David's life illustrates how to face persecution and betrayal with unwavering faith in God, as seen in his interactions with Saul and Jonathan. The sermon draws parallels between David's plight and the challenges faced by believers today, emphasizing that God's sovereignty and faithfulness provide security even amidst turmoil. It highlights the importance of trusting God's timing and purpose, even when circumstances are difficult, and encourages believers to remain steadfast in their faith, quoting Psalm 59 and 1 Samuel 20 to show that God's protection is assured for those who rely on Him. The message concludes by urging listeners to find strength and peace in God's hands, regardless of their circumstances.
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I think all these empty pews down front on my left are really not empty. They are occupied by the people who will be with us in spirit only. So don't try to sit on their laps. Whenever anybody would say to our dear brother, AP Gibbs, well, I can't make it to the meeting, but I'll be with you in spirit, he'd usually say, spirits don't put anything in the collection box. So you didn't get away with anything as far as he was concerned. We left off this morning hour with Psalm number fifty-nine. I'd like to go back and start at that, and then we'll go backwards to First Samuel chapter twenty and continue our story. But in Psalm number fifty-nine, David wrote this Psalm, whether he wrote it at the time or whether he wrote it in remembrance of this particular time.
But anyway, it has to do with the segment of David's life that we have come to thus far in the first book of Samuel. And Psalm number fifty-nine, you see, in the introduction it says, to the chief musician, Altasca, mixed them of David, a teaching psalm of David, when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him. Now, we've worked our way up to the history of David thus far, and not only did Saul set men around and about David's house, but your Bible says that Saul implanted people inside the staff of David's house in order to try to find him and kill him. And his wife said, you better leave tonight because if you don't, by morning time you'll be dead.
And part of that comes out in our lesson in First Samuel twenty tonight. And so you remember that we got thus far and she let David out of the window and he escaped those who would assassinate him. Now, with that in mind, in that segment, that atmosphere, You read in Psalm fifty nine, verse one, deliver me from my enemies, O my God, defend me from them that rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloody men. For lo, they lie and wait for my soul. The mighty are gathered against me, not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord.
And stop there and turn over to Matthew chapter five and verse number eleven, because This can refer also to us. Matthew chapter five and verse number eleven, something that the Lord taught over there in that particular passage. Matthew chapter five and verse number eleven, it says, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all men are of evil against you falsely. Now that adverb there is very, very important. We've already noted this before, and Peter has warned us that if we are naturally obnoxious and we hurt people's feelings and trample on people, and then they get all over us, we can't say I'm suffering for Jesus.
Can't say that. Peter says, if you do some dumb thing, this would not be Peter's translation, this is Philip's translation. If you do some dumb thing and somebody gets all over you, don't claim persecution. Now, this is what the Lord does. The Lord's order protects himself here. If they say, all manner of evil against you falsely, he says, and against you falsely, for my sake, there's the second one. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. And it's going to happen if you have a dynamic, clear-cut testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ, every once in a while you're going to bump into somebody who's going to hate you for it.
And maybe they're going to try to spread false rumors about you. And sometimes they get violently mad at you and all these other sorts of things. If you're doing it according to the teachings and precepts of the Lord, you see, you can say, well, I'm in good company. Because the Lord said, for so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you. Now, you know, certain segments of evangelicalism today say that if your life is pleasing to God, you won't have any trouble. Everybody will naturally love you. The dogs will come up and they'll wag their tails when you go by and the cats will lick your face if you don't mind that sort of thing. And you're just going to have a wonderful time.
You're going to be healthy and wealthy and wise. But apparently the Lord Jesus Christ didn't know about it because he suffered great persecution, didn't he? And the Apostle Paul apparently didn't know about it because several times he gives you quite a catalog of all the things that he has suffered since he's gotten saved. the shipwrecks he's been in and the times he was beaten and all these other sorts. Apparently, he didn't know about that doctrine. And remember, he also said, Tropomus, have I left him? I leave him sick. He didn't know about all these sorts of healings, you see. But I was, who was it? Rob Lynch, I guess it was. I was watching one of his tapes last week.
And he says, I tuned in one of those programs on the TV and he confessed it to the audience. He says, I want you to forgive me. I thought, well, I'm pretty good. If Rob Lindstedt can do it, I can too. So I was channel surfing. A lot of people come to Daytona to surf. I channel surf. See what I, click, click, click, click, click, you know, around this sort of thing. And I caught a fellow preaching and he was saying, you know, God believes in the tithing principle. Now if you need a thousand dollars, he said, you give a hundred dollars to God. And God who operates on the tithing principle will see that you get a thousand because God is no man's debtor, you see. He says, now you're going to tell me, well, how can I give a hundred dollars to God?
God is invisible. He's omnipresent, but he's invisible. The preacher says, you give me the hundred dollars, I'll see that he gets it. I said, there's where the rubber hits the road, you see. I'll see that he gets it, you know, this sort of thing. We live in a dangerous age, and if you have a clear-cut dynamic testimony for Jesus Christ, every once in a while you're going to run into persecution, and sometimes, dear friends, it's going to be violent persecution. But you're in good company for so persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. Psalm fifty-nine, you see, David says, Why is he mad at me? What have I done? I defeated Goliath, and I led the army of Israel.
Against the Philistines, and we totally destroyed them. I have no covetousness at all for the throne that Saul presently occupies. What's he meant to me for? And that's what he says in Psalm fifty-nine. Not for my sin, O Lord, are they against me in all this. They run and prepare themselves without my fault. awake to help me and behold. Now therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen. Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. You say, well, now that's a pretty harsh thing for David to say. But you know, all through this psalm, he is simply saying things like that that are already true.
And you can do this when you quote the word of God. And you try to tell somebody, you know, this lifestyle that you have is not blessed of God, can't be blessed of God. And then you'll read a bumper sticker that says, hatred is not a family virtue. You say, I'm not telling you because I hate you. I'm telling you because I love you and I want to apprise you of what God has said in the Word of God. But it won't be construed that way, you see. And you can safely, dear friends, say anything that God has already said in the Word of God. I'm glad we don't have to make anything up. Wouldn't we have a bunch of strange sorts of doctrine around and about? We'd be like the modernist. You'd have to change your doctrine every time the fashion and fad of the world change.
But we have the Word of God, which is eternal. Thank God for that, you see. And what you and I do as we go around and we tell people what God has said. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, he's gone now, but he says every preacher is guilty of plagiarism. Because we're always saying what Moses has said or what Paul has said or what Peter has said or what the Lord has said. But you know that's the wonderful thing about it. You don't have to make up anything when you talk to people about spiritual things. You can say, look what's found in the Word of God. This is what the Word of God says. And today you can quote such things, you see, as mentioned over in Hebrews, that marriage is honorable in all things and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
And that sounds harsh when you tell somebody that, say, I didn't make that up. That's what God has said, you see. And you can also tell them the wonderful gospel story. Whosoever will may come. And him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. That's what God has said. And that's what David says. You read down through the rest of these verses, and some of them sound rather harsh, rather hard. But David is not saying anything that God has not already said. That God punishes sins. that God is going to hold the transgressor responsible and accountable for the way that he lives. And this is the things that David says. And David doesn't say, punish these people because of what they have done to me, but he says the transgressor, the one who has committed the sin, will suffer chastisement and punishment by God, because that's what God has already said.
And you can safely quote anything that God has said. Now, the other side of the coin is this. Don't say God said something that God didn't say. I've heard God... Oh, I tell you. I tell you, I can meet with people, and they can be talking about different things, and as soon as it gets around and says, well, what do you do, Phil? I'm a preacher, and that kills conversation. Nobody knows anything religious to say. Out on the road one time, I was... stop for lunch at a barbecue place, and I guess it was good because every seat was taken, and a fellow came in with a tray looking around, and I motioned him to come and sit on the other side of my table, and so he sat down, and he was a car salesman, so I didn't have to worry about conversation.
He'd be, you know, and finally he said, and what do you do? And I said, I'm a traveling preacher, and that hushed him up. And he thought for a while, and he said, I sold a Packard automobile one time to Amy Semple McPherson. Now you remember her if you came up through the Depression days, and that was the most religious thing he could say. He sold a Packard automobile to a lady preacher, you see. But it kills conversation. It kills conversation. But that's why I don't like to advertise the fact of what I do, because then very often it seems to seal off the opportunities and the avenues I have to talk to people about these things. But you can mention these sorts of things, and then somebody said, well, he's a preacher.
We better say something religious. And somebody's always quoting to me, well, you know what the good book says, you know, you know what the good book says, the Lord helps him who helps himself, you know. And a couple of Christmases ago, I was at the Kmart store, and somebody had just been apprehended for shoplifting, and a fellow standing next to me said, well, that's what the Bible says, the Lord helps him who helps himself. I said, he helped himself, and he got arrested. I don't think that's a one of very wonderful promises. But if Shakespeare said it, God gets credit for it. You know, they'll say, you know what the good book says, cleanliness is next to godliness, you know. Now, it's a good idea.
It is a good idea. But anything that sounds good or decent or moral or ethical, God gets credit for having said it. So you can safely say what God has said, but don't say things that God hasn't said. I've heard people quote a part of Romans A. Twenty-eight. Well, you know what the Bible says, all things work together for good, period. And that's where they stop. And that's not what the promise is. For those who love the Lord, for those who are the called according to His purpose, there's a qualification that goes with that. But I've heard people quote just a part of that verse, and dear friends, it won't work, and don't say anything that God hasn't said, you see. So if you're disturbed by some of these psalms that We call imprecatory sounds.
They're filled with calling down judgment upon their foes and their enemies. Don't be concerned about it because you can safely quote anything that God has already said. Well, and especially we've gotten to verse five. Verse six, they return at evening. They make a noise like a dog and go round about the city. Now this would take you back to what we studied this morning, wouldn't it? That Saul's men surrounded the house. and they're going to stay there apparently all night long and then kill David in the morning. That's what his wife Michael told him. And so David is thinking of this specific thing when he says this in sound number fifty-nine. They surround the house. They go around. They make a noise like a dog.
We don't know exactly what this means unless they have developed some sort of a audible signal amongst themselves, like the Indians used to make different sounds and signals and so forth. But anyway, Verse seven, behold, they belch out with their mouth. Swords are in their lips for who, say they, doth hear. Not even God knows what's going on because it's all dark. And bless your hearts. You find people that will tell you that today. That God doesn't care. God doesn't know. He's not concerned about these things. David says that. But thou, O Lord, shall laugh at them. Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. Three times your Bible speaks about God laughing. And each one of the three times, It's not merriment, but it is some sort of a negative import.
Here's one mentioned here. Also Psalm thirty-seven and also Psalm number two. The Lord shall laugh at them. And this is what David says, Because of his strength I will wait upon thee, for God is my defense. The God of my mercy shall prevent me. God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies. Slay them not, lest my people forget. Scatter them by thy power. and bring them down, O Lord, our shield. Well, we won't read any more of the Psalm, but I want you to see this. You can safely quote what God has already said, and this is what David says in Psalm fifty nine. Sounds like a terrible cry for vengeance, but it really isn't. Secondly, I want you to notice that even though David recognizes these hard things in his life, he doesn't lose his faith in God.
He says, My faith is in you, Lord. My watch is in you. You will keep me. You will do these things. And bless your hearts, that's the same sort of thing you and I face in the age of the church in nineteen ninety eight. Desperate things happen to us. And we don't know what tomorrow will hold. And I'm glad we don't. I'm glad we don't. There's folks in Daytona Beach and they have to read their horoscope every day. That's the way I pronounce it. Their horoscope, you see. I said, didn't see you yesterday. No, I stayed in bed all day because my horoscope says, don't go out, you'll break a leg. And said, you'll fall out of bed and break your arm. Is that anything better, you know? But there are certain people who govern their lives because of these sorts of things.
Or they'll call up a nine hundred number and talk to a psychic. That's popular these days, isn't it? I said, if psychics know so much, how come they don't know what the lucky lottery numbers are? They could all be multi-millionaires, you see. But people are involved in these things and they're interested in these things. And it's enough to say, my times are in thy hands. My dad became very serious, Leo, was in a very little hospital. And we said, Dad, don't you want us to move you to a bigger hospital where they have more facilities and better doctors and all that? And Dad says, no, I'm a safe here in this little tiny country hospital as I would be in the biggest hospital in Daytona Beach.
And then he quoted, my times are in his hands. And after Dad went five o'clock in the morning, we found a little note on his bedside table. He started out writing it, but as he got weaker, he began to print things. And then the last few words were great big block letters like a little kindergarten child would transcribe. He said, My personal desire and wish is that the Lord would heal me so I could be restored again to the fellowship of my family. But if the Lord is going to use this to take me home, I know I go into the presence of the Lord. He says, I can't lose. I can't lose. And you know, medical science recently has begun a study, in fact it was studying it now quite a while, why people who, as they say, have strong faith in God seem to recuperate better than people who don't have strong faith in God.
Well, you and I would know the answer. Say, Lord, I just soon not be here, and if the choosing were left up to me, I would not have chosen to be here with a pain and inconvenience and all the rest of it. But, Lord, you have allowed it for some reason. You don't do things haphazardly in the lives of your children. And there's some reason. Maybe you need a missionary in this bed, you see. Maybe through it all, you're going to draw me closer to yourself. And, Lord, my times are in your hands. And the Christian doesn't get all nerved up inside. And the blood vessels don't get all restricted, you know. And they have just wondered why it is that people who have strong faith in God recuperate better than people who don't have strong faith in God. My times are in His hands.
That's a wonderful hope to have, isn't it? The Lord's with you anywhere and everywhere. And so even though this is a psalm where David says, Lord, I'm in big trouble. There's people that want to kill me. They want to do all these other sorts of things. And yet He doesn't say, God, it's all your fault. It's all your fault. He says, my faith and my trust is in God. He doeth all things well. And that's the way the whole psalm goes. Now, Let's go back then to where we were in First Samuel chapter twenty now tonight. First Samuel chapter number twenty. And well, we need to read, I guess, verses one through twenty-three. I usually don't like to bite off that much, but it tells a story.
First Samuel chapter twenty, verse one, David fled from Nairoth and Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what is my sin before thy father that he seeketh my life? David has gone off and spent some time with Samuel and so forth, and then he's come back again. He said unto him, God forbid, thou shalt not die. Behold, my father will do nothing, either great or small, but that he will show it to me. And why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so. He's not going to kill you. And David's not so sure in verse three. David swear moreover and said, "'Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes, and he saith, let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved, but truly as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.'"
And so say we all. When we're well, we feel rather invincible. When we have the flu, first of all, we're afraid we're going to die. And then later we're afraid we're not going to die. Man was in a ocean liner and he said, I went all the way to England by rail. And they said, you can't go because there's no railroad tracks. He said, I was board ship, but I went all the way over by rail. And he said, I was hanging over the rail and somebody came along and said, cheer up, brother, nobody ever yet died of seasickness. And he said, you've taken away my last hope. He said, he said. So Jonathan said, David, don't worry about it. Dad tells me everything before he does.
And if he intends to formulate some sort of a plan for your assassination, he'll tell me first. And David says, I don't think he will. Because he knows that you and I have bonded together and each one of us loves the other as his own soul. And your father's smart enough to recognize that anything he tells you, you're going to tell me. And David's not so sure about this as Jonathan is. Verse four, then said, Jonathan unto David, whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee. And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even. If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly ask leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city.
For there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. If he say thus it is well, Thy servant shall have peace. But if he be very wroth, then be sure that evil is determined by him. Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant, for thou hast brought thy servant into a covenant of the Lord with thee. Notwithstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself. For why shouldest thou bring me to thy father? Jonathan, if you have seen secret sin in me, you assassinate me right now. You assassinate me right now. I'd rather be killed by someone who really loves me than to go through the rigors of being assassinated by the man on the throne.
He really loved Jonathan, didn't he? Really loved him. Really loved him in this way. And then they go through certain other things. And this is the chapter where the advent of the arrows comes in. And they've devised a secret little formula sort of a thing. And David's out hiding in the field. And Jonathan says, I'll come out and I'll bring a young boy with me to chase the arrows as if I'm going out for some sort of mock target practice. And he says, I'll see how my father feels about you currently. And I'll say to the young fellow, now I'm going to shoot some arrows. Now you see where the arrows go. And if I... If I shoot the arrows on one side of the rock, then I'll send the fellow out and you will know, well, everything is all right in the court and you can safely be seen and so forth.
But if I shoot the arrows beyond the young fellow, that's a signal to you that you better get going too. And so that's exactly what happened. Better get out of here. And here we have these forgotten promises that very often bring fear, such as we have in verse number one of chapter twenty. What have I now done and so forth? And sometimes it's not only a failure to trust God, it's a failure to trust friends. Have that in chapter twenty in verse number three and verse number eight that we just read. Jonathan said, say, I've got everything underlined here and everything is safe. And David says, no, it isn't. No, it isn't. This thing shall be done in this particular way.
And I call that the arrest. Now also you notice the arrangement. There's some solitude here. Chapter twenty verse number eleven. Verse number eleven, Jonathan said unto David, Come and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them into the field. And Jonathan said unto David, O Lord God of Israel, he says unto David, but he has a salutation like a prayer. Like a prayer. Verse twelve, O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my Father about tomorrow any time, or the third day, Behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto thee, and show at thee. The Lord do so, and much more to Jonathan.
But if it please my father to do the evil, then I will show at thee, and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace. And the Lord be with thee, as he hath been with my father. Now, you see, you stop a long bout in here, and you say, this life is getting awfully complicated. It's becoming awfully complex. This is more than the shepherd boy. who used to do nothing but take care of the sheep and practice with his sling. Now he's involved in court intrigue. He's become the enemy of the man upon the throne. There's all sorts of subterfuge and codes that go on between David and the prince, you see. And the thing is getting awfully complicated, but through it all, David claims an untiring faith in God.
And you'll find as you live out your Christian life that this very often happens to you. And sometimes you wish it could go back to the time when life was a lot simpler. And you ought to take an inventory of your Christian life at least once a year and say, am I growing in grace and in the knowledge of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? And the answer ought to be, yes. The things that I face now would have tripped me up a year ago. But now I can sail through in victory and say, Lord, you allowed it for some reason. I'm trusting in you, Lord, to see me through this and may my faith grow stronger because of it. And that's the way the Lord deals with his children. And some of the most spiritual people that you know are people who have had a lot of problems in their life.
A lot of crises, a lot of catastrophes, a lot of heartaches. As the lady lives in Orange Valley, she used to live in Orange City. She lives in heaven now. But she had two different kinds of arthritis. One you're supposed to exercise with, the other one you're supposed to rest with. Whichever one she favored, she aggravated the other one. She says, Phil, I have been in constant pain ever since I was a girl of eighteen years of age. And when the Lord took her home, she was almost ninety. She says, I don't know what it's like to have a day without pain. Every once in a while I said, I better go over and visit her and try to encourage her and try to comfort her and try to cheer her up. Bless your heart, I never got a chance. So we drive from Daytona Beach over to Orange City about thirty-five miles and all the way over I said, let's see now, what verses can I use to cheer her up and to encourage her and And so on.
I never got a chance to use those verses. Knock on the door. Who's there? Phil Morgan. Come on in. Let me tell you what the Lord's done for me today. And I go in and sit down, and there I sat for an hour, an hour and a half. She always had some fresh, up-to-date testimony. This is what the Lord showed me this morning hour. And a bright, radiant face, you see. And yet I knew all the time she was in pain. Maybe she would have had such a bright, radiant testimony. as she hadn't had all that pain. A lot of things she couldn't do, but she could sit there, listen to good tapes, read the Word of God, have prayer ministry for all the missionaries and all the unsaved folks and all the Christian folks around and about, and maybe because of that she was the great, strong Christian she was.
And after a while, I'd go out and get in the car and drive back home again. Well, maybe I can use those verses next time. But bless your heart, I never did. And she went to glory not knowing what verses I was going to give to her. But maybe she knows by now. Maybe the Lord has said, this is what Phil was going to say to you. And she'd probably say, Phil, who? So there's solitude. Come out into the field. And you need solitude in your life, don't you? What do we talk about? Our quiet time with God? The Lord says, enter into your closet when you pray. You need that quiet place. You need that quiet time. The solitude.
The succession also, chapter twenty and verse fifteen, but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house forever. No, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David, everyone from the face of the earth. And several times in this chapter you'll find this thought recurring. That Jonathan says to David, now promise me, however this sort of thing turns out, that you will continue to do good to my family and to the folks who follow me. Regardless of what my father may do or not do, regardless of these other things, I want you to promise me that you'll always be good to my family. And David was, wasn't he? You remember when he was in a place of power, he said, is there any people living yet of the family of Jonathan?
And they did some detective work and they found one or two of them, you see. And David enjoyed that sort of a thing. The arrangement of succession, promise me. that you'll continue on in these sorts of things. Now, there's also arrangement of significance. That's verse number nineteen of our chapter. When thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quickly and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself when the business was to hand, and shall remain by the stone Esel, or that which points the way, that which points the way. You have that in verse nineteen of chapter twenty. And over in first Kings, First Kings chapter seventeen, there's a similar sort of a thing.
First Kings chapter seventeen, verse king seventeen and verse number three. You'll have to wait till I get there. This Bible I'm using now is now sixteen years old and as pages have become very brittle and I hate to get new one because it takes me so long to break one in. The verses in the new Bible are not where they used to be in the old Bible. Aren't that right? That, and that's right. and I'm rapidly developing a loose leaf Bible. Not intentionally, it's just the way it's happening, you see. So it takes me a little longer than it does you to find these places. First Kings chapter seventeen, verse number three, get thee hence, turn thee eastward and hide thyself, the Lord tells Elijah, by the brook Chiris that is before Jordan.
He says, hide thyself. Now I want you to always remember that verse in connection with chapter eighteen, verse one. Same book, chapter eighteen, verse one, came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself. Sometimes the Lord will say to you, Hide thyself. It's time to go to that quiet place. Even the Lord said to his own, Come ye apart and rest a while, didn't he? Come ye apart and rest a while. The Lord is not a fierce taskmaster. We need times of rest and refreshment and recuperation. Not three hundred and sixty-five days a year, friends. I'm not talking that. I'm not talking about folks whose favorite hymn is Jesus, I am resting, resting.
They never get beyond the title. They never get beyond the title. And you can just change one letter and resting, resting, becomes rusting, rusting, you see. And that other hymn sometimes they say, take my life and let it be. And they never get beyond the title of that one. Take my life and let it be. So in chapter seventeen, the Lord says, go hide yourself. Chapter eighteen, the Lord says, go show yourself. Isn't that what the Lord said in John chapter ten? That when we get saved, a man shall go in and out and find pasture. You go to the Lord for strength and refreshment and encouragement, but then the Lord also sends you out to do some area of service or business for him. And you do this back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.
Well, those are things of significance. They're not the only ones, but those are the only ones we'll look at. The arrows, that's which... conclude the situation tonight, the arrows, and the arrows I noticed are always controlled by David's friend at court. Remember the situation, if I shoot the arrows off this side of the rock, then you'll know that my father's forgiven you and you can bet. If I shoot the arrows over and they go a long way, that's an indication, dear David, my friend, that you're supposed to clear out too, that you better seek the distant place. but the arrows are always controlled by David's friend at court. And that's the way the Christian is today.
The arrows are still controlled by the man who's upon the throne. And these things are true, you see, in the Word of God. He never does anything wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ do with all things well. Well, we'll close with that and have a word of prayer. Our Father and our God, we do give you thanks tonight for all your faithfulness to us, the children of men, Father, we are amazed at thy love for us, that even when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And Father, here in his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your kind guidance and faithfulness to us day by day and day after day.
And Father, we pray thee that our hearts might be encouraged and strengthened in the things of Christ. Again, Father, we hold up before thee all those who need our intercessory prayers tonight for whatever particular reason they have need of. Bless them, Father, we pray thee, and cause them to know that thou dost love them and thus desire only the very best for them. Dismiss us, Father, with thy blessing and benediction upon us, for we ask these things, Father, in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.