Christ’s Dying For The Ungodly

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on Lord’s Day Evening, 15th September, 2019

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”—Romans 5:6

If you read God’s Holy Word, and I believe most (I hope all) of you do, you will know that it says in various places things like this: ‘Christ died for His sheep.’ Or, ‘Christ died for the members of His mystical body.’ ‘Christ died for the election of grace.’ All those things are true. But our text, and you will understand what I mean when I say this; our text goes right down to the very bedrock of where grace finds a sinner. All that can be said about him when He finds him is this word “ungodly.” In God’s purposes he may be elect; he will be elect if God saves him. To be numbered among the sheep, yes. To be a member of His mystical body, yes. But, in the experience of this sinner as yet, all that can be said about him or her is that he is “ungodly.”

Now, I am thankful, dear friends, for two ways why it is put like that. One is that it is a reminder to us who humbly hope we are subjects of grace that we have nothing to boast of. We should remember “the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged,” as the Word of God says; the quarry that God hewed us from by His Word and separated us from what we once were by nature.

But, more importantly tonight, I am so thankful that this word comes so low for those who dare not put themselves among the elect, those who cannot call themselves sheep and for those who do not feel to be lambs. They cannot speak about being members of Christ’s mystical body, but this one thing they know, perhaps the only thing they can say they know before God this evening hour; is that they feel to be ungodly. There was a time they did not even feel that. But now they feel it. And it is a solemn feeling, as well. It is an awesome feeling, because they recognize that there is something in them that is antipathetic to God Himself. Their very nature is something that the God with whom now they have to do cannot approve, cannot compromise with and has no love for. Later in Romans, Paul describes it more minutely: “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Thus, dear friends, unless and until grace touches our heart we are at war with no lesser Person than God Himself: our Creator, our Judge, the One who has our eternal destiny in His hand: heaven or hell. How solemn to be at war with such! And friends, usually when there are wars between men, there are faults on both sides. Usually, as wars proceed, even though they may be just wars, there is a lot of evil done on both sides which leaves a nasty scar. But, in this warfare, all the right is on God’s side, and all the wrong is on the side of the sinner. Remember that. ‘Yes,’ you say, ‘but I was born like that, therefore I am excusable.’ The word of God tells you that is not the case. You are inexcusable, and so am I. If you look right down into your heart this evening hour, into that old nature, that part of you I am trying to describe at the moment, be honest, there is that in you that loves the things that God hates, and hates the things that God loves. Be honest. Get right down to bedrock truth, as the old preachers used to say about what you and I are by nature.

Now, man, as we read in Ephesians is unconcerned about this when he is born. He is “dead in trespasses and sins.” A dead person cannot hear, cannot see, cannot feel, cannot move and cannot respond. The sun may shine, but he feels no warmth. The snow may fall, but he feels no cold. The wind may blow, but he feels no effect whatsoever. He is totally oblivious to that which is going on around him. So by nature, is the sinner born into this sin-cursed earth. The wind of the gospel may blow, but it has no effect. The law may sound its trumpet: “the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” but it has no effect. Preachers may try to preach the law and the gospel, and we do try as the Lord may help us. But still such remain as hard as the seat they may sit upon. Their hearts are not changed, nor are their lives. And we were like that ourselves, we have no stones to throw. Do not think I am preaching at you. I am just telling you, dear friends, how things are.

And, this is a solemn thing, God would be perfectly just to have left you and me in that condition and at last consigned us to eternal misery. God is a just God. There are no miscarriages of justice in God’s court. If you die in the condition I have just spoken of, there will be a solemn awakening before the Judgment Seat. You will hear the voice you would not hear, and see what you would not see, and feel what you would not feel. Solemn, awesome moment when that holy, heart- searching, rein-trying God exposes your sin from your earliest days to your dying breath! There you will stand, unpardoned, unforgiven, your sin not blotted out, like a millstone around your neck to sink you into eternal misery. “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD,” said Jeremiah in his day. And we would say the same to you tonight.

But we realise how powerless a preacher is. That does not mean we should not preach these things. God forbid that we should cease to warn and to declare to you the whole counsel of God. But bless God for the word ‘grace.’ God has a wonderful ability, a blessed determination to open the eyes of sinners whom He is determined to save; to open their eyes to this solemn condition they were born in. He brings them under what is called ‘the Law.’ “The Law of God” – not the changing, fickle law of man that is adapted to man’s fallen nature to condone sin. That is the general rule in society today. God’s law does not change. God’s law is like God Himself: immutable, unchangeable. He is a holy God, and He is not going to lower His standards to adapt to fallen nature. And, when the law comes with its opened book, and opens your understanding of what it requires of you in thought as well as word and deed: a holiness, a purity, an innocency, a sincerity, a godliness that you have not got, then, dear friends, you begin to realise the solemnity of having a never dying soul, an eternity to face and not being ready for it.

“The law as loud as thunder cries, “The soul that sins against Me, dies.”

W. Gadsby

Not annihilated, not ceasing to exist, but that word ‘perish.’ Solemn word! The perishing state is the state of the bottomless abyss where sinners are continually perishing, but never ceasing to perish. It is an eternal experience for the lost. We must declare these things, and those that are awakened by the Spirit know a little of it. The Holy Ghost examines their heart; examines that religion they might have professed and found it to be nothing more than a cloak of hypocrisy. There was formality, there was regular going to the House of God, but it covered up a life inwardly that was corrupt. And if you are honest, your life showed signs of it. The Law exposes what we are, and goes to the hidden corners of the heart and brings it to the light. Friends, it is not just a work that begins in the beginning of the work of grace, but it carries on. And those of you who have been in the way of faith many years now, let me ask you a question: are you less of a sinner now than when you first learnt what it was to be a sinner? I think you would have to say: ‘No. I am more of a sinner than ever before. I have learned more of my old nature; more of what it is capable of; more of what it could do if the Lord did not put restraint upon it.’ And sometimes you tremble. You tremble lest you should be left to what you know is there beneath the surface of your carnal mind and natural man.

There are three things, dear friends, that this knowledge will bring into your life. First of all you will begin to examine those places and those things; that company you have been keeping and the way you have been behaving as to see whether it is consistent now with this holy Law that you have come face to face with. And, though it will not make you popular, and your worldly friends will not pat you on the back for it, your conscience will speak. It has now been awakened by the Holy Spirit. There are things you will not now be able to do or say that you did or said before. You will not be a Pharisee; you will not suggest you are better than others. The very voice of conscience will say that the fear of the Lord forbids as well as encourages.

“An unctuous light to all that’s right, A bar to all that’s wrong.”

J. Hart

And, although at first it may be a hidden work that none know anything about, sooner or later it comes to the surface. There is a change that God has made. But, all the while, this sinner I am speaking of, feels to be nothing other than ungodly. He looks at his thoughts, and he finds he cannot control them. He cannot marshal them to be pure, holy and upright thoughts. They go hither and thither and are drawn aside in a moment by sin and by Satan. He looks to his profession. Perhaps he has been known as a believer by his workmates or his friends. But he finds, when all is said and done, there was nothing in his profession that was really the fruit of faith; something else was at the root of it. All these things and many other things come into the life of this sinner I am describing.

Of course, there are those who have not been brought up in the things of God like most of us here have. When the Holy Ghost begins to work in their hearts, they come to the same conclusion that you are coming to: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” You will find, dear friends, that your heart begins to ache and long for the answer to this question: ‘How can such an ungodly man as I am, in thought and word and deed, whose history is nothing but a history of filthy rags, whose present and future, if left to myself would be no different, how is it possible that such a sinner as I can ever be saved?’ Is there anyone who came to Chapel like that tonight? It seems an utter impossibility, almost beyond the scope of God’s Holy Word. And here is God’s answer to you tonight: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” If you have nothing else to plead tonight, then take that word back to the God who wrote it. Say: ‘Lord, here is a poor man who is nothing else but ungodly in thought and word and deed. I have nothing to boast of and nothing to present in any way of works for salvation. I am dependent upon this One who in due time died for such as me.’

“For sinners, Lord, Thou cam’st to bleed; 

And I’m a sinner vile indeed;

Lord, I believe, Thy grace is free,

O magnify that grace in me.”

J. Hart

So, here is the first part of our text: for whom did Christ die? The ungodly, those born in sin and “shapen in iniquity,” those who are “dead in trespasses and sins,” those who are in love with this dying world, those who are hating the things that God loves and love the things that God hates. Such are the ones that God has plucked “as a firebrand plucked out of the burning.” So much so, that when Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth he could speak to those believers and they saw the evils around them: “And such were some of you.”

As ye are chosen from the rest, To grace the praise is due.”

J. Kent

Yes. “And such were some of you.” “Christ died for the ungodly.”

Now, dear friends, the ungodly that Christ died for are not left ungodly. Do not think that it is enough to know that you are ungodly and think that is enough to take you to heaven. If you are a child of God, being dealt with like this, you will want to know the remedy for the disease that is being exposed; the answer to the debt that hangs around your neck like a millstone. Your life is hastening on. Eternity is before you. The Judgment seat is not far away from any one of us. This world is a passing phenomenon. Soon we will be gone, and then, O then – eternity! And the Lord knows just how to bring you to it. He could put a blight on your prospects, your home, your family, your business; not unkindly, but to remind you that when all is said and done, if you want to be among the godly in glory, here you have “no continuing city,” but you seek one to come.

My mind goes to a dear relative I buried on Tuesday in Bethersden, the late Mrs Everal Dawson. There is something that she told us that happened in her life that I found very revealing. In 1976 there was a terrible drought. Some of us remember it. From around May through to September, there was not a drop of rain. And the earth cried out for rain. The house where she and her husband lived, Claremont, was about twenty feet from the boundary where there was a long row of poplar trees. These poplar trees, of course, in the drought were searching for water, so their roots went out much further than they would have usually done. They went right under Claremont and caused subsidence.

She told one of my brothers that they lay in bed and could hear the walls cracking as the roots went under the foundations. Of course, it meant that something had to be done. But the point I want to make is this. She stood in her kitchen one day and felt so depressed. And it was very depressing. Literally, the house was collapsing around them. What was to be done? Then the Lord spoke. He said this: ‘Taking’ “joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” She said: ‘I forgot my house. I could leave it. I could leave this world! I had a better and an enduring substance.’

Now, that, dear friends, is what the Lord is teaching this ungodly person whom I am trying to describe this evening. This world is not your home; its ungodliness is not your home any longer. There is a home waiting for this sinner whom God is teaching. But you will go there as a trophy of redeeming love and mercy. Free grace, and free grace alone will do it, as nothing else can. Have you tonight in heaven ‘’a better an enduring substance’ than you have here below? More than your bank balance, more than your loved ones, more than your career, more than all you find good and pleasant to your flesh this evening hour? All that will soon be lost in the grave. But you want more than that. You have just sung of it:

“To know my Jesus crucified,

By far excels all things beside; 

All earthly good I count but loss,

And triumph in my Saviour’s cross.”

Come back to this man I am describing; the ungodly. What has Christ done for him? While he was yet in this ungodly state: prayer- less, without praise, impenitent, unfeeling of spiritual things, wrapped up in the world, wrapped up in himself, hastening along on the broad way “that leadeth to destruction;” while he was yet ignorant of the solemn condition he was in, “in due time” – unbeknown to him – One died for him. “In due time Christ died for the ungodly.” The wonder of it! Did this man deserve it? No. Was he even wanting it? No. Did he expect it? No. Was he looking for it? No. Was he praying for it? No. But, “in due time,” God the Father sent His dearly beloved Son into this sin-cursed earth, verily God and verily Man, to lay down His lovely life a ransom price. Who for? The ungodly. What love!

“On such love, my soul, still ponder, 

Love so great, so rich, so free;

Say, whilst lost in holy wonder, 

Why, O Lord, such love to me?”

To me, “the ungodly.”

J. Kent

Well, when grace touches this sinner’s heart and shows him his ungodliness, he will want a remedy. An arrow has been shot into his heart and made a wound that only the gospel can heal. A malady has been exposed that no earthly physician can touch. He needs the best of all physicians.

“Jesus is a wise Physician,

Skilful and exceeding kind;

Through Him sinners find remission, 

And enjoy sweet peace of mind.”

R. Burnham

So, what has Christ done for the ungodly? First He who is the Son of God; equal with His heavenly Father and with the Holy Spirit: took into union with His divine Person another nature. Not an ungodly nature; God forbid you should think that. Yet, we read that He was “made like unto His brethren.” That is that He had a holy, human nature of body and soul; a temple in which to deal with this ungodly man’s sad, sorry, perishing condition. What did He do for it? He lived the life that this ungodly man did not want to live, had no desire to live and had no heart to live. That ungodly man, now, awakened by grace, desires to live and finds he cannot live, so this precious Jesus came to live it for him. The Lord Jesus voluntarily, willingly and unreservedly placed Himself under the Law to obey it, to fulfil it, to give the godliness and crown it with the godliness that it deserves. And the Lord does deserve that. If only you would remember that friends! It is not only good for society. It is more than that. It is for the honour and glory of God. Man’s chief end is to glorify God. Do you know that? That is why you are here. That is why you have a body, a soul and your faculties. You should glorify your Creator. You are not here to serve yourself, or this dying world, or the prince of darkness. You are called to serve Him who is your Creator. Of course, in our unregenerate state, we do not live like that. But, when a sinner is born again by the Holy Spirit through the free, sovereign work of the Spirit, he realises that the Law has a just demand on him to live just like that: holy, harmless, undefiled, sincere and upright: not just for a few moments, but for his whole life.

But this poor sinner realises he cannot do it. He strives, he struggles, he vows and he resolves. I think it was John Kershaw who was addicted to the ale-house and horse racing. He once made a vow that God could damn his soul if he ever got involved in those things again. And a few days later, he did get involved again. He proved that his vows and resolutions would not save his soul. And nor will yours, and nor will mine. Friends, it needs a power mightier than you can ever produce to remedy this ungodly condition you are born into. But this precious Jesus! Oh, this lovely Jesus! This One who is “altogether lovely” has spent His whole life, from His first to His last breath, fulfilling what the law demanded. Oh, the wonder of that life! What an influence the Lord Jesus was in that little home in Nazareth! He had brothers and sisters. They were born in sin and “shapen in iniquity.” I expect they quarrelled, as brothers and sisters sometimes do. I expect there were sometimes spiteful words, perhaps even physical fights, I know not; I am not going to pry too much into that little home. The Word of God does not say much about it. But they were born in sin, and He was not. What a shining light in a dark place! What an example, even in His childhood! As He grew up through adolescence there was none of the adolescent behaviour we are so used to in our day, as if it is almost an excuse for the teenage years. It is not. But He, my dear friends, set a pure, holy example. And, when He became man, how perfect He was in thought, in word and in deed! No blemish, no fault! Satan tried, with all the hellish spleen he had, to find fault with the Saviour, but he failed every time. The dear Father, looking on His dear Son could say, and still does say: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Why did He work out that righteousness? Why did He live such a life? Why did He go to such lengths? That the ungodly man I am describing in my text this evening might have a righteousness to plead, an obedience to cover him; something to cover his poor, naked soul that has been exposed by the law to see what it is: corrupt, fallen, black, vile, wretched, poor and undone.

“But since my Saviour stands between, 

In garments dyed in blood,

’Tis He, instead of me, is seen, 

When I approach to God.”

Oh, the interposition of the obedience of Christ! This is the wedding garment worn in glory above. It is the one that clothed the prodigal son when he returned home, clothed Mary Magdalene when seven devils were cast out from her and clothed the dying thief as he entered Paradise.

What else did this dear Saviour do in due season for this sinner? There was a law-debt to be paid. There was something to be done about the guilt that accrued to Him; something must be done with that. Could this poor sinner, now awakened by the Holy Ghost, pay the debt? If his tears flowed till the end of his days, would that clear it? If he spent hours on his knees wrestling in prayer, would that do it? Well, tears and prayers are good if they are the fruit of the Spirit, but they do not atone for sin.

“Could my zeal no respite know, 

Could my tears for ever flow,

All for sin could not atone;

Thou must save, and Thou alone.”

None other than the dear Lamb of God could pay the price of sin. None other than the dear Saviour could put away the guilt that belonged to His Church. Only He, and He alone was fit to put this matter right and say to the Holy Law of God: ‘I will pay it.’ Go to the Epistle of Paul to Philemon. There Paul is writing to Philemon. Onesimus had stolen money from Philemon and had run away. He had done other things, as well. But Paul says: ‘Philemon, whatever that slave owes you, I will pay it. I am signing this with my own hand.’ And that is what the Lord Jesus Christ says to this poor, ungodly one whom I am describing this evening who has been awakened to see his need: ‘I will pay it with My own hand, written in lines of blood. I will do it. I will repay it.’ What a mercy! He knows the full amount; the full tale of your guilt. He knows how much you owe to divine justice, and, for love’s sake, He says: ‘I will pay it.’ Friends, this is free grace, isn’t it?

“Free grace to such as sinners be; 

And if free grace, why not for me?”

C. Cole

You only know a little of it. But “Christ died for the ungodly.” You say: ‘If only you knew my history; what hidden sins that others know nothing about!’ “Christ died for the ungodly.” ‘If only you knew what my old nature is; if you knew it you would not even want me in the Chapel with you!’ “Christ died for the ungodly.” Friends, you cannot get away from it; it is written in Scripture for that sinner, that vilest sinner.

“The vilest sinner out of hell, 

Who lives to feel his need,

Is welcome to a Throne of Grace, 

The Saviour’s blood to plead.”

W. Gadsby

Bless God for that. This is free grace for such sinners. And this poor sinner will find he is among the sheep, the lambs, the mystical members of Christ’s body. He will find he is in the Covenant of Grace in due season. But, at the moment he is being dealt with on this one level: “Christ died for the ungodly.” Think of it!

“For sinners, Lord, Thou cam’st to bleed; 

And I’m a sinner vile indeed.”

Your vileness and your ‘indeed sinnership’ is not a bar to pleading what our text has to say to those who know what it is to feel the solemnity and the awful state of being ungodly. You want reconciliation. You want to be right with this great God. You do not want any barriers between you; no unanswered questions before you come to the end of your days. You want peace made by the blood of the cross. You want to know that all your ungodliness has been swept away by the precious blood of Jesus Christ that “cleanseth us from all sin.”

So, just as there was a due season for Christ to die, so there is a due season for the Holy Ghost to reveal the remedy to your soul; to open your eyes to see that it is all in Christ. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Now, what was the motive? What moved (I use that word reverently) the dear son of God to lay down His life for this ungodly person I have just described? It can only be one word: love. There is no other word that could proceed what has been done for the ungodly. They did not deserve it. In fact, they were most unlovely. Their ungodly behaviour was an offence to God, in and of itself. Their sins were mounting up as great mountains before divine justice. There was nothing there to be pleased with. Yet, divine love set His heart upon this ungodly sinner and determined to save him; determined to open his eyes to see his ungodliness; determined to open his eyes to see what the Law justly claims of him. The Lord has opened his eyes to see the dreadful potential of sin within his very heart; opened his eyes to see that even if he had an eternity to spend, he could never wipe clear the debt and never put matter right. He was a helpless, hopeless sinner without God and without hope in the world. God opened his eyes to see it, and love has opened his eyes to see it. And that love that opened his eyes to see will, in due season, show him or her, young or old, the remedy.

Peter describes it so beautifully: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” It is “the precious blood of Christ” that alone can do it and will do it. Think, dear friends, of the power of that blood that sweeps away all the offences of the ungodly man’s life; his thoughts, words and deeds in such a way and say: ‘I find no fault in him.’ “I am black,” says the Church, knowing her ungodly state. “But comely,” says her Saviour. ‘I am like those black tents of Kedar, which are scorched by the midday sun: that is how my poor soul feels!’ ‘No,’ says the Lord, ‘to Me you are as the curtains of Solomon.’ Rich curtains they were! Oh, what Christ has done for this one in our text!

And, as I said, it does not leave him in an ungodly state. He then becomes among the ungodly. Perhaps he does not realise it. If you asked him, he would say: ‘No, I dare not put myself among them.’ Just turn with me to Psalm 1. There is something said there which is a distinction which God has now made for this sinner. We will read Psalm 1, as it puts the distinction between those who are yet dead in this state and those who are now quickened into divine life. Listen to this: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” We pause there. Before grace touched that man’s heart, that is just what he was doing: walking “in the counsel of the ungodly,” standing “in the way of sinners” and sitting “in the seat of the scornful.” That was his path; that was his life. But now listen: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” That in no way contradicts what I have been saying this evening hour. This is the language of a man who knows his need of a Saviour, and that need has separated him from his ungodly ways, his ungodly companions and his ungodly pursuits.

And, though he still has an ungodly nature within that fights very hard; very hard indeed, yet there is an irreversible change that has been wrought by grace. He is not the man he once was, because grace has changed him. I have told you before of the late Mr Stevens who was a minister in our Churches. He worked at Harrods. He had many friends in the upper circle at Harrods before he was called by grace. They used to have cheese and wine parties. They would play cards throughout the hours of the evening. But, when he was called by grace, he said to his wife: ‘It is our turn next week to have this party. What are we going to do? We cannot do this any longer; my conscience will not let me: We must still invite them; we will not be discourteous. But, instead of the wine and the cheese, we will put The Bible on the coffee table, and we will see what they say.’ So, his friends turned up, and they sat round in silence. They looked at Mr Stevens, and he looked at them. They asked him: ‘Where is the wine? And where are the cards?’ Mr Stevens said: ‘Do you see that Bible? That is now the rule of my life.’ And one by one they went out, and never came back again. He suffered much persecution from them later on in his career, as well. But, friends, he never regretted the change that grace had made. Why? He had “in heaven a better and an enduring substance” which would never be taken away from him. Have you? Have I? If you look back to your ungodly state and look at those still left in it, you may ask: ‘Why? Why me? Why should I have had mine eyes opened? Why should I have been made a praying man or woman? Why should I be seeking mercy when these have no heart for it? Lord, what is it that has made the difference?’ Grace. Grace has done it. Grace that flows from the love of God in Christ Jesus to you, poor, favoured sinner. Bless God for grace, free grace. It is the only thing that reaches this ungodly man I have been trying to describe to you this evening.

So, dear friends, take this word home. Pray over it. Lay it before the Lord and ask yourself three questions. Firstly, are you still ungodly and happy being in that condition? If you are, it is just as I have just told you: “The way of the ungodly shall perish.” Make no mistake about it. If that is the way you want to live, and live like that until you die, make no mistake about it: “The way of the ungodly shall perish.” You may not believe what I am saying; you may forget what I am saying on the Chapel doorstep. You may go home and say tomorrow: ‘It does not matter what the pastor thinks or feels, I am going my own way.’ That may be so, but you cannot take it out of the Word of God. And that is what it says.

Secondly, those of you who know your ungodly state but have not yet found the answer to it, take courage. Take courage! There is an answer.

“The vilest sinner out of hell,

Who lives to feel his need,

Is welcome to a Throne of Grace,

The Saviour’s blood to plead.” 

“Rehoboth…the LORD hath made room for” such.

W. Gadsby

And, thirdly, dear friends, if you have tasted that God is gracious and have proved the power of grace in your heart, you should show it in your life. It will show in your life; it inevitably will. It must do so because God has said it will do. He has foreordained that such should be walking in ways that are consistent in that word: “the godly.” “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” May God add His blessing to our scattered thoughts this evening hour.

Amen