Address—Nick Simon
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
By very quickly when you stand up here may not be so quick sitting down there, but if we could start by seeing the 1St 3 verses of hymn #10.
And if someone could stop that for me, so hymn #10.
Verses 1-2 and three. If there's time left, we might sing four and five at the end.
Praise is the sweetest.
Sunlight.
Will reach our here.
When all your dreams are sent to the scrolls, what is great revenge of the dark skinned?
Is great grown to the swing.
So my subject that I wish to speak on is Grace.
It's a subject that I've been meditating on for a couple of months now. In fact, I'm working on a little pamphlet about it, but it it came about because of a text I received from someone and then something I saw on Facebook and and the verse two that came to my attention.
What is grace? You know, recently in a meeting a brother said in spiritual things we come into the truth of them before we come into the meaning of them or the understanding of them. And that's so true of grace. Every child of God, even the three or four year old that's received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Has a has come into the good of the grace of God?
But do they understand it? No. And do we? I think it's especially true when it comes to the subject of grace. But what is grace? You know, the various definitions are given. This is one you've probably heard. Grace is getting what we do not deserve. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. So the naughty boy, his father says you've been naughty, but you're still going to get a birthday present. That's grace.
The naughty boy, the Father says you need a good spanking, but you're not going to get it. That's mercy. And that that definition has some truth to it. It's helpful in part, but it's not really a very good definition of grace. And I think its focus is in the wrong place. It's on me what I get or don't get.
Another definition you've probably heard is unmerited favor. And I can remember I first heard that and it sort of passed over my head. What what does that mean? But grace is a lot to do with the favor of God. And that favor as shown in grace is something I don't merit. There's nothing in me, as we've been having in these meetings that merits that favor of God.
It is unmerited favor. Another definition. I like that I heard while I was on zoom meetings during the COVID thing.
Was.
Its divine enablement, and as we consider grace, as we go through the Word of God and consider the word grace, I think you'll find that many occasions that definition works as well.
The word grace appears in the New Testament alone well over 100 times.
The grace of God occurs over 20 times. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who are similar expression, occurs also a little over 20 times, as I recall. In fact, the word grace occurs so many times that we perhaps might think it's just a throwaway line. You know, you greet someone, you say how are you and I am, so I'm fine. Well, thank you. It's a pleasant tree we exchange. We don't mean any of it.
00:05:13
I don't mean that when someone says it to me they they don't have some sense of feeling in my heart, but if I started pouring out exactly how I was.
They might stop me and say, well, I didn't mean that. I was just saying hello. But God doesn't have throwaway lines in His word. He doesn't just sprinkle the word grace throughout the New Testament just out of pleasantries.
Another thing that can that struck me, and this was the Facebook posts and I I admit I have them jotted down. I don't have a memory for recalling such things, but it was a post about the thief on the cross and the person had written I don't know the person and they're not gathered. Says we should be rejoicing. I'm not a thief, but I am a Sinner and God's grace covers all sin.
Actually, God's grace doesn't cover any sin, has not covered any sin.
Grace is perceived as old pleasantness without any rebuke or hardship. I have a little pamphlet at home. It's on joke, and its title is Job. A man Renewed by Grace, you say? Wait a minute, The book of Job is about grace.
Yes, God could not let Job think that He could stand before him in his own righteousness.
God would not let Job continue on. God intervened in Job's life.
God met Job in his need.
So another misconception I think is is that.
God of the Old Testament is. I listened to a book, an Audible book recently and it was written by a young man. He went to a church school in England and he had.
Had some exposure to the Bible and he said that his perception of God was that he was a grumpy old schoolmaster.
And perception of many Saints and Sinner alike is that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a demanding old schoolmaster.
But God's grace goes from the beginning of the Old Testament.
To the end of the new, it was God in grace that provided covering for Adam and Eve. When they're covering that they tried to hide the shame with proof to be wholly inadequate. It was God in his grace that promised to Satan, in Adam and Eve's hearing, as it were, that the woman's seed would crush the serpent's head. A promise that has.
Been the hope of faith throughout the centuries and will continue to to the very end. It's the everlasting gospel that Bruce happened to mention.
His meeting as well for us is not a promise that's being accomplished in the cross of Christ.
We're not looking forward to it, but it's the hope. It's what our faith rests upon, that work of Christ. It was God in his grace that provided a first link to Abel that he might OfferUp a sacrifice.
It was Cain that despised the grace of God and said I'm going to bring the labor of my own hands. Don't ever think that Cain's offering wasn't costly. Cain's offering cost, I believe, far more than Abel's offering.
Cain offered by the sweat of his brow.
But it never seemed to occur to him that that was the result of man's sin, that the fruit of this earth was the fruit of a cursed earth, the result of man's sin.
Cain's offering to God was costly, but he was going to offer based on his own merits and work.
We could go through the Old Testament and discover God's grace over and over again. That was God's grace that delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt. It was God's grace that brought them through the Red Sea and into the wilderness. You know, it's rather remarkable.
Did the did the manna become come before or after Sinai?
It came before God's provision for the wilderness.
The water from the rock, the manner from heaven.
They all came through His sovereign grace.
We get to Exodus chapter 19 and somehow I'm going to have to keep track of time. Exodus 19.
00:10:08
And that's where we get the giving of the law.
And.
The children in verse four. So Exodus 19 verse 4 You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore you obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant. Then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine.
In verse 8 and all the people answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken we will do.
Verse 9 The Lord sent to Moses. Lo, I come into the in a thick cloud.
That the people may hear what I speak with thee, and believe thee forever.
There was another verse, I thought. But anyway, up until Sinai.
It was God in His grace that had bared them on eagle's wings. But when they get to Sinai, God presents to them a law, and the people in the confidence of their flesh say, yes, all that you have said we will do.
And God takes up now with man on a different principle. He takes up with them on the basis of law.
Now I want to make it very clear, and again, this was mentioned in the meeting, the reading, the first reading meeting, that it could never have been said in the Old Testament that grace reigned.
We'll get to that shortly. But don't imagine that the God of the Old Testament.
Was not a God of grace. I mean, we know what happened the the golden cup, but the the the point that I read this this verse, I will come into the inner thick cloud.
God remained hidden in the Old Testament.
Mount Sinai itself was cloaked with cloud and fire and could not be approached unto.
God's revelation of Himself could not be complete in the Old Testament.
And even though God made no one.
A revelation of himself to the children of Israel. It necessarily had to be limited.
But we know that the golden calf came in and Moses smashed the first tablets.
So not even Israel in the Old Testament was taken up under pure law, because as was pointed out, it would have been necessary at that point to destroy them all. But we know that Moses intercedes for the people. And then basis of that intercession and on the basis of who the Lord is. Exodus 34, verse six, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.
On the basis of this revelation that God gives of himself.
Two new tablets are cut.
But where do they go?
In Deuteronomy 10 we find that in verse two I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tablets, which thou breakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark.
That simple box made of wood.
Covered in gold, upon the top of which was the mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled once a year.
Enabled God to look down upon Israel.
And show mercy to them. That ark is a picture to us of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And only because of that could God.
For bear with that nation.
I want to make clear that grace does not cover sin. Grace does not make light of sin. Grace does not overlook sin.
God could bear with Israel for bearer, because he could look down upon that blood on that mercy seat.
And see ahead to the cross of Christ and what it represented.
And that is the only reason why God could for bear with the Saints of the Old Testament is because of His anticipation of what was going to happen at Calvary's cross. So let's jump ahead now to Romans 3.
00:15:10
That's one thing I had meant to to to say, and I'll just return to it now. Why not?
I said that the first definition I gave of grace.
Has its focus in the wrong place. It has its focus on us.
It has been said that I'm going to read a definition. I think it comes from the Concise Bible Dictionary. A tremendous help, incidentally.
Grace refers more to the source and character of the sentiment, mercy to the state of the person who is this object. Grace may give me glory, but mercy contemplates some need in me. Mercy is great in the greatness of the need, grace in the thought of the person exercising it. The beauty of grace does not lie in the blessing that I get.
The beauty in grace lies in the one who dispenses the blessing.
So taking up the subject of grace brings before us one of the.
Beauties of God.
The expression of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It especially focuses us on the way grace has come to us through that work that He has accomplished for us on Calvary's cross. It's not a different grace to the grace of God, but it puts its focus on that work that He has accomplished. So as we think of these verses and as perhaps you leave this meeting, and hopefully it's not my words you take away with you, but an interest in the subject and trust, perhaps meditate on this subject of grace.
Your focus and my focus turns.
To a God who loved us, who gave his Son, who provides our every need.
So Romans chapter 3, the verse 3 chapters of Romans, God takes up with man and as it were puts him on trial and he finds both human Gentile.
In verse 10, there is none righteous. No, not one.
You know, the law didn't establish sin. Sin existed with or without law. But what law does is it imputes or puts to my accounts in what does that mean? I'm driving down the road. I drove here yesterday from Denver. And did I keep the speed limit? I'll let you work that one out.
You know, if there's no speed limit signs on the side of the road, I have a perfectly clear conscience. That doesn't mean that I'm not breaking the law. Don't ever imagine that if I'm driving 80 in a 75 zone, I'm breaking the law. I, I'm, I'm sinning whether I know it or not. But as soon as that 75 mile per hour sign comes into view, bam.
It's to my account. I've transgressed. I've transgressed the law. No getting away from it.
The law too.
Is that the law obviously stands in contrast to grace. These are two different principles that God takes up with man. Two different principles.
The law itself provides no power. I see that 75 mile per hour sign and my foot doesn't automatically start easing off on the accelerator. Why? I think to myself, five over. The cops will be merciful in Nebraska. I could probably do eight over. Let's go a little faster. So.
The law doesn't provide power. The Lord merely condemns without remedy.
It probes the heart of man to see if there's any righteousness there, and it demonstrates that man is utterly bankrupt.
We're not. Not every man needed to be tried. God took Israel, the chosen people, and He, as it were, set them in their promised land.
Provided for them all that they needed be tested man.
And as it were the best of circumstances, man's heart demonstrated that there was nothing in it for God, no righteousness. The law, as we all discover, is like a jailer. It condemns us and throws away the key.
00:20:02
There's nothing that it can do for me except to demonstrate that I'm a Sinner.
And so the law having accomplished its work, Paul takes that up, both Gentile and then Jew in that order in Romans 1-2 and three, and established there is none righteous, no, not one. What does God do at that point?
As Steve said in the next last meeting, he would have been righteous if he said I find none of you righteous. You're all condemned to an eternity in hell.
No, what does God do? He is now free.
He is now at liberty.
To show his grace, he says, look now what I can do for you.
And so let's just read a few verses, verse 20, Romans 3, verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For the by the law is the knowledge of sin. As I said, it just proves that I'm speeding. It doesn't fix me, doesn't change me, doesn't give me power to obey the speed limit. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest being witnessed by the law and the prophets, God is now going to demonstrate He looks for righteousness.
Man finds none, now he's going to show his righteousness, and how does he do it? Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of or in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and so on being justified freely by His grace.
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, he sends his Son.
Who pays that price for my sins? They're on Calvary's cross.
That's how he righteously justifies me. Justification is based on the blood of Christ.
I come into the good of it by faith, and the way of it is through grace, not law.
I'm going to have to move along.
But God doesn't just.
Address my guilt, He doesn't just address the sins that I've committed.
He also addresses who I am. And so when you get to Romans 5 in the middle of the chapter, the subject changes. It's no longer the things that I'm doing that he addresses, but now he takes up what I am, my sin nature and.
So he says in verse 17, for example, well.
I'm going to have to keep my comments short.
Verse 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. Adam was given a command, don't eat of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and Moses was clearly given the law. But everyone between Adam and Moses wasn't under a law or command, and yet what happened? They died.
Evidence of a sin nature within.
And how does God deal with that sin nature that's within why he does away with it completely.
Does away with it completely. He doesn't fix it. So grace, as I said at the beginning, God doesn't cover sin in grace. He doesn't just gratuitously forgive sin. Grace is not graciousness. Grace is not tolerance. As this world preaches. In grace, God dealt with my sins and also who I am by seeing me as being dead in Christ when Adam came into this world and Eve, Adam and Eve.
And they sinned. The effect was tremendous.
It wasn't just that Adams and Eve's descendants are now born in Adam and Eve's place. I I moved to this country from another country.
My children, where were they born?
They weren't born in Australia, they were born here.
I am born in Adams place. There's no getting around that. And so I am born in Adam's place, with Adam's nature at a distance from God. But Adam's sin doesn't just affect Adam's race, it affected all of creation. And creation groans, waiting, awaiting the redemption we have. If you believe you have redemption, creation's waiting for redemption.
00:25:01
God is going to reconcile.
All things unto himself, Colossians one you don't have to turn to, Colossians 1-2 Says.
Sorry, Colossians one and verse.
20 And having made peace with the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. By the way, be very careful to note that He reconciles things in earth and things in heaven. It never says He reconciles things under the earth, the infernal beings. Now if you were to turn to Philippians, it says there.
In chapter 2, verse 10, the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth. Everything infernal beings as well will bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. But don't ever think that God has reconciled sin.
God is not reconciled to sin, and he hasn't recognized sin unto himself. God has not even reconciled to man. God didn't need to be reconciled to anything.
It is we that needed reconciliation and it's through the blood of the cross.
So again, grace doesn't overlook sin, it deals with it by addressing it. But at the end of Romans 5 it says there that.
In verse 21, that a sin has sorry, I want to the verse before that, verse 20. Moreover, the law entered, or law entered law as a principle entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
So Adam sinned. The effect has been tremendous, but God, his grace has abounded, has super abounded.
Sin will not triumph.
In Ephesians one there's a verse in connection with grace. Remember, grace is about the one dispensing it more than the ones receiving it.
In Ephesians chapter one.
In verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of His grace is not the verse I'm thinking of, but there's a verse with grace.
It speaks of to the glory of His grace.
Someone helped me find it.
Verse six to the that's it. Thank you to the praise of the glory of his grace. All is to the praise of the glory of his grace.
So Romans 6 begins with a question, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? If grace is abounded, super abounded, over and above sin, man raises the question, Well then sin save grace is abound. And shall we know continue in the sin that grace may continue to abound? And Paul's answer, God forbid.
Grace is not for the flesh.
The law is for the flesh, Grace is not for the flesh. If the flesh takes up grace, the flesh will turn it into either legality or lasciviousness, one of the two. Grace is not for the flesh. That, remember, is seen as by God as being crucified with Christ. Grace doesn't just gloss over what I am by nature.
Says done with. It altogether sets me in a place of death.
So if I ask that question, who's asking it? It's not that new life that I have within.
It's the flesh, and as I said, the flesh will turn grace into lasciviousness. But God, Paul goes on to say, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
And.
Verse four. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of Father, Even so also we should walk in newness of life.
Verse 14.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye not under law, but under grace. The natural response of man's heart, when he finds that he.
That flesh is still very much alive within him is to try to control it by putting it under law.
And if we take that approach, we'll be like we will be the man in Romans 7. We'll discover that we have no strength within us, none whatsoever.
00:30:16
For sin shall not have dominion over for you, for you not under law, but under.
Grace God now in His.
Grace has provided us with a life with the indwelling of the Spirit of God.
We no longer need to live under the power of sin.
We have been delivered from the penalty of sin. We have also been delivered from the power of sin. And God in His grace is the one. The Lord didn't provide power. Grace provides the power to live in the good of it.
As a verse I want to touch on in Titus chapter 2.
There it says.
In verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world grace teaches us.
We look at what has been accomplished at Calvary's cross. We read what the apostle Paul has said in connection with what God the way God views us now as in Christ, and that that old nature is seen by him as dead and buried.
It would be entirely inconsistent, therefore, to go on practically in our lives, in the life of godlessness.
It would be completely inconsistent, but I would suggest this is no mere intellectual assessment of what God has done. As I said, God has given us a life within a life that sin cannot attach to.
And the indwelling of the Spirit of God. God in his grace has provided everything in his power for us now to live a life of godliness. Soberly, that is my own self-control within myself righteously, that is my conduct with each one of you and my coworkers and in this world and godly that is before God. God has given us in his grace the power now to do this. But grace is not something we.
Up, you know, the children of Israel, God, as I said, on eagle's wings, He brought them out of Egypt in grace. And where does He bring them?
Does he bring them into the land of Canaan? Well watered land with springs and rivers and corn and you name it, grapes, bunches so huge? No, no where does he bring them. He brings them into the wilderness.
We'll just say that's not grace. Oh yes, it is, because he provided the water, the food they needed.
But you know that man, I had to be picked up every morning. We cannot store up grace. If we could store up grace, we would store it up and then we would say, OK, God, I don't need you anymore. Go on in a path of independence. God wants us to be dependent on Him.
The divine power He gives to live our life for Him. We need to feed on it daily. We need to collect it daily.
Otherwise, we won't experience that grace in our lives. Your Grace is so intimately connected with our salvation that I often think that we.
Imagine it ends there. Oh, so God has saved us by grace.
But now I've got to take it on my own.
No, God's grace continues on. Let's look at first Peter.
Last chapter.
First Peter, the last chapter.
And.
Verse 10. There's so many references to grace I'm barely going to touch.
Touch them today. But verse 10, first Peter chapter 5, verse 10, the God of all grace. So now we've got the God of all grace.
00:35:04
Who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus? After ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, saddle you.
You know, the Jews were so familiar with earthly blessing as being a sign of God's approbation that the saved Jews really struggled with persecution. What could that mean? Maybe they made the wrong choice.
Maybe Jesus wasn't really the Messiah.
Every epistle that is addressed to the Jewish believers, Hebrews, James, Peter, all take up this subject of suffering.
Because, as I said, the Jew who had experienced famine, who had experienced.
Their enemies taking their land, who had been under the subjection of the Romans, and so on, and as a result of their sin and failure, certainly in the Old Testament viewed.
Suffering as being a sign of God's disapproval. And so suffering was something they struggled with. But we know that for ourselves. When the Lord was here, He told us that we would experience suffering. It was and is a normal part of the Christian life. And the more that we walk for him, the more we'll experience him.
Whether it be for the name of Christ?
As some of you have no doubt experienced in preaching the gospel, or whether it be simply because of our walk as a testimony before the world, it says in John 15. Again, no need to turn to it.
Verse 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they are persecuted, me there shall also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will also they, they, and so on. There's a verse, there's a quote that I'm going to read it. It is by Mr. Darby, but that is just for in case you want to look it up. There is not a trial or difficulty that Christ has not passed through before me and found his resource in God the Father.
He will supply the needed grace to my heart. So God doesn't just saved us by grace, but He provides that grace to go on in our wilderness journey here, the God of all grace.
Paul tells Timothy, Timothy who was a somewhat fearful and timid individual in Second Timothy, when we have the things decaying and declension falling apart, the church and ruin, he says, therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It's the only thing that's going to give us strength every time that we try to take up things in our own strength.
We will discover failure. Even Paul had to learn that with his speech with with the thorn in the flesh, rather that he had he prayed three times.
And the Lord had to remind, tell him, and He had to learn. My grace, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness.
So last thing I want to end on There are three epistles written by the Apostle Paul that end in a similar fashion.
And the first one is Galatians.
And the I'll read it to you and then I'll explain. So the last verse of Galatians says, brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit.
And each of the four I'm going to read in somewhat simile the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. That's a little S Now I said that grace is not graciousness. Grace is not tolerance as this world would preach. Grace is not overlooking sin.
But graciousness surely is the fruit of grace. If I understand what Christ has done for me, then I can be gracious to my brethren.
Why? Because I overlooked their failings? Well, yes, because Christ has paid the price for them.
Not because I'm indifferent to sin and doesn't mean that we as brethren should be indifferent to sin. That's quite a different thing. And to use grace as an excuse for sin is turning grace effectively into the lasciviousness. But here the Galatians were being pulled back under law. Like Peter is a wilderness book. They're on a journey through wilderness. The inheritance is something in heaven that's laid up for them.
00:40:08
And the Galatians, they were going along nicely in this wilderness journey.
But verse seven of chapter 5 says he did run well. Who did hinder you? And I think the new translation says you ran well. Who has stopped you? And it's the thought of cutting in, cutting into line. You know, we line up for dinner here and we're all nice people. So no one cuts in. But you know, that's not the way of the world and that's not the way of Satan. He was cutting in and they were being turned aside by Judaizing teachers and being put back under law. They needed to be restored back.
To Grace.
Grace, the law is not going to keep you. As I said earlier, I don't want to repeat my words. The time is short.
It's only when we live in the power of what God has provided in His grace can we go on for Him.
Law is not all it's going to produce is bickering and fighting and and all the things that are mentioned in Galatians 5. Now the next one is Philippians. Now the Philippians were an assembly, a completely different situation. The book of Philippians doesn't take up sin. It doesn't say moral sin. It doesn't take up doctrinal era, ecclesiastical era. It considers a normal assembly and the normal assembly.
There are trials, there's conflict, there's friction.
And one particular example is mentioned in Philippians in the 4th chapter. But I know that some feel that was the crux of it, the root of it. I am inclined to disagree. It was just a outward manifestation of it.
It's very easy in assembly to say, well they are the problem.
Everyone, every chapter of Philippians, addresses this, hints at or addresses this conflict that occurs naturally between us as brethren. And how does the epistle end?
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Brethren, we cannot get along without the grace of God. Now remember, as a mini assembly overlooks or is indifferent to wickedness in its midst, that's not great.
Grace hasn't covered freely covered my sin. I just want to address that word freely. Freely doesn't mean free. That comes from that verse I read in Romans 3.
It was.
Justified.
I.
Where was it?
Being justified freely by His grace, that word freely doesn't mean free.
It was not free. It is to me. It was not free to God.
It cost him the utmost. That word freely, if you look it up, means undeservedly.
Means we didn't deserve it. It means unmerited. We didn't merit it. God's grace.
So anyway, back to subject again, Philippians. They needed the grace of God to continue on. That's not an excuse for an assembly not to address.
Matters of evil in their midst or even difficulties. It's interesting in Philippians it says in verse three, I entreat thee also, that's singular. There was one person that Paul was singling out who knew who he was or she was and he says, I entreat you.
True York fellow. I think it's probably a male. You'd have to look at the Greek to see the the gender of the verb. The words help those women.
There was someone that was failing there in that assembly to doing to stepping in and helping address this problem.
The next epistle.
Is the ends with this way is Second Timothy and I already touched a little bit on that Second Timothy things were in decline.
And Timothy was in danger of being overcome, not with wickedness, but just fatigue, discouragement. It's very easy to be overcome with a discouragement.
You know, whenever we take up things in our own strength, you're going to end up discouraged because you will not succeed.
Discouragement. It affected Elijah. It affect David. You can turn to so many of the Saints of the Old Testament to find how they were turned aside, at least for a time, by discouragement.
00:45:05
And how does the end of the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy Spirit? Grace be with you? Timothy needed the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to go on. And then the last one is by Lehman. Philemon is a very short book. It is really a letter of commendation. The apostle Paul is commending an SMS who was a slave who had run away from his master.
And stolen from him. He ran away as an unsaved individual.
He got saved and somehow Paul, he and Paul's pods intersected and he got saved and Paul said now the right thing to do an SMS is you go back to your master. But I'm going to send a letter with you.
And in this letter, he addresses Philemon, who was an SMS's former master. How would Philemon respond?
And he says in verse 25, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit. Amen.
Is he asking Philemon to be indifferent?
To Anesthesia's behavior, no, he says. An SMS is not coming back to you as the same man. He's coming back as a saved individual, as a brother in Christ. And if he stole from you, put it to my account, I'll take care of it.
But Philemon was truly going to need the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, when it uses that expression, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is emphasizing the way in which we have come into the good of that grace. He was going to need the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to respond well to this man that was about coming, knocking at his door. Imagine it, opens the door, sees his former slave.
Knew what he was like, Knew that he stole from him.
How would we respond?