Let's open our Bibles to Revelation
chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. This is the last book of the Bible
as a divinely given name. It is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It is the unveiling of our Savior. We know that Christ Jesus, the
Son of God, came into this world as the Savior of His people. He was indeed appointed to and
assigned to, commissioned to, do the work of redemption to
save His people from their sins. Our God in the covenant of grace
gave to His Son a people from every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue to be the recipients of His sovereign grace and mercy
Now, all of God's elect fell in Adam's transgression, as did
all of the non-elect. And since the justice of God
demanded death for sin, the Son of God left heaven above. He
joined Himself to our flesh. And as the God-man, He gave Himself
a ransom for our sins. And before he died, he showed
himself to be worthy as the sacrifice and as the substitute. He lived
a life of perfection before God's law. And then, in that hour appointed
from old eternity, he gave his life a ransom, the scripture
says, for many. He faced God's wrath. He faced
God's judgment. He endured all the condemnation
that all of his people would have had to have endured. And
the Savior finished the work of redemption, even as he said,
it is finished or it is accomplished. We know that the sacrifice of
the Son of God answered the question to that age-old dilemma, how can God be just
and justify the ungodly? You see, the only way that God could ever
justify us That is, the only way He could make us righteous was to find a suitable substitute
to die in our stead. And then all of the sins of all
of God's people had to be transferred over to His account. You see,
He had no indebtedness of His own. He had no sins for which
to answer. He never transgressed God's law, but all of the sins and all of
the transgressions of God's people, they were put to his account
even before the world was made. Our Lord Jesus was therefore
answerable to divine justice for our transgressions and for
our sins. I know that there is a verse
in the book of Proverbs that says, Proverbs 17, 15 says, He
that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just,
even they both are abomination to God. But God can do what we
can't do. And so we read in Romans chapter
4 that God justifies the ungodly. Yes, even somebody who is ungodly
like you are, like I am. Though we're miserable, fallen
sinners alienated from God by our sinfulness, yet God found
the way whereby he could satisfy his justice. He could give honor
to His law that demanded death for sin, and at the same time,
save us. And He didn't reduce the demands
of the law. He didn't compromise God's law. Everything the law demanded,
the law got. It got perfection, and it got
the penalty for sin, which is death, and it got it from the
Lord Jesus Christ. He died the death that we would
have died except our Lord satisfied divine justice, which we could
never do that. That's why hell is forever. Those
who perish in hell have to suffer the consequences of sin forever
and ever because man can't satisfy the demands of God's justice.
But the Lord Jesus did. He did do that. He could do that
because of who He was. He's the God-man. You say, how
could the death of that single man, one man, how could His death
avail for the salvation, for the reconciliation, for the righteousness
of, for the removal of all the sins of those for whom He died? How could one death do that?
It's because of whose death it was. It's the death of the Son
of God. who died instead of his people.
Now, having died for us, having answered every demand of divine
justice, our Lord died, he was buried. He arose again the third
day and forty days later he ascended back to heaven. Now, three questions
therefore arise. Number one, where is he now? Number two, what is he like? Number three, what is he doing? What is he doing? Where is he? What's he like? What's he doing? Now we know he's in paradise.
Scripture says that. He told that believing thief,
he said, today you'll be with me in paradise. He's at the Father's
right hand. When our Savior breathed His
last, when He died, He immediately went into the presence of God.
He didn't go to burning hell. All the suffering of our Lord
Jesus on the behalf of His people, He suffered on the cross. When
He died, His suffering ended. For all was finished as God would
have them to be done. And he went back to heaven. He went to paradise. And then
he was there to welcome the thief who believed on him as soon as
he breathed his last, as soon as the soldiers broke his legs
and he died. Our Savior was there to welcome
his redeemed soul in the glory. We know that being in heaven,
being in paradise, our Lord Jesus according to Hebrews chapter
6 and verse 19 and Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24, He has entered within
the veil. That is, into the most holy place
in heaven. He has gone into the veil, into
the immediate presence of God, there to represent us as our
advocate and as our mediator, as our representative indeed.
There he is standing for all of his chosen ones. He isn't
begging God to save us. God will save us because the
sacrifice that he demanded is now seated at his own right hand. He looks to the Lord Jesus now
as He's always looked to the Lord Jesus for the satisfaction
of His law in order to save His people. And our Father, the Heavenly
Father, looks at His Son seated at His right hand. He sees those
five wounds that He took, that He bore upon the cross of Calvary
that He received. And the Father says, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. And He abides
in the presence of God. There is a man in glory. And
because He's in glory, those that that man, Christ Jesus,
redeemed, we shall... That's where He is. He's within
the veil. He's in paradise. Well, what's
He doing? Well, we know He's our advocate. But we also know that since He
is in the presence of God, He is invisible to these eyes. In fact, we read in 1 Timothy
1.17, Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. He's
invisible. But in the book of The revelation
He has revealed Himself. See, this is the unveiling of
Jesus Christ. He is indeed the King Invisible. But He made an appearance to
John. You read for us John's description
of how He looks. Where is He? He is in glory.
He's in the midst. He's in glory in the very presence
of God. And in the book of the Revelation,
we find out what He's like. What He looks like. Now this
is, of course, what He read to us is in very symbolic language.
And it is intended to manifest to us this understanding that
He is absolutely great and glorious. He is more powerful than you
can ever imagine. He has all knowledge of all things. He is indeed the triumphant Son
of God and Son of Man. And in this book of Revelation,
He is revealed. And we not only see what He is
like, But we see where He is by His Spirit. He's in the midst
of His churches. John saw Him that way. That's
what He read to us. He's in the midst of His people.
Wherever the Lord's people are, our Lord Jesus is present with
us by His Spirit. Now, as far as His bodily presence,
He has a real body, doesn't He? He still has a real body. There
will never be any divorce of our humanity and divinity. There will never be any divorce
between the God-man. And as the God-man, as the man
Christ Jesus, He's in heaven. As God, He's everywhere. We call
that omnipresent. And John sees Him in the midst
of his churches. What's he doing in the midst
of his churches? Well, as we get into the second
chapter, we see, look at verse 1 of Revelation chapter 2. Look at verse 1. Under the angel
of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth
the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. Now when our brother read to
us from chapter 1 and verse 13, he just saw him in the midst
of the churches. And now John says, he's in the
midst of his churches, he's walking. In other words, he's active in
the midst of his churches. Now what is he like? Very descriptive
language that's been set forth for us. His head and his hair
white as snow. He's the Ancient of Days. Reminds
us of the passage in Deuteronomy chapter 33. The everlasting God
is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. He's
the Ancient of Days. He's the everlasting God. That's
what's meant by his white hair. He has eyes as a flame of fire
which pierce through hypocrisy. They see all things, they look
through pretend religion, and the Lord sees us as we are today. We may impress one another with
our religiosity, but He sees us as we really are. He has feet
of brass to trample His feet underneath Him. His voice is
the sound of many waters. His voice is the gospel. The
gospel that gets our attention. The gospel that arrests us. This
message of good news. The good news of Christ Jesus
and Him crucified. This is a message that has captured
our hearts. It says the voice of many waters. His preachers are in his right
hands, what John says. Out of his mouth goes a sharp
two-edged sword. His word kills the wicked and
protects the righteous. And John says his countenance
is as the sun shining in his strength. He's the brightness
of God's glory. He's the one who enlightens our
darkened hearts. And John sees him walking in
the midst of the churches. Seven churches, seven golden
candlesticks. And we've said this number seven
symbolic number for completion. These seven churches represent
all of the church of God. He's always with His people.
He's with His people to encourage us. He's with His people to rebuke
us when we need it. He's with His people to correct
us. He's with His people to draw us unto Himself. He's with His
people to reveal to us His glory as we read His Word, as we preach
His Gospel. He's with us to manifest to us
the brilliance of His deity, His almighty strength, That He's
everything that we need? Indeed, the Bible says we are
complete in Christ Jesus. He's with us to show us that.
He's with all of His people to say to each of us, I'm all you
need. People today, they... kind of
rely upon their stocks and bonds or maybe their retirement or
their bank account, their savings account. And the Lord Jesus says
to us, I'm your refuge. I'm the one you need. Not these
other things. You know, the Lord has a way
of taking these other things away from us to where we're made
to realize, indeed, He is all I need because He's all I've
got. The saints. In these seven churches
of Asia Minor, these are poor folks, most of them with the
exception of the church of Laodicea. They didn't have much of this
world's goods, but they were rich. They were rich in grace. They were rich in mercy. They
were rich in all the blessings of Christ Jesus. This is our
Savior. He's always with His people.
He said, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. And as we go through the book
of the Revelation, vision by vision, seven visions, the Lord
Jesus, He always reminds us, I'm always a companion of My
people. The Lord has not promised to
any of us a rose-strewn pathway. He has never said to any of us,
you're going to have an easy road to heaven. Now, I know all
of God's people, we have entered into the way of salvation which
is Christ Jesus. So we all get to glory, we all
get to the Father, we all receive salvation the same way, by grace
through the Lord Jesus Christ. But as far as our earthly journey,
as far as our individual pilgrimages, they are all different. They
are all different. And it is a fact that some of
God's people walk through greater outward trials than others do. Whatever it is that God sends
you through, whatever path He puts you on, and I've said this
before, and I'm speaking to the people of God now, if there was
a better path for you to be on, your Heavenly Father would have
you on it. Because He always has your best interest at heart.
He always knows best. He deals with us in infinite
wisdom. And the road that you're on is
not the same road I'm on. And the things that I have to
face are not the things that you'll have to face. But this
is what we have in common. The Savior is with us. Whatever
we have to face, whatever we have to deal with, and we're
just pilgrims going home, as she just said, this is what we
can take hope of. This is what we can draw near
to our hearts. This is what we can embrace.
This is what we can rely on. My Savior who redeemed me is
always with me. And that brings strong consolation
to the hearts of God's people. So here are the seven churches.
And our Lord is walking in the midst of them to tell us this,
that He's always with His people wherever His people are. whether
we're meeting as a congregation. And there are congregations of
believers meeting all over the world today. And you know what?
Christ Jesus is with each of the other groups that are meeting,
even as He's with us today, because He's omnipresent. By His Spirit,
He's with us this morning. He abides with us. He said, Lo,
I'm with you always. I'm never going to leave you.
I'm never going to forsake you. Your mother and your father may
forsake you, but I'll never do that to you. He has been forsaken
of His heavenly Father in order that we would never be forsaken.
And He'll never leave us alone. Now these seven churches, They
represent, as I've already said, they represent all of the people
of God. But they don't describe the church
of our Lord Jesus in seven different eras or seven different ages. But rather they describe for
us the conditions which exist in the church at any given time. So as we go through these churches,
and I'm going to break away from my Elijah message this evening,
and I'm going to divide this one message of the seven churches
into two messages this morning and tonight. But here's what
I want us to see. The conditions that existed in
these seven churches, they still exist at any given time within
a local congregation and even among the individual members
of the congregation. And there may exist within a
congregation evidences or conditions that
existed in more than one church of these. Because there may be
some in here this morning who, like the church at Ephesus, you've
left your first love. And there may be some in here
this morning who are like the church at Laodicea. You're neither
cold nor hot and the Lord's ready to spew you out of His mouth.
We can have all kinds of conditions in here this morning because
we're all different. But that which we do have in
common is this, we have the same Savior who is always with us. Now the seven letters follow
a general pattern. I'll just give this to you briefly.
There's always a greeting to each of these seven letters,
and like I said, it applies to all of the church of God. There's
always a greeting to the angel of the church in whatever the
city is. Then there's always a brief description
of Christ Jesus. Most of the time, that description
is taken from what you read for us in chapter 1. Although in
a couple of instances, there's something new brought in about
our Savior. Thirdly, there's always, if there
is any commendation to be made, there's a commendation for faithfulness
and good works. And then fourthly, there is a
condemnation of glaring sins if there is a condemnation to
be made. And in all of them there is a
word of warning. And in each of them the Spirit of God speaks
to us and says, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And
there is always the promise of victory to God's people who overcome. Let's look at the church at Ephesus.
This is in chapter 2, verses 1-7. Chapter 2, verses 1-7. Under the angel of the church
of Ephesus' right. Ephesus was founded by the apostle
Paul. He spent more time there than
he spent anywhere else. He spent three years there according
to Acts chapter 20. under the angel to the minister
to the pastor of the church of Ephesus' right. These things
saith he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who
walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." And then
our Lord has some words of commendation. He says, I know thy works. I know thy works. You know, the
Bible teaches the necessity of good works. But these good works
are not done by God's people to merit salvation, but they're
good works that are done on account of salvation. That is, God saves
us by His grace, and the result is good works. And these good
works have been ordained of God. Ephesians 2, 8-10 says, For by
grace he is saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
Good works don't save us, they're the evidence of salvation. My
works have nothing to do with my standing and my relationship
with God. Do you understand that? Your
works have nothing to do with your standing and your relationship
to God. However, your standing with God,
your relationship with God, will have a lot to do with your works.
Isn't that right? That will have a lot to do with
your works. You seek to do those things that are honoring to God,
beneficial to the people of God, and consistent with the Word
of God. Now, the Lord says to this church,
I know. I know. And that's sufficient. You see,
people of God, we don't do our works to be seen of men, for
if we do, and men applaud us, For the works that we've done,
then Matthew chapter 6 says, then we've received our reward.
We do our works for the glory of God. They have nothing to
do with our relationship with the Lord. But the Lord says,
I know your works. I know thy labor. This was a
church that was busy. How did they labor? I would take
this labor as they were busy laboring in the gospel. Preaching
the Word of God? This was their labor. Listen,
we have a work to do as a congregation. We have a labor in which to be
involved. And it's the labor of preaching
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a labor that
God has given to us. It's a wonderful labor. And we
don't get tired of doing it. And He says, not only do I know
thy works and I know thy labor, but I know thy patience. I know
you're a patient people." And we've talked about the conditions
that existed back then, how these people suffered for the cause
of Christ Jesus, how they lost much of what they had, many of
them lost their lives, and yet our Lord, who was in the midst
of the church at Ephesus, He said, I know you're patients.
I know many of you have been patient under tribulations. Patient
under trial, patient under trouble, you recognize this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning me? The Lord says, I know. And then He said, and I know
this, I know how thou canst not bear with them that are evil.
In fact, He said, you put them to the trial, those who say they're
apostles and are not, you found them to be liars. In other words,
the Lord says, I know you've stood for the truth. You remember
in Acts chapter 20 when the Apostle Paul called for the elders of
the church at Ephesus? And he met with them. And then
he said, for the space of three years, I warned you day and night. He said, I know that after I
leave, grievous wolves are going to come in. That's what he warned
them about. You remember reading that in Acts chapter 20? He said,
not sparing the flock. He said, you be on guard. He
said, I commend you to the Word of God's grace. And now many
years later, many years later, it's the same church at Ephesus.
Their pastor is Timothy. He's been their pastor. And the
Lord says to them, you've stood for the truth. Those grievous
wolves came in and they didn't tolerate them. They didn't put
up with them. People came in preaching error.
They said, no, that's not what we believe. We believe the gospel
of substitution. We believe the message of grace.
We're not going to put up with these false prophets and you
wolves. Just get out of here. They drove
them out. And our Lord commends them. You took a stand for the
truth. You've not backed down. Isn't
that wonderful for a congregation to be like that? Now I know that
the only way we can stand is by the grace of God. The only
way we can oppose error is by the Lord being with us. But God uses us and in a merciful
way, He commends the congregation for doing that. And I think about
this congregation that has stood all these years. You've stood
against error. You stood against all the heresies
that are around you. I think about your labor. I think about your works. You are like these folks here
and the Lord Jesus said, you have done well. By His grace you have done well.
He even says this in verse 3, you've borne and has patience,
and for my name's sake you've labored, you haven't fainted.
You've never stopped. All those years that had gone
by since the Apostle Paul established that church in Ephesus, when
he stayed there three years teaching them the Word of God, just getting
it ingrained into their hearts and in their minds, and the Spirit
of God blessed the Word, to teach these people and raised up several
elders. And when little groups met together,
those elders led them in teaching the Word of God. The Lord says,
I know you haven't fainted. Don't be weary and don't faint. And the Lord says, you haven't
fainted. That's a good commendation. You hadn't fainted. You hadn't
grown weary and well doing. However, after the commendation,
here comes the condemnation for glaring sin. And nobody can see
this but the one who has all penetrating eyes. Somebody who
is right in the midst. He says, nevertheless, I have
someone against you. I see a problem. The Lord, we've
been working, we've been laboring, we've had patience, we haven't
put up with error. The Lord said, that's wonderful. But you know, the Lord doesn't
see as man sees. See, we look on the outward appearance.
God looks on the heart. I have this against you. You've
left your first love. You've left your first love. Your sweetheart love for Christ
Jesus. This is a problem. Others didn't
see it. Because you see, we cannot see
each other's hearts. You can't see that. I can see
openly standing for the gospel. When you do that, I can see that.
When you labor in giving out CDs and DVDs and attending here
to listen to the gospel of God's grace, I see that. And when you
don't moan and groan and complain and fuss all the time about the
trials of life and you're patient when God sends troubles to you,
I can perceive that as well. But what I can't see and what
you can't see is anybody's heart. And you see this love flows out
of the heart. And the Lord says, this is my
problem with you. You're active. You're busy, you're
giving, you're laboring, you're working, you're preaching, but
you've left your first love. That's the problem. Are any of
us in that way this morning? Is that the condition of some
of us? Why do people leave their first
love of the gospel? You remember your first love
of the gospel. You're so excited, so thrilled. I've been communicating with
several people this week, of course, as I always do, and I
was communicating with this dear lady from another country. And
she wanted to post my sermons on Facebook. And I guess it's
on some kind of site where they have a bunch of people, a group
on Facebook, and they blocked the sermon. They blocked the
sermon. Because of its awful contents,
what they said. But she's laboring, trying to
get the Word of God out, as we're trying to get the Word of God
out. But here comes a problem. Lost the first love. That first
love to get the gospel out like she was doing. Do you remember
that? Do you remember when you first learned the gospel, you
couldn't wait to go tell somebody about it? I've got to tell somebody. I've just, oh, this is so wonderful,
this is so glorious. All of my sins are forgiven.
I made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. The Lord accepts
me in the Son of God. I've got to tell my neighbor,
I've got to tell my mom, I've got to tell my dad, I've got
to tell everybody. I'm so in love with the Savior. You lose your first love. It
isn't that you don't love Him anymore. Why do people lose their
first love? I can't tell you all the reasons.
I can tell you, as I perceive it, I can tell you what the problem
is, mainly. It's because something gets in
the way of the love. Something gets in the way. Maybe
the things of the world, possessions, maybe worldliness itself. Our Lord says, you're busy. But that love that was like a
bottle of fire, It's beginning to cool off. And the Lord says now, look at
verse 5, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent. Go back to the first verse, go
back to the way it used to be. And you say, I remember how it
used to be, but I never missed a service. I never missed a service. And I know, I've just got so
busy. See, things like that creep in.
I tell you, one of the things that I've observed as a pastor,
from pastoring 45 years, it's what I've observed. I'll see
people who are there every service. Man, you just count on them. You know they're going to be
there. And all of a sudden, they get so busy and then I just can't
come on Wednesday nights anymore. And then it's, I can't come on
Sunday nights anymore. I can't come to Bible class anymore.
And then they'll miss a Sunday morning or two. But I'm just
so busy. I'm so busy. We get, our life
gets so cluttered. And our lives, we got a lot of
stuff going on, don't we? Got a lot of stuff going on in
life. But you gotta die. You've got to face God. I'm always worried when somebody
says, I just don't have time, preacher. I just don't have time. God might take all your time
away from you. He might take all your time away
from you. Losing the first love. Losing
your love for the Word of God. You remember how you used to
love to read the Word of God? and you're looking for Christ
Jesus. I can't wait to read. I'm reading through the book
of Romans now, preacher. I've had people tell me, I'm
reading this devotional now. But now, I can't quite find the
time to read the Scriptures like I used to. I used to read good
books that I'd get out of the library, out of the bookstore,
things that have to do with the gospel of Christ Jesus. But I'm so busy now reading other
things. I'll tell you what's happening.
You're losing your first love. It's a great danger. Because
he says, now, you've got to repent. Let's go back to the beginning. Or else. Did you see that in
verse 5? Or else. I remember my dad, he'd correct
me for something. He'd say, now you better do it
or else. I don't want the or else. The
or else is never pleasant. The Lord says, now you do this.
Or else. Or else. I'll come to you quickly. I'll remove your candlestick, except you repent. I know that God will do His work. He is sovereign in all things. And I also know that you and
I have some responsibilities that are quite heavy. And He
says, now you better repent and do the first works or else I'll
take your candlestick away. That is what He says, isn't it?
See, we're sovereign grace people. We think, well, we have no responsibilities. That's not right. That's incorrect. We have great responsibilities.
God has given to us the gospel of His grace. We hold on to the
gospel. We believe this Savior. We follow
this Savior. We love this Savior. We read
the Savior's Word. Because we don't want or else
to happen. I didn't want him to take away
the candlestick. But he says this in verse 6,
but this thou hast. You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans
which also have. In other words, God says, you
hate what I hate. And I'll tell you that's commendable.
For us to hate what God hates and love what God loves. The
Nicolaitans, they professed to believe a few things, but they
were ungodly and immoral. And he says, Now he that hath
an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to his
churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree
of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. What
is the tree of life? That's Christ Jesus Himself.
The one we feed on now is the one we'll feed on in glory. You
see, the diet of the believer, the diet of the believer in heaven
is no different than the diet of a believer on earth. We feed
on Jesus Christ because He's all. Everything is wrapped up
in Him. Our worship there will be perfect.
Our worship there will be sinless. Our worship there will be uninterrupted. But it will be the same sort
of worship that we do here. What are we seeking to do here?
Exalt God and put all flesh down. Isn't that right? That's what
we seek to do here. and in glory will feast on the
Lord Jesus Christ. How is it with you, love? I tell you, this is an important
thing because the Scripture says, if anybody loved not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Our Lord Jesus, after
His resurrection, before His ascension, He met with His apostles,
And specifically, he singled out Simon Peter and he said,
Simon, son of Jonas, yes, Lord, lovest thou me more
than these? Not more than these other apostles,
but more than your fish and more than your your livelihood, more
than anything down here. Do you love me? See, the Lord's
issue with the church at Ephesus was He saw a departure, a waning
of their love. That's dangerous. That's dangerous. Is He all in all to you? Is He
everything to you? Does He have all the preeminence?
I know He has preeminence in glory. I know He's got preeminence
in this book. He's got preeminence in our message. He's got preeminence in our congregation. Does He have preeminence with
you? I want Him to, don't you? I want
Him to. And I want this first love. I
want Him to stir the flames again. Stir those old coals. Don't let
them go out, Lord. Those coals. I want it to be
a flame of fire for Your glory. For as I worship God, as I exalt
Christ Jesus, as I am wrapped up in His majesty and in His
person and in His work, that will benefit me. I'll be blessed
because of that. I'll be blessed with the worship
of my Savior. So, that's the warning of Ephesus. Now, tonight, I'm not even going
to give an introduction. I'm just going to pick right
up and go right on through and cover the other six churches.
Let's sing a song. I believe it's whiter than the
snow. 310. 110 lighter than snow. Let's stand
together. Just as I long to be perfectly
whole, I want Thee forever to live in my soul. Break down every idol, cast out
every foe, now wash me and Thou shalt be whiter than snow. Wider than snow, yes, wider than
snow! Now watch me and I shall be wider
than snow! I. Thou wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow Just for this I most humbly entreat. I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy
crucified feet. By faith for my cleansing I see
Thy blood flow. Thou wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow Thou wash me
and I shall be whiter than snow Jesus, Thou seed, as I patiently
wait, Come now and within me a new heart create. To those who have sought Thee,
Thou never say'st no.