May I enter, Lord, with Thee
Close to Thee, close to Thee Close to Thee, close to Thee
Then the gate of life eternal May I enter, Lord, with Thee If you'll notice in our psalm
tonight, the title is the Psalm of Asaph. You see that? There
are ten or twelve psalms, I believe, attributed to him. Asaph was
the chief singer appointed to lead the singing. And that's
a good office or a good thing to do, isn't it? Psalm leader.
And this was either written by him or it was given to him, but
we don't know. Some say David wrote it and gave
it to him, and some say Asaph wrote it, but it doesn't matter.
Because they both felt the same way. Because all of God's people
feel the same. Asaph or David, if you'll forgive
me if I say David, or Asaph. But whichever, they were both
confessing their sins to God, sins of envy and unbelief. Foolishness, being foolishly
envious of the people of the world. Discontent, that means
you're discontent with God's promise. And I believe he, well
I know he wrote this after he went, verse 17, into the sanctuary
and heard a preacher, maybe Nathan, whoever, but he went into the
sanctuary and after the Word of God was read, after he heard
the truth preached, he began to reflect with shame upon his
foolishness and ignorance and unbelief. And he was asking God
to forgive him. He said, I was no better than
a beast. An animal with no understanding. No better than a dumb animal.
That's the verse that Spurgeon wrote in his Morning by Morning
that I read that caught my attention. He said, I was so foolish, so
ignorant, no better than a beef. What's wrong with me? Well, he
was not walking by faith. He was walking by sight. And
we all do that at times, don't we? We look around us and we
don't look with the eye of faith, but we look around us. Psalm
37. It's the same thing. In God's
providence, He had whoever made the Psalms up, I mean, the order
of them, invert the numbers. That's an easy way to remember
them. That they're just alike. We know David wrote Psalm 37.
That's one of the favorites of ours, isn't it? Trent, vaunt
thyself because of evildoers. He said, I was Indian. David
said that. went through the same thing.
And it's the theme of that psalm, both psalms, that while we see
the wicked, unbelieving, worldly people prosper, and God's people
go through trouble. And even wise men are often perplexed,
sometimes perplexed, by how the evil received good and the good
received evil. Job and his friends. That's what
they talked about. That's all they talked about.
They couldn't figure it out. They began to lose sight, which
is faith, of the true blessings of God. And that is that He's
our portion. Are you with me? The title of
this message, and if I had a text, it would be verse 26, God is
my portion forever. So what does he do? He weans
us from this world. And he gives the world, he puts
the world in their heart, and gives them the world, and he
takes it away from the God's people. and makes them want out. That's good. That's good. That's the thing, okay? All right,
verse 1, he says, truly God is good to Israel. Isn't that what
Paul wrote? All things work together for
good. God is good to Israel. His tender mercies are over all
his works. But he and wrath and judgment is going to pour out
that judgment upon the ungodliness someday. Read Jude. Or if you want to read a New
Testament passage that speaks of God's wrath, read the book
of Jude. It's fearful. But God is good to His people. Always good. Always good to Israel,
His people, His children. In everything He does, in all
things, He does it for our good because God is good. He's always
good. Whatever it is, it's good. You
think it's bad? No. God's too good to do you
bad. He can't do that. He can't do
that. Remember what he said to his
disciples? If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more should your heavenly Father give
good things to them that ask for them, to his children? When
we look by faith, when we look by faith at everything, we'll
say with Moses, listen, here's a couple of witnesses. Moses
in Psalm 90 said this. He said, make us glad according
to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have
seen evil. Make us wise and glad to see that you did this. That
it's good for us. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants, and thy glory unto their children. He does. And
David, you remember, listen to this. Some of you know these
verses by heart. But David said this in Psalm
119. He said, Before I was afflicted,
I went astray. But now, I've kept your word. When you're afflicted, you've
got nothing else to cling to, do you? He said, it's good for me that
I've been afflicted. David, why? That I might learn
thy statutes. He said, the law of your mouth
is better to me than thousands of gold and silver. You know
how you learn that? Affliction. Trials. Not prosperity. Trials and afflictions. That's how you learn that. But
he said, God is good to issue even to such as are of a clean
heart. Does that bother you? That means a new heart. That
means a pure heart. Didn't Peter say, you've purified
your heart and obey the truth. Didn't he say that? Didn't God
say, I'll give them a new heart, a clean heart. Didn't He? A heart
of flesh, not a heart of stone. That means a sincere heart. That
means a heart that truly loves God, loves His truth. Pure heart,
unmixed. Not works and faith, but grace,
but grace. Not a heart for the world and
a heart for God, no. Heart for God. That's all of
God's people. Truly, that's all of God's people. However, and
this is not a contradiction, but this is just the paradox.
All of God's people feel the plague of their hearts. Look
at the next verse. ASAP, or David, or whoever, who
says, but as for me. I know God is good to Israel,
to such as are of a clean heart, but as for me. I was almost gone. Have you ever
been there? If you've been there, you'll
be there again. Nice steps, and well, nice living. I believe Asaph began to doubt
his salvation like all of God's people do at times. Because he
began to look at people and things and the world and prosperity.
He began to be envious and covetous. And he looked at his own troubles
and he said so many things here. He said, my religion, what good
is it to chase after myself? He said, I almost slipped. David
said, I was ready to halt. Ready to go back. Go back to
the world. Look around me and all this,
and everybody's got so good, and I've just got nothing but
trouble. He said, I was almost, almost ready to go back. This is why he went on to say, God's got me in His hands. Almost going back after the world,
lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh set in, I was almost gone.
Verse 3, he said, I was envious of the foolish. Now, you've got
to be pretty foolish to envy fools, don't you? And the fool hath said there's
no God. It's a fool who doesn't know
God, doesn't worship God, isn't it? You're worse than a fool when
you envy a fool. Where's your wisdom when you
envy a fool? How foolish is it for a young
calf to envy a big fat steer? Ooh, I want to grow up and be
fat like that steer. No you don't. No you don't. He's getting fattened for the
slaughter. You remember when God says He sent, what's the
word, Psalm 107, He sent all that their eyes could want, all
that they could want, fatness, but leanness to their souls. And a lot of them didn't go in.
Oh, He said, I was in this. I was so foolish, I ended fools.
You've fooled yourself. Verse 4. He said there are no
bans as in the prosperity of the wicked. And prosperity doesn't have anything
to do with things. It really doesn't. I saw the
prosperity of the wicked. He said there's no bans in their
death. Their strength is firm. Now, I've read some accounts
of wicked, unbelieving people on their deathbeds struck with
horror and terror. And it's good to read that. And there have been many who
have out and out atheists and to recant, so to speak, and renounce
and die in horror. But that's generally not the
case. That's not what Asaph says or David says. It generally is
not the case because their heart is so hard and they're so secure
in their false peace. Scripture says they've made a
covenant with death and hell, they'll not come by me, and they're
so confident, even in death, until right up to the time they
die, and then they awake in heaven, and our Lord said they're going
to appear before God, the religious wicked, and plead what they've
done. That's how secure they are in
their belief. and be shocked, utterly, completely
shocked to hear God say, cast them out. He said there are no bands in
their death. Their strength is firm. They're not in trouble. You know, God's people who have
a strong consolation, who have a strong tower, they have a strong
floor, they're firm in their belief, yet there's times Wavered
on it. The strongest believer in this
book, Abraham, David, you name it, wavered in the silent day. You name it. But their strength is firm, he
said, they're wicked. They're not in trouble, verse
5, as other men. Neither are they plagued like
other men. They got it so good. Listen to
what David said in Psalm 37. Turn there real quickly, okay?
These are verses, I'm writing an article for Sunday about memory
verses. We teach our children memory
verses. That's a good thing. Scripture tells us to do that.
And here's one you need to memorize. Adults, next Sunday if I ask you to stand,
I wouldn't do that to you, you'd embarrass yourself. But you need
to remember this. We need to commit this to memory.
There are so many verses of Scripture for our good that we need to
remember. Let these sayings sink down deep
in your ears, our Lord said. Let it sink down that we'll never
forget it. Write it on the tables of my
heart, David said. Look at verse 16. A little that
a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. Why? Because riches are deceitful? Riches are a snare, are a trap,
and so many people have drowned in perdition by them. And the
scripture warned, our Lord himself had said, how hardly shall a
rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. He said it's easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Why? Because these things steal our hearts away. Ask Solomon. Many and I were talking about
how good it is for a young married couple to start out meagerly. Nearly everybody in here did. Not poor, none of us were dirt
poor. If you have food and rain, you're
supposed to be content. But we had an apartment and we
thought it was the most wonderful place in the world. 500 square
feet, and everything, every piece of furniture was given up. And
people gave it, didn't give us their good furniture, they gave
us their broken down hand-me-downs, you know. Jim and Carla Spence
gave us that, I shouldn't be able to hear this, but that's
all right, we loved it, we were so thankful. They gave us a chair
and a couch to match, and the legs on the couch were broken.
We put bricks under. And they both matched. They had
matching slipcovers. Orange. And flowers all over. Because we had orange shag carpet. Oh, we just thought, this is
the most beautiful place on earth. We were so happy. What it is,
was we married for love. And we didn't care if we didn't
have a couch. Right? We loved each other, living on
love. We were enjoying each other, not things. If you don't have too much, you
don't have too much to worry about. I didn't care what kind
of car I drove. Looking back at Stephen, some
of the cars we drove, my neighbors didn't like it. But I didn't
care. I just wanted to get to work and get back home to my
wife so fast. Didn't you? And you'd appreciate anything
that's given to you. And a step up was, oh my, we
don't deserve this. We should be thankful. Ain't that right? And there's
not an old couple in here who hasn't thought at times, we need
to get rid of it all. We got too much. Let's go back. Let's settle down. David said, Asaph said, I was
so foolish. Better is little with the fear
of the Lord, and great treasure with trouble therewith, because
where your treasure is, what? There will your heart be also.
That's what God said. And so I found it by painful
experience, people. Haven't you? Asaph did. He said
they, these rich people, their pride compassed them about it.
Full of pride. I don't know why money makes
people so proud, but it does. Somebody got a lot of money,
even though they inherited it, they're so proud, like, I've
done something. Oh, happy now. What do you have you have not
received? That's not the rich man glory and riches. The Lord
maketh rich. Isn't that what Hannah prayed?
The Lord make it rich, and the Lord make it poor. The Lord lift
it up, and the Lord cast it down. Talk no more so exceedingly proud. Pride compasseth them about like
a chain, and just wrapped up in a sense of their own importance
and worth. Violence covereth them as a garment.
Generally, the greedy are very, they'll walk over anybody to
get what they had to get. Doesn't matter. It hurts anybody. Or you don't. Their eyes stand
out with fatness. They have more than heart could
wish. They're corrupt. Corrupt. That means rotten. You
know what corrupt means? It means rotten to the core.
And they speak. If you're rotten, you'll speak
wickedly. Concerning oppression. Concerning
what all they've done to obtain their riches. Speak loftily. Proudly. High-minded. Haughty. You remember Isaiah
2? Proud look will be brought down.
It's coming. It's coming. David said that
in Psalm 37, didn't he? He said, I've seen the wicked
spreading themselves like a green bay tree. Brought down like that. I saw him come down fast. Psalm
73, verse 8, he says they're corrupt. Verse 9, they set their
mouth against the heavens. Blasphemous. God's name is on
their lips, but not in praise and thanksgiving. They're not
giving God the praise for what they have. They're attributing
it to themselves. And their tongue walketh through
the earth. That's filthy mouths. And also that means there's nothing
they don't know. And nothing they're not experts
at. Verse 10, Notice with me, it says they,
they, they, they. See that? They. God's good to
Israel, but the wicked, they are not in trouble. Their eyes,
now they are corrupt. They. But now verse 10, he's
talking about his people, God's people, Israel. Therefore, upon
seeing all of this and hearing all of this, his people return
hither. You see, he's in the sanctuary.
And he says, God's people, like me, they see and hear, like Lot,
vexed with the conversation of the wicked all around them. They
see all this and they're ashamed of themselves. And they're brought
into the sanctuary by the goodness of God and the mercy of God.
And they're taught all over again to walk by faith, to see thing
by thing, to see how good God is to His people. And he said,
all of God's people who go through this, they return hither. They
come back to this place. In returning and rest, you'll
find the safety of it. Strength, Isaiah said. Strengthen your faith. Out in
the world, our faith is weakened by all that we see around us
and all we hear. And His people, they return here. And the waters
of a full cup are wrung out to them. Well, the waters of Affliction,
yes. Waters of troubles, yes. One
time our Lord said, the cup that I drank, are you able to drink
it? Simon Peter, once again, spoke up and he said, yea, Lord. They all did. Yes, we're able
to. You don't know what you're talking about. You're not able
to find. And the cup our Lord drank, we'll
never drink. The cup of God's wrath, He drank
to the fullest. God poured out His wrath upon
Christ. The cup of God's wrath was in
His hand and He drank it dry. He drank God's wrath dry. Did you
hear that? As none of that we have to drink.
But our Lord did say to Simon Peter and his other disciples,
the cup you shall drink. You shall drink something of
the afflictions and troubles. You shall drink something of
persecution and affliction and trial. You shall. You must. You
must through much tribulation and everything. You must. But
you know what? That cup that is full, the water's
on the full cup, no matter if it's trials or affliction, it's
still a cup of mercy. You know that? Trials, affliction,
whatever it be, our cups run over. As my father once said
to someone who was going through great trials, he said, God must
love you. The world, you know, would look
at someone like Job and say, like Job's friends, what has
he done wrong? God's angry at him. No, God loved
him greatly. And whom the Lord loves, He Whom the Lord loves, He's not
going to leave to this world. He's not going to leave them
in this world. He's not going to leave the world
in them. He's going to take them out. So it's a cup, a full cup
of grace, of blessing, and brethren, our cups run over. We don't think
of these things at the time as blessing, but truly, God is good. Old Brother Mews, was it, always
said, Brother Mews always said, God is good and we'll be thankful.
God is sovereign and we'll be thankful. A car ran over the hill, rolled
several times, laying there. Brother Mews, you okay? He said,
God is sovereign and we'll be thankful. But they, changes again, verse
11 to them, they say, That's them, isn't it? They say. You
know what they say, don't you? We need to quit listening to
what they say. I've tried to quit listening
to what they say. I'm really only interested in
what He says. Honestly, God has made foolish
the wisdom of this world. And it's great wisdom to understand
that. They say. They say in verse 11,
How doth God know? Is there knowledge in the Most
High? I don't know. There is no God. Peter wrote mockers and
scoffers. Where is the promise that He
is coming? Everything continues. Look, they can even curse heaven
and sea, lightning and striking. I think they got away with this
and got away with that. I have quoted this to you so
many times. Ecclesiastes says, Because sentence
against an evil work is not speedily executed, Therefore, the hearts
of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." I got away
with it. No, you didn't. How does God know? There is no
God. See? Verse 12, Behold, these are the
ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches and prosper
in the world. Our Lord, through His wisdom,
said this, What shall it profit? to gain
the whole world and lose yourself. Now that's wisdom in it. Brethren,
he who was wisdom personified, he who is wisdom personified,
had nothing. But he had everything. There
is he that maketh himself poor, yet hath everything. There is
he that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. Like someone
said about someone we know very rich, that she's so poor, all
she has is money. That's poor, isn't it? To be
poor in faith, to be poor in peace, to be poor in contentment,
to be poor in wisdom, to be poor in knowledge, to be poor in judgment.
That's poor. I want to be rich in faith, don't
you? I want to be rich in faith. To be rich is to have a lot of
something. I want to have a lot of faith. Peace. I want to have a lot of contentment,
don't you? Where does that come from? Where does faith come from? Hearing the Word. What you're
hearing right now. Reality. Reality. Well, where are we? He said in verse 13, barely. Now, he's looking back. He was
thinking this. This was the bad state he'd gotten
into. I've cleansed my heart in vain,
washed my hands in innocency. All day long I've been plagued.
That's all I am is plagued. Plagued with my sinfulness. Chastened
every morning. My conscience smites me. Constantly,
like Psalm 38. He said, those of you who know
it, Psalm 38, David wrote that. He said, I'm troubled, I'm bowed
down greatly. I go mourning all the day long.
My loins are filled with a loathsome disease. I'm sore, broken, I
roar, I groan before God. My strength faileth the light
of my eyes." He said, what good is this doing
me? Oh, he said, I was so foolish. Look at verse 16. If I say, if I speak out loud,
if I speak, I would offend the generation of our children. In
other words, if I were to tell my brother and sister exactly
how I'm feeling right then, they'd be so discouraged themselves. We're supposed to build up one
another. We're supposed to, on this most holy thing, we're supposed
to strengthen one another in the faith. Bitterness begets
bitterness, doesn't it? Murmuring and complaining begets
murmuring and complaining. Unbelief begets unbelief. Worry
begets worry, doesn't it? The spies that went into the
promised land came back. How many were there? Seventy?
Was it seventy? How many spies? I forget. Seventy,
I think. A bunch of them went into the
promised land, and sixty-eight of them came back and said, Oh,
the land's going to eat us up. It's giants. It's awful. Two
of them. Caleb and Joshua said, no, it's
ours. It's ours. God said so. It's
a good land. The Lord said so. What are we
worried about? Let's go. I want to be like Joshua and
Caleb, don't you? Those that murmured and complained,
only two over twenty entered the promised land. Joshua and
Caleb. Anybody in here guilty of murmuring
and complaining? Is there a day go by that we don't do some kind
of murmuring? Oh, Lord, deliver us from that.
Deliver us from that. Because if we say, if we speak
our unbelief, it offends our brethren. We don't want to offend
them. We want to build them up. Come on, brethren. It's good.
When I thought about all this, my unbelief, my ignorance, my
foolishness, My envy, my unbelief, it was painful for me. And I went into the sanctuary.
That's got a good name, doesn't it? That's a good name. You can
call this right here. The sanctuary. That's a good
name, because that's what it is. It's a sanctuary. It's a
haven, isn't it? It's a city of refuge. It's a
place where you can go and find rest and find answer and find
peace and find comfort and set your feet on rock-solid truth. And not go after every wind of
this and that. Be grounded and settled and established
and strengthened on the rock of His Word, on the rock of Christ
Jesus. I went into the sanctuary. David,
listen to this. Oh, I love, love, love, love, love Psalm 42. You
do too. He said, I remember these things. He said, I poured out my soul
in me. I'd gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house
of God, to the voice of joy and praise, a multitude that kept
the holy day. So he said, why art thou cast
down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God, for I will yet praise Him for the help of
His countenance. He'll command his loving kindness,
he said. He'll command it. So I went with them into the sanctuary. Oh, I was glad when they said
unto me, let's go to the house of the Lord. It's a sanctuary.
And then I understood. What did you understand, Asaph? What Moses said, oh, that they
were wise and would consider their latter end. Isn't that more important than
anything? The end of the matter. The end
of the matter. How's this going to end? Well,
listen to Psalm 37. Mark the perfect man. Behold
the upright. The end of that man is peace. Who do you envy? Lazarus or the
rich man? Which man would you have rather
been? Lazarus sitting outside the gate? Dogs licking his sores? Or the rich man? The rich man
ended up Indian Lazarus. Things are not like they seem. He said in verse 18, Surely thou
didst set them in slippery places. This world is a slippery place.
Full of pits and snares and traps. Oh, Lord, set our feet firm on
the rock of the truth. And thou castest
them down into destruction. Oh, how they're brought into
desolation as in a moment. Utterly consumed with terror.
Brethren, and I'm here to tell you, Paul said, for our comfort.
Brethren, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we're going
to be changed. It's all going to change. Psalm
37. I'm not preaching on that tonight,
but I am. Psalm 37 said, we're going to inherit the earth. The
new earth. And it's going to so far exceed
this one, the other won't even come to mind. You want to stay here? No, we're
looking for a better place. For God, we're indwelling in
righteousness. Doesn't that sound good? We're
like Lot and Sodom. Verse 20, As a dream when one
awaketh, so the Lord will awake, and He'll despise their image. You know, God is good in a sense
to all men and women. He sure is. He's tender mercies
over all His works. How do they requite His goodness? Not with thankfulness. Not with
worship. So he says, thus my heart was
grieved. I was pricked in my reins. So
foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee. He must not have been hearing
the Word. He must not have been reading.
He must not have been praying. He wouldn't have been so ignorant. The entrance of His Word giveth
life. His eyes were darkened. He looked
around and envied the world. But He said, Here's my joy, my
joy. I'm continually with Thee. See,
God is our portion. The wicked will be cast into
outer darkness. out of the presence of God. God
is love, God is mercy, God is grace, God is goodness, God is
peace, God is tranquility, God is rest, God is everything, and
the wicked, and people want that. But if they don't have God, they're
not going to find Him. There is no rest, no peace to
the wicked. And He's going to cast them in
outer darkness. But God's people, though they go through these
things, yet He's always with them. I'm always with thee, he said.
I'll never leave thee or forsake thee. Though you go through the
fiery furnace like Ananias, Azariah, and Mashiach. Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. Somebody was with him. Read on. Thou hast told of me by thy right
hand. My times are in thy hand, David
wrote. That song says, My God, I wish
them there. I'm holding by your right hand,
and you'll guide me with thy counsel." I need it, Lord. I
sure need it. If you don't guide me with your
word, with your counsel, if you don't give me understanding,
I'll envy the foolish, and I'll be worse than them. I'll go back. I'll fall. But he says, thou
shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Why? Because Brother John, oh
how bound we are to give thanks to God. Always, because God hath
from the beginning chosen us to salvation through the sanctification
of the Spirit and belief in the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of what? Glory. Gonna bring you
to glory. And this world, you see, he removes
the glory of it. He removes the beauty of it in
the eyes of His people so that they glory in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Read it. Look at the next verse.
It says, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And, can you say this? There's none upon earth that
I desire beside Thee. My flesh, here's His confession,
my flesh and my heart faileth. But God, He's the strength of my heart.
See, He keeps my heart. He keeps it from going astray. And He's my portion forever. I believe Asaph was thinking
about Abram, don't you? Abraham, Abram, before he was
named Abraham. Abram, you remember, got in that
division with Lot, and he told Lot, why do we have division?
We're brethren. There's no strife between us. Abraham, he was a wise man, a
man of faith. He said, you take what you want.
You take what you want. Lot said, oh, I'm taking the
well-watered place of Sodom. What did Abraham end up with?
The mountains. Here's wisdom. Where did Lot
end up? Back in the mountains. But anyway,
Abram, for a minute, for a time, he saw a lot down there, wasn't
it good? Well-watered plains of Sodom,
everything. And he thought, it got so good,
here I am stuck up in these mountains. And he said, Lord, what do you
give me? And the Lord said, Abram, I am
your exceeding great reward. I am your portion. Who got the best part? Is that
your portion? If it is, the lions have fallen
on you in pleasant places. Oh, you don't want Sodom? You
might perish with it. Oh, the Lord, if the Lord is
our portion forever. Oh, my. Below, verse 27, they
that are far from thee shall perish. Now that has destroyed all them
that go a whoring from day two. But it's good for me to draw
near to God. Can you say that it's been good
for you tonight? I hear it is. Draw near to God and hear His
voice, hear His Word, hear the truth. Has it given you some
measure of understanding and peace, and comfort, and faith
men strengthened. He said, I put my trust in the
Lord God. And did not He say, all them
that trust in Him will never be ashamed? Never. And if you do, by His grace,
by God-given faith, trust in the Lord God, trust the Lord
Jesus Christ, you're going to declare His work. And you're going to declare what
you're going to do. It's good for me that I've been afflicted.
Why are you going through all this trouble? Because God is
good. What? I don't understand. There's times
I didn't need it, but I do now. Now do you see? Truly, God is
good to Israel. Stand with me. Our Lord and our God, we again
ask You that You would write these things on our hearts. Oh,
let them not slip. Let them not slip. Gospels preached
back then as it is to us, not mixed with faith. Oh, Lord, let
these words give us an understanding, give
us faith, and walk by faith, not by sight. Oh, let us not
be envious, covetous. overcome by the world, but rather
overcome by this God-given faith. Lord, help us. Help us, we pray.
We're weak. The flesh is weak. The Spirit is willing. Lord, increase our strength, we pray.
Cause us to come back hither, back to Thy sanctuary and resort
to Thy Word at times We look around us and begin to envy and
become foolish. Lord, cause us to call, call,
call, call. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved from unbelief, saved from envy, saved
from temptation. Cause us to call, not quit calling,
till the day you call us home. We give thanks for thy word in
Christ's name. Amen. This is a wonderful friendship.