Good morning. Good to be back
with you all. If you will turn with me for
our text to Psalm 14. Psalm 14. After our brother read that,
I felt burdened to say this. One of the verses he read said,
how can a man preach except he be sent? And that's a verse that
sticks with me a lot. Most of you know I grew up in
Danville under Don Fortner. And the first time he asked me
to speak, I was scared out of my mind, as you can imagine.
And I went with it anyway, and it was rough. And then he asked me again a
few months later, and in Don Fortner fashion, he gave me two
days to prepare and told me the text. And I, again, was terrified
out of my mind. And I prepared an outline pretty
quickly, which I was not keen to do. And then I called him
the next day and said, Don, I read this verse, how can a man preach
except he be sent? And I said, I don't feel sent.
And he said, OK, buddy, that's all right. Lo and behold, here I stand.
And I say all that to say this. Preaching is not to be taken
lightly. There are so many people my age, younger, I'm almost 30,
older, itching to get up here. I don't want to be one arrogantly
itching to get up here. And we're going to see that with
the text that we look at here today. And I was just reading,
I read this a lot before I stand up to speak and Jeremiah 1, Jeremiah,
the Lord, the word of the Lord came to him and he told him to
go speak. And he said, Lord, I can't speak. I'm a child. The Lord said, don't say I'm
a child. He said, you're going to go where
I command you. You're going to speak what I command you. He
said, I've put my word in your mouth. He said, I will hasten
my word to perform it. Sounds like what he said in Isaiah
55, doesn't it? My word shall not return unto
me void. God has his people. He has his messengers, and he's
given them his word, and he sends them with his word. And I pray
that's what he's going to do today. I do. There's nothing
special about me. There's nothing special about
you. But there's something special about him. We have a special
God and a special Savior, and I pray, as our brother just prayed,
that He'll enable us to worship Him. Now look with me here at
Psalm 14, verse 1. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. There are some people who actually
claim to believe that there is no God. We call them atheists. God calls
them fools. No God. Can you imagine? Honestly,
can you even entertain such a thought? Who made this earth which we're
living in? You ever think about that? These
are basic questions. You wake up, you ever just think,
who made this? You step outside, you look. I
live in beautiful mountains. You live in the Cumberland Plateau.
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Who made
it? Well, I don't know. Oh, no. We know who made it,
don't we? In the beginning, He created the heaven and the
earth. How much is out there? You know, people talk about space,
and lately we've seen videos of people going to space and
coming back down, and they show us a little bit, but there's
so much out there we don't know about. Who made it? Well, it
just... God made it. Let me ask you this. Who created man? Who made you
say, well, My parents? Let me read you a scripture. Genesis 2-7. The Lord God formed
man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life. And man became a living soul. Is that hard to understand? Is
that not stamped on your very conscience, the fact that God
spoke everything, including you and me, into existence? Let me
show you this beautiful verse in Psalm 139 verse 14. Turn with
me. Psalm 139. Psalm 139, again, this is David
writing, by the inspiration of God, he said, I will praise thee,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works,
and that my soul knoweth right well. Who made you, David? You
did, Lord. Fearfully and wonderfully, you
made me, and it's a marvelous work, and that my soul knoweth
right well. We don't have to wonder, do we?
We don't have any doubt about it, do we? Men may try to suppress the fact,
and it's a fact, that God is. And many people try to suppress
that very fact, but it's evident. It's obvious. I love what Paul
told us in Romans 1, you don't have to turn, but he said in
Romans 1, verse 20, that the invisible things of him, of God,
from the creation of the world are clearly seen. being understood
by the things that are made. This creation knows who made
it. In fact, when Christ returns, this creation is going to clap
its hands. It's going to shout his praises when he descends
from the clouds to bring us up to be with him. This creation
knows who it belongs to. Say man's going to destroy it.
God's going to destroy it when he's pleased to. The invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." What he's
saying is, we're without excuse to claim such a foolish thing
as there is no God. Only a fool would claim to believe
such a thing. Now look back in our text, Psalm
14. I'm sure this isn't news to most
of you, but notice, the fool hath said in his heart, there
is no God. The words there is are in italics,
means it was added by the translators for a more smooth reading. Let's
read it without it. The fool hath said in his heart,
no God. No God. This verse and this psalm
is about submission to authority. Know God. That's what the fool has said
in his heart. Now, the atheist denies a superior
being, but did you know that no carnal
and fleshly man wants to submit to a sovereign almighty God.
You know that's not in our nature to want to bow to one greater
than us. It's not just atheists. It's
all of us. Every single one of us. We're
all fools who naturally cry, I will not have this man to reign
over me. You know, at the cross we read,
these are the words that were spoken, by sinful men who crucified
the Lord of glory, and we better see ourselves in them. Here's
what they said. Pilate offered to release Him. Is that what
we wanted? No. We cried, with all our might,
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, here's what we cried, away with
this man. We don't want Him. Crucify Him. Crucify Him. We naturally have no desire for
God. None. Absolutely none. Our great concern from the moment
we're born to the day we die and our best interest is me. Me. Me. Me. Mine, mine, mine. I see it in
myself. I have a child. I see it with
my child. Just this morning, I asked to hold something. She
was holding. No. Soon I'm going to hear, mine.
That's us, brethren. It's not just the kids. That's
us from our youth. We've not gotten any better.
We care about ourselves. And the atheist may say things
like, I'm the captain of my own soul. I'm the master of my own
destiny. You and I are no different. No different whatsoever. We don't want to believe there's
one greater than us. We naturally think we are the greatest thing
since sliced bread, or whatever you want to say. I like what Job said in Job 33,
12. He said, God is greater than man. I didn't know that verse
was in the scriptures until yesterday. God is greater, but I knew God's
greater than man. Oh, by God's grace, we know that,
don't we? No, we don't naturally believe it. We don't want to
believe such a thing. You know, people believe that
God is like us. He may be greater than
us, but not by much. Man truly believes that we're
pretty much his equal. Do you know that? If salvation
is just as much dependent on me as it is on God, well, then
I'm equal to God. You know, Christ thought it not
robbery to be equal with God because he is God. We're not. We're not. God is not like us. Here's all you need to know.
He's holy, we're sinful. Our brother just said, that which
I would, I do not. That I would not, that's exactly
what I do. It's no wonder Paul went on to say, oh wretched man
that I am, I need to be delivered from this body of death. We're
born into this world dead in sin. Without Christ, the Savior,
without God, the Creator, the King, no hope in this world. That's how we come into this
world. I pray it's not how we leave this world. I pray it's
not. Look at verse 1 with me again.
The fool hath said in his heart, no God, they are corrupt. The word corrupt here means ruined.
We read in Genesis that God created man in his image. God's image,
that's perfect, upright. What'd man do? he ruined it. Ruined himself. Corrupted himself. How'd he do it? He ate a piece
of fruit. What's so bad about that? You
know, if you ever think about that, what plunged the human
race into death and damnation? He ate a piece of fruit. Didn't kill anybody. He ate a piece of fruit. You
know what's so bad about that? God said not to. He said, Adam, I've given you
this whole garden. You can eat any fruit in this garden except
the fruit on that tree. Adam ate the fruit on that tree.
He disobeyed God. You know what Adam was saying
when he did that? No, God. That's exactly right. That's exactly what he was saying.
And as a result of what he did, you and I are born into this
world with a corrupt, ruined, sin nature. You wonder why we
sin? You wonder why we can't stand
ourselves? Because sin is all we know how
to do. It's all we're accustomed to. How can you do good that
are accustomed to doing evil? Can't. We can't. We can't change
what we are. We can't. We don't have the ability. Sin is what we are. Sin is what
we do. Look at verse 1 again. Again,
this isn't talking about the atheist. This is talking about the atheist
and the religious person alike. You know, many are going to approach
the Lord in that day saying, Lord, Lord, we've done many wonderful
works in your name. Are they going to be accepted? Look at it for yourself in Matthew
7, 23 sometime. He's going to say, depart from
me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Never knew
you. Our works and the drunk on the
streets works are no different in God's sight. You say, well,
no, that just can't be, I'm different. Turn with me, I'm sorry, Genesis
chapter six. Genesis chapter six. This is God's word and it's very
strong and it's very sure. Genesis six, verse five. And I'll go ahead and tell you
what God saw then is what God sees now. Genesis 6 verse 5,
this was in Noah's day. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. My margin says every day. Every
day. Look down at verse 12. And God
looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. for all flesh
had corrupted his way upon the earth." Every man, every thought, every
imagination, every heart, all flesh, God says, is corrupt. Every single one. And evil continually. Does that leave any room for
exceptions? Does that sound settled and sure to you? It's absolute. Well, God forbid we approach
Him on the basis of our works. God forbid we stand before Him
in that day pleading something that we've done, because according
to God's Word, what we do is sin, sin, and more sin. I believe it's Psalm 5 verse
5 says, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. We're reading
about fools, ain't we? For thou hatest all workers of
iniquity. It's God's Word. You know, we think people do
good things, don't we? They're good to us. I could tell
you a lot of things people have done, probably a lot of you in
this room. Things that I admire, things that I believe are truly
good works. Let me read you what Christ said.
He said, that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination
in the sight of God. Whatever it is. You and I, in
this flesh, cannot please God. It's in Romans. They that are
in the flesh cannot please God. Paul said, I know that in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Not a single one. We need to understand this. We're
not going to please God by our works. We need to establish that
fact. Isaiah put it this way. He said,
all our righteousnesses, all our best works, things that we
think are good and impressive, are filthy rags. Filthy rags. They just fade with the wind. Back in our text. The fool hath said in his heart,
no God, they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there
is none that doeth good. You let that sink in for a minute.
There is none that doeth good. I hear it said a lot that people
are good people. I've probably told you before
and if I'm here again, I'll tell you again. The guy you're looking
at up here is not a good person. I'm not a good person. And according
to God's word, neither are you. You remember that rich young
ruler, he came to the Lord, he didn't know the Lord, but he
called him good and he said, why callest thou me good? There's
none good but one. That's God. He didn't know he
was talking to God. That's why the Lord asked him
that question. There's none good but one, and
that's God. Look here, verse 2. The Lord
looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there were any that did understand and seek God. What did he see? Verse three, they are all gone
aside. They are all together become
filthy, means stinking. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. We read what God saw when he
looked down in Noah's day. We just read what God saw when
he looked down in David's day. I mentioned it a minute ago.
He still sees the same thing today. Nothing's changed. There's
none that understands. Everybody thinks they understand.
May the Lord allow us to enter into this. Most people, and this
would be me, but for the grace of God and you too, most people
think they understand God. Most people think they've got
God figured out. They've got a good thing going. They're as
sure of heaven as if they're already there. That's what is
commonly believed. You understand that? You know
that. He said, there is none that understands. We understand a lot, don't we?
I understand accounting a little bit. I'm an accountant. You understand
nursing, bookkeeping, all these things,
construction. We understand a lot, but we don't understand the things
of God. We don't. Nobody does. He looked
to see if anybody's seeking God. What did he find? Not a single
one. Everybody thinks they're seeking God. They've sought out
God. They found Him. I found God. I've heard it in
songs. I found God today, I think. I
saw God today or something. It's foolishness. That is rubbish. That's what God says. He said,
this is what the fool says. No God. You know, atheism's not different. It's not much different than
false religion. All it comes down to is we worship ourselves.
That's all it comes down to. They're one and the same. They bring God down to our level,
put us up on God's level, if not above it. God is God. We're not. There's none that
seek God. There's none that understand
God. None at all. We've all gone aside. We've all departed from
God. Our sins separated us from God. We've all together, you
know, all of us on our own and all of us together, collectively.
Filthy. You put us all, you know, landfill's
a good picture of us, ain't it? That's where my trash goes, that's
where yours goes. You know where all our works ought to go? Into
the landfill. Rubbish. You know, it's telling
that we wake up and put deodorant on it. If we stink before one
another, how you think we smell in God's sight? Filthy. God doesn't see things
the way we do. You know, we see good men and
women. God doesn't. We see religious people working
the works of God, don't we? We think we do. People think
they do. That's not what God sees. God
doesn't see any of that. And here's what we need to understand.
The way God sees things is the way they really are. God's vision
isn't altered by sin like ours. He sees through the farce of
religion. He sees through everything. He sees through you and me. There's
not a word in our heart or in our mouth that the Lord doesn't
know altogether. He knows everything. He sees it all. He searches the
heart. He tries the reins. He knows everything. Remember that. God sees everything. Look at verse 4. Went on to say,
have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people
as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord? Do you know that
even the most religious son of Adam has no spiritual knowledge
on his own? None. I thought of the apostle
Paul. I'm glad our brother read what
he did. Paul was, he was, he was more religious than anybody.
A lot of people think the rich young ruler might have been Paul.
Might have been. If not, Paul was just like him. Thought he'd
kept every law of God from his youth up. The Lord asked him,
why you call me good? He thought he was good. He was
teaching him, there's none good but one, that's God. Paul, he
was a Pharisee. You read Philippians chapter
3 sometime. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. A Hebrew of
the Hebrews. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of the
tribe of Benjamin. He was working for God, living
for God. And what we read about him when
the Lord came to him and the Lord saved him. Paul was on his
way to persecute God's people. He had papers. Men said, what
you want to do, that's all right with me. And he was off to kill
God's people. And then God stopped him in his
tracks. Paul was a religious leader.
People trusted him. How many people trust these preachers
of our day? So-called preachers. Preachers that haven't been sent.
They've run, but God said, I didn't send them. They're preaching
the message, but it ain't my message. It ain't, but they don't
have my word. Though Paul was a religious man,
he had not called upon the Lord. That's what our brother emphasized
when he read, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Paul hadn't. You know when Paul
called upon the name of the Lord was when the Lord knocked him
off his horse, laid him in the dust, blinded him, he spoke to
him, he said, who art thou, Lord? He said, it's Jesus whom thou
persecutest. That's who I am. See, he was
persecuting God's people, but in doing so, he was persecuting
God himself. You've done this unto my brethren, you've done
it to me. He said, Lord, what would you have me to do? He couldn't see. You know, everybody
thinks they see. We need to be blind. We need
to understand we're blind. We can't see. It's okay to be
lost, because until you're lost, you won't be found. I pray God
will get somebody lost, that He might cause them to be found,
found of Him. Found of Him whom they sought
not. The Lord sent Ananias, one of His preachers, to Paul. That
man, can you imagine how terrified he must have been? God sends
him to this man Saul of Tarsus who was on his way to kill God's
people. And he said, you go to him. And he was scared. And the Lord told him, he said,
it's OK. He's a chosen vessel unto me.
You go. What? That's right. Again, that's what we just read
in Romans chapter 9. God chose some vessels of mercy
which He aforeprepared unto glory. For His glory. God chose to save
a people. Look at it here in verse 4. He
said, who eat up My people. Persecute His people. God has
a people. And we read over these things,
but that's what He's saying. We already know we're all fools.
We're all doomed for hell. And He said, I have a people.
My people. chose to save a people out of
Adam's fallen race, chose to save them in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in Him, robed in His righteousness, covered by His precious spotless
blood." And here's the thing we read right there about all
of God's people. They will call upon the Lord. That's going to
be the evidence that they're saved, as we just said. They're
going to call upon the name of the Lord. They shall be saved.
We're not saved because we call. We're saved because He aforeprepared
us unto glory. He aforeprepared to save us.
Sent Christ to redeem us. But when we call on Him, that's
the evidence that He's spoken to us, just like He did to Solitarsus
Paul. Did He call upon Him until the
Lord called Him? No. When the Lord called Him,
when the Lord came to Him, then He called. That's how it works. Praise God He has a people, and
He's going to save every one of them. Here in our text, verse
5 says, There were they in great fear, for God is in the generation
of the righteous. My margin says they feared a
fear. Talking about the fools. Psalm 53 is a parallel psalm
to this psalm. Same psalm. And that psalm words it, They
feared a fear where no fear was. Pretty good description of us,
ain't it? By nature, we're fools who fear
everything under the sun, except God who made the sun. Afraid
of everything. Right now, this world is afraid
of everything, ain't it? Afraid of everything. My flesh is no
different. There's things I'm afraid of. Fear everything. Let me tell you something. We
need to fear God. And it's not the same fear of
being afraid. It's a fear of reverence. It's a fear of worship
and praise and bowing. God says we're fools. We need
to fear Him. You know how we'll have wisdom?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I pray God would put
His fear in us. If He does, we're not gonna be
a fool anymore. We'll be wise in Christ. We need
to bow to Him and worship Him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
as our Savior and King, as our Almighty God. You know, He's
the one we've sinned against. That's what He told Paul. I'm
the one you persecuted. I'm the one you're sinning against,
Paul. He is the righteous judge. He's in the generation of the
righteous. His people are righteous in Him. And He's our righteous
judge. He's the one we've sinned against.
We're going to stand before Him. Pray God will cause us to fear
Him and believe on Him. I pray that we'll find Him to
be our just God and our Savior. I don't want Him just to be my
judge, I need Him to be my Savior. I need Him to be my Savior. Verse
6, You have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord
is his refuge. Now I want to make a distinction
right here amongst all these fools. We see that we're all
fools by nature. By anything we do, we're just
fools. One fool smarter than another
fool, if you will. You know, people think they're
so smart. Just a bunch of fools. It's like comparing dumb with
dumb, fool with fool. Abomination in God's sight. Now,
some of these fools are God's people. Some of these fools,
God's chosen to save for His glory. So you have the lost fool,
and you have the saved fool. The lost fool does what verse
6 just said, shame the counsel of the poor. Shame the counsel of the poor. Makes fun of, mocks, laughs at.
Poor means lowly, needy. You know what a saved fool knows
him or herself to be? Poor, lowly, needy. God ever speaks to us, we'll
know ourselves to be just that. Nothing more. And the thing is,
that saved fool, he has a refuge. That lost fool, he's just lost,
doesn't know he's poor, thinks he's rich, thinks he's good.
When God says he's not, God says we have nothing. God says we
are nothing. Less than nothing vanity. That poor man who knows
he's poor, that fool that knows he's a fool, knows that there's
no reason God should look upon him and have anything to do with
him, That poor man or woman has a refuge. Refuge from what? Refuge
from their own foolishness. Refuge from their own sinfulness
and shame. You know what refuge here means? Hope. They've shamed
the counsel of the poor. The Lord is their hope. Oh, praise
God for hope. We read in the Beatitudes, blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Salvation's
for the poor. This message that I'm bringing
is for the poor. God's word is for the poor. Ho,
everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the water. You that have
no money, come by and eat. You know, it's said a lot, I
hear this a lot, that we love everything to be free, except
when it comes to salvation. Here's what we need to be spiritually. Poor, bankrupt, hungry, thirsty,
without, needy, persecuted. God saves sinners. You know that. Good people don't go to heaven.
Righteous people do. And those righteous people have
no good in and of themselves. Do you need God to save you? Naturally, our cry is, no God.
No God for me. No thanks. I'm fine on my own.
No God, no problems. There's people who say that.
And again, the religious world is no different. I'm my own God.
Got a good thing going. I'm alright. Do you need God
to save you? I mean God. who's seated on His
throne. God, everybody's scared of this
coronavirus. God who's controlling this coronavirus. Do you need
Him to save you? Well, why is it still here? Why isn't it gone
yet? Because He hasn't taken it away. You know what He has
taken away? The sin of His people. Well,
then all right. That's all right with me. You know, when Christ
prayed to the Father in John 17, He didn't pray to take them
out of the world. He prayed to keep them from the
evil in the world. That's my prayer too, and he will. We're
here in this world, but at his appointed time, he's taking us
out of this world. This world ain't gonna hurt us. I can go
out these doors and be blindsided today and hit and killed in a
car wreck. Did that hurt me eternally? No, that's just God's means of
taking me home. That was God's way of making
me whole. You understand that? Do you need the Lord Jesus Christ?
to be your refuge. You need a hiding place. You
need a covering for your sin. You need a cleft of the rock,
a place to go. I pray we do. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4,
he said, we're fools for Christ's sake. I love that. Fools for
Christ's sake. This world thinks we're fools,
don't they? Oh, I'd love to be a fool for His sake. I'd love
to be a fool who believes on Him. Wouldn't you? Verse 7, O that the salvation
of Israel were come out of Zion, when the Lord bringeth back the
captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall
be glad. I want to show you a couple of
passages real quick and I'll be done. Turn with me to Romans
chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. Romans 11, 25. For I would not,
brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest
you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part
is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written,
there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto
them when I shall take away their sins. Oh, that the salvation
of Israel would come out of Zion. He's come. He has come. God made a covenant with himself,
a covenant of grace to save his people from their sins all by
himself. Christ came out of Zion to deliver us from our sins,
and He delivered us from our sins. He put them all away, took
them all away. And as a result, we just read
it, all Israel shall be saved. You know who Israel is, don't
you? That was Jacob. In our text it says, Jacob shall rejoice,
and Israel shall be glad. That's the chosen people of God,
that's God's elect. My prayer to God for Israel is
that they might be saved, and they shall be. All of them. Every
single one of them. Every single one who God chose
to save shall be saved. Those who cried, no God, saved
from their sinful rebellion against Him. Aren't you thankful? I want to show you one more text.
Turn to Zephaniah. It's one of the last books of
the Old Testament. It's a small book. Zephaniah chapter 3. If your Bible is like mine, page
1166. Zephaniah 3 verse 14. Sing, O daughter of Zion. Shout,
O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all
the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy
judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy.
The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee.
Thou shalt not see evil anymore. Is that good news to you? You remember those children of
Israel when they thought this is it. They came to that Red Sea and
they thought it was over. This is it. We're goners. Moses told them, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord, which He shall show to
you today. He said, the Egyptians whom you
see today, they turned around, they saw Him. They saw Him breathing
down their necks. They were coming fast. He said,
you shall see them again no more forever. That's a picture of
our sin. By God's grace, we see it today, don't we? I pray we
do see it, a glimpse of it. We need to see it. We need to
know what we are. But we need to also see Christ and see how
He's put our sin away by the sacrifice of Himself. and that
they're all taken away. And that day God's gonna look
for the sin of Israel and Judah and He ain't gonna see it. Because
Christ took it away. Put it away forever. I look back
in our text, we'll close with verse 7 again. Psalm 14 verse
7 says, Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion.
When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob
shall rejoice. and Israel shall be glad. I'll
leave you with this. It's an exhortation. Rejoice
and be glad. Have every reason to be, don't
we? That God would save a fool like me? Oh, praise his holy name. The
fool has said in his heart, no God. But praise God, salvation
has come out of Zion. The Lord hath taken away all
our judgments, hath put away all our sin. God would not take
no for an answer from his people. Praise the Lord. I'm so glad.
Praise the Lord. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious
Heavenly Father, how we thank you for your goodness to us.
We're so undeserving. Lord, every time we gather, every
time we look into your word, we see a little bit more just
how unworthy we are. And yet we see at the same time
just how worthy the Lord Jesus Christ is. And I pray that we
might truly find ourselves hoping in Him. By Your grace that You
would speak to us, that You would pierce our hearts with Your Word.
Don't let it be cold doctrine. Don't let it go in one ear and
out the other, Lord. Don't let it just enter our brain, but
may it enter our hearts. Would you cause us to truly look
to Christ, look to Him and see everything that is anything,
to see our all in all, be clothed in Him, robed in His perfect
righteousness, washed in His spotless sin-cleansing blood?
Thank you for sending Him to deliver us. Thank you for saving
a bunch of unworthy, ignorant fools like us. Please have mercy
on us and our children. Please save your people. Call
us out. Cause us to dwell on your word. Don't let these things
slip, Lord. Cause them to ever be near and
dear to our heart. Bless us and keep us. For Christ's sake, amen.