Last stanza. The last stanza,
number one. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, now worship Him. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, now worship Him. He is all our righteousness. I stand in him complete. Now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Him. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Him. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood. Now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. Amen. Tricia said I failed to say in
my announcements the first hour that the service is next Sunday
and the following Sunday will be at 11 o'clock. Okay, so we'll
just have one hour at 11 o'clock on Christmas and New Year's.
Okay, everybody got that? All right. Tom, the bulletin,
let's stand together. Come praise the God of grace,
the God of sovereign grace. He chose to save a people, bless
his holy name. O praise the Sing praise to Him,
His name forever be adored. God sent His Son to die, the
law to satisfy, and by His sacrifice He put our sin away. Oh, praise the Lord. Sing praise to Him. His name forever be adored. The Spirit of His grace, to Him
new life we trace. He gave us faith, now on the
Savior we believe. Oh, praise the Lord. Sing praise to Him. His name forever be adored. Preserved by God's great power,
through every passing hour. Someday our Lord will take us
to His home on high. Oh, praise the Lord. Sing praise to Him. His name
forever be adored. Please be seated. Good morning. Would you turn
with me your Bible to Isaiah 54? Isaiah 54, first scripture
reading. This morning, Digna, when I embraced
her early, said, and you know Digna, said, I love my church. My son's been after me to move
down to Tampa. I said, I cannot leave this church. I love this church. Well, Degna,
this chapter 54 is about the church. So let's read this together. Pray Lord would bless our hearts.
I'm going to begin by reading the last part of verse 12 of
Isaiah 53. And he, bear the sin of many and made
intercession for the transgressors. Chapter 54 verse one. Sing, sing, O barren, thou that
does not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud that does not prevail with child. That's us, beloved,
one who is unable to produce life. The Lord says, sing. For
more are the children of the desolate than the children of
the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent
and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations spare
not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes There are several
tents. This is one tent. There's one
tent in Lexington. There's one tent in Crossville
and We're hopeful that there are more of his seed, more elect
in this city, as well as in Sarasota, we can lengthen the cords. That's
our hope. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the
Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Verse
4. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to
shame, for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt
not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. Why? Verse 5. This is glorious. For thy maker is thy husband,
The Lord of Hosts is His name, and Thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall He be called. That's who we've come to worship.
He is our Maker. He is the Lord of Hosts, Mighty.
He is our Redeemer. And we are here to worship Him.
We can confess, O Lord, Thou art God. There is no other God
but Thee. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and
grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou was refused,
saith thy God, for a small moment. Oh, have I forsaken thee, but
with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath, I hide
my face from thee for just for a moment. But with, here's his
promise, but with everlasting kindness, will I have mercy on
thee, saith the Lord, thy redeemer. Let's pray. Lord, we come to you in the precious
name of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we need you
right now to take the promises of thy word and once again make
it effectual to our hearts that we may have hope and comfort
in him. For he is all our righteousness.
He is the forgiveness of our sins. And Lord, we have come
here once again to exalt you, to glorify you. Lord, would you do that now to
the preaching of your gospel? Remind us again that you are
the Lord of hosts, that you are a redeemer, that you are the
holy one of Israel that rules and reigns. And Lord, that you
would bring us comfort this morning. Oh Lord, how we need such comfort.
We can only find it here in this place that you have brought us
to. Would you again give power and
spirit, Lord, to our brother who is about, once again, to
glorify you and to lift up your son. Forgive us once again, Lord,
of our unbelief. Forgive us of our sins. Have
mercy upon us now. For Christ's sake in his name,
amen. number eight in the Gospel Hymn
Spiral notebook. Number eight in the Gospel Hymn
Spiral notebook. Let's all stand. you O Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire to lift up from this earthly mire. O may we think of heavenly
things and know the joy Thy presence brings. Lord, let us see the
Savior's face, and let us taste of Thy sweet grace. May open ears Thy glories hear,
and may we smell Thy fragrance Be pleased to open heaven's door,
And on our heads thy blessings pour. All wretched, poor, and
needy we, Where can we go if not to thee? O may this day be blessed the
most that Jesus Christ becomes the host to feed our souls with
living bread and with our souls in joy to wed. Please be seated. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Isaiah chapter 37. Isaiah chapter 37. Let me ask you a personal question. What is the absolute best thing
that could happen to you right now? To you. Not to the person sitting
next to you. To you. What is the absolute
best thing that could happen to you right now? I'll answer that question for
you. For God Almighty to speak to your heart. to speak to your heart. That's
for him to reveal himself to you, for him to speak peace and
grace and hope to our hearts is the absolute best thing. Now I know that each one of us
come to this place with a lot of needs and yet I am here to tell you
that that is the best thing that God could do for you and that
God could do for me, regardless of our circumstances. Oh, Lord,
speak. Speak. Don't let me hear the
voice of the preacher. Let me hear the voice of God.
Reminded what Cornelius told Peter in Acts chapter 10 when
Peter came to Cornelius's house and Cornelius said we're all
gathered here to hear All that the Lord has commanded you Lord
give me ears to hear Cause me to hear your voice my sheep hear
my voice and they follow after me I Now the character in our story
this morning, his name is Hezekiah. He was the king of Judah, lived
in Jerusalem, and he had a problem. The problem is that the Assyrians
were on the rampage and they had overtaken all the cities
of Israel and saved Jerusalem for last. They surrounded the
city and it looked as if all was lost. And Hezekiah not knowing
what to do to defend himself against this army that was so
opposing, so successful in their rampage against so many nations,
cries out to God for help. And in so doing, the Lord sends
one angel. The one angel goes into the camp
of the Assyrians and slaughters 185,000 Assyrians in one night
and delivers Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now
Jerusalem is a picture of the church. There's no question about
it. Hezekiah's name means the Lord is my strength. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. Does that describe you? Does
that describe you? The only way you're gonna hear
the voice of God is for God to make you to cry. And you'll cry
when you have no strength. When you have no strength, when
the Lord is the only place you can turn to. You've been shut
up to him. You can't fix your problems.
You can't deliver yourself from the enemy. You cry out to God
for help. And everyone that's ever done
that, everyone that's ever done that, has experienced hearing
the voice of God and being delivered from the enemy. The Lord has
to make us to cry, and then the Lord has to reveal himself to
us as our strength. Paul said, in my weakness, his
strength is made perfect. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. Hezekiah became aware of his
weakness by the trouble that God had sent to him. Look with
me in verse 10 of chapter 37. Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah. The King of Judah saying, let
not thy God whom thou trusteth deceive thee saying Jerusalem
shall not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria. Behold,
thou hast heard what the Kings of Assyria have done to all the
lands by destroying them utterly and shall you be delivered? This king has been successful
in utterly destroying every nation. You think your God's gonna save
you? What makes you so special? Have the gods of the nations
delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan and
Haran and Rezeph, and the city of Eden, which were in Tilesar, Where is the king of Hamath and
the king of Arphad and the king of the city of Zarephah, Varam,
Hainah, and Iva? These are all cities that were
destroyed by the Assyrians. Where are they? And Hezekiah received the letter
from the hand of the messenger and read it. And Hezekiah went
up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord." God often sends trouble into
the lives of His people in order to expose their weakness and
cause them to cry out for help. Has that been your experience? Someone has said that God's people
are always either in trouble, going into trouble, or coming
out of trouble. And that's been my experience. We're never able to handle the
things that the Lord sends our way. We're completely dependent upon
Him to deliver us. and we find ourselves in need
of spreading the threats before the Lord. Lord, you're going
to have to save me. I can't save myself. I can't
fix this problem. The Lord waited until all hope
was lost before returning to Bethany Raising Lazarus from the dead
you remember when he got word that Lazarus was sick He stayed
where he was for four more days Before he came back to Bethany
why? Because Mary and Martha Needed
to be able to say to him Lord. He's been dead four days and
his body stinketh There's no hope for him now All hope had
to be lost. They had to find themselves in
trouble before the Lord was going to manifest His glory. In John chapter 9, there was
a man who was born blind and had spent all of his life blind. And the disciples asked the Lord,
is he blind because of his sin or because of the sins of his
parents? And the Lord said, neither. He wasn't saying that they weren't
sinners. He was just saying don't try
to associate this malady particularly with a specific sin. But that
the works of God might be made manifest in him. in him. And so the Lord continues
to do. He waits until all hope is lost,
we've got no place else to go, we can't fix it. That the work
of God might be made manifest in us. If the work of God is
made manifest in us, it will be by us hearing the voice of
God. Now just in case there's someone
here that might be misunderstanding, I'm not in any way suggesting
that we're going to have some audible experience of hearing
God's voice from heaven. When God speaks, He speaks by
His Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
comes by the Word of God. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of Truth. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. So if God's gonna speak, he's
gonna speak to us by his word. That's the means that he uses. And when he does, oh, the sound
of his voice is louder than an audible voice. You know that
God has spoken. You experience His presence,
His peace, and His power in your life when He speaks. Lord, speak
to my heart. That's what I need. Oh, that woman with an issue
of blood, she had to spend all that she had on physicians. She had to find that there was
no place else to get help before she came crawling saying, oh,
but if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I could be
made whole. These stories are told over and
over again in the scriptures, aren't they? Why? Because this
is our experience. This is our experience in hearing
the voice of God. He brings us to that place where
we have no strength. He causes us to cry. Paul calls
these circumstances necessities. It is necessary for you to go
through these things in order for you to come to the end of
your own strength. Oh, we're so full of pride. We're
so self-sufficient. We're so deceived in thinking
that we can handle the things that come our way. And God in
his grace will not allow his children to find rest in that
place. The rest of the world might.
The rest of the world might comfort themselves in thinking, well,
I got this. God's people never can. They're always brought like
the woman with the issue of blood, crawling to the Lord's feet,
knowing that if they could just touch Him, if they could just
touch Him. Naaman, Naaman had to be afflicted
with leprosy before he ever left Syria and found the prophet. who was going to bring to him
a message of healing. He was a great man, the army,
the captain of the army of Syria, and yet he had to be afflicted
with leprosy to be brought to the end of himself, didn't he?
And in 1 Kings chapter 6, Elisha's servant. Don't you love the story?
When Elisha is in Dothan and the army is surrounding the city
and the servant thought, you know, what are we going to do?
Master, here's what he said, Master, what shall we do? What
shall we do? We're surrounded. There's no
way out. And Elisha said, Lord, open his
eyes that he might see. You feel surrounded? Feel like
there's no way out? God puts you there. God puts
you there. And that's an act of His mercy,
an act of His grace towards you to give you no place else to
turn but to lay it out before Him. Isn't that what Hezekiah
did? The Lord is my strength. All I know to do is just lay
it out before Him. over and over again. Hannah was
crying and Eli thought that she was drunk. You remember, she
went into the temple, she was pouring out her soul. She was
laying it out before God. Why? Because she was barren.
She couldn't have children. And Eli misunderstood the cry
of her heart. God didn't. God heard her. And the Lord answered her, Samuel
was born to Hannah, wasn't he? What a blessing Samuel was. Joseph
had to be sold into slavery with no place to go. He had to be
lied on by Potiphar's wife and thrown into prison before becoming
the prime minister of Egypt and being used of God to deliver
his family from the drought that was to come. Jacob Jacob oh He just convinced
that Esau's gonna kill him Esau's been after me for years now and
this is it it's over now and Jacob wrestled with God at the
River Jabbok. That's when God changed his name
didn't it to Israel and But Jacob had to be brought to the end
of himself He had to be put between a rock and a hard place. He had
to be he had to have no place to turn and It's God's mercy to put us in
such a place. That Syrophoenician woman, one the Lord called a dog, she
worshipped him, didn't she? She had no place to go. Truth,
Lord. over and over again. Blind Bartimaeus,
he laid it before the Lord, didn't he? Cried out to God, Son of
David, have mercy upon me. And in spite of the fact that
everybody tried to shut him up, he just kept pleading for mercy. What better example do we have
in the scriptures than that of Job? Everything was taken from
him. He had nothing left. God put
him there. God put him there. So that he
could come to that conclusion, I had heard of thee by the hearing
of mine ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee, and I repent
in dust and ashes. Child of God, you know. You know. that God works all
things together. And I know that some of you have
been through and are going through some very difficult circumstances.
You know that God works all things together for good. Now that doesn't
mean that, you know, well, something good in, you know, something's
good going to come out of this in this life. That good is your
salvation. It's your salvation. Can you
see how You would not be where you are
listening to the gospel and believing the gospel had God not put you
in some of the places that He's put you. Can you see that? I can see that. I can see that
in my life. I can see that in some of your
life. That's the good. Lest I be misunderstood, I know by experience that that
oftentimes which is born in the storm dies in the calm. I know that. I know that the
most profane soldier will cry out to God when being fired upon
in a foxhole, and when the bullets quit flying, he has no more need
for God. I know that's the case. I had
someone tell me one time that she had a coming to Jesus moment. Well, that's all it was. It was
just a moment. They were in a crisis, and they
cried out to God, and the crisis went away, and no more need for
God. Nevertheless, the Lord puts His
children in a crisis in order to cause them to see the greater
need that they have. He exposes our weakness through
crisis. He shows us our need for Christ.
And if that be the end of the trouble, then it really is good. Go back with me to our text. If the Lord shows us our sin
in the midst of our crisis, and saves us from that. Oh, what
a blessing. You suppose that David saw his
sin when Nathan came to him and said, Thou art the man? You suppose
that Peter was at a crisis moment when having denied the Lord three
times, the Lord set His affection upon him and broke his heart?
And Peter was forced to say later, depart from me for I'm a sinful
man. You see, these crisis moments, if they result in us being exposed
for what we are and causing us to see our need for Christ, then
it's good. God shows us the full perfection
of his dear son. Look what happens to Hezekiah. He spread it before the Lord.
And verse 15, and Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord
of hosts, God of Israel. When God puts us in trouble,
who do we cry to? We cry to the Lord of hosts. Doesn't it just offend you to
hear people talk about making Jesus Lord of their life? You can't make him Lord. God's
already done that. He's the Lord of hosts. He's
the Lord of the living and of the dead. He reigns sovereign
over all men. The armies of heaven and the
inhabitants of the earth are all reputed as nothing. And he hath done whatsoever he
wills with them. And no man can stay his hand
or say unto him, what doest thou? Our God is sovereign. We cry out to a God who we're
not attempting to manipulate. We understand that he's sovereign
over all the affairs of our lives. We're crying out for him to speak
to our hearts. Lord, make yourself known to
me. He's the potter and we are the
clay. That's who Hezekiah lays out
his plea before, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. When our Lord began his public
ministry, he went into the temple, the synagogue at Nazareth, where
everybody knew him. And he took the scroll and he
read from Isaiah chapter 61, which was a clear revelation
of the coming of the Messiah. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me and he has sent me to preach the gospel. And then he concluded
that reading by saying, this day has this scripture been fulfilled
in your sight. Everybody knew exactly what he
was saying. Everybody knew that he was claiming to be the Messiah. And they wondered at the gracious
words that proceeded out of his mouth. And then he gives an interpretation. He says, in the days of the prophet
Elijah, there were many widows. There were many widows in Israel. But God showed mercy upon the
widow of Sarepta, that Gentile widow. And in the days of Elisha,
there were many lepers in Israel, but God didn't heal any of them.
He healed the Syrian Naaman. And those people who knew our
Lord, heard his interpretation of what
the Messiah was, and they took him out of the city and sought
to murder him right there on the spot. Why? As long as you're claiming to
live in the Messiah, that's fine. As long as being Messiah, you're
going to do things my way. But if being Messiah means that
you are Lord of hosts, that you are sovereign, that you save
who you want to save, when you want to save, how you want to
save them, you mean that you've got men in your hand, you see? Oftentimes men cry out to God
because they want God to speak so that they can evaluate what
he has to say. You will never hear God's voice.
You will never find him to be your help in time of need. The
only time he's going to help you is if you prostrate yourself
before him. Lord, you're the Lord of hosts.
You do whatsoever you will. My life is in your hands. When
Samuel heard the voice of God speaking to him, there in first
Samuel, remember young Samuel was in the temple and the Lord
spoke and Samuel thought it was Eli. Samuel gets up out of his
bed and he runs into Eli's room, said, yes master, here I am.
Third time, Eli realized God was speaking to Samuel. Eli Gave
Samuel some counsel. He said next time you hear that
voice You say this speak Lord for thy servant Here if Here if now it's difference between
hearing and listening That word here if means the Lord I'm I'm
listening with an intent to do whatever you say The only way we're going to hear
God's voice is to lay it out before him. You're the Lord of
hosts. You're God. I know that whatever
you do is right. I just want to know. I want to
know you. I want to hear from you. You go before God thinking that
you're going to negotiate with him. You'll never hear God's
voice. If He puts you in a place where
you've got no place else to turn, and He gives you the faith to
trust Him in whatever He says, and you can say, Speak, Lord,
for thy servant heareth. I hear you. Oh, you'll be... What did I introduce this message
by saying? What's the best thing that could happen to you right
now? That's the best thing that could happen to you anytime.
for God to speak. Where do I find Him? Where do
I find Him? Look, verse 16, O LORD of hosts,
God of Israel. Well, look at verse 14 first. And Hezekiah went up unto the
house of the LORD. Now our God is omnipresent. I'm
so thankful that I wake up in the middle of the night, cry
out to God, He comforts my heart. I'm in my study, trying to prepare
a message, God speaks, I'm thankful for that. But there's something
very special when God's people come together and where the gospel
of God's grace is preached, where we are right now, The Lord said,
where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I
am in the midst of them. He said, I walk among the candlesticks.
I inhabit the praise of my people. In Zion is where I speak. God manifests his glory and his
grace right now, doing what we're doing right now, in a way that
we don't experience it anywhere else. And Hezekiah knew that. Where did Isaiah hear the voice
of God? In the year that King Uzziah died. How did Uzziah die? Uzziah died a shameful death
of leprosy and Isaiah was afraid that God was done with Israel
and had written Ichabod across Israel, removed his glory altogether
from Israel. And Isaiah went to the temple
that day, cried out to God and God spoke. Where can I find God? Right where
you are right now. We don't try to shame folks into
going to church. But I know that if you've experienced
hearing the voice of God in public worship... I had someone ask
me recently, they said, well, do I have to go to church to
be saved? No. But if God saves you, that's
where you're going to hear the message. And once you hear His
voice, that's where you're going to want to be. That's where you're
going to want to be. And notice what else Hezekiah
says. The Lord of hosts, God of Israel,
that dwelleth... Verse 16. Where can I find God? In the house of the Lord where
He dwelleth between the cherubims. Now what was between the cherubims?
The cherubims were those two angelic figures that were their
wings touched over the Ark of the Covenant that was in the
Holies of Holies. The high priest went in once
a year and offered a blood sacrifice on that mercy seat that was between
the cherubims. And God said, here I will meet
with you. Everything about that Ark of
the Covenant pictured Christ. You go back and read in Exodus
and Deuteronomy the details that God gave Moses on worship. The high priest had to go in
on exact time and an exact day with certain dress in just the
right way. He went in with a rope tied around
his ankle and bells upon his robe in case he didn't do something
exactly like he was supposed to do it. God would kill him
in there and they'd have to drag him out because no other man
could go in there. Why was God so specific? Here's what the
Lord's saying. You're gonna be saved. You're
gonna be saved exactly the way I say you're gonna be saved. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
No contribution, no adjustments. You're gonna be saved. I'm the
one that's gonna call all the shots. how when and where you're
going to be saved and God's people love it that way oh Lord I'm
so thankful that it's all of you salvation is of the Lord
I've got nothing to do with it don't let me put my hand on it
that mercy seat That mercy seat, the blood would go on the mercy
seat once a year on the day of atonement. And that was a picture
of what Christ would accomplish. When he bowed his head on Calvary's
cross, what did he say? It is finished. And what happened in the temple?
That veil, it was actually a curtain, it was about 14 inches thick.
And it was blue on the top and red on the bottom. And what happens
when you mix blue and red? You get purple. And that veil
was a picture of Christ. His deity, His humanity, and
the dual nature of Christ. And what happened to that veil?
Miraculously, it was rent from top to bottom. And the scripture says that not
a few of the priests were saved. Can you imagine those priests
that were in the temple that day? Now this was Passover when
the Lord died. It wasn't the day of atonement.
The high priest would not have been in there that day. But the
priests were in there every day offering sacrifices. And the veil was rent. And God
says, the holies of holies has been opened. The blood of my
son has been put on the mercy seat. Here is where I'm going
to meet with you. No place else. Christ is going
to get all the glory for our salvation. Where did Isaiah,
where did Hezekiah go? Where did Hezekiah say? the Lord
of hosts who dwelleth between the cherubims. Now I introduce
this message by saying that God sent one angel to slay 185,000
Assyrians that night. The Lord Jesus Christ when he
was on Calvary's cross said that I could call 12 legions of angels
to come deliver me. What would 12 legions of angels
do? And then Isaiah speaks of the
cherubim. The cherubim were exceptional
angels. These were angels that protected
the things of God. Where's that mercy seat? It's
between the two cherubims. You think you're going to get
past them? No. No. We're going to be saved exactly
the way God says we're going to be saved, aren't we? By the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ placed on the mercy seat. Look at verse 16. Thou art the
God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, Thou
hast made heaven and earth. Where do I begin in my cry to
God? Worship. Worship. Lord, thou art the God, thou
alone. When the Lord called that Syrophoenician woman a dog, what'd
she say? Truth, Lord. And she worshipped
him. She worshipped him. Worship is
just falling before Christ. Lord, whatever you say, whatever
you do. Look at the next verse. Incline thine ear, O Lord, and
hear. Hear what? Hear my cry? No, no. Open thine eyes, O Lord, and
see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which thou hast
sent to reproach the living God. Now, I'll conclude with this. whatever troubles you're experiencing
that God has sent your way to expose your weakness. The biggest problem you and I
have is our sin. Sennacherib's name translated
means sin multiplied. That's what his name means. And
he was the king of Assyria which means steps. The one thing that you and I
do that is more offensive to God than breaking His commandments, the one thing that you and I
do that's more offensive to God than breaking His commandments
is trying to atone for having broken His commandments. It robs Christ of His glory.
It takes away the need for the mercy seat. What do you do? What kind of thoughts do you
have? Self-righteous? Pharisaical thoughts? Oh, if you just knew how bad my sin
was, that's self-righteous. That's pharisaical. That's self-atonement. Are you suggesting by that that
if you had not done such heinous sin that somehow you would be
more redeemable, more acceptable in the sight of a holy God? You
see? Lord, oh, if I could just pray
more, if I could just stop that sin, then I could hear the voice
of God. Then I could be blessed of God.
If I could just read my Bible more, if I could just be more
spiritual, then I would experience God's blessings. Sin multiplied. Assyria, steps. trying to take steps on your
own to work yourself into a place where God could speak and bless
you. That's sin multiplied. That's
self-righteousness. That's self-atonement. That's
a denial of the gospel. And we all think it, don't we?
And that's why we have to hear the gospel, to be delivered from
such thinking. That's our biggest problem. That's the trouble that we all
have. Lord, I've been trying to atone
for my own sins. I've been trying to get myself
in a place where you could speak to me and bless me, thinking
that I could do something. And now, I realize that I'm Hezekiah. The Lord is my strength. I've
got no power. I've got no ability. I've got
nothing to offer you. I'm completely dependent upon
the mercy seat. Lord, forgive me. That's my greatest sin against
God. Whatever else you and I have
done, the worst that we do is trying to atone for our own sins. Has God sent the trouble of your
sin into your heart? You see, if the only reason you
cry out to God is because of some circumstances, those will
change. They will change. And if that's all you need God
for, then there'll be a time when you won't need him. But if the Lord sends trouble
into your life to expose your weakness in terms of your ability
to atone for your own sins, then that's a blessing from God. And
you come to realize, my problem is my sin. And that ain't never
going away. It's just... Can't ever bet. I'm always gonna have to have
a Savior I'm always gonna have to have an atonement I'm always
gonna have to have a Redeemer. I Cannot get away from my sin
I'm gonna have to have one deliver me from that sin And when God delivers you he
speaks peace to your heart Oh, what hope, what comfort, what
grace. Might God be pleased to speak
right now. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for your word. We thank you that you have in
your wise and good providence sent troubles into all of your
children's lives. to expose our weakness, to show
us our need for Christ. Lord, we confess to you that
we cannot atone for the least of our sins, and we thank you
that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous one. We pray that you would enable
us to set our affections on him, and that you would speak to our
hearts, for we ask it in Christ's name. me in for the talk. 252. Let's stand together. 352.
352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Levi, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain art,
freely let me take of Thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Yeah.