I would like to read beginning
with verse 36 and just read down to verse 44 and to kind of help
you to get familiar with the setting here. Our brother read
these verses and I hope that you were listening but I want
to read them over again down to verse 44. Then cometh Jesus
with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the
disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he
took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to
be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here, and
watch with me. And he went a little farther,
and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless. However, not
as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples,
and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What could
ye not watch with me one hour? This is the same Peter I remind
you, verse 35. Peter saith unto him, Though
I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also
said all the disciples. Watch and pray, verse 41, that
ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
even the spirit of old Peter, but the flesh is weak. He went
away again the second time and prayed, saying, O my father,
if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy
will be done. And he came and found them asleep
again, astonishing, for their eyes were heavy. And he left
them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying
the same words. Now there's one word which I
would like to impress upon your minds. throughout this message
today. And this word is a very interesting
word, and it's one that the Lord has greatly blessed, to my own
heart, the study of this, been very, very peaceful and blessed
to me, and there's a reason for that. And I'll be glad to to
give you that reason in a few moments, but the word here is
nevertheless. And you find that word here in
verse 39. And he went a little farther and fell on his face
and prayed saying, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. Now this word nevertheless means
however or in spite of that. However or in spite of that. Now the inspiration for this
sermon or for this message this morning, came from the fact that
we all have various conflicts and problems and some very deep
needs in our lives. Some of us have some very deep
personal needs in our life. And there are some things which
I want desperately, that I would like to see the Lord do for me. And there's some problems which
I would like to have a solution to in my lifetime if you please. I would like to find some solutions
to some problems. Now spiritually speaking I want
desperately to preach the Word of God with power. Most of my
waking hours is spent in thinking about and trying to find a message
to preach to this congregation. I want us all to have a living,
a loving, a lasting union with our Lord Jesus Christ. I want
us all to grow up in the Lord Jesus Christ into the statue
of that perfect One, the Son of God, to grow up in Him and
to grow in the grace and knowledge of His blessed truth. I want
desperately, when I stand before you, to be a blessing to you. I don't want to ever be a hindrance
or in any way, shape, or form to be a detriment to your life
spiritually. Now I want to be able to edify
and to up-build this church. I want the salvation of souls.
I believe I want it for the right purpose also, and that is for
God's glory. We want these things for the
glory of God. We want personal blessings and
the fulfilling of personal needs for the glory of God. Not just
that our flesh might be more happy in this world, but we would
want it for the glory of God. And I want the will of God to
be done, don't you? I believe that God's will ought
to be done. If the will of any is done on this earth, it ought
to be God's will. Would you say amen to that? It
ought to be God's will. Do you pray the will of God be
done on earth as it is in heaven? Do you pray that way? Well, we
ought to pray that way. Our Lord taught us to pray that
his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I want
things to be right. I want things to be right in
our homes and in the church family, and as I said, to the glory of
God, I want things to be right. I want our message to be to the
salvation and not to the condemnation of souls. When we stand to preach,
and I realize, and often this is impressed upon my mind, because
I'd like to be as helpful as I can possibly be to poor souls
that are seeking the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to warn you
of this. There is no way, the Bible says
it is of God that we're in Christ Jesus. There's no way that we
can put souls in Christ Jesus. Now we can labor, we can study,
we can preach, we can find and try to find just the right way
to say things, but we cannot put a soul in Christ Jesus. It is of God that we're in Christ
Jesus who is made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. But I want you to understand
that. Now, that's where we can preach Christ to men and women,
boys and girls, but we cannot bring men and women, boys and
girls to Christ. Christ must bring them. The Father
must draw them by the Holy Spirit. Now, Paul said we have something
for everyone in 2 Corinthians 2, verses 14 through 16. He said, to some, we're a sweet
savor of Christ. in them that are saved. In other
words, we're a sweet savor, we're a sweet smell of the Lord Jesus
to those that are saved. And in them that perish, to the
one we're the savior of death unto death, and to the other
the savor of life unto life. The stench of life unto life,
and to some, the stench of death unto death. Because he that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And so when we preach the gospel
to those that believe, glory, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God. But to those that are lost and
perishing, The message condemns them, and they will die in their
sin. And according to the Bible, the
wrath of God is already upon them. According to the Bible,
they're not under probation. They're already condemned and
will perish forever. and who is sufficient for went
on to say for these things who is it that's sufficient for such
a ministry is that now i i just don't want this kind of ministry
i don't want this kind of other words i don't want to be to the
condemnation of men and women i don't want listen i must cry
out uh... to god and pray more earnestly
that god would make me a saver of life unto life now i know
that noah that he had that kind of a ministry. He had a ministry
of condemnation. I know Ezekiel did. I know that
Jeremiah the weeping prophet did. They had a condemning ministry. And I think you get the drift
of what I'm saying. I would like to be unto the salvation
of souls. I would like that God would give
me words whereby I could speak to men and women, boys and girls,
in order that they be saved, that they be brought out. of
sin's death into that glorious life and liberty that is in the
gospel of Christ. Now, beloved, then we're saying
that we have conflicts and we want the sick healed. Have you
ever been faced with having a relative that was very, very ill? A relative that you thought was
just teetering this way and that? and that you wanted them to be
healed, but you didn't know exactly how to pray for them. And I have
met people that had children that were very ill. I heard recently
about one who had a child that was very sick, And they were
believers and they were wondering just how to pray for this child. They wanted the will of God to
be done. They knew that God was merciful
and compassionate and they wanted the will of God to be done, but
they just simply didn't know exactly how to pray. Was they
praying selfishly to ask God to heal this child? Heal this
child, O Lord. O Father, heal this child. Was that the way to pray? Well,
we want to try to answer some of those questions. We want certain
and particular matters, as we said, resolved in a way that
would bless our family and our church. And we hope, as we said
earlier, would glorify the living God. But second, we want God's
will done. As we said, we believe in the
unrivaled sovereignty of God. And what is the answer to some
of these questions? Am I to pray for these things
or am I just to do nothing? Am I to say God's a sovereign
and he can do whatever he will? Am I to pray about these things?
Do you know when we talk about the sovereignty of God, we never,
and it's never been an issue with me, what God could do. We
know that God can do anything. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? Is there anything? I mean, is
there anything impossible with God? Nothing is impossible with
God. There's nothing that is too hard
for God. It's not a question about what
God can do. It's a question of what He purposes
to do, what He will do. And so when we pray about these
things, how should we pray about them? Well, the answer is right
here in our text in this word that our Lord Jesus uses here
in verse 39, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, however,
in spite of what I'm asking, thy will be done, thy will be
done, not as I will, but as thou wilt, nevertheless, Nevertheless,
and that my friend is the way that we must pray about all these
situations We are not praying unless we allow God to say no
to some of the things we ask for Now the Lord Jesus said that
ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and
it shall be opened unto you, but we must allow Him, His sovereign
right, to do what He will with His own, and if He wills to say
no, we must submit ourselves to that. And that's what we have
here in the Lord Jesus. Now this will give us peace.
If we come and we pray like the Lord Jesus did here, nevertheless,
nevertheless, however, in spite of my wishes and my desires,
in spite of our conflicts, in spite of those things I won't
resolve, in spite of the difficulty, in spite of the sickness of my
children, in spite of whatever is ailing me, In spite of that,
thy will be done, thy will be done. Now, beloved, that'll give
us peace. That gives us the peace that
passeth understanding to commit it into God's hand, to leave
it into that wise hand of a holy Father. Peace of heart. Do you
long to have some peace in your heart? You're battling with various
circumstances and difficulties and they won't budge. You can't
make them budge. They won't go. You can pry this
away and that way. You can jack this away and that
way. But it doesn't move. What are you going to do? Well,
this will give you some peace in your heart. And this will
also give you peace of theology. You say, well, I don't know hardly
what to believe. We have the Armenians on one
side talking about prayer, and we have these on the other side
that seem to say, well, there's no need to pray at all. But then
we have the example of the Lord Jesus, who prayed three times. Three times, right here in our
text. Verse 39 through verse 44. He went three times and prayed
the same words over again to his father. And now what about
this? Will this give us peace in theology? It absolutely will. It's right
for us to be consistent and give us peace in our relationship
with God. Oh my friend, we must come to
the place where eventually we trust His wisdom and we trust
His kindness. We trust His grace. We trust
Him to work out all of the details in our life and we leave everything,
regardless of how big it is, we leave it into the hands of
our Lord. Listen. I can knock with importunity
and with consistency and perseverance and we can keep on praying just
as our Lord did here three times. I can say, Lord, I want this,
I want this, I want this, oh Lord, and I can do it according
to the pattern of our Lord. But each time, each time, the
Lord Jesus said, nevertheless. Nevertheless, however now there
is something that I must say here in this matter of prayer
I will never be able now. I want to say this about what
our Lord was praying here I'll never be able to reconcile the
prayer of our Lord in Gethsemane's garden with a desire on his part
not to go to the cross Believe I don't think our Lord was talking
about here trying to get out of going to the cross Asking
the father to deliver him from going to the cross I believe
that when Jesus came into this world that he knew when he came
into this world that he was going To die on the cross. I would
like for you to turn first of all to John chapter 18 hold your
finger here in our text and Turn with me to John chapter 18. I
want to read just a couple of verses here to help you to see
what I'm talking about. In John chapter 18 and verse
11, then said Jesus unto Peter, put up thy sword unto the sheath.
You remember he cut off the right ear of Malchus. And the Lord said, you put your
sword up into your sheath. The cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? Shall I not drink it? You know,
I was thinking about that when I read this, and I thought, you
know, that's the way we ought to approach our lives. And when the providence of God,
when the providence of God has fixed something into our lives,
I think this ought to be our prayer. The cup which my father
hath given me, shall I not drink it? Shall I not drink it? Whatever
God has predestinated, whatever He has proportioned for me, whatever
it is that He's willed for me, whatever it is that He has said
in old eternity and set down in old eternity for me in the
eternal covenant of grace, That, shall I not drink it? Shall I
not drink it? I must submit myself unto it. Okay, now look with me in Luke
22. Luke chapter 22 and verse 22. And truly, he says, the Son of
Man goeth as it was determined. Truly the Son of Man goeth as
it was determined. Now we read over in the book
of Acts that he was delivered up by the determined counsel
of God and was slain by the hands of wicked men. Jesus knew that
the Lord had given him, that the Father had made him a body,
had given him a body. And in that body, he must die.
In that body, he must suffer. In that body, he must pay the
price and bear the sin of his children. Now, I want us to notice
something here. We notice that he sweat great
drops of blood. He said, my soul is sorrowful
unto death. Now, I believe what he was saying
was I feel that I'm not going to make it to the cross. I believe
that he was saying, I'm going to die right here in this garden.
You take note here that it tells us that the Lord Jesus, that
he began to be sorrowful and very heavy even before he went
to prayer, and that his soul was exceeding sorrowful unto
death. There's not going to be any calvary,
he would say. No goglotha. Because my flesh
nature is not going to live through this experience. This experience
of becoming sin. This experience of the Father
laying upon Him and legally constituting Him as a transgressor of the
law. And beginning to deal with Him
as a common lawbreaker. The Lord Jesus. Now I want you
to look with me at Luke 22 again. Turn back there in that chapter
again. And I want you to look at verse 41. through verses 44
and this will help you to see what I'm talking about Luke chapter
41 or 22 verses 41 through 44 And he was withdrawn from them
about a stone's cast. He kneeled down and prayed, saying,
Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared, in verse
43, here's my reasoning. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. Why do you suppose that
there was any need for an angel to come right here in the garden
of Gethsemane to strengthen the Lord Jesus Christ. It was because
of his flesh nature that he had just strength enough to bear,
and that only after he was strengthened by these angels that came down. And being in agony, he prayed
more earnestly, and sweat as it were great drops of blood
falling down to the ground. And so the Lord Jesus then, now
I don't think that we really feel sin like Christ felt sin. I don't know how you feel about
sin. I really don't. I don't know
exactly whether I have. the kind of feelings about sin
that I ought to have. But I'm certain that we don't
feel towards sin like Christ. Christ, he resisted sin to the
shedding of his blood, and we've never done that. There's no way
that we feel towards sin as Christ did. As one fellow said, we have
not commenced to begin, to get started, to feel towards sin
like the Lord Jesus felt about it. Our Lord in his infinite
mental capacity, his emotional capacity, his heart and his greatness
and his love, holiness and purity, he felt sin, listen to me, as
only God could feel sin. Now when our sin fell on Christ,
the prospect of the Father's separation, the guilt of all
of his people being laid upon him, the prospects of hanging
naked on a Roman tree, the shame of hanging naked, exposed before
the world. Remember, we're talking about
the Son of God. Remember, we're talking about
He that made the world. We're talking about the sovereign
Christ and the shame that He must endure. When all of this
descended on Him, He, as it were, said, I'm going to die right
here. I'm gonna die right here so he cried to the father and
you know the scripture says he made his soul an offering for
sin now most times preachers we talk about his fleshly sorrow
we talk about the nails being driven into his hands but what
about his soul he made his soul an offering for sin and this
is the way to pray let this cup pass from me nevertheless this
is where the matter rests don't desert the prayer closet giving
as an excuse that God's going to do what he will anyway. Don't
do that. Remember this word nevertheless.
So that's my explanation as to why the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
this way. That he wanted, that he felt
like he wasn't going to make it. to Calvary, and so he prayed
in this way. Now if anyone ever believed in
sovereignty, was it not Christ? I'm sure that he believed in
the sovereignty of God. If anyone believed the will of
God would be done, it was the Master. If there's anyone that
knew, you know, our substitute, our surety, the Lord Jesus was
there. when the covenant of grace was
entered into between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And he knew everything. The Bible says, known unto him
all of his works from the beginning of the world. And he knew, yet
he prayed. Yet he earnestly prayed. Yet
he prayed three times, but always subject to. Nevertheless, nevertheless,
however, in spite of the way I feel, Lord, your will be done. Yet no man ever prayed like the
master. Now, and any man who uses his
belief in the sovereignty of God in election, in predestination,
God's will, if you please, to discourage prayer, to depart
from the prayer closet, this man is wrong. You're wrong today
if you've been saying there ain't no need to pray anymore, the
Lord will do what he wants to do. That's wrong. That's not
right. Now Jesus said, Ask and it shall
be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. In Mark 11 24, What things soever
ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye
shall have them. Men ought always to pray and
not to faint, Paul said. Paul said, Pray without ceasing,
and I will. He said that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And so much
for this then of the prayer of our Lord and our obligation to
continue to pray being subject to the will of God. So much for
that. Now I want you to turn with me
to Luke chapter 5 and here's another area that will be helpful
to us where this word is used. Luke chapter 5. And I want us
to look here in the beginning here of this chapter, we take
note, came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear
the word of God that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and
saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were
gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into
one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed to him that he would
thrust out a little from the land, and he sat down and he
taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking,
he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your
nets for a draught, or for a good catch. And Simon answering said
unto him, Master, we've been here all night. We've been fishing
here all night. You just got here. We've been
fishing all night, and we've caught nothing. There ain't any
fish in this sea. There's no fish around here.
And we've been here all night. We've taken nothing. But here's
that word, nevertheless, However, in spite of the fact we've been
here all night, in spite of the fact that I'm an educated fisherman,
and I've been at this all my life, in spite of this, and I
know as much about fishing as anybody on the face of the earth,
nevertheless, however, in spite of all of that, at thy word,
I will let down the net. I'll let it down. Well, when
all is said and done, it is God's Word that is our rule, not our
own wisdom. Now, I want to say some things
here that I think can be helpful to us if we'll just focus on
them for a moment. We have thoughts. We have minds. We have plans. We're not robots. We're not puppets. We're not
puppets on a string. We need to learn this, that we're
seeking the will, the way, the truth of God as it is revealed
in the Word of God. And I have some thoughts, so
do you. We all consider ourselves to be at least of average intelligence. We got a few things going on
up here. It may be less and less the older we get, but we've got
a few things going on. But no matter how little we understand
of it, and no matter how contrary to human wisdom, contrary to
our own minds it appears, the Word of God is our rule of faith
and the rule of practice. And this is so clearly spelled
out here. Now Peter, here he stands unshaven, and here he
is sleepy and tired. And he's cleaning his net. Now,
you're not in a very good mood. It's not so bad, you see, to
clean your nets when you've caught a lot of fish. And you haven't caught anything.
It can be exceptionally tough, I suppose. But the Lord said,
now you launch out a little bit here and catch here some fish. And Peter said, we've been here.
He's implying there's nothing out there. That's human wisdom. That's human understanding. And
that ought to have been enough. Maybe Simon Peter thought, it
ought to be enough. I told him. And I told him, and
look who I am. And I know this fishing business,
as we said. And that ought to have been enough
for Jesus to say, well, just shove her on back into the bank.
And let's go home and catch a few Z's. Let's just go home and cop
a few Z's. And come back when the moon's
right. You can come back when the almanac says it's all right
for you to come back. Go look at your calendar and
you can come back a little bit later. Peter, as we said, he
was up on this fishing business. Lord, you should have listened
to me. But Peter added something that every one of us better learn
to add. Nevertheless, Nevertheless, at
thy word we will let down the nets. We will not do what I think
we ought to do, what somebody else thinks ought to be done.
I'm not going to find out what you say. I'm going to seek the
word of God. I'm going to find out what God
says. And that's what we'll do, right? We'll do what God says.
Not human wisdom, but thus sayeth the Lord. Human wisdom, now I
don't mean to be hard on anybody, but human wisdom, It's foolishness
in God's eyes. It's foolishness in God's eyes.
The world by wisdom, Paul said, never found God. You won't find
God by being wise. Now this is so difficult for
some folks to receive, especially when the word is so contrary
to the way that we learned it and so contrary to the way we
do it. God says, my ways are not your
ways. And God said, your thoughts are
not my thoughts. Well, here's an example of what
I'm saying. Here's the Word of God. See what
you think of it. Would you be full? God says,
if you would be full, then become empty. You say, well, that's
not sensible, preacher. If a man's going to be full,
then he doesn't want to become empty. He's trying to be full.
But the Word of God says, a man, if he wants to be full, let him
become empty. Let him be emptied out of self.
Let him be emptied out of the world and the things of the world,
and be filled with that which is truly of God. Now, would you
be rich? Then give everything away. Somebody
said, Bob preacher that won't work. Well, would you receive
then give it? Oh No preacher if you would receive
you gotta go get it. That's the philosophy of the
world. Well, you know Somebody says that you cannot you cannot
get without giving but you cannot give to get you must give with
the right motive in order to get and Well, I've often said
that a man gets a living, or a man has a living by what he
gets, but he has a life by what he gives. And the Bible teaches
very clearly here that if you would receive, then you got to
give it. Jesus said, give and it shall
be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together. Give and it
shall be given unto you. Would you be wise? Then you become
a fool. Would you live? Die out to yourself. Would you
save your life? Lose it! This is what the Word
of God teaches. But I'll tell you what, can you
take this? A philosopher can't take it.
A psychiatrist won't be able to take it. Some educators won't
be able to take it. But this is what God says. This
is what he said. Now, it's spiritual. It's the
revelation of God's Word, and we're shut up to it. And if the
day ever comes when we give that up, we'll have to give it all
up. Give it every bit of it. Now, have you thoughts, your
objections, or do you have thoughts and objections to this? Well,
my friend, what you must do is come and with old Peter say,
nevertheless. Nevertheless. Lord, I got my
opinion of this. Lord, I know what I want. And
Lord, I've already passed judgment on this situation. Already turned
thumbs down on it. Nothing will ever come of this.
Nevertheless, at Thy Word. At Thy Word. That's what we're
pressing toward. But the end of every expression
say, however, in spite of, at Thy Word. Better look into this
Word. Better look into it. The Lord's
going to judge us in that day. We better believe what the Word
of God says. We better trust His Word. Well,
in the third place, I want you to turn to the book of 2 Timothy. I'm going to hurry here. I'll
have you out, the Lord willing, on time. Turn to the book of
2 Timothy, and I want us to look here in chapter 1 at verse 12. For the witch cause
I also suffer these things." Before I read the rest of this
verse, let me give you just a little bit of background on here. The
Pharisees and the Sadducees and the lawyers and the scribes of
Paul's day were all decked out in their fine linen. They had
the best clothes, the white linen, you know, with the blue borders.
And they had the funny-looking hats. They had the good jobs,
if you please. They had the good churches. They
had the synagogues. They had the tabernacles. They
had the temples. And they had the uppermost seats. They had
the degrees. They had the credentials. They
had the people. They had the parsonages. They
had the guaranteed salaries, fringe benefits. They had everything.
And people called them Master, Rabbi, Rite, Reverend, Father
in God, Doctors of Religion, and so on. They had everything.
They had all the respect, the honor, and all. But here sits
Paul alone in a prison. In a prison, I say. Now I'm talking
about Paul the Apostle. Here's the man who had the message. Now they had everything else,
but Paul had the message. And this will get to you sometime.
It does to me. He had the message, I say. Paul
knew that these people, they weren't saying anything, they
were sounding brass, they were tinkling cymbals, creaking barn
doors. Paul knew what they were. But
here he is, He had the message, but he was in prison. Here he
sat, watching the rats crawling around in the dungeon, waiting
on some reprobate to come and furnish him with his food and
drink. Here he sat with a limited audience, a few at the door,
a few looking in the window once in a while. Here he sat waiting
death, ridiculed, spit on, scoffed at, hated, lied about. They said
this man's mad. They said he's crazy. He's the
filth and the offscouring of the earth. He suffered as no
other man outside of Christ ever suffered. And look at what he
said. For the witch cause I also suffer
these things nevertheless. However, in spite of it all,
I'm not ashamed. I am not ashamed. Can you think of it? Can you
think of it? I'm not ashamed. You see what
he's saying? Now sometimes people say to me,
don't you have a church building? Don't you have a church building?
I remember one fellow out west of town here one time said, if
you don't have your own building, you're nothing. If you don't
have your own building, you're nothing. Well, he might have
been right about that, I don't know. But why don't you have
a degree? Why don't you have a degree?
Well, I've told you about the degree. The degree is like curling
hog's tail. Looks mighty nice, but it don't
have a thing on earth to do with the taste of the ham. I told
you about that. Well, why don't you this? Why
don't you do that? And if your God is a millionaire,
how come you're a support preacher? How come? Well, that's what they
say. But Paul said, I know how to
abound, and he said, I know how to be abased. But he said, I'm
not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. Nevertheless,
look at the whole picture. I'm not ashamed. Sure, I'm in
here. I got the message. Paul knew
he had the message. You think he had the message?
He had the message. You can read his epistles. He
had it. And I'll tell you, before God, I believe we have the message. I believe we do. I believe we
have the message. Now Paul knew who the Redeemer
was. He knew it wasn't Mary. He knew
that salvation wasn't in a local church. He knew that salvation
was in Christ. I know, he said, whom I have
believed, salvation is a person. And all religious folks think
it's something they do or don't do, but it's not so. Paul knew
how to spell salvation. D-O-N-E. He knew how to spell
it. And religious folks spell it
D-O. That's how they spell it. Something
you do. Something you got to do. Paul said it's done. He believed
it was done. He had the message. One of the
ways you can tell a false prophet is that he's always given you
something to do. Always got something that he
wants you to do. Something you must do. Well,
salvation is done. It's done. Salvation is accomplished. And Paul knew that. It's a living
union with a living Christ. And I don't need the acclaim
of the world, the applause of men. I don't need the support
of worldly flesh. I know whom I believe, Paul said,
and I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him. David said, when my father and
my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. A true
preacher of the gospel ought to be tender, he ought to be
kind, he ought to be compassionate, but he also must be fiercely
independent. He must be fiercely independent,
he must be bold. And whatever my environment,
whatever my condition, whatever it cost, I know whom I believe. And Paul said, I'm not ashamed.
I'm not ashamed, let them laugh. Let them laugh now, let them
snicker now, let them carry on now, let them carry on, but the
day will come, this thing will change, it's going to be different.
The day will come. Now look next, if you will, at
2 Timothy 2, and remember this word that we're using, nevertheless.
2 Timothy 2, the same book, chapter 2, and look with me, if you will,
beginning with verse 17. And their word will eat as death
a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Phileas, who, concerning
the truth, have erred, saying that the resurrection is past
already, and overthrow the faith of some. And now verse 19, nevertheless,
however, in spite of all of that, the foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and
let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Now what's he saying here? But
in spite of Phygelus and Hermogenes, he mentioned them earlier, up
in verse 6, well, over in the first chapter, Then in spite
of Demas that he mentions down in verse 19 In spite of I think
that's the first chapter. Well, wait a minute. I'm wrong
there. But anyway, maybe that's in in chapter Well, let's let's
forget that but Demas is the one that had forsaken the Lord
and having loved this present world but in spite of this Nevertheless,
he says, nevertheless, God has a people and he will call them
and they will come and they will not depart. He says, in spite
of the fact that these have erred from the truth and overthrown
the faith of some, nevertheless, God has a people. The foundation
of God stands sure. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. Now you look around and you see this fellow blow that
way and that fellow blow that way, and this fellow's listening
to this and believes that, and this fellow believes something
else, and you say, well, I can't tell what's right and what's
wrong. And how do we know here? Well, just remember this. However,
nevertheless, All of that may be true, but the foundation of
God stands sure. That stands sure. The Lord knoweth
them that are His. You may not know who they are,
but the Lord knows who they are. And all in spite of all the false
doctrine that's being espoused, in spite of it all, these false
professors going this way and that, in spite of it all, God
has His people. Religion has its people, but
God has His people even here. He has His people. Now, that may sound like I think
this is an unusual place for God to have people. No, but I
just want to emphasize the fact to you that God does have people,
even His, people here. I heard a fellow one time talking
about going back up a holler, and he said it was so far back
up a holler down there in West Virginia that you couldn't stick
a butcher knife. and he said that there was only four or five
people up there meeting in a little old meeting house. They didn't
have anybody to play the piano and the building was falling
down and all that. Four or five people, but he went
up there and preached. And he preached. And after a
while he found out that every one of those people, just four
or five of them, that every one of them believed in absolute
sovereignty, believed in the grace of God, believed in the
redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ, the particular definite
atonement of our Lord Jesus, they were solid in the faith.
And he said, well, even up this holler, way back up in this holler,
up these muddy roads, God has his people. Nevertheless, nevertheless,
don't, my friend, go off saying the cause of God is ruined. Nobody,
nobody is straight. God has his people. He has his
people wherever you go looking for him. Now then, I want you
to look in Philippians with me. Philippians chapter 1. And I'm
hurrying, you can tell that. Philippians chapter 1. And I want you to look with me
at verse 23 through 25. Paul said, for I'm in a strait
betwixt two. having a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better, oh my, be far better,
Paul said, to get out of this, to leave this world and to be
with Christ. Nevertheless, nevertheless, however,
in spite of my feelings about it all, to abide in the flesh
is more needful for you. Depression and weariness of life,
Now today, you may be a young person, and you may feel that
you're on the sunny side of life, and you may love life as it is
in this world. You may love it very much, and
you may want to just stay here forever. That's the way you feel
about it today. You say, I would love to just
stay here, preacher, forever. That's the way I feel. But tomorrow,
you may be like Job, who wanted to die, or like Elijah, who prayed
to die. Asked God to just take him on,
said, I'm no better than my fathers, just take me on out of here.
And Job said, the day of my death, it'll be better than the day
of my birth. He lived to say that. Old Job. And Paul said, I want to die.
Paul said, I'm weary. Paul said, the weight of it all,
the false friends, the persecution in and outside the church, he
said, I'm ready to leave here. I want to leave this world, nevertheless,
in spite of my feelings, in spite of the fact that I feel I'm ready
to leave here. However, I'm willing to stay.
I'm willing to stay. Well, you know they needed Paul.
He said, to abide in the flesh, it's more needful for you. God
pity the man that nobody needs. God pity the man Nobody needs
them. God pity the man that needs nobody.
God pity that man. We are needy creatures, not only
of God's mercy and grace. How can I word this so that you'll
be able to understand what I'm saying? Every man must bear his
own burden, the Bible says, but we must bear each other's burdens
also. Now we have this cockiness about us that we sometimes say
we don't need anybody. You ever say that? Well, I don't
need anybody. I don't need anybody. I got a
brother that way. He's in the hospital this morning, Veterans
Hospital in Indiana. Very sick. Younger than I am. Considerably younger. Ten years
younger than I am. Very ill. I don't need anybody. Don't need anybody. Well, there's
a sense, you know, in redemption, justification, sanctification,
I need only Christ. In my completeness, in my perfectness
before God, perfectness before God, holiness before God, I need
nobody but Christ. But in life, my life here, in
this world, and for my happiness, my joy, and my service, ministry,
I need this whole church family. I need this whole church family.
In life and growth, encouragement, for exhortation, I need my fellow
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. I need my fellow believers. And
so Paul said, I'm conscious that you all need me. So he said,
nevertheless. I'd just like to go beyond and
be with the Lord. I'd like to do that. But nevertheless, nevertheless,
however, in spite of the fact of my weariness, the toils of
the road gotten me down, but in spite of it, in spite of it. I'll just stay here until God
says this is it. And that's the attitude we must
take. You say, now I can't get out of this. Well, you may have
that feeling at times, but I'm going to tell you something,
you better say nevertheless. Nevertheless, however, however,
there's some people still have need of you. some people around
that you can encourage to say something to. You got a family,
you got children, you got people that you need to be looking after.
You need to be bearing somebody else's burden and quit looking
at your own burden all the time. Bear somebody else's burden and
look at their situation. Well, I had a couple other words
but the time has gotten away from me and I think what we're
going to do is we'll just close right there. But remember this
word. Remember this word, nevertheless.
Our Lord used it, Paul used it, and I think we ought to use it
also. We ought to use it. Father, in the name of Jesus,
strengthen us, Lord, to be able to deal with these various things
in our life. Oh, Lord, help us to be persistent. Help us with importunity to pray,
to pray, to lay out our situations before you, but always to be
willing in our hearts before you, out of love to you and out
of desire for your glory, to say, Lord, however, in spite
of our feelings, nevertheless, thy will be done. Strengthen
us, O Lord, with this message and use it for thy glory. Lord,
we pray that there be somebody here that is a stranger to many
of these truths. Oh, may your word come with power
to their hearts. and may they be delivered. You
know that we prayed earnestly to that end, and we begged you
to do it. So glorify yourself, bring forth
fruit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.