I tried yesterday morning to say a few
words on behalf of my wife and myself
and my family for our deep appreciation of
this last week but I expect there are
many more McElwain people here this evening so
can I just repeat that in a very
simple sentence.
We are profoundly indebted to you for the
hospitality that has been shown to us for
every part of this week has been something
that has given us a great deal of
encouragement and we hope spiritual joy.
The friendship of your pastor and Mrs. Dunkley
has been something we've treasured through many years
and this was an experience we were looking
forward to of being in his pulpit.
Perhaps you don't realize what a good correspondent
your pastor is but he has kept us
through the years fairly well informed and then
when he came down here to Pensacola we
shared in the news and we see your
church um I don't know what you call
it we don't have them in Britain but
these service sheets every Lord's Day if he
writes near the weekend he sends me your
service sheet and in these ways we keep
in touch but now that we have been
here we feel so much more in a
position where we can share more fully in
what is being done here and the witness
and as we go back we trust in
Scotland this next week we certainly will seek
to remember you and to pray God's continuing
blessing upon you and as you are faithful
to God's truth that he will bless your
testimony and honor his own work in your
midst.
Let us hear then the word of God
in the gospel of Matthew and the 15th
chapter.
The gospel of Matthew chapter 15.
Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees which
were of Jerusalem saying why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders for they
wash not their hands when they eat bread
but he answered and said unto them why
do ye also transgress the commandment of God
by your tradition for God commanded saying honor
thy father and mother and he that curseth
father or mother let him die the death
but ye say whosoever shall say to his
father or his mother it is a gift
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me
and honor not his father or his mother
he shall be free thus have ye made
the commandment of God of none effect by
your tradition ye hypocrites well did Isaiah prophesy
of you saying this people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth and honor of me
with their lips but their heart is far
from me but in vain they do worship
me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men
he called the multitude and said unto them
hear and understand not that which goeth into
the mouth defileth a man but that which
cometh out of the mouth this defileth a
man then came his disciples and said unto
him knowest thou that the pharisees were offended
after they heard this saying but he answered
and said every plant which my heavenly father
hath not planted shall be rooted up let
them alone they be blind leaders of the
blind and if the blind lead the blind
both shall fall into the ditch then answered
Peter and said unto him declare unto us
this parable and Jesus said are ye also
yet without understanding do not ye yet understand
that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth
into the belly and is cast out into
the drop but those things which proceed out
of the mouth come forth from the heart
and they defile the man for out of
the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications
thefts false witness blasphemies these are the things
which defile a man but to eat with
unwashed hands defileth not a man then Jesus
went thence and departed into the coast of
Tyre and Sidon to behold a woman of
Canaan came out of the same coast and
cried unto him saying have mercy on me
oh lord thou son of David my daughter
is grievously vexed with a devil but he
answered her not a word and his disciples
came and besought him saying send her away
for she crieth after us but he answered
and said i am not sent but unto
the lost sheep of the house of Israel
then came she and worshipped him saying lord
help me but he answered and said it
is not neat to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs and she
said truth lord yet the dogs eat of
the crumbs which fall from their master's table
then Jesus answered and said unto her oh
woman great is thy faith be it unto
thee even as thou wilt and her daughter
was made whole from that very hour thus
far in our reading of the holy scripture
let us look this evening at these familiar
words of the record of our lord's meeting
with this woman of Canaan as we find
it from verse 21 onwards behold a woman
of Canaan came and cried unto him now
in the earlier part of the chapter you
will note how our lord was engaged not
only in ministry in Galilee but was engaged
in fierce controversy with the scribes and the
pharisees some of them had come up from
Jerusalem not in order to learn from him
not in order to uh be instructed but
to oppose him and to hinder him and
that came to that point of collision when
our lord not only offended them by his
words but spoke as we heard to the
disciples concerning these blind leaders of the blind
we are not to suppose to suppose that
this was without strain and weariness on the
part of our lord we know indeed that
he knew what weariness was and it is
certainly clear that from this period of ministry
in Galilee he retired temporarily as we read
here across the borders of Israel down into
the area of Tyre and Sidon and he
did that not to extend his preaching ministry
or his works of power but he did
it in order to rest Mark who gives
us the same account with slightly different detail
which elaborates the story he tells us that
Jesus coming into this area of Tyre and
Sidon he entered into a house and he
would have no man know it clearly then
he gave instructions to the apostles concerning the
nature of his stay in this area and
he required of them that his presence should
not be disclosed he would have no man
know it this area of Tyre and Sidon
was of course the part of Palestine which
was inhabited by the remnants of the old
heathen tribes some of them at least which
had once peopled the whole land in the
days of Joshua when at last the time
of their iniquities had come to its full
and when they were struck with the judgment
and the wrath of God that people as
we know were dispossessed of the great portion
of the land but a few were left
to linger on for the centuries and these
Canaanite people as we read of this woman
here still inhabited this portion surrounding Tyre and
Sidon now although our Lord came in order
to rest Mark goes on to tell us
as soon as we are informed that he
had given this instruction that no man should
know it Mark adds those significant words but
he could not be hid that is to
say word of our Lord's ministry had penetrated
even into this dark area of Tyre and
Sidon we read indeed in the Gospels of
those who had crossed the hills and down
into Galilee from Tyre and Sidon some had
seen his marvelous works some had heard the
preaching of the gospel from his lips and
therefore it was that when he came into
Tyre and Sidon he could not be hid
and the word spread of his coming and
here is an instance of one who apparently
had not met him before but had heard
enough of him to be persuaded that if
only she could get access to Christ he
would be able to relieve her of the
burden which pressed upon her heart he would
be able to assuage the grief that had
so long stricken her on account of the
demon possession of her daughter and thus with
this conviction this woman of Canaan finds the
Savior and at once presents her petition to
him indeed it is more than a petition
we read in verse 22 that she cried
unto him she cried unto him saying have
mercy on me O Lord thou son of
David my daughter is grievously beckoned with the
devil and yet despite the urgency of her
plea despite the importunity with which she addresses
Christ we go on to read that he
answered her not a word she is met
with complete silence it is it is as
though our Lord has not even observed her
presence not only does he not speak to
her but there is no response given to
her and she evidently has to retire from
his presence without her longing being even acknowledged
it might well have been surely at that
point that she could have been tempted to
question the truth of the information that had
come to her was it possible that she
was a victim of some false report that
she was believing in error but if that
temptation did come to her she speedily resisted
it and rejected it because far from believing
or entertaining such a doubt she proceeds to
insist with the disciples that they should find
a way for her to have her petition
presented again to Christ and she speaks to
them as we find here in verse 23
she speaks to them evidently not once or
twice but on so many occasions that they
are wearied with her insistence and then they
come to Jesus and they besought him saying
send her away for she crieth after us
not it appears so much even on account
of the woman's need but because she was
so insistent with them they thus present her
case to the Savior but he answered and
said I am not sent but unto the
lost sheep of the house of Israel and
this you may recall is in harmony with
what he himself required of the disciples when
they were sent forth to preach as we
have it in Matthew chapter 10 and verse
5 and following that when the 12 were
sent forth they were given that command to
go not into the way of the Gentiles
and into any city of the Samaritans enter
ye not but go rather to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel and here
our Lord says that this was what he
also was doing that his answer one would
expect would be a clear negative to the
request of the woman it would seem from
the conversation that developed later that this word
to the disciples was probably heard passed on
to the woman but certainly the meaning of
our Lord's words are these I being sent
to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel we are not now in the house
of Israel and therefore the conclusion seemed to
be inescapable my business is not here my
business is not with this woman I am
not sent but to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel but the wonder of
the story develops as it goes on for
having thus been received by our Lord and
rebuffed by him and then the hearer of
such news as this she comes yet again
and prostrating herself before the Savior we read
in verse 25 she worshiped him saying Lord
help me and Jesus now speaks to her
for the first time he answered and said
it is not neat it is not fitting
it is not right it is not neat
to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs you have already heard he
said that the bread I have is for
the house of Israel I am sent to
them this is not the house of Israel
it is not neat to take that which
belongs to children and to cast it to
dogs and she said truth Lord yet the
dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from
their master's table it is true I am
not of Israel and yet I may still
partake of your bounty because surely there is
no need to deprive the children of bread
though I be not a child of Israel
is it not also true that the dogs
eat of the crumbs which fall from their
master's table and therefore why may I not
be treated as one of them if not
as a child and Jesus answered and said
unto her oh woman great is thy faith
be it unto thee even as thou wilt
and her daughter was made whole from that
same hour now here is one of the
great passages in the history of our Lord's
earthly ministry familiar surely to many of us
and it is here in the gospel because
it reveals to us so fully the way
in which we also are to meet with
Christ and the way in which we are
to obtain from him the blessing that we
need here is a woman she has no
natural advantages she has not been brought up
under the word of God she has not
had the blessing of the light which was
to be found in Israel even though portions
of that light may have reached her she
has none of these natural benefits but as
we find here she has one thing and
by that one thing she obtains everything from
Christ and the one thing that she has
is faith and the message of this portion
of scripture as of so much indeed the
whole of the gospel the message is that
if thou believest all things are possible to
him that believeth will we obtain anything from
Christ then we must come to him believing
fear not said Jesus believe only and she
shall be made whole speaking to the ruler
of the synagogue whose daughter was so grievously
ill believe he said on another occasion to
those two dumb men believe ye that i
am able to do this but to all
those who pressed upon him with grief of
conscience in need of cleansing who came to
him as the disciples came and who were
received as his disciples this is the word
which he gives ever to them and to
us believe ye believe in God believe also
in me now if that is true that
all the blessings of the gospel are suspended
upon faith that we receive them from Jesus
as we come in faith if that is
true as surely it is then the supreme
question for us is what is faith what
is believing and how do i possess that
faith which receives such blessings from Christ now
i believe that this passage answers that question
it not only tells us that faith is
the way to Christ but it brings out
before us certain great lessons concerning what faith
is in the first place then let us
understand from this passage that faith is born
of need here is a woman who comes
to Jesus she has a real burden the
need lies behind her coming that was true
in the case of those great multitudes who
came to Jesus who were lame and blind
and maimed and helpless there was need which
made them come yes but behind physical need
as we see it in this passage there
is deep spiritual and moral need that is
this woman's greatest burden how do we know
that how do we know that it's spiritual
need that is her primary concern well i
think very clearly from these words when our
lord speaks to her concerning her real condition
as not belonging to the house of israel
as belonging to those who were under the
condemnation and the judgment of god not children
he says but dogs when he speaks to
her of that instead of being offended with
her his word she says that is true
lord we are unworthy i have no right
i have no claim i do not come
to you as one who takes her place
as a child in your house that is
not my position what you say about me
what you say about our condition that is
all true we are fallen we are worthless
we have nothing to plead in your presence
i accept all that my friend we see
here something glorious something that we do not
see in the pharisees what was it that
offended them about the preaching of jesus was
it not the fact that he spoke to
them as sinners that he spoke to them
as men whose hearts were defiled and guilty
and unworthy in the sight of god was
that not the truth which offended them so
deeply it was and that is the truth
that offends every son of man by nature
to be told that to be told that
we are lost and outside that we have
no claim and no deserving and no right
in the presence of god that is a
truth which we do not receive by nature
and if when we hear those truths we
say yes and we go on to cry
lord help me then my friends something is
being done for us as was done for
this woman you have heard perhaps the record
of how scottish nobleman robert haldane went to
geneva in the year 1817 he had been
converted had given up the life of a
scottish aristocrat and had become an evangelist and
he was a very well educated man well
able to speak the european languages and loving
the doctrines of grace he went to geneva
in that year to see if calvin's gospel
was still being preached in geneva he found
it wasn't not only wasn't being preached but
he found in the theological school of geneva
all kinds of error and apostasy so in
his hotel bedroom he began a little bible
class invited to it a number of the
students and they went through verse by verse
and chapter by chapter the epistle of paul
to the robes and when they got to
the first section of chapter three when haldane
was commenting on those tremendous words there is
none righteous no not one there none that
understand us there is none that speaketh after
god there is none that doeth good no
not one when he came to those words
one of these students cried out he said
i see it now he saw the need
of the doctrines of salvation by grace but
haldane wasn't satisfied he turned to and said
yes but do you see that in your
heart is that what you see within no
righteousness no goodness no worthiness this is what
this woman saw there was need there was
a deep sense of need and of helplessness
so what does jesus do with her in
this state of anxiety and concern well you
might say he does nothing and in a
sense that's perfectly true what in fact he
does is he works to deepen her sense
of need he doesn't answer her he does
not speak to her he gives her no
response at all why is that well just
so that that burden might be increased we
might have supposed that woman so needy as
this at once the savior would have rushed
to her and said to her you have
no need to be so concerned you've no
need to be so disturbed yes i am
able to deal with your case i can
give you the help that you need but
he doesn't say that at all and that
is how christ deals with sinners when sinners
come to jesus he doesn't say to them
your case is not as bad as you
suppose your sinfulness is not as great as
you think not at all when the holy
spirit deals with men in conviction of sin
he deals to deepen that sense of conviction
and when jesus here is personally dealing with
this woman instead of beginning at once to
comfort her he does the very opposite meets
her with silence rebuffs her doesn't give her
any response until her heart was near to
breaking and then at last when he does
speak to her he gives her these hardest
truths tells her that he's not sent but
under the lost sheep of the house of
israel and only at this last point of
extremity does he speak to her these words
of peace my friends there's a great deal
for us to learn from that if faith
is born of need then need is a
very precious thing a very precious thing nothing
in this world can buy a sense of
spiritual need you know how the apostle accounts
for the fact that there are many who
do not come to the feet of jesus
who are they not many wise men he
says not many mighty not many noble are
called very few who in this world are
filled with good and peace and who have
no sense of need when george buchanan one
of the scottish reformation leaders of a second
generation when he was dying he sent a
message to king james the sixth of scotland
who became james the first of england buchanan
had been a tutor to the king when
the king was a boy prince and therefore
he knew him well and he sent him
this farewell message intended if by god's blessing
it could bring home an arrow of conviction
for he had always failed hitherto to bring
the king to submit to the gospel and
buchanan's last word to the king was he
said to his servant go and tell his
majesty that i am going where few kings
or great men ever come the sense of
need which leads to faith is a precious
thing and god knowing its preciousness works to
increase it in the hearts of those whom
he saves and let it let us then
not suppose that if we find when we
are seeking christ and seeking him under real
burden of heart and if he does not
answer and it seems that our prayers are
not even being heard let us not suppose
that he is doing anything else than that
which he did here in the gospels he
knows best how to humble us he knows
that our greatest need is to be humbled
in ourselves and brought to that strength of
faith which comes after such conviction and depth
of helplessness we are living in a generation
we are living in a day when unhappily
a great deal even of evangelism has turned
its eyes away from this very truth but
if we are to see real and strong
faith that faith grows from the soil of
need faith then is born of need secondly
we see in this passage how a true
sense of need leads on to great thoughts
about the person of jesus christ as long
as i have a superficial sense of my
need i can go on looking to myself
but when i really am convicted i must
begin to look away from myself to another
and i say must because the very person
who creates that sense of need that is
the holy spirit is the one who has
come to glorify christ and where he smites
the heart with conviction he will go on
to lead the penitent to behold the greatness
of the savior a true sense of need
always leads on to great thoughts of christ
and look at this woman's thoughts about jesus
notice how she addresses him oh lord she
says thou son of david that is to
say she takes hold of this title and
she does not use it accidentally but she
uses it deliberately it means something to her
now we've already said that here was a
woman who had little or no spiritual knowledge
or information and yet this much she must
have heard she had somehow heard that to
the royal house of david an heir was
to be born who would be king it
could be even that she had heard something
of those glorious promises written in the old
testament concerning the son of david we sang
that paraphrase of isaac watts of psalm 72
in that paraphrase we read of the son
of david he will deliver he will deliver
the needy when he crieth the poor also
and him that hath no helper that same
psalm tells us concerning the son of david
that men shall be blessed in him and
all nations shall call him blessed his name
will endure forever now you see what has
happened in the mind of this woman hearing
of the deeds which christ has wrought she
has come to the persuasion that this is
indeed the son of david and therefore when
she comes to jesus she comes with this
promise with this title oh lord thou son
of david have mercy on me not thou
son of adam thou son of abraham but
a title which has a meaning which is
full of significance for her you know when
john bunyan was under conviction of sin and
he began to read the scriptures in a
new way he says that he clutched at
the promises of scripture as a drowning man
would clutch at a piece of wood this
is what this woman's doing she is clutching
at a title of christ and that is
what faith is to do faith is not
to wait for some happy day when perchance
god will make our heart to glow or
anything of that kind but faith is to
take hold of god's promises and to come
to christ pleading those promises but there is
more to it she not only uses his
title but think for a moment of how
she esteems his person when treated by him
as she was she nevertheless comes and in
the greatness of her thoughts about him she
worships him it's as though she says oh
lord i own you i acknowledge you i
worship you she came and she worshipped him
saying lord help me and this again is
always the characteristic of faith jesus christ is
not only david's son but david lord he
is the lord from heaven and when faith
approaches christ it approaches in the of worship
and of adoration that means that faith is
prepared to trust where it does not understand
when we as poor sinners first seek the
feet of christ there is so much that
we have not even begun to understand we
are face to face with the greatest of
all mysteries when we approach the redeemer he
is infinite he is eternal he is the
god man and when this woman came to
jesus certainly there was a vast amount which
she did not begin to comprehend he said
to her that he was not sent but
unto the lost sheep of the house of
israel but here he was in tyrant sidon
why was he here if he was only
sent to the house of israel that was
only one question which he could not begin
to answer but though she couldn't answer the
questions which no doubt must have perplexed her
she came and she worshipped him and she
owned him because she knew who he was
in the greatness of his person and that
is something that we must do if we
are believers when there comes across our pathway
as there must come many things which we
cannot understand which solely try us and perplex
us the one thing we have to do
is to fall down and to know that
we are dealing with god god is not
man and his thoughts are not our thoughts
and there is an immense profundity in the
providence of god which we cannot begin to
trace we must then not dispute but we
must worship and in so doing we shall
find our peace you know how job long
ago confronted by providences which he could not
begin to understand uttered those memorable words though
he slay me yet will i trust in
him that is the language of faith when
it seems we are to be slain we
are even then able by god's grace to
believe in him who is god and who
therefore will do with us what is good
she owns her unworthiness and she believes that
the savior is great enough to do that
which she is not able to understand but
faith leads her to worship and one last
thing respecting her thoughts of christ and this
of course is the very heart of the
passage she believes that jesus is a master
who bountifully supplies the need of all his
household it is this hardest thing of our
lord which gives her the very light which
he needs it is not neat to take
the children's bread and to throw it to
dogs how does she get comfort out of
that in this way jesus is representing himself
as a master he is one who has
a table he has children to feed but
are she thinks what kind of table has
jesus what kind of master is he why
he is a master who bountifully will supply
the needs of his own he is not
one whose table will have some niggardly portion
on it a few pieces of bread to
feed the hands of the hungry no he
will so abundantly fill his children that their
hands will not be able to contain the
blessing there will be enough for all the
children around the table and for as many
dogs as there may be to pick up
the crumbs which fall from their children from
the hands of the children this you see
is her view of the table of christ
it is a table laden with blessing the
children's hands will be filled and even when
they are filled there will be more than
enough for the dogs which will gather also
do not treat me she says as a
child there's no need to do that but
i only ask for these crumbs because i
know that they will fall from your table
that is faith that is seeing in christ
what is in christ i am the bread
of life to jesus he that cometh unto
me shall never hunger and he that believeth
on me shall never thirst we surely says
the psalmist we surely shall be satisfied with
thy abundant grace and this woman had a
sort of prophetic insight into what god was
doing he was then loading the table of
israel from israel the bread of life was
to be taken to the world there would
be enough there was enough for her and
for every other one who would come to
gather of these crumbs oh woman said jesus
great is thy faith be it unto thee
even as thou will and that underscores our
lord's pleasure in that faith which believes him
to be all that he declares himself to
be to us now then as we close
in just a moment of application my friend
i wonder if you understand that your real
problem if tonight you are not consciously rejoicing
in the blessing of the gospel i wonder
if you understand that your real problem is
your absence of true need here is a
woman who broke through to christ when she
had heard so little about him but what
she heard was enough to drive her to
him but there are some of you here
tonight who have heard more than she ever
heard and at this moment you do not
long after him and you are not seeking
him with the opportunity that this woman sought
him and why is that is because you
do not yet see how deep that need
is of yours and your faith is not
yet taking hold upon the titles of christ
and looking up to him and worshiping him
i beseech you then to implore god to
open your heart and to break down that
self-sufficiency and to give you to see
what it means to be disturbed disturbed so
as to seek jesus until we truly find
him and then what is faith faith is
but turning one's eye to christ alone faith
is but believing that i have nothing to
bring i have nothing to do i have
to look to him they looked unto him
says the psalmist they looked unto him and
they were lightened and their faces were not
ashamed salvation does not depend upon myself in
the least degree faith is acknowledging that fact
and looking to jesus alone i like the
stories about c.h spurgeon after he had
begun his ministry in london for a few
years one sunday night he was preaching to
an immense congregation in the surrey music hall
holding about 10 000 people and at the
beginning of that service certain ruffians who had
come into the meeting began in the opening
prayer to call out fire it was a
huge building as you will understand and the
word only circulated in part of the congregation
but in the area where people heard this
cry of fire repeated by several people simultaneously
seven people were killed and about 25 or
26 were seriously injured and spurgeon went on
preaching not understanding what was going on in
the far distant corner of the building until
a man came up to the pulpit and
explained to him the terrible tragedy and spurgeon
collapsed under the shock he was carried out
of the building as though he was dead
but the worst thing was that the next
morning he had not only not recovered but
it seemed that he might never preach again
his mind seemed to be unhinged by it
he was overtaken with terrible darkness there was
no question of him doing any work so
he was taken to the home of one
of his deacons a little way out of
london and there he was to stay for
a few days and there was apparently no
improvement and then one afternoon that same week
spurgeon says how he was walking in the
garden of this deacon's home in the yard
as you would say he was walking there
and there came to him a verse of
scripture and the verse was in Philippians chapter
two god hath given him a name which
is above every name that at the name
of jesus every knee should bow of things
in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth and that passage that goes
on now the thought which came to spurgeon
was this it did not matter what became
of him supposing he never preached again supposing
his condition did not change this glorious truth
was certain that christ was the king of
all god had exalted him all power was
his if spurgeon never opened his mouth again
in london that same gospel would be preached
to the ends of the earth and for
all ages and as he began to look
again to the savior in that same act
of looking he was restored to peace and
to faith and to quietness of mind and
that is how god deals with us we
look to ourselves and as we look our
hearts are darkened but then god by his
grace and spirit causes us to stop looking
at ourselves and look to christ and as
we look we live and i close with
one other story which is a true story
as the other one was there was a
quaint preacher in britain in the 18th century
called john ryland his son baptized william carey
before he went to india john ryland was
minister in northampton on one occasion he was
in london and before he left the home
he was visiting he was asked if he
would conduct family worship and he did and
he chose for his reading the passage which
we have had this evening matthew chapter 15
and when he came to the story of
the father the syrophoenician woman it was too
much for him not to comment so he
broke into the text of the passage and
he began a kind of dialogue between christ
and the woman jesus said to her when
he read the words a woman great is
thy faith be it unto thee even as
thou wilt she said what is that you
say be it unto thee said jesus even
as you will that is to say i
will go the whole length of what you
will why said the woman i will have
my daughter to be healed these unto thee
said jesus even according as thou will why
she went on i will have my soul
to be saved be it unto thee even
as thou will i will be fed she
said with all my riches and glory be
it unto thee even as thou will now
he was expounding what's there in the verse
though the words are actually there jesus is
saying everything will be given to faith everything
needful everything that is for our good and
for god's glory that will be given do
you my friend believe tonight in christ then
jesus says be it unto thee even as
thou will he will give us the desires
of our heart he will answer the cry
of the believing sinner and he will do
it for his own glory because it magnifies
him let us pray oh lord our gracious
god we come to thee in the evening
of this thy day we thank thee for
the knowledge that thy word endureth forever our
days upon earth are but as but as
a shadow we are as the grass which
groweth up in the morning and is cut
down in the evening but oh lord we
thank thee that this word of thine has
endured through all time we thank you for
the knowledge that by thy spirit thou art
blessing thy word in the earth this day
we pray oh god that thy word that
has been preached this night here and throughout
the united states of america we pray that
that word may be mightily used oh god
send down upon us the power of thy
holy spirit through thou cause us to be
filled with him and make us bold in
thy service make us to know what it
is to follow thee wholly and as we
pray for this land we pray for the
preaching of thy word in all nations we
thank thee for the church of thy dear
son this night which is to be found
in every corner of the earth do thou
lord hasten thy kingdom may the fullness of
the gentiles be brought in hasten that day
when all israels will be saved when the
veil shall be taken from their face when
they will own him to be their lord
and to be their savior and oh lord
do thou hasten the coming of that glorious
kingdom when there shall be no more death
and when there shall be no more night
and when thou will be the light and
the glory of that city oh lord bring
us we pray in thy grace to worship
thee there and keep us now by thy
power unto the day of redemption bless the
office bearers of this church bless the preaching
of thy word from this pulpit may it
ever be to thy glory and to the
advancement of thy kingdom we ask it all
with the pardon of our sins through christ
our lord and savior amen