Alright, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Luke chapter 23. We'll begin reading in verse 32. This
scene is Christ on the cross. We read here in Luke 23, 32,
there were also two other male factors led with Him to be put
to death. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him and
the male factors, one on the right hand and the other on the
left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them. For they know not what they do.
And they parted his raiment and cast lots. And the people stood
beholding. And the rulers also with them
derided him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself,
if he be the Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also
mocked Him, coming to Him and offering Him vinegar and saying,
ìIf Thou be the King of the Jews, save Thyself.î And a superscription
also was written over Him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew, ìThis is the King of the Jews.î And one of the male
factors which were hanged railed on Him saying, If thou be Christ,
save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Now my continual
prayer for this new year and for every year, my continual
prayer is that God would be pleased to grant our loved ones, our
children, those we know, our friends, I truly, sincerely pray
that God would be pleased to grant them repentance and faith. I pray God would turn them from
dead works, from trusting in themselves, from looking at themselves
and trusting themselves to faith in Christ, to cast all their
care on Christ. That's the one thing I desire
most of all for our lost children. I pray for this probably more
than anything else. He said, the Lord would save
our lost children. And as I was thinking on this,
I came across this passage concerning this repentant thief on the cross. And what we're going to see here
as we look at this is we're going to see gifts of God that accompany
faith and repentance. Here's some gifts we see here
in this repentant thief and the few things he said there hanging
on the cross. We see some of the gifts that
God gives that accompanies true faith and true repentance. Now,
the first gift that accompanies repentance and faith is a fear
of God. That's first. He says here in
verse 39, It says, one of the malefactors which were hanged
railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost thou not fear God? You see, by nature, there
was no difference in these two thieves. This is a great place
to see the sovereign grace of God right here, because there
was no difference whatsoever in these two thieves. Just a
few moments before this happened right here, Matthew tells us
the thieves, both of them, The thieves also, which were crucified
Him, cast the same in His teeth. While this whole angry mob was
deriding Him and saying all these mocking things against Christ,
those thieves, while hanging on the cross with Him, were saying
the same thing to Him. That's hardness of heart, isn't
it? Isn't that depravity? To be hanging on the cross moments
before facing death and cursing this one Who is the prince of
life? See, both these thieves were
guilty. No difference there. They're
both guilty, they're both condemned, and they're both being executed
for their crimes. No difference in the two. Both
were spiritually dead in their sins. Both of these men had hearts
that were enmity against God. That's all their hearts were
was hatred against God. Neither respected the law of
God, neither respected Christ, neither respected anything about
the gospel. They were not seeking God. Neither
one of these men were seeking God. And both of these men were
equal distance away from the Savior. Both of these men were
about to face God in judgment. And both of these men needed
forgiveness. There's no difference in these men whatsoever. And yet, here's what happened.
God left one of these men to his own will, to do what it was
his will to do under his sinful, depraved nature. He left him
to his will. And so, all he did was curse
Christ. But the other one, God granted
faith and repentance. The difference between these
two men was that God chose one of these men before the world
was made and elected him unto salvation. The difference was one of these
men, for one of these men, Christ was actually bearing his sin. and bearing the wrath of God
for him. You see, if that thief had died
hanging on a cross, crucified, and Christ wasn't bearing his
sin, that being crucified on a cross wouldn't have done him
any good. But Christ was bearing one of those men's sin and his
body on the tree. The difference was the Holy Spirit
of God had... all these men were mocking Christ
and the things they were saying there were true of Christ. They
didn't mean them to be true. They were mocking Christ, but
when they said He saved others, Himself He could not save? That's
true. If He's going to save others,
He could not save Himself. It's true He's the King of the
Jews. It's true He's the Chosen of God. Those things are true,
and this thief, the Spirit of God gave this one thief life,
spiritual life, and made him understand the truth of the gospel
that he heard. God doesn't use lies to save
people, but God can use liars to save people. These men who
were saying these things were liars and were only saying them
to mock Christ. God took the things that were
true and blessed it to the heart of his thief and made him believe
on Christ. So you see, it's not of him that
willeth. nor of him that runneth. This
thief had his feet and his hands nailed to the cross. This thief
had not done anything to justify himself. He didn't have time,
as that terrible hymn says, take time to be holy. He didn't have
time to be holy. Both his hands and his feet was
nailed to the cross. Yet this thief had that holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. It's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. That's the only difference between
these two. Left to his own depraved will, that one thief, all he
wanted, all he feared was death, physical death. That's all he
feared. He said, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. He had no
fear of Christ at all. He had no reverence for Christ.
He had no reverence for God, no fear of God. The psalmist
said this, the transgression of the wicked saith within my
heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes. When a man can
just transgress against God, here is a man hanging on a cross,
right about to die, and he is still transgressing against God
with just reckless abandon. He doesn't even care. What does
that say? No fear of God before his eyes. Look at Romans 3.14. You see this verse in Romans
3. We hear this, we read this, but
on the cross in that impenitent thief, we see this illustrated. We see it plainly illustrated.
Romans 3.14. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Against who? Against God and
His Christ. Who was that thief cursing? Who
was he full of bitterness toward? Against Christ. Their feet are
swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. Who was he slaying? Who was he
murdering? He was slaying Christ in his
heart, hanging on the cross right there. The way of peace, have
they not known? That thief, that impenitent thief,
he had no idea the way of peace was hanging right there, just
inches from him. And here's the problem. This
is the problem right here. Verse 18. There is no fear of
God before their eyes. Aren't you sick and tired of
hearing every other breath? People take God's name in vain.
Every other breath is taking God's name in vain. They are
putting it on video games now. Why? Why do men do that? No fear
of God. No fear of God before their eyes.
But God gave this other thief a holy fear of God in his heart. And listen to his answer back
there in Luke 23.40. The other answering rebuked him
saying, Does not thou fear God? Don't you know that one thief,
they both were sitting there together, just deriding Christ
together, and all of a sudden one of these thieves turned to
him and said, don't you fear God? Don't you know that other
thief thought, what in the world has happened to you? What is the fear of God? What
is the fear of God? The fear of the Lord is the gift
of God given in the new birth. It's an attribute of the new
spirit. It's an attribute of the new man that God puts in
the heart or within us. It's a fear of God which is opposite
to enmity against God. Once hated God, now there's a
reverence for God. It's opposite of pride. The fear
of God causes a broken and a contrite spirit. It's what makes a man
be broken and contrite before God. It's not a servile fear. It's not a terror. It's a reverential awe of holy
God. It makes a sinner desire to be
found in favor with God. I was just talking to Will about
this last night. Whenever a young person truly reverences their father
and their mother, and they're chastened and corrected, and
they know they're guilty, they know what they've done was against
their father. If they truly have a reverence
for their father, it makes them want to be in favor with their
father. They don't want their father
to be They don't want to be out of favor with their father. That's
what a reverence of God makes you want. You want to be in His
favor. You don't want to offend Him. It makes you sorry for your sin,
not merely because you got caught, not merely because you're guilty.
It makes you sorry for your sin because it's against God your
Father. It's against Christ your Redeemer.
That's what true fear of God is. It makes a sinner submissive. That's why scripture says the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A man hasn't got true
wisdom yet. till he begins to fear the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 8.12 says, Though a sinner do evil a hundred times,
and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be
well with them that fear God, which fear before him. But it
shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his
days, which are as a shadow, because he feareth not God. The
impenitent thief perished in his sins, because he did not
fear God. He did not fear God. This is
where it starts. He had no reverence for God whatsoever,
no reverence for His Word, no reverence for anything he heard
declared that day. But that repentant thief was
saved because God gave him a true fear in his heart and for the
first time in his life, he reverenced God. He had an awe of God. Now here's the second thing accompanying
true faith and repentance, is a confession of our sin. Luke
23, 40. This was the next thing he said. He said, seeing thou art in the
same condemnation, you do not fear God seeing you're in the
same condemnation, and we, he includes himself, we indeed justly,
for we receive the due reward of our deeds. This repentant
thief confessed he was justly being condemned. He was receiving
what was his just due. That's what a confession of sin
is. When a sinner is given a fear of God and he beholds the holiness
of God, the holy character of God, that God's pure, He's just,
and he will not receive a sinner. When you see Him as He is, high
and lifted up, that's when you'll see your sin. That's when you'll
see your sin. We're given this light and light
of God's holy character. When did Isaiah see, when he
saw God's glory and he heard those seraphims cry, holy, holy,
holy, what did he say? Woe is me! I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
When God makes you see His holy character, that's when depravity
stops being a doctrine and becomes who you are. I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
Last week we saw Job. When God brought him to see God's
holy character, what did Job say? He said, I abhor myself. He said, I've heard of you, now
I see you. Now I see you. I see you like
I haven't seen you before. And what's the result? I abhor
myself and I repent in dust and ashes. And that's what happened
to this thief on the cross. He saw the holy character of
God. When you hear a man thinking
highly of themselves, proud of themselves, proud of their works,
proud of who they are and their goodness and all that, just know
this, they never have seen the holy character of God. They think
God is just some old pushover that will receive them just because
they did their best. God is a just God. He will by
no means clear the guilty. But the sinner tall of God, He
knows the exceeding sinfulness of sin and He confesses sin. So first of all, this gift that
accompanies true repentance and faith will be a fear of God.
Secondly, it will be a confession of sin. Here is the third thing. There will be a glorying in Christ. Verse 41, Luke 23, 41, He said, hath done nothing amiss. This man hath done nothing amiss. It's the gift of God to believe
that Christ is the sinless God-man, mediator. That's a gift of God.
to believe He truly is the sinless God-man who do no sin. You know,
Christ was typified in all those lambs that were offered, the
goats and the bullocks that were offered in the Old Testament
Scriptures. And concerning all those offerings, you know what
they all had in common? God said this, Your lamb shall
be without blemish. A male of the first year, you
should take it out from the sheep or from the goats, but it had
to be without blemish. It couldn't have a spot in it.
And then Christ was typified in the priests. You know what
the priests had in common? The Lord spake to Moses saying,
speak unto Aaron saying, whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations
that hath any blemish, any man that's a son of Aaron that's
supposed to be a priest, if he had a blemish of any kind, he
could not be He could not offer a sacrifice to God. That excludes
all of us. We all have a blemish. We can't
bring an offering to God that God will accept. So why did God
give this lamb that had to be without spot and this high priest
that had to be without spot? Because Christ, they both typified
Christ. Christ is the spotless high priest. and He is the spotless Lamb of
His people. Christ alone did no sin, neither
was God found in His mouth. Now why was that necessary? The
only way Christ could be made sin for His people is if He were
the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. That's what was being pictured
in all those lambs. In Leviticus 4.24 it says, he
shall lay his hand, the priest shall lay his hand upon the head
of the goat and kill it in the place where they killed the burnt
offering before the Lord because it is a sin offering. But let me tell you something,
that Hebrew word that's translated sin offering, the word is sin. In other words,
ceremonially, when they laid their hands on the head of that
bullock, it was only a type, it was a picture in ceremony.
When they laid their hands on the head of that bullock, it
pictured the transference of the sins of the children of Israel
onto that lamb or that bullock. And when that took place, God
said, ceremonially, that lamb now is sin. So it shall be killed
because it's sin. Therefore, when it was speaking
of the anti-type, when the New Testament is talking about Christ
Jesus, who that pictured, it doesn't say He was made a sin
offering, it says, He hath made Him sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we may be made the righteousness of God. The reason Christ had
to be made sin is because His people were made sin in Adam. Adam broke the law, but Christ
wouldn't break a law. You see, God only imputed sin
to Adam when? After he broke a law. Well, Christ wouldn't break the
law and therefore God would not impute sin to Christ. So God
made him sin. He made him sin. He made Christ
the Lamb to be sin for us. The spotless Lamb of God went
to the Garden of Gethsemane And this is what he was in soul agony
about. The Lord made him sin for us
who do no sin. He was the only man that could
be fit to be made sin. And because he was made sin,
then God imputed sin to Christ. He was numbered then with the
transgressors. But not before that. God only
imputed sin to Adam after he was made sin. God only imputed
sin to us after we were made sin by Adam's disobedience. Listen
to what I'm saying. God only imputed sin to us after
we were made sin by Adam's disobedience. He so beautifully illustrates
that in Romans 5 after he says that by one man sin entered and
death by sin. Then the next thing he says is,
he says, but until the law, From Adam to Moses, God never gave
any other law but that one law in the garden. He never gave
another law. And He says, but until the law, sin was in the
world. Because men were born sinners,
they came forth sinning. Sin was in the world. But He
says, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. There
was not a law so that men could be declared guilty and God imputed
sin to them. Nevertheless, he said, death
reigned from Adam to Moses. What he is saying is nevertheless
God imputed sin to those men. God imputed sin to Cain? He imputed sin to Ham? He imputed sin to Noah? He imputed sin to those men? But how could He do that if there
was no law? He is saying because we really did sin in Adam. Remember Levi? Scripture says
Levi, he was born years and years and years and years after Abraham.
But it says Levi paid tithes when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. Way, way, way, way back there
before Levi was ever born. Levi paid tithes in Abraham. It says because he was in Abraham's
loins. Abraham was his seminal head
and Adam was our seminal head. And so when Adam sinned, we broke
the law. All Adam's children broke the
law. That's why God imputed sin to
us. God only imputes what's fact.
That's all through Scripture. And so He imputed sin to us.
And that's why when He made Christ sin, then God imputed sin to
Christ. And now, brethren, the good news
is that now God imputes righteousness to the believer because we were
in Christ's loins. When Christ fulfilled all righteousness,
we were in His loins and we really and truly fulfilled all righteousness. He did it and we did it in Him.
When He was crucified, we were crucified in Him. All God's elect. When He died, our body of sin
was destroyed, really and truly destroyed. When He arose, we
really and truly arose. And so now when God imputes righteousness
to a believer, it's because that's what we really and truly are
in Christ. And when God will not impute
sin to a believer, it's because in Christ there is no sin, really
and truly there is no sin. There is no sin. So it's necessary
for God's elect to be made to behold Christ, the sinless God-man. This man, this thief on the cross
knew. This man has done nothing amiss.
Why then is he being crucified? This man had some understanding.
He's doing a substitutionary work here. He's laying down his
life for others. He is bearing the sin of others.
He is bearing the wrath of God for others. And this is necessary,
this thief, he was brought to see this, and we have to be brought
to see this, that Christ is who He said He is. That is the only
way he could die, brethren. It is because he was the sinless
God-man who was fit to be made sin for His people, and then,
having been made sin, he was made fit to bear the curse for
His people. Now, fourthly, accompanying faith
and repentance is submission to Christ. Look at verse 42,
Luke 23, 42. First he feared God, then he
confessed his sin, he had an understanding of Christ in his
person and his substitutionary work, and then listen to what
he said next. And he said unto Jesus, verse
42, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, Lord, There is no true worship till
we are made to submit and bow down in our hearts to Christ
as Lord. This is not an outward thing.
This is an inward heart thing. This man had his hands and his
feet nailed to a cross, but in his heart he is bowing. and confessing
Him Lord. Now men preach something called
Lordship Salvation. You hear men talk about this
thing called Lordship Salvation. And what they mean by that is,
it's not enough to confess Christ to be your Savior, you have to
confess Him to be your Lord. And that's true. But most of
the time, men are saying that because they're saying, if He's
your Lord now, that means you're going to go back to the Law and
you're going to have to start striving to keep the Law. And
that's why they bring in this Lordship thing is to bring sinners
back under the Law. Listen to me carefully. The sinner
who claims Christ as his Lord, yet continues to work under the
Law to make himself righteous or holy, has not bowed to Christ
as Lord. Turn to Romans 10. Let me show
you this. Romans 10. Bowing to Christ as Lord is bowing
to Christ as my complete and total Savior. Because that's
what obedience of faith is. It's bowing, submitting to Christ
as my righteousness and sanctification and redemption and wisdom, my
all. Watch this. Now, Romans 10.3. He's talking
about the Pharisees. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves. That's what you do to a Lord.
When Christ is your Lord, you submit yourself to Christ the
Lord. They haven't submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. True Lordship salvation is owning
Christ to be all my salvation. What must we do to work the works
of God? What must we do to submit to God and submit to Christ as
our true Lord? This is the will of Him that
sent me. that you believe on Him whom He has sent. You want
to submit to Christ as Lord? Submit to Him as being the complete
and total Savior alone. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. Go to Galatians
2 real quick. I think I've got time for this.
Galatians 2. Here's what Lordship, true Lordship
salvation, true submission to Christ as Lord does this right
here. Galatians 2.16 This is when Paul was talking to Peter
about getting up and going to that other table. I almost preached
from this today. I guess I kind of am right now.
You know, 14 years before this, Peter was there at Jerusalem
when Paul came up there with Barnabas and Titus and those
false brethren came in, those Pharisees came in. And they were
trying to compel Titus to be circumcised. You remember Peter
stood up and he said, no sir. He said, we believe we Jews will
be saved just like those Gentiles will be saved by the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. That was a huge statement to
make. And then 14 years later, Peter goes down to Antioch with
the Gentiles and is eating supper. And this is what we all are by
nature. This shows you that there's no infallible man. Not me, you,
not the Apostle Peter, anybody. The same man who declared you
don't add anything to Christ whatsoever. The same man got
up from a table with Gentiles and went over and sat down at
a table with some Jews saying that it was necessary to just
eat certain meats and avoid other meats. That's what he was saying.
That's adding something to Christ. And here's what Paul said to
him, knowing, Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man's not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
by Christ's faithfulness, by Him fulfilling it for us. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves are also found sinners. If while we're
saying we're justified by Christ, we are found to get up from a
table of Gentiles eating barbecue, pork, and get up and go over
and sit at a table with some Jews and sin and compel people
to be back under the law and create this division using the
law to do it. If we commit that sin, saying
the law is necessary, is therefore Christ a minister of sin? You
remember when we were in 1 Corinthians, the law is the ministration of
death. You remember that? Why? Because
it shuts everybody's mouth and declares us all guilty. Christ
is not the minister of death. He is not the minister of the
law. He is the minister of righteousness. He came preaching the gospel
of righteousness. So that's one thing. If I start
preaching law and trying to compel people to live under law, am
I saying Christ is the minister of the law? Am I now saying Christ
is the minister of sin? That He's the minister of that
law that declares men sinful? God forbid. Christ is the minister
of the new covenant. I'm the minister of the old covenant.
And the second thing is Christ is sanctification. And when Christ
is sanctification, He works in the heart of His child to truly
sanctify us so that we are not trying to justify ourselves before
men by our works that we do. The work Christ works in the
heart is He turns you from that and makes you see Him as your
sanctification and rest in Him. So He is saying, Do this kind of sin where I'm
compelling people to live under the law. Did Christ work that
in my heart? Did He minister that sin in my
heart? God forbid. See, Christ is not the preacher
of the law, nor is He a preacher of progressive sanctification.
Christ is a preacher of righteousness who works sanctification in the
heart, turning you from the law to Him who is our righteousness
and our sanctification. Now read on, if I build again
the things which I destroyed, if I bring the law back in, here's
what the true case is, I'm making myself to be a transgressor.
Here is Lordship Salvation. I through the law am dead to
the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me. In
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Lordship
Salvation, when you really bow to Christ as your Lord, you say
this, I do not frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness
come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. That's bowing to Christ
as your Lord. That's bowing to Christ and saying,
everything this man has taught me is true and I trust Him alone
for all my salvation. Believers obey Christ as Lord,
living by faith in Him and doing everything we do, not by law,
but by love. Constrained by His love. Paul
said, Christ is of no effect unto you, whosoever you are.
Justified by the law, you have fallen from grace. For we, through
the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. The
just shall live by faith. Faith is our rule of life, not
law. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything
nor uncircumcision. That means you can put anything
you want to put there for circumcision. Anything men tell you that must
be done in addition to Christ, you can put it right there in
place of circumcision. There's nothing extra. And none of that avails but faith
which worketh by love. That's our rule. That's our rule
of life. Now that's bowing to Christ and living unto God as
your Lord is living by faith in Christ and loving one another
constrained by Him. That's true. You mean this thief,
when he confessed him to the Lord, he was saying all that?
He might not have been able to put all that into words, but
that's what he meant in his heart. You better believe it. You're
my only salvation. You're my only salvation. Now
here's the next thing. There is going to be a plea for
mercy. A plea for mercy. Verse 42. He said, ìRemember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom.î He didnít ask him to
remember his works or anything about his person. He just said,
ìRemember me.î This is like that publican who smote upon his breast,
wouldnít even look up to heaven and said, ìGod be merciful to
me, the sinner.î He is asking for mercy. Thatís all he is asking
for. And by doing that, you know what he's doing? He owned Christ
alone to be the only one who could show him mercy. He said
to Christ, remember me. That's saying, you're the only
one that can do it. Remember me. He owned Christ to be a successful
Savior. Because he said, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom. He believed Christ was going
to be raised triumphant and come into his kingdom. and He owned
Christ to be the true King of His people, when thou comest
into thy kingdom. See, that's what you declare
when you ask for mercy. If you don't come asking for
nothing but mercy, you alone can give it to me. You alone
are the King of this kingdom. You alone are the successful
triumphant Savior. That's what you say when you
come begging for mercy. That's why God delights to show
mercy. Listen to this. Micah 6.8. Now this, what I'm going to read
to you, if you want to turn there, Micah 6.8, I'm running a little
long here, Micah 6.8. You see down there at the end
of Micah 6.8, you see where it says, with thy
God, The very end there, with thy God. Well, everything he
says here ends with, with thy God. Watch this. He is 6a. He
has showed the old man what is good, and what does the Lord
require of thee, but to do justly with thy God. That is, owning
Christ to be the just one and me the sinner. Deal justly with
God. That's what this man did. He
confessed his sin and declared God just. and to love mercy with
thy God. Coming to Christ, confessing
He alone can save me by His mercy. And to walk humbly with thy God,
submitting to Christ as my Lord, submitting to Him as my complete
righteousness and holiness. You see, all these gifts glorify
Christ. Begging mercy glorifies Christ.
And so therefore, because all this is true, all of these gifts
glorify Christ. Exalt Him and put us in the dust,
every one of them. Nothing here exalted man, it
all exalted Christ. It all confessed Christ to be
my only and all my salvation. And therefore, there is one more
gift that always accompanies repentance and faith. Look at
Luke 23, 43. It's a sure and certain answer. And Jesus said unto him, Verily
I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. You come to God with these gifts
right here, the way this man came, you'll always get that
answer. You're going to be with me. Where
I am, that's where you're going to be. Alright, let's stand together. Father, we pray You would give
us the true repentance and faith. We pray for those that know they
don't know You. We pray for those that don't
know they don't know You. Lord, we pray You give Your people
today life. Give them these gifts and make
them truly glorify and honor Christ Jesus our Lord. We pray,
Lord, that You're honored today in every word that's said, every
song that's sung, everything that we pray, the observance
of the table. Lord, help us to truly remember
You and see You and rejoice in You. We pray for your preachers
everywhere, your people everywhere. We pray for those who are sick
and hurting and unable to be with us today and those going
through trials and suffering. Lord, grant us these gifts, not
just once, but as you do, grant them to us over and over and
over through the life of faith. Increase our fear and increase
our our understanding and confession of our sin, increase our fear
and our glory in Christ and our submission. Increase these things,
Lord. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.