Turn with me please to Psalm
38. Psalm 38. And we'll read from verse 1.
Psalm 38, verse 1. A psalm of David to bring to
remembrance. O Lord, rebuke me not in thy
wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine
arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones
because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over mine head, as in heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My
wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I
am troubled, I am bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the
day long, for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and
there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore-broken. I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before
thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee. My heart panteth,
my strength faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes,
it also is gone from me. My lovers and my friends stand
aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand far off. They also that
seek after my life lay snares for me. They that seek my heart
speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. But I as a deaf man heard not,
and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I
was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. For I said, hear me, lest otherwise
they should rejoice over me. When my foot slippeth, they magnify
themselves against me. For I am ready to halt, and my
sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare mine iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. But mine enemies are lively,
and they are strong. And they that hate me wrongfully
are multiplied. They also that render evil for
good are mine adversaries, because I follow the thing that good
is. Forsake me not, O Lord. O my
God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord,
my salvation. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from His Word. Now if you'll turn with me also
to the New Testament, and to Luke chapter 10, Luke's Gospel
chapter 10. We have been reading about the
corruption that the psalmist felt in his own flesh and in
his own heart and in his own soul. We're going to make some
references to this psalm in the things that we will consider
together, the Lord willing. Let's have a word of prayer.
Almighty God, we approach thee in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is good that we can be brought into thy presence.
with some degree of familiarity as we resort once again to prayer
and worship. We thank Thee for the access
that we have found unto Thee in times past. We thank Thee
for the promises that Thou hast given that where just a few are
gathered in Thy name, there Thou art in the midst. We bless Thee
that Thou hast encouraged us to come unto Thee with our prayers
and our petitions. And we ask, our God, that thou
wilt hear us now, and upon the footing of thy promises and thy
faithfulness, we believe that thou art pleased to receive us.
And therefore, as we come, we ask that thou wilt be unto us
those things which we require and which we desire. And we ask,
O God, that our desires will be modified by those things which
are good for our souls. We pray that we will have a hunger
and thirst after righteousness, and that we will find that in
the Lord Jesus Christ is all the sustenance that we require. We pray that we will seek the
refreshing that the knowledge of salvation and the preaching
of the gospel gives to those who are weary in a barren land. And we ask that thou wilt be
merciful to us even this afternoon, that thou wilt speak and we will
have ears to hear, that thou wilt be demonstrated in our midst
and we will have eyes to see. So we ask our God as we turn
to Thee now, open our hearts, open our souls, pour in those
good gifts which are needful, that oil and that wine, and bless
us and make us a people desirous after Thee, to the glory of the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ we ask it. Amen. We're going to read a few verses
from Luke chapter 10, beginning at verse 23. Luke chapter 10,
it's a very familiar story for you, I am sure. We read in verse
23, he turned, that is the Lord Jesus, and he turned him unto
his disciples and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see
the things that ye see. Blessed are the eyes that see
the things that ye see. For I tell you that many prophets
and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and
have not seen them. And to hear those things which
ye hear, and have not heard them." What a privilege we have this
afternoon to see and to hear holy things, to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ and wait upon him to teach our hearts and our souls
of the spiritual things that he has for his people. Behold,
a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto him, What
is written in the law, how readest thou? And he answering said,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,
and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast
answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. And he, willing
to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? Jesus answering, said, A certain
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed,
leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down
a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by
on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he
was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other
side. But a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion
on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil
and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to
an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed,
he took out two pens, and gave them to the host, and said unto
him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come
again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three thinkest
thou was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he
said, He that showed mercy on him, Then said Jesus unto him,
Go and do thou likewise. Amen. When Lord Jesus Christ is the
subject, when He is the great theme of our ministry, of our
preaching, There is no need for us to be complicated and confusing
about the things that we say. Indeed, if my preaching becomes
complicated and confusing, then I have failed in my task There
ought to be a plainness in our speaking. There ought to be a
clarity in the preaching of the gospel which removes all doubt
and ambiguity. There ought to be in the mind
of the hearer an understanding because of the clarity and the
simplicity of the message that is spoken. Now they may not agree
with what they hear, they may not believe what they hear, but
they should be under no misapprehension about what they have heard. We
ought to be clear in the preaching of the gospel, in the preaching
of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul calls that the simplicity
that is in Christ. It's a lovely phrase, the simplicity
that is in Christ. He says in 2 Corinthians 11,
verse 3, I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ. I don't want to go too much in
this direction, but as I was preparing my thoughts for today,
it just seemed very clear that even in this verse, the reference
to the simplicity that is in Christ and the way in which Paul
describes the subtlety of the serpent that beguiled and deceived
Eve, Where can those people go who do not believe in creation?
Where can they go who believe in evolution, that we have come
here through an evolutionary process? They cannot believe
the words of Paul, for it was by the subtlety of the serpent
that Eve was deceived. We cannot have humanity evolving
around the world and yet hold a place called Eden and a man
called Adam and a woman called Eve and a serpent who was subtle
to the deception of the woman and brought sin into this world. Paul is clear. Paul believed
the creation story and we ought to give an hearing and an assent
to that which the New Testament apostles have taught us. And
yet there is a dilemma for every preacher because every preacher
of God's grace knows that salvation is nevertheless a profound and
a deep matter. There is in the salvation story
the revelation of a great mystery. It is a spiritual work in a physical,
material world. It is the intervention of an
eternal and an infinite God into the affairs of finite people. Into our fleeting experience,
we were just thinking about that a moment ago, how quickly life
passes. And here is the eternal infinite
God becoming involved in the lives, the commonplace everyday
lives of men and women like you and like me. It is an immensely
profound and mysterious thing that is occurring in these matters. And we know that there is an
unquestionable mystery about this whole work. The Apostle
Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 3, without controversy, Great
is the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. Is that not mysterious? God becoming
a man. Is that not profound? Justified
in the Spirit. Seen of angels. Preached unto
the Gentiles. Believed on in the world. Received
up into glory. What a message this is. And so
here is what we are confronted with, a profound mystery, and
yet unfolded in clear and simple terms. By the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ into the world, men are brought into the simplicity
of the truth of the redemptive purpose of God. It is the evangel,
it is the gospel, it is the story, it is the account of God's redemption
of his people. And it is pure, and it is holy,
and it is simple. It is the simple doctrine of
God's love and His grace towards His people. And it lies in one
clear, plain, easy, and important truth. And it is this. Salvation is of the Lord. Let me say it another way. Salvation
is by the Lord Jesus Christ. So if I have not already lost
you in what we've said, I want to bring to you this afternoon,
as the Lord will enable, the simplest gospel message that
I can. The simplest gospel message that
you have ever heard. And I want to do it in an account
that the Lord Jesus Christ himself gave. There are four characters
in the narrative, the story of the Good Samaritan. Four key
individuals. There is the man who fell among
the thieves. There is a priest. There is a
Levite. And there is a Samaritan. Now, the priests and the Levite
are bit players. They are provided in the narrative
to show us that there is no help for this dying man in the religion
of the world. I'm not going to spend too much
time on the Levite and the priest. They are not very important. in this story. The important
people come later. But for the purposes of this
narrative, the Lord Jesus Christ has shown us that there is no
help for the dying sinner in the religion of this world. Not in the ceremonies, not in
the rituals, not in the practices, not in the rules, not in the
false promises that they make. We are going to pass these men
by as quickly as they passed by the man that needed help. But there is one thought that
I just want to dwell upon as we do so. These men proved ineffectual
for the physical state of this dying traveller, this dying man. And religion, the word religion,
I don't know whether you know this, but the word religion has
to do with being bound up. A ligature is something that
is tied around in order to hold something in place, to bound
it up. You might get a ligature put
on if you had broken your arm. Well, that's what religion is. It is re-ligion. The link in religion is abiding. And what we see in religion is
the bondage of men. We see them being tied up. in
rules and regulations and practices and ceremonies, and that's what
is pictured, prefigured, in the use of these men as far as this
man who was the traveller was concerned. These religious men, they quickly
walked past this traveller. They had nothing to offer. this
dying man. And religion in our day has nothing
to offer the soul that is dying because of its sin. Moses' law
The ministers of that law gave no relief to this man. And I don't know whether you
can imagine with me this afternoon how that man must have felt. He is there, we are told, the
language of Scripture is that he is half dead. He's lying. on the ground. He's probably
semi-conscious. He sees out of his half-opened
eye someone coming towards him. He has been beaten, he's been
battered, he's been left for dead and he suddenly has hope
that this person coming towards him might have something to give
him, might have some hope for him, might have something that
will help him. Can you imagine what it is going
to be like on that day of judgment, when all the self-righteous works,
all the good works, flee past the dying man in judgment? who's looking for help, who's
seeking something to hold on to, who wants to hope on something
and yet finds that there is nothing enduring in all the works that
he has done, in all the labours. It is going to be a terrible
day, the Day of Judgment. Because a multitude of people
are going to say, look what we've done for you, Lord. Look, you
have been in our gatherings. You have been preached amongst
us. You have been a part of our lives
for so long. Are you saying that there is
nothing here that is going to recommend us to you? And all
those good works, all that self-righteousness, all that religion, that his bound
men for ages is going to dissipate and fly away as quickly as these
two men passed by the needy sinner. Religion is as much good to a
soul as these men were to this traveller. He needed someone
who was willing to stop and to help him. And so do you, and
so do I. The main characters before us
in this narrative are the Traveller and the Samaritan. And like all
of Scripture, these two people speak about the Lord Jesus Christ
and about our need of a Saviour. The Traveller is a needy sinner. And we are all in sin. It is the nature of our humanity
that each and every individual born into this world is born
in sin. We are sinners before we practice
that which we are best at. Our nature is a sinful nature,
and out of that sinful nature flows all the sin and all the
wickedness that we perpetrate, that we fulfill in our life. But some sinners are needy sinners. And I make a distinction here
because we see that this man, as he goes down from Jerusalem
to Jericho, falls into the hands of those who beat him and who
hurt him. He is described as being stripped
He has had his very clothes stolen from him. He is described as
being wounded. He has been cut in his body. He is described as being abandoned. There is no one there to help
him. and he is described as being
half dead. This is what we are taught of
this man and by this teaching I believe we are to understand
the needy sinner. The sinner who has an awareness
of his condition, one who has been stripped of all his self-righteousness,
who realises that there's nothing good in him, who realises something
as did the psalmist in Psalm 38, that he has been wounded
by the arrows of his conscience, that he has been brought to that
place of being aware of the condition of his soul. And this is how
we must come to see ourselves. wounded by sin, so that we can
do nothing about our state, abandoned because there is no one to help
us. We have tried every possible
avenue of help. We have gone to the places where
we might have had some comfort for our soul, some help for our
condition, and we have found these to be lacking, found them
to be wanting. basic burden has not been taken
away and we see ourselves as needing. Abandoned alone, exposed
to the anger of God's law underneath the gaze of that Righteousness
and holiness and purity that finds us wanting and shows us
to be properly under the judgment of God. Half dead. Yes, we are
dead in our sin. The picture of the man half-dead
shows his incapability of doing anything to recover himself or
remedy his situation. That man is lying there until
the life passes from him. Unless someone will help him,
and unless the Lord Jesus Christ comes and helps us, then we will
die in that place. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 6 says,
From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness
in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have
not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Here is a sinner. Here is a needy
sinner. And I ask you to think about
your condition this afternoon. Is this where you are? Can you
see yourself in this man's position? Can you confess before God that
this is where you are and that your needs are as this man's
needs? A poor, needy sinner. but a man who might be described
also as a sensitive sinner, because here is one who sees his need
of help, who looks to those who are passing by, hopefully seeking
their support. He had left Jerusalem and he
was heading down to Jericho. Jerusalem is the city of false
hope. It is the city of false peace. It is the city which speaks of
false religion. He thought that he would have
peace in Jerusalem. And yet what he was doing was
he was heading down to the place of the curse. Jericho in scripture
speaks of a cursed place. And here is a man who leaves
Jerusalem, heading down to Jericho, descending all the way under
spiritual conviction. And so we see David in Psalm
38 and every elect child of God having to leave that place of
false peace and come under that sense of conviction and curse
in their own souls. They must be awakened from that
place of death to see the only Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And finally, the last person
in this account, and I've taken too long to come to him already,
is the Good Samaritan. And here is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter 8 and verse 48,
we read these words. The Jews said unto him, Say we
not well Are we not right in saying, say we not well that
thou art a Samaritan? Don't you just love it when Christ's
enemies honour him? Don't you just love it when the
enemies of the Gospel, by their machinations, by their efforts
to do down the Lord Jesus Christ, actually promote and honour Him? Well, that's what these men did.
They called the Lord Jesus Christ a Samaritan. And the Lord takes
that term, that term of derision, that term of hatred, and he applies
it to himself. He shows himself to be that one
who is a good Samaritan, one who is able to help. This one who was loathed by the
Jews proved that grace and help comes from an unexpected source. And that's what every needy sinner
finds in their experience. They did not look to Christ for
grace. They did not look to Him for
help. They thought they could find
their help in the religion of this world. They thought they
could find their comfort in their own efforts. They did not think
that grace would come from Christ, and yet here it is, from that
which was ill-regarded. comes the loveliness that is
the salvation in Christ. There are a few points that are
made in the verse. I'm sorry, went to him. Verse
34, we encounter what the Samaritan did for this poor man. He went to him, he bound up his
wounds, he poured in oil and wine, he set him on his own beast,
he brought him to an inn and took care of him. These Six things
that were done by the Samaritan tell us what the Lord Jesus Christ
does for every needy sinner. The first thing he did was he
went to him. The Samaritan went to him. He went over to where he lay. When the man could not go to
Him, the Samaritan came to the man. Christ comes to us. When no other comfort will suffice,
the Lord Jesus Christ brings help to the needy. Let us never
forget that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save
sinners. That was the purpose. That was
what Paul said was the great mystery. God manifests in the
flesh. God come into this world to save
his people from their sin. Some preachers will say, you
need to go to Jesus and he will heal you. The more arrogant they
say, come to Jesus, and by implication suggest that they are already
with him. But the gospel says that Jesus
went to him. And that's the big difference.
For while we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. The Lord Jesus Christ comes to
the sinner. The Samaritan went to the dying
man. And then he bound up his wounds. Sin has made deep wounds in the
soul of the people of this world. And sin has made great wounds. It has broken the heart. It has
wounded the sinner. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who can bind up those wounds. There's a little
verse in Matthew chapter 8 which I just want to mention to you.
It says this, it begins in verse 5. When Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto him a Saturian beseeching him and
saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented. Jesus saith unto him, listen
to these words, I will come and heal him. I will come and heal
him. The Lord Jesus Christ goes to
those who are in need. You know what? I think that we
should take the example of that centurion to heart, those of
us who know the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that we should take
that example of the burden that that man had for those who need
Christ and bring a petition to Him on their behalf. Let us pray
for those that we love. Let us bring those that we love
to the Lord. And perchance the Lord will say,
I will come and I will heal him. Do we know the prayer of the
psalmist in Psalm 38? Do we know what it is to give
that cry of the brokenhearted? Have we been brought into a true
awareness of our condition to know that we need the mercy of
the Lord Jesus Christ upon us? Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones
are vexed. In Psalm 147 we read, He healeth
the broken in heart, He bindeth up their wounds. How does He
do that? The Lord Jesus Christ binds the
wounds of the broken hearted by applying His blood to their
conscience. That is what He does. He heals
the broken hearted by showing us that there is forgiveness
in his blood. He shows us that there is peace,
that there is healing, that there is recovery in the atoning work
of redemption. He shows us in the cross there
is a way of salvation and deliverance. This man came to the needy sinner,
the needy traveller. He came to him and he bound up
his wounds and the Lord Jesus Christ comes to the sinner and
he shows us the blood of the cross and by that our consciences
are eased, by that our hearts are blessed and we see that by
His stripes we are healed. He bare our own sin, He bare who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should
live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed. The third thing that this man
did as he encountered the needy traveller was to pour in oil
and wine. Healing oil invigorating wine. This was to comfort and refresh
him in his state. And that speaks of the work of
the Holy Spirit. He is the one who brings the
love of Christ to those who see their need of grace and mercy. He is the one who teaches us
what it is to love God, for he shows us our need and he shows
us the source of that need's remedy. There's a loveliness
about the way in which the Lord Jesus Christ describes this.
He says he poured in oil and wine. He poured it in. He didn't unscrew the lid of
a little tube and take a bit off the top and rub it in as
if the contents of that tube was the most precious thing.
He broke the neck of the bottle and He poured it in. There's
a plentitude in grace. There is a sufficiency in the
grace of God for the needy sinner. There is so much to be had that
it supplies all our needs according to His riches. And there's something
lovely in this picture of the plentitude of mercy, the plentitude
of redemption. It is full and it is running
over. Guilty, needy, sinner. God's
mercy is plenteous. It shall be given unto you in
good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over. Do you ever hear the chorus running
over, running over? my cups full and running over. Since the Lord saved me, I am
as happy as can be for my cups full and running over." What
a picture, what a contrast, what a difference is made when that
grace is poured into the needy sinner's life. No wonder it is
called a conversion. Once I was blind, but now I can
see. Such a transition, such a change. In all of my bankruptcy, now
I have plenty. Because he pours in that which
our soul requires. The fourth thing that he does
in this 34th verse is he sets him on his own beast. You know
what that means? That means that the Samaritan
walked. The Samaritan walked the rest
of the journey and this needy sinner was placed upon his beast. Our Lord Jesus Christ has taken
our burden and then he carries us home. There's a double blessing
in this. He poured in the oil and the
wine and then he lifted him onto his own beast and he walked beside
him and he took him all the way. When the Lord finds and comes
to one of his little ones, when he comes to that needy sinner,
he does not leave them to find their own way home. He carries
them home himself. So the Lord in that lovely chapter
of the things that were lost and found in Luke 15 says of
the lamb that when he had found it he layeth it on his shoulders
rejoicing and he carried it all the way home. The picture is
of resting in Christ The picture is of salvation being entirely
the work of our Saviour, not by the works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. He
walks with us. He bears our weight. He secures us in the palm of
his hand. Picture the Samaritan taking
that poor man on his donkey. He puts his arm around him, a
Samaritan mind you. They would never have touched
a Jew or a Jew would never have touched a Samaritan. But now
the tables are turned. Now he sees his need and he loves
the embrace of his Deliverer. Do we not love the embrace of
our Deliverer when the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us who he is? And he brought him to an end.
Could it be any simpler? He brought him to an inn. What is the inn but a gospel
fellowship? What is the inn but a church
that worships the Lord? He brought him to where he would
get refreshment. where he would find nourishment. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ does to everyone to whom he comes, to everyone whom he
binds up, to everyone into whose soul he pours that oil and that
wine of spiritual life and refreshment, and everyone that he picks up
and carries home. Where does he put them? Not out
in the wilderness, not out in the world, not abandoned out
there somewhere where there's no fellowship. He binds them
together in a gospel church. And I know some of you are thinking
about that right now, about being where the Lord's people meet.
And it's an important place to be. That's where the Lord blesses. That's where the Lord promises.
You cannot find one place in Scripture, one place in Scripture,
where God promises to meet His people except where two or three
are gathered in my name. And it's the gathering that has
the potency. That's where the power is. That's
where the fellowship is. That's where the company of the
Lord's people find their resource and their comfort. How blessed
we are that the Lord Jesus Christ should ordain such a people and
such a place that we can have fellowship with the saints in
this wearisome world. It is a privilege beyond measure. I am so delighted to know you,
to meet your acquaintance, to have your fellowship, to worship
together. It's a privilege. where two or
three are gathered. Christ brings his people thus,
and by this means they secure the company of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. He comes to us. He takes us with
him. He gives us the society of fellow
pilgrims along the way. What an inn that was for this
poor needy traveller to be left at. In this inn, there is bread
to eat. In this inn, there is milk and
honey to savour. There is a furnished table. He handed over the two coins
and he says, take care of this man, feed his soul, nourish him
up. And this is an obligation that
comes to the preachers of the gospel. Make sure that the souls
of these little ones are well catered for and provided for. Zion's provisions are here amongst
this people. Peace dwells here amongst this
people. Love reigns here. And it is Christ's own act to
bring his people hence. And it is their great privilege
to be brought to such a place. So the psalmist says, I will
dwell in the house of the Lord. And he took care of him. So my
final thought, needy sinner, has not the Lord Jesus Christ
supplied all our needs? Has he not done good for our
souls? Has he not gloriously supplied
How different my thoughts and my feelings and my demeanor would
be if only I was not so full of unbelief, if only I could
trust him for the provision that he has made. How much less worry
there would be in my life if I could see him for all the provision
that he has made for me. What has God withheld from you
that would improve your life? What has he taken away from you
that you would be better off having? Has he not taken care
of us thus far? Has he not proved his faithfulness
to us? And will he not be faithful in
the days that lie ahead? What am I to worry about? What
am I to fear? And though he might leave us
for a little while, though he may go on, does he not continue
to supply every need at his own expense? Has he not done good
for us, even although right now we cannot see him physically,
we cannot see him bodily? Do we doubt that he is not yet
still here and providing for all our needs? The verse says, And he went to
him, and he bound up his wounds, and he poured in oil and wine. He set him on his own beast,
he brought him to an inn, and he took care of him. Could the
gospel get any simpler than that? Could it be any more clear than
that? If I have clouded that gospel
in any way to you this afternoon, I apologize, because that is
as clear as it gets. We have a wonderful Savior, Jesus,
my Lord. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank
Thee for Thy goodness to Thy people. We see it demonstrated
in our own lives. We see it demonstrated in the
lives of others. And in Thy Church, we thank Thee
for bringing us to that place, even of experiencing our need. Some of us have been battered
in this life. Some of us have been trodden
underfoot of this world. But all of us have been brought
to that place, if indeed thy gospel has been meaningful to
us, of recognising our need before a holy God. We pray that thou
wilt continue to help us to understand our own selves, but cause our
eyes to be drawn to this One who approaches, to this One who
brings the help that we require, and help us to dwell all the
days of our life in the security and comfort of all that has been
accomplished for our precious souls. Show us the Lord Jesus
Christ, we pray, and in that sight cause our souls to rejoice. For Jesus' sake we ask it. Now
bless this food to us, and as we share in fellowship and in
the provision that has been made for our body's use, we pray that
thy name will yet continue to be glorified amongst us. For
Jesus' sake. Amen.