Paul is making some statements
as he went through Romans 9, dealing with God's character. Men are always calling God's
character into question. They don't like the way God does
in his own world with people. And he's being called into question
because of his electing grace. He says, for the children not
being yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. It was said unto
the elder, that the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And people say,
that's not right. That's not fair. Well, Paul says,
what shall we say then? First thing people say, that's
not right. It's not fair. Is there unrighteousness with
God? And he shows us, beginning to show that all Israel is not
Israel. Now there's a lot of people in
this world that believe Israel will be saved. That God will
go back and save the whole nation of Israel and go back over there
and set up His throne. And Paul settles that issue once
and for all here in Romans 9. He says, not all Israel is Israel. Ain't that what he says in verse
6? Not as though the word of God has taken none effect. Is
there any of God's people not going to be saved? Well, no,
God's word has taken effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. Everybody in the Jewish nation
is not an Israelite indeed. Our Lord told Nathanael he was
an Israelite indeed. He says, this is the daughter
of Abraham when he healed one woman. And every woman in Israel
at that time was a daughter of Abraham, but not all of them
were Israel after the seed of promise. And so he says that
is they which are the children of the flesh. Who's the children
of flesh? From Ishmael. Children that born of the flesh,
live after the flesh, glory in the flesh, trust in the flesh.
These are not the children of God. Anybody that trusts in the
flesh and believes in the flesh and works by the flesh. They're
not the children of God and He says but the children of promise
are counted for the seed what children of promise God made
a promise to Abraham He said in thy seed Shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed and And he says, and this is the word
of promise. And it was a promise God made.
It had nothing to do with the flesh. God made a promise to
Abraham. You're going to have a son. And
through that son is going to be the salvation, the Savior,
the Messiah of this world. And that was the promise. And
this, you'll have a son. And not only was Isaac born,
and he was born of promise, When Isaac married Rebekah, remember
how they went down and got her and brought her back and she
said, oh yes, I'll come. And so when she had conceived
by our father Isaac, had two children. Twins. And they hadn't even been
yet born. They hadn't done anything at
all. They hadn't done anything good,
hadn't done anything evil. But God had a purpose. God had
a purpose and that purpose was according to election and that
election is going to stand and God's purpose is going to stand.
Ain't that what it says? That not of works, that there's no
works going to enter into this business because nobody's done
any good or evil. But of him that calleth, it was
said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. That's backwards
to the way God does things. Jacob have a loved now. This
is what God said about him before they were ever born Jacob have
a love but he saw have a hated So naturally folks jump up and
say oh, listen, that ain't that ain't fair God's unrighteous. That's it. God God That's not
the way God supposed to do things Is there unrighteousness with
God Paul says God forbid I? And Paul is teaching us here,
the apostles teaching us from the scriptures that no matter
what nation you're from, whether you're from the nation of Israel
or whether you're from China, whether you're Mexican or whether
you're a heathen from America, that has nothing to do with it.
And what physical descent, what parents you come from has nothing
to do with it. And personal merit, anything
you do has nothing to do with having done neither good or evil.
Has absolutely nothing to do with a person's salvation. Absolutely
nothing. And if God does anything for
a soul and the blessing comes upon a soul from God Almighty,
it's by the grace of God. It's because God has a purpose
according to election. And that purpose of election
is going to stand And those beloved will never ever call God into
question about it. Grace is solely by the will of
God. It's not arbitrary, it's not
capricious. No, no. Jacob have I loved, Esau
have I hated. And all people say, well what
that really means is Jacob have I loved, Esau have I loved less. Well, that's not what it says.
Now you keep this and you turn to Malachi. Malachi chapter 1.
That's the last book in the Old Testament. You go to the book
of Matthew and then you go to Malachi. Malachi is the last
book in the Old Testament. And you turn to verse chapter
1. Let me show you what it says. Oh, that's what they wanted to
say, you see. They wanted to say Jacob have
a love, Esau have a love less. But when God says He hates them,
He said He hates the workers of iniquity. Seven things I hate,
yea, seven. Six things I hate, yea, seven
are abomination. The first thing in that list
is a proud look. A proud look. He that sought
discord among the brethren. He that has an unjust balance.
God has six things he hates. Seven are abomination. He hates
the workers of iniquity. He's angry with the wicked every
day. Those are things that you won't find the average preacher
don't even know they're in the Bible. And they certainly don't
want to read Romans chapter 9 because if they do, they don't know what
to do with it. They don't know what to say about
it. But when God says something, He means what He says. Billy
Graham wrote a whole book on how to be born again and God
just said you must be born again. He didn't take you out. He just
said you must. Must is a mystery. God could
be giving somebody life right now and I'd never have a clue.
Ain't that right? God could be working in a man's
heart. I wouldn't know it. And look what he says now here
about this business of what Malachi chapter 1 verse 1, the burden
of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you,
saith the Lord, yet you say, when hast thou loved us? Was
not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob,
and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste
for the dragons of wilderness." They wanted to brag about God's
love for them, but God says, now wait a minute. How do you
know I love you? I love Jacob, and I hated Esau,
and to prove it, I destroyed everything about him. Huh? And I know this something, I
know this, knowing some things of God's holiness and man's sinfulness,
I can understand, I can really, really understand, from the depth
of my soul, I can understand this, that God can hate both
Jacob and Esau. I really, really can understand
that. I can understand that God, if He willed, could have just
passed me by and left me alone. And it has still been God. Still
been God. But God acted in justice towards
Esau and in mercy towards Jacob. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will, and
I will harden whom I will. That's what God said. And at
once, whenever people are questioned about this, they raise a question,
they raise an objection against God's character, against God's
righteousness. And oh beloved, that's not And
I don't know how many times I've heard that say, My God's not
like that. And they're exactly right. Their God ain't. My God wouldn't treat people
that way. You're exactly right. Their God wouldn't. But the God
of the Bible does what He wants to do, when He wants to do it,
and for whom He wants to do it. And I'm grateful that He's that
way. And let me tell you something. Let me just go through these
verses a little. Let's start at verse 14. And what shall we say then after
all these things about Israel, about election, about the promise,
about love and hate? What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Paul says, God forbid. If God, mercy is according to
God's will, if God chose Jacob, for no good in him and rejected
Esau for no evil in him. Isn't he unrighteous and isn't
he unfair? Well, the apostle says, God forbid
that you should charge God with unrighteousness, charge God with
foolishness. You remember when Job, he went
up to worship the Lord and he came back and did just one word
after another. Somebody came and stole all of
his cattle and all of his oxen and everything he had. Then all
of a sudden a hurricane, a storm came and tore down everything.
And then the storm came and killed his children. One thing after
another. And his wife said, Job, just
go ahead and curse God and die. He said, woman, you're a fool.
And he shaved his head. And he worshipped God and fell
down on his face. And he says, the Lord hath given,
and the Lord hath taken away. I come out of my mother's womb
naked, and I'm going to leave this world naked. And in all
this, Job charged not God foolishness or with sin. He said, God done
this. God took everything I had. God
took my children. God took my home. God took my
wealth. Everything that happened to me,
God did this. And I'm not going to say anything
about it. I come out of the womb naked,
and when I leave this world, I'm going to leave everything
just like I came into it with, nothing. Ain't that right? And oh, beloved,
I say, God forbid, and this shall not the judge of all the earth
do right. I'll tell you, God acts consistent
with His perfect character. And bless His name. Everything
He does is based on wisdom and His purpose. And I'll tell you
something else that Jacob hath a loved, and Esau hath a hated.
This shows us that God is no respect of persons. What you
have done or haven't done doesn't enter into the picture. Ain't
that right? What you've done or haven't done
doesn't enter into the picture. Jacob had a love, Deval had a
hatred. Neither one of them hadn't been
born yet. Jacob hadn't done anything good, hadn't done anything evil.
Esau hadn't done anything good, hadn't done anything evil. God
said, I love one, hate the other. That means that beloved God don't
care who you are, what you've done. And here's the thing about
it. This just tears works all to
pieces. This just tears man's free will.
It makes man to be absolutely nothing but in the hands of God.
Are you a Jacob or are you an Esau? Oh, nothing. And I tell you,
what you've done and what you haven't done doesn't enter the
picture. You say, well, I've done this and I've done that.
I'll tell you one thing. If my salvation at any time in
my life, any time, any moment in my life, if it's based on
anything that I do, then I'll be lost forever. I'm telling
you from yesterday to today and every day this week until I leave
this world, if I ever, ever enter into God's presence with anything
that I've done, God will reject me. If God loves me, it's because
He will to do it. If God rejects me, it's justice
because He has no obligation to do anything for me. Everything
He does is solely based on His grace. Ain't that right? And on his life. And look what
Paul, Paul the Apostle does. He goes on to say this in verse
15. And he quotes scripture. How
many times does he quote scripture? It was said, it was said, it
was said. And here he says, for he saith to Moses, in verse 15,
for he saith to Moses, And you remember this in Exodus 33, 18
and 19. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. And what the apostles doing is
that I'm not going to stop here and explain God's dealings with
men in this world. I'm not going to start and stop
and answer your objections. I'm not going to justify God's
actions to human reason. And I'll tell you something about
if anybody starts questioning God. Do you know what they're
doing? They're saying, if I was God, this is the way I'd do it.
That they are, they're setting themselves up to be bigger and
wiser and more powerful than God. If I was God, this is the
way, I wouldn't have done it that way, I would have done it
this way. Ain't that right? What they're doing is they're
taking God, they're elevating their reasoning their power,
their free will, and their rights, and their understanding, they're
elevating it above God. And say, now my God, or God would
be, do this thing for me, or that thing for me, or this other
thing for me, and He wouldn't do it that way. I wouldn't do
it that way. You mean to tell me that puny, puny-minded man
would ever dare to elevate his reasoning above God and say,
now if I was God, I wouldn't do this, I wouldn't do that,
I wouldn't do another thing? Put God in your balance? Put
God in your measure? Put God in the way you ought
to think He should be? He's God! And oh, if this generation would
ever find out that God is God! Man would shut his mouth! And
he'd start arguing. He'd get down before God and
say, Lord, you said you'd have mercy. I want some of that. You
said you'd have compassion. I sure wish you'd have compassion
on me. I don't want to be an Esau. I do know that. And oh, people want to... And I tell you, Paul, and he
quotes scriptures and that closes the matter. He rests his doctrine
on scripture alone and makes no apology for God. Makes no
apology for God. None. Bruce Daly was talking with a
fellow this last week. Called him a preacher. Talking
with him. Got to talking about the scriptures
and he said, he said, you know, he said, where are you going?
He said, I go out to Lantana Grace Church. Don Bell's my pastor.
He said, he's that fella who put all those articles in the
newspaper. And we're going to start doing that again. We're
going to start again here just right away. He said, yeah. I said, that fella told Bruce,
this boy said he put a lot of stuff in there that's not true.
And Bruce says, name one thing. Name one thing that he ever said
that wasn't right, wasn't true. Just one. He said, well, just
find them. Tell me one. Tell me one thing
that he's wrong about. Bruce wasn't going to make no
apologies for God. He wasn't going to make no apologies
for what he believed. And he was sitting with a whole
bunch of people. And they was arguing with him, and debating
with him, and trying to say they didn't believe what he said.
But he never backed down. You know why? Because we do not
make apologies for God. If people don't like the way
God is, they'll find out what He really like when they face
Him in eternity. Wait a minute! Did you know I
did this? I fasted and tied, I prayed and I've done all this
and I've done all these wonderful works. And our Lord will say,
depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I
never knew you. But I tell you what the other
side of it is, for whom He foreknew, them He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son. And them He did predestinate,
them He also called. Damn, he also justified. Damn, he also glorified. What
shall we say then to these things? That's what they ask again. If
God be for us, who can be against us? Oh, God declared to Moses, he
said, sovereign mercy. He says, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. And sovereign mercy, that's enough
for us. That's enough for believers.
That's enough for Christians. And let me give you three reasons
why men, that if men are saved, it must be by the sovereign mercy
of God and God's electing grace. First of all, because all men
are lost. All men were lost. All men were
born lost. All men were born dead. Dead
and trespassed, as it said. Because of our relationship to
Adam. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into this world. And death passed on all men because
of that one sin. And we inherited His nature.
So if man's gonna be saved, if he's dead, and he's lost, born
lost, he's not gonna be lost, he's born that way. And if a man's lost, somebody's
got to find him. Ain't that right? And the Lord
finds His sheep. Seeks them out. And second reason
is that men are not, if they're going to be saved by sovereign
mercy and electing grace is, but man by nature does not love
God, does not have any interest in God. The flesh, the carnal
mind is enmity against God. Enmity, that means it's furious,
it don't like it. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Our Lord looked at them and says,
you will not come to me that you might have life. Men love
darkness rather than light. And I tell you the third reason
if man's going to be saved by the grace of God and sovereign,
if you're going to be saved, it's going to be by grace and
mercy and election. Grace is because men count the
things of God as foolishness. Just absolute foolishness. Foolishness. But I tell you, God acts with
freedom. There's only one person in this whole universe that's
got absolute free will, and that's God Himself. He can act freely. Me and you have to act. Well,
He acts according to His nature. That's why He acts with freedom.
And a man who argues for the free will of man is arguing against
the free will of God. Ain't that right? Ain't that
right? So then, look what he says in
verse 16. So then. So then. See how he just keeps building
on this argument now? You want to argue with God? I'm
going to tell you what God said. I'm going to tell you what the
scripture said. I'm going to tell you what God said in His Word. He says, So
then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. You see? So what he's saying
is salvation is not a response to human resolve. It's not of
him been willing. Man gets up and says, well, I'm
going to make a change. I'm going to start going to church.
I'm going to start reading my Bible. I'm going to start straightening
it up. I'm going to get my act together.
I'm going to start going to church. He said, salvation is not by
human resolve. You know how many people have
been talked into salvation? Do you have any idea how many
people have made a profession because some preacher talked
them into it? And here's how they do it. They'll knock on a door, they'll
talk to somebody and say, you want to go to heaven, don't you?
You don't want to go to hell. Of course I don't want to go
to hell. I want to go to heaven. Well, and they'll go over to Romans
chapter 3 and says, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. And that's what God said about you. Are you a sinner?
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it says over here that
if you believe on Jesus, he'll save you. Well, I believe on
him. Next thing you know, they got him booked up. But there
ain't been no work of God done in their heart. They'll say,
repeat after me, pray after me. I'm a sinner, Jesus, please save
me. Ask, believe, and confess. A-B-C. And there's no change of heart,
no change of will, no change of mind. They've just been talked
into. They will. If somebody had a
resolve, I'm going to will this person to be saved. I remember
years ago, back when I was lost as a white goose in a snowstorm.
I remember being in services where people would go back. Women
would go back. Men would go back. Preachers
would go back. And they would lay down in somebody's lap and
just beg them and beg them and beg them. Come on, come on, please
accept Jesus. Come on, please come to the front.
Come on, please. And just weep over them, cry
over them and all that stuff. But Paul says you can have all
the human resolve you want to. Salvation is not by what men
resolve to do. Ain't that right? It's not of him that willeth. Next time somebody talks about
their will just read that. It's not of him that willeth.
Not of him that willeth. And then look what else is said.
Salvation is not by him that willeth, but by the will and
purpose of God. Huh? And then he says salvation
is not by human effort. Look what he said here. It's
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. Oh my goodness,
they're out here running, running, running, running, running, running,
here, running, the other one, and everywhere. Doing something
for Jesus. Doing something for God. Oh my. Huh? I'll tell you, I've probably
told you this before, but when Doogie went off to college, they
got these Christian groups, you know, and they'd have these meetings
on the campus. Some folks invited him to a service,
and he went just to get a bunch of young men and women meeting.
He'd meet with them, meet with them, meet with them, and then
one day they asked him, How many people in the group wasn't saved? And Doogie raised his hand and
said, you know, I'm not. And everybody in that room went,
James, James, you're not saved? James, you're not saved? I said,
you sure fool of us. Just because he didn't use foul
language? And they couldn't believe it. You know what they done? They
all gathered around trying to get him saved. We can't let him
leave out here with us. All of us are saved. He's as
good as we are so we got to get him saved. That's the first thing
they say. God will get him saved. Oh listen,
salvation is the work of God in the heart by the Spirit of
God. And God's will is the only reason,
the only source of mercy. It says, but God that showeth
mercy. God that showeth compassion.
And then look what he said in verse 17. Not only is salvation
and mercy solely by the grace of God and the mercy of God and
sovereign mercy. But look what he says, judgments
also. Accordingly, they said, I'll
have mercy. And there's people, if he has mercy on some, that
means there's some he's not going to have mercy on. And look what
he says here. For this, he goes to scripture
again, for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh. God talking to
Pharaoh personally now. He said, I'm gonna talk to Pharaoh. So the scripture saith unto Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose, have I raised thee up that I might
show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout
the whole earth. Judgment's according to the will
of God too. Yes. Oh my. The scripture saith, it's not
what we think or what we feel, it's what thus saith the word
of God. And he said unto Pharaoh, just
as God has the right to show mercy to whom he will, he necessarily
has the right to bring judgment and reprobation on whom he will. You ever met a reprobate in your
life? I bet most of you know several of them. Most of you
probably know several of them. God has the right to show mercy
to whom He will. He also has the right to bring
judgment reprobation on whom He will. And we see in this God's
absolute sovereignty. Absolute sovereignty over everything
and everybody. The matter of God dispensing
His grace and His justice and disposing of men as He will. God can do that and will do that. We'll do that. And why does he
do it? He does it to fulfill his purpose. Oh my. God has a purpose and
he's going to fulfill that purpose. And I tell you, he has a purpose
of election and he has a purpose of reparation. He has a purpose
of salvation and he has a purpose of damnation. You know what he
told the group one day standing in front of him? And every single
one of them was religious. Every single one of them was
faithful to the synagogue. Every single one of them could
quote you things from the Old Testament. He looked at them
and said, Oh ye serpents and vipers, how are you going to
escape the damn nation of hellish sin? How are you going to escape
damnation? How are you going to escape it? And he looked over at Jerusalem
and he shed tears and he wept over Jerusalem and he said, Oh
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you would have known! He says, but now, now your house
is left desolate. Light showed right in the middle
of all that darkness and the darkness just stayed dark and
just a little sliver of light went through it. And there was
just a few saw that. And God came unto them. He says, for this same purpose
I raised the young. What God is saying is Pharaoh
said I put you where you are. I put you in the position of
power. You are God in your country. You are God among those that
are around you. I gave you the power you had.
You think you had power? I gave you that power. I gave you that power. You have
no power except what I give you. And he says, you know what I'm
going to make you do? I'm going to make your wrath praise me.
You're going to let my people go, but he said, I'm going to
make you understand that I'm God before you let them go. I'm
going to make you understand that you're going to absolutely
praise me for what you do. And finally, after nine times,
he said, I've sinned, I've sinned, I've sinned. He tried a thousand
ways to let them go. God's, one day he got up and
told Moses, take these children and get out of here before God
destroys us all. He says, your God's got the power. Ain't nothing we can do against
him. So get on, get out of here. And then after that happened,
you know what he decides to do? He said, I messed up. I turned
to all those people who's gonna make our bricks for us now. So
he got on his chair and away he went. And you know what God
said, I raised you up for one reason, to drown you. I'm going
to make you know that I'm God. And everybody in this world is
going to know that I'm God. I'm going to save this people and
they're going to go out of here. They were your slaves. They worked
for you. There wasn't nobody in your sight. They were just
a bunch of sorry slaves, didn't have no power, didn't have no
authority, didn't have no rights. But he says you had all the power.
He says, but I tell you, I gave it to you and I'm going to take
it away from you just like I gave it to you. And I'm going to give
Moses all the power and he's going to bring my children out
of here. And that's the way the world is. They think they've
got all the power, but you know who sits on the throne? The Lord
Jesus Christ right now, sitting in his power, sitting in his
majesty. I like it like that. I love it like that. I can lie
in it being like that. Oh my. Oh, you know the way you
conducted yourself was by my appointment. He told Moses, he
says, Moses, you go down there and tell them to let you go.
But he ain't going to do it until I make it. He said, he ain't
going to let you go until I make it. Ain't that what he told him?
Oh, he says, I tell you what, the wrath of men that praised
God at the cross when they crucified our Savior. And let me show you
this and I'll look what else it says here in verse 18. Mercy
and judgment is by the will of God. He says, after he started
up there, Jacob hath a love, and Esau hath a hatred. Nobody's,
that they hadn't done any good or evil. I had a purpose according
to election. Oh, listen, Paul. That's unrighteous,
Paul. Paul starts saying, well, that's
what God said. God said he'll have mercy on
whom he'll have mercy. So it don't have any human effort.
Don't enter into it. It's all by the sovereign mercy
and grace of God. And then he goes on to say, This
is what God said about faith. This is my judgment. I saved
one up here to bring judgment on somebody else. And then look
what he says. Therefore, therefore he'll have
mercy on whom he will. Jacob, Israelites indeed, Paul
the apostle, me and you. Therefore I'll have mercy. He
hath mercy on whom he will. And then the other side of that,
he'll harden. See that's the thing about it.
God is righteous in whatever he does. Ain't he? Why does God
act differently towards men? Because that's his purpose. That's
his purpose. You know, we don't know who,
we don't know God's will towards man till after it's expressed.
We don't know what God's will for a man till after expresses.
Is that right? I didn't have a clue I was one
of God's elect until he expressed it. And then here's, and we've been
through this before. Had three, a father and two uncles. Drunks, mean, used the awfulest
language, all three of them died. Without any God, without any
hope, without any mercy. My mother, I talked to her about
God, talked to her about Christ, lots and lots of times. Didn't want to hear nothing about
it. She's gone. I got a little brother. Talked
to him about it. He said, Donnie, that's fine
for you. It's not for me. Who makes the difference? Who
makes the difference? Huh? Who makes the difference? That's amazing, ain't it? God
takes whole families. There's Eleanor's family. Four
of her children. seem to have evidence of being
saved by the grace of God. Gary's children give evidence
of being saved by the grace of God. Look at all these Selbies
here. Not a person in my family is
converted. Not a son, not a daughter, not a grandson, not a granddaughter. Does that upset me? No. They're still living. God can
still save them. God can show them mercy. And
you know where my hope lies? Not in who they are. Not in what
they've done or haven't done. But in God. Who has mercy and
has compassion on whom He will. That's mine. I know He's righteous
in mercy. But let me tell you this, God
must deal with all men in justice. He gave us mercy, but not at
the expense of His justice. What do I mean by that? When
God acts in mercies, He's free to deal with men according to
His own will in Christ. But at the same time, we must
be paid for our sins. And our Lord Jesus Christ Our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself took our sins, bless His name, wounded
for our transgressions. Ain't that right? You know, even
after Jacob was an old man, God called him Worm. He says, Thou
Worm, Jacob, fear not! I've redeemed thee! So I tell you, God shows us mercy. He didn't lay aside His justice.
He punished us for our sins. And when a man, God brings a
man to where he turns to the Lord Jesus Christ. Brings him
to the end of himself and he turns to Christ. God will be
just because Christ bore their sin. And be just to say, I justify
you. I clear you. And in my sight
you are without any sin whatsoever. Ain't that right? Ain't you glad
it's that way? Oh my. I love, I absolutely love God
being the way he is. Wouldn't it be pitiful, wouldn't
it be absolutely awful if he was the way men present him?
Wouldn't it be awful if God was the way men presented? He had
no power, but our power. Had no will, but our will. Had
nobody to do for Him but us. And that our salvation depended
upon, yeah, He saved us, but then we got to live it. We got
to live right. We got to act right. We got to
do all these things right. If we don't, you know, we may
end up lost. Wouldn't that be awful to be that way? But I tell you what we're going
to do, we're just going to lay our souls, repose them on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and say, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. Amen. Our Father, oh gracious Father
in Heaven, God, you're so glorious. You're
so good. You're so wise. And you're righteous
in whatever you do in this world. It's right. It's right. Whatever you do and whoever you
do it for or against, it's right. It's impossible for you to do
wrong. And Lord, we thank you that you
declared the end from the beginning. and bless you for our Lord Jesus
Christ who washed us in his blood, cleansed us from our sins, gave
us his righteousness, and now we accept it in the beloved.
God save your people in this place. Send in your sheep. Send in your sinners to hear
the gospel. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim. Amen and amen. See you tonight,
six o'clock. God willing.