Well let's take God's word and turn back to our public scripture reading. Psalm 78. Psalm 78 as we have learned over several weeks as we have been working through this psalm is the second largest psalm in the Psalter next to Psalm 119. In its content, it reviews the turbulent adolescence of Israel from its time of slavery in Egypt to the reign of David. And in this historic review, the psalm's extraordinary oscillation between amazing grace and persistent sin answers the question that dominates so much of the old covenant. Can human sin defeat the grace of God? Well, the answer is, of course, no, it cannot and will not. So then, while the Psalm laments a repeated pattern of unbelief, the central message, however, is the wonder of what God has done in salvation and mercy with persistent grace in the face of persistent sin. In this final stanza of Psalm 78, verses 65 through 72, We see the great gospel truth of Romans 5 and verse 20. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Despite how hopeless Israel was to turn back to God and free itself from sin, God, in His sovereign grace, chose to give Israel what they did not deserve. Rejecting the tent of Joseph and the tribe of Ephraim, God chose Judah, upon which he set his love and out of which he brought David, Israel's greatest king, and even greater would come the greatest king of all, Jesus the Christ of the living God. Israel's sin would not defeat God's sovereign grace. And what was true in Israel's case holds just as true in our own. No matter how deep and dark our sin is and in spite of what we deserve because of our sin, God set His love on us in Christ His Son choosing to save us from our sin to make us right with Him. Our sin, therefore, is no match for the omnipotent grace of God. So that while our personal record is nothing but shame and guilt, yet God's persistent goodness, His persistent grace emerges as our hope for the redemption in Christ we could never achieve. When you consider What Asaph is saying here at the end of Psalm 78, it is very, very reminiscent of what the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians 2 and verses 1 through 4, Paul writes this. and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind." Now if you just stop right there, you just pause right there, you look at those first three verses of Ephesians 2, understanding what they're saying, understanding what they're revealing about us all, before salvation, you can say we had no hope. We were hopeless. We were helpless. Not only that, we were hostile. We were hostile to God. By nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. This was our condition. This was true of every one of us. Spiritual death. We were worldly. The spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, referring to the enemy, the devil. We were the children of the devil as John 8.44 plainly attests to and as 1 John chapter 3 echoes the same truth. We were in the worst condition possible spiritually before a holy God. There was nothing we could do, nothing we could do to change ourselves. But notice verse 4 of Ephesians 2. But God. But God. Here is our salvation. Here is the great contrast. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead in our trespasses. Notice the Apostle Paul is reemphasizing that great and awful truth. Even when we were dead in our trespasses. What did God do? Made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus in spite of who we were in spite of everything that we did as sons of Adam in sin exceedingly sinful by nature God in the richness of His mercy, God with the great love with which He loved us, the love that we did not deserve, the love He freely and sovereignly chose to set upon us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ. God in Christ did what we can never do. God in Christ carried out what there was no way that any of us could possibly achieve. And this is the greater spiritual point in principle Asaph is making to us at the end of Psalm 78. Because as we have seen working our way through Psalm 78 in these expository readings, The only record Israel had was a really bad record. A record of shame and guilt. A record of condemnation because of their sins. They had a record that was no different than ours. But God, in contradistinction to what we deserved, to who we were, chose to save us. And that is obviously the great redemptive point in principle that comes as the great climax to the end of Psalm 78. And of course, that is the great thread of truth from Genesis to Revelation. But look at what God did in spite of us. He saved us to the uttermost in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our most holy and righteous Eternal Father, we never grow tired, Lord, of hearing that saving good news of how and of why We are what we are now as believers in Christ. We think of what your servant Paul expressed to the Corinthian church. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace toward me was not in vain. Father, we thank you that that testimony of your servant Paul is a testimony that is shared by every believer in Jesus Christ. It is only by your grace, Lord, that we are what we are as your people, as your saints, as your servants, as your adopted children in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Father, we thank you for how many times and in how many ways throughout your holy scriptures You are reminding us of this great truth again and again and again. Clearly Lord we need to hear it again and again because how often and how easily because of remaining flesh can we forget, can we lose sight of what you have done for us in Jesus Christ. This infinitely, immeasurably great salvation that you have wrought for us in the works of your Son and by the power of the Spirit that has called us out of darkness into your marvelous light. Holy Father, we thank you. Indeed, Lord, we thank you that our sin was no match for your omnipotent grace, and indeed it never will be. We thank you, Lord, that because you are for us, nothing will ever be against us. And therefore, nothing and no one will ever have the power, not even ourselves, to overturn and undo, Lord, what you have done to save us in Christ. And Father, we thank you for how you have given us a great glimpse of that saving and sovereign grace, even in the history of your ancient people Israel, as unveiled to us in Psalm 78. Blessed Father, we pray for the restoration of the joy of your salvation And we ask your forgiveness for every time, Lord, that we have lost sight of that great joy of what you have done for us, saving us, redeeming us, justifying us, and one day to be glorified in Christ our Lord. We thank you, blessed Father, for all such redeeming and glorious things as these in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.