2 Kings chapter 6 and verse 13. And he, the enemy of Syria, Benadad,
that's who we're talking about, this is the enemy king of Syria,
he said, go and spy where he is, that is, Elisha, the man
of God, the prophet of God, that I may send and fetch him. He
wanted him dead or alive, and he wanted him. And it was told
the enemy king of Syria, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Now
before this, Elisha, God had healed Naaman the Syrian of his
leprosy through Elisha, through the word of Elisha. And in spite
of that good that was shown, This king of Syria wanted to
have Alashia destroyed because Alashia was confederate with
the king of Syria. Now Christ has come into this
earth and he has conquered all our enemies, all the enemies
of the elect of God for His people, God came in human flesh and was
made sin for us who knew no sin, making us the righteousness of
God in Him. And He comes forth now with His
Gospel and He calls out His children. And when He's calling us out,
He is healing us of our leprosy of sin, just like God did through
Elisha through the Gospel with Naaman. And because of that,
just like the king of Syria was angry at Elisha because he was
confederate with the king of Israel, because he was sending
forth the word and saving the king of Israel from Benidad's
trap that he was laying, Satan and all his hosts, all men who
were under the power of the prince of the air, hate this gospel. They hate Christ, they hate the
gospel, and they hate his people. And they do what the king of
Syria did here. They turn their full attention
and make the object of their wrath Christ's prophets and his
people And because they want to do exactly what the Pharisees
did when they walked this earth. Whenever the Pharisees walked
this earth, they were religious men. But this whole world that's
blind in sin operates the same exact way that the Pharisees
operated. They came seeking to have men
follow them rather than Christ. That's what the whole world is
doing. Every individual in it that's
unregenerate, that is enmity against God. Every man in this
world, religious or non-religious, is seeking for men to follow
them. and not Christ. We see it in our papers. We see
it in the news. We see it in everything, the
laws that are passed in this land. Everything is contrary
to the truth of God. It's against God. It's against
the gospel of God. And they came to entangle the
master in his words. They came to find something with
which they could accuse the disciples. They came to malign Christ's
character in his disciples' character. They came to undermine the gospel.
They came to seeking a reason to justify their rejection of
Christ our King before men. They came by night. That's what
the whole host right now in this earth are doing. Read verse 14
with me. Therefore sent the king of Syria,
their horses and chariots and a great host, and they came by
night and compassed the city about. So in this king of Syria
compassing the city with all his host and all his army and
his chariots and all his great number, I want you to see all
the enemies of God, all the obstacles that surround us, that are thrown
in front of us, pictured here in this king of Assyria, and
all his hosts round about the city. Why do men do this? The
Lord said, this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world.
And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
are evil. Their deeds are evil. Neither
will they come to the light lest their deeds be reproved. They come to the light and it's
going to be manifest. Everything that they've ever
done in the name of righteousness and making themselves righteous
is evil. And men won't do that. Men can't
do that naturally. And every man that says he walks
has fellowship with God, with Christ, with the light and walks
in darkness, contrary to God, contrary to his gospel, contrary
to his people. He is in darkness. He walks not
in the truth. Now, here's our promise, brethren.
Here's what the Lord has promised you and I, who He's called and
chosen by His grace. He's promised us that He will
suffer no man to do us wrong. He's promised that He will approve
kings for our sakes. He is commanded, saying, touch
not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. That's the
covenant promise of God. for us. But I want you to notice
here in verse 14, the place where they did this, I'm sorry, in
verse 13, the place where they did this is called dothan. Dothan
means two wells or double feast. And whenever the Lord When we
face all these enemies that we face, what the Lord is doing
is He's giving us a double feast. He's giving us a double feast
as we drink out of the well of salvation. The enemy intends
it for our harm. The enemy intends to turn us
from Christ. But God turns that into a double
feast for His child and causes us to drink double out of the
well of salvation. How so? First thing He does is
He shows us that Christ will put down all our enemies. And
the second thing He does in putting down all our enemies is He makes
us to see more and more that He is our full provision of grace
and that God is our exceeding, Christ is our exceeding great
reward. That's what He teaches us. Now
I want you to see three things here in the passage. God teaches
us, first of all, the danger of natural sight. Look at verse
15. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early, this was a young man who was serving
God under Elisha. When the servant of the man of
God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host compassed
the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said
unto him, Alas, my master, How shall we do? So the first thing
we're going to see is the danger of looking with these eyes. The
second thing we're going to see is that the Lord uses these enemies
to teach us the value of spiritual sight. Look at the next verse,
verse 16. And Elisha answered, Fear not,
for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. Except Elisha had spiritual sight,
he couldn't have told this fearful young brother this good news. Now here's the third thing we're
going to see. He teaches us that this spiritual sight is the gift
of God. Look at the next verse. And Elisha
prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may
see. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man and he saw. And behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Now let's look at this first
thing. The Lord is going to use all the enemies we face in this
world. It's why He made the world. It's why He put us in this world.
He's going to use all the enemies we face in the world to teach
us not to walk by carnal sight. The danger of walking by carnal
sight. Let's read it again. Verse 15. of the man of God. He's the servant
of Elisha. He rose up early, and he went
forth. And behold, a host was encompassing
the city, both with horses and chariots. He sees all these enemies
round about that city. And this servant went back to
Elisha, and he said, My master, how shall we do? What are we
going to do? Every believer is like this young
man. Every believer is like this. We're servants of God. This young
man was a believer. He was serving God under Elisha. He was eager to serve God. He
got up early and he was ready to do what God gave him to do
in the cause of Christ. That's what every believer is.
But the believer has two kinds of sight. We've got two kinds
of eyes. We got these natural eyes where
we see things naturally speaking all around us. And these eyes
do one thing. Get this now. These natural eyes
we have do one thing. They feed our old man. They feed
the old man of the flesh. But we have spiritual eyes. We
have eyes whereby we see spiritual things and discern spiritual
things by God's grace. And these eyes, the eye of faith,
is whereby we're fed spiritually in the new man. Brethren, there's
one thing that we do see with our natural eye. And what we
do see with our natural eye, and this is only by God's grace
given us spiritual discernment, we see enemies all around us. We see enemies just like this
young man saw. And it makes us fearful. In fact,
the believer is more fearful of the enemies that we see than
the unbeliever is. Because God in His grace has
shown us and taught us that there's no sufficiency in ourselves. There's no strength in us at
all. God's taught us that. He's broken
our self-confidence and our self-strength. And He's made us to cast our
care on the Lord. And He's made us conscious of
this as a little child is. Just like little children are.
And he's taught us that it's impossible, absolutely impossible
for us to serve Christ, to stand for Christ, to stand in the integrity
of holiness, to serve in the cause of Christ, to do anything
to promote the gospel of Christ if it's dependent upon the strength
of our own flesh. It's absolutely impossible. We
simply can't do it. We just can't do it. And what
we see with our natural sight, he's taught us in the Spirit
this, that what we see with our natural sight is not even the
half of the enemies that surround us in supernatural realm, in
spiritual realm. Paul said we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. But we see in this man, we see
in this young man what happens when we look at things with carnal
sight. He got up early. He was ready to go to work for
the Lord. He was ready to do something for Elisha. And as
soon as he saw these enemies, he came running back and he said,
he said he was fearful. He was full of doubt. He was
full of fear. He was cast down and he came
back and he said to Elisha, what are we going to do? There's nothing
we can do. We're completely, thoroughly,
totally surrounded by the enemy. The natural sight sees the danger,
but never sees the deliverance. Natural sight sees the danger
but does not see the deliverance. There are many times that we
fail to see how plenteous God provides for us and will provide
for us because we look with the wrong eyes. We look with the
wrong eyes. We set our sights too much on
the difficulties that are in the way. We set our sights upon
those that oppose us. And Satan's very subtle. Satan
would have you look to those things. Satan would have you
to deem yourself very wise to look at the things that would
hinder us from trusting the Lord. That's his desire. But the difficulties
and the opposition that we face, that's just opportunities for
God to show us his power and his glory and his greatness. The true enemy is not those that
we see with these eyes. That's not the true enemy. The
true enemy is unbelief. That's the true enemy. That's
what we gotta be saved from. The young man was being taught
exactly what every child of God is being taught by God continually
every day as we walk through this earth. You know what it
is? The Lord's teaching us the value of spiritual sight. The value of spiritual sight.
That's the second thing we see here. Verse 16. Elisha answered,
fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them. You know how Elisha was able
to answer that way? He saw. He had spiritual sight. He could see. He could see. Faith,
true God-given faith, is so much more valuable than this carnal
sight we have. You think about it. Our natural
sight grows dim with age, but faith grows by God's grace with
age. It grows. You think about this,
we can lose our natural sight. You and I can lose it all together.
But those in whom the Spirit of God dwells, by God's grace,
shall never lose the spiritual sight. He'll never let us to
lose sight of Christ who is our all. Natural sight ends in darkness. It ends completely in darkness.
But faith shall end when we see Christ as He is. It won't end
in darkness. We're going to see Him as He
is. Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that
be with them. God-given light. God-given sight,
God-given spiritual sight. It makes a believer able to comfort
our fellow brethren when they're fearful and doubting in unbelief,
when they're not seeing. God's ordered it that way. He's
done it that way just for us. Elisha saw the same thing that
this man saw. He saw that whole host of enemies.
He saw all the Syrian army with all the horses and all the chariots.
He saw them all around the camp. But he saw what the man didn't
see. He saw God's deliverance. He
saw this heavenly, angelic host surrounding them and ready to
protect them. That was more than that number
of that host of the Syrian. Fear not. That was his answer. Fear not. They that be with us
are more than they that be with them. He didn't rebuke him. He didn't scold him. He didn't
get on to him. He said, fear not. They that
be with us are more than they that be with them. That was a
good answer. That's how we uphold. That's
how we restore. That's how we bear one another's
burdens. That's the spirit, the rule we're
under, the law of faith that works by love. That's faith working
by love right there. I want to give you something
to think about here in this. What is it that you see with
the carnal eye that causes you to fear and to doubt? Is it because
we're sitting here in the dark? Is it because we're few in number?
Fear not, brethren, for they that be with us are more than
they that be with them. Is it because you see the the
great hosts of enemies and all the great host of obstacles all
around in the path before us? Fear not, for they that be with
us are more than they that be with them. You see, the realization,
the truth that God settles in the heart when He gives us this
heart of faith and makes us to see Him, what He gives us in
the heart is this. Ye are of God, little children. Ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, because greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world." Now you think about that. Little
children, ye are of God. Chosen of God the Father in Christ
Jesus unto salvation. You think he's going to let one
be lost that he chose? It can't be. Redeemed of the
blood of the Son of God that he which he purchased with his
own blood Do you think one's gonna be lost that he's bought
himself with his own blood? born of the Spirit of God Indwelt
by the Holy Spirit of Christ of God the Holy Spirit who's
irresistible who cannot be turned away which spirit can never be
taken from a child of God and Ye are of God, little children. You realize, ye are of God, little
children. His workmanship, and have overcome
the world. Not gonna, going to, have overcome
the world. How so? Because greater is He
that is in you. than he that is in the world. This is our hope. This is what
God makes to be a realization in our hearts when he causes
this faith to become a living reality within us and causes
us to see God and to see Christ reigning upon his throne of grace.
Our enemies are God's enemies. Every one of our enemies are
God's enemies. Every foe that we face is God's foe. He knows
the thoughts and intents of all our enemies. He knows, and he
just as easily as he allows them to huff and puff, he just with
the same amount of ease is able to turn them and make them run
away in shame and fear. Just that easy. Oh, fear not,
for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
I was going to have you turn to Scripture that would bless
your heart, but since we're sitting here in the dark, I'm going to
read these to you. If you can read them, you turn
to them. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. The body
of believers Christ has assembled Himself to bring glory to His
holy name. And as God has provided us all
righteousness in the finished work of Christ Jesus, who is
our head, as God has fitted us together, calling us from the
four corners of the earth. When I wrote that down today,
I thought about Brother Ravi coming and Debbie. And I thought,
I wasn't looking for them. I wasn't going out searching
for them. And yet, God calls them to hear us over the internet,
and here they are. He's called his children here,
out from way down south somewhere. I never in a million years would
have imagined I'd be living in New Jersey. Much less would never
would imagine I'd be preaching the gospel to you. God assembles
His people. He fitly puts them together.
Christ does this. And Christ is the head. So God,
by His grace, who's made this same provision for us already
in His Son, He's our security. And He's right here in this little
corner of the world with this little body of believers. And
this little body of believers is as much His body as the greatest
body of believers are. Look at Ephesians 1.23. Christ
is the head. And His church is His body. The fullness of Him that filleth
all in all. You see that? The church is His
body. The fullness of Him that filleth
all in all. Do you think our great Savior
is going to protect His body? I think He will. Look down the
page there at Ephesians 2.19. Now therefore you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also build
it together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Look
over at Ephesians 4 and verse 10. Ephesians 4 and verse 10. It says, He that descended is
the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he
might fill all things. Ephesians 5.23. Listen to this.
Ephesians 5.23. Christ is the head of the church. And He is the Savior of the body. Do you see this? He's the Savior
of the body. So lift up the eyes far beyond
all the enemies down below, far beyond all of the earthly host
of enemies that surround us. Lift up the eyes and behold,
you'll come to Mount Zion. You'll come to the city of the
living God. You come to heavenly Jerusalem. You come to an innumerable company
of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. You've come to those that are
written in the heaven, to God the judge of all, the spirits
of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the
new covenant, and the blood that speaks better things than that
of Abel. That means he's not going to allow anything to blemish
his body. He's not going to allow anything
to cut off the little finger of His body, because the little
finger, you who regard yourself as the least of His saints, the
least among the least of His saints, you, the little finger,
are as much a part of His body as the head, Christ Himself,
is part of that body. And He's going to protect His
body. Oh, we need brethren desperately. You know why we need brethren
desperately? You know why brethren need brethren in this world?
Because for every brother who gets up ready to serve the Lord
like this young man and goes out and beholds all the host
round about of enemies and becomes cast down and says, Alas! Oh,
what shall we do? I'm fearful, what shall we do?
There's another brother who God has just shown a fresh glimpse
of this angelic host round about who's able to say to him, fear
not my brother, those that be with us are more than be with
them. He's able to say to you, God is our refuge and our strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore shall we not fear,
though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea, though the waters roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Fear not. Those that are with us are more
than are with them. And then thirdly, whenever God's
teaching us this, He continually reminds us And He continually
teaches us that He's the only one that can give this gift.
He's the only one that can give it. Verse 17 says, And Elisha
prayed and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may
see. Here's this young man, just the
day before, went to bed talking to Elisha about what great things
he'd been seeing God had done for him, and talking to Elisha
about how sure he was of the salvation he had in Christ, his
King, and how sure he was that God's going to conquer all our
enemies. And he woke up that next morning early, ready to
serve God. And he ran out, and as fast as
he ran out, he'd come running back saying, we're completely
surrounded. And Elisha didn't say, I just
don't understand how he couldn't believe. I just don't understand
how in the world you could be talking like that and now turn
around and say you can't believe. Because Elisha knew full well
how he could do it. And Elisha had been given sight
to see so that he himself knew the only way a child of God is
going to have this sight and have this sight continually kept
up and continually renewed and continually revived is by the
gift of God's sovereign grace. That's how. And so he did the
only thing he could do. He prayed, I pray that he open
his eyes that he may see." First he spoke a word of peace to him.
First he comforted his heart, and then he asked God to bless
it. He asked God to give him eyes to see. He prayed that way
because Elisha saw. He prayed that way because Elisha
knew in and of himself that he could make this man see. He didn't
tell the young man something to do. And He knew that there
was nothing He could do to make him see. That's what prayer is. That's what true prayer is. Prayer
that's trying to get you to do something is not prayer. Prayer
that's being used to make you pray, that's not prayer. That's
preeminence, self-preeminence. That's not prayer. Prayer that
is true prayer is this right here. Elisha prayed and said,
Lord, I pray Thee open his eyes that he may see. That's a man
that can't do anything. That's a man that can't do anything
for this one who needs eyes to see, who needs to be revived
by the Spirit of God. He can't do it. And so he prays,
give him eyes to see. I've expressed my fear of the
young believers going off to college. And that fear is the same as
it would be If I was sending a baby who's just learning to
walk out to the street to pick up the morning paper. Your baby is in Christ. Baby
is in Christ. You've little experience. You
got little discretion. You got little understanding
of the craftiness and the subtleties of evil. The subtleties of Satan. Very little. And I've lived in
a city of teenagers. You see how easily this young
man was tossed? You see how easily this young
man was cast down in fear and cast down? How suddenly it happened? Preacher, don't you believe the
Lord's going to keep His people? I do. I believe fully He's going
to keep His people. But Elisha didn't say all run
headlong into the midst of those enemies. He prayed for the Lord
to give him sight to see where his true strength is. And that's
all I can do. All I can do is say, Lord, open
their eyes that they may see. Give them sight to see. To see
that sin is really sin. to see that transgression is
really transgression, to see that evil is evil, to see that
rebellion is rebellion, to see that the flesh has nothing good
in it, no strength in it, to see how easily and how craftily
Satan can turn you aside and cause much pain and much harm.
I know God's going to keep His people, but I pray you can be kept without
all the pain that I know some have suffered because they run
headlong. But all I can do is pray. And all we can do is say,
Lord, open. Keep them. Keep their eyes open.
Keep them seeing. Keep them by your grace. Because
we can't do it. We cannot do it. All we can do
is pray, Lord, you keep them. Keep them seeing Christ as the
most valuable, valuable thing, more precious than anything in
this world, more precious than the life that we have in this
world, physical life. More precious than all the riches
in this world and anything this world can offer is the gospel
of God's grace and the work He does through that gospel for
His people. Ambition is blinding and it's
a subtle crafty foe as bad as pride is. Oh, keep their eyes
open. And we don't pray this only for
those who see. We don't pray this only for those
who've already been called by His grace. We pray this for those
who have not yet been called by His grace. We pray this for
those who are yet dead in trespassing and sins and have no spiritual
sight whatsoever. Because by the same token that
we can't give this sight to our brethren, we can't give this
sight to one lost in sin. We just can't do it. Are you
yet arguing against God and His gospel? Are you yet fussing and
fighting and arguing and trying to contradict everything the
Word of God teaches? It's because you're not aware
of your own blindness. You're blind that you're blind.
That's the problem. Self-wisdom is blindness. Self-strength
is blindness. Self-righteousness is blindness.
Self-made holiness is blindness. Self-made liberty is total blindness. There's none deaf as those that
won't hear and none blind as those that won't see. And this
is the problem with sinful unregenerate man. He's not only, not only
can he not see, he's not willing to see. Not only can he not see
this glorious good news, he don't want to see this glorious good
news. That's the problem with the blind man and the heart so
desperately and deceitfully wicked, it won't let the blind man see
that that's the case with him. But that's the case with it.
This blindness we're talking about, it's not just a problem
with this physical eye. We're talking about blindness
of the heart. We're talking about blindness of the conscience.
We're talking about blindness of the will. We're talking about
blindness of understanding. Blindness of everything that's
spiritual. If there's somebody who's yet
blind, and they're objecting to my gospel, You are as unqualified
to express an opinion about something you have never seen as a blind
man is to argue with you about the color of an object. Totally unfit and totally unqualified
to object to anything. When the Pharisees objected to
Christ, you know what he said to them? He said, if you were
blind, you should have no sin. But because you say, we see,
therefore your sin remaineth. That's the problem with the blind
man. That's the problem with the blind man. Natural eyes are
for natural objects, and spiritual eyes are made for spiritual objects.
And Christ said, unless you be born of God, you cannot see the
kingdom of God. You can't even see the kingdom
of God. And he'll say in his pompous
arrogance, he'll say, well then preacher, why are you even telling
me this? I can't see, I can't hear, I can't understand anything. Why would you even tell me this
then? I'll tell you why. Because God
said prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Who ever heard of such? Who ever
heard of speaking to a bunch of dead bones and telling them
to hear? God said, He'll do the work. He said, you just tell
them what I've sent you to tell them. And He said, I'll do the
work. And you know when a man's going to look? We keep saying,
look to the Lord. Look and live. Look and live.
Stop trying to do and live. Look and live. But you know when
a man's going to look? When God's looked at you. When
we can be said, thou God seest me. Now mine eye seeth thee." That's
when you're going to see Him. When He looks with that life-giving,
life-saving power, that's when you'll be turned and you'll look
to Him and you'll find, ah, I live. Who ever heard of anybody causing
a blind man to see? But when God gives sight, all
men see clearly. I was talking to Brother Don
the other day and he gave me an outline. I might have to preach
on this sometime, but I'll just give you the outline for now.
One of his men, Rex Bartley, he got up and read a text of
scripture one night. He read one verse. After that,
he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up, and
he was restored. He saw every man clearly. And this was Brother Rex's comment.
God makes us see clearly the first representative man, Adam.
By one man's disobedience, death passed upon all men. When he
works this work of grace, he makes us see the last representative
man, Christ Jesus, clearly. By the obedience of one, shall
many be made righteous. When he makes us to see clearly,
he makes us to see our natural man. In my flesh dwells no good
thing, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
And He makes us see clearly our new man. He makes us to see Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Being born of God, born of His
seed, that incorruptible seed that remaineth in you so that
you can no more be lost and no more be cast away, though the
whole host of hell and all the enemies round about will try
to make it so. God shall open the eyes of every
one of His blood-brought children Not one of them will not see.
And every one of them shall have their eyes kept open. Because
he's the only one that can do this. With God, all things are
possible. And he does this. Look at the
next verse. I'll read it to you. Verse 17.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man. And he saw. And behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. All those enemies just had some
temporal, temporal chariots and temporal horses and temporal
hosts of men. But he looked with his eyes and
he saw a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire around about
him. Brethren, has God made you see
Christ? Has He made you see Christ high and lifted up? Has the One
who spoke and made light to be out of nothing in the creation
of this world, has He spoken into your heart and said, let
there be light and made the light, this glorious light of this Good
News of the Gospel shine into your heart so that you see His
glory in the face of Christ Jesus? So that you can say, All I know
is, whereas I was blind, but now I see. If you see him, if
you see him, and somebody says, how do you see him? There's one
thing we'll answer to him. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
am found. I was blind, but now I see. It's amazing grace that does
this work. Amazing grace that does this
work. You ever built a real big fire, had a big fire built, and
throw a piece of paper into it, throw a paper sack or something
like that into a raging fire? In just an instant, just like
that. It just turns into a ember that's
just floating on the force of that fire and just carried up
with it into nothing. Just that fast. Everything that
we see with these carnal eyes every enemy we face right now
with these carnal eyes Every enemy of God even the ones we
don't see all the hosts of hell We shall be turned into hell
and all the everything in this earth is going to be burned up
Just like a paper sack in a raging fire But Christ says because
I live you shall live also God says I'm with you Christ Jesus,
the Son of God, says, I'm with you. He says, I'll dwell in your
midst. I'll walk with you. I'll be with
you. I'll carry you. I'll carry those
that are with young. I'll carry the lambs in my bosom,
he said. I'll follow you wherever you
go. I'll clean up all the messes you make. I'll follow you, and
I'll keep you clean. I'll keep you washed. I'll keep
you walking in the way that you should go in. I'll keep you turned,
and I'll keep you directed. I'll keep your head lifted up,
ever looking to the throne of my grace. I'll keep you," he
said. And therefore, gird up the loins
of your mind. Be sober and hope to the end. Be steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord. Commit yourself to the
keeping hand of those hands that were pierced for you. And trust
He'll keep you. Trust He'll hold you. Who can
describe, who can come into even words to try to describe the
riches of knowing that God follows us in mercy all the days that
we walk this earth? Poverty? What poverty? Enemies? What enemies? Doubt? What doubt? Fear? What fear? I got God on my side. I got a
whole host of angels he sent to minister to us and to keep
us round about from all the hosts that would do us harm. Contrary to some, I'm not against
prayer. In fact, this is my prayer. Lord,
I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. Lord, open his eyes that he may
see. When God opens our eyes and makes
us to see, you know what happens? We see then that we can do all
things through Christ who is our strength and who strengthens
us. And when we see Him again with
that eye of faith, we can say like Elisha did to one of our
erring brethren and one of those cast down and out and say, fear
not, brother. They that be with us, they are
way more than those that be with them. And when you see Him, you
know what happens? We go out with joy, and we're
led forth with peace, and the mountains and the hills break
forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field
start clapping their hands. You see that sun come up in the
morning, and you see the sun of righteousness arising with
healing in his beams, giving life to everything that is, making
us sing like he makes the birds sing. When you see the storm
come and you see the lightning crashing, remember he says by
his lightning, by his voice in the wilderness, he causes the
hinds to calve. He causes the little pregnant
doe deer out in the woods to go into labor by his voice and
the lightning crashing. What do you think he does in
the hearts of his children when he speaks like lightning in the
heart? He breaks the stony heart. He melts the heart of doubt into
submission. And we follow Him. We start seeing
everything about us in Him. When we sit down to eat at our
table, we take that natural bread, we remember Him who is Christ
our bread. Who we need more than that bread
that's on our table. Everywhere you look, you start
seeing Him and rejoicing in Him. That's what we see with spiritual
sight. That's what we see with the eye of faith. Amen.