Good evening. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number, I didn't even bring it up here, number 38 from
the Spiral Hymnbook, Gospel Hymn 38. The Debt of Love, let's
all stand together. Come, every sinner, saved by
grace, you who by faith God's Son embrace. Tell all who hear
your voice below the debt of love to Christ you owe. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee. All that I am, or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. He left his father's throne above
and came to earth on wings of love. For us he lived the perfect
man and so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Jesus endured his father's ire
and died at the appointed hour. What he endured, no tongue can
tell, to save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From death's dark grave our King
arose, And triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies
the victor rode, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From heaven Christ will quickly
come and bring his ransomed people home. There we shall see his
lovely face and chant the praises of his grace. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's read from
God's word, Psalm 54, for our call to worship. Psalm 54. Every prayer that we pray can
be summed up with the first words of this Psalm. Save me, oh God. Save me from myself. Save me
from my sin. Save me from the powers of hell.
Save me from the wrath that is to come. Lord, I'm in need of
being saved. Save me, oh God, by thy name. According to thy name and thy
namesake. And judge me by thy strength. Don't judge me according to my
life. Judge me according to thy strength. Judge me in Christ. Hear my prayer, O God. Give ear
to the words of my mouth. For strangers are risen up against
me, and oppressors seek after my soul. They have not set God
before them. Now, as always is the case, these
words in the Psalms can be understood first and foremost as the words
of Christ praying to the Father from the cross. But it's our experience as well,
isn't it? That strangers, we're strangers, we're pilgrims, we're
foreigners in a foreign land, and the whole world is opposed
to the gospel that we believe. Behold, behold, behold. Oh, look. That's what that word
behold means. Stop and look. Give this your
undivided attention. God is my helper. The Lord is with them that uphold
my soul. The Lord God is with them that
look to Christ. He shall reward evil unto my
enemies, cut them off in thy truth. If there's no judgment
against the enemies of God, then there is no salvation for the
friends of God. You can't have one without the
other. I will freely sacrifice unto
thee. I will praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good. The Lord
Jesus Christ made the sacrifice. Sacrifice and offerings thou
wouldest not, a body thou hast prepared for me. The sacrifices
of God, our broken spirit and contrite heart, the Lord Jesus
Christ had that. For he hath delivered me out
of all trouble. And mine eye has seen his desire
upon mine enemies. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly
Father, once again, you've been pleased and gracious and merciful
to allow us to come and bring us here to this place. You've
given us your word and you promised to send your spirit. Lord, we
come before thy throne of grace as sinners in need of your grace
and in need, Lord, of you Fulfilling those promises in our presence
here this evening, we pray that you'd be pleased to speak. We
pray that you'd be pleased to save us. Save us, oh God, according
to thy namesake. Oh, we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number 168, Even Me, number 168. We'll sing this a cappella. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing. Thou art scattering, full and
free. ? Showers the thirsty land refreshing
? ? Let some drops now fall on me ? ? Even me, even me ? ? Let
thy blessing fall on me ? ? Pass me not, O tender Savior ? ? Let
me love and cling to thee ? I am longing for thy favor, whilst
thou art calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
Speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich, and free. Grace of God so strong
and boundless, magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let
thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, Let thy
blessing fall on me. Amen. Please be seated. That's a hymn that only a sinner
can sing with understanding. Lord, that you would have mercy
on someone like me. One of the things that you come
to realize very quickly in listening to the religious world try to
explain salvation is that they have no idea what it is to be
a sinner. They don't talk about being a sinner. They talk about
God rewarding you for what you do. And that was so clear today. I wrote a little piece that I
want to read to you this evening and introducing Psalm 53, which
is where we're going to be tonight. Psalm 53. Oh, that salvation
would come out of Zion. That was David's prayer. And
that's our prayer. Salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he did come out of Zion and
he continues to come out of Zion. Today, I was passing by several times, listening
to the comments that were being made during President Bush's
funeral. And then I just struck me the
contrast between that funeral and another funeral that took
place this week. And I wrote this, I said, is
a person's life measured by the glory that men give them as they
depart from this world or by the glory that God gives them
at their entrance into the next? The whole world observed today
the funeral of George H.W. Bush. And it was an impressive
ceremony full of precision and pomp fit for king. The setting
was the austere National Cathedral. The participants were made up
of some of the most powerful people in our world. Every step
and every word was choreographed to maximize a dramatic effect
on the hearts and minds of all. No doubt, by man's standards,
President Bush could be called a quote, good man. No doubt, he was loved by his
family. No doubt, he was instrumental and influential in this world.
But if Mr. Bush's hope for the salvation
of his immortal soul was reflected by the empty, pious platitudes
that were spoken at his funeral today, I fear the glory of his
departure from this world far exceeds the glory that he has
now. Five hundred miles away from
Washington, D.C., on the backside of an Indian reservation in Cherokee,
North Carolina, there was another funeral this week. The body of
the sister laid to rest was taken from her deathbed and in less
than 12 hours was respectfully placed in a pine box and returned
to the earth from which it came. There were no news cameras, no
dignitaries, no flowery speeches of her accomplishments, just
her grieving husband and a few family members and friends. The words spoken at her gravesite
were of the successful savior of sinners that Laverne Lamb
trusted for the keeping of her soul. The hope that we have for
our dear sister in Christ is that the glory that she received
from God infinitely exceeded the glory that she got from man.
They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Men will sacrifice, The praise
of God for the praise of man. What a contrast. What a contrast. I want to go out of this world
like Laverne, don't you? You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 53. There were so many blasphemous
things that were said today. at President Bush's funeral. One preacher was reading from
what appeared to be a Bible and instead of reading, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, he quoted from
his Bible, whosoever commits himself to me shall be saved.
And then he went on to say that he was sure that heaven now was
a kinder place that George Bush was there. That's exactly what the world
believes. That's what they believe. They
have no idea. The fool hath said in his heart,
no God. How rarely do you meet someone
who professes to be an atheist. I've met a few, but it's not
often. Psalm 53 is almost verbatim of
Psalm 14. Sunday I mentioned from Isaiah
chapter 6 that the Lord uses repetition for the purpose of
emphasis. And what do we learn in school? Repetition is the
first law of learning, right? And kids say, well, we've been
through this before. When are you going to go through
it again? And the Lord uses repetition in order to emphasize those things
that are most important. That's why the Lord often said,
verily, verily, I say unto you, I'm going to summarize now something
that's very, very important for you to remember. Psalm 53 is
exactly the same, almost, except for a couple of words from Psalm
14. And in Romans chapter three,
the Apostle Paul quotes from these two Psalms. When he says,
there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Now, we must ask ourselves, why
would the Lord repeat the same Psalm twice? For the same reason
the Apostle Paul quotes from these Psalms in Romans chapter
three. because this is the message that
the world's not believing. This is the message they don't
hear. They don't believe themselves to be sinners. They believe that
they're going to recommend themselves to God by something that they've
done. President Bush's own testimony
and reaffirmed by his family members today was that he felt
guilty because he survived a plane crash when he was, what, 18,
19, 20 years old? And he spent his whole life trying
to prove himself worthy for having been the survivor when his cohorts
died in that same crash. Guilt is a powerful motivation. But no man can atone for his
own sins. No man. Man by nature, he's at
enmity with God. He comes into this world speaking
lies, drinking iniquity like water, raising his fist against
God. All men by nature are born fools. And the fool hath said in his
heart. You see in that verse one, there
is as in italics, that means that the publishers or the translators
added it for clarity. But it actually is more easily
understood and we just understand it like it. The fool has said
in his heart, no God, I'll not have this man reign over me.
I'll not trust in him for all my righteousness. I'll not look
to the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for all my justification
before God. I'm not going to believe in a
God who sovereignly, according to his own will and purpose,
chooses a people without my say so. I'm not going to believe
in a Christ who only laid down his life for a particular people. The fool has said in his heart,
no God, I'm not gonna have it your way. And the believer says,
oh Lord, if you don't save me, I won't be saved. And the believer
rejoices in being saved God's way, God's way. A way by which
God gets all the glory and all the credit. Our sister Laverne
gave instructions for her funeral. And unlike the glory that was
given to our president today, her instructions were, tell them
about my savior. If you're gonna say anything
at all, talk about Christ. Talk about Christ. Talk about
his successful work of redemption. The fool has said in his heart. Now, how do we know he says it
in his heart? Because he says it with his lips and now the
heart perceives the issues of life, the mouth speaks as the
heart thinks. So you listen to what a person
says and you can tell what's in their heart. That's why the scripture says
by your words you'll be justified and by your words you'll be condemned.
Now not every idle word that comes out of our mouths, we all
speak words that we don't want to be judged by those words,
but what we say about Christ and what they say about Christ
is in stark contrast, just as much contrast as was those two
funerals. Those two funerals stood in complete
Complete opposites of one another. And yet one was received with
all the angels in heaven rejoicing and the Lord Jesus Christ giving
to her His glory and making her to be just like Him. And the
other, what do we know? Well, we just know what He said.
We know what they said about Him. We know something about
the religious organization that he affiliated with and how there's
no gospel in that. The fool has said in his heart,
no God, I'm not going to believe everything that's in the Bible. I don't believe that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. I'll pick and choose what I want.
I'll take my pen knife like that king back there in the Old Testament
who cut up the scriptures. He took the scroll and he cut
out the person's parts he didn't like and threw them into the
fire. That's what men do today. The fool has said in his heart,
no, God, I'm not going to have it your way. I'm going to have
it my way. I'm going to have something to
say about my salvation. I'm going to get some credit.
I'm going to get some glory. I want men talking about me like
they talked about Mr. Bush when I died. I want my life
to count for something. I want people to be impressed. Why? Because the fool, the fool
loves the praise of men more than the praise of God. That's
it. I'm not going to believe that
God only loves a particular people. I'm not going to believe that.
I'm going to believe that God loves everybody. That's what
the fool says. That's what the fool says. The fool has said
in his heart, no God. Jacob I'd love, Esau I'd hate.
No, God, no. You don't hate anybody. You love
everybody. I'm going to believe that God's like me. Oh, you thought
that I was altogether such a one as thyself. That's the natural
man, isn't it? That's the fool. Now, here's
the thing about it, brethren. Had God not shown mercy toward
us, we'd be fools too. We'd be fools. Because that's
just the natural That's just the natural way. Who maketh thee to differ? What
do you have that you have not received? The fool has said in
his heart, no, God, I don't believe that everything about me is sinful. That's what the fool says in
his heart. I'm not going to accept that. Yeah. Men talk about a person. I want people to say that I'm
a good man. I want them to say that. I want,
you know, if they're going to judge me by other men, you know,
I don't want to be a bad man. You don't want to be a bad person. But that's what the world has
a different standard of judgment, don't they? When they talk about
good men and bad men, what they're talking about is one man compared
to another man. I'm not going to believe that
before God there's nothing good in me because I seek some good
things. That's what the fool has said
in his heart. Corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity. Now you remember what iniquity
is, transgression, iniquity and sin. Those are the three words
that the scriptures, the good, the bad and the ugly. Transgression
is the bad deeds and equity is the good deeds and sin is what
we are. And here he says, this fool who is corrupt in their
thinking, they're perverted in their thinking, they will not
believe what God says about man. God says that the best thing
that you do is abominable iniquity. That's what it is. And the believer
said, amen, amen, Lord. The more I look at myself and
the more I look at my motives and the more I look at what I
do and what I ought to be doing and what I don't do, and the
more I look to Christ and compare myself to him, the more I realize
that everything I do falls short of the glory of God. and nothing
in me is righteous. Nothing in me is good. Nothing
in me is holy. They have done abominable iniquity. There is none that doeth good."
Now this is what Paul quotes from in Romans chapter 3. Again,
I remind you, the same psalm, word by word, verse by verse,
is quoted in Psalm 14. Except for one verse changes
a little bit, but the rest of it is the same psalm. You say,
well, Did the translators miss something?
No. The Lord put it in there twice, didn't he? And then he
quoted from it. Why? Because this is what men
are missing. This is what they don't believe.
They don't believe that they have abominable iniquity. They don't believe that all those
things that they praised that they praise men for and that
they praised our president for, God says, is abominable iniquity. They don't believe that. So they
have no need for Christ because they have righteousness of their
own in order to recommend them to God. And God says they are
fools. The fool has said in his heart. He believes this. He believes
this with his whole heart. He really believes it. Corrupt are they, they have done
abominable iniquity. There is none that doeth good.
God looketh down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand or that did seek God. Every one
of them has gone back. They are altogether become filthy.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. When the Lord describes the Gentiles,
the godless Gentiles in Romans chapter one and two, you can
just hear the self-righteous Jews, amen, and everything that's
being said. And then the Lord turns to those
religious Jews and he says, you're just like them. You that judge
the Gentiles are guilty of the very same thing, for there is
none that doeth good, no, not one. Whether you're outwardly
moral or religious or godless in your behavior, God says, it's
all abominable iniquity. There's nothing to hope for,
there's nothing to trust in for your righteousness in yourself,
nothing. This is what the world's missed.
This is what you won't hear. You won't hear it. In religion,
they just, well, because they don't believe it. They believe
in their hearts that good people go to heaven and bad people go
to hell and the truth is just the opposite. The truth is just the opposite.
Good people go to hell and bad people go to heaven. And somebody hears that and they
say, what are you talking about? Well, if you understand what
it is to be good and what it is to be bad, and you understand
what God's standard of righteousness is, and that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only one that's good, and the only ones that come to
him for salvation are those who are bad, then you'll understand. The world's
got it upside down. They've got it backwards. And
it doesn't matter what religious persuasion you listen to. This
is the reason why this psalm is written in God's Word twice
and why it's quoted in Romans chapter 3. And it's the message that gives
every child of God hope. Yeah, I heard a philosopher say
just the other day, he said, He'd written a book on how to
be happy. And he said, the secret to happiness is low expectations.
And I thought, well, you know, you got something there. You
know, he was saying that, you know, Americans are the most
prosperous and yet they're the most unhappy people in the world
because they're not content and they're always expecting more
and they're always wanting more. And I thought, there's a lot
to be said about that. And then I thought, you know,
low expectations of yourself is pretty freeing too, isn't
it? When you realize that everything about you is sinful before God,
you don't have to pretend to be something that you're not. You're free. You're free from
the pretentious legalism of religious people. And the real means to
happiness, and happiness is only found in Christ, is low expectations
of yourself. What does verses two and three
tell us? It tells us that God looks at the heart. Man looks
at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. He, he, in
Psalm 139, he, he, he knows our words before we speak them, he
knows our thoughts before we think them. Man looks at the
outward appearance and they're impressed. They're impressed. But God looks at the heart. He
sees everything, every motive, every nuance, every thought,
and he calls it all abominable iniquity. There is none that
doeth good. No, not one. God looks down from
heaven upon the children of men. God sees us for what we are.
And how freeing it is for the child of God to say, I don't
have to pretend. Believers, this is not a license
to sin. No, it's the only power there
is against sin. It's the only thing that gives
me the freedom to look to and rest in and rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But we're not, we don't have
to pretend to be something we're not. And we don't have to try
to atone for something that we did and we don't, it's just having
a low expectation of yourself. Have the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Verse 4, have they no knowledge?
No. No. Paul said in Romans chapter
10, they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God's righteousness,
they go about trying to establish their own righteousness not knowing
that Christ himself is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. And so God said, don't you know
what you're doing? Don't you understand that everything you're
presenting to me for the hope of your salvation is abominable
iniquity? Do you have no knowledge of who
I am and what it is that I require? And what I require, I have provided. And the only thing I accept is
that which I provided and everything that I provided, I have provided
in the person of my son. You see that? No, they don't
see it. The world does not see that.
And you wouldn't see it either and I wouldn't see it either
if God didn't give us eyes to see. It's called the mystery
of iniquity. It's the mystery of the gospel. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the
Lord speaks of the mystery of iniquity. What is so mysterious
about iniquity? Well, if iniquity is the good
things that men do, that they boast themselves in, it's the
good things that they're hoping in for their salvation, when
in fact those good things that they do, that God says, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. When they
boast in all the good things they do, God says, Not only is
that not good, but the fact that you trusted in it. You robbed
my son of his glory. You didn't look to the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You rested the hope of your salvation
in your own works. And that is mysterious to the
unbeliever. It's contrary to everything they
believe. It's contrary to what the fool
thinks in his heart about himself and about God. This psalm is
so important. Look at verse 5. There were they. Now this is
the judgment of the fool. We read about it in Revelation
17, 18, 19, 20. We're going to look at a couple
of verses over there in Revelation. But this is the judgment of revelation
of the fool. This is something you don't wanna
ever be a part of. The fool has said in his heart,
no God. And God says, there's no fear
of God before their eyes. They have no fear of me. They
don't fear my judgment. And the evidence of that is that
they're willing to present their works for the hope of their salvation. They're willing to present their
free will for the hope of their salvation. They don't fear me.
They think they measure up. Now here's what the fear of God
is. The fear of God is what's in the believer's heart. Lord,
I don't want to stand before you without Christ as my advocate.
I have nothing to defend myself. I have no grounds on which to
stand other than your dear Son. And if He doesn't stand in my
stead and represent me, I've got nothing to look forward to
but judgment and wrath. If the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
suffer the wrath of God for me on Calvary's cross and put away
my sins by the sacrifice of Himself, I've got nothing to look forward
to but eternal damnation. They don't believe that. They
do not believe that. They have some pious platitudes
that they say about Jesus. You know, one of the preachers
today compared President Bush to Jesus because Jesus washed
the disciples' feet and that's what President Bush spent his
life doing, washing people's feet. No fear of God. And this is not
a unique, unusual thing. This is the message of salvation
that the world has. And so verse five is, there were
they in great fear where no fear was. Now they're standing in
the presence of God and they're experiencing His wrath. And they're
hearing him say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
I never knew you. They had no fear of God before.
And now it's too late. It's too late. They were there in great fear
where no fear was. For God has scattered the bones
of him that encamped against thee. Thou hast put them to shame
because God has despised them. Turn to me to Revelation chapter
17. If there's no judgment against
the reprobate, then there's no hope of salvation for the elect.
You can't have one without the other. Revelation chapter 17, look at
verse 14. These shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is the Lord of lords
and King of kings, and they that are with Him are called and chosen
and faithful. These are those who stood up
against God. Look at Revelation chapter 18, verse 7. How much she hath glorified herself. This is Babylon. Now Babylon
is the perversion of the gospel in the world. The epitome of Babylon and Revelation
makes it clear in Revelation chapter 10 that Babylon is built
as a city on seven hills and nothing's changed. Rome is built
on seven hills and the epitome of Babylon is Roman Catholic
Church. No question about that. She's
described, now she's got a lot of children and the Episcopalians
are about as close to Roman Catholicism as they can get. They look more
like their mother than anyone else. And that's who President
Bush associated himself with. So here's God's judgment against
Babylon, Revelation chapter 18. Verse seven, how much she hath
glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give
her, for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow
and shall see no sorrow. I've made a covenant with death.
With hell, I'm in agreement. I don't fear the judgment of
God. I'm ready to go. They have no
bands in their death, the scripture says. Therefore shall her plagues come
in one day, death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly
burned with fire for strong is the Lord God who judged her. Look at verse 10, standing afar
off for the fear of her torment saying, alas, alas, that great
city Babylon, that mighty city for in one hour is thy judgment
come. Men do not believe. that there's
a holy God who's going to judge all these self-righteous religious
Babylonians. They don't believe it. Those
men stand in robes and they speak so eloquently and they boast
in their good works and God says, here's what's going to happen.
They don't believe it. The fear, the fool has said in
his heart, no, no God, that's not going to happen to me. Look at Revelation chapter 19
verse 17, and I saw an angel standing in
the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls
that flew in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together
unto the supper of the great God that you may eat the flesh
of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and
the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh
of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. For I saw
the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered
together to make war against him that sat on a horse and against
his army. And the beast was taken and with
him the false prophets that wrought miracles before him with which
he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and then
that worshiped his image, these both were cast alive into the
lake of fire with brimstone. What is the mark of the beast? Well, it's the number six. What does the number six represent? Seven's the number of perfection. Seven's the day, the number of
rest, isn't it? The seventh day God rested. What
did He do on the sixth day? What did He do on the sixth day?
He made man. Man. That's the mark of the beast. Man's righteousness. Man's self-atonement. Man's pride. Man's glory. That's the mark. And that, you
know, I fear less by any means, any means, that as Eve was beguiled
by Satan, so you should be corrupted by the simplicity that is in
Christ. Someone told me recently that
they know a preacher who mocks me and us because of the emphasis
that we put on the simplicity of Christ. They told me that this past week.
This preacher said, Christ is not simple. The gospel is not
simple. I'm the trained theologian. If
the laity want to know God, they got to come through me. Don't
tell folks that the gospel is simple. They won't need you anymore.
And that's what preachers do. That's what these preachers did
today on TV. They're just like lawyers and doctors. They've
got their own language. And they make men dependent upon
them in order to get to God. It's called priestcraft. It's
called the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And twice the Lord said in Revelation
Chapter 2, I hate it. But the natural man loves it.
The men in the pew love clergy laity. They love the doctrine
of the Nicolaitans because it relieves them of their responsibility
of having to deal directly with God. The preacher will take care
of my soul. No, he won't. He can't. And the man in the pulpit loves
it because he gives him power over the people, which is what
Nicolaitan means. And God says, I hate it. I hate
it. But here's the religion of the
world, isn't it? This is it, oh brethren. The
gospel is simple and it's clear. We have no righteousness and
we can't atone for our sins. Christ did it all. He did every
bit of it. We have nothing but abominable
iniquity. There is none that doeth good.
God looketh down from heaven into the souls of men and he
sees that everything about them is sinful. And one day, the world is going
to suffer the judgment and wrath of God. In verse 6, oh, that
the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion. Israel is the
only one going to be saved. Revelation chapter 10 makes that
clear. Or Revelation 11, Romans chapter 11. All Israel shall
be saved. And only Israel shall be saved.
No one outside of Israel is going to be saved. You know I'm talking
about spiritual Israel. Those have been circumcised by
the Spirit in the heart. Those are the true children of
Abraham. And what does David say? Oh, that the salvation of
Israel will come out of Zion. Oh Lord, make yourself, the Lord
Jesus Christ himself is the salvation of Israel and he did come out
of Zion. He entered into a covenant of
grace with the Father in eternity past. He's the lamb that was
slain before the foundation of the world. Sacrifice and offerings,
thou wouldest not a body thou hast made for me. I have come to do thy will, O God. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
came to do. Suffering even unto death, to
satisfy the demands of God's righteousness and shedding his
precious blood as a covering for the sins of his people and
he gets all the glory. And I say with our sister Laverne,
when you put me in the ground, talk about our Savior. Talk about
our Savior because there's nothing in this life worth talking about.
No accomplishments in this life worth boasting in. Oh, but there's
so much in him worth boasting in. Oh, that the salvation of
Israel would come out of Zion. When God bringeth back the captivity
of his people, we were held captive by our sin. Now, being held captive by your
sin means that you are unable to believe the gospel. You are
unable to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are blinded
to the truth of the gospel. You hold in your heart what every
fool holds in his heart, no God, no God. And when God delivers
you from the captivity, from that captivity and gives you
faith and enables you to rest all the hope of your salvation
on Christ, then Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. Jacob, that old man, shall rejoice. Rejoice in that this old man's
been crucified with Christ. He's been put to death. Israel,
oh, she's glad. Glad to know that there's a day
when the glory that we will receive from God will be infinitely greater
than the most glory that men get from men. And so I ask this question as
I read this statement to the beginning, is a person's life
measured by the glory that men give them at their departure
from this world, or is it measured by the glory that God gives them
by entrance into the next? I'm interested in that second
one, aren't you? Our merciful heavenly Father,
we're so very thankful for your word and oh, how we ask now,
Lord, that you would cause it to be effectual to our hearts.
We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together, Brother
Tom. Number nine. Yeah. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hast thou not chosen me? Thou, from the sin that stained
me, hast cleansed and set me free. Of old thou hast ordained
me, that I should live to thee. Your love had no beginning, no
cause in me was found. That you should choose to save
me, a sinner strongly bound. But grace not earned or sought
for was purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought, For
Christ paid the dreadful toll. T'was sovereign mercy called
me, And taught my opening mind. This world had else enthralled
me, To heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before Thee,
For Thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I loved Thee,
Thou must have loved me first. you