Our Lord Jesus says here, Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly at heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. Now, over in Hebrews, chapter four, Let us therefore fear lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we
which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day, on this wise
or in this way. And God did rest the seventh
day from all his works. And in this place again, if they
shall enter into my rest, seeing Therefore, since God said there
is a rest, and there's going to be a people entering into
it, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached did not enter not in
because of unbelief, but entered into rest. Again, he limits it
to a certain day in David's, in the psalm, saying, Today,
after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if you will hear
his voice, Harden not your heart, for if Jesus," now, Jesus here
is Joshua, the one that took them into the promised land.
"'For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward
have spoken of another day? There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest hath also ceased from his own works, as God did from His.' The title of my message this
evening is Arrest from Six Fears. Arrest from Six Fears. Our Lord
Jesus says, Come unto Me. Come unto Me. Now, He didn't
say just anybody come unto Him. You have to be qualified to come
unto Him. You have to meet a certain qualification.
And that qualification was being burdened and heavy laden. Burdened over what? If you're
coming to Christ, you're burdened over your sin. You're burdened
over your guilt. You're burdened over your condemnation.
You're burdened over the fact that you're not saved. And you're
heavy laden because you have tried to save yourself. You've
done all the things that you try to do to make yourself accepted
by God, and you're burdened and you're laden. It just got worse
and worse. But He says, you come unto Me.
You that are heavy laden, you that are burdened, and I will.
I will. I will. I'll do this for you.
I'll do this for you. I'll take that burden off of
you. I'll take that heavy weight off of you. I'll take that guilt.
I'll take that sin. I'll take that worse that you're
trying to do to save yourself. I'll take all of that off of
you. And I'll give you rest. You'll never have to pick it
up again. And then he says, and if you come, and I give you this
rest, and as you learn of me, you know what you'll find? You'll
find out that you do have a rest. That you really do have a rest. When he gives us rest, and only
those who come to him does he give this rest, then we find
that we actually enter into a rest. Now, men are looking for rest
in this world. So many people are looking for
rest, looking for comfort, looking for ease in this life. But Christ
talked about not ease in this life. Not ease that things are
going to be better in this life. But he talked about rest for
the soul. Rest for the guilty. Rest for
a man's guilty conscience. Rest for what's burdened on his
heart. And our most important goal And our goal is in our preaching
is that men and women would find an eternal rest. Find this rest
that only Christ can give you. And there's four things, four
things that I know that time hasn't changed a bit. And which
is this, that we only have one life to live. Every one of us
here tonight only have one life to live. Just one. We know it. Once the day's gone, we can't
go back and get it back. Once some time's out of the mouth,
we can't take it back. When a deed's been done, it can't
be undone. We have one life to live, and
we all have one death to die, and we're going to do it. We're
all going to do it. How many times have we said goodbye?
We're all going to leave this world. And then the fourth thing,
the third thing, the time hasn't changed a bit, is that we all
have to go to judgment to face. We have a judgment to face. You're
either going to face it, In ourselves, are we going to face it in the
Lord Jesus Christ? And Christ has already faced
it, of course. And then after this, only life to live, a death
to die, and a judgment to face, then we have an eternity to spend.
An eternity to spend. And that's why our Lord is so
important, is so necessary, that we understand what it is to have
this rest. And you remember there in Hebrews
4 and verse 10, it says there that, for he that is entered
into his rest, come unto me and I'll give you rest. He that's
entered into his rest, into the rest of Christ, into the rest
that God gives. You want to guess what he's done
when he's entered into that rest? It says there in verse 10, he
has also ceased from his own works, just like God did from
his. God quit working. The work is
done. Finished from the foundation
of the world. Nothing else to be done. And he that's entered
into this rest that Christ gives, that God promised from eternity,
he stopped from his works just like God did from his. Huh? And
a rest from six fears. And I'll tell you, beloved, we've
ceased. And there's more than one fear.
If I'm just going to deal with two fears tonight, it's scriptural
fears. There's a good fear. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That is the beginning
of it. And you know, we serve God reverently
with godly fear. And then there's an evil fear.
There's a fear of, a slavish fear, an evil fear where you're
trying to please God, you're trying to save yourself, and
that fear always brings torment. You know, James John said it
this way, he said, perfect love casts out fear, for fear hath
torment. And you know, when God, when
we come to God, fear, and you've experienced this, fear hath torment,
and this perfect love casts out fear. Now who's perfect love?
My love for Christ is not perfect. Is yours? So why don't my fear
have torment? Perfect love casts out torment.
Fear hath tormented, perfect love cast out this fear. And
when you understand that the love that God has for His blessed
people in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we understand
what He's accomplished in and His love is perfect, then you
do enter into rest and fear no longer has tormented. We're not
afraid of so many things that we were afraid of before. Now
I want to give you six fears as believers we're resting from.
Six fears. Six. Six fears we're resting
from. And the first is this. We're
resting from fear of condemnation. I do not fear, and I don't believe
you fear, if you know the gospel, if you've come to Christ, that
you fear the condemnation of God Himself today, tomorrow,
and particularly at judgment. You know, look over in Romans
chapter 8. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ says this, He that
heareth my voice, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life. and shall not come, shall not
come into condemnation." Why? Because he's passed from death
unto life. And how did he pass from death
unto life? Because he heard the voice of
Christ and he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God,
the wrath of God abideth on him. And I have the, God's wrath is
removed from me. No condemnation. Look what it
says here in Romans 8 verse 1, there is therefore, and I've
said this so many times and it just wins two battles, therefore,
now, now, now, no condemnation to who? Only them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit, the life of Christ in us, has made
me free from the law of sin and death, and the only thing that
can condemn me is the law. The only thing that can bring
death to my soul is sin. And Christ has freed me from
the law of sin and death, for what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh. There's nothing wrong
with the law, the problem's with us. God's sin in His own Son,
and in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, what's this
now? Condemned sin. Where at? In the
flesh. Whose flesh? His flesh. Huh? Oh, beloved. And let me show
you another in John 3.16. Let me show you this in John
3.16. Rest from the condemning power of the law. Oh, my. Christ was made a curse for us
to redeem us from the curse of the law. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, you know how the law, you can never have no rest when
you're trying to be saved by law, when you're trying to be
saved by words, when you're trying to be saved by something that
you say, think, or do. You'll always feel condemned.
Always feel condemned. And this is what our Master said
here in John 3.16. For God so loved the world, and
this is Christ speaking, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Now listen to it. For God sent
not His Son into the world to condemn the world. Why not? The
world was already under condemnation. But that the world through Him
might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned, not under judgment. God's not going to look at him
and say, I'm going to damn that man. I've got everything against
that man. No, that man that believes on Christ, he says he's not condemned. And because he hath believed,
but he that believeth not is condemned already. I don't have
to condemn anybody because God's already, that they're already
under condemnation. And oh, listen to it now. Because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation. This is why men are into condemnation. That light has come into the
world. Christ came. And men loved their darkness
rather than the light. Because their deeds were evil. That's why. And thank God, bless
His holy name, we're free from condemnation. As you see the
law, talking about rest from condemning power of the law.
The law was our schoolmaster. That's what Paul said. The law
was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And after we've
been taught the law, the prophets, the ceremonies, the rituals,
the shadows, the pictures, the prophecies, all of those things
taught us of Christ. When you look at the tabernacle,
you look at Abel, you look at all the lambs, you look at the
Passover, you look at the ark, you look at everything that was
done. Moses, that prophet. David, the king. Melchizedek,
the priest, all these things, the law was our school. I'm talking
about all the Word of God, not just the Ten Commandments. But
the Word of God was our schoolmaster. When we look back there, it brought
us to one place, to Christ. And after we've come to Christ,
the Scripture says we're no longer under schoolmaster. No longer under it. And I tell
you, beloved, we're arrested for condemnation, and let me
say this. Rest from condemning others.
Rest from condemning others. You know, I know that preaching sometimes
gets, you know, a fellow has to do some some preaching and
it's the scriptures that does the rebuking. I hope it's the
scriptures. I hope it's never just me. I hope I preach the
truth in life. But I honestly believe that I
don't have to be condemning others. The word will do its work. The
Spirit will do its work. But I also know this, that there's
no sense in me passing judgment on anybody, because I believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is glorious enough, able enough,
bigoted enough to take care of His own. Me trying to straight
you out ain't going to do you any good if the gospel don't
do it. So you see, I don't have to get up here and say, you do
this, you do that. No, no. He has the power to condemn
you when you're wrong. He has the power to lift you
up and to comfort you and do everything that needs to be done
for you. And when we learn that about one another, we quit sitting
around saying, well, you see what's going through there. Somebody's
done this or done that. Christ will take care of it.
If you're one of His sheep, Mark it down. If you get out of the
fold, he's got, you know, he's the shepherd. And you know, he's
got a long crook. And he can reach a long way with
that thing, get you around the neck, get you around the leg,
get you wherever, get you under the arm of someone. He's going
to bring you where you need to be. And he knows that his rod
and his staff, they comfort you. And I tell you, beloved, he'll
take his rod to you. And I mean, when he takes a rod
to you, you know you have a rod to it too. And that's why you
know the kingdom of God is not in what we eat, is not in what
we drink, but it's in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's what it is. That's what
it is. And you know, I could say something here about
somebody that It's not even a believer, you know. They didn't come to
church because they'd done something, and they felt like they was being
a hypocrite. You know, if you're not a believer, what you do is
not your problem. It's what you are. It's your
problem. Men need to understand it's what they are. It's not
what they do, it's what they are. And for a person to quit because
they say, well, I'm doing this and I'm doing another thing.
Listen, let me tell you something. If we all had to quit because
we'd done something, I'd have to quit for being an idiot this
morning, for saying what I said this morning. So you see, we
rest from this passing judgment on one another. And I'm sorry. I used to do that all. I used
to be the worst in the world for that. And let me tell you
the next thing we rest from. We rest not only from condemnation,
from the fear of condemnation, but the rest from being lost
eternally. There's no way. And I talk about that, you know,
in day pray. I said, Lord, if I'm not saved,
I want to be saved now. If I don't know you, I want to
know you now. Teach me thy way, O Lord, teach me thy way. I need
thee, O Lord, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Precious
Lord, I need thee. And beloved multitudes think
ye can be saved and lost again. So when we read Hebrews 4 and
verse 10, it says we ceased from our own work. as God did His. You see, God's work is done.
God finished His work from the foundation of the world. Now,
beloved, I don't want to be lost. I do not want to be deceived.
I know that this heart deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. I know that we can talk ourselves and make ourselves
believe things about ourselves that's not true. I know we can
do that. But, beloved, I do know this,
that we that are believers, we look outside ourselves. We look outside ourselves. Do
you look to yourself for anything to offer God? No, we can't. Now, if you was looking for something
to offer God and trying to be saved by yourself, yes, you'd
be lost. You will never, ever have to
worry about being saved and lost again. You've not been saved
at all. We cease from our worst. Look in Ecclesiastes 3, right
after Song of Solomons, right after Isaiah, and then Ecclesiastes
3, verse 14. And there are people that absolutely,
they live in fear of being lost and lost eternally. You know, he says, he that believeth
not God maketh him alive. You know, God says, this is life,
that they might know me, the only begotten Son. This is life. And he says, he that believeth
not the record that God gave of his Son hath made him alive.
I don't want to make God alive. I believe what God said. God
told me to come to His Son and trust His Son, believe His Son,
And absolutely, He's everything. He's the Savior, He's the Redeemer,
He's the Righteous, He's our justification. Absolutely nothing to offer ourselves. Look here in Ecclesiastes 3.14. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it. And God knew it. Now watch this,
that men should fear before Him. Oh, everything is already done. Oh, there's three internals in
Hebrews chapter 9. And we're talking about God,
what He hath done, nothing to be taken from it, nothing added
to it, and it shall be forever. And He does this that we may
stand in awe and reverence and magic and just stand before Him
and our hearts prostrate before Him. You see, there's three eternals
in Hebrews chapter 9. There's our Lord entered into
the holy place, and you know what He did? He obtained eternal
redemption for us. And he entered into that holy
place through the eternal spirit with his own blood. And when
he came out, he brought with him eternal inheritance, and
he gave that to us. So everything we have is eternal. And that's why I say, beloved,
believers are eternally saved. We believe because, you know
why we believe? Because we were ordained to believe.
As many as were ordained to eternal life, they believed. It's not
our believing that gave us life. We believed because we had life.
We'd never believed if God had to give us life. We'd never trust
Christ if God had to give us life. That's why our Lord Jesus
Christ says, you believe not because you are not of my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And
listen to it, I give unto them. How much life does He give? And
it's the quality of it. It's the quality of it. Were you burdened? Were you heavy
laden? When you came to Christ, you don't have that burden now,
do you? You're not heavy laden now, are you? You've found rest. I'll tell you another thing,
not only rest from being lost, rest from condemnation, but rest
from fear of sin having dominion over me. In Romans chapter 5,
let's look at that again. Romans chapter 5. Rest from the
fear of sin having dominion over me. Do you sometimes think that
sin is going to just absolutely destroy you? Do you think sometimes
that sin is going to be the death of me? You see, sin is a tyrant. And I tell you, beloved, anybody
who knows anything about it knows it's a powerful, powerful force
in a man. It's a powerful force in a man.
Man's born with it. He'll live with it. But thank
God, those who have come to Christ, they won't have to die with it.
Look what he said here in Romans 5.20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. The law entered to show us just
how great sin really is, how big sin is, how offensive sin
is, how awful sin is. But we're sin abounded. Grace
did much more about that as sin hath reigned unto death. Sin,
it did. It reigned unto death. It reigned
unto death. And Adam reigned unto death. You know it says, and Adam was
born, he lived and he died. Abel lived and he died and he
died and he died. Sin reigned unto death. But watch
this. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, sin is a horrible thing. And oh, listen, it is a powerful
thing. That's what he goes on about
here in chapter 6, and look what he says. Well, since sin abounded,
And grace abounded more. And so Christ came to give us
life. Why shall we say this? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Are we going to use grace as
an excuse for our sin? Well, I'm saved by grace. I'm
eternally saved. Christ died for me. And He knows
that I'm this way. He knows I'm going to do this
thing. He knows that I'm going to live this way. He knows that
it's about me. So you know, we're going to do
that? No. God forbid, now listen to
it, how should you that are dead to sin live any longer there? Live in sin, continue in sin? Now there's a whole heapsight
difference in committing a sin and living in sin. Would you
agree with that? There's a world of difference
in somebody living in sin and committing a sin. You reckon
we're committed to sin in this service tonight? But there ain't
nobody here living in sin, are there? You're not living in adultery. You're not living in fornication.
You're not living in drunkenness. You're not living out in the
world. You're not using foul language. You're not stealing
off anybody. You're honest in your business
dealings. But oh my, just to be proud of
that, be self-righteous, to let your mind wander away from the
gospel when you're supposed to be listening to, all these things.
And that's what he goes on to say. Look what he says here in
verse three. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Now what does
that mean? Well, let me show you. You keep
Romans 6 and look with you in Mark chapter 10. I didn't see
this until yesterday when I was looking at these notes. In Mark
chapter 10, you know, we were baptized with Christ, baptized
into His death. In Mark chapter 10, look what
our Lord Jesus said here to His disciples. You know, we're buried with Christ
by baptism into His death. It don't have anything to do
with water. Buried with Christ by baptism. Dead with Christ
by baptism. Baptized into Christ's death
itself. Well, look what it says here
in Mark chapter 10, verse 38. You know, they come and ask you,
we want to sit on your right hand or your left. And our Lord
said unto them this in verse 38. But our Lord said unto them,
you know not what you ask. Can you drink of the cup that
I drink of? Can you drink of the bitter cup?
of being rejected, despised, and hated? And can you be baptized
with the baptism that I'm to be baptized with? Will you be
able to bear being burdened and being put under judgment, being
rejected of men, put into the fire? Are you able to be baptized
with the sufferings and sorrow and grief and heartache and rejection
that I am?" And they said unto him, And Jesus said unto them,
You shall indeed drink of the cup that I drank of. How did
we do it? Through Him. When He took that cup of God's
wrath and drank it dry, He drank it dry for us and we drank it
dry in Him. Now listen to it now. And be
baptized with the baptism with which you shall be baptized.
Now, beloved, how in the world were they baptized into his death? How were they baptized into his
suffering? How were they baptized into his
sweat being made great drops of blood? Just the same way we
are. By what Christ did, by being
identified with Christ, by being joined to Christ. Those fellas
were not actually baptized into the same sufferings that Christ
did. Didn't suffer the same death
that Christ did, only as they were in Christ was that happened.
Just like we were. And that's why we know that sin
can have dominion over us. Back over in Romans 6, look what
it says here in verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion over
you. Boy, it seems like it gets a
pretty good handle on me sometimes. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Why not? Because you're not under the
law. If you're under the law, sin by distraction. Sin finds
its strength in love. The next time you go somewhere
and they got up this thing of the Ten Commandments, they got
it up and you don't have a lot of places. Next time you go there,
ask somebody. Next time you set up, you say,
do y'all keep all those? Do any of y'all around here keep
those Ten Commandments? And they never entered your mind
to wonder about it. The fact that they got them up
makes them, you know, that's just enough to suit them. But
just ask them. Just ask them. Do y'all keep
those? Why do you have them up here?
Do you have them up here because you keep them? And you want everybody
else to keep them? And they'll say, well, I never
thought of it. Well, listen. If you look at that law, that
law says, boy, it's a hard task, master. Love God. I ain't no
way. Don't you come and I can't. And, oh, listen, but you're not
under the law, but you're under grace. Oh, my. What, under grace? Under grace? Not under law? What then, shall we sin because
we're not under law but under grace? God forbid. No, no, we
ain't gonna do that. Now, it doesn't say here that
we have no sin. That's not what it said. You
know what it says? It does not have dominion over
us. It says that we're dead to it. It doesn't say that we have
none. But that we're dead to it. That it does not rule over
us. And we don't use grace as an excuse to sin. We don't use
it. And then let me give you another
rest that we have. We rest from ceremonies and rituals
in what people call the old-fashioned way. You know, people like ceremonies,
coming to the front. They like their rituals, giving
their testimonies, raising their hands. They like what they call
the old-fashioned way. Well, there ain't no such thing
as an old-fashioned way. It's either God's way or no way. He says,
search ye out for the old paths, and when you find them, walk
there in. What old paths is he talking about? God's way. And
so, you see, we wrest from the traditions of men, the traditions
that told us how we're supposed to live, how we're supposed to
act. We're, oh, thank God, from long, long prayers, trying to
be religious. You remember you tried to be
religious? Oh, you worked hard at being religious. You go to
a restaurant, you felt like you know if you didn't pray and low-hand
somebody, people think, boy, you know, they folks ain't even
got enough religion to pray. You pray, somebody see you, they
just remember the church you went to, and if they didn't see
you pray, they say, boy, they been back sleeping. Oh, always
trying to be something we weren't. Oh, such a burden. Resting from
those things now. Resting from those things. And
I tell you, preachers, I know a couple of preachers that have
nervous breakdowns putting burdens on others that they cannot bear
themselves. Putting burdens on people that
they cannot bear themselves. Now, let me give you another
one real quick. Rest from the fears and opinions of men. I
mean, look at Galatians chapter one. Now you all, are you all,
I know we care about what people think of us. Look in Galatians
chapter one. We care about what people think
of us. We watch our character, we watch our conduct. But when
it comes to the gospel, when it comes to our relationship
with Christ, when it comes to what we know about Christ and
what we believe, we're not afraid of the opinions of men.
We don't care what people think about when it comes to the gospel
that we believe, the gospel that we preach. We don't want people
to... We want our character to be God-honored. But when it comes to the gospel,
we know all men are on the same level, and we won't be ashamed
of it here. But look what it says in Galatians 1.10. He says
this, Do I now persuade men, or God? Does God need to be persuaded
to do anything? No, we're persuading men. We
persuade all men, everyone, to repent and turn to God. Or do
I seek to please men? If my ministry was to please
men and have everybody like me and think I was a fine person
and a wonderful person, He said, I would not be the servant of
Christ. I wouldn't be the servant of Christ. If I was going around
making my ministry to be, and if you went around just trying
to please men all the time and not stand up for the gospel,
stand up for the grace of God, stand up for God's sovereignty,
and electing grace, and unconditional election, and the sinfulness
of man, if you won't stand up for those things, and you're
ashamed of those things, then you're seeking to please men.
And you, beloved, that's what he's talking about. Are you afraid
of the opinions of men and what they'll think about you? And
then he said, look what happens here in chapter 2. Then 14 years
after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus
also with me. And I went up there by revelation
and I communicated unto them the gospel which I preach among
the Gentiles. But I did it privately to them
which were of repetition." That's Peter, John, and James, and all
the apostles and the elders. They got together and Paul began
to rehearse what God did with them. "...lest by any means I
should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who was with
me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." They wanted
him to be circumcised. Paul said, no, it ain't going
to happen. And this is the reason why, because of false brethren,
unaware they were brought in. who came in privately to spy
out our liberty, the freedom that we have in Christ, that
they might bring us into bondage, bring us back under the law,
bring us back under the ceremonies, bring us back under the ritual.
Watch this now. To whom we gave place by subjection,
no, not for an hour. You fellas don't... And look
what he said. He said this, he said, that the truth of the gospel
might continue with you. But of these who seem to be somewhat,
I mean, boy, they seem to be somebody among these people.
He said, whatsoever they were, it didn't mean nothing to me.
For God accepted no man's person anyway. They may have been somebody
among all this bunch, but God, they didn't impress Him at all.
And they didn't add nothing to me, to my gospel, or nothing
else. And, oh, beloved, that's what we do. We won't be ashamed
of the gospel. We won't be ashamed of Christ.
You know, it's like that blind man's mother and father. They
were afraid of being put out of the synagogue. So they said,
you go ask him. You go ask him. I'm going to
read something to you real quick and then I'll move on. Be done
just in a minute. Few minutes anyway. Not a minute. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ.
He talked about the Pharisees and the hypocrites worshiping
him in vain, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. And
he told them, he said, it's not that that goes into man's mouth
that defiles him, but that which comes out, that defiles him.
Then came his disciples and said unto him, knowest thou that the
Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? You know, that's all. They was
interested in what they eat, what they worship. Kosher. They ate kosher. But
he answered, you know, you hurt these scholars feelings. You
mean you really offended them. After they heard what you had
to say. He answered, said, every plant which my heavenly Father
hath not planted shall be rooted up. Just let them alone. They
be blind leaders of the blind. If the blind lead the blind,
they both shall fall into the ditch. So you see, beloved, we
rest from the opinions of men. And let me give you the last
one. We rest from fear of trials. We don't fear trials. Used to
fear trials. You know why we feared them?
Because we thought, boy, if something was happening to us, it was because
we had sinned and God was trying to teach us something, tell us
something. What did I do wrong? We don't fear that anymore. And
why don't we fear trials? Because they come from our Father.
He sends them. They come from the hands of our
fathers. And He sends them because we need them. We need them. We
know that all things work together. Work. Everything works together.
For the good. For good. It don't seem like
it sometimes, but for the good. To everyone that loves God to
the core, according to His purpose. Paul said, I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared,
to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
And he says, I'll light afflictions, just for a moment, just for a
moment. And some of you have had burdens, you thought, I'll
never ever get through this. But you got through it. How did
you get through it? Because God says, my strength
is made perfect in weakness, my grace is sufficient. And you
know what? And He is conforming us to the
image of His Son. And don't we all want that? And
I'll tell you, look with me at this and we'll be done. Isaiah
43. And we're never alone in these
things. We're never alone through these trials. Never alone here.
Never ever alone. And that's why we don't fear
trials. They work patience and experience. And they're necessary. They're necessary. In Isaiah
43, we're never alone through. He said He'll never leave us,
never forsake us, therefore we'll not fear what man shall say unto
us or do unto us. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by name, thou
art mine. Now watch this. When thou passest through the
waters, And through the rivers they shall not overflow thee
when thou walkest through the fire, and thou shalt not be burned,
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Did you see what
I left out there? When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. You say, oh, oh, oh, drowning,
Lord! Oh, no, you ain't. Goeth through
the fire, Shadrach, Micah, Daniel. They was in the fire. Somebody
in there like the Son of God. Daniel in the lion's den. He shut the mouth of the lion.
Wherever you're at, he said, I'm with you. I'm with you. And what a blessed exchange.
He says, come unto me, all you that are heavy laden, burdened,
heavy laden. I'll give you rest. He gets our
burdens, we get His rest. He gets our sins, we get His
righteousness. He gets our curse, we get His
blessings. He gets our death, we get His
life. He gets our shame, we get His
glory. We have rest, I think. Our Father, O gracious, gracious
God, how infinitely, how wondrously, how blessedly gracious, patient,
merciful, kind, tender, pitiful You are towards Your people. And Lord, we all know what it
is to have the pity of Christ, to have the mercy of Christ,
the grace of Christ. And Lord, we need You. I need
You. Lord, I don't want to live without
you. Sin's too powerful. Life's too short. I'm too weak. Lord, I don't want to live without
you. Now, a moment. God bless the message to our
hearts and our understanding. Strength and courage, you dear
saints. When Brad comes to preach Wednesday night, God give him
a message. Bless him. Give Him words to say. Give Him
a message from God to those that will gather out to hear Him.
And as you bless Him, bless them. And Lord, use this congregation
of believers to Your glory, to Your glory, to Your glory. And
whatever it takes to do that, we ask that You do it in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.