the great Anglican minister, actually Anglican bishop, J.C. Ryle once said these words, he said, a single day in hell will be worse than a whole life spent in carrying the cross. Let me read that again. A single day in hell will be worse than a whole life spent in carrying the cross. He was absolutely right. No matter how much persecution you may experience because of your faith in Christ, No matter how much sorrow, how much grief God allows in your life because of your commitment to Christ, no matter how much pain you are forced to endure because of your refusal to compromise the standards of Scripture, it cannot, it cannot be compared to the suffering that an unbeliever goes through in just one day in hell. What a profound thought. What a profound thought that no believer will ever know a day in hell, which is the best news we'll ever hear. However, we certainly do know the sufferings of carrying the cross. What does that mean, carrying the cross? It's simply another way of saying that we are willing to be persecuted, even to the point of death for our Savior. Jesus said, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. And for over 2,000 years, those who have followed Christ have done exactly that. The history of the church tells the story of ongoing persecution, ongoing hostility. ongoing oppression of believers in Christ. Today, many of our brothers and sisters, as you know, living in other nations, are suffering greatly. Some are even dying as martyrs because of their faith in Christ. And although physical persecution of Christians has not come to our nation yet, it very likely will. And even now we see an escalating antagonism against anything to do with God and the Bible, which is pointing to the likelihood that Christians will soon be found guilty of hate crimes when they speak against certain deviant sexual lifestyles and other forms of morally rebellious behavior. And when that type of persecution does arrive, many of us will very likely be either thrown in prison or be fined. We will certainly be criticized, certainly rejected by others, perhaps even finding it difficult to secure a job, and no doubt we will find ourselves at that time praying and asking God to intervene in our difficulties, asking Him to rescue us, to deliver us from our enemies. And so in light of this, the appropriate question to ask is this, what can we expect when those tough times do come? Can we anticipate God responding to our prayers and intervening in our lives? And if so, why? That is to say, on what basis or for what reason do we believe that God will come to our aid and either physically deliver us or give us his grace to endure great persecution? Well, that question being asked is what we're going to address this morning. We're going to find out this morning an answer to this question, because we have come in our study of Psalm 119 to a very interesting section of verses in which the psalmist not only cries out for God to deliver him, but he actually spells out the reasons that he is expecting God to come to his aid. And in doing so, folks, what he does This man gives us the basis for why we can have such great assurance that God will not leave us in our pain. Why we can be absolutely certain that He will intervene in our difficult situations as He sees fit. Now I want to be clear that God's interventions don't necessarily mean that He will physically remove you from persecution or from suffering. because sometimes his will for his children is to go through great pain and even death and sometimes for reasons known only to our sovereign God he does bring about physical deliverance I can't think of a better example of this in scripture than what we read in Acts chapter 12 we read that the apostle James was arrested by King Herod and then martyred for his faith he was killed And then right after that, Herod seeing that the people loved that, he had Peter arrested. He was planning to murder him, but yet God did intervene, and Peter supernaturally was taken out of that prison and out of the hands of King Herod. So why did James die and Peter not? That's up to the Lord's sovereign plan. But it does happen. Regardless though of whether God physically delivers you or not, you can be sure that he will minister to you and wonderfully work in your life when you are in trouble. And we know this because the writer of Psalm 119 tells us so in verses 121 through 128. Let me read it again to you. I've done justice and righteousness. Do not leave me to my oppressors. Be surety for your servants for good. Do not let the arrogance oppress me. My eyes fail with longing for your salvation and for your righteous word. Deal with your servants according to your loving kindness and teach me your statutes. I am your servant. Give me understanding that I may know your testimonies. It's time for the Lord to act, for they have broken your law. Therefore, I love your commandments above gold. Yes, above fine gold. Therefore, I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything. I hate every false way." Now, the way these verses are laid out is the following. First of all, the psalmist tells us about the oppressive situation. that he found himself in. This persecution that came from his enemies. That's how he opens this paragraph. Secondly, he tells us why he felt so confident that God was going to deliver him from his oppressive situation. And that's really the heart, the core of this stanza. Why God is going to deliver him. And finally, he closes this paragraph by telling us about his love his personal esteem for the word of God and his hatred of everything that was contrary to scripture. So I want us to begin where the psalmist begins by seeing at least the difficult situation he first tells us about. He starts off in verse 121 saying this, I've done justice and righteousness do not leave me to my oppressors. Now he begins this stanza by telling the Lord, this is his prayer, that he has lived his life practicing justice and righteousness and for that reason he appeals to God not to leave him to his oppressors. Now It may sound at first as if this man is being a little boastful here, even self-righteous about his behavior, claiming that he always practices justice and righteousness, and using that as the basis for why God should deliver him, as if his performance of godliness should move the Lord to rescue him, as if he doesn't deserve such oppressive treatment, because he's such a good man. Now, it may sound like that to us, but that's not at all what this man is saying. Not at all. He's not boasting about his behavior. He's not claiming to live an impeccable life of righteousness. I remind you that throughout this psalm, this man has been very transparent, he's been very honest to tell us his faults, his own spiritual struggles. For example, back in verse 5, right at the beginning of the psalm, he said, O that my ways may be established to keep your statutes. What this tells us is that he didn't always keep God's ways. His ways were not always established that he was obedient all the time, but he desired to. So just in praying that, O that my ways may be established to keep your statutes, tells us that he knew he was a sinner who didn't always keep the statutes. Secondly, he's also told us that he struggled with honesty and pursuing riches. Tells us this in verse 36, incline my heart to your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. It tells us that for some reason that was a temptation for him to go into something of dishonest monetary gain. You don't pray this if that's not an issue. So he struggled with that. In fact, he's told us that there was even a time in his life when he had backslidden, when he had gone astray from the Lord. He tells us in verse 67, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. So there was a time that he wasn't even walking in fellowship with the Lord and he knew it. So in light of these statements, and there are others, this is just a sampling, We understand that when we come to verse 121, he's certainly not telling us that he's a faultless man who's lived such an exemplary life of justice and righteousness that God owes it to him to rescue him. He's not telling us that at all. So if that's not what he's saying, the question is, then what is he saying? Listen closely. By saying, I have done justice and righteousness, do not leave me to my oppressors, he's simply telling the Lord that the present danger he's now in is not because of some sin that he's recently committed. In essence, he's saying that his conscience is clear, that these men whom he calls his oppressors, they're not punishing him for something that he's done wrong. That's what he's saying. In other words, he's saying that he's suffering unjustly, not because of any specific sin that he has recently committed. See, what this man is bringing up is really the age-old issue of the suffering of the godly, especially when that suffering is in the form of persecution at the hands of the ungodly, which is precisely what this man is currently going through. In fact, for the very first time in this psalm, he uses a word he's never used before. He uses the word oppressors to describe these men who were persecuting him because that's what they were. They were bullies. They were bullies who have not only taunted and slandered and lied about him, they were even threatening to murder him. No doubt these were the same men he spoke of earlier in this psalm. We don't need to go back over those verses because we've covered it extensively. But these were the men who were lying about him, threatening to kill him and then throw him in a pit in the earth. They were slandering him, criticizing him, had contempt for him. Now what the psalmist then, in light of this, what he's most concerned about is that God will abandon him and abandon him to these men who were now oppressing him. Notice that this is precisely what he prays in verse 121. He says, do not leave me to my oppressors. In other words, he's asking the Lord to not forget him. He's asking the Lord, requesting that God intervene and not abandon him to those men who were now oppressing and persecuting him. See, what this man wants, the desire of his heart here is for God to come to his rescue and not permit his enemies to continue carrying out their attacks on him. And he is so concerned about this that he states something very unusual concerning this in the next verse. Notice verse 122. He says, Be surety for your servant for good. Do not let the arrogance oppress me. Now, according to biblical scholars, this is the only verse in all of Psalm 119, in which the psalmist doesn't mention either directly or even by remote indirect reference to God's Word. But what he does in this Psalm is he presents his petition to God in a very unique way. He asks the Lord, notice, to be surety. for him so what does that mean to be surety for him well this Hebrew word that's translated surety is a word usually associated with guaranteeing financial loans it means to stand up for someone by guaranteeing that you will pay back their loans if they don't in other words it is a pledge it's a pledge that another's financial obligations will be met in the case of default so in legal terms It signifies that a person who becomes surety is legally held responsible for the debt of someone else. However, in this context, the psalmist isn't asking God to guarantee his financial loan or debt. There's nothing about that here. He's not asking God to stand up for him in a monetary sense, but rather, watch this, he's asking God to stand up for him by protecting him. from these men, who he calls the arrogant, to stand up for him, to protect him by intervening in the situation so they'll stop oppressing him. In other words, he's asking the Lord to take up his cause, to act in his place, to represent him before these wickedly proud men since, watch this, he says, since he is his servant. Listen closely, the fact that he refers to himself in this verse as your servant, that's highly significant. Because by using this description of himself as the Lord's servant, in essence what he's saying to the Lord is that you are my master. And as my master I appeal to you to take up my cause and represent me before these oppressive men. Now let me tell you why this is such an important truth and why it's relevant for us. Because when we come to the New Testament, we see very clearly the principle that when God's people are being persecuted or mistreated, the Lord considers that He Himself is being persecuted and mistreated. That is to say that as our God, He takes our persecution personally, because we're His servants. and even more than his servants we are his children and he is our Lord and he is our father where do we see this in the New Testament well we see it very clearly in Acts chapter 9 in the context of Saul before he became the Apostle Paul who is persecuting the church we read in Acts chapter 9 starting in verse 1 now Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord he went to the high priest and he asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, that's the Christian faith, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground, and he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus whom you are persecuting. This was to result in Saul's conversion. But what I want you to see is that Jesus said in persecuting my people, you're persecuting me. I do take it personally. We also see this principle. Again, in Matthew chapter 25, where we are told that when Jesus returns, at His return, our King, Jesus, will say in judgment to those who rejected Him during the Great Tribulation, He'll say, starting at verse 42, For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they themselves also will answer, Lord, When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of you? Then he will answer them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. How they treated his people, Jesus said, is how you treated me. I take it personally, he said. See, now going back then to Psalm 119, the psalmist then, he's appealing to God that since he is his servant, he's asking God to take up his cause and stand in his place and deal with his oppressors. Because for someone to hurt one's servant is, in essence, for them to hurt one's master. Now we'll see more about this a little later in this psalm. down the road, but understand that the psalmist, in asking God to be surety for him, he's doing this because he's in such a horrible place. He's so desperate for his help that he's asking God to step in and represent him. This is such an intense longing of this man that he tells us in the next verse that he's been looking for God's intervention for so long that his eyes actually ache from straining. He's straining to see, as it were, any movement of God on the horizon, any indication that God is doing something to alleviate his pain. He says in verse 123, my eyes fail. with longing for your salvation and for your righteous word." Now, this is a man who's been waiting a long time for God to come to his rescue. How long? We're not told, but a long time. But he hasn't seen, nor does he see now, any evidence of this happening. And many of you can relate to him. Because the trial that you are presently going through has been long, arduous, and you haven't yet seen God's deliverance. You've been waiting. You've been praying. You've been waiting. You've been praying. And even if it's just a brief time, it feels like a long time. And yet you see nothing happening. Well, if that's the case, then let this man's example be an encouragement to you, because although he says that his eyes are strained and they ache from looking for God to fulfill his righteous word, and he sees nothing, notice he keeps looking. He doesn't stop. He refuses to give up looking. He's persevering. He's being steadfast in believing that God will come to his aid, even though he sees no evidence of that happening. He's seen no evidence of it happening for a long time. That's exactly what you need to do if you're going through a severe trial. You must keep believing in the promises of God, you must keep trusting the Lord, you must keep praying to Him, because God in His perfect time, which none of us knows anything about, when that time is, and God in His own perfect way, and none of us knows how that will be, He will intervene in your situation. That's what this man did. He persevered. He was confident, absolutely confident. It was only a matter of time before the Lord would intervene. That's why he didn't give up. That's why he kept looking. So, in light of this, in light of this man's steadfast perseverance, The question then becomes, why? Why was this man so confident that God would rescue him and deliver him from his enemies? Why did he believe that God would intervene in his life when up to this point there was nothing he saw that even resembled a rescue? Well, there is a reason. that he believed that God would come to his aid. In fact, there are three reasons for this. Three reasons why he was so sure that God would save him. And folks, it's these three reasons that make up the heart, the core, the meat of this stanza. Because in the next few verses, this man spells out the basis for his confidence that God would not forsake him, that God would step in, that God would deliver him one way or another, that God would rescue him from those who were oppressing him. And in spelling out these reasons for us, this man is teaching us. He's teaching you, he's teaching me. He's teaching you why you can be certain that God will not forget you in your distress, regardless of what kind of distressing trial it is. It might be persecution, It might be illness, it might be a financial crisis, it might be a family, marriage crisis, whatever it is, there is a biblical basis for you to be confident that the Lord will come to your aid. But like the psalmist, you need to make sure that you're trusting God. that you're looking to Him, believing what His Word says, and specifically His Word that He will deliver you and work in your life one way or another because of the very reasons that He lays out for us, the psalmist does here. So what are these reasons to have confidence that God will act on your behalf? This morning we want to look at the first one, and it is a precious one. It is a life-changing one that I hope that you will allow the Spirit of God to apply to your heart and to saturate your life with. Reason number one why we can be confident that God will act on our behalf, one way or another, is because of God's love. Because of His love. Verse 124 says this, Deal with your servant according to your lovingkindness and teach me, your statutes. Now the first thing the psalmist does in terms of telling us why he was so confident that God would not forget him, is he appeals to God to deal with him, notice this, according to his loving kindness. Deal with me, deal with your servants according to your loving kindness. Sometimes, depending on your translation, this word is translated mercy, But the thought behind this word is that of God's covenant faithfulness to be kind and loving to His people. That's the thought. In other words, to act on their behalf, as He said He would. It's His covenant love, His covenant mercy. Folks, I want you to know that this is one of the most precious and one of the most comforting statements you will ever read in all the Word of God, because it tells you that if you are a child of God, then God deals with you based on his love for you. Now that's a truth that you may know intellectually. That's a truth that you may know theologically. But all of us need to be reminded of God's love for us so that it grips our souls. Especially when we are going through a severe trial. You see, it's so easy when you're going through a crisis to actually doubt God's love. To believe Satan's lie that God really doesn't care about you. That if he cared about you, he wouldn't let you suffer like this. That's a temptation all of us have faced at one time or another, and perhaps many times, and it may be one that you're currently struggling with. That's why this is a great verse, this verse 124, to memorize, to meditate on, because it reminds us that God is not indifferent to our pain. God is not one who is unconcerned when we suffer, he deals with us, the psalmist said, according to his loving kindness. That's why the psalmist is praying this way. Deal with me according to your loving kindness. That's why he's so confident God will deal with him because God is loving and kind. Listen, one of the greatest truths in the Bible is the simple and yet profound truth that God loves us. How many verses in scripture speak of God's love and concern for his people? So many. But the greatest expression of his love comes in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for our salvation. According to the first few verses of Ephesians chapter 2, God has regenerated us, meaning he's given us spiritual life by his power. He has saved us, even though we were once spiritually dead, disobedient and wretchedly rebellious to him in every facet of life and he's regenerated us and saved us for no other reason than the fact that he loves us that's all Ephesians chapter 2 starting in verse 1 and you were dead in your trespasses and sins that means you were unresponsive to him you responded wrongly to him dead not sick dead in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, so we were dead but we were hostile, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience, that's us, among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, by our very nature, children of wrath. We acted out what we really were, children of wrath, even as the rest. Verse four, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. And Paul goes on to say, he made you alive. He regenerated you. Then he'll say he saved us. So whenever you find yourself going through a hard time and perhaps questioning God's love, his love for you, perhaps even complaining about his treatment of you as if you deserve to be treated better than you are, you need to remember the truth about yourself. You need to remember where you've come from. Where have you come from? The verses that I just read. That's where we've all come from. You are simply a sinner, saved by God's mercy, His grace, and His love, all of which you don't deserve. Concerning God's mercy for us, In our attitude when we are suffering, Jerry Bridges in his classic book, and if you have not read this, I urge you to read this book, Trusting God, Jerry Bridges wrote these words, when we begin to question the love of God, we need to remember who we are. We have absolutely no claim on His love. We don't deserve one bit of God's goodness to us. He said, I once heard a speaker say, anything this side of hell is pure grace. Anytime we are tempted to doubt God's love for us, we should go back to the cross. We should reason somewhat in this fashion. If God loves me enough to give his son to die for me when I was his enemy, surely he loves me enough to care for me now that I'm his child. Having loved me to the ultimate extent of the cross, he cannot possibly fail to love me in my times of adversity. Listen, no matter how bad your circumstances are, you can and you must rest in the truth that God loves you and he has your best interest at heart. And that Romans chapter 8 verse 28 applies to you. And we know that all things are working together for the good to those who love God. Those who love God are believers, not a certain class of believers. Every believer loves God. but I want you to look again at verse 124, and I want you to notice exactly what the psalmist says in this verse about how he wants God's loving-kindness to be demonstrated, expressed in his life. He has something particular in mind. He says, deal with your servants according to your loving-kindness, and then watch this, he says, and teach me your statutes. Now what this man is saying is that the way he wants God to deal with him in his love is by teaching him more of his word. What an incredible truth. Just amazing. See, this man realizes the more he understands God and God's Word, the better he will be able to go through his suffering and his pain. And he associates this understanding of divine truth with God's love for him. I want us to stop here for a few minutes. I want us to think about this because this is a very significant point, a life-changing point that this man is making. The psalmist recognizes that one of the ways that God shows us his love is by enabling us, teaching us, enlightening us to understand his word. Now he's not simply referring to knowing some Bible verses in general. but rather to knowing and comprehending biblical truths which will help us to endure severe suffering. That's what this man is talking about. Spurgeon put God's love and mercy in teaching us his word this way. He said, we may expect a master to teach his own servant the meaning of his own orders. Yet since our ignorance arises from our own sinful stupidity, it is great mercy on God's part that he condescends to instruct us in his commands. For our ruler to become our teacher is an act of great grace for which we cannot be too grateful. Among our mercies, this is one of the choicest. Now folks, consider how lost you would be without an understanding of the Word of God. Think about how bleak it would be to go through a crisis, some really dark experience, and not have any understanding of God's sovereignty, of God's goodness, of God's wisdom, of His love. Think of how horrible it would be to go through some oppressive situation like the psalmist was going through and not know such verses as, for example, 1 Peter 5-7, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. If you don't know these verses, I'm going to mention a number. Write them down, at least the references. Imagine going through life and having a hard time and you don't even know this. 1 Peter 5-7, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Or 1 Corinthians 10, 13, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Or Philippians 4, 6 and 7, Be anxious for nothing, But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all human comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Or, 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10, and he said to me, Paul said this, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Or Romans 8 again, verses 28 and 29. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And what is His purpose? For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. Or 1 Peter 5.10. How wonderful is this verse. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, establish you. And I love Romans 8.18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And we could go on and on and on. That's just a sampling. Not only are verses like these comforting and encouraging when you're going through a trial, but the psalmist tells us that God, in his love and kindness, teaches us these truths. Meaning what? Meaning that he gives us discernment and understanding and knowing the in-depth meaning of these truths as well as giving us wisdom and knowing how to accurately apply them to our lives during specific difficult circumstances think about how kind God is to us to give us truths from his word that help us to make sense at least to some degree out of our suffering to help us to understand again at least to some degree why we suffer he didn't need to tell us this but he did that's an act of God's kindness Listen to these very encouraging words from Dr. Peter Masters in his book, Faith, Doubts, Trials, Assurance. This is the book that our men on Friday are studying and I was reading ahead of chapter two and here's what Dr. Peter Masters said. He said, contrary to what we would naturally like, the most effective environment for the strengthening of faith is provided by trials. permitted by the Lord in order that we should cast ourselves upon his help and prove his promises. And he gives Bible references for this. If we react well to these, there will also be spiritual benefits for those around us, both believers and unbelievers, as they see us stand up to our problems, maintaining Christian character, love, and unselfishness. We remember that it was through trials and weaknesses that the trust of the Apostle Paul grew to the point where he could say, most gladly, therefore, I will rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He writes, if trials are faith-strengthening, the opposite is often true of times of ease and prosperity, or of good health and strong capability. If not handled properly, these may serve to be faith-weakening by producing self-reliance and spiritual complacency. No doubt this is why the Lord seldom permits such times to last for long before we are touched by some kind of hardship. Folks, that's just brilliant because it's so biblical. He just nails it. God, in his mercy, sends suffering and trials our way to deepen our faith. And God doesn't have to reveal truths like this about suffering, but he does. And he does, the psalmist said, because of his loving kindness. He wants us to have understanding, understanding with hope in the midst of our suffering. In fact, it was the love of Christ that moved him, if you'll recall, to use the last hours of his life to explain truths to his disciples about the sufferings that they would experience after he returned to heaven. We call this the farewell discourse, the upper room discourse. It's John 13 through John 17. The Lord, knowing that this was coming to the end of his life, actually took his last few hours in love to explain to them about the coming of the Holy Spirit, about persecution, about life without him. He didn't need to do that. Most of us would be thinking just about ourselves if we knew that we only had a few hours to live. But not our Lord, out of love. and mercy. He spent those hours teaching, talking, explaining. So God's love is expressed by teaching us truths to live by, teaching us and giving us promises to cling to. Don't take that for granted. One of the most foolish things that a believer in Christ can do is to neglect the study of the Word of God when he's going through a trial. But sadly that's what so many Christians do. They fail to spend time privately in the Word and they stop coming to church where the Word of God is publicly proclaimed. They just sort of retreat into their own usually pity party world. This is the foolishness of leaning on our own understanding and coping with the emergencies of life. God out of his loving heart not only has given you his word, but he is willing to teach you and guide you into an understanding of his truth so that you will know how to meet a crisis effectively. But you need to avail yourself of his teaching by opening your Bible and actually, you know, reading it, studying it. It's been my observation as a pastor of many years Most Christians who have come to me over the years, not all, the majority, for counseling because of some bad situation that they now find themselves in, it's been my observation when I ask them that they have been neglecting their own personal study and reading of the Word of God. They haven't been spending time with the Lord in prayer. or maybe now crying out in a crisis, but up to this point they've been spending time in prayer, they've been spending time in His Word, therefore they don't know how to deal with the crisis. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way for you at all. Because what we have learned today is that you can be confident that God will minister to you in your crisis because He loves you. And one of the ways he shows his love for you isn't necessarily to remove you from that bad circumstance. He might, but not necessarily, but rather to strengthen you and to encourage you in your bad circumstance. And he does this by giving you an understanding of his word. What a kind thing to do. Listen, never underestimate the power of the word of God. This book is living. and it is God's living voice to us it will encourage you it will comfort you it will strengthen you like nothing else because it is God's voice his loving voice telling you the truth about himself and listen knowing about God what he promises from his word to do for you that's exactly what you need to hear when you're suffering that's the best thing we need to hear Today, if you find yourself going through some horrible set of circumstances, I want you to know you can have confidence. Confidence in God that He knows all about your situation and that He will intervene in His perfect time and in His perfect way. How that is, I don't know. You don't know either, but you can trust God. You can be assured of this. Why? Because He has told you in His Word that He loves you. and that He's interested in your life. And if you ever have doubts about His love, then just remember the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ. That's the greatest proof of His love for you. Now, if you're not a believer in Christ, then understand that God loves you too. He still loves you. And He invites you out of His love to experience His saving love. Saving grace by trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior. You can. If you're willing, you can. Call upon Christ. He died for sinners like you. To save your soul for all of eternity and to forgive your sin and to put His righteousness on your account and put you in right standing with God and give you a relationship with Him so that these truths that you read about in His Word make sense to you. They become personal to you. I urge you to do that. Come to know Christ. If you're a believer, obey what you've heard today. Have confidence in Him. Let His love grip you as you spend time in His Word, reading what He has to say to you as He'll strengthen you in your trial. As we go to prayer, I once again remind you there'll be a few elders here up at the front of the auditorium when we close. If you'd like to speak with any of them or pray with them, they're here. And I invite you back tonight as we continue this incredible study from Ephesians 4. Let's pray. Father, thank you for loving us. Thank you for demonstrating your love through your revelation of your word. What a dark world it would be if we had no voice from you. What a bleak existence it would be if we went through trials and you were silent. But we thank you. You are not silent. You have spoken. Help us to avail ourselves of your spoken and written word. We pray that you'll help us to get into the word. I pray for those going through a trial now that you will strengthen them by verses that we brought to their attention today or other verses, but strengthen them, Lord. And may their prayer be like the psalmist, deal with your servants according to your loving kindness and teach us your statutes. Lord, we pray that you'll help us, as Dr. Peter Masters points out, to be a good testimony. to others, to an unsaved world that knows nothing about this, that we can go through trials and yet have joy and yet have confidence in you and our world doesn't collapse because you sustain us. We pray to that end. We pray also, Lord, for those here without Christ. We ask that you would open their hearts to know Christ, to call upon Him, to turn to Him and in repentance turn from their sin and to trust, simply trust, Christ and his death on the cross for their salvation. This we ask Lord in Jesus name. Amen.