Thank you, Caleb. Let's open our Bibles together
to Acts. Chapter 9. Acts. Chapter 9. In the Lord's. Good and wise and
immutable providence. he had Saul of Tarsus go to the
street called Straight. In order for Ananias to come
to him and have his eyes opened, we've seen in looking at the
conversion of this man that he refers to his own conversion
as a pattern of salvation. And so it is here we see a fulfillment
of prophecy and we see a pattern for each of us. Scripture defines
this world as a crooked and perverse place. The opposite of straight
is crooked. I've titled this message From
Crooked to Straight. Surely there's no one who demonstrates
the perversion and crookedness of man-made religion more than
Saul of Tarsus, bound under the law, seeking to rob Christ of
his glory and salvation and take it to himself, perverting the truth. That's
the way religion is. It's confusing, it's complicated,
it's crooked, it's convoluted. You can't make sense of it. Men
will say one thing and then they'll say something else and it contradicts
everything. They contradict themselves and
they contradict the scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ, on the
other hand, is simple and straight. The closest distance between
two points is a straight line, a straight line. And you and
I find ourselves in a place of crookedness. And the Lord takes
us by the hand, even as he did Saul of Tarsus, and leads us
to the street called Straight, and then sends us a gospel preacher
by the name of Ananias and declares to us who the Lord Jesus is and
what he's accomplished. And we find ourselves on the
Straight and Narrow. looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of faith, the one who gets all the glory for
having done all the work all by himself. Acts chapter 9, if you'll begin
with me in verse 10, and there was a certain disciple of Damascus
named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a
vision, Ananias, and he said, behold, I'm here, Lord. The Lord
speaks as children said, behold, I'm here. What would you have
me to do? We looked Wednesday night at
the difference between the response that Saul of Tarsus had to the
voice of God and the other men that were traveling with him.
They heard a voice, but they saw no man and they stood speechless
and the revelation had no effect on them. Here Saul is blinded by the light
and that's often the case when the gospel is first heard. There's
a blinding effect that it has. It's so contrary to everything
that we've ever believed and we ever thought was true. The Lord sets our hearts to prayer. That's what happened to Saul. He's blinded and he's praying. Look what he goes on to say.
And the Lord said unto him, arise and go into the street, which
is called straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one
called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth. Prayer is a work of grace. It's
not a work. It's not a work that we perform,
that we get rewarded for. If you pray, God will do this.
It's a work of grace in the heart. If the Lord ever sets the heart
to prayer, it's because he's got an answer to that prayer.
And that's what he's doing here. He's putting Saul of Tarsus flat
on his back and he sets his heart to prayer. And all along he's
preparing Ananias to come to the very place where Saul of
Tarsus was in a place called Straight, Straight Street. And
take this crooked, perverse man and set him straight. Verse 12, and hath seen a vision a man
named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him that he might
receive his sight. Then Ananias answered the Lord
and said, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he
hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem. Now when Saul of Tarsus was giving
consent to the stoning of Stephen, this barbaric murder that took
place at the beginning of Acts chapter 8. The word that's used
there is a description of a man who is delighting in being able
to witness the death of this man of God, Stephen, who had
just preached the gospel to him. I mean, it's a picture of some
radical Islamist that's, you know, that's holding up the head
of a decapitated victim and gleeing, and that's exactly how perverted
Saul of Tarsus was, which tells us the depth of depravity that you and
I are capable of going. that a man could actually delight
so in the death of an innocent man who had just preached to
him the gospel. And Lord, is it I? Lord, if you don't restrain me,
there's nothing that I'm incapable of. You and I are in need of
God's restraining grace. We're in need for the Lord to
do for us what he did for Saul of Tarsus. And so he blinds him, he sends Ananias
to preach to him, then Ananias said, Lord, I've heard about
all the evil he's done. Look at verse 14, and there he
had authority from the chief priest to bind all that call
upon thy name. This man's coming with arrest
warrants. And he's dragging our women and
children out and our men, and he's taking them to prison, he's
having them put to death. Lord, this is the man you want
me to go, you want me to go talk to him? But the Lord said unto him, go
thy way, for he is a chosen vessel. I've chosen him. Oh, you did
not choose me. Saul wasn't looking for Christ.
No, the Lord arrested him. He stopped him in his tracks.
He knocked him off his high horse. He put his face in the dirt and
he spoke to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And
that's the pattern of salvation. We're not out looking for God.
He stops us in our wild, self-destructive, crooked way, denying Christ and
being just part of this world in which we're born. That's what
he has to do. Go thy way, for he's a chosen
vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings
and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great things
he must suffer for my namesake. He must suffer. I've ordained
it to be. He's my vessel, I've called him
out and all that I've ordained for his life must come to pass. So it is for you and me. And Ananias went his way and
entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, brother
Saul, the Lord. God, Yahweh, the self-existent
One, the Creator and Sustainer of all of life, the One who accomplishes
all things by the power of His own will and purpose, the One
who reigns over the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants
of the earth, the Lord, even Jesus. He's Lord. This idea of making Jesus Lord
of your life is just a, that's blasphemy is what it is.
It's man setting himself up on the throne of God, thinking that
he can do what God only can do. God made him Lord over the living
and the dead. He reigns as Lord over all men,
whether they want him to or not. He's still their Lord. Putting his hands on him, he
said, brother Saul, the Lord gave Ananias some grace to believe
his word without any evidence. Ananias didn't have any evidence
that Saul was a changed man except the word of God. And that's what
faith does. Faith acts on the word of God.
It's the warrant of God's Word, it's the authority of God's Word
that we believe. And we're not to look for any
other evidence or proof that God's going to be faithful to
His Word. We take God as His Word. That's what faith does. So Ananias, knowing that this
man has the authority of the officials to arrest him and have
him put to death, acts on the Word of God and the first word
out of Ananias' mouth. You see the first word out of
his mouth? Brother. Brother. Oh, that word is grossly
abused among religious men and a religious man often want us
to refer to them as brother. Be very careful about who you
call brother. But if he's your brother It's
okay. Because this word brother means
to be birthed from the same womb. That's what it means. And we're
birthed into the family of God through the womb of the Spirit
as we saw in the previous hour. And we're birthed in the same
way, same time. There is an affection. There
is a union that God's people have. You know, I thought about
this idea of being crooked versus being straight. If you've ever picked out lumber
from a lumber yard to build something, you know that half of those two-by-fours
are crooked, they're bowed, they're twisted. You gotta take them
and run your eye down them. Make sure you got a straight
one before you can use it. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the plumb line. Nothing straighter than that.
Nothing straighter than that. By the way, you know how you
keep a bunch of two-by-fours straight? You bind them together real tight,
and they will stay straight. They will. Oh, that's the work
of grace in the church. The Lord's bound us together
in one cause, in one man. He's brought us to the street
called straight, and he keeps us straightly looking at the
Lord Jesus Christ. We've got no place else to go. Brother Saul, the Lord, even
Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way, as thou camest, hath
sent me, that thou might receive thy sight and be filled with
the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes, as
it had been, scales. And he received sight forthwith
and rose and was baptized." Straightforward. Say, well, you know, Saul, you
need to go into a new church member's orientation
class before you can qualify for being baptized. No. I mean,
this man who would just a few days earlier have been perverting
the truth of the gospel and an enemy of God now. is professing
Christ. And in the next, look at what
he goes on to say in verse 19. And when he had received meat,
he was strengthened, then was all certain days with the disciples,
which were at Damascus and straightway, straightway, he preached Christ
in the synagogue that he is in fact, the son of God. That's who we preach. We preach
Christ, yes, that's who he is. He's the Son of God. As the Son
of God, he is omnipotent. He possesses all power to accomplish
the purpose of God and the saving of his people, filling his quiver
with all of his arrows. As the Son of God, he's immutable.
He changes not, and that's the hope that we have, that his His
purpose in election and his purpose in redemption cannot be changed. We can't do anything to lose
our salvation. We can't do anything to gain
our salvation. He's immutable. He's God. This Jesus who spoke to you in
the way, he's going to take you off the crooked path that you've
been on. and he's gonna put you on the straight and narrow. He's
gonna cause you to look to faith, in faith to Christ and him alone
for the hope of your salvation. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
42, verse 16. I mentioned to you a moment ago
that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. This is a fulfillment
of prophecy. Isaiah 42. You're familiar with verses one
and two, behold my servant, that's the Lord God speaking, the Father
speaking to the church. And he's telling us to look to
Christ. He's saying behold the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sins of the world. This is my beloved
son, in him I am well pleased. Look to Christ, have a single,
the eye that is single the scripture says is full of light, full of
light. But the eye that's double, the
eye that's looking here and there, the one that's unstable in all
of his ways, the double-minded man who's looking to something
that he's done along with something that God's done for the hope
of his salvation, is unstable in all of his ways. And it's
full of darkness. He said, behold, my servant whom
I am uphold, mine elect and whom my soul delighteth, I put my
spirit upon him and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
He's gonna satisfy God's holy justice through the sacrifice
of himself on Calvary's cross. God's gonna be pleased with the
offering that he makes to put away all the sins of all of God's
people of every generation once and for all. He will satisfy
judgment. Look at the next verse. And he
shall not cry nor lift up his voice in the streets. He's not
going around pleading with men. Oh, won't you make me Lord of
your life? Won't you let me into your heart? Oh, please. Our God
is not in the heavens wringing his hands, wishing that men would
let him have his way. That's the false God. That's an idol, an idol of false
religion. Our God reigns. He's seated. Seated at the right hand of God,
having accomplished what he came to do, establishing judgment. He shall not cry nor lift up
his voice in the street. He's not looking for a following.
He knows where every one of his sheep are. He knows where every
one of his children are. And he's gonna pick up every
one of his lost arrows and put them into his quiver. He's not
going to lose a wand. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and a smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth
judgment to truth. Saul of Tarsus right now is a
bruised reed. He's a smoking flax. He's lying
there on a bed in Judas's house on a street called Straight,
blind, completely blind, and praying, pouring out his heart
to God. The Lord said, I'm not gonna
snuff out that flax. I'm not gonna break that reed. I've broken it as much as it's
gonna be broken. Now I'm gonna heal it. That's
the work of the gospel. It's a two-edged sword. It cuts
and it heals. The Lord has to wound us. He has to make us lost before
we can be saved. He has to make us a sinner before
we can be made sanctified in Christ. It's his work. He shall not fail. There's our hope. The Lord Jesus
Christ didn't fail. He's the straight way. And he's
not discouraged. Our God's not discouraged. He's
not the least bit disappointed. Everything's right on time for
him. till he has set judgment in the
earth and the isles shall wait for his law. Till the last arrow
is put into the quiver, till the last lost sheep is brought
into the fold, he's not gonna rest till he finishes the work. Now look with me at verse 16
of the same passage. And I, will bring the blind by
a way that they knew not. And I will lead them in paths
that they have not known. And I will make darkness night
before them and crooked things straight. These things will I
do unto them and not forsake them." This is God's work. This is God's work. It is God
that works in us, causing us to will and to do after His good
pleasure. He's the one who takes us off
the crooked path, puts us on the straight street. He's the
one that causes us to look to Christ alone for the hope of
our salvation, gives us a single eye, He said, I will do this. This is God's word, brethren.
Do we believe God? He said, I'm gonna do this. I'm
gonna do this. And this is what he did for Saul.
He took a man, made him blind. And God has to make us blind
before we can see. The Pharisees were offended when the Lord suggested
that they were spiritually blind. When he told them, you search
the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life,
but these are they which testify of me. And he talked about being
blind. They said, are you suggesting
that we're blind? And what did the Lord say? He said, if you were blind, your
sins would be forgiven you. But because you see, therefore
your sins remain. He said, what does that mean? A man who thinks he can see when
he can't see is the most blind man of all. The Lord has to cause
us to say, Lord, I can't see a thing if you don't cause me
to see. If you don't open the eyes of
my understanding, if you don't reveal the glory of Christ in
my heart, the light of the gospel, if you don't do to me, for me,
what you did for Saul of Tarsus and shine that light from heaven
and speak by your word, Lord, I'll be blind. I've got no source,
no resource in me to discover the truth. Turn to me to Luke chapter 13.
Look at verse 11. And behold, there was a woman
which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together
and could in no wise lift up herself. Completely crippled,
horrible scoliosis, horrible, she could not look up, she couldn't
stand up, she was crooked. Scripture says that no man can
make straight that which is crooked. No man can make straight that
which is crooked. Look what happens here. Verse 12, and when Jesus saw
her, he had compassion on her and he called her to him and
said unto her, woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. and he laid his hands on her
and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. I shared with you all the story
of my mother, suffered with scoliosis all her life and it got so painful
at the age of 80 that she decided she needed back surgery and they
tried to correct her her spine at 80 years old. She died at
89 and the last nine years of her life were filled with excruciating
pain. The doctors were not able to
fix it. No man can make straight that
which is crooked. The Lord just did. The Lord just
did. He took a perverted man, a crooked
man, he bent over a woman, And he put him on the road called
straight and he gave him one hope and one eye, one salvation. Oh, this Isaiah chapter, you were in the
book of Isaiah. Let's turn over just a few pages
to Isaiah 59, Isaiah 59. Look at verse eight. and the way of peace they know
not, and there is no judgment in their goings. They have made
them crooked paths, whosoever goeth therein shall not know
peace." He's talking about the whole world. This whole passage
is talking about the world. It's talking about us. We make crooked paths our way.
And crooked paths are confusing. Don't you? If somebody gives
you directions to go somewhere, if you're like me, you can register
two turns, but when they get to that third turn, you gotta
get out a piece of paper and pencil. Okay, I need to write
these down. I'm gonna get lost. But how easy it is when someone
says, you see that road right there? You get on that road and
it'll run you right into where you're going. We live right now
far from 436. If somebody wants to go to the airport from my
house, I tell them, I say, you see that road? You get right on that
road and don't stop. It'll run you right into the
airport. You can't miss it. It's a straight shot. Well, that's
easy. You don't have to write anything
down. You don't have to worry about any turns. It just goes,
stay straight on that road. That's the way the gospel is.
You just stay right on that road. Don't get off of it. Don't look
to your right hand. Don't look to your left. Look
straight to Christ. And that's what the Lord's doing
for everyone. This is a pattern of salvation. He takes us from
our crooked and perverted ways, our confusing ways. You've got
to write everything down. You've got to figure out, well,
what are we supposed to do here? What are we supposed to do there?
You say, just look to Christ. It's a straight way. Simple. You say, well, that's too simple. That is, to the self-righteous,
it's too simple. Because they want to do something.
What must I do to inherit eternal life? Isn't that what the rich
man ruler said? Rich young ruler? No, the work's been done. The
law's been fulfilled. Justice has been satisfied. Sin's
been put away. The blood of Christ has been
put on the mercy seat. Just look to Christ. He'll order
your steps. He'll direct your way. You keep
looking to Him. I used this illustration last
Sunday. Peter, getting out of the boat, walking on the water
of God's Word and looking to Christ. There's no less of a
miracle. I think there's an article in
your bulletin this morning about this. No less of a miracle today,
right now, right this very minute. No less of a miracle. for you
and I to come to Christ on the warrant and authority of his
word than it was for Peter to physically walk on water. No less a miracle. It takes no
less grace. It is the power of God that enables
us to do that. You know, people look at Peter
walking on water. If I could see somebody walking
on water, I'd believe. No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't. Though one be raised from the
dead, they would not believe. They had Moses and the prophets.
If they believe not them, they're not going to believe anything.
We've got the word of God. Faith is believing what God has
said. Ananias believed God. He went
straight to this man who he feared and called him brother. Why? Because he believed what the
Lord has said to him. He just believed God. Never in
danger of believing God. You're always on a crooked, self-destructive
path when you don't believe God. Never have to worry about anything
by believing God. That's so simple. Yet it's impossible, isn't it?
Impossible. Who, Lord, then can be saved?
With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Ever since Satan entered into
the picture, things have been crooked. You know Satan twice
in the scriptures is called a crooked serpent? You see the way a snake
crawls on the ground here and there? It's called a crooked
serpent. How appropriate. And that's all
he's done is perverted the way of God and made things crooked.
Did God really say that if you ate of that wood that you would
die? You're not surely going to die.
He calls God's word into question and he's been doing it ever since.
And men won't just believe Christ. They won't just believe on Christ. Let me show you one of those
places. Turn with me to Isaiah. I think we're still in Isaiah.
Turn with me to Isaiah 27. You know, men read the Bible
and they try to figure out, well, who's this Leviathan? Job talks about the Leviathan,
God talks about the Leviathan in the book of Job, and he describes
this Leviathan as a fire-breathing dragon in the water. And there's no doubt in my mind
that it's some sort of extinct dinosaur. But that's not the
meaning of it. Leviathan is Satan, and the Lord's
very clear about that right here. Look with me at Isaiah chapter
27, beginning at verse 1. In that day, the Lord with his
sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing
serpent, even Leviathan, that crooked serpent, and he shall
slay the dragon that is in the sea. Now, if you go to the book
of Revelation, the dragon is Satan, and the sea is the world.
And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did when he bowed his mighty
head on Calvary's cross. He destroyed the works of the
devil and he set free the captive. He broke down those gates of
hell. He accomplished his work of redemption. And here's the prophecy. I'm
going to destroy this crooked serpent. I'm gonna destroy him. And in that day, sing ye unto
the Lord a vineyard of red wine. What is the red wine? That's
the blood of Christ. Put on the mercy seat. When I
see the blood, I'll pass by you. We rejoice in knowing that the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished everything
for our salvation. I, the Lord, do keep it. Could
that be any more clear? I, the Lord, do keep it. What? The vineyard. I will water it
every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day.
Fury is not in me. Who would set the briars and
thorns against me in battle? I would go through them. I would
burn them together. Oh, let him take hold of my strength,
that he may make peace with me, and he shall have peace with
me. I'm gonna water my vineyard.
I'm gonna protect my vineyard. I'm not gonna lose one of my
sheep. My quiver's full. Not an arrow's gonna be lost. I'm gonna do this. What a glorious
promise, brethren. We live in a crooked and perverse
world. I mean, just look how crooked
politics are. Look how crooked business is.
Look how crooked people are. Look how crooked religion is. Look how crooked you are. That's where the rubber hits
the road, isn't it? Lord, if you don't put me on
the street called straight, I'll pervert everything. Lord, would you do for me what
you just said you would do here? Would you destroy Leviathan?
Would you make things straight for me? Now in order for things
to be made straight, the Lord Jesus Christ had to be made crooked. No question. Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations. You turn with me there right
after Jeremiah Lamentations. Jeremiah is called the weeping
prophet and he is lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem
and over how the people of God have been taken captivity into
Babylon. And he's interceding on behalf
of the people of God. But just like Isaiah, you remember
when the Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip, does the prophet speak
of himself or is he speaking of another? The prophet's always
speaking of another. You know, I read commentaries
on Lamentations and they talk about Jeremiah this and Jeremiah
that. Jeremiah wasn't talking about
himself. He was speaking prophetically about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at Lamentations chapter three, verse one. I am the man
that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary's cross. When the sky is blackened and
he cries out from his heart, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? When God made him sin who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
When the sword of God's wrath was pleased to pierce him and
to bruise him. This is Christ. Why did he do
this? He had to be made crooked. in
order for the way to be made straight. Let me show you that.
Read on. Look at verse three. Surely against me as he turned,
he's turned his hand against me all the day. The Lord is saying,
Father, if there be any way this cup can pass. This is the cup.
It was the cup of sin. It was the cup of the bitter
dregs of God's wrath that he knew he would suffer on Calvary's
cross when he was separated from his father. Why did he do this? to make the crooked straight.
He had to be made sin. You see, sin is what's crooked. Sin's what's crooked. Righteousness
is what's straight. Matter of fact, the word straight
is often referred to, is often translated the right way, straight
way. Look at Look at verse four. My flesh
and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath
builded against me and can pass me with gall and travail. He
hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about that
I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy.
Also when I cry and shout, he shouteth out my prayer. he hath
enclosed my way with hewn stones, he hath made my paths crooked." When the Lord was made sin, all
he sees is the perverseness and the crookedness of our sin. Verse 10, he was unto me as a
bear, lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. You remember
David, as a type of Christ, took the sling, and the scripture
says that, well, he killed the Goliath with a sling, but he
killed the lion and the bear when he was talking to Saul and
telling Saul, this uncircumcised Philistine, he's nothing to me.
God gave me the grace to kill the lion and the bear. Satan's
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, and the bear is
a picture of the law. You don't get between, the scripture
makes this clear and we know it by experience. You don't get
between a cubs and its mother bear, okay? She will protect
that bear, those bears. And you can't outrun a bear and
you can't outstrength that. This is a picture of the law
of God. And Lord Jesus is saying, Allah has charged me as guilty. That's why he opened not his
mouth on Calvary's cross because he was guilty. So he stood up
against a bear and Satan and all the minions of hell are rejoicing
over the destruction of God. He hath turned aside my ways
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He
hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath
caused the arrow of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was
a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath
filled me with bitterness and hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth
with gravel stones and covered me with ashes. Thou hast removed
my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity, and I said
my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Remember mine
affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul
hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I
recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail
not." What a glorious picture of Christ. What a glorious testimony. The
Lord said, here's the Lord without any evidence of God's mercy on
him. He believed God's word. All the evidence was contrary
to that. The evidence in hell was contrary. The evidence among
the disciples was contrary. Did not those disciples in Luke
24 say, have you not heard that this one who we thought was the
prophet has now been crucified? Everything's against us. And he believed God. And on Calvary's cross, he made
the crooked way straight. And he takes each one of his
children and he does what no man can do. No man can make the
crooked straight. You can't make the crooked straight.
You can't fix your sin problem. You know, this, and this thing
about reformation, you know, the men thought, well, we'll
just reform the church. I talked to people. Sometimes
they said, well, I know it's a false church I'm going to,
but you know, but maybe I'll, maybe I'll be able to make the
crooked straight. No, you won't. No, you won't. You can't make
the crooked straight in your life, you can't make the crooked
straight in anyone else's life. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
crooked on Calvary's cross, that by his offering to the Father,
we might be made straight, so that he that sanctifies and they
that are sanctified are all as one. Saul, Paul the apostle, on a road called straight. Who put him there? God put him
there. Our Heavenly Father. If you don't bless your word
to our hearts and give us faith to believe on Christ. All will be lost and all will
be in vain. Lord, speak to our hearts. Bring us to Christ. For it's
in his name we pray, amen. Number nine, let's stand together.
Number nine in the spiral hymnal. Yeah. ? Tis not that I did choose thee
? ? For Lord, that could not be ? ? This heart would still
refuse thee ? ? Hast thou not chosen me ? ? Thou from the sin
that stained me ? ? Hast cleansed and set me free ? Of old thou
hast ordained me That I should live to thee Your love had no
beginning No cause in me was found That you should choose
to save me A sinner strong But grace not earned or sought for
was purposed for my soul. For me salvation wrought for
Christ paid the dreadful toll. T'was sovereign mercy called
me, and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me, to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before Thee,
for Thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I loved Thee,
Thou must have loved me first.