The book of Ezra, chapter 9. I'll give you a minute to find it. It's
hard to find. It's right after 2 Chronicles. Kings 1 and 2 Chronicles Ezra. I don't believe we could hear
a more important message, a more relevant message, more pertinent
message for our day. And this one. Strange sometimes how messages
come, they always must be from God's word or else it's not a
message from God. But I have been thinking about
That passage that speaks of a lot being vexed with a conversation
of the wicked and I quoted that once or twice in the past couple
of weeks. And that made me look at that
portion of Genesis 19 and if you run references it will take
you to another passage and then to another passage and then to
another one and I ended up in Ezra. And I couldn't get away
from it. And so that's what we want to
look at tonight. I believe, as I said, this is
so important. I believe we face great danger
in this generation, our children also. And so this is so vital. The story of the children of
Israel. is the story of all of God's people. Children of Israel
were God's elect, or at least the nation was, and some of those
people were his true spiritual people, God's elect. They were
called saints. Saint is a good name for God's
people. That's what he calls them, one
of the best names that can be used referred to God's people. Saints means sanctified ones. That means set apart. Those that
have been set apart, separated by God, made to differ from the
rest, from other people. Saints, set apart, consecrated. That's what sanctified means.
Set apart unto God to be holy. For God's Use for God's glory. Reserve. Preserve. Separated. The title of this message is
a separated people. Separated people. I want to be
one of those. And I want you to be also. And
our children. Separated. Now, what does that
mean? Look at Ezra chapter 9, verse
1 says, Now when these things were done, That is, the orders
for the house of God and so forth. The princes, the rulers and leaders
came to me, that's Ezra speaking, saying, the people of Israel
and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves
from the people of the Lamb. Separate means, as I said, set
apart. Set apart. Who or what is it
that separates God's people from the world? Well, I just answered
it. It is God which maketh us to
differ. It is God who maketh thee to
differ, the scripture says. It's God. He said in Exodus 11,
he said that they might know that the Lord did put a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel. Who maketh us to differ? And
what do we have that we have not received? God's people have
been chosen in Christ by God, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God to be holy and without blame before him in love. They've
been set apart By God, his choice had been set apart by Christ,
his blood. Like the children of Israel in
Egypt with the blood over their doorpost, God passed by or passed
over them in mercy, sparing them. Why? They were sinners. The blood, when I see the blood,
they're set apart by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, Christ
in you, the hope of glory, born of God, separated from a God
hating, God forsaken world, set apart by God to save, to spare. That's why. God's word separates
God's people. The word of truth. God's word
separates a people from a world that turns away their ears from
the truth, undefabled. A world that receives not the
love of the truth, but would rather believe a lie. But God's
people are sanctified by that truth, set apart by that truth,
the truth about God. All of God's people know who
God is. All of God's people know the truth about themselves, about
man. All of God's people know the truth about Christ, that
he's their only Lord, only Savior, only Messiah, only Mediator,
only Redeemer, the only way, the only truth, the only life.
their only righteousness, their only hope, their only salvation. All of God's people know that.
They've been set apart from the rest of the world who doesn't
know that. Christ said to the father in his prayer in John
17, he said, I have given them thy word, and the world hath
hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world. He said, sanctify them through
thy truth. Set them apart from the world.
Thy word is true. One time, the disciples were
asking him questions before he was about to leave. They were
all concerned, remember? And Philip said, show us the
way. Christ said, I am the way. And Thomas said, we don't know
the way. And the Lord said, I am the way.
And who was it that said, Lord, how are you going to manifest
yourself to us and not to the world? And the Lord said, in
short, he said, the word. The word will set you apart,
will make you a believer in a world full of unbelief. We're separated
by God, set apart by God. We're separated by the word of
truth, sanctified, set apart from a world that doesn't receive
it, that hates it. We're separated by choice. Look at Ezra 6, Ezra chapter
6. Now, it started back here, Ezra
chapter 6. Do you know the story of Ezra
and the people that were in captivity and how that the Lord led a pagan
king named Cyrus? I believe Cyrus knew the Lord
eventually. I believe he did. I believe the
Lord, and he's a great type of Christ, Cyrus is. King of Persia. And the Lord led this man to
bring many of the Jews out of captivity that were in Babylon.
Captives in Babylon, as prophesied by Jeremiah and others. And Cyrus,
this king, made a decree that whoever wanted to go back to
Jerusalem and begin building the walls and building the temple
and to worship God and live there and worship God, in peace could
do so. And boy, a lot of people took
him up on that. And Ezra was a scribe, and Old Zerubbabel
built the house and others. But look at Ezra 6, verse 21. Children of Israel, which were
come again out of captivity. Again, they'd been taken captive
before. and they sinned against the Lord
and the Lord gave them over and they were captives again and
again. Well, the children of Israel which were come again
out of captivity and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness
of the heathen of the land. Why did they separate themselves?
Well, from the filthiness of the heathen of the land to seek
the Lord God of Israel. and to have they did eat, they
came and partook of the sacrifice. Separated by choice, those that
separated themselves. And I told you where this began,
how this began. Chosen by God, whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate. And whom he predestinated, he
called, called by the word of God, set apart, called out by
the word of God, and justified. And they live, they're justified
by faith. James said, Show me your faith without your works,
I'll show you mine by my work. Separated by choice. God's people
are made willing, and it is God that worketh in them, both the
will and the do of his good pleasure. But they choose to worship the
Lord because he chose them. Peter said this, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Now, what do you mean, save yourself,
Peter? We can't save ourselves. Whatever that means, he said,
do it. Save yourself. Put yourself, put your children,
put all your concerns about under the sound of the saving message,
the word of life, the gospel, and don't take them out for money.
Don't be out for money. Save yourself. Turn from. Paul wrote
this. Paul said, be not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers. Come out from among them and
be ye separate. Now the children of Israel. Now
here's a story. Go back to Ezra 9. The children
of Israel serve as a warning to us all. And we've had some
happy news in the last few days, haven't we? Word of life, that's what
we've heard. We watched a young lady Confess
Christ, it's just been a good time. I'm glad of that. That
may be tempered the way that I bring this message. It's a
very sobering message, a very solemn message, a message to
warn us. And if that can be done in a
kind way, good. But the children of Israel serve
as a warning to us all of what will befall us If we fall in
with this world, this God-forsaken world, if we fall in with it,
what will befall us? The children of Israel are a
good example of that, a bad example of that. Serve as a warning. Verse 1 says, they had not separated
themselves from the people of the land. Verse 1 says, doing
according to their abomination. Now these were the professing
people of God, and they were doing according to the abominations
of the people of these so on and so forth, Canaanites, Egyptians,
and so forth. Turn with me to Romans chapter
1. Romans 1. Let's just read this
again. I read it again today and just
stopped and considered everything that was said, and what a picture this is. Second
Corinthians three or Second Timothy three. The last day's perilous
time, this is. A clear description. Of the people
then and now, these Egyptians and Haibites and parasites and
parasites, Jebusites, all of them. They were a godless, lawless
people of the world described here in Romans one. Look at it,
verse twenty eight. They did not like to retain God
in their knowledge. They were a people who prided
themselves in what they knew. They were a modern, civilized,
so-called day, generation. Verse 22 says they professed
themselves to be wise, but they were fools. Why? Because a fool
has said, no God. It's a fool who doesn't acknowledge
God in whom he lives and moves and had his being. God, in verse
28, is not in all their thoughts. God, they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, so God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, a mind void of judgment. That's what that means. Without
good sense. Unable to, we're going to see
in a minute, it means confusion of face. To do those things which
are not convenient. polite word, really, for those
things which are absolutely degrading and damning. Look at verse 29.
It said they're filled with all unrighteousness. Whatever wickedness
they could practice, they practiced it. They had no conscience of
evil at all. Fornication, be filled with fornication. People, the United States of
America, is absolutely given over to sex. I mean, it's absolutely given
over, isn't it? Don't become used to this. Don't
become accustomed to it. Don't get caught up in it. Everything
you see and hear all around you is horrible. Fornication is sex
outside of marriage. God forbids it. God condemns
it. He says the consequences of it
can be very severe. There's no promise that someone
who breaks, as a matter of fact, God has promised that if you
do break this continually, you will suffer the consequences
of it. The diseases of the Egyptians were diseases that God put upon
them for having total disregard of his law. And this country
is given over to it and it's acceptable. It's the norm. Young people, save yourselves from this untold
regeneration. Old people, fornication, wickedness,
what's that? Anything and everything goes. These people that the Israelites
began to meld with were materialistic
people. All they thought about was things,
materialism. Now, this is now covetous, that
God, you see, covetousness is idolatry. Now, what we worship
is what we crave. Covetousness. Maliciousness.
Malicious. That do things for spite. Malicious
and mean. Mean. Or you don't. Full of envy. Very few selfless
people. Mostly envy and jealous. Murder. Murder predominates. uh, the
television and the novels and all of that, doesn't it? Murder. Debate. Arguers. Backtalkers. Gamesayers. Know-it-alls. Debate. Like nothing
better than to talk. Deceit. A bunch of liars. David said in his generation,
he said, I said in my haste, all men are liars. Now, all men
weren't liars. David wasn't. Jonathan wasn't. There were others that weren't.
But he said, I look around me, it just looks like everybody's
a liar. Can't trust anybody. That's now isn't it? Malignity. Malign people. Nothing like better than to bring
somebody's character down. Whisperers. Did you hear a Back biters. How you doing, brother? And then you turn around and
I turn on you. Haters of God. Despiteful. Proud. Boasters. Inventor of
evil things. Disobedient to parents. That
is unruly. Disobedient. Wild asses cult. Children. Without understanding.
Are you reading it with me? Verse thirty-one? Covenant breakers. Contract, covenant, whatever
doesn't mean a thing without natural affection. Homosexuality. Women just killing their children,
giving them up to strangers. Implacable, unmerciful. Knowing
the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are
worthy of Not only do it, but they're proud of it. That was 2,000 years ago, and
there are now 300 million people on the face of the earth. So
this is multiplied 1,000 times, 10,000 times. And that's what
happened to the world when God looked and all he saw was the
thoughts of man's imagination was only evil continually. He
says it repented me that I made man. I'm going to destroy him. And the time's coming. Well,
the sad part, and I go back to our text, the sad part was that
these professing believers, Israelites, were right in the middle of this. They were in the world. And they became like it. Our
Lord said of his disciples, I pray not that death to the father,
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world. But
thou should keep them from the evil. They are in the world,
but they're not. One can live in the world, we
must. We don't have to be like it. Apparently the children of Israel
became more and more insensitive to what was going on around them. Until they became immune to what
was going on around them. Until finally they started, these
God-haters, and these people that before they had nothing
in common with whatsoever, they began marrying them. And that's what this whole story
is about. You go all the way through Ezra and Nehemiah and
you'll see this story. Verse 2 says, They have taken
of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the
holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands. Go with me to Nehemiah chapter
13. Nehemiah 13. And I'm glad that some of our
young people, just a few of our young people are in here tonight.
I wish more were, but they're not. If there's one thing I've
heard my pastor warn us of more than anything else over the years,
as much as anything else since I was a young boy and all of
my friends and all of the young people in the church, was this. Don't get involved with and don't
marry. and unbelief. Or else if you. See evil communications
corrupt good manner. And rather than you influence
them it's generally the other way around. Like these people. Solomon. And his wives drew his
hard way. And I've seen it many times. That. Professing believers, male
and female, get involved with someone who does not know the
Lord and love the gospel. And before long, that person
is no longer under the gospel. Of course, that proves they never
were of us. Nevertheless, the warning's there.
If one is of the Lord, well, may the Lord have mercy. Sometimes
He does, but usually He doesn't. Usually that was because of this
warning. That's warning. Nehemiah 13. Look, it says they
mingled with people of the world and mingled the Holy See with
the people of the land. Here in Nehemiah 13, which is
a continuation of this story, really. Nehemiah is the speaker,
and he says in verse 23, In those days I saw that the Jews had
married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, of Moab. godless idolatrous people
and their children that came from them spake half in the speech
of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jewish language. According
to the language of each people, they didn't know God and didn't
know anything about God and weren't raised, didn't come to worship
God. And they talked like the world
and acted like the world and they were of the world. for that
reason. And no longer separate, but as
the Lord said, Ephraim was joined to his idols. Go back to Ezra
9 with me now. But now, Ezra, the true and faithful
preacher, the prophet, when he heard this, what was going on,
verse 3, look at it with me, verses 3 and 4, when I heard
this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle and plucked off
the hair of my head and my beard, shaved his head and his beard,
and sat down astonished, amazed, couldn't believe it, couldn't
believe that this was going on, that God's people were in the
midst of this. But he wasn't alone. There were
assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the
God of Israel. Our Lord one time said to this
man, To he that is poor and of a contrite heart and trembling
in my Word. All I'm doing right now is reading
God's Word, making a few comments. You saw how clearly this applies
to our generation. This is now. This applies to
us. Now everybody here that trembles,
Everyone who is assembled here together and trembles at the
word of God, verse four, because of the transgression of those
who have been carried away. I sat astonished, he said, till
the evening sacrifice. Everyone that trembled came to
hear Ezra. Ezra prayed for him. Everyone
that trembled assembled with Ezra to worship, to pray, to
entreat the Lord for his mercy upon them and for their children.
Is that why you're here? Is it? I mean, that's why we're
here. That's why we bring our children
against their young wills in hope that God will make them
willing and God will save them from this godless world. We raise our children up in the
fear and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Pray that God will
have mercy upon their soul. That's why we're here, haven't
we? I didn't want to come when I was young. I wanted to be out
and mingle with the people. But my parents faithfully brought
me. God blessed that, didn't He? God blessed that. I had a faithful
Ezra who warned me and warned all of us. God had mercy upon me. Gave me
a woman that loved the Lord. In fact, she knew the Lord before
I did. I don't think she would have been interested in me at
all unless the Lord made me interested in Him. I know she wouldn't. And I thank God for that and
mercy upon me and her through me. And I had a faithful Israel who warned
and warned and warned. who prayed for us, and said,
ìLord, have mercy.î Verse 5 and 6, Ezra, at the evening sacrifice,
he says, ìI arose from my heaviness, and having rent my garment and
my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto
the Lord my God, and I said, ìO my God, Now, here's a man who's saying
it from the depths of his heart, a prayer for mercy and salvation.
Oh, my God. When's the last time you've heard
that? We hear it every day by everyone
all over the land. How does it make you feel? I'm getting
tired of it. Aren't you? It's grieving me.
If you hear your children or anybody you love uttering that
name which is above every name, the only name given under heaven
whereby we must be saved, the only one who can save us, uttering
that name in such a blasphemous way, if you care for their soul,
you'll say something. There was an old man that I knew
years ago who worked in a body shop, a Buick dealership, and
he heard some men doing just that, taking God's name in vain.
After a while, he could take no more and went over right in
the middle of that group and said to them, fellas, if your
souls are kept out of hell, it'll be by that very name which you're
cursing right now. Got a lot of that. Got a lot
of that. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face
to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head,
and our trespass has grown up into the heaven." Now, Ezra prayed
for Israel. It's his nation, it's his people.
This is a godly man, isn't it? Compassionate man, man has feelings
like Paul. Remember Paul in Romans 9, Romans
10? He read it in Romans 10. Romans
9, he says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of my heart.
I can wish myself a curse for my kinsmen, my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flag, Israelite. And in Romans 10, he said, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. The United States of America
is all but gone, isn't it? To put somebody in, that would
be a restraint upon this ungodly For our children's sake. Adults
can handle it, you know. Hope well, maybe. By God's grace. But I'm ashamed, aren't you?
We all ought to be ashamed. Ezra took his part with the people.
Ezra was a sinner. Ezra was a preacher. Ezra was
blameless, brother. Brother Ed, Ezra was blameless.
Yet he took his part with these people. He hadn't maybe done
it, but he'd thought it. And all guilty. We're all guilty.
Aren't we? Guilty. Every mouth. Guilty.
And he took the blame with the people. And what a picture of
Christ Israel is here. Huh? Christ who is without sin. Christ who is holy, blameless,
separate from sinners. Separate. He was a friend of
the center, but he was separate. He wasn't like them. Right? But Christ, that very Christ,
who was without sin, was made sin. And those psalms, like Psalm
38, where he says, My loins are filled with a loathsome disease,
that's a messianic psalm. What's Christ talking? He was
made sin. And it vexed his righteous soul. And he said, I'm ashamed. I'm
ashamed as we did verse seven. He said, since the days of our
fathers, we've been a great trespass under this day. We've been sinners
from the beginning. Our fathers have, we're sons
of our father. Our iniquities, our kings and
priests have been delivered in the hand of the kings of the
land. As I said, I believe our nation has been given over to
the God of this world. I really believe it. This prince
of the power of the air, I believe, has total This nation is in captivity
completely. I'm convinced of it. And despoil, confusion of face. Religion is so confused and so
utterly, utterly confused. Natural men, the modern civilized
so-called civilized society now calls evil good and good evil.
Isaiah 59, the judgments turned way backward, backward, totally
backward, 180 degrees from what's right. What's wrong is 180 degrees. What's right, 180 degrees. Judgments
turned way backward, Isaiah said. Equity has fallen in the streets
and it cannot enter. People won't have it. And they
that depart from it are the prey. They're the ones people are after.
They're the ones people hate. The ones who just call God's
word the truth and just preach it and tell it what it says. Faces are called hate mongers, are called evil people. Oh, Lord, I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed.
But now look at this. But now, verse 8, for a little
space, grace has been shown up. I started to name this message,
the title of this message, Grace for a Little Space. Or that is,
for a little while, a moment in time, a few days, grace has
been showed from our Lord. The Lord has been gracious to
us right here. I feel supremely blessed to be
right here, right now with you. Honestly, not only to be in this
little town, which I think is a little bit behind the times,
which I think is real good, which has been spared from a great
deal of this mess, but more than that, to be out here on this
little hill, this little mountain, Mount Zion, in the midst of this
little brown tabernacle, where the people that tremble at God's
Word and assemble together to and treat the Lord with His mercy. There really aren't many. There
are a lot of people drawn near with their lips when their hearts
are far from them, the Lord said. A little space, just for a little
time, let's just last a little while. Grace has been showed us from
the Lord our God. Well, how does the Lord show
us grace? How has He shown us grace? Look at it, verse 8. He's left us a remnant to escape.
You know what salvation is? It's escape. That's what Peter said. He said,
God has given us these exceeding precious promises that by them
we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust. Escaped. That's what he means by to save
yourself from this untoward generation. Run to Christ, run to the refuge,
run to where the gospel is, run as fast as you can. He that believeth
shall make haste. That's what that means, shall
make haste. He that believeth shall not make haste, meaning
they'll wait on the Lord. But when it comes to this thing
of hearing the gospel. Barbara, you tell me this all
the time, you come here to get cleaned out. You come here as
an oasis. You come here, you run. Well,
you don't run here. But you get here. You got to come here. Got to
come. A little space. God has left
us a remnant to escape. A remnant. Look at this little
motley crew here. Look around. Look at this little
crew. Ain't much is it? How many wise men, not many mighty,
not many noble. But brethren, even at this present
time, they remain at the remnant according to the election of
grace. A remnant. I'll hang with a remnant
any day. Outside the camp, burying his
reputation. He's left us a remnant. That's
how God's shown us grace. Look at this. He's shown us grace
for a little space. by giving us a nail in his holy
place. You remember that message? A
nail in a sure place, a nail in his holy place, a nail. But
Sam, when you had that property you were surveying, what did
they drive in the corners? An iron spike. What they drove was a big old
iron spike. And it was recorded at the courthouse
that these lines had fallen under Samuel and Hannah Park's nail. This is theirs. This is their
portion. And it drove these spikes and
no bodies to remove it. And what is this nail in a sure
place that God has driven? that maintains our lot, that
ensures our portion, that no one can remove. Written with
a pen of iron in a rock or driven in a rock, what is this nail?
Would you like to guess? It is Christ. He is that nail
on the shirtline, and a nail that you can hang your soul on,
that you can invest and hang your family upon. He's given
us, this little group, a nail, a place where Christ is really
preached and Christ is really worshiped. It's a place you can
hang your eternal soul on and your family, your children, and
bring them here and rest, knowing that this is the message, this
is what God's going to use. Lord, you cast all our care upon thee,
our nail, in a sure play, in a holy play, in a holy play. How has God given us grace for
a little space? Verse 8 says that our God may
lighten our eyes. Lighten our eyes. The Word of God, as we said,
it separates us, opens our eyes at first. Like that new birth,
you know, it gives eyes. I told the story of you, Hannah,
on Sunday. Now, die and tell the whole story. I was talking
about your birth, how that when you were born your eyes were
closed and then I began to speak to you and you opened those eyes.
Boy, it was love at first sight for me. But the eyes are open. Lighten our
eyes. See, the world is sleeping the
sleep of death in the enchanted ground. Remember the story of the pilgrim
frog? God warned him, don't fall asleep
in that enchanted ground. It's a pleasant place, and you'll
think it's a nice place, and you'll just be at ease, and you'll
fall asleep. Man, you're in real trouble.
The Word of God keeps our eyes open to all that surrounds us
to show us what it really is, to keep us from falling for it. The Word of God opens our eyes
to the wolves, opens our eyes to sin, opens our eyes to the world and the riches that
are deceitful. The Word of God is the only thing
that will do that, keep your eyes open. You know that? The
Word of God is the only thing that will give you 20-20 vision. Lord, lighten our eyes lest we
sleep to sleep to death. That's my prayer. Grace is shown
when he gives us verse eight a little reviving in our bondage. Now we have been freed haven't
we? Christ said sin shall not have
dominion over you, you're not under love, you're under grace.
When the Son sets you free, you're free indeed. Yes we are, free.
The Lord's free people. Set us free, redeem us. There's a sense in which we're
still in bondage to the flesh. That's what the Scripture says,
a flesh lusts against the Spirit. We're in this tabernacle which
we cannot escape. Understand? We're in this body
of death. Paul said, I want deliverance.
I'm like a butterfly in a cocoon. Lord, I want out. Well, in time
you will. But there's everything, there's
a time. Now you serve your purpose as
a worm. Oh, Lord, I long to spread my
wings and fly into the face of the sun. Well, he gives us a
little reviving. And again, Barbara, this is why
we come here, too. We feel enlightened, don't we?
We feel our burdens have been lifted. We feel that We revive,
don't we? We feel refreshed. We feel revived.
We come in here dead. The world deadens us. The world
makes our feet dirty. The world fills our mind with
trash. The world just vexes us. And
we come in here to get, clean me up, wash me, forgive me again,
all over again. Lead me, put my feet back in
paths of righteousness, for thy name's sake. Lord, revive me
in the midst of these years. Lord, loosen me. You know, we're
kind of like old Lazarus. Lazarus was alive, wasn't he,
when he came out of the grave? He was alive. What did he have
on him? Grave clothes. And we come here
to have these grave clothes unwrapped. Just another, just unwrap something
else. Free me. You know, someday we're
going to be free from that. Lucy, let him go. Reviving, a little reviving.
So grace has been showed us for a little space there. Well, I
was going to go through this, all of this, but maybe we'll
continue another time. But I'm so thankful, and this
is my prayer, that the Lord will continue to show us grace for
a little space, grace unto us, our children, our grandchildren,
for his great namesake. So come thou with us, those of
you who tremble at his word, those of you who are ashamed
and vexed. This is a good place to be. Okay,
stand with me. Our Lord, Your Word is so quick, so powerful, it's so present. It speaks to this present
day. It's today. It's the day of salvation. Thou art the great I Am, so Thy
Word is always ever present. What applied to Your people of
old applies to us now. What you spoke to them, you now
speak to us. What they were in the midst of,
we are now in the midst of. What they struggled with, we
struggle with. There's no temptation taken us
at such as common demand. God, we thank you. Oh, my God,
we thank you that thou hast, with the temptation, made a way
that we can escape and bear it. And this is the way. Christ is
the way. Lord, keep us. and our children
looking to Thee. Lord, save us and our children
from this untoward generation. We need Thee now more than ever,
desperately. And this is our prayer and our
plea. Lord, forgive us of our sins. Order our steps according
to Thy Word and let no iniquity have dominion over us. Lord,
vex our souls with this with all that's around us and let
us not grow used to anything. And the only way this will be
is if we keep seeking thy faith. Lighten our eyes, Lord, by thy
Word, lest we sleep the sleep of death. It's in Christ's name
we're met here tonight. We pray these things. Amen.