We continue this evening looking at the book of Philemon, a short book. And in previous evenings we have looked at some of the things suggested by it. And the first evening we looked at five expressions of fellowship that are found in this little book. And the next evening we spoken five expressions of love that are found in this book. And last night we looked a little bit at five mentions of Paul as a prisoner or in chains for Christ's sake. And I think it's interesting to think of our lives in that life. Paul says we're a prisoner of Jesus Christ and all of us are prisoners of our bodies and we're prisoners of our circumstances, whatever they may be. Each one of us as are his own individual situation. It's good to know that our times are in his hands. He controls whatever we are and whatever we're doing. And he has his purposes to work out in our lives. And we were thinking about that a little bit. I think that every believer in our Lord Jesus Christ sincerely wants to be like the Lord Jesus. That should be the great objective of our Christian life because that's God's objective. We know that ultimately the Bible says we're going to be conformed to the image of his son. We've borne the image of the earthy, and we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. We remember in First John three, it says, Now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. And what God's ultimate objective is, is his present objective as well. And so the apostle writing to the Corinthians says, We all with open faith beholding in the glass the glory of the Lord were being changed. into the same image from glory to glory. Often we must admit that we're most unlike the Lord Jesus. But since we have his life, and that life is to be manifested in us, God by his Spirit is able to accomplish this in our life. Paul said that his desire was that the life of the Lord Jesus might be made manifest in his mortal body. think of a little story that I heard years ago about a lady was walking along the street and she saw this little black boy and she asked him what his name was he said my name is George Washington she said well that's a very lovely name said I hope you try to live like George Washington he says I can't help living like George Washington is George Washington and there's a very real sense if you have the life of Christ you can't help living that life. He that has the Son has the life. Now I know that we have a problem with the flesh still here and the Spirit of God says that the Spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit. We know that God is able and is reproducing his life in us by the Spirit so that the Apostle could say I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Writing to Timothy, his Son in the Faith, the Apostles said, Be thou an example of the believers. Didn't they be an example? to the believers but if you're an example of the believer if your life is characterized by that which should characterize a believer you will be an example to the believer to the believer you'll be an example to the world someone wrote years ago example is not only the best way of influencing others it is the only way of influencing others. Be thou an example. When our Lord Jesus bent at the disciples' feet to wash their feet, he said, I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you. Paul said, mimic me, even as I mimic Christ. An example. Peter writing, you remember to the elders said this, not as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensampled to the flock. What a tremendous privilege it is to be a Christian because the example that we set in our home and in the assembly and in the world has a tremendous influence. He are the light of the world, said the Lord Jesus. Let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. I want to think tonight with you of the Apostle Paul as an example of the believer, as suggested in this epistle. An example of the believer. And in contrast, to the Apostle Paul, I want to think of what I've called five sins of the sinner and seen in the Apostle Paul's life five signs of the saint. First of all, as far as the sinner is concerned, the thing that marks man by nature is the sin of ingratitude. When the indictment of man is given in Romans chapter one, among other things, it says this, neither were thankful. Someone has said that man by nature is like a pate. The only time he looks up is when he's flat on his back. And how true that is of man by nature. Neither were thankful. In contrast to the unthankful spirit, of man by nature, Paul says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. A thankful spirit. Ten thousand, thousand precious gifts are daily thanks employed, nor is the least a thankful heart that tastes God's gifts with joy. The little boy was visiting in the home and The lady said to him, would you have some more potatoes? He said, no. His mother said, no, what? He says, no potatoes. You know, man by nature is naturally unthankful. The sin of ingratitude. And then there's the sin of independence. In Luke chapter eighteen, the Lord Jesus said, men are always to pray and not to faint. And man by nature is prayerless. He's not only careless. He's prayerless. The psalmist says, I think it's in the tenth psalm, that God is not an all-of-man's thought. Oh, he may believe that there is a God, but he lives his life day by day, as though God does not exist. He doesn't consult God about his life at all. But the believer is marked by a life of prayer. Paul says, making mention of thee always in my prayer. His was a prayerful life. Prayer is the Christian's native breath. That's what James Montgomery wrote. It is native breath. You know, the minute you begin to breathe spiritually, why you begin to breathe to God in prayer. Remember what Ananias was told? Saul of Tarsus on that road to Damascus had come to know Christ as his Savior, and Ananias told was told to go to Damascus on a certain street, the street called Strait, and in a certain house, and he says, you'll find man there on his beach. He says, behold, he prays. That's the mark of a believer. He realizes his utter dependence upon God. Man by nature is independent. The Declaration of Independence was not first signed in the United States. It was signed in the Garden of Eden. Man rebelled against God and decided to go his own way. And then there's a sin of insubjection. You know, the experience of man's life that comes against him, he doesn't want to accept the experiences of his life. He grumbles. He complains. But Paul was rejoicing. He was a believer. He says in verse seven, I think it is, we have great joy and consolation in thy love. And we can judge the character of our Christian experience at any given moment by this. Are we sighing or are we singing? You know, when things are going for us, we're singing. But other than things are going against us, are we still singing? I have a friend who's now with the Lord. His name is Agile Pender, Spanish Wells in the Bahamas. He was going down the little creek a little body of water there between two islands and there was a man walking along the shore and this brother asial tender loves to sing and he was singing a song something like this when the days are very in the long nights weary carry a cheery song it went something like that and he was singing it very lustily to the man on the shore and his son was steering the boat and there was a little bit of a breeze came up and he had one of these great big what they call conch hats down there, the wide, wide brim, and it blew off. And he motioned to his son to turn around, and the son turned about, boat around so swiftly that his brand new twenty-five horsepower engine that was mounted on the back of his skim came loose from its moorings and sank in about fifteen feet of water. And he quit singing. And this brother on the shore said, Brother Asia, let's hear the rest of that song. Ah, he says, Brother, there's no time for messing around. You know what's so often? We're singing when everything is going right, when things are going wrong. We read in Hebrews chapter ten, verse thirty-four, concerning those early believers, it says they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, lost their property, knowing that in heaven they had a better and an enduring substance. Do we bow to the will of God for our life? Rejoice in the Lord. It doesn't say rejoice in Jesus. It says rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. And rejoice in the Lord suggests that we take our place in subjection to his authority over our life and we say not my will but thine be done. That's what it means to rejoice in the Lord. Why Paul was in prison. when he wrote those words that I've learned in all whatever state I am there with to be content there are three ways that we can take the experiences of life that can come to us as Hebrews twelve tells us God has us in training we're in God's school as long as we're in this world and when we think of chasing we think of punishment but that isn't the scriptural thought it's discipline it's training not that God is beating us to death No chasing for the presence seemeth to be joyeth, but grievance, nevertheless after it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. I heard a brother years ago say that there are three ways that you could take the disciplining hand of God in your life, the teaching, for we're all in school. He said you can faint under it. And he said that's something like a robin, or rather a chicken. You know, you see it out in the rain and the feathers all kind of droop down, you faint under it. Or he says you can be like a duck. The rain falls on him and he just shakes it off. He despises it. He says my son despises not thou the chasing of the Lord. Or he says you can be just like a rob and out there in the rain and feed it on the worm and it's got a little beak lifted to heaven in song. How do we take it? How do we react? Are we willing to be subject to the will of God for our life? And express that subjection in a song of praise to him. And then there's a sin of indifference. You know, we can go through life. The natural man goes through life and really doesn't have any concern, any real deep-seated concern for those about him. But God has planted his love in our hearts. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. And that's one of the reasons why the Christian knows more of trouble than the man who is of the world, because he's concerned about things that the man of this world is not concerned about. David, you remember, said no man cared for my soul. And then there is the sin of insurrection or rebellion. Man is an enmity with God. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, the scripture says. But instead of being at enmity with God, we find that Paul is peaceful. He's a peacemaker. In fact, that's the whole subject of the letter. Paul was acting as an intermediary between Philemon and Onesimus. He was trying to bring these two back together. And of course he did, no doubt, successfully. Are we peacebreakers or are we peacemakers? Lord Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers. For they shall be called the children of God. Says they're just like the Lord. Just like him because that's what he does. The purpose of the gospel is to bring man back into peace with God. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. He's a great peacemaker. And he has called us to this noble task of being peacemakers. I want to think with you of these five tonight. First of all, Paul the thankful. I thank my God for whatever he remembers of you. It's a good thing. The scripture says to give thanks unto the Lord. Do you remember that story recorded in Luke chapter seventeen of those ten lepers? Lord said, go show yourself to the priest. And they all went. And as they went, the Bible says they were cleansed. All ten were cleansed. But one of them he turned around. And the Lord Jesus says, Where are the nine who returned not to give God's thanks? Where do I fit in? I'm among the nine that have been cleansed and yet not really appreciative of God's marvelous grace to me. Or am I like the one that returns to give God's thanks? Many years ago, there were two boys that went from the state of Iowa to Northwestern University right along the shores of Lake Michigan. And one spring morning, a ship called the Lady Elgin was wrecked along the shore. But one of those boys, Ed Spencer, was a very strong swimmer. And he swam out. in those cold, icy waters on that spring day in Lake Michigan. And through a dent of sheer determination, he managed to bring seventeen individuals to shore and then collapsed. And just before he collapsed, he said to his brother, Will, did I do my best? Should you say seventeen? Years later, Ed Spencer stood on the platform and Ruben Torrey was preaching. And as Torrey spoke to him, it came out in the discussion that not one of those seventeen is saved from a watery grave ever returned to give him thanks. You know, man by nature is unthankful. We take God's gifts for granted, as though they belong to us. And they do belong to us. He give us to all life and breath and all things. He daily loads us. with benefit. The Bible says every good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father's light with whom there is no variable in either shadow of turning. It's interesting when we read the Gospels to notice that there are only three things of which we read that the Lord Jesus gave thanks. And I'd like to suggest to us tonight that we too should give God thanks for these three things. You know, he had come to the nation of Israel. He's been rejected of them. And at the conclusion of the eleventh chapter of Matthew's Gospel, he lifts his heart in prayer to God. And he says this, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things in the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto David. Even so, Father, It seemed good in by sight. He thanked God for light. He thanked God for revelation. Do you remember when you were once in the darkness of sin without God and without hope in the world? And the scripture says that God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness and shine into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ. He has called us, Peter said, out of his darkness, out of darkness, rather, into his marvelous light, so that we can say, we know, we know, we know, what a wonderful thing it is. Not in the dark. Not we hope, not we think, but we know. Why do we know? Because we have the light of God's Word. We have that light shining in the face of Jesus Christ. Tell me not, say, we're the Lord. Thank you, Lord. The wise and prudent. The Bible says, not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty men after the flesh are called. But God in his grace has revealed himself to us. And we thank God for revelation. John chapter eleven. The Lord Jesus stood beside the grave of Lazarus. He said, Father, I thank thee that thou hears me always. He said it for the sake of those that were standing by. And then he said, Lazarus, come forth. He thanked God for resurrection. You know, we were once dead in trespasses and sins without God and without hope in this world. Ephesians chapter two says, you were dead entrusted, you were dead entrusted in sin, but we've been made alive together with Christ by grace, you're saved. We not only think of the resurrection, the spiritual resurrection, which is true of every believer because the scripture says that we have passed from death of the life. We were dead entrusted in sin, but now alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But not only is that true, we thank God for the resurrection yet future, the resurrection of their body. The Lord Jesus said, I am the resurrection of the life. He that believes in me, though he have died, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. We think of those dear ones, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, now with the Lord. And we're looking forward as our brother reminders in prayer when our Lord Jesus Christ will come again. Then shall be brought to pass the Savior's written death that's swallowed up in victory. And even now by faith, we claim that victory. through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for resurrection. Thank God for life. A life that stretches beyond the grave. Whether we live, we live under the Lord. Whether we die, we die under the Lord. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord. Neither death nor life can separate us from him. And then we thank God for redemption. On the very night of which he was betrayed, Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread into his hands and he said, This is my body which is given for you. And he gave thanks for that loaf that spoke of his redemptive work. And he took the cup and he said, This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. Thank God for redemption. Spirit. Paul was thankful in his epistles. He gives thanks for salvation. Thanks be unto God which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He gives thanks for deliverance from the power of sin. You remember he says, Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Power over sin in the life. He thanks God for fitting him for the ministry. And in Ephesians chapter five, he gives thanks always, he says, for all things. A thankful spirit. It's a good thing. The scripture says to give thanks unto the Lord. Then we have the sin of independence, that sin of living without God. But the apostle Paul was not like that. He was a prayerful believer. Instead of the Lord Jesus, he trusted in God. Let him deliver him now. They said it in mockery, but our blessedly truth. And in the only prayer which the Lord Jesus Christ prayed that is recorded, other than the one that he taught his disciples to pray, there's only one prayer that's recorded in the New Testament that he did pray. It's in John XVII. And he prayed for five things. Glorify thy name. And he prayed that the Lord would keep those who had been committed to him. sanctify them he prayed through thy truth thy word is truth and he prayed for their unity that they all may be one and finally he prayed that those who thou have given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Paul says making mention of thee always in my prayers you know most of the time at our prayer meetings we were praying for the sick or the ages or things like that. There's nothing wrong with that. But it's interesting that when you read the Apostle Paul's prayers, he's praying for the spiritual welfare of the people of God. You know how we need to pray along those lines. Sometimes we don't even get concerned about people until they're in the hospital. They're physically ailing. Maybe they've been spiritually ailing all the time. Sometimes, as the Scripture says, we have not because we ask not. And sometimes we're like somebody said, we treat the Lord like people treat fire extinguishers. We use them only for emergencies. They ask the little boy to pray every night. He said, no, some nights they don't need nothing. And sometimes that's about the way we do when it comes to our prayer life. You read the book of Job that God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, not for himself, but he prayed for his friends. Remember that centurion who came to the Lord Jesus? And he prayed for this centurion, for his servant that the Lord would heal him? Just speak the word he'll be healed. The Lord said he hadn't found so great faith going on in all Israel. But you notice how the Lord appreciated those that prayed on behalf of others? There's only two, I think, that he said he found such great faith. One was a Therapeutician woman who was praying for a daughter. And the other was that St. George was praying for his servant. Intercessory prayer. What a work this is. And Paul said he prayed always for them. In his two prayers that are recorded in Ephesians, he prayed that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will. And he prayed that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that he being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all things what is the breadth and length. in death or not. You didn't pray about whether they were sick. I'm not saying we shouldn't do that. But it's interesting to notice what he prayed for. He prayed for the spiritual welfare. Because if that's what it should be, other things will fall into their place. Lord, teach us to pray. It doesn't say Lord, teach us how to pray. But teach us to pray. And I've lived long enough in my Christian experience to discover this. that one of the most difficult things to do is to pray. It's easy and it's difficult. And we can find all kinds of excuses to ourselves that somehow the day goes by and we just don't get around to laying hold on God in prayer. Paul was not only thankful, he was prayerful. And then you have the sin of insubjection, rebelling against the will of God. I think one of the lovely examples in scripture of this, not in a bad sense, but in a good sense, is Job. In one day, one after the other, he gets news that he's lost his camels, he's lost his sheep, he's lost his oxen, and his seven sons and three daughters all take it in one day. And he said, the Lord gave, and the Lord have taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And the scripture says, In all this, Job sinned on, nor charged God foolishly. He just got through saying that God had done it, but it said he didn't charge God foolishly. He recognized that it was the hand of God. And he was willing to trust God for his future. The sin of its subjection. I often think, if we could have recordings, all the chronic complaints that God hears in a twenty-four hour period from even this community we would be utterly amazed that God puts up with us and there's one thing we know how to do is to complain I think of our Lord Jesus Christ he knew something of the sorrows and trials of life he's called the man of sorrows equated with grace and yet And yet he was the happiest man that ever lived in this world. We refer to him as the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we don't always think of him as the man of joys. But the scripture says, Thou hast anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows. And you know what? I delight to do thy will, oh my God. No matter what the price. He found his joy. my meat is to do the william that sent me and the Apostle Paul he was a happy Christian he was a rejoicing Christian I remember some years ago standing with some other men over in Rome and they took us to the prison which was supposed to be the prison I don't know if it was where Paul was in prison during his days in Rome the dungeon underground and we went down there and we stood in that dungeon several of us and we read that portion from Philippians chapter four where Paul says, I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with division ten. What can you do with a man like that? Rejoicing in the Lord. And those dungeons were no guilt in the hotels in that day. I can tell you that. Humanly speaking, everything reads, Of the Lord is your strength. We recognize that it's God who has in any and every circumstance Paul says in Corinthians, I'm exceedingly joyful in all my tribulation. Not just joyful, I am exceeding joyful in all my tribulation. He was a joyful Christian. Some years ago, I was down in Pittsburgh, North Carolina. And there was a a lady there she works some with uh workers together her name is claire strout i don't know if any of you have met her but her her husband was called bud strout and they traveled a little bit in the country doing the work for the lord and and the name of they called their work errands for god they tried to go around and help the lord's people here and there and i was speaking they're having a week's meeting at the pittsburgh christian home which is a retirement home for older Christians. And I went into their trailer where they lived on the grounds. And on top of the refrigerator, there was a little ceramic that I found out later their daughter had given them. And on it were written two words, even there. And I scratched my head. I knew that was in the scripture somewhere, but I just couldn't connect it. And then later it came to me. And we talked about it a little later, another time I visited them. And they shared with me their experience. They said that those two words have been a tremendous comfort to them in all the trials of life that they've experienced. And I was there when Bud Strout, shortly before Bud Strout passed away, he had gotten what they call Lou Gehrig's disease, where you lose control of your hands and your feet. But you know they were out every night of the meeting. And about three or four weeks after I had left, He went to be with the Lord. And the verse, even there, is taken from a hundred and thirty-nine psalms. And it says in verse ten, I'll just read from verse nine, verse eight for connection. If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, there is the word, even There shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. No matter what circumstance I'm in, the psalmist says, I can count on God's guidance. Even there shall I hand, thy hand lead me. And secondly, I can count on his power. Thy right hand shall hold me. And isn't it a wonderful thing? No matter what life may pray, we know that God has got his hand on us, And he's never going to turn us loose. We can count on his guidance. And we can count on his power in our life. No matter how dark the day may be. Alfred Gibbs wrote a little book called The Gleam in the Gloom. And the Gleam in the Gloom is based on the article is based on Malachi chapter three and verse sixteen. In that day there were many who were turning away from the Lord, but there was a few. There was a godly company. And we read in Malachi chapter three and verse sixteen. Then everything was going wrong. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before the Lord for those that feared the Lord and that thawed upon his name. He said, they're going to be my jewels in that day. When nothing we're on to remain remains when strongholds crumble to dust. When nothing is true but that God still raised, that's the time to trust. It's better to walk by faith and sight in this world of yours and mine in the pitch black night where there's no outer light. That's the hour for faith to shine. No one cared for my soul. That's what David said. Twice the Lord Jesus was asked if he cared when he was here on earth. Remembering Luke's Gospel, Martha said, Lord, don't you care that my sister have left me to serve alone? Does the Lord care about your service? Does what you're doing for him mean anything to him? Yes. He cares about your service. He told Martha that Mary had chosen that good part. He didn't say that better part. He said that good part, which shall not be taken from her. she sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. He can't do better than that, no matter what you do. That's the good part. And if we listen to what he has to say, then maybe we'll do what he bids us do. And then as they were crossing those stormy waters of Galilee on one dark night, the Lord Jesus is fast asleep at the stern of the boat on a pillow. And they wake him up and they said, Master, Cares thou not that we perish? Does he care about our safety? Yes, he does. He cares about our physical safety. And more than that, he cares about our eternal safety. He says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Was he indifferent to the needs of Onesimus? No, no. In fact, in verse nine, he says, For love's sake, I beseech thee being such a one as Paul the agent. Do we care? Well, if we're believers, we do care because love of God has been spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which has given it to us. And the love of Christ constrains us. And we say, O tell us often of thy love, of all thy grief and pain, and we may in some small degree return thy love again. And then the sin of insurrection, because man is a rebel. But God is the great peacemaker. And Paul is here presented to us as the one who made peace. But above Paul we see the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who came to make peace by the blood of his cross. We were singing in our opening hymn. You remember what we sang? My Christ on the cross, peace was made. His death, all the debt of my sin fully paid. There's no other provision that's been made for peace. Sweet peace, the gift of God's love. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But all to be involved in this business of peacemaking among the people of God. Paul in Philippians says, I beseech you odious and syndicate. Brother Ironside says in his notes, odious and soon touchy, but I don't know if that was the way it was. You odious and syndicate that they be of the same mind of the Lord. And sometimes We're so thin-skinned instead of being tender-hearted. Let it be of the same mind in the Lord. You know, it costs something to be a peacemaker. It costs Abraham something. Here's Lot. Here's Abram. And there heard men are quarreling with one another. And Abram says in Genesis, he says, we're brothers. We shouldn't be quarreling among ourselves. What does a little bit of money mean? And in Corinthians chapter six, that's the subject. Paul says, isn't it better to suffer loss for Christ's sake? Sometimes we're let a little bit of money divide us. What does it all amount to in the light of eternity? Abraham says, Lot, you take the pick of the land. The Bible says that Lot lifted up his eyes and he looked towards the well-watered plains of Sodom and it says, it looked to him just like the Garden of the Lord. It looked like the Garden of Eden. He says, Uncle Abe, that for me I'll take that and Abraham took the other he went the other direction and love pitched his tent the Bible says towards Sodom and somebody has said that when he got out of Sodom all he got out of Sodom was a lot and that wasn't much the Bible said he was righteous lot but God took Abraham out after love and made his choice because Abraham I want you to look up your eyes and look to the north and the south and the east and the west It's all yours. You can't beat God. Far better to suffer temporary loss for him. They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven they had a better and an enduring substance. May God bless you all. His word. Shall we pray? We are grateful to thee, our God, for this portion of thy word. thankful for the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the example of his Apostle Paul. We pray that we may be prayerful, we may be joyful, we may be thankful our God that would help us in every area of our life, help us to be peacemakers so that we may present a united front to the world about that they may see the difference that thou hast made in our lives. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let me sing two verses of number two seventy-three. In closing, two seven-three. We'll sing the first and last verses only. Thus, though worn and tried and tempted, glorious calling, saint as thine, let the Lord but find the empty living branch in Christ's vine. Vessels of the world despising, vessels weak and poor and base, bearing wealth, God's heart is prizing, glory from Christ's blessed faith. Verses one and four, two seventy-three. Half a treasure, riches none may count for tales, half a deep eternal pleasure. Christ, he loveth well. God hath here honors a treasure, none but he if Christ may know. Deep a pan above, oh pleasure, Christ revealed it, saints belong. Oh, to be modern, dear, lolier, be not noted and unknown. And to God a place so holier, filled with Christ and Christ alone.