Wired up. Wired up. Well, I checked to see if
this is a bomb. No, I don't think so. I don't
think that'll happen. Chris and I have been, as he
said, been together a long time. We're still together. He's up
here and I'm down there, but we're still together. Our hearts
are still together. Twenty some odd years ago, I
passed through the church there and I looked up one Sunday morning. There was a man that I know came
in the door and he had a young man with him. And the man was
Chris' father. And Chris had come to church
out there with him, and he and I didn't know each other, but
I wasn't too impressed. And I said he'll never make it. But he came back, I believe,
the next Sunday and just kept coming. And soon it got up to
20 years. He was there 20 years with me
and he was my right arm. He was a preacher. He was one
who could settle down anything that might come up. You know,
things do come up in churches sometimes. But he did a great
job there and I do appreciate him. And then one time I took
him, brought him up here to Nashville to Brother Sasser's church. And
I noticed while he was sitting there that his eyes were on a
young lady. And I said, what are you looking
at, Chris? And he said, what do you think? And that young lady was Miss
Zicky. And it wasn't long until he had invited her down to Houston. And she came and stayed in our
home. My wife and I stayed with us
and went out with Chris each night. It wasn't long until,
of course, they were married. Then they had those three children.
But it's just been such a joy to know Brother Chris Cunningham. It's always good to know a good
man. And you've got a good man here,
I'll tell you. He loves the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what he preaches. He
preaches Christ, and that's the kind of men I like, the ones
who preach Christ and tell of the Savior. But anyway, Brother
Chris has been my friend a long time and will be, I hope, until
the day I leave this earth. And Brother Glenn Hansen came
with me. He came out there, I don't know
how long ago. It's been several years. And
he's been my right-hand man. One of them I have several good
men that can preach and fill in for me and take care of what
I can't take care of. And Brother Glenn has been a
real blessing. I can't, I don't travel by myself
anymore. I have to have a little help
to travel. I have some infirmities that might go south any time,
so I have to have someone travel with me. So he came with me,
and he's glad to do that because he and Chris are real good friends
and have been since the day he came out there to be in the church. That's a little bit of the story
of what we have there. We have some delightful, delightful
people there in Bucatiny, Texas, right outside of Houston. And
I hope someday somebody can come down to a meeting there. We'll
be having Brother Henry Mahan on November 10 through 12. I'd invite some of you to load
up and come down and hear Brother Mahan be with us in the meeting.
And if you can, I don't want you to Miss Brother Chris' service,
you know, unless you just want to. But come if you can sometime
down to New Caney, Texas and be with us. I've seen some old
friends here that I hadn't seen in a long time and it's good
to see you. Good to meet new friends. I hope
to be friends with all of you. in the days ahead as God permits
me to be here. May God bless you as we look
at the word of God today. Look at the scripture that Glenn
read, Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, I'll just read two
verses. That's the ones that I'll talk
about. Isaiah 40, verse 1, and this
will be the subject that I have, this first word in verse 1, comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. All the sins are washed away,
and therefore she is to be comforted. Now, many of you, I guess probably
most of you, know the Lord Jesus Christ in the forgiveness of
sin. I trust that you do. And if you
do not, I pray that tonight might be the night that you would be
brought into the knowledge of our blessed Savior. Comfort ye,
comfort ye, my people, saith your God. We know that earthly
fathers can give their families comfort in this life. But I want us to consider tonight
how our Heavenly Father comforts His children. What is your comfort? What's your comfort in this life?
What about in death? What is your comfort in death?
Comfort is something that everyone wants to have. You want to be
comforted, do you not? I do. I like comfort. to have
peace of mind, to be relieved from misery, and to possess contentment
and inner calm, everyone desires that, I know. But I think comfort is something
very few people really possess. For some, comfort is when things
go well in this life and when you have all that you want, you
have good health, you have few problems, that's comfort to some
people. Others would say that comfort
is the ability to brush away the bad and to have a strong
will and to take the bitter with the sweet. That's comfort if
you can just take it. You know when something bad happens
you can take it and get over it. And still others say that
comfort is to escape the realities of life. Whether that be done by Vacations
or pills or liquor or whatever it takes to escape the realities
of life. There are many things by which
you can escape reality. The only thing wrong with that
is that reality always comes back. But comfort is something
we need. Take for instance, if someone
is in the hospital suffering from the pain of cancer. I have
a brother-in-law in the hospital there in Texas. He doesn't have
very long to go and he has very bad cancer that has really come
on. And he has big lumps on his shoulders
and neck of cancerous growth. And so he's not very long. Not very long. Now if you were
to ask such a person, what is your comfort? He might answer
that his friends have overwhelmed him with gifts. and visits are
that he has the best doctor's money can buy. And that's a comfort. What would you say to comfort
this person? Would you say, well, things could
always be worse? No. Not to my brother-in-law,
they couldn't be any worse. Death is the only thing that
would be better. And we say death's always worse. No, death can be better. When
you say cheer up, there'll be better days ahead. No, not for
that man. There won't be better days ahead. And the only hope that he has
is that a few weeks ago he did to someone say that he believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. His wife is a Christian lady,
and he told her that he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
I take good stock in that, and I trust that that's so. Now take
another example, not someone who's desperately ill, but think
about the funeral home. What words of comfort would you
speak at the funeral home. Some say that comfort is looking
at all the good the person who died did in this life. And others might say that death,
well, death is natural and what matters is only that we enjoy
life and use it while we're here. And still others weighed down
with great sorrow would just frankly admit to you that there
is no comfort to be found in this life. There is no place
where men do not weep. So what consolation would you
give to someone who said that? You're going to face all these
things in opposition to all worldly
ideas of comfort and man's attempts of consoling a person in grief. The Christian, when he's a Christian,
it's a person that lives in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord
Jesus lives in him or her. That's what a Christian is. And
no matter what his life may be, if he has the Lord Jesus Christ
abiding in him, he has the only comfort in both life and death. And I'll be frank with you, there
is no other comfort but Christ. His comfort rests upon the Bible,
the Word of God. That's what Brother Glenn read
there in Isaiah 40 in verse 8. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever. It shall stand forever. Isaiah the prophet is commanded
to proclaim God's word in Isaiah 41 and 2. Comfort ye, saith my
God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity
is pardon for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. All the sins are gone. And the
thing that takes away all of the comfort of people in this
life is the fact of sin. And when you come to the place
where Sin is taken away, then you'll find the real comfort. There the comforting word is
that Jerusalem's iniquity is pardoned and the warfare is finished. She has received from God the
forgiveness of her sins. That Isaiah voices that same
soothing word in Isaiah 52 and verse 9. Isaiah 52, 9. Break forth into joy, sing together,
you waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath comforted his
people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. Redemption. We have been redeemed. Have you been redeemed? I am
redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there again the scripture
identifies comfort with redemption both places. Redemption is comfort. That is the forgiveness of sins
by the grace of God. That's all the comfort that we
have in this life or in the life to come. Read with me what the
Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 and 4. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3 and
4. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God
of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the
comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. Now there God is identified as
the God of all comfort. There is no comfort anywhere
else. He is the God of all comfort. That is, all comfort proceeds
from Him. And all comfort is found only
in fellowship with him. He is the one able to comfort
us in all of our tribulations. Do you have tribulation tonight? Do you have discomfort? Are you
discomfited in this life? I want to tell you that our God
is the God of all And the purpose for which God comforts us is
that we may be able, what? This says to comfort them which
are in any trouble. God comforts us that we might
be able to comfort someone else. Those who are in trouble, we
comfort them. How long since you've comforted
somebody that's in much trouble? Do you look for people in trouble
to comfort? Oh, may God move on the hearts
of his people to look for people to comfort in this life. The
greatest thing that you and I can do is to go and tell someone
of the mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ in his shed blood on Calvary. There is comfort. And whenever
I find someone that needs comfort, I say, let me tell you about
one who is all comfort. His name is the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is God in flesh. And I will tell you about him.
To summarize what the Bible teaches about comfort, we could give
the following definition. Now listen to the following definition
of comfort. Comfort is knowing that I am
not my own, that I belong in body and soul to Jesus Christ
who has purchased me with his blood so that my sins are forgiven
and I am given eternal life. I shall live forever. You talk about comfort. Jack
Shanks is living forever right now. And therefore I'm comforted
in this life. And when I have all of these
problems that I've come up against the last few months, I'm still
comforted because I have eternal life in Christ. And if he takes
this life from me, I'll be so glad of it because I go immediately
into his presence and I worship him and I'll be one of those
around that throne that worship the Son of God forever. And so
I am comforted in this life because I am not my own. I belong to him. How wonderful
that I, in life or in death, belong to Christ Jesus. And that's the way Paul put it. He said, for whether we live,
we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or
whether we die, we are the Lord. Now my friend, there's comfort
for you. How do you like that? You belong
to Him. You belong to Him. I belong to Him. I'm talking about Him. He's the
one whom to know is life eternal. the Lord Jesus Christ, and if
I can do one thing while I'm up here with you these two days,
it's to bring you comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ. May you
be comforted. I know some of you have a hard
life, you have a hard time, but listen, even in a hard time,
be comforted in the Lord Jesus Christ, because he is comfort. And that comfort which proceeds
from God consists of two parts. First, Christian comfort is the
knowledge that I am not my own. I am neither independent and
I am not self-reliant. And so Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
6, 19, what? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost that is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own? Don't you know that? Well then
why do you get downhearted and despondent? Why are you without
comfort? Don't you know? that you're not
your own. Don't you know that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you. You're not your
own. Don't you know that? Stop despairing. Lift up your chin. Lift up your
shoulders and march out tomorrow into the battle because you belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that the child of
God does not rely upon himself or any product of man's wisdom
for his comfort. This is, of course, contrary
to what we would like to think. In pride we can think at times
that our own mind, that our own strength will be able to see
us through our troubles. My friends, you cannot get through
your troubles on your own. Christian comfort is the confession
that I am not my own. For you see, If I were my own,
then I would be personally responsible for an enormous debt of sin which
I could never wipe out, but only increase daily if I were responsible
for myself. And so firstly, the comfort which
proceeds from God is the knowledge that I'm not my own. And then
secondly, true comfort is the knowledge that I do belong to
my faithful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I do. I do. I belong to Him. And this
is true because Christ Jesus purchased me with His blood should
on Calvary where he redeemed me from my sins and made me his
possession. You were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received from anyone else but with the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without
sparks. And because the Lord Jesus, by
grace, purchased me with his blood upon the cross, when his
blood dropped to the ground, every drop of that blood purchased
me. I am purchased with that blood,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to belong to
the Lord Jesus Christ? Belonging to Christ means that
I am united inseparably to him by faith. It means that I am
his property, that he owns me and is also accountable for me,
both body and soul, in life and in death, in time and eternity. He is responsible for me. And it implies that he is responsible
for every part of me. And he must keep me and lead
me to the eternal glory of his kingdom. And more, it means that
he rules me by his Spirit and his grace. And as my Lord, he
gives me all that I need for body, and soul, and I may therefore
rely upon him, and I cast all my care upon him, for he careth
for me." You know that scripture that Peter wrote, casting all
your care upon him, for he careth for you. Paul said, I live yet,
not I. But Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Beautiful
scripture. So all things are now controlled
by Christ who is at God's right hand, and all the events of my
life, all the events that I'm going through now and that I've
gone through in the last few weeks, are used by Christ for
my good and spiritual profit. And all the problems and pains
of this present life, and they are many, cannot crush me or
sever the blessed union that Christ by grace has established
with me, and it was in full consciousness that I belonged to the Lord Jesus
Christ that caused Paul to utter those beautiful words in Romans,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ. I am persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Beautiful words. So in conclusion, notice two
things, will you please? Get these two things. In the
first place, this is an exclusive comfort. There is nothing else
in the whole world that can comfort you. It's not the highest comfort. It's not the best comfort. It's
not the chief comfort. It is the only comfort. Comfort is not that I belong
to the Lord Jesus and that I'm healthy, wealthy, and strong,
no. Comfort is not that I belong
to Him and have a good insurance policy, no. To have anything
alongside this exclusive comfort is to forfeit the comfort itself. I have nothing else but the comfort
of Christ and the only comfort is to belong completely to the
Lord Jesus Christ in life and death. So this comfort is the
exclusive comfort. And then secondly, this also
is an all-sufficient comfort. It's sufficient for every circumstance. It's sufficient for everything
in life and for all the The horrors of death. The horrors of death. My wife and I had two wonderful boys. One was 23, the other one was
18. Our grandchildren. And we got the word one night
that the youngest one, the 18-year-old, had been hit by a train and he
was dead. I've got to have that comfort
now. Lord, I've got to have that comfort. There's that boy. lying out on the railroad track,
dead, 18 years old. And then a few weeks later, a
neighbor of our daughter's called and said, you need to come over
here and see about your daughter. And so we went and the 23-year-old
grandson lay down to sleep and never woke
up. He died in his sleep. Dead. Both of them dead. And our daughter, she lost her husband a few years
before that. And he ran into an 18-wheeler
and he died. And then both of her boys, You
think we don't need comfort? You think we don't have comfort?
I'm able to go through day by day with the comfort of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those two boys are gone. But I tell you what, I'm comforted. And as bad as that hurt, and
as bad sometimes I'll be walking in the yard now and I'll see
those two boys there taking care of the yard for me. One of them
mowed it and the other one did other things. They took care
of my yard. And I can see them out there. But it doesn't discomfort me
because my comfort is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say
to you, My friends, if you don't know Him and you have those days
coming, you better get acquainted with Him right now because you
will not be able to make it. Not be able to make it. No matter what evil may enter
my life, belonging to Christ means that He comforts me and
sends whatever it is for my profit. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them that are called according
to his purpose. Do you believe that? All things. I'll tell this story
again. I've told it, I guess, everywhere
in the world almost, but I'll tell it again. a king of a country,
and he had a friend. And that friend, every time anything
would happen, no matter what it was, he'd say, this is good. This is good. And so one day
they went out on a hunting trip, The friend would load the king's
guns and the king would do the shooting and he loaded a gun
for the king and the king pulled the trigger
and the gun blew up and blew his thumb off. His friend looked at that and
he said, this is good. And the king said, no, this is
not good. And he took him and put him in
jail. And about a year later, the king
was out hunting again, and he was in a region where there were
cannibals. And sure enough, the cannibals
captured the king, and they had him tied up and were just about
to drop him in the pot and cook him. when they noticed that he
had a thumb missing. They had a superstition in that
tribe that if they ate a person who was not whole, all of them
would die. And he's not whole, he's missing
a thumb. And so they turned the king loose. And he thought about his friend
down there in jail. And he went down and got his
friend out, and he said, I'm so sorry that I put you in jail. And his friend said, no, this
is good. Well, he said, how can it be
good that I put you in jail for a year? And he said, well, if
I hadn't been in jail, I'd have been with you. You see the good, don't you? That's good. He didn't walk through
with him. Yeah, this is good. Can you say this is good, no
matter what? This is good. This is good. I'm never out of the hands of
my Lord that all things serve in one way or another my good. We don't always know how that
is because things look so bad. We can't always explain how the
evil is for our good, but comfort is to believe that it is for
our good. That's comfort. And when the evil thing befall
us, comfort is knowing that God sent it for our good and in Christ
It also gives us grace to bear it in thanksgiving. We give thanks
unto God no matter what happens. And this is what the Holy Spirit
meant when he said all things work together for good to them
that love the Lord, them that are called according to his purpose. That's what he meant. Is your
only comfort found in this, that you belong not to yourself, but
you belong to the faithful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He your comfort? Then sincerely
live unto Him in thanksgiving all the days of your life. And
I hope what I've said tonight will bring someone here just
a little comfort from the Lord. Look to him. I don't know your
problems, but he will comfort you in all things. May God bless you. Well, it's hard to be down, isn't it? My kids are gone. My kids are gone. I thought about Rudy and Christy. They're going to take their baby
now on November 6th, on Monday. That's hard to see. And they
feel helpless. I don't know how they feel. They feel helpless. You know why? Because they're
helpless. That's why they feel that way. It's in the Lord's hands.