We do welcome again the Rev. Cranston back to our pulpit. I certainly have enjoyed the Lord's servant as he has ministered God's Word this week. He has known the help of the Lord. And may God help him tonight again. May he know that double portion of God's Spirit as he comes to minister to us. Returning once again, in the Word of God, this time to the book of Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 13. come tonight to the cross itself. Throughout this series of messages, as we have considered the Saviour's walk from Gethsemane to Golgotha, I have to confess that I have felt so inadequate. How can a mortal fully describe what Christ endured on our behalf. And now we come to the cross itself. Much of the cross work is a mystery. And I pray that the Lord will help us tonight, as we look to Calvary, that we might see something more what Christ did for us there. I said at the outset of the week, it was the desire of our hearts that we would just simply take time this week to meditate upon, to think about the Savior, so that at the end of the week we would, as it were, fall in love afresh with him. I trust that'll be our experience tonight. Let us read the word. Tonight we're considering the awakening of Jehovah's sword. We've been to Gethsemane, watched the Lord as He lay prostrate in the garden. weeping and in an agony, sweating, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. We have gone as far as the Scriptures would allow us into that hour of darkness. The Saviour said to Judas, this is your hour, the power of darkness. We went with him along with the hounds of hell, the Roman guard, six hundred men. The Lord Jesus was then taken by that guard like mad hounds as they had chased the hind of the morning, like mad dogs tearing their victim apart. So those mad dogs of hell battered and bruised the Saviour so much that his visage was marred more than any man's. Then last night, he considered the Saviour as he endured all of this, yet he opened not his mouth. not one word of complaint, not one word of condemnation. And yet a heavier blow was yet to come, spoken of here by the prophet. Chapter 13 of Zechariah, and verse 1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land. They shall no more be remembered. And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it shall come to pass that When any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that beget him shall say unto him, I shall not live, for thy speakest lies in the name of the Lord. And his father and his mother that beget him shall trust him through when he prophesies. It shall come to pass in that day that the prophet shall be ashamed, every one, of his vision. When he hath prophesied, neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman, for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. One shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd! And against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. And I will turn mine hand upon the little ones that shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, But the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, It is my people. They shall say, The Lord is my God. Amen. We pray the Lord will bless the reading of this Holy Word to our hearts tonight before we consider this passage of Scripture, the Lord's Word to our hearts this evening. Let us unite again in prayer. We pray the Spirit of God will give us help tonight. O our God and loving Father, Thou, Lord, knowest our need as we stand before Thee tonight. And so, Lord, we come to the throne of grace where we are promised that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. And, O Lord, we would ask tonight that Thou would have mercy upon us. And we ask tonight, O God, that Thou would give us grace And, O loving God, we pray this night that Thou wilt give us help from heaven, that, O Lord, we might speak well of the Lord Jesus. Lord, I don't ever want to preach and never speak well of Christ. And, Lord, I want to speak well of my Savior tonight. Help me. Help us, Lord, this evening to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to lift him up from the earth. And in so doing, he's promised to draw all men unto him. Lord, that's what we want. We want the preacher's heart drawn out after Christ. We want every hearer tonight to be drawn out after the Lord. Lord, so then our prayer is, draw me and we will run after Thee. So, Lord, come now, we pray. Anoint us with the Holy Ghost. Help us to speak well of our dear Saviour. For we ask all these things in His name. and always for His glory. Amen. The awakening of Jehovah's sword. And our text for tonight is that verse 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow self. the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones." Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. The Lord asked the two disciples on the road to Mass this question. And when there was no response from the disciples, the Lord then went on to speak to them, beginning at Moses. And all the prophets he expounded unto them, and all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And in expounding the scriptures, we are told that the Lord Jesus led his two disciples through the books of Moses and through the prophets, pointing out to them all the prophetic words of the servants of God, and what they had to say about Christ and his sufferings. And as he expounded the Scriptures, he brought the two disciples afresh to Calvary. He showed them that all of the prophets had something to say about the sufferings of Christ. That is the way it should be. The prophets of the Lord should always have something to say about Jesus Christ and His cross work. Any man that calls himself a prophet that doesn't preach Christ and doesn't preach the cross is not worthy of the name. We are called to preach Christ. Paul said, we preach Christ and Him crucified. And all the prophets preached Christ and Him crucified, so were in good company. And if He led the disciples through all the prophets, showing them the cross work, then He must have led them through the writings of Zachariah. For when the word of the Lord came to Zachariah the prophet, the cross of Calvary, was brought into view. Even though the events in that hill were 475 years hence, yet Zechariah, through the Word of God, could see it all. He could see that hill, lone and grey. He could see that face of a skull. He could see the Lamb of God. He could climb that hill. He could see the Saviour being crucified and put to death. He could see the blood flow. He could see the wounds. And he wrote about it. And the Lord Jesus took the book of Zechariah and expounded the word to the disciples. For time and time again, The prophet writes, Then I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked. Look at chapter 1, verse 18. Then lifted I up mine eyes and saw. Look at chapter 2, verse 1. I lifted up mine eyes and behold, and again, and looked. Look at chapter 5, Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked. Look at the same chapter, verse 9, Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked. Look at chapter 6, verse 1, Then I turned, and looked up, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold. And what did Zacharias see? When he turned and lifted up his eyes and looked, why, he saw a crucified Christ. And now he writes about it in this chapter 13. I tell you, believer, when you hear the Word of the Lord, it is always good to turn and look. John in the Isle of Potomac heard a voice behind him. And we are told that John turned and looked. And what did John see? He saw Jesus Christ as Savior in a way that he had never seen Him before. He saw a glorified, magnified, glorious Savior. Oh, what would have happened if he hadn't turned and looked? Believer, when the Word comes to us, be sure to turn and look as Zachariah did. And we might say to the prophet tonight, Zachariah, when you turned and looked, tell us, what didst thou see? Zachariah would answer in chapter 6, verse 12, I see a man A man whose name is the branch. That's what I see. That's who I see. We might say to Zachariah again, you've turned and you've looked. Tell us. Tell us something more about this man. Chapter 9, verse 9, he tells us, Behold the King. This man is a king. He's just having salvation. He's a king and yet he is lowly. Oh, Zachariah, what manner of man is this? This man who is a king, and yet he is lowly. This man who is just and has salvation. Zachariah, tell us, what else did you see? You have told us about this man, the branch. You have told us that he is a king. You have told us that he is just. You have told us that he has salvation. You have told us that he is lowly. Tell us Zechariah. Tell us something more. We want to know more about this man. So Zechariah tells us. He tells us there in chapter 11, verse 12, in the words of the king himself, So they wed for my price thirty pieces of silver. What? Is that all he's worth? Zechariah, tell us. This man, this king, is that all he's worth? Thirty pieces of silver. Surely he's worth more than that. Tell me here tonight, what is Jesus Christ worth to you? What's he worth? Oh, if you love him, if you adore him, if you worship him, you cannot put a price upon him. Why isn't he our everything? Isn't he at all? What are we without him? Why, we're nothing. But here's someone. Someone thought he wasn't worth anything more than thirty pieces of silver. To those who believe, he is precious. Most precious possession. And what else? Zechariah, tell us, what else can you see? What else did you see when you turned and looked at this man, this king, this lowly person, this just man, this man that was valued at thirty pieces of silver? What else did you see? In the words of chapter 12, verse 10, we are told that this man was pierced. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. So that's what they got for their thirty pieces of silver. That's what they did to this man. That's what they did to this king. Zechariah, when they pierced him, tell us, what does it all mean? In the first verse of the chapter we read tonight, in that day, that is, in the day that he was pierced, there shall be a fountain opened in the house of David And to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, what for? For sin and uncleanness. Yes, Zechariah, we can see it. We have seen the man. We have looked upon the king. We have seen his lowliness. We see that he is a just man. We see that he is to some he's not worth more than 30 pieces of silver. Yes, Zachariah, we can see that they pierced him. And all that fountain. Look at the fountain. We see it. It's a fountain filled with blood. We can see it now. Yes, it's coming into view. That fountain filled with blood. Isn't it drawn from Immanuel's vein, Zachariah? So it is. And isn't it right that sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains? Isn't that right, Zachariah? Yes! That's what it says. Find an open in the house of David what for? For sin and uncleanness. And so, believer, let us look again and look with Zechariah. Look again to Calvary. Let us look away to that hill of Thresh this evening. Let us look to the one who was wounded. Let us look to the one who was pierced and betrayed in the house of his friends. Let us look to the one whom we have been looking to this week, and the one who has been beaten and battered, tortured and tormented. Let us look, if we dare, once again tonight, because all that we have seen thus far was done at the hand of man, but tonight we must We must look at what was done by the hand of God. And when you look at that hand, believer, look at what is in that hand. It is the hand of Jehovah. And in that hand is a sword. It is the sword of Almighty God. And that day at Calvary, upon that hill lone and gray, God spoke as His Son was suspended there between heaven and earth. God spoke. And this is what God said, Awake, O sword! Against who? Against my shepherd. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow. Here is the sword of Jehovah being wielded Against who? Against the one who is God's own fellow, his own son, his own son, his own son. The awakening, of the sword of Jehovah. And our hearts, I believe, have been moved and touched this week as we have stood there with Christ. And we have seen something of what He suffered. But then, tonight, as we come to this passage, And we stand there ourselves in that hill, that hill called Golgotha, we must say tonight, must, must he endure more suffering? Surely all that we have seen thus far would have us cry out, enough, enough! But it's not enough. Your salvation must be purchased. And for our salvation to be purchased and your soul to be saved, the sword of Jehovah must smite the shepherd. The sword must pierce the one who is God's. Had that sword never been unsheathed, we, every one of us tonight, would be on the road to hell. Remember what we said the first night, as Christ cried, prayed, and sweat blood? Remember what we said. We said there that in that garden, as the Savior prayed and began to be in agony and prayed more earnestly and came to his Father three times and said, Father, if it be possible, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. We said on that Monday night that there in the Gethsemane's garden, Jesus Christ could see all that was before Him. He could see the Christ that had to be paired. He could see what He had to go through. And if we might say that which troubled him most of all was to drink that cup, and it wasn't a cup of suffering, it wasn't a cup of shame, but the cup of separation. Being separated from his Father, the fellowship broken for the first time ever. And yet Christ said, not my will, but thy will be done. Don't you love him tonight? As we look at this awakening of Jehovah's sword. We see, first of all, that it must have been a slumbering sword, because it says, Awake, O sword! The sword that has been awakened from its slumbers, taken from its sheath, is the sword of the Lord, the sword of the Lord of hosts. Remember when David slew Goliath? And he saw Goliath's sword. David said, there is none like it. Give it me. He had never seen a sword like that. No, he had never seen a sword like that because David was only comparing that sword with the swords that he had seen in the hands of men. But here is a sword that is held in the hand of God. Here is Jehovah's sword. It is not held in the hand of a mere man. It is held in the hand of God Almighty. We must say tonight there is none like it, for it is the Almighty's sword. This sword that was raised against the shepherd belongs to the Lord of hosts. the Lord of Hosts. This title for Jehovah is used extensively in the Minor Prophets. Indeed, Zechariah himself mentions the Lord of Hosts some thirty-seven times. We must look at the one who holds this sword, who bids this sword awake. Turn with me, please, to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 32, the Lord of Hosts. We read in Jeremiah 32, verse 17, Ah, Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arms and there is nothing too hard for thee. Thou showest loving-kindness unto thousands, and recompenses the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children. After them mark the words, The Great, The Mighty God, The Lord of Hosts is his name. And the one who held that sword was The Great and The Mighty God, The Lord of Hosts. He's the Lord of hosts. He's the Lord of the hosts of heaven. This title is given to Jehovah to emphasize his greatness, his might, his power. And this is the one who wields the sword and who wielded the sword against Jesus Christ. The great and the mighty God. The psalmist rejoiced that he was able to say, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalm 46 verse 7, he was rejoicing that the Lord of Hosts was with him. And I'll tell you this, I would rather have the Lord of Hosts with me than the Lord of Hosts against me. And why can we say tonight with the psalmist, the Lord of Hosts is with us? Why can we say that? Because for three hours on Calvary, the Lord of Hosts was against His Son. Because the Lord of Hosts was against Christ, the Lord of Hosts will never be against us. Hallelujah. Now we can say with the psalmist, the Lord of Hosts is with us. My, you can face any foe when the Lord of Hosts is with you. The Lord of Hosts, who wields that sword with such power against his enemies, is about to wield that sword against the one whom he calls my shepherd, the man that is my fellow. What has happened? Why was the sword of Jehovah turned against the shepherd? Tell me. What terrible crime must have been committed? Some terrible deed has been done that would cause the father to turn his sword against his son. It must be! It must be the crime of the universe! It must be. The Son of God must be seen in the eyes of Jehovah as one who has committed the crime of the universe. And so God says, Awake, O sword, and smite my shepherd. Awake, O sword, against the man that is my fellow." This is the sword of the Almighty. This is an awful sword. Sword in Scripture is a symbol of judicial power. Turn, please, to Romans 13. Romans 13, verse 4. Here the magistrate is called as one who beareth the sword, because he wields its power. Verse 4 of Romans 13, For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou to that which is evil be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. There's the sword, the judicial sword, the sword of wrath, the sword of vengeance, the sword of punishment. And here God Almighty is described by Zechariah as one who wields the sword. It's the sword of wrath. It's the sword of judgment. It's the judicial sword. It's the sword of power. It's the sword of vengeance. And here's God Almighty now wielding that sword against His own shepherd, against the man who is His fellow. Why? Why? What has happened? Did we not remind ourselves of that the other night in Isaiah 53? Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. Here it is. The Lord has led on him the iniquity of us all. There's the crime of the That is what has happened. Led upon Jesus Christ were all the sins of His people, every sin. And what did we note there in Isaiah 53? The Lord led on Him, for the Lord caused every sin to meet on Jesus Christ. And sin must be dealt with. Sin must be punished. Sin must be judged. And when the Father looked upon His Son, and so all the sins of His elect, their meeting on Jesus Christ, His cry was, Awake, O sword! The hour has come for the sword to awake. The time has come for the sword to be taken out of its sheath. The time has come for the sword to fall and fall upon the one that Jehovah says is my shepherd and a man who is my fellow. You see, the sheep deserved the sword. But since God has placed all the sins of the sheep on the shepherd, it's the shepherd That must face the sword. And believer, the punishment that was due to us, Jesus Christ has borne that punishment. The sheep deserve the sword. The sheep deserved the sword of wrath. The sheep deserved the sword of judgment. The sheep deserved the sword of justice. The sheep deserved the sword of punishment. But instead, it fell on Jesus Christ. The sword of Almighty God was summonsed to awake. Awake, O sword against my shepherd! Awake, thy sword of justice! Awake, thy sword of judgment! Awake, thy sword of righteousness! Awake, thy sword of punishment! Awake! Awake! It is time to awake! Where does it fall? falls upon the shepherd. Are you one of the Lord's sheep tonight? Are you the sheep of his fold? What you ought to do is fall down at his feet Worship Him. Worship Him. Or as the bride in the Song of Solomon did, she said when she found Him, she held Him and would not let Him go. And when we see that sword fall upon Jesus Christ because of your sins and mine, do you not want to throw your arms around? I do. Then we see that it was indeed an awakened sword. This is the last mention of the sword in the Old Testament. It had been slumbering for some time. Indeed, the first mention of the sword is over there in Genesis 3 verse 24. That was the first time the sword was taken out of its sheath. The sword there was awakened. The sword there was awakened against the first Adam. Now, Zechariah tells us about the time when that sword will be awakened from its slumbers again. Only this time it's against the last Adam. It was awakened against Adam because of his sin. But believer, the sword of Jehovah has been awakened against the last Adam because of your sin and mine. because of your sin and mine. It was our sin in the last oven that awakened Jehovah's sword. And when the awakened sword of God's justice and judgment smote the shepherd at Calvary, we were given access to the tree of life. to us, the cross is the tree of life. Remember that night, I do, when you bowed the knee at the foot of the old rugged cross. We bowed there as those who were dead in trespasses and in sin. We bowed there as the children of wrath, the children of darkness. And my, when we cried and prayed, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner, we were transformed from darkness to light, from death to life eternal in Jesus. We ought to thank Him every day. Ought to thank Him every day. I want you to notice not only the slumbering sword, but the smitten shepherd. Zechariah tells us, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow. saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. We have before us here in our text a great and wonderful mystery. Remember, it is the Lord of hosts who has bidden his sword awake, but against whom? Against my shepherd. The Lord of hosts is speaking, and he is speaking about his shepherd. The Lord of Hosts is speaking, and He is speaking about the man that is His fellow. The Father is speaking, and He is speaking about His dear, well-beloved Son. And to find the identity of this shepherd, we must look into the bosom of God, First of all, he's called my shepherd. Then he speaks of him as the man that is my fellow. The word fellow there means nearest of kin, nearest of kin. It is also rendered the man who is my equal. The man is his humanity. who is my equal, there's his deity. He's the God-man. Jesus Christ became man. He had to. Do you know that? Do you know that Jesus Christ had to become man if you and I were to be saved? Some may ask the question, but why? Why could Christ not have saved us from heaven? I tell you this, it was impossible. Why? Because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. He had to become man. He had to have blood flowing through his veins. He had to become man that he might suffer, that he might bleed, that he might die. And there he hangs the God-man. And as he hangs there as God's fellow, God's nearest of kin, God summonses that sword to awake. You know, It almost takes your breath away. You can almost dumb find it by the whole scene that God the Father should cry out awake, against the man who is my pillow. It was hard to take in. God the Father would cause the sword of His justice and judgment to awake. and despise and pierce the one who is his equal, his fellow, his nearest of kin. I don't know, but I Could the first person of the Trinity say of the second person of the Trinity, awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my fellow? This is where we feel so bankrupt and so inadequate. How do you explain this? I can't. But what I do know is this, I believeth with all my heart. And I believe something else. I believe that Jesus Christ, or the wound that came by way of that sword, I believe He bore that wound for me. I believe that. I believe it with all my heart. Smitten of God and afflicted, smitten of God by that sword, because the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. You know, as I went over these notes again today, again and again, and went over this passage, I thought to myself, I thought, do you see the trouble your sin costs? Talking to myself, I said, Reggie, do you see the trouble your sin caused? See what your sin did. Cause the father to summons his sword, his judicial sword, to awake against his own son. thought can really, really be true. And my sin was so awful and so great that that's what my sin did. And I realise it's all true. My sin caused so much trouble, caused the Father to summons His sword to awake and smite His own Notice also, not only was this sword awakened against God, dear son, but look at this dreaded word. Look at the words. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. Awake, O sword, against the man who is my fellow, who is my equal. The father must summon, must awaken the sword of judgment and take up that sword and wiggle that sword against his own son. Not for anything he did Not for anything he did, but all because of what I did and, believer, what you did. How terrible sin must be in the light of these words. Dr. Thomas Muir in his excellent commentary on the book of Zechariah, makes a powerful point when dealing with this very text. He says, and I quote, It is as if sin was so dreadful and evil that the assumption of its guilt by a sinless mediator must for a time make a division even in the absolute unity of the Godhead itself. It is the most awful illustration of the repulsive and separating power of sin that the history of the universe affords. The repulsiveness of sin caused the Father to turn away from the Son because He could not look on the inequities. that the Savior his Son was bearing. And somewhere, somewhere in that great burden that was laid on Christ, I can see sins there that has my name attached to. So how great our sins must be when the Lord of hosts would bid us soar to wake against the One who in Psalm 22 is called His darling. Christ was the Father's darling. What it cost the Father, what it cost the Son, He spared not, spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up. With this I'll close, leads us to the deepest wound. Many deep wounds pierce the flesh of Christ. Wounded on his brow, wounded on his back, or wounds on his hands, wounds on his feet. But there was a deeper wind to come. The sword would not be awakened to frighten the shepherd, but to smite him. The sword would not be awakened to warn the shepherd, but to smite him. Neither was the sword awakened to defend the shepherd, but to smite the shepherd. And believer, this is it. This is it. When the sword of Almighty God fell upon the shepherd, so deep was the wound that it pierced his very heart. So deep the wound went. pierced his very heart. There was no holding back, nothing spared. With all the strength and the might of the Lord of Hosts, the sword came down in judgment upon the Good Shepherd. The sword of judgment came down upon the man who is his fellow, his darling, his darling son. Sin must be dealt with, and it was dealt with in Jesus Christ. And the sword awoke and wound it. Jesus Christ, my Savior. We sang that hymn tonight. 3. Jehovah, be it his sword awake, O Christ, O Christ, it woke against thee. Thy blood, the flaming sword, must slash thy heart its sheaf must be. All for my sake, my peace to make, now sleeps that sword for me. Let us pray. Dear soul tonight, does Jehovah's sword sleep for you? Are you saved tonight? Do you know the Lord as your Savior? Do you know the assurance of your sins have been dealt with in Christ? Dear soul, if they're not dealt with in Christ, you go on the way you're going, then they'll have to be dealt with in yourself in the judgment of lost eternity. Child of God, we do rejoice tonight that God spurred not His only Son and delivered him up for us all. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to grief. He hath made his soul an offering for sin. Do you see the heinousness of your sin? What it meant? just as of God was poured out on his equal. And all we can do tonight is stand back in amazement and wonder and bow in adoration and thank Him for ever loving us. Father, we thank Thee for this Word tonight. We thank Thee, and our words seem so feeble, but we thank Thee, Lord, for ever loving us and dying for us. O God, we thank Thee tonight that that sword was awakened and it was plunged into the second Adam that we might have access to the tree of life. Lord, to our hearts tonight we would say, Calvary means everything. Christ means everything to us. O God, keep us near the cross. There a precious fountain. Lord, we thank Thee we have seen the fountain tonight. In that day the fountain will be open in the house of David. And the house of David knew every sin. And for the city of Jerusalem, for sin and foreign cleanliness. Lord, we rejoice tonight that fountain is filled with blood, powerful, cleansing blood, devil-defeating blood. ever speaking blood. O God, we thank Thee tonight that Christ ever left the realms of glory to take upon Himself the form of man. O God, we thank Thee He was man, yet without sin. And we thank Thee He was obedient to death. even the death of the cross. Lord, help us to love thee more. Melt our hearts, Lord, afresh. Help us, O God, in this day where sin is played down and it is called a mistake or a misdemeanor or a wrong turning or something else. Help us, O God, to hate sin. Help us, Lord, to weep over our sin, remembering what it cost thee to bear it away. Abide with us, Lord, as we part for a little season. Give journey and mercies. Watch over each one of us through the night. Lord, cause it in thy will for us each one to be back on Sunday night. O Father, we look to thee. Bless the hearts of thy people. Lord, you have done that. Lord, we pray that thou wouldst draw the backslider back to their first love. Lord, may they embrace him again. May they hold him fast. May they go through with God. Speak to the unsaithed. O God, how can they turn their back on the blessed Lamb? How can they trample again underfoot the precious blood? Lord, deal with them in mercy. Lead them to Calvary. We ask and pray these things in our Savior's name, for God's eternal glory. Amen.