Get to going. I invite your attention
back to Hosea chapter six. We left off last week basically
with chapter five and chapter six verses one through three.
This morning I want to read Hosea chapter six verses four through
11. Hosea chapter six verses four
through 11. That's from verse four on to
the end of the chapter. Oh Ephraim, what shall I do unto
thee? Now let me stop and say God is
not pondering. God is not wondering what he's
going to have to do. God not only knew what he was
going to do, he'd already purposed what he was going to do from
before the foundation of the world. God expresses things this
way, not because he's up there thinking about what might or
might not be done by him. He expresses it this way so that
we might consider what is God going to do. Oh Ephraim, what
shall I do unto thee? Oh Judah, what shall I do unto
thee? For your goodness is as a morning
cloud. How long's our goodness last?
At best, just like, that morning cloud that pops up and the wind
starts to blow and it just blows that cloud away. And as the early
dew, and then he says it, doesn't he? It goeth away. Let me say, we have some goodness,
but it's all human goodness. It's all based upon a human standard. It's all based upon comparing
ourselves with one another. Because when we compare ourselves
with God, we have no goodness. When we compare ourselves with
even God's law, we have no goodness. Therefore, have I hewed them
by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. Now this
is gonna be a familiar verse right here, I'm sure to you.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice. and the knowledge
of God more than burnt offerings. Now notice how he didn't say
the knowledge of me. Though that's certainly a glorious
thing. For any man to know God is a glorious thing. But this
is talking about God's own knowledge. You see how he said it now? Remember,
we read these things always, I've told you, but read it in
an opposite way, and then see if that helps you understand
what's he really getting at. Because some men will say, well,
he's talking about knowing who God is. That's certainly a valid
point, but that's not what he's saying here. For I desired mercy
and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings,
but they, like men, have transgressed the covenant. There have they
dealt treacherously. Think about in the covenant,
dealt treacherously against me. Gilead is a city of them that
work iniquity and is polluted with blood. And the troops of
robbers wait for a man so that the company of priests murder
in the way by consent. Think about that. For they commit
lewdness. I have seen an horrible thing
in the house of Israel. There is the whoredom of Ephraim. Israel is defiled. Also, Judah, he has set and harvests
for thee when I return the captivity of my people. In this book, really, the whole
book of Hosea, And especially, we still see it even in our text
for this morning. God sets our religious actions,
even if those religious actions come from the letter of this
book. Remember, these Jews were still
offering sacrifices. burn offerings and meal offerings
and drink offerings and putting the incense on the coals off
the brazen altar and use it to burn incense. Mason, they were
still doing all these things. But God sets our religious actions
in stark contrast to his person and his work. Read it again and
here is my actual text. That is verse six. For I desired
mercy. and not your religious efforts.
You see, that's what he's saying there. Now God had ordained the
offering of sacrifices. They were supposed to be doing
that. But what did they do? They mixed it with all of their
evil. They thought that they could live however they wanted
as long as they're doing what they're supposed to do. In religion,
everything will be okay. And you go back and study the
history of these ancient people, this Israel of God, this is one
of the errors they constantly fell into. But God says this,
for I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more
than burnt offerings. You see, most people in our day,
Think that if you're an individual and you go to church, you believe
in God, you believe in Jesus, you read your Bible some, you
pray, especially when you're in trouble or you have a need,
all of these things, all of it, and you know this is true. I
am not speaking evil of them, I'm speaking the facts about
them. Most people in this world think
that if you go to church, you believe in God, you believe in
Jesus, you read your Bible, you pray, you go to Sunday school,
you witness for the Lord, whatever it might be. And I'm not saying
any of those things are wrong in and of themselves. But most
people think those things equal righteousness before God. Don't they? And there's a part
of me that says, well, that must be so. There's a part of me that
says that too. That must be so. If I read my
Bible, if I pray, if I believe in God, if I believe in Jesus,
if I go to church, if I tell other people about him, then
Joe, there's got to be some validity there to it. But yet God had
said to Israel, and I am saying that God says to the professed
church today, that all of our religious actions mean nothing. God says, I desired mercy and
not sacrifice. And the knowledge of God more
than burnt offerings. What did Paul say? Paul was a
man who kept the law. By all human sight. by everything
that any of his predecessors and those who were alive when
he was there, many of those who were of his same outlook, he
was righteous according to the law. He said, according to the
law, I was blameless. Blameless. That's what he said. And I got no reason to think,
Mason, he was wrong about that. As far as he knew it and as far
as everybody else around him knew it. He was doing what you
were supposed to be doing in that day and age. And countless
thousands today are doing what you're supposed to be doing in
this age. Are they not? And we, they, we,
all by nature, equate these things, well God must be pleased with
me. Don't we? That's natural to us. But what did Paul say about those
things? He said, I count them but, this is strong language.
I count them but dung. That's strong words. And he said,
I don't want to be found in my own righteousness, which is of
the law. Oh, but to be found of that righteousness
which is by the faith of, not faith in Jesus Christ, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ, to be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness. Oh, it's all, it's all up here.
The central issue is clear even still today. Hope for man. Hope for man. The only true,
no, the only hope for man. It's like calling water wet.
I guess you still have to do that sometimes. Especially in
this day and age. Words mean nothing to people
nowadays. Hope for man is found only in God. There is nothing in me by nature. And there's even nothing in me
after God converted me that will bring me merit before God. Because
God must have absolute right These Jews did all the religious
things, but they distorted it with their deceit, and their
lewdness, their unrighteousness, and they thought because we're
doing all this, we're naming the name of Jehovah, we're naming
the name of God, we worship him, and at the same time, they had
the bulls over at Dan and Bear Sheep, or Bass Sheep, what was
it, Bear Sheep, remember, what was it, still had the bulls. Remember, they had the one king
come in and wiped out everything but the bulls. God said, I hold
that against you. Wait a minute, but we put a good
effort into it. We got rid of a lot of the idolatry. One act of idolatry is an insult
to the holy God of heaven. What do you guess my subject
is this morning, my title? Mercy, not sacrifice. You see it? Mercy, not sacrifice. Let's move along. Two points.
First of all, the point clearly stated in our text. Mercy. Mercy. That's why I wanted us
to sing that. Mercy! It's a word you don't hear much
anymore. Do ya? Everybody's talking about
getting saved. They rarely even talk about being
saved because they believe you gotta get saved. They believe
salvation's out here and you put forth effort to get it, they
don't talk about being saved. I'm here doing nothing except
everything wrong, and all of a sudden God Almighty lights
on me and saves my soul. There's a big difference in being
saved and getting saved, but be that as it may, people talk
everywhere about saved, saved, get saved, be saved, whatever
it is, but they rarely talk about mercy. Do they? Mercy. Probably rightfully so, because
if they talked about mercy, they would distort it to no end. Today,
I don't wanna go there, I'll get on to politics and not the
gospel. Mercy, let's look at mercy, but
there's one other point, and it's not mentioned here directly,
but it permeates this whole book. Mercy, that's one point, here's
the second one though, justice. What about justice? We all know
a little bit of what it's like to have mercy on somebody. But
when you have mercy on somebody, you never satisfy justice. You
don't have the ability to satisfy justice. All we can do is have
mercy just for mercy's sake. But God has mercy for justice's
sake. For justice's sake. He has satisfied justice, mercy
must rain down. And that's R-A-I-N and R-E-I-G-N
as well. Number one, mercy is for sinners. Wait a minute, am I preaching
about sinners again? This whole book of Hosea. When
I first read this, I thought I could pick out a few good passages
and just do it that way. Everywhere we see what? Sinners,
sinners, sinners. Do we not? Starts out with who?
Gomer. Isn't that amazing? Gomer. Then goes on to Israel and Ephraim
and even Judah. You know why? Because we're all
sinners. But I tell you that mercy is
for sinners only. Mercy is for sinners only. There's
a stark contrast between mercy and merit. They are not the same. Most people think God shows you
mercy because you work up at least enough merit for him to
forgive the other stuff. Is that not the way they believe?
Is that not what most of so-called Christianity preaches today? God will give you mercy if you
work up at least enough obedience, he'll let the other stuff go.
And he can kind of do that through Jesus, because he died on a cross,
don't you know? That is not what this book teaches. That is not
what this book teaches. Look at the text. Is mercy for
sinners? I will have mercy and not what? Your religious obedience. You see that? And the knowledge
of God rather than what? Your religious obedience, your
burnt offerings. Mercy, it's right here in the
text. Look at the context. Look at
the whole book of Hosea. Look at the whole book of Hosea.
As a matter of fact, turn to Matthew chapter nine. The God
who gave these words to Hosea way back yonder. Some people don't really know
that that God came in human flesh. He was born in Bethlehem as a
babe and he came in human flesh and he grew up just like any
other child grows up. He worked with his stepfather
in a carpenter shop, just like many other Jewish children did
in that day. But when he began to be about, what was it, 30
years old, you know what the book says? He began to start
to publicly preach. And here's one of the things
he said, Matthew chapter nine, here's the God who gave these
words to Hosea back yonder and all of a sudden he shows up in
the flesh and he's gonna repeat this word. You see it? Look at
it, Matthew chapter nine, verse 10. And it came to pass as Jesus
sat at meat in the house, behold, behold, many publicans and what? Sinners. came and sat down with
him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw, when
the Pharisees saw it, then they said unto his disciples, and
this isn't the way most all false religion, hatred for God usually
works, tries to work its way in the back door. Didn't even
have the nerve to confront Jesus himself, did they? But look,
it came to his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and what? sinners. But when Jesus heard
that, he heard it. Now, folks, he knew they were
going to say it before they even said it. And he didn't say, fellas,
you're about to make a big mistake and about to commit a big sin.
Let me just kind of stop you right here. No, he just let him
go on. Did he not? Because all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to his purpose. If it happened, God purposed
it. No matter what it is, good or
evil, that's God. That's God. Look at what he says. When Jesus heard that, he said
unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick. Now you know exactly what he's
talking about. Anybody who hears me that's at least of age and
has relative understanding knows exactly what Jesus meant when
he said that. If you're whole, you're not gonna look for a doctor.
If you're sick though, what happens? You let it go for a little while,
you let it go, but after it gets worse, and it gets worse, and
eventually what? You're forced. Do you hear what
I said? You are forced to go, what? To
a doctor. To something, even if it's a
peel on the shelf. You're going somewhere for help.
They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go
ye and learn what that meaneth, and here it is. But notice how
the God who set it back yonder, notice how he says it now. But
let me tell you, the God who said it back yonder to Hosea
is not changing his meaning, he is giving us a clearer, most
definite understanding of what he meant when he first said it
back yonder to Hosea. I will! Now in our day and age, will
and desire are two totally different things. But when it talks about
God, it's not so in this book. What God wills, What God desires,
what God intends, God does. Do you hear what I'm saying?
Therefore, the God who gave Hosea that back yonder, when he comes
on the scene in his condescension and his enfleshment, he says,
for I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Now these Pharisees
were all about what? Doing what you're supposed to
do. Doing all the, they even made up rules to keep. Now Mason,
that's more than most people do. They made up more rules to
keep than even the Bible said. Now did they not? And they were
busy about keeping even all them. And here these publicans and
sinners come in just to eat with Jesus Christ. And they said,
why is he with that kind of folk? And Jesus said, for I am not
come to call the righteous. What am I come to do? I'm come
to call sinners to repentance. Now do you believe Jesus Christ
did what he was supposed to do? Or not? Or not? One or the other, it can't be
both. Well, he wants to, he desires to, he wishes to. Let me tell
you, God's mercy is no divine wish. Christ said it right here. Go
learn what this means. I will have. I will have. Now let's read that word that's
translated for I desired mercy and not sacrifice. Let's read
it in, it's in more than these, but just a couple. Turn it back
to the Psalms. Turn to Psalm 115. We're gonna
read the same word translated in Hosea 6, 6. The same word translated, desired,
desired, that same word. Look at it, 115, and I'm not
just drawing this out of a hat. Look at what it says. Psalm 115,
verse one. Not unto us, O Lord. but not
unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy, what's this say? Mercy. You see it? And for thy
truth's sake, who God really is. That's what he's talking
about. Look, wherefore should the heathen say, where is now
their God? But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's the same word
there translated desired. It's the same word that can translate
intend. But let me tell you, when God
intends something, when God desires it, God will do it. God will do it. Look at one more,
135. Turn to the 135th Psalm. Just one verse for the sake of
time. 135 verse six, whatsoever the Lord desired, Whatsoever
the Lord intended, or as we have it translated here, it's the
same Hebrew word. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven. Now, usually most folk don't
give too much argument thus far, but it also says, and in earth. Do you see that? And in earth,
in the seas, And even the Marianas Trench, way down there somewhere,
they say about seven miles deep. He's doing whatever he intended
down there right now. Right now. Christ's explanation
of it is this. He goes, I'm gonna give you an
interpretation of Hosea 6 and 6. I will have mercy. He said,
I will have. I'm not gonna have your actions,
I'm gonna have mercy. Do you see what he's saying?
It's not, I'm not going to accept your actions, I will show mercy. The Old Testament prophets declare,
the Apostle Paul comes along and all he's doing is basically
quoting the Old Testament and he said, God says this, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy and whom I will, I will
what? Harden. Harden. That's the testimony of this
whole book. God's mercy is poured out at
his discretion. It does not. It never comes in
lieu of man's actions. Never! And people actually say
this today who profess to be Christian. Men who profess to
be sent of God to preach his gospel will stand up and say,
you need to let God show you mercy. That's blasphemy! If you
treated me that way, I would say to you, you're full of it.
If you offend me, you do something wrong to me, and you come to
me, so I'm gonna let you show me mercy. You're stupid. Now sadly, in our day and age,
that's probably not too stupid, but that is stupid, because you
don't let somebody show you mercy. Mercy is at the discretion of
the one who hands it out. It's at their discretion, and
that applies to us as well as God. Somebody could do me wrong
and come to me and say, I'm gonna let you forgive me. I'm gonna
let you show me mercy. I'm gonna let you be gracious
to me. I'd say, what kind of fool are you? You don't deserve
it. What you did before is not as
bad as what you're doing now. You offended me, then you come
and tell me for me to bow down at you. Right? Right? No, God's mercy is poured out
at his discretion. But my brothers and sisters,
our God is holy. And our God is just. Think about
holy, now men talk about holiness. They have no idea what they're
talking about. They think holiness is you don't use tobacco, you
don't drink alcohol, don't go to the movies, unless it's whatever
rating is, you get up there with the really bad ones. And even
the G-rated movies today blaspheme God. Do you hear what I'm saying? You know, it may be full of morality,
but they blaspheme God. Now I'm not telling you not to
go to the movies, but this is what religion does. They think
because they're doing the right things that God must be pleased
with this, and God says, I desire mercy. I will have mercy, I will
not have your actions. Because everything you do, you
defile it. You defile it by default. The very fact that you do it
makes it defiled. The more I pray, Joe, the more
sin I commit. That's right. Apart from the
shed blood of Jesus Christ. Every Bible verse I read and
quote is sin against God apart from the shed blood of Jesus
Christ the Lord. Somebody says, I don't understand
that. I pray God opens your understanding. I do, I'm not mad at you. Oh
God, I've been there. I'm a sinner, and I'm still a
sinner, and I know what it means to be blind, but also know what
it means to have your eyes opened, and all of a sudden you say,
I see. Maybe you're in rebellion. Somebody
here, I don't know. I don't know your heart. Maybe
somebody watching me on TV. Maybe you're saying, I don't,
I will not believe that. I pray God changes you. I pray
God turns you from your ways to his mercy. And that's what
only happened after he's already showed it to you and you don't
even know it's taking place. And all of a sudden you just
realize God's been merciful to me, the sinner. I'm not looking
for the most weak folk. I'm talking about the most rebellious,
heinous, God-hating person. Look at these folk. Look at yourself. God says, I will have mercy. I'm glad for that. I used to
get angry at that. I thank God for it now. But think
of it, he's holy. He's just. God's not holy because
he don't smoke cigarettes. And I'm sure, and I know this
might get some stir, but if he's got a pipe, I bet you it's a
really nice one. And if you talk about 12-year-old
scotch, I bet you God's got some that's really fine. Now let's
let that go right out over the TV waves. Huh? God's not holy because he don't
smoke tobacco, don't chew, don't drink, don't go to the movies.
God's holy because he's God! And he's also just. And then
we hear this word, he shows mercy to sinners. We all think, we
know, well, if I do this and I do that, then yeah, God will
accept me. We understand, that's merit. That's merit. And certainly, if you do what's
right, God will accept you. That's what he told Cain, wasn't
it? He told Cain that. If you do
right, would you not be accepted? But Cain couldn't. He hated the
truth so much. He said, no, I will have my will,
not God's will. But God says, I will have mercy,
but I'll have it on whom I will. And I'll show compassion on whom
I'll show compassion. And if I will too, I'll harden
them. I'll harden them because we all deserve hardening. God's
not putting something wicked in a man. It's already there
by nature. God Almighty has the right to harden us. Oh, but he
has the right to show us mercy. Why? Because he's holy, but he's
also satisfied divine justice. What about this day of divine
justice? God never shows mercy. at the
expense of divine justice. He cannot. He cannot or he would
cease to be God. He is called the just one. And
every act he does is just because he does it, but it's still a
just act. Sin, ungodliness, unrighteousness
must be punished. If I could stop sinning today,
I'm just, if I could stop sinning today and live the rest of my
life in total righteousness before God, Mason, it does not cancel
out any failure before. No failure whatsoever before.
Sin, ungodliness, unrighteousness must be punished. And our Lord
Jesus Christ broached this very subject. Turn to Luke chapter
18 now. That baby didn't like that truth
either, did you? We'll find out she gets a little older, she
gonna like it even less. We laugh, and we laugh, and rightfully
so, but you watch and see. You watch and see. Oh, but I
pray God mercy. I pray God's mercy rains down
on that young soul. I'm being honest, we laugh, but
I'm being honest with you. Look at it, Luke chapter 18,
gotta move along. Luke chapter 18, verse nine.
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were doing the right thing. That they were righteous. And even on top of that, they
despised others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other,
one of them what? One of them old publicans. The
Pharisee stood, prayed thus with himself. So thus he was praying
to himself. God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men, extortioners. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
like this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And most religious places that
call themselves Christians would say, sign him up on the row,
we want those tithes. Here's a fine, outstanding citizen
of our community. And what did Christ say? An apublican,
standing afar off. He didn't feel worthy, because
he wasn't worthy to even approach up close. the public and standing
afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. And
sometimes here lately, since I've been thinking about this,
I find myself praying and I start to look up and then I feel ashamed
of myself. You ever done that? Now that's not the point he's
really making. It's not just the direction of your eyes, but
it's saying this man was humbled before a thrice holy God. would
not so much as lift his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his
breast, saying, God, be, there's our word, merciful. But it's
amazing to hear how God has used that. And it's translated in
more places, the mercy seat. It's the place of propitiation.
What this man was saying, God, propitiate me. The sinner. He didn't just ask for mercy
to come from nowhere. He didn't just ask for mercy
apart from the satisfaction of divine justice. He knew he needed
propitiation before God. That's a whole lot more than
most folks know. They think God's gonna be merciful
to me just because I show a little bit of pretended humility. This
man knew he needed propitiation. Our Lord introduced this subject
of mercy in direct connection to what? Propitiation. Mercy is also then joined to
something else. Look, I tell you this man, which
one's he talking about? The publican. That's right. This
man went down to his house absolutely right. Amen. That's what that
means. Yes, sir. If somebody justifies
you, what's that mean? You're absolutely right. You
kill somebody, and it's in self-defense, and they say it was justifiable
homicide. What's that mean? You was right to do it. Not just
you're okay, you was right to do it! You was protecting yourself,
justified! This man, this sinner, who probably
was an extortioner, probably didn't do a lot of diving, may
very well have been an adulterer, Joe. And this man went down to
his house justified rather, rather than the other. For everyone that exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Mercy is joined to justification,
is it not? Is it not? Righteousness before
God and had nothing to do with this man's actions. He said but
he cried for mercy No, he cried for what the mercy of propitiation. That's what somebody else does
for you Propitiation that's true. Mercy
is what somebody else does for you mercy doesn't begin and even
in your experience. Mercy began when Jesus Christ
died on that cross for sinners. That's what it begins. That's
what it begins. Justification is only for those
who are humbled before God under their guilt, but they know justice
must be satisfied. God will not, mercy, God's mercy
is not just God letting my sins go. God must punish every sin
of every sinner that he ever shows mercy to. And I'm here
to declare he did so in Jesus Christ on that cross. Mercy here is dealt with as what?
Propitiation. And that means divine satisfaction. Now think about this. Now you
listen to me. They may use a few little words,
but one thing that the Campbellites and the Papists and the Fullerites
and the Sabbatarians and the Fundamentalists and the Charismatics
never deal with is how can God be just and justify the ungodly? They never broach that subject.
They may mention a few little words, they never broach that.
How can God, the holy God, be just? How can he remain a just
God? and then show what? Show mercy
to a sinner. A real, bona fide, 100% sinner. Now Isaiah prophesied how that's
so. By the righteous acts of one man, Jesus Christ. He says,
and the pleasure of the Lord. Whoa, what word is that? That's
that word desired. We see it over there in Hosea
6. And the pleasure, the intent, the desire of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. And he shall see the travail
of his soul. That is God, the thrice holy God the Father seeing
the travail of the son's soul and he was what? What's the word
he used? Satisfied. Now here's the question. If justice is satisfied, and
it is, then why do you or I look for anything else? Well, I'll add my faith to it.
No, don't add your faith to it. Just believe him who did the
work. There are thousands of people
adding their faith to what Jesus did, and folks, listen to me,
they're gonna perish. You don't add what you, I will
have mercy and not what you do. Face not what you do for God,
face where God brings you when he bows you under the truth of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe him. Sinner, hear this,
every sinner who hears my voice, can you, that's what I mean to
say. Can you believe him? Turn to Acts chapter 13. Can
you, because not everybody can. And we'll see that. Can you believe
him? Acts 13, verse 38. The apostle
Paul is preaching to some folk, and he says these words, look
at verse 38. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
He's not saying there can be forgiveness, he's saying that
through this man, forgiveness of sins is accomplished. And look, and by him, he's preached
unto, he's not offering him anything. He's saying we're preaching Jesus
Christ. He died on that tree. He satisfied divine justice. Sin has been dealt with on the
cross in Christ. And by him, all that believe
are what? Justified from all things, from
which it could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware,
therefore. But look out, he's not up here
begging people, oh, let Jesus have his, oh, let God have mercy
on you. Is that what he's doing? Now,
lying preachers distort this all the time, but look what he
says. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken
of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder,
and perish. For I will work a work in your
days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man
declare it unto you. And then ultimately it comes
down, it says, and as many as were ordained to eternal life
did what? Believed. Not one more, not one
less. Oh, isn't God's mercy great?
Because had he not done it that way, none of us would have it.
And when he showed mercy to you, you sinner. You see me? To you, you sinner! He is still
a just and holy God. You know what I'm saying? People
today, they're taught this lie. But you gotta know Jesus died
for you first before you really should trust. He doesn't ask
you to trust on Him based upon the fact that He died for you.
He says believe that He did what the Father sent Him to do. What
did He send Him to do? To satisfy divine justice. He
did. Do you believe Him in that? That's
what it's about. Here's a question, are you a
sinner in absolute need of mercy? I mean, are you a sinner in absolute
need of mercy? I will tell you this, Jesus Christ
died for you. That's right. Jesus, are you
a sinner in absolute need of God's mercy? Jesus Christ died
for you, but if not, I can't tell you anything. other than
through this man has preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
If you believe, you'll be justified from all things, things that
the law couldn't even justify you from, but look out, for some
people will never believe. And that's what we preach over
and over and over, and men and women still get mad at us for
that. Why is that? Because of that rebellion against
God. My closing words are this. I
hope God conquers that rebellion. Yeah. I hope God conquers that
rebellion. Father, as we continue here,
bless our time together. Thank you for this food. Everyone
who labored to prepare all Lord bless us. We feel so small and
weak, but God, we know that you and your spirit, your son, your
gospel will do everything that you've been pleased for it to
do in Christ's name. Amen.