? To keep me from the trouble we
need to deal with ? ? What should we do when it's too late to deal
with? ? Good evening. This is one of
those hymns in the softback teminal we can only do once a year. So
let's all stand together, number nine. Number nine in the softback
teminal. Our Heavenly Father, God of love,
your kindness and your grace we prove. Our praise accept and
bless us here as we conclude another year. We praise you for your providence. You've been our shield and our
defense. And by your constant gracious
care, we've been preserved another year. By your spirit and your
power, we've enjoyed the heavenly shower. Christ Jesus did himself
appear among his saints another year. We here resign our souls,
our all, be pleased to take and use us all, and grant that in
your love and fear we may begin another year. Let us your grace experience
still To walk according to your will To live by faith in love
sincere As we begin another year Lord, hold us in the living way,
and when you call us in death's day, we'll gladly part with all
that's here, nor wish on earth another year. Please be seated. Wouldn't that be great? This
was the year. Was this a New Year's resolution?
Everybody moved up a few. I like it. I like it. Let's open our Bibles to Ecclesiastes
chapter 3 for our scripture reading tonight. Ecclesiastes 3. What
great hope and comfort we have in knowing
that our God does all things well and everything he does,
everything that happens is of him. To everything, there is
a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Our
God is a God of purpose. Everything he does has a purpose
ultimately is to his glory and the salvation of his people.
A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to plant, a time
to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to
heal. A time to break down, and a time
to build up. A time to weep, and a time to
laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to
dance. A time to cast away stones, and
a time to gather together, stones together. a time to embrace and
a time to refrain from embracing a time to get and a time to lose
a time to keep and a time to cast away a time to rend and
a time to so a time to keep silence and a time to speak a time to
love and a time to hate a time of war and a time of peace What
profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I have
seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be
exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful
in his time. Oh, the travails of this flesh.
We know that our God makes everything beautiful in his time. Also,
he has set the world in their heart. All we can see is the
events of the world so that no man can find out the work that
God maketh from beginning to the end. I know that there is
no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in
his life, and also that every man should eat and drink and
enjoy the good of all his labors, It is the gift of God. What does a prophet of man if
he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? That's what
the Lord is saying here. What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? There is the temporal which shall
be shaken and the eternal which shall never be moved. I know
that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can
be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God do with it that
men should fear before him. That which hath been is now and
that which is to be hath already been and God requireth that which
is past. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we are in need of you to bless us with the faith to believe
that you have a purpose in all things that you do and that you do all things well
and that all things that are done are done of thee. Lord, we confess that our Our anxieties and our fears
are not of you. You've told us that God gives
not the spirit of fear, but of power, power to believe, of love,
to love you, to love your people, to love your gospel, and of a
sound mind, a saved mind, a settled mind, one that's able to rest
in Christ. Lord, that's what we need. We
need you to minister that grace to our souls. Enable us tonight,
Lord, to hear thy voice. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together. Hymn number
186 from the hardbacked hymnal 186. Yeah. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth, her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food, And to one hope she presses, with every grace
endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. ? Yet she on earth hath union
? ? With God the three in one ? ? And mystic sweet communion
? ? With those whose rest is won ? ? O happy ones and holy
? ? Lord give us grace that we ? Like them, the meek and lowly,
on high may dwell with thee. Please be seated. Seems like this time of year
everybody's reflecting on the past and planning for the future. I suppose that as it relates
to temporal things, there may be some benefit to that thinking
about past mistakes and figuring out maybe how to learn from them
when it comes to temporal things. But when it comes to spiritual
things, the scriptures are clear that we're to forget those things
which are behind. When it comes to faith, faith
can only be experienced in the present. Can only be experienced. You can't have faith in the past
and you can't have faith in the future. How much of our time
we spend fretting over what might happen in the future and what
has happened in the past and we fail to trust God in the present. When we do that, we make of the
past and of the future a false refuge. We do. We're making a work out of it.
Oh, if I had done this or if I had done that. And we go back
and we figure out how life might be different if we had done something
different in our past life. And then we worry about what
we gonna do in the future how we gonna make things better how
we gonna at what we gonna do you see in it it all comes back
to what we've done or what we're going to do faith can only be
experienced in the here and now term me to flip his chapter 3
Philippians chapter 3 We're going to look at several
verses in the New Testament, and then we're going to go to
Psalm 77. And I hope the Lord will enable us to believe Him
right now and to realize that each moment of each day requires
fresh grace. Give us, Lord, this day our daily
bread. Walking in faith is not fretting
over the future, and it's not worrying about whatever was done
in the past. It's living in the here and in
the now, trusting God to do everything beautiful in His time. Philippians chapter 3 verse 13,
brethren I count not myself to have apprehended. Previous to
that he's talking about how the Lord has apprehended him, but
this one thing, this one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forth. That's a present moment
by moment experience reaching forth unto those things which
are before I press. I press, I follow after, I'm
running after the mark for the prize, the high calling in God, the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Let us therefore as many as be
perfect be thus minded. And if in anything you be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal this even unto you." That's what I'm
hopeful for. I'm hopeful that every time I
lose sight of Christ, that the Spirit of God will bring that
to my knowledge. That he'll show me that I've
taken my eyes off of Christ. I'm looking back The Lord said,
forget those things which are behind. Or I'm fearing the possibilities
of the future. Perfect love casteth out fear. And the spirit of fear is not
of God. He gives us the spirit of power
and of love and of a saved or sound mind. Those things can
only be experienced in the present. Let the world rehearse their
past lives and find some comfort in their accomplishments or let
them wallow in their guilt over their failures. We have the blood
of Christ to cleanse us of all of our sin. And our accomplishments,
whatever they might have been, we just read in Ecclesiastes
chapter 3, they're of no value. They're of no value. The Lord
holds our lives and He holds our future. And the only way
that we can experience His grace is to live in the present faith,
looking to Christ moment by moment. Let the world plan their events
for the future. We don't know what God's got
for the future. He'd just be Ecclesiastes chapter 3. You don't
know what the Lord's doing. You don't know what He's... But
you know you can't add anything to it And you know you can't
take anything away from it. That's particularly true when
it comes to the work and person of Christ, isn't it? We can't
add anything to Him. We can't add anything to His
accomplished work. We can't add anything to His
righteousness. And we certainly don't want to
take anything away from it. And this whole book concludes
with that admonition, doesn't it? If any man adds to or takes
away from the words of this prophecy, then the curses of this book
will be added unto him, or his name will be taken out of the
book of life. We don't want to add to or take
away. We just want, by God's grace,
to walk in faith. Hebrews chapter 10, that verse
we looked at Sunday. I missed a word in that verse,
or at least I didn't emphasize it when we looked at that verse.
Turn with me there just for a moment. Hebrews chapter 10. Look at verse 38 and take special notice of the
first word in that verse. Now, not yesterday, not an hour
ago, not tomorrow, not next year. Now the just shall live by faith. Now notice the first word in
verse 1 of chapter 12. Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith can
only be experienced now. That's what we need. Lord, I
need faith right now. I don't need to try to figure
out, you know, What I can do, you can't change the past and
you're certainly not going to affect the future. And to live
in the past or in the future is to have a false refuge. You're
trying to find comfort in the good possibilities of the future.
You're trying to find comfort in the accomplishments of the
past or find comfort in thinking that, well, if I do enough penance
for the things that I've done in the past, then that will...
You see, living in the past or the future is a false refuge,
the only place of comfort. The only place of hope, the only
place of life is living in faith now. Now. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
2. Verse 27, but the anointing which
you have received of him abideth in you. You can't abide in the
past. You can't abide in the future. Abiding is something you can
only do right now. And the Spirit of God has been
given to us that we might abide in Christ and that he would abide
in us. You need not that any man teach
you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and
is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you
shall abide in him." That's what you need. That's what I need.
We need to abide right now in present faith. Lord I need to
see you now I don't need to figure out what what what can be you
know what could be made better in the past or the future I need
I need you right now and now and now verse 28 little children
now abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before him at his coming Could this be the year of His
coming? Could tonight be the moment of His coming? See, I
want to be abiding in Christ when He comes, don't you? I don't
want to be surprised at His coming. I want to be watching and waiting
for His coming. And the only way that's possible
is for me to have present moment faith, abiding in Christ right
now. We spend so much of our time
and energy wasting effort in trying to figure out the past
and the future, don't we? Turn to me to Revelation chapter
12. Revelation chapter 12. Satan has been cast out of heaven.
He's been thrown into the earth in order to bring temptations
against God's people. He makes that clear. And all
of his efforts are thwarted by the Lord. He's called the accuser
of the brethren here. And in verse 10, And I heard
a loud voice saying in heaven, I want to hear that voice, don't
you? I want to hear the voice of God. I don't want to hear
my voice. I don't want to hear your voice. I want to hear a
loud voice from heaven. I want God to do for me what
he did for John. I want him to open the windows
of heaven and I want him to speak to my heart. And if he does,
here's what he's going to say. now is come salvation and strength
and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the
accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before
our God day and night and they overcame him how do they overcome
him by the blood of the lamb God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass by you. And I'm so thankful that when
my eyes are taken off of the blood of Christ, God still sees
the blood that the Lord Jesus Christ applied to my account.
But when my eyes are taken off of Christ, the accuser of the
brethren has his way with me. And what he's saying here is
that they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. Only as God
enables us, through faith, to look to the shed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, to look to His sacrificial death, to look
to what He accomplished on Calvary's cross, are we able to overcome. They overcame Him by the blood
of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. What is the
word of our testimony? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Spirit. He's the testimony of the Spirit
of God. He's the one that the Spirit of God points to. He's
my persuasion. He's my testimony. He's my life
so that we can say that they loved not their lives unto death. That's what I need. I need present-day
faith. for the Spirit of God, the anointing
that we just read about, to cause me to look to Christ so that
I can understand what Solomon was talking about in Ecclesiastes
chapter 3, of how the things in this world, they're just passing
away. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Lord, don't let me invest the
my soul in this world I've got to live in this world but Lord
don't let me be of this world cause me to be of Christ to look
to Christ to rest in Christ that's that's what I need today I'm
you know I'm not I'm not here to try to preach a sermon about,
you know, the possibilities of the new year. The new year may
not even come. I'm here in hopes of reminding
us that this thing called faith has to be experienced moment
by moment. And we can't worry about the
future. And we can't fret over successes or failures of the
past for getting those things which are behind I press towards
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. That's what I want for you. That's
what I want for me. The Spirit of God is going to have to do
that for us. We will not do it. Our spirits are willing, but
our flesh is weak, isn't it? And if the Lord, if the Lord
doesn't constrain us by the love of Christ and cause us to look
to Christ, and he is, he's the balm in Gilead. He's the leaves
on the tree of life that are for the healing of the souls
of the saints. He's the one we need. Turn with me if you will now
to Psalm 77. I want to take just the next few minutes to look
at this psalm as this speaks to what we're talking about here.
It's the psalm of Asaph and he says in the first verse, I cried
unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and He
gave ear unto me." Now there's a precious promise. Can you believe
that? Can you believe that no one has
ever cried out in faith to Him that He didn't hear their voice? His answer might always be the
answer we want, but He always hears. And He does that which
is right in His sight. Sometimes it's a time to kill.
Sometimes it's a time to make alive. Sometimes it's a time
to rend. Sometimes it's a time to sow. Sometimes it's a time to gather
stones. Sometimes it's a time to cast
stones. He does everything beautiful in his time. Cry out to him.
Call out to him. Moment by moment, day by day.
In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. Now, I have no idea
why the translators put the word S-O-R-E in this verse. Everywhere else this Hebrew word
is found in the Old Testament, it's translated hand. Hand. And you might have it even in
the margin of your Bible that it says hand. It says that in
my Bible. You don't have to, but here's
the point. In the day of my trouble, I sought
the Lord. My hand ran in the night and
cease not, my soul refused to be comforted. I was double-minded.
and unstable because I was calling on God and he was answering me
and I was believing him but at the same time I was trying to
figure out how to fix it with my hand. Is that your experience? Toss and turn at night trying
to make plans for tomorrow. Trying to figure out how you
gonna fix the problems that how you gonna fix the mess you're
in. How you gonna change this and
how you gonna change that. That's exactly what we do. We're
just conflicted, aren't we? And he's describing this warfare
that goes on between the spirit and the flesh. And it's always
going to be there, but here's the thing about it, to recognize
it is everything. See, to think, for you to be
able to say yes and amen, that's my experience, that's what I'm
doing and it's not good. That's what's important here.
It's not to think I'm ever going to quit doing that altogether,
but to acknowledge that it's not good and it's a lack of faith
and it will cause you to cry out for God to give you more
faith. I remembered God. and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed. So here I am tossing between
faith and works, agonizing over the decisions that I made in
the past and fearing the possibilities of the future, putting my hand
to it and at the same time trying to believe God. Thou holdest my eyes waking,
I am so troubled that I cannot speak." That's what this does,
doesn't it? The conflict that we have between
trying to take control of things and fix things on our own. Let's
not lose sight of the fact that the most important thing we're
talking about here is the salvation of our souls. Not just the temporal
events of this life, but the salvation of our souls. trying
to figure out if there's some hope of righteousness within
us other than the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the biggest conflict
we have. I have considered the days of
old to be the days of old. The years of ancient times. I'm living in the past. I'm looking
back. I'm considering the things that have happened. I call to
remembrance my song in the night. What is our song? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
song, isn't he? He's the only one that can lighten
the soul. He's the only one that can give
us peace. He's the only one that can cause us to rest. He's going
to go on to describe that in just a moment. Look here. I call
to remembrance my song in the night. I commune with mine heart
and my spirit made diligent search. Is His mercy clean gone forever? Doth His promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? This is our conflict,
isn't it? He's talking about the same experience
you and I have every day. When we believe God, Lord, I
do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. My unbelief
is every bit of my flesh. I said, this is my infirmity. This is my infirmity. Is that
your infirmity? You cannot reconcile law and
grace. You can't do it. You can't reconcile
grace with works. But that's what we try to do.
We're going to put our hand to it. We're going to figure it
out. We're going to fix it. We're going to add to what Christ has
done. And so we're in this infirmity. If it is of grace, it can no
longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
It's all of grace. It's all of God. Faith is all
we have, and the only time faith can be experienced is in the
present moment. Right now. Right now. Now, the semicolon in the middle
of verse 10 really is a change of thought. Again, I don't know
why the translators didn't start a new verse here, because this
is really... now it's going to shift. He's
talked about my infirmity. He's talked about this conflict
between law and grace. He's talking about this conflict
that I have within me between the spirit and the flesh. And
he says, this is my infirmity. But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most
High. There's my hope. I've got to
look back to Christ. I've got to see. Look, I will
remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders
of old. I will meditate also on all thy
work and talk of thy doings. I'll remember that God established
a covenant of grace before time ever began. And he placed all
of his elect people in Christ in that covenant. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is that lamb that was slain before the foundation.
I'm going to remember his years. He's called the Ancient of Days
in Daniel. And so we're looking not just
at the years of His life here on this earth, but we're looking
at His, well, He's the one that's immortal. He's the one that's
eternal. He's the one that's immutable.
He's the only wise God. And now what Asaph is doing is
he's saying, in this struggle that I'm having between my spirit
and my flesh, all I can do. It sounds like what Josaphat
said in 2 Samuel 2 Chronicles chapter 20 when he said, Lord,
the battle's not yours, it's God's. The enemy's too strong
for us. We don't even know what to do.
except to turn our eyes upon you. That's what I want. That's what I want. That's what
I want God to do for us. And the prophet said, Lord, if
you turn me, I'll be turned. I'll be turned. This is not an
admonition for you to turn yourself. This is an acknowledgment of
what our problem is. It's the sin that doth so easily
beset us. It's unbelief. It's the cause
of every conflict we have. Every problem we have is rooted
in unbelief. I'm so thankful the Lord gave
the penman of Scripture the honesty to just express their conflicts. Aren't you glad the Apostle Paul
wrote Romans chapter 7? Aren't you glad? I will remember the years of
the right hand of God. Now you know who the right hand
of God is. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called the Ancient
of Days in His eternal, immortal, invisible nature. And then we're to remember His
incarnation. There was a time, 2,000 years
ago, when He took on the likeness of sinful flesh. born of a woman,
born under the law, the word became flesh and he tabernacled
among us. And what's the rest of that verse
say? And we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten
of the father, the only one that's full of grace and the only one
that's full of truth. And so Asaph is saying, I don't
know what to do except to look to Christ, to look to the right
hand of God, the one who is the ancient of days, the one who
came into this world, the one who in his youth was doing the
will of his father. Did you not know, he said to
Mary, that I must be about? The Father's will? The Father's
work? The Father's purpose? What was
His purpose? To fulfill the law. To satisfy
God's demand for righteousness. To perfectly, well, make the
law, as Isaiah said, honorable. You and I can't make the law
honorable. But he did. He made the law honorable. So
now there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Those who are in faith are able to look to Christ. The law's
got nothing to say. The law's been silenced. Moses
has been buried and nobody knows where he's at. Aren't you glad? Conceived of the Holy Ghost.
Holy, perfect. In his earthly ministry, never
a man spake like this man. Oh Lord, I want you to speak
to me like that. I wanna hear your voice in my
heart so that it's louder than every other voice of man. I wanna
be able to say never a man spake to me like this man. He spoke
truth to my heart. He comforted me. He convinced
me. He encouraged me. He enabled
me. He's God's right hand and He's
my right hand. He's my strength. I want, Lord, for you to do for
me what you did for those disciples when they were on the Sea of
Galilee and the scripture says a storm came up and the boat
was taking on water and they thought they were going to perish.
And where was the Lord? He wasn't worried about anything,
was he? He was asleep in the back of the boat and had to go
wake him up. Lord, cares not now that we perish? Oh, you have little faith. all
you know that's your problem that's my problem little face
I'm glad he didn't say all you have no face we do have a little
faith I want my face to grow what I need more faith increase
our face all you little faith and he spoke and the winds quit
and the sea became like glass And what did the disciples say?
Who is this? Who is this man that even the
seas and the wind obey his voice? Lord, I need for you to calm
the anxieties of my heart. We want Him to take away some
of the conflicts. We're going to see that in just
a moment in this passage. But the Lord's way is through
the sea. And He stirs up these storms
in order to get us to look to Him in our hearts that our hearts
will be calmed. And He's not going to calm our
circumstances until He first calms our hearts. That's true. If you wait for your circumstances
to get calm before your heart gets calm, then you're just going
to be relaxing in a time of peace. You're not going to be resting
in Christ. That's so true, isn't it? That's
just the truth. Lord, enable me, calm the seas
of my heart, and then I'll trust you, Lord. to know what is good
in your time to do in my circumstances. The Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
he said, he thought that God's mercy was clean gone forever.
That he had forgotten to be gracious and he was angry and there was
no tender mercies. This was his infirmity. And then
he said, I will remember the years of the right hand of the
Most High. I will remember that he preached the gospel to the
poor. He healed the brokenhearted. He gave deliverance to the captive
and recovery of sight to the blind. He set at liberty them
that are bruised and he brought in the day of Jubilee. He set
all the slaves free. He paid off our debt. He restored
so much more than what was lost in our father Adam. And then in his passion. I will
remember the years. Of the right hand of God. I remember
him in the agent of days. I remember him in his youth.
I remember him in his life. I remember him in his passion.
What did he do? He bore all the sins of all of
God's people in his body upon that tree and God plunged the
sword of his wrath into the heart of his own son and satisfied
his divine justice once and for all. Put him away. As I said
Sunday, I believe I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
the salvation of His people. I believe that. There's no question
in my mind about it. But I find no personal comfort
in that truth. I need to know that He did it
for me. And that's going to come only
as He blesses me with the anointing of His Spirit and speaks peace
to my heart and causes me to believe that my sins have been
put away. the days, remember the years
of the right hand of God. Remember that God would not allow
His Holy One to see corruption. Remember that He raised Him by
the power of God from the dead, conquering the grave, conquering
death, not to have to fear that anymore. He's the firstborn among
many brethren. He ascended back into glory.
He's seated at the right hand of God. He ever lives to make
intercession for us. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. Let not your heart be troubled. The trials and troubles
of this life cannot be compared to the glory that I've prepared
for you. I'll come again, receive you
to myself. Where I am, There you may be also. Verse 14, Thou
art the God that doest wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength
among the people. That's what he's doing right
now, I hope. I hope that's what he's doing right now. He's declaring
his strength among the people. That's what I need. I need somebody
to herald the strength of God. Tell me what God says about His
strength and His power because I'm like a little child. I don't
have the strength. I don't have the ability. I don't
have the power. This battle is too big for me.
My sin overwhelmed me. Lord, I need I need somebody
to herald to me the strength of God. Look what he says. Thou
hast with thine arm redeemed. Notice the verb tense. It's very
clear. He didn't offer redemption. He
didn't make an attempt to redeem. He actually redeemed. He purchased his own people with
his own precious blood. He bought them with a price.
and they are redeemed. When he bowed his head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished, they were redeemed. Everything necessary for the
salvation of their souls was accomplished through the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast with thine arm, now
he's calling the Lord Jesus Christ his arm, his right hand, his
arm, thou hast redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph.
Not sons of Esau. Not all men. You accomplish the
salvation of God's elect. Jacob. Oh, poor Jacob. The supplanter, the deceiver.
Jacob, just like you and me, was a man of flesh. Verse 16, the waters saw thee,
O God, the waters saw thee. They were afraid and the depths
also were troubled. Now in Revelation, he's talking
about, here he's making a reference to that dead, to the Red Sea,
when the children of Israel came through the Red Sea. That was
a picture of our salvation being delivered from Egypt. and the
waters saw the God and they moved out of the way and in Revelation
chapter 12 that verse we looked at a moment ago if you look at
it the scripture says that the devil opens up the floodgates
and pours out waters in an attempt to drown the people of God and
God opens up the earth and lets the waters go down into the earth
the waters saw thee and they moved out of the way These things
will not overcome you. They will not. Not if you belong
to the Lord. They won't. He'll open up the
earth and He'll cause the waters. The waters are afraid at Him. The clouds poured out water. Now that's what I need. I need
waters from heaven. I don't need the floods that
Satan sends in order to try to drown me. I need the waters from
heaven. I need God to open up the windows
of heaven and shower me with the blessings of His grace, the
presence of His Spirit. The sky sent out a sound, and
Thine arrows also went abroad." Here's God fighting our battles
for us. He's wetting the arrow with the
blood of the enemy, and He's defeating the enemy, and He knows
where every chink in their armor is, and He knows how to defeat
them. just like Ahab. You know that Assyrian who shot
an arrow at a chance, just shot it up in the air and it came
down right between the shoulder blades of Ahab and killed him. The voice of thy thunder was
in the heavens, the lightnings lighted the world, the earth
trembled and shook. I know that your life is like
my life. The things that shake us, the
things that are so loud in our ears and in our hearts are the
troubles that we have. And what God's saying is, my
voice is louder. That's what I need. I need a
voice that's louder than the voices of my flesh, the voices
of my sin, the voices of this world, the voices of my doubts.
I need a louder voice. I need a voice that speaks from
heaven. to drown out all these other voices. And look at verse
19, thy way is in the sea. And in Revelation, the scripture
says that when we get to glory, we're going to find out there
is no more sea. The sea is a picture of turbulence,
troubles, trials that we have in this world. The sea is a picture
of separation. The continents are separated
by the seas, aren't they? So that it's not easy to travel
from one place to the other in the world. And it's a picture. God says, my way is in the sea. There's going to be tribulation.
There's going to be trouble in this world. But be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world. And there's going to be some
separation. We're going to experience those first nine verses of this
chapter in terms of thinking that God's grace is clear gone.
He's going to, He's going to, in periods of time, He's going
to withdraw the awareness of His presence. He said, I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. That's faith. Faith is the only
thing that can hold on to that because there are times when
we can't feel His presence. We think, your mercy is clean
gone. Lord, have you forgot to be gracious
towards me? No, He hasn't. But He withdraws the awareness
of His presence in order to cause us to seek Him. To seek Him. Thy way is in the sea. and thy
path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known."
You have no idea what's gonna happen tomorrow. No idea what's
gonna happen next year. Man makes his plans, God orders
his steps. We don't know where the Lord's,
we don't know what the future holds. We know who holds the
future. Look at verse 20. Thou lettest
thy people like a flock. Just a bunch of dumb sheep. Chris,
I don't know if y'all have any sheep on your farm, but sheep,
I've watched them in different places in the world, and they
just follow the shepherd wherever the shepherd goes. They're just
a herd, just dumb sheep. And that's the Lord saying, I'm
going to lead you. My rod, my staff, they'll comfort
you. And look what he says, I'm gonna
lead you by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron, the
law giver. The only thing we need to know
about the law is number one, we haven't kept one jot or tittle
of it, and number two, he kept it perfectly. That's what we
need to know about the law of God. He kept it perfect. He's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So
I'm gonna lead them by reminding them that they can't keep the
law. Christ kept it for them. And you don't want anything to
do with Moses unless you got Aaron by your side. We need a
priest, don't we? We need a priest to make a sacrifice
for a covering for our sin We need one to intercede to God
for us, and that's our Savior. He's our high priest. He's our
Aaron. I'm gonna lead them. I'm gonna
lead them by the hand of Moses and Aaron. I'm gonna lead them
like a flock. Where he leads, I don't know. Don't know what he's got in store
for you or me tomorrow, tonight. If we're going to walk by faith,
faith can only be experienced in the present. You can't have
faith in the past and you can't have faith in the future. Don't
go to those false refuges. That's all they are. Trying to
take comfort about, you know, what you got planned for tomorrow. walk we now Romans chapter Hebrews
chapter 10 verse 38 now the just shall live by faith now faith
is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not
seen oh God keep me abiding in Christ now. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful for the revelation of truth from your word, and
we thank you for your sweet spirit that speaks hope and peace to
our hearts. And, Lord, we pray that in those
times when you are pleased to to leave us in the in the wallowing of our own belief
or our own unbelief, that we would do as ASAP did and remember
the years of the right hand of God. Lord, that you would restore
us and cause us day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment to
abide in Christ. Trust you, Lord. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 294 and a hard back to him. Now let's
stand. Savior, like a shepherd lead
us, much we need thy tender care. ? In thy pleasant pastures feed
us ? ? For our use thy folds prepare ? ? Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus ? ? Thou hast bought us, thine we are ? ? Blessed Jesus,
blessed Jesus ? Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. We are thine, do thou befriend
us, be the guardian of our way. Keep thy flock from sin, defend
us, seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
? Hear, O hear us when we pray ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
? Hear, O hear us when we pray Thou hast promised to receive
us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve
us, grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee. Early let us seek thy favor,
early let us do thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior,
with Thy love our bosoms fill. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still. I'll look at it and text you
when I look at it.