Sola Scriptura pt1

“SOLA SCRIPTURA”

introduction: 07/17/25

1 Peter 1:25

“But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is thte word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

Throughout the years it is evident, with no room for argument, that men have progressively grown farther from God. This is not a point to argue or debate; it is not simply an opinion or idea, it is a fact to be recognized and accepted. Yet, that does not mean that we should accept this condition and go along with it. We have got to be honest about it and admit that it is true. That is the only way that we will ever have any hope of making the slightest difference for the better.

Among the movements and theological trends in our day there is one group that identifies itself and it’s theology as “Reformed Theology”. I am not endorsing a movement or any “new” doctrine, please be careful to understand what I am saying; I believe that we should praise God that we have seen this type movement begin in these days because it is leading in a direction that the church once followed, but has been abandoning for decades now.

We live in a time that there is so much argument over truth that the gospel has been left aside as a cased weapon that is of no further use. We see the majority of churches, movements and theologians are teaching their followers to argue with others over differences that have nothing to do with the carrying of the gospel to the lost world. The carrying of the gospel has been almost totally left out of church life today because it is not what men want to hear. Though the majority of church-goers claim to know, understand, and love the gospel, there are few that truly do, and it shows.

We see it in the things that “Christians” will willingly break fellowship over and we see that it has resulted in so many “factions” of religious preference that the world is being gathered in blind confusion into centers of worship and convinced that everyone is alright if they will just go to church and love one another.

If we look at what churches are being taught to tolerate, accept, approve, love, hate, do, abstain from, and believe, we see that things have taken a terrible turn in the last century. Yet there are a few who are trying to make a difference; to bring about change through the preaching and teaching of the word of God. There is no need for “new” theology, but we are sorely in need of a return to the truth of the word of God. I am a Baptist, and I do not see that changing. I chose to be a Baptist after I was born again and began learning the word of God. This has not changed in the least, and I want to make that abundantly clear. I have also not changed and will not change in my belief (because it is founded in scripture) that Heaven is not going to be populated exclusively with those who identify as Baptists in this life. You and I would both be the greatest of fools to believe such a thing. “Baptist briders” are as much a cult as any other and they will refuse to accept that anyone but them is truly saved. That mindset is evidence of a lack of discernment, if not a total lack of spiritual regeneration altogether, and it is most certainly not the way that the Holy Spirit leads us.

There are many in many different churches with many differing ideas about some things that are truly born again and will walk with me on a street of gold one day in the presence of our blessed Saviour. And there are those that I have listened too of the “Reformed” church that I do not agree with on some things, but I believe that is something that God will straighten out. There are others that I know and love that, though I may disagree with them, I believe them to be brethren in Christ, if not in local church membership. And one thing in particular that I have in common with some of them is the way that some of them now seek to return to the cry “Sola Scriptura”; meaning “Scripture Alone”.

This is a desire in many to return again to the condition that once prevailed amongst those who were Christian though not in agreement. This is a core principle of church doctrine that declares that the bible is the one infallible source and guide for Christian faith and practice. Scripture is the ultimate authority in determining what we are to believe and how we are to live. Scripture is our final authority, and it is above any church, any church leader, or the decrees of any pope or potentate. The bible, is perfect, complete, infallible, without error, and is our final word on all things of faith and morality. A child of God KNOWS this inherently because it is a knowledge that is “born” in us if and when we are born again. It contains everything that is necessary for salvation and learning to live a Christian life.

For those who will refuse to accept this truth about the Holy Scriptures and present their false claims that the bible contains contradictions and errors, their lack of faith in the scriptures shows that they have not got the faith to believe that God could keep His word for us in the world, which would give them reason to doubt that He could keep a soul from hell for all eternity. That is not consistent with the word or the character of Almighty God. Yet there are those about us who believe that bible to be incomplete or inaccurate and fallible, as if it were the invention of men. That is not the mind of a child of God, but one who is lost. And these are fighting the word of God in our day in churches all across the land here in America. It is time to raise the battle cry once again “Sola Scriptura” and spread the gospel message at home and abroad. The best place to begin is in what calls itself the “Church” in our day. Much of the church, is not the church and will not even seek to be what the bible teaches us that we ought to be. We need to get back to the word of God.

A fresh commitment in those of us who are truly born again would make a great difference in the world today and in the near future. Oh, if we could only see a fresh commitment in those of us who are born again to this principle, what a difference it would make.

We must take the word of God and preach and teach it with a heart that is dedicated to a truth that men once accepted, but it is one of the least appealing ideas in our day. It is the principle that we don’t have to agree on everything in order to share fellowship with one another. That was once a major point for Baptists as well as others. Dr. Oliver B. Greene once said that we had gotten so “separate” that the termites in the basement of one Baptist church were forbidden to fellowship with the termites of any other Baptist church. Yes, I keep referencing Baptists because I am a Baptist, but it applies to all the rest of you too.

What does the word of God say?

(Mark 9:38-40) “And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not with us: and we forbad him because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.”

That is the word of God. I will just follow Him. I don’t attend any but Baptist churches, but that is not because I believe we are the only ones, I practice ecclesiastical separation with good reason. I don’t see the Lord telling his disciples to go and drag everyone into the same house. You don’t either. There are times that we need to admit that we may be trying to do God’s work in many things, when the gospel is what we are to be carrying to the world, and the flock in the fold before us is who we are to teach the word of God.

I believe with all my heart, just because we may not tie our horse at the same rail on Sunday morning does not mean that none of those in other churches are Christians. Just as there are many Baptists who are truly not Christian, there are many Christians who are not Baptists. Many don’t even know how the church that they attend truly believes about many things. We can still be friendly, kind, and remember that we have brethren whom we may have been led to insult, to condemn, and to mock. Yes, there are some that we should not fellowship with, it is easy to understand this, but that is no excuse for much of the foolishness that we see today in the IFB movement.

If we will get back to “Sola Scriptura” we will see a drastic change in our own lives that will have a greater influence on the world around us for the glory of God.

Thought For Today 08/16/25

(Acts 17:15-21)

“And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.  Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.  Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.  Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?  For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)”

This was Paul’s first trip to Athens and it is believed that he was the first Christian minister to have visited that great city.  He did not see a great many converts there but there were some who believed. 

Historically Athens was quite the place at that time.  Athens was a city that was celebrated for its military, for intellectual and educational quality, eloquence, and etiquette of it’s citizens.  It was founded by Egypt more than fifteen hundred years before Christ and was named “Athens” after one of their idols, which was most prominently worshiped there. Starting small, this city grew over the centuries to cover the plain in which it was built and it became famous for it’s distinguished philosophy, learning, the arts.  Athens was the greatest of all the cities of Greece, and the ancient world.  This is where Paul was, and the city was wholly given to idolatry when Paul arrived.

Athens was a society of seemingly intelligent people, and they were talented.  These were the type of people who would put you in mind of the aristocracy of an ancient land where it was expected that people behave themselves as ladies and gentlemen.  These people were noted for their pomp and propriety. 

To come among these people and present a different idea than what they were accustomed too would mark you as an outsider, a rebel.  Their wording in what they had to say about Paul in this passage was accusing Paul of foolishness, of being an entertainer, much like a comedian in our day.  The general population seemingly looked at him in the way that one may look at the court jester.  But, their attitudes began to change as he continued with them.

Note how we see them receiving him early in the passage and we can’t help but see the change in attitude from verse eighteen to verse twenty two.  But, there had to be a starting point.  Paul had to begin somewhere, sometime.  And he did so in verse sixteen.  It didn’t take long.  He quickly made himself  heard, and he very quickly became known to the people of the city, because he spoke up.  We need this today. 

We need for Christians to stop hiding in the shadows and quietly waiting for someone else to say something about the wickedness about us.  We need to speak out.  We especially need to speak too, about, and among those who call themselves “Christian” in our day.  There is far too much foolishness and falsehood that is being passed off as bible scholarship these days.  This type of philosophy and intellect is a problem today just as it was in Athens when Paul arrived.  And it has created the same problem among the Church.  The church in our day is almost wholly given to idolatry.  There is something missing today in what we may call modern ministry.

Multitudes are calling themselves preachers and bible teachers who are neither.  Some have gained a great deal of fame and a huge following through lies and compromise of the Holy scriptures, or by showmanship; or maybe just a persuasive (deceitful) manner of speech that can charm their listeners into following them.  But there are few men of God who will rightly react as Paul did here in our passage. 

Paul was angered, exasperated, he lost his breath at the things that he was seeing and hearing, and he reacted like a man.  Somehow we have come to the place that people believe that being a man of God means that you have just left man-hood in the past.  That is far from true.  Moses was a man of God and he condemned the sinful.  David was a man of God and he slew God’s enemies.  Samuel was a man of God and he “hewed Agag in pieces.”  On and on we could go….Othniel, Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, warriors every one! And men of God. 

But today, if Paul showed up and preached like he did then, he’d be condemned by the religious establishment.  Jesus, if He were to come and preach now what He preached then, this wicked world would crucify Him again.

We need to get back to the place that the idolatry of the world around us, in our cities, towns, communities, and our own homes stirs us to anger and exasperation.  We need to speak and proclaim to the world around us that God has not changed and that the word of God is still to be the standard of conduct for the church.  The bible is the guide for Christian living, for godly living.  We need to get back to basic Christianity and “re-learn” the truth that has been abandoned in our daily lives for pleasure and convenience sake. 

It will soon be too late, but better late than never.  Let’s take a stand upon the word of God in these last days, and let’s be mindful that it begins with “me”.

Why Do God’s People Suffer?

John 16:33

Audio:  Why do God’s people suffer–Bro. James H. Knight

John 16:33  “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

In this modern age of easy believism we find a perverted gospel being preached the world over.  This false doctrine is lulling the world into a deep sleep which shall one day prove to be it’s undoing and greatest nightmare.  With one of the more popular and most widely accepted teachings being an all inclusive gospel which says that no one is going to hell.  The teaching that is following on it’s heels is that of this health and wealth crowd.  They are leading people to believe that if you are a Christian all will go well with you.  They will tell you that if you are prayed up, living right, and acting right, you won’t get sick or have any kind of financial trouble.  They will say that God will bless you physically, financially, materially and socially.

It would have been hard to convince old Bro. Paul of that in a cold, dark, damp prison, waiting to have his head cut off;  Or Jeremiah in that filthy dungeon.  Many who have lived for God and suffered great persecution for their testimony will one day stand and testify of the foolishness of this religious crowd preaching this heresy.  The apostle Paul told us the same thing that Jesus told us.  We will suffer.  Mark it down, we are going to suffer if we truly belong to Jesus.  Let’s look at this verse carefully, in light of what is around it.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.  Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord.  If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.  But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.”

John 15:18-21

“These things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended.  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”

John 16:1-2

Jesus warned them (his disciples) of the coming persecution, execution, and the scattering of their number.  He told them that they would suffer.  And we see it most plainly here in verse 33.  And the apostle Paul tell us that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, SHALL suffer persecution.  He warns of the perilous times in the last days in his second letter to Timothy and chapter 3 in such a way that there is no mistaking that we are going to suffer if we follow Christ.  The simple question to be answered is…

DO GOD’S PEOPLE SUFFER?

YES!

Well, this now raises other questions.  First of all we need to be ready to accept the fact of suffering.  Then we can learn the answer to some very troubling questions concerning the things that happen to us in our Christian lives.  Questions like…

1.   How do God’s people suffer?

We suffer in many ways, just as anyone else in this world does.  As members of the family of humanity we will all die one day if the Lord does not come back for us first.  That universal curse of death which passed upon us all through our father Adam as a result of his sin  will catch up with us one day and we will face our last enemy in this life,  death.  This crowd that teaches and preaches all of this health and wealth can say what they want too.  Some of them will probably get very sick and die, then be buried in the same ground that I will.  They may stay healthy for a time, as anyone can, but they will die one day.  What is healthy about that?  No matter how healthy you are, you will die one day.  That tells me that we have more proof of what we believe than they do.

Saved or not we all are going to die.  Saved or not, most of mankind has health problems, especially them that come with age.  Saved or not, if we do not die young, we will grow old.  We will suffer this deadly disease called sin till we leave here.  But those of us who are saved are being treated for this disease and will one day be ultimately cured.  All suffer health problems, heartaches, injury, poverty, fears.

I remember a man once rebuking me for being sick and missing a day of work.  He said that it was the judgment of God that I was sick and if I was really right with God I would not get sick.  I was informed that he did not get sick, and that God would not let him get sick because he was His.  Within a couple of days, this saint was sick and bed-ridden for almost three weeks.  Where was his faith?  I guess it was in his medication.

We will suffer sickness, that is why God has blessed us with the wonder of modern medicine to help us through times of illness.  We suffer financial loss and poverty at some times.  We suffer at the hands of our fellow man, the devil, and as a result of sin, as well as the causes of age and the perils and dangers of everyday life.

But…

2.   Why do God’s people suffer?

If you are a born again, blood bought child of God then you must believe the word of God.  You must believe Romans 8:28.  Then you must believe that IF and WHEN we suffer there is a reason, and it is always for our good and God’s Glory.  Nothing can come to a child of God that will ever take God by surprise.  We can also be sure that whatever does come our way will always be for a reason.

Sometimes we suffer testing: Job is a good example of this.  God will not tempt any man and we know that from the word of God. However, God may allow the devil to tempt you as a test.  God already knows what you will do, He knows just what you are made of.  What we need sometimes is to be shown just what we are made of so that we can know for ourselves.  And sometimes the Lord is showing the devil.  In the case of Job, God showed Satan that he could not get one that was His.

Sometimes it is training: Paul is a good illustration of this.  He besought the Lord three times to remove a particular thorn from his flesh, and the Lord told him, “My grace is sufficient for thee…”  Paul was sent a thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12 to learn humility and to stay humble.  He suffered to learn and to maintain the proper mindset.

The hard truth about training is this.  You train in preparation for the next test.  Just as any other aspect of life, you must build up for the next step in most anything.  One who is training with weights for strength is always preparing to move up, to increase the workout, to become stronger and increase the load.  We suffer to train, to strengthen our faith, and once our faith becomes stronger, it is time to work on it some more.  We are trained by suffering.

Sometimes it is tactics: Joseph, when he revealed himself to his brethren in the book of Genesis, told his brethren (concerning their beating him and selling him into slavery) that they meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.  God allowed this to come to Joseph and for a reason that Joseph did not know.  It was many years later that Joseph was given understanding of his situation.  God had it all under control and Joseph exercised faith and left it in God’s hands.  But, God had a plan,  He “meant it for good,” which means plainly that God allowed it all to take place.  And He allowed it to take place for His own purposes and to do His own will.

Sometimes it is discipline: This is one teaching that is avoided and almost forgotten in our day:  The reason being that preachers are afraid of the “J” word in our day.  Sin must be judged.  Sin shall be judged, and discipline shall be administered.  Oh, there are some that will tell us that we will never sin again after we get saved;  We will be sinless if we are Christians.  This is totally untrue and unfounded hogwash.  You can not live above sin.  I remember my pastor saying that if you want to live above sin, rent a room above a pool hall.  I remember a man named Peter who cursed and denied the Lord, yet he did not lose his salvation,  he was chastised, and restored.  Another man named Paul, disobeyed the Holy Spirits many warnings not to go to Jerusalem, and was chastised, he went to Jerusalem, and was a prisoner for the rest of his life.  Oh, praise God, old sinners like us can rest on the finished work of Calvary because we can not do any works of our own to get us in.  That is why Jesus came to die for us.  He came to fulfill the law because we can not.

King David was a man after God’s own heart; The only man that scripture says this about.  King David committed some horrible sins, adultery and murder, to name the two that we are all most familiar with; and he was judged and restored, however, judgment had to be administered.  Sin had to be disciplined in the life of David.  God took the child that was born to David and Bathsheba, and David had to bury four sons by the judgment of his own mouth.

There are times in our daily lives that we suffer because we have done something that we know that God did not want us to do.  By the same token, there are those things that we have not done that God wants us to do.  There are sins of omission as well as sins of commission, and we are all guilty, and suffer discipline.  The trouble in our day is that our pride is so great that we would rather lie about our suffering and deny our guilt.  No one is ever chastised of God anymore, but everyone is tested.  “Oh, I  am being tested again.”  I am perfect and sinless and this is another test to bring that out for the world to see.  WICKED PRIDE!!! How anyone can so boldly claim to be sinless is beyond me.  Well, there is enough sin in them that they will die one day.  The word tells us that death is by sin.  If we could live above it we would live forever.

Whatever reason we find ourselves suffering, it is always ultimately for one specific purpose.

To draw us closer to Him.

What is the purpose?

To be conformed to the image of His Son.

We’ve Fought This Fight Before:

(1Samuel 17:32-37) “And David said unto Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.  And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.  And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:  And I went out after him, and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.  Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.  And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.”

In looking at this passage, I know that we are all familiar with this bible story.  What Christian is not familiar with the story of David and Goliath?  His is a story that is a very common occurrence all through the scriptures.  Many have done as David does for us here, and have faced what seemed to us impossible odds, yet God delivered.  We Christians do have a little something, though, that you might call a secret weapon: that is faith.  In walking by faith we learn that every victory causes our faith to grow much stronger.  It is true that experience is the greatest teacher.  It is.  David shows us exactly what experience can do to our faith in this passage. 

Imagine the scene: The entire army of Israel and its king are afraid of this giant Philistine champion.  All of them are likely hoping that the king does not choose a man to fight.  None is willing, and none has been willing to fight for forty humiliating days, (1Samuel 17:16).  They were mocked and humiliated by the show that was being performed.  It was being carefully observed by their enemy, their brethren at arms, and their king.  Forty days it went on and no one made a move to go and fight.  And then came a little shepherd boy.

Along came that little shepherd boy who had been watching his father’s flocks.  And he had no idea what had been going on.  He had no idea that for forty days the God of heaven had been mocked and cursed by their enemies.  All those that had been there all this time had watched and listened, yet none had been willing to stand and fight.  They had never mustered a charge, in forty days.  Then this little shepherd boy heard, he saw, and he was ready to do something about it.

It is generally agreed that David was about thirteen years old at the time; the youngest of seven sons, and likely used to a great deal of brotherly abuse.  But he would have also gained some courage from the way that he had been treated by his older brothers.  Big brothers can be very hard on their younger siblings, this is just a fact of life.  David was accustomed to proving himself.  He had grown up having to prove himself at home.  We see that this must be so in the way that he is mocked and belittled by his brethren when he comes to join them.  But David would not be discouraged.  He continued with what he was saying and he stood his ground…and the king got word of it.  Then the king called for David.

That is where we find ourselves in our text.  Saul has called for this boldly spoken shepherd boy, and David is unafraid, and willing.  Look at what ahe says to the king.

“Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

No hesitation, just an immediate willingness to go and do God’s will in God’s name, by faith.  David was willing to put his life on the line for the honor and glory of God. 

If David won the battle then God would be glorified in the wondrous outcome, and David would be renowned for his courage.  If David was slain, he still would have been remembered for his courage and named a hero to his people.  David was willing to go and be used of God either way.  He was willing to go in faith, because he had been forced to move in faith before.  He had faced danger in the past, he had faced fear and the possible mauling by wild beasts.  And David had learned that God loved and cared for him.  He learned that God would take care of him.

When David looked at Goliath, he spoke with the king and let him know…

“I have fought this fight before.”

He is letting the king know, “This is not new to me, I know what it is like to face a dangerous situation and trust the outcome to God.  He has taken care of me thus far, and I trust Him to do it again.”  David had learned from experience that God will take care of you if you will be obedient to His will and seek Him above all.  He had stepped out on faith, he had put the promises of God to the test, he had depended on God in his own weakness, and God had blessed.

There a precious few today that can even come close to making the least of these claims.  With the number of people that there are in the world there are very few that actually trust God.  There are very few who call themselves Christian who can actually move by faith in the least of the trials of life.  Few move by faith, few try, because few have ever begun.  Men today just don’t know what it is to trust God.  The majority of church-goers are in the same shape that Israel was when Jesus arrived on the scene in His earthly ministry.  The people of God were totally unaware what the world of God taught concerning the Lord’s coming, and they had no idea when He arrived.

He was born on the day that Daniel prophesied (Daniel 9:25-26); in the city that Micah prophesied (Micah 5:2); of a virgin as Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 7:14); of the tribe of Judah as Jacob prophesied (Genesis 49:9-10); and of the house of David as God had promised David in (2Samuel 7:16-17).

They had all of this information, and they still did not expect Him.  They were oblivious to His arrival, to His presence, to His identity; and they rejected Him when He presented Himself to them.  God’s chosen people had no idea that the time was upon them.  And today, men are no different.  The Lord is soon to return for His church; and the church, for the most part, is unprepared.  The majority of the church, as the world knows it, is not born again:  At least, the majority of those who call themselves Christian.  And so it shall be.  We have warnings throughout the word of God that the numbers may be far fewer than we dare to believe.  It will be for the same reason, lack of faith.

Faith is the root of our salvation in Christ Jesus.  As I have heard many times, “The proof of the root, is in the fruit.”  And when we talk of the fruits of those who call themselves Christian today, we find most to be barren, fruitless; and the day is almost upon us. 

David came to Israel in the field and found them faithless, fearful, defeated, and unable to stand before their enemies.  Goliath pictures for us the devil.  He is great and powerful.  He is a very fearful sight to behold; and all of Israel was weak; they could not stand before him.  This loud, boisterous giant, calling for a willing champion to fight him knew that none of them the power of God on them to fight him. And so did they.

Then comes David.  David went to the king and let the king know, “I will go and fight, have no fear, I have fought this fight before.”  David was unafraid because he had met this fear before and overcome it by the Grace of God.  He was unafraid because he had overcome by faith in the past.  He had faced a lion, and he had faced a bear, and he had won the battle.  And he did so as he was guarding his father’s sheep.

Now he would face Goliath in the name of the LORD of hosts, and he would be protecting his Father’s sheep, the flock of God.  Yes, David had fought this fight before, and he would step out by faith and do it again with God by His side. 

We find ourselves in this place now.  Surrounded by many who have never been born again, never come to know true faith.  While there are a few about us who do have some small measure of faith, yet they are weak and fearful, and unable to move.

Living in the days that Paul warned about in 2Timothy 3, we see exactly what Paul wrote of.  And it compares well with David’s day.  We must remember that in David’s day Israel had rebelled against God.  The nation had recently rejected the governance of God, and had demanded a king, so they could be as the other nations about them.  It was this nation, following a king that had been part of their number, which had sat down and refused to fight.  But it was no wonder.  Who would expect a people who refused to be governed by God to go into battle on God’s behalf?  This thought alone should help clarify the comparison of the church in our day to Israel in David’s.  The church is rejecting God’s word, rejecting the thought of being governed by God and His word.  Those who seek to obey and follow scripture have been so isolated, maligned, and mistreated, that they are afraid to speak or “stand” on God’s word.  And we find ourselves sitting in 2Timothy 3, just waiting for the Lord’s return.  We are in those perilous times. 

2Timothy 3:1 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.”

That may be hard for many to believe, but just take a stand for God before the whole world.  Just commit yourself to living for God, according to the word of God, as David did.  It wasn’t long after David openly exercised faith and joined the fight that the very ones he sought to serve turned on him and sought his life.  Israel had been guilty of neglecting her heritage; she had allowed the ungodly entrance into holy ground; and it had undermined the work of those generations who had gone before, (1Samuel 17:1-3).  Through neglect and compromise, the enemies of God had been allowed to enter into God’s territory and establish a foothold, and the whole nation became crippled by ignorance and fear. Yes, ignorance and fear.

That is where we are today.  As Christ’s church, as His disciples, we have two great enemies to overcome: 1. the devil (lion); and 2. the flesh (bear).  And we must do so in our own lives before we can lead others to victory in the same.  David had gained the victory in his private life while tending his father’s sheep, and God was going to bring him to victory before the whole nation.  And we must do so as well.  And we live in a day that few have done so.

For the few that have been born again, if they are not exercising faith they will weaken to the place that they will be useless for the fight.  The spiritual battle for salvation is already won.  Christ won that battle at Calvary.  Our struggle against the devil is a battle to get closer to God and to become more useful to Him through discipleship and the walk of faith.  That is the lion that we must face.  Since the spiritual battle has already been won, as far as my salvation goes, Satan knows that he cannot get my soul.  He cannot take me away from Christ.

Satan seeks to come between me and God.  Since he can’t fight God, he will come after me, and he can only do this through the flesh (bear).  In 2Timothy 3, we see that in the last days men will be sold out to the devil in the flesh.  Do we not see this all around us now?

 (2Timothy 3:1-8)  If you will notice this passage, verses 2-5 are all one sentence.  The period is at the end of verse 5.  You may ask, “What is the significance of that?”  Looking at verse five, it is the answer to that question. 

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:” 

This tells us that the dangers that we will be facing in the last days will be those that come from religious people or groups.  And what religion?  If you will look at the letters to the seven churches you will find that we are warned of persecutions from the very ones we are called to minister too, the church.

Why is it so?  “for men shall be lovers of their own selves,”  If you look back over these verses you will find that the list we have here is centered, every point, on selfishness.  They have a form of godliness, or an appearance of godliness:  But their godliness if false, lifeless and powerless.  They don’t even try to live up to what they teach.

If we remember what David went through; if we will remember the words of David’s son, king Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived (besides Christ) then we know that history repeats itself.  We remember Jesus’ rebuke to Jerusalem “thou that killest the prophets”.  We remember the martyrdom of the disciples and the apostles in the New Testament; the persecutions of Christians from that time, to the Spanish inquisition, and even in our day, Christians are being killed simply for what they believe in different parts of the world.

We have never seen a day that the church as a whole has more resembled the people of Israel in Hosea chapter 4, or Amos 8.  And we find ourselves in the latter part of the Philadelphia church age.  We are very near the moment that Christ comes and takes His church to Himself, and all that will be left will be the Laodicean church.  But we have seen this before.  The church has had to fight this fight before.  The great difference here is that we are somewhat safe to make the truth known.  We can preach the truth, share the gospel, show people that God truly does have guidelines for us to live our lives for Him.  But today our greatest enemy is ourselves.  The greatest enemy to soul-winning is the refusal to risk being rejected and therefore compromising truth to draw a crowd.  The battle rages and we fail to see it for lack of bloodshed.  But we are seeing multitudes led to hell by devilish false teaching.  Multitudes are religious yet lost.

Matthew 5:3-12 pt2

We began looking at this passage last week, and we noted that “blessed” is a word that describes happiness; but it describes a happiness that is much deeper than our natural and superficial happiness which relies on our surroundings or circumstances.  This blessedness is joy: it is joy of a supernatural nature which belongs to those who are truly God’s children.

In this portion of scripture, which we affectionately know as “The Beatitudes”, we are given a list of characteristics of Christian joy, as well as some reasons that we can have joy in even the worst of times.

As a Child of God, one may weep bitter tears, but we know that though we may endure weeping for the present, joy comes in the morning.  The darkness will come to an end and one day it will be gone forever.  We noted in our last study that this joy belongs to those who realize that we are blessed beyond measure and that we do not, can not, and never will deserve it.  We know that we are the unworthy recipients of this precious gift, yet we have been blessed with it. 

We also noted that even when we falter, when we sin, we are heartbroken over our sins, yet we have joy because we are comforted in God’s promise of forgiveness.  And we are humbled with great joy because we know that though we may have nothing; though we may be nothing in this world; God loves us so much that we have been promised an inheritance far greater than this world and all that it may hold. (verse 5)

We also saw that we will have even greater joy as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, (verse 6).  “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”  How can we not joyfully show mercy when we have been so richly blessed by the mercy of God.  One who is born again does not find it all that difficult to show mercy to one who may have offended when they consider the great mercy that has been shown them.  We cannot help but have a merciful spirit when we have experienced the great mercy of God ourselves.  One who is not merciful; one who seems not to possess the capacity for mercy has never been born again.

Looking at this verse, the word merciful here is the Greek word “eleemon” (G1655), and it means “compassionate”: but not simply of a compassionate spirit, but to be “actively compassionate”.  This goes much deeper into the heart of Christian character than may be seen with the quick glance that we often give scripture.  If we are merciful in this way; if we are “actively compassionate”, we will love our neighbor:  We will love people; we will love the strangers about us; we will love in such a way that we will even be merciful to our enemies.

You will find that in (Matthew 9:36) Jesus was moved with compassion on the multitudes because they were weak and they were lost.  Then in (Matthew 14:14) Jesus was moved with compassion on the multitude that followed Him again, and He healed their sick.  Again in (Matthew 15:32) He fed them.  And in (Matthew 20:34) He healed them.  And in (Mark 10:21) Jesus loved that rich young ruler.  And if we have the Love of God in our hearts we cannot help it; we will have the mercy of God.  We will be merciful.  And this wonderful mercy will manifest itself in our being understanding of others.  We will understand that men are not perfect and that we all make mistakes.  We will understand that a lost person is likely to act like a lost person.  We will, in mercy, be willing to overlook and forgive many things. 

This mercy we speak of is understanding, it is forgiving, and it is actively seeking to do good for even those who count themselves our enemies.  In mercy we can still be kind in spite of bad treatment.  Mercy can be gentle to those who may abuse and mistreat us.

We must be careful not to allow ourselves to become cold, hard, and bitter towards others even though they may have done us wrong.  To get in that state of heart hurts us more than it does anyone else.  That is why Jesus told His disciples that when we pray, one of the things that we pray is to ask our Father to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  The word of God plainly teaches that if we forgive not, neither will we be forgiven.  Just look at our verse.

“Blessed are the merciful:”    That is not a recommendation, it is a simple descriptive fact.  And it is a fact for a reason, “for they shall obtain mercy.”

I don’t know any way that we could thank God enough that, as David said, His mercies are new every morning.  It ought to be easy for us as God’s children to share that with which we have been so richly blessed.  We are to show mercy, compassion, understanding, forgiveness; we are not to be begrudging, vengeful, and bitter, but merciful.  And we see in our next verse (verse 8) some responsibility place on us to use the things that we have learned thus far in the right way.  Look at the verse…

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

In looking at this verse you will find that the word “pure” is translated from the Greek word “katharos” (G2513) and it means “clean” clear, pure.  And that word “heart” is the Greek word “kardia” (G2588), and it means “the heart, thoughts, feelings, mind”.

Oh, friend, that means that impurity of heart will be the opposite.  If we do not live our lives trying to be what we are taught in these verses, then we won’t have that blessed joy.  We will be cheating ourselves out of that joy which is available for us if we will just obey and live for God.  I believe that this is one of the greatest failures of us all: “Being of a pure heart.” 

To be of a pure heart will cause us to completely forsake a lot of our personal preferences; it will cause us to conduct ourselves in our daily lives without partiality and without ulterior motives.  To have a pure heart will cause you to be honest in your dealings with God and man.  Oh yes, we are all guilty at times of not being of a pure heart, and we xcan look at the previous verse if we will be honest about it.  A pure heart will love all the same; will treat all the same.  A pure heart will not play favorites and will be unselfish.  And we all fail on this point at times, both in our dealings with God and man.  Yes, we all find ourselves trying to bargain with God and trade Him out of things that we may not be supposed to be indulging in or possessing.  We may offer God a work or a commitment in return for this or that.  And we find ourselves in our relationships with our fellow men, attempting to receive from them as we give or even better.  We find ourselves at times guilty of governing our treatment of others by who they are, what they have done for us, or may do for us; or how we may be profited by them down the road.  This mindset will never pay off with joy for a child of God.  And our verse is plain…

“Blessed are the pure in heart:”

In the world around us you will hear people say that “karma” can be rough.  People will say that “what goes around comes around” and karma will do unto you as you have done.   But karma has nothing to do with anything.  Long before anyone heard of karma, Paul wrote, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  If you sow partiality and deceit, if you sow injustice, then you shall reap the same, and that is certainly not going to bring joy to the heart of one who is saved.  We will reap what we sow and we know that that is a certainty. “Blessed are the pure in heart:” 

And we can shout amen! Blessed are we when our hearts are right.  We walk by faith and we are only as joyful as we are strong in the faith.  And when we are pure in heart, then we will see God always before us.  He will always be in view in our minds eye in our decision making; we will see God in our reaction to what comes our way; God will be before us at all times in our thoughts, He will ever be before us even when we suffer.  And we will see God, we will see that He has a purpose for whatever we are going through.  We shall see God in such a way that when we cannot see “why” we must suffer some things, then we will still see that God is still in control.  Praise God that when life is at it’s worst, God is still in control.  We can praise God for this always and in all things.  We shall see God…

“see” (G3700) and it is the strongest form of the word that means different things which are determined by the way that it is used in a sentence.

(G3709) to gaze with wide open eyes

(G991) voluntary observation

(G1492) passing glance

(G2300) emphatic “Look! See!”

(G2334) intensive

(G4648) watching “from a distance”, look, appear, see, show self

We are focused.  We look for God.  We see with our understanding.

And when we are mature enough to do all of these, then we will be strong enough for our next verse….

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

When we are able to live by faith and experience all of these things that came before, then we will mature to the place that we can live peaceably, even with those who may mock us and persecute us.  What a wonderful mark of Christian maturity.

I praise God that I had a pastor like this.  God blessed me with a pastor who was a mature man of God, a mature Christian.  He stayed faithful.  Bro. Mac Phillips was a wonderful example of what we find described here in the Beatitudes.  There was no mistaking that he was a man of God.  He was a precious man of God.

Just one little word of encouragement as we close this portion of our study of this passage…

Look back again:

INTERNAL/HEART/TOWARD GOD

1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for”
2. “Blessed are they that mourn: for”
3. “Blessed are the meek: for”
4. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for”

Each of these statements is a complete thought.  We see a colon at the end of each of these statements.  A colon means that what has just been said can stand alone, it is a complete thought.  We see happiness, or joy, as the start of every one.  It is the simple declaration of the fact that there is joy.  And we see the word “are” which is telling us that this “blessedness” is present tense, even in God’s people today.  They are also all followed by blessing, “for”.  And these are all “internal”, they have to do with our relationship with God, our heart condition.

And the following are “external”, they have to do with our conduct toward our fellow man.

EXTERNAL/CONDUCT/TOWARD MAN

1. “Blessed are the merciful: for”
2. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for”
3.  “Blessed are the peacemakers: for”

Matthew 5:3-12 pt1

Matthew 5:3-12

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

It may seem to be an odd proposal to look at all of this as descriptive of the life of joy, but that is exactly what we see.  Nine times in verses three through eleven we see those characteristics of one who is truly born again; one who is truly “blessed”.  What we see, though, about the life of the “blessed” is something that we don’t see a great deal of out of the church in our day.  Look at exactly what we see in these verses.

In each of these verses, the use of the word “blessed” in the Greek is the same.  It is the Greed word “makarios” (G3107), and it means to be supremely blest, or fortunate, well off; blessed, happy.  This just does not seem to fit what we see here.  In this passage we have a very in-depth description of the heart condition of a child of God who is living as a child of God ought too.  This is a very detailed description of the life of faith.  It is a life of joy.  And that joy, which is the very strength of our faith, as Nehemiah points out in Nehemiah 8:10, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Many years ago, as Bro. Pat McNair preached at Calvary Baptist Church in Becker, MS, he said something that stuck in the heart of this preacher.  He said that the primary characteristic of the Christian life is “joy”.  We are to enabled to live a life of joy, even in the midst of heartache, pain, and tribulation.  We are to live a life of joy.  And we see some wonderful truth in this passage.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Blessed!”, “Happy!”, we have joy because we know exactly who, and who’s we are: and we know that we don’t deserve the least of all that He has given us or done for us.  “Unworthy!”  is the heart cry of the redeemed because they realize how unworthy they truly are. “I am unworthy, but oh what joy, He has given me all things in Himself!”  Praise God that we can cry that we know “I am His and He is mine!”  So unworthy am I, but He, the Lamb of God, Creator of all the universe, have Himself to die for me!”

As His children, we cannot help but have joy at just knowing that He has bought us at Great Price, and we are eternally His.  Look at the second half of this verse and see why we, as His children, can have joy in the realization of our own unworthiness.  “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  We have joy BECAUSE we know that the kingdom of heaven IS ours.  The kingdom of heaven is ours in Him.  That is a present tense blessing.  Oh what joy to know that Very God gave His own body to suffer and die because He loved us so, and He has given us all things in Himself.  We are so unworthy!  Knowing this truth ought to be enough to bring us joy, it will carry us through anything that may come our way.  The Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”  And that message was not lost on the apostle.  He showed us the effect that this truth should have on us.  “Most gladly therefore will rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  This is that blessedness that we see in the apostles in Acts 5:40 when they “departed from the presence of the council” after having been beaten and commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus.  They went their way, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”  They had joy that could not be taken away because they knew “He is mine!” yes “He is mine!”  One of the indicators of true joy, one evidence of real faith, is joy in just knowing that He loves us even though He knows how unworthy we truly are.

Moving on to verse four, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” we see another characteristic of one who is a child of God, one who is living the life of joy.  This characteristic is a direct result of what we see in the previous verse.  In verse three we see and awareness of just how unworthy we are of all that God has done for and given us, then in verse four we see that we, though we have such joy, yet mourn.  And we may wonder just how we can mourn and have joy at the same time.  The Greek word for mourn here is “pentheo” and it means to “grieve”. 

With a realization of just how unworthy we are of all that God has done for us, we grieve over our sins in a way that we never did before.  We mourn over sin, we grieve over sin, because we know that our sin grieves God.  Yet our joy is magnified in knowing that we are forgiven, and even though we fail often, even though we will never truly be worthy, we are His for eternity.  He will not leave us comfortless.  We will grieve over sin in our own lives and in others.  We will suffer heartaches of many types and at many times in our lives, but we have this truth, again with promise.  “for they shall be comforted.”  The word comforted in this verse is translated from the Greek word “parakaleho” (G3870) which means “to call near, invite, invoke, (imploration, hortation, consolation).  We have His promise of comfort in mourning.  He will never leave us alone in our sorrows.  And we also have the promise that when we find ourselves in need of forgiveness; when we sin, if we confess our sins, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9)

Oh what joy to know that even when we fail; even when we have broken that precious fellowship, we will never be cast out (John 6:37).  We can always return to Him, and we will be forgiven upon repentance.  What joy! What joy! To know that we are loved, we are cherished, and we can always come back to Him.  What joy in the prodigal son when he “came to himself: and realized that he could go back home.  We see in verse four that there is comfort, there is consolation, when we need it.

When we understand just how unworthy we are (verse three) and when sin breaks our hearts, we progress into verse five.  It is a progression.  There is a reason that Jesus taught these things in this order and we must not miss this.  But, we will grow with each of these into the one that follows.  In verse five we see, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” 

The word “meek” here is translated from the Green word “prahus” (G4239), and it means, “mild, humble”.  This speaks of being humble, gentle, meek, kind;; and this comes as a result of verses three and four.  One can not help but be humbled by the realization of their own unworthiness and prone-ness to sin.  It is a humbling truth when we realize it.  It is worth noting the way that the Beattitudes to come to us progressively.  Every one of them contributes to the one that follows.  Each of them is literally a result of the one before.  All of them are characteristics of true Christianity.  They are all good indicators of the authenticity of one’s faith.  They can show us just who we are, and help us to understand just who others are as well.

The Beattitudes show us that, in the child of God, there is a discernable and definite dependence upon God.  We are, none of us, “self-made” but we are wholly dependant upon God, and this truth will humble us.  In humility we are satisfied with what God gives us; and we know that all that we are, all that we have comes from Him.  We receive from Him far more than we will ever deserve and we accept His blessings in gratitude as those who do not deserve them.

We also see that in humility, we are further blessed.  Looking at what we see here, the word “earth” is the Greek word, “ge” and it literally means, “soil, region, terren” and it includes the “occupants” in each application.  This is an overlooked aspect of Christianity in our day because most of the church today is very little concerned with it.  When we read that the meek shall inherit the earth, it is not telling us that we are going to be granted or garunteed ownership of great tracts of land or valuable properties.  What this is telling us is that, if we are faithful, there shall be a harvest.  There is coming a pay-day, and we will receive that which is most valuable of all.  We are promised this wonderful blessing and it is re-iterated for us by the apostle Paul when he writes to Galatia, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)\

This harvest is lasting, it is not the world that we live in because it will burn up one day.  It speaks of men, the dust of the earth.  Jesus told His disciples that He would make them fishers of men.  We being made of the dust of the ground, are the earth which will prove to be the inheritance of those who have gone before and carried the gospel to the lost world.  We are part of the inheritance of the apostles, to the church, to those who have witnessed to us and preached to us and showed us the light that one day led us from darkness to light; to salvation in Christ Jesus.  Oh what precious inheritance! Far more valuable than a couple hundred or thousands of acres of land here, are the souls of men.  There are those in our lives that we have been granted the blessed opportunity to be a witness too of the grace of God.  What a sobering thought it is that we are granted the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is what Jesus is telling us when He speaks to His disciples in (Matthew 4:19).

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

And this aspect of the life of a child of God will lead us even deeper into our own relationship with God.  Realization that we are His; that we are to follow Him; that we are to share His gospel with the whole world, we arrive at verse six.

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

And the wording here, in the Greek, speaks of one who is starving for; thirsty for; striving and straining to obtain more of God so that they may be more of what they ought to be and have more to share.  We have God’s precious word in the King James Bible; the most powerful thing that the world has ever known, the word of God.  And the Lord speaks to us “Take and eat”  He calls to us, “Let him that is athirst come and drink freely.”  We have no righteousness of our own; there has only ever been one truly righteous, and we long to have more of Him; to know Him more fully; to be more like Him.

In pursuit of God through the study and understanding of His word, we will grow to behave ourselves more like we ought too.  As children of God, it is His will that we be conformed to the image of His son.  In Matthew chapters five, six, and seven, we are taught how we are to live as God’s children.  We will seek to act, speak, dress, and look like what we are claiming to be. 

This is where the world likes to draw the line.  This point is the point of separation among many who call themselves Christian.  Today, to preach on dress, conduct, aquaintences, habits, entertainment; well, pretty much anything but the love of God is considered offensive and people reject anything that would show them that there is an need of change in anything in their lives.  Many who call themselves Christian and show up twice or four times a month to church refuse to be taught that they ought not be drinking strong drink, or that they ought to be keeping their bodies covered, or seek to conform themselves to godly and biblical standards of living will desert anyone who will teach them these things.  This is rejecting the word of God, it is not Christianity. 

The Beattitudes are telling us what we will be, and what we will see in others, if we are truly His.

Something To Hang On Too

Isaiah 22:20 – 25

Hang on:

Isa 22:20-25  “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.”

When I was a little boy growing up on the hill where I still live today, my grandpa was a mean man. In his later years he had a lot of bad things happen and suffered a lot of heart aches which humbled him to the place that he was a different man. I loved him dearly in the last years of his life. But growing up, my grandpa was the meanest man I ever knew. He hated kids, he hated adults, he hated work, he hated dogs-you name it, he hated it. I don’t know how many times he cursed us kids and our parents, as well as my grandma. The only time he was ever nice was when he went out to feed his quail. I remember how he would ease out into the pen to feed them. I remember how gentle he was with them. He softly whined to them and spread the feed around the pen. I’ll never forget that.

Well, we boys were just about as mean as grandpa. All we did was get in trouble and fight. We had all kinds of ammunition too. We had pecans, walnuts, dirt clods, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, egg plants, pine cones, rocks, etc. and anything else that wasn’t tied down

well, one day we were having a good rock fight and I ran around the coupe where grandpas quail were. I climbed up on top of that coop and laid down to watch all the commotion. I laid there for quite a while before I got tired of watching all the fun and wanted to get in on it. I slid down the low roof of that coop and dropped down the side of it. Unbeknownst to me there was a nail sticking out of the side of that coupe about 2 inches, and it was bent upward at a sharp angle. There was a meeting that took place between me and that nail that day. That meeting I never have and I probably never will forget. I still bear the mark of that first meeting and probably always will. I mean it. That nail was there to hang something on, and something got hung on that nail.

Well, friends, God fastened a nail in a secure place for us one day. That nail was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And on that nail God hanged all of our sins and all our failures and iniquities. Then on that awful day, on the cross of Calvary that nail was cut down and the burden that was on it was cut off.  Friends, Jesus was cut down for you and me and when he gave himself to die on Calvary, our “nail in a secure place”, He bore in Himself our sins and carried them to the grave where that burden was cut off once and for all. I’m glad, praise God, my sins are gone, God will remember them no more and I have a nail in a secure place. That ought to make us want to shout. Since we have a nail in a secure place we have got something to hang on too. And every once in a while we need to be reminded just to hang on.

We understand that we don’t have to hang on, or hold out, to be saved but we need to hang on because we are saved.

When things look hopeless, hang on! When we feel helpless, hang on! When we are unhappy, hang on!

Hang on!

We should hang on for there is hope for the hopeless. Can you imagine that day in the garden. Adam found himself fallen from grace, lost, hopeless. I’m sure the devil was having running fits, shouting the victory. By all appearances he thought he’d won the battle. The devil was whooping it up for joy, and Adam was weeping in fear and remorse; but God was working out his plan. While the devil was throwing himself a victory party God stepped up and said, “hang on!”

I’m glad thank God, when Adam was hopeless, God said hang on!

Genesis 3:14-15

Gen 3:14-15  “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

God, in essence, told the devil, “Satan you may have declared war but I declare the victory. You have used man whom I’ve created a fight against me but I will use man to see you defeated once and for all.” And friends this gave Adam and Eve hope. So much hope in fact that they showed it here before us in the Bible.

In chapter 3 and the second verse Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all living. This name showed his anticipation in faith that God was going to do what he said he was going to do.  Adam and Eve both knew God was going to do what he said. God had given them something to hang on too so they did all they could do, and that was “hang on.” They knew they had hope. There is hope for the hopeless.

There was a time when we seemed to have no hope, no hope at all. As a matter of fact, there was a time that we who are saved were without hope. (Ephesians 2:11-13)

Eph 2:11-13  “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

Gentile! uncircumcision! aliens! having no hope! without God! There was a time in my life when I was hopeless. I was outside the family of God’s chosen people. The day came in my life that I realized the shape I was in. I had no hope that I knew of, I didn’t know what I should do, then I heard.

“But now” (verse 13)

Because of what Jesus did for me I can say, “amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost ‘but now’ am found, was blind ‘but now’ I see.”

Oh, friends, I had no hope, you had no hope. We couldn’t get to God. (Romans 5:6-8)

Rom 5:6-8  “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Thank God,

there is hope for the hopeless!

Remember the thief on the cross? If there has ever been a man who was hopeless, he was hopeless. Look at his situation. He was a thief, condemned to die. He knew he was getting what he deserved. And He knew that he was never going to get the opportunity to go to make atonement for his sins. He was dying in his sins and would soon face Almighty God in that shape, hopeless, helpless!

But while he hung there he saw this man in the middle. He saw how he had been beaten, bruised, and torn. Never before had he seen a man so badly torn up. Yet what he saw was not nearly as shocking as what he heard. People were mocking him, cursing him, laughing at him. And this man who had done nothing wrong said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Somewhere in the heart of that thief on the cross, the Holy Ghost got hold of him and said, “hang on there is hope”. And that thief looked toward Jesus and spoke to the one he believed must be the son of God. Look at what he said in Luke chapter number 23 in verse 42…

That thief hit the street of glory shouting the victory, a few short minutes from hell and God saved him.

I was in the same shape is that thief on the cross one day, lost, without hope, I didn’t know what to do, then I heard the gospel and I said, “hang on, I want in on this.”

We need to hang on. Not only because there’s hope for the hopeless but because there is help for the helpless. The Word of God tells us in John chapter 1 verse 13 that we were helpless, “not of blood” means that we did not inherit it from mama and daddy. We are not Christians because grandma was or grandpa was. “Nor of the will of the flesh,” means that there is nothing we could do in our flesh to save us, we could not work our way to heaven. “Nor of the will of man,” means that no man could do it for us. No one can baptize a baby and expect him to go to heaven on that. No earthly priest can forgive your sins and give you the gift of eternal life. Certainly no priest can pray you into heaven after you die. There is no hope in any of these things. There is no hope in this world. No hope! Remember Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 through 13.

“Having no hope”

and then in John chapter number one verse 13

“but of God”

I couldn’t help myself but God had made away. When I was at the end and ready to give up I’m glad, “But  God!” Jesus spoke to me by his Holy Spirit and through his word and said, “hang on son, I died for you.” I couldn’t do it for myself but God did for me what I could not do.

“Who giveth songs in the night”

Job 35:10  “But none saith, Where is God  my maker, who giveth songs in the night;”

In looking at these words it is important that we are clear on the context.  These verses were not spoken bravely from a heart of faith by Job.  Instead they were spoken by Elihu who has remained silent all this time.  In noting 32:1-4 we see that Elihu has respectfully listened to these men who were obviously senior to him.  He has been polite and respectful because of their age.

Job 32:1-4 “So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.   Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.   Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.   Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he.“

It was in listening to these men that Elihu learned a very important lesson.  The simple fact that a man may be of great age does not mean that he will be wise.  Age does not mean that a person knows all the answers.  Notice the words he  spoke in the next verses.  Elihu was respectful enough to wait even though they were not making any progress.

Job 32:5-7  When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled.   And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not show you mine opinion.   I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

He finally spoke and what he said was a rebuke for their failure to bring God into the conversation.  For 30 chapters these men had been bickering back and forth and not one time do you see anyone saying, “Hey fellas, let’s pray about this.”  No, they were doing it all on their own. One rule of thumb in this life that we live is that we never assume to answer where we do not understand ourselves.  We face trials and situations that we may never yet have faced and we don’t know what to do or what to expect.  We have friends who face things that we have not and yet we often find ourselves giving advice as if we know exactly what they are going through, how they feel and why they are suffering the things they are.  All the while we fail to think that wisdom comes from God and we should go to Him first for the answers, and then relay the answers that He gives.  This is the act of wisdom, seeking God for  the answers.  None of these men did so.

All this time these men had groped, discussed, grasped and grabbed at Job and never once given anything to help him.  And poor Job in his own self pity was so busy defending himself that he didn’t even think to pray.

Have you ever been there?  I’m afraid I have.  So caught up in your troubles, so caught by surprise that you can’t even think to pray?  If I were a gambling man I believe it would be a safe bet that we have all been there.

Look again at our text.

“But none sayeth, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;”

If you were to look up that word “night” you would find it to mean several different things…

…between sunset and sunrise…

…close of life, death…

…moral darkness…

…adversity, affliction, distress…

…obscurity, hidden from eye or mind…

It is in short, a time of darkness, whether mental, physical, psychological or spiritual.

Songs in the Night

There are some times that we need help, we need something because we can do nothing.  We need to remember the one who can make us sing n the midst of the darkness.  God was able to do this for Jonah in the belly of the great fish, and He was able to do it for Paul and Silas in the prison stocks at midnight. And God is able to do the same for us.  We simply need to call on Him when we need Him. God is good enough for us…

I.   When worldly cares weigh us down with fear…

If you will recall Ruth was in a strange land and had great responsibility thrust upon here by circumstances that were totally beyond her control.  Her husband had died, her father in law had died, and she was left with the care of her mother in law on her shoulders.  Imagine the pain, the pressure that she was under.  Life had dealt her some cruel blows and yet she was determined to do what was right.  She finds herself in a new land among strangers with no job and all kind of responsibilities.  But she is willing to do what it takes to fulfill her obligations.  No doubt it was fearful, and the work was very difficult.  But she was willing to do what she had to to fulfill her responsibilities.

There may come a time in your life that you don’t know how you are gonna make your next payment.  You may not know where your next meal is coming from.  It may be a hard and a difficult time in your life and you just don’t know what to do.

Look at Ruth.  She went to her kinsman redeemer in the dark of the night and placed herself at his feet.  She went to the only one who was able to do for her what she stood in need of.  Her fate lay in his hands, you might say.  No doubt she was afraid of what might happen if he denied her and sent her on her way.  But she went and there she gained audience with him and asked him for help.  Can you imagine how she must have felt when she heard him say, “fear not… I will”?  I truly believe she was excited.  She had gone from fearful and doubting to having a song in her heart, rejoicing.  She probably sang all the way back to Naomi.  She was so excited that Naomi had to calm her down.  Notice Naomi’s response to Ruth’s excitement.  (Rth 3:18  Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.)

There was now a song in her heart which betrayed the joy of knowing that her kinsman redeemer had promised to do for her all that she needed.

Rth 3:8-11  And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.  And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.  And he said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my daughter: for thou hast showed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich.  And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.

Well friend, we have a Kinsman Redeemer that knows our needs.  If we will but ask Him he will take care of our needs.  We may not always get what we want but He will see to it that we get what we need.  He instructed us to pray about these daily needs.  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  And He told us to ask and it shall be given, seek, and we shall find, and knock and it shall be opened.  At those times when we don’t know what to expect next, we should remember to go to our  Redeemer and ask for His help.  He will always do for us  exactly what we need most.

II.   When our enemies have us in fear…

If you consider Gideon in Judges 7:10-15

Jdg 7:10-15 But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host:  And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host.  And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.  And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.  And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.   And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshiped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

Gideon was leading a band of 300 men against an army of thousands.  He could see the multitudes of the enemy soldiers preparing to come against them in battle and he was afraid because they were so badly outnumbered.  In plain old country language he saw that the enemy had them outnumbered and outgunned.  Israel, in the world’s eyes was no match for the foes before them.  Consider this man’s predicament and the thoughts that must have been running through his mind.  He needed something and God knew that he was afraid.  God did not rebuke him for his fear, instead God wanted to give him something to cause this fear to subside and allow Gideon to do a great and mighty work for the whole world to see that God was with His chosen people.

In our day, as children of God it is easy to allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the enemies that are round about us.  There are numerous organizations and groups that hate what we believe and what we stand on.  This can be discouraging.  In looking at the political climate today, Christianity is struggling not to be pushed out of our society.  So few of professing Christendom are willing to stand today for fear of persecution by our many opponents.  Our rights are constantly being taken away.  Our bible is being attacked.  Our government is trying to deny us the simple and basic right to preach what we believe from the scriptures while allowing Satanists and anti- Christian organizations and religions free reign in the public arena, because we are supposed to be a nation of “Religious Freedom”.  Only up to the point of being Christian.  Then we Christians are told that we are violating the rights of every one else in the nation by simply exercising our own.  It does get discouraging, and it does seem that we are badly outnumbered.  But read the whole book and you will find in the last chapters that Jesus is going to win in the end and there is nothing that the world or the devil can do about it.  I think of Gideon every time I consider the numbers of people against us today.  At the same time I am reminded of another time in scripture that we are reminded that God will not be beaten by numbers or might.  Look with me at Elisha.

2Ki 6:15-17  And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, a host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?   And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.   And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Here we have Elisha and his servant sought out and surrounded by an entire army.  We see that Elisha’s servant got pretty excited by the situation and God had to help him.  Can you imagine the joy at seeing the multitudes of God’s host about them and prepared to fight on their behalf?  Oh, friends it is a wonderful feeling when we go from saints go marchin in”  and God can do it for us.  We must not allow our circumstances to cause us to  forget the one who gives songs in the night.  Not only does God have everything under control but He has never ceased to be the Master of any situation.  I’m glad thank God that He is still in control, and I am His.

And God is still able to comfort and strengthen us in whatever situations or conditions life may throw at us.  Praises be to God for His provision for ourlives.

III.  When we are in fear of the unknown…

There do come times in our lives that there is no way that we can imagine what to do.  There are times that are so difficult for us that we are unable to understand and absolutely at a loss as to how to deal with them.  One of these times I believe we see best illustrated for  us in the twenty third chapter of the book of Luke…

Luk 23:39-43  And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.   But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?   And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.  And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.  And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

If ever there has been a person who had opportunity to be in fear of the unknown and with absolutely no hope of changing the circumstances that they were in, it was this thief.  He was at the end of his life and he knew that nothing he could do would change that.  But somewhere in the things that he had been witnessing, the words that he had been hearing, the blessed Holy Spirit of God had spoken to his heart and he looked at this Man between himself an the other thief.  There was something different about this man.  He must be who He claimed to be! And in the darkest time of his life this poor wretch in repentance spoke to the Saviour.  Imagine how he must have felt.

I can remember when I first got saved.  I did not care what happened to me I was too happy at being a child of God.  The thrill of being one of His was too much to be suppressed when I got saved.  Can you remember when you got saved?  It was a lot different then, wasn’t it?  It was at that point that if God had required, we could have laid down our lives gladly for Him.  It took time for us to grow as cold as we are now.  Imagine this poor man at the end of his days.  He has suddenly experienced the joy of becoming a child of God.  No greater joy!!!  And he was able to look at death with the thought of being with Jesus in Paradise.  What a way to go out of this world, with the joy of our conversion fresh in our hearts and our minds fixed on Him.  I believe that thief was filled with a song in the darkest time of his life.  He spoke to the One Who gives songs in the night and was filled with a song of joy to leave this life with.  What a wonderful thought.

Friend, you may be facing a time such as you have never faced in your life.  You may be waiting for the inevitable end of the life of someone dear to you as the result of some terrible illness.  You may be facing the end of your own life as the result of some terrible illness.  God is still able to comfort you and take you home with joy and peace in your heart.  Don’t let the devil have the satisfaction of keeping you distracted.  Don’t fail to call on the One Who can help you at this time.  When you are about to go some way you have never gone before and don’t know what to expect of what to do, go to the One Who gives songs in the night.  God can and God will, give His children what they need to leave this world in peace.

There have been those that I have had the privilege of seeing on their deathbed and ready to go home.  I will never forget one dear friend in particular.  I was about to go out of town and I told him affectionately to hang on, I would be back in a few days.  He told me, “Bro. Jay,  don’t worry about seeing me again down here.  If you don’t see me down here again, we’ll see each other again up yonder.”  Sadly, for myself, this friend died a few hours before I got back to see him one last time.  But happily we will be together again one day.  He was one who had a song in his heart.  God had given him peace and for months of terrible sickness his prayer was that God would help him to be a good witness with what little time he had left.  Oh, friend, that we could all keep in mind that we have a friend who gives songs in the night.  I remember one saint on their death bed with their hands up in praise.  Hallelujah to God for His peace.

Look again at our text.  Elihu was letting them know that they should have gone to God in the first place.  Go to the One Who can help, no matter what.  Are you facing trouble?  Go to God now, don’t wait and suffer unnecessarily.  Face your troubles with a song in your heart and a prayer on your lips.  God bless.

A Current Need:

In Matthew, chapters five, six, and seven; after four hundred years of silence, God speaks.  We know that there were four hundred years that God left Israel without word, aside what was written down.  For four hundred years there had been no prophets sent to them with a word from God.  There had been no encouragement, not condemnation, nothing for them to hear.  And this, in itself, serves to amplify the prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers unto the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come an smite the earth with a curse.”

These last two verses of Malachi remind us that  people have not changed.  Men are still, one generation after another, more rebellious and self-righteous than the one before them, and much better in their own eyes than the one coming after them.  Men have not changed.  None seems to see their own life as other men do.  None seems to see their own life as God does.  But neither has God changed; or His laws, statutes, or judgments.

We have got to understand this truth, and to take a stand on the word of God, if we hope to make a difference in the world around us. 

We look at the last verses of Malachi, and we look at Matthew 11:14, where Jesus told His disciples…. “and if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.”

The we have John the Baptist testifying, “Behold the Lamb of God”.

And we fail to realize that every day that passes is further fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6.

Elijah was sent to make straight the way of the Lord; He was sent to prepare the hearts of men to receive the Lord’s message when He arrived.

Note how Mark 9:12-13 tells it….

“And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, thata he must suffer many things, and be se at naught.  But I say unto you, that Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.”

We know that Luke gave a reminder as well in Luke 1:17: “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Men had been waiting since Adam and Eve fell in the garden of Eden.  Abraham’s descendants haad been waiting since long before there was an “Israel”, and at last, John the Baptist pointed to the Lord and cried aloud, “Behold the Lamb of God”.  He was finally here.  He finally came.  But this entrance into the world was not the time spoken of in the last part of the prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6.  Rather, what Israel experienced was what we hear from Zechariah in Zechariah 9:9-13.

Obviously, we can look back now, from our position in Christ, and we can understand what Zechariah’s message was here.  In verse nine we see the Lord humbly offering Himself to His people, and we know that they rejected Him.  They rejected Him because they did not truly know Him.  In rejection, we see in verse ten that He would turn to the Gentiles; and to this day the Lord is still working His will to fulfill the promise of a world-wide dominion.  But verse twelve says it best, He tells them through Zechariah that He will pay their debt, and pay it in full, which is exactly what He did when He laid down His life on the Cross.  This all took place in the middle of verse five in Malachi chapter four.

(Malachi 4:5)

“Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of  the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”  The great and dreadful day of the Lord is what is coming next.  Immediately after John came in the spirit and power of Elias, Jesus gave Himself to pay the sin debt of Israel and all mankind, and He will be returning one day.

Because they misunderstood this prophecy of Zechariah, whether by choice or not, they could not see fully what Malachi was saying.  Their minds were governed by their personal circumstance, by their desires.  Their faith had become a religion of human reckoning.

-They reckoned themselves worthy because they were children of Abraham.

-They reckoned the Romans worthy of destruction for being in power.

-They reckoned that their Messiah would come to them and elevate them by destroying their enemies and their oppressors.

They did not see the humility of the Lamb, they did not understand His sacrifice.  It totally escaped their notice that they were in need of a Saviour.  They had prayed for deliverance from what they saw as their oppressor, and not from sin.  So they did not recognize the opportunity for salvation when it was presented.  But, Zechariah saw it, we see it in his words….

“and he shall speak peace unto the heathen:” and we know that this could only take place after God’s message of salvation was delivered to the “Jew first”.

This brings us to Matthew.  In chapter 3, John the Baptist came preaching, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

In Matthew 5 Jesus began His preaching ministry with, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

Shortly after this the Lord began to call His disciples unto Himself.  We see that He went everywhere preaching repentance and healing multitudes as He traveled with His disciples, (Matthew 4:23-25).  And when the multitudes came to Him in Matthew chapter five, Jesus set Himself and taught them.  This discourse is one of the most famous in history.  We know it as the “Sermon on the Mount”.

After four hundred years of silence, God came to His people and He taught them how they ought to be living.  This is not what they had expected.  This is not what they wanted to hear.  The Jews had come to the place that they had forgotten God’s requirement of obedience.  God seeks that we be faithful, and He is faithful to bless our faithfulness.  Somehow, they had come to expect blessing no matter how they conducted themselves.  Obedience is what God requires if we would live the life of victory.

If we read the prophets we find that before God left them alone for that four hundred year silence He had sent prophets for hundreds of years to warn them back to God, or suffer exactly what they were experiencing when Christ arrived.

They needed, as a nation, to repent.  Jesus came preaching repentance, and He came preaching it “To the Jew first”.

Today, the church is in the same condition.  And repentance is required.  As the Jews considered themselves to be the “children of faith” simply because they were descendants of Abraham, so do the majority of those today who call themselves “Christian” simply because they are church members.  The church today needs to take a fresh look at the shape that Israel was in when Jesus arrived, and consider the reason for their being in that condition.  It was the judgment of God upon them as a nation.  They had been warned time and again to turn back to God, yet they had refused.  And the church is in just that shape today. 

We have every warning; we have every judgment; we have every chastisement that Israel suffered as a result of their disobedience written down “for our learning”, yet the majority of what calls itself the church today rejects truth just as blindly as did the Jews that rejected the Lord.

It is time to return to proper preaching of the law and the Sermon on the Mount.  We must learn anew how to live for God.  If we would be blessed, if we would live long and see good days, we must begin with repentance and continue in faith.

Psalm 30:5

“For His anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

I want us to make note of a couple of little points in our text verse here before we really move ahead, just to show that we are in no danger of leaving the context of the scripture before us.  You will notice there are four phrases in our verse.  If you will remember with me, our days of youth.  I know that seems like a long time ago to some, but you won’t think that in another twenty years.

When we were children, still in our early teens, we were taught about punctuation, a little more in-depth as we prepared for high school.  But we were taught about the semi-colon, and the colon.  We know from what we are taught that a colon separates phrases or multiple phrases which are able to stand alone and still maintain a complete thought.

With this thought in mind I want us to look at this verse again.  We see that we have a colon right about the middle of the verse.  That means that there is a complete thought before that colon.  That first portion of that verse can stand alone, as can the second portion.  What we have then, is two complete thoughts contained in this verse.  On the one side we see that God does judge sin and chastise His saints, but we also see, on the other side, that His anger at our sin is but for a short time.  We see that there are times of weeping, but they will come to an end as well.  Look at exactly what it says….

“weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

Weeping may endure for a night.

The word “weeping” in this verse is a Hebrew word which means “a weeping, a dripping, overflowing, sore, continual”; and it comes from the root word “baw-kaw”” which means, “to weep, bewail, bemoan, complain, make lamentation, mourn, mourn sore w/tears, weep”.  And it is telling us that there are going to be times of weeping in our lives…. “BUT!”   There are going to be times of heartache…… “BUT!”  There are going to be times of loss… “BUT!”

JOY COMES IN THE MORNING!

Joy cometh in the morning.  It is a notable thought that joy comes in the morning.  It is notable because we all know that it is dark until then.  The darkness of night may bring pain rather than comfort at times.  The darkness of night may bring fear, heartache, sorrow, weeping.  We have all known these dark times.

We walk in the day sometimes thinking that God has been so good to us that nothing could go wrong enough to rob us of the joy that we are experiencing, but, oh friend, darkness falls.  A mother may raise children and do the best she can to lead them, pray for them, teach them; only to see them go a way that crushes the life out of her.  And darkness falls!  A person can learn to live with pain and loss that they never dreamed possible.  We know others who suffer daily and we admire their strengthe and their faith to continue to stand on God’s word in spite of what they are suffering. 

A father may work himself to near death trying to scrape a living out of long hours at hard labor and late days returning home missing all the time that he would rather be with his loved ones, yet sacrificing himself both physically and mentally for the good of those he loves.  He may suffer many long nights of pain crying at times in severe pain from the abuse that he has had to suffer to feed and care for those he loves.  And the day comes that he has lost those that he has loved more than his own life and health.  He may lose them to a world that doesn’t even know them.  Oh yes!  There can be times of such darkness in our lives that we cannot even imagine.

The night comes, it cannot be avoided.  We live in a dark world, a dying world.  It is impossible to walk through this world without ever passing through darkness.  The night will come.  But, just as surely as we see the sun setting, we know that the sun is coming up again in the morning.  It won’t be long and the morning is going to come, and joy cometh in the morning.

We all have, we all do, and we all shall suffer these times of darkness and weeping.  We suffer times of different kinds of darkness, sometimes we suffer worry over the future; we are not supposed too but we do become anxious.  We suffer anxiety over being able to just get by one more day, one more week.  Our lives are filled with these times.  In the twenty third Psalm we see our whole lives covered by our Shepherd.  Look at that passage and you will see encouragement not to give up on God because He will provide.  We see in that beautiful Psalm that there will be times that we need rest and refreshment.  It is so true!  It can be exhausting to just live in this world and get by.  We can literally become desperate for help at times, and we are almost always surprised by this it seems.  We ought not be confused when we suffer trials and times of darkness because Jesus said that trials would come.  He promised us that it would be this way.

We are aware that the Lord said that in the world we would have tribulations; He taught that the world would hate us, mock us, revile us, persecute us, even kill us.  And we have become so comfortable in this wicked place that dark times take us by surprise when they show up.  Dark times should be no surprise at all.

I promise you, you may have seen some dark times, but there are more to come.  There are likely more trials, more heartaches, more fears, more persecutions in our near future than we care to imagine.  But, it is not over yet.  And it won’t be getting any easier.  It won’t get easier because we are in this dark world and the light is growing dim.  The faith of God’s people has become so weak in our time that we are fighting a storm with a candle.  It is a miracle of God to see any success in seeking to see souls saved today.  We are literally serving in the night as the Lord said we would be.

“I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

So, we know, we are living in a dark world.  We are to be the light for the world.  This is forgotten, or fought against today.  We are to be the light to the world and He tells us how in Matthew 5:14-16.  The world doesn’t want this.  The world will not have this.  We have so much religious presence that is still walking in darkness that the world will not come to the light.  The world will not be told to bear the light because it requires something of us to do so, or so it seems: But only to those in darkness.  So much of what calls itself the church today is not.  So much of what the world about us see as “the church” is not truly our Lord’s church.  Yet these establishments are being filled to overflowing with the world because there is no requirement placed on them from the word of God to “identify” with Christ and His church.  The world  which has filled pews across our country will not hear preaching that strikes out at their sins.  They will not hear the preaching of maintaining a testimony or personal holiness; will not be told to abstain from sin or to withdraw from some things or people(not even by the word of God Himself); because of what they are, lost, still of the world and sitting in church. 

The light cannot hide in the darkness, only darkness can do that.  Yes, we are in a dark and dying world, but, heads up children, “joy cometh in the morning”.