Another one of the attributes
of God as we deal with Bible doctrine. Tonight I want to talk
about the grace of God. The grace of God. I read here
where Paul said, has God cast away His people? No, no He hasn't. He said, I'm an Israelite. I'm
of the seed of Abraham. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
God hath not cast away the people which ye foreknew. But then he
says, you remember what Elijah said? Elijah said, Lord, they've
digged down your altar and they've killed all your prophets and
I'm the only one left. And the Lord told him, he said,
oh, no, no, no, Elijah. God said, I've got a remnant
according, what do you call it? According to the election of
grace. And if by grace, in verse 6,
and if by grace, then is it no more worse. Otherwise, grace
is no more grace. But if it be of works, it is
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
And what the Apostle is saying is that salvation's got to be
all of grace and no works. If it's of grace, works don't
enter into it. And if it's of works, you don't
mix grace with it. It's got to be all work or all
grace. You do not mix them. You do not
mix them in no part in salvation. before or after conversion. If
there's any work, any work done by us, any good work done by
us, it's God that works in us to do it. And we don't know it
when we do it. If we did think we'd done it,
we'd have to be tooting our horn and shining our candle lights
and letting everybody see it. But grace, grace, if by grace
no more of works. Now, beloved, grace is only found
in God. In fact, of all the religions
on the earth, all the religions on the earth, grace is foreign
to all other religions. It's foreign to Buddhism, foreign
to Mohammedanism, foreign to Catholicism, foreign to Arminianism. And I tell you, the only way
in the world you can know anything about the grace of God is for
God to make you understand, see the grace. That's what he told
Elijah. Don't you be afraid. Don't you worry. I've got a remnant
according to the election of grace. And if it's of grace,
those fellows that I saved in that election of grace, they
didn't save by their works. And if they were saved by their
works and I've done something for them by their works, then
it wasn't by my grace. And he says there's a remnant according
to the election of grace. And this grace is only found
in God. And it only comes from God. And
this blessed perfection of God's character is only exercised,
only exercised towards His elect, in them and them alone. You look
in the Old Testament, you look in the New Testament, and where
you see the grace of God mentioned and exercised, it's always towards
His elect, never toward mankind in general. Never. Now, there
are some people, and I've heard them talk about common grace.
There's nothing common about grace. And they say that there's
a common grace that He exercises over all men. But no, no, I don't
think there's nothing common about grace whatsoever. Now,
God is patient, He's long-suffering, He endures this world and the
vessels of wrath pitted for destruction. But, beloved, when it comes to
the grace of God, wherever you find it mentioned in the Scriptures,
it's always exercised only towards His elect, His people. And grace, let me say this, grace
is distinguished from mercy. Mercy and grace don't mean the
same thing. Grace, beloved, and I'll tell
you about the meaning of that, but mercy is God not giving us
what we deserve. We'll get in a scrape and we'll
say, Oh God, be merciful to me. Don't give me what I deserve
and the condition I'm in and what I just said and what I just
did. But grace, grace, all of the love of God, as Mark prayed
this evening, all of the love of God, all of the goodwill of
God, all of the salvation of God flow from God's blessed grace. It all comes from God's blessed
grace. And here's the definition of
grace, as I understand it. Grace is the eternal and absolute
free favor of God. And in that grace is the guarantee
of all spiritual and eternal blessings to the guilty and the
unworthy. It's eternal. It's absolute. It's free. And when He gives
it to you, with that grace He gives you, He guarantees every
spiritual and eternal blessing in that grace that He gives you.
Ain't that right? And he's always only to the guilty
and the unworthy. If somebody's worthy, it's not
grace. If somebody's not guilty, it's not grace. And grace is
the sovereign and saving favor of God exercised in giving blessings
to those who have no merit. Now, in this world, people get
promotions by merit. People get scholarships by merit. But when it comes to the grace
of God, there is no merit. None is better than anybody else.
None has more than anybody else. All of us are like sheep going
astray. All of us. He called us jack
grasshoppers and worms. And can a clean thing come out
of an unclean? And oh, beloved, and I tell you,
God gives this saving favor, sovereign saving favor and blessings
to those who have no merit. And He demands no payment from
them. He don't stick out His hand and say, pay me for what
I just did for you. Reward me for what I just did
for you. Come on and pay me by some method, some way, somehow,
pay me for what I've just done for you. He don't do that. The
only thing that moves the grace of God towards someone is grace
itself. Do you know that? The only thing that moves the
grace of God towards someone is grace itself. Why was there
a remnant left? Because of the election of grace. Where does grace start? With
God. Where does grace start? In God. It's in Him. So grace starts from God and
comes out to us. And that's why grace is completely
unmerited and unsought for. That's why it says over in Romans
in Isaiah 65, I was found of them that sought me not. Oh my,
how in the world are you found if somebody ain't looking for
you? Here we are, I'm found of them,
people weren't even looking for me. How does that happen? Zacchaeus wasn't looking for
him. But Christ knew who He was, knew where He was. And I tell you, beloved, there's
something about grace that's not attractive. There's something,
you know, about people that attracts people to people and things like
that. But grace, the grace of God is not attracted by anything
in or from those to whom it's bestowed. What could God see
in us or anybody that would attract His grace toward them? What could
come from somebody that God would attract God's grace to them?
When we see ourselves in our loathing, when we see ourselves
in our inability, we see ourselves in our weakness, we see ourselves
in our helplessness, see ourselves in our total without strength
and no ability whatsoever, loathing in our own sight, and then yet
grace came to us? Huh? Oh, for it to be grace. Grace can never be bought, can't
be earned, or it can't be won by the creature. If it could,
it would cease to be grace. Huh? For it to be grace. The recipient has no claim upon
it. That it is in no way due him.
And people say, I don't want charity. Grace is pure, absolute,
free, charity. And God give me all you will. His pure charity, unsought, unasked
for, and undesired, and yet He gives us His love, His charity.
And grace, grace stands in direct opposition to works. Absolute
opposition to works. Absolute opposition to worthiness.
Absolutely, all works and all worthiness. Look over, and you
keep Romans, look in Ephesians 2, just a moment. We've quoted
this so many times, but we need to look at it. Ephesians 2. You
know, grace stands in direct opposition to works. I remember
I've talked to several people about the grace of God over the
years, and almost to the man, to the person, If they don't
see it, if they don't believe it, if they don't understand
it, say, well, you took grace too far. Or else you go ahead
and you deal with that grace, I'll deal with man's responsibility.
What they're saying was, is I'll tell man what he needs to do
to stay in God's good favor. And if they say you took grace,
how far can you take the grace of God? How far can you take
the grace of God? Well, let me ask you this. How
far did the grace of God come to get you? Then try to figure out how far
you can take it. Can you take it too far? Can
you talk about it too much? I wish I knew how to play an
instrument. I sang grace on it all the time. I took five notes. G-R-A-C-E. If I could. But look here in
Ephesians 2.8. For by grace are you saved. Through faith. And that not of
yourselves. Listen to it. It's the gift of
God. Not of words. Not of words, lest any man should
boast. And that's what the Pharisee
did. Why in the world is your disciples eating with my worshipping
hands? We've always washed our hands.
We've always paid our taxes. What in the world? Your fellows
don't do anything. We fast all the time. Why don't
yours fast? They kept point to their works.
In Christ they just, these are my people, they're my children.
Alright, let me tell you something about grace. First thing about
grace is this, that it's eternal. Grace is eternal. God purposed
grace to be exercised before it was ever given to anyone on
the face of this earth. Now according to 2 Timothy 1.9,
this is the person I've told you so many times that God used
to Teach me the gospel, and open my eyes to the gospel, and open
my eyes to His purpose, and open my eyes to His calling, and open
my eyes to holiness, and open my eyes to grace. God, who hath
saved us and called us with the holy calling, not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus, when? Before the world began. Before this world ever began,
God put grace in Christ and gave every one of His elect that grace
in Christ before He ever began this world. He had grace stored
up for us, James. Before the world ever began,
He had grace, purpose to have given to us, and He gave it in
Christ. And when we bring this to Christ, that grace is in Christ
and shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And not only
is it eternal, but it's free. It's free. Being justified freely
by His grace. What does that mean? It means
what it says. Freely by His grace. None can purchase it. None can
earn it. None can produce it. None can
be owed to. And that's why Hosea said, God
said, I will love them freely. I'm just going to love Him freely. And oh, not only is it eternal
and it's free, and it's sovereign. Oh, it's sovereign. And what
that means, beloved, God bestows it and gives it to whom He pleases.
Now, is that not right? God bestows His grace and gives
it to whom He pleases. And He withholds it from whom
He pleases. If He gives it to some, that
means He withholds it from others. And that's why he says, in Romans
chapter 9, back over here in Romans 9, here's just a perfect
illustration of what we're talking about. You know, in grace reigns,
when we talk about sovereign grace, Romans 5.21 says grace
reigns. Grace reigns. There's two things that reign in the
Scriptures, as far as mankind's concerned. Grace reigns, or sin
reigns. And where grace reigns, sin is
put away. Where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. And grace reigns. It's a sovereign
over men's hearts. It's a power over men's hearts.
It's a power over men's minds. It's a power because it's the
very power of God manifested to us, given to us, and it's
so powerful and so gracious that when God gives it to a man, it
will change him radically from the day he sees it and the day
he's experienced the grace of God. It will change him radically
in his ideas of God, of salvation, of the Scriptures, of everybody
around him, of his own state. It changes the repentance of
faith, of works, of righteousness. It changes radically everything
he ever believed before, once he ever sees the grace of God.
In Romans 9, look what it says, talking about in verse 11. For the children, being not yet
born, Neither having done good or evil, here we go, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob hath a love,
but he shall have a hated." Paul automatically knows somebody's
going to say, that's not fair. That's not fair. God don't have
that right to do that. He didn't give either one of
them. He didn't give that Esau the chance. He's not right. But Paul anticipated that argument. He said, is there unrighteousness
with God? Because he knows that that's exactly what men say when
they hear about the sovereign grace of God. It's unrighteous. It's not fair. And that's why
they say you take grace too far. But what does he say? And he
goes to the scriptures. You ought to shut these men's
mouths by going to the scriptures. For he saith, Moses saith, he
saith to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it's
not him that willeth. Jacob didn't will. Rebekah didn't
will. Isaac didn't will. Abraham didn't
will. Not of him that willeth, not
of him that runneth. I mean, oh boy, I'm going to
run for Jesus. I'm going to get out of here
and start working for the Lord. I'm going to go running. Listen,
it's not of him that runneth, but it's of God that shows mercy. Oh, you see, beloved, sovereign
grace bestowed on whom He pleases. And eternal life is a gift. It's
a gift. It's a gift. And that's why it
says the gift of God is eternal life. I give unto them eternal
life. Psalm 3 and 8 says this, that
salvation belongs unto the Lord. You look that up and you get
on with it. Psalm 3 and 8. Salvation belongs unto the Lord.
Now, if it belongs to Him, and eternal life's a gift, Who has the right to tell God
who he ought to give it to and who he should save? It's his
gift. Is that not right? It's his. It belongs to him. Can he ask
what I do with mine? I do what I want to with it.
You know, that's pretty much the way you do. You do what you
want to with what you have, don't you? And so, you know, people say,
well, did you know God owes it? No. If it's a gift and he has
the right to give it and it belongs to him, salvation belongs to
him, has he not got the right to give it to whom he will? Is God obliged to force this
gift on anyone? To those who don't value it and
ridicule it and mock it? Is God compelled to save those
who are determined to go on in their self-righteous way? After
they've been exposed to the grace of God, been exposed to the gospel,
been told the truth, like the Pharisees, determined to go on
my way. I'm determined. I'm going to be saved my way. I know that my works is going
to get me something. It's like Bruce Bruce Crabtree's
daddy said, you know, and Bruce told him, preached to him for
years before he died. And he was getting ready to leave
this world, and it hurt Bruce so bad. He says, Dad, there ain't
but one righteousness that you can go out into eternity and
face God with and have any hope at all, and that's the righteousness
of Christ! Salvation's of grace! And he
said, son, I'd be scared to death to face God with at least something
in my heart. Now, you think a man can't be
so blinded? I read it to you. Why did it
say there in Romans 11 that God blinded them? God darkened them? God gave them deaf ears, gave
them what they couldn't. And he said, I'll make their
table to be a snare. They'll sit down and they'll
say, this is my righteousness, this is my works, this is what
I'm eating on. And he said, I'll make that a snare. And they'll
stumble over it. The very things that we rejoice
over, they stumble over. And oh beloved, but if God, out
of a world full of rebels, a world full of rebels, worms, if God
out of a world of rebels, determines to exercise his sovereign right
by choosing a limited number to be saved, tell me, who is
he wronged? Did he make anybody do something
they didn't want to do? Is man going to do what he wants
to do? If God wants to save a bunch
of rebels, And choosing the living number
to be saved, who is wronged? And, O beloved, God formed his
purpose from everlasting, and he did not consult the creature.
And who in the world dares question the Creator? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Shall the pockets of the earth strive with the pockets of the
earth, but woe unto him that striveth with his Maker? Psalm
46 and 10 says, Be still and know that I am God. And this
generation won't be still for God or nobody else. And the only
way in the world I'll ever be still, and I'll be still before
God, and you'll be still before God, or our children, or our
grandchildren, is God to come in and do like He done Jacob.
Love them from all eternity. And choose them from the womb
just like He did Him. It's got to manifest that power. And oh beloved, God's grace is
distinguishing. And I love this about it. God's
grace is distinguishing. It makes the difference. The
grace of God is the one who makes the difference. It chooses some
and passes by others. And you look all the way through
the Scriptures, it was distinguishing grace. Distinguishing grace that
saved Abraham. He was an idolater across the
river, right there on the Euphrates
River. There are the Chaldees over there where Baghdad's at. He was down there and God says,
called him, loved him, changed his name, made a covenant with
him. He passed by the Pharisees and
he saved the publicans and sinners. And when the Pharisees started
fussing and fighting about it, the Lord just said, just let
them alone. Just let them alone. Just let them alone. And what
about... Let me show you something. Look over here. You keep Romans
11. Look over here in 1 Samuel, chapter 2. Deuteronomy, Judges,
Ruth and Samuel. 1 Samuel 2. You know, beloved, who makes you to differ? Grace
is the only thing that makes us to differ. Grace distinguishes
us. Grace is what distinguishes us.
Grace is what sets us apart. It's what makes us differ. It
chooses some, passes by others. How many other people did God
save in the era of Chaldees? Just call Abraham made him a
promise. And then Abraham had two sons, but he only saved one of them,
Isaac. And then Isaac had two, and he
only loved one of them. That's what you call grace. But
boy, them seem like pretty good boys to me. God don't save good
boys. He makes a bad, bad, bad voice
for these saints, and they'll understand just how bad they
are. Look here, 1 Samuel 2 and verse 6. This is Hannah praying
and blessing God for giving her a child. She says, The Lord killeth
and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. Now listen to it. He raises
up the poor out of the dust, lifts up the beggar from the
dunghill, and sets them among princes, and make them inherit
the throne of glory, for the pillars of the earth are the
Lord's, and He has set the world upon them. Now, do you notice
what kind of people He picked up? Beggars. The people in the
dust. Oh, my. And listen, grace is manifested. God's grace is manifested in
and by the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. The law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You know,
when Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, Whose eyes
of the Lord did he find grace in? Now, let me tell you something
about Noah. Do you think Noah was any different
than anybody else that God was going to destroy off the face
of the earth? Do you think that all of a sudden, you know, here's
this fella, he's living good, he's living a righteous life,
and he loves his wife, and he loves his kids, and he's been
training them up right, and he's the only person in the whole
world that's living right. That's made his peace with God. When it says he found grace in
the eyes of the Lord, did grace distinguish him from everybody
else out of that whole race before he destroyed the world? He was
just as rotten as they was, just as depraved as they were, just
as hell bound as they were, but God said, I'm going to give that
man grace right there. I'm going to warn him of things
he ain't never seen, and then I'm going to give him the plans,
how he's going to be saved from my wrath, And I'm going to save
everything, two of every clean animal, so that there'll be seven
of every clean animal, so that there'll be some for sacrifice
and get off that. And I'll be like, God done that.
God done that. God done that. And that's what
he done in Christ. When Moses stood there and said,
Lord, show me your glory. God said, here, you got to, I
got to put you in the cleft of this rock. I got to put you in
the cleft of this rock. He didn't say, now go over there
and stand, climb up that mountain, climb up this mountain here,
climb down, climb around, and get in that hole over yonder,
and I'll go good. No, God said, I will put you
in the cleft of the rock. Huh? And I'll cover you with
my hand. Because all you see is my hand
of parts. You can't see all my glory of
the lips, and we can't see all the glory of God, except what's
manifested in Christ. And that's what God does. He
manifests that grace. He hides that grace. He shows
us that grace. That's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, oh beloved, let me tell you this quick. The Lord Jesus Christ. I've lost something here. Well,
I'll find it. Let me get on with it. Here it
is. I've got it on top of this mascot. I wasn't where I left off at.
But grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ, and grace
and truth were fully revealed and glorified when our Redeemer
came to this earth and died for His people. When our Lord Jesus
came to this world, when you saw Him, He was full of grace. Look at the people that He saved.
Look at the people that He called. Look at the people that He did
things for. Look at the people that He went
to, and called them, and did for them, and loved them. And He loved the unlovable, and
it upset all the religious people. And look at that truth that He
manifested. This grace is not going to be
given to you at the expense of truth. This grace wasn't given
to Abraham at the expense of truth. Christ, beloved, stood
as a lamp flame from the foundation of the world that God could righteously,
grace reigned through righteousness, could righteously give us grace
and lay aside His justice and lay aside His law. Oh, bless His name. The Lord
Jesus. I say grace and truth came through
Him and God's grace only in Him. The Lord Jesus, the only mediator.
And all grace flows through and by him. Look over here in Romans
5. Just a minute. Romans 5. Oh, thank God for the grace of
God in Christ. Look in Romans 5.15. But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. Now what does he mean, not as
the offense? Well, the offense means the wages of sin is death. You get paid. You get what's
coming to you. Death came upon all men because
all men sinned. But the free gift is not like
the offense. It's free. It's a gift. We don't earn it.
We earn the wages of sin. Death came upon all of us because
we all sinned. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abound unto many. Look down at verse 17. For if
by one man's offense death reigned by that one sin, that one offense,
Of only one offense, much more they which receive abundance
of grace. There's only one sin that destroys
us. Much more they which receive
abundance of grace. And the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by Jesus Christ. Oh, my. Oh, by grace. Thank God for grace. And I tell you, the grace of
God not only came and manifested through the Lord Jesus Christ,
but the grace of God is proclaimed in the gospel. In the gospel,
you remember when Paul was getting ready to leave the Ephesians.
And they kept telling him, you know, I'm going up to Jerusalem.
I want to be up there at the Passover. I want to be up there
at the feast. And they kept telling Paul, ain't nothing but danger
and trouble and heartache. And you know, they told him,
trouble's coming. He says, why in the world are
you troubling me? He said, it don't move me one
way or another, that I might finish my ministry, finish the
course God's given me, that he gave me to testify of the gospel
of the grace of God. That's what he gets, the gospel
he gave me. There ain't but one gospel, the gospel of grace.
And you know what the gospel declares? All have sinned. All have sinned. When that baby
comes forth from his mother's womb, he's born a sinner. He
was a sinner in his mama's womb. And it'll live a sinner, it'll
die a sinner if God in grace don't do something for him. The
gospel declares all have sinned. The gospel declares all are lost.
Everybody says, well, you're going to be lost one of these
days. No, no, no. You're born lost. Lost. So lost that you can't find your
way. People get lost, and they get
lost, and they end up getting so lost that nobody else can
find them, and they die while they're in that loss, looking
for a way out, looking to get out of the wilderness. And God
said, we're lost, and there's no way in the world to find our
way out of where we was. And the best man is no better
than the worst in God's sight. I mean, when God says, we've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God, that's what
he means. When he calls us all worms, that's what he says. But
man, in his best state, all together vanity, that means everybody.
None righteous, no not one. Why shall I cry? All flesh is
grass. What about man's glory? That's
a flower. The wind blows on it. Pow, it's
gone. Oh, the gospel proclaims this,
that unless we are saved by grace, we can't be saved at all. Unless
God saved us by grace, we can't be saved at all. We're going
to submit to grace, going to bleed grace, going to rejoice
in grace, going to bow to grace, going to say, that's the only
way in the world I can be saved is by grace. I sure ain't got
nothing I can contribute. I ain't got nothing that I can
do. I don't have nothing that I can say. I have nothing that
I can give. I have absolutely nothing that
I can bring to you, Lord. I can't contribute nothing to
nobody else to help them out. So I tell you, the gospel proclaims
unless we're saved by grace, we can't be saved at all. And
the gospel proclaims that grace is in Christ, who is God's unspeakable
gift. And I tell you, a perfect illustration
of it is those two thieves on the cross. It's a perfect illustration. Declare plainly that God's grace
is sovereign, that it's free. And it's through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Two thieves! One died cussing Christ. One
died chiding Him for His injustice. This is a just man. And you cussing
Him? He's here for no reason of His
own. We're here justly. And Lord,
remember me. When you come to your kingdom,
not only are you the Lord, but you're the king. And you've got
a kingdom. And when you come into your kingdom,
will you remember me? And the Lord says, Today thou
shalt be in the kingdom. Now here's a man who never done
anything in his whole life. He was up there for murder and
insurrection. He was a common criminal. No
telling how many times he'd been in and out of jail. Here's one
of them fellas, when we pick up the newspaper, said, we're
never going to do anything with him. Well, they'd done something
with him that day. But the Lord Jesus Christ says,
you're mine today. You're mine from all eternity,
and I'm taking you with me to paradise. What about that other
fellow over there? He died just like he lived, a
cousin. Oh, beloved, and I tell you,
it's suicide to reject God's grace and argue against His partiality. And whatever you do, and tell
anybody this, don't you argue for justice. Don't do that. And
don't argue with God about whether it's fair or not. Don't do that. Don't argue with whether it's
fair or not. Let me give this in closing. The Holy Spirit communicates
this grace. He brings this grace. Zechariah
12.10 talks about the spirit of grace and supplication. The
Holy Ghost God the Father is the fountain of all the grace
of God. He purposed in himself the everlasting
covenant of grace and redemption. And this is the way I kind of
see it now. You know, you take it the way
you want to. But God's grace is like this infinite ocean.
Infinite ocean, full of grace. As far as eternity can see. And here's the sign. He comes.
And that grace of God, that ocean of grace, that eternity of grace,
that infinite grace, that matchless grace, that sovereign grace,
that free grace, that distinguishing grace, it comes down through
the Lord Jesus Christ just like a conduit, like a channel. And
when He come and He died, And we come and proclaim the
gospel, and the gospel publishes His grace of God. And then the
Holy Spirit comes, and that grace that's in that great fountain
that comes through Christ the channel, that we proclaim in
the gospel, the Holy Ghost comes and gives it to you. It just overwhelms you when
He comes. Oh, your heart just don't get
over it. He makes the gospel effectual.
He gives it its saving power. He conquers the wheel. He melts
the hard hearts. He opens the blinds eye. He cleanses
from sin. And grace is that provision of
God that He gave for a man who was so fallen that he could not
get up by himself. A man whose nature was so depraved
that he could not change it. Men so dead they could not give
themselves life, so blind that they could not see anything but
themselves. And God in grace made a provision
to give. Pick them up, set them on a rock,
give them a new nature, make them partakers of His divine
nature, give them life, Gives them sight, gives them a hearing
ear, and puts a new song in their heart. Even praise unto our God. Not on us, O Lord, not on us,
but unto thy name be glory. Amen. Amen. God does it all. And of ye are
in Christ Jesus, who God made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Everything we have in here. Our Father, our gracious, gracious
God, in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.