Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 28 in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn
book, number 28. Let's all stand together. God has mercy on whom he will,
and whom he will, he hardens still. To whom he will, he gives
his grace, and when he will, he hides his face. Let none despise God's sovereign
throne. He does what he will with his
own. It is his right to save or kill
according to his sovereign will. Yes, God saves some, and others
heaves. God made His choice and it stands
fast, aware that I'm a guilty man, and that I'm in God's sovereign
hand. You can, I say, take all my guilt
and sin away. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
23, Psalm 23. It's a very well-known psalm that is
not known. Often read at funerals, but the
valley of the shadow of death is the life that we live in this
world. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want or be in want for anything. He's all my wisdom. all my righteousness,
all my sanctification, all my redemption. He maketh me, and we wouldn't
lie down unless he made us. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness, and he does it all for his name's
sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy
staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over, surely. Goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. Robert went home yesterday. I think, wasn't that right, yesterday? And talked to Deanna today, and
he's just very, very weak, so. and pray for Robert and pray
for the Dunbar family and for the services this Friday. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we find our hope, our joy, and
all our salvation in knowing that we have the great shepherd
of the sheep, to provide for our every need.
Lord, we pray that you would provide for us this hour. We
need your spirit. We need the light that only you
can give. We need understanding. We need
faith. We need Christ. Lord, we pray
that you would make us to lie down in these green pastures
that you've provided, and that we would drink from the still
waters of the river of life, clear as crystal that flows from
thy throne. Lord bless this hour to your
glory and to our good and our eternal salvation. We pray for Robert, ask Lord
for your, hand of strength to be upon him and pray that you
would be pleased to enable him to come back and worship with
us. We pray for Jennifer and the
kids and Lord asks that you would continue to give comfort and
strength and grace and Lord that the services Friday would be
an encouragement to them, that it would be glorifying to thee
and that you might Be pleased to speak truth and life to the
heart of one of your lost sheep and call them out of darkness
into your marvelous light. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 11 in the spiral hymn
book. Let's stand together again, number
11. ? Broken heart and contrite side
? ? A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry
? ? Thy gardening grace is rich and free ? ? O God, be merciful
? ? I spite upon my troubled breast
? ? With deep and conscious guilt oppressed ? ? I stand His cross,
I wholly plead ? ? O God, be merciful to me ? works nor deeds that I have done,
can for a single sin atone. To Christ the Lord alone I plead. O God, be merciful to me. ? And when redeemed from sin and
hell ? ? With all the ransom from my dwell ? ? My raptured
soul shall ever be ? ? God has been merciful to me ? Please
be seated. Let's open our Bibles to First
Peter. First Peter. I so want this message to be
a word of encouragement. I've titled the message that
a word of encouragement. For the. The Holy Spirit to put
courage in our hearts, that's what encouragement is and to. help us in our time of need. I know I need to be encouraged
and I'm so thankful for the effectual working of God's Word in the
hearts of His people when the Spirit of God is pleased to speak
peace and truth and hope to our hearts. Peter, I remind you, is writing
to some Jews that have been driven out of Judea because of their
faith in Christ. They've lost their jobs, they've
been ostracized from their families, they've had to be scattered.
Look at chapter 1, verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. So these believers, after the
persecution began in Jerusalem, were literally run out of town. They fled for their lives and
they have settled in Gentile areas and they're still being
pursued and their lives are still being threatened and they're
still being arrested and they're still being dragged into Jewish
courts and so Peter is writing to these believers to encourage
them. to speak a word of hope and truth. And I, you know, in all the trials
and troubles that we face, I don't think I've ever known anything
like what these early believers are experiencing. And so if this
is a word of hope and encouragement to them, surely it can be to
us. You're there in chapter one.
Let's read down through verse four. He reminds them that they
are the elect of God according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father through sanctification unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace be
multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. So he's telling us that, the
Lord's telling us that, yeah, we're strangers in this world
and this world is not our home. And it's because the Lord elected
us and because through the obedience of Christ, he has sanctified
us. And the Lord has called us to
be faithful. Look at verse three, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance. So here's the encouragement,
to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you. So, Turn now with me, if you will,
to our text in chapter four. Speaking of those who have persecuted
these believers and how that they will be judged by God in
verse five, who shall give an account to him that is ready
to judge the quick and the dead. The spiritually alive, we are
judged in Christ. We have the Lord Jesus as our
righteousness before God. And we have the judgment of God. having been exercised and poured
out on Christ at the cross. So the quick, those that have been
made alive, are judged in Christ. And we want to be judged in Christ.
We only want to be judged in Christ. The dead, on the other
hand, will be judged outside of Christ. The spiritually dead
In verse six, and for this cause was the gospel preached also
to them that are dead. Now this reference to the dead
is not the same as the one in the previous verse. And the reason
we know that is because what it says in the rest of this verse,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live
according to God in the spirit. So the dead that are being referred
to in verse six are those who have been martyred for the gospel.
And they were judged by men in the flesh, but they now live
in the Spirit eternally before God. And you can see why these believers
needed a word of hope. They needed a word of encouragement.
They needed to know that all that was happening that there
was an inheritance reserved for them and that these who were
put to death for the gospel are yet now alive in Christ. And verse seven is our text.
But the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and
watch under prayer. The end of all things is at hand. Peter is saying to them, and
I hope the Lord will say to our hearts this evening, it's almost
over. It's almost over. Just a few
more days. We're almost home. The end of
all things is at hand. This is not a rebuke, this is
not a warning, it's an encouragement. As Paul said in Romans chapter
13, your salvation is nearer now than it was at the beginning. Just a few more sunsets and then
eternal day. A few more trials, and then there'll
be no more sea, no more turbulence, no more separation. A few more
tears, and then the Lord will wipe them all away, never to
cry again. A few more restless nights. until we are able to enjoy that
perfect eternal rest in glory. A few more days for us to suffer
from our own sin, the doubts and the fears and the disappointments
before we enter into that eternal joy where there is no sin and
only righteousness. This is what our Lord's telling
us. The end of all things is at hand.
I know, and as I've said, these believers
were suffering things that we know little about. And the Lord's saying to them, it's almost over. You're almost there. Remember when our children were
little, be in the backseat, we'd be driving somewhere. How much
further, daddy? How much further? And for them,
five minutes was an hour. We're almost there, five minutes
later, how much further? Well, it's only been five minutes
since you asked last until finally I would take my watch off and
give it to them and say, now when that hand gets to that number,
that's when we'll be there. So they didn't have to ask me
anymore, they had a watch. Well, the Lord hasn't given us
a watch, but he has told us that we're almost there. The end of
all things is at hand. This is not a discouraging subject
for the child of God. This is the word of hope. This
is a word of encouragement. I remember having this conversation
with a neighbor and I just made the statement, they were all
upset about something that was going on in the neighborhood.
And I said, well, I don't worry about it. We're not gonna be here much
longer. So what are you talking about? And they're older than
me. And so I explained to them what I meant and they could not
get away from me quick enough. We don't want to talk about that.
We don't want to think about that. We're going to live in
denial. We're not going to die. We're,
you know, this, this earth, this, this life is our home. And the
child of God wants to hear just the opposite. Don't you, you
want to hear just the opposite. You want to hear God say the
end of all things is at hand. A few more days we'll be straining
to see his face through a glass darkly. But then, when all things end, we'll see him face to face. Naturally, there are some unknowns. about dying that concern us. Certainly, these early believers
had natural fears about the possibility of being arrested and tortured
and killed. It would have been natural for
them to be apprehensive about that. But with all the uncertainties
concerning the time and events of our passing, We have so many
promises that are not uncertain. That's where we go, that's where
we find our hope. And here's one of them, the end
of all things is at hand. Peter wrote this 2,000 years
ago. And it's applicable to every believer in every generation
because it is at hand for us. And yet, the Lord speaking from
his perspective, you know, I was thinking about David. We've been
looking at Samuel and Saul and in the passage that we're coming
up to, the Lord tells Samuel that he's going to replace Saul
with a man after his own heart. David being a man after God's
own heart. What is a man after God's own
heart? It's a person that has God's perspective on things.
Believes what God believes, loves what God loves, hate what God
hates. What does God say about time?
A day is as of a thousand years, a thousand years is of a day.
Peter wrote this 2,000 years ago from God's perspective, it
was two days ago. We really, if we have the mind
of Christ and we believe God, we have a perspective on time
that the world has no understanding of. We see how brief it is and
we hear these promises and are encouraged to know that what
the world lives in denial of, we live in hope for. In all the uncertainties concerning
our passing from this life, we have the certain promises of
God, where the Lord tells us, let not your heart be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me, for in my father's house are many mansions. If it were
not so, I would have told you, I go and prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself so that
where I am there, you may be also. There's no uncertainty
about that. It's a precious promise. Peter
is speaking to these scattered believers who are many suffering
terrible persecution for the gospel. And he's saying to them,
be of good cheer. The end of all things is at hand. We have a certain hope that the
Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness. You think about it. He's seated
at the right hand of God. He ever lived to make intercession
for us. God has made him to be our righteousness. And he's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. So if the Lord Jesus Christ is
our righteousness, and he cannot be changed, then all the changes
that we experience in terms of our feelings, in terms of our
performance, All the things that we, in terms of the circumstances
of life and the world in which we live, everything is changing.
But we have an unchangeable Lord, an immutable God who is our righteousness. And so all the changes in feelings
and performance and circumstances that we deal with in this life
do not change. The fact that we have a perfect
righteousness before God in Christ cannot change. That's sure. That's a sure and steadfast hope. We have a surety before God that
is certain. We have the promise of God that
says to us, all that come unto me I will in no wise cast out.
No wise. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. Because I live, you shall live
also. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live. And he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Ever. Believest thou this? Yea, Lord. We have the promise that they
which are part of the first resurrection shall not suffer in the second
death. The book of Revelation speaks
of the second death four times. It's talking about that eternal
separation from God. And if we have part in the first
resurrection, if the hope of our salvation is the resurrection,
the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have nothing to fear
in the second death. There's so many things that we
know. We know that all things work together for good for them
that love God and those that are called according to his purpose,
we know that. We know that our God is immutable
and he's sovereign. We know that he's love. Let us love one another. For
love is of God and he that loveth is born of God and knoweth God
and he that loveth not knoweth not God. Why? Because God is
love. God is love. These are the things
we know for sure. And the end of all things is
at hand. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter four. I don't know about, I do know,
I do know you and I know that you feel the same way I do. The
Lord has made us to be this way. That our affections are set on
things above. You know, and I think I made the
state, I can remember in religion people saying, well, you know,
that person is just so earthly, so heavenly minded, they're no
earthly good. That is just the opposite of
the truth. The truth is the more heavenly minded you are, the
more earthly good you're gonna be. We look at this world from
an eternal perspective and it puts the temporal things of life
in perspective. You have your Bibles open to
2 Corinthians chapter four Look with me at verse 17 for our light
afflictions. It's what the Lord calls them. I would never say to you and
going through a difficult trial, oh, that's a light affliction.
And I hope you wouldn't say it to me, but God says it. God says that our afflictions
are light. Why are they light? compared to the glory that shall
be revealed in us that cannot be compared. For our light afflictions,
which are but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And Paul tells us in the book
of Romans that the trials of this life cannot be
compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. We know in all the uncertainties
of God's providence that The Lord Jesus Christ did not return
to his father empty, void. He accomplished as the word of
God the purpose for which he was sent. He finished the work. He saved his people. He put away
our sin. And we know that all the promises
of God are, as the scripture says, yea, which means yes, and
amen, which means sure. So all the promises of God are
yea and amen in Christ. All the promises of God are yes
and sure in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a word of encouragement,
child of God. If you're not encouraged by this,
but the end of all things is at hand. It's almost over. James put it like this in James
chapter four, for what is your life? It is but a vapor that
appeareth for a little time and then it vanishes away. It's a testimony to our unbelief
that we have to Do we have to get up in age before we understand
these things and appreciate them? But it's so, isn't it? Doesn't mean that a young person
can't believe this, but the more we grow in grace and the closer
we get to that three score and 10, the more we realize the end
of all things is at hand. It's at hand. It's just right
there. Job put it like this, man that
is born of woman is of few days and of many troubles. That's
what this life is. And David said in Psalm 90, he
said, Lord, teach us, teach us to number our days that we might
apply our hearts to wisdom. Redeeming the time. There's not
much time. Turn with me to Psalm 39. Psalm 39. This is a great word of encouragement
to the believer who's looking in hope. to that inheritance
reserved for them in heaven. And it's needful, isn't it? It's
needful because we're prone to get caught up in the things of
this life and the things of this world. Look at Psalm 39, begin
with me at verse four. Lord, make me to know mine end
and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail
I am. Behold, thou hast made my days
as a hand breath, and mine age is as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Surely, surely every man walketh
in a vain show. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. Oh, the vanity of our flesh,
wanting the attention and glory of men and becoming disquieted
over circumstances that God's in complete control of. He heapeth up riches and he knows
not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. That's what
I'm waiting for. The end of all things is at hand. David went on in Psalm 90 to
say, the days of our years are threescore and 10, and if by
reason of strength they be fourscore, yet is their strength labor and
sorrow, for we shall soon be cut off and fly away. I hope that those verses are
an encouragement to you as they certainly would have been to
these believers who have been ripped from their homes and exiled
to foreign lands and continuing to run for their lives and trying
to make ends meet and suffering even death for the gospel. And
the Lord writes to them and says, it's almost over. It's almost
over. Look at verse seven, but the
end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober. And this word sober is what we
think of being sober. Not intoxicated with the things
of this world. You know, not invested You wouldn't
put your life savings in a fly-by-night company and hope that maybe somehow
it's gonna work out. No, you make wise investments
as you can. And what more wise investment
can one make than to invest their hearts in the gospel? sober, serious, and clear-minded. To be sober-minded is not to
be intoxicated with the world and to forget how brief this
life is. It's not to become so nearsighted
that we lose sight of heaven, but we do, don't we? We become
so myopic in our view of things that we lose sight of the eternal. And that's the whole purpose
of this message is to help us to look up and see that our redemption
draweth nigh and that what we've been looking at and being disquieted
over and being so consumed by is temporal and the temporal
passes away. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
11. Look at verse, look at verse
13. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off
and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that
they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. These are all these
Old Testament saints. And when you go back into the
Old Testament, And look at the life of Abraham and Sarah and
Noah and all these Old Testament saints, they had their struggles,
they had their troubles, they had their unbelief. But
here's what the Lord says now they died in faith. And they confess that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such
things declare clearly that they seek a country. They're seeking
not the things of this world, they're seeking an eternal home.
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they
came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
You see, that's the fear. If we lose If we lose sight of
the eternal and we become so overwhelmed with the temporal,
then we run the risk of going back to that very thing that
God's called us from. But now, verse 16, they desire
a better country, that is, an heavenly. Wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them
a city. A city which hath foundations,
a city whose builder and maker is God, an eternal city, the
new Jerusalem, the city of peace. You know, we get discouraged and
disappointed and concerned, actually, about the
state of our country. and losing our freedoms. And,
you know, we see, you know, people lose their jobs over saying things
that are not politically correct. And we think, well, maybe we'll
lose our First Amendment rights in time. Maybe we will. If we
do, it'll be the Lord. And maybe some You know, the
church has always flourished in times of persecution. And
believers have always longed more to go home to be with the
Lord in times of trouble. And you have. And I have. And the end is at hand. Be sober. Be sober minded about this world
and about what it is Be sober-minded, clear, and serious about yourself. When you think in Mark chapter
5 when the Lord crossed over the Sea of Galilee and went to
the Gadarenes and met that demoniac that was possessed with demons
and he was chained and he broke his chains and he was cutting
himself with stones and he was naked. There we are. trying to atone for our sins
by self punishment, breaking the chains of the law, not able
to be restrained by the law. The law can't keep us. And naked,
shamefully naked. And the Lord cast the demons
out of him and what? And the scripture says that he
was clothed and he was sitting And he was in his right mind,
sober. Same word that's used here in
our text, to be sober minded. That's what that demoniac was.
He was now thinking clearly about who he was and who Christ was. To be unconfused. The natural
man embraces all sorts of nonsense that doesn't make, you can't
make sense out of nonsense. Talk about God being sovereign
and God being omnipotent and yet, you know, his hands are
tied when it comes to salvation and man not being under the law
but he's under the law of his free will and there's so many
things that are inconsistent. When God gives you a sober mind,
you have some clear thinking about yourself. You see that
you're a sinner and that you have no righteousness and that
your righteousness is in Christ, all of your righteousness, and
that that can't change. He doesn't change. and that all
the different feelings and performance and lack of thereof and circumstances
don't change thy righteousness before God. We have a perfect
righteous, that's being sober-minded about who we are, being sober-minded
about who God is. He's omnipotent, all-powerful,
he's able to save to the uttermost, he's a God of love. He's loved
his people in everlasting love, and he continues to love them,
and everything he does for them is out of love. And love, we're gonna deal with
this next Wednesday night, because the next verse, look at verse
eight, and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves,
for charity shall cover a multitude of sins. I've been around some
dying believers, you know what that was? Two things they talk
about, prayer and love. Prayer and love. Love's the meat
of the gospel. Doctrine is not the meat of the
gospel. Election is glorious. Predestination,
limited atonement, those things are glorious, we love them, but
that's not the meat, that's the milk of the gospel. That's the
milk of the gospel. Every babe in Christ can drink
that. The maturity of grace is love.
And love is the meat of the gospel. And our God is love, he's perfect
love. To be clear-minded and sober
is to have some understanding about who God is in his holiness. that he requires justice and
judgment for sin and that he will in no way clear the guilty. He requires a perfect sacrifice. He's only satisfied with Christ.
And to be clear-minded and sober-minded, the Lord's telling us it's almost
over, be sober. Be clear-minded, don't be intoxicated
with this world and don't be intoxicated with your feelings
and with all these other things. Be clear-minded, be sober-minded
about what God says in terms of who we are and who he is and
how it is that he's pleased to save sinners through the sacrifice
of Christ. And God has made him to be our
wisdom. in all our righteousness, in
all of our holiness, all of our sanctification, all of our redemption.
It's all in Him. Set your affections on things
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Now
I'm gonna close with this one last point. Go back with me to
our text. The end is at hand. It's almost over. It's what the
Lord's telling these believers that are suffering. and they're
watching their friends and family members get arrested and being
put to death. And God's saying to them, your
redemption draweth nigh. It's coming to an end soon. Be
sober and pray. Pray. Is there anything more
important than prayer? And yeah, is there anything more
impossible to do? I mean, it is a work that has to
be worked in us by the Spirit of God. And what a blessing it
is when God gives us a spirit of prayer and he puts somebody
on our heart and he enables us to come into the presence of
God and come before the throne of grace and plead for our Lord's
help in our time of need. and intercede on behalf of others
and rejoice in prayer and experience the forgiveness of sin in prayer.
Pray. We all love Robert. And Robert
has been a man's man all his life and he's had his sense of
purpose in this world by his achievements and his work. his
abilities and now he's lost them all. And he smiled the other day in
the hospital when I told him, Robert, you have more to contribute
right now than you ever have in your whole life. Pray, pray for me, pray for your
brethren. Nothing you've ever accomplished
in your life will be as significant as that. And he knew that was true. And
he said, thank you. And I am, and I will, and I will
continue to. Nothing that we can do in this
world that's more significant, more effectual, more needed,
more necessary than prayer. And yet we're so bad at it. You
know, Lord, we're like those disciples. Lord, teach us to
pray. Enable us to pray, Lord. Don't,
wait till I get on my, I mean, like I said, I've been with dying
believers and they want to pray. They can't do anything else.
But you know, prayer is really the only, you hear people say,
well, you know, there's nothing left to do now but pray. The
only time you and I ever really pray is when there's nothing
else can be done. Prayer is a last resort. It's like, you know, I can't
make any more contributions. I can't do anything else. Lord,
I've got to come before you. I can't do anything about my
sin problem. I can't do anything about my
unbelief. I can't do anything about that person or that situation,
Lord. And we come to God in prayer.
when we can't do anything else. Truth is that we are at our wit's end even before
we know we're at our wit's end. And we ought to be praying before
we pray. But we're like those disciples in
the garden, aren't we? The Lord left them to pray. And
he came back and they were asleep. He said, watch and pray, watch
and pray that you enter not into temptation for the spirit indeed
is willing, but the flesh is weak. This is what we need to
be doing. Here's the, here's a word from God and a
word of encouragement to believers struggling in this world. It's
almost over. Just a few more days. Be sober. Be sober-minded about
the world, your circumstances, yourself, God, and Christ, and
scripture. Be clear. And pray. Our Heavenly Father, Forgive us for our unbelief. Forgive us, Lord, for trying
so futilely and so disquieted to control our circumstances
rather than coming before Thee in prayer. Lord, this world truly
is not our home, and we thank You for the precious promises
that You've made. and for the hope of salvation
that we have. We thank you for the righteousness
that we have in Christ. We thank you, Lord, that all
of our fickle feelings and uncertain circumstances have absolutely
no effect on changing the hope that we have in Christ, the righteousness
that he is for us before the. Thank you for your word. Lord,
we pray for your Holy Spirit to impress these things in our
hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. 354, three, oh, oh, I'm sorry. Yes,
I did ask you this. I asked Tom to close us in this
hymn. We don't sing this hymn often.
It's a good hymn. There's not a lot of gospel in it, but it's
a good hymn. 354, 354, let's stand together. What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything
to God in prayer ? Oh, what peace we often forfeit
? Oh, what needless pain we bear ? Oh, because we do not carry
? Everything to God in prayer ? Have we trials and temptations
Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Oh, what needless pain can share? ? Jesus knows our every weakness
? Thank Him to the Lord in prayer ? Are we weak and can't be laden
? Comfort with a load of care ? Precious Savior still our rest
? Take it to the Lord in prayer
? Do thy friends despise or save thee ? Take it to the Lord in
prayer ? In his arms he'll take and shield
thee ? Thou wilt find the solace there