Elder Mike Moseley & Elder Tom Griffin | 2026 Camp Meeting | Saturday AM | 7.18.26

Elder Mike Moseley, Grace PBC, Houston, TX

Elder Tom Griffin, Little Flock PBC, Rogers, AR

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I don't I hope you all could feel the beauty that I could see. To look at the saints of God's faces. Like this is the best place in the house. Just I don't really want to be here here, but oh my goodness, to look upon you is such a joy. I um ask that you continue to pray. I need your prayers. Um you need your prayers. I'm praying for you. Um what we have before us at this moment is a great need. Um it's one that I am painfully aware of at times, more so than at sometimes in others, because I know how much I need the Lord. We sang songs this morning that preach to me. And that's what the song service is supposed to do. Um teaching and admonishing one another in songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, and you have taught me, you have preached to me in the song selections, in the spirit in which you've sang. And I'll tell you, the Lord spoke to me. I I fully believe this morning. I I don't know if it's not just me. I hope it's not just me, but any of you ever go to bed with one thought and wake up with something completely different? And then you start to wrestle with it. Is it of the Lord? Is it of me? Is is the new one of the Lord and the old one of me, and vice versa? I don't know. And then you come to the house of God and feedback, and people start singing songs, and it's like if you're listening, the Lord is saying, here it is. And I'm praying that that's the case. And I would like to turn with you, if you would. That's going on. Um, to the second Corinthian letter. And verse 17. Second Corinthians, oh, chapter 4. There's a lot of verse 17, is mine. Chapter 4, verse 17. Because I woke up this morning before the alarm clock went off. And I don't like doing that. I really prefer to get to the full sleep, but I didn't. I woke up this morning and said, 2 Corinthians 4, 17. It says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Paul, as he's writing this letter, uses like the understatement of history here. Our light affliction. I know that my afflictions in my life are light. Comparatively speaking. I am so blessed in so many ways that any troubles that plague me, I know, just don't compare. I can't bring them up to many of you in this room, much less bring them up and compare them side by side with the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul here says, he doesn't, oh well, before I say this, I want to point out that I don't try to compare them. I I think I I figured out a long time ago when um I probably flubbed it up pretty bad, trying to um comfort somebody going through something. And I tried to, well, look on the bright side. I mean, I'm I'm a I'm a look on the bright side kind of guy. I look at the silver linings, look for the the bright side of things, and at least it's not this. That didn't help. And it turns out that like almost never helps. Comparing your trouble or someone's troubles, for me to compare your troubles to someone else's and say, at least it's not worse, does not help. And then when Paul was writing this letter to the Corinthians, he starts it off with his normal salutation, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, under the church of God, which is at Corinth. Um verse 3, he says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. He said, Paul was saying, I have been comforted in my tribulations, in all of my tribulations, and it was for a purpose. It wasn't only for Hippolyse. Paul was benefited by that comfort. No doubt about it. The comfort first and foremost that God gave Paul in all his tribulations benefited Paul. But it wasn't only for that. He says it's so that he and the other apostles, when he says are and we, he says, so that we can comfort other people in any trouble. Notice the difference. Paul says, I was comforted in all of my tribulations, so that I can comfort someone in any trouble. And again, say, but I haven't been through all the same troubles as some others. And Paul said, that's not what matters. See, because he's not going to comfort you with the comfort that he came up with on his own in his tribulation. He says, by, he's going to comfort those in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. So in other words, he's not saying, I tell you what, I've got the I've got the fix for you. I've been where you are. Paul doesn't say that. He said, I've been where you are, or worse, I've been in worse places than you are. Paul's not trying to hold up his tribulation so you will know the steps to take in your tribulation because they're the same. What he's saying is the help, the one that he that comforted him, that's the one that he's pointing you to. That's where all the comfort, the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulations, so that we can comfort those in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. So when Paul is talking about the comfort that he received, he's saying, I am pointing you to the one who can and does help in any trouble, any, and it's not that I've been there so I can tell you what to do. It's I have been delivered and I can point you to the deliverer, the one. So when we get to Paul's, our text that I woke up this morning thinking of, when Paul says for our light affliction, there's one thing I want to point out. He's not saying for your light affliction. He's not. He is owning this. So when he is saying it's light, he is not trying to belittle your trouble. He's saying, my trouble, I have reckoned something. We heard this last night, but it's going to get repeated today. I have reckoned something. Paul writes that in the eighth chapter of Romans. I've thought about it. I have considered my afflictions, Paul says. And when I really measure them up, not against other peoples, but against the Lord my Savior. When I take my afflictions and I measure them up with the one who suffered, bled, and died for me, they're just light afflictions. They are just momentary. They are temporary. They are not going to last forever. And Paul is looking at his troubles that way. Now he is recommending that you put your eyes the same place he's putting his eyes, but he's not telling you. He's not saying, for your light affliction, for your light affliction, which is just a moment. I've messed that up before. I have told someone, you know, I know you're going through troubles, but it's not that bad. That is not Paul's message, but his message is my troubles. When I think of what the Lord has done for me, then it melts away. It just melts away. But something gets replaced in its place. And so when he says, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us, I want to point out he is not saying that God is bringing these afflictions on you to bring about some other good. He is not. Yes, I've felt it. I have felt the terror of the Lord. And in the next chapter, Paul will say such as well, knowing, therefore, brethren, the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. We heard last night about this. Yes, the Lord can afflict me, but for chastisement's sake, not for my destruction. But this is not what Paul's talking about. He's not talking about God's bringing afflictions on him. He's talking about the afflictions he has borne in his ministry for the sake of the gospel and the sake of God's people. If you go above where he's writing this verse, he talks about that. He talks about how God had given him this ministry, how he faints not in it, and that he preaches it, commending himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And then he talks about God shining the light of Christ in their hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have, this is verse 7, but we have this treasure, this ministry, this gospel, this service to God in earthen vessels. We have this beautiful treasure in these flawed earthen vessels. He says that the power. I've lost it and I can't read anymore. That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. And then he says, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed. I've been perplexed at times. I've been troubled at times. Recently at times. And when I look at the trouble, or I think on the perplexing nature of life and what exactly I'm gonna do next. Paul says, I'm not distressed by this trouble. I'm not in despair by the perplexities of life. He goes, Persecuted? I've not been persecuted. I won't even pretend that I've been persecuted. I won't make an analogy, like, you know, I had a little persecution. Someone kind of made fun of me about what we believe or something. That's not even close to what Paul's talking about or what he's gone through. But Paul says, my persecutions, he says, but I haven't been forsaken. But not forsaken. Cast down. Have you ever been cast down? I've been cast down. I just don't know if I can go another step at times. Paul says, but not destroyed. And then he says, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. He says, I consider the death of my Lord for me. I bear that about. I walk about as one who has been made alive by the one who died for me. In the fifth chapter, he'll say this. He'll say, For the love of God constraineth us. For we have thus judged. If one died for all, then all were dead. Jesus died for those that were dead in sins because it required a death. And he goes, and that he died, that they that live would not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again. Paul says, I'm bearing about the dying of the Lord in my body. I'm walking about as one who has been saved by the death of my Lord Jesus Christ, but also has been helped daily by the living Savior Jesus Christ, the one that makes intercession for me. He says that the, because he says that we're bearing about the in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. We are living children of God. We're made spiritually alive. We are to walk unto him that is, that did die and rose again for us. And then he says, um, well, he says, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Now, he was talking about his apostleship and his sufferings and that he's gone through. And later in this letter in the 11th chapter, Paul would say a little list of some of these so-called light afflictions. And they don't sound very light to me, to be honest. And Paul's saying this, he says in parentheses, I speak as a fool. So he's not bragging, but he's kind of bragging. I mean, he's bragging in a way to show people how foolish it is to brag. He's like, if I want to, if you want to brag about something, I'll brag about. But I'm a fool. He's like, I'm speaking foolishly here. He's like, I don't recommend you use this type of message. Paul can do this because the Holy Ghost inspired the words of God. I am not going to pull upon a Paul and say, I'm going to start talking about my afflictions. That's not for it's not going to help. But I can go to Paul, though, and I can say, here's one I can tell you about his light afflictions. His light afflictions. Yeah. So he says, in verse 30 or 23 of chapter 11, in labors more abundant in stripes above measure. Those are not like commendation stripes. Those are stripes laid on his back in punishment by people who are brutal, brutal men. In stripes above measure. In prisons, more frequent in deaths oft. Yeah. He says, of the Jews, five times received out forty stripes, save one. That's 39 stripes. You know why? Because it was like, that's the limit. There would have been more, but the law said they couldn't do it. So they had to stop. Five times. That's a lot of stripes. I'm not going to do the math. Thank you, Brother Philip. That's a lot of stripes. Thrice. Three times I was beaten with rods. Again, this is Apostle Paul. Once I was stoned. And by the way, when he was stoned, he was left for dead. They thought they killed him or they would have kept throwing stones. And you know what he did? He got up and he went right back into the city he had just been taken out of and preached Jesus Christ again. He says, Once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day have I been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, and perils of robbers, and perils of mine own countrymen, and perils by the heathen, and perils in the city, and perils in the sea, and perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things which are without the outside problems, he goes that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Pray for your ministers and pray for your pastors. There's a loving burden that is upon you all by these people, men that want to preach the gospel to you. They think about you. Lying awake at night praying for you. Sometimes in ways you don't even know. It's a burden. But oh, it's a joy, but it's a burden. He labels that along with his afflictions. He's not saying he wishes he didn't have it, but he is saying that it's something that comes on him daily. Daily, the care of the churches. He says, Who is weak, but I and I'm not weak? Who is offended and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory in the things which concern my infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie not. And he goes on, I'm not gonna um well no, I'll just keep reading. Because it's only three more verses, but in Damascus, the governor under Aretus, king, kept the city of Damasc of Damassians with the garrison, desirous to apprehend me, and through a window in a basket I was let down by a wall and escaped his hands. He goes, and he goes, It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. It's like he's like, This I've gone too far with all of this foolish boasting I've done. I'm trying to make a point. Um he goes, I'm gonna move on. He goes, I'll come to visions and revelations of the Lord. He goes, I'll tell you what he's saying here. There were people that were boasting to the Corinthian church about their visions and their revelations. He goes, you want to talk about that? I'll talk about that. But here he's it's a step too far. He cannot do it in the first person. He goes, this one, he goes, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago. Whether in the body or not in the body, or I cannot tell. Or whether out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth. He goes, how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one will I glory, yet of myself will I not glory, but my in mine infirmity. So what he's he goes, you want to talk, you got people who are boasting in their visions. I'll I'll I'll tell you about a vision. I knew a man once, guys, it was Paul. He just couldn't, he could not boast that far. He couldn't say, I had these visions. He goes, I knew a man, and this is what happened. This was no, he goes, I don't know if it was in the body or out of the body. God knows. He goes, but this I do know. He's like, this man, me, Paul, he goes, I heard things in paradise, in heaven itself. He goes, I Can't tell you. It's unlawful for man to utter. Like I heard things. I don't even, I mean, I'm amazed at the the concept of that because I'll tell you, I have heard things today in the singing of these hymns that I can't, I don't have the words to tell you. But I'll tell you what it did do for me, and I think this did for Paul. It worked in him. A weight of glory. Remember what he said. He goes, This light affliction, which is but for a moment, it worked something in you. It's not God using it to work something in you, but Paul's letting them work something in him. And you know how he's doing that? Because he's putting his eyes upward. He's looking onto the hills from whence his help comes. He's looking to the one who died for him and rose again and is seated in heaven itself. He's looking to glory. He's looking to paradise. He's got his eyes on where the Lord is. And that is how these afflictions work in him. This weight of glory. The weight of glory. The word weight there is like a burden. And the afflictions are like a burden. But Paul is saying, what I'm doing is instead of bearing this burden, I'm letting that go and I'm taking on this burden, this burden and longing for paradise, for glory, for heaven. He's doing this by a reckoning, by a consideration of the two things. He's doing it by, as we heard yesterday, a comparison, as it were. But then he's saying, it's not worthy to be compared. Paul says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. This glory that he had a vision of, this glory that he heard things that he couldn't even tell you about, but he sure reckoned on it. He sure thought about it. And he said, that makes all these afflictions light. Because this other weight is so heavy. And notice that it works in him not just a weight of glory, not just a burden of glory that is removing the other one, but he says that it is an exceeding weight of glory. He said that I gotta get back to it so I can find it. That an exceeding weight of glory. So what's it exceeding? I think it's exceeding the light afflictions that he's allowing to be cast off while he casts his eyes on the Lord. It's exceeding it. But he says it's not just exceeding it. He goes, and when it's working, when he's looking, he goes, it's a far exceeding. It's far exceeding. It reminds me of that where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. When we think about what the Lord did for us and where we're going. When we take the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and like the song said this morning, when we think about that day that's coming, it can remove, for just maybe a little while, it can remove the burdens of these afflictions, and instead it gives us something that far exceeds it. A weight, a burden, a longing for glory, a desire to go and to be where he is, and a knowledge and a hope that we will be there. Gives us something that far exceeds these afflictions. But he's it's not just that, not just exceeding, not just a far exceeding weight of glory. He goes, it is a far exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Because you know what? Whether you feel it or not, that glory is eternal and it is yours. There's something to be said, and there's something that to benefit from actually laying hold on eternal life. But whether you lay hold on it in this life or not, it is bought, paid for, and preserved in the work, the person of Jesus Christ. He will bring you home to heaven. But my friends, lay hold on it now. Lay hold on it now. He says, um, while we look at the things which are, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. There's the key. There's my, if you'll allow, that's Paul's. Let me say it this way. That's Paul's advice for you in your tribulations, whatever they are. Those things are seen. Those things are what we're dealing with. They're real and they're a burden, but look to the things that are not seen. Look to the things that are eternal. Look to the home where God has is going to bring you someday. And then for a little, let that unburden you just for a little while. Because he does say it's but a moment. Our light afflictions, which are but a moment. Sometimes that moment seems so long. Sometimes that moment is long in our experience of life. But when we look at it in the sense of the eternal, everlasting, never world without end, heaven that is going to be our home, then it is but a moment. It is but a moment. Again, the truth, the answer to comfort you with in your tribulations is certainly not me saying, I've been there before, but I'll tell you what, there is one who's been there before. Your Lord, your Savior, Jesus Christ, He has been where you are. And not only has He been through all these troubles, and has been tempted as it were, like as every man yet without sin, no sin. But the Lord is hungered. The Lord has uh been forsaken. The Lord has gone through everything that you can imagine and so far above that, but he's also going through it with you right now. The Lord is with you in your troubles. He says, Well in Isaiah, he says, uh I don't want to turn to it, I want to close. But he says, when you pass through the fires, I'll be with you. When when the waters come, I will not overflow you. Because I'm with you. He's with you in every trouble you're going through. And he's saying, I'm gonna take you home. Yet a little while. I love this verse in Hebrews. It's quoting from Abak, yet a little while. And he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Until then, until he takes us to that paradise, let that weight of glory remove for a little while the troubles of this life. Keep your eyes on the hills from whence your help cometh. I pray that the Lord was in the matter, and Brother Tom come and preach for us.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

What wonderful exhortation Brother Mike has brought to our minds because I heard a sermon a few years ago, a sermon about the rainbow. And part of the point that was made about the rainbow and its its connection with the storm is that everybody in this room, everybody in the sound of my voice, is either about to go through a storm, in the middle of a storm, or on the other side of a storm. And that rainbow, every every no matter which condition you're in, it'll point you back to the source of strength to get through the storm, no matter what. Um that word while there, Brother Mike, I agree with you. That word while there is critical. Because it only works for you that way while you're looking in the right place. Uh very much, I very much enjoyed this preaching this morning. Appreciate your hospitality and the opportunity to preach for you here uh once again. I'd like to draw your attention first for beginning place this morning to Psalm 44. And I wanna, I'm just gonna open with uh verse 22. It'll be very familiar to you. You heard it read yesterday. Um but I'd like to consider it. It it of all of the glorious texts and and uh ideas that are presented in Romans chapter 8, this is the most mysterious to me. Um in Psalm 44 and verse 22, he says, Yea, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Now, the first time that I read that, and for a long time in reading that, that, and still when I read it and I don't, if I just give it a cursory reading, that sounds to me like this. It sounds like what the psalmist is saying is there we got plenty of sheep. It doesn't matter if we lose one, it's not a big deal. We got plenty, we're counted, which is just like sheep for the slaughter, it's not a big deal. That is absolutely not what it's saying. It's in fact saying exactly the opposite of that. But I when I go when I go to Romans 8, he says, as it's written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. It seems to stick out, it seems it's it seems to be out of place. But if you read the rest of the 44 psalm, you'll find out that the circumstance is the exact same that he is presenting in Romans 8. And it is, of course, it is perfectly placed. Perfectly placed. So I'd like to look at some of the rest of the 44 psalm. I don't want to read the first eight verses. The first eight verses of this psalm are glorious. The psalmist writes, We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hands and plantest them, how thou didst afflict the people and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance, because thou hast hadst a favor unto them. Thou art my king, O God, command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee we will push down our enemies, through thy name we will tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me, but thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long and praise thy name forever Silla. Now isn't that glorious? Isn't that glorious? They they the psalmist here is digging back to a to all of the times when the Lord had by a mighty hand and a miraculous arm saved Israel, dragged, uh taken them out of the iron furnace that was Egypt, um, delivered them time and time and time again. You remember when they crossed over the river Jordan, you remember what they were supposed to do? They were to take these stones, they were to set them up on the riverbank. And the purpose of that, the purpose of setting those stones up on the riverbank was so that whenever in future generations, generations that may not have been in the immediate proximity in time to the crossing of the River Jordan or to the crossing of the Red Sea, that when they brought them by those children, they'd look at that and they'd say, that's an odd configuration of stones. That's not natural, that didn't just happen. What do these stones mean? And they they the that would prompt mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and great-grandma and great-grandpa to tell them the stories. To tell them the stories of how God by mighty arm had delivered them and done all these wonderful things in Israel. And they said, let us boast. In the Lord, you know, the Bible doesn't have a whole lot of good to say about boasting. Um Brother Mike brought to us, you know, I agree with you. I think Brother Paul there is saying, said, Look, I hate to do this, but I'm gonna have to tell you all about this, and you're just gonna have to bear with me in my folly. He's like, Don't you do this, you know, don't try this at home, but but I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you about what I what's happened to me for a frame of reference, so you'll know I'm not, I'm not, I know whereof I speak, in other words. Sorry about that. Um the one of the very one of the very tests that we apply to our doctrine is whether it allows boasting. We don't we we don't have anything in ourselves to boast of. In Ephesians chapter 2, it's not of works, lest any man should boast. Because we don't have any works to boast of. But all when we get together and boast of the Lord. You know, you get together, we get if we were to get together and talk about all the things that we've done in service to the Lord, it wouldn't take all that long. But when we get together like this, and you know, we had to, we couldn't meet Thursday night. I don't guess y'all met Thursday night, did you? Uh we couldn't meet Thursday night, and you know, we're gonna have to go home after this service, but we'll not exhaust. We'll not come close to exhausting the goodness that the Lord has shown to us. Even in an individual basis. If we were to, if we were to just sit down, two of us and have a conversation, we would not be able to exhaust, we'd not be able to cover fully the ways that the Lord has blessed us. So that's what the psalmist is saying. He's saying, he's saying, I when I go back and I remember all of the things that that the Lord has done for our people, I can boast in him. That's great. That's great. But there seems to be a very dramatic turn between verse 8 and verse 9. Look at verse 9. But thou hast cast off and put us to shame and goest not forth with our army. It would be our first thought right there, my first thought right there, is that probably he's done this because they are disobedient. And that would that would be logical. The Lord has told them, if ye are willing and obedient, ye shall eat of the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured with the sword. But that's really not the circumstance that the psalmist is in right here. This is really not him saying we've been disobedient and are under chastisement. Okay. Every negative thing that happens to a child of God is not chastisement. Um bad things happen. We live in a sin-cursed world. We're sinners ourselves, sometimes bad things just happen. You know, you have the scoffers will come along and they will say, if if God, if there really is a God, and He's a good God, why is it that bad things happen to good people? And that really, there's a faulty premise in that. In that that assumes there are good people. And we know that there's none good, unless you try to shoehorn one in there and say, well, Paul's just being general. He goes a little further as in his quote there to say, no, not one. So you're not shoehorning any in there. Um the better question would be why do good things happen to bad people? You know. But that's, you know, that's to be expected. That's to be expected to ask that question. It's also that's that's not what's under consideration here. Now, what's what's also not under consideration here is the child of God who is just woe is me, um I'm in a I'm in a I'm in a bad way, and I'm just, you know, uh, why why is the Lord doing this to me? Why is why is this happening to me? I've you know, that's not, you know. I'll tell you what I what I understand the psalmist to be saying here is the psalmist here, and you you can read the rest of Psalm 44. I want to go over the 77th Psalm for just a minute, but you can read on down to 22 for yourself and see if I'm I'm right about this. But what I think he's saying here is but we're doing it right. We're we we're obeying at this at this juncture. Now they didn't always. I understand that. Many, or there's much instruction that they got and that we need for when we don't get it right. But sometimes we do get it right. I'm afraid sometimes in preaching depravity and making sure that people understand how depraved we are, I've left them with the impression that they can't do any good. You know, that there in Romans chapter 7, where the apostle Paul writes that, that, you know, the good that I would, that do I not. He's not saying there that it's not possible for him to do any good. He's saying that in general, if I'm doing good, it's because I overcame the flesh. In that particular instance. And right here, Israel, this is not a backsliding moment for Israel. This is a this is a time when they're they're in obedience, but there's still bad things happening. And that's our experience, isn't it? That's our experience. If we can do and meet together like this and have the, I agree with Brother Luke, that was the best song service till this morning. You know, it just get carried away and singing, and our our minds are focused, our voices are focused, and the Lord shows up and sings with us, and we're doing it right. We're doing the things that I believe are pleasing to God. You know, I I I I trust we all feel this way. Don't you want to get that that smile from God? Don't you want to hear him in your heart say, well done, have a good and faithful servant? Well, you can do that. It's not impossible. Without faith, it's impossible. But having faith, being born-again children of God, it is possible to please him. And when we come together and we forget the things of the world and we lay our sins aside and our burdens aside, and we come in here and we say, you know what, I don't feel good today, and I got all these problems at work, and I got all these problems at home, and my kids are doing this, and uh, you know, the nation is doing this, and all that, and we say, you know what, forget that. Forget it. It'll still be there Monday. You'll have time to think about it on Monday, I promise. I don't encourage you to, but you'll have time to. But when we cast all of that aside, God is pleased to dwell with us right now between the cherubims. And show us his glory. But when we forget to look at the things we can't see, that's an interesting phrase, isn't it, Brother Mike? You're supposed to look at something you can't see. Well, you're not looking with these eyes, you're looking with the eyes of the heart, you're looking with the eye of faith. When we forget to do that, we start asking the kind of questions that the psalmist asks here. The 77th Psalm to me sums it up better than right here. So I'm gonna go to the 77th Psalm. Um This is um if you if you can't identify with this, I'll be surprised. The psalmist writes this. I'm gonna read a lengthy portion here. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord, my soul ran in the night and ceased not, my soul refused to be comforted. You know, I I'll bore you with the details, but I got myself in a situation a few years ago where I did something wrong. I mean, I did something bad wrong, and it hurt somebody. I I, you know, uh I had people that kept coming up to me and telling me that, you know, well, you couldn't have known, and it was they're trying to make me feel better. And I finally just had to tell one of them, you know, you know what, just stop. Just let me hurt. This is not supposed to feel good. When you do something you're not supposed to do, it's not supposed to feel good. Just leave me alone and let me hurt. My soul refused to be comforted. He says, I remembered God and was troubled, I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed, Silah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking. You ever had one of those sleepless nights? Like in the 130th Psalm when he says, My soul waited for the Lord more than they that waited for the morning? That wait for the morning? You ever laid there just like that alarm clock just saying, please, alarm clock, just go off because I'm tired of wallering around in this bed with a pity party going? Thou holdest mine eyes waking, I am so troubled that I can't speak, so I can't sleep, and I can't talk. You know, I don't want to talk about it. I know I was wrong, I know what I did was bad, and I don't want to talk about it. I have considered, and see, I'm so troubled that I cannot speak, I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night, I commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search. Now that's good advice, but you've got to remember which heart you're supposed to be communing with. Because you've got a carnal heart. You need to be communing with the new heart. And then he starts asking a series of questions. I'm gonna give you these questions and then I'm gonna tell you, or I'm gonna tell you up front. Don't ask these questions. These are bad questions. Or if you want to ask them, ask them now. Answer them now and file the answers away in the back of your brain so that when these questions come to you, you might say, I know the answer to that one. Will the Lord cast off forever? What's the answer? No. Will he be favorable no more? No. He will not be favorable no more. He'll be favorable plenty. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? See, God is not forgetful. God's merciful. And in his mercy, he has chosen to forget some things. But he is not, nothing ever slips his mind. He actively forgot or forgets our sins. But he doesn't forget to be gracious. Hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? We heard about that last night. Hath God in anger, God does get angry, and every time God is angry, he is justified in his anger. Every single time. But every single time that God is angry, he is justified in his anger. But these are the thoughts that are running around in the psalmist's mind when he can't sleep and he can't talk about it and he can't, probably couldn't eat, and you know, it's just everything is just bothering him. These are his thoughts. He starts to think and he starts to question God. Has God clean forgot who I am? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Like I said, if you want to ask those questions, you go on and answer them now. And then put them to bed and don't ask them anymore. He says, And then he says this. And I said, This is my infirmity. What he said is this is what's wrong with me. What's wrong with me is I have, I am, all I can do is focus around at all the calamity. And what I need to do is focus up. There's a little, there's a I I love these, I call them blurbs, and I hope that's okay. But there's the there are these little blurbs in the Bible that I just love. Things like a stone's cast, you know. Um but there's another one in the building of the Ark and that Noah built. And it says that the window was finished in a cubit. And if I understand that right, and if I don't, y'all, I'm I'm sure there's somebody here, let me know about it. Um, but if I understand that right, it means it was not, that that window was not just a hole in the roof. That it was a hole that for roughly 18 inches, I know Brother Alfred, but I understand. But anyway, roughly 18 inches, that it was finished. In other words, it was a it was this deep. So that looking out, it it severely limited your ability to look around at what was going on. It's kind of like a kind of like a telescope, you know. It focused, it focused every view that Noah and his sons and their wives, every view that they had was looking straight up where it needed to be, rather than I can imagine what they would have seen had they looked around, but it doesn't matter. Because they could only look up. And that's what the psalmist is saying. This is what's wrong with me. I forgot to look up. He says, This is my infirmity, but I will remember the years at the right hand of the Most High. That's what, that's what, when he, when he, over in Psalm 44, when he says, as thy sake, for thy sake we're killed all the day long, we're counted as sheep for the slaughter, what he's saying there is that even though even though we stand in jeopardy every day, he's not saying, when he says we're we're accounted as sheep for the slaughter, he's not saying that that we're just lined up being slaughtered. What he's saying is that we are constantly in jeopardy. That we are death is always present because we're sinners. Now, let's go to let's go to the eighth chapter of Romans, and I want to I want to make try to tie this together because the Apostle Paul did. So it should be easy, right? So we we get the eighth chapter of Romans. All roads lead back to eight chapter Romans. Somebody said that at the house this morning, I understand. But we're gonna try to cover this anyway. Brother Steve didn't dwell on it, so I'm gonna I'm gonna take this opportunity. Look at what in verse 35, how he sets this up to sort of set the scene, Brother Gary, we're gonna set the scene. He says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Oh, we know the answer, right? We of course we know the answer. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? But the list that he goes through are things that we experience. These are this is not this is not a hypothetical. He says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Do you go through tribulation? Yes, you do. And you know, so have you ever gotten frustrated with the providence of God? Think about that just a minute now before you answer. So I tell you, the three Hebrew children probably were not frustrated with the providence of God. Those three Hebrew children, when they were, they were going to be thrown in that burning fiery furnace. You know what they said to Nebuchadnezzar there? I love that. I wish, would to God we could be more like this. You know, we're not careful to answer thee. In other words, we've done our homework, we've got scripture ready, we know what to say, we're not careful to answer you. We don't we don't have to uh consult our attorney. You know, we don't we don't have to go get counsel, we know what to tell you. But there's a the way it's worded there, it says, they say, if it be so, our God is able to deliver us. Now I'll tell you what I understand them to be saying there. If it be so. What they're saying today, you know, Nebuchadnezzar had given them one reprieve already. They had had one opportunity, they they came to him and told him they're not doing this, and then he said, Well, go tell them they gotta do it. And that's one. So what Hanani, Azariah and Michelle are saying here is they're saying, Nebuchadnezzar, look, if you insist on carrying out this terrible sentence, if you insist on doing it, you need to know something. You're gonna have to do it. If it be so, if you insist on doing this, our God is able to deliver us. He is. And he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But they did not know whether the Lord was going to deliver them from the fire or by the fire. And neither do you. God's providence does not always go the way I think it should go. Thanks be unto God. But I'm not always, I don't always have a thankful mind for it. I want you to think about Joseph. Do you think Joseph ever got frustrated with the providence of God? He's doing it right. You know, I mean, he's he's he's he did not succumb to Potiphar's wife's advances. He was a faithful steward when he was in prison, but it's bad things keep happening. Now I realize some good things happened to him later on, but but you do you imagine? I don't know. We don't know, we speculate, doesn't really matter, but do you think maybe Joseph got frustrated? You know, all I did was tell my dream to those brothers of mine. Now look where I am. And then I thought I was out of it, and now here I am, back in prison. Well, I helped the butler and the baker, and I would have thought they would have remembered me, but you know, I'm still here. But you know what Joseph did? Here's what Joseph did, that's a lesson for every one of us. Is all Joseph did throughout that whole deal is just stay faithful. Faithful in tribulation. You know, tribulation works patience, and patience works experience. Have you got an experience base? Mine's growing every day. I look at that and I think, you know, Paul above there in Romans 5 says, We glory in tribulation. Well, I don't like that. I don't like the thought of glorying in tribulation. I'm allergic to pain. You know, I break out in tears. You know, I just, and true, I'm like Brother Mike. Now, I've I've led a very blessed life. I've not had a whole lot of trouble, but I've seen trouble. I've seen trouble. I've seen people afflicted in terrible ways. Uh several, many years ago, I guess I should say it's probably a dozen or more now. We were on our way here. Well, not here, I think the meeting was maybe at Bethel. But, and I got a call that a beloved deacon, I'll tell you, I'd tell you his name, but he'd fuss at me if he was able to, if I told you his name, but uh I'll just I'll call somebody else's name. Y'all, somebody y'all will know, somebody who knew both of them told me that he was the Glenn Blundell of Mississippi. Um and uh I got a call though when I was on the way here. This man that was so active and so vibrant, and so such an asset to the Lord's church, he had, long story short, he had broken his leg and from that day would never walk again. But you know, we were at the church house, this is just at Middleton Creek, just um, I don't know, a couple years ago. And we were cleaning up around the church house and and uh there was a there's a scratch on the second pew. If you stand in the pulpit on the left-hand side, there's a scratch. And one of the deacons, the current deacons, said, uh, said, I think I got something home. I think I can fix that. I said, gotta be good, brother. Try to do that. He said, What do you reckon cause that scratch? And we got to scratching our heads about it a little bit, and I finally realized that this dear brother, where that scratch came from, is they would wheel him in in his wheelchair and park it against that pew and then he would transition into the pew from there, and that's what put the scratch there. So, you know, we decided it wasn't something we wanted to fix as a pretty good reminder of faithfulness and tribulation. And I'm sure you've got stories like that. People that I I I tell people all the time that they'll say things like, I just don't know why the Lord's leaving me here. I said, Well, you're encouraging your pastor for one thing. But when I see them come through the door, and I know, I mean, I'm still right now, I'm still able to get up and get dressed without too much pain, too much uh ache, you know. But I know that's not always the case for them. But they're faithful, faithful in tribulation. And it is, it is a great encouragement. We go through tribulation. Got any distress? You ever been hungry? I can't say that I've been all that hungry. But that day might come. So tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Can any of those things separate us? Well, the answer is no. Okay? And we're going to get to that in a minute. But the fact that he lists those things and who he's writing this to, he's writing this to you, he's writing this to children of God, tells me that those things are things we have to deal with. And then he says, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Now, I mentioned earlier, a cursory reading of that in my little pea brain led me to the first the first thought I had about this is like, oh, this is just a bunch of sheep and they're being shuffled through, and if we lose one, it's not a big deal. And again, I said that's not the case. There's a word in this text that lets me know that's not the case. And it's the word accounted. It's counted in the Old Testament in Psalm 44, but it's accounted here. You know what the word accounted means here? It means there's an inventory taken. And you know, when you take inventory, you know how many you have to count? Every single one. That tells me that no matter what tribulation you're going through, no matter what distress you're experiencing, no matter how hungry you are, no matter how naked you are, and I'll be careful with that one. No matter how destitute is what that means, no matter how destitute you are, no matter what you've seen, God is paying attention. He is, you are accounted as chief. Not one single air of race has ever gone through a single solitary millisecond of distress, that God was not there with them. Brother Mike pointed that out to us. That's what this is saying. It's not saying that there's this big mass and nobody matters. It's saying that on an individual level, everybody matters. Everybody in this group matters. And we that's what I understand about a shepherd. Now, I I am not, I am, I am no way, I'm a computer guy, don't know which end of a sheep to do anything with. All right. I I I was at a I had my mother for a cancer treatment a few years ago, and I was sitting there, and there was a judge just sitting there reading, waiting on her to get done. And uh there's a conversation going on. I got the eavesdropping, you know. I don't think you're supposed to do that, but I did. Um and it was about it was about sheep. It was a guy that raised sheep, and he was talking to the slave. This is not a biblical conversation in any way. And I was listening to it, I was thinking, that's pretty good. You know, he's describing sheep pretty well. And he got this part and he said, Yeah, he said, when you shear them, you have to be very careful because they're very thin-skinned. And I got mad and quit listening. So my but my understanding of sheep, especially in this day, that there was a very special relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. So much so that the shepherd, I mean we we've the place where we've been staying, y'all love this now, there are free-range sheep in this place. And we had to stop and let them get out of the way. We kept trying to get them to go to the right, but they didn't all want to do that. But, you know. My understanding is that a shepherd could as a sheep can, I couldn't tell one from the other. But that a good shepherd can pick them out. He recognized each one. Maybe even had pet names for it, according to the guy at the hospital that day, anyway. And likewise, those sheep recognize the shepherd. This this text is not describing an indiscriminate relationship between a group of sheep and a shepherd. There is that. I want you to understand. We are the elect of God. There is a group, a flock, but the Lord is the Lord knows us individually. And he cares for us individually. Brother Mike, the the things that gets Brother Mike through his tribulation may not be the things that get me through mine, but you know who knows what will get me through mine and what will get Brother Mike through his? The shepherd does. The shepherd knows. We can sheep can get themselves in all kinds of uh difficult circumstances. But being cast down, you know, my understanding of what being cast down means, that sheep, especially when his wool is um uh very long, that she that sheep can get upside down. That's what being cast down means. And he's helpless, and he'll lay there and starve to death, or he'll lay there and some predator will get him if the shepherd doesn't come along and give him a hand to get him right on the right side. How many times has your shepherd done that? How many times have you said to yourself, and I this is how many times have you said, you know, Lord, I just don't think I can handle this anymore. I'm just gonna turn it over to you. Well, if you're at that point, I highly recommend that's what you do. But I also recommend you not start there. You just turn it over to him to begin with. Because our shepherd loves his sheep. He is the good shepherd. You know, I love the way he's described, the ways that he has described as a shepherd in the Bible. He's called the good shepherd, he called himself the good shepherd. He's called the great shepherd, that great shepherd of the sheep. He's called the one shepherd from whom the words of the wise come. But you know, my favorite way, my absolute favorite way to describe the Lord as a shepherd, is found in Psalm 23 when he says that the Lord is my shepherd. He is my shepherd, he's our shepherd. Yes, I understand that, and I'm thankful for that, but he's my shepherd. He loves me and gave himself for me, Paul said. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Not a sin, there has never been a child of God ever who died alone. You know, during COVID, there were a lot of people, and that was one of the big, big issues was you know, there were people that were in these hospitals and and they were struggling, and their families were barred from seeing them in some. Cases. And those families, and that's grievous now. That's very grievous. But the consolation I take in that is they were not in that hospital room alone. Remember when the Apostle Paul in uh Acts 23 was in prison, and uh it's a very difficult circumstance. But you know what the Lord said it's one of the four times. The Lord on four occasions told people to be of good cheer. That's one of them. He told Paul, be of good cheer. As you've born witness of me in Jerusalem, you're going to bear witness of me in Rome. Be of good cheer. But the but the point I want out of that is it says that night the Lord stood by him. I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means with specificity. I think it's more than just the Lord was on his side. Certainly the Lord was on his side, but I think it's more than just that. I think there's some perceptible way that the Apostle Paul could know that the Lord was there with him. You ever had that experience? I had it just a little while ago. I hope I'm having it now. You ever felt like the Lord was with you? Like the Lord, now that's not always a pleasant thing. You remember when Peter denied the Lord for the last time in Luke's account in Luke 22? You know what it says? It says the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. I gotta believe that if the Lord could see Peter, Peter could see the Lord. So when the Bible tells us that he went out and wept bitterly, I think the language there probably fails to adequately capture the bitterness of Peter's soul there. But on the other hand, I cannot imagine that there was a scowl on the Lord's face. I can't imagine that there was, I told you so, on the Lord's face. I rather suspect there was only love. Only love. Because he just told him a little while ago he was praying for him, or he had prayed for him. As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. In verse 37, he says, Nay. And I'll always hear that in Alfred Coffin's voice. I'll always hear that in Brother Alfred's voice. You'd have to know Brother Alfred, but if you said something that wasn't right, Brother Alfred did not wait until after the service to comb you. He would just say, Nay. And I can't do it like he did it. It had that baritone, that deep baritone, authoritative, nay. But he says, nay. In all these things. What things? I submit to you. It's the same things he's been talking about all along. All those five things that the Lord's done for us. And, you know, I know that the Lord's done many things for us, but those five are what's under consideration here. All these things, we are not just conquerors, but we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. I think about that, you know, the apostles in Acts chapter 5, they'd been told not to preach in the name of Jesus. And guess what they did? They went out and preached in the name of Jesus. And I'll just I was going to say this publicly so you can hold me to it later. If that ever happens, I hope I've got the courage to go right back out and preach it still. I hope it doesn't happen. I sincerely do. But if it does, I hope we've all got the courage to continue. But I love the phrase that they use there.

unknown 1:10:15

Me too, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:16

And they say it says that they if they went out and did it the second time, they pulled them back in. This time they didn't just tell them, this time they beat them. And I guess probably that was 39 stripes, probably. That's a lot of stripes. I can tell you, I know a few spankings that I got, and after the first one, I wanted it to be over. 39, if I'd known I had 39 left, and I don't never I never got 39. Probably needed them, but never got them. I may have gotten five or six from time to time, but contrition comes quick. You'd have to know my dad, but contrition comes pretty quick under the belt, you know. But they said, it says that they left there rejoicing, that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Not a single sparrow has ever fallen to the ground that the Lord didn't notice. And you are worth more than many sparrows. I thank you very much for your good attention.