The apostle James tells us that
the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The mere mouthing of words, the
vain repetitions, the emotional expressions of sentimental desires,
and the religious activities that men often call prayer, avail
nothing. When such excuses for prayer
are over, they're over. That's all there is to it. You
go through the exercise, you say the words, and that's it.
You expect nothing, and you get exactly what you expect, nothing. Nothing happens, nothing is done,
nothing's accomplished. And yet, the scripture declares
plainly, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man obeyeth
much. The church of God today is in
a very sad state. And when I say this, I'm not
talking now about religion as a whole. That's in terrible shape. I'm talking about true believers.
I'm talking about the church of the living God. I'm talking
about local churches just like this one, where I go literally
all over the world. The church of God today is in
a sad, sad state. I don't want to ignore or fail
to observe God's many great blessings upon us. I speak particularly
for this assembly. I see many things for which to
be thankful and to be greatly encouraged in the work of the
gospel. The blessings of God upon disassembly are evident
in many, many ways. The Lord has graciously opened
for us a constantly increasing door of utterance for the gospel
for sixteen years. We've seen constant, constant
open doors, and thus far, none of those doors being shut. but
God has just continually opened one door after the other for
the fervor of the gospel. He has given us a rare blessed
harmony and fellowship and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord, in
the unity of faith, in the faith of the gospel of Christ Jesus. And words cannot describe my
gratitude for God's goodness. And yet we must not ignore the
grim fact that there is in us in this assembly, and in the
Church of God in general, far too much lethargy, far too much
indifference to the things of God. It appears to me that we
expect very little from our great God. Now that needs to sink in. God's
great, but we expect very little from And therefore we do not
stir ourselves up to lay hold of him as we ought. Is that true
of you? Is that true of you? You expect
God to do little, and therefore you do not stir yourselves up
and ask God to do much. You do not stir yourselves up
to seek him and to call on his name and take hold of him as
certainly we ought to do. I fear that it is far more true
of me than I want to acknowledge. Now tonight, I want to preach
to you on the subject, taking hold of God. You'll find my text
in Isaiah 64 and verse 7. The people of God were in a very,
very sad, mournful condition. Isaiah felt that they were in
such a condition that it could only be remedied by God's gracious
but violent intervention on their behalf. And so he prays in verse
104, that thou would surrender the heavens, that thou wouldest
come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.
He prayed for God to make himself known as he did at Mount Sinai
in the giving of the law. He prayed that God would come
in the power of his greatness and make himself known so as
to remove the troubles that were before his people. He said, we're
so cold-hearted, God come down in fire and melt the stony hearts
that are before you, lest we perish like the leaves that are
driven away with the wind. He prayed that God would send
down that heat recalls the water to burn, and kindle a flame of
love in their hearts for him again. And then in our text,
the prophet describes for us the calls of all the evil that
had come upon the nation. He lays the axe to the root of
the tree, and he exposes the root of all evil that had come
upon the people of God. And there is none that calleth
upon thy name. There is none that stirreth up
himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from
us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. What a text. With those words the Holy Spirit
tells us that the cause of such a lamentable condition in the
church of God, in the kingdom of God, is the lack of effectual,
fervent prayer among righteous men and women. That's the cause. The fact that we simply do not
stir ourselves up to take hold of God. Now, I want to apply
this text directly to us and to our present And in so doing,
I'm going to show you three things in this text. First, the sad
state into which we have fallen. And then secondly, God's gracious
chastisement by which he corrects our indifference and causes us
to stir up ourselves to take hold of him. And then the last
part of the verse exposes the reasons for God's chastisement. May God the Holy Spirit now be
our teacher and effectually graciously apply his word to our hearts,
stirring us up to take hold of God. I'm going to spend the bulk
of my time with the first part of the message. That's the part
that needs to be pressed home to us. Our text says, There is
none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take
hold of thee. With those words, the prophet
describes the sad state into which we are falling. Now, I
spent the afternoon working on this message, and I spent several
nights last week working on it while I was away, seeking from
God direction as to exactly what needs to be said. I want to say
no more and no less than God would have me say to you. I don't
want to. and at the same time, I don't
want to give undue confidence. I want us to be realistic. Let's
deal with this as it is. Without question, this text of
scripture must be applied primarily to the saints of God. These words
were first ordered by one of God's prophets. When he spoke
them, he spoke as the representative of the nation of Israel, the
people of God, during one of their times of great spiritual
barrenness and emptiness. therefore we must apply the text
specifically and primarily to the people of God in a similar
fashion. We're in a low state of barrenness,
emptiness, like Israel was in this passage. But I won't violate
the scriptures at all by applying them to you who are yet without
Christ, to you who do not know our God. We live in a day when
it appears that few people are being saved. God is still calling
out his elect. I am thankful for the blessed
privilege of hearing from folks who are called out by God's grace. But it appears, at least in my
judgment, it appears that God's calling out his elect one or
two at a time, here and there, scattered throughout the earth.
He's just calling them out one or two at a time, here and there,
scattered literally throughout the earth. I don't know of any
gospel preacher anywhere who is overburdened by baptizing
new converts. And I haven't known of one in
twenty, let's see, twenty-seven years I've been preaching. Haven't
known of one. Haven't known of one. Anywhere. I don't know of
a gospel preacher anywhere who is overburdened with folks coming
to no class and they're having to find a place to put them because
there's just too many folks being saved. Not at all. The fact is,
we're living in a day when very, very few people are being called
out by God's Much of the blame for this state of barrenness is to be laid at our own door. I know that God's elect will
be saved in God's time. I know that. I know that God
will save every chosen, redeemed sinner by the power of his grace
at the appointed time, in the appointed place, exactly as he
has determined. I'm fully aware of that. Jesus
Christ's precious blood will be affectionately applied to
God's elect according to God's purpose. I'm fully aware of that.
I take a back seat to no one in preaching that, and this congregation
doesn't. We believe it with all our hearts.
But we recognize at the same time that we are responsible
for that shameful, sinful, lethargy, and unbelief which causes barrenness
in the church of God. We're responsible. You are, and
I am. We're responsible for that fruitlessness,
that spiritual fruitlessness, that fruitlessness in our own
lives, in that fruitlessness which is a lack of conversions
by the grace and power of God. You see, the cause of the barrenness,
are you listening? Give me attention now. The cause
of the barrenness of God's church in this day is undiminished. That's the cause. I'm going to
show you. Turn to Isaiah 48. Isaiah 48. Verse 18, O that thou hast hearkened to
my commandments, then had thy peace been as a river, and thy
righteousness as the waves of the sea. What a word. God speaks to us, and he says,
if you'd have just obeyed me, they'd be so If you just follow after me,
if you just believe me, then would your peace and your righteousness
be as the waves of the sea. Turn over to the book of John,
if you will. Let's stop at Matthew for a moment, Matthew chapter
13. Matthew 13, our Lord has been giving the parables of the
kingdom, expounding the word of grace, And when he finished giving his
parables and was come again into his own country, we read in verse
57 that he was without honor in his own country. And in verse
58, he did not many mighty works there. You see the reason why? Let's, let's put it right here. Danville, Kentucky, Grace Baptist
Church, 1996. He did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief. Not because they didn't have
enough programs. Most churches pretend to have the Spirit of
God and the power of God when he's a hundred thousand miles
away from them. They act religious, and they
give religious activity, and they stir things up, and they
have bean suppers, and spaghetti suppers, and they prepare dinner
to get folks to come to church, because they wouldn't come if
you didn't feed them, and they have donuts, and coffee, and entertainment,
and ball games, and ball teams, and all the nonsense of the world! But they don't have God. They
don't have God. The lack of conversion is not
the lack of doing stuff. Oh no, no, no, no, no. Maybe
that's the lack of folks having an interest in coming to this
particular place. But the lack of conversion, the
lack of God's work, is unbelief. That's the cause. That's the
cause. Look in John chapter 11. John chapter 11, and verse Jesus saith unto her, said I
not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory
of God." Now let me tell you what he's
talking about. He's not saying, Martha, if you'd believe, God
would come to you in a vision and show you the dazzling, brilliant
light of his being. Oh, not at all, not at all. He
said, Martha, if you'd you'd see your brother raised from
the dead. That's what he said. If you believe, you'd see the
glory of God work before you. You'd see the glory of God work
for you, and you'd see the glory of God work through you. If you
just believe. I acknowledge the shameful guilt
of God's and to my own empty soul. We ought to be better servants
to our God. He deserves better. But you listen
to this preacher for a minute. Some of you are here without
Christ. You're yet in your sins. If you go to hell, it will be
of no comfort to your soul to say if Don Fortner had been a
better preacher and those people down at Grace Church had been
better faithful believers, I would have been saved. The fact is
that's not your problem. You who are lost without Christ
are lost because you will not seek the Lord. You're lost because
you will not come to Christ that you might have life. You're not
lost because God decreed you to eternal damnation. You're
not lost because God will not have mercy upon you. You're not
lost because you're not among the elect. You're not lost because
Christ didn't die for you. You're lost because you will
not come to Christ. You will not stir up your soul
to call upon God. You will not stir up your soul
to lay hold of him. You have passing fixes of religious
notions. You have passing spasms of religion. You have a passing interest,
maybe, in the things of God. but you will not stir up your
souls to seek him." Our Lord speaks plainly in John
chapter 3. Look at it with me. John chapter
3. Verse 17, God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world. Is that a nonsense to
imagine that? But that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned all day, and here's the reason why, because, underscore
that, because, this is the cause, because he hath not believed
on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one
that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deed should be reproved." Look in John chapter 5, and verse
39, our Lord speaks to the Pharisees, and he says, search the scriptures.
Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, and they are they which testify of me. And you will not
come to me that you might have life. That's the problem. If you're lost tonight, it's
because the words of our text apply specifically to you. You
simply refuse to call upon the name of the Lord. You will not
stir yourself up to take hold of God. If you're concerned about
your soul, if you're really concerned, if you really want to be saved,
let me tell you what you must do. You must stir yourself up
to take hold This implies something more than a passing fancy. This
implies something more than a passing glance at the word of God. This
implies something more than coming to church when it's convenient
and you've got nothing else to do. It's taking hold of God. It implies earnestness. It implies
being in dead earnest about this thing. And if ever you understand
that hell is wide open waiting for you, and you've got a breath
from hell, it might stir you up to take hold of God. This
implies passion, this implies intensity, this implies earnestness. The reason you perish is because
you won't stir yourself up to seek God. The woman with the
issue of blood debt, she had been suffering with a
disease that caused her to have a continual flow of blood for
twelve long years. And she had spent everything
she had on physicians of no value. And she was none the better,
but only grew worse. And she knew she was about to
die. And she heard that the Lord Jesus
was passing by. And she said, if I could just
touch the hem of his garment, I'd be made whole. She knew she
was unclean. She knew she had no right to
touch him. She knew she had no right to even be in the crowd
that day. But the master was passing by. And she said, I've
got to have him. If I don't get him, if I don't
get hold of him, I'm gone. You in that condition? Then reach
out and touch the Lord as he passes by. You'll find he's not
too busy to hear your hearts cry as soon as he touches you. And I'm telling you, as soon
as you lay hold of Him, you too shall be made whole. The Canaanite
woman is a good example of what it is to lay hold of God, to
stir up your soul, to call on Him and to seek Him. She came
to the Lord Jesus and she said, Lord, my daughter is grievously
vexed of the devil. And the Lord ignored her. And
she continued to cry after him, and the disciples said, Lord,
send her away, she's bothering us. There's a sermon in that, but
we'll go on. And the Lord turned around and
looked at her and said, I'm going to be sent to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. And she said, I recognize that. He said, it's
not fit to take children's bread and give it to dogs. She said,
I recognize that too, but Lord, It's all right to scrape the
crumbs off to the dogs, isn't it? And the Lord Jesus looked
at her and said, I've never seen such a thing. You go your way,
your daughter's made whole. That's what it is to take hold
of God. It is to have such a necessity in your soul that you must have
him. And you cannot go away without
him. You've got to have him. The leper
came and fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you will, You
make me whole. Blind Bartimaeus cried, Jesus,
our son of David, have mercy on me. And before the day was
over, Blind Bartimaeus was made to see perfectly because he took
hold of God. And the Lord Jesus said, your
faith has made you whole. What a wonderful act of grace,
mercy, and condescension that God Almighty would allow it.
But here he is, he stoops down to sinners upon the earth and
bids us lay hold of him. Oh, what grace! Come back here
to Isaiah 43. When God speaks about forgiving
the sins of his people, listen to how he does it. In Isaiah
43, in verse 25, he says, I, even I, am he that blotted out
thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy
sins. You want to get in on that? Do
you? I do. I want to get in on that. He says, put me in remembrance. Let us lean together. Declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. Take hold of me. Take hold of
me. If you would be saved, you must
stir yourself up to take hold of God as he revealed himself
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Take hold of the gospel, believe
its promises, plead with the Lord God for mercy upon gospel
grounds. You say, Pastor, how can a sinner
come to God? What does he have to plead? I'll
tell you how you speak to it. God gives you these grounds,
and take what ground he'll give you. Just take what he'll give
you. Plead your sinnerhood. David did. In Psalm 2511, David
made one of the most remarkable prayers I ever read or heard
in my life. He said, pardon my iniquity,
O Lord, for it is great. What a belief! He says, God, I look to you to
pardon me, because I'm such a sinner that only you can pardon me. That's the ground to take. That's
what I do with God. Plead the blood atonement of
Jesus Christ the Lord. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission, but Lord God, your Son has shed his blood,
and now there is remission, even for a sinner like me. And plead
the promises of the gospel that he's given. He says, come unto
me, all you that labour in the heavy laden. How can you ask? Look unto me and be you saved.
All the ends of the earth cry unto God, and there is none else.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I know
this. I know this. I plead with you
and I plead with God for you. But I know this. If ever you
find yourself in need of God's grace and God's salvation in
Christ, you will stir yourself up and take hold of God. The
hymn writer put it this way. I've never seen this hymn in
one of our modern hymn notes, but it's a good one. Come humble
sinner, in whose breast a thousand thoughts revolve. Come with your
guilt and fear oppressed and make this last resolve. I'll
go to Jesus, though my sin hath like a mountain rose, I know
his courts, I'll enter in whatever may oppose. Prostrate, I'll lie
before his throne, and there my guilt confess, I'll tell him
I'm a wretch undone without his sovereign grace. I'll to the
gracious King approach, who sent to pardon gifts, perhaps he may
command my touch, and then this sinner lives. Perhaps you will
admit my plea, perhaps you'll hear my prayer, but if I perish,
I will pray and perish only there. I can but perish if I go. I am
resolved to try, for if I stay away, I know I must forever die. But if I die with mercy sought,
when I the king have tried, oh, this were to die a delightful
thought, as sinner never dies. I urge you then, as you care
for your soul, to stir yourself up to take hold of God. You're
standing upon the edge of eternity. Hell's open to swallow you up.
Only Christ can save you. Take hold of Him. Take hold of
Him. He alone can have mercy upon
you. He alone can bring you to glory. I know that you must be stirred
and awakened by God, or you will never stir and awaken yourself.
I'm fully aware of that. And yet I know that it is your
responsibility to stir yourself up. It is your responsibility
to take hold of God. If you do so, you'll live before
him. If you refuse, you'll perish
under his wrath. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light." Oh God help you now to stir yourself up and take
hold of him. However, the opening lines of
our text are primarily addressed to God's saints in a low, low
condition. What a sad state we are in upon
the whole. It must be confessed honestly
that in the church and kingdom of God there is none that calleth
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.
Now what Isaiah is describing here is a lack of prayer, a lack
of earnest prayer in the kingdom of God. He's describing a wholesale
indifference toward God. He does not mean to imply that
there is none absolutely that stirs himself up, because he
was right now stirred up and laid hold of God. He does not
imply at all that there is absolutely none who take hold of God, for
he was taken hold of God. But he's telling us that on the
whole, in the church, in the kingdom of God, folks are indifferent,
just indifferent. Somehow there is a coldness,
an indifference, a blindness, a less than loving care of the
world, something, that somehow, causes men and women to pass
through the world professing love and faith for God, who will
not stir themselves up, who will not bother themselves to take
hold of God. What a sad state. This is the very essence of prayer.
It is a stirring up of ourselves, a stirring up of ourselves to
take hold of God. And if when we pray, we don't take hold of God, we
haven't prayed. If when we pray, we don't take
hold of God, we haven't prayed. Spurgeon once said, the very
soul of devotion lies in realizing the divine presence, in dealing
with God as a real person, in firm confidence in his faithfulness,
in a word, in taking hold of him. We are in this world encompassed
with troubles, problems, and cares in this world from which
none can deliver us but our God. We have many and constant needs
which no preacher can supply. God alone can meet our needs.
God alone can deliver us from our troubles. Those that most
concern us are things that only God can take care of. But we
are, all of us by nature, averse to prayer. Every one of us. Men and women are very much attracted
to religious thought. We're very much attracted To
saying, now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul
to keep. We're very much attracted to saying, the Lord is great,
the Lord is good, let us thank him for our good. We're very
much attracted to going to church and having someone to read a
liturgy to us. We're very much attracted to
going through a form of religion. But we are totally averse to
calling on God. Totally averse to prayer. Therefore, I'm going to say it
anyhow, because it needn't be said. The reason psychiatrists and religious
psychiatrists—I'm not calling them Christian, I said religious—religious
psychiatrists, religious psychologists, religious counselors have folks
flocking to them, flocking to them. All I got to do is hang
out at Singleton and tell folks, I'm here to counsel you, and
folks will be flocking out here to get counseling. The reason
why? Because we're real good at asking
men for help. We won't ask God for help. We're
real good at calling on neighbor and friend, but not at calling
on God. I'm telling you, preachers do
you a great disservice. They do you a great disservice
by getting you to come to them and cast your burden on them.
Go to God and cast your burden on Him. We're versed by nature
to prayer, though. The Lord bid us cast our care
upon Him. but we prefer to carry the load
for ourselves. He gives us come to the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need, but we prefer to look to Egypt for help and lean on
the almond of flesh. That's the reason we're in the
shape we're in. It is because there is none that calleth upon
thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. It is ever
the tendency of human flesh to shut God out of our lives. Bobby, when I wrote that down,
I thought, my soul, what a shocking reality. But reality is, it is
the tendency of your flesh and mine to shut God out of our lives. You men get to carry burdens
from your work, from your business, and you don't want to overload
your wives, and so you keep it to yourselves. And your wives
get a little upset with you. They say, Honey, don't shut me
out of your life. Don't shut me out. Don't shut
me out. The reality is, there's probably
not much they can do to help. But if we shut God out of our
lives, we've shut out of our lives the only help there is.
You understand that? Don't shut God out. Don't refuse
to spur yourself up to call on God, to take hold of God. Isaiah
here shows us the nature of true prayer. It's described as calling
upon the Lord. Prayer is not the repetition
of words, but it is an act of reverent worship. It is not reading
a liturgy, but rather the lowering of the soul. Prayer is not a
work of our lips. You call on God with your heart. It doesn't matter whether you
can speak good grammar or not. It doesn't matter whether you
speak good English or not. You call on God not with your
lips, but with your heart. Prayer is described as taking
hold of Him. The Lord God has said Himself
before us in the promises of His Word, that by believing His
Word we may lay hold of Him. We're to lay hold of Him by faith.
If we would obtain the blessing of his goodness, we must take
hold of his strength. Look at what he says in Isaiah
25. Isaiah 25, verse 7. Let me read it to you. You can
look at it later. Or 27, rather, in verse 5. Let
him take hold of my strength. I hadn't got any, but he's got
plenty. So he said, Let him take hold of my strength. that ye
may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me." What
a word. Jacob did. The Lord rested with
Jacob and said, what is your name? And Jacob confessed everything
to God. Before he got done, God said,
let me go. And Jacob said, I'll not let you go except you bless
I will not let you go except you bless me. Elijah took hold
of God when he was in Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. He
said, let it be known that you're God. God can't resist somebody
taking hold of him that way. God let it be known that he's
God. The Canaanite woman, she took
hold of him. She came and she would not be
turned away. She said, Lord, my daughter, She's got to heaven. Without her, she's gone. She's
grievously vexed to the devil. And I've come here to get your
mercy for her, and you're not going to get rid of me until
I get your mercy for her. I'm not going to shut up. I'm
not going to cease to plead with you. I'm not going to cease to
call on you until you give me what I've come for. That's what
it is to take hold of God. And I want to tell you something. If you ever find yourself in
need, I mean really, if you ever find yourself in need, you'll find yourself at mercy's
door, knocking until mercy is open to you. You'll find yourself
at heaven's gate, knocking and asking and seeking until you
obtain that which you've got to have. And I know exactly why
We don't stir up ourselves, take hold of God. It's because we
have no sense of our need of God. That's all. That's all. I speak for myself, and I speak
for you, my family. Somehow, I don't know. I don't
know. I don't have to address the problem. Somehow, we have convinced ourselves that
we can make do all right without him. I tell you what, if he's
hungry, if I was hungry, if I were hungry, I mean really hungry,
I mean, I mean I've got, I've got just no strength left and
I'm about to die and there's only one man in all the world
that has been. I'm going to be at that man's
doorstep until I have no breath left in my body. And if I couldn't
get his attention any other way, I'd knock the door down. If there
was any possibility of me doing so, I would knock his door down
and take the bread. Because a hungry man would do
anything to get satisfaction. And I'm telling you that the
only reason sinners don't seek Christ and the only reason we
don't stir up ourselves for Him is because we're convinced we
don't need Him. don't eat. Prayer is also called stirring
up of oneself. Prayer is not an easy thing for
a man or woman who lives in flesh and blood. People talk about prayer glibly.
I'm convinced even if they don't know anything about it, I don't,
one of the two. Every time I hear somebody sing Sweet Hour of Prayer,
I want to walk over and ask them, when was the last time you spent
an hour in prayer? What hypocrisy! I don't know about you, but as
for me, any time I try to pray, I mean any time I try to pray,
I have to stir myself up to pray, to call on God's name to take
hold of Him. My mind generally, generally, I'm not I'm not very
hip, but generally, I'm getting a little old and I know my mind
is getting a little shaky, but generally, generally, my mind
is well-focused on anything I'm doing. Anything I'm doing. If
I can get focused on what I'm doing, if I can get focused on
my studies, get focused on my work, if I can get focused on
it, I can shut everything in. But when I start to pray, My mind will roam through the
universe faster than the speed of light. Therefore, I have to constantly
stir up my sluggish soul. I have to constantly stir up
my icy heart to pray and call on God. But our text speaks of
a general neglect of prayer. It says there's none. There's
none. These words I regret to say.
must be applied to the Church of God in general today. I would
not say there is none, but I must say, judging by what I see, that
there are few indeed who call upon the name of the Lord, few
who stir themselves up to take hold of God. In this congregation
right here tonight, I dare say there are few who call on God's
name, few who stir themselves up to take hold of Some of you
live entirely without prayer. Or, if you get in trouble, you
might cry out, Oh God, or you might cry out, God save me. You
get in trouble, but that ain't prayer. No, that's using God
for a doormat. That's not prayer. Many of you
maintain a form of outward prayer. You say grace before your meals,
at least when the preacher's present. You may pray a little
bit before you go to bed at night, You go through the outward form
of public worship, you save your prayers anyway. But there are few who really pray or even care
to. Few. Some of you cry out to God day
and night. Oh, I thank God for you. There
is of them that even today, according to the election of grace, who
call upon the name of the Lord, who stir themselves up to take
hold of God, cry to him continually for his presence, his power,
and his grace upon the souls of men. But there are few, for thou hast hid thy face from
us." That describes God's gracious
chastisement. by which he corrects our indifference
and causes us to stir up ourselves to take hold of him. The Holy
Spirit clearly intends for us to realize that one great method
of discipline in the house of God, among the children of God,
which God uses to correct indifference toward him, is to manifestly
hide his face. To believing hearts, nothing
is more difficult to bear. Nothing is a greater token of
God's displeasure than to know that he hides himself from us. Turn it over to Psalm 13. Let's
just look at one or two passages where this is dealt with. Psalm
13. How long wilt thou forget me? Oh Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face
from me?" You mean, Preacher, David thought God had forgotten
him? No. No, theologically, David had
the right doctrine. He knew God remembered him. But
God acted like he forgot him. As far as he's concerned, the
same thing. How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
mine enemy be exhausted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God, lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death." Look in Psalm 79. Psalm 79, verse Verse four, we are become a reproach to our
neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about
us. How long, Lord? Here we are, your people in this
world, a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn, a derision, whole world
laughing at us. Where is their God now? And we cry out, How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry forever? Shall
thy jealousy burn like fire? You see, when the Lord hides
his face from his people, the ordinances of worship become
dry, mechanical, fruitlessly. thou hast consumed us." When the Lord hides his face
from his people, the joy of our salvation is dried up, so we
cry, thou hast consumed us. When the Lord hides his face
from his people, the glory of God is not made known and manifest
before us. Thou hast consumed us. When God
hides his face from his the womb of the church is made
dry, buried with us. I have a little hope for us.
I have a little hope. Thus far, these ordinances, for the most part, have not dried
up to be mechanical, fruitless things. The Word of God still
speaks to our hearts, does it not? The Psalms of Zion still
lift our hearts in praise to Him. I hope they do, too. The
taking of the Lord's table, this bread and wine, the communion
with Christ. Oh, when He lets us commune with
Him, how blessed it is. Thank God the joy of forgiveness. The joy of redemption, the joy
of reconciliation to him is not gone yet. He's given us great,
great joy in the knowledge of him. And in great measure, he
shows us some of his glory. And yet, the womb of the church
is dry and barren. Then maybe you ask, what's the
cause? Why this sad, sad state? How did we come into such a condition?
You need only to read the last part of this verse. Thou hast
consumed us because of our iniquities. There's the reason for God's
chastisement. your iniquities are separated
between you and your God. Now listen carefully to me. While
we find comfort in God's sovereignty, and I do, while we find great
comfort in the immutability of God's purpose, we must never,
we must never excuse our or blame our indifference upon God, the
cause for our trouble is our sin. That's the cause. Whenever I look at myself and
my household, or this assembly for which I am responsible as
a passenger, and I see difficulty I try with honesty to search
and find the cause in myself, because I know the problem is
my sin. I'm fully convinced that's so.
I'm fully convinced that's so. You see, were it not for our sin, nothing
would hinder the blessings of God pouring May the Lord God, whose we are,
now enable us to do what we so much neglect to do. God grant us grace to call on
his name, to stir up our souls to seek him. Turn us, O God, in our salvation,
and we shall return. we will run after them. Confess your sin. Believe God.