Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Job chapter 17, and reading
for our text, verse 9. Verse 9. The righteous also shall
hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger
and stronger. Job 17 and verse 9. Dear Job had been through things
that very few I've ever known such trials as he had in the
first chapter in the book of Job. We read how that he lost
one thing after another, one disaster, one trial, after another
coming upon him. His own family, his sons and
daughters, they were lost. Then his Oxen, his camels, his
goods, and all that he had was lost one thing after another. Men were used. Sabians were used. Chaldeans were used. Not all
of them. You might say the direct hand
of God or the direct hand of Satan with God's permission.
He would have seen it as those things that were coming through
man, through man's hand, and yet one thing after another. And then was added to that the
afflictions in his own body. We have the boils that were laid
upon him. All that he went through, one
thing after another. But that wasn't the only thing
that was a trial to Job. That was the great thing. That
was the providential things. But then there was the added
trial that those for whom he would have looked for the most
comfort and help and strength in naturally let him down in
that time. We read the first one was that
of his own wife, because we read in verse 9 of chapter 2, then
said his wife unto him, thus thou still retain thine integrity,
curse God and die. And dear Job, we read after all
of those things had come upon him, before he was afflicted
with in his body. We read him saying at the end
of chapter one, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked
came I, shall I return thither? The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And we are told in all this,
Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. And we find even with
the additional things that came upon him, even after his wife
said that she did, we read in verse 9, but he said unto her,
Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh, What shall we
receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with
his lips. No doubt much was going on in
his mind and in his thoughts, but nothing passed his lips that
was sinful or wrong. Then we read of how that his
friends heard of the evil that was come upon him and they came
and they came to mourn with him and to comfort him. And they
sat down, they sat down seven days and seven nights. They saw
his grief was so great. But then they started to speak. And the message really was that
God would never do something like this. He would never allow
these things to happen to a man that was righteous, to a man
that was upright. We read in the inspired word
of God at the beginning of this book, the very first verse, There
was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job, and that man was
perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed
evil. We also read that when Satan
had caused and stirred up the Lord against him, then we read
the Lord saying in Chapter 2, verse 3, to Satan, the Lord said
unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is
none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that
feareth God and assureth evil, and still he holdeth fast his
integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him
without a cause? Now those are the words of God. We know of course Job was a sinner
like you and I, but outwardly he was walking in a godly and
upright life in the fear of the Lord. And there was nothing,
no thing in his life that God was bringing this or allowing
Satan to bring in as a chastening or as a punishment for his sin
at all. This was a great trial, a test
for Job. And there's many things that
were to be learnt in this trial. Well here, Job then has his wife
first, then his friends, and his friends are saying, surely
there must be something that he has done wrong, acted wrong,
why these things have come and why they continue to be with
him. And so these friends, from beginning
to be there to comfort him and to help him, they end up, and
in the second verse of our reading in verse 2, chapter 16, Job says,
I have heard many such things, miserable comforters, i.e. all. And at the end of this book,
we have the Lord vindicating Job, telling his friends to bring
a sacrifice to him, to offer a sacrifice, and for Job to pray
for his friends. And the Lord turned the captivity
of Job when he prayed for his friends. But what we find in
this book is what we find so often in life's journey. that the trials that we have
in providence and in grace, or the trials that man would see
us go through, are added to by man himself in how they react
to us, and especially those that we least expect it from, those
that are close, maybe of family, maybe of the church family, maybe
of those that are of our kin, or those who have been a close
friend. We get those wounds in that way,
and with Job here, those wounds were totally unjustified. They weren't true at all. You know the Jews, they came
to our Lord concerning the man that was born blind, and they
said, who did sin, this man or his parents, that this man was
born blind? If there is an affliction like
this, there must be a reason. It can't just be that these things
have come from the decree of God, the purpose of God, the
sovereign will of God, without there being a cause and a reason. Again, that man was not sinless. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But what they thought, that he
had done some terrible thing. It was the same even with the
heathens when the Apostle Paul, when they were shipwrecked and
they'd made a fire and a viper, a snake came out of the fire
fastened on the Apostle Paul's hand and they said that surely
this man that he was a sinner, he'd done some great thing, and
that he was now to die. He'd been spared the shipwreck,
but God was going to have vengeance upon him. But while they looked
a long while, and the venom did not take hold, then they changed
their mind, and they said that he was a god. It was not just
confined to those that fear God, but even the heathens think that
if there is something bad, then there must be a reason for the
curse. There must be an underlying reason. And instead of showing comfort
and help to those that are in distress, they turn to accusing
them and speaking against them and adding to the trials that
they are going through. Our Lord in Matthew chapter 13
speaks a parable, a parable of the sower, where there is a seed
that is sown upon the ground, and it falls upon four different
types of ground. One, it fell upon these stony
places, and they did not have much earth, so sprung up quickly. But when the sun was up, it withered
away. The other fell amongst thorns. The thorns sprung up, choked
them. The other fell into good ground,
which brought forth fruit some hundredfold, some 60, some 30
fold. And before that, in the first
instance, there were some fell actually by the wayside, that
the fowls came and devoured them up. And he gave the interpretation
of this parable as to different types of hearers. And it is the
second and third type of hearer that is very applicable to what
our text is here and the situation with Job. Because when the Lord
gives the interpretation He says that, he that receiveth the seed
into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and
on immediately with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself,
but heareth for a while. Let me read this, for when tribulation,
or great trouble, or persecution ariseth because of the word,
by and by he is offended." He offends. He's offended and he
goes back. He doesn't stay in the way. He says, if this is what God
does, if this is the cost of following the Lord, if this is
what I am going to get for doing what is right, that I have trouble
in my life, just happening and coming. I'm not going to serve
this God. I'm not going to worship Him.
I'm not going to follow. There's this thought, if I serve
the Lord, then He must reward me in this life and give me good
things and right things. And the Lord is good. And he
does give us many, many things that we do not deserve. But whatever
he does, he doesn't deal with us as our sins really deserve. But then there was another one
that received the seed amongst thorns, is he that heareth the
word and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches
choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. We read that the
fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. And these trials, these tribulations,
these things that come, they are designed to really sift out,
is it God's work or is it not? Where it is not, it won't stand. Those things that come against
it, and instead of holding on their way in the things of God,
they will go back. We read in our text that the
righteous, that they shall hold. He shall hold on his way. He
shall keep going. Now when we think of keeping
going or holding on our way. There's one aspect where that
would not be a blessing at all. When the Lord finds us, calls
by grace, then there is a change. There is a not holding on the
way of the world, nor a holding and keeping going in the way
of sin or wickedness, but there is repentance, there is a turning.
The situation, if we are walking in a contrary or a wrong path,
then it is not good that we just keep going irrespective of the
things that come upon us. Many times the Lord will use
those troubles that come in our lives, and our prayer is that
those things that are coming on our nation over these last
couple of years will be used so that men look above earth
and look to the God that has made heaven and earth and before
whom we must stand at the last judgment day and that it work
together for good to bring us from the things of earth the
things of time and begin to seek that which is above. Also is
not good if we are the Lord's people and the Lord sends us
his chastening hand that there is a reason for the things that
are coming upon us. It is correction. It is the right. To hold on our way then and to
keep going on is that which is reproved in Psalm 68 and verse
21. But God shall wound the head
of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth
on still in his trespasses. And by nature we will, how we
need the Lord to make our trials and make the rod work for good
and to turn us. Many a Lord's people we struggle,
struggle under the corruptions of our heart and even when his
chasing hand is upon us, we find our hearts so bent to back sliding
and so hard that it is a grief to us that it will not turn.
It's so steeped in its sin, we wonder where the sin will end.
But in that situation, truly it will be the desire of our
souls, if it's in the right way, that we do not hold on our way
of sin and wickedness, but turn and repent and have godly sorrow
over our sin. What a solemn thing it is. When
the Lord sends the rod, we may be worn through his people, worn
through the ministry, and we still hold on our way, still
contrary to the word of God, still in sin. Now there's one
aspect with the word of our text that to hold on our way is not
a good thing at all. But it says here in our text
that it is the righteous also shall hold on his way, and he
that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. So we
need to, in looking at this word, look first at who shall hold
on their way. In our text it is the righteous. And then secondly, what it is
to hold on our way in the context before us. And then thirdly,
that not only to hold on our way, but to profit spiritually
by our troubles. But firstly, who shall hold on
their way? And especially in the context
of all of these winds and waves of trouble, affliction, that
have come wave upon wave, first in providence and then from men,
that have come against us all, who is it shall hold on their
way? Well, our text says it is the
righteous, and yet By nature, none of us is righteous. The
word is very clear, and that, that all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, there is none righteous, no, not one.
Not in ourselves, we are not. But in Christ, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, their righteousness is of me, he says. This is the name
wherewith he shall be called, that is, the Lord our God, the
Lord Jesus. the Lord our righteousness, and
this is the name wherewith she shall be called, that is, the
Church of God, the bride of Christ, his spouse, and that is the Lord
our righteousness. It is the same surname, and it
is vital that we be clothed with not our own righteousness, but
Christ's. In Romans 10, the apostle speaks
of his countrymen, that were seeking and zealously seeking
a righteousness but not of God. They were seeking by their own
works and by their own deeds to make themselves excellent
and accepted by God, but it was not to be that. It must be by
grace, by what Christ has done, and Christ has done alone. Job's
righteousness, what God commended him for, was not that goodness
that extended unto God, that paid the debt of his sin, that
was his title to heaven. No, it was the fruit of God's
righteousness. It was the fruit of his faith
and trust in God that caused him to walk in an upright and
a godly way. And Job, he says, though he slay
me, yet will I trust in him. So who are the righteous then? Those accounted righteous in
Christ are those that are chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. They are given by God the Father
to the Son to redeem. They are a people, the same people,
that have been loved with an everlasting love that shall be
with the Lord in heaven at last amongst that innumerable multitude
that in time are called. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. We are exhorted
to give diligence that our calling and our election is sure. The election hath obtained it,
the rest were blinded. God has a chosen people. When
our Lord was named, His name was called Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Already he had a people, thine
they were and thou gavest them me. And he laid down his life,
a ransom for those people, shed his precious blood on Calvary's
tree. It is for them he died, and it
is for them he rose again for their justification. And it is
for those who believe on him by grace, through the faith that
He gives them, that He gives them eternal life and imputes
to them His righteousness to stand before the throne of God
faultless and without a blemish. Those righteous then have access
to the power of God. They are loved by God, they are
His people, and the power of God through faith Peter, he says
that they are kept by the power of God through faith unto eternal
life. They are given those supplies
of grace, they have an access unto the grace of God. By grace
you say through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God. When he had the thorn in the
flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet him, and this is Satan
that is buffeting Job, the Lord said, My grace is sufficient
for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. And then they are given the gift
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Remembrancer. He brings back to their remembrance
the things of God, the Word of God. He shall bring to your remembrance
all things that I have said unto you, says our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Comforter. He shall
comfort the people of God in their distresses, their sorrows
and their perplexities. He is their guide, guided by
the Spirit of God and directed in the right way to go. It is
that sheds light upon the Word of God. Thy Word is a lamp, and
to my feet a light, and to my path. And so those that hold
on their way, they are God's people, and they have a strength
and an access to a help that others do not have. They have
that which Bunyan portrayed in The Interpreter's House when
his Christian If you read Pilgrim's Progress, it was brought to the
interpreter's house, and there was a fire in the grate, and
a person was throwing water on it, but the fire did not go out.
And looking round the back of the wall, there was seen one
pouring on oil, a secret source of fuel, which meant that the
water did not quench the flame. When we see one of God's people,
And outwardly they've got waves and waves of trouble. Might be
like dear David when he had Saul against him again and again.
Then we had Absalom against him. All of those that rose up against
him. Shimei cursing, throwing dust
at him. And all of these things. Yet
he still claimed to his God. or that these things came upon
him outwardly. And people would think, David,
how can you continue? How can you still be a believer?
How can you still trust that the Lord will help you? Because
he was one of the righteous ones. The Lord had a favor towards
him. Underneath were the everlasting
arms. Strength and help were being
secretly given perhaps unperceivably given, help given to continue
day by day, hour by hour. He said before, the fire shall
try every man's work of what sort it is. I think it was William
Gadsby when he was walking the streets of his hometown, someone
called out to him and pointed out a drunk that was lying in
the gutter. He said, there, Mr. Gadsby, there
is a fruit of your work. And he looked and he said, yes,
it does look like my work, because if it had been God's work, he
would not be lying in the gutter. God gives power. He converts
a soul, and he keeps that soul. If when we were enemies, we were
reconciled unto God, by the death of His Son, how much more being
reconciled shall we be saved through His life? The Lord speaks
in John 10 of Himself as the Good Shepherd and His sheep. When He putteth forth His sheep,
He goeth before them. He says, No man can pluck them
out of mine hand. My Father, who is greater than
me, who gave us their meat, is none is able to pluck them out
of His hand, a place of safety. And that is where the righteous
are. We need to really hold fast to
this truth, that those who are truly the Lords, those who have
been called, those who have the evident work of God in their
lives, Whatever troubles, trials, and things may come upon them,
whether it is Joseph with his brothers going against him, and
going into the pit, and then falsely accused, and in prison,
and forgotten, and all of those things that come upon him, or
Jeremiah, and all that happened with him, or the Hebrew children
thrown into the fire because they wouldn't bow down their
faces to Nebuchadnezzar's image, or because Daniel wouldn't stop
praying he was put into the lion's den. All of these things may
come against them. It doesn't change the fact that
they are God's people. He has a favour towards them
and he gives them that secret support and help and strength
that they do not end up going away from him and casting away
all of what He has done for them and have found no more in the
way at all. A natural work, a man that has
been looking to his own works as a reason why God should bless
him, will be offended when God brings these things. But when
we know our sin, when we really know what we deserve at God's
hand, when we realise that the Lord has shed His precious blood
on Calvary's tree to redeem us, to save us. We are not our own,
we are bought with a price, and that we are to glorify God in
the fires, in the tribulation. Think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing
happened unto you. Our Lord was so clear, in me
you shall have peace, In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And the apostles
again had this message for those that were already going through
great trials and maybe tonight are those of you through great
trials and tribulations, afflictions and things that are troubling
you outwardly and men that are speaking and causing you trouble
and grief and sorrow and your poor mind so troubled and Yet
it is the Lord that sustains, and he will not forsake his people,
the Lord that says, in the world ye shall have tribulation, but
be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Or the apostles saying,
ye must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom. May we have
a very clear view of this, of God's use of tribulation, that
it is to show whose are His and who are not. And God's people,
they don't go through these things as if they were stoics. They
feel them. Job, you can see that right through
here. He feels it very much. And you
and I will feel our troubles and feel our trials and feel
the wounds against us. It will pierce us the same as
it was with our Lord, not only pierced His, hands and his feet,
but how that they so contradicted him, cried out away with him,
crucify him, crucify him, how they said this to Siva, the things
that they spoke and smote him with their tongues, and at the
same time, all of the grief and the terrible pain of the crucifixion. Our Lord, it wasn't just the
crucifixion, hiding of a father's face in Job 23. Oh, that I knew
where I might find him. He again felt that hiding of
a father's face, and our Lord endured these things as well. May we never be ashamed at what
God's sovereign will is for our lives. May we never be ashamed
of what tribulation he has appointed us. When we know that we shall
have tribulation, what if God was to say to us, my child, you
choose what tribulation you shall have. Look at our family have
lost their children in a car accident. Would you like that?
Or look at that family that's got an afflicted child, they've
got to look after them right into adulthood. Would you like
that? Or would you like blindness? Or would you like to be deaf?
Or would you like to be dumb? What would you like? You'd be
hard-pressed to choose, wouldn't you? How much better that the
Lord should choose out for us the path in this life And really
we read this, that he shall choose our inheritance for us as well. And if he has chosen our inheritance
and that which is in heaven and that he is our portion and we
are his portion, how much better that we have that eternal portion
in Christ than our portion in this life and our goods and our
wealth and our health in this life and a good name and a good
reputation. speak well of you for so they
did the false prophets. The righteous then are in a position
where they have a heavenly friend and they have one of whom they
love and he loves them And though it may be through many trials,
in Psalm 107 we read at the end of all of those changing scenes,
where they fell down so often, there was none to help, then
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. We read, who so is wise
and will observe these things, even they shall understand the
loving kindness of the Lord. It's a blessed thing. to go through
life's journey, to get to the end of that journey, and look
through many, many trials and many things that we passed through,
and to realize that none of them was a means of moving us out
of the way, that we've still held on our way, a token of being
amongst the righteous and we may be able to see as well those
that have had very similar trials and they haven't stayed in the
way. There's been a contrast and we've
realised the grace, the help that has been given us. We want
to look then secondly what it is to hold on our way. Our text says, the righteous
also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall
be stronger and stronger. If we hold on a way, or we keep
going in a way, and don't let go of a way, we've already been
put in that way. At the beginning we spoke of
the solemnity of continuing on in our trespasses, where we are
found by nature and by God's call and the new birth, we are
changed and renewed and put in the way of the Lord. And that
is the way that we are to hold on to. It is the way that God
himself has put us in by his grace and mercy in calling us. When he passes by us and bids
us live, when he quickens us into life, he puts us in the
way of life. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. A new birth takes place, we're
put into that way. We are given the way of truth.
Our Lord said to those that believe in John 8, if you continue in
my word, then you shall be my disciples indeed. You shall know
the truth and the truth shall make you free. And so we are
told in Ephesians that the truth is in Jesus. And when we are
born again, when we are quickened into life, we're put into the
way of truth, the word of God, the true, the living word of
the living God. We're also set in a way of holiness. God takes us from all our unholiness,
uncleanness, and though we still have much of that and it fights
against the new man of grace, Yet he puts us in the way of
holiness. Be holy, he says, for I am holy. Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. He puts us in the way of faith.
He is the author and finisher of faith. So we begin to see
what we can't see with the natural eye and to trust in what we cannot
see naturally. We trust in a wise, powerful
and understanding God, a God who cannot err and is too good
to be unkind. He also puts us in a way, a path
of prayer with the Apostle Paul. It was, Behold, he prayeth. Yes,
he prayed before as a Pharisee, but now he was praying as a poor
sinner. God be merciful to me, a sinner
would have been his prayer, the publicans prayer, not the Pharisees
prayer. Then he puts us in also the way
of duty. He shows us the way in which
we are to go, how we are to serve God, how we are to walk before
him and before men. And some of us, he sets us in
providence, he sets us in churches, he may set us as a deacon, or
as a minister or as a pastor, and he sets us in that path and
in that way. God does it. He also, he brings
us to a submission to the will of God. The one thing that Saul
of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul said, when the Lord began with him,
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Not, I am going to do
this and I am going to do that, please rub a stamp in, no, Lord,
what wilt thou have me to do? And so there's this admission
to the will of God and seeking to know and do the will of God
and walk in that way. And all these things are more
God does when he begins with a sinner, he puts him in the
way of truth. He puts them in the way of his
people, in the way of the flock of God. Paul says of the Thessalonians,
ye became followers of the Lord and of us. Those that were converted,
they didn't go back to their worldly companies and worldly
ways. They wanted to be with the Lord
and they wanted to be with his people. And so that way that
was put into is a way that in our text, the righteous also
shall hold on his way. So the Lord begins with a sinner.
He puts him in this way, establishes in that way, and then brings
in the trials, the troubles, all of the things against it,
which if that was just a person putting themselves in that way
and trying to imitate the people of God and imitate the ways of
the Lord, they'd be ashamed of it, and they would turn out of
the way. They would turn away from the
way of life. They would turn away from the
truth of the Word of God. They would turn away from holiness. They would turn away from faith.
They'd just look at the waves and the billows and the troubles
and all the outward things and listen to all that are said.
And instead of trusting to the Word of God, faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the Word of God. the ways and the billows,
completely overwhelm and overmaster them utterly. And if it was not God keeping
us, and He was not the author, then prayer would be completely
laid aside and forsaken. What was the use of praying?
God never hears my prayer, He never stops these troubles, afflictions,
he never appears for me, he never does what I want him to do at
all, and so the path of prayer is laid aside. The path of duty, how many have
given up, given up a path, an office, a passport, a path that
the Lord put them in, because the tribulations, because the
trials, were too much, they couldn't endure it anymore. They would
not submit to the will of God, rebel against it. Now I want
to say again that those things that come against the child of
God are a real trial. And it threatens every one of
these things. And sometimes we may be really
tossed just to the will of God. Sometimes our faith might be
so tried that we can hardly feel to trust him at all. Sometimes
you might see a young sapling or a tree and the storm comes
and the wind comes and it first blows one way and then blows
the other way. And you think, is this tree growing
upright at all? It's leaning that way one moment
and that way the other moment. But when the storms are over,
There it is, it's upright still. You think of dear Peter. Was he righteous? When you saw
him in the storms and with the winds and the waves in Satan's
sieve, it didn't look like he was one of the righteous, did
it? Forsook the Lord, denied him three times, he never knew
him, followed afar off, But see him at the end. Thou knowest
that I love thee. Thou knowest all things. At the
end of the trial, he was still a follower. We read a solemn
thing in John 6, when our Lord was teaching. No trials there,
it was just the teaching that was too hard. And they said,
this is an hard saying, who can hear it? And they went back,
they walked no more with him. didn't hold on their way, just
because it was teaching they couldn't palate, they couldn't
receive. What would they have done if
they'd had addition to that, their trials and tribulations
and sorrows of the way? No solemn thing. But we could start off in a way
and say we're born again and converted, and then we hear someone
clearly teaching the Word of God, and we rise up against Him. We say, I don't believe that,
I don't like that. If that's the God of the Bible, I'm not
going to serve Him. I'm not going to follow Him.
I want to live my life. I want to do what I want. I don't
want to be told that things I do are sinful and wrong, and I shouldn't
do that, and that's not good for my soul. And there'll be
a turning So when there is a holding on
his way, they have been set in a way by God, or they have been
in a way that appears to have been, they have been brought
into that way by God. And when the trial comes, those
fires shall try what the work really is, and the unrighteous,
those that are not Lord's people, will not again be found in the
way. They'll turn out of the way or
make a gospel and make a following that suits them and escapes the
cross. But the word of our text will
be perfectly seen to be true in the case of God's people.
The righteous also shall hold on his way. They shall keep going. in the way that the Lord has
put them in. Why? He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. I want to look then lastly, just
briefly, that not only to be hold on the way, but to actually
profit spiritually by our troubles. If it's chastening, Is it not
profit when we lose our sinful way and are brought back into
the good and hold on to that which is good? Now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth a peaceable fruit of righteousness to them
that are exercised thereby. And what about the beautiful
words in Romans, Romans, the Apostle, speaks several words
for the people of God in this way. It says in Romans 5 and
verse 3, not only so, but if you read from verse 2, by whom
also? It's by the Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand. and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also. This is what dear Job was in.
Tribulation might be what you're in as well. Knowing that tribulation,
great trouble, worketh patience or endurance and patience experience
and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed. because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Well, then we have in Romans
8 and 28, we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them that are the called, according to his
purpose, a beautiful word. And this encompasses these trials,
these tribulations. And when Paul comes to the end
of that chapter, he says this of the righteous or the us which
he is speaking of, the people of God, of which there is now
no condemnation, who shall separate us from the love of Christ or
who shall turn us out of the way and cause us to not hold
on our way shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, for
thy sake we are killed all the day long. Doesn't look an easy
path, does it? We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Knowing all these things, we
are more than conquerors through him that loved us. It's a beautiful
word. His persuasion that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so it gives us a way that
we can see these trials. They actually strengthen faith. They strengthen grace and hope
and endurance in adversities and trials. They prove the strength
and worth of prayer, not trusting self, but trusting in the Lord
and trusting in his wisdom. Job proved it. Daniel proved
it. The Hebrew children proved it.
All of God's children have proved it. that they are bettered and
strengthened. He that hath clean hands, or
he that in these trials, he's not turning aside to evil, he's
not running from the Lord or from his ways, but he's actually
getting stronger and stronger. He's benefiting from it, he's
bettered by the cross. The righteous also shall hold
on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger
and stronger. So may the Lord grant us this
token of being amongst the righteous. We'll feel our weakness, we'll
wonder at times how we ever stand, how we ever continue, and we'll
feel our need of continual help. Many fears, no doubt. That, like
David says, one day I will perish at the hand of Saul. Yes, he
really did say that. Fled into the land of the Philistines,
but he never did, you know. And the Lord, in spite of all
his unbelief, his doubts, brought him safely through. A man after
God's own heart, and he died, still trusting in God after all
the tribulations that have been in his life. And may we be the
same. May we be given grace and help
to hold on our way. Look to the Lord, look to he
which begun a good work in us. Look to him that put us in the
way. May we cleave to that way and
cleave to our Lord. Say with thee, O Job, though
he slay me, yet will I trust in him. May the Lord add his
blessing. Amen.