What great truth to sing after what we were looking at this morning. I'm forgiven. I'm forgiven because Christ was forsaken when he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Great truth. Just before we pray, Michelle has asked me to say a big thank you to all who prayed for her. There's been great answer to prayer and God has moved. If you wish to know more than that, please don't speak to me, come and speak to Michelle on that one. But she wants to thank people for their prayers. Let us pray, shall we? Lord, we wanna thank you that we're here to worship you. And yes, Lord, we've been singing. I'd rather have you than anything. Lord, may they be words that are coming from our hearts, not just from our mouths. May that be words that we mean and not just words that we sing. Lord, I pray that as we look into your words, tonight that you would speak to us afresh. We thank you for all that you said this morning. We thank you for lives and hearts that were touched. And we just wanna ask that as we turn to your word tonight, again, your spirit would be free to accomplish your good and perfect will. So just come and speak. We pray for we're listening. Amen. If you're taking notes and you want a title, because I know some of you do take notes and some of you do like titles, the title for tonight should be, it is, It Should Never Be Grace or Truth. It should never be grace or truth. And all will become clear, because you may be thinking that's a bit of a strange title, it all will become clear as we go through. Because one of the things that has struck me is how when Christians these days speak, they swing from one pendulum, one side of the pendulum, pendulum to the other, it's either all grace and very little truth, I know, because I've been involved in some of those conversations, or it's all truth and very little grace. And those can be hard conversations to have or be part of. So I thought tonight we would look at the whole concept that it should never be grace or truth. I believe it should be grace and truth, and we're gonna look at that. So we wanna read our passage for tonight. It's from John chapter one, John chapter one, and already you're there, your minds know what it's all about. You Bible scholars could probably preach or even teach this passage very well. It's one that's been preached on many times, but we're gonna read from John chapter one, from verses one to 14, John chapter one, Verses 1 to 14, and it says this. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And we're gonna ask God to reveal this to us. The key phrase for tonight that I wish to unpack is the second part of verse 14, but I believe to fully understand verse 14, you have to understand the rest of it. And that phrase is that Christ came full of grace and truth, and we're going to see how this is unpacked as we go through. We're gonna see this in the life of Christ. We're gonna see how it should also be seen in us and through us, I believe. So we're gonna really be looking at grace and truth as it is revealed in Christ. Out of everything that is in this verse, why do I want us to think about Jesus being full of grace and truth? Well, if it's true what we just sang, I'd rather have Jesus than anything else, then you want someone who's full of grace and truth. So how does that impact us? This is where our worship meets the word, and if what we sing are just songs, or if they are actually a cry of our heart. If we want Christ more than anything else, then we want to follow, we want to be like someone who is full of grace and truth. So to help us understand what it means for Christ to be full of grace and truth, and how this applies to us, we will view verse five, 14 of John as a snapshot of God's redemptive plan worked out through Christ. We must see this as John giving us a snapshot of what he's going to unpack in his Now, of all the four Gospels, I must confess, John is one that I love. I mean, I like all the Gospels, but John, he deals a lot with who Christ is. We looked at the I Ams that are only found in Christ, and we've looked at a number of other things that are only found through John as he writes. We think about John's writing of the seven churches from the island of Patmos when he writes the book of Revelation, the letter of Revelation. So we see there's a lot of stuff in John and John's writings that we only get in him, not very often anywhere else. And so I believe to fully understand verse 14, we have to see it as a snapshot of the work of God, the redemptive work of God in grace as we see it unfold in John chapter one. So we're gonna look at this, we're gonna go through it, we're gonna take our time. Don't worry, the coffee will not get cold. But we will get through it and we will see how God, how Christ is full of grace and truth and how we should be also. And just before I get into Point one, the reason I make a distinction is through some conversations I've had, I've come up to well-meaning Christians that will either not reject the truth but they'll not speak about the truth or they'll water down the truth because they don't want to offend anybody. And there are those that I've also met that aren't very gracious because they're just like a steamroller with the truth. They just run over the top of you. You accept it or you reject it, that's your choice, but it's the truth nonetheless. And there's not really much grace in them. And therefore I believe if we're gonna be effective witnesses, if we're gonna be an effective church, if we're gonna stand and put our armor on and go out into society and proclaim the God of redemption, then we must be people full of grace and truth just as Christ. So how do we approach this? Well the first thing I want to look at is how John establishes this fact and that is that the first point is that God is our Creator. God is our creator. Now this is a hot topic. It's a topic we could spend not just all night on but weeks if not months on. Just looking at creation and creator and what does that mean. But John doesn't spend a lot of time other than to say that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made through him and by him and for him. And one of the things I love about this, and if you see it in verses one to three and verse 10, it reveals the creative act of God, the creative working out of God. Now, I love John 1, 1. I remember chatting to Jehovah Witnesses. They came knocking on my door one time. I don't know who was more happy, me or them. Anyway, they came in. And we were chatting, and of course they bring up John 1, 1, and I love this because the Greek is a lot stronger than the English. The Greek says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. Okay, that's a literal Greek translation. God was the word. It's bad English, so we swap it around and we say, and the word was God. That's better grammar, English grammar. So the Greek is very clear. John, right from the outset, screams that God is the creator, and the word is God, because the word was with God. And you begin to get this great picture of a triumph. triune God at work. Now there's lots we can build into this but right from verses 1 through to 3 in verse 10 we see God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all at work. We could see it creation as a work of a triune God if we went back into Genesis because you've got the Spirit hovering over the deep. The creative act is the act of God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And John here to bring out the importance of what's gonna happen in Christ. And we have to see that this is the importance of what's happening in and through Christ. He puts it right at the beginning and says, God has created all of us. It's not something that just happened recently. It's not something that's happened just in our lifetime. God was there before the beginning of time. He started it all off, and Christ was there. And he puts Christ right at the center of everything. One of the Christian arguments for creation, if you like that, is because we would say that everything that began to exist has a cause. I remember chatting to an atheist one time and I said to him, what's more logical? What's more rational? What's more normal? Non-life gives birth to life or life gives birth to life? And he went, well, life gives birth to life. And I said, well, you've just shot your argument in the foot. Because I believe God gives birth to life. Life gives birth to life. I said, you believe that nothing gives birth to life. I don't think that works. I said, that flies in the face of everything else that we know. And he went, well, I have to agree with you there. I went, well, good. That shortens that argument. The reality is everything that begins to exist has a cause, and God is that cause. God is the life breather. God is the instigator of life. In fact, he goes on to say that that in him was the life of man. The very life that we have is put in as the core, the center, and the expression of Christ. He is the life of man. So God is our creator. God is seen as the one who begins everything. And so here we see that because God always exists outside of time and space, when he created, he created and then stepped into the thing that he creates. I love that picture, how God outside of time and space. Now don't worry, I'm not gonna start quoting Star Trek or Star Wars or anything like that, you can all relax. But the reality is God created time and space, and then he stepped into it. He didn't have to, he chose to, because his creation needed him to, we needed him to. And so here we have this concept in John, he puts it right, he doesn't just start with the incarnation, but to make the incarnation make sense, he starts with creation. God is at work, God creates, God starts it all off, God is the life. And then we see here that God is the source. Verses four and five and verse nine, it talks about in him was life, in him was life. And I think that's a reality that we can all hold on to. And not just for physical life when we think about creation, but spiritual life. Because I would like to argue, I would like to propose to you tonight that scripture is very clear that eternal life is found in one person and one person only, and that is Christ. Anything outside of Christ is death. You're either in relationship with him or you're not. If you're in relationship with him, you have life. If you're not in relationship with him, according to scripture, you live in death, in separation. And I think that's a reality here that John is trying to bring out as he's pointing to the importance of Christ and why he's so full of grace and truth. So in him is life. He breathes life, as we read in Genesis. He breathed life into the nostrils of his creation. Life, he is the source of our life, both spiritual and physical. We cannot get away from that. To drift from that mooring is to go into dangerous waters. And so here, Christ is the source of our life. This true light, was for all men, not just for a select few. I like the way John links life and light together. Life and light together. Christ's life, his holy life, was light. It shone up as light to guide mankind in the way he should go. I think the more you walk close with Christ, The more we walk close with Christ, the closer we walk on a daily basis, it seems to be the better we see and the better we understand. There seems to be more light because Christ's life is his light to all mankind. And it's not just for a select view. It's not just for the Jews. It's not just for a people that he created. This is for all mankind. This is for all creation. This is set within a creational context where Christ's life and Christ's light are for all people. And I think we have to keep that in mind. They're for all people. This will help us when we come to unpack what it is to be full of grace and truth. If God's life, Christ's life, and his light are for all people, then do we have the right to hold that back from anyone? Just a question that comes to mind. This creational motif that is in John chapter one, Continues that God's glory was the light at creation and God was the source of all life. I love the way John takes us back to Genesis here. John links everything. His train of thought is springing from Genesis. Rather than just this abstract light, he goes Christ was that light. Christ was the light at creation. Christ, he lit up all of creation. And in case you're wondering, we're not going to need the sun and moon in heaven because the glory of God will light up eternity. He will be the light Again, letting up the new heaven and the new earth. So here you see John links everything back to creation, trying to bring the importance of Christ in this. It's not just an add-on. This is the source of life is Christ. The source of light and understanding is Christ. He lights up the darkness. Now I've said this before, but one of the things I love about this is The darkness has been looked upon as purposeless, chaos, emptiness, and when the light shines into the darkness, it brings purpose, it brings order, it brings life. Did you get that? Isn't that a wonderful thing? That the light shines in the darkness, And it's the same as when we bring the gospel to somebody else. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can't overcome it. The rationale of man falls flat in the light of the gospel. The wisdom of man is proof of foolishness in the light of the gospel because the light shines in the darkness. Christ reveals himself for who he is and people can't overcome him. Darkness can't overcome him. Darkness can't contend with this light. But the God who said, let there be light, and there was light, darkness cannot comprehend. See, here is the thing I want us to contemplate for a moment, and it's something I've said before, darkness isn't a thing. Darkness is the absence of light. If you were to suck all the light out of this room and it was midnight, you'd be left with darkness. You only have darkness because there's the absence of light. And that's the reality. He speaks in. Darkness can't overcome it because light drives darkness away. Light destroys darkness. It's not an actual thing, it's an absence. And our world is in darkness because there's an absence of the knowledge of God. There's an absence of a relationship with God. There is an absence of light. And so here we see the source, God is not just the creator, but he is the source of life, he is the source of light, he is the one that we need. So Christ steps down, he steps out of heaven into our chaos and darkness in order to make God known to us. Now you're beginning to see where John is going with this. John has to start back in creation because he wants to prove and he wants to demonstrate that Christ is God and Christ reveals God the Father to us. And so he starts where it all began at creation. The third thing I want us to think about very quickly is that God tabernacled among us. Now I use that word because it is the actual word in the Greek. In the sense it says that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. That's verse 14. That word for dwelling is actually tabernacled. Can anybody else think of a tabernacle in the Old Testament? Of course you can. They used to carry it around all the time. Every time they went, they had to build it and take it down. Every time they traveled, the tabernacle. And in the tabernacle was the glory of God. It was believed that the holy of holies would have the glory of God, the very presence of God Almighty, the holiness of God was there. And so when John says he tabernacled among us, he was saying the very presence of God is with us. So John will use his word carefully. He will craft his gospel carefully to point to the fact that God is with us. God in the form of Christ, light and life, dwelling among us. God in our presence, this divine love, God's favor. Can you imagine what it was like to be the first people of Israel? Can you imagine? They were the only people that had a tabernacle. They were the only ones who seen the pillar of cloud and fire go into the tabernacle and fill the tabernacle. The glory of God, the presence of God was with them. What a privilege and an honor that was theirs. And yet, many times they, squandered such a... God's provision was there. There was a call to repentance, because there was always a time of sacrifice around the tabernacle. And our divine power, which equips mankind for being more loving was there, because you had the law, and the law was teaching people how to interact with people. And so here you get this wonderful aspect of the tabernacle. And so John not only brings in creation, and goes, God started it. But then he goes in and says, do you remember when God was with us in the tabernacle? Look to Christ. He is tabernacled with us again. We've seen him, we've touched him, we've handled him. The glory of God that is there. He is trying to paint a picture before we launch off into this grace and truth of this almighty, awesome God, and yet he's present with us in the form of Christ. Romans chapter two, verse four says, grace, this loving kindness, should lead us to repentance. There's much I could say here, but I think it's best demonstrated by the life of Christ, which we'll get to in a minute. But you've heard me say time and time again, did God have to forgive us? No, he didn't. He didn't have to. He chose to. Why? Because God is loving and he's faithful to his promises. and he didn't want to break his word, and therefore he acted out of faithfulness and out of grace. He didn't have to, no one was forcing his arm. He did it because he loves his creation, and therefore this grace that he lavishes upon us, and in case you're wondering what grace is, it's that divine gift, that free gift. As someone once said, God's riches at Christ's expense. Grace. Everything we have is because of Christ. Christ is God, the light and the life. Everything we have is because he graced us. He gave us something we do not deserve. Justice gives me what I deserve. Mercy does not give me everything I deserve. Grace gives me what I don't deserve. And this lavishing of what we don't deserve, this grace should bring us all to repentance because we serve a gracious God. This concept can be demonstrated, as I said, in the life of Christ, as he reveals this life, this light, this love of God, as it breaks cultural, religious, and social, and even gender boundaries. We see it in the life of Christ. He breaks all of those boundaries as he gives, the grace of God. So what do I mean? God's grace towards Gentiles. In the Jewish world, you're either a Jew or a Gentile. That was it. You're either a Jew or a Gentile. The Jews were the chosen people. The Gentiles, well, they were just Gentiles. They were right there. Although they were expected to welcome the Gentiles in, not exclude them, the Gentiles weren't looked upon very favorably. In fact, we know that the Jewish men would start every day that God would, part of their three-point prayer of thanks, that God, well, they would say, God, I thank you, you've made me a Jew. I thank you that I'm not a Gentile, and I thank you that I'm not a woman. I'll leave that with you, all right? But that's what you used to pray. I thank you that I'm not a Gentile. For them and their mindsets, the Gentiles were unclean and yet God here shows grace towards Gentiles. We see it all throughout the life of Christ. The gospel speaks of how Christ was gracious towards Gentiles. Look, 17. Matthew 8, Luke 7 will demonstrate the willingness of Christ to accept Samaritans. Samaritans were those half-castes, those people, those mixed race between Jews and Gentiles, those people that they wouldn't even wanna mix with. They'd rather walk miles in a detour to get from A to point B rather than going through Samaria. And what did Christ say once to his disciples? I need to go through Samaria. Why? Because he had a woman at the well to speak to. Christ showed grace to Gentiles. To the Romans, he showed Gentiles. We think of the Roman centurion that came and said, Lord, heal my servant. And he showed grace to him. Christ was lavishing grace on Gentiles, which would have been a foreign concept. to some Jews. In John 4, verses 4 through 28, God speaks of this Samaritan woman at the well, and he challenges her. And also in Mark 7, you get her speaking to the Canaanite woman. So here's the question we have. If Christ can speak to Gentiles, If His grace can be given to that group of people, is there a group of people we wouldn't want the gospel to go to? I'm not trying to answer anything, I'm just putting out questions that come to mind. We have grace towards the unclean. Grace towards the unclean, not just to the Gentiles, but Christ showed grace towards the unclean. In Mark chapter one, verses 40 to 42, you've got Christ's interaction with a leper. You know those lepers, poor guys, poor people? They had to live outside the community. They weren't part of the community anymore. They were shunned even by their own family. And when they came in, they had a bell and they had the ring and they had to shout unclean, unclean so the people would scatter and not get anywhere near them. And yet Christ touched them. Christ showed grace where everybody else ran. He showed grace. He welcomed them in. He restored them back to community life. He brought them back into family life. When the world was going, you're not, you can't, you shouldn't, Christ showed grace. I think it's a lesson that we can learn. As Zara Butterfield points out, when Christ walked the earth, leprosy was the worst of all plagues. We can think, perhaps in your mind, you can think of something today that you would put down as the worst, the worst thing today. Well, if Christ showed grace to the worst thing of his day, can we not show grace to the worst thing of our day? Christ was full of grace and truth. He was gracious towards the Gentiles. He was gracious towards the unclean. He was gracious towards the outcast. This is very important, we see, and this is all in the life of Christ. In John chapter eight, verses one to 11, it tells of how the woman is caught in adultery. She was guilty. I am not trying to say she wasn't guilty. She was guilty, she was caught in sin that deserved, according to the law, deserved her to be stoned. Now, I've touched on this before, how I believe they were twisting the law, they changed the law, and yet, to the outcast, to the guilty, Christ showed grace. He showed grace. That woman caught in adultery, that woman faced with being stoned, when they're all wanting Christ to condemn her as the outcast she was, the lawbreaker she was, Christ wrote on the ground. I've proposed to you before from here that perhaps he was writing the law on the ground. We don't know what he was writing. Writing something, it was the man, the name of the person, the name of the man that she committed adultery with. We don't know. It may have been. It may have been the law. We really don't know, but Christ wrote on the ground. And then he says, let he who, he is without sin, cast the first stone. Get that picture. The only one who could cast a stone didn't. All the ones who shouldn't be casting stones were ready to. They had stones in their hands. We were ready to go. And yet Christ here shows grace to the outcast. We could go through this time and time again and look 19 we have Zacchaeus and I love this picture of Zacchaeus and I don't know if you're like me and you wonder why he give back so much money after Christ had spoken with him. What was to do with the law and not keeping stuff that was stolen? He give it back. He returned what he had stolen from people. There was a transformation that happened in him, and while this man was a tax collector, and nobody liked him, and nobody wanted to have dinner with him, Christ had dinner with him, spoke with him, got his life transformed, and yet he was willing to speak to the outcast. We have in Matthew, Christ is called in Matthew 11, 19, that he is the friend of tax collectors and sinners. What a great name to have. He was the friend of the Gentiles, the outcasts, the condemned. He was full of grace. Should we not be that same people? If Christ has tabernacled among us, if we are saying that we would rather have Christ than anything else, then here is the reality that we should follow, that Christ, as Christ was God of grace, should we not also be people of grace? Now, I know what some are saying, but of truth, of truth. Let me get there in a minute. Because I believe you need both to be effective. Grace without truth is just full of air and nicety. Truth without grace is judgmental and harsh. We need both, grace and truth. If we're gonna be effective, If we're gonna be effective to show the gospel, if we're gonna be effective to bring people to Christ and show them the God hanging on the cross for our sins, the God who walks out of the tomb alive, if we're gonna bring people to the God who tabernacled among us in Christ, then we have to be people of grace and truth. Listen to Christ. Christ was not only full of grace, but he spoke the truth. to the woman caught in adultery. He didn't just say, I'm not gonna condemn you. He didn't only say that, what did he say? Go and live your life of sin. He spoke truth. Her life, her way of life was sinful. But he spoke grace, then he spoke truth. He would not reject her, condemn her, or punish her. He said, I'm not gonna condemn you, but what I am gonna say is repent, leave your life of sin. He spoke truth to her. And I believe we need to be able to speak truth, but from a position of grace. Not come across as if we're, beating people, we're being judgmental of them, but we are a people of grace. Jesus was not only full of grace, but full of truth. He did not only come speaking the truth, but declared that he was truth. And I think that's a distinction. When we speak truth, we're speaking about who Christ is. We're not truth, he is truth. because he is God that tabernacled among us. In the examples we've outlined above, Christ saw the individual and their need. He didn't exclude the person, he saw the individual and he saw their need and he spoke to both. He spoke grace and he spoke truth. He brought them into a full understanding of Christ. Why do you think Zacchaeus changed the woman caught In adultery, Jesus says, leave your life of sin. In John 3, he tells Nicodemus, a religious leader, you must be born again. He spent an evening with him talking, talking over scriptures, and yet he turned and says, you must be born again. He spoke with grace and truth. In Matthew, the account of the rich young ruler, he says, you worshiped your money. Get rid of all of that and serve the Lord your God. And he just couldn't, he challenged people at the point of their need. In Matthew 6, verse 24, Christ says, no one can serve to him. two masters, you cannot serve both God and money. Here is the thing, we either follow Christ, live like Christ, let him be our pattern, as we've been looking at in Philippians, or we follow somebody else. But if we wanna follow Christ as our pattern, if we wanna follow Christ as we've just sang, then we have to be a people of grace and truth. You see, I've said this before, and I truly believe this, God loves us. There's nothing we can do to make God love us anymore. There's nothing we can do to make God love us any less. God loves us. but God loves us too much to let us stay as we are. He wants to transform us, therefore we need grace and truth. And we should be a people of grace and truth, that when people who are hurting, who are messed up, walk in, we go to them and we accept them for who they are. They are people loved by God, but we show grace, but we also speak truth out of grace. Not to judge or condemn, but we bring them to truth. That they understand that they have to leave their life of sin, they have to be born again, as Christ said. And that's the reality here. In Luke 15, you've got the wonderful parable of the prodigal son. Both grace and truth are brought together as the lost son repents and returns home. We often don't think about the prodigal son as a form of grace and truth. And there was someone in that parable who wasn't very gracious. I wonder if you can think who he is. The older brother. He wasn't very gracious. He was very angry. But the father was full of grace. And the truth is the younger son had to repent and come home. And so here we need both grace and truth. It's in the teachings of Christ. It's in revealing of Christ. It's here in John chapter one from verses one to 14, how God creates, he gives life, he breathes life. He is light for us to live by. He tabernacled among us so that we can touch him and we can handle him in that sense. And he accepts us, even in our wayward state, he accepts us. Christ will never turn his back on you. He will always be gracious, yet he will tell you the truth as he would tell me the truth, and he'll bring us deeper with him. The reality is, if we wanna be the people God wants us to be, if we wanna do all the stuff we've signed, if we want to point people to Christ, then we have to be a people of grace, and truth. People's faults, the faults are not the people, they're just hurting people. We have to show them grace, but we have to call them to repentance, we have to bring them to truth. who Christ is, what Christ has done, the importance of being with Christ. Christ was full of grace and truth and we see it in action, even in some of the things we've just talked about as Christ has interacted with Gentiles and outcasts and the unclean. We should also be full of grace and truth. God who is our creator, the one who breathed everything into existence, God who is our life and light in the darkness, God who brought Chaos into order. God who has overcome the darkness came incarnate in Christ. He did not come to judge, condemn, or reject. That's what John says in John 3, 17. He did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that through the world he may save. He didn't come in to condemn or to judge. He will be judged one day, but he didn't initially come into incarnation to judge. Instead, he showed grace, acceptance, love for a society whom the religious order rejected, condemned, and hated. Why? Because God loves his creation. But his grace did not stop him speaking truth. But because of his graciousness, it gave opportunity to speak truth into the lives and to see transformation. So the reality we have tonight is this. The importance here is this. Verse 12, to all who received him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And to believe and to receive, we must first understand that God accepts us in all our failings, in all our mess, in everything we've done wrong, in all our hangups. God is gracious. He does not reject us. But the truth declares, repent. The truth declares you must be born again. declares, come to me and live. The truth declares that Christ is the only way to have life and have it more abundantly, as John says. So Christ came full of grace and truth in order that we may know God as the God who loves us enough to tell us the truth about ourselves, and how to be saved and adopted into his family. So it should never be grace or truth, but as church and as followers of Christ, we should speak out of grace and truth. We should speak truth out of grace, from grace, from a position of grace. I remember, speaking to one of my friends, and with this, I will close. And I remember speaking to her, and she'd got herself all mixed up in some things. And she came to me and said, Rodney, people don't wanna spend time with me anymore. And I said, do you know, I said, you're always welcomed at my house. You're always welcome with me anymore. We will never, ever turn you away. I said, but you know what I think about your lifestyle? And we talked about repentance. We talked about a holy God, but that all came because I said, I will never ever turn you away. My door's always open. If we speak out of grace, people are more ready to accept the truth. Why? Because Christ was full of grace and truth. So it should never be grace or truth, but it should always be grace and truth. Amen. We're gonna finish with our final song. I don't know if it's a new one or not. Is it a new one? All right. The Night Song, I believe it's called. you All this day you're at the temple, God of heaven by my side. Thank you, Father, for your goodness. You will hold me through the night. Jesus, take me from the darkness of my demise tonight. This day your hand has held me, Lord of heaven, by my side. Thank you, Father, for your goodness. You will hold me. Lord, we want to thank you that your goodness holds us. We thank you that you are our hope. You are our strength. You are our truth. You are life. You are light. You are all that we need. Thank you that you deal with us graciously, not as our sins deserve or require. You deal with us graciously, and yet you tell us the truth. Lord, may we be a people full of grace and truth, that we may point others to you, and we may reveal you to others in how we treat them. Lord, thank you for being full of grace and truth. Lord, again, remove what's not from you, remove emotionalism or ideas, leave only your truth, and may you transform us by your grace and your truth. Amen. you