Psalm 55, 22, cast thy burden
upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. I have a lot of brethren right
now that seems like all at once I'm hearing from that are under
some tremendous burdens. various types of burdens, various
problems, and serious burdens. I don't mean just light things.
I mean serious things. And so this is a passage, a verse
that I actually sent someone just to try to comfort them.
And after I sent it, I read the psalm, and the Lord moved my
heart by it, and I thought, I'm going to preach from this. We'll look at this. This is going
to be our text, just verse 22, but I want to give you a little
background here. This psalm was penned by David,
and it was at a time when one of David's trusted counselors
had betrayed him, Hithophel. He had betrayed David. And, you know, any burden that
we bear is extremely hard. It's hard, any burden that we
bear in this world. The betrayal of somebody that
you love dearly is a tough burden. That is a heavy burden. That's
something none of us want to face. But with all the Psalms,
you know, we look and see Christ in the Psalms. And Ahithophel is a very good
picture of Judas after They each betrayed, Judas betrayed the
Lord and Hithophel betrayed David, and both those men went out and
hanged themselves when it was all done. And so when you read
this, you read it with an eye to Christ, hearing Christ speak.
Especially when you read verse 12, it says, For it was not an
enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither
was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me.
Then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a
man mine equal, my guide, mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel
together and walked unto the house of God in company." So
you can enter in something when you read those words, not only
to David's part in that betrayal, but our Lord's suffering as he
was betrayed by Judas. So in our text, you know, we
could look at this text and we could read this as the Lord speaking
to himself as he suffered the burden that he bore for his people. And him saying to himself, cast
thy burden upon the Lord. Because he did that. He did that
in perfect faith. While our Lord Jesus was on the
cross being forsaken by God, one of the most mysterious things
to me is while he was forsaken in strict justice, at the same
time, he was perfectly obedient to God, never wavered in his
heart, never looked anywhere but to the Lord, his God. And so you can hear him say to
himself, cast thy burden upon the Lord. When he had nobody
else to speak to him, he could say to himself, cast thy burden
upon the Lord. But I want us to look at this
tonight and hear our Savior giving this word to us. He says, first
of all, his command is cast thy burden upon the Lord. And then secondly, he gives a
promise. He says, He shall sustain thee. He shall sustain thee. And then
he gives another promise and he says, He shall never suffer
the righteous to be moved. Now anybody here that has any
burden, suffering from a serious burden, and I mean something
that is a burden. I don't mean just trifling things. I mean a burden. If you're suffering
a burden, be it sin, be it a trial, be it a betrayal of a loved one,
whatever it be, hear the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Cast
thy burden upon the Lord. He will take it. He will take
the burden. If we come to him seeking mercy,
with a truly broken heart and needing mercy. The Lord's never
turned away anybody that came to Him that way. Cast thy burden
upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. And He shall never suffer
the righteous to be moved. Now that's just certain. Our
Lord's exhortation, let's look at this now. He says, cast thy
burden upon the Lord. Anytime we're in sorrow and any
kind of pain, anything like that, it's a burden. That's the thing
that's the burden, really, is whatever the effect it causes
is the real burden. And sometimes we're in such mourning
that we can't even really pray to the Lord. We try, but we can't. Verse 2 there, he said, attend
unto me and hear me, I mourn. in my complaint and that word
is in my prayer and my petition. I mourn and make a noise. So all I could do is make a noise.
Sometimes we can't do much more than just make a noise. And at
times our hearts are broken that you do feel like you'll die.
You just feel like you're without strength and you just can't go
on. And look at verse 4. My heart is sore pained within
me and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. That's a frightening
sound isn't it? Terrors of death. And at times we're overwhelmed.
Verse 5. Fearfulness and trembling are
come upon me And horror hath overwhelmed me. And then on top
of all that, there's the burden of those who have made themselves
enemies against us. We wouldn't have any enemies
if we could have our way. When we have enemies, for a believer,
it's not that we're trying to make enemies with people. They've
made themselves our enemies. But look at verse 3. It talks
about the voice of the enemy. It talks about the oppression
of the wicked. They cast iniquity upon me, and
in wrath they hate me. Now, when we're in situations
like this, sometimes this might be our thought. We might think
that we need to just escape. Let's just escape this. silent place and just disappear
and be gone from all our responsibilities and what have you. Are those
the things that we need to do? When we are under any kind of
load, any kind of burden whatsoever, we don't have to reach far, we
don't have to grasp for and have wings to fly away and to escape
and to wander off and all those things. The help we need is as
near as the righteousness we need. Look at Romans chapter
10. Romans 10. And look at verse 6. This is speaking
of the righteousness we need. This is the righteousness we
need right here. He says, the righteousness which
is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down
from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring
up Christ again from the dead. If you need righteousness, if
righteousness is the burden, if the burden that you're under
is that you, Lord's shown you, you are nothing but sin, and
you need a righteousness that you cannot work out, you need
Christ's righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, which is the only
righteousness God will receive. If that's the case, you don't
need wings to fly far away, and you don't need to wander this
way or that way or grasp for heaven or for hell or need somebody
to go this way or that way and get it. This is what the righteousness
of faith says. Verse 8, the Word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach. When we're in that position where
we know we're sinners and we need righteousness that we can
in no way obtain it by anything we do, we don't need to wander
way off and grasp at the, he's saying, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. You see all the works going on
in the world and all the buildings being erected and all the great
benevolent deeds that are taking place and all that's going on
in the name of religion. Busy, busy, busy in the name
of religion. And it's like our psalm. If I had wings to fly away and
if I could grasp this and grasp that and try to reach for heaven
and I'm trying to get that righteousness I need. When the Lord says in the heart, do you believe
God? Do you believe on Christ? Do you believe He is the righteousness
God is satisfied with? That He's pleased with Him and
Him alone? Do you believe Him? We either do or we don't. It's
a simple thing of believing on Him and confessing Him with the
mouth. Our Lord said, if anybody won't
confess me, I won't confess them. But those that He gives hearts
that really believe Him, they're not ashamed to confess Him. He
says, there he that believeth shall not be ashamed. We won't
be ashamed for believing Him. We won't be ashamed to say we
believe Him. But you see how near righteousness
is? It's close. It's near as faith
in Christ, in the heart, in the mouth. Well, the same goes for
any lesser burden. And everything in comparison
to needing the righteousness of Christ is a lesser burden,
no matter how severe it might be to us. Paul called them, in
2 Corinthians 4, our light afflictions, which are but for a moment. They seem very, very heavy at
the time, and they seem like they'll last forever. And sometimes,
some folks I know have had burdens for a long, long time. But in
comparison to what God is working together, using that burden and
that trial for His child, oh, it's light. And it's just temporary. because he's working a far exceeding
eternal weight of glory for his child. That's what he's always
doing through these burdens. And anything lesser than this
sin problem is a lesser burden. But the help we need is as near
as the word, as in your heart and in your mouth. Believe on
the Lord. Cast all your burden on him.
Call out to him for help. Remember when Peter was walking
across the water to the Lord? And when he had his eye on the
Lord, he was fine. He had his eye on the Lord and
he was doing fine. But he took his eye off the Lord
and he looked at the waves. See, a trial comes and a burden
comes and we feel the weight of it. And it begins to push
us down. It begins to crush us down. And
that's the purpose of it. It's supposed to do that to our
flesh. To show us that we're nothing in our flesh. But in
the inward man, where that still, small voice, where the Lord speaks,
causes you to hear Him, the purpose is to bring us to cry like Peter
cried and say, help, Lord. Help. But we tend to put our
eyes on the waves and on the burden and on something that
we think can escape it and what have you. And all those things
are secondary things. All those things are, you know,
the trial and the burden and all is what the Lord's using
to bring us to his feet. So he's, you don't have to fly
away. Just cry out to him. Help, Lord. Help, Lord. And we don't need
to try to escape. We can't escape a burden when
our need is righteousness. We can't escape it. There's no
need to try to escape it. No need to try to put it off
to another day because there's no getting out of the fact that
we're all going to stand before the Lord in the day of judgment.
That's something we can't put off. And there's no need to try
to escape from any kind of lesser burden either. Look at verse
8 back in our psalm. This is why he said he wanted
the wings. He said, I would hasten my escape.
I would hurry this thing along from the windy storm and the
tempest. I'd get out from under this storm. I'd get away from
this storm. I'd do it quickly. Thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, he that believeth
shall not make haste. He won't need to try to hurry
up and get out from under the storm. In the midst of the storm,
cast all your burden upon that sure foundation, upon that tried
stone. He's been tried and proven faithful.
Cast your burden upon that precious cornerstone. That stone that
is so immensely valuable that you can't put a price on him.
Precious cornerstone. He's such a sure foundation.
The only sure foundation. But the only way to do that is
believing on him. Believe on him. Believe on him. Isaac Watts wrote a hymn, and
I came across a portion of this hymn, and it was not, the words
that were there weren't correct. But there was enough there to
want me to look it up. So I went and looked up this
hymn. Let me give you the words to this. He wrote it from this
psalm, from Psalm 55, from that particular verse that speaks
about wishing I had wings to fly away as a dove. And he said
this, oh, were I like a feathered dove, If innocence had wings,
I'd fly and make a long remove from all these restless things. Let me to some wild desert go
and find a peaceful home where storms of malice never blow and
temptations never come. Now, the next line is about everything
he just said. The next line is about everything
that he just said. Oh, that I had this. Listen to
this. Vain hopes and vain inventions
all to escape the rage of hell. The mighty God on whom I call
can save me right here just as well. So what's he going to do? By morning light, I'll seek his
face. At noon, repeat my cry. The night
shall hear me ask his grace, nor will he long deny. God, my
preserver and my friend, shall shield me when afraid. Ten thousand
angels must attend if he commands their aid. So we don't have to
haste to escape. We don't have to run away and
look for an escape. Our Lord says this, cast your
burden on the Lord. That's what he said. Now why
is the Lord so willing to bear our burden? Why is our Lord so
willing to bear our burden? Brethren, anything that's burdening
one of his chosen, redeemed, called out people, a believer,
anything that's burdening you, He's light in comparison to what
he's already born for you. The burden that he's already
born includes all the sin and all the sorrows along with the
curse and the wrath of God. Listen to this. Surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Not only did our
Lord Jesus Christ carry all our sorrows, and you know that verse
is applied to where when the Lord healed somebody that the
scripture might be fulfilled. How did the Lord heal somebody?
Just physically how was he able to heal them? He had to pay a
price to do that. He had to purchase that. with
his blood. We don't know the half of what
he had to pay and how much he had to bear just to say, I will
be thou clean. And I know it's so because to
do it spiritually is even greater. But on top of making it even
more of a burden and bearing all our sorrows and our griefs,
we for whom he bore those griefs called him smitten and afflicted
of God. We're sitting here today and
we might say, well, I never did that. I didn't live when the
Lord walked this earth. We did it all our days. In rebellion,
that's exactly what we did. By not believing on him, we were
saying, I don't believe he's who he said he is. I think he's
an imposter and I think everything he bore at the cross was God
giving him what he deserved. That's what men are saying by
not believing on him. That's what I said and that's
what you said. But listen to this. He was wounded
for our transgressions. Talk about a burden. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement necessary for
you and me to have peace. For His chosen people to have
peace. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. He said the Lord hath laid on
Him the iniquity of all His people. And you know the margin. It says
the Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquity of all His people. Romans 5 tells us this. Not as
it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. The gift that God
gives is not like that one sin in the garden. The judgment was
by one offense to condemnation. There was just one offense committed
in that garden that put us all under sin and made us all guilty
before God. And we sinned in Adam. When Adam
sinned, we sinned. We were in his loins. We paid
tithes in Adam in the garden, or made transgression because
we were in his loins, just like Levi paid tithes in Abraham because
he was in his loins. We were in him. And there was
a long period of time from Adam to Mount Sinai when there was
no law. And the scripture says, God will
not impute sin where there is no law. You know what that means? It means God won't impute something
that's not so. God won't impute sin unless somebody's
been made sin. He doesn't impute sin to you
to make you sin. That wouldn't be lawful. But
why was he just to impute sin onto those that lived between
Adam and Moses who didn't have a law that they could see and
know and break like Adam did in the garden? How was he just
to impute sin to them? Because we all really did sin
in Adam. We really did. But that was just
one transgression. Listen to this. It's not like
that, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. You think about that. Our Lord
Jesus Christ bore all the sin of all his people from every
generation at one time. I'm forgetting my burden already.
My burden's getting lighter already. Think about that. All the sin of all his people
from all generations, all at one time. Every bit of it. And then our substitute bore
this unimaginable burden. God's own sword of justice. Whenever the sin of his people
was found on him, the whole purpose for which our Lord Jesus came
to this earth was to declare the righteousness of God. To
declare that the judge of all the earth shall do right. Everything
he does is right. And he came to show how God can
uphold his holy law and by no means clear the guilty while
at the same time having mercy on those that were guilty. And that's what Christ came to
show. And so when sin was found on his son, he spared not his
own son. He spared not his own son but
delivered him up. Think of he delivered him up
to God-hating men. He delivered him up to God-hating
governments. He delivered him up to the God-hating
prince of the power of the air. He delivered him up to a host
of angels we can't see, that fallen angels we can't see. But
worst of all, he delivered him up to his own sword of justice. He said, Awake, O sword, against
him that is my fellow. This is God the father and God
the son. This is father and son. And God, God in justice, as God,
as his God, forsook him for three hours in complete darkness on
the cross. This one he had been with before
the world was ever even created. This one before whom he was ever
his delight. This one who who the father entrusted
the whole work into his hands and who he delighted in constantly,
all the time. This one who went about doing
his will on this earth and who always pleased the father in
everything he did. And there he is on the cross
now. And the heavens are brass to
him. And there's nothing but silence. And there's no comfort. And there's no help. And there's
no strength. There's nothing but bitterness.
There's nothing but this bitter cup of wrath that he had to bear. He's forsaken by God the Father,
by God, and he's forsaken by his people, and he's forsaken
by, of course, those that hate him already. He's forsaken by
everybody. Nobody ever made themselves the
least as the Redeemer did. Nobody. And listen, go to Mark
15 with me, Mark 15, 25. Let's just read this and just
think about this. Mark 15. Verse 25, and it was the third
hour and they crucified him. It was the third hour and they
crucified him. That's verse 33. And when the
sixth hour was come. There was darkness over the whole
land until the ninth hour. So he had borne this for six
hours. Whenever the Lord forsook him. And everything went. Dark, I
mean. dark. He said, I'm the light
of the world. He said, as long as I'm in the
world, I'm the light of the world. But at this moment right here,
he was having to pay and satisfy justice for all his people. And everything went dark. He's the light of the sun. He's
the light of the stars. He's the light of this light
you have shining right here, just the light that sustains
the physical life of men. He's that light. He's the light
that makes animals live and plants grow. He's the light by which
life is sustained, not to mention the light of his people. He's
the light. But at this moment, everything
went dark. everything went dark. Can you
imagine if you had been mocking him and spitting on him and whipping
him and all these different things and in your heart you're convinced
you're doing it for the glory of God. And you're convinced
that he's an imposter and you're wanting him out of here and gone
so you can get back to worshiping your God your way. And can you
imagine if in the midst of all that all of a sudden everything
went totally dark? Have you ever seen those pictures
of that, they had that total blackout in New York City back
in the 70s? That's amazing just to see that.
If you've ever seen New York City and just the millions of
lights you see, and to see that city just totally blacked out. Just imagine all over the world,
darkness. It's a hard heart. I mean a hard
heart. And it shows you the hardness
of my heart and your heart not to run and fall down on his feet
and ask for mercy when that happened. But nobody did it. Nobody did
it. But look at this now. And for
six hours, he'd been there. And then for three hours more,
yeah, three hours more, he's in total darkness. And at the
ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi,
lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God. The only place he called him
God. My God, my God. But he still
called him my God. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And then verse 37 says, and Jesus
cried with a loud voice. He said, it is finished. And he gave up the ghost. He
said, Father, into thy hands commend I my spirit. And the
veil of the temple was rent in two from top to the bottom. You ever wonder why the veil
wasn't rent from the bottom to the top? Nothing the Lord puts in the
scripture is Without significance, I think. I know. So why did it
split from the bottom to the top instead of from the top to
the bottom? Well, that was just a big curtain hung that made
a square room. And to get into it, the priest
picked it up and went under it. And they'd done that for a long
time. So if it split from the bottom
to the top, they could just say, well, it was just worn out. It
split. But you got a, I can't remember
how wide that thing was, 12 inches of woven tapestry, 12 inches
split in two from the top to the bottom. And by that, God
means to tell you and me, it is finished. It is finished. And the whole work's complete.
His people are redeemed. The burden has been borne away.
It's been born away. Because Christ bore that tremendous
load, brethren, with his stripes, we are healed. With his stripes,
we are healed. Now, when you're healed, this
is what it means to be healed. It means you are totally, thoroughly,
complete in Christ. Everything God requires, you
got it. You got it. It's to be the righteousness
of God in him. It's to be justified from all
things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses.
It's to have God promise that he's cast all our sins behind
his back and he'll remember them no more. He's blotted them out.
They don't exist anymore. He's cast them as far away from
his child as the east is from the west. He's thrown them in
the depth of the sea. He gives us all these pictures
to say, any way I can tell you, I'm telling you, they're gone.
They're gone. And if you don't have sin, and
you have the righteousness of Christ, no sin can ever be brought
up by God against you ever again. The same justice that made him
spare not his only son but deliver him up now says, spare that man. I will not pour out anything
on him. He's justified. Spare him. He's justified. And for every
person, every sinner, who knows I can do nothing at all to please
God and get this burden off of me. All my burden is cast on
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. I trust Him alone. God
says that to you. That's God's Word to you. That's
not God's Word to the man that's still trying to carry it. That's
God's Word to the man that throws that whole burden on Christ and
says, Lord, I'm trusting you. I believe you. I'm trusting you.
I'm believing on you. And that's all. Nothing else. That's all. And this is the good
news for everybody who does that. In that he died, he died unto
sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Likewise, reckon, impute. Now listen to this strong language.
Because he died unto sin once, He says now, because that's done,
and Christ died unto sin once, you reckon ye yourselves to be
dead indeed unto sin. It's like he's saying, I'm going
to get this as thorough as I can make it. I want to explain to
you, you're dead. If you trust Christ only, he
says here, because he died unto sin once, because of his death,
He says, now you impute that you are dead indeed unto sin. It's not your reckoning yourself
to be so is going to make you be dead. It's Christ that died
that makes you be dead. And he says, because of that
now, though, you impute to yourself, you are dead indeed to sin. And
he says this, and because he liveth under God, he says, likewise
impute ye also yourselves that you are alive under God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Alive under God. Now, if you
have never believed on Christ, if you have the burden of sin
on you and the burden of knowing you cannot work out a righteousness
for yourself, hear Christ's command. Cast all your burden on the Lord. all your burden on the Lord.
And for those who already rest in Him, whatever it is that's
burdening you, cast it on Him. Hear Him tell you, cast your
burden on the Lord. Now the only way we're going
to do that is if you don't hear this voice, but you hear His
voice. But when you hear His voice, that's what you'll do.
Now let me quickly, I want to just give you these two promises.
First of all, he says he shall sustain thee. You and I are insufficient
to sustain ourselves. We're insufficient to sustain
ourselves in physical life, much less spiritual life. You and
I cannot sustain our physical life. When we reach the hour
God has appointed, that's the hour. We're not gonna change
it. And you and I have no more sufficiency
to sustain ourselves spiritually than we do physically. We cannot
do it. We just cannot do it. But for
those that our Lord has called to Him, He says He will do it.
Now listen to this. Israel in the wilderness, a picture
of the true, true Israel, the Israel of God. Now listen to
this. He gave them bread from heaven for their hunger. He'd
given us Christ, our bread. And He'll give you whatever,
if He gave you Christ the bread, He'll get you a bologna sandwich.
Don't worry about that. He gave them bread for their
hunger, and he brought forth water for them out of the rock
for their thirst. He smote that rock, and this
is what I've been talking about for the past 30 minutes. He smote
the rock, and he's given us the water of life. And then when
they sinned against him, and it's not a matter of if, it's
a matter of when with me and you, when they sinned against
him, He proved to them, thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious
and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. And in thy
manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness. Because
he forsook his son for his people, he won't ever forsake his people.
Not ever. And it says, It says, the pillar
of the cloud departed not for them by day to lead them in the
way, neither the pillar of fire by night to show them light and
the way wherein they should go. Thou gavest also thy good spirit
to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth,
and gavest them water for their thirst. Yea, forty years didst
thou sustain them. That's what he said he'd do for
us, isn't it? Sustain us. Forty years you sustained them
in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing. And their clothes
waxed not old and their feet swelled not. How in the world
did that happen? They walked for forty years in
the wilderness and their clothes never got old? They must not
have been letting me wash their clothes. Their clothes didn't
wax old and their feet didn't swell. And that hot desert sand,
walking around. I'll tell you how they did it.
God sustained them. And they lacked nothing. You find you an older believer
that's been in the faith a long time, for a long time, 40 years,
50 years, something like that, and you ask them, have you ever
lacked anything? I know what they'll tell you.
Never. I've never lacked anything. In
fact, before I ever knew him, he had provided everything for
me, and I didn't even know it. You'll never lack anything. He
said the young lions do lack and suffer for hunger. You think
about that. He's not talking about baby lions.
He's talking about young lions in the prime of life, strong
and vigorous and the king of the jungle. He said they're going
to go hungry and lack, even as strong as they are. Little old
insufficient me. What about little old weak me
that can't do a thing? But they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. He'll sustain thee. He'll tell
you when you, he's the wise counselor. He's the only remedy for your
anxious care. You'll have no lack. You won't
need a counselor. You'll have one. You cast your
burden on Him and you won't have to lack wisdom in knowing what's
going on around you. What's all this stuff going on
that's happening in my life and with all this burden and all
that? You don't need the wisdom to know what all's going on with
it. All you need the wisdom to know is He's working it all together
for your good on purpose. And that'll make it where you
don't lack that wisdom. You'll have it. When you cast your care
on Him, you'll You won't lack for hope. He'll shed abroad the
love of God in your heart, and he'll remind you that when you
were enemies, Christ died for you. So now that you're his friend,
he's surely not going to forsake you now. You won't lack hope
if you trust him. You have all your care in him.
And when we cast our burden on him, he'll set our affection
on things above. And that'll show us everything
he's been doing for us, is to point us to Christ and set our
affection on Christ alone, in whom we have everything we need.
Now let me show you this next thing. Let me show you this next
thing. We have his next promise. He
says, and he'll never suffer the righteous to be moved. Now,
this is important. Our triune God has made his people
the righteous. Now when he says the righteous,
he's not talking about something we did to make us righteous.
Although when he works in you, his people are going to, they
love righteousness and they want to walk in this world and honor
him and not disgrace him or bring reproach upon the gospel. But
when he calls us the righteous, he's telling us what he did.
It was by God's electing grace. It was by Christ's precious blood.
It was by the Holy Spirit regenerating us. It's by Him keeping us. He's
made us the righteous. He has done that. It's by His
obedience. And so God, because He's done
all this for His people, He'll never let the righteous be forsaken.
Go to Romans 8. Let's end with this. Romans 8,
33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Can
you imagine standing in a courtroom with a Supreme Court Justice
and him declaring somebody innocent? And you jumping up and running
up there and say, well, I'm going to say he's guilty. Well, who
are you? He'll say, who are you? I'm the judge, and I've declared
him not guilty. It's God that justifies. The
one that justifies us says we're not guilty. Nobody can charge
us. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? We've been talking about trials.
We've been talking about these burdens and these afflictions.
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness
or peril or sword? Look at verse 37. No, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved
us. For I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature. I think
he got it all covered, don't you? Nothing shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Why? Justice is satisfied. And I'll give you another reason.
And this is a good one. This one right here will give
you some comfort. This will give you some comfort.
Christ Jesus the Lord has so united himself with his church
and every individual member of it. that we are His body, the
fullness of Him that filleth all in all. And unless every
member is in that body, His body won't be complete. Our Savior
will not be without a little toe. He'll have every single
member in His body. There won't be one lost, not
one. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. He said, they're going to hear
my voice, and they're going to follow me, and I'll give them
eternal life, and they'll never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. He said, and the same is true
of my father. They'll never do it. They'll never do it. He'll
never suffer the righteous to be moved. Now, this is what I
say to you. If you're a child of God, now
if you're a sinner and never cast your care on Christ, do
it. That's all I can say to you. All I can say to these dry bones
is live and trust the Lord to enter in and make you live. If
you're a child of God, whatever lesser thing it is you're suffering,
I guarantee you this. I guarantee you this. There's
one reason for it. There's one reason for it. And
this is going to be what's going to happen before it's all said
and done. We can fight against it, resist it, and try to figure
out a way to get out of it and do whatever we can. But you know
what that is? That's pride trying to save ourselves. And God resisteth the proud,
but he gives grace to the humble. Any time my dad was disciplining
me, if I kicked against him, or try to get, you know, make
it easier and get away from it or whatever, it just made it
harder. But if I would ask mercy or just submit to it, it was
always much easier. He says, humble yourself, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time. That He may save you out of in
due time. And that's the end to which we're
going to be brought if we're a child of God. That's the end. Because that's what He gave the
trial for. That's what the burden's about. Whatever the, you know,
if I hadn't have done this, and I hadn't have done the other,
and I wish I'd have done it this way or that way, I wouldn't be
in this position. Those are just second causes. Everything was
worked just right to bring you right here. You know why? For you to hear the Lord say,
cast your burden on me. I'm doing the sustaining here.
I'm doing the keeping here. And we need to be taught that
over and over and over and over again. That's other than the
fact that we're here to preach the gospel. and get the word
out and waiting on our Lord to call out all his lost sheep.
The only other reason we're here is to be taught this lesson over
and over and over again. It's pretty much that simple.
And one day, we're going to get it. One day, we're going to get
the lesson. We are. We're not going to get it until
we drop this body of death, and we're standing before him, and
we know him as we're known. And I don't know what it'll be
like, but I kind of picture that maybe we'll be able to look at
our life and all the boneheaded things we did and look at it
and look and think, if I'd have just submitted to
him. Because we'll have the one thing we needed all along. He's
the one thing we need. I wish I could speak to young
people and say, he's just the one thing you need. It's OK to
get a good education. It's OK to go after a job or
whatever. But boy, I don't do it at the
expense of this one thing you need. Just one thing you need. I pray the Lord will bless you.
Thank you.