Good evening. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 49 from the Hardback Tymnal, number 49, Our
Great Savior. We'll just sing the first four
verses, just the first four verses. Jesus, what a friend of sinners,
Jesus, lover of my soul. ? Friends may fail me, foes assail
me ? ? He, my Savior, makes me whole ? ? Hallelujah, what a
Savior ? ? Hallelujah, what a friend ? ? Saving, helping, keeping,
loving ? ? He is with me too ? Jesus, what a strength in weakness,
let me hide myself in Him. Tempted, tried, and sometimes
failing, He my strength, my victory wins. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a help in sorrow
while the billows o'er me roll. Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my comfort, helps my soul. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a guide and keeper,
while the tempest still is high. Storms about me night or takes
me, He, my pilot, hears my cry. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving. He is with me to the end. Please be seated. I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. It's said in the scriptures that
the Lord loved the disciples to the end. He will keep me to
the end. It's a good hymn. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to Lamentations. Jeremiah, Lamentations. Prophet
Jeremiah is the is the penman for the book of Lamentations
and Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet and he is lamenting the condition of Israel. And
Jeremiah when he speaks most often speaks prophetically as
the Lord Jesus interceding for the church. And so in Lamentations
chapter 3 At verse 19, and in the margin
of my Bible, the word remembering is written as the word remember. And I think that's a better understanding
here. Remember mine afflictions and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall. We're going to be looking
at several passages of scripture about the importance of remembering
and I wanted to to go here and the Lord's telling us to remember
what he did. Remember the cross, remember
the sufferings that Christ went through to save you. My soul hath them still in remembrance
and is humbled in me. When we think back on what our
Lord has done in order to save us is humbly. It quiets us and
humbles us before God. This I recall to my mind and
therefore I have hope, have I hope. Remembering what the Lord did
gives us hope. Hope of Salvation, hope of forgiveness,
hope of grace, hope of love. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Therefore will I hope in him." The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is our life and he is our hope and he himself is our salvation. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that
a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. Let's pray together. Our merciful, gracious, glorious
Heavenly Father, what great hope we have in knowing that we can
come before thy throne of grace and have full forgiveness, full
acceptance, full salvation, full grace in the person of thy dear
son, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. We ask Lord that your
Holy Spirit would work effectually in our hearts, that you would
cause us to reflect on and to remember and to believe all that
you have revealed, all the hope that we have. Lord, we thank
you for the forgiveness of our sin. We thank you for the joy
and the privilege of being able to worship together. Lord, we
confess to you that we're completely dependent upon you. If that is
to be done, Lord, you have to turn us and cause us and open
the eyes of our understanding and open our hearts and give
us ears to hear. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number three in your Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymn book, number three. Let's stand together again. A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant
mercy I sing. Nor fear with thy righteousness
on my person and offering to bring. The terrors of law and
of God with me can have nothing to do. ? My Savior's obedience
and blood ? Hide all my transgressions from view ? The work which His
goodness began ? The arm of His strength will complete ? His
promises yea and amen ? And never was forfeited yet Things future
nor things that are now, Not all things below nor above, Can
make him his purpose forego, Or sever my soul from his love. My name from the palm of His
hands Eternity will not erase. Impressed on His heart it remains
In marks of indelible grace. ? Yes, I to the end shall endure
? As sure as the earnest is given ? More happy but not more secure
? The glorified spirit's in heaven Please be seated. Our text tonight can be found
in 2nd Peter chapter 1, but by way of introduction, if you want
to put your finger there and then turn back with me to Philippians
chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. Oftentimes the Lord tells us
to remember, remember how prone we are to forget and how merciful
the Lord is to call us to remember. We're so much like our little
children, aren't we? We have to tell them the same
thing over and over again. And here in Philippians chapter
three, Paul, in writing to the church at Philippi, says, finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing to you,
to me, indeed, is not grievous. I'm telling you the same thing
I told you before, but I'm not grieved by that. And for you,
it is safe. Now that word safe is the word
certain. In other words, what Paul is saying is you need to
hear the same thing over and over and over again in order
to be certain of it and in order to find your safety. Turn with me to our text now,
if you will, in 2 Peter chapter one, and we'll begin reading
in verse 12. And I want you to notice how
many times The word remembrance is used in these few verses. Verse 12, wherefore, I will not
neglect, Peter said, to put you always in remembrance of these
things, though you know them and be established in the present
truth. I'm gonna remind you of these truths that you might be
more certain and more sure and more firm them. Yea, I think it meet as long
as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in
remembrance." Much of the preachers responsibility is to is to remind
men of things they already know. And he says in verse 14, knowing
that shortly I must put off this tabernacle. He's speaking of
the body of his flesh and that word tabernacle is tent. And
the Lord's likening our fleshly bodies as a tent. It's just here
for a little while. It's gonna be folded up one day
and put away. And Peter said, as long as I
am in this tabernacle, as long as I'm in this tent, to stir
you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put
off this tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed
me." You remember when the Lord was speaking to Peter
after the resurrection and he told him, he said, you know,
men are gonna take you by the hand and lead you to a place
you don't wanna go. And now Peter realizes that that
day is coming soon. Verse 14, moreover, I will endeavor
that you may be able after my decease to have these things
always in remembrance. I'm gonna Just keep telling you
the same thing over and over and over again so that you don't
forget. When the Lord in Ephesians chapter
four, well, let's turn there. Turn with me to Ephesians four. This is very, Very encouraging. Verse 11, and the Lord has given
to the church some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers. Now, the way I understand that
is that that's not two separate offices, that's one office, it's
the pastor teacher. for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, until we all come into the unity of faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So the Lord
has given to the church apostles who he used to pen for us the
New Testament, and prophets who he used to pen the Old Testament,
and evangelists. As I understand that office in
the church is a missionary. Men who, like the Apostle Paul,
didn't pastor a church, but traveled from place to place preaching
the gospel and establishing churches, and then pastor teachers. When the Lord there at the Sea
of Galilee was speaking to Peter, he asked him, he said, lovest
thou me? And Peter said, yea, Lord. And the Lord said, feed my sheep,
feed my sheep, feed my sheep. The pastor is the under shepherd.
His responsibility here, Peter is telling us in this letter
to the believers that are scattered
abroad that his responsibility is to feed them, to teach them. Now we have teachers here and
every teacher knows what the first law of teaching is. The
first law of teaching is repetition, isn't it? repetition and you
know in your own experience that you learn very little by hearing
it once. You have to hear it over and
over and over and over again, whatever it is. And the more
often you hear it, the more sure it becomes and the more certain
you are of it and the less likely you are to forget it. So Peter's saying, I'm not going
to neglect my responsibility. The Lord told me to feed the
sheep and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to teach you. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy
2, he said, the things that thou hast heard of me among faithful
men, the same commit to men that they might be able to teach others
also. So this matter of teaching is
carried on from one generation and one man to the next. When
the qualifications of the pastor are given in scriptures, there
are several times the Lord said he must be apt to teach. The Lord Jesus Christ in his
ministry, the scripture says, went about teaching. Now the
word teaching is the word doctrine. He's conveying to them the truths
of the gospel. And without that, there can be
no faith. Call upon the Lord and thou shalt
be saved, but how shall they call upon him in whom they've
not heard? and whom they've not believed,
and how shall they believe on him? And whom they've not heard,
and how shall they hear without a preacher? So this is the disciples,
the scripture says, went house to house and in the temple, and
they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. And so
with preaching, there must also be teaching. And the text from which we teach
is God's word, isn't it? I've heard it said, and I've
said it myself, and I understand the meaning of what men intend
when they say it, but it's probably not a good statement to say that you don't come to Christ by doctrine,
you come to doctrine by Christ. And I know what men mean by that.
You don't educate a man to believe the gospel. And yet, there are some basic
doctrinal truths that have to be declared before a man can
believe anything. How can they call upon him in
whom they've not believed? And how can they believe in whom
they've not heard? So this matter of teaching is
essential. Now, some of you, including myself,
have substituted Christ for doctrine. And that's what men mean when
they say you don't come to Christ by doctrine. In other words,
they're looking at those who have the knowledge of some doctrine,
but they don't know Christ. That kind of knowledge puffeth
up. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter eight. Remembering, Peter said, I'm
telling you this. Paul said, it's not grievous
to me to preach to you the same thing over and over again. Repetition
is the first law of learning and how needful we are as sinners
who are constantly being told otherwise to be reminded of who
Christ is and what He's done. You have your Bibles open to
1 Corinthians chapter 8 Now as, verse one, now as touching
things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge,
knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. If all I have is the
knowledge of some doctrine, and I don't have love for the truth,
love for Christ, then I've substituted Christ with doctrine, and that's
a really bad substitute, and it will, It will not save. And if any man think that he
knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
I love that. You know, an honest scientist
will tell you, particularly those who study the stars, will tell
you every time they discover the answer to a question, it causes them to ask 10 more
questions. The answer to one question gives
them a better understanding of how little they know. And isn't
that the way it is with the Lord? When the Lord reveals something
of his grace and his glory to us through the teaching of the
scriptures, We rejoice in what he has shown us, but it only
shows us the greatness of his glory and it causes us to see
how unsearchable he is and how little we really know. How little
we really know. So if any man think that he knoweth
anything, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know. But if any
man love God, the same is known of him. The teaching of scripture and the
teaching of doctrine and the imparting of knowledge is a means
to an end. It is not the end in itself. Well, Peter says, I'm gonna feed
the sheep and I'm gonna teach them and I'm gonna show them,
but what am I doing? I'm pointing them to the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not gonna substitute Christ
with some teaching. Go back with me to our text. What is Peter referring to when
he says, wherefore, verse 12, I will not be negligent to put
you always in remembrance of these things. Well, he's referring
back to the verses prior to this. We looked at them briefly last
Sunday, last Wednesday night. but I just read them. I want
to go back and look at them in a little bit more detail. Beginning
in verse five, after he speaks of being a partaker of the divine
nature, and we know that we don't look within ourselves for some
evidence of the divine nature, We have to look to Christ and
the fellowship that we have in him and the Spirit of God reveals
to us his divine nature and how the Lord has imputed his righteousness
to us and giving us a good hope in Christ. That's what it means
to be partakers of the divine nature. And then in verse 5,
he says, and besides this, give it all diligence. Now, I mentioned
this many times and I said this even this past Sunday, I think,
that what God requires, God must provide. And yet, the means by
which he provides what he requires is to show us the impossibility
of us producing what he demands. In other words, In other words,
God tells us what he requires, and if we have any understanding
of ourselves, it will cause us to cry out and say, Lord, you're
gonna have to give me that. You're gonna have to make that
happen. You're gonna have to cause that to be so. If that's
what you require, you're gonna have to provide it. You know,
the self-righteous will look at this and say, matter of fact,
I remember years ago when I first learned the gospel, a freewheeler
bringing out this verse of scripture, this passage of scripture and
saying, yeah, but you've got to add these things. You've got
to add these things to that where you are. I was talking to him
about salvation being of grace. It's all of grace and it's all
of God. And he said, yeah, and he went to this passage. He said,
yeah, but you have to add to that. Now, we don't add anything
to Christ. Christ is all. He's all. He's all in the scriptures. He's
all in our salvation. He's all in our sanctification.
He's all in our redemption. He's all and he's in all. And we don't add anything to
him. And so when the Lord in his word, he said, I'm not gonna
be negligent. Peter's talking to these, Peter's
about my age now. He's coming to the end of his
life. And he's saying, you know, he's in Babylon, he's writing
to the churches, this is the last letter, he said, you know,
I'm about to give up on this, you know, this tabernacle is
about to be taken away, but I don't want to be negligent to the very
end of my life to put you in remembrance of these things. This is so important. This is my duty, I know. And it's our need. And to me,
it's not grievous. And to you and to me, it is safe. It makes what we already know. Peter said, you already know
these things. You know them. You don't have
to be told them as if you never knew them. But you have to be
reminded of them. You have to be reminded of them. What if a woman would ask her
husband, honey, we've been married 20 years and you've never told
me you love me. Well, I told you when we got
married that I loved you. How would that go over? It wouldn't
go over very well, would it? What about a mother saying to
a child, I told you to do something, but how many times do they have
to be told? And you and I are the same way,
aren't we? We're the same way, and I'm so thankful. We're not. We're not looking for some new
trinket of truth or some diamond that's going to unlock the mystery
of everything. No, that's Christ. That's Christ. And all these things are found
in him. And this has something to do
with being partakers of the divine nature because God has given
to us the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter eight says, if
you have not the Spirit of God, you're none of his. And this
is the work of the Spirit of God working in us, causing us
to will and to do of his good pleasure. But the means by which
he works that work of grace is by reminding us what we need
to be, what we need to be. And we diligently seek him. As we read in Lamentations, Jeremiah
said, And we're seeking him, seeking his help and his grace
and his mercy. Lord, I don't have these things
in myself. This is what Peter's referring
back to. Look at verse five, and beside
this, giving all diligence. There's a diligence to faith,
isn't there? There is. And that's God's work
of grace. We can't just go off on our own. We can't just forget God. We
can't just live like we want. The spirit of God, he won't let
that happen. And so he says, giving all diligence,
add to your faith, this trust that you have in Christ. You know, I've thought a lot
about this lately. I'm thinking about trying to
write an article on it, but over the, I read, you've read controversies
that have taken place among believers in the church. It was in the church of Corinth.
Paul had to rebuke the church of Corinth because, Some were saying, well, I'm of
Cephas, or I'm of Apollos, or I'm of Paul. And the real spiritual
ones said, well, I'm of Christ. And what did Paul say? What did
Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost, say in response to those schisms
and divisions that were taking place in the church? He said
this. He said, is Christ divided? Is Christ divided? Is Christ
not all? And is Christ not in all? And
do we agree together? Whatever your differences might
be otherwise, do we agree together? Because, I mean, I read something
about a preacher. I've read him and I like what
I read. And there was two different preachers.
This was back in the early 1900s in Kentucky. And I didn't know
it, but one of them had joined the other's church. And he was
there for a year and then he accused him of not being a believer
and left the church. And this is a man that's written
a lot of books. And I thought, you know, both
these men were believers. They both believed that Christ
was all and in all. And brethren, that is the test. That's the litmus test. Do you
believe that Lord Jesus Christ is everything in your salvation?
Do you believe he's in all parts of your salvation? Do you believe
he's all in the scriptures? Do you believe he's everything?
He's the message of the scripture. He's the author and the subject
of the word of God. Do you believe that? Do you believe
Christ is all? Christ is not divided. Let's
don't divide ourselves over things that that are not important. So that's what Peter's referring
to when he says, add to your faith. Faith is that confession
that the Lord Jesus Christ is all in my salvation. He's all and he's in all. He's in all of creation. He's
in all of providence. He's in all of salvation. He
gets all the glory. He's controlling everything.
He's holding it all together and he's going to be the glory
of glory in heaven. He's gonna be, we're gonna see
him in the fullness of his splendor. He's all, that's what faith believes.
So add to your faith, what? Virtue. moral goodness, purity, modesty. I want to be that way. Don't
you? Lord, make me that way. Lord, don't let me shame your
name by by being immodest or immoral? Give me virtue. Knowledge. Well, we just talked about knowledge.
Knowledge puffeth up. 1 Corinthians 8, 1. We see that
in ourselves and we see that in the world, don't we? How exalted
men make themselves because knowledge is power. I've got some knowledge
over someone else. And here's the knowledge that
the Lord is talking about. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. That's the knowledge of God,
to know him. As I said, every time the Lord
reveals something of himself, he just
gets bigger. He gets bigger. Well, we know
he's infinite. We know that he's beyond finding
out. But who can ever, what believer
who has the knowledge of God, who has any knowledge of God, And again, I refer to that verse
we've already read. If a man thinks that he knows
anything, he knows nothing as he ought to know. We don't know
anything like we ought to know it. But the little glimmers of
truth and glory that God reveals to us, how can the knowledge
of that puff us up? Because that knowledge just makes
him more glorious. It makes him bigger and the bigger
he gets, the littler we get. Isn't that true? If the knowledge of God doesn't
humble a man, then we don't have the knowledge of God. We might
have the knowledge of something else. We might think we know
something that we don't know. But if what we think we know
doesn't lead us to know him, then we don't know as we ought
to know. And if it causes us to know him,
it'll cause us to see ourselves, won't it? We'll say with John
the Baptist, oh, he must increase, I must decrease. The bigger he
gets, the littler I get. That's the way it works, isn't
it? That's the way the knowledge
of God works. The way up is down. No, there can't be any pride
in that. Lord, I want to know you and I want virtue and modesty
and purity and temperance. Look at the next one. Here's
what he's saying. You know these things because
God has made you to want to be this way. And I'm just reminding
you of them. And I'm going to keep reminding
you of them until I die so that after I'm gone, you'll remember. Isn't that what he said? Verse 6, and to knowledge temperance.
Temperance. The first time temperance is
mentioned in the Bible. It's mentioned in Galatians chapter
5 as one of the fruits of the Spirit. And that's important
to remember in all of these things. These are the fruits of the Spirit. And the fruits of the Spirit
are contrasted to the works of the flesh. So whatever Whatever
we work is a work of the flesh. Whatever there is a virtue and
temperance and knowledge and goodness, that's the fruit of
the Holy Spirit. And so temperance is mentioned
as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. There's only three times this
word's used. The first time it's used is in Acts chapter 24 when
Felix, the Roman governor who had taken his brother's wife
and was living a life of excess and he was interested, he wanted
to talk to Paul and Paul talked to him and Paul spoke to him,
the scripture says, and reasoned with him of temperance and judgment. Temperance and judgment. And
the scripture says that Felix trembled. He trembled. He knew he was an intemperate
man and he knew that the judgment was coming. Lord, we want to be temperate. We want to be measured in what we do.
We don't want to live our lives in excess of pleasure like Felix
did. Lord, make these things so. Patience. Endurance. Some of us lose our patience
easier than others, that's a matter of personality sometimes, maybe
it's a matter of temperance. He's talking about, you know,
and when you do, you know that it's, oh Lord, help me. I don't want to be that way.
I don't want to be that way. But here he's talking about patiently
waiting and enduring until the end. Lord, I want to, I want
to believe and endure to the very end. I don't want to give up. I want to be able to say with
the Apostle Paul, I finished my course. I've kept the faith. I've run the race. I'm ready
to be offered up. And I know there's waiting for
me a crown of righteousness, and not for me only, but for
all those who endure, all those who complete the race. I've told you all this story
before, but it's been a while. 27 years ago, Tricia and I took
our 25th anniversary, went to Hawaii. And we didn't know it
at the time, but the ship we were on came to Kona the day
after the Ironman Marathon. The finish line was up, you know,
the big, big, big thing. Paper cups everywhere. Media
was gone. It was the morning after. We
get off the ship, we rented a car, and we're going to tour Kona.
And noticed, I didn't know what it was at the time. I wasn't,
you know, I saw this big finish line and no one around. So we
just decided to head down the road. And to get a mile or so
down the road, And there's this guy, he's got numbers painted
on his thigh and he's barely getting one foot in front of
the other. He's got a mile left to run. He's already swam a mile
and biked however many hundred and something miles and now he's
at the end of his 27 mile marathon. It's the next day. The meaty
is gone. There's nobody around. If I knew then what I know now,
I would have got out of the car, and I would have run with that
guy, that last mile. And I would have cheered him
on all the way. I would have said, man, keep it up. You're
going to get it. I just saw the finish line. I
know where it's at. You're almost there. Let's go. We can do it. That's what patient endurance
is here. Sometimes, you know, we just,
there's no glory for men. This guy wasn't gonna win the
race. That's already been done, but
he was gonna finish the race. He's gonna finish it. Oh Lord, give us that kind of
endurance. Enable us to finish. Patience. And add to your patience godliness. Well, what is godliness? Well,
the Lord tells us without controversy, this is the mystery of godliness,
that Christ was manifested in the flesh. And then in another
place he says, Men mistake gain for godliness. Men think that
if they are making progress and they're producing something and
they see these things in their lives, that that gain is godliness. No. The Lord says godliness with
contentment is great gain. So the mystery of godliness is
Christ. He is godliness. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And we're content with him. We're
content with him. Lord, give me the grace to just
look to Christ and rest in Christ and believe on Christ and be
content with Christ because he is my godliness. And to godliness, brotherly kindness. Brotherly
kindness. Oh Lord, I wanna love my brethren. I wanna be kind to them. You know, the word here is the
word Philadelphia. It's exactly the word, it's spelled
Philadelphia. city of brotherly love. You're
not going to find much of it up there but by God's grace,
by God's grace, might we add to our faith brotherly kindness,
love for the brethren, concern for the brethren, grace for the
brethren, patience with the brethren, forgiveness toward the brethren
and to brotherly kindness Charity. That's everything, isn't it?
You see, that's the meat of the gospel. That's where it all leads.
It all leads to love, loving Christ, loving his church, loving
his people, loving his word. And these are the vital signs of the gospel. And as I mentioned
last week, we don't check our vital signs and glory in our
vital signs. But if our vital signs are not
where they ought to be, we're going to feel it, aren't we?
We're going to be sick. And if these things are there,
it's because the Lord put them there and he'll get all the glory
for them. And his means by which he puts
these things in the hearts of his children is his admonition
to be diligent in pursuing these things. But if they're not there, it's
an indication that something's wrong, something's wrong. Verse 9, he that lacketh
these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten
that he was purged from his old sins. Verse 11, For so an entrance
shall be ministered unto you abundantly unto the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, remember. The Lord warned the disciples
about the leaven of the Pharisees. He was talking about the bad
doctrine of the works gospel. That's what he was talking about.
And the disciples thought that he was rebuking them because
they didn't bring enough bread. And he said, I'm not talking
about physical bread. And then he says to them, he
said, don't you remember the 5,000 and the five loaves? And
don't you remember the 3,000 and the seven loaves? And he
reminds them of the things that he has done to provide for them. and that they need not worry
about where their physical bread is going to come from. Labor
not for that meat that perishes it, but the meat that leads to
everlasting life. That's what we labor for. Labor
to know Him, labor to follow Him, labor to seek Him. Paul
said, oh, that I might know Him. That's my goal in life is to
know Him. We're like those disciples. We
see these glorious demonstrations of God's grace and glory feeding. The Lord's provided for us all
the way. You know, we'll stop now. And
the Lord said, don't you remember? Don't you remember? Oh, yes,
Lord, I remember. I remember, thank you, I needed
to be reminded of that. Remind me again, because I'm
sure I'm gonna forget. Our heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Make it effectual to our hearts,
we ask it in Christ's name, amen. 336, let's stand together. Either one, whichever one you
prefer. I think there's another one, but
I have the digital hymn code. I don't have the hymn number.
That's fine. Oh, for a closer walk with God,
a calm and heavenly frame, a light to shine upon the road that leads
me to the land. Return, O holy dove, return,
sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made thee
born and drove thee from my breast. ? The dearest idol I have known
? ? What e'er that idol be ? ? Help me to tear it from thy throne
? ? And worship only thee ? ? So shall my walk be close with God
? calm and serene my frame. So purer light shall mark the
road that leads me to the Lamb.