Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to Isaiah chapter 65. The title of the message this
evening is Man's Depravity and God's Grace. I have good news
for sinners this evening. Good news. Despite man's total
depravity, despite the fact that all we are is sin, that all we
do is sin, Despite the fact that by nature, we have a nature that
hates God, we have a nature that refuses to come to Christ that
we might have life. Despite that's true about the
nature of every person in this room, Almighty God has still saved
a people by His grace. Man's depravity in God's grace. Isaiah tells us here in chapter
65 in the day of judgment, God will give every person who comes
before his judgment seat, and that's everyone, he'll give every
person exactly what they've earned. No more, no less, exactly what
they've earned. He will either give us what Christ
has earned for us by his grace, or he'll give us what we've earned
because of our sin. One or the other, that's what
he says here in verse six, Behold, it's written before me. I will
not keep silence, but I will recompense, even recompense it
into their bosom. I'll give them exactly what they've
earned in their bosom, your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers
together, saith the Lord, which have burned incense upon the
mountains and blaspheme me upon the hills. Therefore, I will
measure their former work into their bosom. They've done these
things, they've burned incense upon the mountains, they've blasphemed
me upon the hills, and I will give them exactly what they've
earned. When God damns the unbeliever,
he will give them what their works have earned, what they
deserve. And Isaiah gives us three reasons,
three examples of why that's true. First of all, that's true
because the unbeliever has refused to come to God. on Christ's terms,
or he refused to come to Christ on God's terms. Now, if someone
refuses to come to Christ on God's terms, then what have they
earned? By their actions, they've earned
damnation, haven't they? They've rejected the only Savior.
They've rejected the only way of salvation. That's what he
tells us here in verse two. I've spread out my hands all
the day unto a rebellious people. which walketh in a way that was
not good after their own thoughts. Now here he's speaking to the
nation Israel. What he's getting ready to tell
us here, he's prophesying that the Lord is going one day to
reject Israel and he's going to call out to the Gentiles.
He's going to send the gospel to the Gentiles. And when that
happens, it's going to be Israel's fault. Israel can't blame God
for doing that. Israel had heard the gospel. That nation, Israel, heard the
gospel. They heard the gospel and all
the types and ceremonies of the Old Testament law. All those
things that God gave them pictured Christ. But they rejected the
gospel of Christ. They rejected God's way over
and over and over again. And they went in a way, he says
here, that was not good. They went their own way, a way
they thought was better. They thought they knew better
than God and they went their own way. Israel had heard all the
pillar truths of the gospel, and most of them rejected them.
They heard God had elected a people. And you know what? They said,
we believe that. But they didn't believe what
God said. They believe what they thought about that. They said,
God's elected Jews. He's elected the nation Israel.
But that's not so. God told them that's not so.
He has elected Jew and Gentile alike. The first Jew, Abraham,
where was he when God found him? He was an idolater. He was bound
down to a stone statue. So God's election is not just
for good people, is it? God's election is not just for
natural Israel. And throughout their history,
God showed them that. God saved people like Rahab, the Gentile
harlot. Not just any Gentile, a harlot. God saved Ruth, the Gentile idolater. Look at Luke chapter four. Now,
they'd seen that in type and picture throughout the Old Testament,
and then our Lord came and he told them that very clearly in
his first public message. Luke four, verse 25. He says, but I tell you the truth,
many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land, but unto none of them, none of them,
none of those Jews was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow, a Gentile woman, passed
all the Israelites, all the Jewish widows by and went to that Gentile
widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed.
The only one that was cleansed was Naaman, named the Syrian,
the Syrian. Now he preached, the Lord himself
preached that gospel to them. Did they bow to him? Did they
believe him? No. Did they call on him for
mercy? No, they rejected him. When they heard that the Lord
saves whom he will, they rejected the Savior. Verse 28. And all
they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled
with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him
under the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they
might cast him down headlong. They rejected him. And God sent
prophets to Israel. He sent prophets to them to preach
to them the gospel and to explain the law to them. They had the
law and the ceremonies And the prophets explained to them that
salvation is not in us keeping the law because we can't keep
the law. We don't have that ability. Our
nature is contrary to the law. Salvation is through faith in
Christ who did keep the law for his people. There is one who's
coming, they said, who will honor and magnify the law. Salvation
is through faith in him. And then Christ came and he did
it. Then did they come to Christ
in faith? Or do they keep trying to come to God in their own law,
in their own law keeping, in their own religious activity?
Look at Romans chapter 10. Paul tells us they rejected Christ.
They rejected salvation by faith. Romans 10 verse 17. Here Paul has quoted the prophet
Isaiah and in verse 17 he sums up. This is what Isaiah said.
So then faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the word of God.
But I say, have they not heard? Is not Israel heard? Yes, verily,
their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the
ends of the world. But I say, did not Israel know?
First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that
are no people, and by a foolish nation will I anger you. And
Isaiah was very bold when he said, I was found of them that
sought me not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith all day
long, I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying
people. God sent them the prophets, he
sent them the gospel, but they rejected him. Well, whoever believed
him. Oh, there was a people that believed
him. It was God's alone. Now God has an elect people and
those people shall be saved. And only those people, only those
people that God elected under salvation will be saved. Christ
did not die for the whole world. He died only for God's elect. That's what we mean when we say
limited atonement. The atonement of Christ is not
limited in its power to save. No, it's limited in its scope
to save. Christ only died for his elect. And God has every right to do
that. He has every right to choose
whom he'll save. He has every right to choose
who his son will die for. Because God's God. The sovereign
will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. But I want you to
listen to me very carefully here. Isaiah here speaks of the Lord
saying, I spread forth my hands, spread out my hands all the day
unto a rebellious people. never means, never does it mean
that Christ refuses someone who wants to be saved. Never. Election
never means someone says, well, I want to come to Christ on God's
terms and he won't let me. He's keeping me out. No, he's
not. He says here, his hands are spread
out wide to accept any sinner that will come to him on God's
terms. You come to Christ on God's terms and you will be embraced. That's what the Savior is saying
here. But now you've got to remember this. People use this to say,
well, Christ just wants to save everybody. He's inviting everybody.
Christ spreading out His hands to embrace any sinner that comes
to Him does not mean Christ's a beggar. It doesn't mean that
He's just hoping to accept anybody that'll come to Him. It doesn't
mean that He died for everybody and will just embrace you if
you'll just let Him. No, it doesn't mean that. Christ spreading out
His hands to embrace any sinner that will come to Him for salvation
means this. If we're not saved, it's our
fault. That's what that means. It doesn't
mean Christ is a beggar. It means if we're not saved,
it's our own fault. We can never blame God for not
electing us. We can never blame Christ for
rejecting us. If we're not saved, the fault
is ours. Because we refuse to come to
Christ. We refuse to bow to Him as the sovereign. If we're not
saved, it's our own fault because we refuse to come to Christ,
who's the only Savior of sinners. So when God damns us, He's giving
us just exactly what we've earned. If we refuse to believe on Christ,
God will give us just exactly what we've earned. And by nature,
that's exactly what we'll do. Our nature refuses to believe
on Christ. The nature that we're born with,
the nature of Adam, is incapable of believing God. So the fault
lies in us. The fault lies with who we are.
Now we'll see this in just a minute, but let me give you a little
preview. If we're damned, it's our fault, because we refuse
to come to Christ. If we're damned, it's our fault,
we refuse to believe on the Savior. But if we're saved, If we've
come to Christ in faith, I'll tell you why that happened. It's
because God drew us. If we believed on Christ, I'll
tell you why. It's because God gave us the
gift of faith. If we're damned, it's our fault. And if we're
saved, you can say it's God's fault, but it's the purpose,
it's the fault, it's the result of God's election and grace for
his people. First of all, When God damns
a sinner, he damns an unbeliever, he gives them what they've earned
because they refuse to come to Christ on God's terms. Second,
when God damns the unbeliever, they will receive exactly what
they've earned from God because they insisted on their own sacrifice.
Verse three, he says, here are people that provoke with me to
anger continually to my face, that sacrifices in gardens and
burn incense upon altars of brick. that God has sent the sacrifice
for sin, his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the sacrifice
for sin, the sacrifice that puts sin away. And Israel heard that
in the gospel. in all those sacrifices that
the law required, all those sacrifices they offered year by year by
year by year. They knew those sacrifices didn't
take away sin. They had to know that because
the writer to the Hebrews said they kept offering them over
and over and over again. It's just reminding them of sin.
They should have known better than that. God sent them prophets
to tell them that. Salvation is not in these animal
sacrifices. It's in the sacrifice of Christ,
God's son. And then Christ came as a fulfillment
of that. And what did they do? The nation
Israel rejected him. Their cry was, give us Barabbas
and crucify him. And Pilate was very reluctant
to do it. Pilate was trying everything
he could do to set this man Jesus free. He was scared to death.
And here's how they convinced him. Pilate, the fault won't
be yours. It'll be ours. Let his blood
be on you. our heads on our children's. And God gave them what they wanted.
Oh, it's my prayer, God, don't give us what we want. I wish
I'd learned to pray, thy will be done and leave it there. Don't
give me what I want. God said, OK. He gave them exactly
what they wanted and the false theirs. He took the gospel away
from them and went to the Gentiles. Now, people know that there's
got to be a sacrifice for sin. There's got to be some way to
pay for our sin. People know that. But depraved
man can't come up with a way. Depraved man cannot devise a
way to put sin away. Instead of a blood sacrifice
in the temple, which was a picture of Christ, Here in Isaiah's day,
he says what they're doing is they're offering sacrifices out
in the garden. They're going out to these groves
and these gardens and they're offering sacrifices out there.
And people do the same thing today. You know, they say, I'm
not going to go with the words preached. I'm not going to go with the
sacrifice of Christ as priest. I'm going to go out there in
nature because I feel so close to God out in nature. Israel
is doing the same thing. And God says, That way of sacrifice,
that way of worship, that way that makes man feel so religious.
God says that provokes me to anger. I understand that's your
feelings. You feel I go out in nature,
you know, I can do this. I feel so close to God. But you
mark this down. Our feelings are always wrong.
Our way is a way that's dead in sin. God's not well pleased
with that. God's pleased. He's well pleased
with one sacrifice. The sacrifice he provided, the
sacrifice of his son and any other sacrifice trying to approach
God through any other atonement does nothing but provoke God
to anger. And instead of a blood sacrifice, Isaiah says they're
offering incense. They said, well, I want to burn
this incense, you know, it makes me it smells so good. It makes
me feel so religious. But God says that's a sacrifice
that provokes him to anger. It's a stench in my nose just
like if your neighbors were burning tires or burning chemical waste
up next to your house. It'd be a stench in your nose.
It'd be offensive to you. That's the way it is for God.
Because without the shedding of blood, without the shedding
of the blood of God's Son, there's no remission. Look here at verse
5. Which say, Stand by thyself,
come not near me, For I am holier than thou." God says, these are
a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. Preaching
salvation by anything other than 100% Christ, through his righteousness,
through his blood, is a stench in God's nostrils. But man's
way is always going to be Christ plus something else. Always. There's a way that seemeth right
to a man. And it's going to be the way
of his works. Man wants to contribute some of our own works to Christ. We want to give something to
God to make God happy with us. And God says that's offensive
to me. That's what these altars of bricks represent. And you
can go back and read about this throughout the law. Altars were
to be built of stone. You take a stone wherever you
gather up how many ever stones you need and however it is you
find them laying there on the ground. That's the way you use
them in the altar. God said your tool is to never
touch that stone. You're never to shape it or do
anything. However it is you find it, that's the way you use it.
But here the people were using altars made of bricks. Now I'm
sure that the bricks look better. They made a nice, you know, I
like everything nice and straight, you know, but if you just take
rocks how you find them laying on the ground, they're just gonna
look like a pile of rocks, aren't they? And we'll say, well, that
doesn't look very religious. You know, let's shape them and
mold them. Let's just make them out of bricks
and then we'll make it look good. God said that's offensive to
him. You know why? Because the moment we put our
tool to that stone to cut it and shape it, we've added man's
works to the sacrifice. And God says, I won't accept
it. It's got to be all Christ or I won't accept it. The moment
we start trying to add our works to the sacrifice of Christ. It's
like cutting those stones for the altar. God's only pleased
with it. He's going to be provoked to
anger. God said, you can only appoint
me in the sacrifice that I see in the sacrifice that I appoint
on the altar that I provided, offered by the high priest that
I sent. It's got to be all Christ. And men today, they they cut
those stones, they put those tools on the stone of the altar
by trying to change the sacrifice of Christ into something that
appeals to the flesh. And the moment they do that,
God's provoked to anger. When they say, Christ did not
die for everyone. He said that. He didn't die for
everyone. He wasn't praying for everyone. I'm praying for those
that you gave me. That's who he died for. But when
they change the sacrifice of Christ, say Christ died for everybody
to give everybody a chance. Well, that appeals to the flesh,
doesn't it? But God says he's not going to
accept that because that's adding man's works, man's decision to
salvation. It's not Christ alone and God
won't accept it. The problem is we think we know
a better way than the way God's given us. God said, here's the
way of salvation. Here's the way to come to me.
And man thinks, I know a better way. I got a way here. It looks
a lot better to us. Well, the problem with that,
Solomon says, there's a way. that seems right unto man, but
the end thereof are the ways of death. Man's religion is not
the way of life. Man cannot devise a way to have
spiritual life. It always ends in death. Look
at verse four. Which remained among the graves
and lodged in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh and broth
of abominable things is in their vessels. And here they're eating
swine's flesh. God's law forbid eating of pork.
And they did it anyway. They just ignored sin. That's
man's way. Nothing has changed to this day.
Man's religion just disregard sin, has no regard for God or
God's law. They preach a God, little g,
an idol, who ignores sin, because their God's not holy. Their idol
doesn't punish sin. Their idol doesn't make anybody
righteous. He just ignores sin. Their idol does not know the
answer to the age old question, how should a man be just with
God? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? They don't
know the answer to those questions because they've rejected Christ,
who is the answer? And I show you how far out in
left field man's way goes. It leads to the way of death,
not the way of life. They're seeking the Lord among
the graves. Instead of seeking the Lord,
instead of calling on him, their religion is among the graves.
They're trying to talk to the dead rather than talk to the
living God. They're getting these seances
and they're calling on the dead rather than calling on the living
God. Men would rather talk to the ghost of a dead relative
to give them the answers to life than talk to God who is life,
than call on God who is life. So when God damns men for insisting
on their own way, They're getting just what they've earned. They've
insisted on their own sacrifice rather than the sacrifice of
Christ. Now thirdly, everyone God damns will receive exactly
what they've earned from God because they insisted on their
own righteousness. Verse five would say, stand by
thyself. Come not near to me for I am
holier than thou. That's man's religion. Man's
religion trusts in his own righteousness to make him good enough, to make
him better than others. They say, don't get too close
to me. I'm holier than you. I don't
want your sin to rub off on me. Well, here's the problem with
that statement. There aren't any degrees of holiness.
You're either holy or you're unholy. There's not degrees of
holiness. This is the only time in Scripture
the word holier is used. You never find the word holier
referring to God. The only time the word holier
is used in Scripture is used when one man's comparing himself
to another man. When one maggot is comparing
himself to another maggot and said, I'm better than you. I'm
holier than you. And God says, that's a stench
in my nostrils. Because your holiness, your righteousness,
those things you do that makes you righteous are nothing but
filthy rags. They stink because they're defiled
with sin. All our attempts at righteousness,
we try to do something to make God happy with us, it's sin. That's all it is and it's offensive
to God. And if we insist on trusting
our own righteousness, God showed us the Lord, our righteousness.
He showed us Jehovah Sidkenu. But if we if we reject him and
we insist on our own righteousness and God sends us to hell, he
gave us exactly what we've earned because the wages of sin is death. But in Christ, we're not made
holier, we're made holier. perfectly holy, a holiness that
cannot be lost. So God gives his people exactly
what they've earned. He accepts them in Christ because
they're holy. Now, that's man's depravity. And it ought to be obvious to
us that man left to his own devices is a lost cause. If it weren't
for God's grace, we'd all be goners. If it weren't for God's
grace, we're a lost cause. Because all sinful man can do
is earn condemnation. And we'd all be damned if it
weren't for God's grace. In verse one, we find a definition
of salvation by grace. I am sought of them that ask
not for me. I'm found of them that sought me not. I said, behold
me, behold me unto a nation that was not called by my name. Now
here's grace. First, God chose a people to
save. That's grace. Those people, they
weren't seeking Him. They didn't want Him. They weren't
calling on Him to have mercy on them. But God saved them anyway. That's grace. God's saving us
anyway. Despite who we are, that's grace. Now this is such good news for
sinners. There doesn't have to be a reason
found in you for God to save you. Not one. You don't have
to meet any qualifications. All the reason for the salvation
of a sinner is found in God. Not in who we are, in who He
is. Because God's gracious. And that's
just what He's telling us in verse 1. The Lord said, I'm found
of them who weren't seeking me. They weren't even looking for
me. But you know what? They found me. My people, the
Lord says, they weren't doing anything right. They can't do
anything right. They're completely sinful. But
they're saved anyway. Because they're saved by grace. He said, my people weren't calling
on me. So you know what I did? I called them. I called them
in grace. And I gave them an ear to hear.
So they'd hear. I gave my heart to believe. So
when I called, not only did they hear me, they came. My people
weren't seeking me. They were looking for me. So
I sought them in grace. That's why our Lord gave the
parable of the good shepherd who left the 99 in the wilderness
and he went out looking for that one sheep, that one sheep that
was lost. That sheep wasn't looking for
the shepherd. He'd gone the wrong way. But
the shepherd sought him. And he found him. The Savior
seeks you. He gonna find you. He knows where
you are. He's never going to seek somebody he can't find.
He always finds his lost sheep. He seeks them in grace. He finds
them in grace. And he brings them back home
on his shoulder in grace. That's grace. And I'll give you
two examples of that. First one, Saul of Tarsus. You
think about old Saul that morning. He got up. He was planning a
trip to Damascus. He got going early in the morning.
because he's excited. I mean, this guy liked his job.
You talk about getting up in the morning, liking your job,
just wanting to get to it. That was Saul of Tarsus. He's
going down there to Damascus to get him some Christians, throw
them in jail. Here he goes. He wasn't looking
for the Lord, just the opposite. He wasn't calling on the Lord,
just the opposite. God called him in grace. Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? The Lord called Saul, didn't
he? The Lord went seeking for that
lost sheep, and he found him there on the road to Damascus.
And he found him. And he changed his name because
he made him a new person. The Lord sought Saul, didn't
he? He sought him in grace, he found him in grace, and he changed
his name in grace. And the Apostle Paul spent the
rest of his days seeking the Lord because the Lord sought
him. Oh, Paul said that I might know
him. Oh, he said that I might win
Christ and be found in him. He spent the rest of his days
seeking the Lord because the Lord sought him and found him
in grace. Now, that's a clear example of
God saving his people by grace. He always saves people who don't
deserve it. You deserve it. You're not a
candidate for grace. But are you undeserving? When
I went through those three points about man insisting on his own
way, on his own sacrifice, on his own righteousness, did that
ring a bell to you? Did that sound familiar to you?
Did that make you think, oh, I'm so undeserving. I'm the least
deserving person of God's grace that I know. I hope so. Because if you're undeserving,
Grace is always for those who do not deserve. It's always surprising. The Lord says here, behold me,
behold me. He uses the word behold because
grace is always surprising. It's just, it's always amazing.
The second example, look in John chapter one. First example, Lord
seeking those who didn't seek him. Saul of Tarsus. Second example is these disciples.
They weren't looking for the Lord, but they found him. John
1 verse 40. One of the two which heard John
speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first
findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, We found
the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him
to Jesus. And Jesus beheld him and he said,
Thou art Simon, son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas,
which is by interpretation a stone. The day following, Jesus would
go forth into Galilee, and he findeth Philip, and saith unto
him, follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter, and Philip findeth Nathanael,
and said unto him, we found him, of whom Moses and the law and
the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now wait a minute, Philip. Who
found who? He found Christ, didn't He? He
found the Messiah. Why? Because the Savior found
Him first. The Savior sought Him, came where
He was and found Him. We find the Savior, but always
because He finds us first. Oh, we do call on Him for mercy.
We do beg Him for mercy, but always because He called us in
grace first. Always. That's salvation by grace.
And the second thing I want to see about grace is the means
of grace. The means of grace is the preaching
of the gospel. God himself says, behold me. That's the cry of the gospel.
Behold Christ, look to Christ, look and live. That's the cry
of the gospel. Don't look to your works. Don't
look to the religious things that you've done. Don't look
to the bad things you've done and think, you know, makes you
unacceptable. Don't look to what you know or
what you've learned. Don't look to anything about
yourself. Just look. Just look to Christ and forget
everything else. Now, here's our problem. By nature,
we're blind. The cry of the gospel to the
blind is, look. Well, that seems weird, doesn't
it? We tell the blind, look. By nature, we can't see God. By nature, we turn away from
Him so that we can't see Him. But this is what God does for
his people. He reveals himself. The only way we'll ever see Christ,
the only way we'll ever look to him, is if he reveals himself
to us. And when he says, behold me,
we look. We look and live. Look what he
says here, how chapter 65 begins. I am. This is I am speaking,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I am. The one who revealed himself
to Moses at the burning bush tells his people, behold me,
look to me. Moses, there he was out there
keeping his father-in-law's sheep. He didn't know God. He didn't
know anything about God until God, I am, revealed himself to
him at the burning bush. And then Moses knew God. Then
he looked to Christ when God revealed himself to him at the
burning bush. And that's exactly what the Lord does for all of
his people. He reveals Christ to them through the preaching
of the gospel of the burning bush, through the gospel of Christ.
Now that's the means of grace. Salvation must be by grace. And the proof of that is how
we hear the gospel. Usually, the first time we hear
the gospel, and this may go on for years, the first times we
hear the gospel, I hate it. I just hate that message. It doesn't say anything good
about me. It tells me to look and I don't
know where to look. It tells me to look to Christ. I don't
know where He is. We just hate it. We don't have any interest
in it. It's the most boring thing in this world. When is this preacher
going to shut up? I wonder what we're going to
eat for dinner. It's the things that go through our mind. But then something changes. We
don't know when it happened, we don't know how it happened,
but we find ourselves listening. We find ourselves having an interest
because we've got a need. Instead of wondering what we're
going to eat for dinner, maybe Saturday evening we wonder, I
wonder what that preacher's got for us tomorrow. I wonder what
that message is going to be about tomorrow. What happened? What caused that
change? God revealed himself in grace.
He said, behold me. And when we saw him, I knew I
had a need. When I saw him, I developed an
interest right quick because I saw the Savior. We don't know
when it happened. We don't know how it happened,
but he did it and he did it through grace. So in the judgment, the
Lord's going to give everybody exactly what they've earned.
We saw that about the unbeliever earlier. God's going to give
them exactly what they've earned. And the same thing holds true
for the believer. When God brings the believer
to glory, when he brings them into eternal rest and bliss with
him, he's going to give them exactly what they've earned. That's right. What they earned
in Christ. God calls a nation, he says,
that in the past wasn't called by my name, but now they are. because I called them in grace.
I changed their name in grace. I call them, God says, what they
are. I call them Christ. I call them Jehovah Sidkenu,
because that's their name. That's what they are in Christ
because they're one with Christ. God's going to call his elect
righteous because they are righteous. They've been made the righteousness
of God in him, in Christ. So when God saves them, and brings
them to glory, he's gonna do it giving them exactly what they've
earned in Christ. That's grace. We have a good
hope through grace. Grace in Christ. If Lord ever
reveals to you and me our total depravity, the message of God's
grace will be the sweetest message that we've ever heard. I hope
it'll be sweet to us tonight. All right, let's bow. Our Father, how we thank you
for your grace. Grace for the undeserving. Grace
for those who would not call on you, who would not seek you.
Oh, how we thank you for grace. Father, reveal to us, we pray,
our total depravity, our total sinfulness, our total lack of
any hope whatsoever found in ourselves. Cause us to look to
Christ. Reveal your son to us through
the preaching of your word. Give us the eye of faith to see
him. Give us a heart that hungers and thirsts after him, that seeks
after him. Cause us to find the Savior because
you found us. Cause us to seek the Savior because
you sought us first in your grace and your mercy to your people.
Father, bless your word, we pray, to your glory. Bless it to the
hearts of your Comfort us and encourage us to call your sheep
through your grace to your son. It's in his precious name we
pray and give thanks.