May I please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
gospel of Matthew chapter 14 and we'll read the 12th verse. And his disciples came and took
up the body and buried it and went and told Jesus. This of course was a rather sad
occasion because Herod had beheaded John the Baptist and as we know
he was a young man, he was a little bit older than the Lord Jesus
and therefore he would have only been a little over 30 years of
age and yet because of the foolishness of Herod who made an oath to
his wife's daughter that he would give her whatever she wanted
and she requested that which her mother told her to request
and that was the head of John the Baptist. And so that occurred
and we're told and he sent and beheaded John in prison. And
his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel, and
she brought it to her mother. And then we're told, and his
disciples came and took up the body and buried it and went and
told Jesus. And we have a similar record
in the Gospel of Mark. where we are told similar words
really but slightly different and we read in that in the sixth
chapter immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded
his head to be brought and he went and beheaded him in prison
and brought his head in a charge and gave it to the damsel and
the damsel gave it to her mother and when his disciples heard
of it they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb Well, the very wonderful statement
here, which tells us, and of course it follows in this other
account, because not only does it speak of John's disciples,
it also speaks of the apostles. And the apostles gathered themselves
together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they
had done and what they had taught. Now, surely the wonderful consideration
here is that these people, these disciples, were in a sad situation. And what was their recourse?
What did they do? What was their situation? Well, naturally they took up
the body and they buried it. But it didn't stop there. Because they went and told Jesus. Now there's a lot of encouragement,
a lot of instruction in just those simple words. They went and told Jesus. They'd suddenly had a situation
thrust upon them which they didn't expect. Who were they to go to? Who were they to talk to? Well, they knew who to go to,
and they knew who to tell, and that was Jesus. What a good thing
in our lives today when we face, perhaps, unexpected situations. We may have to deal with them,
and we may not be able to obviate that problem, we may have to
deal with it. But then, to go and tell Jesus. As it were, to pour out our heart
unto Him, who knows all things. It's a great blessing to realize
that We have a God who is gracious and merciful, full of compassion,
who condescends to look upon us, and we should not think that
the Lord doesn't understand, because of course He does. He
knows everything. He knows the end from the beginning.
He knows the minutest circumstance which arises in our life. And
therefore, as we journey on in our life, and as we face different
things day by day, what a blessing to be able to come like this,
very simply, and go, and went, and told Jesus. Sadly, so often, we seem to forget
that, don't we? Sadly, we seem to just carry
on And when we have a difficulty, when we have a situation and
well, do we always try and solve the problem ourselves? Do we
try and find the solution? Do we try and find the reason
for certain things? Well, what a good place it will
be if we take heed to words like this. And whenever we find ourselves
in situations rather than look all round about us, rather than
perhaps go to our fellow humans to seek for advice, perhaps lean
to our own understanding. It's a wonderful blessing to
have grace and to be reminded of what these disciples did.
They went and told Jesus. Now, the blessing is that if
you and I go and tell people, They may not understand. They
may get the wrong end of the stick. They may not appreciate
what we're entering into. But the Lord Jesus knows everything. He knows the complete detail. And therefore, we should always
be desirous to immediately come to the Lord. telling Him all
about the situation, what's happened, where we are, what our need is. The Lord knows what it is, of
course. But don't forget, the Word tells
us. I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do these
things for them. We are to come. We are to pray. We are to present our case to
our God. There is no more blessed position
than being able to come to God and to lay everything before
Him. He is a refuge, a refuge for
sinners. The hymn writer says, a refuge
for sinners. The gospel makes known, it is found in the merits
of Jesus alone. Well, I wonder if you and I appreciate,
I wonder if you and I know the blessing of coming to this great
and glorious man. And it's exceedingly humbling
if we're able to comprehend that we here on the earth as unworthy
sinners can come to this great God. This great, great God, my
friends, let us always have high views of God. Never let us have
little views of this God. Let us have high views. Because
as we may have high views of this God, you see, that will
mean that we will come in a right way. We'll come with the right
spirit. We'll come with the right desire. That if It could be His will. He will look upon us and help
us. You know, we have that word in
the Word when that woman, Syrophoenician woman, she came and she said
three words, Lord, help me. What had she done? She'd come
and told Jesus. And so, So we have these evidences,
these testimonies of God's people in the Word of God. Let us not
forget in our lives every day not just perhaps when we think
we've got something big to come and tell God about don't forget in the Christian
life prayer is the breath of our soul. And therefore, we wouldn't want
naturally to just breathe once a day, would we? We wouldn't
last a day at all, would we? May we pray our way along, day
by day. May we often be found coming
and telling Jesus. all about our situation, all
about our concerns. Tell him what's happened, thank
him for the blessings which he's given. When the Lord helps us,
when the Lord has encouraged us, perhaps when the Lord's opened
the door, perhaps when the Lord's made the way, well, do we come
to Jesus? Do we thank him for it? when
perhaps he's explained to our souls something in his word,
given us perhaps an understanding? Do we thank Jesus? Do we come
to him and tell him? To realize how kind it's been
of Almighty God to look upon us and to reveal his truth to
our souls? Do we come to Jesus? in this
way? Oh, it is important, isn't it?
When we realise how kind God has been and how unthankful we
often are. You know, we come each day, don't
we? To the end of the day. Many blessings, many, many blessings
you and I have received. Many blessings naturally being
preserved. perhaps being kept well and fit, being provided
with everything we need in a natural way. Do we come to the end of
the day and do we come to Jesus and tell Jesus how thankful we
are of all His goodness toward us? And especially if the Lord perhaps
in His great love and favour has spoken to our hearts and
that would regard to our soul and encouraged us and directed
us to his word and open his word to our spiritual understanding,
what cause we have then to come and tell Jesus how thankful we
are. You know, there was that case,
wasn't there, of those lepers, 10 lepers, healed by the Savior. How many came back and gave thanks? Just one. Well, my friends, if
there's just one, may you and I be that one. And not be like others, who were
not thankful. Because true thankfulness brings
with it praise to our God, who is worthy of everything, isn't
he? So here we have this very simple, simple statement, but
really so important, and went and told Jesus. Of course, such statements don't
only relate to the New Testament, they relate to us also in the
Old Testament. And we have some wonderful statements
in the Old Testament instructing us and directing us As the psalmist
speaks in Psalm 120, and we read, in my distress, what did the
psalmist do? What did he do? I cried unto
the Lord. What had he done? He'd gone to
the Lord God, he'd gone to Jesus. Was he turned away? And he heard
me. This is the God we have. This
is the God we have. Because we do have distress,
don't we, in our lives? We do have things sometimes which
are hard to bear, hard to understand. We don't know what to do. Well, we should know what to
do. The psalmist knew what to do, what to do. He cried unto
the Lord, and the Lord heard him. What a blessing that is,
if you and I cry to our God in our distress, and the Lord comes
and hears us. And the psalmist here describes
the condition that he was in. He wasn't in a very easy place. He tells us, deliver my soul,
O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. And you may
think, well, of course I'm not like that. Well, when the Spirit
of God shines into your heart and my heart, we'll find that
we're not quite as good as we thought we were. We'll find that we're not quite
as truthful as we ought to be. And you may say, well, Perhaps
you could illustrate that. Well, I will illustrate that
in this way. If we're kind of recalling a
situation, an account of something's happened perhaps in our lives,
perhaps something we've seen, we need to be very careful that
we speak very honestly about the exact situation. And we're
not left to perhaps Embellish it a little bit to make it sound
a bit more impressive Because if we do What's been
the situation? we've been using lying lips and
we've had a deceitful tongue I Believe the Holy Spirit of
God when we are in exercise before God he gives us that desire to
be truly honest and perhaps if we haven't been and the spirit
has smote us and we've had to come then without any pomp But
just come and pray, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. What are we
doing then? We're coming to Jesus. We're
coming to Jesus. We're confessing our sins. We're
acknowledging our situation. The Lord knows all about us. In the 130th Psalm, we have a
very similar statement where the psalmist says, Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine eyes be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. Again, sometimes we go down into
the depths The Lord brings us into deep places, perhaps to
cause us to cry to our God. We may have almost forgotten. You may think, well, surely not
as a Christian. Well, left to ourselves, you see, we forget. But when the Lord therefore deals
in love to our souls and brings us into deep situations, Well,
we find there's opposition. Well, we find we perhaps have
to walk a similar path to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, the Lord
Jesus Christ never had an easy path, did he? Yes, he was mocked. He was reviled. People took him
wrongly. The Lord may allow these things
sometimes, so that we can't understand why, Lord, These things come
upon me and I'm in the depths. Well, perhaps it's to bring us
to this place, to come to Jesus. Oh, it's a comforting place,
isn't it? And the psalmist goes on and tells us, if thou shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Guilty before a
holy God, we cannot stand. But then he says, but there is
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. And as we come
then to Jesus, we come in this way to our God, who forgives
all our iniquities, all our iniquities. And then he goes on to say, I
wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in his
word do I hope. And that, therefore, is not a
vain hope. It's a good hope, and it's founded
upon the word of God. And if you and I, my friends,
are able to come like this, when we are in the depths, to cry
to our God. He will hear. It's according
to his word. And He will answer, but not always,
perhaps when we want it and when we expect it. And that's why
we're told, I wait for the Lord. And the psalmist says in another
place, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto
me and heard my cry. It's a great blessing then to
be given patience so that the Lord will come and bring us out
of this situation. and then just one more reference
well just two more references in the Psalms really but Psalm
142 which is a well-known Psalm it's a very blessed Psalm and
it begins with I cried unto the Lord with my voice with my voice
unto the Lord did I make my supplication I poured out my complaint before
him I showed before him all my trouble We have a God who understands. Because people won't understand.
Go to your God. Go to Jesus. Go to Jesus. You might remember that in the
days of Joseph, when he was in charge of all the food, what
were the people told to do? They were told to go to Joseph. And perhaps you and I may be
hungry, We may be in a time of famine. What are we to do? Just sit down and perish? No. We're to go to Jesus. Because a fool that resides in
Jesus our head, whichever abides to answer our need. What a compassionate God we have,
you know. The psalmist goes on, and it's
David quite clearly in this case, when he says, when my spirit
was overwhelmed within me. Overwhelmed. That gives us the
impression, doesn't it? Like waves overwhelming us. Then thou knewest my path. In
the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for
me. And David, you see, he looks at my right hand and beheld that
there was no man. would know me. Refuge failed
me. No man cared for my soul." My friends, we have a God who
cares for our soul. Jesus, he died to redeem our
souls. He cares for our soul. And so
The psalmist goes on. I cried unto thee, O Lord. I
said, thou art my refuge and my strength in the land of the
living. Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver
me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. And the
last verse is this. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may
praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me
about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. What was that? There
was a humble confidence in his God. And what a blessing, my
friends, if you and I have a humble confidence in our Jesus. As we
come to him, as we tell him our situation, and that we pour out
our heart before him, Realizing that He knows, He is a God, who
does not deal with us as our sins deserve. And just one final
comment from David, in the 61st Psalm. There's many, many references,
just like this, but just another one. Hear my cry, O God. He came to His God. Hear my cry, O God, attend unto
my cry. From the end of the earth there's
no place too far off. You may feel very far off. There's
no place too far off. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. What are you
going to do? David knew. Lead me to the rock. that is higher than I. Lead me
to Christ. Lead me to Jesus. That rock,
oh, that's a good foundation. And my friends, if we're on that,
we can rest knowing that we won't be moved. May we indeed truly
bless God then for such a wonderful favor and such a wonderful God. let us go and tell Jesus. As we perhaps sometimes forget,
let us remember to go and tell Jesus. We have the example and
may we have the confidence to believe that the Lord will indeed
remember us for good. It's a very beautiful verse in
the end of the 18th chapter of the Proverbs. And it tells us
this, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and
there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Who's
that? The Lord Jesus Christ. Do we
not therefore say, what a friend we have in Jesus? They went and told Jesus. May you and I go as our friend. You remember the Bride of Christ
in the Song of Solomon. She concluded that fifth chapter
by saying, this is my friend. She described her beloved. She said, this is my friend.
Well, is Jesus our friend? I hope he is. And he sticks close
to us. He's with us, we don't always
realize it, but he is there. And so may we come and realize
the blessing of these words. These disciples, they went and
told Jesus. They could have done many other
things, but no, they buried John the Baptist's body, and the next
thing they did, they went and told Jesus. First things first. Oh, my friends, we're easily
sidetracked and we have other preferences, but let us remember
always to go and tell Jesus. Amen.