the songs of Augustus, top lady.
And that's a good one right there. How vast the benefits divine. Well, would you go with me in
your Bibles to the book of Revelation again, chapter 17. Revelation
chapter 17. I have been Speaking to you for several weeks,
of course, from the book of Revelation, we've been continually kind of
putting us in remembrance of the fact that this book consists
of seven distinct visions that God gave to John. John, because
he loved the gospel of grace, because he preached Jesus Christ,
and him crucified. He had been exiled to an island. Other prisoners were there that
the government did not feel that they were fit to live amongst
the people and so they exiled him to this particular island
of Patmos. And there John was, he writes,
that he was there because of the word of God and the testimony
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved the gospel of grace,
he loved the blessed Savior, and it was his delight to set
forth this good news message of finished redemption, of righteousness
brought in by the Lord Jesus. He preached that Christ is not
only God over all, blessed forever, but he's the exalted man, Christ
Jesus, who washed us. He washed us from all of our
sins in his own blood, and he made us kings and priests together
with God. Now, John, as he goes through
this book, as I've said, he does so presenting to us the these
seven visions that the Lord gave him. And each vision begins,
or at least somewhere along the line, he will take us back to
the very origin of this age of grace, this gospel age. He'll
take us back to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he
takes us all the way up to the time of judgment. This morning
we begin in Revelation chapter 17. Here's the sixth It is a
vital vision, as all of them are, and though it is a new vision,
I look at it this way. To me, it's
John who's giving an enlargement or a commentary of the last few
verses of chapter number 16. You notice back up in chapter
16, look at verse 17. He says the seventh angel, and
of course these are the seven angels that had the golden vials
of wrath, so in Revelation 16 and verse 17, the seventh angel
poured out his vial into the air. We've already talked about
Armageddon. Armageddon being a battle or
a war that began Well, way back in heaven when Lucifer fell,
and he led a third of the angels in rebelling against God because
God had purposed that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, would
have all dominion and all authority over all things. That was a position
that Lucifer wanted, but he didn't get. Therefore, he fell, he fell,
and he led about a third of God's angels in rebellion against God. And God, in his eternal purpose,
he arranged things so that this Lucifer, we know him as Satan,
the old serpent, he became the prince of the power of the air. Now, Armageddon has been brought,
Armageddon began with his fall. A battle against good and evil,
we'll call it. A battle between that which is
vile and that which is righteous. A battle between everything that
is wicked and God himself. This war has been going on down
through the ages. It still goes on today. The enemies of God are many. Those that are with Satan are
many. He leads multitudes of people
in rebellion against God and against God's gospel, and of
course, he has all the demonic hosts who back him up. And God,
in his purpose, he has arranged things so that this Armageddon,
it goes on throughout this age unto the very end. And then at
the very end, there will be a rapid judgment. And everything will
be wrapped up, and every enemy against Christ Jesus, all of
those who oppose the gospel of His grace, the gospel of righteousness
found in Christ Jesus, the gospel of God's salvation by free grace,
all of those who are in opposition to that gospel will be judged. Armageddon. And then we get to
verse 17, and now we're talking about Satan, because he is the
prince of the power of the air. And you notice this angel pours
out his wrath upon the air. That's where Satan works. God,
according to his will and purpose, he designed it so that Satan
would have all authority over the air, though not all authority
over God himself. The air, that's where Satan works.
He works in the kingdom of darkness, in other words. He works in the
kingdom of evil. He works in the kingdom of wickedness. This kingdom, every kingdom has
a king. He's the king in that kingdom.
It continues on to this day. He has lots of followers. He has lots of hosts of demons
who are at his beck and call. And this will go on. Until God
ordains, it's time for it to end. At that time, Satan will
be judged. As it says here in chapter 16
and verse 17, the seventh angel poured out his vial into the
air upon all the forces of Satan. Go back with me to Ephesians
chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. There is, even now, a vile, demonic
host and spirits at work in this world, and at work within the
hearts of many people. Satan, who is over the darkness,
over wickedness, over evil, he is still working. And this is
something Paul addresses here in Ephesians chapter 2. And you,
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air. That's how
we all walked. He's speaking of our natural
depravity. These are the elect of God. You
go back into chapter 1. These are those who are chosen
unto salvation. These are those who are redeemed
by the bloody death of the Lord Jesus. These are those who have
had a work of grace done in the heart by the Holy Spirit. And
now, here's what the apostle does. He takes them back and
he says, now before God did something for you, before you were regenerated,
before you were born again by the power of the Spirit of God,
before God gave you life, before God gave you light. Even then,
you, you walked according to the course of this world, and
you were under the authority of the prince of the power of
the air. Let every one of us understand
this. Before conversion, before conversion,
before God did something for us in quickening grace, we're
under the authority of, not the ultimate authority of Satan,
because God's got ultimate authority. But according to God's purpose,
this evil spirit works within us. In fact, it says in 2 Timothy
2, He holds all men captive at His will. If I'm speaking to someone here
this morning who's unconverted, you haven't been brought to faith
in the Lord Jesus, let me say to you, Satan leads you around
as it was by the nose. He just leads you. You're his
servant. You're his slave. This is the reason that is ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous to
believe that salvation is due to you exercising your free will. Because Satan holds you captive. You do his bidding. You say,
no, I'm not a servant of the devil. You're either a servant
of the Lord or a servant of the devil, is what the scripture
says. And our Lord Jesus says, this one who is the prince of
the power of the air, he leads men about. And he will lead you
unless God intervenes. Unless God is pleased to reveal
the grace of His Spirit to you and the grace of the Lord Jesus
to you, this is what Satan will do. He will lead you all the
way into everlasting destruction. That's his goal for you. That's
why when people speak to me and they say, well, you know, we've
got to do something for God. I've got to do something for
myself. I know that ultimately this is
up to me. I say, that's wrong. Because
if it is ultimately up to you, then you're a goner already.
There's no hope for you now. Because He who holds you captive,
He has all authority over the air, over all wickedness and
vileness and ungodliness, all error. All error is traced back
to this One who is evil. And you're under His spell. That's what you're under. You're
under His spell. And no one can break that. No
one can do for you what needs to be done for you except the
sovereign God. God must do for you. God must
save you. God must reveal Christ Jesus
to you. He must give you life because
you're dead in trespasses and sins. So this is the situation
here in Revelation chapter 16. This last angel, he pours out
his vial of wrath into the air. And this will be
the end of Satan. Remember this. While Satan is
an awesome foe, and you're not capable of handling
him, You don't wanna do business with Satan. You ever watch some
of these silly evangelists on TV and they'll say, ah, if the
devil was here right now, I'd give him a black eye. And you
know, they say stupid stuff like that. That's senseless talk. There's only one who can handle
him. That's the Son of God. The Son
of God, you're no match for Him. Don't you try. He'll deceive
you and He won't have much of a time doing that. It won't be
much of a job for Him to deceive you. He deceived our mother Eve. She didn't have a sinful nature. What do you think He'll do with
you? We're just putty in His hands, except for the grace of
God. His reign over us must be broken. It must be broken. And nobody
can break that but God Himself. Oh Lord, liberate us! Oh God,
give us freedom! That's why we read in John, if
the Son of God shall make you free, you'll be free indeed.
But He's got to make you free. We're in bondage. That's what
men don't understand. We're in bondage. Nobody can
give us freedom but the Lord Jesus. Because you see, He's
taken captivity captive. That is, He took that one who
holds men in captivity. Our Lord Jesus took Him captive.
When did He do that? When He died on the cross. That's
when He broke the bonds of Satan. That's when he broke his back.
That's when the Son of God dealt a mortal blow to his head. Go back with me. Turn a couple
of pages forward to Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter
20. Verse 1 says, And I saw an angel
come down from heaven. We know this in the book of Revelation,
a lot of symbolic language. Who is this angel? Well, you'll
know who the angel is. What does the word angel mean?
Messenger of God, right? That's what angel means, messenger
of God. You'll know who the messenger
of God is, you'll know who the angel is by what he does. By what he does, that's the only
way you'll know. Well, what does this angel do? I saw an angel
come down from heaven. Well, he has the key. You go back in Revelation chapter
1, you know who's got the keys? Christ Jesus. You know how he
got the keys to everything? By his successful death upon
the cross of Calvary. You see, the one who's got the
keys, that's the owner. That's the owner. So I saw an
angel come down from heaven, he's got the key to the bottomless
pit, and he's also got a great, great chain in his hand. And He laid hold on the dragon. Remember, here's the theme of
the book of the Revelation. I keep saying this because I
want to drill it into your mind and hopefully into your heart.
The victory, the victory of the Lamb of God and His followers
over the dragon and his followers. Well, who is the dragon? The
red dragon, as he's also described in the book of Revelation, who
is this dragon that Christ laid hold on? Well, he's that old
serpent. Genesis chapter 3, that old serpent,
which is the devil. and Satan, and He bound him. He took him and He bound him
a thousand years. And to the Jews, the expression
a thousand years just meant a long, long time. Don't take that literally. Well, when did this happen? At
the cross. At the cross. You see, this is
the fulfillment of that passage in John chapter 12. Our Lord
Jesus said, and I, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all unto Me. All men unto Me. And He's speaking
there. In fact, hold your place there
in Revelation chapter 20. Go back to John chapter 12. He talks about something happened
now. Something happened now. In verse
31. John 12, 31. Don't lose your
place in Revelation 20. John 12, 31, now is the judgment
of this world. What does it mean by now? What's
he talking about? Now when he dies. Now when he
does the work of redemption. Now when he does the work of
reconciliation. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Now. And He says, and I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. This He said
signifying what death He should die. So you go back over here
to Revelation chapter 20. When did He lay hold of the dragon? When did He lay hold of him?
When did He bind him? When did He defeat him? At the
cross. A lot of things happen at the
cross. That's where God's justice was satisfied, which demanded
death for our sins. That's where righteousness was
brought in. That's where all of our iniquities
were made to meet on him and he bore them away. And that's
where the devil met his defeat. That with the cross of Calvary
was his waterloo. And he bound him in verse three.
He cast him into the bottomless pit. He shut him up. He set a
seal upon him. that he should no more deceive
the nations, he shouldn't deceive them anymore, till the thousand
years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed
a little season. When is that? The final Armageddon. And you drop down in verse seven,
if you want a commentary on the final Armageddon, here it is,
verse seven, and when the thousand years are expired, that is whenever
the gospel age, the church age is over, This one, Satan, shall
be loosed, he'll be released out of his prison. The Lord has,
he's kept him on a kind of a chain. But he's gonna release, at the
end of this age, Satan is going to be released into this world
like he hasn't been since our Lord Jesus has died. And he'll
go forth to deceive the nations, it says in verse eight, which
are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog to gather
them together to battle. That's Armageddon. That's the
final Armageddon right there. This is an enlargement or a commentary
on what we read back there in Revelation chapter 16. to gather
them together for battle. Remember we talked about that?
It's the Lord gathering them together. That's the reason the
Lord uses the three frogs back there in chapter 16. That's the
reason he used the drying up of the river. Why are all of
those things going to happen? To gather all of the enemies
of the gospel together. To gather all of the enemies
of our Lord Jesus Christ together for one final gigantic defeat. And you notice the end of verse
eight, the number of them is as the sand of the sea. Oh, how many enemies there are
of Christ Jesus. You're not his enemy, are you? I know this, you're either his
enemy or his follower. You're either his foe or his
friend. There is no middle ground here. Look at verse nine, here we go.
And they went up on the breadth of the earth and they compassed
the camp of the saints about and the beloved sin. In other
words, here's all the forces of Satan against God's kingdom,
against God's church, against Christ Jesus. But this is not going to be a
long drawn out battle. Here's the last of Armageddon
right here. These last few words of verse
nine. Fire came down from God out of
heaven and devoured them. I'll say it this way, this really
isn't a fair fight. It isn't a fair fight. Because
all of the forces of Satan himself, all of the demons of hell, all
of the unbelievers, all of the pagan governments, all the babbling
with all of her false religion, all of the false prophets, all
of them together are no match for King Jesus. And he will send fire out of
heaven and devour them all. That is another retelling of
Armageddon. Go back now to chapter 17, and
I want you to remember that chapters 17, 18, and 19, and even in the
chapter 20, they set before us the nature and the end of the enemies of our God, okay? The nature, chapter 17, 18, 19,
a little bit even into chapter 20. They said before us the nature
and the end of all of the enemies of our God, of the Lord Jesus. His enemies are identified in
the book. First of all, the red dragon,
that's Satan himself. He's fought against the Lord
ever since he fell in rebellion against the Father. He's the
one who blinds our understanding. 2 Corinthians tells us that he
blinds the minds of those who believe not. Blinded minds. It's a pitiful situation, isn't
it? It's a sad, sad case. Ours is a very sad case. Our
minds are blind. And you know, a preacher can
set before us Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He can preach
the wrath of God. He can preach the judgment of
God. He can set forth the beauties of Christ Jesus, the glories
of the Son of God. He can set forth substitution,
satisfaction, righteousness, forgiveness of sins. He can set
forth all of these things and people, they don't get it. They
don't see it. Why don't they get it? Why don't
they see it? Satan is blind in the mind. He's
blinded. Ours is a very sad case. This is what we would call total
inability. We have no ability when it comes
to spiritual things. Oh, physically we can do a lot
of things, but spiritually we can't do anything. We're helpless. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. And if God just leaves us, to
ourselves, if He leads us to our thoughts, if He leads us
to our ways, if He leads us to our own understanding of the
Bible or anything else, we're surely going to perish. And this
is what each of us ought to be beseeching the Lord for. Lord,
don't leave me to myself. Don't leave me to my way. Don't
leave me to my thoughts. Don't leave me to my own understanding. I need infinite help and only
God can help me. You see, that's our dilemma.
Such is the awfulness of our condition. If God doesn't help
us, we can't be helped. The preacher can't help us. Oh,
I can tell you the truth, but the preacher can't help you.
The Sunday school teacher can't help you. And we set forth the
gospel. We set forth the truth of God's
word. And I certainly encourage you
to sit under the ministry of the word. And I encourage you
to read at home, to study, to study the scriptures, but Somebody better give you enlightenment
of the Scriptures. I'll tell you that. Somebody
better open the mind, open the ears, open the heart. That's what I prayed in my prayer.
There was Lydia with some other women there outside of Philippi
having some kind of a worship service. And Paul and Silas began
to speak to them and he said, the Lord opened her heart. so
that she attended to the things of God. This is what we need. This is what we need. Because
Satan, he blinds the understanding lest we should see the glories
of Christ Jesus. He blinds us so we won't see
how necessary it was for the death of Christ Jesus. The second enemy against our
Lord is pagan world governments. They're set in opposition to
the Lord, to His Word, to His people, to His sovereign authority.
Now listen to me. I pray for our government, but
they're not the answer to our problems. You know, we vote a
new president in, we vote new senators, or maybe re-vote old
senators in, or whatever. The case may be in local elections. Well, I know this will bring
us out of this mess we're in. Nobody can bring us out of this
mess we're in save the Son of God. The governments of this
world are pagan. They are godless. Just look at the effect of our
own government, and I'm not going to get too political here this
morning. I just say our government is
anti-God and anti-Christ. That's why they're making every
effort to remove the name of God totally. Just get rid of
God. Let's get rid of the name of
Jesus Christ. No separation of church and state,
that's what they say. Pagan world governments, they're
not the answer to our problems. And a lot of people are so gullible,
that's what they think. Oh, this one, this administration,
oh, this will solve all of our problems. No, they're not gonna
solve your problem, because your problem is much deeper than a
financial problem. Your problem's a heart problem.
Our problem as a society is a problem of immorality. We talked about
it in Sunday School lesson this morning. John the Baptist speaking
out against Herod Antipas. Preached against his lustful
life. His immorality. All his passions, uncontrolled
passions. Our society is a lawless society. We've ignored the things of God,
we've ignored the Word of God, and it's coming back to bite
us. That's right. We've disregarded the Word of
God, we've disregarded the preaching of the Gospel, and we've done
that, we've done that, we've done that. I'm very much afraid
that what is said in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is coming to pass in
our times when God said, well, you wouldn't have the truth of
the gospel, I'll just send you a lie. And boy, we got lots of
lies around today. The second enemy of God, which
is called here the first beast, pagan world governments, are
set in opposition to the Lord, opposition to His Word, opposition
to his people and opposition to his sovereign authority. The
next enemy against the Lord, third enemy, is the second beast
called the false prophet. This enemy leads other false
prophets in deceiving men with a false gospel. They tell you
salvation's conditioned upon you. That's a lie. That's a lie. They tell you God loves everybody,
Jesus died for everybody, and the Spirit of God won't save
everybody. That's a triple lie. If that's all so, then you've
got a defeated God. You've got a God who can't bring
His will to pass. I'll tell you who God loves,
His people. I'll tell you who Christ died for, those whom the
Father loves. I'll tell you who the Spirit
of God is going to convict and save and bring the knowledge
of Christ Jesus. Those the Father set apart in
everlasting election, those the Son of God redeemed. Now that's
the truth. We're covered over with false
prophets. Somebody sent me a text the other day. One of the false
prophets, he's announced that God told him to buy, is it a
$54 million jet? Is that what it was? $54 million
jet. He said, he wouldn't go ride in commercial airlines because
nothing but demons rode on them. Well, thank you very much. Now
I know what he thinks of us. Gotta have that. Yeah. Just another false prophet. Bunches
of them out there. The fourth enemy is identified
in the book of Revelation is Babylon. Babylon is all false
religion. All false religion. Babylon is a city, the inhabitants
of which are under the authority of and the delusion of Satan
himself. It's all false religion. It doesn't
matter what name it is. It may be called Baptist. It
may be called Methodist. It may be called Mormonism. It
may be called Jehovah's Witness. It may be called Zionism. It may be called Roman Catholicism. It doesn't matter what the label
is. Any religion that is set against
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace to sinners through
the effectual redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's Babylon. That's Babylon. It's a dangerous
thing. Dangerous thing. In fact, Revelation
chapter 17 is going to describe Babylon. Chapter 18, is going
to set forth the destruction of Babylon. And then the first
few verses of Revelation chapter 19 shows the people of God rejoicing
in the destruction of Babylon. And then the fifth enemy of our
Lord would be all of those who receive the mark of the beast.
That is all of those who embrace another gospel, a false gospel. I read about these enemies in
the book of Revelation. It greatly troubles me of how
many are still enemies against God in their hearts because they're
set against the way God saves sinners. They're opposed to His
method of salvation. You can't be a friend of the
Lord and be against his way of saving sinners. Well, that doesn't
make sense. And if you listen, if you decide
you wanna listen to a television preacher or a radio preacher,
that's your business. But you better listen real careful.
Because I'll tell you, almost all of them, here's what they're
preaching, salvation by works. Salvation by something you must
do. That is an awful message. It is an awful message. In fact,
I say you do what you want to do, but here's my advice to you. I wouldn't listen to him. I wouldn't
listen to him. Only times I listened to him,
I heard Brother Mahan say this one time, he listened to him
because they loaded his gun. I listen to what they're saying.
I want to kind of stay up to date. What are these preachers
saying today? It's the same old message. Oh,
they have tried to reinvent it. But it's still a works message.
It's still a message where salvation is dependent upon you. And if
you hang on to that message, I'll give you a fair warning.
you'll perish in your sins. And I really think you'll remember
this very day when a preacher stood before you and said, salvation's
in Christ Jesus, not in something you must do. It's just like Herod. I'm sure you brought this out
in your Sunday school class. Herod wouldn't listen to the
preaching of John, except he didn't like John. John spoke
out though against his lustful desires and other evils. And
then, when Herod heard of the fame of Jesus, he had within
him what I called in my class, the voice within, a conscience. A conscience. When he heard of
Jesus of Nazareth, his conscience bothered him and he said, John
the Baptist is risen from the dead. smote his conscience. You know what? He would not pay attention. He's
a thorny ground hearer. The Word of God was absolutely
choked out by his weeds of lust and passion. And he died and
went to hell, and I'll guarantee you, right down to hell, he's
still hearing the words of John the Baptist. He can't get away
from the words of John the Baptist. John's preaching. And I tell
you, if you die in your sinfulness, in your rebellion against God,
believing salvation is ultimately dependent upon something you
must do, when you have heard this morning, if you've never
heard it before, you've heard this morning, salvation is all
of grace, all in Christ Jesus, all in His blood, all in His
righteousness. If you don't believe this message,
you'll hear it in your mind and in your conscience forever in
hell. It'll bother you forever. The enemies of God. But I'll tell you what, the Lamb
of God, He does have His friends, He does have His followers. Look
at Revelation 17, 14. These, all of these enemies,
Revelation 17, 14. All of these enemies shall make
war with the Lamb. The Lamb. Whenever you see the
word lamb, that takes you right back to substitutionary death.
I said every vision, every vision, it always takes us back to the
death of Christ Jesus. Somewhere along the way. And when you see the lamb mentioned,
that's the lamb slaughtered. That's the Passover lamb. The sacrificial lamb. Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. They shall
make war with the Lamb. You're not making war with the
Lamb, are you? Because if you're making war
with the Lamb, the Lamb shall overcome them. You're not going
to win. You're on the losing side. You're a fool to stay on the
losing side. Well, here's the winning side,
here's the losing side. Which side do you want to be
on? Well, let me think about that a minute. I think I'd rather be on the
winning side. But if you're against Christ
Jesus, you can't win. He shall make war with the Lamb
and the Lamb shall overcome Him. Why will He overcome them? Because
of who He is. Watch it. He's the Lord of Lords. He's the King of Kings. Would
you dare go up against Him? Go up against His Word? Go up
against His Gospel? I say this with great sincerity. and with all
the compassion I can muster, if you dare to go up against
the Lord of glory, the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
you're a fool. You're a fool. But watch Him, and they that
are with Him, are you with Him? I'm with Him,
aren't you? I'm with Him. In fact, I was
with him in the covenant of grace. I was with him in my substitute
in surety. I was with him when he came into
this world of sin. I was with him when he lived
a life of obedience under God's law. I was with him when he suffered,
bled, and died. I was with him. I was with him. I was with Him when He went into
that tomb. I was with Him when He came out. He's my representative. He's my surety. He's my covenant
head. I was with Him when He ascended
back to glory. I'm with Him now. And I'm with
Him in my heart. I'm with Him. I'm not against
Him. I'm with Him. How are you? What
about you? That's what it says. And they
that are with him. You know what Christ Jesus said?
He that is not with me is against me. Here we are this morning, there
you are watching on the internet. Are you with him? Or are you against him? And I'll
tell you, in my heart of hearts, Convinced by the Holy Spirit,
I say, I'm with him. You with him? I'm with him. I'm
with him. I'm with him whatever he does. I'm with him in life. I'm with
him in difficulties. I'm with him in trials. I'm with
him in troubles. Lord, I'm with you. Whatever
you deem best for me, I'm with you. I'm not against you. I'm with you. I'm with you. They that are with Him, they're the called, they're the
called, effectually called to faith in Him. They have chosen. These are His
followers. His followers are those who are
with Him. They're effectually called to faith in Him and chosen. You say, yeah, but didn't the
choice, didn't that happen before the call? Yeah. The only way
you can know you're chosen is if you're called. 2 Peter 1,
give diligence, brethren, to make your, what do you say, calling
and election sure. You see, the issue this morning
isn't, I'm not going to ask, are you one of the elect? Not even, are you one of the
redeemed ones? That's the only question you
can answer. Are you one of the called ones? Have you been called to faith
in Christ Jesus? Do you believe Him? Do you love
Him? As it's set forth in the Scripture, you cast all of your
soul's welfare forever upon Him. Are you like the Apostle Paul?
I know whom I have believed, I'm persuaded, he's able to keep
that which I've committed unto him against that day. You say,
yes. I believe him. That's because
you've been called. And the reason you were called
is because you were chosen. And faithful. You know what that
means? They believe him. And they follow
Him. They don't quit. Here's the Lamb
of God. Here's the Lamb of God. He has
His enemies, and He has His followers. He has His foes, and He has His
friends. He said, you're my friends if
you do whatsoever I command you. You doing what He told you to
do? Believe Him? Love Him? Follow Him? Oh God, give us grace. We need
divine help, don't we? We need the kind of help only
God Himself can give us. May the Lord be merciful to us,
bring us to the Lamb of God, and one who is the Savior of
the sinful. 175.