In Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10, the Apostle Paul
twice stresses the fact that believing on Christ is a heart
work. He says in verse 9 that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe
in thine heart, that God raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, with the
heart, with the heart, and believeth unto this holiness, sanctification,
and righteousness, which God gave to Abraham, which a man
must have if he's going to see God. It's heart faith that's
saved. But, men, I listen to preachers and I read
religious literature. I listen to people talk. And
I'm convinced that the average person, in religion and out of
religion, in the pulpit and in the pew and in the world, thinks
of faith as a matter or an act of the mind and the understanding.
This is what they say. And this is the thoughts under
which most preachers and soul winners operate. The mind receives certain facts. They'll take you through the
Roman road. Now, do you believe this? Yeah. Yeah, I believe that.
Do you believe this? Yeah. Yeah, I believe that. Do
you believe this? Yeah. Then you're saved. The mind receives certain facts,
and the understanding says, yes, I believe they're true. I believe
the Bible's the word of God. I believe there's a God. I believe
Jesus Christ died on the cross and was buried and rose again.
I believe these facts. I regard them as true. Then you're
saved. Do you believe this bridge will
hold you? This is a common illustration, and I've been thinking about
this for three days. You believe this bridge will
hold you? Yeah. I believe that bridge down there
will hold me. Then get on it. And that's faith. Is that faith? Is that saving
faith? I've never been in love with a bridge. And I don't spend
very much time on the bridge. I want to get off of it just
as soon as I can. But I believe it. I believe it will hold me
and I commit myself to it. And it takes me to my destination. But I was under the impression
that Christ was our destination. I was under the impression that
the object of faith, Christ Jesus, is not just a way to take me
somewhere. He is the somewhere. He himself is the rest. He himself
is the destination. He himself is salvation. And
that that faith is not just accepting mentally some facts about Him
and using Him to attain a goal. He is my goal. When I know Him
and rest in Him, I've arrived. I'm where I started out to go.
I'm what I started out to be. I hear people say, well, God made
a way somehow. He made a way, but He Himself
is the way. He says so often, he is the door
of the sheepfold, he is the shepherd of the sheep, he is the way,
he is the truth, he is the objective. It's to win Christ and be found
in him, it's to know him and the power of his resurrection.
Believing some religious facts, the fact that there's a God,
the scripture says the devil believes there's a God. You see,
all these things to which we give our mental assent, and things
that I've believed all my life because I was raised with a Bible
heritage like Saul of Tarsus. I was saved with a Bible background.
I was raised by religious parents. I was raised with a Bible background.
And I've accepted these things mentally all my life. Believing what God can do is
only part of it. This is what Simon Magus believed.
He believed and joined himself to these disciples and they baptized
him. And then when Peter listened
to the man talk and observed the man's activities, he said
to him, your heart's not right. Your head's right. And your systematic
theology is right, and this is what's wrong with a lot of even
Calvinists. Their theology is good, but their
hearts aren't right with God. That's the problem. That's where
the whole issue is settled. That's where the work's done.
That's where salvation is wrought, in the heart. Your heart's not
right. He'd have heard this man talk.
He'd have listened to this man and observed his His objectives
and his goals, and he said, hey, wait a minute, your heart's not
right with God. You're in the gall of bitterness.
Don't care what you believe. I don't care what you know. I
don't care what you've done. Your heart's not right. There's
your problem. You see, the Lord is known to
them of a broken heart. He saith it such as be of a contrite
spirit. The sacrifices of God are a broken
heart. And we're not talking about this
organ here in your chest. That's not the heart he's talking
about. The heart, when the scripture
talks about believing with the heart and the broken heart, he's
talking about the real you, the affection. Set your affection
on things above. He didn't say set your minds
on Christ, set your affection. You love, you, the soul, the
spirit of the man, the man that's you. I heard a preacher say the
other time, the soul is a very important part of a man. What?
It is the man. Everything else is a part, the
soul is the man. He says the sacrifices of God
are a broken heart. He said in Proverbs 4.23, keep
your heart out of the inner issues of life. That's where everything
takes place, in the heart. My son, Proverbs 23.26, give
me your heart. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
and listen to this scripture here. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. It talks here about the love
of the truth. Not the fact of the truth, but
the love of it. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2,
it says in verse 10, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish, they perish because they receive not the
love of the truth. Some of them knew the fact of
it, but they didn't receive the love
of the truth. The love of the truth in the
heart, that's where it takes place, in the affection, in the
heart. the love of the truth. They received
not the love of it. They might have given mental
assent to it. They might have even acted upon
in agreement with these facts. But they never loved Him. If
any man loved not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed.
This is what our Lord is saying to Peter there beside the fire.
He says, Peter, do you love Me? He pointed to the boats and the
nets and the fishing business, and he said, Do you love me more
than these? More than your vocation, more than your profession, more
than your hobbies, more than your activities? Do you love
me more than these? Do you love me? Three times he
asked him, Do you love me? A large number of us would pass
a test on our Bible knowledge. We'd pass a test on our understanding
of the doctrines of grace. We might even pass a test on,
say, in the books of the Bible, Genesis through Revelation. But
I wonder how we'd fare when the Lord examines us with one question. Do you love me more than these? Look at your children. Do you
love me more than these? Look at your job. Do you love
me more than this? your own life, you love me more
than this?" Well, he said, if any man come to me, let him hate
his mother and father, his brother, sister, his own life, or he can't
be my disciple. This is where it is. I'm telling
you the truth. You see, the word heart in the
Scripture indicates three things. This is the reason why David
kept saying, sacrifices of God are a broken heart. God's none
to them of a broken heart. My son, give me your heart. Keep
your heart out of the issues of life. Set your heart, the
affection on things above. If any man loves not our Lord
Jesus Christ, he's none of his. The reason that keeps emphasizing
that is the word heart indicates a sincerity as opposed to hypocrisy. Anybody can say something. You
call me Lord with your lips. That's not hard to say. Say it.
Wasn't too hard, was it? I believe I could teach Hannah
Marie to say that. She's 14 months old. Honey, say,
Lord. Lord. You say it. You said, Lord, didn't you? That's what these preachers say.
You call on the Lord. You call me Lord with your lips,
but your hearts are far from me. I want you to read a scripture
in Luke 16. Luke chapter 16. Now listen to this. Luke 16,
verse 15. And he said to them, and our
Lord speaking to them, and our day is much like this day when
he ministered in the flesh. Religious. We're religious. Oh,
how religious we are. Child, they're religious out
there where you live, where you work. They're religious everywhere. Everybody's got religion today.
And our Lord looked at them and he said in verse 15, you, they
which justify yourselves before men. Am I saved? Yeah, I'm saved. I'm a member
of the church over here. I made a profession when I was
14. I teach Sunday school. We justify ourselves before men.
We tell them we're saved. We're fixed up. We're on the
church road. We justify ourselves before men. We make our professions
before men. We make our claims before men.
We discuss our orthodoxy with men. And everybody says, He's
saved. The preacher gets up at the funeral
and says, He's with the Lord. But God knows your hearts. You, they which justify yourselves
before men, but, but, oh, but, God knows your hearts. And that
which is highly esteemed among men Like a friend told me yesterday,
some elders from a certain Reformed Baptist church came to visit
him and wanted to know if he was interested in joining. They
said, now, church attendance is mandatory. You mean somebody loves Christ
and you have to make it mandatory for them to worship him? You
have to establish some rules and laws for them to abide by
or they won't follow Christ? That's us. And that which is
highly esteemed among us, God says, is an abomination. A religious profession and a
moral stand and an orthodox position is not salvation. This thing
of the heart has to do with the affections and its sincerity,
sincerity of purpose and objective, as opposed to hypocrisy. We can
fool one another, we can fool a lot of people, but God knows
your hearts. Here's the second thing this
word heart indicates and distinguishes between traditional faith and
personal faith. I've often said the average person
is what he was brought up to be. And this is clearly true. Over in Italy, everybody's a
Catholic. Out in Ireland, everybody's a Catholic. That's where they're
raised. In Alabama, everybody's a Baptist. Somebody said, in
Alabama, if you're not a Baptist or a Democrat, somebody's been
tampering with you. We've raised Democrats and Baptists.
You're an odd fish if you're not one of both. That's the way
it was raised. And that's when our Lord asked
Pilate. Pilate said, Are you the king of the Jews? Our Lord
said, Did somebody tell you that, or are you saying that of yourself?
There's the thing. There it is right there. You
say, I believe Jesus died on the cross and buried with...
Did somebody tell you that or is that what you really believe? I believe man's depraved. Do
you really? Did somebody tell you that or do you really believe
it? Is that from you? Is that your personal conviction?
Would you die for it? I believe Jesus Christ is the
Lord. Somebody tell you that? Or do
you really believe that? If it's putting people in prison
for being Christians, how many of us would go? Everybody that
believes it. In their hearts. That's exactly right. And that's
the reason it uses heart. Heart. It distinguishes between
a traditional religion, a Bible-built religion, is what we got in the
southern states. We have Abraham as our father.
Christ said, if you were children of Abraham, you'd do the works
of Abraham. And furthermore, you'd love me
because Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. And then the third thing this
word heart distinguishes is this. Boy, I tell you, this comes in
and just sweeps us off our feet. It distinguishes between material
covetousness, and genuine affection for the Lord. A man stood here
and prayed last Sunday, I don't know who it was, last Sunday
or Wednesday, Lord, we love Thee because Thou art God, and we
love Thee because of who Thou art. One day the sons of God came
before the Lord, and Satan came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, and
God never asks a question for information, He said to Satan,
Have you considered my servant Job? There's none quite like
him. And Satan answered the Lord and
said, Does Job fear the Lord and worship God for nothing?
Have you not made a hedge about him and about his house and about
all that he hath on every side? While you bless the work of his
hands, he's prosperous. And his substance, his cattle,
children, you've increased in the land. No wonder Job worships
God and fears God. Because he's got everything he
wants. And you won't let me touch him. And I'll tell you this,
God. You lay your hand on him. Lay
your hand on him and touch everything he has and he'll curse you to
your face. And bless your heart, that old
rascal, that adversary and accuser of the brethren, knows what he's
talking about. He knows exactly what he's talking
about. I've watched it happen dozens of times. You've hedged him about. You've
protected him. Oh, how I love Jesus, because
I sure am blessed. I got all I want. I don't have
a pain in my body, don't owe a dime anywhere. I've got a home
in the country and one in the city. I've got a car. My wife's
got a car. My boy's got a car. All my children
are healthy and in college and some have graduated, got their
jobs. I've got grandchildren. I'm going to heaven when I die.
Praise the Lord. Well, wonderful. That's what Satan said, touching. Take all the brag out of him,
take all the wind out of him, take all these aspirations and
hope out of him, and he'll curse you to your face. Now then, what I'm talking about
is the kind of faith that says, well, that old man on the dunghill
or on the scrap heap has already buried all his children and watched
his repossessors come in and take his land and houses, and
what cattle he had left. And even his wife turned against
him and said, You're a hypocrite. Why don't you curse God and die?
And all his friends sat around and stared at him for seven days,
wondering what secret sin he committed to make God do this
to him. And his health was gone, and
he had boils everywhere. He shouldn't do nothing but sit
and hurt. Everybody doubted him. And he
looked up and said, Bless the Lord. Though he slay me, I'll
praise him. The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's that heart faith I'm talking about. That's where it is. Satan knows more about human
nature than you give him credit for. A whole lot more. And I know it's popular to be
a Christian. It's popular to... There's the
modern religion says that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy
and prosperous and go to heaven when you die. And I've looked
everywhere and I can't find that. The object and goal of God is
what John prayed a while ago to glorify his Son. If you have
any part in God's plans and purposes, he'll use you to glorify his
Son. That's right. I'm going to give you several
things in quit about this heart faith. I know a little bit about
this heart faith. In Matthew chapter 9, I know
this first of all. I know this. heart faith is born
of need. It's born of need. It says here
in Matthew 9, verse 10, Matthew 9, 10, heart faith is born of
need. The first work of the Holy Spirit
in the heart of a sinner, in bringing him to heart faith in
Christ, is to reveal his need. The first steps a man takes towards
glory is not when he believes Christ is the Savior, but when
he sees his need of the Savior. A man will never be saved till
he gets lost. A man will never honestly and
sincerely seek the way of life till he's dead. He'll never seek
the position till he's sick. He'll never give any real sincere
inquiry and searching into this matter of redemption. He'll play
church. He'll adopt his traditional religion,
he'll adopt whatever appeals to his status or station in life,
and he'll go to the church where they practice that kind of worship
and so forth. And he'll aspire to attain unto
eternal life and heaven. and the great happy hunting ground,
but he'll never get diligently into this matter of finding out
who God is, and how God saves a sinner, and how God can be
just and justifier, and how God can take filthy rags away and
give a robe of righteousness, and how God can put away sin
and give a man a knowledge of the living, holy God. He'll never
get serious about that till he's lost, till he's a sinner. And I mean plum lost. It says
in Matthew 9, verse 10, it came to pass Jesus sat at meat in
the house. Behold, many publicans and sinners
came and sat down with him and his disciples. I read an article,
a preacher wrote one time, he went to a church and he was highly
offended. Highly offended because out in
the parking lot when he came into the church, he smelled whiskey
on a man's breath. And he was highly offended that
he had to go in the same building where that fellow had whiskey
on his breath. What if the Lord went around and smelled the breath
of all these publicans and harlots? To see if any of them had whiskey
on his breath. No, he sat down in the midst
of them. You know why? There were people in need, people
in trouble, people with sin. Our little nice respectable go-to-meet-on-Sunday-morning congregations, I don't know whether
the Lord sat down in our midst or not. he would if we needed
him. But he sat with the sinners,
and when the religious folks saw it, they said, why is he
eating with folks like that? Why is he not in the temple?
Why is he not with the Sanhedrin? Why is he not with the doctors
and the theologians? Why is he down here with those
kind of people? And our Lord heard that, and
he said, well, the whole don't need doctors. The well need not
a physician, but people who are sick. Go learn what that means. I will have mercy, not sacrifice. I didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners. My friends, is anybody a sinner? Do you know a sinner? Does anybody
know a sinner? Does anybody know anybody that's
lost? I'll tell you that publican in the temple sincerely cried
out for mercy because he needed it. That leper who ran and fell at
the feet of Christ and looked up and said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean, he needed it. That woman who moved through
the crowd in her weak and pitiful condition to reach out and touch
Christ needed it. old blind Bartimaeus that sat
by the wayside, in his dirt and filth and rags and darkness,
cried out. Oh, he cried out. While everybody
tried to make him hush, he kept crying out, Jesus, thy son of
David, have mercy on me. He needed him. If a man's thirsty, he bleeds
in water and wants it and hunts it. A man's hungry, he bleeds
in food, he wants it, hunts it. A man's cold, he bleeds in, wants
a covering, and he seeks it and hunts it. A man who's a sinner would sure be glad to hear some
good news about how God saves sinners. We have to beg people to come
and tell them the good news. We have to try everything under
the sun to get people to come and listen to the gospel. They're
trying new gimmicks and tricks and all sorts of entertainment,
just anything to get people to... I wonder if a man found a cure
for cancer or heart trouble. If he'd have to build a huge
monstrosity of a building with all its attractions and... What
do you do for the young people? Oh, I just cure cancer. They'd come for hundreds of miles,
wouldn't they? They'd come from hundreds of
miles. They'd come early. They wouldn't see who could sit
on the back row. They'd see who could get closest to him. Yeah,
they would. He could meet out in a tent and
they'd come under a brush ivory. It was too hot in church this
morning, too cold in church this morning. A man's got cancer and
a fellow's telling him how he can be cured. He doesn't care
whether it's hot or cold. He's interested in the message. I'm
telling you the truth. Am I not? But we ain't lost. And we ain't never been lost.
And we're not sinners. We be not sinners. Now, we may
be a little bad, but we're not as bad as a lot of people we
know. And if we ever get lost, faith, heart, faith is born of
need, need, need, need, need. sinners, Christ says. And the
second thing is this. Turn to Psalm 51. Heart faith
agrees with the justice of God. You can't make heart faith mad,
not with the truth. Psalm 51, David said in Psalm
51, verse 1, have mercy on me, O God. Have mercy on me according
to your lovingkindness. Well, I've agreed to accept Jesus.
Will He accept you? I don't worry if God will save
you or not. He might. Down here in the tent meeting
in the park in 1951, Brother Barnard got in awful trouble
with the preachers and religious folks around this community because
he dared to say at the end of the service, Friends, seek the
Lord. I don't know whether He'll save
you or not, but you ought to seek Him. Can you guarantee a man God will
save him? He said there were many widows
in Israel and God didn't feed one of them. Isn't that what
he said? He fed a Gentile widower. He said to that religious crowd
in Luke 4, there were many lepers in Israel and God didn't heal
one of them. He healed a Gentile. And they
got mad and was going to throw him off a cliff because he said
he'd save whom he will. If you do go to hell, you'll
just be one more. Do you know that? If I go to
hell, I'll just be one more. Hell's full. And I'll glorify the justice
of God. But if He saves me, it'll be
by His grace. It'll be by His mercy. It won't
be because I deserve it. And here David begs for mercy. He said in verse 2, Wash me throughly
for my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge
my transgression. My sin is ever before me. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned." He's a sinner, you see? Now watch
this. I've done this evil in your sight,
that you may be just when you speak and clear when you do.
He takes sides with God against himself. Can you do that? No, sir, we will not do it. We
won't take sides with God against our own kinfolks, let alone ourselves. Well, my boy's a good boy. Yes, sir. David says, God, when
you judge me, I clear your name. When you find me guilty, I clear your name. You're right. You're right. He that covereth
his sins shall not prosper. He that excuses his sin shall
not prosper, whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find
mercy." If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us. But if we keep on hiding them, defending ourselves, laying
the blame on God, we need not expect any mercy from the hand
of God. And this is so. Here's the third
thing. Heart faith is born of need,
real need. And if I tell you this, thirty-five
years of studying the Word of God, of preaching the gospel,
it looks like, it looks like people somewhere, somebody won't
listen. Looks like somebody won't listen.
Somebody in need. You could bring a doctor with
thirty-five years' experience here, speaking on the field in
which he was a specializer, and knew what he's talking about,
and people would call and ask you, when will he speak next?
I'll hear him again on this matter. I have a need. See what I'm saying?
I have a need. I'm a man sick. I've got that
problem. You know, the average person,
if you didn't have a Sunday school class or worship service, would
never talk about Christ at all. The average person, if you never
had a church service on Sunday, The average person in our churches
wouldn't think of Christ, talk of Christ, or discuss Christ.
Now, they'll discuss the sowing, they'll discuss the children,
they'll discuss their recipes, the men will discuss their jobs,
their hobbies, they'll discuss all these things, their life,
and joke, and banter, and carry on. The average person, you never
hear a spiritual thing come out of their mouths. Not one thing. But you let them get an ache
or a pain somewhere, and they can talk about it. Well, I've
got some aches and pains that the great physician only can
heal, and I love to talk about it. If a man ever gets sick and ever
realizes that healing's a gift of God, he'll agree with God's
way of salvation. Here's what I'm saying. When
a man lays hold of the holiness of God, we don't yet believe
that. We don't yet believe that. The holiness of God, the immaculate,
infinite holiness of God. When he lays hold of the fact
that he's a sinner, he is a guilty sinner. I'm not talking about
before me. I'm talking about before God. He is a wretched,
naked, corrupt, wicked rebel. God's angry with the wicked,
and God has an issue with us, and the wrath of heaven is turned
our way. When a man gets a hold of that
and understands that God will punish sin, God will by no means
clear the guilty, well, he'll sit down and consider four things.
Yes, sir, you'll take a seat somewhere, and you won't need
to keep You won't need to keep aggravating him about religion
and trying to get him to make a decision. When it ever dawns
on him the glory, holiness, and greatness of God, the distance
between him and that God, that hell's moving up to meet him
at his coming, that God's angry with the wicked, that his days
are numbered, that he'll die and face judgment, he's going
to go home and sit down and think of four things. Number one, that
God be God and every man alive. I can't change that, don't want
to anyway. God is God. Secondly, he'll face
this truth, by the deeds of the law, works of the flesh, shall
no man be justified. He'll lay down every effort he's
ever put forth to attain a righteousness. I'm going to quit going and giving
and working and laboring in order to pacify God. It never has worked
anyway. That woman had wasted her money
on crack doctors and was none better, so she didn't go back
to any more of them. Number three, he'll start crying
like the publican. He'll look to God, the God of
mercy. He'll look to the God of grace.
He won't need you. He'll look to Him, and he'll
cry, Oh God, if it's possible, if it's pleasing to You, Will
you show mercy to me? Will you do something for me?
I'm not passing judgment on anybody else. I'm just simply saying,
here I am, here I am, a guilty sinner. I need a Redeemer. Will
you be merciful to me? And then fourthly, you'll consider
this. If God shows mercy to me, it'll
have to be in Christ. Because that's the only way that
a holy God can be just and justify folks like me and you. He'll
have to lay my guilt on Christ, lay my blame on Christ, lay my
filth on Christ, accept me in Christ. And that brings me to
the fourth thing. Heart faith has one objective,
Christ Jesus. Not the Baptist church. It's not even sovereign grace. That's not the object of faith. I hear people say, well, I came
to a knowledge of grace. You did. I came to a knowledge
of Christ. And I found grace in Him. Well,
when I learned the doctrines of grace, you did. Paul learned
Christ. He never did say he learned the
doctrines of grace. He said he learned Christ. That's
right, John, he learned a person. Oh, I'll say back yonder, years
when I was a kid and all, but I learned the doctrines of grace
when I was about 35 or 40. You just change your religion,
that's all you did. Salvation's in a person. Salvation's
not in a position, it's not in a plane. It's in a person. I
learned Christ. I love Christ. I came to know
Christ. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. Christ. I learned the Christ
of power, the Christ of mercy, the Christ of righteousness,
the Christ of holiness, the Christ of God. I came to the knowledge
of Christ, and I learned the doctrines as He revealed them
to me. You see, I came to know Christ,
and I found out He's the sovereign Christ. I came to know Christ,
and I found out Christ chose His people. He's not a failure.
He declares the end from the beginning. That's the Christ
I love and know. He says man has to believe election
to be saved. No, but when he hears it he'll
believe it, because that's the Christ he knows. Heart faith has only one object,
that's Christ. And then heart faith will persevere.
Folks who believe facts because of arguments can be argued in
another position. People who believe because of
emotional experience can be changed by stronger experience. People
who follow men can be changed to follow a stronger personality.
But those who've met Christ, like the disciples said, to whom
shall we go? Everything's in Him. And then heart faith will accept
every difficulty, trial and tribulation. as being from the hand of God.
And heart faith takes away all fear and intimidation of men. All fear and intimidation. They're just men. They're just
vessels of clay. Fear not them which kill the
body and have no more that they can do. Fear Him. When you know Him, you fear Him.
When you love Him, you fear Him. And you fear no one else. I could lose my job. You could
lose your soul. Don't fear men. He may not like
me. David said, My mother and father
forsake me. My God will take me up. It takes
away all intimidation and fear of men. There is no confidence
in the flesh. Heart love. Heart faith. Is this clear what I'm saying?
It's the very foundation of the whole gospel message. Heart faith. With a heart, man believeth unto
righteousness. And, oh, my heart's desire, Paul
said, for Israel is that they might be saved. I bear them record they've got
religion. I want God to save them. If God
saves them, it's a hard work. And they're broken and melted
and formed. Become new creatures, new objectives,
new goals. Not worried about this world
anymore. Communism is going to take over.
Let them have it. We ain't done nothing with it. We shouldn't say that. This, my kingdom, is not of this
world. It's not of this world. It's righteousness and peace. Our Father, O what we take upon ourselves, call Thee our Father. Lord God of heaven and earth,
and blessed Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be thy
name, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the
heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Lord, you owe us nothing but
the wages of sin. I come, these come, we come as
we are, sinners. And we plead and cry and beg
and look to Thee in Christ, through Christ, because of His sacrifice. We look to Thee, crown to Thee,
for mercy. Thou art clear when you judge
and clear when you condemn, and o'erth nothing good or eternal. But we pray for mercy in Christ,
and we look to Christ And we trust that by your grace we love
Christ. If we've not loved thee before,
let us love thee today. If we've never trusted before,
let us trust thee today. And cease from defending our
flesh, cease from defending our traditions, and all these other
things. And cease from finding fault
with your divine providence. Give us a hunger and a thirst
for righteousness, your righteousness. because we'll be satisfied when
we awake with your likeness. Bless the word now. Whatever you use it to accomplish,
we'll glorify your name. A message of salvation or a message
of condemnation. Give us some liberty to preach
tonight. Give the people some desire to hear. Somebody, an
open heart, an open hand, listening ear, seeing eye, a receptive
heart, or a desire to know Christ. I pray in His name and for His
sake. Amen.