Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 46 in the hardback timinal, number
46. Let's all stand together. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His praise. My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of Thy name. He's thus the name that charms
our fears, that bids our sorrows cease. Tis music in the sinner's
ear, tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of
cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood availed for me. Hear Him, ye deaf, His praise
ye dumb, Your loosened tongues employ. Ye blind, behold your
Savior come, And leap, ye lame, for joy. ? Glory to God and praise
and love be ever, ever given ? ? By saints below and saints
above the church and earth and heaven ? Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles together to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy 3. And we'll begin reading at verse
14. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them. and that from a child that has
known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus." I love the
way the Lord phrased that. Faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. I charge thee therefore
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick
and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word,
be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort
with all long-suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust, they
shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they
shall turn their ears away from the truth and shall be turned
unto fables. But watch thou in all things,
endure affliction, do the working of evangelists, make full proof
of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight. I have finished my course. I
have kept up faith. Henceforth, there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only, but to
all them also that love his appearing. Let's pray. Our gracious Father, we thank
you. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for the revelation that you've given us. of yourself and of
thy dear son. Thank you for the Holy Spirit
who opens the eyes of our understanding, gives us the faith of Christ
and faith in Christ. Lord, we so need that work to
be done for us tonight. We pray that you would send your
spirit in power, that you would cause your word to be effectual,
that it would reveal the glory of Christ and that it would put
faith in our hearts, causing us to look to him and rest in
him and rejoice in him. but we ask it in his name. Amen. Number 44 in the spiral hymn
book. Number 44. Let's all stand together
again. ? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? We as such to Thee draw near ? Let Thy spirit dwell within
us ? With that love that casts out fear Matchless Savior, let
us know Thee, as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts
to cleave unto Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now thy precious treasure,
let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Peter chapter 5. For several months now we've
been trying to go verse by verse through this wonderful epistle
that Peter is writing to those Jews that have been forced out
of their homes. They've been forced out of Israel.
They've been scattered through the four corners of the world. And Peter's writing to encourage
them. And we find ourselves here in
chapter five, where the first four verses of this chapter,
Peter is addressing the elders of those churches that he's writing
to. And these verses are very encouraging
and humbling to me as an elder, but I would remind you that we
just read from 2 Timothy chapter four that all scripture is given
by inspiration of God and all scripture is profitable for doctrine
and for reproof and for correction and instruction in righteousness.
And so though the elders in particular are being addressed in these
first four verses, I trust the Lord will make these verses profitable
to all of us. Verse one of chapter five, the
elders, I'm sorry, which are among you, I exhort, I encourage, I come along
beside and identify with. We looked at that word Sunday. And he says, who am also an elder. I myself was an elder and a witness
of the suffering of Christ and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. Let's just look at that verse
before we go any further. A witness of the sufferings of
Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. If we hope to partake in the
glory that has yet to be revealed, we must first be witnesses of
the sufferings of Christ. If we are to participate in the
glory of Christ, we must first be witnesses of the sufferings
of Christ. If you turn your Bibles just
a page or so over to 2 Peter chapter one, At verse 16, Peter says, for we have not followed
cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. So now Peter is rehashing or
recounting that experience that he had with James and John on
the Mount of Transfiguration when the veil of our Lord's humanity
was temporarily taken away and the radiance of his glory shined
forth and Peter, James, and John were forced to the ground to
hide their faces. And they heard the voice of God
audibly, they heard the voice of God. This is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. And so Peter is
now saying, we didn't come up with fables and stories that
we made up. We actually, well, he goes on
to say, look at the next verse. He received from God the Father
honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the
excellent glory. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. And this voice, which came from
heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. We handled the word of God. We heard the voice of God. We saw the radiance of the glory
of God shining forth from the face of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. giving you firsthand testimony
of what we witnessed. And so now he says in our text,
in order to have any hope of partaking in the glory of God
that shall be revealed, we must first be witnesses of the sufferings
of Christ. And so Peter is giving testimony
of when he witnessed and what he witnessed. Go back with me
to second Peter chapter one. You might think, well, Peter,
James and John, they had an experience. Well, I wish I could have an
experience like that. That would have been an amazing
thing. I mean, sometimes we think, I'm
sure that the apostles having walked with the Lord and eat with him and hear him and
see his miracles had some advantage over what we experience. But I want you to notice the
next verse in 2nd Peter chapter 1, verse 19. We have also a more
sure word of prophecy. where into you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until
the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts. Peter's saying as amazing as
that experience was, we have a more sure testimony. We have a more sure witness than
our personal experience in seeing the Lord and walking with him
and hearing him. What is that more sure word of
prophecy? Well, the next verse, verse 20,
knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation, For the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost. He's talking about the scriptures,
isn't he? He's talking about the revelation that God has made
of himself in his word, in his word, in the scriptures. I'm sure this is what our Lord
meant when he said to those disciples, when they didn't want him to
depart, he said, it is expedient for you that I go away. It's
necessary, it's gonna be better. It's going to be better for you
with my departure. For unless I depart, the comforter
will not come. But when the comforter comes,
He's gonna take those things which are of mine and give them
to you. He's gonna teach you. And you're
not going to be dependent upon my physical presence or my audible
voice. You're gonna have the presence
of God with you by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God
continually. And I'm sure that's what the
Lord meant when he said to Mary, when Mary, Can you just imagine? Mary sees
the Lord. She finally realizes it's the
Lord when he says, Rabboni. And he says to her, Mary, and
she says, Rabboni, and she grabs for him. What is she doing? I lost you once. I'm not going
to leave your side. I'm right here. What did the
Lord say? Mary, don't touch me. I'm not
yet ascended unto my father. And if you look at that word
touch, it means don't cling to me. I don't think the Lord was
saying to Mary, if you touch me, you're going to defile me
and I won't be acceptable to my father. That's not what the
Lord's saying. He's saying the same thing he
said to the disciples. Don't cling to my physical presence. Don't cling to that which you
can see and hear and touch with your physical senses, there's
something better. There's a revelation, there's
a witness, there's a testimony that's better than what you're
able to experience with your physical senses. And that's the
work of the Spirit of God taking the Word of God and giving you
a first-hand witness of the sufferings of Christ. Now here's what Peter's saying.
Go back with me to our text. He's exhorting the elders and
he's identifying himself as an elder. And he's saying that I
am a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed. You know, when Thomas was not
there with the other disciples the first time the Lord appeared
to them. And then when Thomas came in and they began to all
tell him what they experienced, what did Thomas say? Oh, unless
I can thrust my hand into his side and put my finger in the
prints of the nails in his hands, I will not believe. And it wasn't
long after that the Lord appeared Thomas was there, and as soon
as Thomas saw the Lord, he fell at the Lord's feet, and he said,
oh, my Lord and my God. And the Lord said to Thomas,
Thomas, because you have seen me, you believed. But blessed
are those who have not seen me, yet do believe. Blessed of God, with the grace
of God and the spirit of revelation and truth to the heart through
the scriptures. Blessed are you who have not
seen physically with your eyes, audibly with your ear, but you
believe. Why do you believe? Because you've
been taught of God. You have an unction, you have
the Spirit of God that has taken the Word of God and made you
to be a witness of the sufferings of Christ. And the hope of partaking
in his future glory is preceded by being a witness of his suffering. So those disciples that were
literally there, physically there, they don't have anything on us. They really don't. Because the
Lord said to them, you've got something better coming than
what you've already experienced. And that's going to be the Spirit
of God. It's going to teach you and reveal to you. I mean, just
look what the disciples, between the crucifixion and the ascension,
they still had so much that they didn't know. Because on the Mount of Olives,
when the Lord ascended into heaven, they asked, you know, the Lord
had been teaching them for those 40 days between the crucifixion
and his ascension, and had been appearing to them, and they still
didn't know. Is it time now to establish your
kingdom? It wasn't until after Pentecost,
when the Spirit of God came, the promised comforter, the one
the Lord said that he would give to all of his children, for if
you have not the spirit of God, you're none of his. But if you
have the spirit of God and the word of God, you have a testimony,
you have a witness, you have an assurance of the sufferings
of Christ. And that witness of his sufferings
is what gives you confidence of partaking of his future glory. You see, we have to be, when
John summarizes his gospel account in chapter 20, he says, many
other signs did Jesus that are not recorded in this book, but
these have been written that you might believe. that Jesus
is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that by believing,
you might have life through his name. So this matter of faith,
You know, you see people in religion now, you see, we ourselves, we're
so prone to mind the things of the flesh and to look for an
experience and to look for something that we can see and touch and
feel. And what's the Lord saying? The witness that you have is
spiritual. It's a work of grace in the heart
where God teaches you by his word, that these scriptures came
not by private interpretation, holy men of God wrote. This is
a more sure prophecy than that mountaintop experience that I
had, Peter speaking now, that mountaintop experience that I
had. When I saw the radiant glory of the Son of God shining forth,
I have a better testimony now than I did then. You know, when God teaches you
by His Word and by His Spirit, there's just no one learning
that, is there? Nobody can teach you out of it?
You know it's true? to the core of your soul, you
know it's true. You literally can't not believe. And that's not just a double
negative. You can't not believe. It's impossible. When the Lord gives faith, the
gifts of God are without repentance. In other words, when he gives
the gift of faith, he doesn't take it back. He gives it. And faith comes by hearing and
hearing comes by the word of God. And so we have a God who
does a work of grace in our hearts by his spirit. Turn with me to
Romans chapter five. Feed my sheep is the title of
this message. Feed my sheep. And God's sheep are interested, infinitely,
eternally interested, completely, wholly interested in partaking
of the glory that shall be revealed. And they want to know what is
the prerequisite of partaking of the glory that shall be revealed. And Peter answers that question
in our text. It's being a witness to the sufferings
of Christ. That's the prerequisite. Being
a witness to the sufferings of Christ. He's not talking about
physically being there 2,000 years ago on Mount Calvary and
hearing audibly his voice. He's talking about having the
Spirit of God take the Word of God and apply it so effectually
to our hearts that we have a testimony, we have a witness. You know that
word witness is the same word from which we get our word martyr?
Martyr? Believers have died, have been
murdered, they've been burned at the stake. They've been fed
to lions over their inability to recant the truth that God
taught them. And I'm thankful that we live
in a time where we don't have to worry about that. But if it
changed, I'm also very confident that believers that have been
taught of God will will be witnesses to the end. That word martyr will be their
experience and God will give them the grace. They will not
be able to recant what the Lord has taught them. They can't,
they just can't do it. They are firsthand witnesses. I'm a firsthand witness of the
sufferings of Christ. It's not hearsay. Not something
I learned from somebody else. It's something God taught me.
And that's true of every believer, isn't it? You have your Bibles
open to Romans chapter five. Look what our Lord says. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." We rejoice in hope of seeing
His glory. Scripture says Christ in us now
is our hope of glory. But we look through a glass darkly
now, don't we? We only know in part now. He's revealed enough of himself. We've tasted enough of the heavenly
gift to be, to want to, to be desirous of sitting at that wedding
feast and eating a full portion. We get our daily bread now, a
little crumb here, a little crumb there, little pieces. of glory
and grace given to us now. And in that day, we'll see him
in the fullness of his glory. And that's what he's saying here.
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope. Hope that is seen is not hope.
If a man sees it, why should he hope for it? Hope is something
that we don't have yet, but we believe. In verse three, and
not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that
tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame, because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which
is given unto us. Oh, here's where this hope comes
from. The Holy Ghost sheds abroad the
love of God in our hearts, in Christ. And we taste of that
love, and we see a glimpse of it, and we desire more of it. Paul said in Philippians chapter
one, verse six, he said, being confident of this very thing,
that he which began a good work in you will perform it. until the day of Jesus Christ.
The day of Jesus Christ is the full revelation of his glory.
Seeing him as he is and being made like him. What is my hope
of participating in that future glory? It is being a witness,
a martyr if you will, to the testimony of his suffering. What he suffered and why he suffered
it. Turn with me to 1 John 5. 1 John
5. Right at the very end of 1 John 5, verse 20. And we know that the Son of God is
come. We know that. We know he's come. We know that
he left his rightful place in glory. We know that he was born
of a woman, born under the law to redeem them that are cursed
by the law. We know that he is Emmanuel,
God with us. We know that he walked in perfect
obedience to his father for 30 years and then he began his public
ministry, being baptized and declaring himself to be the Christ. We know that he went to Calvary's
cross and he bore in his body the sins of his people and he
put them away once and for all by the sacrifice of himself.
We know that. We know that God saw the travail
of his soul. We know that God said, I'm satisfied.
We know that the work required for the redemption of our sins
is finished. We know that the son of God has
come. He's come and he's accomplished
what he came to do. He actually saved his people. And he has given us an understanding. Where'd we get this from? We
got it from him. What do you have that you did
not receive? Father, I thank thee that thou
has hid these things from the wise and the prudent and you've
revealed them unto babes. Empty vessels. You remember that
story in second Kings of the widow woman who lost her husband
And Elijah the prophet said, go borrow empty vessels as many
as you can, make it not a few. And she brought in, her son brought
in all these empty vessels and she began to pour oil in them.
And the oil flowed as long as there were empty vessels. And
as soon as the last vessel was filled, the scripture says, and
the oil stayed, it ceased to flow. The oil of the spirit of
God only flows into empty vessels. Those who are able by the grace
of God to come into his presence, completely dependent upon his
grace, completely dependent upon his mercy. Lord, I'm dependent
upon you. And we know that the Son of God
has come and he has given to us an understanding that we may
know him that is true. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him. against that day. And this is
life eternal. They might know thee, the only
true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. How do we know
him? Well, the Lord told the Pharisees, search the scriptures.
You think in them you have eternal life, but these are they which
testify of me. In the volume of the book it is written of
me. And so the Lord by his spirit is pleased. It goes right back
to what Peter said. We have a more sure word of prophecy
than that mountaintop experience. We have the word of God, which
is profitable. It's profitable for doctrine
and for reproof, for correction. What did Paul say to Timothy? Remember the scriptures which
are able to save your soul. They're able to lead you. I forgot
how Paul said that in 2 Timothy chapter three, but these scriptures
are unto salvation. They are unto salvation. And we, verse 20, and we are
in him that is true, even in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. This is
eternal life. We have life in Christ, in Christ. He is our life. He doesn't just
show us the way to life. I am the way, I am the truth,
and I am the life. No man can come to the Father
but by me. Oh, what hope we have, brethren. Turn back with me to our text.
What hope we have. What is required to be a partaker
of the glory and the hope that has yet to be revealed. That's
what we want. That's what we're longing for.
That's what we're living for. We're living to die. We're living
to leave this body and to be with him. And what is required for that? To be a witness. of the suffering
of Christ. That when he bowed his mighty
head and cried, it is finished. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. His suffering, his suffering
met all the requirements that God had in his justice and in
his righteousness to put away our sin. And we're sure of that. We're sure of it. We're believing something. We're more sure, believers are
more sure of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished 2000 years
ago than they are of what they had, what they experienced in
this world, in their bodies. That's what Peter was saying
in that text. And that's our experience too,
isn't it? You know, our experiences in this world are subjective.
God teaches you, there's no subjectivity to it. It's just true. And he teaches
you about Christ and puts you in Christ and gives you love
for Christ and the desire to know him. This glory that shall
be revealed in us But there's no more sin, no more sorrow,
no more suffering, no more sickness, no more sadness, no more death,
no more darkness, no more crying, no more conflict, no more fear,
no more war. Wars and rumors of wars, the
Lord said they'll always be here and they are, aren't they? Always
been here in my life. According to the word of God,
they're not gonna go away. It's a world peace is a pipe
dream. It ain't going to happen. God's
already made that clear. I mean, we pray for peace. We
work for peace. We pray for our national leaders
that they'll have. But we know that if this conflict
gets settled, there's going to be another one. Going to be another
one. No more sea. No more turbulence,
no more separation, no more trouble. That's what the believer is longing
for. That's what he's living for,
to see Christ in the fullness of his glory and be made like
him. We were talking about Burt before the service today and
somebody said, well, you know, we're so thankful that he's not
suffering anymore because he suffered a lot, you know, before
he died. And I thought, well, I am too,
but, you know, What Bert is experiencing right now is not just the lack
of suffering. I mean, it's a whole lot better
than the lack of suffering. He's experienced something we
don't know anything about in our experience. We're just hoping
for it. We're looking for it. We're longing
toward it. And we're trusting that God is
faithful to his word. This is The duty of the elder, that's
what Peter's saying. Go back with me to our text.
The duty of the elder is to feed the flock of God. The elders
which are among you, I exhort who am also an elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. Are you a witness of the sufferings
of Christ? If you are, then you have good
reason to hope in the partaking of his future glory because that's
the prerequisite for partaking in his future glory is being
a witness of his suffering. Feed the flock of God, which
is among you. I'm so thankful. Yeah, you know,
I have pastor friends and we talk and we pray together and
we pray for each other and we sometimes bear one another's burdens. But
I'm so thankful I don't have the responsibility of another
congregation. This is feed the flock which
is among you. I've known men that that get
involved in other preacher's responsibilities. And they try
to fix everything out there. Just stay home and fix your own
problems. You got enough. You got enough on your own plate
to just stay right there. I don't have any interest in
trying to get involved with somebody else's problems. And there are problems in every
church. And I'm thankful the Lord is saying to me right here,
you just feed the flock that's among you, be responsible for
them. That's all you can handle. That ought to be the pastor's
life, isn't it? Ought to be a preacher's life
just to invest his whole life in the flock that's among him.
Not worried about traveling around making a name for himself and
fixing other situations. Just put your nose to the grindstone
and stay right there with your own block and with your own people.
Love them, teach them, care for them, pray for them. Taking the oversight thereof.
By the way, the word pastor is the word from which we get
our word Episcopal, I'm sorry, Presbyterian. And it means, I'm
sorry, let me get this straight. The word pastor is translated
shepherd, and it has to do with feeding the sheep. The word pastor
is the word shepherd. It has to do with feeding and
protecting the sheep, and that's what Peter's talking about here.
Two other words that are used in scripture is elder, which
he already used in verse one, and that is the word from which
we get our word Presbyterian, and it means elder, one with
wisdom. And then the third word that's
used in the Bible to describe this office in the church is
the word bishop, and that's the word from which we get our word
Episcopal and it means to be an overseer. They are all three
used interchangeably to define the same office in the church.
And religious organizations that create a hierarchy of leaders,
bishops and elders and pastors and those sort of things, they've
misunderstood what the scriptures are teaching here. These are
just three different words used to describe the same office,
elder, pastor, and bishop. And they're different functions
of the pastor's responsibility for the flock that is among him.
He's to oversee, he's to provide wisdom, and he's to feed and
protect the sheep. Okay? Feed the flock of God,
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint,
not by constraint, not forced unwillingly, but willingly. James says, if a man desire the
office of a bishop, he desires a good work. And so if the Lord
puts it on a man's heart to pastor, As difficult as that is, and
as difficult as it is for him particularly, the Lord gives him a desire for
it. And so he said, don't do it by constraint, do it willingly.
And not for filthy lucre. Now we often think of filthy
lucre as being money. And certainly there are a lot
of men that use religion to benefit themselves financially, but filthy
lucre here means profit, or it means reward, it means gain. And I'm certain that there are
plenty of men who have taken on the office of an elder or
bishop or pastor who have in the back of their mind or in
the dark recesses of their hearts that somehow their ministry is
going to give them an advantage with God and earn them some righteousness. And that's what the Lord's saying
here. Don't do it for that. Cause it's not gonna give you
any gain as far as your righteousness is concerned. It don't matter
how committed you are or how sacrificial you are or what you
do or how good you are at it. There are men who believe that
gain is godliness. Gain is godliness. That if they, have a large following, that
that's the evidence of God's blessings upon them. And it's
some sort of establishment of merit with God. Godliness with
contentment is great gain. And here's godliness. Christ
manifested in the flesh. That's our godliness. Christ
is our godliness. And our contentment is with him.
It's just with him. So he's saying here, you know,
don't do it for filthy lucre, do it with a ready mind. What
is a ready mind? A ready mind is a mind that is
giving itself to the immediate circumstances, not worried about
the results. So we can't We can't preach,
we can't minister, we can't do anything thinking about what
sort of result is this going to be. It is required of a steward
that he be found faithful. Lord, I'm just going to faithfully
do what you've called me to do as best of my ability and by
your grace and then trust you for the results. That's a ready
mind. Whereas filthy lucre is doing it with an eye toward some
benefit, some profit, some gain. Neither, verse three, look at
verse three, neither as being Lords over God's heritage, but
being examples to the flock, not overbearing, demanding respect,
requiring people to submit to your authority, cracking the
elders whip and making sure that men are disciplined properly.
No, no, no. That's what the Lord said. Don't
do it like that. Do what I love and do it humbly
and do it as an example. What is it that you want others
to be? You be that, you be that. If you are overbearing and demanding,
And overruling, that's what you're going to get. And verse four, and when the
chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of
glory that fadeth not away. And that's what Paul was saying.
There is reserved for me a crown and not for me only, not for
me only. but for all those that are waiting
for his coming, looking in faith to the glory that shall be revealed. All right. That's right. Our Heavenly Father,
thank you for your word. Lord, by your spirit, we ask
that you'd make it profitable to our hearts, to our church,
grow us together in your grace and the knowledge of Christ.
We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 296, let's stand together. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, hear my faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
Tears each winding path I tread, Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from the rock before
me, O, a spring of joy I see! Gushing from the rock before
me, O, a spring of joy I see! All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way.