David said, I was glad when they
said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. And I'm
glad. I'm very glad. I realized something
while we were having this separation. I was reminded of how much I
love you. And I do love you. I mean that. And I was reminded of how easy
you are to preach to. It's not easy preaching to a
camera. I miss the interaction. I miss the faces lighting up
and all of that. So it's good to be together. Good to be together. Let's go
to Ezekiel chapter 17. Our subject is a question that
God asks a sinner. And I've titled it, sort of a
shortened version of the question, I've titled this, Shall Covenant
Breakers Prosper? Shall Covenant Breakers Prosper? And we're gonna look at the first
part this hour, and the second part next hour. Now let's read
this chapter, it's quite a long chapter, but let's read this.
Verse one, and the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son
of man, put forth a riddle and speak a parable unto the house
of Israel and say, thus saith the Lord God. That's the covenant
God, the Lord God. This is God's parable. A great
eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had different
colors, came unto Lebanon and took the highest branch of the
cedar. He cropped off the top of his
young twigs and carried it into a land of traffic. He set it
in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the
land and planted it in a fruitful field. He placed it by great
waters and set it as a willow tree. And it grew and became
a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward
him and the roots thereof were under him. So it became a vine,
and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs. And it grew,
and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned
toward him, and the roots thereof were under him. So it became
a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs. There
was also another great eagle, with great wings and many feathers,
And behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot
forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the
furrows of her plantation. It was planted in a good soil
by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, that it
might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. Say thou, thus
saith the Lord God, shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up
the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? It shall wither in all the leaves
of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck
it up by the roots thereof. Yea, behold, being planted, shall
it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither when
the east wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows
where it grew. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Say now to the rebellious house, Know
ye not what these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the king of
Babylon, that's Nebuchadnezzar, that's the first great eagle
in the story, that's the first eagle, Nebuchadnezzar, he come
to Jerusalem and hath taken the king thereof. The king of Judah
was Jeconah, and that's the top sprig of the cedar he's talking
about. And he took the princes thereof, and led them with him
to Babylon, and hath taken of the king's seed. This was the
king's uncle, Zedekiah. He took Zedekiah, and Nebuchadnezzar
made him king in place of Jeconah. And it says, and he made a covenant
with him, and he hath taken an oath of him. He hath also taken
the mighty of the land, He took anybody who would be a threat,
carpenters, metal workers, anybody that would rise up in rebellion
against Babylon, he took them into Babylon. And he said he
did this that the kingdom might be base, humble, that it might
not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant, it
might stand. See, Nebuchadnezzar and Zedekiah
entered into a covenant, sworn by an oath to God, And Zedekiah
promised he would remain humble, he wouldn't lift himself up,
he wouldn't rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar promised that
if he did so, he would live and the kingdom would flourish. Now
verse 15, but Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar in sending
his ambassadors into Egypt. There's the other great eagle,
Pharaoh in Egypt. He sent him into Egypt that they
might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? Shall he escape that doeth such
things? Or shall he break the covenant
and be delivered? As I live, saith the Lord God. You see, when he says, as I live,
and then his name is the Lord God, he's swearing by himself
because he can swear by no greater. The Lord God means he's a God
of covenant. Our subject's all about covenant,
an oath, a vow. He says, as I live, saith the
Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that
made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he
break, even with him in the midst of Babylon, he shall die. Neither shall Pharaoh with his
mighty army and great company make for him in the war by casting
up mounts and building forts to cut off many persons. seeing
he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had
given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not
escape. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God, as I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my
covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon
his own head. When Zedekiah despised the oath
and broke the covenant of Nebuchadnezzar, he was despising the oath and
breaking the covenant of God. Because God put him there and
he had sworn by God to keep this covenant, keep this vow. Verse 20, and I will spread my
net upon him, God said, and he shall be taken in my snare. and
I will bring him to Babylon and will plead with him there for
his trespass that he had trespassed against me. And all his fugitives
with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain
shall be scattered toward all winds, and you shall know that
I the Lord have spoken it. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
also take of the highest branch of the high cedar and will set
it. I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender
one, and will plant it upon a high mountain in Edmonton. In the
mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it, and it shall
bring forth branches and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar. And under it shall dwell all
fowl of every wing. In the shadow of the branches
thereof shall they dwell. And all the trees of the field
shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high have exalted
the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the
dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken it and
have done it. Now, shall covenant breakers
prosper? No. Covenant breakers shall not
prosper. And the reason is because God
is holy. God will by no means clear the
guilty. He must pour out justice on all
covenant breakers. Now you and I, all of us sitting
here this morning, are covenant breakers. We're all covenant
breakers, and we've all broken God's covenant, every one of
us. And God's holy justice will destroy
all covenant breakers. All covenant breakers must die
because God's holy, and all shall die. We'll either die in Adam,
in justice, represented by that first man, Adam, and we'll die
in justice, under God's justice, or we will die in Christ by God's
grace, and God will save us. One of the two. All men are represented
in one of two of those men, everybody, everybody here today. Now, first
I want you to see Adam and Zedekiah. Let's see Adam pictured here
in this King of Judah, Zedekiah. Now Zedekiah's covenant and the
oath that he made to Nebuchadnezzar was a covenant and an oath to
God. That's so of all of us when we
enter a covenant sworn by an oath or enter into a vow, that's
a covenant vow to God. That's a covenant oath made to
God. And so look here now between God and Zedekiah, what happened
here? God gave Zedekiah one law. He
had one law, that's all he had. Zedekiah was not to lift himself
up in rebellion, but remain humble under God's hand by staying under
Nebuchadnezzar's hand. brought him there. And God commanded
that this be the case. It was a covenant of works. Now
covenant of works is simple. If Zedekiah kept the covenant,
he would live. He would prosper. But if Zedekiah
broke the covenant, God would recompense it upon his head and
he would die. Now as a king, Zedekiah was not
just an independent man, he was representing the whole nation
of Judah. Whatever he does, that's what's
gonna happen to everybody in Israel. Three things resulted. He broke
the covenant, three things resulted. 2 Kings 25.7 says this. They slew the sons of Zedekiah
before his eyes. They killed all his sons. and
they put out the eyes of Zedekiah. Nebuchadnezzar had his eyes plucked
out, so he was blinded. And they bound him with fetters
of brass and carried him to Babylon, and there he died in Babylon.
And then God says in our text that the remainder of the people
in Israel, he scattered to the winds. So three main things happened
here. Death, Nebuchadnezzar's sons
were all killed because of his I mean, Nebuchadnezzar killed
all Zedekiah's sons because of his rebellion, and then Zedekiah
died. So death happened. Also, blindness
happened. Zedekiah was blinded. And separation
happened. God scattered the remainder of
Israel to the four winds. Now, like Zedekiah, He was put
in a well-watered, profitable place. God put Adam, the first
man he made, in a well-watered garden. Gave him everything he
needed. There was no sin in the world.
Gave him everything he needed. And he set him to be a humble
willow tree, not a mighty cedar. We read that in his parable.
He put him there to base him to be a willow tree, a weeping
willow, not a mighty proud cedar. And God put Adam in that garden
to be humble under his hand. In other words, to obey God,
to always be the servant of God. And that's what he was put there
for. And God gave him a covenant of works. He said over in Genesis,
let me read this to you if you want to look there, it's in Genesis
chapter two, verse 16, the Lord God commanded the man saying,
of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat
of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die. That was the covenant. That was
the law. If you do, you do as I say, you'll live. You'll prosper. Just like Zedekiah was told.
But if you disobey, you shall die. Now, just like Zedekiah,
Adam, in pride against God, broke that one law. He broke that one
law. in pride. Now, Adam didn't represent
himself alone. Adam represented he was a head,
a federal head, a legal head, a seminal head. God made him
head over all the children that would be born of Adam. I'm going
to show you that from the scripture, but he made him head of all the
children that would be born of him. That's me, you, and everybody
in this world. We came from that one man, Adam.
So whatever Adam did, we did it. That's what God said. Turn over to Romans chapter five
and I'll show you this. Romans chapter five. Three things happen when Adam
sinned. Death, we all died spiritually
and we'll die physically as well. Blindness happened. We come into
this world spiritually blind. We cannot know God unless God
teaches us, putting a new man in us, a new spirit. And separation
happened. We were separated from God. Our sins have separated us from
God. Now let me show you this, Romans
5, and look here in verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. And so, for that reason,
death passed upon all men. The word all means all who Adam
represented. Always remember that when you're
reading Romans 5. All means all who that person represented.
That's all of us. Death passed upon all. Sin, death passed upon all. For that, the margin says, in
whom all have sinned. And to prove this to us, God
says, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is
not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned
from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression, who was the figure of Christ
that was to come. He was a picture of Christ to
come. What does that mean? Well, from Adam to Moses, God
did not give a law. The Ten Commandments came on
Mount Sinai. From Adam to Moses, God didn't
give a law. And God will not impute sin. In other words, a person has
got to break the law in order for God to impute sin to him.
Well, there was no law. But then he says, and nevertheless,
there were sinners. They died. God did impute sin
to them. How can you be made a sinner
if you don't have a load of bread? And Adam all sinned. That's the point. We really sinned
in Adam and became guilty, and so God proved it. He didn't give
a law until Moses, and yet there were sinners, they were guilty,
and God imputed sin to them. That similitude, they didn't
sin after the similitude of Adam, that means they didn't have a
known law to break like Adam did, and yet they were sinners. Yet they were sinners. That means
we really became sin in Adam. We really did. So that resulted
in death, we became guilty before God, blindness, we come into
the world spiritually blind, and separation from God. So then,
how can any sinner be saved? We're all covenant breakers,
and God says clearly in our text, every covenant breaker shall
die. He has to die. So how are we
gonna be saved then? All right, go back to the text,
and let's see Christ. He's the last Adam. Christ is
the last Adam. He's a federal representative
as well. Who does he represent? He represents
all those God chose before the foundation of the world by free
grace. Just to back this up, look at
Ephesians 1. Let me show you this in case
you have never heard this. I want you to see it. Ephesians
chapter 1. Let me show you this. Now he's
talking to believers here. He's talking to those who believe
the gospel. Now look what he says in verse 3, Ephesians 1,
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Where at? In heavenly
places. In whom? In Christ. How'd he
do it? according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. I mean, one day he's gonna call
all of these children he chose and bring them to Christ. He's
gonna do it by Jesus Christ. He's gonna do it to himself.
Bring him to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Why did he choose whom he would
and pass by whom he would? It was the good pleasure of God's
will. God can do what he will. Look, it was to the praise of
the glory of his grace. When you find out you're a sinner,
who doesn't deserve to be chosen, who would not be saved if you
weren't chosen, then you'll praise God for doing this, because he
did it by grace, freely. Wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have redemption. He purchased us,
he ransomed us from the fall and from the curse, through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace. and then he abounded toward us
and taught us what he had done. Now let me show you this in our
text, Ezekiel 17 verse 22. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
also take of the highest branch of the high cedar and will set
it. I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender
one and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent in the mountain
of the height of Israel will I plant it. So God had chosen
his son before the world was made chose his son to represent
these chosen people that God put in him. All right? And so we all sinned in Adam. We died in that first man, Adam.
But you remember, did you see in Romans 5 where he said Adam
was a figure of him that was to come. Adam was a picture of
Christ to come. How so? In federal headship. Just like Adam represented all
the children that would be born of him, Christ represents all
who shall be born of him. So the Son of God, Christ Jesus,
came through the very top of the cedar. What does that mean? He came through Israel. Israel
was God's choice nation in the whole world. He came through
the tribe of Judah. There was 12 tribes in Israel.
God chose Judah. He came through that tribe. And
there was a bunch of houses in Israel. He chose the house of
David. He came through the house of
David. That's what he's talking about there when he talks about
the top of the cedar. Now, God cut down Israel. He put them under a covenant
of works, just like Adam was under. When he called Israel
an assembly, he put them under a covenant of works. Not because
God imagined they could save themselves by keeping the law.
Scripture says, I'll show you Romans 5, says he did it that
sin might abound. He did it to show us how badly
we broke God's law back there in the garden. And he put Israel under that
covenant of works and of course they didn't obey it. Nobody can. And so eventually God cut Israel
down to a stump. He cut that mighty cedar down
to a stump. Whenever Christ came, they were
in Roman bondage, just like in our text, they were in Babylonian
bondage. He cut it down to a stump, but
from that stump, a tender sprig grew up. That's Christ, the tender
one. When you leave here today, I
hope you don't forget this. When you leave here today, you
get to the driveway, turn to your left before you pull out
in the street, turn to your left, and look right over here, and
there's an old scrubby tree that's been cut, but then there's, between
it and the fence, there's a stump right there. And you'll see coming
out of that stump is a little tender plant. If that keeps growing,
it's gonna be a mighty tree like that one they cut down. Well,
that's what God did with Israel. He cut them down to a stump,
and then Christ came out of the stump, a little tender plant.
Isaiah 53, verse two says, He shall grow up before him as a
tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form
nor comeliness when we should see him. There's no beauty that
we should desire him. Why did he come forth like that?
Why didn't he come a mighty cedar tree? Why did he come this little
tender sprig growing up? So that there would be no form
nor comeliness about him that would make us desire him. Oh,
we'd have been impressed if he was a mighty cedar, but this
little Tender plant. There's no comeliness about that
to us. Why did God do it that way? To show you, you gotta be
called by his grace. It's all of grace. It's all of
grace. Isaiah 11 verse one says, there
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, out of the
stump of Jesse. There'll come this little rod,
and a branch shall grow up out of his roots. That's what you're
gonna see when you look at that stump out there. Isaiah 4 verse
2 says, in that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful
and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent
and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. Jeremiah 23
5 says, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper
and execute judgment and justice in the earth. Zechariah 6.12
says, speak unto him and say, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, behold, the man whose name is the branch. He shall
grow up out of his place and he shall build the temple of
the Lord. He'll assemble my people, my living stones that he assembles
to be the temple of the Lord, his house. Why did the Son of
God take a human body? Why did God whose spirit take
a human body? All who God purposed to save,
those chosen by his free grace, broke the covenant of works in
Adam. We broke it. God's holy, and
for holy God to receive us, who are his people, we have to be
as righteous and holy as God. That's what it means, God's holy.
That means if he's gonna receive me and you, he can't receive
us just as sinners in our sin. We have to be made righteous
and holy as God. We have to keep the law without
once breaking it from our holy heart. And we don't have a holy
heart by nature. Since all God's elect are guilty
in Adam, we come into this world guilty. That sin's gotta be put
away. We gotta be justified. These
are things we can't do for ourselves. How can God The wages of sin
is death. That means that God must punish
the sinner. He must execute us in judgment. We must die. Okay, God's got
these chosen people that he says he's gonna save, but they're
guilty. They fell in Adam. God's got
to execute them. How can God execute them and
at the same time make them righteous and holy so that he can save
them? How can God kill you in justice to uphold His justice
and it won't be at the expense of His mercy? And how can He
show you mercy and it not be at the expense of His justice?
Only God could figure this out. God did it by sending His Son
to live and die in place of those chosen people. The Son of God
took our place, he came down, he took flesh just like God's
elect, yet he had no sin. He put himself under that covenant
of works that we broke. Scripture says he was made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. We broke that covenant of works in Adam. And Christ put
himself under that covenant of works. He became a servant to
God the Father, put himself under all those laws in Israel. and
he walked this earth and obeyed God perfectly from a holy heart. That's why he was born of a virgin.
He's without sin. Everybody born of a man, you're
born from Adam. And that corrupt seed is what
you're conceived from. Christ was born of the Holy Spirit,
so he's holy. He had a holy heart and obeyed
God's law fully as the representative head of his people, as the federal
legal head of his people. And then after he fulfilled all
righteousness, walking before the law, he said, now take their
sin and put it all on me. And Christ
bore in his body, on the tree, all the sin of his people. And
when he bore that sin, now God could justly pour out justice
on him. And he poured it out. fully on
Christ. When you look to the cross of
Christ, the earth went black. There was, in a sense, blindness
for our Redeemer. He couldn't see the Father. He
was separated from God. There's separation. And he died. That's the judgment we were under.
That's the curse we were under. He bore it for his people. So
now when he died, God's justice, he's satisfied. God says, satisfied,
I'm holy. I have executed each one I purpose
to save in my son. Romans 6 says, reckon ye yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. And then that's what he raised
him from the dead. And as God said here, I will
set him in that high mountain, that imminent mountain. He raised
him and set him at his own right hand. Now go back to Romans 5. What did he accomplish? What
was God showing us by raising him from the dead and he sat
down at God's right hand? Verse 19. For as by, now let me read this,
everything up to verse 17 is a parenthesis. It says at the
end of verse 12, I mean at the end of verse 14, Christ is the
figure of him that was to come, he's a picture of Adam, and here's
why, verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered, not
to save us, but that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. How so? That as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so grace reigns. That means it gets the job done.
Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's what he accomplished.
When he died, justice was satisfied, and he's raised the righteousness
of God, and all his people were raised in him, righteous in him,
and sat down with him at God's right hand. Scripture says he's the brightness
of glory, of God's glory. He's the express image of God's
person. He upholds all things by the
word of his power, and when he had by himself purged our sin,
he sat down. It's the right hand of the majesty
on high. And like a tender plant, that one that came forth and
started growing up a tender plant, only had 12 apostles. On Pentecost,
he sent the spirit of God and he called out some more. And
they were sent forth into the world preaching the gospel and
through their gospel, he called out some more. And he's the seeder
that's growing up and he keeps adding branches. branches, his
people keep growing out, and they bring forth fruit. He keeps
going and keeps going until every single chosen child of God, every
child of God that Christ redeemed and justified by His blood, every
one of them should be called through this gospel by the Holy
Spirit of God and regenerated in their heart and given life
and faith and an understanding knowledge of Christ so that they
come and cast all their care on Christ. And He won't stop
until this tree's finished. till it's completely finished.
That's what God's saying. He's growing up to a goodly cedar,
a goodly cedar. Now let me show you something.
I wanna show you, go over with me to, go over with me to Jeremiah 31.
I'll show you something. Now, this is not a covenant. When he brings you into faith
in Christ, it's not a covenant of works. He was made under that
covenant of works to put us under an everlasting covenant of grace.
What does that mean? That means it's all fulfilled.
That means there's nothing else for the believer to do. Salvation
is accomplished. That's what Christ means when
He said it's finished. He brings you into this covenant and just
like He swore by Himself that He would punish Zedekiah, Hebrews
6 says He swore by Himself because He could swear by no greater.
He promised our first father, Abraham, and said, in blessing,
I'll bless you. In multiplying, I'll multiply
you. And that's what he does when he calls you. He makes this
everlasting covenant in our heart. That's the law he writes on our
heart. He tells you, here's Christ my
son, and everybody in his son, my mercy will I keep for him
evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. because
he satisfied God. Scripture says all the promises
of God, all the covenant promises of God are yes in Christ and
they're amen in Christ. There's no maybes about this.
Christ accomplished it. And that's the law he writes
on your heart when he calls you. Look at Jeremiah 31 verse 31. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah. Now he's not talking about that
physical nation. He's talking about his elect
people from among them and from among Gentiles. Our text said
all fowls of the earth come and lodge in this tree. He's got chosen sinners he redeemed
out of every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue under heaven. Those
are the files he brings. Jew and Gentile, rich and poor,
male and female, educated, uneducated, we're all one in Christ. One
in Christ. Look at this. He says, I'm gonna
make a new covenant with them, with the house of Judah, not
according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day
I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land to Egypt,
which my covenant they break, although I was a husband unto
them, saith the Lord. That was a covenant of works.
When he brought them out and brought them to Mount Sinai and
gave the Ten Commandments, he said, if you do this, you'll
live. That means you gotta keep every law without sinning from
a holy heart, and you can live. Look at this, verse 33. That's
impossible. Look at verse 33. But this shall
be the covenant I'll make with the house of Israel. After those
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts
and write it in their hearts. Not on a table of stone. I'm
gonna write this in their heart. It's gonna be one with them.
And I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they
shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. When he's done, when he's finished,
every one of his redeemed people are gonna know him. And you that
are called already know him. Watch this. From the least of
them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord, for I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. You know what
David called that? He said, God has made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things ensured, complete. And he said, and this is all
my salvation. This is all our salvation, Christ
did it all. Now look at Psalm 92, we'll close
with this. Preacher, we still sin. Yes,
in your flesh you still sin. In your sin nature, if you're
a believer, you have two natures. You have a sin nature and a new
man in you. But that sin nature, that old
man, has been crucified with Christ. Now before God, before
the law, that means he's dead and God doesn't remember those
sins anymore. And what he does is he constrains
you in the new man by that love and by that grace so that you
don't want to sin anymore. It's called walking by faith,
which works by love rather than law. And it's a far superior
rule to law. It's the rule of grace. Now look,
this is God's promise to you who believe the righteous, made
righteous by Christ, shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall
grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat
and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my
rock. There is no unrighteousness in
him. That's what God promises to do in all his people, all
you who he's called. You who he's redeemed in Christ,
he promises, I'm not gonna lose you, I'm not gonna let you go,
I'm gonna prosper you, I'm gonna make you grow, and you're gonna
be like a flourishing cedar tree by his grace to show you that
he doesn't lie. What he says, he does it. He
keeps covenant. That's our God. I pray that's
a blessing. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you for this
word. Lord, would you plant this seed in the heart of some lost
child and cause them to hear, cause them to see, cause them
to rejoice in what you've done in Christ so freely for your
people. Lord, this is the only message that gives you all the
glory and gives man none. And we want you to have all the
glory. We pray, Lord, you bless it now. We ask you to remember
Christ our Lord and forgive us of our sins for his sake. It's
in his name we pray, amen.