All right, we're going to turn to the book of Romans in chapter number 8 this morning. I'm sorry, the book of Romans in chapter number 2. The book of Romans in chapter number 2, and I wanted to sing a special. I wanted to sing the song, Except for Grace. I didn't make it. Couldn't get it all together this week But anyway can continuing this series on the things that we are to contend for and Thinking about to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints. We've been talking about we talked about contend for the gospel Today I want to talk about contending contending for grace You know Monday Typically, my week begins by several podcasts downloading, and I listen to them, and one of the podcasts that I listened to on Monday was called On Pastors Talk, and in that, they were talking to a man by the name of Kevin DeYoung, Kevin DeYoung wrote a book titled, On the Not-So-Secret Secret to Reaching the Next Generation. And so he talked about that. And he talked about the need for truth. One of the things that's going to reach this generation and the next generation is the truth. And you know, that's what I've been attempting to do during this series of messages. I've been trying to help us see and understand and know that God has given us the plan to reach the next generation as well as the current one. And that is the truth. You see, people believe many things. There's lots of people who have a religion There's actually a book out there that's written that is titled, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. Because an atheist, to say there is no God, it requires a lot of faith on their part. But anyway, I'm not going there. But people build their lives on belief systems. And the sad thing is, for many of them, they think it's serving them well in this life. But in the next life, it's going to lead to destruction. What we have to offer people is a truth, and it's eternal truth. And as I was thinking about this and considering this, I was thinking about how, look, we could go back 2,000 years and think about during the days of Christ, and as we read this morning, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and we could go back and look at Jesus saying, I'm the truth, And so, when we stand and preach and teach and serve here in this church, you know, you can think, well, we've gone back 2,000 years. But really, the truth goes back farther than that. The truth goes all the way back to the Garden. The Gospel that we preach today, the seed of it is in the Garden. The first time it was preached was in the Garden of Eden. But the truth which we believe goes even back farther than the Garden of Eden. The truth that we preach goes back to eternity past. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, because the truth is Jesus Christ. The truth goes back to eternity past. And so what we want to understand is we are learning and studying and preaching the eternal counsels of God. So we understand that as a church, which Jesus established, we have the opportunity, the responsibility, and the privilege to proclaim the truth that will last for eternity to this generation and the next. The truth that at the end has what we read today in our text, John 14, let not your hearts be troubled You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house were many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. Behold, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto myself." We have that truth that's going to lead us to the place that Jesus has prepared for us. So we understand we have an eternal truth. So we have the calling. to maintain the truth we have the calling of sharing the truth with the next generation and we need to grasp that we as the church which Jesus built are a holder in the chain of custody of truth we have been given the truth to hold on to We have been given the truth to learn. We have been given the truth to teach. We are the holders in the chain of custody of the truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But in understanding that, one of those truths that we are to earnestly contend for is the truth of grace. And our world needs grace today. Our world needs grace more than they realize. And the reason they need grace more than they realize is because they don't realize they need grace. They don't even believe in a God that demands holiness. They don't believe in sin. And so if they don't believe in sin, why would they need grace, right? What we need to understand is the value of grace and be ready to share grace at every opportunity. Because what people need is the grace of God. Again, they don't know it, but they need it. And what builds us up is that we have been the recipients of the grace of God. So we need to share grace at every opportunity. Like Jerry said in our Sunday school class this morning, by the way, I've said this, it always seems like what we talk about in Sunday school always ends up in the sermon. You're missing out if you miss out on Sunday school. But anyway, Jerry said one of the things that always encourages him is to hear someone's testimony of how the Lord saved them. And that's what we need to do. We need to tell others about the grace of God that He has given to us and share that with others so they begin to understand they need grace. Very common passage of Scripture today, Ephesians 2.8, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Heavenly Father, as we come to you today, we are thankful for grace. And I pray, God, that we will understand how valuable grace is, so that we will contend for the faith, and that is salvation by grace through faith. Salvation by grace alone. Encourage our hearts today and help us to lift up Jesus. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. We will look at four points. Grace needed. Grace according to God's mercy, grace promises, and then grace manifested. First thing, verses 1 through 3, grace needed. Why is grace needed? Verse 1 says, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." So grace is needed, first of all, because we are dead in trespasses and sins. These are words which are foreign to our current culture. What do you mean trespassing against? We are dead in trespasses. What do you mean? Who am I trespassing against? Again, if they don't believe in God, and they don't believe in the moral law that God has given, what do you mean, I've broken a law? No, I'm the ruler. I'm the decider of what is right and wrong. You can't tell me what is right and wrong. There's no moral standard in the world today. I determine what is right and wrong. I'm not trespassing against myself. That's the belief. Trespasses and sins. Sins against who? I'm not sinning against anyone. I'm just living my life. And listen, as long as I'm not hurting anyone, what's that to you? What's it your business? I'm not sinning, right? That's the attitude of the world. They don't recognize that there is a moral standard that is given by God and they are transgressing it and they don't understand that there is a God to whom they are responsible. They don't understand the holiness of God and so they don't even think about trespasses and sins. And they're dead. They're dead in their trespasses and sins. They don't recognize that they're sinning against God. If you'll turn back to the book of Romans in chapter number 1 for just a second. Very lengthy reading here about that Paul is stating the case that man is responsible to God and that God's wrath is poured out upon the ungodly. And as you read this text, You'll understand that the United States is underneath the wrath of God at this moment. Because of our sanctioning of homosexual marriage, we are under the wrath of God. So it should not surprise us the way our country's going. It should not surprise us the sin that is being promoted through our culture. We are under the wrath of God because we, as a nation, have forgotten God. Listen, verse 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man, into birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness." Notice, God gave them up. to uncleanness, through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who change the truth of God into a lie, and worship the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. You want to know why there's so much worshiping of animals today? Here's why. Because they have forgotten God. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature so women trying to find a partner in another woman, that's a sign of the wrath of God abiding on you. And likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burning in lust one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat, again, men lusting after other men, that's a sign the wrath of God is abiding on you. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Now, I'm not preaching Romans 1, so I can't get into that too deeply, but we just want to see God has given them up so much. He's given the world over to a reprobate mind so much that they don't even recognize that what they're doing is sinning against God. This week on... The briefing with Al Mohler, he mentioned that 20 years ago this week, homosexual marriage became legal. And he said the law is a teacher. And the law is a teacher because whatever the law says is legal, we say is okay. It's natural. If it's legal, it's okay. And so 20 years ago, when our government sanctioned homosexual marriage, we put the stamp, our government put the stamp of approval on homosexual marriage. Now, 20 years down the road, there's people in this church today who are under 20 years old. They don't know a time when homosexual marriage was illegal. And so they're thinking, it's legal, It's okay. They don't even recognize that what they're doing is contrary to the Word of God. They don't understand that the Bible says that that is sin. God says in Genesis, a man is to leave his father and mother and to cleave unto his wife. There's lots of things that we could say there. But in God's eyes, there is no such thing as homosexual marriage. That union is lust, fornication, it is sin. The union in marriage is to be between a man and a woman. And God's sanctioning of marriage includes a statement on gender. There are not many genders. There is only two genders, male and female. Gender is what you are biologically. So my point in saying all of this is people are dead in their trespasses and sins and they don't recognize their trespassing. They say it's legal, so how can it be sin? Well, because it's contrary to the Word of God. So we understand that, right? People don't understand they're dead in their trespasses and sins because they don't believe in God, they don't accept the moral standard, but the fact of the matter is they are. Isaiah 1 tells us that the heart is desperately wicked again. We're talking about why we need grace The reason grace is needed is because men are dead in their trespasses and sins. I We need grace because the heart is desperately wicked. Isaiah says, why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint from the sole of the foot. Even under the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. What's he saying? That the entire man is depraved. His heart is depraved. His thoughts are depraved. His entire being is depraved. He is full of sin in his thoughts and in his actions. Now that does not mean, because he's totally depraved, does not mean that he will act out in sin in the worst way. He may not commit heinous crimes. He may not commit filthy sins. But he still sins against God. He cannot do that which is good in the eyes of God. He is incapable of doing good that is pleasing to God. Every part of man is sinful. Man is dead. He has no life in him. That's what that says. The first reason that grace is needed is because man is dead in their trespasses and sins. The second reason that grace is needed is because we all walked this course of life. Verse 2, where in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. How did we walk? We all walked in sin. We all walked according to the course of this world. We all walked according to the prince and the power of the air. There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. There is not one person that has ever lived that has not walked according to the course of this world. Many people today think they're walking independently. But they don't realize that in all actuality, they are the slaves of Satan. They are taken captive by Him at His will. So think about the people that you know who are continuing to walk in their lostness. They are the prisoners of Satan. They're taken captive by Him at their will. And the works of their Father, they are going to do. And we all were that way. We all were taken. captive by Satan. We all walked according to the prince of the power of the air. We all wanted to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, as he says in verse number three. That's who we all were. And the people in this world that are dead in their trespasses and sins, who think they're doing good, who think they're all right, The sad thing is they're not going to find out until the day comes. Just like it says about the wicked during the days of Noah, they knew not until the flood came. Think about how many people are... They're not going to recognize that their belief system was wrong until they wake up in hell. They're not going to know until the wrath of God is poured out upon them think about that they know not until the flood came as we think about this and we think about and you can probably look back in your own life you can think about when you walked according to the course of this world you can think about when you fulfilled the desires of the flesh and of the mind And that was your goal, to do what was pleasing to self, to do what made self feel good. As you look back to those days, aren't you thankful for grace? Aren't you thankful that God rescued you from who you were? What path are you walking today? Are you still on walking according to the course of this world? Are you still fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind? Listen, if you are, I encourage you to recognize the path that you are on and seek grace today. You see, we all walked this course of life. We cannot deny it. We all desired our own way. We all desired to fulfill the lust of the flesh and of the mind. And we all were children of wrath. So again, we're looking at the point. Grace is needed. If you take your time to do an honest assessment of the world, Comparing it to the Word of God, what God says about marriage, what God says about truthfulness, what God says about gender, what God says about abusing things like alcohol, and we could go on. What God says about... Listen, if you ever look at pornography, The Bible says, if a man looketh on a woman to lust after her, he's committed adultery with her already in his heart. Women, if you find your desires in seeing a man and being encouraged by who he is and his success and all that, and you desire that, that sin, if you read things that talk about... Think about the things in our culture today that promote infidelity. and we read them, we listen to that trash music, and we think it's okay. Listen, if you compare it to the Word of God, it's sin. Does this world need grace? If we're honest, this world needs grace. And if we're really honest, we need grace too. First thing, God's grace is needed. Second of all, grace is according to God's mercy, verses 4 and 5. And if you know me, you know my favorite passage of Scripture is found here, but God. who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved." So grace is according to God's mercy. Grace begins with God. But God, God intervenes in our life. We're dead in our trespasses and sins. We're walking according to the course of this world. We're fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're the children of wrath, even as others. But God enters our life. God quickens us and makes us alive. God changes us, gives us a new heart and a new life. God enters in. And so we understand that grace begins with God. We receive grace because God is merciful. If you have received grace today, understand it's all because He has chosen to be merciful to you. Because your sins deserve the wrath of God. Your sins deserve death in hell forever. That's what you deserve. And if you have not received it, It's because God has chosen to enter into your life and to change your course of life and to set you on the narrow road that leads to life. You come to understand, Jesus, I am the way, the truth, and the life. You come to God because He's working in your life. But as we think about that, but God, who is rich in mercy, what is mercy? A simple way to understand mercy is that you did not get what you deserved. Not getting what you deserved is mercy. And you know, mercy has been the way that God has dealt with this creation since the beginning. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. The day Adam ate of the tree, He deserved to die. God did not punish Adam forever. God looked at him with a heart of love, and in mercy, he covered his nakedness with animal skins. Did Adam deserve that? No, Adam deserved the full wrath of God. But God in His mercy covered Adam's sins and told him about the one who's going to come to take away sin forever. And if we look at our lives, if we just think of the times we've rebelled against God, we think about the wicked thoughts that have come through our hearts and our minds and our anger and our bitterness and our envy and all of those things. I mean, if God gave us what we deserve, we would have experienced His wrath in an instant. But God granted mercy to Adam. And God has given us mercy. You see, the thing about mercy is that mercy and grace go together. Grace, the unmerited favor of God. Mercy, not getting what you deserve. You're not getting what you deserve, you're getting the unmerited favor of God. And if you're getting the unmerited favor of God, you're not getting what you deserve. So mercy and truth go together. And the Bible is full of examples of those who received mercy, and therefore they have received grace. Again, we said Adam received the mercy and the grace of God. It's told us about Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, right? And that's the reason he was given to build the ark and was protected from the flood. You could think about David, and he sinned with Bathsheba. He found grace and mercy in that he did not die for his sins. Then you can think of Saul of Tarshish, the one that was going out and breathing out threatenings and slaughtering. God appeared to him on the Damascus road, and He gave him mercy and He gave him grace. And we could go on and on and on and talk about many examples in the Scripture, but we know the Bible is full of places where we understand that there are those who receive the mercy of God. And the need for mercy and grace is because the heart is wicked. Remember, a child left unto himself will bring his mother to shame. That's why we discipline children. A child left unto itself will bring his mother to shame. That child's heart is wicked. That child's heart is dead in trespasses and sins. Unless you train it to follow God, it will act out in wickedness. So the need for grace is because the heart is wicked, but we understand God enters into our lives and gives us, notice, rich mercy. Rich mercy, abundant mercy, overflowing mercy. And why does He do that? For His great love wherewith He loved us. We are the recipients of the mercy of God because God has chosen to love us. You know, we don't grasp this truth today. We do not grasp the magnitude of the love that God has for us. He could have very easily chosen to pour out His wrath on us, but He chose to love us. None of us deserve this grace. All of us deserve the wrath of God. God who is rich in mercy for His great love. We receive grace because of His love. A holy, righteous judge grants mercy. Really, we won't be able to grasp this until we're in His presence. We won't be able to grasp the magnitude of His love until we're in the presence of His holiness and we see that holy God chose to give us mercy. Then we'll understand more completely just how great the Father's love is for us. But grace, we receive grace because of His love wherewith He loved us. And what does He do? Grace makes us alive. Notice verse 5. Even when we were dead in sins, have quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved. Because we are dead, there is no other way for us to be alive spiritually other than the grace of God. And you notice He said, you hath He quickened, you were dead, but He made you alive. That's what you call being regenerated. That's what you call being born again. That's what you call being a recipient of the Spirit of God. It's not the refreshing of the old spirit, but the new spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, is imparted to you, and you are regenerated, and you are made alive. It's not a reformation of the old character. It's not God just taking the old man and sprucing it up a little bit. No, it's God imparting something completely new in you, the Holy Spirit, making you alive, made new. And there's an outcome because of that. There's an outcome because of that. You cannot take An individual that has the Holy Spirit and that person be the same. They're going to be changed. because they have the Spirit now living in them. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Old character, old desires, they change. A new thought on life and eternity arrives. The One made alive lives with a new purpose, and that purpose is to glorify God. No longer am I wanting to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind, but now because I have been regenerated and been made alive, now my purpose is to live for the glory of God, because I know and I recognize that He has redeemed me, that He has bought me back from sin, that He took the old man that was dead and made him alive. He has made me new, and so now I love Him and I want to live for Him. Someone who has been regenerated, is changed. If there is no change, there is no regeneration. And we need to grasp that. The new man is full of righteousness and holiness. The new man is renewed in his knowledge of the One who has created him. The new man loves Him. You see, just like Lazarus, when Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth, Did Lazarus stay in the grave? No, he came forth, and Jesus said, Loose him and let him free. Just like Lazarus who came out of the grave, the one who has been regenerated walks in a newness of life. So that causes us to pause and think for just a minute, what are the ways in which you are walking in newness of life? How have you been changed? How have your attitudes changed? How are your desires changed? How are you denying yourself? How are you taking up your cross and following Jesus Christ, Him that come after me, must, must, not should, must deny Himself and take up the cross and follow Me. How are you doing that in your life? Listen, if you are not denying yourself, I encourage you to think, have you been born again? And if you have been born again, now you have the Holy Spirit living in you, and the Holy Spirit gives you the ability to overcome the old man and to walk in the newness of life. You need to understand what it means that you have been born again, so grace makes alive. And grace promises us some things. Notice verses 6 through 9. And it raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. For by grace are you saved through faith and not out of yourselves. It is the gift of God. First promise. is the promise of resurrection to life. The bodily resurrection of Jesus and the promise of the bodily resurrection for those who believe in Him is what separates Christianity from other religions. Other religions around the world think about eternity and talk about eternity, but their eternity is somewhat spiritual. You know, maybe they think that they're going to come back to life in a different form. They'll be reincarnated into something new. Or maybe they think, as the LDS teaches, that you're going to get your own planet, where you will be the god of your own planet. Now, grasp that for a little bit. When the Latter-day Saints come along and they start talking to you, understand that what they're saying is that, and that's the reason they have a lot of kids, and that's the reason they're baptized for the dead and lots of things, is because they're preparing their own planet where they're going to be the god of their own planet. But anyway. Or now, today, as AI is getting more popular, artificial intelligence, which is not artificial intelligence, by the way. It is just extreme data processing. But today, people want to upload themselves into a hard drive for the future, for eternity. Think about that. But let's do understand that AI is not intelligence. There is no reasoning going on in AI. AI is only extreme data processing. It's only data processing of logarithms. It's nothing more than evaluating algebraic expressions. And AI can be wrong. If you have bad input, what was the old saying you always used to hear? Garbage in, what? Garbage out. AI is going to make its decisions based upon the inputs that have been put into it. And so if the bad information has gone into AI, they can make bad decisions. There's a lot of discussions about AI today and about how dangerous it is and how we should stay away from it because it can lead people down the wrong path. But anyway, I'm not preaching about AI, but there's some good stuff out there talking about AI. But this promise of resurrection to life raised us up to sit together with Christ Jesus. Paul told the Philippians, "...who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." The body which is prone to sin will be changed, and that body which has been broken by sin will be changed in a bodily resurrection. When we will be raised to have a body like unto His glorious body, that bodily resurrection is what separates us from other religions in the world. We believe in a bodily resurrection, not some spiritual place where we go and live in utopia. I should have put down the word, but anyway. It's not some spiritual thing, it is a bodily resurrection. The resurrection to life is to never die again. And that's what grace promises us. This body that you're living in today, you sinned today in this body, right? And because your body, it's broken by sin. And one day, this body is going to die. The effect of sin is our body's going to die. But the promise of grace is, That the grave has no victory. Death has no sting. This body is going to be changed and we will live in that heavenly place with Christ Jesus. That's what grace promises us. to understand his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Again, as I said earlier, that we won't be able to understand the magnitude of the love of God until we get to heaven, neither will we understand the kindness that God has given to us. And God giving us grace. I mean, think about it. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, Shame on me, right? And that's the way we like to treat people. Okay, you got me one time, but you're not going to hurt me again, right? Aren't you glad God doesn't have that attitude with you? Aren't you glad that God doesn't say, okay, that's enough. I'm done with you. I've had enough of your foolishness. Yeah, you say you're going to do better and you're going to turn over a new leaf and you're going to do all this, and you always fail. I'm done with you. Aren't you glad that He's full of grace? He's kind to us. When we deserve anger and malice and wrath, He gives grace. See, we can't grasp His kindness towards us in giving us grace, but that's one of the promises that God is going to be kind to you And God promises you that the salvation is a free gift from God. For by grace are you saved through faith. It's not what you deserved, but God has given you grace, and He has saved you from your sins. Now, faith is a channel through which grace flows. Faith is necessary, but even that faith is a gift from God. Some people wonder about that, whether it's faith is the gift of God, but that's what it says. The faith that you have is the gift of God. If you are able to believe in Jesus Christ by faith, it's because God chose to give you that faith. That's how deep grace is. God chose to give you the faith that you have to believe. Why is faith a gift from God? Not of works, as many men should boast. Jonathan Edwards is said to have said this, You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin which made it necessary. This is a good point for us to remember today concerning our salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. He's the author and the finisher of our faith, faith, your faith, that you had to believe in Jesus Christ. It was given to you by God. It's not because of who you were. It's not because of God looking down and seeing how good of a person you were going to be. No, God, because He loved you, gave you the ability to have faith. even when you're dead in your trespasses and sins. Now lastly, grace manifested. Verse 10, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in Him. We are His workmanship. He is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And what work is He going to do? The work that He is doing is that He is going to show us His power over the sin that is in our life. That's what God's doing in you. He's showing you how He can defeat sin in your life. He's showing you just how much His grace is at work in your life. And because He has worked that in us, we are to work that out to others and share that grace with others. So this is why we were created in Christ Jesus. Unto good works, the new life of grace which God gives to His children, creates something new. It creates a new life in us which has a desire to do good to others. God created you. He saved you to do good to others. And we need to think about ways that we can do good to others. We need to think about ways where we can share the message of grace with others. And I want you to understand, God has ordained that those whom He redeems will walk in good works. That's the expectation for one that is born again. They will walk in good works. They'll get involved in the church and they'll work inside the church. That's God's design. God's design is for people who are saved to be a member of a church and then to be active in that church and working in that church and being the hands and feet of Jesus as they reach out to others and show the goodness of God to others. That's what we're called to do. God has ordained that if you have received grace, you will walk in good works. So we've looked today at grace needed, grace according to God's mercy. We've looked at the promises that grace gives and then grace manifested in our lives. What a message we have. This world is broken because of sin. God gave His Son. The Son came in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh. And whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. All things are going to work together for good to those that love God. Eternity isn't something to be feared. Eternity is something to hope for. Salvation and eternal life come by grace. It is not earned. It is freely given. What a message we have. And so we contend for grace. We contend for grace because we've got the message that says you're dead, but you can have life through Jesus Christ. Let's hold on to that message and let's share that message because that's exactly what someone who's not born again is what they need. They need to understand grace is available to them. They need to see it in you. They need to hear it from you. They need to see that it's in God. But we need to contend for grace, and we need to walk in grace, and contend for the faith that wants to deliver to the saints by contending for grace. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day and the opportunity we had to be together and to worship you. And I pray, God, that each of us today will be thankful for grace. Where would we be without grace? Still dead in our trespasses and sins. Lord, if there's someone here today that has never received your grace, I pray that you'll stir their hearts to call upon your name. Because if they'll call upon your name, they will be saved. I pray that you will work in their lives today. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Let's stand, and we're going to turn to page number... 335. F9-01.