298, God leads us along. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads His dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bathes
the weary one's feet, God leads His dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Sometimes on the mount where
the sun shines so bright, God leads his dear children alone. Sometimes in the valley in darkest
of night, God leads his dear children alone. Some through the water, some
through the blood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Though sorrows befall us and
Satan oppose, God leads his dear children along. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all in the night season and all the day long. Away from a mire and away from
the clay, God leads his dear children along. Away up in glory, eternity's
day, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water,
some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all in the night season and all the day long. Thank you. Turn with me, if you will, to
Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. I'm going to be reading
through verses 6 to 8. The voice said, cry. And he said,
what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord
floweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. Lord, we thank you for this day
that you've brought unto us. We ask that you put your spirit
upon Eric as he preaches to us. We ask that you put your healing
spirit into Eric, Scott, Ron, and anyone who's
listening to your word. In Christ's name I pray, amen. As you remain sitting, let's
sing a second hymn, 314, I Am Thine, O Lord, 314. I know, Lord, I have heard Thy
voice, and it told Thy love to me. But I long to rise in the
arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Consecrate me now to thy service,
Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast
hope, and my will be lost in thine. Draw me nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Oh, the pure delight of a single
hour that before Thy throne I spent. When I kneel in prayer and with
Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend. Draw me nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. There are depths of love that
I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights
of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding Son. Thank you. Good morning. Let's be turning
to Judges chapter 10. Judges 10. Now we're coming up to this part
in Judges that speaks of the judge named Jephthah. And in
chapter 10, We're given some details about the history of
Israel and the sin of Israel and things that were going on
requiring their salvation. But before we get to those details,
we are told briefly of two judges that followed Gideon and were
before Jephthah. And the first of those judges
is named Tola. Tola. And Tola, of him, The Lord,
the Spirit of God, adds details about his ancestry, about his
genealogy, the lineage that led up to Tola's being born and coming. And the second name, the second
judge that's listed is Jair. And of Jair, we're not told of
his ancestry, we're told of his children, his progeny, those
that should be born of him and their nobility, their being his
sons. And so In this brief account,
it's just five verses that we're looking at, verses one through
five, these scriptures reveal a glorious picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ to you, his people. They speak of Christ. and of
His glories. Paul, when writing to the Romans,
said in chapter 15, verse 4, that whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning. that we, through patience
and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. And we see that,
how Paul makes use of the things recorded in the scriptures, such
as the temple, such as oxen not being muzzled, to describe the
truths that we know and are blessed with in the New Testament, under
the new dispensation of Christ. And the Apostle John says it
this way, these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have
life through his name. That's why these scriptures are
written, to reveal Christ to us, that we should know him who
is the life giver, who is the savior, the judge that never
dies, that never lets us go, that keeps us ever looking to
Him. And so in both of these men,
for you that believe, we see our Lord and Savior who delivered
us and saves us from death and makes us kings and priests unto
our God. He is our glorious head. He is
our Savior. Now, reading in Judges 10 verse
1, it begins with these three words, and after Abimelech. After Abimelech. We learned about
Abimelech last week that he is a wicked man. God didn't raise
up Abimelech to be a judge unto the people. God didn't raise
him up for that purpose at all. Abimelech was a usurper. He was
a usurper of power, and he, through deceit and through lies, he made
himself king. And he put himself over the people. And he lied about why he was
even coming to them, right? He lied about his brethren, saying,
is it better for one man to reign over you or for 70 different
sons of Gideon to rule over you? Well, none of them were to reign
over them at all. It was just a deceitful lie. He's a usurper of power. And
while Abimelech was in power those three years, those three
short years, He distressed the people. He did nothing good for
the people. He didn't help the people. He
wasn't a judge and a provider and a savior of the people. He
worked and labored for himself. And under his rule, many people
died. Many people were put to death,
and many people died and suffered under his rule. And so in Judges
10 verse 1, after Abimelech, there arose to defend Israel. There arose by the power and
grace of God one to defend Israel, to save Israel, to provide for
them, to comfort the Lord's people. This one is raised up of God. And now that people, this nation
of Israel, they were a people troubled for three years. They
were lost for three years. And it's a picture of what we
are in this flesh. By nature, we are lost. By nature,
we have nothing. By nature, we have no righteousness
of our own. And so We see in this how that
our God is merciful and gracious. Our God came to save that which
was lost. He came to save those who are
lost, who are dead in trespasses and sins, who cannot see God
and do not know the way of righteousness, who do not know the way unto
the Father. That's who Christ came to save.
Now we're told who this man is in Judges 10.1, and after Abimelech,
there arose to defend Israel Tola, the son of Pua, the son
of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he dwelt in Shemir in Mount Ephraim. So for our study of Christ here
in this passage, I want us to look at the name Tola. And I
want us to look at the names of his ancestors, his father
and his grandfather, and we'll see how that they reveal Christ
to us, how they speak of Christ the Savior and the deliverer
of his people. So the name Tola, the name Tola
means worm. The name Tola means worm. And
that includes that worm that we despise, which is maggot. Maggots disgust me. I hate them. One time I opened
up the garbage can and saw them crawling. Just disgusting. I
just blew them off with a hose. I kill them all as many as I
can. I don't let them live or fester at all. I despise maggots. But that's what we are. That's
what we are by nature before God. You think of the glory and
the magnificence of God. And we, who are sinners, who
despise him, who thrust him off, who claim, I will not have this
man rule over me. I'm going to do what I want,
as if we're something. And we have no more power than
a maggot has against our power, when we want to destroy it and
kill it. And so, as an example of this
maggot, Moses, when speaking to the people, when God had given
the people manna to feed them, manna, what is it? That bread
from heaven, he told them, now just gather enough for today,
because the Lord's gonna give you bread tomorrow. All you need
is what you need for today. And they didn't listen, of course,
we wouldn't listen, and they kept back some, And we're told
in Exodus 16, 20 that the next morning it bred worms, maggots,
and it stank. It went bad that quickly, except
on the Sabbath day when they would get enough for two, showing
that God has everything in control. He's got everything in control.
He does exactly as he pleases. and is able to do what is good
and right. So this term here describes us
by nature of our sin and rebellion, and it's often used in scriptures
to describe one who's weak and one who is despised. One who
is weak and despised. And when we talk about what we
are in this flesh, that we are sinners, that we are weak. We are despised the same way
we despise a maggot. That's what we are in our nature. That's the height of our goodness. That's the height of our glory.
A filthy, disgusting maggot. I'm sorry for saying it so many
times, but that's it's what we are. And the natural man hearing
that is offended. Who are you to say I'm a maggot?
What do you mean? I'm a good guy. I pay my taxes. I go to work. I provide for myself.
I take care of my parents. I do good. I do my best to try
and do what is right. And so they don't like that label. But the child of God, by the
grace of God, is made to know what we are, that I'm the weak
one who cannot save myself or provide a righteousness for myself. I'm despised. of holy, perfect
God by my nature is a very despising of God, and God despises this
flesh, especially when I'm proud and arrogant and boastful and
think of myself way more highly than I ought to think. I'm nothing. And so we see here the preciousness
of God's salvation, how he saves us in mercy and in grace. Rather
than destroying us, he provides for us. The Lord saves the sinner
who is a weak, despised maggot in themselves. He says in Isaiah
41, 14, this is how he describes those whom he saves. Fear not,
thou worm Jacob. That's what we are by nature.
Fear not, thou worm Jacob and ye men of Israel. I will help
thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. But the natural man, who isn't
so bad, who fixes what he needs to fix and takes care of what
he needs to take care of, he doesn't need the Savior. He's
not lost. He's not troubled. He's not so
bad. He's pretty good. And that one
rejects God, and he is rejected of God. He's despised of God,
and he shall stand before holy God in that day. Now in addition
to meaning worm, this word tola is also translated in the scriptures
to be the word scarlet and the word crimson. So it's translated
worm and it's translated as scarlet and crimson because it's describing
a type of worm that is well known in in the ancient history and
in those cultures for the dying of garments, whether they are
scarlet or crimson. And they make that color of garments. And so this term is used in scripture
to describe our sins. So Isaiah 1 verse 18 says, come
now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool, whitened wool. And so that word in that verse
is crimson, the same exact word to describe that worm, crimson. And the word scarlet in this
verse is talking about the same, the same worm, but it uses a
different term for it apparently. So, but it's the same word. Now,
why is this used to describe our works and our sins? Well,
the life, we're told in scriptures, the life is in the blood. And our sins, which are as scarlet
and as crimson, it tells us what we deserve. The penalty for my
sins is my blood. That's the penalty I owe. I'm
under the curse of the law by nature. I owe God a perfect righteousness. I have a great debt of righteousness
that I owe to God that I shall never, ever be able to pay by
my works. And what I do and what I am in
this flesh, my sins are as scarlet and as crimson. It demands my
blood. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. That's what the scriptures say.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And so we owe the penalty
for sin, which is my death, my eternal death, to work off an
eternity of the debt of righteousness that I owe to God. And so I need
a savior. You need a savior. We need a
Savior, a Deliverer who delivers us from the penalty of death. One who comes and pays as my
surety, who pays the price that I owe. And Christ came as that
Deliverer, as the Savior, as the substitute, to die in the
place of his people, to pay the debt of sin which we owe unto
holy God and righteous God. He paid. And so we need a savior
to die in our place. Just as we see pictured in Adam
and Eve when God slew the cattle in the place of slaying Adam
and Eve. He slew cattle and slew their
blood and took their skin and clothed them, their nakedness. That's what Christ does for his
people. He dies in their place, shedding
his blood for them, and his righteousness clothes our nakedness so that
we stand before God unashamed. Not naked, but clothed in perfect
righteousness. And so that's who this Tola pictures. He pictures. We see in ourselves
what we are, but Tola pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. He pictures
Christ, the Savior, who came to take away the sins of his
people scattered throughout the world. He took away the sin of
the world, that's those scattered, his people scattered throughout
the world, because there's but one Savior. That's what the Lord's
telling us. Not every individual in the world,
but he's telling us there is but one salvation. There is one
Savior for the whole world. It's not the Jews have theirs,
the Africans have theirs, those in the Americas have their God,
those in Far Asia have theirs, or whatever it is to your liking.
No, there's but one name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. That is the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. And so his
coming to the earth is a great condescension. Why can't I get that word? Condescension. His coming to the earth is a
great condescension because he laid aside his glory, his praise,
his honor to take upon him the weakness of this flesh. the lowliness
of what we are, trusting in the Father perfectly. And he came
willingly to save all that the Father gave to him, committing
to his care before the foundation of the world. For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same. to deliver you who through fear
of death were all your lifetime subject to bondage and afraid
to die because you know you never did enough. You never did enough
to make yourself righteous. You never did enough to purge
yourself of your stains because you can't, and I can't, and we
can't, but Christ did. He did it. He accomplished it.
He came willingly to save his people. And not only that, but
he went to the cross That cross where criminals are slain, that
cross where sinners are put to death because he was made sin
for his people, bearing them in his own body, carrying their
corruption, carrying their debt on his shoulders. before Holy
God to pay the debt, the curse of eternal death that we owe. He died the death of His people
in their place as their shorty, as their substitute. Turn over
to Psalm 22. Psalm 22, this whole Psalm is
the words of Christ, the Savior, spoken by our Lord from the cross
where He made atonement. for the sins of his people. Psalm
22 verse six, just this one verse. Here's this word again, but I
am a worm. I am a worm in no man, a reproach
of men, and despised of the people." Our Lord was hated. Our Lord
was despised of the people. They rejected Him. We see their
despise and we see their rejection. They took Him and hung Him on
a tree because they hated Him and they put Him out of their
sight. They crucified the Lord, but they did it with wicked hands
and wicked intents, but God meant it for your good. God did it
according to His determinate will and counsel, His purpose
to save His people. There is a type of worm that
this scripture has in view. either Coccus ellicis or Coccus
ellicis, maybe that's what it is. And that word Coccus, I believe,
is the word for crimson. And it's a crimson worm. And
this worm is known to the ancients because that's how they dyed
their clothes. And what this worm would do in the life cycle
of that female worm when it was time for her to give birth to
her children. She went and fixed herself to
the trunk of a tree. She fixed herself to that tree
and was never coming off that tree until she died. She was
going to die on that tree. She was not leaving that tree
alive. And she gave birth to all her children. She gave birth
to all her babies, all her children that were in her. And she did
that in the pouring out of her own blood under her body. And
they were covered in her blood. And that tree was covered in
her blood. And it stained that blood. And
then they would come and take that body. And that's what they
would use, those parts of that worm, to dye those clothes crimson
and scarlet. And that pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ. That picture is what he did.
I got that from a man named Henry Morris. That's what they attribute
this to. In 1985, he wrote a book called
Biblical Basis for Modern Science. So let me just give him his due. But that's what this worm is. This worm gave birth and covered
her children. with her blood. And that's exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ does for his children, what he did
for them on the cross, shedding his blood. You are born under
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, covered in his blood. And that
cross is stained with the blood of Christ for your sins, for
my sins, to deliver all the children whom God gave him. Behold, he
says, I and the children which thou hast given me. None is lost. He's brought all his children
to the Father, cleansed and purged of the stain of their sin. And so we see Christ here saying,
I am a worm and no man, because he brought forth his children
under his own blood to give them life and salvation and deliverance
from the death that we owe to God. And though he's no longer
on that tree, He died and was buried, taken down and put into
a tomb and covered with a stone. God raised him from the dead,
declaring unto us, he is satisfied. I am at peace with all my people
covered in his blood. Peace, rest, salvation, eternal
life by the grace of your God given freely in the Lord Jesus
Christ to you that believe him, to you that have the grace of
God through faith manifested in you by that faith which he's
given so that you see and believe the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why we preach Christ crucified. because he fixed himself to that
tree and shed his blood to deliver you from your sins. You that
believe, you this day who believe by the grace of God, he did that,
he's your savior. Now these other names, Pua and
Dodo, they also describe Christ. Pua means splendid. It means
shining. He shines brightly unto us. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined. Psalm 50 verse 2. These words
speak of Christ who shines unto us the glory and the brilliance
of God. He is the perfection of God.
in bodily form. He is the Godhead bodily. In
Him dwelleth the Godhead. He is almighty, glorious, and
He shines unto us. God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He is the way unto the Father.
How do we know the way? Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. He that cometh to the Father
by me has eternal life. We have life in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and by him we come to the Father. And so we understand
by the power of God, by his spirit, that God is well pleased. He's
well pleased in the Son, and all who come to him in Christ
are received of him. He's well pleased with you. He's
well pleased. Your sin is purged. You're covered
in the blood of Christ. He doesn't see your sin. He doesn't
see your crimson and your stain. He sees Christ. He sees the blood
of Christ and he's well pleased. And then the grandfather's name,
Dodo, means his beloved. As the father said, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So that you who come
to the father in Christ, you will not be turned away. By nature,
we won't come to Christ. In our own works, in our wisdom,
we will not come to him. Christ said to the Jews in John
5.39, but ye will not come unto me that ye might have, actually
it was 5.40, that ye might have life. You won't come to me. You're
gonna do your own thing, you will not come to me. But all
who do come to him do so by the grace and power of God and he's
well pleased. You will not be turned away.
you that come to him. And in Judges 10 verse 2, And
he judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried
in Shemir. The place of his burial was Shemir. And Shemir means thorn. Thorn. And it's a reminder of our curse.
In Adam, that's our curse, that we should bring forth of this
dust thorns, thistles, bramble bushes, briars, things that have
no profit, that cannot feed or nourish you, but sting you and
persecute you and trouble you. Thorn, our savior, we're told,
was numbered with the transgressors. He's numbered with you. and me,
we that are sinners, he's numbered with the transgressors, and he
bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. And so we see that's where he
was buried, but he arose gloriously, and we live in him. Now this
brings us to the second judge in our text, verse three. And
after him arose Jair, the Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty-two
years. Now for Jair, we're not told
about his parentage. We're not told about those who
were before him. Instead, we're told about his
children and the nobility of his children. Jair means he enlightens. He enlightens. So that's a picture
of Christ who makes known unto us the way of salvation. He's
the one who lights the way. He's the light unto our path.
He is the path and he's the one who keeps us on the path and
draws us with cords of love and brings us to the Father. He makes this salvation known
to us in the giving of a spirit. in the preaching of the gospel,
in the lifting up of the banner of salvation, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he regenerates us and gives
us life, a new birth in Christ. And he takes the things of Christ
in the preaching of the gospel, making these things known unto
us because Christ is our very life. He is our very liberty.
He is our salvation and our deliverance. We're told that Jair was a Gileadite. Gilead is a rocky, stony, hard
place. That's what Gilead is, and that's
where we come from. That's our birthplace, a hard,
stony, rocky place. We have a hard, stony heart by
nature. We are thick and dense and unwilling,
unable to hear. and to receive the things of
God. But by Christ's death and by
His resurrection, He bears many sons up from that hard, stony
grave. As we died with Him, so we are
raised with Him and delivered from that stony tomb. And we
are brought forth, brought out into the light by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says in John 1, verse 11 through
13, that Christ came unto his own, but his own received him
not. Those according to the flesh, the Jews according to the flesh,
they heard him speak, but by and large, the majority of them
rejected him and despised him and cast him off. But as many
as received him, how do we, how are we who are stony and hard-hearted
and dead in trespasses and sins ever going to receive the Savior,
ever going to turn and to believe the Savior? Well, he tells us
in verse 12 there, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name. God did this. He's the one who gives faith
to his people. He gives the power to become
sons of God. Verse 13, which we're born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God. He's saying there, it's not by
our parents that we are children of God. It's not because we have
godly parents that believed. It's not by the will of our flesh. Many people teach that it's by
my faith, my free will, that I'm saved. God says you never
will believe except God turns you. So it's not by your will,
not by your will. Your will is bound in sin and
darkness. It's not by the will of man. You can't believe for
another. But God is the one who gives
grace. God is the one who gives spiritual
life. God is the one who delivers his
people from that stony grave and gives them life in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so those who believe Christ
for righteousness, trusting his promise made to them in Christ,
the scriptures describe us as a peculiar people, a beloved
people, a people of our Lord. Peter said it this way in 1 Peter
2, verses 9 and 10. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that
ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were
not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." And now these
people are described in the next verse in Judges 10, verse 4.
Look there. And J.R. had 30 sons that rode
on 30 ascots. And what that signals is that
judges went about in their circuit to judge the people, to do good
for the people, to hear their complaints and their concerns
and the things that troubled them, and they would judge. They
would save the people. And he had 30 sons that rode
on 30 ascots. And so it signaled they were
helpers. They were judges. These were faithful men who,
like their father, helped minister to Israel. And they had 30 cities,
which are called Havoth Jeir, which simply means villages of
Jeir, unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And so
our place of dwelling is the Lord Jesus Christ, who said,
I go to prepare a place for you. He is our inheritance. He is
our salvation. The Son has built the house and
the church is His house. We are His people. We are of
His making and we glory in Him. He's our dwelling place and we
know that He accomplishes His purpose because the Father is
well pleased in Him. He raised him from the dead,
and that declares to us that all that he said he came to do,
he did it. He accomplished. Otherwise, God
would not have raised him from the dead. That wouldn't be the
witness in the testimony. It would have ended right there.
But he was raised from the dead by the Father, and this witness
was given unto these apostles, these men, who declare it, and
we declare this same word, believing by the grace and power of God,
this same salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what
we see in verse five. And Jair died and was buried
in Caman. Caman. That word Kaman means
raised, raised. So he died and he was buried,
but he was raised again by the glory and power of God. And that's
the same resurrection power which has raised us from spiritual
death in Christ, whereby we believe and hope in him and trust in
his righteousness. So we see here in this brief
history of these two men how that God has given us a picture
again of the Lord Jesus Christ who was made like unto us a worm
and went to that tree and fixed himself to that tree and spilled
his blood and gave birth to his children covered in his blood,
washing them, purging them of the stain of their sin. All you
who believe were born of the Lord Jesus Christ. You were right
there with him on that tree. We were crucified with Christ
and buried with Christ and raised again unto newness of life with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in that selfless act of
grace, faithful to God on the cross, he obtained your eternal
redemption and we thank God we rejoice in his salvation and
we bless his name and we're thankful just to see him here in this
scripture it's not just a dead history it is the very grace
of God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ I pray bless that word
to your hearts amen Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace. We thank you, Lord, for your
mercy, your salvation, your glorious salvation in Christ, who made
himself what we are, who came and became a worm to put away
our sin and to deliver us from the stain of our sin and to make
us righteous by his own blood. Lord, we thank you for this glorious
salvation, this free grace of our God, and pray that you would
indeed fill our hearts. Remind us of these things, Lord.
Remind us of what our Savior did. Remind us today, as we go
about our day, remind us this week, and feed us and nourish
us and keep us till we come and hear it again, Lord. Forgive
us for our folly. Forgive us of our sins. Be merciful
to us, Lord. You know what we are in self.
Lord, we think of our brethren who are sick. We think of Ron
who is home with an illness. Help him to get well, Lord. Heal
his body. Lord, we think of our brother
Scott in the hospital. Heal him, Lord. Purge him of
the infection and the seriousness of the infection that's troubling
him in his body, Lord, he's unable to fight it himself. We pray
that you would indeed purge him of that infection, give him health
and strength and heal his body, that he may be released from
the hospital soon and begin the process of healing and training
and being able to walk right again. And Lord, bless Johnny
as she ministers to him. He spoke so well of her kindness
to him and how she cares for him. Lord, bless her, comfort
her mind which gets troubled over her son. Give her strength
and him strength and help us, Lord, to minister to them both
and to help them in any way that we can. Lord, bless your people. You know that there's many trials,
many troubles that trouble our minds, our hearts, our own bodies.
Lord, things that go unspoken. things born for a long time.
But Lord, we ask that you would remember us this day, that you
would heal this body, that you would comfort us, that you would
refresh us again with the pouring out of your spirit, that you
would bless us and the people in these cities around us, Lord,
to hear the gospel, to be fed with the bread of heaven, to
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone saves and does all
things well and perfect. Lord, let us be pleased with
him and in him, even as you are pleased with him and in him.
Lord, let us see as you see and rejoice in your rejoicing in
glory in him who is the very glory of our God revealed unto
us, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks, amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn. 323, more love to thee. 323. More love to Thee, O Christ,
more love to Thee. Hear Thou the prayer I make on
bended knee. earnest plea. More love, O Christ,
to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. Once earthly joy I craved, sought
peace and rest. Now Thee alone I seek, give what
is best. This all my prayer shall be,
more love, O Christ, to Thee, more love to Thee, more love
to Thee. Let sorrow do its work, send
grief and pain. Sweet are thy messengers, sweet
their refrain. When they can't sing with me,
more love, O Christ, to thee. More love to Thee, more love
to Thee, than shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise. This be the parting cry my heart
shall raise, This still its prayer shall be, More love, O Christ,
to Thee, More love to Thee, More love to Thee. Thank you.