me. I will supply. blessings now. Okay, go back to the Song of
Solomon with me. I hope you have profited from
these, been blessed by them, gotten good response from others. This is a vital message, a needed
message. Several titles sum up this story. It could entitle it, I Sleep.
but my heart waketh." It's something every believer goes through.
Or, it really struck me in verse 6, she said, my soul failed when
he spake. He spoke and I didn't respond. Or, tell my beloved, if you find
him, that I'm sick of love. But the title I gave it was,
uh, Lost, Love Lost and Found. And this is a story of how every
true believer, every child of God, every one of God's chosen
people, every one of God's redeemed by Christ, led by the Spirit,
they fall asleep in this world. This world... Burnt Bunyan called
it the enchanted ground, vanity fair, a dangerous place, bypass
meadow that he and his friend fell asleep in and they lost
their hope and assurance and lost their role. and were found
in Doubting Castle, you remember, this world. Every believer falls
asleep in this world at some point and gets in a bad way for
many reasons. Like the church at Ephesus, we
all do this. We lose our first love. We become
lazy and slothful and indifferent, unmoved, unfeeling to the gospel
of Christ that we love and end up thinking that we're lost, thinking that we missed Christ.
But bless God, He always brings her to Himself because He said,
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, not finally, but He will
make us feel. His absence in order to seek
Him. Now, this doesn't apply to everyone. This is to believers. I've got one word for those who
do not know the Lord. If you live without Christ, you're
dead. If you die without Christ, you'll
be destroyed. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. Call upon Him while He's near. Now, this story, if you read
with me, of Christ knocking at the door of His beloved, is also
told in the Revelation chapter 3. Brother John read that to
the men in the study, and I'm glad he did. But Christ, let
me clear this up for those who may not know this. The Lord Jesus
Christ does not knock at the heart's door of every human being
wanting in. That's what false religion says
and nothing could be further from the truth. Our Lord is not
a beggar. He's not waiting on men to respond
to Him. They're dead. The Lord must give
life like He did to Lazarus. He must remove that stony heart,
as it were, a door, remove that stony heart and call them from
the dead. Men and women cannot respond
unless the Lord calls them in His power and gives them life. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
stand outside everyone's heart's door, knocking on their door,
hoping they'll let Him in. He's out in the rain, poor Jesus.
That's what modern religion says, and that's blasphemy of the worst
sort. You know, we know, we've been
studying this book, Song of Solomon. This is to the beloved. This
is to the church. This is to God's people. This
is to those whom God foreknew, did predestinate, called and
justified. Christ died for. This is to the
beloved, loved of God. This is to those who know Christ
and love Him. This is who He's speaking to.
And He's not talking about salvation at all. She's already been saved. She knows Him. This is eternal
life, to know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
Thou hast sent. And He has come and revealed
Himself to her, and she knows Him and loves Him, but she gets
in a bad way and falls asleep, as it were, and then He comes
knocking. As in Revelation 3, it says,
he says this to the churches. To the churches, not to everyone. So let that be perfectly clear
from the outset. So he's talking to the church
and he says that in Revelation 3 that he'll come in, if you
respond, he'll come in and sup with you. sit with you and dwell
with you and speak to you like the disciples on the road to
Emmaus said, come in and eat with us. And he did and it said
he was known of them in the breaking of bread. So that's what this
is talking about. So seven times throughout these
verses, just this chapter alone, Christ is called by the believer,
my beloved. My beloved. In fact, the theme
of this whole song is this, I am my beloved and he is mine. That's the theme of this whole
song. This is the song of Christ about his love and this is a
song of the love of Christ about her beloved. That's the theme
of this whole book. Let me begin before we get into
her sad state. Let me begin over here in verse
8 where the daughters of Jerusalem, her companions, David wrote about
in Psalm 145, they ask her In verse 9, what is thy beloved
more than another beloved? O thou fairest among women, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge
us? Now this is gonna, this is a
good way you may know if Jesus Christ is your beloved. Okay? She's gonna describe him.
Now this is the true Christ. And someone asked her, what's
your Christ more than another? How's he different than others? Can you say? Every one of God's
people can because the Lord Jesus Christ we worship and believe
and love and adore, the Christ of Scripture is altogether different
then that Jesus may appreciate that. All right, look at it.
And see if this is what you can say about Him. And I would not
discourage anyone. A little faith is saving faith.
A little love... Who loves Christ as they ought
to love anyone? The oldest believer in here would
be ashamed to talk about their love for Christ. We talk about
His love. So little love is love. So I wouldn't discourage anyone,
but I do want to ask you, can you say what your Beloved is
to you? Can you describe Him? I've asked
people to come to my door before, these Jehovah Witnesses, and
they say, I want to talk to you about our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what they say. I say, describe Him to me. And he's altogether different
than the one of Scripture. She says, my beloved, verse 10,
is white, pure, holy, holy, holy. What is the chief attribute of
God? Holy. Holy, holy, holy Lord God
of hope, white, pure. My beloved is spotless, is just,
is righteous. God's chief attribute is not
love. Oh, thank God for His love. God
is love. that God is first and foremost
and chiefly holy. That's what the cherubs cry,
don't they, around the throne of God all the time. Holy, holy,
holy. Isn't that the God you first
heard about? The true God, this is the God of Scripture that
makes Him to differ from the God today that is nothing but
an old, benevolent, sentimental old man that just loves everybody
and, oh, let everybody just do or live however they want to
and I won't punish anybody for anything. It's all right. No,
our God's holy. Holy. He's holy. She says, My beloved is ruddy. I've got to hurry through this.
I was afraid I'd get hung up. What is a description? Ruddy means red. You think of
anyone else the scripture says was ruddy? David, right. When Samuel, when that young
man came in from that field, 18-year-old boy, scrapping youth,
you know, came running in from the field, his face was flush
with the wind, out in the weather. What's he doing? Keeping the
sheep, fighting off bears and lions. He came rushing in, full
of life and vigor and vitality, blood in his cheeks. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ, read like Isaiah 63. I didn't want to read
this to you. Isaiah 63 says, who is this? This is a description of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But after you see God as holy, the next
thing you must see is Christ as your blood redemption. Without the shedding of blood,
no remission. Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments
from Basra, glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of
his strength? Here's the answer Christ gives,
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Not some poor
pitiful Jesus standing outside, please let me in. No, no, no,
no. Why are you red in your apparel
and your garments like him that treadeth the wine vat? Because
I've trodden the winepress alone. That's Christ. Go on, let me hurry through this.
Oh, what a description. His head is most fine gold. Our
Lord wears a continual crown. That's because He's the King
of kings and Lord of lords. We don't make Him king and we
don't make Him Lord. God did that before the world
began. Salvation is for God to let us know that He is and cause
us to bow the knee. His head is most fine gold. His
locks are bushy and black as a raven. That's His eternal youth.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our God is both
eternal, ancient, and young. A young man, full of vitality. His eyes are as doves by the
rivers of water. Dove's eyes for innocence, for
honesty. No guile whatsoever. Eyes full
of love and mercy and grace. You can look into His eyes. The
eyes have it, don't they? And see nothing but grace and
beauty. Now, to His enemies over in Revelation,
it says His eyes are as a flame of fire. A flame of fire. There's a description of Christ
in the Revelation 1 that His hair is white. as eternal and
ancient. His eyes is a flame of fire,
the God of judgment and revelation. But here He's the lover, He's
the beloved of His church. Dove's eyes. He has nothing but
eyes of love for His people. There's no fire, no fire. His eyes are like dove's eyes
by rivers of waters washed with milk. Ever flowing with mercy
and grace, washed with milk, oh, pure and fitly set, firmly
set. He said, I know my thoughts towards
you, my eye towards you is nothing but love and mercy and goodness
and grace. His cheeks as a bed of spices,
as sweet flowers. His lips like lilies. Oh, grace
pours from His lips. Dropping sweet-smelling myrrh.
That's that balm of Gilead. Everything our Lord says to His
people is healing balm. His hands are as gold rings set
with the barrel. His grace, everything He does
with the works of His hands are giving. He giveth and giveth
like gold, maketh rich with His unsearchable riches. And with
the barrel, I wish we had time, but that's a stone that's set
in the breastplate of the High Priest. It's a stone that's mentioned
often by Daniel and Ezekiel. There's much there. His belly
is bright ivory overlaid with sapphire. That's His desire.
toward His people, His legs as pillars of marble. He's the one
who carries me. He's able. Set upon sockets of
fine gold." You know what all this is a description of? The
temple. Solomon's describing the temple,
like those pillars. And God had him make that temple
like it was as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The pillars
of marble, that's His legs. Our Lord Jesus Christ, strong,
firm, set upon sockets of fine gold, His countenance as Lebanon. I've never seen Lebanon, but
I hear it's glorious. The scripture sure does talk
a lot about it. And it makes me, kind of makes me want to
see it, although it's probably nothing like it was in Solomon's
day. Nothing is, is it? The cedars of Lebanon. I haven't
seen those cedars. I have seen the redwoods of California. Mindy and I walked through those
redwood forests, and they're as tall as I can
see. You just keep looking up, and
they obscure the sky. They're so tall. They're so grand,
so glorious, so red. So evergreen. So strong. I want to hug them all. Yeah,
I'm a tree hugger. Especially this one. The cedars
of Lebanon. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
His mouth is most sweet. He is, what is He to you? Everything about Him. It's altogether
lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend. My, my. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is not only our Lord and Savior, but He's our friend. And He is
a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. A friend indeed. He is our friend indeed. Oh,
daughters of Jerusalem, is that your beloved? Old Shulamite maiden. Well, now, chapter 4, verse 16,
we began reading this because she prays in the beginning. She has sweet fellowship with
Him. They enjoy in the first four chapters unbroken fellowship. She is, they have, they dwell
together in love and unity and communion. She's walking with
him, he's walking with her. They're singing to one another,
they're enjoying one another. Sweet fellows, she's, she, nothing
can, nothing holds her attention but him. Kind of like a young
believer. Like a newborn babe in Christ,
just smitten with Him and His gospel, just loves every word,
everything, just can't get enough of Him, and nothing and no one
takes our attention but Him. And she prays, Oh North Wind,
come into my garden. As I said, there's a preparation
involved before we hear this gospel. The Holy Spirit is a
much ignored person of the Trinity. Without Him, we can do nothing.
We need to ask for Him. And we'll not get a thing. We'll
not get a thing. And we can't blame it on anybody.
but ourselves, if we don't ask. Come into your garden. Come into
your garden. Let my beloved come into his
garden, eat his pleasant fruits, fruit of my lips, sacrifice of
prey." And she knows as soon as she gets the words out of
her mouth, he says, I'm here. You ask and you'll receive. Call
upon the Lord while he's near and he'll be near you. He says,
I'm coming to my garden, my sister, my spouse. And he says, oh, I
have something for you. I've gathered my myrrh with my
spice, honeycomb with honey." That's the Word of God. David
said, I found your Word and it's sweeter to me than honey and
the honeycomb, richer than gold and silver, wine and milk, fat
things, wine on the leaves. I've got my milk. Didn't Peter
say, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow
thereby? And our Lord says, I've got milk here, straight from
the cow. Not Blue John, whole milk, pure
milk. Old friends, and he says, drink,
just open your mouth and you'll feel it. Do you remember when you first
heard the gospel and you couldn't get enough? And you heard it
and it so saturated your soul, so filled your desire, so filled
your heart with gladness that you were drunk. That's what he said. Drink until
you're drunk with love. Something happens. And it always does. What? The world. the world. Verse 2, she says, I sleep. I sleep. But my heart waketh. That's a good sign. It's not
good to fall asleep. But it's a good sign if your
heart is still awake. That is, if He lets you know
you're sleeping. That's how you know. If you can
be awakened, that's how you know that you belong to Him. If not,
there's four kinds of sleep that the Scripture mentions. Four
kinds of sleep. There's sleep of eternal rest.
He giveth His beloved sleep. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is that sleep. There's the sleep of death. The people of
this world, the world puts them to sleep. They don't, they can't
hear His voice. They're dead. They're sleeping.
And the Scriptures are so full of Scriptures like this. Let
us not sleep as do others. Awake thou that sleepest. Arise
and Christ will give thee light. Sleep of death. If someone continually
under the sound of the Gospel, and we all do, we're all just
like the disciples of old. There's the third type. They
slept for sorrow. They were asleep for sorrow.
They were asleep for weariness. They'd been watching with Him,
walking with Him, weeping with Him for a long time, and now
they're... Have you ever fallen asleep over sorrow? Sure you
have. That was the third sleep, weariness. The Lord first rebuked them,
Why sleepest thou? He said, Arise, watch. He rebuked
them, Can't you watch with me for one hour? And then he said,
in tenderness and mercy, knowing their frame, he said, sleep.
But the sleep of death is dangerous. If someone, under the sound of
the gospel, that's supposed to be, it is life-giving sound,
it's a savor of life to life, but death to death, there's no
response. Someone continually. And I can't awaken them. I can't blame it on the preacher.
And then there's a sleep that this Shulamite maiden and every
believer gets into, and it's a sleep caused by many things.
It's a sleep caused by sin, caused by the world, caused by being
slothful and a sluggard, lazy, caught up in the things of this
world. We fall asleep, as I said, in the enchanted ground. And
Christ comes knocking at the door, if you're one of His, He's
not going to let you sleep. And He comes knocking at the
heart door of His church, of His people, the Spirit of God,
through the Word of God, through a preacher of God, in the conscience
that He gives us, knocks upon the heart of His people who sleep,
and He says, you're sleeping. Wake up. Don't sleep. This is too serious. Don't take
it for granted. I may just leave you there. And
the consequences are terrible. Verse 4, He puts His hand in
by the hole of the door. See that? You know, they say
the latch is only on the inside and Christ can't get in, you
must open it. He put His hand in, this hole in the door. Back
in those old days, there was a hole beside the door where
you could leave messages and all that. You couldn't lock it.
They didn't have screens on the window. He could have come right on in.
Okay, but he just leaves her a token in verse 4. He put his
hand in by the door and her bowels were moved. She's alive, but
barely. Her bowels were moved for him
like some who hear and want to hear and can't hear, but are
just in a bad way. So she rose up. She rose up to
open to my beloved. And it says, her hands dropped
with myrrh, good sweet tokens of His presence. My fingers were
sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. But I opened
to my Beloved, she said, and my Beloved had withdrawn Himself.
He was gone. He was gone. And my soul failed. It's my fault. You see who she blamed? It's
my fault. No one else's fault. We're in a bad way if we can
blame somebody. My soul failed when he spake.
The Lord always speaks. He promised where two or three
gather, I'm there in their midst. The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The Lord is in the midst
of her, always. He's always promised that. And
if two or three people get in a blessing and I don't, it's
my fault. And she said, and this is the
first act of repentance, said, my soul failed when he spoke
to me and I didn't hear him. Why? Because I was asleep. I
was asleep. And then she says, I sought him
but I couldn't find him. I called and he gave me no answer.
My, my. Now let me say this for your The Lord's presence is salvation. We're not talking about, you
know, to be found in Christ is salvation, to be in God, in Christ,
to have Christ in you, that's the hope of glory, but that's
salvation. But what I'm talking about, the
Lord's presence, His felt presence, is salvation. For us, salvation
from fear, salvation from worry, salvation from doubts, salvation
from depression, salvation from being downcast all the time,
salvation from temptation, from falling to them, salvation from
yourself, salvation from self-righteousness, salvation from everything that... makes us so poor and need Him,
His presence. I preached a message not long
ago on draw nigh to God and He'll draw nigh to you. Brought it
down there because I thought it was so vital. Received great
response from Sermon Audio for that. Because all that God is,
love, peace, mercy, grace, blessedness, safety, assurance, comes from
being near Him, walking with Him. People like Noah and Abraham
and Daniel, the three Hebrew men, how could they go through
what they did? with them in that furnace. How
could Daniel go through what he did? The Lord was right beside
him. Why? Because Daniel was close to him. He wasn't a superman. They weren't
super-Christian. But they just were in fellowship
with the Lord. Close fellowship. Remember Daniel
said, I'm not going to eat the king's dainties. I don't need
that stuff. All I need is my Lord. That's
what he said. And I urge you to listen. Draw an eye to God, He'll draw
an eye unto you. And everything that means He is, is yours. Safety. As long as those disciples
were walking with and talking with the Lord, they didn't have
a care in the world. They didn't have any fears. They
didn't have any doubts. They had complete assurance.
They weren't afraid. They had courage. The tempter
didn't bother them. Satan didn't bother them. The Lord's right beside them. They
could do great things. But boy apart, what did Simon
Peter do? Fell and became miserable. Thomas, when he was gone, what
happened to him? Full of doubts and fears and worries and bitterness
and anguish and all these things. See, when Christ is gone, our
Lord withdraws His presence. Our Lord withdraws His presence
from us for many reasons. I'm going to give them to you
in a minute. But the Lord does not withdraw Himself permanently,
forever. No way. He cannot. He said, I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. That soul on Jesus that
hath leaned for repose, He said, I will never, no never, no never
desert to its foes. can't do it. He made a covenant
concerning us, giving us to Christ. But if we belong to Him and we
fall asleep like this woman for various reasons, He will withdraw
Himself and you'll think He's gone forever. And you'll think
you're lost. And it's a good thing for us
to think because we took it for granted. The Lord will withdraw His presence
to bring us low to hate the sin that made us fall asleep. That's what the
song says. We're going to sing it after
this message. William Cowper said, I hate the sin that made
thee moan and drove thee from my breast. When Christ is gone,
here's what happened. When you don't feel His presence,
when you're not in close communion with the Lord, in many ways,
but this is what happens. There's no comfort in the gospel.
The gospel gives you no comfort. The gospel is always praying.
Christ has always lifted that. The Word of God is always declared
in all of its blessed comfort. The Word doesn't speak to you.
You don't get a thing out of it. No sermon can touch you. Whereas in the beginning, with
that sweetheart love, that early love, that newfound enthusiasm,
a man could just stand up and say, mercy, and you'd just want
to shout. But nothing moves you. Same words,
same gospel, same truth, same Christ, doesn't move you. Why? You had a communion with
the Lord. Prayer is a formality. There's
no enjoyment of the things of God and no joy in the presence
of the saint. All assurance is lost. Those
still hoping in His mercy, those still looking to Christ, His
blood and His righteousness, yet there's no real comfort,
no real peace, no real assurance, no joy like David. David got
evil communications, corrupt good manners. David ended up
down in Gath with those Philistines. He didn't belong there. He ended
up in a bad way for a long time. David wrote songs like this,
Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of
thy salvation. I've lost it. Are the heavens
brass? Is his mercy clean gone? No,
David, it's just that you, it's your fault. The Lord's presence is salvation
from these things. Causes. Here's the causes. There's
too many to list. Besetting sins. We're all different. We have
different makeups, different things that work on us and not
others. Right? Adam was one, Eve was
another, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, whatever
it may be, besetting sins trifled with, taken into the bosom, fleshly
indulgences, feed the flesh. Our Lord said,
you sow to the flesh, you reap what? Flesh. You sow to the spirit,
you reap spirit. So do the flesh. Feed the flesh,
feed the flesh, feed the flesh. And what does that leave us?
In the flesh. In the flesh. Feed the spirit
and the flesh fades. Corrupts. You see it for what
it is. Corrupt flesh. Covetousness. Our Lord says it's idolatry.
to be taken up with things more than their God? What if your
wife, what if your wife was only concerned about the house and
car and clothes and jewelry and all that, and rarely spoke to
you? Rarely gave you a thought, rarely
served you, paid attention to you. That's adultery. What that is? Idolatry. Covetousness
is idolatry. Worldliness. What is that? It's
not necessarily the way you dress or this and that. It's thinking
on things below rather than things above. Our conversation is supposed
to be in heaven. We have here no continuing city. We look for one to come. We're
passing through. Worldliness is to talk about
and pursue and be taken up with the things of this world. Perishing things of clay, more
than but for one brief day, pass from my heart away, O Lord Jesus,
be mine." Grieve the Spirit. A bad attitude
will take His presence from you. If you hold a grudge against
someone, especially a brother, the Lord will hold a grudge against
you and won't remove it until you
lay it down. grieve the Holy Spirit with a
bad attitude, not being generous, not giving, not
supporting His work. The Lord gave Himself for us. He gave His every waking hour
for 33 years to serve His people. and laid down his life for whom?
Worthless, no good, ungrateful wretches like we are. And he
says, now, do something for me. And if not, if we serve ourselves,
leave us alone. If we're not generous, he won't
be generous. But He giveth more grace. And
He giveth seed. 2 Corinthians 9, I believe it
says, giveth seed to the sower that might sow and keep reaping.
Sow to the Spirit. Self. Selfish. With a forward, our Lord will
show Himself forward. With the merciful, show Himself
merciful. With the gracious. With the loving. With the kind.
With the understanding. With the tender. If not, the
Lord will withhold these blessings. What's the cure? What's the cure? Well, you think I'm being hard
on you. Look at verse 7. You know all the letters to the
churches begin with the angel. All the letters to the churches,
all the rebukes to the churches begin with the preacher. The
Lord lays it on him first. It's your fault. I'll take it. I'll take it. And I want to learn,
I want to repent, do the first work. But verse 7, this woman
went out and said, the watchman that went about the city found
me. That's the preacher. They smote me. She didn't need
to be smitten. When Peter was asleep in that
jail, remember, tied between the two jailers, says the angel
came along and smote him, woke him up. Let the righteous smite
me. It'll be a kindness. Isn't that
what the scripture says? Smite me. Oh, I need a... You
know whom the Lord loves? He chastens. And sometimes it
takes being smitten to wake us out of this sleep of death. They
wounded me. Oh, we need wounded, don't we?
The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me." We put
up a good front sometimes. We need to be exposed. We need
to be naked. Our Lord said that to the Laodiceans. You're naked. I counsel to buy arraignment
that may be clothed and not be found naked. I charge you. So she is awake now. She's awake. She's smitten, she's afflicted,
she's wounded, she's bruised, she's naked, and she's lonely. And she misses him, and she longs
for his presence. People, when your loved one is
away, when a loved one is gone, it's
lonely. It's lonely. You feel alone. When
your loved one is gone, the house is empty. When the loved one
is gone, food is not really tasty. When the loved one is gone, the
bed is cold. Some of you really know what
I'm talking about. Every believer knows. When the
loved one is gone, the night is long. The nights are long,
aren't they? But this loved one, he's as close
as a call. She said, oh, daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved, would you please tell him for me? I'm
sick. This is a different kind of sickness.
The first time, remember in the first, she was sick with love.
She was just so giddy. She was just swooning. She was
just so overcome with love, like sweetheart love. She couldn't
get enough of him. She just drunk with love, you
know, you know, can't get enough. And now she's sick because she
left her first love and she misses him. She's sick because she misses
him so badly. Oh, Lord. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. Well, chapter 6, after describing
Him, they ask her, so she goes looking for Him. Where is she
going to find Him? Where is He always? He's in His garden. That's where
He was all along. But you were too lazy to get
up. Boy, if that ain't a picture. What is worth missing Christ
for? And if you do, you're going to
be miserable people. My beloved, where is he? Well,
that I may seek him. He's in his garden, verse 2.
He's in his garden. He went down there to feed in
the garden to gather his lily. Man, I want to be a lily, don't
you? That's what he said about her over in chapter 2. My love,
she's a lily among thorns. That's my daughter, my spouse,
my sister. I want to be gathered like a
lily and set in his house. Oh, she says, I'm my beloved
and my beloved is mine. He feeds among the lily. What
has happened is she's found him. And then, read the rest of it
for yourself. They just start singing to one
another. They found each other again. She can now sing the song
again. Songs of Zion. Song of her beloved. She's found him. Or rather, he
found her. He awakened her, smote her. He
sent a watchman to smite her. To expose her. To show her what's
wrong with her. Look what you've done. Now, you
know where he's at? Get out of bed. You'll find him
there. And she found him. You reckon
she thought, boy, I'm going to stay by his side now. I was a
miserable person. You reckon? I'll never do that
again. You reckon she did? What he did. Same thing. It's
a miserable time, though, to not feel the Lord's presence. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You for Your
Word. We need it. We feed upon it. Live by it. Live because of it. We're born again by it. We're
kept by it. We're fed with everything. Our Lord, your word is our everything. We thank you for it. This is
our food. This is our raiment as it speaks
of Christ, as it speaks of Him whom we love, who loved us, first
loved us. and cause us to love Him. Oh
Lord, put this love in the hearts, shed it abroad in the hearts
of Your people. Cause them to commune with Thee, call upon
Thee, repent, turn, do the first works, pray and seek Thy face. Tell us, O Lord, like you did
David, seek my face, that we may truly seek thy face. Cause
the things of this world to perish from our thoughts and set our
affection on things above. May we be people that are waiting
on our Lord, waiting on His coming, that when He come and may we
have oil in our lamps, that when He comes and the cry comes, behold
the bridegroom come, that we'll go in to the marriage supper
of the Lamb. Oh Lord, do this for someone, someone else we pray in Christ's
name. Amen. You're dismissed.