the book of Romans chapter 12. I'd like to read two verses here,
and then turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and read about three
verses, and then later in the message we'll get back to the
73rd Psalm. But let's read two verses here,
beginning verse 1 and 2 here, I beseech you therefore brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter
6, I want to read verse 19, well let's read verse 19 and 20, two
verses here. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 19
and 20. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own? And ye are not your own, for
ye are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now, I want this morning
if God will help us. I want us to talk a little bit
about our not being our own, about us belonging to God, and
I want to talk about this doctrinally. And then, along toward the end
of the message, we want to give you a practical application that
I believe will be most helpful to you as you attempt to live
here in this world. This is a difficult world, it
is a trying world, many troubles, and Jesus said in the world you'll
have trouble. You'll have trouble. In me you
have peace, but in the world you'll have trouble. And so this
is a very, this is a wilderness, a dry wilderness that we live
in, and the world, as the songwriter said, is no help is no help to
God, no help to us to bring us on to God and to lead us on in
the things of God. We can get no help, as it were,
from the world. But we belong to God, if we're
God's children, if we have been washed in the blood, if we have
been regenerated by God's Spirit, we belong to God. God owns us,
and we need to think on this and to consider a practical application
that will enable us to face life in this world and to deal with
it in such a way so that we can bring glory to God in our bodies
and in our spirits, which are His. Now then, we belong to God. We're told that here in 1 Corinthians
6, verses 19 and 20. And then we were told in Romans
chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 that the mercies of God have been
great toward us and it is our reasonable service that we give
ourselves over into the Lord. Now it's true that all people,
that is all souls, belong to God. Because he said, God said
in his word, all souls are mine. All souls belong to me. But now
as creatures to their creator, as property to their owner, as
subjects to their ruler, all men belong really to God. All things and all people were
made by God and they were made for God. And all are ruled over
by God's sovereign and gracious will. Now this is God's right.
as the absolute sovereign of all of his preachers, that is,
to rule over them and to have their allegiance. But now, beloved,
listen, we as believers, we belong to God in a special and different
way. We belong to God in a different
way than the beast of the field belonged to God by virtue of
creation, and that all men belong to God by creation. We belong
to God as a child belongs to its father. as a wife belongs
to her husband, as a willing bond slave to his master. That's the way we as the people
of God belong to God. Ours is a very intimate and a
loving and family relationship with the eternal God. God's people
make up the living family of God, and we belong to God as
the household of faith, as God's family. Now, let me say about
four things which I think will help us to understand how we
belong to God in this special relationship that we have described. Number one, we belong to God
by God's sovereign purpose of His grace. Because in old eternity,
God said, I will be their God and they shall be my people. And in 1 Samuel 12 and 22, it
says, it pleased the Lord to make you his people. So we became the people of God
by a sovereign act of God. God chose us. He said, I'll be
their God and they shall be my people. Now were it not for God's
elective grace, Were it not for God having set his love upon
us in old eternity, were it not for God having made a choice,
there would be no people in this world that would be truly called
the people of God. If it had not been for election,
there would have been nobody ever saved. Indeed, were it not
for God's election and the determination of God to save some, the world
would never have been created. Now you may think that's rather
odd, but beloved, it's a true statement. God Almighty created
this world because he would have a bride for his son, because
he would have a family of his own, and that the Holy Spirit
would have a temple. God created this world and put
man in it and chose a people that would be his people in order
to that end. Now this was the eternal purpose
which he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began. Ephesians
1.11 It says this, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. This world exists
not for the reason that many think. This world exists because
God will have a people and those people will worship and serve
Him. Now listen to this, we belong
to God because He chose us as His own. This is very important
that we see this, that God chose us as His own. We read in 2 Thessalonians
2 verses 13 and 14, we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you brethren Beloved of the Lord, because God has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and the belief of the truth. God has chosen His people. That's how you have become a
child of God if you are one. If you are a believer, if you're
one that holds. in the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus. If you're one who has hid yourself
away, as it were, in the five bleeding wounds of the Son of
God, it is because God has chosen you. He started this. You didn't start it. It didn't
start with you. It started with God. He chose
you before the foundation of the world. And then number two,
the second thing we're to notice is that we're the Lord's by a
special purchase made by His Son. A special purpose, excuse
me, that's made by His Son. Paul said, ye are bought with
a price. Ye are bought with a price. There was a price that was paid
for the people of God. The life of the eternal Son of
God laid down was the price. In 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19,
for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Jesus Christ. We were redeemed, bought by the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus. Galatians 1 and 4, who gave himself
for our sins that we might be delivered from this present evil
world according to the will of God and our Father, who gave
himself for our sins. Christ laid down his life. We have become the Lord's by
the life of Jesus Christ laid down. Our sin had to be paid
for. Somebody had to take their obligations
that we had and had to take them upon themselves. Jesus did that. He assumed our obligation and
went to the cross and paid the price of our sin debt. Now it's
not expected that the ungodly and the unbeliever and the world
and sinner, the alien sinner cut off from God for the want
of life and faith in Jesus Christ should seek the honor of Christ.
because they were not redeemed by this precious blood of Christ
from that tremendous curse of the law that was mentioned in
the song that Mike led us in a little while ago. But it's
most reasonable, as we read there in Romans chapter 12 in verse
1, it is most reasonable that we as the people of God, bought
by the blood of Christ, chose by God the Father. It is most
reasonable that we should give ourselves to the service of our
Savior's glory. Now, He bought us out. The Bible
teaches that in Galatians 3 and 13, that He bought us out from
under a awful curse. the curse of the law, the curse
of the broken law. We had broken God's law and we
deserve the wrath of God. We deserve to suffer for all
eternity because we were lawbreakers and had spit upon that which
is holy and that which is right. And the Bible says that Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us. Now, beloved, when I'm talking
to you this morning, I'm talking to people that deserved the wrath
of God, that had no claim upon the merits of God, had no claim
upon the way of salvation, had no claim upon God's Son, God's
truly beloved and only begotten Son, had no claim on Him. We
deserve God's wrath and God's judgment. but yet He's had these
great mercies upon us and He's delivered us from the curse of
the law. Then again I want to say this
in helping us to understand because if we don't lay this foundation
we're not going to understand why it is our reasonable service
to give ourselves up unto the Lord and live for Him and honor
Him, glorify Him in our bodies and spirits which belong to Him. Beloved, we belong to God by
the saving power of His Spirit also. Now I like to think about
this. Because there was a time when
I know that I was dead in sin. There was a time because of my
depravity and because of my lost, helpless condition, I could not
love God. I could not desire the things
of God. I could not want to do that which
was right and holy. And there was a time when God
came to me. by the Divine Spirit. And in
Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 4, it describes this. And it
says that you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. The Spirit of God came and called
us to life. He created faith in our hearts. He brought us to Christ by His
sovereign, irresistible power and grace. There was a time when
we were made new creatures in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the
old vessel was broken and the potter took it anew upon the
wheel and we were fashioned into new, new creatures in Christ
Jesus. And old things passed away and
old things became new. We became the children of God
experientially. We became God's people, followers
of the Lord Jesus. And this was the work of the
Divine Spirit. not the work of the preacher,
not the work of the church, it was the work of God's Holy Spirit. The effectual working of the
Spirit of God's grace and power. He made us willing. He made us
willing, voluntary, born slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do
you feel it to be your reasonable service to glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are His? Now then, there's a
fourth thing, and let me mention that, and then we'll get on here
with this. And we belong to God, I think
also, by the solemn, and I say it's solemn, a solemn profession
of our faith. Every one of us here that have
been brought, taught by the Spirit of God unto Christ Jesus, have
made a solemn profession of our faith. We have made a statement,
public statement, that we know Christ, that we believe in Christ,
that we've trusted Christ, and that Christ has touched our lives,
and that we're different because we're in the Lord Jesus. Now,
believers, They follow their Lord, and they follow Him, the
Bible says in Revelation, wheresoever he goeth, they follow the Lord. That means that wherever He teaches
them, they follow Him. Wherever He leads them, He follows. The child of God follows Him. They follow Christ. I would have
no man to ever follow. You know what Paul said? He said,
be you imitators of Christ. He said, be you followers of
God as dear children. He said, don't follow me as a
man, you follow Christ. And believers owe it to Jesus
Christ to follow Him and to obey Him and to submit themselves
to Him. And believers do this in following
the Lord in baptism and in doing so they declare publicly and
to all the world their faith and their heart allegiance to
the Lord Jesus Christ. You can read it in Romans chapter
6 in verses 4 through 6. Baptism is the believer's obedient
public confession of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
pictures their identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
a picture of what Jesus Christ did when he died, was buried,
and was raised from the dead in order to secure our everlasting
salvation. And everyone who is called by
the Spirit of God They follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It identifies
them as one who belongs to God. As one who's been set apart unto
God to be His servant and to obey Him. Now since we belong
to God, as we said, it is reasonable that we should glorify God in
these bodies and in our spirits which are God's. Now, I want
to make it clear, ye are not your own. If so be you've been
chosen of God. If so be that Christ laid down
his life for you. If so be that the Spirit of God
has regenerated and resurrected your dead soul to life. If so be that you solemnly confessed
and professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, beloved,
it follows ye are not your own. You are not your own. Believers,
since God chose you, redeemed you, saved you, you belong to
Him. You belong to Him. He's got a
claim on you. He's had mercy upon you. He's touched you, and He's delivered
you, and your eternity is all secure. And He has a claim on
your life. Ye are not your own. By your
own perfection of faith, you have willingly, voluntarily given
yourself up to these claims of the Lord Jesus. You belong to
Him. And because you belong to Christ, you have nothing to fear
and everything to give you comfort Here in this wilderness of sin,
here in this world that is no help to bring us on to God and
bring us home to God, you have everything to comfort you and
nothing to fear. You are a child of God, an heir
of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ, and you're not even your
own provider here in this world. It is a father's responsibility
to provide for his children and your heavenly father does provide
for his own. You can read it in Matthew 6
verse 31 through 34. Now you're not even to be your
own guide in this world. Not your own guide. It is the
responsibility of the shepherd to guide his sheep through this
world. In Psalm 37 and 23 it says the
steps of a good man are ordered by
the Lord, and he delighteth in his way." And then again the
Bible says, man deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his
steps. God is the guide. This God shall
be our guide even unto death, David said. Furthermore, Now,
you are not your own protector in this world. It is the government's
responsibility, they tell me, to protect their people. It's
the husband's responsibility to protect his wife. And Christ,
who is your husband and king, protects his own with sovereign
power. I have loved thee, Isaiah 43
says. I have loved thee, therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. God is the
protector of his people, and that's because they belong to
him. They're not their own, they belong to him. They're God's
peculiar treasure. They're the jewels in the crown
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now note, because you have willingly
given yourself to Christ as a voluntary born slave, you are to be completely
under his dominion. Now I want you to follow me closely
because what we say from here on out is not going to make sense
to you if you don't listen to what I'm telling you. Beloved,
listen. Because we have given ourselves
up to the Lord Jesus Christ as a voluntary bond slave, we're
under His dominion. We're to be completely. And verses
like we read in Luke 14, 33, it says, So likewise, whosoever
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be
my disciple. That verse wouldn't make any
sense to us. if we did not understand God's
claim upon our lives. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh
not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. The man or the
woman who hateth not father and mother, and who loves them more
than Christ, Jesus said, you cannot be my disciple. A whole
commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ being the bond slaves
of the Lord Jesus. You must not follow your own
will, serve your own interest in this world, or lend your service
to another. The bond slave in Old Testament
times, he owned no property, he had no rights, and he had
no time of his own. It all belonged to his master. I'm talking about the bond slave
of the Old Testament. Now he should have no will of
his own, and he didn't. have. He couldn't have because
he belonged entirely to his master. Now I'm not saying that a man
shouldn't own property in this world, far from that, I'm not
saying that, and I'm not saying that a man should have no interest
at all in this world, I'm not saying that, but I am showing
you that the claims of Christ upon us puts us in a position
where everything must be subservient unto the Lord Jesus Christ and
where everything must be under His dominion and under His control. He has voluntarily, that is the
believer, resigned himself and all that he has over to his Master
in this life, ye are not your own, ye are not your own. Now brother, sister, because
you belong to God, you have no legitimate concern in this world
but to glorify God. That's the purpose of your being
here. That's what Paul said. He spelled
it out clearly. You're bought with a price, therefore
glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God's.
Now, you have no legitimate right to serve any cause in this world. There are many, many people that
claim to be believers and they hitch up behind every kind of
a situation that you can talk about. They join the anti-booze
movement. They join this movement, that
movement, and they're big propagators of this and that. But my brother,
sister, Our obligation is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and
to be loyal to Him and not to give ourselves over to other
causes in this world. Now everything you are, everything
you own, everything you control, every relationship of your life
must be made subservient to the glory of God. Now that is important
for us to see that and that's the claims of God upon a believer. That's the claims of God upon
a man for whom he hung his son on a cross to die. And if you're
not able to accept that My friend, then why should you have an interest
in the mercies of Almighty God when you're not interested in
giving yourself up to the claims that this God has made upon your
life? Our flesh rebels against this
complete subjection to God, this commitment, and I call it commitment
unto believing God. We can never give the kind of
allegiance to God that we desire in this world But, my friend,
this is what we must strive after, and that is commitment, complete
consecration of our beings to the glory of God. In Titus 2
and 10, we're told to adorn the doctrines of God our Savior in
all things. Put on the teachings of the Lord
Jesus Christ in all things. That's what it means. That's
what it said. Put them on, just like you put on a garment. Every
morning you get up, put on the doctrines of God your Savior
in all things and walk. If you say you know Him, walk
even as He walked. Now we proclaim with tenacity
the believer's absolute freedom in this world because we have
been called to freedom. We have been called to liberty,
the Bible says, and we are in a state of liberty and we're
not to go back under the bondage that we once were under unto
the law and we refuse because God requires us to refuse to
be brought into religious customs and religious bondage and tradition
or rules that are invented by then. Rules that are invented
by religious people in this world, by Pharisees. We will not be
under their bondage and under their rule. In Christ we are
free. hard places where life is hard
to deal with and where it's hard to make any sense out of what's
going on in this world. And oftentimes we just don't
know hardly how to act. We want to act right. We want
to do right. We want to please God. We want
to follow God. We want to glorify God in our
bodies and our spirits, which are the Lord's. We do not want
to offend the Lord's people. But beloved, this is not easy.
This is not easy. It's a tough, tough world, as
we've said, to live in and to live right in. Now David found
himself in such a world, of course, in Psalm 73. And you've heard
the old saying, that out of the frying pan into
the fire. Have you ever heard that expression?
That somebody jumped out of the frying pan into the fire? Well, now, there is a sense in
which every child of God living in this world is in the frying
pan. Every child of God is in the
world. Now, beloved, one of the things
that a true believer must learn to do if he's going to glorify
God is not jump out of the frying pan. Not jump out of the frying
pan into the fire. He must learn by the grace of
God and the help of God to be able to endure in the pan, in
the frying pan, and to act as he ought to act in that pan.
When we're hurting, when we're suffering, when we're grieving,
When we're disappointed, when we are bereaved here in this
world, what are we going to do? I mean when the heat is turned
up under the pan. What are we going to do? We're
to glorify God in our bodies and our spirits, which are the
Lord. What are we going to do? We're not our own. How are we
going to react? How are we going to live in this
world? Now we're apt to act irrational
and unwise and ungodly and self-serving when these kind of situations
occur. When these problems, and when
the heat is turned up under the pan, we're very much apt to act
irrational. Now, David was in danger here,
and we notice his problem. We notice his problem. And I
don't know what your problem is, but you probably got one.
There's probably some heat under your frying pan this morning
and you don't know which way to jump. You don't know whether
to jump this way or that. You don't know what to do and
you're in a very difficult straight. Now David's problem, we find
it here in verse 2. He says, but as for me, my feet
were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped. I just almost fell, he said,
into sin. He said, I was just almost gone. I was ready to go over the edge.
And here was the problem, he says, I was envious at the foolish. He said, when I saw the prosperity
of the wicked, when I saw the wicked prospering, and here I
was suffering every day. He said, I was plagued. He said,
I was chastened every day. God give me a whipping every
day if I got out of line. If I did something I ought not
do, the Lord dealt with me. The rod of God was on my back
all the time. The Lord dealt with me when I
got out of the way. But the foolish and the wicked,
they were prospering and they didn't have the trouble. They
wasn't in trouble like I'm in trouble, David said. And it almost
put David over the edge. He couldn't understand it. Now
beloved, it's the glory of God to conceal a thing. You must
remember that. There's a lot of things you and
I don't know. We don't know why a whole lot of things happened
that happened in our life. Socrates was asked, what would
be vexatious to good men? And he answered, the prosperity
of the bad. He was asked again. What would
vex the bad of the world and he said the prosperity of the
good And it's true. It's very true. Well now beloved
listen here We find something and David he goes all the way
down here and to verse 15 You can read here in verse 13 where
he said truly I have cleansed my heart in vain And he said
I've washed my hands in innocence in I look around and see how
the wicked are prospering and look at me I've washed my hands,
and I'm clean, but I washed my heart. He said my heart's been
cleansed in vain Look at this and then in verse 14. He said
all the day long I've been plagued and Chastened every morning,
but then verse 15. I want you to look at this. He
says if I say I will speak thus He says, if I say that I'm going
to go out and pontificate, I'm going out and
I'm going to make a pronouncement to the world, this is the way
it is. It's a waste of time to live
right. It's a waste of time to wash
your hands and to cleanse your heart. It's a waste of time belonging
to God, walking in God's way, doing God's will, because all
the world is doing better than we're doing, and why should we
suffer like we are and the world go on and do as well as it's
doing? Why should we do that? And David said, if I should speak
thus, He said, behold, I would offend against the generation
of thy children. He said, I would offend a whole
generation of your children if I don't get a hold of myself.
If I don't get a hold, I'm going to offend God's people. I'm going
to bring a reproach upon the name of the Lord. Now then, listen
to me. Beloved, we must take ourselves,
as it were, in hand. David had to get a hold of himself
and we must learn to think of what will be the outcome of my
jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. David was in the
frying pan and he was about ready to jump out in the fire. He was
about ready to get out on the wrong side. He said, my feet,
he said, how do you say it? He says, my feet were almost
gone, my steps had well and I slipped. It was almost all over for me.
Now he was tempted to get up and say this, I'm hurting, I'm
tired, I'm at the point of despair, and everything's out of hand.
How will I ever cope? in this world when things are
just, as it were, just being tore apart at the seams all the
time. How am I going to cope? Now,
beloved, the majority of Christians, and we included, are too prone
to act on what we feel rather than what we know. Now, there
are some things that we know as God's people. Well, you know,
people say, well, I feel this way, or I feel that way. And we're too prone, my friend,
we put our feelings in the driver's seat. And we let them drive. I just feel this way. And because
I feel this way, then I'm going to act like this. I'm going to
act this way because this is the way I feel. The old song
says, I dare not trust the sweetest frame. Now that's feelings is
what that is. I dare not trust the sweetest
feelings but wholly lean on Jesus name. We're to hold on. We must
not jump. We must think. Hold. We must
get a hold of ourselves. We must control ourselves in
these difficult and trying circumstances. Now we must study ourselves enough
to know ourselves well enough to know our danger signals. to know when we're getting to
that point, when we're just about ready to throw in the sponge,
when we're just about ready to send up the flare, when we're
just about ready to throw in the towel, we've got to study
ourselves to know when we're getting to the point where we're
going to jump out of the frying pan into the fire. We've got
to think about this. There's a red light flashing,
it's flashing, and it's time to say whoa. Time to say whoa
and to get a hold of ourselves. If I go on, I'll be out of the
frying pan and into the fire in a little while. If I just
let this thing go ahead and grate on me, If I just let this situation
just keep on going and keep on thinking about it, meditating
upon it, if I just let this envy build, if I just let this hurt
go ahead and cut me to the bone, then in a little while I'm going
to say something, I'm going to do something I ought not do,
and I've got to get a hold of myself. I held myself back, David
said in a word. He said, if I should say, I will
speak thus. He said, I just can't do that.
I've got to hold my horses. My mother used to say, hold your
horses, young man. Hold your horses. Don't get in
too big a hurry. Hang on here. Now listen, don't
act too hastily. Slow down. We are too slow about
the right things and too quick about the wrong things, are we
not? We must control the tongue. It's an unruly evil full of deadly
poison. And we're too apt, my friend,
to make a pronouncement That's going to get us in trouble. This
is what I want to say. You listen to me. You ever heard
anybody say that? I want to give you a piece of
my mind. I want to tell you how it is with me. This is what I
think. Listen to me. Now friend, think
of those grievous things that people have done by not holding
the tongue. If you want to turn in your Bibles
quickly to James chapter 3. I'm going to be done here in
just a moment. James chapter 3, but I want you to see this.
It says, behold, in verse 3, we put bits in the horses' mouths
that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.
Behold also the ships, which though they be so great and are
driven with fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a
very small helm, whithersoever the governor listens. Even so
the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a
little fire can be. You can set a big forest on fire
with a match. A little match out of a book
of matches. It'll set the whole forest on
fire. Train go through power Montana and set it on fire. Just a few sparks in the weeds.
Behold, how great a matter a little fire can lift. And the tongue
is a fire, a world of iniquity. So the tongue among our members,
that it defileth a whole body, and setteth on fire the course
of nature, and is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast,
and of birds, and serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed,
and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless
we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which
are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth
proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not so to be. Does a fountain send forth at
the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my
brethren, bear olive berries, either of iron figs? So can no
fountain both yield salt water and fresh. And so in nature,
it won't happen. But in men, it does happen. We
bless God, and then we of course despise men and speak against
them. But so our tongue, that's the
point I'm trying to make, is an unruly member full of deadly
poison. And so it was that David said,
he said, if I speak thus, If I speak thus. In other words,
he had to get a hold of himself and lay hold here. Now there's
a saying around that if you think something, you might just as
well say it. My friend, that's not true. That
is not true. Don't you believe it. That is
a false saying. You can think a whole lot of
things that you ought not say because, listen, people will
judge the gospel. by what we do and by what we
say. They will judge the gospel that
we believe. Now note here, if you will, his
concern. He considered. David considered. And that's what you and I have
got to do. We've got to think. We've got to consider the effects
of our behavior upon the people of God. The generation of thy
children. We've got to do this. By this,
we know we've passed from death unto life, that we love the brethren.
1 John 2 and 14. Now, sure you're suffering, sure
you're in pain, sure you're in misery, sure life is so unfair,
but you're a child of God and we must consider what we do because
it's going to affect somebody other than ourselves. You say,
well, listen to me. things are as bad as they can
be. What's it going to hurt if I blow off a little steam? What's
it going to hurt if I just, you know, get busy and tell people
what I think? What's it going to hurt if I
act this way or that way? Now, brothers and sisters, there
are a lot of times when the people of God are put between a rock
and a hard place, and they can blow up, and they can throw their
hands up, and they can just create a scene. But that brings a reproach
on the gospel and that makes things worse. Oh, you say it
couldn't get worse. You're wrong, my friend. You
jump out of that frying pan into the fire and you will find out
that things can get worse and they will get worse. We have
a pure gospel, my friend, and when we jump out of the frying
pan into the fire, and we get to going around saying, no need
to serve God, no need to be faithful, no need to pray, no need to do
what you ought to do, life is too hard to be what you ought
to be, and so on and so forth, my friend, we bring a reproach
on the gospel, and that's a greater reproach because of the pure
gospel that we preach and believe in, It's more of a reproach than
what the Armenians bring on their gospel when they rebel against
God and jump as it were out of the frying pan into the fire.
Now if you look here in verse 22 quickly in Psalm 73, you'd
see he said, so foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before
thee. Now this was what David said
after he thought about this. He said it was mighty painful
for me to think about it, but when I got it finally resolved
in my heart, what was the end of the wicked and how God was
going to send them to hell and they were going to die and their
death was going to be permanent and they were going to the lake
of fire. When I understood this, he said, then I got some relief. But now Beloved, what is the
root of our disappointment at the Lord's dispensations? I think
they're very clearly revealed here. Number one is our ignorance
of the ways of God, our ignorance of the Bible. We just don't read
the Bible, do we? We don't read it like we ought
to. We don't study it. We're ignorant of a lot of things
that we shouldn't be ignorant of as God's people. And then
pride. We've got so much pride. And
this lifts us up and we just cannot bow our knees. We can't
submit ourselves. We just can't. We just gotta
have our say. We just gotta do our thing. We've
got to make everybody know how miserable we are. We just got
to do something. No, my friend, it's because of
our pride. Don't ever let pride get you
into trouble. Push you to where you can't just
keep your mouth shut and stand back. And then impatience, a
want of waiting any longer on God. Just can't wait no longer.
The Lord's not doing nothing, so I've got to do something.
I have to do something. I've got to take this thing in
hand. I've got to intervene here. And then forgetfulness of who
the Lord is. He's on the throne, my friend, and He's the God that
saved you, and He's the God that holds you, and your responsibility
is to bow to Him and submit to His will and wait on Him. He'll
deliver you in His time. Well, I don't know what your
problem is, as I said before, and I'm not going to reveal mine,
but we all are in this pain. Well, my advice is stay in it.
stay in the pan till God delivers you because if you jump out of
the frying pan into the fire then you may get out but my friend
not before you're scarred permanently by the fire you remember what
I'm telling you You're going to get scarred by the fire because
it's not God's will that you deliver yourself and you must
keep this in mind. There are four things quickly
here I'm going to give you. Just going to give them to you
and let you live with them and deal with them. If you're going
to glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are His, when
you're faced with these kind of situations in life, number
one, while you're in the pan, you're to You've got to remember
that you're prone to fall, you're prone to jump. Watch. Be careful. Number two, don't
act hastily. Think. Consider what you're going
to do. Number three, don't speak out.
Burt out what is in your mind. Keep your mouth shut. Just keep
your mouth shut. Seal her. Shut her up. Don't
say nothing. Wait on the Lord. Don't deliver
yourself. Don't try to force your way out
of your situations. Number four, think of the outcome
of what you're about to do. How will this affect the household
of God? How's it going to affect the
people of God? How's it going to affect my children? How's
it going to affect down the road what becomes of this? How's it
going to affect all of this? We gotta keep these four things
in mind. Glorify God in the frying pan
by staying in it and not jumping out into the fire. Just shut
up and wait and God will show you why things are like they
are. He'll reveal it to you and He'll
give you the grace. Someday He'll deliver you out
of this pan. Someday He'll deliver you. He'll
lift you up. He'll deliver you. Now in 1 Corinthians
10 and 13 and I close with this verse, there hath no testing,
taking you, but such is common demand, but God is faithful,
who will not allow you to be tested above what you're able,
but will with the testing make a way of escape that you may
be able to bear it. And so that's the promise of
God to his people that are being tried, that are being tested,
that are in a difficult, that are in a hard spot. They want
to do right, but they just don't have the wherewithal seemingly
to do it. God said, I'm faithful. I'll
not allow you to be tested above what you're able. I'll make a
way of escape that you'll be able, that you'll be able to
bear it. May God bless these thoughts to your heart. These
are things that that I thought a great deal about, meditated
on for a long time, and I know it's God's people. These things
are very practical and useful to us as we live in this world. Let's stand and sing a hymn.