I am preaching today and this Wednesday for the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, KY. Brothers Jim Casey and Randy Wages are preaching here today. Please pray for us as we deliver God’s Word in these worship services.
“Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say unto me. Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He would put strength in me. There the righteous might dispute with Him; so should I be delivered for ever from my Judge. (Job 23:3-7)
Some have looked at the words of Job and found in them nothing but an expression of self-righteousness. Perhaps he did have a measure of this in him as we all surely do. Yet if we look at the root of his “complaint” and the ONE to whom he is desiring to see, we can observe the working of faith in him by the power of the HOLY GHOST who causes HIS people to desire HIS presence and seeks no other before whom to spread his troubles. Vain is the help of man to him who flees for refuge in the bosom of CHRIST. Surely, we have all complained as an impatient child does, yet knowing full well the tender mercies of HIM who will hear our complaints and mete out HIS comfort as only HE can. We must seek HIM and tell HIM our troubles, HE has promised to hear all who come to HIM in JESUS NAME. —Mike McGinnis
Though trials abound, temptations are strong, and the world is a wilderness to live in, take courage. God is still on His sovereign throne, and He is right now working all things together for good to them that love Him, to them who are called according to His purpose. Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness is still effectual. None who plead His merits can ever come under condemnation from God. So, whatever difficulty we are going through, whatever burdens we presently bear, let us continue to believe Him, to trust Him, to take our cares and cast them upon Him, to patiently endure in assurance of salvation, knowing that He will in His own time work these things out for His glory and our eternal good. — David Adkins
TAKE YOUR BURDEN TO THE LORD
AND LEAVE IT THERE
A hymn writer once wrote the following chorus for one of his hymns –
“Take your burden to the Lord, and leave it there.
If you trust and never doubt, He will surely bring you out;
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.”
I must be honest with you that I cannot sincerely, from my heart, sing this hymn because of the line, “If you trust and NEVER doubt, He will surely bring you out.” I cannot sing this because I cannot say that I never doubt. I can honestly tell you that by God’s grace, I DO trust the Lord to save me, keep me, and bring me out of this vile, sinful existence and into the perfection of His glory in Christ Jesus. But I am still plagued with doubts and fears that come from my sinful flesh and weaknesses. I can honestly tell you that I have no trouble taking my burden to the Lord. My problem is that I cannot leave it there. But I also know this – “If we believe not, yet HE ABIDETH FAITHFUL: HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF” (2 Timothy 2:13). Some apply this verse to those who live and die in unbelief, meaning that if we are found among them, this does not hinder or frustrate God’s faithfulness to save all of His elect by His grace. Others apply this verse to believers as we are still plagued by the flesh, even the sin of doubt (unbelief), meaning that even in our times of doubt, God will not forsake us because He cannot deny Himself (His promise and His glory in Christ). I do know this – If my salvation or my deliverance from trouble were conditioned on me never doubting, He would never bring me out. I must pray with the disciple who cried out to the Lord for his sick child, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). I know that sinful doubt (unbelief) is the sin “which doth so easily beset us” (Heb. 12:1), and that the only cure for this is “looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). The chorus that I need to sing was written by another hymn writer –
“When doubt and fear assail me, and bend my spirit low,
I know there is a Saviour, to whom I e’er can go;
He’s promised to be with me, no matter what betide;
Till some day when He’ll call me to sit down at His side.”