There it is. If you'd like to turn with me in
your Bibles to 2 Timothy 2, you'll find our text. While you're turning there, I
would remind us that Friday night we heard the message titled The
Only Difference, and that was Christ is the only difference.
Doesn't matter whether Jew or Greek, as Paul put it, which
is Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter creed. It doesn't
matter bloodline. It doesn't matter what we do,
what we don't do. Christ is the only difference
in salvation. Last night we heard about the
love of the truth and only the Lord can give everyone. By nature,
our flesh hates the truth, and only the Lord can give the love
of the truth. And this hour, I hope, in knowing
those two things, my question is, Joe's already said, why are
we discouraged? And I've really never been in
a situation where somebody got up and touched on so many things
that the Lord had laid on my heart to say. And then I've already
wrote down to the lyrics of the last song we sung in this and
I didn't, we didn't talk about any of this. So the Lord did
that. I'm very thankful. So I pray he'll meet with us
this hour. This is Paul's second letter
and he calls Timothy in the first letter, his son in the faith.
He calls upon Timothy to bring things some things into remembrance,
and that's what I hope to remind us of this morning as well. He
reminds Timothy of the Lord's faithfulness. Aren't you glad
that the Lord is faithful? It's not us that's faithful. Can you examine yourself and
find any faithfulness in yourself? I can't. I can't. Lord, people
can't. It's not my prayers that are
faithful to Him. It's not my worship. My worship's
not even faithful. If the Lord leaves me to myself,
My mind will just wander away. Lord, we need you to send your
Spirit and focus our minds and focus our hearts or we'll just
be thinking about this afternoon or this evening or tomorrow's
job at hand. Lord, we want to see you. It's
not our faithfulness, is it? It's His faithfulness. And this
is what Paul is bringing to the attention of Timothy. It's nothing
in the flesh that's faithful, but He is. And He always has
been. And He always will be to His
people. Now let's read our text, 2 Timothy
2, verse 11. We're going to read just three verses, 11 through
14, so four verses. There's a faithful saying, for
if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. If we believe not, he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. of these
things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord,
that they strive not about words to not profit, but to the subverting
of the hearers." And verse 11 says, it's a faithful saying.
You know why it's a faithful saying, everything that he said
right here? Because God's the one that said it. If we be dead
with Christ, we're alive with Christ. Whenever he died, I died. His people, all of his people,
whoever was in him on the cross, they that were in him on the
cross of Calvary, when he died, they died. When he was resurrected,
they were resurrected. This is why it's a faithful saying.
Paul's saying our hope is just that. And that's our only hope. Not in what we do, but what he
did. He says, remember this. This is a faithful saying. Christ
is faithful. He's faithful to His Father in
the redemption of His people. And every person that He redeemed,
every person that He entered into the covenant of grace with
His Father were redeemed. It was impossible. The Lord didn't
try, did He? It wasn't just men talk about a plan. You and I
plan things. We plan to come here to be with you if the Lord
would be merciful. Here we are. But we've had to plan. We had
to buy a plane ticket. We had to plan what are we going to
pack? What are we going to do? And
I had to do all these. The Lord didn't plan anything.
He purposed it. He purposed it before time ever
began. We're just going through the
motions of, and it came to pass. And it came to pass. You read
that all throughout the scripture, don't you? It's all his purpose.
Just coming to pass. This is the hope of the believer.
That what Christ accomplished have given us perfect oneness.
With him, perfect unity. With him, we've been justified
by the death of the Lord. He hath put away. The sin of
his people. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Is that your hope? That's my
hope. That's my hope. Every person that he shed his
precious blood for has been made the very righteousness of God
in him. Now we see that here in verse
13, If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. That
word, believe not, it's better translated unfaithful. If we're
unsee, the new man always believes, but yet we get called up in our
unbelief and we are unfaithful, aren't we? We are unfaithful
to him. He's saying here, if you're unfaithful, He's not unfaithful. He abideth faithful. Why? He
can't deny himself and they that are in Christ have always been
in Christ and he cannot deny them. Not before the Father.
He cannot deny his people. There's hope in that. That means
I can't mess it up. I've said that I think every
time I've stood before you, I can't mess it up. There's hope in that.
Even if we believe not, he abideth faithful. You believe that? Is that all your hope? That's
all my hope. That's all my hope. Not my faithfulness, but his
faithfulness. His faithfulness to the Father and his faithfulness
to his people. The question I have for us this
hour, if we know all of these things, why are we discouraged? Why are we discouraged? This
hour, I have four reasons of discouragement. As I was studying,
I think, and there may be more, there's always exceptions to
things, I know that, but the Lord gave me four reasons we're
discouraged, and I hope to declare those to you. All four of them
have one common denominator, as we heard the first hour from
Joe, and it could be brought down to the most simplest form.
It's unbelief. That's why we're discouraged.
Unbelief, plain and simple. But in Hebrews chapter 12 verse
1 it says, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which doth
so easily beset us. What is the sin that doth so
easily beset us? Unbelief. That's it. That's what
so easily besets us. Does your unbelief surround you
on every side? That's what the word beset means.
On every side it surrounds me. That's my unbelief. I can't look
to my right. I can't look to my left. I can't
look forward or look backwards at anything around me or anything
in myself and not be discouraged because it's all unbelief. Faith
looks to Christ alone. No matter where we look, there
is no rest other than Him. Which brings us to the first
point. For one reason why we're discouraged is because we're
weary. We are weary. And that word weary by definition
is feeling or showing tiredness, especially as the result of not
properly resting. I love that. Not properly resting
means that you're going to grow weary. Well, where is our rest? Is our rest in ourself? Is our
rest in the ordinances that we have kept, or the works that
we have performed, or the life that we've lived, or the things
that we do, or the things that we don't do? That's not our rest. That's not our rest. Taking our
eyes off of Him causes us to be weary. That's why we grow
discouraged as we begin to look around us. You remember Peter.
We believe this, and we declare it, and we know that it's true.
By faith, we believe God. And His word says, Peter walked
on water. Now, that is an impossibility for man to do. God had to do
that. And He did that in Peter. But a man, Peter, the same one
that denied Him a few chapters later, literally walks on water. Did he take three steps? Did
he take five steps? Did he take one step? I don't
know. But he walked on water. How did he do that? Looking not
to Peter, not to his circumstances, not to his ability. As we heard
the first hour in Joshua, the children of Israel looked to
themselves and said, we don't need to send everybody to take
out AI. We can just send a few people. They were looking to
their ability, weren't they? No, it's looking to Christ alone.
That's how he walked on water. We know that to be true because
the moment he took his eyes off of the Lord, what happened to
him? He began to sink. He wasn't able. I was originally
going to say he wasn't strong enough, but that's not even the
problem. He was incapable. See, it's not a strength issue.
We don't, men always talk about exercising their faith and go
to church more and do more, and that's good. I'm not discouraging
coming to church and listening to preaching more, but we're
not coming to a gym pumping spiritual iron trying to build up our faith
muscles. That's not it. Faith looks to Christ, not self.
That's the point. And the moment he took his eyes
off of the Lord, what happened to him? He sunk, just like you and
I begin to sink. And what do we do in those moments?
Well, Lord, just throw me a life preserver. I can swim back to
the ship, or give me a little bit of a boost. No, save me.
I can't even swim. Here I am walking on water one
minute, and I begin to sink, and I realize that, Lord, if
you leave me to myself, I'm going to die. See, Peter stopped resting
in Christ and he began to sink. And that's why you and I grow
weary is because we're not looking to him. We're resting not on
him. We're looking to something else at something else. He alone
is rest for his people. Everything else will cause weariness.
You ever had an experience in your life where you said, I just
can't keep doing this. I'm I'm exhausted. Well, that's
the point. Spiritually, we can't do anything.
He has to do it all. And the moment we take our eyes
off of him, we're going to be just like Peter and sink. Faith
looks to Christ and nothing else. You remember when Elijah, I love
our brother Elijah for many reasons, but one reason in particular
I want to tell you about would be found in The book of Kings,
1 Kings chapter 18 and 19. We're not going to turn there,
but. They call it a showdown. It wasn't a showdown, because
there was a dead God and our God, the true living God. So
there was no showdown whatsoever. But Elijah and the prophets of
Baal gather on Mount Carmel. And it was 450 prophets of Baal
that gathered. And he said, well, today, we're
going to find out who God is. We're going to find out, is he
your God, or is he the God that I believe in? And he says, we're
going to do this by calling upon him to answer by fire. The God
that answers by fire, he is God. And the God that doesn't, he's
not. And so they dress the bullocks, and they made the altar, and
they put the bullocks upon the altar. And the prophets of Baal
begin to cry out to their God. And it says it became noontime.
They're still crying out. So maybe we're not doing enough
to get our God's attention. And they start cutting themselves.
And they start dancing. They start more and more trying
to get more working things up and nothing happened. And I love
Elijah. He said, well, maybe he's on
a journey. Maybe he's sleeping. Maybe he went to the bathroom.
Cry louder. You know, he's making fun of him because he's not God. That was not God. It was a figment
of their imagination. And he goes up to the altar when
it becomes his turn and he says, wet the altar with water. And
they wet the altar three times and it ran down the altar and
out the sides. And he called upon the Lord.
He called upon the Lord, and the Lord answered with fire,
coming down, and it consumed the sacrifice. It licked up all
the water. God answered by fire. What's
that a picture of? That's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ bearing His people's sin on the cross of Calvary,
enduring the fiery wrath of God. And that sin, that sacrifice,
was consumed. Completely. Now, there is no
condemnation who are in Christ Jesus. Why? The sin's gone. It's been burnt up, if you will.
It's been put away. It's been put away by the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that would have been something
amazing to physically see, wouldn't it? We've never seen anything
like it. We won't see anything like that. That's the point, faith
looks to Christ and not what's around us. Jezebel, the queen,
hears about what had happened and she sends word and says,
before the sun goes down, you're gonna be dead. And you would
imagine that Jeremiah would have been, or I'm sorry, Elijah would
have been very fervent in what he had just saw and he would
have thought, well, the Lord will keep me. If I'm His, the
Lord will keep me. I'm not worried about this woman
and her power and the circumstance that she can do. And whatever
may be possible, I'm going to believe the Lord. But that's
not what happened. He tucked tail and ran a full day's journey
into the wilderness. Can you relate to that? Can you
relate whenever a circumstance arises in your life? Do we not
tuck tail and run? Do we not try to figure things
out? And what happens every time?
We begin to sink, just like Peter again. He gets down under a tree
and he begs God to die. He begs God after seeing all
that. And by the way, they slayed all
the 450 prophets of Baal. That's what had upset Jezebel
so much, but he was full of unbelief, wasn't he? Can you relate to
him? I can. How often every day, every moment that the Lord leaves
me to myself, just for a brief moment, as we heard earlier,
we take matters into our own hand, and here we are, Lord,
you're going to have to save me again. He grew weary, didn't
he? Because he was not resting in the Lord. He stopped resting
in the Lord, and he began to beg the Lord to die. How could
he have seen such miracles and then found himself laying underneath
a tree? Well, brethren, the only answer
is one thing, unbelief. That's the sin that doth so easily
beset us, is unbelief. Why do we grow discouraged? Because
we grow weary and we stop resting in Christ alone. This will be
a battle for our entire life, but the war is already accomplished.
The victory is already gotten by the Lord Jesus Christ. We've
already read the end of the book, haven't we? We know the ending
already, don't we? We don't have to wonder or guess
how this is going to end. He's seated on the throne. He's
sovereign. He's God. And everything that
he purposed has come to pass according to his purpose and
will continue to do so. That's the end of it, isn't it?
There's rest in that. Elijah became discouraged and He became weary the same reason
we do. He stopped looking at that sacrifice
and he looked at his own circumstances. He became weary and grew discouraged
because just like us, he looked at physical things. Oh, don't
look at the physical. Look at the spiritual. Look at
what Christ has done for his people. Rest in that. He said, you being evil. And
in religion, I just said, I'm not evil. I used to be. I'm not
anymore. That's not true. We're sinners. We're sinners. And the Lord hath
put away our sin. That's the good news. But he
says, you being evil, you know how to give good gifts unto your
children. How much more is your heavenly father given to you
that ask him? What do we ask for? Lord, give me Christ. Lord,
give. That's what I need. Because Christ,
we're made to have one need. One certainly we ask for. for
physical things, and we have physical needs. I understand
that, but to every believer, what is your greatest need? That I may be found in Him, not
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is of Christ. His righteousness. See, our greatest
mistake is looking in ourself, trying to find something in ourself
that can only be found in the person and finished work of Jesus
Christ. And how often do we do it? How
often is our flesh prone to wonder, Lord, you're going to have to
save me, bring me back, cause me to see Christ again, cause
me to seek your face again. Our greatest mistake is looking
in this world for some kind of a peace that only can come through
and by Him. Some kind of hope. If you have
any joy as a believer whatsoever, turn on the 6 o'clock news. You'll
lose it pretty quick. You can't find any joy in this
world while we're not of this world. We're pilgrims and strangers. This world's not our home. We've
been given a new place in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, in the
heavenlies. That's our home, isn't it? He
is our home. Christ is heaven. And we're not looking at the
streets of gold and the walls of Jasper, the streets of gold.
Translation is transparent. What does that mean? We see right
through it. It don't mean anything. It's
like pavement. He used pavement. That's it. That means nothing.
Why? Because the king of glory is
seated on his throne who has saved his people. And we just
want to worship him. That's what heaven is. We get discouraged because we.
We look for evidence. We look for evidence around us
of the Lord, we look for evidence in ourself of the Lord, but faith
just looks to Christ. Faith just looks to Christ. He
can only be seen through faith. I mentioned the six o'clock news
to us, the Lord's. It's news to us because it's
new. I love that there is nothing
new to the Lord. He's the same yesterday, today
and forever. Nothing catches him by surprise. He's not playing
a checkers match or a chess match with the devil. He's seated on
his throne. He's seated on his throne. There
is no news to God. To you and I, it just came to
pass. And it came to pass. Rest. Rest
in Him. Look to Christ. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Zephaniah 3.17 says, The Lord
thy God is in the midst of thee. He is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. And then he tells us why. He
rests in His love. Not my love towards Him, but
He rests in His love towards me. Do you rest in His love towards
you? Or do we rest in our love towards
Him? Lord, my love's cold. My love
so frail, my love, so give me your love, cause me to see your
love. Give me the heart that loves
you. We can't rest in our love at all. And we rest because his
work is finished. Hebrews 4 and 9 says, There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God, for He entered into His
work. He ceased from His work. Why?
Because it's finished. The Father rested upon His Sabbath.
The Lord Jesus Christ from the foundation of the world. It was
certain. Salvation was certain. Salvation is secure. Salvation
is not dependent upon you and I. If you want true hope and
true joy without presumption, look to Christ. He is true hope.
He is true joy. He is true rest. There is nothing
else outside of Him that is hope, that is joy, that is rest but
Him. Paul goes on to say, let us labor
to enter into that rest. Let us labor to enter into that
rest. Oh, there's the work I need to do. I need to labor. That
word labor translates better. Hasten. Run to Christ through
the eyes of faith that he's given you. Run to Christ. Flee to him.
Forsake everything else. Run to him. Run to him. Otherwise, we will grow weary.
We will grow discouraged. The second reason that we grow
discouraged is discontentment. That is dissatisfaction with
one's circumstances. Have you ever said, that's not
fair? I have three daughters and I've
heard that many times. And I've said that many times,
and you have too, we're no different. I've said that's not fair. That's
discontentment. You know what that leads to?
That leads to discouragement. Discouragement every time. Most
of this, that saying that's not fair, it stems from envy. But
it all stems from unbelief, every bit of it. Wanting something
other than what has been given. That's why we say that's not
fair. Wanting something that hasn't been given yet or just
being discontented. Just being discontented with
circumstances. Remember, faith Faith looks to
Christ. Faith doesn't look to circumstances.
We must remember that. If I am discouraged because of
discontentment, I am not looking to Christ. It's that simple.
It's that simple. It's all in belief. It means,
and this is where conviction comes of the Lord. Joe will tell
you the same thing when we're studying. We get it first. Whatever
we're going to tell you, we receive it first. And the Lord pierces
our heart first and we say, woe is me, I'm the man of unclean
lips. I see the Lord high and lifted.
He gives it to his pastors and preachers first. When we're discontented,
when we are saying that's not fair, we're saying Christ is
not enough. That's what we're saying. Does
that make you shudder and say, oh, oh my, I didn't realize that
that's what I've been doing this whole time. Lord, I believe that
Christ is enough. Save me from myself. Christ is
enough. David, David had this, this exact
thing happen. Turn to Psalm 74, Psalm 73 rather. To the flesh, Christ will never
be enough. The flesh always wants something
else. Aren't you glad to the new man that Christ is everything
and he is enough? He isn't more than enough. David
grew discontent here in Psalm 73, and look in verse one. Truly God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart. And that translates better,
clean of heart. Well, how did he get clean of
heart? Well, the Lord had to do that. The Lord had to do that.
And he says in verse two, but as for me, my feet were almost
gone. My steps had well nigh slipped,
for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of
the wicked. He said, that's not fair. That's what he said. That's
not fair. And here's the reason. Verse
four, for there are no bands in their death, but their strength
is firm. And that word firm translates
better fat. Their strength is fat. Their They're consumed with
themselves. They've got it together. They're
strong in what they believe. They don't have any fear of death.
They feel that they're just fine the way that they are, and they're
going through life not being troubled, not being burdened.
They're given everything that they would presume that they
want, and they believe they have a righteousness. And this is
what David's conundrum was, if you will. He goes on to say,
They are not in trouble as other men. Neither are they plagued
like other men. He saw the prosperity of the
world. He thought they had it better
off than he did. He was not looking to Christ, was he? He was looking
at circumstances. He was looking at other people.
The prosperity of the wicked, he called it. That word foolish
that he described, when he says, I was envious of the foolish,
that word foolish means the self-righteous. Those that praise themselves,
and that's evident in the word fat, they praise themselves.
They see themselves as something other than they are. Actually, it also translates,
they have their own light. They have their own light source.
They are their own light. They believe they have a light,
but it's not the Lord. And why would David grow envious
of this? The same reason you and I would,
unbelief. Looking at something other than
the Lord, this is the same reason. We're no different than David
was. Look in verse 13. Verily, I have cleansed my heart
in vain and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long
have I been plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will
speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children. When I thought to know this,
when I thought to understand all of this, it was too painful
for me. It was too painful for me. He was discontented because
he had been trying to do that which was pleasing in the Lord's
sight. He had been trying to do what was right, and he sees
all those that are doing wrong, and they're never bothered. They
just go through the motions of life. They have everything they want,
and they seem perfectly content. They're happy in everything that
they're doing. And he was envious of this. Until one thing happened. Look at the next verse. Verse
17. Until I went into the sanctuary
of God. And that's where he worshipped.
Understand that. When he went into the worship
of God, he understood their end. He was given repentance. He was
given faith. Until he was given repentance
and faith, he was looking at everything else around him except
the Lord Jesus Christ. And once he saw the end of them,
he goes on to say, the Lord set them in slippery places. He cast
them down into destruction. How were they brought? Into desolation
as in a moment, they're utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream,
when one awake, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, when they awake
after they die, The Lord shall despise their image. Why? Because it's not the image of
the Lord Jesus Christ. See, the Lord's not looking for
our image. The Lord's looking for the image
of his son. That's the only way that he is
pleased. They're bearing about their own
image. They have no righteousness before God. This was the revelation
the Lord gave David. I was envious of them for the
longest time, thinking they had it better than I did. Then I
saw their end. When we see the end of those who do not know
the Lord, or moreover, the Lord does not know them, we shudder,
don't we? And think, Lord, don't leave
me to myself. You're my only hope. Otherwise, I'm going to
grow discouraged. I'm going to grow weary. I'm
going to grow discontented. I would say, Lord, in my unbelief
unto you, that's not fair. You know what fairness is? Eternal
hell for every one of us. That's fair, except the Lord
do something. You know what fairness is for
those who are in Christ Jesus? Eternal life. Why? Because He
put away their sin. That's fair. He's just and justifier. He's just and justifier. See,
these others have no Savior. Paul said, Envy not the oppressor.
And that word oppressor translates better, man. Envy not man and
consider none of his ways. Don't look to man and what man
is doing. Look to Christ. Envy not man and consider none
of his ways. The end thereof are the ways of death. Eternal
death. Look to Christ. Don't envy man.
Don't look to self and say that's not fair. David's saying don't
be discouraged. Look to Christ Jesus. There's
rest in Him. There's hope in Him. Don't be
discontent. How can I not be discontent in
a world such as we live? Because it's God's world. He
created it. He owns everything in it. I'll
give you a verse that says the Lord owns the cattle of a thousand
hills, and you'll forgive my East Tennessee pun on this, but
He owns the taters in the hills as well. Everything in the world
He owns. It's His. Why? His sovereign
right. He's God. Don't be discouraged. There's hope because we have
an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous don't look
around in the world. Don't look around you at all
for hope. Look to Christ. He's our only
hope. He's our only hope. I mentioned several times I have
three daughters and most of the time as a daddy, my job is to
keep their feet on the ground. And what I mean by that is is
so often they want to start spinning off into outer space with whatever's
issue they may be facing, and they're like me and their mother.
You know, you find you get. what we would call bad news,
and the believer knows there's no such thing as bad news, it's
all purpose, but I'll use that term just for the analogy. When
they get something that distresses them, they'll start being overwhelmed,
just as you and I will, and sudden fear may come upon us, and that'll
be the next thing we look at, actually, is fear, but I always
say, where's your feet? Where's your feet? And what I
mean by that is, don't look at your feet and examine your feet
and look at the ground that you're standing on, It means, what are
you looking to right now? Because if we leave our present
moment and we're worried about the future, we're worried about
what may happen and what could happen, the shoulda, coulda,
wouldas, we're not looking to Christ. We're not looking to
Christ. We're looking at circumstance
again. Where's your feet? Well, a good answer would be,
I hope it's on the solid rock. I hope my feet are found on Him
because I have no other righteousness. I have no other hope. I have
no other plea. but the Lord Jesus Christ alone. My feet's got to
be found on Him. I've got to be found in Him.
That's what David was talking about when he said, he pulled
me out of the miry clay and he put my feet upon the solid rock.
That's Christ. He established my goings. What
does that mean? He's pointing us to Christ, driving
us to Christ, leading us to Christ. And in doing so, he put a new
song in my mouth, even praise unto God. He's my only hope. He's my only hope. Every second.
is just another part of it came to pass. Be content with the
spotless Lamb of God right now. Be content with Him. He's enough.
He's enough. Don't grow weary. Don't grow
discouraged because of discontentment. Don't think that's not fair.
Look to the Lord Jesus Christ and rest in Him. The third reason we're discouraged
is because of fear, because of fear. And I found an acronym. I think it's an acronym.
Yeah, it's an acronym of this. And I thought it was pretty fitting.
It's false evidence appearing real. Fear is false evidence
appearing real. You may have heard that before.
I never heard that before. And you can thank Google for that
one. False evidence appearing real. What does that mean? Well,
I'm looking around me and I'm seeing something that could be,
but it's not real yet. But there's a high probability.
My flesh has made a calculation and it says that there's a high
probability this could happen. That's not looking to Christ,
is it? That's not looking to Christ. Now, godly fear is a
good thing. And you heard this the first
hour already, but godly fear is reverence. It's reverence. It's repentance and faith is
what it is. It's bowing unto the Lord, seeing
him as holy and it's reverence. That's what that's what godly
fear is. That's not what I'm talking about.
We don't grow discouraged because of godly fear. We grow discouraged
because of physical fear, physical fear. We grow discouraged because
of fear of man. Fear of man or fear of circumstances. Fear of circumstances or fear
of man. It's unbelieving fear. It looks at potential possibilities. Potential possibilities or calculated
probabilities. Well, there's a 99% chance that
this is going to happen. Well, aren't you glad? I would
say 100%, but I feel like I should say 110%, even though that don't
make any sense to us, but nothing about what we believe do we understand. We just believe it because of
faith. Everything Christ purposed, He did, 100%. There was no probability
other than 100%. There was no other possibility other than
certainty. in our Lord Jesus Christ, but
our circumstances always are because of probability, always
because of, when we look at them ourselves and we try to figure
them out, it's always a probability, this may happen, this may not
happen, and it leads to fear. It leads to fear, what if? You
ever caught yourself saying, well, what if this, and even
subconsciously, here I am taking off on a plane here, and I was
like, what if this plane goes down? Well, what if it does? I can't
change it. I'm alone for the ride. Well, I'd feel much better
if my hands were on the steering wheel. Would you? I'm not a pilot. I'm not going to fly this plane.
Well, maybe they have an autopilot button. I can do a better job
than this guy can. That's silly, but that's how we are, isn't
it? I don't know if you have fear of flight like I do, but
that's how I am anyways. That being said, it's all fear
derived. And on that plane, the Lord said,
what are you looking to? Who are you looking to, moreover?
Lord, I've done it again. I've started thinking about my
circumstances rather than fleeing to Christ who has purposed every
single circumstance we're going to face. That's what I'm guilty
of again. I'm saying what if all over again. There's an analogy of this in
Luke chapter 8. There was a ruler of the synagogue
that came to the Lord named Jairus, and Jairus had a sick daughter.
Now, Jairus being the ruler of a synagogue, you think he would
have just sent a servant. He would have had men underneath
him. You think he would have just sent somebody else, but Jairus had
a need, a desperate need. It was his daughter. And he comes
to the Lord and he said, Lord, my daughter is nigh unto death.
You must come to my house and you must heal my daughter. Now,
this is a very interesting account. Jairus knew he was the only one
that could help him. He knew he was the only one that could
help him. But this is the account also in the same chapter that has
an interjection of another passage, another account that happens.
And it was the woman that had the issue of blood. And she presses
through the crowd and she said, but if I could just but touch
the hem of his garment, I know that I'll be made whole. And
she presses through the crowd and touches his garment and she
is made whole. Christ is on his way. The Lord
Jesus Christ is on his way to Jairus's house and he has stopped.
It was all the Lord's purpose. He stops because this woman touches
his hem, and he says, who's touched me? This has ceased Jairus' hope
of their haste to get to his daughter. Jairus knew that his
daughter was nigh unto death. He knew the clock was ticking.
He knew that time was about to expire on his daughter's life.
How do you think he would have felt when the Lord stopped? Just
for a moment, just for a moment, he stopped and said, who touched
me? The disciple said, Lord, many people's touched you. What
are you talking about? Has that been you and I as well?
But he said, no, I virtue. Virtue has gone out for me. And
she confesses, Lord, I've touched you. And he says, thy faith has
made thee whole. Well, this is glorious. The Lord
has healed this woman who's had the issue of blood for many years.
The most interesting part about this woman's issue of blood having
a bleeding issue would have been that they would have blood let
back at this time. So what were they trying to do
to fix her issue? They would have just let out
more blood. That's us in a false religion, isn't it? That's all
we can do is just make the problem worse. She would have been anemic.
Lord healed her, didn't he? Lord healed her. And that was
glorious that the Lord chose to do that. And I'm sure she
was rejoicing. But what about our friend? What
about what about Jairus? Well, a servant comes up to him
and says, trouble not the master anymore. She's dead. Your daughter's dead. Now, how
would he have felt? This woman has taken the time
away from my daughter, and because of that, my daughter died. That's what we would have felt,
wouldn't it? That's what we, you and I, that's what we would
have felt. Lord, my daughter is now dead because of this woman. I would not be able to rejoice
unless the Lord gave much grace, of course, that a, that a, that
a woman was healed. And my daughter, you know, you
understand exactly what I'm talking about. You with children, what
did the Lord say to him? Only believe. Fear not. Fear not. See, fear looks at
circumstances, not to Christ. Fear always looks at circumstances,
not the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith looks to Christ. Well,
what happened? The Lord went to the house and
resurrected the little girl. The Lord brought her back to life.
Now, what do we believe? Do we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Yes. Are we afraid? Are we tossed
about with every sin and the weight that does so easily beset
us unbelief? Yes. All the time, Lord calls me to
return back to you, calls me not to fear what I see, calls
me to look to Christ. Is that your plea? That's the
that's the cry of the believer over and over and over, isn't
it? It's not a one time thing. The good news is, even if we
believe not, He abideth faithful. He abideth faithful. The Lord
commands His people, fear not, only believe. Fear not, only
believe. Lord, I believe. That's what
the disciples told Him. Do you believe? Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I believe. At the same time, I'm carrying
around this old corpse that cannot believe You. And it feels like
it's just back and forth all the time. The Lord says, believe.
Believe, seek ye my face. David said, I wouldn't have sought
your face except you said unto me, seek ye my face. Now we're
seeking the Lord's face because he did so. There's good news
in this. The Lord's not looking for our
faithfulness. The Lord's not looking for our belief. The Lord's
looking for his darling son and the faith given of his darling
son. See, faith is the evidence of
salvation. Faith is given. The Lord says live and it's instantaneous. Faith is the breath that we breathe
of the Lord. It's our oxygen source. It's
like a like him into a baby. I've given this example before
to my congregation. They were asking, what is faith?
And I said, well, it's. Kind of like a baby's born alive,
but it's not breathing. And the doctor, the umbilical
cord's cut, and the baby's taken, it's smacked on the butt, and
the baby goes, and it breathes for the very first time. That's
faith. It's evidence of life. And faith just looks to Christ.
Faith believes Him. He makes His people alive and
calls us to believe Him. He is our life source, isn't
He? Even if we believe not, He abideth
faithful. Even if we're not faithful, He
is faithful. Fear not. Fear not. Well, fourthly
and lastly, we grow discouraged because of frustration. Frustration. Feeling or expressing distress
and annoyance, especially because of the inability to change or
achieve something. When we don't have the ability
to change or achieve something, we grow frustrated. And that
will cause us to grow discouraged. Brethren, don't look to your
ability. Look to His. He never tried to do anything.
His ability is eternal. It's everlasting. Our ability
is temporary. Our ability is futile. We don't
have an ability when it comes to spiritual things, does it?
Look to his ability. Don't grow frustrated. And this
stems from the ideology of this little, well this one thing,
I thought. I thought things would be this
way and now they're not. I thought I was going to do this
and now I can't. How many times do we grow frustrated
on a daily basis? You ever stubbed your toe and
grow frustrated that you get frustrated at yourself? I get
frustrated at the foot of the bed, the leg of the bed. Well,
it's not the leg of the bed's fault that I kicked it. I'll
say, you stupid bed. What ain't the bed's fault? It's
my fault. Grow frustrated over simple things, silly things.
Why do we do that? Because everything about our
flesh is contrary to God and does not look to Him in anything. But everything about the new
man never grows frustrated at the finished work of Christ and
always, always, always looks to Him. The thought of I thought,
the words I thought that enter our mind, that's not, I find
it interesting that the word bow and the word bow are spelled
exactly the same. There's B-O-W, it can be bow
or it can be bow. But when we grow frustrated,
we're not bowing to him, we're bowing up to circumstances, aren't
we? Either a man bows up to the Lord or he bows to the Lord.
If he bows up, he's left to himself, and if he bows, it's all by grace.
I hope we bow to him, don't you? I hope the Lord gives us the
grace to bow to him. Lord, I used to, I bow up all
the time, and I see that I don't want to, Paul said it this way,
the things which I would do, Those are the things I don't
do, but the things that I would not do, that's exactly what I
find myself doing every single day. I die daily. I die daily. Sin revives and I die. I've got
to have Christ. I've got to have Christ. This
is because flesh hates God. That's why we
turn to ourself. Aren't you thankful that faith
does not think faith believes faith just looks to him? Faith
rests in him. If you want to know who your
worst enemy is, it's not your neighbor. It's not your mother
in law. It's it's not a not a companion
that you know or your friend, and I'll say father in law too.
I'm not trying to be any certain way. Look in the mirror. Look in the mirror at your worst
enemy. We are our own worst enemies. Because everything we would do
that would be pleasing unto our Lord, we find ourselves, I can't
do it. I want to. Somebody said, oh,
you preach that it's finished. Well, you're just telling everybody
to live however they want to live. I wish I could live the way I want to
live. Complete servitude to Him. Complete obedience all the time.
Honoring Him with everything I do. That's how I want to live.
That's the heart that He gives His people. Can you relate to
that? I want to live into Him. I can't.
I want to. The Lord calls me to. And in
the end, if there's anything good that we do, if there's any
fruit of the Spirit that comes out of us, it'll be because we're
connected to the true vine. And He did it all, and He gets
all the glory. Otherwise, we would just be a bunch of dead
sticks along the sideway, wouldn't we? Aren't you glad He grafts
in His people and causes us to bear fruit unto Him? We can't
see it, and we don't examine it. We haven't been called to
be fruit inspectors. We're called to look to Christ. Don't get
discouraged. Don't get frustrated with circumstances. Look to Christ. Well, this thought that I said
before, I thought, somebody else said that one time in Scripture,
there was a man named Naaman, and I'm going to come to the
close here shortly, but there was a man named Naaman, and that
man, he was captain of the host of Syria. He was a mighty man
of valor. He would have been a wealthy
man. He was a powerful man. He would have been over the entire
army. Syria. Syria was the powerhouse nation
at the time on the earth at this time. So how much problems do
you think Naaman had? He had a lot of problems, didn't
he? Everything around him he was responsible for. If he didn't
do the right thing, he would have been held accountable for
it. It didn't matter if men underneath him did it. He had to answer
to the king. Everything had to be right. How many problems?
I have no idea how many. But when he became a leper, he
had one problem, just one. All other problems disappeared
completely. He became a leper. And by God's grace, he caused
an Israelite maid to be in his household and said, well, there's
a prophet in Israel that can heal him. Naaman said, OK, I
definitely can't fix this situation. I can't do anything to make it
better. A matter of fact, anything I've been trying is making it
worse. We can relate to that, can't we? Naaman says, I'm going
to go down to this prophet and I'm going to have him heal me.
I'm going to let him heal me. And that's how men approach God.
Most of the time, I'm going to let him do something for me.
And while I'm going, I'm going to bring caravans full of gold and silver,
and I'm going to bring shiny garments and I'm going to bring
all these nice things. And I'm going to give that to him so that he'll
heal me. I'm going to bribe the prophet when they get there. The prophet never comes out.
He sends a servant out that looks at him and says, go dip in the
river Jordan seven times. Turns around and walks off. And
it made Naaman so mad it infuriated him. He said, I thought, there
it is, I thought he would come out and call upon his God from
heaven and that certainly a miracle would be performed here in front
of everybody and I would be cleansed. I thought he was angry. Boy,
we find ourselves often times saying, I thought, don't we?
Just like Naaman. I thought it would be this way. Why is it
not that way? Because we're not God. Naaman thought. And that's the problem with us
is we want to be God ultimately in our flesh. I thought. The servant looked at him and
said, my Lord, all you have to do is go dip in Jordan. Yeah,
but it's a muddy river. It's a dirty river. Why couldn't
I dip in this river or that river? That one over there is really
clear. It's nice. It's actually got a hot spring. It'd be a little
warmer. I mean, this was his logic. He
said, all he said was to dip in Jordan seven times. And I'm sure he's like you and
I, he's walking down through like, yeah, okay, fine, I'll
do it. You know, just grumbling and fussing, but he did it. In
the seventh dip, he came up whiter than snow. He became clean. What's
the picture here? Well, you and I are made lepers
by God's grace. We're made alive to see that
we're lepers. We see that we were born that way and there's
nothing good in us whatsoever, that we're going to die and there's
nothing we can do to fix it. And originally, maybe we approached
the Lord thinking that we thought he's going to do this and he's
going to do that for us. But when we see the truth that we
have to die the perfect death, that's what the number seven
represents. We have to die the perfect death in Jordan, which
represents death. Jordan represents death all throughout
scripture. We have to die with Christ. That's the only way we're
going to come out whiter than snow. If we didn't die with him,
if we didn't die in him, we have no hope. It doesn't matter what
we think. It doesn't matter what we think. We must die with Him. And thankfully, you and I can't
make that choice. He did. He chose a people and
put them in the Lord Jesus Christ and they died the perfect death
in Him. So that we no longer go throughout
our entire life saying, I thought this and I thought that. We just
bow unto Him with godly fear and say, truth Lord. I'm false
and full of sin. Thou art truth and grace. There's
nothing in me that's good. It's all You. It's all You, Lord,
by Your grace and by Your mercy, if we are to be made alive."
See, Naaman had to die the same death as all of God's elect died.
That's what it pictures. Now his people have been cleansed.
of their leprosy. How is that possible? By his
own blood. He purged our sins by his own
blood. Faith just looks to Christ and
believes that and says, Lord, keep me. Lord calls me. Lord, make me. Now, in closing,
I want to turn to Second Timothy two. If you'd like to back to
our text, I should say Second Timothy two. Let's read this again. Second
Timothy 211. It's a faithful saying, but if we bet dead with
him, we shall live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. If we believe not yet, he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself of these
things. Put them in remembrance, charging
them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no
profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. The good news of the Gospel is,
this flesh would deny the Lord, this flesh would turn away from
the Lord, but the new man cannot deny Him. The new man lives and
moves and has its being in the Lord Jesus Christ, all by his
finished work. And it always looks to him. Don't
grow discouraged. Don't grow discouraged, brethren.
Christ has saved his people from their sin. The announcement of
the Lord's birth was, call his name Jesus, for he shall, not
he might try, not that he may, he shall save his people from
their sin, and he did. He did, didn't he? Don't be weary
in well-doing. Rest in Christ in his finished
work. Don't be discontent with circumstances. How? Look to Christ,
not the circumstances. Don't fear what you see with
the physical eye. Look to Christ through the eyes
of faith and believe Him. Don't grow frustrated. Don't
grow frustrated with your inability. Rest in His, His ability and
His unchanging, unchangeable grace. Rest in His finished work. Rest in His finished work. You
know what? We grow discouraged. Because we are not resting, not
looking to Him, not believing Him, not trusting His ability. But thank God He keeps His people
looking and resting and trusting in His finished work always through
the eyes of faith. He's continually just turning
us back to Him. Like a lost sheep, we try to
wander. You know the song, prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone
to leave the God I love. I can relate to those lyrics.
Lord, turn us again and we shall be turned. Don't leave me to
myself. Don't let me grow discouraged.
May we find rest this morning in His finished work and not
look to anything out in us, around us, but look to Jesus Christ
alone. Amen.