You may be seated. Please take your Bible and turn with me to Galatians 4, 8 through 20. Galatians 4, 8 through 20. I think I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but recently I was up close and personal with grandchildren who were sick with the stomach virus. There is little more, or there is little more revolting than what is expelled from a nauseous stomach. At one point, the sight, smell, and sound caused me to heave as well. So revolting is it that it is unthinkable that anyone or anything would go back to what it coughed up. But that is exactly the image that Peter puts before our attention in his epistle. And that is the image that he was using of those who turned back from the gospel. He writes, what the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns. to his own vomit. This image depicts exactly what Paul feared might be happening among the Galatians, who had professed to believe in Christ alone and depend upon Christ alone for right standing with God. So in our text this morning, he is pleading with them not to go back, not to turn back where they had come from. Let's stand and read the text together. We're going to read Galatians 8, 4, verses 8 through 20. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I'm afraid I may have labored over you in vain. Brothers, I entreat you Become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the Gospel to you at first. And though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out that you may make much of them. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose. And not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. Let's pray. Lord God, this is Your holy Word. It is a precious gift and treasure to us, Your people, that You have given us this deposit. It is a deposit that we need to study and show ourselves approved, rightly handling it, so that we believe and proclaim what it says and do so in accord with the way it says it and what it means by what it says, what You mean by what You say. It is imperative for us this morning, Lord, that we have the Holy Spirit to be our guide and teacher. And so we plead with you, deliver that Holy Spirit unto us in abundance and power, that he would open our eyes and our hearts both to see and comprehend the truth as well as Embrace it with love and gratitude such that we obey the truths that come forth to us. And love and appreciate our Lord Jesus for all that He has done. And you for your gracious mercy in giving us your Word. And O Holy Spirit, we pray, illumine our hearts and minds. For we pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. Well, it was three weeks ago that we publicly set apart our brother Joel Ebert to the gospel ministry, and I preached a message on the burden of gospel ministry. As we looked at Galatians 4, 17 to 19, part of this very passage, we considered Paul's longing for the Galatians as the deep desire that should be borne by every minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. focusing on the people of God, the people that God has entrusted to us, we labor earnestly to present every person complete in Christ Jesus. That is mature in Christ. We want to see Christ formed in them. I want to see Christ formed in you. Influenced by false teachers, the path that Christians were considering Can you hear me now? What's that? You can't. Can you hear me? Something's gone on with the sound. But anyway, as I was saying, and I'll just do my best to lift it up until hopefully this gets attention and gets fixed. Focusing on the people that God has entrusted to us, we who are gospel ministers labor earnestly to produce every person mature and complete in Christ Jesus. Now, what was going on in Galatia was that these false teachers had come in, and under the influence of these false teachers, the path that the Galatians were considering would lead them far astray from the goal of being like Christ. So, the false gospel that they were hearing would take them far away. In fact, it would take them back to the sort of condition they were in before they even believed in Christ. And so in these verses, Paul has three exhortations by which to haul the Galatians from going, he says, haul them back and urge them to not go back to where they're headed. Likewise, we need to be an influence upon one another to keep each other from going back to the enslavement. All right, so here, as we consider what Paul is saying to the Galatians, let's also consider our responsibility to one another, to be an influence that keeps each other from going back, back to a false gospel, back to an ungodly life, back, back. Because what we need to be doing, if Christ is to be formed in us, more and more is going forward. So there are three exhortations, I think, that arise out of what Paul is saying here. And these are the ones I want to impress upon you today. The ones that Paul was impressing upon the Galatians. And the first of these exhortations is this embrace freedom. He's exhorting the Galatians to embrace their freedom in Christ. This exhortation comes across in verses eight through 11. Now, when Paul came to Galatia, he was on a journey, a missionary journey to cities and towns in that region known as Galatia. And the people who lived there were mostly pagan Gentiles. But there were some Jews. There was a synagogue there. There were synagogues in the area. And there were also Gentiles who came alongside the Jews and worshiped with them, fearing God. But for the most part, as Paul came preaching the gospel, the Jews totally rejected the gospel. It was the Gentiles who responded favorably and were formed in the New Testament churches. And they had been worshipers of so-called gods in their past. But of course, there is no God but one. So they were demonically enslaved. They were involved in religious practices by which they hoped to receive some divine favor. But it was all for naught. Whatever their idea of salvation, it was a works-based system. And as Paul says to them, you did not know God. You were enslaved to those that by nature are not So what a contrast then when they came to know God through Paul's gospel preaching. They were introduced to the one true God. They were informed of Jesus Christ, the son of God, who, according to the flesh, descended from Israel's King David. The apostle preached that this Jesus is the Savior. The Jews rejected him and Pilate executed him, though we found no guilt in him worthy of death. He was taken down from the cross, down from the tree of execution, and laid in a tomb. But God raised him to life. This was the message Paul preached, and Paul's message was that forgiveness of sins was provided through Jesus for those who would believe. One of the lines of his preaching is found in Acts 1339, where Luke quotes Paul. Preaching was saying, by Christ, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Through faith, these individuals came to know God. Or rather, says Paul, they came to be known by God. This is an accurate expression of what really happens in conversion. Yes, you come to know God, but not without first coming to be known by God. It's not that God becomes aware of you, but God loves you in a special way. An extraordinary way. The way of salvation. It is in contrast to the warning that Jesus gave at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. There it was that Jesus warned that it is not the people who claim to know God. but it is the people who are known by God. Those people are the ones who do the will of God. But this is the point of Paul. When you come to know God through faith in Christ Jesus, you are free from enslavement. Whether the enslavement of worshiping false gods or the enslavement of trying to keep the law of God or the supposed law of some imagined God, to come to know God or rather to be known by God in Jesus Christ is to be set free from the slavery into which you were born. If anyone has been set free from slavery, They could know what it meant for them in their life to be a slave. And they were set free. Could you imagine them going back and saying, oh, I like slavery so much. Please put me back in change. Please tyrannize my life. Please dominate my life. Can you imagine that? Of course not. One would be out of his mind to desire to exchange freedom for enslavement. And so that's why Paul asks this pointed question here in the text. How can you turn back again then to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to become once more? They have reverted to a system based on the belief that a sinner could somehow satisfy God through his own efforts at keeping the law. For this reason, Paul expresses out loud his labor over the Galatians seems to possibly have now been in vain, a waste. So in effect, Paul is saying to the Galatians, see this situation? Embrace freedom. In Christ, we are free from the law. We're free from its penalty. We are free from its tyranny. We are free from it. This matter is a real issue. Even today, there are people who want to get enslaved. Or at least even, you know, inch in that direction, there are those who seem to look, there are those who Christians who want to go back to observing Passover and such. They seem to look down on those Christians who won't join in with them. Now, we should certainly be able to learn from those Old Testament observances. And from the Old Testament law, there's much to be learned from it. That's where we are on Wednesday night, looking at the sacrifices. They teach us something, but we don't need to go back and offer them, right? And we don't need to get back into the law Because doing it is exactly what Christ died to free us from. Because all that trying to do it can show us is how enslaved that we are. But there are those who want to inch in this direction. But any idea that it is super spiritual to celebrate and observe these Old Testament ceremonies moves toward the embrace of enslavement once again. and to require it for a right relationship with God, as the Judaizers were doing, in effect kicks Christ out of the equation and removes its adherence from any gospel hope. And the resulting gospel is no gospel at all. So as far as for those who have come to be known by God, who have tasted freedom, don't go back. Embrace freedom. Justification is by faith alone in the work of Christ alone. So that's the first exhortation that arises from Paul here as he's urging them not to go back. Embrace freedom. But here is exhortation number two. Embrace my example. Paul is telling the Galatians to be like him. Embrace his example. This exhortation is the centerpiece of the substance of the 12th verse there. Look at the way Paul addresses these Galatians. Brothers, Paul pleads. Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. Now this exhortation is in the form of a command. Brothers, Become as I am. There's a command there. That's the first command in the book of Galatians. That's the first such form. And notice then how it comes. Here's a command that he's given these people about whom he's perplexed and concerned. He gives them a command, but he does it in a way that's kind and gentle. Brothers, there's warmth here. There's camaraderie. Be like me, for I am like you, brothers. But what Paul is highlighting here is the fact that when Paul came to them preaching, he came as a free person. He was free from the law. He was free from its condemnation. He was free. And so to go to his letter to the Philippians, we can recall Paul's manner of life before he came to be known by God. If anyone ever thought that he had reason for confidence in the flesh, it was Paul. He was circumcised on the eighth day as to the law. He was a Pharisee as to righteousness under the law. He was blameless. Nevertheless, he would say now that he was in bondage then. He was enslaved. His law keeping was no better than filthy rags. His righteousness could not be compared to that of Christ Jesus. So what did he do? He threw it all away. He counted it as garbage and rubbish. for a righteousness not of his own from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ." Now, this is the true righteousness. And to embrace this righteousness is to embrace freedom, freedom from the law. And that was Paul's example. When he came to the Galatians, he came as one who in one sense was like the Galatians, as they were then, as they were not under the Mosaic law, neither was he. He had renounced the righteousness of the law. He had renounced law keeping. And now here they are on the verge of going into law keeping, though they've heard about Christ. And he is saying, now be like me. I'm free because I'm like you were when you were free, not free. Obviously, they were still enslaved to their sin and so forth. But that's what he seems to be saying when he says, be like me, because I'm like you. Be like me. Be free from the law. An important application then from this particular point is the winsomeness with which Paul exhorts his audience. He is perplexed. We think about how he's addressed these relations. He is perplexed about them. He wonders who has bewitched them. But still, what does he call them? Brothers. And this gospel that they're going off in the direction of, is no gospel at all. And if anybody comes preaching this, what does he say in chapter one? Let him be anathema. Let him be eternally condemned. And yet, what does he still call these Galatians when he writes to them? he still calls them brothers. And he has not given up on them, even though there is significant calls for concern, so much so that he writes a letter, and so much so that he writes a letter with the tone that comes across here. Now let me illustrate a little bit by referencing a recent explosion within the conservative evangelical world, even been talked about by a lot of us in different settings over the past few days. But shockwaves have been felt because of some statements recently made by Alistair Begg, a beloved brother from whom most of us have profited greatly. I know I have. And these comments that he made were made in an interview that was conducted back in the fall. But for some reason, folks are just now becoming aware of them. And these comments arose as a word of advice that Begg gave to a grandmother whose grandchild was to enter into a marriage that he called a transgender marriage. I'm not exactly sure what he means by that. My mind can go in several different directions, but that was the word that was used. And Alistair Begg's advice to this grandmother, whose grandchild was to enter in such a marriage, was that he advised that she go to the wedding and buy the couple a gift. so as not to give the impression of judgmentalism, so as to somehow hopefully preserve a relationship into which she could speak Christ. Now, those of you who've been around this place for a while know that we as a church had to face this very issue several years back. So I hope you know that I am extremely saddened and disappointed by this advice. It is bad advice. It is unbiblical advice. And Begg contradicted himself even in his own answer. Because he asked the grandmother, did her grandchild know of her faith in Christ? Yes. And did the grandchild know that she could not countenance such an arrangement? Yes. And then he encouraged her to countenance the arrangement. In his own answer, he is telling her to do what he told her she should make sure that her grandchild knows. So this is confusing. distressing, alarming, concerning, and saddening. I could speak of Alistair in this sense, saying, yes, you should go to the ceremony. Yes, you should buy a gift. I'm perplexed at Alistair. I could say with Paul's words here, I'm perplexed at you. I'm wondering who has bewitched him, like Paul said to the Galatians. I'm not yet ready to renounce Alistair Begg altogether. There's been a number of vocal brothers in the social media world who have issued public calls for Alistair Begg to reconsider and to recant. To my knowledge, he's not done that. But I'm hopeful that he will. And what should I do about this? He's a brother about whom I am concerned. but a brother for whom I will pray for clarity and humility and repentance. And yet I should demonstrate that same humility. I know I probably said some bad things. No, I don't want to say, oh yeah, it's okay if you do that. But I know that we all have the propensity to be able to say things that we later rethink, reconsider, and correct. And that's what I pray would be the case in this situation. And I would encourage each of you to join with me in those prayers, lifting him up for godly humility and a willingness to be open and for the Spirit of God to clarify in his thinking this application. I'm not saying that his motives were all wrong. I think that his drive was to, you know, his concern was that there still be open avenues of communication and so that this grandchild would not see his grandmother as being hyper-judgmental and arrogantly so and self-righteously so. But we should all be gentle and kind-hearted when it comes to confrontation. We all need to be testing of our own motives and methods and manners as we consider the wrongs we each have done. We should not approach the front door of a sinning neighbor with a sledgehammer raised above our heads ready to swing. That's more like Jesus will do when He returns and there's a time for that. In Revelation 19, Jesus is depicted on a white horse judging and waging war. His eyes are a flame of fire. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to smite the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. We're not quite there yet. And we should be careful about rendering final judgment before the time. We should consider lovingly and with a measure of forbearance our struggling brothers and our sisters. We must not compromise. We must not compromise. But we must not be belligerent either. As Paul so eloquently said to the Ephesians, rather, speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds up itself in love." Another thing that Paul does here in this verse is he reminds us that we should be able to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ to be like us. Have you ever wondered, could I say, be like me to some other who is struggling? We all have blind spots. And so it's not to say that any of us is perfect or that we recommend that others should be just like us in every way. However, if we belong to Christ, then there should be some changes going on in us. And in some cases, we should be able to encourage others, other brothers and sisters, by pointing to what Christ has done and what He is accomplishing in us. And we should all be a godly influence on each other. We should all be able to point to others in some aspects of our lives in which we can all with humility say, be like me. I mean, God has done this by His grace. See what I'm doing? God is doing it. Here you go. Follow this example. Hopefully, it's an encouragement to you. Hopefully, it's a help to you. So one question for our consideration this morning under this second point is is your life exerting an influence for godliness in the lives of others? You have to come into contact with others to have that kind of influence. You have to love them and you have to love Jesus. But think that through in your own case. And then that brings us to exhortation number three. So Paul says to the Galatians, embrace freedom. Embrace my example. And now lastly, basically, I think what he's saying is embrace me. Love me like I love you. This exhortation comes across indirectly through Paul's reminder to the Galatians of how they received him at the first, when he got there to Galatia, and how it seems that the tables have now turned. He asks them, what has become of the blessing that they felt when Paul first came? Has he now become their enemy? All of this content is in effect an appeal that they should turn back to Paul and embrace him once again with the joy and selflessness and enthusiasm with which they embraced him when he came first to Galatia. And how was that first reception? Well, Paul says at that time, you did me no wrong. You can't complain about anything that they did when he first came. Paul had an undisclosed ailment, which was apparently off-putting. It was apparently a trial to them for Paul to be in their midst with this ailment that he had. But that didn't stand in the way of their relationship. The Galatians were not put off, no. They did not scorn or despise him, but they received him as they would have an angel of God, or even Jesus Christ himself. In fact, They were willing to sacrifice their very selves for Paul's well-being. This seems to be the import of the fact that they would have gone to such lengths as to have even gouged out their own eyes and given them to Paul if that would have provided the help that he needed. That's how warmly Paul had been embraced when he first came to Galatia. But now, all that's changed. What became of the blessing they felt? What happened to the warm welcome and the joy that they knew of learning that God had provided eternal life for them, even as Gentiles? In Acts 13, Luke describes the exuberance of the Gentiles in Galatia who received the word of Paul that they were rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. They were beside themselves when Paul was preaching. And now Paul wonders what has become of the blessing you felt Now Paul feels as if he who was so fervently welcomed in the past has now become their opponent. Unlike these false teachers, he was not making much of them to curry their favor. He was making much of them because they truly were precious to him, and that seems to be what he means by saying making much of. It's me telling you how precious you are to me, how important you are to me, and that's what he was doing. Unlike these false teachers, it wasn't a means of trying to get their favor back. It was just Paul loving on them because that's what he did. All he wanted to do was to impart the truth to them. They're like his own children. And his overarching goal for them is that they would take on the character of Christ. And Paul still holds, even now while he's writing and while he's perplexed and while he's asking, who bewitched you? He is still holding these Galatians close to his heart. And his unspoken summons is that they would embrace him back. Would they just realize the error of their way and return to the way they received him at first? Now, here's two matters of significance I think that stand out, at least they stand out to me, in Paul's appeal for the Galatians to re-embrace him. One is love. Paul's argument for the Galatians to embrace him is based on the affection and warmth that they once had together. It speaks of the union of love with which believers in Christ are bound together. We don't merely believe the same things. come to the same place with a tunnel vision and heads down and come and sit down for a while, get up and walk out and try not to encounter anybody if we can. We're a body. And we are bound by love. We are bound by the love of Christ for us and the love for each other that should flow from us to others because of Christ's love for us. We are brothers and sisters. We are family with one another in Christ. The cords that bind Christians together are far stronger than the sharing of a common bloodline or a last name or a group of ancestors. The warmth with which the Galatians received Paul when he came is the warmth that should characterize us every day, day in and day out. We must be others-oriented for this to be true. It's our calling and it should be natural. So, do you love the brethren? Are you ready to gouge out your eyes for them, so to speak, if necessary? You will not quickly allow them to become your opponent if that is the case. We must see and embrace the beauty of what it means to love each other with the love that is from Christ. So what are you doing to serve the body? Because you love the body. What are you giving of yourself to benefit your brothers and sisters in the body? Don't keep to yourself. As you and I share the love, it multiplies. So there is love that comes out in Paul's interaction here as he's saying, embrace me. But then there's a second matter that stands out to me on this point. And that is truth. It's a staggering question that Paul puts to the Galatians. This one I think almost deserves to be underscored here. When Paul says, have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? Who are your friends and who are your enemies in truth? Your best friends are the people who will tell you the truth. You're the enemies are the ones who will pretend and keep from offending you or try to keep communication channels open by being fake and false and hiding the truth. We live in a world though, what does this world want today? Does it want truth or lies? They want lies. They don't care whether it's true or not. This world demands affirmation no matter what. If you do not affirm me and my choices, then you are a bigot in this world. You are my enemy. Use my pronouns or you are not showing me respect. Truth is irrelevant and hostile to the mindset of this age. All that is relevant is what I feel and what I declare. And that matters not whether it's true. It is a crazy and mixed up age, this age in which we live. One day, the truth is going to smack them in the face with a sledgehammer because it has resisted the truth for so long. Now I say not that we should smack the world in the face with a sledgehammer. But we must not withhold the truth. We must speak it. And we must speak the truth in love. To affirm the lies of this age is not loving. Neither is judgmentalism. But neither is withholding the truth. Give people the truth. And Jesus said that it is the truth. that will set you free. As long as people live in the lies, they are enslaved. They are in bondage. Love gives people the truth. Even if they don't like it, don't want it, don't believe it, we do not have to shove it down their throats. But we just need to keep dishing it out one truth at a time. Always the truth and always in love. If they choose to reject it, that's on them. But if we choose not to speak it, that's on us. And the Gospel truths are the ones that we are most clearly bound to share. Speaking the truth in love is worth the risk. So it's risky. If we speak the truth as Paul was doing to the Galatians, we risk that they might turn on us. We risk that communication channels might falter. We risk that the relationships we once had might turn from warmth and affection to opposition and enmity. However, it is worth the risk. What if God uses the truth we speak to turn wanderers back to the way? The greatest catastrophe is not that they reject our appeals. The greatest catastrophe is that they remain in their posture of rejection because we do not speak the truth to them in love. Sometimes the relationships we form within the body are painful. It is painful when one we've known as a brother or sister wanders or turns away. or outright rejects the truth. It hurts. It's sad. It's disappointing. You can certainly feel the hurt that Paul feels as he yearns over the Galatians. To love carries with it the willingness to be hurt. But true love is willing to hurt. Because if it is love, it is willing to sacrifice. And if it is love, it will be patient. Unwaveringly, love will hold forth the truth in the hope that the wanderer will repent and come home. So, how are you demonstrating a willingness to hurt, if necessary, in order to demonstrate your love for other followers of Christ? Are you persisting with those you love even when they hurt you? In Paul's example, here in this case, speaks again to the situation that Alistair Begg addressed. It shows us that we should offer vastly different counsel to that grandmother whose grandchild was entering an unbiblical union. No, ma'am, I would say to that grandmother. No, ma'am, you should not go to that ceremony Does your grandchild know that you are an unflinching follower of Christ? Do they realize that you cannot countenance such a thing? Then keep that grandchild aware of these things. Let it be known to that grandchild that you will not flinch from what is important to God and to your Savior. Explain to them that this is why you will not be attending the ceremony. This is why you will not be giving them a gift. You love them too much to rejoice with them in unrighteousness. Say to them, my love for you runs so deep and my love for Jesus even deeper. Therefore, for me to countenance this ceremony and this relationship would be for me to deny Christ. And it would be to help you along your journey to hell. It would be the most unloving thing I could do. If you are hungry, I will feed you. If you are thirsty, I will give you drink. If you are in need, come to my door. I will not turn you away. I will not stop loving you. I will not disown you as my grandchild. I will treat you with the kindness my heart longs to pour out. However, more than anything, I value your eternal soul. I long for you to be in heaven with Jesus. But as long as you were involved in this relationship, that won't be happening. Proverbs 27.6 says that faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. A grandmother would continue, if I came to your ceremony, it would be like the kisses of an enemy. I would be merely attempting not to fall out of favor with you. It would be hostility cloaked as a kiss. My decision not to attend your ceremony may wound you. I don't relish your being wounded, but I hope the wound brings you to the point that you see yourself as a sinner and that you repent. So I will not be attending this wedding. I love Jesus and I love you too much to do otherwise. Brothers and sisters, value those who will speak truth to you. It is a true friend who is willing to tell you the truth, even at great risk, and to take steps that manifest the genuineness of that truth. Do not allow those who speak truth into your life to become your enemies. How greatly blessed are you if you have true friends who will lovingly tell you the truth. Our love for Christ and for people in the world should lead us to boldly and kindly preach the truth of the gospel to them like Paul did when he first went to Galatia. And our love for Christ and for people in the church should lead us to keep speaking the truth with kindness and care to one another in love. let us resolve to risk whatever we must to truly love one another during the easy times as well as those times when we have to be calling out to each other not to go back to where they came from. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, We just want to stop as we are praying here at the end of this message. First of all, pray for one another. Is anyone in this congregation wandering? Wandering from the truth? Or wandering from their profession? Lord, we would pray for those who maybe in their own minds right now are saying, well, that's me. We may not know who they are, but Lord, You do. And we lift them up and pray that You would keep them back. Turn them back. And help us as we see any evidences of those who are wandering to reach for them with kindness and love. Lord, secondly, help us to be always speaking the truth, but with a loving motive and a loving manner. Not with a rod of iron, but with a heart open arms open, appealing and pleading and praying. And so even this morning, Lord, we are so blessed. Most of us have been blessed in one way or another by the teaching ministry of Alistair Begg. He's been faithful to the text. He hasn't wavered on many truths that have been fashionable to waver on these days. It seems here is a misapplication of various truths that were his intent to apply, but he's done so in a way that is contradictory to those truths. And so, Lord, we lift up our brother today, and we beg you by your Holy Spirit to bring clarity to him, to bring awareness, to bring better understanding where he has been able to help through that channel of so much understanding for so many. May at this point, Lord, You work so that also You will weave into all of this a humility that will lead him to be willing to respond to numerous calls that he would repent in turn. Lord, He is our brother and we lift Him up to You, Lord, and pray for Your powerful working in Him. But Lord, we can't do that and say, Lord, we ought to at the same time say, if it weren't for Your grace, there is exactly where we would be. And so at the same time, we plead with You concerning ourselves that You would keep us. In the way of righteousness and truth, help us to carefully apply Your Word and to do so in accordance with Your Word. We dare not so arrogantly assume that we could not go down the same road. So we pray, Lord, for Your keeping grace and the power of God to be manifest in the life of this pastor, the elders of GCC, the deacons, and the Lord, and the ladies, and the marriages, and the children, and everyone that makes up this body. Help us not walk around with our noses in the air because we are who we are by grace. Humbled hearts. Longing to be faithful. And diligent to obey the principles we've even uncovered in this text this morning. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for what you're going to do. Glory be to the name of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.