dcrau002078002.wav / James T. Cleland - "What Is This Christian Faith?"; Maldwyn Edwards - "God's Strategy" (October 1... / Duke Digital Repository

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♪ Praise thee oh Lord, the almighty ♪

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♪ Praise thee oh Lord ♪

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Let us offer unto God our unison prayer of confession.

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Let us pray.

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Almighty and most merciful God,

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who knows the thoughts of our hearts,

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we confess that we have sinned against thee

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and done evil in thy sight.

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Forgive us oh Lord, we beseech thee,

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and cleanse us from the defilement of our sin.

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Give us grace and power,

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and put away all hurtful things,

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that being the liberated from evil,

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we may persevere in the way of thy righteousness

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all the days of our life,

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through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

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And now as our savior Christ have taught us,

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we humbly pray together, saying,

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our father who art in heaven,

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hollowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,

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thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread,

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and forgive us our trespasses,

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as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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For thine is the kingdom, and the power,

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and the glory forever, Amen.

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The lesson is taken from Psalm 51,

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the first 17 verses of the 51st Psalm.

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"Have mercy on me, oh God,

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according to thy loving kindness,

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according to the multitude of thy tender mercies,

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blot out my transgressions.

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Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,

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and cleanse me from my sin.

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For I acknowledge my transgressions,

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and my sin is ever before me.

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Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,

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and done that which is evil in thy sight,

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that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,

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and be clear when thou judgest.

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Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,

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and in sin did my mother conceive me.

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Thou desirest truth in the inward parts,

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and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

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Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean,

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wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

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Make me to hear joy and gladness,

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that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

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Hide thy face from my sins,

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and blot out all mine iniquities.

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Create in me a clean heart, oh God,

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and renew a right spirit within me.

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Cast me not away from thy presence,

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and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

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Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,

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and uphold me with thy free spirit.

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Then will I teach transgressors thy ways,

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and sinners shall be turned again unto thee.

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Deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God,

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thou God of my salvation,

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and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

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Oh Lord, open thou my lips,

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and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

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For thou desirest not sacrifice,

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else would I give it, thou delightest not in burnt offering.

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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

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a broken and a contrite heart, Oh God,

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thou wilt not despise."

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May God bless to us this reading from his word,

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and to his name, be the glory forever, Amen.

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♪ Amen ♪

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The Lord be with you.

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Congregation

And with your spirit.

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Let us pray.

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Oh God, who are infinite, eternal, and unchangeable,

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glorious in holiness, full of love and compassion,

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abundant in grace and truth,

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All thy works praise thee in all places of thy dominion,

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and thy glory is revealed in Jesus Christ thy son,

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wherefore we praise thee,

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

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one God, blessed forever.

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Our father in heaven, give us thankful hearts

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as we gladly recall thy continued goodness toward us.

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We thank thee for all thy gifts to thy children,

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for health, recreation, and refreshment,

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for interest in our work and power to do it,

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for all progress in things for which we care,

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for the companionship of fellow Christians,

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for all who have helped us

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with spiritual guidance or correction,

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for the unity of those who live in the spirit,

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for the pardon of our sins

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and the inspiration of thy presence.

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Thanks be to thee, oh God, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Oh God, our shepherd, give to the church

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a new vision and a new charity,

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new wisdom and fresh understanding,

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the revival of her brightness and the renewal of her unity,

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that the eternal message of thy son,

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undefiled by the traditions of men,

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may be hailed as the good news of the new age,

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through him who maketh all things knew,

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even Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Eternal God, in whom is our health and peace,

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how may we utter our need of thee.

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Our minds need thee to give them poise.

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Our will need thee to give them strength.

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Our hearts need thee to give them quiet.

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Oh thou, who understands us better than we do ourselves,

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grant unto us a healing, heartening consciousness

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of thy presence,

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as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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And the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

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be with us all evermore.

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Amen.

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♪ Amen ♪

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Oh, thou giver of every good and perfect gift,

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accept these, the offerings of thy children,

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which they return to thee with glad hearts,

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in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Amen.

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My sin is ever before me, Psalm 51,

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part of verse three.

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My sin is ever before me.

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How do you explain the universal charm

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of the Negro Spiritual?

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It depends in part upon the simplicity of the words.

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It depends in part on the melancholy of the tune.

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But its major attraction is that it speaks

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a universal message to every waiting heart.

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Now there is one spiritual that seems to me

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relevant especially to the world in which we live.

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It's not my father, or my mother, or my sister,

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or my brother, but it's me, oh Lord,

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standing in the need of prayer.

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All of us have a genius for making excuses.

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All of us are able to hide from God.

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One of my friends in England is a prison chaplain.

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It's his duty every week to go around the prison cells,

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not precisely to make the men feel at home,

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but at least to make them feel that they have a friend.

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And he says that when he has completed his round,

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one might suppose that all the guilty people went outside,

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and all the innocent people went inside.

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So great is their facility for making excuse.

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But that isn't just the case with the prisoner,

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it's the case with us all.

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I heard of a song a few years ago in which a modern girl

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was confessing to misdemeanors in every verse.

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And in the chorus, she said,

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"But it's not my fault, it's just my glands."

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Now, when we have got this ability to hide from God,

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we are never able to feel the cutting edge of religion.

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God offers strength.

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But if we are not conscious of our weakness,

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why should we turn to God for strength?

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God offers grace.

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But if we are not conscious of our helplessness,

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why should we turn to God for grace?

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There are so many people who never truly know

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the power and dynamic of religion,

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because they never,

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never feel their need of God.

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But obviously, it's only when desperately

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we realize our urgent need of God

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that God can come to us and our whole life be transformed.

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How is he to do it?

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How can he push behind all our excuses,

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all our defense mechanisms

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until at last we are cornered?

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And we cry out, "It's not my father,

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or my mother, or my sister, or my brother,

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but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer."

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What is the strategy of God?

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Whereby, first of all, he can bring conviction

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in order that later, he may bring life.

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Well, in the strategy of God, first of all,

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there is the way of an awakened conscience.

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Once upon a time, a king looked out

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and he saw a beautiful woman.

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And desired that woman for himself.

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And so he sent her husband

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into the hottest part of the battlefield.

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And Uriah the Hittite was killed.

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And David took Bathsheba and made her his wife.

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And because he was king, there was no one

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in all the kingdom to say him nay.

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No one except the (indistinct) of Nathan the prophet.

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He pushed his way through the streets of Jerusalem,

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he came to the palace of the king,

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he demanded audience.

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And David said petulantly,

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"Well, Nathan, what is it?"

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And Nathan said, "I have a story to tell you."

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And David said, "Speak on."

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And Nathan said there was a rich man,

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a man who possessed great flocks and herds.

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And one day he looked out and he saw a poor man

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who only possessed one little ewe lamb.

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And although his possessions were so great,

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he had no ease of mind until he had robbed

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the poor man of the one ewe lamb.

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What should be done to that rich man?

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The eyes of David flashed,

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and his anger burnt hot within him,

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and he said, "The man must die."

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And Nathan extended his long and bony forefinger,

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and he said in measured tones,

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"Thou art the man."

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And in that moment of awakened conscience,

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in that moment of spiritual agony,

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David had no further excuses.

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He was driven by God's strategy into God's corner.

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He turned like a wounded animal at bay.

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And he looked into the face of love.

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For when he knew that he was a sinner,

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he found in God, a savior.

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My sin is ever before me,

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wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

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Because he came in penitence,

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he found the releasing power of God.

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Now, I was told when I began my ministry,

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always to push behind the accidentals of a congregation,

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behind their status in life.

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And to remember that in every single case,

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I preach to a congregation of sinners.

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And this morning, I preach to those

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who have sinned desperately.

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It's true, of course, that the outside world is kind to us.

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They do not fast nor guilt upon us.

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They accept us in their casual, easy, and indulgent fashion.

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And even our very friends can be all too kind.

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Very rarely does the frosty light

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come into the eye.

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All too readily, they are willing to accept us

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at our own valuation.

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A man can escape from the cloud,

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a man can escape from his friends,

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but a man can never escape from himself.

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You remember John (indistinct) where this play

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of the escaped convict who cried out,

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"I may escape from others, but never from myself."

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When we've done wrong in thought,

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or word, or deed,

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there are the bogus that keep us awake at night,

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and the furies that pursue us by day.

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Outwardly, we seem to be all right.

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Inwardly, we know that we fallen short of the glory of God.

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And when there comes the moment of guilt,

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when there is the overwhelming sense of shame,

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when by God's strategy,

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we are visited by God himself,

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so that it is he who driving us into a corner,

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then comes the difference between one man and the next.

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For one man surveys his bruises,

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and he shrugs his shoulders,

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and he goes off whistling into the darkness.

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But another man recognizes that this is God's visitation,

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realizes by the pain of an awakened conscience

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that he's got no excuse, no defense.

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And because he knows he is at bay,

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he swings round and looks into the face of God.

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And it is mercy, bountiful mercy

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that is written there.

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For if anyone in this congregation

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who has sinned and who knows their sin,

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and who, even as they listen to me,

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are conscious of an inward shame,

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I am commissioned by almighty God to say to you

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that if you are ready in penitence

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to confess that sin,

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he is ready and able to forgive your sin

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and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

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So that when you are convicted of being a sinner,

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you may find in God, a savior.

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And the first way is the way of an awakened conscience.

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But there is a second way

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by which God accomplishes his ends,

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fulfills his immemorial plan,

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passes the low lintel of the human heart.

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And the second way is the way of life's inadequacy.

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Once upon a time, there was a young man,

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and he left his father's home without a single thought

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of what the father had done.

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He sought the shining city beyond the rim

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of the distant hills.

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He would fulfill himself.

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And he came to the far country.

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And whilst he had money, he had friends.

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And the days passed quickly.

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But his money went, his friends went,

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and he found himself reduced to seeking employment

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even as a swine herd.

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And one day as he stirred moodily at the pigs,

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as they grunted in their swill,

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he said, "Enough, enough, I was never meant for this."

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In his despair, in his disillusionment,

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he realized the things that this life can give

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and the things that this life can never give.

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As he stared at the pigs, he recognized

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that if he was to know a peace passing understanding,

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and the power to make him stronger than the strong,

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and the joy that nothing could disturb,

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he must get back to the father's home.

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And so he turned his back on the pigs,

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that he might turn his face to the father.

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There is no doubting the fact

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that we live in a technically marvelous age.

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We who especially live in America

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are those who have become the spoiled children of fortune.

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We have so many toys

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that are tossed unto our lap.

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And the great heresy is to suppose

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that the pound or the dollar can buy us all that we need,

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so that when we get bigger and better automobiles,

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or TV sets, or houses, or what would you,

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then we shall come into our El Dorado,

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into the land of heart's desire.

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Let us have that in greater abundance

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and we shall ask no more.

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There could not be a more piteous

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travesty of living.

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Not very long ago, I saw a large woman,

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and in her arms, there was a little lap dog,

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an odious creature.

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I protest to you a hateful little creature.

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It was brushed, and combed,

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and shampooed.

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And there was a little coatee

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on its odious little back.

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And in a moment of wild imagining,

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I was able to reconstruct its life's history.

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It would have the central part

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in front of the fire.

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It would be kept free from all the drafts.

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It would be fed on the choicest morsels.

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It would know a pet dog's paradise.

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And if we are the pet dogs of creation,

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feed us, clothe us, warm us, keep us secure,

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and we shall ask for nothing else.

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But if we are not poodles, but men,

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if trailing clouds of glory

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do we come from God who is our home,

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if the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord,

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if eternity has been set in our heart,

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if we are made in the divine image,

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then when you've done everything,

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we are still poverty stricken

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and bankrupt without the riches of God's grace.

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And in the strategy of God, sooner or later,

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not by the eloquence of the preacher,

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but by the bludgeonings of life, men come to know it.

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With all the material prosperity

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of a America and of Western Europe,

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there never was a time

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when our mental hospitals were so full.

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There never was a time when our psychiatrists

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were doing such a roaring business.

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There never was a time when the word frustration

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was so freely used.

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We have got everything and we possess nothing.

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Because there are certain things

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that the far country can never give.

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It can never supply a way to tread,

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nor power to tread it, nor the lights of home

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at the end of the journey.

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And sooner or later in the strategy of God,

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a man comes to know life's inadequacy.

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One of our writers have said that history

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is the long deferred term of repentance.

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It's not just true of nations, it's true of men.

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Sooner or later we know the hollowness

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of a space time order.

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We know the things it can never supply

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are the things that most we need.

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And in that moment of disillusionment,

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we are only one step from God.

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If we like, we can continue in our despair,

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continuing our boredom,

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continuing our disillusionment

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until the little play is over

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and we pass out from the stage.

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But if we will,

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we can take our own inner restlessness

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as a sign of God's strategy.

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We can turn from the pigs,

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that we may turn to the father.

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There's only one instance in the whole of the Bible,

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when under a figure of speech,

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we're told that God was running,

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when God was in a hurry.

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When at last the prodigal son came back,

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the father ran halfway to meet him.

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And if there are those of you

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who, recognizing the limitations

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of this life,

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are ready to come back home,

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God in this service will come halfway

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to meet you.

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Well, there's the way of awakened conscience

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and the way of life's inadequacy.

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The third way of God's strategy

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is the way of the thunder and the lightning.

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Once upon a time, there was a jailer,

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an ordinary jailer, a commonplace jailer,

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a conscientious jailer.

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The jailer, a Philippi.

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And when he got home one night, his wife said to him,

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"Well, my dear, has anything happened specially today?

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And he said, "Woman, you're always asking that question.

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You know perfectly well that nothing ever happens

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to a jailer."

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But she said, "Didn't you have any new prisoners?"

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"Oh," he said, "as far as that's concerned, yes,

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we had two troublesome fellows.

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One was called Paul and one was called Silas.

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And because they were so dangerous,

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I had to put them in my best dungeon and keep them fast."

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And now he said, "Woman you've asked enough.

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Give me my food and let me be."

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And being a wise wife, she knew that she would receive

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no further information.

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So she gave him his food and he went to bed.

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He was a nice fellow,

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he was an amiable fellow,

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he was a good natured fellow.

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But only two things that he didn't know,

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the two most important things in the world.

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He supposed that one day was like another day.

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And he supposed that one man was like another man.

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And that very night, God took his education in hand.

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The heavens stooped down to the earth,

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and the earth raised itself up to the heavens,

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and in the convulsions of nature, for the first time,

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the jailer recognized the immensity of all created things,

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that there were some questions he could not answer,

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some days that were not like other days.

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And with a new humility, he went to the prison.

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And the second half of his lesson was taught him.

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Because when he got to the prison,

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he found that the earthquake had shattered the doors,

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shattered the chains.

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The prisoners could escape.

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And then, (speaks in foreign language),

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then in his amazement,

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he saw that there are some prisoners

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who will not escape.

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And he realized that one man is not like another man,

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that there are immensities in human nature

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that no jailer can comprehend.

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Now, we're decent people, we are nice people,

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we're amiable people, God knows we are good natured people.

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But we make two profound mistakes.

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We suppose that one day is like another day.

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We suppose that one man is like another man.

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We have been taught to believe that thanks to science,

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we have an answer to the universe,

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we are able to harness its forces,

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we can discover its secrets,

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God is no longer needed.

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And in the same way, we have been taught

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that one man is like another man.

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A man can be summed up

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in terms of his complexes,

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his instincts, his repressions,

53:50

so that you can have a map of the human spirit.

53:54

The theologian has been bowed out

53:59

in order that the psychiatrist may come in.

54:03

And we are taught that there is nothing mysterious,

54:07

nothing frightening about the human spirit.

54:13

And by God's strategy, sooner or later,

54:20

we are taught the most significant lesson in life.

54:26

We are brought to understand

54:32

that one day is not like another day,

54:36

that in the immensities of nature,

54:40

our minds are baffled and bewildered,

54:44

as a little child that cries piteously in a great void.

54:48

And in the same fashion,

54:54

we sooner all later come to know

54:57

that you cannot standardize men.

55:03

You cannot label them.

55:07

In the same newspaper, there is the story

55:11

of one man's incredible lust.

55:16

And in the next column, the story

55:20

of a man's incredible heroism.

55:24

Indeed, they could belong to one and the same man,

55:27

so complex is human nature.

55:32

And when in God's strategy, sooner of later,

55:37

by the thunder and the lightning,

55:40

by life's lessons in pain, and sorrow, and need,

55:43

we know the immensity of nature

55:48

and the immensity of human nature.

55:53

Then, like the jailer, a Philippi,

55:56

we fall down trembling on our knees,

56:00

and like him, we say, "What must I do?

56:03

What must I do?

56:07

What must I do to be saved?"

56:10

There is no man who is big enough

56:15

to tread life's pathless way alone.

56:20

And sooner or later, God confounds us with his majesty,

56:25

with his thunder and lightning,

56:31

so that we fall down without excuse,

56:34

without delay.

56:39

It's not my father, or my mother,

56:42

or my sister, or my brother,

56:48

but it's me, oh Lord,

56:53

standing in the need of prayer.

56:56

And when we come to that sublime moment,

57:01

standing in the need of prayer,

57:08

there is only one prayer that will ever come to our lips.

57:12

Come, Lord Jesus, come, Lord Jesus.

57:18

Even so, come quickly.

57:23

And when we say that to God, he never,

57:27

never keeps us waiting.

57:32

Amen.

57:37

Let us pray.

57:38

The congregation will stand.

57:48

Oh God our Father, teach us to know our complete

57:52

and utter need of thee.

57:59

And as we come in all our helplessness,

58:01

do thou come to us in all the sufficiency of thy grace.

58:05

And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,

58:10

and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

58:14

be with us all this day and evermore.

58:18

Amen.

58:25

(uplifting music)

58:26

(choir sings indistinctly)

58:31

(church bell ringing)

59:59

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