[00:00:04] Children. We’re going to [have] two parts in this message, and the first part has to do with the exposing power of the law, and the second part with the liberating power of the gospel.
[00:00:19] If we want to talk about the law of God, in Exodus 20 we have the Ten Commandments. And I’m wondering if the children will open your Bible and look there and tell us what is the first commandment? See if you can be the first one there in Exodus 20 to find a commandment. I’ll even come down here off my pedestal and look you in the eye. Who has Exodus 20 and what are the commandments? What’s the first?
[00:00:54] Right. Do we have a child who was found found it? I see a hand back there. All right. What is the first commandment? Great! Thank you.
[00:01:07] Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that in the first commandment, God is first? It must mean that. But then, would it mean in your thought life, say, when you’re thinking about yourself, you put God first and maybe others second and yourself third? I’ve heard people say that.
[00:01:28] Is that what the commandment means? He’s kind of number one on a list. What does it mean? Is that right? Do you think that’s right? All right. He thinks it’s right. All right. Do you think it’s right? Okay.
[00:01:50] Well, Henry, Krabbendam pulled this trick on me one time here. That’s wrong. Is that what the commandment means? The commandment means God is first, and there’s no second, third, fourth.
[00:02:04] It means, in your thought life He’s got to be the center of all of it. He’s not a compartment; a number one compartment. And then you get compartment number 2 or 3. But it means that God is the master of the universe, the only One. And He rules overall.
[00:02:19] And that if you’re going to keep the commandments, say like the first commandment, honor your father and your mother, respect them, that you not only have to do it because you’re told to keep it—you have to show them honor and respect—but you have to do it because God is owner and you have to do it because you love Him. He’s first.
[00:02:39] It means then, in your heart of hearts, you’ve got to be giving everything to Him. That’s what the command means. You’re worshiping Him, surrendering to Him in all your life. That’s kind of heavy duty.
[00:02:56] Now, as we turn to the sermon itself, we’re going to see that it has some application. We’re going to be reading now from Deuteronomy chapter 23.
[00:03:09] I was preaching the same sermon a few years ago in Sonora, California, in 1984. And while I was preaching, or just as I began, I announced this passage of Scripture. There was a man sitting in the back, about four rows in the back on the aisle side. It had pews, the small church. I didn’t know him, even though I had had a part in the beginning of the church. And he turned out to be a visitor. And when I announced Deuteronomy 23, there was a kind of an intense look that came over his face.
[00:03:46] And, little did I know that he had been in a terrible automobile accident, driving while he was drunk, and he picked up the Bible and he read in it just from the beginning. He was so desperate. He had to go to jail, and [before going to jail] he had just chosen our church kind of, as he might say, on a guess.
[00:04:08] And he was walking down the street and he and his wife said, “Well, this looks like a good one.” And so they walked into this little Presbyterian church and here I was speaking, and I opened up to Deuteronomy 23. He had just read in the Bible up to Deuteronomy 23. The passage stunned him. He says “Well I’m going to keep reading even though I don’t like it.”
[00:04:29] So he finally he got up to Isaiah 56—which was the second passage I read [that Sunday], and he said, “I quit! The Bible, how many Gods can you have? Because there seem to be two Gods in this Bible: One is very severe and the Other very kind. Doesn’t make any sense. I guess I just better go to jail and forget about it. But I’ll take one more shot at. I’m going to go to church.”
[00:04:50] And would you believe I’d read the passages–both of them, and it stopped him. Now, I didn’t know this. I just knew that he kept leaning forward more and more in his seat.
[00:04:59] And, so anyway, a little bit more about the story [later].
We’ll read now Deuteronomy 23, a tough passage, if you understand it.
[00:05:08] Verse 1: “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord. No one born of a forbidden marriage, nor any of his descendants, may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the 10th generation. No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the 10th generation. For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way, when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam, Son of Beor from Pethor of Aram (Naharaim or Mesopotamia in ESV) to pronounce a curse on you. However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but turned the curse into a blessing for you. Because the Lord your God loves you. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live. Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not abhor an Egyptian because you lived as an alien in this country. The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.”
[00:06:09] Now as you look at the passage, you’ll find in verse one, it lays out the principle that runs through the whole of the of this context. And it’s simply this: that anyone who has any imperfection is not welcome to the worship of God.
[00:06:27] Now, this is symbolic. It’s a kind of, in some ways, a picture. And as a picture, though, it shows what really God requires.
[00:06:36] And the first is, no one who has been emasculated, that is as a eunuch, is able to come into the worship of God. He is imperfect in body, so he is separated.
[00:06:48] Then we read in verse two, no one born of a forbidden marriage, nor any of his descendants, may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the 10th generation.
[00:07:03] Now, here is someone who is illegitimate in birth, ten generations before they can come into the assembly of God. That’s real separation.
[00:07:14] If you were called on the telephone and, we said “We’d like to have you come to New Life Church—some of you may have come here that way [this morning]—but we said, since you are kind of an outsider, wait about ten generations” that might not have seemed like an overwhelmingly friendly welcome. I think you might have said, “I have a feeling they don’t want me.”
[00:07:38] And that is exactly what the text is saying. That this imperfection is contrary to God’s nature as perfect.
[00:07:46] Then in verse three, we find, there’s an imperfect history. There was an imperfect body in verse one, an imperfect origin in verse two, and now the Ammonites and the Moabites—because they did not welcome the Israelites as they came through the desert towards Canaan, the land of Israel; they didn’t bring them food and water and instead were hostile—their sentence upon them, because of this historical crime they committed, was they couldn’t come in for ten generations either. And the Edomites and the Egyptians who didn’t behave quite as badly, they could come in after three generations.
[00:08:25] So the idea here is a picture of God as perfect and holy and requiring perfection. Now this is outward. This is formal. It’s a kind of a dramatization of what He requires if we’re to draw near to Him. Now, that’s what the law says.
[00:08:43] Now, when I happened to read this particular passage myself, it came out of a struggle in my own life.
[00:08:51] I remember in January of 1973, I went to Rosemary one evening, and I said to her in my most gracious voice: Rose Marie, “If there’s one thing about me you would like to see changed, what would it be?”
[00:09:12] I kind of braced myself. I thought, “well, you know, if she says you’re conceited” yeah, you got me; I am. Okay. Rr if she says “I’m self-centered.” Yeah, I am. You know, I could handle a few things, but I was [still] sort of bracing myself. I wasn’t at all expecting what she said.
[00:09:32] And she said, “Jack, you don’t listen.” And I backed up and I said, “Let me go through it again. Don’t you remember that I asked you this question about a year ago, and you said, then I don’t listen. And I’ve been working on it ever since.”
[00:09:52] So let me try it again: “Rose Marie, if there’s one thing about me you could change …” “Jack, you don’t listen!”
[00:10:00] I said “Rose Marie, I’m crushed. I’m the best …” I was going to say best discerner—and I kind of stopped myself at that point. Maybe I better listen.
[00:10:13] “Why do you say that?” I was crushed because that’s my work. “I listen!”
[00:10:17] I was going to say her: “I could repeat your conversations for years in the past.” But I don’t think … it suddenly dawned on me—she must not mean that.
[00:10:27] And, so here I was. Yeah. I must be self-centered, because I don’t seem to be able to listen. I don’t understand exactly what she means. It later dawned on me: She meant listening and changing.
[00:10:41] And I just thought sort of acting like your local husbandly tape recorder—just record it—and she wanted some action when she said something, especially if it were something critical. And I think I tended to defend myself when she offered one of her helpful criticisms.
[00:11:00] Now, when I did that, I begin to get depressed. And naturally it was easy to blame Rose Marie: “You have depressed me.” Did you ever do that? I mean its a lot of fun to blame somebody whenever you’re depressed. It makes it a little easier. And [when] self-pity gets thrown in you can almost enjoy it.
[00:11:17] But I begin to think, “Well, you know, maybe I don’t know how to listen. Maybe there’s some[thing] lack[ing] in my character that needs to be changed.
[00:11:25] And as my depression deepened through about into March, maybe late February, I decided: “I know what will help me.” Anytime I get into a problem I can’t handle, I read a long passage of the Bible. If I feel I’m sort of a little crazy, you know, like you, I mean, not like you, you know. [A]nyway, when I feel a little crazy, the things are out of center, I just sit down and read the Bible until I become sane again.
[00:11:50] So I thought, well, I usually read the New Testament. I need a little variety in this. I’ll read Leviticus. That will cheer me up.
[00:11:58] So I opened to Leviticus and, I sped-read Leviticus for about an hour. I was depressed before I read Leviticus. Guess what happened after I read Leviticus? I was very depressed.
[00:12:14] And why was I? Well, here’s what I read here in In the Law of God. I read that, there were so many sins that I had never even thought about that you could commit. I remember in one chapter there were 19 different kinds of sexual sins that, you know, just, you know, and bang, bang, bang, bang. And then I also noticed as I read there, there was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and a break for a break, a fracture for a fracture. It didn’t give me much comfort.
[00:12:47] And then I read that—I didn’t notice that too many sins got forgiven. If you did things like stealing, you [could] make restitution. That would be okay. You bring a sacrifice and so on. But other things like adultery, worshiping an idol or making one, or breaking the Sabbath day, it was [over]. Well, I said, really? How severe can God get this? This is too much.
[00:13:13] And then I noticed how the emphasis was so strong in “doing.” And in chapter 18, verse 5, it said, “Do all of these things and then you’ll live.” I said, “Listening to all these things, I’m dead.” And, “Don’t listen?” I [actually] started to listen. I started to read the Bible maybe the first time in a clear way, and hearing what the law is really saying. And I [felt] terribly exposed.
[00:13:37] Well, I always am a practical fellow. And I said, “I think I need to get out of [Leviticus]; so I’ll take a speed run out of Leviticus and I’ll turn to Deuteronomy.”
[00:13:49] So I turned to Deuteronomy, and Deuteronomy: yeah, that was more cheerful, more about grace in there. And so, I was speeding my way through Deuteronomy, and then I hit chapter 23. And I got [to] this passage and it dawned on me what the law of God is saying to human beings like us. That its saying that God requires of all of us the kind of perfection which none of us can give. That the, you know the eunuch, they had the imperfect body, or the illegitimate person [had] imperfect origin, and then the person with the imperfect history behind you, you know, bad family background, etc.
[00:14:32] Well, this was kind of a picture of what God really wanted from the heart. He wanted a perfect love. And we talked about the first commandment. That’s really what the first commandment means: Love God from the heart.
[00:14:44] And you may think you have kept it as a child, and you may never have kept it. You may have broken it your whole life, and you wouldn’t even know it.
[00:14:51] And, because you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to love your parents because you love God. And, that seemed to be pretty heavy duty. Pretty heavy duty. And I just felt more and more crushed down by this. And, I saw it really came from the heart, it had to come from the heart.
[00:15:11] And then I thought about Jesus. Well, he was filled with love, and he did that, but I didn’t. And that didn’t seem to encourage me too much either. And the thought occurred to me: “How often do I do things because I love Jesus,” which would be what the law would mean. Do I do a lot of things just because I love Jesus? Not too much. Maybe you’ve never done anything because you love Jesus. Or did you ever stop doing anything because you love Jesus? Well, you should, you see, that’s what the law requires.
[00:15:43] Now, the point of the passage, though, is on separation—that God is holy— that’s why it’s true. And, that God, He just can’t stand evil in any form. And because of His nature as majestic and glorious and holy and all loving, He must be honored. For me to ask that from you, or you to ask it from me would be wrong, because we’re not all glorious. But God is all glorious. He deserves it. That’s just dealing with the truth. But since we’ve never given it, we’re caught in a kind of a box.
[00:16:18] And my friend [at the back of the church in Sonora] sitting there in that row was caught in a kind of a box, too. And I didn’t know that he had just been involved in an automobile accident when I went to my next illustration. And it was almost the same as his, except [the person in my illustration] hadn’t killed anyone.
[00:16:35] I just went ahead to say, “Now if you think about it, I think you can get a feel for how God sees things by this illustration …”
And there had been at that time in San Francisco, a court case where a young man had been tried [in court] because he’d been driving while under the influence of alcohol, and he had been going over 100 miles an hour. And as he roared down the road in his blind stupor, foot on the accelerator all the way, then he saw this other car coming, and then he put the brake on. But it was way too late, and he hit the other car. And he just burned it up [even though] he came out with hardly a scratch.
[00:17:18] Now the woman whose son was burned up was in that courtroom [in San Francisco], and the judge gave a very light sentence to the man who did that [to her dead son]. He said, “Well, he was drinking, and that sort of puts it off, makes it lesser.”
[00:17:32] And so at the end, when the judge had given that sentence, the woman, the mother of that son who had perished, went to him, and she showed him a photograph of the charred corpse of her son and put it in front of the judge. And she said: “In the light of this picture, do you think your sentence was just?”
[00:17:56] Her conscience was speaking to him, saying, “Wasn’t there something you’ve missed here, even in your conscience? There is in mine.”
[00:18:05] And you see that conscience in all of us is a kind of an echo of God’s hatred of sin and evil. What she wanted to see done was justice, and that’s our kind of echo of God’s holiness.
[00:18:17] As many of you know, I live in Jenkintown [Pennsylvania]; I’ve lived there for a long time. And, one night we were out walking in, in the late summer, through the streets of Jenkintown. And, I noticed this young man driving around in a Corvette, a very large looking fellow. He looked like he weighed about 200 pounds and, oh 6 feet tall, maybe 6-foot 2 [inches]; about my size {Jack laughing at his joke. Jack, the speaker, is 5 ft 6 inches tall).
[00:18:43] Anyway, it dawned on me this guy was selling coke [cocaine]. And, you know, that’s deadly stuff. And it made me so indignant that … And the brazen guy, he even followed us. We had a teenager with us, and he was really just feeling like he owned the place.
[00:18:58] Well my indignation level rose kind of high, and so I said to Rose Marie, “Go on in the house please …”
[00:19:04] So when he stopped right there at the corner of Hillside and Walnut [in Jenkintown], where we live, I pointed with my finger like that, you know, like I owned the place.
[00:19:16] And so he came over and stopped with his Corvette and said, “What do you want?”
[00:19:20] I said, “I want you.” I said, “You’re coming into my house and we’re going to talk.” I was very upset. I wasn’t shaking or anything.
[00:19:31] And he said, “Well, I’m not going.”
[00:19:33] I says, “Oh yes you are.”
[00:19:37] So he gets out of the car and he’s even bigger than I thought. But he comes into the house, and we had the most wonderful prayer meeting. He was sweating like a stuck pig by the time he left. And it cleaned him out, and we never had him selling any more dope in Jenkintown. And he told one of his friends who reported it to me, “I never want to go through that again.”
[00:20:06] Well, you see, we were in the presence of a holy God. And I wanted him to see that he was a killer and he’d broken God’s law. Now that hit him.
[00:20:17] But now that’s the way God feels about every sin. God hates sin because he’s holy.
[00:20:24] And you see, my friend Tom [at that church in Sonora] was sitting there hearing that [illustration], and he was thinking of the [prison] box he was going into, which was going to be a jail cell, for he didn’t know how long.
[00:20:33] But I was telling him from the Word of God that he was going into, he was in a deeper box, and a tighter box, and that was the law of God, which exposed him as being separated from God by his sin. And not just for the things he did, but for his heart.
[00:20:49] Our heart, you see, in the fall of man into sin, became separated from God and God from us. And so that is what the law is all about. It tells us that. It doesn’t pull any punches.
[00:21:02] Now, the wonderful news is that there’s the gospel also.
[00:21:07] I then turned and read Isaiah 56. I’m not going to read it all, but it would seem to just contradict the passage we have read.
[00:21:17] Because here in Isaiah 56 in verse 3, it says “Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, ‘the Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ And let not any eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’” And then it gives a beautiful picture of all the eunuchs and the foreigners, all of the outcasts being welcome.
[00:21:36] And nobody gets a back row. Everybody is a front seat person. No matter what your background, how unwashed you are, and that’s a promise here.
[00:21:46] And as I read that in my depression, I was going through exactly what Tom had gone through. He got up to Isaiah 56 and he said, “How many gods are there in the Bible anyway?”
[00:21:55] And the answer is, “There’s only one God, but the one God has a way of solving the greatest problem in human history.”
[00:22:03] And it is, “How can a holy God forgive unholy people?”
[00:22:07] And the answer is “He doesn’t do it,” as in Islam, “by turning his back upon our sin and pretending it doesn’t exist, because he can’t stand it …”
[00:22:18] But what he does, he does what the law could never do, he gives a substitute. And that is his own Son.
[00:22:28] And this passage is a prophecy of John 3:16, which is the next passage I want to read.
[00:22:36] The passage which says that God so loved the world that He gave his One and only Son, in order that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
[00:22:50] So here’s the reconciliation: The God who loves us is also holy. And He solves His problem by doing the just thing, by giving His Son to obey the law perfectly, to love God from the heart. In his whole life, just from a very small boy upwards.
[00:23:08] And then when he might do that—Oh, how wonderful it is—because he obeyed [the law] perfectly and took it away so that we might live.
[00:23:18] The law has no substitute. It says, “Do and live; do and live; do it and do it and do it.”
[00:23:24] And then the gospel says, “Now, Jesus did it. He died. And you believe in him, and now you live by faith.”
[00:23:34] And that’s the difference. It isn’t [that] the law is bad. The law is perfect. It’s holy and just and good. It just can’t save you.
[00:23:41] Now, my challenge to you is this: This is good news for the person who has never really known it before. Not in this clear Bible way.
[00:23:54] But it’s also good news to the guilt-ridden Christian who somehow thinks that his own—his or her standing before God—is in some way based upon our own works after our first forgiveness.
[00:24:09] It’s not true. Our standing before God—the ground of our forgiveness—is always what Christ has done and not what we have done ourselves.
[00:24:19] You never can have freedom and joy before God unless you know that God has given this substitute.
[00:24:28] I’d like to illustrate this by referring to a television program which was back, I think, in the 50s. [S]ome of you can remember back to that, and I think it was Outer Limits, or another program like that in which this man goes to the office one day. [H]e woke up and he feels all different.
[00:24:49] And he discovers that when he gets to the office, he has a strange power. He comes in and the secretary says to him, “Mr. Jones, good morning. How well you’re looking.”
[00:24:59] And then he hears this voice speaking from inside of her, “Oh the bad-tempered old rascal, here he is again you know. He ought to shave more closely.”
[00:25:09] And what he hears, he has [this] power he discovers, to read human thoughts. And so they come out of people as voices.
[00:25:17] So he goes to the office, and he hears everything that everyone is thinking about him.
[00:25:23] And finally, he can’t stand it. And he runs into the bathroom to get away from all of this truth. And he’s sort of relieved and says “I’m safe for a minute.”
[00:25:34] And he looks up in the mirror and in the mirror, he discovers—he has a strange power—he can see himself as he really is, and he’s so awful [that] he dies.
[00:25:45] Now let’s run through that again: Jesus is the one who knows that you and I are like that. The law tells you all of the things these people are saying. The mirror shows you what you’re really like.
[00:25:57] But Jesus comes, and he looks in the mirror for you, and he dies for your ugliness … Your sin … That you might be forgiven completely and forever by God.
[00:26:16] Now, how do you get aboard that? Let me say this. Do you have spiritual power in your life? Can you listen to somebody else when they’re critical of you? Can you say to someone who criticizes you: “Oh, thank you. That is so helpful. Did you have anything more you wanted to say?”
[00:26:37] If you can’t do that, well, it may be that you’re a defensive person and you don’t understand the gospel.
[00:26:43] The gospel is saying, “Dear friend, that God has given an ultimate criticism of you and me, and it’s on the cross.”
[00:26:52] That’s what the law says we should have received.
[00:26:55] And therefore, if that is true, any criticism you can offer of me, or any criticism I can offer of you is going to be a pretty minor thing. Isn’t it? Because I’ve already had the full exposure. I’ve looked into the mirror, and I’ve died.
[00:27:13] But what is really wonderful is [that] Jesus has seen me as I really am and loved me to the uttermost. And he has had the courage to look into that mirror and see what I’m really like and love me and die for me. And that’s what the cross is about.
[00:27:29] See the whole point of the law is that we’re separated from God. That’s what our sin does. We have a sinful nature. That’s a curse. And that’s why there’s hell; separation forever.
[00:27:43] But Jesus brings to us the end of separation by his death, and the drawing near to God, and the living before God with joy.
[00:27:55] But now you can’t have it both ways. You can’t partly trust in your own good works to bring you near to God and in Jesus Christ.
[00:28:08] You’ve got to move your faith from your self, your own ego, your own power, and your own strength and place it exclusively in Christ.
[00:28:22] You can’t have spiritual power with half trust in God and half trust in yourself.
[00:28:29] God wants a monopoly. That’s what the first commandment is about. And that’s what the gospel is about. It’s the monopoly of giving.
[00:28:37] And as long as you’re self-righteous—remember last week I spoke about comparative righteousness: we feel better than other people because we compare ourselves with them—that won’t cut the mustard. It won’t. We have to have perfect righteousness. And Christ had it. And here’s what I need.
[00:28:54] Well, now, in that [recognition] there’s a kind of a death of a positive kind, a death to my defensiveness.
[00:29:04] And so what God has really done for Rose Marie and me is a miracle. There were just some things we could not talk about. But as we just begin to soak in this gospel, and this good news, and the love of Jesus, and the love of the Father, we are pretty close to the place where we can say what’s on our heart to the other.
[00:29:24] It Isn’t always comfortable, sometimes a little painful … especially the things she says, not the ones I say you know (Jack laugh’s at his humor again). But that can come.
[00:29:33] Don’t you want that kind of love relationship in your life? Don’t you want to know in the depths of your heart, God loves me all the way in Jesus. And He’s going to help me love others.
[00:29:51] Now children: What about the fifth commandment in you? I think that you should really love and honor and respect your parents. But if you’ve not done that, and if you’ve not loved God with all your heart, then you’re a sinner like Jack Miller.
[00:30:09] And you need to turn to Jesus. Repent. Be sorry for it. And then just say, “Jesus, I’m going to look to you. I believe you’re the Son of God. You died for me. Would you come into my life now?” And you can do that whether you’re a child of whatever age.
[00:30:29] Oh I feel today—[rather] I know today, its no feeling—the love of God is brooding over people here.
[00:30:37] And the law has been saying to you, “Shut up for once about your own goodness and righteousness and listen.” Right.
[00:30:46] And the gospel is saying to you: “Wake up and see the wonder of Jesus love, see the wonder of the Father’s love, and take it into your heart by faith.” Would you do that today?
[00:31:01] And then out of that, go with joy and share that love, and live for that God who is worthy of it; delight in Him, enjoy Him.
[00:31:13] You’re even permitted to have a good time, and occasionally you can even smile even though it’s Sunday. Amen.
[00:31:23] Oh, what a God! What a salvation! May it come to you.
[00:31:27] Tom had to end up in a jail cell. He says to me later, he says “Jack, I really didn’t get through to God in that service, but when I got in that jail cell all by myself, I remembered it all.”
[00:31:41] I would prefer not to have you go to some jail cell to remember it all. Why not now? Let’s pray.
[00:31:58] Holy Father. Oh, how great You are. How kind You are. Oh, how Your tender love is over us. We’re such poor listeners. And it reveals how little we’ve listened to Your law. And our hearts haven’t been broken. And often we’ve been critical. We’ve condemned others, and we condemn ourselves; and we’ve wallowed in our guilt, or we’ve denied our guilt.
[00:32:24] But then we see Jesus coming and saying, “Oh, I have good news for sinners. I love you so much.” And then You put Your arm around us Lord Jesus, and You lift up our heads and You say, “Look, there is My message. I died for you.”
[00:32:40] Oh, Lord, You looked in that manner and You saw our ugliness, and You died for us, and You rose again, and now You live, Lord.
[00:32:49] And come now to our hearts. Take away the pride and the defensiveness and fill us with faith. Give us the simplicity of a heart of a child that we just may rest in Jesus and His blood and righteousness.
[00:33:02] Fill us, then, Lord, with the simplicity of Your teaching, and then grant us to go out and live what You worked in our lives, in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Liturgist [00:33:27] At this time, during our worship we will present to God our morning offering. Would the men please come forward?
Jack Miller, “The Law and the Gospel” (audio transcript), 1988.
