Transcript: Advent 4: Jesus Gives Grace Upon Grace - Ted Hough

In our study, we are in John chapter 1, the prologue, the first 18 verses, and we have gotten through verse 14. We've gotten through verse 14. So we're coming to an end here. We're going to kind of bring a little bit more ideas to verse 14, so we're going to start there and then read through verse 18. We probably have two more lessons or one more lesson today and then maybe another one the next time. And if we go on beyond that, that's fine. But I think we only have two more lessons to do. Beginning in verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory. Glory as the only begotten from the Father. Full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. For of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. And no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. we have looked at verse 14 and the beauty and the meaning of it and the power of it last two weeks ago and I mentioned to you that you might take some time to look at Psalm 85 and the Old Testament that captures much of what's being said in verse 14 it's a very very beautiful passage in the Old Testament that gives us another insight, another look, another dimension of the idea that the Shekinah glory of God, the Word, made himself available when he dwelt among us. And when he dwelt among us, we saw in his essence who he was. And it was something that was visible to mankind. God has always been something that is not totally understood by man. And you cannot see his face. And you can see his glory. You can see his glory. But when you found him in the man, Jesus, as well as the God, Jesus, you had a combination that had never existed before. and that combination is basically there so that you and I can understand the glory and from that glory we're able to penetrate into the very heart of God and we can have that heart revealed to us in ways that we have never, never known. I've been reading a book by Malcolm Muggeridge who is a very, very strong mind within our century who was an atheist and became a Christian and the thing that really penetrates his heart is this revelation of God through Jesus and describing through his book what he saw and what he felt in terms of Jesus himself of course being God and revealing the very soul and heart of God so that we could understand as men what that really was and that's what you see in this verse and what we get picked up in the rest of these verses the rest of the prologue because now he's flesh now he dwells with us and that changes everything it allows you and I to have a real understanding of the soul of God it's almost as though we can look into the heart of the glory that's a part of God John Dryden wrote a poem called The Panther And he basically said that the throne of God is a darkness to man because of the blaze of glory that emanates from it. It's a darkness. He says it's a sin of abyss. We can't really see him because his glory is so blazing. and yet when you have Jesus when he has come for us to really look at him and that's exactly, we beheld him we beheld him we were able really to have an intimacy with him and his glory the glory is the essence of God shining forth into the acts of God and so what we find is this is what we get And, of course, the highlight of it is the word grace and truth. When we looked at him, when we saw him, we saw grace and truth. And we're going to try to light on those a little bit this morning as we go through the rest of these verses. But, of course, the key verse, the beautiful verse, is the 18th verse. Because that is what the whole purpose is. It is the whole bringing of everything together. so you can penetrate into the very meaning of God himself by looking at Jesus. And it's the final word. And man doesn't need any other word in relationship to God. And so it's something that a man has to deal with. He has to study. He has to look. He has to understand. He has to allow that to rule his life because God has made it known. it is no longer something to where a man can say I didn't know because it's been revealed there's no excuse it's been revealed and so that's what we find in these verses beautiful there so if you turn to Psalm 85 we'll take a look at this beautiful set of verses from the Old Testament that say very much some of the things that have actually been talked about here. As I said, let me see. Before I do that, I'm going to give you this sheet. And it has that on the top, that verse on the top, so that you can take a look at it. At the top of the page is talking about Psalm 85, and from verses 8 through 13. These verses depict from the Old Testament exactly the thoughts of John in verse 14. The word dwell, the word glory, the word grace, which is loving kindness, and the word truth, revealed in its fullest meaning to men through Jesus, brings salvation, peace, and righteousness to man. They have all met together, and they have kissed each other. now what is basically being said at the beginning of Psalm 85 if you look at this they're in a time of great trouble and anxiety we're not even sure what time this is we don't know where it is exactly so it leaves it kind of open for all of us this is a time of great anxiety in the people of Israel and he is wondering what has caused a kind of separation of God from them. And he's asking God to bring them back to him. He's asking God to bring a salvation that will allow them to again experience who he is and what he is. They've lost it. And so he's asking for this salvation to occur so that everything can come back together. And as he gets to verse 8 through 13, he almost moves beyond the idea that they have lost the presence of God and they want that presence back he wants it to dwell in the land and that's exactly what he's saying he wants it to dwell in the land but all of a sudden he goes beyond almost the dwelling of God in the land to bring goodness and prosperity to the land he begins to kind of go into hyperspace His mind begins to move farther and farther beyond that, driven by the Holy Spirit. And he brings these beautiful concepts together in an intimacy that's very unusual in the Old Testament. And what he's saying is we've lost peace. We've lost righteousness. We have not experienced the loving kindness of God. Something has to bring that back to us. something has to give that to us we need a salvation we need God to dwell in the land so that goodness can come to us again and so that is what he's explaining in this prayer that he gives to God bring your salvation that goodness can dwell in the land and that these things can come to us again and that they can kiss together and then he makes a reference to the idea that there are things in heaven and there are things in earth and they're separated and he wants them to come together and kiss each other so that we can have the fruit of the soul of God back and of course all of these words are the very words that are used in John chapter 1 verse 14 that God would dwell that grace would come, that loving kindness would be there, that there would be a peace between us, and that we could understand the goodness of God because God has come to us. He has made himself more available, more visible, more understandable, and the full salvation of God has kissed us. And so that's what you see in the verses and what is being said. I will hear what God the Lord will say, for he will speak peace to his people, to his godly ones, but let them not turn aback to folly. Surely his salvation is nearer to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. we don't have it it's not there we need to have it we need to have that glory dwell in our land and then God says the glory will be seen fully it will dwell the Shekinah glory will be seen and we will behold it and we will kiss it will partake of it. It will fill us up till we literally see the soul of God. And so that's the beauty that you see here in terms of putting those two passages together. John 1, 14, and then this passage of verses here that is asking the very thing. Come, come. Bring the glory back to the land. Bring it to us that these qualities may kiss and that we may have them. So let's finish that up. Loving kindness and truth have met together in the glory. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth. And righteousness looks down from heaven. The two need to come together. Indeed the Lord will give what is good And our land will yield its produce Righteousness will go before him And will make his footsteps into a way Now, I don't know When you come across a little phrase like that You just really have to stop And you know, the kissing together, that's a phrase. You've just got to stop and think about what that means. And then when you get down to that last phrase, I don't know what your Bible says, but that's a new American standard. It basically says, and he will make his footsteps into a way. Now what that means is because these have kissed together and earth and heaven have been brought together and the salvation is there you can follow his footsteps clearly in a path That's exactly what that means. His footsteps are now visible. It's a path. It's a way. We are known as the people of the way. And that's exactly what they say in the New Testament. They're the people of the way. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father except by me. I am the way. I am the footsteps that you can follow. In relationship to God. The glory dwells in the land. And they have kissed together righteousness. and peace, loving kindness and truth. And there is a way for men to find it. It's just a beautiful passage in relationship to what God is explaining to us. And if you're connected to John 1.14, you just get the whole thing as it's put together. So I hope that you took some time to take a look at it. And again, if you come across a phrase, our problem, say I'm an English teacher. That's what I've been trained to do. I've been trained to do it in seminary, but particularly in English. You look at phrases that have been created by the mind of men. These are phrases that are being created by the mind of God. And you have to understand that words and phrases when you put them all together they have a main theme but the words and the phrases are the particulars of the beauty that's there and you have to stop and take a look at something like that as you go through that the first thing that would run across you in terms of this is they kiss together that's a very unusual phrase in the Bible you better stop and really explore that and then his footsteps have turned into a way that's a very unusual concept it's an image, it's a beautiful image and if you can stop and take a look at it and put it back to where it's originated all these things now are visible because he dwells in the land all of these things have come together because he dwells in the land the glory dwells in the land and that's all, the whole prologue the glory now dwells in the land and you can behold it. There's a way into the heart of God. So it's extremely good. Then we move to John 15. So if you turn back to John 1.15, we'll pick these up. John 15, 16, and 17 are on this sheet that you have. Nope, not 17. I haven't got the 17 yet. That'll be next week, 17 and 18. Actually, I do have 17 done, but I just didn't give it to you. What you find in these next verses are four different things that are mentioned that I have listed there from 15 to 18. the uniqueness of Christ. And what you find in this passage, now that the kind of glory there has come, everything else is under him. He is unique. All that God is has now been given to man. And everything else is subordinate. And so he's picking up two of the big ones that in the mind of the people of his day, as well as the Jewish and the past history see as being prominent. And we've already mentioned to you that John, the writer of the gospel, lived in a time and he lived in Ephesus, in the area of Ephesus where John the Baptist's disciples were still there and were very prominent. And they had a sense that John the Baptist was greater than Christ. Even Christ himself said that John the Baptist was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets. And sometimes I look at that and I go, gee, I don't see that, but that's what God said. So there was something unique about John the Baptist. And so he's living in a culture that has that feeling. And so for the Christians and those people who have kind of turned away from Judaism or seen its completion, they're looking at John the Baptist as a very prominent character and a sect of them are off they're making him bigger than Christ and so twice now he is made known that John the Baptist is not bigger than Christ at all not even close and at the end he's making that clear again okay then he steps on the biggest toe of all in terms of making Christ being who he is He says he's greater than Moses who gave the law. And of course, to the Jew and to the Sanhedrin and to the Pharisee and the Sadducee, Moses was the only man that we listened to. And so John is explaining that Jesus is larger, bigger than Moses. And we'll pick that up next week. As we get into that at work, we have time. We'll pick it up today. But what you are finding is that's what he's saying. This is the uniqueness of Christ. The Shekinah glory has now come, and he overshadows everything else in relationship to anything that's being said. And so that's what he's explaining. And he's the only way into the heart of God. The law is not enough way to get into the heart of God. The repentance that you got from John the Baptist is not enough in terms of understanding the heart of God. It is through the footsteps of God found in Jesus as he's dwelt among us and shown us what grace and truth really mean. And brought a salvation that is utterly unique. That is the only way into the heart of God. So that's what he's trying to explain. The uniqueness of this Shekinah glory now. The dwelling of Jesus within us. Because he's now named the person up until this point. It's been the word. And now he's named Jesus, Jesus. And now he's comparing them to other men that have been dynamic in terms of God's people. So that's what he's trying to show here. And then we have he surpasses Moses. He truly supplies all the needs of his people, and he is the revelation of the soul of God to man. So let's take a look at his superiority to John the Baptist for just a second, and then we'll move into verse 16 because that's the more beautiful verse. Often in Greek and Jewish cultures, in John's time, the teacher who preceded others was seen to be superior. Moses is seen superior to all the Greek philosophers because he preceded them. When the Jew looked at Moses, he looked at somebody that had the revelation of God before all the rest of the game. So whoever was first and God gave it to them was the superior. And that was what was in the mind of almost all the people of that time. Who is superior? Plato and Aristotle. Plato, why? Because Plato was before Aristotle. Actually, today's modern man would say Aristotle was superior to Plato, but not back then. When did Plato come around? He came in 500 BC. When did Moses come around? 1500 BC. A whole lot longer around in terms of he is far greater than all the rest of what he did and what he influenced. So the Jewish mind saw Moses far greater than any Greek philosopher, because none of them, Socrates was right before Plato in 600. And so here's Moses a thousand years before in relationship to that. So he is much larger in superiority in their mind. So that was what he was saying. So he goes on to say, but John the Baptist stated that although he preceded Jesus in the present time, Jesus was superior. Jesus was the word. He was thus before John the Baptist. He is first in time and first in importance. The choices of the Greek word imply absolute priority. In other words, if you look at Jesus, he is the word. So he's before everybody. And that's exactly what he's trying to show here. So the idea is John the Baptist looked like he was before Jesus, but even John the Baptist said that Jesus was before me. And Jesus is also way before Moses, and he's way before Abraham, who was 2000 BC. And so he is putting him before everything because he's God. But that's the order and the idea that's being presented there. The next verse, verse 16. for of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. Now I want to camp on this verse and I want you to help explore it with me. This is another one of these verses if you just kind of look at it, you just run right through it and I've heard all that. And you just go right on. And you don't stop and let your mind drift over its meaning and its beauty to you. And I've tried to help you do that by taking the words themselves and stop and look at each one of those words until we get down to grace upon grace and fullness. Because these are the things that are the things that caused us grace to live. I mean this verse to live. So, he is the supplier of all his needs to his people. The use of the word for connects 15 and 16. He implies that Christians reading John's Gospel at the time, perhaps all of us can agree with the assertion of verse 15 that Jesus is greater than John. We have experienced the good gifts he has given, which John the Baptist did not give. John the Baptist was not able to give you this grace upon grace. Why is it that Jesus is greater? Well, he's greater because he's God. because he's God, he can give us all sorts of good gifts that John the Baptist can't give us, or Moses can't give us, or anybody else can't give us. And so what he's doing is saying, this is what he brought. What did John the Baptist bring? What did Moses bring? They brought a lot because God brought that through them. But this is the full revelation, the full goodness. And the word full is used. the fullness of God is now here. It's beyond these two. And so that's the first thing that he wants you to understand. And the word us there basically is a reference to all of us, all of us. That means everybody that was during Jesus' time, but every man who's become a Christian ever since, experiences this grace upon grace, this goodness upon goodness, this gift that's upon every gift. Every gift, you're receiving more and more. And so they couldn't bring these things. This is one of the reasons he is greater. Now, the phrase grace upon grace, the last point there, is unique. You don't find this phrase anywhere else. Grace upon grace. it means that as one piece of action of God's gift is given to us as it recedes another one replaces it. So here you have a goodness of God that is given to you and it a gift and you couldn earn it That its definition You can earn it and it a gift And that gift is handed to you And as you take it under yourself and it becomes a part of you it begins to somewhat a little bit diminish. But it never stops. That's why grace upon grace. The minute it begins to recede a little bit, here comes another gift. And it's another gift of grace. and you eat and you devour and you're a part of it and then comes another one. That's what it's saying. So it never stops. As he says at the very end, there's a hint of infiniteness to the grace because it's from God himself. And so that infinites just cannot stop. That gift was not a one-time act. That's what we have way too often in our mind. It is a one-time act in what Jesus did. But once it got there, once it came, once the salvation was a part of you, the two of them kissed, peace and righteousness, the truth and grace and love. All of that kissed, and it just keeps coming. The good gifts of God now fall upon you forever. Grace upon grace. it's a tidal wave that's been released and it will never stop and our tendency is to take the gift of the cross and the gift of the resurrection and the gift of our own personal salvation and have that be the grace the gift it is but it's only the beginning it's like the dam being broken and from that point on Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace that stretches into infinity, into eternity. And that's what's being spoken of. So that's the description. It is continuous. It is never exhausted. Grace knows no interruption. grace is contrasted with the experience with the law the law can be mastered to some point thus it stops he knows the precise requirement, man knows the precise requirements that are demanded of him, but grace is always an adventure because you never know what it's really going to be like because it keeps coming and it keeps changing. It's just like a new gift coming next and next and next and next and next. No man can say where grace will lead him. Grace means an ever deepening experience of the presence and the blessing of God. So that is what the little phrase grace upon grace means. But it's connected. It is connected with the fullness of God. Okay? So that's what it's for. Of his fullness, we have all received. What is the fullness? Grace upon grace. Okay? That is the fullness. And we will continue to receive this until we reach eternity. And then it will go on and on and on and on and on in terms of what it is. Okay? So that's the beauty that's being talked about there. Now, what I want to know from you, what is your experience with grace? What is your experience? Do you taste this every day? Do you taste the goodness of God? The loving kindness of God? The gift of God seen in every one of those things. What you have to be able to do is to explain it. In other words, you need to be able to say what that is. Because it enriches your soul. It tells you that if you can taste it and take it and touch it, it will begin to fill you up with God. it'll begin to fill you up with God. Otherwise, you're ignoring the grace. It's just bouncing off of you. It's coming, but it's just bouncing off of you. It's not overwhelming your soul. And that's what the idea is. It's filling you up with God. It is the fullness of God. Now, let me share this with you. One of my favorite prayers that I pray all the time when we went through these prayers two years ago, or I don't know, I'm losing time like all of us are losing time, is Ephesians 3, where Paul prays. And he basically says, grant to us. In other words, this is something we can't make happen. It is something that is given to us. grant to us according to the riches of your glory according to the riches of your glory a power inside of us that we have but it's not ours it's God a power that's inside of us that will cause our faith to be established and that we can touch, taste and feel the love of God. It's height, it's breadth, it's width. We touch it in loving kindness. Acts of kindness. Movements of gifts given to us by God himself every day that we do not earn that are a part of us. And then it says, there are three things. It's faith, love, and then the last request is fill me up with you. Fill me up with you. And we will not find the filling, the total filling, until we're with him. But he's filling us right this minute. Grace upon grace. Gift upon gift. and that's something that we are abysmally unaware of we'll catch pieces of it but we don't catch much of it and we've got to wake up and ask for God to fill us to where we are knowledgeable of the height and the breadth and the depth of the love of God grace by grace by grace piece by piece by piece. And as it does so, it fills you up with him. Now unto him who is able to give you more than you could possibly pray for. Let it happen. So those are the kinds of things that it's being talked about. Now, again, those are two aspects of the filling of God, the fullness of God grace by grace. love and faith two aspects what other things would you find in the word that meant something to you that might explain what this grace upon grace is in other words this is a fullness of God so there is an enormous amount of aspects to it you can see it in acts that happen on being kind to you but when you step back from the kind act that occurred what you do is find something about the nature of God that fills you. And what I'm talking about is when my house sold in one day in a market that is abysmal, I considered that overwhelming grace. That's exactly how I felt. I consider that an act of love. And I took it to be that. It is a gift that I could not orchestrate. He decided to do it with somebody else, and he decided not to do it with somebody else. It's another type of gift. And so you have all sorts of things to where you have to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And then others where, wham, it's right there. And you can divide your prayers, basically, in those two ideas in a lot of ways. But that was a gift. and it becomes a grace to me. I tasted love. Now, that was an act. That was a movement of God in my life that was literally his glory demonstrated to me. But what did it show me? What did it do for me? It showed me the nature of God and it filled me up with him. See, it was an act, but it showed the grace I tasted the grace grace upon grace that began to fill me so I can ask you for the acts or I can ask you to go to the word like we have looked at two passages here Ephesians 3 and Psalm 85 and John 1 which defines them both so you can go to the word itself and go, these are the acts of grace. Or you can go to your wife and go, that was an act of grace that filled me up so that I would understand this about God. Well, it's interesting. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5.16 says, rejoice always. And I don't think he could make that statement without his understanding that grace is prevalent and as you say, continuous. And if it ever stopped, why then how could Paul say? Rejoice all. Yeah, so he sees that. But it's interesting, it goes back to really your obedience and the blessings that we covered there in the 14th verse. But if you look at that, what is it? Faith and peace, mercy and peace, kiss each other. There's another expression. Now that is they are kissing each other. And that's continuous. But if you go back to Psalm 2, I think it's verse 12, that verse begins by kiss the son. Three words. And if you stop and think about that, that is really a summary of everything that the authors of the New Testament are saying. It just ties it all together. That's very good. I think another that's been evident to me is a control issue or a self issue that you can release knowing that he's in control, you can release it. And an example is my foot. You know, it was such pain and such difficulty. I couldn't walk. And the doctor put me in a boot and said that surgery was in my future. And yet, reliance on God and trusting in him. I sounded on my last visit. He said, well, you don't need me anymore. You're healed. And there's nothing more I can do for you. Well, that's kind of our relationship with man. there's really nothing more they can do for us but there's always something more that God can do for us good any other verses or things I count that grace is like your immune system you have the power within you but we really don't know how often you call on it it's invisible but we do have two types the tangible and the intangible. And frankly, going through some experiences that you just think, oh, what will I do? But it all goes, this too shall pass, is what it's meant to be. Call on it when it needed But I don know sometimes when the immune system is going to be tapped Very good Okay Any other concept or idea When Job's wife said, why don't you just curse God and die? And he said, can we accept good from God and not trouble? which speaks to what Alan was saying the sovereignty of God that he's going to do what he will do but everything he does is for our good and for his glory and an example of this to me was when my little sister Teresa was dying and I was with her and I don't tell this story to many people but I know you all would understand And at 2.05, I heard voices sing. And I thought, someone left a radio on. So I got up to check, and there was no radio. Then I thought, well, I've been under a lot of stress. I haven't gotten much rest. And I just imagined this. And a little bit, I went back to sleep next to her. And I was awake just before 5 o'clock. and it was a choir and it was much closer. It sounded like female voices, but it wasn't a major key and it wasn't a minor key. It was some kind of music I'd never heard. And I realized these are angels and they've come to escort her. And to me that was such a comfort because she was Catholic and I wondered about her salvation. but after that I didn't wonder anymore and it just showed to me God's goodness and it's been a constant reminder to me of how he looks at people and the love that he gives to his children the end it's not the end any other concept you know if you read publications like the magazine that voice of the martyrs puts out you hear those stories of even today of the extreme persecution of individuals and cultures it's it's easy for us to see how grace can be obscured by our immediate problems but but it's interesting when you hear these stories how God's grace is always visible to these people I mean they're getting beat but there's always something and like Alan's foot or my cancer or whatever you know if you really look you'll find that yeah you got all this weight on you but God's grace is still there it is still ever present and it is grace upon grace and I'm just pretty well convinced that we can have all these pressures on us and just weighting us down but God's grace can sure shine through yeah Joe about probably 20 years ago you told in your Sunday school class which I was into to try to work on finding some life verses for ourselves. And I did that. I found quite a few, actually, more than just one. But Isaiah 33, 6, in the NIV, it says, But you will be the sure foundation of your times of restore salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. And that's kind of a general promise, but it seems to me like whatever situation might arise, go to the Lord in the river of awe, and if you'll be a rich store of salvation in that situation, you need to be saved out of it. Salvation and wisdom. Anyway, like Alan was just saying, life is not like I need to be in control of everything I don't need to manipulate things I need to ask for God's guidance and obey and make the outcome to him so that's helpful to me anything else? yes Mike I love that Romans 8 28 and all of them work together for good. Then the loving will call according to his purpose. But the next verse tells us what that good is. That's the performance of Christ. So if the foot isn't healed, if the house doesn't sell, okay, you're using this to conform to Christ's name. I don't like situation. I can find the earth. I need to be concerned about finding the burden of the power. I'm trying to sell. But if you're using this for me, into the image of Christ, I confess. That's right. Very good. So, you know, I was in heaven. I want to ask, why did you make that one verse? Because the second verse tells us what good is. That's right. if you don't see that it's hard to see good come out of some tribulations in the life that tells us what that is okay because we're using this we can do this we're good anything else I wanted to close with something that's always been a favorite of mine I'm sure I've shared it with you before but I'm going to share it with you anyway it's Isaiah 40 first two verses in Isaiah chapter 40 John the Baptist is mentioned Isaiah 40 John the Baptist is mentioned. He's the voice in the wilderness calling out, prepare the way for the Lord. When he was asked, what was he? And they came out and said, who are you? Are you Elijah? Are you the Messiah? He said, no, I'm not either one of those. I'm the voice crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way for God. So this whole passage is a prediction about what we've just been talking about. The flesh, the world becoming flesh. And John the Baptist is the herald of that particular experience that the world has received. And so that's what it's saying. Verse 3, a voice is calling. And then from that point on, what you do is have the actual revelation of Jesus coming. That's what you have. What we have is the valleys will be made straight, the hills and everything will be pulled down and made straight for him so that God can walk upon the face of the earth. And then later on in verse 9 and 10, it actually uses the word the gospel will be spoken to men and God will take them up in his arms and they will become his sheep. so it's a beautiful chapter that's prophetic in relationship to the word becoming flesh and bringing to us himself that we can see John the Baptist is mentioned right there but the first two verses have to do in my opinion with the grace upon grace so the first two verses are an explanation of why is it he come why does he come He brings to us a gift that we could not get unless he came to give it to us. And from that moment on, that gift is given to us over and over and over and over and over and over and over and stretched to eternity. It is the grace upon grace. Law was given by Moses. Grace came by Christ. And so that's what you see, even in these verses. And what is the grace? Well, this is a kind of defining in some of the most beautiful terms what that grace is to us. The first thing, in all circumstances that we have to deal with, when the Shekinah glory became visible to us and the heart of God came to us, and he gives us this grace through a salvation that now is like a tidal wave that will never stop, one of its greatest purposes is to comfort us. to comfort us. Comfort, oh comfort my people, says your God. These are the two verses before the voice. So it's explaining why the voice is coming and why I'm coming. I'm here to bring you comfort. I have in my margin for the second coming of Jesus the church is John the Baptist a great task the next thing it says speak kindly to Jerusalem speak kindly to her and one of the things that you all have experienced is God's kindness even in the midst of your sin and the comfort even in the midst of your failure and so he's speaking kindly to us then it says call out to her that her warfare has ended the coming of the Shekinah glory begins the end of our warfare it begins the end of our warfare our warfare is of course against not blood and flesh, but against the powers of darkness and all the things that are a part of us that are wrong. And that warfare is promised to be ended. And it's an enormous hope. That is a part of the grace. Grace upon grace. Then it tells, tell her that her iniquity has been removed. Again, one of the greatest parts of grace to me that I sense more than almost anything else in terms of his love and his gift that he has given to me is the sense inside that I will finally be whole. And that which wars against me will no longer war against him, inside of me. That I will finally be whole. And that that which displeases him, which I feel death deep inside, that it displeases him, will be gone. It'll be washed away. That is the grace. Because I did not do any of this. Did not do any of this. that is the grace tell her that she has received from my hand double for all of her sin now the word double is actually grace tell her that I have given her more than she could possibly need to take care of this problem grace upon grace upon grace upon grace that will remove this from her, the warfare and her iniquity. And I will speak kindly to her and comfort her. And then it says, and a voice is calling, prepare the way for our God. so it's a very very beautiful description of why and then it's connected with the fullness of God that will be given and is being given to us grace upon grace upon grace so that's it we'll see you next week