God needs nothing from us. We
don't worship Him because He's dependent on us for anything.
We worship Him because we're dependent upon Him for everything. Everything. Let's open our Bibles
together to the first chapter of Ruth. Ruth chapter 1. Naomi, And Ruth and Orpah, her two widowed
daughters-in-law, have left Moab and they're on their journey
to Bethlehem, Judah. And while they travel, Ruth is
trying to persuade both of her daughter-in-laws to go back to
Moab. She reasons with them, and she
says to them, I have nothing to offer you. If you're going to follow me,
it's going to be a walk of faith, and we're going to have to trust
God to provide, which we find out in the rest of the story
that he gloriously does through the kinsman redeemer, picture
of Christ. And I can just see Naomi, I mean,
I can just see Orpah as Naomi is speaking. Orpah is looking
at her circumstances and she's seeing the difficulties of this
journey and the uncertainty of their destination. And she keeps
looking back over her shoulder to Moab until finally Naomi convinces
her and she says, I'm going back. Ruth, on the other hand, in verse
18, when Naomi saw the determination of Ruth, when she saw, when Naomi
saw that Ruth was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left
speaking to her. That doesn't mean she quit. Talking
to her, it means that she stopped trying to persuade her to go
back. When she saw that Ruth was steadfastly minded, what
a blessing it is to be steadfastly minded about something. You cannot be persuaded otherwise. Ruth could not be deterred. She
would not waver. She would not be persuaded by
Naomi to do anything but go with Naomi. She was steadfastly minded. She was convinced in the soul
of her heart that going with Naomi was the only hope that
she had. It was the right thing to do.
There would be no hope of knowing God unless she went with Naomi. And so the Lord made her steadfastly
minded. That's the title of this message.
This is not a stubborn, obstinate will. She's persuaded. She's been listening to Naomi
now for some time. She's been Naomi's daughter-in-law
for quite some time. And you know that Naomi's been
talking to her about Bethlehem Judah, about Jehovah, the God
that saves. And Naomi, by God's grace, has
been mulling these things over and she's been considering them. And now, Now is her last opportunity
to go back to Moab. Her sister-in-law has gone and
she could very easily follow her. But God tells us in his
word that she is steadfastly minded to go with her. What confidence, what liberty,
What courage there is to be steadfastly minded about something. And what
fear and trepidation there is when we're not sure if what we're
doing is right or wrong. Many of the choices that we're
forced to make every day, we're just not sure what to do and
we're timid about our decisions. We're not steadfastly minded.
We're double-minded. We're everything but steadfastly
minded. But when God makes one to be
steadfastly minded about something, when one is taught of God that
something is true and they cannot be dissuaded, they cannot be
persuaded, they cannot be deterred, they cannot, no arguments given
by men and no circumstances in their lives will change their
mind. They are steadfastly minded. What a glorious thing that is. So my question for you and for
me, is there anything in your life that you are truly steadfastly
minded about. Things that you know for sure,
this is the right thing, this is true. You're not looking back
over your shoulder like Orpah. You're not looking at this journey
and you're not thinking about the destination of it and wondering,
I wonder if what Naomi's been telling me is true. You know
that what she's been telling you is true. And you are steadfastly
minded. You can't go back. What a glorious thing it is to
find oneself in such a place. Well, if we're going to be steadfastly
minded about anything, it will be because the Lord Jesus Christ
was always steadfastly minded about everything. He's not like
us. He didn't have to waver over
decisions. He didn't, he never concerned
himself with whether or not this was right or this was wrong.
As God, everything he did and everything he said was steadfastly
minded. So we're following one who is
steadfastly minded about everything. about everything. What greater
comfort, what greater hope, what greater assurance could one have
than to have the commander of the army steadfastly minded about
everything. There's no collateral damage.
There's no unforeseen circumstances. He's steadfastly minded. That gives us great comfort,
doesn't it? Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
50. Isaiah chapter 50. Look with me at verse five. This
is a prophecy that Isaiah is giving about the Lord Jesus Christ. And look what he says in verse
five. The Lord hath opened mine ear. The hearing ear and the
seeing eye are from the Lord. When the Lord gives you ears
to hear, when you are taught of God, what God teaches you,
no man can teach you out of. And here the Lord is speaking.
Isaiah is speaking prophetically for the Lord. He said, God's
opened my ear. Every word I speak. The Lord
said that. He said, the words that I speak are not my words.
They're the words that I've heard from my father. Every word that
I'm speaking. The Lord God had opened my ear
and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I didn't do
like Orpah. I believed what Naomi was telling
me. I was steadfastly minded. I gave my back to the smiters
and my cheek to them that plucked off the hair. I hid my face from
shame and spitting. Even when my circumstances, seemed
completely contrary to any hope of salvation, I was steadfastly
minded. I did not turn back. When they
plucked out my hair and they pressed the crown of thorns in
my brow, when I willingly laid down my body upon that cross
and allowed them to nail me to the cross, I was steadfastly
minded. for the Lord God will help me
the Lord God will help me you see that in verse 7 therefore
shall I not be confounded when you're steadfastly minded about
something you're not confounded you see being steadfastly minded
is just the opposite of being confounded and we're confounded
about a lot of things but when God makes you steadfastly minded
about something there's no confusion there's no There's no concern
that you might be wrong. Therefore shall I not be confounded,
therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that
I shall not be ashamed. Even when everything seemed contrary
to what God had promised, I trusted Him, and I set my face like a
flint. The very first words recorded
in God's word spoken from the unfamed lips of the Lord Jesus
Christ is when he was 12 years old. And you remember his mother
lost him in Jerusalem and she came and found him and she rebuked
him. And he looked at her and he said
to her, woman, did you not know that I must, that I must be about
my father's business? That was his very first words.
And the very last words that he spoke from Calvary's cross
was, it is finished. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. He was steadfastly minded. He set his face like a flint
towards Jerusalem. Nothing could deter him. He was
like, he was like Ruth. None of these things are going
to talk me into anything. God's taught me. And how many
times we read in the New Testament where the Lord said, my time
has not yet come. My time has not yet come. They
tried to arrest him and tried to make him king, tried to do
this. No, my time has not yet come. And then after celebrating
the Passover with the disciples that night, he said, the hour's
come. The hour has come. And he went
into the garden of Gethsemane. And he prayed, he said, Father,
if there'd be any way this cup can pass from me, let it be nevertheless
not my will, but thy will be done. He was steadfastly minded
to do what God had sent him to do, save his people. Or is there any other way? Any
other way that sin can be forgiven, any other way that righteousness
can be established, any other way than drinking the bitter
dregs of this shame and sorrow. Thy will be done. Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. And then he said to the disciples,
sleep on. The hour has come. The Son of
Man has been offered up. And he walked to the edge of
the garden and there was a band of Roman soldiers. Who do you
seek? He knew who they sought. The
Lord never asked a question because he needs an answer. Whom seeketh
thou? Jesus of Nazareth. And the Lord
said, I am. I am. And those Roman soldiers
fell to the ground. They got back up and he said,
Whom seeketh thou? Jesus of Nazareth. I am. Go ahead. Let these go. I'm steadfastly
minded to go to the cross. Let these go. And he laid down
his life willingly for his sheep. Nothing could deter him. Nothing
could change his mind. Nothing could persuade him to
go back to Moab. He was steadfastly minded. Oh,
what a God. What a glorious Savior we have.
And He's still steadfastly minded. He said, I'm not going to lose
one. Not a single one that I died for. No man, there's an article
in your bulletin this morning, no man speaking by the Spirit
of God can call Jesus Christ accursed. That word accursed
is the word anathema. And the meaning of the word anathema
is to make offering or to offer a redemptive price without any
hope of redemption. That's what it means to be anathema.
Anathema means to be cursed and condemned to eternal judgment
in hell. That your offering is not sufficient. It's not sufficient to redeem
you. Any suggestion made by anyone
in any way that the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life steadfastly
minded for anyone that will not be redeemed, that will end up
in hell, and that's what the majority of Christianity says.
That Jesus died for everybody, but most of the people he died
for are going to end up in hell. Anathema is to call him anathema. To say that his redemption, that
his sacrifice was not sufficient to redeem those for whom he purposed
to save is to call the Lord Jesus Christ anathema. And if it's
not the Spirit of God that calls Jesus Christ anathema, we know
which Spirit it is that speaks such anathema. a blasphemous
testimony about the Lord Jesus Christ. He set his face like
a flint toward Jerusalem. He purposed to save his people
and to satisfy the justice of his father, to establish a righteousness
on behalf, and he actually accomplished the salvation of his people.
Oh, steadfastly minded. He knew that what he was doing
was successful. And he trusted his father to
the dying breath. He said, well, why did he cry,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Was he questioning his heavenly
father? Well, let's turn to that passage
of scripture. Turn to me to Psalm 22, Psalm 22. My God, verse 21, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not in the night season, am I not silent? He's expressing the agony of
the separation that he experienced for sin with his heavenly father. First time in all of eternity,
God the Son and God the Father had, this was the cup, this was
the cup that He would drink from. This was the agony of the cross. Oh, we can only imagine the physical
pain of crucifixion, but that wasn't the, that wasn't the thing
that He agonized over. It was being separated from His
Father. It was crying out. But look, we know that in spite
of the fact that there was a point, there was a period of time where
the Father's eyes were too pure to look upon
sin, that the Father forsook Him because He was bearing the
sins of His people and being made sin for us. Look at verse
3. but thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. He was steadfastly minded that
in spite of the fact that the father had forsaken him and that
there was a breach between him and his heavenly father because
of sin, that his father was right and holy and worthy of praise. He wasn't questioning his father's
judgment or justice. Look at verse 22 in that same
chapter. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the congregation while I praise thee.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye the seed of Jacob,
glorify him and fear him. All ye the seed of Israel, for
he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither had he hid his face from
him, but when he cried to him, he heard." The father heard that
cry. And the proof of that, the evidence
of that, is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
could not allow His Holy One to see corruption. God Almighty
was satisfied with what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished in
His steadfast-minded determination to offer Himself to His Father
for the salvation of all of His people. Oh, brethren, we have
a God who is always steadfastly minded. And when he gives you
and me the mind of Christ, we too will be steadfastly minded
about some things. We'll be steadfastly minded.
No one will be able to persuade us otherwise. When you're not steadfastly minded,
there's always a better doctrine. There's always a better teacher. There's always a better truth. There's always your men go to
and fro, listening to different preachers, trying to discover
some secret mystery and formula because they're not steadfastly
minded. But when God makes you steadfastly
minded, You're not looking for anything else. You're just looking
for more of what you already have. Let me say that again. You're not looking for anything
else. You're looking for more of what you already have. If you have Christ, you just
want to know more of him. You're steadfastly minded that
he's all and that he's in all. You're not like Naaman, the Syrian. You remember when he came down
to Dothan and Elisha, the prophet, would not even come out and speak
to him? Naaman was a leper. And Elisha sent his servant out
and he said, go tell him to bathe in the Jordan River. And the
scripture says that Naaman became enraged. He was wroth. He was
angry. And he said this, he said, I
thought the prophet would come out and wave his hands and do
some sort of hocus pocus over me and that he would cleanse
me. No, Damon, that's your problem. You thought, you thought, you
weren't steadfastly minded. You just, you were basing everything
off of your own opinions. But went down to the river, And
scripture says that he was cleansed so that his skin was like that
of a baby. And he came back and he fell before Elisha the prophet. And he begged the prophet of
God for God's forgiveness for having worshiped a pagan God.
He was now steadfastly minded. He wanted to worship the God
of Israel. He wanted to worship the one and only true God. And
he asked the prophet, can I take some of the soil from this place
back with me so that I can have some reminder of the God of Israel
and worship only him? He went back steadfastly minded. Saul of Tarsus had been taught
by Gamaliel, the most celebrated, accomplished Jewish rabbi alive. He'd been taught by Gamaliel.
Very few scholars would have that opportunity. And Saul of
Tarsus thought, you know, I got it now, until he met the Lord. Till he met the Lord. And then
what did Saul say? That which I thought was gained
to me, those things that I learned from Gamaliel, a man, I count
now but loss. And I count, yea, all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ
my Lord. Now I'm steadfastly minded. Always trying to learn something
new and figure out some new way. Oh, the disciples on the road
to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24, when they were talking to the
Lord, who he had not yet revealed himself to them. The Lord asked him, he said,
why are you so down? And they said, have you not heard? Jesus of Nazareth, the one that
we thought was a prophet has been crucified. And the Lord
began to speak to them. And beginning with Moses and
the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them those
things concerning himself. And then when they got to Emmaus,
and they sat down to eat, and they broke bread, and the word
of God was opened up, their eyes were opened, and they saw him
for who he was. And immediately he disappeared.
And what did they say to one another? Did not our hearts burn
within us as he spake with us along the way? And they left
that very hour and ran all the way back to Jerusalem, seven
miles in the night to report what they had seen. They were
steadfastly minded now. The Lord had revealed himself
to them. God makes himself known. You
are steadfastly minded. That's what it is to have the
mind of Christ. You're not wavering. You're not
like the waves of the sea tossed to and fro. You're not thinking,
well, you know, it's partly by grace and partly by works. You
know, I got to do my part. No, you're steadfastly minded. Psalm 78 verse eight says, a
stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their
hearts aright and whose spirit was not steadfast toward God. The Lord's describing the unbelieving
world. Their heart was not steadfast
toward God. In verse 37, it says, their heart
was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant. Oh, David died steadfast, didn't
he? David's last words, although
my house be not so with God. I got a lot of reasons to doubt
my salvation if I'm just looking at my temporal circumstances. Yet, he has made with me an everlasting
covenant. There's my hope. That covenant's
been ordered, ordered and purposed by God. And it's sure, everything
required to fulfill that covenant was surely satisfied in the one
who made the covenant. And David said, this is all my
salvation. This is all my desire. Though he make it not to grow,
I can't look at my life and see any spiritual growth. The more
I grow in grace, the more I see of my sin and my need for grace.
But the hope of my salvation is that he's established a covenant.
And that covenant's ordered in all things insure. And I'm certain
that he's faithful to his covenant. The Lord asked the disciples,
will you leave me also? And what did Peter say? Lord,
to whom shall we go? For we know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. We are steadfastly
minded. We've got no place else to go.
We can't do like Orpah. We can't go back to Moab. To be steadfastly minded, listen
now, God teaches you, you are steadfastly minded, that the
Bible is the inspired, authoritative Word of God. That every controversy
is settled by God's Word. You don't weigh the truth of
God's Word by the opinions of men. You don't test God's Word
by confessions and creeds. You bow to what God has said.
And you say, what sayeth the scriptures? And you're steadfastly,
isn't it wonderful? Who else, what else? Whose words
can you be steadfastly minded about? The politicians, the educators,
the physicians, the philosophers, they're all just practicing,
they're guessing, they're wondering, they're being, we have the word
of God. God makes you steadfastly minded.
You believe that this is God's word and whatever it says is
true and you bow to it. You know that every word of it
is profitable to you. Psalm 19 says the law of the
Lord. And that word law is not used
to describe the moral law or the 10 commandments, but the
entire canon of scripture. The law of the Lord is perfect
converting the soul. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. God in his own time and will
makes, oh, he opens the ear. He unstops the ear. And you just
bow. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The Lord said, why do you not
understand my speech? Because you are not of my sheep.
You belong to the Lord. You understand the speech of
God. It's not complicated. The Bible in its entirety is
the inspired authoritative Word of God. You know, there's a story
in 1 Kings about, I'm sorry, it's in Jeremiah chapter 36 about
a king when Josiah was reforming Israel. And this king, the scripture
says, was sitting in front of his fireplace with a copy of
scripture, and the Bible says he had a penknife. And every
time he'd read something he didn't like, he'd cut it out and throw
it into the fire. You know men do that today? I realize there are a lot of
conservative fundamentalists who claim to believe the Bible.
But in fact, they take their penknife and they cut out the
parts they don't like. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God, who showed mercy. I'm the potter, you're the clay.
I'll have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and whom I will I
hardened. He had predestinated us according
to his will and purpose. You know, the verses that I just
quoted are from Ephesians 1 and Romans chapter 9. And the reason
I quoted those particular verses is because I have a set of commentaries
at my house that I kept because they were printed in the late
1800s by a very famous conservative preacher who claimed to believe
the Bible was the Word of God. And he makes comments, this set
of commentaries I had probably has 30 volumes to it. And he
makes comments on every chapter of the Bible. Except Ephesians
chapter 1 and Romans chapter 9. He starts the book of Ephesians
in chapter 2. And he goes from chapter 8 to
chapter 10 in the book of Romans. Completely skipping over that
which he couldn't explain. saying that he was, I believe
the Bible is the word of God. No, you don't. And there are
others who know what those, those are just two examples of those
chapters. There's plenty of other scripture.
There are others who say they believe the Bible, they won't
preach it. They won't preach God's sovereign. They just won't
do it. They won't preach that men are
sinners. Why? Because they don't believe
what they say they believe. They don't believe that salvation
is by grace, but you are steadfastly minded, aren't you? Isn't it wonderful to be steadfastly
minded? That you are steadfastly minded
that you made no contribution to your salvation. You didn't look at the map and
give your approval to the route that was being given. You were
brought to bow and to believe. You're steadfastly minded that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. You're steadfastly
minded that the Bible is the word of God. You are steadfastly
minded that salvation is all of grace. It's all of God. from election to redemption. Paul was steadfastly minded when
he preached. He said, I have determined, I
am steadfastly minded to know nothing among you, Paul was a
very educated man and he knew a lot of things. But when he
stood to preach the gospel, he said, I'm determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Oh, we're not steadfastly minded
about much, are we? You know, we go through this
life day by day, questioning ourselves and wondering if we're
making the right decision about something. What a blessing to
have the mind of Christ, to be like Ruth, and to be steadfastly
minded about that which is important, that which is essential, that
which determines the eternal destiny of your immortal soul.
You're steadfastly minded about that, aren't you? You can't be
persuaded otherwise. And you're steadfastly minded
that you're a sinner. You know that you have no righteousness
in and of yourself. And unlike the world, which thinks
that sin is nothing more than a behavioral problem, you know
that sin is your nature. And that left to yourself that
you could not, you could not come up with anything that would
persuade God to save you. Even the geography of the Bible
communicates the gospel. Just very briefly, if you look
at your map, you'll see that Moab is on the southeast side
of the Dead Sea in the desert. And Bethlehem, Judah is on the
northwest side of the Dead Sea. So here's Ruth and Naomi and
Orpah and the land between Moab and Bethlehem Judah was very
rough. It would have been a treacherous
journey. And you can just see them traveling along the way
and Orpah thinking, I gotta get back to where I feel safe. What
is that a picture of? Well, the Dead Sea itself, you
know, The water that feeds the Dead
Sea starts at Mount Hermon. in northern, up in Dan, and it
flows down the Jordan River into the Sea of Galilee, and then
down the Jordan River, which Jordan means to descend, and
it ends up in the Dead Sea, and the Dead Sea's got no outlet.
And so when the water gets to the Dead Sea, the heat from the
sun evaporates the water, and the concentration of minerals
in the Dead Sea will not allow any life to exist in the Dead
Sea. That's why it's called the Dead
Sea. There's no life in the Dead Sea. So this water is coming
down, supplying life to the land of Israel until it gets to the
Dead Sea, and then it's dead. Menah Orpah is traveling around
the Dead Sea to get to Bethlehem, Judah. And she's looking at this
lifeless sea. And she's being reminded of how
lifeless she is. Naomi realizes this is this is
a picture of my life and never or pause she's gonna go back
to Moab. You are steadfastly minded that
left to yourself you are dead in your trespasses and sins. But God who is rich in mercy
in his great love wherewith he loved us Oh, He sent His Son. Life itself. In Him is life. And the life
was the light of men. You are steadfastly minded that
you're a sinner. Bible's the word of God, the
only source of truth and authority, the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who himself is the only hope of your salvation. You're steadfastly minded, that
salvation's all of grace. It's all of grace. It's all of God. Turn with me
to Galatians chapter five. Look with me at verse eight. This persuasion
cometh not of him that calleth you. Some men had come in behind the
Apostle Paul to Galatia, and here's what they were saying.
The Jesus of Nazareth that Paul preached to you is in fact the
fulfillment of the promised Messiah. He was right that Jesus is the
Christ and that you must have Christ in order to be saved. But you also have to be obedient
to all the laws of God. You have to be You have to be
submissive to all the ceremonial laws and all you've got to be.
You've got to keep the law in order to be saved. You've got
to go back to Moses. They were saying exactly what
most religious groups today say. Jesus is the Savior, but in order
for him to save you, you have to also keep the law. They were
mixing law and grace is what they were doing. Mixing law and
grace. And so chapter five, verse one
says, you stand fast in the liberty where with Christ has made you
free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't
go back to the law. Behold, I Paul saying to you
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. If
you think that your circumcision and circumcision is a picture
of the putting away of the flesh, If you think that there's some
fleshly thing, listen, brother, there's a lot of fleshly things.
We hate our flesh. We do. And may God, by his grace,
keep us from indulging our flesh. But if you think that putting
away fleshly things is gonna somehow obligate God to save
you, and that God requires not only the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ for your salvation, but your contribution of putting
away fleshly things in order for him to be able to save you.
And you just mix law and grace. This was the Galatian heresy. And this is the heresy that exists
in every form of religion today. And you, My brethren are steadfastly
minded that no putting away the flesh is going to in any way
add to your salvation or obligate God or make the work of Christ
effectual for you that the Lord Jesus Christ actually accomplished
the salvation of his people on Calvary's cross. You're steadfastly
minded of that. For I testify, verse three, of
every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the
whole law. If you think putting away one thing of the flesh is
going to obligate God or merit you favor with God, then you're
obligated to keep the whole law, the entire law. That would obligate
God. That would obligate God. The
problem is you've already broke the law. Here's the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit.
He didn't come into this world with a sin nature that you and
I come in with. And he obeyed the Father with
all of his heart and all of his mind and all of his soul all
the time. And we could say that God was obligated to raise him
from the dead. because he had kept the law perfectly. And that's what Paul's saying
here. That's what God's saying. You wanna be saved by keeping
the law? You gotta do like he did. You gotta keep the whole
law. In heart, in mind, in thought, in spirit, in actions, in word,
in deed, all the time. Can you do that? No. Truth is, never been able to
do that, any of that, for a moment, have you? That's why you need
Christ. Verse 4, Christ has become no
effect unto you, whosoever you are, that are justified by the
law. You are fallen from grace, for
we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love. You did
run well. Who did hinder you that you should
not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you." Child of God, You are steadfastly minded that
you're a sinner, that you have no righteousness, you need a
savior. You're steadfastly minded that the scriptures are the word
of God and that they reveal the son of God. You're steadfastly
minded that he actually accomplished the salvation of his people and
that you can't do anything to add to it or take away from it. What a glorious thing it is.
to be steadfastly minded about the things that matter. We're going to waver every day
over decisions that we have to make, wondering, is this right? Not sure if I'm doing the right
thing. Lord, you're going to have to help me here. But, oh,
to be like Ruth. She was steadfastly minded. She went all the way to Bethlehem,
Judah, met her kinsman, Redeemer. May God give to you and to me
the mind of Christ. If he does, we'll be steadfastly
minded. Our heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Forgive us. and increase our
faith and cause us, Lord, to be steadfastly minded about those
things that are necessary. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Number 200, let's stand
together. 300, 300. More secure is no one ever than
the loved ones of the Savior, not yon star on high abiding,
nor the bird in home nest hiding. God his own doth tend and nourish,
in his holy courts they flourish. Like a father kind he spares
them, in his loving arms he bears them. ? Neither life nor death
can ever ? ? From the Lord his children sever ? ? For his love
and deep compassion ? ? Comforts them in tribulation ? ? Little
flock to joy then yield thee ? ? Jacob's God will ever shield
thee ? Rest secure with this defender, At his will all foes
surrender. What he takes or what he gives
us, Shows the Father's love so precious. We may trust his purpose
wholly, Tis his children's welfare solely. you