Turn with me, if you would, back
to Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26. What is troubling you? What's troubling you? I wrote Selah after that. What's troubling you? All of us have something that's
troubling us. All of us. Every single one of us. Most
of us have many things that trouble us. I know that because I have
things that trouble me. Everybody knows what I'm talking
about. Trouble is the result of sin. That's what comes from sin. Sin in us and sin around us. There's so much sin around us. So much sin. There is so much
sin in us. All of us have sinned. Isn't
that right? All of us. All of us have trouble. All of us. All of us. So I ask myself and I ask you,
what's troubling us? What is it that's troubling us?
Even in the times that we feel are good times, you know, every
now and then you get a moment and you think, man, this is a
good time. Even in those times, something
in the back of our mind is troubling us, worrying us. There is always an inner struggle
going on over something. You get rid of one thing and
the next thing comes along. Isn't that right? So, individually, what are we
in turmoil over? What are we burdened about? Do
you ever feel a deep inner sigh for your children? You ever feel that? You ever
feel a deep, all of a sudden, Eternity snaps before your eyes
for one quick second. And it's just like you just,
oh, wait a minute. Just a deep, deep burden. What is their lot going to be
in this life? What's going to happen to them?
What's going to happen to them? How are things going to go? Worried whether or not God is
going to have mercy on their souls. God had mercy on my soul. I believe God has had mercy on
my soul. But that doesn't mean he's going
to have mercy on theirs. Husbands, are you ever troubled
for your wives for whatever reason? Wives, are you ever troubled
for your husbands? Troubled for your parents? Have
you ever been troubled for your parents? Troubled over a lack
of interest in the eternity that is around the corner. Eternity
is around the corner. When I was writing this, I thought
about Gatlinburg. That fire came in 70 mile an
hour winds. They had a 15 minute notice. They started emptying cabins
with a 15-minute notice. They went for a good time. I mean, it's just right around
the corner. Well, I know three score and 10 right around the
corner. Troubled over a lack of fervency
over this one thing that's needful. There is one thing that's needful. There is one thing that's needful. There's one thing that's needful.
I mean there's one thing. There's one thing. Come the end
of this life, around the corner, as soon as we turn the corner,
we're going to realize one thing. If I have this one thing, I have
it all. And if I don't have this one
thing, I am going to be left holding nothing. Nothing. I pray, I really do, I was thinking
about my children. I was thinking about us. I pray that God would stifle
our success if it is going to take us away from Christ. Now if God will be with us, keep
his hand on us, use us for his honor and glory and the good
of his sheep and the good of the gospel, then may the Lord
pour it on. But if it's going to bring my
heart away from Christ, dear God, take every luxury this world
has to offer away from me. Just don't take the blood of
Christ from me. That one thing. I am troubled
for us, for our children, for this city. And the Apostle Paul said, my
heart's desire for my kinsmen after the flesh. I have some
kinsmen after this flesh right here. And he said, my heart's
desire for my kinsmen after the flesh is that they might be saved.
And then he said something else, and I don't even know how to
respond to it. I don't know how to feel about
it. I understand what he's saying,
but I don't know if I can Say it with him. I don't know how
to feel about it. He said, I could wish myself accursed for their
sakes. How do you? Are you ever troubled over your
own self? You ever troubled over your own
self? Do you ever trouble you like I trouble me? I trouble
me. Does it ever worry you that you
might not remain fervent for the gospel? Does that ever worry
you? Your own heart might grow dull
toward Christ. Does that ever worry you? That it might fade away from
wanting to hear about how he saved our souls just fade away. Does it ever worry you that the
things of this world will take priority over worship? And in the process, these cold
dead hearts right here won't even care. They just won't even
care. Does that ever worry you? What about the pressures of life?
Pressures on the job, pressures in the home, trying to just maintain
everything. We're just trying to keep it
going, aren't we? Aren't we just trying to keep it going? Keep
it afloat trying to survive. What is troubling you? What is troubling you? Whatever
it is, here is relief from it. Whatever it is, here is relief
from it. Isaiah 26 verse 3 says, Thou
wilt Keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Are we worried for
our children? Worried for our families? If
we are, then we need to become stayed on the Lord Jehovah. If we are, if we're worried for
their sake, we need to become stayed on the Lord Jehovah. I
love how Job prayed for his children. He said, it could be that they
haven't. I'm going to pray for them. Are
we worried about ourselves? Are we worried about the sin
that we see in ourselves, the inconsistency, the distractions? If we are, then we need to become
stayed on Jehovah. Are we worried about our jobs?
Worried about our homes, worried about our relationships, worried
about anything? If we are, we need to become
stayed on the Lord Jehovah. Stayed on the Lord Jehovah. Now what does the word stayed
mean? What does it mean to be stayed
on Him? The word stayed means to lean upon. To lie hard on. To shift all support to. He said, thee, thee. Whatever the burden is, and I
want to be as real as possible. The burdens are real. They're
there. They are there. Whatever the burden is, it doesn't
matter how heavy the weight of it is. Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace, whose mind, whose heart, whose body, whose soul,
whose all is stayed on, is leaning on, is completely dependent on,
completely supported by Thee. I mean totally held up from collapsing
by Thee. If I take the next breath of
air, it's only because you've squeezed it into me. If God would ever allow us to
do that, we would find ourselves right in the middle of perfect
peace. Perfect peace. We just sang,
like a river glorious is God's perfect peace. Hidden in the
hollow of his blessed hand, never foe can follow. Whatever my foe
may be, he cannot follow me into the hollow of his hand. Never
traitor stand. If any traitor tries to come
into the hollow of his hand, never stand. stayed upon Jehovah,
hearts are fully blessed, finding, as He promised, perfect peace
and rest. He promised. He promised it. Every soul that has stayed upon
Jehovah, leaning on Him, completely relying on Him, every soul that
jumps into the arms of the Lord Jehovah will be fully blessed. completely blessed by His Spirit,
by His promise, and that soul will find perfect peace. Can you put a value on peace? Can you put a price on peace? I mean perfect peace and rest
from all his trouble. We also just sang, what a fellowship. What a fellowship. Do we want,
we were always talking about love and unity. That's what we
want, isn't it? Well, the only way we will find
it is leaning on the everlasting arms. He is what we have in common. He is
our safety. He's the only foundation that
we have. Look at verse four. It says, trust ye in the Lord
forever. For in the Lord, Jehovah is everlasting
strength. And I have a center margin in
my Bible. It says for everlasting strength,
the rock of ages. Trust ye in the Lord forever.
For in the Lord Jehovah is the rock of ages. Look with me at
1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. The fact that Christ
is our rock of ages, that means more than just he's our foundation. It means more than just he is
able to uphold whatever we burden him with. The rock of ages was
cleft for us. Isn't that right? He broke himself. He literally
cleft himself. He made a way of escape. He made
a secret pavilion. a hiding place, a hiding place
so we could be safe. I think about God's wrath beaten
down on that rock and there we are, right in that hiding place,
right in the cleft of the rock. I love this thought, I love the
thought that as our Lord, the exact moment that God shut him
out of his presence. In the very moment that he died,
the moment that he finally gave up the ghost, at that exact same moment, his
body and his soul were rent into. At that very moment, the tapestry
in the temple, the veil in the temple that kept us out of the
presence of God, kept us away from the Holy of Holies. At that
exact same moment, it was multiple layers of fabric all sewn together. This huge, thick curtain was
ripped in two. Every soul that was hiding in
the Rock of Ages, hiding in the cleft, at that moment was able
to walk straight into the Holy of Holies. Every single soul. When he was shut out, we were
let in. We were led in. Now look right
here at 1 Peter 5, verse 7 says, casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you. He careth for you. Lean on Him. Lean on Him. Lean hard. I mean, lean on Him. Not just
in theory. Not just in doctrine, not just
in the mind. I mean, lean on Him. Lean on
Him. Whatever it is you need, lean
on Him. Lean hard. And the reason is
because in the blood of Jesus Christ, in the cleft of the rock
of ages, He cares for you. That's the reason the rock was
split. He cares for you, whatever it
is. Take that burden to the Lord Jehovah. He'll carry it. He'll
take care of it. He was wounded for us. He lived. He died. He bled. He cares for us. He cares for us. Whatever the
fear, whatever the worry, here's the relief of it. This is the
relief of it. If our standing before God is
okay, everything else will be too. Everything else will be
too. If our standing before God is
okay, then everything else will be too. It will be. We have the
weight of sin pressing down on us. He carried that. He carried that. We don't, we
haven't felt it yet. But it's gone. He carried it. He bore it. It's gone. We have
this guilt. We have this shame. He carried
that too. Every bit of it. And if our forgiveness
before God is ordered and sure, everything else will be. Everything
else. If God put us in Christ, it'll
be fine. It will be fine. The burdens come from every,
every angle. You know, they say that corporate's
going to start laying people off. It'll be fine. I promise it'll be fine. Lord,
corporate says they're going to start laying people off. What am I going to do? I lean on you. I lean on you. No matter what any burden may
be, any burden, no matter what any burden may be, if every soul
will be stayed on Christ, it's going to be fine. It's going
to be fine. Our children, our families, I
can't do anything for them. I cannot do anything for them.
You can't do anything for them. He can. He can. I can't do anything for them. He can. He can. By God's grace, we're
going to take that burden and we're going to lean on Him with
it. We're going to lean on Him with it. I care about their souls. I care about your souls. I do. I do. Come the last day,
I care about what happens to our souls. I care about what
happens to your soul. I care about what happens to
the souls of these people in this town. I see this same man
walking up and down the street. Dear God, save that man. He's
always walking up and down the street on Center Street. Lord,
save that man. I don't want him to spend eternity
in hell. Lord, show mercy to that man.
I don't even know his name. But I care about what happens
to our souls. I know you do too. I know you
do. So let's cast all our care on
him. Lord, that man needs your help. And we can't do anything for
him, but you can. You in mercy can open a door.
You can cross His path with the gospel. You can bring Him into
this building. Help us. Help us. Let's all be
stayed on Him. Stayed on Him. Go with me over
to Psalm 37. Psalm 37, look with me at verse 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall
bring it to pass. My margin right there says roll
thy way upon the Lord. Put it in his hands. Put it in
his hands. That doesn't mean, Lord, I'm
going to put this in your hands and this is what I would like
to see done. Put it in his hands. Thy will
be done. Thy will be done. You know what's
best. You know what's right. This is
out of my hands. I roll it to you. I roll it to
you. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him. And He'll
take care of it. He will take care of it. There
is perfect peace right there. There is perfect peace right
there. I've told you this before, but I've had, you know, growing
up, I've always relied heavily on my dad, always. And I can
remember having some problem and my dad would say, I'll take
care of it. That's all I needed to hear. I trusted he would actually
take care of it. I trusted he would follow through
with the promise he made me. I could put it out of my mind.
If he said he'll take care of it, he'll take care of it. He
said you commit whatever your way is unto the Lord and then
you trust in him and he'll take care of it. He will take care
of it. That's peace. Now for any soul
here who is troubled by the thought of leaning on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Strange thing to say, isn't it?
For any soul who is troubled by the thought of leaning on
the Lord Jesus Christ, for any soul who says, I know me, I know how weak I am. I know how
small my faith is. I know how prone to wonder I
am. I know how taken with the world
I become. How could I ever keep myself
stayed on him? I see it. The answer is stay
on Jehovah. How on this earth could I keep
myself stayed on him? I don't have the confidence in
myself. I don't believe I can do it. I can't do it. If my peace is
dependent on me keeping myself stayed on him, I don't believe
I'll ever find peace. I don't believe I'll ever find
peace. If you would like relief from
that worry, go with me back to the text. Isaiah 26. Verse three says. Thou will keep him. thou wilt keep him thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee
trust ye in the Lord forever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind
is completely leaning on Thee. I mean totally looking to Thee,
hoping in Thee, needing Thee. I can't keep myself. I have proven that to myself.
I cannot keep myself. None of us can. If we're going
to be kept, He's going to have to keep us. He's going to have
to keep us. If we are going to be stayed,
he is going to have to stay us. If we're going to lean on him,
he's going to have to draw us to himself. And his promise is if we belong
to Christ, that's exactly what he'll do. That is exactly what
he'll do. Not only will he carry all of
our burdens, he'll carry us. He'll carry us. That is so relieving
to me. He is not going to let me go. He's not going to, this
is not up to me. It's not finally in my court. He's going to handle it all.
He will take care of it all. Once we realize not only is everything
in his hands, but we are too. Once the Lord really lets our
heart get ahold of that, the trouble goes away. the trouble
starts going away. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he's trusting in
thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. I'll close this with
the words of the Lord himself. He said in Matthew 11 28 come
unto me All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." I'll give you rest, perfect peace
and rest. Let's all run to him. Lord, I can't even run. Would you pull me? Help us, Lord,
keep us stayed on you. Pick us up, lay us hard, heavy
on you, and allow us to find that peace and that rest. All
right, let's stand together.