Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Psalm 77. Psalm 77. Entitled this message, A Transcript
of Inner Conflict. A Transcript of Inner Conflict.
Here we have the psalmist Asaph. Asaph, a very familiar psalmist.
He's one that wrote many of these psalms. And I'm so glad that
the Lord has given us his word in that he's opened up the very
heart and soul of this man and put it on paper. It is though
we have a transcript of this man's inner conflict, his inner
struggle with self and sin and doubts and fears. And so you
as believers in Christ, I want you to know this. None of us
escape trouble. No saint of God is ever going
to escape the sharp and cutting wounds of God's dark providence. None of us. None of God's elect
and beloved sons will ever fail to feel the chastening hand of
our God. Remember, whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth and scourgeth every son. We will not escape this,
friends. We will not escape to feel his
chastening hand because of our foolishness, our rebellious sins. None of those redeemed by the
blood of Christ will escape the warfare and inner conflict with
the old nature. None of us. Therefore, in Holy
Scripture we read that none of these men escaped it. None of
these men escaped inner conflict, none of them escaped trouble,
none of them escaped the chastening hand of God. They all endured
it. And God has opened up their hearts
so that we would not be discouraged when we face these things. When
we are brought to dark providences, we will not be discouraged. Scriptures
are so full of the promises. It tells us about that inner
conflict, doesn't it? He said the flesh lusts against
the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary
one to another. They're opposed. They're always
going to be opposed. They're always going to be at
war with one another. Every believer in Christ must
and will Suffer great trials and afflictions as we journey
to Zion and when these afflictions persecutions trials pain sorrows
tribulations when they come We will be complex. We will be confused At one point you may you may
have all the strength in the world all the strong faith that
God could give a man and And then the very next minute, you're
weeping as though you have none. These sorrows and afflictions
bring confusion. God's dark providences always
bring confusion. It falls on us. In the days of
our joy and strength we sing, I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene. and wonder how he could love
me, a sinner condemned. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. Those times of strength. We may
sing this hymn. But in times of woe and sorrow,
in times of pain, in sharp affliction, in tears that flow down like
rivers when our hearts are melted like wax, we sing like Asaph
here in our text. This psalm will be the psalm
of the afflicted. The psalmist in dark trouble. He tells us in verse 2, he said,
my soul ran deep into the night. He said, I sought God, but that
didn't stop my trouble. It ran deep into the night, in
the darkness of night. And even the remembrances of
God became grievous to him. Those things that once were joyful
are now grievous to his heart. Our prayers in these times come
grievous. They change from shouts of praise
to cries and lamentations. Our strong faith melts in our
heart and the trials and difficulties bring doubts and fears. Doubts and fears. Believer, have
you ever been here? Have you ever been in such a
dark place Or the promises of God seem empty, seem vain. Have you ever been so afflicted
and pressed out of measure? Have you been tried and grieved
so as to feel God has left you? As though God's mercy is of no
more value, no more mercy for you, no more grace for you. He felt his pardon to have left.
This is the condition of the psalmist in our text. Look at
that in verse 7. He says, Will the Lord cast off
forever? Will He be favorable no more?
Is His mercy clean gone? Doth this promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath His anger shut up His tender mercy? His psalmist was grieving,
and his grief and his sorrow brought doubts as to the promises
and grace of God. In times of darkness, we forget
what our Lord told us. In this world, you shall have
tribulation. Is that not a promise? And here's the hope of it, but
be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. I've overcome
the world. But in our day of strength, all
seems well, everything is calm. You take a sailor and you put
him on, an inexperienced sailor, I don't know anything at all
about boats or currents or anything like that. You put him on a boat
and the sea is calm. He says, I'm a pretty good sailor. Look at this. This ain't hard
at all. He may boast and brag of his
navigation skill and his ability to sail that boat. But let the
least wind come. Let the least storm come in his
day. And he will melt. He will melt. In our days of strength, we can
say, you can have all this world and give me Jesus. But when our
faith is finally put to the test, the deep and secret providences
of God, the causes of our afflictions and grief, they overwhelm us. We hear like David, as deep calleth
unto deep, at the noise of thy waterspouts, all thy waves and
billows are over me. What kind of sailor would we
be then? Our firmness begins to fail. We, like Peter, are able to keep
ourselves. We boast of our keeping ourselves,
but soon we're lost in unbelief and sin. When God removes the
restraints, we too are full of doubts and fears and trouble. But in such times of darkness
and confusion, God has not left us without a word of comfort.
God has not left us hopeless, but has given us examples of
His saints who have gone through these things before us. And here,
He shows us the trouble and torment of Asaph. And as it were, He
opens up the case of his heart. He opens up the inner conflict
of this man and we have a transcript of this inner conflict before
us tonight. I've got three things. Three
things in this transcript. Three things in this transcript.
First of all, the plea of the troubled saint. That's verses
1 through 3. Secondly, we have the inner conflict
and the sorrow revealed in verses 4 through 9. And then lastly,
we have a meditation and consolation of God. in verses 10 through
15. So let's see these in order now.
The plea of the troubled saint. Look at this with me. Asa begins
this psalm, I cried. I cried unto God with my voice. Even unto God with my voice. And he gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought
the Lord. My sore ran into the night and
ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed. A child of God, we are not exempt
from the troubles that are common to men. We're just not. And they're
sorrowful. They're painful troubles. Sickness. Abandonment. Affliction, pain,
death. None of these common troubles.
You're not going to see a believer and he's going to be somehow
exempt from these troubles. You have two people that could
be put in. Our brother D has cancer. How many other people have cancer
that are lost? So that doesn't make a distinction.
God's people suffer common troubles. But listen, we have something
that the lost do not have. We have something that those
who are outside of Christ do not have. We have access to God. You have access to God. Go to Romans chapter 5. Romans
chapter 5. Look at verse 1 here. The apostle says this, therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how are you justified? How are you justified? By faith. Whose faith? By whose faith were
you justified? Was it your faith that justified
you? No, it was the faith of Christ
that justified us. Now then, the faith that is given
us in the new nature, in our conversion, is a manifestation
of our justification. Look, you can't claim to be justified
without faith in Christ. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, it is a manifestation of this. You are justified. But our justification is by the
faith of Christ, who has in His obedience done both of what was
needed to justify us. What was needed to justify you?
Righteousness and redemption. These two things were necessary
for our justification. And we read in Romans 3 how He
obtained our righteousness was by His faith. Romans 3 and verse
22, "...even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ." He alone, through His obedience
as our representative, merited that righteousness on our behalf.
You see, we have something the lost don't. We have the righteousness
of God. We're justified! We have the
righteousness of God. Not just any old righteousness.
A righteousness of God. That's what He merited in our
behalf. And by faith, through faith,
He says this, Unto all and upon all them that, what? Believe. See, the necessity of faith.
Faith then receives what has been obtained by Christ. He obtained it and faith is both
imputed and imparted. Righteousness is imputed and
imparted to those who believe. And secondly, what we needed
for justification is redemption. We needed payment for sin. God
could not overlook our sin. It must be punished. Justice
must be satisfied. Therefore, in Hebrews 9 and verse
12, it tells us our Lord Jesus Christ obtained this second thing,
which is eternal redemption. He entered into the holy place,
the Scripture says, once with His own blood. With His own blood. Do you see the faith of our Lord
Jesus Christ? Do you see the faith and offering
of His blood? into bringing His blood into
the holy place of God? He believed God. He trusted God. And He offered Himself a sacrifice
for sins. And He obtained eternal redemption
for us. He did this by bearing our sins
in His own body on the tree. Listen, you are justified not
by some malicious, devious way. You know, if a man is a criminal
and he gets out on a technicality, is he really justified? No. Guilty. We're not getting out
on a technicality, friends. You're not getting out on something
that might come back later and get you. If you get out on a
technicality, somebody's going to fix that and may get that
prisoner back in jail. Listen, no, this is not a technicality. You are justified before the
eyes of God. You are innocent! Now listen, go look in the mirror
and tell yourself that. You won't feel it. This is only
seen by faith. It can't be seen by looking at
me. If you were to watch me, you surely would find out that
I am a sinner. But I know this, because of Jesus
Christ, I am justified before God. Justified. This is because Christ paid our
sin debt in full and has forever reconciled us to God. This is
something we don't have. We are reconciled to God. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
2 Corinthians chapter 5. And look at verse 18. Listen, he says this, all things
are of God. All things are of God. Is that
not true? All things are of God. Who hath
reconciled us to Himself. I'm not a great grammatical scholar,
but that's past tense. God hath reconciled us to himself,
specifically in this way, by Jesus Christ. And then what? He hath given to us, who are
reconciled, the ministry of reconciliation, to which God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and hath committed to us the
word of reconciliation. Isn't it astounding that God
was not willing to impute or charge you with your transgressions? You were surely guilty of them.
Yet God says, I will not charge them with that transgression. I will not impute their transgressions
to them, but instead I've given you the word of reconciliation. how a sinner might be reconciled
to God. And so, as an ambassador for
Christ, we, as though God did beseech you, we pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. What grounds do you have, preacher,
to say that I might be reconciled to God? What are the grounds?
What's the foundation of this reconciliation? How may I be
reconciled? Not according to what you can
do to reconcile yourself, but what Christ has already done. That's the grounds of my reconciliation. Four, God hath made Him to be
sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And being reconciled, being justified,
and go back to Romans chapter 5, look at that, Romans chapter
5, get back over there. Therefore being
justified by the righteousness of Christ, by the blood of Christ,
what is the result? We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We are reconciled. We have peace.
Peace with God. By whom we have access. Access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We are reconciled. We have peace
with God. We have access to this throne.
And I'll just give you this. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16. It says this, Let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. We have access. You're justified,
you're reconciled, you're righteous before God, your sins have been
put away by the blood of Christ, and you have constant, consistent,
instant access to God at all times. At all times. You are commended to go to the
throne of grace. What kind of throne is it that
you're accessed to? Is it a throne of merit? It's the throne of grace. And
yet, how often do we fail to access what we have been given? A lot of our troubles are this,
that we do not access the throne of grace. We somehow wait to
feel like we merit it. If you wait to feel like you
merit this access, you'll never come. You don't. You don't deserve
it. Let's do away with the mystery.
You don't deserve it. That's why it's a throne of grace.
Of unmerited favor. We don't access this. Instead, what do we do? We lean
upon the arm of flesh. That's a mistake, isn't it? To
trust in our own reason. To trust in our own ability. And when we can't trust in our
own ability, we put it on someone else. We put it on some other
man or some other woman to sustain us or to make us happy. And what do they do? They fail. They fail. And most of such trouble comes
upon us because we have set our hope and help upon man. And they
fail us, we are brought into despair. And then the child of
God, what's the last place you go? Where's the last place you
go? The last place we go is the throne
of grace. This is where He's at. We find
Him at the end of His rope. I'm sure that Him, like all of
us, tried to trust in something else. And He's gotten to the
bottom. And it's at the bottom we do what? I cried unto God
with my voice." He cries unto God in our grief. We lay out
our heart as Asaph does. Notice, he doesn't use some studied
prayer. He doesn't sit around and think,
is this theologically correct what I'm saying? No. He cries
out and lays out his case before God and lays it bare. I like
that how I'm trying to think of the king
that did this. He had the letters from the enemy and they were
surrounded. And what did he do? He laid them
out before the Lord. He laid them out before the Lord. That's
what we are seeing here. That's what we should do. He
uses his voice. Often such pain cannot be contained
within, but is best expressed in words and not just inward
thoughts or feelings. Sometimes the soul feels compelled
to use its voice and finds a freer vent for its agony. He cried
out, he could no longer keep it in. Oh my soul, are you troubled? Believer, are you troubled? Though
you are justified, though you are sanctified, though you are
made righteous before God, though you have access to God, listen,
we are not exempt from these troubles and when these troubles
come, they overwhelm us. Listen, don't be silent. Cry
out to God. And notice this in our text.
He said, I cried to God with my voice, even to God with my
voice. Now listen, nowhere in Scripture does it just add words
for the sake of adding words. He cries unto God to show His
importunity. He cries to show that He is not
ceasing to cry. He cried unto the Lord, and he
said, look, I cried with my voice, and I cried with my voice again. In such straits and sorrows,
nothing will suffice the believer until God answers. Remember the woman of Canaan? Over there in Matthew chapter
15, she comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, she said, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy. She says, have mercy on me, O
Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. And our Lord kept walking. He did not answer
her. How often have you applied for
the Lord? Have you sought Him? Have you cried to Him? And His
first response is silence. You ever had that happen? Maybe
I'm alone. Maybe me and this woman. We're all by ourselves. I don't know. He may answer you
all the time. He doesn't answer me all the
time. He's silent. But does his silence cause you
to be silent? No. As this woman, it only aggravates
our need. It only moves us to cry more. And so she does. She cries more. And His disciples said, Lord,
send her away. She cried after us. I'm telling you, those boys were
arrogant. I mean, they put themselves in a class
far above their pay grade. They cried after us. She's not
crying after you. She's crying after Him. And Jesus
answered and said, I am sent but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. You know what he's talking about?
Election. He said, I ain't sent to you Gentile dogs. I'm sent
to the lost. I'm only sent to the elect. You
know who God's going to answer? Only the elect. Only the elect. Sometimes I don't feel elect.
I'm telling you, sometimes, like this guy, we're so full of grief
and sorrow that we don't feel it. But does that stop us? No. It only drives us more. It only
increases our agony and woe. And then what does she do? She
worships Him. Isn't that what you do? When
you remember God's only going to hear the elect and you don't
feel it, what does that move you to do? Worship. She bowed
down herself and she said, Help me. Help me. And again he turns
her away and he says, it's not me to give the children bread
to dogs. And what was her answer? Did that stop her? No. Truth,
Lord. Whatever you say is right. Truth. I'm a dog. That's true. Dogs
receive the crumbs from the master's table. And he said this, Great
is Thy faith. Great is Thy faith. Has the Lord
been silent to you only to aggravate your sorrow and conviction? Then
let us cry the more. I have cried unto the Lord with
my voice. And don't stop. Cry again. And again if necessary. Take
our place as we are before God. Sinners in need of mercy. Do
you ever get above that, believer? A sinner in need of mercy? Is
there ever a time when you say, okay, I don't need that mercy
anymore. And what do these troubles do?
They show us this. They testify that we are sinners
still in need of mercy. Still in need of mercy. I'll tell you, just like this
woman, if you come to Christ, and come to Christ, and come
to Christ, listen, He will hear you. He will fix it. He will show us mercy. Look at
this in your psalm, look at this. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice, even with my voice, and He gave ear unto me. Importunity prevailed. The gate
opened to the steady knock. It shall be so with us that in
our hour of trial, the God of all grace will hear us in due
season, in due season. Such knowledge should comfort
us, but be sure that because he hears us does not mean the
trouble's over. The trouble in our psalm is not
over. He confesses, I cried, I cried,
I cried, I cried, and I know this, I know the Lord heard me. When you cry unto the Lord in
your sorrows, you may be confident that He will hear you and will
in due season relieve you. But that does not do away with
the present calamity. the present trouble that we are
in. Look at this in verse 2. He says, in the day of my trouble. Now that's important because
he's talking about, I cried the very day I got in trouble. He didn't wait. He had early
cried, in the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. He sought
the Lord early in the day of his trouble, the Lord heard him,
but notice this, my sore ran in the night and ceased not. Ceased not. The main cause of
his grief did not cease, but rather increased. Have you
not found that to be true? Sometimes you pray unto the Lord,
you pray unto the Lord, and instead of giving you peace, He vexes
you. Isn't that what Newton wrote about,
not him? He said, I prayed the Lord for grace and faith. He
said, I thought in such an hour He would come and grant me what
I requested. Instead, He allowed the angry
powers of hell to assault my soul on every part. He crushed
my fair designs and schemes. He laid me low. Is there any sorrow greater than
this that when the Lord is absent? That's what the psalmist is dealing
with here. He cried unto the Lord and the sore ran into the
night. What was the sore? The sore was he had lost the
presence of God. And in such a time, can you not
be surrounded by people and be all alone? If you don't feel
the presence of Christ, if you don't feel the joy in your soul,
you don't feel that Christ is near, you can be surrounded by
people and the trouble becomes worse. Let God hide himself and disappear
His face disappear from our view and it will crush us. Notice
the things that normally would comfort Him are useless. Look
at this in verse 2 again. I sought the Lord a day of my
trouble, my soul ran into the night and it ceased not. Listen,
my soul refused to be comforted. How grievous is this? My soul
refused comfort. In other words, the promises
of God would not comfort me. He said, I would not be comforted.
Spurgeon said this, as a sick man turns away the most nourishing
food, so did he. It is impossible to comfort someone
who refuses to be comforted. Have you ever been so grieved
that you refuse comfort? Listen to the pain and grief.
that even his thoughts of God, even his thoughts of God only
added to his pain. Verse 3, I remember God and I
was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed within me. He cried unto God but God was
silent. His comforts of the promises
of God escaped him. Have you ever had this happen
when you were in such grief and your brothers come alongside
you and they want to comfort you? They want to give you words
of comfort and they talk to you of God's grace, of Christ's death,
of His blood, of His forgiveness, of His mercy, of His grace, of
eternal life. They do this and yet your soul
will not receive it. You know why? Because you want
to hear it from God. If I don't hear it from God,
I'm not going to receive it from Him. Grief does this to us. It drives
us. Even our thoughts of God, our
comforts that once comforted us now bring us to complaint. He said, I complained and my
spirit was overwhelmed. What's our complaint and trouble?
Isn't it this? If I am a child of God, why am
I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly could they be worse that
never knew a Savior's name. When I look within, all is vain
and wild. Is this not true with you? And so then, God lingers in coming. And when God does this, what
enters in? Fear enters in. Doubts enter in. If I am a child
of God, how could God, who is sovereign over all things, allow
these things to take place and to destroy me? And when God lingers even more,
the fears and doubts set in. That's what He did in Psalm 73.
Asaph said this, I know God's good to Israel. In the midst
of your trouble, do you ever doubt God's good to His elect?
I never doubt that. I know God's good to His elect.
I know Christ died to save His people. But the question is,
am I one of them? How in the world could I feel
such evils against God if I was one of them? The psalmist in Psalm 73, he
said, look, my foot and eye well slipped. I was gone. I had washed
my hands in innocency. In other words, I'm just a pretender.
That's what he said. I'm just a pretender. Behold the sad case of the suffering
children. Have you ever been here? And
let us read now the transcript of what happens to such in one
in this case. Verse 4. This is the second part
in conflict within. Here's the transcript. Thou holdest
mine eyes waking. I am so troubled that I cannot
speak. I have considered the days of
old, 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." Now listen, he recognizes the
sovereignty of God in this. He said, look, you keep my eyes
open. You have exposed me for what I really am. You hold my eyes awake, yet the
thought of being lost, the thought of being cast away keeps my eyes
open in the night, fearful of falling off. into damnation. Have your troubles ever caused
you to doubt your union with Christ? Now, I'm telling you,
this is God's man here. This is God's man. And yet God
has opened up this to show us this man doubts his union with
Christ. He doubts his union. He says this in verse 7, Will
the Lord cast off forever? Will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever?
Doth His promise fail forever? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His
tender mercies? The psalmist tries to consider
then the better times. He says, I remember! I remembered
back! He goes to the Word of God and
sees the goodness of God to Israel. He remembers God's covenant.
He remembers how that was at once a comfort to him. He said,
I remember my song in the night. This is a good practice for everyone
in trouble. Let us call to our minds the
grace and power of God in ancient times. Consider this. In ancient
times, God chose you. Is that not something to remember? That God loved you. Isn't it something to remember
that Jesus took us for His own and redeemed us with His own
blood? Remember how he called us by
his gospel how he gave us faith isn't this the song in the night
that we remember And even now in the teeth of
our trouble we still are calling on him trusting in him who is
able to deliver us Have you ever thought of this? In the midst
of your doubts and fears, and you're calling unto God. Why
are you calling to him? Are you not calling to Him because
you know He is the only one able to save you? Isn't that faith?
You believe Him to be the only one to save you. That's why you're
calling. And so now we make diligent search
and these questions come. Will you cast us off forever?
We feel abandoned. The questions ask why God is
delaying. Has He cast us off forever? Will He abandon us? When God
said this, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And yet,
how do you feel? You feel abandoned. You feel
as though He has left you. It seems as though the Word of
God contradicts itself. Will your grace and favor toward
Me cease? Well, the Word of God says, My
grace is sufficient. And yet our experience says,
His grace has left me. Will your mercy cease? The Word
of God says, Thy mercy endureth forever. And yet in experience,
we feel as though His mercy has ceased from us. God's promise is yea and amen,
isn't it? We're just saying that the Word
of God is yea and amen and His promises have never forfeited
yet. What has God purposed to do that He's not done? Name it. Find it. Anything. And if God
says, I purpose to save you, I will save you. Did His Word
fail? I tell you this, you feel as
though it's failed. That His promises are not true. Look, this is a transcript of
this man's soul. These are the questions that
he is asking in diligence. He's not pretending. He feels as though God has cut
him off forever. God says, I know my thoughts
to you. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. God said in Zephaniah
chapter 3, He said, Thou shalt not see evil anymore. Is that
how you feel in the midst of trouble? That you don't see any
evil? These two seem opposed to one another. Our experience
and the Word of God are at opposite ends at this point of our trials. Are such promises vain? Is now
the blood of Christ unable to extinguish the anger of God?
He says, are you still angry? Do you feel like that at times
that God is angry at you? For that to happen, the blood
of Christ would fail. Yet this is what griefs and sorrows
can bring the believer to believe. These questions that we ask. We'll see then how God opens
the soul of the saint so that we ask such questions. Listen,
God's not afraid of your questions. You know, He's not afraid of
your questions. There is no question that you
have that cannot be answered of God. These are going to be
readily answered by God. And if you have these doubts,
if you have these fears, don't be afraid to ask Him. He'll answer. If you're His, He will answer.
And that's the third thing. This meditation and consolation
of God is given to those who are in such places, in such darkness. Listen, God gives you the answer. Look at this in verse 11. in
the midst of all of his afflictions and doubts and fear. This is
his determination. He said, I will remember the
works of the Lord. Here's hope. Here's hope to such
things. I will remember the works of
the Lord. I surely will remember the wonders
of old. I will meditate also of all thy
work and talk of thy doings. What is this but to determine
to meditate upon God's salvation? Determine to meditate upon God's
salvation? Will He cast us off forever?
The Word of God says that He shall not cast off the people
that He foreknew. He shall not cast off His people
that He foreknew. Contemplate concerning His works
of old, His electing work, the work of Christ in removing our
sins, who is, in verse 13, the way of God. Consider the way
of God. How is it that we have access
to God? How is it that God will save us? Is God going to save
us by our feelings? What do our feelings about things
have to do with any of our salvation? Nothing. Well, I feel like God
cast me off. How much does that weigh concerning
the Word of God? Put that on a scale. How you
feel. Because next minute you'll feel
something else, won't you? Has He cast me off? No, God doesn't
cast off His people. Will He cease to be favorable?
No, because he would have to cease to be favorable to Christ. He's always going to be favorable
to his people. Is his mercy cling on? No, his
mercy endures forever. Does his promise fail? He cannot
fail nor be discouraged. Has God forgotten to be gracious
Friends, God is the God of all grace. He will never fail to
be gracious. You may feel like He's not gracious,
but that has nothing to do with His grace. He is gracious. This is determination. I'll remember
that Christ is the way in the sanctuary. In other words, I'm
going to remember my way to God is the blood. God will not cast me off because
the blood of Christ has forever put away my sin. Remember, sin
is the thing that keeps us from God, and that thing has been
removed. What happened when Christ died
to the sanctuary? What happened to the veil? It
was rent. The way into the Most Holy is
open. regardless of how you feel. Thou art God and dost wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength
among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed
thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Remember the greatness
of our God. Remember. And then in verses
16 through 19, he gives the picture of the Red Sea. What a picture
that is. He pictures, he says the waves
were afraid of you. He said you walked through, you
led us through. Isn't that what Christ has done? All of the troubles of this life,
what are they in comparison to the justice of God? And yet God
has parted the sea of His justice. God is not angry with His people. They will not suffer the wrath
of God because Christ has already endured for them. And as the Israelites walk through
safely, listen friends, you and I will walk through this life
safely. How can I be sure? Because I
tell you, the troubles are grievous. Troubles are painful. And my
feelings overwhelm me at times. What is my hope? My hope is Christ. And the only way I'm hopeless
is if Christ failed. Did He fail? He did not fail. Did Israel make
it through safely? Yes. And so will we. Now, what's
our hope is this. In 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse
5, God says this, that we are kept. Kept. The Song of Solomon says
we are kept as the apple of His eye. How do you keep your eye? Have
you ever been outside weed eating and a little pebble fly up at
your eye? What do you do? You look so foolish,
but your whole body just guards, protects your eye instantly.
And you don't even think about it. Listen, God keeps His people
as precious in His sight. He will keep you. He will sustain
you. Surely then, in contemplation
of this subject, every redeemed heart will join the beautiful,
pious language of the man of God and acknowledge that though
the ways of God are dark and hidden, like His paths in the
sea, yet Jesus hath led, Jesus doth lead, and Jesus will lead
His people, whom He hath saved from their sins, and He will
bring them to Himself In His glorious flock, the Jews of His
redemption crown, He will bring Him to Himself and the Father
of glory forever. This is our hope in the midst
of our troubles. May God help us to remember them,
keep them near. Let us abandon how we think and
feel and trust only what God says. Let God be true and every man
a liar. I pray God will bless us. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer.