Now Moses went up into the mountain
to receive from God his law. And if you'll read the entire
chapter 31 and 32 at a later time, you'll find that he was
up there for a long, long time. He was there for forty days,
the big sack. And you know what the people
did down in the camp? And Moses was coming back down
the mountain, and he met his friend Joshua on the way down.
And Joshua said that there's noise of battle in the camp. There's a noise of conflict. And Moses said, That's not what
I hear. I hear the noise of singing and dancing. And they came down
from the mountain, When he got down into the camp, he saw this
idol, this golden calf that Aaron had made for the people. And
the scripture said Moses was carrying the Ten Commandments,
the law of God, written by the hand of God. And his anger waxed
hot against the people, worshipping a golden calf, bowing in idolatry. And he just cast the ten commandments
down at his feet and broke them into pieces. And then he took this, these
tables of stone and ground them to powder and spread it over
the water and made the people drink of the water into which
he had cast the dust of these, of the broken law. And then Moses
stood in the gate of the camp. This was an awesome time. It
was a terrible time. Many of the people had fled to
their tents, but some of the men stood there defiantly. Defiantly. Here was the servant
of God. Here was God's messenger. And
there they were in their idolatry and They had religion, but it
was a false religion. They had a god, but he was a
false god. And Moses stood there in the
gate before all the people, and he said, Who's on the Lord's
side? Who is on the Lord's side? Who's really on the Lord's side?
Let him come to me. And he says that the sons of
Levi came to him. And then Moses said to them,
put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from
gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother,
his companion, and his neighbor. And that day three thousand men
died under the sword. Now I want to look very seriously
and solemnly at three things from this passage of Scripture.
God, for reasons known only to himself, has given us here a
ministry. It's a wide ministry. Just Tuesday,
Ronnie and Chris sent out 430 tapes. Tapes going from Australia to
Jordan to England to Ireland to Mexico to Canada, everywhere. And he's given us a ministry
for reasons known only to himself, to preachers. There's some preachers
who take the time to listen to these tapes and these messages.
And so with you in mind, and with, I trust God's glory as
the basis for the whole thing, and with these other preachers
in mind, and with the parallel I see here between that day and
our day, I want to take I want to approach this message
from three directions. Number one, I want us to look
at the messenger. Let's look at Moses first. Let's
look at the message. And then secondly, I want us
to look at the message, the message that this man delivered. He had
a message. And thirdly, I want us to look
at the marks of those who responded. That's very simple. First of
all, the messenger, this man Moses, this man, first of all,
himself, this man believed God. Now I'm telling you this, I'm
saying this to myself and to you and to those who aspire to
the ministry of preaching or teaching, those who have the
responsibility of pastoring, a man cannot deal with others
concerning the things of God till these issues have been settled
in his own heart. He cannot do it. It's an impossibility. Now if you will, you keep Exodus
32 there and turn with me to Hebrews 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Now this is what I'm saying. I'm saying that you cannot preach
repentance if you have not repented. You cannot preach faith in Christ,
genuine faith in Christ, if you have not personally, sincerely,
lovingly, willingly laid hold on Christ. You can't talk about
prayer if you don't pray. You can't talk about God to men
if you don't talk to men. You can't talk to men for God
if you don't talk to God for men. These issues have to be
settled in our own... Now watch this man Moses. Moses
was forty years old in the prime of life. And Moses was somebody
in Egypt. Moses was the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, evidently next in line for the throne, now forty years
old. He was successful, he was influential, he was powerful,
he was rich, he was educated, he was a man of means, he was
a man of great honor. But it says here in Hebrews 11,
24, by faith Moses, when he was come to years, he refused. He made this commitment himself. He came to a crossroads and he
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing
himself rather to suffer the afflictions of the people of
God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now you
just think of the of the wide gulf between what Moses was and
the circle in which he moved, and the Israelites, the people
of God. These Israelites were slaves
under the heel of the Egyptians. They wandered in the mud, making
bricks out of mud and straw, ragged, dirty, poverty-stricken. Nothing, nothing. And Moses moved
in a circle up here of power and wealth and influence and
greatness. And Moses made a commitment.
He made a decision. He chose this rather than that,
deliberately and on purpose. He said, I'm going to be identified
with the people of God. And in doing that, he had to
leave Egypt. Verse 26, esteeming, actually esteeming. Now when
you esteem something, you praise it or give credit to it or honor
to it or you put it first. Esteeming the reproach of Christ,
the offense of the cross, the hated grace of God, greater riches
than the treasures of Egypt. Do you know what the treasures
of Egypt were? All of the art and gold and go
in there to the treasures of Egypt and lift up the diamonds
and silver and gold and precious stones that they brought from
other countries and the raiment and the headdresses and the chariots
and the armor and the power and the buildings and the pyramids
and all. The reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense
of the reward. So by faith he forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing
him who is invisible." What am I saying? I'm saying this fellow
here is a fit messenger of the gospel of grace. He can sure be trusted with it.
He can sure be trusted with it. And we have no message to preach
until we personally experience the grace of God ourselves. You
can't tell what you don't know. That's all there is to it. God
will never commit himself to a man until that man's committed
to God. Never. Never will. He never has and
he never will. We play games, God doesn't play games. Moses was totally committed.
All right, secondly, this man Moses had been alone with God.
He'd been alone with God. When God took him out of Egypt,
he's forty years old. And he came from Egypt, from
the clutter and hustle and bustle and power and meetings and councils
and all these things of Egypt, the finances and the buying and
selling and merchandise and the marketplace. For 40 years, God
took him backside of the desert and sat him down. And they'd
take care of sheep. They'd take care of sheep. to let him be alone with God.
I think I say this to a lot of preachers, and I've made all
the mistakes. But sometimes we pray for activity
when we don't need activity. We pray for success when we don't
need success. We pray for the hustle and the
bustle and the involvement, and this is not what we need right
now. We need the quiet. We need the peace. We need to
be alone with God. I used to have an old professor
in school, and I didn't understand what he was talking about, but
he said, if you've got ten minutes to shave, use eight minutes getting
ready. It's a lot easier to cut a beard
that's prepared than one that's dry. You see what he was saying? Now
I know what he said. Get along with God. We're going
to have to shut up for a while before God's going to open our
mouths and give us anything to say. But what we try to do, what
natural men try to do, is come right out of the business world,
out of the hustle and bustle and rip and snort and buying
and selling and all this, into the spiritual things of God and
incorporate this sort of thing into that. It won't work. It
just won't work. So God took Moses and put him
back on the backside of the desert until he was forty years of age,
and when he got ready to call him, Moses said, I can't even
talk. You want me to go down and appear?
There was a time when he appeared before Pharaoh and had a whole
lot to say, but now he said, I can't even talk. You'd have
to send somebody along to talk for me. He'd been alone with God here
on this mountain for forty days. And then another thing about
this man, Moses. Thirdly, is he knew the people.
Avon told him that. Look at verse, you got your Bible
open to Exodus 32, 22. And when Moses got so upset,
Avon said, why are you upset? You know these people. That's
what he's saying in it. Why? He said in verse 22, Avon
said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. You know these
people. You've had encounter after encounter
with these people. It started out at the Red Sea
when you came to the Red Sea. They wanted to go back. They
said, look at that, you brought us out here to get us killed.
Every time Moses tried anything, they bucked him. You know these
people. And what I'm saying is, the man
who's God's messenger, he's met God. He's made a commitment. And he's been alone with God.
And he knows himself and he knows the people. He knows indeed what
we are by nature. It's like Isaiah said, I'm a
man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.
We don't think straight, walk straight, or talk straight. The
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Every imagination of man's heart
is evil continued. None of us is evil as we could
be. And none of us quite as good
as we think we are. There's none good, no not one,
none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God. And Abram
said to Moses, you know these people. But I'll tell you the
fourth thing about this man, this messenger. Yes, he knew
God. He knew God. No doubt about it. He'd been alone with God. No
doubt about it. He knew the people. He knew the
people to whom he was preaching. He knew them because he knew
himself. But you know, this man loved these people. I want to
show you something that I, on purpose, didn't read a while
ago. Look at Exodus 32, beginning with verse 31. You notice I stopped. Some of you went on reading,
but I stopped deliberately. And Moses returned unto the Lord
after all this. Now here he came down from the
mountain, saw these people worshiping a calf, a golden calf, dancing
in front of a calf. And Moses just diced those ten
commanders to pieces, and he said, Who's on the Lord's side?
And when they came to him, he said, Put on your swords and
kill them! The rebel. Kill them! And then
he returned unto the Lord, verse thirty-one, and he said, Oh,
oh, this people have sinned a great sin. They've made them gods of
gold, and that's what God hates worse than anything, is idolatry.
Yet, now, I almost hate to read this because
I just can't read it like, oh, the burden this man had. Notice
the line there, how he hesitated. Yet, now, if I will, forgive
their sin, and if not, then just blot me out of the book you've
written." What love! What compassion! What compassion! And the Lord
said, Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, him I blot out of
my book. But Moses loved the people. In so many scriptures we find
him interceding like this, pleading for the people, praying for the
people, standing between God and the people. But I've never
seen anything quite like this. And Paul said something like
this in Romans 9. He said, I could wish that myself
were cursed from Christ by my brethren. Have we ever loved
anybody like that? We love sinners that way. And here are these
people. They'd just gone to the depths
and just watered in the cesspool. They just departed from all that
Moses had taught them and just were in the depths of depravity. And Moses got so angry, angry,
and then he turned right around and he said, Lord, they've done
something awful. They've sinned a great sin. But
you forgive them. If you don't, just consider me
to be one of them. Oh, I like that. Blessed is the
man who would rather be a voice in the wilderness than hold an
office in the temple. Blessed is the man who never
questions whether the way of the Lord is the will of the majority.
Blessed is the man who has as his goal the glory of the Lord,
not power, promotion, possessions, or praise of men. Blessed is
the man who has seen God in His glory, Himself in His unworthiness,
the land in its uncleanness, the people in their sinfulness,
and the grace of God in its glory and power. Blessed is the man
who can reject the riches of Egypt with sincerity, and choose
the reproach of Christ, and welcome the offense of the cross, and
rejoice in affliction and determined to know nothing but Christ and
Him crucified. Blessed is the man who can deal
firmly and positively from the Scripture with the people of
God, and yet in private before God, love them and weep over
them and pray for them. All will not hear it, that man,
but God's sheep will. All will not love him, but God's
sheep will. All will not obey his words,
but the elect will. And all will not honor him, but
God will. And he shall say one day, Well
done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful
over few things. I'm going to make you ruler over
many. That's the messenger. Now let's
see the message. In verse 26, Moses says, who's
on the Lord's side? That's the issue. Who's on the
Lord's side? That's the issue. You notice
I'm doing some lessons on the Old Testament pictures of Christ.
Bob, the parallel between this day of Moses and our day is fascinating. I want to show you something
here. Now, the issue here, the issue here is not a big crowd.
You know, everybody's so crowd-conscious. There are two words that people
always ask in reference to religious services is, how many and how
much? Did you know that? You listen
to the television preachers, it's how many and how much. But
now, these people here, Israel, they were religious and they
had a crowd. Look at verse 1 of chapter 32.
Now, let me just show you these things. And when the people saw
that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, they gathered
themselves to gather unto Avon. They had a football stadium full.
They had a crowd, Richard, a big crowd. All the people gathered
themselves unto Avon. Had a big crowd. And another
thing about these people is they went through a form of worship. They had them a God and they
worshiped. Look here. at verse 4, and he received the
gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool, and after
he'd made it mold and cast, he said, these be thy gods. They
made them a god to their own specifications. That's what we've
done today. We've got our crowds, and we
make our god according to what we let him or want him to be.
We've designed us a god, and our preachers have said, here's
your god, here's your god, here's your god. And they had an altar. They got the people to the altar.
Look at verse 5. And Aaron saw it, and he built
an altar before the God. Every church ought to have an
altar. Every church ought to have, you know, they got a crown,
and they got a God, and they got an altar for people to come
to. Aaron had to put an altar out there. Now, every believer
has an altar, but our altar is Christ. The altar is in the heart,
and it's Christ. But Aaron built them an altar
in front of their God. And then, they brought an offering.
You always take up an offering. Verse 5 says, ìAvon built an
altar, made a proclamation, ìTodayís the feast of the Lord,î and they
rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought
peace offerings.î They brought their gold and silver and their
nickels and dimes and tithes, and they brought an offering.
Isnít that a modern church? Got a crown, got a God, got an
altar, brought an offering. And then they had a potluck supper,
and the people sat down to eat. You got to have something to
eat. You got to have refreshments. They sat down to eat. They had
a potluck supper, and they had a missionary fellowship supper,
and they had a whole kind of eating. They sat down to eat,
and then they got a ball team. They rose up to play. This is
the modern church. They got a crowd. And they got
an altar, and they got a God, and they took up an offering,
and they had a supper, and then they began to play games. So
that's not the issue. What is the issue here? Moses
defines the issue here. He says, who's on the Lord's
side? The issue is not capitalism versus communism, or Calvinism
versus Arminianism, or premillennial versus armillennialism, or fundamentalism
versus liberalism. The issue is, who is on God's
side? That's the issue. Who's on God's
side? Not who's going to church, or
who's going to the altar, or who's going to be baptized, or
who's going to bring an offering, or who's going to play ball.
Who's on God's side? That's the issue. Well, what
is God's side? What's God's side? Well, I'll
give you four things, and I won't take them down. But I'll tell
you it hasn't changed. It's the same then, it's the
same now. God's side, number one. is the scripture against
tradition. That's God's side. It's the scripture
against tradition. Do I bow to the word of God or
do I bow to tradition? Do I receive the word of God
by faith, walk in it, whether I understand it or not, or do
I demand an explanation from the lips of men in order to follow
the tradition? I know what tradition says about
creation, but what does God say? I know what tradition says about
the fall. They hold a little baby and they
say, well, it's such an innocent little creature. Innocent as a babe. And when
the babe reaches the age of accountability, it'll be a sinner. And it'll
lead to gospel. That's not what God says. That's
not what Scripture says. God's side is the Scripture against
this sort of foolishness. I know what the world says about
man's will. The evangelist says, salvation,
God's done all he can do, and that's up to you. Salvation's
an act of the human will. If you will, you can be saved. If you won't, you'll be lost.
What's God saying? God's Word says it's not of him
that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
God's word says you will not come to me that you might have
life. God's word says that we're born, not of the will of man,
but of the will of God. I know what the world says about,
and tradition says about, election. God voted for you, the devil
voted against you, and you cast it aside and vote. But what does
God say? I know what the world says about the atonement that
Jesus Christ came down here and died for all the sins of all
men and made a But a strong effort to save every son of Adam, every
member of the human race. And the way that we make that
atonement effectually is by our decision or our work. But what
does God say? I know what the world says about
the Holy Spirit. That you're saved and know Christ,
but you haven't begun to live until you meet the Holy Ghost.
But what does God say? The Holy Spirit will not speak
of Himself, but He shall take the things of mine and show them
to you. He'll glorify me. I know what tradition says about
eternal life. You join the church, and you
walk straight, and you give up certain sins, and then you go
to church and read your Bible. As long as you stay that way,
you're saved. But if you decide to quit, you're lost again. But
what does the Bible say? My sheep, hear my voice, I give
them eternal life. They'll never perish. So what
I'm saying is, who's on God's side? That's what Moses said. Who's on God's side? And God's
side is scripture against tradition. And I'll tell you this secondly,
quickly, the Lord's side is free grace against free will. Ephesians
2, 8 and 9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should vote. It's not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy He has saved us. Whom He foreknew, He predestinated
to be conformed to the image of His Son. Whom He predestinated,
He called. Whom He called, He justified.
Whom He justified, He glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? Free grace, sovereign
grace, against free will, Arminianism. I'll tell you thirdly, God's
side is this. It's His righteousness against
my righteousness. In Romans chapter 10, that was
the whole problem with Israel. God said through Paul, He said,
there is none of God's righteousness and they're going about to establish
their own righteousness and will not submit to the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes it. I'll tell you
this. Our Lord said, except your holiness, your righteousness
exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you're not going to
God's kingdom. And our righteousness doesn't exceed it. Our righteousness
is filthy rags. And we need that righteousness
which Christ has provided. That's the perfect, spotless
righteousness of His Son. I try to make that so clear every
time I preach that God is holy. incomprehensibly, unapproachably
holy that we're sinners. And in order for us to have anything
to do with a holy God, we've got to have a holiness like God,
a righteousness like God. We've got to be brought from
this place to His presence. And Christ does that. He affected
it by His life and purchased it by His death. by honoring
the law and satisfying God's justice. We're clothed with His
righteousness. And then the Lord's side forth
is this. It's the life of the cross against
the life of self. Now, men talk about carnal Christians. I hear that all the time. Well,
he's a carnal Christian. And where they get that is over
in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, when Paul's writing to the church
at Corinth, and he says, I hear there are divisions among you.
1 Corinthians, at least chapter 3. There are divisions among
you. Maybe chapter 1. And he said, some of you say
I'm of Paul, some of you say I'm of Apollos, some of you say
I'm of Cephas, some of you even say I'm of Christ. He said, are
you not acting like carnal men? That's what he said. He's not
saying these people are carnal. He's saying you're acting like
natural men. You're not acting like children
of God. You're not acting like spiritual
people. You're acting like carnal men. He's not saying these believers
are carnal. We're born of the Spirit of God,
and those that are born of the Spirit of God have the Spirit
of God. And then men talk about receiving Christ as Savior. Later
on, his Lord, they talk about what Christians ought to do.
They say, well, Christians ought to love each other. Christians
do love each other. Turn to Luke 14. Luke chapter
14. I want to read a scripture here
beginning with verse 26. Luke 14, 26. Listen to this.
Luke 14, 26 and 27. I'm not being hard. I'm just
telling the truth. Listen to what the Lord said.
Now listen, who's on the Lord's side? And there went a great
multitude with him, and he turned and said to them, this is the
Master speaking, If any man come to me, come to me. That's the Lord's side, that's
to the Lord. And hate not his father and mother, and wife and
children, and brethren and sisters, and yea, his own life also. He
cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his
cross, that's what I'm talking about. This is the life of the
cross instead of the life of self. He cannot be my disciple. Which of you intending to build
a tower, a house, that is not down first and counts the cost?
Can you do it? Can you finish it? Can you afford
it? Can you complete it? Just happily after he laid the
foundations, not able to finish it, and all began to mock him,
saying, this man began to build They're not able to finish. Or
what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth
not down first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand
to meet him that cometh with twenty thousand? Or else, while
there is a great way off, he sendeth an ambassadge and desires
conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he just cannot
be my disciple. It's a commitment. And I tell you, I tell you this,
I know that in this present day of fundamentalism, we're doing
everything we can to make religion as easy as possible so that a
man can put it in his mouth, not know it's there, swallow
it, not know he's got it, and lose it and not miss it. You believe a few doctrines and
join the church and you're fixed up. But God's side, God's side. And who's on God's side? It's
a serious question. And the man's on God's side takes
the book and holds it to his heart and believes it. And he
rejoices in the free grace of God. The free grace of God as
opposed to his human will. He cannot compromise. He just
cannot. He cannot compromise. He holds
it to his heart. And then he knows, he knows this,
he has no righteousness. It bothers him when someone says
he's a man of God. God is his God, no question about
that. It bothers him when folks brag
on him, or exalt him, or extol him, because he knows he's the
chief of sinners, he knows that. He knows there's no good thing
in his flesh. In the flesh, no man can please God. But his righteousness
is Christ. One thousand percent. It's Christ
and Christ alone. And then, fourthly, that man
is dedicated to his Lord. What he has belongs to Christ.
What he is, is because of Christ. One hundred percent. He's not
playing games. He's not playing games. He's not in part-time
religion. He's sold after Christ. That's
right. It's the life of the cross. Well, that would interfere with
too many things. You're dead right it will. You're
dead right it will. I can't build me a big home and
build God one too. I can't spend my money on that
New dress, or coat, or suit, or car, if I'm going to give
it to the missionaries. Yes, right, you can. Well, when
we build up a certain amount, we'll help you. God doesn't want
that mess. He gets the first fruits. You
read the Bible, all right, Charlie? You know that Old Testament.
The first fruits. You don't count what you have
and give to God. You give to God and count what's
left. I'm telling you, that's just God's Son. That's God's son. And that's
the reason Moses came down. Now, we can worship. We can build
a cave. That ain't no problem. You can
build a God and make him just like you want him. That's no
problem. Yeah, but I don't see it that way. I know you don't.
I don't either. You don't see it that way by
nature. Christ is first. That's the life of the cross. You don't quit. God's people
don't quit. They don't quit. It's like a
soldier. They shoot them for quitting.
You go into battle and you got the banner of Christ. You don't
quit. Blood runs down your face, but you don't quit. The man who
quits never was in the battle. You don't quit. Those that draw
back are like dogs returning to vomit. And that's awful to
say it, but that's what Peter said. They're like a pig that
returns to the wallowing in the mire. That's what Peter said.
That ain't what I said. It's the life of commitment. That's
the side. Who's on that side? I don't want
to be on that side, preacher. Well, maybe someday you will.
But that's still God's side, isn't it? That's God's side.
And what, winding this up, what Moses said, he said, let's make
it public who's on the Lord's side. He said, first of all,
who's on the Lord's side? Let him come to me. Let him identify
with me. That's identification. Let him
be identified with me. I believe a man who's on God's
side will find out where God's people are. He'll find out where
the Gospels preach. He'll find out where the banner
of Christ is flying publicly outside. And that's where he'll
come. You know, if you were in a foreign
country, and got in trouble, what would you look for? You'd
look for a United States consul. And you know how you would know
it? The U.S. flag would be flying right outside,
wouldn't it? Right out there on the flagpole.
I don't care if you was in Iran or Lebanon or Beirut or Ivory
Coast or where, if you walk down the street and you see the old
Stars and Stripes flying out there, you say, hey, that's American
soil. If I can get in there, I'll be
in good shape. But suppose you came to what
somebody said was American Consul, and there wasn't a flag there.
And you went in and you said, hey, where's the flag? Oh, the
fellow said, we have one. We have one, but it's back here
in the drawer somewhere. Let's see, I know I've got it
right here somewhere. Yeah, I hear it. Well, how have
you got it on the flagpole? Well, you don't want to offend
these people. You getting what I'm getting
at? You don't want to offend these people. I know a lot of
preachers who keep their grace message in their study in a drawer
or on a shelf in a book. They don't fly it out there where
bunks are. You know who's on the Lord's
side? It's the man who deliberately and willingly unfurls the flag. And then he puts it on the pole
and he raises it right up there in front of everybody and says,
Here's where I stand. Here's where I stand. I believe
God's sovereign on the throne, eternal. Man's in the guttering
and the dust. God elected a people and Christ
came to save them. And he died an effectual death,
and the Holy Spirit will call him. And I want the whole world
to know that's what I believe. Well, I'll tell you this. You'll
be safe under that kind of ministry, because you're on God's side.
I just get to that console where that flag is, and they can't
touch me. And I'll tell you this, I can
get to where his flag is flying. Put on your sword. What's that
sword? It's the Word of God. And slay every man his brother.
This is what we do. Every man his brother, companion
and neighbor. We go forth with the Word and
say, Tom, you want the Word? Like you want the word, you want
God's word, you want the truth, you want the grace of God, truth,
that's what we're doing. And you got to do that with your
family and friends and everybody. They say no. All right. The dearest idol I
have known, whatever that idol be, God help me to tear it from
the throne and worship only thee. That's the man that's on God's
side. Is that too hard? I don't want it to be, and I
don't believe it is. I've tried not to be hard, but
these are issues, and they're dividing issues. And it's the truth. Commitment. Total commitment
of heart to Christ. Our Father, that which is But displeasing
to thee in this time together, that which is contrary to thy
word and contrary to thy grace and truth and to thy glory, just
cause us to quickly forget it. Dismiss it from our minds. Oh,
whatever we do, we've got too much flesh about us. But that
which is true and that which is according to the word, that
which is glorifying to Christ Bless it to our hearts. Lord,
we want to know the Redeemer. We don't want to be caught up
in a perverse generation of idle worshipers going down the broad
road to destruction. But we want to know the Redeemer.
We want to know Christ. We want your love and your mercy
in our hearts through Christ. Now bless this word. wherever it's heard, wherever
it's considered. Because we're shut up entirely
to your Holy Spirit to make it effectual. For Christ's sake
we pray. Amen.