Turn back with me to Psalm 31.
Psalm 31. I love the Psalms of David and
other psalmists, the book of Psalms. I resort to them quite
often. And because, and I've said this
before, because I, nearly every time that I have a particular
need and I don't know where to go, I can always find something
in the Psalms that meet that need. I can always find, it seems
like, the very feelings of my heart, the very things that I'm
going through. You know, God, David is the penman
of this Psalm 31. And God called David a man after
his own heart. And I say the same thing. David
is a man after my own heart, because I'll never be as faithful
as David or as mighty as David, nor will I ever go through the
trials, probably not anyway. probably not go through the trials
that David went through. But nevertheless, some of his
life seems to mirror my life, or vice versa. My life seems
to mirror a great deal of David's life. David, like all believers,
had an up and down spiritual life. He was up one day and down
the next. That's just the way it is with
God's people and those who always claim to be on the mountaintop.
are completely deceived. But one minute old David was
up, and one minute he was down. One minute he was on the mountain,
and another minute he was in the pit, crying out for God,
or in the gutter, so to speak, crying out for God to get him
out of the gutter. Well, look here, let's go back over a few
of these verses here in Psalm 31. I want you to notice, this
is a perfect example of what I was just talking about, the
up and down struggle in David's life and see if it doesn't relate
to yours. But the first eight verses there,
listen to David. He has a great testimony of his
faith here. He's preaching a message. It's
a powerful message here in the first eight verses. Let's just
run back over it a minute. He says, In thee, O Lord, do
I put my trust. I trust in the Lord. And there's
times we can say that. I trust in the Lord. And he says,
though he doesn't want to be presumptuous, but he says, let
me never be ashamed. I don't want to ever be ashamed
of my Lord. I want to confess him. I want to trust him, believe
in him, and be bold to speak for him. And he says, deliver
me in thy righteousness. He says, the Lord is my righteousness.
Jehovah Sidkenu. That's who he is. And he says,
bow down thine ear to me. Hear me, Lord. Deliver me speedily. Be thou my strong rock for an
house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy name's sake,
lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they
have laid privately for me. For thou art my strength. You're
my strength. You're my hope. And into your
hand I commit my spirit. You've redeemed me. You're my
Redeemer, O Lord God of truth. And I hate them that regard lying
vanities. I hate that false gospel. But
I trust in the Lord. And he says, I'll be glad and
rejoice in his mercy, too. He's considered my trouble. Been
in trouble before, and he considered it. And he's known my soul in
adversities. And he's not shut me up into
the hand of the enemy. He's set my feet in a large room. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness on Christ's solid rock, he seems
to be saying. He seems to be somewhat confident
here. He talks about the Lord. He boldly
speaks of the Lord being his trust, his righteousness, his
rock, his defense, his fortress, his guide, his redeemer. He rejoices in the truth. God's truth, his mercy, he rejoices
in God helping him in every way. He said he hated every lie and
vanity, every false way, and he boasted and rejoiced in God
and God knowing him, God helping him, God saving him, and God
establishing him. That's a real sermon and a powerful
message. All those things, God, his trust,
his rock, his defense, his righteousness, his health, his strength, his
comfort. He hated every false way. He
rejoiced in the truth and rejoiced in his God. Now that was Sunday
night at 7 o'clock. That was his message for Sunday
night. But listen to him at 9 o'clock on Sunday night after he preached
that sermon. Look at verse 9. Have mercy upon
me. Have mercy on me, O Lord. I'm
in trouble. Now, he'd just been boasting
and just been so confident and so just boasting in the Lord his
God and Him being all these things to him. And now he says right
on the back of this, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. What's wrong,
David? What's wrong? You seem so up. You seem so encouraged. You seem to be so strong, so
sure of things. What's wrong? I'm just in trouble
and I don't know what it is. He says, My eye is consumed. Look at verse 9. My eye is consumed
with grief. My soul and my belly, it's all
the way down in my inner being. Then he starts his complaining.
Verse 10. My life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing. Oh, woe is me. He's saying, I'm
undone. I'm so sad. And it's a reality. I'm not making fun of him here. This is reality in the life of
a believer. He gets in trouble and he's consumed
with grief, he or she. Consumed with grief and trouble
and it's all the way down inside their very being. And they feel
like their whole life, day and night, is spent with grief and
with sighing and trouble. And he says, my strength faileth
Here's my principal problem, he says, because of my iniquity. See that, verse 10? My real problem,
that which seems to bring me down the most and consume me,
my biggest problem is my iniquity. My biggest problem is me. Who shall deliver me? Paul said,
from me. Thy enemies aren't—my enemy is
me. Who's going to deliver me from
me? My strength faileth, not so much because of the enemies
without, but this terrible enemy within, an iniquity. And my bones
seem to be consumed with this iniquity, this sin. I'm just
consumed with, I'm just a wretched, rebellious, iniquitous person.
And look at verse 11. Then he goes down and down. He
starts finding more problems. He said, I was reproached among
all mine enemies. Nobody likes me. Nobody likes
me. Everybody's against me, especially
among my neighbors. I feared a mine acquaintance
even. They did see me without fled
from. Everybody ignores me. Verse 12, I'm forgotten as a
dead man out of mine. I don't have a friend left in
the world. Anybody ever been there? Either or not. I don't
have a friend left in the world. I'm like a broken vessel." Verse
13, then he begins to imagine and suppose all kinds of things.
And I hear what they're saying about me. I've heard their slander. Have
you ever been here? I've heard the slander of many. He imagines
all sorts of things, David does. I've heard their slander. Fear
was on every side while they took counsel together. They're
all down on me. They're talking about me. I wish
I could stand over there still talking. Yeah, they are. They're talking about me taking
counsel against me. They devised to take away my
life. And then he seems to revive a little bit. I don't know what
brought it about, but perhaps what he says here did it. He
remembered his God. He seemed to hope a little bit
in his God, he says in verse fourteen, but though everybody
turns against me, which may or may not be the case, but he says,
though they are, I want to trust in my God. I trust in thee, O
Lord. I said, you're my God, and my
times are in your hand. God's my God, I'm in his hand,
what am I going to worry about? Got nothing to worry about. And
then he begins to call on God. He says, verse sixteen, make
thy face to shine upon me. There's times when God seems
to hide his face from us, and rightly so, because we ignore
him the greatest part of the time, and we don't deserve him
to look and think upon us. And sometimes he does hide his
face in chasing him. But David prays here, and we
pray it quite often, that God would look upon us, that He would
think upon us, that He would remember us for His mercy's sake. Save me. Keep me from this terrible
pit that I'm going down into for Your mercy's sake. Because
You're plenteous in mercy. Because Your mercy endures forever.
Because I've been here before, David seems to say. I've been
down in the pit before, and You brought me out of it before.
And now right here I am right back again. But you bring me
out of it again for your mercy's sake. You've been merciful to
me before. So save me this time for your mercy's sake. Verse
17. And don't let me be ashamed, O Lord. I'm ashamed. There's
times when I'm ashamed of the gospel. I'm always ashamed of myself.
Lord, deliver me from this shame. Being ashamed of you and my shameful
self. Deliver me, let me not be ashamed. I have called upon thee. Let
the wicked be ashamed. Then he becomes righteously indignant. Let the wicked be ashamed and
let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to
silence, which speak grievous things proudly and contentiously
against the righteous. Oh, and then he begins to remember
God's goodness, and this is where This is where we need to dwell
on God's goodness. He says in verse nineteen, how
great is that goodness which thou has laid up for them that
fear thee? How great is God? We need to
remember God's past mercy. We saw that Sunday, how that
most of the time we forget right on the back of some great mercy. We complain, we moan and groan
and complain like the disciples. We studied Sunday night. He had
just paid five thousand people and then right on the back of
that they got in a boat and went out on those troubled seas and
began to be tossed to and fro and were in the midst of trial.
A hard way. And they had forgotten. They
had soon forgotten the Lord's mercies and his provisions. They'd
forgotten about it. And that's us. And we need to
remember his goodness, his past goodness and mercy to us. His
morning's mercy, His mercies are new every morning. His goodness,
surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and they do. Every moment of every day is
filled with God's mercy and His goodness, His providence, His
provisions. God provides freely for us and
keeps us and restrains us and constrains us, and we forget
about it. And David remembers it, though, and it strengthens
him a little bit, and he says, How great is thy goodness which
thou hast. We've got a good God, such a
good God. And he's laid up this goodness
for them that fear thee. That's the beginning of all wisdom
and the beginning of God's goodness is when we fear him. And he's
wrought this for them that trust in thee before the sun in the
midst of this crooked and perverse generation. before the sons of
men. And he'll hide them. Verse twenty.
He'll hide them in the secret of thy presence. The presence
of God. The indwelling of God's Holy
Spirit is a secret to most men. But not to God's people. They've
felt it. They've experienced God's presence. And he'll keep
them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongue. That's
a safe dwelling place. That's Christ. The rock of ages. He'll hide us in the cleft of
the rock. pavilion and keep us. And then he begins to praise
God, blessed be the Lord. Perhaps if our mouths were more
full of praise than bitterness, most of our troubles would fade
away. But blessed be the Lord, for
he has showed me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. More than anything, That verse
right there, we need to bless our God because he has showed
us his marvelous kindness. What is that? That's the gospel. Blessed be the Lord God, regardless
of our troubles and trials and afflictions that we go through,
God has revealed the gospel to us. And we need not fear nor
be discouraged for very long at all, nor despair because God
has has revealed the gospel to us, the good news. He's manifested
that good news to us. That kindness of strong city,
who's that? That strong habitation, that's
Christ, our dwelling place. He's showed us his marvelous
kindness in Christ, his mercy and his grace and his redemption,
his goodness to us in Christ, the good news in Christ. He says
in verse 22, I said in my haste, I've been speaking rashly. Did
you ever do that? Of course, he did. He'd rarely
speak any other way, but rashly. I said in my haste, I'm cut off.
I forgot what he said about never leaving me. But I said in my
haste, I'm cut off from before thine eye. Nevertheless, he heard
the voice of my supplication. He was listening to me. He was
listening to me all the time, the voice of my supplication
when I cried unto thee. And David gives us a A word of
exhortation here. He says, oh, love the Lord. We've
got every reason to, like Paul said, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice,
I say. Rejoice without ceasing. Rejoice
in the Lord. And David says, oh, love the
Lord. We've got every reason to love him, don't we, Terry?
He's a lovely God. He's done lovely things for us.
Goodness and mercy have compassed us about all the days of our
lives. And love the Lord, ye his saints, for the Lord preserveth,
he preserves you, he keeps you, and he plentifully or abundantly
rewardeth the one who trusts in him, the one who hears his
word and does it, like James said. Not just the hearer of
the word, but the doer of the word, the one who delights in
God's word. Now, this is what I want to dwell
on, this last verse. I just did an overview. of the
whole song. Now, I'm coming to this right
here. This is my text. And this is the summary of David's
life and of David's experience. And this verse right here, this
last verse, is the summary of this whole song. Now, gather
yourselves with me, and I want you to enter into this with me,
if the Lord will be pleased. Do you know what David's problem
was? Do you know what your problem
is? I know what my problem is. We've
got a weak heart. We've got a weak heart. A weak
heart. We've got a heart disease. A
weakening of the heart. And if God in mercy has caused
you to have a heart attack, you realize just how weak your heart
really is. A weak heart. We're ready to
quit. On every hand, we're ready to
faint, ready to halt. The scriptures describes one
man as ready to halt. We're full of sin. Our hearts
are full of sin and unbelief. What I'm principally speaking
of, and what I want to dwell on, is this weakness of our faith. We're weak in the faith, very
weak in the faith. Our Lord said it to the disciples
time and time again, didn't He? On every hand, on the back of
every problem that arose, He said, oh, ye of little faith.
And that's our problem. That's where all our problems
stem from. A weak heart. A weak, weak in the faith. A
weak heart. And a weak heart will affect
your whole being, your whole body. Physically speaking, if
you have a weak heart, Brother William Hodges is not here tonight. But the man has a terribly damaged
and weak heart. And you see how it's rendered
him. After that heart attack, he dilapidated, didn't he, Joe? He just went down, way downhill,
and the man moves about so slowly and so frail. He reminded me,
saying, that is just so. He has a weak heart. And weak
faith will affect our whole being and all of our life. It will
affect every aspect of our life. Weak faith will. And there are
three things I want you to Consider with me about this week. First of all, there are many
causes. There are many causes for this weak heart or weak faith. Secondly, there are many excuses.
There are many legitimate causes, but there are also many excuses
that we come up with. And then I want to show you the
cure. Now, first of all, there are many causes, many causes
of this weakness of the faith or weak heart. Principally, and
I was talking to one of our ladies about this recently. Principally,
and it's so with our physical being, that if we have a poor
diet, if our diet is poor, if we don't eat enough food, it's
going to weaken us. If we eat too much food, that
will weaken us also. And if we eat the wrong kinds
of food, too much fatty food will give us heart disease and
a weak heart, perhaps a heart attack. And the same thing applies
spiritually speaking. And I say this over and over
and over again, that if we have a poor diet of God's word, this
is called the believer's bread. This is what we feed upon. This
is where we get our nourishment. This is where we get our strength,
our comfort. our assurance, our encouragement,
all of the things necessary for life and godliness, we get word
from this book. God is not going to speak to
you personally and tell you the secret things of his mind, his
will. I mean, he's not just going to—if
you're going through a particular problem, God is not going to
say, you know, let me pick on somebody. He's not going to say,
you know, Ed, this is what you need to do. You need to go down
here, and you need to do this, and then after that. It doesn't
do that. How does God speak? He speaks
through this book. Now, the answer to all of our
problems is right here. But our real problem is we don't
avail ourselves of it. We don't look into it. We don't
dig and search and look for the answer. But they're all right
here. I venture to say that the answer to every single problem
we have can be found right here. So a poor diet of God's Word,
not only the reading of God's Word, but principally the hearing
of God's Word. And this is the reason I'm constantly
exhorting and admonishing people to come and hear the gospel.
And it doesn't really apply to most in here, because most that
are here right now are here most of the time. But there's so many
times when When we miss out, we just miss out. And these things,
every message, we're going through the scriptures verse by verse
by verse, which I think is the most beneficial, profitable,
edifying thing that you can do. Expositional teaching or preaching. We're doing that on Sunday mornings
in the Bible study. And they're building blocks.
We're laying brick upon brick, line upon line, precept upon
precept. line upon line, precept upon
precept, every little layer of it, building blocks or bricks
in this faith, building up this house. And I said it to someone
that I see people who are here at all times, and I see this
dwelling going up. I see it becoming a strong, I
see the foundation has been laid, and I see them becoming a strong
in the faith, a strong dwelling. And little things, little wins
and trials and troubles come along, it doesn't seem to move
them like it does others who are not as faithful in the hearing
of the Word. So how does faith come? What does the Scripture say?
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now
if we're not going to read it, we need to hear it. And that's
principally what God says, that He has pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save. Not only save the lost, but save
them which believe, to keep us, to keep up, to nourish us. And
not enough food will render us weak in the faith. And I see
it happen. And like I was saying, brick
upon brick. And when we miss out, we digress. We don't just stay the same.
That's the way it is. We don't just stay the same and
pick up where we left off. No, I'm sorry, that's not the
way it is. We digress. We regress, we go
backwards, and then we've got to make up the ground again,
come back to where we started off. So I exhort you to make
a steady diet of the hearing of God's Word and the reading
of it. And too much food, or the wrong kind of food, the wrong
gospel will render someone without faith, with a wrong faith, a
mix, a gospel mixture, an improper unhealthy, non-grace mixture. A gospel of diet and works will
render somebody faithless. Not weak in faith, but faithful.
And a lack of exercise, physically speaking, and I'm certainly experiencing
this. I've never been so physically
idle, or in other words, I've never had a desk job in my life. And I've seen what it's doing
to my body, and I need to do something about it. But I'm going
to say I'll do something about it, but a lack of exercise will
render us weak and scriptures speak about the exercise of prayer. These means of grace. These are
not just this is not just religious rhetoric, but it's just so these
are means of grace that God has provided for our growth, our
nourishment, our strength, our encouragement, hearing the word
prayer. Reading, fellowship with the
saints, all of these things are beneficial to our spiritual growth. Exercise, spiritual exercise. And let me say this as I go on.
This thing of improper diet or a poor diet. You can always see
a spiritual decline. And you can almost always see
the ultimate fall in someone who forsakes the assembly. They
assemble together the same. You can see it coming. And you
try to warn, and you can see it coming. It's as clear as the
nose on your face to those that have some discernment in it.
You can see it coming. Gradually drop off Wednesday
night. And then it drop off Sunday night. And then, eventually,
it's the Bible lesson on Sunday morning. Eventually, it's not
coming at all. You can see it coming. And it's
always a sign of spiritual decline and, ultimately, a fall. Now,
to forsake the assembly of the saints and the gospel, ultimately,
forsake that. For various reasons, God lets
us go through things and puts us in a, or we put ourselves,
and he allows us to get in this state of mind and being, where
we do forsake the assembly of the saint, and we do forsake
the hearing of the gospel, and we get real bad sick. And I'm
telling you right now, God is my witness. Come back under the
sound of the gospel at every opportunity. Avail yourselves
of this. Now the other causes of weakness,
of heart weakness, trials and afflictions. Now let me go into
this, and I want to go deeper into this. Trials and afflictions. Trials and afflictions of body,
of heart, of soul, of mind, they're meant to strengthen the heart.
They're meant to strengthen the faith. But sometimes, and this
is just the way it is, sometimes trial after trial after trial
after trial. seems to weaken our faith rather
than strengthen it. Now, some of you know what I'm
talking about. I'm not sure I know too much
about this trial after trial, but I see it in the scripture.
I see it in people. It happens to the best and the
strongest of saints, unless you be exalted above measure and
think that you'd hold up. Now, wait a minute. Don't be
so sure. Some of the strongest of saints
in the scripture After trial, after trial, after trial, they
finally just almost quit. Almost fell completely. Job.
Job. After a while. Now, you know
what that man went through, and nobody here is going to go through
what he went through. But after trial, after trial, finally,
you know, he held up under it. It's the Lord. It's the Lord.
Oh, well, it's the Lord, but finally, oh, after that final
A set of bad news came in. And he's sitting there scraping
those boils, pain, shooting through every limb in his body. He started
cursing his day. Oh, I wish I had never been born. I want to die. God said, have
you considered Job? A perfect man, upright, a mature
man. Yet Job finally reached a point
where he said, I want to die. I want to die. You ever been
there? And I venture to say there's
nobody in here quite as stout in the faith as old Joe was.
Oh, Jonah. Powerful preacher and messenger
of God. He finally got mad at God, didn't
he? Sitting under that old gourd head. Sitting under that tree. Oh, he got so mad at God. He got mad at God. You ever been
mad at God? You'd be ashamed to admit it, but you have. You
got mad at God for your lot in life. And God said, do you do
well to get mad? No, but he was. And God had mercy
on him. Then there's David. Oh man, this
man's life was full of trials. Just full of trials. And I'm
thankful because it encourages us. We go through David's trials
and we resort to his psalms. But David had a sick baby one
time, you remember? And not only did he go through
that terrible trial with Bathsheba, and God revealed his guilt and
sin to him, and that was a horrible trial as it was, and then God
pronounced the troubles and the problems he was going to go through
as a result of that, and David was expecting them. He knew they
were coming, God had promised them, but when it came, when
that baby got sick, David wept like a baby. David. King of Israel, 55-year-old man,
weeping like a lady. And his soldiers, Joab, came
in and said, ìYouíre embarrassing us. Youíre embarrassing us.î
Breakdown. David had a nervous breakdown.
And his soldiers and his right-hand men said, ìYouíre embarrassing
us. Come on, straighten up. What kind of example are you
setting?î He ran from a little girl. Some
little girl accused him of being a Christian, and he ran. I mean,
a little girl. Have you ever ran from a little
girl, Henry, when confronted with the faith? Oh, yeah, we
have. Thomas became an agnostic. I
mean, he walked with the Lord for three and a half years, and
finally he said, I just quit. I don't believe any of this stuff. You ever been there? I have. Maybe none of it's true. You
ever been there? You ever questioned at all whether
there is a God or not? Sure you have. Sure you have.
And sometimes the trials, and this will weaken the faith, sometimes
the trials seem more than you can bear. Pain upon pain, trial
upon trial. And you say, I don't know. I
don't know. And like I said before, I don't
know, some of us would hold up under some of the terrible and
constant trials that some people go through. I don't know. I don't
know if I would. The preacher, the one who's preaching
this message. I don't know. I don't know if
I could stand what you went through, Violet. I don't know. It's easy
to say, isn't it? Real easy to say. It's easy to
stand up here in perfect health and say it. God's my strength,
a very present help in time of trouble. And then trouble comes
along. Where's that present help? But we grow weak under trials
of sickness. Charles Spurgeon was sick for
thirty-eight years. Now, you've had some terrible
trials, but this man for thirty-eight years was on his sickbed. Todd Nyberg. Ruth Nichols. I just don't know if I could
handle what that woman has gone through. And you know, we get
like out of sight, out of mind about people. That's a shame,
isn't it? But the woman's gone through
some terrible trials. But yet she seems to bear upon
her, doesn't she? Doesn't she, Vicki? Trials of
life. We go, that's trials of sickness.
pain and suffering. Then we go through trials of
life. This life is a trial. It's one trial after another.
Trials of life. Now, you work out there in the
world. You work out there among unbelievers. And you're vexed. I've been there most of my life.
You're vexed with the conversation. You get so tired of hearing these
people cuss you, God. You get so tired of their filthy
mouths. You get so tired of their, you
just want to bust them in the mouth. I'm being real honest,
aren't I? That's the way you feel. Oh,
shut up! It's a trial. Rather than have
mercy and grace upon them, oh, it's a trial. It's working out
there in the world, and it'll reduce you to being a cowardly
weakling. You get so tired of of the defendant
trying to speak and finally become a cowardly weakling you don't
say anything at all. In front of all of this adversity
and so forth and all of this this opposition then you then
you become like. You rubbed shoulders with him
so long you get to be a lot of coaching. Sure you did. And in trials. of this life that
you just, there's men and women out there, there's men and women
right here, who are struggling just to make ends meet. Most
of us have a very comfortable, live a very comfortable life
and have most everything we need, but there's some people in here
that are struggling just to make ends meet, and they don't know
where they're going to pay their next electric bill. But that's
tough now, especially for a man. I mean, it's tough for anyone,
but for a man who's supposed to be the breadwinner, it's tough. Boy, it hurts the old pride,
man. It hurts. Struggle. It's trial. It'll make
you go weak in the faith. It's your will. And then there's
trials in religion, and I go through these trials more than
any time. You see the multitudes of people out there in this religious
world. You see the majority of people going one way, and you
seem to be so alone, such an island. And what you believe
people call you a cult for what you believe. And then you eventually
you start questioning your faith yourself you start questioning
what you will is is is this the gospel or not. You know what
I mean you start with so many people such opposition to the
gospel that you yourself eventually I mean the majority you know
all these people be wrong. And you start questioning, well,
maybe, maybe, just maybe there's some truth to it. That's a trial. And that'll make you grow weak
in the faith. And this too, this struggle, and the work of this
thing of the ministry, I'll just let you in on my feeling. If
you feel your own weakness, and your own inability, and your
own failure, and your lack of success, you see how things don't
seem to have much effect. You feel like nobody's profiting,
nobody's being edified, very little response and so forth.
And you think, what's the use? And you do this and you're witnessing
and so forth. What's the use? In your word, I say, I quit. I quit. Like I said, I nearly
quit. I was probably quit tonight about
9 o'clock. I quit. What's the use anymore? Well, these are some things,
some legitimate problems and causes that cause us to grow
weak in the faith. Let me hurry. Turn over with
me. Now, keep your place right there,
and we're going to come back to this verse here. Turn with
me over to Titus, chapter 2. The book of Titus, chapter 2. There are many excuses, many
excuses that we bring up for our weakness in the faith. Bear
with me. Many excuses that we come up
with some people come up with this excuse. Well I'm just I'm
too old for all this. I'm too old. Too old. No. That can never be an excuse. Never. That's when you ought
to be grounded and settled in the truth. Unmoved. Unshaken. every wind, every little trial.
That's when you ought to be firm as a rock, the old sense. That's when the young people
ought to be able to look up to you and say, hey, that's the
way I want to be. No, you're not too old. That's
the time when you ought to be settled in this thing. Look at
what Paul says to Titus, verse 2. He says, I exhort you to tell
these aged men to be sober. sober, that is, vigilant, brave,
serious, temperate, sound in the faith, not weak, sound, strong
in the faith, in love also. Don't grow old and grumpy. Grow
old and sweet. Grow old gracefully, graciously,
in love and in patience. Women's too old, in you women,
he didn't leave you out. Aged women, likewise, they ought
to be in behavior as becometh holiness, or holy women, women
whose God has touched their lives, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
In behaviors becoming holy, it's not false accusers, make-faith,
that is, gossipers and so forth, not given to much wine. Teachers,
an older woman ought to be a teacher. Teach the young women, verse
4. Teach the young women to be just that, sober, love their
husband, love their children, be discreet, chaste, keepers
at home, good, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God
be not blasphemed. Too old? That's no excuse. None
at all. That's the time when we need
to be strong in the faith, be strong in the Lord and the power
of His might. Well, I'm too young. I'm just too young. I can't do
anything. That's no excuse either. That's
no excuse. Too young. Young men, verse 6,
likewise exhort to be sober-minded. You ought to be a pattern, showing
yourself a pattern of good works in doctrine. In doctrine. A pattern of good works. Youth
is when courage should be the greatest. That's when courage ought to
be the greatest in the youth. I can understand a little bit
when an older person, you know, is tired of all the battles and
the struggle, and they say, I want to leave it to the young folk.
Well, young folks, this is when we ought to be standing up with
courage and great zeal, full of zeal and strength and resolve.
The Scriptures talk about the young men, young men seeing visions,
ought to have a vision to be strong in the faith and so forth.
Now, those are some excuse, too young, too old. I plead too weak. I'm too weak. I can't do anything.
I can't preach. I can't pray. I can't sing. I
can't lead the singing. Well, Paul said, when I'm weak,
then I'm strong. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. Weakness is no excuse either. We need to be weak. When we think
we're strong, that's when we really got a problem. But when
we're weak, we look to the one, he said, who made man's mouth
and so forth. Or we plead our ignorance. I don't know anything.
I just don't know the scriptures. I'm just so untaught and so ignorant. Don't you know the apostles thought
the same thing? When Christ called those old
fishermen. Henry, this would be like calling
you to go out and preach. And he does. But when he called
those old fishermen, you know, that didn't have more than, I
don't know how much education they had, if any. When I was
called down here, I got a high school education, that's about
it. Everybody always asked me, where did you go to seminary?
Well, I didn't. Are you a dummy, or what? Well, and I always tried to tell
them I went to the school of the Holy Spirit. Well, they always
said that. But don't you know those apostles thought, we can't
preach, Lord. They said, go! We can't do anything. You know
they thought they were too ignorant. Too young, too ignorant. Jeremiah
said it. Lord, when God called Jeremiah,
he said, Jeremiah said, I'm a child. I'm too young. Well, then he
called Moses. Moses was how, 80 years old?
40 when he called him, 80 after he finally sent him out. Moses
said, well, I'm not too young, but I can't speak. Never have. I've been talking to sheep for
40 years. I can't speak. I'm not eloquent.
Never have been. Never will be. He said, who made
man's mouth? And he told Jeremiah, I know
you're a young man, but who makes man's mouth? You go. Don't be
afraid. I'll put my words in your mouth. And all of these
excuses come from the same problem. This is what I want to get to.
Turn back to the text there in Psalm 31. All of these excuses,
these lame excuses, and I said, There are some legitimate causes,
trials and afflictions, pain, suffering, and trials where we
work out in our lives and all of these things. There are some
legitimate problems we go through that really do give us fainting
fits. But most of these excuses come
from the same problem. You know what it is? Looking within, right? Looking
within. God says, go. But, and you look
in the mirror, oh. You know, sometimes you walk
by the, most of the time you walk by the mirror, and you can't
help but look in there. Hey. I like what I see. But sometimes, now I admit to,
sometimes I look Sunday morning, got my nice black suit on, you
know. Go get them boy. But most of the time, I'll be
honest, most of the time I look. It's no use. Go anyway. That's when you ought to go.
The time when you sit, stay home. Don't go. But the time when you
feel weak. Oh boy. But the problem is looking
at yourself. That's the problem. And here's
the cure. Here's the only cure. to this weakness of faith. Look
at it, verse 24 of our text. He says, Be of good courage.
We need to get up some courage. Well, how? What good will it
do me? Be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen your weak heart, your weak faith. All ye that hope
in the Lord. Be of good courage. All ye that
hope in the Lord. All you that hope in the Lord.
Now there is the, as Scott said, you can't claim the promise unless
you fit the character described in the promise. Do you hope in
the Lord? Let me ask you individually.
I wish I could sit you down personally, each one of you, and say, and
ask you this question. What is your hope for eternal
life? Henry, do you hope in the Lord? Is the Lord your righteousness?
Is it the Lord Jesus Christ? I believe you can say that, can't
you? He's your righteousness, isn't he? He's your hope. What
are you worried about? What have you got to worry about?
Huh? Is the Lord your righteousness?
Deborah, is the Lord your substitute? If Jesus, did he come down here
and pay for the sins of guilty, wretched sinners like you? You
a sinner? Yeah, you are. You know you are. Is the Lord
a substitute for sinners? What are you worried about? Huh?
You've got a substitute. Is the Lord your mediator? Vicki,
there's a man at the right hand of God, mediating for wretched,
no good, rebellious, unworthy, helpless, weak, faithless sinners. Does that describe you? Well,
there's a man up there pleading for such as you. The God-man,
whom God accepts. Whom God loves, whom God delights
in, whom God approves of, whom God always hears and grants his
request. What in the world is Vicki Patton
ever worried about? Hmm? Is the Lord your prophet? Do you believe what he says?
When he came down on this earth and all the things that he said,
do you believe it? Do you rest in it? Do you trust
in what he said? His truth, the truth of the gospel,
is he your priest? Is he your high priest? Is he
standing, did he go to the Father, to this holy God with his very
own blood, which he poured out for the remission of your sins,
and poured out on the mercy seat, thereby securing the salvation
of all who come to God by him? Did he or did he not? Is he the
high priest for wretched sinners? Is he? That's what the Scripture
says. The blood makes atonement for the sins. Your sins are gone. Be of good courage, the scripture
says. That's how He strengthens your
heart. Is He your King? Is Christ? Do you acknowledge,
Barbara? Picked on everybody else. Do
you acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as being Lord? That He's
God in human flesh and that all things are in His hands? All
things? I know we know that in our head, but do you believe
that in your heart? Now, come on, really. Do you? I believe
you do, don't you? You're in His hands. And he's
merciful and gracious, a kind, tender, compassionate Lord. Delights
to show mercy for such as you. He's your Lord and Master. What have you got to worry about? Huh? Nothing. So David says,
cheer up, be of good courage. Be of good courage. He said in
one place, why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why? Why art thou disquieted in me?
What does he say next? Can somebody quote him? Hope
thou in the Lord. This one who sits at the right
hand of the Father. I know my Redeemer liveth, Job
finally said. Oh, he had problems he went through,
and his faith got weak, and there were legitimate problems. Problems
that caused him all kinds of grief and heartache and trouble
and trial and weakness. But finally, when he finally
quit the looking at his problems and started looking unto him,
looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our
faith. Then he was able to say, I know my Redeemer lives. I know. I know he does. And let me ask
you some questions. Has he ever left you finally? There's times when you feel like,
Ellen, you're next. There's times when you feel like
the Lord's forgotten you, don't you? A lot of times, you feel
like He's forgotten, He's left me, I'm flung down, I'm cut off. Like Isaiah or someone would
say, I'm cut off, I'm undone, He's left me alone. Has He ever
really finally left you? No. What makes you think He will
then? Has He ever really forsaken you?
I mean really finally forsaken you. Huh? Has he ever... I'm
not going to ask anybody in here. We've all got problems. We all
have troubles in this life. We have troubles paying our bills
and so forth. And we get down and out. Has he ever, ever failed to provide
for you? Does everybody in here have a
roof over their head? Why, sure we do. Some of us have
very nice ones. I've got probably the nicest
one in here. I know where cars break down all the time, but
you ever fail to get to work and get fired? I don't know anybody
here that's been fired because he couldn't get to work. He got
there somehow. The food, well, it's obvious
that we hadn't missed too many meals. The Lord, our provider,
I said, then why? Why do we regret it? Be of good
courage. Let's just get our courage back
up here. And he ever, David said, now I've been young and I'm now
old, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken. Those that
the Lord Jesus Christ has imputed his righteousness to and shed
his blood for, for the remission of their sin, David said, no
way! God would be unjust, wouldn't
he? You fear like, all of us in here fear that God's going
to finally cast us away. No! No, you'll never leave you, you
may leave him. If you do, because you never
want to, you never want to. But he said, you'll never leave
you cling to him, cling to him, you'll never leave you. David
said, I've never seen a righteous forsaken, nor he's seen his seed
begging bread. Like I said, very obvious. Nobody
in here begged one meal, not one. Then be of good courage,
he said. Be of good courage and he'll
strengthen your heart. Let's quit moaning and groaning
and complaining. All right? For, you know, let's
wait until morning at least. Right now, let's quit grumbling
and complaining. Let's do it. The Lord has been
so merciful and gracious to us and given us every reason to
trust him. All of our lives he's given us
every reason to trust him. Every reason to believe him.
that he will bring us through yet another trial. Don't. And call on you yet. Hadn't he
given you every reason to believe him and trust him. Every reason. You'd look on every hand. Can't
you? Why? Why? But it's a fact. We do. We get
down and out. Let me ask you this. And we know this is so, but we
need to be reminded of it. What do we expect to gain out
of our worrying and complaining anyway? Huh? Let me ask the farmer. Henry, here, we can get on you
again. Are you afraid of the weather? Are you afraid that
the crops aren't going to get enough rain, and your garden's
not going to get enough rain, or whatever's going to drop?
What are you going to do about it anyway? What good is it going
to do you to worry about it? We'll stay up all night. I'm
going to lose my horn. Go to sleep, man. You can't make
it rain, right? The one who can, he's decided
things anyway. Leave it there. Let me ask the
mother. Are you afraid of the future
for your child? Let me ask me. I've got to turn
my daughter loose in that hard and cruel and cold kindergarten. My boy, I'm going to corrupt
my child. I'm going to protect her. Keep
her at home. Can I can I shape the future? Can I can I really keep her from
what what what she's going to face? I've got to turn her loose
eventually at five or 18. She's going to hit that old world
one of these days. I can't shape the future. And
why worry about it? I know who holds the future. And humanly speaking, let him,
let him think about it. He doesn't worry about it, but
leave it in his hands. I know it's easy to say, but that's
the truth, isn't it? Are we all, all of us, are we afraid of troubles
and trials? I'll be honest with you. I don't
look for, I don't pray for them. Don't do it. Don't pray for trials. I don't know. Don't do it. If you get in them, pray, pray
that he'll, he'll get you through them. But afraid of troubles
and trials coming, well, you can't stop them. Can't stop them. They're coming. They're coming.
He promised us. Look over Psalm 37 and I'll hurry. I'll quit. Psalm 37. Then what
are you going to do? What are we going to do? What
are we going to do? Well, look at Psalm 37. Let's
do what David did. Psalm 27. I'm sorry. 27. Psalm
27. We're going to go to 37 here in a minute. Psalm 27. What are
we going to do? Well, we would have done, we
would have quit. We would have fainted. Verse
13. David said it too. He said, I'd have fainted. Verse
13. I'd have fainted unless I'd believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. What
are we going to do? Believe. Believe God. Let's get this old
book out. Blow the dust off of her. Get
in there and say, what does he say? Just what is he telling
me? What does he promise me? He told me trials are coming.
Now let's see what he says about that. Believe God. Abraham believed God. He was
counted for him for righteousness, and God got him through the trial.
Believe him. Rest on his promises. That's what this book is to the
believer. It's warnings to the unbeliever, and it's expectations
to the unbeliever to get to Christ. to turn from wrath and repent
and get to Christ, repentance before God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But for the believer, this is
a book of promises. This is a promise book to the
believer full of promises, blessed, precious promises, after promise,
after page, after page, verse, after verse. Do we avail ourselves
of it? Do we? Then we take them to heart. Now, folks, I'm not just preaching.
I'm telling you the truth, like that old fellow said. I ain't
just preaching now. I'm telling you the truth. Talking to me, too. It is. Don't expect great faith. Don't expect to get through a
trial. Don't expect to be anything but
sick and sorrowful and troubled. And all of these things, and
weak in the faith if you don't apply the promises. Does that make sense, Roberta?
Sure it does. If a child doesn't listen to
the parent, they're going to be all torn up all the time,
aren't they? This is God's promises to His children, full of them.
Let's get in there. He didn't promise, now we look
for promises that aren't there, though. He didn't promise riches
and honor and a bed of roses, a rose gardener. He never promised
you a rose gardener. He promised just the thorns.
Oh, there is some sweetness. He did promise some sweetness,
some sweet smell, some milk and honey. But in the beginning,
he said, it will be thorned thistles, sweat, blood, sorrow, suffering,
trials, tribulations, thorny paths, but above all, forgiveness,
salvation, and inheritance, incorruptible, eternal life, peace, joy, unspeakable
riches. His goodness. We need to remember
God's Word, believe Him, believe His promises, and remember His
goodness. I said it a while ago, remember His lovingkindness and
tender mercies to us in the past. Because, now I know this is the
funeral first, but it's so. Let's not let this generation
keep us from using this verse, all things work together for
good. I know that we use that. People
have used it and abused it. They've used it so much they've
abused it. They just throw it out there for anybody. But it's
so. It's our comfort. Violet, it's
our comfort. All the things. You mean to be
under the knife so many times? Yes. That's what that verse said,
doesn't it? Most things work together. A
double L all. But how I don't know what he
said it did. I believe I just believe we trusted
him and believe that it acted like we did. He might show us
later on. I say. And most of the time he
does. We look at what I say. Why did
I? Why was I so troubled? So why did I doubt you? Lord
forgive me. Let me not be ashamed anymore
and doubtful anymore. Remember his goodness. And look
at the above all verse fourteen. Wait. I quit Rick come over here
and take come up here to take over. Somebody else take over
some of you over from Joe. Wait on the Lord. You know anything about that? Wait on the Lord. Wait. The trial of your faith or tribulation
Scripture said, work of patience. Oh, my. Patience, experience. Experience, hope. Sure hope,
not just a hope, a hope, but a sure, a good hope in the Lord.
A hope, a true hope. Now, the hardest thing in the
world, and I've been too long, I'm sorry, but no, I'm not sorry. You need this. I need this. The
hardest thing for us to do, is to wait, to wait, especially
young people. Goodness gracious, the hardest
thing in the world for us to do. We're so impatient and we
take things in our own hands and we go here and we do this
and we do that without reading the directions. That's all else
fails. You know how we are, us macho
men, you know, tear into something and find, get in a mess and then
find, well, I better read the directions. If we cause ourselves so much
heartache and trouble and excess work, double the work, don't
we, Rick? Double the work. When we've just dropped some
of that pride and said, what are you reading, honey? Directions.
Oh, I thought you were. But we should have not. Read
the directions. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Be of good courage. Strong in
the Lord. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Don't
take things in your own hand. Wait on him to move. Let him
move the waters first. Move the water. Be of good courage.
Wait on the Lord. Now I'll quit by going through
this. Psalm 37, and I'll quit. I'll hurry. Psalm 37, but you've
got to see this. He says, Wait on the Lord, and
he shall strengthen you. All you that trust in the Lord,
he'll strengthen that poor, old, weak, faithless heart. Shall.
I like the shalls in the Scripture. I love the shalls in the Scripture.
In this Psalm 37, Bye.