In Ephesians chapter 2, I want
us to begin reading again in verse 1 down through verse 7.
And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins,
wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. among
whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together
with Christ. By grace ye are saved. and has
raised us up together and made us set together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. You and I have been looking at
this passage here that we found in verses 1 through verse 4,
especially these first three verses concerning man's sin and
what an awful and sad state that the Scriptures declares and teaches
us to be in by our very natures. As I was just reading that in
those first three verses, I thought to myself how dark this is just
to read it. And to study it as we've tried
to the last couple of weeks is even sadder still. We've looked
at there what it meant to be dead in trespasses and sins,
and then the course of this world, and it mainly is just as the
world has done what it's always did since the fall. It's sinning.
It has this attitude that it's me first. This attitude of selfishness. Disselfish. That's the way we
are by nature. What pleases me, what I want.
If I can't do it with my hands, I think of doing it with my mind.
And we continue that way. That's us. All that's in the
world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. And the Apostle Paul went on
to tell us that one of our great problems is this unseen problem.
It's this wicked spirit, these fallen angels that come to our
mind and suggest these awful things to us and they use us
and they abuse us. And it's sad to think that we
love to have it that way. We don't complain about it. They
stir up our lust and we love to have it so. And then he tells
us this awful thing there in verse 12. that we looked at also,
that the course of this world can be thought of in this sense,
that we were without Christ, without God, without hope, without
a promise in this perishing world. What a sad state that was. And
it's good that we study this. It's what the Scripture says
about ourselves. It identifies us as we really
are. And the only infallible way for
us to know ourselves is by the Scripture. You know,
we look at ourselves, but we're apt to deceive ourselves. We're
apt to think good of himself. Every man speaks well of himself
while he speaks bad of others. We can't trust what our neighbor
says about us. I can put on a show in front
of you. You may deceive me. You may flatter me and deceive
me. But God knows us. And God has
recorded what we are in His Word for us to read. And here's what
He says about us. And it's not because he does
not want to say good things about us. He's no such God as looking
and is so picky. But he cannot say anything good
about us. Here's what he says about us.
The heart is deceitful above all things. Now think of that
element just for a minute. What is it about the heart that
is so dangerous? It lies to itself. It won't bring
us to the truth. It hides the warts. It hides
the wrinkles. It hides what we are and deceives
us. I'm a good person. How do you
know you are? My heart tells me so. Well, the
heart is deceitful. And that's one element of the
heart and the danger of it. It's deceitful above what? Everything. All things. There's nothing in
this world that's more deceitful than the heart. And then it has
this element about it. It's desperately wicked. That
word desperately simply means it's incurable. It's incurable. And who says that about us? That's
what God says about us. This generation that went before
us, went before me anyway. And the generation that you and
I are living in now, and I think the generation that's coming
up behind me, has lied to itself. And here's the lie that's been
told these three generations that I know of, and the lie that's
been accepted, and it's this. You're a good person. You just
need to be saved. And we've made sweet, innocent
sinners out of people. There was a man, he was a great
evangelist in our day, and he's a famous pastor out west. And
I read that he made this statement. This is a quote that I read myself.
And I think maybe I even heard him say it. He said the greatest
harm that's being done to this generation is this, preachers
going across the country telling men that they're sinners. Well, I think the greatest harm
that's being done is not telling men that they're sinners. You noticed in the last few years
the increase of easy-believism? It's almost universally accepted
now that man has a free will, and that salvation consists in
nothing else but a man exercising that will. And when he exercised
that will, then he's saved. And that's not only – how often
when you're watching some actor, or you're watching someone who's
not even religious, and they make the statement, well, I believe
man has free will. But you not only hear it from
society in general, how often do you hear it from the pulpit?
Boasting in free will. Crying out the power and the
merit of free will. And easy believism. You just
make a decision for Jesus. You decide for Christ. And that
decision is what saves you. And I think As we go in this
downward spiral of not preaching to men and explaining to men
from the Scriptures what they really are, I think it's going
to increase. Easy-believerism is going to
increase. This whole idea of the sinner's
sad state and his miserable condition is avoided in our day. We have little tracks, and you've
seen them, I've seen them. God's simple plan of salvation. How many little tracks have you
seen? But what is avoided in that track is this. What is man? When he's said to be a sinner
in need of a Savior, they never stop to go into any detail. What kind of a sinner is he?
Well, that's one thing about the Word of God. He doesn't spare
us. He confronts us, not with just
being a sinner, but what kind of a sinner are we? That's why it's so critical for
us to be confronted with a scriptural view of ourselves. Why is it
so important? Well, first of all, it's this,
because this Bible is not opinion. It's not opinion. This is God
speaking. This is how God sees you. This
is how God sees me. And He don't hide anything from
us. He's just. He's good. He's right. You can
trust what He says about you. He won't deceive you. You can't trust yourself. You
can't trust your heart. You can't trust what I say about
you. But when God judges you, when God pens it down in His
Word, that's the truth. That's the truth. Who is the
author of this Bible? It's God Himself. It's God Himself. I want to know what He says about
me. I want to know what He says about
you. If we don't come here to God's Word and judge ourselves
and receive what He says about us as He looks upon us outside
of Christ, that it's sad, it's fearful,
it's devastating. But if we won't face that and
believe what He says about us, then how can we believe about
what He says about our standing in Christ? He says, this is what
you are without My Son. And it's horrifying. But this is what you are in My
Son. You're saved. You have life eternal. But who is it that must tell
us? Who is it that must teach us? It's God and His Word. And let me say this, and this
probably sounds rather bold, but I think this is the truth.
It's only scriptural sinners who are ever saved. It's only
scriptural sinners who are ever saved. Well, somebody says, I'm
not that bad. I know what you said the Bible
says about me, but I'm not that bad a sinner. Then you'll never
be saved. It's only those who come to agree
with the Scriptures about themselves who are saved. Bruce, are you
telling me that we have to understand what the Scripture says about
the depths of our sin? No, not the depths. Not the depths. Thank God, not the depths. Who
knows the depths of his depravity? None of us do. But you don't
deny it, do you? You don't deny your sinfulness.
You don't say you're a pretty good fellow, that you've really
tried, and that amounts to something. You see yourselves in the Scripture
to be a sinner. You're in agreement with God
about that. What is repentance? What is repentance? I came to call sinners to repentance. And what is repentance? Is it
not changing our mind about ourselves? Is it not saying, I've been against
God? I've been going contrary to Him,
and the very way I've been doing it, I have not received His testimony
concerning me? He's told me what I am, and it's
not good, but I've refused it, but now I've changed my mind.
He says you're a sinner worthy to go to hell this very instant.
And now I agree. Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm the chief
of sinners. The Lord Jesus said, every man
who has heard and learned of the Father, what does God teach
us? He begins to teach us of ourselves. That's what we've been looking
at in His Word in verses 1 through verse 3 in our text. We've been
trying to dissect that and look at that. And it's horrifying,
ain't it? It's horrible. But yet when God is pleased to
break in upon us and save us, He doesn't begin with making
us feel good about ourselves. I don't know where most of you
start tuning a guitar. Some start with the little strings
when they go to set a guitar in tune. I've been told the proper
way is to start with that heavy string. But when God goes to set its
center in tune, He begins with a heavy strain. He weights the
heart down. He makes it heavy. He makes it
fearful. About what? Itself. This may even sound bolder. If we are not in agreement, with
the Scriptures concerning ourselves, how can we possibly be in agreement
with God concerning Himself, concerning Christ, and concerning
salvation? Isn't there a definite correlation
today between men's high opinion of themselves and their low opinion
of God, and their low opinion of Christ and salvation? There's
a correlation there. When we continue to think too
highly of ourselves, we think too lowly of God and of salvation. About 100 years ago, I would
say you could probably go back 100 years ago, and probably 1900 or so, on back through the days
of our Puritan forefathers, back in the 15s and the 1600s especially, it was a rule. It wasn't the
exception, but it was the rule, especially in Baptist churches,
that when preachers stood in the pulpit to preach, they preached
the sovereignty of God. And whole congregations believed
in the sovereignty of God. And believing in the sovereignty
of God was the second step. You say, Bruce, what do you mean
by that? You know one of the first things that those old preachers
preached? They started with this. What
is man? What is man? And they weren't
content to say, well, he's a sinner. They went into great detail of
it and described how his carnal mind was enmity against God,
that he hated God. And that's an awful thing to
say, Eddie. It's almost offensive. It's almost repulsive. But that's
what they preached. And they preached the sovereignty
of God. They taught that to the congregation.
They shut men up to an absolute need of God coming to them and
saving them. And if He leaves you alone, you're
gone, and justly so. And you know what those people
begin to see a need of? They begin to see a need of election. You know why men reject election
today outright? Do you know why? They don't see
a need of it. Why would God choose anybody
to salvage? If He don't choose some, we're
all going to be lost. They saw that. What's the need
of having a substitute? What's the need of somebody suffering
in our place and putting our sins away? Oh, because sin is
dreadful. Sin will damn you. There's no
such thing as little sins. Every sin is an infinite sin
because it's against an infinite God. It must be punished. Therefore,
they saw the need of Calvary, the need of the cross. Why? They saw themselves. God was
teaching them through those old preachers of themselves. And you know why they loved effectual
calling. You know why they loved irresistible
grace? They saw the need of it. If the
Lord don't teach me, if He don't effectually draw me to Christ,
if He does not break me, I'll never be saved. If he leaves
me alone, I'll damn myself. They saw that. And boy, they saw the absolute
need of God preserving the believer. And they saw the absolute need
of the believer cleaving to the Lord. They knew the horror and
the consequences of that not being so. No use for God to save
a man and turn him loose. and say, I'm going to see if
you can make it. Well, he won't. He won't. Why? We know what he
is. Total depravity, where it's preached
and taught to the heart by the Holy Spirit, that person is fearful
of himself. He mistrusts himself. He finds
but one he can trust. And that's this Bible, the Word
of God. And that person not only will be fearful of himself,
that person will be fearful of ever leaving Christ. He has this
reverence that's set up in his heart for the Lord. And he has this overwhelming
need of grace and mercy. And there's one place that he
finds it, and that's in the Savior. That's in the Savior. We spend
so much time trying to get people to trust Christ. We want people
to trust Christ. But the problem with that is
this, they have no need of Christ. And they have no need of Christ
because they've not yet saw themselves in the light of Holy Scripture.
as we preached here in these first three verses. We need a scriptural view of
ourselves for this reason. Who is it that praises God for
mercy received? Who is it that recognizes grace
for what it is? That it's sovereign and free?
It's scriptural sinners. Who is it that at times feels
overwhelmed with a contemplation of the love of Christ to his
soul? Who is it that feels these things?
Not just talks about grace. Not just quotes the verse that
says, I obtain mercy. They just don't go boasting that
God loves them. Christ loves everybody. Why wouldn't
He? No, they know these things in
their hearts. They've contemplated grace. They've
felt their need of mercy. Oh, the love of Christ, they
felt it in their souls. And why is that? They've been
taught. They've been taught from the
Scriptures what they are. God has not only purposed who
He is going to save, He has purposed how He is going to save them,
by whom He is going to save them, and He has purposed this, that
when He does it, they are going to rejoice and give Him all the
glory for it. So He teaches them what they
are. When a man or woman begins to
know his sinfulness, by his very nature I mean how sinful he is,
Then he begins to know the nature of Christ as the Savior. And what does he do when he knows
Christ? He rejoices in Christ. He gives the glory and the praise
to Christ. One problem humanity has today,
it resists the diagnosis of its problems. And what is that diagnosis? It's found there in verses 1
through verse 3. That's what we've been looking
at. But it's only when you and I begin to come to terms with
humanity's miserable and hopeless situation that sin has brought
us into, and that we stand in danger of losing our precious
souls, then and only then do we begin to realize that whether we're saved or lost,
it's up to God. It's His prerogative. It's His
prerogative to break in upon us and stop us in our downward
spiral to hell and ruin. Or it's His prerogative to let
us have our disobedient way and perish finally forever. We have
no claims upon Him. He's not bound to anybody but
Himself and His own purposes. He's not bound to us. If He intervenes
and stops us, it's great love that's found in Him. It's rich
mercy that's found in Him. It's not anything that's found
in us. It's in spite of us. I think in our generation in
this day, this is one of the most important subjects that
we must dwell upon. It's this whole business about
our utter and total depravity in sin. And I'll remind you again of
something that dear Lloyd-Jones said about it, that we must contemplate
men in sin, hopelessly and heplessly lost. until we are horrified
by it. Until we are horrified by it. Why is this so important? We
will never appreciate grace. We will never understand mercy. We will never know anything about
God's love in Christ until we begin to see what we are. Paul begins here in chapter 1
and he speaks of God's electing grace and His purpose and predestination. Then he tells us third, verse
7, about this redemption that we have in Christ. Through His
blood we have forgiveness of sins. And he even tells us third,
verse 11, that we had obtained this eternal inheritance and
that it was sure. God predestinated the believer
to that. And then in verse 13, he reminds
them that they had heard the gospel, they had come to believe
in Christ, and they had been sealed by the Holy Spirit of
promise. And then in verse 19, he told
them that they come to believe because of the working of God's
great power. But all of that, all of that,
the whole of chapter 1 is almost like the headline news. He doesn't
go into any detail in that. And here's the problem we face
with chapter 1. It's a blessing. I've enjoyed
thoroughly studying it and trying to preach it to you. Studying
about these heavenly blessings and what a wonderful blessing
that chapter 1 is. But there's a danger in it. And
here's the danger of taking these spiritual blessings and making
a system out of them, entrusting in that system, taking election
and taking predestination and redemption and so on, and making
a system out of it, and saying, well, we believe in this system. This is why I earnestly believe
chapter 2 is very, very necessary. Now Paul stops here in chapter
2 and he says, I've told you about all these blessings for
God's elect people, but now I want to stop and tell you what kind
of people they are. Before God saves them, this is
why they need to be redeemed, because of the kind of people
they are. Look at the situation they find themselves in. I told
you about forgiveness of sin. Here is why it is essential that
they be forgiven. Look what kind of lives they
live in the lust of their flesh. Here is a question we must ask
ourselves. What is God teaching us of ourselves? What is He teaching me? What
is He teaching you? Is He letting me trust in a system?
A system of beliefs? Is He beating me out of everything
to trust in but His Son? What's He teaching me about my
life in the past? What's He teaching me about myself
at present? Is it becoming more and more
real to us what our lives were like in our lost condition? When you look back upon your
unconverted state now, do you look back not only with shame,
but with fear? Has God taught you enough of
where you were then that you look back upon it now and it
makes you afraid? You know, sometimes when you
and I are in a dreadful situation or a dangerous situation, We
realize something of that situation. Then we're scared, but it's only
when we come out of that situation and look back. Did you ever have
that to happen to you? You're maybe in an accident or
something, and you thought, boy, I may not get out of this. But
you weren't all that upset about it until you got away from it
and looked back, and you got so weak, and you got so fearful
about it all. That's the way it is with us.
We knew we were lost. We knew we were condemned. But
hasn't God taught you more now of how fearful a condition you
were in, looking back in retrospect? And you begin to think, oh, my
soul, what if He had left me there? Oh, now I see more of
the horror of it than I did then. Does it make you afraid when
you see someone profess Christ and they go back to the former
course of this world? When someone goes back to their
sins, are you afraid for that person? You are because you know
the danger that they're going back to. Are you afraid for those
who haven't come to the Lord Jesus? And when you think of
going back, does it make you afraid? What's God teaching us
of ourselves? What's He teaching us of the
danger of that state that we were in before He came to us?
These words aren't just in here to fill up space. These are practical
teachings of what we really are. Is total depravity a mere doctrine
of Scripture? Or is it also something that
we experienced? We experience it now in our hearts
and in our lives. And how do we feel about it?
Are you horrified with yourself? Are you ashamed of yourself?
Does it humble you when you see yourself as you are? Could we possibly accept the
scriptural testimony concerning our sinful condition without
being horrified by it? What's said here in verses 1
through verse 3 about us and our past life, unconverted life,
and then he adds verse 12 to it, verse 11 and 12, and this,
this, when you add this to it, He said, you were without Christ. You were without Christ. What
do you think? Do you ever contemplate on that?
He says for us to. This is why I've stopped this
morning to emphasize this. It's so important that we realize
ourselves to be scriptural sinners, because nobody else is saved
but scriptural sinners. Who has to teach us? God has
to teach us. Is He teaching us? Paul said, remember what you
were in time past. And what were you in time past?
He said you were without Christ. Are you horrified by that? Does
that make you afraid? Without Christ? What am I without
Christ? I'm hopeless. I'm helpless. I don't have life if I don't
have Him. I don't have a fountain to wash
in. I don't have righteousness to clothe the shame of my nakedness.
If I don't have Christ, I don't have God. I don't have access
into God's presence. Without Christ, I can't see God's
smile. All I have is God's wrath. Without
Christ. Have you ever contemplated that?
Does it make you afraid? How can people live all day?
and go to bed and sleep at night and rest easy who are without
Christ. They have never contemplated
this. Why haven't they? God has not taught them. Has
He taught you? Is He teaching you? What is He
teaching us? It comes down to this, and I
think this is what these verses are saying to us. There is but
one thing that stood between us and eternal ruin, and that's
these two little words, that God. That's it. That's what these verses are
emphasizing. The eternal God whom we had opposed,
who owed us nothing but to deal with us in a way of justice and
even indignation, but instead for reasons only known to Himself. And we didn't know it until He
made us know it. Reasons found only in Himself. He comes to us and He stops us
in our mad dash to ruin. And He gives us this life that
is in His Son. He forgives us our sins. He puts
His Spirit within our hearts to bear witness that we are His
children. He gives us these exceeding great and precious promises.
He begins to teach us of His purposes. And what does this
do? He said, well, it fills us with
gratitude. Yes, it does. But it fills us with something
else. Fear. Fear. We used to fear the wrath of
God. Now we fear the goodness of God. That's strange, isn't
it? That's strange. But that's the
gospel. That's a gospel fear. That's
a gospel reference. to fear his goodness, thus forgiveness
with the Lord, that he may be feared. Hosea said this, The
children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God,
and Christ their King, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness
in the latter days. And the Lord intervened to save
you. Doesn't that make you fear Him? I tell you, dear soul, with all
honesty and all love in my heart, if you do not fear the Lord this
morning, if you do not fear God, then examine yourself. It goes back to this. That One who stood between dust
and eternal misery is the Sovereign God. He's obligated to no one
but Himself in His own glory and His own purposes. It was
His own prerogative, as I said, to either intervene or show us
no regard whatsoever and let us have our way. Does that make
you afraid? Do you fear Him because He has
that prerogative? If God is not sovereign, don't
fear Him. Don't worship Him. If your temporal
being is not in His hands, if your eternal being is not in
His hands, then don't fear Him. Don't worship Him. But when He
begins to teach you that it is so, you're His to do with as
He pleases. Then you'll bow. Then you'll
fear. Then you'll seek a refuge. And
then you'll find it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you fearful
of yourself? Are you mistrustful of yourself?
Do you fear God and His goodness? Let me ask you this question.
Let me ask us all this question. When we consider these verses
here that we've been studying on, Do we see this? Not only that we were in opposition
to God, and that we were, but do we recognize this, and
more so as He teaches us, that there is a great distinction
between us and God. Haven't you seen that? as you
and I learn more of God and His eternal attributes, isn't the
one thing that we begin to feel deeper and deeper, and it's pressed
upon our hearts, that between us and Him, there is this eternal
difference. Do you see that? Aren't you seeing
that more and more? I want to be like Him. You pray
to be like Him. Someday you hope to be raised
in His likeness, yet over and above all of this, God is nothing
like us. Is there any other name you could
insert here in verse 4? But God. Whose name could you
put in there? But Bruce? But Larry? But Glenn, could you or I or anyone else
have made the difference? Would we have if we could? Is your mercy rich like God's? Is your love great like God's? What would you and I do if our
enemies treated us like we treated Him? What would we do if our
enemies lived like we lived before Him? In
such hostility and hatred and wish that we never existed. God,
I'm bored with God. My little granddaughter, she's
what, two years old? Cece's three years old. She don't
like to come to church. And you know what she said about,
she told her grandma the other day, she didn't like to come
to church. Church is bored, she said. Church is bored. She's more honest than grandparents.
She's more honest than her parents. Her parents would never admit
that. What the little thing means, it's not church that's bored.
God is boring. God is boring. What if your enemies
treated you like you treated God for years ignoring Him, for
years hating Him, for years wishing He never existed? I could face
death. I'd face eternity if God would
just die. If there is a God, why would
He allow such bad things to happen to such good people? Oh God,
I just can't endure Him. I hate Him. What would you do if people felt
that way about you constantly every day and they manifested
it? What would you do? I know what you'd do. I know what I'd do. There'd come
a time when I would say no more. If I had it in my power, I'd
do something about it. What does God do? What does God
do? God who is rich and merciful.
For His great love, even when we were dead in sins, has given
us life in Christ. You take the most gracious man,
the most long-suffering man that has ever lived upon this earth,
you could not insert his name in here. Only God's name could
go here, but God. To whom will you liken me? Shall
I have any equals? No, there's none like me. I am
God and there's none else. Isn't He eternally different
than we are? And isn't that why we're saved? If He was like you and He was
like me, I wouldn't be saved and you wouldn't be saved. But
He's nothing like us. He's eternally different from
us. And therefore, we have hope of eternal salvation. And in
the midst of our shame and backslidings and our utter weaknesses, we
look through our tear-dimmed eyes and what do we see from
our Heavenly Father? Eyes of pity, a heart of love
and grace, sympathizing with us and forgiving us and holding
us up. not counting and not imputing
our trespasses unto us. Why does He do that? Why would
He come to us? Why would He save us? Why does
He keep us? Why does He refuse to let us
go? Because He's eternally different than we are. That's why we can't
come to grips with Him. That's why we can't understand
Him. We're trying to compare Him to us. He said, I'm nothing
like you. and thank God for it. That's
our hope. But God, but God. As a father pitieth his children,
the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. I don't want your pity.
I do. I do. Oh, God, pity me. Be mindful of me. Care for me
like no other can. One more thing in closing is
this. Do you see in here verse 4, in
this passage, these two little words as we've considered these
verses 1 through 3 the last couple of weeks? And then we come here
to this Word but God. Do you see in this an element
of surprise? The world doesn't see it. reads
this and they think nothing about it. I bet you see this surprise,
this element of surprise. Paul said you were dead in sin.
You walked and lived and thought just like the world lives and
thinks, just like everybody else. You loved yourself. You wanted
your way above everything else. The devil was in you. He was
your master. And God was born into you. And
then he comes to verse 4, and everything changes. Did you notice
that? He is just going down, down,
down in this awful pit. And the farther down he goes,
the blacker he gets. Then suddenly, out of nowhere,
everything changes. And ain't it a surprise? Instead of suddenly, finally,
just saying, you're gone, you're gone. In this bottomless pit
of sin and depravity, there's God. And everything stops. And suddenly, you were way down
here, now you're in heavenly places. You see, you hear, you
breathe. You're alive. You're alive. And aren't you surprised? It could be something like this
in all reality. And the next time you go stand
in front of a casket down at the mortuary, what would you
think if that person suddenly sat up and jumped out of the
casket and started talking? Would you be surprised? Sure
you would be surprised. Should we be any less surprised
at this, that we were dead spiritually And now we have life, the life
of Christ in our hearts? What a surprise! I think sometimes,
I'll just be going about my business, or I'm sitting reading a book
or something. I'm doing something, off walking or something. Then
it's almost like I wake out of my sleep. I just come to myself,
and I realize I'm a saved man! Oh my soul, I'm saved! I'm saved. Did you ever do that? I truly
believe. I'm in Christ. I'm saved. I have
obtained mercy. I've got a home in heaven. Me?
Me! And oh, I'm surprised. Thirty-six
years, and I'm still surprised that I'm saved. Are you surprised
about it all? I'll never get over it with you.
I'll never get over it. I'm saved. You're saved. And why? But God. Oh, the old songwriters, so many
of them, they thought about this and they were overwhelmed with
it. Can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me who caused His pain? Me, who Him to death pursued,
amazed in love. How can it be that Thou, my Goddess,
died for me? But there it is. There it is. O Savior, as my eyes behold the
wonder of Your might untold, the heavens in glorious light
array, the vast creation thou hast made, and yet to think thou
lovest me, my heart cries out, how can it be? How can it be
that God should love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? But there it is. And aren't you
surprised? Oh, if there is only one song
that I can sing, when in His beauty I see the great King,
this shall my song in eternity be. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
loves me. Are you surprised by that? Can
you get over it? Why is it that mercy appears
so rich and love so great and grace so free from the pit of
sin and certain ruin, this threefold cord has lifted me." That's why. That's why. But God. But God. Let's pray.