Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 143 in your hardbacked hymnal. 143. Rejoice, the Lord is King. Let's all stand together. Number
143. Rejoice, the Lord is King, your
Lord and King adore. Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
and triumph evermore. Lift up your heart, Lift up your
voice, rejoice again, I say rejoice. Jesus the Savior reigns, the
God of truth and love. When he had purged our stains,
he took his seat. above. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again. I say rejoice. His kingdom cannot fail. He rules over earth and heaven. The King of death and hell are
to our Jesus given. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice! ? Rejoice in glorious hope ?
Our Lord the Judge shall come ? And take his servants up to
their eternal home ? Lift up your heart ? Lift up your voice
? Rejoice again I say rejoice Please be seated. Let's read from Jeremiah chapter
32. Jeremiah 32. Good evening. About an hour or two ago, I got
a text to let me know that Carl Bourne had fallen this morning
and broke his hip. And so he's waiting surgery. I want us to be sure to pray
for Carl and Ibelu. Jeremiah chapter 32, beginning
at verse 36. Now therefore, Thus saith the Lord the God of
Israel concerning this city, this church. Where have you say,
it shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by
the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence? Isn't that,
you know, the Lord said, I know the thoughts that I have towards
you, thoughts of good and not of evil, and we think everything's
gonna be bad, isn't it? You say, it's all gonna be pestilence
and trouble and trials and you just go to the worst, don't you? But here's what I say. Jeremiah
32. Jeremiah 32. Verse 37. Behold, I will gather
them out of all the countries, whether I have driven them in
mine anger and in my fury and in my great wrath, and I will
bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them, I will
cause them to dwell safely. and they shall be my people,
and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from
them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts and
they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with
my whole heart and with my whole soul. For thus saith the Lord,
like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people,
so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised
them. Let's pray together. merciful Heavenly Father, how
thankful we are that you are a God of grace and that we have
a throne of grace to which we can come. We thank you that we
have a Savior, one who has fulfilled all righteousness, one who has
successfully satisfied your justice, put away all the sins of thy
people. Oh, how we pray that you would cause us to find our
rest and our hope in him tonight. We confess to you, Lord, that
we're not able to see him. We're not able to come to him.
We're completely dependent upon you to cause us to sit still
and to know that thou art God. We thank you for the promise
that you've given to where two or three are gathered together
in thy name. There you are in the midst of them. And oh, how
we pray that we would know thy presence, know thy power, know
thy grace, thy comfort and thy hope. And father, we thank you for
Carl and thank you for the encouragement that he's been to this fellowship
and Lord for the testimony of grace that you've given him.
And we pray now that you would Comfort him. I pray that you
would be with those that minister to him physically and that you
would put your hand of strength, both spiritually and physically,
on his body. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 235 in the same handbook. Number 235. And let's all stand
again together. Number 235. so Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, Hear my humble
cry, While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. ? Trusting only in thy merit
? Would I seek thy face ? Heal my wounded, broken spirit ? Save
me by thy grace ? Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry While on others
thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Please be seated. We're going
to begin tonight in Isaiah chapter 1. If you'd like to turn there
with me in your Bibles, Isaiah chapter 1, Isaiah 1. Titled this message, God's Exceptions. God's exceptions. Had the Lord
not made exceptions to the rule, no one would be saved. And there
are many exceptions that He has made. All of them must be fulfilled. All of these exceptions. I've
listed eight of them in the message tonight, except he had left us
a remnant. That's Isaiah chapter 1, verse
9. Except he had left us a remnant,
we would be like unto Sodom and like unto Gomorrah. No man can
come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him. except you be born of water and
of the Spirit, you shall not see the kingdom of God. All of
these are exceptions that the Lord has made. Except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall not be saved. And that Ethiopian eunuch, when
Philip asked him, understandest what thou readest, how can I
except a man should guide me? These are God's exceptions. Except
you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Except you eat of my
flesh and drink of my blood, you have no life in you. Abide
in me, and I in thee. For as the branch cannot bear
fruit except it abide in the vine." God's exceptions. I want Him to fulfill those exceptions
for me, don't you? The first one is right here in
Isaiah chapter 1, verse 9. The Lord of Hosts had left unto
us a very small remnant. A very small remnant. That language is so clear, isn't
it? I mean, it's a small remnant. There's only a few. The Lord
said, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days
of the coming of the Son of Man. How many were saved in Noah's
day? a small remnant. And the Lord says, except I had
left for myself a small remnant, we should all be like Sodom and
like Gomorrah. If the Lord did not make an exception,
no one would be saved. We wouldn't choose him if he
didn't choose us. In Romans chapter 11, even so,
at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election
of grace. If the Lord had not been gracious,
if he had not chosen and elected in the covenant of grace a people,
no one would be saved. He said, you did not choose me,
I chose you. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy. I'll
have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. God has to choose us in
order for anyone to be saved. And here he says very clearly
in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 9, except the Lord had reserved
to himself a very small remnant, we should all be consumed by
the fiery wrath of God. That's the meaning. Isn't that
what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? Fire fell from heaven and consumed
those cities. And that's what we're worthy
of, that's what we deserve. Had the Lord not elected a remnant
according to grace, no one would be saved. And so that's where
all the exceptions of God begin, isn't it? It begins before time. It begins before Adam. It begins
before the fall. The Lord chose his people in
the covenant of grace before time ever began and except he
had done that. No one would be saved. You wouldn't
be saved, I wouldn't be saved had the Lord not done that. In
John chapter 6 verse 44 we see the second exception. No man,
no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me. Draw him, draw him. Now you remember in Acts chapter
16 when Paul and Silas went to Philippi and they met that damsel
who was a soothsayer and they casted, Paul cast the demons
out of her and her owner saw that she was no longer going
to be a prophet to him and so out of rage he gathered the men
of the city together and the scripture says and they drew
Paul and Silas before the magistrate. They drug them there. That's
the same word. In James chapter 2, when the
Lord is rebuking the church because of the preference that they're
showing towards the wealthy, and the Lord says to them, He
says, is it not the wealthy that drag you into court? Take advantage
of you? That's the same word here. In
John chapter 6 verse 44, except the father which sent me draw
him drag him bring him to me he will not come in john chapter
3 verse 27 a man can receive nothing except it be given to
him of the lord So, aren't you thankful for God's
exceptions? Lord, make an exception for me. I need an exception. I don't want to be left like
the rest, like Sodom and Gomorrah. I don't want to be left to myself.
I need you to draw me, to drag me, do whatever is necessary
to make me come unto thee. What did Peter say? Lord bid
me to come unto thee, cause me to repent, give me grace to come,
cause me to turn, and I shall come. Draw me with cords of kindness.
Job put it like this, make me. Here's one of his prayers. He
says, make me to know my transgressions and my sins. And growing up with
an older brother, he would oftentimes try to enforce the law over me. And as an obstinate young person,
I would often say, make me, make me. And here the Lord oftentimes
that was you know, we're defiant and obstinate and and rebellious
when we speak like that aren't we but it's a it's a it's a voice
of grace that cries out to the Lord Lord make me Lord if you
don't make me I won't come David said in Psalm 39 make me to know
my end and Lord, I'll live like everybody
else. I'll just indulge myself in the
things of this world and I'll forget that life is a vapor. I'll forget that I'm just a temporal
being only gonna be here for a short period of time. And I'll
invest all my time and energy into this world if you don't
make me to know my end. In Psalm 51, David said, make
me to know wisdom. Lord, make me to know wisdom.
I'm not going to know wisdom. James says, if any man lack wisdom,
let him ask it of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not. He delights in showing mercy.
He gives wisdom to those who ask for wisdom. And Christ, God
has made Him to be for us our wisdom, and our righteousness,
and all of our sanctification, and all of our redemption. Lord, reveal Christ to me. Make
me to know wisdom make me to know him and then he and then
David said in Psalm 51 make me to hear joy and Gladness that
the bones which thou hast broken might rejoice Lord you've afflicted
me and If you don't make me to hear joy and gladness in this
affliction, I won't I'll I'll resent you for it. I You know,
the Lord's got to make us rejoice in Him always, doesn't He? He's
got to make us, through faith, to believe that the chastisements
and the afflictions that He places on us are necessities given to
us out of love. Lord, make me to know that. Make
me to know your wisdom. Make me to hear the joy and gladness. And then David said in Psalm
119, make me to understand the ways of thy precepts. Lord, I
need you to make me. I'm not speaking rebelliously
or defiantly. I am dependent upon you to make
me if it's going to be. And then in Matthew chapter 8,
when that leper said to the Lord, he said, If thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. Lord, if I'm going to be clean,
you're going to have to make me that way. No man can come to
me unless the Father which sent me draw him, drag him, make him. And though we are dependent upon
Him to make us, to cause us to come, When He does, He also makes
us willing, doesn't He? He makes us willing. We're not
coming kicking and screaming. We're coming with a willing heart.
Why? Because that's the heart that
He gives to His children. When He gives them faith, He
causes them to delight in His ways. Lord, give me a willing
spirit, a willing heart. Make it to be so. Make me a new
person. And then the Lord said to Nicodemus
in John chapter three, lest the Lord had except the Lord had
left a remnant, we shall all be like Sodom and Gomorrah. The
second one is except the father draw you, you won't come. No
man can come to me unless the Father which sent me draw him.
The third one is found in John chapter three. Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. Nicodemus, you gotta be born of the water. What's the
water? It's a reference to the scripture,
to the revelation of the gospel made in the word of God. And
this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
This is the revelation. In Ephesians, the scripture speaks
of the cleansing of the water by the word of God. And so the
Lord says, unless you're born of the water of His own will,
begat He us with the word of truth. This is the means, except
a man be born of the water and of the Spirit. And so a person
can commit to memory all the words of this book, but if they're
not blessed by the Spirit of God to give him understanding
and cause him to know Christ, they'll do him no good whatsoever,
except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit. The natural
man cannot receive the things of the Spirit. They're spiritually
discerned. He cannot know them. Nicodemus
the spirits like the wind he listeth with us whoever he wills
Nicodemus you've got to be born of the spirit. You've got to
be born from above. You've got to be born of God
No, what a What a great exception. Accept a man. Lord, cause the
eyes of my understanding to be open to Thy Word, and reveal
to me from Your Word the glory of Your Son, and the accomplished
work of Your Son, and my need for Christ. And give me faith
to rest the hope of my soul in Him. This is the, accept, accept,
Apart from the water of the word and apart from the spirit of
God, there's no salvation. Apart from God choosing and elect
people, there's no salvation. Apart from the Father drawing
us to himself, there's no salvation. These are God's exceptions. Fourthly, accept Your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. You
shall not enter into the kingdom of God. Can't be saved. Now, when that Pharisee went
to the temple to pray that day, and he said to God, Father, I
thank Thee that I'm not like other men, he wasn't like other
men. He, when he said, I fast twice
a week, I give my tithe, he knew the scripture, he was outwardly
righteous. When Paul speaks of his life
as a Pharisee, he says this, concerning the law, I was blameless.
These Pharisees lived outwardly, they lived impeccable lives.
The word Pharisee means separated one, and they were very proud
of the fact that they had separated themselves from the masses of
men and were living lives that were outwardly moral. And the
Lord said, unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of
God. Lord, how am I going to have better righteousness than
that? How am I going to be able to say concerning the law, I
was blameless. No one, no one that knows me
confined in my outward behavior, an infraction to any of the laws
of God. Can you say that? Paul could say that. He was a
Pharisee. And the Lord said, unless your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you should not have the kingdom of God. God requires perfect
righteousness, doesn't He? Men go about, Romans chapter
10, trying to establish their own righteousness. Living by
the golden rule. Trying to be outwardly religious,
just like the Pharisees. And the scripture says, because
they are ignorant of God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. God requires
a perfect righteousness. And that's only going to be had
in Christ. Only going to be found in Him.
David said, I will speak of thy righteousness even of thine only. Our righteousnesses, all the
things that people pat us on the back for, God says are filthy
rags. They fall short of the glory
of God. Man, the Lord said, You gotta
have a righteousness that's better than, you find the most outwardly
moral person you can find. Your righteousness gotta be better
than this. Oh Lord, except you give me a
righteousness that belongs to Christ, I won't be able to measure
up. Except he had left us a remnant,
we shall all be like Sodom and Gomorrah. No man can come unto
me except the Father which sent me draw him. Except you be born
of the water, the word of God, and the Spirit. The spirit of
God takes the word of God and makes it effectual to our hearts. And there's no salvation apart
from either one. No salvation apart except God use his word.
God doesn't, he speaks to the hearts of his people by his word. And that's all God's people want
to hear. What does God say? What does God say? And he uses
the power of his spirit. to cause us to hear and to believe,
to believe his word. You know what? We don't really understand anything
we believe. You believe you're a sinner,
don't you? Do you understand what that means? No. You believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is holy, don't you? You believe
he's completely other than you. You believe that he's absolutely
righteous and you're completely dependent upon his righteousness.
Do you understand what that means? Oh, we have an understanding,
but it is infinitely small compared to the truth of the things that
we believe. One of the problems in religion,
particularly in reformed religion, is that you can't have faith
until you have understanding. And that's backwards. That's
backwards. You don't get understanding. God gives you faith. You just
believe what God says. And you confess to Him, Lord,
I don't understand any of it. How could God die? I believe He did. I believe with
all my heart. I don't understand it. How could there be a Trinity? Do you understand that? No. You
see, we don't understand anything we believe. Does that keep us
from believing it with all of our hearts? No. Why do we believe
it? Because God said so. And the
Holy Spirit made us to believe. And we don't have to have an
explanation. If we had a God that we could understand, what
kind of God would that be? If we had a faith that we could
comprehend, what kind of faith would that be? Our understanding is minuscule,
is infinitely small compared to the fullness of what we believe. We believe in a resurrection.
Do we understand it? Except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall not enter into the kingdom of God. Lord, I need a righteousness
that's alien to me. I need a righteousness that's
completely outside of myself. I need for you to credit the
perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to my account.
I can't measure up. Make an exception for me. Do you need God's exceptions?
Make an exception for me. And then you remember the Ethiopian
eunuch in Acts chapter 8. And he's just left Jerusalem. He traveled all the way. Now,
he's in a chariot. Folks didn't just ride in chariots
like we ride in cars. They walked or they got on a
donkey or a camel. To be in a chariot, I mean, you
were somebody. And to travel all the way from
Ethiopia with an entourage in a chariot because he had heard
that there's a God in Israel. And maybe that was the true God,
and the Lord had put on his heart an interest in spiritual things,
and now he left Jerusalem worse off than he was when he got there,
in some senses, in that his hopes that the God of Israel was the
one true God were dashed. He didn't have any hope that
he still hadn't heard the gospel. But in another sense, he left
Jerusalem with the best thing he could have left with. A copy
of the scriptures. And he's reading them. And he
gets to Isaiah chapter 53. And God sends Philip all the
way down from Antioch to Gaza, and Philip comes up alongside
this chariot. I mean, can you imagine what
Philip looked like? a poor Bedouin Jew, and hear this man with all
of his pomp and power and wealth, and Philip says, understandest
thou what thou readest? Most folks in his position would
have said, who are you? Of course I understand. I've got a whole lot more education
than you do. I'm reading this just fine. That's not what he
said, was it? How can I accept a man should
guide me? And he pleaded with him. That's
the word there. He begged him to come up into
the chariot and to explain to him what he was reading. And
the Ethiopian said, Does the prophet speak of himself? Or
is He talking about another? What a description of God. He's
just other than we are, isn't He? In every way. And the Scripture
says, and beginning right there in Isaiah chapter 53, He preached
unto him Jesus. Yes, He's talking about another.
One that's outside of you. And God is going to humble all
of His people. You know, men and everybody does
it. I've done it. Maybe you've done
it. Historically people have done it. They pride themselves
in believing that they have a direct access to get inspiration from
God. It's the It's the root cause
of all cults. Somebody's got access to God,
and God has spoken, and men just pride themselves in that, don't
they? And God says, except a man should guide you. The only men
that ever got direct inspiration from God are the penmen of Scripture. They're the only ones. God met
with them, spoke to them, holy men of old wrote as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit. The penmen of scriptures are
the only men that got direct inspiration from God. If God's
going to speak to us, He's going to reveal to us. That's the difference
between inspiration and revelation. Revelation is when the Spirit
of God takes the inspired Word of God and reveals the truth
of it to us. And He does it through preaching. He does it by causing you to
have to sit and be quiet and listen to a man that's no better
than you. To just tell you exactly what
God has said and put together a message from the Word of God
declaring what the Word of God says. And God's people just believe
it, don't they? And they rejoice in it. Faith
comes by hearing. It doesn't come by studying. It doesn't come by debating.
It comes by hearing. Why? Because hearing is passive. The Lord's not going to let us
contribute anything in our salvation. He's going to make us passive. He's going to cause us. Lord,
unstop my ears. Cause me to believe. Cause me
to hear. How can I accept a man should
guide me? How humbling is that? How humbling
is that? I've got no direct access to
God apart from the revelation of the Scriptures. men guiding
me, guiding you by the word of God. None of us can pride ourselves
in thinking that, well, you know, God, God spoke to me and gave
me, gave me a direct inspirational truth. It doesn't work like that. God spoke to me, but he spoke
to me through the words that he gave to a man. Now, in Luke chapter 13, the Lord's talking about what
it is to be a sinner, and He says to the Galileans that He's
speaking to, do you think that those Galileans whom Herod mingled
their blood with the sacrifice, Now, I don't know what the historical
setting of that was, but the Herod had taken some Galileans
and killed them and taken their blood and defiled the temple
with the blood of these Jews. And the Lord says, do you think
that they were greater sinners than the other Galileans? I say
unto you, nay, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.
And then he goes on to say, do you think that those 18 men that
the tower of Siloam fell on, obviously there was some kind
of construction catastrophe where they were building something
and it collapsed and 18 men were killed. And the Lord said, do
you think that those men that were killed when that tower fell
were greater sinners than all the people who live in Jerusalem? I say unto you, nay. Except you
repent you shall all likewise perish Now here's an exception
God has to give us repentance a Repentant heart is a changed
mind It's a changed mind about the nature of sin It's a it's
the work of the Spirit of God when the when the Holy Spirit
comes he will convict the world of sin because they believe not
on me and Lord, there was a time when I thought sin was just a
behavioral problem. I thought it was just the bad
things that I did that my conscience convicted me of. Now I understand
that my sin problem goes a whole lot deeper than that. It's my
unbelief. Whatever's not a faith is sin.
And the Lord Jesus Christ was without sin because he had perfect
faith. And you and I don't have perfect
faith. We trust in the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ for
our salvation. We know that everything apart
from His faithfulness is sin on our part. When God makes you
to be a sinner, you know that everything about you is sinful
before God. You're completely dependent upon
Christ, who is the only one without sin, to stand in your stead before
God. That's repentance. That's a changed
mind about the nature of sin. And then God has to give us a
changed mind about the nature of righteousness. There was a
time when we thought, well, the good things I do, that's got
to earn me some favor with God, doesn't it? Now we know we have
no righteousness outside of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Lord said, when the Holy Spirit comes, He will
convict you of sin because you believe not on Me, and of righteousness
because I go to My Father. We have an advocate before God. We have one who's seated at the
right hand of God, who is our righteousness before God. And
apart from Him, we have no righteousness. That's a changed mind. God's
given you a changed mind about sin. He's given you a changed
mind about righteousness. He's given you a changed mind
about salvation. The Spirit of God will convict you of sin because
you believe not, of righteousness because I go to my Father, and
of judgment because the Prince of this world has been judged.
Judgment's been fulfilled. There's nothing else to do. Christ has done it all. He's put away my sin once and
for all. He's delivered all of God's people from the hand of
Satan. There's no judgment. Salvation is finished. It's finished. It's done. Can't add to it. Can't
take away from it. All for whom Christ died, are
saved. Now that's a changed mind. I say unto you, unless you repent,
unless you have your mind changed about sin, about righteousness,
about salvation, about who I am and what I've accomplished, you
shall likewise perish. Oh Lord, make an exception of
me. Make me to be an exception. Change
my mind. And then the Lord said, except
you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no life
in you. The Jews were offended, weren't
they? How are we going to eat of his flesh? They thought he
was talking about cannibalism. Everything that God requires
of you and me in this life He looks to the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ for Eating of his flesh is trusting in his life
for your life All your life all your life before
God is in him and then drinking of his blood What do we say? Lord, look to the life of Christ
for my life. Don't look to my life. And then
look to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for my justification
before you. I've got no way to put away my
sin. I've got no way to justify myself
before thee. And God says, when I see the
blood, I'll pass by you. Drink of his blood. Look to His
sacrificial, vicarious death on Calvary's cross for the only
hope of your justification before God. Having all your sin put
away, His blood was sufficient as a covering for all your sin.
We can't find any other way to get rid of any sin other than
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we eat of his flesh and
we drink of his blood that we might have life in us. And then lastly, in John chapter
15, the Lord said, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, neither can
you bear fruit except you abide in me, for without me you can
do nothing. Nothing. Now that word abide
means to stand. It just means to stand still.
You know, we say to our children, sit right there, don't move.
Don't move. And that's what God's saying.
Sit right there on that rock and don't move. And as you receive
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Abide in Christ. Don't add to Him. Don't take
away from Him. Don't move a muscle. Abide in
Him. What happens to the branch that
doesn't abide in the vine? It gets thrown into the fire.
But the one that abides in the vine, oh, the husbandman, he
comes along and he prunes that branch, doesn't he? And if you
be not chastised, if you be not pruned, it's because you're illegitimate. Hebrews says you're a bastard.
God chastises those children whom He loves. When the Lord
said, I brought this out Sunday, when the Lord said, if you spare
the rod, you hate the child. That's true in our relationship.
That's true in our relationship with Him too. He's not going
to spare the rod with His children. Why? Because He loves them. He
loves them. He's going to prune the vine.
And the more He prunes it, the more fruit it bears. And that
vine, that branch is going to abide in the vine. We are in need of God's exceptions
if we're to be saved. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, except You had kept a very small
remnant to Thyself, we know that we would all be like Sodom and
like Gomorrah. O Lord, make an exception of
us. Make an exception in drawing us to Thyself. Make an exception
in giving us a righteousness that's perfect before Thee, one earned and accomplished by
Thy dear Son. And Lord, make us an exception
that we might abide in Him. We pray that the fruit of our
lips would breed to the praise of His glory and to Thy grace. For it's in Christ's name we
ask it. Amen. Brother Tom. Number nine. Let's
stand together. Number nine. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hadst 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
strong But grace not earned or sought
for was purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought, for
Christ paid the dreadful toll. It was sovereign mercy called
me and taught my opening mind. The 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. Thank you.