Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 22 in our Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn
book, number 22, For the Glory of His Grace. Let's all stand
together. We were ruined by the fall, Adam's
sin defiles us all. By our deeds as by our birth,
we deserve the law's great curse. Helpless, hopeless sinners we,
never can our souls retrieve. But the blessed Son of God Came
as man in flesh and blood He fulfilled the law's demands And
in death stretched out his hands On the cross of Calvary Christ
redeemed and set us free In the time which God had set, the Spirit
came for His elect to regenerate and call from the ruin of the
fall. By His power and by His grace,
we were born for God's own praise. ? Now your purpose we fulfill
? ? Saved according to your will ? ? Sing this song of joyful
praise ? ? For the glory of your grace ? ? Blessed Holy Triune
God ? ? Hear our praise through Christ our Lord ? Please be seated. That's such a simple hymn, isn't
it? Words are so true, comforting. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 39 for our call to worship. Psalm 39. Another Psalm of David. I said,
I will take heed to my ways that I send not with my tongue. I
will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. I was done with silence. I held
my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. He went
as a lamb to the slaughter. He opened not his mouth. My heart was hot within me while
I was musing the fire burned. Then, said I with my tongue,
Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my days, what
it is that I may know how frail I am. Our Lord's end as he was suffering
the wrath of God's justice on Calvary's cross was to be raised
from the dead and to be received back into glory. to be given
a name that is above every name. And what a reward that was and
is. My God, give us the grace to
say, Lord, show me the measure of my days that I would know
how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days
as a hand breath, and mine age is as nothing before thee. Barely
every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. The best thing man can do is
vanity and the best man, the best man, when he hung on Calvary's
cross emptied himself of his glory and bore the sins of his
people. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. Oh, we are, aren't we? We're
disquieted and vain. I was thinking today again about
that statement that I heard many years ago and you've heard me
repeat it. If we had the power of God, each one of us would
change to some degree or another pretty much everything in our
lives. If we had the wisdom of God, we'd change nothing. Yet
we get so disquieted, don't we, because we don't like our circumstances.
We're exactly where we're supposed to be. It's vain to be disquieted. And we're going to continue being
disquieted and discontent, but it's a blessing to be able to
admit how vain it is, isn't it? He heapeth up riches and knoweth
not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the
foolish. I was dumb. I opened not my mouth because
thou ditched it. The father had ordained everything
the son would go through. Remove thy stroke away from me.
I am consumed by the blow of thy hand. When thou with rebukes
dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume
away like a moth, surely every man is vanity. The Lord makes
you to be a sinner. You come to realize how, how
uncomely you are left to yourself and how dependent you are on
his strength and his beauty. Hear my prayer, O Lord. and give
ear unto my cry, hold not thy peace at my tears. For I am a
stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Oh, spare
me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we ask that You would be pleased now in this hour to send Your
Spirit in power and enable us to speak and to hear of Thy dear
Son. We thank You for the words that
You've given us in Thy Word, particularly the words that were
in the heart of our Lord as He hung there on Calvary's cross.
Lord, we pray that You would enable us to hear him and to
hear of him and from him. Lord, that we would find our
comfort and our strength and all our salvation in his glorious
accomplished purpose and work. We ask it in Christ's name. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 17 in your hardback timbrel, number 17. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune 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 love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, Here
by thy help I'm come, And I hope by thy good pleasure, Safely
to a private home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wand'ring from the fold of God, He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind 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. Please be seated. We are prone to wonder what hope
we have in knowing that we have one who never wandered for a
moment. He never wandered away from the
father. He did everything exactly as the father willed him and
purposed him to do, and he satisfied all the things that you and I
are unable to accomplish. We open your Bibles with me to
Psalm 38. Psalm 38. I've titled this message true
contrition. True contrition. What is it to
be truly contrite? The Lord said in Psalm 34 verse
18, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and
saveth such that are of a contrite spirit. So God saves those who have a
contrite spirit. What is it to be contrite? What is true contrition? Psalm 51 verse 17 says, A broken
and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. And in Isaiah chapter 66 verse
2, To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. So God's made it
clear that he saves those and shows mercy towards those who
are of a contrite spirit. Psalm 38 is a prayer of true
contrition. Now, works religion, as we saw
Sunday, always takes the things that God commands man to do and
makes a work out of them. The Lord said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And so man, when he
hears that command says like the children of Israel, we'll
do it, we'll believe. And God says, you can't come
unto me unless the father which sent me draw him. This command
is given to you in order for you to see your inability to
keep it. What God requires, everything
that God requires, God must provide and God only accepts that which
He provides. So God requires a contrite spirit
and He requires perfect contrition. The child of God who's been made
by the Spirit of God to be a sinner says, Lord, how sorry do I need
to be? How sorry do I really need to
be? How contrite do I need to be? What sort of contrition would
please you, Lord? When someone offends you, and then they come back and express
genuine sorrow for that offense, You sense that they have some
understanding of the pain that they caused you in whatever it
was they did. And if you sense that they're
empathizing with you in what they did, then you are quick
and willing to forgive. But if their apology is shallow
and unempathetic, you think, you don't really know what you
did to me, do you? you don't really know what you did to me.
And oftentimes a person has to have that happen to them before
they're able to understand what they did to someone else. Isn't
that true? Father forgive them, they know
not what they do. We have no idea what we've done
to God. We can't be contrite, sufficient
enough We can't express enough sorrow,
enough contrition, because we don't really understand the effects
that our sin has had on him. The closest we can come to it
is to look to that one that we crucified. and to see what it
took God to put that sin away. That's the closest we can come,
but we don't understand that, do we? So how are we going to
go to a holy God and empathize sufficiently with Him and be convincing enough that we
understand what we've done when in fact we don't really understand
what we've done at all? The unbeliever, the works-minded
person will take all the admonitions of scripture and make a work
out of them. They'll make a work out of believing. They'll make
a work out of repenting. I'll repent. God says repent
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. I can do that. I'll
change my ways. I'll turn over a new leaf. I'll
stop doing that. God says, flee temptation. And
the proud Pharisee says, well, I can do that. I can resist the
devil. I can change. God says, husbands, love your
wisest. Christ loved the church and gave himself. I'll do that.
You see, all the admonitions of scripture are given to us
in order to show us our inability to do what God requires. and
cause us to cry out to Him, cry out to Him for the ability
to at least acknowledge those things. You see, a contrite spirit
for the child of God is to have been brought to the end of yourself.
The word contrite means to be crushed. It means to be crushed. It means to be overwhelmed with
a burden that you can't bear. And it doesn't mean that you
have some sort of deep sense of empathy
and understanding of what you've done. It means that you've got
a problem you can't fix. You've got a problem you cannot
fix. And only the Lord can bring you to that. So to be able... what God commands of a contrite
spirit, God must provide. He must bring us to that place
to where we realize, Lord, I've got a problem I can't fix. No
amount of time and no amount of money is going to solve this
problem. I need a surety. I need an advocate. I need a sin bearer. I need a
savior. I cannot atone for my sins. I can't do it. That's what it means to be of
a contrite spirit. And that's a work of grace. That's
a work of grace. Now, what the Lord's giving us in
Psalm 38 is some understanding of what the
Lord Jesus Christ... These Psalms are so beautiful,
aren't they? I mean, they're so They're so clearly first and
foremost, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of them,
David is speaking prophetically for the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he's, and these are the, you know, we have very few words
spoken by our Lord that are recorded in scripture during those hours
that he was on the cross. But we know that these were the
things that were in his heart. These are the, these are the
prayers that he was offering up to the father as he hung there. as the sinner substitute and
as he was experiencing sorrow for sin. You see, the unbeliever
will think, well, you know, I can lock myself up in a monastery.
I can take a vow of poverty. I can act super spiritual and
I can try to impress people with my piety. and I'll show you that
I can be contrite. That's not what it is to be contrite. What it is to be contrite is
to give up on trying to atone for your sins. It's to realize,
Lord, I'm coming to meet all you that labor. Lots of folks
laboring and are heavy laden. Lord, I've been laboring to try
to atone for my own sins and I can't do it. I can't do it. Oh, God, thou wilt not despise
a contrite heart. Why? Because only God can give
you a contrite heart. Only God can make a person come
to the conclusion, come to the end of themselves, come to the
place to where, Lord, I'm not capable of feeling the sorrow
that I need to feel for my sin. I am not capable of having a
sense of my sin properly. I don't know what all my sin
involves. and I've never been able to capable, I've never been
capable of separating myself completely from my sin. That's
not what it is to be contrite. But all those things that we're
unable to do, the Lord Jesus Christ did. Everything that God requires,
God must provide. And God only accepts that which
He provides. He provided a perfect contrition in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He provides for us to come
to the end of ourselves and to stop trying to atone for our
sins and to look to Christ for all the hope of our salvation.
He felt the sorrow. Now, if you take someone else's
punishment for something, and you do it unwillingly, then you're
going to be resentful, aren't you? If you take someone else's
punishment and you do it willingly, you may feel proud or justified. But if you're taking someone
else's punishment, one thing you will never ever be able to
feel is shame and sorrow. You can't do it. It's not possible. You might be angry, you might
be happy to do it, but you cannot feel the shame and sorrow for
that person because you know in your heart of hearts that
you didn't do it. Now what we have in Psalm 38 is exactly what the Lord said
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 when he said, and God made
him sin, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. What we have in Psalm 38 is a
beautiful picture of our perfect union with Christ and the imputation
of our sin was made so real to him. that he owned the sins of
his people as his own. He suffered the shame and sorrow
for sin. He satisfied what God required,
not only for a blood sacrifice, but for one who was able to empathize
with God for what sin had caused. You and I have no understanding
as to what sin really is to God. Very little. Very little. Like I said, the only understanding
we have is to know what it took for God to be able to put it
away. We saw that in Mark chapter 10
Sunday, didn't we? when James and John were wanting
to sit on the right hand and the left hand of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Lord said to them, are you able to drink of
the cup that I'm gonna drink from and to be baptized with
the baptism that I'm gonna be baptized with? And James and
John said, we are. You shall indeed. You shall indeed. So everyone
that Christ died for was in Christ on Calvary's cross and all the
wrath of God was poured out on the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ suffered,
he suffered sin like, he knew, he knew everything that sin meant
to God. And he bore in his body upon
that tree all the sufferings of the sins of his people. So God made him sin for us. Made him sin. He wasn't just
satisfying a legal arrangement. He was actually bearing the sins
of his people as if they were his own. Well, they weren't,
but he made them his own. Made them his own. Galatians
chapter 3 verse 13 says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. For as it is written,
cursed is everyone which hangeth upon a tree. So the curse of
God came down in its full fury on the Lord Jesus Christ as he
bore the sins of his people and suffered the shame and the humiliation
and the sorrow that you and I are not true contrition. Full contrition was only experienced
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Psalm 38 is all
about. These are the words from the heart of our Savior as he
hung on Calvary's cross. Oh Lord, rebuke me not in thy
wrath, neither chasten me in thine hot displeasure. My God, my God, why'st thou forsaken
me? Lord, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me, let it be nevertheless not my will,
but thine be done. The Lord is calling upon God
to make his judgments quick. For thine arrows stick fast in
me, and thy hand presseth me sore. The hand of God was pressing
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't just making a willing
sacrifice for sin. He was bearing our sins. Look,
there is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger. This
wrath of God, the justice of God, came from the anger of God. God is angry with the wicked
every day. God's holy justice demands his
full wrath and anger. And now the Lord Jesus Christ
is feeling that and he says, neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin. Here's my, you see, the Lord
Jesus Christ is offering to the Father a prayer of contrition
that you and I are not capable of, not like this, not like this. For mine iniquities have gone
over my head as a heavy burden, they're too heavy for me. The Lord Jesus Christ was heard
by the Father. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
5. Hebrews chapter 5. Verse 7. who in the days of his flesh
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard in that he feared. The scripture speaks of the things
that come from the human body as issues. In Genesis chapter 48 the offspring
of man is called an issue and we know that all the offsprings
of men are unclean. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who had golden loins, remember he had loins of gold
so that he's the only one that's able to produce an issue, an
offspring that's not unclean. In Leviticus chapter 15, the
scripture speaks of those who have a running sore and scripture
says that they are unclean and they have an issue that flows
from their body. Then you remember the woman with
the issue of blood, she had a menstrual problem and she was unclean because
of that. And then in Leviticus chapter
22 verse 4 the scripture speaks of lepers who have issues coming
from their body which make them unclean. Essentially everything
that comes from the human body is unclean except for one thing. One thing. Tears. Tears. David said thou hast put
my tears in a bottle and kept them. Are they not written in thy book? In Isaiah chapter 38 verse 5
when Hezekiah was told by Isaiah that he was going to die, Hezekiah
turned his face towards the wall. And he prayed and the Lord told
Isaiah, go back and tell Hezekiah that I've given him 15 years
for I have heard thy prayers and I have seen thy tears. The only thing that issues from
the human body that's precious in the sight of God is tears. Remember that notorious woman
that the tearless Pharisees fought She shouldn't be here. And what
was she doing? She was washing our Lord's feet
with her tears. And then we just read in Hebrews
chapter five that the Lord was heard for his tears. And that's the picture here in
Psalm 38. The Lord is crying out to the
Father with tears and he's being heard because he's fearing God
and he's offering a contrition on behalf of his people that
you and I aren't capable of offering. When God ever breaks our hearts
and gives us a contrite heart and causes us to have some sense
of of understanding as to what our sin means. Tears of the saints. Oh, child
of God, never be ashamed of your tears. Not before God. Not before
God. Turn with me to Psalm 6. Psalm 6, look at verse 6. I am
weary with my groaning. All the night make my bed to
swim. I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because
of grief. It waxeth old because of all
mine enemies. The Lord Jesus Christ owns the sins of His people as
His own. He's crying out with tears. God
is bottling up those tears in a bottle and he says, I've written
them in a book. I've heard thy prayers and I've
seen thy tears and I've accepted thy sorrow. Mine iniquities, go back with
me to our text. Mine iniquities, are gone over
my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. My
wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness." Oh, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful. The Lord wasn't just settling
a legal agreement that He made with the Father to make a sacrifice
for the sins of His people. He was actually presenting Himself
to the Father. on behalf of his people to satisfy
what God required for true contrition, a true contrite heart. I am troubled,
I am bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the day long, for
my loins are filled with loathsome disease." Now what is this? We read in Daniel where when
Daniel saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory, his loins were
as the gold of Uphaz, pure, perfect, producing nothing but that which
is like himself. The seed, the plant that produces
like itself with its own seed and hear the Lord Jesus Christ.
But now as he's on the cross and as he's expressing his contrition
to the father, he says, my loins are filled with nothing but loathsome
disease. Who was in his loins? Who was
in his loins? You and I. There is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken.
I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord,
all my desires before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee. Lord, you see my groaning. And by the grace of God, the
spirit of God brings us to groan over our sins. But if we look too closely, we
look too closely, we'll see how shallow our groanings are. And we'll see how quickly we're
able to get over them. And we'll see how unconsciously
we're able to go right back to them. God requires perfect contrition. Let the self-righteous religious
world think that because they're being pious and because they're
being super spiritual and because they're doing religious things
that they're being contrite. We will look to the perfect contrition. of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
hope of our sorrow before God. For what God requires, God must
provide. And God only accepts that which
he provides. Lord, all my, verse nine, all
my desires before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee.
My heart panteth, my strength faileth me for the light of my
eyes. It also is gone from me. Can only imagine what the Lord
was suffering physically in those last hours of his death and how
before he gave up the ghost, he must have lost his ability
to see. Turn with me to Isaiah 42. Isaiah
42. verse 18, Isaiah 42 verse 18. Hear ye deaf and look ye blind
that you may see. Remember Sunday I said the guy
that was bit first by the serpent in the wilderness was the blind
guy. How's he going to look? The Lord, somebody had to point
him to the serpent on the pole, didn't they? He turned his blind
eyes towards that serpent. Who is blind? Look at this. Who is blind but my servant or
deaf as my messenger that I sent? Now notice how this chapter begins. Behold my servant whom I uphold,
mine elect in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him,
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." This is all
about Christ. It's all about him. And now he
says, who's as blind as my servant? He's going blind on the cross,
but here the picture is that he's blinded to the sins that
he's bearing because they've been put away. That's what the
scripture means when God says, I've separated your sins from
you as far as the East is from the West, and I remember them
no more. I buried them in the depths of the sea. I've sewed
them up in a sack. I've buried them in the ground.
They're gone. I threw them behind my back.
I can't see them. Who is so blind as my servant? Who is blind as he that is perfect,
and blind as the Lord's servant? See many things, but thou observeth
not. Open in the ears, but he heareth
not. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake, for
he will magnify the law and make it honorable. Now, for as the
law saith, cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. And
when Philippians chapter three speaks about the obedience of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was obedient even unto death,
even the death of the cross. It wasn't just the faithfulness
that the Lord had in keeping the law in his life, it was the
faithfulness that he had in satisfying the demands of the law in his
death. He was obedient even unto death. The law required a death
sentence for sin to be put away he made the law honorable and now he sees our sin no more
put him away he's not looking to our contrition he's not looking
to our faith he gives us those things he's looking to Christ
Looking to Him. God looks to me for anything.
It's not going to be sufficient. Not going to be sufficient. Go back with me to Psalm 38.
This whole Psalm is a contrite spirit. It's perfect contrition. It's true contrition. It's true
sorrow. that the Lord Jesus Christ is
expressing to the Father for He alone, He alone understands what sin really is to God. My lovers and my friends, verse
11, stand aloof from my sore and my kinsmen stand afar off. They also that seek after my
life lay snares for me and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous
things and imagine deceits all the day long. But I, as a deaf
man, heard not, and I was as dumb man that opened not his
mouth." He was like a sheep that went to the slaughter, he opened
not his mouth. And you remember when Pilate
got so frustrated with the Lord? I mean, here's Pilate, so proud
and pompous, and he's got God before him and he doesn't know
it. And he says to the Lord Jesus Christ, you're not going to talk
to me? Don't you know that I have the power to crucify you? I have the power to let you go?
Don't you know who I am? And the Lord did finally speak
to Pilate, but what did he say? You've got no power at all except
that which is given to you from heaven. You're a pawn in the
hand of God. You think you're so powerful?
You don't have any power. No, I'm not speaking because
I'm fulfilling the Father's purpose. I'm satisfying what He requires
for contrition. I'm going as a sheep, willingly
laying down my life. Verse 14, thus I was as a man
that heareth not and in whose mouth are no reproofs." Oh, I need a God that doesn't hear
all the foolishness that comes out of my mouth. I need a God
who's not able to see my sin. I need a God who is satisfied. Satisfied with what the Lord
Jesus Christ did for me. And I need a God that's able
to make me satisfied with that which He's satisfied with, don't
you? And that's what contrition is. God gives you a contrite
heart, you're just satisfied with what God's satisfied with. Thus I was as a man that heareth
not, look at verse 15, for in thee, O Lord, do I hope. Thou
wilt hear, O Lord my God. For I said, hear me, lest otherwise
they should rejoice over me. When my foot slippeth, they magnify
themselves against me. Oh, and they did, they wagged
their heads, they spit upon him. They said, if thou be the Christ
coming down, you saved others, save yourself. They scourged
him and mocked him while he kept his mouth shut before men. He's
crying this prayer to the father. For I am ready to halt. And he
did halt. From the time they put that cross
on his back until Calvary's hill, he stumbled and fell. That's
what the word halt means. Someone else had to pick up the
cross, didn't they? For I am ready to halt. and my
sorrow is continually before me for I will declare mine iniquity
and I will be sorry for my sin. I've read a bunch of commentaries
on this verse in preparation for this message and it seems
like every single one of them talked about the need that we
have to be more sorry than we are. And we ought to be more
sorry than we are. By God's grace, we will be more
sorry than we are. But if the hope of my contrition
before God is based on how sorry I am? Mine enemies are lively and they
are strong, and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied
They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries, because
I follow the thing that good is." Don't you love the way the Holy
Spirit wrote that? He didn't say, I follow the thing that
is good. I follow the thing that good is. Everything that's good is what
the Lord Jesus Christ is. Why call us thou? I mean, there's
nothing good but God. I'll cause my goodness to pass
before you. Now, what the Lord said to Moses,
but I'm going to have to put you in the cleft of a rock where
no man can see the face of God and live. The Lord said, I follow
the thing that good is. I'm following my Father. And
I'm offering a sacrifice on behalf of my people that they're not
able to offer. They're not able to atone for
their own sins. They're not able to experience
the sorrow that they need to experience, that they ought to
experience. It's all I'm gonna do it for. Forsake me not, O Lord, O my
God. Be not far from me. And the father wasn't far from him,
was he? Make haste to help me, O Lord."
And I'm thankful that the Scripture doesn't say, O Lord of my salvation. The Scripture says, O Lord my
salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ looked
to the Father for all his salvation. He is salvation. Yes, salvation
is of the Lord. But salvation is the Lord. Is
the Lord. I am thine exceeding great reward.
I am thy shield. Christ is our life. And we're, we're bound up in
Him. Everything He did, we did. Everything
He did. We are the true circumcision
of worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the
flesh. We have no confidence in our ability to be contrite,
do we? By the Spirit of God, He makes
us to see that we have a problem. We've got a burden that we can't
bear. A burden that we can't bear.
That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. He bore
all the sins of all of his people. And he offered to the father
a contrition that was perfect and sincere. And the father heard
his prayer and the father answered his prayer and forgave him, forgave
him for all the sins that he bore on behalf of his people. our merciful Heavenly Father,
we thank you. Thank you that we have an advocate.
Thank you that we have thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whoever
lives to make intercession for us. And thank you, Lord, that
in our insincere attempts, in our hypocritical efforts, Lord,
and on our shallow contritions, that you're not looking to us,
but you're looking to that perfect contrite heart, that perfect
sacrifice. Lord, forgive us, grow us in
your grace, cause us to depend more and more on the Lord Jesus
Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Number 11, number 11, let's stand
together. With broken heart and contrite
side, A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry. Thy pardoning grace is
rich and free. O God, be merciful to me. I smite upon my troubled breast
With deep and conscious guilt oppressed Christ and His cross
my only plea O God, be merciful to me No works nor deeds that I have
done can for a single sin atone. To Christ the Lord alone I flee. O God, be merciful to me. ? And when redeemed from sin and
hell ? ? With all the ransom throng I dwell ? ? My raptured
song shall ever be ? ? God has been merciful to me ? everything about how far.