Sermons

Introduction

So, I'd like to pray with us, pray with you, pray for us what we're doing here, and ask the Lord's blessing as we study His word.

[Prayer] Lord, we do humble ourselves this morning, reminding each other of how much we need You, of how much we need Your grace, of how thankful we are for Your word, of how much we need the body of Christ. We remind ourselves today that there is nothing about me at all worthy of someone listening other than if I faithfully explain and articulate what You have revealed to us and You're inspired in an errant word. And so, I pray that You would guard my mind, my thoughts. Would You guard my words? I want to say only things that are true, only things that are helpful. And I pray that today this precious church with these dear saints would be encouraged by what we read in Your word. We ask for Your help for the sake of the name of Your Son. Amen. [End]

Well, open with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7 is a story that runs from verse 36 to verse 50. This morning, we're going to look at just the first part of it, verses 36 to 39, and the back half of the story you will look at next Lord's Day. But I want to read to you this passage that we're going to look at today.

Luke 7 starting in verse 36 says, "One of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him, and He went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that He was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, He would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.'"

If you're pretty familiar with the New Testament, this passage sounds similar to another encounter where something like this takes place. Matthew 26, Mark 14, John 12 record a different occasion when a lady did something similar. Luke 7 is a different time. While what happens is similar, this is not just Luke's perspective of the same event, this is an altogether different occurrence. What Mark 14 and John 12 and Matthew 26 talk about is something that happens in Bethany. The event in Luke 7 takes place in Galilee. The other event takes place shortly before the crucifixion. The event in Luke 7 today takes place well before that much earlier. There are some other differences, but I just want you to be aware that this account is similar, yes, but a different occurrence than another time when a different person worships in a similar way.

A Contrast of Two Sinners

And in this short passage we look at today, what we see is a picture of grace, a picture of the Lord's grace, and also a picture of how other people respond to grace. As we walk through these few verses together, let's look at it with a few headings. First, verses 36 and 37, consider with me that there's "a contrast of two sinners, a contrast of two sinners." We find a man known as a Pharisee, and we find a woman known only as a sinner.

Verse 36, again, tells us the Pharisee asks Jesus to come and share a meal in his home. It's a bit interesting as you read this that a Pharisee would invite Jesus into his home, and honestly maybe even a little interesting that Jesus accepted the invitation. If this were our first time to read this and to not really have much context what was going on, we would be left to wonder what was the motive of the Pharisee in inviting Jesus to his home. Maybe he was just seeking the truth. After all, we know from Scripture Jesus Himself is the way, the truth, and the life, and so maybe this Pharisee just wanted Jesus to come over so he could talk to Him, so he could ask Him questions, so he could learn from Him. That would be one possibility.

Maybe the motive would be just to have someone influential at his house. People are talking about Jesus. Jesus is a man who you can't duplicate the miracles that He does, you can't duplicate the authority with which He teaches. And so, as word spreads about who this man is, maybe the Pharisees thought, we might think, is just to have someone very influential in his home. Maybe he thinks it would be good for conversation, good for his reputation, good for business.

Or, maybe there was an ulterior motive altogether. The Pharisees were no fan of Jesus. Jesus tend to upset the religious establishment because Jesus talked about sin and repentance and salvation, and the religious leaders did not think they needed any such thing. Well, because you've been walking through the gospel of Luke, you already know, if you've been here for a while, a bit of insight into what the motivation was. Let's go back in time just a little bit where you've been a few weeks ago, Luke chapter 6, and look at verse 6 with me. Let me just remind you of something that you've already studied.

"On another Sabbath, He entered the synagogue and He was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched Him to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse Him. But He knew their thoughts, and He said to the man with the withered hand, 'Come and stand here.' And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, 'I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?' And after looking around at them, all He said to him, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he did so, and his hand was restored." Look at verse 11: "But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus."

So, what we know are the Pharisees from Luke 6 wanted to accuse Jesus. They were filled with fury about Jesus and were already having conversations, "What can we do to Him?"

Now, let's jump back to our passage Luke 7:36. "One of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him." We see often in the life of Jesus these accounts where people come up to Jesus to initiate conversation and they do it under the pretense of wanting to ask questions and to learn. But what we know from Scripture is really it's all just a way for them to try to have something to accuse Him of or to set a trap for Him. We see this even right up until His last week.

You'll recall the last week of Jesus' life on the earth before the crucifixion after He has had the triumphal entry and He goes to clear out the temple, you'll recall that early in that week there's an entire day that the Scripture gives us a lot of information about where it's just one after the other, after the other that comes up to Jesus and asks Him questions. But it's not because they're looking for truth, it's all about trying to see if they can get Jesus to walk into their trap.

And so, you have the situation where the Sadducees come to Jesus and make up this story of a lady who married a man and her husband died; and so she married a second man, and he died; and a third man, and he died; and a fourth man, and he died, all the way to seven, and no one ever stopped to say among themselves, "Why do men keep marrying this woman?" But nevertheless, they say to Jesus, "In the resurrection, whose wife will she be?" And this was coming from a group of men who did not believe in resurrection. It wasn't for them about answers or truth, it was just trying to find something for which to accuse Jesus.

We see it the same day when people would come up to Jesus right after that conversation, the same day, and they would say, "Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?" This wasn't a theological question, it wasn't a financial question, it was all about, "Can we get Jesus to say something that would help us have a reason to not just discredit but destroy Him?" That's where they're coming from.

And so, this Pharisee He asked Jesus into his home, so we have a pretty good insight into his motivation. So now it may not be quite so surprising that the man invites Jesus to his home because now we know why. It might be still a bit surprising that Jesus would go. But we're going to find out in just a moment why He does.

They come into the house, and it says they're reclining at the table. You're likely familiar with this. In Jesus' day in that culture they didn't sit around a table like we would think of with high-top chairs like we would sit at for lunch today, they would have tables that were low to the ground, probably in a U-shaped form, and they would recline on their left elbow, and they have their feet sticking away from the table. Not to be too earthy but just to help you to understand it, in that culture you're walking and you're traveling and you're going over dust and hills and rocks, and then you get to somebody's house, you really don't want your bare feet near the food. So there's some practicality. So, you would go and lay down on your side, get your feet away from the food, away from the table, and you would be able to enjoy conversation and use your right hand for eating. So, this is one of the sinners, the Pharisee, himself not thinking in terms of being a sinner because after all, the religious elite can often be in the most dangerous category, people who know the truth but always assume it's for someone else. That's one character we meet.

We meet another character, verse 37: "Behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner." Text doesn't tell us much about her. This text doesn't give us her name. The wording suggests an immoral person with an immoral lifestyle, not called here by her name, called simply as a sinner. Apparently, people knew her and the name wasn't necessary because their reputation was clear.

Now, why is she there? Well, we know from this time in history that it was quite common that when you had a big banquet, one of the things you might do is leave the doors open, and some people from the outside, some who weren't invited, could often come in to something like this, then maybe they would be able to be served leftovers. They're not going to get the choicest food, but they might be able to get leftovers, or they might be able to line the walls of the house and be able to oversee or overhear some conversation that takes place. You couldn't find two people more diametrically opposed: a man who's a Pharisee, a lady of immorality known simply as a sinner. The Pharisee, a highly respected man with a dead heart; the lady, a complete outcast with faith. And if you think today that because you are religious or because you attend church regularly or because you enjoy studying theology, those things are all good, but just understand, it's very possible to be deeply religious, even possible to be highly interested in theology and yet not think you need grace.

It's also possible on the other extreme to be so aware of your sin and so aware of how often you fail that you could think you're too far down for God's grace to reach you. And whether you identify in some way with the Pharisee, the religious person, or you somehow identify with the other lady that's here, either extreme, I just want you to understand that grace is our greatest need no matter how we view ourselves. And whether you today sit in this sanctuary thinking to yourself that because you come to church and because you're moral and because you are a generally kind person, if you think to yourself that you do not need forgiveness or that you somehow are above the need for grace, then, my dear friend, you need to understand the gospel because there is nobody so good that they do not need grace.

But it could also be possible that someone's here today that I'm talking to and you look at your life, and maybe you're not known as the sinner, maybe you don't have a reputation like the lady does here, but in your heart you feel so aware of your sinfulness that even though you sit in church Sunday after Sunday, deep in your heart you wonder, "Could God really forgive me? Would He really save me?" So, we see a contrast of two sinners.

A Cry of Humble Worship

In verse 38, we see a second thing and that is "a cry of humble worship, a cry of humble worship." Let's go back to verse 37: "Behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that He was reclining at table in the Pharisee's home, brought an alabaster flask of ointment." So, one of the things that's interesting is when you do a harmony of the Gospels, meaning when you take Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and put them together and try to fit them in chronological order, one of the things that we see is that it appears right before this encounter is when Jesus says in Matthew 11, "Come unto Me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest." Think about that. Jesus gives the invitation for all who would have ears to hear, that if you find yourself weary and worn out and tired of trying to earn your salvation, He says, "Come unto Me. Come unto Me and find your rest."

And what we see in this story with these two people, the Pharisee and the lady, is a picture of two different kinds of people that both tend to run. Those who are full of themselves and proud of themselves tend to keep running because we feel like the more we do for God, the more we've earned, or somehow to think that because of how hard we run and how much service we render to the church, that that somehow makes us on our own worthy of heaven, deserving of being called a child of God. And if you are a religious person that's continually running, trying to earn your salvation, you will be exhausted and have nothing to show for.

But on the other side, there are people who may be like the lady before she heard the Lord's invitation, she's running. These kinds of people that find themselves feeling so outcast and so low, many times they're running, but they're running away from the Lord because they're just convinced that the Lord would not love them, could not love them, would not save them. And so the religious person wears himself out running, trying to impress God, and the lowly sinner runs and wears themselves out trying to get away from God, and in both circumstances, both runners find themselves exhausted and they've made it to nowhere. And now to that, Jesus says, "Come unto Me, all of you who are weary." Whether the religious elite running, trying to impress God, or the brokenhearted sinner thinking you're too lowly for forgiveness trying to run from God, either way, "Come unto Me," Jesus says.

This reminds me of John 4, the woman at the well. You recall her story, she goes to draw water, and the strange part of John 4 is that she goes in the middle of the day. Nobody did that. Nobody wants to do hard labor when the day is the hottest. But we know why she did that. She did that to get away from the crowd. She did that specifically because nobody else would go to do that at that time. And the lady in John 4, she doesn't want the stare, she doesn't want the jokes that would be coming her way if she were to walk in front of people, so she tries to go when nobody else is there. And Jesus speaks to her about living water where you'll never thirst again. And here in Luke 7, we see an event that's happening right after Jesus has said, "Come unto Me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest." We know why the Pharisees done the invitation: he's filled with fury of Jesus trying to accuse Him. But now we know why the woman's there: because her heart's been changed by the invitation to find her rest in Jesus.

The text tells us she's carrying this alabaster jar, something that would be worn around the neck. And if we go back to our text here in verse 38, it says, "Standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment." The word that says "to wet them" is a word that literally means "to rain down showers." This isn't just getting teary-eyed, this is sobbing. This is somebody whose life has been so transformed that she just can't hold the emotion in. And she's not concerned now what people think of her or say of her or how unwelcome she would be because the one, the only one who could truly save her soul has said, "Come unto Me, all who are weary." And so, here she is.

Why the tears? Because Jesus has been kind, compassionate, and welcomed her repentant heart. Let's be clear, Jesus is not indifferent about her lifestyle. Jesus is not condoning her sin in any way. Repentance, true repentance, is going to lead to a change of life. That's how grace works. But on the one side, you have a Pharisee who's convinced himself he doesn't need salvation, and he wants to accuse Jesus; and on the other side, you have a lady known only as a sinner who is stunned at the grace of Jesus. This is a cry of humble worship.

Now, let's be clear about something here. I think it's good and fitting for preachers to labor in the study and to work hard to be prepared to preach. I think it's fitting for musicians to rehearse, to do their best, to lead God's people in praise with excellence. I think the Lord is worthy of our best. He's worthy of giving our most profound, heartfelt, sincere expression of praise. I think excellence is good, Christ is worthy of that. But please hear me with this: excellence is no replacement for humility, it never is. And I don't mean by that that the Lord is somehow honored by people giving less than their best. I don't mean by that that it would be appropriate for the pastor to not labor hard, or it would be appropriate for the musicians to just wing it. No, the Lord is worthy of our best. But please hear me, that the Lord is not impressed by the level of your excellence in the end, it's the humble and contrite heart that the Lord will not despise. Don't ever think your excellence or your giftedness in any way is a replacement for humility and holiness.

And so, here's this lady who just lets herself in, approaches the table which would have been seen as something strange to do, a lady that everybody would be laughing at and snickering, "Why is she here?" And yet, she begins to cry a humble display of worship. Church, please remember, in the end, God's people should be marked by humility and by holiness, not skill.

At our church, my wife and I have been privileged to be members of next month, we'll finish year 24, which is kind of hard to believe, so much time has passed. But in those 24 years, there's a man that comes to my mind. He's been there longer than I've been there, an older man, a very senior saint in our church, and he's served in a lot of ways in our church. He's a dear man, I love him. And when he sings, he sings with all of his heart. And some people sing with great excellence, and he sings with all of his heart, if you get me. In 24 years, when there's a song that has a rest in it, I've never heard him abide by the rest. Next phrase, no matter what, we're just plowing through.

And the song is – like me when he sings, I never found myself limited by what key we're singing in. One key is so – it's just so limiting, I'll just pick any key, it's fine with me. The friend I'm talking about much the same way. He sings kind of loud, often off key, rarely on time. But he loves the Lord, and he's been faithful in his life through lots of heartache. And I assure you, his cry of humble worship is pleasing to the Lord. I believe with all of my heart that Christ is worthy of our best, but don't ever confuse excellence as a replacement for humility. And we see that in our text today.

A Condemnation of Mercy

There's a third thing we see in verse 39, not only a contrast of two sinners, a cry of humble worship. Notice in verse 39, "a condemnation of mercy, a condemnation of mercy." Not everybody responds well to the reality of mercy.

Look at verse 39: "Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, He would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.'" In other words, the Pharisee, Simon here, says, "We know who this lady is. We know her reputation. We know her lifestyle. We know how unwelcome she is. And if Jesus was really somebody special, if this was really the Messiah, He should know who she is. And if He knew who she was, there's no way He would accept worship from her." It's the grace that Jesus shows her that offends the Pharisee. It's the reality that Jesus would dare to welcome the outcast that so angers the religious man.

And you need to know that when you share the gospel, both of these responses are going to be present. Praise God, you'll share the gospel some; and like the lady, they will humble themselves because of the work of the Holy Spirit, and they will confess and repent and believe and cling to Christ. And there will be others who will be so convinced they don't need forgiveness, they will be offended that God would forgive those people, whoever those people may be.

So, when you share the gospel and you share it with the lady, it's a beautiful thing to watch somebody who was convinced they were too far removed to be even able for God's grace to reach them. It's a lovely thing when somebody responds with just humble repentance and humble worship. But just understand that the next time you share the gospel, you may be sharing with the Pharisee in the story who is so convinced they're so good and so righteous and so clean on their own they don't even think they need grace; and if they don't need grace, they're not real interested in someone in their eyes beneath them receiving it either.

But dear friends, if you think that you can ever be religious enough or obedient enough where you do not need grace, you have missed the gospel, and you need to let the truth of the gospel fall on you and humble you and remind you that no matter how religious you may be, your only hope of salvation is the grace of Jesus Christ. And if you're here this morning and you're more like the outcast and you've convinced yourself somehow that you're just too much of a sinner, you keep coming to church because you're trying, but in your heart you're still running from the gospel because you've convinced yourself that you're too far gone for God's grace to save you, you too need the gospel to fall on you so that you can understand that God's grace reaches the outcast. That's the hope that we have.

Verses 40 to 50 is the fourth part of the story and that's "the calling to eternal life." We'll leave that for your preacher next Lord's Day. But as we wrap up this morning, let me share with you a few implications from this first part of the story that I want you to have clear in your mind as we leave this.

Number one, "The affirmation of the world is no indication of heaven's approval. The affirmation of the world is no indication of heaven's approval." This Pharisee would be a man that would be known, respected, trusted, and would be surrounded by people who would convince him that he's doing just fine. But the affirmation of the world is not an indication of heaven's approval. Conversely, when the lady comes to talk to Jesus and pour out her worship on Jesus, the Pharisee would have looked at her and thought, "You don't belong here."

So, just understand that, that when you give your life to Christ, when the Holy Spirit takes you from spiritual death to spiritual life, just don't expect the world to applaud you or affirm you or even really be interested in what you've done, because the world is going to be convinced that they don't need grace; and you who talk about grace, you're the weak ones who need some crutch to lean on. Well, in one sense, I've got to give it to the world that there is something in that that they are right about: we do need to lean on God's grace, not because we're weak, because, according to Ephesians 2, we're dead, and apart from the grace of Jesus Christ we would have no hope.

But here's the good news, the second implication, number two, "Sinners are the only kind of people Jesus saves." If today you hear the gospel but your conclusion is you're too much of a sinner, just understand sinners are the only kind of people Jesus saves. Luke 5, you studied this just a while ago here, in verses 30 to 32, the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" Verse 31, And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." The good news, my friends, is that Jesus saves sinners.

Third, "Jesus does know who you are, and that is what makes His forgiveness amazing and sufficient." He does know who you are. The Pharisee in our story says, "If this man were really a prophet, He would have known who she was and what she's done." Well, here's the truth. Jesus did know who she was, and Jesus does know who you are, and the fact that He would save you by His grace shows how amazing and sufficient His grace is. It's amazing because we are worse sinners than we even know.

I mean, if I were to ask you today to list all of your sin, you, I'm sure, all of us in this room, could come up with a pretty lengthy list. But even at that, you would only share the sins that you can remember. You would only share the sins that you recognize. What about all the sins you don't even recall? What about all the times you've done something right, but you did it selfishly? What about all the times where you actually did something in the church and served in the church, but deep down, your motive was for people to notice you not glorify Christ? And you may not even recognize that as sin because our pride can be so subtle that sometimes we don't even notice it.

What I'm saying is that you're a worse sinner than you think you are, and so am I. And what makes grace amazing isn't just that Christ has forgiven the sins that you can think of right now, it's that in grace He's forgiven all of your sin which is far worse than you even know. But His grace isn't just amazing, it's also sufficient, sufficient because there's no other work required or necessary to bring salvation to your soul. For Jesus to say, "Come to Me, and I will give you rest," is an unbelievable statement, that only Christ Himself can forgive you; and if He has forgiven you, nothing else is required.

Fourth, "Pride will keep you from living out your mission. Pride will keep you from living out your mission." The Pharisee's problem, at least one of them in the story, is pride. He thought that his title, his family, his standing, his background, his heritage, he thought surely that would be sufficient, and his pride kept him from repenting.

That sadly gets played out in churches every Lord's Day all over the world. People who will come to church for any number of reasons, hear the gospel, and the whole time perhaps sit there and think, "I sure hope my wife's listening to this," or, "I really wish my son was here to hear this," or, "If only my boss would get a hold of this sermon tape," – tape, you don't do tapes. If you didn't believe I was 51, there you go. Kids, ask your parents later.

When we listen to God's word being taught and our response is, "Somebody else needs this, somebody else ought to respond to this," it's pride that's blinded our eyes to understanding. No, this is for us. We're the sinner. We're the one that needs grace. And no matter how smart or devoted you may be, and no matter how committed to the church you may be, you'll never be so faithful that you've outgrown your need for the grace of Jesus Christ. It's always our only hope.

And then the last thing: "Great forgiveness leads to expressions of love and worship. Great forgiveness leads to expressions of love and worship." This lady had every reason to stay away, but something she has heard from the Lord and about the Lord has compelled her to run to the Lord. That's what grace does. Grace so transforms us from the inside out that we want to run to Christ – no matter how sinful we've been, not hiding, but running to the Lord.

Conclusion

This morning, if you don't know Christ as your Savior, I want to plead with you to run to Christ, fall at His feet, as it were, clinging to His grace and His mercy. And if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, let me remind you that we want to confess our sin often, to strive to live and walk in humility and in holiness. And the biggest reason why people who are saved stop sharing the gospel is because they become prideful thinking those who aren't in the faith yet just really aren't worthy of it. And again, I think that's probably half right: the unconverted aren't worthy of it, and neither are we. That's why it's called grace.

Imagine with me a 19-year -old son still living at home, tired of his parents' rules, tired of what he feels are the restrictions they've placed on his life, continually threatening to leave and go out and live it up on his own. And one morning after a particularly heated argument the night before, the father goes into his son's room and finds the bed empty, knowing right away the son has followed through on what he had threatened to do many times. He has packed his bags and he has run away in the middle of the night.

The father fearing for the life and safety of his son knowing that he is in a very dark place decides to grab his wallet and his keys, and he gets in the car and he takes a picture of himself and goes to one of the old-fashioned drug stores where you could still get a picture and have copies of it made, and he gets many copies of the picture of himself made. He goes throughout the city for the next several days, can't find his son, so he decides to take a picture of himself, and he puts it in the bars in town in the bathrooms, puts it in the cheapest motels in the lobbies, even puts it on signs outside.

A few days turn to weeks, and eventually the son who just a couple of weeks ago was full of anger and energy now finds himself completely out of money and completely out of hope. One night coming out of the bar, suppose he looks at the window, or the wall, as he's leaving, and he has spent his last cent, and he has used up his only remaining ounce of hope; he can't get any lower. But as he leaves, he pushes the door open and he sees a picture of his dad. He thinks to himself, "Why is there a picture of my father on this window of the door?" And so he takes the picture and pulls it off and he can see behind the picture bleeding through, there is writing on it. Recognizing the penmanship that was his father's, he looked at the back and he looks at the picture of the face of his dad and reads the words his dad has written, "Whatever you have done and whatever you've become, just come home. Whatever you've done, whatever you've become, just come home."

This is how grace works. You don't make yourself presentable first. You don't try to do everything you can to earn your salvation, and then when you run out see what Christ can add. Here's the message of the gospel: We are all sinners. We have all fallen short of God's glory. The wages of our sin is death and judgment. But God, who is rich in grace and rich in mercy, sent His only Son. Ad His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, tempted and tried just as we, yet without sin, lived a perfect life that we could not live, died a substitutionary death that should have been ours, and on the cross, taking upon His shoulders our sin, receiving Himself the wrath of God poured out for our sin, and He says, "All who would call upon My name shall be saved."

Whatever you've done and whatever you've become, just cling to Christ, and then spend the rest of your life letting people who think they're too good or fear they're too bad either way know the truth that our God still saves. And when you get to heaven one day as a believer, no one in heaven is looking for a mirror to see a reflection of himself to think, "Look what I earned." No, in that moment – you know the question you've had in your mind secretly, you've maybe never asked out loud, "Is heaven going to get boring?" Understand this: on that day when better than ever before you recognize how amazing His grace really is, you'll be thankful that you have all eternity to give praise to the only one worthy, the Savior who forgave your sin and has made you His own and brought you home where you belong.

[Prayer] Lord we are grateful for Your word today, and we pray that You would use it to convict proud hearts, encourage weak hearts, strengthen the legs that are feeble, bring to life hearts that are dead. We declare our need for Your grace, our dependence upon You, recognizing how imperfect we are, how sinful we are, but forever amazed, forever amazed that You would send Your Son to die in our place, to pay for our sin, that for all eternity where You are, by grace, we will be also. And for that, this morning, we give you praise, in Christ's name. Amen.