O For a Thousand Tongues - Part 1 of 1

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Brightly Jr. We have been celebrating the completion of 71 years on the air with the Baptist Bible Hour. And as you know, we opened the program by inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. And for most of those years, we have used the first verse of O for a Thousand Tongues as our theme song. Today I want to talk about some of the words in the hymn, so we will now listen to the singing of four verses of it. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace! My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name, Thy great name, Thy holy name! He breaks the power of counsel's sin, He sets the prisoner free!

His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me! This wonderful hymn was written by Charles Wesley in 1731. It is reported that a friend said to Mr. Wesley, Had I a thousand tongues, I would praise him with all of them. And, as Mr. Wesley thought on that expression, he was stirred to write this hymn. Now it's possible, as we sing hymns with which we are very familiar, that we may breeze through them without letting the words sink into our heart.

So let's notice the words carefully. It expresses the desire with which to sing our great Redeemer's praise, and that with a thousand tongues it could be better accomplished than with one. But we might all ask ourselves the question, Am I singing His praise as I ought with the one tongue that I have? The Scriptures have much to say about singing praise to our God. Psalm 95, O come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. Psalm 96, O sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name, show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised, and He is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 81, sing aloud unto God our strength, and make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

And then we go to the New Testament and read Colossians 3 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord. So it is a good thing to sing praises to the Lord. It is good when we meet as a church to blend our voices singing His praises. But even if you're confined and unable to meet with the church, you can make melody in your heart unto the Lord, and be always giving praise to the Lord to all with whom you converse. Our hymn says the desire is to sing our great Redeemer's praise. That reveals that we've come to the place that we know we need redemption. So many these days feel that all is well with their soul, that they're basically a good person and there's no reason to be concerned that it's appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment. But when you see that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, so that we all are guilty sinners deserving nothing but the wrath of God, we see that we need a Redeemer.

We have incurred a great debt and we cannot pay it and need one to pay it for us. How blessed then when we see that Jesus Christ is that Redeemer that we need and we come to Him by faith. 1 Peter 1.18 says, For as much as you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Speaking of the great Redeemer, I want us to listen to another song praising our Redeemer. But then beside the crystal sea more and more my soul shall be praising Jesus and His law. He is everything to me. He is everything to me and everything shall always be. I will never cease to raise a song of gladness in His praise.

Here and in the world above my soul shall sing of savings of life and life. The joyous He, the precious bread who died for me. Glory be to Him forever, endless praises to Christ the Lamb. He has filled my life with sunshine, He has made me what I am. Oh, that everyone would know Him. Oh, that all would adore. Oh, that all would trust the love of the mighty friend above and be His forevermore. He is everything to me. He is everything to me and everything shall always be. I will never cease to raise a song of gladness in His praise.

Here and in the world above my soul shall sing of savings of life and life. The joyous He, the precious bread who died for me. The joyous He, the precious bread who died for me.

Now back to the next line of the song that we're reviewing. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. This Redeemer in whom we rejoice is also King, Philippians 2-9. Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him and 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 every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Isn't it a joy to think about that great day when every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord? Yes, we desire a thousand tongues to sing about that great day to sing Jesus Christ is Lord. Also, the hymn speaks of the triumph of His grace. Grace, what a wonderful truth.

What a wonderful theme to sing about. Ephesians chapter 1 says in verse 5, Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Grace emphasizes the fact that we are unable to save ourselves.

We cannot work and perform anything that would put us in God's favor. It required grace, grace, the free gift of God, not according to man's effort, not according to free will, it's according to God's sovereign will. The praise of the glory of His grace in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.

Grace, what a marvelous theme. The riches of His grace. How rich His grace is that we have redemption through His blood, we have the forgiveness of sins. Sometimes I've talked to people who struggle with a sense of guilt and they say, well, I just can't forgive myself.

Well, that's not the issue. Forgiveness comes from God, and He's promised that if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So here it's made clear that the forgiveness of sins is that which is part of the riches of His grace. And then when we go on to the next chapter here in the book of Ephesians, it says in verse 4, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just keeps emphasizing this wonderful truth and speaks of the riches of His grace and that which is out ahead when His grace will be unfolded in ways that we can hardly imagine at the moment. It always says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Oh, may we delight to know that it is by grace that we are saved and that we can rejoice in the triumphs of His grace.

Then the second verse. My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad, the honors of Thy name. Surely we desire to proclaim abroad the honors of His name. Hallelujah, praise Jehovah, from the heavens praise His name. Praise Jehovah in the highest, all His angels praise proclaim. All His hosts together praise Him, sun and moon and stars on high. Praise Him, all ye heaven of heaven, and He floods above the sky. Let them praise His gift, Jehovah, for His name alone is high. And His glory is exalted, and His glory is exalted, and His glory is exalted far above the earth and sky. Let them praise His gift, Jehovah, they were made at His command.

Then forever He established, His degree shall never stand. From the earth, all praise Jehovah, all ye floating dragons all, fire and hail and snow and vapors, stormy winds that hear Him call. Let them praise His gift, Jehovah, for His name alone is high. And His glory is exalted, and His glory is exalted, and His glory is exalted far above the earth and sky. All ye fruitful trees and cedars, all ye hills and mountains high, creeping things and beasts and cattle, birds that in the heavens fly.

Kings of earth and only people, Prince's great hands judge us all. Praise His name, young men and maidens, aged men and children small. Let them praise His gift, Jehovah, for His name alone is high. And His glory is exalted, and His glory is exalted, and His glory is exalted far above the earth and sky. I want to pause now in this message pertaining to the hymn, O for a Thousand Tongues, to thank each of you who have written us recently to let us know that the broadcasts are proving to be a blessing to you.

I'm sure that there are others who have had good intentions and you just haven't done that as yet. It is important that we hear from our listeners. We depend on listeners to support the program that we can stay on the air.

So if you want us to continue on your station, write, mention the call letters to that station and help us as you can. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. I also encourage you to visit our website. You can make a donation there if you would like. Also at the website you can read the Baptist Witness and you'll find both our Sunday and daily broadcasts. That's BaptistBibleHour.org. I appreciate all the letters we've received and I've heard from so many that say, I've been listening to this broadcast all my life.

My father used to turn it on when I was a child and I've stuck with it ever since and listened regularly and I certainly appreciate that. And this one listener writes and says, just finished listening to Abounding in Grace. I am so very thankful for your ministry that you continue to feed my hungry soul to the teaching of God's precious Word. How blessed to know that our trials help to teach us our constant need of Jesus.

I don't want to face a day without Him. So I'm thankful if the Lord is pleased to use the messages we bring from His Word to give instruction, to give encouragement, to give comfort and peace. We live in a troubled day and there's a great need to find our strength just as we said during our anniversary month, the help we need. What is that help? Well, Israel sometimes got in trouble when they sought help from the heathen nations around them. Their help was alone in the Lord and our help today is in the Lord and He's a very present help in time of trouble.

So just again, I encourage you if you want the program to stay on your station, write us and help us as you can and we will thank you. Verse 3, Jesus, the name that calms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease. The theme for our anniversary month was the help we need and this line points us to the help we need. In Jesus, the one who can calm our fears and provide the comfort that we need. A good place to remember again the text that we used in our message the past two Sundays, John 14, 1. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. I'd go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus is the name which is music in the sinner's ears, for it says, he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and he came to seek and to save that which was lost. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains and sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. Heir says my faith, I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die.

Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. And then verse 4, he breaks the power of cancel sin, he sets the prisoner free, his blood can make the phallus clean, his blood availed for me. The sin debt was paid at the cross and he breaks the power of sin that was cancelled there. Romans 6 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace.

He sets the prisoner free. As part of that reading in Luke chapter 4 when Jesus read from Isaiah the prophecy concerning himself, it declared that he had come to preach deliverance to the captives and to set at liberty them that are bruised. His blood can make the phallus clean, his blood availed for me. 1 John 1 7, the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. Verse 9, if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now that's enough to put us on shouting ground knowing that by nature we were unworthy sinners in the sight of our holy God, unclean, unable to wash ourselves, but he has made us clean through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst he come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blood, to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Well, I hope you have enjoyed this review of the hymn, O For a Thousand Tongues, the first verse of which we have used as our theme song for most of the 71 years that we've been on the air. Now I hope you will write and let us know that you've listened to the program, and if you can help with the support, it'll be greatly appreciated.

The need is especially great just now. And we will close by hearing once again, O For a Thousand Tongues. And now until next week at the same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name, thy great name, thy holy name. He breaks the power of counsel's sin, He sets the prisoner free, His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.