Looks like everybody's quieted
down and ready. Good thing. Let's open tonight's service
with 442 in your hardbacked hymnal. Let's all stand together. 442,
praise him, praise him. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children. In His arms, He carries them
all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas
sing. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, Prophet
and priest and king, Christ is coming over the world victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord
belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. I wanna try to bring a message
from Psalm 35 tonight on a prayer for justice, a prayer for justice. God's people love justice. They
know that without justice, there's no gospel. And in Revelation
chapter 19, we have the church gathered together, joining their
voices in praise, as we just sang to the Lord Jesus Christ,
for his justice. And verse 1, it says, and after
these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven
saying, hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power
unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are his judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again, they
said, hallelujah. And her smoke raised up forever
and ever. And the four and 20 elders and
the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that sat on the
throne saying, amen, hallelujah. And a voice came out of the throne
saying, praise our God, all ye servants, for ye that fear him,
both small and great, and I heard, as it were, the voice of a great
multitude, and the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
thundering, saying, hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife have made herself ready. We'll stop there. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
as we come to this place and to this hour, we're more reminded
than ever of our complete dependence upon you to come and to visit
us, to speak to our hearts, to open the eyes of our understanding,
to reveal to us the glory of Thy dear Son, that we might join
in with Thy Spirit in offering praise and worship. Lord, it
is our desire to know Thee, and we ask, Lord, that you would enable us now
in this hour to put aside those things that would distract us
from setting our affections on things above. Lord, we confess
to you that we have great distractions in this flesh and in this world.
But Lord, in this hour, our need is to know you, to see you, to
believe on you, to worship you. Oh, how we pray for your mercy
toward that end. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 44 and your spiral gospel
hymns hymnal. Let's all stand together 44. Precious Savior, friend of sinners,
we as such to Thee draw near. Let Thy Spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Matchless Savior, let us
know Thee As the Lord our righteousness Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee Come and with Thy presence bless Open now thy precious treasure,
let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. Leave us not to empty notions.
All our opinions are nothing but empty notions, aren't they?
The Lord doesn't speak by His word. We've got nothing to look
to. Psalm 35. Will you open your Bibles with
me there? I've titled this a prayer for justice by the innocent.
Only the innocent are interested in justice. The guilty are not
interested in justice. And Psalm 35 can be clearly seen
by the innocent one, the Lord Jesus Christ calling out to his
father to exercise justice on his behalf. It can also be seen
as those who are found in Christ being innocent. We rejoice in
justice. Justice is the foundation of
the gospel. Men want salvation without condemnation. You can't have it. You can't
have it. Someone had to be condemned in
order for salvation to be made real. Men want mercy without
justice. It's not to be had. The mercy
of God can only be known when the justice of God is satisfied. Without the justice of God, there's
no gospel. Men want love, a God who loves,
without a God who hates. It cannot be. It cannot be. I've known people that say they
believe in heaven, but they do not believe in hell. That's not
possible. There cannot be one without the
other. There cannot be salvation without justice. We do not want
God to change his nature and to usurp his justice in any way. Without justice, there's no eternal
life. There's no gospel. Without justice,
the death of Christ is completely vain. Now, before we get into
this text, I want you to turn with me, if you will, please,
to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Because Some might read Psalm 35 and
interpret these words as malicious revenge. It is not malicious
revenge. It is holy justice. It's like
what we just saw in Revelation chapter 19 when all the saints
of glory joined their voices together in singing hallelujah
to the lamb for the destruction of his enemies. We are commanded of the Lord
to love our enemies. We're commanded of our Lord to
do good unto them that hate us. This is not anything about revenge. Romans chapter 12, beginning
at verse 18, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather
give place unto wrath For it is written, vengeance is mine,
I will repay, saith the Lord. This justice is going to be exercised
by God, not by man, but by God. And we delight in knowing that
there is a God who maintains his justice and in so doing,
exercises mercy towards those who are in his son. Look at the
next verse. Verse 20. Therefore, if thine
enemy hunger, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him to
drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his
head. Be not overcome with evil, but
overcome evil with good. So the words of Psalm 35 as they
relate to the Lord Jesus Christ crying out to his Father for
justice and as they relate to the child of God. crying out
to our God for justice has nothing to do with revenge. It has everything to do with
maintaining the holy character of God and exercising his retribution
against that which breaks his law. Without justice, the law
doesn't mean anything, does it? How many laws are on the books
that are not punished? Those laws are a farce, aren't
they? There cannot be law without justice. There cannot be justice
without judgment. There cannot be salvation without
condemnation. The Lord said, Jacob I loved
and Esau I hated. You cannot have wrong without
right. You cannot have life without
death. The prayer for justice by the
innocent. Now. When this song begins, plead
my cause, oh Lord, with them that strive with me. Who strives with you? Who strives
with you? Do we? Do we offer this prayer
to our Lord? Lord, plead my cause against
those that strive with me. Biggest strife that you have
is the same biggest strife that I have, isn't it? It's right
within yourself. It's the flesh warring against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. Rebecca, I love this
passage in Genesis where Rebecca cries out to the Lord being pregnant
with twins. Jacob and Esau and she says,
why am I thus? Why do I have this conflict within
me? And the Lord answered her and
said, because there are two nations in thy womb. Two manner of people
are within you. One people is stronger than the
other. Now, initially, the Edomites
were stronger than the Israelites and those were the descendants
of Esau. And that's how it was to begin with. But as time went
on, the Israelites overthrew the Edomites. And is that the
way it is with us? Because the Lord said, the older
shall serve the younger, which was just the backwards of how,
reverse of how it was supposed to be. Esau was going to serve
Jacob. And so it is with our Esau nature,
our old man, He serves the new man. It's the rearing of the
ugly head of the old man that reminds the new man that he's
got to flee to Christ, isn't it? The older really does serve
the younger. And in the end, the stronger
will be Jacob, will be Israel. Now, we do have some enemies
and they make accusations against us. Satan doesn't have to make
up lies in order to accuse us. Generally speaking, a guilty
conscience is founded in truth. The law of God speaks against
us and shuts our mouths. The scripture says that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. So these are some of our accusers,
aren't they? And we pray for justice. Oh,
Lord, silence the accusers. Silence the mouth of Satan who,
yes, when he makes accusations against me, they're founded in
me. But his accusations aren't for
the sake of bringing up my sin. His accusations are for the sake
of trying to get me to go back to the law. That's what his accusations
are for. What he says when Satan accuses
the brethren, what he says about us is true. It's true. But justice says that that sin
has been put away. It's been satisfied. It no longer
charges us. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. And so, Satan, when we say, Lord,
plead my cause, oh Lord, with them that strive with me, fight
against them that fight against me. Believers have this war. They have a war with their flesh.
They have a war with the world. What's the scripture say about
our flesh? Well, the final enemy is death. And so, when we say, Lord, plead
my cause with those who fight against me uh... there's going
to come a day when when the lord's going to exercise his justice
against this flashers they go right back to where it came from
there's going to be a day when when satan is going to be cast
into the lake of fire there's going to be a day when this world
which is so contrary to everything that we hope for and everything
that we believe and yet Our old man is so attracted to it, isn't
he? We've got this constant conflict. Plead my cause, Lord. Plead my
cause. There's going to be a day when
this world will be no more. It'll pass away. You know what the Lord said?
Heaven and earth shall pass away. Believers are falsely accused When it comes to the gospel,
when it comes to the gospel, we're falsely accused. Blessed
are you when men say all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake. Lord, plead my cause when men
would make accusations against me because of you. The Lord went
on to say, blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness
sake. And Peter speaks of that in 1
Peter chapter 3 when he says, they will falsely accuse you
for your good conversation in Christ. That's what the accusations
come for. They come against us, accusing
us of being unloving, accusing us of being intolerant, accusing
us of being too narrow, proud, you're the only ones. Do you
think you're the only ones that are saved? accuse us of being
antinomian, lawless. I heard a man say one time, if
I believed what you believed, I'd live like hell. Yeah, you would. You would. If you believed grace without
the Holy Spirit, if you believed grace without any love for Christ,
yeah, that's probably how you would live. But that's what they accuse us
of, antinomianism. The early believers were accused
of having love feasts when they would meet to have the Lord's
table and meet to worship together. And the people made all sorts
of lewd accusations about what went on in these meetings that
weren't true. They weren't true. The law is for the lawless. And nowhere in the scriptures
do we find God using the law to motivate or monitor or in
any way direct the lives of his children. We're not under the
law, not under the law. So we cry with the Lord Jesus
Christ, plead my cause, oh Lord, with them that strive against
me. Lord, restrain this old man.
Keep him from being what he would be. Lord, this world, keep me from
loving it. Keep me from becoming a part
of it. Lord, the accuser of the brethren,
keep me from believing his accusations. The condemnation of the law,
Lord, keep me, plead my cause, enable me to flee to Christ in
all the accusations that are made against me. For they are too strong for me. That's what David goes on. Now,
David's writing this psalm fleeing from Saul. And what a
picture it is of not only the believer but most especially
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, those that he treated with kindness. David treated Saul kindly, with
respect, and Saul turned around against him and abused him. And so David's saying, Lord,
plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me. Fight
against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler
and stand up for my help. Lord, give me faith. Give me
faith. Increase my faith. That's the
shield, the shield of faith that quenches the fiery darts of the
devil. And this word buckler is another
defensive weapon, which basically means the same thing. And so,
Lord, be my shield and my buckler. Protect me against those who
would come against me. Draw out also the spear, verse
3. What is that? The sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God. So what are the two things
that we have to defend ourselves against our enemy? The same two
things the Lord Jesus Christ had to defend Himself. The difference
is that He had perfect faith, didn't He? And every accusation
that came against Him, He was able to answer it clearly with
the Word of God. When Satan accused Him and tempted
Him, He responded right back with what God had to say. And
so the shield, the shield of faith and the spear, the sword
of the spirit, which is the word of God or the two means by which
the Lord enables us to protect ourselves against our enemies.
Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute
me. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. There are so many voices So many
fears, so many conflicting messages that are stirring around in our
minds and our souls and being hurled at us in this world. Lord,
you say unto me that I am thy salvation. I am thy exceeding
great reward. Say unto me, Lord, that salvation's
of the Lord. Say unto me that you've got this.
Say unto me that you've already satisfied justice, that all of
this. Verse four, let them be confounded
and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back
and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Lord, let them
fall. Let the accusations of my flesh
be exposed for what they are. Let the philosophies and the
ways of this world and the ways of man's thinking be exposed
to me. Show me the truth. Reveal to me the Lord Jesus Christ
and show me how he has conquered this world. I have overcome the world. Verse five, let them be as chaff
before the wind and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Oh, we wrestle not with flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers, wickedness in high
places. And though we walk in the flesh,
our warfare is not in the flesh. It's not in the flesh. We're
not to fight these enemies with the power of our flesh. We fight
them by fleeing to Christ. This old man is driving that
new man to the Lord Jesus Christ and dependent upon him for all
our salvation. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 10. Verse three, for though we walk
in the flesh. Now in Romans it says, they who
are of the flesh mind the things of the flesh. In other words,
the only thing they're aware of, the only thing they're mindful
of is fleshly things. But they which are of the spirit
mind the things of the spirit. The flesh profiteth nothing.
It's the spirit that giveth life. And now the Lord is telling us,
yeah, we walk in the flesh, but we don't war after the flesh. We don't engage in a fleshly
warfare. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. What
would be a carnal weapon? Well, it would be a determination,
a commitment, you know, just I'll try harder, I'll work harder,
I'll do more, I'll read more, I'll learn more. I can conquer
this. No. The weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God. These things exalt themselves
against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ. You see, the weapons of our warfare
is not our determination to be more obedient, although we desire
that. Oh, we do, we do. But the weapon
of this spiritual warfare is looking to his obedience, his
perfect obedience, his perfect faithfulness. He satisfied all
the demands of God's law. And by the sacrifice of himself,
he satisfied divine justice once and for all. So all these enemies
that the Lord has given us in this world, the same enemies
that He had, and just like they drove Him to the Father, they
drive us to Christ. Go back with me to our text in
Psalm 35. What a graphic picture in verse 6. Let their way be
dark and slippery and let the angel of the Lord persecute them.
You see this fearful person trying to escape the angel of the Lord
and he's running through the night and slipping on slippery
ground and that's what the Lord said. Lord, let their way be
like that. Let their way be like that. For
without cause have they hid from me their net in a pit which without
cause they have digged from my soul." They hated me without
a cause. They said, we're innocent. We're
perfectly innocent in Christ and in Christ we are able to
pray this prayer for God's justice. Lord, we want justice. We want
your justice to be exercised. And we believe that His justice
is exercised. Verse 8, let destruction come
upon him at unawares and let his net that he hath hid catch
himself into that very destruction, let him fall. Don't you love
it when David as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ fighting
the battle for all of Israel defeated Goliath and then what
did he do? He took Goliath's own sword and
cut off Goliath's head. And that was the sword that David
got from Ahithophel later when he said, there's no sword like
that sword. That sword's a picture of the words that Goliath spoke. By your words, you'll be justified,
and by your words, you'll be condemned. And the Lord's praying
now, Lord, let their words fall back on them. You see, if their
words don't fall back on them, then our words don't mean anything.
They don't mean anything. If there's no judgment, if there's
no judgment, then Christ died in vain. And my soul shall be joyful in
the Lord, it shall rejoice in His salvation. Don't you love
what David said in Psalm 51? Lord, return unto me the joy
of Thy salvation. It's His salvation. It's His
salvation to give to whomsoever He wills. And so as a mercy beggar
looking for the justice of God to be exercised and the sword
of his wrath that fell upon Christ on Calvary's cross, we're able
to say, Lord, this salvation is your salvation. I'm completely
dependent upon you to give it to me. All my bones shall say,
Lord, who is like unto thee? which delivereth the poor from
him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from
him that spoileth him. There's our experience. Our enemies
are too strong for us. We can't fight them. You can't
fight Satan. You can't fight sin. You can't
stand up and justify yourself against the law. You can't fight
your old man. Weapons of the warfare are not
carnal, Lord, these things are too, they spoil me, they destroy
me. But who is like unto thee? Which
delivereth the poor? Lord, there's none like you,
none like you. False witnesses did rise up.
They laid to my charge things that I knew not. Now, the Lord
Jesus Christ is not saying, well, I didn't know what they were
saying. No, He's saying that I wasn't guilty of the things
they were accusing me of. I wasn't guilty. And whatever accusations come
against us, we can say, in Christ, we're not guilty. We're not guilty. As He is, so are we. We're perfect in Him. You see, otherwise these accusations,
if they, the accusations are going to drive us to one place
or the other. They're either going to drive us to Christ or they're
going to drive us to the law. One way or the other. We're going
to try to, in other words, we're going to try to fix the problem
on our own or we're going to look to Him who's stronger than
we are. They rewarded me evil for good
to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were
sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting,
and my prayer returned unto my own bosom. I behaved myself as
though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavenly
as one that mourneth for his mother. But in mine adversity,
they rejoiced and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered
themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear
me. and ceased not. Now what David's
saying is that when Saul was in trouble, I was there to help
him. I was a friend to him. I was kind to him. I provided
for him. I was loyal to him. And then
he turned on me. The Lord Jesus Christ stood over
Jerusalem and he said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft I would have
taken you. How good the Lord was towards
his people, all those generations after generations. And they turned
on him. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. But to as many as received him,
to them, he gave the power to become the sons of God. What
hope, what hope. Verse 16, with hypocritical mockers
in feast, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. Lord, how long
will I look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction,
my darling, from the lions. Oh, Lord, rescue me. And that's
what the Lord was crying on Calvary's cross. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Father, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me in the garden of Gethsemane, let it be. Now
there's three prayers in Psalm 35. We could divide this Psalm
up into three sections and the significance of that is that
in the Gospels it makes it clear that the Lord went three times
into the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed. Remember He told
the disciples you stay here and He went off and He prayed and
He came back and they were asleep and He rebuked them and He went
off and He prayed again, He came back and And he said, sleep on. He went, a third time he prayed.
Three times he went to his father. Three times he said, father,
if there be any way this cup can pass from me, let it be.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. How long, father, will I look
on at me? Isn't that our agony? How long? Am I going to have to bear this
world? How long this old flesh? How long Lord? Rescue my soul from destruction. Lord, I know. That the Lord Jesus
Christ is your darling and if I'm in him, I'm your darling
and I and that's my hope. That's my hope. Justice has been
served. I will give thee thanks in the
great congregation. I will praise thee among much
people." Now, that's what we read. This is not the great congregation,
except that when we join our voices together, we're agreeing
with the invisible church. But that great congregation is
when all of God's elect of all generations are going to gather
themselves in heaven and sing, as we just read. in Revelation
chapter 19, hallelujah, hallelujah, praise. And when they see the
smoke go up from the destruction of that harlot of Babylon and
all the enemies of God, they're going to sing all the louder,
praising Him for His justice. Verse 19, let not them that are
mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink
with an eye that hate me without a cause. Lord, if you don't exercise justice
against those that hate me, then everything I'm doing is of no
consequence. For they speak not peace. They
say peace, peace, when there is no peace. They want peace
without justice. There cannot be peace without
justice. There cannot be life without death. For they speak not peace, but
they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in
the land. They deceive the masses, don't
they? Who make thee to differ? What
do you have that you did not receive? Why is it that you can
see the need for justice? And all the rest of the world
wants mercy without justice. They want love without hatred.
They want heaven without hell. We do want justice, don't we?
Without justice, without justice, what Christ did on Calvary's
cross was, was wasted, was wasted. Yea, they opened their mouth
wide against me and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it. We know who he is. If thou be
the Son of God, come down. Then they called him Beelzebub.
They called him a deceiver, a false prophet. They made all sorts
of false accusations against him. They wagged their head. And the Lord Jesus Christ says
with his church, this thou hast seen, O Lord, keep not silent,
O Lord, be not far from me. Lord, deliver me from their accusations. And what's the child of God say?
Deliver me from the accusations that Satan would make against
me. Deliver me from the accusations
of my own conscience. Deliver me from the accusations
of the law through the justice that you have exercised on Calvary's
cross. Stir up thyself and awake to
my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge me, O Lord my God, according
to thy righteousness and let them not rejoice over me. Now we often, I know I've been
saying we want justice and I know we often say we don't want justice,
we want mercy. There's no mercy without justice. And the child of God can say,
judge me according to thy righteousness. Don't change the standard of
your law for me. Satisfy the requirements of your
law. in the one who died in my stead. Exercise your full judgment and
justice, the full letter of the law. That's what we want. We
want the letter of the law. If the letter of the law is not
fulfilled, then none of this means anything. Let them not say in their hearts,
ah, so would we have it. Let them not say, we have swallowed
him up. We won. Father, don't let them
win. Don't let the liars and the accusers
and those who would falsely accuse me win. Let them be ashamed and
brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame
and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. If there's no judgment for the
enemies of Christ, then there's no hope of salvation for the
friends that He has. This whole book concludes with
that passage we read in Revelation chapter 19. That's how it's all
going to come to an end. We're going to be joining our
voices in heaven with the 24 elders and the four beasts, those
four seraphim that hovered over the throne of God. What are we
going to be saying? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. Lord, your justice was exercised
against all thine enemies. And it was exercised and the
wrath of God that fell upon our sin bearer, the sinner's substitute
on Calvary's cross. There's our justice. We don't want salvation without
justice. Verse 27, let them shout for
joy. Let them shout for joy. and be
glad that favor my righteous cause." You see, if there's no weeping
and wailing and gnashing of teeth, if there's no judgment from God
to the unbeliever, then there's no rejoicing for those who are
glad for his righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually,
let the Lord be magnified. which hath pleasure in the prosperity
of his servant." Now who's his servant? Behold, my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect, in whom I am well pleased, the Lord Jesus
Christ is a servant of God. And now what does he say? God
delights in his prosperity. He was prosperous in what he
did. When he suffered the full wrath of God's justice on Calvary's
cross, the law was fulfilled. The old man was put to death.
The world was exposed for what it was. Here's the rejoicing
of those who magnify the pleasure of his prosperity. And my tongue
shall speak of thy righteousness and thy praise all day long. All day long. David said, I'll
speak of thy righteousness, even of thine only. We have no righteousness
outside of Christ, but oh, what perfect righteousness we have
in him. And that's all we want to speak of, of his righteousness,
his righteousness. And in heaven, there will be
nothing but righteousness. Nothing but righteousness. Satan
will be chained in the lake of fire. Our old corruptible man
will be made incorruptible. The mortal will be made immortal. There'll be no sin, there'll
be no accusations. All the enemies will be destroyed
once and for all. What a glorious day that'll be.
We have to contend with them now, but we contend with them with
spiritual warfare, spiritual weapons, not fleshly ones. The spiritual weapons, that's
the word of God, the spirit of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the prayer for justice. by the innocent. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ praying for all of his enemies to get what they
deserve. And it's the prayer of every
saint who can say in Christ, in Christ, I'm innocent. Lord,
I want your justice. I want your justice. Our merciful heavenly father, We're so thankful to know that
you are a God of justice, a God who will not compromise your
holiness and you didn't compromise it when you gave your son for
the sacrifice of our sins. You look to the prosperity of
thy servant and you had pleasure in him. And Lord, we pray now
that you would that you would reveal to our hearts by your
spirit what pleasure you have in all those for whom he died
and give us that assurance of hope in knowing that your justice
will be fulfilled in all things. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 290, 290, let's stand together, 290. Yeah. 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. Happy birthday, Star. We won't
ask which one.