93-59 Surprised by Suffering - Laughter, Although the Heart Aches

In this very personal series preached shortly after the death of his sixteen-year-old son, Mark, Dr. Betters invites the congregation into his family grief journey. Dr. Betters acknowledges the “hell on earth” experienced by his family as he recounts the days before their son’s accident where God seemed to be preparing them for unexpected suffering. He shares specific scriptures God was using to help them get through each day of sorrow, where God promises the “hell on earth” would not last forever but after suffering “a little while” the Lord “himself will restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast”, as recorded in 1 Peter 5:10, Psalm 27. He draws attention to the questions of the Psalmist in Psalm 44 and the promise of Romans 8 that all things will come together for good for those who love Jesus. This series is a precious gift of hope in the midst of wrestling to walk by faith when suffering suddenly shatters our hearts.

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Betters, produced by Mark Inc. Ministries. Each In His Grip message is designed to help you turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Betters as he preaches the series Surprised by Suffering, a series Dr. Betters preached shortly after the death of his 16-year-old son Mark.

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Please take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. I call this the Book of Redemption, written during the days immediately preceding the captivity of Israel. Israel was about to go into bondage, and the prophet Isaiah was raised up to issue forth not only warnings to the oppressors and judgments to the nations around Israel, but amidst all of that to give comfort to the people of God themselves. Warnings concerning the coming judgment, mingled with predictions of better days coming with the advent of Messiah. As you read the book of Isaiah, you will see some prophecies concerning the surrounding nations. You'll touch base on Assyria and Babylon and Moab, Egypt and Philistia, Syria and Edom and Tyre. And God has a message for all of those nations surrounding the people of Israel. You'll find in the book of Isaiah writings about the sins and the miseries of the people of God, coupled with the promises of salvation, a song of confidence in God's faithfulness and his care for his vineyard. There are some woes pronounced upon Ephraim and Jerusalem for establishing heathen alliances with the nations around them. There are promises concerning the coming of the righteous king, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the exaltation of the righteous, and the turning of the wilderness into the very garden of God. When you begin reading chapters 40 to the end of the book, you'll see that the prophecies begin to expand an era of post-captivity years, the years when Israel was removed from the captivity, and it reaches down even into the Christian era. You'll find in those later chapters, chapters 40 through the end of the book, reference after reference, in fact, it is replete with messianic promises and messianic references. The book is a mixture of sorrow and of hope. Laughter amidst intense aching. Let's take a look at Isaiah chapter 12. Isaiah chapter 12. The emphasis throughout the book on the word salvation and the promise of salvation and the hope of salvation, even amidst the pain and affliction of captivity. Isaiah 12, verse 3. In fact, by the way, as we go through Isaiah, you're going to recognize some of these passages. The reason you're going to recognize them is that many of them you have sung on Sunday mornings, as a part of our celebration and chorus songs and what have you. Isaiah 12, verse 3. With joy you will draw water from the what? Chapter 25 and verse 9. In that day they will say, Isaiah 25, verse 9, Surely this is our God. We trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted him. Let us rejoice and what? Be glad in his salvation. There's that word again. The next chapter, chapter 26, and look at verse 1. In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. God makes salvation, its walls and ramparts. Chapter 45 and verse 17. But Israel will be saved by the Lord with what? An everlasting salvation. You will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting. Chapter 49 and verse 8. This is what the Lord says. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who proclaim good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, your God reigns. Sounds like a hymn we sing, doesn't it? Same chapter, verse 10. The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will what? See the salvation of our God. Chapter 59 and verse 16. He saw that there was no one. He was appalled that there was no one to intervene. So what did he do? His own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. There's that word again. The next verse. He put on righteousness as his breastplate and the helmet of salvation. Sounds like Ephesians 6, doesn't it? On his head. He put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. Chapter 61 and verse 10. I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Chapter 62 and verse 1. For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent. For Jerusalem's sake, I will not remain quiet till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. And these are just some examples of how, in that particular context of despair and hopelessness and captivity, the prophet sings of what is eternal, what will never fail, what offers hope during one of Israel's darkest days in their history. The book speaks of what is eternal, what is everlasting. For example, in chapter 26 and verse 4, and you don't have to turn to it, he speaks of the strength of God as everlasting. In chapter 33, he talks about the judgments of God as everlasting. In chapter 35 and verse 10, he speaks of the joy of the Lord as everlasting. In chapter 45 and verse 17, the salvation of the Lord is everlasting. In chapter 54, verse 8, the kindness of the Lord is everlasting. In chapter 55 and verse 3, the covenant of the Lord is everlasting. In chapter 60, verse 19, he says, the sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. You see these themes: salvation, eternalness, reliability, faithfulness, hope, promise, joy, strength, kindness, and all of it is shrouded with the despair and the pain of the people of God sitting on the brink of captivity. Turn to Isaiah chapter 25. He speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. Chapter 25. Now you'll need to keep your finger in this chapter, and we're going to go back and forth to other passages, but we're going to use this kind of as a touchstone for what we're going to be doing this morning. Chapter 25 and verse 6. On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats, and the finest of wines. There's a couple of things I want you to note as you read that verse. The mountain he's referring to is Mount Zion. That's where the redemption of God's people centers and focuses. It is a symbolic way the prophet has of telling us that the redemption that God is going to provide for us will come on a mountain. Mount Zion will be the place where the feast will be celebrated by all of God's elect people. Please note, secondly, that it doesn't say all people, but it says all peoples. This is not some sort of generic reference to a universal salvation. He is not saying to us that all the people on the face of this earth will be saved, but all kinds of people. All races, all nations, both Jew and Gentile alike, all the peoples who constitute the elect of God will celebrate this supper. God is promising to lay before his elect a supper, a supper of redemption, a supper of promise. And there, right in the middle of this despairing nation, he lifts up this promise and says, This is what I am planning to give you. Even though you are now entering captivity, even though the nations around you are heathen nations, I am promising you hope amidst your despair. Hold that place and go to Matthew's gospel, chapter 22. You'll see what Jesus does with this same passage. Matthew 22, verse 2. The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fatted cattle have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guest, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. Friend, he asked, How did you get in here without wedding clothes? And the man was speechless. What a glorious picture of what Isaiah was talking about. The preparations have been made. The lamb has been sacrificed. The invitation has been sent out. The whole world is to hear the gospel message, the good news. You might be sitting here this morning or listening by radio, and the invitation is out to you. The lamb has been slain. The preparations have been made. The glory of God awaits. The salvation of the Lord is there. But what do the guests do? What do the invited guests do? They turn a deaf ear. They even persecute and martyr and maltreat the messengers who go out to proclaim the invitation. But the supper has been prepared. The king has sent his son. Well, Revelation chapter 19, last book of the Bible. You'll see this same Isaiah theme. Repeat it again, Revelation 19. Don't have to go too far to the end of your Bible. Just a couple of chapters more, and you've hit the end of the Bible. By the way, I always like to say, this is how it ends. We know the end from the beginning. This is how the story ends. Revelation 19, verse 7. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. Why? For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. Then the angel said to me, Write, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. These are the true words of God. You see, we do not know who the elect are. Amidst despair, amidst this hope, that God has prepared a supper, God has prepared a wedding feast, and has invited you to come, to sit down with him, to be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Amidst that he makes an intriguing promise. Verse 7. On this mountain, same mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. Now remember what he said in verse 6? On this mountain the Lord will prepare a feast of rich food. But then he says in verse 7, to those same people, to those elect people of God, he promises to take away the veil, to remove the shroud, to take away the sheet, to break down the wall. And what are these veils that God promises to destroy? Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. What is he talking about? What veil? What shroud? What is he going to remove? What does he promise the people of God that he is going to take away from them? 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 12, we have a further hint. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part. Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Now we know in part. Why? Because there's a veil there. There's a shroud there. There are unanswered questions there. There are doubts there. But then he says, What's he referring to? What's the now and the then referred to? Now, in this lifetime, there is a shroud. But then, when we stand before a holy God, the veil is removed. The shroud is taken down. And what is that shroud? Well, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and look with me at verse 8. Paul wrote very poignantly about his own struggles in times of distress, similar to what the people of God in Isaiah's time experienced. Faith and suffering. Faith and suffering. Second Corinthians 4, verse 8. We are hard pressed on every side. But not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Now, friends, listen to me. We all know of the pressures of life that are common to all of us. Your job, your finances. Some of you have health issues that you're facing, family conflicts. All of these pressures, day in and day out, continually attack the human spirit without discrimination. All of us face pressures that are common to the rest of us. Add to those common pressures the more intense forms of suffering, such as a prolonged illness or the sudden death of a loved one. And you begin to feel what Paul is talking about when he says we are hard pressed. But notice he sets the borders of suffering. He says, over here, hard pressed, but over here, what? Not crushed. Over here, perplexed, but over here, not in despair. Over here, persecuted, but over here, not abandoned. Over here, struck down, but over here, not destroyed. You see the bookends he puts up. The Christian is not a stoic. We do not face pain without tears. So many people have expressed to us their concern, especially toward me, that I express my pain during this time of grief in our family. Don't worry. Please don't worry. You may be talking to me in one minute, and I'll sit there and laugh and joke with you about something as I often do. And you may turn around five seconds later and see me crying like a baby. Why? Because we're not stoics. We're not stoics. We bleed red blood as Christians. We are people who hurt. We know how to experience pain. Nor are we living in some sort of fantasy world. Thank you, Jesus. I am so happy you took our son. Thank you, Lord. I am so happy that I have cancer. Thank you, Lord, I am so happy that I've lost my job. Or whatever you fill the blank in with. That's fantasy land, friends, and Christians ought not to live there either. We're neither Stoics nor living in some sort of dream world. Paul freely admitted the struggles and the pressures that he was facing. In fact, when you read carefully the Old Testament, you will see that some of the greatest men of God in the Old Testament lamented the very day they were born. For example, Moses in Numbers chapter 11, he says to God, God, if this is how you are going to treat me, kill me right now. If I found favor in your eyes, do not let my face my own ruin. Or in Job chapter 3, we read in verses 11 through 13, Job comes to the point in his life and he says, Why did I not perish at birth? And die as I came from the womb. Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed? For now I would be lying down in peace. I would be asleep and at rest if I had never been born. Or the weeping prophet, as we call him, Jeremiah. In fact, the whole book is named Lamentations, simply because he wrote it with his tears. Cursed be the day I was born. May the day my mother bore me not be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, A child is born to you, a son. May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon? Jeremiah is mad at the guy who announced to his father that he had been born. For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? Great men of God. Yet it is to those and other troubled and hard-pressed souls that we read an interesting statement that Jesus made in Matthew 11. Listen to it, you don't have to turn to it. You ever wonder about this statement? Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Now listen, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Now listen, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I read this verse this past week, and do you know what I immediately said? I said, Lord, you lied to me. You told me that your yoke is easy. You told me that your burden is light. You took our son. I don't see anything easy. And I don't see anything light about what you've done. You say, Did you really say that to God? Yeah, I really did. Haven't you ever said that to God? Haven't you ever said something similar to God where you say, Lord, this much and no more? Lord, give me this much, but no more. Remember what Paul said? Well, he did not say we're easy pressed on every side, but he said we are what? Hard pressed on every side. Is Jesus leading us under some false pretenses here? How can the hard-pressing issues be considered easy? His yoke is easy and his burden is light. How can this be? Well, you see, friends, you have to study it from the perspective of the relativity of the words. For example, both words are relative. Easy as compared to what? Hard. Light as compared to what? Heavy. And all of a sudden it started to make sense. All of a sudden the verse started to click. And God says to me, This, Chuck, listen. Even amidst the pain you are experiencing, please listen. What is difficult to bear without Christ is made far more bearable with Christ. What is heavy to bear apart from Christ is made lighter with Christ. To suffer without Christ is to risk being totally and completely crushed. There's an element of surprise in all suffering. None of us are fully ready to suffer. There's a continuous element of surprise. I remember when Dan was a little boy and he had to have his tonsils out. And you've done this with your kids too. Today I know what parents do when their kids have their tonsils out, they get the little hospital book. No, the little hospital book has all these lovely pictures, and maybe even give you some crayons to color in the pictures, and you get your kid ready to go to the hospital to get his tonsils out. You get to the hospital pediatric ward, all the balloons are up, and the colors, and the nurses, and everybody is decorated out, and they make the child feel welcome. He meets his little roommate, they play with toys that have been provided for them, coloring in their little coloring book, getting ready for the big event. And guess what? You're even going to get your favorite ice cream after the surgery. I'll never, ever, ever forget his face when we brought him down from surgery. I'll never forget the noise he was making. In fact, he made so much noise in the recovery room, they said, get him back to his room. Little blood around his mouth. I remember him looking at us, and I know all of you have gone through this. It was like he said, How could you have possibly betrayed me this way? This wasn't fun. This hurt. And there's a surprise, if you will, at suffering. We've gone through that and are going through that. Lord, how could you allow us such intense grief? Yet He drives us back to the Scriptures. Go over to 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. He drives us back to the Word. And He says, How many times have you read this? 1 Peter 4 12. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. That sounds like what Paul told the Colossian Christians in chapter 1, verse 24. You don't have to turn to it. He speaks of suffering that some people experience for the purpose of filling up the cup of sorrow. But now wait a minute, I asked. Lord? Unsaved people lose their children too. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. How can I sit here and legitimately claim that in the loss of our son we are suffering for Christ's sake? Non-Christian people get cancer just like Christian people get cancer. How can we legitimately say we are suffering for Christ's sake? Do not unsaved parents face what we're now facing? Of course they do. So what's the difference? Look at verse 15 of 1 Peter 4. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or a thief or any other kind of criminal or even a meddler. In other words, if you suffer, it ought not to be because you deserve to suffer for stupidity or sin in your own life. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. Well, how is it that we suffer as a Christian when pain common to all men strikes us? Look at verse 19. So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. Now we're beginning to strike a key. There is a key involved here, and that's the expression according to God's will. That is working through the perplexing questions from a different perspective. And what is that perspective? 1 Peter chapter 1. Look at verse 6. Here is the perspective that cuts to the chase, that delineates for us the difference between suffering for Christ and suffering simply because we're part of a fallen world. 1 Peter 1, 6. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, that you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. Now here's the perspective. These have come so that your, what's that word? Faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine, and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the what? The goal of your what? Faith. And what is that? The salvation of your souls. Now it may take you a little longer to get to the truth of this because I've had a whole week to meditate on it. But I want to plant this idea in your mind. Here is the difference. Christians are able to be perplexed, but not in despair, although they may find themselves sitting at the very rim of despair while they're in the middle of the crucible of affliction. Our suffering, the Christian says, has a purpose. It has a goal. And that goal is the refining of my faith that ultimately leads to the redemption of my spirit. It's like a woman in labor. She's able to bear the pain. Why? Because she has a purpose, she sees a goal. The pain is worth it as she gives birth to the child. And the pain of suffering can drive us to despair unless we see it through the eyes of faith and the perspective of God's promises from his word. Then and only then, as we lay the faith on the line and couple it with suffering, can we legitimately say that even though we are experiencing things that are common to all men, we are suffering for Christ. You with me? He says, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. I never fully appreciated that until we buried Mark. I understood it to a degree, but until we laid his body in the grave, then and only then could I identify with that word groaning. A groaning in the spirit with the catalyst of faith that says, Lord, hasten that day when this grave will not hold that body. Hasten the day when my groaning and sighing and sorrow will dissipate and faith will be no more, because then face to face we will realize the redemption of the body. In other words, our suffering has a goal, it has a purpose, it has an objective. Paul said to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 1, you don't have to turn to it, verse 8. He says, We don't want you to be informed, brothers, about the hardships we're suffering. We are under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. Man, do we know that. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us. He's done it in the past, he's doing it now, and our hope is that he will do it in the future. What is Paul saying? I'm on the rim of despair. I've even gotten to the point where it would be a pleasure for me to die. But Lord, I'm counting on you. I'm counting on you to deliver us from that peril. Well, what's that veil Isaiah's talking about? Still have your finger there in Isaiah? Go back to verse 8. Let's see what the veil is. We've taken a little detour now to come back to Isaiah 25, verse 8. But now he talks about what the veil is. What veil is he going to lift? He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of his people from the earth. You know there's a disgrace in death. There's an absolute disgrace in death. I felt it. You know what that disgrace is? We're absolutely powerless to stop it. He says, I'm gonna take that away. Verse 9 in that day they will say, Surely this is our God. We trusted in him and he saved us. This is the Lord. We trusted in him. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. What is the veil he's going to remove? It's the veil of death. It's the veil of suffering. Paul says, persecuted, but not abandoned. Hard-pressed. Cast down, but not destroyed. And then he singles out Moab, typical of the enemies of the people of God. Moab was the cruelest of the enemies. The cruelest enemy you and I will ever face, friends, is the enemy of death. It's not the enemy of any social sin that we see in our culture today. Sometimes we tend to look at the people who are involved in different sins and we think they're the enemy. They're not the enemy. The enemy that we face, the enemy of man, that vengeful enemy that knows no age limit, knows no sex barrier, knows no wealth barrier, that enemy of man that from the very beginning God warned us ultimately would be destroyed, but during this lifetime we will have to contend with. The enemy of man is death. And he says, the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, but Moab, and I think you can substitute death. Death will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure. Get this picture. Big pile of manure. And the enemies of the people of God, they'll spread out their hands in it as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. Don't ever say the Bible isn't picturesque. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands. He will bring down their high, fortified walls and lay them low. He will bring them down to the ground to the very dust. Persecution for our faith comes in many shapes and sizes. There are some Christians who experience overt physical torture. Christians die every year physically for their faith. They're martyred. We don't understand that in America. But Christians all over the world, every year, thousands and thousands and thousands of them die simply because they're Christians. Others experience political oppression. I think the true Church of Jesus Christ in the years ahead is going to have to experience that. Political persecution. It's not going to be popular to be a Bible-believing Christian. It's not popular now. We are called the religious right, the radical extremists, the fundamentalists, and any other label that can be placed on us in order to put us over into this politically incorrect category where we are intolerable to those for whom and in front of whom we are a conscience. And it's going to get worse and worse and worse. And once more, I'm going to tell you something else. This is an aside. When the heat gets turned up, many of you are going to leave the true fold. It's going to be politically incorrect, socially incorrect, and morally incorrect for you to believe that this book is the inerrant, inspired, infallible word of God, and you're going to leave churches like this one, and you're going to go down the block to the liberal churches where you can be moralized and feel good about yourself. That's another sermon. But I want to tell you, even with overt physical torture, political oppression, I believe there is a form of persecution that far exceeds any of those. And that persecution is spiritual darkness. This is the most difficult form to endure because it's so hard to read it. The writer of Proverbs says, even in laughter, the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief. A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. There is no pain greater than heartache. Physical, mental, vocational, conflictual, even vicarious pain for others, but Christ alone can take away that kind of darkness. There is a pain the enemy uses to destroy our essential union with Christ. And that's the pain of a broken heart. Wounds that only heaven can heal. This kind of pain crushes the spirit. It wounds the soul as none other can. A pain that makes all other forms take on a new perspective. They're not as important as they used to be. We've had physical pain. I've had surgery in which I was in intense physical pain. We faced vocational pain. All of us have borne to one degree or another financial pain. Pain of conflict. Vicarious pain where we suffer while others are suffering and experience their pain with them. But I would trade all of it in a second. In a second, so that we would not have to face the pain of a crushed spirit. But what does Paul say? We're persecuted, but not destroyed. Struck down, but not destroyed. Dealt a blow that apart from faith would otherwise destroy all that we believe. We've had to remind ourselves, as we've received countless letters and phone calls, and encouraging verses from people. And by the way, it's all been greatly appreciated. But again and again and again, a word is thrown at us. You know what that word is? Grace. Grace. But you know what we've discovered? God's grace is not an anesthetic. It's not an anesthetic. God never promised in his grace to take away the trial. But what he did promise is to surround us so much in his love as to walk us through that trial. The ultimate crisis of faith will be faced by all of you someday. What will you do when you die? What will you do when your loved one dies? And what if it, like the betters family, is sudden and without warning? What is the faith of Christ worth? You young people, you listen to me. You don't have the guarantee of tomorrow. You parents, listen to me. You don't have the guarantee that tomorrow you can share your faith with your children. I can't imagine, I can't even imagine what we would be going through right now if we knew that Mark died an unbeliever. You don't have the guarantee of tomorrow. Doesn't the scripture tell us that? Life is like grass here today, burned up tomorrow. Why is it, the scripture says, you make your plans. I will go this place and do this thing today and tomorrow. Shouldn't you say, if the Lord wills, I'll do this, or if the Lord wills, I'll do that? And what if the Lord wills that you die and face him tomorrow? What's your faith worth? One more verse as I close, Isaiah chapter 35. And we'll close, I promise, with this. Isaiah chapter 35. Again, amidst this despair, there is a promise. And here it is. Verse 8. As he references this redemption, this marriage supper, this hope, he says, and a highway will be there. It will be called the way of holiness. See, when you go to the New Testament, that's what the Christian faith was called. They were called the way. This is referencing our faith. This is the way. The unclean will not journey on it. It will be for those who walk in that way. Wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it. They will not be found there, and I have this underlined, but only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing. Everlasting joy will crown their heads, gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Well, I uh I've got to tell you something honestly. I did not prepare this message because I wanted to. I'm going to confess to you, my wife asked me a question this past week. She said, Are you being driven to the scriptures? Because you want to? I mean, is the Lord driving you to the word? I'm going to tell you honestly, the answer is no. You say, why? Because I honestly confess there's a part of me that's angry with God. So shoot me. But then turn the gun on yourself and shoot yourself because you felt the same way, haven't you? But one thing I have learned in my years of ministry and years of being a Christian, that when you feel that way, there's only one place you're going to get any answers. And whether you feel like it or not, this is where you have to go. And it's amazing to me. I haven't even covered in this message half of the scriptures that the Lord gave me this past week. Not even half of them. And every one of them are replete with hope. And there isn't one of them I felt like reading. But that's the beauty of our God. That's the beauty of our faith. I am not carrying him. He is carrying us. Because there's no strength in the legs. The sorrow and the sighing is too heavy. And we're banking on the promises of God. Faith and suffering from the perspective of eternity. Now you can fill in the blanks in your own life, but the key question is whether or not you're ready to die. Would you bow with me in prayer at this moment, please? And so I want to bring home that message as loud and as clear as I can. Are you ready to die? You young people. And the last thing on his mind the night he was killed was standing before God and meeting his Creator. And yet he was ready. Are you ready? Are you ready to give your life to Jesus Christ? And that means you must turn from your sins. Quit negotiating the Bible. The Bible is the word of God. It is final. You can't change it to suit your own pleasures. Do you know the Lord? Are you ready to meet him? Father, I pray that right now you would descend on this place. And that you would take every man, every woman, and every young person who has never come to understand the hope that is in Jesus Christ and fill them as you did the people of God through the prophet Isaiah with hope. Not a false hope, but a godly hope that is based on them receiving the provision you have made for the sins of men. If there's one here today who has never trusted Christ, right now, Lord, speak to that heart. Challenge them to give their lives completely to you right now, right at this very second. And hear their prayers. May the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now, until Christ comes again and forevermore. Amen.

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You have been listening to In His Grip, featuring the preaching and teaching ministry of Dr. Chuck F. Betters and produced by Mark Inc. Ministries. Mark Inc. Ministries exist to offer help and hope to hurting people by pointing them to the promises of God and the comfort of his word. Through In His Grip, Ask Dr. Betters, Daily Treasure, and Help and Hope, we provide free, faith-based resources for those walking through suffering, grief, confusion, and seasons of deep need. To learn more about Dr. Betters, explore our resources, or contact us, visit M-A-R-K I N C dot org. May you rest today in the assurance that God can be trusted even when we do not understand his plans.