All right, brethren, 2 Samuel
chapter 1. If I say 2 Samuel 32, I mean
2 Samuel chapter 1. I put that in my notes several
times today. I don't know why. 2 Samuel 1. In these verses, we have that
David has been in Ziglag now for some time, and a man comes
to him. And this man reports that he
has slain Saul. He comes with the crown. He comes with the bracelets.
And he thinks this is going to put him in favor with David.
And it does just the opposite. David slays him for putting his
hand upon the Lord's anointed, upon Saul. Now, in the opening
verses, the Spirit of God draws our attention to the time that
this took place. He says there, now it came to
pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from
the slaughter of the Malachites, and David had abode two days
in Ziklag, it came even to pass on the third day. The third day
is when our victorious King Jesus arose from the grave. He arose
from the grave the third day. David's about to arise to the
throne as the King of Israel. That's what's taking place here. And Christ Jesus has now arisen
to his throne. It says here, this came to pass
after the death of Saul. Saul, being a good picture of
the devil, the Lord Jesus Christ, after he went to the cross, after
he crushed the devil's head, he ascended to the throne. This
was the promise God made in Genesis 3.15 to the serpent. He said,
I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed
and her seed. And he said, it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. That's what took place
on the cross. The devil's bruising the heel
of our Redeemer, but the Redeemer bruised the head of the devil. Before he went to the cross,
Christ said, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the
prince of this world be cast out. He defeated the devil on
the cross. And then if you look at Saul
as a picture of the sin nature, in all God's elect, in Christ
crucified, our old man of sin, the Saul that we all are by nature,
died. And after that, Christ arose
to the throne. Paul said in Romans 6, 6, knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with Him. This was after the
death of Saul, after our old man of sin, the Saul that's in
you and me, died in Christ. Our old man is crucified with
Christ and that the body of sin might be destroyed. This is before
the judgment seat of God, before His holy justice. that we should
not henceforth serve sin, for he that's dead is freed, and
the word is justified from sin. That's how sin's not gonna have
dominion over you. That's how you're gonna be free
to believe and walk after Christ is knowing, and God keeping you
knowing Christ justifies you from all your sin, from all your
sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. That's
who did the justifying. God did. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
that's risen again. That's what we see David. He's
rising to the throne. Christ is risen again and he
lives there to make intercession for his people at the right hand
of God. It says here this happened when
David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites. On the cross,
brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ conquered every enemy his people
have. He conquered every enemy we have.
Turn over to Romans 8. I want you to see what our enemies
are. This just struck me as I was
reading this. And this is exactly what the
Spirit of God moved Paul to declare. This right here is all our enemies. all the enemies Christ conquered.
Here it is right here. Verse 35, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Look at verse 38, for I'm persuaded
that neither death There's an enemy, nor life, that can be
an enemy, nor angels, evil, wicked angels that fail, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why
not? Why not? Look at verse 37. In all these things, in all these
things, We're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Christ
defeated every enemy for His people. This is what Paul was
brought to say at the end of 1 Corinthians 15 in verse 57. Thanks be to God that giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So in David here,
we have a picture of Christ the King arising to the throne. David's
about to go to the throne. be a short time now, he'll be
on the throne of Israel. Christ now is on the throne of
Israel. And when Paul was moved by the Spirit to write in Ephesians
1 that the Father raised Christ and gave far above all power
and principality and every name that's named and gave him to
be the head over all things to the church, put all things under
his feet. He said, and Christ filleth all
in all. His church is his body. Christ
filleth all in all. And the next word is, and you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin. And
the next thing we have happen here in our text is a man comes
to David. A man comes to David. He says
in verse 2, it came even to pass on the third day that behold
a man came. He says later there in that verse
he came to David. The victory that Christ accomplished
is given freely to the sinner that comes to Christ. Christ
has accomplished a victory. He's the king. He's risen. And
now the victory is given to the sinner that comes to Christ,
that comes to Christ. My prayer every time that I'm
preparing to preach and I'm asking God for a message, my prayer
is that the Lord will be pleased to make some sinner come to Christ. Believe on Christ. And I pray
this for you that already believe on Christ. We never stop coming
to Christ, and it's the Lord that makes us keep coming to
Christ. Blessed is the man that he chooseth
and causes to approach unto him. And he's the one that will make
us come to him. He will speak the word through
the gospel as his priest, and he will command you to come,
but he gives the power, and he draws you, and you come to him.
This is what he said, who is he that overcometh the world,
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. That's the
only way to overcome the world, and it's faith, John said. But
now be sure to understand, it's not just our faith, it's not
looking to our faith, it's Christ. Christ said if you have the faith
of a grain of mustard seed, he said you could say to this mountain,
be cast into the sea, and it would be cast into the sea. And
the point of that is, It's not your faith that did it. Because
he's saying if your faith is just as small as a grain of mustard
seed, Who's that faith relied on? It's relied on Christ. He
gives us the victory, and He's the one that can cast the mountain
into the sea. It's not the degree of faith
you have or how great faith you have. It is Christ who faith
lays hold on. If your faith's just the size
of a mustard seed, He said, you can say to this mountain, be
cast into the sea, and it will. Christ will do that. But in this
man, here that comes to David, we have an illustration of a
false profession. We have an illustration of a
sinner who is trusting himself rather than Christ. Two things
this man did are the essence of all vain faith and all false
professions. Two things he did. He claimed
to have killed Saul and he brought the crown to crown David. Now
you think about those two things. You think of Saul as a type of
our sin nature, and you think of David as Christ the King,
and you have the essence right here of whatever false profession
is. A false faith boasts that I overcame
my sinful flesh, and I made Christ Lord of my life. That's a false
profession. That's trusting self. Those who
truly come to Christ. Now what is that? You hear us
say, come to Christ. What is it to come to Christ?
I want you to know what that is. What is it to truly come
to Christ? It's to believe on Christ. That
means to believe on Christ for all. and to deny ourselves entirely,
not looking to ourselves for anything. We deny, when we deny
ourselves, we deny not only our sinful works, and that includes
our best works, we deny our very nature. We deny ourselves completely. We're saying we are the sinner.
And you know when you really confess your sin? When you beg
Christ for mercy and cry out and cast all your care on Christ
because the confession of faith, truly believing on Christ is
saying, I cannot save myself. I cannot save myself, and true
faith is confessing that Christ alone accomplished the victory.
He alone called me to himself. He alone continues to save me,
and he shall save me at last. Faith is trusting Christ. He's
the King and Savior. I am the sinner being saved by
the Savior. coming to Christ is believing
Christ for all, and it's doing so all our days, all our days. We need Him to save us all the
time, every day, all the way. We need Christ to save. So let's
look at some things this man did and see a false profession,
and by that we'll look at some things about a true profession.
Verse 2 says this man came with his clothes rent and earth upon
his head and so it was when he came to David that he fell to
the earth and did obeisance. Now God is the one who creates
a broken and a contrite heart in his child. A broken heart
and a contrite heart. One heart, a broken and contrite
heart in those that come to Christ. Brokenness of heart is symbolized
by a man renting his clothes and putting earth upon his head.
It's symbolized here. This man had to rent his clothes
and he put earth upon his head and contrition of heart is symbolized
here by him bowing and doing obeisance to David. He bowed
and worshipped David. Now this man put on these emblems
of a broken and contrite heart. Now a false faith likes to boast
of giving self a new heart. Will men, will sinners really
boast that they gave themselves a new heart? Yes, they will. Sinners will boast they gave
themselves a new heart. Free Will Works religion loves
a show of repentance. They love a show of repentance.
They love to stand up and talk about their sin and before the
congregation and go into great detail about all their sin. And
really what it is, is their boasting of sin they have overcome. It's
really what it is. True brokenness of heart, when
a heart is really broken by God, true brokenness of heart consists
of God making us see there is no good thing in us. Only sin. No good thing in us. When the Lord breaks the heart,
when He breaks the heart, He makes us see our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. our righteousnesses. That's typified
in these rent clothes. and these clothes just ripped
up, brethren. My garment of righteousness,
whatever I have on is my garment of righteousness that are my
good works. It's rent, it's ripped apart
when he makes you to behold Christ because all my very best deeds,
my very best, what men would look at it and say that was a
righteous deed. It is sinful in and of itself of me before
God apart from Christ. Sins mixed with everything. When
the Lord breaks the heart, He's going to make us on ourselves
to be dust. To be dust. Nothing but the sinner
in whom dwells no good thing. That's typified by the earth
upon the head right here. Abraham answered and he said,
Behold now I've taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which
shall but dust and ashes. What value, how much value do
you put on dust and ashes? Dust and ashes, anybody ever
save the ashes out of your fireplace or out of your grill? We don't
put any value on dust and ash. It's just a weak, filthy thing,
dust and ashes. Peter saw the Lord's glory. The
Lord, he came up to him, and they got in that boat, and he
preached, and he said, now launch out here, and he said, cast your
net over here, and let's catch us a drought of fish. Peter said,
Lord, we fished all night long. We're professional fishermen.
We fished all night long, and we have not caught anything.
Nevertheless, at thy word, that's faith. Nevertheless, at thy word. And he cast that net in, and
it broke. There was so much fish in it.
And they had to call help to help them get the net in. And
you know what Peter's response was? When he thought about what
he had said, Lord, we fished all night. And he saw what he
was in that very statement. Peter said, he fell down at Jesus'
knees saying, depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man,
O Lord. I am a sinful man. True repentance is God changing
our mind entirely about what we are. It's God changing our
mind completely about what we are and about what our deeds
are. He changes your mind from thinking you're pretty good and
you've done some good things and he makes you see that your
deeds are sinful and you are the sinner. That's when a man
has a broken heart, a broken and a a broken heart. God works
by making us behold. This is how He does this. He
makes you behold Christ. He makes you see He's your righteousness
and He's your holiness. When He makes His child see that
Christ is our righteousness and our holiness, that's when we
see we don't have a righteousness of our own. We don't have holiness
except Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is holiness. Christ Jesus is righteousness.
That's who He is. He did all from a holy heart,
and He worked out a perfect obedience, or by His perfect obedience worked
out a perfect righteousness for His people. And when the Lord
brings you and gives you discernment to behold Christ Jesus on the
cross, that's when we see what it took. to make us righteous
and holy. It took God coming down. It took
God taking flesh. It took God bearing my sin as
a man in His body on the tree. It took God bearing the justice
of God in my room instead. And Christ Jesus did this all
Himself, and He is the righteousness and the holiness of His people.
That's when we know we are the sinner. That's when, I'm talking
about when you see him by faith, when God gives you faith to see
Christ and you see him crucified, that's when it stops being a
doctrine and it stops being a system and it stops being just going
to church. and it becomes, I am a sinner. I'm going to meet God. I'm going
to face this holy just judge and I don't have a righteousness
or holiness of my own. I have to have Christ. And you
see, He's the only righteousness and holiness there is. And that's
when you come broken-hearted to Christ. This man came bowing
down to David doing obeisance. God's gonna create in His child
a contrite heart. It's a broken heart, broken because
we're sin, our deeds are sin, and it's a contrite heart that
comes bowed down to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's when you come to the Lord
Jesus and not come demanding, you come begging for mercy. He
can do with His own what He will. He made us. He doesn't have to
save anybody. You come begging for mercy, and
you never stop coming to Him, casting all on Him, begging for
mercy. You're familiar with Psalm 51.
I won't have you turn there. But David fell down before the
Lord, and he did obeisance to the Lord. That's what David did. He confessed to God his sinful
deeds. He confessed he had sinned against
God. Against thee and thee only have I sinned." He declared God
just. And he said, I've sinned against
you. And he begged God for mercy. He begged God to blot out his
sins. He begged God to do it according
to his loving kindness and according to the multitude of his tender
mercy. But he didn't stop there. David
confessed to God his nature was only sin. He said, I was conceived
in sin in my mother's womb. And he asked God to wash him
and cleanse him from his sin. He asked for a new heart. He
asked for a clean heart. He asked to be restored in the
joy of God's salvation. And here's why he did this. He
declares it. He said, Thou desirest not sacrifice. God's not calling on us to do
something to be saved. Christ has done it all. He's
not desiring sacrifice. David said, if you did, I'd give
it. He said, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. That's what God's pleased with.
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. A broken heart that says, I am
nothing but the sinner. and contrite, bowing to the Lord,
begging mercy from him. The Lord's nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart. He gave it. He's nigh unto them. He saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. So that's the first thing we
see Now the second thing, those who come to Christ give Him all
the praise for making us holy and separating us unto Him. When you really come to Christ,
Christ is the only one that you're going to praise for making you
holy and separating you unto Him. Christ did it. Look here
in verse 3. David asked him where he came
from, and he said to David, Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped. This man makes no mention of the Lord.
He makes no mention of the Lord. He said, I escaped. And he had left the camp of Saul,
and he came to David. There's no mention of the Lord
making him escape. False faith boasts of making
self holy and coming to Christ and conquering our sin. That's
what false faith boasts about. He thought this would please
David. This is what he's doing. He's trying. He knows David's
the king, and he's trying to get in the favor with David.
That's what this man's doing. And he makes it sound as though
Saul was his enemy too. I have left the camp of Saul
and I have come to you. It is the Lord alone who makes
his child escape. The Lord alone makes his child
escape. You will escape. You will come out. But it is
the Lord alone who is going to make his child escape. And he
is going to make us escape to Christ our refuge, our King David. Now Saul and his camp, they despised
David, and they cast David out of the camp. That's what they
did. They cast him out. Saul pursued him. That's what
the devil and his seed did to the Lord Jesus Christ when he
walked this earth. The Pharisees and the Sadducees,
Jews and Gentiles, religious, irreligious, unregenerate men
who hated Christ, they took Christ out of the camp, outside of the
city, and they crucified him. But by His blood, by Him submitting
Himself to do that for His people, our Lord Jesus Christ sanctified
His people by His blood. He made us holy. He made us righteous
by His blood because He was holy and what He did is the righteousness
of His people. He justified us from our sin.
And it's Christ who comes to us, and He sanctifies us in our
heart, and when He's formed in our heart, so that we discern
Him, and we know Him, and we see what He accomplished for
us, and it's Christ who makes us come out and come to Him,
and be separated unto Him. And just like we've seen with
David, He never stops doing this. He keeps separating you to Him. He keeps making you partake of
His holiness, and He is the holiness He makes you partake of. Christ
said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all unto me. Christ gets the glory of being
the head over the church that he might fill all in all. It's by Christ's power that we
escape out of the camp, out of the camp of false religion. When the Christ works this, we're
brought out of false religion, our vain ideas and our vain opinions
and all the things we thought that commended us to God. We're
brought out of the camp of this God-hating world and out of the
camp of our former companions. We're brought out of the camp
and we're brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. and he never stopped
separating us. Look over at Hebrews 13, 9. Hebrews 13, 9. Be not carried about with different
and strange doctrines. It's a good thing that the heart
The heart, this is a heart work, the heart be established with
grace, not with meats, which if not profited them that have
been occupied therein. Those dietary laws, they pictured
Christ. They pictured Christ. But men
were occupied with those laws thinking they made themselves
to differ by obeying that law. And they didn't have the ears
to even see what that law was teaching. We have an altar. Christ Jesus is our altar. We
have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. This all has to do with being
made holy, this eating, because it's these dietary laws by which
God showed the difference between clean and unclean. They have
no right to eat which serve the tabernacle, which serve the outward
and are observing the laws and thinking that's how they're made
holy. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought
into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without
the count. Wherefore Jesus also that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood. That's holiness. He suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto
him without the count, bearing his reproach. For here we have
no continuing city." He's saying, you've been cast out of the city.
You've been cast out of organized religion, out of Jerusalem. We
don't even have a continuing city here. That don't matter.
You didn't give up anything. Our heavenly Jerusalem is our
city. Just like Christ is our altar,
and Christ is our tabernacle, and Christ is the one who sanctifies
it. All the things that was in the letter of the law that men
thought was making them holy, they didn't see. It all typified
the Lord Jesus. By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to His name. This man right here
in our text, he's an illustration of the Pharisees. The word Pharisee
means separate ones. That's what it means. And they
boasted that they separated themselves from others and made themselves
to differ from the unclean by their observance of the law.
and they rejected Christ in the process. Particularly, they were
talking about the law of meats, the law of clean and unclean
animals, just like all the law, just like the high priest, the
tabernacle, the sacrifices, even the bodies burned without the
count. Every bit of that pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave
it all to picture Christ, who sanctified his people with
his own blood. Christ taught Peter this. He
let down that net, and it was full of all manner of unclean
beasts. And the Lord said, Peter, arise,
kill and eat. And Peter said, Not so, Lord.
And the voice came from heaven and said, What God hath cleansed,
call not thou common. It's God that put a difference.
between the clean and the unclean. It's God that made us clean,
that made us pure, that made us holy. We're sanctified by
the blood of Christ. That's what he teaches you in
the heart when he sanctifies you in the heart. Christ is the
way of escape, and He makes His child escape. Christ is the refuge
to whom we escape. He's the one who made you holy.
He's the one who comes and makes your heart holy. He's the one
who calls you out of the camp, and He's the one to whom He brings
you to. Go over to Psalm 72. Let's see that. Psalm 72. Listen to the heart of... Let's do the
heart of Solomon. Psalm 71, or David, this is for
Solomon. Psalm 72, 1. I got to get the right psalm myself. Hold
on. Alright. Psalm 71, verse 1. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Deliver me in thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. incline thine ear unto me, and
save me. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Look down at
verse 6. By thee have I been holden up
from the womb, Thou art He that took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of Thee. I am as a wonder to many, but
Thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Thy
praise and with Thy honor all the day." Do you see that? Lord,
deliver me in Thy righteousness and cause me to escape. This
man came saying, I escaped. I did it. I got out. I made it
out. God's child comes and says, Lord, you made me escape, keep
making me escape, keep delivering me, keep being, you did it from
my mother's womb, keep holding me up and keep saving me. That's,
and you think about how different that is from what this world's
religion calls sanctification. He sanctifies his people from
this notion of giving ourselves glory for being sanctified. When
He separates you out, He'll bring you out. You will come out, just
like faith. When He gives you faith, He commands
you to believe, you're going to believe. He commands you to
repent, you're going to repent. He draws you out, you'll come
out. But He's going to work it in a way that you're going to
know He did it, and the only one who'll get the glory is Him.
Now thirdly, True faith believes and confesses we're saved by
Christ's works alone. He's our only righteousness.
He's done it all. And I just kind of sum it up
here. This man told David that Saul
and Jonathan were dead. And David asked him how he knew
that. And he said that he killed Saul. He said he killed Saul. And he says here, he was righteous
to do it. That's what he basically says
here. He says it was merciful to Saul to do it. Now that doesn't
line up with what we read at the end of chapter 31. In chapter
31 of 1 Samuel, that's God's word about what happened to Saul.
Saul killed himself. But this man came and said he
killed him. And said he was righteous to do it. But here in verse 9,
he said unto me again, stand, this is what Saul said to me,
he said, he said, stand I pray thee upon me and slay me, for
anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me. So
I stood upon him and slew him, because I was sure that he could
not live after that he was fallen. He asked me to do it. And I'm
sure he couldn't live after that he was fallen. And I took the
crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was on
his arm and I brought them hither unto my Lord. False confession
says, I crucified my sinful flesh. I turned my life around. I've
done these works of righteousness." This man was confessing that
what he did was right, and he's confessing what he did was mercy,
and that he did this all himself, and that he brought the crown
to King David to crown the Lord. By bringing his crown and his
bracelets to David, he wanted to make David king. He wanted
to be the first one to come to David and acknowledge him as
a king. And you think about what favor this man must have thought
that would give him to be the first one to come and acknowledge
him. And he's thinking, I killed this
enemy of David. David's going to love this. I
slew this enemy for him. So he wants to come and make
David the king. The problem is, God already made
David the king 20 years ago. He anointed him about 20 years
before this. And men that want to make Christ
king, God already made him king from eternity. And he's been
on the throne over 2,000 years now. There's not one thing this
sinner, right here, that you're looking at, there's not one thing
in me, and there's not one thing in any other sinner that we have
ever done to make ourselves righteous or holy before God. Not a thing. Not one thing. In ourselves,
we're guilty sinners. And ourselves were guilty sin.
We had nothing to do with giving ourselves spiritual life. We
had nothing to do with giving ourselves faith. We had nothing
to do with separating ourselves from our former sinful life.
We have nothing. We don't just by ourselves turn
from any sin. Not even now as believers. The
only way we came to Christ is by the quickening power of God's
grace. And that's the only way we continue.
When Christ sent the command, that's when we came out. That's
when we came to Christ. Crucifixion of our flesh continues
to be by Christ, by Him speaking the word, through His gospel,
by His power, by His grace, and we give Him all the glory. Christ makes His child know without
a doubt Without a doubt, we're going to see next he starts talking
about how the mighty are fallen. And sometimes we start thinking
we're the mighty. And the Lord will let you see.
He will let you see. You can't deliver yourself from
a toothache. And He'll show you that you can't
free yourself from the least sin. Christ does it by His power
and His grace. And whatever we've done, that's
good. Whatever any of God's children
have done, that is a good thing. It is to the praise of the glory
of God's grace alone. To the praise of the glory of
His grace alone. Christ is the prophet, priest,
and king of His people. He is the salvation of His people. Salvation is of the Lord, brethren. Now lastly, we see the offense. What's wrong with a sinner attributing
a part of salvation to himself? What's wrong with that? Verse 14, And David said to him,
How was thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the
Lord's anointing? What's wrong with a preacher
begging sinners saying, Make Christ Lord of your life? What's
wrong with that? What's wrong with a sinner boasting
of making his decision for Christ? What's wrong with somebody boasting
that he overcame his sin? What's wrong with somebody saying
he made himself holy by his doing? What's wrong with that? To give self-glory for any part
of salvation is to tread underfoot the blood of Christ and to count
him, his blood, as vanity. Especially, especially if a man
has heard the gospel, and rejects Christ, and rejects the gospel,
and leaves for a gospel that gives himself glory. Paul said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. I don't but, but, but, but. I
do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. is to slay the Lord's
anointing all over again, to crucify Christ afresh. If we
meet God, trust in any work of ourselves. Now listen, When men
hear the gospel, they get offended. God's preachers aren't... Nobody's
got an axe to grind with anybody that we preach to. I want you
to be saved. I don't want you to meet God
looking to anything in you. I want you to meet God trusting
Christ alone. Plus nothing, minus nothing. But if we meet God trusting any
work of ourselves, we shall surely die. Verse 15, David called one
of the young men and he said, ìGo near and fall upon him.î
And he smote him that he died. And David said to him, ìThy blood
be upon thy head, for thy mouth has testified against thee, saying,
ìIíve slain the Lordís anointing.î Every time men say something
they did without saying it was God alone that did it, by their
own mouth theyíre saying, ìIíve slain the Lordís anointing.î I pray God speak affectionately.
And if we're entertaining thoughts of something we've done, I pray
He'd call us and bring us out of that. Break our heart and
make us contrite and bow to Christ. And make you zealous for good
works. And make you hate sin. And make you want to do whatever
the Lord Jesus Christ commands in His Word. But make you do
it because He showed you. He made you do it. It's in the power of His might.
By the grace of God, Paul said, by the grace of God I am what
I am. And His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. This is my story. To God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. God's people say, not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. Anybody that wants to be against
that message that gives Christ all the glory, I pray God be merciful. I pray
God speak and call us out of that and call us to Christ. Father,
we thank you for this word. Lord, we ask you to bless it.
We ask you to keep us looking only to Christ. And Lord, we
pray you would be pleased to draw some center to Christ. We pray our great king, our mighty
prophet, priest, and king would draw one of his people to himself
tonight. Lord, do it in such a way that
undeniably we have to say, Lord, you did it. You've done it all. You continue to do it all. And
Lord, for those you have called, don't let us ever turn back.
Don't let us ever look to ourselves for one thing. Keep us, Lord,
looking to you. Keep us hating sin, hating ourselves,
everything we are. And help us, Lord, to continue
to look only to Christ and follow you. And Lord, forgive us. We need you to cleanse us, wash
our feet daily. And we trust Your Word that You're
faithful and just to do it for Christ's sake. And it's in His
holy name we ask it. Amen.