Good morning again. March the 15th. What is that,
three weeks from now? Three Sundays from now? We'll
have cover dish lunch together. Maybe we'll set up tables in
the new building. I was just thinking about the
next verse of scripture in the book of Acts. And when the day
of Pentecost was fully come, They were all with one accord
in one place. Christ is not divided. God's
people have one accord meeting in one place and Lord bless our
services today. Bert's going to come lead us
in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. The rock that stands forever
is Christ my righteousness. In him I stand unfearing in everlasting
Christ is my both and glory all wrath for me is o'er. The judgment of the sinner it
frightens me no more. There is no condemnation There
is no hell for me The torment and the fire My eyes shall never
see For me there is no sentence For me there is For Christ my Lord who saved
me will shield me with his wing. No angel nor a devil, no danger,
fear, no fight, No foe, no tribulation No throne, no power nor might
No height, no depth, no creature that has been or can be can pluck
me from thy bosom, can sever me for thee. My heart leaps up
with gladness. Grief cannot linger there. Her voice sings high in glory,
bathed in the sunshine fair. The fountain of my singing is
Jesus there above. ? The sun that shines upon me
is Jesus and in love ? May be seated. Scripture verse for our call
to worship will be found in the book of Hosea, the book of Hosea,
chapter 14. and we'll read all the verses. This passage is a great, great
encouragement and hope for the fallen. For the fallen. Hosea chapter 14, verse 1. O Israel, that's us, return unto
the Lord thy God for thou has fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord. We have his word. Say unto him, take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. Asher shall not save us. We will
not ride upon horses. Neither will we say anymore to
the work of our hands, ye are our gods. For in thee the fatherless
findeth mercy. I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away from
him. I will be as the dew unto Israel, he shall grow as the
lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall
spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell
as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return. They shall revive as the corn
and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, what have
I to do anymore with idols? I have heard him. and observe
them. I am like a green fir tree, from
me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand
these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are
right, and the just shall walk in them. But the transgressors
shall fall therein. If you're a babe this morning,
that's amazing grace for he has revealed this unto you. May the
Lord come to us. We can't come to him when we
fall. We know that. We cry out, but he comes to us. That's our
hope this morning. Let's pray. Our merciful Father, we're thankful
again that it pleased you, according to your goodwill and pleasure,
that you should draw us again to this place this very day to
be in your presence. Lord, you know that you have
to visit us and come to us. We're crying out to you again,
as you did the first hour, that you would be pleased to send
your sweet Holy Spirit enabling us, Lord, to hear and to see
and to see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, that
is our only hope. Lord, I pray that you would forgive
us once again of our iniquities. Even this prayer, Lord, needs to be interceded upon you,
Lord, presenting this acceptable to the Father. washed in your
blood and clothed in your righteousness. Thankful for your word, pray
now that the preaching of your word, Lord, will be fruitful
and benefits itself and the edifying of your people and the saving
of your lost sheep this morning. Be with our brother now as you
have the first hour and enable him to preach what you have taught
him all week. And Lord, we will give you again
all the glory for all the glory is yours and power in the name
of Christ. Amen. Let us turn now to number 158
and the hardback number 158. And if you all could please stand. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold parts of ours. Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily they go
to reach eternal joys. In vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues. And our devotion dies. Ever lived at this foredying
reign Our love so faint, so cold to thee And thine to us so great
Come Holy Spirit, if lead us ? With all the quickening powers
? ? Come shed abroad a Savior's love ? ? And that shall kindle
us ? You may be seated. That's scripture reading from
Hosea 13. and that hymn we just sang could not be more fitting
for what I want to try to say this morning. And by way of transition
between what we just said and heard and the message I want
to try to bring from Psalm 106, I'd like for you to turn with
me to the book of Ezra. Ezra. Right after 2 Chronicles. Book
of Ezra chapter 9 verse 5 and at the evening sacrifice
I rose up from my heaviness and having rent my garment on my
mantle I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the
Lord our God my God how cold our hearts can be, how prone
we are to wonder how easy it is to forget the mercies and
graces of our God. And I said, oh my God, I am shamed. I'm ashamed. And I blush to lift
up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities have increased
over our head and our transgression has grown upon the heavens. Since
the days of our fathers, and we're gonna see this in Psalm
106, we've sinned just like our fathers. Since the days of our
fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day, and for
our iniquities have we, our kings, our priests, been delivered into
the hand of the kings of the land, to the sword, to captivity,
and to spoil, and to confusion of face as it is this day. Isn't
that a description of what sin does to us? Confusion of face,
shame, get caught up in all the things of this world. And now. For a little space. Oh Lord,
this is my condition. This is my need. Would you be
pleased right now for a little space? For grace to be showed from the
Lord our God and to leave us a remnant to escape. and to give
us a nail in this holy place. That's Christ. He's the nail,
fashioned in a sure place that our God might lighten our eyes
and give us little reviving in our bondage. Oh, we live in the
bondage of this flesh and in the world that So, not interested
in the gospel. They're not interested in Christ.
And the reason why they're not is because they're not sinners. Plain and simple. A sinner, a
person who cannot get out of their own way. A person who has
no righteousness in and of themselves before God. The scripture says
in 1 John 1, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. But, if we confess ourselves,
He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us
of all our unrighteousness. Oh, and how much we have to be
cleansed of. That does not mean that forgiveness is brought about by confession. Confession is not the cause of
our forgiveness. The cause of our forgiveness
is the grace of God through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the only cause for forgiveness. But confession
is a means to that end, just like faith. The Lord has to give
us confession. He has to give us faith. What
is it to confess? I hesitate to say anything about
the original language of the Bible for two reasons. Two reasons. Number one, I'm
far away from any kind of a Greek scholar. Most Greek I know runs
a Euro shop in the, the food court at the mall. And the second reason I hate
to bring up the original language, because I don't want to lead
anybody to think that you've got to know Greek and Hebrew
to be able to understand the word of God. But there's a word in this verse
I want you to see. It's the word confess. And the
only reason I'm dissecting this word for you is because you know
the Greek words that go to this word. It's a conjunction of two
words. If you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
you of your sins and cleanse you of all aground righteousness."
So what is it to confess? The word confess in the original
language is made up of homo, and you know what that means.
It means the same. And logos, which means word or
speak. It's the word homologia. That's
the word that the Spirit of God inspired the penman of scriptures
to put in his word to tell us that this is the confession,
homologia. It's to speak the same word that
God speaks. It's to agree with God about
my sin. It's to take sides with God against
yourself. It's to not make any excuses.
It's to not say, well, Lord, I'm not that bad. Or to compare
yourself to someone else. It's to say, yes, Lord. When
you look down from heaven, you see that every imagination of
the thought of every man is only evil in that continuum. That's
my state. I'm a sinner. And I'm in need of a savior.
That's who the gospel is for. It's only for sinners. I say,
why are people not interested in the gospel? Why do they hate
Christ? Why don't they believe God? Because they're not sinners.
That's it. If God makes you to be a sinner,
if you have no righteousness outside of Christ, and the Lord
has given you the grace to speak the same word that he speaks
about yourself, then you have hope of knowing. that the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses you of all of your sin. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Psalm 106, please. Psalm 106. Psalm 106 is a condensed history
of the children of Israel in coming out of Egypt and being
under the leadership of Moses and eventually making it to the
promised land. 40 years is condensed in this
one Psalm. And over and over and over again, during those
40 years in the wilderness, the children of Israel rebel. They
sin against God. God chastises them. He gives
them repentance and then he restores them. And as soon as they're
restored, they turn around and rebel again. Can you relate? Look at, look at verse 12 in
this chapter. Then believed they his words
and sang his praise. Oh, I hope that's where we are
right now. Or I do believe you and I do praise you. They soon
forgot his works. How quickly we get out in the
world and just forget, don't we? They waited not for his counsel. They took things into their own
hands. They did exactly what those disciples did on their
first order of business. They took things into their own
hands. And how often we do that. But they lusted exceedingly in
the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them
their request. but sent leanness into their
soul. Has the Lord ever sent leanness
into your soul? You know, if you have leanness
in your earthly life, you know, that can probably be solved with,
you know, money maybe. But leanness of the soul, No, nothing can, nothing can
fill that. Nothing can feed that void other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a mercy, what a grace it
is for God to send leanness into a man's soul. We spend so much
of our time trying to, trying to fill our leanness with earthly
things. Now we lust after these things,
just like the Israelites did. And then God sends leanness to
our soul. And in that leanness, he causes
us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Look at verse 43 in the same
chapter. Many times, many times did he
deliver them, but they provoked him with their counsel and were
brought low. for their iniquity. Can you relate
to that? And before we go any further,
turn with me to Romans 3. Romans 3. Hold your finger there in Psalm
106 and turn with me to Romans 3. Look at verse 9 in Romans 3. What then? Are we better than they? When you read the exploits of
these Israelites in the wilderness, you think, well, I wouldn't do
that. God had made you a sinner if you think that. No, in no wise. For we have before
proved that both Jew and Gentiles, they are all under sin. For it is written, there is none
righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understand it. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all together
become unprofitable. There is none that do with good.
No, not one. This is who the gospel is for,
brethren. The Lord knows that we're made
of dust. He blesses us with his presence. He blesses us with
such sweet grace and how quickly we turn away. And then he corrects us and sends
leanness to our souls and brings us back to himself. And he just
keeps doing it, doesn't he? He just keeps doing it. Skip down with me, verse 20.
Therefore, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. Why? Because we can't
keep God's law. God requires perfection. He requires
the law to be kept fully, not just in outward behavior. Paul
said concerning the law, I was blameless. He wasn't talking
about being blameless before God. He was talking about impressing
men. And nobody could charge me of
breaking God's law. But when the law came to my heart
and the law said, thou shalt not covet, then I died. I died. As he realized, no, this
law keeping didn't just outward behavior. This is the, this is
a matter of the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance,
God looks at the heart. God searches the secrets of the
heart. That's why he said in Genesis chapter six, when I look
down from heaven, I see that every imagination of the thought
of the heart is only evil. And that continuity of the heart
is wicked and deceitful above all things who can know it. It's
just, that's our, that's our condition before God. Isn't it? That's who the gospel is for.
You say, well, that's not me. Well, I don't have a good, I
don't have good news for you. The good news is for centers. It's for those who have no righteousness.
It's for those who have taken sides with God against themselves.
It's for those who, who say, Lord, all I can produce is sin. I need a righteousness that's
outside of myself. Look at verse 21, but now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. Robert and I were talking this
week and we were talking about that verse in Timothy where it
says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of
God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And we agreed
that the scriptures are not profitable unless they lead us to Christ.
That's the only time they're profitable. If they cause us
to fall before him and plead for his mercy and his grace,
then if all I've learned from a story in the Bible is some
historical facts, if all I've done is been able to split some
theological hairs or understand a little bit of the Greek language,
it's not profited me. The scriptures are profitable
when they lead us to Christ. That's when they're profitable. And the law can't do that. Verse 22, even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Notice that. He didn't
say by your faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God is by
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all your righteousness. Unto all and upon all them that
believe for there is no difference. What? Are we better than they?
No. No, they were sinners, rebelling against God, losing sight of
Christ, murmuring, accusing God of wrongdoing. What, have you
brought us out into the wilderness to die? Every single time you
and I complain, we complain every day, don't we? Let's just be honest. We're going
to do homologia, we're going to say the same thing about our
sin that God says about it, then point the finger back to yourself
and admit, when I complain, I am blaming God. I do it. You do it. You're blaming
God. You know God is sovereign. You
know everything that's happening is happening according to his
goodwill and purpose. So as soon as we complain about
something, what do we say? We're saying what our father
Adam said in the garden. The woman that you gave me, she
did give me to eat. She did give me an idea to eat. He wasn't blaming the woman,
he was blaming God. Oh, how shameful. That's what
Ezra was saying. I'm ashamed to even look up.
But the good hope is there's a nail fastened in a sure place
and I can hang the weight of all my sin on that nail and it
won't come loose. The Lord Jesus Christ hung on
Calvary's cross by nails, didn't he? He shed his precious blood
in order to put away our sin and give us a righteousness before
God that we could not come to on our own. Not by law. I don't know who wrote this originally,
but I found it recently and I thought it was good. The law manifest
what is in man. Sin. That's all the law does. The strength of sin is the law.
The law makes sin utterly sinful. That's all the law does, just
points out our sin and says guilty. Grace manifest what's in God
love. The law demands righteousness
from man and it does. The law says you do this or you're
going to die. Grace brings the righteousness of God to man. The law sentences a living man
to death. Grace brings a dead man to life. This is night and day. This is
life and death. This isn't just a matter of emphasis. The law speaks of what men must
do for God and grace speaks of what Christ has done for man. Law gives a knowledge of sin.
Grace puts away sin. Law brings God out to man and
grace brings man into God. Now what do you want to be a
part of, law or grace? You want to stand before God in a righteousness
of your own? You want to present any goodness
of your own or are you interested? in a righteousness that's completely
outside of yourself, confessing to God that you have none. You
have no righteousness, non-zero. Turn with me to Psalm 106, please. Psalm 106, verse six. We have sinned with our fathers. Lord, I'm doing the same thing
Adam did. I'm doing the same thing my father did and the same
thing his father did. We have committed iniquity. Now
you know what that word iniquity means. It means not equal. That's what it means. Scripture
describes our sinfulness before God as transgression, iniquity,
and sin. Transgression is our violation
of God's law. Iniquity is what we do to try
to earn favor with God. It doesn't equal up. And sin
is what we are by nature. We're just sinners. And so he
says, we have sinned our fathers. Like with our fathers, we have
committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. We didn't
just Men are proud of their good works,
aren't they? Oh, you do something good, give a bunch of money to
some sort of charity, and they'll put you on the front page of
the newspaper, won't they? They'll talk about you on the news and
just lift you up. People don't realize that by
boasting in their works, they're actually offending God more than
their transgressions, their wickedness, their violation. Their wickedness
is what men want to hide, and iniquity is what men want to
promote. And they don't know that their
iniquity is worse than their wickedness. Only a sinner knows that. I try to approach God based on
something I've done, I am robbing Christ of His glory. I am taking
to myself the honor that only belongs to Him. And that's worse
than my indulging myself in some sort of wicked behavior. Our fathers understood not the
wonders of Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of Thy mercies, but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red
Sea, nevertheless. That's the title of this message.
Nevertheless. Oh, the neverthelesses of scripture. Nevertheless, he saved them.
In spite of their sinfulness, he saved them. That's what grace
is. There's another good definition
of grace, in spite of. In spite of ourselves, he saved
them. Why? Because he saw some potential
in them. Because he saw a glimmer of hope
in them and he thought he could make good out of them? No, he
saved them for his name's sake. The Lord Jesus Christ put his
name on a covenant with the Father in eternity past. And he's going
to use this illustration Wednesday night. He's called our surety. And we use that word today to
describe a co-signer. Now maybe you've co-signed for
some children or loved ones, for a loan, but you didn't figure
you had to, when you signed that, you co-signed, you figured they
were gonna pay for it, right? Would you co-sign for somebody
you knew they couldn't pay a dime towards the debt? You wouldn't
do it, would you? When the Lord Jesus Christ put
his name on that covenant, he knew then that those he was signing
for were not able going to pay anything. They didn't have a
dime. They didn't have a penny to their
name. He took on the full responsibility himself. He's our surety. Nevertheless, he saved them,
not because he was holding out for them to be good or to do
some goodness, but for his namesake. that he might make his power
to be known." Oh, we have no power. He has all power, doesn't
he? He gets all the glory for our salvation. Why? Because he's
saving sinners. He's saving sinners. He rebuked the Red Sea and also
it was dried up, so he led them through the depths as through
the wilderness and he saved them from the hand of him that hated
them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. Now we love God's law. God's
law is holy. God's law is just. God's law
is good. But a sinner knows that God's
law can't make him holy. And God's law can't justify him
before God. And God's law can't add to him
any goodness before God. But outside of Christ, let's
read this verse again. He saved them from the hand of
him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy."
Now, who's this in reference to? Pharaoh and the taskmasters
of Egypt. What do they represent? They
represent the law. You see, we love God's law in
Christ, but outside of Christ, the law hates us. The law condemns
us. The law has no mercy. There's
no love in God's law. The law of God is justice. And
the law looks at sinners and despises sinners and will send
them to hell for all of eternity. That's what the law does. And
he saved us from the hand of him that hated us. Where'd Pharaoh end up? Under the bottom of the sea,
didn't he? And that's where our sins are. All the sea of God's
grace and his mercy and his love has overflowed our enemy and
delivered us on dry land. The waters covered their enemies.
There was not one of them left. There's not a single law. that
can charge you for anything if you're found in Christ. Not a
one. They believed, then believed
they His Word. They believed His Word. And you
believe in God's Word right now, aren't you? When you hear what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you, you just, you're able
to relax, you're able to rest, you're able to take a breath,
you're able to say, oh, my sin's been drowned in the depths of
the sea. It's been put away. God is my friend. He's my Savior. He loves me. And they soon forgot. How soon is it going to take
you to forget? Oh, we forget so quickly, don't we? That's
why we just want to hear the gospel. Preach the word profitably
to me. Tell me about Christ, who he
is, and what he's done for me. Don't give me some history lesson.
Don't boost my ego with some knowledge of the Bible. Tell
me about Christ. He's the one I must know, for
this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I've got to have Christ. I'm just like these Israelites.
You read on in this chapter of Psalms, and Moses smote the rock,
and that's a picture of the law of God. Moses' picture of the
rod is the law of God. He smote the rock, and waters
came out, and then the people murmured. It went a little while,
and there was no water, and they murmured. He said, you brought
us out here to die. And Moses got angry at the people.
And he was going to prove his power against the people. And
rather than speaking to the rock, which is what he was supposed
to do after he had only smitten it once, the law of God smote
the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, our rock, which is higher than
their rock, one time. And the law was satisfied. The
law was silenced, not a word. Not one of the enemies had another
word to say. Christ bowed his mighty head
on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished. The law was silenced. Now, what do we do? We don't
smite the rock. We speak to the rock. Lord, save me. Save me. We take to him words. You read
that, Bert. We take to him words, his word.
But Moses smote the rock, didn't he? Moses never went into the
promised land of Israel to that. Joshua, then that was all in
God's providence, wasn't it? Because God had God's purpose.
Joshua had to bring children of Israel in, but law can't bring
you into the promised land. Only, only Jesus can. That's Joshua. Turn back with me just a few
pages to Psalm 89, Psalm 89. Verse 30, if his children forsake
my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgressions
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, nevertheless. Here's our hope, brethren, how
many times we violate God's law. Nevertheless, and the Lord No
chastisement is pleasant for the season, the scripture says
in Hebrews, but is grievous. Nevertheless,
it bringeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness by them that
are exercised thereby. And the Lord said, if I chastise
you not, you're not mine. Now the Lord does for us exactly
what we do for the children of Israel. They see God's mercy,
they see his grace, he gives them the leanness of soul, they
seek after Christ, the Lord fills them, and then they forget. And
they've got to start all over again. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not
utterly take away from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. Oh, child of God, when you're
not faithful, he is. He is. Once have I sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David. David's Christ. And that's the
father saying, I made a covenant with my son that I'm going to
forgive you for his namesake. And I'm gonna keep putting away
your sin and put away, oh, he put away all our sins at Calvary's
cross, but every time we lose sight of him, and every time
we rebel, we've got to come back, don't we? As you receive Christ
Jesus the Lord, I've had people say to me, well, my sin's already
put away, I don't have to come before God as a sinner. As you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, how did you receive him? As a dead dog mercy beggar, didn't
he? You're a sinner. So walk ye in
him. We're always coming to him as
a sinner. Lord, forgive me. Lord, save me. I'll not forsake them, nevertheless.
Nevertheless. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter
20. Ezekiel chapter 20. Verse 21, notwithstanding. Now prior to that verse, the
scripture says that they broke his Sabbaths. What is it to break
the Sabbath? Is it not to go to church on
Sunday? No, it's to not rest the hope of your salvation in
Christ. How prone we are. We labor to enter into his rest. We're constantly tempted to look
at something other than Christ for the hope of our salvation,
aren't we? And they kept breaking his Sabbaths just like you do
and just like I do. Notwithstanding, the children
rebelled against me. They walked not in my statues,
neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he
shall even live in them. They polluted my Sabbaths. Then
I said, I will pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger
against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless, I withdrew my hand. and wrought
for my namesake, that it should not be polluted in the sight
of the heathen in whose sight I brought them forth." I'm not
going to let them go. In spite of them, I'm not going
to let them go. Why? Well, go back with me to
Psalm 106. Verse 23, therefore, he said
that he would destroy them because of their rebellion. God got Moses
aside on Mount Sinai after they built the cab. God said, I'm
going to kill them all and we'll start over with you. Had not Moses The chosen stood
before him in the breach to turn away his wrath, lest he should
destroy them. Now you know what that's a picture
of, don't you? Moses stood in the breach. Moses stood before
God and said, God, block me out of your book, but don't kill
them. The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured
by Moses. I will send to you a prophet
like unto you. Moses type of Christ. And he
stands in the breach in our rebellion and God withdraws his wrath for
his namesake, for his namesake. Oh, what hope. And this, this message of grace
is the only message that makes me not want to sin. Listen to what Paul said in 2
Timothy 2 verse 19, nevertheless, nevertheless, in spite of the
fact that you are constantly sinning, nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his. And let everyone who nameth the
name of Christ depart from iniquity. You see, brethren, we are by
nature or were by nature children of wrath, even as others. But
God. See the butts, the nevertheless
is the notwithstandings are all for sinners. They're all for
centers. If you're not a center, you don't
need that. You don't need for Moses stand in the breach. You
don't need for God to make an exception. You can stand before
God on your own. But God. who is rich in mercy
for his great love were with he loved us even when we were
dead in trespasses and sins has quickened us together in Christ
for by grace are you saved. All of grace. He saved them for
his name's sake. You need that kind of salvation?
A salvation that's taken care of completely outside of you
or you going to try to bring something to the table? If you're
a center, you know you've got nothing to bring to the table.
Amen. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
thank you for Christ. Thank you for the Gospel Lord.
We confess to you that we are so. So laden with iniquity and
so full of sin and self righteousness. Lord, thank you. for the hope
of salvation that you give to your people in Christ. For it's
in his name we pray, amen. Number 17, in the hard back temple,
let's stand. Number 17. ? On Thou fount of every blessing
? ? To my heart to sing Thy grace ? ? Streams of mercy never ceasing
? ? Call for songs of loudest praise ? ? Teach me some melodious
sonnet ? ? Sung by flaming tongues above ? Praise the mount I'm
fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming blood. Here I raise mine Ebenezer,
hither by thy help I'm come. And I hope by thy good pleasure,
safely to a private home. Jesus sought me when a stranger
wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger interposes
precious blood. ? O to grace how great a debtor
? ? Daily I'm constrained to be ? ? Let thy goodness like
a fetter ? ? Buy my wandering heart to thee ? ? Prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it ? ? Prone to leave the God I love ? Here's
my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.