Sinclair Ferguson

And so there is a real happiness for the Christian to experience.

But the Christian is brought to experience it in many different ways, and some of them actually are very sore to us because we're still seeking our happiness in something in which happiness can never be found, rather than seeking it in the Lord.

I wonder if you know the great hymn by the English hymn writer who rejoiced in the name Augustus Montague Toplady.

That's a name to conjure with.

He wrote a great hymn entitled A Debtor to Mercy Alone.

And there's a verse in it that has always moved me.

He says, my name from the palms of his hands, eternity will not erase.

Impressed on his heart, it remains in marks of indelible grace.

Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is given.

And then this, more happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven.

Now, there's a line to remember.

They are happier.

They see the face of Christ.

They are set free from sin.

But they're not more secure because you and I are held, if we're Christ's, in the hollow of His hand.

They are happier, but because He is ours and we are His, we can be happy here.

Of course, we'll only know perfect happiness when we're with those saints in glory and when we're perfectly holy, when we're with the spirits of righteous men made holy, as Hebrews says, and in the presence of Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

That's where our lives are heading, to be conformed to the image of God's Son.

But if we're His, we can already be happy.

So as we're still in the very first week of this new year, let me wish you a very happy new year.