Our final speaker this evening,
Brother Terrell, comes from Iowa. He's got the same face he's always
had. I started to say his new face,
but it's the same old face, isn't it? It's new to us, Joe. We're
very glad to have you. His wife, Bonnie, has been our
organist tonight, and I trust we'll be through Sunday. In fact,
if you just want to stay on and just let him go on back to Iowa,
we will be glad to have you around here. But, Joe, it's good to
have you, and we're delighted that God has brought you here,
and we look forward to listening to the gospel that you're going
to deliver to us. And I know you're going to exalt
our Savior. I look forward to hearing you
come on and preach to us. Alright, if you'd open your Bibles
to the 77th Psalm. Now, I was raised mostly in West
Virginia. I now live in the northwest corner
of Iowa, and that is partly the fault of this church. About 20 or so years ago, there
was a conference here, and Brother Don Fortner preached at that
conference. There was also a man here from
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, who was at that time meeting with
a group of people in northwest Iowa, and they were trying former
church. That man's name was Herm Roseboom.
And he heard Brother Don Fortner preach, and that made the connection
between that group in northwest Iowa and the circle of churches
that we commonly associate with. And I remember one time, I was
down in Franklin, Tennessee, and Don Fortner said there's
a group trying to make a church up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
At that time, that's where they were meeting. I said, I'm trying
to arrange some preachers to go up for him. I said, no thank
you, I've got a church. A year and a half later, they
called me. And I wasn't there at the house. Bonnie took the
call and couldn't commit to me coming up there to fill in for
him. Actually, they got Brother John
Chapman to come up that weekend to arrange for it. Bought plane
tickets for him. In the meanwhile, well, you just talk about the
providential twist. Brother Mahan called John Chapman.
Brother Mahan was down in Sylacauga, Alabama at the time, holding
a meeting there. And he told John, he says, you
send your tickets to Joe. Let him go up to Iowa. You come
down here to Sylacauga. And back then you could fly under
somebody else's name and get away with it. And that's what
I did in December of 1986. And in May of 87, I moved up
there. So I was a little over 19 years,
I've been in Iowa, and it's your fault. No, I'm delighted to be there.
I can't imagine that so long as there is a group there that
wants to hear the gospel that I'd never go anywhere else. And
we have a symbiotic relationship. I'm always afraid they'll fire
me, and they're always afraid I'll leave. So we've got each
other under the thumb. When I was 18 years old in the
spring of my senior year of college, I got it in my head that I should
preach, that I should, my church would call it, commit myself
to full-time service to the Lord. I never asked if there was such
a thing as part-time. But I felt pretty good about
myself for having done it. And I went home when I got this
idea in my mind, and I told my father about it. And my dad,
in a whole lot more words than this, but he essentially said,
do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into? And of
course, I didn't. I didn't have a clue. But a good many years of preaching
the gospel, at least as we count years, has taught me some things. And one thing I have learned
is this. If God gives a man any gifts, He will, with those gifts,
give him weaknesses. It's just going to happen. Paul
was probably the most gifted of all the apostles and the weakest.
God inflicted him with something. We don't know what it was, and
I'm glad we don't. It's kind of like the X in the equation.
Just put in whatever applies to you, and you can claim the
same grace that Paul did. But whatever these afflictions
are that God gives, especially to His preachers, they are such
that it makes the preacher feel as though He can't do as well
as if he didn't have that particular thorn or affliction. I don't
know what Paul's affliction was, but I know that he felt that
it was hindering him from all that he could do if he didn't
have that thorn. And that's exactly why God put
it there. So that Paul would know that anything that he got
done, it was God that did it. puts these thorns in the flesh,
and God's people struggle with them, God's preachers in particular,
they'll struggle with them, and they'll struggle with them all
their lives, and out of those struggles will come that which
is helpful to the people of God. You know, there's only one preacher
that was perfect and can do anybody any good, and that was the Lord
Jesus Christ. If I were gifted without a thorn,
I would be utterly useless to you or anybody else. That's just
the way it is. So out of these struggles comes
the distinctive message often that a preacher will have. We
all have but one message, it's Christ and Him crucified, but
the way in which it is preached often is derived from the experiences
of the preacher as he struggles with that thorn that God put
in him. Now, we have such a psalm before
us now. You know, we're not very honest.
We just aren't. We're all pretenders. Everybody
here is pretending to be what he is not. And you know, that pretense that
we maintain is terribly wearisome. The burdens that we lay on ourselves,
the religious expectations that we lay upon ourselves, even as
believers in the sovereign grace of God, are every bit as burdensome
and binding and wearisome as the law of Moses. And they rob us. This pretense
that we maintain robs us of much of the joy that we could experience
if we just dispense with the pretense. You say, well, I don't
have any pretense. Well, let me ask you this. Have
you ever stood around and heard people talking about the preacher's
message and how good it was? And you sit down and nod your
head, yeah, that's good, and you didn't get a thing out of it? If you're honest, you'd say,
well, that's me. We pretend we're confident when we're shaky. We pretend assurance when we're
doubtful. We pretend to joy when we're
miserable. We pretend to love what we hear
when we didn't hear anything. We pretend because all of us
have been taught to lie. We came into the world speaking
lies, and even though our mom and dad told us that honesty
was the best policy, that was so many words they said. They
taught us what we were supposed to pretend like we were doing.
Preachers teach us. Sovereign gracious preachers
do it. They'll tell you, now this is
how a true Christian is, and we go out and we try to pretend
that's what we are. Well, fortunately for you and
me, the Scriptures are quite honest. And the lying men who
wrote them were forced by the Holy Spirit of God to be honest. And here's what I found. If I
will be honest as I look at the Scriptures, if I will look at
the forced honesty of the men who wrote the Scriptures, I will
find myself in those Scriptures. And I will be able to draw comfort
from their own struggles. Have you ever had some symptom
that scared you? Some medical symptom, you know,
a pain. What's that? Healthy people don't feel like
that. I must have cancer. What is a joy to you? If you
can find somebody else that had exactly the same pain, and it's
found out they really weren't sick. It's just some phantom
pain. Well, that's what we're going to do
this evening. Whether or not you will admit it, you've got
pains. And you've got pains that trouble you. And you've got pains
that make you wonder whether or not you know God. And you
may put on a smiling face for us, just like I put on a smiling
face for you. But in the recesses of the secrecy
of your own soul, you've got symptoms that trouble you. And
you'd like to know if there's anybody with the same symptoms
that survived. Well, there is. He wrote about
it right here. And God had him record it. And I suppose what
he's recorded here is just about as low as a believer can get.
But he's a believer. He says, I cried unto God with
my voice, even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear to
me. You say, well, that sounds pretty
upbeat. He said that for one reason, so that you'd know that
the things he about to write and tell about himself and his
thoughts and his experiences are the thoughts and experiences
of a believer saved by the grace of God. He said, I cried to the
Lord and He heard me. I called upon the name of the
Lord and He saved me. And I'm going to tell you what it's like
to live as a believer in God. Sometimes, not always, but this
happens. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. Now in the
King James it says, my soul ran in the night and ceased not.
My soul refused to be comforted. The word could be translated
sore, but the fact is, to make sense, and even in the margin
it'll say this, he says he stretched out his hands. He stretched out,
my hand was stretched out in the night. What's this? What's
he talking about? He's awake at night. When all the rest of the people
are sleeping soundly, his hand is stretched out to God. I cease not. Here's a man who
prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. And he kept praying
because in all his prayers, he found no comfort. He said, my
soul refused to be comforted. I've heard people say things
and maybe it's true of them. But you know, when I get down,
I just go to my closet and pray, and all is well. And I hear them say things like
that, and like I said, for them it may be true, but I think to
myself, sometimes, sometimes not. Sometimes I go and pray,
or I go to the so-called closet to pray, and I've got nothing
to say. Or I say something, and I say
it and I know it's without heart, And my soul refuses to be comforted. I'll give you an idea of what
that means, to refuse to be comforted. It's like Jacob. The same phrase
is used to describe when Jacob heard that Joseph had been killed. He said his soul refused to be
comforted. Here is a man who is so down.
I don't know for sure why he was down. You know, we trouble
ourselves a whole lot with questions of why, when it doesn't matter
why, it only matters that the fact is true. This man was troubled,
so deeply troubled that there was nothing that his soul would
accept as comfort. Have you ever been sat down,
and a brother will come up to you and try to give you a word
of encouragement, and you'll smile and say thank you and act
like it did something for you, and it didn't? Yeah. He says, now look here,
here's another troubling thing. And you know, this is a condition
that religion doesn't want to acknowledge. When I say religion,
when I use that word, I'm talking about what men think in terms
of worshiping God. Religion wants nothing to do
with this psalm. It will not acknowledge that
it is a real experience. It will not consider it an experience
which God initiated for His glory and the good of His people. They'll
say that it's an experience from which you need to be fixed. and
remedied. But that's not how it's presented
here. But notice this, verse 3. Here's how low a believer
gets. I remembered God and was troubled. Oh, God is such a comfort to
me. Not always to me. Sometimes He's terribly troubling. It says here in Verse 9, the last part, "...hath
he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" I assume that the psalmist
here feels that he's done something to provoke God's anger. Therefore,
thoughts of God are not pleasant thoughts. When he thinks of God,
all he can think of is whatever he did. Look what I've done to make God
angry. Thoughts of God can be very troublesome even to a believer. He says, I complained. It is,
I issued my complaint. I poured out my soul. And my
spirit was not lifted up by that. It was overwhelmed. You know,
a lot of times you can find comfort in just disgorging yourself of
your troubles. To find a friend and tell him
what's going on. And just in getting it out, you
feel better. And sometimes in prayer, and
sometimes this is beneficial, in prayer you just pour out your
soul to God and just telling Him your troubles gives you some
relief. He said, I complained and my spirit was just overwhelmed. It added insult to injury. Verse
4, Thou holdest mine eyes waking. I've heard people say things
like, you know, the man believed God, Just lay down and go sleep
like a baby. If he just kept awake at night
by his anxieties and his troubles, it just shows he didn't trust
in God. I want you to notice something. This man did not say,
I could not go to sleep. He said, you hold my eyes awake. Brethren, this is from God. I want to point that out first
of all as a word of comfort to anyone who may be struggling
like this psalmist did. And you lay on your bed tossing
and turning and cannot sleep. And you might think, well, how
can I be a child of God and I cannot find rest? Think on this. It's God keeping
you awake. I don't know why. I'm not going
to try to tell you why to any of this. or what purpose shall
be served by it. But if you're awake, it's God
keeping you awake. And I also say that to any of
you who, through stout constitution or whatever, never experiences
anything like that. Don't you look down on your brother
who does. It's God keeping him awake. Don't
find fault with the providence of God as he deals with one of
his own in a way that seems fit to him. And also, Don't judge
your brother who suffers like this, lest God put you through
the same wringer. Now hold this mind, I am waking.
I am so troubled that I cannot speak." He had opened his mouth and didn't
know what to say. He could not speak to tell out his troubles.
He could not speak to pray. He could not speak to preach. He couldn't speak. He says, verse 5, I've considered
the days of old. I've rolled them over in my mind.
The years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song
in the night. Now here's something to point
out. He says, I call it to remembrance. You don't remember what you have
right now. You remember what you used to
have and no longer have. This man had no song in the night.
This man had nothing within his soul to uplift him in the darkness
of whatever he was going through. It was all blackness. That's
all. I commune with my own heart and
my spirit made diligent search. I imagine that this communing
and this diligent search was along the lines of that psalm
that says, Why art thou cast down on my soul? Why groan within
me? You know, it's one thing to suffer
for reasons you understand, for griefs in your life, for circumstances
that God's providence has brought in. It's another thing altogether
to be troubled and you having a clue why. to just be burdened and overwhelmed. And you look at the objective
facts of your life, and they're wonderful. You've got all the
food you need to eat. You've got a loving wife, a loving
husband, and kids that bring you pride, a full pantry, a nice house. And you're troubled. And you
don't know why. And you think about it. And thinking
about it only makes it worse. And look what came up. what he
thought. Look what thoughts bubbled up
as he communed. Six despairing questions. And I'll tell you this, if any
man asked these questions out loud, anybody that heard him
would wonder if he knew God at all. They just would. But these are questions asked
by a man who believed God, a man who'd been chosen by God, redeemed
by Christ, who'd been called by the Holy Spirit, was regenerated. And he asked these six questions. Will the Lord cast off forever?
Now, notice this. He did not say, Will the Lord
cast off? He was quite confident that's what had happened. That's
certainly what it felt like. His question is, Is this going
to go on forever? Which clues me in that whatever he was suffering
had already gone on a long time. It's one thing to suffer a serious
but momentary affliction, an overnight stress. It's another thing when this
trouble goes on for days, and for weeks, and for months, and
for years. And as near as you can tell,
You've been rejected. And you wonder, will it be forever? Rejected. Cut off. The man believed
God, he'd never feel cut off. This man believed God. He felt
like God had shoved him out. And his question is, is this
going to be forever? He said, will he be favorable
No more. That word would be probably what
we would most commonly associate with gracious. Will he be pleased
with me would be another translation. That is, will he no longer be
pleased with me at all ever again? You say, well, God's not pleased
with a believer. Then he's going to hell. God's
either pleased with you or you're going to hell. Now, we understand
that He's pleased with us in Christ, but He is pleased. And so He's saying, is He not
pleased with me anymore and will He never be pleased again? And here's the question that
drew me to this text of Scripture several weeks ago back in Iowa.
Is His mercy clean gone forever? I laid on my bed one Sunday afternoon,
not having a clue what I was going to preach that night, feeling cast off, feeling out
of His favor, figuring I'd have to go to church
that night and pretend I had something to say and trying to
figure what I could come up with. And this thought came to my mind.
This question arose in my mind. Because this was not a struggle
that began that week. It was a long time struggle.
And I thought, is His mercy clean gone forever? Mercy here, we
always think of mercy in legal terms, but that's really not
what the essence of the word is. It can be expressed in legal
ways. As a judge withholds a just punishment
from a man, That's a mercy, but that's only one kind of mercy.
Really, the word here is not talking about so much of an action
as an attitude. The word actually means pity.
You go by, well, they don't allow it anymore, but when I was growing
up in West Virginia, there were still the panhandlers, what we
now call homeless people. They were on the street downtown,
and you'd pass one, and you'd look at them, and they were diseased,
and they were poor, and they had sores. And you'd look at
them, and you felt sorry for them. Now that's what's meant
by mercy. Old Blind Bartimaeus sat there
by the wayside, and the Lord was coming by. And he cried out,
Jesus, our Son of David, have mercy on me. And I don't believe
at that point that he had a full-blown understanding of the concept
of salvation by grace, and that that's what he's asking for.
Here's what he was saying. He'd heard that this man could
heal the blind. And he was saying, as you walk by my spot, look
at me and feel sorry for me, because I know that if you feel
sorry for me, you'll do something for me. Now that's what's meant
by mercy. To pity the man who suffers.
And this guy is saying here, has God's pitying eye been shut
to me? Forever. As I sit beside the
road and cry out, I find no mercy from Him. Is it gone? Clean gone. Forever. When He looks at me, is there
no tear? Is there no concern for my awful
situation? You say, what an awful accusation
to make against God. Like those disciples in the boat
who said, Lord, do you not care that we perish? Yeah, that's
awful, but we do it. You see, while this Scripture
does not teach us that these are good thoughts to have, they
nonetheless teach us that they're thoughts that believers have. That's the honesty part. Listen to this question. Doth
His promise fail forevermore? Faith lives on the promises of
God. We believe that what God has
promised, God has power to do. We believe that God is faithful
and will perform His promise until someday, we say, has His
promise failed? Maybe this gospel isn't going
to work after all. A believer would never think
that. This believer did. And this believer did. Does God's promise fail forever? Verse 9, hath God forgotten to
be gracious? Now, this word gracious is not
the word meaning favor. It actually indicates one who
can be entreated, can be asked. If we would put it in maybe words,
we could understand, has God forgotten how to answer prayer?
Has God shut up his ears? Has the door to the throne of
grace been shut? that we may no longer go with
boldness there to find mercy to help us in our time of need."
Why would he think that? Because he'd prayed a long time
and nothing had happened. He'd prayed a long time and made
his voice loud and stretched forth his hands and he'd heard
nothing in return. And finally, hath he in anger
shut up his tender mercies? Have I provoked him so much that
he will not show me mercy?" This word here, translated mercy,
it is so instructive of what he means here. Actually, it is
the word for the womb. That's its essential meaning.
And the idea is that a woman within her womb nurtures and
cares for that child. It is the place of greatest safety. for that forming child. And here's
what he's saying. Has God, in His anger, aborted
me? Everybody's quiet. I think I
know why. Whether or not you'd ever admit
it to anybody else, these questions have gone through your mind.
For some of you, it may have gone by for a moment, For some
of you, for a week, a month. Some of you may have been asking
these questions for years. Let me give you a little word
of comfort right now. It don't mean a thing that you're
asking them. By that I mean, it does not mean you're lost.
It does not mean that any of your questions are answered,
yes, you've been rejected. God's forgotten how to answer
prayer. The fact that you ask the questions does not even mean
that you don't really know the real answer. It just means you're a human
being. And I'll tell you another thing it means. It probably means
you are a child of God, because a child of the devil would never
ask a question like that. Neither he'll never ask it because
he doesn't care. It never crossed his mind. Or he is so presumptuously
confident of everything, it never crossed his mind to question
it. In another psalm, possibly written
by the same psalmist, I can't remember, I think it's Psalm
71, but I'm not sure. He's complaining about the wicked
and how well they prosper. And it says, he lays home of
heaven and earth. What is he? He is your typical
religious man who does very well in the world and is confident
he's got hold of heaven too. These questions never come to
such a man's mind. He dies in peace. Of course,
the moment he dies, his peace is over with. It's a child of
God that struggles with these things. And here's why. He's
utterly invested in their answer. Where am I without the mercy
of God? In hell. Where am I if the throne of grace
is shut up, lost? It matters to me what the answer
to these questions is. Well, it says in verse 10, now
that's the six despairing questions. There's three answers, and bear
with me for a little bit because I think they'll be a blessing
to you. Three answers that he gives. And they're not necessarily
free answers that are going to relieve you of all the distress
that these questions can bring. Friends, from now on, if you
believe God, from now until you die, it's a struggle. Just write
that down. It's the way it is. It is the life of a believer. You know, you say, I hate pain.
Well, one thing pain proves to you, that's that you're alive.
Dead people feel no pain. So if you feel spiritual pain,
be glad. It means you're alive. You can
feel pain. But here he begins, he says in
verse 10, and I said, this is my infirmity, but I will remember
the years of the right hand of the Most High. You'll notice
those words, but I will remember, are in italics. I guess this
is one of those times that the Hebrew language is particularly
difficult to translate. I looked up that word for infirmity.
It also means this is my appeal. I don't know how it can mean
both, but you've got to trust the books that you read, you
know, the reference works. And another translation puts
it this way, and I think it gets it right, to this will I appeal.
In the depths of my trouble, when I can't see God, like Job
said, he knows the way that I take, but I haven't a clue where he
is. When I cannot see anything right
now, which would give my soul any confidence, I'll appeal to
days gone by, the years of the right hand of God." Now, I have
heard and even accepted this statement, though I do not think
that it's true anymore. I've heard people say, well,
if I had to look back five minutes to find any reason to believe
God had been gracious to me, I would figure I was lost. That's
not what this fellow did. He said, I can't see it now,
but I can look back and see it. And I can give myself this bit
of comfort. Despite the way things look right
now, if God was ever gracious to me, He still is. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed." Friends, you change. Someday you would feel like you
could never ask these questions. You'd feel like you're on the
top of the mountain, maybe. You'd feel as though the mercy
of God is just flowing in you and flowing out of you all over
because it's just so full of it. But then you'll change. He didn't. He didn't. The fact that you
can't see His mercies does not mean they're not there. The fact
that you cannot hear His answer does not mean He has not answered. I will look back and I'll remember
when I could hear the gospel. I didn't hear it tonight, brother,
but I've heard it before. That's how I know I didn't hear
it tonight. I'm not talking about me tonight. Sorry, Gary. I'm
not putting off on you like that. That's one of them general things,
you know. There's times I didn't. I've sat through entire Bible
conferences that I've preached at and didn't hear a thing from
one of the other preachers. Is that too honest? That's just so. I mean, I might
as well stay at home until I preach, and sometimes I preach and figure
I might as well stay at home then, too. I will appeal to the ears of
the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of
the Lord. I will remember when He worked His works of grace
in me and realize that He that began a good work in me will
continue it. Whether or not I can see it,
it's going on. Surely I will remember thy wonders
of old. Did you ever believe the gospel?
And by that I mean that with that confidence. Did you? That's
a miracle. I tell you, that is a miracle,
that is a sovereign grace miracle, full of the same sovereign power
that called the universe into existence. Because for you to
believe the gospel required God to create something that wasn't
there before. When it says, they that are in
the flesh cannot please God, that's because they can't believe,
and the reason they can't believe is because faith is an act of
the Spirit and they're spiritually dead. It doesn't matter what
they do in the flesh. Paul said that concerning that
righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. And he
did not make that as an idle boast. It was something. But
he still didn't please God. Because without faith it's impossible
to please God. And I don't care what you do
as a natural person. You cannot please God who is
spirit. It takes something spiritual to do that. And that's what believing
God is. It's a spiritual act, performed
only by those who are spiritually alive, which is an act of sovereign
power. I will meditate also of all thy
work and talk of thy doings. Here's one thing I have found
that's good in my own experience when I go through times like
this. Remember I told you about God gives everybody struggles?
Particularly those that preach. This is my struggle. This is
it right here. This is where I live most of
the time. But here's what's good for me and what helps me. To
meditate on His work. Just to think about it. And to
tell someone else about it. Like I'm doing tonight. I don't
know if God made me this way because I'm a preacher and to
keep me humble or He made me a preacher so I could get through
being like this. I don't know which one it is. I love to tell
people The gospel. Most of the time. Most of the
time. Because whether or not it does
him any good, it usually does me some good. Okay, here's the
second thing. The first one is remember. Secondly,
keep this in mind. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our
God? Now, by the sanctuary, he didn't mean this building of
the church. That word sanctuary means holy place. He's saying,
your royal God's in the holy place. Now, this man knew something
about the holy place. He knew what went on in there.
The holy place is not a pretty place. It's a glorious place,
but it's a place of savagery. It is a bloody mess. You know,
when the high priest would go back there into the sanctuary,
the most holy place, once a year. Now, he went in there with them
garments on, you know. And he went in there with incense.
He went in there with all those things. But you know what the
Scriptures point out he went in there with? Once a year, not
without blood. If you're going to forget anything,
don't forget that. Because the essential characteristic
of the most holy place is vengeance against sin, satisfied by death. Now friends, if that's God's
way, just realize if you follow in that way, it's a rough way. It's a rough way. It's going to be hard on your
flesh. Because I tell you what God's going to do with your flesh,
He's going to kill it. He's going to kill it. He's going
to kill it before your eyes. And he may take all your life
to do it. I don't just mean that you're going to die at the end
of it. He's killing it now. And one of the things that we
often take comfort in, and take some confidence in, is how good
we feel. And we think that means we're
saved. We think that means we belong to God. And so God kills
it. He says, you think because you
didn't sleep through your troubles that you belong to me? I'm going
to keep you awake. Then what are you going to do? You think
that your prayers are going to comfort your soul? I'm going
to shut the door. Then what are you going to do? I'm going to put you in a position
where you have nothing, nothing but My Word. I know people that
for years and years and years have been right here. And there
are people who will persecute such folks and say, well, they
must not have strong faith. Let me tell you as one who spent
some time here, there is no faith like the faith that can live
through this. Faith is that which is based upon the Word of God,
and it is purest when it has nothing but the Word of God to
hang on to. Nothing. The highway, O God, is in the
sanctuary, and that was a bloody, violent place. And if you're
following God, expect, spiritually speaking, a bloody, violent life. Thou art the God that doest wonders.
Thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with
thine arm redeemed thy people. Here's the sanctuary. And I like
this, the sons of Jacob. Don't we like to name Israel
better? I'm sons of Israel. I don't feel like Israel very
often, but now I can identify with Jacob. That old cheat and
scoundrel. There I am. And that's who God
redeemed. Then verse 16, the water saw
thee. Oh God, the water saw thee. They were afraid. The depths
also were troubled. The clouds poured out water.
The sky sent out a sound. Thine arrows went also abroad.
The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven, the lightnings
lightened the world, the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is
in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps
are not known." What's he talking about here? He's looking back
on some of the days of the right hand of God when God led Israel
out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. That's the event he's describing
here. Now here's what happened. You
know, we've got the Hollywood version. But that ain't how it
happened, really. I want you to try to put yourself
in the position of these Jews, as they've come out of Egypt,
and now here before them is the Red Sea, and behind them is Pharaoh's
army. And they're saying to Moses,
Why didn't you listen to us back in Egypt? We may as well have
stayed there and served the Egyptians. At least we live out our lives.
Now look what's going to happen to us. And Moses said, stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. And when God got done
showing them His salvation, it was scarcely less frightening
than Pharaoh's armies. Clouds. Thunder. Lightning. Wind. And the sea opens up. I've never
thought about this before, but the sea is opened up by the wind.
Now how can there be a wind that will open up the sea, but won't
blow me away? Now I want to ask you a question. You're standing there. You're
just a Jew that's been, you and your ancestors have been in Egypt
for 400 years. And some man takes a stick and
goes like this. And there's clouds and there's lightning and there's
thunder and there's a wind. The sea opens up and he says,
alright, go through there. I'll cast my lot with Pharaoh
because he does need some help, and he might spare my life if
I promise to make bricks again. After all, this is all your fault,
Moses. I had nothing to do with it." When you begin to see God's salvation,
you'll find that to the flesh it is scarcely less terrifying
than hell. In fact, When the Egyptians tried to use
it, it killed them. That way that God makes is for
God's people alone. If anybody else tries to use
it for their own advantage, it will kill them. You say, I believe God, but I'm
terrified. I'm not surprised. God's a terrifying
God. Whatever God is doing with you,
and I don't know your lives, I hardly know anybody here but
the men who have preached and a few that have come, like Brother
Bruce here, I hardly know anybody, so I don't know who I'm talking
to tonight and who may be gaining an advantage from this. But I want to say this to you
who believe, despite all your troubles, you may be asking these
questions. Your life may be awful right
now. You may think that you've been cast off. But here's what
I want to say to you. Whatever is happening to you,
it is salvation. That's just it. Whatever God's
doing to you, is your salvation. You say, well, from what I can
tell, He's killing me. That's part of it. It's part of it. If you're feeling this way, you
have a companion in me. I've been there. I've lived there. So I know wherever I speak. And
I found this when I've told people I live there, I find out I've
got a lot more companions than I thought I did. And a lot more people
live here than want to admit to it, because they're still
pretending. But I want to tell you another companion you have.
Our Lord Jesus Christ. You say, He never felt this.
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? And I cast off forever. Have you forgotten how to hear
my prayers? I cannot begin to describe to
you, because I don't understand, all that went on when our Lord
died for our sins. I cannot describe to you who
our Lord is. It's a mystery. He's God in human
flesh, and yet everything He did while He was here, He did
entirely as a man. Even His preaching, He said,
is by the Spirit of God. He did not operate under His own steam.
And when He laid down His life, brethren, I want you to think
this, He literally laid it down. He relinquished control of it,
though He had the right to say whether He lived or died. He
relinquished that right. What were his last recorded words?
Into your hands I commit my spirit. And our Lord gave up control
at the very time when he had absolutely no witness to the
favor of the Father towards him. And brethren, you can do the
same. When you have no inner testimony,
when you can't hear the Spirit of God crying, I have a Father
in you. And when you can't cry it in return, when your prayers
go essentially unanswered, nearly as you can tell, you can still
commit yourself unto God. I want to read you a hymn that
I heard recently. It's called, I See Things Upside
Down. And we do. We got it all backwards from
the way it really is. And see if these words are a
comfort to you. What looks like failure is success. And what looks like poverty is
true riches. And what is true looks more like
a knife. It looks like you're killing
me, but you're saving my life. What looks like weakness can
do anything. What looks like foolishness is
understanding. And what is powerful has not
come to fight. It looks like you're going to
war, which you laid down your life. What looks like torture
is a time to rejoice. And what sounds like thunder
is a comforting voice. And what is beautiful is broken
and crushed. I say, I don't know you. And
you say, it's finished. There'll be times when you'll
be here. The life of the child of God
is not easy. It's not pretty. But it is salvation. The grace of the Lord be with
you.