Will you turn back with me to
Acts chapter 11? We've had a few weeks away from
Acts and I want to turn back to Acts chapter 11 this morning
and look at the passage from verse 19 down to the end of the
passage in a particular focus on verse 26 where we read that
the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now, just taking
you back and reminding you of the situation there had been
great persecution arising around the time when Stephen was martyred. You know, Saul of Tarsus was
standing there consenting to his death. Not just, oh yes,
all right, if you must go and stone him. It was more a case
of vehement support of the fact that they were killing Stephen
for his faith. And great persecution followed
because remember that Saul of Tarsus before he was converted,
went about everywhere, binding, locking up, arranging for Christians
to be killed. There was great persecution.
And as a result, that church which was prospering in Jerusalem,
although many stayed there, the persecution, as so often happens
in the hand of God, scattered people abroad. And they went
to all sorts of different places, as we read in verse 19. They
traveled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch. It spread
out, because what was the Great Commission? Go into all the world
and preach the Gospel. And begin at home in Jerusalem,
and then Samaria, and then into the furthest parts of the earth.
And as they went, they preached the Gospel. Wherever they went,
they spoke the Gospel. They testified and witnessed
to the Gospel. It leaked out, as I've heard
Henry say in the past. It just leaked out. The message
of the Gospel of Grace leaked out and verse 21, look what it
says there, "...and the hand of the Lord was with them." They
went preaching the Lord Jesus and the hand of the Lord was
with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
The hand of the Lord was with them. This is exactly what he
promised, isn't it? Go into all the world and preach
the Gospel. Matthew 28 verse 20, the Great
Commission And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end
of the age." Are we still in that age of which he spoke? Yes,
we are. Is he with us? Yes, he is. Yes,
he is. Whatever we see, the tangible
things that are physical that we see, these are not really
reality. The things that are real and
solid are the things that are unseen. The things that are eternal,
these are the things that are unseen. So don't be discouraged
by the way things appear. The hand of the Lord is with
his people when they preach the Lord Jesus. And that's what we
seek to do. To preach the Lord Jesus and
everything that is in that name. Everything that is in that phrase.
Preaching the Lord Jesus. Preaching the sinner's substitute.
And there was fruit. A great number believed. And
who knows, maybe we'll see a great number believe in our lifetimes.
But maybe not. But nevertheless, the hand of
the Lord was with them. And what did this great number
believe? What was it that they believed?
They didn't just sign a decision card. They didn't just convert
because the Roman Emperor converted or something like that. It wasn't
that the country became a so-called Christian country. No. They believed
the Gospel. They believed the truth that
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. They believed that the Lord Jesus
Christ, God in human flesh, had come to save a multitude of sinners
from their sins, to stand in the place of those sinners, to
establish righteousness on behalf of those sinners, to pay the
sin debt for those sinners, to bear their sins in His body,
and in so doing to establish righteousness, to establish justice,
to establish eternal salvation for that people, particularly,
that particular people whom He had given, whom the Father had
given to the Son from before the beginning of time. And they
were brought to believe in the grace of God that they were counted
amongst that number. Because they heard that voice,
as it were, come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.
And they found rest in Him. They found rest in Him, they
found comfort in Him, they found salvation in Him. They knew that
they were coming because the Father had drawn them, but they
also knew that whoever came, whoever came in sincerity seeking
the truth, seeking acceptance, seeking salvation in Christ,
He will in no wise cast out any of them, all who come. And so
news of this situation got to the church in Jerusalem in verse
22. The tidings of these things came
to the church in Jerusalem. And so they sent some encouragement
because in Jerusalem, that's where the apostles were. That's
where the apostles' doctrine was. What did the disciples do
in the early church? They continued in breaking of
bread and fellowship and the apostles' doctrine. And so they
sent a representative. not an apostle himself Barnabas
but nevertheless his name was a son of comfort and so they
sent him to these people at Antioch they sent him to comfort them
to teach them to see what the situation was to help them now
I've got two points this morning where they were and what they
were called where they were and what they were called they were
in Antioch now Antioch is right in the east of the Mediterranean. I think it's probably as far
as you can go east in the Mediterranean. Imagine a map of the Mediterranean
Sea and go beyond Cyprus, which is pretty far east, right to
that coast which runs up from Egypt in the south, past Gaza,
Israel, Lebanon, Syria, up and then it turns the corner and
it becomes Turkey. Well, just where it turns the corner in
the northeast above Cyprus, that's where Antioch was, the city of
Antioch in the northeast Mediterranean. And it was a city whose name
was derived from a vicious persecutor of the people of God. His name
was Antiochus Epiphanes. He was one of a line of kings
with, of rulers with that name, coming out of the Greek Empire,
the Alexandrian Empire. And this one, I think he was
the third, maybe he was the fourth, I'm not too sure, but it doesn't
really matter. He's the one who stands out from the line as being
the most vicious, malicious persecutor of the people of God. And he
took to himself a name. You know what you read in Revelation
about those who blaspheme and stand in authority and they take
even the name of God and say, I am a God. Do you remember what
Herod did? Herod was being regarded by the
people in the days of John the Baptist as being a mighty ruler
and he said, he basically proclaimed himself as a God. He proclaimed
himself as a God and you know, God struck him dead there and
then. The worm ate him from the inside. Just right there and
then. Well this man, Antiochus Epiphanes,
his name means Manifest God. Can you think the blasphemy he
took upon himself to call himself the Manifest God? He was born
in 215 BC, 215 years before Christ was born. And his reign was one
of great persecution of the Jews and of Judaism. Now remember,
the Jews had the oracles of God. Judaism and the temple worship
that it involved was basically the gospel in type and symbol
and shadow and all those sacrifices all spoke of Christ. And that
was the gospel on earth. and through that was pictured
everything that God intended to do in saving a people for
his own glory through the merits and the intercession of his Christ,
of his anointed one, who was pictured in all those, it's not
just the sacrifices, but the altar, and the temple, and the
showbread, and the table, and the veil of the temple, and the
high place, and the mercy seat, and the Ark of the Covenant,
all of those things, all speaking of him. But this man Antiochus
Epiphanes banned that worship. He killed thousands and thousands
of Jews. There was a rebellion by Maccabees. You read about it in those books
that some attribute as scripture but they're not actually. It's
between Malachi and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in that
400 year period. And the Maccabees rebelled against
him and there was a huge slaughter. It was absolutely dreadful. but
it was all exactly as prophesied by Daniel the prophet in Daniel
chapter 9 I think it is or maybe it's chapter 8 verse 9 one way
or the other and it was prophesied that this man would come and
what he would do and everything happened exactly as Daniel prophesied
it and the length of time for which he did it which was about
seven years is prophesied there in the book of Daniel and he
died In 164 BC, he died. Suddenly, when they thought it
couldn't possibly get any worse, when they thought he couldn't
possibly, they couldn't stand this persecution to go on for
any longer, at that time, God took him out of the way. Just
at that right time. This is where they were in Antioch,
named after Antiochus Epiphanes, this violent, malicious persecutor
of the people of God. Antioch was a place that was
like where the Pergamos church dwelt in Revelation chapter 2
and verse 13. Jesus says, the risen Christ
says to the church at Pergamos, I know where you live, where
Satan's seat is. You, the church, my church, are
living where Satan's seat is. And this is God's purpose. You
know what Christ prayed? The Lord Jesus prayed in that
prayer before He went to the cross in chapter 17 of John and
the 15th verse, He said, I pray not to His Father, I pray not
that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but keep them
from the evil one. He leaves his church in the world
but prays that by the Spirit they would be kept from the evil
one. And we learn something from this.
Monastic opting out is not how God intends his people to live
in the world. Definitely not. You know, this
idea that we can create, if we have the laws of our land all
properly aligned with the Word of God, then we'll have a religious
utopia. How many people do you know?
How many? I'm sure many of them are believers,
but they sincerely believe that by the reformation of society
and its laws, we can end up with a religious utopia on Earth.
I know that persecution often leads to scattering, as it did
here. Persecution led the Pilgrim Fathers to go off and form the
colonies in the United States, what is now the United States.
then they were just colonies. And they left this country because
they wanted to get away from persecution. And they wanted
to go somewhere where they could establish. I'm sure many of them
felt they were going to establish a religious utopia. Where there
wouldn't be any of the immorality and any of the persecution against
the truth. And there would be liberty and
freedom and so on. But of course wherever human
beings are involved there's sin. And it always goes wrong. And
we mustn't expect anything else. We mustn't waste our time. devoting
our efforts to the reformation of society for its own sake.
Oh yes, we must be responsible citizens. We must pray for those
who rule over us. We must vote in elections. We
must be, as it says, the only thing that's necessary for evil
to prosper is for good men to stand by and do nothing. And
so, when the likes of Hitler arise, then people of the nation
come together and seek to oppose and do those things which are
right. But as Christians, we shouldn't
think that we can create a religious utopia in this world. God puts
his church in the world, in a wicked place, in a wilderness. Revelation 12 verse 6, he sends
his church into the wilderness. It's into a wilderness that is
a place prepared of God. God feeds his church in a wilderness,
prepared of God that they should feed her there. 1,260 days is what that verse
says, Revelation 12, 6. Three and a half years. A time,
times, and half a time. For a time that is absolutely
determined by God, known to God alone. We can't say it's a thousand
years, we can't say it's two thousand, we've no idea. but
it's a time which is fixed and determined by God and that's
where he puts his church and we read in verse 25 that in that
situation Barnabas went off to Tarsus which is just round the
corner in what we now call Turkey to seek for Saul and when he
had found him he brought him to Antioch and it came to pass
that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and
taught much people and that's where the disciples were called
Christians first in Antioch. Do you see the significance of
that? Barnabas went for Saul, found him and brought him back
to Antioch and together for a whole year they fed the people there,
the believers there, with manna from heaven, with the Word of
God, with the Gospel of Grace, with the Apostles' doctrine.
They preached the unsearchable riches that are in the Lord Jesus
Christ. They preached that Christ is
all. Have a look at the article I've put in the bulletin this
week. It's not mine, it's one of Don Faulkner's and if you
get his bulletins by email you'll have already seen it. But Christ
is all. Tremendous stuff. This is what
they preached. This is what they reveled in.
This is what they bathed their souls in. Christ is all. It was truly manna from heaven.
In that wilderness that was Antioch, the city of Antiochus Epiphanes,
the city that was Satan's seat, if ever a place was Satan's seat,
and there God fed his people with manna from heaven, with
that glorious, sweet manna from heaven, which is Christ is all.
In this evil man's capital city, the Church of Christ prospered.
What did Jesus say to Peter and the disciples? When he said,
you are the Christ, the son of the living God, Jesus said, upon
this rock I will build my church, meaning himself and the faith
that is in him. On this rock I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The gates of hell. There they were in the very gates
of hell in Antioch. And there was the church prospering. You know, the heathen rage. Psalm
2, we looked at it a few weeks ago. And imagine a vain thing
against the Lord and against his anointed, but the Lord shall
have them in derision. He shall have the last laugh.
The hand of the Lord was indeed with them. Verse 21. The hand
of the Lord was with them and a great number believed. A great
number turned to the Lord. We're at the start of a new year. We've got leaflets ready to distribute
in the coming weeks. is Nebworth and surrounding areas
in 2009 beyond the gospel? I don't believe so. What should
we do? Do what they did. Preach the
Lord Jesus and everything that that means. Preach the Lord Jesus
faithfully. Let that light shine before men.
Pray for the Lord's hand to be with us. His hand is with his
people. You know, this is praying in
accordance with his will. You know? Prayer is not. Prayer
is not. You know, so often, prayer is
to make all the traffic lights green. Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful
if all the traffic lights were green? Well, very often, God
makes the traffic lights very red, one after another. Get used
to it. That's life on this planet. That's
the way it is. That's not what true prayer is
about. It's praying in accordance with His will. And His will is
that He prospers His people. The hand of the Lord was with
them. Oh Lord, cause Your hand to be with us. as we take this
message of the Lord Jesus. Cause your hand to be with us.
And if the Lord's hand is with us, who can be against us? Who
can stand in the way of that? Oh, the stubbornness and the
deadness and the apathy of men and women's hearts in this place
in 2009. That's what can be against us. If God opens a door, if God opens
a heart, no man can shut it. The Lord opened Lydia's heart
on that bank of that river. The Lord opened her heart in
Philippi. As Paul preached that message,
he preached the Lord Jesus. And the Lord opened her heart.
And who could stop it? When He opens a door, no man
can shut it. So we pray to Him and we expect
Him to prosper His Word, whatever the place, however dead, however
religious, however spiritually unpromising. Antiochus Epiphanes. Remember, Antioch. There they
were where Satan's seat was. And then secondly, what were
they called? In verse 26, the disciples were
called Christians, first, in Antioch. That's where they were
called it, in Antioch, in this most unlikely place. You would
have thought if they'd be called Christians anywhere, first of
all, it would have been in Jerusalem, wouldn't it? Shouldn't that have
been the place? No, it was in Antioch they were first called
Christians. And you know, we tend to think,
we read If you read Dickens, which is excellent literature. I wouldn't say a word against
Dickens, he's excellent. It's the English language and
literature at its very best. But written in the 1800s, when,
to say he's always a good Christian man, you know, it was a label
of honour, it was a label of respect, it was a label of, it
was a good thing. It was a term of commendation. Always a good Christian man.
In Antioch, when they called them Christians, it wasn't a
term of commendation. It wasn't a warm, encouraging
term. It was a term of derision. It
was a term of contempt. These people were troublemakers.
Why were they troublemakers? They were disrupting society.
They were coming, disrupting society. They were running counter. You see, every politician wants
to create a society which is a utopia. They have funny ideas
in many, many cases, but they want to create a society which
they regard as heaven on earth. All men and women living in peace
with one another and no more wars and no more poverty and
all that sort of thing. It's all good stuff. And along
come these people who run counter to worldly ambitions of utopia. For they say that all of their
hope is in eternity. in Christ in eternity. They're
the people who were accused in Acts 17, a few chapters on, verse
6, of turning the world upside down. They came with their doctrine
and they turned the world upside down. What? Because they spoke
about doing good to one another? No! All these other people's
religions spoke about doing good to one another. Why did they
turn the world upside down? Because they preached what we
preach. What you see, when we go and proclaim it in the streets,
when we hand out leaflets, when people ask us questions, and
we say, God has saved a people. God has redeemed a specific people. God has redeemed a particular
people whom the Father gave to the Son from before the beginning
of time. That's who He's redeemed. Are
you one of them? Trust Him and believe. If He
shines light into your heart, you will not be able to resist
trusting and believing. And if you believe, you will
show that you are one of His elect whom Christ came to die
for. Now you go and proclaim that message. and you put it
alongside that message which is being proclaimed in pulpits
all around this area, those that claim to be evangelical, and
you'll find they don't like it. Oh, you shouldn't preach that.
Do you know, there's not very long ago where I think I preached
very clearly from John 17, on the sovereign grace of God.
It was right at the start, you know, where Jesus said about
doing the will of God, which is that everyone whom the Father
gave him should have eternal life. And at the end of that
message, I was rebuked by somebody quite surprising because there
was an Arminian preacher in the congregation and I should have
toned down my message for the sake of the Arminian preacher.
I tell you, This is why the message of Christ is contemptible. It
is. It's contemptible. Paul said
this in 1 Corinthians 4.13. He said this. We are the respectable
people who are really nice and everybody thinks that we're just
such nice people to be around. I'm not saying we should be nasty
people at all. But when they get to know your doctrine, we
are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring
of all things unto this day. That's what Paul said he was
called. The filth of the world. The off-scouring of all things
to this day. You know, you scour off that
dirty roasting tin and you try and wash it away and it clogs
up the sink and it's horrible. That's what he said. We're the
off-scouring of all things to this day. But what is in this
name, Christian? This is what I want to just focus
on for the last few minutes while we're together this morning.
What is in this name, Christian? Well, first of all, it's a new
name. It's a new name. Turn with me
to Isaiah 62 and verse 2. We read it right at the start.
Isaiah 62 and verse 2. Where we read this,
And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings
thy glory. And thou shalt be called by a
new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name see a new name
and then in Isaiah 65 and verse 15 and you shall leave your name
for a curse unto my chosen for the Lord God shall slay thee
and call his servants by another name you know when the believers
in Antioch were called Christians first there Oh yes, it was the
world around that was calling them Christ ones. Christ ones. Those who follow this Christ.
Christ ones. But yet it was the Lord that
did it. For it was a new name. It was their new name that He
had prophesied He would give them. They shall be called by
a new name. They shall be called Christ ones.
Those who follow this Christ. And what does it mean to be a
Christ one? It means to be an anointed one. That's what Christ means. The
word Christ, the name Christ means the anointed of God. The Christians are those who
say that they are anointed ones. They're anointed ones. You know,
people don't mind when you say, Oh, I have decided to follow
Jesus. Oh, that's nice for you. I hope
you have a good time. But you come along and you say,
I believe the Sovereign God from before the beginning of time
chose me unto salvation. in His Son and He sent His Son
to live for me and die for me that I might live and die in
Him and rise again, that I might have eternal life. And, oh, that's
not so nice, is it? They don't like that. They don't
want to hear that. But that's the truth because
that's the effectual redemption. There's a redemption being preached
all over the place that is not effectual. How can it be effectual
when it doesn't accomplish its purpose? How can it be effectual
when it doesn't finish the work? How can it be effectual when
it leaves the final decision up to the most unreliable characters
in the universe, human beings. How can it be reliable? How can
it be effectual? It is effectual because it is
God that has accomplished it. These Christians are Christ's
anointed ones. They're God's elect, taken out
of the world, sanctified, set apart from the world. What for?
For salvation. To be saved from the judgment
to come. Flee from the wrath that is to come. We read in Habakkuk
chapter 3, and verse 13 these words thou wentest forth this
is the prayer of Habakkuk and he says to God you went forth
for the salvation of your people even for salvation with your
anointed he went forth for salvation with his he sent Christ his anointed
to save his anointed people from their sins thou woundest the
head out of the house of the wicked In that process, he destroys. He fulfills Genesis 3.15. He
crushes Satan's head in that process. The people Christ came
to save. That's who these Christians are.
The children. The children. Behold I, says
Christ in prophecy. Behold I and the children whom
the Father has given me. His people. The ones he came
to save. He shall save his people from
their sins. Despised by the world. Despised
by worldly religion. Why despised? Because who do
they think they are? How can they possibly think that
they're so special that they're elect? Because Christ has shown
us. Christ has shown us in the gospel
of His grace that He came to save His people from their sins.
You see, it's not those who call themselves Christians. It's not
those who are born of the will of the flesh or of the will of
man. But it's those who are born of the will of God. These are
the anointed ones. These are the ones who were called
Christians first in Antioch. And what else can we say about
them? They're those whom Christ has qualified. Look at Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 12. Colossians chapter 1 and verse
12 giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be
partakers meet means fitting appropriate you know often hear
people talk about a wife or a spouse as an help meet one word no that's
not right it's an help meet a help fitting for him He gave Eve to
Adam as an help fitting for him, suitable for him. And this is,
He has made us meet, fitting. In other words, the way the New
King James puts it, He has qualified us. He has qualified us to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Why? Because what He's done, verse
13, He has delivered us from the power of darkness. He has
delivered his people from the power of darkness and has translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. What is that? You know when
you When you apply to become a British citizen, I don't know
if they still use the term, but it used to be you are naturalized.
You are naturalized. It's as if you were native-born
in the country. You are counted as if you're
a native-born citizen of the country. Naturalized. Translated
into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood. Because his people, these Christians
in Antioch, and all who are in the Lord Jesus Christ, have been
redeemed, have been bought with a price, have been purchased.
The redemption price has been paid. That which is necessary
to buy back the lost possession. He's paid that price. And how
did he pay it? With his blood. Not with silver
and gold, not with corruptible things, but with precious blood.
With the blood of his dear son. And in the blood is the life,
for he poured out his life unto death. on behalf of His people,
so that we might be forgiven all our sins, because in Him
doing that, in pouring out His blood, there is no sin which
stands to be accounted for in the judgment of God, for it's
all been paid for. They're qualified. These Christians
are qualified. And they're those who've been
effectually called, because as the Word was preached, they went
preaching Jesus, the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with
them, and many believed and turned to the Lord. Why did they? Because
they were effectually called. They were called in a way that
they couldn't resist. The Holy Spirit came and shone
his light into their hearts and as Psalm 110 verse 3 says, Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Those who by
nature are most unwilling What was your experience? I know what
mine was. An experience of great opposition and hatred of the
things of the Gospel. And I don't know how, but I can't
say whether it was all of a sudden or whether it was gradually,
but I didn't oppose it. And I was made willing in the
day of His power. And that which I'd hated and
objected to became right and true and how could it be any
other way? thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power because they heard the gospel and they
believed it look with me at 1 Thessalonians 1 Thessalonians where we've got
a lovely picture of how people come to a knowledge of the truth
the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians verse 8 of chapter 1 for from
you this is Paul speaking to the Thessalonians sounded out
the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but
also in every place. Your faith to Godward is spread
abroad, so that we need not to speak anything." It was obvious
that these were believers. "'For they themselves show of
us what manner of entering in we had unto you.'" The gospel
came. And it wasn't that it was the
power of worldly wisdom and words. It wasn't the eloquence of Paul.
It was the opening of the hearts of the people by the Holy Spirit
of God. what manner of entering in we had unto you and it's evidence
you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God
and to wait for his son from heaven called effectually these
people that are Christians first in Antioch they've got a new
name they're the anointed ones the elect ones of God they're
qualified by Christ they're called effectually and look at verse
23 they cleave you see when Barnabas came he saw the grace of God
and was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart
they would cleave unto the Lord that they would cleave to Christ
what is it to cleave to Christ well think about that other verse
where we have the word cleave for this cause shall a man it's
right there right at the start of Genesis For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife."
And Jesus quotes it again in Matthew's Gospel. Cleave unto
his wife. Be united with his wife. Be married
with his wife. And so it is with the Lord. Be
married to him. One flesh with him. Love. Love. Read the Song of Solomon and
see the love of the child of God for his or her Redeemer. Devotion. Commitment. Service. And we see it in 1 Thessalonians
1 and verse 3, just a few verses earlier. Their work of faith,
their labor of love, their patience of hope in Christ. And therefore,
having seen those things, Paul says in verse 4, knowing, brethren,
your election of God. He knew that they were the elect
of God. He knew that they were the anointed ones of God because
he saw their work of faith, their labor of love, their patience
of hope in Christ. They were cleaving to Christ.
And they gave evidence, verse 23. When Barnabas came, he didn't
just see people who said, oh, we've all become Christians and
carried on as they were. He saw the grace of God. He saw
that salvation, that change, that repentance that was granted
to them working out. He saw that they had evidence
of grace. And what is that evidence of
grace? They had a hope of glory. This is it. Those who are the
children of grace, those who are the objects of grace, have
a hope of glory. This is where their hope is.
Not in a worldly utopia, but in eternity. Oh, I've got a hope
in glory. And not only that, but they evidence
their faith by their works. As James said, it's not a question
of works versus faith, it's a question that true faith evidences itself
by works. And did you notice as we read
verses 27 to 30, It sounds that, as in all ages,
this was one of those periods where they were going through
great economic hardship in the days of Claudius Caesar. The
prophets came and said there would be great dearth throughout
all the world. There would be times of financial
hardship and this was one of them. The disciples in Antioch,
what did they do? Because the dearth, the economic
downturn was very severe in Judea. And what did they do? Every man,
according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren
which dwelt in Judea, which they did, and sent it to the elders
by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. Grace. This is what's in
that name, Christian. Not just those who decide they're
going to be called Christians, not those who just politically
happen to be born in a country that calls itself Christian,
but those who are the anointed ones. They bear that new name,
which is the name that the Lord has given us. Well, what about
us then, here where we are? We're certainly in the wilderness.
Are we those that are called Christians? I know we're few.
We've got a lot away this week, but I believe that Grace is evidenced
in our midst. And we can be confident of the
Lord's hand being with us as we go forward. It's the start
of a new year. So what should we do? Well, let's
follow Him. Let's obey Him. I'm not talking
about legalism. I'm talking about following Him.
Obeying Him. Cleave to Him. Be devoted to
Him. Pray to Him in accordance with
His will and His word. And expect great things for Him
in this new year. We'll sing the closing hymn now.