In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the great purpose of God to reconcile enemies to Himself. He shares his desire to convey six great words of the Gospel and recounts a past experience of revival in Leeds, where he sought to bring a team of brethren who had experienced revival to share the message. The preacher passionately pleads with the audience to be reconciled to God, highlighting the wrongness of their attitudes and the love of God who gave Himself for them. He concludes by sharing his own personal journey of encountering the wondrous cross and the transformative power of Jesus Christ.

Shall we pray for one further word of prayer? Speak Lord in the stillness. While we wait on thee, hush our hearts to listen in expectancy. In some heart we pray thee, now thy work begin. Send the Holy Spirit to convict of sin, and as we blow the trumpet of salvation free, in thy still small whisper Lord, speak of Calvary. Amen. Will you turn this morning to Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the second epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 5 and verse 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. What words. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's head, be ye reconciled to God, for, for, because, he's not against you as you thought. Be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Then will you turn to a few verses in Romans, chapter 5, verse 6, Romans chapter 5, verse 6. For when we were yet still without strength, revised version, for when we were yet helpless, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will die, yet, peradventure, for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Saved from what? Saved from wrath. So there is, in spite of the modern outlook, such a thing called the wrath to come. But those who are justified by his blood will be certainly saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received, not the atonement, the more accurate word is by whom we have now received, the reconciliation. In those verses we are seen not only to be helpless as regards our condition, and not only to be sinners as regards our character, but enemies as regards our attitude, our attitude to God. And here we have revealed to us God's great purpose, to reconcile enemies to himself. Now the theme of our Bible studies, as I prayed about it, has become inescapable to me. And I feel it's right to take with you great words of the Gospel. There's so many great words of the Gospel, and somehow I felt I couldn't deal with less than six. And so I asked the brethren, and I asked if John felt it right if I might take this Sunday morning as part of the Bible readings, so that we might get in the six great words of the Gospel. Years ago when Revival first came to some of our lives here, through an early team from East Africa, that team returned to Africa, and I was invited to take a city campaign in Leeds, an evangelistic campaign in Leeds, in the city hall. And I thought it would be wonderful if I could have a team of brethren who had experienced Revival, so that we might give the fullest message possible in that evangelistic campaign. And I remember writing to Loris Barham, who had returned to Africa, and asking him that when he was on furlough, and it was just working nicely, the dates, would he and Bill Butler join me and make a team to lead this campaign in the city hall Leeds. And I remember Lawrence writing back and saying he would be delighted to preach in England the Gospel which had brought Revival to the church in East Africa. And then he went on to enumerate some of the main themes of the Gospel. And I must say at first I was just a little surprised. I thought it was rather a special message that brings Revival to the church. But apparently from his letter he didn't think so at all. It was just the Gospel. And by the way in which he enumerated the main themes of the Gospel, it was the Gospel that I already knew. And yet he said it's that Gospel that has brought this deep, sweeping, and long-lasting Revival to the church of God in East Africa. And so it is. We can not only call these six great words of the Gospel, but we can call them six great words of Revival. For it is the Gospel which is God's instrument of power, not only for the saving of the lost, but for the reviving of a needy, decaying church, and a needy, cold Christian life. Now our first great word is the sinner's need to be reconciled to God. Reconciliation. Now this is a very ordinary word. It's used in everyday parlance today. Here's a warring group of people, or two people at loggerheads, and you say they need to be reconciled. And sometimes we see that happening. Two people reconciled. And that's exactly the meaning of the word with regard to God. You don't only need to be reconciled to that other person with whom you've got a quarrel. But more than all, the sinner, and that is what we all are, needs to be reconciled. And reconciliation with God is the first great word of the Gospel. What we have in mind here is not only our condition as helpless ones, who've got ourselves into a jam and have no means to get ourselves right. We've not only got in mind here our character of sinners, with all the moral ugliness that goes with it. But what this word deals with is our attitude, not our condition, not our character so much as our attitude of being enemies to God. The simple truth is that man is against God. He is at enmity with God. And although some of us know something of that reconciliation with God, the seeds of that old time enmity may still be there, as we shall see. And the Christian still sometimes has to battle and confine himself, as we see, something of an enemy against God. And although he's known something of reconciliation, perhaps in certain areas, he needs to be reconciled to God anew, and reconciled to God's dealings with him, and reconciled to what God has allowed to come upon his life. We're thinking here, then, of that great rift that took place in the Garden of Eden between man and God, and which is with us to this very day. It's dealing with our attitude of being enemies to God. I want to trace with you the way in which this enmity toward God has grown up. Of course, it happened in the Garden of Eden, and it grew up in the Garden of Eden. It began, of course, with man disobeying God's express command that whereas he could eat of every tree in the garden, there was one tree that he had not to eat of. I suppose the reason why there was that prohibition was to prove to man that he was walking in obedience to God. If nothing was prohibited, how could man know whether he was obeying or not obeying? And after all, it was the easiest prohibition. I mean, he had so many trees to eat of. He wasn't going to go hungry. Just one. It might have been something else. It didn't matter too much. There had to be, so that God could know, and man would know, that he was happily walking in obedience to God. But under the instigation of Satan, our first father and mother deliberately took of that which God had forbidden, and the first sin was committed. And the first result of the first sin was to give that couple a guilty conscience toward God. And that guilty conscience toward God made them feel that God was against them. Well, how could it be otherwise? We've broken his commandment. He's furious with us. He's against us. And because they felt God was against them, that made them against him. Shown by the fact that when he came down to the garden calling for them, he said, here comes our enemy. He is going to give it to us. And they hid from the presence of the Lord God behind the trees of the garden. And when at last they were discovered and couldn't hide any longer, Adam made every excuse in the world. Blaming Eve. And she, in turn, blamed the serpent. Because thinking that God was against them, they now were against God. I mean, how do you act towards a man who's enemy? Why, you stiffen against him. You defend yourself against him. And if he's really after you, if you have a chance, you're prepared to retaliate. And that's how it grew up in the first case. Because their guilty consciences made them feel that God was against them, they then were against God. And Adam's descendants have taken on that attitude. And in innumerable ways, they have shown that they've been against God. And doing what they've done, they're more convinced than ever that he's against them. And feeling he's the more against them, then they're the more against him. And this is the way in which man has become the enemy with God. It's the same with us. Whenever you have a guilty conscience, you cannot feel consciously or subconsciously that God's against you. He disapproves of you. And I tell you, if you think God's against you, wild horses won't draw you to him, rather it'll draw you from him. And if you feel he's against you, you'll find that your attitude toward him will harden, and you'll be against him. And you'll act that way. And having done this, that and the other, you're more sure than ever he cannot but be against you. He cannot but be disapproving of you. And you feel him to be, consciously or unconsciously, the God with the big stick. And you don't love that sort of God, and you're the more against him. And thus it goes on in a terrible, vicious circle. Every overture he makes toward you is seen to be the overture of an enemy. Watch it boys, watch it boys, here's he coming, I know what these Christians are after, they want to talk to me about my soul, they want to rob me, my little bit of independence. And he's looked upon as the approach of an enemy. That's why you become an enemy to him. And when adversity comes, or trouble, because we're so sure he's against us and disapproving of us, you say, he's punishing me. Oh yes you do. An aunt of mine, beloved in our family, she died of cancer, saying that God was punishing her for secret unfaithfulness to her husband. And you felt that? And so it is, because your guilty conscience, my guilty conscience, makes me feel that God's against me and disapproving of me, I become against him. And I harden myself. And thus it is, we're told in Colossians 1, we are enemies in our mind by wicked works, which means I'm an enemy in my attitude to him because of my wicked works. But the truth of the matter is, he's not against us at all. Not for one moment. In spite of everything we've been, everything we've done, he's not against the sinner. We read it this evening, this morning. He was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Listen, not imputing unto them their trespasses. You can hardly take it in. He's not blaming you. In spite of what any man has done, he is not and never has been. The God with the big stick. When Adam, when God came down the garden saying, Adam, where art thou? That wasn't the voice of a policeman looking for a criminal. It was the voice of a father who'd lost a son. There was a wailing, Adam, Adam, Adam, where are you? It was the voice of grief. But Adam said, you be careful, Eve. He's ready against us. Oh, how our guilty conscience makes you misread the God with whom you have to do. Although sin has put us against God, it's been powerless to put God against the sinner. The world that God so loved in John 3.16 was a world that had turned its back on him. But God never has turned his back on the world. There's a pathetic moment in the great story of Saul and David. When David was suffering so much at the hands of Saul, fleeing as a refuge in the mountains, living in dens and caves, what enmity there was in Saul's heart toward David. He did everything he could to kill him. Why? Because he was quite sure David was plotting against him. That's all it was. He was jealous of him. He's going to take my place. He's working against me. The only reasonable thing is to get him before he does more harm. And David wasn't against Saul for one moment. No one loved Saul so much as David. And when Saul at last fell in battle, nobody wept more over him. How the mighty fought him. And as I say, there was one pathetic moment when David, standing on a hillside, calls across to Saul. He said, Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, David seekest thy hurt? Some bade me kill thee. I had you in my power. You were asleep at my feet. It happened twice. And my general said, Here's your chance. Kill him. Some bade me kill thee, but mine eye spared thee. And instead of cutting off your head, which I could have done in a moment of time, I just cut off a bit of your skirt. David wasn't against him at all. None loved him so much as David. And you know, God is saying to us, Why do you hear men's words, saying, David, I seek thy hurt? You've been the object of my care in your most sinful moments. Innumerable mercies have compassed you around to this day. But you never saw it. He isn't against us. And this enmity has grown up, this great wrath has grown up on a misreading of the character of the God with whom we have to do, and we have all done it. Whereas man is God's enemy. God is not and never has been man's enemy. He has loved him all the time. It is true that Isaiah 63 verse 10 says, Wherefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them. But you've got to see the whole verse. It runs like this, Isaiah 63, 9 and 10. It goes like this. And I'm quoting from a very lovely alternative reading in the margin of the revised version. In all their adversity, he was no adversary to them. They thought perhaps it was. He was. They thought perhaps he was punishing them. No, no, no, no. In all their adversity, he was no adversary to them. In his love and his pity, he redeemed them. The angel of his presence saved them and he bare them all the days of old. But they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit. Therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them. May I share with you what I think that means? God cannot and will not change his attitude of holiness and opposition to sin. That is God. But whereas he won't change his holiness, you and I can change our experience of that holiness. Leviticus 26 says, if you walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary to you. Here he is walking in the ways of holiness. I walk contrary to him, he's contrary to me. And I do have the apparent experience of him fighting against me. But he isn't really changing his attitude. It's the same. It's I who've changed my attitude. And when I walk contrary to him, Leviticus 26 says, I will walk contrary to you. And that can be pretty humbling and troublesome, I can tell you. But if we repent and walk with him, he walks with us. And we know the wonderful beneficence of his rule of love in our hearts. You see, really, it's an accommodation to human language. Therefore he was turned to be their enemy. It was they who'd done the turning. But human language has got to express spiritual things. It's the same way when you hear about God repenting of the evil that he thought to do to Nineveh. Why? They'd repented. And really, what happened? They'd been walking contrary to him. And that meant many calamities. But when they repented, he walked with them. And so it appeared that God repented. It was they who had done the repenting. And so you and I cannot change our experience of his holiness. He won't change his holiness, but you and I may, as we repent, change our experience of that holiness. And so it doesn't mean for one moment that he loves that sinner even all the time. But that sinner is walking contrary to him. It is quite true that the sinner has broken God's law. And divine justice has been outraged. And divine justice needs to be propitiated if there's going to be anything for the sinner. But the fact that divine justice has been outraged doesn't mean he's against the sinner. Doesn't mean that he doesn't love the sinner as he is. Indeed, it's his love for that sinner as he is that leads him to provide the propitiation. And that tremendous cost in giving his son, here in his love, we read in John's epistle, not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins so that justice might be satisfied through his blood, that the love that he'd always had toward the sinner might express itself justly. I want to say, this is the gospel. God is for men, although men are against. Now this brings us to the great act by which God reconciles us to himself. He'd come and go on with this awful quarrel. And you know he didn't wait for man to take the first step. Had he waited, he'd have waited forever. And there wouldn't have been one of the sons of Adam that would have ever been reconciled to God. He took the first step. Now two things had to happen if man was voluntarily to be reconciled to God. First of all, the claims of divine justice against himself had to be satisfied and had to be seen to be satisfied. So he had the real rationale for believing that God was not imputing his trespasses unto him. And the second thing, very much linked with that, was this. God had to do something whereby man's guilty suspicions of God were dispelled. Because that's the obstacle. As I've said, if you feel God's against you in any minor matter, wild horses won't drag you back to him. Who would? To the one who's irate with you? Who wishes you ill? And those suspicions so deeply ground, whereby I see he's punishing me in all sorts of ways, they must be dispelled. And God has done both those things in the Lord Jesus Christ. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. First, in just sending his Son at all. I've seen a lovely meaning in those words the angel sang on the first Christmas day. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward men. Now in the days when there were rules for war and men kept to the rules, it was always an understood thing that before one country declared war on another, it withdrew its ambassadors. Dead. The ambassador safe back home, they could declare war. But here, God is not withdrawing his ambassador, but sending him to a world that were at enmity with him. And did so on a blessed goodwill mission. I want to tell you that day was a demonstration of the goodwill of God toward us sinners. It was a demonstration that he was not after all imputing our trespasses unto us. Now don't quarrel with me, I didn't write that word not imputing their trespasses, Paul did. And this sounds, this sounds seems so good and doesn't seem to quite fit with other things. You better quarrel, argue it out with Paul when you get to glory or triumph. It's he who said it. And it was the angel who saw the deep significance, the goodwill of God toward men. He knew the risks involved. He knew he was putting his ambassador at risk. But he said they must see it. They must see it. It's the only way to end the enmity and bring them. The simple thing is this. Shown at the incarnation, let alone the cross which is to follow, that the accumulating sin of the universe has powers to put God against man. And the simple truth is this. That God is at peace with men, although men are at war with him. Shown by John 3.16, so God so loved the world that was at war with him that he sent and gave up his only begotten son for us. You wouldn't do that for anybody else. You might love a person, but you couldn't go to the length of giving up your son for them and allowing him to be ill-treated. You'd almost kill them rather than let them touch that little boy. But God was willing. Man's at war with God. But they've never succeeded in provoking God to be at war with man. But wonderful as that great act was when God gave his son to the world, the claims of divine justice against man have not yet been settled. But they were when later he was nailed up between two thieves on the cross bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood. Now when there's a nursery quarrel, when there's a nursery quarrel, it's no good you saying to those two people, now come along, shake hands and be friends. If the wrong thing that one did initially has not been acknowledged and amends made for it. They may shake hands, but very soon the old enmity will break out again. And quite obviously the making amends for the wrong is the work of the offending party, not the offended party. But when it comes to this matter between man and God, you've got something happening for which there is no human precedent. Precedent, got the word? It is not man, the offending party, who makes the amends. But if you please, God, the offended one, who makes the amends and does so in the person of his beloved son who appears in history and drags that criminal's cross on his back up to the place called Calvary and dies on it as if he was a criminal. A criminal one side, a criminal the other side, and everybody thought he must be one too. He wasn't, you were the criminal. But he took your place. It's the offended party who's making the amends. So much so, it might almost look to unthinking people as if he's the offending one, he isn't at all. You're the offending one, so am I. But the offended one, knowing nothing else would touch us, has himself made the amends by taking and accepting the guilt of what we have done as if it was his own. After the First World War, the Royal Corps of Signals had a picture painted to portray their part in the Great Conflagration. And quite a picture, I believe it was. And there it was, a picture of no man's land, all pitted and with shell holes. And the signalman had been sent to the no man's land to restore a broken communication. But he'd lost his life in the doing of it, and there he lay dead in one of the shell holes. But in his last moments, he'd managed to get together those two wires, and the communication was restored. And they just had one word written as the title of the picture. Truth. And that's what happened at the place called Calvary. Jesus went into the no man's land, between man and God. With one hand, he got hold of sinful man. With the other hand, he got hold of holy God. And we read, Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for us, the unjust, what for? To bring us to God. And over that great scene, we can write the same word. Thrill. But it's not quite an adequate picture, because Jesus isn't the third party who comes between man and God. He's the offended party himself. Because it's God in the person of Christ who's on that cross. The one that you thought was holding your sins against you. Keeping a tally. Opposing you. Who you thought was likely to bring some terrible calamity upon you. To punish you. Doesn't look like that when you see the offended one himself on the cross, does it? God was in Christ. Reconciling the world unto himself. Not imputing their trespasses unto them, because he's imputing them unto himself. In the person of Jesus Christ. This is why, when we preach the gospel, we much preach the cross. Two men see the cross, they are perfectly convinced that to become a Christian is the worst thing that could happen for them. It would spoil everything for them. Something to be avoided. But when the Holy Ghost reveals that wondrous cross and the one upon it, you say, what in the world? That doesn't look like the work of an enemy. What in the world have I been frightened of? What in the world have I been backing off for? Which of all my friends to save me could or would have shed his blood, but Jesus died to have us reconciled to God. And the Holy Spirit wants all the time to placard that view before a guilty, suspicious world. And he wants to say, now say he's your enemy. Now say he's out to spoil your life. Now say he'll rob you of the things you like best. Now say he's holding it against you. Indeed, we read God beseeches you by us to be reconciled to God. It isn't the junior beseeching the senior. It's the senior beseeching the junior. It isn't man pleading for mercy. It is Jesus pleading for us to be reconciled. You're not pleading. And I'm talking to some people who need desperately to be reconciled to God. One, two, three people. And I want to tell you, friend, as I'm speaking to this morning, God is pleading with you through me to be reconciled to God. To see how wrong your attitude has been. How sinful to be scared of the one who loves you enough to give himself for you. And to lay down right here, this morning, on the first morning meeting of our conference, the arms of your rebellion you can afford to do so. To the lover of your soul, if you only get a chance in your life, he's going to make it something beautiful. Something good. All my confusion he understood. All I have to offer him is emptiness and strife. But he makes something beautiful of my life. I beseech you to be reconciled to God. You know who I'm talking to. You know exactly who this is addressed for. You've come here surrounded with prayers. Man, woman. I'm not beseeching you. The junior, the senior, is at the feet of the junior. A dear friend of mine said, I preached a wonderful sermon. God gave it me, it wasn't mine, it was his. Jesus at my feet. Pleading with you. Pleading with you to be reconciled to God. And oh, when you see that wondrous cross, you're finished. I was. It was in this very little town of Southall that I first saw the cross. Ever since my cousin Jack Howell in the Navy told me he'd found Jesus Christ, I was dead scared. Somehow I was persuaded to go to a boy's house party connected with the CSSM in Switzerland way back in 1926. Very reluctantly. And I wasn't going to give in. I wanted to run my own life. But halfway through those three weeks, Howard Guinness came down. And I can see the garden now where we had a meeting in the garden. And I was squinting into the sun as I listened to him. And he told us about the cross. He said, let that hand represent Jesus, that hand you. This Bible your sin. And here's your sin on you. And I'd never heard these things. I was all brand new. And he said, God, it says in Isaiah 53, laid on him the iniquity of us all. I'd never seen it. He says, where's your sin? On him, the sinless one, the lamb. But he didn't deserve it. It's my sin. Yes, and it was put on him. And my heart was softened. I said, what in the world am I scared about? Why have I been backing off so much? And then I looked at those that were running that boy's house party. Joe Church, before he ever went to Africa. Tony Kempton. Cecil Buse. All fine specimens, some of them fine athletes. With a spring in their step and a light in their eyes that I hadn't got. The Spirit whispered to me, Jesus hasn't spoilt life for them, has he? No. And it wasn't very long after that on the front of this very little town of Southfield, after a meeting, I said, Lord Jesus, if you've never come into my life before, come now. And that day I was reconciled to God by Jesus Christ and what he did for me. Auntie Ella, Auntie Ella, you're wrong to say that God is punishing you with this cancer because of the secret unfaithfulness to your husband. You're wrong because Jesus has already taken those sins and he's taken the judgment of it. So whatever this may mean, it could never, never mean that God is punishing you for it. It could be, Auntie Ella, that he's beseeching you, pleading with you to be reconciled to himself and using even this pain to help you to bend your stubborn will and come. But what if a person doesn't come? What if you never come back to God through Jesus Christ? C.S. Lewis says, the gift of free will to man is a two-edged blessing. It means that the divine labor to redeem may not be successful in every case. Some will not be redeemed. I want to tell you, if you don't, there's nothing left for you, I'm using the words of scripture, but fiery indignation that shall consume the adversaries. In God's vocabulary, the opposite to sin is not good, it's grace. The opposite to sin is grace. And the alternative to the grace of God shown in Jesus Christ is judgment. That's where judgment comes. Judgment is not God's answer to sin, his grace is. But if grace is not received, if I've turned down Jesus Christ, then judgment is absolutely inevitable for somebody here. Listen to this, from Hebrews. If the words spoken by angels in the Old Testament were steadfast, and every transgression received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? What have you got to do to neglect something? Nothing. And dear, dear one, you can go as others have gone, away from Southville as you came, liking it, enjoying the fun and even the singing, but you never repent and come back to God by the way of the cross. And my Bible tells me, I care not how nice you may be, how good you might try to be, there is absolutely no escape eternally for such. The alternative to grace is judgment. Oh, what a scene. God is in Christ with tears, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto their trespasses. And not only did Jesus come as an ambassador, we are ambassadors too. Ambassadors in an alien country, pleading, and God through us, for men to be reconciled, and there are some young people who have not replied yet. Why not do it the first Sunday morning? Why shouldn't this morning be a great morning of salvation? Why should not every last unsaved person who is not sure of their salvation, come back to God through the foot of the cross and get the answer? I have a last word, and this is especially for those who, yes, I know I have been reconciled to God, it is lovely to hear this gospel all over again, but wait a minute, this does apply to us believers too. Because although we have been reconciled to God, we know what it is to come back to him, the old estrangement can spring up again, and it can spring up in the same way as when it first came. You failed, you have compromised, you got away from the Lord, and you feel he is against me now, he disapproves of me, and you start living under the disapproval of God. Does that soften your heart towards him? No it doesn't, it hardens it. And because you feel he is disapproving of you and against you, you get hard towards him, and you do some more, this, that and the other, and that makes you more convinced than ever that he is disapproving of you. Do you think so? Do you think so? What does that word mean? Not imputing unto them their trespasses. He is not against you at all. And if you think he is the God with the big stick, you have got it all wrong. And if you think that trouble that has come, redundancy I think, is God punishing you for your backsliding, it isn't. The guilt is gone, been taken on the cross. He has other reasons for that, good reasons to bring you back maybe. He is not against you. I saw in a magazine, the author told how he had written rather a long, learned book or article on sin in the believer, and he showed it very wisely to his wife. She said, I don't understand that all. All I know is this, that when I sin, God sees it, but he doesn't hold it against me. He simply wants me to recognize it and go on. Go to the cross and go on. He sees it, but he doesn't hold it against me. And that's what you thought he did. And that's why the estrangement has gone on. I close with that wonderful verse in Job 22 verse 21, Acquaint now thyself, dear child of God, Acquaint now thyself with God and be at peace. Thereby good shall come unto thee. And you can come way back to him and to his cross this morning. Oh, you can let your hair down, you know what I mean. I can't admit it, you don't hold it against me. I'll admit it all. I tell you the words come tumbling out then, don't they? Thereby good shall come unto thee. Peace and everything else. And so it could be this morning and morning when many of our saints who've been living under the disapproval of God lose that sense of disapproval forever at the foot of the cross. If it comes back again because of sin, you know what to do. Go back there again. Thereby good shall come unto thee. Let us pray. Lord, you know how some of us were praying beforehand that this should be an act of praise to thee. Lord, we preach the gospel best not when we're merely applying it to one another but when we're extolling the love that thou hast towards a world of sinners. May we see thee this morning glorious as we've never seen it before. Such a God to do such a thing, to kneel at our feet. Lord, we pray thee. And some of us may we no longer trample the honour under our feet. For some may the heart doors be swung wide open this morning and say, Lord, if you've never come in before, come now. And some of us saints have been having such a hard time, feeling so alienated. May there be a great coming back to the foot of that dear cross even this morning. We ask it in thy name. Amen.