Tom's gonna come and lead us
in number 38 in our spiral hymnal. And while you look that up, let
me read one verse of Scripture from Isaiah chapter 49. Sing,
O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing,
O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people." How does
he comfort us? By letting us know that the warfare
is accomplished and that our iniquity is purged. And he will have mercy upon his
afflicted. Are you afflicted? God's people are afflicted. They're
afflicted with their own sin. He has mercy upon his afflicted. Let's stand together. Psalm number
38. Come, every sinner, save by grace
you, who by faith God's Son embrace. Tell all you hear your voice
below, the debt of love to Christ you owe. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee, All that I am, or hope to be, I owe alone, O
Christ, to Thee. He left His Father's throne above,
And came to earth on wings of love, For us He lived, the perfect
man, And so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee, All that I am, or hope to be, I owe alone, O
Christ, to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's ire
and died at the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, to save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Savior God. Dear Lord, I will lift my praise
to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From heaven Christ will quickly
come and bring his ransomed people home. There we shall see his
lovely face and chant the praises of his grace. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to Thee. All that I am, Lord, hope to
be, I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Please be seated. It says in God's Word, it is
good to go to the house of the Lord. And it is so great to be
here. Turn with me, please, into Romans
chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Again, for
a person who talks way too much, which is me, sometimes it's so
overwhelming The people of God show your kindness and love towards
you. Your words seem just to fail.
You don't know what to say. I cannot tell you the great blessing
it is to be with you and that God has given us a love for one
another. But more importantly, of course,
is a love for Christ and a love for His gospel. Every time I'm
around family members, these verses become more and more true
to my heart. Paul writes, he says, brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, that's his
brothers in the flesh, is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God. They're very, very religious,
but not according to knowledge. They are, when I plead with God
for my family members, they're religiously lost. That God would
break the bondage religion has on them. They don't know Christ. And here's why, verse three.
For these people, they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and they go about establish their own righteousness. have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. All they want to do is tell you
all the things they're doing for God. And they won't fall
down and submit to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
verse four, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. That is our hope. That's good
news to me. I cannot keep God's law. I never
have. I never will. I can't remember
who it was that said that even my tears of repentance must be
washed in the blood of Christ. And I have no desire. That's the
law. I don't want anything to do with it because it's good
and it's holy. I can't keep it. I don't know
how to say it. I don't even try because I know
I can't. But look to Christ. He's the only one that's been
able to do that. Our brother's going to declare this to us this
morning. We know that it is his righteousness that gives us a
hope. And it's a sure hope. And it's
the hope of every child of God. May we try to pray this morning
if the Lord will enable us. Lord, we have gathered here this
morning. We are needy, sinful people and
confess to you, Lord, we can do nothing for ourselves. We
cannot worship you, we cannot believe in you, we cannot rest
in you, Lord, unless you enable us to. And Lord, we know that
we would have never come to you. We as the lost would have been
trying to establish our own righteousness rather than submitting and bowing
to you. Lord, we pray for brothers Greg
and your servants that you've called out for the preaching
of your gospel. That you might speak to us through
them. And Lord, that you would send
your spirit to us to give us to hear you. And to glorify you. And we plead Lord for those who
are lost. Oh, that they may see the foolishness
of their self-righteousness, and that you may bring them to
yourself and give them the faith to believe and to rest in the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope of
salvation. And we thank you that you are
faithful, even when we are not. We ask these things for your
glory. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Our sovereign God maintains His
universal throne. In heaven and earth and hell
He reigns and makes His wonders known. His counsels and decrees
firmer than mountains stand. He will perform whate'er he please,
and none can stay his hand. All things His will controls,
and His all-wise decree, Has fixed the destinies of all in
matchless sovereignty. Jacob, by grace He saved, And
gives no reason why. But he saw'st heart he left,
he pray'd, And who shall dare reply? What if the potter takes
Part of a lump of clay And for himself a vessel makes And casts
the rest away? Who shall resist his will? O say, what doest thou? Jehovah is the Sovereign still,
and all to Him must bow. My soul bow and adore the Lord
in all His ways. His sovereignty none can explore,
but I will trust His grace. For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things, to whom be glory evermore. Amen, amen, amen. Please be seated. And amen. We could not have sang a more
appropriate hymn to introduce the message I want to try to
share with you this morning. Our text is going to be found
in Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. The title of this message is,
We Worship a God Who Is Past Finding Out. He's past finding
out. What a glorious God we serve.
He's infinite. Our hope is that He will just
crack the windows of heaven and allow a sliver of His glory to
shine in our hearts. If he does that, reveal just
a portion of himself to us. Look at, you have your Bibles
open, Isaiah 45, look at verse 15. Verily thou art a God that
hideth thyself. O God of Israel, the Savior. Now, hold your finger there and
turn with me to Romans chapter 11, please. Romans chapter 11. We'll begin reading in verse
33. Oh, the depth. You cannot plumb the depths. of His glory and His grace. Oh, the depths of the riches
of both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out. Now, I want a God Let's pass finding
out, don't you? A God who is absolutely sovereign,
does whatsoever He wills, always does what's right, and cannot
be, cannot be comprehended. He cannot be. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? That's a rhetorical question.
You haven't. I haven't. Who hath known the
mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Who's going to tell God what
he should do? He's God. I started to title
this message, Let God Be God. He is God. Or who hath first
given to him that he should recompense unto him again? What have you
given to God that obligates Him to give anything to you? Isn't
that what religion is based on? I'm going to obligate God. I'll
live a better life. I'll pray. I'll go to church.
I'll quit doing this and quit doing that. And God will be obligated
to bless me. No, He won't. For of Him, that means everything
originates with Him, and through Him, that means everything happens
as a result of His hand, and to Him, that means everything
results in His glory. So of Him, through Him, and to
Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. What is your responsibility before
God? Worship. Worship. Just bow down and worship Him.
Believe on Him. Now, in Isaiah chapter 45, Paul
makes it clear in Philippians chapter 3, he said, he said,
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. Nothing else matters but that
I might know him. And then he goes on to say, I've
not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me. But this
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press
towards the mark for the prize of the high calling. The Lord
Jesus Christ is that prize. And he says, oh, that I might
know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering.
So what is it all about? To know Him. If we're gonna know
him, he's gonna have to reveal himself to us because he said,
I'm a God who hides myself. I'm a God that's past finding
out. Now in Jeremiah chapter 29, the
Lord said, if you seek after me with all of your heart, you will find me. Now the only way that you're
going to seek after God with all of your heart is if God gives
you the heart of faith. If he gives you a new nature. Turn to me to that passage Jeremiah
chapter 29. Look at verse. Well, we'll begin
reading verse 11. You know this verse. It's so
glorious. For I know the thoughts that
I think towards you. Here's God speaking to his children.
Sayeth the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give
you an expected end. I'm going to bring you to your
expected end. What is your expected end? It's amazing to me. We will spend all our lives preparing
for temporal things and give no thought to the expected end. People work all their lives.
They make plans to retire. They make plans for everything. And they give no thought for
their immortal soul. And God says, do you have an
expected end? Then shall you call upon me.
I'm sorry, verse 11. For I know the thoughts of verse
12. Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray
unto me and I will hearken unto you. You shall seek me and find
me when you shall search for me with all of your heart. And
I will be found of you. I will be found of you. Sayeth
the Lord and I will turn away your captivity and I will gather
you from all the nations and from all the places Whether I
have driven you sayeth the Lord I will bring you again into the
place once I have caused you to be carried away captive I'm
gonna deliver you from death and hell. I'm gonna deliver you
from your sin Seek me with all of your heart
Lord you're gonna have to give me a heart to do that. Alright, turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 45. We'll begin reading in verse
5. I am the Lord. There is none else. There is
none else. There's only one God. A man in vain, men in vain seek
after a God who doesn't exist. Men in vain imagine a God who
is altogether as they are themselves. Our God is not like us. He's
not like us at all. That's what holy means. He's
other than we are. He's past finding out. He's infinite. He's eternal. He's glorious beyond
our comprehension. So what do we do? We bow before
Him. Lord, if you could just, if you could just reveal to me
a little bit of your glory, a little bit of your grace, I am the Lord, there is none
else, there is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou
hast not known me." Now that word girded means clothed. I
clothed thee. You see, when our father Adam
fell in the garden and was discovered naked trying to cover himself
with fig leaves, God slew a lamb and girded him. He clothed him. And that lamb was slain in the
covenant of grace before the foundation of the world. That
lamb was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, God
says, I've clothed you. I've covered your nakedness even
before you knew me. Before you knew me I clothed
you. I hid you in Christ that they may know and here's
what all of God's people know. If the light of the gospel has
shined in our hearts, in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ,
this is what we know, that from the rising of the sun and from
the west, there is none beside me. I am the Lord. There is none
else. There's none else. No place else
to go. There's no place else to find
life. There's no place else for hope. There's no place else for comfort. There's no place else for peace.
There's no place else. Isn't that what the Lord told
that woman at the well in John chapter 4? If you drink of the
water that I'll give you, you'll thirst never again. You'll not
have to go anywhere else to satisfy your soul other than the river
of life that will flow from your heart. I form the light. I form the light. In the beginning,
God said, let there be light, and there was. Prior to that,
the earth was without form and void, and darkness hovered over
the face of the deep. And that's a spiritual picture
of our condition. Without form, void, empty, darkness
covers over the face of the deep, and God has to say, let there
be light. I form the light. In Him was life. And the life was the light of
men. The light shined in the darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. They couldn't understand
it, but to as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the children of God. Oh Lord, create light in me. You see, we're born in spiritual
darkness. We're born spiritually blind.
We're born not knowing God. Why? Because he's hid himself.
He's past finding out. And so he says, I create, I form
the light, I create darkness. I create darkness. Oh, Lord, don't. If the Lord
creates darkness in your heart, there's not gonna be any hope
of finding him out. If he sends us a lie, Because we don't love the truth.
We'll believe it. And we'll live and die in darkness. I make peace. If you're gonna
have peace with God, he's gonna have to make it. People say,
well, make your peace with God. What are you gonna do? What are
you gonna bring to God to make peace with him? The Lord Jesus
Christ is gonna have to make my peace with God. He's gonna
have to present himself before a holy God for all my righteousness. He's gonna have to put his blood
on that altar in order to cover my sins. It's the only way I'm
gonna have peace with God. And I create evil. I create evil. Now I know there's a lot of evil
in this world. It's all a result of man's sin. But we worship
a God. We worship a God who is in control
of every bit of it. The wrath of man shall praise
me, and the remainder I will restrain. What I can't use of
man's sin and man's evil and man's wrath to my glory, I will
restrain it. It's that simple. So he's the first cause. And
here's the glorious thing for the child of God. He will use
your old man, Jacob, and the sin of that old man. to cause
your new man to seek after him with all of your heart. The older shall serve the younger. Who's the older? That's Esau.
Who's the younger? That's Jacob. Your old man is
going to serve your new man. Your sin nature and all the evil
of your own heart and life that you that you grieve over God
will use to cause your new man to seek after him with all of
your heart You see it's your sin that drives you to Christ
And we're not justifying sin I'm just saying that we worship
a God who will use even your sin. Now let no man say when
he sins that God made me do it. James makes that clear. We don't
point our finger at God and say, well, God made me do it. For
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man with
evil, but we are tempted when we are drawn away of our own
lust. And when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin
bringeth forth death, we are fully responsible for our own
sin. But at the same time, we worship
a God who says, I create evil. In the world, every time something
horrible happens, the religious people say, well, we only have
two choices. Either God could have stopped it, and he
didn't or he couldn't stop it and we can't have a God who could
have stopped it but didn't because that would make God evil so therefore God Wanted to stop it, but because
he relinquished his sovereign control to the free will of man
He couldn't do anything about it Man is sovereign God's hands are tied That's what
the world says that's what religion says I God said, I created light. I form the darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Every bit of it. And what do
God's people say? Lord, you're past finding out.
I don't understand why these evil things happen. I can't make
sense of them, but I do know this, you're God. And if you
wanted to stop it, you could have, and you didn't. And so
my faith just tells me that you had a purpose behind it. And that purpose was the salvation
of your people and your own glory. And all I can do is bow before
you. I'm not about to contend with
my maker. I'm not about to call you into question, and I'm not
about to set myself on the throne of God and stand in judgment
of you. All I can do is bow and worship
you. A God who hideth Himself. And even when God reveals portions
of His grace and glory to the hearts of His children, the infinite
amount of God is still hid from us, isn't it? Drop down, verse 8, drop down
ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. And that's exactly what happened.
That's exactly what happened when those angels appeared to
those shepherds on that night and said, Unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And a multitude of heavenly hosts
came singing and praising God. Why? Because the heavens had
opened and righteousness came down. Let the earth open and let them
bring forth salvation. And that's exactly what happened
when the stone was rolled away and the Lord Jesus Christ came
victorious out of that grave. O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? Sting of death is sin. The strength
of sin is the law. The law's been satisfied. Sin's
been put away. The grave's been conquered. The
earth has been opened. God did it. and let righteousness spring
up together. I, the Lord, have created it. Oh, don't contend with God. Don't be like Job. Bringing your case before the
Almighty and insisting that he justify himself. That's what
Job did. And when Elihu came and preached
the gospel, the scripture says that Elihu had a righteous indignation
and anger towards Job because Job justified himself rather
than God. Faith just justifies God. It
doesn't justify yourself. Verse nine, woe, that word woe
means judgment. Remember, anathema maranatha? The judgment of God will come
against all those who contend with their maker at the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ for their crime is so severe that
only he can execute judgment against them. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Now what happens when you take
two clay pots and you smash them against each other? What happens? They both are broken to pieces.
And the Lord's saying, those who want to contend with God
over what He's doing, are like two clay pots contending with
one another. And they're all gonna be broken
in pieces. And let the potsherds of the
earth contend with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioned it, what makest thou or thy work he hath no hands? Does the potter, we just sang
this in that hymn, does the potter not have the sovereign right
to make of the same lump of clay some vessels of honor and some
of dishonor according to his will and purpose? No man can say, what is our responsibility
before this God? Bow and worship Him. It's not
to understand everything He's doing. You can't. He's past finding out. He hideth
Himself. He's too big for your pea brain
and my pea brain to begin to comprehend who He is. Just plead with Him to open the
windows of heaven and shine a little of the light of the gospel in
your heart to save your sin-sick soul. That's our hope, isn't
it? Don't we contend with our maker?
No. Who unto him that saith unto
his father, what begettest thou? Or to the woman, what hast thou
brought forth? What can a man bring forth? What
can a woman bring forth but that which is like them? Why have you made me a sinner?
Because I was born from a sinner. In sin did my mother conceive
me. Thus saith the Lord. As we said
last week, that's the only declaration, introduction, statement that
a child of God needs to hear. Thus saith the Lord. All of a
sudden, my ears perk up. All of a sudden, I just want
to know what God says. Thus saith the Lord, the holy
one of Israel, the one who is not like you in
any way. That's what holy one of Israel
means. We have way too high an estimation
of ourselves and way too low an estimation of God, don't we?
Oh, Lord, reverse the order of that. Reverse the order of that. Here's the truth for a child
of God. I mentioned in the first hour I love being called a sinner.
It reminds me not to look at myself for any righteousness. It reminds me that all the hope
of my salvation is found in another. And for the child of God, you
cannot preach a sinner low enough. And you cannot preach Christ
high enough. How are we going to describe
him? And you cannot preach grace free
enough. That's the Holy One of Israel. Here's what he says. Ask me of things to come concerning
my sons and concerning the work of my hands. Command ye me. You have not because you ask
not. Our Lord hides himself. I started to title this message,
Hide and Seek, but I thought it would be too clever. But that's really what we're
talking about. Hide and seek, and it's not a child's game.
Our God hides himself. And then he puts into the hearts
of his children a desire for him and causes us to seek after
him with all of our hearts. And he says, you will find me.
You will find me. Ask me. Ask me. Knock. The door will be open. Seek and you shall find. Ask
and it will be given unto you. Now if you If you look at the
verb tense of those three words, ask, seek and find, they're in
the continual. In other words, you keep asking,
you keep seeking, you keep knocking, not find but knock. Just keep
it up. I have made the earth and created
man upon it. Even my hands have stretched
out the heavens and all the host I have commanded We live in a world That denies
the power of God in creation I We live in a world that has come
to some foolish, to believe in evolution, I'm speaking mostly
to our young people right now, but to believe in evolution requires
the most blind faith. that an infinitely dense and
infinitely small speck of matter existed where it came from, nobody
knows, existed and then all of a sudden exploded in everything
we see. That requires more faith. And you understand that most
science being done today is junk science. And the reason for it,
the reason for all the junk science is because of the money that's
being put into it. I read something recently, 56
scientific discoveries were found at a particular college, a well-known
university, who had been given grants to discover scientific
discoveries. And so somebody decided to check
them. And out of 56 discoveries, only six of them could be repeated.
And even the scientific community is concerned with this. That
they are fudging the results of the evidence of their test
in order to get more grant money. And most science that's being
done today is just junk science. And then they draw all these
Conclusions, what does God say? I created the world. I put man
on it Listen to what Paul said to Timothy this was written 2,000
years ago Keep that which is committed to thy trust. What's
that? It's the gospel. It's the Word of God and avoid
profane and vain babbling and oppositions of science so falsely
called 2,000 years ago, man was calling science something that
wasn't science. I'm all for legitimate science. But the conclusions that men
are coming to today are only for one purpose, and that's to
deny the sovereign power of the God who is, lest they have to
bow before him. And so what does God say? I created
the world. I put man on it. You bow to me. I am ordering all things after
the counsel of my own will, and you can't understand it. Verse 13, I have raised him up
in righteousness. I will direct all his ways. He
shall build my city and he shall let go my captives, not for price
nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, you know, he's talking
about Christ. I raised him up. He's going to
build my city. Upon this rock I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
He's going to go into the very pits of hell and he's going to
bring out those who are held captive by their sin. And he's
not going to do it for reward or for profit. In other words,
you're not going to be able to buy it from him. If He's going to do it for you,
if He's going to do it for me, it'll be without price and without
money. You're not going to control God.
You're not going to manipulate God. You're not going to get
God to do it your way. God doesn't need you. He doesn't
need me. Oh, but how much we need Him.
Bow to Him. Worship Him. Know that whatever
He's doing, He's doing it in order to build His city. He's
doing it to bring glory to Himself. Thus saith the Lord, the labor
of Egypt, the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabaeans,
men of stature shall come over unto thee, and they shall be
thine, they shall come after thee, and change, they shall
come over, they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication
unto thee, saying, surely God is in thee, and there is none
else, there is no other God. One day, One day what we believe
and what we're preaching and what we're hanging all the hopes
of our immortal soul on are going to be known to all men. Every knee. Let the kings of
the earth stand in opposition against God. Let the people imagine
a vain thing all they want. Our God is in the heaven. He
holds them in derision. He laughs at them knowing that
one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that
Jesus is the Christ to the glory of God. The sad truth is that it would
be too late for most folks in that day. Oh Lord, give me the
grace right now just to bow, just to bow and to believe you,
to believe God. Verily thou art a God that hidest
thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. You're not going to figure
God out. And if you have a God that you
can figure out, he ain't God. He's the God who is is way, way
past finding out. They shall be ashamed and also
confounded, all of them. They shall go down to confusion
together that are makers of idols." Lord, I was an idolater. I did
it in ignorance. I didn't know. I was born an
idolater. That's all I knew was to imagine
a God that was like me. But now I'm ashamed. Now I'm
confounded. Now I just think that I ever
thought, I ever reduced God to my level. But Israel shall be saved. All Israel shall be saved. Not one of my sheep is going
to be lost. I'm going to see to it. You remember, I'm God. I'm gonna make every one of them
willing on the day of my power. I'm gonna cause every one of
them to hear the glorious truth of the successful redemption
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm gonna cause them to rejoice
in knowing that the work of salvation is finished. That their sin has
been put away. The law's been satisfied. All
Israel is going to be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. Now, everlasting, I remind you,
does not mean it starts now and lasts forever. It doesn't mean
that. Everlasting means it never had
a beginning and never has an end. That's what everlasting
means. So when God reveals Christ to
you, you come to realize that the hope of my salvation is that
I've been in Christ from everlasting to everlasting. There's never
been a time when God didn't love me. I'm discovering something
that's always been. Now that doesn't diminish the
necessity of the new birth. You must be born again. It's just declaring that our
God doesn't just come up with plans to fix problems. He's had
it all figured out before the problems ever existed. That's how big our God is. He's past finding out. He hideth
Himself. Oh Lord, give me a heart to seek
You. and reveal to me just a sliver
of light. Lord, You said You create light.
Create light in me. Verse 17, You shall not be ashamed or confounded,
world without end. Now you confound it over your
idolatry, but now that you know Christ, you're not confounded
anymore. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. I've got nothing
to be ashamed of. I'm found in Him, not having
my own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Nothing to be ashamed
of anymore. I'm a child of God. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God Himself that formed the earth and made
it, He hath established it, He created it, Not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I have not spoken in secret in
a dark place of the earth. I said not unto the seed of Jacob,
seek ye me in vain. What if I seek the Lord and the
Lord keeps hiding? No. No, if the Lord puts it in
your heart to seek him, it's because he's intended to reveal
himself to you. We just read that in Jeremiah
29 verse 14. You seek me all year, you will
find me. Why? Because I put you to seeking. I didn't say that Jacob seek
me in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness.
I declare things that are right. You and I, in every decision
that we make in life, have to weigh right and wrong. We do. Hopefully we make good
choices in life. Hopefully we say, you know, that's
just not the right thing to do. I'm going to do what's right.
God's not like that. He never has to weigh right and
wrong. He just acts according to His sovereign will and purpose
and everything He does is right. Because He did it, it's right. That means everything that's
happened in this world and everything that's happened in your life,
controlled by the hand of God, is right. Bow to Him. Worship Him. Seek Him. He delights in showing mercy. Brother Tom, number nine. Let's stand together. Number nine. Thank you. It is not that I did choose thee,
O Lord, that would not be. This heart would still refuse
thee. hast thou not chosen me? Thou from the sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. Of old thou hast ordained me
that I should live to thee. Your love had no beginning, no
cause in me was found, that you should choose to save me, a sinner
strongly bound. But grace not earned or sought
for Was purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought, For
Christ paid the dreadful toll. "'Twas sovereign mercy called
me, and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me, to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before Thee,
for Thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing if I loved Thee,
Thou must have loved me first.