God's plan for the coming crisis hinges on finding and using individuals, as exemplified by Elijah's confrontation with Ahab and the prophets of Baal. The sermon highlights that God seeks impressionable and submissive people to execute His will, even when they feel alone, reminding Elijah that seven thousand faithful remained. Throughout history, God has raised up men like Martin Luther and John Knox during times of crisis to counter apostasy and apathy, emphasizing the need for a passionate commitment to God's glory and a servant's heart. The sermon concludes by stressing that divine guidance and effectiveness come from deep communion with God through His Word and prayer, urging listeners to pay the price of surrender to be used in God's plan.
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First King, chapter eighteen, and verse one. And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go show thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab, And there was a sore famine in Samaria. Verse seventeen. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Are thou he that troubled Israel?
And he answered, That is Elijah answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house. in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord. Thou hast followed Balaam. Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the Groves, four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.
Subject tonight is God's program for the coming crisis as to the confrontation between Baalism and the living and true God that we'll be speaking on next Sunday at Mount Carmel. God has a plan, and he's looking for a man to execute that plan, and he found that man in Elijah. God has always had to find a man. There has been his policy down these centuries. He wants a tool, an instrument that he can use, one that's impressionable and one that's submissive to his will. And God is always on the lookout for a man or a woman to do the job that he wants done.
When you think of the situation here, this confrontation that was coming up, God was going to need a man with certain qualities, and he found one in Elijah. You notice not much was revealed to Elijah on this occasion. Just two things in verse one. Go and meet Ahab, and there shall be rain upon the earth. That's all. Just that one message, no details at all. And that's been the way God has worked over the centuries. The whole land on this occasion was engulfed with Baalism, the apostasy of Baalism.
And here is poor Elijah, as he thinks of the situation, he feels very lonely. He says later on, I only am left, and they seek my life. God says, here's something that will cheer you up, Elijah. There are still seven thousand who have not yet bowed the knee today. That must have been quite a joke to Elijah. He thought he was the only one that was loyal to God. God says why, and God knows how many exactly he counted them, whether they included the one hundred that the man we talked about last week had hidden in the cave, I don't know.
But at least God says, I have reserved seven thousand. And they have not bowed the knee to Baal. They're still true to me. They may be scattered, Elijah. They may be in little household, little groups. But he says, I know them. I know where they are. And I know that Ahab doesn't know where they are, or he haven't killed. Jezebel doesn't know where they are, or she would have them put to death. God says, but there are seven thousand. So we are not alone, Elijah. The whole thing doesn't rest entirely on your shoulders. I have others. And it's a good thing when we wake up to that fact that we're not the only ones.
We're not the only ones that are true to the Lord, that are many. Here and there throughout the country and throughout the world in dark places you've never imagined to find a Christian, but there's generally one here and there's one there. that hasn't bowed the knee to one godliness into this wicked world. In their heart they loved Christ. So this was part of surprise to Elijah. I want to say this down through the ages. God has always had his man for crisis. I don't know whether you know anything about the time when the Turks overran the Christian community and the crescent was put up.
Instead of the cross, that happened. But God had his man, and his man came to the front, and the cross returned to where it previously was. You can think also of another time when Rome held that deadly grip upon the continent and the Europe for a thousand years, known as the Dark Ages. Here is the power of Catholicism, laying over that continent, dictating policy, dictating politics, using the kings and the dictators as pawns in her hand to carry out her will and to put to death all who would protest her dogmas and her claims.
But the time come came when God had a man, Martin Luther. And Martin Luther lit the flames of reformation as they broke out all over Europe and shook Catholicism to its foundations, the effects of which still last today. And I think of another case four hundred years ago when Scotland was drifting toward modernism. That's a strange statement, isn't it? We think that that only belonged to this day, but that time Scotland was drifting toward liberalism, modernism.
But God had a man with the name of John Knox. He had been ordained a Catholic priest, but he was led to Christ later by a man with the name of George Witten. And this man, John Knox, he went out to preach the gospel after he was saved. He preached fire and damnation. He preached the old-fashioned gospel. And he preached against that Mary, Queen of Scots. And Billy Mary of England. Those wicked queens and their wicked regimes. He preached fire and damnation.
And he changed the course of Scotland. And Scotland was turned back to the word of God again. Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary, bloody men of many Mary of England, said they feared the prayers of John Knox within their borders more than the armies outside their borders. That shows you what God can do with a man when a time arrives when God has to step in and has to speak. There's another case. Three hundred years ago, England was held in the grip of lethargy, an apathy. And I want to say this, we hear a lot about modernism today, and it is to be feared that I'll tell you something just as satanic, and that's the apathy among God's people.
And the laziness and idleness of God's people, that suggests as much as the devil as modernism. I make no mistake about that. Who did God raise up then when this apathy overtook England? He raised up a man by the name of John Bunyan, as we have referred to before. And how we used John Bunyan to write Pilgrim's Progress. Along with him and after him came other men, like Calvin, Wesley, Whitfield, Tyndale, Wycliffe. These were men of God. But God raised up to stem the tide. of apathy in England and England was turned back to the gospel and saw one of our most glorious errors when she sent forth missionaries when Britannia ruled the waves and sent forth missionaries to almost all parts of the world that's the result of God laying hold upon instruments when he wants them and he uses them when it comes to fighting modernists and today I don't know of anything that'll fight it better than the old-fashioned gospel of the grace of God.
That's what will break down, Martin. That's what John Knox used. And I know that's what people don't like to hear. They don't like to hear fire and brimstone coming down from heaven. They don't like to hear messages on judgment. But that's what God uses. He used it when he used John Knox. There's anything modernism doesn't like. It's the old-fashioned gospel. They don't like the thunder of the judgment of God that's coming upon this world. They're turning loose all their money. They possibly have all kinds of schemes and plans to try and bring about world conversion.
To try and bring about the conversion of the whole world. If there's anything the Bible condemns, it's that. This world is not going to be brought about by social reform. It's not going to be brought about by the church running out of town, all the wicked men and women, and closing down these dens of vice and iniquity. No. The only way modern life is going to be stopped is by preaching the gospel of the grace of God and men and women, getting to know Christ as Savior, and witnessing to that effect. When the time comes when The church is ready. God will take his people home to heaven. Then he'll deal with the empty shell of Christendom that's left behind, as we'll see in the scarlet woman, the ecumenical mood.
We'll say more about that when we get to Jezebel in the future message. But now we come to Elijah, the man of his day. God found the man who was willing to do what? the man who would inquire enough of God through his word and prayer to be the instrument God could use to carry out his program and his plan. And God hasn't changed to this day. I'll tell you what it's going to cost. It's going to cost Christians to get into God's presence to spend hours in his word and time on their knees before God with a surrendered life, if we're going to see a turn in the tide of things before us today.
It's a price that's got to be paid. And these men who acquired God's will and executed God's will were men who saturated their souls with the presence of God and with the Word of God, God could speak to them. And he didn't have to shout to them. They were close enough for God to get God's whisper. And that's the price you pay for divine guidance today. You don't get it in a seminar in a classroom. You get it in your room before God, and that's where you get it. That's how Elijah comes. So we find Elijah coming to the front on this case.
And you notice he just had that one command. That little plan, whom show thyself to Ahab, and rain will soon come upon the earth. This was the first real step toward the confrontation of Mount Carmel that we'll be speaking on next Sunday. Noticeable that Elijah was filled with a consuming passion for the glory of God. He said, It be known this day that thou art God. In verse thirty-six of chapter eighteen. Let it be known this day that thou art God.
He looked around, he saw the idols everywhere. And they'll claim to be God. Other false gods trained attention. Elijah says, O God, let it be known that this day that thou art God. The only true God. All these are false gods. This was his consuming passion that God get first place, that God get prominence, that God get preeminence. That's what he wanted. He neither knew nor cared what would happen to himself. All he thought about was God's looks. God's looks.
Am I concerned about myself, my own interests, or am I concerned about God's looks? All this petty, sulking stuff going on among Christians, concerned about their feelings, is disgusting to God. What about God's glory? Who are you praising? Who are you glorifying the devil if you're doing those things and not what? Elijah was consumed with this passion of the glory of God. He cared not what happened to him. Whether they have took off his head or what? He desired God's glory and God's glory alone. He saw the idols in the countryside everywhere.
He saw Baal, the god of Baal, and the god of Astral, supposed to be the male and female deities of Baalism. He saw these idols. He saw the idol Micum and Timos and Molech. He saw the wretched altars all over the country. He saw the martyred prophets of God. And he saw the promised land. growning beneath the obscene and deadly rites of these gods he saw ever about the country. His soul was stirred to think that these gods had replaced the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And as he saw the situation, his soul was stirred because of his desire to see God glorified and God only. He was willing to draw himself in out of sight. He was willing to make a nothing that is God might be everything. He was willing to shrink into insignificance that only God would be exalted into prominence. This was Elijah's only passion. This should be your passion and mine too. I wondered if it is. If we're a success or if our church is succeeding, we can be satisfied.
If not, if I'm not a success and the church is not a success, I'm depressed. There's something beyond that. And that's the glory of God. God should be glorified. His glory must be worked. He will not give that glory to another nor praise those raven images. God wants to be glorified. It's not my feelings, my attitudes, my little likes and dislikes. It's God's glory. And that was Elijah's passion. I wonder that this passion consumes all of us.
To such an extent, this passion consumes all that is based and corrupt and selfish. in me as a human being. He was also convinced that this God was the only God. Now is the thing of God in the world. That's all. There are many ways to heaven. Lots of religions. Let me tell you, there's only one way to heaven. And the Lord Jesus Christ is that way. There's only one God. Christ says that they might know thee the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, you've got a sentence on, said he. This was Elijah's passion, because he was convinced that this God was the only true and living God.
Furthermore, he realized he was only a servant. You'll find that in verse thirty-six. He was convinced that he was only a servant, just a poor servant, and that word in the Old Testament means a slave. Now, a slave in the Old Testament didn't dictate or draw up any plans or program. All he was to do was to obey. The master did the dictating. The master did the plowing of the plans, and the master gave the orders, and the slave carried them out. And so Elijah says, Lord, I'm just your slave.
You know how this is to be brought about. You know how we're to deal with Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel. You know about this confrontation at Carmel. Lord, I'm just your slave. You are the architect. You're the one to draw the plan. Just let me know and I'll execute them out. Carry them out with the strength and the grace you give to me. Yes, that's it. It's not my plan. It's not my scheme. It's my master's will I want. And nothing more. I'm nothing less. Elijah says, Lord, I'm just your tool.
What do you want done? I'm just your tool. I'm just a checker. You're playing the game and you'll move me where and when you like. Are we that submissive to God? Lord, here I am. Just like as Elijah, he was surrendered. He was yielded. He was empty. He was plastic to be molded by the hand that reaches down from heaven to lay hold of men and mold them as God desires and uses them as he pleases. That was Elijah's desire. I'm just a servant. Lord, you're the only true God, and I'm just your servant.
You know it all. I know little or nothing. You just have to give me the wisdom. You'll have to give me the strength, the ability to carry this planet. Are we not too fond at times of doing our own thing for God? as we think, instead of letting God do His thing through us, and I almost hesitate to use that word, thing, the way it's used these days. But it's not a case of me wanting to do and figuring out my little thing and what I want done. It's a case of coming before the Lord and saying, Lord, what is your plan?
Work it out through me. I want your plan. I don't want mine. I'm afraid of mine. So often we miss what he sorely wants done and carries out. We carry out sometimes our own whims and fancies, and we miss what God wants done just because of our impatience and our failure to pay the price to obtain the will of God and the strength to carry it up. How are we to know? Elijah was eagerly desirous to know and work of God's plan.
And I want you to notice this. He says, I am thy servant and have done all these things according to thy word. God's plan was God's purpose for him. All things I've done, says Joshua, this Elijah. according to your word. That's significant. God will never lead any one of his children apart from his words. He will lead you. He will plan your course. He will program your activities according to his word. And don't think for a moment the Spirit of God will lead you one step outside of the line drawn by the word of the living God.
That's where we sometimes go astray. We think that God has two standards, or I'm a little favorite of God's, and I can get a little leniency here, leave it's there, my own way here, my own way there. You'll be led by God within the circumference of God's will. He'll lead you according to his word. I have no other way. This is Elijah's strength. God's power and God's blessing are to be enjoyed only by those who know that they're in the will of God. And God is working out his plan to them.
That was Elijah's strength. He was willing to face Ahab. He had that strength, that confidence that he was in the will of God. And when you're in the will of God, you're in the safest place on earth. Nothing can harm you when you're in the middle of God's will. It's his responsibility to then to look after you. It's your responsibility to get in the will of God, the Lord taking over from there. And he'll protect you. And he'll do. When you start to think of the manner that's telling the wilderness, where did it fall beneath the brooding clouds?
that hovered over the nation of Israel, and only under that flood. We must abide under that which speaks of God's presence and His guidance. For the children of Israel were led by that pillar of fire by night and that pillar of cloud by day, that shielded them from the sun, the scorching sun, as they went through the wilderness. And all the time they remained under that brooding cloud, the man of hell, and they were fed and they were led. The only time that you and I can be sure in the will of God and be fed by God is when we're under that sheltering cloud, a symbol of God's presence over and over his own.
If you get outside that shadow, you're on your own. Like I've often told people, when you go out on a highway, if the speed limit is seventy miles an hour and you go seventy-three, you're on your own. You pass sermons, you're on your own. If you stay within the law, God will protect you. If you get outside of it, you pay the consequences. And so God wants us to stay within the realm of his will. The blood that Dean must be where God wants them to be, if he's going to feed them, and if he's going to leave. We have divine supplies.
We have divine blessings. We have God's divine plan. Then let's get where God can communicate it to us. That's in his presence. That's not rushing in and getting on your knees and saying, Lord, I thank you for the day. I thank you for Mother, Father, and all our kin, Lord, amen. You're not going to get the Lord's will that way. You're not going to get over in the Psalm and read a little Psalm with about four verses. and that's your daily meal. You'll get just what you ask for very little. But if you want God's guidance and God's blessing and God to use you, you've got to pay a price and make no mistake about it.
Fire of God only burns where we erect God's altar, as on this occasion. One hates almost to refer to themselves, but when I came south forty-three years ago, twenty-five years of age, my, when I look back now how little I knew, came from Canada during the Depression down to North Carolina. I didn't know anybody in the south at that time except Mr. Nugent who brought me down. Why'd I come down? I had one bill in my pocket. No salary, not a promise from any human being.
I came to North Carolina as a young Christian, commended by the church and strapped for the full-time work, and yet I've never sat in on a business meeting or an elder's meeting. That wasn't a place for novices. You had to be forty or over and know this book and a godly life before you sat in on a business meeting in those assemblies. I never sat in one of them, and yet I was commended as an evangelist. And I came down, as I say, when I got in North Carolina, I trembled. I said, Lord, what do I know? I know so little. I haven't been educated, like others.
And Lord, I don't have anything. All I've got is a body. All I've got is your. And you can use it. All I had was my Bible. And a burden to see soon, see. I didn't come down a plan. I didn't know how to draw up a plan, how I was going to go to these different cities, the approach to the city, the problems involved, and how I'd get the assembly and church started and all the rest of it. I didn't know anything of that. All I knew was preaching the gospel of the grace of God. And as I went step by step, the doors opened. day by day, waiting on God, God opening up his mind and opening up his will.
And it was marvelous and was living a miracle every day to see how God opened up the way. And Paul was opened up, and people were saved and led to Christ. And my need was constantly met by some of God's black night express, the ravens that fed Elijah. All was on time, all was on schedule, morning and night. That's the way God still needs and uses his people. But they've got to pay a price. I had a preacher living in North Carolina. I'm not going to mention his name. Do you know how he spent? He stayed where I was staying at. He was honest with all the best.
Of course, I was... My custom was to spend all my morning in my room studying my Bible and praying to get the will of God. So this man came there and... He said, I'd like to take it out. I said, all right. I want to show you how to treat your horses. But I'm willing to learn. And so we went from one nickel and dime store to another, out of this store and to another store. He spent the whole morning going from one store, picking up things, looking at them, buying a nickel for a year, dined with it. I said, this is not the way I use my mornings. I said, I journey spend my mornings praying.
He says you can pray, walk on the street. Dinner time came. Let's go in here. Have a nice meal. It'd be nice, she says, to give your hostess a rest every day. Eat up time. Well, I hadn't quite thought of it that way, but I guess that was a good idea, too. But she didn't seem to mind it. Anyway, we come back about five o'clock. The whole day wasted as far as I was concerned. We were both scheduled to preach that night. When he slumped down in the chair, he picked up the evening paper. He says, go on upstairs and pick out your best sermon. Let me hear it tonight. And he sat and read the newspaper until meetings.
Well, I could have had a mighty bad example set before me that day. But I was pleased. I looked back upon the day I thought it was wished. I got confused. I don't know just exactly what is the mind of the Lord. And I thank God that I went back to my usual schedule and life was different. This is the price we pay. It's not easy. But if you want the thrill and the joy of knowing your will of God is going to cost you this price and this price exactly. You've got it nowhere else. Roaming all over town and going out wasting your hours when you can spend those precious moments.
getting something from God that you might have something to give. All I say is this. This afternoon as I walk down Slappy Drive before the meeting. My mind went back forty-three years ago when I used to walk down the sunset drive where Mr. and Mrs. Chattelby and I said, Lord, how little I knew then and how little I know today. How Trail I was then, and Lord, I am forty-three years older today. And I'm not as young as I once was. I don't have the keen mind I once had.
I don't have the zeal I once had. I don't have the endurance I once had. And you know what came to a mind? God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God's no older today than he was forty-three years ago. I am. And God doesn't expect a man to do at sixty-eight what he did when he was twenty-five to thirty. God says it's good that you bear the yoke in your youth. God knows that we get old. He never does. God is eternally young. But there's one thing I'm happy for. If I continue to study my Bible and pray and not depend on experience or former knowledge and acknowledge my weakness now as I was weak then, forty-two years ago, God's readiness to help is just as brilliant.
What I haven't got in the way of physical endurance, God can make up for that by spiritual energy. And after all, that's what comes. That's the price that you pay if you want to know God's will and be used of God in this world. In Carolina, every city we went to except one that reads well, we were able to establish a church. And the same goes for Albany when I came here, the same thing over again. God hasn't changed. I have. As to my capability, I've changed what God has done, and I've praised him for that.
The God of Elijah still lives, still has a plan for your life and mine, if we're willing to pay the price to get it. And there's no thrill on earth any greater than the thrill of knowing you're in the will of God. That's the greatest thrill of honor. What a thrill it was. to Elijah. What was the thrill? Well, you notice he gave orders to Ahab on this occasion. Here is poor Elijah. And Ahab was looking for him to take off his head, and Jezebel was looking for him.
Heavens had withheld rain now for over three years. The land was parked. The people were dying. And they were looking for Elijah. God says, Elijah, Go and meet Ahab, and I'll send rain upon the earth. That's all Ahab. God started filling in the details. And you know who did the filling in of the details? Ahab. Here is this servant of God facing Ahab. And he says, Ahab, do you know what you're to do? You're to assemble all God's people, all Israel. And you assemble them at the very place, I say, Carmel.
And for the more, Ahab, you did all those prophets of Baal, those four hundred prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty, and another four hundred that eat at Jezebel's table, the prophets of Asteroth, eight hundred and fifty and all. The representatives, the hierarchy of this picket system of Jezebelism and of Baalism, Ahab, you get them at Mount Carmel too. That wasn't an easy job. They didn't have telephone, radios, TVs in those days telegraphed to send these messages. All Elijah did was to tell Ahab, give them orders, get them there.
And you notice what it says the very next person. Ahab went. He obeyed orders. Here is a man. a mere man giving orders to the king. And he expedites those orders. And he had them, everyone gathered at Mount Carmel. Yes, God had a plan. And he just told Elijah to tell Ahab what he wanted done, and Ahab did it. I wonder what the bait was. Maybe it was because he wanted rain. And Elijah had hinted. The rain was soon to come. Was that the bait that caused Ahab and Jezebel to cooperate with this plan?
I don't know, but they did it. And they met at Mount Carmel. All Israel had been gathered and they came from ten tribes. The prophets have bailed from their various jurisdictions, their parishes. They came to Carmel. And Ahab himself was there, his big showdown. Who's going to win? And we'll speak about that another time. Next week, Lord will. But oh, how thrilled Elijah must have been. He thought, oh, I'm going to see all these idols, all these others, the stars, I'm going to see all these prophets, these false prophets of Baal.
I'm going to see them put to death. I'm going to see my beloved people, Israel, at the feet of God in repentance. I'm going to see the refreshing showers come down from heaven and soften this land that things may grow and light return tomorrow. Oh, Elijah was thrilled at what he was going to witness. few hours hence the defeat of Ahab and Godless Baal and the triumph and victory of his God, the only true God. That's what thrills Elijah. Friend, I say this, what thrills me today is the fact that those of us who are trying to do something for God and be used by God We're trying to bring about that day of victory and we only have one way of doing it.
That is to preach God's message in the way he wants it preached. And the battering rams of divine truth will bring down all the walls of opposition in the world. The wonderful thing is to be in God's will and be in God's program and then see God win the victory in that coming day of confrontation in the battle of Armageddon, when the Son of God will descend from the skies, and the hordes in the veil, and the ghetto will nath away in their own blood, when the Son of God will defeat not only veil, but every other idol.
And the living God shall reign when the shower of death descends upon the earth, and earth responds the showers will come and the millennium will begin. Yes, we worked in the light of that day. What are you doing toward bringing that day nearer? Bringing that day to pass. You give up something now. Sure, I gave up something. When I gave up hockey, I gave up something I loved. It wasn't easy to do. But Today I wouldn't change places with all the hockey players in the United States or world.
Not for them. Most of them are true at thirty-five. Few like Gordy Howe go on to forty-five. But my thrill is coming. My thrill comes. You know you get criticized sometimes. I don't mind that. You used to have a saying when I played hockey. The worst player on the ice is better than the best critic in the grandstand. And that's true. I don't care what people say or criticize me. They'll applaud you when you make a good play. Ninety-nine good plays on the ice. And they'll cheer you.
One mistake and they'll boo you. That's the way men do it. I'm waiting for my cheers. Whatever they'll be, not from the fickle heart of human beings, but from the one I serve that coming day, when he shall pass out the tears and the credits, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You can't have two worlds, this one and the next. If you want the next, it'll cost you this one. The choice of yours. Those who laugh it, laugh laughs.
The world laughs now with the poor, narrow-minded people living for the Lord, giving up this and giving up that. The server isn't safe. Oh, you're wasting your time, you're losing too much. Yes, but we'll have the last laugh. If laugh, we could. I couldn't laugh. at the eternal punishment of a hitman. And I think of a horrible state, a lawsuit will be in so of eternity. I simply mean that our joys are ahead. We're not expecting them on earth.
Criticism here, but commendation there. And thank God every man will begin in accordance. of what he has given down here. God will make it out flat in that coming day of the war. What God wants today is a few more Elijahs who are willing to pay the price and ascertain the will of God. And here's the price. Get into his book, where else do you expect to get his will? And spend time with the author of this book that he might reveal his will through his word. Once you get the will of God, you can be just as stubborn and determined as Elijah, because he got God's will, and that's all he cared about.
He was willing to face all the Ahab's and Jezebel's in the country. He got God's will. Then that's worth having. I'd sooner have that than all the money the gold this country owes, but someday soon... All that gold will be nothing. Your eternal value will be seen, handed out, and enjoyed by the rest of you. What is your desire tonight? What is your passion? Is your passion the glory of God? Is that what you're seeking? The glory of God. Is that the passion of your life?
I hope it is. If you're not a Christian, come to Christ tonight. He'll save you. He'll keep you. He'll use you. He'll make you happy. Life begins when Jesus comes in. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come into thy presence, thank thee for thy word. We trust that we will live out these things that thou hast been bringing before us. We thank thee that God of Elijah still lives. We may change, earthly friends may change, or leave us one day soon, the next day leave us.
But this friend will ne'er deceive us, oh, how he loves. And for this we praise thee. Help us to study thy word, and if we love thee, we'll show it by the amount of time we give to reading thy love letters to us. For the time we spend in thy presence will prove thee that we love thee. And use us, we pray. Poor failures as we are. yet we thank thee sovereign grace saved us and sovereign grace still uses us when subject to thy holy will save any lost souls here tonight will reach them save them put away all their sins and give them peace and eternal life we ask in the lord jesus precious name amen