Smith, Daniel H: Worship-04 ~ Worship

We keep talking about rain. Maybe one of these days we will get some. As a person who grew up on the farm and is not only interested in weather, but realize if it doesn't rain, we don't eat, I suppose that, uh, it would be well to get some rain here, wouldn't it? Ah, yes. Now, this morning we want to come back to the scriptures, and I'm going to invite you this morning in the New Testament to turn to the seventh chapter of Luke. Luke chapter seven. we are considering in our morning studies the subject of worship, and we would like in this class, in this class hour, yes. We would like to consider one occasion in the life of our Lord Jesus when he was worshipped and when he received worship. And I think you should remember that in our brief introductory study, uh, we saw the very clear statements in the scripture concerning worship. That worship really, if it's true worship, if it's in spirit and in truth, as our Lord taught, then worship must find the proper object. Uh, we also saw in the scriptures how easy it is to misplace or misdirect our worship. We can worship, uh, all sorts of things as human beings. That's our human propensity to worship the creature rather than the creator. Now, we know that, uh, that's characteristic of mankind. We also know that even people who are God-fearing, even people who think they're worshiping God, uh, may worship in vain because their worship is not intelligent, it is not enlightened. Think of the Lord's statement, you don't know what you worship, but they're very religious people, but they do not know the object of their worship, or they misplace the direction of their worship. It's also true that the scriptures teach us, therefore, that you worship God. The true and living God is the only true object of worship. Anyone, anything else is idolatry, period. And yet, our Lord Jesus not only taught that great truth, but he received worship. One of his great claims to deity was to receive worship. Mm. And this is one of those occasions. So, uh, let's read the section here in Luke chapter seven, beginning in verse thirty six, an event which is familiar to you all. Now, one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house, reclined at table, and behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, kept wiping them with the hair of her head, kissing his feet, anointing them with perfume. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him, that she is an immoral woman. But Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he replied, say it, teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed him five hundred denarii, the other 50. And when they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them, therefore, will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. He said to him, you have judged correctly. And turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. And you did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason, I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins have been forgiven. And those who were reclining at table with him began to say to themselves, who is this man who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Surely God will bless his word to us. I'm thinking of one of those interesting life experiences. A number of years ago, I had taken my granddaughter Hannah, uh, to the grocery store. Martha asked me to go and pick something up, and Hannah was there, and uh, so come along with grandfather. So we went on to the store, and I had her perched in the cart, you know, that you roll around to get groceries. She was sitting there, and as we were going down one of the aisles in the grocery store, a lot of people around, really, a very busy place, she started to sing. Unlike her, usually she's been sort of a, a self-effacing, reserved kid, but uh, even now that she's come to the bright age of fourteen, but she was much younger then, and here she is sitting in the back of this cart, grocery cart, and started singing at the top of her voice. Jesus loves me, this I know, and she was just singing away. Well, I'll tell you, that stopped the show. People stopped and were looking, and here is this child just singing away at the top of her voice. Would it surprise you if I have to confess that for a moment I was embarrassed. Now, I'm sorry to say this, I'm ashamed to say that, but my first response was when I saw all of the people in startled expressions looking at this child, singing right up. I mean, this is not everyday stuff, folks. Have you ever heard somebody sing Jesus loves me at the top of their voice in a grocery store? I had never heard this, but here she is, and my momentary response was, oh, not here, not here, Hannah. And then my better judgment caught up with me, and I thought, this is marvelous. Whatever came on her young heart, whatever moved her to just burst out in song, Jesus loves me, I thought, praise. She had more guts than I did because I wouldn't have done it, you know? It's very easy, isn't it, to think in terms of the, the social dynamics of a situation. I think of a book that I once read on witnessing for Christ. I think the title of it was A Coward's Guide to Witnessing. Yes, many of you smile. Uh, there are those people, and I could name some, but they're sitting here, and I might embarrass them, who are so driven to speak for Christ that they do it everywhere they go, and I stand in awe and gratitude for the work of God in lives like that. I tend to be one of these quiet people. I'm a people watcher more than right out in the front of the conversation. But the fact of the matter is that, uh, while there are differences in the way in which we are driven to, to openly identify ourselves with Jesus Christ, there are issues such as we see in this event, which make us stop, think, and ponder. So let's look at this instance in which a woman publicly worshiped Christ. She did this to the embarrassment of some, but she did it to the delight of the Savior. Now, we have a Pharisee's home here, and as you can see here, he says in verse thirty six that, uh, it was the Pharisee who had asked him to dinner, Jesus to dinner. Uh, this would have been unusual. Remember, we saw in an earlier study that, uh, the Pharisees actually faulted the Lord Jesus for hospitality, accepting the hospitality of what they consider to be the publicans and the sinners. Our Lord was a very social person. Unlike John the Baptist, who was a recluse, our Lord was constantly with people. He was constantly right in the streets where the action was. People were around him all of the time. He, he very freely accepted invitation to go to people's homes. In fact, you remember later on in his life that they accused him of being a partier. They accused him of, of just being always out and in the social kinds of activities. Uh, but here's a Pharisee now who invited him to dinner, and we see that, of course, that the, the Pharisee, however, had not shown him the common courtesies that you would normally show to a guest in your home. In that cultural setting, normally a guest would have been received with, uh, some kind of a token welcoming kiss. Uh, they would have put a bit of this ar- aromatic oil on the top of their head. They would have had a servant come and wash their feet because they had been walking in the dusty streets with open sandals. Uh, these common courtesies that you would show, just like if someone came to your home, if it was cold weather while they're taking off their coat, you would offer to take their coat, hang it somewhere, maybe even take it into a club, whatever. They're the common courtesies that you show to somebody, and they hadn't showed these to the Lord Jesus. Then not only that, he had been invited, but he was being watched. He was being questioned. He was there not simply as a warmly invited guest. He was there under very careful, critical scrutiny. That becomes apparent in the text. Now, remember we said the Pharisees were the, the conservative religious people of the day. They were the people who studied their Bibles. They were the people who claimed to be the true Jews. They were the people who claimed to believe, particularly that the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, were the word of God. They were the people who claimed to be the truly obedient people to the word of God. They claimed to be the most careful in observing all of the Levitical system, all of the sacrifices and the offerings that needed to be made. They were the people who, when they went out to buy even spices, they would buy spices, and before they ground them, go buy a package of black pepper, and before you grind it, you carefully count out the grains so that you make sure you tithe a tenth of that. That's pretty fastidious, folks. They were very, very carefully, legalistically following the laws of Moses, so they thought. But here they are now in the life of Christ, many of the great contests of his life would be with the Pharisees, because in their legalism, they had really perfected a system called Judaism, but they had moved far, far from the teaching and the spirit of the teaching of the scriptures. Then, of course, the other person that's apparent here is this woman, a sinner she is called. Uh, some say this must be Mary Magdalene. Some say this is the same person that we see in the twelfth chapter of John. Personally, I think not. I think the timing is different. This occurred much earlier in the ministry of Christ, and there are far too many details of the narrative here. You have to twist things terribly to make these the same event. Uh, but you see, of course, in this that there are several important features. Let me call your attention to several of them. First of all, notice the verb in verse forty seven and the verb that comes down in verse forty eight. The verb for forgiveness here, where he says, Simon, uh, she has been forgiven, see? And he told her, your sins have been forgiven. Uh, the tense of this verb is the perfect indicative passive. I don't know whether you like to toy with semantics or with, uh, the, the forms of words, but they become important when you interpret the scriptures. The perfect indicative passive, the perfect tense of the verb, indicates action that was complete in the past, and its effects remain until the present. You get that? Action that was complete in the past, but its effects remain until the present. The passive form of the verb means that the direction of the verb, whoever is the object of that verb, has been the receiver, not the one who acts. And so when Jesus said to her or about her, her sins or your sins have been forgiven, it means that they had been give- forgiven sometime in the past, and the effects of that remain until the present, and that actually she had been the recipient of the forgiveness, not the giver of forgiveness. So it's a very, very vivid expression here when the Lord Jesus says, your sins have been forgiven. It becomes apparent in this text that there was some previous meeting of this woman with Christ. Now, whether you find some other evidence of that in some of the other gospel events, the fact of the matter is that this tells us that the Lord Jesus had already met this woman, uh, that there had already been forgiveness somewhere in the past, and that now, when she heard that Jesus was in town again and found out where he was, she came to worship because she had been forgiven. A forgiven sinner. It's also interesting to note that the language of the text, verse forty seven, is that the Lord Jesus addressed his first statement not to her, but to Simon. Did you see it there? For this reason, I say to you, who's you? Simon. Her sins have been forgiven. In other words, the Lord started this issue of forgiveness by telling Simon that this woman who had come into his house and created this rather embarrassing situation, in fact, was already a forgiven person. Hm? Simon needed to know that, and the Lord started with that message. Now, of course, we see then, obviously, that her response to the Lord Jesus was one of love, of gratitude. She was a forgiven person. So let's take just a minute and review this scene and all of its drama. You have to understand that in that day, when they would give a formal dinner like this, the guests came not to sit on a chair at a table like we do, but to recline. The tables were very low, even lower than some of our coffee tables, you see, very low, and they had pallets very much like long mattress pads, and these were located around this very low table, and guests came and reclined, and characteristically in these dinners, they reclined and leaned their head on one elbow. Maybe it's been a long time since you've done that kind of thing. I'm sure that way back in life, many of us did that quite often. You get back down on some kind of a pallet and recline. They reclined at a table, which means their heads would all be around the table, and their feet would be then extending out like the spokes of a wagon wheel. And here they are in this very important place, in this Pharisee's house, possibly a very wealthy person, and they're reclined at this meal, and suddenly they're aware that someone was in the room. Now, how well lighted it was, we don't know. They didn't have beautiful electric lights like we have. Uh, how she slipped in, we don't know. All of these details are left for us to imagine. But there she stands at the feet of Jesus. The next thing they see, she is down on the ground, on the floor, and realize several things to their surprise. One is, she has let her hair down. Ooh. Now we're in a generation that doesn't appreciate this, but in many, many cultures, uh, this would be a rather striking thing. In fact, characteristically in this culture, a woman would have bound up her hair, tied it up or rolled it up and covered it with a veil normally, and only in very, very tender situations would a woman let her hair down. We still use that expression, even though culturally it's not really an issue anymore. But here is a woman who, in this public sense, had let her hair down. And then they notice she's weeping, and her tears fall on Jesus' feet. And then she takes her hair and wipes his, now mind you, he's alive on the floor, and she's right down there on her knees, weeping over his feet, wiping them with her hair, and then she produces a, a small cast of perfume, this potent, potent perfume, and, and puts that on his feet, and the aroma filled the place. And there she is crying over his feet and wiping them with her hair. And, uh, Simon, oh, the host, oh, I am sure he was mortified. I am sure he was mortified. And when the Lord said, Simon, do you see this woman? He didn't really give him a chance to answer, but I could imagine in his heart Simon said, See her? We would have been trying not to look. You know? It was one of these situations where I'm sure the, the guests were there spellbound and speechless, and Simon was probably horrified to think that this kind of scene would be perpetrated in his house. But you couldn't miss it. It was, it was just the kind of event that would grab everybody's attention. And then the Lord's simple story. Simon, I have something to say to you. My, oh my. Told him a little parable about two people that were in debt. Uh, one owed a great deal, one owed a little, but neither could pay. That's the key. Neither could pay, and so they were freely forgiven by their debtor. And, uh, he asked the question, who will then love him most? And the logical question that Simon came, answer that Simon came back with, well, the one who is forgiven most. And that's exactly what the Lord needed to come from him, because he was going to then take that and really put the pressure on this Pharisee. And notice how he reviews the treatment he had been given. He said, uh, you gave me no water, you didn't do these common courtesies for me. Now he doesn't say why, we don't know why. I assume that, uh, it may be that Simon was really putting the Lord to the test, as the Pharisees were not lovers of Christ, you can be sure, that he was putting him to the test. It may be that he had intentionally omitted these common courtesies just as to spite him, just to embarrass him, maybe. But whatever the case was, the Lord begins to compare Simon with this woman and point by point, you didn't wash my feet, but she has washed them with her tears. And you didn't, but she, and you didn't, but she. And then he said, and in the light of this, in the light of the contrast between what you have done and what she has done, or what you didn't do and she has done. Simon, you need to know this is a forgiven woman. You need to know that. Hm? Oh, admittedly, her sins are many, uh, but she is a forgiven woman. And just as you said, the one who recognizes how much they've been forgiven loves. The one who doesn't see much forgiveness necessary does not love. What a contrast. Now, some important things here. Let me point out several things here that I think are significant. Uh, first of all, we see how a forgiven sinner looks at Christ. Notice, we see her love. The Lord commented on that. When you're forgiven much, you love much. The Lord was identifying her behavior as an act of love. Hm? The second thing we see here is that here's a person who not only loved the Savior who had forgiven her, but she was driven by that love to show in worship her love. Do you know what it must have taken for that woman to go into that Pharisee's house? You talk about having to have courage. You talk about being driven and motivated to show your love. That would be like walking into a wolf's den or a horn- whatever. I can't imagine what it must have taken for that woman to swallow, if she had any pride, to to just literally walk into the face of what would be surely, uh, ostracism, criticism, the despising attitude of this bunch of important people at this meal. Do you know what it must have taken for her to come in that scene and kiss the feet of Jesus? And then, of course, his feet. You get right down on the floor. Get right down there on her hands and knees and weep over his feet and kiss them. And of course, that sacrificial devotion, Jesus said, speaks of the love response to forgiveness. That is worship. But then there was this self-righteous Pharisee. Now there was somewhat of a recognition of Jesus. He had invited him, after all, the Lord was there as a guest, uh, but he had missed those common courtesies, and of course he, uh, was watching, he was scrutinizing the whole thing, and particularly watching the behavior and probably listening to the words of Christ. We know that they often listened to him, not because they wanted to hear him, but because they were looking for something that he would say that they could turn into an accusation or, or, or find fault against him or say something that they could get the authorities to go after him. Uh, he lived with that kind of scrutiny, and of course then the embarrassment that Simon certainly had. Just think of this scene taking place in his house. But in spite of all of that, the Lord had his little parable about the two debtors, and the important thing to recognize is that even though the amount that they owed was different, the one thing they had in common, first of all, was that neither could pay. Very significant factor. Neither one could pay. I- I'm sure that Simon had to understand that he was one of those two debtors. I am sure that he had to recognize the fact that the issue was not the amount that had been forgiven, but the issue was the fact that neither could pay, and that anyone who is forgiven ought to respond in gratitude and love. She had, Simon had not. The contrast becomes very, very apparent. And no works, no merit, neither could pay. Neither could pay. Uh, related to that, of course, is the issue of faith that brought that. You see it in verse fifty? Your faith has saved you. He didn't say your tears have saved you. He didn't say your love for me has saved you. Uh, he didn't say the perfume that you brought, that's why I forgave. Uh, he didn't say, oh, you kissed my feet, and that's why you're forgiven. No, no. All of those things were important, but all of those things were acts of worship that followed the forgiveness. It was faith that brought the forgiveness. Isn't it amazing how consistent the word of God is? In all of the narratives of scripture, these important doctrinal truths are always there. You know the great, great revealed truth, for by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. There are no braggarts in heaven. We know that, but it's interesting how absolutely consistent the scripture is, that even in this passage itself, it becomes crystal clear that it was not all of these acts of devotion and love that brought the forgiveness. The forgiveness was already there. It was faith in Christ that brought the forgiveness, and Simon apparently didn't know anything about that. Nothing about that. Great, great, and glorious truth. Another thing we see here, of course, is that Christ forgives sins. Now the rest of the guests were rather startled. Who is this guy? Where did he get the audacity to think that he can forgive sins? You know? Now they didn't say that out loud, this was going on in their heads, but they were absolutely recoiling from the Lord's statement that he would have the audacity to personally utter words of forgiveness. Because, you see, they had been taught only God for- forgives sin, and by you, our Lord Jesus ratified that. And so his act of forgiveness was, in fact, a claim to deity. Right? And they were offended. The woman was blessed, and they were offended. How is that for a contrast, hmm, in these words? And another thing I see here is this different amount that they owed. It's, it's very interesting how we, in our humanness, put levels of importance on various kinds of sin, hmm? And we talk about little white lies and big sins and little sins, and if I understand the word of God correctly, sin is anything, thought, word, deed, that falls short of the very glory of God. Or as the theologians put it, sin is any want of conformity to the perfection of God. Anything in thought, anything in word, anything in deed that is less than the perfection of God is, in the eyes of God, sin. I think of the statement, I've mentioned this to you before. I live out in corn country, and it's a significant statement to me that the Bible says the plowing of the wicked is sin. And so you can come with me, we drive across the Iowa countryside in the spring, the farmers are tilling their ground. And at one point in time, I might say to you, there's a farmer there plowing, there's a farmer there plowing, what this man's doing is sin. Not this man, no, this man. And you look and you say, wait, how can you say that? They may both have the same kind of tractor. They're making straight furrows. In fact, it could be that this man has adjusted his plow, and he's, he's actually turning the trash under better than this man. How do you say this man is plowing his sin? Well, I know these people. Now, this man is an unbeliever, and he's not doing what he does for the glory of God, therefore it's sin. You see, the job he's doing in plowing is not the important thing. He's not doing it for the glory of God, so it's sin. And as we look at this in the light of this text, it becomes apparent that obviously Simon did not see himself in the same kind of need as a sinner, as this woman. Mm. No. But when you look at the whole ministry of Christ in his earthly sojourn, who were the object of his strongest words of rebuke? The common people of the day or the Pharisees? You widened sepulchers, you're like graves. They're painted all nice and white on the outside, but inside is the stench of death. Think of those words, and they were not addressed to people like this woman. They were addressed to the Pharisees. Forgiveness? Ha ha, yes. If we don't realize that we desperately need forgiveness, if we cannot say, as the Apostle Paul said, an educated, dynamic, uh, think of all he had going for him. He was one of the most outstanding leaders among the Jewish people. He was a man who had the finest education that the world offered in his day. He was a man, think of all the assets he had, and yet, think of the humility of his voice could say, me? I'm not even worthy to be classed among the apostles. Why? I am the chiefest of sinners. See, Simon didn't have that. Simon had missed that. And so the contrast was made. So some implications quickly. First of all, it seems to me that this teaches us, this act of worship, that the true condition of your soul is shown more in worship than in service. You see, Simon could have boasted that he actually invited this prophet from Galilee to his home. Nice thing to do, isn't it? Yes, to entertain Christ, to at least show him that much deference, to invite him to your home, give him a special dinner. Fine thing to do for Jesus. He may have even boasted about this. But you see, the boastful service in the eyes of Christ meant nothing compared to the act of worship of this woman. And it seems to me that this is true all through the teaching of scripture. The true condition of our hearts will be more precisely reflected in the area of worship than in the area of service. Think of the statement made, Matthew chapter seven, the Lord Jesus talking about a future day of judgment said, on that day there will be those who come and stand before him and say, Lord, we did this in your name, we did this in your name, we cast out demons, we, we. And Jesus said, and I will have to say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. Now you see, even what we may think are acts of service. Mm, but worship, aha. And you know, you've heard this from your childhood, probably. Worship always comes before service. Think of what the Lord Jesus said when Satan tempted him. He said, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Worship comes before service, always. Always. And this passage teaches us that very, very clearly. This passage also reminds us that our highest calling and our greatest privilege is worship. It's so easy for us to think in terms of, of, you know, doing, doing, doing, and we need to be motivated to serve Christ. That's true. But there's something that comes closer to his heart than that. And if I understand this passage, if the worship isn't there, the service may not mean much. Because worship comes before service. Remember the greatest commandment? The greatest commandment is you shall devote yourself to a life on the mission field, right? Well, I'm not making fun of that. That's good, but that's not what the greatest commandment is. The greatest commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your might. That is the greatest command. And we don't fulfill our highest call by preaching. One of the problems that I have in life, people think that preachers are important. Folks, preachers are not important. They're responsible. James says, look, don't all of you clamor to be teachers. They're going to be judged with stricter judgment. It's not a light thing to stand up here and look you in the face and say, here's what God says. That's a frightening job, folks, and I tremble and weep over it. Eh. The greatest thing you can do is not preaching. In fact, notice the text. There's no evidence that this woman said a single syllable. What she did apparently was carried out in utter silence. Hm? But it was she who brought honor and glory to the Savior. She's the one who delighted his heart. She's the one who brought his words of appreciation and response. And not one single word was spoken. While we're talking about this, uh, let me express something that concerns me very greatly. You know, in the formality of our local churches and our meetings, somehow or another, we've ended up with some very mixed up thinking on this business, that it's the people who speak out loud who are important. Now, for example, prayer meeting. Do you realize that most people go to prayer meeting thinking that this is a meeting where four or five men are going to stand up and pray? That's prayer meeting. Hm? Why do we give out these prayer lists to everybody? In fact, why give them to the ladies? They're not going to pray audibly. But we do. Why? This is a prayer meeting. If in your prayer meeting, the only people that are praying are the four or five men who pray audibly, you got problems, folks. You got serious problems. When we go there to pray, we go there to pray, whether it's out loud or silence. Makes no difference to the ears of God. Now, mind you, it's important to have men who are exercised enough, uh, to lead the congregation in prayer while you're there, but the fact of the matter is, this is a congregational prayer meeting. And if the rest of us who are not at that moment praying are not praying, then we've got a problem. Then we're just going through religious motions, like the Pharisees did. We go there to pray. Whether audibly or inaudibly, we go there to pray. But somehow or another, we think that the people who stand and pray audibly are really the important people, and the fact of the matter is that is not true. That is not true. And the same thing is true in every sphere of life, that the kinds of things that we may say are really the important religious functions pale in significance to the true heart of worship to Christ. And this woman is the central figure, not Simon, but this woman. And as far as we know, she never spoke a word. But she worshiped. Yes, in this occasion, Christ led a sinner out of the depths to the heights. Think of this. He allowed her to approach him. He allowed her to touch him. Uh, he accepted her worship. He assured her of the forgiveness that he had given her. He moved her on with peace. Simon didn't enjoy any of these things, because Simon, in essence, was led from the heights of his important position, his pharisaical bearing, his big man about town. He was led to the point, really, of embarrassment, because he was the ungrateful debtor. And so we have two debtors, one savior. There's only one savior, but one had been forgiven, and she came in worship. She had no home to invite the savior to, apparently. She didn't have position of importance. She didn't have community recognition except for her sin, but now she had Christ, and she came in worship and brought delight to the Savior's heart. That tell you something? Does that tell you about priorities? May God grant that we will have enough spiritual sense, we who have been forgiven, to have the spiritual sense to be worshippers of Christ. Oh God, we come today to give you thanks for this very moving picture from the life of Christ, this event in which this woman who had been forgiven came to give thanks, to worship. Oh Father, we pray that you will teach us, teach us how important it is to the heart of the Savior that his people will respond this way to him. So easy for us to get so busy with our... all of the issues of life, all of the tapestry, all of the trappings of life, all of the things that we do, we rush around here and there, and even in our religious life, we do acts of service, and these are important, we understand that, but we pray, Father, that you will help us to keep our priorities straight. And we pray that you may know by experience what many of us have been told all of our lives, that worship comes before service. And we pray that we may know that it is hearts who really understand the depths from which they have been pulled, the weight of sin from which they have been forgiven. These are the people who worship. Deliver us from being used to the idea of being forgiven. May we never, never lose the wonder of that glorious truth that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Oh God, we thank you for forgiveness full and free in Christ our Savior. We thank you, our Father, that as the prophet predicted when he said there's coming a day when a fountain will be opened in the house of David, a fountain for sin and uncleanness. Help us, we pray, Father, to live with that glad expression on our heart. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that blood lose all their guilty stains. Praise God. Praise God for Calvary. Praise God for cleansing. Praise God for a Savior who forgives our sins. Help us, we pray, to discipline our spirit to often be at his feet, even weeping in our worship. We pray in the Savior's name, amen.