As Murrell read that blessed
passage in Revelation 22 describing the glory that awaits us, when
he got down that middle way in the passage, there is another
place described with one word. Where are the unjust and the
filthy, those who love and make a lie? And this is the word that's
used to describe that place. Without. Without. It is from that place I pray
God will save you. He will grant you faith in Christ.
Grant you grace to believe on the Son of God. To believe Him. I've read what I believe to be
the best of theologians in history attempting to describe what hell
is. And the best definition, the
best description, best is a horrible way to put it, the most accurate,
I read early yesterday morning is written by my friend, Brother
Nathan Terrell, Brother Joe Terrell's youngest son. It's part of a
paper he wrote during his first year in college at Dork College.
Listen to what this young man says. To say hell is a horrible place
is an understatement. Most people think of hell as
the farthest point from God. It is the caves where Satan's
minions scamper about, poking feeble folk with tiny pikes and
taunting them for eternity. As bad as this seems, it does
not even compare to what hell really is. Hell is the very presence
of God and his wrath without Christ as a mediator. Hell is
the place where men face God without a Savior, without anybody
to pay their debt of sin. If you thought Satan's minions
were scary, imagine being face to face with all God's wrath
with no Jesus in sight. Now, let's turn to Luke chapter
15. And let me show you how God saves
sinners from that awful place without. Luke 15 is a chapter full of
grace and truth. It declares three great parables
And in those three parables, it declares that where sin abounds,
grace much more abounds. Now, these three parables all
teach us this one great blessed gospel truth. It is something
that can't be repeated too often, because sweet as it is, it is
something so contrary to our nature, so contrary to human
reason, that few ever learn it. And those who learn it seem quickly
to forget it and to forget it often. No matter how often we
repeat the words, it seems we so quickly forget this blessed
truth. Here it is. Salvation is not
by merit, but by mercy. Said, can a saved man forget
that? Asked Peter. We constantly look within ourselves
for some hope. And it's horribly evil. Mercy
stretches forth her hand to misery. Grace receives sinners, only
sinners. and only receives them as sinners. The only ground upon which you
can come to God is in your sinfulness. Your sin will never keep you
from Christ. Your righteousness will. Your
badness will never keep you from seeking a Savior. Your goodness
will. Grace receives sinners as sinners. Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. He came to save the unworthy
and the worthless, the condemned and the contemptible. Those who
think themselves righteous, those who imagine that they are good,
those who think that they have some quality in themselves that
is indeed a redeeming quality, are not the objects of God's
favor. but the unrighteous, the guilty,
the undeserving. These three parables teach this
one great gospel truth. Salvation is of the Lord. But it is a mistake, a serious
mistake, to read these parables and think that they are mere
repetitions of the same thing. The fact is, each of these parables
presents a different aspect of that great truth. Each one shows
us a distinct aspect of God's great work of grace in the salvation
of His people. You read them together, it's
like looking at a huge pyramid from three sides, each side giving
us a needful aspect to complete the picture. And when they're
combined, they present us with one complete picture as the Holy
Spirit tells us they are. For he tells us plainly in verse
3 that these three parables are a parable, one parable. The first
parable in verses 3 through 7 showed us Christ the good shepherd,
the shepherd of Israel, seeking his sheep. In his incarnation,
the Son of God came to save his lost sheep. In his life and earthly
ministry, he sought and found his sheep. In his sin-atoning
death as the good shepherd, he laid down his life for the sheep.
And as he did, he laid his sheep upon his shoulders. And in his
resurrection and ascension, our all-glorious Christ carried his
sheep home rejoicing. The second parable, what we will
look at tonight in verses 8 through 10, the parable of the lost coin,
gives us a picture of the work of God the Holy Spirit, represented
in this woman who sweeps her house to find the coin she had
lost. Now the place of the parable is important. We cannot emphasize sufficiently
that not only is the book of God inspired in its letter, it
is inspired in its order. This we have before us in the
order in which it is to be given. The place of this parable is
important because the work of the Holy Spirit follows the work
of Christ. Where redemption has come, grace
is sure to come. And grace cannot come except
where redemption has come. The work of the Holy Spirit follows
the work of the Good Shepherd. First the Shepherd seeks and
saves his lost sheep in redemption. Then the Holy Spirit seeks and
restores the lost soul in his efficacious grace. I recall the
first message I heard Brother Jesse Gestan preach, I heard
it on tape, and I just had to laugh out loud. I was sitting
in the car by myself, driving down the road in the middle of
the night, and he was preaching from Ezekiel in the Valley of
Dry Bones. He said, The blood don't flow, the wind
don't blow. And that's exactly the way it
is. Only when the blood of Christ has been shed and effectually
accomplished redemption does the spirit of grace come and
bring grace and life to our hearts. The grace of God follows always
the work of the Redeemer. As I said, each of these parables
needs the other two to give us a complete picture. The shepherd
seeks his sheep, who has willingly gone astray. But the lost coin
gives another picture. The lost sheep portrays man's
depravity as alienated sinners, willfully, deliberately, maliciously
straying from God in ignorance and stupidity. The lost coin
doesn't give us that idea at all. The lost coin portrays not
merely stupid, senseless straying, but it portrays us as altogether
without consciousness. powerless, without life, utterly
helpless. And that's exactly our condition
when God the Holy Spirit comes in saving power. And then the
third part of the parable is the lost son in verses 11 through
32. The sheep being salt portrays
the work of God the Son, our good shepherd. The coin being
salt and found portrays the work of God the Holy Spirit in effectual
grace. And the father receiving his
son gives us a picture of the matchless love of our great God,
receiving sinners, returning to him. And again, the order
is important. Because this third parable might
easily be misunderstood without the first two. There are some
indeed who use this story of the prodigal son as a picture
of man's imaginary free will, pointing to the fact, you see,
there was no indication of any outside influence on this man.
There was no indication that he was sought or called, but
rather the man simply came to himself and made his decision
to go back to his father's house. So there you see man does have
his part. Of course, nothing could be further
from the truth. The first parable spoke of the redemption of this
lost one. The second parable spoke of the
efficacious grace of God the Holy Spirit to this lost one. The third parable speaks of the
result of redemption and grace, the return of the lost one. When
we put the three together, as the Holy Spirit has done in this
passage, and read them as one parable, we see the whole work
of God's grace in saving an elect multitude, and we see it beautifully
portrayed. Now tonight, let's look at verses
8 through 10, the parable of the lost coin. Either what woman,
having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not
light a candle and sweep the house, and seek diligently till
she find it. And when she hath found it, she
calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with
me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise, I
say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth. Now, I'm going to have you look
at four things tonight. We'll look at this coin first
as lost, and second as sought, and third as found, and then
I'm going to give you our Lord's explanation of the parable. First,
this parable shows God's elect in their natural condition as
lost sinners. Sinners who are the objects of
God's mercy, grace, and favor in Christ Jesus, but lost. And that is the way we are all
by nature. As in the parable of the lost
sheep. All mankind were represented as belonging to the Lord God.
The 100 speak of all men. The 90 and 9, the self-righteous
Pharisees who need no repentance, and the one lost sheep of all
of God's elect in this world who are lost. Here the parable
speaks of all humanity as the ten pieces of silver, all belonging
to God. Our Lord says, is it not lawful
for me to do with my own as I will? And indeed all things are his,
you too. That means he can save you or
damn you, it is up to him. That means He can have mercy
on you or pass you by. It is His to do, not yours. That means that you're in His
hands, not Him in your hands. So the ten pieces of silver represent
all humanity. But the one lost piece represents
all God's elect on whom God Almighty focuses His heart from eternity. Oh, I wish I could convey that
as I want to. God has his heart set on his people. Oh, Preacher,
don't you believe in common grace? No, if I thought grace were common,
I'd think it was useless, like most folks do. Grace is not common. The mercy and love of God is
not common. Folks say, well, don't you think there's a sense
in which God loves all men? No, no, no. The scriptures absolutely
forbid such thinking. God loves his lost ones. Christ came to redeem his lost
ones. And the Spirit of God is seeking
out and saving his lost ones, represented in this coin. Now
let me show you how this coin was lost. It was lost in the
dust. That's a pretty good picture
of us, isn't it? It had fallen to the ground. We know that because
the woman took a broom and swept the house to find the coin. Apparently,
in these ancient times, as the houses commonly had earth floors,
the coin had fallen in the dirt. And there it was hidden, lost,
couldn't be seen. Every child of Adam like this
coin is lost, fallen, buried, defiled, dishonored in the foulness
and dirt of the earth. This coin was lost in a dark
place. Oh, how dark is this place. How do you know it's lost in
a dark place? Because the woman lit a candle to find it. It's
lost in a dark place. And this world in which we live
is a dark, dark place. There's no light in it. No light
in it except for him who's the light of the world. No light
in it except the light of the gospel of God's grace. There's
no moral light and no spiritual light. Everything is moral darkness. It doesn't matter whether your
moral philosophy is liberal or conservative, it's still moral
darkness. It's moral darkness. And it's
all spiritual darkness. But the darkness that's around
you, my lost friend, is nothing like the darkness that's in you.
Oh, the darkness that's in you. Turn to 2 Corinthians for just
a moment, 1 Corinthians rather, chapter 2. This is how the prophets describe
this darkness. Sitting in darkness and in the
shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, they
grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness. And we grope
for the wall like the blind. And we grow up as if we had no
eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the
night. We are in desolate places as
dead men. Now here's how the Apostle Paul,
by inspiration, interprets all that. 1 Corinthians 2.14. The
natural man receiveth not That means he has no ability,
no potential, and there's no possibility that he takes in
spiritual things. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. He won't do it. He won't do it. He doesn't have the capacity
to receive the things of the Spirit of God. Doesn't matter
what man teaches him. Doesn't matter how well educated
the man is or how well he argues his points. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. A preacher, if that's
the case, there's not much point in arguing with him about it,
is it? Not much. Not much. The natural man won't
receive it. Well, but don't you think we
can teach folks these things? No. No. We must teach them, but
we can't teach them. We must proclaim them, but we
can't teach them. We must declare them, but we can't make folks
hear them. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. How come? Because they're foolishness to
it. They're foolishness to it. Now, he may, in theory, make
a nod and say, OK, it's so, because he can't deny it. He may, in
theory, say, well, that makes sense, all right, because he
can't deny it. But it's all foolishness to him.
Salvation by grace, through a substitute alone, God's work alone, he won't
receive it. Neither can he know them. And
here's the reason. They're spiritually discerned.
You remember what our Lord said to Nicodemus, Merle? He said,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He just can't see it. He just
can't see it. Pity him. Don't get mad at him.
He can't see it. He can't see it. But when a man is born again,
he discerns things that are spiritual. He sees. He perceives. He gets it. He understands, because
he has the mind of Christ. So great is the darkness that
in this parable, the lost one is here represented as being
totally ignorant of his condition. And that's where you sit, you
who are without Christ, totally ignorant of your condition. unlike
the sheep or the sun, is an inanimate thing. It's altogether without
life, without consciousness, without feeling, without any
awareness of being either lost or sought. And it's perfectly
content in the dirt and the darkness. Just leave me alone. I'm all
right. Don't bother me. I'm fine. Don't talk to me about
things I need. I don't need anything. I'm fine.
It's happy to remain lost. And so it is with you who are
without Christ. Being dead in trespasses and
in sins, it's impossible for me or any other mortal to make
you know your lost state. I can't make you understand the
danger you're in without God, without Christ, without hope,
without life. Can't do it. Can't do it. You take your little girl when
she's four and set her on your lap and talk to her about it. Take your little girl when she's
14 and set her on your lap and talk to her about it. And she
sees that your heart's breaking and her heart may break because
of you, but you can't make her sin. And you take your little
girl when she's 40, and you set her on your lap, and you plead
with her, and reason with her, and your heart breaks, and your
face, it burns with tears. And so her heart breaks, and
her face burns with tears, but she doesn't have any idea what
you're talking about. But once a person knows that
he's lost, he's already found. He's already found. I'm talking
about a person who knows he's lost. The Spirit of God's already
begun his work of grace in the man. When you know that you're
lost, you begin immediately to cry out for God's mercy. And
the finding work's begun. An unconverted man will confess
that he's lost. Some of you are in that shape,
I know. Our children, we teach them from
the time they're little children. The time my daughter was five
years old, she could recite the catechism and understood theoretically
things that grown adults couldn't understand, had been in Baptist
church all their lives. But the unconverted person just
acknowledges what they know is so. Because it's scriptural,
and there it is. So he admits that it's true. But he doesn't have any idea
what it is to be lost. If you knew what it is to be
lost, nobody would have to tell you to call on God for mercy.
Let me see if I can illustrate it. A few years ago, Walter Groover
was out with a friend of his down in Mexico dove hunting.
And the land down there is flat. I mean flat land. And it all looks alike. Rocky,
Henneka here and there, just fields, huge, long fields. But you get out in those fields
and you don't have any idea which way is which. Unless you're very
adept at things. Now Walter got lost. Been doing this for 35 years. Going out to Dublin. He got lost.
But he's good. He knows his way around. He knows
how to handle things. And so he started walking. And realized
he wasn't getting anywhere. But he turned and walked another
direction. Wasn't getting anywhere. He ran out of water. And he can't
walk it, because he's all right. He's all right. And finally,
he lost. And he'd holler for folks for
him, but there's nobody to hear him. And at last, he laid down
under some Henneka plants, just got what shade he could. And
he got what moisture he could from those plants. and was nearly
dead till the next morning. His friends got together, search
party, and found the man. He just laid down in utter helplessness. God help me, I'm lost. Now that's what it is to be lost. When you give up all hope in
yourself, fall down at the feet of mercy, and cry out for God
to help you. Lord, save me, I perish. That's
what it is to be lost. Not only was this coin lost in
the dirt, and lost in darkness, and lost senselessly. Though
it was lost, here's something really sweet. You may have missed
it. It wasn't forgotten. This woman knew it was her coin. She knew it was hers. And when
she counted the coins and saw that one was gone, she knew one
was lost and she remembered it. Oh, hear me. The Son of God who
redeemed us, our Savior, our Advocate, our High Priest, our
Surety, remembers His lost ones. and prays for them before the
Father's throne. He remembers the Father's love
for them. He remembers His own charitieship
engagements for them. He remembers the agonies He suffered
for them. He remembered the Father's promise
to give them to Him. He remembers them before the
Father's throne. We had long forgotten Him. But He did not forget us, and
He will not now. Their names, from the palms of
His hands, eternity will not erase. Inscribed on His heart
they remain in marks of indelible grace. Not only was the coin
not forgotten, but though it was lost, it was still valued. and still claimed. The coin did
not become somebody else's because it was lost. This woman said,
my peace, which was lost, is what I found. My peace. And those
who are chosen of God and redeemed by Christ are his. They were
given to Christ by the Father as covenant grace and mercy,
as a surety and shepherd before the world began. And he owns
them as his. And he will not lose them. Oh,
Satan has a usurped dominion over them. The prince of darkness
may control their minds and their emotions and their thoughts so
that they are moved by Satan and his will. But the time comes
when the Lord Jesus will come in the power of his mighty grace
and he will drive the usurper from his usurped dominion, drive
him out of his house and take possession of his own and the
lost ones. Watch this. I'm now stretching
the text when I say this. The lost coin was lost, but it
was lost in the woman's house. Oh, what a delight that is. Some of you here are lost, but
you're not lost in the house of free will works religion.
You're not lost in the synagogue of Satan. You're not lost in
a mosque of Islam. You're not lost in the temple
of Judaism, but lost in the house of grace, lost in the place where
God Almighty comes with his word and seeks and saves that which
was lost. Now look at the second thing.
Our Lord's parable shows us a picture of God's elect as they are sought
out. sought out by grace, sought out
by the power and mercy of the Holy Spirit in efficacious grace. Either what woman having ten
pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle
and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it. Turn over to Isaiah 62. Verse 10. Go through. Go through the gates. Prepare
ye the way of the people. Cast up. Cast up the highway. Clear all the debris out of the
way. Gather out the stones. Lift up the standard for the
people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed
unto the end of the world, say to the daughter of Zion, Behold,
thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him.
His work is before Him. Thy salvation, it's a person.
His reward is with Him. It's His salvation. And His work
is before Him. He comes in the power of His
grace with His work before Him, looking on His own sacrifice
and that which shall be accomplished by it. Now watch this. And they
shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. And
thou shalt be called sought out. Sought out. How come you're sitting
here rejoicing in God's grace? Because you've been sought out.
How come you believe the gospel while others perish? Because
you've been sought out. How come it is you worship God
while others worship their own will? Because you've been sought
out. This woman first lit a candle specifically for the purpose
of finding her lost coin. Now, as I was studying this passage,
preparing the message, I was astonished at how much speculation
there is about what this signifies. The obvious reference is to that
blessed, effectual, illuminating work of God the Holy Spirit by
which life and faith are granted to those who are sought out by
Him. That work of grace wrought in
the hearts of poor sinners through the preaching of the gospel.
You're familiar with the passage in 2 Corinthians. The gospel,
if it's hid, Paul says, our gospel, it's hid to them that are in
darkness, to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light
of the gospel of the glory of God should shine unto them. But
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let me give
you a picture of it. Come back to Genesis chapter
1. Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. Created it perfect, upright,
complete, entire. And the earth was If you haven't
already written it in there, a more accurate translation,
it's almost universally translated this way. The earth became without
form and void. Something happened. We're not
told what, no need to speculate. But the earth became without
form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The
earth became a place of chaos, A meaningless mass of confusion
and darkness. That's our condition in our fall
rod. Now watch this. And the Spirit
of God moved, brooded upon the face of the waters. And God said,
let there be light. And the light came on. There
was light. That's exactly how God seeks
his own. He comes by the power of His
Spirit in the work of Holy Spirit conviction, sweeping the house
with the light of the gospel. And when He commands the light,
the light shines. Now thirdly, this parable sets
God's elect before us in this state, found. Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost. but now am found, was blind,
but now I see." The woman was diligent, determined in her search. She would not give up. Her ultimatum
was, I'm going to find my coin which was lost. And she found
it. So it is with God the Holy Spirit.
Either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose
one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek
diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she
calleth her friends and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with
me, for I have found the piece which I had lost." She found
the lost coin. She found it. Well, what did
that coin do? Nothing. She found it. It didn't
just turn up. She didn't just stumble across
it. She was searching specifically for it. And she found it. It
wasn't discovered by a neighbor. You see, it is God the Holy Spirit
who seeks and finds sinners. When she found her coin, She
was ecstatic. She called her friends and neighbors
together and said, Rejoice with me, for I found the peace which
I had lost. Now, I want us to look at verse
10. And this is not part of the parable. This is not part of
the parable. This is our Lord's explanation
of it. Likewise, I say unto you, There's joy in the presence of
the angels of God over one sinner that repented. Now listen to
me for just a few minutes. Our Savior says, I say unto thee. He speaks as a faithful witness,
testifying what he knows, what he has seen and heard in heaven
from whence he came. He's talking about the reception
of a sinner. A sinner. Like those sitting
right here in this crowd. Publicans. Heartless. The base. The defiled. The off-scouted. The worthless. The contemptible. Contentable in the eyes of others
and contentable in their own eyes. He's talking about the
reception of a sinner. In all his corruption, in all
his defilement, in all his pollution, in all his guilt, in all his
depravity, in all his helplessness. The exception of a sinner. He wants the Pharisees and publicans.
to know how it is that God in heaven looks upon sinners. More importantly, he wants us
sinners on this earth to know how it is that God in heaven
looks on sinners. He's talking about repentance.
That work of his almighty grace by his spirit, which is called
repentance. That work by which sinners are
turned to God. by which sinners are caused to
turn to God in faith. Frequently, fellows like to yak
about the message we preach and believe. And when they can't
deny what we're saying from the scriptures, it's very common
for fellows to speak condescendingly. Well, I had one fellow one time. Another preacher friend of mine,
this fellow is a quite famous preacher. World renowned preacher,
radio and television. Somehow he got a hold of one
of our tapes. And it gripped him a little. He called
my friend up, wanted to talk with him. And he wasn't willing
to give up his multimillion dollar business because of it, but it
gripped him a little. And he's condescending. Of course, he's not a theologian.
He's just a preacher. He's just a preacher. And they'll
say, well, he's confusing justification and sanctification. He doesn't
know how to separate the two. He confuses conversion and repentance. He doesn't know the difference.
Yeah, I know the difference. I know the difference in free
will and free grace. I know the difference between something
you do and something God does. And whatever repentance is, as is
described in this book, is not something you do. It's something
God does for you and causes you to do. What did this coin do? Look the
parable over. Tell me, what did this coin do? It repented. Sure did. It didn't do a thing. What's
that mean? God Almighty takes those who
run fast as they can to hell and turns them to Him. That's what He does. Come back
to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31. Let me give you
a biblical description of repentance. I like descriptions better than
theological definitions. I can see a description. Jeremiah
31. And I especially like them when
they're biblical descriptions. Verse 18, I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus. This is God speaking. Ephraim says, Lord you chastised
me. And I was chastised. You beat
me down and I was beat down. Beat down like a bullock unaccustomed
to the yoke. I've been kickin' and fightin'
and kickin' and fightin' and kickin' and fightin' and kickin'
and fightin' and now there's not any kick or fight left in
me. That's what he's talking about.
Like a book unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me, and I shall
be turned. For thou art the Lord my God. Now watch this. Surely, after
that I was turned, I repented. And after that I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth." Not only is he talking about
repentance, he's talking about a sinner. One sinner. Not a bunch of them, just one. One poor public One poor harlot. One poor sinner. Is God interested in me? I'm
worthless. Useless. Hell-bent, hell-deserving
sinner. Nobody's interested in me. Let's see. There was one woman
of Sycra. who obtained mercy. There was
one mad Gadarene to whom the Son of God came in mercy. There
was one publican named Zacchaeus to whom the Savior came that
he might dwell in his house because he too was a child of Abraham.
There was one woman of Samaria for whom the Son of God went
through Samaria. There was one blind Bartimaeus
to whom the Son of God gave sight. There was one thief hanging on
the cursed tree to whom the Son of God gave forgiveness. One
sinner. And then it describes joy. Not the joy of the sinner. Oh, there's joy there. Oh, when
God saves a sinner, what joy there is. Ralph Barnard used to tell a
story about a man called, his name was Burke. Brother Barnard
said that Brother Burke, every time he'd get a chance as an
old man, he'd give his testimony and he'd say, it's always the
same, it never changed. He was a crotchety old fellow. His wife
was a believer. She prayed for him all the time.
One night he was having a meeting and Mr. Burke decided he'd go
to church. She couldn't go. That might have
been the reason he went. But she couldn't go, so he went.
And God saved him. And he said on the way home,
said, things are so different. He said the night had always
been so dark. He said every star in the sky, I seen a smile on
it. Glad to know Lord saved you, Brother Burke. He said, it was
just getting dark and I could hear the birds singing. Every
one of them seemed to be singing, glad the Lord saved you, Brother
Burke. And he said, I just danced on home, going to tell my wife
what had happened. Walked in the door and something must have
been different. She said, the Lord saved you,
didn't He? Oh yeah, there's joy in the center. And there's joy
among God's saints on the earth. But this is talking about joy
in heaven. This is our Savior's explanation
of the parable. There's joy in heaven. That's always so. But our Lord
shows us here that when God saves a sinner, joy swells up and overflows
in the triune God to the heavenly angels among the redeemed in
heaven. There's joy in heaven. An outburst of irrepressible
gladness in the presence of the angels of God. Every time he fetches a sinner
home, oh my soul, adore and wonder. I'm amazed that God would love
me and choose to save me. I'm amazed that God Almighty
would send his darling son into this world and kill him because
of his love for me. I'm astounded that God the Holy
Spirit would condescend to seek me out, one so contentedly lost
in the dirt, dust, and darkness of this world. Amazed. that God receives me as his own
son.