of Scripture. The first one is
found in Luke 7, Luke 7.36. And I want everyone with a Bible
to turn to Luke 7.36. And while I read this passage
and the other one which I shall read, I want you The Bible says examine
yourself, prove yourself, be diligent to make your calling
and election sure. I don't want anybody here, this
preacher included, my wife, you, you deacons and elders, there
have been lost elders, there have been lost deacons, there
have been lost preachers, there have been lost preachers' wives.
Our Lord had twelve apostles and one of them went to hell.
But I want everybody here to examine yourself. I want you,
while I'm reading this scripture, honestly before God, don't lie
to God, I want you to place yourself experimentally somewhere in this
story. And you've got to be somewhere
in this story. I want you to find yourself.
Now, I don't want you to find yourself Calvinistically. I don't
want you to find yourself Theologically. I don't want you to find yourself as your traditions would dictate
to you. But I want you to find yourself
experimentally. I want you to place yourself
where you are in this picture. Actually, experimentally, in
your own, in your own mind and in your own experience. Where
are you in this picture? Now, let's read Luke 7, 36. And
one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him.
And he went into the Pharisee's house, and he sat down to eat.
And behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she
knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, she brought
an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind
him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did
wipe them with the hairs of her head. and kissed his feet, and
anointed them with ointment." The word Pharisee is a word we
don't like to use a great deal, because it kind of lets some
of us out. Let's say when the professing Christian, when the
religious man which had dead in him saw it, he spake within
himself, saying, This man, if you were a prophet, You have
known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him,
for she is the sinner.' And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon,
I have somewhat to say unto thee.' And he said, Master, say on.
There was a certain creditor which had two debtors, one owed
five hundred pence, the other fifty. And when they had nothing
to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most?" And Simon answered and said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto
him, Thou shalt not judge. He turned to the woman, and he
said to Simon, See this woman? I entered into your house, and
you gave me no water for my feet. She washed my feet with tears.
and wiped them with the hairs of her head. You gave me no kiss,
but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to
kiss my feet. My head with oil you did not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom
little is forgiven, Where are you in that picture? Now turn to John chapter 8. I
know where the mercy of God is in that picture. And if you're
not where the mercy of God is, you're not an object of mercy. You've got to decide where you
are. The mercy of God is with the sinner. In John 8, verse
1, let's do the same thing again. As I read these 11 verses, I
want you to place yourselves in this picture. I know theoretically
we're all sinners, and I know theologically we're all sinners,
and I know Calvinistically we're all totally depraved, but I don't
believe a word of it. Experimentally, you are no more
a sinner than that Pharisee, most of us. Experimentally, we
are pretty good people, and I want us experimentally, not theologically. We're not going to be judged
theologically. We're not going to be dealt with
Calvinistically. We're not going to be judged
doctrinally, traditionally. We're going to be judged experimentally.
This man, this Pharisee, invited Christ to his home. You're welcome
in my home. The Lord's welcome in my home. A man who is a sinner He said,
Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof. That's
what the sinner said. Well, I'd be glad to walk with
the Lord. The sinner doesn't walk with
the Lord. He crouches at his feet. That's true. Not Jesus and I got a good thing
going. Not the sinner. Jesus has got
a good thing going, but I ain't got much going. I walk hand in hand with the
Lord, not the sinner." He weeps at the feet of Christ. It's the
Pharisee that sits up in the uppermost seat and discusses
issues with the Lord, not the sinner. Now place yourself in
this picture. And these men were upholding
the law. I believe in law and order, so did these religious
men. I want you to listen to it. Jesus, I believe in doing
right. You can believe in doing right and go to hell. Most people
who believe in doing right are going to hell. Jesus went unto
the Mount of Olives, and early in the morning he came again
to the temple. And all the people came unto
him, and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and the
Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they
had sent her in the midst, they said unto him, This woman was
taken into adultery, into their acts. You say, why is it always
a woman in these Bible stories? Well, these men were the rulers,
they were the law. They had two standards, one for
themselves and another for the woman. The woman was always made
the scapegoat. The men were never called to
account. The woman was a thing. She was a slave. She was an object of scorn. She was an object of blame. That's the reason it's always
a woman. The man was there, too, when they took her into their
acts of adultery. He was there, too, if they let him go and took
her. There's two standards, always has been, is now. Now Moses in
the law commanded us that such should be stoned. And he did. That's the fact, no doubt about
it. They were religiously and doctrinally and theologically
and traditionally sound as a dollar. These men were right. That's
what Moses said in the law. That's what the law says. The
law offers no hope for the Senate. What do you say? This, they said,
tempting him that they might have to accuse him. Jesus stooped
down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he had
heard them not. And when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without
sin among you, let him cast a stone at her. And again he stooped
down and wrote on the ground. And they, when they heard it,
and they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience
went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the
last. And Jesus was left alone and
the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself
and saw none but the woman, he said, Woman, where are those
thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. But the man who walks
off, walks off condemned, because Christ condemned the Pharisees
in no uncertain terms. Now where are you in this picture?
I know where the mercy of God is in this picture. I am convinced
that many of my messages are born not only out of the word
of God, but from personal experience. I am convinced that there aren't
many bona fide, genuine, experimental centers. I'm convinced of that. Consequently, I don't think many
people are saved. I think there are a lot of people
who use the term centers I think they use that term because they
want the external benefits connected with that term. They know what
the Bible promises those who come under that term. But I've
met very, very few people, very, very few, in my ministry who
have convinced me. And they don't have to convince
me, but they do have to convince God. But I've met very, very
few people who have convinced me that they believe themselves
to be sinners. And I'm going to give you five
reasons for this. I've thought this out very carefully,
and I want you to listen to these reasons. There are five reasons
why I'm convinced that most people are not sinners. Everybody in here and everybody
on our church road book, and most people in most of the churches
of this city, they say they're sinners. They'll say it theoretically,
theologically, they'll say it doctrinally. And we here Calvinists,
we've got to believe in total depravity, man plumbed over.
But I know a lot of people who say that who don't believe they're
dead. And it's not going to help us
one bit in this world to believe theoretically or theologically
that we're sinners. We're going to have to experience
it before we'll ever flee to Christ. We're going to have to
experience it. We're going to have to be ourselves
experimentally stripped before we're ever going to be clothed
with the righteousness of the Son of God. We're going to have to be ourselves
experimentally broken before we're going to be healed. And
most of us have not been broken. God is known to them that, not
that say they have a broken heart, He's known to them that have
a broken heart. God say the such as be, not say
they be, but be of a contrite spirit. Now the first reason why I do
not believe that most people experimentally believe they're
sinners, and I'm talking about sick people now, is the flippant
way in which the word sin is used. The flippant way. I want you
to turn to Romans 7 and listen to how Paul referred to sin.
Paul never flippantly and carelessly and meaninglessly talks about
sin. When he talks about sin, it was
this way. Listen to it. In Romans 7 verse
13, Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, sin, that it might appear
sin, it's going to have to appear what it is. What is it to you?
What is sin to you and to me? David said, My sins are ever
before me. My sins have separated me from
God. Read on. But sin, Paul said,
that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is
good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. That sin might become exceeding
sinful. Is there a sob in our throats
when we confess our sins? Are there tears in our hearts
when we pray, forgive us our sins? Can we use the word sin
without any depth, without any emotion, without any feeling? Yes, I suppose all could. All
the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The second reason why I believe
that most people experimentally have never become sinners, they've
never been lost, they've never been literally, experimentally
stripped, spiritually stripped. The second reason is this. They
talk about their sins in the past tense. Boy, I used to be a rounder.
Aren't you a rounder now? Boy, I tell you, I used to be
a character. You're a character now in case
you didn't know it. That's your problem, you don't
know it. In fact, you're a worse character now than you was then.
You knew it then, now you're blinded. That's right. Now you've
got religious blinds over your eyes and you're no more a character.
You're no more a rounder. You're no more a thinner. You're
a good fella now. And that's your downfall. People talk about how sinful
they used to be, and what they used to do, and what they weren't
doing, and how they used to talk. Listen again to Romans 7. Here's
Paul talking again now in Romans 7, verse 18. And this is Paul of the present.
This is not Paul talking about what he used to be. Actually,
when he talked about his past, He just used words like injurious
and persecutor and things of that nature. But when he talks
about his condition now, he uses words like this, verse 18, I
know that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Verse 24, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? The good that I would, I do not,
and the evil which I would not, that's what I do. Verse 21, I
find a law that when I do good, evil is present with me. Actually,
the man who is genuinely saved doesn't really know anything
about evil, as evil is against God until after he's saved. That's right. Spiritual evil
is never as evil as an unregenerate man. Evil is something that only
a saved man knows something about. The unsaved man knows something
about being wrong. He knows something about drinking
and gambling and all these other things. But only the saved man
knows something about spiritual evil. and rebellion against God. And that's where, that's where
this problem is. If people really saw themselves
as God sees them, as sinners, they wouldn't even talk about
what they used to do. They'd be mourning over what
they really are. And I'll be honest with you,
most folks that I've heard talk about what they used to do had
a little tone of bragging in their talk. And no sane man ever begs on
his sins. Every time I hear people talk
about what they used to be, there's a note, just a little note, of pride. And that's not, that's not a
consciousness of sin. That's theoretically, that's
theologically, that's traditionally, Here's the third reason why I
do not believe in any sinners, experimental sinners. People
like this woman who bathed the feet of Christ with her tears,
who didn't care who saw her, who didn't care who observed
her, who was so broken and repentant over her sins that she took her
hair, the glory of a womanhood, and dried the dusty feet of a
man. The third thing that I note is
the great satisfaction that we seem to get when somebody brags
on us. You say, it's human nature. I
know that. But if we really knew our guilt, we'd be embarrassed. any time
anybody heap any glory upon us, because we know it's not so,
and it's undeserved. Now, if you went out with a group
of people and somebody saved a fellow from getting shot or
something, and they came to him to meddle on you, Would you accept
it? You'd say no, and you'd yank
the medal off, and you'd pin it on the fellow it ought to
be on, wouldn't you? You'd say, that's not mine, I
didn't do it. You'd say, I didn't do it, don't
pin that on me. It'd embarrass you, wouldn't
it? But we glory in that kind of
attention. When people talk about how righteous
we are, and how good we are, and how moral we are, it puffs
us up, rather than being embarrassed by it and say, we are not, that's
not so, that's not so. Say, God be the glory, that's
not so. I'm undeserving of any attention. Turn to Acts chapter 14. Listen
to the apostles when they were made the center of attention.
We love to be called Rabbi, Master. In Acts 14, verse 8, it says,
And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet,
being a cripple from his mother's womb, never had walked. And the
same man heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding him and
perceiving that he had faith to be healed. Paul said with
a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet. and the man leaped
and walked. And when the people saw him,
Paul admonished them, while they lifted up their voice, saying
in the speech of the Vicarian, The gods are come down to earth
in the likeness of men." Here people advertise the place of
the man of God. The gods are here, and they call
Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius, because he was a chief speaker.
Verse 14, They rent their clothes, and
they ran in among the people, crying out and saying, sirs,
why do you these things? You let them build monuments
and statues to us. We let them plaster our pictures
around everywhere. We let them brag on us. We let
people glory in the flesh. But Paul said, why do you do
this? We also are men of like passions
with you. And we preach unto you that you
should turn from these vanities unto the living God. A good sign that you haven't
yet been convinced of our own sinfulness is our satisfaction in the praise of men. And then
the fourth thing I've seen is this, and I think this reveals
the fact that we are not yet experimentally centered. We're
not yet split, we're not yet broken. And that's our attitude
towards those who fall, and our attitude towards those who are
weak in the flesh. We run around talking about our
sins, but woe unto the person who does. We run around talking about we're
good sinners, but woe to the man and woman who will have turned
out to be one. We've had it. Some preacher said one time,
and I've pictured it up somewhere, he said if you commit a sin,
You're better off in a saloon than in a church, because they
will deal more kindly with you. Isn't that awful? Because you know I find that
to be so. Those fellows, those drunks and
things, their sinners may know it, and they're more tender and
compassionate with other sinners. But there ain't many sinners
in the church. And when somebody turns out to be one, He's had
it, that's all there is to it. He's dealt with brutally, treacherously,
with great revenge. Turn to Galatians chapter 6,
and it's clearly revealed that we're not sinners. We are not
sinners, because those who weep, those who have wept, know how
to weep for those that weep. And those who are fallen know
how to understand those who fall. And those who have plowed through
the waters of sorrow know how to sympathize with those who
are there now. You can't tell what you don't
know, and the more you can come back, the more you ain't there.
If you haven't been there, you don't know anything about it.
In Galatians 6 verse 1, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fall,
You which are spiritual will serve such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself." And that's the basis on which
we judge others, ourselves. When we're sinners, we're sympathetic
with sinners. And when we're not sympathetic
with sinners, that means we're not a sinner. That's the whole
thing, considering thyself. That's the basis on which, if
a man understands another man, it's because he understands himself.
If he doesn't understand himself, he can't understand the other
man. Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. There you
want another's burden. Your burden is my burden, and
so fulfill the law of Christ. How? If a man think himself to
be something, when he's nothing, he's deceivers himself. That's
our problem, we're deceivers. We're deceivers. Until we become
experimental sinners, we're deceivers. Deception is the most horrible
thing in the world. Lord, didn't we do this? I never knew you, you were deceivers.
And then the And now I want you to listen
carefully to this. Our pride, our pride, and don't tell me
we don't have any because we're loaded with it. Our pride and
our effort, our strong effort to present a false power image
reveals our self-righteousness. I've been a pastor for twenty
five years, nearly, twenty-four years. And I've seen so many
situations that could have been helped. They could have been
helped by prayer. They could have been helped by
the reading of God's word. They could have been helped by
encouraging counsel of other Christians. They could have been
helped in many ways. But no pride and vanity and a
false image wouldn't allow anybody in that room. What we want people to see, we
want to get it all prepared before they see it. They're not allowed
in that room. Shut the door and make believe
it doesn't exist. That wasn't a vow. We'll have
company over the house. And Doris will say, don't bring
them through the basement now. I say, honey, they got basements.
Why shouldn't they come through? Well, it's not cleaned up. Well,
they got dirty basements. I've seen your basements. They
ain't too hot. Or we'll set off a couple of
bedrooms, you know. Don't take them in there. Why
not? They got bedrooms. And I bet your bed's not made
sometime either, is it? But don't let anybody see that. Don't dare let anybody see you
as you are. You wouldn't want to do that
now. No matter how much you're hurting, and no matter how much
pissed that you've become, and no matter how warped you've become,
keep that door shut. And don't let pastor or brother
or sister know that that even exists. And let it keep on till
the cancer possesses your whole being and locks in that very
soul. And that's what a lot of people
do, Chuck. Listen to James chapter 5. But you'll succeed in keeping
anybody from knowing you're a sinner. Wouldn't dare want them to know
you're a sinner. You don't know it, and you wouldn't
want them to know it. So keep the door shut. Don't let anybody
in. Don't reveal what you really
are. Keep the door shut. In James chapter 5, listen to
it, verse 16, confess your faults one to another, and pray one
for another. James tells us to open the door,
exhort one another, encourage one another, share your experiences,
pray for one another. You need that. Actually, to be a sinner is not
a shameful thing. I tell you, there's no uncleanness
to God like the uncleanness of self-righteousness. No uncleanness. I don't care what it is. It means
murder of parrots, and it's not as unholy to God as self-righteousness. You turn to Matthew, and I'll
tell you that. in Matthew 23. Our Lord nowhere in the Bible
has these kind of words for anybody else. And our Lord dealt with
the wine-diggers and the gluttons and the harlots and the publicans,
but these words were reserved for the religious, self-righteous,
pious Pharisees. Row under you. Verse 25, Matthew
23, verse 25, row under you. Scribes and Pharisees, you're
hypocrites. You make clean the outside of
the cup and the platter, and within you're full, full of extortion,
full of excess. Blind Pharisees, blinded, deceived,
cleansed That which is within the cup and the platter that
there outside of him may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and
heresies! Hypocrites, you are like whited
cypresses, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within
full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." These were
moral men Christ was talking to. Christ was talking to. These
were religious leaders. And Christ said they're full
of all uncleanness, uncleanness like God Almighty abhors. One old hymn writer, I don't
know, I looked everywhere for this hymn today, but I couldn't
find it, but I remember one line, and it says, A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. A sinner. God's going to save
every sinner. Every sinner. Not one sinner
is going to be lost. Now you say, that's a lot of
people. I don't know. I haven't found any. Anybody
here a sinner? If you are, I've got good news
for you, for a sinner now. Now, the gospel is a good deal
to some people, and the gospel of good fortune to some people,
and the gospel of good benefits to some people, but for that
old Broken, filthy, vile, dirty, reckless sinner. It's good news. It's good news. God's going to
build a roof over his head. God's going to cover his neck
with me. God's going to lift him out of a bane here. God's
going to wash off his sins. God's going to give him a home
in glory. God's going to make your son's blood, his flesh here,
to the cleansing of that old sinner's heart. That's good news. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save the lost. Turn to Romans 5. Listen to this. Romans 5, verse 6. When we were
yet without strength, Now you've been there theologically, have
you ever been there experimentally? Be honest now, don't lie to God.
Have you ever been totally, absolutely without sin? Christ died for whom? Have you
ever been ungodly? Verse 8, God commended his love
toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Have you ever been
a genuine bona fide sinner? Most of you have? Verse 10. Then you were enemies,
enemies of God. You were reconciled by the birth
of his Son. Did you hear what Taylor read
a moment ago, Isaiah 1? Listen to it again. Isaiah chapter
1. In verse 18, he says, "'Come
now and let us reason together,' saith the Lord," Isaiah 118,
"'they will see him be as scarlet, though they be red like crimson.'"
Did you listen to what he was saying about these people prior
to this invitation? Well, I'll just tell you briefly.
First of all, in verse 2, he said, they were rebels. They
rebelled against me. The last line, verse 2. In verse
3, he said, they are dumber than the beast. So I said, he's drunk as a dog.
I haven't seen a drunk dog. I said, drunk me? Dogs don't get drunk. They're
better than we are. Some fellow commits an office
sin, they say, that was a beastly act. I've never seen a beast
do that. God says, the ox knows his owner,
the ass knows his master's crib, but you don't know me. In verse
4, he says, they're laden with sin, they're laden with iniquity,
they're laden with iniquity. He says in verse 6, from the
bottom of their feet to the top of their heads. There's no soundness
in them. Petrifying stories. In verse
9, and you know the immorality of Sodom, don't you? You know
the wickedness of Gomorrah, don't you? Well, God says in verse
9, these folks are just like Sodom and Gomorrah if it weren't
for God's grace. And that's the people to whom
he's calling. Come. Come. But nowhere in this
Bible is ever a moral, self-righteous, good, pious, religious man ever
invited to Christ. You can't. Though your sins be
a scarlet, I'll make them have a snow. And the tragic thing
is that people are not good, but they That's the problem. All is sin
in some sort of glory of God. There's none good, no not wonders,
none righteous, but to convince a man of that is easily theological
impossible experimentally. He's got to experience it. You
don't know pain till you feel it. You don't know sorrow till
you cry. You don't know sickness till
you hurt. And people can sit around and say, I do what I do.
It just shuts your mouth. You don't know until you've done
that. Isn't that right? If you don't
know sin, then you've become a sinner, and nobody can teach
it to you, nobody can force it upon you, nobody can make you
believe it. You've got to experience it. And I guarantee you when you
do, you'll see the Christ like a rabbit to his hole. And nobody
has to tell you the words to say, to be saved. Nobody has
to drag you down an aisle to get you to make a profession.
And nobody has to beg you to come to church. Brother, when
you see your sin, Christ will become more important to you
than mama, papa, brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter.
And the reason he's not is you're not a sinner. You ain't never
been lost. And all these churches that are
dragging them down the aisle and filling the rows full of
people, they're filling the rows full of good people, and I'm
out here looking for some sinners. Because, boy, when I find me
a sinner, I've got the best news for him that he ever heard. And
I guarantee you, if God ever ate into his heart, he would
shut his mouth. And if God ever sweeps his legs
out from under him, he would lie on the ground. And if God
ever tears down his foundations of flesh, you will be so grieved
to Christ by faith that you couldn't die tonight. None are excluded, but those who themselves exclude. You cut your own self off, bud.
Nobody does. God never turned away a sinner.
You turned away because you're not a sinner. Welcome the guilty. Welcome the
bowels. Welcome the ignorant and the
rude. One of the scriptures, in Psalm
107, Psalm 107, We'll give thanks unto the Lord,
for he's good, good to him, he said it. His mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. He
gathered them out of the land, from the east, and the west,
and the north, and the south. They wandered, where he found
them, they wandered in the wilderness, in a land of woe. They found
no city to dwell in, hungry, thirsty, Their souls sintered
in them, and they cried unto the Lord in their trepidation.
And he delivered them out of their distresses. They fell,
they sat in darkness, in the shadow of death. They were bound
and afflicted in iron. They rebelled against the word
of God. They contemned the counsel of God. He brought down their
hearts with labor. They fell down, and there was
nobody to help. And then they'll cry unto the
Lord in their trouble. And he saves them out of their
distresses. Verse 17. Fooled because of their
transgressions. And because of their iniquities
are afflicted. Their soul abhors all manner
of meat. They didn't have sense enough
to desire meat. And they're drawn near the gates
of death, fired by their own ignorance. And then they'll cry
unto the Lord in their trouble. and he saved them out of their distresses. Verse 27, they ruled
to and fro, and they staggered like a drunken man, and they're
at their wit's end. And then they'll cry unto the
Lord in their trouble. You ever been in trouble? How to the greatest king of saints,
who set their mercy good, Perhaps, too, my sinful heart will touch,
and this old sinner will lose me. I can but perish if I go,
but I am resolved to cry, for if I stay away from him, I know
I must forever die. But if I die of immersive thought,
and I the king have tried, That were to die, O perish the thought,
a sinner never dies. Our Lord welcomes the sinner.
And that is said the first step that a man takes toward heaven
is not when he believes the gospel, but when he comes to find out
he is lost. Lost. Lost. Plain lost. At the bottom of
the barrel. in the dust, a roguing maggot,
an object of God's wrath, capable of any sin, capable of any rebellion,
capable of dethroning a holy God and nailing His Son to the
cross. No man ever sees himself in that
state. And God says, you come home,
I'll save you. You come home. You mean like I am? Lord, I helped nail him to the
cross. You come on. Lord, I spit on him. You come
on. Lord, I'm not here to tempt you for saved people. You come
on now. Lord, I'm the dirtiest one of all. You come on now.
But I'm the vilest. I'm less than the least of all
the saints. I'm the sweetest sinner. You
come on now. Our Father, we thank Thee. Oh, if we just were made partially
aware of the abundant grace of our God, if we just realized
a little bit of how vowed we are, how unholy we are, If we
just could get a glimpse of our wretchedness, we would praise
thee forever for thy grace. Our hearts would be bubbling
over right now, just bubbling over with praise for the Redeemer.
If we just could see our servant as we are, our voices would never
cease to praise his blessed name. He loved us and gave himself
for us. He put away the wrath and the
curse and the condemnation by the sacrifice of himself. He
saved us from eternal death. Oh God, help us to see our sins,
confess them, admit them. Give us kindness and compassion
and understanding. Give us a broken heart. Break
our hearts, whatever it costs. Break our hearts. Whatever it
costs, kiss us, humiliate us. Lay us down, whatever it costs
to be saved. We want to be saved. We want
Christ to have all the glory, to share it with no human being.
We don't want Him, but we don't need Him.