Romans chapter 11. I want to
read the first five verses. I say then, hath God cast away
his people? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Know ye not
what the Scripture says of Elijah? How he made intercessions to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets,
and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek
my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Even so, then, at this present time, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace." I don't want to consider the context
of what the Apostle Paul was saying and writing here. But
I want to call your attention to this statement that Elijah
made here in verse 3. And I want you to consider with
me this morning the circumstances that he had found himself in
when he made this statement. He made this statement out of
great concern. You can feel it. As you know
the situation that he was in, and as you read this statement
that he made, you can just feel the anxiousness of His voice
and His feeling here when He made this statement. It was a
time in Israel of great falling away when they had left the Lord,
left His worship. Wickedness reigned. The prophets
of Baal were much more and many more than the prophets of the
Lord. And you may recall the place
where this statement was made. Elijah had just killed 450 prophets
of Baal. He had went to Jezreel, there
in the gates of Jezreel, and the wicked queen Jezebel had
said, you'll be dead by this time tomorrow. I'm going to kill
you. And he fled and didn't eat for
40 days, and was on the backside of the desert, in Mount Sinai,
in the cave there. And this is where he makes this
statement. You remember the account of that
in 1 Kings. He makes this statement, Lord,
they have killed your prophets and dig down thine altars and
I am left alone and they seek my life. And the reason I wanted
to consider this statement here this morning is because of the
situation that he was in at this time, and maybe the situation
that the church, you and I, may find ourselves in before we leave
this life. I was reading this week a message
that Brother Baker gave me from a pastor, and he was emphasizing
the dark clouds of persecution was arising in our day. And I think probably all of us
can see this, but he was emphasizing mainly the persecution that he
believed is coming from our own government. And he was talking
about the two great decisions, great in an infamous way, that
the Supreme Court had made, the highest court in our country,
made two decisions. One was in 1973, and most of
us here are old enough to remember that. Some of you aren't, but
I remember that decision that they made in 1973. We know it as Roe versus Wade,
don't we? The decision by the highest court
in this land that legalized the killing of innocent unborn babies. And I looked up the number just
yesterday. It changed. It changes every
few seconds. Every two seconds it changes.
But since they made that decision, 58 million babies have been killed. Now, can you believe that? And
the reason I make this statement is this. How can a nation, as
a nation, how can we as a nation, presume upon the long-suffering
of God when we tolerate such terrorism upon the defenseless. We've heard a lot about terrorism
in our day, haven't we? We see it. We've seen it on our
TVs. We've seen the atrocities, cutting
people's heads off, burning them, drowning them, killing infants. But you know, Terrorism is happening
right under our nose. And what I'm saying is this,
the Lord says, Woe be to him that taketh the reward to slay
the innocent person. And this blood has been spilt
in the back alleys and the abortion clinics of our nation, and over
58 million children have been slaughtered. Now imagine that.
Just think of that. I know we don't like to think
of it. We like to put this out of our mind. We say, well, there's
nothing we can do about it. And there's probably little we
can do about it. But I tell you, our nation is
headed for an awful judgment. God will not tolerate the killing
of innocents as it has been tolerated and sanctioned by our government
today. How long will He suffer us? to do such atrocities upon the
most innocent among us. Here we're told in Elijah's day,
boy how he had degenerated. Things were happening in his
day that may begin to happen in our day. He says, here Lord,
they've killed your prophets. They've killed them. And then
he says, they've digged down your altars. Notice the hatefulness. It wasn't that they took down
the altars or even tore down the altars. They dug them up. They dug down each stone and
separated them and scattered them. Anything that had to do
with the knowledge of God and the worship of God, they set
away with. We hate it. We hate it. And the government sanctioned
it. They sanctioned that. Wicked Jezebel had 400 profits,
false profits, that she supported. She financed them. The second ruling our Supreme
Court made was just a few days ago. Most of you are aware of
this, and I'll bring this out for a reason. I want to say this
for a reason. Some people say you're getting
into politics. This ain't about politics. I tell you, it's far
from politics. This is about stomping out the
knowledge of God, bringing the judgment of God upon a nation. But the second ruling happened
a few days ago when they took a stab at the family. I'm speaking
of the Supreme Court. Rule that homosexual marriage
was legal and legitimate. and moral and as acceptable as
marriage between a man and a woman. Now what's the end of this? The end of this is not just about
homosexuals. It goes deeper than that. If
it was just that, that would be bad enough. But what's the
end of this ruling? What's the end of this movement?
It's one thing. They will tell you. It's written
in their bylaws. Their end is to stamp out marriage
altogether. Stamp out the union between the
man and the wife, the legal God-given union. Stamp out the families.
When you stamp out the families, you've got chaos in your society.
That's an institution that God set up in the very beginning
between a man and a woman, and they had children born from them. That pastor said that they posted
some scriptures concerning the sin of homosexuality on their
website. Just posted them. Didn't make
so much comment. Just posted them. And he said
within hours, they were threatened with lawsuits if they didn't
take them down. Now here's what happens. Here's
what happens. It begins with debates And then
it goes to threatenings, mockery, trying to shame the children
of God. Then it goes from that to passing
laws, saying this is alright, this has to be accepted and you
must accept it. And then it goes to lawsuits. We'll take you to court if you
stand against this. You will not do this in our society. We'll sue you. We'll take your
tax-exempt status away." Well, they can have it if they want
it. I was down talking to some of the politicians downtown not
long ago, and they want to take the tax-exempt status away from
us. Gail has to go down, used to
just every little whip stitch and fuss with them, so we won't
have to pay property taxes. And then it goes from that to
fines. And then it goes from that to,
you can't gather there to worship. And then it goes from that, you
can't gather in your house to worship. We have a pastor friend
of ours and they didn't have a building to worship in, so
they were getting together in his house. And about the second
or third time, the county stepped in and stopped them and said,
you can't worship here. You can have a party here, but
you can't worship here. Bruce, you're getting paranoid.
Well, tell that to this man. Tell that to Elijah. When he
said, I'm telling you, it won't be long until they're killing
the prophets of the Lord. Oh, you're paranoid. It won't
be long until you're hiding out in caves, frayed and fed with
bread and water. You're paranoid. But it happened,
didn't it? It happened. And it happened
to God's covenant people of old. You and I have escaped. Boy,
we've had a reprieve for a long time, haven't we? In this nation,
we've had a reprieve. But you know it may soon be coming
to an end. It may soon be coming to an end.
I'm in agreement with those who believe the church will go through
a worldwide persecution in the latter days. It's not my understanding
that things are going to get better and better. It's not my
understanding that great revivals are going to come and we're going
to become more spiritual and be more safe. It's my understanding
that evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. Paul said, This know also that
in the last days perilous times shall come. Lawless times. Dangerous times. Stressful times. Troublesome times. That will
try men's souls. That's the time you and I could
be headed into. I think the Lord has used this
great country of ours to probably keep peace and safety in so many
other countries. But if this country falls, if
God brings His judgment and leaves this country to itself, where
will we go from this country? I'm not talking so much about
trouble coming upon this ungodly world and nation, though it will,
but I'm speaking about the little flocks of the Lord Jesus Christ
who are scattered throughout this nation. Little flocks, just
like this. Charles Spurgeon said just before
he died, he said, you watch what's coming. He said, your average
Grace Church will contain about 50 people. And boy, he didn't
profess to be a prophet, but he got that right, didn't he?
He got that right. And that's what I'm concerned
about. The world is going to be saying, peace and safety,
while the little flock of the Lord Jesus Christ is living under
stress and great trials and persecution. The Lord Jesus said this about
the last days. He says, "...as it was in the
days of Noah, and as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it
be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man." Boy, in certain
aspects of Noah's day, it was nice. It was good. You and I
would have loved it. The Bible says they ate, they
drank, They worked, they planted, they built, they married, and
they gave in marriage. But look a little closer. See
what the Lord's estimation of it was. See how it really was.
And listen to this. God saw the wickedness of man,
that it was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The thoughts of his heart. He
never had a good thought. All of his thoughts was not on
morality, not even morality or decency or anything that was
wholesome in society. But all of their thoughts were
evil. And they carried that evil out. Man's depravity had reached its
height. And then the verse said, the
earth was corrupt before God, and filled with violence. We think sin, being let go and
never put in check, corruption, being served, will have no consequences. It always leads to violence. Lust and sinful pleasures today
Violence and death tomorrow. But where was the church in Noah's
day? Well, it was small, wasn't it?
It was small. It was unknown, basically. There
was only eight people in the church in Noah's day. Eight of
them. How many millions of people?
At least millions of people? We don't know, but there was
only eight in the church. And they had little influence.
For 120 years they built that ark. And nobody went into the
ark with them but that one family of eight souls. Boy, they didn't
influence anybody, did they? And can you imagine how they
were mocked? Peter said, in the last days
there would come mockers just like Noah's day. What are you
guys doing? We're building an ark. What for? To float. To float? On water, the floods coming.
Man, it hasn't even rained in the history of the world. And
you fellows building an ark, you guys are old-fashioned. After
120 years, that's what they call them. You're old-fashioned. You've
been on this 120 years. You'll never change. Get with
the program, fellows. They mocked them. They mocked
them. scoffers, scoffers. And consider
today, there is one aspect of society that can become a snare
to anybody, even the children of God. We often think about
Sodom as just being a place of homosexuals. Well, it wasn't
just that. Listen to what Ezekiel 16.49
says about Sodom. Behold, this was the iniquity
of Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, An abundance of idleness
was in her. Man, I sort of like that life,
don't you? All the time you want. You don't
have to work. You can get up, sit and take
it easy, eat all the food you want. That's not good for you,
is it? That's not good for you. And
that's what happened down in Sodom. Not everyone was a homosexual,
but they supported the homosexual's right to be openly homosexual
and to be accepted in society. And if anyone said anything about
their lifestyle or pleaded against it as wickedness, as Lot did, they were free to be persecuted
or worse, to be molested and to be killed. And the church
in Sodom was a very small and insignificant and influential
church in society. Was it not? The Lord had no influence,
did He? He couldn't influence those of
His own family to go with Him. And the situation, here's what
I'm getting at. I don't know what's coming in
your lifetime, my lifetime, this generation. I don't know what's
coming. But I want us to be prepared if it does. I'd have never dreamed
things would have been going downhill as they are. Would you?
Would you ever notice things changing like they're changing
so rapidly? But here's what was said about
Lot that I want to stress to you. The situation he found himself
in was so stressful that the Bible says every day he lived,
his soul was vexed with a filthy conversation of the ungodly. Hearing their deeds and seeing
their deeds, his soul was vexed every day. Now that was a long introduction,
and I won't keep you too long in my message. I want to give
you a few things, just a few things of instruction that may
guide us and may comfort us if you and I come into persecutions
as this man did. First of all, let me begin, number
one, with this. Let me begin with giving us a
take heed. That's needful, listen. If you
and I are coming into persecutions that I believe we may well be
coming into, then the first thing we need is a take heed. And the Apostle gives it here
in chapter 11. In verses 19 through verse 22,
it had been speaking here concerning the church of the Gentiles, that
God had turned from the Jewish nation and now had turned to
the Gentiles in great mercy, in great grace, and was calling
the Gentiles, a people that before were not His people. But now
they are the people of God. And Paul issues here in verse
19, this take heed to the professed in church. Look what he says
in verse 19. Thou wilt say then, the branches
were broken off, the Jewish nation as a whole, they were broken
off, that I might be grafted in. Well, because of unbelief
they were broken off, and you stand by faith, Be not high-minded,
but fear. For if God spurred not the natural
branches, take heed, lest He also spur not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness
and severity of God on them which fail severity, but towards thee
goodness, if thou continue in His goodness, otherwise thou
also shalt be cut off. Now you and I know, and I begin
to hint that a believer can fall away and be lost. And the Apostle
Paul wasn't teaching that either. But he was teaching here the
church, the professing church. If she's not careful through
her slothfulness, through neglect, through carelessness, through
pride, The church state can so decline that churches can be
removed from whole communities. I've got a little library, don't
have too much, but most of the material in my library came out
of the 16th, 17th, and the 1800s. And most of it came out of Europe.
And most of the material I've got came out of England. And
most of it came from around the city of London. The church was
strong in those days. They had many faithful preachers
of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where is it now? Where is that church now? You
can't find it. You talk to Brother Fortner,
he goes over there every year or so, and he says, you can't
find the gospel church there, hardly at all. And when you do,
they're just sparse in number. You say, Bruce, I just can't
hardly believe that we could lose the church. I'm telling
you, look what a strong church we had here in this nation in
the 1800s. Where's it at now? Where's it at? That's what the
apostle is saying to the church. Take heed. Be careful. Be sober. Fear. The candlestick
can be removed out of its place. You and I love the epistle to
the Ephesians, don't we? We love the grace that's taught
there. What happened to the Ephesian church? They left their first
love. And for as we know, the Lord
Jesus removed the candlestick and there is no church there
now. There is no church there now. Can a candlestick be removed? Can the professing church be
spewed from the mouth of the Lord Jesus? I preached on the
Laodicean church one time from this pulpit. about what a sad
and awful condition it was in. And I left this pulpit and some
fella come up to me and he's really upset with me. And he
said, don't call that the church. That's not the church. I said,
go tell that to Christ. He's the one that called it the
church. He said, well, he spewed them or threatened to spew them
out of his mouth. Yes, he did. And as far as we
know, he did. And that's not implying that
one single believer in the Lord Jesus was lost, but he's speaking
there to the churches. I went to a church, a friend
of mine, years ago, hadn't been converted very long. And I went
to this fellow I worked with, wanted me to go with him to a
church, his brother-in-law, a pastor, way out in the country, an old,
old building. And it was just like it was when
the congregation was there. Still had the old pews and the
old pulpit area. And I walked in, and I don't
know if it was required of them to keep everything just like
it was, but they had a huge plaque on the wall just as you walk
in the door. And I began to read their doctrines of faith. And
man, one doctrine after another, my heart just leaped in me. We
believe that before time, they said. God in His covenant grace
chose a host out of Adam's race to save them in Christ. And they
listed the Scriptures. And on and on they went, saying,
this is what we believe concerning the grace of Christ. And I was
reading that, and he may have saw the glow on my face, I don't
know, but the pastor came up behind me, and he said, now listen,
that's not our doctrine. We don't believe that here. What happened to that church? What will happen to this church?
What will happen to this local congregation in a few more years?
Are we even concerned? Do we fear God? Do we prepare
our hearts when we come to worship? Do we beg the Lord Jesus to meet
with us and preserve us, not only today, but next year and
next century? Oh God, keep us, don't let us
leave you as a church. Take heed that you continue in
His goodness. Otherwise, otherwise, you also
shall be cut off. Secondly, along this same line,
if trouble is coming to this church and the church of the
Lord Jesus, tribulation and trials, Then prepare yourself, prepare
yourselves by unburdening yourselves with worldly care and pleasures
and temporal advantages. Unburden yourself. Well, there
may have been a time in our life, in our forefathers' life, when
we could have been more concerned and had more cares. that we can now. But I'm telling
you, we're getting close, brothers and sisters. Unburden yourself. If there was ever a time to unburden
yourself of worldly cares and all these temporal advantages,
it's today. It's today. Lot looked at those
well-watered plains, didn't he? And what did it get him? What
did it get him? I love what the Lord Jesus told
the Jews, and I think what He told them is good for us. Listen
to this. Take heed to yourselves, there
it is, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting
and drunkenness and cares of this life, and so that they come
upon you unaware. And the Apostle Paul said it
like this when he was speaking of the last days. Let us not
sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they
that sleep, sleep in the night. They that be drunken are drunken
in the night, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting
on the breastplate of faith and hope, and for an inhelment, the
hope of salvation. Can you imagine this man, this
prophet Elijah, if he had been burdened down with the cares
of this life? Can you imagine if he had been
in debt? I'm not a financial counselor,
but I want to give you a little bit of advice. And I'm honest
with you. I don't take care of any finances
around our house. My wifey does every bit of it.
If it's left up to me, I wouldn't even have that old toilet I was
telling you all about the other day. That's what I'd have. But
I can give you this advice. If you're in debt, get out of
debt. If you're out of debt, stay out
of debt. Don't burn yourself down with
finances, with cares of this life. It's going to be tough
enough when trials come. Live as this man lived. He had
nothing, did he? Somebody said, it's an awful
shame that this man had nothing, not even food. That awful shame
that he had to trust his covenant God to supply for him? Ravens
fed him, did they not? A poor widow sustained him. Live
your life as though you have nothing. Don't set your heart
upon this world because you're going to lose it anyway. And I'm telling you, if persecution
comes, it's just going to be an added burden to you. If there's
ever a day to lay it aside, and as Brother Fortner often says,
hold this world with a tender hand and be ready to let it go. It's the day that you and I are
living in. Unburden yourselves with this. Paul was writing to the Hebrew
church And he was reminded them that after the Lord saved them,
they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. They took their
property, their houses, their buggies, their horses. You guys
are Christians? Give us your house. You're not
going to be a Christian in our neighborhood. You know there's
people now beginning to lose their businesses because they're
standing for the truth. Whether they're saved or not,
they're standing against what's going on in society. You lose
your job and maybe lose more than that before it is over with.
Handle this life with a tender hand. Unburden yourself. Thirdly,
think about this. Make friends with God's children. Make friends with God's children.
The Apostle said, forsaken not the assembling of yourselves
together, as the manner of some is. But exhort in one another,
and so much the more, as you see the day approaching." There's
a day approaching, and we can see it, can't we? Lord, I'm left alone. Ain't that
what He said? I'm left alone. Now that's depressing,
isn't it? And He was alone. I don't know
why he didn't remember that there was other children. Maybe he
got so busy in the Lord's work being a prophet that he separated
himself from all the children of God. But he got over there
in that cave and he said, Lord, I'm all alone. I'm the only one
left. And then he said, would you just
let me die? Boy, he got so depressed. Find the Lord's people. He's got them. People say, none
of them left. Yes, there's some left. There's
some left. And no matter how bad things
get, God has His elect people. Does He not? It was bad in this
day. All the prophets were hiding
out. Everybody was scared to death. Nobody would worship in
public, but He had His people. Those that He had reserved according
to the election of grace, you can find them. And when you find
them, join yourself with them. Drop in their house for a visit.
Call them on the telephone. Listen to their voice. Come to
worship with them. Sing with them. Pray with them.
Read with them. Be encouraged by them. I tell
you, I could live without the Lord's Church. I just don't know
how. I don't know how. I'd be depressed. I'd be depressed. You dear brothers
and sisters and children that are here today visiting, if you
don't find a church here, find one somewhere. Find the Lord's
people and get with them and worship. The time is coming. It's going to be tough enough
anyway. And I tell you, without God's children, without Christ's
little flock, We're closer than our blood kin, aren't we not?
Who is my brother? Who is my sister? Who's my mother?
The church of Christ, His little blood-bought ones. And I've found
more comfort among them than I have among all my natural kin,
all together. Lord, I'm left alone. Then you're
in a sad state, dear soul. I don't care if you are a prophet.
I don't care if you're mightily used of God, if you're alone.
If you're not in the church and around the church of the Lord
Jesus, you are depressed. Fourthly, let this encourage
you. Take this advice from me. When
persecutions come, and if they do come, don't take it personally. Don't take it personally. Don't think it's just about you.
People's picking on me. It's not about you. It's not
about you. If you begin to think that, then
you'll be offended. It's not about you. You know
what this battle is about? These two great powers are locked
in battle, one with another. You have the God of this world,
the Prince of the Power of the Hour, and He's locked in battle
with the Sovereign Lord of this universe. That's what this is
about. And Jesus Christ has defeated
Satan in His own person 2,000 years ago. He destroyed Him,
put Him down, who had the power of Satan. And you know what the
Lord Jesus Christ is doing now? He's defeating Satan. through
and in His people. That's what this is about. The
Lord exposes His church to all kinds of persecution and affliction. Just to show the devil, I can
defeat you. Paul was talking about the Antichrist. And he said, greater is He that's
in you. Who's in you? Christ is in you. The hope of glory. Greater is
He that's in you than He that's in the world. Who's in the world? Satan and his fallen angel. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to defeat him through His church, through His people. And
that's why the Lord exposes His people to all kinds of persecution
and trial. It's not about you. It's not
about me. It's about Him. and let Him do
with us what He will, if it brings glory to His name." Paul said,
Lord, I don't want this devil that's persecuting me. I don't
want this thorn in the flesh, this messenger of Satan. Would
You take it from me? And the Lord said, I won't. I'm
going to show you my power. I'm going to show you the strength
of my grace. And what did Paul say? I therefore would gladly
rejoice in my infirmities. that the power of Christ may
rest on me. When I'm weak in myself, and
I acknowledge that I can't do anything, then He is strong in
me. That's what it's about. I don't
care what's coming, and some bad things may be coming. If
this man faced it in his day, we may well face it in our day.
They faced it in other countries, and it's probably coming worldwide. before it's over with. Remember
this, He who is in you will not fail you. He will not forsake
you. You can overcome because of Him. And you'll do it for His glory.
For His glory. The Lord Jesus told the Jews,
you shall hear of wars, rumors of wars, calamities, They're
going to deliver you up and persecute you and their synagogues cast
you out? You're going to be hated of all nations for my name's
sake. And then he made this wonderful statement. See that ye be not
troubled. Now ain't that amazing? Reckon he told that to Elijah?
I wonder what Elijah said if you'd have been there. And there
he was in that cave and man, he was down. trouble in his heart. And you walked up and said, Elijah,
don't be troubled. Don't be troubled. The Lord just
told Peter, you're going to deny Me. Before that rooster crows
three times, you're going to deny Me three times. Before the
rooster crows, you're going to deny that you even know Me. You're
going to cuss and swear. See that your heart be not troubled.
Isn't that what He said? Don't let your heart be troubled.
Why? He's in control of all this.
It's about Him. It's about Him. These things
must come to pass. Don't be troubled. Put your trust
in the Lord Jesus. Look to Him. Plead to Him. And don't be troubled. Don't
be troubled. And lastly is this. Two more
things, right quickly. Don't stop telling people the
truth. No matter how bad it gets. Don't stop telling people the
truth. Paul was writing to the Philippian
church and he said, you live in the midst of a crooked and
perverse nation. It was bad back then, wasn't
it? Perverse back then. Crooked. Among whom you shine
as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. No matter how bad things get,
hold forth the word of life. Every generation, the Lord has
elect people that He hasn't called yet. Just keep on holding forth
the Word of Life. That's the way He calls them.
Elections don't care how bad things are. Elections don't care
how bad the elect are. He's going to call them and save
them. He may find them on a cross, a feed, in this dying hour. But
if they're one of His, they're going to hear the Word of Life.
Maybe a keeper of the prison whipping the Lord's prophets.
Impossible. The election don't care. He finds
them wherever they are and He calls them. And wouldn't it be
wonderful if He used me and used you to call His elect to Himself? Hold forth the Word of life. And lastly is this, they seek
my life, Elijah said. They seek my What about it? Who cares? Who cares? I wonder why this
man became so concerned about his life. He never feared before,
did he? He stood right up in Ahab's face
and confronted him. But now, he says, they seek my
life. We forget sometimes that we're
going to die anyway, aren't we? Why not die for the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ? They seek my life. There's nothing
else that they can do. If she kills you, Elijah, there's
nothing else that she can do. If she cuts your head off, nothing
else that she can do. She can't touch your soul, can
she? And that's the most important
thing. I have tried. I don't know. I
don't know when it comes time. I don't know. None of us know. But I have asked the Lord time
and time again, Lord, prepare me to die. Prepare me to die. One fellow was talking to a preacher
and he just went around. He was so depressed. He told
the preacher, the preacher said, what in the world is the matter
with you? He said, you've been so depressed for months. And he said, well,
I've been praying for the Lord to give me dying grace. And I
just don't feel like He's given me dying. He said, are you dying? Oh, he said, I ain't dying. He
said, you don't need dying grace. We want to know before we get
there, don't we? I want to be prepared. I don't
want to face death suddenly and say, man, I'm going to bow. I'm
going to bow. I want to be like those old three
Hebrew children. I won't bow to your idol. You
put me in the furnace, but I'm not going to bow. You kill me,
I'm not bowing. Oh, I want that grace, don't
you? I want to be a Daniel, don't you? You don't pray anymore unless
you pray to our God. I'm not bowing. Put me in the
dental line. I'm not bowing. Oh, I don't want
this physical life to be so precious to me that I would bow to some
other other than God. Lord, prepare us. Prepare us. Give us grace now that we will
not bow. I hope this has been a help.
God bless it to your hearts. Let's pray. Oh, gracious Father
in heaven, the God and Father of our dear Savior, the Lord
Jesus, It's only by Him that we approach into your holy presence,
by His merits, our Father in heaven, by His precious blood
and intercessions. We thank you for this great privilege
that you've given us to come here today to worship you, to
sing unto you, to read your word, to pray, to preach. And we know,
Lord, You've taught us, You've made us aware that there's enough
sin in it to damn us. Cleanse us from the iniquity
of the holy things, lest we be polluted before You. We thank
You, Lord, for all of those who are gathered here this morning.
We don't know what tomorrow may bring, but You give us warnings,
You give us encouragements, You draw us and woo us after you. Oh Lord, don't stop drawing us
or we'll quit coming. Prepare us for whatever may be
on the horizon. Help us to live for your glory,
not to value our own life here upon this earth, but to seek
the things of the soul. To seek the things that would
honor you and glorify your blessed name. We thank you for the food
that's been prepared for us today. We pray that you'll bless it
and bless us as we fellowship around it this afternoon. And
Lord, be with us again. Be in our midst as we come back
to worship this afternoon. We pray for Christ's name's sake.
Amen. Lord bless you. The lady's got
plenty of food, they always have, so I hope everyone can stay and
enjoy a meal with us. We'll see you at one o'clock.