Now let's look at the book of
Amos chapter 8. Amos chapter 8. The title of
this message, as I said, is A Famine of Hearing. A Famine of Hearing. And I took that title from verse
11 of Amos chapter 8, where the prophet Amos is speaking to the
people of Israel, says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread,
that's physical bread, nor a thirst for water, that is physical water. In fact, this land was prospering
economically at this time, agriculturally, but he says, a famine of hearing
the words of the Lord, a famine of hearing. Now, this eighth
chapter is the fourth vision that God gave to Amos. Remember I said last time, beginning
in verse chapter 7, that there were five visions that the Lord
gave to the prophet Amos for this nation. And the first three
visions were recorded in chapter 7. But here is the fourth vision. And it begins, first of all,
with showing in this vision how Israel is a nation that is ripe
for God's judgment. Look at verse 1. He says, Thus
hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, a basket of summer
fruit. Now that means it's ripe fruit.
That means it's fruit that will not keep long. This is indicative
of a time that is short for summer fruit. That's what Israel is.
Not able to be preserved. If it stays around any longer,
it's going to rot. It must be consumed immediately. So whatever he's talking about
in this vision, this nation is ripe for something. We'll look
at verse 2. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said,
a basket of summer fruit, And then said the Lord unto me, the
end is come upon my people of Israel. I will not again pass
by them anymore. Now that's what they're right
for, the judgment of God. God's just wrath against their
sins. And he says in verse 3, he says,
And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith
the Lord God. Their religion will not save
them. Their songs in the temple will not save them. Their prayers
will not save them. Their sacrifices will not save
them. Their ceremonies will not save
them. Their zeal will not save them. Their sincerity will not save
them. He said it's going to be a devastating
judgment. He says there shall be many dead
bodies in every place They shall cast them forth with silence."
In other words, they'll be silent. There'll be no more crying. It'll
be silence. Notice how he says, I will not
again pass by them anymore. When I think of that, God passing
by, the first thing that comes to my mind is Israel in Egypt,
in their bondage, And when God sent the plague of the death
of the firstborn of Egypt, remember He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. In other words, judgment will
not come to you if there's the blood on the door. And of course,
as you know, that blood represents the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God, who shed His blood on Calvary as the payment for the
sins of His people. The judgment of God came down
upon him so that God could and would pass over his people. But here God says, I will not
again pass by them anymore. This passing by is not a passing
over. This passing by is a passing
by in judgment. He says, the end has come upon
my people of Israel. This is it. This is the end. They're ripe for judgment. And
so, nothing they do, nothing they attempt, nothing they try
will save them from the wrath of God. And of course, the lesson
here in technicolor and in graphic description is that the only
way that any of us, any sinner, is going to escape the wrath
of God, the judgment of God, is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by His grace. That's it. looking to resting
in the cross of Christ so that the Lord would pass over us.
Now, in verse 4 through 6, he begins showing how they despised
the things of God. Listen to verse 4. He says, "'Hear
this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor
of the land to fail.'" He's talking about dishonesty and cheating
the poor in Israel. And it was under a religious
guise, you remember we read this last week in Matthew chapter
23 and verse 23 when he talked about the Pharisees and the scribes
being so meticulous to be careful to take care of the smallest
details of religion and tithing but they neglected the weightier
matters of the law, judgment or justice, truth and faith And
he says in verse 5, saying, When will the new moon be gone that
we may sell corn? Are you listening to this? Listen
as I read this. I want you to think about this.
Because it's so reflective of what we see today. Saying, When
will the new moon be gone that we may sell corn? Now, what's
the new moon? That was a religious observance. That was supposedly to be a worship
experience. He goes on, and the Sabbath.
They were to keep the Sabbath. Of course, you know that Sabbath
and those feast days and the new moons and all of those. They
were types of God's grace of salvation in Christ and they
were observances that they were to observe in solemn, sincere
worship to God. And they were to see those things
as a privilege, as an honor. It's almost like somebody said one time, said,
well, we don't have to go to church on Sunday night. And the
first thing that popped into my mind was say, well, the fact
that you don't have to go to church on Sunday night is a good
thing. Surprised to hear me say that? The fact that you don't
have to is a good thing. The fact that you don't want
to is a bad thing. And that's the problem. And he
says in the Sabbath, look at verse 5, "...and the Sabbath,
that we may set forth wheat, making the ephos small." That
was a measure of balance in merchants. And he says, "...and the shekel
great, and falsifying the balances by deceit, that we may buy the
poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, yea, and
sell the refuse of the wheat." You're getting the picture here
now. What are they saying here? They kept the new moons, they
kept the Sabbath but only outwardly. Their heart wasn't in the worship,
their heart was somewhere else. Inside they rejected these special
days appointed by God and they couldn't wait till they were
over so they could get back to what they really wanted to do.
That's what the problem is here. Hurry up and get this done so
I can get on with where my heart really is. I need to make some
money. So let's hurry up and get this
over with. I know we got to do it. Let's get it over with. And
that was the attitude in Israel in that day. They didn't have
a heart for worship. It's like the Lord said, this
people draw near to me with their lips, but their heart is far
from me. So what have you got here? You've
got a picture of religion, tradition, ceremonialism. No heart, no truth,
no grace, no Christ. That's the problem. And so because
of that, we see the certainty of God's judgment. Look at verse
7. He says, "...the Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob."
Now, the excellency of Jacob there is the pride of Jacob.
And what that literally means is this, the Lord hath sworn
against the pride of Jacob. He's sworn against it. In other
words, He's declared an oath. And that oath, any oath that
God swears, He engages Himself behind the keeping of that oath.
And so God has engaged Himself, everything that He is in His
deity, against the pride of Jacob. What is the pride of Jacob? Again,
it's religion. Without grace, without heart,
without truth, without Christ. And so they can be as sincere
and zealous as they want to be, but it's just not going to work.
The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob. And here's what
He says. Look at this. Surely I will never
forget any of their works. What are their works? Their works
are sin. They may be moral. They may be
religious. And they may not be. But it's
all sin. It's all fruit unto death. And
God says, I will not never forget it. God's going to keep account
of it. And that's the way it is without Christ. That's the way it is without
salvation by God's grace. Any sinner who stands before
God without Christ, without being washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness, you can rest assured God has kept a running
account of every work and it all falls short. It can be the
best works that you can present. It can be the most moral, religious,
sincere, dedicated works. It can be preaching in His name.
It can be casting out demons. It can be what men call wonderful
works, but God won't call them wonderful. He'll call them iniquity.
Depart from me ye that work iniquity. It may impress men, but it won't
impress God. Because the only thing that's
going to impress God is His Son. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. That's the only
thing that's going to impress God. That's the only thing that's
going to glorify God. Christ and Him crucified. I stand before
God in Christ. Now that'll impress God. Nothing
else will. And any work, any work that I've
done or do, better be a testimony to the glory of God in Christ.
And that's it. I stand before God, holy, righteous,
forgiven in Christ. And that's it. Otherwise, God
says this, He said, I will never forget any of their works. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, whose sins are
covered. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who
would stand? None of us, but there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared, worshipped, trusted,
followed, and loved. There's no hope without Him.
And so he says in verse 8, "...shall not the land tremble for this,
and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? And it shall rise up
holy as a flood, and it shall be cast out and drenched as by
the flood of Egypt." It's like the bondage of Egypt overtaking
them again. All of their prosperity in the
land of promise, in the land of milk and honey will be gone.
and it'll be just like Egypt has overflowed them again, like
they're in bondage. Because they are in bondage.
They're in bondage to sin, to Satan, under the curse of the
law. You see, the only freedom from that kind of bondage is
that which we have by the grace and mercy of God in Christ. There's
no freedom elsewhere. That's why Paul told the Galatians,
don't get diverted now. Don't get off track. Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and don't be
entangled again with that yoke of bondage. Don't do it. Look at verse 9. Now here's the
extent of God's judgment. He says, "...and it shall come
to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the
sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear
day, and I will turn your feast in the morning, your religious
festivals, which should be a time of joy, They'll be mourning. They'll be like funeral dirges. And all your songs into lamentation,
all your worship songs will be turned into laments, songs of
sorrow. And I will bring up sackcloth
upon all loins and baldness upon every head and I will make it
as the mourning of an only son and the end thereof as a bitter
day. Everything that they rejoice
in, will be turned into sorrow and death. Why? Because, my friend,
there's no hope for sinners except that we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We're the circumcision. We worship
God in spirit and rejoice in Christ and have no confidence,
no rejoicing in the flesh. And so, you see, the extent of
the judgment, it'll reach unto every walk of life. It'll be
a bitter end, a bitter day. And so, beginning at verse 11
to the end of the chapter, he gives us the nature of God's
judgment. I want you to pay special attention
to that. He says, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread, nor of
thirst for water. See, it's not a physical famine.
This is not a famine of the crops or the rivers. but a famine of
hearing the words of the Lord." You see that? A famine of hearing. Now, hold on to that thought.
Verse 12, "...and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from
the north even to the east, and they shall run to and fro to
seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." Now, men
will seek for answers in this day. They'll want to know why. Why me, Lord? Why us? You know
what Israel, how they thought, you know, we're the seed of Abraham. How can you do this to us? We've
been circumcised. How can this come upon us? We
have Moses and we keep the law of Moses. How can these things
be happening to us? We're America. We're Baptist. We've been baptized. We read
our Bibles. How can this be happening to
us, you see? And they'll encompass sea and
land, go from sea to sea, from north even to the east, trying
to find an answer. But the problem is they won't
hear the answer, because there's a famine of hearing the word
of the Lord. The Lord gives them the answer, Amos the prophet's
telling them why this is happening, but they won't hear Him. And
then there's a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. So he says
in verse 13, in that day shall the fair virgins and young men
faint for thirst. In other words, the purity, physical
purity and the energetic youthfulness will not save them in that day.
You know they say when you get older you can't hear as well.
When you're younger you hear a lot better, but that won't
do you any good. Physical hearing in this time will not do you
any good. And so he says in verse 14, they that swear by the sin
of Samaria. Now Samaria was the capital of
the northern kingdom of Israel, and that's where they had their
temple. In fact, you might remember in John chapter 4 when Christ
was speaking to the woman at the well, that was what he was
referring to when he said, you say we should worship in this
mount, we say in Jerusalem. The mount that he was talking
about that she worshiped in, the Samaritan woman, was in Samaria. And so he says, they that swear
by the sin of Samaria. Well, what is the sin of Samaria?
It's false worship. It's idolatry. You see, God's
presence in that old covenant, the Shekinah glory, was in the
temple in Jerusalem, where the mercy seat was. And so he says,
they that swear by the sin of Samaria, that's it. idolatry,
and say, Thy God, O Dan, liveth, that's one of the tribes up there,
and the manor of Beersheba, another place of worship, liveth, even
they shall fall and never rise up again. And notice that again,
he said that again, they'll never rise up again. There's not going
to be any reestablishment of this nation. They'll never rise
up again. All right, now let's go back
to this famine of hearing. Now notice verse 11 again. Behold
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in
the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a
famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Now you notice how
that's put. Now there's two ways you can
apply that and you can take that. First of all, you can speak of
a famine of the word itself. In other words, no word from
God in the land. No word of preaching, no prophet. That seems to have come upon
the nation some few years after this. You might say the intertestamental
period between Malachi and Matthew. There was a time of darkness.
No gospel preached. Think about that. You know where
there's no gospel preached, there is no salvation? Now, I know
there's a lot of people who argue with that because they're trying
to exalt what they say, the sovereignty of God. And they say, well, cannot
God save any way He wants to? Well, let me tell you something.
What we need to do, whenever we hear things like that, is
climb into this Word and find out what God wants to do, what
He's pleased to do. Now, the Scripture says that
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. Romans 1, 16. 1 Corinthians 1 says, it pleased
the Lord by the foolishness of what? Preaching to save them
that believe. So it's a moot point for us to
sit around and talk about what God can do. We need to talk about
what the sovereign God who does whatever He pleases, what He
says He's going to do. But now you think about that,
being in a place, and that can happen to a nation, it can happen
to a group, it can happen to an individual, where you can
find no word from God. It's gone. Someone said that
the greatest blessing that the Lord could ever send to a community
is a man who preaches the gospel, a group, a church, a local body
of believers where the gospel is preached and the greatest
curse that God can set upon a people is to remove that. No place to
go to hear the gospel, a famine of the Word of God. But I want
you to notice how this is put. It says here that there'll be
a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. It's not necessarily
that the Word of God is not there and is not preached, but the
famine will be right here in the ear. People won't hear. They won't hear. In other words,
they'll be deaf to God's Word. In other words, the problem is
not that there's no gospel preached, there's no Word of God preached,
but the problem is with the hearer. Turn to Matthew chapter 13, it's
very similar, the situation here is very similar to what our Lord
said to His disciples here when they asked Him this question,
why do you speak in parables? And look at it in Matthew chapter
13, He had just spoken the parable of the sower and the seed. And in Matthew 13, look at verse
9 first of all, after he spoke the parable, and you know that
parable is about the Word being preached and falling on to different
kinds of hearers. You had the hearer, the wayside
hearer, that's when the Word is preached and immediately they
don't give it any thought, they're indifferent to it, have no desire
for it, and the Word leaves them. And then you have the stony ground
here. That's the one who hears it and sees some good in it and
rejoices in it immediately. But then when persecution comes
over the Word, they leave it. And then you have the thorny
ground here. That's the one who receives it for a while, but
then the cares of this world and the deceptiveness of riches
takes over and they've got better things to do. They're like those
people that we just read about in Amos chapter 8 there who say,
when will the new moon be gone that we may go sell corn? I mean,
it's okay, you know, religion has its place, you know. We'll
go to church some, but we've got to get out here and do these
really important things. That's the thorny ground here.
The Word was choked out. And then you had the good ground
here. That's the born-again person. That's the one in whom the Spirit
of God has done His work of conviction. And so in verse 9, Christ says
in Matthew 13, He says, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now
he says, and the disciples came and said unto him, why speakest
thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them,
because it is given, it's a gift now, unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it's not given. Faith
is a gift from God. The hearing ear is a gift from
God. He says, "...for whosoever hath,
to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but
whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that
he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they
seeing see not." They have physical eyes, but they don't have spiritual
eyes. "...and hearing they hear not."
There's a famine in their ear, you might put it that way. Neither
do they understand, and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of
Isaiah." You see, it was the same in Isaiah's day in the southern
kingdom. "...which saith, By hearing you
shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see, and
shall not perceive." Verse 15, "...for this people's heart is
waxed gross." It's grown hard. "...and their eyes they've closed."
This is willful rejection. of seeing the glory of God, lest
at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be what?
Converted. What is this conversion? That's
when a sinner is brought by the Spirit of God under the preaching
of the Word to faith in Christ, submitting to Him and His righteousness,
and His blood, and repentance of dead works and idolatry. They have confidence in Christ
and no confidence in the flesh. And when they hear that, they
don't want it. They don't want that conversion. I don't mind
getting religion. I don't mind turning over a new
leaf, but I don't want to go that far. I don't want to commit
my whole soul, my whole life to Christ and His glory. That's what the problem is. And
so he says, and I should heal them. But look at verse 16, but
blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear. I wonder sometimes if we don't
take this all too much for granted. Do we really understand how blessed
we are if there's not a famine in our ear? How blessed we are. He says in verse 17, for verily
I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired
to see those things which you see and have not seen them and
to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them.
And what he's talking about there is how the prophets looked forward
to the day of the coming of Christ. They heard the gospel and they
saw the glory of God but they didn't experience experience
like these disciples did. And even like we did today in
their day. And so he says, hear ye therefore
the parable of the sower. Think about it. The greatest
curse that God could ever lay upon me or any other person is
to leave us without a hearing ear. To leave us to ourselves
and to our own ways and to our own word and to our own pity
parties. And we do. I was listening to
Brother Mahan's message on this about a famine in the Word of
God. He had this outline. I want to share it with you.
Some of you may remember this. But here's what takes place.
Go back to Amos chapter 8. In this famine of hearing, preachers can go on preaching.
They may go, and they do, but without the power of the Word
and the Spirit of the Lord. What an awful thing. And I want
you to see something about that. When a preacher goes on preaching
without the power of the Word and the power of the Spirit of
the Lord, I'll tell you exactly what's happening there. It's
not mystical. It's not a feeling. It's not
emotion. It's simply that that preacher,
he's reading the Bible, he's memorizing the Bible, he's talking
about the Bible, he's looking at the Bible and even studying
the Bible, but he's not preaching Christ. Now that's the problem. He's not preaching the simplicity
of God's grace in Christ. That's the problem. He may say
a lot of things about Jesus. But he doesn't leave his hearers
with no hope of salvation, no hope of righteousness, no hope
of holiness, no hope of glory and eternal life except in and
by the person, the glorious person and finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now that's not mysticism. He'll complicate it, he'll add
things to it, he'll give his opinion, but not the simple message
of Christ. Somebody said one time, any idiot
can make things complicated, but it takes an enlightened God,
Holy Spirit, enlightened sinner to preach the simple things of
Christ. How all of salvation is wrapped up in His glorious
person, the God-man mediator. God in human flesh. I can make
that simple to you in this sense. I can tell you He is God in human
flesh. I can't explain that to you,
and I don't need to. But that's who He is. He was
made of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared to
be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the
dead. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. His name
shall be called Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted as God with. It's just as simple as
that. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God in human flesh. He was made sin as a substitute,
as a sin bearer, as a sin offering. He didn't become contaminated.
He wasn't made a sinner. I'm not going to complicate your
minds or my mind with that kind of junk. He was the atoning,
sin-bearing sacrifice who went under the judgment of God for
the sins of His people and He drank damnation dry. And I'm
going to tell you something, everyone for whom He died shall
be saved. That's as simple as I can give
it to you. Salvation is by the grace of God and not by our works
at any stage, to any degree, at any time. When we come to
Christ, we come to Him submitting to who He is and what He has
accomplished. He's the Lord our righteousness.
I have no righteousness before God but Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. That's simple. And when men get away from that,
they'll do a lot of preaching, but there's a famine of the Word
of God. Here's the second thing Brother Mann said. He said, assemblies
are permitted to gather, but Christ is not present. Christ
said, where two or three are gathered in my name, that is
for his glory, and preaching the truth concerning him, he
says, there am I in the midst of them. Again, what was their
problem back here? Religion with no truth, religion
with no heart, religion with no grace, religion with no Christ. And I fully recognize that a
person can grab hold of the truth and logic of a doctrine and not
love Christ. But I want to tell you something.
Those whose hearts burn within them to hear the fullness of
the Son of God incarnate and the work that He accomplished
on Calvary, I can tell you right now, the Spirit of God has done
a work in their hearts. Brother Mayhem went on to say,
in his third point, he said, the Word is preached, but no
application to the heart. And he quoted this verse. This
is Luke chapter 24 and verse 32. Now picture this. Here's
the risen Lord of glory. The risen Lord of glory. He's
been... He walked this earth for 33 and
a half years, and for three and a half of those years, He had
a public ministry. He went about preaching the gospel, the gospel
of the kingdom. He went about doing miracles,
great miracles. And then he was arrested, he
was lied upon and he was crucified. He was buried and he rose again
the third day and here he is walking the earth and he comes
upon the road to Emmaus to some of his disciples and they didn't
even recognize him by physical sight. But they did recognize
him in a way. And here's how they recognize
him. It says in Luke 24 and verse 32, it says, And they said one
to another. Now this talking about, He'd
already left them now, and He'd been speaking to them. He'd been
talking to them about His person and His work, the Gospel. And
it says, After He left, they said one to another, Did not
our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way,
and while He opened to us the Scriptures? Didn't our hearts burn within
us? No, they're not talking about acid reflux there. They're talking about a love
and a desire to hear and feast upon the bread of life. Eat His
flesh and drink His blood. That's what He told His disciples.
He wasn't talking about cannibalism. He was talking about eye hunger
and thirst to hear the Word of God. I must have the Word of
God. And when those disciples... You
see, many of them were offended. Many of them were offended. You see, this is the... Are you
offended at the Word of God, at the words of Christ, at the
gospel of God's grace? And many of them turned and walked
away and he turned to his disciples and he said, Will you go away
also? And Peter said, To whom shall we go? You have the words
of life. Are they words of life to me?
Are they words of life to you? Or are they just something you
just need to go through the motions and get it through so you can
go back to doing what you really want to do? I'm serious now.
That's what was happening in Israel. Do you realize we're
here tonight to worship God? And I'll tell you what, that's
a struggle within each and every one of us. Even this preacher,
I have thoughts too. I have things that upset me,
things that make me happy, things I feel good doing and all that. It's a warfare, isn't it? And
you have to pray, Lord, cleanse my mind to be open to your Word. Let my heart burn within me.
to hear your word. Feed upon it. I'm hungry for
his word." Stephen stood up to preach and preached a glorious
gospel message identifying Jesus of Nazareth as that Messiah.
And after it was over, they rejected him and he said in verse 51 of
Acts chapter 7, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, you got a famine in your ear. That's what he's saying.
You do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so
do you." Brother Mahan's fourth point
on that message, he said the ordinances, the gospel ordinances,
baptism and Lord's Supper, they go on but without the presence
or power of the Lord. In other words, they become meaningless
rituals, something that you just got to do because everybody does
it. And if you don't do it, everybody looks at you and says, what's
wrong with that person? No, no, no, no, that's not what
they are. Baptism is a public identification with my Savior
and my Lord. I want to tell you in the way
that God tells me to tell you that He's my only hope and say,
my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
And that's through baptism. And I want to tell you that continually.
That's the memorial supper. It's not just ritualism. Well,
as I said, a famine of hearing may come to a nation, as it did
here. It may come to a group, it may
come to an individual. Let me close with this. How do
I know when this is happening to me? If it's happening to me? Well, we've already said it.
First of all, when the word preached does not speak to my heart, when
it doesn't feed me, when it doesn't inspire me, to grow in grace
and in knowledge. When I become offended or even
indifferent to it, that's when I know it's happening to me.
Another way is when other things take precedent over the Word.
I mean, let's just be honest. When we can take it or leave
it... There are people who can just take it or leave it. It's
okay if I'm there, but I can leave it. What did the Lord,
when He confronted Satan in that great temptation, He said, man
shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. You know, that's our spiritual
life. This is our spiritual life. Reading, studying, hearing His
words. And then when we begin to have a sense of satisfaction
to the point that we really have no more hunger or thirst for
His Word, as the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation chapter
2, they've lost their first love. Well, when the Word of God becomes
a source of controversy and not a means of growth, let's not
do it. Let's pray, Lord, like David
in Psalm 51. In that Psalm of repentance,
He prayed basically this, Lord continually keep me seeking for
your mercy. I need God's mercy. Always. Continually acknowledge my sin.
I have to have God's grace. I'm a sinner saved by the grace
of God. Continually justify God in his
holiness. God whatever you do is right.
Continually acknowledge the source of all holiness and all righteousness
and all glory and all grace. God is that source in Christ. Continually seek the joy of salvation
and God's upholding grace. Lord, keep me. Keep me. And continually use the means
of grace. Don't fall into the sickness. Actually, it's a death, isn't
it? of a famine of hearing the words of the lord