Submission / Apprehending Promises

Introduction: The Sermon's Continuity and Purpose

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, April 26, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. 1 Peter chapter 1, and rather than read the entire portion that I read this morning, I will simply pick up the reading at verse 6 through verse 9. After opening up the glorious salvation that is ours in Christ, Peter writes, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, not having seen, you love, on whom, though now you see him not, believing you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory now let us once again ask god's help in our study of his word together once again our father we come with praise and thanksgiving

1:23 into your courts and into your gates we thank you for this blessed lord's day in the fellowship of your people in the worship of your name and in the hearing of your blessed word and we pray that you would crown the day with the sense of your nearness as we look into your word together lord jesus come by your spirit stand amongst your people as our great prophet ministering to us that word of instruction and consolation which you know we need we look to you in the expectation of faith we say with samuel speak lord for your servants here amen now i'm sure that most of you at one time or another have held in your hand as i have done a ticket or some kind of a voucher of one kind or another that had on it printed in bold letters invalid or void if it detached and what that little printed statement was saying is that you can't separate one part of that voucher or ticket from another if you do it is rendered invalid it won't give you the goods it

2:44 is promised to give you it won't let you enter the turnstile of that particular sports arena or theater whatever it is well in a real sense that's true of the message tonight void if detached if detached from what well tonight's message is really the continuation of this morning's sermon it is points two and three of the sermon which we began to set before you in our morning hour of worship the introduction the connection with first peter one six and seven and point one are crucial to a proper understanding and application of tonight's message and therefore it must survive the fight is to set before you a very spartan and succinct review of what we considered this morning and then for any who care to i commend you a tape of this morning's message so that you may get the full exposition of the theme set before god's people what i was attempting to do this morning was to begin a consideration with the lord's people in this place of the subject of how our present trials have been the smelting furnace of our faith

4:01 in the light of first peter one six and seven we understand that manifold trials into which god brings his people are calculated to test or to try or to prove their faith while many graces are cultivated and stirred up and developed in the midst of trials according to peter guided by the holy spirit it is the grace of faith that is in the midst of trials that is in the midst of trials and nervous and dreadful trials is the boast of their time dei and disdain pray ten always with the during their so i softly to go to what way all are these parties to that very question is with the tien how to put land is in st we begin to generalize a few points and based on the questions we must leave with world leaders in those countries laws present trials being used of God to purify, to strengthen, to validate our faith. And our first heading this morning was this, that our present trials have been sent by God in order to test the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ.

Testing Believing Submission to the Ways of Christ

5:24 And I will say no more than to give that heading, and then move on to consider with you the second and the third way in which, in my judgment, we are to understand how our present trials are God's smelting furnace for our faith. In addition to being God's laboratory and God's furnace to test the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ, our present trials are testing the extent of our believing submission to the ways of Christ. Our present trials are testing the extent of our believing submission to the ways of Christ. Now, in order to explain what I mean by that terminology, I want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1.

6:25 As Paul is praying, he indicates that one strand of his prayer is that they would come to understand what is the exceeding greatness of the power of God towards believers. Verse 19. And what the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe. And then he gives the measure and the manifestation of that power in conjunction with the Lord Jesus.

6:53 It is the exceeding greatness of God. It is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come. And he put all things in subjection under him. His feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.

7:38 Now here in this passage, the apostle says that Christ has been given a place of supreme authority over all created reality, reality seen and unseen. He is praying for believers. He is praying for believers. He is praying for believers.

7:55 He is praying for believers. He is praying for believers. He is praying for believers. That they would come to lay hold with some degree of spiritual understanding of the greatness of the power that is exercised towards them and the measure of that power is the power of God manifested in raising Christ from the dead, verse 20, seating him at his own right hand above.

8:19 Now notice the sweeping terms. All rule and authority and power. Power and dominion. And every name that is named, not only in this world or age, but in that which is to come.

8:33 And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church. So the power of God manifested in the resurrection and the session of Christ is a power in which he has subjected all created reality, reality to Christ, and then he gives Christ in this position of supreme and unrivaled authority, he gives him to the church. That's what the text says. And gave him to be head over all things to the church.

9:12 And whatever the particular nuances of the text may be, this much is clear. That as the head of his church, Christ is head from a position of supreme authority. And unrivaled authority over all created reality. Surely you hear echoes of our Lord's words in Matthew 28, in verse 18.

9:35 Jesus comes to his disciples and says, All authority has been delivered unto me in heaven and upon earth. Going therefore make disciples of all the nations. You see, in commissioning the apostles, and that commission now merges into the standing response, the responsibility of the church. The church is to understand that in the accomplishment of her mission, she stands under the Lord Christ who possesses all authority in every realm of created reality.

10:09 All authority has been given unto me in heaven and upon earth. Or we could look at the language of Psalm 2, that beautiful messianic psalm, in which the Lord speaks and says, Sit at my right hand. And until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. Messiah is given a universal reign over all reality.

10:35 Now from that position, the Lord Jesus is governing all things with a peculiar concern for his church. He is given in this position to be head over all things to the church. So that while he has all authority in every realm of created reality, there is an exercise of that authority with a peculiar concern for the nature and the success and the well-being of his church. Now why am I underscoring that?

11:11 For the simple reason that this present series of trials, in my judgment, is intended by the Lord Christ to be a testing of the extent of our belief, relieving submission to the ways of Christ. That even the sins of his people, our sins, and the sins of others, do not fall outside the scope of the sovereign control of our Lord Jesus. And while we must never think of him as the author of sin, for the scripture says, God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man. Our sin is to be laid at the feet of our own.

11:56 Perversion. All of our sin is our sin. But it does not escape the sovereign control of our exalted Lord. Our mistakes, our shortcomings, the sins of others, the plots and the schemes of men in the deviousness of their own hearts, nothing escapes his sovereign control.

Christ's Supreme Authority Over All Reality

12:20 And then in the unfolding of his ways, he often works in ways that are confusing, disturbing, and utterly baffling to us. When the scripture says in Isaiah 55, 8, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither my ways your ways, as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts, and my ways above your ways. What the Lord Jesus did on earth, he continues to do in heaven with respect to his dealings with his people. Think of the incident in John chapter 11.

12:55 When his dealings, his dealings with those for whom he had a peculiar love, seemed to be a contradiction of that peculiar love. Note with me in John chapter 11.

13:08 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany of the village of Mary and her sister Martha. And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. The sisters therefore sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he who, whom you love is sick. As Pastor Donnelly pointed out in a sermon in this passage some years ago, had the language been, he whom you detest, or he whom you do not regard is sick, there would be nothing shocking, but he whom you love is sick.

13:49 And then added to that, but when Jesus heard it, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When therefore he heard that he was sick, doesn't say he immediately went to the place where Lazarus is sick and healed him. He abode at that time two days in the place where he was.

14:15 If you love someone, and they need you, and you can meet their need, what do you do? You make tracks to get to where the needy person is. Manifest your love. Prove it by meeting the need you are well able to meet.

14:29 Jesus here does that, which seems to be a contradiction of what is said about his heart toward Lazarus. He loves him, but he lets his sickness progress until he dies. There seems to be a contradiction between the revelation of his heart and the actions of his own plan and purpose toward Lazarus. But you know the rest of the story.

14:57 By withholding those footsteps that went to the place, where Lazarus was, the Lord was planning to do something far more glorious than merely healing a sick man. He was committed to raising a dead man and all to this end, that there might be a greater manifestation of his glory.

15:20 Now you see, at that point, in the midst of circumstances parallel to those, it is a call upon us to believing submission to the ways of Christ, which often, often are inscrutable to us. His ways are baffling, confusing, and disturbing. But because we don't know what he's doing, doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's doing. And because we can't figure out how this is consistent with the declarations of his love, it doesn't mean that he has ceased to love us.

The Inscrutable Ways of Christ: Lessons from Lazarus and Corinth

15:57 And I believe that's one of the great lessons God is teaching us through this trial. He is testing the extent of our believing submission to the ways of Christ. Ways that are often to us for a period of time utterly baffling, confusing, disturbing, and seem to contradict the revelation of his heart to us in his word. Think of 1 Corinthians 11-19.

16:25 I've thought much of that in recent days. In an epistle that begins in chapter 1 with Paul addressing the first, as the first pastoral problem, the divisions at Corinth. And he says such divisions ought not to be in chapter 11 and verse 19. Notice this statement.

16:48 For there must, and there is that Greek particle of necessity, day, for there must be also factions among you that they that are approved may be made manifest among you. You mean there must be what God says ought not to be? Can you figure that out? I can't.

17:15 There was nothing that ought not to be with more ought not-ness than the death of Jesus. You shall do no murder.

17:24 God forbade the putting of anyone to death on the mouth of false witnesses.

17:30 This was God incarnate. Yet the scripture says him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Well, who did it?

17:47 God? Yes. Wicked murderers? Yes.

17:52 How can you fit that together? It's not my responsibility to fit it together.

17:59 He was delivered up by God's determinate counsel and sovereign purpose called his foreknowledge. Yet Peter charges those men as fully responsible for the death of Jesus. In chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, Paul says these divisions ought not to be. Now he says there must be factions among you that those who are approved may be manifested.

Walking by Faith, Not Sight: Jacob and Paul's Thorn

18:24 The ways of Christ are inscrutable.

18:29 Genesis 42, 36, old Jacob sees a conspiring of circumstances and says, Joseph's gone. One son is not. Now you're going to take this one. All these things are against me.

18:43 And little did he know. He was just on the verge of realizing how much all these things were working together for his.

18:53 At that point when he said all these things are against me, he was walking by what? Not by faith, but by sight. As he looked at the realities before him, he had seen the bloody coat and had heard the story from Joseph's brothers that some wild beast had slain him. He believed it, and mourned as really as though Joseph were really dead.

19:21 And all he knew was that the brothers were making certain demands with respect to others of his children. He said all these things are against me.

19:30 And in reality, the God of the covenant was never more gracious in fulfilling all of his covenant promises to Jacob. Right at that very point. You see the demand upon us, as Paul says, is we are to walk not by sight, but by faith. You and I are to see that the Christ who orders the affairs not only of every individual believer, but in the life of his church.

19:54 He did not vacate his position far above all principality and power and rule and might and dominion. Subsumed under that are all the decisions of men. All of the rational processes of men that have led to the decisions that have resulted in this crisis. Christ did not vacate his posture of absolute authority for the last six weeks.

20:19 He has been on his throne far above all principality and might and power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age, but in the age to come. One other example. Think of Paul with his thorn in the flesh. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 8 and following.

20:40 It said, Because of the abundant of the revelations, lest I be exalted over much, there was given to me a messenger of Satan, a stake of thorn in my flesh. And at first, Paul says, I can only see this in one way. It is an impediment to the fulfillment of my purposes and plans as a commissioned apostle. Therefore, the thorn must be removed.

21:06 And he said, For this thing I sought the Lord three times. Not little three, now I lay me down to sleep. Probably, probably, he's referring to three seasons of intense, concentrated, agonizing prayer with the overtones of Gethsemane in his ear. Remember the Lord three times beseeching the Father.

21:28 Oh, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass. For this thing I sought the Lord three times. Why? Because viewing it within the limited perspective of what he knew, he was convinced that this thing was an impediment to his usefulness.

21:48 Until the Lord said, No, my son. The impediment to your usefulness, and this would be pride. And what I will do is I will allow this messenger of Satan, whatever it is, this stake, this thorn in your flesh, that will keep you so consciously weak and consciously dependent that you will constantly know that your only recourse in your dependantness is my power. My grace is sufficient for you.

22:15 My strength is made perfect not by replacing weakness, but it says, in the midst of weakness. So what does Paul say? Most gladly, therefore, I'll glory in my infirmities. Why?

22:26 That the power of Christ may literally intent itself around me. You look at me and I look at myself and what do you see? A mask of weakness. You look at my commission and say, No way, Jose.

22:40 You can't fulfill that commission with that weakness. And yet you see him fulfilling it. And then you say, there's no explanation for that. But that the power of Christ is intending itself around.

22:52 A mask. Of human weakness. You see, it's one thing when the power of Christ invades and replaces weakness. That's what happened with Lazarus.

23:02 When Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. And a dead man walks. That's power replacing ultimate weakness, death. That's an amazing thing.

23:15 But when you see a dead man, in one sense still dead, and yet doing the works and the deeds of a living man, you say, I don't know how to fit this together. Paul says, that's my life. I will glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may intent itself about me. In the midst of that weakness, divine power is constantly validated and made manifest.

23:42 Do you see the relevance of that to our trials? What are we going to do? The next number of people and the gaps in the pews and the gaps in the offering and the gaps in the this and the gaps in the that. But when God takes us in our numerically weakened condition and does things that He's never done before, who'll get the credit?

24:08 Not Trinity Church, not its elders, not its members. You say, God is the one who's come and intended human weakness. That the power, the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

Embracing God's Inscrutable Plan: A Poem by Rutherford

24:25 Came across a wonderful poem by Samuel Rutherford and it was written by me. And it was written by me. And it was written on an occasion when God struck very deeply into Rutherford's life.

24:39 And he wrote, and I'll not read the whole poem, but this that is so relevant to us, about God testing us with respect to our believing submission to the ways of Christ.

24:52 Inscrutable the ways of God beyond the mind of man. For who can read his hidden thought or search his secret plan?

25:03 Yet God in wisdom chose for me this plan. And this flame and doubting not his choice the best I greeted in his name. So will I praise him for this stroke till Christ at length appears to turn my long captivity and dry his people's tears.

25:27 And I put in my notes, read that last part a second time and change it from the singular to the plural. If God's ways are inscrutable and we believe that, and that when we cannot figure out what God is doing, we're confident that God in Christ is doing what is well pleasing in his sight, then can we not say with our corporate voice as a congregation, yet God in wisdom chose for us this furnace and this flame and doubting not his choice the best we greeted in his name. So will we praise him for this stroke till Christ at length appears to turn our long captivity and dry his people's tears. You see, this is not fatalism. This is not, you've heard the proverbial story about the Muslim, what will be will be and the guy fell down the stairs and said, well, I'm glad that's over with for the day. A fatalistic attitude.

26:30 No, we are not submitting to blind faith, but to a sovereign, omnipotent, wise Christ whose ways are above our way. And who does all things well. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus in John 13, 7, and oh, to hear him speak them by the Spirit to our hearts tonight. What I am doing, you know not now, but you shall know hereafter.

27:03 That's why I pray, Lord, let me stay around long enough to see the hereafter. As we will see something of what is now all missed, mysterious, and much of it confusing. And we will see the flowering out of God's purposes as surely as brokenhearted Mary and Martha saw the best thing Jesus could do was to have stayed in the place where he was. What at the time seemed to be an act of reluctance and cruelty, they saw to be a wonderful stroke of love.

27:41 By faith, we embrace that now. And God, God will in his own way and time let us see as much of it as we need to see.

27:52 And so, dear people, what is the purpose of this trial, this smelting furnace of our faith? Surely it is not only sent to test the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ, but it is sent to test the extent of our believing submission to the ways of God. You see, when you get hold of that, there cannot be resentment to the human instruments involved in the ways of Christ. There cannot be cynicism and bitterness to Christ.

28:30 It's a wonderful liberty. The circumstances that in themselves would make you dispirited, discouraged, leave you vulnerable to cynicism, bitterness, and unbelief, they cannot touch because you look through them and beyond them to an enthroned Christ who is seated far above all principalities and power and might and dominion and has been given his head over all things to the church. And you say he does all things well. But then thirdly, our present trials are also a testing of the reality of our believing apprehension of the promises of Christ.

Testing Believing Apprehension of Christ's Promises

29:13 You see the development? Testing the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ. Testing the extent of our believing submission to the ways of Christ. But thirdly, our present trials are testing the reality of our believing apprehension of the promises of Christ.

29:33 Now, for the sake of you children, the word apprehend is not a synonym with comprehend. To comprehend means you understand. To apprehend means to lay hold of, to seize. You may read in the paper, such and such a crime was committed, the felon was apprehended.

29:50 The police caught him. They seized him. They cuffed him. They took him down and booked him.

29:55 And that's the sense in which I'm using the word apprehension. Our present trials are testing the reality of our believing apprehension, our taking hold and seizing of the promises of Christ. Not our pointing to them and saying they are true and they are the word of God and they are worthy of being trusted. No, no.

30:20 Not our intellectual or even our spiritual confession of the validity of the promises, but our apprehension of the promises. And there's all the difference in the world between those two. Now according to 2 Corinthians 1 in verse 20, this is what the Spirit of God says about God's promises in relationship to Christ. Verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 1.

30:49 As God is faithful, our word to you is not yea and nay. Paul was accused by his detractors of being fickle,

31:00 not to be counted on. He says this and he does that. And so he's defending himself. There is a place for a servant of God to defend himself against detractors.

31:12 And so he says, as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay. But in Him is the yea, the yes. For how many so ever be the promises of God.

31:33 In Him is the yes. Wherefore also through Him is the amen unto the glory of God through us. Now again, whatever the full extent of the meaning of this passage is, this much is clear. That the promises of God in connection with Christ are not fickle promises.

31:53 In Christ is the yes to which there is added the amen the so be it. The promises of God in Christ are yes and amen. And those promises that are given to us as the bequeathment of His own precious blood are promises that in union with Him we are to apprehend in faith.

32:22 Now many of the promises of God are little more than pious words on a plaque until they're tested in the crucible of trial. For example, many of us heard gospel promises all our lives and they meant little to us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. If you Lord should mark iniquity who could stand but there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.

32:46 Repent and believe in the gospel. Gospel promises meant little to us but when we came under some measure of conviction of sin suddenly those promises were there as the very lifeline between the disciples the despair of our souls and the hope of everlasting life. And what was just sort of nice talk floating by our ears when we came under some measure of conviction of sin the promises became the very handles by which we held on to God and were kept from despair. Well what is true of the convicted sinner is true of the saint in his earthly pilgrimage.

Apprehending Key Promises: Church, Presence, and Protection

33:26 The promises of God are little more than pious, pious slush until we are thrown into a crucible where they become the handles by which we are kept from sinking into despair. And those promises that we as God's people need in new ways to apprehend in these days are such promises as Matthew 16 in verse 18. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. As we said a few weeks ago if the Lord Jesus still purposes to have Trinity Church within the orbit of that larger promise to build his church to accomplish his redemptive purposes through his church and if he yet has any such purpose for this particular church in conjunction with that certain word of promise, then there is nothing that can hinder him. The gates of hell shall not. If all of them assail this church and seek to swallow it up and to squash it and obliterate it, they shall not prevail against it. Do you believe that?

34:51 Are you pleading that? Are you apprehending that promise, taking hold of it like the man who was, who was, conscious that he had committed manslaughter, not willful murder and runs to the city of refuge and enters within its doors? Are you as it were running to those promises, laying hold of them and pleading their fulfillment before your God? Or take the promise of Matthew 28, 20.

35:21 In the accomplishment of the commission given by the Lord Jesus to the apostles and now merged into the standing orders of the church to make disciples of the nations, to baptize, to teach them all within the confidence of that final promise. And lo, consider, look at this, lo, I am with you literally each and every one of the days, all of the days, the days when the son of providence is smiling and there is internal peace and unity and increase in the church. I am with you. All of the days.

36:02 What about the days when there is defection and resignations by the handful? Is the promise suspended? I am with you. All of the days, parenthesis, except the dark days, the testing days, the crying days, the discouraging days.

36:24 Where did the Lord Jesus ever say that? He didn't say it. Then you and I must not act as though He did. I am with you.

36:32 Even to the consummation of the age, or take some of those rich promises flowing out of the work of Messiah and the book of Isaiah. These have been a great encouragement to me in recent days. Turn to one such example in Isaiah 54. You know that in chapter 53 we have the account of the suffering servant of Jehovah, our Lord Jesus dying for His people.

37:01 Chapter 55, That wonderful gospel chapter in which God takes the role of a street hawker, pleading with people to come and partake of gospel blessings, all of which are based on the work of the suffering servant. But in between, God gives great promises to the expansion of the people of God that are the fruition of the suffering of the servant of Jehovah. And notice what he says, beginning in verse 15. Behold, they may gather together, but not by me.

37:39 Whosoever shall gather together against you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith that blows the fire of coals and brings forth a weapon for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy.

37:55 The very things that look ominous and fearful as weapons formed against you, what does God say? No weapon that is formed against you. You shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. But you say, can I plead that promise?

38:14 Look at the latter part of the verse. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness which is of me, says the Lord. God says, are you my servants? Not my sinless servants, my perfect servants, but my true servants, seeking to walk before me with integrity?

38:36 In the eyes of the light of My word, this is your heritage. We are to apprehend this promise. No weapon. All the letters, all the slander, all of the scuttlebutt shall not accomplish its purpose.

38:55 Every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn, no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper. These are promises that are yes and Amen to us. As in Christ. As if.

39:07 so far as we are committed to do the work of Christ, according to the Word of Christ, in the power of the Spirit of Christ. This is your heritage. Brethren, may I speak very frankly. I long to hear more promises pleaded in our prayer meeting by you, my brethren.

39:25 I want to hear more Bible going back to God in our prayers.

39:32 Is that wrong? To hope and wish for that? That when you men become our mouthpiece at the throne of grace, it's clear that you've been apprehending the promises of God in the secret place, and you are bolder to apprehend them in the presence of God in our public prayer meetings.

39:52 I say this present trial is testing the reality of our believing apprehension of the promises of Christ. I've told some of you, if it were not for the many promises in the Psalms in recent weeks, I believe I'd be a madman. But instead I'm singing, I'm singing more now than I have in years. I say that honestly in the presence of God, because in a new way, some measure of apprehension of those promises that are yes and amen in Christ have been meat and drink to my soul.

Abraham: A Model of Apprehending Promises Against Hope

40:29 You remember Abraham, the father of the faithful? Let's look at this one other passage. Romans chapter 4. He's a beautiful example of this apprehending of the promises of God against the backdrop.

40:43 Circumstances that in themselves would cause nothing but despair.

40:50 God made a promise to Abraham. That promise was years in waiting for its fulfillment. And this is what we read in verse 18 concerning Abraham, who in hope believed against hope to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken. So shall your seed be.

41:13 And without being weakened, in faith he considered his own body, now as good as dead, he being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Now think of what it's saying here. When Abraham got up in the morning, he didn't look in the mirror, whatever kind of mirror he may have had, and say, well, it's a matter of mind over matter. There's a hundred-year-old man looking in the mirror, but what I see is a handsome twenty-five-year-old.

41:41 Now he looked at himself and said, you're a wrinkled old dude.

41:45 And the thought that you're going to be a pappy, it's ridiculous. He considered his own body. He said, I am as likely, according to what I now am as a wrinkled old man, to be the father of a child as somebody who's out there in the tomb somewhere. He said his body as good as dead.

42:04 Not dying, but dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, in the grave. Dead men don't father children. Abraham considered his own body and says, you're as good as a dead man. Then he looked at Sarah.

42:19 He said, you're as good as a dead woman. It's been a long time since we had to tick off the days of the month to watch your mood swings. It has ceased to be with her, the Bible says, after the manner of women for a long, long time. Whatever Abraham's troubles were as an old man, he didn't need to worry about monthly cycles and didn't need to worry about that peculiar period in life when women go through the change.

42:42 All of that was behind her. And the Bible talks about it. I'm not being crude, of course. The Bible says it has ceased to be with her after the manner of women.

42:50 So he looked at Sarah. Is she going to be a mama? Got a dead woman, got a dead man. We sure got a marvelous prospect of having a baby.

43:00 Two dead people going to have a baby. Well, what changed the whole picture? Look at the text. Without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body.

43:10 He didn't put his head in the sand and say, I'm just going to think positive thoughts. No. He considered his own body as good as dead. The deadness of Sarah's womb.

43:18 Yet, looking unto the promise, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able to perform. Do you see the two references to promise? Looking to the promise. Being fully assured that what he had promised.

43:43 What's a dead body of Abraham and a dead womb of Sarah before the God who is the living? God.

43:54 He said, we're still going to hold a baby. I don't know how. My body good as dead. Sarah good as dead.

44:01 But God who is the living God who cannot lie and is the author of all life, He will bring it to pass. That's what I mean by apprehending the promises of Christ. Dear people, the Lord, by His grace and power, draws near to us and says, as He said to His disciples, be not faithless, but believing.

The Folly of Unbelief: Lessons from Emmaus

44:33 Did I not say, if you believe, you would see the glory of God? You remember those two men on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24? Their chins were dragging on the concrete. And the Lord Jesus draws near and said, fellas, what's your problem?

44:49 He said, you're the only one in Jerusalem and don't know the problem? Think of the irony. He's the center of their problem and they say, you're the only one in Jerusalem and you don't know the problem?

44:59 Jesus of Nazareth, everybody knew about Him. We had hoped that He would be the one to redeem Israel. Well, was that so? Why are you so sad?

45:07 Don't you know? He was crucified. It's been three days. Here, the living Christ is right next to them and their chins were bloody on the bottom side.

45:17 What did the Lord say to them? Look at it in Luke chapter 24. What did the Lord say to them? This was their problem.

45:25 Luke chapter 24 and verse 25.

45:30 And He said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Foolish men, slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. You wouldn't have your chins on the concrete if only you had believed what God had said.

45:55 And He chides them for their unbelief. Then you know the rest of the story, as He makes as though He would pass on beyond them. They constrain Him to sit down and eat with them. And while they're eating with Him, their spiritual eyes are opened to perceive who He was.

46:12 He vanishes out of their sight. And then verse 32, and they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us while He spoke to us in the way? While He opened to us what? The Scriptures.

46:26 What will give the burning heart in the face of the dejection of unbelief more than the physical presence of Christ is the opening up of the Scriptures to the eyes and the ears of the soul. Isn't that amazing? They didn't say, Did not our hearts burn because the risen Christ lived with us? But they said, Did not our hearts burn when He spoke to us and opened to us the Scriptures?

Spurgeon's Call to Faith Amidst Thinning Ranks

46:58 Listen to Spurgeon seeking to stir up his own heart and the hearts of his people to faith against a backdrop of the world. A backdrop of great defection toward the end of Spurgeon's life. Some of you who know his, acquainted with his biography, you know about the downgrade controversy or English friends would say controversy in which many of the people who at one time stood with Spurgeon in the earlier days of his ministry treated him as a crotchety old man and defected from loyalty to him and to the cause of truth as liberalism was coming in to the Baptist denomination. And in commenting on the incident of the life of Gideon, you remember the little barley biscuit that comes down and smites the camp of the Midianites?

47:43 And God is going to do a mighty work through a little handful. This is what Spurgeon said. As for me, I shall preach the gospel of the grace of God and that only even if I be left alone. The hosts of Israel are melting away and they will melt much more.

48:03 As in Gideon's day, out of the whole host, twenty-two, a thousand have gone altogether away from true allegiance to the cause and many more have no stomach for the fight. Let them go. The thousands and the hundreds. Let the thirty thousand who came at the trump call decrease to three hundred men that lap in haste as a dog laps because they are eager for the fray.

48:30 When we are thinned out and made to see how few we are, we shall be hurled upon the foothills with a power not our own. The foe is not those who've left us. I want to be clear. The foe is the devil and unbelief and the godless society and the unconverted in our midst who are held in the grip of the devil.

48:56 That's the foe. And Spurgeon says, when we are thinned out and made to see how few we are, we shall be hurled upon the foe with a power not our own. Our weapon is the twelfth, the torch of the old gospel, flashing through the breaking of our earthen vessels. To this we add the trump sound of an earnest voice.

49:17 Ours is the midnight cry, Behold, he cometh. We cannot get victory by any might or skill of ours, and yet in the end the foe shall be defeated and the Lord alone shall be exalted. Were things worse than they are, we would still cry, The sword of the Lord and Gideon, and stand each man in his place until the Lord appears in his strength. That's what Spurgeon wrote.

49:47 In the midst of feeling that pressure of the thinning of the ranks, he said, All the more reason to believe that we shall be hurled upon the foe with a power not our own. Dear people, is it not God's purpose in this present trial to test the reality of our believing apprehension of the purposes and promises of Christ? It is not with the Lord to save by many or by few. One shall put a thousand to flight and two ten thousand.

50:21 You computer wizards, go home and calculate that up to ten tonight and see what you get. If one puts to flight a thousand and two ten thousand, figure out what it is when you've got ten.

50:34 That's a promise of God. It's given to us, sealed in the blood, of Christ. How many soever be the promises of God in Him as the yes and through Him the amen. And with our corporate hands, let us apprehend such promises.

God's Goodness in Affliction and Prayer for Faith

50:50 All power is given unto Him in heaven and on earth. Whatsoever things you ask in faith believing, you shall receive. We have those verses expounded to us in conjunction with Christ's redemptive purposes. We are to lay hold of His strength and we are to believe Him for the fulfillment of every promise that God has made to His Son and to us because of His Son.

51:21 You see, God's been good to thrust us into this furnace of affliction. God saw many of us were all together too naive about the Christian life and too comfortable. We were in a comfort zone. Months went by and we never had to pray, Lord, give us spirit of generosity and meet the budget.

51:42 I'm thankful we're back to that place. Some of us remember when we would have construction bills coming due, $50,000, no money in the checking account. We'd call a prayer meeting and we'd cry to God and then the next thing we know, there was money in the treasury. Where it came from, I don't know.

52:00 But we were pressed, dear people. Some of you floated in on the fruit of all the exercise of faith of your spiritual forefathers. And God said, that's not good for you. They're like crutches and you're not developing the strength in your own legs.

52:14 And God said, enough's enough. You see how good God's been. We've been praying, Lord, use us to reach our Jerusalem. Configure the life and leadership and rank and file of the church for the next spiritual generation when some of us are off the seed.

52:30 And God says, alright, my children, I've heard your prayer. I'm going to do it. We say, Lord, do it a little more antiseptically. Do it a little less painfully.

52:40 God says, no, my ways are right. I know what I'm doing. And we need in this crucible of trial to say, Lord, thank you. Your word is sufficient to give us the broad strokes of understanding that we might know what it is that God is doing with us and respond with intelligent faith and with wholehearted submission to our blessed Lord.

53:07 Peter says, if need be, you are in grief through manifold trials that the trial of your faith and in what ways God trying our faith I set before you for your consideration that our present trials are testing the depth of our believing attachment to the person of Christ, the extent of our believing submission to the ways of Christ, and the reality of our believing apprehension of the promises of Christ. I urge you to consider reading through Hebrews 11 sometime this week and see what God does to a people that believe Him as He's revealed Himself in His Word. Let's pray. Our Father, what thanks when we can we render to You that You've given us Your Word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. We heard in the adult class how You used Martin Luther to thunder out the truth that Scripture is the sufficient rule of faith and practice for Your people and that Scripture is its best and only infallible interpreter. We thank You for the Scriptures and the light they shed upon our perplexing circumstances. We thank You, our Father, that Scripture is indeed

54:34 a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And in Your light, we see light. O God, forgive us for not searching the Scriptures more diligently. Forgive us for not apprehending those exceeding great and precious promises, those divinely constructed handles set before us that we might take hold of them and taking hold of them take hold of You in Your covenant faithfulness.

55:06 O Lord, forgive us for being foolish men and women and slow of heart to believe. Forgive our unbelief. Forgive us when we have too much walked by sight and not by faith. Forgive us when our dejection and despondency have been in vain.

55:25 Forgive us in many ways a denial of what we say we believe about our Lord Jesus being seated in a place of absolute rule and authority. O God, we thank You for Your gracious rebukes and reproofs to our heart, for Your instruction, and we pray in the days to come You will continue to purify our faith, strengthen our faith, deepen our attachment to the Lord Jesus, deepen our conviction, concerning where He is and what He does at Your right hand. Strengthen our confidence in Your promises. Have mercy, we pray, upon those who do not know this Christ as they behold mom and dad and friends in this place responding as Christian men and women to the present trials. May they be jealous to know the God who is no fair-weathered God to His people. O Lord, we thank You. We praise You even for the present trial and all of the blessed fruits that You are causing to grow upon this vine as You prune us, as You purify us, as You test us, as You try us.

56:43 Receive our thanks and hear our prayers and dismiss us with Your blessing. In Jesus' name, Amen.