Great Prayers of the Old Testament
Part 27: Getting Back to the Joy of Jesus Christ
Sermon 3: The Godly Fruit of a Joyful Christian
Psalm 51:11-19
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared July 24, 2025)
BACKGROUND:
*This is the last sermon in a series covering three great themes in Psalm 51. Here King David confessed his horrible sins against Bathsheba, her husband Uriah the Hittite, and most of all, against the LORD our God. Many of us are familiar with the dark story of David's adultery with Bathsheba, and once the King found out that Uriah's wife was pregnant, David brought Uriah home, hoping that this faithful soldier and husband would sleep with his wife. But Uriah was so loyal to the troops still in the battle, that he refused to even go in his house! Then David conspired with General Joab to abandon Uriah in battle, making sure that Uriah would be killed by the enemy.
*It was a horribly sinful chain of events. But at the same time, we must remember that King David was a saved man. GotQuestions.org pointed out that in 1 Samuel 13:13-14 and Acts 13:22 King David was called "a man after God's own heart." I also love what 2 Samuel 23:1-2 says about King David: "Now these are the last words of David. Thus says David the son of Jesse; Thus says the man raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel: The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue." (1)
*King David was a saved man, but he was also a sinful man. And we could try to take false comfort by saying, "Oh, I'd never sin like that." But the truth is we are all sinners. And we are a lot worse than we usually think we are. Every moment that we spend doing something wrong is a wasted moment when we should have been doing something right. Every moment we spend not loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is a moment in sin. Every moment we spend not loving our neighbor as we love our self is a moment in sin.
*F. B. Meyer explained that "For some time after his sin, David withheld confession to the LORD, and suffered terribly." David talked about this time in Psalm 32:3-4 where he said, "When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer." (2)
*God's Hand was heavy on David, because the LORD was leading David to repent and confess his sins. That's why Proverbs 3:11-12 says, "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor detest His correction; for whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights."
*That's why covering our sin brings pain. But confessing our sin to the LORD brings peace. As David said in Psalm 32:5, "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin."
*We also see the wonderful peace and power of confession in 1 John 1:8-9. There God's Word tells Christians, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Don't cover up your sins. Confess them to the LORD!
*But 2 Samuel 12:1-14 tells us that the Prophet Nathan went to King David and told the King a story about a poor man's lamb that was stolen by a rich man to provide a feast for a passing guest. David reacted instantly to that tale of injustice. He had sworn to take the thief's life and make him repay the stolen lamb fourfold.
*'YOU ARE THE MAN!' Nathan said. And John Phillips wrote, "Down off his throne came the king. The pent-up passions of remorse, shame, guilt, and anxiety were released in a flood of tears. With his heart still pounding in his chest, David wrote Psalm 51. Please think about these things as we read Psalm 51:11-19. (3)
MESSAGE:
*Yes Christians, our unconfessed sins definitely cause us to lose our joy of the LORD. But the great news is that we can get it back! We can have more joy. And in the first sermon on vs. 1-10, we saw that the joy of Jesus Christ comes through heartfelt confession. We also saw that the LORD'S joy mostly comes from heavenly cleansing.
*But the joy of the LORD also calls for us to learn more about the Holy Spirit. We get this call from Psalm 51:11 where King David prayed to the LORD and said, "Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."
*King David's prayer in this verse calls for us to learn more about the works of the Holy Spirit in our world. But who is the Holy Spirit? The best answer is: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD. The Holy Spirit is not a "force" like they had in the Star Wars movies. He is not just a source of power like electricity. The Holy Spirit is God! He is God everywhere. King David proclaimed this great truth in Psalm 139:1-10. So there is one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is God everywhere! And last time in Sermon 2, we focused on key truths about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, plus the major difference between having the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the New.
*In Old Testament times, people could lose the Holy Spirit, and they did. That's what happened to King Saul in 1 Samuel 16:14. "The Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him." And that's why here in Psalm 51:11 David prayed, "Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."
*But in New Testament times, the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ humbled Himself to be miraculously born into a man's body. But Jesus never stopped being God. And Luke 3:23 tells us that Jesus began His ministry at about thirty years of age." At that point, Jesus Christ miraculously healed untold thousands of people with the worst kinds of diseases. He also fed thousands with a few fish and loaves of bread. And Jesus cast out thousands of demons from many demon-possessed people. In fact, Jesus worked so many miracles that John 21:25 says, "There are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written! Amen." No wonder Colossians 2:9 says, "For in Him (that is, in Jesus Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
*But the Lord's main purpose for becoming a mortal man is found in John 1:29 where John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus is the true, sacrificial "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" So, our Lord and Savior was unjustly convicted on trumped up charges, then horribly beaten, and He died on the cross for our sins. But 3 days later, Jesus rose again from the dead, forever in victory over sin and death!
*Then the Holy Spirit was sent in a brand-new way! Acts 2 explains what happened, and now there is no danger of Christians losing God the Holy Spirit! We know this is true, because Hebrews 13:5 tells Christians to "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.'"
*Robert Strand explained that "in the original language 'never' is really a compounding of five negatives. Not that each negative is added to another. Rather, each negative is multiplied by the other, and it could read, "I WILL NEVER, NO, NOT EVER, NO NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU!' It is a forever never which has no exceptions! Then 'leave' means 'to leave behind, to abandon, to give up on, to send back.' And 'forsake' means 'to leave one in a helpless state, to disregard.'
*So Hebrews 13:5 in the Amplified version reads: "I will never, no not ever, no never give up on you, abandon you, leave you behind, cause you not to survive, leave you helpless, nor shall I ever relax concerning keeping my presence with you!" In other words Christians, we can relax, because God will always be there in us and for us. Hallelujah! (4)
*Also remember that God the Holy Spirit is still at work in the world today -- To seek lost people and convict them of their sins. Then, if they will open their hearts to listen to the Holy Spirit, and put their trust in our crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will give them the born-again spiritual birth of eternal life. Then the Holy Spirit helps us grow into all God wants us to be. Christians: Aren't you glad you were born on the resurrection side of the cross!
*Now in Sermon 3, we will focus on "The Godly Fruit of a Joyful Christian." But we will also focus on the great future we have as Christians. And like all Old Testament Scriptures, Psalm 51 still has much to say to us today.
1. FIRST, THE JOY OF JESUS CHRIST HELPS MORE PEOPLE BE CONVERTED.
*We can see this joyful fruit in vs. 11-15, where David prayed:
11. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
13. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.
14. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
*Here on the resurrection side of the cross, the key to seeing more people get saved is the new commandment that Jesus gave His followers on the night before our Lord was crucified. In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
*So, how does God want us to treat each other? The fact is that the Lord has a giant interest in how we treat each other. And we know this because the New Testament talks about how we should treat each other over 60 times.
*Consider the background: The time for the cross was almost at hand. In John 13:31 Judas had already gone out to betray the Lord. Then, in John 13:38, Jesus told Peter how He would deny the Lord. The agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Lord's death on the cross were just hours away. In a moment like this, the most important things rise to the surface. And Jesus repeated this command 3 times in these 2 verses. Again in John 13:34-35 Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
*That's not all. We see this commandment for Christians to love one another at least 16 times in the New Testament! For example, on the same night in John 15:12-17 Jesus said:
12. "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
14. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
17. These things I command you, that you love one another."
*Jesus was talking about a whole new dimension of love here. It was new in the sense that this kind of love had never been fully seen by man. But they were about to see it on the cross! This agape, God-kind of love was unconditional and sacrificial. It was infinitely beyond what the world had ever seen.
*Jeffrey Ebert saw a picture of this kind of sacrificial love in his mother. It happened many years ago when Jeffrey was 5, and they were in a horrible wreck. This was long before cars had seat belts and air bags. Jeffrey's family was driving home that night on a two-lane country road. And Jeffrey was sitting on his mother's lap, when a drunk driver swerved into their lane and hit them head-on.
*Jeffrey said, "I don't have any memory of the collision. I do recall the fear and confusion I felt as I saw myself literally covered with blood from head to toe. Then I learned that the blood wasn't mine at all, -- it was my mother's. In that split second when the two headlights glared into her eyes, she instinctively pulled me closer to her chest and curled her body around mine.
*It was her body that slammed against the dashboard, her head that shattered the windshield. She took the impact of the collision so that I wouldn't have to. It took extensive surgery for my mother to recover from her injuries. In a similar, but infinitely more important way, Jesus took the impact for our sin." (5)
*Jesus Christ loves us with the highest love, and He commands us to love each other the same way. Again, in John 13:35 Jesus said, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
*Think of all the other words we tend to plug into that verse:
-"By going to church all will know that we are His disciples.
-By being baptized all will know that we are His disciples.
-By studying the Bible all will know that we are His disciples.
-By clean living all will know we are His disciples."
*Of course, all of these other things are important, but Jesus said, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
*God wants us to always love each other with the same kind of unconditional love that Jesus has for us. Then our lives will be like a sweet fragrance attracting more lost people to the Lord Jesus.
*New Zealand author Rita Snowden was born in 1907, where she became well known both locally and abroad as a writer of devotional books. She spent her working life in the service of the Methodist Church, as a deaconess, which involved social service work among other duties. She wrote over 50 books starting in 1933, and her titles included:
-A WOMAN'S BOOK OF PRAYERS,
-SUCH A WOMAN: THE STORY OF SUSANNA WESLEY
-And SAFETY LAST!
*Rita told of a visit to a village near Dover. As she sat drinking tea at a sidewalk café, she suddenly felt as if she was surrounded by thousands of flowers. A wonderful aroma drifted through the street. Rita asked the café owner where the sweet smell was coming from. He told her that a perfume factory was located close by, and the workers were carrying the aroma with them as they walked home from work. (6)
*Christians, we are commanded to carry the pure, loving aroma of Jesus Christ wherever we go. That makes sense, because 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 says, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing."
*Loving one another is a big part of that "fragrance of Christ." And if we don't sincerely love one another, people will miss the fragrance. Some lost people may never make it to Heaven. So Jesus reminds us of His commandment for us to love one another. It's fundamental.
2. THE JOY OF JESUS CHRIST HELPS MORE PEOPLE BE CONVERTED. AND IT COMES TO EVERYONE WITH CONTRITE HEARTS.
*That is to everyone with hearts broken by their sins. We see this truth in Psalm 51:16-17, where Davd wrote "For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart -- These, O God, You will not despise."
*The original Old Testament word for "contrite" means to crush, be crushed down, be contrite, be broken or crushed to pieces. And there is no word in the New Testament for "contrite," but in 2 Corinthians 7:9-13 the Apostle Paul wrote about "godly sorrow," and the idea is much the same: "sorrow, pain, grief, affliction."
*There Paul said:
9. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.
10. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
11. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
12. Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.
13. Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. (7)
*F. B. Meyer explained that when Titus brought Paul the assurance of the Corinthian church's deep repentance and constant affection, he was profoundly comforted and gladdened. Paul also felt that their sorrow was true and genuine, with a hatred of sin because it grieved the Holy Savior, and was unworthy of His precious blood. (8)
3. THE JOY OF JESUS CHRIST COMES TO EVERYONE WITH CONTRITE HEARTS. AND IT COMES FROM GLIMPSES INTO OUR GLORIOUS FUTURE.
*We see this truth in vs. 18-19 where King David prayed to the LORD and said, "Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar."
*These verses give us a glimpse into the glorious future that Bible scholars did not see coming for almost 1900 years. They knew about the horrible destruction that took place in 70 AD when the Romans under Titus destroyed the Temple. Over 1,100,000 Jews were killed.
*But the Romans under Hadrian crushed a second Jewish rebellion in a 3-year war that ended in 135 AD. The Romans killed 580,000 Jews during that later war. They also completely destroyed Jerusalem, and are believed to have run plows over at least part, and maybe even the whole city. Surviving Jews were expelled and banned from ever returning to Jerusalem.
*Jesus revealed this coming destruction to His disciples, and in Luke 21:23-24, Jesus said:
23. "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.
24. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
*The times of the Gentiles began to be fulfilled in the late 1800's. In 1880 there were more than 7 million Jews in the world, but the Jewish population in Palestine was next to nothing. But the first large migration began in 1882.
*When World War I began in 1914, there were 80,000 Jews living in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 gave British approval for the Jews to establish a national homeland. Then Great Britain backed down in the face of Arab pressure, but 400,000 Jews had settled in their homeland by 1939.
*In 1939 the British government issued a 'White Paper' that reversed their support of the Balfour Declaration. They announced an absolute limit of only 75,000 more Jews being allowed to immigrate to Palestine. But the Lord Jesus wasn't in on that White Paper! So in 1948, the State of Israel declared its independence, and now over 7 million Jews live in Israel.
*On Wednesday, June 7th 1967 the Jews regained control of Jerusalem during the 6-Day War, and they have had it ever since. For the Jews to do all of this was a miracle from God. For the Jews to even exist after 20 centuries is a miracle of God. No other conquered people in the history of the world have survived with their national identity intact.
*The Lord miraculously brought them back to Israel, and He miraculously gave them victory over their enemies. God even brought the dead Hebrew language back to life. John Phillips gave this great explanation:
*"You know, the rebirth of Israel is a very great miracle. Here is a people that can't be assimilated, and they can't be exterminated. And my friend, they've now gone back to the Promised Land for the third time. The fig tree is putting forth its leaves. They went once from Egypt. That was the first time they went back to the Promised Land, and they gave the world the Bible. They went back again from Babylon, and in the process of time they gave the world Jesus.
*And now they've gone back for the third time. And they don't know it yet, because Paul says, 'Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in,' but they're getting ready to give the world the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ in the new Temple in Jerusalem. The restoration of the Old Testament sacrifices during the millennium will not be for salvation. Calvary took care of that! The restored sacrifices will be for a memorial, like the Lord’s Supper is today. God would have His redeemed people never forget the terrible cost of Calvary.
*It's an amazing thing when you stop to think of it, that a nation uprooted, scattered, buried in a hundred countries for hundreds upon hundreds of years should suddenly come back to life in our generation, -- something very significant about our generation. The fig tree is putting forth its leaves. Just think for example of the Hebrew language. It was a dead language in the days of Jesus. It wasn't the spoken language of Palestine. They spoke Aramaic. Hebrew was the language of the scholars. It was reserved for the reading of the Scriptures.
*Now here is a language, you see, that had been dead for some 2,000 years that's come back to life again. That's an astonishing fact, when you stop to think about it. It was the idea of a Jew named Israel Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. He was a Russian-born Jew. He was on his way to Palestine between the two world wars, and he announced to his Russian-born bride onboard the ship as they were heading toward the coast of Palestine that he intended to speak to her only in Hebrew when they got there.
*And he was so impatient about it he began to fulfill his pledge right then and there on the deck of the ship. He was a man with a single mind. He had only one purpose for existing, and that was to resurrect the dead Hebrew language. He wanted to have twelve children, one for each of the tribes of Israel. He had eleven. His children were the first children since the days of the Romans to be born into a home where only Hebrew was spoken. He used to send his kids out into the streets to pick fist fights with other Jewish kids in Hebrew.
*And in the end, he won. As Jews became increasingly nervous in the countries of their adoption, and began to come back in ever increasing numbers from ever more cities and countries in the world, they were speaking a Babel of languages. They decided that they had to have a common language. They had one in English, but they were getting fed up with the English. They decided at Ben Yehuda's insistence to resurrect the Hebrew language.
*Now here's a language which has been dead for two thousand years. You know, language has a living entity to it. And you can find out for yourself, you see, if you've got an old dictionary, the kind I had when I was a kid in school. It's absolutely useless today. There are no words in it for any of the modern concepts of the nuclear, electronic age.
*Now here's a language that had been dead for 2,000 years, no word for anything in it for modern society. No word for automobile, no word for electricity, no word for train, no word for steamship, no word for spark plug, no word for anything. And so what do they do? They went back to the old Hebrew roots.
*And just to give a crude kind of an illustration, supposing they wanted a word for an automobile, they'd go back to the word for chariot, that old dead Hebrew root, and they'd add a little prefix to it or a suffix to it, and they'd coin a new word. And they went on doing that, you see, until all of those old, dead Hebrew roots put forth their leaves, and a dead language came to life. It is an extraordinary thing, and it says something about our generation." Tragically, one source I read said that in 2013, there were only 20,000 Messianic or Christ-following Jews in Israel. (9)
*The Lord's return will be soon, but He is waiting for more people to be saved, both in Israel and in all the nations of the world! We know this because 1 Timothy 2:1-6 says:
1. Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
2. for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4. who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
5. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
6. who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
CONCLUSION:
*The Lord treasures all people. He wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But the time to get ready is now! With this truth in mind, let me close with a story by Max Lucado that reminds us how much our LORD God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loves us all.
*It was about a young girl from Brazil who wanted to see the world. Sick and tired of a home that only had a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, Christina dreamed of a better life in the city. One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother’s heart.
*Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. Maria knew that her daughter had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Mom began to search the bars, hotels, and nightclubs in Rio, any place with a bad reputation. And everywhere she went, she left her picture with a note on the back. Mom taped them on bathroom mirrors, tacked them to hotel bulletin boards, fastened to corner phone booths. It wasn’t too long before both the money and her pictures ran out, so Mom had to go back home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village.
*A few weeks later young Christina descended some hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth, but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away.
*Several weeks later, Christina was walking down the stairs of another hotel, and she noticed a familiar face. She looked closer and saw that it was a small picture of her mother stuck to a mirror. Christina’s eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked over to the mirror and got the picture. She turned it over and through her tears she read, "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home!" And Christina did exactly that! Can you imagine the joy in their hearts as she ran to her mother’s arms? (10)
*God offers that same invitation to you today, "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home!"
*And when we come to Jesus Christ, when we believe in Him, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit gives us the new spiritual birth of eternal life. He can even give us a joy so contagious that it helps others to come to Him too. So, if you have never put your trust in the Lord, I urge you to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today! You can call on the Lord to save you right now, as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) Sources:
-GotQuestions.org Who was David in the Bible? - https://www.gotquestions.org/life-David.html
-GotQuestions.org - How could David be considered a man after God’s own heart? - https://www.gotquestions.org/man-after-God-heart.html
(2) Adapted from THROUGH THE BIBLE DAY BY DAY "A Devotional Commentary" by F. B. Meyer - Psalm 32
(3) Adapted from EXPLORING PSALMS (Vol. 1 or 2) by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids - "Psalm 51: The Sword of Nathan" - Psalm 51 - Downloaded to "Bible Study 6" from Olive Tree Bible Software, Inc.
(4) Robert Strand, "ESPECIALLY FOR THE HURTING HEART," Glen Forest, ARK: New Leaf Press, 1997 - Source: "Dynamic Preaching" sermon "Finding Peace" - John 20:19-31 - Fifth Sunday in April 2004
(5) Jeffrey Ebert in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership. (Bible Illustrator for windows - Topic: Atonement / Index: 304-305 - Date: 7/1998.1145 / Title: Christ's Blood, Not Ours
(6) Sources:
-Original source unknown
-Wikipedia search 07/20/2025 - https://search.brave.com/search?q=OBE&source=desktop
-Good Reads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1256420.Rita_F_Snowden
-Good Reads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1256420.Rita_F_Snowden
(7) Sources:
-BROWN-DRIVER-BRIGGS' HEBREW DEFINITIONS - Published in 1906; public domain- Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2021
-STRONG'S HEBREW AND GREEK DICTIONARIES - from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance by James Strong, S.T.D., LL.D. - Published in 1890; public domain. - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2021
(8) Adapted from THROUGH THE BIBLE DAY BY DAY "A Devotional Commentary" by F. B. Meyer - 2 Corinthians 7:5-16 - THE JOYOUS EFFECT OF GODLY SORROW
(9) Sources:
-Adapted from "Israel, God's Timepiece - Parable of the Fig Tree" by John Phillips - Dr. John Phillips Ministries International - drjohnphillips.com
-https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel
-http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/e31.htm
-SermonCentral sermon "The Role of Israel in the Last Days" by John Stensrud - Matthew 24:32-39 - Immanuel BC of Elgin, IL on Dec. 9, 2001
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Jewish_history
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population
-http://jewishisrael.ning.com/page/statistics-1
(10) Adapted from Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Multnomah Press, 1986, pp. 158-9 - https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/61931/max-lucado-tells-a-story-about-a-young-girl-from-by-sermon-central
