your own eye.
Probably what you see in your brother is only a tiny little reflection of what you really are. You may be so much worse than your brother, and you are the one who needs to be helped.
Ask the Lord to remove the beam from your eye. After the beam is removed, then you can see more clearly, and that is the time when you are able to minister to your brother.
That is where discernment comes. Spiritual discernment is an important thing in our Christian life. It does not come from mental knowledge; it comes from your own experience.
Because you have experienced it yourself, and you have been dealt with by the Lord and delivered from it, your eye is clear. You can see very clearly, and you are able to help your brother. That is where ministry comes.
Again, we need to be careful, because the Lord addresses individual believers. As individual believers, we should never try to judge people.
But this does not apply to the church, because the Bible tells us very clearly that the church is to judge evil in its midst. There is a governmental side there.
What the Lord is trying to deliver us from is that judgmental spirit. This requires discipline. We need His discipline.
We know that discipline is not a popular word today, especially among the young generation. But without discipline, we will never grow up. We will never be mature, and the character of Christ will never be able to be formed in us.
It is very important that we, as disciples, are disciplined. If we are not disciplined, how can we say that we are His disciples?
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
neither cast ye your pearls before the swine,
lest haply they trample them under their feet,
and turn and rend you.
This tells us of discernment. We should not judge, but we must discern.
What are the things that are holy? All the words that our Lord has spoken to us are holy. The whole Sermon on the Mount is a holy thing, because by these words we are being sanctified.
We are being separated from the world, delivered from the earth, and made wholly for God and for heaven. The words in the Sermon on the Mount are holy things.
Now, do not give the holy thing to the dogs. Who are the dogs? The dogs here represent those people in the world, because they are unclean—the unbelievers.
If you try to share with them the Sermon on the Mount, will they appreciate it? Probably they will take advantage of it.
What the world needs is the gospel of grace. They need the gospel of pure grace—that if you come to the Lord, you will be forgiven.
That is the gospel that they can understand. In another way, what they need is the gospel according to Luke, the message of the forgiveness of sins.
If you try to share with them the gospel of the kingdom, you will find that the natural man, the man of flesh and blood, will not understand it. They consider it foolishness, and they may take hold of it and try to attack you.
Here you need discernment when you are dealing with people. You need to know exactly what kind of things they can understand and what will help them.
Then it continues: “Cast not your pearls before swine.” What are the pearls? Pearls represent our spiritual experience.
A pearl is formed when something enters into the oyster and causes pain. The oyster cannot get it out, and it begins to secrete something to cover that irritant. Layer upon layer it covers it, and out of its pain comes forth a pearl.
So it speaks of spiritual experience—the experience of the Sermon on the Mount.
Now, do not cast it before swine. What does swine represent? According to Leviticus, swine have the divided hoof but do not chew the cud.
Swine here probably represent professing Christians, or carnal Christians. They may have the divided hoof, but they do not chew the cud.
When you share with a carnal Christian your experience of the Sermon on the Mount, they may not be able to accept it. So you need discernment.
If you do not discern, you will find that not only will they not appreciate it, but they will turn back on you. You see the balance between judging not and having discernment.
You will say that is very difficult. That is the reason why it is followed by, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Do you remember our Lord Jesus? After He used five loaves and two fishes to feed the five thousand, many people tried to follow Him.
The Lord began to tell them, “I am the bread of life. Eat My flesh and drink My blood, and ye shall have life in you.”
Not only the crowd, but many of His disciples said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” And they left and followed the Lord no more.
The Lord turned to His twelve disciples and said, “Do ye also wish to go away?” The Lord never forces anybody.
Thank God for Simon Peter. Simon Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and know that Thou art the Holy One of God.”
Brothers and sisters, when you listen to the words of the Sermon on the Mount, will you not have the same kind of reaction? You may say, “This is a hard saying. Who can do it?” Will you also depart?
You need to ask. Ask, and it shall be given to you. To you, it is impossible, and the Lord is not requiring you to fulfill it. He will do it.
If you just ask, He will give it. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking, and it shall be opened unto you.
The Lord said, if your child comes and asks for bread, will you give your child a stone? If your child asks for fish, will you give him a serpent?
You who are evil know how to give good things to your children. How much more will your heavenly Father give good things to His children?
In Luke 11, what are the good things? The Holy Spirit. Certainly He will give the Holy Spirit to you.
The Lord knows that you are not able to do these things. He does not require these things from you; He requires these things from Himself. His life is in you, and He is well able to do these things.
Only let the Holy Spirit work in your life. Let the Holy Spirit illumine you. Let the Holy Spirit arrange the circumstances to justify you. The Holy Spirit is responsible to transform you and conform you to Christ.
Just let the Holy Spirit do His job, and then you will be all right. Brothers and sisters, you will find that everything is grace. He is well able to do it.
Now this is again followed by an exhortation. Exhortation includes two meanings: on the one hand, encouragement; and on the other hand, warning.
Whenever you find biblical exhortation, there is the encouraging part and the warning part. The Lord uses two parables for encouragement: one is entering into the narrow gate, and the other is building your house upon the rock.
Enter ye in by the narrow gate:
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many are they that enter in thereby.
For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life,
and few are they that find it.
Why does the Lord encourage us to enter into the narrow gate? It is a gate that few find, and yet the Lord encourages us to enter into it.
Our Lord Jesus once said that it is easier for a camel to enter through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom.
Whether this is literal or symbolic, I think the meaning is the same. Some people say that the needle’s eye was a small door within a city gate. When the city gate was closed, the small door could still be open.
For a camel to get through that small door, it had to be stripped of all its loads. Then it could barely get through.
What is meant here is very simple: we have to be stripped of all our loads and then enter into the narrow gate.
Brothers and sisters, to enter into the kingdom, you have to do violence to yourself. In Matthew 11, we are told that from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and men of violence take it by force.
What does that mean? It does not mean to do violence to other people. It means to do violence to yourself—that is, to deny yourself.
Denying yourself is to do violence to yourself. We usually love ourselves, and here the Lord says that you have to deny yourself.
You have to be stripped of everything that is of yourself and for yourself. Then you are able to enter into the narrow gate. You cannot enter the narrow gate carrying all the loads with you.
When you enter into the gate of the kingdom of heaven, you are stripped of yourself, and only the life of the Lord will go through.
After you enter the narrow gate, you find there is a straitened way. In other words, daily you bear your cross and follow the Lord. But it leads to life.
The way of the world has a broad gate, and the way is broad. Many are traveling in it, but it leads to destruction.
The life here and the destruction here do not refer to eternal life or eternal death, because that is already settled. Matthew does not deal with that.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we receive His eternal life. Eternal life is eternal. We will never lose it, because it is a gift of God.
God is not like man who repents. What He has given, He will never take back. Eternal life is ours, and one day we will enjoy that life to eternity. We have already passed through death into life.
So the life and destruction here are within the scope of the kingdom of heaven.
One day, when the kingdom of heaven shall publicly appear upon this earth, those who enter the narrow gate and walk on the straitened way will reign with Christ for one thousand years. That is enjoying life.
But those who do not enter the narrow gate and walk on the straitened way, but choose to walk in the way of the world, will experience destruction.
Destruction does not refer to eternal destruction. It is to be kept out of the life of the kingdom of heaven.
Just like the five wise virgins enter into the marriage feast, the five foolish virgins are kept out of the marriage feast. But this is for one thousand years, when the kingdom of heaven shall publicly appear on this earth.
When the coming age comes to an end and eternity comes, those who are saved will enter into eternity.
Here you find that if we allow the words of the kingdom of heaven to work in our lives, then when the kingdom of heaven shall publicly appear on earth, we will enjoy life with our Lord Jesus.
The same is true with building your house upon the rock. The rock is the word of the Sermon on the Mount.
If we keep it—in other words, if we obey it, not by our own strength but by His grace—then when the rain falls and the storm rises, we will stand.
These two parables refer to encouragement. There are two other warnings.
In the kingdom of heaven, there will be people who are like false prophets. They will put on sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
They will come in and try to preach or say something different from what our Lord has said. They will say something to please our flesh.
They may say that you can believe in the Lord Jesus and need not follow the Sermon on the Mount, and that you will still be rewarded. Such false prophets come into your midst.
How are we going to discern? See the fruit. Fruit is the consummation, or the maturity, of life.
Not by action alone, but by the fruit—by what that life brings forth—you will know who is real and who is false.
Then you find another class of people. They are not false prophets. They are people who come to the Lord and say, “Lord, Lord.” They are real believers, and they are zealous for the Lord. They are there for the Lord’s work.
They say, “Lord, Lord, have we not cast out demons in Thy name? Have we not prophesied through Thy name? Have we not done many mighty works through Thy name?”
Certainly these people feel that they should be rewarded with the kingdom. But to their surprise, the Lord says, “Depart from Me. I never knew you, workers of lawlessness.”
How can it be lawlessness when you are casting out demons and working wonders in the name of the Lord? Yet, on their own, they do not seek the will of God and do not follow God’s will.
So the Lord says these are workers of lawlessness. “I do not know you” means, “I do not approve of you.” “Depart from Me” means that they will have no part in the coming kingdom of heaven.
What is important? The Lord is not expecting us to do anything for Him. The Lord wants us to submit to His will. If we submit to His will, then He will reward us with the kingdom.
As our Lord finished speaking, the people who heard Him said that He spoke differently, because He is the personification of His own words.
His word has authority. His word has power. So let us trust in His word, yield ourselves to His word, and let the Holy Spirit work it out in our lives.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy grace. Thou dost not require anything from us, but Thou dost require Thyself in us.
Thou art kingly, and Thou dost desire to express Thy life. Do teach us how to yield ourselves to Thee, to be taught of Thee, and to be disciplined by Thee.
May we be brought to the place where Thou wantest us to be, that Thy kingdom may come and Thy will be done on earth. May Thy name be hallowed.