Okay, brethren, let's turn to
Hebrews chapter 12. The Apostle Paul had been writing
to the Hebrew brethren, and they had been taught for years with the tabernacle, with the
altar, with the priests, with the sacrifices. And now Christ
has come, and they've been called out, and they've been separated
unto Christ through the Word of Truth, through the Word of
sanctifying seed, the root, the help, the vine. And he gave a
great encouragement to faith through Hebrews 11. And then
he says this in verse 1 of Hebrews 12. We're foreseeing we also
are passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. He's been
talking about faith and he talks here about a cloud of witnesses. Later in the chapter, he's going
to say, we've come to the church of the living God, to the spirits
of just men made perfect, the church in Zion, in heaven and
earth. And we've come past about with
a great cloud of witnesses. We're talking about seeing by
faith here. And he says, let us lay aside every weight and
the sin which does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. I want to talk to you
this time about looking Lest. Looking lest. Look at the end
of verse 3. He says, lest you be wearied
and faint in your minds. The end of verse 13. He says,
make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. He says,
verse 15, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace
of God or fall from the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. And he gives Esau as an example. Lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. For you know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears. He sold everything, all the light
he had, everything he had for momentary, fleshly, earthly food. So he says to us,
look, look to Jesus. Last, last. When the contradiction
of sinners is against you, and it's great, look to Christ. Verse 3, he says, For consider
him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
ye be wearied and faint in your minds, ye have not yet resisted
unto blood, striving against sin. Sometimes the brethren feel
like Everybody is against us. We feel
like everybody. Great contradiction of sinners
against us. You notice that word resist here.
You've not yet resisted unto blood. Look over at 1 Peter chapter
5. 1 Peter chapter 5. Look at this in verse 8. Peter
knows something about what he's talking about here from experience.
And he's exhorting the brethren to submission and to cast all
your care upon the Lord, for He careth for you. And he says
this in verse 8, be sober, be vigilant. Because your adversary,
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he
may devour, whom resist. How do you resist him? Steadfast
in the faith. That is, looking. unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of faith, considering Him. And now watch
this word as well. Verse 9, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. Satan desires for you and I to
think that we're the only ones suffering what we're suffering. That the brethren Our brethren
don't suffer what we're suffering. Don't know what we're suffering.
He desired Eve in the garden to think that God was treating
her unfairly. That's what he wanted her to
think. She was being treated unfairly. As God said, in the
day you eat of that fruit, you'll die. You won't die. God's keeping
something from you. He's not treating you fairly.
He knows in the day you eat, you'll know good and evil. You'll
be like God. He's keeping that from you. And
so that question of doubt in her mind caused her to look at
the fruit with her eye. She looked at it and she began
to examine it. And when she began to examine
it, she found that which God told her would be death to be
pleasant to her eye. That subtlety of Satan is to
cause us to take our eye off Christ and to put our eye on
that where it ought not to be. Where God said, don't put it.
And the apostle knew exactly what he was talking about. And
the other apostles knew exactly what he was talking about. Because
whenever the Lord told him that Satan desired him, that he might
sift him his wheat, Just like Job, when they came
there, his sons and daughters came to worship, the devil was
there. He was right there before the
Lord told him, Satan has desire to sift you as wheat. He was
already there. How do we know that? Because
the Lord said, tonight, you're going to all forsake Me, because
it's written. It's the Word of God, it's written.
And you know what? They all began to think, none
of the affliction that they were suffering, they thought none
of the other brethren were suffering it. And it resulted in this,
Peter saying, they might, that might be written about them,
but that's not written about me. And they all began to argue
over who would be the greatest. And you know what was happening?
Each one was thinking they were being singled out. Each one was
thinking they were being neglected. Each one was thinking that the
Lord Himself was saying something that wasn't fair about them. Resist the adversary steadfast
by looking to Christ. Looking to Christ. In faith,
cast in all care on Him. He's the one that's caring for
us. He's the one that's going to deliver. He has, He is, and
He shall. And knowing that the same afflictions
that I'm suffering, my brethren are suffering. That's how it
gets one sheep off to the side. Lest we grow weary when we're
facing a contradiction of sinners against ourselves. Look to Christ
and consider Him. The government and all religion
was against him. All against him. The princes
and the rulers stood up against him. His own family members in
his own house, his earthly house, didn't believe him. They said
it was a feast of tabernacles. And they said, why don't you
go up and do these works there, in the midst of everybody? If
a man does these kind of works, he doesn't hide them away. He
goes up and he shows them. Because neither did his brethren
believe in him, Scripture said. Jesus said, My time has not yet
come. And he said, your time's always ready. The world can't
hate you, but it hates me, because I testify of it that the works
thereof are evil. And he said, go ye up to the
feast. And he said, I go not up yet unto this feast, for my
time's not come. He said, they're going to crucify
me when I make myself known. His own true disciples spoke
against him at times and ended up forsaking him when he was
on the cross. And all hell was unleashed upon him in man and
from the adversary himself. And he hung there between heaven
and hell all alone, absolutely alone, forsaken of God and forsaken
of men. And he stood there alone and
all fury was unleashed upon him. But when you begin to grow weary
and you begin to grow faint in your minds and feel like there's
a contradiction of sinners against you, remember this. You've not
yet resisted unto blood, but He has. And He did it for you. And He did it for you. For the joy that was set before
Him. He endured the cross. The joy
of redeeming His people, the joy of glorifying His Father,
the joy of having the glory that He had with the Father from before
the world began. He endured that cross. That will
help us endure it, won't it? He despised the shame of it.
Don't we despise The shame that we are and the shame that everything
we don't want to do, we do. And what we would do, we don't.
And we despise that about ourselves. Despise the shame. He despised
the shame of what he was bearing. But he sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God, because God satisfied with him. God satisfied
with him. And He satisfied toward you for
whom He died, you who believe on Him and trust Him, though
you face much contradiction of sinners in this world. We start
thinking about that, and that roaring adversary wants us to
think we're the only ones suffering that. We get faint in the mind,
don't we? Think on Him. Meditate on Him. Let your mind settle on Him.
It becomes a great weight to us. The contradiction becomes
such a weight and a heaviness on us. Look at this though. Look
at 2 Corinthians. Look at 2 Corinthians verse 4. Look at verse 17. Paul is talking about what he
endured and the different contradiction of sinners against him. And he
says, let's read verse 15, for all things are for your sakes
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God. And he said, for which cause
we faint not. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward is renewed day by day for our light affliction. It's heavy, isn't it? He said,
lay aside the weight, the weight that so easily besets us. But
when we begin to consider Christ, it's a light affliction. It's
but for a moment, but it's working for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. You know why? It's causing us
to cast our care on Him. That's why. That's why. And the burden becomes lighter. It becomes a light affliction.
Not right now while we're suffering it, but it shall. The more we see Him, the more
we know Him, it shall. And look here at the next thing.
Back in our text there, even though we suffer, even though
that we have a contradiction of sinners against ourselves,
remember this. Remember the faithful father. Look here in verse 5. You've
forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint
when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what
son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.
And he says, furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much
rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own
pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of
his holiness. You know what that means? That
he might separate us from the evil. in this world, the evil
of our sin, the evil of our unbelief, the evil of all unfaithfulness
and unrighteousness, and make us partaker of Christ Jesus,
our righteousness and our holiness, that we might be made partakers
of the divine nature, that we may be partakers with Him of
His holiness, separated, brought out from it and brought into
the house of God and into His protecting hand. No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. We're lame, aren't we, at times?
He says, Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in the
feeble knees. This is a good reason to rejoice. This is a good reason not to
grow weary and faint as we're trying to run this race, and
our hands get weak, and our knees get wobbly, and we get faint. Make straight paths for your
feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but
let it rather be healed. We're lame. And sometimes we're
more lame than at other times. When we think we're strong, we're
very lame. And then, this is a great, great
thing to rejoice in, is that He's not going to let us be separated
from Him. He's not going to let us be turned
out of the way, but He's going to bring us back into the way
and keep every one of His children in the way. so that we're separated
from our lameness and we come and we behold our strength. And
then He says, now you, lift up the hands of them that hang down.
You make straight paths. Clear out the path for them and
declare to them what God's doing. Declare to them that the Father
chastens every son He loves. Don't forget this now. Don't
forget that it's God's protecting hand that's keeping us from being
separated as every other child of the world is separated and
just dealing as common man deals with one another, in religion
and out. Christ is that way. He is the
narrow way. Broad is the way that leads to
destruction. Narrow is the way and few there
be that find it. But know this, if you found it,
it's because your Father has brought you into it. And He's
not going to let us be turned out of the way. Just not going
to let us be turned out of the way. He's going to use Three
things to keep us in the way. He's going to use everything
in providence. All the trials around us, everything
that's going on around us. Our Heavenly Father, our Lord,
the Sovereign of Heaven and Earth. He's able to work all those things,
good and evil, together for them that love God. To them who are
called according to His purpose. He works every one of them together.
And He's going to do it. He's going to give us teachers
who are going to use His Word and they're going to teach us
this Gospel. I have teachers teaching me. That's right. He's going to use all things
in providence and He's going to use our teachers to teach
us. And He's going to speak He's
going to sanctify the trial and He's going to sanctify the Word
together through the Spirit of God in our hearts and that still
small voice is going to say, now this is the way. This is
the way. And it's never pleasant at the
time when He's doing it, it's grievous when He's doing it.
And you know what we want to do when He's doing it? We want
to try to save ourselves from the trial and spare ourselves
the suffering of the trial We want to remove our teachers into
a corner somewhere and not listen to them. And we want to try our dead level
best to resist the Spirit of God. I'm thankful we can't resist
Him. I'm thankful And He won't take
no for an answer to them He put in Christ, to them Christ redeemed,
and to them He's called by His grace. He's brought us into the
way. He's going to keep us in the
way. And He's going to use everything in providence. He's going to
use the teachers He sent. And He's going to speak in our
hearts by the Spirit of God. And He shall not fail to keep
us in the way. You know, look over at Isaiah
chapter 30. This is the same word that Isaiah
was declaring in his day. The Gospel doesn't change. Same
word he declared in his day. And at the same time, God worked
all the trials. And He sanctified this to the
hearts of men like Hezekiah, And He's called him. We've seen
this, how He did this. But look now, we saw this in
Isaiah 30. Look what He said in verse 20.
He's going to hear the voice of your cry when you call. He's
waiting, but He's doing everything at the same time He's waiting.
And when He hears you cry out to Him, After he's done everything,
look what he said. Though the Lord give you the
bread of adversity and the water of affliction. That's the trials. Yet shall not thy teachers be
removed into a corner anymore. There's the teachers. He worked
this work of grace in Isaiah's heart and Isaiah stood there
firm, resolute, and just kept saying the same message over
and over and over and over. But thine eyes shall see thy
teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee." There's
the Holy Spirit, the still small voice speaking into the heart,
saying, this is the way, walk ye in it when you turn to the
right hand and when you turn to the left. And this is how
He's going to make us defile the covering of our graven images.
And this is how He's going to give seed. What did He say? Give the rain of thy seed, verse
23, that thou shalt sow the ground with them. You know it's hard? This is how he gives the seed
to sow to his teachers. Does all this same thing to them.
And then he does it in us and sanctifies the whole thing in
us and he gives us seed to sow with. Doesn't He? And He gives
us a rain of it. Rain of it. And He makes us to
have bread of increase of the earth. And everything is fat
and plenteous and we feed in green pastures. And this is all
by His hand. And then what does He tell us
to do? Look over at Isaiah 33. This was all the same thing,
same gospel in Isaiah's day. And Isaiah was declaring, this
is what God's doing. He's our Father. Now watch, verse
7, Isaiah 33, 7. I'm sorry, Isaiah 34. I'm sorry,
Isaiah 35. We're gonna get it in a minute. Isaiah 35, verse 3. This is after he worked all that
we've been seeing take place and how he caused him to see
the king and his beauty and see the father's hand, how he was
faithful and he didn't. He gave him the water of bread
of affliction and the water of affliction. He kept those teachers
there and he sanctified it. And then he said this to them,
strengthen ye the weak hands. Confirm the feeble knees. Say
to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense. He'll come and He'll save you.
Now look back at our text in Hebrews 12. He said, it's grievous
to bear at the time when all this is going on. But He said,
nevertheless, afterwards, verse 11, it yields peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore,
this is what He says, to me, to you individually. He says,
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, lift up your hands
that are hanging down, and your feeble knees, and make straight
paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned
out. Where is he telling you to run?
Run straight to Christ. Run straight to your Father,
lest you who are lame be turned out of the way. And at the same
time, when you rejoice and you behold what the Father's done,
He says, now, you say to them that are fearful, them that are
lame, them that are wobbling, you say to them, fear not, fear
not. God's coming. He'll come with
vengeance. He's going to save us from our
enemies. He is the Father who won't let
His lame children be turned out of the way. You know it by experience. Now you can say, I'm telling
you, I know He won't do it. I know He won't do it. And you
can lift up the hands that hang down and the feet and the wobbly
knees. Have you ever seen a child who
is being spanked or being, being,
they used to, when we used to be riding along, my daddy would
say he'd pull over and cut a switch off the side of the road. And when he would be, whenever
a father would be switching, child, child just hug up on the
father. And you can't, you can't, the
father can't switch him. When he's hugged up on you, you
can't switch him. He's hugged up on you. That's what he's, hug up on him. Run, hug up on him. And he, you ever see a child
who in the house, once you, one is weeping and he's, You're crying
and you see the other children in the house, your own son or
daughter go up to them and comfort them. That's fruit. That's fruit. That's what He's telling us. That's what He's telling us.
Well, here's the third thing. Now in the midst of all of this, He was telling them
to be strong in the faith. He was telling them to hold fast
to their profession. And in the middle of all this,
there was those skinsmen after the flesh who were Jews who were
trying to say, look, for the sake of peace and unity, why
don't y'all just come on back over here to the synagogue? Won't
you just come on back over here with us? And he says this in
verse 14, and this is the third thing, flee to the fountain of
all grace amidst all our infirmities. We have, we are not sufficient
for this. Look at what he says in verse
14, follow peace with all, all men, and holiness, and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently
Where are we looking? We're looking to Christ. Looking
to Christ. Looking diligently lest any man
fail of the grace of God or fall from the grace of God. Lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many
be defiled. Now, there will always be roots
of bitterness. Opposition to the Gospel. Those
who say you're a troublemaker, you're not a peacemaker. Contradiction of sinners. We
saw it throughout the book of Hebrews. That's what he began
talking about in Hebrews 10. You endured a great fight of
affliction. Hebrews 11, he gives us a great cloud of witnesses
who endured the same trials, torture, all kinds of things.
We've been seeing it throughout Matthew 13. Roots. Roots growing up. But if we attempt
to make peace without the sanctifying seed of the Word, sanctify them through Thy Word. Thy Word is truth. This is what
this word holiness is. It's that we've been taken by
the Father and taken out of that crooked way, that broad way and
brought and made to be partakers with His holiness. Sanctified
in Him. Made partakers of Christ. Separated from the evil through
the Word of Truth. Now, if we attempt to make peace
without truth, without the sanctifying Word of Truth, we follow after
peace but not holiness. No man is going to see the Lord. The Spirit of God is birthing sinners through the
Word of Truth, through the Gospel. Through the Spirit and the Word,
a man must be born again, Christ said. And He said, I sanctify
myself that I might sanctify them. And He says, and I pray
not only for them, but I pray for them that shall believe on
Me. He's the sanctifying Word through
their Word. You see, He is our holiness.
He is our separation. He is the way by which we don't
deal, the way the world deals, and the methods the world uses,
and the means the world uses. But how we, let me say, pure
in heart is what we're talking about. To be able to see God
pure in heart. And peacemaker, being a peacemaker,
these two go together. Peace and holiness go together. It's a pureness of heart. It's
being born of the Spirit of God, sanctified by the seed implanted,
imparted into us. The root, Christ the root. And that's what makes us peacemakers,
brethren. But the world doesn't call that
peace, which the believer calls peace. And so, just as pureness
of heart, be turning to Matthew 5, just as pureness of heart
and just as being a peacemaker is all one, so is persecution
one. Matthew 5, 8. Blessed are the pure in heart,
this is the Lord speaking, for they shall see God. Without this
sanctifying work of God in the heart, nobody's going to see
Him. This is Christ. Without Him working this work
of grace in the heart that we might behold Christ, we're not
going to see Christ through the Spirit. He had to be made pure
in heart to see Him. And blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Now follow after
peace with all. Christ is the peacemaker and
He is the peace. And Christ is that seed, that
sanctifier, that holiness that is the pureness of the heart
of the believer. Follow after both, not one or
the other, but both. For they shall be called the
children of God. And here's going to come some persecution. Blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. That's what Paul's been telling
us throughout Hebrews 11. Hold fast. Hold fast. There's going to be roots of
bitterness, but if the salt has lost its savor, try to make peace
at the expense of truth. There's not going to be any peace
made. Nobody's going to see the Lord.
They're not going to see the Lord. You won't. They won't either.
You remember what He said in Matthew 13? Look there with me.
Matthew 13. He's talking here about a root
of bitterness. How are we going to be saved
from that? Christ is that sanctifying seed. He's that sanctifying root. Look
here in Matthew 13 verse 20. He that receiveth the seed into
stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon
with joy receiveth it, yet he hath not root in himself. But he endureth for a while,
for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word,
by and by he is offended, troubled. Bitter root rises up, persecution,
tribulation because of the Word, and he is offended. So, who's
sufficient for this? How am I and how are you going
to follow after peace and holiness? Peace, not at the expense of
holiness. Peace, not at the expense of
this truth whereby we've been separated from the evil and brought
into. How are we going to be kept there
and have sufficiency there to follow after peace and holiness
with all men even when the world will oppose you. How are we going
to do that? Look at Hebrews chapter 4. He said, looking diligently
lest you fail of the grace that's needed. You know, when these
things happen, when we do suffer that, everything that we must
be, we cease being. in the infirmities of our flesh.
And everything we must not be, that's what we end up being in
the infirmities of our flesh. Where do we get our sufficiency?
Where do I, where do you, where does every believer, without
exception, where do we get our sufficiency? Look at Hebrews
4. He says, verse 12, The Word of
God is quick, is powerful, is sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and
open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens.
For Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Look back there. Verse 18 of chapter 2. For in that He Himself hath suffered
being tempted, He's able to comfort them that are tempted. He's able
to pour His grace into them that come into the trial of affliction. When they face bitterness, bitterness, Look at chapter 3, verse 1. Wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who
was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful
in all his house. For this man was counted worthy
of more glory than Moses, and as much as he who hath builded
the house hath more honor than the house. This is the one Moses
was going to for grace. That's right. That's right. When he was bearing
the opposition and the bitter root he was bearing, when Moses
smoked the rock twice, this is the one before whom he
fell on his face and said, Lord, give me grace. Give me grace
to follow after peace and truth with all men. The rock can't
be smitten, and then those for whom the rock was smitten be
smitten. That rock can't be smitten twice. Been done. And this is
the one he sought for grace. For every house is built by some,
but he that built all is God. Moses was faithful in all his
house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to
be spoken after, which we're saying right now. But Christ
has a son over his own house. whose house we are if we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope from and to the end.
That's what Paul's been teaching throughout this book. Not to
go back, not to draw back, not to endure in the contradiction
of sinners. Consider how Christ endured such
a contradiction. Look to Him lest you be faint,
weary in your mind. Remember when you chastened Turn
when you're lame, become lame and you're turned back into the
way to Christ. Remember, it's the Father doing
that. He won't let you be turned out of the way. Now take what
you've learned and strengthen the weak hands and the wobbly
knees and get everything out of their path. Declare this gospel
to them and follow after this peace that
God's put in your heart, and follow after this same sanctifying,
holy Word of Truth that He's put in our own hearts. Because
without peace and truth, where do they meet together? In Christ. And we follow after Him. And
without Him, without this Word of Truth in the heart, without
this peace being put in the heart and this sanctifying Word whereby
others are taken out of that bitterness of that way wherein
there is no root in themselves and brought into this way, brethren,
it will just be opposition. But in the midst of that bitterness
that we face, where do we find grace? Where do we find grace
to continue in peace and holiness with all? the fountain of all
grace, Christ Jesus the Lord himself. That's where we find
it. That's where we find it. That's
God's design in the trial, in the contradiction of sinners,
in the chastening hand of the Father, is to renew the strength
and patience so that we follow peace and holiness by following
after Christ, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. You know what the dead weight and the root of all our
sin is? You know where it is? What did Paul say in Romans 7?
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? He said, I thank God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So where does he tell us to begin
here? And he tells us just to keep looking. Jesus, the author
and finisher of faith. He's the one that went before.
He's the pioneer. He's the one that blazed the
way. And He is the way. And He is the perfection. He
is He that sanctified. He is the perfection of faithfulness,
the perfection of holiness, the perfection of our perfection
with God is Christ. And He is the perfecter of our
faith. It is by His grace drawing us
to Him. Right now, just as real as when
He walked this earth, causing us to say with Paul, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but the life I now
live, I live by the faith of Christ who loved me and gave
Himself for me. And this is what David said in
Psalm 23. Look there with me, Psalm 23. David said, The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters.
Look at this third verse. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness, for his name's sake. And I might walk through this
valley, this valley of death, right now. But I will fear no
evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house
of the Lord forever." Now, you see, The Lord's not going to
take the trial away, but He's going to give His children grace,
faith to stay in the way and follow Him. Remember what He
said? This is what the Savior prayed.
He said, Now is my soul troubled. Now is my soul troubled. What
shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. before this cause came out into
this hour. And he said, Father, glorify
thy name. Glorify thy name. All right, Richard.