I would like to read verse 23
and 24 of Psalm chapter 31. Psalm chapter 31 verse 23 and
24. Oh love the Lord all ye his saints. Well that's not a very difficult
commandment is it? Not if you know Christ, not if
you be in Christ. not if you've experienced the
grace of God in your own soul, not if you've been brought out
of sin's death into the life and liberty of the gospel, it's
not difficult for you to love the Lord. And as Garth quoted
out of 1 John this morning, we love Him because He first loved
us. And so if you know that He loves
you, then, my friend, you would love Him in return. So love the
Lord, all you saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful.
Certainly the Father preserved the Son. The Son is the faithful
one. And all those that are in Christ,
they're reckoned to be faithful along with Him, their Head. And
so the Lord Jesus was preserved that He might be able to accomplish
that eternal purpose which God had purposed in Him. That is,
that he would finish the work of redemption, that he would
accomplish that which the Father sent him into the world to accomplish. He came to do the Father's will,
and praise be unto God, he accomplished that will, but he was preserved. He was the covenant head of the
people, the representative of all God's elect, and he was preserved. because he was faithful, and
all God's children are faithful in him, reckoned to be so. And
he plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Those that are so
proud as to lift up their voice against the Lord, those that
are so proud they will not humble themselves before God, but live
on in their rebellion. God will plentifully reward the
proud doer. We know that God gives grace
to the humble, but we know that the hand of the Lord is against
the proud. God's hand is against them. We
do not want to live in this world with the hand of God against
us, do we? Well, then let us humble ourselves and come before
the Lord. in all meekness of spirit, and
submission to the Lord. Lay down our rebellion, and be
submissive unto the Lord, because the Lord will plentifully reward
the proud doer. And then in verse 24, he says,
Be of good courage, speaking to God's people, to God's children. He said, You be of good courage,
and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the
Lord. I want to speak this morning
on verse 24, and I trust that the Lord will give us that message
which He would have us to have, and that each one of us might
be strengthened this morning for that which the Lord would
have for us in our lives. Only God knows what we'll face
in the coming days, in the coming weeks, in the coming months,
the coming years. But we know that God's grace
will be sufficient, and we need to trust Him and we need to trust
the Lord. I believe it was Thomas Brooks
that said, the grand design of God in all the afflictions that
befall his people is to bring them nearer and closer to himself. Now you may not look at the afflictions
and the troubles that you have like that. That God's design
in it is to bring you nearer and closer to Him, but I believe
Mr. Brooks is right about that. Stephen
Charnock said, we often learn more under the rod that strikes
us than under the staff that comforts us. And that is true. God's chastening of our lives,
God's hand and his rod upon us often teaches us more than the
comforting hand of the Lord. And then William Grinnell said
afflictions are as necessary for our waftage to heaven as
water is to carry the ship to report. And so affliction, as
Martin Luther once said, was the best book in his library.
So afflictions and trouble are necessary. Through much tribulation,
the Word of God says, shall we enter the kingdom of God. And
then J.C. Ryle said, there are no lessons
so useful as those that are learned in the school of affliction.
Those lessons that are learned in the school of affliction are
the most useful. But we certainly do not look
upon this in that way, but we must, we must come to that. Now
then, let us try this morning, if we can, to talk about the
cure for a weak heart. There is no preaching like that
which grows out of our own experience. And I do believe that all spiritual
truth must be learned experientially. That if you know anything really,
if you truly really know anything, you'll learn it by experience. You see, David had trusted in
the Lord. He had been in trouble. Look
at verse 7 down through verse 14. Let's just look at these
verses here hurriedly. Verse 7, he said, I'll be glad
and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered my trouble. David had trouble and he said
that he was going to rejoice and be glad in the mercy of God
because he knew that God had considered his trouble. Now beloved,
what a wonderful thing it is to be able to know that God has
considered my trouble, considered your trouble. We can rejoice
and we can be glad because the mercy of God has been manifested.
God has looked down upon us and He's considered our trouble.
And He is knowing my soul in adversity. Isn't it marvelous
how that God always sticks to His people? That He does not
leave them in times of adversity and affliction and trouble, but
the Lord draws near. The Lord is merciful and faithful. And he knows our soul in adversity. And many, many times it is in
adversity that God reveals himself to the soul of a man. And this
is to be understood that this is God's way many times of bringing
people into the kingdom of God. Is that he brings them into afflictions
from which they cannot extricate themselves. He brings them into
situations wherein they are not able to in any way, shape, or
form figure a way out. of their dilemma and by putting
him in that position the Lord is pleased to reveal himself
to them and make them to understand and to see that he is the God
that knows the way out of trouble and he's the God that can deliver,
he's the God that can lift up those that are in trouble and
so he often makes himself known in the day and time of adversity
And then in verse 9, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in
trouble. Now, beloved, one of the worst
troubles I think that a man can have is the trouble of despair. Have you ever been brought close
to despair? I hope this morning that the
Lord will give us the ability to say some things that will
help you to see that there is hope for you. There is hope for
you, and that you will not give in to despair, because once we
give in to despair, then, my friend, we will probably end
up committing all kinds of sin, because we will just abandon
ourselves into the hands of the devil, saying there's no use,
there's no hope. Why should we try to do that
which is right? Why should we go on and try to
persevere in things that are right? We'll give up ourselves
to the way of Satan, and to the way of sin. And so we need to
know that there is hope. There is hope about our present
temporal difficulties and about our sicknesses and about our
afflictions. There is hope in these things
because the Lord is with us. And so David said, Have mercy
upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble, mine eyes consumed with
grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief,
and my ears with sighing, my strength failing because of mine
iniquity, and my bones are consumed. Oftentimes when we're in trouble,
and oftentimes when we have a great deal of difficulty and problems
on every hand, that it's then that Satan accuses us It's then
that we're made to feel ourselves to be the sinner that we truly
are before God and we're brought to feel that there's no reason
to believe that God's going to help us because we're such sinners. And David said, my strength faileth
because of mine iniquity. I mean the strength is sapped
out of me when I think about what a great sinner and how foolish
I've been and how wicked I've been in my life. He says, My
strength faileth me, and my bones are consumed. And in verse 12,
He said, I'm forgotten as a dead man out of mine. I'm like a broken
vessel. But in verse 14, He says, But
I trusted in Thee, O Lord. I said, my God, isn't it wonderful
that even when we're brought down with conviction and when
we feel heavily our foolishness and our mistakes and our failings,
that we can still say, but I trusted in thee. I was trusting in you
all along, but my depravity is such that I have fallen. I have made great. blunders and
that I have succumbed to the testings of the flesh. But he
said, but I trusted in Thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my God. Thou art my God. Thou art my
God. Say back to us that I am your
Father. I am, you're my sons and daughters. Psalm to be sung by all the faithful
of all time. in our hearts by experience. If we speak of the things which
we have... Experience you be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen your heart Now we must not regard all parts
of the Bible as a like address to every individual and faith toward the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are
justified from all things which could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Now that's a word which a lost
man could listen to and receive. That's mail in your box, if you
please. Another verse, or a couple of
verses, is found in John 3. And 14 and 15 says, And Moses,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. Now that's another piece
of mail that you can claim as your own. This is from God to
me. Here I am, I'm a sinner, and
I need to look to Christ as He was lifted up that I might be
forgiven of my sin and that I might receive eternal life. And then
I said that there are certain portions which belong only to
the elect of God, only to those chosen of God, which are distinguished
by grace and faith in Christ. And Romans 15 and verse 4, listen
to what it says. For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, Paul says, speaking
of God's people, that we through patience and comfort of the scripture
might have hope. And so my friend, as you look
at that, as you think on that, we see that God has sent the
Word, and not only to all the sons of Adam collectively, but
He singles out His people, and He has a Word of grace, a Word
of comfort, a Word of instruction for them. Holy Scripture discriminates,
it makes some general promises to be sure, but its choicer words
are given to persons of a special distinction, a special character. Judge for yourself this morning
if you come under the description of the text, all ye that hope
in the Lord. Now, first of all, we see that
these are people who are hopeful. These are people who have hope,
and they're hoping in the Lord. They do not have all they expect
to have right now. No, they don't. They're expecting
something else. They have not yet received their
full inheritance, and they know they have not. They're hoping
yet in the Lord. They have a hope for something
better down the road than what they have now. They have a hope
for something better in this life. They want to draw nearer
to the Lord. They want to feel the power of
the world to come in their lives here. They want to fellowship.
with the blessed Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy
Spirit in their lives here. They want something better in
this life and also in the life to come. They have a living hope,
a hope which sees beyond the dark river of death, a hope with
eyes that are so clear, eyes of faith that are so clear that
they see things that are invisible to others, even the glorious. of that better world which is
to come. It'd be amazing if you have the
eye of faith, if you have the eye to see it, what you can see
in the word of God about that eternal place of abode of the
saints of God. What you can see in the Bible
about heaven. What you can see in the Bible
about eternity and that place where we're going to be able
to sit down with the holy angels and fellowship with the holy
saints of God and be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
all of our treasures are not with us now. Are all your treasures,
do you have them all now? Do you have them all? Or are
they behind you? Somebody said, well, almost all
my treasures, they're behind me. I used to have this, I used
to have that, I used to enjoy something here and something
there, but I don't have anything now, they're all behind me. Well,
beloved, if you have now all your treasures, or if you used
to have them but don't have them now, then this text is not for
you. If you're a child of God, your
hope is in what is to be. It's in what is to be and what
the naked eye does not as yet see. What the naked eye, I say,
does not as yet see. God's people are a hoping people. hoping for the fulfillment of
the promises of God, the promises that He Himself has made to them. Next, they hope for good things.
All those who hope in the Lord are of a certainty hoping for
good things. Now, the Bible says in Nehum
chapter 1 and verse 7, the Lord is good, that He's a stronghold
in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him.
He is good, He's a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He
knows them that trust in Him. Now, beloved, there are many,
many things that could be said about that, but our God is a
God who is good, and we don't want to forget that. He is a
good God, and the Lord Jesus, when He was in the world, the
Bible says that He went about doing good. and he was that good
one. You remember he said to the rich
young ruler, why callest thou me good? There's none good save
one that's God, and he is God. And therefore he's the good one.
But the people of God hope for good things. And all those who
hope in the Lord are of a certainty this morning they are hoping
that the good God of heaven and earth will bless them. Now we
do not hope for riches here. We don't even hope for a long
life here. The will of the Lord be done.
David said in verse 15, my times are in your hands, Lord. However
long you want me to live, that's with you. However long you want
me to stay here in this world, that's with you. We're hoping
for a city whose builder and maker is God. Isn't that what
we're hoping for? A building that pilgrims are
looking for. We're hoping for joys which I
have not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the
heart of a man. We're hoping for things so good
that they can only come from God Himself. Do you know what
James 1 and verse 17 says? Listen to it. It says every good
gift And every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from
the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning." What a verse! Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father, with whom
is no variableness. Meaning that He never varies
from sending down good gifts and perfect gifts. He sends down
the best. Well, when He sent our Lord Jesus
down, did He not send the best? Did not Heaven's best? Was He
not sent into this world on our behalf? Absolutely. God's Spirit,
not His own Son. He sent Him. He gave Jesus, and
Jesus is the best. And if He gave you the best He
had, Will He not give you the lesser? Is there anything else
He'll not give you if He gives you the best? But I want you
to see this, every good and every perfect gift that comes down
from God above, and there's no variableness. He never varies
in this. Anything that comes from God
is good, and you can believe that it's good. It's good. And
so if God blesses you in this life with trouble, with affliction,
oh yes, you say, well, is that a blessing? Absolutely. We just
read you the testimony of four or five men here who were saints
of God, imminent saints of God, who told you that trouble and
problems and difficulty and adversities that they were used of God to
draw us nearer and nearer to Him and to teach us and to educate
us in the ways of God. And so we need to learn that
God never varies. And if He blesses you with those
good things in this life, which we term good, creature comforts
and so on, then my friend, remember they came from God's hand. Thank
Him for them, give Him the praise for it, give Him the glory for
it. But He says there's no variableness. God always gives good and perfect
gifts and He said that neither is there any shadow of turning.
Meaning that He never cast His shadow by turning from being
a giver of every good and perfect thing. God never changes. He's always good. And whatever
happens to me or you or yours or mine, remember God is good. He is good. Now to the Son of
God we look, waiting for that wedding feast which we will have
over there with the bridegroom. We're looking to the Father who
bestows upon us all these things, all these good gifts. And then
to the Son we look. And we're waiting for that wedding
feast. We believe there's coming a time when the church, the church
of the firstborn, will be wedded to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
bridegroom. And we look forward to that.
We're hoping for that. And to the Holy Spirit we look
for comfort. He is with us even now as the
earnest of the inheritance you remember. You know what the word
earnest means. It means a down payment on the inheritance. Do
you have the Holy Spirit in you as a witness with your spirit
that you are the children of God? Is the Spirit of God in
you this morning? If so be that Spirit is the earnest. That's the down payment. God
has given you the Spirit so that you will know of a certainty
that the inheritance, the eternal inheritance, you being a joint
heir with Christ, It's for sure. It's for sure. No question about
it. God give you the down payment
on it and He's sure to make it good. No question about it. And
so we have this now and we enjoy it. And all we want that we might
be filled with His light and love and purity and His blessedness
even while we're here in this life. We want it. Anybody here
want to be filled with the Spirit? Amen? Anybody want to be filled
with the Spirit? I want to be filled with the
Spirit. You know, if you walk in the Spirit, the Bible says
that you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you walk
in the Spirit, you'll glorify God in your body and your spirit,
which are His. If you walk in the Spirit, if
the Spirit of God is upon you in power, You'll be able to serve
the Lord and to serve those that are around you. You'll be a blessing
to all those around you if the Spirit of God is upon you. And
so we look to God, the Holy Ghost, to fill us and to lead us and
to direct us. They that are led by the Spirit
of God are the sons of God. For this you're looking, my soul,
wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. Is your expectation in the Lord? Are you looking to God for your
expectations? We are people of great expectations. We really are. But our expectations
are not in men that die, or men that live for that matter. We're
not expecting anything from man. Oh, our expectations are in Him
who never dies, and in Him who never fails, and in Him who never
goes back on His word, in Him who never disappoints those who
put their trust in Him. Our expectation is in Him, is
it not? Is it not? Oh, we're a hopeful
people. Now, I cannot come around to
each one of you this morning individually, But say, do you
belong to this company that hope in the Lord? Do you belong to
this company? Are you hoping in the Lord? Are
you trusting in the Lord? Do you have something in your
soul that you're longing for that's outside of the pale of
this world, outside of the things of this world? Are you longing?
for a closer walk with the Lord? Are you longing that He visit
you and bless you and bless your family and deliver your sons
and your daughters and that He blesses your family? Are you
looking to it? Are you hoping in the Lord? This
then is the approved company. All you that hope in the Lord.
Not you that hope in yourselves. If you're hoping in yourself,
then my friend, you're going to be disappointed. Not you that
have confidence, other confidences besides the Lord anywhere else,
no, but you who hope in God alone. Well, secondly, the text seems
to intimate that there is a weakness which is apparent in many of
those who do hope in the Lord. Seems to indicate that there
is a weakness in many of those who have this hope in the Lord. It, my friend, is a weak heart.
Notice it. Be of good courage and he shall
strengthen your heart. Why do you need your heart strengthened?
Now we're going backwards here this morning. We started out
at the end of the verse and we're going back just to kind of keep
you on your toes. But nevertheless, the scripture
indicates that some of these that hope in the Lord have a
weak heart. Now a weak heart is dangerous. It's dangerous
indeed. Are you thus afflicted? Do you sometimes have a weak
heart? Be of good courage, he says,
and he'll strengthen your heart. Wherein it is implied that sometimes
in the heart of those that hope in the Lord, that heart grows
weak. He grows weak. Brother, sister,
even if there's a little wrong of the heart, it's a serious
thing. John 14 and 1 says, let not your
heart be troubled. Don't let your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. It's a serious thing to
have heart trouble. You never know when you're going
to drop over dead. Nobody knows whether they're going to drop
over dead anywhere, not whether they have been judged to have
heart trouble or not. But nevertheless, it's a serious
thing if you know you have heart trouble. Now some of God's own
people are occasionally and many of them very often subject to
this weakness of the heart. They lose their courage, that's
what I'm saying. Their joy departs from them and
they become fearful and timid. Very fearful and timid. God help
us to brace up ourselves for that which is to come on this
world. Men's hearts shall fail them
because of fear of those things that are coming upon the earth. Now, sometimes this occurs when
we're called upon to suffer the loss of creature comforts in
this world. Sometimes this weakness, this
heart weakness, comes upon us and we lose our courage. We become
very, very weak. You see, we have not had to suffer
like many, many people in the world have. We have been so blessed
in this country, we've not been mindful of it much, and we haven't
got together and had praise meetings to praise the God of heaven for
all the blessings we've enjoyed, and a lot of us might not attend
if we did have one of those meetings. But nevertheless, we have been
so blessed in the Lord, but I'm going to tell you that nobody
misses the water in the well until it's gone. And whenever
the well's dry, then you're going to miss it. And I'm going to
tell you that today may come, may not be too far off, when
we will miss many of the creature comforts that we've enjoyed.
Try to place yourself, if you will, just for a moment, in the
shoes of an Israeli this morning who is surrounded basically by
an enemy and try to picture, if you will, what it would be
to live a life daily in the environment that they live in. Also, think
about those Palestinians and try to think about living in
the environment they live in. And not only that, but the Afghani
people, think about them as they're fleeing from their homes, trying
to find refuge in another country near at hand, trying to get over
the border, trying to get away from the bombs that are falling. Just think a little bit about
that. Would your heart grow weak if you had to suddenly gather
together just what little things you could gather up and head
out for the mountains? I mean, would your heart grow
weak? I'm afraid that it would. I'm afraid all of us would have
a bout with this heart trouble that the text is talking about.
Weakness of the heart! and we lose our courage and we
would get in a desperate situation. Now sometimes, as we said, this
occurs when we are deprived of creature comforts. And then sometimes
it happens when we're called upon to suffer bodily in this
world. Now it's one thing to lose your
house. It's one thing to lose your money.
But it's another thing for you to be persecuted, for you to
be afflicted, for you to be put in prison. It's another thing
for you to be executed for what you believe and what you stand
for. Another thing altogether. Now would you have any heart
trouble? If you were suddenly seized upon by the enemies of
this nation and called to give an account of yourself and what
you believed and you knew that when you said certain things
that you were going to be put to death, Would you be bothered
by heart trouble? Would you have a little bit of
trouble, this weakness of the heart? Oh, my friend, there have
been many, many people who got a big dose of heart trouble when
they got into the place where they were going to be persecuted
bodily for what they believed. And what they said they stood
for, they suddenly lost sight of it and would not any longer
testify, but they recanted of what they believed. So, my friend,
in the battle of life, to make it, and to face it, and to stand
it, just to stand life. Many hearts are going to fail.
I say that there are things coming on this world. Only God knows
what's coming. But we must recognize that we
need a strong heart. We're going to have to have a
strong heart. David said, I'll hope continually in Psalm 71
14. He says, and yet more and more will I praise the Lord.
I'll praise you yet more and more. I'll hope continually in
the Lord. Now we often times think that
if we were called upon to suffer like we have just before mentioned,
that wouldn't be much praise come out of our hearts, would
there? But David said, I'll hope, whatever
happens, I'm going to go on hoping in the Lord, because see, the
Lord never changes. Your bank account changes, your
situation, your human relations, they all change, but God never
changes. Hope on. He said, I'll hope continually
and yet praise thee more and more as the trouble rolls, as
the storm comes in, as the afflictions mount. He said, I'll praise you
more and more. Now that's when the heart's getting
better. You see? That's when you're getting some
strength back in your heart. And in times of temptation, remember
Lot, whose soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of the
wicked. There are many, many of God's people who maybe sang
that chorus of that song every day, tempted and tried, were
oft made to wonder why it should be thus all the day long. Tempted
and tried. Why should it be like it is with
me? Why should I have to put up with what I have to put up
with? Why should I have to deal with what I have to deal with?
Looks like I'm cursed with my situation. Well, my friend, I
want you to see that you need your heart strengthened. Many
have to live and put up with just what a lot had to put up
with. down there listening to that
filthy bunch of people that lived around him? Well, a lot of people
have to live with things they don't want to live with, and
their hearts need to be strengthened. And in our labor for the Lord,
now we have never enjoyed the success that we would like or
expect to have. I don't think there's anybody
here that's tried to preach that's ever enjoyed the success that
they would like to have. and would expect to have at the
beginning, and you must expect to have it. Somebody said to
Mr. Spurgeon, how is it that you
have been so blessed? And he said, I never get up to
preach except I expect somebody to be saved. I expect him to
be. Preaching to 6,000 people, I
expect somebody to be saved. And I think that every time we
preach, we ought to expect God to do something. If he's going
to do something, he'll do it through his word. He'll do it
through His Word as that Word is faithfully proclaimed. But
many, many times our hearts nearly fail us whenever we're engaged
in the duty of trying to do that which we never, never, never
for one hour have been able to do in our own strength. Never
been able to do it. Never had the grace to do it.
Never had the strength to do it. Never, never was able to
preach like I wanted to preach. Never have been able to. Always
hoped that sometime before I die I'll be able to preach. One sermon
I'd like to be able to preach one time. I really would. That'd
be wonderful. Only God knows what a joy it
would be to have your tongue loosed by the Spirit of God and
to be filled with the good things of the Spirit of God and to be
able to speak those things. But many times our hearts grow
weak. Even David became weak and faint.
Samson, after he said, with the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon
heaps, with the jaw of an ass, have I slain a thousand men?
Yet for the one who drank of water he was ready to lie down
and to faint and die. Old Samson. Boy, I'm telling
you now, he accomplished some things. And he didn't have much
tools to work with. But my friend, he accomplished
a great deal. But then immediately, he had
such a thirst came on him. He said, I'll just lay down and
die. Faint and die. Unless I get something to drink.
I gotta have a drink. The best of men are men at the
best, and no wonder their hearts sometimes fail them in the day
of adversity, in the day of suffering, in the days of the struggles
of life and labor for their livelihood in this world, and also in laboring
for their Lord. This weakness restricts our service. How many good resolves and holy
projects never come to anything? Could we not weep? Could we not
weep? Could we not weep? How many times
have we made resolves, and how many times have we said, we're
going to do this, we're going to do that? How many times have
we said that? And then all the weakness of
our hearts never come to pass. Never did do it. Never was able
to do it. Never did get up enough grace
or strength or whatever it is, or gumption or whatever it is.
Gumption's what they put on the tail of a coon dog to make him
treat coons. Never got it, somehow or other. We never got it. to
wherever we could do what we wanted to do. So how many good
resolves and holy projects never come to anything? Well, what
goes undone for the one of courage and confidence in God? We ought
to believe God. We ought to trust God. God deliver
us from the faintness of heart lest we fail to magnify and glorify
God by withholding our service. Third thing I want you to notice
is the exhortation in the text, be of good courage. And he shall
strengthen your heart. Be of good courage. I like the
way this is put. It does not only say, be of good
courage, but there's an and here. And it says, he shall strengthen
your heart. Now, God requires us to be of
good courage, and when we're in good courage, then he says,
at the same time, I'll strengthen your heart. Now I didn't say
he's going to strengthen your heart first. He said you'd be
of good courage. And how strengthen your heart. This is incumbent upon us. Be
of good courage. Do not sit and rub your eyes
and say you cannot help it if you're fainthearted. Don't say
that, my friend. You must not be so. In the name
of God, you're commanded to be of good courage. Put your trust
in God. David said, I trusted in Thee,
O Lord. I said, Thou art my God, when
I was in trouble. I said, Thou art my God, and
so we must trust in the Lord. Take your heart, my brother,
my sister, off of the willow tree. You cannot play it, you
say. God give us grace to play it.
Play the heart that we've hung up on the willow tree. He said,
there's no song in me. I got no song. Take it off and
play it. Play it. Sing, those sense and
carnal reason would tell you to keep your mouth shut. Sing.
Sing to the praise and sing to the glory of God. Now then, God
deserves to be trusted, does he not? He deserves to be trusted. What has he done to cause you
to doubt him? Why have you no courage? Why
can you not trust him? What do you expect to get out
of your worry? What do you expect to get out of your worry? You're
fretting and you're stewing. What do you expect to get out
of it except more weakness? What will happen to us if we're
not of good courage with all we have to face, brother, sister?
You have a family to raise. You have a living to make. And
brother, sister, we all have a testimony to give and we all
have to die. What are we going to do if we
don't have any courage? And only God knows what we're
going to come to until we get to that place where the Lord
will call us home. We must not be cowards. Now I know that God's going to
try every one of us over this message. He'll try every one
of us. This brother here is going to
be tried the next day or two over this. We must not be cowards. We've got to believe what God
said. It's time to trust the Lord. It's time to depend upon
God. It's time to rely upon the faithfulness
of our God, to trust Him with all of our hearts. What's going
to happen to us if we don't? You say, Preacher, I'm no coward.
I just have a retiring disposition. Well, let me tell you that they
shoot men in wartime for that retiring disposition. He will
strengthen your heart. Is God with us or is He not?
If God is with you, then don't desert. Don't be afraid. God will be with His people. Now, the last thing I want to
talk about is this is a cheering promise. It's a cheering promise
to me. It is. When you get down to where
I am in life, it's a cheering promise. For the Lord to say
to me, or for old David to say to me, a man who had the troubles
and the afflictions he had, be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. That is
very cheering promise. God alone can strengthen the
heart. Spiritually, the mercy is that God who made the heart
understands the heart, and he who sees its weakness knows just
how to strengthen it. He knows just how to do it. You
say, I don't know that I'm going to be able to stand up under
this. God knows your heart, and God knows how to strengthen you.
The Lord knows them that trust Him. He knows right where you
live. He knows your circumstances. He knows everything about it.
There isn't anything you could tell Him about that He don't
already know. He knows all about your situation. Well, how does God strengthen
men's hearts? How does he go about that? Well,
number one, sometimes he does it by gracious providence. Something very unexpected happens. Oh, something very unexpected
happens. You didn't expect the Lord to
intervene. You wasn't really trusting the
Lord to intervene. But I expect, listen to me, I
expect, didn't I say earlier we were people of great expectation?
I mean will we limit God? Is it that we have to tell God
what he can do and how he can do it? Couldn't something unexpected
happen? Amen. I expect the unexpected. I have and I always will. I will
until my dying days. I will expect The unexpected. I've had to live that way. That's
the way I've lived all my Christian life. From the time God laid
hold of me and saved me, I've been expecting God to do something
that has been unexpected by everybody around me. I believe that I get
into tights sometime, I get into deep water and my feet will not
touch the bottom and I can't swim. And I have just, all I've
got is a simple dependence on God. I expect God to deliver
me. I could never tell you how He's
going to do it. That's up to Him. He will make
a way for me. And He'll make a way for you.
And you don't have to tell Him how to do it. You don't have
to say it. You say, well, I don't have enough
to work with for God to deliver me. Ah, pooey on that. There's no truth to that. God
made this world out of nothing. You know that? He spoke it into
existence. And He made man. What did He
do? Just reached down and got him a handful of dirt and made
one of them. That's what He did. Don't tell me God can't do it. He sustains this world by the
word of His power. He sustains it. Tell me God can't
do it. He can do it. You say, well,
maybe if I got everything together, maybe the Lord would have something
to work with. Just leave it be. Leave it be. And trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. Let this be a
time Whenever you put yourself into God's hand and say, Lord,
I leave it with you. I leave it with you. You make
a way for me. You make a way. You deliver me. Let my deliverance come forth
from the hand of God. Let the sentence come from God's
mouth on my life and what's going to become of me. Let it come
from the Lord. He that looks to the providence
of God, the old Puritans would say, will never want for a providence
to look to. They never will. How does God
strengthen men's hearts? By something happening, unexpected. And oh my soul, I could tell
you story after story about how things unexpectedly happened
to me. Praise His dear and lovely name. I love the Lord. The Lord has
a way of strengthening men's hearts by the fellowship of friends,
thus the need of the local church. Paul was often refreshed by Christian
associates. The Lord can send someone around
with a word in season, a word that is fitly spoken, a word
upon wheels as the Hebrew has it. It comes just at the right
time. God sends somebody and he got
a word for us. He got a word for us, a word
of encouragement. Have you ever thought, my soul, I need to hear
something from God. I need to hear a word from God.
I need to hear somebody that's got something to say. Say something
to me. Have you ever felt that way when you come to church?
I come, I got an empty cup, preacher, and I'd like to hear something.
I'd like for somebody to tell me something about my God. that
will strengthen me and help me and cause me to stand in this
wicked world and to be able to do as I want. Well, this is like
apples of gold in baskets of silver. Such are goodly words
brought to us by men and women of faith and experience whom
God can send to us. God sometimes does it by a precious
promise, a text of Scripture. Oh, how valuable, how valuable
a text of Scripture is. What wonderful power there is
in a text of Scripture. I'm here today because of a text
of Scripture. Isaiah 42 and verse 16. I'm here
in this state because of Isaiah 42 and verse 16. What wonderful
power there is in a verse of Scripture. And not only a verse
of Scripture, but also a verse of a song. Has there ever been
a word or two out of a song, a verse of a song that has come
to you? Well, I remember one time when
the Lord said, I'll still give you aid. Woke me up in the middle
of the night. I mean, the water was hot. I'll
still give you aid. And you know what? I run on that
for several days. You'd be surprised how far you
can go on a word from the Lord, my friend. You'd be surprised
how far you can get. And then not only that, there
was a text come one time when I was in a state of just absolute,
just did not know what to do, and this text came, Be not faithless,
but believe him. Just believe me. Don't be faithless. Won't be up three o'clock in
the morning. Be not faithless, but believe him. And so I was
able to believe God, and the results, only God knows how extensive
they will be before it's over with. Many, many things have
happened because of that. Because of the move that I was
able to make at that time when God said, be not faithless, but
believing. And so my friend, it's necessary
for us to get our encouragement from a text, And if we read the
Scriptures daily, there'll be one come. There'll be one hop
right out one of these days, and it'll be a blessing to you.
And get familiar with these Psalms. And God the Holy Spirit has a
secret way of strengthening the courage of God's people, which
none of us can explain. Have you ever felt it? Have you
ever felt it? Well, listen to me. You may have
gone to bed, and you might have been sick at heart. You might
have been weary, worn, sad, greatly depressed. and you woke up in
the morning ready to face another day, ready to go. Perhaps God
would visit you in the middle of the night and you feel a sudden
strengthening of your spirit so that you're perfectly resigned,
satisfied, prepared, ready. Bless God, come what will, I'm
ready to face tomorrow. I'm telling you, this is the
experience of a child of God I'm talking about. David said,
be of good courage. and the Lord will strengthen
your heart. But I'm telling you, if you don't get to the place
where you're needing this, you're not going to experience it. But
God has a way of leading His dear children along, some through
the fire and some through the water, but all through the blood,
it says. But God has a way of leading His dear children along. Do not give up. Don't lose hope. You need not be a coward. Do
not say, I must be beaten. No, I must always be despondent. Don't say that. Don't say that. Let's get together and have an
encouragement time, an encouraging time, a time of trying to strengthen
each other. Strengthen the weak knees. Don't
say you've got to lose. Be of good courage and he will
strengthen your heart. Has he ever failed anybody who
trusted him? Well, no, he's never failed anybody who trusted him.
I want to read a couple of verses out of Jeremiah chapter 17. Thus
saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, making
flesh his arm, and whose heart departed from the Lord. Verse
5 and 6 says, For he shall be like the heath in the desert,
shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched
places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabit
it. Blessed, in verse 7, is the man that trusteth in the Lord,
and whose hope the Lord is. Blessed is that man. Happy is
that man. So has he ever failed anyone?
Well, who can stay his hand if God is out to deliver you and
bless you and strengthen you? Is anybody going to stop him
from doing it? Who can do it? No. Who has ever known Him to
deny a promise or retract His word? Anybody that knows that
God has done that, I mean, can certify that God ever retracted
His word or His promise? If you trust Him, He will be
better to you than your largest hope. Whatever you hope for,
He'll be better to you. Now, you cannot lean too much
on the Lord, but you can lean too much on your own wisdom.
You can. And not only that, we don't know
what's good for us either. You say you're as old as you
are and you don't know what's good for you? No, I don't know
what's good for me. You say, well, how surprising that
is. Well, my friend, when you get to the place where you know
what's good for you, then this faith business is off. You're
out of business. You're out of business. Your
carnal reasoning has set the gold, has set the standard. No,
God knows what's best for me. Is that all right? Is that what
faith is all about? God knows what's best for us?
I mean, you can trust your own wisdom and say, well, I think
it's got to be this way. Well, should it be according
to your mind? Who are you? Should it be according to my
mind? Who am I? No. If you're trusting God, then
you've got to trust Him with it all. Trust Him with it all. Stay yourself upon Him. Lean
upon the bosom of the eternal God. Lean hard. Lean hard, my
friend. Lean with all your strength,
all your weight. Put it all there. Lean on Him. Put it all right there. Trust
Him with every bit of it. Leave your burden. The Lord will
be with you. And the Lord will bless you.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in the Lord. The
Lord be gracious to every one of you for Christ's sake. For
Christ's sake. The Lord show you this promise. Make it flesh to you. Make it
alive to you. Be of good courage. Now, you
know many, many times when we're preaching these things, we don't
know nothing about why we're preaching. And I want you to
know that I came with three messages this morning and I'm convinced
that the one I preach to you is the one I ought to preach
to you. But when I came here this morning I was in a dither
about it. I was in a dither about it. I did not know for sure.
But there were certain things that happened and feelings and
drawings of the Spirit of God that led me to believe this is
it. I don't know anything about why, but I want to tell you this,
there may be only one person here that needed this message. You say, you mean a preacher,
that God would direct the preacher to preach a sermon when only
one person out of 50 or 60 needed it? Absolutely. Absolutely He
would. I've seen it happen over and
over. You never know the extent. of the effects of the message.
But God has somebody here that needs to be of good courage and
to be strengthened in heart. Those that hope in the Lord.
Hope on. Hope on. Never give up. Make it your business to tell
God you ain't never given up. You're going to trust Him, like
old Job said, though He slay me, I'm going to trust Him. I'm
going to trust the Lord. That's what a believer is. That's
what all this is about. It's believing God business.
Father, we thank you for the privilege of gathering this morning
with these dear saints. We thank you, Lord, for their
attentive response. They're listening to the Word.
And I pray, Lord, that you might give them the remembrance of
this verse out of Psalm 31 verse 24 that you'll give them remembrance
of the contents of it and that you'll bless this to their heart
and May they hang their heart on it on many a day as they continue
to live out their life under the Sun father that I will be
done in all of our lives and Lord we pray for our country
we ask that I will give our leaders wisdom and We pray that I will
give direction to them and oh Lord we do ask that because we
know that the days that we lived in peace and comfort and the
days that we lived, Lord, in this world wherein things were
steady and wherein we had security and confidence, we know it came
from you. And Lord, we do ask from your
hand that you might continue to bless our nation. But Lord,
may there be a humbling and may there be a time of great revival
in this country. The time of the moving of the
Spirit of God upon the hearts of men and women. The time of
salvation, O God. Ere that day come, as it was
in the days of Noah, when God shut the door of the ark. Lord,
ere the door be shut, salvation, the day of grace come to an end.
May there be a great moving of the Spirit. Many, many souls