I find my subject there in verse
21. Job 22, 21. Equate now thyself
with him, and be at peace. Equate now thyself with him.
Now, the person here doing the speaking is Eliaphaz. He is one of Job's three friends,
and he's talking to Job. And He's also talking to us.
And it's as true today as it was then. Acquaint now thyself
with Him, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come unto
thee. Remember our Lord says, you know, when I was preaching
on asking you shall receive, seeking you shall find, knocking
it should be opened. And then our Lord uses an illustration
of what we would, being evil, what we would do for our children.
We'd never give them a serpent, never give them a stone. We won't
watch the very best for them. And God says, ask of me, and
I shall give thee good things. Good things. And that's what
he's saying here. Good shall come unto thee through
your acquaintance with God. And what it says here, acquaint
now thyself with him. And it says there in the margin. That is God. Acquaint now thyself. That's what it says in the margin
of my Bible. And first of all, we see here
a great, great need. Acquaint now thyself with Him
and be at peace. Now, acquaintanceship here means
more than just a passing knowledge. It's just a passing knowledge.
It means more than a theoretical knowledge, a presumed knowledge,
just presuming that I know God. believing that there is a God.
It's more than just a passing knowledge. Well, I know that
God's eternal, I know He's your Creator, and it's more, much
more than that. It means to actually know God,
to know God. Our Lord Jesus Christ says this
is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God. Know Thee. When we say we know
God, that means we have more than just a passing acquaintance
with Him. We know Him. We find rest in Him. We enjoy
Him. We love everything that there
is about Him. There's no part of Him that we
do not dislike. Every part about Him is nature. His character, His attributes,
His personality, His word, everything that we know about God, we delight
in and rejoice in. And that's what it means. It
seems to know God. I know God. Now, how can you
know you know God? Well, if you know Him, you know
you know Him. That's all I say. You know that
you know Him. And, O beloved, it means to enjoy
the Lord. That's what it means. There's
people that you enjoy being with, and this God is who we enjoy
to be with. We actually talk to Him, and
enjoy Him, and speak to Him, and we talk to Him in the language
that He puts in our hearts. You know, thou, O God, inhabit
us eternity. How does somebody inhabit? Me
and you, we occupy a very small space, you know what I mean?
And this is the only place I can occupy at any one given time
around that. God occupies all eternity. The heavens of heavens cannot
contain Him. He measures the waters in the
hall of His hands. He declares the things that are
going to end before they ever start. And He does all of His
good pleasure. And we know He's holy, and we
say, Oh God, You that dwell in the beauty of holiness. And we
know He's righteous, and we bless Him for His righteousness. We
bless Him for His faithfulness. Mary and I talked about it this
morning, how faithful He has been to us. How faithful He's
carried us through so much. And as I watch other people,
how faithful God is to carry people through things. So with
what I talk about, we know Him. Great is thy favor. We know him.
And that's what he means here. Acquaint now thyself with him. Say, I want to know you. Let
me know you. Let me enjoy you. Make yourself
known to me. And then watch this one that
says, Be at peace. Be at peace. Peace is a hard
thing to come by, peace with God. Preachers all the time say,
make your peace with God. Well, we cannot make peace with
God. Sin separates us all from God
through Adam. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Sin is what we are. Sins are
what we do. And so, if we're going to be
at peace, it must come Not by walking an aisle, not by making
a decision. It must come through the Lord
Jesus Christ in what He accomplished. Now you keep Job and look with
me over in Colossians chapter 1. I want you to see this in
Colossians. I enjoy peace. You know when we talk about when
you're acquainted with Him, one of the first things you'll want
is peace. Peace. And when you have peace with
God, the carnal mind is enmity. That means it don't have peace
with God. And God is angry with the wicked
every day. So there's this anger on God's
side and there's this anger on our side. There's this enmity
in our heart and there's this hatred and this anger and this
purity of heart and eyes that God cannot have anything to do
with sin. So how in the world are we going
to be reconciled to where God's anger is done away with and enmity
in our heart is done away with? And we actually have peace with
God. God's not angry with us, and we're not angry with Him.
There's peace brought between us. How can that happen? You
can't make peace. You can't walk this aisle and
make peace with God. You can't make a decision and
make peace with God. There's something in us, beloved,
that will not take God as He is until He makes established
this thing of peace. There's got to be peace between
God. It's a war in factions. You know,
I'll tell you, I know it's not happened in decades, but beloved,
in the Civil War, nothing but unconditional surrender was the
only way there was going to be peace and war was going to be
ended. In World War II, the only way in the world that there was
World War II ended was unconditional surrender. And the only way there's going
to be peace and war between you and God is unconditional surrender
on your part after the blood of Christ has cleansed you from
your sin. Now look here in Colossians 1 and verse 19. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. All the fullness of who God is.
All the fullness of salvation. All the fullness of righteousness.
And having made peace, now watch this, through the blood of His
cross, having made peace through the blood of His cross, through
His death, through His sacrifice, through His sin offering, and
O beloved God made Him to be sin, who you know sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him, by Him God reconciled
the world unto Himself, not imputing the sins unto Him, now watch
this, And through Him making peace, He appeased the anger
of God. God's anger has been taken away
by the blood of Christ and His death on the cross. And He done
this to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him I say whether
there are things in heaven or things in earth. Now watch this.
And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
words, yet now Oh, peace been made. He says,
now come to me. Come, the peace has been established.
Now you come. Now watch this. And he done it
in the body of his flesh through death. And this is what happens.
Because he made peace with God. And because he reconciled us
to God to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in this sight. Oh, that's what it means. Be
at peace with God? Now back over in our text. God
can only be known. When we talk about knowing God,
having acquaintance with God, God can only be known through
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it says, if pleased
the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. If you know God,
and acquainted with God, and see God, and have fellowship
with God, the only place to do that is through His Son. The Father says, this is my beloved
son. Hear Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, come
unto me. You that are heavy laden. You
that are burdened. You come to me and I'll give
you rest. And you see, He's the one who
made peace through the blood of His cross. He's the one who
reconciled us to God. He's the only one by which we
can know. Our Lord says, no man comes unto
the Father but out by me. by me. And oh beloved, he was
God manifest in the flesh. And there's Psalm 212 says this,
kiss the son lest he be angry with him. Let's go kiss him now. Somebody's angry at you, you
go kiss him. Hug him up real close and kiss
him. That anger will just melt away. And that's what God's saying,
you come to Christ, kiss the Son, and the anger just melts
away. The anger's gone. And oh, back over here in Job
22. Let me show you something about knowing God, acquaintance
with God. Be at peace with me. God is perfectly
independent. And this is something hard for
us to grasp. We as men add absolutely nothing
to Him. And we as men take nothing from
him. Look what it says up there in
verse 2. Job 22. Can a man be profitable unto
God? As he that is wise may be profitable
unto himself. Huh? What does it say? Can a
man be profitable unto God? What are we going to add to God?
What profit can we give to God when the earth is His and the
fullness thereof, the cattle of a thousand years? When He created the world and
everything to Him, He sustains it by the upholding of His own
hand. What in the world can we be profitable to Him? What can
we give Him that will make Him better than He is? Make Him wealthier
than He is? Make Him holier than He is? More
righteous than He is? More rich in grace than he is.
More faithful than he is. More low suffering than he is.
More gracious than he is. More merciful than he is. More
powerful than he is. What have we got? Man's character does not affect
him. That's what it means when he's
no respect of persons. That's what it means. The only
character that God ever looked at. The only man God ever looked
at in character and in person and says he pleases me. That's
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I see, look what it says
in verse 3. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty
that you're righteous? Or is it gain to him that thou
makest thy ways perfect? What he's saying is, if you say
I'm a righteous man, I walk uprightly and I walk perfectly. God said, has any pleasure to
the Almighty? Does it please Him? When we say
that? No. Our sin does not lessen His
peace, does not lessen His power, does not lessen His joy, does
not lessen His person. And any righteousness, any virtue,
any morality, any works that we do cannot add to His blessedness. No, sir. Why don't we go, what can we,
what can we bring to Him that He would take and find pleasure
in? And what can we do that would
cause Him to turn from us and say, I have no pleasure in it.
God is independent. And so we need Him. He does not
need us. He does not need our wills. He does not need our words. He does not need our strength.
He does not need our righteousness. He does not need our hearts.
He does not need our minds. We need Him. We need history. We need a new heart. We need
a new mind. We need His righteousness. We
need His grace. We need everything that we have,
that He has, because we absolutely have nothing. Ain't that what
our Lord says? Without me you can do nothing? How many preachers you hear telling
people that? God's in a wheelchair to by most
preachers standards. He can't do anything without
you. He ain't got no money, but you're
money. He ain't got no strength, but you're strength. No hand,
but you're hand. But over here He says, whatever you've got,
that you're going to give to Him. God is eternal. He is pure. He is blessed. And He's unaffected
by the good or the bad in us. We have no effect on Him. Look
over here in Job. You keep Job 22. Look in Job
35 just a moment. And that's why we cast out. This
is what it means. If this is the way He is, oh,
I need Him. I've got to come to Him. He's
got everything. I have nothing. Look in Job 35
verse 6. If thou sinnest against Him,
what doest thou against Him? Where if thou transgressest,
be multiplied, what doest thou unto Him? It ain't going to change
Him. It ain't going to change Him.
Your sins not going to change His holiness. Your sins not going
to change His justice. His sins not going to change
His righteousness. He's going to deal with you as you are.
Not like you think you are. Now watch what else He says.
If thou be righteous, what are you going to give to Him? Or
what's He going to receive of your hand? That's what He says.
Whether you're unconverted or whether you're converted. Whether
you're righteous or whether you're living in your sins. God is God. You know how many people goes
into eternity? I woke up last night and this is an awful thing
to think about. I thought about my mother. I thought
about my dad. I thought about my uncles that
I used to live with. They died within a month or six
weeks of one another. I thought about all my family.
And not one of them died with a home. Not one of them died with a hook.
They had no hook whatsoever. None. God wasn't in their thoughts. God wasn't in their thoughts.
And that's what I'm telling you. But did that, did that change
God? And then, look at all the folks
who went into eternity, but there's no God. Is their righteousness
going to change them when they get to glory? That's what Job said. He is unaffected
by us. We need Him. We desperately need
Him. That's why Job says, acquaint now thyself with Him. Be at peace. Huh? That's why Paul said when
he stood on Mars Hill, and they had all these great big temples,
and they had all these big idols, and he says, Oh, listen to me. God does not dwell in these houses
made with hands, in these temples. He does not dwell in them. He
said He needed nothing. He's not worshipped with the
works of men's hands with silver and gold. He dwells in heaven. No one is necessary. for carrying
out His purpose. He can do without us. He can
do without us. But I certainly can't do without
Him. Ain't that right? We can do an awful lot in this
world, but we can't do without Him. And that's why God, look
what it says back over here in Job 22, in verse 4. Look what
it says. You see, God does not explain
himself to any man either. He says there in verse 4, Will
he reprove thee for fear of thee? Will he enter in with thee into
judgment? Will he sit down and argue with
you and debate with you? Explain himself to you for what
you're doing? No. Acquaint thou thyself with
him. How? By the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look, So there's a great
need to quit now yourself with him. Look what it says now down
here in verse 22 and 23. The way is made plain for us.
The way is made plain. He says in verse 22, Receive,
I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up thy words in
his heart. If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be filled
up, and shalt put away iniquity from thy tabernacle. What he's
saying is, the way it's claimed, receive thy law, thy word. Now
Job's not talking about 10 Commandments. The book of Job's the oldest
book in the Scripture. He was before Abraham. I mean,
this is the oldest. And here's Job is. And he's saying,
take his word. Take his law. Take his word. From his mouth. This is God's
message. You know, if God came back, And
he spoke again, he would say no more than once, he would say,
if our Lord Jesus Christ came here this morning, he would say
exactly everything he said in his blessed word. And that's
why he says here, take God's word, take his word, take it
from his mouth and lay his words up in your heart. Lay them up
in your heart. Lay them right up in here. I
was talking to Joseph the other day, and I've talked to a lot
of people about this. Preachers especially, they ought
to just be saturated with the Word. They ought to live in the
Word. And we all ought to have the
Word so here in our hearts that we think in scriptural terms.
We think scripturally. Whenever we're in any given situation,
scriptures come to our mind. We answer problems with scripture. And that's what it means to bow.
You know, when we're in a situation, we go to the scriptures. When
we're in trial, we go to the scriptures. When we're in need,
we go to the scriptures. And when we see things going
on in the world, people ask us questions, we go to the scriptures.
We ain't no place else to go. And that's why he said, take
my word from my mouth. Christ says, and that's His word
from His mouth. If any man's thirsty, let him come to me and
drink. Receive His Word. Listen to what
He says. Take it into your heart. You
keep Job. Now I want you to look at two
things with me. Look with me first of all over in 1 Thessalonians
2. You keep Job now. Look with me
in 1 Thessalonians 2. I want you to see this. This is what it talks about receiving
the Word. You know, Paul told Timothy while
he was turning. He said, Timothy, thou hast known
the Holy Scriptures from a child. The Holy Scriptures which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. And he says, for all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God. God breathed. and is profitable
for righteousness, for correction, for instruction, for reproof. Now look what it says here in
1 Thessalonians 2.13, talking about receiving His Word. See,
that's the Word. It's the Word of God. I'm going
to believe God. I'm going to believe what God says. I'm going
to take it and put it in my heart. I want it in my heart. For this
cause also, we thank God. With this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of
God, which you heard of us, you're going to hear the word of God
through a man. You received it not as the word of men. It wasn't
what the preacher said, it wasn't what the pastor said, it wasn't
what some prophecy, but she received it not as the word of men, but
as it is in truth. The word of God. Now watch what
the word of God does. Which effectually worketh also
in you which believe. Whenever this word of God comes,
it works effectually in people. It changes people. It enlightens
people. It corrects people. It brings
faith with it. It works in you effectually.
And let me show you one other verse in John chapter 8 verse
37. John 8.37. I want you to see
this. I could quote these verses, but
I want you to see them for yourself. John 8.37. Talking about, he says, the way
it's made plain, receive the Word, receive the Law in His
mouth, and store it up in your heart. Lay it up in your heart.
Our Lord told the Pharisees here, He says in verse 37, John chapter
8, I know that you're Abraham's seed. But you seek to kill me. Why do you do it? Because my
word hath no place in you. There's not room in your heart
for my word. There can't be room for hatred
in the word of God. There can't be room for self-righteousness
in the word of God. There can't be room for self-confidence
in the word of God. Can't be. Can't be. And that's
what our Lord said. And then look back over in Job
22 with me. Let me show you. Not only receive
the Word, and lay these words up in your heart, and see it
says receive it from His mouth. God's speaking to me. How many
times have you come to services, I don't know how many people
say to me, boy, that message was just for me today. God spoke
to me today. That's why they took it from
His mouth. And that's what He means here now. Watch what He
says. And return. But if thou return to the Almighty, come to God, then ye shall be
built up. When he says return, you know
in the Scriptures, whenever they would go to a king who had power
to kill them, they'd put a rope around their neck, showing that
they deserved to be hanged, showing that they deserved death. And
they would go up there and say, we'll go with the rope around
our neck, and perhaps he'll have mercy on us. And that's what,
put the rope around your neck and come to the Lord. He has
mercy on you. He'll say, take that rope off.
I don't want you. I'll take that rope off. And he'll take it off
for you. But all return to him in humility. Turn to him with repentance.
He never turned from you. You turn from him. And so return
to thy Creator, return to thy Maker, return to the God that
made you, return to the God that can save you. To return to Him
is to put away, that's what it says, is to put away iniquity
from thy tabernacles. To put iniquity far from thy
tabernacles. That means, beloved, you want
to be done with sin. You don't want sin in you, you
don't want sin in your home, you don't want sin. And it always
says, as Israel put the leaven out of their houses in the Passover,
sin and lawlessness have to go. And I'll tell you something,
when you're acquainted with God, you want it to go. You want it
to go. And listen, Christ came to put
away sin. This way sin is put away. Christ
came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! And then look what
it says in the last part there in verse 23. If you return to
the Almighty, thou shalt be built up. Built up? What does that mean? God's going
to start all over with you. He's going to start from the
ground and make you over. He didn't say you're going to
be rebuilt. He's going to build you up. God must, God must make
a man a new creature. Man cannot build himself. Sin
broke down everything that's about him. And man can't build
himself, can't rebuild himself, can't reform himself. If any
man be in Christ, he's a new creation. For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's what?
The gift of God. Not of words, lest any man should
boast. We're His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. And that's why there's no other
foundation to be laid than Christ Jesus. God builds us on Christ. He strips us down, and when He
starts building, He lays us on the foundation which is Christ,
and builds us up in Him. Look at the results of acquaintance
with Him here in verse 25. Look at the results. Oh, when
you become acquainted with Him. Verse 25. Yea, the Almighty shall
be thy defense. Almighty. God's going to be your
defense? What do we need defense from?
Well, we need defense from a lot of things. We need defense from
sin, self-righteousness. We need defense from the world.
We need defense from our own self-deceptions. We need defense
from our unbelief. We need defense from the devil.
We need defense from our flesh. And the Almighty shall be thy
defense. And then look what it says. And
thou shalt have plenty of silver. And back up there in verse 25,
verse 4 it says, Thou shalt lay up gold of ophirs. Stones is
like, lay them up as gold in the dust. They just be like stones. What that means is that in Christ,
in knowing God, we have all the treasures that we can possibly
have. That's what it means. He's not
talking about real gold and real silver here. That's symbolic,
that's spiritual. Those are symbols that you'll
have all this wealth. Christ is called the gold of
Ophir over in Isaiah. There's a man who shall be the
gold of Ophir, and that's the purest gold there are, and also
Christ. He says what you'll have all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. Christ is all and in all. And so, beloved, what He's saying
is that you'll have treasure, you'll have gold, you'll have
silver. Now we have true riches. True riches. All things are truly
worthless compared to Him. What do we have in this world
compared to our Christ? What do we have compared to Christ? People say, well, if I could,
you know, they're not satisfied. Material things cannot meet the
needs of an immaterial soul. This soul is what's going to
live on. This body is going to the dust. And when we're filled
with His fullness, that's why material things can never satisfy.
People say, well, if I can just get that, that's all, then I'll
be satisfied. If I can just get this kind of
a house, if I can just get that done, if I can just have this
certain amount of money, I'll be satisfied. If I could just
get that job, I'd be satisfied. And that's what they say, they're
looking for material things to satisfy. Material things will
never do it. Never has and never will. It's
not meant to. Material things come and material
things go, but Christ never goes once He ever comes. And we have
true riches in Him. Let men have things that they
want. We have God. Let men glory in
things. We have Christ. Paul says we
have this treasure, this treasure of grace, this treasure of Christ,
this treasure of gold, this treasure of silver, in earthen vessels. And oh, how many things does
it talk about Christ being rich. He's rich in grace! Look how
much grace He gives out every day to all of His elect over
all of this world. And how He started without them
in the garden. He's been giving out grace for
Centuries. To multitudes that no man can
number. He's as rich in it today as he
was the first day again. He started giving it to us in
eternity. Gave us grace in Christ before
the world ever began. And oh, what about the riches
of His glory? The glory of His inheritance.
Oh my. People are going to have inheritance. A lot of inheritance. People
have trust funds, and they give them 2 or 3 million dollars every
couple of years, and they have these big mansions, and they
have all these tanks, and they have this, oh, look at the glory
of my inheritance, look how rich it is! Christ says, you want
to see an inheritance? You want to see the rich inheritance
and the glory of a rich inheritance? Look at my inheritance that I
give you! Miller started up a door down
here and he said, we're going to walk on it when we get glory.
It's going to be free. We walked on dust roads, and
dirt roads, and gravel roads. Think we will ride when we get
new carpet in the house? Goodwood floors, when we get
the glory, we're going to use. We're going to walk on gold.
That's what God says I'll put to my children. They'll walk
on it. You like pearls? He says, when
you come through that gate, that gate will be nothing but pure
pearls. Then there's the unsearchable
riches of Christ. But the other side of that is
the deceitfulness of riches. You know why riches is deceitful?
It can never ever give you what it promised. Never give you what
it promises. And then look down with me here
in verse 26, and I'll hurry. Verse 26. Oh, not only will you have gold
as dust, the gold of Ophir is the stones of the book. The Almighty
will be your defense when you come to Him. And you'll have
plenty of silver. You'll be wealthy in Christ. And then watch what happens.
Thou be such great delight, for then shalt thou have thy delight
in the Almighty. Then you'll have your delight. Oh, there's your delight. There's your enjoyment. Then
shalt thou have thy joy in God. We rejoice in God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what's so blessed
about it. We enjoy God for Himself. We desire Him for Himself. We
love to have His presence. And look what it says then. And
then look what it says. Not only will you greatly delight
in Him, but thou shalt lift up thy face unto God. You know what
that means? You'll have confidence to lift
up your face to Him. You know, there was a time we
hid, as it were, our faces from Him. There was no beauty about
Him that we desired. Now we delight in Him, and we
lift up our... We had boldness, we had accents,
we had confidence. We come, lift up our face to
Him. Huh? Oh, my. Oh, we'll lift up our
face. There was a time. And now, beloved,
we come and we lift up. We look up to the Lord. We say,
Oh, Lord. We look up to Him in faith. We
look up to Him. We go to Him face to face. We
go up to Him with confidence and boldness and have access
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And now, beloved, when we used
to go like this, now we come with an open face, beholding
Him. And that's why John says, truly, our fellowship is with
the Father and with the Son. And then look what it says in
verse 27. Then you'll have answered prayer too. Answered prayer too. Ain't that what He says? Thou
shalt make thy prayer unto Him. Oh my. And listen, He shall hear
you. He'll hear you. Not only will
you speak to it, but He'll listen. I don't know how many husbands
in this place this morning, their wives tell them, you never hear
what I say. You just don't hear. I told you
you don't listen to me. What did I just say? Oh, you
said something. But now when God listens, we
speak to Him, He listens. He listens. God's ear turned
to us, to hear us when we speak. We know that He'll hear us when
we ask according to His Word. And Lord, we come in Jesus' holy,
blessed, glorious name. Look what else happens. We'll
not only have answered prayer, but we'll have a fruitful testimony. It says in verse 28, Thou shalt
also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee. What
is that name? That a man's word will become
his bond. You'll decree a thing. You'll
say, this is what I'll do. This is what I'll do. And God
says he'll prosper in that. Your words will be established.
That you'll speak and you'll be so honest and you'll be so
true to God and so committed to God that man's word will become
his bond. And God says he'll prosper. And
this is why his way will be established. Because he'll begin to speak
according to thus saith the Lord. He won't say what I say. He'll
say thus saith the Lord. And then look what it says, in
verse 28, last part, "...and the light shall shine upon thy
ways." God said, I'll cause the light
to shine on you. Here we were, we were in darkness, now the
light of God directs our ways. The Word of God, the light, directs
our ways. The light shall shine upon you.
No more walking in darkness. No more walking in darkness.
Walk in the light, even as He is in the light. And I know at
times it appears dark. It appears dark, but His light
is ever on His people. His light is always guiding us
into truth. His light lightens our mind,
and His light lightens our heart. No wonder David says, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not walk. Why? He leadeth
me. He leadeth me. And then last
of all, let me show you this. will be made useful to others.
It says in verse 29, when men are cast down, then thou shalt
save. That's lifting up. That's lifting
up. We've got something to say. We've
got some words of encouragement, some words of light, some words
of comfort. Tell people where they can find
help when they are cast out. A dear preacher friend of mine
called this morning. The only reason he called was
to say, I was thinking of you today, and pray the Lord bless
you. Just called to say that. Less
than a minute. That's all he wanted to say.
I was thinking of you today. Oh, my. Something, oh, there's
a lifting up. We tell folks where there is
a lifting up. And Lord, we'll tell them wherever
they can be saved, and He shall save the humble person. Something must be done for us
before we can do anything for anybody else. And we've got something
to say to that person whose eyes are cast low. Not many can be
helped today, but for some, for some, there's a lifting up. And
we who know God, we who know God, are the only ones who can
truly, truly lift up somebody else and say something to help them. Oh, precious, precious Father,
blessed, blessed Savior, how wondrously gracious and kind
you are. How merciful, how merciful you
are to us to let us have your word, to speak to us. And Lord,
indeed, indeed, enable us to receive the word from your mouth
and lay it up in our hearts. God bless this message to hearts
today. Bless it to the understanding.
I pray it was encouraging and enlightening and strengthening
and instructive. And we know it will be if you're
pleased to bless it to the heart and the mind. We bless you in
Christ's name. Amen. Amen.