Tonight I'd like to again pick up the Cadence of Dorth and redirect your attention to Article 13 and 14 of the First Chapter or the First Head, page 99 in the back of your Psalter. I'll read those first. It's been a while In article 12, it was clearly taught biblically that we are able to know whether we are elect. Wasn't that a beautiful statement on the tidbits from Kernel this week? When we may read the grace of God in our life, it is as if we stood by the elbow of God when he wrote his name in the book. That was beautiful, how he put it like that. That's what Article 12 is teaching us. So, having heard that it is possible, then Article 13, the sense and the certainty or the assurance of this election, add forth to the children of God additional matter, for daily humiliation before him, for adoring the depth of his mercies, for cleansing themselves in sanctification and rendering grateful returns of ardent love to Him who first manifested so great love towards them. The consideration of this doctrine of election is so far from encouraging remissness, slackness in the observance of the divine commands, or from seeking men in carnal security that these in the judgment of God are the usual effects of rash presumption, or of idle and wanton trifling with the grace of election in those who refuse to walk in the ways of the elect. And as the doctrine of divine election by the most wise counsel of God was declared by the prophets, by Christ himself, by the apostles and is clearly revealed in the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testaments, so it is still to be published or preached in due time and place in the Church of God, for which it was peculiarly designed, provided it be done with reverence, in the spirit of discretion and piety. for the glory of God's most holy name, and for the enlivening, reviving and comforting his people, without vainly attempting to investigate the secret ways of the Most High. Orpah writes, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord, who has been his counselor?" Romans 11. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12. And lastly, wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable, unchangeable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have in strong consolation, comfort, encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. We have already looked at this Lord's Canons, 13 and 14, in the beginning, but I'd like today to finish it with you. One of Satan's main devices is distortion. Children, that's how it started in paradise. He cast just a tiny little different light on the truth. He distorted, he twisted what God said. God said you can eat of all the trees except one. Satan says, you cannot eat of all the trees, can you? That's true, both of them are true. But he distorted it, and that's his master device, of distorting the truths of God. Now he has never quit that since Genesis 3, because of course after the Gospel is published and after the Lord has revealed to us more of what took place in eternity, he's been ever busy distorting that. And one of the great doctrines of the scripture, that Satan likes to distort, is predestination. Misinformation about it helps him tremendously. Our quote is from Braco, this paragraph. Due to the repeated slander by individuals with evil motives, predestination gives some offense, triggers prejudice, and is repulsive, hateful, to people who are both ignorant and filled with resentment against this doctrine. Now, you meet people like that, who do not understand the message that is in the scripture about the destination. They are prejudiced or misinformed, and they don't see the beauty of it. And just as Brackel says, that is done often by individuals with evil motives. But that's done. We're talking to us tonight. Let's test your own thinking. When we read the Articles, and when we contemplate the Great Doctrine of Predestination, God has elected from all eternity a certain number of people whom He has chosen to be with Him in all eternity, and without holiness and in blame we form in love for Christ's sake. How do you respond? What is your first reaction when you think about predestination? I would love to share those answers with you and with each other, what our responses are, but I have to generalize a little bit. Does that wing to you a sense of comfort? Predestination, that gives me hope. That's going to encourage me to get on my knees, to pray? God's predestination is going to help me search Him more diligently than ever before? Is it an encouraging truth to your mind? Does it ever function in your prayer life as an encouragement to seek God? Now, if that's the case, then you are beginning to see the light. of predestination. That's exactly why the Lord has revealed it, obviously to honor His own glory. He has done that, to show forth His own sovereign glory. But He has made this part of His secret will and hidden will known to us for that purpose, so you would feel drawn to Him, you would feel encouraged to come. you would be more diligent to use the means of grace, rather than less diligent. You would indeed seek Him with freedom to save you, even though you could think maybe of two reasons why you shouldn't, or maybe ten reasons why you shouldn't, or maybe a million reasons why you shouldn't. Now even though when you feel that you are the worst one, if you feel that, you have all the freedom to boldly come before this God and say, Lord, though I am the worst one in the whole world, I am asking Thee, Lord, Thou save me. Not because you are worthy, but because He is a sovereign, electing God, and why indeed you may have that liberty is because He didn't look at anyone or anything else. And it is revealed to us that God moved having no desire in the death or pleasure in the death of the wicked. You know what predestination is all about? I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. That's predestination. You see that? Because here we are laying in the valley of destruction. We're all indeed destroying ourselves. We have destroyed ourselves in our deep fall. We're like this valley of dead bones. He could leave us all there. I have no desire in the death of the wicked. Read through these texts of scripture, friends, this very comfort of the doctrine. Now, if on the opposite, you feel when you read about predestination, you're troubled, you're discouraged, you feel unmotivated and slothful, You feel like there is no hope for me, there is no sense in praying, then you do not understand at all the doctrine of predestination. Wisdom is justified by its children, Jesus says, and so your wisdom is justified by the children, your feelings, your reactions, your responses to what God's doctrines are all about. And if your responses are, I am discouraged, I don't feel like seeking the Lord, I'm unmotivated, I'm slothful, this is a hindrance, you're not in the book, you're not in the book, there's no hope, you don't have wisdom. Because the children of your thinking tell you that you don't have wisdom. You don't have insight, you don't have a light. It's a wonderful scripture in this prayer of Jonah congregation, I've referred to it before and I'll read it again to you. Jonah's in the fish, right? This is what he says, they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Now imagine the storm in Jonah's heart. Imagine what must have gone on in that man's heart when he's sitting in that fish. The man says, it's done for you. That's done. You've gone too far, man. There's no hope for you anymore. You're going to be in this fish sin. That's where you're going to end your life. Now, you've sinned against knowing the Lord. You knew how merciful and good He was. And you went and ran the other opposite way. You're done for. Now, if Jonah would have listened to that, he would have observed lying vanities. He would have observed something which was opposed by the facts. Think about it. If you would have thought that, you finished Jonah, God has cast you off, you are gone beyond, there is no more hope for you, there will be lying vanities. Why? He will forsake his own mercy. Why? Why was there a fish? Why didn't he sink like a piece of lead in the Mediterranean Sea? Why the fish gobble him up? Why is he still alive in that fish? Those are the evidences that there is still hope. Right? There is still mercy. And Jonah prays in the bottom of that fish, Lord, my eyes are towards thy temple. In New Testament language, my eyes are to Christ. have mercy on me. No congregation can think about it this way. Is there mercy, is there hope for you? Why would I be here? Why am I preaching to you the gospel tonight again? Why am I unfolding to you, week after week, the message of God on this book? Why are you still alive? Why have you been brought into this church since your birth or throughout your life? Why? Now listen to what God is saying to that. Because He speaks about mercy to you. He's opening the door. He's calling us. Now if we want to forsake these lying mercies and these lying vanities and begin to stop thinking the way we by nature think and begin to think on God's level of thinking. and you see that all these evidences that are surrounding your life speak one word, that is hope for you. No matter where you are, if you are in the fishes belly of Jonah, there is hope for you. Forsake the lying vanities, because if you don't, you forsake your own mercy. And so again, the quote with Braco, and then we'll go through our outline. Braco says in scripture, however, bears abundant testimony to this doctrine, and since it is a matter of supreme importance, giving us a proper understanding of the entire way of salvation, and since it is a fountain of comfort and of genuine sanctification, nothing must be held back of the entire counsel of God. That's exactly what he's saying in article 14. We need to preach. and teach and meditate and search out this doctrine. Now, let us together look this evening at the biblical use of election. I have already covered the first point in my first sermon, which dealt with this to advance the life of godliness. I've seen something of that congregation the last week in China. We studied gospel destination, Ephesians 1. I started to demand, what were you? before God stopped you. No, we were dead trespassers of sin. We're out in the world. We're living for the world as drunks and as life beaters and all these other things. That's what you were. What are you now? Well, we have been spiritually quickened. We have been changed. The Lord has changed our heart. Why has the Lord changed your heart? Ephesians 1 tells you we have been predestinated from all eternity, chosen before the world began. You know, I've seen something so beautiful that day, and that opened up to their understanding. These men were in the dust that evening. Saturday morning, some of them with tears shouted out as they shared with the group what the doctrine of predestination did to them that day. As they wiped it out, I have never understood the greatness of God's grace. Humility is the first fruit that our canon speaks of. See that again. It makes a man humble as he adores and adores the goodness of God in the grace that he has given. The second one is praise and adoration. Who is a king likened to Him who would save me at such a cost? If you are saved by God, and if you may know that, you will indeed be filled with praise. Thirdly, you will be devoted to Him. Devoted in what shall I render to this God? What can I do? What can I speak? What can I share? What can I reflect? Show my gratitude. Fourthly, it is to the encouragement. Daily defeated in our struggles against sin. That's the struggle we have, daily. Daily fell. What an encouragement to know that my salvation is not based on me and my doings and my performance, but based on the finished work of a triumphant God in Jesus Christ. I cannot imagine a greater comfort than to know that my salvation is secure in a sovereign God. That's another of the four biblical uses of the election as we looked at. And therefore, the more holiness and the more growing in grace, the more we desire that, the more we want to make our calling and election sure, which is the call and the command of 1 Peter 2 or 2 Peter 1, We have to learn that that testimony the Holy Spirit doesn't give to sloppy Christians. You read 2 Peter 1, you add to your faith virtue and brotherly kindness and charity and you read the rest. And the Holy Spirit will also honor such a life with that testimony. also that he testifies to the children of God that they are the children of God. Now let's look at the second part of this sermon. The biblical use of the election is to stop ungodliness and unbelief. So the rest of the sermon this evening, friends, is to those of you who are unsaved. What do you do with the doctrine of election? And how ought you to use this doctrine Now, there are many who are using the doctrine of predestination and election as a comfortable pillow, but to their destruction. It is a pillow. It is a very great comfort. But there are some people who are using the doctrine of predestination and election to excuse themselves from what they are and how they live. Now that's very smart. That is very clever, but very ungodly. The Bible speaks about those type of individuals. The canons of the Lord do speak about them. Let's look at two or three of them. There's the light-hearted. The light-hearted, they use the doctrine of election to somehow justify their disobedience. The end of chapter 13 speaks about those who are using the doctrine of election in such a way that they are wantingly trifling with the grace of election and so continue to walk in the ways of disobedience. How does that work? I hope tonight that God will do something in your mind, dear friends. all reasoned out of the scriptures that Christ was the Messiah. Tonight I will reason with you as I preach to you about how you think and how crooked our thinking is about election and about predestination. And when I share this with you, I don't condemn you. I used to think exactly like this when I was a teenager. There was one doctrine of the scriptures that your pastor has fought with and argued my dear old father into tears with, it is this doctrine. I still remember on the way to Rotterdam and he went off to the theological school to teach and I went on the train to my university. He left me always with a little note of encouragement. I never understood it. I slammed the door sometimes. It says, son, the only hope I have for you, God's sovereign predestination. So the last thing I wanted to hear, because that was my hindrance to be saved. And I hope you understand tonight, because some of you may think the same way this evening. Well, if I'm elect, all will be well at last. No matter what I'm going to do, no matter what I'm not going to do, if I'm elect, it will be all well. I don't have to worry. I don't have to busy myself. I will do whatever I want to. To stay happy, to make everybody happy, myself happy, my parents happy, my church happy, and God a little happy. But if I'm in that book, well, at God's time, it will happen. He will turn me for my way. If it's a bad way, He'll turn me. If it's a half-bad way, He will turn me. If it's a half-half-bad way, He'll turn me. If it's a good way, He'll still have to turn me. If I'm a righteous young ruler, I still have to be turned, and He will turn me. And if I'm a wicked old murderer who hangs nearly on the cross ready to die, he'll still turn me. But I'm in the book. And no matter what, I can just live. And all my seeking and all my knocking and all my being serious will never help me. I still hear myself say to my dad, I can pray myself blue in the face. And you know. My name is not in the book, it's never going to get in there. Yep, I know that son. So then what's the use? Why do you tell me to be so diligent in the means of Christ? Why do I have to listen to it? Yes, I'll come to church, I'll say, that's good, I will do that, but I know in my heart nothing of what I do is going to make a difference about that book. Does that sound familiar? I know it does. There may be some of you who think that way, even though you've never said it out loud. Now, what is so strange about this thinking, it's so inconsistent. If God determined you to be rich, assume that God determined you to be a millionaire. You don't know that. But if God said in his book, Providence or Victory, so and so is going to be married at the age of 40. Does that mean I'm not going to work? Does that mean that I'm not going to worry about saving anything? If God determined I'm going to be rich, I'm going to be rich. And if God determined I'm not going to be rich, I'm not going to be rich. I'm just going to not wisely invest my money, I'm not going to work hard, I'm just going to do whatever I want, I'm going to buy whatever I want. None of us think that way. Because we know if we do that, will never be rich. We waste our resources. And yet, dear friends, spiritually, we often do think that way in our fallen condition, in our fallen, darkened, foolish thinking. If I'm in the book, and if I'm not in the book, then we decide what we're going to You don't know if you're in the book. And you don't know and you will not know. And God will not make it known until it is his time to make it known by the fruits of grace. But you know what is the heart behind this reasoning? It's exactly what it says in our canons here in article 13. We do not want to walk in the ways of the elect. Let us get to the bottom of the issue. We hate God's law. We hate holiness. We hate being imprisoned in our self-love. We hate having to crucify the things that we like. We hate to give up our pleasures. And a nice justification of it is, if I am not predestinated, then it doesn't really matter. And if I am, then it doesn't really change either. I'll get there anyway. So, I can obviously not violate my conscience without finding some smokescreen, and I find it in the justification by taking my refuge to election. My friends, that is lying vanity. When we come to stand before the Lord Jesus, then you have one answer for us. He says, you would not have me, your King. Bottom line issue, you did not want me as your king. That's what it is. And I want you to ask yourself this evening, you do not recognize that that's not the core of all our issues. We want our own way, not God's way. In our fallen condition hostile enemies, hardened objectors, we want our way, not God's way, a narrow way that leads to life. Not because we walk on it, but because it is in Christ. So that's the first light-hearted abuse of the doctrine of election. And friends, biblical election is never to encourage ungodliness, it is to stop ungodliness. It is also this evening to do that. Let us consider together the second thought after we sing. We'll sing from Psalm 233, verse 2, 3, 5 and 6. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, and hear, for I am poor and great my need. And that's verse 1, and we don't sing that. We're going to sing verse 2. O Lord, be merciful to me, for all the day to thee I cry. 2, 3, 5, and 6 of 233. O come, O come, all ye faithful joyful and free! O come, O come, all ye faithful joyful and free! O come, O come, all ye faithful joyful and free! ♪ May joys of heaven come to thee ♪ ♪ Dive in my soul, love of Christ ♪ ♪ Dive in my soul, love of Christ ♪ So honor, honor this night, And may each day forget the night. that in their dreams they shall find good company in all their lives, great company. ♪ With open arms ♪ ♪ Raised above the clear skies ♪ ♪ From the rifts wide and the northern skies ♪ God is the shelter of thy throne. Heaven and earth create and glorify. Heaven and earth give and glorify. Dear heart, it shall break apart, Thou unto God a-giv'n Queen. Bring me, return me, I desire, Now the second misapplication. It's the one in Romans 6 verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? That grace may abound. These errors and these patterns of thinking are not new, congregation. There are some people who are falsely spiritually minded. They say, come, we'll only bring greater glory to God when he will save me from the way of far more glorious to God to save me from the barstool than from the church chair. That's the thinking behind it. See? We continue in sin, and we go real deep in sin, and if God will take us out, I will serve to enhance the glory of God's grace. That sounds very spiritual. That sounds very soulful. That's all it is. It sounds that way. It isn't. But yet there are people like that, and I hope none of those are sitting in front of me, who in their mind think, oh well, God will glorify himself more when he saves us or others from the way of sin. He saves me or my children from a deep way of sin. It will only enhance his glory. So I'm not going to say too much to my kids. I'm not going to forbid him, because it doesn't change, he only makes hypocrites, and I don't want to make him a hypocrite. Besides, it is the grace of God that needs to save them, and give my children space so God can convert them, and if God would convert them from wherever they have gone, all that glory that would give to God. That sounds very biblical. But it's not biblical. Our canons speak of that in a very uncertain, I mean, a very certain terminology. I'll read it for you. There are those who, from a rash presumption, are idle or wanton, trifling with the grace of election. That's what they call it. That's an attitude of rash presumption. That is wickedly using the doctrine of God's grace to excuse yourself in sin. God forbid congregation that any of us would ever have that type of thinking living in their hearts or minds or adopting that as your life way of thinking about predestination. It's a carnal and a chilling unconcern about God's glory to think that way, that God will Will there be sin more, and by grace of bounds, God's grace will be so much more glorified if he saves us from the way of sin? You think that Paul's conversion was more glorious than Timothy? You're wrong. They're both glorious. Timothy was as bad as Paul was. Don't think that way. We need to think biblically about what God calls us to do and His will is revealed to us. Never does God's secret will or decree determine our present action. Nowhere does the scriptures encourage you to say, well just take it easy, don't be too diligent, Don't take your responsibility too far, also not in how you lead your own life or how you try to lead other people's lives, because you know if it's Father's will, you'll get there anyway. Where in the world do you find it in the Bible? God hammers in the Scriptures on what our duties are. He hammers on what our calling is. And He encourages us by bringing out this marvelous revelation of His sovereign grace. not to lull us to sleep, not to excuse us as it were to keep going because we can't save ourselves anyway, but to encourage us to seek Him, because His grace is free, His grace is sovereign. You know what advice would you follow when you are sick with a dangerous illness? Oh, don't worry about the doctor's advice. Eat what you want, do what you want, live like you like, don't worry. God set the time of your departure. Don't bother listening to the doctor. You ever think like that? Of course we don't. We diet, we exercise, we cut out this, we add this, we add this and that, all for our body's sake. Well, we know from the scripture that the day of your death is eternal and the way you are going to die is eternal. But then suddenly people don't think the way they think about their own salvation. It's a contradiction. Because the way I think about God's election would excuse me for living a lifestyle of sin and unbelief and being of the world and going in the world and doing whatever I need to do and want to do. And why is that? Because we ultimately love our bodies more than we love our souls. And we ultimately love ourselves more than we love the glory of God. That is a rash and an idle, wanting, trifling, with the grace of God's election. Dear friends, instead heed God's call. The verse we read tonight. See, the people in Isaiah and Ezekiel's days are arguing, the ways of the Lord are not equal. It is not equal the way the Lord does things. The Lord is not equal, O you house of Israel. He also says, I will judge you, everyone, after his race. And this is what I call you to do. Turn ye, because I don't have any pleasure in the death of your wicked. Turn for what? Turn from your own thinking. Begin there. Do not think that I push you into Babylon because I have no pleasure in you. I could have buried you out there in Jerusalem, dead, under the ruins of the city. Why do you think you're in Babylon? Because I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I am giving you some more space and time to repent. That's why. Why are you today alive in the church here? Why? Because God has no pleasure in your death. But he could certainly have made that happen already a long time ago, because he's angry with the wicked every day. And who are wicked? Those are unbelievers. People who refuse to bow to the authority of Jesus and confess Jesus as the glory of God the Father. They're wicked. They're being church. Why are you still here? Because I have no pleasure in the death of you. I'm giving you tonight another call. I am giving you another dunging, around a tree, O my friend, come to repentance, acknowledge your wrong ways, and turn to me, come to me, neglect not so great salvation. That's why we're here this evening, to hear about the biblical doctrine of election to those of you who are unsaved this evening. It's the encouragement to seek Him tonight, on the basis of this wonderful truth that He did not look at any of you and me in order to open the door to the merits of His Son Jesus Christ, the Sovereign and Free. Now I can imagine that some of you may be sitting here tonight saying, you know, that is something I cannot believe, that it would be for me. Well, friend, I wish where you sit, that I could sit next to you. Because I cannot believe it either, unless the Lord gives that. And from the Scripture it is clear, the message that the Word of God speaks is a message that hinges right into your and my needs. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but he turns from his way. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why would you die, O house of Israel?" That's what God is calling us to do. Now let's close with two more areas in thinking that I'd like to tie into this. And this evening, like I said, I'm trying to be like Paul as he reasons with Sergius Paulus. And I know Elimas the sorcerer is here tonight too. The Prince of Darkness is trying to poison your mind as I preach. That battle is taking place every time I preach. There's always one who's whistling in your other ear other truths. And what are some of those truths that keep us from believing the gospel message? Well, here's one. Some people think that God is willing to give you everything but you've got to do something for it. How common that thinking is. God is willing to give you everything but you've got to do something for it. Like what? Well, you have to go to church. pray, to read, to repent, to believe. If you're a very good man, always be nice. If you do all these things, God will save you. As I have said it last week, Friday on Good Friday, that's no gospel. That's sending you back to the workhouse. That is climbing your way to heaven. The Bible does not say that anywhere. that God is willing to do something for you, but you've got to do something for Him first. You know, God is not in trade me, as many of us are. Trade me doesn't exist in the Gospel. It is a free and a sovereign gift. Indeed, as I said this evening, the Father is seeking. Seeking. Is He really? Well, that's what our Lord Jesus said, and He always spoke the truth. As he is speaking to the woman in the Samaritan vow, he says to her these words, words that never fail to really, in a certain way, astound me. The hour is coming when a true worshipper shall worship the Father in the Spirit and truth, for the Father's seeker eats such to worship Him. Just think of it, dear friends. He is a sovereign Father. the creator of heaven and earth, and he is revealed in this scripture as seeking. God is seeking, he can command everything, he knows everything, but he is seeking tonight, telling us indeed, I am willing and able to save you for my own sake. But must I not first pray? Must I not first read? Must I not first repent? Must I not first have more conviction? Must I not have first more sorrow of sin? Must I not must for be humbled? Must I not first be more holy? No. No. That is not what he's asking. That is nowhere in the Bible such a thing, that he's asked to do that. That would be teaching you, that would be teaching that somehow you need to save yourself a little bit in order for you to believe that you are indeed willing, welcome to come at the feet of this great sovereign God. It's again mixing the words, works with grace, and what a poor message. I know there are people here who have tried to be better. You've gone home from this place, and you've found your place to pray, and you come on your knees, it's home, and there's no more prayer left. Right? You say, Lord, I was so desirous in church to pray to Thee, and I come at home, and there's not a prayer left. And you've tried indeed to become better, and to trust in the Lord. You've tried to come to the Lord and to believe in Him. And you can't believe. You've tried to trust in His Word, and you come home, and you can't. trust in it. You fail, and you discover that it's not just this sin and that sin you need to cut out, you need to cut out your heart, and that's impossible. That's impossible, isn't it? And so we keep on struggling and we keep on struggling and we keep on struggling to make ourselves just a little tiny bit better in order to be saved. Wrong. That is not gospel thinking. Is Jesus a Savior, or is He not? Yes, friends, He is. And what does He say? Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Or can I say it differently? Come all to me, you who are trying hard and are failing. I want you to come to me, because I am the Savior, not you. It's not a deal, it's not a trade meet. It's free, sovereign grace. And so the Lord stands before us in His Word. No, not only the Lord, the Father is seeking tonight such who will worship Him. In what way? In truth and spirit. Lord, I believe, thou help my unbelief. Oh, you may say that. Please, be honest in your prayers. Don't pretend to have faith when you don't have faith. Don't pretend to be holy when you're not holy. Don't pretend to be humble when you're not humble. Don't pretend to be sincere when you're not sincere. Be honest. Rutherford says, bring to Jesus Christ your sins, your sinnership, not your saints and your saintship. That's what Jesus came for. He says, I know God is merciful, another one of these crooked thinkings that we so often have, but I need to convince Him to have mercy on me, and so I'm going to pray real hard that God will have mercy on me. I've prayed for a long time already. I'll pray more. Who of you think that way? I have to convince heaven to have mercy on me. How are you going to convince him? Well, I'm trying best, and I'm being humble, and I show my sorrow, and I improve my lifestyle, and I pray harder. Now, none of these things are bad. None of these things are disapproved. But don't think that any of those things move the heart of God to mercy. Why? Because if you have sorrow over sin, and if you have an humbled spirit, and if you have a broken heart, and if you are indeed walking in tenderness before the Lord, that is His mercy already. That's His grace already. That's Him inclining your heart, instead of you trying to incline His. Dear friends, that's the beauty of the message of the Gospel, of God's sovereign grace. It is not anything of us. We come to Him in order to be what we need to be and cannot be. God is convincing you in the Scriptures, He is already gracious to you and He has more grace to give. More grace to give? Yes, even the supremest grace of pardon. We don't earn His faith. We don't think of his love as conditional. One of the things, again, that came out so beautifully in discussions in these Chinese cultures is so different than ours, but not altogether. Most of these men, if not all of them, shared with me that they grew up thinking, the only way that my dad will love me, if I meet his standards. If I meet his standards, he'll love me. So I'll keep fighting and doing my best to meet my dad's standards, so he'll love me. That's their thinking, right? And now they're thinking biblically, I'll do my best. I'll do my best, God will love me. How many of you think that way? Maybe you grew up that way too, I have to do my best in order to get my dad's love. Do my best, be good, work hard, show respect, do all these things, so dad will love me. That's conditional love. But please, though you may have a debt like that, God the Father is not like that. Don't think that way about God the Father. Don't think that way about the God of the Scripture. His love is unconditional. We never earn His favor. It is free. But you know what the prodigal son was thinking is exactly right. We'll go back home. I can be His servant. Maybe I can earn my way back into His favor. Wrong. he discovered his father has unconditional love. Even though he made himself the most disfavored kid on the street, he was received home in love. That's the God, friends, that the scriptures speak about, and especially reveals himself in this act of his predestinating grace. So I close tonight with quoting a well-known poem that I always think about when I preach Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal know respite? No. This, for sin, could not atone. Thou must save, and Thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling. Not what these hands have done can save this guilty soul. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God. not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace." and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, O will Thou send Thy light and Thy truth to lead us into these marvelous revelations of the Holy Scriptures so far beyond our human thinking, beyond our comprehension and understanding. Thou wilt lead us into these mysteries of the kingdom of Jesus. O wilt Thou cure our thinking, Lord? Wilt Thou indeed silence the limest of sorcerer who in each one of our lives, and especially in those, Lord, who are unsaved, will continue to harass? with the wrong teaching and the wrong thinking about thy message. And thou, O great God, alone can silence them and eliminate it and bring in us the healthy thinking that every thought of us may be brought into the captivity through Jesus Christ and his wonderful gospel. Lord, make room for thyself in our lives. make us to hunger and to thirst, make us humble, make us need Thee, make us, O Lord, to feel our sin as sin. O, we cannot give it ourselves, Lord, but Thou art a God of sovereign grace. Make us sincere, make us indeed diligent, make us believers, repenters, Thou hast come to be the Savior, Lord. Thou hast sent Thy Son into this world to save sinners. And we are presenting ourselves and all those among us this evening at Thy holy throne that Thou hast opened even this day. And so lay Thy hands upon us, Lord. Save us from that pit of destruction that we dug ourselves. Come and be mindful of us all in this week. Help us in our work. give us the blessings of joy and strength and ability in all that we need to do. And Lord, will Thou graciously protect us in our work also, in all these dangers. Will Thou guide us in our journeys. We command Ari and Michelle, give them a wonderful time overseas in safety, meeting their friends, their relatives and also their children and grandchildren. And so, Lord, may we see them again in due time. in good health and well-being. We of others are travelling this way, we of Daniel and Julia, we of Julissa, Stephan and his wife and children. For child, Lord, be so mindful of them all and give them safety that we may see each other again next week Sunday when thou wilt again open the doors. Thank thee for this wonderful day, Lord, for thy presence and thy word among us. O Thou art in wonder doing, gracious God, hear us and receive our praise and thanksgiving and petitions in Jesus' name. Amen.