The Saviour shows his compassion towards his people in preparing them for the sorrows they were to go through when he is taken from them. He gives them this precious promise, which is to all his people.
"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."
1/ Two great truths:
- The resurrection; his coming to his disciples
- The gift of the Holy Spirit the Comforter, by the Father
2/ Why the Lord's people need comfort
3/ How the Lord comforts his people
Sermon Transcript
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Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the Gospel according to John
chapter 14. It is the chapter that we read. In reading for our text, verse
18. Verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. In words of our Lord, to his
dear disciples. John 14 verse 18. Before we even look at the actual
words that are before us, I just want to draw your attention to
the whole tenor of the chapter that is before us. The Lord before
he is to be taken from them for a while, before he is to be crucified
before their eyes, he seeks to assure them, comfort them and
give them words that afterwards they shall remember that he had
said these things to them and those things that should help
them through this time that was before them. It is indeed in
the chapters here he is intimating to them, he's telling them of
that which is going to happen and that he is to be taken from
them. But the words that he gives them
are designed to comfort their hearts and to prepare them for
what is before them. It may be with you this evening,
there is that which is before you, The Lord intimates it, but
you don't know, you don't know what is in store and providence
will unfold that book and make God's counsel shine. But he is
pleased to lay up in store for his people in his word, those
things that shall be a support and a strength to them in their
time of need. I remember as many years ago
after I returned from Tasmania to the mainland after my mother
had died, and we laid her mortal remains to rest. And as I prepared,
I was reading services at that time at Melbourne. And as I was
preparing, the Lord was pleased to really bless my soul through
one of the sermons that I was preparing and reading. And it's
a very sweet blessing in the evening. Well, the next morning
I had a phone call from my sister saying that my dad had had a
heart attack and was taken into hospital. I remember how my heart
just sank. I'd just lost my mother, and
now my father had had a heart attack. And my heart just sank. And then it came back. the remembrance
of the blessing I'd had the night before. And it was like the everlasting
arms. It just, I fell onto them. It
was the Lord saying, I've known the path. I prepared you for
it. I gave you this blessing. I know
all about this. Well, my father was brought through
and the Lord added to him some other 15 years or more to his
life, 22, I think, to his life. And so it didn't eventuate that
I lost my father then, but the preparation, the helps, the things
that the Lord knows are in our path. And those are some of the
most comforting times when we're able to see that he has known
the path, not only that we are in, but has given some intimation
beforehand And there's been some little drops of help in providence,
in grace, in the word, to prepare us for such a time. And we have
the heart of our Lord. He is a compassionate God. He is a sympathising high priest
over the house of God. He does not delight to crush
under feet, to grieve his people, to willingly persecute them,
hurt them, crush them, chasten them so that they are bowed down
with sorrow and with grief. He says, in me you shall have
peace, in the world you shall have tribulation, in me you shall
have peace. Now one thing to remember with
this chapter here, what he's preparing them for was he is
going to go before them to redeem them, is going to make himself
a sacrifice, an offering for them at Calvary. Those things
that are going to be most painful to them. And the two on the way
to Emmaus, they clearly show this, how much it so affected
them. We trusted it should have been
he that should have redeemed Israel. And yet in this, what
was the sorrow There was the blessing in it. Here was redemption. It was him, and the Lord showed
that to the two on the way to Emmaus. And may we think, and
may we remember that. Sometimes the most painful times
in our life end up the most blessed times. The times like Jacob's
stones for a pillow, the blessings that he had there, and the time
when he wrestled with the angel, when he feared for his life,
because of Esau. And yet those were blessed times
when the Lord was revealed to him when he prevailed. And I
believe there's many of us that can look at those times that
were a blessing to us. And they were times that were
sorrowful times. Our heart was sinking. We were
in trouble. We were in trial. But it is in
those times the Lord so often comes to his dear people in trouble. and blesses them. We think of
the dear disciples in the ship. It was now night and the Lord
had not come unto them. It was now dark and that might
be the case with you tonight is dark and the Lord has not
come unto you. I desire that you might see the
spirit of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, the love of the
Lord to his dear people. He does not desire to crush them
underfoot. I know, he says, the thoughts
I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you an expected end. And so I want to look with the
Lord's help at this verse of the Lord telling his dear people,
I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. We'll begin
with the dear disciples here and what this meant to them.
but then extend that to us in a gospel day when the Lord is
ascended into heaven. I want to look then at three
points. Firstly, there's two great truths
that are bound up here surrounding this text, what the Lord unfolds,
really is a key, is a secret to the comforts that is to be
given. And then to ask this question,
why do the Lord's people need comfort? Why is it so that they
need comfort, we may say, more than others? What is it specifically? And then lastly, how the Lord
comforts his people. Well, there's two great truths
here. Our Lord is speaking to the disciples
and telling them that he is to be going away. He says that they
knew which way or where he was going, but they say, we know
not whither thou goest and how can we know the way? The Lord's
answer to those beautiful words, I am the way, the truth and the
life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. But he is telling them, he's
intimating to them, he is to be taken from them, he is to
lay down his life, he is to be made the redeemer, is to ransom
his people from their sins. But we have this beautiful, precious
truth that is bound up with the comfort that he has in store
for them. He says that he will see them
again, that he will appear to them again. He won't leave them
comfortless. I will come to you. And he literally
did this, this beautiful, blessed truth of the resurrection. These
dear disciples who love their Lord who'd been with Him, who'd
received life from Him, who'd received His words. They'd been
with Him in all His tribulations, in His ministry. Yea, they which
have continued with me. Oh, how the Lord spoke to them
at the Lord's table, because they had been of those that had
been with Him in His trials, in His sorrows. But now he is
to be taken from them. But he has this blessed truth. He will come again. He will see
them again. He will come to them. And he
did. What they must have thought as
they saw him taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain, when
they saw him so maltreated by Herod, by Pilate, by the soldiers,
by their own countrymen. What they must have felt, those
that looked on him, those that heard the riling, the mocking,
he saved others, himself he cannot save. And he makes no attempt
whatsoever to save himself. to come down from the cross,
to call upon the legions of angels, a willing sacrifice, an offering
made unto God. But then we have this blessed
truth of the resurrection. The sacrifice made, the sacrifice
accepted. He hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. You know,
these dear disciples, what comfort it was. We think of that first
day of the week, and I love that when we have that call to mind
when we gather on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. It began with sorrow, it ended
with joy, then with the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. And those would be blessed Lord's
Days if throughout the day and as we worshipped in the Lord's
house or worship online, as you are this evening, that the Lord
himself drew near and went with you, and your heart burned with
you while he taught with you by the way. What an effect it
is when the Lord speaks to his people, when the Lord comes where
they are, and he did with those two on the way to Emmaus, and
he spoke to them those precious truths of the Old Testament,
that Christ needs suffer, and then rise from the dead. And here he was appearing to
them. Here he did come again. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. And he came to them. They literally
saw him. 500 brethren at once saw him
after he had risen from the dead. For 40 days he appeared to the
disciples. They saw him. They communed with
him. They spoke with him. They saw
him. E'en before them they saw his
hands and his side. It is I myself be not afraid. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. Will it just be those disciples
that are glad when they see the Lord? I believe I can testify,
no, and I believe some of you can as well, that you have seen
the Lord and he's made your heart glad. and not just at the first,
is when, like these dear disciples, they've had his presence and
his presence has been taken from them and then restored again,
they've seen him again. But this blessed truth of the
resurrection, life from the dead, a risen saviour, the first begotten
from the dead, the fresh fruits of them that slept, you go to
thee. portion that Paul writes to the
Thessalonians, and he says, I would not have you ignorant concerning
them which are asleep, as those that sorrow not. They should
be of those that rejoice, because those that have died, those that
sleep in Jesus, they are with the Lord, and the Lord shall
bring them when he comes again at the last time. We which are
alive and remain shall be caught up with them. in the clouds,
that last day, the great day of the resurrection, the dead
in Christ shall rise first, the blessedness of a new body, immortal
body, no more sin, no more corruption, and to be forever with the Lord.
Paul's beautiful chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 speaking of the certainty
of the resurrection, And we see it here, the Lord seeking to
comfort his dear people. I will come to you. And he comes, he came to them.
He comes to his people by grace. He comes through the word as
he did on the two on the way to Emmaus and through the priest's
word and as he did to the Ethiopian eunuch. And he'll come at the
last day and he'll come and we'll see him. and be like him as he
is. So there's this, blessed truth
of the resurrection, I will not leave you comfortless, I will
come to you. The other blessed truth here
is the provision of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Now may
we be very clear in this, There has always been, there will always
be the Comforter, there will always be the Holy Spirit, because
He is the third person in the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. The Spirit moved upon the face
of the waters. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. The Holy Spirit is the inspirer
of the Word of God. He is the author of the new birth. He is the one by whom the prophets
all spoke. But the spirit in these gospel
days is given in great measure and in a very much more clear
way than in Old Testament. And here, the Lord reveals him
as the comforter. Later on, it was Terry ye at
Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And
we have the Holy Spirit set forth as the power of God to quicken
souls and to quicken them into life. The apostles, they couldn't
preach until they had this power, until they go forth and preach
the gospel to every. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. But here it is the Holy Spirit
the Comforter that is to be revealed. It is the Holy Spirit. And I will pray, he says in verse
16, if ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and
he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of Truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be
in you. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. And he says, Lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world. It's a great mystery,
the Trinity. We never fathom it or understand
it. How the Lord himself said, I
must need to go away. If I go not away, the Holy Ghost
shall not come unto you. But if I go away, I pray the
Father and he will give you another comforter which shall abide with
you forever." And so he himself is in heaven, as we believe in
our articles of faith, the very flesh and bones of our Lord that
hung upon the cross are now glorified in heaven. But he says, I am
with you always. The mystery of the Godhead, the
Holy Spirit that is given and indwells the people of God and
brings the comfort down. So there's these two great truths,
the resurrection, he is not here, he is risen, a risen saviour,
an ascended saviour and the Holy Spirit that is given. I'm reminded
in this, if you and I are to have proper scriptural right
comfort with the right foundation, it will be found in God. Found
in God the Father who gives the holy comforter, found in the
Lord Jesus Christ who prays the Father, found in the Holy Spirit
that comes and comforts his people. That's where the true comfort
and help comes, with the people of God. Not that the Lord doesn't
use, we hope to look a little bit later about some of the other
means that your Lord will use to comfort, but they'll see in
it God's work, they'll see what he has done, they'll see his
handiwork in it, they'll be able to say the thing, proceedeth
from the Lord. And that's what we want to see,
the comforts and helps that we have, that these things proceed
from the Lord, because he says in our text, I will not leave
you comfortless, I will come to you. The comfort shall proceed
from myself. So we want to ask then, in our
second place, why the Lord's people need comfort? I want to go back really to think
of the situation here. Why is the Lord being taken from
the disciples? Because he must go to Calvary,
because he must be made an offering for sin. Why do the Lord's people need
comforting? because they are sinners. And
they, of all the people upon this earth, they know what sin
is. They are those that mourn over
their sins. Those are those that need comforting
because they say, as David says, against thee, the only have I
sinned and done this evil in thy sight. They shall look upon
him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him. They
shall be of those who shall know what it is that they have sinned
against a good, gracious, and merciful God. Sin is made known
by the law. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. But law and terrors do but harden. All the while they work alone,
says the hymn writer, but a sense of blood-bought pardon soon dissolves
a heart of stone. I believe that some of you know,
as I trust I know, the tears that have been shed when you've
known something of your sin against a good, gracious and merciful
God. When it's been opened up, sometimes
so suddenly, as we've been in prayer in the closet or reading
the Word of God and suddenly it comes over one with such sorrow
and such grief and it's opened up and we see the path of sin,
the path and see our sins and mourn over them and weep over
them before the Lord. I say again, the reason Why these
dear disciples would have the Lord taken from them and then
to have him returned again was because of sin. The reason why the Lord came
into this world was to redeem, to save his people from their
sins. That's why he was given the name
of Jesus. And I say this to those of you
that know that you are sinners. When God calls his people, it
is called to have a daily battle, you might say, with the corruptions
of our own heart. Called to mortify through the
Spirit the deeds of the body. That while we walk in the Spirit,
we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. of the Lord and walk in his ways,
then sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under the
law, you're under grace. But how often the Lord is pleased
to hide his face, to show us again and to make us to know
again that we are sinners. God has decreed that when he
calls his people by grace, He doesn't immediately turn them
into saints so that they are not sinners. They will remain
sinners to their dying day. They do not delight in sin, but
very often they're very tried whether they do sin, that grace
might abound. Our heart is so deceitful. It
is so evil. It's so easy goes after things
that we shouldn't. So often we fall into snares. So often we're wounded. And the
Lord would have his people know that sin is a bitter and evil
thing. He will not let us sin cheaply,
easily. He chastens his people, he corrects
his people. And though he may correct them
in outward ways, ways that even the ungodly would feel with afflictions
and trials, yet the chief way is inwardly. Because even with
those outward things, it's not what is seen outwardly, it's
what goes on inwardly. The exercises, the sorrows, the
realisation of why these things have come. You know, the Lord
said to David, the sword shall not depart from thy house. His
sin was put away. But you know, all those troubles
he's had with Amnon, with Absalom, All those troubles he's had with
the sons of Zeruiah, all those troubles that he had, why? Those swords shall not depart
from my house. His own sin, what a reminder,
the bitterness and evilness of sin. And the Lord will see to
it that you and I as well do not forget the cost and the way
that is used. is that we are brought to know
more and more. Turn again, we read in Ezekiel,
thou son of man, thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And God is pleased to show his
people later on in their journey things that would have crushed
them earlier on. But as they know a little bit
more of the grace and mercy and love of God, they're showing
some fresh views. of what it is that the Lord has
saved them from and how they need his keeping hand. And those
things that they go through make them feel more and more that
they need the Lord. And so they mourn when they fear
his absence, when he hides his face, when they don't feel those
sweets of the gospel, when their hearts are hard, when the world
is tugging at them and they feel Their weak resistance are how
vain, as the hymn writer puts it, when they have Satan comes,
and with temptation after temptation, we fear we cannot stand. No,
not another hour. And in these things, we mourn
over the defilement within. We mourn over our absent friend
as the disciples would have mourned here, the Lord was absent from
them. And so the people of God, They
have that additional mourning that the world does not know
of and that those that are uncalled do not know of. They cannot miss
what they've never had. The Lord's people miss what they
have when their dear friend hides himself from them for a season,
when he is pleased to bring them through fresh paths to reveal
more deeply to them. and more sweetly, we might say,
the blessed truths of redemption and the love of God that is greater
and greater seen that he should love such a black, deep-dyed
sinner as we feel to be. The Lord, in his Sermon on the
Mount, pronounced that blessing upon those that mourn, for they
shall be comforted. And it is those mourners, may
I mourn a piece as the hymn writer over my sins and after thee. It is a good place, though painful
place, a place that coming into it, a word like this is a precious
word. I will not leave you comfortless. In other words, these times of
sorrow, These times of mourning, these times of absence, they
are but for a season. But the Lord will return and
come again. And some of us know those times. We know many illustrations in
nature, don't we? The morning comes, but there's
been a night before it. But the day goes on. and we know that the night soon
will come again, but then after the night, the morning again. The seasons all in their order,
the winter seasons, the summer, the spring, they are all mirrored
in a spiritual way. We think even of the stars, the
sweet influences of Pleiades that command the spring and the
springing forth, or the bands of Orion. Can you hold those? Can we stop winter coming now?
Can we bring spring out of season? No, we cannot. We know this,
we have all these illustrations, but these things should help
us to know that the Lord, though he brings sorrow, yet he has
those times again, that there'll be comfort and the Lord will
see his people again. But those times are real times
of trouble and of sorrow. And sometimes it will be brought
on by tribulations, by losses, by crosses, by things that happen
in providence, those outward things. We think of the pathway
of dear Job and all that he suffered and all the losses that he had.
And then the misunderstanding of his friends coming first to
comfort him. and then him having to say, miserable,
comfortless, I eat all. They couldn't really enter into
his path. And our Lord, they all forsook
him and fled. And the Apostle Paul says, no
man stood by me. I pray the Lord, lay it not to
their charge. And many of the Lord's people,
they walk the deepest paths alone. And we find that we don't have
those that We are able to lean on because the Lord would have
our comfort come from him and not from man. And yet the Lord
does at times use men to be a comfort and a help to his dear people. I want to look then at how the
Lord comforts his people. Our third point. I want to look at three ways
principally. Firstly, by the Holy Ghost, the
Comforter. He is given here with this title,
the Comforter of his people. The Comforter which my Father
shall send in my name. And the blessing is that He may
abide with you forever. It's one precious truth that
when the Lord gives the Spirit, the Spirit remains with His people. We don't always feel Him, we
don't always feel the influence, but we exhorted, grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. And that Spirit is given as the
comforter, and in verse 16 here, that he may abide with you forever,
through time and to eternity, forever. And the very truth of
the comforter is to be a comfort for his people, to understand
that his presence is with them. But the other way is that he
is the spirit of truth. He is given that title, that
he is the Spirit of Truth in the chapter 16 and verse 13. We read, Howbeit, when he, the
Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.
He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall
glorify me, For he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto
you. What shall comfort a child of
God is the truth. Most solemnly in the days of
Jeremiah and the prophets, when Israel were sinning, they had
prophets that would come and they'd tell them that they could
go on in sinning and Babylon would not come, the Lord's judgments
wouldn't come. but that was no solid comfort
at all because those judgments did come. But the Holy Spirit,
he brings the solid truths of the gospel, the truth of the
word of God, and that is to be a comfort. Thy word, says the
hymn writer, that I have rested on shall help my heaviest hours. And the other work of the comforter
is the remembrance that he shall bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you. And those are precious times
when we may have forgotten a blessing, forgotten a help that we have
had, and the Lord uses some means to bring that to remembrance.
Maybe a hearing time in the Lord's house, it may be something, a
specific text or word, It's been, as it were, forgotten. But it's
been remembered to us by specific things that have happened. And
the Spirit has brought it back to remembrance, not just in the
naked remembrance, but a sweetness in it. And really, it's a second
blessing. I think there's some of us, well,
we do want fresh blessings. We don't want to live all the
time in what has been in the past. But don't ever think that
a blessing in the past is a blessing lost or left and will never be
visited again. Because when the Spirit takes
of the things that He's already spoken and brings them again,
that is like a fresh blessing again. And it's a reinforcing
the Lord has not forgotten and He doesn't forget the blessings
that He blessed His dear children with. The Holy Spirit is the
comforter in that way. He reveals Christ. He shows the
Redeemer. He shows the One that shall bring
just as much comfort as the dear Lord as He appeared in bodily
form with His dear disciples. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. The Holy Spirit reveals Him to
the eye of faith through the Word of God. through the lattice
of the word, impresses him upon the heart, reveals him to the
soul. It's a blessed thing to know
what it is to have the Holy Spirit and a Holy Ghost religion and
those comforts that come from the power of God and the remembrance's
work. But the second way, is Christ's
manifested presence. We read at the latter part of
this chapter 14 where the Lord says that he will come to his
people. In verse 21, he that hath my
commandments and keepeth them It is that loveth me, and he
that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest myself to him. And Judas says, not Iscariot,
he asks this question. How is it? How is it that he
will show himself to his people, but not to the world? important
question, a distinguishing question between the world and the church,
between God's children and those that are not God's children,
and you see what he says. The Lord answered, 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. the presence of the Father and
the Son again, the great mystery of the Godhead, but the Lord's
presence with his people. And he says, these things have
I spoken unto you, being yet present. And then he speaks again
of the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name. He shall teach you all things.
And speaking of the remembrance, but then He says of the presence
of himself and the Father with his dear people, though I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world. What a difference
that makes. I've no doubt, though the trials
of dear Joseph were so great, the Holy Ghost has laid on record,
but the Lord was with Joseph. I am with thee, says the hymn
writer, Israel passing through the fire. And that makes all
the difference. All the difference. You know,
when we emigrated to Australia in 1965, and I was four and a
half and two brothers, both younger than me. And I once asked my
father, I said, well, how did How did we cope? I didn't remember
that young. You know, moving to the other
side of the world and all that change and away from uncles and
aunts and all of that. And he said, well, he said, children
generally, he said, as long as they've got mum and dad, then
they're quite happy. And it seemed we settled in very
easily over there. Although I always had the persuasion
I would come back here. as long as they have their Heavenly
Father with them, as long as they have their God with them.
What a difference that makes. Those three Hebrews, they had
the Lord with them in that fire. And what a blessing to have the
Lord's presence to go with us and be with us. The third way is by providence. We have another indication of
the heart of the Lord and the love that he had. You know, the provision, even
when he was in agony upon the cross, he says he saw his mother
in John 19 and verse 26, when Jesus Therefore saw his mother and
the disciple standing by whom he loved, that's John. He saith
unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the
disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple
took her into his own home. The Lord making provision in
that way for his mother to comfort her. May we never think, well,
she was to know who he was, this wasn't to be the same bereavement
as a mother losing her son, of course it was. She had a mother's
heart, of course it was. You think of what it was said
concerning Isaac at the end of that beautiful chapter in Genesis
24, when the servant comes back with Rebekah, And Isaac takes
her into his tent, we read, and Isaac was comforted after his
mother's death. The Lord provided a wife for
him. And we mentioned before about
those blessings that proceed from God. And this is what Laban
and Bethuel, Rebekah's family, has said. The thing proceedeth
from the Lord. When the servant had explained
what had happened in Providence, they traced it as from the Lord.
The Apostle Paul speaks of being cast down when he writes to the
Corinthians. But God, who comforteth those
that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. And the Lord used the coming
of a brother, a friend, to comfort his people. The thing is where
we look past the actual person coming, you look past the actual
thing that is comforting and you see the Lord bringing it. And the apostle clearly could
see this in the coming of Titus. And I believe I have known this
as well, in the provision of friends, in the provision of
a wife, in the provision of those that have been. a comfort under
the hand of God. And the Lord be pleased to do
the same for you, dear friends, too. He knoweth your frame. He knoweth the path and the way
that you take. And he knows those things that
trouble, that make you so tossed up and comfortless and afraid. And the beautiful word here,
he says of his people, I will not leave you comfortless. With heaven and earth at his
command, he waits to answer prayer, but he also, he knows the groans,
the sorrows, the trials of his people. He knows how best to
come and visit them and comfort them. And you know, the Lord
walked here below. and he knows our frame, he remembereth
that we are but dust. What a provision we have. Even
when the Lord had his sufferings before him, when he knew why
he was to suffer, he comes to these whose sins he was to bear,
and he says, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come
to you. You might have been writing bitter
things against yourself, saying that, well, because of my sin,
because of all the evils of my heart, the Lord won't comfort
me. The Lord here was going to suffer
for these disciples, to bear away their sin. Peter was going
to three times say he never knew the man. He still said to him, I will
not leave you comfortless, I'll come to you. The Lord knows,
especially those sorrows and mournings of his people, because
of where sin is bound up with it. And it aggravates all the
other sorrows. He's like the widow of Zarephath. Art thou come to bring my sin
to remembrance in slaying my son? How many of us have had
those things come? And as those things have come,
it has brought our sin to remembrance. and that has brought us in sorrow
a mourning before the Lord. If this word is to be a blessing,
remember it is to be for those who need comfort. It is those
that are in sorrow, ye now therefore have sorrow, but I see you again. Your hearts shall rejoice in
your joy, no man taketh from you. May the Lord add his blessing
upon this word. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come.
About Rowland Wheatley
Pastor Rowland Wheatley was called to the Gospel Ministry in Melbourne, Australia in 1993. He returned to his native England and has been Pastor of The Strict Baptist Chapel, St David’s Bridge Cranbrook, England since 1998.
He and his wife Hilary are blessed with two children, Esther and Tom.
Esther and her husband Jacob are members of the Berean Bible Church Queensland, Australia. Tom is an elder at Emmanuel Church Salisbury, England. He and his wife Pauline have 4 children, Savannah, Flynn, Willow and Gus.
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