So, so so Good evening. Let's open tonight's service
with a hymn from the hardbacked hymnal number 186, 186, The Church's
One Foundation. Let's all stand together. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth, her charter of salvation One Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. And to one hope she presses,
with every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three-in-one, And mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is one. Oh, happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with thee. Please be seated. Thanks, Gerald. Cheryl, you've got a job. We're
so glad to have her and Charlie here, especially her. Let's open our Bibles for our
scripture reading in Psalm 76. Psalm 76. Didn't know what we were going
to open the service with, but that hymn was very appropriate
to this psalm. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the place where he is pleased to make himself known. The scripture says that he inhabits
the praise of his people. And the Lord himself said, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them. That doesn't mean that he's not
omnipresent, he is, but there he's pleased to make himself
known. That's what we just sang about, and that's what this psalm
speaks of. Look at verse one in Psalm 76.
In Judah is God known. His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle
and his dwelling place in Zion. These are all terms describing
the church. There break he the arrows and
the bow, the shield and the sword, and the battle. Oh, he causes
us to Well, he takes our swords and makes them into plowshares.
He causes us to put down the weapons of our warfare against
him. Thou art more glorious and excellent
than the mountains of prey. What are the mountains of prey?
We looked at that recently. What is it that separates us
from our God? That's what are represented by
mountains. That's our sin, isn't it? And here he's more glorious
and excellent than all the things that would separate us from our
God. The stout-hearted are spoiled.
They have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might
have found their hands. Oh, he wakes us up from our slumber,
and we don't find the work of our hands to be the hope of our
salvation anymore. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both the chariot and the horse are cast into the deep sleep.
Thou, even thou, art to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight
when once thou art angry? Oh, we don't want anything to
do with the anger of God. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of an angry God, isn't it? His anger has been
put away. His wrath has been satisfied. Thou didst cause judgment to
be heard from heaven, and the earth feared and was still. When did that happen? On Calvary's
cross, isn't it? When God arose to judgment, that's
when he did it. When the Lord Jesus Christ bore
our sins in his body upon the tree, offered himself up to God
as a sacrifice for sinners. That's when God arose to judgment
to save. all the meek of the earth. Selah. Let's pray together. Merciful Heavenly Father, we
are thankful that you've provided us a place, a place where we
can come and worship Thee. A place where you've promised
to make yourself known. A place where your spirit is
pleased to bless your word according to the gospel of your grace to
the hearts of thy children. Lord, we are in such need of
that tonight. We pray that you would save us.
We pray that you would cause us once again to find our hope,
all our salvation in the finished work of thy dear son. For it's
in his name we ask it. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again, and we'll sing hymn number 104 from your soft-backed hymnal.
Number 104. Three verses. Dear Savior, hear your servant's
prayer and grant my heart's request. Give me a heart true and sincere,
a heart of brokenness. My sins subdued by power divine,
and break my inward pride. Contrite lay me down at your
feet, there cause me to abide. Make me to be a humble child,
submissive to my Lord. Content with what my God supplies,
and weaned from all the world. Christ Jesus, fix my heart on
you, my Savior and my God. Oh, let me nothing seek or serve
except your honor, Lord. a heart of love for all who worship
at your throne. A love that covers every fault
and truly serves your own. Savior, I want to Please be seated. That's amazing. Every word of that hymn that
we just sang goes with the message that the Lord's put on my heart
for tonight. A model prayer, I've titled this
message, and I pray the Lord will answer that prayer that
we just sang and that He'll teach us to pray. If you'll turn with
me in your Bibles to Psalm 69, Psalm 69. We looked at this psalm, the
first part of it, Sunday morning, and there can be no doubt that
this is our Lord's prayer from the cross. It's his pouring out of his heart.
These are the words that are not articulated in the New Testament,
but certainly this was the the prayer that he offered to the
father when he was suffering for the sins of his people. Even
the religious will call Psalm 69 a messianic psalm. They don't
know that all the psalms are messianic. They don't know that
all the scriptures are messianic, for that matter. But there's
enough clarity in this psalm. Look at verse 21. They gave me
also guile for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar
to drink. David speaking prophetically of what the Lord would experience
when he was hanging as the sinner's substitute before God, suffering
the judgment of God's wrath for the sins of his people. What a glorious picture of Christ
we have all the way through this psalm. And every word of it is
his heart. And I want us to see that and
I hope the Lord will show us the heart of Christ. And if he
does, that hymn that we just sang, Lord, I want your heart.
I want to be like David, a man after God's own heart. Lord,
would you teach me to pray like that? What a glorious blessing
the Lord has given to his children that we like Moses can come before
him face to face and speak with him as a man speaketh with a
friend. We can come confidently, that's
what that word boldly means in Hebrews chapter four, boldly
before the throne of grace to obtain mercy and to find grace
to help in our time of need. We are a needy people and the
Lord has blessed us with the privilege of being able to come
before him in prayer. That we'll see this prayer that
our Lord offered and glorify him for the way in which he prayed, and
then ask him to enable us, Lord, to see you. Christ is our model. We follow after him. He's our
rule of life. He's the one we look to. The
disciples, when they saw the Lord praying, and they saw the
effectualness of his prayer, you remember what they said?
Lord, teach us to pray. Lord, we want to pray like you.
We want to pray like you. And that's the heart of every
child of God. Lord, and yet so oftentimes we're
like those poor disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane in our
Lord's darkest hour, what'd they do? They fell asleep. Fell asleep. Could you not stand
with me for just an hour? No, Lord, I can't. I can't. Would you teach me to pray? Would
you give me the heart of Christ? We'll begin in verse 13. But as for me, as for me, oh, if the Lord teaches
us to pray, it'll be a unique and unusual thing. Everybody
prays when they get in trouble. Everybody's got some God they
call out to. If the Lord teaches us to pray
like this, as for me, what does he say? My prayer is unto thee,
O Lord. Who is it that we pray to? We
pray unto the Lord. This is Jehovah. This is the
self-existent one. This is the one who revealed
himself to Moses at the burning bush when Moses asked, whom shall
I say sent me? Tell them I am. Here's the one that we pray to.
Here's the one that we come before. I am the bread of life. I am
the resurrection and the life. We come before Christ just as
he came before the Father. We pour out our souls to Him,
as for me, I'll pray unto Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. When is the acceptable time for
prayer? Well, we're found accepted in the Beloved. And so if the
Lord gives us faith to look to Christ and to find in Him all
our righteousness and all of our justification before God,
then that's an acceptable time. That's an acceptable time. Our
Lord's pouring out His soul from the cross in an acceptable time. He says, O God, in the multitude
of Thy mercy, hear me. Now there's a glorious truth
of imputation that takes place. We saw some of it Sunday. The
Lord suffering our sins to such a degree that he bears them himself. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us. It's a mysterious thing. And
yet he suffers the shame of it, he suffers the guilt of it. When
God charged him with our sin, he bore that sin in his body
before God and satisfied all of God's justice. And in that
regard, as the son of man, as the sin bearer, as a substitute
before God, he was in need of mercy. Lord, show me mercy. How much more we are in need
of God's mercy. That's all we are. That's what
prayer is. Prayer is sinners begging God for mercy. Hear me. Hear me. Hear me in the truth of thy salvation. Salvation belongs to God. David
said, in Psalm 51, David prayed, he said, Lord, restore unto me
the joy of thy salvation. It's God's salvation. He's got
the right to have mercy upon whom he will have mercy. He has
the right to harden whom he will harden. He'll save whomsoever
he wills to save. Matter of fact, that's what he
told Moses there on Mount Sinai when Moses stood before the Lord
and asked him to show him his glory. Remember, Moses said,
show me thy glory. I'll cause my goodness to pass
before you, and I'll have mercy upon whom I will have mercy.
God owns the salvation. He purposed it. He planned it.
He fulfilled it in every regard. It belongs to him. And in that
regard, we are completely dependent upon his mercy to save us, aren't
we? It was God's salvation in the
fall. In the fall. Now I want to correct a misunderstanding
that I've had for some time, and I'm sure I've taught this,
I've made this point before, that there are three imputations
spoken of in the scriptures. the imputation of Adam's sin
to us, the imputation of our sin to Christ, and the imputation
of his righteousness to us. And I want to clarify something,
because in fact, the scripture doesn't teach that we were imputed
with Adam's sin. We weren't imputed with Adam's
sin. We were in Adam when he sinned. The imputation is God
charging to one something other than what they are, so that Christ
was imputed with our sin. He became a curse. He became
something that he wasn't before. When he imputes to us the righteousness
of Christ, he gives us something that we didn't have. But the
scriptures makes it clear. Turn with me to Romans chapter
five. Here, this is the gospel. God,
this is... You and I did not have to be
charged with the sin of Adam. We were in the loins of Adam. That's why the virgin birth is
necessary for the Lord Jesus Christ to be without sin. When
Adam, God ordained the fall of Adam so that where sin abounds,
grace does much more, but we'll go see that in Romans chapter
five. Turn with me there. Romans chapter five, look at
verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that
all have sinned. You sinned. You were in Adam. All the children of Adam were
in his DNA, we're in his loins, we're in his physical person. And when Adam fell, we fell in
him. We all sinned in Adam. God doesn't
have to charge us with the sin of Adam. We sinned when Adam
sinned. We were there. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the multitude of Adam's transgression. Even those babies
that are born into the world, they're born into the world as
sinners. They've inherited. You see, Adam's sin to us is
not by imputation, it's by inheritance. And there's a difference. There's
a difference in that what that does is it clarifies what imputation
really is. What imputation is in Christ
being imputed with our sin and us being imputed with his righteousness.
If we make Adam's sin to us an imputation, then it clouds the
subject of what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. who is a figure of him that was
to come, but not as the offense, so also as the free gift. For
if the offense of one, many be dead." We died in our father
Adam. Much more, the grace of God and
the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded
unto many. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift, for the judgment was by one to condemnation. See, we were condemned. We were
condemned before we were born. We were condemned in our father
Adam. We were in Adam. When he sinned, we sinned. But
the free grace is of many offenses unto justification. For if by
one man's offense death reigned by one, much more, they which
receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one Jesus Christ. He's likening Christ to Adam
in that we died in Adam, we're made alive in Christ. Therefore,
as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men under justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. We were sinners in Adam. We sinned
in Adam. We don't have to be imputed with
Adam's sin. We inherited it. We were born
dead. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense may abound, but where sin abounded, grace, grace did
much more abound. That's what we're in need of.
Go back with me to our text in Psalm 69. This is the Lord's salvation.
He purposed it in the fall of Adam. He purposed it before that
in election. He chose a particular people
according to his own will and purpose before time ever began. He, it was his salvation in redemption. We didn't add anything to what
Christ did. We were in Adam when he died, when he sinned, we were
in him. We fell in our father Adam and guilty before God. But we didn't have anything to
do with what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary. He did that all
by himself. You see, what that does, it clarifies
the subject of imputation, that we are in need of God to impute
to us something that we didn't have. We didn't have a righteousness. We need for Him to impute to
Christ, to charge to His account all our sin, to put them away
once and for all. We didn't have anything to do
with redemption. That was the Lord's work. We didn't have anything
to do with adoption. The child doesn't choose the
parents, the parents choose the child. We don't have anything
to do with sanctification. It's Christ that worketh in you,
that causes you to will and to do His good pleasure. It's He
that keeps us from falling and presents us faultless. We don't
have anything to do with our glorification. He's going to
present us before God faultless before the throne of God. This
is His salvation. It's all of the Lord. It's what
Jonah said, salvation's of the Lord. Christ is all and he is
in all. And that's how we pray. That's
how we come before God. Let's read that verse again,
verse 13. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable
time, O God, in the multitude of thy mercy, hear me in the
truth of thy salvation. in the truth of thy salvation. God's not going to hear our prayers
outside of the truth of the gospel. He's not going to hear them. Psalm 40 verse 16
says, let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. The only way we can
come before God is the way that Lord Jesus Christ came before
God. Glorifying the Father, giving him all the glory and all the
credit, and putting all of his hope in him. And that's how we
pray. That's how we come. And we don't
know how to pray. What a model prayer the Lord
has given us here. To pray in the same way the Lord
Jesus Christ prayed. Verse 14. Let me, let me quote this verse
from first Samuel chapter two. This was the prayer of Hannah.
She said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted
in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my
enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. It's just God's salvation. And
that's how we come. Lord, if you're going to save
me, you're going to have to do all of it. You're going to have
to do every bit of it. Deliver me out of the mire. Now
our Lord is praying to the Father to deliver him from the grave.
And the Father would not allow His Holy One to see corruption.
He could not remain in the grave. He had to honor this prayer.
And that's really our prayer, isn't it? I mean, we pray for
so many things. James says you pray amiss that
you might consume it upon your own lust. How often times we
pray for so many temporal things. What is it we need to pray for
more than anything else? Lord, to be delivered from hell.
to be delivered. We were talking about this before
the service and what do y'all teach people here? That was the
question that we were discussing. What do y'all teach people here?
We teach them how to die. We teach people how to die. Religion's all about teaching
men how to live. And much of our prayer is bound
up in the things that our Lord is crying out to the Father not
to leave him in the grave, not to allow him to be consumed with
death. So it is. That needs to be our
prayer always. Deliver me out of the mire and
let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them
that hate me and out of the deep waters. Oh Lord, if you don't
deliver me, if you don't save me, I'm not talking about being
saved from my circumstances or being saved from, you know, some
problem that I've got in this life. I'm talking about being
saved from eternal judgment. Let not the water flood overflow
me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut
her mouth upon me." Oh, Lord, that's my greatest need. My greatest need, Lord, is to
be delivered from the judgment that I deserve. If I don't have
If I don't have a substitute, if I don't have an advocate before
God, if I don't have a sin-bearer, this is what I deserve. I'm a
hell-deserving sinner. Lord, I'm in need of your mercy.
Deliver me from thy judgment. Hear me, O Lord. Why? For thy lovingkindness. Now,
lovingkindness in the Old Testament language is the same as grace
in the New Testament language. or just give me more grace. Lord, sin just seems to abound
in me, but you said that where sin abounds, grace does much
more abound. And what you need for your sin
and what I need for my sin is not discipline, is not determination,
it's not chastisement or judgment or correction or wrath, it's
grace. Grace is what we need for our
sin. Lord, according to thy lovingkindness, according to thy grace, have
mercy upon me. It's the only power that breaks
the staff of sin. It's the only thing that'll do
it. Hear me, O Lord, for thy lovingkindness
is good. Why callest thou me good? For
there is none good but God. There is none good but God. And
what did the Lord say to Moses on Mount Sinai? He said, I will,
I've got a place here by me, a cleft in the rock. I'm going
to put you in that rock and I'm going to cause my goodness to
pass before you. That's what we need. It is the
goodness of God that leadeth to repentance. It's not standing
in wrath and in judgment. It's God's goodness. And where
do we see, as is true with all the attributes of God, where
do we see His goodness most clearly displayed? Where do we see it? On the cross. Same place we see
His holiness and His wrath and His justice and His love and
His mercy, His goodness that God Almighty would pour out His
wrath on His own Son in order to deliver me from the judgment
of my sin? And would impute to me the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Brethren, God has given us, in
His Word, words to pray. We don't advocate vain repetition
or memorizing prayers to offer them up to God. But this is... Lord, I don't know how to pray.
Pray like this. Just offer these words up to
the Lord. God's only pleased with that
which He gives, isn't that right? He'll only receive back that
which He's given to us. That's why He's pleased with
faith. He's pleased with faith because He gave it to us. He's
pleased with his word. And he said, my word will not
return unto me void. It'll accomplish the purpose
for which I send it. Lord, these are the words. These
are the words of your son's heart as he hung on Calvary's cross.
What greater words could we offer up to God? Turn unto me, verse 16, according,
according to the multitude. How much mercy do you need? How
often do you need mercy? How many times do you need to
be forgiven? How many times do you need the
Lord to, the multitude of his tender mercies, he delights in
showing mercy. He never runs out of mercy. Oh,
he never runs out of it. His mercies are infinite, they're
eternal. That's what a sinner needs. He
needs a mercy that he can't wear out. And we don't have that kind
of mercy. I promise you, the person you
love the most in this world could wear out your welcome. They could, but you can't wear his out. Lord,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, oh, just
keep me coming. Hide not thy face from thy servant.
Oh, Lord, sometimes the awareness of your presence seems so, so
gone. Lord, don't hide your face. Turn
us again, oh God, and cause thy face to shine upon us, and we
shall be saved. We shall be saved. Hide not thy
face from thy servant, for I am in trouble. I'm in trouble. I got a problem I
can't fix. I've got a sin nature that hounds
me. I can't solve this problem. And if God doesn't have mercy
and grace upon me for Christ's sake, I've got a problem with
God. I'm gonna stand before Him and
I'll have to suffer the full wrath of His judgment. Lord,
I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. Now, if you're
trouble, if you pray to God for some temporal trouble, then when
that trouble's gone, you'll quit praying. And the truth is that
our troubles do kind of go up and down, don't they? They just
sort of, you know, we have good days and bad days and sometimes
things get real bad and then they get better. And we're either
in trouble or coming out of trouble or going into trouble all the
time, aren't we? But, you know, we're in trouble with our sin.
Lord, I need a savior. Hear me speedily. Lord, don't wait. Don't wait. This is our Lord's prayer from
the cross and a model prayer for sinners. Hide not thy face from thy servant.
Verse 18, draw nigh unto my soul. Oh Lord, I can't get to where
you are. I can't get to where you are. You're going to have
to come to where I am. You draw nigh to me and redeem me. Redeem me. Pay the ransom price
to purchase my soul. I don't have enough. I can't
do it. Deliver me. Deliver me, Lord. because of my enemies. You've
got enemies, you know you do. Number one enemy is sitting right
in the same seat you're sitting in. That old man, isn't he? You're
flesh, we really are our own worst enemies. And then on top
of that, we're living in this world that's contrary to everything
we hold dear to our hearts and everything that stands true for
God. And we're so drawn by it. And then we've got the satanic
powers that are always, always shooting fiery darts and accusing
the brethren. And in that glorious law of God
stands in judgment of us, if it's not satisfied, we'll find
it to be our enemy one day. We love God's law, but if it
doesn't get fulfilled, if the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't fulfill
the law for us, the law of God will be our enemy in the day
of judgment. It'll stand against us and speak
words of judgment and condemnation against us. Thou hast known my reproach.
Oh, and the father knew the reproaches that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered.
He knew the contradiction of sinners that he suffered in this
world. He knew the reproach that he
was suffering now. And my shame and my dishonor
and my adversaries are all before me. Lord, if you don't put my
sin on Christ, if you don't cause him to suffer shame and reproach
and dishonor for me, then that's all I'll have is shame, reproach,
and dishonor. I need him to bear that for me. Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity,
but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They all forsook him. He had
to go to the cross by himself, and not only did his friends
forsake him, but all the horrors of horrors, God the Father forsook
him. This matter of the Lord Jesus
Christ being imputed with our sin was so real that he felt
its shame, he felt its reproach, and God Almighty could not look
upon him. And that's why he cried, My God,
my God, why'st thou forsaken me? You and I are accustomed to living
moments and hours and days without really having any True fellowship
with God. Wasn't true with him. They gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Now I don't want verses 22 and
28 to apply to me. I just just as effectual as are the
Lord's prayers for His people, so they are for the judgment
of the reprobate. There will come a day, if the
judgment of God, if these verses, verses 22 through 28, are not
true, then grace means nothing. In
other words, if there's no judgment, there's no salvation. If there's
no wrath, then there's no deliverance. If there's no hatred, there's
no love. And there'll come a day when we'll understand this. We'll
sing hallelujah with the angelic choir at the wrath of God against
the reprobate. Our Lord is praying to the Father,
judgment against the unbeliever. What a sobering warning this
is for each of us. Let their table become a snare
before them, and that which should have been for their welfare,
let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened that
they see not, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour
out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take
hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate,
and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecuted him whom
thou hast smitten. and they talk to the grief of
those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity,
and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted
out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. Jacob I have loved, I'm so glad,
and Esau I have hated. God has made some vessels fitted
for destruction. That's just so clear in the Word
of God. You can't have one without the
other. Why did he do it? Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians. I want you to see this. That's not the passage I was
thinking of. Actually, it's in Romans where
God speaks of vessels fitted for destruction. Yes, in order that he might show
forth his, yes, I'm sorry, it's Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter
9. Turn with me there. Verse 21, hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? So this is the hand of God. He
makes one man to believe and makes another man not to believe. And if God, willing to show his
wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Why? Why would he
do that? Verse 23, that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which
he had afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Now there is
a time, brethren, where it's appropriate for us to say, but
for the grace of God, there go I. And that's it right there. That's it right there. Let's conclude in verse 29 in
our text, Psalm 69, a model prayer. This is the prayer, the effectual
prayer of our Lord, and words that are good for dying sinners
to offer to a holy God. Look what he says in verse 29,
but I am poor. Oh, blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of God. Lord, I don't have anything.
I'm poverty stricken. I don't have any righteousness.
I don't have anything to bring to you to persuade you or to
influence you to save me. I am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation, oh God, set
me up on high. Lord, if I'm going to be saved,
you're going to have to do it. I will praise the name of God
with a song and magnify him with thanksgiving." How fickle we are. When our situation isn't as we
wish it was, we get disquieted, don't we? We complain, we murmur,
just like children of Israel in the wilderness, we're just
murmuring people. Truth is, truth is, if God did
not do anything for you and me other than save our souls, we
would have every reason in the world to spend every moment of
our waking life offering him praise and thanksgiving. if He
removed from us every other comfort of life. Now that's just the
truth, isn't it? This is a prayer for salvation.
And the psalmist is saying, Lord, David's saying, our Lord's praying,
we're saying, magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall
praise the Lord better than an ox or a bullock that hath horns
and hooves. Look at verse 32. The humble,
those who have been made meek, that's the word here, it's the
same word, meek. The meek shall inherit the earth. The meek, the humble shall see
this They'll see what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on
Calvary's cross, and they'll be glad. They'll be glad. And look, and your heart shall
live. That's what I need. And we get
so caught up in wanting a good life here in this world, this
gospel is for the life of our souls. Your heart shall live that seek
God. For the Lord heareth the poor
and despiseth not his prisoners. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're so encouraged and thankful that we have a Savior who prays
perfect prayers. Every word of them, heard of
thee, and answered perfectly. Lord, we pray that you would
cause us to follow after him, to look to him, to find our hope
in him. Lord, would you be pleased to
remind us once again to always seek thy face for the salvation
of our souls? We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 355, let's all stand. From every storm, the wind that
blows From every swelling tide of woes There is a calm, a sure
retreat Tis found beneath the myrrh There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness. Our heads a place than all besides
more sweet. It is the blood-bought mercy
seat. There is a scene where spirits
blend Where friend holds fellowship with friend Though sundered far,
by faith they meet Around one common mercy A whither could we flee for aid
When tempted, desolate, dismayed? Or how the hosts of hell defeat
Had suffering saints no mercy seat? Ah, there on eagle wings
we soar, and sin and sense molest no more. And heaven comes down
our souls to greet, while glory crowns the mercy seat. Amen. Greg, do you want to announce?
Debra, Debra? You want to do Debra's birthday?
Yeah. Oh, okay. If everybody runs off, I don't
know if you noticed, if you got a bulletin there, today is Debra
Burnside's birthday. Yeah, you just weren't fast enough,
Debra. So anyway, we've got a birthday,
there's a birthday cake for her in the back, and we're going
to sing happy birthday to Debra.