Good evening everybody. It's good to be back here again.
And I mean that. It's a good thing the Lord's
blessed us. There's a whole lot of cities and towns. Wouldn't
it be nice if every town had a gospel church? It'd be nice. They don't. The Lord's kept one
here. And that's a privilege we get
to meet together. If you will be turning to Genesis
25. Genesis 25. Titled this, Inquire During Struggle. I talked to a young believer.
He's young and hasn't been a believer long. And they were struggling. Something I had experienced a
long time ago and I experienced yesterday. My warranty's not
expired yet, but I can't get the extended one anymore. We're been at it a little bit.
But they were struggling and just dealing with the flesh and
a new creation in them. And the old man's still here
and it ain't getting better. It's getting worse. We just see
more of it. Now, what do I do? And so I've
had my opinion asked a couple of times on this trip. And I
said, well, I got an opinion. I do. Everybody's got one. But
I tell you what God says. I want to know what he has to
say. You don't care. What I have to say ain't gonna help you none.
My opinion ain't gonna help nobody. But I want to hear what God has
to say. I want to hear what God has to say. There's some characters
in this story, and I want to touch on them real quick. You
know it's a familiar story. There's Isaac, this child of
Abraham. He's the son of promise. Ishmael
was not. That was the son of works. Isaac
was the promised one that God had promised. He was the son
given by the power of God. He was the rightful heir. And
he was the worthy heir. Does that sound familiar? Who do you think it is? And he
was married at the age of 40. A servant was sent for his bride,
Eleazar. He preached to this girl and
preached to her all the way back. This girl named Rebecca. Rebecca
was the purposed wife. This is the one the Lord purposed.
And that Holy Spirit of God went before when they When Eleazar
went to get her and Rebecca heard, she was called and she heard
with the hearing of the ear what this servant had to say about
his master. He preached to her and he told
her everything about his master's son, about this Isaac and how
the son was going to be her husband and how wonderful. And they rode
for a couple of days, maybe a week or two. And she was on a camel
and he kept telling her all about the master. And they talked about
some other things, and he'd tell her more about his master's son.
And then, all of a sudden, she saw somebody. The journey was
over. And you know what she did? She lighted off her camel. She
got down. Get ye down. And she brought
prostrate. And she said, who is that? And
Eliezer said, that's my master. There he is. Who you think that
is? That's us. Rebecca, she was barren. They got married. Isaac was 40
years old. She was barren. She couldn't
have any children. She was unable to produce life in herself, and
she knew it. She knew it. She saw others that
had life put in them, but she didn't have life in her. And
you know what happened? Isaac, her husband, prayed for
her. He interceded for his wife, and
he asked for something that she might have life in her, that
she might conceive. You know, our Lord praise for
the lives of his people, that we be united in new life and
oneness with him. He said there in John 17, he
was speaking to the apostles. He said, I pray for them. I pray
not for the world, but for them, which thou hast given me, they
are thine. And he says, Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are one. That unity, that wedding, we
take his name. His name is the Lord our righteousness. And you know what name she shall
be called? It's a surname. We got married. We got his last
name. It's unbelievable. He said it,
Kevin, the Lord our righteousness. How could that be? Well, he married
me. You've read this before. He said,
other sheep I have which are not of this fold. That's us.
I want to listen to that. What's he talking about? Them
also I must bring. How are we going to get there?
He's going to bring us. And they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd, one body of Christ. And by the word of God, by a
command, life is given. There's no life. And he says,
live, and there's life. And then Christ intercedes for
his children. He prays on their behalf that
we, that's his bride. I want to talk to believers tonight,
those that have that struggle. That his church that we produce
through our labor, the work he's given our hands to do, his children. That's what local assemblies
do. Don't hide that candlestick under
a bushel. That light's broadcast. Don't tell anybody. Listen. Sit still for two minutes. Let
me tell you something. Come hear about a man. And the Lord prays
for his children to do this, and it's through the preaching
and through the furtherance of the gospel. And that's where life comes from
in others. Somebody's going here. Why? Why would that happen? For the
glory of Christ. Because he did it. He did it. Why are we here on this earth?
For Christ to be glorified and for the good of his people. It
don't look like good. Well, it don't have to look like
good to me. He said it was. But I know he's going to be glorified
in it. Ain't that good enough? It is. That's what's happening
here. This ain't just a story about
some poor little heathen girl that got married to Abraham's
son. It's us. And he must do all of
this because we're buried. It says there in Genesis 25,
look down verse 19. Genesis 25. And these are the generations
of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac. And Isaac
was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife. the daughter
of Bethul, the Syrian, the Padduramian, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
And Isaac entreated, they got married, and Isaac entreated
the Lord for his wife. Why did he do that? Because she
was barren. And the Lord was entreated of
him. He heard him. Think about that for a minute.
The holy God of the universe, the almighty. When his children
petitioned him, He hears us. I'll tell on myself, I don't
care to. You ever prayed for something, you're like, Lord,
please let this happen, and please don't let that happen, and let's do this,
and will you do this? And then you stop, and you go, ah. Lord,
your will be done. Teach me patience. And you stop,
I've done that, maybe you haven't. Isaac, hear a picture of Christ
entreating for us. The Lord heard him, and Rebekah,
his wife, conceived. Lord, give me the children that
you gave me in eternity. He said, I'll provide for him.
I'm going to lay down my life for him. And he did. And we live. God put life in Rebecca. He had
to. She was buried. You know, she
had never experienced this before. Physically, she'd been alive
her whole life. Hadn't she? She's walking around. She heard
about other people having life in them, having babies. She'd
never experienced this. And then all of a sudden, at
the command of God, Another life is in her. God breathed. I was thinking of this kind of
bifocal meaning to the text. Me and Karen was talking before.
I said, you know, you women that are married, you have a leg up
on us guys. You've been a bride longer than
I have. Shelby, you've been a bride for 56 years plus eternity. That's
how long it's going to be. You just have one ahead of you.
I'm going to be a bride one day. I am now, but why would you say
such a thing? Lord said it. I don't know what
that's going to be like, but he does. It's going to be good.
This lie physically had never been mentioned in the scriptures
before. They're twins. Twins. It wasn't just she had
a baby. It wasn't she was buried. There's twins inside of Rebecca.
First time it's mentioned. It says in verse 22, the children
struggled together within her. And she said, if it be so, if
there's life in me, there wasn't, there is now, something's different.
Why am I thus? And she inquired of the Lord. Humans might have something to
say to her. They say, oh, honey, you're struggling now. You wait
till them children get on this earth. People warned us when
we had little children, you just wait till they're teenagers.
Well, they're teenagers now. They said, well, you wait till
they have babies. It always seems to get worse, don't it? I sleep
eight hours a night. It's a whole lot easier now that
it wasn't his baby. But she didn't listen to nobody, did she? For
the first time ever in a recorded pregnancy, there may have been
other twins, it's the first time recorded, life was put in her, but there
was two babies. What's this showing us? It's an old man and a new
man represented here. Just like our brother, Red, put
off old man and put on the new. Well, just as I can't put that
new man in me, I want to do that. You do too. Boy, it's hard, ain't
it? The Lord's got to do that. But
he's teaching us something. He's teaching Rebecca something,
and I want to see what he's teaching. There's a flesh and there's a
spirit. There's an old nature and a new nature. That's common
language in my house. It is. It might be in yours.
The spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. And I said, boy,
I know I ought not think these things, but my flesh sure wants
to go down there and give it to them. It's so. And there's conflict
in that. There's conflict. There's a big
difference between confusion and conflict. The whole world's
confused. People, well I don't know if
I ought to do this or I don't know if I ought to buy this house
or buy that house or sell this car or get a dog, you know. We
get confused over anything. There's a difference between
that and conflict. Man's confused. There's strong delusions. They
believe lies. Mankind's deranged. But that's
not conflict. Confusion is the product of sin,
and it's rampant in our natural man, in mankind. But the war
hadn't started yet for most of humanity. The war hadn't started,
won't ever start for most of humanity. They'll be confused
to death, but there's no struggle, there's no war. The Lord said
through Paul there in 1 Corinthians 14, he said, God is not the author
of confusion. He's not, we are. Mankind is,
that's man's doing, and we're unaware. until, we have no idea
this is going on, that we're confused, until a new life's
in us. And we say, well, is this life?
Well, if this is life, why am I thus? If this is what salvation
is, like, why ain't I brand spanking new and I never sin anymore? Everything's wonderful and cartwheels
and roses, you know. I hope this is comfort for those
that struggle. Have you ever struggled with
struggling? I struggle because I struggle. I say, why in the
world am I struggling? I ought to know better. Why don't I just
trust the Lord? I know I need to. And I think, well, I wonder
if I could do something this way. Well, His Word says this.
Trust the Lord and do good. What a brother right in the back.
But there's a war going on here. David said that in Psalm 44.
He said, My confusion is continually before me, and the shame is before
my face that's covered me. And he said over in Psalm 71,
In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to
confusion. David's saying, Lord, don't leave
me to my own thoughts. Don't leave me to my flesh. Leave
me looking to you, to your Son. But the word here in verse 22,
struggle. I looked that word up, and it doesn't just mean
like, well, I kind of had a hard time the other day. I'm struggling
a little bit. No, it means to crack in pieces,
to break, to bruise, to crush, to discourage, and to oppress.
That's a war. There's a war going on. You ever
thought that? If it be so. Verse 22, and the
children struggled together within her, and she said, if it be so,
if this is life, why am I thus? Lord, if you've put a new creation
in me, How in the world can I think what I think? How in the world
can I do what I do? How in the world could I have
so much sin, so much conflict, war going on in me? This is one
of the most honest. It's an assuring question for
believers to ask because natural man don't ask it. If I be so,
Lord, if I'm yours, how can I believe you so little? An unbeliever
will not honestly have war. That's struggle. It don't exist.
There's confusion, but they're not ripped apart in pieces. They're
not oppressed. That makes you want to just hide
your face from everybody and hide your face from brethren
and loved ones. Paul would experience that. Turn over Romans 7. There's a word here I said wrong. You ever quoted a scripture wrong
for 20 or 30 years? I did that too. Romans chapter 7. Verse 18. Romans 7 verse 18 for I know
that in me here's that language again that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform
that which is good I find not for the good that I would I do
not but the evil which I would not that I do now if I do that
I would not it is no more I that do it but sin that dwells in
me I find in a law that when I would do good evils present
with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
But I see another law in my members, warring, struggling, fighting
against the law of my mind to bring me into captivity to the
law of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am. You've
heard this a lot. He didn't say that I was. This
is Paul the apostle. Oh, wretched man that I am. This
war's still happening. We'll see deliverance. We gotta
know we're at war first. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? That's not what it says. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? What was Paul
experiencing that day? This war. Lord, if I'm left alone
on a deserted island, the war rages. If I'm yours, there's
a new creation in me. I'm a captive of my own mind,
ain't I? Trapped in this body. Deliver
me from this conflict. Deliver me from this war. How? How could that happen? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I thank the Lord. It's
his doing. His deliverance, his salvation.
The one that saved me in the beginning, who's going to get
me out of this mess? The same one. Go to him. So then, with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but in the flesh, in that new mind.
Peter said, let this mind be in you. That means the whole
of me. It's not just a way of thinking.
That's the whole of me. Paul says, with this mind, with
this new man, myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh,
the law of sin. There's two creations, two natures
in me. Paul talked about that whole armor of God. Look over
a few pages in Ephesians 6. Verse 11. Ephesians 6, 11, put
on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness in this world. People think, oh, that government's
bad, or this religion's bad, or we got to fight them. against
spiritual wickedness in high places. I ain't talking about
Washington, D.C. What's the highest place on my
body? My head. This whole mind I've been with
my whole life. I don't need no help thinking
bad thoughts. They come pre-downloaded, don't they? Come from factory. Wherefore take unto you the whole
armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day,
in the evil day, and having done all to stand. That's what we
need. We need that helmet of salvation,
that flesh plate of righteousness, our feet shod, the perspiration
of the gospel, and a two-edged sword, his word. Not what I say,
what he says, not my defense of myself, but his defense in
this war. Look back in our text there in
Genesis 25. Verse 22. It says, and the children struggled
together within her. They're warring together. They're
fist fighting inside of her. And she said, if it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. Boy, that's something. Where'd
she go? She went to the Lord. Now, Abraham was still alive.
Abraham walked with God. That's her father-in-law. You
think maybe she went and talked to him? And her husband, Isaac,
he had communion with God. You think she talked to her husband?
Maybe Eliezer. That's the one that went and
fetched her. He preached to her, the first one. And the first
message I remember remembering, Maurice Montgomery preached.
I'd listened to Henry for years. And Maurice was visiting on a
Wednesday night. And he preached, let God. What? And he preached
to Daniel Ford. And that's the first one I remember.
And you know what, that man, don't you, there might have been
bad things to say about him, don't you say them around me.
Lord, use that man to speak to me. There's a special bond there. And there's a special bond between
Rebecca and Eliezer, I'll tell you. And she may have went to
him. But better than all those, she
inquired of the Lord. Now I'll tell you, I feel it's
good and wise options to go to Abraham, go to Isaac, Go to your
pastor, they won't preach to you. But in that multitude of
good counselors, the wisdom that they find, all of them's going
to say, well, this might have happened to me, but I'll tell you what
you need to do. Go to the Lord with it. You can cry on my shoulder,
but you pour your heart out to the Lord. That's who you need
to talk to. That'll point you in the same direction, won't
it? Take it to Him. God answered Rebecca's prayer.
And He taught her, and we ought to listen. And I would that every
seminary on this earth would listen and every modern day Gnostic
ought to listen and everybody else what the Lord has to say.
Verse 23, and the Lord said unto her, she inquired of the Lord
and God answered her. Two nations are in thy womb and
two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And
the one people shall be stronger than the other people and the
elder shall serve the younger. Two nations, two completely different
cultures is what he's saying. Two completely different ways
of thinking. Two totally different approaches to life. Two different
instincts. What he's saying is two different
lives. One's very weak and the other's very strong. And it ain't
really what we think. It ain't what we assume. If you
want to, you can turn over to 1 John. I'll go kind of quick
before we come back. 1 John 1. Verse 8. John's writing here. in this
epistle and he says, if we, verse 8, 1 John 1, 8, if we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Now wait, John,
what did he say over in chapter 3? Look there, 1 John 3, verse
7. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous. My pastor preached on this. What
is doing righteousness? Believe in Christ. That's what
it is. Look to him. He that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of
the devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Now, John, how
could that be both? You said we got to confess our
sins. And if we say we ain't sinned, we're calling God a liar.
And then you said, that which is the seed that's born of God,
there's no sin in it. Well, there's a flesh and there's
a spirit. There's an old man, there's a new man, isn't there?
Look at chapter four, one page over, verse four. He's laid these principles out
and he's talking to these people. They weren't older than him at
the time, but little children, just listen to me. He said, 1
John 4, 4, ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them
because greater is he that is in you. than he that is in the world.
That seed, that little tiny mustard seed of Christ's incorruptible
seed, of Christ dwelling in his people, of him putting that life
in, that's greater than all the world. The Lord comes, we're just like
a patch of ground. It's good. Get you a little victory
garden or get you a bucket of dirt or something, put on your
back porch and make some tomatoes. We're a piece of ground. We're
earth. We're dirt. We're of Adam. And the Lord comes
in his word and he plows us. And there's ground busting up
and rocks flying and there's pain and earthworms are dying.
And then he puts his seed in and he covers it back up and
that ground's wounded for a long time but that ground's made soft
now. And that seed dies and it germinates and life comes from
it and it brings forth much fruit. The whole time it's incubated,
it's germinating in that busted up dirt. And that's what we are. The Lord has to come and plow
his people. bust us up and put his seed in us. And that ground's
just ground. We don't eat dirt. You eat corn. You eat whatever comes up out
of that seed. They're two totally different
things. One's just raised in the other one, isn't it? Just
like a womb. Those two boys, they weren't
Rebecca. They was half her, but they was just growing in her.
But they're gonna be separated soon. It's gonna be different. Where am I right now? I'm in
this world, ain't I? Where is Christ right now? He's on his
throne. But this omnipotent, omniscient, all-knowing, all-powerful,
omnipresent, that means he's everywhere, God, that on his
throne, he says, I dwell in my people, I abide in my people.
He says, I walk in my people. We saw a sign that said, faith
comes from courage or something nonsense we saw driving down
the road. No, faith's a gift of God. And we walk by faith. Well, does that mean I'm tough
and I'm gonna get, no, he said, I'll walk in them. It's him in
us doing it. Now who gets the glory for those
things? He does, the Lord does. He abides in us and walks in
us. God in human flesh, spoke to both his apostles and that
old man nature in him too, didn't he? He called Peter. Peter had
life in him. Peter was a child of God, converted. And he looked him dead in the
eye and said, get behind me, Satan. How could that be? There's got
to be an old man that's just dirt. There's a new creation
of Christ that dwells in us that cannot sin. He said in Matthew
26, he went a little further and he fell on his face and he
prayed saying, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but thou will. And
he cometh to his disciples and he found them asleep. And he
said, what, you couldn't watch with me an hour? You couldn't
stay awake with me? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
you want to, but the flesh is weak. You can't do it without
me, can you? He knows our frame. And he went
and prayed to the Father again. That hour is upon him. He's going
to drink the dregs of that cup that we earned and bear our sin
in his body on that tree in the full wrath of God poured out
on God because of me. And they fell asleep. And he
warned them. And he said, your spirit's willing,
but your flesh is weak. And he comes back from praying
again. And he says, then he comes to his disciples, and he said
to them, go to sleep again. And he said, sleep on now. Take
your rest. I'll do it all. Sleep. Rest. Take your rest. It's all
right. Calm down. We're in the middle
of a war. Get underneath the shade before you eat a ham sandwich.
You'll be fine. Just sit down. I'm the captain of your salvation.
We need to be turned. I'm getting to the end of it.
We got to go through that to be brought to nothing, to see
Him, and to cry out to Him, and to inquire of Him. The Lord said,
I'm going to do all these things, but you're going to inquire of
me. You're going to ask me to do it. Now, how is He going to
pigeonhole me and hedge me about and lower me in the wilderness
just as He sees fit? And I'll go through all these
horrible things that are so bad, and this war, and this struggle,
and it's tearing apart on the inside. And he gets me right
where he wants me. And I said, I see him. Thank
you, Lord. Thank you. It was right. It was
good. Everything you did to me. Your
will is perfect. Your will be done and not mine.
John the Baptist had the Holy Ghost from the womb. He heard
those eardrums developed that right month. Clay did the math. It was fabulous. It took a man
that can't hear to teach me. I worried about that for years.
Lord said so, so I believe him, but I don't know how. And then
Clay pays more attention to hearing, right? And he said, well, that
month, how old he was, the eardrums developed, and Mary's sitting
there telling Elizabeth, this is what God's doing. And that
baby started going inside, didn't he? God saved him. He can save
anybody he wants, whatever he wants. It's going to be through
the preaching of the gospel. That baby was saved. And here's
John. And I mean, he'd have been fun to be around and watch. Probably
would have been fun to hang out with. He was a force of nature,
wasn't he? Declaring the way, prepare ye
the way of the Lord. And he didn't care for nothing
or nobody, he had a mission. But he had two natures. He was
still flesh, wasn't he? At the end there, he sent two
of his disciples to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another? Is it you, Lord? What was John the Baptist in
need of? Let me rephrase that. Who was John the Baptist, Anita?
Ain't no different than any other child of Adam saved by grace.
They needed Christ, didn't they? It's the same. If it be so, why
am I thus? John had that same war going
on. What hope do you and I have? What hope did John have? What
hope did Peter have that Paul, that Rebecca had of the outcome
of this war? A war is going on. We have to
have a hope. A hope means an expected end. You know, you watch them World
War II videos, and they see all these bombings and stuff in Great
Britain and London. I don't get too nervous. I know
what happens. They ain't speaking German right
now, are they? I know who wins. I don't get too nervous. I'm
in this life, but I ought not get too nervous. Why? I have
an expected end. We know the outcome. We know
the victor. We don't know exactly how everything's
gonna play out of every battle, but we know the war's accomplished. The warfare's accomplished. It's
over. Our only hope is being united
with Christ, him in us and us in him. Paul said, to whom God
would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That seed in you. This is good
news for a struggling sinner. This is what we preach. Repentance
towards God and faith in Christ. What we did wrong, we sinned
against the holy God and Christ paid it all, faith in Him, the
faithful. But also we preach warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now back in our text there in
verse 23. Lord, speaking to Rebecca, she
asked him, she inquired of the Lord, and he answered. Genesis
25, 23, and the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb,
and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. That's what's inside of you.
But honey, the day's coming, I'm gonna separate them things
out. And that's played out in a woman having a child, children,
and it ended up being two more children. But this is a picture
of us. There'll be separation. And the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.
We tend to think that old man is the strongest one. But you
know, it's not. It's not. It is for a season while we're
on this earth. It is for a round or two in this
boxing match. It is for a lap or two in this
race that we run. But there in 1 John 5, I should
have stayed there too. He said, 1 John 5, verse 4, Whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory
that overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world? He just talked about our faith.
And then he says, who is he that overcometh the world? Our faith
is a person. But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Look at the end of verse 23,
Genesis 25, 23. And the elder shall serve the
younger. The elder is this old man. Old Kevin's been around
longer than new Kevin has. But it's going to serve the new
man. How is this old flesh that's nothing but wickedness and corruption
going to serve the new man? You know, these old hands that's
done nothing but sin against God drove me over here today.
This one shaved my face. I can't do it with this one. These teeth that are capped and
everything else and rotting out of my head chewed food so I had
nourishment to be able to read His Word. My eyes are going,
I got a kind of cataract in this one, but this one still sees
okay. And I read that word. I went and looked up what those
words meant. This old man is serving it. Lord did this on
purpose. He ain't surprised. And this is his design. I need
to remember that. This was a real struggle inside
of Rebecca's before they had ultrasounds. Nobody had ever
seen twins come out maybe in in animals or something, but
not in humans. And she thought she was going to die. This ripping,
and it was so hard, such a struggle, such a warfare. She said, if
this is life, why am I thus? I want to die. We have this war
in us, and we assume that death's in our bowels. But the Lord said,
she asked a question and got her answer, didn't she? And she
understood what he said. He said, that's going to be separated
from your bowels. You will be with me. And she
had peace in the word of the Lord. She believed God. God spoke
to her. She believed him. And she said,
yeah, that's right, Lord. You want to do this. But you
know what? She still had a couple more months of pregnancy left.
You get that? We see these things and we see
this as a spiritual illustration of the spiritual warfare that
goes on. But that's a good news. The Lord gave us new life. There's
a new man in me. There never was before. And it's
hard. And I see the peace and the word
of the Lord, he will deliver his people. But I got a few more
months left. Probably got a few more decades
left. And that struggle is going to
go on. And what am I going to have to ask again? Lord, if this
be so, why am I thus? Why is this happening? And then
what's going to happen? I'm going to have to inquire of God. And
he's going to speak again and speak again and speak. And that's
called, the Lord said, you've got to be like a little child
to enter my kingdom. What's little children do? Why? Why? Why? What's this for? How come
this has happened? Well, we have to wait here for
so long before. And I'm just like a little child. I ought
to know better. I want to do better. I delight
in this law, just like Paul was talking about. There's a war
going on. There's a struggle in there.
Why would the Lord allow this to happen? That's the other question. A man said one time, he said,
oh, you grace preachers, you just say why all the time. Why,
why, why? I said, well, maybe they're trying
to teach you something. That's how I learned. Why would the
Lord be pleased to have us go through such things? Just like
Rebecca, she cried out to the Lord, and all her hope was in
the Lord, and all her anything was in Him, waiting on an answer
from Him. And so every little step of this
war, every battle we went to Perryville, they walked around
through there. And I thought every little bit
of that war, every gun fired, is to turn his people to their
savior. And when we are turned, we're
happy. We're at peace and we're content
in him. And I pray that for me. I do. I told you last night, Sunday,
that was a expositional message. That means you go verse by verse.
Well, if it ain't according to scriptures, you ought not be
preaching it, right? And as an evangelical message,
that's calling men and women to repent towards God and believe
in Christ. Turn from yourselves and turn
to God. Well, if there's a message that doesn't involve telling
you to look to Christ, I'll not be preached. And it's an experimental
message, or experiential, depending on if you're British or not.
That means you've experienced it. And if I experienced it,
how in the world could I tell you? I've experienced these things,
but I want you to also. On a Thursday morning at 9.47
a.m., and you're at work, and you're having a rough day. You
say, oh, this is just a struggle. I'm working as unto the Lord.
He has me. I'm His, and He's mine. I've
been turned to Him. Don't remember me, remember Him.
That's what I want for you. I pray the Lord answers as you
ask and soothes you during that struggle, whatever it is you're
going through. And I know this for a fact, whatever
that struggle is, He's able. Ask Him. He may not immediately
deliver. That delivery of them babies
may take a while. But He may give peace in His Word in the
meantime. What's His Word? In the beginning was the Word.
With God, the Word was God. Peace in Christ, that's what
we need. Until then, thank you, brethren. I appreciate you. It's
always a joy to see you. I pray the Lord blesses the Word.
Thank you for having us. We won't be able to see you again
for too long. We'll see you.