Podcast appearances and mentions of Augustus Toplady

Passage: 1 We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. 2 “At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity. 3 When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. 4 I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,' and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn; 5 do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with haughty neck.'” (Psalm 75:1–5 ESV) Song: Psalm 75 by Poor Bishop Hooper Lyrics: We give thanks, God We give thanks for Your name is near We give thanks, God We give thanks for Your name is near As men tell of All Your wonderful works As men tell of All Your wonderful, wonderful works At the set time that I appoint I will come and judge with equity When the Earth totters and the people shake It is I who keep its pillars steady Oh, it is I who keep its pillars steady Not from the east or from the west Not from the wilderness comes lifting up But it is God who is tho only judgе Putting down one and lifting up another Not from the еast or from the west Not from the wilderness comes lifting up But it is God who is tho only judge Putting down one and lifting up another For in His hand there is a cup And full of wine and spices foaming up And it is well-mixed and when He pours this Surely the wicked will drink But as for me I will declare it I will sing praise Praise to the God of Jacob As for me I will declare it I will sing praise Praise to the God of Jacob As for me I will declare it I will sing praise Praise to the God of Jacob As for me I will declare it I will sing praise Praise to the God of Jacob Prayer: With what shall we come before you, O Lord? Or bow ourselves in your presence, O you Most High God? Cause us to come unto you in faith: mentioning no other name, pleading no other righteousness, and trusting in no other atonement than the name, righteousness, and atonement of your blessed Son and our… Mediator Jesus Christ. In him, we desire to be found; through him, we hope for favor with you, and acceptance in your sight. Blessed be your goodness for the mercies of the day, for the blessings of your providence, the comforts of your Spirit, and the privileges we enjoy. Amen. -Augustus Toplady

What do we want from God? One thief wanted Jesus to get him off the cross. The other one wanted Jesus to remember him when he came in his kingdom. Jesus made a promise to the second one. This informs our prayers. We can receive his promise. Today? Today! Message based on Luke 23:38-43.Time Stamps:00:01 Worship and Guidance02:47 Crucifixion Depictions10:39 The Thief on the Cross24:08 Salvation and Grace32:44  Hope and RedemptionQuotes:Philip Yancey: Only one person in the Bible receives a direct promise of heaven; a thief. J. C. Ryle: One thief on the cross was saved, that none should despair; and only one, that none should presume. What do we want from the suffering Savior? Duane Brooks: If you had an audience with Jesus and you could ask him for anything in the world, what would you ask? What would you ask him for?Samuel Johnson, the poet said, between the stirrup and the ground, think of a person falling from a horse, who cries out to God for salvation. Between the stirrup and the ground, mercy I sought, Mercy I found. Don't despair. Eeroelos: It could be thousands of years. It's just the next thing you know.Bus Driver: Today, it's a timely promise. Our god is an on time god.Duane Brooks: When we pray seeking Jesus as our King, he promises us his presence today and forever. Charles Spurgeon: He is able to save to the uttermost for he saved the dying thief.Duane Brooks: I pray you, therefore, if any of you have not yet trusted in my Lord Jesus, come and trust in Him now. Trust him wholly; trust him only; trust him at once, then you will sing with me the words of Augustus Toplady.  Augustus Toplady:The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his dayAnd there may I, though vile as heWash all my sins awayWash all my sins awayAnd there may I though vile as heWash all my sins away #faith #salvation #grace #redemption #forgivenessTo discover more messages of hope go to tallowood.org/sermons/.Follow us on Instagram, X, and YouTube @tallowoodbc.Follow us on FaceBook @tallowoodbaptist

Passage: 15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50:15-21 ESV) Song: His Mercy is More by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa Lyrics: What love could remember no wrongs we have done Omniscient all knowing He counts not their sum Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore Our sins they are many His mercy is more What patience would wait as we constantly roam What Father so tender is calling us home He welcomes the weakest the vilest the poor Our sins they are many His mercy is more What riches of kindness He lavished on us His blood was the payment His life was the cost We stood 'neath a debt we could never afford Our sins they are many His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness new every morn Our sins they are many His mercy is more Prayer: O Lord, we desire to adore your name, which is excellent in all the earth, and whose glory is above the heavens. You are the maker and disposer of all things; and for your sovereign pleasure it is that they still exist, and were at first created. Your hands have made and fashioned us; and all that we enjoy comes from you. As we are the workmanship of your power, O make us likewise your spiritual workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus, unto holiness and true righteousness. Give proof that you have formed us for yourself, by caus- ing us to show forth your praise, and by making us to live to glory, as we do every day live upon your bounty. Amen. -Augustus Toplady

Passage: 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” 9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” (Genesis 17:1-14 ESV) Song: The Blessing (https://open.spotify.com/track/3b3r4F5ynaUxn3TpMd4F9e?si=fc67dbad0f4c4bf4) by Chris Brown, Cody Carnes, Kari Jobe, and Steven Furtick Lyrics: The Lord bless you And keep you Make his face shine upon you And be gracious to you The Lord turn his Face toward you And give you peace Chorus Amen Amen Amen May his favor Be upon you And a thousand generations And your family And your children And their children And their children May his presence Go before you And behind you And beside you All around you And within you He is with you He is with you In the morning In the evening In your coming And your going In your weeping And rejoicing He is for you He is for you He is for you He is for you Prayer: With what shall we come before you, O Lord? Or bow ourselves in your presence, O you Most High God? Cause us to come unto you in faith: mentioning no other name, pleading no other righteousness, and trusting in no other atonement than the name, righteousness, and atonement of your blessed Son and our… Mediator Jesus Christ. In him, we desire to be found; through him, we hope for favor with you, and acceptance in your sight. Blessed be your goodness for the mercies of the day, for the blessings of your providence, the comforts of your Spirit, and the privileges we enjoy. Amen. -Augustus Toplady

“My name from the palms of His hands Eternity will not erase; Impressed on His heart it remains In marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure, As sure as the earnest is given More happy, but not more secure, The glorified spirits in heaven.”—Augustus Toplady, “A Debtor to Mercy Alone” Revelation 5

Passage: 14 For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised. 16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ's behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. -- 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (CSB) Song: Jesus, We Love You (https://open.spotify.com/track/1k82nFZmbpjylbEP8m2Pme?si=2b05aadd5b6d4548) by Hannah McClure, Kalley Heiligenthal, and Paul McClure, arranged and performed by The Worship Initiative Lyrics: Old things have passed away Your love has stayed the same Your constant grace remains the cornerstone Things that we thought were dead Are breathing in life again You cause your Son to shine on darkest nights For all that You've done we will pour out our love This will be our anthem song (Jesus) we love You Oh how we love You You are the one our hearts adore Our hearts adore Our hearts adore Our hearts adore The hopeless have found their hope The orphans now have a home All that was lost has found its place in You You lift our weary head You make us strong instead You took these rags and made us beautiful Our affection our devotion Poured out on the feet of Jesus Prayer: With what shall we come before you, O Lord? Or bow ourselves in your presence, O you Most High God? Cause us to come unto you in faith: mentioning no other name, pleading no other righteousness, and trusting in no other atonement than the name, righteousness, and atonement of your blessed Son and our... Mediator Jesus Christ. In him, we desire to be found; through him, we hope for favor with you, and acceptance in your sight. Blessed be your goodness for the mercies of the day, for the blessings of your providence, the comforts of your Spirit, and the privileges we enjoy. Amen. -Augustus Toplady

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“When Christ entered into Jerusalem the people spread garments in the way: when He enters into our hearts, we pull off our own righteousness, and not only lay it under Christ's feet but even trample upon it ourselves.”~Augustus Toplady 18th Century British Minister and Hymn Writer “We are often like the worshippers on Palm Sunday: eager for the party, not quite ready for the cross.”~Kevin DeYoung American Pastor and Author “‘Hosanna in the highest!'that ancient song we sing,for Christ is our Redeemer,the Lord of heaven our King.O may we ever praise Him,with heart and life and voice,and in His blissful presenceeternally rejoice.”~“Hosanna, Loud Hosanna” by Jeannette Threlfall “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”~Zechariah 9:9 (ESV) “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”~Psalm 118:25-26 (ESV)SERMON PASSAGEJohn 12:12-19 (ESV) 12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;    behold, your king is coming,     sitting on a donkey's colt!” 16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Today we are going to talk about Augustus Toplady, an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer who is best known for his classic hymn "Rock of Ages".RESOURCESHymnary: https://hymnary.org/person/Toplady_AugustusLeben: https://leben.us/augustus-toplady/Challies.com: https://www.challies.com/articles/hymn-stories-rock-of-ages/Evangelical Movement of Wales: https://www.emw.org.uk/2020/05/rock-of-ages/

When Christ entered into Jerusalem the people spread their garments in the way. When He enters into our hearts, we pull off our own righteousness, and not only lay it under Christ's feet, but even trample upon it ourselves. — Augustus Toplady

Due to the great revival led by Charles and John Wesley, it is perhaps a little difficult for us to imagine a theological holy war of sorts between John Wesley and Augustus Toplady. However, that was the case as each made his arguments for his theological views. From their exchanges, the hymn for which Toplady is best known, Rock of Ages, was printed, a poem that recounted his experience in the cleft of the rock. Article taken from Living Stories of Famous Hymns by Ernest K. Emurian. Copyright © 1955 by Baker Book House Company. Used by permission of Baker Book House Company.

August 10, 2022 ROGER SALTER, Rector @ St. Matthews Anglican Church of Birmingham, Alabama (a Reformed, Confessional, Cranmerian & historically Protestant congregation firmly committed to the Inerrant Holy Scriptures & the 39 Articles of Religion), who will address: “JOHN GILL & AUGUSTUS TOPLADY: TWO COMPATIBLE CALVINISTS” Subscribe: iTunes  TuneIn Android RSS Feed Listen:

Do you know who Augustus Toplady is? Let me introduce him to you today and an encouraging passage from God's Word.

Andy Davis preaches on the book of John and John's eyewitness account of Jesus' crucifixion, establishing a true testimony that every aspect of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection are indeed historical facts. -SERMON TRANSCRIPT- Please pray with me now. Father, as we have had the opportunity to sing songs that meditate on the death of Your Son, it's a sober meditation. It is good for us, O Lord, to meditate deeply and to understand the death of Jesus on our behalf. I pray that now, You would give us the gift of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in this place. For it is His unique work in this world to exalt Jesus to the highest place in our minds, our hearts, and our estimation based on the Scripture that He himself inspired. We pray now that there would be an anointing of the spirit on me, on my words, and then on all of our hearts so that we can understand the things that we have just heard, and that these truths would burn in our hearts within us, transforming us and enabling us to live, to walk in newness of life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 71:15 says, "My mouth will tell of Your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure." All of us infinitely underestimates what our salvation cost Jesus Christ. We underestimate the gravity of our sins and the holiness of God and the heat of His wrath, His righteous wrath, against us for our sins. We underestimate all of these things. Even if we've been Christians many years, even if we love Jesus, we underestimate what our salvation cost Jesus. This is a Good Friday observance. For myself, I was raised Roman Catholic, and Holy Week observances were a big part of my spiritual formation growing up. I remember being an altar boy and doing something called the Stations of the Cross. We would go from place to place in our church. There were stained glass pictures of the final hours of Jesus' life, and there would be readings at each of those. We Baptist, I think, have rightly rejected the elaborate system of holy days and the holy year that was handed down from medieval Catholicism on even to the present day. Baptists focus on Good Friday, on the death of Christ. Certainly here in this church, we preach Christ crucified every week. It's not a week that goes by that I don't mention the death of Christ for our sins, and it's as it should be. Yet, a Good Friday service like this gives us a chance to slow down, to pause, and to look at specific details connected with the death of Christ that ordinarily we wouldn't mention. This evening we're going to be looking at just some details from the death of Jesus from the gospel of John, chapter 19. I want to assert right away how important in particular John's testimony is, John's account of the death of Christ, because he was an actual eyewitness of Jesus's death. He was the disciple whom Jesus loved. He was standing right there watching Jesus die. He adds some specific details to our knowledge of the death of Christ that we could have no other way. One of those details is the fact that the soldiers determined that Jesus was already dead, greatly to their surprise, but to confirm it, one of the soldiers drove a spear up into Jesus' side. When he did, blood and water came flowing out. John strongly emphasized this, and he strongly emphasized the eyewitness testimony that that happened. He underscores it in verse 35 of John 19. "The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he tells the truth and he testifies so that you also may believe." That's very serious words connected with this flow of blood and water. The reason this is so important, among other reasons, is that every aspect of Jesus's life, Jesus' death, and Jesus' resurrection from the grave are established in the gospels as historical fact. The role of eyewitness testimony is vital to that. Luke begins his gospel with these words: "Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated…” . The reason Luke wrote his gospel based on careful investigation of the testimony of eyewitnesses is so that we would know the certainty of the things we have been taught. He means historical certainty, the accuracy of it. John in his epistle, 1 John 1:1, speaks of this also, his role as an eyewitness. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. And we proclaim this eyewitness testimony so that you also may have fellowship with us and with God." So it's all based on eyewitness testimony. Peter writes the same thing in 2 Peter 1:16, "We did not follow cleverly invented myths when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." Cleverly invented myths, skillfully woven fiction, Peter said, "We didn't do that." Jesus' life, His death, and His resurrection are not cleverly devised fables or myths. They're not fiction or even spiritual parables which when we read them are move or moved morally and spiritually to live a better life. No, that's not what the gospels are about. It's not what the New Testament is about. “…Every aspect of Jesus's life, Jesus' death, and Jesus' resurrection from the grave are established in the gospels as historical fact.” Some of you may have heard of a place called Narnia. It's a fantasy world crafted by an author named C. S. Lewis and written into his books called the Chronicles of Narnia, a fantasy world that four British children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, reached through a wardrobe, a wooden closet where the clothes are kept. They go further and further back, and suddenly, they're in another world, Narnia. Readers of Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia can derive all kinds of spiritual benefit from the books, indeed they have for decades now. But I certainly hope all of you know it's fiction. It's absolutely cleverly invented myths, fables which are written for a spiritual purpose. The same thing with Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, with the Shire and Gondor and Mirkwood and Mordor, and all those places. They're all fantasy locations, and Aragorn and Gandalf and Frodo are fictitious characters. I hope you all know that. Some people are so into these worlds that they can forget, and it gets blurry. But they are cleverly invented fables, it's not true, but the accounts we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are based on eyewitness testimony. They're history, works of historical fact based on the sober testimony of eyewitnesses. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul testifies concerning the resurrection of Christ from the dead that, "If Christ had actually not been physically raised from the dead," he said, "our preaching is useless, and so is your faith." In other words, if this whole thing that we're talking about tonight is a cleverly devised fable, you shouldn't have come here tonight. I shouldn't be up here talking. My preaching is useless, and so is your Christian faith. It's a strong statement. More than that, Paul says, "We have not been found to be false witnesses about God for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. It actually happened." And then a few verses later, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you're still in your sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost." That's how important history is to Christianity. So it really matters whether or not Christ really lived, whether or not Christ really said and did the things the gospels record that He said and did; whether or not Christ really died on the cross, and whether or not Christ really actually rose from the dead. The gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are written based on the testimonies of eyewitnesses who saw Jesus personally. Over the centuries, many false teachers have arisen to trouble the church with questions about these very things. Early on there were some false teachers called docetists based on the Greek word “dokein”, meaning “to seem”, that Jesus seemed human, but He really wasn't. Others raised questions about Jesus's death. Even in the 19th century and beyond, some devised something called the Swoon Theory that Jesus actually fainted on the cross, He just seemed dead. Some theologically liberal scholars have questioned the gospel records as faulty because they contain miracles. They look on them as religious myths. Scholars like a man named Rudolph Boltman tried to go through and demythologize the New Testament, strip it of all of its, clearly, obviously, mythological aspects, miracles, and embarked on the quest for the historical Jesus. Can I just shut that down right now? You want the quest for the historical Jesus, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There's the historical Jesus. You don't have to go any further. It's all of it history based on eyewitness accounts, and that includes that of the apostle John in the account you just heard read, John 19. John was standing there, watched it happen, and he testified that it happened. Based on these gospel records, all four of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we have a strong sense of the truthfulness, the absolute certainty of what we have been taught. Jesus actually lived, fully God and fully human. Jesus actually died. He actually was dead on the cross. He literally died. The effusion of water and blood from His side proves it. Jesus actually rose from the dead, physically, bodily on the third day. Therefore, our sins are actually forgiven. We ourselves will actually be raised from the grave in bodies like Christ. We ourselves will actually live forever in heaven. That's how important this history is. Assurance, certainty, a sense of the certainty of the things you have been taught, that's what we get from meditating deeply on these historical details. The account of these details gives us an intensification of our awareness of these truths. The account of Jesus' death in John 19 gives us that certainty. The evidence is that Jesus died at exactly the right time that day. I mean within seconds. He died at exactly the right time to fulfill prophecy, to fulfill the plan of salvation that God had made for sinners all over the world in every generation, even from before the foundation of the world. Certainly, there were events, human events that led up to His trial, His conviction, and His execution. Satan did in fact put it in Judas heart to betray Jesus, so Satan had a role. Judas Iscariot did, in fact, conspire with the chief priest and the teachers of the law to hand Jesus over to them. This he did by identifying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane with a kiss. The chief priests and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees did, in fact, arrest Jesus. They did, in fact, bring Him to the house of Annas, the high priest, Annas and Caiaphas, did, in fact, condemn Jesus to death on the testimony... It all happened. They did, in fact, hand Jesus over to Pontius Pilate. Then they effectively pressured Pilate so that he would finally give in to them and murder an innocent man, a man he knew was innocent. Pilate did, in fact, condemn Jesus to death, turn Jesus over to the soldiers who did, in fact, mock Him and flog Him, spit on Him and beat Him. All of that's true. And they did, in fact, lead Him away to Golgotha where they crucified Him by nailing His hands and His feet to the cross with two other men, two robbers, one on His right, the other His left. Yes, yes, yes, these human actors, all of them did these human things, and they are held accountable for what they did. However, all of them were merely servants of almighty God carrying out a plan that had been crafted in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. Every one of those details had been planned out before God said, "Let there be light." Peter said this in his great Pentecost sermon in Acts 2, "Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by signs and wonders and miracles, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know." This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you with the help of wicked men put Him to death, nailing Him to the cross.” Do you hear that? He was handed over to you by God, by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, carrying out a plan that had been crafted before the world began. They say the same thing a couple of chapters later in Acts 4. As the church is praying together, persecutions about to ramp up and they're getting ready for it by praying, this is what they said. "Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against Your holy servant, Jesus, whom You anointed." They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. They couldn't be clearer. They were following a script, though they didn't know the script or know that they were following a script. The soldiers gambled for Jesus clothes so that Scripture would be fulfilled. The soldiers didn't get up that day saying, "I think we'll fulfill Scripture today by gambling for someone's clothes." They just gambled for clothes because they wanted them, but the Scripture says, "So this is what the soldiers did because that's what the prophecy said they should do." All of this was crafted in the mind of God before God said, "Let there be light." Before the foundation of the world, God determined to crush His Son to death to save sinners like you and me from hell. That's what God decided to do for us. He established prophecies through the Holy Spirit, and through prophets so that we could identify, triangulate on this one person, of all the billions that have ever lived. This one man is the savior of the world. The prophecies identify Him. “Before the foundation of the world, God determined to crush His Son to death to save sinners like you and me from hell. That's what God decided to do for us.” One of the most important religious customs was animal sacrifice, which was established, I believe, in the Garden of Eden and then carried out multiple times with the patriarchs, Noah after the flood, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; they all did animal sacrifice. Especially, Moses at the time of the dreadful 10th plague, the plague on the first born, the night of the Passover when each Jewish family would set aside a lamb, a Passover lamb. There were certain stipulations about it, et cetera. But the laws in Exodus 12:46 about the Passover lamb was that not a single bone of the lamb would be broken. Exodus 12:46, "It must be eaten inside one house. Take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones." The same thing in Numbers 9:11-12 about the Passover, "They are to eat the lamb together with uneven bread and not leave of it till morning or break any of its bones." When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow the regulations. Jesus died at just the right instant to fulfill this prophecy. The thing with crucifixion is it's designed for cruelty. It's a very cruel death, it's a very vicious death because there's nothing immediately killing the victims. They were known to linger for days on the cross. When Jesus was dead, Pilate was shocked that He was already dead. The Jewish authorities, because it was a Passover, it was a high Sabbath, they knew that action had to be taken on these three men or they would linger all night, and they didn't want them on the cross all night. So Jesus died just in the nick of time to avoid having His bones broken. He had the power to do this. Jesus uniquely had the power over his life and his death. He said to Pilate, “The reason I entered the world was to testify to the truth.” None of you can make such a statement. Why did you choose to be born? What was your purpose in entering the world? None of us can say that. We don't have any purpose, we're born. But Jesus chose to enter the world. In the same way, He chose to die. If He hadn't chosen to die, He would never have died. He said this plainly in John 10:17-18, "The reason My Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I receive from my Father." That's an utterly unique speech that only Jesus could make. "No one can kill me if I don't want to die, but I'm actually laying down my life." At just the right time, Jesus gave up His spirit and died. He gave up His spirit of His own choice. John 19:28-30 says, "Later, knowing that all was now completed and so that the scripture will be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it and put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus' lips. And when He had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' And with that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." None of us can do that. You can't just pillow your head on your chest and die. But Jesus had that power to give up His spirit. If He had died even just a few moments later, His bones would've been smashed by the soldiers. It says in verse 31-33, "Now it was the day of preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have their legs broken and the bodies taken down. Soldiers, therefore, came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that He was already dead, they did not break His legs." There was a clear Jewish law against leaving dead bodies on a tree overnight. Deuteronomy 21 says, "If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance." Jesus was under a curse by being hung on the cross. As Paul points out in Galatians, "He was made a curse for us. Because of our sins, we deserve to be cursed by God." Jesus took that curse on Himself. The Jewish legalists are trying to avoid the defilement of the Passover by allowing these dead bodies to remain on the tree overnight. The soldiers in conformity with this Jewish demand brought probably a huge hammer, a mallet or something like that, smashed the legs of the first man, unspeakable cruelty, so that he couldn't push up. So also the other man, smashed his bones, probably sent the body into shock, greatly accelerated death because they couldn't push up, they couldn't breathe anymore, and soon they were dead. But the soldiers came to Jesus, and these were expert executioners, they knew He was dead. There's no doubt. They were surprised, I'm sure, because it's just a short time. But Jesus had fulfilled all the prophecies that He could while still alive, and He pillowed His head on His chest and gave up His spirit. And in this way, the prophecy was fulfilled, "Not a bone will be broken." “Why did you choose to be born? What was your purpose in entering the world? (…) We don't have any purpose, we're born. But Jesus chose to enter the world. In the same way, He chose to die.” The actual physical cause of Jesus' death I think is more violent than we can possibly imagine. It is possible that when that soldier shoved the spear up into Jesus side and the blood and water flowed out, it gives evidence of a level of internal violence inside Jesus that is unspeakable beyond anything we could possibly comprehend. Verse 34 says, "One of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." There's so much discussion about this blood and water, and there are many themes that one could pick up here. The hymn “Rock of Ages” by Augustus Toplady. "Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure, save me from wrath and make me pure." The blood taking away the wrath of God, the water cleansing as it speaks in the Book of Titus, being cleansed from our sins, so I think it's a valid meditation that Augustus Toplady does there. But I want to focus just on the significance of the blood and water physically. I was listening to a sermon by Martin Lloyd-Jones who before he was a preacher was a Royal physician, a doctor. He cited research done by other medical experts that this flow of water and blood was evidence that Jesus died of a ruptured heart, that the actual muscle of Jesus' heart was shredded. There's reasons for this. It has to do with the pericardium and what happens after death and all that. I'm not a doctor, I actually called a doctor friend as I was writing the sermon and he said, "We don't really know." So here I am saying I don't really know if Jesus died of a ruptured heart. But one thing I do know, when He was in Gethsemane, He was under such pressure that He sweat great drops of blue blood. Luke 22:44 says, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." What in the world is going on there? I believe that God revealed the cup to Him at levels and dimensions He had never seen before, and it knocked Him to the ground, and He was under intense mental, emotional, psychological, even physical anguish and pressure in Gethsemane. So much so that it seems, there's evidence, if He hadn't dispatched some angels to strengthen Him, He might have died right there. What could this be other than the wrath of God and the the relational separation, between Jesus and the Father as our sin-bearing substitute that pushed Him to a level of anguish and agony and grief that we can scarcely imagine. Jesus said in Mark 14:36, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will." That cup represents the aggressive, pure, holy wrath of God that God feels rightly for all of the sins and violations of His holy laws that we have committed. That's the cup. Psalm 75:8, it says, "In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs." That's the cup of God's wrath, judgment. Revelation 14:10 says, "He too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath." There is no man in history who understood the holy wrath of God better than the pure Son of God. Jesus experienced in a way we... we use these expressions…, but with Jesus it's not just expression, Jesus experienced hell on earth for us. He drank hell for us so we wouldn't have to. It cost Him. It knocked Him to the ground in Gethsemane. It put blood coming out of His pores, and maybe it shredded His heart. I do know this, that the effusion of water and blood proved that it stopped His heart, so at least this much we can say, the flow of blood and water proves that Jesus was actually dead. He died for us. And why is that important? Because we deserve to die. We deserve death. The wages of sin is death. Isaiah 53 says, "Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. And by His wounds, we are healed. We're all like sheep who've gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." The soldier shoved this spear up into Jesus' side, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. John testified, "The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe." Believe what? What are you supposed to believe? Well, in the immediate case, believe that Jesus was actually human and that He was actually dead, and that His death on the cross is an actual atonement for your sins. As Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." That's what you're supposed to believe, that Jesus' death was for you, that you deserved to die, but Jesus died in your place so that you would not have to drink that cup. Whether his heart was actually literally ruptured or not, his heart was stopped. He was killed because of our sins. He died. So what? So therefore, we should have a sense of obligation. We should, first of all, realize, if our sins did that to Jesus' body, how much should we hate sin? How much should we hate sin since that's what it cost Jesus? So therefore, we should have a sense of indebtedness to Jesus resulting in personal holiness. Paul makes that point in 1 Corinthians 6, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you have been bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body." Do you know what that means, you're not your own, you've been bought and paid for? Jesus shed His blood for you. He owns you. Therefore, be holy. Here it's talking about sexual purity. Also, we should realize that Jesus bought us and, therefore, we should live for others. We should witness to others. We should evangelize others. This is the very point that Paul makes in II Corinthians 5, "For Christ's love compels us because we're convinced that one died for all and, therefore, all died. And He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again." There's an obligation we have. Because Jesus died for us, we should stop living for ourselves and live for Him and for others. The context there is evangelism, that we're ambassadors and that we should share the gospel with lost people. Personal holiness and evangelism, both of them flowing from a sense of indebtedness or obligation we have to Jesus. “Christ's death does indeed pay our debts. So in that sense, we're free from debt. But there's a biblical sense in which we are indebted also. We're indebted to Christ; to live for Him who died for us and to live for others who need Him.” I'll close with this story. Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf was a German nobleman born in the year 1700 into a life of ease and privilege. He was a good man in that sense, a moral man, a Christian, who was seeking to live a good life. But one day as a teenager, he was arrested by a powerful painting at an art museum in Dusseldorf. It was by Italian master Domenico Fetti, and it was called in the Latin, “Ecce homo”, which is what Pontius Pilate said, "Behold the man." It depicted the crucified Christ in agony on the cross. At the bottom of the painting was this caption, "All this I have done for you. Now what will you do for Me?" He stood there looking at this painting and was dissolving in tears. He had a mystical powerful experience right there looking at that painting. He resolved that for the rest of his life he would serve Christ and serve others. He became the leader of the Moravians at Herrnhut. The Moravians were leaders in Protestant missions long before William Carey, sending missionaries to the West Indies. A tremendous movement of Moravians, all of it flowed from his commitment to Christ. "All this I've done for you. Now what will you do for me?" Christ's death does indeed pay our debts. So in that sense, we're free from debt. But there's a biblical sense in which we are indebted also. We're indebted to Christ; to live for Him who died for us and to live for others who need Him. As Isaac Watts put it so powerfully in his hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” the final stanza, "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all." Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank You for the chance we have tonight to meditate with more detail than usual on the death of Jesus for us. Help us to hate sin. Help us to love Christ more than we do. Help us to live for His glory more than we do. Help us to be willing to put sin to death because we've learned to hate sin because it cost Jesus all of that agony. Help us to know that we are forgiven in ways that are deeper and richer than we can possibly imagine. And Lord, help us to go again and again to the cross for the power to live for others. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Last week, we discussed the history and importance of hymns in our Christian lives. This week, we are diving into the meaning of two hymns—Come Ye Sinners and Oh the Love That Will Not Let Me Go. Join us as we unpack the meaning of these hymns and how they apply to our Christian lives.

Petitionary Hymns, #4, For the Morning; From Hymns and Sacred Poems on a Variety of Divine Subjects, by Augustus Toplady, English Anglican cleric and hymn writer, (1740 – 1778) The music for this reading is “Being Together” by Borrtex and was adapted for length under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0). JESUS, by whose... The post The Unsung Hymns Podcast: “For the Morning” by Augustus Toplady appeared first on RonnieBrown.net.

The 32 works in this volume contain many diverse works from the period including sermons, essays, letters, commentaries, poems and reports. Many pieces are by the Anglican writers John Newton and Augustus Toplady. Genre(s): Christianity - Other --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/3daudiobooks0/support

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Biographies of George Whitefield, John Wesley, William Grimshaw, William Romaine, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge, Henry Venn, Samuel Walker, James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, and John Fletcher. The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose lives and ministries I have narrated in this volume. I confess it honestly. I am a thorough admirer of them. I firmly believe that, with the exceptions of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and our own martyred Reformers, the world has not seen any such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have not been any who have preached as much clear scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown such courage in Christ's service, none who have suffered as much for the truth, and none who have done as much good. If anyone can name better men, he knows more than I do. I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God will pardon all its imperfections, use it for His own glory, and raise up in His church today men like those who are here described. Certainly when we look at the state of the church today, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Grimshaw and of Venn? O Lord, revive Your work!” —J. C. Ryle Stradbroke Vicarage, August 10, 1868

Legend has it that Augustus Toplady took shelter during a storm in a fissure he discovered in a large rock wall. The visual stuck with him and led him to write the first line of one of the most familiar hymns in Church history. "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me." We discussed this and more in our broadcast that aired on 11/6/2021.  If you find this podcast meaningful, please consider sharing it with others and supporting it at www.hopeforthecaregiver.com/giving  

There is much to be said of Augustus Toplady's hymns. He wrote with such theological depth that many claimed they were difficult to sing. His hymns were a “converting ordinance to some, a recovering ordinance to others, and a comforting ordinance to all, and one of the most divine means of communion with God”Join us today as we sing one of his most beloved and famous hymns, Rock of Ages.Enjoy your lunch break!

Augustus Toplady was a gifted hymn writer from England. His hymns are theologically rich and spiritually encouraging. His most famous hymn is "Rock of Ages." This hymn focuses on the salvation found only in God, our Rock of Ages, and purchased by the blood of Jesus. Our only hope is God acting on our behalf to save us. Come to him today! Devotionables #183 - Romans 5:9, 1 John 1:7 Songs of the Church - Rock of Ages Follow NAOBC Worship Ministry on Spotify at naobc.org/spotify.

0:00 - Logical Fallacy: Bandwagon Fallacy; Drink of the Day: Godfather made with Bulleit Rye and Disaronno Amaretto 3:02 - Meat Segment: First a rant about CRT and an analogy I thought of tho explain how the arguments concerning CRT usually go. Then, a discussion of various Facebook posts I saw over the last few weeks concerning the concept of following Jesus and divorcing that from the church and the Bible. It simply can't be done. Finally, another facebook post concerning the cognitive dissonance of the sexual ethic in the current age.  39:56 - 3 Favorite (More or Less) News Stories: (1) an MSNBC Contributor trying to talk about "democracy" and "minorities" (2) The World's Strongest Man competition results (3) Nancy Pelosi can't answer a simple yes or no question.  54:08 - NEW SEGMENT - "Hymn Hype" where I discuss the hymn "Rock of Ages" and the author Augustus Toplady and the occasion of the writing of the hymn.    For more content: http://reasonedrefrain.com For other more content: http://mygiveonthings.com To talk back: stephen@reasonedrefrain.com    New episodes every Friday at 6am CT.   Like and share on Itunes and Spotify!   

Randy Kirkland teaches on the topic of the perseverance of the saints from the hymns of Augustus Toplady.

A new MP3 sermon from Christ Fellowship Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Hymnology, Part 26: Augustus Toplady on "Perseverance of the Saints" Subtitle: Hymnology Speaker: Randy Kirkland Broadcaster: Christ Fellowship Bible Church Event: Sunday School Date: 5/16/2021 Length: 44 min.

This covers the two hymns of Toplady--1. From Whence This Fear and Unbelief- -2. A debtor to mercy alone

This message covered the life of Augustus Toplady and his well-known hymn- -Rock of Ages.-

Good morning church, it is a joy and a privilege to be with you today. If you are new here this morning and don’t know me, my name is Ryan Patterson and I am the pastor of worship and young adults. My exhortation usually comes in the form of singing or at least behind a guitar so I am praying that God would grant me the grace to put on display His glory from behind the pulpit this morning. It is such a joy to lead you in the singing portion of our worship week to week and my aim whether it’s behind a guitar, behind a pulpit, or behind a coffee table at my favorite coffee shop Push N Pour (shameless plug), is to have the Word of Christ dwell richly in our hearts in such a way that it propels us to worship Jesus in every way, shape, and form (yes in our singing, but ultimately in our living). To be honest with you, when Jason asked if I’d preach John 4:1-29, the first thing I thought was, “Oh sure, the give the worship pastor the passage about worshipping Jesus in Spirit and Truth.” If I had a dollar for every book on worship that has been written surrounding John 4:23-24 and worshipping Jesus in Spirit and Truth and how that explains our form of worship, I’d have a few hundred more dollars to my name. And while this passage can certainly help inform our approach to “worship” in the church, I’m certain that John didn’t have hymns, contemporary worship songs, organs, or rock bands on his mind when he wrote down those words of Jesus and I’m certain Jesus didn’t have those things on His mind when He spoke them to the woman at the well that we’ll meet this morning.That said, I’d like to start at the end of our passage today with one of the most compelling invitations we read in the New Testament. This comes from verse 29 of John 4 where we’ll be this morning. The compelling invitation that comes to us from the women at the well in this chapter is this: “Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did! Can this be the Christ?” While that invitation was ultimately extended to the villagers in Sychar, it’s the invitation God is extending to us this morning through His holy word.Imagine with me for a minute that you are sitting at your favorite restaurant, outside on the patio, catching up with an old friend. A less than reputable woman that you may be familiar with comes running over towards you guys and says, “Come see a man who’s told me everything I’ve ever done.” You’d be thinking to yourself either she’s crazy, given the context of this woman that you’d already be familiar with who was known for frivolous relationships with perhaps less than reputable men, OR something so compelling has caught her attention that she couldn’t help but come running back into town risking her already damaged dignity telling people about this seemingly supernatural encounter that she’s had with this guy. And then she says, “Can this be the Christ?” The answer I’d submit to you this morning is that our character in this story had truly encountered the most compelling person she’d ever met. The interesting thing about being compelled is that for something to be compelling it typically pulls us away from what initially had our attention. The object that is compelling us is compelling us away from things that had our attention towards itself which is objectively more intriguing and/or valuable and therefore worth our time and attention. That’s what makes something that’s compelling so compelling. The danger about being compelled towards something or someone is that our compulsions and needs often dictate what is compelling to us.Church, we are born with an unquenchable thirst. Unfulfillment is a plague that has consumed humanity since her inception. Certainly you experienced some of that this morning. Perhaps a bad night’s rest left you feeling tired and you thought to yourself, “If only I got a better night’s rest I would feel refreshed and wouldn’t have acted out in anger towards my family and therefore would’ve come to church in a better attitude and ready to worship the Lord.” Or maybe it’s more along the lines of, “If only I had a job where my boss wasn’t so difficult and the work wasn’t so life-taking, I’d be much more fulfilled and would greet each day with the kind of energy and excitement to serve the Lord that I long for.” You fill in the blank: if I had more money, better friendships, a different reputation, and the list goes on and on and on.We are a people of need and we are constantly looking for ways, or things to meet those needs so that we can quench what we come to see as an “unquenchable thirst.” This morning we are going to look at an incredible story from John 4 that reveals the heart’s greatest need. We’ll be introduced to a woman who woke up like any other day with what she perceived to be a normal need, like water, only to have her greatest need exposed to her by the most compelling person she had or would ever meet and that is Jesus! Let’s start by reading the first 15 verses of John 4 together.In these first 15 verses we’re going to look at two reasons why Jesus is compelling. The first we’re going to look at is that Jesus is compelling because: His calling is regardless of status, race, gender, pedigree, or background. Let’s look at the comparison John gives us in the two interactions we have between Jesus and people we encounter in John 3 and 4. Last week we looked at Nicodemus, a self-made man. On the council of the Sanhedrin, what would be known as the Jewish Supreme Court, and a Pharisee at that. Even his name, which is Greek by the way, translates as “victor over the people.” Needless to say, he was who you wanted to be if you were looking to establish prominence within Jewish culture. A man, studied and positioned amongst the Sanhedrin, with a place of prominence and power within his people. It’s against that backdrop that we see Jesus’s next personal intimate human encounter.Enter the woman at the well. A woman, a Samaritan at that, or rather known as a “half breed” amongst the Jews, fetching water at the sixth hour. If John uses the Jewish reckoning of time with sunrise starting at 6:00 am ,it would have been roughly noon, or if he used Roman time it would have been 6 hours from 12:00 pm meaning it would’ve been roughly 6:00 pm. Either way, this is an extremely hot and inconvenient part of the day, which indicates that she didn’t want to fetch water with the other women in the cool of the day, or more likely they didn’t want her, which means she was a despised member of society in an already despised society. We’ll learn in verses 16-18 that she has a live in lover with many previous frivolous relationships with men.Could you come up with a more drastic scope of humanity upon which Jesus enters the scene? Nicodemus the Jew of Jews and the despised Samaritan woman of Sychar.Church, undoubtedly this morning there are Nicodemuses in here. Perhaps your moral obligations and obedient tendencies have left you feeling like you “have it together.” We live in a culture that honors hard work. And there is nothing wrong with hard work. If you work hard at school you get a diploma and good GPA. This is rewarded by getting you into a good college. You work hard in college and get a degree and this is rewarded by landing you a good job. You work hard at your job and this is rewarded with a promotion and inevitably a pay raise and on and on the cycle of merited favor goes. And there is nothing wrong with that cycle… in this economy. But the economy of grace completely blows that notion out of the water! It says there isn’t enough good works that can earn you a place of favor with God! As Augustus Toplady, the hymn writer, said in his hymn Rock of Ages, “Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands. Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow. All for sin could NOT atone. THOU must save and THOU ALONE!” If you find yourself resonating with Nicodemus in here this morning, then know this, Jesus has an answer for your condition!Church, undoubtedly there are women at the well in here this morning. You take one long look at your life and think to yourself, “I’ve made a wreck of this, beyond repair. I have sinned beyond measure, and there is NO hope for a despised Samaritan woman at the well like myself.” If you find that to be your position this morning, than know this, Jesus has an answer for your condition. What is this answer you say!? Well let’s look back at the text and continue on with our story.Jesus and His disciples leave Judea to depart for Galilee and have to pass through Samaria, which most Jews did despite their distaste for Samaritans because the alternative would’ve been an inconvenient detour through Transjordan which was largely Gentile, and He arrives about half a mile north of the town Sychar, the intended destination, at a well, Jacob’s well to be precise. And look at what the text says in verse 6, “Jesus wearied from the journey sits down at the well at about the sixth hour.” Before we move on, let’s camp here for a minute. Church, let’s not miss an incredible part of John’s descriptive narrative here. Jesus was weary and undoubtedly thirsty hence the next thing to come out of His mouth. The creator of the universe, the one who took two hydrogen atoms and linked them together through a chemical bond to an oxygen atom to form a water molecule, was thirsty. Oh the depths our Savior stooped to take on the form of humanity to save humanity from the curse! If we miss that we miss this whole narrative and really the purpose of the gospel of John and ultimately the whole point of Scripture.We read on in verses 7-9 and see here the transcendent love of Christ. There are so many ceremonial laws being broken here and I wish we had the time to go back in time and look at the tense history between these two people groups. The nation of Israel splits politically after Solomon’s rule into a northern and southern kingdom and the northern kingdom (aka Samaria) is thrown into captivity by the Assyrians leading to the pollution of that “pure” line, hence the half-breed association. If we had time, we would go over how all of that puts God’s sovereign redemptive plan on display, but we don’t, so suffice it to say there is a lot of bad blood between Jews and Samaritans. And yet Jesus says four simple words that would change this woman’s life forever, “Give me a drink.”The woman, who would have been well associated with all the cultural and historical nuances surrounding the cloudy history between these two people groups, is completely surprised at Jesus’s request, and for good reason. The Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. Samaritans worshiped at the temple on mount Gerizim until it was destroyed in 108 BC. By relating in any way to a Samaritan as a Jew, you would have run the risk of incurring ritual defilement. Not only that, most Jews held to the notion that all Samaritan women were in a perpetual state of ceremonial uncleanness. So no wonder Jesus’s request left her dumbfounded, like “What are you doing!” But notice Jesus’s response. He doesn’t indulge the political, religious, racial, or socioeconomic disparity between the two that she immediately responds with. He goes right to the point that brought him to that divine appointment.This is where we come to our next reason why Jesus is compelling: His calling actually quenches our thirst. It’s effective. Here in verse 10 Jesus begins to shift the conversation in a way that would leave her speechless. He says to her, “Woman, if one you knew who was sitting here with you, if you only knew. The request would be reversed. You would ask of me and I would give to you living water.”O church, how often are we in this same position of willful ignorance? We go to the wells of our desires in hopes that they would fill us, when in reality the Maker of the universe sits at the well with us saying if only you knew who was offering you life. But that is the devastating reality of our sin. It blinds us to the truth of who God is. We sit with the Creator of the universe and deny His goodness and His call. C.S. Lewis said it really well when he said, "It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”This is our condition, we are blind to our needs and don’t know what is being offered to us even if we wanted to. But church, what good news it is that this Savior so happens to be the best optometrist in the universe and is in the business of making blind eyes see!And even now the woman continues to be blinded at the reality Jesus is bringing to her in verse 10. He’s not talking about water at all. No, He’s talking about Life. But we see in her response to His offer a feeling of being incensed that moves to wonder. And it would seem strange, would it not? She’s looking at him thinking, “Why would I ask you for water, you don’t even have a bucket to draw water with.” Not only that, but the idea of living water which in her mind she might be thinking the bubbling spring water that lies below the standing water in the well. Jacob’s well is estimated to be over 100 feet deep and Jesus has no way of reaching and collecting the water at the bottom. We see the negatively implied assumption when she says, “Are you better than our Father Jacob?” The Samaritans traced their lineage back to Jacob by way of Joseph who was given Jacob’s plot of land known as Shechem on his death bed back in Genesis 48. This piece of history was dear to them and she is saying if this was good enough for our mighty father Jacob and his sons who are you to say that it’s not good enough for me, or that you offer something better?But Jesus engages her bewilderment even deeper with His answer, look again at verses 13 and 14. He answers her rhetorical question not simply with a yes but with a resounding YES and here is why: what I offer actually quenches thirst! Jesus appeals to her craving for ultimate rest and satisfaction by offering her something that ultimately brings rest and satisfies! And look at the uniqueness even in how Jesus responds with this hope. New Testament commentator William Hendriksen puts it this way and I think is such a helpful visual.Physical Water from Jacob’s well: cannot prevent one from becoming thirsty again and again and again. The Living Water that Jesus provides: makes one lose thirst for all time (in other words it gives lasting satisfaction).Physical Water from Jacob’s well: remains outside of the soul and is incapable of filling it’s needs. The Living Water that Jesus provides: enters into the soul and remains within as a source of spiritual refreshment and satisfaction.Physical Water from Jacob’s well: is limited in quantity, lessens and disappears whenever we drink it. The Living Water that Jesus provides: is a self perpetuating spring. Here on earth it sustains a person spiritually, but it also gives us a view unto eternal life.Church, do you see how much better Jesus is than any other well we run to to quench our thirst? Jesus isn’t just better than Jacob, or his well, He’s better than EVERYTHING!By this point the woman is intrigued. And to be honest Church, I’m not certain how much she understood the spiritual implications of what Jesus was saying and offering. She undoubtedly knew that this stranger named Jesus would most certainly be better than Jacob if He could make good on His promise by offering water that indefinitely satisfied her physical thirst. I mean look at verse 15: she’s convinced she wants this water, especially if it means that she doesn’t have to high tail it to this well every day at noon or 6:00 pm to fetch water.But Church, this is where Jesus blows the lid off the thing and shows us our final two ways we’ll look at this morning as to why he is compelling in these next 9 verses. Let’s read verses 16-29 together. Jesus is compelling because: He exposes who we are.Jesus takes a deep dive here and exposes something about her that he couldn’t have known otherwise (other than that we know from the text He indeed knew). The woman was obviously still not understanding the heart of the matter Jesus was getting at, so He moves to something she would understand by illuminating her eyes to her own personal, spiritual, and moral failure as a human.Church, when Jesus exposes us at our core it’s because He is the only one who knows our inward being. David talks about this when he is repenting of his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah in Psalm 51:6 when he says, “Behold you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.” And while there seems to be a total abrupt change in subject from water to her interpersonal relationships, I would submit to you that Jesus is making a deep connection here between her request and His answer. Just one verse prior she says, “Sir give me this water,” not even realizing what she’s asking for. How often do we do this when assessing our own needs as humans? We think we are asking the right question and getting at our deepest need but in reality, we need Jesus to expose who we are even to ourselves.One commentator put is so well when he said, “There is a close connection between the woman’s request and Christ’s command to call her husband. Does the woman desire living water? Then there must be a thirst for this water. This thirst will not be truly awakened unless there be a sense of guilt, a consciousness of sin. The mention of her husband is the best means of reminding this woman of her immoral life and therefore her actual need. The Lord is now addressing Himself to her conscience.” This is the incredible thing about God’s effectual and sovereign call of the sinner. He awakens the soul to its need for Him! Jesus has just pressed into her true need and she is speechless but to say, “I have no husband.” Jesus begins to expose the moral dilemma she lives in daily. Whether or not her previous husbands had died, or there had been moral failings on one or both sides, or a combination of both, the reality stands that she now stands with her live-in lover, completely undone before the Messiah guilty as charged. In one sentence, Jesus lays bare her past and present condition. But Church, this is what the gospel of Christ does, it shines a light on the irreversible condition of man’s heart and backs it into a corner until the only way out is Jesus!In verse 19, she even tries to skirt the issue by declaring Him a prophet or literally translated a “reader of secrets” and then goes back to her narrative about historical and cultural practices of worship (the Jews worshipping in Jerusalem and the perhaps referencing the Samaritan’s worshipping on mount Gerizim). Was her motive to redirect the conversation, we don’t know. It’s probable because she did that once already by giving a less than genuine answer regarding her husband. Regardless, Jesus again moves in even further. He’s prepared the soil of the heart by exposing her condition and now He begins His grand reveal. This is where we come to our fourth and final point of why Jesus is compelling. He’s compelling not only because He exposes who we are but because: He reveals who He is.Jesus answers her rebuttal regarding ceremonial places of worship to say the hour is coming and is here when the important question isn’t where you worship, but who you worship and therefore how you worship. He’s saying look, all that your fathers were looking forward to and preparing for is here now and you don’t even see it. Jesus is building the case that He Himself is the hallowed ground upon which men will worship. William Cowper made this sentiment clear in one of his hymns when he said: “Where’er thy people meet, there they behold thy mercy seat. Where’er they seek thee thou art found and every place is hallowed ground.” This is because Jesus comes establishing worship in the heart! Worshipping Jesus in Spirit and Truth is whole body worship.F. Bruce said it well when he said: “God is Spirit. It is not merely that He is a spirit among other spirits. Rather God Himself is pure spirit and the worship in which He takes delight is accordingly spiritual worship- the sacrifice of a humble contrite grateful and adorning Spirit. This affirmation of our Lords was not entirely new; it but crowns the witness of the psalmists and prophets of earlier ages who saw that material things could at best be the vehicle of true worship but could never belong to it’s essence. The essence of worship then, is sincere heart devotion of a changed heart, indispensable as men and women present to God worship which he accepts which is worship in Spirit and Truth.”Church, the hard reality Jesus is leading the woman at the well to is the same hard reality He is leading us to and that is that apart from the Spirit of God, we can’t muster up worship that is acceptable to God. Again quoting from Augustus Toplady’s hymn Rock of Ages, he says, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die.”We stand before the Lord of Lords with our hearts fully exposed before Him. He knows everything we’ve ever done. And it’s in that moment He reveals Himself, the answer to this woman’s condition. The answer to Nicodemus’s condition. The answer to our condition.The woman looks at Jesus now making the connection that Jesus is referring to the Messiah and says, “I know he is coming, the one who has been foretold who will make all things right.” And Jesus finally says to her, “I who speak to you am He.” He, whom the Jews expected as the promised prince of the house of David, the Lion of Judah, the sacrificial lamb, the better Adam, the one worthy to open the scroll at the end of the book, the Lord and Savior all creation had been holding its breath for was here, it was Him, Jesus, the thirsty Jewish man, sitting near the edge of the well talking to a Samaritan woman in desperate need of a Savior. Church, He is Jesus. He was the Messiah she needed and the Messiah we need.And the woman, stunned, leaves her water jar, the thing she had brought with her to satisfy her need for water, and leaves with the message of this compelling King who would satisfy not only thirst but life itself. She runs back into Sychar announcing the compelling encounter saying, “Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” A man compelling because:He saves regardless of where we come fromHe actually quenches our thirst and satisfies the soulHe exposes who we are because he knows who we are at our deepest levelHe reveals who he isChurch, as we close, I’d like you to just listen to this quote by Tim Keller from his book Encounters With Jesus:“Everybody has got to live for something, but Jesus is arguing that, if he is not that thing, it will fail you. First, it will enslave you. Whatever that thing is, you will tell yourself that you have to have it or there is no tomorrow. That means that if anything threatens it, you will become inordinately scared; if anyone blocks it, you will become inordinately angry; and if you fail to achieve it, you will never be able to forgive yourself. But second, if you do achieve it, it will fail to deliver the fulfillment you expected. Let me give you an eloquent contemporary expression of what Jesus is saying. Nobody put this better than the American writer David Foster Wallace. He got to the top of his profession. He was an award-winning, bestselling postmodern novelist known around the world for his boundary-pushing storytelling. He once wrote a sentence that was more than a thousand words long. A few years before the end of his life, he gave a now-famous commencement speech at Kenyon College. He said to the graduating class, ‘Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god . . . to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before [your loved ones] finally plant you. . . . Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they are evil or sinful; it is that they’re unconscious. They are our default settings.’ Wallace was by no means a religious person, but he understood that everyone worships, everyone trusts in something for their salvation, everyone bases their lives on something that requires faith. A couple of years after giving that speech, Wallace killed himself. And this nonreligious man’s parting words to us are pretty terrifying: ‘Something will eat you alive.’ Because even though you might never call it worship, you can be absolutely sure you are worshiping and you are seeking. And Jesus says, ‘Unless you’re worshipping me, unless I’m the center of your life, unless you’re trying to get your spiritual thirst quenched through me and not through these other things, unless you see that the solution must come inside rather than just pass by outside, then whatever you worship will abandon you in the end.’”The woman asks, “Can this be the Christ?” Answer: YES HE IS! My question to you this morning, is He your Christ? If not, leave your water jar at the well and run to Him! Run to Jesus! Fall on your knees and say, “Jesus expose me and reveal yourself to me. Forgive me of trying to quench my thirst with anything but You and give me water that leads to everlasting life and satisfaction in You, my living water.” Let’s pray.

On today's episode (Episode 4) of Urban Puritano, we're having a Gospel Celebration! What is the Gospel all about? Why is it so simple a child can understand it and so profound that a philosopher-theologian can spend a lifetime studying it? Even angels contemplate and ponder the Gospel's message. What do you do with the Gospel? Are you ashamed of it or is it your highest honor and privilege? Let's scratch the surface of Romans 1:16-17 and find out what the Gospel essentially consists of!Background: According to the thrust on Romans 1: 1-15, the Gospel is a message concerning Jesus Christ, God's Son. This message originated with God and He revealed His plan and promises concerning Jesus Christ throughout His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. It is referred to as the gospel of His Son, who was resurrected from the dead and through whom we have received grace. The Gospel, then is a message of grace or unmerited favor for sinners among all nations. Why is this Christo-centric Gospel message even necessary? What does that imply about God? What does it imply about us? One major implication is: outside of God's grace in the Christ of Holy Scripture, there is nothing but bad news. Due to what we are, unrighteous, and due to what God is, absolutely righteous, we stand in need of the verdict against us to be overturned. This is very bad news, indeed.However, the thrust of the verses preceding vv 16-17 lead us in the direction of some other news. This other news isn't simply something we can take or leave. In light of our irremediably great predicament, the theme of vv 16-17 is good news.That is what the word "gospel" means. The gospel of Christ is good news for the sinner precisely where he needs it the most.What, then, does the Gospel message consist of? We will answer that question under two headings.(1) The Gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes it.(2) The Gospel reveals the righteousness of God from faith, to faith, and by faith.The conclusion of the matter is as this quote attributed to Martin Luther: "When I look at myself, I don't see how I can be saved. But when I look at Christ, I don't see how I can be lost." Or as Augustus Toplady wrote in "Rock of Ages": "Not the labor of my handsCan fulfill Thy law's demands;Could my zeal no respite know,Could my tears forever flow,All for sin could not atone;Thou must save, and Thou alone.Nothing in my hand I bring,Simply to Thy cross I cling;Naked, come to Thee for dress;Helpless, look to Thee for grace;Foul, I to the fountain fly;Wash me, Savior, or I die.While I draw this fleeting breath,When my eyes shall close in death,When I rise to worlds unknown,And behold Thee on Thy throne,Rock of Ages, cleft for me,Let me hide myself in Thee."To God alone be the glory! Salvation belongs to the Lord! Let's pray that God may use us to advance the Gospel wherever our cities of destruction may be until we reach the Celestial City. See you next time or see you in glory! 

When Christ entered into Jerusalem the people spread their garments in the way. When He enters into our hearts, we pull off our own righteousness, and not only lay it under Christ’s feet, but even trample upon it ourselves. — Augustus Toplady

As a brand-new pastor just out of college, Augustus Toplady wrote those memorable words, "Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling." On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols retells the short life of this London pastor and poet. Read the transcript: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/augustus-toplady/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/donate/

Audio Transcript: You're listening to audio for Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Holy God, heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a noble God, a personal God in the sense that you want our person to relate to your person, to know who you are and you want us to know whose we are, that we are yours and we're bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. Lord, we confess even now that often we live as if we are our own. We live as if we are at the center of the universe. It's so tempting to feel like we are the center of our lives and we are not. Remind us that Lord you are the center. You are the point. You are the essence and the total of reality. And we thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ to show us that, to show us what it means to live in obedience to you, to show us what it means to live a life of love toward you, love towards people.And Jesus, you proved your love through sacrificial offering on the cross as the propitiation for our sins. And because of your sacrifice, your death, your burial, your resurrection, you now are an advocate before the father on our account and we thank you for that. Holy spirit come down and speak to every one of us wherever we are in our spiritual journey. If there's anyone here who is not yet a Christian, not yet a child of God, I pray today convert them, shine your light into their heart and transfer them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved son. For those who are baby Christians, I pray today Lord that you show that we are to grow in maturity. That in the beginning it feels like the father carries us in his arms, but then after a while, Lord, you want us to not just trust in our feelings of you but the trust in the truth of you and stop thinking that you exist for us, but that we are called to serve, serve you and serve others.For those who are young men and women in the faith, I pray show us that there is a battle before us and that we are strong and strengthened when we abide in the word of God and when he abides in us. And for those who are more mature in the faith, I pray show us that you call us to be fathers and mothers to those who are younger in the faith, to care for their needs, to provide guidance in wisdom and discernment and encouragement and correction. I pray Holy spirit, bless our time, the Holy word, and we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.Wilbur Reese wrote a poem not too long ago about how often we come to God just to get something from him and then we leave. It goes like this. I would like to buy $3 worth of God please. Not enough to explode soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant worker, I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy three pounds of God please. And I start with that because often in our culture, when people think of the divine, they think of something that leads to excitement, that leads to some kind of spiritual experience, leads to some kind of enhancement. And when people hear that you go to church or that you're a Christian, they say, "Oh, that's nice." You get your spiritual fix at church. You get your enhancement for life there.I get my spiritual fix at yoga or soul cycle or hiking or smoking weed or et cetera. You get your ecstasy there, I get my ecstasy here. And the assumption behind that that our culture has accepted wholesale is that the divine exists for us. Therefore, the divine does not obligate anything from us. And often people approach Christianity with that cultural lens and they think, yes, I'm going to come to Jesus, receive everything that he can offer me and he doesn't obligate anything of me. I can go and live as I want. But 1 John writes and he says, no, if you met Jesus, you can't but grow in him. You can't but become Christ like. You can't but submit to the father's will and serve others because that's exactly what Jesus did. We're in a series that we're calling meno. The word meno is the Greek word that's used over and over and over in 1 John, it means to abide, to remain in, to be connected to, rooted in.And as we're rooted in Christ, dear Christian, what happens is that changes our lives, it can't not. That our profession of faith begins to shape our practice, that our beliefs begin to shape our behavior, that our saying needs to impact our doing. And what 1 John, the apostle John is, he has this question before us and he says, "Look, obviously there's a chasm between your belief and your behavior when you come to the Lord." But is that chasm getting shorter? Is that chasm being bridged? If not, if there is no growth, that's probably a sign that there was no life, that there was no regeneration. So we need to ask ourselves, are we truly in the faith? Why does he do this? Because globally and historically, most of confessing Christians were nominal only, in name only. Today if you look at the stats, over 2 billion people are Christians and saint John writes to us to make sure that we truly are, that we test our faith.And Jesus talked about this often. In the greatest sermon ever preached a sermon on the mount, Jesus concludes that sermon with a warning and he said, "In the last day at the judgment, many will come to me stand before me." Jesus says, "And they will say, Lord, Lord, did we not do incredible things in your name?" And Jesus says, "Depart from me for I never knew you." He tells us parables of the 10 virgins, half of them are outside of the feast. The door shut in their face. They thought they were in the faith, they were not. Saint Paul writes and says, examine yourselves to ensure that you are in the faith. So perhaps you're a Christian. You're struggling with the assurance of your salvation. Am I a Christian? Well, this book is for you. Or perhaps you've always thought of yourself a Christian because that's your heritage, that's your family because the part of the country that you're from believes that or the country you're from.And he says, "You need to test your faith to see that it's genuine because this is the most important question before us. Are you a Christian? Are you a child of God? Have you been reconciled with God?" This is the big idea of the text. One of the things I will say about this book is that saint John, the apostle John style is radically different than saint Paul's style of writing. Saint Paul is a philosopher. He thinks very linearly. You can write three point sermons from saint Paul's writings and it's all very clear cut. Yes, and a lot of us, that's how we think. So that's why we're drawn to saint Paul's writing. John does not write like a philosopher. John writes like a musician. He writes like a songwriter, like a lyricist. Therefore, so he gives you an idea and then he gives you another idea and it goes back to the first idea and then gives you a third idea.And until you understand his style of writing, you're going to have a hard time understanding what it means. You understand the words, you don't understand what he's talking about. And like when you listen to a song and it's repetitive, you're not like, "Oh, we got to cut that out." Songs aren't AP English essays. Songs are meant to be sticky, to inspire the imagination center. That's how John writes. His style is called amplification, where he gives you a point and then he hits it louder and louder. And in order to make it more and more emphatic. And the big idea is, I want you to know that you are gods, that you belong to God. You do that by growing in Christ's likeness. And he gives us a triad of Christ's likeness. How do I know that I'm growing in Christ?Do you know him doctrinally? Do you know the trues about him? About the death, burial, resurrection of Christ, what he taught, what he's about. Do you know him? Doctrinal? Do you obey him? That's the moral test. And then do you love him? That's the relational test. Do you know? Do you obey? Do you love doctrinal moral and relational and they're all interconnected. They're all tightly wound together. What does it mean to know Jesus? You obey Jesus. What does it mean to obey Jesus? You love Jesus. What does it mean to love Jesus? You know Jesus, et cetera, et cetera. So that's a word about his style. Today we are in 1 John 2:1-17. Here in the beginning, I'm going to read the first six verses and we'll get to the rest in the sermon. "My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." This is the reading of God's Holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. The question before is how do you know that you know God? And the four points are you obey, you love, you grow and you deny.First you obey. We'll start with verse two and verse two saint John says that, "Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." He doesn't start with our obedience because that's not how we are made righteous before God. That's not how we are accepted with God. We don't earn our salvation. It's not. We follow the rules, we obey and therefore we accept that it's Jesus has obeyed, followed the rules, and because of his sacrifice, we can be accepted. That's where he starts. It's not about our obedience, it's about Christ. He uses the word propitiation in the Greek. It's hilasmos. It's a multidimensional word. The first dimension is a claim against you has been satisfied. A claim against you has been satisfied. That's propitiation. And what he's talking about is that there's a claim against us before God, that when God looks at us, he looks at us as sinners and there's evil in our hearts and God being a just God cannot but have a claim against our sin.He says, "A claim has been satisfied." And you can understand this from a legal ... You get an accident, someone's got a claim against you. Recently this past August, I was in Philadelphia doing some doctoral studies. I went to visit a pastor at 10th Presbyterian church in downtown Philadelphia. And if you think the parking laws in Boston are terrible, so much worse than Philadelphia. You need, honestly, it's one of these signs where it's like 12 signs on one post and you need a law degree in contract law to exegete what's going on. So I parked my car. I went to a seminary, I studied exegesis, I exegeted that okay, I understand. Okay, I go to the station, I pay for two hours, $8 and I'd take the ticket and I bring it back to my car and then I go meet with the pastor. I come back to the car, orange ticket on my windshield. It's like, what is going on? No, not fair, injustice and I appealed.So I sent them, I went online, I send them a picture of my little parking ticket and a picture of my car and I thought I was set. It's $51 right? If it was less than, maybe I wouldn't go. Finally like end of November, I get a letter from them. Your appeal has been denied. Legalists. And then they're like, "You got to go online. Here's your number, you type it in and we'll tell you why you got denied." And I go online and they have a picture of my card, not the picture that I sent in. They have a picture of my car that the person, the parking attendant took. And the picture showed that my bumper was in the loading zone. Six inches my bumper is in the loading zone. It was $51, $4 for the credit card fee, $55. And at that moment I'm like, "My goodness, I got 2007 Toyota Highlander. My bumper's not worth $55. Can I just send that in? Can we just trade it out?" And as I'm going through this, I'm fuming. My wife walks in and she's like, "What's that? And I was like, "It's the ticket."And she's like, "Why don't you tell me about it?" I was like, "It wasn't going to bless your soul. I didn't want to get into ..." So I paid that. Why claim against me and the claim would only grow. That's the word. The propitiation was I paid for this ticket. Now what he's saying is he's not talking about we can pay God, that we can supplicate God, mollify God, appease God, we can't do anything in and of ourselves because what is the penalty? What do we owe God? What's the claim that we have against God? Well, we sinned against an infinite God, an infinitely glorious God, an infinitely honorable God, and the penalty for that sin for dishonoring an infinite being is an infinite penalty. We can't pay that in and of ourselves. Now, a lot of people have a problem with God's wrath in that they say, "Well, is this making God out to be capricious or arbitrary? Does he lose his temper? No, this is anthropomorphic language.From our perspective, we're using human language to talk about God. Obviously it doesn't communicate everything when you communicate. So when God has wrath toward our sin, it's not a sinful anger. It's a just anger. He's not irate, irritable or irascible. God's wrath is his holiness and his justice in action. He is righteously set against evil. Cruelty is immoral, justice is not. So when God has wrath against our sin it's because of his justice. And to get rid of God's wrath is to get rid of justice. And just a thought, just imagine this world without justice. We long for justice when we see the terrible injustices on a weekly basis that happen in the world, that happen in our world. What's shocking is not that God is a God who has wrath. He's angry about our sin. You've got to keep going to get the full view, to understand the full reality of the person of God. It's not shocking that he's angry at sin.What's shocking is that God takes the initiative to placate that that wrath. God's not demanding that we somehow pay that price. He knows we can't, so God volunteers to satisfy God's wrath. God the son volunteers to satisfy the wrath of God, to absorb the wrath of God, to pay for the wrath of God with his sacrifice on the ... that's the most shocking part of Christianity. And why did he do it? What was he motivated by? He was motivated by his love for us. 1 John 4:10, "And this is love. Not that we have sinned, but that he loved us ... And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins." So he doesn't look down on us and see how loving we are. It's he's motivated by our love when we wanted nothing to do with him. When we were living as if we were our own, when we're living as if God didn't exist, living lives of cosmic plagiarism thinking that everything we have is ours.Nothing remotely like this exists in any other religion or any other philosophy. Yes, it's propitiation to be sure, but nothing like the world has ever seen before. Augustus Toplady he wrote this couplet to encapsulate this idea. He says be mindful of Jesus and me. My pardon he suffered to buy and what he procured on the tree, on the cross. For me he demands in the sky. He demands it and he procures it. He's just, and the justifier. This is the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The claim against you has been satisfied if you just ask for it. If you just ask for forgiveness and you repent of your sins and on that cross, every ounce of the penalty that we deserve for our sin was poured out in the wrath of God on Jesus Christ.This is why the cross was so gruesome, so gross and so gory because that's our sin in the sight of God. The gospel requires that we believe two really difficult things at the same time. The first is that you are so bad that Jesus had to die for you, and that Jesus is so good that he was glad to do it because of his love. 1 John 2:2 he says, "Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." And just one comment here, because this verse has been misinterpreted to justify a lot of false theology including Unitarian theology. This does not mean that everyone's sin has been expunged at the cross. That's not what he's saying because in the same letter, the apostle John actually says that there are those who are still in their sin and they need to be saved from those sins.What's he talking about? He says that anybody, anybody, no matter what you've done, no matter where you're from, no matter who you are, anybody, the moment you repent of your sins and you believe that you accept Jesus' propitiation for your sins, that you can be saved. His sacrifice is sufficient for all but efficient for those who believe and repent. Sufficient for all, efficient for some. 1 John 2:1, "My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." And he uses the word advocate here. And in the Greek it's parakletos power clay toss. It's used of Jesus only in this text. It's a word that Jesus often uses.John 14, 15 and 16 he describes the Holy spirit with this word. He said, "I will send you another parakletos, another advocate, the great comforter, the great helper, that's the Holy spirit. By another he means that he is the first advocate. In this context it means a helper, especially if you're guilty in court. So the image that John is giving us is God the father is a judge and we are guilty before him. Jesus comes in and he begins to advocate for he is our just lawyer. And what is the plea? It's not not guilty. That's not the plea that he offers, he enters a guilty plea. We are guilty. But then he says, "But father, you can't hold yon sin against him because I've already paid for it." This is how he's advocating. I've already paid for your sin. He's standing before the father and he's advocating, and how do we get Jesus to be our advocate?First John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That we are his because of the sacrifice of Christ and because of his advocacy for us we're with him. I was at a conference with pastor Shane and pastor Andy we went to this preachers conference, gospel coalition, held this conference in Indianapolis last year. And whenever you have these conferences, they give you a lanyard. In the beginning they're like, "Here's your lanyard, you register, you paid, now you have to wear this lanyard everywhere." And the lanyard is a little badge with your name on it. And I don't like legalism and I don't like manmade rules. And I was like, "That's dumb. I'm not wearing this."So I intentionally forgot it in the hotel room. The next day we come in and it was the best session, the keynote speaker, I forgot already, it wasn't that memorable. So we go there and I forget the lanyard. So I'm with pastor Shane and pastor Andy, and we walk in and the security guard lets them through and says, "You can't go in." I was like, "What? This is a Christian conference. You don't believe in grace?" He was like, "No." And then he's like, "No, this is really important. We can't let you in." And I was like, "What do I do?""You need a lanyard." So I go to the front desk and the front desk I tell him the whole ... I explained the whole thing. They pull up my name. Yeah, you paid okay. I was like, "Can you help me?" They're like, "No." I'm like, "Why not? Do you need a lanyard?"They said, "You need to buy a new lanyard." And I was like, "How much?" They said, "$5.""No, I'm not doing it." Why? Because I'd be a bad steward of God's money. Not doing it. Nickel, you Pharisees. Then I go back and I'm like, "I'm just going to sit by the door and livestream listen on my phone." And I'm sitting there and Andy Davis, Andrew Davis walks by. Andrew Davis is a great friend of the church. He's a pastor at FVC Durham. Incredible, incredible guy. Over 30 books of the Bible memorized, written a lot of books. He comes and he's like, "Young, what are you doing?" I was like, "They won't let me in.""How come?""No lanyard." Okay. He's like, "Don't worry about it. Come with me." Walks right up to the same security guard, the same person. And he just, "Hey, how are you?" And just keeps walking. And then the guy's like, "No, no, no. He can't come in."And pastor Andy says, "Don't worry about it. He's with me." And I was like, "I told you, Ferris." It's all to say that's kind of like what it means to have Jesus Christ as your advocate. He's done everything. All you have to do is be with him. That's what meno means. And that's how we're reconciled with God. And he writes, why is John writing about propitiation? Why is he writing about advocacy? So that our sins are forgiven and that Jesus advocates for us, and then we can live any way that we want? No. If you truly understood grace, you won't pervert grace. It's not a cheap grace. You don't use the grace as a justification to continue sinning. So he says in 1 John 2:1, "My little children, why am I writing this? I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin." What's he saying? Obedience leads to grace. No, it's grace that leads to obedience.If you've understood what Jesus Christ has done for you on the cross, what it cost him, how much it cost him, how much he loves you, you can't but want to delight him, live for him. That's why he says verse three, "And by this we know that we have come to know him. This is the test. If we keep his commandments, whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him." It doesn't matter what you say by your confession. What does your life say about your confession? That's what he's saying, "But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected, and by this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."As you grow in the faith, you walk with Christ, the chasm between belief and behavior is to be bridged, it can't but be bridged. You have a new heart, new desires, new affection, which leads to new fruit. One objection that arises here is, but if I sin, does that mean that I'm not a christian? And this is something that I wrestle with, this is something most likely you've wrestled with, every serious christian has. And I just want to point out the context says, "Yes, I'm writing so that you don't sin if you do sin, Jesus is a our propitiation. He is our advocate." Don't forget that one of the commandments that we are to keep is repent of your sins. On a daily basis the christian is to repent. And as we grow in the faith, we realize that we have more and more to repent of. It's a daily practice, confess and repent. And also obedience doesn't mean perfect obedience.Saint Paul writes in Romans 7, "As a believer, the things I want to do, I can't do, the things I don't want to do, I do. It's always this battle between the true self and the shadow self. Scripture divides all of humanity into two categories. The righteous and the unrighteous. David was righteous and he was an adulterer and a murder. Moses was righteous. He was a murder and also disobeyed God and wasn't allowed in the promised land. Peter was righteous but betrayed the Lord at the worst possible moment. Paul was righteous but despaired of his continuing sinfulness. So righteousness biblically is position. We are in Christ by grace through faith. He robes us in his sanctified robes of purity, the clothing of holiness. And then what happens is the fundamental commitment of your life, the root direction of your life, the truest characteristic of your life is to grow in obedience.Do we do it perfectly? No. When a Christian sins, you have remember the Holy spirit convicts so much so you beg God, please take this sinful desire away from me. Any true Christian, if you're awakened in the middle of the night by Jesus Christ and he says, "Do you want me to take away your ability to sin?" The true Christian says, "Yes Lord, please." That's how you know you want to obey, you long to obey. However, scripture teaches us we're still in a fallen world, in a fallen flesh. And our true self, our true identity is battling with our shadow identity. It's the fight between the spirit and the flesh. And when we sin, you're not just being untrue to God. You're being untrue to your real self dear Christian. Saint Paul says, "It wasn't I that sinned, it was the sin in me." And that's not just a cop out or an excuse, it's simply the truth that we have a new identity, new heart, new affections, and we are to grow in that.And how do you do that? Particularly by growing in love. And this is point two, how do you know that you know that you're a Christian? You obey, you seek to grow in obedience, and you seek to grow in love. And he says in verse seven, "Beloved, I'm writing, you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing you, which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness and whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But wherever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."What does he mean by new commandment old commandment? He's not talking about chronological. It's not time thing, old and new. It's a quality thing. It's the same commandment on old and new Testament that the essence of the law is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself. He's saying it's new in the sense it's new to us. When you hear the gospel, which is a timeless gospel, it's an old gospel but it's a timeless gospel and you hear it for the first time, it's brand new. Everything is brand new. That's what he's saying, new heart, new affections, new desires. And he says, "The way that you know that you have true love for God is you have true love for your brothers and sisters in the faith." If God is your father, you can't love your Christian siblings, your brothers and sisters. And the reason why, why are you telling us this?He's telling us this because it's hard. It's not natural. And particularly, he focuses on loving the brothers and like Christians close to you who know you best. He focuses on that because some of the hardest people in the world to love are your siblings. The people that know you, they know how to push all the buttons, they know exactly what to say, how to say in order to set you off. And he says, "Loving those people who are hard to love," particular people, not just Christians in general. Like Linus from peanuts, his famous line was, "I love mankind, but it's people I can't stand." And that's a lot of Christians are like, "I love the church. I love Christians worldwide." Okay, show me your community. Show me the Christians that you are walking with. Show me the Christians that are hard to love. That's what he's saying.And by the way, this isn't like a temptation for us that like it's easy to love God. It's people that are hard to love. That's been the temptation all throughout church history. Like in the modern excuses, I'm an introvert. I can't stand people. No, get away from me. I just want go. This has always been an issue. Like the monastic movement started because people are like, "I can't stand people. I'm just going to go and live in a cloister with an Abbe and just pray to God all day." And one of the famous examples of this is Thomas à Kempis in the 15th century. He was a Dutch monk who wrote The Imitation Of Christ. And if you don't know The Imitation Of Christ, it's a phenomenal book that teaches you how to grow in your relationship with Christ. And it's second only to the Bible in its influence on Christian, on the church throughout history. It's been printed in 6,000 separate editions.Love the book. Here's my only knock against it. Not one word about loving Christians or people in general. Actually, this is what he says, "Desire the fellowship of God alone and his Holy angels and shun the acquaintance of men." I'm going to force my daughters to memorize that and just that's our new motto. But he's saying, "All you need is a relationship with God. People, get away from me." He missed the whole point of 1 John. He missed the whole point of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He missed the point of love. The other thing I'll say here, not much on this point because this is a theme that John's going to get back to more. We got to define love biblically and not culturally. In our culture, to say that you love and that we are to be loving is to say that you are nice, that you never say anything that upsets anyone. You never do anything to confront someone. You don't talk about sin. Just be a nice person. That's what it means to love.And if that's our definition of love, then we have no idea how to explain some of the things that Jesus did. Going to the Pharisees he says, "Woe to you Pharisees for you are like whitewashed tombs," calls them serpents, all kinds of names. Yeah. Talking to a crowd, he says, "You unbelieving and perverted generation. How long shall I put up with you?" Peter, when he was being selfish, Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan." Seemingly unloving, but actually he's telling them exactly what they need to get them awakened from the spiritual stupor. He's sacrificing comfort to do a very difficult thing because that's the best thing for that person. There's other examples of this in scriptures.Paul in the book of acts talking to this guy named Elymas, he says, "You are full of deceit. You fraud the son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness." And then he strikes him with blindness. It seems unloving, but it's probably the most loving thing that he could do to awaken him from a spiritual blindness. So what I'm saying is we need to expand our definition of love. Our love is not just niceness, our love is sacrificing self and comfort to do the thing that's best for the beloved. And the great example of that is the cross. Point three is that we grow. So we are to obey, love and grow. Grow in what? Obedience and love and following Christ. And 1 John 2:12-14 he gives us three groups that he addresses twice. Each group for emphasis and this is the lyricism of John.He says, "I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I'm writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I'm writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you children because you know the father. I write to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one." First thing that he starts with is that we are children of God because of Christ name's sake, in his name's sake. So we're not forgiven of our sins because of our repentance or our faith or our actions, our good works. So repentance and faith in and of themselves have no power. Repentance and faith are like a key to a car. The key has no power in of itself, but the key accesses the power that's not within. It accesses doesn't create.So the way that we access God's power, the way that we gain access to is through faith and repentance, but not for our namesakes, it for his. The other thing I want to point out here is he's talking about levels of spiritual growth in health and maturity. He's not talking to little children particularly, like physical little children. He's talking about to people who are new in the faith. So you can be 60 and if you have a just met Jesus, you are an infant in the faith. Or you could be 25 or 20 and if you've been walking with the Lord since you were a child, you can be a father or mother in the faith. So he's saying that the idea behind is that there needs to be growth and health and maturity. So dear Christian, are you stuck in a season with a lack of growth?If so, you need to ask why. Children he's saying, "Children, you need to grow out of the state of thinking that everything exists for you. If you've been around kids, kids just have no idea that they're not at the center of the universe. They just assume this, mom and dad exist for me. My daughter's favorite, my youngest daughter, her favorite word is mine. She comes to me, papa is mine. She fights with my five-year-olds over, no, mine. But she thinks that literally we exist for her. And a lot of Christians assume that all the other Christians exist for you and then you come to a church with that mindset. It's fine for a season, but at some point you've got to trade your bib for an apron. And he says, "Another stage is young men and young women and that you fight the evil. You've overcome the evil one." Why? Because the word of God abides in you. This is when you realize the spiritual walk is a fight on a daily basis. You've got to fight.You take responsibility for your own walk and you fight the good fight. And then as you do that, as you progress to get to a stage where you understand your spiritual father and mother, that it's our responsibility to care for those who are younger or those who are less mature, unhealthy. And so we serve and we guide and we care. And also that shows us that we got to be patient with people in different levels of the faith. And how does growth come? Growth comes through grace. That's all. That's what he focused on, propitiation and advocacy. We focus on Jesus. We focus on the grace that we received. We eat from the word of God on a daily basis and we get strengthened as we apply that word, and particularly through the rhythms of the spiritual life.How did Jesus practice the spiritual life? Like if John's telling us we're going to walk with Jesus, become like Jesus, well, how did Jesus and walk on a daily basis? What were the rhythms of his life? And I'll give you a few. Silence, he would go and spend time with God in silence and solitude, sacrificial and simple living in the Holy scriptures. He would immerse himself in the scriptures, meditate on the scriptures so he truly knew who God was. He truly knew what mercy and justice and grace were. So all he did flowed from those practices of silence, solitude, sacrificial living and scripture. So we are to obey, love, grow in obedience and love. And we can't just focus on the positive things we've got to focus on there are some negative things that we got to cut out from our life.So if you want to get healthy, it's not just about eating the right things and adding more supplements into your life. You've got to cut out the junk. And this is point four that we got to deny desires that pull us away from God. And this is point verse 15, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever by world." It's the Greek word cosmos. He's talking about humanity that is united in rebellion against God. Humanity that is United against God and Jesus talking about the world.It's not the physical world that God created, it's the sinful structures in the world. And Jesus said, "The world hates me." He said, "The devil is the prince of this world. The whole world is under the power of the evil one." Jesus said, "I pray for my disciples not in particular for the world." This is why Jesus came to save the world. So John 3:16, "For God so loved the world ..." A lot of people translate that to mean the world was so great that God loved us and the onus is put on us. It's not endorsement of the world. It's a testimony to the character of God. He didn't love us because we were lovely. He loved us because he was loving. What was shocking about that verse isn't that God's love is to be admired because the world is so big, that God's love is to be admired because we were so bad. That's the world that he saves us from.So scripture says that, "When we repent and believe in Jesus Christ, we are transferred from the world, the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God's light." So in a sense, Christians are in the world, but not of it. In a sense no Christian actually lives in the world. No, the world contains no Christians because Jesus has chosen us out of the world. Everything that's antagonistic toward God. So if we've been taken out of the sinful structures, why in the world would we be pulled back in? And he's saying this because the allure is so powerful. This is the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes and the pride of life. Desire of the flesh, this is sensuality, the desires of the eyes, this is materialism and the pride of life, this is self glorification.And once you have these three categories, you begin to see this everywhere. You see in marketing, you see this in social media. You see this all like half the economy is built up on the pride of life, desire of the flesh, desire of the eyes, and it's the same temptation over and over. This is the same pattern that Satan used attempt Eve. Eve looked at the fruit, that it was good for food, that it was pleasing to the eyes, and that it would make wise. Desire of the flesh, desire of the eyes, pride of life. Satan comes to Jesus when Jesus was fasting and he tempts him. Turn the stone into bread. Desire the flesh. Hey, I'm going to give you all these kingdoms. Desire of the eyes. Hey, jump off the top of the temple. Self-glorification. The allure is there. So dear Christian, where are your affections pulling you away from God and toward the world?And the fight for faith is the fight for desire. And that desire, Jonathan Andover said, "True religion, consistent holy affections." We are to vivify our affections for God, give life to our affection and then kill our sinful desires. This is the mortification of the flesh. C. S. Lewis talked about the sweet poison of the false infinite, the sweet poison of the false infinite. It looks so sweet, but it's poisonous. It looks infinite. It looks like it'll last forever. This feeling, this relation, whatever this ends up pulling you, it looks infinite, but it's temporal. G. K. Chesterton said, "The acid test of any religion is what do you deny?" So dear Christian, as you follow Jesus, we can't but deny. He says, "Follow me and take up your cross daily." Where are you growing in self-denial? Where do you need to grow in self-denial?So how do you know that you know God? You obey, love, grow and deny. I'll conclude with this. Robert Robinson lived in the 18th century in London. He lived a life of debauchery in his youth as part of a gang. Did all kinds of horrible things. At age 17 went to hear George Whitfield preach the gospel. He gets saved, radically goes into the ministry, becomes a pastor and an age 23 he writes, one of our most beloved hymns that we ever sing is come thou fount. Writes his incredible hymn, it's inspired like we still sing, it's so powerful. Then after a while, his love for the Lord began to cool off and he walks away from the faith, goes through a season of severe depression and sin. He was traveling and as he's traveling he meets a Christian young lady and they start conversing and she realizes that he is educated in the terminology of the faith and she says, "Okay, have you read this hymn? I just recently came across this hymn. It touched my soul powerfully. Maybe it'll bless you.And at that moment he started weeping. She takes out come thou fount. And he says, "I am the poor wretch that wrote that hymn many years ago and I'd do anything to experience again that joy that I knew." And she all she did, she pointed him to the lyrics and she said, "Look, the streams of God's mercy are still here. Just come and stand under his streams of mercy and he will cleanse you of sin." Robinson wrote in that third verse owed to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. We need that. We need God's grace to bind our hearts to him, to terraform us into the image of Christ. And Robinson's own hymn was used to turn his wandering heart back to the Lord.If you're not a Christian, accept God's grace. He is your propitiation, he is your advocate, accept it, repent it, listen and believe. If you're a Christian, you need to grow in obedience and love and growth and denial. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this time that you've given us in the Holy scriptures. What a powerful word you've left us. And we thank you for the Holy spirit. Holy spirit we thank you for continuing minister to us, continue to grow us and continue to grow us in maturity and health so that we can help others grow in maturity and help bring people to you to be introduced to you and be transformed by you. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.

On this day, we remember Chinese evangelist and church founder Watchman Nee, and Augustus Toplady, born in 1740, and author of the famous hymn and our reading, "Rock of Ages." We’re a part of 1517 Podcasts, a network of shows dedicated to delivering Christ-centered content. Our podcasts cover a multitude of content, from Christian doctrine, apologetics, cultural engagement, and powerful preaching. Support the work of 1517 today.

Tune in to hear a lesson on Psalms 121 and 122 and how God is Holy and We Are Not as well as reviews of the songs “Friend of Sinners” by Augustus Toplady and “Who You Say I Am” by Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan.

A look at Psalm 23:3 - " He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." This portion of David's epic Psalm demonstrates that every line of the Bible whispers the name of Jesus. In this episode, we discuss how the Psalmist is writing about "the double cure" that Augustus Toplady brought to light when he wrote the great hymn, "Rock of Ages" - "Be for sin the double cure; Save from wrath and make me pure". David is providing a foreshadowing of Christ on the cross, who, through the blood He shed, saves us from the wrath of God by offering forgiveness of sins (restoration of the broken relationship with God), but also gives us forgiveness plus - He make us pure by imputing the righteousness of the sinless Christ to us.

Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me savior, or I die. - Augustus Toplady

Date: Sun PM 29th May 2016 Preacher: Rev. David McLaughlin Bible Reference: Isaiah 26v4  Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:

Intolerables: Catherine the Great, Augustus Toplady and Rock of Ages, the Stamp Act, Joseph II Presentation Online Giving

Assurance of Salvation through the life and hymns of Augustus Toplady, author of "Rock of Ages," and "A Debtor to Mercy Alone."

Often called the "National Anthem of Christendom."[1]. The lyrics, written by Edward Perronet while he served as a missionary in India, first appeared in the November, 1779 issue of the Gospel Magazine, which was edited by the author of "Rock of Ages", Augustus Toplady. The text has been translated into almost every language in which Christianity is known. (From Wikipedia)All Hail the Power Of Jesus' Name! Words  by Edward Perronet, 1779,Adapt. by John Rippon, 1787Music by Oliver Holden, 1792© 2012 Shiloh Worship Music COPY FREELY     C     All  hail the power of Jesus' NameLet angels prostrate fall         C                     Bring forth the royal diademG     C       G      Am    D  G And crown Him LORD OF ALL        C                      GBring forth the royal diadem      C         F     C/G G      C       And crown Him LORD OF ALL! Ye chosen seed of Israel's race,  ye ransomed from the fall,  hail Him who saves you by his grace,          and crown him Lord of all hail Him who saves you by his grace,          and crown him Lord of all Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget  The wormwood and the gall,  Go spread your trophies at His feet,  And crown Him Lord of all. Go spread your trophies at His feet,  And crown Him Lord of all.      CLet ev'ry kindred, ev'ry tribeOn this terrestrial ball     CTo Him all majesty ascribeG     C       G      Am    D  G And crown Him LORD OF ALL!     C                          GTo Him all majesty ascribe      C         F     C/G G      C       And crown Him LORD OF ALL! Crown him, ye martyrs of your God,  Who from His altar call;  extol the Stem of Jesse's Rod,  and crown him Lord of all. extol the Stem of Jesse's Rod,  and crown him Lord of all.A7    DO that with yonder sacred throngWe at His feet may fall         DWe'll join the everlasting songA     D       A      Bm    E   A And crown Him LORD OF ALL        D                             AWe'll join the everlasting song      D         G     D/A A      D       And crown Him LORD OF ALL!© 2012 Shiloh Worship Music COPY FREELY;This Music is copyrighted to prevent misuse, however,permission is granted for non-commercial copying-Radio play permitted  www.shilohworshipmusic.com

A new MP3 sermon from Still Waters Revival Books is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Arminianism: The Road to Rome! (Exposing the Jesuits, the Papacy, John Wesley, the Anabaptists, etc., As Enemies To Calvinism) Subtitle: Calvinistic Foundations Speaker: Augustus Toplady Broadcaster: Still Waters Revival Books Event: Audio Book Date: 3/8/2001 Bible: Ephesians 1; Romans 9 Length: 16 min.

I. The Mystery of Prayer Please if you would, take your Bibles and open to Daniel 9. Today we're going to be looking at Daniel 9, 1-19. Perhaps one of the most important things I've learned in my spiritual life is the first statement as I have come to understand it in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the spiritual beggars for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." And the thing about being a beggar is that you ask for things all the time. You ask for everything. And so what is the language of a beggar? It's a language of need, it's a language of request, it's a language of prayer. We need to speak to God and we need to ask for him, but what kind of words shall we use? What kind of prayer does this almighty and eternal God hear? One person thinking about prayer said, "Many a beggar has sat at the gate of Christ, mute unable to speak and received everything they needed." And so it's not so much a matter of the perfect words, but the attitude of the heart of neediness, of knowing that you're a beggar and then speaking out of that emptiness and that need to God, but yet we need to be instructed in prayer, don't we? We need to be taught how to pray. John's disciples were taught by John the Baptist how to pray. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. We need examples how to pray, and this holy man Daniel gives us an example of prayer here in Daniel 9, verse 1-19. Now, as we look at this, as we look at this prayer, we come face-to-face, especially in context with a mystery. Prayer is at its core, mysterious. Now, if you don't think much about it, it's not. You just ask God for things and he gives them to you, right? You make God aware of some things that he may not have been aware of, and then he adjusts his plans accordingly, right? We're starting to get in the mystery now, aren't we? What is prayer? We are speaking to an eternal God, that we're coming to understand in the Book of Daniel, who is sovereign over all things, who is King over every king and Lord over every lord. Nations rise up at his command, and then they sink back down into the dust. The minds of kings can be turned into that of an animal, just at his will. This is the God we're addressing and as we go on in Daniel past this into Chapter 10 and 11, we're going to see a God who has everything meticulously worked out, even to kings of the North and kings of the South, moving back and forth over the Promised Land, meticulous details, worked out. Our God is a careful planner and very attentive to detail. Do you understand now why I talk about the mystery of prayer? What is prayer and what are we doing when we come to God in prayer? What happens to us and what happens to things? Have you seen the bumper sticker, "Prayer changes things"? Does prayer change things, or does God change things through prayer? How does it work? We're into mystery here, aren't we? And I don't know that we're going to resolve at all. But we need to pattern ourselves after Daniel. Daniel came right into the throne room of God, and I believe this prayer may be one of the greatest examples of humble, broken-hearted petition, a prayer that God will answer. Prayer for the glory of his name. My charge to you is I want you to learn how to pray by following the example of Daniel. Let's look at verses 1-19 and see how he prays. II. Context: History and Bible Study "In the first year of Darius, son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel understood from the Scriptures according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands. We have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled. We have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers and to all the people of the land. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame. The men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. O Lord, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against You. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the Lord, our God, or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets, All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away refusing to obey you. Therefore, the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the word spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet, we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God, by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything He does, and yet, we have not obeyed him. Now, O Lord, our God, who brought your mighty people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned and we have done wrong. O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people, an object of scorn to all those around us. Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant for your sake, O Lord. Look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, O God, and hear. Open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hear and act. For your sake, O my God, do not delay because your city and your people bear your name." Now, this is a great prayer. And we can't plumb the depths of this prayer, but I hope instead to lift out some elements that may challenge you in your prayer life. Bottom line is I want you to pray like Daniel. I want you to pray like this. And so I'm going to bring out some elements to show you what I mean. But first, as always, we need to understand this in context. This prayer was uttered in a context. Something was going on in the world and in history. We Christians, we are tied into a flow of history, aren't we? Our feet are on the ground; we're not living up in the ethereal realms. We're living in a world. The world moves on with its events and those events have significance. Frankly, brothers and sisters, if history doesn't mean anything, then your lives don't mean anything either, because history is made up of lives of people like you who went through this world and made decisions and did things. And so if history means nothing, your life means nothing, but history does mean something and so does your life. Every action, every word has significance. And we are people who are connected into a history and into a flow, and it's going on around us at all times. And so also was Daniel and so is this prayer. It's rooted in events. Something was going on. It was the first year of Darius, son of Xerxes, a Mede by descent. Well, what was going on? Well, Babylon the great had fallen. The Babylonian Empire was no more. A new empire had come to take its place, the Medo-Persian Empire. Miraculously, Daniel, who had been third highest in the Babylonian kingdom, was made third highest in the Medo-Persian Empire as well. Only God can do that. And yet Daniel understood the significance of the times. He knew why he was in Babylon. He was a Jew, one of God's chosen people. And God had brought his chosen people with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, into a Promised Land and had given them that land on condition. There were conditions to the land. They had to obey God's commandments, and God sent prophets and warned them that if they didn't obey that they would be expelled from the land. They didn't listen to the prophets and they were expelled and Daniel was among them. He was expelled from the Promised Land and went to Babylon, and there he lived out his life. Well, now it's the first year of Darius. Now Darius was co-ruler, I believe, with Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Great was the conqueror that took over all that land, and I believe Darius was made in charge of Babylon and the former Babylonian Empire in that region. But Cyrus the Great, I believe, was the great king, the ruler over all. That's why whenever you have images in the book of Daniel, of the Medo-Persian Empire, you have two horns but one is longer than the other; the Persians really had the upper hand. Cyrus the Great was the true ruler. Darius was a Mede by descent, and I think he ruled under Cyrus the Great. Daniel’s Devotional Life But now, here in this chapter, in the midst of these historical events, we are going to get a glimpse into Daniel's devotional life. We're going to be ushered right into his prayer life. We're going to see how he prays. We're going to learn his heart. We're going to get a glimpse into Daniel's devotional life. Daniel was a man of prayer, wasn't he? We already learned that in chapter 6, the lions' den chapter, you remember? Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God just as he had done before. Daniel 6:10, three times a day. He was a man of prayer, but he was also a man of intensive careful Bible study. What a beautiful combination. That's a devotion. Reading the Bible and prayer. That's a devotion. I hope you do it every day. Take in some Bible, read it, meditate on it, think about it, let it change your heart, and then return it back to God in prayer. That's a devotional. And Daniel had devotions, he had lots of them, three times a day. He was a man of careful Bible study. Look what he says, "I, Daniel, understood [literally] from the books or from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah, the prophet." Stop right there. Now, if you want to read the words of the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet, what do you do? Well, you reach for one of your seven or eight Bibles, take it off the shelf, open it up, flip to page whatever it is, and begin to read. But it wasn't so easy for Daniel. When had Jeremiah, the prophet, written his words? In Daniel's lifetime. They may well have met each other; they may have been friends even. Two godly people, like Jeremiah and Daniel. Jeremiah, at that point, an old man, a prophet. Jeremiah, a very young man, maybe a teenager on his... I mean, Daniel, on his way to exile to Babylon. Maybe their paths crossed, we don't know; we can't speculate but we do know at some point, he got hold of a scroll, the words of Jeremiah the prophet. Realize they didn't have Xerox machines, they didn't have printers, they didn't have Microsoft Word, or any of these kinds of things that we have today. What did they have? They had scrolls and they had pens and ink and Jeremiah wrote down his words on a scroll and somehow it was Daniel that got hold of it. Isn't that incredible? God got it to the right man, and my guess is he began copying that thing. Just like Baruch had done earlier, so that there would be more than one, so that you people could reach for one of your seven or eight Bibles, open it up and read it. Praise God for Daniel. But he was writing down, I believe, copying, but more than anything, he was reading and thinking and understanding. It's the way the Scripture is. You need to think about what you're reading, or it has no impact on you. And so he's thinking, and he's understanding, he says. Jeremiah’s Words Vindicated: The Time Frame Revealed And Jeremiah's words, it turns out, are being vindicated in history. The prophecy given by Jeremiah was being vindicated in history. Now who is Jeremiah? Well, Jeremiah was a very unpopular man. He was a prophet. And while Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army surrounded the walls of Jerusalem in fulfillment to the warning that God had given, centuries before through Moses, the Babylonians coming as a scourge and a discipline to the Jewish people inside the walls of that city holding out. That city holding out against Nebuchadnezzar, was a man Jeremiah who said, "I would recommend that you open the gates and let him in because God has sent him. And if you yield to him at this point, God will preserve the city, but if you fight, the city will be destroyed and you will die." Was that a popular message? Absolutely not. And not only was it unpopular, it was viscerally hated by most of the people inside the city, and so also was Jeremiah. And so Jeremiah was arrested, he was thrown into the bottom of a well, muddy well; he was despised and rejected. He was hated, but he spoke the truth. He spoke the truth and he wrote the truth too, didn't he? He wrote down all of his prophecies, he wrote them down, the predictions that Nebuchadnezzar would destroy the city, that the people would be sent into exile. He wrote them all down. And the king of the city, before the city fell, Zedekiah got hold of that scroll and sat down in front of a fire pot to warm himself. You know the story. He's warming himself while the scroll is read, and he's got a knife in his hand. And as a line of Jeremiah's prophecy was read, he'd cut off a portion of it and burn it, keep the fire going. Can you imagine? Isaiah 66:2. "This is the one I esteem: He who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word." Not somebody who cuts it up and throws it into a fire pot. Well, he didn't tremble at God's Words, Zedekiah. And so the whole scroll get burned in that fashion, and so Jeremiah wrote it again, every word of it true. Now among those prophecies was a clear prediction as to how long the exile would last; it would be 70 years. Now, how in the world can God know that? Well, God knows all things. He knows the end from the beginning, he's the Alpha and the Omega, not just the Alpha. He knows all things and so he told Jeremiah to write down, this is what he says: Jeremiah 25:11 and following, "This whole country will become a desolate wasteland. And these surrounding nations will serve the King of Babylon seventy years. But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the King of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians for their guilt, declares the Lord and I will make it desolate forever." Clear prediction, 70 years. Gets even clearer in chapter 29 of Jeremiah, 29:10. "This is what the Lord says…" and by the way, in these words, you'll hear a very famous verse that many people quote as their life verse. So, understand it now in context. Jeremiah 29:10 and following. "This is what the Lord says. 'When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. [Sound familiar?] Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." Those are the plans that God has, plans to prosper the Jewish nation, and to bring them back from their place of exile. But in the middle of that is a prediction that there would be somebody or some group of people that would pray and ask him to do it. "You will seek me and you'll find me and you will ask and I will answer." And who would that be? Daniel. And maybe some others. God raised up Daniel. And so he's reading Jeremiah's scroll and he begins to calculate. Let me see, it's 605 BC. It's been about 67 years from the beginning. 586 BC is when the temple was destroyed. For your information, 71 years later, the temple was rededicated. God has it perfect, the beginning and the end, 70 years, just perfect. But it's been 67 years now at this point, Cyrus the Great, he's measuring it out, said, it's getting near. "God I don't know your timing. I don't know exactly when it began, but it's time to pray, it's time to pray." And he got down on his knees and he started to pray. Isaiah’s Stunning Contribution: A Specific Name Now along with this comes a stunning contribution from Isaiah the prophet. 200 years before this, Isaiah had made a prediction as well concerning the restoration back to Jerusalem. Now, I have to believe that if Daniel had Jeremiah, he also had Isaiah. Doesn't say so, but I'm going to read it to you anyway. God, with perfect clarity, wrote down the name of the king of Persia who would send them back, and his name was Cyrus. Are you amazed? 200 years ahead of time, he got the name right. Take one of your seven or eight Bibles this afternoon and pull it off the shelf and open up to Isaiah 44:28 and following and understand that the words you're reading were written 200 years before Cyrus was born. "Who says of Cyrus, 'he is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; He will say of Jerusalem, "let it be rebuilt, and of the temple, let its foundations be laid."' This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, who's right hand I take hold of to subdue the nations before him." Cyrus would come and conquer, and he would allow his people to go back and rebuild the land. Cyrus, hmm. Well, history follows prophecy. Cyrus the Great did come; he rampaged, he conquered, he's in charge now. And it's not going to be long before these things are going to be fulfilled, but first, there's a godly man who does what? He prays for it. Gets down on his knees and prayed. Daniel is passionately motivated to pray; look what he says. "I Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years, so I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer, and petition, and fasting, and sackcloth and ashes." Verse 3. The first word is, "So" or "therefore." Because of what I was reading in Scripture, I prayed. Is that not beautiful? Listen to what Calvin says about this, this is not motivation to laziness but to passionate prayer, this is what Calvin said, "The faithful do not so surrender in the promises of God as to grow lazy, and become idle and slothful through the certainty of their persuasion that God will perform His promises, but are rather stimulated to prayer. For the true proof of faith is the assurance when we pray that God will really perform what He has promised us." Do you see that? It's not a motivation to laziness. Well, seventy years I guess, you're going to do it. I'm just going to kick back and relax, let you do it. Sit in that rocking chair, God, you're sovereign over all things. Absolutely not. He got on his knees and asked him to do the thing He had promised to do. That is godly prayer. III. Daniel’s Preparation for Prayer (vs. 3-4) And that's what Daniel does. Now first, he prepares himself to do it. And this is so vital that we prepare ourselves to come into the presence of God. I try to do it just by pausing a little bit and remembering who it is I'm about to speak to. But Daniel goes far deeper than that with thorough preparation. First Daniel is prepared for this prayer daily and for years. He's prepared daily and for years. With his daily prayer life; three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed. Day after day, and through daily personal holiness. Prayer is deeply hindered by sin habits and worldliness. Listen to what John Bunyan said about this. John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, he said "Prayer will make men cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer." There's a battle going on in your life between prayer and sin. Who's winning right now? Who's winning? Prayer will entice you to stop praying. 1 Peter 4:7 says it this way, "The end of all things is near; therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray." You kind of need to earn prayer almost; you need to be holy and pure, self-controlled, disciplined, because if you're not, you will not be able to pray, and all of us can testify to that. You can't pray when you're in sin. So he's prepared through holiness. William Gurnall said this. "When people do not pay attention to what God speaks to them in his word, God will pay as little attention to what they say to him in prayer." You see that? If we listen to what God is speaking to us and live it out in obedience he will hear our prayers, but if not, he will not listen to that which we speak to him in prayer. And so Daniel was prepared through 90 years or so of walking with God and he's prepared also by the Word of God; he's daily immersed in the Scripture and therefore he's praying according to God's will. We know if we pray according to God's will, he hears us. Prepared by the Word of God Well, how do you know what God's will is? Well, he's told us in Scripture. He's immersed in it. He's just saturated in the Word of God. And the word alone has a record of God's promises and the promises are the basis of our prayers. Are they not? Things that God has said he's going to do, that's what we pray back to him. John Trap said, "Prayer is putting the promises of God into clothing." Isn't that great? Prayer is putting the promises of God into clothing. Clothing the promises of God. Thomas Manton said, "One way to get comfort is to plead the promises of God in prayer." I love this, "Show him his handwriting; God is tender of his Word." So "Lord God, it says right here in Jeremiah, that seventy years you're going to restore, so here's your handwriting. You've written it, you signed it, please do it." Show him his handwriting, he delights in his word." We are not at liberty to make up our own requests. I spent a summer in the summer of 1983, in New Hampshire; we were doing beach evangelism, witnessing, and just having ministry. It was a wonderful summer. But you could stand on the beach, of Hampton Beach, New Hampshire and you could look just south, right over the border into Massachusetts and there you could see this kind of smooth concrete dome and some interesting smoke stacks coming up. It was the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. It was the site of many protests when I was growing up. I always protest against nuclear power, but that provided power generation for that entire region of New England, a powerful plant. How NOT to Pray Now, what I try to want to get at here is a false understanding of prayer. Suppose your father were in charge of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, and you were 10 years old. And your father wanted to just involve you in his life and brought you right into the control room of the nuclear power plant. And all these lights and knobs and switches and buttons. It's amazing. And he said, "Listen, I'm going to leave and I'm going to go get us lunch, you stay in here for an hour and just do anything you want to do. Don't worry about anything. If you start hearing some sirens, they're going to be loud, but don't worry about it, just have a good time. And I'll be back in an hour with lunch, and then we'll take it from there." And that is some people's model of prayer, although they know it not, that God surrenders control of the universe to us and says "Look, whatever you want to do, just do it; if you ask enough, I'll let you do it." And then suddenly the universe goes careening out of control. Not at all. Rather, it's kind of this way; it's kind of like we're out in a boat and we throw some grappling hooks on the shore and pull the shore to us. You see. The shore is getting ever closer to us. Is the shore moving? No. It seems like it is, getting ever closer and closer but the shore's where it always was. What's moving? We are moving toward the shore. Do we need to move? Absolutely, absolutely. We start so far from God. We don't care about God, or his purposes and we don't care about other people. We don't love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we don't love our neighbors as ourselves. And what changes that? The blood of Jesus Christ and prayer and other things. Transformation, so that we start to care about what God is doing in this world and the shore gets ever closer to us all the time. Closer and closer, through prayer. God is not going to surrender the control of the nuclear power plant to us for even a moment. You know why, because he loves us too much to do it. He knows what he's doing. And so we're going to pray God's will. Prepared by Extraordinary Humbling And so, Daniel is prepared by saturation in the Word of God and by extraordinary humbling, and what is his means of humbling? Fasting, sackcloth and ashes. Is this to get God's attention? No. It's to get Daniel's attention. You understand that? God is attentive. Remember, a day is like a 1000 years; he's all over the things we do, he's attentive. But the humbling and the fasting is to make us serious about what we're praying for. No amount of fasting or sackcloth wearing will ever get God's attention, in view of sin or life of sin. Augustus Toplady knew this. In his hymn, Rock of Ages, he said, "Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow. All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and Thou alone." So it doesn't matter how hard you come to God, in fasting and prayer and sackcloth and all, we only come in the name of Jesus Christ and his blood. Isn't that true? It is true; we come in the name of the blood of Jesus Christ. Covered with his righteousness. But the fasting and the prayer makes us serious. It's a way of showing seriousness about the prayer and also way of showing grief over sin. There's a mourning over sin, and Daniel is going to do it, isn't he? He's grieved over the sin of his own life and that of his people. And then he prepares by turning to God, verse 3, it says "I set my face to the Lord my God to seek him." Daniel turned his face total concentration on the Lord. God was all he wanted; the will of God was all he wanted. In Daniel 6, he prayed towards Jerusalem and he's focused also on Jerusalem and on the people of God. Why? Because God cares about Jerusalem. God has a plan and a purpose for Jerusalem, so he zeroed in on what God wants. And then he prepares himself finally by words of awe, by words of awe, speaking glorious words to God. "O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands." He's setting his mind to this awesome God. To whom are you speaking, to whom are you speaking? The God who set the ends of the heaven up and filled with more stars than you can count. The God who set the sun in the center of the solar system has kept it burning all this time with more energy than you can measure. The God who knit you together in your mother's womb. That's who you're talking to. So with words of awe he prepares himself. IV. Daniel’s Deep Confession (vs. 5-14) And then in verses 5-14, he gives himself to confession of sin. Daniel is deeply probing himself and his people. He's looking for sin, and he wants to bring it up out and confess it to God. No light dealing here with sin. We're going to get deep here. When I was 12 years old, I was... I invited some friends over, and around the time that they were about to come, I started to suffer for some abdominal pain, some serious stomach-ache. I didn't want to tell my parents because if I told them they'd make my friends go home. So I didn't say anything. And I spent a terrible night in agony, all night long, in terrible pain. The next morning, I could barely do anything. My parents went off to various things; my dad went to work, my mom to do some things and I was left after my friends left laying on the couch, literally dying from appendicitis. Literally. My mother came back earlier than she had expected, to save my life, though she knew it not. Brought me to the hospital, the doctor said "Well, it's probably appendicitis. It would probably be about an hour operation, maybe a little less." Problem was that it was acute appendicitis, and it burst on the operating table. So I was on the table for four hours or more. Now, the point is, unless you get all the contagion out, the life is threatened; unless you get all the contagion out, the life is threatened. And so, Daniel was very thorough in his confession of sin. And so also, should we be. We're too light, too quick on this matter, aren't we? We move on too quickly. So Daniel deeply confesses. Central Issue: Rebellion against God’s Word (vs. 5-6, 10-13) And what is the issue? In Verses 5-6 and 10-13, the issue is rebellion against God's Word. Rebellion against the prophets. God had agreed to speak to the people, not directly with his own mouth, but through prophets. He would put his words into the mouth of human beings, and yet Israel did not listen to the prophets, did they? What did Jesus say in Matthew 23:37, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who stone the prophets and kill those sent to you. How often I have longed to gather you together." And worse than not listening to the prophets or disobeying them, Israel broke the covenant, the very agreement that God had given generation after generation. And so, Daniel lifts up a contrast. We O God, we have broken the covenant; you O Lord, you have kept it. We have been wicked, you have been righteous. We have been faithless, you have been faithful." In Verse 9, "The Lord our God is a merciful and forgiving God, even though we have rebelled against him," the contrast. And then finally, in verses 11-14, he speaks of the curses, the Mosaic curses which came true. "God, you said it would happen. You said you would bring curses on us, that you would expel us from the land and now, O God in perfect faithfulness you have done the thing you threatened." In Deuteronomy 28, it says, this is the words of Moses a thousand years before it happened, "Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations from one end of the earth to the other. Then you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which you neither or your fathers have known. Among those nations, you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There, the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing and a despairing heart; you will live in constant suspense, filled with dread, both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning, you will say, 'If only it were evening' and in the evening, 'if only it were morning.'" God predicted all of this ahead of time, and in perfect faithfulness after much waiting for our God is a patient God, slow to anger, finally, the judgement came through Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, but it's been measured out seventy years. God, you did what you promised. You did what you promised and brought judgment on us. And so Jerusalem is a scourge to the nations, but now in verses 15-19, he turns the whole thing around, it's amazing. He is saying, "Just as you were faithful to bring the judgment on us, so now O God be faithful to restore us." Do you see how it works? Our God is a perfectly faithful God, faithful to bring the judgment, faithful to bring the restoration. And so he's pleading with God based on his faithfulness. V. Daniel’s Faith-filled Petition (vs. 15-19) Look what he says, verses 15 and following, he says, "Now O Lord, our God, who brought your people out of Egypt, with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day. We have sinned and done wrong. O Lord in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem." You see? In keeping with your faithfulness, in the exact same character trait of faithfulness, now God, turn away your wrath and restore us back to Jerusalem. See how it works? He's pleading the character of God. He makes a petition and understand the ground of his petition is God's zeal for the glory of his own name. Isn't it? "God, you do all things for the glory of your name. You chose out the people for the glory of your name, You brought them into Egypt for the glory of your name. You were patient with them for the glory of your name. You judged them for the glory of your name, and now, O God, for the glory of your name, restore them back to Jerusalem. Turn your wrath away." And so, Daniel's motivation is God's zeal for the glory of his name. For Your sake, O God, do it, not because we're righteous, not because we're Godly, but for your sake and for your name. Now, why does Daniel pray like this? And why is God so intensely concerned with his own name? Understand this, that the proclamation of the name of God means salvation for people. Isn't that true? As we proclaim a glorious mighty God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ, who did miracles and who sent his Son Jesus who died on the cross and was raised from the dead on the third day, as we proclaim a God, the name of that God, what happens? People call on the name of that God. And what happens when they call on the name of the Lord? Well, they're saved. And so, Daniel restoring it over and over, praise for God's glory and for his reputation, not for Israel's righteousness. VI. Lesson and Applications: Pray Like Daniel! Now what applications can we take from this as we look at Daniel 9. I guess, simply this. I want you to pray like Daniel. First of all, proper preparation and passion. Cold prayers freeze before they get to heaven. Do you understand that? They freeze before they make it. They never get there. Heat your heart up. Heat your heart up at the Word of God and with the Holy Spirit. Proper preparation and passion, the right emotion, the right knowledge of the Word of God, seriousness and humility in your spirit, saturation in the Word of God, fear of the Lord. These things prepare you for prayer. Secondly, confession of sin. Don't come swaggering into God's presence based on your own righteousness. You have none. Come humbly as a spiritual beggar clothed with the righteousness that was given you as a gift, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and then confess your sin. Search your heart and your mind. And may I suggest that you be like Daniel. Daniel confessed not only his own sinfulness but the sinfulness of his what? His people. Do we have things to confess on that score? Are we people of unclean lips, who live among a people of unclean lips? Can we not confess the sins of America as though they are very own? Are we so different from our neighbors in the things we read in the newspaper or see on television, we could never do those things? Can we not confess the sins of our own people the way that Daniel confessed the sins of the Jews? And thirdly, prayer according to God's will, informed by God's Word. Don't think for a moment that God's going to let you into the control room of a nuclear power plant. Don't want him to do so. Don't trust yourself so much. Let God be God and let his will rule. Instead, say, "God, what is your will in this matter? What are you doing in the world and how can I pray in accordance with that?" And the only way to do that is saturation in the Word of God. And finally, pray for the glory of God's name. May I suggest, do everything for the glory of God's name. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all that God's reputation may shine brightly around you and in the world. And why? So that people can be saved; for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Won't you close with me in prayer?