Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number seven from your spiral hymn book, number
seven, the head that once was crowned. Let's all stand together. The head that once was crowned
with thorns is crowned with glory now. A royal diadem adorns the
mighty victor's brow. The highest place that heaven
affords belongs to him by right. ? The King of kings and Lord
of lords ? ? And heaven's eternal light ? ? The joy of all who
dwell above ? ? The joy of all below ? ? To whom he manifests
his love ? ? And grants his name to know ? ? To them the cross
with all its shame ? ? With all its grace is given ? ? Their
name an everlasting name ? ? Their joy the joy of heaven ? Please
be seated. Good evening. We'll read from
Psalm 103 for our call to worship. Psalm 103. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul. And all that is within me. Bless. His holy name. And we're going
to be looking at a passage of scripture where. The lawyer responds to our Lord
by saying, the greatest of all commandments is to love the Lord
your God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all
of your soul. And the Lord tells that lawyer, he said, go do that
and you'll live. This is a Psalm of David, I want
you to notice. And the only one who blessed
the Lord with all of his soul and with all that was within
him was the Lord Jesus Christ. We've come here to bless him,
but, oh. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies,
who satisfied thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth
is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his
ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and Plenteous in mercy. Let's pray together. Want us
to pray for Tom. He's having a heart catheterization
this coming Tuesday to see what the condition of his heart valve
is. So pray for your brother. Our
Heavenly Father. We know that one day will be
able to bless you with all that's within us. Lord, we come before
your throne of grace now thanking you that we have. An advocate. We have a substitute who did
bless you with all that was within him. And Lord, we long for that
day when we see him as he is and be made like him. We pray
in this hour that you would enable us to enter into a spirit of
worship to bless you from our hearts. We pray that you would
reveal to us the glory of Christ and cause us once again to find
our hope and our comfort, our strength and all our righteousness
and satisfaction in him. Father, we thank you. For Tom
and. For all that he means to us and
for the work that you've done through him here. And Lord, we
pray that you would put your hand of strength and encouragement
on him. We pray that you would comfort
his heart as he draws near to you, Lord, that you would draw
near to him. We pray for the doctors that will minister to
him and ask, Lord, you make them skillful and discerning. In being
able to diagnose and treat whatever physical ailments he has, and
we thank you for. For that. We ask it in Christ
name. Amen. Let's all stand together again.
Will sing him number 290 to 90. Be still my soul. Let's all stand. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order and
provide. In every change, ye faithful
will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best,
thy heavenly friend. Through thorny ways leads to
a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake to guide the future as he has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let
nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt
below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hasting on when we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed, we shall
meet at last. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. I preached from this passage
a few years ago and was so encouraged to see the
gospel in it. And then just this past week,
I listened to a message that Brother Angus Fisher preached
from this passage recently. And I was encouraged. I told
him when I talked to him on the phone the other day, I said,
well, don't be surprised if you hear me preach from that again soon,
because I was, uh, I was blessed by some things that he brought
out that I had never seen before. And we're looking at the passage
of scripture that is popularly known as the story of the good
Samaritan, the good Samaritan. I've titled this the real good
Samaritan, the real good Samaritan. Now we know that in the volume
of the book, it is written of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know
that these are they which testify of him. This book is a gospel
story. It's a revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And over and over and over again,
it is a contrast between law and grace, between a salvation
of works and a salvation of grace. And this story of the Good Samaritan
is no different. It's no different. Now, I am
certain, I am certain that those who have received grace will
be gracious. Just as I'm certain that those
who have been forgiven, been forgiven by God, will be forgiving. and just as certain as i am that
those who have received mercy will be merciful blessed are
the merciful for they shall receive mercy and uh... and it's just
that's just the way it works so to take this story and and
and and understand it simply as a uh... as a admonition for
uh... for people to be merciful This
is probably one of the most well-known Bible stories in the world. And at the same time, it is the
most misunderstood. Most misunderstood. This lawyer
comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and asks him, what must I do
to be saved? And the Lord met him on the same
ground that he approached the Lord on. And that's always going
to be the case. The Lord meets us right where
we come. We come as mercy beggars, He'll meet us with mercy. We
come as law mongers, He'll meet us with the law. And so when
this man said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? That's
the question throughout the entire parable. And And in the end,
there's no evidence whatsoever that the lawyer who was justifying
himself, this self-righteous religionist, there's no evidence
whatsoever that he was interested in mercy. And so the Lord sent
him away. The Lord sent him away with verse
37. And he said, he that showed mercy
on him. That was the lawyer's response. Who showed mercy? Was it the
priest? Was it the Levite? Or was it
the Samaritan? And the lawyer said, well, it
was the one who showed mercy upon him. And what'd the Lord
say? What'd the Lord say? Go and do likewise. He sent him on his way to work
out his salvation. That's what he did. And the entire
world, the entire religious world reads this story and they think
that the point of the story is go and do likewise. Go and show
mercy. God's people be merciful. If
you've been shown mercy, you see somebody in need, you have
an opportunity to minister to them, to help them, you're gonna
do it. The point of this parable is
not to admonish us to go and do likewise. The point of the
parable is to show us that we're saved by grace, not by works. That's the message. That the
Lord Jesus Christ himself is the Good Samaritan. We're the
poor wretch that's been left for dead on the side of the road.
That's what the whole world misses. It seems like everybody, at least
in the English-speaking world, is familiar with this story of
the Good Samaritan, or at least they know what a Good Samaritan
is. How often do we hear about a person who's been a Good
Samaritan? Because they stopped and they
helped someone, and they made personal effort and sacrifice
to help. The world exalts Good Samaritans,
don't they? But the Good Samaritan, The Lord
Jesus Christ who took this man to the inn and provided for him,
well, they don't exalt him. In other words, this very parable
has the same effect on men today that it had on that self-justifying
lawyer. It has the exact same effect
on men today. They think, okay, if I'll just
be a good Samaritan, I'll go and do that. And that'll be the
means by which I will inherit eternal life. Verse 25, and behold, a certain lawyer, a certain lawyer. Now, a lawyer is a person who
argues the law for the benefit of showing the innocence of their
client. That's what lawyers do. And you've
heard it said that an attorney who represents himself or themselves
before a court of law has a fool for a lawyer. And yet that's
exactly what men do. They represent themselves before
God's court of law. They stand in judgment of God
and they present their righteousness as the hope of their salvation.
That's what this story is about. It's not about go and do likewise,
be merciful and God will show you mercy. Yes, be merciful. And if you've been shown mercy,
you will be merciful. And if you see an opportunity
to help somebody, you will do that. But that's, that's a certain lawyer stood up. Lawyers are still standing up
against God. The self-righteous lawyer who
represents himself before God and presents his righteousness
as the hope of his salvation will stand up in the presence
of God. What a contrast here between
a man who stands up and the one who is, well, notice, notice
in, In verse 30, and Jesus answered
and said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho
and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and
wounded him and departed and leaving him half dead. So we've
got two characters in this story. We've got the lawyer who's standing
up against God. What? What arrogance to stand
in the presence of God and call him into question. That's exactly
what men who rely on their righteousness and on their law keeping are
doing, aren't they? And this man who's fallen among thieves,
been stripped of his arraignment, has been beaten and been left
half dead and no one to help him. Notice what he asked the Lord.
And behold, a certain lawyer stood up tempting him saying,
master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? What a awful question. You don't, if you get anything
from an inheritance, it's not because of what you do, it's
because of who you are. It's because you have a relationship
with the person who's deceased. Not because of something that
you've done to earn it. What can I do to inherit eternal
life? And the Lord meets him on the
same ground that he comes on. He said unto him, what's written
in the law? He wants something to do, what's
the law say? How readest thou? What do you understand the law
to say? And he answered and said, thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy
neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, thou hast
answered right. This do and you shall live. You keep the law with all your
heart, all your mind, all your soul, love God with everything
you've got. Love your neighbor as yourself, you'll live. I'm sure this lawyer is thinking
what Saul of Tarsus was thinking, or the rich young ruler was thinking
when he said, these things I've done for my youth. Verse 29, but he, willing to justify himself. Isn't
that what lawyers do? They justify themselves. I'm
gonna show you that I've kept the law, or at least
I'm trying to keep the law, at least I'm doing my best to keep
the law. He said unto Jesus, and who is
my neighbor? Now, what's he implying? This
lawyer's implying, well, I've loved God with all my heart and
all my soul and all my mind since my youth, but now, you know,
I don't, my neighbor, you're gonna have to help me figure
out who that is, because I don't, I'm not, I don't love everybody. And that's when the Lord gave
him this, this parable. And Jesus answered, answering
said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now what's the significance of
these two cities? Jerusalem is the city of peace.
Jerusalem is the city of David. With the new Jerusalem coming
down from heaven is a picture of the church. This is the glory
of God is in Jerusalem. And what's Jericho a picture
of? You remember what happened in Jericho? After Joshua brought
the children of Israel across the Jordan, and they marched
around the city seven times, and the walls came down, and
they slaughtered everybody in the city, except for Rahab and
her family. And then Joshua pronounced a
curse against Jericho. He said, if any man rebuilds
this city, he's going to lay the foundation on the life of
his firstborn, and he's going to set the gates on the life
of his youngest. And we know that later on when
that city was rebuilt, that's exactly what happened to the
man that rebuilt it. So Jericho is a cursed city. This road is
going from Jerusalem to Jericho. You see, we started out in our
father Adam in Jerusalem. And all of humanity All of humanity
is on this road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jericho is the end
of God's curses and God's judgments against all men. So here's the
route that all men are on by nature. We're born into this
world as sinners. We're on this road going from
the city of peace to the city of wrath and the city of judgment.
We started out in our father Adam before the fall at peace
with God. And we lost that fellowship.
We lost that peace. And ever since, ever since, the
massive humanity has been on the road down to Jericho. And this man on this road, Down
to Jericho, he falls among thieves. You know, if we're going to read
this and we're just going to leave here and say, well, let's,
you know, let's go and do likewise. Let's, you know, let's be merciful.
Let's be good Samaritans. Let's be good Samaritans. That's,
that's how the world sees this story. And here the Lord's showing
us, this lawyer never sees it. He's showing us our condition.
You started out in Jerusalem and on your way to Jericho, you
got robbed. You got robbed. You got robbed
of your fellowship with God. What robbed us? Sin robbed us.
Sin robbed us. The fall robbed us. Robbed God
of his glory. Robbed us of any understanding
of who we are and how it is that God is pleased to save sinners. Sin is a robber and it strips
men naked and leaves them half dead. What leaves them dead.
But here, this man's, this man said to be half dead. He's wounded.
And, um, and, uh, and the robbers left him, left him for dead. Sin robs God of his glory by
giving man something to do, to earn his
salvation. Robs Christ of his glory, doesn't
it? Sin robs man of any real understanding of himself and
his inability to satisfy the demands of God's righteousness. It just leaves men beaten, naked,
and dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. And notice in verse 32, and likewise,
I mean, I'm verse 31, and by chance, by chance, there came
down a certain priest that way. And when he saw him, he passed
on the other side. There's two sides to this road.
There's the side of grace. There's the side of mercy. There's
the side of depravity. And there's the side of self-righteousness
and legalism. And here we have a priest who
represents the moral law of God. And he's on the other side of
the road and he looks at this one. He looks at me and you.
The law looks at us. And what's the law? The law has
got to pass on the other side of the road. The law can't help
us. The law looks over at us and looks at us with disgust. The law looks at us with judgment
and condemnation. That's all the law can do. It's got to pass on the other
side of the road. It can't come over and save us. And likewise, a Levite. And what's the difference between
the priest and the Levite? Well, the priest represents the moral law of God
and the Levite represents the ceremonial law. Well, if I can't
keep the moral law of God, then at least I can involve myself
in religious ceremony. You know, I'll... I'll get baptized. I'll join
the church. I'll involve myself in the, you
know, in the ceremonies of the church. And somehow we'll, and
the Levite passes on the other side. He's on the other side
of the road. There's nothing he can do. The
law says guilty. The law says there's no mercy.
The law has to pass us by. The law says you deserve what
you got. That's what the law says. The law's not our friend. It's
not our friend in terms of saving us. We love God's law. God's
law's holy and just and good. Nothing wrong with the law of
God. It's just the law's not able to save us. The law can
only condemn us and can only pass us by on the other side. Notice twice is mentioned between
the priest and the Levite that they both passed by on the other
side. But a certain Samaritan, a certain
Samaritan as he journeyed Came where he was. Now that's exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. He has come to where
we are. We could not get to him. He had
to come to us. And so the word was made flesh
and he dwelt among us. And we beheld the glory of God
as the only begotten of the Father, the one who's full of grace and
full of truth. He came to where we were when
he went to Calvary's cross. And he bore all the sins of all
of God's people in his body upon that tree and suffered the full
wrath of God's judgment. He took our place. He came to
where we are. He came to our side of the road. He didn't pass on the other side
of the road. He wasn't like the priest. He wasn't like the Levite. He came to where we were and
notice what it says about this Samaritan as he journeyed he
came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on
him. What a difference the priest
and the Levite. representing the moral and the
ceremonial law, look at this poor man who's been beaten and
robbed and left for dead and they're not able to offer any
encouragement or any help. And the Samaritan comes to where
he was and he sees us and he looks at us with compassion.
Doesn't that remind you of, turn with me to Ezekiel. chapter 16, Ezekiel chapter 16. Again, the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. It's just become so clear to
me that this parable of the Good Samaritan is having the same
effect on the world today that it had on that self-justifying
warrior. Everybody's going out trying
to be a Good Samaritan. And they don't realize that they're
the ones left for dead. They're the ones robbed. They're
the ones stripped naked. They're the ones bleeding and
dying. And Son of Man caused Jerusalem to know her abominations. Here's what the world doesn't
know. They don't know their own sinfulness. They think, well,
if I can just be a good Samaritan, I'll, you know, I'll be able
to earn some points with God. And say, God's speaking to the
prophet Ezekiel, and he's telling the prophet what to say to the
church, and nothing's changed. So here's what the Lord says
to me and you. Say, thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem,
thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father
was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity,
in the day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither
was thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou was not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to do any
of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but
thou was cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy
person in the day that thou was born. There's a picture of a
deformed child who comes into the world so grotesquely deformed
that the parents take the infant and cast it out into the field
without even cleaning it up. And the Lord says to the prophet,
speak to Jerusalem and tell them that's their condition. Tell
them they're the ones left for dead on the side of the road.
Tell them they're the ones that have been robbed of their hope
and they've robbed God of his glory. Tell them, tell them of
their abomination. And when I passed by thee, what'd
this good Samaritan do? He passed by on the same side
of the road that the man beaten and robbed was on. And he saw
him, and he had compassion on him. And when I passed by thee
and saw thee polluted in thy own blood, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great. And thou art come to excellent
ornaments, thy breast are fashioned, My hair is grown, whereas thou
was naked and bare." The Lord said, I saw you. I had compassion
on you. You couldn't do anything for
yourself. What's a deformed infant thrown out in the field to die
and to be eaten by the beast? What are they going to be able
to do? No more than this man who was
beaten and robbed and left for dead was able to do. The priest
couldn't help him. The Levi couldn't help him. This
self-justifying lawyer, who's my neighbor? So the Lord's going
to tell him, you know, you want to know who your neighbor is
so that you can earn your salvation? Here's who your neighbor is. The Lord had compassion when
he saw him. Mark chapter one, a leper comes
to the Lord and he says, Lord, if thou wilt, thou can make me
whole. I love that. That's us. We're just, we're lepers. Lord,
if you will, I know you can. And what does the self-righteous
lawyer say? The self-justifying lawyer, what
does he say? Lord, I know you want to, and
I'm gonna allow you to. I'm gonna make you able. But
here this leper said, Lord, I know you can if you will. And the
scripture says, and the Lord had compassion on him and touched
him. Touched him. And he said, I will
be thou made whole. Now this leper, how many years
he had spent crying, unclean, unclean, never be, never be in
touch by another human being. And the Lord Jesus Christ reaches
his hand out, out of compassion and touches him and makes him
whole. That's exactly what's happening
here. This certain Samaritan, who was journeying and saw him
and had compassion on him, came to his side of the road and went
to him. Verse 34, notice that he went
to him. The Lord's got to come to us.
We can't come to him. We just cannot get to where he
is. As I've said several times already. The world reads this story and
they get inspired to be good Samaritans. I want us to see. That the Lord
Jesus Christ himself is the Good Samaritan. You and I are the
ones beaten and robbed by the fall. On our road on our way
from Jerusalem to Jericho, on our way to destruction. And the
law couldn't help us. Had to go on the other side of
the road. But here the Lord Jesus Christ comes to where we are.
He went to him and bound up his wounds. That's what the Lord
does. How does he bind up our wounds?
How does he do it? Well, the scripture says here,
with oil and with wine. He anoints him with oil and with
wine. What is that oil a picture of? The anointing of the oil
on Aaron. They poured it on his head and
it went down his beard and went down to the hem of his garment.
And when the scripture says the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed
with the oil of gladness above his fellows. What is that oil
a picture? It's a picture of the spirit
of God, isn't it? And what's the wine a picture of? It's the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what the Word of God
is all about. It's about His blood. It's about His sacrifice. So what's the Lord doing? He's
binding up the wounds that sin has caused by giving us the oil
of His Spirit and the truth of His Word and showing us that
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has bore the penalty of our sin
and provided us a righteousness that's outside of ourselves. He went to him. Oh Lord, come
to where I am. He bound up his wounds. He poured
oil and wine on him. Lord, give us your spirit. Give us more of your spirit and
cause us to see more and more of the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. His blood is my hope. His blood
is my life. The only way I'm going to get
out of this ditch that I'm in, the only way I'm going to avoid
Jericho, the city of destruction and the city of judgment and
the cursed city, the only way I'm going to avoid it. is if
you come and pour oil and wine on my wounds and take me to the
inn. Notice where he takes him. There's
no evidence that this inn is in Jericho. Somewhere along this
road between Jerusalem to Jericho, there's an inn, a roadside inn. What's that a picture of? Well,
we're in that inn right now, aren't we? It's the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the Lord picking up out
of compassion, going to where sinners are, not expecting them
to come to where he is, but going to where they are, having been
judged and condemned by the law, having been wounded by the fall,
He goes to where they are. He picks them up. He binds their
wounds with oil and with wine, and he carries them to the inn. Look at, look at verse 34. He went to
him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set
on his own beast. He set him on his own beast.
He takes him himself, he carries him. He can't get there on his
own. He's got to be carried. He brought him to an end and took care of him. Brings him into the church, provides
him that place where he can be anointed with oil, and with wine
every day. And where others, other wounded
travelers on this road from Jerusalem to Jericho are in the same boat,
they're in the same need, they've got the same problem. And on
the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence Now, two pence is exactly the
same as a half a shekel. And in Exodus chapter 30, when
the Lord was given Moses the law, he said to Moses, every
Israelite over 20 years old is to bring to the temple, to the
tabernacle, a half a shekel for his atonement. And the rich are
not to bring more and the poor are not to bring less. Every
single Israelite was required to pay a half a shekel for his
atonement. That's a picture of the blood
of Christ. that has atoned us and it's the same again you see
it doesn't matter how rich we are how poor we are doesn't matter
how at what what sort of sins we've committed or or it doesn't
matter it's the same atonement for every single child of God
same exact price was paid for every one of us there's no atonement
outside of the work of Christ no atonement apart from his blood
so the Lord now provides for the inn, a half a shekel, two
pence. He's been atoned for in the same
way every one of you have been atoned for, same price. He took out two pence and gave
them to the host and said unto him, take care of him. That's
what we do here, isn't it? We take care of one another.
We encourage one another even more as we see the day approaching.
We are compassionate towards one another. We understand the
needs that we have. We understand the problem that
has gotten us in the, or the cause that's gotten us in the
problem that we have and the needs that we do have. Take care of him. And whatsoever thou spendest
more, when I come again, I'll repay thee. Oh, you can't outgive
God, can you? We're, we've not, we've not yet
received our full reward. And the Lord's, David said, when
I awake in thy likeness, I'll be satisfied. And that's what,
that's our hope. That's our hope, is to be made
in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're in his likeness
now spiritually, and in Christ, by virtue of our union with Christ,
we're in his likeness, we have his righteousness. But oh, to
be, to have the full payment made, the full reward. He said, when I come, when I
come back, I'll pay you the rest. I'll take care of, I'll, it'll
be, It'll be complete then, won't it? Which now of these three speakest
thou, or thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell upon the thieves?
Now remember, the self-justifying lawyer is wanting to know who
my neighbor is. And the Lord's meeting him exactly
where he came, on the basis of the law. And he's saying, okay,
now, you asked me who your neighbor is. Which one was a neighbor
to that man? Well, the one that showed mercy on him. Okay, you
go and do likewise. You want to be saved by the law?
Be a good Samaritan. See if you can be good enough.
No, you can't, can you? Now, here's the truth. Go and
do likewise. is exactly what every child of
God is doing right now. In the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, he is the Good Samaritan.
He is. But by virtue of the fact that
we are in him. We are the Good Samaritans. We're
doing likewise right now. As the Lord shows mercy towards
each robbed, beaten, left for dead sinner on the side of the
road, every child of God is participating in that work of the Good Samaritan. So let the world boast, let them
be proud, Let them justify themselves and
think that, you know, I'm doing good. We know. We know who the Good
Samaritan is. And we know that his work is
our work. That's why he said to the disciples,
he said, greater works than these will they do. How is it that
we do greater works than what the Lord Jesus Christ did? because
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is so much broader now, isn't
it? So many more and every child
of God, because they're in Christ is participating in that work. Our heavenly father, we're thankful. That the Lord Jesus Christ saw
us had compassion on us, came to where we were. Bound our wounds. With the spirit and with the
word. Brought us into the church. Paid our half shekel of atonement.
provided all that we needed. Lord, we know that the law has
to remain on the other side of the road. Lord, how thankful we are that
the Lord Jesus Christ, who satisfied that law, came to where we are. Or deliver us from any thought
of being able to. Justify ourselves before thee.
And cause us to find. Our comfort and our hope in Christ,
for it's in his name we pray. Amen. The top. Which 128 in the Sproul hymnal,
let's stand number 28. God has mercy on whom he will,
and when he will, he hardens still. To whom he will, he gives
his grace, and when he will, he hides his face. Let none despise God's sovereign
throne. He does what he will with his
own. It is his right to save or kill
according to his sovereign will. Yes, God saved some and others'
leaves to reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages
past, God made His choice and it stands fast. Aware that I'm
a guilty man, and that I'm in God's sovereign hand, prostrate
I fall before His throne, a wretched, helpless, guilty one. Lord, if you will, you can, I
say, take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at your
throne, I beg for mercy through your Son. Now trusting Jesus
Christ, God's Son, I know that I'm His chosen one. And God's eternal, sovereign
choice makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice.