Father, we thank You for allowing
us to gather together, allowing us to be here by Thy providential
hand, O Lord. We pray that Your people will
be lifted up and edified and built up, O Lord, that we would
rejoice in the great salvation that we have in and through Thee,
Lord Jesus. And we're here for the furtherance of the Gospel,
O Lord, so we pray that the Gospel will go forward with power and
by the might of the Holy Spirit. And we love You and praise You,
in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, turn to 2nd Peter, 2nd
Peter chapter 1. The name of the message is grace
given and grace growing. Grace given and grace growing. 2nd Peter chapter 1, we'll read
verses 1 to 9. Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord
according as His divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving
all diligence to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and
to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to
patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness charity. For if these things be in you
and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he
that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off,
and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Last
week we left off at verse 4, where we looked at how those
who have obtained like precious faith, those who are mentioned
in verse 1, those who are born again by the Holy Spirit of God
are given great and exceedingly precious promises in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone. We also looked at how
the Holy Spirit was in us, is in us, and we know that he is
the one who leads us into all truth, into all truth. He is
the promised comforter. He's the promised comforter that
the Lord Jesus Christ promised would come to his people after
his death. And he will not leave us nor forsake us. Our God will
never leave us nor forsake us, never. And we know that as believers,
all believers have these great and precious promises. And it's
all in and through again the Lord Jesus Christ because we
have a union with him. And because of our union with
him, he is the vine and we are the branches. He's the head and
we're the body. He's the foundation stones and
we're living stones built up in spiritual temple upon him.
We saw that in our study in 1 Peter. We obtain God's gift of precious
faith, which is spoken of in verse one, through the miracle
of the new birth. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God and we're granted faith and repentance to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not something we can muster
up because in our natural state there's none who believes on
God. There's none who seeks after God. So it's a gift of God. And
this precious faith comes to us that we see through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Again, look at verse 1. Simon
Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that
have obtained like precious faith. We've obtained it. It's been
given to us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
And we are partakers of the divine nature of God all according to
his divine power. All according to his divine power.
He's given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
the scripture says. Look at verse three. According
as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain
unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue. And take note that God's elect
are enlightened through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is brought
forth in verse two. Look at that. Grace and peace
be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God And of Jesus
our Lord, let's continue to read all the way to seven. And look,
look at this, it's all the work of God. It's all the work of
God, beloved. According this, his divine power
hath given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue. Whereby are given unto us, again,
given unto us, we don't seek them, all right? exceeding great
and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence
to add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and
to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to
patience godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness charity, which is love. Love of God, our great God, sends
the spirit of his Son into our hearts. into our hearts. How? Under the preaching of the
gospel. Under the preaching of the gospel. And his preachers
are allowed the honor of preaching the truths of the gospel. It's
a great honor to declare the truths of the gospel. Gospel
preachers don't take it lightly at all. It's a great honor. God, the Holy Spirit, who's taken
up residence within the believer, takes the things of the Lord
Jesus Christ and reveals them to us, doesn't he? We learn more
and more The scripture that I'm going to preach on this morning
in Sunday's regular service. I've read that scripture hundreds
of times. And it just lights up what's there before you. It's
incredible. I already knew what was being
brought forth there, but then the verse is brought forth that
it's all the work of God. It's all the work, and so we
grow and increase in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what does that do? That just makes us rejoice more
in him. It makes us rejoice more in what he's done. Because the
more you see that it's all the work of God, the more you give
him all the glory. All the glory, it's all him. So the Holy Spirit
takes the things of Christ and the scriptures and reveals them
to us, reveals Christ to us. John 16, 13 to 15 says this,
halidate when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide
you into all truth. He guides us into all truth,
but who's the truth? The Lord Jesus Christ. For he
shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall
glorify me. He shall glorify me. The Holy
Spirit will glorify Christ. For he shall receive of mine
and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and show
it unto you. John 16, 13-15. He reveals Christ
to us, beloved. He reveals Christ to us. Rejoice if you're one of those
Peter brings forth in verse one that have obtained like precious
faith through the righteousness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because it's through Christ and
Christ alone that we have all things that pertain to life and
godliness as we see in verse three of our text. And also all
the exceeding precious promises spoken of in verse four are given
to every believer who has been made a partaker of God's divine
nature. And we know from our study of
scripture that all the promises of God in Christ are yea, and
in him, amen, unto the glory of God. All in Christ. And by the presence and ruling
power of this new nature, we escape not the corruption and
depravity of human nature, because as long as we're in this world,
we're sinners. We're sinners. But the corrupt
manners, vices, and conduct and principles of this world. We
don't want to do the things we used to do. And our new nature makes us inwardly
seek holiness and outwardly avoid the prevailing corruptions of
our times, which there's lots of it in this world. There's
nothing new under the sun either. The saints of old struggle with
the same things we struggle with, beloved. They struggle with the
same things. The Lord took them through it,
didn't he? Oh, he'll take us through it too. Here, take us
here. Let's look at verses five to seven again here. And beside
this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to
virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance
patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness charity. Now, note the words beside this,
or from the consideration of the free grace of God towards
us, and the precious promises in his gospel, and through Christ
alone, we should seek to grow in the exercise of grace and
good works. Beside this, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge. Now we know
we can't add to the faith that God gives us. This is speaking
of the fruits of the Spirit, beloved. That the Spirit works
in us. But we should seek to grow in
knowledge, shouldn't we? In the knowledge of Jesus Christ
our Lord. Not so that we're puffed up,
but that we might glorify him more. That we might glorify him.
We should seek, we see, we should seek these things. Look at in
verse five, and beside this giving all diligence out of your faith
virtue and to virtue knowledge. It says give all diligence, there
it means to speed, urge, or hasten in the Greek. Press in. In other words, be sincere in
your eager attempts to. Again, we can't add to our faith. The light, precious faith is
a gift from God. And it says here, add to your
faith. And faith is the foundation and basis of all good works.
Here we see as John Trapp brings forth, faith exercised as what
we see before as grace exercised. Virtue, it says here. And beside
this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. into virtue
knowledge. It says virtue here. Virtue means
moral goodness. Moral goodness. Intrinsic eminence. Our conduct and our attitude
should harmonize with our profession. That's all that means. That's
all that means. As the Apostle James brings forth
faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, thou hast
faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Now the works
don't save us. I like what Brother Henry says
about that verse in James. It's just evidence that we're
born again. It's evidence. The fruit of the
Spirit is evidence that we're born again. Children of God are to walk in
love, Ephesians 2. 5.2, we're to walk in love before
others. Because we've been delivered
from the power of darkness. We've been delivered from our
sins. Therefore, we're to walk as children of light. In our
virtue, our moral goodness is not an attempt to establish a
righteousness. No, not at all. Not at all. And in no way does
it gain us merit and favor with God at all. No. I like what the
commentator said. It proves our profession. Oh
my. Our virtue, or again, our moral
goodness, is not to draw attention to ourselves either. Not to earn
the praises of man, or not to earn more stars in the crown,
as folks say. No, it's not about that at all.
It's about glorifying God. It's about glorifying our great
God, and who He is, and who He is. Now we're to grow in grace. As we grow in grace, we see here that we're to add
knowledge, too. We know this is the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 18 of chapter 3. 2 Peter 3, verse 18. Look at this. But grow in grace. Grow in grace. and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and
forever. Amen. Let's go back to our verse
in verse 5. It says, Beside this, giving
all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge.
Well, we know from verse 18 in chapter 3 that this knowledge
is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should grow in the knowledge
of Him. Again, our conduct and our attitude
should harmonize with our profession. Should harmonize with our profession.
We should grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. When we learn more about Christ,
we marvel more and more about what he's done. And that's what
it's all about, to marvel more that God himself clothed himself
in humanity and became a man, the God man, to die on the cross
for your sins if you're a believer. And for my sins as a believer.
To grow and to learn more and more about who he is. To not let things that occur
hinder Us looking to Him. That's why Paul said, set your
mind on things above. I've heard preachers say this
in the past, not grace preachers, but I've heard that you can be
so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. I don't attest
to that. I don't. I don't think I can
ever think about Christ enough. I don't think I can ever think
of my Savior enough. As a matter of fact, I don't
think I think about Him enough. I'm enamored with Him, are you
as a believer? Yeah, we are, right? We are. But oh my, when
we start to think about our Savior, do you not just get lost in how
much He loves us? Do you not just get taken away?
But when the cares of this world creep in, or things of this world
creep in, sometimes our joy is taken away from us. But what
happens when we look to Him again? We're filled with joy again.
I don't think we can ever look to Him. Oh my, and not that it,
again, it does not gain us merit in favor of God. I'm just saying
we just need to keep looking to Christ, that's all. We just need
to keep, no matter what the circumstance, good or bad, no matter what,
no matter what, just keep looking to Him. And the believers should
grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, again, our Creator, who
clothed Himself in the mantle of human flesh. Why? So that
He could do the perfect will of God for us in our place. so
that he could die on Calvary's cross to redeem our souls, to
purchase our souls, so that we could obtain like precious faith
as all the other believers. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. So we should grow in the knowledge,
again, also of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for
our justification. We should grow in the knowledge
of God forgiving us for Christ's sake. Why? Just because it pleased
him to do so. And the more we learn these things,
the more we focus on Christ, again, the more peace we'll have
and the more joy we're going to have, beloved. Oh, my. So we should think upon these
precious truths. We should meditate upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let them sink deep into your
soul. Let them sink deep into your soul. We should grow in
the knowledge that Christ is our blessed surety. It's He who
is able to save us to the uttermost. We can't save ourselves, but
He can save us, and He has. He saved His people from their
sins. We should grow in the knowledge that all our acceptance with
God is in and through Him. That it's all based upon His
work. And the more we do that, the
more grave clothes will fall off of us, too. Grave clothes
of religion that we sometimes still carry around, right? And more of those things will
just fall off the more we look to Christ beloved. The more we
look at He who's done all the work for us and in our place,
it's absolutely wonderful. It'll make your heart rejoice. Some may say, oh, I already know
all those truths. Someone's saying that, they're in a world of hurt.
We're in a world of hurt. We can always grow in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not one of us has ever arrived.
I remember old Scott Richardson, I love this, 40 years preaching
the gospel. He says, well, one of these days
I'm gonna learn how to be a preacher. Oh, my. Yeah, we can always grow, we can always
learn. No one's arrived. And so we as
believers should be seeking to grow in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ, grow in the knowledge of Christ and Him crucified.
And I tell you, it'll give you peace. It'll give you joy, beloved,
amidst the storms of life. It will. Oh my, when we grow in the knowledge
of the will of God and how He does all things that please Him,
it brings great comfort to the believer. Look at verse six. Let's continue, verse six. Into
knowledge, temperance. Into temperance, patience. Into
patience, godliness. Knowledge here, add to knowledge,
temperance. The word temperance in the Greek means self-control.
Self-control. Don't be quick to fly off the
handle. That's natural man in us, isn't it? Self-control over anything we
do. Don't do things in excess. Have
self-control. Don't do things that might hinder
your relationship with the Lord. Have self-control. We attend
the worship services and the preaching of the work that we
might grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
must have the preeminence, basically is what's being put forth here
is Christ must have the preeminence. He must be first in our lives.
If our relationship with God is as it should be, the Lord
Jesus Christ is our life. just as Colossians 3, 4 says.
He's our life, beloved. And our profession will prove
true because it'll manifest in a life devoted to him, devoted
to him. Let's continue. And the knowledge,
temperance, and the temperance, patience, and the patience, godliness. Patience in the Greek means a
cheerful or hopeful endurance. Cheerful or hopeful endurance.
Consistency, enduring, patience. Patience, continuance, or waiting. All through the scripture we
see we're to wait on the Lord, beloved. We're to wait on the
Lord, aren't we? We tend to like to rush forward
and fix things, but we gotta wait on the Lord. We gotta wait
on Him. We gotta wait on Him. Patience
is the ability to maintain a steadfast spirit in the midst of trials.
Now, I know each one of us handle trials in a different way. Sometimes
when a trial comes up, we may just go, oh my gosh, right off
the bat, right? But then we settle down, don't we, when we start
to think about Christ. Sometimes we settle down and
then we start to freak out a little bit, but then we settle down
again when we get our, see, different things occur in different ways
for different people, too, that way. But we're to have patience,
we're to wait on the Lord, beloved, we're to wait on Him. And patience
is necessary. One brother in the Lord said,
patience is necessary to a Christian walk, for we are faced with reproach
from man, trials from God, and difficulties from within, from
within our own self. A man may be overcome by anger,
pride, jealousy, envy, and self-pity, as well as by strong drink. So
to be angry and full of pride and jealous and envious and have
self-pity is just as much a sin as being drunk, y'all, a strong
drunk. Listen to the words in James
5, verses 10 and 11. Take my brethren the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering,
affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy,
which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have
seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is pitiful and of tender
mercy. He's merciful to his people,
and so we're to wait on him. That patience there means just
to wait on the Lord. Just wait on him. Doesn't mean
to have our heads in the sand about a circumstance, but it
means to wait on him. Just wait. Be patient. And always
think of this, too. Keep in mind how patient and
long-suffering God has been with us. Oh my. That really brings
it home, doesn't it? How patient and long-suffering
He's been with us. And how patient He is with us
yet today. And it'll help us to be patient with others, too.
Help us to be patient with others. The verse continues. And to knowledge
temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness. Godliness here means the fear
of the Lord, the fear of the Lord. This includes both inward
and outward worship of the Lord, an attitude of thanksgiving,
an attitude of submission, praise, active prayer, and hearing of
the word. That's what that means. Which is, of course, true, genuine
reverence for God. That's what this means. True,
genuine reverence for God. A real fear of the Lord. A sincere
devotion to God. Now, the wicked have no true
reverence for God. No true reverence for God. How
can they? They don't know who he is. They
don't know who he is. I didn't have a fear for God
before the Lord saved me, did you? Now, we knew who he was,
but we didn't know who he was. He wasn't who we thought he was.
Oh my. Now we have a fear of the Lord.
And this isn't a slavish fear, beloved. This is a reverent fear. In awe of who God is. In awe
of who God is. The fear of the Lord, the scripture
says, is the beginning of wisdom. The fools despise wisdom and
instruction. So true godliness comes from
the heart, the new heart that God gives us. The new heart that
God gives us when we experience the new birth, when we're born
again. And then we have an awe and a holy reverence for the
God of the Bible. And is it not true? The more
we learn about our God, the more that reverence grows. The more
in awe we are of who God really is. of who he is. He's holy. He's magnificent, beloved. He's
almighty. He's all-powerful. He's my savior. Is he yours? Oh my. That's our God, beloved. That's our God. He's a great
king. So true godliness is first sown
in the heart, how? By the power of God the Holy
Spirit when we're born again. And again, that godliness means
a reverent fear of who God is. Oh my. And then it works itself
in the outer man as we show reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ. Next in the verse ties in with
what we've been looking at in our study in 1 John, in verse
seven here. We've been looking at this in
1 John, it's been brought up a lot before us. which is brotherly
love, or loving the brethren. Look at this. Add to godliness,
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. Brotherly
kindness. Now think upon this. The religious
leaders of Israel during our Lord's public ministry in the
Apostolic Age, they had a show of godliness, right? They pretended
to fear God and to reverence God. But they were just merely giving
lip service. And they hated the brethren. They hated the brethren. Turn if you would to Matthew
15. Matthew 15. And you know what they did? They
taught man. The commandments and doctrines
of man. They gave so many rules and regulations
you had to follow. You had to do this, you had to
do that. Just yoking people in bondage. The believer is free
in Christ. Absolutely free in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at this in Matthew 15 verses
eight and nine. You know, their hearts were far
from him, beloved. This people draw an eye onto me with their
mouth. Will they profess? Well, yeah, we love God. We reverence
God. and on earth me with their lips,
but look at this, but their heart is far from me. They're not born
again, Lord. They're not born again of the
Holy Spirit of God. But in vain they do worship me.
Look at that. Teaching for doctrines the commandments
of man. Yoking people. Do this, don't
do that. If you do this, you can't be
saved. If you do that, you can't be saved. Praise God, salvation's
in Christ and Christ alone and what He's done, Father, and what
He's done. Their reverence for God was a
sham. Their reverence for God was a sham. They worshiped the
Lord in vain. They taught the commandments
of man, again, do this and don't do that. And our Lord boldly
here proclaims them to be hypocrites. Very clearly, very clearly. They had no brotherly love. Their
love was for the world's good and was exceeded only, their
love for the world's good was only exceeded by their love for
themselves. Was only exceeded by their love
for themselves. They wanted the praise of man, beloved. That's
what they wanted. Gospel preachers aren't after
the praise of man. We want Christ to be glorified
and magnified and lifted up high and mighty. We desire you to
leave this place rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ and what
he's done for you. And we desire sinners to come
to Christ, be born again by the Holy Spirit as it pleases God
to do so. They profited from these men,
but they had no true brotherly kindness. They profited from
the Jews, but they had no love for the brethren, absolutely
none at all. And that's evident in those scriptures
there. But those who are truly born
again are known by their brotherly kindness and love, and love. Never forget, beloved, we're
a family. We're a family. We're a family of believers.
We have different personalities and different ways, but we're
a family, beloved. We're a family. We who are born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, and we show our concern for each
other by ministering one to another as the need arises. Ephesians 4.32 says this, Be
kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. Brotherly kindness. Next, we're to add charity. Look at this in verse seven.
Into godliness, brotherly kindness, into brotherly kindness, charity.
And we know that charity in the scripture is love. Love. Now, people can show kindness
without love. People can show kindness without
love. They can give the charitable organization. They can help out
a neighbor. They can put money in a hat, in a beggar's hat. They can do these things without
love for the people that they're helping out. Then there are those who do have
a natural affection, a natural love for family members and close
friends, and because of that natural love, they show benevolent
kindness when a need arises. But that's not the love our text
is speaking of. Listen to this in 1 Corinthians
13, verse 3. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not charity, which is love, it profiteth me nothing. Nothing. If our brotherly kindness is
not coupled with love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and we do
these things for others out of love for him and with a desire
for him, if that's not coupled together,
then our efforts are in vain. Add the brotherly kindness, charity,
love. True love for the Lord Jesus
Christ. True love for his blood-bought church. True love for the gospel. True love for his lost sheep.
For his lost sheep. Therefore, being modified by
faith, and who's the object of our faith again? It's Christ. Beloved always goes back to Christ.
always goes back to Christ. We do all things for the Lord
Jesus Christ. For the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verses 8 and 9. For if
these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar
off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
For if these things be in you, if Christ is in us, then these
things most certainly are in us, because they're the fruit
of the Spirit. All these qualities are yours,
and increasingly abound in you. They will keep you from being
empty and unfruitful in your spiritual life. And when God sends the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts, He gives us all things, again, we
saw, that pertain unto life and Godliness. Temperance, patience,
godliness, brotherly kindness, and love that brings glory to
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all the work of God. Turn
if you would to Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two.
It's all the result of God who works in us, both the will and
the do of His good pleasure, beloved. Look at this in Philippians chapter
two. We'll start in verse 12 and we'll
go to verse 15. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed,
not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Look at this,
look at verse 13. For it is God which worketh in
you, both the will and the do of his good pleasure. Isn't that
wonderful? So these fruits are the fruits of the Spirit. They're
His work and in us, beloved. Do all things without murmuring
and disputants that you may be blameless and harmless as sons
of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. So as we grow in grace and in
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father purges
us, beloved, so that we'll bring forth more fruit for the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't even see it being
done. We have no idea. As I said, Brother Henry often
commented that we don't see our own growth and grace, but others
do. Others do. And he that was without these
graces, his growth is short-sighted, seeing only what is near him
and concerns him, ignoring what God has done for him and what
he professes that God has done for him. Verse nine speaks of
a false professor. Verse nine is referring to an
unregenerate religious hypocrite, one who professes professes Christ
but does not possess Him. Those who have not been regenerated
by God the Holy Spirit do not have the fruit of the Spirit.
They're blind. They cannot see afar off below
them. And their spiritual blindness cannot see man's told depraved
nature. But praise be to God, we who
have obtained like precious faith, spoken of in verse 1, have been
given a knowledge of who we are, sinners. We've been given the knowledge
of who God is. We've been given the knowledge of who Christ is
and what he came here to do. And we've been born again by
the Holy Spirit of God and all by the power of God. We've been
made willing in the day of God's power. And we've been granted
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's all because
of God's amazing grace. That's all. It's all because
of his amazing grace. And it's all being bestowed upon
us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. Glory be
to God. Glory be to God. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your goodness and mercy and grace to us. Thank you for your
scriptures and know how they teach us and lead us to you,
Lord Jesus, and you alone. And how we see that we have everything
we have. All spiritual blessings are in thee and thee alone, oh
Lord. Glory to your name. May you be magnified and glorified
through the preaching of the word this day. And may our hearts
be lifted up, we who are your blood-bought people, to look
to thee and thee alone. And may we leave here rejoicing
in the wondrous salvation that we have in thee and the wondrous
things that you've done, O Lord, all by thy great and almighty
power. Glory to you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.