Hymn number 37. Oh Lord my God,
when I in awesome wonder Consider all the worlds thy hands
have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain cradle And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God his
Son not sparing, sent Him to die, my scares can't
take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. It sinks my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee. How great Thou art! how great thou art Then sings
my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come With shout
of acclamation And take me home What joy shall fill my heart then I shall bow in humble adoration
and there proclaim, by God, how great Thou art. And saints ? My Savior God to Thee ? How great
Thou art ? How great Thou art ? Then sings my soul Be seated. Hymn number 40. Number 40. Great is Thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. There is no shadow of turning
with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions
they fail not, As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness, Great
is Thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies bring. All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided, Great is Thy faithfulness. Summer and winter and springtime
and harvest, sun, moon, in their courses above. Join with all nature in manifold
witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Great is Thy faithfulness, Great
is Thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see. ? All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided ? Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me ? Pardon for sin
and a peace that endures ? Thine own dear presence to cheer and
to guide ? ? Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
? ? Blessings all mine with 10,000 more to come ? thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness, great
is thy faithfulness, morning by morning ? All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided ? ? Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me ? What a wonderful hymn that is.
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. Pardon for sin
and a peace that endureth. That's our God and His salvation. Thank the unto God and our Lord
Jesus Christ, our dear Savior. For our scripture reading this
morning, turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. But we preach not ourselves,
here's what we preach, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, Salvation is of the
Lord for God who commanded the light. God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of
faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have
I spoken. We also believe and therefore
speak. knowing that he which raised
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall
present us with you. For all things are for your sakes
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. Let's pray. Our kind and merciful and gracious
Heavenly Father, we join our hearts together this morning
and first of all give you thanks for your grace and mercy given us
in Christ before the world began. We thank you for your word that
we just read. We thank you for your eternal
word. where you speak peace to our hearts by and through Christ
our Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, our intercessor, our sin bearer,
our substitute. We seek to honor him this morning.
We ask, Lord, that you would condescend to meet with us and
send your word forth in power. May we hear your voice. May you
speak to our hearts. May you encourage us, strengthen
us and give us grace, give us faith. We look to you to supply
our every need. Without you, we can do nothing. We can't provide for ourselves,
Lord, you must provide for us. Come and be with us, we pray. We pray for those that can't
be with us. We especially remember our dear
brother and sister, Fran and Bill. Lord, they have no one to trust
but you. We're so thankful that they can
trust you. And we can trust you. Thank you for The faith that
you've given them, thank you for the peace that's evident
as they face this trial. Continue to be with them. We ask, Lord, that you'd save
the lost among us, save our children and our grandchildren that we
so often call out their names before you. We pray that you'd
intervene in their lives Leave them not to themselves, to their
own will, to their own way. Save them in their youth. Bring glory to yourself in doing
so. And Lord, we ask that you go
with us through the remainder of this service. Speak mightily. Comfort your people. Call in
your sheep. and we'll give you the praise
in Christ's dear name. Amen. Let's all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the Bulletin. Great Father of glory, how rich
is Thy grace! What wonderful love is displayed
in Thy face! In Jesus Thy image with brightness
we view and hope to be formed in that brightness anew. Oh, wonder of wonders astonished
I gazed to see in a manger the Ancient of Days. Thus that pure hope so long borne,
My God, my Creator, of Mary was born. For unworthy sinners, my Lord,
have His head. For unworthy sinners, He suffered
and bled, my spirit rejoices, the work is all done. my soul is redeemed my salvation
is won great father of joy is thy grace. What wonderful love is displayed
in thy face. Dear Jesus, beloved, we're washed
in his blood. With hope we appear at the throne
of our God. Be seated. Well, we've come to the end of
another year. Last day of 2023. It's hard to
believe in it. We saying goodbye to. 23 and hello to 24 tomorrow. I think back on all that's happened
over the last year and it's a lot has changed. But our Lord is
not changed and his word is not changed. His promises. have not changed. He's ever faithful
and unchanging and immutable. And I think about when we come
to this time of year, when we're coming to the end of a year and
starting a new year, how fleeting life is. You know, we just came
through the holiday season. We're still in the holiday season
and Family and friends gather, children, grandchildren, aunts
and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, moms and dads. We all enjoy time
together, but in a few days, we'll all depart and say goodbye. My grandkids will be leaving
me. Pam and I will be having withdrawal symptoms. Our chins
will be dragging the ground. will be depressed, so you may
not want to be around us for a while. So you grandparents know what
I'm talking about, don't you? But I want to talk to you, and
I've been somewhat anxious. I'm always nervous when I get
up in front of you and try to preach. But I've been somewhat
anxious about bringing a message to give you and I something to
lay hold on that's not something that's fleeting. It's something
that we can lay hold on today, tomorrow, and that lays hold
on us and never lets us go. And we can lay hold on it and
him. And it's not changing. It's not
fluctuating. It's forever the same. And we can lay hold on eternal
life. Eternal life. Talk about eternal
things. We read there in 2 Corinthians
4 about we look on things that are not seen which are eternal
for everything that we can see is temporal. It's fleeting. It's fading. And Christ our Savior is one
who we can lay hold on in His grace and His salvation. His
mercy. We speak much of grace in this
place. This is Lantana Grace Church.
And that's for a reason. For by grace are we saved. And
that's on our sign out there. We make much of grace. We speak
of grace. We sing of grace. We're saved
by grace. And I know lots of men and women
that have went to great expense and great trouble to sit under
a gospel grace preacher, to hear one message of grace, drive a
long way past dozens of churches, maybe hundreds of churches, and
come a long way to hear a gospel message, a gracious message,
a message of grace. And I want us to turn to begin
with Acts chapter 15. I want to talk about grace this
morning and the glory of God's grace.
Now you're familiar with this chapter. Donnie's been preaching
from Acts or had been for some time on Wednesdays and recently
preached on this chapter. But Paul and Barnabas and Peter
had preached to the Gentiles and God had given some of the
Gentiles faith that believed what Paul and Barnabas and these
men were preaching. And in verse 1 we read that certain
men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said
except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses you cannot
be saved. So faith in Christ was not enough. You've got to be circumcised
and down in verse 5 We read, but there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. So they wanted to add the law,
keeping of the law, to faith in Christ, faith alone by Christ
alone, grace alone. And then we read, Peter boldly
stood up in verse seven and he said, and when there had been
much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us. and put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore,
why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved even as they. We believe, our confession is,
we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved even as they. Grace alone, without circumcision,
without keeping of the law. And we'll be saved just like
the Gentiles will be saved, by faith in Christ alone. False
religion. Natural man's religion says,
except you do this or you do that, there is a condition. Except
you be circumcised, in this case, after the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. But Peter says, we are saved
by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these two statements
could not be more opposed. My first inclination is thank
God for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ whereby we shall
be saved. The grace of God in Christ. I see in those words salvation
sure, salvation done, accomplished, salvation certain. We shall be
saved by grace. I see all my burdens lifted and
removed. and thus my soul enters into
rest. Conversely, in natural man's
religion, my soul hears, though I believe there is a possibility,
I cannot be saved. And if I'm to be saved, I must
be circumcised, or except I be circumcised, I cannot be saved.
This message tells me that Christ did not fully save me, but there's
work yet to be done. This message says you cannot
rest yet for your obedience to the law is required. This message says though Christ
kept the law perfectly, you must also, for it's a cooperative
effort. This message says you must earn
your salvation. You must validate your salvation.
Ultimately that Christ and his full and free salvation is not
enough. That's what man's religion says. But I want to talk this morning
about grace. Grace of God by which we are
saved. I want to look at God's word.
that tells us of His grace, the glory of His grace. We read in
Hebrews 13 and verse 9, for it is a good thing that the heart
be established with grace. One writer said this about grace,
he said, grace does not leave us at uncertainties about things,
but establishes the heart. with respect to the love and
favor of God and builds our soul upon the foundation Christ himself. So that we're not at a loss about
the putting away of our sin and justification and salvation,
but firmly, steadfastly, confidently look for and expect eternal happiness
by Christ and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We rejoice
salvation accomplished by grace. Now man, the natural man, may
think it's bold presumption, but it's God who we believe.
And it can never be presumption to believe God, to believe his
word that honors him. We read in Ephesians chapter
1 verses 6 and 7, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein
he hath made us, and listen to this word, hath made us accepted
in the beloved. Accepted, not acceptable. Not something we can take or
leave. He's made us, he hath made us
accepted in the beloved. And listen to the language of
scripture, in whom we have redemption. We have it. Through his blood. The forgiveness of sins. And
it goes on to say, according to the riches of his grace. By grace alone are you saved,
through faith. We read in Romans 4 that Abraham
believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. But
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. God imputeth righteousness without
works. Faith was reckoned to Abraham
for righteousness. And then if you look down in
verse 16, it says this. Therefore, it is of faith that
it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might
be sure to all to see. the promise might be sure to
all God's people, to all the seed. So that is to say, if any part
of salvation depends upon a condition, we can never have any hope or
any rest or any confidence. But if the promise and the enjoyment
of the promise be of grace, which first gives It does, it provides,
it accomplishes. Thus will be made sure for all
for whom it's designed. And that's what I love about
the gospel. It's sure, it's certain, it's eternal, it's unchanging.
Without beginning and without end, forever the same. For by grace you are saved. through faith in that heart of
yourselves. It's a gift of God. We're saved
by gift, the gift of grace given to us through Christ Jesus our
Lord. And upon God's grace, we can
fully rely. Fully rely and trust his grace.
Now I want you to turn with me to a verse in Ecclesiastes chapter
3. This verse is one to remember, in my opinion. Bless my heart. I hope it's a
blessing to you. You see, our confidence is not
in anything having to do with us. Our confidence is in God
who saves. Our confidence is in God from
whom grace flows. But in Ecclesiastes 3, verses
14, We read, I know that whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever. Doesn't that bless your heart?
Doesn't it bless you to know that? If God saved me, I'm saved
forever. Can I apply it to that? I can.
Absolutely. The scripture says, I know that
whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. If God saved me,
I'm saved. Nothing can be put to it. I can't add anything to it. Complete
in Him. Nor anything taken from it. What shall be able to separate
me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Nothing can take from it. And
God doeth it. that men should fear before Him. Oh my, we need to fear God. We
need to reverence God. This verse tells us five things.
Number one, there is a God. And He is a God. He is God. The God. He is God. Number two,
the God of Scripture acts. He's not an idle observer. He
works. He accomplishes. He causes all
things. He's the first cause of all things. He's in everything, and he's
everywhere. Thirdly, whatever he does endures. It lasts forever. His works, number four, cannot
be altered. They are fixed. You believe that? God's works are fixed. We can't
change God's mind. We can't influence God. We have
no input on God's will, God's purpose. He acts of his own will for his
own purposes. And fifthly, he doeth his works
that men should reverence him, fear him, Oh, he is greatly to be feared,
the scripture says. God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints and among the inhabitants of the
earth. He's greatly to be feared. Our God is God and whatever he
does lasts forever. Let's turn over to 2 Timothy
chapter 1. Beginning there in verse 8. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God who hath saved us. The power of God who hath saved
us and called us with a holy calling
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace. God's purpose and God's grace,
which was given us, He gave it to us in Christ Jesus. Remember, we're saved by a gift,
grace given, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. There's my hope in God's purpose
to save His people and giving Christ to us in eternity past,
we like to call it. Christ Jesus was given to us
before time ever was. That's my hope that God undertook
for me, provided a savior for me, gave me to Christ, my substitute
who paid the penalty due my sin and saved my soul and gives me
eternal life, eternal life. And we read in Hebrews 9 verse
12, you don't have to turn, I'll
read it for you, you know this. And I'm not telling you folks
anything you don't know, but we tend to forget these things,
don't we? We tend to live like it's not
so, but that's why we come and hear the gospel again and again.
We need reviving, refreshing, reminding. But we read in Hebrews
9 verse 12, but by his own blood, He, that is Christ the Lord,
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. I just love that word eternal.
I can't explain eternity or what that word means fully, but I
know it means this. Not only without end, but without
beginning. It has always been. Eternal redemption means without
beginning, without end. No starting point, no ending
point. We can't even enter into that.
God didn't just go along and at some point decide to give
us eternal redemption. There was no beginning. As God
has no beginning, His purpose is from everlasting. And our
redemption, which is eternal, is from everlasting. We did nothing
to earn it. He entered in with his own blood
and obtained eternal redemption for us. And there's nothing we
can do to keep it. God keeps us. And if it's not,
if, if we can lose eternal redemption, it never was eternal, right? If we can lose eternal redemption,
it never was eternal. And God's word is worthless.
But that's the truth. This is God who has saved us.
And whatsoever he does shall be forever. That's our peace. Lay right down there and rest.
It's done. We can never die. We can never
die. And all is well. That just thrills
me. It does make me want to shout.
I want to act like Donnie Bell here. Wouldn't you like to see
that? Oh my, it's all over but the
shouting, they say. And think of this, if we can
lose our redemption, it's not eternal redemption. But he obtained
eternal redemption and that's where we find true rest and peace. It is God who hath done it. He
is our peace. Ephesians 2.14 says, He is our
peace. We find no rest in what we believe
but who we believe. He who accomplished the work.
He who did the work that cannot be undone. It shall be forever. And you know Peter in our text
in Acts 15 says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to drive this home a bit that grace is found in Jesus Christ
alone and he must give it. We must look to him for grace.
Look at John chapter one with me for a minute. And beginning in verse 17, it says, for the law was given by
Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. And there's no grace in the law.
The law was given by Moses. There's no grace there. We read in one place, do you
hear what the law says? You offend in one point, you're
guilty of all and worthy of hellfire and eternal separation from God. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. And read down in verse 14 in
this book, in this chapter. And the word, that's Christ the
Lord, was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And all we need grace. And he's
full of grace. We need truth. He's full of truth. Isn't that a blessing to learn,
read that about our Lord? And I can't grasp what it means
to be full of grace and truth. Our Lord, he said to be full
of grace and truth. And as I thought about that,
it came to my mind in the scripture where Moses asked God back in
Exodus 33, He says, show me thy glory. He asked him, show me
your glory. And if God is full of grace and
truth, it evidently must be manifested. He must show it. And God's reply to Moses was
this. He said, I will make all my goodness
to pass before thee. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. And I will, there's the will
that saves. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. He could have pointed to the
heavens. Aren't the heavens a wonder and glorious? What a great work
that he spoke the universe into existence. And Moses had seen the parting
of the Red Sea. What a miraculous thing that
was. He saw the burning bush that
was not consumed. He saw daily manna fall from
heaven. He saw the plagues in Egypt.
He saw the death angel pass through the land and smite the firstborn
of everyone in that house that did not have the blood on the
doorpost. But he said, when Moses asked
him, show me your glory, my goodness is his glory. Spurgeon said,
God's glory evidently lies in his goodness. He's full of grace
and truth. And the very glory of his goodness
lies in his sovereignty, that he will show mercy to whom he
will show mercy. Let's look at our verse together
in Ephesians 1. Verse 6. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. wherein He hath made us accepted. There's that word again, not
acceptable, accepted. He's made us accepted in the
Beloved to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now let's start back up there
in verse 3, get some context. We'll read down through verse
7. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to what? To the good pleasure
of his will. That's the will that saves. to
the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his
grace. The riches of his grace, oh my. Saved by grace. Freely given. not of works, lest
any man should boast. Paul writes in Ephesians 2, verse
7, look over there across the page. Paul writes that in the ages
to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. that He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace. There's a verse in Psalm 111
that says, He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord
is gracious and full of compassion. He's going to show the exceeding
riches of His grace. He's going to glory in the exceeding
riches of His grace. In my oh my, the grace of God
is a glorious grace. Exceeding riches of his grace
by which we are eternally saved. And I'd say probably most of
us, it's no wonder our favorite song is Amazing Grace. How sweet
the sound. It is a sweet sound, isn't it? I remember a message that I heard
Brother Henry Mahan preach on 2 Timothy chapter 3. Turn over
there just for a minute. 2 Timothy chapter 3. It talks about, in verse 1, it
talks about in the last days there perilous times shall come.
Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous boasters,
proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. And it goes on, and drop down
there to verse number five. It says, having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof from such turn away. And Brother
Henry said, I'll never forget this, he said, denying the power
is when men say this, God loves you and wants to save you, but
he can't. That's denying the power. From such turn away. But that's
what man's religion believes. And I heard this with my own
ears. I'd never sat under a false preacher
before, but I heard a false preacher at a funeral say this with my
own ears, that Jesus loves you, but the love of Jesus is not
enough. My heart was so sad, and I immediately
thought to myself, then what good is it? What good is the
love of Christ? But that's what man preaches. That's what free will preaches.
But can we see how this takes away God's glory? It gives it
to man. They say God wants. Those two
words can never go together. God does not want for anything.
God wants to save you. That's a false preacher. From
such turn away. God doesn't want anything. But man would agree with making
a decision that would then obligate God to give him grace. That's not grace. Obligation has no part in grace. Grace is a free gift. And when he makes himself known
to a man, he says, I know whom I have believed. And Paul goes
on to say, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. So, you may say, there may be
someone here that says in their heart to be thinking this, and
I can remember thinking this. You say that if this is true,
I have no say in the matter of my salvation. This would leave
me in God's hands and left to His unchanging will, subject
to what He may wish to provide or to withhold. To the fleshly mind and the fleshly
nature, that sounds like a terrible place to be. And false religion hates it.
They hate being in God's hands. But it is so. But I declare upon what the scripture
declares to fully rely on God, on Christ for everything. It's a good place to be. Philippians
4 verse 19 says this, but my God shall supply all your need
according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. If you have
nothing but Christ, if you have been taught by God that you're
hopeless and helpless without him, have no claims upon him,
that's a good place to be. If you need him, he'll supply
your need. Is that right? That's our hope.
And that's what the scripture proclaims, but my God shall supply
all your need. according to his riches in glory,
and he'll do that by Christ Jesus, our blessed substitute. Do you
dare rebel against God and his truth and shake your fist at
him? Shall I prefer to have my eternal
well-being in my own hands? How foolish is that? How can
we affect anything of eternal consequence? We can't even cure
ourselves of a cold. We have no ability. We can't
even provide for ourselves. For me to continue to stand here
depends on my heart beating again. On me drawing another breath.
And someone's got to provide that for me. Because I can't
provide it myself. Fully reliant on God. trusting
Him to supply all my needs, trusting Him for my salvation, trusting
Him to deliver me and pay my sin debt and bring me home to
glory. I'd like for you to turn to Romans
chapter 5 as I try to wind this up. I hope I'm not taking too
long. Romans chapter 5 and verse 6.
You all know this verse. I've heard many preachers read
this. You have too. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. I love
that scripture. Without strength means no ability.
The ungodly, that's me. Nothing godly about us. Is that you? You see, it's when all hope is
gone that hope appears. You see, God must get us lost
because he came to save the lost. Scott Richardson said many times,
I heard him say, you have to get the bad news before you get
the good news. And once you get the good news,
there will never be any more bad news. That's the truth. That is the
truth. So agree with God that I'm altogether undone. You can
disagree with God, but you're fighting a losing battle. Lay
down your arms. Submit to him. He'll supply all
your need. You come to him empty-handed. He'll supply all your need. agree
with God, I'm altogether undone, there's no way for me to save
myself. There's nothing good in me that
would commend me to God. And look to the altogether lovely
one, God's dear son, the sin bearer who bore the sin of all
of his people, the successful Savior who satisfied God, put
their sins away, Can you hope in him? Can you
trust in him and him alone? May God give us all the ability
to do that, to continue to do that. And I'd like to read a
couple passages in closing. Romans chapter three. In verse 23, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by
His grace. You have nothing to pay, it's
free. Justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Grace alone by faith
alone in Christ. He which believeth is the promise. To he which believeth is the
promise. And then last of all, 2 Thessalonians
chapter two. Verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. There it is. Comfort your hearts,
oh comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Everlasting consolation. The grace of God in Christ Jesus
is our only hope and it's a good hope. An everlasting consolation. Let's go to God in prayer and
then we'll be dismissed. Our kind and gracious and merciful
Heavenly Father, how we do thank you for this word that tells
us of Christ our Savior and His grace, Him who is full of grace
and full of truth, full of compassion. Lord, bring us to a place where
we have nothing and we can do nothing and cause us to cry out
for mercy. Cause us to cry out for you to
come where we are and supply our need. Save us by your grace. We ask Lord that you cause your
word to lodge in our hearts for a time at least. And remember your promises, to
live on your promises, to trust your promises, to rest, to glorify
you in believing you and being confident in what you have promised. And this eternal redemption that
was purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ can never be taken
away. For you have said in your word,
it's eternal. So we trust you, we leave our
souls with you. Continue to watch over us and
keep us looking. Keep us believing, keep us trusting,
keep us coming. Bring honor to your dear son
in our lives. And in this ministry. We ask
these things in Christ, dear name, Amy. Houston, you want to lead us
in a closing him? We're not having a service tonight.
It's New Year's Eve, so we'll meet again next Sunday morning. Brother Cody will be preaching
for us, I think, right? That's right. 28 in our course
books, amazing grace. Let's stand together. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me that once was lost I am found was blind, but now
I see. T'was grace that taught me. How precious did that grace appear! The hour I first believed Through
many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come His grace hath brought me safe
thus far and grace to lead me home. The Lord Has promised good
to me His Word my hope secures He will my shield and portion
be As long as life endures, even this flesh and heart shall fail,
and more For no life shall cease. and life of joy and peace. The world shall soon dissolve
like snow, when we've thousand years bright shining
as the sun we've no less days to sing God's praise than when We'll meet again first Sunday
next year. Ward Whelan, y'all are dismissed.