Good evening So good to see everyone
very thankful Already for the good fellowship that we've had
In the brief time that we've been together trust the Lord
will give us much more of that I'd like to thank Greg and Tricia
for coming up and Donnie Shirley for coming up looking forward
what the Lord's put on your heart. I Let's open this service with
the Church's One Foundation, number 186, and let's stand together. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth, Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith,
one birth, one holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses With every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation, And
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blessed, and the great Church Victoria
shall be the Church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union With
God the three in one, And mystic sweet communion With those whose
rest is won. ? O happy ones and holy ? Lord
give us grace that we ? Like them the meek and lowly ? On
high may dwell with thee Please be seated. For our call to worship, if you'd
like to turn to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked Even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after. that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty
of the Lord and to inquire at his temple. For in the time of
trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of
his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a
rock. And now shall mine head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing. Yeah, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. We've come here tonight. In hopes
that we will see the Lord's beauty. That the Lord. Drew Dietz recently
said to me after a service he was in. He said, I said, how
is the services? He said, I believe the Lord got him some glory.
And that's our hope tonight. The Lord would get some glory.
Let's pray. Father, we have come into this place Lord, we're desiring
to see you to see your face. Desiring to worship you. But
Lord, we cannot worship you unless it's in spirit. And in truth. Lord, you must send your spirit.
And you must give us your truth, which is Christ. We asked father
that you would. Manifest yourself here amongst
us calls us to see your face. Lord, tune our hearts right now.
Tune our minds. Lord, we're so easily distracted.
We're so prone to wonder. Tune our minds, Father, to see
you. We pray for those who are dealing
with many infirmities. Brother Tim James' wife and her
condition. Pray, Lord, for grace and mercy
in that. We pray for our brother Marvin
Stoniker, Lord, as he's endearing this hardship that you saw fit
to afflict him where we pray that you would give much needed
grace and peace to that family. Lord, we ask that you would give
us the much needed grace tonight. That we may worship you in spirit
and in truth. Forgive us our sin. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's. Let's turn to number
158. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
and you can remain seated. Number 158. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening powers, candle of flame of sacred love. In these cold hearts of ours
Look how we grovel here below Fond of these earthly toys Our
souls, how heavily they go To reach eternal joys In vain we
tune our formal songs, in vain we strike to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues,
and our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to
Thee, and Thine to us so great. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening powers, come shed abroad a Savior's love,
and that shall kindle ours. Our first speaker is Brother
Donnie Bell from Crossville, Tennessee. You'll hear some of
the same accent in him that you hear from me often. So I've been
preparing my congregation for this moment. I've been pastor
45 years now, isn't that right? You come on and preach the gospel
to us, brother. Yeah, I was a kid, I was just
a kid. Well, turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Let me just check my time. I am so
honored to be here, so blessed, so privileged to come here and
I see a lot of folks that I know and appreciate so very much. But let me start reading at verse
18 down through verse 21 and hopefully by God's grace bring
a message. And all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit or the purpose that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, but have committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God. For he hath made him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. I want to look at three persons
necessary in substitution. And substitution is the very
heart of the gospel. God's blessed book, the Bible,
this blessed book, the Bible, it's the very words of God himself.
It's God's words. My opinion don't matter nothing.
It's what God says. This is God's word. And when
we read the Bible, we're reading what God, His mind, His will,
His purpose is written out in this blessed book. God's will,
mind, and purpose is in this blessed book. And you know, you
go back just in the beginning. It said in the beginning, God. That's how the Bible starts.
In the beginning, God. Nobody even know God existed
had not God said, I'm God. And I'll tell you, so here, the
greatest book on earth, the Bible, is the heart of God made legible,
where we can read it, see for ourselves what God has to say.
And then in verse 21, we see the heart of God as it's read
and understood, and how he saves a sinner, and why he saves a
sinner. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. You know, when you look in the
Bible, you see substitution everywhere. See substitution. And what it
is, is the innocent for the guilty, the just for the unjust. It's
an absolute exchange. God gets Christ, And we get Christ
and God gets, Christ gets the wrath of God, we get the blessings
of God. Christ gets the curse of God,
we get the blessings of God. Christ gets death, we get life.
But there's three persons in this text that I read tonight.
And there's three people necessary in substitution. And I'll tell
you the first of all, the first one is God. He's the one who
provided the substitute. The second person is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. And then when it says us, We're
sinners. We're the sinners that God made
Christ to be sin for us. And we must know something. We
have to know something about these persons. And we have to
know something about these persons. God, Christ, and us, the sinners. We have to know something about
these persons. Unless we understand them to
some degree, salvation is utterly and absolutely impossible. And
the first person you gotta know something about is God. God. God himself said over in Psalm
50, 21, he said, you thought I was altogether like you. You
thought I was like you. And you know how many people
in this world think God's like them? How many people think God's
like, you know, God's like me. And I'm like, you know, God,
he's whatever you want him to be. But oh my, and I'll tell
you the first thing we know about Him, who He is. It tells us that
He's sovereign. Look up in verse 18. All things
are of God. Now how many things does that
really reckon that includes? All things are of God. And that
means that He's absolutely and utterly sovereign. And when I
say God's sovereign, He's absolutely sovereign. He has absolute authority. He has absolute power. He's the
one that has absolute rights. And there's three absolutes,
three absolutes in this world. God's an absolute sovereign.
Christ is an absolute savior. And man's an absolute sinner.
And need to know, if you don't know something about God, don't
know something about Christ, don't know something about yourself,
salvation's utterly impossible. And God, you know, God is absolutely
sovereign. The only rule that He has is
His own sovereign will. He has no rules to live by except
His own. He has no authority to act to
but His own. He deals with everybody according
to His nature. And I tell you, the only rule
is His own free and mighty will. And the Scriptures tells us that
God did whatsoever He did in the heavens, in the sea, and
all deep places. And not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto Thy Name be glory. God called all the inhabitants
of the earth and reputed as nothing. And He doeth according to His
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And I... Wait a minute! You can't do that!
No man can stop His hand. Or say, what in the world do
you think you're doing? God can put out of his hand and ain't
nobody can stop him. Nobody can stop him. And I tell
you, he explains himself to no man. He don't explain his actions.
You know what he says? I will. I just will. That's all
I care. I will. That's all we care about. He works all things out to the
counsel of his own will. And I tell you, Paul said, you
know, that God hath mercy upon whom he'll have mercy, and whom
he will, he'll have compassion. And the first thing a fellow
says is, oh, that's unrighteousness. That's unfair. And you know what
he registered back? He said, who in the world do
you think you are? Who do you think you are, old
man? You're going to sit in judgment on God and say what's right for
God to do and what's not right for God to do? You're going to
tell God what's right to do and what not to do? You're going
to say it's not fair for Him to harden one, not fair for Him
to love another, not fair for Him to pass by one, and not fair
for Him to save another? He's God. He can do anything
He pleases. And He can do it for whom He
pleases. And I love that. I have no problem with God being
God. He's not a pretender after the
throne. And He's a God of predestination. Oh my, His will determines everything
in this world. Isaiah 46, 9 said, He declared
the end before He ever started the beginning. You know, when
we talk about the decrees of God, God only had one decree.
He said, I don't know when the beginning was, but whatever it
was, God said there was no beginning until he said there was. But
I do know this, he started out, he said in the beginning, he
declared the end before he ever started the beginning. We know
exactly how this thing's going to end. You know how it's going
to end? Whom he did foreknow, he also
called. Whom he called, he also justified. Whom he justified,
what did he do? Glorified him. I'm as good as
they are. Oh my, oh my, bless His holy
name. And this is the God we adore.
This is the God we absolutely adore. And I'll tell you something,
not only is He sovereign, but He's just. He's a just God. No, God made Christ to be sin.
He's a just God, and infinitely so. His sovereignty is proved
by the words. He hath made Christ to be sin.
Who else can make anybody? Take a holy, infinitely holy
Son of God. Take Christ who knew no sin,
did no sin, had no sin, and God take Christ, the sinless Son
of God, and made Him to be sin. Only God could do that. And you
know why He done it? Because He's just. He's just. Oh my, He's the judge of all
the earth. He must do right. And this great,
great, glorious salvation that God provided us in grace and
justice, He provided every bit of it. And He done it in such
a way that it would satisfy His infinite justice. God's justice
is inflexible. Oh listen, God saw the travail
of His soul, and you know what He said? He should be satisfied. God's the one that has to be
satisfied. Now let me tell you something about the death of
Christ. You know the death of Christ was not primarily for
man. That's not the primary purpose
of God sending his son to a cross, for Christ to die on a cross.
The first reason that God put his son on a cross was that God
could do something for himself, to satisfy himself, to bring
glory to himself, to satisfy his justice. And Christ, first,
his sacrifice was for God himself. Oh, start reaching, you say,
God's got to do something for himself before he can ever do
anything for me and you. And the death of Christ, first
and foremost, was a propitiation for God himself. God was angry
with the wicked every day. God, we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others, but God took his blessed son and
said, I'm going to make him a propitiation. What's that? I'm going to make
him someone that'll take away my wrath. I'm going to make Him
somebody that will bear my wrath and satisfy me in such a way
that nothing else could ever do. Now how could one man, how
could one man that God made to be sinned, how could one man have such merit and such worth
that God could take one man and take him and make him to be the
sacrifice to satisfy Himself How could that man have enough
merit and worth to satisfy God? No man ever on earth ever have
been able to. And not one of us in any time, wait, we never,
people say, well, listen, we, you know, God will give us a
blessing if we'll do this, that, and the other. There's not a
soul on the face of this earth earned a blessing except Jesus
Christ. You've never earned one, I've
never earned one. If you think you can, you're a fool. You can't
earn a blessing from God. No, if anything we've got, God
gave it to us for Christ's sake. Anything we have, God gave it
to us. And I'll tell you, His justice, first of all, is towards
God Almighty. And secondly, the death of Christ,
not only is God's word, but also as a man's word for us, is called
substitution. For God is satisfaction. And
to me, to me, that's the most blessed term in the gospel. is
satisfaction. Satisfaction. And why did I say
that? Because I spent lots of years
trying to satisfy God. Trying to make peace with God.
Until I found out that Christ did it. And now Christ satisfied
God. So God never looks to anybody
else. And then His death for us is a substitution. God was satisfied, and now His
death is for us. That's what He said, God made
Him to be sent for us. He was a substitute. And some
men are so deceived by sin into believing that God won't punish
sin. They think He can be pacified with a few good works, a few
good words, a real good prayer, But oh no, God said He will not
at all acquit the wicked. He's a just God. He will by no
means clear the guilty. The God of the Bible is as severe
as if He were not merciful, and as just as if He were not gracious,
and yet He is as gracious and merciful as if He were not just. Now you figure out how that comes
together and you'll know the gospel. And not only is He a sovereign
God, Just God. Oh, bless His name. He's a God of all grace, too.
Oh, He's a God of all grace. Now, God must punish sin. Never ever pardon sin without
punishment. But the God who'd never pardon
sin without punishment is also a God of unlimited, eternal,
infinite love. God Himself Heard Bruce Crabtree
preach a message on this one time. I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked. God said, I have no pleasure
in their death. Oh my, grace chose us. God gave us grace in
Christ before the world began. Grace called us out of the world. Grace keeps us from day to day. And grace will carry us all the
way to glory one of these days. But I tell you, God of grace,
Now He is love. He is love. You hear people say
all the time now, He's the God of love. No, no, no, no, no,
no. People say love, whatever their
idea of it is, then God has to rise to that. But no, God is
love. He is love. And I'll tell you
what, and He is love and He delights in mercy. He delights to show
mercy. He's full of grace, so full of grace. I mean, grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ, and we get grace for grace. So
the God that we adore, the God that we worship, the first person
in this necessity of substitution is God, sovereign, just, gracious. Look at the second person. God
made him to be sin for us, for us that knew no sin. And who
is this that knew no sin? God was in Christ. It says there
in verse 19, God was in Christ. God was in Christ. The second
person that's necessary in substitutions, our Lord Jesus Christ. It said,
he who knew no sin. The begotten of the Father. The
Godhead is such a mysterious thing, but he was the only begotten
of the Father. He was not a creation as Adam
was. I don't know how to explain this,
but our Lord Jesus Christ is as old as Father is. His Father
is eternal, Christ is eternal. His Father is sovereign, Christ
is sovereign. Everything that the Father is,
the Son is. But the reason He became a man
was so that He could be made sin. He's the same as the father
eternal equal existed as long as the father has that's a mysterious
You know it's impossible for a man to have a son and him not
be older than his son But God had a son That he sent into time
and yet our Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter 1 Excuse
me. Yeah, John chapter 1. He said
he was on the earth and with his father at the same time He
said I'm here, and I'm with my father in heaven And he's the
only begotten of the Father. This is one of the most mysterious
things in this world, is that how Christ, the Son of God, the
eternal Son of God, came into this world and was implanted
in the womb of a woman that never knew a man. And that infant grew
in that woman's womb just like any other child would, except
he had a holy father. And if he had had Adam's blood
in him, he couldn't have saved us. He couldn't have done nothing
for us. So that's why he had to be the only begotten of the
father. That's why he had to be called the seed of the woman.
If he'd have been just a man, he couldn't save anybody. So
he had to be God and man. Oh, listen, the Father's almighty,
so is the Son. The Father's infinite, so is
the Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ, if you
want to see God, you have to see Christ. You want to see God's
work, you look to Christ. You want to see God's attributes,
you look to Christ. You want to be saved, you look
to Christ. You want to know God, you got to go through Christ.
He is a son of Mary, and not only is this son of God, but
he is a son of Mary, a man, a man like unto us. What a mystery,
what a mystery. Now, I don't wanna overstep bounds
here. I don't wanna say something that I don't think I could back
up with scripture. A man, when our Lord Jesus Christ
became a man, he became subject to the infirmities of human nature. He was a man acquainted with
grief, We know what grief is. We know what sorrow is. Well,
that's what he was. He was a man of suffering. He
was a man of woe. He said, is it nothing to you
that passed by wherewith God hath afflicted me in his fierce
anger? Is it nothing to you? Our Lord
Jesus Christ knew what pain was. knew what trouble was, knew what
temptation was, knew what trial was, knew what weakness was,
knew what death was. He even tasted it. He was bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Oh my. Our Lord Jesus Christ. We know
that God don't sleep. He don't sleep. God don't sleep.
But our Lord Jesus Christ was asleep on a ship one time. Sound
asleep. And a great big storm come. And
them fellas, I mean, the rain was falling, beating on the side
of that boat, and I mean, it was just about to sink. I mean,
they were scared to death. The wind blowing and everything,
oh my. And they run down there and said,
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, wake up, wake up, wake up. And this,
what a stupid thing to ask our Lord, but said, carest thou not
that we perish? Don't you care we're gonna perish?
Now we know God don't sleep, but our Lord Jesus Christ woke
up and he stood up and he said, peace be still. Man don't tell
the wind to lay down. Man don't calm the ocean or the
sea, but God can. The man Christ Jesus was asleep,
the God Christ Jesus come to see. You understand what I'm
saying? That's how it could be God and
man. God don't sleep. But the man
Christ Jesus did. But man don't steal the storms
either. Oh, God in man. God not, not God humanized, not
man deified. God purely, essentially, eternally
God and man. Purely man. Once he became a
man, once he became a man, he never ceased to be a man. When
we get to glory, the only God we'll see is the man, Christ
Jesus. You know that? And you know how
we're gonna know him when we see him? Not because of who he
is, but he's got the evidence of being on that cross in his
body on that tree. We won't have any evidence of
sin, but they saw him as a lamb as it had been slain. Oh, my. Once he became a man, he's going
to be a man eternally. But it's the God-man sitting
at the right hand of God. Oh, what a sacred, sacred, sacred
union. He is man, not more than a man,
because of his deity. And God, not less than God, because
of his humanity. And I read through John Gill's
Body of Divinity one time, and the only thing I got out of it
that Christ offered his humanity on the altar of his divinity. And that's all I got out of that
whole book. That's enough, ain't it? He offered his humanity upon
the altar of his own divinity. That's a mystery, you know. Here's
God, here's Christ, and Christ himself offered himself as a
sacrifice, that's the Lamb of God, to God, his Father, And
yet, he laid his life down and he took it up when he would. No wonder, he said. How do you
explain that? What a wonderful Savior is Jesus
our Lord. What a wonderful Savior. And
of this God in Christ, it says, he knew no sin. Not he did no
sin. Not he knew, he said he knew
no sin. He knew the effects of sin in
humanity, that's why he came. He knew the effects of sin, and
he knew the consequences of sin when his father made him to be
sin. He saw sin in others, but he did not know sin by experience,
never in his thoughts, his words, his deeds, his action. Oh, until
he, you know when he knew sin, what it really was, and the effects
and consequences of it? When he went to the cross, when
God made him to be sin, God done it. God made his soul an offering
for sin. He poured out his soul unto God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased God to bruise him. Oh my. God Almighty, no sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ had no
sin in no way, no how. He was pure, spotless and holy
and without any blemish until God. And God took all the sin
from Adam to the last person that'll ever be born on this
earth. And he made every one of them to meet on his son at
one time. The greatest event in the eternities
is what took place on that cross. And God took all the sin, all
the sin of all his people, and Christ being who he was, was
able, able to bear all the sin of all of God's elect for all
time and for all eternity. He paid all of them. everybody
that was ever born to the last one on the face of this earth.
When Christ, if he bore your sin, you won't have to bear him. Ain't that right? Oh my. And look at the third person
in this. He made sin for us. Made sin for us, the sinners.
Who is he? Who is us? He's us, us. You don't want to know what sin
is? Just look at yourself. Oh my. There's not a just man on the
earth that sinneth not. It's awful. Sin is an awful,
awful thing. We was born sinners. Sinners
by birth. How come I was born a sinner?
Because my daddy was. My mama was. My granddaddy was. Go back as far as you want to
go. Go back as far as your genealogy
go. But I tell you what, from Adam on down, everybody has been
shaping in iniquity and conceived in sin. Sinners by birth. And I tell you something else,
we're sinners by nature. It's our nature. It's in us. What about your children? Would
you let your children stand up and badmouth you and be arrogant
to you and cuss you and mistreat you in any way? Well, no, you
wouldn't. But I tell you what, you walk
out of the house and tell, I'm gonna show you how sin is by
nature. You walk out of your house and you tell your kids,
now say, welcome to this whole house, but don't go through that
door right there. Don't you dare go in that room.
Don't you dare go in that room. You won't be down the driveway
and gone, and what are they gonna do? They gonna get in that room.
Now that's the nature of sin. What you're not supposed to do,
you do. Does man become a thief when he steals something? No,
he steals something because he's a thief. It's his nature, man's
nature. Sinners by birth, sinners by
nature. And that's what God, bless His name, that's what He
deals with. He deals with sinners by nature. And we're sinners
by practice. Sinners by practice. And you
know what? Most of us was really, really
proud of it. Really, really proud of it. We
thought we was something. And all the things that we used
to do, we're so ashamed of now. But oh, this is who God made
Christ to be sin for us. Sinners. Imagine God. Anybody, any of
y'all ever been in a courtroom? Been in a courtroom and had to
be sworn in? And you know, the judge, he's got all the authority
in the courtroom. Well, God's got a courtroom. And he's got a bar of justice.
He calls all of us to his bar of justice. And he said, I'm
going to call you before me, and I'm going to judge you. I'm
going to judge you. And he calls us before him. You
know, it's a time, it's either for life or for death. Now listen
to what I'm telling you. God is gracious and he's full
of mercy. And he looks at the sinner and
he desires to save him. But God looks at him also and
said, but I'm a just God. I've got to punish him. I've
got to punish him. The sinner's brought before God.
And he's tried. And if the verdict is guilty,
brought back, how will God be gracious and merciful and at
the same time be a just God and punish him for his sins? How
are these conflicting attributes, how are they gonna come together? How are they gonna
work out? How are they gonna work out in God's mind? He is
love. I told you that. He wills. He wills to express that love. Love has to be expressed and
God's will to express that love and to save, he wills to do that. But he's just. And he said, I got to destroy
him, I can't. I can't love him at the expense
of being a just God. I got to destroy him. The full
penalty of the law must be brought to bear on that sinner. Well, how then can God justly
condemn that sinner and save him at the same time? How can
that happen? Oh my. Standing wonder. Standing awe. Here we see the
very power and wisdom of God put on display to show how it
can be done. He'll show us how he can be both
can punish the sinner guilty to the fullest extent of the
law and save the sinner and make him righteous in the same way. Oh my. Wisdom said, Wisdom said,
oh listen, here's God just, he gotta punish the sinner. Here's
God gracious and merciful and love, he wants to save the sinner. Wisdom stood up and said, I found
a way. I found a way. Our Lord Jesus Christ stepped
up, stepped up before God Almighty. He said, Father, treat me like
you treat them. Whatever you're going to punish
them with, you punish me. Whatever you're going to do to
them, do to me. And in that way, your justice
will be satisfied. You still be a just God. Still
be a just God. And you punish me. Put me in
their room, put me in their stead, put me in their place. Oh, my. Treat me as if I was the sinner.
And then when you get through treating me as a sinner, I want
you to take what I am, my righteousness, my obedience, my death to your
justice, my honor of your law, and I want you to give it to
them." God said, I'll do that. I'll
do that. That's what I'll do. Oh, my. And our Lord Jesus said, smite
me as hard as you please. I'll be able to bear it. Then
you can show them sinners some grace, You can express your love
to him because you satisfied your justice in me. You honored
your law in me. And you treat that sinner like
you've always treated me. Oh my. And here's what happened. Our Lord did this voluntarily.
Nobody made him do it. He did it. If I can say it this
way, he did it because he would. Nobody made him. He came into
this world. You know, this is one reason
why I know I'm a saved man, not because I've done anything, but
because I know I'm a sinner. And God smote Christ for me,
punished my sin once and for all, and I bear it no more. And I tell you what, it was an
absolute exchange. Everything that we were, Christ
got. Everything Christ was, we got. And I'm so thankful for that.
Let the potters of the earth strive with the potters, but
woe unto him that strives with his maker. There ain't one thing
to do, and that's to come to God in Christ. Ain't no help
for anybody apart from that. Three people, God, Christ, and
us. I hope that's a blessing. We're going to sing. Two songs
and during that time, if you need to use the. Facilities feel
free to do so. We have four portage ons outside. Try to know we have one men's
restroom, so just do what you need to do. We're going to sing
the two songs and then Greg's going to come preach for us. Number 474 only a center. Let's all stand together. Naught have I gotten, but what
I receive. Grace hath bestowed it, since
I have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I abase. I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story to God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Once I was foolish and sin ruled
my heart, causing my footsteps from God to depart. Jesus hath found me, happy my
case. I now am a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner, saved by grace. This is my story, to God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Tears unavailing, no merit had
I. Mercy has saved me, or else I
must die. Sin had alarmed me, fearing God's
face. But now I'm a sinner, saved by
grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows,
loving his Savior to tell what he knows. Once more to tell it
would I embrace, I'm only Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Please be seated. Number 485, revive us again. We praise thee, O God, for the
Son of thy love, for Jesus who died and is now gone above. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. revive us again. We praise Thee, O God, for Thy
Spirit of light, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our
night. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb
that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has cleansed
every stain. Hallelujah, thine the glory,
Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again. Revive us again. Fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with
fire from above. ? Hallelujah, thine the glory
? ? Hallelujah, amen ? ? Hallelujah, thine the glory ? ? Revive us
again ? Our next speaker doesn't need an introduction. You've
known him longer than you knew me. It's Greg Elmquist from Grace
Gospel Church in Apopka, Florida. He's been pastor there 27 years
this year, 27 years. The Lord's met with him faithfully. So you come preach the gospel
to us, brother. Half the time Don has been preaching,
which means I'm half his age. We love you all. It's such a
blessing to be here. We pray for the work here. Love your pastor and his family. And I'm very thankful to have this privilege to try to bring
a gospel message to you. Donny, that was a blessing to
my soul. Just the simplicity and clarity
of substitution. I need to hear that. I'm thankful I got to hear it
tonight. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me, we're going to be looking at a couple of verses in the
Gospel of John, the first chapter of the Gospel of John, John chapter
one. And I want to introduce this
message by making a distinction between law and grace. in terms of how the Lord speaks. When God speaks the law, it is
always a clear command. No questions involved in God speaking
his law. He has authority to speak his
law. We are subject to the law of God. I am the Lord God. Thou shalt not have any other
gods before me. You shall not make any other
graven images. You shall not take the name of
the Lord your God in vain. You shall not lie. You shall
not steal. You shall not commit adultery. God speaks his law. It's unambiguous command. His law is holy, his law is just,
and his law is good. And we say with David, we love
God's law. But we also say with the Apostle
Paul in Romans chapter seven, we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal. sold under sin. As holy as God's
law is, God's law has never made anyone holy. As just as God's
law is, God's law has never justified anyone. As good as God's law
is, God's law has never added an ounce of goodness to anyone. God's law was given for one reason.
to make sin utterly sinful. It was never given for the purpose
of saving anyone. Scripture says that having been
confronted with the law of God, every mouth shall be stopped
in all of the world. shall be made guilty before God. The law of God reveals the glory
of our God, the goodness, the holiness, and the justice of
our God. And it declares a clear distinction
between who he is and who we are, so that when we see God
in his law, we are brought to say There's nothing in me like
him, nothing. My righteousness, righteousnesses,
as the scripture says, are as filthy rags before God. The clearest definition I know
of in the Bible, the simplest definition to me for sin is this,
all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So the simple
question that we must ask ourselves is what in my life falls short
of God's glory? And God looked down from heaven
and he saw that every imagination of the thought of man was only
evil and that continually. The scripture often uses the
body as a picture of spiritual things. And in one place, the
scripture says that their mouth, their throat, is an open sepulcher. So that when we, like those little
birds in the nest, look up and open up our mouths, God looks
down our throats and he sees our hearts and makes one conclusion. It's dead. An open sepulcher. Left to ourselves. We are dead
in our trespasses and sins. God, when he speaks his law,
he just speaks it as a clear command. And when we hear God's law, we come
to the conclusion, I need a substitute. I need someone who is able to
stand in my stead before God, one who has been able to keep
God's law perfectly and satisfy. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And so the law
of God, the law is for the lawless, the scripture says. You put a
man under the law, Well, let me say it like this. We raise our children with just
the commands of the law. We're going to produce one of
two things. We're going to produce either a hypocrite like ourselves,
who will grow up and do the same thing to their children, or we
will produce a rank rebel who will rebel against everything
that they've been commanded to do. It's like you said, tell
them not to go in that room, that's the room they're gonna
go in. That's just the way the law is, that's what our nature
is. When God speaks in contrast to
that, when God speaks to the heart in grace, he often speaks
in the form of a question. Over 315 times in Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, the Lord Jesus Christ asked a question. He asked a question. And back to the illustration
of our children, there are times when we must say to our children,
don't do that, stop. Why, Daddy? Because I said so.
Sometimes we have to exercise the full force of the law to
keep them from doing something that would hurt themselves. But
if you raise a child that way, well, I've already said what
you'll end up with. The ideal, ideal correction of a parent
is to be able to sit down with a child, not that you have less
authority, not that you're giving them an opportunity to have some
input, but because you're expressing your love to them and you're
dealing with heart issues and you're asking them probing questions
and wanting them to come to the right conclusions about what's
right and what's wrong. When our Lord speaks in his tender
mercies to his children, He often does just that. He sits
us down. He doesn't beat us with the law. He asks probing questions to
get us to think about what the truth is and And to love what he loves. I don't know if we have any educators
in this congregation. We have several in our church.
Educators call the question and answer method of teaching the
Socratic method. And it's very effective. And it's a whole lot better than
just teaching children rote memory. It's to ask questions and get
them to think about the questions and respond with an answer. The
thing about what we call the Socratic method of teaching is
it goes back a whole lot farther than Socrates. It goes all the
way back to the garden. The very first time that our
Heavenly Father dealt with us in love and in grace was not
in the in the sternness of the law, but it was Adam. Where art thou? The Lord never asked a question
because he didn't know the answer to it. He knew exactly where
Adam was. What a blessing it is when the
Lord sits us down and he speaks to our hearts, not by not by
demanding the law, but by asking piercing and probing questions. There was a woman once who came
to the Lord in the thick of a crowd, had an issue of blood, 12 years, crawled on her hands and knees
to touch the hem of his garment and virtue went out from him
and she was immediately healed and the Lord looked around and
he said, who touched me? He knew exactly who touched him.
The disciples thought he was serious about the question. Because
they said, Lord, everybody's touching you. Everybody's strong
in you. Why say you who touched me? No, virtue's gone out for
me. And the woman that touched him knew. I suspect that when
he asked that question, he was looking right at her. Who touched
me? And she told him all the truth. When the Lord went to that man
at the Pool of Bethesda, and saw that he had been there
for 38 years, the Lord looked at him, of all
those people that were halt and sick, he looked at that one,
and he said, would thou be made whole? Would thou be made whole? Lord, I can't. When the angel
comes and stirs the water, I have no man to help me. Well, that
was the reason the Lord asked the question, wasn't it? To get
him to confess his need. When the Lord spoke to blind
Bartimaeus, that poor, dirty beggar, Bartimaeus, what would you have
me to do for you? Oh, Lord, that I might see. You
see, what do we have? We have our loving Savior sitting
down with his children and teaching them by asking them questions
to expose their need. What a blessing. Luke chapter 24, our Lord is
walking back to the town of Emmaus. This was after his resurrection
and there was two disciples and the Lord came along beside them
and he asked them, what's wrong? You could tell they were downcast,
what's wrong? Are you new to Jerusalem? Have
you not heard that the one that we thought was the prophet has
been crucified and died, Jesus of Nazareth? And our Lord looked at them and
said, what things? What things are you talking about?
And then beginning with Moses and the prophets and the Psalms,
he expounded unto them those things concerning himself. Did
these things not have to take place in order for the scriptures
to be? You see, he's asking them questions
all along the way. What a blessing it is when the
Lord ask us questions. And for those who refuse to answer
those questions honestly, he leaves them to themselves. The
Pharisees ask our Lord, by what authority do you do these things?
And what did the Lord say? He said, I'll answer that question,
but I have a question for you first. The baptism of John. Was it of heaven or was it of
men? They got together over there. They said, you know, if we say
it was of heaven, then he's going to say, why didn't you believe
John? If we say that it's of men, we fear the men. Because
everybody loved John, believed he was a prophet. And so they
answered his question with, we don't know. Neither will I tell
you of what authority I do these things. You see, when an obstinate,
rebellious sinner refuses to be taught by the probing questions
of a loving Savior, he leaves them to themselves. To our text. You have your Bibles
open to John chapter 1. Two very simple, essential questions. The answer to these questions have
eternal consequences. One question was asked by the
Lord. The other question was asked by the disciples, and they're
good questions. Verse 35, and again the next
day after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking
upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. Now prior to that, he had already
identified him as the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins
of the world. goes all the way back to that
Passover lamb. The lamb that Moses was commanded
to slay in Egypt and take the blood and put it on the door.
And the Israelites were told of God, get behind the blood. When I see the blood I'll pass
by you. We know that lamb goes back even further than that doesn't
it? It goes all the way back to the garden when Adam tried
to cover his nakedness by sewing together fig leaves. And you
ever seen a fig leaf? We have a fig tree in our yard. And I don't know what fig trees
you might have seen. The fig tree we have, the leaves
on that fig tree, I can put one right there and it's the same
shape and size as my hand. He's got five things on just... What is the hand in the Bible?
Oh, what we put our hands to, we defile. Our hands are dirty. Our hands
are sinful. And what Adam was doing in the garden is a picture
of what man naturally does. He tries to cover his nakedness
with the works of his hands. He tries to satisfy God's justice
and make up for his sins by what he does. He's working his way
to heaven. Adam, where art thou? Then God took a lamb. I suspect that that lamb may
have been Adam's pet lamb. I know it was a horror for him
to see the blood of that lamb shed. took the skin of that lamb, the
fleece of that lamb and covered the nakedness of Adam. John says
the lamb of God, that's the lamb. And in the book of Revelation,
the scripture says that the Lord Jesus Christ is the lamb that
was slain before the foundation of the world. So in the covenant
of grace in eternity past, which we can't put time on, The Lord
Jesus entered into a covenant promise to his father and agreed
to shed his precious blood as a covering for their sins and
to provide for them a righteousness that they could not provide for
themselves. That's the covering of the lamb. And now John identifies
the Lord Jesus. Look, behold, look there. There he is. the one that has
been promised from the beginning, the one that we've been waiting
for, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. Now, this is very important to
this question that the Lord's going to ask. And the two disciples heard him
speak in verse 37, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them
following and saith unto them, what seek ye? What are you looking for? The heart's deceitful, desperately
wicked if we're We can very easily deceive ourselves
as far as what we're looking for, what we want. But if the
Lord presses this question home to our hearts, we might could
lie to ourselves, we might could lie to each other. How many times
we've asked someone a question about something and they've given
an answer, no, that's not really what, how many times we've We
can't deceive God. Not when the Lord, in His grace
and in His mercy, as a loving Father, sits us down and expresses His love and His
grace toward us. We must, as that woman with the
issue of blood, tell Him all the truth. We must. We can't lie to God in those circumstances. And so the Lord looks at you
and he looks at me. And I've had to consider this
probing question. What are you seeking? What are
you looking for? If we're seeking anything other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll quit seeking because we'll
become disappointed and disillusioned. And men seek a lot of things. People get involved in churches
because they're looking for community. They're looking for family. They're
looking for fellowship. But what happens in time? The
person that they thought was their friend, the person that
they thought would care about them, does something to disappoint
them or offend them. And in time, you know, I used
to say to our folks, there's the door, leave if you can. But
now I know that if you can, you eventually will. If you can,
you will. If you're seeking anything other
than Lord Jesus Christ, you'll leave eventually. We have a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. We have one who said to his disciples,
no longer do I call you my servants, but I call you my friend. For
a servant doesn't know what his master's doing, but I've revealed
to you who I am and what I'm doing and what I've done for
you. And what a friendship we have with Christ. Oh, we value
the fellowship and the friendships that we have among believers,
no doubt about it. But if what we're seeking is
that, we're going to disappoint one another. But if our friendship
is Christ, you see, here's the question, what seek ye? What seek ye? If we're seeking personal peace in terms of the
absence of conflict, and life is filled with disappointments
and troubles, and the heart is often conflicted, and the promise
often is, you know, come. Experience the peace of God. I want to experience the peace
of God. But my brethren and my friends,
the peace of God is the byproduct of having peace with God. You
see, if you're just looking for the peace of God, you're going
to have times when you're not going to have that peace. You're
going to have great trouble and great conflict and great affliction
that God's going to send. And there's not going to be any
peace. And you're going to deal with
divorce and death and disappointment and disease and all those sorts
of things that come. And you think, well, all the
promise for peace is gone. I'm out of here. That's why the
Lord said, what seek ye? Are you seeking the peace of
God only or peace with God? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Prince of Peace and we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the one who has reconciled
us to God by his own blood. And we can come boldly before
the throne of grace and find help in our time of need because
we've been reconciled. We've been reconciled with God.
We can come into the very presence of a holy God and know that he
has made peace for us. And if I have peace with God, I'll have times of enjoying the
peace of God, and I'm thankful for those times. You know, you've heard it said, oftentimes what's born in a storm
dies in a calm. And in 27 years, and I'm sure
you've seen it, Donnie, many more times than I have, people
get in trouble. They're going through a great
trial. They come to church. They get
very excited about things. Brother Henry used to tell the
church secretary, when someone wanted to join the church, write
their name down in pencil. We'll see. We'll see. That's been my experience.
We'll see. Because if they can leave, they
eventually will leave. And a lot of times when that
trouble goes away, they no longer need. I used to go into prison and preach
in Orlando, and the first thing the guard told me when I went
in there, he said, yeah, the guards were more cynical than
the inmates. And the guard said, yeah, you
can preach to them, but I'm going to tell you right now, the Bible
is the first book they pick up when they come in here, and the
first book they throw down when they leave. And then they come
back, and they do it again. Foxhole religion. Just seeking
some relief from their temporary problems. What seek ye? Well, I want to go to heaven.
I want to avoid hell. Well, the Lord Jesus had a conversation
with Martha in John chapter 10 after the death of her brother.
And she told the Lord, she said,
Lord, I know that my brother will rise in the resurrection.
Oh, Martha. Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Martha, believest thou this?
Do you believe me? Do you believe who I am? I'm
the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. This is not just a matter
of escaping hell and going to heaven. That's why the Lord said,
they just heard John say, behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away
the sins of the world. And the first question the Lord
asked them, what seek ye? What do you really want? Those who are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh. They that are after the spirit
thinks of the spirit. That which is of flesh is flesh,
and the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. Oh, left ourselves, we'll just
seek fleshly things. We'll seek fleshly peace, we'll
seek fleshly relationships, we'll seek fleshly comfort and fleshly
hope that somehow we're gonna escape hell and get to heaven. The Lord said to the to the multitude
that he had just fed, the loaves and the fishes, he looked out
and he said, only reason you're following me is so that you can
have your bellies full. If you want to be my disciple,
three things, take up your cross, and yeah, there are some crosses
that we have to bear, troubles, but you know, I've been around
long enough to know that the troubles that believers bear
aren't really much different from the troubles that unbelievers
bear. Unbelievers oftentimes suffer greater circumstances
in their life. The way of the wicked is hard
and they bring things in their lives on them that believers,
the cross is not just bearing some burden in life. Everybody does that. Now taking up your cross is saying
with the Apostle Paul, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live. Yet not I, but it's Christ that
liveth in me, the life that I now live. I live by the faith of
the Son of God who loved me and died for me. That's what it means. It means to look to Christ and
his death on the cross and your union with him and what he did
to satisfy the demands of God's law and God's justice as the
only hope of your salvation. Deny yourself. Well, you know,
we can't buy that new car. That house is just too big for
us. You know, we need to live more modest because we want to
go to heaven and we, you know, we need to deny these things
to ourselves. That's not what that means. Deny
that you had anything to do with your salvation. Deny yourself any part of your
salvation. Declare that Christ is my salvation,
and he is my life, and he did it all from beginning to end,
and he gets all the glory. He put away my sins by the sacrifice
of himself. He ascended back into glory.
As the word of God, he returned not void. Having accomplished
what he came to do, he took with him the names of those for whom
he lived and died, and he ever lives at the right hand of the
majesty on high to make intercession for us. And I had nothing to
do with that. Matter of fact, My salvation
goes back before Adam was created. Before Adam was ever made, God
elected a people. Christ became their surety in
the covenant of grace. And the Lord and the Holy Spirit
agreed in time to go and make those that the Father chose and
Christ redeemed willing in the day of his power. What did you
have to do with that? As you said, Donnie, God's doing
business with God on Calvary's cross. The Lord Jesus didn't
die in order to make us an offer of salvation to accept or reject
him. The Lord Jesus died to make himself
an offering to his father for the sins of his people. And the
father saw the travail of his soul and the father said, I'm
satisfied. I'm satisfied. Let's see, Key. It's a good question,
isn't it? It's a good question. May our loving, merciful Lord
speak that question effectually to our hearts, not just now,
but always. When we find ourselves disappointed
and in trouble and in trials and doubting and fearing, may
the Lord say it again to our hearts, what are you looking
for? You're looking for some relief from this problem that
you have? Because I am thy shield and I
am thine exceeding great reward. Or are you seeking me? You're seeking me. You see, all the blessings of
God come in Christ. You got it right, Donnie. I know
I'm repeating your sermon, but you know, your message. All the blessings of God are
in heavenly places in Christ. And so we set our affections
on things above. We're Christ-seated at the right
hand of God. Not on things of the earth. And
all the blessings of God come in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So we need peace, we need comfort,
we need assurance, we need help, we need healing. All that comes in Christ. Let's
seek ye. And most of you have probably
heard this illustration, but I love it and it deserves repeating. It was a very wealthy man who
loved his son. And the two of them enjoyed traveling
the world and spending their wealth in purchasing very priceless,
very precious artwork all over the world. And they collected
it and put it in their mansion and would often sit together
and enjoy looking at that art. Before the father died, the son
died. The father loved his son and
grieved over his death. Eventually, the father died.
And they had an auction. They had an auction at this mansion. And the auctioneer stood up and
he, first piece of art they put up to sell, was a plain portrait,
unknown to anybody, wasn't a famous picture at all, of the father's
son. And everybody, you know, he asked
for a bid, nobody bid anything. Nobody said, bring the good stuff
out, bring the good stuff out. And finally, there was a man
in the back of the room. He knew who that portrait was because
he was the butler of the house. And the butler raised his hand
and offered a dollar for that portrait. Auctioneer dropped
the gavel, said, the auction's over. All these wealthy people
from all over the world looked at one another and looked at,
what do you mean it's over? Yep, it's right here in the father's
will that whoever got the picture of the sun, the portrait of the
sun, got it all. Everything here goes to the butler. What's C key? I'd like to have
that, I'd like to have that, I'd like to, you get the sun,
you got it all. Got it all. Quickly, there's one more question
in our text. And it's a good question. And
it's a question that I hope that our response will be to the question that the Lord
asked. Lord, where dwellest thou? Where dwellest thou? And that
word dwellest is abide. Lord, where are you abiding?
We just want to be where you are. Wherever you are is where
we want to be. Lord, where do you abide? We know God, the Lord Jesus abides
in his word. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. We look to scriptures. The Lord Jesus is revealed on
every page, on every page. So we go to God's word. The Pharisees
were diligent Bible students. They knew the Bible, they could
quote it. I met a man one time when I was
in seminary, he was a Jewish rabbi, and he had committed to
memory the entire Old Testament of the Bible in Hebrew. It was a man by the name of Jack
Van Impey. I don't know if you all ever heard about him. They
called him the walking Bible. He had committed to memory the
entire Bible. I heard him preach several times
and never preached the gospel. That Jewish rabbi didn't know
Christ. And the Lord said to those Pharisees,
you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal
life. But these are they which testify
of me." You've missed the whole meaning of the Bible. You've missed me. Where dwellest
thou, Lord? I'm in my word. I'm among my people. Where two
or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them. where the gospels preached, that's
where I'm at. And I, if I be lifted up, will draw men to myself. So God's people, that's what
we're doing right now, isn't it? We're opening God's word. By the way, those disciples on
the road to Emmaus, you know when their eyes were opened,
when they got to the disciples' house, And the Lord acted as
if he would have gone on. The scripture says that. He said,
see you, fellas. It's been nice talking to you.
I'm going to continue on my journey. And they begged him to stay.
Lord, come. No, please, we want to spend
some more time with you. And the scripture says, in the
breaking of the bread, their eyes were opened, and they saw
him. And so it is. when we break open
the bread of life and we preach Christ. God, the Holy Spirit,
the seeing eye and the hearing ear is both of the Lord, and
God opens the eyes of his children, and he enables them to set their
affections on Christ. Whom seek ye? Lord, where abidest
thou? Where dwellest thou? And the
Lord's in the heavens. He's seated at the right hand
of God. He is a successful savior. He actually accomplished the
purpose for which he came. You shall call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. And when the
Lord Jesus ascended back into glory, he took his rightful place
at the right hand of the majesty on high. If we could put it this way,
God rewarded him. God honored the promise that
he had made to his son that when he finished the work that he
was sent to do and ascended back into glory that he would be made
Lord over the living and the dead. And now what do we do? We look up. Whom seek ye? Lord, where do
you dwell? You dwell in your word? You dwell
among your people? You dwell in the heavens? Lord,
give me the grace to seek you where you are. You know, in the Old Testament
temple, There's candlesticks, and there's tables, and there's
altars, and there's mercy seats, and there's arcs, and the priest
worked daily making sacrifice in the temple. There's one piece
of furniture that is conspicuously missing in the Old Testament
temple. There's no mention anywhere in
the Bible that there was a chair anywhere in that temple or in
that tabernacle. Why? Because the work was never
finished. The priests couldn't sit down. They were never finished
with their work. And when the Lord Jesus bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's cross and he said, it is finished. God Almighty, his father, rent
the veil from top to bottom. The work of redemption's finished. And the evidence of that is that
in heaven, the one piece of furniture that is most conspicuous is a
throne. And the Lord Jesus is seated
on that throne. He finished his work. Nothing more to be done. Can't
add anything to it. Can't take anything away from
it. It's finished. the law thou shalt not." Oh what a blessing it is when a loving father sits down
with a child and probes their hearts with questions to bring
them to their truth. Thank you, Greg. He said what
seek you and it goes right along with Donny's message. Substitution,
both of them at hand in hand perfectly. I'm so thankful scripture
tells us in Hebrews chapter one when he had by himself. Purged
our sin, he sat down. I'm glad it's finished when he
told you you're a sinner. But he doesn't leave you in that
state. He shows you that number one he is God. He's God and I'm
not. I'm a sinner. Number two, salvations
of the Lord. And number three, it is finished.
It is finished. Thank you, men. I was so encouraged. In closing, let's turn to number
334, Be Thou My Vision, and let's stand together. Be thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart. Not be all else to me, save that
thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word. I ever with Thee and Thou with
me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure
Thou art, High King of heaven, my victory won. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun. Heart of my own heart, whatever
befall. Still be my vision. O Ruler of all. By way of announcements, tomorrow
we would be here at 10 a.m. for service, 10 and 11. And tomorrow
afternoon we're going to be going to a park. It's Earl Township
Park. We have some bulletins out here
on the table that has the address. We plan to, you can go as soon
as service is over if you so chose. We've rented the pavilion
for the entire day. And they do have nice bathroom
facilities and things there. But we're planning on eating
at 4 o'clock. We're going to have hamburgers and hot dogs
and things like that. So everybody's welcome.