This is going to be the last look at Galatians. Lord willing, I'm going to start going through 1 Peter next week. But this will be the last message from the book of Galatians. Galatians 6, verse 18. And remember, these farewells are inspired by God the Holy Spirit. This is not just filler. You can say this about any scripture. This is the most important verse in the Bible. But you can say that about every single scripture. That's one of the glorious things about scripture.

Verse 18, brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Be with your spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we ask indeed by thy son's name that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ would be with our spirit Bless the preaching of your word this day for your glory. Enable us to believe on your son. Forgive us of our many sins for Christ's sake. We're so thankful for him. Be with all your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

Galatians is unique in the way it begins and the way it ends. Look in verse six of chapter one. I marvel. I'm utterly amazed that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ and to another gospel. I'm amazed by that, Paul says. Now look in chapter six. There's no ending like this in any of the other epistles.

He almost sounds irritated. Verse 17, from henceforth, let no man trouble me. They'd given him a lot of grief, a lot of trouble. He says, from henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus, the scars he had received from preaching the gospel. Now there's kind of a tenseness about it, yet he ends with these glorious words, brethren. He addresses them as brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Now that's my prayer for me. That's my prayer for you, that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ might be with my spirit and your spirit. His name, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't you love his name? He's the Lord. He's your Lord, whether you know it or not. He's everybody's Lord. He's the Lord of the dead and the living. But how especially He is the Lord to His people. My Lord, my God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I love His name, Jesus. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. What preciousness is in His name? Because that's what I need. I need to be saved from my sins. Christ.

God's prophet. God's priest. God's king. The Lord Jesus Christ and he speaks of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the prophet of grace. He's the priest of grace. He's the king of grace. And the word 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." Don't you love that description of him? He's full of grace, full of truth.

Paul said to the church at Corinth, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I love the way he said, you know it. Every believer does. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor. Who knows or understands the poverty that Christ experienced when he was on the cross?

I'm going to be saying something about this in the service after this, but He actually said in Psalm 22 six, I've become a worm and not a man. The son of God said that. And that is, I've become a maggot. That's what he said about himself. That's how truly he bore my sins. I've become a worm and not even fit to be called a man.

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he were rich, yet for your sakes, he became a worm, poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the grace of God. Christ is the favor of God. Now, I'm sure you've heard the standard definition of grace as unmerited favor, and I believe that to be a good definition. Indeed, it's unmerited favor. It's the favor of God to me. It's the favor of God to you and the reason he gives it to me is not found in me. Here's what unmerited favor means. It means I can't merit it, nor can I demerit it. Isn't that great? I can't merit it.

I cannot demerit it because the reason for God's favor is found wholly in himself. It's not found in me. It's not found in you. Romans 9, 11. If this isn't one of our favorite verses, it ought to be. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. Now, did you hear that? Neither having done any good. There's nothing good that I can do to recommend myself to God and I know that so but neither evil.

There's nothing I can do to prevent his grace. If he's going to have grace on me, I might have as much chance of preventing it as a little lit match has if you dump the Pacific Ocean on it. It can't be extinguished or it is extinguished completely. That's the way his grace works.

Genesis 6-5, God saw the wickedness of man what's great in the earth. You're familiar with the scripture. Every imagination, thoughts of his heart, only evil continually. Verse 8 says, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now Noah was in that group whose Wickedness was great in the earth. Every imagination and the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Now, grace. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, have quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved." The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing I can do to earn it. There's nothing I can do to prevent it. Now, let me give you three things before I give the scriptural illustration of God's grace. Let me give you three things that are always true about the grace of God. I've said this many times before. First, His grace is sovereign grace. Now what's meant by that term? We hear it a lot.

Somebody says, well, the word sovereign is not in the Bible. I know it's not. And the word Trinity is not in the Bible either. Does that mean the Bible doesn't teach the Trinity? God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. Of course not. Although the word sovereign is not in the Bible, the concept of God's sovereignty is on every page. God's grace is sovereign grace, and here's a scripture I don't use that much to illustrate this, but would you turn to John chapter five? John chapter five, verse 21.

For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them. Now, picture this in your mind, dead. dead in sins, you can make no move toward God, where the Father raises them up and gives them life. What a work of grace! But look at the next phrase. For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so in the same manner the Son quickeneth. But what are the next three words?

Whom He will. Now the scripture makes an end. of issue of this, whom he will, is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. The leper understood this so clearly when he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now he understood this and so does everybody else that comes across. It's not up to me. It's up to him. can't come to Christ and believe in free will. It's impossible. You come to him as a sovereign. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. His grace is sovereign. His grace is always free.

It cannot be moved by an an act of me marrying it. It's free. It has nothing to do with me. It can't be prevented by some kind of act of mine. It's absolutely free. It's all of grace. Turn to Romans 11. This demonstrates the freedom of his grace. We don't have to pay anything for it. There's nothing you do that moves God to save you, he does it freely, freely, without a cause in you, without a cause in me, freely by his grace. I look in Romans 11, verse five.

Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, if elections by grace, if salvations by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. If you put any work in it, don't call it grace. But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. Now, this is good news to somebody who doesn't have anything to recommend them to God. It's not bad news, it's good news.

Thank God for the election of grace that's in Christ Jesus. It's his free grace. and his grace is always saving grace. It's always sovereign, it's always free, nothing you can give to pay for it or earn it, and it's always saving. You see, God's grace is not something he offers you. I'm gonna offer you my grace. Now, are you gonna take it or are you gonna say no thanks? Here it is. No, that's not the grace of God.

By grace, you are saved. believe that by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they," Peter said. In Acts chapter 20 verse 32 Paul called the scripture the word of his grace. Isn't that precious? The bible is called the word of his grace. Well Christ is the word of God, he is the grace of God.

The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And in this thing of saving grace, every aspect of our salvation is by grace. Now, obviously, election is of grace. It's called the election of grace. But what grace Christ manifested when he was made flesh in order to be my Savior. What grace was manifested when he willingly took my sins upon himself and put it away and redeemed My justification, my standing before God as being perfect, having never sinned, that's the grace of God.

Every aspect of my salvation is by grace. He called me by his grace. If I'm born again, it's an act of his grace. It's not something that he and I cooperated in. It's an act of his grace. If I'm preserved, he preserved me, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, would you turn to Luke chapter four? I think this is going to illustrate this. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. I hope everybody in here is hungering for this to be the case with regard to them. I want the grace, the favor of our Lord Jesus Christ to be with my spirit. Luke chapter four. Now this is the Lord's first public sermon. Verse 22.

And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? The word gracious is generally translated grace. It's the same word. They wondered at the grace words that proceeded out of his mouth.

Look back up in verse 14, now picture the setting, the Lord is returning to Nazareth, the place he grew up, his hometown. And you can imagine people heard about him performing miracles and all the glorious things he was doing. And he returns home after this, he has become famous and everybody's excited about the hometown boy coming home after he's done all these great things. Verse 14, And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he'd been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. I love to call Isaiah the gospel of Isaiah because the gospel is so clearly set forth in that glorious prophecy.

And when he opened the book, he found the place where it was written. I like that. He wrote it. He knew where it was. He found the place where it was written. And he quotes from Isaiah 61. And I can imagine how this must have sounded. I wish I could read the scriptures the way he did, but I have no doubt that he had this emphasis.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Somehow the way they read that, the way he read that, they knew exactly what he was saying. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of the sight of the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee.

And he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. They knew exactly what he meant. Now here we have the shortest message ever preached. He read the scripture, here's his message. And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. and all bear him witness and wondered at the grace words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? We know his mom, we know his dad, we know his brothers and sisters. He's a carpenter.

These grace words proceeding out of his mouth. Now, think about these grace words. The spirit of the Lord, is upon me. He's talking about God the Holy Spirit. He had the Spirit without measure so that every word he said was nothing less than the word of God. You and I have a measure of the Spirit. That's why you believe. That's why you've been born again. You have a measure of the Spirit. He had the Spirit without measure The spirit of the, remember when the dove descended upon him? That was the Holy Spirit descending in the form of the dove.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, the poverty stricken. That person who has nothing to recommend themselves to God, they have nothing. Nothing, no good works, no merit, nothing that would recommend them. That's who he preaches the gospel to, the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.

Now I imagine everybody in this room at some time has had their heart broken on some kind of girlfriend broke up, boyfriend broke up, heartbroken in marriage, marriage go heartbreak. That's very real but that's not what he's talking about. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately, that word desperately is incurably wicked. Now that's the heart he's talking about. Somebody that sees that their heart is nothing but deceit. You can't trust anything you even think. All you have is the word of God. Your thoughts are wrong. It's incurably wicked. It can't be made better. You need a new heart. Your heart's no good. I can't stand it when preachers say, won't you invite Jesus into your heart? No. That's not faith in Christ. Now you're called upon to believe the gospel, but this thing of, won't you ask Jesus into your heart?

Why would he want to go in there? Ask him for a new heart. That's what you need. That's what I need. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted by whose stripes we are healed. What heals the broken heart? only the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has sent me to preach deliverance to the captives.

Now what's a captive? Somebody in prison and the door cell is shut and they cannot get out. Well, if they just open the door, they can get out. Not if the door's locked, you can't get out. You are not, and I'm not convinced of sin until I see there's nothing I can do to make it better. Nothing. Captive. The idea of free will is ludicrous to somebody who knows something with their sinfulness. Ludicrous.

Well, he sent me to Preach deliverance, full deliverance by what I do to those people who are captive. Now, if you're somebody that's captive, you're giving ears to hear the gospel. You see that you were delivered when he said, it is finished. And it had nothing to do with anything you've done. He set you free. Those are grace words, aren't they? Those are not works words. Those are grace words. and recovering of sight to the blind. Yes, he gave sight to those who were physically blind, people who couldn't see, he gave them sight.

But what this is talking about is, yes, physically, but spiritually, you can't see why God would love you. You can't see a reason for his favor toward you. You can't see a reason for his grace toward you. He gives you sight as to why he can do it for Christ's sake. Because salvation is by grace. It's only that person who's blind to any hope of saving themselves that he gives sight to. To set at liberty, to set free them that are crushed. What a grace word that is. Crushed, bruised.

And then he ends, and I love this, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And what this is a reference to. is the year of Jubilee. Instruction is given with regarding this year in Leviticus chapter 25. Every 50 years, a silver trumpet would sound forth. I would like to know what that sounded like.

But when that silver trumpet sounded forth, If you had been sold into slavery because you couldn't pay your debts, you lost everything, and there you are, a slave. When that silver trumpet sounded, all of a sudden, you weren't a slave anymore. You were set free, no longer a slave. All the money you owed was canceled. You were debt free. What you lost was restored to you. It was all given back. And the land was given a year's rest to represent the rest you now have. No work, only rest. Now, can you imagine how you would feel if you were in prison and you heard that sound of that silver trumpet? Everything's changed. You're free.

Now, I think it's interesting that as glorious as this day was, there's not one example in the Old Testament where they ever kept it. And I know why. If somebody owed me money, I'd try to keep that silver trumpet from sounding. If I thought I was going to be the loser by it, well, I'm going to lose all this stuff. It's mine by right. And I'm losing it all. That guy really owes me money. Now it's all gone. I mean, I got his land fair and square. He couldn't pay his debt. He's supposed to be serving me. I don't like the year of Jubilee.

Now the people who had money, the people who were in power, they prevented this from taking place. And you can understand that. And I think it's so interesting that not one time in all the word of God was this command of God ever kept. The Lord says, this day is, this scripture, fulfilled. I am the year of jubilee. Now those are grace words, aren't they? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.