Good evening. Let's all stand
together and we'll sing hymn number 450. 450. There will never be a sweeter
story Story of the Savior's love divine Love that brought him
from the realm of glory Just to save a sinful soul like me Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful, it is wonderful. Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Boundless as the universe surrounding
Reaching to the farthest soul away Saving, keeping love, it
was that found me That is what my heart can truly say Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful, it is wonderful. Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Love beyond our human comprehending
Love of God in Christ, how can it be? This will be my theme and never
ending Great redeeming love of Calvary Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? be seated we'll sing hymn number
295. 295 He leadeth me ? O blessed thought, O words ?
With heavenly comfort brought ? What e'er I do, where'er I
be ? Still tis God's hand that leadeth me With me he leadeth me, by his
own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follower I would
be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Sometimes mid scenes of deepest
gloom Sometimes where Eden's flowers bloom By water, still,
or troubled sea Still tis His hand that leadeth me me, he leadeth me by his own,
and he leadeth me. His faithful follower I would
be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Lord, I would clasp thy hand
in mine, Nor ever murmur or reply. Content whatever thought I see,
Since today He leadeth me, he leadeth me
by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follower I would
be for by his hand he leadeth me. ? And when my task on earth is
done ? ? When by thy grace the victory's won ? ? In death's
cold grave I will not play ? ? Since God through Jordan's blood has
died ? He leadeth me, he leadeth me By his own hand he leadeth
me Good evening. If you would, let's
turn to Psalm 28. We'll read that together this evening. Psalm 28. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord,
my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the
pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I
lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with
the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace
to their neighbors, but mischief in their hearts. Give them according
to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors.
Give them after the work of their hands. Render to them their desert. Because they regard not the works
of the Lord nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy
them and not build them up. Blessed be the Lord, because
he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my
strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him and I
am helped. Therefore my heart graciously
rejoices and with my song I will praise him. The Lord is their
strength and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save
thy people and bless thine inheritance. Feed them also and lift them
up forever. Let's pray. Our great and merciful Heavenly
Father, we thank Thee for Thy precious Word. We thank Thee
for Thy blessed Son, in whose name we come before Thy throne
this evening. We ask Thee to send the Spirit among us this
evening, Lord, if it be Thy will, to bless this worship service. Bless Cody as he brings the Word.
May he lift up Christ once again this evening. We also ask, Lord,
that You bless the sake of the congregation. Heal them, forbid thy will. We
ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Page 34 in our course books,
we'll sing the love of God. The third verse is not in there,
but most of us know it. 34 in the course book. The love of God is greater far
than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star
and reaches to the lowest hell. A guilty pair bowed down with
care God gave His Son to win His hearing child He reconciled
And pardoned from His sin O love of God, how rich and pure How
measureless and strong It shall forevermore endure The saints'
and angels' song When hoary times shall pass away
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall When men who hear refuse
to pray On rocks and hills and mountains call God's love so
true shall still endure ? How measureless and strong ? Redeeming
grace to Adam's race ? The saints' and angels' song ? O love of
God, how rich and pure ? How measureless and strong It shall
forevermore endure The saints' and angels' song Could we with
ink the oceans fill? Could we with ink the oceans
fill? And were the skies of parchment
made? Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above
Would drain the oak, shall strive. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how rich and pure,
how measureless and strong, it shall Brother Cody's with us once again
this evening. Sorry I didn't give you a better
introduction this morning. You're right, I do take it for
granted that everybody knows him and loves him like I do.
Dear friend of mine, blessed to call you a brother. You come
and bring what the Lord's put on your heart, coming to us from
Kingsport. Good evening, everybody. If you
will turn with me in your Bibles back to where we were this morning,
Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. This morning we looked at a certain
man who prepared a great supper. We saw that this man sent his
servant with a declaration, declarative message, come for all things
are now ready. We saw that nobody had any interest
in coming. Everybody had their excuses.
We saw the man's anger at this and how that he sent his servant,
picturing God the Holy Spirit, to seek out and to bring in some
helpless, needy sinners. We saw that this man was determined
to have a full house, full dinner table, and he did. And we saw
this to be a most beautiful spiritual picture of what our God has done
for us. Now, I think I mentioned it this
morning, but this certain man is obviously none other than
our Lord and Savior himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here
in Luke 14, I want to look at the preceding verses to what
we looked at this morning. I simply want to talk to you
about Him again. I hope we're on the same page
here as far as desire. I pray that's who we want to
consider tonight. I pray that's who we want to
hear. Look here, Luke 14, we'll start in verse 1. And it came to pass, as he went
into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread
on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. And behold, there
was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus
answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it
lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him,
and let him go. And answered them, saying, Which
of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will
not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they
could not answer him again on these things. Now this provides
us a context for not only what we're looking at tonight, but
for what we looked at this morning. Same context, alright? Our Lord
is here. You know, He often, we read,
dined, communed with publicans and sinners, right? That's usually
where we would find him in such a situation, but here he's dining
in a Pharisee's house, a chief Pharisee's house. He's surrounded
by these Pharisees, and you know who they were. They were the
high-minded religious leaders of the time, all right? And we
read that there's a man here, a sick man. Now, it's interesting. In verse 1, we're told that they
watched him, those Pharisees, they watched the Lord. I don't
want to suppose on the scriptures, but I see one of two scenarios.
Either the Pharisees brought this man with this infirmity
before our Lord to watch him and see, is he going to heal
him? It's the Sabbath day. Can't do any work on the Sabbath
day. We read other accounts just like that. Or perhaps this man
knew the Lord was there and he had to get to him. That often
happened too. So I'm not gonna say one way
or the other. Now this man's infirmity, it says the dropsy,
today that's known as edema. I don't know much about this.
I think it's something to do with too much fluid in you, from
what I can tell. Now our Lord healed this man. Now that's not a surprise, is
it? Verse three, he took him, he healed him, and he let him
go, sent him on his way. And in doing so, I love how in
this account, it said our Lord answered them. We don't read
that they even said anything, but he knew their thoughts. Often
he would answer their thoughts. They would think something and
he would answer them. Well, that's what happened here because they didn't
say anything. He asked the question. He knew they were there accusing
him in their hearts. Are you going to break the law
you claim to keep? He shut their mouths, didn't
he? I love verse 6. They could not answer him again to these
things. Couldn't answer him. He shut
their self-righteous, judgmental, And now it's starting in verse
7. He's going to teach them a lesson on pride and humility. This will
be more so the focus of our message. Look at verse 7. And he put forth
a parable to those which were bidden when he marked how they
chose out the chief rooms. They chose out the chief rooms.
He knew that about them. That's how it was with the Pharisees.
They deemed themselves worthy. Do we deem ourselves worthy?
They deemed themselves most worthy, all right? In Matthew 23, verse
six, our Lord said this concerning the Pharisees. You don't have
to turn. He said, they love the uppermost
rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and
greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi,
master. That's what they wanted. They
wanted the best seat, and they wanted a title. people to honor
and praise them. They sought the praise of men.
They did. They saw themselves as being greater than others. And here's what they were doing.
They were simply putting themselves in the place of God. That's what
they were doing. Our Lord said, you don't call anybody rabbi.
There's one who's your master. And it was him. It is him. Verse
seven again, he put forth a parable to those which were bidden when
he marked how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto
them, when thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not
down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou
be bidden of him. Mention Matthew 23, our Lord
warns us about the Pharisees and how they act. He said, they
say one thing, then they do the other. And he's warning us of
this. He tells us right here, don't
sit down in the highest room. Just maybe so someone more honorable,
more worthy shows up, more worthy than you. Do we deserve the best
seat? Do we? Honestly, let's think
spiritually now, all right? What kind of seat do we deserve?
Thought of a fellowship dinner again. Any of you ever just jump
to the front of the line? I do all the time now that I
have children. They're a great excuse. Gotta feed the kids.
That's terrible, ain't it? But it's true. I gotta feed the
children. Gotta feed the kids. But I benefit from that, right?
I've always admired this about my dad. Whether it's a fellowship
dinner or if they're hosting, he always goes last. always has,
that I remember, always goes last. And I admire that about
him. It's a good way to be. And that's what our Lord's saying
here. If we're in someone else's seat, wouldn't it be embarrassing
for someone else to come up and say, get up? Now again, let's
consider this in a spiritual light, all right? This is what
jumped out at me. It's the title of our message,
the end of verse eight, a more honorable man than thou. Does that catch your attention?
A more honorable man than thou. Do we know this man? Has it been
revealed to us who this man is? He's a man. He's God and he's
man. The Lord Jesus Christ. These
Pharisees, I want to say bless their hearts, they always thought
they were something. They sure did. But do we not
do? I mean, if we're honest with
ourselves. And yet they had no knowledge. The Lord would save
one from time to time. He would. But they had no knowledge
of the one who was more honorable than them. See, they wanted the
chief seat. There's just one chief seat and
it belongs to Christ. You know, this earth has had
many kings. There's just one king. There's
just one king. The Pharisees, they wanted to
be called rabbi. There's one rabbi. They wanted
honor. There's only one worthy of honor. Just one. How often our Lord
spoke to these Pharisees. We read of many accounts where
our Lord was right there talking to, declaring the truth to, declaring
his goodness to. the Pharisees, and yet they never
saw him to be more honorable than themselves. I pray it's not so for us. I
pray we will see him and him alone as more honorable, however
honorable one of you may be. And I honor you all. I really
do. I look up to you. I esteem you greater than myself,
but I esteem him far more. You don't rival Him. We don't
rival Him. We vain men and women. What fools
we prove ourselves to be when we start to glory in self. And
if you're anything like me, we do. We just do. Oh may we glory
in Him. The King of kings and Lord of
lords. Not only do we not deserve a seat in the kingdom of God,
we don't deserve to be in God's presence. We don't. I mentioned
it earlier. There's people think they're
just ripe for the picking, you know, ready to go right in, march
right into heaven. We don't deserve that. We don't
deserve that. Christ alone, he alone is worthy. Verse eight, when thou art bidding
of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room,
lest a more honorable man than thou be bidding of him. Anytime
our Lord walked in the room where those scribes and Pharisees were,
anytime he walked in a room where anybody was, Our Lord would be
worthy for them to all fall down on their face. I mean literally,
face hit the floor. Our Lord's worthy of that. You
remember before our Lord, when he was being led to the cross,
he said, whom seek you? And with just the word of his
power, he spoke, and those men fell back as dead men. That's
what our Lord's worthy of, all right? We don't deserve to be
in his presence. Verse nine, and he that bathe
thee and come to thee, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden
of him, and he that bathe thee and him come and say to thee,
give this man his place, and thou begin with shame to take
the lowest room. Again, how embarrassing would
that be if that literally happened to us? Get up, this seat belongs
to him. And then you shamefully cover
your face and you walk and you take your seat. Now here's what
jumped out at me with verse nine there. Give this man his place. Now again, we're talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about God Almighty.
This is a command, all right? Notice, he's not asking here,
would you get up now, let this man have his seat. Would you
pretty please give God the glory? No, get up. Give this man his
place. He has his place. Our Lord is
seated on his throne. and he always will be. No one's
gonna take his place. I mentioned many kings here.
There have been people that have ruled for many, many years, and
yet eventually they gave up their seat and it became someone else's.
Our Lord has his place and he will forever have his place.
Now, when I'm talking here, give him his place, I'm saying let's
give him the glory due to him. Turn here with me to Psalm 11.
Some good verses here, Psalm 11. And I can't help but as we look
at this, think about accounts like where our Lord would go
into the house and He stooped down and He washed His disciples'
feet. It's no wonder Peter said, no,
no, no, Lord, don't wash my feet. Now, obviously, our Lord was
declaring the gospel here saying, if I don't wash you, you can
have no part with me. Our Lord took our filth upon
Himself and He cleaned us in doing so. Took our sin, gave
us His righteousness. But our Lord He humbled himself
even to the death of the cross. He did that and he alone. Look
here at Psalm 11 verse 1, In the Lord put I my trust, how
say ye to my soul, flee a bird to your mountain? For lo, the
wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string
that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the
foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? If the
Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven, His
eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of man. The Lord
is in His holy temple, His throne is in heaven. Everything about
our Lord is worthy of honor and praise. Everything there's three
verses in the scripture that say give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name I Pray God might enable us to honestly Glory
in him. I love the song. It says praise
the Lord praise the Lord Let the earth hear his voice praise
the Lord praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice Oh come
to the Father through Jesus the Son and give him the glory great
things he hath done He hath done great, glorious things. We're back in our text. You know what? I just realized
I read the wrong verses to you. Turn with me to Psalm 111. We
all make typos every now and then. Psalm 111. Yeah, I'd like us to see this, Psalm
111. Says, praise ye the Lord, verse
one. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.
The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious. His righteousness endureth forever.
He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is
gracious and full of compassion. Everything about our Lord, brethren,
is honorable. Now turn back to our text in
Luke 14. If God ever truly reveals unto
us this man, this more honorable
man than us, If he ever truly reveals unto us the honor and
glory that is due unto him, we will do what the end of verse
nine says, begin with shame to take the lowest room. We will confess, acknowledge,
and confess ourselves to be, like Paul said, less than the
least of all saints. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? Who am I that you should think
upon me, do anything for me, let alone save my soul? We'll
take the lowest seat, and we'll ascribe all praise, honor, and
glory to him who loved us and gave himself for us. Verse 10,
but when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room,
that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, friend,
go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship
in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. Think
back for a second to this morning's message, all right? You consider,
you consider those who came to that man's supper, the maimed,
the haught, the blind, the poor. Do you think for one moment that
they cared where they sat at that feast, honestly? It's like,
who shall be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The king
of heaven. No one else. You think those people that came
to that man's dinner this morning, you think they felt worthy at
all? Or do you think they were just
tickled to death to be there? How do you suppose it's going
to be in heaven? Are we going to feel worthy to be there? We're
going to be thrilled just to be there. And we will gladly,
if there is a lowest seat there, I'm racing you to it. And I know
you will be too. We will gladly take the lowest
seat. And here's the seat. I'm convinced there's one seat
in heaven for all God's people, and that's at our Lord's feet.
That's where I want to be. His feet, beautiful, how beautiful
are the feet. Don't you love thinking about
his beautiful feet? You know, we think feet are disgusting, don't we?
Not his. Not his. Now this absolutely blesses my
heart. We read it, but about halfway through verse 10, what
does God say to his people whom he's called to his feast, whom
he's brought to his feast. What's he say to them? We take
the lowest seat. Here's what he says, middle of
verse 10. Friend, go up higher. Does that not make you rejoice?
One, that we'd be in God's presence in his kingdom with our Lord
at his feast. Two, that he would look at us
and say friend. We who were his enemies, enemies in our mind by wicked
works, wanted nothing to do with him, didn't desire his glory,
didn't desire his works, nothing about him. Crucify him, crucify
him. That's all we wanted with him
was to put an end to him. And yet, all of us who will be
there, he will look at us and say, friend, friend. Oh my soul, go up higher. You know, if we're with him,
he has brought us up higher. I've been in an airplane several
times. I know you've been in an airplane
many times. And I love being in an airplane. I feel like I'm
so, I'm just high above the world. That's what it feels like. And
I look down at those clouds, look down at the clouds. Doesn't
that sound strange? But you know what I'm talking about. It's
just a wonderful feeling. It's surreal. I feel like I've
left the world. And our Lord said that's the
dust of his feet. We read it this morning. That's
just the dust of his feet. How great, how high is our Lord? We can't fathom it. And yet he's
gonna look at us and say, friend, go up higher. Come up higher
with me. When he comes back, the trump
shall sound and we'll rise and meet our Lord in the air, forever
be with our Lord. We're gonna go up higher. How
high? I don't know. However high heaven
is. I know this, there's no higher
place. Those clouds are nothing to him. Verse 10, but when thou art bidden,
go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade
thee cometh, he may say unto thee, friend, go up higher. Then
shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at
meet with thee. You know, all those in heaven,
all those at the great marriage supper of the Lamb, gladly and
joyfully take their place at His feet, worshiping Him. Honestly, is that what you want?
You just prayed for the sick among this congregation. I've been acquainted with this
congregation for years now, and I've known of many here, many
dear, faithful brethren here who were here, who are no longer
here. They've gone up higher. We want them to be right here
with us, don't we? We do. I do. But we're all pressing
toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus, aren't we? Oh, we're just begging for him
to take us up higher. Lord, bring us to yourself. Bring
us to your feet and your feast. Verse 11, for whosoever exalteth
himself, here's the lesson, whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased,
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. There's just
one worthy to be exalted. There's just one man more honorable
than thou, the God-man. Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. By nature, all of us foolishly
exalt ourselves, walk in the room and expect people to come
up to us and start talking to us, take our coat, whatever,
you name it. We're so foolish by nature. And
worse than that, we think that we deserve anything from God
other than wrath and judgment. Think that God owes us something.
Think that we deserve God's goodness and his mercies? But God in mercy puts people
in their place. He puts his people in their place.
He causes us to give this man his place. Give him all praise
and glory. The Lord causes us, like that
poor publican in Luke 18, to beat upon our chest and cry,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Our Lord said the same thing
in that account. Everyone that exalts himself shall be abased.
He that humbles himself shall be exalted. God humbles his people. You know, if we're going to be
sitting there in someone else's seat and we're told, get up, that's
humbling, isn't it? That's what God does for us.
Lays us low. That's what he did for Saul of
Tarsus. He was on his high horse, wasn't
he? And then he was face first in the dirt, blind. but God does
for his people. That's mercy if God does that
to us. It's mercy. It's mercy when God reveals to
us we've lived in darkness every day of our life until we see
Christ the light. May we honestly cry like John
the Baptist. He must increase, but I must decrease. Not let's
be increased together. No, take our place. Let's take
our place and give him his. God resists the proud and gives
grace to the humble. You know, we're told to be clothed
with humility. I pray God would do that for
us. Clothed us with humility. Verse
12, then said he also to him that bade him, when thou makest
a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren,
neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors. lest they also bid
thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest
a feast, call the poor, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be
blessed, for they cannot recompense thee. For thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just. This is whom God called to his
supper. We saw it this morning. This is what we are spiritually
by the grace of God. We confess ourselves to be nothing.
We confess we can do nothing. We need Christ to do it for us.
We need Christ to be our all in all. God has taught us of
our spiritual poverty and our utter dependence on him. It's
been revealed to us that, you know, we sing a song, cursed
by the law and bruised by the fall. It's a good song, but we
weren't just bruised by the fall. We were maimed, crippled. We're maimed, we're hauled. Crippled
by the fall. No ability whatsoever, whatsoever. Can't walk spiritually, how are
we gonna walk? Blind, we understand that's what
we are by nature, don't we? Blind, absolutely blind to God,
the things of God, blind to Christ and his glory, but we acknowledge
now, as a result of what God has done for us and in us, We
confess that God has opened our eyes, not just these eyes. These
eyes can be blind and we can know Christ. God has opened our
sinful eyes and given us faith to behold the Lamb of God, behold
the man. You know, we're talking about
the man. I thought of this on my drive over here tonight when Nathan
told David, thou art the man. It wasn't a good thing. You know,
we want to be the man, don't we? Men love to brag about, I'm a
man. We want to be somebody. When
Nathan told David, thou art the man, he was saying, David, you're
the sinner. You're the sinner. That's what
he said. But you remember when, I think
it was Pilate said, behold, the man? It's a very different meaning
here. Pray God would enable us to behold
the man, the more honorable man. The Lord Jesus Christ, if God
has saved us, if God has given us faith, he's given us faith
to behold him. He's given us faith to behold
the more honorable man, the Lamb of God. I pray God would cause
us to never lose sight of who and what we are, not what we
once were. I really want to stress that.
I like country music. I ain't as good as I once was,
but I'm as good once as I ever was. I like the song. Ridiculous song, right? I'm just
as sinful, perhaps be better worded. I'm more sinful now than
I ever was. We know more of our sin now than
we ever did, don't we? This heart's just as corrupt
now as it ever was. But God has graced us to see
that. God has blessed us to know that.
And God has enabled us to look away from ourselves and to him
for all our hope. being saved from what we are.
Now I love this, the verses we just read, verse 12 to 14, what
he's saying here is don't invite these people that can return
the favor. You invite these people that
all they can do is say thank you. What can we offer to God? One word. Thanks. That's all
we can offer to Him. All we can give to Him is praise
to His great name for the great things He hath done for us. God didn't save those who can
turn around and do something for Him. No. No, because what
is man going to do for his Creator? Honestly. It's a rhetorical question. And what are we going to do for
Him who made us? And all we can do for Him who saved us. is simply
praise him. And that's what we're gonna do
forever and ever. At this great supper, we're just gonna praise
his name. Oh, this is so good. You're such a good God, such
a kind Savior. It's never gonna stop. Verse 15. And when one of them
that sat at me with him heard these things, he said unto him,
blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
I don't know if our Lord did something for this man or not.
I don't think about physically sitting in God's kingdom eating
bread. Maybe that's what he thought. I don't know. Or maybe the Lord
spoke to him. I don't know. Christ is the bread. He told
us that in John 6. He's the bread of heaven. The
bread come down from heaven. We just want to be with him,
don't we? Blessed are we if we find ourselves in the kingdom
of God, in his presence. Blessed forever, blessed indeed.
I want to close this message. I want to read the words of a
song. Gabe read us this Wednesday.
If you don't know, he's in deep correspondence with a brother,
Willie, I think it's Mapote, in Malawi, Africa. And we've
begun supporting the work there. And I've messaged with Willie
some, and dear brother, They sing this song, and Gabe said
they sang it the other day when Gabe was preaching to them on
the phone. I never heard it, and maybe some of you have heard
it. This is just part of the song, but I thought it went well to
read some words of this after looking at this account today.
It says, no preparation can I make. My best resolves I only break. Yet save me for thy mercy's sake,
and take me as I am. Behold me, Savior, at thy feet. Deal with me as thou seest meet.
Thy work begin, thy work complete. But take me as I am. Oh, take
me as I am. Oh, take me as I am. My only
plea, Christ died for me. Oh, take me as I am. That song
gives him the praise, doesn't it? I like songs that give him
the praise. All right, let's pray. Oh, great God and Father, we
thank you once again for allowing us to gather in this house of
worship, to call upon your name, to see Christ in the scriptures,
and to exalt his glorious holy name. Thank you, dear Lord, for
this awesome privilege of worshiping you. We know that we can do nothing. We're weak, frail sinners. And
that's all we'll ever be in this flesh, Lord, but you have done
something for us that something unspeakable, and we just want
to come here week after week and praise you for it. We just
want to exalt you. We desire to be with you. Like
our brother, I likewise pray for the sick among this congregation.
Lord, I know sickness has been here with many of your saints
for a long time, and I pray that you would be with each one. I
know it's not easy. But Lord, give them the grace
that they need. When the time comes, give us all the grace
we need to simply look to you alone and not look anywhere else.
Bless these words to our hearts. Bless your word to our heart.
Cause us to believe it. Cause us to bow to Christ our
Savior. Forgive us of all our sin. Save us by your grace. Never let us take our eyes off
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to always look to him
and him alone. It's in his precious name that we pray. Amen. Thank you, brother. Thank you
for being with us today. And thank you for those messages.
I was there when he sang that Wednesday night, when Gabe sang
that song. And that was a blessing. And hopefully, since I heard
it, I was able to record it. I want to try to learn it so
we can learn it, start singing it, so we can share in that song. But let's stand together and
sing hymn number 51. You'll be dismissed at the end of the song.
You're free to go. Number 51. Praise the Savior. Gladly let us render to Him all
we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us, He for conflict fits and arms us, Nothing moves and nothing
harms us, While we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye saints, Sure, sure, God can sever those
he loves from you. Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us cleaving
to the self that's still believing till the hour by receiving promised
joys with thee. Then we shall be where we would
be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not well or could
be soon shall be. The Lord be with you and have
a good week.