All right, let's ask God to bless
this time. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to sing praises
to your name, to sing of the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ,
of the glories of the life of faith, and the glories that yet
await us, our inheritance stored up in heaven for us. And Lord, we do confess, we not
only sing it as a matter of a hymn, but we confess that we feel within ourselves
a proneness to wonder. There is within us, still a part
of us, that flesh that is still enamored of the natural things
of life. Lord, protect us from that, especially right now, that
our spirits may feed on those things from your Spirit, and
that our spirits may be nurtured and nourished and strengthened
and encouraged for the coming week. Bless me, Lord, as I preach that
the people who have gathered here might not go away empty. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
Verse 3, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of compassion, or mercies, and the God of all
comfort. Now, a point I want to bring
out, actually a couple of things here that I didn't get to this
morning with regard to these names given to our God. These
names were given to Him as He relates to believers. Now, you
know, we often think of mercy as something for the lost. We
think of mercy as something that God extends toward those who
are yet dead in trespasses and sins. And we invite people to
believe the gospel because God is full of mercy, and it's legitimate
that we do so. However, Paul is not writing
to unbelievers. Paul is writing to believers.
And when God shows his face towards his people, he shows the face
of the Father of all mercies. Why? Because believers are yet
in need of mercy. That's why. It's not as though
God shows mercy. And this is how some people do
see the gospel, that we come to this world as sinners and
that once God saves us, we're not sinners after that. That
we need His mercy to take away all our past sins, but you know,
we're kind of on our own from that point on. And if we sin
again, or sin terribly again after that, you know, well, what
are we going to do? You know, there's no hope. And
they go to that scripture in Hebrews that says, if any man
sins willfully, After he's received a knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no sacrifice for sins. And they misunderstand that,
and they misapply it, and they think that mercy is not something
that believers both need and receive on a continual basis
from God. Now, one of the things that our
translation doesn't bear out is there where ours has father
of compassion, but that word they've translated compassion
is actually plural. So the King James puts it, the
father of mercies, not just the father of a single mercy. Not
just the father of one act of mercy that, you know, we come
to that point where we realize we're sinners in need of the
mercy of God. We call upon his name and he grants us mercy,
but there's no more mercy after that. Friends, it is mercy after
mercy, after mercy, after mercy. And so God shows this face toward
us of the father of mercies. Now you say, what's the sense
of that word mercy? Because this is not the word
normally translated mercy. Remember when that blind man
said, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. He used a different
word than what's right here. This word isn't used too many
times, but I'll tell you one place it was used. Once again,
in the book of Hebrews, speaking of how those in the days of the
law died without mercy in the mouth of two or three witnesses,
at the testimony of two or three witnesses. In other words, if
you were guilty of the law, you died without mercy. And so the
idea of mercy spoken of here is that mercy extended to lawbreakers
by the Father. Now under the law there is no
mercy. But God's not a father under the law, is He? He's a
judge. And He's a judge without mercy.
And renders to every man that which is due unto him. But oh,
in the gospel things change. He who's the judge of all the
earth is now addressed as Father. Not just Father, but the Father
of mercies. And if you're anything like me,
we've drawn heavily on the Father's account of mercy, haven't we? Drawn so heavily that maybe at
times we think we've just about drained it. But there is no draining
that fountain. It flows, it's as infinite as
the Father from which it comes. The Father of mercies. And then
He's called the God of all comfort. And why would that name be given
to God for believers to hang on to? Well, because believers
are often in trouble and in need of comfort. Have you ever noticed
that the idea of the Christian life that's presented by a lot
of popular and wealthy preachers just doesn't match up with your
experience at all. And I'll be honest with you,
it doesn't match up with anybody's experience that I know. They
preach the idea that the nearer to God you are, the better your
life will be. And yet we read in the Scriptures
that those closest to God had more trouble than anybody else.
There's a whole book devoted to that in the book of Job. And
who could be closer to God than God in human flesh? And He is
called what? The man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Now I don't want to present a
dark and gloomy view of the believer's life. I wouldn't have a different
life. I wouldn't choose a different
one than the life of faith. Would you? Would you rather be
an unbeliever with a mansion on a hilltop here? Is that what
you'd like? You know, I got to admit, I see
people that have plenty. Well, plenty is not the right
word. Got plenty enough for about 30 or 40 people. And you know,
their bank's loaded. And I think to myself, man, I
wish I was like them. I wish I never had to think about
money again. I wish I never had to worry about
paying the bills. And let me give you an aside. I don't have
to, but I do anyway. I mean, don't I have the promises
of God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth
in every mine and all that? But we would certainly like,
you know, what we'd like is for us to own the capital of a thousand
hills, you know, and the wealth and all the mines and all that.
We'd like that, but I tell you what, when I think about it,
I wouldn't trade places with a one of them. Not in being an
unbeliever. I'm not saying that I despise
the wealth of the world. I don't. But if there's got to
be a choice, and brethren, most of the time it has to be a choice.
There are very few. Very few men who've been given
grace to be rich in grace and things of this world, too. It's
an odd combination. Most of the people in this world
that believe just get by day to day. They
do okay, but they aren't fabulously wealthy, and many of them live
in abject poverty. The Believer's God is Troubles. Now, this morning we emphasize
that name, the Father of Mercies. Tonight I want to look at the
God of all Comfort. And Paul goes on to expand on
that in the next few verses. He says, Who comforts us in all
our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. Now,
there's two things to mention here. He's the God of all comfort. That is, all real, solid comfort
comes from Him. Now, I'm not saying that He won't
use an agent. For instance, Paul says He comforts
us so that we can comfort others. But when we comfort others with
the comfort that we have received from God, that's God comforting
others through us. Now, we need to be careful that when
we're in trouble, that we seek our help from our God. Really, we need to seek our help
from Him. I'm not saying, once again, I'm
not saying that we won't find it in our friends. We might even
find it in... God can use some people that
don't even know Him to minister comfort to us. But we must recognize
it and acknowledge it as His comfort. And we must ask Him
for it. When you're in trouble, where
do you go? From whom do you seek your comfort? You know, the worldly must seek
his comfort from the world. He more or less tries to drown
his troubles. He may drown his troubles in
entertainment. He may drown his troubles in all manner of distractions.
He may drown his troubles in alcohol and drugs. He can drown
them in all kinds of things. Of course, he never gets rid
of them, but he can at least numb himself somewhat to the
pain of them. But Paul's not talking about
becoming numb to pain. He's talking about receiving
a grace, receiving a comfort that sustains us in the midst
of the pain of our troubles. He's not even talking about getting
rid of the troubles. As we'll see, there are some
troubles that God sends to us and He intends to leave them
there till the day we die for His purposes, and yet He will
comfort us in the midst of them if we'll learn to trust Him for
it. He's the God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our troubles, big and small, in all our troubles,
secret or public, in all of our troubles, the kind of troubles
we think Christians can have and the kind of troubles we think
really aren't suitable for Christians. And we'll talk about that in
a minute. And He does that, not simply that we might be relieved
of our troubles, though that's part of it, but He also does
that so that we can begin to minister comfort to others. I hope that you and I can learn
something here from what Paul is saying. And that is this,
that the life of a believer is not the life of a solitary person
in the midst of the world. He is part of a body. He does
not live to himself nor for himself. You realize that? It is not right
for believers to ignore one another. It's not right for us to have
the attitude that so long as we go to church, and we spend
the requisite amount of time in church, and we give the requisite
amount of money to church, that we have fulfilled all that is
required of a person who walks in faith in this world. You realize
that God keeps you alive, that you might minister to others
and glorify His name in the process. Now, I know that in the United
States of America, we're taught to be independent. And there's
some good in that for some things. But you know, we ought to realize
that it's not just I'm marching to Zion, we're marching to Zion. And we're marching together.
And we need to keep an open eye to one another. We need to keep
a keen eye. As we're marching, we may discover
a brother's limping. and need some help. We may discover
as we're marching singing our joyful song that there's one
who isn't singing so joyfully and maybe could use a word of
comfort from us. I know it's dangerous business.
You know it's tough to comfort people because we all, we just
got this attitude we don't want to ever admit to anybody that
we're weak and therefore we don't want to ever admit to anybody
that there's things that are troubling us. And so when somebody
comes to us and says, you know, I noticed you've been looking
down lately. Is there anything I can do? Oh no, I'm okay. Let
us learn to both give and receive the comfort that God provides
through our brethren. I'm not talking about being nosy
in people's lives, but I am talking about being involved in the lives
of your brothers and sisters who walk with you in this life
of faith. Verse 5, For just as the sufferings
of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ
our comfort overflows. Now he's not saying, he's not
speaking here of our Lord's sufferings for sin. When our Lord suffered
for sin, He suffered the just for the unjust. Those sufferings
were laid upon Him and they were done. They never overflow anywhere.
He's talking about our Lord's suffering in this life as a man
who believed God. I know he is God, but he was
a man who believed God too. And he lived the life of faith.
He says, I will put my trust in him. Those are the words applied
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, as he died, he says,
into your hands I commend my spirit. That's the ultimate in
trust in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, not my will, but your
will be done. Once again, the ultimate of trust.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, as He lived His life, as He walked
on the earth as a godly man, He suffered for it. I tell you, the truly godly always
suffer at the hands of the phony godly people. They just always
do. Our Lord suffered at the hands
of religious phonies because of what he said and what he did
and how he lived. And so do believers. He that
would live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, said
the apostle. Now, those sufferings flow over
into our lives, he says, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. We receive the grace of God's
comfort and it overflows. Now if we are distressed, it's
for your comfort and salvation. Now Paul was given a special
grace here, a special measure of it anyway. He realized and
he was able to absorb that when he was suffering, it was for
the sake that he might learn to be a comforter to others and
that in itself gave him strength to endure the suffering that
he had to put up with. And he said, that comfort produces
in you a patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. I look at the other brethren,
particularly the ministers who are out there. I mean, you know,
ministers are public figures, aren't they? Preachers of the
gospel, they're public figures in the church. You all could
name a lot of preachers that have been through here. You probably
couldn't name too many of the members of their churches. The
preachers are kind of the public guys. They're the ones whose
lives we notice. And that's in a sense the way
it is. Paul says we're kind of put out there ahead of everybody
to be examples. And I've seen some of these men
suffer some really hard things. And you know, that's been an
encouragement to me in my own difficulties. I've seen them
endure. I've seen them stand the test. And that has helped produce a
patient endurance in me of some of these things. And then in
verse 7, it says, And our hope for you is firm, because we know
that just as you share in our sufferings, So also you share
in our comfort. Now let's speak a few minutes
about the troubles that a believer might have. Since God is the
God of comfort, what kind of troubles may come, be turned
over to Isaiah, excuse me, Psalm 51. There are some kinds of troubles
people believe We get the idea, well, a believer wouldn't have
that kind of trouble. Well, I'm going to show you some
of the troubles that believers in the scriptures have had. And
you'll probably be able to identify with them, even if you're not
willing to admit it out loud. You'll probably say, yeah, well,
yeah, I've been there. And you'll find that God has a comfort for
us in all these troubles. Psalm 51, verse 1. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot
out all my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse
me from my sin. For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I
sinned and done what is evil. in your sight. Now the psalmist
was in a mess. And he had some troubles. In
fact, I'll bet you that even as he wrote this, he had some
troubles in his life. And he didn't know how everything
was going to pan out. But this is the trouble he wrote
about because this is the trouble that afflicted him most. And
that's moral trouble, sin trouble. Believers have got serious sin
trouble. Somewhere along the line, as
a child, and I think because it was taught to me at my church,
though I'm not sure, but somewhere I got the idea that when a man
was saved, that moral issues became easier. Now I made a profession of faith
at seven years old. So that would have been, well
it was in September of 62. So that would be 46 years ago,
or 45, 46 years ago. And I began with that idea, I
had that idea in my head. And I have been a disappointment
to myself for 45 years. I have. Even recently it's pressed upon
me. I think of things that I have done, even as I claim to be a
believer, even as I claim to be a preacher, even as I pastored
one of the flocks of God. And I think to myself, how could
a child of God ever do that? You know, I'll bet you that's
what David was thinking. How did I ever get here? And
I used to write psalms. I'd sit there. I wrote Psalm
23. I know it wasn't the 23rd psalm
then, but you know what I mean? God gave me grace to defeat Goliath. And He gave me grace to withhold
my hand from killing Saul. And then He set me on the throne.
And like Nathan said, He's given me many wives. And look what
I did. I reached out my hand and I took
another man's wife. And then I arranged for him to
die. How could someone so graced of God do something like that? I'll tell you why. Because David
was still David. And I'm discovering that Joe
is still Joe. And the flesh is still the flesh. And it's going to be nothing
but flesh till the day we die. Am I excusing sin? No. There's
no excuse for it. Am I saying that sin shouldn't
trouble us? No. Sin should trouble us. And it
is a big trouble. In fact, I'm glad it's a trouble.
You know, I don't get worried about people that are troubled
with sin. I get worried when people aren't troubled by it.
That is, they can sin and it doesn't bother them. They can
rebel against God and it has no effect on them. All right, look over at 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. We'll call this thorn trouble. Thorn trouble. You'll see why in a minute. In verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 12,
Paul says, to keep me from becoming conceited, Because of these surpassing
great revelations, Paul had spoke to the Son of God face to face.
And he'd been given knowledge and understanding that others
didn't have. He said, because of this, keep
me from pride, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger
of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the
Lord to take it from me, but He said to me, My grace is sufficient
for you, My power is made perfect in weakness." Now, everybody
wants to speculate on what Paul's thorn was. I don't know. He doesn't
say. And it doesn't really matter.
And it's good he left it blank. Why? Why is it good he left it
blank? So that we can put ours in there.
So that it applies to all these thorns. Now, what do I think
is meant, though, by a thorn in the flesh? Well, do you remember
that when God cursed Adam, what did he say to Adam? He said,
no longer will the ground bring forth its fruit to you. Rather, it will bring forth thorns. So Thorin's got something to
do with the curse. It's got something to do with what happens to humanity
and what's come upon humanity because of the curse. And as
much as he says, a thorn in my flesh, I'm thinking what he's
saying is, it's just some natural, what we might call a natural
weakness that Paul had. I don't know if it was a moral
weakness. I don't know if it was some, what we would call
a physical weakness, like some speculate problems with his eyes.
I don't know if it was a mental weakness he had, because some
have speculated, and I don't know where they get it, but I've
read it, that some think that he had epilepsy, which would
have really been a a trouble to him in that day. Imagine a
guy who casts out demons and once in a while he lays on the
floor himself. You know, that would be kind of tough for him.
You know, I know this, whatever it was, Paul considered it a
weakness. Something that made him less
able to carry out the ministry. So he thought. Something that
he thought made him less useful in the kingdom of God. You know,
we all got them. Why, God's people, they got illnesses
of the body. I've read of some people, for
instance, I read one time, you know, we often refer to Charles
Spurgeon, and he was married, Rebecca, I think her name was,
but it says she rarely ever heard him preach. Because after she
gave birth to their boys, Evidently, it had some effect on her, that
she was weak within her body and could hardly leave the house.
Now, she did what she could from the house, and she did a remarkable
amount of work. And she managed a lot of affairs
besides managing that household. And someone might think, you
know, if the Lord would just heal her, think of what she could
do. Well, the Lord sent it. The Lord
gave it to her for his purposes. There are some people, some of
God's people who have a thorn in the flesh in their mind. We
could mention Charles Spurgeon in that regard, suffered somewhat
from depressions. William Cooper, the one who wrote,
There is a fountain filled with blood, couldn't stand hardly,
couldn't be in crowds. He was a member of John Newton's
church and rarely went to church. Now I'd like to hear John Newton
preach, wouldn't you? The one who wrote Amazing Grace. But
he'd just get in a crowd and he'd freak out. Now he'd go visit, it says that
he'd like to visit the poor. He could handle being in a little
group. But he was a man with a very nervous and depressed
mind. Born in the flesh. There are
believers who have what we might call a thorn in their flesh regarding
moral things and maybe they keep it hidden, you don't know anything
about it, but they are at all times having to guard themselves
very carefully, lest it break out. You know, I wonder about
David. Here's a man with a lot of wives
and he tried for another one. I think he had a problem in that
area. And I bet you the problem didn't go away after the Bathsheba
thing. I bet you he struggled with it his whole life. Thorn
in the flesh. And these things are sent off,
brethren, if nothing else, they teach us and remind us continually
of what we are. Paul said, lest I become conceited,
lest I become puffed up with pride. And whatever form, whatever
shape this weakness takes, It's just a part of the curse. It's
a part of being a human being. And God has given to each one.
He's measured it out for however it is. We're just going to have
to live with it. But we live with it with this
promise. My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect
in weakness. There's nothing wrong with trying
to overcome or get past whatever weaknesses we have. But realize
this, God may never allow you to have success. Because sometimes,
when we gain success over a weakness, it only makes us fall to the
weakness of pride. And I'll tell you this, if there's
anything that'll make you useless in the kingdom of God, it's pride.
Alright, how about this one? Turn over to 2 Samuel chapter
18. Here's another trouble that believers
suffer from. Where am I at? 2 Samuel. Okay, verse
33. 2 Samuel chapter 18, verse 33. The king, that's David, was shaken. He went up to the room over the
gateway and wept. As he went, he said, Oh, my son
Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, if only I had died instead of
you. Oh, Absalom, my son, My son. There are two things, two kinds
of troubles here. First of all, grief. I mean heart-wrenching,
soul-withering grief. Can you imagine what David felt?
He just heard his son had been killed in battle. His son was
dead. His cherished son. I know we
shouldn't play favorites among our children, but they did back
then, and this was David's favorite. And he's dead. And his heart
is absolutely crushed. Now this was no judgment of God
upon David. But it fell on David. But here's the one I'm really
aiming for. And that's simply family trouble. Why did Absalom
die? Absalom was a rebel. He's a rebel
against God and he was a rebel against his father. He once ran
his father out of town and took his throne from him. I have no
idea why David favored him. He was a good looking man evidently.
But he was a scoundrel. And he brought David nothing
but grief. It is a shame when God's people
are looked on with scorn as they suffer family troubles. I tell
you, they do. I've heard some really serious
griefs that many of our brethren have had to deal with in their
children. I know of brethren and sisters
who are in marriage troubles. They have husbands and wives
that are just not fit to live with. And you think, well, you know,
if they just believe God right, they just walk closer to God.
No. David was called a man after God's own heart, and he must
weave over Absalom. Abraham, the friend of God. must
we over ishmael Isaac must we poverty so Jose a prophet of
God is got a wife who's a prostitute Jacob whose name is changed Israel
the prince of God when you like to be that 10 of his sons turned
on one of them and sold him into slavery. Now, how'd you like
that in your house? What would you think if a bunch
of your children ganged up on one of the others? And I know
you can't sell somebody into slavery, but what if they found
some way to take everything they had? Well, they just wouldn't
have anything to do with them. Family troubles. They have them. It has nothing to do with the
fact that they don't know how to raise a family. They don't
have anything to do with the fact that they're not, quote,
spiritual enough. It just happens. Family troubles. And then disasters fall upon
the people of God. We saw that as we looked there
at those, what was it, six trumpets? We saw all those things that
happened, war and famine. These all fall on believers too.
And the example here is Job. Why, the Sabaeans took all his
oxen and donkeys, and the fire of God fell and burned up his
sheep and servants. The Chaldeans took his camels.
A wind, I suppose something like a tornado, hit the house where
his children were feasting and wiped all of them out. Then Satan
took his health away and made his wife bitter towards him.
And then he got those three so-called friends who sat around and condemned
him for it. I haven't lost faith. You know,
when I read Job, I think, you know, my life's been pretty good. And
that all happened to him in just a short time. Most of it happened
in one day. And you know what God had said
of Job? He said to Satan, if you notice Job, he's a perfect
man. Well, you know, if you just live
right, these things wouldn't happen to you. Job was living right. Aren't you glad? that he's called
the God of all comfort. You may not need it right this
moment, but it will not be long. You will need it. You may not
ever need it on the level that Job needed it, but you will need
it. And probably, all four of those
areas I mentioned, the moral, the thorn, the family, and the
disasters, in some measure, you're going to taste them. So good that there's a God of
all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles. Now, how
so? Well, look over at 1 John chapter
1. First John chapter one, we got
moral troubles. How does God comfort us? Verse
seven, but if we walk in the light, that's in the truth. That's
what he's talking about, the truth of the gospel. If we walk
in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with
one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son,
purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our
sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Now, there's no question we're
going to sin. That's not an issue, is it? We're
going to sin. We're going to struggle, and
struggle will often fall. Here's God's comfort. You continue
to walk in the gospel, the blood of my son will purify you from
all of them. That is what he means by that.
He'll wash them away. Inside of God, they're gone. If you'll
confess Him, if you'll just quit trying to hide Him and quit trying
to pretend you're some super-righteous Christian that's reached some
level of spirituality as, what's that one hymn, I rise to walk
in God's own light above the world in sin, I'm sorry, I've
not been able to walk that high yet. I'm right down here in the
middle of it. Oh, if you ever get that idea
that you're above the world in sin, my friends, the blood of
Jesus Christ is not purifying your sin. You're not being forgiven,
for it says, if we confess our sins, if we confess that we're
right in the middle of a cesspool of our own wickedness, He is faithful, faithful to His
promise, faithful to the blood of His Son. He's just, and He'll
forgive us our sins. and cleanse us from that unrighteousness. Oh, the comfort that comes to
the soul when we are able to lay hold
of that glorious truth. Oh, it's so hard for me because
I keep going back to that David thing. How can a believer do
that? Well, I ought to know by now because I've done it plenty.
It happens. And that's why these scriptures
are written for us. that we may have the comfort
of God's grace right in the very face and teeth of our sin and
say, yes, I am a sinner, but the blood of Jesus Christ has
put away my sin and I'll never pay for it. Thorn troubles. How does God
bring us comfort in that? You know what I thought of immediately
when I thought of thorn trouble? And they twisted together a crown
of thorns and pushed it in his head. The idea was that they
put it on his head and shoved it in so it hurt. Friends, you
may have a thorn. He had many. Our Lord had no
weaknesses in himself, but he bore our weaknesses. That's what
that crown of thorns symbolizes. He bore the curse. Our thorns
come to us by way of the curse. He bore the curse. Yes, these
thorns will trouble us. They'll be painful. We'll wish
we could be rid of them. And blessed be His name, someday
we will be rid of them. Because He bore them. Isn't that
comforting? Whenever you feel that weakness
hold you back and trip you up, you remember. He bore the crown
of thorns, and someday that thorn will be removed. Someday, the Lord's offering,
there in the book of Revelation, we'll get to it eventually, it
says there is no more curse. No more curse. Family troubles. Oh, I can we can come to our Lord Jesus Christ.
He knew family troubles. You realize that? He suffered
family troubles. You say, where did the Lord ever
suffer family troubles? His brothers. It says his brothers
didn't believe him. And not only did they not believe
him, they mocked him. Now imagine that. He was like
Joseph among his brothers. The Lord Jesus among his brothers.
Yeah, Jesus, what are you going to do now? That was their attitude.
Aren't you going to go up to the feast now? I mean, if you
really want to become famous, you need to go up to Jerusalem
during the feast and show yourself there. But more than this, the Lord has family troubles among His
people, whom He calls His mothers and
His brothers and His sisters. He says, these who believe in
me, these are my mothers and these are my brothers. And boy,
doesn't he have some family troubles there. We may be sheep, but we're all
the black sheep, aren't we? We're the black sheep of the
family. The Lord knows the grief of family troubles. And you may
pour out your grief to him and know that he understands. and
disaster. Oh my. Disasters may fall upon us, but
none so great a disaster as fell upon our Lord in Gethsemane,
when He sweared as it were great drops of blood, and pled with
the Father that there be another way, and yet submitted Himself
to the Father's will. No disaster will ever fall us,
Like what befell him in that hour when he cried out, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You know, disaster fell on
Job, but he said, The Lord gave and the Lord took away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. I know that my Redeemer lives,
and even though according to this body, or so far as this
body is concerned, worms shall eat my flesh, yet in my flesh
I'll see God. That was his comfort in the midst
of all of that for Job. God had not left him. But our
Lord Jesus didn't even have that comfort. God had left him. No disaster will ever befall
you any greater than that which befell the Savior. And because
that disaster befell Him, it will never fall on you who believe
Him. All your disasters will be less
than His. And you know, it says of Job,
that once the whole trial was over, God restored to him double
what he had before. Now, we're not to take that to
mean that when disaster comes our way, that sometime later
in our lives, God's going to give us double what he took away.
If we had 100,000 in the bank and he let us go bankrupt, oh
boy, someday I'll have 200,000. No. Someday you'll have riches
untold in his presence. You may grieve over your family
here. Someday you'll be in that family
of believers where there is no grief, where there is no disappointment,
where there is no sorrow. You may lose everything here. In fact, someday you will. That's
not a maybe, that's a will. Someday you'll lose it all because
you'll be gone But if your trust is in the Lord You will gain it all there as
soon as you lose it all here There is no eternal loss to the
people of God no everlasting disaster to them Now, I don't know what's going
to happen in the next 24 hours. I hope no disaster befalls me.
It might. It might get a phone call, awful
news. Something might happen to me. And I hope that when that time
comes, I'll be able to bear it as cheerfully as I'm talking
about right now. But I doubt it. That's not the way we work. It's called trouble because it's
troubling. It's called grief because it's
grievous. It's called a thorn because it
hurts. And God never expected us to
face our troubles without a tear without a sigh or without a moan. He just expects us to face them,
trusting Him and deriving our comfort from Him. And if we learn
to do that, we'll find His comfort. Heavenly Father, great is Your
name. Wonderful are these names given
to us, the Father of mercy. How we love to use that name,
for we need mercy. God of all comfort, how good
to know that when we're troubled we may run to you for comfort. Lord, open our eyes to see your
grace. Open our eyes to see your compassion toward us. That in
the midst of all our troubles we may glorify you and show to others what it really
means to believe God. Bless the people that have gathered
here this evening, Lord. May this word find a good place in their hearts, a
secure place, and may it never leave them. Increase our faith. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. Okay, you are dismissed.