1 John chapter 5. This is, to me, one of the, I love
1 John. Just love it. But, let's read
these first six verses of chapter 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God, and everyone that loveth him
that begat, and loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this
we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
His commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,
and this is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? That he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. This is he that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears
witness, because the Spirit is truth. I want to get my subject
there out of verse 4. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, our faith. Our faith. Overcoming faith. Faith that overcomes the world.
Triumphant faith. What's the most God-honoring,
Christ-exalting thing a member of the human race can do? Believe God. Just believe God. Believe Him. Faith is the most
God-honoring thing that a person has to honor God with. And that's
why I said in Hebrews, look with me, you keep 1 John, look over
here in Hebrews chapter 11, with me just a minute. Hebrews, back
over just a couple of books back to your left. Look what is said
here. Hebrews 11, 6. talking about
faith Abraham was strong in faith giving glory to God but he said
here in Hebrews 11 without faith impossible impossible to please
God impossible for God to even look on you for he that cometh
to God must believe that he is Don't just believe in the supreme
being and the power higher than yourself. That's not what he's
talking about here. It's not like a God and whoever has the
most power. And that's what most people believe.
I believe there's a higher power than us. I believe there's a
supernatural power. And they believe, you know, in
the 12-step program, God's whoever you want Him to be, as long as
you have something. But when he talks about believing
that He is here, he says, you believe that He is who He is. You come to God, you're going
to believe something about Him. You're going to know something
about Him. This idea that men can come to God and not know
anything about Him. That He stands and He can't do
anything unless you let Him. You've not come to that God.
There's no faith there. When you come to God, you're
going to come to God as He is. Not like you think he is, not
like you hope he is, but as he is. Sovereign, powerful, gracious,
kind, merciful, righteous, and holy, and just. Everything that
he is, that you're going to come to him that way. And then he
sent him in that he's a rewarder. Now you've come to him and then
you're going to diligently seek him. That means you're not just
going to seek Him until you find Him and then quit. You just continually
seek Him, the Lord. And He rewards. How does He reward
us? He rewards us with Himself. He
rewards us with an understanding of the Scriptures. He rewards
us with His presence. He rewards us by keeping every
promise that He ever gave. And He'll keep every promise.
He has kept every promise. And that's what He says. And
look what He said down here in verse 3. Oh faith, oh listen,
faith and what a blessed thing it is. He said by, through faith,
excuse me, verse three, no let me see, no verse two, excuse
me, I'll get it right here in a minute. For by it, through
faith, by it the elders have gained a good report. Now what
are you talking about they gained a good report? Who gave a report
on them? Who reported on them? Who said these men were strong
in faith? These fellas had faith. Who gave
the report on them? Did they report themselves? Did
they tell on themselves? Said, Lord, my faith is good,
my faith is strong, my faith is great? No, you don't get the
report of that, sir. By it, the elders are telling
you, God gave them, God reported that peace man. He said Abraham
was his friend. He walked with him. And he walked
by faith with God. And I tell you, they believe
God, and God testifies Himself that these men believe Me. Believe Me. And I tell you, beloved,
we're talking about overcoming faith here. Overcoming the world. Faith has power. Faith has strength. And what faith is, is trust.
Faith is trust. Trust. Just to trust. It's commitment. And where there's faith, it produces
fear. It produces the fear of God.
It produces awe and reverence of God. It produces obedience
and a desire to please. That's why it says, you know,
this is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and
His commandments do not grieve us. The way of the transgressors,
hard. The way of a believer is not
hard. And I tell you that's what he says, so whatsoever is born
of God, that's why it produces an obedience and a desire to
please and honor God. And this faith that God we're
talking about, it works, it's a working faith. And how it works,
it works by love. Faith works by love. Love to
God, love to His scriptures, love to His people, love of the
Lord Jesus Christ, love of everything about God. Now I read this somewhere
and I wrote it down. Faith is the foot of the soul
and it goes to Christ. Faith is the hand of the soul
and it reaches out to Christ. Faith is the arm of the soul
and it embraces Christ. Faith is the eyes of the soul
and it looks upon Christ and sees Him. Faith is the mouth
of the soul, and it feeds upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith
is the lips of the soul, and it calls on Christ and kisses
the Son. So faith is a precious, precious
thing. And that's what I want to talk
about first. Faith is precious. Back here in our text, faith
is precious. Without it, it's impossible to please God. And
I say it's infinitely precious. Oh, it's so precious to us who
have it. And because by faith all things are possible. That's
what I said, all things are possible to him that believes. And without
faith, you know what you're stuck with? You know what you're left
with? Without faith, you're left with nothing but luck. Good luck
or bad luck. You're left with chance. You're
left with faith. You're left with destiny. You're
left with everything but God in His wisdom, and God in His
power, and God in His grace, and I don't want to bless God
for tale. When's the last time you talked
about luck? Huh? When's the last time you
talked about luck? Been a long time hasn't it? See, if you don't have faith,
that's all you've got left. And I'll tell you something about
faith, beloved. It takes God at His Word. That's
what it does. His unfailing Word, His immutable
Word. Over in Psalm 119, verse 89,
it says, Thy Word is forever settled in heaven.
Heaven and earth will pass away but my word shall not pass away.
And that's all we need. Faith takes God at his word. When God told Abraham what he
was going to do, Abraham said he believed God. He hadn't seen
anything happen. He hadn't made a move. God said
get up and go. He went up, got up and went.
And you know what the scripture said? He went out not knowing
where he was going. Me and you got up not knowing
where he was going. Somebody said them folks were
fools. And that's what they said about Abraham. But he just kept
going on. And I tell you, look over here
at John 21, 25 with me just a minute. Oh listen, we can't, we can't
The word, the word, the word, we got to have the word. The
first few years, when I made a profession, first
four years, all I did was read a Bible. I didn't even own another
book, didn't try to find another book. I was afraid that if I
didn't understand the scriptures, know the scriptures, if I read
anybody else, they'd throw me off. And I certainly didn't want
to be thrown off. I was scared to read anything
else. And then when I ever heard a preacher preach, I'd always
go home, Brad, and I'd look to see what they said, whether it
was so or not. And that's how I come to the conclusion that,
you know, that person said something, I'd look in the Bible and say,
that's not so. And then I'd hear somebody else preach something,
I'd look in the Bible and say, now that's so. I took everything to the
touchstone of the scriptures. And that's why, beloved, it's
so important that we have our Bibles and we read our Bibles.
And David said, I take it by word and I hear it in my heart.
Why? So that I won't sin against you. I won't sin against you.
Ignorantly, I won't sin against you because I've got your word
in my heart and your word tells me. Your word tells me. And then look what he said here
in St. John's Gospel 21-25. Oh, and there are also many other
things which Jesus did, which if they should be written, I
suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that
should be written. Amen. You see, beloved, there's
so much that we have to learn, so much to see, so much to hold
on, and faith just takes God at His word. God says it, you
know, I heard a fellow say one time, Brother Henry Mahan said,
this said, well, I believe God and that settles it. And he says,
no, no, God said it and that settles it, whether you ever
believe it or not. You know, I believe God and that
settles it. No, God, what God says is right, whether you and
I ever believe it or not. He says, shall the faith of God
be made of none effect because somebody don't believe it? No. No, not at all. But now look
back over here in 1 John 5. Who has faith? Who is this faith
that we're talking about here? Down in verse 5, it says, Who
is he that overcometh the world, but that he that believeth that
Jesus is the Son of God? In verse 1, Whosoever believeth
that Jesus Christ is born of God. Who has faith? He that is
born of God. You must be born of God. You
must be born again. It's an absolute imperative.
It's a necessity. And how do you get born again? I know what our Lord said about
it. He said, you must be born again. Nicodemus said, I don't
know how that can be. He said, I'm going to tell you
how it can be. He said, the Spirit. He must be born from above. The
Spirit blows where he listens. And you hear the sound of it,
hear the sound of it. And he talked about the Spirit
of God must come. And then he said, as Moses lifted
up the serpent. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. And when that Son of Man is lifted
up, that's where you see salvation. Where you see that Son of God
lifted up. And he that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. You can't have faith without
being born of God. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. Being born of God is a mystery. But I do know this, I know this,
and I've told you this so many times, but what God does when
He gives, when He regenerates us, when we're born of God, He
begat us with the Word of Truth, begat us again with the Word
of Truth. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible
by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. When God
saves a man and regenerates a man, And to have that new birth, a
new man, a person comes into existence that wasn't there before.
And that person is a spiritual person. He's no longer in the
flesh. He's a spiritual person. He becomes
a spiritual person. He understands spiritual things.
He understands the Bible, which he didn't understand before.
He understands what it is to pray, which he didn't understand
before. He understands what sin is, which he didn't understand
before. He understands what salvation is, which he didn't understand
before. He understands what grace is, which he didn't understand
before. I mean, when God brings into existence a new person,
and that new person is the only person that can commune with
God and have spiritual understanding and spiritual life. Now, there's
a fight between the flesh and the spirit, but I'm telling you
something, the Scriptures tell us that we are spiritual people,
and that's what He says, being born again. And that's the person, I don't
understand this idea how people can, without faith and never
been born again and never been born of God, they can't believe
that Jesus is the Christ without that. Now what do you mean by
that? How many people do you really know that believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God? If they believed He was the Son
of God, would they ever say that Jesus loves you? Everybody, if
they believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, would they
say that Jesus Christ died for everybody? If they believed that
Jesus Christ was the Son of God, would they be having people come
and trying their best to win souls to Jesus? Would they not
know something about the grace of God? So I tell you when you
believe, only the people that believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, it's people that's been born of God. To me it's
serious. When you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, Christmas is coming up. They're going to have people,
I mean, they're going to have people put on white robes, and
they're going to walk with candles, and they're going to sing all
these wonderful songs, and they're going to get all emotional, they're
going to get all sentimental, and they're going to have a baby
in the manger here, and they're going to have a camel over here,
and a donkey over there, and three white men standing here,
and they're going to go through all this motion. Do you believe
if anybody knows that Jesus Christ is the Son of God would do that? That's what I'm talking about.
That's what faith is. He that has faith is born of
God. I don't know why I'm keeping
harping on this but I'll tell you something. That Ethiopian
eunuch after Philip preached to him, He says, if thou believest
with all thy heart that Jesus is, is, is the Son of God. Now what does it mean to believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? It means that He was
God before He was the Son. He was the eternal generation.
There never was a time that Jesus Christ did not exist. If He's
the Son of God, He's as old as God. He's as eternal as God. He's got everything that God
the Father has, with everything that all the fullness of the
Godhead dwell in Him bodily. But He was God's Son before He
ever took on His flesh. And that's the kind of faith
He's talking about here. And it overcomes the world. It says
here, what is our faith that's overcome with the world? It's
the victory, our faith that overcomes the world. Now why does it overcome? Let me show you something over
here in 1 Corinthians 1. Just look in 1 Corinthians 1,
just a minute. 1 Corinthians 1. It overcomes the
world. And the first thing it overcomes
is look what he said here in verse 21. 1 Corinthians 1 verse
21. For after that in the wisdom
of God, God in his wisdom made it this way, the world by wisdom
knew not God. Now what? Our faith overcomes
the world's wisdom. What has the world's wisdom ever
done for any soul? What is the wisdom of this world?
What is the wisdom of philosophy? What is the wisdom of this world
ever done to cause somebody to grow, to understand God, to understand
Scripture? The wisdom of this world. We've
overcome the world's philosophy and wisdom. We're not interested
in carnal reasoning. We're not interested in carnal
understanding. And I'll tell you something else,
faith is not interested in being recognized or approved by in
this world. We don't need the world's approval
in any way, shape or form. We don't need the world to say,
boy, the folks there, you know, they're doing a good work for
the Lord. No, faith is not interested in being recognized or approved
in this world. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
said. And I'll tell you something else, faith overcomes the materialism
of this world. There comes a time that faith
says, I've got enough. Faith says, I don't need anymore.
Do not just take it up with getting and getting and getting and getting
and getting. And the only answer that faith that overcomes the
world needs is, Father, even so, it seemed good in thy sight. That's all it takes. That's all
we need. And all that faith that overcomes the world believes
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And look what it said
about him there in verse 6, believe I done talked about that, believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And all listen, this is he that
came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. What did it mean by water
and blood? Well, now in a material birth
or natural birth, there's water and blood both involved in it.
And our Lord was supernaturally born, being born of a virgin,
but still yet it was by water and blood. But I think also it
means something else here about our Lord Jesus Christ. When it
says He came by water and by blood, not by water only, but
by water and blood. I believe that first of all,
when he talks about the water, he talks about his water baptism,
that he came by water. He came to be so identified with
us that he himself submitted him to water baptism. That's
what I think, he came by water. That's what I think it says here.
But now, let me show you this in Matthew 3. See if I can help
us with this a little bit. And our Lord Jesus Christ, he
came by water. He came by water. He came by
baptism. And under the law they had water
to purify. They had the labor when the priest
went into the holy place. The first thing he did, he went
in there and washed his hands and his feet. They had divers'
washes to cleanse and sanctify the body. But here it says in
verse 13 of Matthew 3, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan
unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized to thee, and comest thou to me?
Now listen to what our Lord said here. I'm going to preach on
this real, real soon. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Suffer it, allow it, it must be so now. For thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. Now what does it mean he becomes
us to fulfill all righteousness? How is water baptism going to
fulfill all righteousness? How is that going to happen with
our Lord Jesus Christ when He is righteous again? How is that
going to happen? Fulfill our righteousness. That means that
He so identified with us that He made a type of His own death,
burial and resurrection. to show us that everything that
we were required to do in obedience in our water baptism that our
Lord Jesus Christ so identified with us that He Himself went
to the watery grave. And then He suffered. Now watch
what happens. And Jesus, when He was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water. And the heavens were opened
unto him, and John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and lighting upon him, and lo a voice from heaven saying, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. That's water baptism. And then the blood. And let me
show you something else over John chapter 19. And he came
by blood. He came to put away sin by blood. And look in John 19. He came
by water. Water baptism to identify with
us. And it came by blood. It's His
blood. It's the blood that cleanses us from all sin. And here it
comes from both sides of Him. Here it comes in John 19.33. Now water, you know, in the Old
Testament is used to sanctify. Water in the New Testament signifies
the Word. It's used to cleanse us. Cleansing
with the washing of the water by the Word. But here in John
19.34, the war of the soldiers was a spear pitched to your side
and forthwith came to out blood and water. So if water sanctifies
us and blood cleanses from our sin, we have redemption and sanctification
both in our Lord Jesus Christ. The blood that cleanses from
our sin, the water represents the word to sanctify us. And
that's why I said the spirit bear witness at his baptism and
the spirit bear witness at his cross. And let me give you a
couple things here about the fruit of faith. Talking about
faith that overcomes the world. What's the fruit of faith? Well,
by faith we're justified. Being justified By faith, we have peace with
God, being justified by faith. Faith, you know, Christ justifies
us. Faith believes it. Faith receives
it. Faith delights in it. And we're
sanctified by faith. Now, you know, when we say sanctified
by faith. Now, sanctification just means
to be set apart. I've said this so many times.
Just say that God set us apart. Sanctified by God the Father.
Sanctified by the Spirit. Now that doesn't mean that you're
getting more holy. That doesn't mean that you've
got progressive. Sanctification is a state of being. And we're
sanctified by faith. I believe that God set me apart
by the gospel, by the spirit, by the truth. Now, am I a holy
person? Am I a saint in the sense that
I live a saintly, saintly life? No! Well, how in the world do
I know I'm sanctified and I'm holy and that I'm pure and God
set me apart? I believe it because God said
it. And then the just shall live
by faith. How do we live in this world? By faith. By faith. Walk by faith. Live by faith.
Trust God. Everything about our life is
by faith. And Paul says, we stand by faith. There's times when you say, I
cannot stand, I just can't do it. And then what you do? You
stand in faith. When God told Moses, and everybody
said, Moses, you took us out of here and here comes the Egyptian
army and they're fixing to destroy us. You know what God said to
Moses? Stand still! And that's all the
world faith can do, was stand still because there was nothing
to do. You couldn't go forward, you
couldn't go back. He said, stand still. And about that time, the
waters opened. He says, now go. But there's
times that you have to stand by faith, just stand. And did
we walk by faith? We don't walk by sight, we walk
by faith. Oh my, thank God that we don't
have to walk by sight. Thank God that we don't have
to walk by what we see. Oh my! I don't have to walk by anything
that I see. I see sorrow. I see grief. I see sin. I see
rebellion. I see treason. I see this world
lying in wickedness. I see myself as a weak and miserable
figure in a thousand ways. But I tell you, thank God that
we don't have to walk by what we see. Walk by faith. And oh, I love
this. And by faith, we have access
into this grace wherein we stand. And I'll tell you something about
faith. Now, you know, I've seen a lot of people over the years,
they ask God, Lord, give me a sign. Give me a sign. I need a sign.
I'll do this. I'll believe it's you if you
show me this or you do that. Let me tell you something about
faith. Faith doesn't need a sign. And when I'm driving a car, I
need a sign. Stop. Go. Left. Right. Make sure I'm on the right road.
But I don't need a sign from God. You know all I need is this
right here. Lord, am I yours? If I'm yours,
give me some kind of sign. I don't need nothing but this.
That's all we need. Faith doesn't need sight. Faith
can go without seeing. In fact, faith can go a long
time without even seeing Christ. God can turn out the light. God
can bring such darkness upon a soul. God can put a person
in such a state of mind that it seems as if they can't even
see Christ and they can't hear when the gospel is preached.
I'll tell you what it is. But faith doesn't need sight.
Faith will wait because you know it will come back. Faith doesn't
even need a feeling. How many of you feel, feel saved
right this minute? How many of you feel real spiritual
right this time? How many of you feel full
of joy right this minute? So you see, we don't go by feelings. Huh? If we went by feelings that
would be a lot of times we wouldn't even come. Huh? Faith only means
one thing in these God's Word. The Word of Him that cannot lie.
And let me hurry up and say this about it. Faith. Faith is progression. It says,
this is our faith in overcoming. Even our faith that overcomes
the world. Faith is progression. It overcomes. And not just has
overcome, it overcomes. It has overcome, it does overcome,
and it will overcome. Faith is living. Faith is active.
Faith grows. And as our knowledge of God grows,
our faith grows. The more we know about Him, the
more our faith. Trust Him. Look over in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1 with me. Just a minute. Let me show you
this. Talking about faith growing.
Faith is a living, active principle. That's why we said grow in grace
and knowledge. Faith is living, it's active.
And faith increases as we see the fullness and faithfulness
of His Word. Look what Paul told the Thessalonians
here. He said in verse 32 Thessalonians,
We are bound to thank God always for you brethren, as it is necessary,
as it is fit, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth
exceedingly. Your faith groweth exceedingly,
and the charity of every one of you toward each other aboundeth.
Wherever there's faith, there's love. And he said his faith increases,
and he said it increases abundantly, exceedingly. And I tell you,
faith grows as more we see of him, the faithfulness and fullness
and freeness of his word. When Abraham was a young man,
before God gave him a son, God said, Abraham said, Father, God,
Father, I don't have an heir. I don't have an heir. I've got
all this wealth. I've got all this things that
you give, but I have nobody to leave it to. God told him, He said, I'm going
to give you a son. Abraham waited and waited and
waited and waited. And He gave him that son. Then
after God gave him there, when he got to be an old man, and
he had that heir, God says, now take your son, your only son,
and you go up there on that mountain, and you offer him. Abraham comes
and says, I don't even have an heir, where am I going to get
one? To be willing to take his son. That's how much his faith
grew and increased over the years. And he grows from faith to faith
according to Romans 117. I tell you what, from faith as
a baby, you know, desire the sincere miracle
of the word as a babe, to young person, young man, young woman,
to a father, to a mother, You start out as a baby, and then
you start growing, and you start growing, and you start growing,
and then you become a mature, you become full grown, you become
a man, you become a woman. How does that happen? Faith.
Faith. Faith. Faith. Faith. And I know faith can't drive
it, you can't force it. You know how it grows? You gotta
feed it. It's not natural to any of us, you gotta just keep
feeding it. God's got to give it to us. And then our Lord Jesus
said, it's done. And look with me in John chapter
6 and I'll be done. You know, Mark said it this way.
He says, have the faith of God. And he says, have faith in God. But in the margin it says, have
the faith of God. So look in John chapter 6 with
me just a minute. Faith that overcomes It overcomes a thousand worlds.
You know, we go through a lot of worlds in our time. There's a lot of worlds in this
world. You know, it says, boy, he's
in a world of hurt. Boy, you're in a world of trouble. You have
a world of heartache. There's lots of worlds. People
use the term. And they overcome every world
that God puts in our way. And I'll tell you, look what
he said here in John 6, verse 28. Then they said unto him, What
shall we do that we might work the works of God? Oh, how many
people ask that question? Let's do a work for God. Let's
get busy for God. Let's get busy working. Get off that stool and do nothing.
I don't know what in the world that means, but that's what they
used to tell people all the time. And our Lord answered and said
unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom
he hath sent. Do you know what this means? This means that God does the
work of you believing. What works may we do to work
the works of God? Our Lord says, this, this is
God's work. God does this work. What is this
work? That you believe. As many as
were ordained to eternal life believe it. He that's born of
God believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And I tell you this, I know one
thing about faith, it will not fail. It works, it won't fail,
it won't quit. Faith won't fail, it won't quit.
It'll grow and grow until it receives the end of it. And you
know what the end of it is? The salvation of your soul when
you enter into glory. That's why Paul said, being confident
of this one thing, that he which begun a good work in you, shall finish it. And looking
unto Jesus who the author of our faith. You know what else
he said about him? He said he'll be the one to finish
it too. He's the beginning of it and he's the end of it. Our Father, we bless you for
this time. Oh, we've had a day that belongs
to you, and you gave it to us, and we're thankful for it. Thank
you for the saints that come out to hear the Word of God,
to be fed, to be encouraged, to be strengthened, and I pray
that they were, and pray that they are. And Lord, we're just
nothing but a clay pot, a weak, weak vessel, a clay pot, easily
broken. But oh Lord Jesus, it's the treasure,
it's the truth, it's the power of God in that vessel. And oh
Lord, bless it to the understanding, bless it to the heart. And Lord,
as the saints go about whatever they do this week, when they
get up tomorrow to go to work or whatever they do, Give them
rest tonight, give them a day tomorrow that will honor, that
will give them a life that will honor you and me too. Help us
Lord every day to get up and walk by faith, live by faith,
trust you, take you at your word, and Lord whatever comes or whatever
goes, enable us to stand, just to stand. We love you, we need
you, And oh God, we look to you, our Lord Jesus Christ, we look
to you and you alone for all of our needs. Amen and Amen. I think, I think it's 257 in
this book, I think that's what I want. I think that's what I
want. No, no, no, 327, 327. Oh, for a faith that will not
shrink, I think. Yep. 327. Stand with me. We'll sing this and then you'll
be at liberty to go, and I'll see you Wednesday night, God
willing. O for a faith that will not shrink,
oppressed by many a soul, that will not tremble on the brink
of any earthly woe, of any earthly woe, That will not murmur nor
complain Beneath the chastening rod But in the hour of grief
or pain Will lean upon His God upon his God. A faith that shines more bright
and clear When tempests rage without That when in danger knows
no fear In darkness fears no doubt In darkness fears There's
no doubt Lord, give me such a faith as this, and in what e'er may
come, I'll taste in now the hallowed grace of my eternal home, of
my