I've entitled this message, The
Uncompromising Message and Messenger. In Galatians chapter 1, I want
to read through verses 1 all the way from 1 again. Galatians
chapter 1, we're going to read there after we pray. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for allowing this trouble
to enter the Church of Galatia, and sending the Apostle Paul
there not only the first time, but the second time in this letter
and other times, preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His grace, which is the eternal gospel, the everlasting gospel.
Lord, we pray that you would teach us this gospel. You would
cause us to believe the Lord Jesus Christ and help us never
depart from Him. Help us to hold fast to Him.
We pray you would save us according to your promise for your glory
to the uttermost. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
I found that if you read a text of scripture often enough, you
tend to memorize it. So hopefully you will get some
of that through the repetition of reading this first few verses
in the book of Galatians. It seems like we're taking a
long time here. It's because we can't really go faster. At
least I don't have the ability to go faster. I hear some pastors
take a verse or two verses and they'll spend 45 minutes on it. do a much better job than I could
ever do. And I just confess that I don't have certain skills,
and so we'll just take it with the ability the Lord has given
us. In the first verse, though, it says here, Paul, an apostle,
not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the
Father who raised him from the dead. Here, right away, we see
the one who sent Paul. It was Jesus Christ. It wasn't
men. And the One who sent Him was
not only Jesus Christ, but God the Father. The One who has all
power even to raise His Son and His people with Him from the
dead. That's the conquering of our sin, to raise Christ from
the dead. That's the hope that we have,
eternal life, because God raised His Son from the dead. So Paul
introduces the Gospel here, right at the outset, by pointing us
to Christ and to God, our Father. And he says in verse 2, "...and
all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia."
Paul wasn't alone. He wasn't the only believer.
There were many. And these brethren, with Paul,
believed the same Christ, the same gospel, and they were with
him in this letter, sending it to the Galatians with the same
concerns he had. Verse 3, Grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
and peace only come from God. He's the only one we really need
to have peace with. We should be at peace with all
men if we can, but if we can't, we have to have peace with God.
But peace with God only comes when He removes our offense against
Him, which He did through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that's grace. God doing for us in Christ what
we could never do. Thanks for watching. There was
no hope for us, so God found another, one, to stand for the
many and answer for the many in himself and provide to God
what God required for us and to suffer the sins for the sins
that we committed against God in order that he might bring
us to God. So Paul is laying out the gospel here. In verse
4 he gives us a synopsis of the entire gospel in one verse. He
says, "...who gave himself for our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he gave himself He created all things, didn't He? He orders
all things in the world and upholds all things by His Word, doesn't
He? And yet, all of that was insufficient. to give to God
for our sins, so He gave Himself. God required Him. It was necessary
that He die, that He suffer, according to the will of God,
our Father. Everything is according to His
will, isn't it? Christ gave Himself for our sins to save us from
our sins and deliver us from this present evil world, which
we're going to talk about in a minute. But all this was according
to the will of God, our Father, and so it's a work of God. It's
a work of God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore
it's a perfect work, and a complete work, and nothing can be added
to it. It's all done, and it's all to God's glory, which it
says in the next verse, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
God is glorified in our salvation. God is glorified in the salvation
of sinners who deserve His wrath. Who wouldn't glorify God for
their salvation? Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't admire
God for His grace? We're going to see the contrast
here between God and men. This is what God has done for
us in Christ. And verse 6, Paul says to the Galatians, I marvel,
I'm amazed that you are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ to another gospel. The Galatians
were led astray by false teachers and they were tempted now to
leave Christ for something else. And that's what the book of Galatians
was written to do. And they were tempted to leave
the grace of Christ, which we just read about here in the first
few verses. And that's called the gospel
of Christ, the gospel of His grace. But they were tempted
to lead to another gospel, which he says in verse 7, is not another.
It's not another gospel. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. This is amazing. Who in their right mind, who
would be so bold and who would have such a... hostility toward God that they
would oppose His grace. I can understand people opposing
the wrath of God because it's against us, but how would you
oppose God's grace? How would you find any justification
for that? There's only one reason why men
do that. It's so that they can keep others from finding their
full sufficiency in Christ and lose any dependence on men. that
men lose control over them. They lose the control of the
fear that they would have, the subjection they would put them
under because of fear, or seeking man's praise. They lose that,
and so they hate the grace of God. Because here the Lord Jesus
comes along, and men follow Him, and then the wickedness of man
becomes envious against Christ. for being the only Savior, the
one to whom all glory belongs, and so they pervert the gospel
of Christ for their own ends, and not for the sake of the people."
Notice how God's grace God is pleased to manifest Himself through
the salvation of His people by the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes
known all of His attributes, His perfections. And in that
grace of God, He saves sinners. He gives to us at full cost to
Himself. But here men do the opposite.
They take at full cost to us for themselves. This is the contrast
between the goodness of God and His grace and what we are by
nature. And so we're prone to be tempted
away from the grace of Christ. This is what the Galatians were,
and it's set forth for us to warn us and to cause us to cling
all the more tightly to the Lord Jesus. Barnabas told the Christians
who believed on Jesus in Acts chapter 11, he exhorted them
that they would cleave to the Lord. With all their heart, in
Acts chapter 11, he says, Barnabas, whose name was the son of consolation,
he went and he told the believers, exhorted them to cleave to the
Lord that they believed on. And this is the message of Galatians,
cleave to the Lord, don't leave him. And in verse 8, Paul does
something here that's frightening. He pronounces a curse upon those
who pervert the gospel. And he doesn't leave out anybody.
It doesn't matter who you are. If you pervert the gospel, you're
cursed. He says in verse 8, but though we, though we apostles,
I, Paul, Peter, John, James, whoever they are, it doesn't
matter if you're an apostle, or if you're an angel from heaven,
he says, an elect angel, if you come and you preach, he says,
any other gospel than that which we have preached to you, let
him be accursed. Let him be accursed." This is
what you would have to say is the most narrow-minded, dogmatic statement that you could find
in all of the world. Here, the Apostle Paul pronounces
a curse on all who are not, who do not follow this way. It's
interesting how narrow the way to salvation is, the way to life,
isn't it? It's very narrow. Remember what
Jesus told those men in John chapter 8? These were religious
men. These were men who had the admiration
of everybody for their upstanding moral character and their devotion
to God and their religious services. And he said to them, these very
narrow words, he says, except you believe that I am, You will
die in your sins. That's pretty narrow, isn't it?
And he told Nicodemus, that master of Israel, he says, unless you
are born again, you can't even see. And you certainly won't
enter the kingdom of God. That's pretty narrow, isn't it?
And then in John 14, 6, he said, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And Peter said in Acts 4.12,
there's salvation in no other but the Lord Jesus Christ. No
other name under heaven is given among men, whereby we must be
saved but Him, but His name. It's narrow, isn't it? The way...
I mean, if you look at all the things of men in this world,
men are compromisers. And that's what the Judaizers
were trying to do here, to get the Galatians to compromise the
Gospel. compromisers. The Roman Catholic
Church compromises. They try to include everybody.
They want everybody to be in the Catholic Church. It doesn't
matter what you believe, just come to Rome, they say. Because
there you'll submit to the Pope, who claims to be an apostle,
who claims to have authority over scripture, and then will
have authority and control over you and your finances and your
fear and your devotions and all this stuff. will be the oracle
you have to come to. That's what religion does. It
tries to make men servants of men rather than servants of God.
And so the Apostle Paul says, I don't care if an angel comes
from heaven. Let's say that there are so many
strange theories in the world today of how the end of the world
is going to end. Some people think that angels
are going to come and preach the gospel from heaven. But it
won't be the same gospel that Paul preaches. But Paul says
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who preaches
it. Whether it's Peter or an angel from heaven or me, Paul
says. Let him be accursed if he doesn't
preach the same gospel that you received. And what was that gospel? Well, it's what we said in verse
4. Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
our Father. That's the gospel. It's how Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried and that he
rose again the third day according to the scriptures. This is the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we believe Christ because
of the gospel. And to believe anything else
To believe something not taught in the gospel to go beyond it,
which is what they tried to tempt the Galatians to do, is to be
under a false teacher. A teacher who is cursed of God.
And so he pronounces this curse. It's a very serious thing. Compromise.
Remember in the Old Testament, there was a king named Ahab. And he wanted to go against,
I think it was the Syrians. And he asked another king who
was from Judah and Jerusalem, Jehoshaphat, he said, will you
go with me? And Jehoshaphat agreed, I'll go with you. Even though
it was wrong for him to do that. So Ahab, the king of the ten
tribes of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of the other two tribes,
went together against this army. And Ahab, before they went, Jehoshaphat
said, shouldn't we inquire of the Lord? And so there were 400
prophets that spoke what Ahab wanted them to say. They preached
a false truth. They didn't bring the message
from God. And Jehoshaphat, it's like he was scratching his head.
Isn't there one prophet here of the Lord? Because he knew
what they were saying couldn't be right. And then they found
one man, Micaiah. And Micaiah did tell the truth. So it's a rare thing when someone
preaches the gospel. When someone brings the truth
of God. Only the truth of God. And so Paul says in verse 9,
"...as we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach
any other gospel to you than that you have received, let him
be accursed." What does it mean to receive the gospel? It means
to believe the message of the gospel. The message of Christ
and Him crucified. We just sang about it a minute
ago in a song. In the cross of Christ I glory.
We sang about it, how Christ receiveth sinful men. Or that
I am accepted by God only, I only have one plea, that Jesus Christ
lived and died for me. The gospel, that's what the gospel
is. It's about Christ, how God accepts us for the sake of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the gospel that was
preached. And they received it, they believed it. And later in
the book of Colossians chapter 2, I want to read this to you,
but I want you to turn there too, so you can see the words.
This is one of my favorite verses, Colossians 2.6. The Apostle Paul
is writing to the Colossians, and he exhorts them, he says
in Colossians 2.6, "...as you have received, as you have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." How did they
receive Him? How do we receive the Lord Jesus
Christ? Well, we come as a sinner. As a sinner guilty before God,
deserving His wrath. Having nothing to pay. Having
nothing to bring. No works of our own. No goodness
in ourselves. Entirely in need that God would
save us from our sins. And we see that Christ is all.
That God has provided one to stand for the many. One Captain. One Champion. One Savior. One
Mediator. One Redeemer. One Lord, One King,
One Prophet, One High Priest, to do all for His people. And
salvation is in Him alone. And we received Him, and we depended
upon Him, and we found in Him all that God requires from us.
All of our salvation from all of our sins, and we laid down
in the gratitude of rest. Resting ourselves in the Lord
Jesus Christ, trusting God to receive us only for what He finds
in His Son. We received Him. And He says,
that's the way you're to walk. The same way. Never grow beyond
that. You grow in grace. You don't grow beyond grace.
And so He tells us this. Rooted and built up in Him like
a tree, deriving its nutrients through the roots into the soil.
Our roots are planted in Christ. And we draw everything from Him.
There's no other place the roots can draw their life. And so we
walk in Him. We live depending on Christ just
as a sinner who never grew beyond that first time of receiving
Christ. We depend on Him. Lord, if I'm
not saved, it'll be my fault. But if I'm saved, it'll be your
fault. You have to save me to the uttermost. I'm waiting for
your salvation. And so we give ourselves to that.
We give our hearts in thanksgiving and praise to that. We come to
God by that. We draw strength from Christ in everything because
of what He is and what He's done for us to save us from our sins.
That's receiving Him. So, in verse 10, the Apostle
now says to the Galatians, he's moving back now. He's going to
contrast his own ministry to them with the ministry of the
false teachers. And he says, For do I now persuade
men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
When it says, do I now persuade men? It really means the same
thing as pleasing men. Do I do what I do to either appease
men so they won't be angry at me? Or do I do what I do in order
to make men happy? Do I preach a gospel that will
make men happy? Do I find a way to attract men
to the gospel message? Or do I just preach the gospel?
Do I bring God's message or do I bring a message that I think
men will find attractive and pleasing? Am I trying to gain
the favor of men in the message or am I trying to simply please
God? And Paul asks this question.
Am I now persuading or trying to please men or God? Do I seek to please men? If I
please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. We don't have
slaves nowadays, but we do have employers and employees. You know what it's like. If you're
working for one boss, but you're over here trying to please another
boss, Then you are not being faithful to your boss, are you?
You're serving another master. And Paul says, if I tried to
please men, I'd be serving men. I wouldn't be a servant of Christ.
I'd be serving my own interests. Either attracting the praise
of men, or trying to appease the wrath of men, fearing men. He says no. Like Micaiah, he
preached, he spoke God's word, even though 400 prophets of Ahab
spoke something else. Even though it meant they put
him in the stocks. Elijah was the same thing. 450
prophets of Baal stood up and said, they wanted to eat. It says in 1 Kings chapter 18,
I think it is, they wanted to eat at Jezebel's table. So they
said whatever Jezebel wanted them to say. They were servants
of Jezebel and Ahab. And there was one man, Elijah,
a servant of God, and he spoke God's word. And it would have
cost him his life had the Lord not spared him. And so Paul says,
I'm not here to please men, but to please God. What pleases God?
What pleases Him? There's only one thing. Jesus
said, I do all things that please Him. everything I do pleases
my Father." And God spoke from heaven at the transfiguration.
He says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That's what pleases God. His
Son. He's happy with His Son. He's
well pleased for His Son's sake to receive sinners. He's well
pleased with the sacrifice of His Son, with His obedience,
with His love, with all that He sees in His Son. He's well
pleased with His Son. And faith is God's gift to cause
us to agree with God. We're well pleased with Christ. That's what's pleasing. Isn't
it amazing that God is pleased through His Son to save sinners? It pleases God. It pleases God
to make known His grace. To show grace and have grace
to sinners and save sinners through the death and righteousness of
His Son. It pleases God. That's amazing. And so what pleases God is serving
Christ. And what pleases Christ is preaching
His gospel. Because the gospel is the message
of what Christ has done. And His glory in our salvation. That pleases God. And so he says,
Paul says, I'm going to do one thing. Like Joshua. As for you,
Choose you this day whom you're going to serve. But as for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord. I'm going to preach His
gospel. And it doesn't matter if I have
anyone listening. Because I'm going to just preach
what God has given me to preach. That's what Paul said. But the
Lord used His word. His word didn't return void.
He accomplished the thing He sent His word to accomplish.
To save these people here in Galatians. And also us. Through
hearing and receiving this gospel. And so he's exhorting these people,
I'm not like the false prophets. They seek to please themselves
at your expense. God is pleased by saving sinners
at His expense. By bringing them salvation and
giving them all blessings in Christ, all at His expense, to
the praise of His glory and grace. Of course, that pleases believing
sinners, because believing sinners find their all in Christ. And
we completely agree with God. The Lord Jesus Christ is everything.
And so in verse 11, the Apostle says, But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. He says,
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it,
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. How did Paul come to
understand the gospel? Did he go to Gamaliel, or even
Peter, James and John, and learn it from them, and then go off
and preach and teach? Nope. He received it directly. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
directly appeared to Paul. on a couple of occasions. Remember
in Corinthians, he told the Corinthians, he says, there was a man, he
was, I don't know if he was in the body or out of the body,
God knows, and he was taken up into the third heaven. And he
saw things that were unlawful for men to speak about. So wonderful
it was. That was the Apostle Paul. God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, taught him the gospel directly. He spoke
from heaven by his own voice to Paul, and appeared to him,
and taught him the gospel. He didn't receive the gospel
from men. There was no intermediate instrument through which he received
the gospel. He received it directly from Christ. And that's the way
all of scripture was written. Men were moved as they, men spoke
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So what this is saying
is that the Apostle's words and his writings have the authority
of Scripture. All of Scripture. And Scripture
can't be broken. Not a jot or tittle will fail
of all that's written, Jesus said, until it's all fulfilled.
Heaven and earth won't pass away, will pass away, but my words
will not pass away. And so the Apostle Paul is speaking
the very words of God. He was, in his writings that
we have here, it was infallible. We stake, if you're a believer
in Christ, you stake your eternal life. on the words God spoke
through the Apostle Paul. I didn't receive it from men.
I wasn't taught it by men. I received it from Jesus Christ.
But the false prophets, they received it from somebody else.
They made it up themselves. They said that Paul came and
preached the gospel, but he left some parts out. And they came
along to finish what Paul started. That was probably what they told
the Galatians. We're just here to continue what Paul started,
to complete what he didn't finish. And he just gave you the first
few steps. We're going to take you through the rest of it. And
Paul says, no. No! No! They're teaching a false
gospel because they're trying to say that Christ is not enough.
You have to add something to Him. But he says, I certify you,
brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after
man. This is God's gospel. For I neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ." You see, the Gospel is not only a revelation
about Jesus Christ, but it's a revelation from Jesus Christ. God gave the Lord Jesus this
Gospel to preach, to fulfill, and to preach. He's the author
of it. That means it comes from Him.
It originates from Him. He's the subject of it. It's
about Him. He's the fulfiller of it. Everything required to
make it good news, He did it. And He's the one we look to now
and thank for it. It's the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The gospel is all about Him.
It's from Him. And He revealed it to Paul. And this is amazing, that the
Gospel is so unique. There's nothing like it in the
world. There's nothing like it in all of the religious world.
It's the one thing by which sinners can be reconciled to God without
their contribution, in spite of their sins. And it gives all
glory to God. It's the one message where man
does nothing and one captain, one champion, one savior does
everything for them. It's the one thing that is the
eternal will of God. It's inflexible, does not change.
And it's everlasting in its enduring qualities. What Christ has done,
He established an everlasting righteousness that gives us everlasting
life. And God doesn't change. It's
that kind of a gospel. It's unique among all the messages
of the world. There's nothing like the gospel.
Men seek to come to God by something they do. You gotta do this. You
gotta say that. You have to experience this.
You gotta reach another level. There's all these things that
men are constantly piling on and requirements that they push
on you in order to get you to follow them. That's really what
it's all about. Follow me, that's what men say. But the gospel
says no, follow Christ. and follow Him only. You see,
Paul preached a gospel that was only about the Lord Jesus Christ. And that was the only way men
can be saved. That's the only way. There's
no other message. It has to be about Him alone. To His glory alone, because of
His work alone. That's the gospel. And so we
hear Christ speaking these kinds of things to us. He says, if
any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me. If you don't hate your mother
and father and wife and brothers and sisters and children, even
your own life, you're not even worthy to be my disciple. It
has to be all about Christ, you see. Because He does everything,
to Him all glory belongs. He's the only one worthy. It's
a privilege, the highest privilege possible, to be called His servant. To be saved by His grace, to
the praise of God's glory and grace. It's a revelation of Jesus
Christ. It's unique. It's all about Him. It comes from Him. It's about
Him. And it's for our salvation. In this gospel of God's saving
grace, Christ does everything and sinners receive all. We bring
nothing. We receive everything. He gives
everything. And He doesn't wait for us to
add anything to it. In fact, we exclude ourselves
if we try to add to it. The gospel is perfect, it's complete,
nothing can be added to it. Jesus said, it's finished. In
Colossians 2 verse 3 it says, all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Men seek to gain knowledge
so that they can be smarter than someone else. In Acts 17, around
verse 30, it says the Athenians wanted to do nothing but to tell
and to learn something new. That's what men are always doing.
But the gospel is the eternal will of God. It's the revelation.
So we should not be trying to find out new things in order
to accumulate greater knowledge. In order to puff up ourselves
with greater claims to greater understanding and knowledge.
That knowledge has to be found in Christ. Because only He can
save. When it comes to spiritual things,
there's only one who has all wisdom. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He has all wisdom. Not just in
spiritual things. But when it comes to the saving
of our soul, we have to find all of our wisdom in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not seeking any from men. So
we see that this is something Paul received, a revelation of
Jesus Christ. But look back at verse 4. I just
want to close with this. This is the gospel in a nutshell.
He says, "...who gave himself for our sins." He gave Himself
for our sins. We've talked about this. It deserves
to be contemplated and talked about on and on. He gave Himself. What beautiful words. Christ
gave Himself. We're always giving things to
people. We want to give things, don't you? We like to give gifts. It's a joy to give to people. It's a joy to receive from someone
when they love to give. And it's a blessing too. But there was something that
had to be given, and Christ gave it, and it was Himself. He gave
Himself in sacrifice. He sacrificed Himself. He gave
Himself an offering to God for our sins. And He accomplished
something in that gift. He established an everlasting
righteousness. He made us holy to God. He obtained
our eternal redemption. He forever perfected us in that
one gift of Himself. Because it was a total gift.
It was a gift that could never be matched. Nothing could go
beyond it. Nothing could be added to it.
It was a perfect gift and a complete gift. He gave himself for our
sins. But look at this next phrase. He gave himself for our sins. For our sins. That little word,
our. O-U-R. Our sins. Do you find
your name there? I often read those kinds of verses.
"...who gave himself for our sins." A little later in the
book of Galatians, in chapter 2, verse 20, the apostle says,
"...the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."
Is my name there? our sins. How will I know that
I have any warrant to claim this word, our, to be inclusive of
me? Well, notice the next word. He
gave himself for our sins. What do you need in order to
have your name put there? In the name of the word, our,
what do you need to convince you that you can put your name
in that word, our? Because of the word that follows,
sins. Are you a sinner? Do you need
a salvation where you have nothing but deserve God's wrath and God
saves you by what Christ has done and only for what He has
done? Do you need that? Do you see yourself to be such
a sinner? that you can do nothing to please God, but that someone
else has to please Him for you, and that someone is the Lord
Jesus Christ, and He did it in His life, in His sufferings,
in His death? And do you need Him to save you
by His almighty power and grace that looks for nothing from you,
but gives everything to you because of His heart of grace and on
the basis of what He's done? Do you need that as a sinner?
The Lord Jesus said, Come unto me, all you who labor and are
heavy laden, I will give you rest. In Revelation 22, 17, He
says, The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth
say, Come. And let him that is athirst,
Come. And let whosoever will, let him
come and take of the water of life freely. Are you one of those? Do you thirst for salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know you're a sinner?
And do you see that God has made known His grace and given His
grace for His people, giving His Son in grace for His people,
to save them to the uttermost, all by His own almighty power
in His own Son? And do you depend only on Him? Then your name is there. You've
received the Gospel. But if not, then your name is
not here. And oh, may God drive you to
your knees and cause you to find all of your hope and all of your
righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Paul said, I
certify you, brethren, that the gospel that I received was not
of man. The gospel I preach is not of
man. I didn't receive it from men, and I wasn't taught it of
men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I pray, and we all
here pray, that you would open our eyes to see our own great
sin, but further open them, not to see our sin so much that we
lose all hope and despair, but that we look beyond all that
we are. any hope of improvement in order
to be accepted, any hope of making ourselves better, or thinking
right, or doing right, or experiencing something that we can look back
on and claim, yes, there was that time when this or that happened
to me. But help us to look away from
all that we are, and all that we might be, and find our all
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we received Him, in a simple
God-given faith, to see in our Savior all that we need and want
and desire, devote ourselves to Him entirely, depending upon
His grace. We pray, Lord, that You would
exalt Him and give Him all glory, and take glory to Yourself in
this saving grace that You've provided for us, and teach us
in our heart by Your Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.