Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Genesis 25, and reading from
our text, verse 22. And the children struggled together
within her, and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. Genesis 25 verse 22. Rebecca's perplexing experience. Many of the Lord's dear people
have those things that they cannot understand. Those things that
are happening to them, those things that are going to, are
not what they thought. would happen. It does not seem
to accord with either promises or expectations that they had. And this, what Rebecca went through,
it may be that this is where some of you are tonight, walking
in a path of which you say, if it be so, If I'm one of the Lords,
if this exercise is of the Lord, if this what the Lord gave me
to understand is true, then why am I like I am? Why are things
as they are? How often we do have the question,
why? And we are asking the Lord that
question. You know, our children, when
they are young, they often come with questions. Why? They want
to know. Sometimes it is the Lord will
tell why, and others He won't. We've just got to walk it out.
In this case, Rebecca was given an answer. Well, Rebecca did have reason
to have expectations. And I want them to think firstly
of Rebecca's experience and what expectations she would have had. And then Rebecca's question, why? If it be so, why am I thus? And then Rebecca's way of obtaining
the answer in our text, she went to inquire of the Lord. But let us go back first to the
promises that God gave to Abraham. In Genesis 17, we have the Lord
promising Abraham In verse 5, neither, he says, verse 4, as
for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be
a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abraham, but thy name shall be called Abraham, for
a father of many nations have I made thee, and I'll make thee
exceeding fruitful and I will make nations of thee and kings
shall come out of thee. And we have this promise in verse
seven, I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed
after thee in their generations to be a God unto thee and to
thy seed after thee. And then in chapter 18, Again,
verse 18, we have the promise where the Lord is going to reveal
what is to happen at Sodom, and he says, the Lord said, shall
I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham
shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations
of the earth shall be blessed in heaven. Then we have the trial
when, of course, with Abraham, he was given these promises,
which you read right back in Genesis 12, a child and his seed,
and yet 25 years goes by before Isaac is born. And we can understand
how that Sarah, how that Abraham too, were left to put their own
hand to it. What a lesson we have with Abraham. May the Lord has promised something
that we be very careful we do not put our own hand to it. The bring forth of Ishmael and
all the trouble and all the afflictions, all the trials that came forth
from that. in trying to get seed in a natural
way. And yet you can really understand
Abraham doing that. And going into Hagar and having
a child by her instead of through Sarah. But the Lord did appear
and did give Sarah a son. Abraham being 100, Sarah 90. And Isaac then was born, the
Lord fulfilling his promise, the Lord giving seed. And then with the trial on Mount
Moriah, we have the Lord giving the promise again. that in blessing I will bless
thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed, as the stars
of the heaven, as the sandwiches upon the seashore, and thy seed
shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast
obeyed my voice. The establishing of the seed
of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head is reaffirmed
and clearly shown to be coming through Abraham's line. We can see of course in Matthew
chapter one where we have the generations, 14 generations from
Abraham to David and from David to the going away into Babylon
and from Babylon to Christ, 14 generations in each step and
it begins with Abraham. was received Isaac as from the
dead, the resurrection of the dead is set forth there. We have
the sacrificial offerings, everything, so many things are shown in Genesis
22. And Rebecca, then we've known
this because we have chapter 24, the beautiful way that again
God provided Rebekah to Isaac, and Abraham's servant, he tells
the account some two or three times. When Bethuel and Laban
hear of it, how they had come to the well, how Rebekah had
come, how his prayer had been answered, they said, the thing
proceedeth from the Lord. There's every expectation the
Lord was with Abraham, he was with Isaac, he had joined Isaac
and Rebekah together, there was this expectation of the Lord's
blessing and what would happen, what would proceed from that. We think of how clearly in the
following chapter when Isaac is thinking to move when there's
a famine in the land. The Lord appears unto him, and
in verse 2 of chapter 26, go not down into Egypt, dwell in
the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and
I will be with thee, and will bless thee. For unto thee, and
unto thy seed, I will give all these countries. and I will perform
the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father. And he rehearses
this again, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. And so Isaac is also blessed
with this, and where our text is, it is in the middle of this,
in the expectation God will bring the Christ, the Messiah, the
promised seed, and He'll bring it through my seed." And yet
Rebekah had to wait 20 years. And we read that Isaac then,
he entreats of the Lord for Rebekah. He prays for his wife. Verse
21, before our text, Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because
she was barren. And the Lord was entreated of
him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. So Rebekah's experience then,
first of barrenness, promises, expectations, and now she's with
child. Of course in those days, no such
thing as x-rays and scans and things like that. They couldn't
tell that there was twins in her womb. Only that there was
a lot of picking and commotion and trouble going on within. And so if it be so, if this is
the promised seed, if this is the answer to our prayers, if
this is how the promise is to be filled, then why am I suffering? Why is this commotion that is
within? This was her her perplexity and
what she was going through. So that really is the literal
trial that she had. But let us think of this with
our own situations where we may also have expectations and promises
that we have in our mind. It may be we think of the word,
The promise is unto you and your children even unto as many as
the Lord thy God shall call. And we think it a blessing that
we've been born into a family where we've been brought up to
hear the sound of the truth and there's an expectation that the
Lord would bless us in that way. Now maybe we're very clear that
it's not by blood, it doesn't flow through the bloodline, we
don't receive grace, we don't receive eternal life through
that way, but there is a promise there, and for the most part,
the Lord does place his people foreknown, foreloved, when he
brings them into this world at the appointed time in the history
of the world, that he places them in a family where they shall
hear the word of God. Yes, there will be Rahams, there
will be Ruth, there will be those that are brought out of the world
that have not had any history, any being brought up under the
sound of truth at all. The Lord does do that, but don't
let the devil say to you, well, there's nothing miraculous here.
about a call by grace. You're only going to look at
the churches and who is in the churches, what's the children
of those that were in the churches, and if you were brought up a
Muslim, you'd be a Muslim, if you were brought up a Roman Catholic,
you'd be a Roman Catholic, if you were brought up in the Gospel
standard, you'd be in the Gospel standard. And the devil will
try to minimize what the Lord does. Every soul that is called
and quickened by grace is a miracle of grace. We know that the upbringing
itself cannot impart grace, and many of us, I for one, four siblings,
as it is now, only myself is called, and I can look at those
families at Melbourne, and there's only one here or two there in
each family, and you could probably go around some of your families
as well, and it's not an automatic thing, but it is a great blessing
And it is right that we could have that expectation, and in
our prayers, and in our seeking, and in our watching, we've got
this in mind, that the Lord has placed us where he's placed us,
and that, who can tell, there is a purpose, there is a reason
that we are one of his people, and the Lord will call us and
will quicken us by grace. And maybe as well, that the Lord
has given us a promise that we've seen in the word of God, and
we embrace that promise. This is one of the things that's
mentioned in Hebrews 11 verse 13, where in Hebrews we have
instances of many, including Abraham, that have walked by
faith, and there's evidences of that faith in their lives. called to go out into a place
where God would show him off, Noah to build an ark. But then
we have a small summary of what really is common to all of the
people of God. And it begins with this, that
they saw the promises of far off and they embraced them. They embraced them. They took
hold of that. There's an account of the wicked
kings Ahab in Israel and Ben-Hadad who was king of Syria and they
had fought together and Syria had been put to worst before
Israel and the servants of Ben-Hadad, they said that we have heard
that the kings of Israel are merciful kings. And so they said,
let us go, and they went with ropes on their heads, they went
with sackcloth, they humbled themselves before Ahab, and Ahab
said, my brother Ben-Hadad. And they caught at him, they
caught at him, they said, thy brother Ben-Hadad. And they managed
to get a pardon, they managed to get it so that Ahab sent him
away in peace. there are several things there.
One, they had heard that they are merciful kings. Do we not
hear that the Lord is merciful? That He is long-suffering? If
I had, it could be said of Him, how much more of the God of heaven,
how much more of the Lord, and why not for us to come to His
throne and come before Him Expecting mercy, that is what they did.
Do we really expect mercy when we come before the Lord, when
we come as sinners? They expected it, they needed
it, they knew that only mercy would do. And then, they caught
on the least thing. Now I'm not saying we should
hold on to the smallest evidence. But dear friends, take notice
of that. and be encouraged in the smallest
things. When the Lord brings things together,
where He meets perhaps, it may be that you've been reading a
portion at home, you've pondered over it, you've meditated on
it, maybe there's things you couldn't understand, like you
come into the house of God and the Lord's servant brings that
very passage, and you walk as it were like the eunuch, where
you have been reading like he was reading a passage you couldn't
understand, and the Lord brings His servant and opens up that
very passage. Those are some of the things
you take hold on. You look at the Lord's providences,
you see what He's done, you see answers to prayer, you see those
helps, and especially the promises in Christ, the blessings in the
Lord Jesus Christ. that he is merciful and long-suffering,
call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. The Lord is the Saviour of all
men, especially of them that believe. And the invitations
of the Gospel, you may as it were hold on to those, have those
in your mind. And the expectation that the
Lord would bless the word and please the Lord through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe in you come, watching
for the word to be blessed to you. And so we like Rebecca can
have those things where we have an expectation that the Lord
would bless us. We'd make a distinction where
the Lord does give the new birth called by grace, passing by a
sinner and bidding him live. It's one thing to be bidden live
and to live and to have an appetite, have a hearing ear, be not spiritually
dead anymore. It's one thing for that, it's
another thing to have full assurance of faith. Wherever the Lord begins
the work with giving eternal life and giving the new birth,
He will, in His time and way, bring to full assurance of faith,
and so that soul is able to say, the Lord is my God, and I am
His. But there are those, and each
one of the children of God, when they're first quickened, they
don't immediately come to faith. They have faith straight away,
but they don't immediately come to assurance. But they are brought
into Christ's school, and they are taught line upon line, and
here a little, and there a little. And the Lord then instructs and
teaches them. Sometimes it might be very quick
work. Some it might be years. Some
it might be months. But the Lord is teaching. And
I would encourage any that can show and know the time that they
have really passed from death unto life. that once they used
to come in and out of the house of God and never hear a thing,
never have a concern, now don't pray for themselves or in secret
at all, and then the Lord has brought a change. And they do
come into the house of God listening, they do take in what has been
said, and they do pray for themselves, and they do want to be blessed,
they want to be saved. And it's a blessed thing where
that change has been brought about. And that is the right
way we can have that expectation. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. But when we have that then expectation,
the experience can be quite different to what we expect. We might feel
that where we are is an answer to prayer. Rebecca could say,
I am retired, my husband prayed for this, this is an answer to
prayer. But then the experience is not
what we really thought the answer would be. It's not as to the
expectation. How many do you have that had
that situation. The children of Israel, they
believed when Moses was sent to them, and he worked the signs
and he worked the wonders, and they believed that the Lord had
sent him. I believe in many of their eyes
they thought, deliverance is sure, it will happen now, we'll
be sent out from Egypt. But it didn't happen like that,
and their trials got worse and worse. We could think of Nahum,
who was Caesarean, that really did want to be healed of his
leprosy. Leprosy is a type of sin. We
might really want to be delivered from the power and dominion of
sin, and he wanted it with the leprosy, but he had this idea
how it should be, how the Prophet should heal him, what he should
do. When he came to the door, the Prophet didn't even come
to the door, he sent a servant. And what had happened, it angered
him. And you think, how can one who
really wants to be healed end up angry and refusing to take
the advice that had been given? And you think of one that really
wants to be saved and want to be forgiven, want to know their
Lord's people, and yet, by how the Lord begins to deal with
them, they get angry and cross with the Lord. and don't walk
in the way that the Lord would bid them to go. And you see the
path that Rebekah went that was in answer to prayer, it had the
appearance of an answer first, but then there was the aspects
in it that were not expected. How many a people have gone walking
a path that they did not expect. They did not think that it would
be like this. And what's more, what really
was bound up with this, and this might be your trial too, it seems
to be to be a bad outcome. It doesn't look like it's gonna
work out very good. And Rebecca, if there's all this
commotion within, how can it be good? How can it be a good
sign? And so this is, Rebecca's experience,
and we may ask ourselves, what do we have in the way of an experience
of answer to prayer and walking out when we know what is at stake? Rebecca knew what was at stake. She knew here was to come the
promised time. If we know the worth of our soul,
if we know what eternity is, if we know what it is to have
to pass from this time state, and that if we are to be saved
it must be while we live here, and we see those that are taken
in youth, we see those taken suddenly without a moment's warning,
then it can be a very urgent, pressing case as to what we actually
are walking through. And how many of you here have
those burdens, those things you look at, those things that happen
in your life, answers to prayer on one hand, but on the other
hand is not at all as you expected, and time passes on, you get older,
and eternity is in view. And this then brings about these
questions. Our second point, because she
said, if it be so, why? And I thus. Why is it so? Why is this happening to me? Why is this going on in this You know, it's a good thing for
us to be exercised. We read of those that are chastened
in Hebrews 12, that now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, it work for good
for them that are exercised thereby. Bring forth the peaceable fruits
of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. That is
a go over in their minds, they think about it, they're concerned
about it, they ponder over those things that are happening and
that are being done. It is causing what by nature
we are not exercised about. We might be exercised about many
other things. We might be a young man or woman
exercised about marriage, or a certain person to marry, and
it's foremost in one's thoughts, and you're thinking about them,
or thinking about what will happen, you know what it is to be exercised
on that, but here concerning our souls, concerning eternity,
concerning where we stand in the sight of the Lord, if it
be so, Why am I thus? Rebecca, if this child is to
be born, if it is the promised child, why is all this commotion
and why is all these struggles that go on within? What a picture
of what goes on inside of one that is concerned for their son.
Struggles are going on within. Conflicts that are within. You
think of how it must have been with dear Joseph. Joseph had
been given dreams, clear dreams, that indicated, and his brothers
had taken, that, shall we bow down to you? Shall we be like
these sheaves bowing down, or the stars of heaven bowing down,
as he'd seen in his vision? And Joseph had that expectation. that there was something that
God had planned for his life that was to be brought to Parnes. Of course his brothers, when
he came to them, they said that they were going to cast him into
this pit, then we'll see what shall become of his dreams. They
had in mind those dreams, they thought they were going to stop
them completely, when in actual fact, they were bringing them
to Parnes. Of course they didn't know that,
Joseph didn't know that, and how he must have thought In the
prison, when eventually he is there, and the butler forgets
him, we read in Psalm 104, that until his time came, the word
of the Lord tried him. He was exercised within. He wasn't
just saying, the Lord gave me these dreams, it will come to
pass. Worry about it. Take the gin up, just wait the
Lord's time. No, he was concerned, he was
burdened for them. and how he must have felt there
in the prison, again with Israel in Egypt. We are told there in
Exodus 6, after the signs started and Pharaoh was making their
burdens harder and harder, Moses tried to speak to them but they
would not listen, for anguish of spirit and hard labour just
stopped their ears. We might be in that situation.
Israel, an expectation, deliverance from Moses, and next minute their
trials have been so much they wouldn't listen to any encouragement
whatsoever. And you might have an expectation
of the Lord's blessing and appearance for you, and now, with things
that have happened, you're so churned up in your mind, and
you're so burdened, and you're so tried, you can't listen to
a sermon. You can't listen to any comfort or any encouragement
that comes from the pulpit whatsoever. You stand body, so that's not
for me. That can't be for me. And yet
the wonderful thing is, with the Lord and the children of
Israel, He just kept on working. The signs kept on coming, and
He delivered them in spite for themselves. What an encouragement
that that is. He didn't rely on But the Lord
knew their sorrows, and told that even before Moses was sent.
He knew what they were going through, and He did bring them
out in the end. And how many dark valleys there
are! And you think of Job, though that I knew where I might find
him, and the trying, perplexing path that he had to walk. If it be so, why Why am I thus
troubled? Troubled in our souls. Troubled with how the Lord is
ordering things and what is actually going on. Very much of this will
be to do with our sin, the iniquity of our hearts, with the world
that pulls, and with the things that seems to go completely against
being a child of God and being converted. We have an idea of
what it is to be a child of God and what the Lord is doing, or
we don't know whether it's the Lord or not, what is going on
in our heart does not seem to record the same for this at all. Do we have those struggles within? We struggle to be able to even
read the Word of God sometimes. Struggle to pray. Struggle to reconcile things
that we read in the Word. Struggle with how we feel. Struggle with those things that
rise up in rebellion, even against the Lord. that struggle with
his providences, but can't work out why the Lord allows this,
and why the Lord allows that, and why these things were done.
Now the Lord said to Peter when he would wash his feet, and Peter
says, that thou hast never washed my feet. He says, what I do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. And he was to
have to walk through it. It's like dear Jacob as well.
He had to walk through that period in his life when he did not know
that Joseph was even alive. And then it come that they were
wanting to have Benjamin, and the man that wanted him was a
hard man in Egypt that had already locked up Simeon in jail, and
he now is going to have to let go Benjamin. All these things
are against me, he said. You see what is going on, and
the struggles that are going on within. And you know, even
when Joseph sends the wagons, and he sends his brethren back,
and his brethren, they say that Joseph is yet alive and he is
in Egypt, and he believed them not. So there's the words, but
he doesn't believe it, then he sees the wagons, Again, you're
seeing these struggles. One thing seems to point one
way, another points that way. There's a wanting to believe
it, but fearful of actually believing it. We read there that, when
he saw the wagons, that the spirit of Jacob revived. And Israel
said, Joseph, my son, is he alive? I'll go. and see him before I
die. One thing so characteristic of
how the Lord dealt with Jacob, Jacob, he ventured, and then
the Lord blessed him. Remember that. When Jacob left
home, when Esau was threatening his life, it wasn't until he
left home that the Lord appeared for him and Bethlehem blessed
him. It wasn't until he left to go
to Egypt, that the Lord then the first night appeared for
him and blessed him. This is one of the marks that
God's people will know. He deals with each of his children
differently, but with his children, he deals in such a way that they'll
recognize his handiwork. They'll recognize how he's working,
what he's doing. My sheep, they hear my voice. You know, we hear someone maybe
we haven't met for many, many years, but we've heard their
voice, we remember their voice, we recognize their voice. It
was like when Rhoda came to the door, she recognized Peter's
voice. She didn't see him, but she knew
who it was. And the Lord deals in that way
with his people, that they recognize him and his handiwork. And with
Jacob, It was that, and it was when he fled from Laban as well. The Lord appeared to him in that
way. It's a good thing then if we
notice that over the years the Lord deals with us in a way that
we recognize. It's individual to us, how he
has answered our prayers, how he suddenly comes and softens
our hearts, how he speaks to us through the ministry, He speaks
through us, through the word, to us through the word. Those
things are good for us to recognize. You know Samuel, we read he did
not yet know the Lord. He thought it was Eli's voice.
But when Eli directed him on to say next time the Lord spoke
to him, speak Lord for thy servant heareth. And well he couldn't
say Lord, he said speak for thy servant heareth. But the Lord
then spoke to him. And from that time on, we read
that the Lord appeared to Samuel again in Shiloh by the word of
the Lord. That is how he appeared to Samuel. And yet it was that way that
at first Samuel did not know or recognize, but from that time
on, Samuel did know the voice of the Lord. did know him speaking,
able to distinguish it from Eli, from others. And many times the
people of God at first think, well, this is just a minister.
But then when the Lord speaks to another of the Lord's servants,
in many testimonies you'll hear it's not just one of the Lord's
servants that the Lord has used. It makes it very clear it's the
Lord speaking, not just a person to them. And so, The things though
that are going on within will bring forth this question that
we want the Lord to answer. So I want to think here of Rebecca's way of obtaining an
answer. And you might say, well wasn't
it In answer to prayer that the whole thing began, she conceived,
she began to have children, that was by prayer. And yet really
what we read in our text, when she says, if it be so, why am
I thus? We read then she went to inquire
of the Lord. Bigger thing tonight, wouldn't
it? If the Lord is sending some of you back to prayer. back to the throne of grace to
inquire at His hand. You've already begun to pray,
you have prayed, you have had some answers, but now you've
got these questions, and the Lord will say to you, you come
back to Me, you come and inquire, you ask at My hand, you don't
stop praying, and the Lord begins to work,
and I know what it is to almost say to the Lord, that's enough,
I can handle it from now, I'll take it from now, I'll deal with
it, and the Lord will show us we've got to keep on praying,
that He doesn't just leave it in our hands, and we need to
go back and back to Him. We may ask ourselves, why is
it that the Lord who has determined all things that will come to
pass, that knows before we begin to call, what we are asking and
the answer that He gives, why does He insist on prayer? Why
does He want us to pray? When you think about it, what
is prayer? Prayer is God hearing our voice. In preaching, it is us. hearing
God's voice. If we love someone, don't we
want to hear their voice? Don't we want to hear from them? In the fall of Adam, the separation
was between God and man. In the work of grace, it is God
and sinners reconciled. It's been brought back into communion,
back into fellowship, that on speaking terms agape one with
another, that's why the Lord would have His people pray, so
that they call upon Him, so that He hears their voice. In Song
of Solomon we read of Him entreating the church, He wants to hear
their voice, and He actually encourages them that their voice
is sweet, is pleasant. We might think, my poor friends,
the Lord won't want to hear them, You see what all prayers will
do. And there's prayers in asking,
like asking for conception for a child. Then there are other
prayers that are inquiring and asking why. And there's still
prayer, but we're coming for a different reason and different
purpose. It's good for us to notice what
we pray for and what answer we've given. You think of David, when
David and his men were in Keilah, and this is when they were running
away from Saul, and they delivered Keilah from the Philistines,
from robbing the threshing floors, and David's men, they didn't
want to go to Keilah. They said, we're afraid that
we are. How much more if we go into the city with gates and
masks? Well, Saul heard that they'd
gone in there, so he was going to go there. And so David, he
inquired of the Lord. He asked of the Lord two things.
He says, will Saul come in hither and will the people of Kila deliver
me up into their hands? The Lord only answered half.
He said he will. Saul will come hither. But David
didn't just leave that. He went back to the Lord, going
in prayer. Will the men of Keelah deliver
me up into his hand? And the Lord answered again,
They will deliver thee. So David and his men, they went
up out of Keelah. Tessal didn't come to Keelah
and the men of Keelah didn't deliver him up. If David had
have stayed in Keelah, then both things would have happened. Mr. Ramsbottom gives an illustration
of the difference between fatalism and a knowledge of election.
If there was a bus on the top of the hill and it was told to
those on the bus that the bottom of the hill was going to crash,
he said the fatalists would say, nothing we can do, it's going
to happen, we stay on the bus. But the one that lead in election
would say, we've been warned, we're getting off the bus. And
you think of the Ninevites, 40 days the city shall be destroyed. Did they say, nothing we can
do about it, it's going to be destroyed? But they didn't. They said, who can tell? May
we hold on to those who can tell us, especially when there's a
time fact involved. While our days are lengthened
out, where there is life, there is hope. There's hope the Lord
will work even in His life, a dying thief, right to the very end.
And the Lord will have His people come to Him and ask if there
are things that are unresolved, if there are things that are
troubling us, if there are struggles that we have, go to the Lord,
bring it to the Lord and ask. For the Lord did answer, the
Lord told her about the two nations that were in her womb, one people
shall be stronger than the other people, the elder shall serve
the younger. It was literally brought out. Of course we have in Romans,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, the purposes of God
according to election might stand. And God had ordered that and
in the history with the Edomites it's worked out in that way.
But we can bring this into a spiritual way as well, because it says
here that the elder shall serve the younger. We have two natures. We can go to the Word of God,
we can go to the portions that are in Romans, we can hear of
this conflict, with the Apostle Paul when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died, and we had the conflict that when I
would do good, evil is present within man. And this struggle
is going on between the old nature and the new nature, between what
he wanted to do as a quickened soul in Christ, The new nature
is from above. It's perfect, it's pure, it comes
from above. Our old nature, our old flesh
will always remain hateful of the things of God. It will not
subject to them at all. He says, I know that the law
is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin. He is converted
here. He is born again as one of the
Lord's children. He's not speaking of himself
in an unconverted state. He is converted and he is saying
that what I, that which I do, I allow not. For what I would,
that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. He said, if then I do that which
I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. There's
no more I that doeth, but sin that dwelleth in me. We have
sin dwelling in us, but may we not dwell in sin. May we not
live in sin, but sin lives in us. And that will be so. And that will bring forth a struggle,
a conflict within. It must do. There's no compatibility
between the two. There will always be a struggle.
Remember the descriptions in the Word of God about the life
of the people of God. Fight the good fight of faith.
Strive to enter in at the straight gate. Mortify through the spirit
the deeds of the body. Resist the devil and he shall
flee from you. yet not yet resisted unto blood,
striving against sin. All of these things, it's not
an easy path, it's a conflict path, it's a struggle, and it
is a struggle with sin. When Paul writes to the Galatians,
he says to them in the fifth chapter He says, This I say then, walk
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Yes, our flesh has the lusts
of the flesh. God's children do. For the flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot
do the things that ye would. And then he gives a list of all
the works of the flesh, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. Many of the Lord's children,
they struggle with these sins. They feel, why am I so filled
with all of these evil thoughts and affections if I was a child
of God? Why is all of this? Why is all
this conflict? The Word of God describes it. It interprets what is going on
within. And it's good for us when we
come to the Lord, and the Lord then directs us to His Word,
and shows us the Word, and shows us why this struggle is going
on within. If we were dead in sin, there
would not be a struggle. If we're at peace with hell,
You know, I questioned my parents years ago over the M76, that
peace with hell, with God at war, and sin start mays from
one to five. And I said to them, I said, hadn't
the hymn writer got it wrong? Shouldn't there be a war with
hell? I didn't know my own heart. Didn't
know that conflict at all. But that is true. That is how
we are by nature. We're at peace with hell, with
God at war, But when God comes in and when He begins, then things
are turned around and there's resistance, there's sorrow for
sin, there's a desire to do good, but the power of corruption and
sin is still the same. We need the Lord to subdue our
sins. We need the Lord to undertake
for us and deliver us from the power of evil. And for the Lord
to show us His great salvation to show what He did at Calvary,
to show what He did to wash away our sins, to pay the debt for
those sins that we now feel and that we now struggle with. And
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. And we need that saving day by
day. Our daily path will be to cry
unto the Lord, to deliver us and to save us, from our sin,
but may we be preserved from, as it were, having a peace within,
and having no trouble with sin, and no conflict with our old
nature. Then we need to work, then we
need to have concern. But may we bring it before the
Lord, that he will appear for us. And this is the gospel, there
is in the Lord that provision and help for sinners. He is able
to subdue our sins. He has promised to save us and
deliver us from the power and dominion of sin. And even in
the portion here where our text is, the elder shall serve the
younger, not the other way around. The old nature shall serve the
new nature. The new nature. Sin shall not
have dominion over you, for you are not under the law. get under
grace, but it will cause a lot of struggles and it will cause
a lot of grief and a lot of sorrows, but blessed be God, not dominion. May the Lord add his blessings.