Open your Bibles, if you will,
to the Lamentations of Jeremiah, Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations
chapter 3. Driving down the road, coming
down here, Shelby asked, what's your favorite passage of scripture? She said, after pausing a little
bit, I think Lamentations chapter 3, verses 21 through 26. And I've been working
on this message since then. Paul said we have a good hope
through grace. A good hope. Oh, how blessed of God to have a
good hope. A good hope on which you can
rest your soul and be at peace and comfortable and confident
in the midst of the greatest of difficulties. A good hope. A good hope through grace. This man, Jeremiah, was in deep,
deep, deep trouble. His heart was heavy. Jeremiah
had been preaching to people, faithfully declaring God's word
to them. And for telling them the truth,
they threw him in a pit. The people he loved, for whom
he had devoted his life, slandered his name at every opportunity. The nation he loved was brought
to bondage, the Church of God in a captive land among an idolatrous
people. Jeremiah's heart broke within
him. He was heavy, heavy, heavy. And we come to experience some
of those things as we live in this world of sin and sorrow
and woe. You will not go through this
world without pain and heartache and sorrow. You will not go through
this world without trials, trials that break your heart, trials
that turn your world upside down, trials that you just think you
can't possibly endure. When Jeremiah went through these
things, this faithful man, believing God, understood He understood
that he hurt because God laid his rod on his back. He understood that all his pain
came from his heavenly father's heart of love and by the hand
of his infinite wisdom for his good. 24 times in this chapter, Jeremiah
says God did this. God did this. God did this. He didn't ascribe anything to
Satan. He didn't ascribe anything to hell. He didn't ascribe anything
to the king. He didn't ascribe anything to
his foes. He said 24 times, God did this. Let's begin at chapter
3, Lamentations verse 1, and just read here. I am the man
that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led
me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against
me, against me is his hand turned. He turneth his hand against me
all the day. I don't have any reprieve all
day long. I wake up weeping. I spend the day weeping, I go
to bed weeping, and I weep through the night. He turns his hand
against me all the day long. My flesh and my skin hath he
made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me and
compassed me with gall and travail." Verse 6. He hath sent me in dark
places, like a dead man, as they that be dead of old. He said,
Bruce, the Lord's put me like a man been in a tomb for a long
time. I haven't seen any light in a
long time. No light. Not a glimmer. No light. He don't. He hath hedged me about. He put a hedge around me. so
that I cannot get out. I can't escape. He's made my
chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear, lying
in wait. as a lion in secret places. He
hath turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He made me desolate. He hath
bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused
the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision
to all my people, and their song all the day. He hath filled me
with bitterness." He didn't say, I'm bitter against God, Donny.
He said, God's filled me with bitterness. He made my life bitter. He made my life bitter. Now, you and I won't say things
like that, because we won't be honest with God. And we won't
be honest with each other. This is written for us in the
book of God to teach us to speak to God honestly. Jeremiah says
to you and me, writing by the word of God, given by divine
inspiration, God made my life bitter. But he's not bitter against
God. He's not bitter. He said, God
made my life bitter. That's a truly gracious man who
is sweet when his life is bitter. He's made my life bitter. Read
on. He made my life bitter. He hath
made me drunk with wormwood. He hath broken my teeth with
gravel stones. He's covered me with ashes. Verse
17. Thou hast removed my soul far
off from peace. I've forgotten what it's like
to prosper. I've forgotten prosperity. And I said my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. I had hope for the king. I had
hope for my nation. I had hope for my wife. I had
hope because of my children. I had this son. I had hope. This
daughter, she, ah, that's my hope. But now I got no hope. No. There's nobody I can look
to. And so now there's my hope. Nobody
I can lean on and say, there's some comfort. Nobody I can turn
to and be sustained. Nobody. Nobody. Can you imagine such? Can you
imagine such? I've been at times in my life
when I thought I was almost friendless, but not quite. I thought there's
nobody I could really turn to, but there's always somebody.
That lady, man, I lean on her. Oh, what would it be like to
have nobody to lean on? Nobody, no fleshly comfort, no
physical strength, nothing in your life to make you smile,
nothing, nothing. Oh, here's this man Jeremiah,
read on, read on. is my strength and my hope is
perished from the Lord. Verse 19, remembering my affliction
and my misery, my wormwood and my gall, my soul hath been still
in remembrance and is humbled in me. I'm brought down on my
knees. I'm brought down on my face in
the dust before God. Bless God he doesn't stop there. This I recall to my mind. Therefore have I hope. It is
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his
compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Therefore will I hope in him.
Blessed, blessed, blessed is that man from whom God takes
all hope if he gives this hope. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. Read on. The Lord is
good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
It is good for man that he should both hope and quietly wait for
the salvation of the Lord. Looking away from himself, away
from his troubles, out of himself, out of his sorrows, Jeremiah
cast his eye toward the mercy seat where Christ sits on the
throne of grace and says, it is the Lord's mercies that I'm
not concerned. He says, I recall this to my
mind. The Lord is my portion. I will
hope in him. Now, let me show you six things
here concerning this good hope God's given his people. And I
pray he'll make it yours. Number one, our hope is God's
mercy. Our hope is God's mercy. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. Our hope is not in ourselves. It's not in our experience. It's
not in our prayer life. It's not in our love for one
another. It is not in our church association. It's not in our
labor. It's not in our knowledge. It's
not in our relationships with other people. Our hope is God's
mercy. That's all. Just mercy. Just mercy. God's people look
on the Lord God Almighty and rejoice in him, understanding
that our wealth may be consumed by many things. I know some folks
who in recent years have lost everything they had hoped to
live on the rest of their lives. Economy broke down, retirement's
gone. Property's worth nothing. Everything
gone. I'm not talking about lost most everything. Just go back
to work. Try to make ends meet. Go back
to work. Our health. It's quickly consumed
with sickness and disease and old age. I've been coming down
here every year long enough now that I've seen some strong bodies
get weak, including the one standing in front of you. Our health,
it's consumed quickly. I never dreamed, never dreamed
life would get to the place I couldn't pick any tree up I wanted to.
I had a tough time now picking my spoon up sometimes. Our families
are consumed with rebellion and sin and sickness and disease
and war and old age and death. And soon these bodies will be
consumed. We're going to the grave. But
we are not consumed neither in our beings nor in our well-being
because of God's mercy. I've never been so well off as
I am right now. I've never been so well off as
I am right now. I'm standing in God's mercy.
I'm standing in the constant embrace of God Almighty. I'm standing constantly in the
heart of my Redeemer. God's mercies are ours forever. I love that word mercy, but here
Jeremiah puts it in the plural, mercies, mercies. God's mercies
did not commence in time. His mercies are everlasting covenant
mercies. Everlasting mercies. Mercies
bestowed upon us in Christ before the world began. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ before the world
began. His mercies are everlasting covenant
mercies. Bruce, they were given to us
in eternity and they'll never be taken from us in time. given
to us without consideration of anything in us, and they will
never be removed from us by consideration of anything in us. His mercies
are everlasting covenant mercies, mercies of redemption and grace
in Christ Jesus, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins. These things, Paul tells us,
turn over to Hebrews chapter 6 for just a minute. Hebrews
chapter 6. Paul tells us these things are
an anchor for our soul. Look at this, Hebrews 6, 17.
Wherein, that is in God's purpose and grace, God, willing more
abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us. Which hope we have. as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within
the veil. Now, I'm not a mariner or a seaman
or even much of a fisherman. I don't know much about boats
and water or any of that kind of stuff. But I know this. I
know this. If you go out on water, it's
very deep, you better have an anchor with the boat. But that
anchor won't do you any good in that boat. is just a drag
in the boat. If you need the anchor, you throw
the anchor out of the boat. And our anchor for our souls
is not something in us. It's Christ in glory. He's our
anchor. He holds us steady in the midst
of storm. He holds us firm when our boats
toss to and fro on the waves and billows. He's an anchor for
our souls. His mercy, eternal covenant mercy,
redeeming mercy, and the mercies of our God are effectual saving
mercies. Turn over to Ephesians 1 for
a moment. I quoted a portion of it. Ephesians
1, verse 12, after describing for us God's covenant saving
mercy and The redemption that's ours in Christ and the wonder
of God's providence. It tells us that we should be
to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. And
then it says in verse 13, in whom, that is in Christ, that
one the Father trusted as our surety. that one that triune
God trusted as our surety before the world began, in whom you
also trusted. After that, you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that you believed. You were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest, the pledge, the down
payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase
possession to the praise of his glory. So his mercies, the mercies
of God in Christ, are eternal covenant mercies. Covenant mercies
brought to us by the redeeming blood of Christ. Precious, effectual,
saving mercies. Mercies that we experience in
God's daily providence. Oh, the wonders of providence. The wonders of providence. Brother John Denary, one of our
fellows, coming down the road the other day, and he's telling
all the ladies in our church, like some of you ladies, like
to feed hummingbirds. And that's better than other
kinds. They don't leave too much of a mess behind. But I want
to know who's got the most hummingbirds. And his wife, Denise, had been
sweetening the pot a little bit, getting them ready to fly south.
I said, they don't fly south. He said, what do you mean? I said, they hit you right on
the back of geese. He said, no. I said, yeah, yeah, get your
binoculars out if you see it, be sure to get a picture, I'd
like to see a picture of it. And he thought I was lying to
him. I had to convince him, I said, no, they don't fly all the way
down there, they hit you right on the geese, and they do, they
do. Well, how do they know how to do that? God taught them. God taught them, without any
lesson plans. God's talking. They're just there. They come out of the egg knowing
they're going to go south. They're going to fly back on
a goose. What's so important about that?
Our Heavenly Father, with minute precision, arranges all the details
of all creation, even for a worthless hummingbird. Imagine what it
does for you. Imagine what he does for you.
Imagine what he does for you. I think we shall spend eternity
in wondrous amazement as we look over the alps of time and are
made to recount by God's grace the wonders of his daily providence
for us. We know We know by that intuitive
knowledge we're given by the new birth, by the Spirit of God,
that unction from the Holy One through the Word, we know. We
know what other folks guess about, talk about, fuss about, and debate
about. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Our Lord said, Two sparrows won't
fall to the ground without your Heavenly Father. They won't. So two for a penny. A sparrow
won't fall to the ground and get a little tiny seed off the
ground except by the direction of your Father. And a little
boy with a BB gun won't shoot him out of his nest except by
the direction of your Heavenly Father. Won't happen. Don't you
understand you have more value than many sparrows? The very
hairs of your head are all numbered. Isn't that wonderful? The very
hairs of your head are all numbered. Before the worlds were made,
your God counted up and ordained the hairs on your head in every
day that you live on this earth. Numbers your hair. He determined
them. He determined them. I've often,
I don't know a better way to illustrate what I'm trying to
say. Faith was born and I'd see Shelby
until long after the little girl quit wearing diapers. I'd see
her kissing her toes and fingers and count on her. You know what
I never saw her do? Now she loved that little girl,
but I never saw her try to count the hair on her head. And bless
her heart, Faith didn't have much when she was born. We had to put a ribbon in her
hair and tape it so folks know she's a girl. She didn't have
much hair. But I never saw Shelby even attempt
to count the hairs on her head. My Heavenly Father does. Before
the world began. Bruce, that's minute, tender,
loving care for you. In his daily providence. All
things are of God. Of God. For of him and through
him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. All
right, look at our text again. Lamentations 3. Our hope is in
God's mercy. And our hope is in God's unfailing,
inexhaustible, indestructible love. His compassions fail not. What a word of grace. Carter Brown, God's love is indestructible. Indestructible. His love for
us is such that we cannot begin to describe it. The hymn writer
said, could we with ink the oceans fill? And were the skies of parchment
made where every stalk on earth to quill and every man ascribed
by trade to write the love of God above would drain the oceans
dry? Nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Let me remind you
of four things about God's love. He loved us from everlasting. from everlasting. I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. In love, he predestinated us
to be conformed to the image of his son. In love, predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. His love is an everlasting love. There never was a time when God
began to love me. That means there never was anything
that caused him to love me. Never. He loved me in Christ
my surety before the world was as one with Christ and loves
me as he loves his son from everlasting. You didn't get what I said, did
you? He loves us as He loves His Son. Read the 17th chapter
of John. Brother Kenny, if you're in Christ,
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love you just like He loves Jesus
Christ, your Redeemer. For the same reason, from the
same eternity, his love is everlasting. Everlasting. Before ever Adam
sinned in the garden, he loved me. And when I sinned in Adam
in the garden, he didn't cease to love me. And when we came
forth from our mother's womb speaking lies, He loved us still. And when He called us by His
grace, He loved us still. And when we sin against Him day
after day, as we do day after day, He loves us still. He hides
his face. He makes us to have darkness
and not light and heaviness and not delight and pain and not
happiness. All those things so as to cause
us to run after him. But he always runs after us. Even when he hides himself from
us. His love's everlasting love. He loves us freely. Hosea 14 verse one, he said,
I love them freely. We're justified, what does the
book say? Freely by his grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus. The word means without a cause.
It's the same word that's translated when our Lord Jesus says, they
hated me without a cause. Same word there, brother Donny,
very same word. They hated me freely. for no
reason, without any cause, on no conditions. That's how the
Savior loves us, freely, unconditionally, without qualification. People
talk about unconditional love. I got news
for you. I got news for you. There ain't
no such thing among the human peoples. Not yours for your son. Not yours for your daughter.
Not yours for your wife. Not my wife's for me. There's
no such thing as unconditional love among human beings. That's
not possible. Not possible. Oh, but God's love
for his people. Unconditional love. Unqualified
love. Love without a basis except in
God. He loves us freely, freely. And
this is what scripture says, having loved his own, he loved them to the end. But what does that mean, the
end? How far do you carry that? I wish I could communicate this
to folks. I wish, brother Larry, I could
communicate it to me first, and then to you and folks listening
to us. Whenever you read something God says in his word, concerning
any promise, any grace, any mercy, any goodness, anything God says
in his word concerning you and him, you carry that just as far
as you can carry it. And you haven't begun to get
started. Just as far as you can carry it. He loves us to the
end of the trial. To the end of the day, to the
end of the way, he loves us to the end. Until there's nothing
else except you and him. Having loved his own, he loves
us to the end, to the end. And then the love of God for
us is constantly new. His compassions are new every
morning. I love that word for love. Compassions. Compassions. That's co-passion. The kind of passion that only
intimately connected kin can have. The kind of passion
that only a husband and wife devoted in love, with much experience,
can have. The kind of passion that only
loving, identical twins can have. Co-passion. Our Lord Jesus took
on himself our flesh, John. And he was tempted at all points,
like as we are, yet without sin. And he who was tempted and had
no sin and did no sin and could not sin was even made sin. And he understands you better
than you understand yourself. And he has compassion with you
all the time. And his mercies are new every
morning. Turn to Ephesians chapter three,
Ephesians three. Here's my prayer for you, Paul
says. Here's my prayer for you. My prayer for you. Verse 15. My prayer for you in Christ Jesus,
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, there's a sermon,
to be in light, strengthened with might by his spirit in the
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that
you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,
and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, that
you may be filled with all the fullness of God, who, His love,
His compassion for us, reaches to the height of heaven, to the
depths of hell, to the length and breadth of time and eternity. His love for us, his compassion,
are new every morning. A fellow gets in trouble and
starts talking about loving his wife and, you know, that young
sweetheart love. And the lady said, but oh, but
I want that again. Well, that's wonderful stuff.
That's wonderful stuff. Oh, man, you hold hands and see
skyrockets. That's wonderful stuff. But that
doesn't get you through much difficulty and trouble and heartache. But you hold hands through the
trouble and the heartache and the pain, and your hearts are
welded together. And now you've got love, my soul. This woman's been putting up
with me for nearly 43 years. I ought to get some kind of crown
for that. 43 years. And yet, well, there's
sure something special about the remembrance of that early
love, isn't it? His love is new every morning. I guess it's all
right to use language of a man to describe God, he does. Our Savior wakes up every day
and loves me new. And he loves me with an everlasting
love. With the love of a determined eternity! And the love of a man
freshly in love with his bride. His compassions are new every
morning. Our hope is God's faithfulness. God's faithfulness. Great is
thy faithfulness. I started preaching when I was
17 years old. By the time I was 18 years old,
I preached someone God's faithfulness. I had read John Gill's Body of
Divinity, and I understood it, and I could state it just right. I really could, stated it just
right. I wouldn't take back anything I said about God's faithfulness
today that I said when I was 18 years old. But Carter, I didn't
know beans about God's faithfulness. It was just theory. It was just
doctrine I'd learned from somebody else. That's all. Learned it
from good men, and it was truth. But I didn't know anything about
it. I'm 62 years old now. Let me tell you what I've experienced.
All these years, faithfulness from God. There's nothing I admire
in a man like I do dependability. I like to be able to depend on
men. I like for men and women to be
able to depend on me. I want my wife, my daughter,
my grandchildren, my son-in-law to depend on me. I want you,
if Father Don says you can count on it. Don't even have to say
it. You just bend on it. You can count on him. He's there.
He's there. I admire that in men, I reckon,
more than anything. And there's nothing about God
I admire more than his dependability. God is faithful. Faithful, great. Indescribably great is God's
faithfulness. faithful to himself, faithful
to his word, to his promises, faithful to his covenant, faithful
to his son, and faithful to his people. He has sworn, I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee. I will never, no never,
no never, for any reason or any cause, leave you or forsake you. Back in our text, our hope is
the Lord God himself, the triune Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. Now listen to what God says.
The portion of Jacob, that is the Lord himself, and not like
the gods of this world, for he who is Jacob's portion, he's
the former of all things. And Israel is the rod of his
inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name.
Christ is my portion. My portion. What's your portion
of grain? What's your portion of your daddy's
inheritance? What's your portion of pie? What's
your portion of this, that, and the other? Christ is my portion. He's the lot of my inheritance. You say just a bit ago, He is
my all. He is all my hope, all my wisdom,
all my righteousness, all my redemption, all my sanctification,
all my hope. The Lord's my portion, saith
my soul. He is the portion of my soul
forever. And we are to him all that he
is to us. As Christ is our portion, We
are his portion. Listen to this. You can look
at it later in Deuteronomy 32. The Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. To say that Christ is my portion
is to say that Christ is everything to me. Is that right? He says
you are everything to him. Jacob's back worship. Number
five, the Lord is good to them that wait for him, to the soul
that seeketh him. Here's our hope. The Lord's good. We rejoice to know that he's
sovereign, but sovereignty without goodness might be utter cruelty. We rejoice to know that God rules
everywhere. But to know that God rules would
be no more benefit to our souls, for the comfort of our souls,
than if we knew that the devil rules, unless we know that the
Lord is good. God is good. The word God is
but an abbreviation for the word good. God's good. He's good. He's good in all his
being, good in all his attributes, good in all his word, good in
all his works, good in all his ways. So whatever he does, it's
good. It's good. Whether I can see
it or not, whether I feel it or not. whether I can understand
it or not. That doesn't enter in. That's
not part of the thinking process. Sometimes experience things and you want to say, I don't
see how any good can come out of this. I've wept with you and
you with me. What good is there in this? How is that going to benefit
anybody? What good does this do? And I don't know. And I don't
need to know. God does. And it is mine to believe
God, not figure Him out. It's mine to rest in Him, not
struggle against Him. It's mine to say the Lord is
good. Imagine this man, Jeremiah. Go through all we read here in
this third chapter. His teeth broken with gravel.
God's heavy chain on his neck. His back lacerated with God's
rod. He's covered with ash. There's
darkness about him all the time. Everything around him is just
Everything pleasant, everything painful. And he says, I remember
now, God's good. This'll be all right. God's good. This'll be OK. The Lord is good
to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. To
wait on Him is to calmly, confidently trust that they that wait on the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Oh, what a description. What a description. When I was
a boy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I was raised on the
south side of Winston-Salem. Brother Tim, James, and I, both
raised on the south side of Winston-Salem. That makes south side Chicago
look like paradise. It is a tough place to be raised.
And when I was a boy like most of you fellas, especially, I
guess, in the south, if you were afraid, you just didn't let anybody
know. You just didn't tell it. You just didn't tell it. You
act like you're tough and handle anything. I remember just as
a kid, just a young kid, I'd walk home from Red Shield Boys
Club late, late, just almost dark. And if it was pushing it,
it'd get dark. I'm talking about six, seven,
eight years old. Walk five miles across town and it'd be pushing
darker. The shortcut was to walk through
a section of town back to, you've got to understand now, this was
back in the 50s. where white fellas didn't go in the black
section of town. And black fellas sure didn't come in our section
of town unless they were sent for. It just didn't happen. But
I could go through about a half a mile of a section of nothing
but just black folks on this tar road. And in the daytime,
I didn't want to walk through there. But when it's getting
close to dark, I didn't want anybody to think I was walking
through there. And I'd get the edge. Man, I would light out,
and I'd fly as fast as I could fly to get down that road. Scared
to death, I'd run. I'd run. That's what you do when
you're scared. You run. But those that wait
on the Lord, well, they soar like eagles for the babies. They
just, oh, I'm just not scared of the world. And then they start
to have some cares, and they run. They run. They're running
with him, and they're still running. And then as you find out God's
good and his mercies are everlasting, his compassions fail not, then
you every morning, you walk with ease and confidence and don't
faint. How come? Because God's good. God's good. The Lord's good,
good to those that seek Him. They feel the need of Him and
they seek Him. They spend their lives pursuing
Him, looking for Him. Now watch this. Our hope is in God's salvation. It is good for man that he should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. This
is God's work. Our everlasting salvation, our
spiritual salvation, our salvation from sin, Satan, death, and hell.
That's God's work. Salvation is of the Lord. Brother
Donnie just told us that about as well as it can be told. And we've all got that down pretty
good. Nobody here got any question about that, do you? You understand
that, don't you? Salvation is of the Lord. God's
eternal, sovereign, free grace of the Lord, not conditioned
on anything in you. But if we have trouble, or we
got trouble, is with trouble, and difficulties, and adversities,
trials. And we pace the floor, and wring
our hands, and bite our nails, and we try our best to Do it
ourselves. Y'all play rook down here? Know
what it is to go it alone? If you don't need your partner,
I'll get it on my own. Just lay your cards down to mine. That's what we do most of the
time. We try to go it alone. And we get ourselves in a peck
of trouble. Salvation from every danger and
every trouble And every temptation, and every trial, and every pain,
and every heartache is of the Lord. It comes at His time, in
His way, by His hand. Brother Bruce, sooner we learn
it. And we just won't. We just won't. Next time you
and Joe got some pain, you'll go it alone until God fixes it
so you can't. Is that truth? Me too. Me too. Bless God. He'll never let you go it alone.
Not for years. Salvation's of the Lord. It's
His. His to perform. And His to get
glory to His old name. You remember what He told Peter?
Peter said, He said, Lord, I'll not deny you. That won't happen.
Not me. Old brother Donny Bell, now I've
got my suspicions about him. He might, but not me, not me.
And that's exactly what he was saying. He was saying James and
John, they might, but not me, not me. You can count on me.
I'll go through thick and thin with you. And he was ready to. He was ready to. He drew out
his sword to smite the high priest servant and take him on by himself.
He was ready to. But Peter needed to learn something
about Peter. And Lord Jesus said to him, Before the rooster crows
twice, you're going to deny me three times. And he did. That rooster crowed. I tried to think what must have
gone through Peter's heart. Oh, what shock, what fear, how
he must have resolved. I've got to get out of this.
I've got to get out of here. How he must have wrestled with
himself. What have I done? Oh, I've got to go. I can't stay here. And then it denied him a third
time, that rooster crowed. Do you remember what the Lord's
next words were to him? His very next words. He said, tomorrow, before the
sun rises, Peter, you're going to deny me three times. Let not
your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also
in me. Oh, God, teach me to trust you. Amen.