Romans chapter number one and we'll just start at the beginning. It says Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle Separated into the gospel of God which he had promised to for by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. And he declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Among whom ye are also the called of Jesus Christ. To all them that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Frederick Whitfield is 26 years old and he's a seminary student. When he wrote the hymn that we sang, there is a name I love to hear. I love to sing it's worth. Sounds like music in my ear, the sweetest name on earth. And the whole song is about the name of Jesus. It, the name of Jesus. It tells me of a savior's love who died to set me free. It tells me of his precious blood, the sinner's perfect plea. It tells me what my father hath in store for every day, and though I tread the darksome path, yield sunshine all the way. It tells of one whose loving heart can feel my deepest woe, who in each sorrow bears a part that none can bear below. Oh, how I love Jesus. because he first loved me. You read those first seven verses of the book of Romans and you might think that Paul felt the same way as Frederick Whitefield did about Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Look at, just scan your eyes through those verses. a servant of Jesus Christ, who preaches the gospel concerning Jesus Christ, who God declared to be the Son of God. Verse 5 talks about serving Him for His namesake. We are the called of Jesus Christ, beloved of God, and receive grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ. is lifting up the name of Jesus. All that Paul says and does in his ministry is for the glory of Jesus Christ. When he writes of the church, it is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he speaks of the gospel, it is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he speaks of the end times, it's concerning the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he gives us imperatives or the things that we have to do as Christians, it is because we are saved and called in the Lord Jesus Christ. When he comforts the lonely and the broken and the overwhelmed, he does so pointing and directing to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to look at this tonight and consider that what we do and what Paul did here was for His namesake. And we'll sort of take the theme from the end of verse number 5, for His name. For whose name? For Jesus' name. What he did and what he preached was for His name. We are here tonight because of Jesus. We wouldn't be here tonight if it wasn't for Jesus. There'd be no point of being here if it wasn't for Jesus. If it wasn't for Jesus in your life, you wouldn't care to be here or not. You'd be anywhere but here. But we're also here for Jesus. Because He is in the midst of us even right now. That we are worshiping Him and lifting up His name. Sometimes we can get a blessing from coming to church and hearing a message that we need to hear, but if you come and you don't hear a message that you need to hear that particular day, and the song service didn't particularly move you, nor the prayers, well you're still here for Jesus, for His honor, for His glory, and for His namesake. So it's not just about what the church service can do for you. which is part of it, and God does do great things in our lives when we're in His house. But it's also what we do in glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach and we listen to preaching for the good of our own souls, but we preach and we listen to preaching for the sake of His name. And that's what Paul sets forth here tonight for us. In verse number five, He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said that he was the called apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about Jesus, whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. So, he received gifts from Christ. The whole reason Paul was an apostle was because of the grace of Jesus. The persecutor has now become a preacher. The blasphemer is now a disciple. He is a different man. It's not a reformation in his life, but it was regeneration. Paul was the worst of sinners and no amount of reformation was ever going to change that man's heart. If you consented to the death of Christians, if you persecuted and ransacked the churches where men and women are imprisoned, If you so hated the Lord Jesus Christ, a reformation just wouldn't do. It must be regeneration. It was the new birth. Paul himself said, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. He said that in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. If you are in Christ, It's not that you are becoming a new creature. It's not that you strive to be a new creature. But if you are in Christ, you are a new creature. How is that? It's because you are born again. You have been brought from death unto life. That the old things have passed away and all things have become new. The new life in Christ is the grace that God gives us. That we are saved by grace, and then we live by grace. Because of that saving work in our souls, our whole life has been turned around. That what we do in our service to Christ is now the result of God's grace working in our life. Paul was a new man by grace. It was regeneration. If you look over in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, in the first part of that chapter is that famous passage about the gospel. Paul declares unto Tertia Quorin the gospel of Jesus Christ. that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried. And he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And he was seen of many disciples and many people, and many people all at once. And then he says, after all the list of people that had seen Jesus, verse number eight, he says, and last of all, he was seen of me also as one born out of due time. So Paul saw the resurrected Christ, And he was the last to see the resurrected Christ. And then verse 9, it says, For I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. Paul said, I'm an apostle, but I'm at the very bottom of the list, and I'm not even fit to be called an apostle. If you're going to look at qualifications to be an apostle, I wouldn't make the cut. No one would have ever dreamed of me being an apostle. an apostle because of my great sins against the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 10, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace, which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was in me. So Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. He was a Christian, by the grace of God. He was a churchman, by the grace of God. He was a preacher, by the grace of God. He was an apostle, by the grace of God. Everything that Paul was, was because of God's grace. Everything that we know of Paul, and his great missionary works, and his writing, and his preaching, and his boldness, and his willingness to stand for the faith and defend the faith, it was all because of the grace of God. Now note, in verse number 10, he says, the grace of God was not bestowed in vain. Paul worked hard. in the work that God called him to do. In fact, he said there wasn't, he may have been the least of the apostles, but there was an apostle that worked harder in the work of God than he did. And he's not boasting, he's just telling the truth that there wasn't another apostle that labored as much and as hard and as fervently as Paul did. And the reason I bring this out is because Paul said that he received this by grace. It was all of what grace did, but Paul didn't say, well, God is sovereign. His elect will be saved, whether somebody goes and preaches or not. If there's somebody saved out there, then God will send somebody to save them. I don't have to go witness to anybody. God's sheep will hear his voice somewhere or another. That's not how Paul viewed the sovereignty of God. And this is the same Paul that teaches Romans 8 and 9 about the sovereignty of God and salvation and reparation and election, that God's sheep will be saved. But this is the same Paul who labored more abundantly in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul didn't devote himself to idle worldly pleasures and preach Messiah, but Paul dedicated his life to the work God called him to do, and he labored, knowing the high calling of preaching the gospel of Christ, and knowing that God had called him to the work, and he labored, knowing the desire in him to preach the gospel was of grace, not of sin. that this good thing was in him, but the grace of God that was with him. And I think this is what Paul is getting at in Romans 1.5. By whom we have received grace and apostleship. That he received grace and he was what he was by the grace of God, but that grace carried on into his life that put that desire to serve him in that. So he received grace from Christ, saving grace, but also the grace to serve him in his church. See, that's the purposes of these gifts that we've received. God gave Paul a gift. We have received grace, unmerited favor, an undeserved gift. and apostleship, so that's a job that Paul was to do. What for? For the obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. So there's a purpose to the gifts. God saved Paul, he called him into the apostleship for a purpose, and Paul labored in that calling for that purpose. To what end? Well, it was the obedience to the faith, obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, see, we keep going around in a circle here. That we have the gospel of Jesus Christ that saved Paul by grace, and that grace in Paul's life was receiving an apostleship, or to go and declare his worth. And what was Paul to do? He was to go to preach the obedience of the faith among all nations for his name. So he's going to tell people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would be saved and obedient to the faith, that they would go and tell other people about Jesus Christ. See, it just, it goes in a circle. It's cyclical, but Paul said, I was saved by grace, and by grace I serve Christ and tell others about Christ who will be saved by grace, and the grace in their life will go and tell others about Jesus, and so on. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not so much an invitation, but a summons. We can invite those to Christ. There's nothing wrong, I suppose, with saying that, but it is also a summons that you are to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is an obedience to the faith. So we can tell people to come to Jesus and to repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and look unto the Lord and be saved. Because it says in Acts 17 30, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And the deadness of the soul and the ability or inability of man to do anything pleasing unto God is beside the point of what God has told man to do, to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So there is that obedience to the faith. How are we saved? Well, we're saved by grace. God regenerates the soul. God gives spiritual life. It's the effectual work of the Holy Spirit. That we are saved by that quickening power, that regenerating power of the Holy Spirit of God where we are born again. What's the means that God uses? How does God regenerate men? Are we just laying in bed one night and wake up and born again and not sure what happened? Are we like some who believe that you can be saved and not even know it? Never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ before and be saved over in some foreign land? And you get to heaven and you're surprised to be there because you don't know what's going on because you're the quote-unquote elect? No, that's not what the Bible teaches either. God saves His elect through irresistible grace by the means of the preaching of the Gospel, by the Word of God. That's how God sovereignly and powerfully saves His people through the means of the Word of God, that spiritual seed that is incorruptible that Peter talks about. So the Word of God is declared, or the Word of God is read, the Word of God is heard, the preaching of the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, is heard and received, and it is the means of that preached Word that the Holy Spirit uses in regeneration, to give Him life. So what happens when somebody's born again? What happens? Well, there's faith and repentance. Whenever the Spirit of God quickens a soul, and quickens means give life, so when God the Holy Spirit gives life to the soul, there's faith and repentance. And you can say, which comes first, faith or repentance? Well, they're going to come probably inseparably. Because how can you turn unto one who you don't believe in and how can you believe in one if you don't turn to him? So there might be a logical order to that, but it happens so fast that if there is an order to it, then we can't perceive it anyway. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. To have that, you have to turn from the way that you're going and from yourself and believe in Him. So the effects of regeneration are faith and repentance and believing and having faith and trusting in the Lord Jesus. Turning from self and turning from sin to the obedience of Christ's call to come unto Me. What's Jesus say? Believe on Me. Come to Me. Repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are all calls. Those are all summons. And if Jesus says, Come unto Me, And you do that, that's obedience unto the faith. You're obeying what God has told you to do. If you look over in 2 Thessalonians 1, in verse number 6, 2 Thessalonians 1, in verse number 6, seen as a righteous thing to God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. Oops, lost my place. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and they, flaming vengeance, taking fire on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, the angels will come in vengeance on those who don't know Jesus. Those who are not saved. And how does Paul describe them there? Them that obey not the gospel. Those who don't repent of their sins and trust in Jesus. And that's not just a Paul saying, Peter says it in 1 Peter 4, 17. For the time has come that judgment must begin in the house of God. And if it first began at us, what shall the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? The gospel is not only a promise, but a promise with a command to receive it. I labored to show how that one cannot obey the Gospel apart from the grace of God. But nonetheless, those who will not repent of their sins and those who will not trust in Jesus are held accountable for their lack of faith and their lack of trust in Jesus Christ and their lack of obedience to the Word So Paul goes out to declare Jesus Christ the way and the truth of the life. He goes and declares the gospel of Christ as the power of God and the salvation. And declares that summons. The king has said to repent of your sins. Who promises this thing? Well, it's God that promises. God says to come. God says to repent and not to listen to God. It's a sin, isn't it? If God says, thou shall have no grave and images before you, if God says not to do that and you do it, is it a sin? If God says to honor your father and your mother and you don't do what He says, is that a sin? Because you say, no, I won't do what you say. If God says in His Word to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you don't do it, well, what do you call that? You're not listening to God. You're not doing what He says. Unbelief is a sin. It's rebellion against God. You are not believing God. God has told you something, and you say, I don't believe you. I don't believe what you say. I don't believe your promises. I don't believe your warnings. I don't believe your commands. I just won't do it. I refuse to do what you say. And that's just a fact. There's never been anyone who desired to be saved, had a true desire to be saved that the Lord didn't save. Why? Because God puts that desire in us. There's none that seeketh after God, the Bible says. So all those who are not in Christ don't seek after God. They don't want anything to do with God. Faith is submission and surrender and receiving God's Word. Faith is denying self and our hearts and our minds and yielding to another. One fellow well said, Faith is adorned with the title of obedience because the Lord calls us by His Gospel. And by faith we answer when He calls us. On the contrary, unbelief is the height of all rebellion against God. So Paul goes out to preach the Gospel. Obedience to the faith among all the nations for His name. This Gospel is to be preached to all people. Now if you look in verse 16, it says that I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ as the power of God and the salvation. To the Jew first, or to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. But this is not just to the Jew, but it's to all. It's to us all the way over here in West Virginia. It's to those who are in China and Africa, those who are in Europe, the whole world, everyone. This gospel is to go out. This gospel calls for all people of all time. Now this whole book has a book end to it. And it's this very theme of preaching the gospel. I said that this was Paul's theme at the beginning. It's also his theme at the end. If you look at the last chapter of this book, in the last three verses, it says, Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment, see, the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of the faith. To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. It's an inclusio. It's a bookend. Paul brings it full circle. He closes up this book the same way he starts it, about preaching Jesus Christ to all the world, that they may believe and obey the promises of God, of the everlasting God, for everlasting salvation. That's what's on Paul's heart in this book. I've heard people give different theories about what this whole book is about. Some people say, I read one man that said it's all about living together as Christians. That the whole book of Romans is, the whole point of it is how Christians live together. But it seems to me that if you start the book talking about preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you go through the first nine chapters or so, talking about how we are saved and explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then you end up with how we are to live after we've received that gospel. And then he ends up with almost the same words at the end as he did at the beginning about preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think it's pretty clear what the book is about. He begins and ends with the same theme of preaching Jesus Christ for His name. We do it for His namesake. We preach Christ, we glorify Christ, and we preach for the glory of Christ. The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 1, verse number 11, listen to what the prophet Malachi says. For from the rising of the sun, even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathens, saith the Lord of hosts." The Lord has declared that His name is going to be great all over the earth. Not just in Jerusalem, not just in Judea, But every place where the sun shines, God's name is going to be great. From the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, God's name is going to be great. This whole world is going to know the name of Jesus. Some think that the Old Testament saints didn't believe that the Gentiles would be saved. I heard somebody sort of allude to that today, actually. that they were too prejudiced against the Gentiles to believe they'd be saved. But right here, Malachi believed that the Gentiles were going to be saved. In fact, he said, not only would they believe in His name be great, but in every place incense shall be offered under my name. Not only will they believe in the Lord and know of the Lord, but they will worship the Lord all over the world. We know that from the book of Revelation where it says God has redeemed us by His blood of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and made us priests that will reign on the earth for His name. That's why we're here tonight, for His name. We serve Him for His name. We serve Jesus. We serve with the authority of Jesus in the name of Jesus and for the glory of Jesus. Christ gets all the glory. He gets all the glory in the service of God. Woe to the man who preaches for his own glory and his own fame. Woe to the church who builds herself up for her own glory. To be a famous church, to be a big church, to be an influential church as far as the community is concerned. To be a respectable church. You know what? You can be respectable and popular, Or you can be faithful, but it's hard to be both. Despite whatever people might say, it's hard to be both. It's hard to be faithful and popular with the world. Because you're going to have to do one or the other. You're not going to be able to be popular and everybody love you if you're faithful to Jesus Christ because guess what? Our world, the world we live in doesn't love our Savior. They hate Him. They hate His Word. They hate His grace. And if we're faithful to Him and we follow Him, we're not going to be popular with the world. Those who see Christianity as a way to prosper in the world, to build a kingdom for their own, woe unto them. Because we glorify and we serve for His name. For the glory of His name. Paul received gifts to use the gifts. So that the Romans would receive gifts and would use the gifts. That's just the cyclical call. You see in the next two verses that it wasn't just Paul who was called, but it was the Romans were as well. He said, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus. So he includes the Romans in that number among the nations who were obedient to the faith. The Romans were saved not under Paul's ministry, but he's an apostle, so he has authority to speak to them, to all the people in Rome, all Christians, all the churches, Jew, Gentile, slave and free. This is to all the Christians who are in Rome. Beloved of God, he says. Beloved of God. God is good and God's good to everybody. Jesus said it rains on the just and the unjust. That whenever there's a nice day outside and everybody goes out and enjoys the nice weather and just has a wonderful time, Lost people enjoy that day just as much, maybe more than saved people. They might have a wonderful time. God gives men comforts and enjoyments. God gives lost men wonderful wives and lost women beautiful children. God is kind and He's benevolent to all of His creatures. Don't confuse God's kindness and His long-sufferingness with being loved of God. The saints of God here were beloved of God. And that love is an electing love. It is a saving love. It is a sanctifying love. It is a powerful love. All things that the Scripture talks about. God's love is not a love that leads the choice to man to whether or not they'll love him back, but it's a love to where God First, chose us. So if you look over in the book of Colossians chapter number 3 and verse number 12, it says just that. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness, of mind, meekness, and long-sufferingness. So here we have the electing love of God. That we are to put on these graces because we were chosen in God. As the elect of God, holy and beloved. So that's a love that God chose. That's a people that God chose because He loved them. For God so loved the world. That's a saving love. It's a sanctifying love that God's love in our lives will set us apart and make us holy. It's a love that quickens us and gives us life. It's a true love and a pure love. Think about being beloved of God or dearly or well-loved. That's what beloved means. Well-loved, dearly loved by the Heavenly Father. The true love, not just in word only or theory only, but a love in which the Father sent His only begotten Son. A love for which Christ laid down His own life for His sheep. A holy love, a deep, undefiled love, a free and unconditional love. An everlasting love. God doesn't fall out of love. God's love doesn't wax and wane. It's a love for you that was personal before the world was made. A love for you, elect of God, that was personal, that will outlast the sun. God's love for his elect will endure long after this sun has stopped to shine. You are beloved of God, child of God. You are called to be a saint. You would think the Roman Catholics would read a book entitled The Epistle of Paul to the Romans. You would think that would be the most interesting book that they would have, since they claim that that's where it's all from. But you get here in the seventh verse, and it starts unraveling some of their theology, because here he says, to all that be in Rome, called to be saints. Now a Roman Catholic can't go along with that because you don't get to sainthood till long after you're dead. And there's certain stipulations you have to meet before you can be a saint. They have to vote on these things and they have to have committees and so forth. But Paul says to everybody, to every Christian, to all that be in Rome, called of God to be a saint. I read this a couple weeks ago, and I read it and it reminded me of it, and I went and found it again. It said, a pipe, or a cause for the canonization, or making somebody a saint, of the pipe-smoking, plain-talking, mustachioed, beloved Catholic author G.K. Chesterton will not be opened, announced the bishop. Despite Chesterson's inspirational writings and his role in Catholic revival in England during the early 20th century, several obstacles stand in the way of advancing the author's cause to become a saint. the bishop said in a letter to the G.K. Chesterton Society. Chesterton was born in 1874, became a prolific writer, a Catholic apologist who wrote such works as Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, and his fictional detective stories, the Father Brown series. He died in 1936. Doyle said Chesterton's goodness and ability to evangelize was good, but he couldn't go on with the proceedings that make him a saint. He said, I'm unable to promote the cause for three reasons. First, and most importantly, there is no local cult. So if you're going to be a saint, you have to have a local cult after you die. Secondly, I've been able to tease out a pattern of personal spirituality. So not only was there no local cult to follow after him after he's dead, he wasn't a spiritual man. So that comes second, I guess. And thirdly, the issue of Chesterson's anti-Semitism. So he was an anti-Semite. Well, this man has been dead, like I said, since 1936. And there's some bishop somewhere who's got paperwork. There's a society that went through and filled out paperworks and forms and applications and sent it in to this man. And this man read it like a job interview and looked at his resume and said, well, I don't think I want to proceed any further to make this man a saint. He didn't meet the requirements. Now, that's true. You can go and look that up yourself. It's readily available. This is not some secret that's hidden away. That's what people believe. So when they talk about saints so-and-so, this is what they get at. They've met these qualifications. What sayeth the Scriptures? To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. That's what the Bible says. You don't have to send me an application to become a saint. And even if you did, I wouldn't know where to send it on after me, right? Where would you send the paperwork? Because a saint is a holy one. That's what it means. A saint is made holy by the blood of Jesus. Well, G.K. wasn't, didn't have any spirituality, he said, so he didn't get his application and moved up the chain of command. Well, the Bible says a saint is a holy one. That's what it is. Well, how do you be holy? Because you're in Christ. You're made holy by the blood of Jesus. A saint is those who are loved of God in Jesus Christ. A saint is one who has been called by God and by His grace and through faith and the obedience of the Gospel of Christ. A saint is one who has received the grace of God. A saint is one who has peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. So in other words, if you have repented of your sins and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are one of His called holy ones. A saint is not a position. It's not something that you work up to. There are not higher saints in the church than just regular old people in the church. If you are called of God, if you have been saved, you're a saint. I'm a saint not because I'm a good person. I'm a saint because I'm a holy one in Christ. And you're a saint if you trust in Him. Because you've received His grace and His righteousness. What a glorious thing to be beloved of God and called to sainthood. You're a saint. Grace and peace to you. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. We've gone back around to verse number 5. Paul received grace. He said, you're a saint, you're called because of that grace of God. You're separated by God and justified in His sight. Now, grace doesn't mean you're passive and you do nothing. So don't get the idea that, well, I'm a saint and I just live however I want to and I'm a saint. Well, that's not the biblical teaching, of course. 1 John 3 says, And every man that hath his hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. So yes, you are holy in Jesus and you are pure in Jesus. But every man that hath that hope purifieth himself. You stand justified in Christ. You stand as holy and a saint of God. But every man that has that hope pursues practical holiness and practical godliness. Those who have received the grace of God work out that salvation that is in them. The saints of God persevere in holiness because we persevere in grace. Because God perseveres in grace, what C. H. Spurgeon says. The saints persevere in holiness because God perseveres in grace. We work out our own salvation because God works in us to do His will in His good pleasure. We are saints called to act like saints. Called to put off the sins of the world. Grace is an undeserved gift that God gives us. The gift of eternal life. The gift of forgiveness of sins. The gift of sainthood and the inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus. Well, Frederick Whitfield felt, from what I understand, that that hymn he wrote, Oh How I Love Jesus, there is a name I love, He said it was kind of one-sided. He said it tells the whole story from the perspective of the sinner. And he thought, well it didn't really teach much theology. And so he wrote another hymn to balance it out. He wrote another hymn, not just that he loves Jesus, but why he loves Jesus. Yes, because he first loved me. But in his other hymn that he wrote to balance it out, he said, I saw the cross of Jesus when burdened with my sin. I sought the cross of Jesus to give me peace within. I brought my soul to Jesus. He cleansed it in His blood. And in the cross of Jesus I found peace with God. I love the cross of Jesus. It tells me what I am, a vile and guilty creature saved only through the Lamb. No righteousness, no merit, no beauty can I plead, yet in the cross of glory my title there I read. Sweet is the cross of Jesus, there let my weary heart still rest in peace unshaken, till with him ne'er depart. And then in strains of glory I'll sing his wondrous power, where sin can never enter and death is known no more. Oh, how I love Jesus, because he first loved me. Thank God.