Together, I'd like tonight to invite you to turn, if you will, in the New Testament to the book of Galatians. We want to read the opening ten verses of chapter one as we begin our thoughts this evening. And for this evening's study together, I would like to slightly modify the theme that I've been working with you. We've been talking about avoiding the pitfalls of growing older in the faith, and tonight I'd like to modify that theme to avoiding the pitfall of thinking you're growing older in the faith. And specifically, I'm going to coin a phrase tonight that I will hope to explain as we study the scriptures together. We'd like to ponder the pitfall, avoiding the pitfall of being gospelized. It's my own word. I don't know that it's a good one, but I'll try to define it this evening as we ponder the scriptures together. Avoiding the pitfall of being gospelized. Galatians chapter one. 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, that he might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. To him be glory forevermore. Amen. I'm amazed that you were so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another. Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which you have, we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you receive, let him be accursed. 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. Let's end our reading there. Again, seek God's blessing. Father, we want to quiet our hearts again in your presence. We need your gracious ministry to us by your word and by your spirit, and for this we wait in this evening hour, in Jesus' name. Amen. Gospel message is a glorious message. There's nothing like it in all the world. But the passage we've read together indicates to us that even in the first century there were problems relating to the gospel message. Uh, just a little bit of background here in this Galatian epistle. There are two main problems that seem to be working in the province of Galatia that Paul deals with in this chapter. One, in the early, in this book, in the early chapters he deals with the corruption of the gospel through legalism, and in the later chapters he deals with the corruption of teaching for Christian life through legalism. You see, legalism spoils both the message of the gospel and the teaching of the scripture concerning maturity. It can scramble up both the message that draws men and women to Christ and the teaching of the scripture that leads people on to Christian maturity, both are potentially contaminated by legalism. And Paul, in the introductory statement in this first chapter of Galatians, rushes right into the first of these two problems, and he uses language that is strong indeed. He talks about being accursed, being made anathema, which means literally to be forever relegated to a lost condition beyond the parameters of grace and salvation. Strong language to suggest that some people, because they corrupt the gospel, should be accursed. Now, there's a statement made here, and in the King James Version, it appears, uh, so literally that some people think Paul is doing a double talk when he says in verse six that you have been moving away to another gospel, which is not another. Some people say, wait a minute, what's going on here? Is Paul double talk? No. In the Greek New Testament, there are two words for another, allos and heteros. One word means another of the same kind, the other means another of a different kind, and Paul uses both of these words here. They're both properly translated another in English, because we don't have the distinctive term. But what he says is, you have departed into another gospel of a different kind, heteros, which is not another gospel of the same kind, allos. And what he is saying is this, there is only one gospel message, and anything that differs from that is heteros. And those who proclaim such a different gospel should be accursed. That's strong language. But it was a problem in the first century because the Judaizers who mixed Old Testament Judaism with New Testament Christian teaching were corrupting the gospel by adding works and circumcision and other factors into the gospel message, and Paul is speaking against that very, very strongly in the Galatian letter. I think that all through the history of the church, that there have been various ways in which we have scrambled up the gospel issue. I'm sure, in the most cases, not intentionally. I- I'm not sure why, unless it's just our human propensity and part of the spiritual conflict. But I'd like to suggest tonight, as we ponder the message before us, and I don't know if it is a message. I don't know whether I have a message for you tonight or a burden. But I do think that there are certain things with regard to the proclamation of the gospel among us that lead to individuals thinking they are saved, and they've fallen into the pitfall of growing older, merely thinking they are saved. And I'd like to just comment on a few of these as we think together this evening. It's one of the problems of the gospel in our day. And these appear, as I see it, in what I would call paradoxes. Issues that seem to be, uh, strangely different, and yet they are necessarily tied together. And I'd like to just mention them, and and hopefully with a bit of your understanding and some thought to these, uh, you will share with me a concern. And if there are any of you here who have fallen into the pitfall of merely thinking you are saved, it is my prayer this evening that the Spirit of God will be able to speak to you and awaken you regarding that, perhaps the most desperate of all, pitfall. The first issue I'd like to talk about is the issue of complaining about hearing the gospel too much, and yet at the same time asking preachers to preach to saints and saints. Now, I don't want to kick sacred cows this evening. I want to express my concerns about the gospel. Keith has already dealt with this, and I want to ratify what Keith has said. I'm amazed when I hear so much complaint about hearing the gospel again and again. The hymn we sang tonight was at my request, because I think it expresses the heart of a true believer in the later verses, and it expresses to us some of the values of telling another the old, old story again and again and again. Did you notice the last verse, tell me the old, old story if you have cause to fear that this world's empty glory is costing me too dear? You know, Peter says in his first epistle, like newborn babes, desire the spiritual mouth, the the pure mouth of the word. Now, I realize that when the writer of the Hebrews in chapter five writes to the people that he had in mind, he scolded them and he said, look, by this time you ought to be teachers of the word, but you're still sucking on a bottle. Now grow up. That's a paraphrase. And there's something to be said about that too. And I've heard of people who leave this assembly and go to this assembly, and you go as an elder to visit, and what, well, it wasn't meeting my needs anymore, and I want to shake them and say, look, you've been saved for thirty five years. What do you mean meeting your needs? At this point in life, you ought to be concerned about ministering to others. Has your bottle gotten too cold? I'm sorry. Here's a warmer. Here's a little entertainment to jazz it up a little bit. No, by this time, you ought to be teaching others, says the writer of the... But Peter's taking a different tack. In his first epistle, he does not scold people for desiring the milk of the word. In fact, it's an imperative. It's a command. Like newborn babes, desire the milk of the word. When we get to the point that we think we are beyond hearing the simple truths of the gospel, I submit to you that we've got a very fundamental spiritual problem. A very fundamental spiritual problem. We can get very used to the idea of being saved, as Pete, as Keith reminded us, we can become too accustomed to the idea of being forgiven. The story is told of dear old General Booth, a great man of God who founded the Salvation Army. And one time in his later years, after his work had become mature, on a very prestigious occasion, uh, he was asked at a very public occasion, a banquet of some kind. I've forgotten the details now. Uh, the, the MC asked him, said, uh, General Booth, if you could choose anything, anything, anything to put together the ideal training program for the officers in the Salvation Army, what would you do? And then everybody sat back and expected the old gentleman to give them a one-hour discourse on an elaborate training program for officers for the Salvation Army. The dear old man stood up and quietly spoke to them, and he said, if I could choose one thing, I would have each of them spend five minutes in hell. And he sat down. Do you see the point? It's awfully easy to become accustomed to the idea of being forgiven. Peter says, those who have forgotten that they were purged from their own sin- their old sins are myopic Christians. In a sense, he says, they have become blind. Peter says, here is a command. Just like newborn babes, we are to continually desire the milk of the word. You know, one of the phenomena of scripture is that it sets before us some humanly impossible things. For example, Paul says, in malice be children, but in understanding be men. Now, when we grow up out of childhood into adulthood, we change. Adults are not the same as children. But the Bible asks us, while we mature, to get rid of some childish things, and yet at the same time, strictly speaking, to retain other characteristics of childhood. And the ideal, if the Christian is listening to the scripture, is that on into our adult life, we remain like babes when it- children when it comes to malice. You know, children can be playing, and suddenly they're scrapping and fighting and pulling at a toy and screaming and hollering at each other, and it sounds like the world is coming to an end. And whether mother steps in, or father, or whatever happens, in two minutes, the storm is over, and they're playing happily, and they go on their way as though nothing happened. Isn't that marvelous? And as adults, if we have a little spat with somebody, we put their name in our black book. We may not say it, but in our heart we're saying, you're a marked man for the rest of your life. See? Ooh, that malice. That mal- no, no, no, says the scriptures. Retain this characteristic of childhood. In malice be children, but in understanding be men. And what Peter is saying here is another ingredient of childhood that you need to retain, and like newborn babes, continue to desire the spiritual milk of the word that you may grow thereby. I grew up with a father in the dairy business. Back in those days, the motto was you never outgrow your need for milk. Well, whether that's true or not physiologically, it's certainly true spiritually. And yet, on the other hand, I think we need to realize that when we proclaim the gospel again and again and again and again, it is not only the responsibility of the preacher who stands before the congregation, it is the responsibility of the congregation as well. I remember one time, and probably I'd heard it a thousand times before this, the first time it ever really hit me, I'd gone down to Indiana, we had a student from that area speaking in a small assembly there that didn't often get visiting people, and they were trying to drum things up because they had a visiting speaker. And so in the morning, the fellow who was MC said, and if you have any unsaved friends, bring them out tonight. And Miss- Mr. Smith's going to preach the gospel. And for some reason, it just struck me funny. And I sat up there on the stage, and I, I could hardly control my laughter. If you have any unsaved friends. Well, the evening came, and sure enough, I talked to someone. I said, well, folks, are there any unsaved people here tonight? And one of the elders said, no, brother, you're preaching the gospel to saints and seeds. And I must admit, I wondered about that statement in the morning, if you have any unsaved friends, and I wonder, do we have so little effective communication with a needy world around us that we don't even have a basis upon which to invite people to hear the gospel? Or are we so spiritually callous that we have no interest in people around us who are going to a lost eternity? When we give a person the responsibility to preach the gospel, we automatically, as a congregation, assume the responsibility of inviting people there who need it. Right? Fair enough? As my dad used to say, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If the assembly determines that they're going to have a gospel meeting, then it's the responsibility of the assembly to make sure that the gospel meeting is a gospel meeting. And the preacher can't do all of that. He can preach the gospel, but the congregation thereby assumes the responsibility of bringing people who need it. There is another paradox that I see here, and that's the paradox of a tunnel vision in a narrow message concerning the gospel. And some, I think, feel that unless you're using the exact words of First Corinthians fifteen three and four, you're not preaching the gospel. I often remember a statement made by a dear brother, many of you may have known him, Mr. Robert Little. He may have ministered at your conferences in years past. One of those men that God has used very significantly in my life. When I went to the Chicago area to teach at Emmaus, I was a neophyte, dry, not even dry behind the ears, and Brother Little sort of took me under his wing like a son, and I shall be forever grateful to that man. Uh, but one of the things that he said so many times was that in his diverse radio ministry, and that ministry took him to all kinds of issues because people would call in with questions everywhere from Dan to Bathsheba. He became aware of the fact in that diverse ministry that the gospel was a much broader message than just the words of First Corinthians fifteen verses three and four, as important as those words are. In fact, he said he found it awesome that sometimes people would write to him and say, praise the Lord, I was listening to your program today, and I got saved. And then he would go back and think of the program. And he said many times, as he looked back over the content of that program, there was nothing there that he would originally have called the gospel, but it was the ministry of the word. And God used it to bring to maturity, to fruition, the work of the Spirit of God in a person's life, no doubt a work which had been going on for a period of time, but a certain issue that he dealt with, or a certain problem that was cleared in this person's mind, and the Spirit of God was able to bring that process of conviction to maturity, and the person received Christ as Savior. I think sometimes we have a very tunnel vision-like perspective of what the gospel message is. And yet, to complete the paradox, I find among the people of God an alarming ignorance of the terms of the gospel. The gospel is presented in the scriptures in wonderful terms. I love biblical terminology. Take a good term like propitiation, elasbos, the Greek word. What a concept. By the way, I hope you're aware that the finished work of Christ in the New Testament is engulfed and summarized in three glorious terms: redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. And these three glorious terms summarize the finished work of Christ. Don't say everything about it needs to be said, but they summarize it. Oh, the teacher in me is beginning to come to the surface, and I'd like to give you all a test and ask you to define reconciliation, to define propitiation. Or maybe better yet, let me hand you an unmarked, unscowfielded Bible and invite you to come up here, just at random. Pick one of you. Relax. Don't do it. Don't run. Pick one of you at random and ask you to come up here and give us a five-minute discourse on the doctrine of propitiation. Would you know where to turn to find one verse? Could you define that? And I fear sometimes folks who've been believers all of their lives really don't understand the basic biblical terminology of salvation. I'm not scolding, I'm searching here. I'm, I'm dealing with a burden that's on my heart, folks, because God has used the word. You see, we believe in verbal plenary inspiration, which means the very words that are in the scripture are the words that the Spirit of God wants there. And the very words and the forms of those words are important. And yet sometimes, because we do not really give ourselves to understand the biblical message, we end up using substitutes. I always hear people say, accept Christ as your savior. You'll never find that in your Bible, folks. Acceptance is a mere psychological phenomena. You get in an argument with somebody, you bring up a point they can't deny, chances are they'll say, all right, I'll accept that. But they don't like it. They had to give mental assent because they couldn't deny it, but that is not saving faith, folks. You would be amazed, just for a chuckle here for a moment, how many young adults applying to come to Emmaus, doing the hardest thing there is about getting into Emmaus, writing out their testimony in longhand in their own handwriting, say, at such and such a time, I accepted EXCEPTED Christ as my savior. You chuckle, but I want to tell you, when I see that again and again and again and again, I wonder what on earth is going on in a person's mind. Bad enough to use a psychological term like ACCEPT, which the Bible never uses. But then to come off with EXCEPT and think that that's your gospel testimony, I wonder what is going on. I'm not being nitpicking, I hope I'm not. I'm appealing for the authority of the scriptures and an understanding of the words that God chooses to use to reveal to us the wonderful story of salvation. And we don't even bother to find out what he means. And we use word. I remember one time on the farm, oh, this is a bad story, but let me tell you anyway. We went into a little town nearby where they were having a gospel campaign, and my brother did this. I can't do things like this, but after the meeting, he went up to the preacher, he said, boy, preacher, you sure preached on hell. You could make a holy angel squirm in our seat. But he said, when you got to the end and you told us what to do about avoiding hell, he says, it wasn't too clear, so tell me again. And the preacher says, well, you've got to believe. Bob said, believe? Believe what? Well, the preacher looked a little puzzled, and he said, you've got to have faith. Oh, Bob said, oh, what's that? Well, the preacher said, you've got to believe. And Bob said, you already told me that. I said, what, believe what? And he said, well, no, you've got to have faith. I said, oh boy, we're going around Robin's barn here. What, what, I've asked you what's faith? Well, he says, you've got to believe. And the poor man was getting desperate. He just went from the word to word to word, and my brother, I can't do this kind of thing, but he could. He was, he was pushing him, you see? And finally, somebody seeing the embarrassment of this preacher rushed up and grabbed him by the sleeve, said, brother so and so, you're needed over here, and they virtually carried him away and got him out of a difficult situation. But I fear many times that even the basic language of the scriptures, we have never had the courtesy to even find out what God means when he talks about redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, justification. These are good words. Let's not substitute words like accept Christ for faith, or have an encounter. The whole encounter theology. Ooh, that sounds like an interesting word. Or love Jesus. We tell our little children, if you love Jesus, you're okay, until they're six, and then we tell them they're sinners and you got to be saved. And then one of they're scr- scrambled up in their minds. You don't get saved by loving Jesus. Not my Bible doesn't say that. I'm not being nitpicky, folks, I'm appealing here for a, to, to be students of the word of God and to let God say what he means and to realize that he means what he says, and to understand the gospel message in his word. Another paradox that concerns me is the understanding of our claim to preach Christ, but our emphasis on process and profession. In our Western world, we have a propensity for bureaucracy. I've heard it described this way. In George Washington's first inaugural address, there were one hundred and seventy nine words. In Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, there were two hundred and sixty three words. And I have a copy of one action of the state of Illinois, and a law having to do with the selling of cabbage that has twenty thousand nine hundred and eighty words in it, to tell us how to sell cabbage. As the years roll by, our increasing propensity to bureaucracy is awesome. It's awesome. We emphasize process. I listen to children's testimonies at camp. By the way, I wanted to bring a book up here and peddle it. It's a good one because I wrote it. I- I shouldn't say that. The book How to Lead a Child to Christ. I think that we need to learn how to present the gospel to children. If you want it, it's over there. But the fact of the matter is, I listen to children's testimonies at camp. I've heard them by the thousands. I love testimony meetings, but I hate them. Strange? Sometimes they leave me absolutely in a state of spiritual terror, what I hear. And my counselor, my counselor told me I was going to hell, and so we got on our knees, and I got saved. And so I make my way over to the little fellow later on and say, uh, Billy, you said in your testimony that you got down on your knees and got saved. What happened when you were on your knees? Mm-hmm. Well, how do you know you were saved? My counselor told me. Well, what happened? What, what went on in your heart and mind? Mm, I got down on my knees. The counselor told me to do. And, and then my counselor told me I was saved. And I can talk to the boy for fifteen minutes, and he will never once mention the person of Christ. Would that bother you? Am I the only one that gets upset about these kinds of things? Would that bother you if that were your child, and now he was saying he was saved, and you talked to him for five, ten, fifteen minutes about what happened, and all he knows is he got down on his knees, and then the counselor told him he was saved. You see, the mechanics, uh, we have that propensity. We're, we're mechanical geniuses in this Western world. My goodness, we can put cars together with robots. Up there, John Deere in, in, in, in our city, there are whole places in that, that are sealed off from human beings. Human beings can't even go inside. Why? Because machines are prevailing. If you went in there, those machines would tear you up. Oh, we do marvelous things. We're very process oriented. The Bible says that Christ is the Savior. David knew that long ago when he said, He is my light and my salvation. And that's why the New Testament can say, he who has the Son has life. I want to tell you folks, you can get out on your knees every night of your life and talk to every counselor that ever graced the Christian camp and die in your sins if you don't have Christ. Because Jesus Christ alone can save. And it's not getting on your knees, and it's not having a counselor tell you you're saved. It's having Christ. And he who has the Son has life, but he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. We're terribly process oriented. Reminds me of the story a fella told about a new medical clinic in the community, and he said he wasn't feeling one day, so he went there, good one day, and he went there and stepped through the door, and boy, it was all decorated beautifully, very, very ultra, ultra modern. And as he stepped into the first room, there were two doors, and one door said psychological, the other said medical. He said, ooh, I don't think I'm crazy. I, I don't fear I must, sorry, walked to the door and said medical. He found himself in another small room, nicely decorated, beautiful room, cool, acclimatized, and uh, there were two doors in front of him, and one said surgery, one said treatment. He said, ooh man, I don't feel too good, but I don't think I'm ready for the cutlery department. And so he chose the treatment, and he walked through that door, and he found himself in another small room. And uh, he uh, he looked at the two doors, and one of them said major illness, the other one said minor illness. Man, he said, I'm think I'm getting along okay. I don't think I've got anything major wrong with me. So he walked through the door, minor illness, and he found himself out on the street. And, uh, six days later, why, uh, a computer sent him a bill. And when he called, he talked to a computer. You see, we have a tremendous propensity for mechanics. But folks, that's not salvation. Salvation is a person. It's Christ. And if you have Christ, you have salvation. And if you don't have Christ, you don't have salvation. You may have a profession, you may have a pious look on your face, you may have a good record of attending every meeting that the assembly announces. Well and good. We need to be faithful. But if you don't have Christ, you don't have salvation. You say that's awfully simplistic. Folks, that's biblical. That's biblical. And there are many ramifications of this, many ramifications of this. We like to say, do you know Christ? I'd like to ask you tonight, does Christ know you? And I've got authority for it in the scriptures. Jesus Christ said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. I love that. I know them. Now, if I say so respectfully, he's a busy person. He's an important person. Worlds on end are dependent upon Jesus Christ for their very existence. He's reminded of that earlier. If he were to take his thought off of you for one moment, you would cease to exist. Your very existence is sustained momentarily by the power of Christ. He's got a lot on his mind, folks, because it's not only you, it's galaxies upon end that are held in existence by the continual exercise of the will of the Creator. He's a busy person. Now let me ask you again, does he know you? And before you answer, let me remind you that it's one thing to have a cursory kind of brush with somebody. I remember one time years ago, and you'll know it's years ago when I tell you that Eisenhower was running for president. He made a whistle stop in Macon, Missouri, near where our farm was. My brother and I had gone in for feed, and we learned that the president was going to stop and make a whistle stop speech there. So down we went by the railroad station. The train pulled in. I think it must have been one of the last presidents that ever campaigned from the tail end of a train. But when the train came to a stop, we ended up with our teeth almost driven into the tail end of that, of the, the back car. And when I came out, I could literally have licked his shoe tips with my tongue. His shoes are right here in front of my face. And I was one of the many that he reached down and shook hands with. Ha, see that hand? That hand has shaken hands with Ike. Oh no, come on, folks, he didn't know me from Adam. Just another hand, just another face in a sea of faces, and I could prefabricate all I wanted about knowing the man, but I'll assure you, if you had asked him if he knows this fellow named Dan Smith, he wouldn't have the slightest recollection. Let me ask you, does the Lord Jesus know you? He said, someday in judgment, people are going to stand in front of me and say, Lord, Lord, we did this in your name, we did this in your name, we did this in your name, and I will have to say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. Do you hear his voice, folks? Oh, it's important to say I know Christ. But that's only half the story. Does he know you? I know a lot of people that claim to know a lot of people and do a lot of name dropping. I'm asking you tonight, does Jesus Christ know you? You see, it's easy to be gospelized. It's easy to learn the language. I'm one of those that grew up in a home where I heard the gospel from my earliest days. I praise God. My parents prayed for me before I was born. What a heritage. But I know it's easy to go through the motions, and it's easy to make a profession to get somebody off your back. It's easy to be in the pitfall of thinking you're growing older in the faith, and it's just a game. Does Jesus Christ know you? It's a big world, a lot of people, a lot of things going on. Does he know you? He says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them. You see, salvation is a matter of relationship. It's a personal relationship with the person of Christ. It's not just something that you say about yourself, or you think you did, or somebody asked you to do. Salvation is a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. And it's the most wonderful thing in the world, and it's the only thing that counts in eternity. And I appeal to you tonight, make sure. Don't be one of these gospelized people who falls maybe sometimes early in life. It's easy to push a child to make a profession. Sometimes early in life, sometimes later on, to fall into the pitfall of thinking you're growing older in the faith, and find out in the last sin that the Lord Jesus will have to say, sorry, I never knew you. Mind you, I'm not trying to make Christians doubt. No, no, no, no. I've spent too much time trying to help people who doubted to find assurance. But the gospel message is a message about a person. It's not a process. It's a person. And if you have Christ, you have salvation. If you don't have Christ, we'd say on the farm, you don't have nothing, folks. But a lost eternity to stare you in the face. And the only remedy is Jesus Christ. That's why the eloquent apostle could say to the Corinthians, I came there to Corinth, and I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's the gospel. And we never hear it too much. In fact, maybe some of us need to really hear it. And so I ask you tonight, do you have Christ? I'll ask you if you have a profession, if you've got the language down. I'm asking you tonight, do you have Christ? And I'm not asking you so much, do you say you know him? I'm asking you, does he know you? Because Jesus Christ said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them. And I want to go on record to tell you this, to be known by Christ, to enjoy a personal relationship with the Savior, there's nothing like it on earth, and there's nothing better than that in heaven. You need Christ. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks tonight, that in spite of the fact that down through the ages in the church, there have been many problems relating to the glorious gospel message. We thank you that the message still stands true, still stands clear, that the Bible is crystal clear, that there is only one Savior, there is only one name whereby we must be saved, that no man comes to the Father except through him. That your word teaches us to understand that he who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son does not have life. Oh Father, I pray that if there are any here tonight who have merely been cranked through a gospelized mill and don't really know the Savior, I pray that you will make them supremely aware of that by your spirit, perhaps even in these moments. And whatever you need to do, shake their souls over the flames of hell, or woo them warmly to the Savior, I pray, Father, that they may turn in simple faith to Jesus Christ and find in him alone a glorious salvation. Thank you for a savior like our Lord Jesus. Thank you that this glorious one offers himself to all. For he has said, he who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. And I pray tonight, Father, that the person of Jesus Christ may be exalted before our hearts and minds, and that for every one of us, saint or deceived person, or a known sinner, that we may feel the warmth of the love and the saving grace of our Lord Jesus extend to us. I pray that not one will leave here without Christ. We ask this for his sake and for his glory and in his name. Amen.