Many people in society suffer
horrible abuse by the government. In our society, we have seen
people suffering abuse because of racial bigotry and prejudice
in many ways. I suppose of all people, socially
speaking, civically speaking, none have been more abused than
the Indians. North America by the people who
took their land. The Cherokee Indian tribes were
peaceful tribes, non-warring agricultural people. And they
have a drama and a story that's told in pictures as well and
displayed on the Cherokee reservation in Cherokee, North Carolina.
They were forced to march In horrid circumstances, from their
homes in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina, got to throw
that in, out to the most desolate, empty, barren, worthless land
in the middle of Oklahoma that you can imagine. And most of
them died in the process of slaughter because of cruelty. They call
that the Trail of Tears. As I was preparing this message,
I thought that's a pretty good description of the trail of God's
people in this world. It is a trail of demons. Always
has been. And always will be. That's not much of what it
gets folks excited about. Christianity? No. It's the game of truth. That's
just a waste of time. Faith in Christ? does not produce
a life of peace and tranquility and ease in this world. Faith
in Christ will throw you into the midst of conflict you never
imagined you would have otherwise. Faith in Christ will bring upon
you sorrows and troubles and trials from the most unexpected
sources all the days of your life. It has always been the
lot of God's people in this world to suffer persecution at the
hands of men, and more often than not, at the hands of men
who profess to be the servants of our God. The cause of this
relentless persecution is just one thing. It is the gospel of
God's grace. It is just a declaration that
righteousness comes only by free grace through a substitute. The
offense of the cross As a matter of fact, Paul said there are
many who write to the Galatians and those false prophets who
came in teaching works, religion, salvation by what you do, who
said these fellows constrain you to be circumcised. They constrain
you to keep the law only because they would make a fair show in
the flesh only They feared that they might suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. In other words, they counted
the cost, and they said, we ain't gonna pay it, but we're not gonna
give up our religion, and we're not gonna give up our position,
and we're not gonna give up our job, we're not gonna give up
our salary, we're not gonna give up our positions. They've constrained
you to do what they know no man can do, save himself, lest they
suffer persecution like I have. That's what Paul said. This persecution
is well described by Jeremiah in Lamentations Chapter 5. You
don't need to turn there. You can look at it later. Listen.
This is the circumstance and condition of God's church in
all ages, in all the world, everywhere. Now, let me stress this. No,
we do not suffer in our land the physical, violent persecutions
that men do in other lands still to this day, and that men and
women have in lands in other places, in other ages of society. But God's people suffer persecution
in all ages and at all times. Jeremiah described it this way.
He said, our necks are under persecution. We get our bread
with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
For this, our heart is faint. what an honest way to describe
it. Yes, sir, the difficulties do cause our hearts to faint.
Yes, sir, the difficulties do cause our eyes to grow dim. Persecution is the lot of all
who walk by faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. Yea, and all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The persecutors
are not those we might suspect. You know, you kind of suspect
that if Brother Lance Heller down in New Guinea goes making
trouble for the witch doctors down there, they're going to
cause trouble. If our friends in Ivory Coast go preaching the
gospel and they make trouble for the witch doctors down there,
they're going to cause trouble. Brother Walter Gruber has had
a good many experiences making trouble for the witch doctors
down in Mexico. I didn't know they had witch doctors in Mexico.
They call them priests down there. They're papists. And you wouldn't
believe the things Walter could tell you stories those fellows
have done to try to stop the gospel. You expect that. But
the persecutors of God's people usually are not ignorant barbarians,
but rather they are highly educated, men and women of great respectability,
of high rank in society, They are, as Larry read in Daniel
3, people of political power, religious influence, magistrates,
governors, princes, kings, queens, popes, prelates, and priests.
All have dipped their hands with glee in the blood of God's saints.
Now those facts are so shocking that historians and educators
work real hard to try to cover it up. They work real hard to
try to give some extenuating circumstances. Now you can understand
this, if you understand the circumstances. You can excuse this sort if you
understand the times in which these people live. We don't live
in those times now. We're not like that. No, we wouldn't do
that now. And they try to make up horror
stories about God's people, at least to excuse or make justifiable
those persecutions. I'll guarantee you nobody here
Maybe some of you older folks, some of us older folks, maybe
some of us will remember in school. Now, I didn't hear it in school.
I didn't. I'm 51 years old. I didn't hear it in school. I
never heard anything in school about the persecutions of God's
people in England except that the pilgrims came here to escape.
That's all I ever heard about it. Never heard anything about
it. Anybody here go through school and not hear from the fourth
grade through high school and through college about those monstrous
witch huts in Salem, Massachusetts? hear about them today, all the
time. And the witch hunts were not what media makes it out to
be. They don't talk to me about it, so I'll never tell you about
it. The fellow who's accused of such horrid things was a remarkable
man named Cotton Mather. Those who thirsted for the blood
of God's saints have never been content merely to hurt, merely
to punish, or even to kill them. But they've invented the most
cruel, barbaric methods of torture imaginable so that they could
watch folks suffer as long as possible. Obviously, the question
has to be raised, what's God's purpose? Why? Why has God allowed such persecution?
Why does he allow it now? Unlike the persecutors, you see,
God's people understand. They know that the Lord, our
God, is the absolute sovereign of the universe, in absolute
control of all things. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased, whatsoever the Lord
pleased. That did He in heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in
all deep places. If God permits wicked men to
violently abuse His people, you can bank on it. He has a good
reason for doing so. Now, I can't cry into the mind
of the Almighty. I would not desire to do so. The secret will of God, I know
no more about it than you do. But there are some things that
are revealed for our learning, for our comfort, to teach us
patience and give us understanding. And these things are clearly
revealed. You might want to jot some of them down. Our trials,
whatever they are, our hardships, wherever they come from, they
come from God, our Heavenly Father, even when they come to us by
the hands of wickedness. All things are of God. I recall years ago reading a
story, a true story, one of God's saints during some time of great
difficulty, opposition to the gospel of God's grace. She had
been, her husband really had everything taken from him and
he was in prison for the faith and she and the children were
destitute and she She knelt one day by her window before her
children got up. The cupboards were bare. And
she prayed that the Lord would be pleased to send her a little
milk and a little bread for her children that day. And some teenagers,
boys, young men outside heard it. And they ran, picked up some
milk and some bread. And they brought it and set it
right up on the window ledge. I went about a business, and
she came back, she saw the bread and milk sitting there. And these
boys stood around and said what she was going to do. And she
started to praise God and give him thanks for it. And those
boys laughed when she heard it. They said, you think your God
brought you that? We brought that. And she said,
oh, no, son. The devil may have brought it. God may have sent the devil to
bring it, but he's the one who sent it. These things come from
our God, all things. By temptations and trials, by
persecutions, we are taught to lean on our Savior, finding all
grace, all sufficient in Him. Our flesh is such, and the struggles
we have with faith are such, that we will not lean on Christ,
except as He compels us to lean on Him. I would to God that weren't
so, but I know it is. And he graciously compels us
to. Our trials are intended by God to strengthen our faith,
to strengthen our faith in Christ and to make us grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Redeemer. Paul said, tribulation worketh
patience, and patience experience and experience hope because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Our trials are intended
by our Father. to teach us sympathy and compassion
with one another. They're designed to wean us from
this world, to set our hearts upon Christ and heaven's eternal
glory. And our trials are especially
designed by God. I'm talking specifically now
about those offenses that come because of the gospel. They're
especially designed and intended by God They come by the hand
of God's wise providence to separate the precious from the vile. Shelby's
been teaching her kids in the Bible class downstairs about
sowing the seed. You know how the Lord describes
that in the parable of Sower? It goes out to sow and some falls
by the wayside and some falls among thorns and some falls in
stony ground and some falls on good seed. And this is what he
says about stony ground heroes. They on the rock are they which,
when they hear, receive the word, rejoin. And these have no root, which
for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. Matthew puts it this way, when
tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, Let's have heaven in the sky
this week by and by, but let's not have any trouble here. We're
not going to put up with this. Oh no, I didn't think this is
the way it was going to be following Christ. No, I wasn't making on
this. That's the reason the Lord said
sit down and count the cost. But for believers, believers
consider the trial of their faith more precious than gold. I'll tell you what I've experienced.
I'm so glad to finally have some profit in age. I've experienced
enough that I can tell you some experiences. I'll tell you what
I've experienced. And I can't say much about trial. I can't
say much about persecution. I can't say much about heartache.
But I have never yet, not in all my life, I have never yet
experienced any heartache, any trouble, any opposition. any pain of any kind, from any
source, that didn't make me a better preacher, a better servant of
God, a better friend, I hope a better husband, better father,
better believer. Never. The trial, we only learn
through trial. We learn a lot in our noggins.
That is, we store a lot up there. I wouldn't say we learn it, we
store a lot up here. We don't learn anything. except as we
endure it. Oh, I wish I could have learned
that when I was a young man. I started preaching, I started
pastoring when I was just a young man, 20, 21 years old, 21 I guess,
and I had the world by the tail on downhill pull, and I knew
just about everything there was to know. I mean just about everything
there was to know. I had a story to tell. But I
didn't understand you can't learn except as you endure. Can't be
done. And as you endure things, you
learn a little sympathy, you learn a little compassion, you
learn a little tenderness, hopefully a little forgiveness. And for
that reason, God sends the trials. That faith you see, which is
the gift of God, endures to the end. Only that faith which comes
from God endures the testing of God. In the furnace of gold,
the gold and the silver are made brighter. The dross is consumed. So it is in the furnace of affliction.
True faith is made better. The false is consumed. Back there
in Daniel chapter 3, Larry and I were talking about that a little
bit earlier today. He asked me if I'd mind reading it. I said I'd
be delighted. You remember how the king took
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, those three Hebrew men, we call
them Hebrew children, we kind of think of them as little boys,
those were grown men. They were given positions of
rank in society in Babylon. And he had made his image. And
the Jews sought, or the Babylonians sought to accuse those Jews,
and they said, Nebuchadnezzar, do you remember Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego? They don't fall down and worship
your image like you told them to. Bring them here. Is it true? You're not going to fall down
and worship my image? Now if you don't, I'm going to put you in that
fire furnace. I'm going to throw you in the furnace. And they
said, King, we don't have to have business meetings about
this. We ain't going to worship it. We're just not going to do it. We don't
have to take a vote on this. We're not going to worship your image.
And he, his calculus changed. He was enraged. How come? What had they done? What violence
had they done? They just refused to worship
his Arminian God. They just refused to worship
his Babylonian image. They just refused to acknowledge
that that stump that he called a God was worthy of worship.
That's all. And he said, all right, keep
the furnace. We'll see if your God can deliver you out of my
hands. And they cast Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the
furnace. The fellas who cast Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego in, they were consumed with the fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
weren't even hurt by it. The smell of the smoke wasn't
on their clothes. The only thing the fire did to them was burn
the bonds with which they were tied. And when they came out of the
furnace, they were promoted. Now that's exactly what God does
through persecution. All he does is burn that which
binds us, separates the precious from the vile, shows who are
his and who are not, and promotes us by his grace and providence. Yes, the trial of faith is more
precious than gold that perishes. Precious to us because it makes
God's promise sweet. He said, I'll be with you. He
said, when you pass through the rivers, I'll be with you. When
you go through deep waters, I'll be with you. When you go through
the fiery furnace, I'll be with you. I really didn't know what he'd
be there. Now, there he is. I wasn't real sure. There he
is, with you. They're precious to our brethren
because it strengthens them in the faith to see you strengthened
in the faith. These trials are precious to
God because he's honored by those who honor him, believing even
in the midst of trial. And they will be found precious
when the Lord comes again to be admired in all them that listen
to him. Oh, blessed be his name. Our
God has arranged it so that these words are true. Our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. Now watch this. Turn over to
Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. I'll get
to the text in just a minute. In verses 33
through 38, this last section of this chapter, the Holy Spirit
shows us how that faith performs the most remarkable of deeds.
And that same faith suffers the most astonishing hardships. Looking
to Christ, believing Christ, seeking to honor Christ, faith
overthrows demons, slaughters lions, stops the mouths of lions. Seeking Christ, seeking to honor
Him, trusting Him, believing Him, faith endures the most cruel
persecutions. You see, faith is ready to do
either for the glory of God, at the will of God. Faith is ready to serve Him in
whatever capacity He would have us to serve Him. Ready to honor
Him however He would have us to honor Him. Faith is and wants
to. A.W. Peek, I thought, made an
astounding statement here. He said, the performing of spectacular
exploits and the enduring of terrible affliction Differ almost
as much to the flesh as do heaven and hell. But they are one to
faith when duty calls. Doing great things or enduring
the most horrible things. One thing. It's the will of God. That's all. And that's how faith
is. There's no task too great for our God and no task too great
for one who believes God. And there's no trial too great
for us to endure. Look at verse 37. Hebrews 11,
verse 37. These two verses describe some
of the great trials God's people of old have endured. They were
stoned. They were sewn asunder, were
kicked in, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in
sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Now, going
through this chapter, reading it again yesterday, I kept looking
at something Paul is here inspired to give us this great description
of faith, these marvelous examples of faith. And he begins, Rex,
back yonder with the first example of faith recorded in Scripture,
Abel. And he goes to Enoch, and he goes to Noah, goes to Abraham,
and Sarah, and Isaac, and Jacob. He speaks of Moses' faith, and
the faith of Samson, and Barak, and Samuel. And then he comes
down here, and starts to talk about persecutions, and afflictions,
and torments, and slaughters, and stonings, men being sewn
asunder, men being put to death in stones, being slaughtered
with the edge of the sword. And the next thing you see, in
chapter 12, you see faith sitting at its end, sitting in heavenly
glory, as a great cloud of witnesses. These folks you've been describing
right here. And it seems to be moving throughout
the chapter. If you could, sometimes when you read a story or read
a passage of scripture, a passage like this particularly, I'm not
much of a music lover, but I hear these, the music just moving
gradually. And it rises and then it comes
down again and moves a little, working to a crescendo. And here's
the crescendo. It comes to verse 37, so they
were sold and so on and so forth. In other words, this is faith
at its pinnacle. Here is faith at its utmost. Here is faith doing that which
it is most honoring to God for it to do. Here is faith at its
apex. You see, that faith which gives
men and women faithfulness to God when it appears God's forsaken
them. That faith that makes many women
steadfast when it appears that nothing around them steadfast.
That faith that causes many women to relentlessly cling to Christ
when it appears Christ has left them in the hands of their enemies.
That's faith. That's faith. Oh God, give me
such faith. Give me such faith. on earth does faith get such
strength from its object? Our Lord Jesus meekly, humbly submitted himself
and willingly endured the shame and the horror of all he endured
as our saying, thy will be done. Now that's true meekness. That's
true faith. A meek and quiet spirit is of
great price in the sight of God. And the meekness of faith, this
true meekness, lies willingly as passive clay in the potter's
hands. It willingly accepts Whatever
lot our father appoints, to be faithful unto death, to have
unshakable confidence in God, though he suffers us to be slain,
to trust him, though it appears that he has deserted us, that's
the highest possible exercise of faith in this world. The believer looks to Christ
understanding that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Our God
sits on his throne, sovereign over all the universe. The believer
understands that everything that enters our lives, everything
that enters our lives is ordered by him who is our heavenly father. We know that our enemies can
do nothing, nothing, whatever, without God's direct permission.
Satan could not afflict Job and he could not sift Peter. until
God gave him permission. He couldn't touch it. Oh, what
a blessed, sure resting place this is for troubled, trembling
hearts. This is what is described in
the scriptures as a nail in a sure place. Our God sits on his throne,
orders everything for our good. The Lord doeth all things for
Believing God, we know that all things work together for our
good and his glory. Satan may roar, but God still
reigns and everything's all right. Faith causes us and enables us
to look beyond time to eternity. In the midst of difficulty, great
difficulty, faith anticipates something better. There is a better day coming.
The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Now this is what
that means. You go to buy something, here's the price, and here's
money in your pocket. And you look at this thing. And you look at this money in
your pocket. And he said, no, I don't believe I'll spend my
money on that. Don't think I will. Don't think I will. The glory that awaits us shouldn't
even be compared. Nothing even can say. The sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. All right, now let's look
at these two verses, Hebrews 11, 37 and 38. And I'll wrap
this up. Here the Holy Spirit describes
some of those persecutions God sent to them doing. They were stoned. Stoned. Stoning was ordained and ordered
by God, reserved for those who were guilty of murder, moral
decadence, and idolatry reserved for those who would pervert,
corrupt, and destroy society if they were left alone. Murder,
rape, moral decadence, idolatry, those things that ultimately
destroyed Israel and had destroyed nation after nation after nation
God said, take those people out, because they are a curse to the
nation, they are cursed by law, and put them to death. Every
man take a stone and say, I vote you die! Every man. And these,
God sent, were considered by many, and have been through the
ages, and will yet be considered in ages to come, and today are
considered perverters. corruptors, destroyers of social
good. Looked upon just the same way.
Oh, but people wouldn't stone us. Give them a chance. Give
them a chance. Things haven't changed, have
they? Our Lord Jesus Christ died a death that set him apart from
men as the special object of God's curse. Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. And those who follow him shall
be considered by men in all ages as the objects of God's curse,
even by those who profess to know him. But as yet, they were
sown asunder. We have no record of anyone being
sown asunder in Scripture. Perhaps this is prophetic of
days that would come during those horrible days of persecution
by the Pope when so many of God's people were so butchered. There's
tradition that tells us Isaiah was sown asunder. I don't know
whether that's so or whether it's not. But those who were
sown asunder, people who were sown asunder as a wild beast
might be slaughtered who had enraged another man or enraged
a man. Sown asunder just because of
the rage of the man. Like the rage of Nebuchadnezzar
against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And then they were
tempted. I've looked at that a good bit.
Scratched my head and my heart too. Tempted. How does this fit
in with what's going on here? How does this fit in with these
horrible persecutions? They were tempted by their persecutors
to repudiate their faith. tempted with the bait of life,
liberty, promotion. Now, now you don't have to go
through this. Your family doesn't have to go
through this. Your children don't have to be
deprived. Your wife doesn't have to be deprived of her husband,
your children of their father. You don't have to lose your land.
You don't have to lose your farm. You don't have to lose your house.
You don't have to lose your position in society. You don't have to
go to the tower. You don't have to be put to death.
All you have to do is repudiate the gospel you believe. tempted by the world, tempted
by their own flesh. We don't have quite the same
crystal clear line of division set before us. Well, if I had
no choice, I know what to do. I know what to do. I want to.
I want to. We faced the same thing every
day, folks. All the time. Honor Christ, had my way. Do what God had me to do, or
do what I know my wife liked me to do. Do what's best for the kingdom
of God, or do what'll make my daughter laugh and smile a little
bit. Faced with it all the time. All the time. And no doubt they
were tempted of the devil. Oh, how weak is the strongest
of things. Satan comes in the midst of darkness,
in the midst of trying times, and you don't dare say what you
think. You don't dare say what you feel. You don't say it to
God, you don't say it to anybody, but you say it in your heart,
so, my God, my God, Christ, thou forsaken me. Why are you so far
from the words of my Lord? God, why won't you hear me? How
long, how long, oh Lord, will you bruise me? How long will you cast me off?
And so in the midst of difficulty, and I can only try to imagine
in the midst of such horrid things as these, men facing being made
a torch for the pleasure of their persecutions. Somehow, I suspect maybe Fox's
Book of Martyrs is correct that as those men and women endured
that horrible, horrible death and endured those horrible, horrible
persecutions, in the midst of those things, God so sustained
them that they seemed to glow with faith and with confidence
and with joy. But I'll guarantee you in preparation. Oh, what
dictations. What dictations. But they do
the dictations. They does. Slaying with the edge
of the sword. Saul King. That King. That King, Israel thought they
wanted. Saul King found the priest of God. had aided Christ. They gave David Goliath's soul
and gave him bread to eat and wine to drink. And David was Christ our King,
our Redeemer, our Savior. That's what he pictured in all
the Old Testament. And Saul commanded that those priests be hacked
to death on the spot. How come? just because of his
rage against David. And those priests were the nearest
they could get to him. They were slain with the sword.
Or it might better be translated, they were, they died in the slaughter
of the sword. Look at this next line. They
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. They were driven from their homes,
forced to live like animals, reduced to wearing skins of wild
beasts instead of clothes woven by men. Any day, any day, any
one of these wanderers could have rejoined their families.
They could have gone back to their former friends. They could
have enjoyed their former society. They could have shared all the
comforts they had before. But they preferred to live as
wandering beasts than to deny Christ. They love not the world. They love not themselves. They
love to live. The next line, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented. Destitute means they were deprived
of the ordinary necessities of life. Neither relative nor friend
would intervene for them. afflicted has reference to their
state of mind. They were not stoics. They were
not people without emotion. They felt the pain of destitution. They felt the pain of torment.
They felt the pain of hardship, just like we would. They may
be a reference here, or there may be a reference here, to Satan's
harassing torments again, because of their inward struggles harrowed
under them, and tormenting committed by the talking jeers of men. It's amazing what men and women
will do when they are enraged against the gospel. Can you imagine,
can you even imagine folks watching a man enduring what our Lord
Jesus endured as our substitute when he was put to death by the
Jews and the Romans and us? And they'd pass by and stick
their fingers in their ears, stick out their tongues. We're
talking about grown men and women. We're talking about good folks. We're talking about the whole
of society. And they'd step out in front
of them. Wipe their tongues at them. Cheer
them. Laugh at them. And laugh while they die. Laugh
at every grown one. Talk to them. Now look at this. Oh, this is great. Of whom the
world was not worthy. Let me tell you something. My brothers and sisters, listen
to me. Listen to me. It matters not what the world
or anybody in the world thinks of you or me. It really doesn't. Because their opinion don't count.
Their opinion just doesn't count. In God's eyes, God says, now
listen to me, God Almighty says the world is not worthy of one
Bob Doe. Not worthy. Well, I don't know,
that's just talking about it. God regards his people as the
excellent of the earth. in whom his history lies. The
world looks and says, David, that fellow from whose loins
came that fellow Absalom, David, that fellow whose son was Amnon,
David, that fellow whose best friend was Joab, you're telling
me that man is something special? Yes, sir, he's something special.
He's God's. He's God's. Wait a minute, you're
telling me that keeper, John Button, that Baptist preacher
didn't have any education, didn't have any learning, that fellow
who the whole society thought he was a madman and locked him
up for 12 years, stuffed him in a little cage under a bridge
and called it a prison and locked him up there for 12 years. You
mean to tell me he's something special? Look at him down there
in that damp dungeon of a jail. The world not worthy of one of
them. God says he's my delight. How
come? For we're in Christ. But he delights
in his son. You see, God's people really
are the salt of the earth. Their presence stays the hand
of divine judgment. Abraham, praise Lord, if there's
just one righteous one, ten righteous ones in the city, What about one? I'll get him
out. The only reason God doesn't sweep this world away, not because
he's long-suffering with the idiots who live here, because
he's long-suffering with his people. Their presence stays
God's judgment. That's all. Their presence brings
down God's blessing. The scripture tells us that when
Israel dwelt in Goshen. God blessed the land for Israel's
sake. Their presence causes the sunshine
and the rain to fall upon the earth. Their prayers secure divine
blessing. Fact is, if your neighbors knew
just how much they benefit from you, rather than try and run
you out of town, they'd pay your house rent for you. He causes
it to rain on the just and the unjust alike. It causes the sun
to shine on the just and the unjust alike, but it causes it
to shine and it causes it to rain for the just. The unjust
just get the benefit because they live next door to the just.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains, in dens and caves
of the earth. The word wandered suggests the
wandering about of a stranger in an unknown place. I've done a little bit of that.
I go places I've never been before. If I want to see things, I just
got to wander around. Walk or drive around. And you
know, I've seen things. Man, that's a nice place. Boy,
that's a pretty field over there. Sometimes I'll stop and go out
and look at things. But usually, if I'm driving,
buddy, I leave the engine running. I'm not planning on staying there.
I just stop to admire it. Nice. Nice. Look, you think about
moving over there? No! No, no, I live in Central
Kentucky. No, no, please forgive me, I
was just passing through. We're wondering about here. Strangers. Nomads, if you will. So long as we are in this world,
we are strangers and pilgrims. The world wants to make it that
way. Let's advise you. Let's advise you. The world can never provide a
home, a resting place, or an inheritance for our souls. It
provides nothing for us but empty deserts, mountainous obstacles
of trouble, and cold, damp, dark caves. That's all. That's all. You can have it. You can have
it. That's all right. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
revealed in us. God give me that faith. that will make me faithful in
all things. Forgive my abuse of the ease and the pampered life you so
lavished in your prophets. Give me grace, O my Savior, to hold you with both
hands of my heart and push everything else away. For the glory of your
name and the good of your people.