Join with me if you would, 2
Chronicles chapter 20. There are times when our Lord
blesses us with a continuation of a message through multiple
men. I was afraid when Donnie turned here that I was going
to have to find something else this morning, but he only read
a small portion and I'm going to read more of it. But after
his message, this went along so well with this morning's.
Scripture we're going to read occurs some 500 years after the
Exodus. And yet, we find Israel in trouble
once more. And they're saved by the great
mighty work of God. And they carry away much riches
because of what he did for them. Let's read chapter 20, first
30 verses together. It came to pass after this also
that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with
them other beside the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some that told
Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee
from beyond the sea on this side, Syria. And behold, they be in
Hazazun Tamar, which is in Jeddah. And Jehoshaphat feared and set
himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout
all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves
together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of
Judah, they came to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in
the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the
Lord before the new court, and said, O Lord God of our fathers,
art not thou God in heaven, and rulest not thou over all the
kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not
power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art
not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land
before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham
thy friend for ever? And they dwell therein, and have
built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, When evil
cometh upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine,
we stand before this house, and in thy presence, for thy name
is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then
thou wilt hear and help. And now, behold, the children
of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldst not let
Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, But
they turned from them and destroyed them not. Behold, I say, how
they reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession, which
thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge
them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before
the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah,
the son of Jehiel, the son of Mataniah, a Levite of the sons
of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation, and He said, Hearken ye all Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and thou, King Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord
unto you, Be not afraid, nor dismayed by reason of this great
multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in
this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still,
and seek the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem,
fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. and Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground. And all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And
the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children
of the Korhites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a
loud voice on high. And they rose early in the morning
and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa, and as they went forth,
Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall ye be established. Believe his prophets, so shall
ye prosper. And when he had consulted with
the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should
praise the beauty of holiness. As they went out before the army,
and to say, Praise the Lord, for his mercy forever. And when
they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against
the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come
against Judah, and they were smitten. For the children of
Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir
utterly to slay and destroy them. And when they had made an end
of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another. And
when Judah came toward the Watchtower in the wilderness, they looked
unto the multitude, and behold, there were dead bodies fallen
to the earth, and none escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his
people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among
them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious
jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they
could carry away. And they were three days in gathering
of the spoil, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled
themselves in the valley of Baraka, for there they blessed the Lord.
Therefore the name of the same place was called the Valley of
Baraka unto this day. Then they returned, every man
of Judah and Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to
go again to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to
rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with
psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. And
the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when
they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of
Israel." So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him
rest round about. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 1. I was blessed to meet and know
Brother Ed Held, the man who wrote that song. Got a whole
bunch of his songs back there. They're on cassette now. We need
to get them. He's got one called Eternal Blood.
And then he died. And Gary, you remember him, don't
you? Boy, him and his wife was sweet,
so sweet. And his wife was named Hazel.
And I sent her tapes for years after he died. And then she finally,
the Lord finally took her home, too. But there's been a lot of
people along this journey and a lot of wonderful people. And
they have an impact on your life and on your heart. And I've met
a lot of people, been so blessed to meet a lot of people that's
greatly affected my life, greatly affected it. All right, I want
us to look together here in 2 Corinthians 1, and I want to start here in
verse 12. I'm going to get my subject out
of verse 12. For our rejoicing is this, the
testimony of our conscience. Rejoicing over the testimony
of our conscience. that in simplicity and godly
sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have
had our conversation, our manner of life, in the world, and more
abundantly, to you. Simplicity and godly sincerity. The Apostle found many reasons
to rejoice. He always looked and he told
the Philippians, you are my rejoicing. You are my rejoicing before the
Lord. You're my joy before the Lord.
But he had been talking about his afflictions. Look what he
said up here in verse 5. He'd been talking about his afflictions,
about his sufferings for Christ. For he says this, for as the
sufferings of Christ abound in us. Now when he suffered, he
was actually suffering for Christ. He was hated. He suffered prison,
He suffered beatings, He suffered lots of things. And whatever
He said, our Lord Jesus said, you know, even when Paul was
persecuting Him, He said, it's hard for you to kick against
the pricks. He said, who art thou Lord? I am Jesus of Nazareth,
whom you persecute. So what we do to the Lord's people,
Christ takes it as being done to Himself. And when we suffer,
when He calls us to suffering, He said, it's His suffering.
we fill up his sufferings. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation. If we suffer for Christ and Christ's
sufferings in us, so our consolation, our great comfort also abounds
by Christ. You know, the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that
shall be revealed in us. That's the same thing he's saying
here. And then he goes down here and says in verse eight, look
what he says. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of
our trouble. Trouble. Now he talks about trouble
here. I would not have you ignorant
of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed
out of measure. I mean, we was pressed above
strength, insomuch that we despaired of life. We said, listen, we're
not going to get through this. This trouble's so great, we're
not going to get through it. So what we did, we had the sentence
of death in ourselves. We didn't answer for ourselves,
didn't try to figure this thing out. That we should not trust
in ourselves, but in God. And if we die, He's the one that's
gonna raise the dead. Who delivered us, saved us, brought
salvation from so great a death, and does save us in whom we trust
that He will yet save us. Ye also, helping together by
prayer for us, that the gift bestowed upon us, whatever that
was, I don't know, by means of many persons, thanks may be given
by many on our behalf. And then he went on talking about
his suffering and said, but I rejoice in it. Our rejoicing went from
talking about troubles and afflictions and sufferings and even pressed
beyond the point where he thought he might even die. For our rejoicing
is this, our conscience has a testimony. Our conscience bears witness
to some things. And it bears witness to this,
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom,
but by the grace of God. We had our conversation, our
manner of life, the way we lived in the world, and more abundantly
to you." So he comes from troubles, trials, and sufferings to rejoicing. And them and Timothy, they talked
about having a pure conscience before God. And he says that
in simplicity and godly sincerity. Now what this means is this,
that simplicity means singleness of mind. Simplicity means singleness
of mind. And godly sincerity means that
you're translucent. Translucent. You're just, people
can see. People can see what you are.
They, you know, he said, we're translucent. People can see us.
They can tell. They can absolutely see what's
going on. And he says, so we have singleness
of mind and we're open and naked before everybody. And do you
know, if we had this kind of testimony of our conscience,
this godly sincerity and simplicity, you know how many evils could
be prevented, how many things we'd never have to suffer, how
few scandals, how few evil speakings, how no hard feelings, all these
things, if we had this singleness, simplicity, and godly sincerity. and to have a testimony of our
conscience that we're that way. But how few have it. But because
we don't, but because we don't, that doesn't mean we can't and
that we should not desire that. Desire, simplicity of faith and
sincerity. And in this particular place,
this simplicity and godly sincerity are inseparable. Wherever there's
simplicity or singleness of heart, there'll be sincerity. There'll
be a translutions. There'll be an honesty, a singularity. And this simplicity, this singularity
that I'm talking about here has to do with our spirit before
God. Single-minded, single-minded,
single-hearted before God. Has to do with that and sincerity,
this translution. We know that God sees us as we
are. He that made the seeing eye,
does he not see? He that made the hearing ear,
does he not hear? And also, sincerity has to do not only before God,
but before our conduct, before the way we have our conversation,
before the eyes of men in this world. And when he's talking
about simple here, he's not talking about the same as being childish
or foolish, not a put on thing or a pretense thing. It's something
that's real. So let's talk about this simplicity
and godly sincerity. True simplicity. True simplicity
is the effect, is the effect of the truths of the gospel upon
our hearts. That's why simplicity, true simplicity,
this singleness, this singularity, this simple singleness comes
from the effects of the spiritual truths of the gospel as we are
here on priest and as we perceive them. Let me show you something
over in Psalm 86 11. You know, the gospel, the gospel
truths, they're what makes us have this true simplicity, this
singularity, this singularity before God, this singleness of
mind before God. And the gospel's the only thing
that can produce that. You know, he says a double-minded
man's unstable in all of his ways. But look what he said here
in Psalm 86 and verse 11. Teach me thy way, O Lord. We love that, sing that hymn.
Teach me thy way, O Lord, teach me thy way. I will walk in thy
truth. If you teach me the way, I'll
walk in your truth. Unite my heart. This is what
he's saying here. Give me this singleness, give
me this simplicity, give me this singularity. Unite my heart to
fear thy name. Make my heart to be single, make
my heart to be true. And that's what it is, to be
simple minded, single minded, simple hearted. And our simplicity
that I'm talking about is our effect, is the effect. of the
gospel and our perception of the gospel as it teaches us and
shows us our own worthiness. How can we not have a simplicity
and a singularity when the gospel makes us understand just how
unworthy we are? What are we worthy of? What are
we worthy of before God? What have we earned before God?
What is our worth before God? What is our worth before God?
And as we hear the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, are we worthy
of the power of Christ? And as we read and hear the Gospel
and the grace of Christ that's been given to us, and as we perceive
these things and rejoice in these things, and then the debt of
love we owe to Him. Oh, Bridget Hart had used to
sing a song, How Much I Owe. It's a Robert Murray Machine
song. Oh, how much I owe. I'll never know until I get to
the end how much I owe. And beloved, the more we know
and experience these things, the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the grace of Christ has been given to us and as it is given
to us, and the debt of love that we owe to him. Oh my, how it
produces this singularity and this simplicity. As the more
we know and experience these things, the more simple hearted
we become. Now I've got two points tonight,
just two little old plain simple points. Talking about the simplicity
of our hearts, and I want to deal with it in two ways. The
simplicity of our hearts, this singleness of heart, this simple
heartedness, this one heartedness. In our intentions, we're simple
hearted in our intentions. Simplicity in our intentions
while we live in this world. And secondly, our simplicity
upon our dependence upon the Lord. Now let me talk about,
he says, oh, rejoicing the testimony of our conscience, that is simplicity
and godly sincerity. What about a simplicity of intention? When we talk about our intention,
our aim, Our one deliberate desire, and everything is second to this. Everything else is nothing to
this. And that's why Paul meant leave off fleshly wisdom. And
this is our intention. This is our desire, is to be
devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ. For our hearts, minds, body,
and souls be given over to our Lord Jesus Christ. to choose
that good part that Mary did, to sit down at His feet and to
learn of Him. Marlene played more of Jesus
would I know, more of His saving fullness to others show, more
about Jesus would I know, more, more about Jesus. And oh, beloved,
oh, to be devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, to have Him on
us from the top of our head to the sole of our foot, for Him
to have our hearts, for Him to have our minds, for Him to have
our wills, for Him to have everything about us, for Him to have us.
And us be so simple minded and simple hearted that that's all
we aim for and all we desire for. To learn of Him, to give
ourselves up to Him without any reserve. Oh my! Oh my, oh by grace, by grace
God's enabled us to choose the Lord Jesus Christ above everything
else. What else is there besides our
relationship with Christ that's gonna last throughout eternity?
What else is gonna do that? And our greatest happiness is
to have his favor, to have his blessings, for have him look
upon us. And His glory, His glory, and to honor Him is our aim.
That's our intent. That's what it means. That's
why I'm talking about simplicity of intention. And I tell you,
He deserves this from us. He deserves our hearts. He deserves
our absolute devotion. He deserves it. He alone is all-sufficient. He's met every need we've ever
had. He alone is all-good. He alone is all-glorious. He
alone satisfies our mind. He alone satisfies our heart.
He alone satisfies our souls. He alone does that. Look with
me over in Isaiah 43. Oh, simplicity. I'm preaching to me now and I'm
just going to let you all listen. I'm going to preach to myself
and let the rest of you listen. Every once in a while, I'll go
off talking to myself and surely they'll say, why are you just,
who are you talking to? I said, talking to me. And I
tell you what, I answer myself every once in a while. Do you
all ever do that? I call myself DB most of the
time when I do that. DB, why'd you do this? DB, why
you do... But I'm telling you, I'm just
going to preach to myself, talk to myself tonight, and let you
listen in. Look here in verse 21, Isaiah
43, 21. Oh, he did... He deserves this devotion for
us to give ourselves up to him without reserve. He says in verse
21, this people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth
my praise. Why did he choose us? He said,
this people I formed for myself. And you know what they're going
to do? They shall praise me. That's what he said. He said,
they shall praise me. And oh, look over in Isaiah 44,
verses 1 and 2. He alone satisfies us. He alone
meets the needs of our minds and our hearts and our souls.
Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. Thus saith the Lord that made
thee and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant,
and thou, Jezeron, whom I have chosen. Don't be afraid. What
he said is I'm going to take care of you. I've chosen you
and you're going to praise me. And oh my, we just have this
simplicity of intention. Paul had that simplicity. This
one thing I do, one thing I do, forgetting everything that's
behind, reaching forth to know Christ, to win Christ and to
be found in Christ. That's what I'm trying to say
here. And oh, I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ, he deserves
this from us. And he has a just claim upon
us, a just claim upon us that we should be entirely his. He's
the potter. We're just the clay. We're just
the clay. He redeemed us, bought us with
his own precious blood. So he has a title to us. He loved
us and he gave himself for us. He loved us and washed us from
our sins in His own blood. When it came to our salvation,
when it came to His intention for us, He didn't halt between
two opinions when He entered into covenant with God for us.
He didn't do it. And when He hung on before they
put Him on that cross, when He stood before Pilate, He said,
I could call 10,000 legions of angels down here, but my kingdom's not
of this world. He could have called angels,
could have destroyed his enemies with just a look, just a word.
He could have easily have saved himself from all the suffering
that he'd done. But if he had done that, then
how could he have saved us, his people? And how could the promises
and how could salvation be accomplished and the scriptures be fulfilled
had not our Lord Jesus Christ with joy that was set before
him endured the cross and despised the shame that went with that
cross. He gave his back to the smiters,
poured out his soul, and poured out his blood unto death and
laid down his life. No man took it from him. He had
the power to lay it down. He had the power to take it up
again. He received this commandment. He said, and I lay down my life.
For who? For the sheep. Oh my, what our
intentions. If he had that intention for
us, should not our aim and our intention be to give ourselves,
and I'm talking to me, I'm not, I'll weep over this business.
I'll weep over this business. What a day that's going to be
when we won't have to deal with this body anymore, this soul.
And there's a wonderful simplicity in our Lord's intentions, in
His intentions. Oh my! Lord, we heartily, joyfully,
thankfully, are holy thine. I am thine, O Lord. I am thine,
O Lord." What would you refuse the Lord? If the Lord called
on you, what would you refuse Him? What would you refuse Him? If He handed you the cup of affliction,
the cup of affliction and said, you got to drink this cup of
affliction and it's going to hurt. Oh, it's going to hurt
you down to your soul. It's going to hurt you down to
your whole, it's going to hurt you like you never heard before.
And I'm going to give you a cup of affliction or you can have
the pleasures of sin. Would you take that cup of affliction
from the hand of the Lord? Huh? What would you refuse Him?
Would we take the world and leave Christ? Would we have the world
that hated him? Would we be ashamed of our allegiance
to him? Oh, Lord, constrain our hearts
to love you and love you more. Paul said, oh, everything's done
that I may have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord. And let me tell you something,
beloved. You all know it as well as I
do. This is the language of the heart. This is the language of
a heart that's blessed with gospel simplicity. Singularity. Men that don't know Christ don't
care about these things. Men that know something about
the gospel don't care a thing in the world about these things.
But this is the language that God teaches a man's heart that's
blessed with gospel simplicity. A heart that once was the stronghold
of sin. A heart that once sat on the
throne and self sat on that throne. Now self is down in the dust
and Christ sits on the heart with that golden, golden scepter
of his blessed love held sway over our heart. Oh my. So we have a simplicity of intention. Our aim and our goal is to And
let me, I think that's our aim and our goal and our intention
all the days since we've been believers. Is it not your intention
and not your aim and not your goal to give, to wholly, wholly
be devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean to get up and
say, Lord Jesus, today I belong to you, do with me whatever you
want to do. If He puts you between a rock and a hard place, say,
Lord, bless your holy name, you're still the Lord. People ask me
all the time, how you feel? I say, how you doing? I say,
I have no complaints and I don't. I have no complaints. What could
I or you possibly complain about? What could we complain about?
And I certainly, you know where I pour out my complaints before?
I tell the Lord about it. Tell the Lord about it. And I
tell the Lord about you, I tell the Lord on you, and you tell
the Lord on me. Somebody does something, you
know, instead of getting upset with him, you know, just go tell
the Lord. Just talk to the Lord about it. The Lord will take
care of it. The Lord will deal with it. He never failed us yet.
And then there's this simplicity of intention, then our simplicity
of dependence upon the Lord, our dependence upon Him. Tell
you something about unbelief. Unbelief is always objecting,
always arguing, always magnifying, always multiplying difficulties,
making things seem worse than they are. That's what unbelief
does. You say something about faith
or something that's gonna happen and say, oh, well, this could
happen, that could happen, something else, and they take troubles
and they just magnify them and multiply them, and always objecting. But faith is the power, and the
power and promises of God produces such a blessed, blessed simplicity. Casting your cares upon Him,
for He careth for you. Oh, to just trust the Lord and
His power and His promises? Oh, there's such a blessed simplicity
in that and singularity in that. You know what faith says? Faith
simply says this, He's able. That's what faith said, He's
able. He's able. That's what Abraham did, you
know. God said, Abraham, go out. And Abraham went out not even
knowing where he was, but what caused him to do that? What caused
him to do that? He believed God was able. And then he came and gave him
a promise of a son. He waited decades, decades, decades
before he had a child. But he waited for the fulfilling
of that promise and the scripture said he staggered not. And that
word staggered means did not dispute or question. He simply
believed God and waited on God. And then after he had that son,
and that son got up to be a pretty good sized boy. He wasn't a man,
he was a boy. He wasn't 20, 21, 22 years old. He was probably 12, 13, 14 years
old. Very small, very young. And God
said, now take your son, your only son, the son of your love.
You take Him up yonder on that mountain, and you offer Him to
me. You know what He did? He did
it. He just simply went and done
it. Huh? Look in Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. Oh, bless the Lord's name. That's
why I'm talking about this simplicity. Our intentions. What is our intentions? Hebrews 11, 17. Told to offer
up His Son. And God done told him, you know,
in Isaac shall thy seed be called, in Isaac is the Messiah, through
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And look what it says here in
Hebrews 11, 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up
Isaac, and he that had received the promises, God made a promise,
offered up his only begotten son, or offered up his only begotten
son, of whom it was said that in Isaac all thy seed shall be
called. Shall thy seed be called. Now
listen to this. Listen. This is why he did this.
This is why he did it. He done received the promises,
accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the
dead. If I take that boy's life, He
told him before he started up that mountain. He said, I'm the
ladder going yonder to worship and we'll return again. He knows
that he's taking that boy up there and he's gonna come back.
He said, if he dies up there, God has got to raise him from
the dead because all the promises that God gave me is in this boy. And that's what it is with our
Lord Jesus Christ. When he was buried, all the promises
of God was in him. So God had to raise him from
the dead. God had to set him on his right
hand because God promised. And oh, he'd come back down off
from that mountain with that boy. That's what I'm talking
about. It's just simply, just simply the simplicity of it.
In the power and promises of God, it just produces a blessed
simplicity. David went forth to face Goliath
in the spirit of just the simplicity of faith. You all know that story
of 1 Samuel 17? Look over here in 1 Samuel 17.
Look at this with me. 1 Samuel 17, where David killed
Goliath. Oh, he just went to face Goliath.
This Goliath was over nine feet tall. He was over nine feet tall. And oh my, the simplicity of
just depending upon God. Look what he said here now, verse
43. David went out to face the Philistine. 1 Samuel 17, 43. And the Philistine
said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves,
and the Philistine cursed David by his gods? And the Philistine
said to David, Come to me, and I am going to give your flesh
unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Then
said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword,
and with a spear, and with a shield. But I come to thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts. I believe God, the God of the
armies of Israel. And you not defied anybody. You defied God's people, the
God of Israel. And this day will the Lord deliver
thee into my hand. He didn't say, I hope he will,
I think he will, he might. He said, he will. This day will
the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I'll smite thee and
take thine head from thee, and I'll give the carcasses of the
host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air
and the wild beasts of the field, that all the earth may know. Now listen to this, that there
is a God in Israel. See how simple his faith was?
There's a God in Israel, and I believe him. And it came to
pass, And all this assembly, verse 47, and all this assembly
shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for
the battle is the Lord's, and he'll give you into our hands.
And he did, he did. And like the three Hebrew children,
when Nebuchadnezzar was gonna sew them into the fiery furnace,
and they said, your God gonna deliver you? And they said, he's
able. They went into that fire furnace
and said, He is able. He is able. That's what I'm talking
about. That simplicity of dependence. And beloved, what is your testimony
and my testimony as we've trusted the Lord, depended on God down
through the years. How many years we depended on
God? Huh? What has He provided? What has
He done? Do you know, I was thinking about
this before I came up here this evening, looking at my notes
this afternoon. What has he provided for us?
What hasn't he provided? Be the best question. David said,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Now let me ask you
some questions. Have you ever wanted a house?
Ever wanted for a place to live? Have you ever wanted for food?
Have you ever wanted for comfort? Have you ever wanted for a job?
Have you ever wanted for money? Have you ever wanted for righteousness?
Have you ever wanted for justification? Have you ever wanted For forgiveness,
have you ever wanted anything that the Lord has provided? And
not only did He supply our wants, but He went over and above. I
couldn't dream. My dreams are not big enough
for how God gave me what I wanted. So much more than I ever dreamed
in my whole life. And oh Lord, direct our steps,
that's what we do. He directs our steps, He pleads
our cause, and He even controls our enemies. And He has promised,
He's promised. He said, I'll never, no never,
no never, no never, no never leave you nor forsake you. So
we shall be boldly saved, the Lord is my helper. And I ain't
gonna fear what man's gonna do unto me. And gospel simplicity
depends upon Him. And I tell you, those who don't
have this simplicity of dependence, just simply believe in God, simply
trust in God. Those who don't have this, they
dishonor their professions. They may shipwreck of the faith.
Their heart's not simple. It's not singular. They lean
to their own understanding. Worms of the earth, people of
the world, worms of the earth influence them. They're afraid
that God's not able to protect or provide for them, so they
go out in the world to get some security. Go out in the world
to get some security. And that's why Paul, man, said,
you know, our simplicity, our simplicity and godly sincerity
was not with fleshly wisdom. And I tell you, I do know this. Men and women who are half in
the world, half out of the world, they can't rejoice in the testimony
of a simplistic conscience. Their lives must be miserable.
Must be miserable. And I tell you why. You can't
reconcile the world in God. Can't do it. A lot of people
have just enough religion to make them miserable when they're
in the world. And enough world in them to make them miserable
in their religion. They're not simple. And they
cannot certainly be sincere. And oh God make us with a godly
sincerity and a simplicity of our intentions our aim and our
goal to give ourselves to Christ completely and the simplicity
of dependence on Him. Just believe Him and His promises
and His power. He's never failed us yet. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, we thank you for this blessed time together
here tonight. Lord, use what few words I said
as it pleases you, and use it to speak to us. Use it to honor
yourself. And oh, our Father, we always
catch ourselves, most of us do, wondering what somebody thinks
of us or feels about us. But Lord, it's what you know
about us that cares, that matters. It's what you know. It's what
you know. And you know us. So Lord, help
us to center our hearts, our affections, our minds, our aims,
our goals, and our dependence upon you, you solely, you entirely,
you completely. Oh, Lord, if our hearts would
stay on you, all the peace, the joy, the rest. Thank you, Lord
Jesus, for your great, great mercies, for your great work
that you've done in us. And Lord, as these dear saints
go home tonight, go to their jobs tomorrow, or do whatever
they're going to do, Lord, protect them, preserve them. Bless them
in their going out and their coming in. Bless them in their
getting up and their getting down. Bless them in their homes.
Bless them in their hearts. And meet the needs, O Lord, that
only you can do. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.