You know, as believers, we find
ourselves very often in situations, circumstances in life where there's
just trouble. There's trouble on every hand,
and perplexing trouble. It's trouble that the Scriptures
just don't give us a clear, concrete, Don't give us a clear, concrete
direction as to what to do. And we have prayed, and we have
asked God, and we have sought God's wisdom, and we have sought
peace from God, and we don't have it. God hasn't given it
to us. And we began to think, well,
this probably wouldn't happen to me if I was a believer. Or we start to thinking, well, it must be because of some sin
I've done that this is coming upon me. Or we began thinking, God's just
not going to answer me anymore. He's prospering that neighbor. He's prospering this neighbor.
He's... But He's not hearing me. He's
not listening to me. He's ignoring me. We may have an employer like
we talked about this morning in the first hour. We may have
somebody dealing harshly with us. We may be in some trying
situation with a husband and a wife or some kind of situation
between being without a job. These things that we've all encountered
together here, some that are known, some that are not known,
some things that We can talk to one another about,
and there are some things we just can't talk to one another
about. And we begin to think, Lord, you're just not listening to
me. But that's never the case with
one of God's children. Never the case with one of God's
children. when we turn our attention to the troubles, and we turn
our attention to the circumstances, and we turn our attention to
the length of time that we've had to bear with the troubles, and we judge from the outward
appearance of those things whether or not God is for us,
with us, or whether or not He's against us. We almost always
make a mistake, almost always judge wrong, almost always discern
wrong. The cure to that is faith and hope in our God,
in the Lord Jesus. Our text today is God's answer
to His chosen remnant in Israel, in Judah, in the day that they
were carried away captive into Babylon. Now, you put yourself
in that spot. Everything is broken down. It's taken from you everything
that you had as a nation. The temple, the place you went
to worship, the brethren that you worshiped with, everything
is taken from you. And you're a captive. You're
captive. And they begin to fret, and they
begin to murmur, and they begin to judge from those circumstances,
from that outward appearance of things. We're talking about
the believers. We're talking about that elect
remnant whom God had in their midst. They begin to say, God's
cast us off. God's cast us off. And this is
His answer. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment
is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? Hast thou
not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There
is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the
youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and
not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
First thing, consider this. Consider who you are. Consider
who you are. Now let's be honest, and I'm
talking here to you who know the Lord. I'm talking here to
you who believe on the Lord. Consider who you are. He says,
verse 27, Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? That's
the name of every chosen, redeemed, regenerated child of God. Did
you know that? Every child of God in ourselves
are Jacob. And by God's grace, we're Israel. And he says here, why do you
say this, Jacob? You know what Jacob means? It
means supplanter. It means trickster. What are
you, believer, in yourself? What are you? You're grass. You're a supplanter. You're a trickster. You're sin. That's what I am and that's what
you are in ourselves. Why did God show you any mercy
in the beginning? Look over at Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Why did He
show any mercy to Jacob? Verse 11. For the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, unto Rebekah,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. It wasn't by your will or your
running or anything in you that caused God to show you any mercy.
You're a trickster, a supplanter, a sinner. Why then would we look
at ourselves and think because of the circumstances or the outward
appearance of things that God is for us or against us? If I could look at my circumstances
and my outward appearance and I could say God's for me because
of those things? As soon as those things are gone,
I lose any confidence God has for me. But if all my confidence
is in the grace of God alone, in His free mercy to me alone,
nothing in me whatsoever, then even when the sun refuses to
shine, I have this confidence. I'm trusting grace on me. I'm
trusting His grace alone. My only hope is God be merciful
to me, be gracious to me. But Jacob's name was changed
to Israel. You know what that name means?
It means, as a prince, thou hast prevailed with God. How did Jacob
prevail with God? Well, it certainly wasn't because
Jacob chose God. We just read that. You know what happened to Jacob?
Jacob was religious. His mama went and told him this.
Jacob was religious. Jacob tricked his brother and
he got the birthright from his brother. As far as his father
Isaac was concerned, Jacob was going to get everything. He even
went and tricked his father and got the blessing from his father.
But you know when Jacob really personally himself had his name changed to Israel?
Was when the Lord came to Jacob and the Lord wrestled Jacob. The Lord came to where Jacob
was and Jacob didn't wrestle the Lord.
I can remember, I do this now with my children, and you can,
you that have older children remember doing this, and I do
this with my children now, I remember my father doing it with me. Come
on, Dad, let's wrestle. And we'd get down in the floor
and we'd wrestle. And I'd jump, and I'd jump on him, and I'd
wrestle him, and I'd do him all over, and the whole time, he
would just turn me upside down, put me over behind his back,
flip me around, pin me down on the ground. And I thought I was
really wrestling Him. But I wasn't wrestling Him. He
was wrestling me. And He could pin me just like
that. And that's what happened to Jacob.
The Lord came to Jacob. And the Lord began to reveal
Himself to Jacob. And the Lord began to wrestle
with Jacob. And the Lord touched Jacob. and
put his bones out of joint and pin Jacob so much so that all
Jacob could do was hold on to him and cry out and say, bless
me, bless me, please bless me, I'm not going to let you go until
you bless me. You know when you cried out for
God to have mercy on you and was pleased that God saved you
no other way than that it be by His mercy and His grace apart
from anything in you, anything you've done or anything you would
do. You know when you did that? When God came to where you were
through the Spirit and He pinned you. He wrestled you down. And
He broke your bones and put them out of joint. He made you to
latch on to Him and cry out and say, Lord, have mercy on me. That's how Jacob prevailed with
God. That's how every sinner prevails
with God. We don't prevail over God. We
don't outpower God. We fall on our face before God
and say, I'm worthless, nothing, have mercy on me. And God will
have mercy to a sinner in need of mercy. He'll have mercy to
a sinner in need of grace. He brings us to that place. That
mercy he showed Jacob was mercy he had already given to Jacob.
He told his mama before he was ever born. It was mercy that
Jacob was going to have. And it was mercy that God was
going to see to it Jacob would have. And so he came to where
Jacob was and he wrestled him down and made him beg God for
mercy. And then he gave him the mercy. It was mercy, mercy, mercy
all the way through. And he said, now your name is
Israel. Your name is Israel. You prevailed
with God as a prince. He showed him a ladder. He showed
him a ladder that bridged the gulf between this sinful earth
and God. That's Christ He showed him. Here's the point. since it was
God who chose His people, since it was God who came to where
we were and revealed Christ in us and made us cry out for His
mercy, since it's God that does this for us, we can be sure,
brethren, that He that hath begun this good work will perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ. You know, whenever Israel, the
children of Israel, were in Egypt, They were in bondage. They were
in chains. They couldn't do anything about it. And the Lord came to
them and delivered them. He brought them out, put them
out there in the wilderness. And they began looking around
and they began to think they could do anything. They had come
out of Egypt. They had come out of that bondage.
They had crossed the Red Sea. They had come out. God gave them
His law and they said, we'll keep it. We'll do anything. And
it wasn't very long. They didn't have something to
eat just right away. They didn't have water just right
away. And they began to look at all those circumstances and
those outward things, and they began to say, Moses, you just
brought us out here in the wilderness to slay us. But God provided
for them that whole time in the wilderness. Their shoes didn't
wear out. Their shoes didn't wear out.
Well, here they are now. in Babylonian captivity, surrounded
by the enemy, completely surrounded by the enemy. Nope, back to where
they started, where they really always been, in the flesh. But those whom He had called
by His grace, those whom He had saved by His grace, had no reason
now to look at those outward circumstances and think anything
different had happened because God was still with them. And
He brought them right there where He brought them to show them
I'm your salvation. I'm your salvation. And so it
is for you, brethren, right now in this world. Where you are,
God puts you where you are. And He teaches us not to judge
by feeble sense. He teaches us not to look on
feeble sense. Judge by feeble sense. But look
to the Lord. Look to the Lord and trust Him
alone. Now that we're known of God,
And by that knowing of God, that intimate creating of life within
us by the implantation of the seed of God's grace, now that
we're known of God, truly regenerated of God, been made to see what
blessings we have in Christ Jesus, it's just as much unbelief for us to look at the things
around us and look at whether we're prospering or not prospering
and look at the judge by outward appearance to determine if God
is for us or against us as it would be for us before we ever
knew God and thought because we had done A, B, and C that
we were the children of God. There's no difference. It's unbelief. It's unbelief. Well, why sayest
thou, O Jacob, Why I speakest, O Israel, and say my way is hidden
from the Lord. My judgment's passed over from
my God. Listen, do you believe God? You
trust Him. You believe Him. He's called
you. You rejoice in Him. Listen, no
matter, no matter, remember this, God never, He never, He never
forsakes His children, ever. It's by His grace that they are
His children. It's by His grace they're made
to know they're His children. And it's by His grace that He
keeps His children. Look at this second thing. Now
consider that. Consider it from who you are.
You're Jacob in yourself. You're sinner in your flesh.
But by His grace, you're the Israel of God. You're His child
of His mercy, His elect, His chosen, His redeemed, His regenerated.
That wasn't of you or me. That was of Him. Now let's consider
Him. Let's consider God, second. Verse 28, hast thou not known? You know, you've heard. You've
heard. Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord,
the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He reminds
us here of his name. This is his name. How am I going to be comforted
by him? By his name. What's His name? The Everlasting God. Everlasting
God. That means He's immutable. It
means He's unchanging and He's unchangeable. That means His
gifts and His calling are without repentance. If He's ever given
you a gift of His grace, if He's ever called you by His grace,
He won't take it back. He won't take it back. He's the
Everlasting God. Look at His name here. The Lord. Jehovah, self-existent, self-wise,
all-knowing, all-powerful God of heaven and earth who rules
all things in heaven and earth, the creator of the ends of the
earth, the maker, the upholder of all things, even to the extremities
of the earth. Hast thou not known? Hast thou
not heard? You've heard of Him, haven't
you? We know we've had, I don't know, six or seven sermons from
this chapter. And you know what we've seen
from this chapter? We've seen just how big God our Savior is,
and just how tiny and insignificant we are. We've seen just how much
salvation is of the Lord, and just how much you and I are grass. That contributed absolutely nothing
to our salvation. Look, look, remember this. He's the comforter of his people.
We have any comfort? Where'd it come from? Spiritual
comfort, true comfort. He's the comforter of his people.
He's the captain of our warfare. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
captain of our warfare who says their warfare is accomplished. He's rewarded his people with
what? Righteousness. You know what
we earn? Wages of sin, death. He rewarded
His people with righteousness. Your iniquities pardoned, I've
rewarded you double for all your sins. That's what He says to
His people. You heard Him say that? I've heard Him say that
to me. If I ever heard Him say it to
me, ever heard Him say it once to me, I can be sure He's not
going to go back on it. Not going to go back on it. Our God's the mighty Savior.
His glory is His reward. His glory is His own righteousness. His glory is His own work and
what He's done. He's the Good Shepherd who laid
down His life for His sheep. He's the Good Shepherd who leads
His sheep, who feeds His sheep, who preserves His sheep, who
protects His sheep. He's the same Savior who came
and walked this earth and accomplished the salvation of His people.
It's the omnipotent, all-powerful God of heaven and earth, the
Creator. The same God that looked down upon the nations. And when
we compare Him and we see the nations, He said, the people
before me are as nothing. They're as grasshoppers. He's self-sufficient. He's the
God of the whole world. And the world's got nothing to
offer him. I got nothing to offer him. You got nothing to offer
him. Absolutely nothing. He's God. It can't be compared to anything.
Can't be compared to anything. Everything we've ever tried to
liken unto him is just idolatry. He's sovereign, ruling everything
in heaven and earth. Now, consider this about Him. Look at verse 28. Verse 28, it
says, now think about this. This is what He says. Hast thou
not known, hast thou not heard, that this One, the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth
not, neither is weary. He doesn't get tired. He doesn't
weary. Man who puts so much trust in
our will and so much trust in our way and so much trust in
our wisdom, so much trust in our power. You know what we're
gonna do? We're gonna sleep at some point. We're gonna sleep
at some point. You know what we're gonna have
to have? We're gonna have to put our trust
somewhere else. That's right. We're gonna have to put it in
a dead boat. We're going to have to put it
in a lock on the door. We're going to have to put it in Smith and
Wesson by the bed. We're going to put our trust
in something else because we're going to go to sleep and fall
asleep. And we're not going to be able to protect ourselves.
But the God we're talking about here, He doesn't ever sleep.
He never is weary. He never faints. You think your
way is hidden from Him? You think that judgment, the
right as a child of God, is taken from you because He hadn't answered? It's not because He's fainted.
It's not because anything is too out of His power. It's not
because He's sleeping. Look at verse 28. There's no
searching of His understanding. We don't understand the way God
goes about performing the things that he does for our good. I
can remember, I try to think of something in particular, and
I just can't think of a particular thing to illustrate this, so
I'll just give you the general thought. But I can remember,
I can remember walking around with my dad when I was younger,
and him telling me, you know, today we're gonna do such and
such, son. I said, okay. And I'd start walking around
with him, following him around. And I would see him doing things
and going about the day. And for the life of me, I'd sit
there and look and I'd say, how in the world is this getting
that done? How are we doing that? Why is
he doing this thing? But he told me what we were going
to get done, and this don't look like that at all. But you know what he always ended
up doing? We ended up doing what he said we were going to do.
And I ended up at the end going, ah, I see why we did that. I see why he did it the way he
did it. Now it makes sense to me. But
you know what? It's just absolute ignorance
for a little boy to just sit there and go, don't do it that
way. Let's do it this way. Don't do
it that way. Let's do it that way. But you
know what little children do? They go around asking their father,
what are we doing? Now, why are we doing it this
way? Not to tell him what to do, just
to find out what he's doing. And he'll make it known when
he's pleased to make it known. And when it's all said and done,
we'll see, aha, I see why he did it the way he did it. There's no searching of his understanding. Well, look, this next thing,
it says here in verse 29, He's all gracious to His children.
Verse 29, He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have
no might, He increaseth strength. He does. He gives. He gives.
He gives. He increases. He increases. Who
does? He does. He gave His only begotten
Son freely. What did He give in His Son? If you know His Son, you know
He gave you everything. He gave you everything. He gave us righteousness freely. He gave us justification freely. He gave us acceptance with a
thrice holy God freely. He gave us spiritual life freely. He's given us the hand of His
ever-protecting providence freely. He's given us all things that
we have freely. And it cost me, this wretched,
despicable sinner, it cost me nothing. And it cost His Son everything. But if He freely gave you, and
He truly freely gave you everything, Freely in his son by his son
through his son. He will freely give you everything
he has he has he has He gives power to the faint and he increases
strength I want you to turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter How does He give power to the
faint? How does He increase strength?
Who's the power of God? Christ is. Christ is the power
and wisdom of God. When did He give you power? When
did He give you Christ? When did He give it to Jacob?
When did He give Christ to Jacob? When He made Jacob have no strength
in Jacob. When He revealed Christ in you,
when He made you to see, you didn't have any power in you.
This faith and this power that men are going about talking about
today, it's not faith and power. It's man's faith and man's power. How do you know? Because a child
of God that's met the power and wisdom of God don't talk about
his own power and his own wisdom. He's met Christ, the power and
wisdom of God. He's met the faithful one. He doesn't go around bragging
about his own faith. Well, how is He going to work
this work? And He's going to bring us to
have no power, and He's going to bring us to faint, and He's
going to increase power and increase strength. How does He do that?
Look at 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure." Who gave that? Who gave that? Who gave that to Paul? If God didn't give it, God's
not God. If it came to Paul out of God's
power and out of God's direct ruling of all things, God's not
God. If it came out of God's power,
God gave it to him. Why'd he give it to him? Why'd
he give it to him? He gave it to him to increase
power and increase strength in Paul. You know that's why he
gave it to him? Why am I suffering what I'm suffering? If I'm a child of God, I'm suffering
what I'm suffering because God is going to give me power and
He's going to give me strength. But before He gives me power
and He gives me strength, true power and true strength, you
know what He's going to do? He's going to make me see I've got
no power and I've got no strength. Verse 8, For this thing I besought
the Lord three times, that it might depart from me. Isn't that what we do? Oh, we
do, don't we? The thing God's given us to us.
Paul just said why he gave it to me. He gave it to me so I
wouldn't be exhausted above measure. And he said, but when he gave
it to me, I just begged God, take it away from me. But it
was the thing God gave to him, wasn't it? It was what God gave
him for God's purpose, for Paul's good. Look, and the Lord said
unto me, verse 9, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength,
there's where the strength is, my strength is made perfect in
weakness. You know, when we read this word
perfect, we do something, we do well to understand this, this
word perfect It doesn't mean here that when you read that,
do you think that reads that God's strength is increased,
that God's strength is grown, that God's strength comes to
be something else through weakness? No, it means He brings His people
to the end of themselves, and He makes you to behold where
is the perfection of strength, where is true strength, where
is all strength. When he says perfecting holiness
in the fear of God, that's what he's talking about. having these
promises. Brethren, leave the idolatry
of our faith. Come to the end of your flesh.
Come to the end of that and behold our holiness in Christ the righteous,
in Christ the Holy One, in the reverence and fear of God. See
where your true standing is. See where your true righteousness
is. See where your true sanctification
is, where your true holiness is. And so it is here, he says,
my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is, you're made
to see my strength when you're absolutely weak, when you don't
have any. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. And Paul said, most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power, the power, see
the power, of who? Of Christ may rest upon me. the
power of Christ may rest upon me." And Paul, because of that, he
was made to say, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens
me. All things. So look back now at Isaiah 40.
Isaiah 40, verse 29. He giveth power to the faint. And you see what that is? You
see who that is? It's not a thing, it's a person.
It gives power to the faint, to those that are made weak.
And to them that have no might, He increases strength. He makes
us to see He's the strength and He's the power. Well, I want
you to consider the blessings of that. Lastly, first of all,
here's a word that we need to heed. This is a word to the one
whose strength and power is in Himself. He says this, verse
30, Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men
shall utterly fall. You know, a young man, it's natural. Born of man, this is what we
think. Strong, young, ten foot tall and bulletproof. We can
do anything. Everything. But there's nothing
worse, no worse case of that than somebody who is his own
power, and his own wisdom, and his own strength, and his own
sanctification, and his own righteousness in matters dealing with God.
There's none worse than that. He really thinks he's ten foot
tall and bulletproof. He really does. A fleshly, righteous,
self-righteous man thinks that. He likes to stand in the mirror.
You ever seen, Sarah, you ever seen one of your brothers do
this? After they've been downstairs lifting weights, they come up
standing in front of the mirror and try to act like they're tough
and got big muscles. I bet you John's never done that. You know what a self-righteous
man likes to do? He likes to stand in front of the mirror
and flex the muscles of his righteousness and admire the biceps of his
holiness and admire all the the abs of his self-righteousness
and his walk and his power and his might. You know what it is? I thought of Tiny. They're wash
tub abs, that's what they are. Not wash board abs, they're wash
tub abs. Any man trusted in himself, the
power of his might. That youth and that might and
that power of a self-righteous man, it's going to wither, it's
going to fade, and it's going to come to absolutely nothing.
Absolutely nothing. One of the old preachers said
this, Do you despair of being saved because you're so weak?
I hear people, you know, you've run into people, oh, I'm just
so weak, I'm so weak. Always, I'm so weak, I'm so weak,
I'm so weak. He said, if you are, you're not
weak enough. Not weak enough. Our thoughts of strength are
stumbling blocks to us. That's where we stumble. But
when you're really weak, That's never a stumbling block to us. When you're weak, you'll grab
on to the life preserver with all your might. When you're really
weak, you will let go of every stone and everything you're trying
to hold on to, and you will let that one that's come to rescue
you do whatever, have you, take you. Turn, you do whatever He
says to you, you do. Because you know, this one's
come to save me. I've got no power and I've got
no strength. God saves those who have no might
and no power. No might, no power. When we were
yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. ungodly. You know what it is? The weaker
a sinner is and the more ungodly a sinner is, the more glory God
gets for saving them. You know how much glory God gets
for saving those He saves? All of it. You know what that
means? They're all ungodly and absolutely
helpless. All of them. All of them. But
you know what? Where do, where, I'm, when I'm
weak, I'm strong. When I got no mind, I'm strong.
You know when I'm weak? When I'm not truly strong? When I think I'm strong. That's
when I'm really, really weak. Now here's a word about true
faith. Verse 31. They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk
and not faint. They that wait upon the Lord.
You know what we used to have to do? And I'm just talking about my
day. Some of you might can remember something before this, but in
my day, you used to have to pick up a telephone. You had to walk
to the telephone somewhere stationary, hanging on a wall or in a booth. or to your neighbor's house,
somewhere that there was a phone. You had to walk to that phone.
And you had to pick up the phone and listen in the receiver and
wait till boyfriend and girlfriend up the road get through saying
how much they love each other, waiting on the other one to hang
up because he was on a party line. And you'd have to just
wait. And they'd sit there and wait
till they got through saying, you hang up. No, you hang up. No,
you hang up. No, you hang up. If I had to
get on and say, somebody hang up, I got to use the telephone.
And then you had to take your finger and you had to push it
around this round thing all the way around and wait for it to
go back around. Then you dial the next number
and wait for it to go back around. You dial the next number and
wait. And then, if that person you
were calling was on the phone, you'd get a busy signal and you'd
have to hang it up and wait. And the whole boyfriend and girlfriend
didn't get back on the phone. You have to wait more to go through
the whole process over again. Used to, if you wanted to see
TV, pick up something on television, you'd have to either turn rabbit
ears and try to get something to fade in or We had an old antenna,
and we'd have to send somebody outside. One person would sit
and look at the TV. One person would get out the
wall to knock on the wall, and the other person would be outside
turning the antenna. And now, you know what the slogan
was when I went through a course with Dell Computers? It was a
sales course. You know what the slogan was?
If you don't know what to tell somebody about a computer, about
a particular item about a computer, just tell them this, bigger,
better, faster. It's bigger, better, faster. That's what they want to hear.
Just tell them that. It's bigger, it's better, it's
faster. And we don't wait on anything. We get it now. I remember going to the store
and putting my eye on something, and my daddy saying, OK, put
it on layaway. And we'd drive up to the store
and I'd have a little money saved up and give it to them and we'd
go back home and I'd have to wait. Go up there and give them
a little money and I'd have to wait. Now we just put the plastic
down. I want it now. Now. It's sad that we live in a world
that we're not being taught to wait on anything. Wait on anything. This is how the Lord works. They
that wait upon the Lord. You know what that is? It's believing
Him. It's believing Him. It's casting
all your care upon Him. Whether it's going the way you
want it or whether it's going altogether contrary to the way
you want it. It's waiting on Him. Waiting
on Him. They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew strength. That word renew means two things.
It means change, substitute, exchange lesser for better. In other words, those that wait
on the Lord, those that have been given true faith to wait
on the Lord, you know what they do? They exchange something that's
a lot less for something that's a whole lot better. I exchange
having it the way I want it, when I want it, how I want it,
for God doing it the way He's going to do it. And that's a
whole lot better. And those that wait on the Lord,
the second thing it means is they are strengthened, they're
renewed, they're given strength. Paul said in the middle of having
that thorn, in the middle of having it, in the middle of that,
just all for the infirmity and the persecution, he said, I have
peace with God. I can do everything through God
who strengthens me. That's being renewed. And what
he brings to pass, they mount up, verse 31, with wings as eagles. They'll run and not be weary.
They'll walk and not faint. You know, when he delivered them
out of Egyptian bondage, he said, I have delivered you on eagles'
wings unto myself. That's right. You know what the world will
tell you? If you do all these things, you
can spread your wings and fly. He said, I'm going to bring you
on eagles' wings. Know who the eagle is and know
on whose back you're riding. You mount up with wings as eagles. You want to find some peace,
you want to find some comfort, you want to find some Look away from yourself. Look
away from the circumstances. I know they're bad. I know they're
bad. Look away from them. And look
to Christ. Just look square at Him. Look
at Him in His Word. Look at Him in His songs. Look
at Him in the songs you hear sung. Look at Him. Just look
at Him. Look at Him. Focus all your attention
on Him. and you'll exchange the lesser
for the better, and you'll be renewed in strength, and you'll
find out that he's your power, he's your strength, and has been
all along. And you'll find something that'll
be comfort, comfort to your soul, and you'll run with patience
then. You'll walk one way, one hope,
with one faith, in one direction. this afternoon, Lord willing.
I'm going to go over I was supposed to go back in at Christmas
and I got snowed in Lord willing. I'm gonna go this afternoon and
I'm gonna get on a plane over Philadelphia and I'm gonna go
to Arkansas and see my mom and dad. And they've been having
storms. We've been seeing all these storms
all across the country and We've had a lot of rain last night,
and it may end up raining again today. There may be more storms
today. But you know, Lord willing, get
on that airplane, and you sit down, and I'm not going to do anything.
I'm just going to sit there. And that pilot's going to take
that plane down the runway, and he's going to cock that thing
back straight up. And he's going to take off. And if it's raining, or if there's
storms across the landscape or whatever, he's going to take
that plane to a place to where we're going to get above it.
And we're going to be able to look out the window. And we're
going to be able to see some light. You ever been in a plane
where it was that way? Where it was just weather all
around you and just darkness. And you just take off. And that
thing takes off. And when it busts through those
clouds, it's just clouds. And it's white. And it's sun
shining. And there's not any darkness.
And you can just see. And it's just beautiful. That's what the Lord's telling
us. The songwriter said, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full
in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely
dim in the light of His glory and grace. Amen.