Good evening. Let's open up tonight's
service and number 58, number 58 in the hardback. Jesus, the
very thought of the number 58, if you would please stand. Jesus the very thought of thee
with sweetness But sweeter for thy face to see
And in thy presence rest. ? Nor voice can sing, nor heart
can pray ? ? Nor can the memory find ? ? A sweeter sound than
thy blessed name ? ? O Savior of mankind ? O hope of every
contrite heart! O joy of all the meek! To those who fall, how kind thou
art! How good to those who see! But what to those Why not this? Nor tongue nor pen can show The
love of Jesus, what it is None but His love one knows Jesus,
our only joy, be Thou, as Thou our prize will be. Jesus, be Thou our glory now
and through eternity. A, B, C. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles to Matthew
chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. We'll begin reading verse 23.
And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed
him. And behold, There rose a great
tempest in the sea and so much that the ship was covered with
the waters, but he was asleep. Perfect faith, never worried
about the turbulence of the sea. And his disciples came to him
and awoke him saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he saith unto
them, why are you fearful? Oh, you have a little faith.
Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there
was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying,
What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
him?" Well, we know what manner of man he is. He's the God-man,
and all things obey him. Right now, as we speak, Caleb
Hickman is preaching his grandmother's funeral service. And all of his
family, he said there are probably about 200 people there, and they're
all very religious. And he said, as far as he knows,
none of them have ever heard the gospel. And his mother asked
him to bring the message tonight. So I assured him that we would
be praying for him. Also you all remember Craig and
Karen that were here for our conference. Robert and Deanna's
friends from Houston. Craig's mother passed away today
and Deanna talked to him earlier and want to want to pray for
Craig. And if you remember a few weeks
ago or maybe I don't know if it was last week or the week
before that, I mentioned about a brother that I talked to that
was having a knee replacement. He's had multiple knee replacements,
Robert. This is the third one on one
leg. His name is Homer, and he's having
surgery at 7 o'clock in the morning. So I just talked to his wife
a little while ago and told her that we would be praying for
Homer. So he has an infection in that
knee. So it's going to be a very complicated
surgery. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
what great comfort and hope you give to the hearts of your children
when you cause them to believe that you are the God-man, the
one who is omnipotent and the one who is able to calm the winds
and the sea. the one who is able to speak
peace to our hearts. Lord, we confess to you that
the greatest turbulence of all that we that we wrestle with
every day is our own flesh and our own unbelief and our own
sin. Lord, forgive us of that. Lord, calm our hearts tonight
as we look to Christ and rest our hope in his finished work
and in his glorious person. We pray for Caleb as he speaks. Lord, give him clarity, give
him compassion. And Lord, we pray for his loved
ones, his family members, that you would give them ears to hear
and that you, Lord, would call out your lost sheep from that
group. And Lord, that your gospel would
go out with power and that it would have its effect in the
hearts of men. Pray for Homer. Ask, Lord, that
you would direct the physicians and nurses and those that tend
to him and pray, Lord, you give him successful surgery. We pray that you would draw his
heart to thee and comfort him, Lord, as he waits on you. Pray for Craig. Ask, Lord, that
you'd give him comfort as he grieves the loss of his mother
Lord, that you would cause him to find all of his hope and strengthen
Christ. For it's in his name we ask it,
amen. Number 318, and you can remain
seated, number 318. I need thee every hour. Yeah. I need thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can
peace afford. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Stay thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to thee. I need thee every hour. Enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide or life
is vain. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Most Holy One, O make me Thine
in me, Thou Blessed Son. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. Thank you, Bert. What an appropriate
hymn for this message. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 107? Psalm 107. The gospel truly is
for the needy, isn't it? I need thee. Oh Lord, we need
him. For those who have nothing, those
who can do nothing, those who know nothing apart from his grace,
they're left at their wits end. Notice in Psalm 107, At verse
27, they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and
are at their wits end. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresses. I've titled this message grace
for those who are at their wits end. That's when grace comes. Grace comes when we get to our
wits end. We don't have the wisdom, we
don't have the wherewithal to meet our needs. And that's when
we find the Lord to be our all and in all. And we find him to
be sufficient and necessary to meet our needs. And we've already looked at Psalm
107 down through verse 15. So let's, let's begin at verse
16. For he hath broken the gates
of brass and cut the bars of iron in slender. Now that's, that's a description
of the Lord setting the prisoner free. That's a description of
those who couldn't see, and they didn't know they couldn't see.
They couldn't believe, and they didn't know they couldn't believe.
They were without faith, and they didn't know they were without
faith. And the Lord delivered them from that bondage of unbelief
and gave them faith to believe. He brought them to their wits
end, and then he revealed Christ to them. They were dead in their
trespasses and sins. They had no interest in the gospel.
And they didn't know they had no interest in the gospel until
the Lord brought them to their wit's end. They heard about Christ. They heard about the gospel.
And immediately they were brought to the same place where Job was
brought. Behold, I am Bile. They were brought to the same
place that Isaiah was brought when he saw the Lord high and
lifted up. And he said, woe is me. I'm at my wit's end. My eyes
have seen the King. I'm a dead man. You see being
brought to your wit's end is a good thing. Because until then
you're in bondage and don't know it. The whole world is in bondage
to their unbelief. They're dead in their sins. They
don't know it. They've not been brought to their
wit's end. Oh, they may be at their wits end when it comes
to their temporal circumstances, and yet those things change,
don't they? But when the Lord brings you
to your wits end, in terms of your salvation, your need for
forgiveness, your need for eternal life, then that's when the real
irons are broken, aren't they? That's when, like the children of Israel,
in Egypt. They were in bondage and the
Lord heard their cry and he sent them a deliverer. He brought
them to their wits end and then he brought them out. Gomer was
brought to her wits end when she found herself on the slave
block being sold as a slave and then Hosea was there to deliver
her. How glorious it is when the Lord
brings his people to their wits end. It's like Paul and Silas
who were chained to that Roman dungeon and the Lord sent an
earthquake and the chains fell loose and the doors came open
and they walked out free men. That's what the Lord does. When
he sends the gospel, when he reveals Christ to the heart and
he causes us to see what we are, sinners without any ability,
to satisfy the demands of God's holy justice or to fulfill God's
holy law, we become to our wits end. And we cry out to him and
he saves us. You see being brought to your
wits end is part of the cry, isn't it? The Lord doesn't bring
anybody. He doesn't bring his children
to their wits end without giving them grace to cry. Turn with
me to Psalm 2. Here's the world's view of this,
this matter of being delivered from the iron bars. Look what
the world says in Psalm 2 verse 1. Why do the heathen rage and
the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. Oh, the people of the earth.
They hear the gospel and what do they say? Let us break their
bands asunder. Let us cast away their cords
from us. We're not going to be put in bondage under that man.
We might have that man reign over us. And the Lord who sits
in the heaven holds them in derision and laughs at them. You see, we're going to see the gospel as a bondage that
we don't want anything to do with, or God's gonna bring us
to our wit's end, acknowledging our sin as the bondage that we
need to be delivered from. It's gonna be one way or the
other, isn't it? Go back with me to Psalm 107. What a blessing it is to be brought
to your wit's end. Cause that's the only place,
that's the only time we're going to find any grace is when we
have nothing to contribute. Look at verse 17 fools because
of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Now you know what the fool is
there, that's the unbeliever. Lord, had you not brought me
out of my affliction. And that word affliction there,
I looked it up, it means to be occupied. So fools are occupied
with their transgressions and with their iniquities. That's
the only thing that occupies them. is their foolish bent away
from God and their foolish desire to try to reconcile things with
their own strength. Their soul abhorreth all matter
of meat. They didn't have any interest
in the meat of the gospel. The Lord said, unless you eat
of my body and drink of my blood. You have no life in you for my
life. My body is meat indeed. His life is our meat, isn't it? And they abhorred that meat.
They didn't have any, we didn't have any interest in it. We didn't
have any interest in the preaching of the gospel. We were hell bound and we didn't
know it. We had no need or desire for
Christ. And then the Lord brought a straw
with its end. Their soul abhorred all manner
of meat. And they draw near unto the gates
of death. We were hell bound. I remember Robert sharing with
me, when he first heard the gospel, he ran home and told Deanna,
he said, we're going to hell. You remember that, Robert? We're
going to hell. You know, the realization of
that is it's, I mean, that's not a, that's not a light thing,
is it? That's when you brought to your
wit's end. You see, we were hell bound on our way, but we didn't
know it. And when the Lord confronts you
with it, you realize I'm at my wit's end. I can't, I can't deliver
myself from this. They draw near unto the gates
of death. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. You see, we don't, crying is
not the means to grace. It's not the cause of grace.
It's not the cause of it. Any more than breathing is the
cause of life. It's the evidence of it, isn't
it? A baby's born alive and it breathes because it's alive.
It doesn't breathe in order to become alive. If it's born dead,
it doesn't breathe. And that's the way crying is
for God's mercy. We cry out because the Lord's
brought us to our wits end. He's given us grace to cry. And
the crying is the evidence of life. Say, well, how do I know
if I'm at my wit's end? Are you, are you, have you cried
out? Have you said, Lord, I can't
save myself. I can't do anything to satisfy
your justice. I can't, I can't meet one of
your laws. I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm hell bound
apart from your grace. I was, I was, um, occupied with my transgressions
and my iniquities trying to save myself. Look at verse 20, he sent his
word. Oh, there's no, there's no salvation
apart from God sending his word, is there? We're called on to
call upon the name of the Lord, but how should they call upon
him in whom they've not heard and in whom they don't believe
and how shall they believe on him and whom they've not heard
and how shall they hear without a preacher? The Lord sends his
word. That's the means, isn't it? Of
His will begat He us with the word of truth. There's no salvation
apart from the preaching of the gospel. You say, well, you know,
they've got the Bible, but are they preaching the gospel? You
remember what Peter said. Turn with me to 1 Peter. Let's
look at this passage again. This is so glorious to me. The necessity of preaching. There's no salvation apart from
it, but it's the preaching of the gospel. 1 Peter 1, for all
flesh is as grass. All flesh is at their wits end,
they just don't know it. All flesh is as grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. God's word, that's our authority. You know, Caleb, I've been talking
about him preaching to his family members. I said, Caleb, your
authority is the word of God. Just speak what God says. If
God's going to save anybody there, he's going to do it by his word,
not by our persuasive skills or by our authority. The authority
is in the word of God. And the word of the Lord endureth
forever and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. If the gospel's not being preached,
the word of God's not being preached. Cabe said, all those people that
I'm gonna be preaching to tonight, they all believe the Bible is
the word of God. And there's gonna be preachers
there. He's got uncles that are preachers and family members
that are preachers and they're all very, very religious and
they would, They would die for the inerrancy of scripture, but
none of them ever heard the gospel. And quote verses out of the Bible,
they never heard the gospel. The gospel of God's free grace
in the glorious person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who satisfied everything that God requires. Everything. He's our surety. You can know,
you know a lot about the Bible and know a lot of things about
religion and not every year of the gospel. This is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. And what does, what
is song? You see, we weren't delivered. Well, we weren't brought
to our wits end until we heard the word of God. And the very
thing that brought us to our wits end is the thing that delivered
us from our wits end. Go back with me to Psalm 107. He sent His Word. And what'd the Word of God do?
It healed him. It healed him. It took away their
sin. Took it away. Buried it in the
depths of the sea. Separated it from the sight of
God as far as the east is from the west. So that God Almighty
said, I remember it no more. He healed him. Like he healed
the leper. Like he healed blithe Martimaeus,
like he healed the woman with the issue of blood. He healed
them with his word. He made them whole. That's what
the word of God does. It heals the center. Without the seed, there is no
fruit. Without hearing, or without the
Word, there is no hearing. Without hearing, there is no
faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word
of God. He sent His Word, and His Word
is what healed them. When God speaks His Word to our
heart, He just speaks comfort. He speaks peace to our hearts.
We just say, God said it. That settles it. I, you know,
I don't always feel it. I don't always understand it,
but I believe it. I believe what God has said.
And Christ is all I need. I have an advocate in the heavens. He sent his word. And not only
did he send his preached word to us who are brought to our
wet's end, but he sent his living word into this world, didn't
he? The word became flesh and the word of God dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory as the
glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and
full of truth. And God said, my word will not
return unto me void. It will accomplish the purpose
for which I sent it. What was the purpose that the
Word of God came into this world and took on the likeness of sinful
flesh? What was His purpose? It was
to save His people. Did He accomplish His purpose?
You know He did. That's the gospel. The gospel of our hope and comfort
is that the Lord Jesus Christ is a successful Savior. That He did accomplish exactly
what the Father sent Him to do. He fulfilled all the requirements
of the law. He put away all the sins of all
of God's people. And every time we feel ourselves
coming to our wits end, we know that the only hope that we have
is that, is that Christ died and that sin's been put away.
And if I've got any hope of being saved, Christ is my only hope. He's my only hope. He sent his word and healed them
and delivered them, delivered them from all their destructions. That word destruction is a word that comes from the
word worship. And it actually means false worship. Everybody has some concept of
God, whether they're religious or not. Most of us, the Lord
delivered out of some form of religion. And here he's saying
that when he sent his word, when he healed them, when he took
away their sin, he delivered them from their false worship.
How do you know if you've heard the gospel? How do you know you, one of the,
one of the ways, you know, is you could never go back to your
false worship. You could never, you, you, you
can discern the difference. Can't you? You know, the difference
between, between truth and error and you can't go back. You just
can't do it. People say. You know, we're,
we're, we're tempted to look at some sort of change in our
life to see whether or not we're saved. Are we getting better?
Are we doing things we shouldn't, you know, we didn't use to do
and we're not doing things. That's a, that's a bad measurement,
isn't it? No. Greatest evidence that I
have is that I believe the gospel. And in believing the gospel,
I don't believe the false gospel. That which I used to believe,
I hate. He healed them. He delivered
them. Like the man at the Pool of Bethesda.
The Lord said, what would you have me do for you? You want
to be healed? Lord, I've got no man to help
me. Got no man to help me. He was at his wits end, wasn't
he? He'd been there 38 years. He was born in that condition,
waiting for the angel to stir the water. And the Lord comes
along and asks him, you know, you want to be made whole? Would
thou be made whole? I've got no man to help me. Lord,
I've been here every day. I've been waiting. I've been
hoping. Can you help me? He sent his word and he healed
them. When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended
back into glory, he went back and took his rightful place,
seated at the right hand of God, didn't he? Everyone that he came
to die for is in him right now in the heavenlies. He sent his
word and he healed them and he delivered them. He delivered
them out of their false worship. He delivered them from their
false views of God. Those ideas that we had about
God, that God was kind of like us, that we had to win his approval
and we had to earn his favor. We don't believe those things
about God anymore. Why? Because he's delivered us from
our false gods, from our idolatrous ideas about God. He's delivered
us. He's shown us that God's God. And our God is, is omnipotent
and sovereign and successful. And, and we just, we we've got
any place else to go, but to him, do we? What manner of man
is this? That's, that's the God that we
worship. Look at verse 21. Oh, that men would praise the Lord
for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men.
Men won't. Why? Because they're not at their
wits end. They're either still trying to save themselves or
they're trying to provide for themselves. What a blessing it
is for God to bring us to our wits end, cause us to cry out
and then give us grace to praise him for his goodness. Or you're
the one that brought me to my wits end. You're the one that
caused me to see that I can't save myself. I didn't know that
before. You're the one that revealed
yourself to me and, and delivered me. And you're the, you're the
word that came and, and, and successfully saved me. I've gotten
what I didn't praise God. We, well, that men would praise
him. and offer to him sacrifices of
thanksgiving. Look at verse 21. Let them sacrifice
the sacrifice of thanksgiving. What is the sacrifice of thanksgiving? Well, the scripture says that
God loves a cheerful giver, doesn't he? It's all the sacrifices that
we make that we don't even recognize them as sacrifices. We're just
expressing our thanksgiving, aren't we? Whatever it means. We got an offering today in the
mail. We don't get mail here at our
house, so if somebody mails in an offering from the audience,
I mean from the people that watch, it comes to my house. And, but
there was a nice note in it. And, uh, and, and the note was
to the effect that I'm sending this out of gratitude for the
messages that I've been able to listen to. And, uh, and that's
the sacrifice of Thanksgiving. It's just, we, we do what we
do out of Thanksgiving, out of gratitude, because we don't,
we're not trying to earn favor with God. We're, we're expressing
our Thanksgiving to God. They that go down to the sea
in ships that do business in great waters. Now, the sea is mentioned many
times in the Bible. It is a representation of the
world at large. When the scripture says that
the beast came out of the sea in the book of Revelation, it
means that the antichrist and all that is antichrist, not an
individual person, but all that is contrary to the gospel came
out of the mass of humanity. It came out of the sea. And when
the angel comes in the book of Revelation and pours out the
vial of judgment upon the sea, he's not pouring poison into
the ocean. He's bringing judgment against
the mass of humanity that hate the gospel. And then in revelation
chapter 21, when the scripture says that new Jerusalem came
down and there was no more sea, no more sea, all the hatred towards God had
been put away. And you and I live in a world
that hates our God. Everything about this world,
everything about this world is contrary to our God and to our
gospel. And we live in that world. And
because we're in that world, we're contrary to the world.
That's why the, that's why the Lord said that friendship with
the world is enmity with God. Doesn't mean that there aren't
things in the world that we enjoy doing. It means that this worldly
system, which is against the gospel and against Christ and
against grace, we hate it. And yet we live in it. And it
creates turbulence for us. And it creates separation for
us. One day there'll be no more sea.
But right now, we go down into the sea. You came out of the
sea today to come here. And you're going to go back down
into the sea tomorrow and you're going to experience the same
thing again. Look, look at Tom. It's it's the sea is the unbelieving
world. That's what it is. They that go down to the sea
in ships that do business in the great waters. You do business
in the sea, don't you? And there's a lot of There's
a lot of current, there's a lot of turbulence, there's a lot
of conflict, there's a lot of terror in the storms of the sea. Not the least of which is the
turbulence of our own flesh that's drawn into this world. These see the works of the Lord
and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and raiseth
the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof They mount
up to the heavens. They go down again to the deeps.
Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and
fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble and he bringeth them out of all their distresses.
Now, as contrary as this world is to our God and to our gospel,
the real conflict that you and I struggle with in terms of this
turbulent sea and separation from God is in our old man, isn't
it? It's in our sin, in our flesh. Rebecca cried out to the Lord
and said, Lord, why am I thus? Why am I thus? What'd the Lord
say? It's because you have two nations
in you. She had Jacob and Esau in her
womb and they were fighting with each other. And there's what
we are, the flesh fighting against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh, so that we cannot be what we would be. And what's
the Lord say? He's using these storms. You
see the old man, just like the Lord told Rebecca, the older
shall serve the younger. Who's your old man? It's our
flesh, isn't it? Who's our new man? Our young
man. That's our new man in Christ.
And the older serves the younger. It's your sinful flesh that drives
you back to Christ. And that's what the Lord is saying. They go down into the storms
and the seas rise up and they go down and they stagger like
drunken men and they're brought to their wits end and then they
cry out and the Lord delivers them. And we're going to keep
doing that. You remember the time when the
disciples were on the Sea of Galilee and the Lord brought
up a great storm and the Lord came walking on the water to
them. And Peter cried out, Lord bid
me to come unto thee. And Peter got out of the boat,
walked on the water and then he saw the storm and the waves
and began to drown, Lord save me. We are crying out to the
Lord, the Lord saved me. And the Lord gets in the boat
and he speaks to the wind and the scripture says, and immediately
when the seas became calm, immediately they were at the other side.
That's the way it's going to be for us one day. We're going
to be at the other side. Right now he speaks peace to
our hearts. When he says to us, why are you so afraid? You give
little faith, trust me, I'm in the boat with you. I'm going
to get you to the other side. They followed him into the boat. And he ordained that storm for
them just like he does for us. And we often stagger like drunken
men and we're brought to our wits end until we cry out to
the Lord and then he calms the sea. The storms and tempest of our
own unruly passions The mountainous waves of uncertainties that we
face in this world. The fierce winds of temptation
that steer us off of course. These are the things that bring
us to our wits end. The sudden lightning bolts of
Satan that strike at our hearts with fear and unbelief. Now we
live here on the edge of the ocean. You ever get caught in
an undertow? All right, one time. For me,
I mean, it's like somebody ties a rope against on your ankle
and just rips you out into the ocean. You can't fight it. You
try to fight it and it'll, it'll drown you. And isn't that the
way it is? We, we, we feel like we, we feel
like we're caught in an undertow. Sometimes we're being drug out
from the safety of the, of the shore. And we, and that's our
sin. And we stagger like drunken men.
And we cry out to the Lord and he saves us. Look, they reel
to and fro, they stagger like a drunken man and are at their
wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble and he brings them out of their distresses. He make it the storm a calm so
that the waves thereof are still. Brethren, all those trials and
troubles, all those temptations, all that sin, it's been put away. It's been put away. It's only
when we hear the gospel that the peace of God keeps our hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Lord, I, that sin's been, been
put away. It's, it's, it's gone. It's been
covered by the blood of Christ. Then look at verse 30. Then are they glad because they'd
be quiet. So he bringeth them into their
desired Haven. There we are. brought into peace
with God, brought into realizing that I'm seated in the heavenlies,
in Christ Jesus right now. I have a successful advocate
seated at the right hand of God who has put away all my sins,
not just the sins that I'm struggling with right now, and every sin
that I ever shall commit. Yep, all been put away. All been put away. And the unbeliever
will say, well, that'll give a person the license to sin. And the child of God says, that's
the only thing that makes me hate my son. Then they are glad because they're
quiet. That demoniac, you remember?
is cutting himself and breaking the chains and, and, uh, couldn't
be controlled and naked. And the Lord quieted his soul
and clothed him and took off the chains and caused him to
be seated in his right mind. There we are. We're glad. We're glad for our salvation.
We're glad for the hope of eternal life. We're glad to have Christ
as our advocate. We're glad to have our sins taken
away and we're quiet before God. We're not trying to, you know,
the turbulence that's brought about as a result of sin, you
think about it. It's not the sin that causes
the turbulence. There may be the cause of it,
but the real cause of the turbulence is our attempt to try to work
that sin out and try to fix it. Isn't that where the turbulence
comes in? You see, when the Lord speaks
peace to the heart, nothing about the sin's been changed. Nothing about the sin's been
changed. The sin's still, we've been changed. We're no longer
fighting the law. We're no longer fighting God.
We're no longer, we're resting in Christ and we're able to be
quiet. He maketh the storm a calm so
that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they'd
be quiet. So he bringeth them onto their
desired haven. What is our desired haven? It's
to rest in Christ. That's our desired haven. It's
to be at peace with God. It's to have the peace of God
and and the hope of eternal life. It's to know Christ and to rest
in him. That's our desired haven. Oh,
that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful
works to the children of men. How wonderful are his works.
How good is his goodness. It's good to be brought to your
wit's end. Most folks aren't at their wits end. They're still
trying to figure out a way to fix things, aren't they? God brings you to your wits end.
You know you can't do anything about your problem. But he's
already done everything necessary. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly
Father, Thank you for your word. Thank you for the living word.
By dear son. Our Savior, our sin bearer. Our successful sovereign. Lord, thank you for the faith
that enables us to rest our hope in him. Thank you for sending the storms.
Thank you, Lord, for bringing us to our wits end and causing
us to realize that it's our attempt to. To fix our problems that causes
all this turbulence. Or just to be able to rest our
hope in Christ. Thank you for the. For the labor
that causes us to enter into his rest. Lord, we pray that. Christ to
be glorified. Pray again for Caleb. Even as
I'm sure he's speaking at this moment, give him give him clarity
and give him power and give him. The ability to speak of Christ. 14 his name we pray. Amen. 143 let's stand together 143. you Rejoice, the Lord is King. Your Lord and King adore. Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
and triumph evermore. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again, I say. us the Savior reigns, the God
of truth and love. When he had purged our stains,
he took his seat above. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again. I say rejoice. He rules over earth and hell. The keys of death and hell are
to our Jesus' gift. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. And voice again I say, rejoice. joys in glorious hope our lord
the judge shall come and take his servants up to their eternal
home lift up your heart Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice!