I was flipping through the channels,
some religious broadcasting a couple of weeks ago, and I ran across
this huge building. The front of it looked like probably
150 or 200 feet tall. A huge, huge building. The whole
front of it was beautiful stained glass windows. This window here
would be one of the small side windows on the building. And
they began their service and the choir was dressed in beautiful
robes and probably 200 in the choir. Had a huge orchestra playing
for them. And I watched for a while and
listened and the preacher got up and preached and I listened
to him for probably 10 minutes. And after watching all of that,
I had much rather, much, much rather be here this morning with
you folks and what I've heard already is to be there with Him. I have no place I know that I'd
rather be than right here this morning with you folks worshiping
the Lord Jesus Christ. Listening as Brother John debased
flesh and exalted our Lord and here in Sister Bobbie saying,
He hideth my soul. in the cleft of the rock. So
it's a blessing. I've discounted a great privilege
to be here with you. I appreciate Brother Larry reading
my text. I want you to turn to a couple
passages. We'll go back to the book of
Jonah, but I want you to turn to a couple of passages in Romans
chapter 5. In Romans chapter 5, I have known your last two pastors
And I tell you, I appreciated both of them. I appreciate your
former pastor, Brother Tommy. I appreciate Brother Larry. And
I've had a wonderful visit with him. We've ate just about everything
in his house. All the food that was available,
we've ate it. But we had a wonderful fellowship. I want you to look
in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. I want to title this message,
maybe, Jonah, the two Adams. Jonah, the two Adams. We learn
so much from the book of Jonah. It's one of the most precious
books of the Old Testament to me to preach the gospel from.
And we'll see that in just a few minutes. But here's why I want
to call the message this morning, Jonah, the two Adams, is because
God saves us by representation. We fail in one man The whole
human race fell in one man. And everybody that will ever
be saved will be saved by this one man. One man got us in trouble
and another man comes and gets us out of the trouble the first
man got us into. The first Adam and the second
Adam. Look in verse 12 of Romans chapter
5. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world by one man sin entered into this world
and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that
all have sinned there was no sin in this world until it entered
by one man it entered him and how did it affect him he died
didn't he He died spiritually in the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. And he died spiritually that
day. Several hundred years later, he died physically. But you know
it not only affected him. Death passed upon all men. It affected the whole human race. And here in Romans chapter 5
in verse 18, Therefore as by the offense of one, Judgment
came upon who? Upon Adam, yes, but look who
else. Judgment came upon all men to
condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life. And then verse 90. For as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous." Now I want you to turn back over
if you would to the book of Jonah where Brother Larry read to us.
Because we can see in this man in a beautiful picture how he
represents to us These two Adams Adam the first and then Christ
the second Adam and the last Adam You you read the book of
Jonah, and it teaches us so many things when you read it You started
to say as our Lord was in the heart of it the earth didn't
you start to say that because? That's one of the things that
we learn from the book of Jonah. I As Jonah was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so must the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. We learn
of the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from this book. The Lord Jesus quoted that to
us. We also learn something else from this book. We learn about
the resurrection and the judgment to come. Our Lord Jesus said
the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it. So there's going to be a resurrection.
These men who lived in Jonah's day, who belong to this city
of Nineveh, their bodies are gone. They're decayed. But you
know they're going to rise. They're going to rise and stand
in the judgment. And they're going to condemn
the Pharisees of our Lord's day. because they repented and the
Pharisees never did and we find out something else too from this
book that God is pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save
sinners the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah God
uses the foolishness of preaching one thing I love about the book
of Jonah through all of his afflictions that he had everybody that came
in contact with this man the Lord saved them That's the most
amazing thing. He saved the cellars and then
he went into the city of Nineveh and he saved the whole city of
Nineveh through this man's preaching. God saves sinners, doesn't he?
By the foolishness of preaching. But the thing I want to see you
this morning is how the Lord saves by representation. And
first I want us to look at how Jonah represents to us the first
Adam that got us in trouble. And he says here in verse 12,
he acknowledges this. Look what he says again in chapter
1 in verse 12. And he said unto them, take me
up and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm
unto you, for I know that for my sake This great tempest is
upon you. For my sake, this storm has come
upon you. And Brother Larry read it there
in verses three and in verse four, when Jonah fled from the
presence of the Lord. When he disobeyed the Lord, he
went down and got him a ship to sail into Tarsus. And the
Lord sent out this tempest that got everybody in trouble. This
man represents to us the first Adam and the trouble that he
brought upon us. Now I want you to use your imagination
just a little bit this morning and sort of read between the
lines and I think that's fine if we'll do that. I don't think
the Lord would judge us because there's so much in here that
if we'll just consider this, it'll help us to understand it
better. What happened? What was the result? Jonas disobeyed
him when the Lord sent out this storm. Well, the first thing
we're told here in verse 5 is that The mariners the sailors
were afraid and cried every man unto his God and look at this
They cast forth the forth the cargo that was in the ship first
thing they did they lost their cargo and They threw all of their
cargo overboard. Now, if we just read over that
and don't think about it, then it won't help us much. But think
about the effects of Jonah's disobedience. They threw all
the cargo overboard. Now, when they went back into
the port, how did they answer for that? Somebody got in trouble. I mean, they went back in and
What cargo was this? Whose cargo was it? They were
taking it somewhere to sell or it had already been purchased
or something. They went back in and you can see these businessmen
standing around the port there as they come back in. Where's
our money? Where's our cargo? We got in
a storm and had to throw it overboard. You threw the cargo overboard?
Why did you come back? The ship looks in fine shape.
I bet you the captain of that ship got fired. He probably lost
his ship, didn't he? And all of the men that was helping
him throw the cargo back over, they lost their jobs. Can you
imagine how that had a ripple effect? Can you imagine the families,
they go back home, and a man with his wife and five children,
he don't have any money. He don't have any money to clothe
his children. He don't have any money to pay the rent or to buy
food. Why? Jonah said, it's because
of me. It's because of me. And we see
these ripple effects, don't we? And what happened? Because of
Jonah's disobedience. But it was not only that, he
said something else here in verse 5. Then the mariners were afraid. Look how it affected them inwardly. Look how it affected their hearts.
Boy, they were afraid. Verse 6 says they were afraid
because they thought they were going to perish. We perish. Jonah's disobedience not only
affected their livelihood, it brought great fear and uncertainty
to their hearts. We're going to perish. Boy, I tell you what, I can't imagine. I can't even sit on the seacoast
and watch the waves come in. I get motion sickness. Can you
imagine being out in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and
facing a storm like this? The Apostle Paul was out here
in this Mediterranean Sea when the ship broke up. Remember that?
That's what they were afraid. Sometimes these violent waves
got so bad it literally broke the ship up and they drowned
it. That's what they were afraid of. We're going to perish. This
ship's going to break. We're going to go down in those
dark waters. Their life became filled with
fear and dread and uncertainty. And there's something else peculiar
here in verse 5. It said these mariners, this
captain and these sailors, they cried every man unto his God. It provoked him to pray. But
who were they praying to? A God that could not save. And
all of them was praying to a different God. Just pray. Pray to who?
It don't matter. Just pray. Cry out to your God.
And that's what they were doing. They were crying out to their
God. I'm saying this because I don't think you can find a
more accurate picture, an illustration of original sin and the consequences
of that sin, the judgment of God coming and how it's affected
humanity. It's affected every aspect of
our life, has it not? as by one man's sin entered unto
the world. And what's the consequence of
that? Death. How has death affected you? Have
you lost a loved one lately? Do you have anybody in the process
of dying? Look how death has affected us.
I don't know a single person over a hundred years old. Everybody
is dying. Why? Adam sinned against God and now
death has come upon all men. In the day that you eat thereof
you shall surely die. And we're still finding out what
that means. All the trouble that is brought
in our lives comes from this one man. We trace it all back
to that one man. And we think sometimes, well,
it's just dying. It's just sin and then we die.
But no. There's not one aspect of our
lives as we live in this world that's not affected by this original
sin and God's judgment that's upon it. I can see Adam and Eve and sometimes
we see these drawings Adam and Eve coming out of the garden.
We've all seen them, you know, books are hanging on the wall,
where they're coming out of the garden and Adam and Eve and their
countenance is all downcast, you know, and behind them you
see the angel with a huge flaming sword guarding the gate so they
can't get back in. And you can imagine, as those
two people left that beautiful garden, and their fallen countenance
and they went out to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. And how amazed he was as blisters
popped up on his hands. And his back began to ache and
he got headaches and he grew tired and weary. And imagine
when Eve first conceived. And she got in labor, and she
began to scream. She was in pain. And Adam was
so afraid, he didn't know what was going on. And she began to
bleed. And they had this child. And they began to talk, we never
want to do this again. This is too painful. This is
awful. But she had another child. And
it was worse. And those two children grew up. And one day, one brother violently
and hatefully slew his other brother. Can you imagine the
heartache of that? And as humanity began to populate,
Adam began to see the rapes, he began to see the murders,
he began to see the polygamy, the divorce, defrauding one another, and he
sees it spread as humanity populated, and in his own eyes it's horrifying. And he stands and he looks out
over humanity, and this is the conclusion. He reaches a sad
conclusion. This is what he says, I know
that for my sake this tempest is upon you. And you and I are
still feeling it today, are we not? And you know something brothers
and sisters? There is absolutely, there is absolutely no remedy
that you and I have in ourselves to stop this tempest. One of the things I think, not
only with the trouble that it's brought us in our society, but
you know where false religion had its rise? In the garden. You know where this whole business
of save self came from? It came out of the tempest of
Adam's conscience. As soon as he had eaten of that
fruit, his conscience began to afflict him. You've sinned against
God. Look at you, you're naked. And
what did he do? He took fig leaves, didn't he?
To clothe his nakedness. And ever since then, men have
been attempting to steal the storm of their conscience by
one thing or another. But nothing works. Nothing works. Adam tried to do it with sewing
the fig leaves together. Jonah's sailors tried to do it
by rowing hard to bring the ship to the land. But nothing avails,
does it? Nothing avails. Society always
dreams and hopes. We found the remedy. We found
the remedy. But nothing works. We're just
as in bad shape now as we were when Adam first fought. Because
the remedy is not found in Adam, and the remedy is not found in
you, and it's not found in me. I was reading an article about
the wars that we've had. World War I, when we had that
war, they said, we're going to end all wars with this war. They
fought that. They came up with the League
of Nations. We're going to have this League of Nations. We're
going to bring leaders of all nations and get the representatives
and we're never going to have another war. And then World War
II came. And they said never again. That
was the motto of that war. Never again. So they came up
with the United Nations. We still got them around today.
And then the Korean War. And they said, you Europeans,
you need to get involved in this. That's where all the trouble
has come from, over in Europe. So they got NATO. And then we had Vietnam. Then
Desert Shield and Desert Storm. And now they think they can see
the clouds arising in World War III. What's the problem with
our society? Why is there trouble in here?
Why is there trouble in homes? Why is there trouble in the workplace?
Why we're always going down? What's our problem? Society don't
even know, do they? They're always trying to treat
the remedies. They don't know where the source
of this violent storm came from. When Adam sinned against God,
brothers and sisters, the judgment of God came. And that's what's
the matter with society today. And to still the storm, we got
to go to its source. To its source. And until we get
to the source, and what's the source? What's the source of
this storm? A holy God is angry with sin,
and His judgment has come upon it, and there's but one remedy.
One remedy. It's found in the power, and
in the grace, and the goodness, and love of God in Jesus Christ
our Lord. And it's found no other place.
And that's what Jonah told these sailors. Ain't it wonderful as
you read verse 11 how much these sailors knew about substitution? Look how they said it. Then said
they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may
be calm unto us? They had a sense, a concept,
Substitution didn't it ain't that amazing these heathens knew
that one person could suffer for other people But Jonah told him in verse 12
take me up and Cast me forth unto the sea so shall the sea
be calm unto you That's God's way of still in the storm One man must suffer in the stead
of others. One man must appease God. One man must make reconciliation
for iniquity. That's the way God steals the
star. You say, Bruce, it's Stranger
that now Jonah says, take me up, since he was the source of
the trouble to begin with, but that was the first Adam. We see
two Adams in this man. It was because of him the storm
come, but now he takes on himself Christ. Trouble came by disobedient
Adam, but now salvation comes by obedient Adam. Take me up
and cast me into Well, that's our only remedy,
is it not? That's our only remedy. I'll
tell you something about life that I think is one of the most
awakening things. It has been for me. When we're born into this world,
here's the dilemma that we face. There's no way to get out of
it. There's no way to get out of it. We're born on this sea
of life, and it's a tempestuous sea, and some feel like, I can't
take it anymore. It's too bad. It's too dangerous.
It's too uncertain. It's awful. And they find different
ways to try to escape it. Some take their own life. But
that doesn't solve the dilemma, does it? We may take our own
life physically, but we have immortal souls. And to die without the remedy
is to die only to be faced with
a greater dilemma. Eternal Tempest. Once you come
in from your mother's womb, we can't go back, can't we? We can't
be unborn. And that's the dilemma we're
in. The only remedy is to find, as God gave us a remedy. And thank God He has. He's given
us a remedy that has satisfied Him and that's what counts. By the offense of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness
of one The free gift came upon all men to justification of life. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. Yes, yes, and it's sad, isn't
it? And you and I are still dealing
with that in our own selves. But listen, by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. And the Bible tells us here that
they picked up Jonah and threw him overboard, and I love how
this says this there in verse 15, and the sea ceased from her
reach. That's the remedy. Christ and
him crucified upon Calvary's tree. That's the remedy. This not only appeased the sea,
but it appeased the one who sent the storm. That's what we're
seeking for. Sometimes we look, how can I
have some peace from these troubles that I'm in? Well, here's the
secret. Peace with God. Peace with God
will give me some peace with the circumstances that I find
myself in. If I don't have peace with God,
I won't have peace in my circumstances either. Peace has been made with
the one who sent the storm, with God. And that's where we find
our peace. Throwing things overboard, that
won't appease God, will it? They threw all the wares overboard
and said, surely this will bring peace, but it didn't. Giving
up things, that's not the way of peace. God has to be appeased. I had a friend of mine that was
in in the Korean War, I guess it was. He was telling me about
being overseas in a little country. He said he was in this little
town and all of a sudden everybody began to scream and told him
to sit down and get over to the side. He watched these young
men dressed in white and they had little short whips and they
came through town whipping their backs. He said their white gowns
were literally red from their shoulders all the way down. And
he inquired, why are you doing this? And they said, we atone
for our sins. Our conscience. There's this
tempest in our conscience. And we're doing this to ease
our conscience. If those men could have only
found out that that's not the way, the conscience is eased. The conscience only finds rest
and peace when it finds out that Jesus has been thrown overboard. And that has appeased God. There's
when the conscience finds rest. I tried all through my teenage
years. Me and my wife was dating. through all our teenage years.
And she often reminds me of this. She said, you were the most miserable
teenager I've ever seen in my life. And I was. Because my conscience
was in this tempest. And I kept trying to quit things. I kept trying to do things. To
satisfy this storm, I wanted some peace. But the storm raged
still until I found out that one who lived 2,000 years ago
had already satisfied God on my account. And as soon as I
saw that, the tempest was still. That's what Jonah teaches us.
You throw me overboard. and by throwing me overboard,
the sea shall be calm unto you." And they found that out by experience. As soon as they threw him overboard,
oh, it was calm. And they said, oh, there's something
to this substitution. There is something the way God
saves sinners. For as soon as Jonah hit the
water, there was this calm. You wonder what This had, what
kind of effect this had created up in the hearts of these sailors.
Can you imagine how they adored this man? They never lost a memory of this
man. You know, if they had any character
about them at all, they didn't forget about him when they got
back to shore. Well, a man went and told his
wife, said, honey, listen, I'm here today because of one man. This man by the name of Jonah,
he told us what to do to appease the storm. And we did it. We're
here because of him. Don't you know they admired him? And they didn't know anything
about it. They didn't know what had happened
to him. Last they saw this big whale that opened his mouth and
swallowed him up and back down he went into the dark water.
And they thought he's gone forever. Can you imagine when Jonah published
this book? Those fellas said, man, he's
alive. I've got to get a copy of that.
I've got to know what happened to him. And they get a copy and
they go here to chapter 2 and they hear him write these words,
I said, I cried by reason of my afflictions. And he goes on
telling about being down in the bottom of the mountains with
the weeds wrapped about His head, and how God had cast Him out
of His sight. And don't you imagine these men
begin to read that through their tears. And they thought, oh,
we had no idea. We had no idea how He suffered. We thought He was just thrown
overboard and that was it. But look how He suffered. Look
what He endeared to give us peace, to save us. Isn't it that way
with us? When the Lord first saved me,
all I knew was Christ suffered for my sin. That's all I knew.
I knew that He had died upon the cross of Calvary, and He
arose and ascended back to heaven. But when I began to read in the
Word, I began to read how He suffered, the extent of His suffering. And oh, my affections for Him
deepened. My assurance of my salvation
was more full. I thought, look what He suffered
to save my sinful soul. And we see it, don't we? In the
Old Testament, we see it in so many places. Oh, He talked in
Psalms 40 about all these innumerable evils have come past me about. What was that? I tell you, one
thing was our sins, wasn't it? And then in Lamentations chapter
1, he talks about, Is it nothing to you who pass by? Behold and
see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith God
has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And we read
that and we say, God afflicted him? God smote him? That's what he had to suffer
in my stead. And we read these places in the
Old Testament, and I tell you, this melts our heart, doesn't
it? He's given us this. He's given us this. What is this
about? This is His body, isn't it? That was broken. And we remember
His broken body upon the cross. His blood that was shed, that
our sins could be remitted. And we remember all of this.
And like these men here, we say, Lord, I'll never forget you.
I'll never forget. And it's a wonderful thing to
experience, is it not? We see this and I thought as
I was reading this and I thought, boy, that's peculiar because
he first tells them here in chapter 1, take me up, you take me up,
he said, you take me up and you cast me overboard. And they took
him up and cast him overboard. But when you come to chapter
2, Jonah says, God did it. God casts me out into the deep. Who was it? Well, first and foremost,
when we think of the death of Christ, we think of God doing
it, don't we? God satisfying Himself for sin. And this world keeps looking
for the remedy. How can we satisfy? And they want to know how we
can satisfy the conscience. How can we have peace? God has
to satisfy Himself. That's what we're concerned about.
That was my trouble in my teenage years. I was trying to satisfy
myself. God is who we must be concerned
about. God must be satisfied first. God says, I'm going to put Jonah
in the sea. I'm going to swallow him up.
And not until I do will the sea be calm. God afflicted his son. God made his soul a sacrifice
for sin. And when God saw it, he was satisfied. Satisfied. One of the reasons
you and I do not believe in a universal redemption is because in redemption,
in the sufferings of Christ, God is satisfied. And if he had
been satisfied for those in hell, then hell would have emptied
itself, wouldn't it? Oh, we've got a substitute who
has satisfied God. And he says, you take me up.
You take me up. And boy, this is involved in
what the old timers used to have a doctrine. They called it using
Christ. We must use Him, they said. Now,
when we talk about using people today, that's not good, is it?
We just use people. But the old Puritans, they used
to say, we must use Christ. God has given us to Christ to
use Him. And they said, here's the way
we do it. When your conscience is afflicted with guilt and fear
and doubts, They said, take up Jesus. Take Him up in your arms
of faith and throw Him, cast Him into the midst of your guilt. Use Him. Luther used to preach
to his congregation and I like some of the statements that he
made. They always taught back in that day, Catholics did, you
know, there's this burning hell and if you don't do this and
that to eradicate your sin, And if it ever begins to disturb
you, something's wrong. Luther often told his congregation,
he said, when your conscience is afflicted with its guilt,
and Satan comes to you and he says, you're the worst sinner
in this world. You're worthy to be damned. Agree with him. Agree with Him. I am a bad sinner. I am worthy of hell. But He says,
then say to Satan this, Jesus Christ is a surety for my sin. And therefore I will not fear. I can face life, I can face death,
I can face God in eternity because Jesus is my charity. Use Him. Take Him up in the arms
of your faith and cast Him right into the midst of all your troubles. We don't use Him, brothers and
sisters, as much as we should. You having any trouble within
your own heart? Use Him. Are you troubled? Are you burdened? I don't care what it's about.
He said, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
What are you heavy laden about? I bet you can trace that burden
back to the first Adam. Can the first Adam bring us into
trouble and the second Adam not help us out of it? No matter
what it is, One friend of mine told me years ago, he said, we
go to the Lord about everything. We cast all of our cares about
everything upon Him. He said, we were going to get
a dog for the children, and we prayed about a dog for the kids.
I first thought, now that's ridiculous. But then I thought, well, what
if you get a biting dog? You would have wished you had
prayed, wouldn't you? And if you get a biting dog after
you have prayed, at least your conscience will say, I saw the
Lord in it. Why not take the Lord Jesus up
and bring Him right in the midst of our daily lives? In our homes, on the work, everything
we do, bring Him up, brothers and sisters, and just throw Him,
cast Him down into our daily troubles, and I bet you anything,
the way will be still. Take me up and cast me into the
midst of the sea and the waves of the sea shall be calm unto
you. I was reading a little article
the other day by Thomas Brooks, let me read it to you. He said, the infinite wisdom
and power of dear Jesus in reconciling the law and the gospel in this
great mystery of justification is greatly to be magnified. Now
listen, this righteousness by one man's obedience shall many
be made righteous. This righteousness presents us
in the sight of God all fair. Songs of Solomon 4-7. It presents
us complete. Colossians 2.10 It presents us
before God without spot or recall. Ephesians 2.27, 5.27 as holy and blameless and unreprovable
in his sight." Colossians 1.22. Oh happy and blessed the safety
and glory of those precious souls who are in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ and stand perfectly righteous in the sight of God. Then he says this, know for your
comfort that this imputed righteousness of Christ will answer all our
fears and our doubts and our objections within our soul. How shall I look to God in the
righteousness of Jesus Christ? How shall I have communion with
the Holy God in this world? The answer is in the righteousness
of Christ. How shall I find acceptance with
God? The answer is in the righteousness
of Christ. How shall I die? How shall I
die? A lot of people are concerned
with that, aren't they? I'm concerned with that. How
shall I die? The answer is, in the righteousness
of Christ. How shall I stand before the
judgment seat? The answer is, in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. The sure and only way under all
temptations, fears, and conflicts and doubts and disputes is by
faith to remember Christ and the sufferings of Christ as your
mediator and surety. In Him you stand complete before
God. Say this, O Christ thou art my
sin and being made sin for me. Thou art my curse, and being
made a curse for me. Or rather, I am thy sin, and
you are my righteousness. I am your curse, and you are
my blessing. I am your death, and you are
my life. You are my hell, and I am your heaven. The obedience of Jesus Christ,
His righteousness, just picked up and cast down right in the
midst of our daily life, will make the sea calm unto us. I am going to sing this song.
I'm not a singer, but I'm going to sing this song. It's called, This Poor Man. I think it goes along shortly
with the message. Once I was poor in the eyes of
God. Poor for my sins against me were
charged. My debt only grew with each passing
day. The price the law demanded, I
just could not pay. Jesus, come save me, save this
poor man. I cannot pay the price, you only
can. He heard my cry, He made me understand. He paid with his life's blood
to save this poor man. You see, for so long by my hopes
and dreams I thought my good works, God's balance would swing
But could I obey to His last command? Would be but my duty,
it won't pay for sin. Jesus, come save me, save this
poor man. I cannot pay the price. you only can. He heard my cry, made me understand. He paid with his life's blood
to save this poor man. Now I am rich through Christ
God's Son. The faith that He gave has made
us one. No longer do I stand in my filthy
dress, but clothed in the garments of His righteousness. Jesus, come save me, save this
poor man. I cannot pay the price, you only
can. He heard my cry, made me understand. He paid with his life's blood. to save this poor man. It's been such a joy. God bless
your hearts. Thank you for letting me preach
to you. Thank you, Brother Larry. Can we have prayer before I sit
down? Oh, our Father, our gracious
Father, we thank you for such a gospel. Nothing short of it
can save us. Nothing short of it can satisfy
you. Nothing short of it can satisfy
our conscience. Oh, Father in heaven, we bless
your name. Sometimes you make us rejoice
in the low bottom of our hearts when you let us see Christ our
Lord. We feel ourselves so miserable, so blind, so naked, so full of
doubts, uncertainties, until we look to you. and everything
is steady and calm. We call you our Father because
in Christ Jesus you are our Father. You own us as your children.
You forgive us. You're so pitiful to us. Oh,
we bless you. We bless your holy and wonderful
name. Thank you for this dear people. Thank you for this dear
pastor. Would you bless your work here
exceedingly? Would you bless all the teaching
and all the preaching? Would you receive the worship?
It would please you, would you add to this place? Would you
save your people? Lord, in this place, oh, for
the glory of Christ our Lord who is worthy, we ask for His
sake. Amen.