All right, at this time, if you would, let's turn in our Bibles this morning to Galatians, chapter number 1, the letter of Galatians. And chapter number 1, as we last week opened up this book and had a brief introduction to the book of Galatians, and we looked specifically at the first two verses. And this morning before us, our task is verses 3 through 5. and they are absolutely loaded with gospel truth and I'm excited to preach it again. It was a blessing to do it once and just ask the Lord's help as we study this text once again this morning. So if you found Galatians chapter one and you would, let's stand together in honor of reading God's word. For context sake, we're going to read the first nine verses. I wonder how many of you read the whole book of Galatians this past week? Anybody do that? Got some hands? I was encouraged when I visited Doris on Thursday night. She said, you know what I did yesterday? I said, what did you do? She said, I read the whole book of Galatians. I said, well, praise the Lord. I'm glad that you did that. I said, and I'm really disappointed that you aren't going to be with us now for a little while to study Galatians, but the Lord bless her. I'm so thankful to hear that. Galatians chapter one, beginning to read in verse number one, the word of God says, Paul, an apostle, not from man nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. This is the word of God. Let's pray, Father. I pray that you would bless the hearing and the preaching of your word today, and God, that you would do a work in our hearts as we consider the grace that we receive in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that as your servant today, you would cleanse me of sin and empty me of self, Fill me with your spirit and help me to be a blessing to these your people. And Father, may you receive all the glory, the honor and the praise to your wonderful name. We love you. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen and amen. Thank you for standing. You may be seated. In spite of the fact that the Apostle Paul is determined to sharply rebuke the Galatian churches and thoroughly expound upon the doctrine of justification by faith alone, he nonetheless does so from a position of gospel love and grace. Paul and company's example of confronting error in the grace of God is a great demonstration of boldness and courage that is tempered by the realities of Christ's grace and His glory. Jesus came as recorded for us in John chapter number 1 and verse 14 full of grace and truth This is the way of Christ grace and truth This is the way of the Apostles grace and truth and this is the way of us as Christians grace and truth truth. The message we have received and believed is one of grace and of truth. The joining of grace and truth is personified in Christ Jesus himself. Jesus never compromised the slightest bit of truth. Jesus never affirmed the slightest hint of sin. And at the very same time, Jesus was full of grace. A grace which, when received in humility by faith, delivers a peace that far exceeds all earthly understanding. Grace that stares boldly into the present darkness, and finds peace that comforts the soul, warms the heart, and directs the mind. This is the grace of God, and it comes to us according to the truth of God. And so then when the apostle Paul begins this letter, his number one priority is to establish the gospel purpose for writing such a letter. And that's exactly what we see here in verse number three. Paul begins his letter as he says to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That is you have received grace and the result of receiving that grace is the peace that comes from God himself. Grace and peace. Grace is that undeserved favor of God. An undeserved favor of God which produces a curse reversing well-being of the soul. In other words, undeserved merit from God, undeserved favor from God, resulting in a peace and a well-being in the heart and the soul of men. And it's, it's, it's extremely important that they come in that order. We'll get to that in a minute, but notice the source of the grace and the peace. It is specifically as Paul writes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, so often when we're reading scripture like this, we would just fly right over a statement like that, and it would mean something to us, but the relevance of such a statement in the context in which Paul is writing, specifically remembering that there are Judaizers. There were those who had come into the assembly of the church and were compromising the truth of the gospel. They were perverting it by adding circumcision and obedience to the ceremonial law. And so when Paul says, that the grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, He is implying something. That is to say that He is implying the covenant of God's grace is directly, eternally, undividedly joined to the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is again, especially important given the battle that Paul has engaged with those who would seek to impress circumcision and the Mosaic covenant upon this covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. And so it's, it's extremely relevant that Paul adds God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ, connecting the work of Christ to God himself. Now we go back to the phrase, grace and peace, uh, commenting on this verse, specifically Spurgeon said this. Grace rightly comes first, and peace afterwards. Peace before grace would be perilous. Not only so, but more, it would be ruinous. May you always have enough of grace to lead you on to a deep and joyful peace. Now, why would Spurgeon make a comment like that? That if you had peace before grace, it would be perilous, and even more so, it would be ruinous. Well, it's pretty clear to me why that would be the case. It is a blessing, indeed, that we receive the peace that comes from God. If you were to survey the world, what they want the most is that many, many people are seeking and searching for peace in their hearts and in their lives today because they simply do not have peace. And the reason they have not peace is because they have not Christ. As I was thinking about this very reality, I couldn't help but go back to just a few short weeks ago when Brother Lance and Brother Mike and I were sitting in the airport in Newark, New Jersey, and I overheard a conversation taking place right beside us. And God help me not to get as emotional as I did earlier today, but this represents what we're talking about so well. There was a little girl who was playing with her father's phone, and this little girl, out of all the things in the world that she could have been doing, she was searching on her father's phone this question, what is the purpose of life? And I was admittedly eavesdropping on the conversation. Sorry, I guess, not really. This little girl, again, in the conversation, I couldn't help but hear them. She said she was eight years old and she was asking the phone, what is the purpose of life? And her father looked at the phone and she said, give me that. What are you doing? And he began to read. He said, why in the world are you looking that up? And as true as I stand here, this little girl's response was this. She said, daddy, I think about this often. And she said, it makes me sad. And when I heard that come out of her voice, all I can think about is, I know, I have the answer why that makes you sad and I can give it to you, it costs nothing and it can change everything in your life. And I would have. But what happened next was so discouraging, so frustrating, because I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, all right, how am I gonna make this not weird, right? I'm listening to their conversation, I'm eavesdropping, I'm obviously not part of the conversation, but I know the conversation, I know the question, and I know the answer. I just began to listen, and her father, her father reads on and gives her the phone back. And she reads something to the effect of, I couldn't hear it verbatim, but she read something to the effect of that some people find their purpose in God. And I'm like, oh, oh, that's it, that's it. This is, you know, the opportunity. And just as quickly as that was stated, her father once again takes the phone from her and he says, again, something to the effect of, we don't believe in that. And so I'm thinking, how in the world can I engage these people in a gospel conversation? And so I'm traveling with two missionaries. We begin to have conversation and we had been talking about the Lord, but I tried my best to gear our conversation to the gospel itself and began speaking about how Christ, you know, is, is working and in where we just were and, and going on. And, and I kid you not, I kid you not. You don't believe that there is a, a spiritual war being fought all around us all the time. You're oblivious. And as we began talking about those things specifically and trying, I was trying my best to engage a conversation that would somehow float over to the table next to us. And what happened next was so, so frustrating. The mother grabs her stuff and she says to her husband, we need to go. And they picked up their things and they were gone. And I turned to Mike and Lance and I said, do you guys realize what just happened? And I don't think they were listening like I was. They're better than me. But I explained to them what just happened and what this little girl said. And I was like, how devastating is that? An eight-year-old child. Moms and dads, grandparents, you think your kids don't think about hard things like this? They do. And the truth of the matter is, if we are not telling them what their purpose in life is, somebody else is going to. You understand that? We cannot sit idly by and just hope and pray that the Word of God comes real to them. We need to be instructing them when we're sitting in our homes, when we're walking, when we're on our ways. Whatever we're doing, we need to be teaching them and showing them and giving them the truth of God and telling them what their purpose is. That they were created to display the glory of God and they were created to worship this God who loves them and gave Himself for them. They need to know that. Why? Because they will never have peace in their hearts. They will never have peace in their minds. They will never have peace, period, until they know that truth and embrace it for themselves. Now, I went to the Google machine because I thought, this will be interesting. And I punched in, how can I find peace in my life? One of the very first things that comes up is a link to mindfulness. 12 steps. to finding peace. Let me just quickly read through these. I'm spending entirely too much time on the first point. Mindfulness, steps to finding peace. You can meditate. Now, let me just qualify what I'm about to say with these 12 things. There is indeed value to some of these things. But if the value is not rooted and founded upon biblical truth, then there is none, period. You understand what I'm saying? I'm not saying that meditation is bad. We should meditate on what? It's God's word, right? Thy word is a lamb unto my feet and a light to my path. Thy word have I hidden my heart that I might not sin against thee. God's word is what we should be meditating upon. So meditation, just flat out meditate. And if you look a little bit deeper, it's meditate in a way that when a thought comes into your mind, and if it's negative, you're supposed to get rid of it, right? There's conviction of sin when you meditate. Mindfulness says, Don't stay there because if you're trying to find peace, for goodness sake, get rid of that, right? Just get rid of it. Meditation. Number two, live in the present. The implication here for living the present is don't think about the future, right? That's the goal of mindfulness is don't think about the future. Don't think about what may come. In other words, don't think about the reality that one day you're gonna die and you're gonna stand before a all-knowing, righteous, holy, just God and give an account for your life. So instead, just live in the present. Number three, cultivate a positive mindset, right? Don't think negatively, stop that. You gotta think positive, right? Geez, why don't you get it? Just think positive. Number four, develop love for your neighbor. God, nope. Develop love for yourself. Number six, practice self-care. In other words, it's all about you. Next, visualize a peaceful place. See, your problem is you're not at the right place. So you gotta think about a place that's better, right? Learn to breathe effectively. I'm sorry. How? What in the world does that even mean? Learn to breathe effectively, and that's going to produce peace. I got to keep moving. Access nature, and I took that one as go hunting, so I agree with that one. The next one. It's not hunting season, that's right. We're law-abiding citizens. All right. The next one. Be grateful. That's good. I agree wholeheartedly. Be grateful. Work on acceptance. Work on acceptance. Practice non-judgment. And then the last one, foster deep connections. Okay, again, we're taking too much time on this, but here's the question. Here's the question. I just gave you 12 steps to finding peace. Now imagine if you actually found some kind of peace through these practices, okay? You've gone through the 12 steps of finding peace in mindfulness, which by the way, is rooted in Buddhism and Hinduism, okay? So don't tell me that mindfulness is not religious. It is, and it's not Christian at all. But suffice it to say, if you actually found some kind of peace through the 12 steps of mindfulness, my first question is, how long will it last? How long is that gonna actually last? In other words, hourly, at best, you're gonna have to go through these 12 steps again, because something, something is gonna take away your peace. because quite clearly through their steps, your peace is based wholly upon circumstances, right? So how long will it last? Second question is this, will finding peace through 12 steps of mindfulness save you? No, it's pretty clear that it will not. No, it won't and neither can it because your greatest problem will still exist. And your greatest problem is a three-letter word we refer to as sin. Mindfulness wants you to steer clear of anything of that vocabulary, because that's not positive. But the truth is, it's not until we see our sin that we recognize our need for God's grace which is the only means to have peace in our hearts. So Paul begins his letter with the Ephesians on the foundation that Christ, Christ alone, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is the means to have in grace and peace. And he goes on in verse 4 to freedom in Christ's work. Freedom in Christ's work. Notice what it says in verse 4 again. Who, referring specifically to Christ, gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. So how does receiving Christ give us the grace of God? Well, first, it's because Christ Himself gave Himself for our sins. The freedom that we have because of Christ's work was not as a result of the father twisting the arm of the son. But in fact, the word of God declares that it was the son who gave himself That is to say, Jesus gave His life and He gave Himself in death. He gave Himself in life. If we go to Matthew chapter 4 and we see the temptation in the wilderness of Christ, for the sake of time, I'm not going to read it. But Matthew chapter 4, you know this. When Christ was in the wilderness, he was tempted of the devil three specific ways. And in each of those temptations, Christ was able to, with the word of God, defend himself against those temptations and walk in obedience fully to God the Father. He lived his life in perfect sinlessness. He was conceived in sinlessness. He lived in sinlessness and he died in sinlessness, although the sins of the world were placed upon him. But Jesus also gave himself in that death. And in John chapter number 10, Jesus declares in verse 11 that he is the good shepherd. And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Again, in verses 14 to 18, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me. And I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock. One shepherd for this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father, Jesus Christ. was not killed specifically, Jesus Christ gave himself unto death. You think about all the times through the gospel of John where they sought to take him and they sought to kill him and they would always say, but they could not or they would not because it was not yet time. And when Jesus was on the cross, The Word of God says, He gave up the ghost. In other words, Christ could have gone on infinitely because of His sinlessness, but He gave Himself. And Paul declares to us here in this text, He did so for our sins. Now, it doesn't say for our peace, but praise God, that's the result of it, right? His dying for our sins brings about grace and peace, But notice, let's not run past this. For means in behalf of, or for the sake of, in the sense of protection, care, benefit, or favor, favor of our sins. Our sins are the means of our condemnation. Our sins are the result of our origins. In Adam, we've all sinned. That's original. It's inherited sin. However, we're also sinners practically. have indeed sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of our sin is death. But thanks be to God. Christ gave himself for our sins. And while there are many benefits to this truth, the apostle Paul emphasizes this one in particular. Notice the next phrase. He gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. Now, the word deliver, its literal meaning is to outtake, outtake. It is a means of rescue, as the Legacy Standard Bible translates it, instead of deliver, rescue us. And notice what and where Christ rescues us from, right? It says He delivers us, rescues us from the present evil age. Now, throughout the entirety of Scripture, there is this two age mentality or visualization words that there is a present and evil age, and there is a future age to come. And that's again, that's seen in the Old Testament. And Christ himself speaks a lot about it. Specifically, a couple of examples, Matthew chapter 12 verses 30, verse 32. So we're thinking about this, this reality that Paul is saying that Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from Rescue us from the present evil age. Jesus says this, Matthew 12, 32, Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come. So there's an unforgiveness in speaking against, that would be the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. There's no forgiveness, neither in this age or the age to come. In Luke chapter 18, verses 29 and 30, Jesus says, and he said to them, truly, truly, or truly I say to you, There is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children. In other words, there's no one who has a relationship hindered for the sake of the kingdom of God. There is not an earthly person that if your relationship has to suffer with them for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life. Now, now, folks, this is this is encouraging for for us, but it was extremely relevant to them as well, that that there were those who their earthly relationships were going to negatively be affected by their association with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Jesus makes a statement boldly that you will not that you will you will not receive many times more. In other words, you're going to receive an abundance of blessing greater than that relationship now and in the age to come, eternal life. And that is specifically in covenant with Him. And then in Luke chapter 20, this is maybe one of the most helpful places that we see the contrast between the present age and the age to come, and it's Jesus explaining the parable of the sower, okay? So Luke chapter 20, verses 34 to 36 is the explanation of the parable of the sower. It says, and Jesus said to them, the sons of this age, right, there's our this age, they marry and are given in marriage. but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age, and then he connects it with a very, very important piece, and to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. Now, I point that out because back in chapter 1 of Galatians, in the very first verse, Paul points specifically to God the Father who raised Him, Christ, from the dead. So the resurrection is an important piece of the puzzle in this age and the age to come. He says, for they cannot die anymore because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of resurrection. Now, I want to give you a quote from Sam Waldron, speaking specifically of the two ages and the text that we just read. The sons of this age marry, but the sons of that age do not. There's a distinction between the two. Marry in this age, the sons of that age, there's no marriage. Number two, the sons of this age die, but the sons of that age do not, right? That's what we see in the text. Number three, in this age, the sons of this age and the sons of God are mixed together in the world, but in the age to come, there are only sons of God. Excuse me. Number four, The sons of this age are natural men, but the sons of the age to come are sons of the resurrection. And so again, Paul says that he gave himself for our sins to deliver us from, rescue us from the present evil age. Quoting, or speaking about this specifically, Sam says, the New Testament makes clear that the age to come begins with the resurrection of the righteous, and that the resurrection of the righteous begins with the second coming of Christ. And Matthew chapter 13 verses 37 through 43 closely parallels and makes this exact point. So Matthew 13, 37 to 43 says, He answered, Jesus, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the son of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send His angels and they will gather out His kingdom, all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." Now, I want to back up. I said that Luke 20 was the explanation of the parable of Sarah. It's actually Matthew 13. Forgive me for that mix-up. I was getting ahead of myself. But suffice it to say this, when we read what Paul says, it should cause us to go, now wait a minute. He saved us, He gave Himself for us to deliver us from this present evil age, but I'm still here, right? I've received the grace of God, I have the peace of God, but I'm still living in this present evil age. There's a phrase for this, okay? And I know you've all heard it before. We're living in a time period where we call the already and the now. Not yet, right? He is telling us it's as good as done. He gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God and Father. And that has happened. How has that happened? It happens when we receive the gift of salvation. When the grace of God meets us and the Holy Spirit regenerates us, we receive this gift. We receive the forgiveness of our sins and we receive the rescuing of the present evil age. But we're still here. And so we experience the tension of the present evil age, but we look forward to the not yet, that is to say that we will forever and always be saved from this present evil age. And I make that point so specifically because I just was sharing this recently with somebody that post-millennial view of eschatology says we are living in the New Jerusalem right now. And that just blows my mind that you could even think of such a thing. Because it's quite obvious to me that we are living in a present evil age, not a present age of prosperity. Now, maybe if you're living in a remote place in the world and you're the only one there, you have that. But that's the only time, and truly it's not true either. Because again, this world is experiencing the corruption of this present evil age. And that's why, contrary to what the tree huggers say, things are not getting better. They are indeed getting worse. And it's because we live in a present evil age. But, praise God, that's not what we have to look forward to. There's coming a day when we will truly be saved forever from the present evil age. And notice then, next, the function that this is brought about according to God's plan, according to specifically the will of God and our God and Father. The eternal plan of God in redemption is something that we can never ever neglect. the sending of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, to accomplish the work of salvation through His virgin birth, His sinless life, His full obedience, His sufferings, His sorrows, His crucifixion, His death, His burial, His resurrection were all according to the will of our God and Father. In other words, Jesus Christ was not God's plan B. Jesus Christ was not chosen as a means to fix a problem that God had not anticipated. Jesus was not a reaction to the work of the devil. No, Jesus was the Son, the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. The will of the Father and the work of the Son were accomplished according to one eternal plan, one eternal purpose, whereby Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work in perfect unity and harmony with one another. And Jesus said this in John 6, Verses 37 through 40, all that the father gives me. will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me. But I will raise it up on the last day, for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise Him up, On the last day, we are chosen and adopted by the Father, redeemed in time by the Son, regenerated by the Spirit, and ultimately glorified by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all according to the will of our God and Father and for the glory of the same. forever and ever, and that's exactly what our text says. Look at verse five. The focus of our redemption is seen in to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. The finished work of Christ and the salvation of sinners, which is all according to the will of God, places all the glory forever and ever upon the God of all glory. We have no glory in and of ourselves, but when we receive the grace of God in Jesus Christ, His glory is manifested in our lives, but make no mistake about it, it's His glory that radiates in and through your life. And Paul inserts this little word at the end, he says, it's little, but it's full of meaning. It says, Amen. In other words, listen, again, there's so many times we just fly past these things and we don't consider the impact that they actually have. When Paul states Amen at the end of these two, three verses, It means truly, surely, certainly. In other words, Jesus, when He would make statements, verily, verily, truly, truly, you know what word that was? It was amen. He would say, amen, amen. The amen is a means by which we enter into the truth that has been stated. And so when Paul says amen, he is making a declaration of his position. In other words, Paul is saying, this is the gospel, the grace and peace of God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and father, to whom be glory forever and ever. And he says, and right there's where I stand. Right there is where I stand, Galatians. Right here is where I stand. This is the message you heard from me in the first place. And I haven't moved because God didn't change his mind. God didn't change his method. God didn't change his means. He did not change the work of Christ. This is where I stand. It is forever and ever sealed and done. And amen. This is where I stand. I had a guy a couple of years ago. He come to me after church one time because I think it's Pretty clear that I encourage an amen. I do. Because one thing, preachers love to hear it. Just do. But another reason is, is the reason that I want you to affirm what has just been stated with amen is because you are giving affirmation not to what I say. I don't care if you agree with me or not. You don't have to. But you better agree with what this says. That's what Paul's saying. This is the gospel of Christ. And he says, here I stand. Amen. So, now, how about you, right? How about you? That's what we have to ask when we get to the end of this. Like, where am I? Where do you stand? Now, Martin Luther points out in these three verses, you need to follow the pronouns. Let's walk through it one more time and we're done, okay? He says, grace to you. Now, again, the immediate context is to who? The Galatians, right? But since the message doesn't change, since the gospel is the same, always and forever, grace to you. Now, this only applies if you stand in this, right? So, is this grace to you? And then notice the next pronoun. We talk about pronouns an awful lot these days. He says, in peace from God, our Father. Our Father. Is He your Father? Have you trusted in His Son and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our sins? Again. Or do you find yourself in that place that Christ gave Himself for not ours, but your sins? To deliver us. Us. Do you find yourself again in the us from the present evil age according to the will of, again, our God and Father to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. In other words, my question is this specifically. When we read verses 3-5 and come to the amen, Is that where you stand? Can you echo the amen of the Apostle Paul to verses three through five and make a declaration, not to us in particular, right? But specifically before the throne of God, amen. This is where I stand. And can I tell you that if you cannot say amen to that, because you can't stand. As a matter of fact, the Bible says you're dead in your trespasses and sins. And unless the Spirit of God moves upon your heart and awakens your sin-sick, dead soul to see and believe the gospel, you will never say amen to the gospel of Christ. But if He has, but if He has, not only do I think we should say the amen, but I think it should be the way we live our lives. Amen. Here's where I stand. Amen? Amen. So should we say amen? Yeah, we should. We should. We should say it often. We should especially say it when we hear the word of God. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your goodness and your kindness. Oh Lord, what an amazing, amazing passage this morning. Our hearts have truly been encouraged by the gospel. Lord, when we read that Christ gave himself for our sins and we recognize our need of salvation, we recognize the mountain of sin that we are under. It says that he gave himself for our sins, that he lived and died for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age. and transform us into a future age where there's no such thing as death. Where there's no such thing as sin. Where there's no such thing of anything that is outside of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, hope. All these things. They're all ours in Christ. Now and forever. So Lord, we give You thanks and praise for this truth. Lord, if there's somebody here today that has never trusted in you, has never placed their faith in you, has not looked to Jesus and placed their faith as one who Christ died for their sin, that today would be the day of salvation. And with the Apostle Paul, we could all stand and say, this is where I stand in the gospel of Christ, amen. Lord, help us. We need you, but Father, we praise you and thank you for what you've done. Now, Lord, in the closing moments of this service, we ask God that you would just continue to work and move in our hearts. And Father, may we give you all the praise, the honor, and the glory in Jesus' name.