Thank you, Robin. Alright, go back to 2 Chronicles
15. 2 Chronicles 15. It says in verse 1, the Spirit of God,
the Holy Spirit. Some of these false priests today
say the Holy Spirit wasn't given until Pentecost. Well, that's
just not so, is it? David said, Take not thy Holy
Spirit from me. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit
came upon this Azariah, son of Odah. This man is an unknown
prophet. This is the only message he preached. Kind of like Jehaziel, I believe
it was, who preached Jehoshaphat that day. A couple, three chapters
over. What a message that young man
preached. And it was the only message he
ever preached. He didn't need to preach again after that. Do
you remember the message? He said, the battle is not yours,
but it's the Lord's. And this young man's message
is equally wonderful. But God was with him. The Spirit
of God. I hope He's with me tonight.
I hope He's with you to hear this message. Verse 2, And he
went out to meet Asa the king, and said unto me, Hear ye me,
Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. You know, the Lord's prophets
and preachers are not fearful of men. It doesn't matter who
they are. The Lord told His apostles, I'm
going to send you out before kings. Don't be afraid. Moses,
remember Moses went into Pharaoh and he said, he may have pointed
his finger at Pharaoh and said, God said, let my people go. And
all God's prophets were bold men to tell the truth. Paul stood
before Grippa and others, Festus, and told them the truth. Hear
ye me. You know, kings need to hear
the preachers as well as paupers. As a matter of fact, the preacher
is more important than the king. That's a fact. In Ecclesiastes
1, you'll hear Solomon write, he said, the preacher, capital
P, was also king, small K. And all that book was written
by a preacher named Solomon, who just happened to be king. All people need to hear the Word
of God, desperately hear it. Our king sure needs to hear it.
I wish he would. I wish God would give him the
ears to hear. They said, Hear me Judah and
Benjamin. The remnant of Israel. Now, all of God's people need
to hear this. Now, here it is. Here's His message.
The principal part of it. The Lord is with you. What a
promise. While you be with Him. That's
a promise. Here's another one. If you seek
Him, He will be found of you. What a promise. What a blessing. and all that that means. But,
here's a warning, if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. That's a dire warning, isn't
it? If you forsake Him, read on.
He says now, a long season. I think he's rehearsing the history
of Israel like Moses did and like all the prophets did. They
all rehearsed what Israel did, warning the people. Paul did,
didn't he? In 1 Corinthians 10, he said these people were an
example to them. He said, long season Israel was
without the true God. They were in idolatry, without
a teaching priest, without God's Word. But when they in their
trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel and sought Him,
He was found of them. It doesn't matter how sinful
they became, remember? And boy, they got in a mess,
didn't they? Dancing around a calf. The Lord
turned them. The Lord was so good. And they
sought Him and He was found of them. But while they were without
God, verse 4, while they were in idolatry, says verse 5, there
was no peace to him that went out nor him that came in, but
great vexations upon all the inhabitants of the country, nation
destroyed, nation of city. It was God that did this. God
is the one that did this. He did vex them with all adversity. Why? Idolatry. That's why. And that's our nation. This is why I'm preaching this
tonight. It's so relevant. We're so needed
by us, the remnant, according to election. And this is the
state of our nation. Without God, without, they won't
hear a true teaching preacher sent by God, without the Word
of God. And they're vexed, aren't they?
And they're destroying each other. God did this. But he says in
verse 7, to Judah, Be ye strong therefore. Let not your hands
be weak. Your work shall be rewarded. It says to Israel. Israel. Be strong at this work. What
is this work? What is this work? Well, it's
the work of the Lord. Didn't Paul say that to us in
his epistles? Be strong in the work of the
Lord. Labor. It's the work of the Lord. It's the work of the
gospel. Our vocation is the same as our Lord Jesus Christ who
said, I must be about my Father's business. And we're sons of God. What's our business? Why are
we here on earth? To glorify our Father. To tell people of His kingdom.
to support the gospel and to glorify our Lord. That's our
vocation, same as Christ. His glory, His worship, His kingdom,
His church, His people, that's the work of God's people. We're not here for ourselves.
We're in the work of the ministry. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry. He said, be strong in this work of the Lord. Let
not your hands be weak, your work shall be rewarded. be rewarded. What's our reward? Christ. We get to be with Him. What else
do we need? And we want others to be with
Him too, don't we? That's why we witness of Him. Well, verse 8, it says, Asa heard
these words in the prophecy of Oded the prophet, meaning the
son of Oded, Azariah. He took courage. He took courage. He heard this and like James
said, he wasn't a hearer only, he was a doer. And here's what
he did. He put away the abominable idols
out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, out of the cities
which he had taken from Mount Ephraim. I thought about this. What if the President of the
United States, this really happened, the king over all the land sent
out a proclamation All idols, statutes, pictures, anything,
any absent religious symbol of any sorts to be thrown out and
burnt, thus saith the king, under threat of law. What if our president
did that? I wish he would. Well, if this man did that, he
did that. Look at this, verse 8, he renewed
the altar of the Lord. This is not the first man king
to do this. Josiah did Hezekiah, Hezekiah
was, Josiah, Hezekiah, my, my, he really went to town on all
this idolatry. But every religious symbol is
an idol. Our Lord plainly said, Thou shalt
not make unto thee any graven image. of anything in heaven and earth.
He said, even in the sea, don't put a fish on your car. That's
what He said. All religious symbols and props
and holy things, so to speak, pictures and crosses and statues
and idols, movies made about our Lord's idolatry. They've
got one coming up now about our Lord's boyhood and childhood. Don't you dare see it. Don't
you dare see it. this idolatry. play the part of the Lord Jesus
Christ, let alone a 12-year-old boy. It's an abomination to God. I went on Sermon Audio and started
reading all these Christian leaders and they were all lauding that.
They were all saying this is one of the greatest movies ever.
All your people, your churches will be blessed by it. You need
to have all your church to hear that. No, it's an abomination
to God. That's what Asa did. He said,
this is all an abomination. No man can play the... It's acting. The word hypocrisy means act,
part. And a little boy probably doesn't
even know the Lord, playing the part of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's an abomination. Don't be a part of it. It will
give you an opportunity to tell people, have you seen it? No,
I haven't. I'm not going to. Well, why? And then tell them.
That's an open door to tell them the truth. Is that too hard? This went on
with true preachers and true kings. They said, we're going
to get rid of this stuff. I'm going to show you here in
a minute what else he did. He took his grandmother's idol
and ground it to powder. His grandmother. Read on. We'll go back to 1 Kings 15.
Here's where it is. 1 Kings 15. I'll show you that. Now, people, it ought to go without
saying that all sin is an abomination to God. I went back to Leviticus
18 where he talked about so many abominations. Idols, all this,
and various sins of perversion and so forth. But God mentions two or three
things by name and calls them abomination. Idols are one of
it, and homosexuality is another. First Kings 15, in the twentieth
year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, reigned Asa over Judah. And forty-one
years reigned he in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maika.
She was the daughter of Absalom. You know, Absalom was a bad man.
And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did
David his father. sodomites out of the land. He issued a proclamation that
they were to leave. Is that too hard? Why would we apologize for God's
work? I know the Lord saves some, and I hope He does save more.
He took away the sodomites out of the land and removed all the
idols of his fathers at May. Also, Micaiah, his mother, was
queen. He removed her from being queen.
She's not supposed to be a queen. There's no queen in Israel, is
there? You know, that's what Catholicism calls Mary. They
call her the co-redemptress. They call her a co-redeemer to
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's anti-Christ. She's not
the queen of heaven. She's a sinner saved by grace
like the rest of them. And every true preacher will
tell people that. She's no queen. Read on. She made an idol in a grove.
Asa destroyed her idol and burned it by the brook of Kidron. Now,
some of these days we'll look at those high places. But I thought
about this. Everybody's grandmother, that
was his grandmother. Everybody's grandmother was a
pretty sweet old lady. Aren't they? Sweet. If you'd ask most
people, all grandmothers go to heaven. Dear, sweet old women. How could they be? Until you
start telling them the truth. And you start telling them the
truth about a sovereign God who chooses whom He will and passes
by whom He will. about a God who nobody deserves
to be saved, everybody deserves to go to hell. And a God that
doesn't love everybody, but in infinite mercy and great love
and grace loves some people, but the ones He chose. And only
Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness account for anything, not anything
you've ever done your whole life will account for anything for
God. God won't accept it. Doesn't merit you any favor with
God whatsoever. Only the blood of Christ and
the righteousness of Christ. Nothing you've ever done, no
witnessing, no good deeds, no morality, nothing you ever gave
up will ever account for anything before God. Tell your old grandmother
that. And let's see how she reacts. And that idol she's got on her
wall, just try it. Take it down and stomp on it. That cross, stomp on it. And
we'll see how sweet she is. Now that's a fact. Is that too
hard? That's what this man did. That's how you know it's got
to be done. It's got to be done, doesn't it? It needs to be done.
The Thessalonians, Paul said, I thank God that you turn to
the living God from your idols. That's how you know you're elect.
Somebody stomps on your God, the sooner the better. Well,
go back to our text. This really happened. It really
happened. I'm not picking on any one group
of sinners more than another, but that's what God's Word said,
doesn't it? That's what His Word said. Go back to our text. Now, it says that in verse 9,
they gathered themselves, in verse 9, together, all Judah
and his people will gather. They don't forsake the assembly
themselves together, they gather. And they fell to him out of Israel
in abundance when they saw that the Lord God was with them."
That's true seekers. They'll come and hear a man and
God is with them. Verse 10, they gathered themselves
together at Jerusalem in the third month in the fifteenth
year in the reign of Asa. I forgot this, in verse 8 it
says they renewed the altar of the Lord. They renewed the altar. Apparently, they hadn't used
it in a while. Do you know that's the only purpose
of gathering together? If you don't sacrifice a lamb
on that altar when you gather together, God's not with you.
God's not there. If a man stands up and doesn't
preach Christ and Him crucified, God's not with you. They renewed the altar. Apparently
they hadn't been sacrificing lambs. It's like Josiah, Hezekiah. Remember that Passover Hezekiah
had? It hadn't had one since, he said.
Josiah found the book and he said, we haven't been doing it
like we're supposed to do it. Whenever we get together, we've got to
hear about the blood. And so they did, verse 11, they
offered unto the Lord at the same time, that same day, of
the spoil which they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. 7,700
sacrifices. 7,700 sacrifices, one at a time. Blood everywhere. And from the sound of this, nobody
got tired of it. It says they rejoiced. After 6,000 of them, somebody
said, let's do it again. I counted up, didn't count them
all, but quit counting, but I personally, in 30 years of preaching, have
preached about 6,000 messages. And you know good and well, he's
preached 15 or 20,000. Are you tired of it? And what are we preaching? The
same thing. It's the blood that makes remission
for your sin. Christ and Him crucify. Dad preached
the message one time on recovering the gospel, like renewing the
altar. We've got to recover the gospel.
God's not with us if the blood is not being shed, if Christ
is not being preached. Christ and Him crucify. So they sacrificed all these,
and how many thousands have been preached over the years by various
men? God's people never tired of it.
And they made a sacrifice. They made a sacrifice. They bought
their sheep and oxen and sacrificed them to the Lord. Nothing was
too much of a sacrifice, seeking the Lord. Verse 12, And they
entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers
with all their heart and with all their soul, not half-heartedly. God won't be found if we seek
Him with half a heart, but all heart, all their soul. And look
at this, it says, they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord,
and whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should
be put to death. Small or great, man or woman.
You think that's too hard. Well, we sure don't do that,
do we? Aren't you glad we're not under
the law? But you know what? That's exactly what God's going
to do. Man or woman. Isn't it? They don't seek the Lord. God's
going to put them to death with all their hearts. And they swear
unto the Lord, verse 14, with a loud voice and with shouting,
with a trumpet and cornet, and all Judah rejoiced at the oath."
They rejoiced. They were joying in the Lord.
They had sworn with all their hearts, sought Him with their
whole desire. Remember that? Psalm 37, set
your heart on Him, your desire. He'll give you the desires of
your heart. Set your affection on Him. And they did. And they sought
Him with their whole heart, and look at this, verse 50, He was
found in them. And what happened? He gave them
rest. He gave them rest. Come unto
Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, the Lord said, and
I will give you rest. Seek, He said. He said, ask,
you will receive. Seek, and you will suffer. Knock,
and it will be opened unto you. And I'll give you rest. The Lord
gave them rest. Alright, now go back to verse
2. Verse 2 is the key verse. Let me spend just a few minutes
here in this verse 2. Alright, this is the key verse
in the message Brother Azariah preached to them. It took about,
I'm going to take a little longer, it took about 28 seconds. I'm going to take 28 minutes.
Not from here on, but 28. He said in verse 2, hear this
now, all of you, the Lord is with you while ye be with Him. The Lord is with you. If the
Lord is with us, you know what that means. If the Lord Jesus
Christ is with us, the Lord said, I will be with you. I'll never
leave you. I will be with you even to the
ends of the earth." That's what he said to all his disciples,
all that made a covenant with him by blood, all that believed
him, trusted him. He said, I will be with you even
to the ends of the earth. That was his last word. And what
that means is if the Lord Jehovah Sidkenu is with us, Jehovah Shalom
is with us, that means we have peace. Peace with God. God is not angry with us. We
have peace with God. And if the Lord is with us, we'll
have peace of heart, mind, soul. We'll have rest. That's what
He said in verse 15, when they sought Him, He was found to them
and He gave them rest. He was found and He was with
them and He gave them rest. And if God is with us, He'll
give us rest from, number one, trying to keep the law. We're
so prone to death. Striving to keep the law. Laboring. That's what our Lord meant about
laboring. All you that labor, Moses gave you the law, yes,
but grace and truth came out of Christ. Come unto me, I'll
give you rest from trying to keep the law. How? I kept it. You don't need to
keep it. I kept it for you. Fulfilled
it for you. Rest from trying to keep the
law. He will defeat our enemies for us. In the previous chapter, read
it for yourself. I've been reading through 2 Kings,
Chronicles. It's wonderful. But in the previous
chapter, Judah came out against one million Ethiopians. One million. And they had 500,000. And Asa
called on the Lord on behalf of all of them. And the Lord
wiped the Ethiopians out. That was the spoils they brought.
Wiped them out. Two to one. And the Lord defeated
them. How? Why? They called on Him. And He was with them. And He
defeated their enemies. Without Him, we can do nothing.
If He's not with us, we cannot defeat one foe. We cannot resist
one temptation. We're no match for one devil,
one demon, one sinful desire. We're no match. But if the Lord's
with us. You see how important this is?
If the Lord's with you, there's resistance. There's help for
this fight. There's defeat of the enemies.
If the Lord's with us, that's His presence. That means His
presence. If His presence is with you, that means He's an
angel. That means He's Spirit, Spirit of God. Amen. Hath not
the Spirit of God... That means He'll lead you and
guide you. You don't want to be on your
own. You don't want to be walking your own way. You don't want
to go a way that seems right to you. You want the Holy Spirit
to lead you. If He's with you, you won't go
wrong. You see how important this is?
If the Lord is with you, that's the Spirit of God, you'll know
His will. Our Lord said that, may man do
the truth, he'll know. He'll know. If the Lord is with us, His presence
is with us, He'll comfort us. He'll comfort you, His people.
Now, if God is with us, that doesn't mean there won't be trouble.
In fact, it's the opposite. It's the opposite. David said in Psalm 73, they're
not in trouble like us. The wicked are not in trouble
like us. All of God's people got nothing but trouble. Read
Psalm 107 for you sometime. You know, you have. It says,
every time they called on the Lord, it said, He delivered them
out of all their troubles. They were constantly in trouble,
with and without. God with us doesn't mean there
won't be any trouble. It's the opposite. Our Lord said
you must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven.
Israel of old went through the wilderness of sin and they went
through trouble after trouble after trouble. Enemies all around
them. But God was with them. See, this is the love of the
Lord. This is the goodness of the Lord to put us through trouble
in this world because He says, you don't have any continuance
sitting here. To show us that you're not of this world. If
you were, they'd love their own. But you're not. And you're not
staying here. You're leaving here. I'm sending
you trouble after trouble. And to show that He's with us.
Israel, as I said, went through trouble after trouble, but God
brought them through all. Those three Hebrew men, Ahananiah,
Azariah, and Machiel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were
put in trouble, weren't they? They were put in a fiery furnace. Somebody was with them. They
said they were walking around loose. Act like it wasn't hurting
them at all. Daniel was thrown in the lion's
den, wasn't he? He's the best man on earth. God's
man. Sought the Lord, didn't he? He
put him through trouble. Threw him in the lion's den.
And King Darius, was it, said, O Daniel, is your God able to
save? He said, King, he sent his angel. He's in here with
me. He stopped their mouths of the
lion. If God's with you, you see how
important this is? If He's with us, He'll comfort
us, He'll console us. We need comfort through all these
troubles and tribulations and trials. We need consolation.
We need to see that these things are good. These things are good
for us. David said, it was good for me
that I've been afflicted, that I might learn my statutes. It
wouldn't have otherwise. Wouldn't he have given God a
thought if he didn't have trouble? That's just a sad fact, isn't
it? We'd want to stay here. This is the goodness of the Lord. And to encourage us. If God's
with us, He'll encourage us, give us courage. That's what
Azariah said to Asa and all Judah. He said, take courage, be strong. You know what Azariah's name
means? Jehovah strengthened us. Jehovah will strengthen. And
that's what the preacher is supposed to do. Be strong. Fear not their
fear. Fear the Lord. You have nothing
to fear. Trouble is coming, yes, but it's
going to be good for God's people. The Lord is with you while you
be with Him. Ooh, that tempers it, doesn't
it? While you be with Him. While you be with Him. And it
goes with seeking Him. He said, if you seek Him, He
will be found of you. He will be with you if you're
with Him. Remember the message, draw nigh
unto God? He'll draw nigh unto you. David said that in Psalm
73, one of the last verses. He said this. Let me read it
to you. Let me find it. It's before Isaiah. Psalm 73. I've got to read this
to you. This is good. He said, He said,
"'Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is none upon earth I desire
beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth.
God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever. They that
are far from thee shall perish.'" Those that aren't with him. "'Thou
hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee, but it
is good for me to draw nearer to God.'" And had to go through trials
to drive him to the Lord. If you seek Him, He'll be found
of you. And you've got to seek Him with all your heart. Remember
verse 12? He said, they sought Him with all their heart, with
all their soul. You'd be amazed at how many Scriptures talk about
seeking the Lord, seeking the Lord, seeking the Lord. Look
it up in your concordance sometime. It's vital. Our Lord says, seek
and you'll find. Who? Him. And you find Him, you
have it all. You don't need anyone else. That's
how important this is. If you be with Him, He'll be
with you. Can two walk together? Walk with
Him. Talk with Him. Worship Him. Seek Him. Seek His
face. You'll be with Him. Seeking with
all your heart, verse 15, with all your desire. That's seeking. You ever sought something and
wouldn't quit until you found it? That's seeking. The reason
somebody hadn't found the Lord, they're not really seeking Him.
The Lord promised, didn't He? He'll be with you while you're
with Him and seeking Him. Paul said this one time in Antioch,
he said, let me read this to you, I've got to turn or I'll
misquote it. He said, God has made of all men on the face of
the earth of one blood that they should seek the Lord. All men
should seek the Lord. If happily they might feel after
Him and find Him. Everybody ought to seek the Lord.
If anybody seeks the Lord, they'll find Him. If a jungle native
seeks the Lord, he'll find Him. Now who is the Lord? The Lord
Jesus Christ. Nobody knows the Lord doesn't
know Jesus Christ. They will here. God will send
them a preacher. You remember the story of that
fellow in Mexico? That Walter went up in the jungle
traveling? And the fellow said he had a
dream. He said, I've dreamed some gringo
Some white man to come up here and tell me about God. It actually
happened. Walter went up in this remote
jungle and preached to that fellow. Who did he preach? Jesus Christ.
And that man was saved in his house. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, if happily they might
feel after him and find him, though he's not far from every
one of them. Meaning, He's a God in whose hands our breath is
in all our ways. Everybody's in His hands, not
just God's people. Everything's in His hands. Well,
I don't understand, preacher, why are we to seek Him then?
Seek His presence. Seek His face. Seek His favor. Read Exodus 33 sometimes. I'm
going to read that to you. I'm running out of time. Exodus
33 is one of the best chapters in all the book about the Lord
being with you. Moses said, how are we going
to know we've found favor except you be with us? And God said,
yes, this is how you'll know that you're separate from all
the people on the earth. I'm with you. How was God with these people?
He sent the gospel to them. He sent the sacrifice to them.
God with you. Alright, let me, a couple of
minutes. How do we seek the Lord and find Him? I've already said,
with the whole heart, with the whole heart. I was going to have
you turn to Daniel, but let me read it for you, okay? It says
in Daniel, remember this? He said, ìI, Daniel, set my face
unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with
fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and I prayed unto the Lord my
God and made my confession.î Do you remember those messages?
Daniel, he said, with all my heart I sought the Lord. He said,
I was in mourning for three weeks. Mourning over the state of his
country. Mourning over the state of his family and his people.
And he said, I sought the Lord with all my heart. And you know
what? The angel of the Lord came to him and said, O Daniel, greatly
beloved, from the moment you set your heart to seek me, I
heard you. And he saw the Lord high and
lifted up. That's with the whole heart. That's how we seek Him.
Not half a heart. Not half a heart. You know, marriage, salvation, union with Christ
is a marriage. And what if your betrothed just
gave you half a heart? Huh? Would you marry that person?
The Lord won't either. The Lord won't eat them. Half
a heart. Wholehearted. We seek the Lord
in prayer. And that means with all the heart,
not half a heart. That's why the Lord said, pray
without ceasing. That means don't quit. That's true prayer. Keep calling.
Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking.
Asking. We seek the Lord in His Word.
God speaks through His Word. He doesn't speak in dreams and
visions. He doesn't speak out loud. He speaks through His Word.
And He does it principally through this right here. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That believe. Preaching. The world calls it foolishness,
and God's not with them. But God is with those people
that seek His faith. He said, where two or three are
gathered to hear My name, to worship God in spirit, rejoice
in Christ and Him crucified, and put no confidence in the
flag, but just preach the gospel, He's there. He's with them. You'll
be found of Him. You come hungry and you'll find
bread. You come thirsty and you'll find
the water of life, Christ. Oh yeah, that's seeking Him with
all the heart in the preaching of the Word, in the reading of
the Word. Do you have any love letters from your husband or
wife or mother or father or brothers and sisters or daughters, sons
and daughters? Do you have any old letters from
them? Do you throw them away? No, you wouldn't dare do that.
Do you ever get them out and look at them again? I kept every letter that meant
something to me. I've got nearly every letter you all wrote to
me. These are epistles to the Beloved
from Christ. We ought to look at them every
day. This is our Beloved. He's away from us. I mean, He's
with us. I don't know. It's a mystery. He's in heaven, but He's with
us in the Holy Spirit. And this is how we seek Him.
This is how we commune with Him. This is how He speaks to us.
People, He's not going to speak to you otherwise. You're not
going to speak peace to your heart otherwise. Not going to
do it. Not going to be an experience.
It's going to be right here. Right here. And right here. To
worship the house of God. You know, like we said, not half
a heart. God is with you if you're with
Him. You know what marriage means?
It means you want to be with that person. Stephen, when you drove to Nashville,
it wasn't too far to drive, was it? Jacob served seven years
for Rachel. Seven years! And he got Leah. He had served seven more. And
the Scripture says, it seemed like a few days. And he traveled
a long way to get her. Would you do it again? Why? You wanted to be with her, didn't
you? You loved her. And you want to be with her.
You still want to be with her? Why, there you sit. That's marriage. And that's the
union with Christ. If it's not there, it's not there. A marriage will be with Him.
It will be with Him. Where is He? He's with His people. Always. You want to be with Him? He'll be with you if you're with
Him. Where is He? He's with His people. Always. Every time. No problem. Two or three. Just two or three.
I'll be there. You love Him? Yeah. I'll go where
He is. Be with Him. But if you forsake
Him, He'll forsake you. Nehemiah. And I can't even describe
what it means to be forsaken of God, except look at Christ
on the cross. Why has thou forsaken me? That's
hell. And you know what? If we go whoring,
so to speak, if we go out in the world, and people, God is
not, if you're with the people of the world, You're not with them. He said,
come out from among them. Be you separate. I'll be with
you. With His people in fellowship and worship. But, you know, there
are times when we Forsake him. We do. Thankfully,
it's just temporary. Backsliding, call it what you
will, but we... Like if Ephesus lose their first
love and he, oh... And you know what? He'll make
you feel like he's forsaken you. And you need to be. You need
to feel that way. He'll make you feel like David said, I'm
cast out. His mercy is a clean gong. You
ought to feel like that, David. Why did you forsake your Lord?
Why did you go after that? And we all do that, don't we?
And we need to feel that. We need to feel His frown. He'll turn His back on you. He'll frown on you. Yes, He will.
But here's the good news. He'll be with you if you're with
Him. Always. And I can't, you know, somebody
leaves. This is why, you know, you still
have hope as long as the Gospel is preached. You still have hope.
We still preach and we still tell them, come back, come back.
But our Lord said, if you forsake Me. So it's a serious thing. It's a serious thing. And that usually starts by forsaking
the assembly of ourselves together and so on and so forth. Prayer,
reading, hearing, and so forth. God will be with you. The Lord
is with you while you be with Him. And He'll be found of you
if you seek Him or if you forsake Him. May the Lord not let that
happen. Stand with me. Our Lord, how we thank You for
Your Word. It is everything to us. It is Your voice. It is Your
power. It is our strength. It is our
comfort and our hope. Because it is your power. Because this is the way you speak
to us. This is the way you deal with
us. This is the way you reprove, rebuke, correct, instruct, chasten. This is how you comfort, console,
encourage. This is how you give life. This is how you strengthen. This
is how you build us up. This is how you lead us and guide
us and direct us and teach us. Oh Lord, Your Word. How wonderful
is it and how sinful we are that we don't esteem it as we should,
that we don't use it and seek You in Your Word as we should.
Oh Lord, cause us to seek You with all our hearts, with all
our souls. Cause us to call on You, pray
without ceasing, commune with Thee. Walk and talk with our
dear Lord. O Lord, we want to be with You.
We want You to be with us. Be with us, O Lord, we pray.
Leave us not. Leave us not to ourselves. Leave
us not. Let us not forsake Thee. If we do, Lord, call us back.
Bring us back. Turn us and we'll be turned. It's in Christ's name we pray
and ask these things. Amen.