Amen and welcome to everyone. Welcome to Bay Presbyterian Church. Welcome to all of you who are here. We welcome those who are joining us online. We are delighted to have you to be a part of this service and it's good to see. Not many gaps out there in the seats. That's wonderful to see. Glad you're here, glad you're a part of the service, and I wanna welcome you and encourage you to plug in and be a part of any of the events and activities that we have going on. As I got up here in my seat and nodded toward Gordon to let him know that I was ready, I suddenly realized I was not ready because I got up here without my announcement sheet. So I'm gonna run through. Rachel, please let me know if there's anything that I overlook and that we need to mention. but just please know how delighted we are to have you. We'll begin to sift some more seats out onto the floor so that there'll be more places to sit. Just want to encourage you as we look ahead, this week ahead, we have some things taking place. Anytime there's something with regard to music, I always feel like I should defer. And so is there anybody here to whom I might defer on that subject matter as I look toward the piano? Well, if you're thinking what I'm thinking, you might be thinking that this is the first choir rehearsal on Tuesday in a long time. That is correct. Six o'clock in this room. And I've invited a couple of people who just can't make it every Tuesday, but we have like a Christmas section coming up, and this would be a great day for you to enter for a few weeks if you just wanted to say Christmas with us. But that's this Tuesday at six o'clock right here in this room. Amen. All right. See, that was so much better than I could have done it. Thank you. Ladies, Bible study on Wednesday at 10. Thursday morning study for the men. We began 2 Timothy this past Thursday and Lord willing we'll continue this coming Thursday at 6.30 a.m. Also remember the Thursday evening Bible study at 6.30 p.m. as we look into the subject of Thanking God with a grateful heart. And we'll continue that this week. And if you missed last week, it's fine. Each week stands on its own, so we would be glad to have you at any time. Just some things coming up to be mindful of as we move into this season of the year. We'll be decorating the sanctuary on the 24th of November, Lord willing, and that will begin at 3 p.m. We'd love to have you be a part of that, otherwise known as hanging of the greens. There are other colors than green, but we'll hang it, nevertheless. You see the announcement about the ladies' Christmas luncheon. Signups will be available soon, but go ahead and mark your calendar. Go ahead. Please. You know, she actually told me she was going to do that. And so apparently she knew she was going to. Come on up. Good morning. I'm so I know it sounds crazy because I think 2024 just started yesterday. But Christmas is just around the corner so that means the women's Christmas luncheon is quickly approaching. And that is going to be on December the fourth at 1130 am at the very elegant old Florida chop house over the tree and on hotel. And if you have not experienced that before, just to kind of give you a little synopsis of what's gonna happen there, is it's just a really wonderful time where we as women can get together to celebrate the birth of Jesus, as well as to connect on a deeper level with one another, or there may be people there that you don't know that you will get to know. And it will just be just a time of refreshing for all of us. So I want to invite all of the ladies of the Bay family. That does not mean you have to be a member. If you are sitting here in the sanctuary, you are invited. As well as, if you know people that don't normally come to the services but are in one of our Bible studies, they are part of our Bay family as well. So that would include the Terraces Bible Study, as well as Ron Kellum's Your Brookdale Bible Study, too, if there are any women in that group that would like to come. So, it is $15 and there will be a salad, there will be an entree, and there will be an amazing dessert that comes with that. So, that's an amazing price. And so, if you are interested in coming, we will be having a half sheet that will be in the bulletin next week and the next week so that you can designate what entree you want. You can sign up at that time and you can give us your $15, whether that would be cash or check. We would take either one of those things. Just so you know, it is limited seating. So it is first come first serve, and we are limiting it to the bay ladies. But if you do have friends that you would like to bring that are outside of the community, I would be happy to put them on a waiting list. And if we do have seats available, we will make those seats available to them. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you so much. And for doing that, I was able to go back and get my sheet, make sure we can get everything in. Remember, this coming Saturday is the Pregnancy Resource Center Walk for Life and Fun Fest, Saturday, November 16th. There's a QR code back there on a piece of paper. You can shoot that with your camera on your phone and obtain more information. Would love to have you to participate in that or otherwise to give. Just reminding you how vital this ministry is, going back a couple of months, as of September the 30th, the PRC had been instrumental in the saving of 206 lives of unborn children. That is wonderful. And 59 parents professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just cannot overemphasize how wonderful this ministry is and how they are standing in the gap. So very much want to mention that and recognize it. Also, we've got some free books over there for as long as they last on praying through the Bible. I think a number of you have already gotten them because I see the stack is a lot lower than it was. But those are free of charge. You're welcome to take those. We also will be distributing a Christmas devotional shortly and hope that you will be able to take advantage of that as well. After all, you can't beat the price. Just a couple of things by way of prayer. Pastor Greg will be up after a while leading us in the pastoral prayer, but we give praise and thanks that Faith Gaiman-Thaler had a successful heart bowel surgery on Wednesday, and she is at home and is recovering without dizziness, and we are grateful for that faith, and we praise God with you. Also, Rex Sims had to be hospitalized recently with a very serious condition, but he was released yesterday evening and is back home receiving treatment, so please remember Rex and his family in your prayers. Anything else by way of announcement that I need to mention? Pastor? Yes? Probably doesn't need to be announced, but we're using song sheets from the bulletin today. Oh, yes, we do need to announce that. We continue to have trouble with our screens. We've gotten our sound issue resolved, but we have a device that's back there in the closet. I don't even know what it does, except that it doesn't work when it's supposed to. And we are looking long range at getting the whole thing replaced, but it's gonna be quite expensive. In the meantime, please bear with us. As we do not have the screens up, we will need to use the sheets in our bulletins. Pastor John makes sure that we practice something here called redundancy. It just means we double up. So you've got those sheets in your worship folder. You will need them as we sing together. And then this. Tomorrow is Veterans Day. We've got a beautiful arrangement up here to remind us of just how thankful we are for those of you who have served to make sure that the rest of us remain free. And we're grateful for your service. And so, if you are a veteran of the United States Armed Forces, would you please stand I did not serve and I'm not in uniform regardless and I can't salute, but I do salute and I thank all of you for what you have done for us and we are exceedingly grateful. And now, as we think of one who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. We, together, enter into the presence of the Lord our God. We enter his courts with praise. We come with thanksgiving, and we acknowledge him to be the great God above all gods. So let's prepare our hearts and minds to worship the great lover of our souls, for the eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Good morning, everyone. Would you please join me in our call to worship inside the cover of your bulletin? And we are reading from Psalm 100 verses 1 through 4 this morning. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. And looking at those sheets in thanksgiving, let us praise him. Let's stand together and do just that. In thanksgiving, let us praise him. In thanksgiving, let us sing songs of praise and adoration. ♪ In the season of our need ♪ ♪ We will find His grace sufficient ♪ ♪ We will find His love complete ♪ ♪ Lift and speak, let us praise Him ♪ ♪ In thanksgiving let us sing ♪ ♪ Songs of praise and adoration ♪ Day by day his love provides us every good and perfect thing. In thanksgiving, let us praise him. In thanksgiving, let us praise him. Amen. Let us pray. Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, we come before your throne with trembling hearts and holy reverence. For as your word declares, who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, and doing wonders? Father in a world drowning in darkness, we echo Solomon's cry, but will God indeed dwell on this earth? Yet in your magnificent grace, you not only dwell among us, but invite us into your presence through the blood of your Son. Like David, we proclaim, one thing have I asked 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 gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. Lord, set our hearts ablaze. Make your spirit to fall fresh upon us. For we long to see your glory fill this church as it filled Solomon's temple. Transform our worship from ritual to revolutionary encounter. Pour out your spirit upon us. Let every heart be laid bare, every soul refreshed, every spirit renewed. Make this a sacred encounter that changes us forever. Come, Lord, we beseech you. Come and reign here and now among your covenant people. For, Father, some of us come today carrying hidden burdens, others with hearts overflowing in gratitude. Yet all of us, like the tax collector who couldn't even lift his eyes to heaven, whisper, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Lord, hear the prayer you taught us in your word, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Please be seated. Wyrmwood and the Gulf. And all is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly. This is the reading of the Word of God, Romans 8, 18 through 39. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it and hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, All things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who died did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is it to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. If the ushers will come forward, we'll continue our worship with the giving of our tithes and offerings. As they do so, the passage that Rachel just read, I want to just put a little asterisk there. Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Did you catch that that's in the past tense? It's already accomplished. This is redemption applied and accomplished for us. Let's go to prayer. Gracious Lord, as we bring our tithes and offerings before you, we remember that every blessing flows from your generous heart. Like David, we marvel that all things come from you and of your own have we given you. Lord, just as you did not withhold your son, teach us the joy of sacrificial giving. May these gifts become like the widow's might, not measured by their amount, but by the devotion of our hearts in worship. Lord, we pray that you would use these offerings to extend your kingdom, to comfort the broken, to proclaim your gospel, to save the unborn, and to glorify your name. Make us faithful stewards of all you have entrusted to us as we present our gifts and tithes to you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. Already this morning we worshipped with a beautiful hymn by a composer, Franz Josef Haydn. And he wrote the music to it, and other people have contributed to his music by writing lyrics to them, these tunes. I would like to introduce you to, if you're not already introduced to it, a beautiful piece of music called an oratorio. And an oratorio was popular in the old days in the Baroque and classic eras of music where there was a mass choir, there were soloists, there were a full orchestra, and they told the story, a particular story. And a couple of them are Samson and Delilah. Another one is the Messiah. That's an oratorio. And today we celebrate Elohim Jehovah, our Creator. And Franz Josef Heiden wrote The Creation. And he divides all of creation into three parts, and I'm going to play for you the part that is the finishing of the first portion, the first out of three. And it's a wonderful time when all the characters in this oratorio come together to worship Elohim Jehovah, Almighty God, Creator God. And so the earth has been created, the plants have been created, light, heaven, sun, moon, land, and water. The heavens, and this is based on Psalm 19.1, the heavens are telling, the glory of God, and the firmament show what this handiwork. We don't worship the heavens, but we worship the creator of the heavens. Elohim. so so do you Thank you, but I give all the glory to Elohim Jehovah because it's just so exciting to me to do experience it now. This was done in full orchestra with full choir singing The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God. You've got to buy the CD. Would you take your second sheet? It's called The Spacious Firmament. And we're going to try our hands at this. This is the same melody that you just heard. And so now. The words are not in what we call the vernacular. Many of the hymns now are tending toward very simplistic words. And that's wonderful. That's a cry from the heart. But these words are more in a literary style. And so what I want you to do this week, I'm a teacher, a little bit of a homework assignment, take these sheets home and look at these beautiful lyrics that give glory and honor to Elohim Jehovah, our living God of creation. And I think it will become even more clear to you. They're hard to sing, but would you try your hand at it? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, would you stand, please, and let's give glory to God, the spacious firmament. Carol, come and help us out. OK. Here we go. The spacious firmament on high, with all the blue ethereal sky, and spangled heavens a shining frame, the great original proclaim, the unwearied sun and publishers to every land, the work of an almighty God. The evening shades prevail. The moon takes up the wondrous tale. And brightly, too, his listening earth repeats the tale. ♪ Confirm the tidings as they roar ♪ ♪ And spread the truth from foe to foe ♪ ♪ What thou wist, son Oh, not a real voice nor sound. Unremembered array of poems we've found in recent years. Amen. Please be seated. Is it any wonder that Bach and Mozart and Haydn all came along and wrote this music glorifying God as the Reformation was spreading across continental Europe? It's really a beautiful thing. Well, if you take out of your bulletin the sheet that has our various prayer requests, Pick out a few that particularly touch your heart. We'll have a few moments where you can pray privately and then we'll pray corporately. Lord Jesus, on behalf of this, your congregation, I approach you, beseeching you for your grace and your mercy upon the names and the organizations and the concerns of our heart in part listed on this sheet. Lord, we are thankful for those first responders, those law enforcement, military, doctors, nurses, so many others who willingly put themselves in the place of danger that we might be safe. Lord, an imitation, in a way, of exactly what your son did for us. Would you guard them? Would you allow peace to reign? Lord, we also bring to you medical and health concerns, both known and unknown, among our congregation. Lord, we're thankful for the good news in regards to faith. thankful for good news that we've heard throughout the last month or two, as people recover, as people make progress, thankful that Judy is home and doing well. Lord, we pray for Reverend Andre and his dear wife Angie, as they are in a place of uncertainty and of danger, as they minister and preach in your hands, as they become your hands in that sometimes very dark place. We pray for Reverend Lucas Tanner, Lord, and all of our RUF pastors, for they stand in the vanguard, Lord, in a culture of darkness where kids come to learn. And really, Lord, what they have to do is unlearn the way of the culture in order to learn the way of the Lord. Lord, would you grant them success? Would you allow them to see the fruits of their labor? Lord, in the same way we pray for the Pregnancy Resource Center and the good news we heard from Pastor Patrick. Lord, what a terrible thing that a culture would offer its children on the altar of the culture. Father, pull them back. Please, Lord. grant them an expanding ministry. Lord, you have so resourced the kingdom. May the heavens open up and hearts and pocketbooks open up that our churches, our RUF ministers, the Pregnancy Resource Center, our missionaries would rejoice They have been resourced to do the important work that you have placed upon their hearts and minds. Lord, I pray too for our pastor this morning. We are gathered here, Lord, as a community of the faithful. to learn your word, and as our pastor exposits what your word says, may it hit, Lord, our hearts and our minds, and may it motivate our hands and feet that we would be your ambassadors in this culture as we go out today. Lord, bless each person here, I pray. for they are yours and we are the sheep of your pastor. We thank you, Lord, for your grace and mercy, for the certainty that you hear our prayer and will answer it in exactly the right and just way, for as we read just a moment ago, all things work together for good for those who are called by you. May it ever be so, Lord. In the precious name of Jesus, we make our prayer. Amen. Thank you, Doctor, so much. You know, it's interesting. Franz Joseph Haydn was born in the same year that George Washington was born. He died in the same year that Abraham Lincoln was born. He was a contemporary with Mozart. They were friends. He helped train Beethoven and recognized his greatness, and also was inspired by Handel as he toured Great Britain and heard Handel's oratorios. He was inspired by that, I understand, to write the creation. Gordon could correct me on much of this. The thing that I noted, however, that inspires me is that at the beginning of each of his compositions, almost every one, he wrote in Latin, in nomine domini. in the name of the Lord, and concluded each by writing, laos deo, praise be to God. If only our lives could so be lived in praise to God in all that we do. This morning's message is gonna be a bit different. Unlike I normally do, I will be reading and referring much to a manuscript that I have labored long over. I oftentimes get everything ready so that I can be saturated enough that I can speak more extemporaneously, but today I want to be more precise with my language. I just want to assure you I'm not reading somebody else's sermon. I cannot blame anybody else for what I'm presenting to you. This is my own research, my own references. However, I do want to give credit to my mentor from long ago who spent many an hour with me over sandwiches in Jackson, Mississippi, Dr. John Reed Miller. I am grateful for his continued influence in my life. Even so, I ask you to give your attention to the reading of God's word. Isaiah 59, hear the word of God. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dulled, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly. No one goes to law honestly. They rely on empty pleas. They speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch atter's eggs. They weave the spider's web. He who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed, a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing. Men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths. They have made their roads crooked. No one who treads on them knows peace. Therefore, justice is far from us and righteousness does not overtake us. We hope for light and behold darkness and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as in the twilight. Among those in full vigor, we are like dead men. We all growl like bears. We moan and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none. For salvation, but it is far from us. From our transgressions are multiplied before you. and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us and we know our iniquities. Transgressing and denying the Lord and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away for truth has stumbled in the public squares and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it. and it displeased him. There was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies, to the coastlands he will render repayment. So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun, for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. And a redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the Lord. And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord. My spirit that is upon you and my words that I put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring or out of the mouth of your children's offspring says the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Thus saith the Lord. These are not the only times of political confusion and chaos. The United States of America once upon a time elected a president The winner of the contest led by 260,000 votes after they had all been counted and by 19 Electoral College votes. That winner, however, was one short of the total needed to win at least the Electoral College. And that's the way it was after the election of 1876, one that my great-great-grandparents remembered well. The electoral votes of three states in the entire election hung in the balance. Amid rival electoral votes and reports, acrimony paralyzed the U.S. Congress, which remained deadlocked, and many prepared for a civil war just 11 years after that conflict had ended. At the end of January, Congress finally appointed an electoral commission which deliberated for over a month. Finally. At 4 a.m. on March the 2nd, 1877, just two days before Inauguration Day, after a series of backroom deals, the Commission, which regularly had split along party lines, did once again, and by a vote of eight to seven, declared Rutherford B. Hayes the winner, though he had lost the popular vote over Samuel J. Tilden. Hayes won by one, or rather lost the popular vote, won by one commission vote, and by one electoral vote. Since March the 4th fell on Sunday, interestingly, Hayes, hailed as his fraudulency by Northern Democrats, was privately sworn in as the 19th President of the United States on Monday, March the 5th. Imagine, in the midst of the chaos, there was regard for the Lord's day. The states remained united, Hayes promised to serve only one term, and remarkably, he kept his word. Today, our nation is profoundly divided. One party prepares to assume greater power while the defeated pledge to fight on. Meanwhile, plans and schemes for election 2028, to our consternation, are already shaping up as I speak. Most of us want peace and stability, yet we've glued ourselves to our TVs, computers, and smartphones to hear from a wide range of commentators generating discussion, whether they have something truthful and worthwhile to say or not. While the one commanding voice that supersedes all others falls on deaf ears. What does God say? Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, that is largely forgotten. Moral confusion reigns. from fake deities and wrong notions about the one true God, and the hugely popular fad of taking his name in vain, which is an epidemic across our land, along with sexual sins and other gross immorality, taking place even among professing Christians. It is as if the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments in sand instead of stone. The world needs a word from God. The moral confusion will only grow worse if we keep our present course heading. Mark my words. There will be no resolution to this crisis. There will be no peace until we repent of our sins and obey the Lord. As Isaiah told his people long ago, he now tells us today, peace anywhere in any person or nation is always the fruit of righteous living, of getting right with God. It is never the product of human exertion alone. The people of Isaiah's day faced similar circumstances. They were trying to work out their perceived problems by their own power. They could see the trouble they were in. They didn't suffer from a lack of intelligence or learning. They nevertheless endured corrupt and compromised leadership. They could see the violence and wickedness in the saddle riding roughshod over their national life. Though darkness had settled over the land, making for midnight at day, they knew things were not as they should be. They were in the contradictory position of a people who retained a conscience, but at the same time had lost God. We honor our living veterans just as we honor those who died on battlefields to ensure our freedom and the right to cast our ballots as we did this past week. Veterans Day began as a commemoration of the armistice that ended World War I that cost the lives of millions. On the eve of that disaster, on August the 3rd, 1914, in Whitehall, in London, Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, stood with a friend at the window as the street lamps below were being lit and made the remark that has since epitomized the hour. The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. Thousands went out under the banner of liberty to defend her cause. As they went, their mothers and fathers, their brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, and grandparents uttered prayers, beseeching God for protection and victory. Time and again in our history, we have acknowledged God in our affairs. General Washington sought him on his knees at Valley Forge, and God heard him. Lincoln walked the upstairs floor of the White House, and at other times lay prostrate, weeping as he prayed for divine intervention. in that horror over which he presided. Churches have held prayer meetings and families have bowed their heads at mealtime and at bedtime pleading for the blessings of providence. And now, having been blessed with more freedom and prosperity than any nation has ever known, do we in gratitude to the great lover of our souls pour out thanksgiving to him for his many mercies? No, we squander his gifts. We lavish our earnings on criminal organizations by buying and approving illicit drugs and funding sex syndicates that exploit women and children and rain down ruin on families. We exploit the most vulnerable through legalized gambling, something our forefathers had the good sense to label a vice because it runs contrary to a godly work ethic taught in scripture. We broadcast and consume every form of filth, perversion, and violence imaginable, filling our children's minds with the unthinkable and defend it. We elect leaders who appoint bureaucrats who mandate that our kids be taught how to commit fornication safely and encourage them to change genders and even to identify as animals, while at the same time disparaging those who believe in Christ and God's word. We practice hatred toward those of other nationalities or skin color, pretending to protect our children who we don't love enough to insist that they regularly be under the teaching of God's word. We worship regularly at the altar of sports and entertainment and mostly ignore the Lord's day. And if all of that were not enough, we kill children in the name of choice and hail those who promote the slaughter as heroes of women's rights. I said it, and I'm not apologizing. God grows weary at the sight of a people who profess him with their lips, but whose lives are far from him. Our society is sick. Judgment is at hand. The threshing blade is being thrust into the field. Confusion and disgust over our pitiful predicament increase, yet without repentance. Recognizing the wrong is not sufficient. God requires repentance of us, an acknowledgement of the wrong and the evil, turning from the evil into him. As Isaiah describes it, groping along the wall like the blind, as if we're gonna find some way out of this mess without the benefit of sight. And God is astonished. We cannot deny the moral depravity, peace and justice elude us. Our moral crisis is staggering. I've simply scratched the surface. I could bear down more and proclaim more. You don't need a catalog and litany of the sins of which we are guilty. But it is no wonder that peace and justice elude us. We cannot manufacture it ourselves. And again, I say not just as a nation, but worldwide, our moral crisis is staggering. In verse eight, the prophet said, the way of peace they do not know and there is no justice in their paths. They have made their roads crooked. No one who treads on them knows peace. Therefore, justice is far from us and righteousness does not overtake us. We hope for light and behold darkness and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. What's the problem? Is God unable to save? Is his arm too shortened that he is unable to come to the rescue? The problem lies not with God, the problem is within us. The human heart, that depravity which we all want to ignite its existence but we see it on display every day is a continual reminder of our need of salvation. But what is most poignant about this passage that I have read to you is not the poetic beautiful prose that Isaiah brings forth in order to describe the iniquity of people. It is rather appalling to read that, to think that our works are, as it were, of hatching spider's eggs and eating them and dying them until finally it's so bad that a viper hatches out. God is shocked Because in verse 16 we read, he saw that there was no man and wondered. The word wondered doesn't really get to the heart of it. It's more like appalled, or as E.J. Young has said, astonished. What's he astonished at? That there was no man, there was no one to intercede. Imagine, not because God lacks knowledge or he lacked foresight or somehow it all sprang up as a surprise to him. No, God looked at the overall condition of humanity and particularly that of his people and he wondered that no one stepped into the gap. No one is in the breach. No one is representing God to the people and is interceding on behalf of the people to God. Sins are apparent, but where's the confession of those transgressions? Where's the repentance of those transgressions? Where is the one who will speak up and say, as the man did of old, oh Lord, have mercy on us, on me, the sinner? Where is that person? Jonathan, David's best friend, Earlier on, as they were continuing their fight against the Philistines, found himself and his armor bearer alone facing a whole contingent of the enemy. And the armor bearer said, oh, wait a minute, what are we doing here? And Jonathan reminded him in 1 Samuel 14, verse six, that nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. We have allowed ourselves to be pulled into the mistaken notion that the way out of our predicament is to get the most people on our side. What we need is God on our side. What we need is a group of those people, regardless of how small the number, who will be honest and transparent in acknowledging sin and guilt. Rather than striving for anything else, we should humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and seek his face. The good news? While there was no one from among us to step up and into the breach, God provided the deliverer himself. Do you not see that God himself came to the rescue? Do you not see that God became one of us so that one of us might be the intercessor, might step into the breach where no one else was willing to step and do what no one else could do? Don't you realize the privilege that we have to be seated here in this place today, thankful for our nation and the freedoms that we still have? And yet, above all else, we have a Redeemer who has come and rescued us from the real peril. You wanna talk about danger? Let's talk about the wrath of God and hell that awaits us unless we repent and turn from our sins. It is a most horrendous thought. So horrendous, in fact, that intellectual elites among us look down their self-righteous noses at us who continue to believe in such things, although we believe them because God has told us. Think of God's Word as a beautiful, completed piece of art. We've heard Haydn's compositions played for us today beautifully. Maybe you can think of a beautiful sculpture. Think of something that someone has crafted with great skill. A master artist has given you a masterpiece of art. Think of its beauty and the lines and the perfection of it all and the way that it displays something of grandeur. And can you imagine upon receiving such a gift, you think, wow, that is beautiful, but wait till I get through with it. And with hammer and chisel, you apply your own skill or lack thereof. And perhaps maybe with a bit of paint, you decide that the marble isn't sufficient enough, that it needs a little color. Brothers and sisters, we have done far worse to the word of God. It comes to us as a completed masterpiece, that which has been inspired, breathed out by God through those who have gone before us and delivered to us and preserved and protected all throughout these ages. And yet here we are in the 21st century deciding we need to chisel that away and cover over the rest with paint. And I'll tell you, it won't wash. Not every Sunday, but most Sundays, I quote for you that passage in Isaiah, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever. It's true. I can close my eyes, and I've shared this with you before, but bear with me, I'm gonna do it again and try to bring this in for a landing. I can close my eyes and I can hear the diesel engine running, and I can hear the Vicon mower behind me as it cuts through a field of fescue, tall and ripe, The wind blows over it, nose-bowed stems filled with seed, and it's a beautiful sight. It looks like waves on the ocean. And cutting that hay, and later on, thankfully, if there's no rain, we'll be able to get it up in bales. Some of my happiest moments in life have been lived in the seat of a tractor, looking at God's creation in that beautiful grass ahead of me. But you know, even as a teenager, I had enough sense to know it doesn't last. Fescue ripens quickly, the seeds fall off, the stems turn brown and they fall to the earth and decay. It's a beautiful sight and it's temporary. Every one of us is temporary. Our lives and all that we produce, the grass and the flowers of the field, however beautiful they may look, are extraordinarily transient. We're only here for a period of time. And all of our efforts to obscure the Word of God come to naught, because in the end, it is the grass that withereth. It is the Word of God that stands forever. I'm not here to jump on your case today. I'm here to remind you and to encourage you. Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. Remember that we're far greater than any political party. We belong to the kingdom of God. And each of us, by virtue of our relationship with Christ Jesus, has the privilege and responsibility of, in our generation, stepping into the breach. Not as a savior like Christ Jesus. He alone is in that position, and that's his throne uniquely. But you and I are his ambassadors, and it is our responsibility to proclaim his word. The good news is the Redeemer has come to Zion, and he completed the task. A Redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the Lord. There's our hope. There is the good news. You see, whether you are excited or mourning today as a result of what happened Tuesday, I'm here to tell you that the effects of the election day past will sooner or later be forgotten. But what took place on the Lord's Day 2,000 years ago when the Son of God triumphed over sin, Satan, death, and hell will never be forgotten, and we are His. And for this generation, we have the privilege of proclaiming His holy name, stepping into the breach, praying for those who are lost, and sharing the gospel of salvation with them. Hear the words of the man of God, the Apostle Paul, in Titus chapter 2, verses 11 to 14. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who were zealous for good works. You wanna know who you are? There you are. God has saved you for a purpose through Christ Jesus. You are here living in this generation at this very moment because now is your appointed time. And now God would have us to intercede. He no longer looks at the world and is astonished because there is no one. He has only to look at his right hand because his beloved son has fulfilled every purpose needed in that regard. But let him not look at this generation and wonder that any of us would turn from our task of proclaiming him, of seeking him, and of living in his grace. It is our privilege. Regardless of how things go from here on, the world will always know it's moral confusion and there will always be corruption in high places until Jesus returns. But you, brothers and sisters, are the salt and the light. and you have been redeemed by God, and you have been called to be his. I'm thankful to be living in this country. I'm thankful for our freedoms and our history, and I pray that those liberties will continue throughout the generations. But my confidence lies in my savior, who loves all nations, and I pray that freedom will come to all peoples. And I pray for the day when not only can we openly preach the gospel as I am doing now, but it also will happen in Pyongyang, that it will also happen in Beijing, that it will also happen in Mecca and Medina and Jerusalem and in all the great cities of the world, that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be preached and people from every walk of life will respond as they are now and be saved. We have a Savior. He rose from the dead on the first day of the week, and he ever lives to make intercession for us. And so, I leave with you these words, and I pray that God will bless all of us, that in this generation, we will pray and seek his face, and God will be gracious to save us, not because we finally get everything right, but because we, in honesty and in repentance, acknowledge our wickedness and turn from it and unto him. You want to know life. Life is in him. And this word of God will stand. You may accept it, or you may reject it. But your rejection of it will not diminish it in the slightest. You will only diminish yourself. Like a person who would take a chisel to a masterpiece, a sculpture. The harm done is not ultimately to the artist who brought it forth. The harm is done to the person who mars it. May you be among those who acknowledge the treasure, and rather than seeking to obscure it, allow it to be on full display in your life, that the Redeemer may be seen on full display in your life, because we have someone And if anyone ever stepped in the breach, it was Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he reigns forever and ever. Almighty God, our Father, grant to us, O Lord, as we come before you now, in humility I trust, in reverence and in submission, not only to acknowledge our own guilt, but that of our nation and the peoples of the world. We are citizens of the earth, even as we are citizens of the United States. Forgive us, we pray, oh Lord, and have mercy. We have just as great a need of a revival and of a spiritual awakening today as we did last Sunday. Lord, regardless of the outcome of electoral contests, we desperately need Christ. We need him as individuals. We need him as a nation. We need him as a planet. There is hope in no other. Lord, would you be so kind and gracious in this hour to open the eyes of men and women and boys and girls everywhere, whether listening to my voice or not, that by your Holy Spirit, there may be a great awakening to the peril that we are in, in rebelling against you and everyone turning to his own way. And let us see, O God, the great shepherd of our souls, who came to seek and to save that which is lost, even those sheep going astray, of which we are among them. Lord, come to our rescue. Hear us as we pray. And begin by cleansing me of my sin and guilt, which I readily acknowledge to you. O gracious Father, Be kind and merciful and save us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Cleanse me. Simple title, profound meaning. Let's stand together and sing this as our prayer. Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. ♪ Some wicked way in me ♪ ♪ Cleanse me from every sin ♪ ♪ And set me free ♪ ♪ Lord, take my life ♪ Make it holy night, fill my warm heart with thy great love divine. Rejoice, Christians. You have a Savior. And as was read here today, absolutely nothing will ever be able to separate you from His love. And so may that very Lord bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. And may the Lord lift up unto you His countenance and give you His peace, both now and forevermore. And everyone said together.