Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 145, 145, Hail Thou Once Despised
Jesus. Let's all stand together. Hail Thou once despised Jesus,
Hail Thou Galilean King! Thou didst suffer to release
us, Thou didst free salvation bring. Hail Thou agonizing Savior,
bearer of our sin and shame! By Thy merits we find favor,
life is given through Thy name. Past, O Lamb, by God appointed,
All our sins of thee were laid. Thy almighty love anointed, Thou
hast full atoned and made. All thy people are forgiven,
the virtue of thy blood. Open is the gate of heaven. Peace is made to man and God. Jesus, hail and throne in glory,
therefore All the heavenly hosts adore
thee, seated at thy father's side. Therefore, sinners, thou
art pleading, there thou dost our place prepare. ever for us interceding, till
in glory we appear. Worship, honor, power, and blessing
Thou art worthy to receive. Loudest praises without ceasing,
meet it is for us to give. Help me, bright angelic spirits,
bring your sweetest, noblest place. Help to save our Savior's
merits. Help to chant Emmanuel's praise. Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
begin the service tonight, the scripture reading, I'm sorry,
with Isaiah chapter 41. If you'd like
to open your Bibles there with me, Isaiah, Isaiah 41. We've already begun the service, haven't
we? That's a good hymn. Betty Gruber, in Mexico is having
valve replacement surgery this Saturday down there, so I want
us to pray for her tonight. I'll be going to College Grove
this weekend to preach for Chris Cunningham and his conference,
and Hugo and Jeff Taubenheim will be bringing the messages
here, so Please, please pray for these men and for us in the
conference there. Isaiah chapter 41. Let's begin reading in verse
10. Fear thou not. How paralyzing fear is. We all know something about it.
Some know more about it than others, but it's a horrible thing. And yet the Lord is speaking
to us and saying, don't be afraid. Fear not for I am with thee.
I am with thee. Be not dismayed. Don't be confused. For I am thy God, and I will
strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. What a promise. Let's skip down
to verse 17. When the poor and the needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places
and fountains in the midst of the valley. I will make the wilderness
a pool of water and dry land springs of water." Our merciful heavenly father,
come into thy glorious presence, having confidence that the Lord
Jesus Christ, thy precious and darling son, accomplished everything
necessary for us to be able to approach your holy presence.
Lord, we come in his glorious name We plead his righteousness
and, Lord, we thank you for the precious promises that you've
given us in your word. We ask, Lord, that your Holy
Spirit would apply them effectually to our hearts and cause us to
believe every word that you've spoken, that we would rest our
hopes, our lives, our very souls on the promises that are all
yea and amen in Christ. Lord, we pray that you'd enable
me to speak and that you would able give us ears to hear, Lord,
that this might be a time of worship
that's done in the power of your spirit and that you would keep
us faithful to your word. We pray for Betty. We ask, Lord,
that you would just give her comfort and hope and faith as
she rests in Christ and pray for the physicians in Mexico
that you would give them skillful hands to perform the surgery
well. And thank you, Lord, for her
life and for her testimony and for your grace there. Lord, we
pray for Hugo and for Jeff and ask Lord that you would just
bless them the remainder of this week with a clear and heartfelt
message that they'd be able to stand and proclaim Christ. And
Lord, we pray for the meeting in College Grove and ask that
you'd bless it and comfort your people and call out your lost
sheep. And we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number 296. 296. Let's all stand
again. 296. All the way, my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, hear my faith in Him to dwell. For I know whate'er
befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know whate'er befall
me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial,
feeds me with a living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
and my soul a thirst may be, Cushing from the rock before
me, blow a spring of joy I see. Cushing from the rock before
me, blow a spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. And my spirit, oh, immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of hay. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. Please be seated. My text tonight can be found
in Isaiah chapter 33, but I found myself in Isaiah
33 and felt like the Lord had given me a message for tonight from Judges chapter 19. We've seen over the past few
months as we've been in Judges that the Holy Spirit often repeats
the phrase that there was no king in Israel and therefore
the people did that which was right in their own eyes. And
that's how chapter 19 begins with a similar statement. And I thought how necessary it
is for our salvation that we have a king, and that we have
a judge, and that we have a lawgiver. I don't suppose there's a darker
chapter in God's Word than Judges chapter 19. The things that happen
in this chapter are just horrible. And they happen because there's
not a reigning sovereign. And the things that happen in
this world happen because men will not bow and acknowledge
God as Lord and as King. I'll let you read chapter 19.
for yourselves to see what all takes place here. But I want
us to read the very first verse, if you'll turn with me there
to Judges chapter 19. And it came to pass in those
days when there was no king in Israel, there was no king in
Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side
of Mount Ephraim who took to him concubine out of Bethlehem,
Judah. And what happens to that concubine
if it was not recorded in God's Word is unspeakable. And yet it is recorded, and It is showing us the evidence
of there not being a king in Israel. Isaiah chapter 33, you have your
Bibles open there with me? We'll look at verse 22. For the
Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king, and he
will save us. If we're going to be saved eternally
from the wrath of God, if we're going to be saved from the type
of circumstances that we read of in Judges chapter 19, If we're
going to be saved from our cells, if we're going to be saved from
the powers of evil that are in this world, we're going to have
to have the Lord as our judge and as our lawgiver and as our
king. And in Christ, that is exactly
what we have. It's exactly what we have. Hosea chapter 13, verse nine
says, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. I will be thy king. Where is
any other that may save thee in all the cities and in all
thy judges? to whom thou sayest, be our king
and be our prince. Who else you going to turn to,
to be saved? The Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king and he will
save us. He will save us. Now men that
do not have the Lord as their lawgiver, their judge, and their
king will not be saved. Will not be saved. They will
end in the same fate as the Gibeonites in Judges chapter 19. Often we will hear men say, don't
judge me. God is my judge. And they say
it proudly, not knowing what standard God uses to judge men
by. They speak the truth. Yes, God
is each man's judge. He is the judge of all the earth. But the standard by which he
judges is absolute perfection. He doesn't grade on a curve.
He doesn't have exceptions to his law. He has a perfect standard
of righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is that plumb line by which the wall is measured. And according
to what God tells us, all men measured by that plumb line are
but teetering walls. And in the day of judgment, When
the judge of all the earth does what is right, those teetering
walls will fall. Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter
4 says, with me, it is a very little thing that I should be
judged of you. Paul said, I know you're gonna
judge me, but it doesn't matter to me what you decide or what
your judgments are. He goes on to say, he said, I
judge not my own self. He said, I don't know how to,
I don't know how to judge myself. Yet am I not hereby justified
before God? Perfect before God, without sin
before God. He that judgeth me is the Lord.
The Lord himself is not only judge of all the earth, He himself
is the standard of that judgment. His judgments are true. His judgments
are inflexible. His judgments are immutable. He will by no means clear the
guilty. If the Lord should mark iniquity, if he should take notice
of one sin, we would not be able to stand in his presence. We
need a judge who is just. We need a judge who fulfills
the exercise of his justice in the strict requirements of his
law if we're going to be saved. There was no judge in Israel.
Every man did what was right in his own eyes. Everybody said
to one another, don't judge me. God's my judge. And what they
really meant by that is I'll do what I want and God will forgive
me in the end. The Lord's judgments are true. He has judged us justified in
Christ. You know, in man-made laws, there
are things that are legal that aren't moral. Not so with God's law. God's
law is a moral law. So, when we speak of Christ being
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, we're
not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ just fulfilling the letter
of the law. He fulfilled the spirit of the
law. He fulfilled all, not just the legal requirements of the
law, but he required, he fulfilled the moral requirements of the
law. That's what the Mosaic law is, a moral law. And that's what
our Lord Jesus Christ did. He has, we are justified in him. And to be justified means that
you're able to stand in the presence of God's holy law and the law
has no charge on you. The law has no condemnation.
The law has nothing to say. The law has been silenced. Why? Because all the requirements
of God's moral law had been fulfilled in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord is our judge and we
shall be saved. He has judged us righteous. God made him. who knew no sin,
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's God's judgment. The Lord
is our judge, and we shall be saved. We need a judge. Israel
didn't have a judge, but you know, as evil as the things that
took place in Israel and Judges chapter 19, that they take place
in every generation of every culture where there is not a
sovereign, or there's not a reigning God. The Lord has judged us justified. He's judged us perfect. He's
judged us without condemnation. Not just put away our sin, but,
you know, The moral law doesn't just speak to behavior. It speaks
to thought and intent. That's why we can't, you know,
the attempt to try to add judgment to a crime because we call it
a hate crime. All crimes are hate crimes. How
are you going to? We're not here to judge men's hearts. We can
only judge men's behavior. We don't know what's in a man's
heart. But the Lord does. He does. We judge according to
outward appearances. He judges according to the heart.
He knows all the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And
He has said from the heart that we are judged righteous. Perfect. The law of God has nothing
to say to God's people. The Lord is our judge, therefore
we shall be saved. We are saved with him as our
judge. We don't want him to bypass his
justice or his righteousness to judge us. We want him to judge
us with a perfect justice. And that's exactly what he did
when the Lord Jesus Christ bore the full penalty of sin on Calvary's
cross for his people. God's justice was satisfied. We are justified by his blood. The Lord has judged his people
to be the apple of his eye. That's quite a judgment, isn't
it? We look at ourselves and we think,
you know, how can I be the apple of God's eye? What part of our
body do we protect more than the pupil of our eye? What part
of the body is protected more? I understand that the bones around
the socket of the eye are some of the strongest bones in the
body. You have an eyebrow that diverts sweat and water away
from your eye. You have an eyelash that blinks
every few seconds to push away the dust from your eye. reflexes
quicker than the blink of an eye if something's coming your
way. Why? God's made the body to protect
the eye. And the eye is lubricated with
tears to keep it working well. And God says, you
are the apple of my eye. You are the object of, that's
how I've judged you. I've judged you to be my child. No parent has ever loved their
child like God loves his children. I've judged you to be my wife. No husband has ever loved his
wife like the Lord Jesus Christ, the bridegroom loves his wife.
This is his judgment. This is what you and I are in
need of in order for us to be saved. The Lord is our judge. There was no judge in Israel,
but there's a judge. There's a judge among God's people.
And we're interested in his judgments and satisfying the moral requirements
of his law and in judging us loved, the objects of his affection. I love in the Song of Solomons
where the groom is speaking to his beloved and he says to her,
one look from your eye ravishes my heart. In other words, when you pause
in your day and offer up a sincere, heartfelt prayer to the Lord,
however brief that might be, one look from your eye ravishes
his heart. That's his judgment. That's his
love toward his children. How can we understand that? This
is his judgment. He's judged his wife to be beautiful. In Psalm, Proverbs 31, that virtuous
woman. Who can find a virtuous woman? There's none like her. That's
the church. That's the bride of Christ. This
is his judgment. The Lord is our judge. He's judged
us righteous. He's judged us justified in Christ. He's judged us beautiful and
lovely. He's judged us faithful. We saw
that in Colossians chapter one. It's amazing when we read Hebrews
chapter 11. where the scripture says of Abraham,
I mean of Moses, it says he suffered rather the affliction with the
people of God rather than the benefits. He forsook the benefits
of Egypt. He was run out of town on a rail.
He was a murderer and he had to flee for his life. And yet
that's not the way Hebrews chapter 11 presents him. Sarah judged him faithful who
had promised and was able to conceive even though she was
beyond years. Well, that's not what we read
in the book of Genesis. She laughed when God said, you're
gonna have a child. And yet all of these saints of
God in the Old Testament are called faithful. Faithful. Because God has judged us without
sin in Christ. Therefore, he calls his children
faithful. And he keeps them faithful, doesn't
he? You know, There was never a hint of the Lord bringing up
to Peter what he had done the night before his crucifixion. Right after the resurrection,
tell my disciples and tell Peter that I've risen. Tell Peter. And when the Lord met Peter there
at the Sea of Galilee, there was never a hint of the Lord
bringing that up to Peter and saying to Peter, I told you we're
going to do that. Did you learn your lesson? He
didn't have to, did he? He didn't have to. The Lord doesn't
do that. He just said, Peter, lovest thou
me? Oh, Lord, you know that I love
you. Feed my sheep, Peter. Feed my sheep. Faithful. That's God's judgment
for his people. He's judged them righteous. He's
judged them beautiful. He's judged them faithful. He's
judged them saints. He's judged them sanctified. We have a judge in Israel. It is the Lord. And because of
his judgments, we shall be saved. In contrast to that, In the world,
there is no sovereign, there is no judge, and every man does
what's right in his own eyes. The second thing we see in Isaiah
chapter 33 is not only is the Lord our judge, the Lord is our
lawgiver. He's our lawgiver. Now we know
that the moral law, is written on every man's heart. And yet
most men who have been given by God, the moral law will not
be saved. It will not be saved. All men
know that lying and murdering and stealing and adultery and
not honoring your father, all men know that they can look at
creation and they can see that there is a God with whom one
day they must do. And so these are the laws, this
is the Mosaic law that is written on the heart of every man. And
these men in Judges chapter 19 had that moral law written on
their heart. And yet they participated in mass rape and murder and it is
awful. It looks just like Sodom in Judges chapter 19. Those men had that law written
upon their heart. So if we're going to be saved,
what law is it that we need to have written on our heart? Well,
Malachi speaks of it as the law of truth, which is in his heart. To be able to know the truth
about who we are. Paul speaks of the law of sin.
uh, in, in Romans chapter three. And so these are the laws we
have to have a law giver. We don't need to have a law giver
to put us under the, the mosaic law and to, to beat us into submission
to the moral law. We don't need a law giver for
that. You know, I've had people over the years say to me, you
know, preacher, you need to tell us how to live. You know how to
live. You know how to live. You know what you ought to be
doing and what you ought not to be doing. And everybody knows
that. They don't need a preacher to
tell them that. I've come to realize that the people who say
that to me, they want me to preach the law so that they can glory
in what they're doing and point their finger at other men. It's
not that they need to know how to live, they think they're living
right and other people are living wrong and I need to stand up
here and rebuke others so they can get credit and glory for
it. You see the point, don't you?
Men know what they should be doing. They know right from wrong. So when God says in Isaiah, the
Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver. He's talking about
the law of truth. talking about the gospel being
written on our hearts and impress them upon our minds write them
on my on our hearts to reveal to us that we are sinners and
to reveal to us the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ who came
into this world to save sinners to reveal to us his sovereignty,
and His deity, and His glory, and His love, and His grace,
and His mercy, His righteousness, and His truth. We need the Lord to reveal Christ
to us. He is that truth. Turn with me to Romans chapter
7. Romans chapter 7. Look at verse 22. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. But I see another law. This is what the lawgiver must
reveal to us. You see, the man who has no judge
in Israel, the man who has no sovereign, the man who's doing
what's right in his own eyes cannot say what Paul said in
verse 23. He doesn't see another law. All he sees is the Mosaic law.
All he sees is the Ten Commandments. All he sees is the outward appearances
of right and wrong. Paul said, I delight in that
law. I love God's law, wish I could
keep it perfectly, but I see another law. In my members, warring against
the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin, which is in my members. Here's the law giver that we
need. Christ came to save sinners and
He only saves sinners. And only when the Spirit of God
reveals to us that we're sinners will we find a need for Christ. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but the flesh, the law of sin. Look at it, look back over in
verse 12 of that same chapter. Wherefore, the law is holy and
the commandment holy and just and good, when that which is
good. Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am
carnal, sold under sin. I can't ever get away from it.
That word sold under sin means I'm a slave to it. Now, that
doesn't mean that we're a slave to every passion of the flesh.
It means that we have a sinful nature that we can never escape
and that everything we do and every thought we have and every
prayer we pray and every worship, we bring into that our sin nature. That's a law. That's the law
of sin in our members. that we need the lawgiver to
show us. We'll never see it. We'll never
see that. The natural man left to himself,
when there's no judge in Israel, doing what's right in his own
eyes, will deem himself to be a pretty good law keeper. He'll
never see the law of sin in his members, in his body. Aren't
you thankful we have a lawgiver? God's people rejoice and be reminded that
they're sinners. It reminds them of where all
their righteousness is. Look at chapter 8 of Romans.
Verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after
the spirit. We're not like the man who does what's right in
his own eyes because there's no judge in Israel. That's walking
after the flesh. That's minding the things of
the flesh. That's all the natural man can
see. But when the lawgiver comes and
he shows us the law of sin, and the law of truth, then we walk
in by the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. The law of sin and the law of
death. Yes, we're sinners, but sin has
been put away. The judgment of sin, the penalty
for sin has been has been fulfilled in the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
six. Galatians chapter six. Look at verse one. Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, Ye which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted." You're gonna help somebody in a time of sin,
be very humble about it, be very gentle with them, and make sure
they are willing before you interfere. approach them in such a way as
to get their approval. Unsolicited advice is always
received as criticism, isn't it? Somebody is not soliciting
your advice, don't give it to them. But if you see something going
on with a brother and you approach them humbly and gently and ask
if you can help and they receive your help, then at that point
you can help them. considering your own selves,
knowing that you're capable of exactly the same thing. Look
at verse two, bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law
of Christ. So fulfill the law of Christ. This is the law of grace. This
is the law of the spirit. This is the law of Christ, the
law of love. And this is what we need the
lawgiver to give us. The Lord is our judge. The world
knows nothing of the judgments of God yet. The Lord is our lawgiver. All they know is the moral code
for which they think they're doing their best and somehow
going to get by with. God gives us the law of sin,
the law of grace, the law of love, the law of Christ. This
is what we need from the law giver, and we shall be saved.
James speaks of the gospel as the law of liberty, the law of
freedom, free from condemnation, free from guilt, free from judgment,
free to love, free to worship, free to serve God. This is the
law of liberty that the men of this world, of Gibeah, who have
no judge in the land, do what's right in their own eyes. If God
left us, the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. And
what is the last thing that the scripture says in that verse
in Isaiah, the Lord is our King. He's our King and we shall be
saved. You know, there's been many Kings
and ruling sovereigns and even authorities in the world. Nations have had Kings, some
good, some bad. Some of you have bosses, which
is your authority. Can't just do what you want at
work. You have to abide by the rules
and regulations set down by your authority. Children have fathers. But you know, the only place
that there's ever really been ever a reigning sovereign is
in the hearts of God's people. The only place. There's all those
other kings or authorities that I just mentioned are not omnipresent. You keep the rules as long as
you know you're being watched and they're not omniscient. They
don't know what you're thinking or what you're doing. You see,
a reigning sovereign, in its perfect example, is the rule
and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of his people.
So that 24-7, we have a king. We have a king to correct us. We have a King to rebuke us,
a King to love us, a King to teach us. We have a King to provide
for us, a King to care for us and to comfort us and to encourage
us. He's always there, always there,
regardless of our circumstances, regardless of what happens. He's King. And His Christ in
you is your hope of glory. And so it's the reign of Christ
in our hearts that saves us and we shall be saved. Israel will
have the Lord as their judge. He will have the Lord as their
lawgiver. They will have the Lord as their
king and they shall be saved. As long as God is just someone
that men cry out to when they get in trouble, then he's not
really king, is he? What a glorious blessing it is
to have the Lord Jesus Christ always there. Wake up in the
middle of the night, get up first thing in the morning, in the
middle of the day, here and there, driving, whatever, the Lord Jesus
Christ is there, he's king. And he's a benevolent sovereign,
isn't he? He's not a harsh king. Oh, no. harshness of his judgments have
already been fulfilled. That's why, but he is king. That's why it always concerns
me when I hear religious people throwing the name Jesus around
all by itself. We, when we speak of the Lord
Jesus, we speak of him as the Christ, the son of the living
God. We speak of him as Lord because
he is our reigning King. You wouldn't, you wouldn't approach
a King and speak to him and address him by his first name. He wouldn't
do that. And we would bow not in a, not
in a cringing fear, but in reverence and in worship and in honor to
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our King. And Israel shall have
the Lord as their judge. What great perfect judgment he
gives us. Israel shall have the Lord as
their lawgiver. Aren't you glad that the moral
law is not the only law that you know anything about? And Israel shall have the Lord
as their king. Pilate. You know, that placard
that Pilate put on the cross was not unusual in that placards were put on crosses
in order to identify the crime that this person was being put
to death for. That was their sentence. That
was their judgment. That was the charge that was
made against them that caused them to be where they are as
a warning to others, don't do this. And you won't suffer like
that. And what did Pilate say? Jesus
This is Jesus. Here's exactly what he put. This
is Jesus, king of the Jews. And he wrote it in Greek and
he wrote it in Latin and he wrote it in Hebrew. He wrote it so
that every common man could read it in the Greek language. He
wrote it in Latin so that the aristocrats and the intelligentsia
could read it. And he wrote it in Hebrew so
that the religious Pharisees could read it. So this is Jesus,
King of the Jews. And the Pharisees came and said,
change that and put on there that he said he was King of the
Jews. And what Pilate said, what I've
written, I've written. Wasn't changed, was it? How glorious
is that? And when those wise men came
from the East at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, what did
they say? Where is the king of the Jews? For we saw his star
from the east and we've come to worship him. And when Herod
heard that a new king had come into the world, he did everything
he could to eliminate him. King. The soldiers mocked him. When
they put a purple robe on him and put a crown of thorns on
his head and beat it with a rod and, and smote him in the face
and said, prophesy king of the Jews, they mocked him for being
king. And yet we glory in that day. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
riding on that white horse, the King of Kings and the Lord of
Lords written upon his thigh, and all the world, every knee
will bow, every tongue confess, Jesus is Lord. He's King. To the glory of God the Father. When he gives faith, would bow
in our hearts. We worship him. We're like a
bunch of Caleb's. Some of you have pet dogs and
they're generally a pet dog is a very faithful creature. Occasionally
you'll meet someone who'll have a pet dog. It'll be obstinate.
I wouldn't have such a dog. If I'm gonna have a dog, that
dog's gonna worship me. And that's the way most dogs
do. It's the way most of them do. And that's what Caleb's name
means, a faithful dog. Why? Because we have the Lord
as our King. And to worship means to lick the hand that feeds you. And your dogs do that for you.
And we do that before the Lord. The Lord is our judge. In Israel, there was no judge.
And every man did what was right in his own eyes. Even though
he had the moral law written on his heart, he knew nothing
of the law of grace. He knew nothing of the law of
sin. He knew nothing of the law of Christ. He knew nothing of
the law of love. Because we have the Lord Jesus
Christ as our lawgiver, we have those laws written on upon our
hearts. Israel shall have the Lord as their king. And we rejoice. We rejoice to be subjects of
the Lord as our King. And because we have Him as our
judge, as our lawgiver, and as our King, we shall be saved. Saved. Our Heavenly Father, bless your
word to our hearts by your Spirit. Give us grace to rejoice in thy
dear son. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. 36 in the spiral hymn. Now let's
stand together. Behold my soul, the Lamb of God,
behold the grace most free. Before all worlds His purpose
stood, His heart was fixed on me. Elected by eternal love,
The covenant firm and sure, The triune God agreed in love, Salvation
to secure. My soul was given to the Son,
He promised to redeem, By blood and righteousness His own He
would my soul reclaim. In the due time, Emmanuel came
To live and die for me. He lives today and bears my name. Christ is my surety. In love He sent His Spirit down,
Who gave me life and grace. He drew me and I followed on,
My Savior to embrace. Now I rejoice in covenant love,
Amazing grace I sing. I now am conquered by His love. My Savior is my King.