Trusting that the Lord will hear
our prayers, I would direct you to the verse 20 from Galatians
chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 and verse
20. I'll read the whole verse, but
it is the last part of the verse that I want to try to speak from,
if the Lord will help me. Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which
I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The words that
I feel have been laid on my mind are the right at the end of the
verse, the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. There is so much in this verse,
there is not time to talk about it in one sermon, probably not
in many sermons really. So I hope you will bear with
me if I do just focus on the last part of this verse especially. The Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. I want to just begin by saying
a little bit about this epistle to the Galatians. If I've understood correctly,
I think this is thought to be perhaps one of the first of the
epistles that we have in the first of the epistles of Paul
that we have in the Bible from the point of view of date. In some ways, there are some
differences, I think, perhaps with this epistle than there
are to the others. And one of the things that I
think stands out is when we get to the end of the greeting, which
is really the first five verses, then the apostle, he doesn't
wait any further to go straight to the point as to why he is
writing to them. So it's quite strong language
really. We have the introduction where
he sends his and the greetings of himself and the brethren,
as he says, which are with him to the churches. He prays that
grace will be to them and peace from God and from Jesus Christ. He mentions in verse 4 that Jesus
gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this
present evil world. that that was all in accordance
with the will of God. And he in verse five, he most
appropriately says to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
But having said that, he then immediately says, I marvel that
you are so soon removed from him that called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel. And the I think the situation
was that They had had the Galatians and had had the gospel preached
unto them. And the gospel was that it is
only through Christ that we can be saved. It is not. We cannot
be saved by trying to keep the law and then Christ Jesus as
well. But it is through Christ alone
that salvation comes. And that was what they had been
taught. And that's what had been blessed to them as Christ was
revealed in their hearts. But then There were those who
came who said that that was all very well, but you can't be saved
unless you're circumcised. And that really was saying you
can't be saved unless you keep some of the law. And it was the
what they were saying was so wrong because they were saying
that Jesus wasn't enough to save them. It had to be Jesus, but
also some of your own efforts. And that is why Paul is writing
to them. And that is that is what he comes
to straight away. I marvel that you so soon moved
away from what you what was preached to you, which was that Christ
only is through Christ only that you can be saved. How quickly
you've moved to something else and listen to those who have
said, well, you must must be circumcised. You must do this.
You must do that as well. So that is why he then goes on
to speak about his own preaching, that he wasn't taught by man,
he was taught by Jesus. And also he was ordained by Jesus
to be an apostle, not by anybody else, but Jesus. And we all know
the account that we have three times of how Jesus Christ spoke
to Paul and called him to be a minister and called him to
be a preacher. So he says he didn't go up to
learn of anybody else. It was three years before he
went up to Jerusalem. And then he only spoke to Peter
and to James. And then it was another 14 years
after he'd been preaching that he then went up to Jerusalem
again. And that was really just to tell them what he had been
preaching. And as he said in verse two of
chapter two, he communicated it privately to them, which were
of reputation. That means, I think, James, especially
Peter and John, who were, if you like, leaders in the church
at Jerusalem. He spoke to them and told them
what he had been preaching to check, if you like, that it was
right, lest by any means I should run or had run in vain. And while
there, we then have that account of how there was pressure brought
on Titus, who was a heathen. He wasn't a Jew. He hadn't been
circumcised. There was pressure brought on
him to be circumcised, but they withstood that. And in fact,
he says that those that he spoke to, Peter, James and John, they
didn't add anything. They didn't say, well, you haven't
done this. You haven't done that. You should have preached about
that. You should have preached about that. They didn't. He said
they didn't add anything. The only thing that they said
was, remember the poor, which Paul was doing anyway. And so
that is what Paul is saying in these chapters. He's saying that
His ministry was given by God and his ministry, which is salvation
by Christ alone, has been, if you like, approved by Peter,
James and John. And so it is against this background
that he is writing. And in the verse 16 of chapter
two really perhaps sums that up most directly in these chapters. knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law. We can never be made righteous
by keeping the law because we cannot keep it. And that is what
Paul is saying. That is what the Bible says,
really, all the way through going right back to Abraham. Abraham's
faith was counted to him for righteousness, not his works.
Knowing that a man is not justified or made righteous by the works
of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the
faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified or made righteous.
So. He then comes speaking really
of himself and there's no license here to go and do what you want,
to go and continue in sinning because Christ has forgiven and
there's no license as it were to willfully break the law. Paul
does not preach that at all. What Paul is preaching is that
we can't be saved by keeping the law because we cannot do
it. And that's when he comes into this verse 20. And this,
if you like, is that personal testimony of Paul. And I do want
to come on to that now, having given that, as it were, brief
background. The son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. As the Lord may help, I want
to try and speak, then, first of all, of the love of God. And
then secondly, of this gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
thirdly, of this little word, me, that is in this verse. Well, first of all, then, I want
to try and speak a little of the love of God, the Son of God
who loved me. It was a little while ago, quite
recently really, I heard someone speaking of the love of God and
I thought that I didn't really quite agree with what they were
saying. So I want to begin with a question. If we're one of the
Lord's people, when does the love of God start? When does
the love of God start? And somebody else was speaking of
this, and I think they said something like, if we choose to follow
the Lord, then we come into the love of God. And that, to me,
didn't sound to be right. Because if you think of the Apostle
Paul, when did God begin to love the Apostle Paul? Was it on the
road to Damascus when there was such a change in his heart and
he changed from someone who was absolutely determined with all
his might to seek to kill and to torture and torment those
who prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ? When he changed from
that to instead being willing to follow Christ, was that when
God began to love him? Well, I would if I were to leave
it there, I would not be preaching faithfully because we read, don't
we, that God commended his love towards us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so God loved the apostle
Paul before he was the apostle Paul. And I want to think about
that for a moment. God loved the apostle Paul when
he was a baby. when he was a tiny boy. He loved
the Apostle Paul when he was sitting at the feet of Gamaliel,
being taught by Gamaliel. God loved the Apostle Paul when
he began, when he first heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the animosity began to rise in his heart. We're not told about
the details of that, but that must have been what happened.
God loved the Apostle Paul when he was standing looking after
the clothes and watching those who were stoning Stephen, the
first martyr. God loved the Apostle Paul even
then. God loved the Apostle Paul when
he went to the chief priests and asked for that authority
to go to Damascus to capture those who were the Christians.
God loved him even then. And thinking about that and I say these things because how
amazing is that love of God? And if you are one of the Lord's
people, if you know that you are one of the Lord's people,
then may the Lord help us to look back to that time when we
didn't love him, when we were doing our best perhaps to ignore
him, to get away from him, not wanting to Perhaps if we were
brought up to come to chapel, or to come to church, to worship,
or in a family that sought to obey God's law, and we resented
it perhaps. I don't want to speak too much
about myself, but I know for me, when I was little, Sunday
seemed to be a very negative day. Lots of things we couldn't
do. And I resented that. When we were like that, if we
are the Lord's people, think of that, God loving us. When
we were like that, when we were turning away from him, when we
resented him influencing our life, when we resented any thought
that he should have authority or rule over us, God still loved
us. And then let's think about some
of those other sins that we have committed, those other things
that we have done, and think of God still loving us even then. But even that isn't the answer
to that question. When did God begin to love his
people? I thought of those words in Jeremiah
chapter 31. I know they're often quoted,
but I want to just turn to them again. In Jeremiah chapter 31,
the Lord says, doesn't he? He says this. The Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. And that really it leaves us
behind, doesn't it? We think of that, that God in
eternity from everlasting has always loved his people. I can't
speak accurately of this, but imagine, as it were, the Lord,
that one that he has loved, the one perhaps right at birth, the
Lord, that one that the Lord loves being born, the Lord watching
over that one. The Lord watching, the Lord waiting as it were, again forgive
me how I speak because of the limits of our language, but the
Lord waiting as it were to begin that work in their heart, to
begin to draw them unto him. And think of the loving kindness
of the Lord. It is that love of God that is
behind all of this. The verse of our text is the
love of God that first began with the Apostle Paul. It wasn't
the Apostle Paul. It wasn't Saul who, as it were,
decided to follow God. But it was that that love from
eternity as God, as it were, had set his heart on Saul, Saul
of Tarsus. And it began that work in his
heart, the pricks of his conscience, perhaps, that he began to kick
against. And in this verse in Jeremiah,
with loving kindness have I drawn thee, the Lord, those that he
loves, drawing them to him, working in their hearts, drawing them
to him with that love, with that loving kindness. Sometimes, perhaps, this doesn't
seem to be apparent to us. There's the Lord, the way the,
there's a phrase, isn't there, of terrible things in righteousness.
And sometimes there are those difficult, sometimes awful paths
that we have to walk through. And sometimes it is hard to see
in the darkness that the Lord is being loving, is the Lord's
loving kindness that is working there. But if the Lord gives
us even a glimpse, as it were, of his eternal love fastened
on his children, fastened on them, working through loving
kindness, drawing them to him through whatever means he knows
what we need in our lives. There are some perhaps who do
that because of how they are, because of their hearts, who
sometimes the work is almost invisible. Lydia is often quoted
whose heart the Lord opened, though we don't know how he did
that. But there's almost a suggestion that it was, as it were, something
that no one else would notice. that was going on in her heart,
not through some great event like the jailer, the earthquake
that he needed. But it was still loving kindness.
It was loving kindness in Lydia's case. It was loving kindness
in the jailer's case. It was loving kindness in Saul
of Tarsus case. And if we are the Lord's people,
it is loving kindness in our case as well. That amazing love
of God. And. just touched on it a little bit,
leave it with you really, but this thought of how unlovable
we are, how unlovable we are in God's sight as we turn away
from him. If we were just trying to help
somebody perhaps and they didn't, they resented that help and they
spurned it and they would rather hurt us or be violent towards
us, then accept that help. How long would it be before we
gave up trying to help them? That's perhaps quite a challenging
question. But then think of how we are
towards the Lord and the Lord never gave up and the Lord never
gives up for his people. the faith of the son of God who
loved me. And I haven't spoken yet about
the love that brought the Lord Jesus to the earth. And I wanted
to mention this as well. In John 3, verse 15, there's
that well-known verse, isn't there, that God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. And in the benediction,
we have the love of God. Have you ever thought what it
was for God to see his son, to know what his son would go through
when he came to the earth, to see his son having to be held
up by a woman because he had made himself powerless when he
was but a tiny baby, and then being mocked, misunderstood,
ridiculed through his life? and then what he suffered on
the cross. I say this because there's two
points I thought of in the Bible where I think it does draw our
attention to that. We have here the, I think there's the Trinity
really in this verse, that the love, when it speaks of the love
of God, it is the love of God, the Father, the love of God,
the Son, and the love of God, the Holy Ghost. But if you think
back to Abraham, and Abraham, when God tried, Abraham and he
took had to take Isaac up into the mountain. Jesus said Abraham
saw my day and I've often thought that that time when Abraham took
Isaac up into the mountain knowing that his son had to die. that God had told him his son
had to die. Think of what Abraham's feelings
were then. And it wasn't just that his son
had to die at the hands of somebody else. He had to put Isaac to
death. That was what he had been commanded
to do for those three days that they walked towards Mount Moriah. And think what Abraham would
have thought. Think of him walking next to Isaac, knowing that the
time was coming closer when he would be the one that would have
to put his son to death as a sacrifice. And I believe that does give
us a glimpse of what it was for God the father to give God the
son, because it was God's plan, wasn't it? That Jesus Christ
should die for the sins of his people. Then the other scripture
that came into my mind is from Zachariah. And in Zachariah's
prophecy, there's so much in there. Towards the end of chapter
12, we have that description of the work of God in the hearts
of his people. And I'd especially draw your
attention to verse 10. So this is God speaking. I will
pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications. And don't forget, although it's
not explicit in that verse, why is God doing that? Because of
his love to his people. And then he goes on to say this,
and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And then he
says, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only
son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn. Again there, as it speaks of
that sorrow for what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered, it does
direct our thoughts to the love of God that also saw his son
suffer. I just wanted to mention those
things really. The love of God who loved me. Now, because of
the time I need to move on and do forgive me because this love
of God is a theme for eternity, isn't it? So there is so much
that I haven't said. But those are the things that
especially struck me really as I was thinking about this. I
now want to speak a little bit about this then. The son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. I was thinking about this. There's
two things I want to mention really. When we give something,
sometimes it is something that is valuable that we give, which
is perhaps an expression of our love or affection for somebody.
But sometimes we give other things, time, or we give pain as well. And I wanted to just speak a
little bit about that. the son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. First of all, the value of this,
the value of the son of God. Well, really, I feel uneasy really
putting those words together in one sense. As we think about
that, how amazing the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ was. I
thought of it like this, and I just want to speak simply.
May the Lord help me to speak simply. We go shopping, don't
we, to buy things. And I don't know, we don't always
buy the cheapest thing either. Perhaps even if it's food, you
might not buy the cheapest food. Perhaps you might buy that one
because you think it will taste a bit nicer. or if you're going
for clothes you shop around there might be some garment which is
that color doesn't really suit me so I'll buy this one instead
and it's a cost a bit more but it's worth it because I'll look
better in it or if I think in my case like if I'm buying tools
or something I'd like buying those I might research them and
not buy the cheapest one I've done that before and it's not
lasted very long so I want to buy a bit more. I'll spend a
bit more because that one is going to be more useful, it'll
last me longer, it'll do a better job as it were. And we're assessing
how much is it worth to me. Not always the cheapest, sometimes
it's not the cheapest but that's what I want to buy because it's
worth that to me. So you look at something on the
shelf as it were, I want to buy that and that's the price but
it's worth paying. But then think of the Lord Jesus.
Think of God the Father. Think of the Holy Spirit looking
on his people, looking on us. Were we worth the buying? Again,
this goes back to when we are sunken in sin, before the God
has begun to work in our hearts, when we are turning away from
him, when we are deliberately and by choice, even when we know
it's wrong, doing the things that are wrong, because we want
to follow what we want, not what God wants. Even when we turn
away from him, even when we resent what God perhaps, when God begins
to speak to us, like the Apostle Paul, when we're kicking against
the pricks, It's the picture I think of it is especially that
one that the parable that Jesus told about the man who made a
feast and the final thing he did was send his servants out
into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. Think
of those as it were homeless living under the hedge living
in a ditch. Think of what they would be like.
Think, what would we think about them? But think of God, as it
were, looking on us in that sense, all besmirched with sin, covered,
if you like, with the leprosy of sin, not even asking him for
help, but not wanting him to help, wanting to stay as we are,
thinking, having decided that our way of sin is the best way. But yet God looked on his people
like that. and thought there is a value
there. There is a price that I'm willing to pay. And think
of that price. There could be nothing, no greater
price, no greater gift than the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, who gave himself,
gave his life, but not just as it were in that time on the cross,
but throughout the way he lived all through his life. that life
of righteousness. He set aside all of the majesty,
all of the love and the fear and the respect that was due
to him. He set all that aside and was willing to come to the
earth. and to be ridiculed, mocked, misunderstood, as I have said,
and then harmed, scourged. The crown of thorns on his head,
mocked. The mocking purple cloak or red
cloak placed around him, mockingly said, Hail, King of the Jews.
And then, when he was on the cross, even then, not just the
priests and the scribes, saying to him, you said you were the
son of God, if you are, come down, and perhaps even more cutting
in one sense, he trusted in God, let him deliver him, if he be
the son of God. It wasn't just the Scribes and
Pharisees who said that. It was also those who passed
by. Those, as it were, who were walking past. Oh, what's going
on? Oh, it's a man being crucified. There's three men being crucified
there. Who's that one in the middle? It's the one who said
he was king of the Jews. Let's join in. Let's mock him. Let's mock him because he said
he was the king of the Jews. And now he's being put to death.
Those who passed by, those who before didn't have any interest
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This was what Jesus the outward
price, if you like, of what Jesus paid. But what we can't see is
the inward price of when all of our sins, all of that filth
and dirt, if you like, of our sins was laid on his soul. And
he then stood before his father as if he had done those sins.
He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He was made sin. And that was
the price. Think of God looking on his people
and Jesus looking at his people and thinking that price is worth
paying. How much that tells us about
the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the love
of the Holy Spirit. Forgive me, I can't really put
these things into words, but may the Holy Ghost open these
things in our minds, open these things up that we may see them
clearly. that amazing gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gift
of the Trinity. But then finally, we come to
these words, for me, for me. We mentioned it in prayer, how
amazing it is that the salvation that comes through the Lord Jesus
Christ is a personal salvation. The Lord knows each one of his
people. And although it is impossible
really to get a head round, he knows everything about them all
the time. He is, as it were, we try and
do two things at once and we can't. But I'm not speaking disrespectfully,
the Lord can. And the Lord, as it were, can
give all of his attention to each of his people all the time.
And what is amazing is that the Lord loves each of us, even though
we're different. The Lord loves each one of us
for what he has made us, for what we are. He loves the differences. It's not as it were that he seeks
to save a certain number of people, and it doesn't matter who they
are. But go back to that love of God in eternity. Those names
in his book, those are the people that he that he saves. They are the ones that he loves. And it is then personal for me,
for me and the. As. As we look at these things, may
the Lord grant to each, if he has not already, that personal
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through faith. You notice
how often the apostle mentions faith. If I just go back to that
verse 16, I won't read it again, but notice how often he speaks
about faith there. He's very clear, isn't he, by
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. You might be tempted to think
that It was different for the Apostle Paul, because look at
his experience when he was going to Damascus. He could look back
on that and say, well, look at that, because of that happened
to me. Without a doubt, I know that the Lord Jesus spoke to
me. He would say that, but he also acknowledged that it was
through faith, through faith. He did not say, I don't need
faith because of what Jesus did. That might seem hard to believe,
but look at John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the one
who was so close to Jesus that he placed him. He baptized him
in the River Jordan, physically holding the Lord Jesus Christ,
putting him under the water, bringing him up again. And then
that dove descending upon him, the spirit of the Holy Spirit
descending upon the Lord Jesus. And then that voice from heaven,
which John heard saying, This is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. And John, having been told that
that's how he would know the confirmation that this was the
Lord Jesus Christ. That was what John the Baptist
had. And again, you may think it's easier for him. He would
never doubt. But John the Baptist did send, didn't he? When he
came into a dark place, when he was in prison, the doubt for
a moment overcame him. And he said, is it he that we
look for that should come or look we for another? The doubt
overcame him in that time of darkness. And I believe that
all of the Lord's people, their faith will be tried. For each
of the Lord's people, whatever experience will be, there was
there will be that need for faith and it will be tried just as
we see that the even John the Baptist faith was tried. So the
Apostle Paul, he had that personal experience, but it was through
faith. May the Lord truly give us that
faith, but may it be in our hearts. Again, I was thinking about this.
Perhaps this might be a way of trying to explain it. If you
were to speak to one of the Lord's people, one of those who were
here this morning, and would say to them, tell me about the
love of God. Well, yes, they may quote some
verses from the Bible, but I am certain that inside there would
be that thought, how can I explain what I have felt, what I have
come to know myself? It's not just quoting from a
textbook that we, perhaps when we're children, we might do as we learn things at school
or at home. And that's what the textbook
says, so that's the answer. a history exam, what year was
it when a certain king was crowned, you can look up and say it, whatever.
No, this is something, but how can I put into words the experience
that I have had, what I myself have been brought to know of
the love of God. That is how personal it is. And
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. And the apostle had been brought
to know that for himself. He had been brought to see that
that that love of God was directed towards him, that that gift of
the Lord Jesus Christ was for him, that that salvation was
for him. And it was through faith. And
he had to believe that. We read of the apostle Paul that
I'm sure it was himself that he was speaking of when he says,
at the end of Second Corinthians, about being caught up into the
seventh heaven and seeing things that it was not possible for
him to speak about. But that experience we have,
we have the experience of him on the road to Damascus. But
think of the years that he had to go through when it was, as
you were just laboring, when it was preaching. when it was
traveling around with his missionary work. And we don't read about
him, as it were, being upheld by revelations then. It was just,
I believe, a time of service. And because of what the Apostle
Paul had done to the Lord's people before he was converted, we read
of how Jesus had specifically said to him, what things he must
suffer for my sake. And we have that catalog, don't
we? The things that he suffered. So there was that time, as it
were, of walking. It seemed to me when he had to
walk by faith. In the passage that we read in
Galatians, it speaks about that 14 years before he went back
up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, that 14 years. We don't read
much about that. We have some account in the Acts
of the Apostles. But much of that must have been, as it were,
him having to trust the Lord and just keep going in darkness,
not buoyed up perhaps by revelation, not perhaps, as it were, caught
up in the seventh heaven then, but sometimes walking through
a very difficult pathway, being captured, being stoned, being
put in prison, being scourged, being whipped. He speaks about
wrestling with beasts at Ephesus. All of these things he suffered.
The Lord brought him through. But I don't think it was easy
for the apostle Paul. He still had to walk by faith. But he had been brought to see
that Jesus Christ knew him. How precious that is, isn't it,
if in our experience the Lord has revealed himself to us in
that way. There have been those times when
we have known that the Lord is, as it were, speaking to us. Perhaps
it might be something that we've read or heard. read many times
before, and then the Lord uses it and blesses it to us. And
there's that token, as it were, the Lord does know me. Perhaps
it's something you prayed about. It might be something quite,
in some ways, trivial. Pardon me for using that word,
but I hope you know what I mean that you prayed about. And then
the Lord has answered that prayer. And through that answer to the
prayer, you've been encouraged to think, the Lord does know
me. The Lord does love me. Sometimes that can break us down,
can't it, when there's been an answer to prayer like that? You
think that the Lord even cares enough about me to do that for
me, as it were. Those answers to prayer. And this is what brings
us into this, this knowledge. The Lord who loved me and gave
himself for me. And I didn't really speak perhaps
enough about that, that gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
the gift of the suffering that he went through. And as I said
at the beginning, there's the value, but there is also of a
gift, but also sometimes the gift of time, the gift of suffering. I thought of, of course, the
Bible speaks about women travailing in birth. And there is, if you
like, the gift of pain, the gift of the stress. Well, as a man,
I can't really speak of it. I can speak of what I've witnessed,
but what the woman goes through is a gift. that she's willing
to suffer for her child. And that is one example of pain
and suffering, but it is something that is willing to be given for
our child. And that may be in other times
of their lives as well. It may be that you will find
that you are giving, you are willing to give, if you like,
of your own suffering for a child. I think of one man I know whose daughter had something wrong
with her kidneys and he went through the pain of giving one
of his kidneys to his daughter. And I remember him saying that
he had been told that it's more painful for the donor than it
is for the one who receives the kidney. But he went through that
for his daughter. That was the gift that he gave,
the gift of pain, the gift of weakness, the gift of suffering. And that was the gift, part of
the gift, of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. Well, I do feel
too. I do feel so acutely my shortcomings
in trying to present these things before you. But I may the Holy
Spirit give us that meditation just on the love of God and that
wonderful gift. But oh, may it be for each here,
if it has not been already, may it be for each that each can
say that that love and that gift came to me and came for me. the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. Amen. May the Lord help us as we close
this service by singing hymn number 101 from Hymns of Worship.
Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love,
though fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Hymn number 101 from Hymns of
Worship to the tune number 26. May ye the tie that binds our
hearts in Christian love, the fellowship of Christed life,
is lighter than a bow. We bow our head and praise. Our faiths are heard. Our names are heard. Our comforts and our cares. ? We share our mutual woes ? ?
Our mutual burdens bear ? ? And often for each other flows ?
? The sympathizing tears ? we part, this thought will soothe
the pain, that we shall still be joined in heart and hope to
meet again. ? This glorious hope revives ?
? Our courage by the way ? ? What each in expectation did ? ? And
longs to see the day ? And sin we shall be free. And perfect love and friendship
reign Through all eternity. Dear Lord, please do forgive
all that has not come from thee, and take it from our minds. But,
O Lord, please bless all that has been from thee. The grace
of the Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.