Good morning. As that last hymn
was ending, there was this little thought in my mind, like, am
I ready to get up there? And then he said, we've got a
special. And I thought, OK, I need that. Thank you. I bring a lot of good tidings
and love. I got multiple texts this morning
from people saying, you tell those people up there we care
about and we love them. And we think of them often. And that's
true for me as well. If you would open your Bibles
to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. Psalm 145. A few years ago, I went with my wife to a funeral. The funeral was for a young man
who had taken his own life. He was a very nice boy. And the occasion, to say the
least, was extremely sad. During the service, the man who
was doing the funeral, who I'd never met before, made two comments
that in the years since, I still have never been able to really
get them out of my head. And when that comes up or anything
like it, it still just is so vivid in my mind. Two comments,
and the first comment he made was, God didn't do this. When I heard that, it caught
me off guard when he said it. And I wasn't even sure what he
meant by it. And then a few moments later,
he said, God didn't want this to happen. I'm very sheltered when it comes
to false religion. I grew up under the Gospel and
I'm blessed in that way. And even through my more rebellious
years, sat under a false preacher or
sat under another gospel. I just didn't hear those things.
And I never went to another church and didn't hear that many things,
religious things. Now, I've heard many descriptions
of false prophets, of false preachings. But to hear someone in person
say with conviction that God didn't want something to happen,
It just completely floored me. It flabbergasted me. That's not
a word I ever use, but it fits appropriately there. I just didn't
even know what to think. I didn't even know where to begin
when trying to figure out the confusion, the frustration, and
even the anger that I felt from hearing it. The next few days
after, thinking more upon it, I came to the conclusion and
realized what kept bothering me the most. There were only
two reasons that I could think of that would merit such a comment. Why would someone say that? The
first is there is someone or something that wanted it to happen
and God couldn't stop it. Now, if that's the case, then
that takes away any hope that I've caught. My only hope is
that God chose a people before the foundation of the earth.
that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived perfectly,
doing what I couldn't do, and died on a cross bearing the sins
of His people, me included, then He arose victorious and ascended
on high and is seated on the throne. My hope is completely
in a holy, all-powerful, omniscient God. Not just a God that can't
be beaten or can't be manipulated, but my hope is in an Almighty
God that can't even be challenged or rivaled. It says in the Scriptures,
if God be forced, who can be against us? In Daniel 4 it says
this, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. and He doeth according to His
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest
Thou? And I'm not going to spend any
more time on that of the two things, the reason that could
be said. Because I know you agree. I know that that's your hope.
I know that the only hope any person could ever have is that
our God is on the throne. That it says here, And all the
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. We are nothing. And the Lord doeth according
to His will in the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay His hand." No one can say anything to repute
Him. Nothing. So second reason. The second reason that I thought
someone might say, God didn't want something to happen. And
that one is where I'll spend more of my time. This man was
saying, if I were God, I wouldn't have done it this way. Or I wouldn't
have done it like this. And let me start by saying, I
don't understand the reasoning behind many of the things that
have happened in my life. Daily, I just am confounded by
what's happening. I don't understand it. I'm not
smart enough. I'm not wise enough. And I just
can't see things clear enough to have any idea why things are
happening the way they're happening. And to be honest, the times where
I think I do understand why something's happening, it's not too long
after that I realize I was wrong about why they were happening.
Especially the trials and tribulations that we face. And I most definitely
can't explain why those certain things happen. There is absolutely
nothing wrong with being heartbroken over a loss. At that funeral
I was at, there's nothing wrong with being heartbroken over that.
It is normal to be upset when something doesn't go our way.
It should bother us when a friend is struggling, when someone's
going through a trial. But I caution all of us, don't
fall into the trap of questioning God's providence with those things.
Look here in Psalm 145 at verse 17 and 18. It says, is righteous in all His ways,
and holy in all His works. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth." In these
two verses, we get a wonderful description of our Lord. And
most of my message is going to be spent on these three attributes
or characteristics of our Lord. Look here at these two verses.
It says, one, the Lord is righteous in all His ways. It secondly
says, He is holy in all His works. And thirdly, it says, the Lord
is nigh or near unto all them that call upon Him, to all that
call upon Him in truth. So let's take a second and use
the Scriptures to make sure everybody here knows exactly who that we're
describing. Turn with me to Job. Job chapter
12. Job chapter 12. In our text where it says, the
Lord, these three are characteristics of our Lord. In Job chapter 12,
verse 9, it says this. Who knoweth not in all these
that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? The Lord is the
cause of this. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind? Does not the ear try words and
the mouth taste his meat? With the ancient of wisdom and
in length of days, understanding, With Him is wisdom and strength.
He hath counsel and understanding. Behold, He breaketh down, and
it cannot be built again. He shutteth up a man, and there
can be no opening. Behold, He withholdeth the waters,
and they dry up. Also, He sendeth them out, and
they overturn the earth. With Him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver
are His." Look in verse 22 here. He discovereth deep things out
of darkness and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
He increaseth the nations and destroyeth them. He enlargeth
the nations and straighteneth them again. This tells us here,
the Lord knoweth all things and is in control of all things.
Not just individually, but as nations. It says, He strengthens
the nations and He destroyeth the nations. He's in control.
In Isaiah, it says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a
son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder. Everything is upon His shoulder.
In Psalm 24, it says, Who is the King of glory? the Lord of
hosts, He is the King of glory. And let me read something to
you in Revelation. And the four beasts had each of them six wings
about him, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest
not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,
which was and is and is to come. And when those beasts give glory
and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth
forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before
him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever
and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." The Lord we
speak of is the Creator of all things. He is the King of glory. He is the King of kings and Lord
of lords. So the first thing that's said
there in our text, the first description, it says, the Lord
Jesus Christ is righteous in all His ways. Our God is a righteous
and just God. And if we truly believe He is
righteous, then that means everything He has done, everything He is
doing, and everything He will do is right and just. By defining Him as holy, by defining
Him as just, that means He can only do right and just. We can't understand that because
that's not who we are. We're sinners. So in the same
way that Him being holy, everything He does is holy, us being sinners,
everything we do is sin. Whatever you are by nature, that's
what you do. That's who we are. Everything
that happens in the world, whether it benefits us, whether it doesn't
affect us, whether we know about it or not, or if it's the worst
possible thing seemingly for me or you, everything is for
God's glory. Everything is. And I know that At a lot of times,
a lot of our mindset is not about that. When something happens,
we react to how it affects us. But when you realize that everything
is for His glory and that's what He deserves and that's what He'll
get. We should be content and happy
in everything. But our Lord is so great that
it doesn't stop there. It should be enough for us that
everything that happens to us is for His glory. That should
be enough. But our God is so wonderful and so loving On top
of that, we're reminded numerous times in Scripture that all things
work to the good of His people. All things work together for
the good of His people. So what could we ever find fault
with? Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. If we truly broke everything
down and we could think in every single thing that happens through
that light, we think to ourselves that this event is for God's
glory and our good, how could we ever find fault in anything?
I know we will. I'm saying this right now and
I'm going to get in the car to go home and something's going
to happen and I'm going to question it. But with what we know and
what we see in the Scriptures, we have no reason to do that.
Look here in Romans 8, verse 28. A very familiar passage of
Scripture. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow, He also
did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren, Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified." Think about that. He did all of it in all
of those things for us. He called us. He justified us. He glorified. That's amazing
to think about. Verse 31 says, What shall we
then say to these things? What should we possibly respond?
If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. As a parent with small children,
I would be willing to bet that my son thinks that almost every
single thing I say to him is a hindrance to him. that everything
I tell him is something that is not what he wants or is hindering
him. When I say, don't do this, it's
you don't want me to have fun. When I say, do this, it's like,
why won't you let me do what I want to do? Everything is always
that way. But what I'm telling him, I generally
want it for his good. I'm a horrible person and a horrible
parent, okay? I'm willing to admit that. And
what I do is for the best of my ability for him. We have a
holy and just God who treats us and loves us like His child. We are His children. So think
about everything that He does for us in that mindset. When
I yell at one of my kids, stop! Don't! And they look at me and
are mad at me. I'm telling them because I don't
want them to run out in the middle of the road. I don't want them to get hit
by a car. They don't like that I yelled at them. But our Lord
has to chasten us. He has to correct us. Because
if He didn't, we would just be running off in left field as
far as we could. All the things work together
for good to them who are called. We remember the worst things
that happened to us. If you were a child of God, if
you were elected before the foundation of the earth to be conformed
to the image of His Son, then all those things were for our
good. Everything was. Now when someone
here is in a trial, please don't go up to them when they're struggling,
they're sick or something and say, listen, this is for your
good. We must have compassion on one
another. We don't want someone to tell
us that. We must offer our support, our time, our shoulder, or whatever
they need. But, before, during, and after
that, pray for them. Pray to our God for them. And
if you're going to do just one thing, just go to the Lord and
ask Him to help them. We'll get further into our text
here in a minute, and we'll see more about that. But just pray
for each other. So why would someone think that
the Lord's way wasn't the right way? Why would someone think
that? Or why would they disagree with the ways of the Lord? Well,
there's a simple answer to this. Let me give an illustration.
If one of you invited me to come to your house for lunch after
the service, and I had never been there, and I said, well,
how do I get there? Well you said, well let me write
down the directions, it's kind of difficult. So you wrote step
by step. Pull out of the church, turn right on 150, do this, go
left, turn on this, give me all the directions right on there.
And I got in my car and the first thing I did was pull out my phone
and type in the directions to figure out where I wanted to
go. Why would I do that? I would do that because I think
that my phone or myself knows better than you do. I think my
way is better than your way. Many people have come to the
decision that they want to take their own path, their own way. They have decided that their
way is good enough to get them to glory. But we know the only
way to be righteous is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
As the children in Egypt realized, the only people that were safe
were those that were under the blood. Nothing else mattered
except being under the blood. The second verse there in our
text, or the second characteristic, says, The Lord is righteous in
all His ways and holy in all His works. The Lord Jesus Christ
is holy in all His works. The word holy here is also used
sometimes as merciful or bountiful. The Lord is merciful in everything
He does for His children. And we definitely need His mercy.
Psalm 41 says, Lord, be merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I
have sinned against Thee. The only hope for a sinner is
the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. What good news it is that the
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. The
Lord is bountiful in all His works. Everything the Lord does
is in abundance or overflowing fullness. In this chapter, it
talks about the Lord being gracious, it says He's full of compassion,
it says He is good, it says He is great, and many other things.
And in all of those things, our Lord is overflowing fullness
to us. He does all of those things for
us. Our Lord is an inexhaustible supply that the Lord delights
in giving to His children. Now that's something I struggle
with, and I'm going to say it again. He has an inexhaustible
supply, an infinite amount, that the Lord delights in giving to
His children. Psalm 18, 19 says, He delivered
me because He delighted in me. I have a very difficult time
imagining that the Lord Jesus Christ would delight in me in
any way, shape, or form. I oftentimes have trouble putting
myself in a relationship with the Lord. Him looking at me,
anything other than kind of in the way that I would look at
a beggar on the side of the road. That giving them something is
me pitying them. I feel like I'm so unworthy of
anything from our Lord that it almost has to be out of pity.
Seeing me, that's just what we would see. But what it is, is
He calls us our children. And when I give something to
my children or they ask me for something, I delight to give
them what I can. Now, I don't know what I'm supposed
to give them. I give them the wrong thing plenty of times.
I don't have the right things. But our God delights in giving
us exactly what we need every time. Every single time we ask
of Him, every single time He gives us something, it genuinely
is the loving thing to give us. You know that line that as kids,
if you ever heard it, it was probably my least favorite line
that I heard growing up. You know, it hurts me more than
it hurts you to give you a spanking kind of thing. As a kid, that's
just like the most ludicrous thing you could ever say. I just
thought, how in the world does it hurt you more than me? I'm
the one who can't sit down right now. But that's what our Lord
does to us. He loves us and He loves us. We don't understand the word
love. We have this little glimpse of what it is. The Lord thankfully
gives us relationships sometimes that we can see a little bit
of love. He allows us to act in a way that is something close
to what we think love is. But our Lord's love is perfect
in the way that it literally is. Everything for us is the
best thing we could possibly ask for. What is the greatest
work of our Lord for us? It's the labor of salvation through
His life, His death, and His resurrection. Everything the
Lord has done and is doing can be summed up in the words He
said as a 12-year-old to his mother, I must be about my father's
business. He had to come save his children. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
1. Galatians 1. And verse 3, Grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, and
listen to this, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our Father. The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself
for our sins." Can you do more for someone in giving yourself
for them? And because He did that, verse
5, "...to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." The Lord is
holy in all His works, yet why do so many people try to present
their works as a way to salvation? Most churches present a God that
requires you to do your part if you want to get to heaven.
What could I possibly offer a holy God? There are many great misconceptions
and misunderstandings in religion today that can be proven false
by simply understanding the relationship between God and man. There is
a great divide between the two. And I'll use my hands here because
I don't have another way to do this. But a divide that is so
great between God and man. It is so great that it couldn't
be exaggerated. You couldn't say something and
someone think, no, it's closer than that. You can't exaggerate.
The perfection and holiness of God and the sinfulness and filth
of man. I can't be lower and He can't
be higher. If we were to compare the two
as a distance, it would be greater than infinity. And I'm sure a
math professor would say that's not possible. But if you understood
who you are and you get a glimpse of who God is, you would realize
that the gulf between man and God is so great. False religion
spends most of its time doing two things. The first thing they
try to do is they try to make themselves closer to God. through their works. They try
to do things or say things that makes man better than they are.
And secondly, they say things to try to lower God to man. False
religion thinks that if I can just get the gap narrowed, maybe
I can get across it. When we see a gap and you've
got to get across, the shorter the gap, the more confidence
you have you can get across it. So that's what man does in his
relationship with God. But neither of those things can
be done. Man is awful. In the Scriptures it says, "...and
all the thoughts of all men were only evil continually." Could
you ever get worse that you say, all of my thoughts over every
person is only evil all the time? There's no room for error there.
It's just always bad. Look here a couple pages over
to Ephesians chapter 2. Another familiar passage. to
explain who we are and who He is, this is perfect. Ephesians
2 verse 1, And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sin, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversations in times past in
the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath. But God,
who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, He hath quickened us together
with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. This passage consistently wants
to throw that little thing in over and over again. It's not
you. It's not you. You didn't do anything. He did
it all. In the parentheses, by grace you are saved. It's like
someone's telling you how you were saved, what the Lord did
for you, and they keep having to say, don't forget, you didn't
do anything. He did it all. It says, by grace you are saved
through faith. Not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God. That's the plainest you could say it. But then verse
9 has to again say, It's not of works, because you're going
to start bragging about it. It just keeps saying, it's not
us, it's all Him. We did not have anything to do
with our salvation. If you think your works are necessary
for salvation, then you just won't be saved. At that funeral that I went to
a few years ago, for that young man, there were a lot of people
trying to make sense of what had happened. I have never gone
through such a trial, and I can't begin to explain why it happened. I don't understand it. I didn't
have the words to say when speaking to his parents then, and I don't
have any more wisdom now about it. But if I were to endure such
a tragedy, I want to know and believe verse 18 from our text. Go back to Psalm 145. It says, "...the Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon His name, to all that call upon
Him in truth. I find so much comfort in knowing
that the Lord is near them that call upon or cry to Him in truth." He says, "...as one whom his
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." Is there a better place
to go to for comfort than your mother. He says, as a mother
comforteth, I will comfort you. One preacher described calling
upon the Lord in truth as this, a true call to the Lord is a
prayer that comes from a recognized need and is directed to one who
is able and willing to respond. Many people don't pray and it
can be for all of those reasons. I don't pray sometimes because
I am not conscious in that moment of my need. Sometimes people
don't pray because they don't know of anyone able or willing
to help them. We desperately don't want trials,
but a wise old preacher said, when things are going really
well, we pray from our lips. When things are not going well
and we're going through a trial, we pray from our heart. We give
lip service until we realize how much we need Him. Now this
third thing, the Lord is near unto them that call upon Him,
I want to use a description of four people that approach the
Lord Jesus Christ in scriptures to give the four characteristics
of how we should call upon our Lord. And we'll do this in closing.
Turn over to Matthew 15. Matthew chapter 15. So if we understand and we believe,
and it says, "...the Lord is near unto them that call upon
Him." And it says, "...that call upon Him in truth." Now that's
a big qualifier there. It says, "...to all them that
call upon Him." But it feels the need to say, "...to all that
call upon Him in truth." What does that mean? I don't want
to just call on Him if it's not in truth. So these four people
give us four things that we need to realize when we call upon
the Lord. The first here is in Matthew 15 verse 22. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast, and cried unto him the Lord, saying,
Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is
grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshipped him, saying, Help me." But he answered
and said, it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. And she saith, Truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy
faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. We must learn as this Canaanite
woman, we have to know where we're coming from. When we call
upon our Lord, we have to know our place in this. This woman
would have accepted anything our Lord said to her. He said
to her, he said right here, it's not me to take the children's
bread and to cast it to dogs. To be called a dog? And her thought
is, you can call me anything you want and it's true. There's
nothing you could say about me that would even be nearly as
bad as I am. Just please help me. We must
realize when we call upon our Lord, we call on Him from a place
of humility. We must know that when we call
upon the Lord... So many people these days...
I was at an event not that long ago and someone prayed. And I
couldn't believe at the end of it. I was thinking, this person
thinks that they're speaking on the same level as the person
they're praying to. Do they not realize that we are
totally dependent upon Him? Our prayers to Him are not lip
service. When we pray out loud, public prayer, or pray to yourself,
it is not so that everybody else knows that we're doing the right
thing, or we're going through a motion, or we're going through
a ceremony. We pray to Him because we need
Him. We have to know where we are.
Secondly, Matthew chapter 8, a couple pages back, I could read these to you, but
they make it so much better to read them, to follow along here
to see these stories. And we know them all. Matthew
8, verse 5. The second thing, the first,
know where you're coming from. The second one here is, know
who you're coming to. Know who it is you're praying
to. Mark 8, verse 5, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum,
there came unto Him a centurion beseeching Him, and saying, Lord,
my servant life at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion
answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest
come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant
shall be healed. For I am a man under authority,
having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, Go, and
he goeth. And to another, Come, and he cometh. And to my servant,
Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled
and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto
you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and
as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant
was healed in the selfsame hour." This man came to our Lord asking
for help. And he came to Him knowing that
he could do it. I don't know why we have such
a difficult time believing in things to ask our Lord for them.
In the Scriptures, in the Word of God, I'm not sure there's
anything we could ask for that would be greater than the things
we have seen in this book. Any event. We see so many people
saved at the same time. We see healings and people brought
back. Everything that we could ask for the Lord has shown us
He can do. Yet, we find it so difficult sometimes, or we actually
think of it, we don't ask it of Him because we think it's
unrealistic. This centurion thought to himself,
I'm going to go to the Lord and ask Him to heal my servant because
He can do it. When we pray to our God, we must
believe that He can do it. If you know who He is, you know
He can do it. So we must know where we're coming
from. We must know who we're going
to. And in Mark chapter 10, we must see that we have no other
option. Mark 10 here, turn to Mark 10
with me. Just one of my favorite people
in the Scriptures. Mark 10 verse 46. And they came to Jericho, and
as He went out of Jericho with His disciples, and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highwayside begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Thou
Son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. This man is such a great
example of understanding that there is just no one else to
pray to. The Lord is the only person who
can answer any of our prayers. There is nowhere else we can
go. Blind Bartimaeus hollered out, have mercy on me. Everybody
said, shut up! He didn't even respond. He just
kept saying it. I don't even have time to tell
someone else to stop yelling at me. I'm going to keep saying,
have mercy on me, have mercy on me. Look at verse 49, And
Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. They called
the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he
calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said
unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. This man knew
he had no other option. And I'll get ahead of myself
and say this, all these stories, and you can go through any of
them, any person in the Scripture that cries unto our Lord, in
truth, the same thing happens. Look at verse 52, And Jesus said
unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight. Now, it is amazing that the Lord
cured him from blindness. But what is so wonderful is what
the Lord did after that. What did blind Bartimaeus kept
saying? Have mercy on me, have mercy on me. And what did the
Lord do? And blind Bartimaeus followed Jesus in the way. It
wasn't enough to physically heal him. He saved him. He gave him
a love for the Lord and he followed him. And finally, in Luke chapter
8, Our last one, we must know where
we're coming from. We must know who we're coming
to. We must know that we have no other option. And if we can
somehow get through those three, the fourth one is always so difficult. Luke 8, verse 43, And a woman having an issue of
blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians,
neither could be healed of any. came behind him and touched the
border of his garment, and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they
that were with him said, Master, the multitude thronged thee,
and pressed thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?" I love
that this woman has shown all of these things. Know where you're
coming from. This woman was crawling just any way she could to get
to Him. She knew who she was coming to. She just thought to
herself, if I could just touch Him, if I could just get near
Him, that's all I need. She knew that she had no other
option. She went to every physician, every person she could find,
and no one could do anything. And in verse 46, Jesus said,
"'Somebody hath touched Me, for I perceive that virtue is gone
out of Me.' And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she
came trembling and falling down before Him. She declared unto
Him before all the people for what cause she had touched Him
and how she was healed immediately. And He said unto her, "'Daughter,
be of good comfort.'" He called her daughter. He called her His
child. Daughter, be of good comfort.
Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace." If we come to the
Lord in truth, if we come to Him and pray to Him, cry to Him,
He always gives us the exact same result. He always treats
us as His loving child. Call her daughter. He gives us
exactly what we need in that moment. And in our text, it says
here in verse 17 and 18, the Lord is righteous in all His
ways, holy in all His works, and the Lord is nigh unto all
them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.
And verse 19 says, He will fulfill the desire of them that fear
Him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. It tells us to cry to Him. Not
just so He gets the glory, though He will get all the glory. But
He says if you cry unto Him, verse 19, He will fulfill the
desires of them that fear Him. He will hear us and He will save
us. Could we ever ask for more? If
we call upon Him in truth, He will hear us and He will do the
same as He did for these four people we just looked at. He
will heal us and He will give us exactly what we need. We need
Him to be our Savior. Go to the Lord, cry to Him, and
He will save us.