Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Brethren, at the 40th chapter of Isaiah, the first verse.
My people saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she hath received, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins, the voice of Him that crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, cry, and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is, is the flower of the field. The grass withereth. The flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass, the grass withereth.
The flower fadeth, but the word of our God standeth forever shall stand forever. O Zion, that bringeth good tidings, get thee up unto the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God, Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him.
Him, behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills?
In a balance who have directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him, and then passing on to the.
26th verse.
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things that bringeth out their hosts by number. He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power, not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God.
Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard?
That the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding.
He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Well, I suppose there never was a time when God's people desired and to be comforted so much as this day in which we live. There are so many trials, both in business, in the home, often in the assembly. How delight to have one that we can turn to and find comfort. And we find here that it's repeated twice. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.
Showing that our God is truly indeed the God of all comfort, the one who wants to encourage us even in a difficult day. And the very chapter before we find such a great godly king as King Hezekiah and how he had failed. This failure is brought before us and as we think of ourselves, we might indeed hang our heads and think, how can I expect any comfort when I think of myself? And what a failure.
Have been but immediately after this chapter, the 39th chapter telling about Hezekiah and how God was going to have to deal with his hymn and Israel because of his failure immediately starts comfrey comfrey. Oh my people and so surely he does delight to encourage our hearts. He would have us to be going on.
And especially, brethren, as we think.
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Of the nearness of the Lord's return, that we might be found as those who are awaiting and a watching people, finding truly our comfort and our joy in Himself.
In the second verse, when it says speak ye comfortably, you have a margin. You'll notice that it says speak ye to the heart.
Speak ye to the heart, to Jerusalem. And God does delight to speak to our hearts, tells us in the book of Proverbs. My son, give me thine heart. That's what he wants. Brethren, He died to win our hearts affections, not only to deliver us from the just penalty of our sins. We deserve punishment. He could have just delivered us, but all his heart will be satisfied with nothing less than the response of our heart.
Our brother brought before us that love as strong as death. And then he read also that other verse that says the man give all the substance of his house for love, yet shall be utterly contemned. That is, he looks on what he has given up, and he says it was nothing. I received love in return. What did the Lord give up to win the return of our hearts? Love He gave up. Everything He sold. All that He had He gave.
Himself and the return that he desires is our hearts affections. And in that coming day, when he has his own around himself, who is going to lead the singing? We think of how grand it will be to be there. We sing, but what will it be to be there? But his joy is going to exceed ours, because he's going to find His delight in having his people around himself.
And so this afternoon, I just like to speak.
As it says here, a few words to our hearts. We may not see the removal of all the difficulties, but we can find that which satisfies our hearts. Many of us perhaps have been in trial. Someone who loved us has come, taken our hand, and perhaps has spoken a word of comfort and that helped us over the difficult spot. And this is just exactly what the Lord is seeking. To do here is to speak to our hearts.
Hearts and enable us to go on even in times of difficulty and of trial.
And then it says, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Perhaps I hear someone say, I don't find much comfort in that receiving double for all her sins. What comfort could there be in that? Well, you know what God is seeking to teach us. Our brother mentioned this this afternoon too. The 2 Great.
Lessons of the wilderness, and that is that the flesh profited nothing and God's faithfulness. And if trials have that result in our lives, brethren, there will be true comfort following if we resent the trials. If we don't learn by the trials, then the Lord may have to deal with us again and again. But when we have learned through the trials, and why does it say double?
Oh, isn't it so the Lord often has to.
Passes through the same thing more than once where such slow learners. But when we have learned it, then we have found in himself that which answers to our souls need, then we've found true comfort. There's no comfort when our confidence is in the flesh. There's no comfort when our confidence is in the arm of man or something that we can do, but when we have come thoroughly to the end of ourselves and lean wholly upon him.
Then we find an arm that will never fail. As it says, the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Have you felt low? Do you feel down? You can never get below those arms. They're always underneath. No matter how low we may feel, no matter how much we have failed those arms of love that are around a believer, they'll never fail.
Underneath are the everlasting arms. So what might seem strange to us naturally can be understood when we see God's purposes, because it tells us that even in chastisement His purpose is for our good. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. He passes us through things to do us good.
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At our latter end, and so all.
His dealings with us, as it says in Hebrews 12, that He chastens us for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness, I couldn't say. I always corrected my children for their profit. Sometimes it was for myself. Sometimes if they were noisy and I wanted them to be quiet, it wasn't for their good. It was for myself. I said be quiet. Stop making so much noise. That was just for myself.
The Lord never corrects us unless it's for our good.
Isn't it lovely to think that we have such a father and so if he does have to pass us through a great deal, and some of us especially must admit we are slow learners in his school and so he has to pass, as I say, through the things more than once. But the comfort comes when we have learned what he has for us in the trial, just like Job.
Think of poor job. He lost his family, he lost his.
Possessions. Wasn't that enough? No, it wasn't enough to bring Job down. Then he lost his health. Wasn't this enough? And then the hardest thing of all, when his friends spoke unkindly and wounded him. What? That seemed as if that was all he could bear. But God was seeking to do job good. And as it tells us in the Epistle of James.
He have heard of the patience of job and have seen the end.
The Lord. What was the end of the Lord in connection with Job's case? Oh, he gave him twice as much as he had before, twice as much. And those friends too, all came and had to recognize that that trial, or those trials in Job's life, were really for his good as well As for the Lord's glory.
So it goes on in the third verse, The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Perhaps the reason it says the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness is that if you got out in a place where no one would hear you, you might say, well, I'm just wasting my energy here. I'm shouting out. Nobody hears what I'm saying.
But he says it isn't wasted.
John the Baptist said that he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, but his message was wonderful. He was announcing the coming of Christ. He was announcing the one and the only One who could straighten out all Israel's problems and finally bring them into blessing. It might have seemed a worthless effort that he was putting forth, but the Lord said, among those born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Did you ever?
Feel you tried to do something and it was absolutely worthless. Oh, isn't this a comfort to know that God speaks of this in connection with John the Baptist and tells us what he thought of John's service and so how encouragement it is for us just to go on.
Speaking the words of the Lord, being faithful to him. And then it says, Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
The wisest man in the world, King Solomon, said that which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is rough cannot be made plain. Why did he say that? Well, he was looking at things as you could see them under the sun. Haven't you felt that way often? You say that's never going to be straightened out. It's impossible. Oh, if we look at things just under the sun, if we only are looking at it from man's viewpoint, perhaps.
That's the way we would look at it. But isn't this different here? When we think of this one who has come, the one whom John the Baptist announced, that one who is able, the man of God's counsels, then he could say every valley shall be exalted. And these experiences of life that seem to put us down, that get us right down into the valley, as it were, how are we going to look at them when we get up in heaven?
Why they're going to be exalted, We're perhaps going to say that's the most wonderful experience of my life. Not the time when I thought that everything was fine. Perhaps that was self that was being exalted, but those times when we got so low that we felt cast down but cast upon the Lord and then it says every valley shall be exalted of often said that, no doubt.
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When we made Shadrach.
Meshach and Abednego in glory, they're going to tell us that that experience in the fiery furnace was the grandest experience of their whole pathway. And yet it was not very pleasant to feel that in faithfulness to their God they had to suffer like that. But that was the result, and that is how they're going to view it. I believe in that coming day.
And then too, every mountain and hill shall be made low, those things.
Things that perhaps we thought were so great. The hymn writer has put it something like this. Deeds of merit as we thought them. He will show us where but sin. Little things, though long forgotten, he will show were done for him. Some of those things that we thought were the mountaintop things where we got a lot of prominence and were noticed and everybody gave us a lot of praise.
Oh, maybe that was just a lot of self. Maybe that was something of the crop and the feathers.
But oh, how we're going to view things differently in His presence. When the Lord has His rightful place, when He has our brother brought before us yesterday in the young peoples, when He takes the throne of His glory, then everything is going to be valued according to his His sense of what is right and what is to be commanded.
And then it says in the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. Well, what a comfort this is. So we know, brethren, there's going to be a time when everything is going to be set right in His presence. It takes faith to count upon that. The man of the world says, well, this life is the place, and we have to try and do things down here.
But you know, there are some things that we just have to leave.
Wait, because everything is going to be righted in His presence and in the presence of one who forms a proper valuation of everything, who makes no mistakes. We know that Jonathan was used one time to win a great victory in Israel, and Saul came along and tried to get the credit for himself. Well, God had the record down properly.
God has the record down properly.
Mary poured out her ointment at the feet of the Lord, and all disciples all spoke against her, but the Lord was the one that placed a proper value on what was done. Oh, how good it is to know that the crooked is going to be made straight, and the rough places shall be made plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.
And all flesh shall see it together.
That time when the Lord Jesus has his rightful place, then everyone is going to see because I I believe that.
All is going to be manifested there. How often the Scripture speaks of the judgment seat of Christ. We know that when the Lord Jesus takes the throne of His glory, everything is going to be set right as regards this world. Everything will be brought into order. It says a king shall reign in righteousness and Princess shall rule in judgment. But I believe too at the judgment seat of Christ.
All will be manifested according to his.
Glory, what is suited to Him? Are you and I content to wait that day?
And so in the sixth verse, the voice said, cry. And he said, What shall I cry?
And the answer is, all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof. His is the flower of the field.
I suppose when he was, when he asked this, when he heard this voice saying cry, and he said What shall I cry, he didn't expect an answer just like that. To cry. All flesh is as grass. No, we like to tell things in a way that perhaps honors ourselves with how much we know and how well we can explain things and all that sort of thing. But when he said, What shall I cry?
Why? Why? It says he was to cry, All flesh is as grass. When I read this, it makes me think of someone who said to Mr. Darby many years ago, recognizing that he had a good knowledge of the Scripture, He said, Mr. Darby, you have a good knowledge of the Scripture. Can you tell me how to study the Scripture? Because this young man desired to get that enviable.
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Position, in fact, having a good.
Knowledge of the Word. And Mr. Darby's reply was study Well for words the flesh profiteth nothing. Well, I believe that's just what it means here. When he asked what would he cry, he was told to cry. All flesh is as grass. Because, brethren, if we're expecting something from the flesh.
Will always be disappointed, but if we have learned this lesson, which I believe is being set before us in this chapter, is that the flesh profiteth nothing, that all fleshes as grass that is puts on a display, but there is really nothing abiding, and the glory of it all passes away. When we have learned this, then we learn not to rely upon man.
One of the hardest things for us to come to is the point.
See she from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted out? So he was to cry this. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people his grass. And then he repeats it again.
Reminding us of the importance of coming to this point. And I say it's a point that we're all so slow to come to.
The psalmist said I have seen an end of all perfection, or you say that person let me down, but I'm sure that brother, that sister will never let me down. I'll be careful if you're going to see an end of all perfection, if you're looking for it in the flesh, but you won't see an end of it in the Lord Jesus. No, He's the altogether lovely one when the bride was asked in the Song of Solomon.
What is thy beloved more than another beloved? What was her answer? Oh, she said that he is. My beloved is altogether lovely. He's the chiefest among 10,000. Has some person disappointed you? God is just teaching you that all flesh is as grass, and by these things teaching us to lean upon the One who is.
Altogether lovely one who will never disappoint us.
Never, because He's the same yesterday and today and forever. And as we're occupied with Him, then we can press on amid the disappointments. And I do believe that the Lord leads us here. We're going to see more and more that would disappoint us. As far as man is concerned, it's a principle in God's ways that he never judges until iniquity comes to its full and we can expect brethren to see things get.
Worse in this world, and not better, we can expect to see, as we learn from the letters to the churches in Revelation, that the last state described is indifference to the claims of Christ. And so, instead of looking for what the world says, brighter days down here, in a sense the Scripture prepares us to expect that anything that depends upon man will always break down. But isn't this precious?
Word of our God shall stand forever. Can any failure in man, can any failure in government, can any failure in the home, can any failure in the assembly ever change God's precious, unchanging word? Never. It's going to stand and all that God has purposed, all that God has said he was going to do.
He's going to fulfill through the man of God's counsels.
When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove him with hard questions and to see the glory of the Kingdom under Solomon.
First of all, the things that bothered her were those hard questions. They were sort of standing in the way. And maybe I hear people saying I surely have a lot of hard questions if I can only find somebody that would give me an answer to those questions. Well, this was what bothered the Queen of Sheba to But when she came and talked to King Solomon and the glory of his Kingdom, every one of those hard questions was answered. And I want to tell you, brethren.
Not a hard question in your life or mine that will not be answered to our satisfaction in his presence. I say to our satisfaction because you ask another person and they give you an answer and well, you say, well, I think I see it a little clearer perhaps, but you don't really say that's, that's just exactly what I wanted. But when we hear his answer, we're going to have an answer to everyone and it will be to our.
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Satisfaction. I believe that's what is referred to in the end of the 5th of Revelation that was read to us this morning. It says there in the end of the 5th Revelation when the Lord Jesus is there and the whole creation is acknowledging him, the Redeemer singing, the angels are giving honor to him. All creation is honoring him. Then the chapter closes by saying.
And the four living creatures said Amen.
You know, those living creatures represent to us God's governmental ways in connection with the earth. And when they're brought in at the end of that chapter, full of praise and worship, it's just as if those creatures that represent God's ways say, I see it all now. It was all working out for a purpose, and now it's all fulfilled. And so the living creatures said, Amen, we'll never question his ways there.
But then there was a second thing she wanted to see the glory of his Kingdom. Had she fully appropriated for her soul the glory of the Kingdom under Solomon? Oh no, she said. The half has not been told me. The glory of his Kingdom was far beyond what she had anticipated. She'd heard about it, but now she had come to see it. And so it tells us here. The word of our God shall stand.
Forever but God has purposed is going to be fulfilled. And as our little hymn says, with joyful wonder, we'll exclaim, the half hath not been told.
So he goes on to say, Oh Zion, that bring us good tidings, Get thee up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.
You know, on the chapter before.
14 Hezekiah just been told that all the glory of his Kingdom was going to be carried away to Babylon. What a disappointment, what a let down that all the glory of that Kingdom under Hezekiah was going to be carried away. But here isn't this lovely? Now Jerusalem, Zion is addressed and told that they could have good tidings, not bad tidings like in the chapter before.
Good tidings. Why all didn't depend on King Hezekiah depended on the man of God's counsels, the Lord Jesus, the one who's going to take his rightful place. And so they were not to look to Hezekiah, but it says Behold your God, behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arms shall rule.
For him and his reward is with him and his work before him.
Doesn't this bring before us, brethren, three lovely thoughts? Says here His arms shall rule for him. That shows that he's going to take everything in hand and everything is going to be brought into order. And then it says his reward is with him. To me that's most touching. You know, the Lord is going to have such pleasure in giving rewards that it says his reward is with him.
His reward is with him. I think that's lovely. You know, sometime, perhaps some of us parents have experienced this. When we come home, we can hardly wait to open our bag and perhaps give one of our children or our wife something that we bought, something that we have for them. We can hardly wait. And can I say this, brethren, the Lord is so pleased with any faithfulness in your life and mine that as soon as the time comes.
Why, He has a reward right with Him. He has it right with Him. He just can't delay to tell us how much He appreciated any little thing that is done for Him. We think you know of what it costs us sometimes to be faithful to Him, but what will it be in comparison to His love? And what will its? How will it surprise us to see how He valued such things? And then the third thing.
And his work before him.
I believe it shows us that the Lord is going to do this. All His work is before him. He's the man of God's counsels, and so he's the one who is going to set all things right.
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He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, He shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
I enjoy this verse here because it shows the different stages. It speaks about the flock, it speaks about the lambs, it speaks about those that are with young. And you know, as I stand here, I know there are different stages of spiritual growth. There may be babes and there may be young men and there may be fathers. Sometimes we who are a little bit older don't fully enter into this. Perhaps we expect a little bit too much sometime.
Times from those who are young, maybe we think that they should have a more firm step in following the Lord. But isn't it nice to see here how the Lord just like a shepherd? He understands that there are sheep and that there are lambs and that there are mother. With young He enters into all this. And isn't this precious? The Lord knows the stage in which everyone is in his Christian life. There may be some who are just young here.
You've just been saved a short time, maybe, you say. There's a lot of things that I haven't yet learned about what the Lord would have me do. Well, isn't this precious here? It says, he shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom. That is, he picks up the lambs and carries them right close to his heart. They are dear to him. When he rose from the dead, he gave a special Commission to Peter. He could have easily said.
Had to feed my flock, and that would have covered the lambs and the sheep both. But he didn't. He said feed my lambs, feed my sheep. He gave a special charge because he entered into the special needs. And each one of us are at different stages in our Christian life. Sometimes some of us need to be carried and sometimes some of us need to be LED. And, you know, do we know how to carry?
It's a lot harder to carry somebody than to lead them, isn't it? But the Lord knows all about those things. I often think about that man in the 10th chapter of Luke who was picked up in the ditch and then he was brought to the inn and this Samaritan said to the innkeeper, take care of him. And whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee somehow. I can picture that.
Keeper saying, oh, this is no place for sick people. This is a place where we provide bad meals. But here you bring the sick man here, how can we take care of him? And the Samaritan said, well, if he's any extra bother to you and you have to spend a little extra on him, he said I'll repay you when I return. Do we know how to carry the young? Do we know how to show that tenderness and understanding the Lord does here?
When he speaks.
Differently about the lambs, about the flock, and about those that are with young.
Well, I didn't read the verses here that follow. It talks about God's greatness as Creator, and as we lift up our eyes and behold all His handiwork in creation, could we doubt His wisdom?
Sometimes we've said, I suppose, why did that happen to me? And we almost questioned if God was wise enough to understand what I needed. And isn't that often coming to your mind? Your mind?
Well, God says, just look up in the creation and see my wisdom as you view the vast creation about you. And who made all these things? Could you doubt that I understand and know all about you? You and I are just specks in God's great creation. He calls the stars by his name in recent years.
Men have been finding out much more of the wonders of the constellations.
And of all the stars about us. But God put them all there, and ordered them all in their courses.
And does he know about us? And then he goes on to speak about how the.
How the man who makes an idol, how foolish he was.
Something that he made with his own hands and falls down and worships it. And so aren't you and I likely to depend on something that we have made with our own hands? Her brother was saying when talking to the young people about those idols that he had seen down in Peru. But how there are other kinds of idols. Aren't there many things that we look to for deliverance? We wouldn't fall down to an idol like perhaps the heathen did. We'd say. How foolish for them to think so.
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But we have lots of things that we've made with our own hands, and we're looking to them for deliverance. We think that they're the answer, but they're not They're not. And so he says, why not trust in the one who made all these things? And so in the end of our chapter here.
He says in the 26th verse, Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things that bringeth out their hosts by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power. Not one. Faileth says He measured out the heavens with a span.
Men have been discovering something of the size of the heavens, but they're not bigger than God's hand.
His hand is greater than the whole measure of the heavens. And he says, Just look up and see all those things, and know that God calls them all by name. And then he gives us a little challenge, shall I say in this 27th verse, Why speakest thou, O Jacob? Sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou Israel? My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God.
He looks first upon them in nature. For whenever you read the word Jacob, it speaks of that people, the people of Israel, as to what they were in nature. And isn't this the way we talk? We just talk like natural men. Sometimes we say, does God really understand all about this? Isn't it nice for us to realize as we look up and see all this and know that He measures?
Heaven with a span and all that. He calls those stars by name. And can we say he doesn't know about my pathway? My, my life is just so complex. It's all mixed up. I'm sure that nobody could untangle all the things in my life. Oh, he can, He can, dare we to say.
That our way is hid from the Lord, and that our judgment is passed over that He did.
Know how to settle some problem in your life or mine. Can we say that of the one who has made all these things? So he, as it were, challenges. He speaks to them, O Jacob, what they were in nature. And then he changes the address and says, And why sayest thou all Israel? Because that means a Prince with God. And it tells us that he's raised us as beggars from the dunghill and made us.
Sit upon to inherit the throne of his glory and has seated us among Princess. So he's really telling us here that we were talking like men in the flesh, but that isn't the way he sees us. He sees us as Princess with God and he knows all about our pathway. A little song says Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. He's able to tangles of life to undo what a comfort this is.
And then again raises the question, Hast thou not known, Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. It just seems that He covers every question. He's told us all about His greatness. But I know some great people, but they're not very much interested in me, and they'd get tired of listening to my troubles if I tried to tell them.
Because they wouldn't be interested. But we've got one who faints not, neither is weary. You can come and talk to him and tell him the whole thing, and if it takes five hours, he's still willing to listen. He knows all about it. And so he wants us to come. He faints not, neither is weary. And there's no searching of his understanding. He knows all about it. Things that we can't.
Understand, he knows it says there is no searching of his understanding and he not only doesn't faint himself, but he gives power to us when we do faint. So I could have a friend who has great power and he listens and he has a little expression in the world. Well, he's a good listener. Well, but it's nice to find somebody that's a good listener, but I'd like a little more than that He's not only a good listener, he gives power to the.
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Faint isn't this grand. He not only listens to it all, but does his good, as the psalmist could say, Pour out your hearts before him, and then when you've poured it all out, then the fine. He gives power to the faint. Oh, you say I'm more than faint. I just have no strength. To them that have no might, he increases strength.
What a portion we have, what a God we have. Why should I ever carefully be?
Since such a God is mine, he watches army night and day and tells me Thou art mine.
And then he shows that natural strength will never do. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. No one were young. We sometimes look back when we were younger. We wonder sometimes how we could do some of the things we did. But we were young and we had a lot of energy and, and we plowed through the things and managed to get done well, you know.
Natural strength even of youth can't straighten out these things. Youth is experiencing a great deal of problems today, and I must say that they have a lot more energy than I have. They can.
Go ahead. And a lot of things where some of us would say, well, that's all I can take. But even the youths shall faint and be weary. The young men shall utterly fall. There used to be a time when men further along in life said, oh, I just at the point of giving up. But there's a lot of youths, there's a lot of young people that are saying I'm at the point of giving up because the battle is far too great for us.
Dear young people, you and I just can't meet the conflict.
Of life in our own strength. But greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Satan is arranging everything and gathering his forces, but there's one that's stronger. There's one who's above it all. And he's head over all things to the church, which is his body. And so I just want to close with this 31St verse. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with.
Wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. I've just enjoyed those 3 little points there. Mounting up with wings as eagles means that the Lord can help us to get above the difficulty if there's a problem while a bird just flies up and it's above all the problem because there it is floating through the air, the Lord can help us to do that. He can make our feet like Heinz feet and.
Prove this, that very often he does. But you say it's not that way with me. I just can't seem to get above it. Well, what's the next one? It says they shall run and not be weary. You say I just can't get above it. Well, it says even the running person can't get above it. But at least he hasn't given up. He's running, and he's finding daily strength as thy days, so shall I strength be. But I hear somebody say I'm down to walking.
I can't get above it, I can't run, I'm just barely walking. Well, it says they shall walk and not faint. That is, the Lord is sufficient. Whatever our situation, no matter how difficult it may be, or how feeble our poor response to all that He has set before us, whatever it may be, He's always there. He's the one who gives grace to help in time of need.
Well, no wonder the psalmist could say, the writer could say.
They comfort my people. Why? Well, not because we found anything in the flesh that we could trust in, but because in some measure I hope rather than we have learned that the flesh profits nothing. But I hope we have also learned the all sufficiency of our God.