Acts 16, verses 14 through 15. And the title of the message
this morning, A Certain Object of Grace. A Certain Object of
Grace. Thank you. Acts 16, verse 14
reads, And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of
the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God heard us, whose heart the
Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken
of Paul. And when she was baptized and
her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me
to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us." A certain object of grace. Now,
last week we saw the intimate union of the ministry of the
Holy Spirit with His church. He sends His men where He wills
for the object and purpose of saving His people. He sends His
men to preach the gospel and He gives them His Word. He directs
the place where He wants them to go and He applies it to whom
He wills. That's what we saw last week.
The Apostle Paul and Silas, having been prevented of the Holy Spirit
to go into Asia and Bithynia, were given a vision to go into
Macedonia. Now, this was the first major
city as you entered into the region of Macedonia. If you were
to cross through Troas, they would cross the sea, and the
first city of any substance was Philippi. And as they got to
this city, they recognized something that was unusual, because in
every city they had gone so far, they had had a synagogue to go
to. But this city of Philippi was a very pagan city, and it
refused the Jews to have a synagogue in this place. So now the Apostle
Paul and Silas, they had to do something unusual. They didn't
know what to do, so what they did is waiting on the Lord. They
waited on the Lord to give them direction, and as He did, they
went to this place where the women were gathered to pray.
where prayer was wont to be made. They had heard of a group who
worshiped God. And they went out to this river
where this prayer meeting was. This group of women. And our
text tells us that there was a certain woman there. Her name was Lydia. There, my friends, was a certain
object of grace. A certain object of God's mercy
was there by that river. And that's what I want us to
see first, is that this woman, Lydia, was a certain object. A certain object of God's grace. This woman, Lydia, shows us again
the election of God. The election of God. Now, no
doubt there were many women present at this meeting. No doubt she
was not the only one present at the river. There were many
women gathered together in this place. But the Scripture only
tells us of one certain woman. One certain woman that heard
the gospel. That heard the gospel. Now listen
to me, there were many women there and Paul, I know he did
not take this woman aside and preach just to her. He preached
to everyone that was there. Everyone that was sitting there
under the sound of his voice, they heard with their ears what
he said. They heard what he said. He preached
to them all and yet this was the only one that the Lord opened
her heart. Lydia was the only object of
grace at this preaching service. There was only one here that
heard the things of Paul. Now this was because this certain
woman was one of God's elect people. This was one of Christ's
sheep. Who is the great shepherd of
the sheep? He has a foal. And He says, them I must bring.
Them I must bring. And this was one of His lost
sheep, His elect. She was from all eternity the
object of God's love and affection. You who believe in Christ. You
who the Lord has opened your heart. Do you not stand in awe
of this every time you hear it? That God in mercy, In grace alone
chose you. He chose you. He singled out
you in eternity. And just as there were many here
by this river that heard the gospel, yet one was saved. There was many that heard the
same gospel that you heard. Heard the same message. Exactly
at the same time, on the same day. But what happened to you?
What happened to you that didn't happen to them? The same gospel that you heard
saved you and did nothing but condemn them. Why did the Lord yet open your
heart? It's not because we were smarter.
It's not because we were better. It was not because of our works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us." That's the only hope that any one of us ever
had, sitting under the sound of the Gospel. We heard, because
of the mercy of God, Ephesians 1, verse 4, "...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 by Jesus Christ to
Himself. Why? Why did He do this? Paul tells us, according to the
good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His
grace. Now, none of that had anything to do with us, did it?
That reason had nothing to do with us. According to His good
pleasure, not according to our good pleasure. according to the
praise of the glory of His grace, not according to the praise of
the glory of our grace. People think that they were gracious
to God. Have you ever heard this when
someone says, well, heaven's a much better place than someone
else's there? What a crock! What a load! My friends, it's horrible to
think such things. I'm saved only because of God's
free and merciful grace. Only because He chose me because
He would, not because I'm better. Some people have a false view
of election to think that it's some proud doctrine. It is if
you get it wrong. It is if you don't understand
it. But to me, it's the most abasing doctrine in all the world,
that God chose me. who did not deserve to be chosen. This is a great cause for us
to praise our God, is it not? Gil, God says there was a certain
man named Gil Burns, and he opened your heart. Isn't
that not wonderful? Out of all the people, and he
opened your heart. God is worthy of our praise because
of this, because He chose to bring us to Himself by Jesus
Christ. He chose us to be certain objects
of His grace. Number two, I want us to notice
the providence of God in her salvation. Not only was she a
certain object of grace, but God has given us the full picture
here of everything He has done to bring this about. A lot of
times we don't see the whole picture. Maybe even in our own
lives, we don't even, unless we take the time to think about
it, all of the things that happened to bring us to the gospel at
that particular time. But God opens the full range
of things here for us. Things that she couldn't see
at this time, could she? She couldn't see it. She didn't
know anything about Paul and what had happened before. She
was just there selling purple. That's all she was doing. She
was minding her own business, walking and selling her goods. And I'll tell you this, I'm sure
the Apostle Paul didn't recognize what was going on either. I'm sure the Apostle Paul wondered,
why would the Holy Spirit not let me go to Asia? Why would the Holy Spirit hide
the Gospel from those in that country? I'm sure he wondered
that. Why did God send me to Philippi
instead of Asia? Well, look at verse 14 again.
I want you to notice where Lydia is from. This is neat. Look at
this. And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira. Now, that don't
mean much unless you look at a map. Unless you figure out
where that's at. You know that's in Asia? That's
in Asia where Paul wanted to go. But you see, Lydia wasn't
home. She wasn't in Asia. She had traveled
from Asia to Philippi. She traveled from Asia to Philippi. So it was necessary for Paul
not to go to Asia, It was necessary for him to go to Philippi because
this woman, Lydia, was not at home. Now, if she was in Thyatira,
I'm sure he would have met her there. But God had decreed that
she be here in this place at this time. At this time, the
gospel of Christ was revealed to this woman. Let us look and
wonder at the providence of God to move all places and peoples
and events and circumstances to bring about the salvation
of His people. He does it every day. Every day. He is moving men and women and
places and doing with them what He pleases. And what He pleases
is to save His people from their sins. That's what he's doing. And he uses all things to bring
this about. You see, he brought about this
because this was this woman's time of love. This was her time. This was the time appointed to
this woman, at this river, at this time, by this man, the Apostle
Paul. And God moved all things to bring
these two people together. Look at Ezekiel, hold your place
here, but look at Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse
4. And the Scripture says, And as
for thy nativity, In the day that thou was born, thy navel
was not cut, neither was thou washed with water to supple thee.
Thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied
thee to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon
thee. But thou would cast out in the
open field to the loathing of thy person. in the day that thou
wast born. And when I passed by thee, I
saw thee polluted in thine own blood, and said unto thee, When
thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great, and thou art come to an excellent ornaments. Thy breasts
are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked
and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was a time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Now friend, that's a vivid picture. Everybody can imagine that. You
imagine an infant. And this infant was loathed. He was born of two heathen parents,
and they didn't love it, and they cast it out into the middle
of the field to die. And there he was, not even washed
in the blood. He was in his own blood, out
in the field. And there it is, a man passed
by, and he saw the baby, and he had compassion on it, and
he picked it up, and he cleaned it off, and he put his own coat
on it, and he grew that child to be his own. He took it in
to be his own. Well, friend, this is the nativity
of every child of God. This is your nativity. This is
my nativity. This is how we were. We were
born all together in sin. We were polluted in our own blood. Polluted. And none eyed pitied
us. What does that mean? It means
the law and the justice of God did not pity us and they could
not pity us. We were guilty, guilty of our
sins. We were polluted with our sins
in that man cannot by nature and will not come to God. Just
as that baby could not get up and walk by himself and come
to the man, the man had to come to the child. So did God have
to come to us. We were not willing or able to
come to God. All that God has chosen in eternity,
my friends, He in time will pass by them. He has an appointed
time that He will come to them and pass by them. And this is
the time He calls the time of love. The time of love. And so all He has chosen, He
will bring to hear the gospel. And He will in that time of love
and grace He will give them His Spirit and He will save their
souls. This is the grace and mercy of
God to all His objects of love. God has an appointed time and
He will move all things to save and deliver the souls of His
people. That's what He did for you. That's what He did for you
who believe. He said, Have I not given Egypt
for thy ransom? Have I not given Ethiopia and
Sheba for thee? Why, thou wast precious in my
sight. Is that not wonderful? God says
you are precious to Him. You that believe, you that are
His, you are precious. Lydia was one of His precious
ones. And she was not in Asia, but
she was in Philippi, and God had brought these two together.
And I want us to notice the use of means that God used in saving
this woman. Now these women were out there
in the field and they were praying, but she wasn't saved by that
prayer meeting, was she? She wasn't saved in that religious
experience out there. And I'm sure, you know, people
get all sentimental when you get out by nature and they start
thinking spiritual thoughts. And I'm sure that a lot of people
like to have riverside services, you know. Oh, how beautiful.
That didn't do anything. That didn't do anything. Environment has nothing to do
with it. Environment has nothing to do with it. The fact she was
by a river and the fact she was in his prayer service had nothing
to do with her salvation. The only thing that God used
in this was the preaching of the gospel. Preaching of the
gospel. He brought His man to this place. You remember in John 4 when Jesus and the woman in the well. You
remember the Scripture says in John 4, verse 4, it says he must
needs go through Samaria. Anyone who believes in the almighty,
omnipotent God, who can do all things, And yet the Scripture
says he must needs of necessity go through Samaria. Why? Because
he had a woman there that he would save. Well, couldn't God
use any other means? No, He couldn't. Because this
is the means He has chosen to use. The preaching of the Gospel. This is it. There is no other
means. This is it. This is why Christ
had to be by that well at that certain time. Because He had
to preach the Gospel to His Lost sheep. Praise God for His grace to us
who believe to give us a time of love. A time where He would
send His man to us to preach the gospel unto us. Friends,
we live in a very foolish and superstitious age. We live in
a very religious age. And men will believe anything
as long as it sounds spiritual. They don't have to have any proof.
They don't have to have any evidence. They don't even have to have
it coming from the Word of God. It just has to sound spiritual. It sounds spiritual. They just
accept it. Accept it. Well, if God has an elect, then
He'll just save them without any means. He'll just do it. That sounds spiritual, doesn't
it? That sounds like faith, but that's not faith. Why? Because they have no evidence
in the Word of God for any of that. That's foolishness. They say, if God wants to save
somebody, He don't need us. That's right, He don't need any
one of us. But He has chosen to use us.
He has chosen to use us. Weak vessels of clay, and yet
God has chosen the means. And I don't say that lightly,
I say that because the Word of God tells us that. Believe me,
I wouldn't believe it if God didn't say it, if God didn't
tell you. He has chosen to use vessels
of clay to pour out His Word to thirsty sinners. And if anybody doesn't believe
that, I'd like you to find me one instance in the Scripture
where a man was saved without the Word of God. One. Find one instance where
a man spontaneously was saved without the Gospel. You won't
find one. God in sundry times and in divers
manners spake to His prophets. Now, he may have used different
means and different methods, but I'll tell you this, they
all heard His Word. Every one of them. Every one
of them. But in these last days, God has
spoken to us by His Son, by the means of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. There is no other means of hearing
God. I've known men who've said that
they... Well, one man said he was walking through a parking
lot and all of a sudden he had a vision. I knew right then he was lying. I knew right then that his profession
of faith was something lacking in that. He did not hear God's
man and God's Word. He heard something of his own
imagination. And you know, he endured for
just a little while. He went to church just for a little while.
But pretty soon, him and his vision went right back to their
sin. Why? Because he wasn't saved. He didn't
hear God. Because the only means you're doing right now, this
is the means God speaks to His people. There is no other means. And if there is no other means,
how foolish is it to search for some? How ignorant is it not
to be here under the sound of the gospel? That's just plain
foolishness. It's superstition to believe
you'll be sitting at home and you can worship God all by yourself.
That's not the way God determined it. That's not the way that God
uses in His Word. That's just a religious sounding
phrase. Well, I can worship God without
His man. But right ahead, see where it
gets you. It will get you nowhere. This
is how God determined to do it. And He moved everything to bring
these two people together. Everything. And lastly, I want
us to notice her new desires. Look at this. Go back to Acts
chapter 16. It says, "...a certain woman named
Lydia, a seller of purple in the city of Thyatira, which worshiped
God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Friends, she attended. to his preaching. She attended
to his preaching. This will always be the result
of one whose heart the Lord opened. Now, I want us to understand
the picture of that. You remember that servant, that
bondservant in the Old Testament. If he was a servant, a Hebrew
servant, at the end of seven years, on six years, he was to
be released on the seventh year from his service. But if he decided
to stay, if he had a wife and children, and children while
he was a servant, they couldn't go. But he was free to go. If
he desired to stay, then there was something that had to be
done. He would go before the priest,
and they would put his ear to a post, and they would take a
railroad spike, and they would open his ear. They would open
it. and he would forever become the
servant of that Master. That is a picture of all who
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. We come placing our ear on the
post and our hearts are opened and we are servants of God forever. We are servants of God forever.
I love my Master. I love my wife. I love my family.
You know what? I love my Master God. I love
Him and I love my family, my brethren. My heart is open. My heart is open and I'm forever
going to attend unto His service, unto His worship. Where once
we attended to the things of the flesh, now we attend unto
the things of life. We attend unto the things of
God. We attend unto the preaching of the gospel. This word attended
means she applied herself. She determined to do it. Somehow,
I think we've got the wrong notion of this, that, well, if God's
going to move me, I guess He'll just move me. Without determining
to do anything. In the Scriptures, how many times
does David, God's servant, says, I have determined, I will do
this. I have determined in my heart
to do this. Friends, we should determine
in our heart to serve God. And everyone who attends unto
the Word applies himself to the Word of God and does not let
anything interfere with the preaching of the gospel. This woman, Lydia,
she didn't let anything interfere. You know what, that selling purple?
That was set aside. That selling of purple, that
was secondary. That didn't really mean very
much anymore. She attended unto the gospel. Friends, the gospel is not something
that we work into our schedule. Friends, it should be our schedule.
It should be everything, and everything else should be subject
to that. Because we are servants of God. I'll tell you, there are some
times that people will let anything interfere. Trivial things. Travel, family, work, school. But when we do that, what are
we saying? What are we saying if we allow these things to come
in front of the gospel? We have placed them above Christ.
We have placed them above His worship. And the last thing,
she attended to her family. Look at that in verse 15. And
when she was baptized in her household, she besought us, saying,
If you have judged me faithful to the Lord, come into my house
and abide. She was faithful to witness to
her family. Next to my salvation, there would
not be a greater joy in all the world than to see my children
come to Christ. There would be no greater joy
in all the world than to see my family and my friends come
to know Christ. Friends, we must be engaged in
witnessing to them. I didn't say forcing them. I
didn't say twisting their arm. I didn't say academically trying
to master them. That doesn't work. We're not
going to save them. But friends, they'll never be saved without
being under the sound of the gospel. They'll never come. God
has chosen this means. And I pray that God would open
our hearts to attend to these things. If your heart has been
opened, these are things we attend to. We attend to His preaching.
We attend to witnessing. I pray the Lord will bless this
to our hearts. We're dismissed. Blessings to you, Bob. Hi, how
are you doing this morning? I'm Fred Evans. Fred, I'm Scott
Connerly. Scott, nice to meet you. Nice
to meet you. Are you from around here? Mitchell. Little way from home, huh? Yeah,
okay. You visiting in the area? Okay,
well it's nice to have you. Okay, alright. Shopping, huh?
Well, I guess. That'd be good. The Scripture
says the Bereans were wise because they looked into the things.
Be wise. Don't take my word for it. You
just go to God's Word for it. Hey, how are you doing this morning,
man? Good to see you this morning. Good to see you this morning,
honey. Good to see you too. Okay? Good. No more visitors
yet, huh? No more foreigners. What? Oh, fuzzy. Okay. I got Kathy yesterday. She was
talking about the woman in the glass over here. And I go, oh,
now I know what they're doing when they're preaching. I heard about your news, Bubba. I'm sorry, but everything's the
same. You're not out of this. Just
a little bit longer. It's okay. That is too bad, boss. I really hate to hear that. Yeah, it's alright. You'll make
it through. But I mean, there's really no
difference. I mean, you just kind of... You know, just a little
less. Just not much, you know. You
could be back in the other place. I know. I wish I wouldn't have
been thinking about it so much. Ah, I know. It's alright to be
disappointed, but you know, God has His reasons. God has His
reasons. He does all things. So if you're
fighting against Him, you fight against Him. Good to see you
this morning. Good to see you too. Does it
look nice or what? I mean, that was brilliant what
he did. He got the base coat the same
color as the main coat. And so it took only five gallons
of paint to do this. We were shocked that that paint
went so far. But it did. And I think it's
going to look good. He's going to come back Monday.
We're going to come back and start again. It does, everything. The white trim around it will
repaint the windowsills and when they paint it and the baseboards
are painted and that white line across there is painted, it's
going to look really nice, I think. You alright? Yeah, I have trouble
with this arm. Sorry. Kenneth, good morning. Morning. How are you doing? I'm doing
fine. Good to see you. Well, you working hard? No. I'm playing hooky for four days.
Well, get some rest. Then you can rest up. Yeah, well, Friday I went to
a wedding. My nephew got married. Oh, OK. Well. Try to talk about
it. I figured you'd say something
like that. Hey, brother, good morning. Oh,
it's good to see you. Hey, good morning, sister. How
are you doing? Good to see you. Hey, good morning. How are you
doing? Good to see you. Come on in. Sit down. Did you hear about us? Oh, you've been here with Moose? Okay. Okay. Alright. Well, you won't hear different. You won't hear much different
man, same message. Oh, good. Sure, come on and listen. Don't listen. I was telling the
other day, I said, I know this is going to surprise you, but
I'm not a great orator. So, thank God it's not with excellency
of speech. You won't find that here. You'd
have to go somewhere else to find excellency of speech. I'll just point. I'll point to
Christ. You'll find Him. Bob, he's here somewhere. Yeah,
he's here somewhere. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think
he is. I'm sure he's around here somewhere
though. Kathy, thank you for taking that.
You're welcome. Appreciate it. Morning. Good to see you. Good
to see you. Hey, buddy. How you doing? Good
to see you this morning. Hey, Grace. How you doing, babe?
Good to see you. How are you? Fine. Doing good. Doing good. Doing well. Can anybody go to the bathroom?
Nobody's getting up. We're buried under the bed. Where's
my son? Anybody see my son? Nope. Don't open that door. Don't
open that door? No. Okay. I won't. Our dad is
going crazy. He is? Yeah. Make sure the doors are closed. Well, that's to be expected. When I was a kid, I wasn't happy
to be here either. No, it was fine until I saw Gracie
walk out the door. No, that's old. It is? Yeah, that's old. I don't remember
seeing that before. Yeah, it's been there a long
time. Been there a while. Hey. Okay. Yeah. Oh, that drives me crazy. I'm going to hit my head with that one. It just come undone. It wiggled
out. I don't have kids running through
and stuff like that. I'm just bound to wiggle out.
I'm going to have to get a piece of wood and stick up there. I'm
going to have to get something, like a little small piece of
wood. Because this is hollow. Yeah, it is. This up here is
where it's at, but it's very thin in there. It's not a very
thick piece. About like that. Yeah, about
like that. I don't know what to do with it right now. I think
someone said take a golf key and hammer it in there and then
screw it in. So I may do that. I may do that. Let me get closer so I know what song
we're singing. Oh, for a thousand times to say,
My great English praise. What are you doing out there? Sit down. Hello, girls. Yes, sir. I'll sit in the chair. She's
in Houston. She's attending her brother's
wedding today. So, we're without a pianist. Unless you want to
play, Bob. Unless you want to play. Do you
want to play? Now, if you leave the singing,
I'll play. No, we'll wait until you learn
how. How far do you think it's going
to be a trip? Too long. I imagine it's about
1,200, 1,300 miles. Yeah. Yeah, it's a long trip.
So it's a... Yes, son. I need, okay, Matthew. In Matthew. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Matthew. Chapter 16. Six. In Matthew chapter 16. Go find
it now. I'll tell you what verse in a little bit. Good morning. It's good to see
everyone here. Take your Songs of Grace book and turn with me
to hymn number 30. Songs of Grace, hymn number 30. We'll be singing,
Worthy is the Lamb. We'll sing this to the tune of,
oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. We're not going to sing
the chorus, we're just going to sing the verses. Oh, for a
thousand tongues to sing. Hymn number 30, Songs of Grace
book. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing, to be the tune. Worthy the Lamb for sinners slain,
His blood can never fail. The conquering Lion of Judah
came, And over all prevails. Dear Lamb of God, you took our
sins and made them all your own. Your blood you shed, your life
you gave to bring us to your throne. The precious blood we
know was not for sinners shed in vain. Not one of those can
never die for who the lamb was slain. This lamb who died, he
is a lion whose will is always done. He conquered Satan, death,
and hell. And then he claimed his throne. The lion ruled to save his own,
His chosen ransom raised. He conquers and subdues their
wills By matchless sovereign grace. Did Jesus write the Lamb
of God and take His rightful place? So surely shall His ransomed
ones in heaven find their place. You want to take your Bibles
and turn with me to Matthew Chapter 16. Matthew Chapter 16. Begin our reading in verse 13. Matthew 16, beginning in verse
13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, or one of
the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it, unto thee, but my Father
which is in heaven." This will be our text this morning. You
want to keep your place here in Matthew chapter 16. You're looking at this office
of Christ. What is Christ? What is Christ? What does that mean? Thou art
the Christ. And by God's grace, if He'll
be merciful this morning, may He open it to our hearts and
give me power and liberty of the Spirit to deliver you the
message He has prepared this morning. Let's go to the Lord
in prayer. Our most gracious and heavenly
Father, we come before Your throne this morning with one object, and that is that, Lord, You get
Yourself glory this morning. Father, in these songs, in these
hymns that we sing, help us by Your Spirit to sing from the
heart and to mean the words, that Your name be honored and
glorified in this place. Father, we come asking for Your
mercy and grace upon us, that You would cast aside all of the
cares and thoughts of this life. And Father, that You would help
us by Your grace to focus solely on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Father, I pray that You would,
by Your grace, if there are any here that do not know Christ,
that You, by Your grace and mercy, might reach down and touch their
hearts, that they might know Thee, the only true and wise
God in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Father, I pray for
those of us who do know Thee, Father, that You would bless
us and help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Savior. Father, give us boldness to speak,
boldness of heart to witness to the lost that are around us
every day. Forgive us of our sins. Cleanse
us this morning. Father, this morning hold our
hands and our hearts and draw us closer to Thee. We pray these
things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for His namesake. Amen. Alright, take your hymn
books and turn with me to 685. 685. Tell me the story
of Jesus. As I was coming in this morning, I was reading something
that Dr. Magruder had said. He said, Many
times make us liars. Here we're fixing to sing the
song, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Is that what you want? I hope
that this day, that this hymn would not make us a liar. That
we would desire in our hearts to hear again the story of Christ.
Let's sing this hymn together. Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of Jesus, sang as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest,
peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus, Write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story's most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Fasting alone in the desert,
Tell of the days that are past, How for our sins He was tempted,
Yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of His labor,
Tell of the sorrow he bore He was despised and afflicted Homeless,
rejected and poor Tell me the story of Jesus Write on my heart
every word. Tell me the story's most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they
nailed Him, Writhing in anguish and pain Tell of the grave where
they laid him Tell how he liveth again Loving that story so tender
clearer than ever I see. Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
love gave the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus, cried
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. 722. Wonderful Words of Life. 722.
Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life. Let me more of their beauty see,
wonderful words of life. Words of life and beauty, teach
me faith and duty. Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life. Christ, the Blessed One, gives
to all wonderful words of life. Sinner lives through the laughing
call, wonderful words of life. Wonderful freely given, wooing
us to heaven. Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life. Sweetly echo the gospel call,
wonderful words of life. Offer pardon and peace
to all, wonderful words of life. Jesus, Holy Savior, sanctified
forever. Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life. Were you a liar? I hope not. I hope not. I hope that's our
prayer this morning, that God would open His wonderful Word
to us. If we would have the men come forward for the morning
offering, I know it's kind of strange without Cheryl playing
the piano this morning, but it was good singing. Good singing
this morning. I appreciate that and I know I miss her. I know I miss her. But not just for the piano playing. If you will, remember her and
Audrey in prayer as they will be traveling tomorrow. I ask
the Lord to grace upon them and bring them safely home to us.
I pray for the message this morning. Friends, what a horrible thing
to meet here in vain this morning. What a horrible thing for the
Spirit of God not to apply His Word to us. that God, by His
grace, would give me liberty to speak and give you liberty
to hear. And then we can walk out of here
saying we've been blessed. If He was here, and He has promised
to be here. Believe Him. Trust Him. I pray
that God will bless the message this morning. Pray for those
that are sick and cannot be with us. I'm praying for you, John,
your arthritis, Also remember Nathan Whitehead, remember the
young man who is suffering from brain cancer. He had went in
doing well, rehab is going very well, but he still has a lot
of chemotherapy and so forth to go through, a lot more pain.
So be in prayer for him. Have you heard from Lucas? Is it just precautionary? Okay. Okay. Okay. We'll be in prayer
for Lucas as well, please. Thinking about him. Especially
those in our family who are lost. Think of the young people. We
have a lot of young people here this morning. And if they're going to be saved,
it is only here or under the sound of the gospel. Well, there's
no other hope. So it's good that they're here
this morning, and maybe God will be gracious to them. Let's go
to the Lord in prayer. John, would you lead us in this
prayer, please? I ask you, Father, that you come now to this part
of the service. I pray that it be used for the purpose
of the gospel of your Son, the Lord Jesus. I follow these names
that have been mentioned here. having physical problems, and
many that are today, that send the church body here to bless
them, strengthen them, give them grace to carry on. Can we ask
Father to bless them, to call them, Father, in your order of
the journey? Give them the traveling mercies
that they may have. Bless the pastor as he breaks
unto us today the bread of life, and most of all, prepare our
minds and our hearts to be concerned and to receive the message. We
know our Father takes the work of the Holy Spirit to apply the
truth to our lives. Amen. This all we ask in the
name of your Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen. Please.