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1:20Well, this morning I want to talk to you about the thermopoly of your soul. The thermopoly of your soul. Are you know what the thermopoly is? Now, if this was generations ago, or maybe history buffs, they would know what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the monopoly of your soul, but it rhymes with monopoly. Monopoly is a board game, as you know, and that may be, and Christ is to have the monopoly and the affections of your life, but that's a whole different sermon. I want to talk to you about the thermopoly of your soul.

2:00You can think of it as the alamo of the ancient East, the Alamo of Greece. See if I can give you a little history. I have to explain the analogy, but it is very relevant to what we're talking about today. Go back to the fifth century BC, and it's the Persian Empire that is on the world scene. It has dominated East and West, it has conquered Babylon, it has conquered northern Africa, the Holy Land areas of Turkey, and was into areas of Greece, wanting to expand further and to conquer all of Greece. And Thermopylae is actually a little place. You can look at where Athens is in Thermopylae, there to the north.

3:00A little pass, an area in this little pass that's right up to a mountain and right next to the sea. And it's there that the Persians gathered. And it was a few years back, about ten years before that, that the Grecian forces stopped the advance of the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. And then, under Xerxes I, the Persian Empire again launches an all-out assault on Greece, wanting to take it. The forces at the Battle of Thermopylae, according to Herodotus, were over 2 million.

3:52Many historians don't agree with that number and say it was certainly several hundred thousand. But it's at Thermopylae that a band of 300 Spartans and a handful of other Greek forces came together to stay or to push back these massive forces of the Persian Empire. Conservative estimates would be they were outnumbered 50 to 1. If you went with Herodotus' number, it's somewhere 500 to 1. But the geography is important. Because what it is, is it represents this little narrow pass from which the Persians advanced. And if they lost this position, they would lose the mainland. It's a very important pass.

4:54And Leonidas and his Spartans led this effort. It's 300, and maybe they had amassed somewhere around 5,000, 7,000 men. But it's one of the most famous last stands in human history. Like I said, we can think of the Battle of Thermopylae as the Alamo of ancient Greece. It is, and no doubt, this certainly played a role and was the battle cry playing into the role of the rise of Alexander the Great, who would go and then destroy the Persian Empire. But here's what I want you to take away: it's here that this battle had to be fought. It's a narrow pass, a gateway into all the territory of Greece.

5:54By the way, this is why gunpowder was invented by a bunch of Chinese nurses. They realized, hey, I'm not going down there. So, nerds do rule the world. But the point I'm trying to bring out here is: whatever controls this pass controlled the territory. If you think about what human existence is, it's this epic battle between the gospel of God's grace and the legions of the different gospels that come against it. What are you going to accept as truth about God?

6:43What are you going to let into your heart of hearts about the truth of God? This is the most important thing about you. Your view of God is the most important thing about you. And I want to talk to you this morning about the thermopoly of your soul, that pass. What are you going to let in? What are you going to give up control? That if you lose control, it in fact impacts every aspect of your life.

7:14Who or what are you going to allow to shape your view of God? Are you going to let the Bible? Are you going to let the gospel that the Bible proclaims, or are you going to let it be something else? So we've been looking at Paul and Barnabas went into the area of Galatia and they proclaimed the gospel of God's grace, good news of God's favor. So what we spent looking at Acts 13 and 14. They went and they proclaimed it. It was embraced. Churches were planted. Lives were changed.

7:56They planted churches according to the gospel of grace, set them off on a trajectory of growth in that grace. And then when we come to the book of Galatians, Paul is going to defend the gospel of grace. Galatians is a book that's all about the gospel, the gospel of grace. You remember looking back at verse 1? Let me just read just to bring you up to speed so that we're connecting this with what came before. Galatians 1:1, Paul, an apostle, not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. And all the brethren 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, so that he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.

9:03As I said previously, this opening, these first few verses, provide a nutshell of the gospel that Paul and Barnabas preached in Galatia. Grace and peace come from God. That grace and peace come through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of his people in order to deliver them from the evil age, so that he may live for the glory of God. Before moving on, I just want to bring this back up to your mind: the nature of this salvation, grace and peace. What is the source of salvation? God's grace. Grace. His unearned favor. That is the source. Grace alone.

9:56What is the result of salvation? Peace. Peace with God. Peace on a vertical plane. Peace on a horizontal plane. Peace with God. Peace with each other, especially in the body of Christ. And peace and even love toward enemies. Grace and peace. Grace with God. Grace among humanity. Peace with humanity. Peace with God. Peace with humanity. And an inward peace. Vertically, horizontally. And inwardly. Grace alone is what brings this peace about. There is no other source. It flows from God. Look back at verse 4, who gave himself for our sins. His grace is most vividly displayed on the cross of Jesus Christ. It was Christ who became a sin sacrifice for us.

10:55Later, Paul is going to explain that in verse chapter 3 and verse 3. He became a curse for us. That was the work of the cross. Jesus Christ became a curse for us. It is by grace alone. This salvation is in Christ alone. Look also at verse 4, so that he might rescue us from this present evil age. The purpose for Christ's crosswork wasn't only forgiveness of sins, but it was to release us from a state of bondage to our own pursuits, to our own ways, to the sin and decay that is in the world.

11:36His crosswork frees us from that, brings us into a state of another kind of living, a kind of living that is for Christ's glory. That is true living. To him be the glory forevermore. Look at verse 5. This gospel was good news then. It is good news now. It was good. Embraced with great joy in Galatia. Lives were changed, churches planted, people were growing in Christ's likeness, they were living to exalt Christ. Grace alone, in Christ alone, for his glory alone. Sounds familiar? Yes, this is the gospel. This is the gospel that if you take scripture alone as the authority, this is where it takes you.

12:28And the central truth of this gospel is that this favor, grace, this favor of God is a gift. It is not something that we can purchase. It's not something you have to purchase. It is something that God gives. It's according to his person. See, this peace with God comes from God, but it's not through the law of Moses, but through faith in Jesus Christ. It is through faith alone, grace alone, in Christ alone, for his glory alone, through faith alone.

13:11I hope that sounds very familiar to you, because this is the summary of the biblical teaching upon salvation. As you remember in our introductory series, that the gospel triumphed over every external opposition in Galatia. And there were many oppositions to contradict the message, opposition to destroy the messengers. However, there was another threat. We looked at that threat last time in Acts 15, a threat that attacked the gospel from the inside. There were those attacks that came from the outside, but then there are those attacks that come from the inside, inside the church. There are attacks that are going to come inside your mind in the evil dialoguings of your heart that will come against this gospel of grace. And there you must fight for the truth of God's word in the very core of your being. You remember that threat in Acts 15? You remember in Acts 15:1 says this: Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren: unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. You cannot be saved unless you obey Moses. Well, as we looked at last time, the Jerusalem Council met and said unequivocally, that's a false doctrine.

14:47And so you would think that with such a strong statement from the Jerusalem Council, from the Jerusalem church, that this would end this threat of turning to Moses or the Mosaic. Law as a necessary means to gain favor with God? Well, it didn't. The threat took on a more subtle form. There was the threat that said you can't be saved unless you obey Moses. Then that threat morphed to say, yes, okay, it is salvation is by grace alone, but to grow in God's favor, you must now obey the Mosaic law. So, obedience to the law, so that you can continue pleasing God. You must keep it up. In other words, God laid a good, or Christ laid a good foundation for you, but you and Moses need to keep it up. Now, you need to take it from here.

15:50You begin in faith, but you need to be completed in works. Faith gets us started, but we must continue working to gain and to keep and maintain God's favor. But this brings up the core issue: What is the basis of God's favor? What is the catalyst of God's favor upon your life? Listen, God's favor is everything. Is God's favor toward you? And this is something, getting the battle pass of your heart. Do you think that? God's favor on your life is something that must be brought about by your attractiveness to him?

16:38Or is it something that freely flows out of him? In other words, is Christ, is God's favor on your life the result of the fact that you're already living for God's glory? Or do you think it's the cause of why you want to live for God's glory? It's a very important concept. What is really going on in your soul? Do you think you must live for his glory before he likes you? Or do you think God loves you regardless? And I think many of you, if you've been in this church for a while, you know what the right answer is. But you'll leave here today and you'll go out and you'll live according to a doctrine of works and rather than in God's grace. Many of you will leave here today completely forgetting because you really haven't surrendered this important pass of your soul to the doctrine, to the gospel of God's grace. And so you will be able to say, yes, it's by grace, it's all of grace, it's grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. But you'll leave here and you'll live as if you have to go out and maintain God's. Favor.

18:08This is the threat to the gospel of grace that Paul addresses in Galatians. It's interesting that it's Paul, one of the strictest of Pharisees, that's going to step in and be this champion for the doctrine of salvation by grace and justification by faith. That's what the gospel, that's what Galatians is all about. And so Paul is going to start defending the gospel of grace, the gospel that he preached in Galatia. And first, he's going to look at the uniqueness or the singularity of this gospel of grace. And that's what we're going to spend our time this morning, is just looking at the singularity of the gospel, the gospel of grace, so that you will understand there is no other gospel, and that's so that you will not embrace any other gospel other than the gospel of grace that Paul proclaimed in Galatia. It's a matter of history. So, first of all, the gospel's singularity is seen. And that to desert the gospel is to desert God himself. To desert the gospel, Paul preached in Galatia is to desert God himself. Look at verse 6. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel.

19:52Out of the supply of his grace, he called you, and now you are deserting him. You know, one of the unique features about Galatians is that Paul does not start with any words of praise or any words of thanksgiving, but words of admonition. Amazed. It says, I am amazed. Literally, he's saying, I am marveling. I am just sitting here watching this, and I am marveling. I am just dumbfounded by what is going on. I am marveling. I am marveling. Why is he marveling? Because people are quickly turning away from the gospel. They are transferring their allegiance away from the gospel that Paul preached. They are deserting. That's the idea. You are deserting. You are changing your allegiance to something else. You're changing, transferring your allegiance. It's the idea we get turncoat from, a traitor. You are turning away your allegiance from this commander-in-chief to another commander-in-chief.

21:01For a different gospel. Notice that. That's what's amazing him. You're turning quickly to another gospel, to a different gospel. And this different gospel refers to anything other than the one already proclaimed. Look at Paul saying: to desert the gospel is to desert the one that he's already preached. He's already proclaimed it. And they're not giving much thought to it. They're just leaving it. And this is what is marveling, causing Paul to marvel. And he goes on, and it's very explicit that he marvels for a couple of reasons. A couple of reasons. First of all, Paul is marveling because of the magnitude of the one whom they are deserting. Look back at verse 6. Notice that they didn't just defect from a theological position, but they defected from a person. I am amazed that you were so quickly deserting him, him, him who called you. Notice they departed from the one who called them. So the gospel that Paul preached in Galatia amounted to a call, the preaching of God's favor, as it is today. Day is a call for you to come under that favor. That's why it is proclaimed.

22:39It is God who is calling people through the grace of Christ to come under his favor, eternal life. But what's getting Paul is like, why would you leave him? Why would you have all for that which is nothing? As he'll go on. But they are departing from the God of grace as if he didn't exist. They're departing. And this is marveling, causing Paul to marvel. There's a second reason why Paul is marveling. And this deals with the nothingness of all other religious systems. Look at who you are leaving. And I'm marveling just at who you're leaving, and I'm marveling at what you are turning to. Look at verse 7, which is really not another different gospel. It's really not another gospel. Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. What is Paul saying? All other so-called gospels are not really gospels at all. They are distortions of the true gospel. They are turning the gospel upside down. It's the idea.

24:00You see, the greatest threat to the gospel is not from the outside of those who contradict it or those who mock it, but from the inside for those who change it. That's the greatest threat to the gospel, is changing it from the inside. And there's only wolves in sheep clothing that can come in and change the gospel from the inside. And Paul is like, look, all other gospels, so-called gospels, are not gospels. All other religions are not good news. That's a little exclusive, doesn't it? This is what Paul is saying.

24:40They are not good news at all. All other gospels, in some way, shape, or form, you have to maintain God's favor. You have to earn God's favor by moral output. And that, to Paul, is just not good news at all. And for those who really understand yourself well, you know that's not good news. Hopefully, by now, you recognize I cannot earn, nor can I keep up with all of this. I cannot keep up by my output to please, to, by my output, to earn that favor. That favor has to be granted.

25:27Notice what they're doing. They're distorting the gospel. Disturbing. They are some who are disturbing you. You know what disturbing means? It means to throw into confusion. They are stirring up, they are unsettling souls, and they're agitating the waters within the church, throwing it into confusion. And that's what they do with their distortion of the gospel. Why are they doing all this? Because they want to distort the gospel. Look at verse 7. They want to distort the gospel of Christ. They don't like the gospel of Christ. They don't like this concept of God's favor so easily given.

26:13And so, what do they do? They throw out the doctrinal debate. They want people taking sides, and they seem to thrive in the confusion, and they thrive in the doctrinal debate, and they thrive to get people on one side or the other, throw them at odds with each other. And what they're after is to get that upper hand, or maybe I should say upper tongue, because they want to get and convince people to not only abandon the theological position, but the God who is behind that theological position, the God of grace. That's what's going on. And that is the way of false teachers.

26:57Listen, a theological position is inevitably. Connected to a person behind it. And all false gospels are connected to the enemy of light, the enemy of truth. But the true gospel is connected to the God of grace. That's the way of false teachers. They come in to trouble people with the intent to change the gospel. And some just get caught up in it quickly. Oh, that sounds good. And go. So we should recommend, we should recognize this.

27:37This is the way defection happens. This is why denominations have gone the way they have. So we need to defend the church. We also need to be mindful that when we're dealing with non-essential gospel discussions, let's not get all amped up like Paul is here. Paul is getting amped up about the gospel and the gospel truths. He's not getting amped up about secondary issues. Christ crucified, Christ resurrected, Christ exalted. These are the doctrines that communicate who God is and how we are to think about Him and how we are to relate to Him. These are primary gospel issues.

28:24You see, the greatest threat to the church, as I said earlier, doesn't come from outsiders who ridicule. But from insiders who change. John Stott comments: Many evangelists of later generations have been similarly astonished and distressed to see how quickly, how readily converts relax their hold of the gospel, which they seem to have so firmly embraced. It is, as Paul writes in Galatians 3:1, as if someone has bewitched them, cast a spell over them. And this is, in fact, the case. The devil disturbs the church as much by error as by evil. When he cannot entice Christian people into sin, he deceives them with false doctrine. See, the problem with the distorted gospel is that people abandon God.

29:29An abandonment of the gospel is inevitably an abandonment of God Himself. Do you really believe the God of grace exists? Let's go back to that thermopylae of your soul, that narrow past. What do you really believe? Well, the first emotion, as we come to in this letter, Paul shows us is his amazement. The second is going to be indignation. Indignation. Look back at verse 8. Look at this next emotion. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. Notice what Paul is saying.

30:29He's again announcing the singularity of the gospel. The singularity is, first of all, seen in that to desert the gospel is to desert God Himself. Second, all other gospels are really not gospels, but distortions of the true gospel. About that in verse 7. And third, all preachers of all other gospels are under a curse. Look at what he said, that's what he just said. All other proclamations of any other message, regardless of what this preacher is or where he comes from, all of them, all other gospels and all other preachers are under a curse. Now, that sounds like the gospel is only one gospel.

31:23And that's what Paul is advocating so strongly and why he's willing to jump in the middle of this. Pass and fight whatever forces are coming because all others are accursed. That's what he says. They are accursed in a state of being cursed. To be cursed is to be that which is most detestable. It's like Achan being under the ban, Jericho. There is no other gospel. And it's regardless of who preaches it. And that's what Paul is saying. Look, it doesn't matter if Michael the archangel comes in here and preaches to you a gospel, something other than what was preached to you in Galatia. He is accursed. He must be accursed. Because there is no other gospel. There is no other good news that comes from God. He says, and it doesn't matter if another apostle comes here, even Peter, if Peter himself is in here. Oh, he's going to deal with that in chapter 2. Because Peter is going to come in and start advocating a different gospel. And Paul is going to oppose him to his face. That's what Paul is saying. But notice he's not just taking on, he's not just mad at everybody for his own domain's sake because he includes himself in there. But if we, if for whatever reason, I start proclaiming a different gospel, I too, under this. Curse. He includes them all. Includes them all. You see what he's saying? The gospel. The truth that had already been proclaimed to them is the standard.

33:13It's something that cannot be altered. What he proclaimed in Acts 13 and 14 cannot be altered without somebody coming under the curse. That's how sure he was of his message. And there are skeptics out there that say, well, Paul developed his message. No, he didn't. He couldn't. He laid it out. Any gospel other than what he proclaimed there is the gospel. And he didn't change it. He stays with it. You'll see this in Romans. You'll see this in all of his writings. He understood his commission. He understood the one he had once fought against. He understood Christ. He understood Old Testament doctrine. And he went on to teach, preach, and deliver.

34:05Paul is jealous for the glory of Christ and for the salvation of human souls. And when you pervert the gospel, you trash the glory of Christ and you harm human souls. The primary means to Please God is through faith in God's grace as revealed in Jesus Christ, not in one's own ability to obey the law. He's going to say in Galatians 5, 3, and I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. So what he's saying is if you start to obey part of the law, you're obligated to it all. And he says this in Galatians 5, 4, you have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the law. You have fallen from grace, for we, through the Spirit by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. He's saying by falling by grace, you're not fallen. It's not somebody who's been saved and then stops being saved. That's our modern thinking of the understanding of grace. No, what Paul is saying, you have fallen from this gospel of grace. You have left the whole principle of the gospel and the doctrines of grace. If you go back to the law, and what he's stressing is that the means to please God is through faith in God's grace as displayed in his Son. Do you really believe God's favor is upon you? Evidence by your creation, evidence by the work of Jesus Christ. Do you really believe God's favor is upon you?

35:59Respond. In faith. Because there isn't good news anywhere else. Fourth, the gospel singularity is seen in that Christ's bondservants please God by proclaiming the true gospel and nothing else. Christ's bondservants please God by proclaiming the true gospel and nothing else. Look at verse 10. For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

36:42Perhaps what's happening, some of his adversaries are accusing him of lowering the bar to let Gentiles into the synagogues in order to please men. Of course, Paul is to him such, he says, that's a really ridiculous notion. You remember what Paul endured when he first preached the gospel. You remember? He was contradicted. He was rejected. He was hunted down. He was stoned. It's like Paul saying, Look, guys, if I'm really seeking to please men, I'm not really doing a good job of it. What he's saying is like, I wouldn't be a bondservant to Christ.

37:27And notice what he says, if I were still. Trying to please men. Speaking like as if in one time he really did, and he was going to go launch into his whole history as a Pharisee of Pharisees. There was a time when he was striving, and that he goes, Look, I'm not trying to please men anymore, I'm trying to please Christ. When Paul first preached the gospel and endured all that he had to do, he did so because he was serving Christ, not men.

38:01Matthew 6:24 says, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. And that's exactly what Paul understands. You cannot serve as your highest principle Christ and something else. There is no mixture. There is one. In fact, that principle can also apply here in this situation. One cannot serve a mixture of law and grace as the ultimate ruler, either.

38:40Luther states this well. For either Christ must remain and the law perish, or the law must remain and Christ perish. For Christ and the law can by no means agree and reign together in the same conscience. Where the righteousness of the law Law rules, there cannot the righteousness of grace rule. For one of them must give place to the other. And if you cannot believe that God will forgive your sins for Christ's sake, how then will you believe that He will forgive your sins for the works of the law, which you could never perform, or for your own works, which be such as it is impossible for them to countervail the judgment of God?

39:32Don't get me wrong, don't get Paul wrong. The law is good. The law is indeed good. It calls people to the standard of God's righteousness. It embodies God's righteousness. However, it cannot impart that righteousness to others. Only Christ can do that. Only Christ can impart the righteousness of God. The righteousness that's reflected in the law. But it has no power to impart that law. Only Christ can do that. And if you'll put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, he will do that this morning for you.

40:15The gospel proclaimed. Now, think about this. The gospel that's been proclaimed in Galatia is now a matter of history. It is now the standard by which all ministries are to be judged. What Paul is saying is, look, the content of the gospel is not validated by the messenger. He says, I don't care who the messenger is, whether an angel, whether a great apostle, that's not what validates the gospel. The content of the gospel is not validated by the messenger. Rather, the reverse is true. The character of the messenger is validated by the gospel they proclaim.

40:58You see the difference? It's the character of the messenger that is validated by the gospel. Not the gospel validated by the messenger. Well, the gospel's singularity is seen in that to desert the gospel Paul preached in Galatia is to desert God Himself. It is seen that all other gospels are really not gospels but distortions of the true gospels. It's seen in that all preachers of all other gospels are under a curse. It's seen in that Christ's bondservants please God by proclaiming the true gospel and nothing else. Very exclusive, isn't it? There is only one gospel, there is only one message.

42:00That's going to land you safe on heaven's shore. And that is the gospel. Christ crucified, Christ resurrected, Christ exalted. Very exclusive. The only way into God's eternal favor is faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, it's there, but do you have belief? All other religions are under God's curse. That's not a very popular message today, is it? But that's what Paul is saying. It's like he's in that narrow pass, fighting for the truth of Scripture, the truth of grace alone. Listen, we thrive under grace. We don't do well under law, as if we have to earn favor.

42:55Very exclusive gospel. All other religions, all other gospels that depart from the gospel of grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone, for the glory of God alone, are under a curse. But on the other hand, it's very inclusive in that it invites all to come into it. This is the one way into God's eternal favor, is to respond to the favor that is displayed. The cross of Jesus Christ. To disbelieve the gospel of Jesus Christ is to disbelieve the God who gave it.

43:43And it's in this way we relate to him by faith. This morning I wanted you to see the singularity of the gospel of grace so that you will not entertain another. Spurgeon said it well like this: Justification by faith is the thermopoly of Christianity. It is there that the battle must be decided by hand-to-hand fight. If that narrow pass be once carried by the enemy, then the whole of our bulwarks may be stormed. But as long as that fort is held fast, the rest of the truths of the gospel will be maintained. So it is with Christianity as a whole, so it is with this church, and so it is with you individually.

44:35What Paul confronted in the book of Galatians is the false notion that it's necessary for a person to earn the favor of God. Don't distort the gospel. Don't change the gospel. Even in your own heart, don't, especially in your own heart, don't change the gospel to a look what I have done, system. No, the gospel is a look what God has done system. Therein you will find peace. But if you go down a road of look what I have done, God, you will never find peace. That is not good news because you'll never measure up. But if you go down the gospel of grace that says, look at what God has done, you'll experience a life that is so worth living. A life that wants to please God, not as a means to earn his favor, but as an expression of love. I'm no longer under law. I am under the obligation to love him who loved me first.

45:49And that shows up in my conformity to him. I am accepted and will be accepted into heaven because I belong to Christ and because of what he has done. Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ this morning? If you do not, you're invited to even right now, as you hear me speak, to cry out to him and ask him to forgive you of your sins and to place his spirit in you, joining you to Christ forever. Christ crucified, Christ resurrected, and now you can live.

46:25Christ exalted. You see, Christianity is not about living under the legalistic stipulations to the Mosaic law. We do not have to earn or maintain God's favor by obedience to law either before we were saved or after we are saved. We are to continue in that grace. What is Christianity about? It's about learning to favor the one who favors me. It's about learning to favor him above all other things and competitors in my life, favoring him above all others because he has favored me. It's what responding to him is about.

47:08This is what loving the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind looks like. We seek Christ's conformity out of a love for him because that love has been created in us because of his grace, the work of his son. And so now I live that I may exalt him with all that I have because of his grace, not to earn it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow our hearts before you, recognizing that this is that place, that narrow pass.

48:01The gospel, may it rule in our hearts. May we guard the paths carefully that would suggest to us any other truths than the gospel of grace and the work of your son. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.