I so have always loved you. How good. Loving kindness, loving
kindness, resounding kindness. Oh, how good. Back to the book of Isaiah. Chapter 63 of Isaiah is a glorious
picture of Christ. Tale of Christ and coming in
his power and his glory. Coming in his anger, his wrath,
his fury. Coming in his judgment. Beginning
in verse 7 though, this is where we want you to look. He recalls,
he says in verse 7, I will mention the loving kindnesses of the
Lord. This is strictly an Old Testament
word. However, we have a similar word
in the New Testament, and that is grace. That's what that is,
grace. Loving kindness is a good word,
isn't it? And love is indeed kind, as he
said in 1 Corinthians 13. Let me mention tonight the loving
kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord. How loving and how kind the Lord
has been to us. And the praises of the Lord are
innumerable reasons that we have to praise him. Praises of the
Lord. According to all that the Lord
hath bestowed upon us. And you remember, I'm sure, Psalm
103, where he says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not
all his benefits. And he goes on to talk about
what all the Lord has done for us. In Psalm 40, he says, If
I should try to reckon them up in order, the Lord's blessings,
he said, they're more than can be numbered. So Isaiah says,
I will mention the praises of the Lord, according to all that
the Lord hath bestowed on them, and the great goodness toward
the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them, and it
is all according to his mercy." It's great goodness. The house
of Israel is not just that Jewish nation over there, but it's true
Israel, true circumcision of the heart. He hath bestowed on
his house great goodness, great goodness, abundant goodness.
He hath bestowed on them, and it's according to his mercy.
It's all according to his mercies. None of it is merit. We didn't
merit his goodness, but we merit judgment. But it's all according
to his mercy. And according to the multitude, here's that word again, of his
lovingkindness, the multitude of his loving kindness. Read on. Well, he said, surely
they are my people. I like that. Surely. Why are
they surely his people? Because they have a surety. Surely
they are my people. Children, he says this, and he
He praises us. We're not worthy of it, but he
does so. Children that will not lie. And I believe he's speaking
about those like a Nathanael who is without guile because
all true believers are or are. or just say should be. They are,
like Nathanael, men and women in whom is no guile. For that
is, they are sincere. The true worshipers worship the
Father in spirit and truth. They're not playing games. They're sincere about this. They're
not liars. David said one time, I said in
my haste, all men are liars. When you deal with so many out
in the world, so many liars, And you're apt to make a blanket
statement like that. But God's people aren't liars.
They aren't. If one of God's people tells
me something, you can believe it. Paul said the same thing. I have this confidence in you.
Well, God says this about his people. They're not liars. So,
he was their Savior. Surely they're my people and
he was their Savior. Read on, this is glorious. In
all their affliction, he was afflicted. In all their affliction,
he was afflicted. I love that passage in Luke where, or John, where the
Lord came to Lazarus' tomb and Scripture says, he groaned in
spirit and was troubled. And the margin says that it says
it really reads he troubled himself. The Lord went to a great deal
of trouble. He troubled himself. He put himself through trouble. He was a man of sorrow acquainted
with grief voluntarily. He put himself through trouble
like a father would for a child. Put himself through trouble.
He was afflicted. For that is, he was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh. That's affliction enough for God to be manifest in the
flesh, for God to be made a little lower than the angels even. He
said, I'm a worm. Made in the likeness of sinful
flesh in all points, tempted. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God, but he allowed himself to be tempted at all point, yet
without sin. Read on. It says, in all their
affliction he was afflicted. We have a high priest who's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities and affliction. An angel of his
presence saved them. The angel of his presence. Do
you remember that over in Joseph's story? Or Jacob's story, I mean? The angel of his presence saved
them. Who is the angel of God's presence?
That's Christ. He is God's angel of mercy, and
he is the presence of God. Emmanuel, God with us. He's the angel of God's presence.
Christ is. Read on. In his love and in his
pity, he redeemed them. In his love and in his pity. The Lord is full of pity. He's pitiful, full of pity for
us who don't merit it. But He's pitiful. And He redeemed
us by His precious blood. He obtained eternal redemption
for us by His own precious blood. And He bared them. He bore our
sins in His body on the tree, and He bares us the weight of
all our cares on His whip-striped shoulder, and he carried them
all the days ago. How long will he carry us? All
the way. Like my Fitbit ship, we're laying
on both legs, and he must, he must carry us. Verse 10, But they were Let's say, after thinking about
all that goodness, toward the undeserving, those
who should receive what those in
the first six verses will receive. The blood of people who are not
God's people will stain Christ's garment, their blood, but he
shed his precious blood for those who are just like him. No difference. Who makes the difference? Well,
he was their Savior, but they rebelled, and so have we, and
so do we, and vexed his Holy Spirit. All of us, without exception,
like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one, no
exception, every one to his own way. Now, the title of this message is
A Cry for Help. Now look down at verse 15. Here's
a cry for help. Look down from heaven and behold
from the habitation of thy holiness. Look down and behold. Look upon us in our affliction.
Look upon us in our sin. Look upon us in mercy and grace
and more of that same lovingkindness from the habitation of thy holiness
and of thy glory. Where is thy zeal? The zeal of thine house, Christ
said, Be zealous, O Lord, toward this
house. Clean it out, if necessary. Call house. Where is thy zeal
and thy strength? Where is thy strength, O Lord? We need thy strength. The sounding
for the multitude of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me.
Where are they? Where is it, O Lord? Are they
restrained? As David said in one place, the
Lord left all showing mercy. What he cries here, Isaiah cries,
I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. And before that, like I just
quoted, all we like sheep have gone astray. Turned every man
to his own way. Yet the Lord laid on him the
iniquity of us all. Oh Lord, look down from heaven.
Cease not to be merciful. Cease not to show thy holiness
and thy glory and thy strength and thy power in our midst. He
should. He could. Look down. Look upon us. Look
upon us. Bow. Show bow. Let's hear the
sound. Let us hear the glorious sound
of mercy. Let that be a sweet sound in
these ears. Sounding of thy bowels, thy mercies toward me, are they
restrained? Verse 16, Doubtless thou art
our Father. Doubtless, we believe. Can you
say this? We believe and are sure thou
art the Christ. This little flock here is poor
and Unworthy as it may be, we believe
here, and we are sure that thou, he is the Christ, and his God
is our God, and he's our Father. We are sure. Though we at times
deny him, we do believe. And we can say that with Peter. Lord, thou knowest. And God is
our Father. Doubtless thou art our Father.
Thou, O Lord, read on down, art our Father, our Redeemer, our
Redeemer. We know you're our Father because
you sent forth the Spirit of adoption in our hearts whereby
we cry continually, Abba, Father. Thou art our Father, our Redeemer.
We know that Christ is God. We believe that in our church.
He's our Redeemer. And we've said, like he said
in Isaiah 25, this is our God we've waited on. He'll redeem
us. We're sure. He's our Father and our Redeemer.
Thy name is from everlasting, and that's what we long to do
here, is worship His holy name, nothing else. Now look at this,
verse 17. Have you ever prayed in this
fashion? Have you ever cried this? Have
you ever thought this? O Lord, why hast thou made us
to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy
feet? Have you ever been made to ask
that or cry that? O Sovereign Lord that reigns
and rules and controls and wills all things, Thou in whose hands
are all things, are all our ways, our breath, Thou in whose control
is even the King's heart, You turn it whithersoever You
will, Why haven't you turned mine? Why don't you turn mine? You
turn me and I'll be turned. You afraid of that, Joe? You who softens hearts, you said
you'd give them a new heart. Why didn't you give them a new
one? You who uphold all things by the word of your power, why
do I fall? Why don't you uphold me? Have
you ever asked that, Joe Farris? Isaiah is. And I have to. You who are able to keep us from
falling. Isn't that what he said, John? Why don't you? That's what there he's asking.
Oh, Lord, why have you made us? And he's not blaming the Lord
for his sin. He's just saying, Lord, why do
you allow me to do this? You could do something about
it. Couldn't he stand? Keep you from falling. Return, verse 17, return for
thy servants' sake. Return. If I am indeed your servant,
return unto me. Turn not your face from me. Now,
Isaiah 64. Read on down there. Look at verse
1. Oh, that thou wouldest rend the
heavens and come down, that thou wouldest come down Oh, that thou
wouldest rend the heavens and come down before I go down into the pit. It's almost like
you said, if you don't come quick, I'm a goner. This whole thing's
gonna be gone. This thing's gonna fold. If,
Lord, you don't come down and fold this thing up like a vesture,
hurry. It's folding up. Come down, O Lord, for I go down
in the pit. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Verse
2, O that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains would
flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth. As Hebrew 12, 29 says, Our gods
are consuming fire. And I need him to melt this old
hard heart. I need him to become a fire in
my bone. I need him to take that gospel word as alive coal from
the altar and blistered these old lips. And it says here, the water is
to boil. The fire causes the waters to
boil. This old blood turns coal like a fish. I need him to take
his word and make my blood boil again, make my heart burn within
me, turn up the temperature within me. Cause this fire to burn within
me, thy word to burn within my heart. To make thy name, do this
O Lord, come down, make your name known to thine adversaries.
All these people that are blaspheming his holy name, this whole generation,
this whole I've been reading Jeremiah lately. You know, the thought has occurred
to me that, and I see it in preaching, I
see it in the faces of some people, that perhaps they don't like
me being so negative about our generation, about present day
religion. I see that. I see that in the
faces of people. It causes me to stop and think
about it. And then I'd go back and read the prophets. There's not one prophet that
had anything good to say about anybody or anything in his day. And John was the last, and what
did he say? He got the religious folk together of his day, and
what did he call them? Would our Lord say that the religious
generation is dead? And as the Lord approaches, I
see what he says and what the scriptures seem to indicate,
that there will be a falling away. Depart from the faith,
a great apostasy, a great blasphemy in the name, having a form of
godliness but denying the power thereof, and so on and so forth. And I don't think language is
strong, nearly strong enough for our generation to denounce
it. And all this heresy and blasphemy
that's going on today. I want the Lord to rend the heavens. That's what he's going to do.
It says it's lightning. Hannah and I were sitting in
our porch the other day watching that lightning storm. Any of
you saw that? You saw the hail? You see that
lightning display? A mere pittance of God's power. We were sitting there watching
and it was getting closer. It was right on us. And Hannah
ran inside. And I admit, I got a little fearful. Even sitting on the porch. But what Scripture says is a
lightning Strikes from one end of the heavens to the earth.
That's the way the Lord's going to appear someday. And I want
Him to. Quick. Come quick. Save us. Save me. Quick. We're in the
heavens. Make your name known to your
adversaries. All these that claim to be doing
what they're doing in the name of God, but they're really blaspheming
the true and living God. All these who claim to be doing
what they're doing in the name of God are really doing it for
their own names and their own personal glory. Render heavens
and show them who you are. Make every knee bow. Make every knee bow. I'm looking
forward to that day. I really am. That the nations
may tremble at thy presence. Verse 3. Show yourself to be
the sovereign God that you are. You've done it before, verse
3, when you did terrible things that we look not for. Terrible
things to look not for. The Lord did terrible things
to unsought, uncalled for, unasked for God came to a people, Jews
of old. Look at verse one of chapter
sixty-five. I'm sought of them that ask not
for me. I'm found of them that sought me not. The unsought, uncalled, unasked
for God came. He came to his own. They received
him not. He did terrible things. God of old did terrible things
to his enemies. He keeps reminding the children
of Israel of that. All the way through Isaiah, Jeremiah.
He's reminding them of that. I'm going to preach Sunday night
from remember and don't forget. He says that many, many times.
In the book of Deuteronomy. Might want to note that down,
Deuteronomy 8 is what I'm going to preach from. But it says many,
many times, remember, don't forget, remember, don't forget. And one
of the things he says more than any other. Remember, you were
in bondage in Egypt, and I cut you loose. And look what I did
to the Egyptians. And Joe, they weren't one whit
better than the Egyptians. They were worse. John, they were
worse. They got out in the wilderness
after all that mercy and grace, and they sinned against mercy
and grace. They did terrible. And our Lord
said that to the The mighty works that have been done in thee have
been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, and they would have repented. And the mighty works that have
been done in thee have been done in Tyre and Sidon, and they would
have repented. The Lord did terrible things to the Egyptians, to the
world. Look what he did to the nations before he hit the Jews and to his people. Look what
terrible things the Lord did to his people. He slew them. You know respect for a person.
He slew them. One person he's a respecter of. And respects all those in him.
Christ his son. Get outside of Christ. It's like
that aunt I saw at work one day. Remember I burned all those ants
out? You remember that story? Well,
one of them, one of them crawled under a rock. You know those
flares, don't you, Steve? Flare, not F-L-O-W-E-R, flare. Fusee, they call them in the
railroad. Ants ruined my lunch and I burned them all up. Well,
one of them got under a rock. And I sat there and I said, well,
you stay there and you're safe. Stick your head out, I'll burn
your little butt. I'll burn you up in a minute. Why? He got in
on it, too. His hands had gross beef on them,
too. And I said, you stay under that
rock and you're safe. Now, you hold fast at the beginning
of your confidence, steadfast at the end, and we're safe. You
stand on that rock, you'll be safe. You hide in the cleft of
the rock, you'll be safe. overflowing scourge of his wrath.
Step outside, leave the gospel, you're a goner. And I'll show you how terrible
things he did. The most terrible thing he ever did was to his
son on Calvary's tree. What does God think of sin? Go
to Calvary. And he laid on him the iniquity
of John Sheasley. And John, that's you. He'd burn
you if it wasn't for Christ. Huh? Terrible things. The Lord did terrible. He came
down and did terrible things. And that's a terrible thing that
would happen to us if it wasn't for Christ. Did I mention the
lovingkindness of the Lord? That's right. He said, I'll mention
the lovingkindness. Did I mention that? Now, the
Scriptures calls him in our generation that know anything about this
great and terrible God. Does it? What the Scripture look
that up sometime? Terrible. Terrible. The great and terrible God. Well,
that is this God should invoke in us fear. Fear of him is the
beginning of wisdom. And it's clean, the fear of the
Lord is clean. He came down, this God came down, manifest
in the flesh, and it says the mountains flowed down at his
presence. Look at it. Verse 3, the mountains flowed
down at his presence. What's that? Mount Sinai melted. Mount Sinai melted before God
manifested in the flesh. Melted at his presence. It shook
and trembled in fire and smoke and we couldn't go near it and
touch it. He scaled it. Conquered it. Who was it? Sir Hillary did Mount Everest.
Sir Christ did Mount Sinai. That's much deeper. Conquered
that mountain. It melted at his presence. Mount
Calvary trembled. It says when the Lord hung on
that cross, the earth shook. The whole planet shook. when
he came down. Verse four, For since the beginning
of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived, by the ear, neither
hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, or that is, apart from
you revealing it, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth
For him. And you know how Paul quotes
that in 1 Corinthians 2. And in the very next verse, Paul
says in 1 Corinthians, he said, but. God has revealed them unto us
by his Spirit. From the beginning of the world,
men hadn't seen. And that's what Peter and the
rest of them talk about, this mystery that's been kept hid
from the beginning of the world. In Ephesians 1, he said, but
God hath made known unto us the mystery of his will, which he
purposed in his Son before the foundation of the world, that
he should gather in him all things, in one, even in Christ. Us. Us. God made known unto us. I haven't seen, but we haven't
rightly seen, but we have got a little glimpse. I can say with
Isaiah, Isaiah, I saw his glory. I saw the Lord. I've seen him
high and lifted up. We've seen that way several times
in this place, this little place that he's chosen to cause his
name to be here. We've seen the Shekinah glory.
We've entered into the holy of holy in this little place. Why? Because he came down, he
condescended to be in our midst. I've seen that pulpit shake,
not me, other men, with the glory of Christ being preached. He
came down, the mountain flowed, Mount Zion melted into his presence. He came down. Men have not heard,
the ear hadn't heard, eye hadn't seen. Oh, he's revealed them
unto us. Him that waited for him. Notice how the words are
a little different than Paul quotes. Paul said to them that
love him. If you love somebody, you'll
wait on them. Right? You're waiting on them.
You're waiting on Christ. That's what we do here. We come,
we gather, we're meeting, and in the name of it, we're waiting
on them. I truly believe he's going to
come in the midst of worship service. They were all gathered together
when he left, and the angel said, This same Jesus shall so come
in like manner as you have seen Him go. They're all gathered
in that upper room. He appeared to them and said,
Peace. It is I. And that's the way He's going
to appear, I believe, next time. I really believe that. I don't
want to miss it. Verse 5, Thou meetest Him that
rejoiceth in the work of the righteousness. Thou meetest Him
God will meet with. Who will God meet with? Him that
rejoices and worketh righteously. That's who God will meet with.
Well, rejoice in what? Rejoice in who? That's right.
Rejoices in his Son. And he said that from heaven
out loud. He said, this is my son and God must have a smile
on his face. Can I speak in that fashion as
a man? This is my beloved son. I smile
when I talk about my beloved daughter. This is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. I rejoice in my son. And God
rejoices in all those who rejoice in him. Rejoice in the Lord,
I say. Rejoice. Again, I say, he said,
rejoice in the Lord. God meets with those who rejoice
in him. Well, are we the true circumcision that worship God
in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus? That's who God will meet
with. Two or three are gathered how?
In the name of Southern Baptist Convention. In his name, I'll be with him. Those who rejoice in him, his
person, his word. You'll meet with him. You'll
meet with him. You're going to have a gathering.
You're going to honor my son. I'll tell you who's going to
be here first. God. You're going to talk about
my son? What about you, Joe? If we're
going to have a... I'll pick on somebody. John?
We're going to talk about Josh. We're going to have a... gathering
where he's going to be the central figure, Callie, one of those
two. Which would get here first, you
or Erlene? We're going to meet at seven. I'd have to be here at three
to have the door open for John. Huh? Right? He rejoiced. People in those that rejoice
in those you love, well, so does God. I'll meet with them, he
said. I'll meet with those who rejoice.
But those who are rejoicing in their work, rejoicing in their
religion, rejoicing in what they've done for Jesus, he ain't within
them. God's not there. God's not in
all this play. Of those that remember they,
read that. Those that work righteousness,
those that remember, and how do we work righteousness? What do we do to do the works
of God? All right? God is righteous. We want to
be righteous like God. We want to work righteousness.
What shall we do that we might work the works of God? John,
tell me. What shall we do? Believe on Him. We believe in
His countenance for righteousness. Right? That's the work. That's the work. You could apply
that to Christ, couldn't you? Those sayings, He rejoiced to
do His will. Didn't he say that? Lo, I come
for joy and rejoicing, he says, my meat to do my Father's will.
He rejoiced to do the Father's will. He rejoiced. He rejoiced
to do the Father's will, and he worked righteousness. And
God will meet with us through him. You could say that, couldn't
you? And those that remember thee
in thy ways. Remember thee in thy ways. Now,
you remember that. Come Sunday and we talk about
it a little more fully. Remember day. In thy ways. That's why we're here. That's
what worship is. That's all we're doing. We just
recall in the mind. We forgot a little bit, Stan.
In the course of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, all that we get
busy doing, we've forgotten. Hadn't we? And we come back here to have
our memory. To stir up our minds by pure
remembrance. Like Peter said. Verse 5. Our pure mind by remembrance.
And then he says, Behold, thou art wroth. We've sinned. See,
the true child of God is quick to acknowledge God's greatness.
And he's equally quick to acknowledge his own sin. He's quick to acknowledge God's
greatness and he's quick to acknowledge his own sin. He that covereth
his sins shall not prosper. But whosoever confesseth them
and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Thou art wrath. We've sinned. And in those, he
says, is continuance. Lord, it seems we continue in
sin because that's what we are. We continue to sin because sin
continues in us. And we don't live in it, but it still is in us. Do you
know the difference? I know you do. And Lord, we continue
in these things as continuance because sin is still with us,
O wretched man that I am. And we shall be saved. That's the sense I believe he's
saying. I've always had trouble with that, Mark. But John Gill
read it in this way, with a question mark, and we shall be saved? Yeah. In all their affliction,
he was afflicted. He was their savior. We don't remember him. We forget
him, but Lord, thank God he remembers us and forgets not his covenant. Oh, great mercy, did I mention
the loving kindness of the Lord, did we mention? Verse six, this
is us, we're all as an unclean thing. We're all. It's refreshing to
hear a preacher say that, isn't it? Instead of you, you, you. True preachers preach that way,
don't they? We, not you. We are all you know Isaiah was
saying you would. The first five chapters look
at that sometime he's saying whoa with you whoa whoa and then
he said in chapter six he saw the Lord is it. What was made. I'm on the PC. I'm happy but. I don't miss the people well
We're all is an unclean thing and all our righteousness is. Nor is filthy rag. I need not remind you what that
stands for, what that is. The Lord. He tells things like
it is all our religion to him held up before his nostrils is
absolutely detestable. No, the outside of Christ. It's impure. It's altogether
stinking. That's what he says about our
righteousness today. What about our sins? That's our
righteousness. Sammy, that's what we're doing
now, so to speak. If it were outside of Christ.
This what we do, you gathering here. The real motive and all of your
heart, if God should mark iniquity. Who's going to stand? Who shall abide the day of his
fierce indignation and wrath? If we should try to hold up one
thing, one pure motive and one pure time of worship where we
haven't gone astray, who will stand? Read on. We're filthy rags. Our righteousness is a filthy
rag. Every prayer we've ever prayed is a filthy rag. Unless
Christ makes that prayer sweet, it stinks to God. Doesn't it? Filthy right? We
all do fade as a leaf. This old boy's fading fast. Oh, blessed is the man that's
planted by the river of living water. He'll be like a tree.
His leaf won't fade. Well, who in the world is that
talking about? Well, he's not talking about me first. If you're
talking about Christ, and if I'm in Christ, I won't fade,
but sometimes I feel like I'm fading fast. I'm not reflecting His glory,
let your little light shine, you know, I feel like my light's
fading fast most of the time. It's burnout, don't you? Fade
and we fade as the leaves, our iniquities like the wind have
taken us away. Our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away. Take us away from God. Our iniquities take us away from
God. Our iniquities take us away from rationale and reason and
wisdom. And if you lack wisdom, he said,
James said, let him ask of God, he giveth liberally, and upbraideth
not. But a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Let not that man think you shall receive anything of the Lord. O Lord, my iniquities, let's
say like Isaiah, my iniquities like the wind have taken me away,
away from being wise unto salvation. Our iniquities like the wind
take us away from each other. husbands and wives. All that
fall away. Parents and children, and iniquities
like the wind, tear them apart. Iniquities like the wind have
taken us away, haven't they? Taken us away. Verse seven, well,
what's the problem? There's none that call upon thy
name. What's it mean to call on the name of the Lord? Well,
go to Luke 18 sometime. Is that it, the importunate widow?
Did I even write it down? I think it's Luke 18. For that
widow came to them just just day and night, day and night,
day and night, day and night. We leave off prayer entirely
sometimes. None that called upon thy name. Do we? Are we guilty? None that
call importunately, that is. I will not let thee go until
thou bless me, like Jacob. Jacob was an old rotten scoundrel,
but he laid, he called on the name of the Lord. He said, I'm
just not going to let go. That stirreth up himself, look
at verse 8, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.
Like that old king that grabbed hold of the horns of the altar,
and he said, you just go ahead and slay me right here. Lay hold. Our grasps, generally,
are pretty loose. Doesn't take much to let them
go. Grab on to other things. And thou hast hid thy face from
us. Thou hast hid thy face from us.
and has consumed us because of our iniquity. Now it's hid by faith. God hides
his faith. God has consumed us. But now, now here's another cry
for help. He mentions the loving kindness
of the Lord and how that ought to be a constraining, the love
of Christ constraining. It ought to be a constraining
factor, ought to be a restraining factor. But it's not enough apparently. And he cries for help. He cries
for help and says, look down from heaven and behold, come
down, hurry, quick, I'm fading fast. And then he gives a confession
there. A confession all with nothing
but a bunch of, and here's another cry for help. Lord, you're our father. We said this from the beginning.
You're my God. Dad. Dad, like the prodigal. We say, we've got to say like
the prodigal to come back again. Dad. Lord. Lord now are. We are. Now are the potter. We're the work of your hand.
Lord if. If there's anything if I'm going
to mount anything. You go have to make. You're going
to have to do it. If this church is going to amount
to anything, you're going to do it in spite of this guy. And he's going to do it after
we call on him. If our families are going to
amount to anything and they're going to stay together, we're
going to have to call on them. We're going to have to lay hold of them.
If our children are going to be saved, Ezekiel said, he said,
for this thing I'll be asked for." He called upon his name and stirreth
up himself to take hold of it. O Lord, you're our Father, we're
the clay, thou art the potter. Make us, mold us, make us, shape
us, prune us into the holy image of Christ. And this is ever the
cry, Psalm 1715, is ever the cry of every rotten sinner will
always be our crime as long as we live on this planet. Psalm
1715 says, I will behold thy face in righteousness. If I get the glory and see thee
as thou art, and love thee with unsinning heart, then shall I
know, and not till then, how much I owe. I'll behold thy face
in righteousness, and not mine, but another." Jesus Christ. And I'll make mention of his
righteousness and his own righteousness. And he goes on to say in that
verse, I will behold thy face in righteousness, and I will
be satisfied. And not until then. when I wake with his likeness. If I wake up in the morning with
a little more of the likeness of Jesus Christ, I'll be somewhat,
but not all together, satisfied. So we cry for help. Old Potter,
take this dirty piece of clay and make something out of it. All right, stand with me. Our Father, thank you for this
glorious word. Thank you for your loving kindness.
Make mention of it to us time and again throughout the week.
Don't let us forget. Remember. Call to remembrance
the former days of old. in our minds and our hearts.
Let us not forget. O Lord, we pray, we ask, we thank
you for your Son in whom we are kept, in whom we are saved, and
we ask that you would indeed keep us by thy power, Christ,
the wisdom and the power of God. O surety, may it be said to our
soul, surely they are my people. He is their Savior. In Christ's
name, we meet and ask all these things, we pray and continue
to ask until we meet again. Amen.