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I begin with a confession. I tried this past week my hardest to come to terms with modern science and produce for you what the Americans call an overview of this epistle, uh, such as I could put on an overhead projector acetate and place it on the wall for your greater convenience. I utterly failed to make my, my, my, my peace with modern science, and so I've had to do the second best, and what you have in front of you now is a sheet giving a simple, uh, overview of the Epistle to the Colossians. Certain things to be said about what you have in your hand.
It doesn't claim to be a full-scale analysis of the epistle, far from it, as you will see at once. Nor does it claim to be the analysis. There are some things which, as Christians, we would be called upon to go to the stake if need be, for the word of God and the person of Christ and the inspiration of his word and such like things. But the analysis that you have before you is not one of those things, at least it isn't for me, and I'm not at all sure that I would go to the stake for this analysis, and I certainly don't ask you to do so. It is simply a practical device that puts before us some of the leading ideas of the various parts of the epistle, so that before we get down to detail, we may see the whole, and as the cliche has it, don't miss the wood for the trees.
Secondly, of course, it could act, uh, for those who need such a thing, a simple way of remembering the general outline of the epistle. It comes to be very simple in the end, doesn't it? Three paragraphs, following in each, uh, three, three movements, if you like, three major movements in the epistle, with three paragraphs each, and they follow similar topics all the way through. Just let's look at it, therefore, briefly together now as we begin our second session. Look at those marvelous, evocative statements that are made in the first paragraph of each movement.
Movement one and paragraph one, the phrase in verses one, uh, uh, uh, in verse five of that paragraph, the hope that is laid up for you in the heavens. The second movement, paragraph one, all treasures of wisdom and knowledge, says the Holy Spirit, are hidden in Christ. And in the first paragraph of Movement three, Paul says, your life is hidden with Christ in God. As I say, I love those evocative, uh, expressions.
Your hope laid up for you. You remember our Lord taught at one stage a parable which we call the parable of the rich fool. His fields brought forth plenty, so much so that he had nowhere to bestow his goods. So he solved his problem for his own satisfaction, saying, I'll pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will bestow my goods. And I'll say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Poor fool he was. There was nothing wrong with the goods.
It was where they were laid up that was so grievously amiss. Soon his life was to be called from him. Soon he must leave the earth where his goods were laid up in his wretched barns. Who shall these things be, says our Lord. In vivid contrast this morning we sit here, let's indulge our enjoyment just a little bit, shall we? You've much goods, my brother, my sister, laid up. Oh, praise God for the term of it. A hope laid up for you in the heavens. And if you can't pay attention to anything else I say this morning because your hands are metaphorically rumbling through the piles of gold that you've got laid up for you in heaven.
Well, never mind, it's not a bad exercise from time to time, is it? Uh, hope laid up for you in heaven. And then in that, uh, first paragraph of movement two, look at that. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid in Christ. There are some folks to whom at this moment they're absolutely hidden. They don't even know they exist. What fortunate people we are to have discovered that hid in Christ, there are incalculable and indescribable riches.
What fun, what an invitation to discover them, to unpack them, and to dive your hand and your heart into these hidden treasures. In the part of the world I come from that once had a famous football team called Ipswich, but hasn't any longer. That's how most of you would know it, if you know it at all. Uh, not far from where I lived was a farmer, uh, and uh, he was a good Christian man, and he had this farm, and he farmed it for years and diligently plowed it and got a, you know, a respectable living out of it, such as could be got in Suffolk from farming in those far off days. And then he became very, very elderly, and eventually the family sold the farm, and it was sold to developers.
One day they brought in their great machinery, and a bulldozer or something was scraping the earth on this farm, and lo and behold, the bulldozer pushed up to the surface something that glittered, and the man got all beset and had a look, and it was an Anglo-Saxon golden torque. Well, then they began to to scrub in the ground, I tell you. Immense and utterly invaluable treasure, and the farmer's plow had been going over it, skimming the top years and years and years and years, and never knew it was there. Well, once they found it, you know, the people whose houses had already been built on that land, and they'd planted their gardens, and they'd got their bushes and their lawns.
What would you have done if you thought there was treasure underneath your back garden? Disturb the lawn or not? Bit of a risk. I have to report that many of them dug up their lawns and found nothing. If you're going treasure digging, you want to dig in the right place. And that's what Paul is saying to the Colossians, isn't it? With all these pseudo theories of spiritual advance that were being advertised and pushed. No, says Paul, dig in the right place. But be assured, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ.
First paragraph of Movement three tells us that our life is hidden with Christ in God. And you may read that, if you like, as a statement of security. But it is also a directional statement, isn't it, telling us where the source of our life is and where its location is. At the moment, it is hidden. Even we ourselves cannot see the blessed Savior. It's hidden. But the verses that immediately follow go on to remind us that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory.
And oh, what a wonder that is to know and think about the very life that you have from God, hidden now, but one day shall be revealed. You have that life from its source, it is in God, hidden with Christ there. You have it in you, of course. I have it in me, but you wouldn't always, uh, always see that, would you? I look a little bit like a dull old chrysalis, all brown on the outside and a bit curious. Ha, you wait till the butterfly emerges, my good friend. Ha ha. When my life that is hidden shall be manifest.
Oh, my brother and sister, what I'm going to be, if you could see that now, you'd be tempted to fall down at my feet as though I were an angel. Don't do it, of course. Yes. Lovely evocative phrases that begin each of these first three movements. There's nothing wrong in letting the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with joy and gladness. I nearly said excitement at the incalculable wealth that there is for us in Christ. And then, of course, in each movement come two very long paragraphs, dealing basically with two things, first of all, the Lord Jesus himself, and then with us.
Glance briefly at them to remind yourself of them, and in the second paragraph of movement one, uh our blessed Lord Jesus, first and supreme, not only the image of the invisible God, but firstborn of all creation and firstborn in redemption, that in everything he might be first, says the inspired writer. Christ first and supreme. In the corresponding paragraph of Movement two, Christ sufficient and triumphant. In him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in him you have been made full.
He is sufficient, and at Calvary he was triumphant, stripped the principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, sits now at the right hand of God, and his triumph is eternal. And then in the second paragraph, uh, of movement three, Christ once more. And our appreciation of Christ will govern the way we live, according to the apostle. Through him we have put on the new man, where Christ is all and in all.
We talk not merely of theological theories. We talk of this stupendous wonder of the creator and the redeemer in us. As you sit on that seat, if you are a believer, he in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid is in you. Lift your head high, not in pride, but in humble and awestruck gratitude. Learn to live with the nobility of people that are aware that Christ is in them.
And along with our Lord, notice there's a second paragraphs in each movement talk to us about ourselves, about believers. Each one of them talks of our past, but takes various aspects of our past. In movement one, it is in the past you were alienated, and that is from God, and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yes, but the second paragraph of the next movement tells us not only alienated and enemies, but in fact dead in a condemned cell, merely awaiting execution, dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your heart.
And in the third movement, the second paragraph reminds us that in the past, a form of life was that of the old man, that is the fallen manhood that we received through Adam. Now there has come this revolutionary change. And we look again at the, uh, uh, 3 paragraphs. The first of them, that is in movement one, says, now we are reconciled. And the second says, now we are made alive. We were enemies, now we're reconciled. We were dead, we're now made alive.
If in the past we lived according to the old man, now we have put on the new man with his new lifestyle. And it is interesting to notice, isn't it, the verbs, the causative verbs, as the grammarians would say, that, uh, are in these paragraphs. In Movement one, the second paragraph, God has made us. He has done it. All speak your hallelujah in your heart, if not out loud. This is what God has done. This is not even what he will do. He has made us sufficient, qualified us, made us adequate for the inheritance of the saints in light.
And in the second paragraph of Movement two, again, something that has been done in Christ, you are complete, says the, uh, old and well-beloved authorized version. Yes, but it is a perfect tense in Greek, means you have been filled. Have been, not will be, but have been. You'll see a fullness resides in Jesus our head and ever abides to answer our need. We have fullness in him. And in the second paragraph of the third movement, now a present continuous verb, we are being made new again.
At one stage in my career, I lived in the northeast of England, up among the mining community. What noble people I found them to be. A little feature I noticed when I moved up there, how the good ladies in the houses were forever redecorating. Well, so would you be if you lived in a town where they wash the coal and all the dust that comes out of it scatters all over the town, tons of it every day. Always redecorating. It gave their homes a very interesting aspect, you know. You'd go in this September and they just redecorated it, and the theme was pink or something, or blue or lilies or whatnot, and there was the furniture. Well, uh, you came next year, they reckon to redecorate their homes every year.
New lot of wallpaper, new lot of paint. You never saw the likes of it. There was always something interesting. You never knew from one year to the other how the place was going to look. Cool. I think we all would be more interesting people if we were constantly being renewed. Yes, it's a lovely thing to see our older brothers and sisters, and if we have any memory, we can remember what they used to be, and see now added to all their former virtues, there's this that's been added, and there's that new bit of polish there, and that's new adjustment there. They're on their way to glory, and they are being renewed constantly by the Spirit of God and the Savior who is in them.
Do you think we should be the same for all eternity? Who would know? Sometimes tempted to think it'd be a bit dull if you were always the same for eternity. I mean to say, get used to you, wouldn't we? Uh, who knows? Let's content ourselves for the moment with this constant renewing that is going on in our hearts. When we come to the final paragraph in each movement, we notice they all have to do with struggle and striving and suffering. Paragraph three of the first movement, it's about Paul's sufferings and striving to make known the mystery and to present everyone perfect in Christ.
You say, why, why, oh why did Paul have to strive that much? Be odd, wouldn't you, wouldn't it? If one of these days, being a solicitor, uh, you received information that one of your clients had been left, uh, five hundred million in stocks and shares in, uh, America somewhere, three ranches, four Cadillacs, one or two ocean-going yachts, uh, do you see? And you hide yourself around to him to tell him this good news and put on your, uh, learned and legal spectacles and got out the information and read it to him. And the man wasn't interested.
Be odd, wouldn't it? Preferred to look at Dallas on television or something. So I can't be bothered about the stocks and shares and ranches and things. I don't want to play football. Um, and if he persisted like that over the weeks, what would you do? Tear your hair out or something and say, man, you're rich! Why do you have to struggle to get people to see their wealth? But it is so in spiritual things indeed. Paul is witness to it, the struggles he had to get his fellow believers to wake up to their riches and thus to make true progress in spiritual life.
In the middle paragraph, by contrast to the struggles, some of them very impressive in their way, of the religionists, the mystics and ascetics. Some of them look very impressive, particularly when you see them afflicting their body by this way and the other way, developing their great psychological techniques. But they're bogus, says Paul. Oh, thank God if God has delivered us from misdirected and wasted energy on spurious spiritual disciplines and exercises. And we hasten on from them to the last paragraph. It's a report of the missionary goings on and the servants of God and evangelists and so forth, in which again we read of Paul's strivings and strugglings, and also of Epaphroditus once more.
Bear him witness that he agonizes, he strives, says Paul, uh, always striving for you in his prayers that you might stand perfect, mature, and fully assured in all the will of God. Now, I'm not saying that we shall, uh, keep exactly to these three major movements in our studies. We shall only get down to the end of paragraph two of the first one today, but we aim to complete all nine of those paragraphs, God willing, by the end of the seminars. If that is a brief outline, and please bring it with you when you come again, if you're coming again, that is, I mustn't presume on that, but if you do, bring it with you.
If you are not intending to come again, well, you're perfectly at liberty to keep it with our compliments, that layout, we'll say. Uh, but if you're coming, bring it so as to save the extra expense of printing more. If you forget, we shall have mercy on you, but uh, uh, you know, I oughtn't to have told you that. And you'll be provided one because we shall be using them each week to take our bearings from time to time as exactly where we've got to. But now, if that is the, uh, uh, uh, uh, survey of the contents, let's sit back a moment and think of the occasion and the setting of the writing of this letter.
Paul was, we gather from what he himself tells us in chapter four and verse three, and again in chapter four and verse eighteen, Paul himself was in prison and chained in Rome. There for the gospel's sake and for the testimony of the Lord Jesus. When one morning, or was it an afternoon, I don't know, perhaps it was an evening, he heard the footsteps of the old jailer coming, was it with his bread and water, or what was it? The bolts of the prison door begin to clang open, and in comes, oh, and look who's here, says Paul. Why, he could scarce believe his eyes if it wasn't Epaphras, good old Epaphras.
Ah, it seemed like a bit of heaven and a bit of fresh air for somebody who was in his prison to see Epaphras. You'll see, tremendous to see you, man, because Epaphras, Epaphroditus had been converted through Paul's ministry, apparently, when Paul had been preaching that long spate in Ephesus. And that in itself is an encouragement, isn't it, to see somebody who was converted through your ministry. What a thing it is when you're old or when you're in prison and life seems near the end and you look back, what have I done in life? What have I achieved?
Oh, what a thing it is if you should have a someone call at your door that was led to Christ through you, or brought to Christ through your sacrificial giving to the cause of the Lord. And of course, uh, Paul had another good reason for being glad to see him. He's not only converted through Paul, but after he got converted, off he went as an evangelist himself to the Lycus Valley, the Lycus Valley, and there preached, numbers of folks got converted, a church formed at Colossae and in various of the other towns round about. Of course, Paul was delighted to see him.
And after they'd finished talking about the weather, and wasn't it hot today, and isn't it cold, wasn't it cold yesterday, and we hope we're better tomorrow. Why do we spend so much time talking about that? They got down to life's real things. Epaphras began to tell him how the work of the Lord was going and how the believers were going, and Paul pictured them in his mind eye. He was there in spirit. Marvelous, isn't it, when you're a bed with rheumatism and you can picture some work of the Lord somewhere else, and it takes you out of yourself. I'm joying as I behold your order, he, he later wrote, though absent in body, present in spirit with you.
Marvelous thing to have interest like that, isn't it, in your own locality and all around the world. And delighted, therefore, as Epaphras gave the good reports, their faith, their love to all the saints, their love in the spirit, that could report that the gospel was bearing fruit and increasing, and their trem- not only in their moral behavior, developing of Christ-likeness in them, but in their interest in the gospel. Now then Epaphras had some other things to report, not telling tales out of school, but out of genuine spiritual concern.
There were false teachers around, apparently. The danger in them, as we saw in our first session, was not that they were advocating worldliness. The Colossians wouldn't have fallen for that one, perhaps, though the Laodiceans did later on, didn't they? Um, they came with an impressive message of great potential spiritual advance in theosophy, that is philosophies about the unseen world, the ranks of angels and principalities and powers that stretch between God the Creator, or are supposed to, and us here on Earth.
Great theories, nothing to do with scripture, but sounding very interesting. Marvelous, isn't it? We are, as we shall see on another occasion, to be interested in s- the spirit world, of course. We fight against not flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. We need, uh, constantly to remember they're there. Ain't good to be obsessed with them, is it? There were two preachers in the train once, each going to a different place for a Christian conference. As they were going, the one preacher said to the second preacher, my brother, what are you going to talk about?
Oh, he said, I'm going to talk about Christ. Ah, what are you going to talk about? Well, I'm going to talk about Antichrist. Said the other chap, you'll get the bigger audience then. They're marvelous. Print a book on demons, you'll sell it by the millions. Print a book on Christ, not quite for many. Yeah. And these young converts were liable to find all this theosophy business attractive. And then, in addition to the theosophy, people that were advertising techniques, how you could induce visions and ecstatic experiences, and out of the body experiences, and supposedly rise in the spirit realm beyond the ranks of the angels, and what you had to do and how you had to worship this angel and the other angel, and know their names, and that you could induce by your ascetic discipline visions of the very throne of God.
That sounded tremendous stuff. And then, uh, to that, they weren't, uh, worldly in the normal sense of that term. Some of these teachers observed the strictest observance of religious festivals and holy days, very particular as to what food you might eat or might not eat, and to see them as they disciplined themselves in severity to the body made you feel, if you weren't altogether catching yourself on, as the Irish say, that here was tremendous spirituality. Walking with peas in your shoes or without any shoes at all on up Mount Croak Patrick or something. It was bogus.
The whole lot bogus. The danger is that these Colossian believers would fall for it. The sad thing would be that if they fell for it, it would make them terribly discontent to start off with. It would move them away from their hope of a gospel. It would make them forget the great riches that are already theirs in Christ. And in the name of progress, would lead them, lead them to concentrate on other things that could neither justify them, nor sanctify them, nor glorify them, but in the end leave them spiritually and sometimes mentally and physically impoverished.
What then would Paul do? Well, he writes to them. Wise man, isn't he? You wouldn't have known there was any trouble at all about it until he comes to the second of the three movements. He starts off positively. Let that always be our emphasis, first and foremost, to be positive. Mother's watching a child playing, and presently it leaves his Donald Duck or something, uh, and picks up father's sharp, uh, pen knife with the blade open that father, in a moment of absent-mindedness, has left lying around and within reach of the baby.
A mother doesn't try to pull it away, because if it does, the infant will grab it and it will s- cut its hand, won't it? A mother thinks of the best attractive thing she's got in the house, ice cream or sweet or brightly colored ball or something, and offers that to the toddler. Oh, and the toddler looks at this and and goes to grab it and lets the knife go. That's it. Homely but very effective technique. Paul will tell them first of the riches of Christ. And if the danger is that they be moved away from the hope of the gospel, then he'll talk to them about their great Christian hope. So let's look at the first movement and consider the emphasis that Paul places in the three paragraphs of that first movement on the question of hope.
First paragraph, verse 5, the hope laid up for you in the heavens. Here, the second paragraph, verse twenty three, the hope of the gospel. Third paragraph, chapter one, verse twenty seven, the hope of glory. We cannot miss the emphasis, can we? The middle one is going to warn them that they don't allow themselves to be moved away from the hope of the gospel. So let us then fall to considering these marvelous things about our hope.
Our hope, we're told about its security. Your hope laid up for you in the heavens. We've already thought about it, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, or thief break through and steal. It's your hope, laid up for you. Oh, would God's spirit impress it upon us. You and you and you and you. There's a hope laid up for you in the heavens.
And, says Paul, it is true. This is not imagination, this is not escapism. This hope you heard of it in the word of the truth of the gospel, and you knew the grace of God in truth. Ah, when we get hold of the grace of God in truth, what a marvelous hope we shall discover we have. And of course, if you ask what the hope is, you can describe it in various terms, can you not? An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, one of the many mansions in the Father's house, and supremely the hope of one day being conformed to the image of Christ and reigning with him.
But all those things are utterly secure. You say, prove it to me. Why? Because they are in Christ. It's, you think it's laid up in heaven for you. The hope is in Christ, and in him all shall be fulfilled. You won't need those other things. They can give you no real hope. And secondly, says Paul in, uh, paragraph two, that you be not moved away from the hope, the hope of the gospel. Now we notice its basis. If the security of our hope is that it's in Christ, and he's already in glory, and none can assail him, then the basis of our hope is what the gospel tells us.
It is our blessed Lord on the cross, reconciled you to God in the body of his flesh through death. And because of that all-atoning death, consider the prospect involved in our hope. He shall present you holy and without defect and without charge, that is, without accusation. For who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect when it is Christ who died, yea, rather that is risen above, who is at the right hand of God and makes intercession for you. The basis of the hope, giving its prospect its firm and immovable foundation.
And then the hope of glory. It's wealth. I'm told that God himself lives in indescribable wealth, but even he seems to get excited, if I may say it with reverence, as he urges us to open our eyes and see, according to Colossians chapter one and verse twenty seven, the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. A magnificent thing it is. And mark now the secret of it. It has been a mystery.
This is the secret. Not so much merely that Christ is above and our hope is vested in him. Not now that the basis of our hope is Christ at Calvary, but that tremendous thing, the riches of this hope of glory, it is Christ in you. What more do you want to make you holy? What more do you need to guarantee you the development of all the potentials of being conformed to the image of Christ than to have Christ actually already in you? Our Christian hope.
My brethren and sisters, we live in a hopeless world. The Bible tells us that, and experience shows it. Men and women without God, they don't know God. Some of them even deny he exists, and as far as the universe is concerned, ultimately they'll have to admit to you that they have no hope for it, other than in twenty million times the whole thing will be blown to smithereens and cease to exist. They're without hope. What do you say to your friend from next door when she's standing by the grave of her loved one? Neither were believers.
What hope? What a sorry world it is. Without God and without Christ, they know nothing of God's great plans in history or for the future. They have no hope. Oh God, use these studies to burn in again upon our hearts the wonder of this hope of the gospel, that we not only enjoy it ourselves, but s- send us out to preach it and to offer it to a world that is without. Yes. But now notice, if, uh, as we're now about to see, the hope is effective.
It actually produces changes in people. The hope is utterly indispensable. All these things, if you continue in the faith and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, the hope is indispensable, but it is glorious. The glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And you say to me, perhaps, ah, but Mr. Lecturer, sir, hmm, you've upset me a little bit. What I'm wondering now is, have I got the right thing? I trusted Christ, at least I thought I did. Mm. Now, when you were talking about those pseudo bogus forms of spirituality, well, how do I know I've not got one of them?
Have I got the right thing? And more people than you think wonder that, even after they're converted, you know. I remember when I went to live in the northeast of England, as a foresaid and lodged with a kind Christian family, over the road was a gentleman who had only been converted a comparatively short time. Brought up a nominal Christian, he'd long since abandoned it all and was an atheist. He'd had very grim experiences in life. They had confirmed him in his atheism. Otherwise, very bright intellectually. Never went near a Christian church. Was listening to the radio one night, and on came Billy Graham.
And my friend, as he came to be, told me he was suddenly overwhelmed with the sense that God was offering him something which, if he, uh, rejected, he might lose eternally. And there and then, the f- proud atheist knelt on his carpet and received the Savior. Eventually, he went back to the church where he was brought up, that he'd found it in the Bible, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together. They were startled as they saw him obviously intending to come in the door and asked him, what on earth has happened to you? Well, he said, I got saved, you see. Oh no, they said, no, no, no, no, no. That's just a flash in the pan. There's nothing in this salvation business.
The first time I met the man, he said to me, David, I thought it was a real experience. Is what I've got real? Because the people down at the church tell me it's nothing, it's a mere emotional disturbance. How would you know whether it was real or not? Well, in our last few moments, let us look at the effectiveness, the effect of the hope. And here they are listed for us. For time's sake, I must leave you to preach them to yourselves. Mark of the true hope, if you've got the real thing, is the effect it produces.
Here's the evidence in its effectiveness. It produces faith in the Lord Jesus. That's the hope of the gospel. It produces love towards all the saints. It produces fruitfulness and growth. This is the effect of the hope. For you will notice, will you not, in verse, uh, uh, four and five, Paul says he's heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and secondly, of the love which you have towards all the saints.
How did they come to have that hope in, that faith in Christ Jesus? How did they come to, uh, love all the believers? Well, it came about on account of the hope, the hope that produced it. Old Epaphras came, or young Epaphras, and he preached the Christian hope. And hearing it, they fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before them. They'd never heard such a wonderful thing in all their lives. And as they heard it, it produced faith in the Lord Jesus. Oh, that's number one mark, if you've got the real thing.
And the more you think about it, the more Christ will grow in your estimation. Christ first and supreme. Christ sufficient and triumphant. Christ, all in all. The hope produces faith, ever-growing faith, ever-growing evaluation of the Lord Jesus, and love towards all the saints. Ha. Saints, I have warned you, in case you've not met any.
Have a go when you get round in your question time, just make sure, ask a person on the right and left, are they saints? Uh, so you can say I've actually met one. Uh, they're not always the easiest folks to get on with, you see. Only consider where they were when God started with them, you see. Got a lot of remaking to do with some of us, you see. Why would you love them? Not out of stern religious duty, merely. Not for the fact, delightful or appalling as you may think, that you've got to live with them eternally in glory. But you see, when you got hold of this Christian hope and you begin to discover the riches, you can't enjoy it by yourself.
You begin to feel so wealthy that you'd put up with anything, you'd forgive anybody anything, wouldn't you? What ho? And the sheer discovery of somebody else that's found this treasure as well is a friendship starting all at once, because you have the great treasure in common. And it produces growth, fruitfulness, and growth. And when does it do all this? Did it when you heard the hope of the gospel and knew the grace of God in truth. For my brothers, it is all of God's magnificent grace.
And we sing with Doderidge, don't we? Grace of God in truth, and the wonderful effect it has on us when we discover it. It was grace that wrote my name in life's eternal book. It was grace that gave me to the Lamb who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my wandering feet to tread the heavenly road, and new supplies each hour I meet while pressing on to God. Grace, all the works shall crown through everlasting days.
It lie lay it it lays in heaven the topmost stone and well deserves the praise. And so to our studies.
