Sons of God, redeemed by blood,
Raise your songs to Zion's God. Made from condemnation free,
Grace triumphant sing with me. Calvary's wonders let us praise,
Justice magnified in grace, Mark the crimson streams and say,
Thus my sins were washed away. Death divine, no more we dread. Vengeance spoke, our surety's
dead. Legal claims are fully debt. Jesus paid the dreadful debt. Lamb of God, thy death have given,
pardon, peace, and hope of heaven. It is finished, let us praise
songs of gratitude and praise. Please be seated. Good morning. For our call to
worship this morning, if you would turn to Hebrews chapter
four. Hebrews chapter four. We'll begin in verse eight. For
if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have
spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that has entered into
his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did
from his. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. Let's pray. Father, we come into
thy presence this morning as mercy beggars, asking you and
begging you to give us rest in the finished work of the accomplished
salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, give us clarity of mind
this morning and steal our minds from wondering and from worrying
on things that don't pertain are necessary right now, calls
us to focus on you and you alone, calls us to see Jesus, calls
us to rest in him. Give Greg clarity of mind as
he stands and bring back to remembrance that which you have given him
in his study. Give us ears to hear and hearts
to believe. Call your sheep, we pray, for it's in Christ's
name we ask, amen. Number 39 in your Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymn book. Let's stand together. 39. Wretched, lost, condemned, and
dying Guilty, I deserve God's wrath Long I fought against my
master Hell-bent, I was courting death But the blood of Christ
had bought me, He refused to let me die. This poor sinner, loved by Jesus,
Must be conquered by and by. At the time which was predestined,
in the covenant of God's grace, God in mercy sent His Spirit,
blessed time of love and grace. to reveal His Son's great merit
as the sinner's substitute. I saw Jesus bleeding, dying,
suffering as my substitute. Precious blood for sin's atonement,
justice could not ask for more. I heard Christ cry, it is finished,
and I could resist no more. ? Thanks to God for intervening
? ? Grace that broke my stubborn will ? ? Grace that would not
let me perish ? ? Grace that rescued me from hell ? ? Sovereign
grace I will proclaim it ? Irresistible and free. Grace that chose me
and redeemed me. God, by grace alone saved me. Sinner, now you've heard my story. Now I bid you trust my God. Christ, my all-sufficient Savior,
saves poor sinners by His blood. Adam's going to bring special
music now. Please be seated. How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds,
and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer sun shines but
dim, The fields striving of gay to pain to look gay. But when I am happy in him, December's
as pleasant as May. Alone with my sin in the darkness
Then by a still and small voice God gave me an ear and a heart
Which hear and when hearing rejoice Lead me to still waters and pastures
Make me to lie down and rest Bowing and beholding my Master
Sovereign and faithful and just content with beholding his face,
my, all to his pleasure resign. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. While blessed with the sense
of His love, a palace a toy would appear. All prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. Dear Lord, if indeed
I am thine, If thou art my sun and my song, Say, why do I languish
in pine, And why are my winters so long? Oh, drive these dark
clouds from the sky Thy soul-cheering presence restore Or take me to
the abon high Where winter and clouds are no more Thank you, Adam. Let's open our
Bibles together to Acts chapter 24, Acts 24. First hour, we spoke of those
penmen that God used to write his word and how infallible the
word was that he gave them. It's God's word. Luke was one
of those penmen. He wrote the Gospel of Luke. And in the Gospel of Luke, he
addresses his letter to a man by the name of Theophilus. Theophilus,
you know, theo translated means God, and philos means friend. And so, Theophilus' name translated
means a friend of God. And in Acts and in Luke, Theophilus
is the person that these letters are addressed to. They represent
to us all the friends of God. Scripture says that Abraham stood
the presence of God, God called him his friend. So to have to
be in a in a friendship relationship with God Almighty, the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I no longer call you my servants, but I call you
my friends. For a servant knoweth not what
his master doeth. Oh, what a glorious intimate
relationship that the Lord gives to his children as their elder
brother when he reveals himself to them as his friend. In the book of Luke, Luke calls
Theophilus the most excellent Theophilus. which was a title
that was given to a person in a high office. Most believe that
Theophilus, though he represents all the friends of God, was probably
some sort of Roman governor. And the reason I'm bringing this
out is because beginning in Acts chapter 22 or 21, all the way through to
Acts chapter 27, we have the Apostle Paul's trials and accusations
that are made against him by the Jews. And Paul is defending the gospel
against these false accusations. Why? For five and a half chapters. Does the Lord devote so much
time to this? Well, nothing's changed. False
accusations are still made against Christ and against his church.
The one thing that was not tolerated in the Roman Empire was to be
rebellious against the king. Insurrection was a capital crime. And I think that Paul was addressing
this man by the name of Theophilus to say to him, whatever the Jews
are saying about the church in terms of them being enemies of
the state are not true. To the contrary, the Christians
will be your best citizens. For the kingdom of God is not
of this world. Isn't that what the Lord said
to Pilate? Pilate said, are you a king?
And the Lord said, for this purpose
was I born and for this cause came unto the world to bear witness
unto the truth. And they that are of the truth,
they hear my voice. But he said, my kingdom's not
of this world. It's a spiritual kingdom. This is so important
for us to remember that The Scripture commands the people of God to
obey the King, to submit to authority. Unless the authorities require
us to do something that God says don't do, we're to obey the authorities. We're not standing in rebellion
against the ones whom God has placed in authority. Romans chapter
15, it's clear on that, that the Lord has placed these men
in authority and we're to submit to their authority. So, Luke
is saying to Theophilus first, I think, that the accusations
that these Jews are making against the Christians are not true. They are not the rebels that
they're made out to be. And they're not going to... The thing to remember, Acts chapter
24 was written in 57 AD. Within 10 years of the time that
these events took place, ones making the accusations against
the Apostle will rise up themselves in an all-scale rebellion against
the Romans, which will be put to an end by the complete destruction
of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So Romans chapter 2 verse 1 says,
you that accuse another are guilty of the very same thing. So my
point being this morning that the false accusations that are
made against Christ, that are made against the gospel, that
are made against the church, are really the very things that
those who make the accusations are guilty of. The Pharisees, the Sadducees,
the scribes, the Herodians, and the Romans were all different
groups of people that had nothing to do with one another. They
hated one another. But when it came to the gospel,
they found a common enemy and they united their forces and
their charges against the gospel. The Pharisees were the self-righteous
fundamentalists, the legalistic religious men who believed that
evil was something that was out in the world, not something that
was in them. The Sadducees were the liberals
that religion for them was but an inconvenience. They really
didn't believe anything. They denied the resurrection.
They denied anything spiritual. They denied the existence of
heaven and hell. They thought, you know, that
religion for them was just a convenience. The scribes, on the other hand,
they were the lawyers. They were hired mostly by the Pharisees
to parse the verbs of the Hebrew in order to take advantage of
the law for their own profit. These were the groups. The Herodians,
they were in complete cahoots with the Romans and had no interest
in religious things except for how it might be to their advantage
politically. And then you had the Romans who
really weren't concerned about the accusations that were being
made and came to this conclusion on several occasions throughout
these chapters that these accusations weren't true. But to keep peace,
they, matter of fact, at the end of chapter 26, The king says, Paul's not guilty. Agrippa, Agrippa the king says,
almost thou has persuaded me to become a Christian. But then
he gathers with his counselors and he says, this man's not guilty
of the things that they're accusing him of, but our hands are tied.
He's appealed to Caesar, so let's send him to Rome. Nothing's really changed. Today
we have the self-righteous fundamentalist, we have the liberal religionist,
we have the pseudo-intellectual scribes, we have those who are
only interested in religion as far as it helps them politically,
and they all are in opposition against the gospel. Every single
one of them. And they will all make accusations
against the church and against the gospel that they themselves
are guilty of. You have your Bibles open to
Acts chapter 24. I hope that I didn't spend too much time
laying out the setting here, but this is what's happening.
And I think in order for us to understand The accusations, look
at verse 5 of chapter 24. And we have found this man a
pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews
throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarene.
who also have gone about to profane the temple, whom we took and
would have judged according to the law. But chief Lysias came
upon us and with great violence took him away out of our hands."
Now Paul's being tossed about from Roman legion to Roman legion,
to governors, to kings by these Jews who are accusing him of
being seditious. And now Paul's going to give
his defense. Look with me, if you will, at
verse 12. At verse 10, then Paul, after the
governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, for as much
as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this
nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself. not intimidated
by these accusations that are being made. I'm glad to be able
to answer. And that's what we're doing.
We're answering against the false accusations that are made against
the gospel. Men are still doing it. You know, those people don't
believe that God loves everybody. You know, they're just a cult. You know, they believe that God
elected a particular people before the foundation of the world,
and that they don't believe that man has a free will. What sort
of people are these? These are false accusations.
You know, they're lawless people. They They talk about Christ being
at the end of the law for righteousness and that they're not under the
law, but that they're under grace and they just must be living
lawless lives. These are false accusations. Look at what Paul said in verse
11. Because that thou mayest understand
that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem
for to worship. Remember, this started in chapter
21. Paul made a vow and went into the temple to worship and
a riot broke out. And they neither found me in
the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people,
neither in the synagogue nor in the city, neither can they
prove the things where they now accuse me of. They have no proof
of these accusations. I wasn't a rebel rouser, I wasn't
trying to to gather support against the Roman government, but this
I confess, and that's the title of this message, this I confess. This is what I'm guilty of. You
wanna charge me with something? This is my confession. This I
confess unto thee, that after the way, which they call heresy,
so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are
written in the law and in the prophets, and have hope toward
God, which they themselves also allow, that there should be a
resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.
And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void
of offense towards God and towards man." He's defending the truth of the
gospel against the false accusations that are being made by these
Jews who want to silence him because of the offense of the
gospel. And that's why men hate the gospel.
They hate it because it offends them. It offends their pride.
It offends their dignity. It offends their righteousness.
It offends everything about them. It gives to Christ all the glory
for salvation. And men will not have it. The way. You see that in our
text? This is my confession, the way,
which they call heresy. The first time the way is mentioned
in the Bible is found in Genesis chapter three, verse 24. Will
you turn with me there? Genesis chapter three, verse
24. So he drove out the man, And he placed at the east of
the Garden of Eden cherubims with a flaming sword, which turned
every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life." This is the Tree of Life. This
is not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which Adam
had eaten from, which caused him to be cast out of the garden.
This is the Tree of Life. This is a picture of Christ.
We find the tree of life all throughout the scriptures, and
we find it in the book of Revelation. On both sides of the river was
the tree of life. It produced fruit, 12 seasons
of the year. And now the Lord, because of
sin, because of disobedience, has placed his angel, Now, in the book of Revelation,
the gospel preacher is referred to as an angel. The word angel
is a messenger. That's all. It's just a messenger
sent from God with the word of God. And what is this flaming
sword? Well, it is the word of God.
It's the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. What
we're doing right now is we're wielding the fiery sword of the
spirit of God by preaching the word of God to protect the way to the tree of
life. Not everybody can eat from the
tree of life. Only those who believe God can eat from the
tree of life. And so he's protecting the way
to the tree of life. And that's what we do. You see,
Paul had an option here. When he was being threatened,
he could have compromised with the Jews and found some common
ground where they could meet together and what he was preaching
would not be so offensive to them. But he couldn't do that. We can't do that. And so, He
stands his ground and he wields the flaming sword of the spirit,
protecting the way to the tree of life. And he says to these
Jews, the way which they call heresy, worship I my God. John. The other reason why the cherubim
are placed at the gate of the Garden of Eden, protecting the
way to the Tree of Life, is so that God might be merciful, allowing
Madam to die outside the garden so that he can be reunited to
that Tree of Life and glory. What I'm saying to you is that
death is the way to the Tree of Life. The death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world, the death that he suffered on Calvary's cross,
when he bore all the sins of God's people and suffered the
full wrath of God's judgment and declared, it is finished.
When he brings us to die to ourselves and our righteousness and look
to Christ alone for all of our salvation. ultimately physical
death. When we draw our last breath
in this world and we leave this body to be planted back where
it came from and we receive a new glorified body and we're able
to be reunited with that with the Lord Jesus Christ in glory
that tree of life. The cherubim were placed in at
the gate of the garden to protect with the sword the way to the
tree of life. Nothing's changed. That's what
Paul's doing. And that's what I'm desperately
trying to do right now, is protect the way to the tree of life.
There's only one way to the tree of life. The Lord Jesus Christ
said in John chapter 14, Beginning at verse one, he said,
let not your heart be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. For in my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
so that where I am there, you may be also." When the Lord Jesus
Christ took his rightful place at the right hand of God, everything
necessary, everything necessary for the salvation of his people
was made ready. It made ready. I go and prepare a place for
you. I will come again. And Thomas said, Lord, we don't
know where you're going. How can we know the way? And the Lord said to Thomas,
he said, Thomas, you know where I'm going, and you know the way,
for I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come
unto the Father except by me. And then Philip spoke up and
said, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Oh, Philip,
have I been with you so long that you don't know that if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father? For I and the Father are one."
The Lord said, I am the way. I am the way. I'm not going to show you the
way, I am the way. So Paul said, this way, Christ
is the only way, He is the way. And these Jews, were offended
by the gospel because it stripped them of their righteousness.
It put their works and their will where they belong. It made
God sovereign in salvation. And Paul's defending himself
against these false accusations. Just like we do every time we
preach the gospel. We are wielding the sword of
the spirit, which is the word of God to protect the way to
the tree of life. And we are saying, We are saying
that the Lord Jesus Christ is that way. He's the only way. No man can come to the Father,
but by me. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
nine. Hebrews chapter nine. The way which they call heresy. Every once in a while, somebody
will come to me, tell me what a friend or family member told
them about me and about this church. And it's the same, it's
the same. You know, he's cult leader, don't
you know, they're heretics and they're just, you know, they're
just a bunch of, you see, nothing's changed. Look at Hebrews chapter
nine at verse eight. The Holy Ghost thus signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while the first tabernacle was yet standing. Now the Lord is
comparing the Lord Jesus Christ having made the way into that
mystical tabernacle, that spiritual tabernacle, the one that's in
heaven to the Jews going into the physical tabernacle with
their blood sacrifices and their works. The Old Testament sacrifices,
look at verse nine, which was a figure for the time, then present,
in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that would not
make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the
conscience. None of these, you see, that's
why these Jews were so offended. They're offended because the
gospel says to them, all these sacrifices that you're making
are not making you perfect. which stood only, verse 10, as
meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed
on them until the time of reformation. Now, I brought this out before,
but let me say it again. To call what happened in the
15th, 16th century a reformation is a misnomer. There's nothing
And for churches today to call themselves reformed? Well, you
can't reform evil. The Reformation didn't reform
evil. And churches today who want to
identify with whatever happened in that period of time, as if
that, you know, is the pinnacle of the gospel, why don't you
go back to the New Testament. You know, just go back a little
farther than you've gone back. Don't identify yourself with
a reformation. This is, to reform something
is to change something, to change its form. Change its form is
what reformation means. And this is the only place you'll
find it in the Bible. And this is exactly what God's
saying. The form of the gospel was changed from those Old Testament
rituals to the fulfilling of all those things that those rituals
pointed to in Christ. But, verse 11, Christ, being
come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this building, neither by the blood of bulls and calves,
but by his own blood he entered into once the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. Now there's the offense of
the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ himself went into that mystical
tabernacle, the one that we cannot see with the physical eye, and
he placed his blood on that mystical mercy seat, not one made with
hands, having obtained eternal redemption for us. You mean that
if he's already obtained eternal redemption for us, then nothing
I do can help contribute to that? Yeah, that's what we're saying. That's the offense of the gospel,
isn't it? The self-righteous, the religious, the Jewish man
is looking to something that he's done, defended by. That's the offense of the cross.
That's the offense of the cross. Paul said, this I confess unto
you. And this is what I'm trying to
say for me and for you right now to this world. This we confess
unto them. The way which they call heresy,
so worship we the God of our fathers, having believed all
that is written in his word. You're there in Hebrews 9, turn
over just a few pages to 2 Peter 2. Verse 1. But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon them swift
destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be spoken evil
of." What were they doing? These Jews
for five and a half chapters in the book of Acts were making
false accusations and speaking evil against the gospel, against
Christ. Paul now stands and defends the
truth of the gospel. And he says unto them, that way
which they speak evil of, the way which they call heresy, that's
the way that they're blaspheming. You see, they're accusing Paul
of the very thing that they're guilty of. Go back with me to our text,
Acts 24. Let me say this also. Peter speaks of silencing the
false accusations of our accusers by our good conversation. No, they accuse us of lawless
living. Let them not find any evidence
of that, that we be lawless in our living. We're not. We walk
by the law of grace. We walk by the law of love. And Paul said, Let them bring
evidence of their accusations, that I'm actually guilty of these
things, that I'm a rabble rouser, that I'm seditious, that I've
profaned the temple. Let them bring evidence of those
things if they have them. They didn't have any evidence.
They didn't have any evidence. I pray that the false accusations
that are made against you and me would be equally without evidence. the way which they call heresy. Now, you can look up this word
heresy in the Bible. It's easy to look up. It means to make a choice. Anytime that you and I choose
something contrary to what God has declared, that's heresy.
That's heresy. And yet that's exactly the same,
the thing that those who make these accusations against the
church are guilty of. They believe that their salvation
is determined by a choice that they made. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said, you did not choose me. You didn't choose me, I chose
you. I chose you. But doesn't the Bible say preacher
over there in Joshua chapter 24, when Joshua said, choose
you this day whom you shall serve. Let's turn to that passage real
quick. Joshua chapter 24. Joshua is about to go the way of man. He's about to die. And he gathers the children of
Israel together. And he says to them in verse 14, now therefore fear
the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the
gods which your father served on the other side of the flood
and in Egypt. and serve ye the Lord." Now,
the word flood there can also mean river. Matter of fact, that's
more often translated the word river. And he's not talking about
before Noah's flood. He's talking about before the
deliverance from Egypt. He's talking about the gods of
the Egypt, of the Egyptians. And so in verse 15, he says,
and if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you
this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father
served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods
of the Amorites in which you dwell. But as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. He didn't say choose between
the false gods and the Lord. He said, make a choice. You can't
serve more than one God is what he's saying. Choose whether you're
gonna serve the gods of the Egyptians or the gods of the Amorites.
You can't serve them both. No man can serve two masters.
As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. That's what Paul's saying. Go
back with me to our text. You call it heresy because you
say that I've chosen something contrary to what God has declared. And what Paul's saying to them
is you're the heretic. You're the one that's guilty
of the very thing that you're accusing me of. You've said that
I'm a follower of the way, and that way is the way of life.
And your way is the way of death. There is a way. There is a way
that seems right unto man, but the end of that way is death.
What is the way that seems right unto man? Free will and good
works. That's what seems right unto
man. That God will be obligated to save me if I just decide to
follow Jesus. Or if I am able to produce some
evidence of my good intentions or my good life, that he will
be obligated to save me. That's what these Jews were holding
to. That's the gospel they were... And Paul's gospel, Paul's gospel
refuted them. And he said, the way which they
call heresy. They were saying that Paul's
a heretic because he has... Turn back with me to chapter
22. In verse 21, Paul is giving his defense of
the gospel. And he says in verse 21, and
he said unto me, depart, for I will send thee far hence unto
the Gentiles. Now the key word there is Gentiles.
Paul is saying to these Jews what God had said to him. when
he told him to go out and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And
look at verse 22. You think prejudice is a problem
today? And they gave him audience unto
this word. And then they lifted up their
voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for
it is not fit that he should live. He's gonna take a message
of salvation outside of Israel to the Gentile dogs? It's not
fit that that man should live. As soon as they heard the word
Gentiles, they turned on him. Turned on him. The way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.
Yes, the gospels for Gentile dogs, those outside of Israel. Yes, Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ, the son of the living God. That's what they hated.
They hated Christ. They crucified the son of God. The way which they call heresy.
What Paul's saying to them, Your attempt to kill me and to silence
me is only evidence of your own guilt. So worship I, the God of my fathers,
believing. Here's what I want you to see,
brother. Look at this, verse 14 of our text in Acts chapter
24. Believing. all things which are written
in the law and the prophets and having hope toward God in the
resurrection. There's our, there's our hope. We just believe God and believe
everything he said. The reason why the gospel is
a mystery is not because it's complicated. It is because it is contrary
to everything that the unbeliever believes. Now, if you have presuppositions
about something that you are convinced are true, then you
can't hear what's being said. If your presupposition is that,
well, it's just a settled fact that God loves everybody, then
you're not gonna be able to believe the gospel. It's a settled fact
that everybody has a free will. You're not gonna be able to believe
the gospel. It's a settled fact that Christ died for everybody.
You're not gonna be able to hear the gospel. The gospel is not
complicated. It is contrary to everything
that the self-righteous, religionist, natural man believes to be true.
And so he can't hear the gospel. And he will stand against the
gospel to defend his own false presuppositions. Who maketh thee to differ? The Lord has to send his spirit to
change our mind. That's what repentance means,
a changed mind. And faith and repentance are
two sides of the same coin. You can't have one without the
other. God gives repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. Both things have to be together
and both things are the gift of God. And that's what he does. And when King Agrippa said to
Paul at the end of chapter 26, he said, Paul almost now persuaded
me to become a Christian. You know what Paul said? He said,
oh, I pray that you would not almost be persuaded, but that
you'd be fully persuaded. And not you only, but everybody
that's under the sound of my voice. I wish that you'd be persuaded. This I confess unto thee. The way, which they call heresy,
so worship I, the God of my fathers, believing all that is written
in the law and the prophets. That's our testimony, isn't it?
Nothing's changed. The opposition against the gospel
is the same. Man's the same. God in his mercy
gives his people repentance and faith to say, that's my confession. That's my confession. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Make the Lord Jesus Christ to
be our confession. Thank you for this table, the
simplicity of it, the unleavened bread, the perfect righteousness
of thy dear son. His precious blood, which he
went in to the way of the holies of holies and put on the mercy
seat as a covering for our sins. Lord, we pray that you would
attend these common elements of bread and wine with your spirit
and give us eyes to see the body and blood of Christ and to rest
the hope of our salvation with a single eye toward him. For
it's in his name we pray. Amen. 186. 186. Let's stand. Let's stand together. Number
186. We'll sing two hymns, the second
one will take our seats. Number 186, Church's One Foundation. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her To be his holy bride With his own blood he bought her And
for her life he died He left from every nation Yet one for
all the earth Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. And to one hope she presses,
with every grace anew. mid toil and tribulation, and
to Baltimore war. she waits the consummation of
peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious
her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three in one, And mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is one. Please be seated. Number 17 in your spiral hymn
book. 17.