, I would like to ask you to join me in prayer as we ask the Lord to bless our study of His word here this morning. Pray with me, please. My dear gracious heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you right now. We acknowledge the fact that you are present, that there is no place that we can go from where we can escape your presence.
We acknowledge the fact, Lord, that you are holy. That Father God, you are just absolutely unique in all of your ways that you are set apart and totally other. You are holy, and yet, Lord, we know that you have drawn near to us, Lord, that you have reached out to us, and we come to you, Lord, not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ through the shed blood of Christ, through the cross, Lord, we come to you, we approach your throne boldly, Lord, and we ask that you would extend to us sanctifying grace, that you would extend to us. Instructing grace, that Lord, you would convict us if needs be with your grace, that Lord, you would build us up and establish us.
In your words, upon the gospel, Lord, by your grace, we are asking, Lord, for much grace because we need it, and I confess to you, Lord, the fact that I sin and come short of your glory, and that ultimately at the end of the day, Lord, I am in desperate need of you, that you might minister through me, your unworthy servant, to my brothers and sisters who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Minister to them through your word as we continue on in our series. A call to mercy. We ask these things for your glory and for the advancement of your kingdom for our sanctification.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, if any of you happen to be new with us this morning, just by way of a really fast review, I want you to know that we are in the midst of a sermon series called A Call to Mercy. There are 6 messages, and the first message, which was given about 3 weeks back, was called The Gospel Call to Mercy....
