Galatians chapter 5, and let's
begin reading in verse 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again
with a yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is
a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. The title of my message
this morning there in verse 1, Christ hath made us free. Christ hath made us free. We looked last week for a few
minutes upon that passage of Scripture where the Lord Jesus
said, the Father has sent me to preach deliverance for the
captives. the prisoners. He sent me to
preach freedom for the prisoner, to those who are enslaved by
sin. And when I speak this morning
here in verse 1 of Christ making us free, it's the conscience
that He frees. It's a wonderful freedom to be
set free from the guilt of sin. If you're here this morning and
the Holy Spirit has made you feel your guilt of sin before
God, isn't it a wonderful freedom to be free from guilt? To stand
before the eternal God who sees all things, who knows all things,
and to have Him say, this man bears no guilt in my presence. That's the freedom the Apostle
Paul is speaking of. Not only free from the guilt
of sin, but free from the power of sin. Boy, we looked last week
at those gates that the Bible calls gates of brass that just
can't be broken. That's the power of sin, isn't
it? Those bars of iron that holds us. That's where we were. Sin
bound us. And to be free from the power
of sin, and to be free from the love of it. Remember when you
love darkness rather than light? When you love pleasures rather
than God? And to be free from the love
of sin? And not only free from the love
of sin, but free from Satan's dominion by how he holds his
subjects in his power. The power of darkness is a mighty
darkness. And to be free from the tyranny
and the oppression of the devil. Not to be a slave to him anymore.
That's what the Apostle is talking about. Free. Christ has made
you free. Free. And it's not a temporal
or a physical bondage that the Lord, the Holy Spirit is speaking
of here. My goodness, during this time
when the Apostle lived, there were many slaves who were Christians,
and they were bound by cruel owners. They weren't free physically. There were Christians, the Lord's
children, who lived under some despot, some cruel government. They weren't free from that.
There were men and women and boys and girls who were in Christ
who were afflicted in their bodies. and tormented by fevers and sicknesses. But here he's speaking of freedom
of conscience. Man, God has left us a conscience. And to be free from guilt, to
be free from the power of sin, the love of sin, free in our
conscience from the tyranny of Satan. Christ has made you free
in your conscience by His blood. His blood has purged your conscience. And you know there's nothing
else that can reach the guilty conscience but the blood of Christ.
What can wash away my sin? What can atone for our sins before
God? Nothing but the blood. And He
did that 2,000 years ago. But He does something for the
conscience. The blood reaches the conscience
and it purges sin from the conscience and frees the conscience. The
Apostle said, having an high priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. The blood of Christ reaches our
conscience. He's freed us from guilt. And He's freed us from the wrath
of God, hasn't He? He was writing to the Thessalonian
church and he said, You turn to God from idols to wait for
His Son from heaven, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath
to come. Don't you ever to this very day,
dear child of God, have some apprehensions in your conscience
of wrath? Don't sometimes you feel yourself
so unworthy and you see the holiness of God? And sometimes you have
this awful apprehension. Am I subject to the wrath of
God? You know you're not. God is not
angry with the believer. His wrath has been removed. Jesus,
by His own suffering and death, bore that wrath. And you're subject
to it no more. Christ hath made us free. The Bible says He has not appointed
us to wrath. but to abstain salvation which
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to this. This is a
wonderful freedom. He's freed us from the curse
of the law because He satisfied its demands. You know, as we
look around our friends and our family, people that we work with,
you know most of the people that you know are under the curse
of God's law. They're under that curse. Isn't
it wonderful to be delivered from the demands of that law?
Because they've been satisfied by another person, namely Jesus
Christ. In the days of His flesh, He
fulfilled everything that it demanded. And in His death, He
met the demands of a broken law. His death. He shed His blood. He says in this book in chapter
3, verse 13, that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us. Oh, He's freed us. Freed us from the oppression
of Satan and him that had the fear of death. It's always been
amazing to me that the Bible says that Satan had the power
of death. It doesn't mean that He had power
to kill or keep alive, if you study the context. He had power
to hold the thoughts of death over man. They lived their days
with a thought and oppression, I'm going to die. I'm facing
eternity. I'm going to be stung by the
sting of death. And the Bible says that Jesus
Christ taught to Himself our humanity, that through His death,
He would destroy him who had the power of death and deliver
them who all their lifetime was subject to bondage. Man, you
think of death, you think of dying, and we haven't all together
escaped the fear of that, have we? We think we have until we
get these chest pains, until we get shortness of breath, and
we think, boy, this may be it. Then you've got that fear arises,
haven't you? Bondage, bondage. You and I have
seen several people die. Well, we've watched several people
die. And unless they've got them doped up to where they feel nothing
and know nothing, I tell you, it can be a sad thing. You can
hear some awful confessions and crying out, men's conscience
fearful of death. Isn't it an amazing thing that
you can pillow your head tonight and rest in the face of death?
You are not under the bondage of it anymore. You shall never
die. All this old body will go back
to the ground. But the Lord Jesus says, He that
believeth in Me, though he were dead, he shall live. His body is going to live. But
He said, He that believeth and liveth in Me shall never die. Why? Because Jesus Christ Himself
has died in our stead. He has taken that death and its
sting And he came up from the grave and he looked back at death
and says, oh death, where's your sting? And that's what you can
say, dear child of God. You don't have to be afraid of
death. You can die in peace because it has no sting for you. You
can look, go out in the graveyard. Man, Evan was walking through
the graveyard yesterday. I often walk through the graveyard.
I love to walk through cemeteries. It's not a dread anymore. and
go to the place where they are going to dig your grave and stand
there at that plot and point down at it and say, O grave,
where is your victory? Death has been swallowed up,
hasn't it? Jesus has defeated the grave. There is nothing there anymore
but rest for the body because He has been there. And now the
Apostle Paul says, Stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ
has made you free. Oh, I tell you what, brothers
and sisters, these are no little enemies. These are no little
enemies. When you think of freedom from
sin, from its guilt, from its power, from its love, free from
Satan's tyranny and oppression, free from the curse of the law,
free from the wrath of God and death, those are mighty enemies,
aren't they? And he says here that Christ
has made us free from these things. Christ has made us free. It's not our natural birth that
makes us free. I don't care who a man is, if
he's a Jew or a Gentile. I don't care what name he may
have, what position he holds in this lifetime. When you and
I are born into this world, we're born servants of sin. We come
forth from the womb as slaves to sin and Satan, don't we? We're
sinners by nature. Not free-born by nature. You know what freezes in our
conscience? A new birth. A new birth is what
freezes us. He says here in Galatians chapter
4 and verse 29, look at this, in Galatians chapter 4 and verse
29, But as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuteth
him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is Now, our freedom. Our freedom was purchased for
us 2,000 years ago. But now we experience that freedom,
don't we? You must experience this freedom.
Don't think that, well, Christ purchased my freedom 2,000 years
ago, but I never experienced that. We must have an experience
in our conscience. And that experience comes at
the new birth. That's when He frees us in our
conscience. Because you are sons, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. We're sons of God by new birth. And that's where we're freed
from these enemies in our conscience. The Bible says, Beloved, now
are we the sons of God. We are the sons of God. What
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon you that you should
be called the sons of God? Here's what Martin Luther said
about this freedom, being born again, being sons of God. Here's
what he said about it. This is wonderful. He said, Who
is able to express what a thing it is when a man is assured in
his heart that God neither is nor will be angry with him anymore,
but will be forever a merciful and loving Father for the sake
of His Son, Jesus Christ. This is indeed a marvelous and
incomprehensible liberty to have the Most High and Sovereign Majesty
so favorable unto us that He does not only defend and maintain
and secure us in this life but also as touching our bodies will
so deliver us that these bodies which are sown in corruption
and dishonor and infirmity shall rise again incorruptible in glory
and power. This then is a liberty that can
never be estimated not only to be free from the wrath of God,
but to have Him as our everlasting Father. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, what a liberty! Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us. We're awfully concerned
today about our civil liberties, aren't we? And we should be. We should be. I don't want to
lose my liberty in this country, but I tell you there's another
liberty I don't want to lose, and that's this liberty in Christ.
Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. Randy
said this morning, boy, we can't free ourselves. These enemies
have us bound. We can't get loose from them. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. You shall know the truth and
the truth shall make you free. And when the Spirit of Christ
is sent forth into our hearts, this liberty becomes a reality
to us. Christ in us freezes. The Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and
death. We can't make ourselves free,
can we? We can't free ourselves. Nobody else can make us free.
No laws that even God has given can make us free. Only Jesus,
who is God our Savior, can free us. Stand fast in the liberty
were with Christ has made us free. And notice this next point. Stand
fast in the liberty. Stand fast. Don't this imply
something to us? Don't this imply to us that there
will be attempts of our enemy to rob us of this freedom? If
you don't stand fast in this liberty, you may lose it in your
conscience. You remember Peter in the second
chapter of this book? He lost it, didn't he? He lost
this liberty in his conscience. Paul said that he walked not
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. He fell into temptation
and lost the liberty of this gospel, the freedom of it. I
think my experience in my own self would prove to me that it
can be lost for a time. Have you ever lost it? Have you
ever lost it? Stand fast in this liberty. The Bible says a lot about standing
fast. Stand fast, He said, and watch. Stand fast in the faith. Be strong. Having done all to stand, stand
therefore. Now we live if you stand fast
in the Lord. Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounded in the work of the Lord. And here's what the Hebrew writer
says. seeing that we have a great high priest over the house of
God. Let us hold fast our profession. I tell you what, it's difficult,
boy, when you begin to see more and more the sin that works in
you, that works in your members, and you begin to understand more
and more of who the eternal God is. And in the time of trials
and temptations, sometimes it's difficult to stand fast and hold
this liberty. You know the only way to do it
is to keep your eyes on Christ. Live by faith upon Him is the
only way to do it. Stand fast in this liberty. How many ways is there that we
can be entangled and lose this liberty of conscience and lose
the happiness of our conscience? Old Fanny Crosby wrote that song,
redeemed and so happy in Jesus. By language no rapture can tell. I know that the light of His
presence with me doth continually dwell. But you know the only
way to remain happy in Jesus, to have this liberty, is to stand
fast. Is to stand fast. Now you know
what I'm talking about, don't you? You here that are in Christ,
you know what it means to lose that liberty. You know what it
is to have the guilt come pouring in, the apprehensions of not
having God as your Father, apprehensions of the guilt of sin. I tell you,
the only way to maintain this liberty is to keep your eyes
upon Jesus Christ. Live by faith upon Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. Look now in verse 2. Stand fast
in the liberty. Liberty of conscience wherewith
Christ has made you free. Don't be entangled. Don't let
anything entangle your conscience with the yoke of bondage. Behold,
I pause saying to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. If you be circumcised. Boy, what
is circumcision? That was hardly anything, was
it? That was a small thing to be circumcised. It didn't take
very long at all. It was something someone else
did for you. A very small thing to do. And yet Paul says here, if you
submit to circumcision, you do the least thing to justify yourself,
to save yourself. And he says here that Christ
shall profit you nothing. Man, isn't that awful? Somebody
was talking about what a narrow and dogmatic religion Islam is
and how it will cut your head off if you deviate from it. You know there is a more dogmatic
religion than Islam. There is a more narrow religion
than any religion this world has ever known, and that is the
Gospel. The Gospel is free to all that will hear it. The Gospel
is free to all that will believe it by the grace of God. But it
shuts out everybody that attempts to add anything to it. It's pure. And it comes to us in our purity
and saves the greatest of sinners. But it must save by itself. And
it won't save anybody who attempts to mix it with something else. The awful predicament these Galatians
found themselves in here was this. They tried to add something
to Christ. And boy, Paul gives Him three
things during these next three verses. And he begins here in
verse 2 and says, Behold. Behold. And he wants us to look
at this. He says, Give me your attention
for just a minute. I'm going to say something that's
going to shock people, he said. It's going to surprise the religious
world. And it's this. If one hour's
breath of your salvation depends upon your own merit and works
of righteousness which you have done, Christ shall profit you
nothing. That nothing there means this.
That's what it means. You go look it up and it means
zero. Christ shall profit you zero. Isn't that amazing? Look at the
blood of Christ that has cleansed so many sins away. But what Paul is saying here,
if you trust to one harsh breath in your works, that blood will
not wash a sin away from you. Grace has saved a multitude of
people. But if you're going to trust
in your own merit and works, grace will not save you. When
the Lord says to His people, Come ye blessed, all you're going
to see is a stern face. Whatever He gives you in this
world, in the way of temporal things, He will not give you
one iota of His saving grace. Nothing. Nothing. That's fearful,
isn't it? All these Galatians, I'm sure
they talked about Jesus all the time. I'm sure they talked about
being saved all the time. But Paul said, all the time you're
doing that, you're talking about you've been circumcised. And
you had to be circumcised. And you had to be baptized. And
you had to pay tithes. And you had to observe these
holy days. And he said, Christ shall profit you nothing. Don't
expect a thing from Him. Don't ask Him of anything. One
favor. He will not give you nothing. Nothing. Boy, I tell you what,
Christ won't be part of a Savior, will He? He won't be a part of
a Savior. He's going to be a whole Savior
or He'll be nothing. God is determined to give His
Son a great name. He's going to bring great glory
and honor to Him. And one of the ways that He does
that is by putting salvation in Him. And us coming to Him
and saying, Lord, You saved me. I bring nothing in my hands.
I am accepted in the Beloved, and we praise Him for that. And
those who cannot, and those who will not, do not expect anything
from Him. He is going to be a whole Savior,
or He is not going to be a Savior at all. If you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing. And look in verse 3, here's the
second thing he says. Look at this. This is a fearful
thing too. For I testify to every man that
is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. The whole law. There's many things that men
can do. We have the ability to do. These have the ability to
be circumcised. They could keep these feast days
and holy days and they could read. A man can do a lot of things,
can't he? A man can pray. A man can come
to public worship. A man can do all sorts of things.
But Paul said, here's the whole problem. When you're trusting
in those things which you can do and you have the ability to
do, this is what your whole problem is. You've obligated yourself
to do those things which you cannot do. And that's the problem,
isn't it? Men have their own criteria for
what they need to do to be accepted with God. Sometimes it's just
preferences, sometimes it's personal convictions, things that they
can do. But what they don't realize is,
if you're going to stand before God and say, Jesus, Christ is
not enough, His grace is not enough. His merit is not enough. I've got to add something with
it. Then here's what God's going to come back and say. Here's
what I demand of you. I demand you go to the book of
the law and everything that's written in that book, you have
to keep it perfectly. That's what He says in chapter
3 verse 10, isn't it? Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book. I've studied the Bible
for 40 something years and you know something? I still don't
know everything that's written in the book. But the Bible says if a man thinks
and he's presumptuous enough to believe that he can justify
himself, then he better go see what the Bible requires of him.
Everything that's written in the book And not only to do it,
but to continue in it. If you could begin this morning
at 20 minutes to 12, and begin right here and keep everything
that's written in the book from here on out, what about your
past life? What about when you didn't keep
it? What about from your birth up till now? Continue in holiness,
absolute perfection. What about an evil thought? You
know the Bible condemns evil thoughts, calls it sin. The thought
of foolishness is sin. What about a wicked motive? What
about doing something that people think you're doing it to please
God, but you're really doing it to please somebody else? What
about a hateful word? What about covetousness? Oh man! If a man is going to
be justified, even in the least, by his own works, then here's
what he's obligated himself to do. You've got to do it all.
You've got to do it all. If you can't believe in somebody
else who did it all for you, then you've got to do it all
yourself. And man, that's going to be an impossible task, isn't
it? If righteousness came by the
law, then Christ is dead And he says here in verse 4,
the third thing, look at this, Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, by works,
by human efforts, you are fallen from grace. This is another word
that is very akin to the one in verse 2, Christ is become
of no effect If you can justify yourself in part or in whole,
then it says Christ has become of no effect. Some read this
this way, Christ is abolished to you. Christ is vanished away
from you. Can you imagine if there's no
Christ? There's no Christ. He's vanished.
He's abolished. He's not even real. Can you imagine
if there was no Christ at all? There's no salvation. There's
no reconciliation if there's no Christ. We can't go to God. There's no mediator between us
and God. We can't be free from the guilt of sin. It's still
upon us. Nobody's bore it on our behalf.
Nobody's defeated Satan. Nobody's died and endured the
sting of death. Why? There's no Christ. And what Paul was saying to these
people, don't even talk about Jesus Christ. There is no such
person for you. You've vanished Him. You've justified
yourself. So there is no Christ. Isn't
that awful? Isn't that a horrible thought?
How would you feel this morning if there is no Christ? Boy, we're
absolutely hopeless, aren't we? We're helpless. Every one of
us is going to hell. It's just a matter of a few days,
and we're going to perish forever. There's no Christ. That's a horrible
thought to think about. But Paul said, that's what you're
doing. That's what you're doing. If you can justify yourself by
your own works and human merit, then you've vanquished Christ.
He is no more. Don't speak of Him. Don't speak
of Him. There is no such person. For I stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made you free. Here in verse 5, quickly. I'll be like Randy. I'll be begging
for some grace if I don't hurry here. In verse 5, look what he
says. For we through the Spirit, through
the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Paul turns this to a spiritual
kingdom. a spiritual life. These false
apostles and these false prophets that had come here among these
Galatians and led them away from the gospel, they were always
glorying in the flesh. That's all they looked to and
looked at was the flesh. He said here in verses 12 and
13 of chapter 6, look here at some of these scriptures with
me. Look in chapter 6 and look in verse 12 and 13. They were
always glorying in the flesh. He said in verse 12 of chapter
6, As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they
constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. Flesh. Oh, I've kept a holy day. I've rested on the Sabbath day.
I've fasted. I've paid tithes. Look at my
flesh. That's why they wore these clean
looking clothes and stood out. Flesh. Don't you hate the flesh? There's a dear lady there in
our town. She is such a dear lady. But she spent about three
weeks to a month now building a prayer room out on Main Street.
building a prayer room out on Main Street. I looked at it the
other day and the way she was working and sweating, and I thought,
dear lady, if you had spent as much time seeking the Lord as
you did building that prayer room, you'd be much better off.
But what is that? What is that prayer room? It's
flesh! Oh, I think I'll go up there
sometime and open the door and stand there and pray in the prayer
room. Everybody comes by. Oh, there's Holy Bruce. There
he is. Look there. Pastor Bruce in there
in the prayer room praying. What is that? Glory in the flesh. That's all they talked about.
And they even believed that they could seek and obtain perfection
in the flesh. They could be justified in their
flesh. Listen to what Paul writes to
them in 2nd chapter and verse 16. Knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His
sight. The flesh was born in sin, You
have to keep it under control or it lives in sin and it's going
to die and go back to corruption. It will not stand before God. It's impossible. Decorate it
up, make it smell good and keep it clean. It's stinking flesh
still. And these fellows were glory
in it. Paul writes to them in chapter 3, verse 3, he said,
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are
you now made perfect by The flesh? That's what we see all around
us, is it not? Fleshly religion. I think it's
very telling that in this little epistle of six chapters, 18 times
the word flesh is mentioned, and 18 times the word spirit
is mentioned. You have the flesh and you have
the spirit. You have those who seek to be
justified by the works of the flesh, And you have those who
live this spiritual life in Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul
is talking about here. I don't have time to read all
these Scriptures to you. But he says the Christian begins
his life in the Spirit. That's where we begin our life,
in the Spirit. Listen to chapter 3. This is only what I learned of you.
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit? Chapter 3 and verse 2 and 3.
Begun in the Spirit. When we receive, when we believe
in the Lord Jesus, we're born again, aren't we? We're born
again. And then, The Spirit comes into
our hearts in chapter 4 verse 6 and 7. Because you are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart crying,
Father, Father. And then chapter 5 verse 16 and
17, look at this while you are there in chapter 5. This is what
happens when we are born of the Spirit, when our new life in
Christ begins in the Spirit. The Spirit becomes the Spirit
of adoption to us. This is what happens then. Look
in chapter 5, verse 16. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit. You shall not fulfill the lust
of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other,
so that you cannot do the things that you would. That's when the warfare begins,
isn't it? Flesh and Spirit. And look in
verse 18. If you be led of the Spirit, then you are not under
the law. What does the Spirit lead us
to do? Well, in the light of this context, He leads us to
do this, to stand fast in Christ. Don't give over to this temptation
of the devil to be justified in any other way but Jesus Christ
alone, by His merit alone. Stand fast in Christ. live upon Jesus Christ by faith. The life that I now live, I live
by faith in the Son of God. I'm emphasizing this because
you're having difficulty doing it. I know that you're having
difficulty doing it. Because I'm having difficulty
doing it. Why? Because of this flesh. It's difficult
to live upon Jesus Christ every minute, every hour, every day.
And it's difficult because this flesh keeps warring against the
Spirit. And the Spirit keeps leading
you to Christ, does He not? He keeps bringing you right back
to Christ and His promises and His offices and His faithfulness. He keeps bringing you back to
Christ. And then chapter 5 verse 22, while He leads us and keeps
us steadfast in Christ, believing in Him, look here what else He
does. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love and joy and peace and longsuffering. and meekness and temperance and
all of those things. As He keeps us standing fast
in Christ, you just love more. The goodness of God in your heart
is expressed more. Your temper, that's the way to
grow, isn't it? If the Spirit leads you, He brings
fruit in you. And here in verse 25, He says
this, if we live in the Spirit, Let us also walk in the Spirit. If we have been born of the Spirit,
and He abides in our hearts, crying, Father, Father, and we
live in that Spirit, then let us walk in that Spirit. Live
under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Is He in your heart?
Then be very, very careful not to grieve Him. He leads you. He suggests things to you. He
brings the Word to you. He influences you. Don't grieve
the Holy Spirit. It's only through Him that you
can live and trust Jesus Christ, the Lord. And boy, here in verse 5, we
through the Spirit, we through the Spirit's help, we through
the Spirit's grace, we patiently and eagerly wait for the realization
and the fulfilling of our hope of being completely righteous.
We're righteous now. We're as accepted now as we'll
ever be. In Jesus Christ, we're perfectly
accepted. Perfectly accepted. But we're
still sinners, aren't we? We're still poor sinners. And
Paul said we wait, we patiently wait through the Spirit's help
until someday when our Lord comes again and changes these vile
bodies and fascism back unto His glorious body. You ain't
going to reach perfection in this flesh. And if you're not
careful trying it, you're going to get self-righteous. that you and I can do in this
flesh is just crucify Him. Keep Him under subjection, and
we can't even do that without the Spirit's grace, can we? Keep
Him beat down, keep Him in check, and by grace hope and wait for
that day when our body as well as our soul will be presented
holy and unblamable in Heaven. Christ has made us free. Now can you imagine leaving here
this morning without Christ? Can you imagine that? Wouldn't
that be awful? To leave here without the Son
of God? Oh, Father, gracious Father,
oh, we bless You for Your Word. Without it, we'd sure be in the
dark. We're ignorant enough as it is. Without Your Word, without
Your Spirit, We'd be in the dark. Oh, our
Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word. Thank You that
Christ is all and Christ is enough. Oh, keep this upon our hearts
and our imaginations, that He's enough, He's all. And to live
our lives every day, Lord Jesus, looking to You, resting in You,
loving You, trusting You, in all that we do, May it be spontaneous
because we're looking to you and we're trusting you. Thank
you for this, dear people, that's come here. I pray that they'll
forgive me for my stammering lips. I pray that, Lord, you'll
put in their hearts to be merciful. And I pray, Lord, that your Word
that's gone forth this morning has gone into hearts to strengthen
the hearts of your children, to stand fast in Christ in this
evil and adulterous generation. And those here this morning that's
lost, O blessed Spirit of God, would this be the day you'd be
pleased to open their understanding to know Him who is altogether
lovely and who is a full and free Savior. Thank you for this
Lord's Day. We pray for all your churches,
all your children in this world that's living today. Thank you,
Lord, for electing them. Thank You for redeeming them.
Thank You for calling them, for giving them a new heart and spirit.
And we know that You'll keep them through all their trials
and afflictions. You'll keep them. Help us now,
I pray, as we go our way to love one another and to be happy in
Jesus. We ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. Find 272 and stand with me and
let's sing this. 200 is...