Good evening. I'm gonna miss
you, Joy. This is Joy's last time playing
piano for a few months, so anyway. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 19 in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymnal. Number 19,
let's all stand together. ? Amen, amen, amen, amen ? ? Sovereign ruler, Lord of all
? Prostrate at your feet I fall ? You are holy, wise, and just
? I'm a creature of the dust ? All things move at your command
? Governed by your mighty hand ? Heaven, earth, and hell I see
? Fulfill all your wise decree ? Dares a man resist his Lord
? Stand against the sovereign God ? I will bow before your
throne ? Seeking grace in Christ your Son ? Through his blood
and righteousness ? Lord I plead with you for grace ? If you will
you can I know ? Grace and mercy to me show ? Will you Lord my
soul forgive ? Grant this sinner grace to live I've no other hope
but this, Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. ? Oh, for mercy now I plead ?
Grant me, Lord, the grace I need ? Turn, O turn to me and say
? All your sins are washed away ? In my Son your debt is paid
? He for you the ransom made Please be seated. Good evening. We're gonna read
tonight from Psalm 121 for our call to worship, Psalm 121. You
know, there's a scripture, says come to the Lord with words.
And what words do we come to him with? The words that he's
given us. And these are wonderful words of life. The Lord will
enable us as we read them to be the desires of our heart. Then we'll be coming before the
Lord with his word. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from
the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. Another scripture speaks of trials
without and troubles within, and I think that's what this is a
reference to, the sun and those trials that come from the outside
and the The troubles from within are symbolized here by the moon
that comes by night. The sun will not smite thee by
day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Billy Argaropoulos over in St. Pete and his wife Virginia have
been having some health problems and I spoke to them last night
and he asked if we would remember them tonight in prayer. So Virginia has to have a knee
replacement surgery but now they've discovered some heart problems
that are going to be a complication for her. And Billy, you may have
heard, was in a car accident and is having a lot of back problems
as a result of that. So let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for these precious, precious promises, for the the surety
of your word and, Lord, the certainty of their fulfillment in Christ. Lord, you've been so clear and
so plain about never forsaking us, never leaving us, preserving
our soul forevermore. protecting us from the trials
from without and the troubles from within. Lord, might we lift
up our eyes unto the hills and know that all our help comes
from thee. Lord, when we gather for worship,
we need your help. We need you to enable us to worship
in spirit, And we need you to send your spirit and power to
reveal from thy word the truth, the truth of thy dear son and
his glory and his accomplished work and Lord, the faith that
we need to rest all our hope in him. We depend upon you for
that. Lord, we pray for Billy in Virginia
and ask for your Hand of strength and grace, thank you for the
testimony of their faith and Lord, know that these afflictions
have been sent of thee and Lord, might you comfort them and encourage
them and provide for them in this time. We ask it in Christ's
name, amen. number 229 from the Hardback
Tymnal, 229. Tell me the old, old story of
unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His
love. Tell me the story simply as to
a little child For I am weak and weary and helpless and defiled
Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. ? Tell me the story slowly ?
That I may take it in ? That wonderful redemption ? God's
remedy for sin ? Tell me the story often ? For I forget so
soon The early dew of morning has passed away at noon. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Tell me the story softly with
earnest tones and brave. Remember I'm the sinner whom
Jesus came to save. Tell me the story always, if
you would really be. In any time of trouble, a comforter
to me. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. ? Tell me the same old story
? When you have cause to fear ? That this world's empty glory
? Is costing me too dear ? Yes, and when the world's glory ?
Is dawning on my soul Tell me the old, old story, Christ Jesus
makes thee whole. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Please be seated. I hope that we can do that tonight. The story is so clear and wonderful
in our text. If you'll turn with me to the
second chapter of Mark. This is the miracle where our
Lord healed the man with the palsy. Remember his four friends
that could not get in to where the Lord was in Capernaum and
they had to remove the tiles from the roof and lowered him
down. And how the Lord said to them,
said to that man, son, your sins are forgiven thee. And Matt,
not all the miracles that we've been looking at are written about by by more than
one of the gospel writers. This one, Matthew, Mark, and
Luke all record it, and they record it quite extensively compared
to a lot of the other miracles. I don't know the significance
of that. All of God's word is precious
and true and powerful, but it is interesting that the Holy
Spirit would have us to have more details concerning this
miracle. And I hope that we will be able
to see ourselves in this miracle. I wrote in my notes as an introductory
comment that unless we're able to see ourselves in the miracles
that our Lord performed, that the study of them is of no profit
and when I first wrote that statement I thought it is no profit to
our soul. If we don't see ourselves in
the miracle, the study of these miracles is of no profit to our
soul. But I don't think it's of any
profit, period. Because if it only gives us some
information or You know, something else that doesn't speak truth
to our soul, that's not our prophet. That is not our prophet. If we're
gonna be profited, the Lord has to put us in these stories. And I pray that he will do that
for us. But... He will make us to be
blind Bartimaeus. He will make us to be the woman
with the issue of blood. He will make us to be that leper
that needed to be cleansed. This is the only way that God's
word can be of any prophet is that if the Holy Spirit makes
them true to our hearts we see God's work spiritually. I've called this spiritual palsy
because though I don't know of anybody here that suffers from
this sort of disease, but as it relates to our sin problem,
we all do. We all do. And Mark chapter two, verse one.
And again, he entered into Capernaum after some days and it was noised
that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered
together in so much that there was no room to receive them.
No, not so much as about the door. And he preached the word
unto them. And they came unto him, bringing
one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when they
could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered
the roof where he was. And when they had broken it up,
they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. And
when Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy,
Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And there were certain of the
scribes sitting there and reasoned in their hearts, why does this
man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? And immediately when Jesus perceived
in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto
them, why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether it is
easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven
thee, or to say arise and take up thy bed and walk. But that
you may know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive
sins. He saith to the sick of the palsy,
I say unto thee, arise, take up thy bed and go thy way into
thy house. And immediately he arose and
took up the bed and went forth before them all in so much that
they were all amazed and glorified God saying, we never saw it on
this fashion. Palsy. It's a range of neurological
diseases and injuries. Could be a temporary Bell's palsy. It could be a quadriplegic. But one thing is consistent with
all different forms of palsy. And that is that there's a disconnect
between the head and the body. The brain might be able to think
of moving certain parts of the body but the nerves that connect
the brain to the muscles are damaged so that the body cannot
function as the head would have it to. Is that not a perfect
picture of our sin? Your sin has separated you from
your God. This is not the problem that
there's a disconnect between the head and the body leaving
us unable to use, powerless, paralyzed. The impulses that are necessary
must be provided by God. And this injury, this disease
must be corrected if the body is to be in sync with the head. Scripture says that when we were
yet without strength, when we were paralyzed in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. Before the Lord is pleased to
forgive us of our sins and speak truth to our hearts, we have
a conscience. Our conscience might bother us
when we do something wrong. We might feel pains of guilt. But we cannot really, prior to
the new birth, see the sin problem for what it really is. We thought sin was just a temporary
lapse in behavior or something like that. It was just something
done wrong here and there. It wasn't until the Lord healed
us that we were able to have a connection between our vile
bodies and the head of the church, the head of the body, Christ
himself, who revealed to us that our bodies infected with sin
through and through. It's not just a temporary problem. It's an issue that corrupts every
part of what we are by nature. We're sinners. Prior to the Lord healing us
of spiritual palsy, we were able to make choices, but we did not
have a will to come to Christ. He had to make us willing. We made maybe some religious decisions,
But to come in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ is a work of grace
that the Lord has to perform in this spiritual healing that
he does for his people. Prior to the Lord healing us
of our spiritual palsy, we exercised faith every day in common things. We got on airplanes, rode in
automobiles, placed our faith in the word of a friend or a
spouse, sat on a pew or a chair, exercised faith every day in
many, many multiple ways. But it was impossible for us
because of the effect that sin had between the head and the
body. It was impossible for us to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We couldn't come. No man can
come to me except the Father, which sent me, draw him. Faith is the result of the new
birth, not the cause of it. The new birth necessarily precedes
faith in God's order. we have to be born again before
we can see the kingdom of God. And that's a miracle. That's a work of grace. That's
what this miracle is reminding us of. And might I also say that even
now, having faith in Christ, having been made willing in the
day of his power. Having some understanding of
what it means to be a sinner, do we not still suffer with palsies? Do we not still have this problem
between the head and our bodies? Are we not in need daily for
the Lord Jesus to say to us, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. Thy sins are forgiven thee. That's
all that the Lord would speak that truth to our hearts tonight,
that he would speak that truth to our hearts continually. That's
what he promised that we read in Psalm 121. He said he'll not
forsake us. He'll not leave us. He will,
as we read, he shall preserve thy soul. How does he preserve
thy soul? By keeping us. He preserves us
by the work of the Spirit, convicting us of our sin and showing us
our righteousness in Christ and reminding us of the work that
he accomplished on Calvary's cross to defeat the devil and
put our sin away, that he is the one who has power to forgive
sin. This man thought that his need
was his physical paralysis. But he had a need that was much
greater than that, that he didn't know about. And what I understand
from this is so comforting and encouraging to me to know that
the Lord doesn't wait for us to see our sin problem before
he forgives us. This man had no idea what his
real problem was. He lived completely paralyzed
in a bed, dependent upon his friends to carry him around,
a miserable life. But he had a much deeper need,
a much greater need that the Lord was going to deal with first. A need he didn't know about. how comforting it is to hear
our Lord say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do. We didn't know that it was our
sins that bruised Him. We didn't know that we were the
one guilty for the crucifixion of the Son of God. We didn't
know the depths of our sin. And the Lord didn't wait for
us to come to some conscious awareness before he said, okay,
now that you've shown repentance and sorrow and you have some
understanding of what you've done, that's what we require
from one another, don't we? We would never just extend forgiveness
carte blanche to someone who didn't have some understanding
of what they've done to us. That's just, but hear the Lord. And still
as believers, we have no real understanding of the depths of
our sin. And yet the Lord continues to
say to us in our inability to walk, in our inability to provide
for ourselves as this man was, the Lord continues to say to
us, son. And I don't know if too many
30 year olds that call another adult son. But oh, how comforting it is
to know that The Lord Jesus Christ, he calls himself the Son of Man
in this passage, that you might know that the Son of Man has
power to forgive sins. And that's a reference to our
Lord's humanity. But the Son of Man and the Son
of God are his two natures. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
says to us, Son, child. Oh, my little one, I understand
what affection, what compassion that he has towards us in our
real problem of sin. Many who suffer physical afflictions
turn to God for help. And And oftentimes we've seen it,
that which is born in the storm dies in the calm. People get
in trouble, they get sick, they lose a job, they go through a
divorce, they get, you know, have this trouble and that trouble
and they all of a sudden get interested in religious things
and then the trouble goes away. And so do they. What's the difference
here? Oftentimes, the Lord does use
affliction to bring his children to him. And David said, before
I was afflicted, I had gone astray, but now I've kept thy word. And
I love what Scott Richardson said one time. He said, God keeps
his children going in trouble, in trouble, or coming out of
trouble all the time. All the time. And I find that
to be my experience. And that's a work of grace that
he would do that, that he would keep us on the bed of affliction
and keep us dependent upon him all the time, reminding us of
our weakness and of our sin problem and our inability to solve this
problem and cause us to come before him. But here's the difference, that
when the problem goes away, if God's given us saving faith,
we don't go away with that problem. When this man in thinking that his own problem
was his paralysis, was told by the Lord, thy sins are forgiven
thee. Now he's coming to see what his real problem is. And that's the difference, that
if the Lord uses affliction to bring us to him, in that trial,
He will reveal to us what our real problem is. The real problem
is not the trial. The real problem is not the affliction.
The real problem is our sin. Is that not what causes so much
consternation and so much conflict and so much trouble and so much
fear? It's not the trial, it's the
unbelief associated with that trial. and how the Lord, you
know, if we didn't have a sin problem, no trial would bother
us at all. We wouldn't have the least problem
with anything. We'd be singing God's praises
and rejoicing in the most difficult of circumstances. By faith, we are thankful in
all things. We know that all things are the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us. By faith, we know that whatever
the Lord sends, we must have needed it. And he's gonna be
glorified in it. And it'll be to my good. But here's the thing about it.
He's going to use that to lead us to Christ. Christ is the good
that comes out of trouble, isn't he? You know, I've made this
point a couple of times over the last few weeks, but I keep
thinking about Romans 8, 28, and how I used to think of Romans
8, 28. For you know that all things work together for good
for them that love God, and those are to the call according to
his purpose. And I just think, well, you know, there's a silver
lining in this dark cloud. There's some positives gonna
come out of this negative experience. That's not what the good is that
God brings. Christ is the good that he brings. And if we've not, if our trials
haven't led us to Christ, you see, this man's trouble led him
to Christ. Then whatever other power of
positive thinking experience that we think has come good out
of bad has not really profited us at all. Christ is the end
result. He's the good referred to in
Romans 8.28. Why callest thou me good? There's
none good but God. I will cause my goodness to pass
before thee. Isn't that what the Lord told
Moses on Mount Sinai? I'm gonna cause my goodness to
pass before thee. Let's don't, I mean, An unbeliever
can try to make lemonade out of lemons. An unbeliever can
have that kind of mentality and be a positive person and try
to find some positive bent on their negative experiences. Let's
don't do that. God sends these things to us
to show us the glory of Christ. Lord, don't let me miss Christ
in my trial. and my unbelief, my sin problem
that I have, this lack of impulse that exists in
my body as a result of the sin that's disconnected the head
from the body, that's where the real problem lies. It's not my
affliction, it's my sin. It's my sin. My real problem is not a health
problem, not a marital problem, it's not a job problem, it's
not an emotional problem, sin problem. That's my real problem. And if we're looking to God to fix
things other than that, then we're just putting a band, we're
just taking, I mean, you wouldn't go to a doctor and take pain
medicine for a cancer that could be removed by radical surgery.
If you needed radical surgery to remove something, if you needed
heart surgery, you wouldn't want to go to a doctor and have him
give you something to make you feel better. But how many times
do people do that? Well, I don't feel good. I don't,
you know, I'm not, I'm having, having this problem and I just
want that to be solved. If we belong to the Lord, he's
gonna take whatever afflictions he sends and he's gonna keep
digging until he brings us to the heart of the issue, which
is our sin. That's my problem. And the persistence of God-given
faith will not quit until Christ is known. That's seen in this story, is
it not? No obstacle could stop these four friends with their
paralyzed friend. The press of the crowd didn't
stop them. The tiles on the roof didn't
stop them. How much trouble was it to carry
this man in a stretcher up to the roof of the housetop? I don't
know how they got up there, but it wouldn't have been easy. And
then to remove the tiles from the roof to get him into the
presence of Christ. That's God-given faith. When the Lord saw their faith
and said, thy sins are forgiven thee, where'd they get that faith
from? Where did they get that persistent faith that would not
quit until they found themselves in the presence of the Savior?
God gave it to them. And God-given faith is always
that way. God-given faith doesn't quit until we find ourselves
in his presence. Often, God will prove faith by putting obstacles in the way. Had that been your experience?
And if those obstacles cause us to quit believing, quit praying,
quit trusting, quit seeking, quit knocking, quit asking, then
it wasn't God-given faith. When the Lord was walking with
those disciples on the road to Emmaus and they got to the home
in Emmaus, sun was setting, it was dinnertime, and the scripture
is very clear, the Lord acted as if he would have gone, he
would have continued. Nice talking to you guys. And he kept on walking. Wait,
wait, wait, wait. Come back, please. Please don't
go. We want to spend some more time
with you. And they pleaded with him to
come. And in the breaking of the bread, their eyes were opened
and they beheld him. That's what God-given faith does. Didn't Naomi do that with Ruth
and Orpah? When Naomi was in Moab and her
husband, Elimelech, and her two sons died and she had two daughter-in-laws,
she said, I'm going back to Bethlehem. You all stay here. I can't provide
you any more sons down at my age. You know, get another husband. And she tried to persuade them
to stay. And Orpah did stay. And Ruth, the scripture says,
clung to Naomi and said, no, where you go, I'm going. Your God will be my God. Your
people will be my people. Don't make me go back to Moab.
I need to be where you're going, to the house of bread, Bethlehem. We see that over and over. The Lord looked at those 5,000
whom had just received the breaking of the bread and the fishes and
said, you're following me so that you can have your bellies
full. If you want to be my disciples, you have to be willing to take
up your cross daily, die to yourself, and follow me. And Scripture says they all left.
And the Lord looked at his disciples, his 12, and he said, aren't you
going to go with them? He puts obstacles in the way
of faith. He gives us an out. And if we can take the out, you
know, I used to say to people that come to church, leave if
you can. I think there's a better way
to say that. If you can, you will. If you can, you will. If you're
able to take that out, then God will give you plenty of them. He'll give you job challenges.
He'll give you opportunities to move away from the gospel. He'll give you troubles in your
life. The Lord gives lots of opportunities for people to forsake
the gospel. And those who can, eventually
will. And those who can't, can't. They just can't. Why? Because
they have God-given faith. A woman with the issue of blood,
she had lots of obstacles. She had spent all that she had
on physicians and was worse off now. The press of the crowd is
such that, and she's unclean, she's not supposed to be around
people. And if she gets close to anybody, she's supposed to
declare herself to be unclean, lest someone comes in contact
with her and becomes unclean. And she gets on her hands and
knees and crawls through the crowd. if I could just touch
the hem of his garment. And she did. Who touched me? Oh Lord, the disciple said, everybody's
touching you. No, virtue has gone out from
me. Someone touched me in faith. Someone who had lots of obstacles
to overcome, pressed through the crowd until they were able
to touch me. I put those obstacles in their
way. to prove their faith to be God-given. Believer, you're
going to have obstacles in your faith. God's going to put them
there. And a faith that's untried is
unproven. But God-given faith will persevere. It'll persevere in spite of the
obstacles. Here's what these men, they did.
They're just going to keep persevering. I think about that Syrophoenician
woman. The Lord called her a dog. The disciples embarrassed her.
They tried to run her off and she just kept pleading, kept
pleading. Isn't that the way it is? Trials and troubles and conflicts
and internal fears and all these things. Better opportunities. Lots of things. Blind Bartimaeus, shut up. Don't you know you're
embarrassing yourself? You're embarrassing us. Son of
David, have mercy upon me. And they told him to be quiet
and he cried all the louder. Be of good cheer, Bartimaeus.
The master calleth thee. Oh, that's why the Lord said, keep knocking, keep asking, keep seeking. I'm gonna put hindrances in the
way and then I'm gonna prove that the faith that you have
was given to you by me because you're not gonna quit. You're
going to persevere. Most people have but a cursory
interest in God. You know, you've heard the little
ditty about the little boy that goes into the store and asks
for $2 worth of God. You know, just put it in a sack
for me. You know, not enough to make
me lose sleep, but enough to help me to go to sleep. and not
enough to rule my life. I just want a little bit of God
in my pocket so I can pull him out when I need him. I was talking to a neighbor of
ours some years ago and he had some serious questions and we
had a good conversation. And afterwards he looked at me
and he said, you guys are serious about this thing, aren't you?
That's what he said. He said to me, he said, sounds
like to me, you guys are either all in or all out. That's not
really what I'm looking for. I'm not interested in something
like that. I just wanted a little bit of God to get me through,
make my life a little better. 50 years old. Within a month
after that, he died of a heart attack. Found him three days later sitting
in his chair in his living room. Oh Lord, spare us. Make us to
be like these men. To not quit. And I think there's a lesson,
a message here for us as believers, not just in our own faith, but
in persevering in prayer for our friends and children
and loved ones and grandchildren. You know, these friends, what
kind of friends do they have, does this man have? And what
would he have been without his friends? What a blessing he had. And you know, the support of
the gospel and all of that. The Lord told us not to become weary
in well-doing. supporting the gospel and praying
and as the Lord enables and gives us opportunity to speak a word
of truth to someone, that's a good work. That's well-doing. Be not weary in well-doing. And have you ever had the thought
that someone was a lost cause? You know, you tried to share
with somebody and they didn't want to talk about it. Maybe they responded in a very
bad way. You know, there's only one reason
for a believer to have that thought. And that's because we've lost
sight of the fact that God saved us. What is the greatest encouragement
that you have that God can save anybody? If it's not that he saved you,
then there's a need for us to go back to the beginning, isn't
there? If God can save the chief of
sinners, he can save who to me is lesser than the chief of sinners. Let us be persistent and persevering
and pray without ceasing for... The number four, I thought about
this and I'm sure you could think of lots of different places in
the Bible where the number four is used. These four friends,
I think, represent something for us. I just want to deal with three
places in the Bible very quickly that I think the number four
is representative of here. The Bible does use numbers to
signify certain spiritual truths. What happened on the fourth day
of creation? On the fourth day of creation
is when God created the sun and the moon and separated the day
from the night and created night and darkness and started the
whole time of seasons. What are the friends that we
really need? The four friends that we really
need in order to be carried into the presence of Christ? Is it
not that we need God to separate light from darkness for us? That we need him to reveal to
us the difference between that which is holy and that which
is profane? That which is true and that which
is in error? Lord, I need for you to reveal
that to me. If I'm going to be carried into
the presence of Christ, I've got to have what was done physically
on the fourth day of creation, I've got to have that done spiritually
in my heart. The second four I want us to
think about for just a moment is the fourth commandment. Keep holy the Sabbath. It's the one commandment that's,
it's the only commandment that's called a sign. The first three
commandments having to do with our relationship with God, the
next six commandments having to do with our relationship with
man, and that one commandment in the middle, keeping holy the
Sabbath. And we know the Old Testament
application was not working on the Sabbath, but we understand.
In light of the, in light of the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we understand that He is our Sabbath, Hebrews chapter
four. He is our rest. I need for the
spirit of God to enable me to rest in Christ. I need for him
to enable me to rejoice in Christ Jesus, to worship God in the
spirit and to have no confidence in the flesh. That's what it
is to keep holy the Sabbath is to hold up the Lord Jesus Christ
as the one who fulfilled the law and the one in whom I have
rest from wrath and from judgment and from the law of God. And
in faith, oftentimes, how oftentimes we've said we've never kept any
of God's commandments one time. And that's true and yet in faith
every believer has kept the fourth commandment. That's what faith is. Faith is
keeping the fourth commandment and that fourth commandment is
sandwiched between the other commandments and it's called
a sign so that in Christ we do keep the fourth commandment and
in keeping the fourth commandment we've kept them all. We've kept
them all. We're resting in Christ who himself
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And then thirdly, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
the four gospels. God, the Holy Spirit, inspiring
four of the apostles to pin this revelation, this testimony of
the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need God, the
Holy Spirit, to take the word of God, the gospel. We call Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John the gospels, don't we? We know that all of
God's word is inspired of God, but the four gospels are not
just, there's not just four by, there's a reason for that. We have four friends. We have
four friends in the fourth day of creation, we have four friends
in the four commandment, and we have four friends in the four
gospels. that carry us into the presence
of Christ so that we have the joy of hearing
him say, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. Tom. Number 45, let's stand together,
45. ? How vast, how full, how free
? The mercy of our God ? Proclaim the blessed news abroad ? Spread
it all abroad ? How full it does remove the stain of every sin,
and makes our souls as white and pure as though no sin had
been. ? O guilty sinner, come ? Christ
stands to comfort thee ? Come cast thyself upon his love ?
So vast, so full, so free I'm glad salvation's free. I'm glad salvation's free. Salvation's free for you and
me. I'm glad salvation's free.