all of the familiar faces. Lord has blessed me so often here. Um, so good to see you all. Ask the Lord that he would. He would bless you with this piece of scrap. Um, that the Lord would visit us. I was reminded the fact Brother Joe saw me looking at my Bible there. I was reminded of Job at the end of his life at not the end of his life, but at the end of his trial He experienced and spoke face to face with God and he says now mine eyes see it thee and I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes and if you remember at the beginning of the book job was a a man that feared God and eschewed evil. He was described as a perfect and an upright man. So I pray that the Lord would speak to us tonight. There are times like this and almost every time that I stand in my pulpit that I think that I am not sufficient for this calling to stand and open up the truth of God's Word. try to encourage the people to remember that as first Thessalonians teaches us for this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God and that's what we come to do is to receive the word of God which you heard of us you received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe and so beloved We need to hear from God tonight. If you came to hear from Jimmy tonight, you might as well just go out the door and do something else. But we need to hear from God tonight. And I'll have you go to Matthew chapter 24. The Lord Jesus here has just departed the temple. In fact, we'll start in 2337 when he wept over Jerusalem. Verse 37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, for I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came unto Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See not all these things? He said, Do you see these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And my text is verse 12. And because iniquity shall abound, The love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. And then shall the end come. Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Father, we pray as your holy word has just been read. that you would open this text for us, Father. Lord, teach us out of your revealed will. O God, teach us that which we need, O God. Teach us what we need to hear. Father, we pray for the Spirit of God's presence, for your Spirit's presence in our midst. Father, our great desire, first of all, is that you would receive all the glory and the honor. And Father, we would know more of thee, more of thy will for our lives. and we would go forth from this place a more holy and sanctified people prepared to do your work. Help us, Heavenly Father, this night. We call upon you and we ask it in your highly exalted name, the highly exalted name of thy blessed Son, Jesus. Amen. Christ here is answering as a introduction the questions of his apostles. The questions are, tell us When shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? Well, the Lord answered them in a myriad of things that precede our text. He said there will be many religious deceivers in the world who will present themselves as deliverers, messiahs, if you will. We know in the book of Acts there was Judas in Acts chapter 5 and Judas of Galilee. We know that Simon the sorcerer was in Acts chapter 8. He said there will be wars. There will be plagues, as we know, pestilences, and earthquakes in many different places. Nations shall rise against nations. The book of Luke says there will be commotions and fearful sights. He says Christians will be persecuted. They will be killed. They, we, will be hated of all nations because we're lovers of Jesus Christ. Because of this hatred of Christ, and because you identify and associate with Christ, and because you're intimate with Christ, and because you love Christ, there will be betrayals. You will be betrayed. There will be close relationships that will be splintered. Family relationships will break apart. There will be enmity between friends who once loved each other. Those who profess faith in Christ will betray those who refuse to forsake their faith in Christ. 2 Timothy 3, turn there quickly. Or you can just listen. 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul says, This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, no self-control, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. All of these things, beloved, precede our Lord's return, and they are troubling, and they are happening now. But the most troubling sign that the Lord Jesus reveals to us is found in verse 12. The most troubling sign is when the hearts of genuine believers begin to wax cold because of abounding iniquity in the world. Because the people of God now, and brethren, this is what scares me to death about me, is that we begin to tolerate sin. in our midst. And the reason that we will begin to tolerate sin is because we are probably becoming immersed in it ourselves. We are becoming worldly. We are beginning to accept things that used to be abhorrent to us. And this is where I really want to spend my time this evening, beloved of God. Iniquity is abounding in the world, and I don't think anyone will deny that fact that it is happening. But my question is, is it having a chilling effect on your love to Christ? Is your love to Christ waxing cold because the world has become so sinful and now it is infecting you? Now it is infecting me. Is it making you grow cold? Is your intimacy with Christ now not intimate? Are you being distanced from Christ because of abounding iniquity? And so my question is, where is your love to Christ in the midst of this troublous time and abounding iniquity? Where is your love for Christ? Where is my love to Christ? How would you examine yourself and identify that coldness toward Christ in your life? How would it look? And I want to try and help you to diagnose yourself and see how might this look. Well, first of all, brethren, it begins when sin is no longer looked upon as exceedingly sinful. It's when any sin which used to be abhorrent and shameful to you is now no longer viewed as that bad. It's when we see things in the world and we're just kind of indifferent toward it. It doesn't really bother us anymore. It's when sin is no longer abhorrent to us. Beloved, it's when we begin to tolerate sin in our own lives. It's when we don't get convicted and we're not ashamed for our own sins, brethren. Listen, in 1 Corinthians 5, we're studying 1 Corinthians in the beginning of chapter 5 and verse 1, Paul says, it is reported commonly among you. This was a church. This was a man that was a professed believing man. who was having a sexual relationship with what appears to be his stepmother. And he says, and you have not mourned over this thing. It's reported commonly. You're puffed up. You're just going along like everything's normal. You're letting this thing pass by. You're tolerating sin in your midst. And this was in the Corinthian church. Brethren, if we're going to have a right view of sin, we need to see it the way God sees it. Psalm five and verse four, look at it. If you turn back to Psalm five and verse four, The psalmist here says, For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness. And beloved, neither should we. Neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man." Beloved, we need to see sin the way God sees it. Psalm 11 and verse 4. Just turn the page there. The psalmist says here, the Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked in him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall reign snares, fire and brimstone, and in horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of their cup. Beloved of God, trifling with any sin is extremely dangerous. The more you embrace the world and its sin, the worse its effects will be upon you and your Christian life. As tolerance of sin increases, so coldness toward Christ will increase. For your love to Christ will wax cold. This coldness, beloved, will be evident in your lack of desire. It will be seen in your lack of desire, in your Bible devotions, in your prayer life, which will be dull and spiritually lifeless. The fourth beatitude, I believe it is, Christ said, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And the reason that the people of God stop hungering and thirsting after righteousness is because they're filled with other things. They're filled with the world and we fill ourselves with things that are not glorifying and magnifying to God. Beloved, as God's people, we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness and we shall be filled when we hunger and thirst after righteousness. Another sign is you will become a non-participant in times of fellowship. You will be aloof to the Christian community. When others gather to fellowship around the word of Christ and in the church and at the feet of Christ, you won't want to be there. You'll be aloof. You'll be standing off. You may even lose your desire to gather with the saints on the Lord's day, when your heart grows cold. In your conversation, you will opine and talk about a myriad of other things, other loves, but not Christ and His gospel. I'm amazed that sometimes we have our church fellowships and we're saying, it's a church fellowship, but nobody's talking about Christ. Everybody's talking about other things. Brethren, when we get together in fellowship, beloved, let us talk about the things of God. Listen, we need to cultivate the love of Christ within us, beloved. Listen, Paul, Peter, and John, the apostles, they knew how sin would affect the church in the last days, and so they wrote to the churches and they prayed for them, and they prayed specifically that the love of Christ would not grow cold in the hearts of God's people. Look at Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 14. The book of Ephesians 3 and verse 14. The apostles prayed that the love of Christ in God's people would increase and abound. And that should be your mission as a child of God. I'm sorry, I'm a military man, mission. But we should desire to know more of the love of Christ. We should cultivate our love to Christ. Listen, being a Christian is not, it's not, We're just going to believe on Christ and we're just going to go on our lives. No, to be a Christian, you need to labor. You need to strive to enter into the straight gate. You need to labor in the world. Study to show thyself approved, not unto men, but unto God. Amen, brother. the apostle paul here says in verse 14 of chapter 3 listen he knew this would happen he says for this cause i bow my knees unto the father of our lord jesus christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you He would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man That christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. This is what he's praying for the church That's he being rooted and grounded in love that you may be able to comprehend the incomprehensible He says with all the saints. What is the breath? the length, the depth, and the height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, to intimately experience the love of Christ in your own life, and that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. And we often quote this, verses 20 and 21 is how we pray, but In the context, he's praying for what he just prayed here. Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. The Apostle Paul praying that the love of Christ in them would increase and abound. Listen, beloved, we pray for many things. And for those that we love, we pray for the salvation of our loved ones. We pray for the sick. We pray for all sorts of things, but we need to be praying for this first. We need to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We need to pray for the inner man. We need to pray that our hearts would be joined. hard joined in communion with our God, that we would know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. If we are to pray that way, then it will be known. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. You might say, you're asking me to pray for something that can't be known. No. No, brethren. Pray for it. Desire. Desire it. Philippians 1. And listen, the objective here is that your love for Christ, your love to Christ would not wax cold. That you would not drift from Christ and stray from His Word and stray from the church and stray from the brethren and be turned aside. Beloved, that's what sin will do when you begin to embrace it. Don't think that just because you're a Christian that sin is not dangerous to you. It is extremely dangerous to you. Listen, in the book of Hebrews, The writer of Hebrew says, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in doing what? Departing from the living God. But exhort one another, he says. Amen. Brethren, sin is dangerous. Don't ever think it's not dangerous. Don't trifle with sin. We know it is abounding in the world. It's abounding all around us. Yes, sir. It's increasing. Don't let it infect your spirit. Don't bring it into the church of Jesus Christ. Come on, beloved. Philippians one, three. Paul again says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is neat for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you. I long after you all in the bonds of Jesus Christ. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more, their love to Christ. knowledge and in all judgment that you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Romans 5 5 don't turn there Paul says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Brethren, that's to us. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Brethren, don't let that love grow cold. And so questions for you all this evening, questions for me this evening. Is your love to Christ abounding? Is it increasing or is it weakening and waxing cold? I think of the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection, he asked Peter, Lovest thou me? And I think to myself, brethren, my Lord's asking me, lovest thou me? Jimmy, do you love me? Is Christ more precious to you today than when you believed? Is he at least as precious to you when you believed? If someone to ask you, you know, I used to watch this show, Rescue 911. You ever see that show? It's someone who was drowning or they were in a house fire and somebody rescued them. And what was apparent in every show is the person that was saved now had an intimate relationship with the person that was the savior. And I remember that the person drowned and then the show was all about reuniting the rescued person with the savior and they always had such a relationship and in almost every show they became intimate and they knew each other yeah and so my question to you is if someone were to come up to you and say do you love christ and you say yeah i love christ i love christ he's my savior he's my lord he's my savior we would all say that and what would you say if they said tell me about him there you go Listen, we can tell somebody. If somebody asks me about my wife, I'll tell you about her because I love her. And so brethren, if someone asks us about our Savior, what will we say? Can we describe our Savior? Can we say what we love about him? Can we talk about that great salvation? that He's given unto us, that He saved me from my sins, He saved me from the wrath of Almighty God. Can we tell them how we love Him and we love His Word and how He's made so much of an impact in our lives personally and that we love Him more than anything in the world? I'd like to read to you Song of Solomon. I'd like to use this example for you. Song of Solomon, verse 9. Actually, verse... Verse 8, Solomon here says in Song, verse 8 of chapter 5, he said, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick of love. And they said, what is thy beloved more than another beloved? And I would tell you that what you can talk mostly about and you speak freely about it and you know everything about it, that's your love. But can we talk about Christ like that? And that's what they said. What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Do we have another beloved? Do we have another love? Or is Christ our first love? O thou fairest among women, what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us? And what did she say? My beloved is white and ruddy and the cheapest among 10,000. She described every detail of him. His head is as the most fine gold. His locks are bushy and black as a raven. His eyes are the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters washed with the milk and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers. His lips like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the barrel. His belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved. See, this is when you get to the end of telling some about someone about the Lord Jesus, you say, this is my savior. This is my love. This is my friend. Oh, daughters of Jerusalem. Yes. Oh, beloved, are you more devoted to Christ than you were when the Lord saved you? Are you more devoted in your secret prayer life and your intimacy with Christ and your heavenly father than you were when the Lord saved you? Are you more or less devoted to him? Are you more devoted to the church of Jesus Christ, to the local church? Are you devoted to the ministry here? Are you glad to come and, as we read in Psalm 82, are the tabernacles of our Lord's house amiable to you and lovely and you desire to be there every time the doors are open? Amen, brother. Or have you isolated yourself from the saints, both in the assembly and outside of it? See, an isolated Christian is a Christian that has grown cold. Yes. Try this one day when you're barbecuing, when you get all the coals together and they're nice and red, take one coal with your tongs and separate it and put it out to the side. won't be long till it will cool. And it will go out because it doesn't have the heat of the others. Two are better than one. And the threefold cord is not quickly broken. You need the fellowship of the saints. They were together in Acts chapter 2 and they had all things common. And they met from house to house and they fellowshiped gladly around the Word of God. And so do you bring warmth and the Spirit of God into the gathering of the saints? Or do you just bring coldness? Are you like a coal all by yourself with no heat? Listen, if you're in Christ and born again by the Spirit of God, you're now a partaker of the divine nature. That's what the scriptures say about you and me. We have been given a new heart and a new spirit. God put it in you. The Bible says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, He is new. He's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. You're not who you once were. You're new. A supernatural act has happened in your life from God. He saved you from your sins by the power of His Spirit. That's a supernatural event that happened in you. He put His Spirit in you, so you ought to be completely different. And if His Spirit is in you, then you ought to love Christ with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. In your new heart, beloved, there must be life. If you're in Christ, there should be strong signs of spiritual life in you. Jeremiah 31 and verse 33. Jeremiah 31 and verse 33. One verse of Scripture there. the prophet here says but this shall be the covenant that i will make with the house of israel after those days sayeth the lord i will put my law in their inward parts you see god says i will do it and i will write it in their hearts and will be their god and they shall be Listen, if you're united to God by faith in Jesus Christ, there should be communion with God. There should be love to Christ. Union with God begets communion with God. You should have affections for heaven. You should have affections for the King of heaven. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on purpose, on things above, not on things on the earth. You set your affections on things above. If ye then be risen with Christ, for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Brethren, sometimes I think it's foreign that we should love Christ. No, it's not foreign. It's foreign that we don't love Christ. Brethren, He's given us the earnest of His Spirit in our hearts. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. You should not and must not be who you once were in time past because that's what you were. God saved you from your sins. Paul says, where in time past, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation in times past. That's not who you are anymore, beloved. And if that's how you're living, the love of Christ has grown cold in you. Iniquity is abounding in you. Titus 3, and then we'll get to some fixes. Titus 3 in verse 2, or verse 3 rather. Paul says, for we ourselves also were. This is not who you are now. I was a sinner. I was foolish. I was disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, but not after. But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared Now Beloved let's look at some preventive measures and I'll be finished Against our hearts growing cold in the world in which we live Listen if your heart has already grown cold You need to retrace your steps You needed to go back to what it was that moved you off course. Go back. In fact, Paul tells the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2, if you turn there, Paul tells the church, he says, go back and retrace your steps and see what it was that stole your love away from Christ. He says, Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, I know thy labor, thy patience, how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Oh, this is a good church. They're doing everything outwardly, all looks good. But Jesus said, Nevertheless, I have someone against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. He says, Retrace your steps. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen and repent. and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." David in Psalm 139, you know it says, he says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. John Flaville said this, man's heart is the worst place before he is saved and the best place after he is saved. The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God. And the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God. Proverbs 4, keep thy heart with all diligence, the wise man says. Second beloved, If your heart has waxed cold, if love to Christ has waxed cold in your heart, you're halting between two opinions. Listen, you cannot be like Sisera and think to look heavenward spiritually when your head is nailed to the earth. You cannot be spiritually minded when you're full of the world. John said, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but it is of the world. And so brethren, we cannot serve two masters. If you have another love in the world, you need to identify it, and you need to cast it out. We cannot halt between two opinions. In fact, You need to exercise some violence in this thing. The Bible says, if your eye offend thee, pluck it out. If your hand offend thee, cut it off. If your foot offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee, brethren. And so, beloved, if we would love Christ, then we need to cut off and cast sin out of our lives. Fourth, you need to be on a constant search and destroy mission. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5 Colossians 3 and verse 5 In almost every one of Paul's epistles. He talks about the doctrine of mortification Beloved we are to mortify our members which are upon the earth He says in verse 5 mortify your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry and For which thing's sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked sometime when you lived in them? But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. He's not finished. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Romans 6, 12, beloved, let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye or give way. Don't yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead. And your members as instruments of righteousness unto God, for sin shall not have dominion over you. Do you believe that? Do you pray that way? We must pray this way. Lord, you said that sin shall not have dominion over me. I need your strength. I need a strength that comes from outside of myself. Beloved, that starts from love to Christ. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my word in John chapter 14. Look at John chapter 14 and we'll be finished. John chapter 14 verse 21. Jesus says, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. He it is that loveth me. And he shall be loved of my father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which I hear is not mine, but the father's which sent me. And one final thought, if you go back to Matthew chapter 24, one final thought, Verse 12, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. I'm so glad it doesn't say that it will be extinguished. It can be revived. Brethren, that's your work as a child of God. We are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are to have enough spiritual awareness to see that the Christian life cannot be lived with this book closed. It cannot be lived with our secret prayer closets empty. Brethren, we need to be on our faces in prayer. We need to cry out that God would give us the grace and the strength to actually live the Christian life. Brethren, we need to pray for it. We need to seek God. that the love of God would not wax cold in our hearts and lives. We need to do that work, that spiritual work in our lives. We need to be diligent. Seest thou a man that is diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings. Brethren, if we would stand before the king, we must be diligent in our father's business. If you're outside of Christ here, then you are outside of the safety of Christ. John the Baptist said, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. If you're outside of Christ, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. I don't know the hearts of anyone here, but The prophet says, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call you upon him while he is near. When is he near? He's near now. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Turn from your sins to Christ if you're outside of Christ. If you want someone to talk to, there's pastors here, there's brother Joe here, there's brother Pat here. Don't wait another day. Now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. If you turn not to the Lord Jesus Christ, then sin will be your ruin. You will die in your sins as Jesus told the Jews in John chapter 8. God says, I have no pleasure that the wicked die in his wickedness. Oh, brethren, I pray that the Lord would help us this night. I pray that your love to Christ would wax stronger and stronger. Let's dismiss in prayer. Father, we ask for your blessings. Oh, God, we thank you for the word of God. I thank you so much that you loved us, Father, and that you revealed yourself to us and you gave us your word. I thank you for the love that was demonstrated towards me, a sinner, towards sinners here. in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So thankful. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Oh God, we're so thankful for that love. Oh that we would return that love that you deserve from us, oh God. Help us, Heavenly Father. Forgive us, oh God. Convict us If we have drifted from Thee, if the love of Christ has waxed coal in our own hearts, help us, Heavenly Father. We call upon You and ask for Your forgiveness. We ask for Your mercy. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.