The Progress of the Soul

Now let's turn again to Psalm
130. There will be those in the congregation
this morning who have not entered the first stage of redemption. You have not entered the first
experience of grace. You will not understand some
of these things that I'll have to say as we go into the message.
But I want you to listen. And may God the Holy Spirit bring
you to enter into this experience of grace, this relationship with
Christ. It's more than a public profession. It's more than mental agreement
with terms and creeds and doctrines. It's an experience. And then
there are those in the congregation who are somewhere in between.
You have experienced conviction. You have been brought to faith
in Christ. God is working repentance in you, faith in you. But your
growth, your maturity, your spiritual maturity has not been developed. May God the Holy Spirit bring
you a special message. And then there are those who
can walk every step of the way through this psalm. You have
walked there, you are walking there, you will walk there. And
when I talk about the progress of the soul, I'm not talking
about a man begins in conviction and grows to maturity, and this
is where he is and he never experiences this again. He experiences the
whole psalm all the time. We start in conviction and we
grow to maturity, but we never get beyond conviction. We come
through conviction, repentance, faith, knowledge, but we never
get beyond conviction and repentance. We continue to repent. So the
progress of the soul is this. We have experienced these things,
we are experiencing them, and we shall still experience them. So let's look first of all at
verse 1 in Psalm 130. The first thing we encounter
here is conviction, an awareness of sin, a knowledge of sin. He says, Out of the depths, out
of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Have you ever really
been there? Have you ever really experienced
the convicting work of the Holy Spirit when God reveals to you
and to me our sins? Listen to David. Innumerable
evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
of me so that I am not able to look up. Have you ever been there? There are more than the hairs
of my head. Therefore my heart faileth me,
O God, O God, be pleased to deliver me, O God, make haste to help
me." Out of the depths, out of the depths of conviction, out
of the depths of sin, out of the depths of despair, innumerable
evils have encompassed me, my iniquities have taken hold of
me in such a way that I can't even look up." The publican was
there. Scripture says he wouldn't even
so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but he smote on his breast and
he cried, Oh God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Jonah was
there. Jonah said, out of the depths,
out of death, out of hell, I cried unto thee. Blind Bartimaeus was
there. He sat by the wayside, and in
his blindness reached out and cried, Jesus, thou son of David,
don't leave me. Help me. Have mercy on me. He cried out of darkness. Have
you ever been there? The thief on the cross was there.
He said, dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation,
and we indeed justly? O Lord, Remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom. The harlot was there who knelt
at the feet of our Lord and bathed his feet with tears and dried
them with a hair of her head, the point of desperation, the
point of despair. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee." Now, you can't go any further down this road till
you've been there. That's where it all starts. Someone
said deep places beget deep feelings. Deep places beget deep emotions. And the rarest pearls in the
kingdom of God are found in the deepest sea. God does not hear
some men because they don't cry. God does not hear some men because
they do not cry out of sincerity and out of the depths and out
of truth. But God always hears those who
cry out of the depths. When we're strong and prosperous,
our prayers come from our lips. When we're broken, convicted,
and in trouble, our prayers come from our hearts. And those are
the ones God hears, and he doesn't hear any other. And that's the
reason David said, out of the depths, out of the depths of
sin and iniquity and transgression have I cried unto thee, O Lord,
hear my voice. Turn back to Psalm 107. Here's
a picture of it. Here's a picture of it. In Psalm
107, beginning with verse 2, Now, as I said, as we make progress,
the growth and the progress of the soul, we never get beyond
this. I don't care if a man has. You
say, yes, I have experienced conviction. Don't you still?
Oh, I have experienced an awareness of sin. Don't you still? Oh,
I have felt my iniquities against God. Don't you still? You don't
get beyond this. You may be convicted, repent,
and believe, and grow in grace, but you still come back here.
In Psalm 107, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath
redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out
of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north
and the south. Now look at verse 4. They wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in,
hungry and thirsty. This is spiritual condition.
It's not talking about physical hunger. Hungry and thirsty, their
soul fainted in them. And then they cried unto the
Lord in their trouble, in their trouble. And he delivered them
out of their distresses. Have you ever been there? Look
at verse 11. They rebelled against the word
of God. They contemned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore he
brought down their heart with labor. They fell down. There was none to help." Have
you ever been there? And then they cried to the Lord
in their trouble, in their trouble. And he delivered them out of
their distresses. So that's the beginning. That's
the point where we start conviction, conviction and awareness of sin. And then we go to verse 2. Lord,
hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. A man who is deeply aware and
deeply convicted of his sin will cry for help. He'll cry to the
one who can help him. As Brian Bartimaeus said, Jesus,
thy son of David, have mercy on me. As the woman with the
issue of blood who had tried many positions and everything
failed, she said, if I can get to Christ, if I can get to Jesus
of Nazareth, I'll be made whole. Now here is sincere prayer. Lord,
hear my voice. There are five conditions of
true sincere prayer. Now, every one of us, pastor,
elders, deacons, teachers, older people, children, every one of
us can learn something here about prayer. And we certainly need
to learn something about prayer. Everything that is called prayer
is not prayer. I'm persuaded that most of our
prayer is sinful prayer. I'm persuaded that most of our
prayer is ceremonial, it's ritualistic. It's sentimental, it's not of
God. Now here are five marks of sincere
true prayer. Number one, it is always a humble
prayer. Out of the depths have I cried."
Out of the depths, out of the depths of sin, out of the depths
of helplessness. That's where Peter was as he
was sinking beneath the waves. And he cried, Lord save me or
I perish. Save me, I pray. All prayer that
is heard of God, and all prayer that is motivated by the Holy
Spirit, and all prayer that is true and comes from the heart,
always comes from a broken heart. Not a proud heart. God resisteth
the proud. God giveth grace to the humble.
A proud spirit, a haughty spirit, is always preceding a fall. And
secondly, if it is true prayer, it is not only humble, but it's
fervent. Lord, out of the depths, the
depths of sin and helplessness, have I cried. I cried. Ceremonial prayer A form of prayer,
ritualistic prayer, is as useless as reciting, Mary had a little
lamb. You might as well bow your head
and recite, Mary had a little lamb, if it is not fervent prayer. I have cried unto thee. Romans
chapter 8 verse 26 talks about groanings which cannot be uttered.
We're not heard for our much speaking, we're not heard for
our repetitious phrases, we're not heard for our eloquence,
we're heard for our sincerity. And so prayer that is true, it's
humble prayer, it comes from a broken spirit, a broken heart,
and it's fervent. Lord, out of the depths have
I cried. And then thirdly, prayer that's
heard is prayer directed to God unto thee, not prayer to Mary,
not prayer to a saint, not prayer to a supreme being, but a cry
and a call to the living God. I want you to turn to 1 Kings
18. Let me show you a prayer here. And I know this prayer
was heard, and I know this prayer was answered, because it says
in 1 Kings 18.38, then the fire of the Lord fell. Then it fell
at the close of this prayer. Here's a man, Elijah, a man of
God, a man of like passions as you and me. You say, well, he's
a special man. No, in a sense he is, but in a sense he's not.
He's a man of like passions as you and I. That's what Scripture
says in the book of James. But here he is on Mount Carmel,
when he was having this conflict with the prophets of Baal, and
it came his time to pray. They had cut themselves and moaned
and groaned and screamed and yelled and gone through all the
ceremonies and rituals and their evil, false gods had not heard,
and then Elijah stepped forth. Listen to this prayer. Sixty-three
words, that's all. Such an eventful time. Such an
important time. everything hinging on this, the
Queen and all of her princes and captains and generals were
against this man, the 450 prophets of Baal against him, the people
were standing around watching, such an important time, and yet
63 words, that's all he prayed. And he came near and he said,
in verse 36, the time of the evening sacrifice, he came near
and said, Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, Let it
be known this day that thou art God, and that I am thy servant,
and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me,
O Lord, hear me." See the fervency? See the sincerity? "...that this
people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast
turned their hearts back again." And then the fire of the Lord
fell. This was directed to God. A humble prayer, a fervent prayer,
directed to the Lord. Lord, hear me. And then fourthly,
it's a reverent prayer. Prayer that is sincere, prayer
that's heard, is a reverent prayer. Notice here in Psalm 130, out
of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice." Our Master
said, you call me Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. It's
not sweet Jesus. It's not blessed Jesus, though
he is sweet, though he is blessed. But my friends, when we approach
the throne of grace, let's never forget it is a throne of grace. It is a throne of grace. He's
still the king. He's still the Lord. He still
says ask anything according to my will And that leper, he caught
the tune when he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. And this is a reverent prayer.
Let us not get to the place where we have an over-familiarity with
the living God. And then last of all, it's a
personal prayer. Now, these are the marks of true
prayer. It's got to be a humble prayer, out of the depths out
of where I am, not what I profess to be, out of where I am, not
who I profess to be. Lord, this is me. You know me.
You know what I am. You know who I am. You know what
I've done out of the depths, out of where I am. I cry fervently
unto thee directly. I cry unto thee. It's a reverent
prayer. O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice,
my voice, hear my supplication. I cry to thee, hear my voice,
my supplication. This is something I wish that
I could teach this morning. Turn to Matthew chapter 6. And it's not public prayer that
I'm so concerned about. It's private prayer. In Matthew
6, verse 5, now here's the Lord speaking himself. Listen to what
he said. And when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. They
love to pray standing in church, in the synagogue. They love to
pray in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.
Now, I'm not against praying. We've got to have public prayer.
We must have it. We're commanded to script. Men
are always to pray. In the book of Corinthians, it
talks about the giving of thanks and others saying amen to it.
Prayer is a part of our worship. We sing, praising God. We read
the scripture, teaching the things of God. We fellowship one with
another. We edify one another. We strengthen
one another. We pray. I lead in prayer, Don
leads in prayer, one of these other men lead in prayer, and
public prayer is necessary. It's all right with me. I think
it's wonderful praying on the street corner, praying in restaurants,
praying other places. If you feel led that way, if
you're motivated that way, wonderful, it's a good testimony, but never
to be seen of men. If that's our motive, if that's
what's motivating us, that's not prayer. It may be ritual,
it may be ceremony, but it's not prayer. Now listen to this. When you pray, verse 6, but when
you pray, enter into your closet. That doesn't, our Lord's not
saying there any more than he's saying if your right hand offends
you, cut it off. Don't you dare cut your hand off. Don't you
dare mutilate your body by plucking your eye out. The Lord's teaching
us something. And when the Lord says, enter your closet, he's
not saying go into a place four feet wide by three feet by so
many feet high and shut the door in the damp, cold closet of darkness. He's talking about getting alone.
And when you shut the door, you pray to your Father in secret.
This is the prayer that I covet. This is the prayer that's important.
In verse 7, don't use vain repetitions. You say, well, preacher, I find
it so hard to pray. Now, wait a minute. Here's what
you're thinking. You hear a man who, we have some
men in this church that pray well publicly. And you hear them
pray, and you hear they're well-versed in the Scripture, they've been
doing this a long time, and they're good at praying publicly. But
you don't have to say the same things they say. It's not the
repetition of phrases. It's not using the right words.
That's not it. That's what the heathen think,
that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not like
unto them, verse 8, your father knows what things you have need
of before you ever ask him. I'll tell you, you can get alone
in your bedroom, in your study, or somewhere, and I'm not talking
about just driving your car down the road. I hear people talk,
and I do that too, and that's fine, but that's still not it.
And I'm not talking about it while you're washing dishes either,
that's still not it. And I'm not talking about when
you're walking down the street, that's still not it. Now this
kind of praying that I'm referring to here is when you actually
take a time, And you go in when the kids are at school and the
husband's at work, and you go into your bedroom and shut the
door and get down on your knees before God. And it's not the
bodily form that God sees or that God hears, that's not it
either. When we're before the Lord, I believe the humility
of our hearts will force us to take a humble position physically. And we get on our knees, and
we talk to the Lord. And we talk to him about the
church, and we talk to him about the people, and we talk to him
about the pastor, and we talk to him about the Word of God.
We talk to him about our children, we talk to him about our husbands.
We talk to them about our own failures and our own sins and
our own shortcomings and our own imperfections. We talk to
the Lord in your own words. Don't try to use repetitious
phrases. Don't try to use what you've
heard somebody else say. You say, Lord, here I am, and
you know me, and you know I love you, and you know I love your
word. And, Lord, I wish you'd teach me your word, and I wish
you'd bless our church, and I wish you'd bless our home. If it can
be your will to solve this problem, I'd be much obliged. You can
talk that way. That's praying. And that's what
I want us to have more of. You men can come in and go somewhere
and close the door and pray. And if you're not doing this,
well, I caution you, you're missing a blessing, and you're failing
your family, and you're failing me, and you're failing your church,
and you're robbing yourself of some some great blessings, if
you're not doing this. And I ask you, and I pray with
you, and I urge you to have some personal prayer. That's what
David is saying here, out of the depths, we're nobody, we're
nothing. Paul says, I'm nothing, one nothing
to another nothing. But out of the depths, where
I am, who I am, I cry to thee, O Lord, hear my voice. Hear my voice. And let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication." Now we're
getting somewhere close to praying, and this is essential, and I
urge it upon you. Now the third, the third thing,
verse 3, "...if thou, O Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who can stand?" Have you ever been
here? Now, have you ever been in the place of real conviction?
Do you know who you are? Do you know what you've done?
Do you know how you've sinned against God? Have you been to
the place of prayer? Do you pray? And here's the third.
Have you been to the judgment? Now, listen to these statements.
This is true. No man, no woman is coming to the throne of grace
till they first of all go to the throne of judgment. No way. No man is going to come to the
cross, no woman is going to come to the cross until they've been
stripped by the law. No man is coming to Calvary until
he's been to Sinai. That's so. Scripture says if
we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. What does
that mean? It means to justify God in his judgments. It means
this, it means to say, If you didn't choose to give me another
blessing, you'd be just. Lord, if you were not pleased
to save my soul, you'd be just. Lord, if you sent me to hell,
you'd give me just exactly what I deserve. Lord, if you flooded
my life and my soul and my family with troubles, you'd be giving
me exactly what I deserve. That's what I'm talking about.
Now turn to Psalm 51. That's what David's saying here
in Psalm 51. You know, somebody said this
one time, when a man acknowledges, when a man acknowledges, a woman
acknowledges that he deserves to be sent to hell, then he finally
is coming to adore the true and righteous and living God. Listen
to Psalm 51, verse 3. I acknowledge my transgression.
My sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight." There, here's
the key. "...that thou mightest be justified
when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest." You know
what he's doing here? He's justifying God in his righteous
condemnation of all our sins. God, you're right. That's what
the thief said on the cross. I'm getting what I deserve. Listen
to Jacob over in Genesis 32. Here's a scripture worthy to
be marked in your Bible. Genesis chapter 32. And this
is something that we need to learn, every one of us. I need
to learn it. You do. In Genesis 32, verse 9. I want
you to listen to this. Genesis 32, 9. And Jacob said,
you ought to circle this, O God of my father Abraham and God
of my father Isaac, The Lord which said unto me, Return to
your country unto your kindred, and I'll deal well with you.
I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the
truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant." Have you ever
been there? That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about us justifying
God. I've heard people say when they've
had a tragedy, why me? I've heard people say when they
lost a loved one, why does this happen to me? I've heard people
say when they're discouraged and depressed, why is the Lord
bringing this upon me? Well, you see, you're not there
yet. When you grow in grace, when you come to know him and
know yourself, you will accept whatever judgment, whatever condemnation,
whatever trial, whatever burden, you will accept it from the hand
of God as being absolutely just. And you will accept every blessing
from his hand as being undeserved mercy. And you will say with
Jacob, I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies." Not the
least of them. Look at verse 4. Here's
the next one. The progress of the soul. I've
been to the depths. I'm there now. I'll be there
tomorrow. out of the depths of our cry. Every time I cry, it's
out of the depths. But it's fervent, it's sincere,
it's humble, it's genuine, it's unto the Lord, it's my personal
cry. And Lord, if you would mark iniquity,
I wouldn't stand, they wouldn't stand, nobody would stand. Who
would stand if God would at this moment judge us according to
his holy, righteous judgments apart from Christ? Huh? And look
at the next verse, "...but there is forgiveness with thee, that
thou mayest be feared." I want to show you something here. Somebody
said that these two verses, verse 3 and 4, look at them. Lord,
if you should mark iniquity, if you should judge men solely
on the basis of what they've done, what they've thought, what
they've said, what they've imagined, who would stand? But there is
forgiveness with ease. Somebody said the sum of the
whole scriptures, all the word of God, is right here in these
two verses. The whole message of the Bible is summed up right
here in these two verses. Sin, its universality, sin in
its fatal, damning, condemning condition against God, and salvation. That's forgiveness with the sovereign,
free, eternal, full, merciful. Here are the two mountains, Sinai
and Calvary. Here are the two messages, all
of sin, the gift of God's eternal life. But there's forgiveness
with thee. The Old Testament tells us that
with its sacrifices, the lambs, the bullocks, the altars, the
sacrifices, the priests. What does all of it mean? It
means there's forgiveness. The New Testament tells us this,
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, God
spared not his own Son, Christ died on the cross. What does
all this mean? There's forgiveness. And throughout the scriptures
there's example after example after example of forgiveness.
Am I a blasphemer? So was Saul of Tarsus. Am I a
thief? So was the one who hung upon
the cross. Am I an adulterer? So was David. Am I a fallen woman? So was the harlot, so was Magdalene. Am I an idolater? So was Abraham. Am I a Christ denier? So was
Peter. But there is forgiveness. O Lord, if thou shouldest charge
sin, if thou shouldest mark sin, if thou shouldest judge sin solely
on the basis of righteousness and holiness, who would stand?
Nobody. But, thank God, there is forgiveness. There's forgiveness with thee
in Christ, because of Christ, through the blood of Christ.
Look at this last line. I don't want to get away from
it without mentioning this last line, verse 4, "...that thou
mayest be feared." Well, there's a reverence. There's an awe as
we approach the Holy Ghost. But this fear here, he's talking
about something else. Faith and repentance bind us
to God with a beautiful fear. You know what it is? And I have
this. I know exactly what he's talking
about here. I believe some of you do. I fear to lose one bit
of his love. I fear to depart from his presence. I fear to bring reproach on his
matchless name. I fear error. I fear missing
Christ. I think Paul did. He said, I
don't want to preach to others and then become a castaway. He
said, I count all things but loss that I may win Christ and
be found in him. Whatever I miss, I don't want
to miss Christ. Now verse 5, here is hope. See
how the progress, see how this barometer, see how this psalm
measures the growth of the soul and the progress of the soul
from conviction to crying to God, to acknowledging sin, to
judging myself, judge yourself, quit judging others and judge
yourself. Take your place before God as
a sinner. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. Don't go about trying to prove
how righteous you are. Christ said, I came to call sinners. We are, all of us, are given
to justifying ourselves. What did you do that for? Well,
I'll tell you why I did it. Now just hush. Why don't you
just say, I shouldn't have. But no, we've got a reason, we've
got to justify ourselves. We're in the business, not only
in church and on our jobs and in our home, that's what starts
most arguments in the home, justifying ourselves. We justify what we
think, we justify what we do, we justify how we feel, we justify
ourselves. And we need to get in the business
of justifying God. We're never going to come to
the place of forgiveness until we come to the place of judgment.
That's what Christ said, if thy brother sinned against thee,
and if he repents, forgive him. But here's our problem, there's
no repentance. There's no repentance. If he
sinned against thee seven times a day, and if he repents, forgive
him. But there's no repentance, there's no justifying God. But here's hope. When we come
to the place of forgiveness, there's hope. He said, verse
5, I wait for the Lord. And in his word do I hope. I
wait for the Lord. I expect him to come in mercy.
He said if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
them. I expect him to speak peace to my heart. I expect it. Do
you? I expect him to forgive my sins.
I expect him to bring Christ to my heart. But I wait. I cry to him, but I wait. I seek
the Lord, but I wait. I confess my sins, but I wait.
And I will say this, and I hope you listen carefully to this.
I'm against present-day evangelism. I think it's wrong. I think that
the methods that are being used today are wrong. I think the
methods and evangelism that's being used today, they're filling
the churches with unsaved people, they're giving false hope to
sinners. I would say beware of anyone who tries to push you
into a religious profession. Beware of anyone who tries to
push you into a religious decision. Beware of anyone who tries to
push you into the place of peace. Verse 5 says, I wait for the
Lord. Out of the depths I cry. I'm
convicted of my sin. I know what I am. I know who
I am. I cry to God fervently, humbly, and sincerely. I cry
to God. And I know if God would judge
me as I ought to be judged and by his holy, righteous standards,
I'd be damned. But I know there's forgiveness
with God. He forgave Saul, he forgave David, he forgave Peter,
he forgave James, he forgave Magdalena, he forgave these others. But I wait on the Lord. I wait
on the Lord. I hope in his word. I trust in
his word. Turn to Psalm 27. I would command
every sinner to repent. I would command every sinner
to believe. I would command every sinner
to seek the Lord. But while we are repenting and
believing and seeking the Lord, I would say, I would caution
you, wait upon the Lord. Let Him speak peace. Don't let
some preacher give you peace. Let Him give you rest. Don't
look for some evangelist to give you rest. Look at verse 14 of
Psalm 27. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. He that believeth shall not make
haste. And David said here in Psalm
130, I wait for the Lord more than they that watch for the
morning. This is a supreme cry and desire of my soul to know
him. And then verse 7, we have here
confidence and assurance, and this is my last point. In verse
7, let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy,
and with him there is plenteous redemption. His love has no limit. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. His grace has no measure. His
power has no boundary known unto men. For out of his infinite
riches in Jesus he giveth and giveth and giveth and giveth.
I read a story one time, a preacher talked about a little rat. Harvest
was over and the silos were full, completely full, all of the silos,
the barn, the corn was there, and all of the grain, and this
little rat came with his companion into the silo, and he started
eating and eating and eating. And he was eating so rapidly,
and the other little rat said, why are you eating so fast? He
said, well, I just don't want it to run out. And the other
little rat looked around, saw that huge silo and the one next
to it, and he says, I don't think there's any danger of your exhausting
the supply. And I say that to every person
seeking the Lord. His love has no limit. His grace
has no measure. It is impossible for me or for
you to exhaust his supply of grace and his supply of love
and his supply of mercy. It's unlimited. With him there
is plenteous redemption. And verse 8 says, And he shall
redeem us from all our iniquities. Now here's the thing to remember,
this thing of growth in grace. I want to grow in grace. I have
a horrible fear of remaining the same. I think anything that's
alive grows. If we're alive spiritually, we
grow. We grow in grace, we grow in the knowledge of Christ, we
grow in the fruit of the Spirit, we grow in love and faith and
meekness and humility and longsuffering and patience and gentleness and
kindness and all of these things mentioned in the Scripture. But
let me warn you, we don't grow by planes of piety and planes
of righteousness, to where we can come to a certain point and
look back and say, I've come this far, and you haven't. We
may come to this point of great love, but we're still down here
at this point of great sin. We may come to this point of
great joy, but we also experience great sorrow. We may come to
this point of meekness. But we know there's enough pride
in every one of us to send us to hell. You see what I'm saying?
I fear this thing of spiritual maturity that does not always
admit of spiritual inability. I fear this thing of growing
in knowledge and not remembering that we're but fools. A Christian's a paradox. He's
full. full of God's grace, but he's
empty. And he'll be the first one to tell you. He's clothed
in the righteousness of Christ, but he knows he's naked. He lives
in Christ, but yet he can say, I'm dead, crucified with Christ. He's rich, the unsearchable riches
of Christ are his, but he still knows that he's the poorest one
of all. And God has taught him many things,
and he feels that he can teach others, but he also knows this,
that he who thinks he knows, knows not as he ought to know.
And he needs to be taught as a little child. Our Father, bless this word that
we have studied today, how rich, how precious, We pray that it
may be applied to my heart, to the heart of every person here.
Lord, do a work of grace in our souls, in our hearts. Reveal
thyself to us. Give us a spirit of prayer, the
spirit of humility, the spirit of grace. Let not our relationship
with thee be based upon doctrine. or upon ceremony or ritualism,
but let it be a living experience in our souls and in our hearts.
O Lord, out of the depths have I cried unto thee. Lord, hear
my voice, hear my supplication. We know with thee this plenteous
redemption, yet we justify thee in thy judgments and in thy condemnation. Speak to us according to thy
will, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

The Progress of the Soul

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The Progress of the Soul

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