I'm going to read from Ezekiel
chapter 16. Ezekiel 16, beginning with verse
1. Ezekiel 16, verse 1. Again, the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem
to know her abominations. And thus saith the Lord God unto
Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan,
the land of idolatry, the land of paganism. Thy father was an
Amorite, a heathen, and your mother was a Hittite. And as
for your nativity, that is your birth. This is what happened.
In the day that you were born, your navel was not cut, the cord
was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at all,
nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to do any
of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee. But
thou wast cast out into the open field. There was an ancient custom among
the heathen. This wasn't practiced among the
Jew at all, but the Jewish people understood it. They understood
what happened. The babies that weren't wanted,
deformed, many times female infants, when they came forth from their
mother's womb, the cord was cut and they were just thrown into
the field. When the tribe was traveling, or taken outside the
city, I suppose, just thrown in the field, left for the beast
to devour, and the vultures and buzzards and birds and insects
and all kinds of creeping things. This was practiced. This is the
picture we see here, the day that God said this child was
born. He wasn't, Navel wasn't tied,
he wasn't cleaned up. He was just taken and thrown
into the field like a passing tribe going through a place,
and the child's born, and they don't want it. It's deformed
or ugly or something of that nature, and they just throw it
out there and leave it, and leave it to cry until it died, and
then somebody came and ate it, some animal. Verse 5, "...to
the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born.
And when I passed by thee, and saw you polluted, trodden underfoot,
corrupted in your blood, in this loathsome state. I said unto
thee, when you were in your blood, I said unto thee, Live. Yea,
I said unto thee, when you were in this condition, hopeless,
helpless, not a friend in the world, I said, Live. And I've
caused thee to multiply as the bread of the field. You've increased
and waxen great. You come to excellent ornaments,
your breasts are fashioned. This is one reason I think this
was a female child, unwanted. They were proud of males, you
know, and gave them names, beautiful names. But some of these female
children weren't desired, no one is thrown away. But now you
become a beautiful, beautiful lady. Your breasts are fashioned,
your hair has grown long, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now,
when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, Behold, thy time was
a time of love. Love, from which direction? From
the infant? Certainly not, but from him. And I spread my skirt over you,
I covered your nakedness. Yea, I swore unto thee, the unwanted
one, I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God,
and you became mine. You became mine. No one else
wanted you, but I did. Then I washed you tenderly, I
washed you with water. Yea, I thoroughly, completely
washed away your blood, and I anointed you with oil. And I clothed thee
also with brooded work, and shod thee with badger skin. I think
about moccasins there. I girded thee about with fine
linen, and covered thee with silk. I deck thee with ornaments,
and I put bracelets upon your hands, and I put a chain upon
your neck, and I put a jewel on your forehead." I know that
says nose there, and I read some of these commentaries, and don't
ask me to go along with that. A nose ring, I think they consider
the nose going all the way up and a jewel in the forehead,
Indian Oriental ladies wear. But what it is, it's a personal
mark of ownership. I put my name on your forehead.
I wrote my name on your forehead. And earrings in your ears, and
I put a beautiful crown on your head. And you were decked out
with gold and silver. Your raiment was of fine linen
and silk and broadered And you did eat the fine flour, and the
honey, and the oil, and you were exceeding beautiful, exceeding
beautiful. And you did prosper into a kingdom. And your renown went forth among
the heathen for your beauty. You were the most beautiful one
in the world. For your beauty was perfect through
my beauty, through my comeliness, your beauty, your renown went
forth through all the world, for your beauty was perfect through
my perfection, which I put upon you, saith the Lord God." Now,
let me briefly give you two or three things. The splendor and
the power and the glory of the nation of Israel was known throughout
all the world in the days of Solomon. There was a queen, the queen
of Sheba, the queen of the south, and that was a rich nation. But
she journeyed all the way, many, many miles, to behold this kingdom
of Israel in the days of Solomon. The splendor of it, the glory
of it, the beauty of it, the richness of it, the strength
of it was known throughout the world. And when she came and
saw the beauty of this nation, Israel, you know what she said?
She said, the half has never been told. They didn't tell me
half of Solomon's wisdom or half of the power and beauty and splendor
of this nation. Well, where did this nation start?
There was a time when this nation of Israel, this glorious kingdom,
this kingdom of power and glory and beauty, there was a time
when it consisted of one man, one lone man. And that man, where
did God find him? That man was almost 60 years
old. He was little older than I am. And Almighty God found him, just
like he described him right here. He found him not worshiping God. He found him not seeking the
Lord. God found Abraham, believe it or not, in idolatry. He found him in a pagan country,
Ur-Bekaldes. worshiping the idols, the pagan
gods of his father. That's where God found him. There
was no nation of Israel, there was no name Israel. There were
no people devoted to the worship of God. And Abraham found grace
in the eyes of the Lord, and God came and he said, I pass
by. I passed by when you were polluted
in your idolatry and polluted in your blood and polluted in
your miserable existence. And I said, Leo, and I made you,
this is what I made you. And I took you from one man and
I brought you to the splendor and glory and magnificence of
Solomon's kingdom, the one of which the Queen of Sheba said
the half was never told. But he said, your strength is
my strength. Your beauty, the glory of Israel,
was God's glory. The beauty of Israel was God's
beauty. The splendor of Israel was God's
majesty. What Israel was, the place from
which it came, was totally and completely and entirely by God's
favor and God's mercy. Now, there's another picture
from which this might be taken, and that's when God came down
into Egypt, when he passed by the land of Egypt, and there
the children of Israel, he found them a herd of slaves. He found them crushed under the
heel of Pharaoh. He found them crushed down, serving
other men. He found them lower than animals.
He found them groveling in the dirt and the mud and making bricks
for Pharaoh's idols and for Pharaoh's temple. And God brought them
from that place to the splendor of David. But our business, and
as I look at this, and every gospel preacher I think does
this, as I look at this and prepare to bring you a message on it
tonight, my business is not with the nation Israel. Something
is going on now in Israel. I don't know what it is. I don't
want to be so amillennial that I ignore it, or so premillennial
I make too much out of it. But we're seeing almost a duplication
of what's written right here about Israel. I don't know much
about this now, and I'm not going out on this limb. I don't want
to get a play party and have folks get involved with it and
miss the message. But we're seeing almost the same thing today.
The magnificence and power of that little band of people has
this whole world standing in amazement. Their strength and
their guts and their courage and their What they're doing
is amazing to somebody. It is to me. And they were nothing
a few years ago in 1947, 48. But our business is not with
the nation of Israel. Our business is with how God
deals with us personally. And what I see here in this scripture
tonight is I see God coming, that one man, Abraham. in nothingness,
in less than nothingness, in paganism and heathenism and idolatry,
in the pollution of the flesh, probably sacrificing human beings
to false gods. And God called Abraham, called
him out of that corruption and made of that nation, made of
him. He said, your seed is going to
be like the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea. So
I know that's spiritual, spiritually speaking. But when we think of
Abraham and when we see Solomon's kingdom and look back from whence
it came, look back at the mouth of the river, the mouth of the
spring, it just staggers our imagination. But something even
more staggering is this, and I have three parts for this message.
I'm going to apply it to myself. What I was, and what God did,
and what I am now. And what I am now. Now then,
what he's telling us here is a heathen, pagan, mother and
father, a child was born to the woman and they didn't want her.
And so they just took the little baby and cut the cord and threw
it out in the field and took care of the mother and they went
on their way. And there it lay out there in the field, in its
blood, not cared for or wanted or anything. Well, now, that's
my birth. That's what I was. That's my
birth. Look, if you will, at verse 4.
It says, As for your nativity, that is, as for your birth. I
didn't come into this world as one who might stand or fall.
I came into this world, John, as one already fallen, already
fallen. Now, men can kick against this
in their pride, they can kick against original sin, they can
kick against our fallen Adam, they can kick all they want to,
but I'm saying this is the story of our birth. We were born of
heathens, and we were cast out to the field. Turn to Psalm 51. Let's read about our birth, what
God says about our birth in Psalm 51. Read, if you will, verse 5. David
said this, he said, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. In sin my
mother conceived me. I was shapen in iniquity. In
sin did my mother conceive me. Look at Psalm 58. Read, if you
will, verse 3. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies. He said, Preacher, what are you
saying in plain, simple words? I'm saying that when we are born
into this world, my mother and father, spiritually, we're like
this deserted infant right here. We are polluted and corrupt and
unwanted, wicked, sinful creatures who have no knowledge of God,
no love for God, no life and no light. That's what we are,
an infant. Notice the second thing from
Ezekiel 16. It was an infant, and when you
were born, your navel was not cut, you were not washed in water,
not salted at all, not swaddled, no one pitied thee, you were
just cast out. What can an infant do? An infant
can cry, an infant can weep, an infant can lie there and hurt,
but an infant, it doesn't know what it is, it doesn't know where
it is, it doesn't even know what's hurting it. There's nothing as
helpless as an infant. A dead man is no more helpless
than an infant. Clay, somebody said, on the wheel
is no more helpless than an infant. He cries in his misery, but he
doesn't even know what his misery is. He knows he's miserable,
but he doesn't know why he's miserable. He doesn't know what's
making him miserable, and he doesn't know what can help him.
That's our state. It's inability. We came into
this world as sinners, and in that sinful darkness, in that
wicked condition, in that condition of inability, we know we're miserable,
but we don't know what's making us miserable. We don't know what's
causing it, we don't know why we're miserable, and we don't
know the solution or who can help us or relieve us of our
misery, and we don't have any outside help. Look at verse 5
here, it says, None eye pitied thee. We have no friend in heaven,
earth, or hell. The law condemns us, justice
bears its sword, the holiness of God is offended, and truth
is sworn to destroy. I see this infant lying out there
in the field. It's miserable, the skin is drying,
the sun is baking it, there's pain going through his body and
he's just crying and screaming. He doesn't know what's wrong
with him, doesn't know why he's miserable, doesn't know who can
help him, he's just screaming and crying. And out yonder's
a lion that hears him, the lion's just waiting till he can come
in here and eat him, eat him. And there's some vultures and
buzzards circling. And then over here some ants
and roaches and fleas and all kinds of insects that are coming.
And there it lies. And this is my condition by nature.
The law of God waits to pounce upon me. The justice of God waits
to claim me. The wrath of God waits to consume
me. The sword of God's justice is
waiting to plunge into my soul. I'm helpless and hopeless. I'm
without God. I'm in my misery. It says here,
a loathsome sight, polluted, polluted to the loathing of your
person. I passed by you and saw you polluted. Turn to Isaiah chapter 1. I wish
I had the ability, I wish I had the ability to describe the condition
of natural men in the sight of God. This is a loathsome sight
here. We think about this infant out
there. There's nothing more cuddly or
beautiful than a clean little baby that has been washed and
oiled and powdered with Johnson's baby powder and this little hair
comb, little ribbon put there. But my friend, this sight here,
it's just, it was Taken from the mother and just thrown out
there in his blood in his pollution been laying there for hours and
and just of just a rotten sight just a polluted sight and who
in the world would want to lift it up and hold it to their to
their chest and and Nestle it close and look nobody nobody
touch it leave it to the lions leave it to the vultures leave
it to the buzzards and that's what God sees when he sees us
and He says in Isaiah 1, verse 5, why should you be stricken
any more? You'll revolt more and more, your whole head is
sick, your whole heart is faint, from the sole of your foot even
to your head, there's no soundness, there's no cleanness, there's
no holiness, there's wounds and bruises and putrefying sores,
putrefying, that have not been closed, neither bound up, neither
mollified with ointment. You see, our sinful condition,
our corruption, has to be regarded and considered in the light of
God's holiness. Now, filth to filth is not filth,
but filth to holiness and cleanliness is filth. The reason we can't conceive
of things like this is like Romans 3 said, none good, none that
seeketh after God. The poison of snakes is under
your lips. Your feet are swift to shed blood.
It talks about all of the rottenness about us. Well, we don't see
that because, you see, we don't have the holy eyes of God. We
don't have the same rule of measurement for holiness that God has. We
don't have the same understanding of holiness. And this is the
way God sees us, not the way we see ourselves or we see one
another. But that's what I was. It was
an early ruin. I was born in sin. It was an
utter ruin. My inability was indescribable.
It was a complete ruin. I didn't have any power. Tell
the baby, well, baby, come on down here. There's a baby hospital
down here that's run by Jesus Christ. And if you take the first
step, he'll come and meet you halfway. Come on, baby. Baby,
if you'll just straighten up your life and clean up your life
and come to God, He'll accept you into His bosom. That baby
is helpless, hopeless, without strength. And there's nothing
and no one who can do anything for him. That baby is finished.
That baby is completely, completely hopeless. All right? But that's
not the end, thank God. Listen here, verse 6. And it
says, when I pass by. when I passed by. I thought about
the song when I read those three words there, when I passed by
those four words. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling. Don't
pass me by. There's no reason, there was no necessity. God stopping
here by this polluted, God calling Abraham was not of necessity. God didn't need Abraham. God
could have chosen anybody else. He could have chosen a George
over here, or a David over there, or a Philip over there, but he
called Abraham. When he passed by here and saw
me polluted in my blood, there was nothing of necessity that
caused him to stop. I can't lay claim to Almighty
God choosing me because he needed me. He did not need me. But he
said, I passed by, I passed by, and listen to this, and he said,
I saw you. I saw you. I saw you for what
you really were. You didn't see me. You didn't
see me. I saw you. God says, I passed
by, and I saw you. I saw you in your blood, I saw
you in your pollution, I saw you in your corruption. You see,
God looks on the heart, and God knows all about us. He knows
how wretched and wicked and depraved we really are. No one else knows
it. You know, the amazing thing is,
we don't even know it. We don't even know it. You say,
well, everybody sure is fooled about me, and that ain't all.
You are too. The heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Who can know
it? But God knows it. God knows it. He said, I passed by and I saw
you. I saw you just as you are, just like you are. I saw you.
I know you. I looked on your heart. You were
polluted in your blood. And verse 8 says, And when I
passed by you and looked upon you and saw you, it was a time
of love. Now, brethren, let's be totally
honest with the people to whom we preach. It was not love on
the part of the baby. I didn't love God. I don't love
God now like I ought to love God, like I want to love God,
like I will love God. I always get afraid of people
who talk about how much they love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus! Oh, how I love Jesus! I wish
I loved him more, but when he called me, I didn't love him
at all. I wasn't calling his name. I wasn't seeking him. He
passed by me and saw me like I was, and he said, it was the
time of love. I loved you. I have drawn you
with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with an infinite
love. I have drawn you with a one-sided love. That's right. I didn't
seek him, he sought me. I didn't choose him, he chose
me. I didn't love him, he loved me. Here is love, not that we
love God. He loved us. We love him because of what he's
done. We love him because of what he's
done. And then he said, watch this, go back to verse 6. He
said, When I pass by you, And oh, my friends, this is so, whether
men like to admit it or not, whether they like to own up to
it, our self-righteousness and pride sometimes won't let us.
But here we were born of Adam, born in wretched corruption,
depraved, idolatry, not seeking God, not desiring God, not calling
after God, just wallowing in our own blood and filth and stewing
in our own corruption and cesspool of iniquity and loving every
minute of it and the wild beast of the field and the fowl of
the air waiting to devour us and us just crying in our misery
and wallowing in our corruption. And God came by, back in eternal
purpose. God came by in the incarnation
of his Son. God came by in everlasting love
for reasons known only to himself. And he looked at that hogwater,
that pollution, that rottenness, and he said, I loved you. Tell
me why. Tell me why. He said, I loved
you. See, that's mercy. We love those
that love us. We give to people who give back
to us. We help those that help us. But he said, I loved you.
I loved you." I can't explain that. There was nothing attractive,
nothing beautiful, nothing that that rottenness could contribute
to God, nothing akin to God, nothing related to God. He said,
I loved you. And I said, live. I said live. Oh, I tell you,
death gave way to life. When God says live, men live.
I could stand up here all day and say, Center up! And when
the dead man rise, my Lord Jesus Christ, oh, the helplessness
of men. Lazarus got sick, and they prayed
over him and gave him medicine and poultices and all these things,
and finally Lazarus died, and they took him out and buried
him and rolled a stone in front of his grave, and four days he
had lain there, and he was already rotting, already stinking. They
said he had been there four days, he stinked. My Lord walked up.
him who his life itself, he who has the power of life, he whose
voice, him whose voice can make men live. He came to that grave
and he said, roll that stone away. And they said, Lord, don't
make us do that. He's so rotten, he's already
stinking, he's been dead for, roll that stone away. And they
rolled that stone away and the Lord Jesus stood there and he
said, Lazarus, come forth. And everybody stood there wide-eyed
in amazement, their mouths hanging open, their hearts scarcely beating,
hardly breathing. And in a moment, right in that
dark passageway leading to that cave, that grave, Lazarus stepped
out and walked into the sunshine. Oh, I wish God would do that
tonight. I can't do it. He can. Inability gave way to
strength. Dead men can't walk. They can
when my Lord speaks. Dead men can't hear, they can
when he gives them ears. Dead men can't see, they can
when he gives them eyes. Dead men have no power. Inability
gives way to strength when Christ speaks. Darkness becomes light.
Mourning gives way to joy. And all the enemies flee away. And my Lord came by there and
he said, Live. Live now and live always. You
talk about falling from grace and that infant reverting back
from her beauty to the field. You're talking stupid, Liv. My
Lord said, Liv, I'm talking about power. I'm talking about supernatural
power. I'm talking about God's purpose.
He said, I entered a covenant with you. You see it there? I
entered a covenant with you, I believe it's in verse 8, yeah,
he said, it was a time of love, last night, he said, I entered
a covenant with you and you became mine and I said, live, live,
live! And that baby lived. And it'll
never die, Jim. Where my God creates life, it'll
never die. I know men make decisions, they
walk aisles, they join churches and they shake hands and they
get wet. But I tell you, only Christ can give life. And when
it's the time of his love and when it's the time of his purpose,
and I know we steam up revivals and we get folks hepped up with
our music and singing and we get people excited with our advertising
and we're going to do all these emotional, sentimental things,
but I tell you, it still takes his voice for dead men to live. That's right. Old Lazarus will
stay in his grave until he says live. And that baby will stay
in its blood until he says live. That's so. And he says live when
he's pleased to say live. He says live to those whom he
makes alive. This is so. Turn to Ephesians
chapter 2. I know, I know it won't create
excitement unless you ever see him say live. That'll create
excitement. If you ever see him in his power,
give men life. When you don't do it, when all
you do is object, object, object, but don't, Lord, don't roll the
stick, but, but, but he's stinking, but, but he just--" Ephesians
2, and you, and you, hath he quickened who was dead. Dead
in trespasses and sin you walked. You say, how do dead men walk?
These are dead spiritually. They're dead spiritually. They
lie physically and mentally and emotionally, but they're dead
spiritually. And they think, but not on God.
They walk, but not in the way of God. They walk according to
the course of this world, according to the Prince of the Pyre there,
the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, fulfilling
the lust of our flesh. fulfilling the desires of our
flesh and the lust of our mind. We were by nature children of
wrath, heathen, idolaters, pagans, even as others. But God, who
is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sin, said, Live! See what I'm saying? Live. All right, that ain't all
what I am now. Let's look at verse 8. He said
in verse 8 that I said live, but he didn't quit there. The
whole of the work whereby a sinner is lifted from the dunghill of
sin and seated on the throne is all of God. He doesn't just
say live and walk off and you do your best to get scrubbed
up a little bit, you know, and pitered up. No, he said, first
thing I did, I covered you with my skirt. I covered you." What
is that? I believe that's the righteousness
of Christ. He said, I covered, I spread
my skirt over you, I covered your nakedness. I covered your
nakedness. I covered your ugliness. You
see, God can't see my ugliness and my nakedness and my corruption
through the robe of Christ's righteousness. In Christ, I'm
pure and perfect. And he said, I entered a covenant
with you. And you became mine, and then I washed you. I cleansed
you. I washed away your pollution.
I washed away your filth. I washed away your sin. I washed
away your iniquity in the blood of my Son. The blood of Jesus
Christ cleanseth us from all sin. I cleansed you. I washed you. And then he said,
I anointed you with oil. I thoroughly washed the blood
from you, and then I anointed you with the Spirit. I gave you
my Spirit. Every believer has the Spirit
of God. I filled you with my Spirit. I got to believe that
all represents the Holy Spirit. And then he said, I clothed you.
These are the graces of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit. I clothed
you with broidered work. I shod you with badger skin.
I girded you with fine linen. I covered you with silk. I decked
you with ornaments and put bracelets. And you see these things, I dressed
you up, I adorned you. He took this corrupt, vile, helpless
mass of corruption and he washed it in the blood of Christ. And
he entered a covenant and said, you're mine now. And he fashioned
and made her beautiful. Oh, he said, you've just developed
and you're beautiful. Your hair's long and your breasts
are fashioned and your form is beautiful. And then he said,
I covered you with broadered work. And I put moccasins made
out of badger skin on your feet. And I put earrings in your ears
and bracelets. And I just put you out there
for the whole world to see the riches of my grace. This is what
I do for my people. I gave you love and joy and peace
and long-suffering and meekness and gentleness and kindness.
I decked you with these things. And that's beauty. You see, beauty
is the spiritual graces of the Spirit of God. That's beauty.
Beauty is love and grace and kindness and gentleness. That's
beauty. That's the beauty of God. And
he said, I put my name in your forehead. I put my mark in your
forehead. You belong to me. And I put a
crown on your head. He hath made us kings and priests
to our God. Now, what I was and what I am
now is a world of difference, spiritually. But I'm telling
you this, in Christ I'm perfect. He said down here in verse 13,
I decked you with gold and silver and raiment and so forth. You
were exceeding beautiful, beautiful. And you did prosper in a kingdom.
See, that's Israel. But Israel's a type of the believer.
And your renown went forth among the heathen, for your faith is
spoken of throughout the whole world, Paul said. Your generosity
and your love. If I could tell you, this congregation,
this church, is spoken of for your generosity and your faith
and your love throughout this whole world. Let me tell you
something. Don't get too lifted up now,
because you've got to come down. Your beauty was perfect through
my comeliness. Nothing you have originated with
you. All you had when I found you,
he said, was your blood and filth. All you had when I found you
was your inability and corruption. All you had when I found you
was loathsome to anybody that stood around. But he said, now
you're something. Your name's written in glory.
You got a crown on your head. You're decked out in the beauty
of the righteousness of Christ, but that beauty, he said, every
bit of it, every bit of it is mine. It's mine. And I'm going to get all the
glory, I'm going to get all the praise, I'm going to get the
praise from the start to the finish. And I know there are
a lot of folks who try to dress themselves up, you know, and
try to do this, preachers that try to do that work. They get
to scrubbing on infants and writing names in their forehead and sitting
them up, you know, and propping them up. They prop them up with
the law and prop them up with all these different things so
they're They'll look, you know, kind of grotesque is what they
look. But oh, when God picks up one of his own and washes
it in his blood, clothes it with the righteousness of Christ,
sets the crown on the head and causes that person to develop
into a beautiful, charming person, the Lord says, always remember,
let the world know that it's my grace and my beauty. Let me
show you one verse in Ephesians that fits in with this right
here, if I can find it right off. It's Ephesians, I believe,
chapter 2. Chapter 2 of Ephesians. You see,
I was reading that a while ago, and I showed what we were in
verse 4. It says, But God, I pass by you, and I said, Leo, even
when we were dead, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
you saved Ephesians 2, verse 5. Now verse 6, And he hath raised
us up, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, that in ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace." That's what he's going to show there. Throughout
the ages, the riches of his grace toward us through Christ Jesus.
That's what I'm trying to preach. That's what I'm saying. It's
all of God's grace. It's all by God's power. It's
all for the glory of Christ. But oh, what he makes of a sinner
when he does the work. And what a mess we make when
we try to do it. But folks keep probing us now,
get this one converted and get that one converted. My friend,
I can pass by the field and I've got some kind of understanding
of what kind of shape folks are in, but God has never given me
the power to say live. I don't have it. But I tell you,
when you pray for your loved ones and pray for your friends
and bring people to hear me preach, I know who has that power. And
he just might in his good pleasure. I don't know. He don't have to,
does he? He just might in his good pleasure. He just might.
Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my loathsome, miserable
cry. Huh? My humble cry. Ain't nothing humble about my
cry. Hear my loathsome, obnoxious cry. While on others you're passing,
would you say, lay up and make me hope? May be well. I hope
so. J. Lee, the son of him.