John chapter 3, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, You remember what happened, those
Israelites in their rebellion were suffering the bite of sin,
those venomous snakes. And the Lord told Moses, he said,
make a brazen serpent, put it on a pole, a serpent made out
of brass. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. When
the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to Calvary's cross, all the sins
of all of God's people He bore in His body and put them away
once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself. And the Lord told
those children of Israel, whosoever looks to that serpent will live. And the next verse says, and
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. And a few verses later, a man
can receive nothing except it be given to him from above, from
heaven, from God. Faith is a gift of God. Lord,
give us eyes to see. Give us faith to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let's stand together. You have
your bulletin, Thompson. Come lead us in the hymn on the back
of your bulletin. How rich the depths of love divine,
Of bliss and boundless o'er. Dear Savior, let me call Thee
mine, I could not wish for more, I could not wish for more. On Thee alone my hope relies,
Beneath Thy cross I fall. My Lord, my life, my sacrifice,
My Savior and my all, My Savior and my all. How great Thy wisdom,
power, and grace that in redemption shines! The heavenly hosts with
joy confess, The work is all divine! The work is all divine! Please be seated. It is good to be here. Come with me for the God's call
of worship to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. I thought, well,
I might as well say just whatever he said, this and that, and we'll
pray. John chapter 3. And we're going
to begin in verse 10 with the Lord speaking in Nicodemus. He
says, are thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
See, Nicodemus was the quote today, Bible answer man. If you
want to know something, you went to Nicodemus. Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that
we have seen, and you receive not our witness. You've seen
me, you saw my miracles, and yet you don't receive me. If
I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall
you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, that's Christ, even
the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. most misunderstood of anything
in this earth. Verse 16. For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him, that's it, should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. God didn't have to come to this
earth to condemn man. Man was condemned already. We're
all guilty. He that believes on him is not
condemned. But he that believes not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. And here's the condemnation.
That light, which is Christ, is coming to the world. And men
love darkness rather than the light. Is that in you? Oh, I fear if
you don't see that, then you're still in darkness. Because their deeds were evil. Deeds were evil. Forgive me for saying that. You
know, when I see somebody I know that's religious, I'll duck down
three aisles and go the other way so I don't have to meet,
because I just don't hear all the wonderful things they've
been doing for God. God said, all our deeds, my best
deeds, I think, are evil. For everyone that does evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light. lest his deeds should
be reproved." You've heard said, and I'm thankful to hear it from
this pulpit, that it's not our sin that keeps us from Christ,
it's our righteousness. And men and women don't want
to hear God tell them that your best righteousness is filthier
acts. But he that doeth truth I believe
in Christ, coming to the light, that His deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God. Any good deeds I have, God had
to bring about in me. It's all in God. My only hope
is in Christ. My only hope is in Christ. Let us try to go to the Lord
in prayer. Lord, we pray that you will take
this prayer as feeble and as sinful as it is, and that you
will make it acceptable to God the Father. We pray for your people wherever
they gather this morning, Lord, that you would be pleased to
meet with us and that your servant, Brother
Greg, and your other gospel preachers, Lord, that you would speak through
them and that you would put your spirit in them and give them
the ability to declare Christ and his righteousness alone.
And as your people, we pray, Lord, you would give us the faith
to believe what is preached and that all glory would go to you. And we thank the Lord that there
was a time we would not come to the light. But you said I will make them
willing. And you made us willing to come.
And to see that our righteousness is filthy rags. And we need the
righteousness of Christ. We're thankful that you give
that to your people. We ask these things for your
glory. Number 352 from the hardback
timbrel. 352. Let's stand together once
again. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, hide me, O my Savior, ? Till the storm of life is past
? ? Safe into the haven guide ? ? O receive my soul at last
? ? Other refuge have I none ? ? Hangs my helpless soul on
thee ? Leave, ah, leave me not alone, still support and comfort
me. All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. Thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. We open your Bibles with me again
to Zechariah chapter 8. Zechariah chapter 8. When the children of Israel were
at Mount Sinai and the Lord was about to lead them away from
there, Moses prayed this prayer. He said, Lord, if you don't go
with us, don't take us from this spot. We don't want to be left out
there in the wilderness without you. And then in 1 Samuel chapter
4, Eli had two sons. Their names were Hophni and Phinehas,
and they were working as priests, but they were unfaithful to the
gospel. They offered strange fire to
God. And they were false prophets,
is what they were. And the Lord brought judgment
against Israel. And the Philistines came in.
And there was a great battle, and many of the Israelites died.
And the scripture says the Philistines took the ark, and the messenger
came back from the battlefield and reported to Eli that your
sons are dead, and the ark's been taken. And when Eli heard
that the ark had been taken, he fell over dead. And Phineas'
wife was expecting, and she went into labor when she heard that
the ark had been taken. And in her dying breath while
giving birth to her child, she named her son Ichabod. Ichabod. Translated, it means
the glory of the Lord has departed. Now I can say to you as your pastor
that the one thing that grips my heart with fear more than
anything else is that the God would leave us to ourselves. That he would write over the
doors of this building in Ichabod, And when that happens, it's because
the ark has been taken. The gospel has been lost. The sad thing is that where,
if you had eyes to see, where you could see the word Ichabod
written over the doors of most religious meeting houses, the
people that are there don't know that God's not there. They don't
know the glory of the Lord has departed. In Revelation chapter three,
the Lord speaks a rebuke to five of the seven churches in Asia
and the church at Sardis in Revelation three, the first few verses,
he said to them, and they have the gospel. He said, you have
a name that you are alive, but you're dead. What a fearful thing. How do I know? I fear that the glory of the
Lord departing is sort of like the frog in the kettle. He doesn't know what's happened.
He just dies before the truth of it is known to his
heart. Or I won't be like Moses. Lord, don't take me unless you're
with me. And I know each of you who know
Christ are saying, Lord, don't leave me to myself. Or don't
depart from my life. Don't depart from my church.
Keep me. Keep me. And we have the precious
promise of the Lord who says, I will never leave you nor forsake
you. I will, I will. And they shall, they shall. In the church at Sardis, The
Lord, if you read on in that review, he says, there are some
here who still have a white garment of righteousness. They're still
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for the hope of their salvation.
They're going to be kept. They're going to be kept. The
church is going to die. In Zachariah Chapter 8, we have
some wonderful words of promise that will give us encouragement
to know that the Lord is with us. The Lord is with us. This is sort of a continuation
of the first hour in that when the Lord said, I will and they
shall, these are the they shalls that come as a result of the
I will. And it begins in verse 9, Thus
saith the Lord of Hosts, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Let
your hands be strong, Ye that hear in these days these words
by the mouth of the prophets. When the Lord gives us ears to
hear what the prophets are really saying, when he causes us to
know That, as I said in the previous hour, the Lord Jesus Christ is
not the central theme of the Bible. He is the singular theme
of the Bible. And everywhere we go in the scriptures,
we're led to see the glorious person and finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. All the law and the prophets
testify of me. All Scripture was given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly
furnished. Now, how is the man of God going
to be thoroughly furnished? Christ Jesus the Lord is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. So if the Lord Jesus Christ is
being lifted up, the Lord said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw
men to Me. to believe what the prophets
are declaring about the Lord Jesus Christ, about him as the
singular theme of scripture, as the one thing that is needful,
as the fullness of the Godhead and the one and only one who
satisfied the demands of God's justice. so that God was able to be just
and justifier of them that believe on Lord Jesus Christ. We're justified in Christ. Justified. And that means we've got no sin
before God. No sin. Perfect in Him. All the sins that we are each
so painfully aware of are not in the new man. The scripture
says, as He is, so are we in this world right now. He that
sanctifyeth and they, that word sanctified means to be made holy.
He that sanctifyeth, who's that? It's the Lord Himself. And they
which are sanctified, They which are sanctified. When were we
sanctified? When were we sanctified? When
were we made holy? He that sanctified and they that
are sanctified are all as one so that he is not ashamed to
call them his brethren. Here's our hope. Our hope is
that the prophets all pointed to him. John the Baptist was
the last of the prophets. And what did John say? Behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. Did the Lord Jesus Christ successfully
take away our sins? Did he successfully put them
away once and for all by the sacrifice? Did his blood successfully
go to the mercy seat in heaven? Yeah. Yeah. There's the evidence
that he's among us. We're not interested in preaching
a message that's going to cause men to take pride in something
that they've done. We're lifting up the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
be among you. Here we are. Here we are. So
we have, he said, let your hands be strong and you shall hear
the words of the prophets. You shall hear the words of the
prophets in the volume of the book that is written of me. For
I have come to do thy will, O God. All this is about Him. And if
the Lord Jesus Christ is being lifted up, then He's among us.
He's among us. Look at the rest of this. Look
at the rest of this verse. which were in the days that the
foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that
the temple might be built. When was the foundation? Paul
makes it clear in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, he said, I am a master
builder. And I laid the foundation. And if any man build on that
foundation, then it'll stand. It'll be precious stone and silver
and gold. But if you build on any other
foundation other than that foundation, it'll be wood, hay and stubble.
Christ is that foundation. It turned with me to Ephesians
chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. How do I know that God is with
me? That's the pressing question.
I don't want to be lulled into some sort of spiritual stupor
where Ichabod is written over my head and I don't know it.
I don't know it. Ephesians chapter 2. at verse
18, and came and preached peace to you, which were afar off,
and to them that were near. Now he's talking about the Gentiles
and the Jews. The same gospel message, Ephesians
chapter 2 at verse 17. So the same gospel message is
preached to the religious and the irreligious that we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We can't establish
our own peace with God. A sacrifice has to be made. God
demands a blood sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only one that was able to do that. And here's the message
of the Gospel. Peace I give you. Peace I leave unto you. Not like
the world gives. To the world, peace is nothing
more than the absence of conflict. Peace is all about prosperity. Peace is all about having an
easy life. The thing that the child of God
is most concerned with, do I have peace with God? And more often times than not,
when we have peace with God, the Lord is going to send necessities
and conflicts and trials and troubles into our lives in this
world in order for us to look to Him, to trust Him. So this message of peace is the
message of Christ. Verse 18, for through him, we
both have access by one spirit unto the father. Now, therefore,
you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and the household of God. The Lord's writing to
the Gentiles and he's saying, there's no longer a wall separating
you. You've been brought into the
household of God and you are built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth
into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are built together
for a habitation of God through the spirit. So this foundation,
the scripture makes clear, is Christ. Paul said that in 1 Corinthians. He tells us that here in Ephesians.
Christ being the chief cornerstone of the foundation, that the temple
of God, which is the house of the living God, the pillar and
the ground of the truth, is the habitation of God. This is where
he resides. Now I want to be where God is,
don't you? I want to be where he is. This is the place where
he resides, where Christ is lifted up, where the foundation is laid. When was this foundation first
laid? When was it first laid? It was
first laid in the heart of God, in eternity. We have no way of
comprehending eternity, do we? We believe things we don't understand.
How can we understand a God who had no beginning? And yet the
Lord makes it clear. I love you with an everlasting
love and Christ, that land that was slain before the foundation
of the world, was slain in the covenant of grace from eternity
past, we say. In fact, there is no past, present,
future, eternity. None. Child of God takes his last breath
and opens his eyes in glory. You're not going to look around
and think, isn't this wonderful? Comparing what he's now experiencing
to where he came from. No. You can't have any memory
of time in eternity. You can't compare eternity to
where you came from. You can't say, isn't this wonderful
compared to where I've been. Now, when you open your eyes
in glory, you're going to discover you've always been there. Always been there. And how are
you going to understand that? We're creatures of time, aren't
we? We're creatures of space. But here's what God says. The
foundation was laid in eternity. And it hasn't moved and everything
that's built on this foundation is where I am. It's my habitation. It's my habitation. When Christ. Bowed his mighty
head on Calvary's cross. Scripture says he was lifted
up for our offenses and raised again because of our justification. We were justified before God. When the Lamb of God, who is
without spot and without blemish, suffered the full wrath of God's
justice and died on Calvary's cross. Oh, what hope we have. Here's
what the Lord is saying. When Moses said, Lord, don't
take us from this spot if you're not going to go with us. I'll
go with you. I'll go with you. I'll go before
you. I'll be behind you. I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. And the evidence that I am with
you is the attention that I put in your heart towards the Lord
Jesus Christ. The desire, the need that you
have for him. Verse 9, which were in the day
that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid
and the temple might be built. That's what's happening right
now. The temple of God is being built, one stone upon another. And Peter calls us living stones,
living stones, knit together with the love of Christ. For
before these days, there was no higher of man nor any higher
of beasts, neither was there any peace to him that went out
or came in because of the affliction. For I set all men and everyone
against his neighbor. Some of us came out of religion.
Who wants to go back to that? Who wants to go back to that
self-righteous, Christ-denying, contentious, pretentious pattern of man-made freewill
religion? That's what the Lord's saying.
So that's the way it was before when every man was against his
neighbor. But now, but now, I will not be unto the residue of this
people as in the former days, saith the Lord host. Now things
are different. For the seed shall be prosperous. Prosperous. Wealthy. Now all these Old Testament types
are spiritual pictures. The scripture makes it clear
that the true Israelite is not the descendant of Abraham according
to the flesh, but those who follow the faith of Abraham. Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, and
the true child of Abraham is that one who's been circumcised,
not in the flesh, but in the heart by the hand of God. The
one who believes what Abraham believed, believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ. So all these Old Testament promises,
you know, people talk about, you know, God, God's got a holy
land over there. He's got a special people. This
is the holy land. These are the, you are the special
people. This is true Israel. And so these
promises of prosperity and peace are gospel promises to God's
people. How much more wealth can a person
have than to have Christ? The pearl of great price. The one for whom you would lose
everything to keep. Everything. That's the wealth the world doesn't
know anything about, isn't it? And so the Lord says, where I
am and where my foundation is laid and where my habitation
is being built, it's not going to be like before. I'm going
to be among the residue of my people, the remnant, the few. And their seed shall be prosperous,
and the vine shall give her fruit. Galatians chapter 5 makes it
clear that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
temperance, patience, self-control. Against such there is no law.
This is the work of the Spirit of God when we're able to find
our hope in Christ. This is the spiritual union that
we have through Christ. and the ground shall give her
increase and the heavens shall give their due. Oh, how often
times when Christ is lifted up, the Lord's pleased to open the
windows of heaven and cause the showers of his blessings to soothe
our souls and give us peace and give us hope, give us comfort. And I will cause the remnant
of this people to possess all these things. All these spiritual blessings
and all the spiritual blessings of God, peace, salvation, hope,
all the things that really matter. You, you in your mind right now,
go to that moment in time that it's going to come sooner than
we think when you're lying on your deathbed, assuming that
God gives you a chance to have any thoughts before he takes
your life. And ask yourself, ask yourself
in that moment of truth and in that moment of time, when you're
about to draw your last breath and depart this world, what's
important? Because what's important in that
moment is the only thing that's important now. And all this other stuff is nothing
more than distraction, isn't it? And how distracted we can
get. Lord, don't leave me. Don't make a bog over me. That's
my greatest fear. My greatest fear is I'll lose
sight of Christ. Lord, you're going to have to
keep me. You're going to have to keep
me from falling, and you're going to have to present me faultless
before thy throne, and you're going to have to do it all. And it shall come to pass, verse
13, that as you were a curse among the heathen of the house
of Judah and the house of Israel, so I save you, and you shall
be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands
be strong. And I'll repeat what I said the
first hour. The person who's not afraid doesn't have to hear
fear not from God. It's grace that calls our heart
to fear and grace our fears relieved. First I'm not afraid. I never doubt my salvation. I'm confident. Well I'm glad. I know God gives different measures
of faith. He doesn't give me that measure
of faith. I see too much of my flesh and too much of the Lord. You've got to save me. Turn me
again. The truth is that fear and faith
do exist both together in our arsenal. Let your hands be strong. What were they doing? What's
Zachariah? Zachariah, you know the historical setting here.
They had just come back from Babylon and they're rebuilding
the temple, aren't they? And God's people want to be a
part of that. They want to be a part of the church, the building
of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ through prayer and participation
and service. Let no worse than a chance be
strong. Don't be afraid. The church is the only thing
that's going to exist. I'm going to shake the foundations of this
world and everything that can be shaken will be shaken. And
the only thing that won't be shaken is that which is built
on that one foundation of which Christ Jesus is the cornerstone.
The only thing that's not going to be shaken. Nations are going
to be shaken. Jobs are going to be shaken.
Everything is going to be shaken. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
as I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath,
saith the Lord of hosts, and I repented not. So again, have
I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the
house of Judah, fear ye not. What's the Lord said? 70 years
ago, I allowed the Babylonians to come in and to take your fathers
off into captivity because of their unbelief. The hark had been taken, the
children of Israel weren't looking to Christ, and they were carried
off in the Babylon. But now I brought you back. And
just as passionate and determined as I was to rebuke them, I am
that determined to bless you. Bless you. Don't be afraid. These are the things that you
shall do. Speak ye every man the truth
to his neighbor. Speak ye every man the truth
to his neighbor. We've seen it over the years,
haven't we? People show up out of religion. Sometimes they're
bold enough to say what they believe. And they find that they don't
have the support here that they had back in their free will,
work, religion. And either the Lord's pleased
to shut their mouths and open their ears and give them grace
to believe on Christ, or they leave. Or they leave. Believers speak truth to each
other, don't they? They speak about Christ. They
don't. They don't. But Michael, you
were talking about, you know, religious acquaintances, speaking
of all the things they do for God. You don't get pure believers
boasting in the flesh about those sort of things. Speak truth. You know, the first time fear
is mentioned in scriptures in Genesis chapter 15 verse 1, when
God took Abraham, he said, Abraham, be not afraid, for I am your
shield and your exceeding great reward. There's your hope, Abraham. I'm your hope. I'm going to protect
you from the enemy, and I am going to be your reward. And then the last time fear is mentioned
is found in Revelation chapter 1, the last book of the Bible,
where you remember in John, he has this vision of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he falls on his face as dead. And the scripture says
that the Lord puts his hand on John and says to John, fear not. For I am the first and the last. I'm the first and the last. I'm
the beginning and I'm the end. I'm the Alpha and the Omega.
I'm the one who ordained your salvation. I'm the one that accomplished
your salvation. I'm the one that will see it
to its end. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Speak ye every man the truth
to his neighbor. God's people are not going to
tolerate lies being told. About God, about Christ, about
salvation, about man. Are they? That's the evidence
that God's among us. We can't. Can't tolerate lies
about. About how it is centers to be
made right with God. Not going to listen to it, not
going to be a part of it. Execute, and that word means
judge. You see that in verse 16? Execute
the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. Judge righteous
judgments. Be discerning about truth and
error. That's the evidence that God's
among you. When you begin to compromise the truth, then it's
evidence that the Lord has withdrawn himself, or he will soon. He
will soon. And let none of you imagine evil
in your hearts against his neighbor. I know we're men and women of
flesh. We get aggravated with one another.
We get angry at one another from time to time, don't we? But to imagine evil in your heart
towards your brother in the moment of truth is to
consider him to be a greater sinner than you are. All God's people can say, I'm
the chief of all sinners. You know your sin better than
anybody else's, don't you? I know I've made this statement
many times over the years. I'm going to make it again. You
don't know anybody in your life that's been given more truth,
more light, more blessings, more opportunities, more grace, and
remain as unbelieving as you are, do you? To whom much is
given, much is required. To speak evil of your neighbor
is to look down your self-righteous nose and declare that that person's
more of a sinner than I am. And the Lord said, look what
he says, that none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his
neighbor and love no false oath. What's a false oath? That's what free religion's
all about, it's a false oath. God, I will and you shall. I will give my heart to Jesus.
I will believe on Jesus. I will do this and I will. It's
bargaining with God, isn't it? And in demanding that God return
that bargain with the blessing that you're bargaining for. That's
a false oath. It's a lie. All these things that I hate,
saith the Lord. All these things that I hate. God says, these things going
on, I'm out of there. And the word of the Lord of Hosts
came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, The fast of
the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of
the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house
of Judah joy, and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore, love
the truth in peace. I want to leave worship service
having heard from God and having assurance of my salvation. If
I'm hearing a message that makes me wonder if I'm saved, then
that message has put something on me to cause me to look to
myself. That's the only reason I would wonder if I'm saved is
if I'm looking to myself to see if there's something in me that's
not the way it's supposed to be. There's nothing in you that's
the way it's supposed to be. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
it shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the
inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall
go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the
Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts. And I will also, yea,
many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of
Hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. That's all this
is. That's a prayer. The Lord rebuked
those Pharisees because they had turned the house of prayer
into a den of thieves. What had they done? They had
made salvation something that you could buy from God. And what
did Isaiah say? Come, come. Without money, without
price, without bargaining with God. Eat, drink. And the book of God finishes
with, if any man thirsts, let him come. Drink of the fountain
of the water of life freely, freely. This is where our hope
is. This is our peace. This is our
prayer. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
verse 23, In those days it shall come to pass, now get this, that
ten men shall take hold of all the languages of the nations,
even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying,
We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. God
is with you. Lord rebuked that church at Corinth. And because of their abuse of
those spiritual gifts. And what did he say? They come
in and they're going to think you're crazy. All standing up
giving a prophecy and speaking in tongues like that. He said,
he said, but If one have a prophecy, how does this passage start out?
What do all the prophets speak of? They speak of Christ. If
one have a prophecy, let him stand and speak. And the unbeliever
will be convicted that God is among you. God is where Christ is being
preached. It's where Christ is believed on, where Christ is
trusted in. God, be merciful and gracious
to us. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're so very hopeful that you are here in our midst and that
you will continue to be. Lord, don't leave us to ourselves. For Christ's sake, we pray that
you would forgive us all the wanderings that we do in looking
away from him. We pray, Lord, that you would
keep us from falling and present us faultless before that throne.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 268, let's stand together. How firm a foundation, ye Saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent Word. What more can he say than to
you? Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid, I'll
strengthen thee, help thee, held by my gracious, omnipotent
hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not For I will be with thee, thy
troubles to bless, and sanctify to thee thy deeds. And through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only design Thy dross to consume. and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath lived
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul though of hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake.