I'd like to read, beginning with
verse 29, read down through verse 33. John 16, beginning with verse
29. His disciples said unto him,
Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now
are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that
any man should ask thee, by this we believe that thou camest forth
from God. Jesus answered them, do you now
believe? Behold, the hour cometh yea,
and is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his
own, and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because
the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world." Our Lord, I believe, looks for
faith as a result of his teaching. We must remember that our Lord
had been teaching these disciples now for about three years, and
he'd been looking for faith in them. We read in Romans 10 and
17, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I think our Lord would ask us
at the end of every service that we attend, do you now believe? Do you now believe? You've listened
and you've formed some opinion, surely, as you've listened maybe
over the years at the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And surely you must have felt something, surely something must
have went on in your heart as you've heard the glorious message
of redeeming grace proclaimed aloud from this pulpit. Surely,
you've surely felt something and you have surely some opinion. Do you now believe? Do you now
believe the gospel? In Hebrews chapter four and verses
two and three, the apostle Paul said, for unto us was the gospel
preached as well as unto them, speaking of Israel. But the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it. For we which have believed, he
went on to say, do enter into rest. We enter into gospel rest. Christ is the rest of the Lord's
believing, living family. And if we trust Christ, and if
we have salvation through faith, then we are resting in the Lord. We cease from our own works.
and we're trusting Christ who is indeed our Sabbath. He is
our rest. What a glorious place to come
to, to the place where you can rest in Jesus Christ and rest
your soul, where you can lay the weight of your soul upon
the Redeemer, the successful Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Now then, he went on to say in
Hebrews 1, He said, and to whom swear he that they should not
enter into his rest, but to them that believe not. Them that believe
not. So we see that they could not
enter in because of their unbelief. So it is obvious that anything
short of believing leaves a soul short of salvation. Anything
short of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ means that you have
not salvation. He that hath the Son hath life.
That's plain, isn't it? He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now, I
would have you to note at this time that faith is not our Savior. Christ is our Savior. But Christ is the object of our
faith. He is the object of our faith. I would like to put the question
of the text, I guess, to everyone here today, you that have listened
to God only knows how many sermons by how many preachers. You're
getting older every day and some of us are turning bald and some
of us are getting gray-headed. And I wonder this morning how
familiar you are with the message of the gospel, and maybe your
ear has become very, very attentive and very familiar with the message
of the gospel. Eternity, you know, is upon every
one of us, and hell is opening its jaws. to receive everyone
who is in a state of unbelief. And if you die in your sin, you're
going, the Bible says, to that place where the worm dies not
and the fires are not quenched. And the question of the text
is, do you now believe? After all you've heard, after
all that's been explained to you, do you now believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That testimony is the foundation
of the church, the foundation of the living family. That's
what they depend upon and stand upon is that Jesus Christ is
indeed the Son of the living God. Now a truthful answer to
this question will decide your condition before God. Do you
now believe? Do you now believe? It'll decide,
I say, your condition before God. You either stand before
God accepted, you either stand before God complete, you either
stand before God perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ or you're outside
of Him and you stand before God in a state of nature having Adam's
sin, yet to be accounted for, your own sin yet to be paid for,
and you stand outside of Christ and the judgment of God is awaiting
your poor soul. Well, Christ loves faith wherever
He sees it. It is to Him a very precious
thing. Peter talked about like precious
faith. Do you now believe? Oh, my friend,
if you believe, you know the Lord is the author and the finisher
of our faith. It is a great mystery, but God
is the author and he's the finisher of our faith. Faith is a gift
of God. It's a great mystery, but God
does not believe for us. We are to believe the gospel,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Dost
thou believe on the Son of God? These are questions in the Word
of God. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Well, this is a mystery, I say.
How that faith, that he's the author and the finisher of it,
But yet he does not believe for us. We must believe the gospel. That's our responsibility and
obligation. And anyone who is regenerated
by the Spirit of God doth heartily and joyfully believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we do, we sincerely do. I believe on Him today. I believe
on Him with all the ability that God has given me. I anchor my
soul in the truth of the Gospel and in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And upon Him, you who believe,
you confer all honor because that is possible for you to confer
on Him. This is the way to honor and
please God. The Bible says that without faith
it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to him must
believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. Your trust adorns Him with jewels. Your confidence in Him puts the
crown on His head. You see, He's the Savior. He's
the only Savior. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but by the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you see, when a soul puts
faith in Christ, they crown His head. True faith gives glory
to God and it brings salvation to the one believing. Another
thing I notice here is to I think that our Lord in the text will
take the disciples down a notch or two. The Savior reminds them
that whatever faith they had, now you notice this if you look
there, he says in verse 31, do you now believe? As if, well,
whatever faith you've had, or that you have, you were a long
time in coming to it. You were a long time in coming
to it. Do you now believe? Three years,
as I mentioned, the Lord Jesus would say, I've been teaching
you, disciples. I've been talking to you from
my heart. I've been speaking God's Word
to you. When I speak, it's God speaking,
the Lord Jesus would say. And I've been speaking to you
now, and I've wrought miracles in your presence, in your very
midst. And have you seen me, you've seen the Father, but after
all this time, have you at last finally come to the place where
you say, we now believe? Now, brother and sister, we never
have any reason to boast of our faith, do we? We never have any
reason to boast, I say, of our faith. For if we have any, we've
been a long time coming to it. We've been a long time coming
to it. Some of you people, humanly speaking, you ought to believe
God long ago. Do you know that God cannot lie? His nature will not permit him
to lie. And it ought to be easy to believe
in a God who cannot utter a lie. But we don't do that. It's a
sad commentary on our human nature that we will believe a lie before
we'll believe the truth. But God is to be believed, and
we ought to have trusted Him, and those of us that have trusted
Him, we were a long time coming to it. Oh, you say, I trust Christ
now. Well, I hope we do. We'll all
go to hell if we don't. We ought to be trusting the Lord
today. We believe in God. We believe
also in His Son, Jesus Christ. But how long did it take us to
drive us out of our self-righteousness and self-confidence and to wean
us from leaning on everything else but Christ? How long did
it take? Well, some of us haven't got
there yet. How long, I ask? We're unbelievers by nature.
It's ingrained in us. You were born that way, an unbeliever,
a skeptic, an agnostic. You were born with this unbelief
in your soul. And I say to you this morning,
that unbelief is ingrained in our very hearts. Then again,
our Lord reminded them of another thing that I think is more humbling,
really. That is, as their faith was long
in coming, it might be very quick in going. Well, it warmed up
enough to get that bee moving around there. But anyway, it
might be very quick in going. It was a long time in coming,
but it might be quick in going also. He said, do you now believe? He said, behold, the hour cometh.
Look at verse 32. The hour cometh, yea, is now
come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall
leave me alone, and yet I'm not alone because the Father is with
me. You're going to leave me alone.
You're going to be scattered. He's talking to his followers,
talking to his disciples, talking to those that had been learning
of him, those that just now had made this confession that they
now believed that he had come out from God. Well, beloved,
you know how it works. There's a little cloud that comes
into your life. There's a little trouble that
appears on the horizon. Difficulties that are unforeseen
by you suddenly appear. And difficulty occurs in every
one of our lives. And where's our faith? Where's
our faith? Oh, we had faith yesterday the
sun was shining. I mean, it was a good day. We
prospered yesterday. We had a good day. But today,
all the clouds are hovering over, and we're having a difficult
day. And where is your faith? Where's it at? A little persecution,
the little idle talk of an unbeliever, the sarcasm of an agnostic. And where is your faith? Where
did your faith go to? Is it not so that when the sun
is shining, our lives are trouble-free, that we can almost brag about
our faith in God? We can. I've had times and I've
had to rebuke myself and get on my face before God and beg
God for forgiveness. Whenever I would say like old
David did, my mountain shall stand strong. I believe God,
hallelujah, and nothing will ever, ever affect that. I'll
tell you what, if you ever feel that way, you better get on your
face quick. because the sun can go down,
and it does go down every day, and a new day dawns, and in that
new day that dawns, your circumstances may be entirely different. Things
may just not be the same the next day. Now then, but oh, when
the clouds come back after the rain, the wind of trouble howls,
the heart is troubled, the tongue is quiet now. We boasted before,
our mountain will stand strong, but now we don't say anything. I mean, our tongue is quiet. There's going to be something
that will happen, my friend, or come up in your life and mine
that eventually is gonna strip us of all this bragging about
our faith. Something will happen. Now you
see, God would have us to lean upon him, but he never gives
a grain of faith that you don't try. If God gives you faith,
believe me, he's going to try that faith. He's going to run
that faith through the sieve to find out whether it's real.
He's throwing it into the furnace, you see, to melt it down to see
if there's any, to get the dross out of it and see what's left
when it's over with. Now I'll let him that glorieth
glory only in the Lord. Don't brag in your faith. Don't
brag about how you trust God. Don't brag about it. Now the
disciples did not take heed to this worded portion. They didn't
take heed to it. None of them did, certainly Peter
did not. I invite you to hold your finger
in Matthew here, or in John, chapter 16, and turn over with
me to Matthew's gospel, chapter 26. I want to read. Now Peter
was right here on the spot And I want you to hear what Peter
said. Now our Lord said, behold, and
that means you stop and look and listen to what I'm saying.
And Jesus said, the hour is coming, and now is, when you're gonna
all be scattered and you're all going your own way. And these
disciples, they were listening to what he said. But I want you
to listen here in Matthew 26, beginning here with verse 31.
Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because
of me this night. For it is written, I will smite
the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered
abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into
Galilee. Peter answered in verse 33 and
said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of
thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I
say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I
should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise, listen
to this, likewise also said all of his disciples. Do you hear
what they said? They said, we'll not deny you.
They said, though we die, though we have to die with you, yet
we'll not deny you. And not only old Peter said that,
but the rest of them chimed in and said, all of us are with
you, Lord, we're all with you, we stand with you, we believe
you and we trust you and we stand with you in this matter. Now
then, We see here, we wished that we could say this morning,
I wished I could say, I know you people pretty well, I don't
know you maybe as well as I ought to know you, but I know you pretty
well, and I wished this morning I could say that there is no
man among us who will ever be a traitor to the Lord Jesus Christ. I wish I could say that. There's
not anybody here that would ever be a traitor to the Son of God
or that there is no woman here who will ever grow cold and wanton
in their heart and become indifferent to the things of God and turn
away in their hearts from the things of God. I wish I could
say that. But I cannot say that in all
honesty and truthfulness, because I know what you're made out of.
You're cut out of the same kind of cloth that I'm cut out of,
and we dare not come up here this morning and say, well, we
will stand. Now then, it would be self-flattery
for anyone to say, I'll never be a traitor. I'll never turn
my back on the Lord. I'll never go away and seek my
own. What others have done, however
base and mean, we are not capable of doing such a thing. You know,
we just love the Lord. We just love the Lord. Well,
I hope you do. Pride says, no, I will not turn
away. But your pride is wrong, my friend.
Your pride is wrong. These disciples said, we won't
leave. Jesus said, you're going to be
scattered. Jesus said, you're going to turn to your own. Jesus
said, you're going to look out for your own hide when I come
into trial. Now, Christ says, the hour cometh.
No, he says, behold, the hour cometh. It is to call attention
to something, as we said, very special. It means, look here,
see this. Behold, the hour cometh. Yea
is now come. Let us learn the lesson of our
frailty. And cry, hold thou me up, and
I shall be saved. Lord, keep me, for I cannot keep
myself. God, keep us. Christ of God,
keep us by the eternal spirit. Keep us, oh Lord. Well, there's
three things here that I want us to notice very briefly. And
first of all, let me say a few words about the trial. of the Lord Jesus. He said, I
will be left alone. Second, I'll say a few words
about his confidence. And yet, he says, I'm not alone. The Father is with me. And thirdly,
his example. For we are to follow in the steps
of the Master. And so we'll follow his example.
Well, first of all, notice our Lord's trial, because it may
happen to you. He was left alone. You know what
it means to be alone? Well, the Lord Jesus was left
alone. The disciples were scattered
and they left him in the hour of his trial. He is talking to
his disciples and not one of them is going to stand. Not one
of them. I'd like for you to hold your
finger here again and turn over to Mark 14 and look at verse
43. Verse 43, and then verse 50 and
52. Well, maybe I'll just read down
through verse 52. And immediately, Mark 14, 43.
Immediately while he yet spake, cometh Judas, that traitor, one
of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves
from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. And he
that betrayed him hath given him a token, saying, Whomsoever
I shall kiss, that same as he, take him, and lead him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he
goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, Master, and he
kissed him. What a deceitful, what a deceitful
traitor. And they laid their hands on
him, and they took him. And one of them that stood by
drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off
his ear. And Jesus answered and said to
them, Are you come out against a thief with swords and with
staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple,
teaching, and you took me not. But the scripture must be fulfilled. And look at verse 50, And they
all forsook him and fled. in verse 51, and there followed
him a certain young man. That certain young man was Mark,
the author of this gospel that we're reading from. Having a
linen cloth cast about his naked body, and the young men laid
hold on him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them
naked. I mean they grabbed a hold of
that cloth and he didn't bother to wait one second to grab it
to cover his nakedness. He just ran. That's how important
it was to get his hide out of there. He's going to leave. He's going to forsake the Lord.
Now I'm talking about the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
in the garden, the three who are his bodyguard, you know they
fell asleep. And the rest will all do the
same. They will just give up. They will not stand with the
Lord. And when he stands before Pilate and Herod, none of them
will be there to defend him and not a solitary voice will be
lifted up to support him or to witness in his favor. Now the
sad thing about this is that these were all honest men. Would
you, could you agree with that? They were all honest men. There
was no hypocrite in the bunch, except Judas. Judas Iscariot,
he was indeed a hypocrite. But these others were not hypocrites. And what they said, they meant
it all. They meant every bit of it. Said, we'll die with you.
I will not deny you. We'll stay with you. They meant
it. Each one of them believed that he could go to prison and
to death. rather than deny the Lord. They
each one believed it. They were only saying what they
really intended to do. They intended to stand. Well,
they love Christ. You remember Peter, our Lord
asked him, Lovest thou me? And Peter said, Thou knowest
that I love thee. Thou knowest that I love thee.
All of them left him, poor weak things they were, they turned
their backs in the day of battle and left our Lord. He was, notice,
left by every man, every man to his own, every man to his
own. Is John gone? Is John gone? Yes, every man. Christ looked
and there was none to stand by him of all of these disciples.
He must confront his accusers without a single witness to his
favor. Every man was gone. Of the people,
there is none with him. His own arm brought salvation. His own arm. He tread the winepress
of the wrath of God alone. Alone. Where were they? Well, every man was looking to
his own safety. Every man was looking out for
himself. Men have, do they not, this unique
ability to calculate how much a given situation is going to
cost them, and off they go. Off they go. Oh, they made a
big profession, but they calculate. Now what's happening here? The
preacher's talking about denying yourself. The preacher's talking
about laying down your life for the Lord. The preacher's talking
about being persecuted for the gospel's sake. The preacher's
talking about that God owns everything. He owns you. He owns the world. He owns you, lock, stock, and
barrel. Everything you got belongs to
you, or belongs to God. Everything you have belongs to
God. You say, well, now, wait a minute,
now. Wait a minute, now. Wait a minute, now. Let me think
that over a little bit. And first thing you know, they're
gone. They're gone. They're like that rich young
ruler who said, I've kept all the law. Kept it all. And the
Lord said, you take what you have, and you sell it, and you
give it to the poor. And that fellow went away sorrowful. Went away sorrowful. Too much.
Too much. The claims of God are too much. And men calculated, oh, we're
going to die here with this man. We're going to have to die with
this man. No, no, no, no. We're not. We're going our way.
We're going to take off. That's what we're going to do.
Well, they look out for their own hide. You don't need to worry
about men. They'll take care of themselves,
won't they? They'll take care of themselves. Traitors, these
people that are fickle followers of Christ, they'll not stay.
If there's any sweating to do, they're not going to be around
to do it. They're going to take off. They'll not stay and be
true to the cause. Now, every man to his own is
all that Christ received from the best of his followers. Are these thy friends, O Jesus?
Lover of men, are these thy lovers? Well, every man to his own. This
also our Savior had to feel. Now the second thing, and we've
talked about our Lord's trial, this was his trial. All men forsook
him, left him. Number two, our Lord's confidence.
But he goes on to say in this text, in verse 32, he said, you're
all going to leave me. Leave me alone. And yet, I'm
not alone. I'm not alone because the Father
is with me. Oh, our Lord's confidence. He
says here that this confidence, I believe, kept Him. It kept
Him to His purpose. You know, our Lord came into
this world not to do His own will. He came into this world
to do the will of Him that sent Him and to finish the work that
the father had given him to do. And that work involved the salvation
of our souls. It involved the working out of
a righteousness which God demanded of his people and a righteousness
which would be imputed unto the account of his people. And Jesus,
he kept to the purpose. It involved his death. It involved
the shedding of his blood in order that our sins would be
atoned for and that we might be able to stand before God washed
and clean before God. And so it kept him to his purpose. He said, no man stood with me,
but the Father stood with me. The Father stood with me. Now
men are all scattered. Has Christ gone? No! Christ is
not gone. He'll finish the work. He'll
stay the course. Hallelujah. Isn't it wonderful
that our representative stayed there? That he didn't flee? That
he didn't run from this mob that was getting ready to deliver
him over to the authorities? And they would finally, they
would smite his back. And finally, they would place
the crown of thorns upon his head. Finally, they would lead
him up Golgotha's hill to the brow of the hill and nail him
to an old rugged cross. Isn't it good? Isn't it wonderful?
Praise God, our representative stayed there. He stayed. He did not leave. Now then, Peter,
James, and John, and Thomas, and all the rest, they're gone.
But has Christ gone? No. He's still standing to his
purpose. to his purpose. He has come to
save, and save he will. He has come to redeem, and he
will redeem. He will redeem his people. He
has come to overcome the world, and he will overcome the world. He is no coward. He's the son
of the living God, and he came into this world. He made it,
came into this world, and men rejected him and despised him,
and they would put him to death. They had attempted over and over
to put him to death and he would flee out of their presence because
his hour had not yet come, but the hour was here and our Lord
would stay and he would suffer the vengeance of God Almighty
on the cross in order to finish the work and finish the purpose
that he came to. His competence in God sustained
him in the prospect of the trial. I'm not alone, present tense.
I am not alone. The Father is with me. Note again,
our Lord's declaration was contradicted by appearance. It appeared that
the Father had forsaken Him. It appeared that He was alone,
because all of the disciples were gone, nobody, I mean, the
naked eye, you couldn't see anybody, but the angels were ministering
to Him. They were there, you couldn't
see them, but they were ministering to the Son of God. And then,
might I say this, did He not say, and He did say, as He hanged
on the cross, Father, why hast Thou forsaken Me? How then could
he say, the Father is with me? How could it be? Well, God forsook
him, and you listen to this, in his official capacity as lawgiver. God is thrice holy. God has given
a holy law. And the Lord Jesus Christ numbered
with the transgressors as he was. He became the surety for
the sins of God's people. And the Father, being the lawgiver,
in order that the law would be honored, in order that he would
be able to justify the guilty, it was necessary that in that
capacity, that he leave Christ unto the judgment that was sure
to come upon him. We know that he was delivered
by the determined counsel of God. He was slain by the hands
of wicked men. And God Almighty was the executor,
if you please, of the law. And yet in his personal relationship
to the Son of God, he did not and he could not forsake Him.
Don't you see? Let me try to explain. The Father
was with him. Do not ever believe that God
can forsake His own. He never can and He never will.
And let me illustrate it with this. Remember Abraham. When
he was going up Mount Moriah, where Isaac was to be offered
up, it is written, now notice this, Abraham was leading Isaac
up to the top of Mount Moriah, and Abraham was going to sacrifice
Isaac. And the scripture says, listen
to the wording, so they went both of them together. That's what scripture says. So
they went both of them together. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
was in Pilate's judgment hall, yea, when he was in Gethsemane's
garden and sweating as it were, great drops of sweat, and when
the Lord Jesus was being nailed to that cross and hung upon that
cross, The father was with him. They went both of them together.
I and my father are one. It was impossible that they could
be separated in this great work. The father was with him as to
the eternal purpose and the covenant that they had entered into. The
father had given his people to Christ. Christ said, I'll go
and I'll die for them. And the Holy Spirit said, I'll
go and work the salvation that the Father planned and devised,
and that the Son purchased, I'll go and work it in their hearts.
And here God Almighty is with His Son. There was no divided
purpose. They were both of them together.
Both of them together. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. You see, when Christ was hanging
on that cross, somebody said, he just died by the hands of
wicked men. Well, he did that. But yet he
was nailed there. He was put there by the divine
purpose. God Almighty was with him. God
put him there. He was hanged on that tree. God
nailed him as it were to that tree. It was the sword of the
great shepherd that pierced his heart and forthwith come blood
and water. All the work of Christ was the
work of the Father and the Father supported him in that work to
the very end. The atonement was the gift of
the Father, but it was the work of the Son. And in all that He
suffered, He could say, the Father is with me. We went to the work
together. We went together to the work.
The Father is with me. I'm not alone. The Father is
with me. Isn't that wonderful how God
supported His Son in that trying hour? Well, lastly, the lessons
of our Lord's example here. Learn, number one, what do we
learn from this? All the disciples forsook it.
Said they believed, but they forsook it. And Jesus said, I'm
alone, but then I'm not alone, the Father's with me. Well, what
about it? What do we learn from that? Number one, we need to
learn to be faithful when others fail. when others around us fail. Oh, alas, what numbers do. What
numbers do. But you and I, we know that we're
fickle and feeble, and our souls are subject to fall a thousand
times a day. But we need to learn to be faithful
when others fail. Live independently. Learn to
stand on your own, trusting God. Whatever else happens, God's
not going to die. And whatever else happens, God's
not going to fail. Learn to trust God. Learn to
stand independently. And you say, well, I'd like to
have somebody stand with me. It'd be wonderful if they did,
wouldn't it? It'd be wonderful. But don't always expect it. It
may not happen. What are you going to do if they
don't? That's the question. What are you going to do? What
are you going to do? Are you going to stand? Well,
are you a Christian? Do you trust Christ? Do you love
Him? Is the Bible true? Then never desert Him and never
desert His cause. I mean stand with Him if you
have to die for Him. Stand with the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, with Christ believe
that God is all-sufficient, that you don't have to have a human
crutch. that God is all-sufficient. Now, God's going to wean you
away from your crutches. You got some crutches you're
leaning on, and God's going to show you, He's going to show
you, He may show you just how fickle those around you are in
order that you would trust His all-sufficiency, that you would
depend entirely upon Him. You say, there seems to be such
a force against me in this world, so much pressure on me in this
world. Well, is God for you? The Bible
says, if God be for us, what good would it do anybody to be
against us? Is God for you, my friend? If
He is, you can stand. God is all sufficient. He will
hold you up. He will sustain you. God is for
you. God is enough. God is enough,
not only enough for you, but for all of those that are His
children. Weak though they may be, God
is enough. And Jesus showed that and showed
it clearly right here in this example. Now God will make a
way for you. He'll make a way. He'll make
a way. If He can put The clouds in the
sky, and if He can set the stars in the sky, He can make a way
for you, my friend. God will make a way. Rest in
God despite the appearance of things. Say, things look bad,
preacher. They look bad. Well, are you
poor? Doesn't seem there's any way,
you say. I'll never be able to make it. I just can't make it.
Well, let me say that God will make a way for you. Trust God,
regardless of what happens, whatever your situation is, or the appearance
of things. Sometimes, you know, when we
look at things, our faith does indeed stagger. But we need to
trust the all-sufficiency of our God. Are you weak? Remember,
our strength is made perfect in weakness. And God may very
well just bring you to a place where your strength is gone in
order that He might make you strong Himself. And that your
strength will be God's strength. And everybody around you, you
may go all the day long with your head down, great weakness,
but God is able to make your testimony, your witness, your
life a force and a power. He's able to do that because
our strength is made perfect in weakness. Are you scourged
with what seems to be God's heaviest rod? Say, the Lord has dealt
with me in such a way, God's hand has been upon me, preacher,
and I've been greatly chastened to the Lord. Well, see it, if
you will, as the rod of His love, the sweetest of His love. If
you've had the heaviest of His rod, Look on it as the sweet
love of your God, because whom the Lord loveth, he chastens. He chastens those whom he loves. Well, believe him, even though
you may ask, why hast thou forsaken me? Believe him when you cannot
see him. Believe him when he frowns upon
you. Believe him when he slays you.
That's the climax, you know, of it all, to say with old Job,
though he slay me, yet Will I trust him? It is his to do what he
likes. It is mine to trust him. Let
him do as he will. Learn to submit yourself. You'd
be happier if you do. Learn to rest in the Lord. Learn to trust God. Don't be always chafing at the
bits. Rest in the Lord. Learn to trust
God early in your life. It doesn't get any easier as
you get older, but learn to stay, be patient where you are, under
your circumstances, rest in the Lord, and trust in the living
God. It's mine to trust Him. Let Him
do as He will. Fourth, expect and learn that
whatever trial you have, that it'll not last long. It'll not
last long. Did you notice how that Christ
puts it, behold the hour cometh? Behold the hour cometh. Only
an hour. He calls the whole period from
the bloody sweat in Gethsemane's garden to the death on the cross.
He just calls that whole period the hour. The hour. One hour. It is not a year, brother. It's
not a month, sister. It's not a week. It's not even
a day, young person. You say I'm having some awful
trials, preacher. Well, it's not even a day! It's
just an hour. Just an hour. It's the part of
faith, hear me, to shorten days to hours. You believe God, that'll
shorten the time. You trust God. You just cast
yourself upon Him, lay your life down at His feet, and trust Him. And that'll shorten the time.
when you're in your conflict, and you're under your pressure,
when you're in the pressure cooker, you know what that is, don't
you? It'll shorten the time. Can you wait another hour, brother,
sister, young person? Can you just wait another hour?
Can you just rest and wait on the Lord? Listen to these words,
and I close. Let doubt then and danger my progress oppose. They only make heaven more sweet
at the close. Come joy or come sorrow, whatever
may befall, an hour with my God will make up for them all." Trust
the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Follow the
example of the Lord Jesus Christ regardless of what happens about
the betrayals in life, the difficulties in life, the fickleness of people
around you. Follow your Lord's example. Plant
your feet. Say, God has a purpose for my
life. I'll wait on Him. I'll trust Him to work it out.
I'll rest in my Lord. Father, in the name of Jesus,
bless the preaching of thy word. Give understanding to the hearts
of these that have heard this message this morning. May each
one of us be humbled in ourself as we take a look at ourself,
knowing that if we had been there with those disciples we'd have
ran to, even if we'd had to fled naked with old John Mark, we
would have ran away, seeking our own. But Father, help us. Help us. Help us, O Lord, and
lift us up and strengthen us with the example of our Lord.
And may we stand and learn what it means to have God with us.
We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.