You won't hear it. You won't
have a heart for it. The man, if he does, if he ever
takes this word about Christ, puts that in your heart, then
you've got something to stand on. You've got a sure ground,
no matter what happens. Though the earth be removed and
the mountains be cast in the depths of the sea, God says,
my kindness shall not depart from you. And that wonderful,
my covenant shall not fail. These are things that keep us,
our heads above the water in the troubles. So let's go to
him in prayer. Our most gracious Father, thank
you for another time that you've given us together. I beg you for the grace and mercy
of your Holy Spirit in this place. that you would bind every heart
to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you would quicken every
dead soul, that you would comfort your people in the teeth of their
troubles, in the midst of their sorrows
and pains and sicknesses, You would bind this word to their
hearts. Christ is all. Christ is all. And in Him is all we need. And I beg you this morning to
reveal that to the hearts of your people. Pour in my lips
and my heart your very word and pour it out to your people. Those
that are sick and are suffering, we lift them before you and pray
for them. We seek your grace upon them.
Those who are grieving, we lift them again before your presence
and knowing that you are God and there is none else. Father,
you are sovereign over all things and that all things work together
for good to thy people. I pray, Father, you forgive us
our sins. lead us and I beg you in the name of Jesus our Savior
and for his sake. Amen. I take your bowels and
turn with me to Psalm 77. We were studying in Romans. We're
getting to the part of Romans 7 where Paul is dealing with
the inner conflict. The inner conflict of man. Yes, we're made holy and righteous
for servants of God, and yet why all the trouble?" And then
my heart was tuned to this psalm concerning trouble. I preached this message before
to you out of this psalm, and I think the title I used before
is a sufficient title. Transcript of Inner Conflict. transcript. It is though the
Word, it is though the Spirit of God has taken this man Asaph,
looking into his heart and transcribed his trouble, his response, and
crafted it so that we can look at it as a mirror. Because what
this man experienced is the experience of every true believer. Now,
We know this, before I begin, that every saint of God will
not escape the sharp and cutting wounds of dark providences. None of us will escape it. And
I think it brings us great grief that we think that we can. It
is better to resign to this, that none of us will escape dark
providences. None of the sons of God shall
ever fail to be chastened by the hand of God. Paul says that
the chastening hand of God is reserved only for sons. And if
you are not chastened, then are you bastards and not sons. No child of God will escape the
chastening hand of God the Father. None of those redeemed by the
blood of Christ shall escape the warfare of inner conflict. None of us will escape this warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. None of us will escape this. None of us will be able to avoid the snares and hatred
and assaults of Satan. None of us. Every believer in Jesus Christ
must and will suffer great trials and afflictions as we journey
on to Zion. And when these afflictions and
persecutions and trials, these sorrows and tribulations come,
I know this. This is the experience of you
all. We're confused. We are utterly in confusion. We're confused as to why God
would, and I wrote the word aloud, but that's not a good word. I
think decree. We're not like the religions
of this world that believe God is somehow surprised, too, by
our troubles. We know He's not. We know that
God is sovereign, and we know this, that whatever our trial
is, it's decreed. And we're confused. In the days of joy and strength,
we sing, don't we? When the days are light and the
trials are lighter than air, we sing, I stand amazed in the
presence of Jesus of Nazarene and wonder how he could love
me a sinner condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful
is his love for me. But that's not how it is in the
time of trouble, is it? In the time of woe, in the time
of sorrow, in the time of pain, when the tears flow like rivers, when our hearts are melted like
wax, when we can't sing, hallelujah,
praise the Lord, we're going to sing what Asaph sung in this
song. It's a song of sorrow and confusion. when our troubles are sore and
afflictions run into the night. Even our remembrances of God
are not sweet, but painful. Our prayers are changed cries
of lamentation. Our strong faith melts in the
heart of trials and doubts and fears, take its place. Are you
here? Have you ever been afflicted
like that? Have you ever been pressed out
beyond measure and realized it's the hand of God doing the pressing? Are you grieved as to feel as
if God has left you? Do you feel like there's no more
mercy left for you? Are you so grieved about your
sin that the promises of God, though a man tell them to you,
they don't find any comfort in them? This is the condition of Asaph
in this psalm. This is the condition of the
heart of every believer in the time of confusion. Look what
he said. He said, I cried unto God with
my voice, even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear to
me. In the day of my trouble, I sought
the Lord, and the sore ran into the night. It didn't cease. My
soul refused to be comforted. Listen, I remembered God. But
notice this, and was troubled. It didn't bring him any joy to
remember God. And he said, I complained, and
my spirit was overwhelmed. And look what overwhelmed his
spirit when he sought, and he diligently sought why. He didn't
understand why, and he sought it out. Listen to what he said
in verse 7. He asked these questions, and
these are serious questions. These are not trifling questions. These are serious questions concerning
his serious dilemma. He asked, Will the Lord cast
off forever? Will he not be favorable anymore?
Is his mercy clean, gone forever? Does his promise fail forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his
tender mercies? These are real questions of a
real believer in real trouble. Yet what does God say about our
afflictions and trials? What does he tell us about this?
He's not He's not a used car salesman.
He's not going to sell you a bill of goods. He's going to tell
you the truth. Paul said those to the saints in Acts. He says that we through much
tribulation should enter the kingdom of God. Our Lord said this, in this world
you shall suffer tribulation. Our Lord told us that everyone
who follows Him, we shall suffer. Let that sink in. You that believe, your Lord told you, you shall
suffer. Is the servant greater than his
Lord? Did not our Lord suffer? Shall we expect better? He tells
you not to. Now listen, in the day of our
strength when all is well, the sea is calm, we are bold sailors. We are bold sailors. I remember
before I started preaching, I said like Isaiah, here am I, send
me. Send me. And I said this within my heart,
and I meant every word of it. You can have all this world,
but give me Christ. I meant that with everything
in me. We're like Peter. When the Lord
told him, you'll deny me. This very night, before the cock
crows three times, cock crows once, you'll deny me three times.
What did Peter say in his boldness? I will never deny you. I'll die
with you. Do you think Peter meant that?
I know he meant every word of it. I know his heart was so bold
that at that very moment, if it were done that very moment,
he would have died. I don't doubt that. But when faith is put to the
fire and the deep secret providences of God causes the billows of
affliction to roll and grief to overwhelm our souls, when
he says like, when we can say like with David, thy waves and
thy billows go over me. What will we say then? Listen, we will not be able to
keep ourselves. Could Peter keep himself? Was
it possible for Peter to keep himself? Is it possible for you to keep
yourself in the storm? It's not. When God removes his restraining
hand, we'll fall just like Peter did. But praise God in such times
of darkness and confusion, God has not left us without a word.
He's not left you without a word. Here he shows the trouble and
torment of another believer, which mirrors our own. His conflict is our conflict. His sorrows are our sorrows. His griefs are our griefs. And
listen, his remedy is our remedy. God has not left you without
a word. Peter said that. Why do you think
we act so strange when these things come on us, as though
some strange thing is happening? Like this is, I'm the only one.
We do. We say, I'm it. This can't be
happening to anybody else but me. That's how it feels. God says, no, you're not alone. Peter said, we threw much tribulation. He said, In 1 Peter chapter 1
and verse 5 he says, You are kept by the power of God unto
salvation, ready to be revealed. And if need be, you should go
through manifold trials. Why? The trial of your faith.
That's why. Why is this happening to you?
The trial of your faith. Why has this difficulty come?
The trial of your faith, which is much more precious than gold,
which peritheth, though it be tried with fire, shall be found
unto the praise and glory of Jesus Christ that is appearing.
Who's keeping me in this? Who's sustaining me in this trial?
He is. Who keeps my faith? He does. He does. And so I got three things
in this song. First of all, I want us to see
the plea. His plea is my plea. His cry is my cry, the plea. Secondly, we want to see the
conflict. Why? Because his conflict is my conflict. His struggle is my struggle.
And thirdly, I want to see the consolation because his consolation
is my consolation. First of all, the plea. Look
at this in verse one. He said, I cried unto God with
my voice, even with my voice, and he gave ear unto me. I told you the child of God is
not exempt from troubles that are common to man. But the difference
between the rest of the world and you is this. You have access
to God. They don't. You that believe, you have access
to God. The psalmist knew that. Who did
he cry to? How does this psalm begin? It
doesn't begin with flowery words. He said, no, I cried. I cried
unto God. And I cried with my voice. Even
with my voice. And listen, his sure understanding. He knew this. God heard me. When
you cry unto God, you may be sure that He hears you. Paul
says this in Romans 5, being justified by faith, we have peace
with God. You have it. It's not something
you obtain later. It's not something that's progressive.
You have peace with God. You that believe, you have peace
with God because you are justified. Listen, you're justified through
our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have access. You have access. When? Instantly,
anytime, anywhere, anyplace, access to God. That's astounding. That's astounding. The psalmist
knew that. He had access to God. He said,
by faith, into this grace where we stand and rejoice in hope.
How do you know you have access? I have access because of Jesus
Christ. I have access. Because of Christ,
I have access. That never changes. My access
to God does not change with my condition or my circumstance. That does not avail me. If I
feel good and everything's well, I have access. If I don't feel
good, if I feel horrible or trouble's bad, listen, I still have access. Why? Because it's not determined
on me. It's based on Jesus Christ. He's all my righteousness. All
of it. 100% of my righteousness comes
from Him. Can God reject a righteous man?
I know he can reject a sinner. Can he reject a righteous man?
No, he cannot. He will not. And yet, because
of Christ, I am righteous. He said, even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. Secondly, we have access because
of his redemption. Christ entered into the presence
of God, not with blood of bulls and goats, but with His own blood. He entered into the presence
of God for us. Listen to what Paul said. He
obtained eternal redemption. Now, you don't have to be a scholar
to understand this. Eternal is forever. And when
He obtained eternal redemption, my redemption is what? It's eternal.
He obtained my eternal redemption. And because I am redeemed by
His blood, my sins are forever removed, my guilt is forever
paid, I have access to God. I have access to God. Listen, and all this was done
before I even knew I had access. Then one day He came to me and
showed this to me. Paul said this, he said, all
things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
Now who reconciled you to God? How can you have access to God?
Who did that? Did you have any part in that?
You didn't have any part in that reconciliation. All things are
of God. Everything this reconciliation
needed, God provided by Jesus Christ. Listen, to it God has
given us the ministry of reconciliation. That's what I'm doing, I'm just
here telling you about it. I tell you about something that's already
taken place. God has already reconciled his people to himself. You see, God was not willing
to impute their sins to them. He was not willing to charge
my sins to me. Isn't that something? God is not willing to charge
my sins to me. And hath committed to us the
word of reconciliation. Now we are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ
dead be you reconciled to God. Here's the grounds by which a
sinner might be reconciled. For he hath made him to be sin
for us. Who knew no sin. That we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. And so then, the promise of God
to the believer in trouble is what? You have access. Always. Forever access by Jesus Christ.
Now why do you need access? Why should this be so important
to us? Listen, because we have needs. You wouldn't need access, it
wouldn't mean anything if you didn't have needs Listen to what
Paul says in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16, let us come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. This is why access is so important,
because we are full of needs. Yet we do not always avail ourselves
to this. Why? Why do you not avail yourself
to God to supply your needs when you are promised access? Why is it that we lean so hard
on the arm of flesh and men And yet, when they fail us, we're
surprised. Why do we do these things? Most of our trouble comes from
leaning on others. And yet, why is God not the first
one we lean on? But when they do fail us, where
do you go? Where do you go then? You go
where he went. I cried unto God. I cried unto God. Asaph cried
unto God, he said, with my voice. Troubled Saint learned this,
run to God first. If we could learn that, we would
save ourselves many a sorrow, many a heartache, to run to God
first. In your grief, lay out your heart. In your sorrow, in your sin,
lay it out. He knows it anyway. Lay it out. And notice this, Asa, he didn't
come with a studied prayer. He didn't come with a prepared
statement. Sometimes I think we've got to
think that we've got to get our mind right to say the right words,
to say the right phrase. No. Help is good enough. Help! How about that one? That's a
good one. Cry that. We don't even have words. Asaveer says, I cried with my
voice. In other words, he couldn't contain it in no longer. You
been there? You can contain it. And then there's a moment where
you just can't. Someone said, sometimes the soul feels compelled
to use the voice and finds a freer vent for his agony. And not only
did he do it once, he did it twice. He said, I cried with
my voice. And he said, again, I cried even with my voice. What
does this say? It's saying when we're in sorrow,
we cry to God, we don't do it just once. In such straits of sorrow, nothing
but God's answer will silence this plea." Remember the Canaanite
woman who came before the Lord? It's in Mark chapter 15. The Canaanite woman who came
to the Lord, and her daughter was grievously vexed with the
devil, and she came to the Lord, saying, Lord, thou Jesus, thou
Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. You know what he answered, you
know what he said to her? Nothing. Said nothing. He answered her
not a word. Did that stop her? No, it only
aggravated her distress. The need began to grow, and she
cried more, and more, and more. And you know, the disciples said,
they said, Lord, send her away. She cried after us. She wasn't
crying after them. She didn't care about them. She
knew he was the only one that could answer. And he turned around,
and this is what he said to her. Am I not sent to the lost house
of the sheep of Israel? Am I not just sent to them? I
told you this many times. God is only here to save his
elect. That's it. Did that stop her? No. She knew this. If she was
going to get any relief, it had to be from Him. And she came and worshipped and
she said, Help me, Lord. And He said, Is it not me to
give the children's bread and cast it to dogs? Now He insults
her. He was silent. He told her, I'm
only here for the elect. And she said, help me. He said,
no, it's not good to cast bread before dogs. He called her a
dog. And what did she answer? Truth. That's true. I know that's true. Don't even
the dogs receive the crumbs from the master's table? See what our Lord did there?
He made the need to grow until it could not be contained until
He gave her an answer. You know what His answer was?
He said, Great is thy faith. And He gave her what she needed. What's the lesson there? Importunity. Knock and keep on knocking. Ask
and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Because
when God puts this sorrow upon our hearts, a believer's heart,
nothing will suffice except His answer. Except the answer. Nothing will stop the cry. Now
if your cry stops, it's really, you're not really looking anyway.
Not really, the need's not great enough. And if we keep this,
this is the promise that He'll answer us. And look what He said,
He gave Aaron to me. He gave Aaron to me. And then something in verse two,
in the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My sore ran in the
night and cease not, my soul refused to be comforted. Now he sought him immediately.
Now that's something that we should make note of here. Asaph
sought him immediately, the very day of the trouble he started
seeking. But I want you to notice something, that the trouble did
not stop. it rather increased. You suppose that when we come
to God and cry with our voice in pain, that He will immediately
come and remove the thorn? That's what we think. But instead,
He aggravates it. He said it increased! It ceased
not! It ran into the night! And what
sorrow is this It's a sorrow of the absence
of his presence. He had some knowledge about God
understanding. He knew God was hearing him.
He knew God was listening. That's why he cried to him. The
trouble was, it didn't stop, it got worse. You ever found
that to be true? You ask God for something, some
relief, and it doesn't get better, it gets worse. I tell you, we could be surrounded
by friends and family and everyone around us is happy, but let God
hide his face from a believer and you'll never find a more
miserable man. When you cry and the sorrow runs
deeper and greater and not better, Let the face of Christ disappear
from our view and our troubles increase. And the things that would normally
give us comfort are useless. Are useless. Notice this. My soul refused to be comforted. In such fits of grief and sorrow,
even the promises of God that should bring us comfort are refused. Spurgeon said this, as a sick
man turns away the most nourishing food, so did Asaph. It is impossible to comfort those
who refuse to be comforted. You come with the greatest words
of comfort ever written. You can lay it out as plain and
as simple as the scriptures. Scriptures are plain and simple.
You can give it to them simply and plainly. And yet what? The grief is so strong that they
refuse it. They will not listen to it. They
will not listen. And such as one who will not
be comforted until God speaks. You hear that? We can try to
comfort our brethren. If they refuse it, ain't nothing
we can do. Same with ourselves. If we refuse it, there's nothing
I can do. I don't want this. Yet we refuse it. And the only
thing that's gonna stop it is if God speaks. That's the only
way it'll stop. Look at this, in verse 3, I remembered
God. Listen, instead of being comforted in his memory of God,
he said, I was troubled. He said, I complained, and my
spirit was overwhelmed. Listen to the grief here. That even his thoughts of God
added to his pain. He cried to God, but God was
silent. His comforts of his promises
escaped him. And now he concludes this, that
surely God is gone. He starts to reason within himself
and he says, if I'm a child of God, why am I thus? This is what
Newton said in that poem, "'Tis a point I long to know, often
causes anxious thoughts. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not?" We look at our trouble and we
look at the promises of God and they're conflicting each other.
They don't seem to match. But behold, you child of God,
you suffering child, If you are in such a sad case,
then let's read now the transcript of what he has in verse 4. Now we see his condition, we
see his case, he's cried, he's in sorrow, he's in pain, nothing's
comforting him. Verse 4, he said, Thou holdest
mine eyes waking. I am so troubled I cannot speak.
I have considered the days of old and the years of ancient
times. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I commune
with my own heart and my spirit made diligent search. Will the
Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more?
Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his
tender mercies? See, at once he recalls this
is of the sovereign hand of God, isn't he? Doesn't he say that?
He said, who's keeping his eyes awake? He said, you're keeping mine. He acknowledges the sovereignty
of God in his grief. What keeps the soul awake at
night more than the thought of being lost? When a believer comes into such
grief and conflicts with the promises of God, often we commune
with ourselves and we ask that question, am I lost? How could
this be happening to me if I am a child of God? The thought would keep us awake
at night, afraid to close our eyes and open them in hell. Has this ever troubled you? The
psalmist tries to consider then better times. He said, I consider the days
of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remember past
deliverances, my song in the night. He goes to the Word of
God and he sees the goodness of God to Israel. He remembers
the covenant promises of God. This is a good practice for us
to do that. We should call to mind how God
chose us, how Christ redeemed us with His blood. We should
remember how the Spirit of God came to us and gave us faith. And in the teeth of our trouble,
we're still calling on Him, aren't we? Are you still calling on
Him? In the very midst of our trouble,
we're calling, trusting him to deliver us. And now he makes
diligent search to these heartfelt questions. Will the Lord cast
off forever? He obviously felt the Lord cast
him off. Will he be favorable no more?
He was favorable to me. He was good to me, but now will
he stop? Is his mercy gone forever? Does his promise fail? He has
his promises, do they fail? Has God forgotten to be gracious? These are real questions. Listen,
will God abandon you? In the midst of your trouble,
listen to me very carefully, it feels like he abandoned you. You feel like He's cast you off. There's no doubt about it. You
search your heart and you wonder, is this the end? What does God say? God says,
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Is His grace ceased toward me?
He said, My grace is sufficient for thee. And it doesn't feel
like it is. Does it feel like it's sufficient?
Will your mercy cease? The Word of God says, The mercy
of the Lord endureth forever. But I feel like His mercy is
gone. God's promise is yea and amen
in Christ. In our examination, it appears
to have failed. Listen to what God says, I know
my thoughts towards you. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil, sayeth the Lord. That's what God says. But in
your trial, does it feel that way? Listen to what God says, Zephaniah
chapter 3 and verse 15. Listen to what he says. The Lord
hath taken away thy judgments, cast out thine enemy. The king
of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt
not see evil any more. That's a promise. Listen to me. You who are believers shall not
see evil any more. Now, square that with your experience. Are these promises vain? Are
they empty? Is now the blood of Christ unable
to extinguish the anger of God against your soul? Can you not
see the greatness of despair here? The doubts and fears that
run through this man are the doubts and fears that run through
God's people. See how God opens the soul of
this man to reveal the soul of this man. This man is me. These questions are questions
of a very grieved child of God who cannot square his experience
with the promises of God. Where then is the comfort? Well,
this is the third thing. The consolation and comfort of
this man is my consolation. Look what he says. In verse 11,
he determines something. In the very teeth of all this,
he says this, I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders
of old. I will meditate also of thy works
and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary,
who is so great a God as our God. Thou art the God that doest
wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength
among thy people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed
thy people, the sons of Jacob, the sons of Joseph. What is he
determined to do? Meditate upon God's salvation.
That's what he's determined to do. The determination of his heart
is simply this, to continually meditate upon the work and wonders
of God that he has performed for his people. Which is what? Redemption. Redemption. I'm gonna talk, I'm gonna meditate
on your work. I'm gonna stop meditating on how I get myself
out of this. I'm gonna meditate on your work. And when I find
this out, I'm gonna find out this, there's no God greater
than my God. When I meditate on what he has
done in Christ, I find out that no God is like my God. Meditate on the salvation of
God, the works and wonders which is Jesus Christ. Notice he says,
the way, thy way. Isn't this what Christ claimed
himself to be, the way? I am the way. So what does this
man meditate? He meditates on the way. Thy
way, O God, is in the sanctuary. You want to know how secure you
are? You have to go to the sanctuary
to figure that out. Don't go to your trouble to try
to figure out how secure you are. You won't find it. Where
do you find the purpose and work of God? In the sanctuary. How
God and a sinner can meet together. That's where you find in the
sanctuary, right? You find a priest, you find an offering, you find
God in the inner part, and the people on the outside. We're
the people on the outside. We're sinners. How then can we
be acceptable to God? Only through a high priest. Who's
that high priest? It's Jesus Christ, isn't it?
Only through the blood of Jesus Christ, the offering of Jesus
Christ, am I totally acceptable to God regardless of my circumstances. It don't matter what happens
to me. It doesn't matter if I live or I die. It doesn't matter if
I'm sick or I'm well. It doesn't matter if I'm happy
or I'm sad. My circumstance does not dictate
my acceptance We always look at the circumstance
to try to figure out if God loves me. I see the bad circumstance and
I go, has He gone clean away? Is His mercy cast off? Look at
this! Look at this! It's horrible! You're not going to find anything
there about God's love for you in that circumstance. You have
to look at the sanctuary. Look at His Son. You want to
know if God loves you? He sent His Son to die in your
stead. Greater love hath no man than
this, than a man laid down his life for his friends. Can you
find any greater love than that? He loved you before the circumstance.
Do you suppose the circumstance is some manifestation of his
hatred now? It's not. You need to spend time
meditating on his suffering. Behold the greatness of our God.
And then in this last part, listen to what he says. He said, the
water saw thee, O God, and the water saw thee, and they were
afraid. The depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water.
The skies sent down the sound. Thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was
in the heavens. The lightnings lighted the world. The earth trembled and shook.
Notice this, thy way is in the sea and thy path in great waters. Thy footsteps are not known. You suppose if you find a man
walking on the sea that you can trace his footsteps? That's the providence of God.
You're not going to be able to trace the providence of God. You can't
trace his footsteps. You can't tell where he come
from and you can't tell where he's going. The providence of
God moves in an instant, doesn't it? Going this way and all of
a sudden, whoop, you're that way. And then you're back this
way. What the psalmist here is doing
is he's referring to the waters of the Red Sea. You remember how He redeemed
Israel. And this is the remedy, this
is the consolation. You remember how He redeemed
Israel. Israel was in bondage. And you remember how the Lord
hardened Pharaoh's heart, and then through the Passover, through
the Lamb, they were delivered. And you would assume immediately,
if you never knew the story, you would just assume immediately
God's going to take them right to the promised land. Yet the providence of God did
not go directly to the promised land, did he? In fact, he put
them in a place. He led them. Now remember, they
weren't just arbitrarily going this way or that way. God led
them by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire
at night. They knew exactly where they were going. God sent them
in this direction and God put them in this specific place.
There were mountains on their left hand and there was nothing
but a vast desert on their right hand and the sea was before them. All of a sudden, God moved on
Pharaoh to chase him. Now, Pharaoh is behind them,
mountains on the left, deserts on the right, a sea in front
of them. They were trapped. Who put them
there? What was their response? Did
you lead me out here just to kill me? Is your mercy clean
gone forever? Will you destroy me? Now that
you've delivered me, will you destroy me? And God said, stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord. And the Lord came down, and the
waters were afraid, and they parted." It's really a picture of Christ,
isn't it? He parted the sea of God's wrath and justice so that
we may walk to Canaan on solid ground. So when you see the sufferings
of God's people, you know this, it was not to destroy them, it
was to manifest His power. So what is God doing in your
trials? He is going to manifest His power. That's what He's going
to do. He's going to show you His power. He's going to show you His grace. Now that may be in either delivering
you out of your trouble or keeping you in your trouble. But either
way, He will deliver you. Find one instance where He did
not deliver His people. Show me a time God did not deliver
His people. Even in their worst state, He
still had mercy. Can't find it. God deliver you, not on your
timetable. On His. On His. Stand still. Lean wholly and trust wholly
upon thy God. Cry to Him. And when you cry
and the sore runs into the knife, what do you do? Cry and keep
on crying. When the questions run deep,
will he leave me forever? When the sin is so great that
you feel that his mercy is cast off of you, what do you do? I
will remember thy work in the sanctuary. I'll remember Christ. I'll look to Christ. I tell you, doing that surely
takes our eye off the trouble. Now be able to keep your eye
on both. Keep your eye on Him. He don't
move. You understand that? He's not
moved. He's not moved by your trouble. He ordained it. Why? That you should be moved
to Him. Stayed upon Jehovah. What we
were saying earlier, isn't it? My heart is fully blessed. Finding
as He promised, perfect peace and rest. I pray God will bless
this to you. Let's be dismissed in prayer.
Stand and be dismissed in prayer. Yeah, just missing prayer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. and allow us to see Christ as
His perfect self and His perfect redemption in so many different ways. Father, we ask you to use us
today and bless this word that you've heard in our hearts and
that you've taught us to look to You. for everything that pertains
to pain and salvation. Lord, let us not hang upon ourselves
or any man but those of you. And we'll surely pray that you
will do it. Christ may we ask of you.