Wonderful description, isn't
it, of the children of God. They are made beautiful by the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Psalm 45 it says that
they are all beautiful within. And the beauty of the Lord's
people is not seen by the eyes of flesh, not seen by the eyes
of men. And so often it's not seen by
us at all. And so one of the glories of
proclaiming the Gospel is that we have the opportunity yet again
by the grace of God to actually look again at who the Lord Jesus
Christ is and what He has done and what He declares His people
to be. It is astounding, isn't it? The Gospel is astounding. The Gospel should take our breath
away. As we come to Galatians, we come
to that last verse. And Paul describes these people
as brethren, the ones who will. in response to God's work in
their lives, be drawn out from under the snares of the false
teachers, and they'll be drawn back to Paul and they will delight
that they can call Paul and the apostles and all of those with
them It's one of the nice things, I'm so pleased that Peter and
Mary are here. It's lovely when brethren come. Our brethren have come to us
from all corners of this world and we long for more of our brethren
here, but there is. There is in that word a sense
of affection, isn't it? There's a sense of affection
and a sense of oneness. Brethren are those who are born
of the same womb, they are brothers, they belong to the same family,
they have the same father, they have the same relationship with
their elder brother. And Paul knows the trials that
they've gone through and he knows something of the trials that
await them. He knows that to stand for the
Gospel is to stand in the face of persecution. And that's what
he's promised. That's what they have seen him
bear witness to. And he knows that as this letter
goes to the Galatians there will be a division. And it's interesting,
isn't it, in the province of God there is no other letter
to them. There is just this letter. What a glorious letter it's been.
He calls them brethren, there are brethren there, despite their
difficulties and their infirmities, despite their instabilities,
despite how easily they were swayed, how easily Paul marvels
that they are so soon removed from him that called them into
the grace of Christ to another gospel. It's a great reminder,
isn't it, that we continually need to have our eyes adjusted,
we continually need to draw the framework in which we then live
out our lives, in which we then see the scriptures and see the
theology, it's all about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's all about salvation by sovereign
grace. It's all about a spiritual activity,
not an external activity. A spiritual activity which manifests
itself in remarkable things that the Lord's people are drawn to
do in this world, but nevertheless It's a spiritual activity. They
are all beautiful within. Paul has been hurt and he's rightly
deeply concerned about them, but he still calls them brethren.
And he puts them on a level with himself. The Lord's ministers
and those who speak on his behalf are just servants. They are just
servants. They never see themselves above
and beyond those that they speak to. I don't know about you, but
the longer I read the New Testament, the more fond I become of the
Apostle Paul. What a remarkable character he
was. What a remarkable man. Amazingly
has he been used of the Lord in the lives of all of the Lord's
children for this last 2000 years. He's written over half the New
Testament, well over half the New Testament is his writing.
And he's a man who had his weaknesses and his afflictions. But here
he is at the end of this letter and he's praying, isn't he? This
is a prayer. What a great prayer for us to
pray for each other. Brethren, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. He's praying, isn't he? He's
praying that they'll have not just the gift of grace but more
gifts of grace. They'll have the gift of grace
that the Gospel of the grace of God might continue with them,
that out of, as John says so gloriously in John 1.17, that
out of His fullness, how full is the Lord Jesus Christ, out
of His fullness have we all received grace, for grace, John 1.17. 1 John 1 verse 16, "...out of
His fullness have we all received grace for grace. For the law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
So he's praying that grace would reign, wouldn't it, that they'd
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
we'd grow more in their understanding of the depths of the grace of
God and the wonder of the grace of God, that they might abound
in it, that they might rejoice in it, that they might find themselves
at rest and at peace in it. grace, not law, not the works
of righteousness. And he says, the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In the original it's interesting
how the sentences were constructed, and they probably heard them
differently, but it's sometimes really interesting to see how
the Holy Spirit caused them to be worded. And it says, the grace
of the Lord of us. Who is the Lord of us? Jesus
Christ, be with the spirit of you brothers. Be with the spirit
of you brothers, not just a mere notion of it, not just an intellectual
understanding of it, but a spiritual experience of it with them in
their hearts, in their hearts, drawing them out, drawing them
to stand, to stand as one for the Gospel, the grace of God
be with them to comfort them, to strengthen them, to establish
them. It is what the Lord Jesus promises
His people. I am with you. I with you am. If you turn to
the end of Matthew's Gospel there is that remarkable conclusion The Lord Jesus commissions the
disciples, and he teaches them in verse 20, to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. And throughout the Gospels, the
Lord Jesus has proclaimed himself to be God. I am God. I created this universe. I rule
this universe. This is my universe. I rule the angels. I rule the
demons. I am the sovereign ruler of all
things. And it's the reason the Jews
picked up stones to stone him. It's the reason they were offended.
They weren't offended at his good works. They were offended
about his proclamation of himself. I am the light of the world.
I am the resurrection and the life. I am the bread of life. And here at the end as he ascends
into heaven to distribute those ascension gifts to his church,
I am in the original is broken up and it's I with you am. It's a great direct declaration,
isn't it, of the Lord's people being wrapped up with Him and
being in Him and Him indwelling them. And the holy, righteous,
sovereign God can live in His people and they live in Him. because He has made them holy. He has made them holy. Not only are our sins taken away,
but to be justified, to be legally justified, is to have no sin
that can possibly be charged to your account. It's much more
than being pardoned from sin. It is the removal of sin. We are as holy as He is holy. God's children are perfectly
fit, perfectly fit residents of heaven and eternal glory right
now. and it's got nothing to do with
us and what we have done or what we might think we will do. It
is pure, purely on the basis of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. The Apostle Paul knows what it
is to be righteous and to be moral in this world and he knows
what it is to be a righteous, moral, zealous, religious person
and to meet God. And all of that, all of that
which he counted gain, he threw in the rubbish bin, meeting Him,
as we've said sometimes in the past weeks, to meet God and live. This remarkable gift of His grace,
to be with Him, to be with Him, for Him to be with us. So often
in the scriptures grace is linked to peace. May grace be with your spirit.
not just calm or fleshly activities, but a spiritual life from God,
born from above, a new creature, a new nature. Christ in you,
the hope of glory." And he concludes the letter by saying, Amen, which
means truly or may it be so. Glorious prayer, what a glorious
prayer for us to pray for each other. One of the wonderful things
about studying the scriptures is that the scriptures sometimes
just bring us to places where we are just captivated by the
wonder of salvation. I trust you are. I trust that
that is our portion in this church. One of the things that really
struck me as I was preparing this some little time ago is
how often this prayer or something very similar to it is repeated
in the scriptures. In fact, almost every New Testament
letter begins and concludes with grace, with exhortations to grace. I'll just read some of them,
but I'd like to read a lot of them because I would just like
it to sink in. These are the bookends of the thoughts of the
apostles as they were led by the Holy Spirit. In Romans 1
it says, to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be
saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he finishes in Romans 16,
24, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. The Corinthians,
grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ, and at the end of 1 Corinthians, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. In 2 Corinthians, grace be to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we have that famous conclusion, isn't it? All the saints can
salute you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you. He begins in Galatians, doesn't
he? Grace be with you and peace from
God our Father. And he concludes with this verse
that's before us. In Ephesians 1, it's grace be
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he concludes, Grace be with them that love our Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity. And the Holy Spirit repeats things. He repeats them with a purpose. These might be the words in the
prayer of Paul, but they are the words of the Holy Spirit,
isn't it? In Philippians, Grace be unto
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen, is how
he concludes. He describes the brethren in
Colossae as saints and faithful, holy ones, he describes them. Saints and faithful brethren
in Christ which are at Colossae, grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes on and concludes. with grace. Peter speaks of grace
and peace be multiplied unto you. And then he finishes his
second letter by encouraging them to grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him
be glory for now and forever. Revelation. begins with a call
for grace. Grace be unto you and peace from
him which is and which was and which is to come and from the
seven spirits which are before his throne. And the book of God
concludes in Revelation 22, 21, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. It is repeated because it is
so fundamentally important, isn't it? For by grace you are saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So what
is grace? Such an amazing theme. The only
hope, the only hope of this letter of Paul's with its marvellous
declarations of the Gospel and its stern and solemn warnings,
bearing anything into the hearts of these people who heard it
read to them, was for God to act in grace. So what is grace? It's described in many ways,
and I commend Arthur Pink's Attributes of God to you. It's only a little
chapter, but if you get the chance to read them, and there are copies
here, they are wonderful devotions. They're wonderful devotions on
the attributes of God. And he quotes someone in there
saying, Grace is the eternal, absolute, free favour of God,
guaranteeing all the spiritual and eternal blessings of God. And their blessings to the guilty
and the unworthy, to those who have no merit, to those who are
unable to repay, to those who are thoroughly ill-deserving. Grace is unsought, unsought by
men, any man. Grace is unsought, it's not bought,
it's not earned, it's not won by the creature in any way. It is, of course, the opposite
to works of any kind. It's the opposite to works of
any kind. Romans 11, 6 makes it so abundantly
clear. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. It is the gift of God. that takes no recognition of
your merits nor of your demerits. It is the gift of God. It comes
as pure charity. It comes as a sovereign gift,
which is why it is eternal. It was given before the foundation
of the world. 2 Timothy 1.9 is the verse that
Owen's wife asked to have preached on at her funeral. And it speaks of our God, speaks
of suffering afflictions of the Gospel according to the power
of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world. Brothers and sisters, what a
remarkable, remarkable description. What a remarkable word from God.
What gracious words from God. He saved us first and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. It's eternal. God's grace is
eternal. And if it's eternal, the things
of time cannot affect it at all. I don't know about you, but as
I go on and get older and more infirm, I see more and more of
my frailties and more and more of my sin and more and more,
as someone who's called upon to preach the Gospel, more and
more of how much I am distracted from my calling and how much
I have to feel guilty for. And yet God says, doesn't he? God says it's not about you and
your activities, it's about my dear and precious son. The grace
is eternal and grace is free. Romans 3.25, we're justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Freely means without cause. Grace is poured out on God's
people without any cause in them. The cause is entirely in God. And that's why grace is eternal
and is free, and it's sovereign grace. It's sovereign. God exercises it as He will,
to whom He will, and when He will, and for the purposes of
His will. Grace is sovereign. That's why
we come. We come, those who are in needy,
we come, in Hebrews 4, we come to the throne of grace. We come
to the throne of grace because our sovereign reigns on a throne
of grace. And he says, I will be gracious.
To whom I will be gracious. Romans says that grace reigns. Grace reigns. And grace makes
a difference. Grace separates people out to
God. The electing eternal love of
God and grace shown in the Lord Jesus Christ makes a difference
and separates people. We are here to commemorate in
a sense the end of an old year and the beginning of a new year,
but also we are marking off the time again and again that we
have been together. The time and we look back. I
spoke to one of my students from my days in India yesterday and
you look back and we look at the Lord's activities in our
lives and we see Him separating us. What made the difference? What made the difference? Why
did Norman Beth have exposed before them a guy who was manipulative
and deceitful and yet dozens and dozens of others had exactly
the same information? Why did we leave that religion? which denies the glory of God,
denies our Redeemer's death on the cross for His people as being
effectual for Himself. Why were we drawn out? Because
we were more clever? Some of you might think you are.
I know I'm not. Why did God separate us? Why does God continue to keep
us separated from that religious world which causes Him to be
blasphemed in this world? Because you were clever? Who
made the difference? What made the difference? A sovereign
hand of God, just as it was going to do with the Galatians, a sovereign
hand of God draws these people out. And it draws them. It draws them out and it draws
them together. The brethren who are the recipients
of the grace of God in the Galatian Church are the same as the brethren
who are the recipients of the grace of God throughout time. They are brethren. And when our
brethren in this Gospel come and meet with us, it is a family
gathering, isn't it? We are gathered together because
of who He is, not because of what we are. We are gathered
to Him. We are gathered out of this world.
We are gathered by His grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And as we know from the story,
Noah was no more righteous than anyone else in that world, but
he found grace in the eyes of the world. And he built that
ark which represented our Lord Jesus Christ, and out of all
that world that was destroyed, just those eight souls were saved. because the Corinthians who had
in their church things which any church in this world today
would be ashamed of. And grace called them out. And Paul writes to them about
the grace of God in their lives. And he describes it, doesn't
he? He describes them as a people who are sanctified. set apart
for the grace of God, set apart for God and His glory. Grace,
of course, flows from our Lord Jesus Christ. As I read those
verses again and again, it's the grace of God and the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It comes to Him who is the fullness
of grace. It comes to the sin, the hell-deserving
sinners of this world who have nothing in themselves. It comes to those who are in
a desperate state. They are dead in trespasses and
sins. They are unable to recover themselves. And even if all of humanity gathered
together to try and make one righteous man, all he would,
in all that he's been polished up, would just be a fitter recipient
for hell's just wrath. We cannot save ourselves and
such is the state of the captivity and such is the state of the
blindness that men apart from the grace of God have absolutely
no idea of their plight. They have no idea. Grace works
in the hearts of God's people. They are sinners. They are sinners
by the work of their father Adam and they sinned in him. and they
are made righteous by the work of another. If you just turn
briefly to Romans 5. begins with those wonderful words,
isn't it? Therefore being justified by
faith we have peace with God. By whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. What a great description of believers. But in Romans 17 it describes
the problem, doesn't it? For by one man's offence death
reigned by one, much more that they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by Jesus
Christ. Therefore, as by the offence
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. made righteous, not working to
righteousness, but made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offence might abound, and where sin abound, grace did much
more abound." I like those adjectives that describe it, abounding grace,
abundance of grace. in verse 21, that as sin has
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Made righteous, declared righteous, made by God's decree and the
work of our Lord Jesus Christ to be people who have no sin
before God, nothing to feel guilty about. and this we have our eyes taken
from the Lord Jesus Christ and taken back on to our flesh. No wonder Paul was so upset and
horrified that these people had left the grace of God, had left
the grace of God. left the Gospel of the grace
of God and turned back to man's work and man's activity to somehow
polish ourselves up. Man is fallen, he's polluted
and he's helpless. The Gospel is therefore good
news. It's good news. It's a declaration
of something that God has done. It's not good advice and it's
not an offer. It's good news. Good news for
those who find themselves helpless and find themselves lost, find
themselves needy. Our Great and Sovereign God declares
that in eternity a people were given to Him. on what is commonly called the
doctrines of grace, and I don't like the term at all, and we
don't use it here. Any time the scriptures use the
word doctrine in plural doctrines, it's in terms of false doctrine. Because the doctrine of God is
always one, isn't it? It is just the grace of God. If you turn briefly to John Chapter
6, it speaks, the Lord Jesus spoke to these people who came
to Him having been fed, thousands of them. They came to Him having
seen a remarkable miracle, thousands fed with just a few scraps of
bread and a few fish, just thousands fed. And they followed Him again. And He spoke to these people,
He spoke to these people of Himself, and He spoke to these people
of who they are. This great doctrine of grace
is laid out before us in these verses so clearly, isn't it?
He speaks of the total depravity of man in verse 44, no man can
come to Me, no man can. Total inability of man. No man can. They will not, but
they cannot come, except the Father which has sent me draw
him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. No man can come. But there is in the Gospel a
declaration of the unconditional electing love of our God. And you can see it there in verse
37. All that the Father has given me, when were they given to Him?
They were given to Him in eternity, weren't they? All that the Father
has given me shall come to me, and Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. They will come. They will come and He will save
them. They will be drawn and that's
a passive activity of man. It speaks of drawing fish in
a net or drawing a sword out of a scabbard. And our Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world as a sovereign, redeeming God to
save those people from their sins. He says it in verse 39,
and this is the Father's will which has sent me. that all of
which He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up at the last day." He'll lose none of them. They are given
to Him by the Father. They are His. They are His in
that eternal covenant. They are His in His surety engagement
for them. He stands in their place and
says to his father, all that's required to get them to heaven
is in my hands. They are my responsibility. He died for them. He died purposefully
and successfully. He died as a substitute. He died
as a sovereign. And they will. they will be irresistibly
drawn to Him. If you look down in verse 45,
and it is written in the Prophets, they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that has
heard and learned of the Father. shall come to me, cometh unto
me." They will all come. They must come, brothers and
sisters. They have been coming for thousands
of years and they will keep coming until every last one is safe
and secure. There will be no empty seats
or cobweb-covered crowns in heaven. They will all be there. Not one
tiny mark or spot will blemish the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are the body of Christ. He will not lose or run. And they will persevere to the
end. They will persevere. They will
persevere because they are kept by God. They are kept by Him
and by His grace. In verse 47, verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I have it right now. Believing ones have everlasting
life. Everlasting for no beginning
and no end. as I said earlier, perfectly
fitted for heaven, perfectly fitted for the new creation right
now. No condemnation. Who will bring
any charge against them? And what if people don't believe?
If you read to the end of the chapter, you'll see that this
multitude, as he spoke, more and more of his father's glory
and more and more of his work of redemption, In verse 66, from
that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. Imagine the size of that crowd,
5,000 people. We don't often around here see
crowds of that size. You think of how they left, ones
and twos, tens and fifties. And did he go chasing after?
Did He go chasing us? He says to the Twelve, verse
67, Will you go away also? The door is open. If you wish
to go, go. You see, Grace hedges God's people
in such a way that they have nowhere else to go. And isn't
it marvellous? Isaiah says that he hedges our
ways with thorns. But he hedges our ways, doesn't
he? Where else can we go? Where else? It's one of the things
that causes me to come before the Lord with deep gratitude.
because of Him raising up a place and a people where I could worship
God. I am thankful and God is my witness
to each and every one of you. We have a place where we could
worship God. I have nowhere else to go." What
did the disciples say? Simon Peter had answered Him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord Jesus
knows His own. He knows them well. He knows
even amongst that twelve there was one who was a devil. He preaches the Gospel and waits. Our great God, in His grace,
has drawn us to the end of Galatians. The Gospel has been preached
again and again and again in Galatians. At least six times
Paul takes these Galatians back to the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He reminds them in chapter 3
that he was evidently, clearly set forth. He was, as it were,
in a banner put before them. He was spoken of as our Lord
Jesus Christ. He was spoken of as the Sovereign
God. He was the One, in verse 4 of
chapter 1, who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver
us from this present evil world. And when Paul was talking about
the present evil world to these Galatians, he was talking about
the present evil world of religion. There is a present evil world
of all sorts of things that men are doing in this world, but
the most dangerous present evil in this world is the false gospel
that gives people a false hope that preaches peace to them.
that preaches to them that God loves everyone and that Jesus
died for everyone and the Holy Spirit is trying to save everyone,
and that teaches people that by their activities and their
works that somehow, somehow they can bring themselves into a place
where they will be saved by God. Our God will save His people
and declare His glory and reveal His true character at the same
time. Grace is required, as Paul knows. Grace is required to see the
need of grace. Grace is required to see that
the giver of grace freely gives it. He gives it on the basis
of who he is, not on the basis of who we are. And he won't take
it away from his people because of their demerits. He can't. If that's what it is, if that's
what ever happens, it's no longer grace. And we've seen how much
this bookends all of the thoughts and writings of the New Testament
writers. Grace is required to make us
remain a debtor to sovereign grace. And grace is required
to experience the peace that grace affords. And grace is required
to give God the glory to give God the glory for who He is. To be able to rejoice in God
as He is revealed in the scriptures requires a miracle of sovereign
grace. Men are continually wanting to
play with the character of God. God's accusation against mankind,
I think it's in Psalm 51, says, that you think that I am altogether
like you. If somehow people can modify
his character, they will be able to sit comfortably
with him. He doesn't need to modify his
character. In fact, in the saving of his
people, he exhorts his character and by grace his people respond. We saw earlier, didn't we, that
he has gracious words. He speaks gracious words. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke gracious
words and he spoke and did gracious deeds. Paul describes himself
as a pattern, a pattern of grace. He was, in chapter 1, as we've
read so often, He was profiting in the Jews' religion above many
of my equals, being more exceedingly zealous for the tradition of
my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace, what did He do, in
verse 16, it's remarkable, to reveal His Son in me. to reveal His Son in me." What
a remarkable thing, the Lord Jesus Christ takes up residence
in His people. Paul finished his life, as you
might read at the end of 2 Timothy, knowing that his days were very,
very short indeed. And what did he say? Remarkable
words, isn't it? They all deserted me. At my first
defence, they all deserted me. And then he has one of those
marvellous buts in the scripture. There he is, deserted by all
who should have been standing beside him, this remarkable man.
Deserted by all. Then he says, but, but the Lord
stood by me. the Lord stood by me." If the
Lord Jesus Christ stands by you, you will hear gracious words
from Him. Throughout the Gospels we have
these remarkable gracious activities of the Lord Jesus. To the leper
he says, the leper says, if Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. Jesus moved with compassion. put forth his hand and touched
him, and said, I will. This is our God, who changes
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." And he says
to the paralytic in the next chapter, he says, son, thy sins
be forgiven thee. What had he done to earn the
forgiveness of sins? absolutely nothing. Sovereign
grace. As he says, I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He spoke to the demons
and said, come out of him. He says to that woman who had
that trouble for all of those years, he says, daughter, thy
faith has made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole. In the Garden of Gethsemane.
He prays with gracious words, doesn't he? If this cup of God's
wrath cannot be taken away, unless I drink it, your will be done. Faithful to the end, as he hung
there bleeding and dying and mocked by men on the cross, abandoned
by his father, forsaken, His faith didn't change one little
tiny bit. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. You can have me, he said to those
soldiers that arrested him. You can have me, but if you have
me, you let these go free. No wonder Peter calls for grace
and peace to be multiplied. The peace of Christ, peace with
Christ. Romans 15, 13 speaks of the joy
and peace in believing. It's a remarkable thing, isn't
it, the gift of faith to simply find yourself believing, believing
what He says about Himself, believing how He saves sinners like us. The joy and peace of believing. Brethren, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And may you, as you go through
this year, be led to pray that prayer for your brothers and
sisters around the world. And may we, as we mark off another
year, be able to say, as Paul did in 1 Corinthians 15.10, by
the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God, I am what
I am in eternity past. By the grace of God, I am what
I am in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. By grace of God, I am
what I am when I was with Him when He died on the cross and
the wrath of God was exhausted. until God himself says, fury
is not in me. There is now no condemnation,
for there is no sin. He's taken it away by his own
life's blood, and it's gone forever. By the grace of God, I am what
I am in this world. By the grace of God, I am what
I will be in Heaven's glory, and by the grace of God, I am
what I am in the new creation, and will see Him as He is. May His gracious words fall from
His lips.