Father, once again we come before you asking that you would be with us in our service, that this portion of our service, and that you would bless us to be able to speak according to the oracles, and that it might be in such a way that it would not only bring glory to you, but that it might be beneficial to the souls of all who hear. We know that you are Gracious and loving, you are marvelous in all of your ways. And yet in the midst of all of that. We find ourselves questioning you. And we do not know how much of all of that is sinful. Though we could easily believe that the majority of it is. We do have reason to believe that maybe all of it is not. And therefore, we thank you for the truth of your word and the marvelousness of it. Help us as we endeavor to show forth these truths to your honor and glory in Christ Jesus. Amen. Turn back to Matthew 26, where we were this morning, looking at our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. Again, as we were looking at that, we say again, there is no way that we know how to fully comprehend all of the turmoil and the stress of soul that our Lord experienced in His humanity. In His humanity. There's a passage that comes to mind. I don't know where it is other than it's in the book of Isaiah. And that says a great deal about the death of Christ, not the death of Christ, but the turmoil in which our Lord underwent. And if it were not in the scriptures, I never would have thought it. And I can't even remember the gist of it. I just know there's a passage there that's astounding. And so it's not even in Isaiah 53, I don't think, or 52 leading up to it. It was just kind of a passage stuck out there somewhere in Isaiah. But as we're looking here in Matthew 26, We saw that Jesus took His disciples, and then He took His inner circle, Peter, James, and John, and asked them to go with Him a little bit further and to watch with Him. To watch with Him. That meant to pray with Him. And they fell asleep. They fell asleep. How many times have we been in service and someone had been leading in prayer and you went to sleep on them. How many times have you yourself, maybe in your own closet, been in prayer to God and have gone to sleep on Him? I'm not talking about laying down at night. That would be far easier. It's something else when you can be on your knees and the next thing you know, you're waking up. I remember on one occasion being over in Oklahoma with Brother John Ashwood and them. There was a man there that was dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. He had been a Hollywood actor. God had changed his heart. It was just a blessing, good blessing to know Dear Brother George, George Davis I believe was his last name. But a bunch of us men there one night, we stayed at the church building all night to pray for Brother George. And before we began to pray, Brother John in his wisdom, I kind of wondered about it at first, but he said, Some of you men have been working all day and some of you have been driving quite a bit and various and sundry things. But he said, I'm quite sure that some of you are going to get sleepy and want to go to sleep. He said, what you need to do is just lay down and go to sleep while the rest of us pray. And then when you wake up, some of us may go to sleep while you pray. And I thought there was quite a bit of wisdom in that. I thought, you know, you think I'm going to sit up and be like the Lord and I'm going to pray all night like He did. Well, very few of us can ever attain unto that. Then when you think about not only our Lord, but Moses on two different occasions, and Elijah up on one occasion, went 40 days and 40 nights without even eating. You can imagine, no wonder those men were greatly renowned in the scriptures. Not only did God bless them to be able to do that, but they had the intestinal fortitude to be able to exercise themselves unto that. And so here he is asking people to agonize with him, as it were, and they were unable to do it. I'm trying to look at this to see somewhat of a leading up to that expression on the cross. My God, my God, why hath thou forsaken me? And we dropped off at verse 38, 39 this morning. And then we come back. I want to start up with verse 39. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Here again, we see the complexity of the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ. You know, it's hard for us to know where one starts and the other stops. It's like Acts 20, 28, where Paul said that God purchased the church with his own blood. Well, we know God did not die. It was the Son of God that died. It was Jesus Christ. Excuse me, the Son of God himself did not die. It was the humanity that died. It was Jesus that died. And yet the nature, the divine nature and the human nature are so united to that one person, we don't even know how to separate it. We don't know how to separate it. There are some people that they try to dive into it and say this part was divine and this part was the human and so on and so forth. I think they're trying to slice too thinly what God hasn't revealed to us sometimes. So I just put it all together and go on. I'm not smart enough to separate all of that out. But here we see that again in the garden. And I think we see the humanity breaking through when he says, if it be possible, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Now, he was in great agony when he said that. Great agony. And we'll see that a little bit Later, let's read on here. But he's resigned to the will of God. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine. Not my will, but thine. Jesus is still teaching us in the midst of affliction, the spirit that we ought to have. Sometimes we get to the point in the midst of our trials and we say, Oh God, You've just got to lift it. Please lift it. I do not know that we oftentimes are in the same spirit when we would say, Nevertheless, Father, not what I want, but what You want. It's hard for us when we, in our sinfulness, are in great trial and great affliction to say in all honesty, Father, I want what you want more than what I want. I tell you that is a crushing of the sinfulness that is in us and pressing the oil of infection that is in our soul from us. But as he continues on, verse 40, And he cometh unto his disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Peter, wait a minute, what's going on here? You just said a few moments ago, just a little while ago, I will never, though all men forsake you, I won't forsake you. And he comes to Peter out of the three, and he says, Peter, could you not watch with me one hour? Could you not pray one hour with me? Verse 41, Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. A lot of times we say, boy, I'm going to do this. I'm really going to do this. I'm going to put away this sin. Or I'm going to be more devoted to God. I'm going to read more. I'm going to study more. I'm really going to do it. We do not realize the weakness of the flesh. Oh, if we could be as free as a dove, and to fly away and to be rid of our flesh. I tell you, that's going to be a great consolation to stand before God, holy and without blame and no bit of sin to trouble our fellowship or to block our fellowship with Him. And then verse 42, He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me except I drink it, Thy will be done. O, if I must drink this cup, O, if I must, then Thy will be done. If there is no other way, then I will do this that thou hast required of me." And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them. He didn't even wake them up that time. Kind of like we might say, I don't know what he thought, but I'm just using that and making my own from, you know, we'd say, what's the use? I woke them up once before. I asked them to stay awake. And I woke them up. Now they're still asleep. What's the use? And He left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh He to His disciples and saith unto them, Sleep on now. Take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Alright, just go ahead and sleep. Just sleep on. If the time is approaching though, here is the time that I must be betrayed. I want us to turn to Luke chapter 22. Then we might fill in the gap a little bit and look at this from another angle. Because Luke indeed brings things to our attention that Matthew did not. Luke chapter 22. Beginning at verse 39, just a few moments before that, he told Peter that Satan had desired to sift him as wheat, but he had prayed for him. Now as he goes into the garden, he prays for himself. And He came out and went as He was wont to the Mount of Olives. That as He was wont shows that this is not a new thing. He was accustomed to going to the Mount of Olives to pray. And His disciples also followed Him. And when He was at the place He said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation." See, again, our Lord is teaching that we have the liberty and the right to ask God to lead us not into temptation. We can pray that. And we need to pray that. And we need to pray that. I can tell you, if you've ever had much trials and affliction, that is a great encouragement to you that God has given you this liberty to ask Him, don't let me be tempted. Don't let me be tempted. Keep me, I pray. Because you know how weak you are. You know how frail you are. You know how much you would bring shame and reproach upon the cause of Christ if He left you to yourself. besides the fact that we just don't want to hurt anyway. Foolish is the individual that does. Verse 40, And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, if you be willing, remove this cup from me, Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." Notice again here our Lord, from all eternity, from all eternity, it was foreordained that He would come and die. And now when He is getting down to the very end of it, here is the time, He is still praying, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. You remember our Lord in His humanity, when asked of the second coming and the final day, said, No man knows that hour, but my Father, which is in heaven. Jesus Christ in His human nature was ignorant of the end time. Not in his divine, but in his human nature. And I would submit to you the great possibility here the human nature is crying out. If there's any other way. If there's any other way. You see, beloved. Our Lord hurt for you. He hurt dearly for you. Realized that his sufferings. Was more than just the bodily. Pain that was inflicted upon him. Before the bodily pain, there was the agony. We've already said and read in Matthew 26. He was in a great agony. He was he was in agony. He's going to go through something he's never gone through before. And he prayed that even at the 11th hour, the 11th hour and 59th second as it were, is there any other way? Is there any other way? And then notice verse 43. Ah, what a divine consolation. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. How many times, beloved, have you been in trials and just ready to throw in the towel? And somehow there was a burst of energy that came forth and strengthened you. No doubt the angel of God, that may be your guardian angel, might be more than one, but here the angel came and strengthened him. You see, the humanity of Christ, the humanity of Christ could not endure without divine intervention. It was the divine nature that gave strength to the human nature, but not the divine nature alone, because even an angel, an angel came and strengthened him in this hour of affliction. And then note verse 44, and being in an agony. Ah, as if he were not strong enough in Matthew. Luke, the physician, comes along and intensifies the agony, an agony, a specific agony. And being in an agony, he threw up his hands. No, he prayed the more earnestly. He prayed the more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Here he is. I have heard, I do not know, I have not done a lot of research on this, but I have heard that it has been noted that men have been in battle and been so scared that they were going into battle they actually sweat blood and blood would pop out on their forehead or something because of just being under great intense pressure and such fear. Well, if that is the case, what was the intense pressure in the very soul of our dearly beloved Savior that forced the blood through the pores of his skin, not so much a little bit. I never read or heard of any soldier being so scared that his blood was so much that it fell to the ground. Here our Lord was in great agony, and he sweat as it were great, great drops of blood, and it fell to the ground. Oh, the agony! Oh, the agony of the sufferings of Christ in His very soul as it was here. And when He rose, verse 45, and when He rose from prayer and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow. And He said unto them, Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. So here he is. He's in this great agony. He goes through being arrested. He goes through the trials and through the mockery. He goes to Pilate. Then he goes to Herod. Then he goes back to Pilate. And then they take him on the cross. And he lays up there on the cross. And as he's beginning to expire, he cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I tell you, beloved, there was not one ounce of sin in that choir. There was no reason for anyone to hang their head in shame because of that choir. And I submit to you that in the midst of trials and afflictions, sometimes the wires are pressed from our hearts and our souls, that it is not a disgrace for the Christian. It is not a disgrace for the Christian. As we said this morning, we're not prepared to say when it's simple if it is not because of our own sinful nature. But I can tell you this with great assurance in my own heart and soul that I believe that our Lord God in heaven understands and sympathizes. with us even when he withholds his hand and does not supply the sustaining strength that is desired in the appointed hour as he did with his own beloved son. Let's look at some of David's life. Go back to the Psalms. And I doubt we will get through with this this afternoon. And I'm not ignorant of the fact that in some of the psalms that I'm going to read, there are some positives, as it were, some delights, some joys. But I'm wanting to focus and bring our attention to the fact that the psalmist even has his questions at times. Not to excuse us in our sinfulness where we are sinful in our questions. But at the same time, to give insight to the Word of God that our questions may sometimes not be so out of the ordinary as we may think. I used to think that all questions were always sinful and always wrong, and we never had the right to question. And therefore, I will probably burden you with more scriptures than normally because I think it may have been presented so one-sided for so many years. Months ago, I do not know how many months ago, but it may even be close to a year or more now, I have been contemplating upon this. Why? contemplating on this wine, trying to bring some of this together. So we may preach two or three sermons on this, but you can be rest assured a lot of thought has gone into it and a little bit of studying. I think it would take quite a bit to be able to exhaust all the scriptures along this line. Psalm 2. Psalm 2 starts out, Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? And the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands in sunder, and cast away their cords from them. Now, we do not say necessarily that this why is one that might have to do with David directly in his own suffering. However, because of the way that the world is, and because of the way that sin is around us on every hand, and because of the way that the rulers are against Christianity, It makes the Christian want to cry out, God, why are you letting all this go on so long? Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? I can tell you for certain that the world is no friend of Christ. And when the world makes great consent toward what appears to be maybe Christianity, then they're going to do it from a worldly standpoint. I'll give you one in particular. If you watch any movies, and if you watch any television, if there's anything that has to do with any good thing about so-called Christianity, it's going to be what? It's going to be Catholic. It is sure not going to present the truth of Christ, that there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. No, it is going to have this idea of this mother and all of this other stuff as if they are the holy ones. What I am trying to show is that any time that Christianity is even somewhat appearing to be put in a positive light, it is going to be through a false religion. This world is no friend of Christ. This world is no friend of Christ. And the people imagine a vain thing, and the heathens rage, and the kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and against His Anointed. They are going to do everything they can to tear down Christianity. I saw recently on the news that they were saying now that young Christians are no longer waiting. And that young Christians now, they have sex about 80 percent while the world is 89 percent before marriage. And this is a good thing that they are saying. has always been Christianity, and when God's children are following Christ and serving Him, they are not going to be 80% sleeping in the bed together. The problem is, most of what goes under the name of Christian is not Christian. But the world is going to make their rage, and they are going to imagine vain things. And you're going to have to put up with that. You're going to have to put up with that. Remember this. Jesus Christ did not send the Gospel to reform society. Jesus Christ did not send the Gospel to reform society. Jesus Christ stood before Pilate and He said, My kingdom is not of this world, and those who know the truth and those that are My disciples, they will know the truth, and they will follow the truth. The Apostle Paul did not try to reform society. The Apostle Paul did not try to, and no New Testament preacher, we do not have any New Testament authority for the fact that they tried to get in with the government. They tried to get in there and they tried to force the government to be Christian. The only time that happened was in the 300's when they forced Constantine and his army And they brought them down beside the river and took limbs and slung them in the water and sprinkled on the soldiers and said they were all Christians. And then they had a Christian nation. And what did that Christian nation do? Because of the wickedness and the ungodliness of the rulers in power, they killed everything that wasn't Christian to them. And they've been killing everything that wasn't Christian to them ever since. If you'll study enough of Voltaire, you'll find that Voltaire, his campaign was against Catholicism. His campaign against Christianity. There was one writing, I've got it stored away somewhere where I'll be sure to find it. I can't find it anymore. But there's one place that Voltaire spoke of the Waldensians and those that were being persecuted by the Catholics as being good Christians. He spoke highly or he spoke favorably of them. But you don't hear that much. You don't hear that much. "...Tired of the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords." That's what they say. Let us break their bands asunder. The heathen, they do not delight, they do not desire to be in good company with the Christians. And it will never be that way. Not this side of glory or till the return of Christ. It will not be that way. And even then when He comes, He will rule them with a rod of iron. The Lord will have them in derision. The fourth verse is a positive. But until the fourth verse comes. We have to endure one, two, three. And we will cry out, God, why is this going on? Have you not ever looked around and said, Lord, how do you keep letting this go on? Why do you let this go on? They speak evil against you. They speak evil against your cause. They speak evil against your word. They hate you. They blaspheme you and on and on. They make jokes about you. Why do you let it go on? I submit to you, those questions are not wrong. Just make sure your heart's right. Make sure there's no unjust malice. Well, I don't know whether there's ever any just malice, but you know what I'm trying to say. Make sure that it's not sin behind the questions, but it is a holy righteous crying out. David cried out here. All right. Look at Psalm 3. Here it comes more personal. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God. Notice that. David is crying out to the Lord. Lord, look at how all of these people are troubled And how is that they are against me? If you will notice your subtitle, that this was a Psalm that David penned as he was fleeing from his own son that was trying to kill him. See, David was being afflicted. You say, well, we are not going into behind all the reasons for that. Notice and go back and study. You'll find it. You know how long it was that Absalom waited around to openly rebel against his father? If I'm not mistaken, it was 40 years. He sat outside the gate of Jerusalem and other places, talking to all of the people. You talk about a politician, he was a politician par excellence. He had them all eating out of his hand. And David says, Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against me. Notice this, many are they which say of my soul there is no help for him in God. David was being troubled in his soul and that God is not helping him. God is just letting the enemy overflow him. There's no help. And people were saying, God's not on David's side. And so much to say that David was beginning to wonder, is God on my side? Has He just left me to myself? Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt distressed and think that God was against you? Notice in the fourth Psalm, Hear me when I call, O God, of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity and seek after leasing? You should remember that leasing is lying. It's an old English word for lying. But David is coming to God. Oh God, how long is this going to be? These people are lying about me. These people are not saying the truth about me. Oh God of my righteousness, Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. I'm in distress and it's getting bigger. You've enlarged me when I was in distress. Have mercy upon me. Hear my prayer. Oh God, have mercy. Have mercy. Listen. Please hear my prayer. Don't read these Psalms so nonchalantly that you're rushing through in order to get your 15 minutes in of Bible reading a day. Stop and chew upon them. Meditate upon them. Feast upon them. Think about them. How long, O sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame?" You say, well, we shouldn't have anything to glory in anyway. Well, that's true. But I can tell you this, it hurts. When your glory is turned into shame, it hurts. And when God brings you down to show you just what you really are, it hurts. You say, well, we deserve it. Well, we do deserve it, but it still hurts. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, though it yieldeth the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12 tells us. No, it is not joyous. Look at Psalm 6. Oh, Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger. Neither chastise me in thy hot displeasure. I tell you, when you read that Psalm, when you're in the midst of trials and afflictions, it'll get your attention. Unless you're so focused on the trial and the affliction, you're just calling words and you don't even know what you're reading. O Lord, don't rebuke me in your hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed. But Thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for Thy mercy's sake. How long? How long? How long, O Lord? How long is it going to go on? You're in there and you're hurting. And some comforter comes along and tritely says, Well, remember Romans 8.28, all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right. But I'm crying, how long? How is this working together for my good? I don't see any good in it. How long? My soul is sore vexed. My soul is sore vexed. Do you think that David was sinning in all of these psalms? I don't think so. Remember, these psalms, yes, I said psalms, which are psalms, those are to be sung unto the Lord. God has given us a hymn book God has given us Psalms to sing unto Him. What do you think God wants us to see in these Psalms if it is not some of the things that I am trying to present to you? I am afraid that we go through worship so much by rote. We sing this song. We sing that song. We don't have the Psalter like some folks do that have these Psalms set to music. Some of them we probably couldn't even sing anyway. But nevertheless. We can read them. And we can pray these Psalms. To our holy God. through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ from the depths of our souls. Oh, Lord, rebuke me not in thy hot displeasure. For fear of getting too close, of being out of line with the scriptures, I won't say too much, but I will say this much. When I read those lines and I think upon those lines, it's like, Daddy, don't be real mad at me when you spank me. We as sinful parents, when our anger is out of control, we may discipline our children unjustly. Well, God never disciplines unjustly, but I submit to you the thought of that analogy no doubt was in David's heart. Rebuke me not in thy hot displeasure. David was sensitive in his soul to his Heavenly Father. Are you sensitive in your soul to your Heavenly Father? I submit to you some of the most sensitive times that we have with God is in the depths of afflictions. That's usually when all of the facade of religiosity is stripped away. And we are at our most state of nakedness. And at the most rawish part of our soul to our most tender spot before God. Have mercy for I'm weak. I'm weak. I've said I was going to do great things for you. Now in the midst of my trials and afflictions, I want to throw up my hands and quit. Have mercy. I'm weak. I'm weak. Someone sent me a thing this past week of a statement of John Warburton. He talked about all the things. It was based on the Philippians 2, 12, and 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God that worketh in you, and ye are both willing to do of his good pleasure, and so on. And Joe Warburton went on to talk about, I can do this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, as long as the Lord is with me. But let the Lord lead me to myself, and do nothing. And he said, this is the experience of all saints. And it is. All right. Look in the seventh Psalm. Oh, my God, in thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me, lest he tear my soul like a lion and rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver. God, deliver me. Lest he tear my soul in pieces." I tell you, it is one thing to have body being torn apart and pain endeared and so on. But when your soul is torn apart, I believe someone said there is no trouble like soul trouble. David knew that. Save me from them that persecute me and deliver me, lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver. O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hand, if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, yea, I have delivered him, that without cause is mine enemy? Let the enemy persecute my soul and take it. Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth and lay mine honor in the dust." David said, God, in this matter, if I was wrong, if I was wrong, Then let my enemy come in unto me and persecute me this way. But I'm trusting in you. Save me from those that would tear me apart this way. Verse 6, Arise, O Lord, in thine anger. Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. You know what? You can see in this also, it is not wrong sometimes. We must continually search our souls to see and make sure that there is no bitterness or malice and all of that. But at the same time, there is the right to say, God, deliver me from my enemies. Take up the fight. Destroy my enemies. Remove them. From before me. But I give the caveat again, we must be careful. We must be careful. We must be careful. Look at Psalm 10. Psalm 10. Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?" Notice this. God, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. I'm in great trouble. Why are you so far away? Why are you hidden from me? Why are you not there encouraging and strengthening me? Have you ever felt that way? Be honest. At least be honest with yourself and God. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. God, let them fall in their own trap. God, remember Haman? You remember how he tried to get rid of Maboth? You remember how he was hung on his own gallows? God hanged these people on their own gallows. For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth. Notice that. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous, Thy judgments are far above out of His sight, As for all His enemies, He puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages, in the secret places doth he murder the innocent. His eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as the lion in his den. He lieth in wait to catcheth the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him in his net, and so on. Notice in most of this psalm, the psalmist is not talking about necessarily personal, though it is involved, but it's more focuses on how the wicked are oppressing others. I don't have any problem asking God to remove from office our leaders that are ungodly and wicked. Even if he must kill them. I pray for the conversion. The right people get a hold of that. They may think I'm a terrorist, but I'm not a terrorist. I don't have any problem asking God to remove wicked local leaders or wicked bosses. You know why? Because the scripture says, righteousness exalts a nation, not wickedness. Wickedness doesn't exalt a nation. Wickedness destroys a nation. Righteousness exalts a nation. Now, if I were to have some bitter malice against some wicked leader, and had some hatred against a particular leader, and then I'm trying to get rid of that particular leader just because I didn't like that particular leader, then my heart's not right. So we have to continually weigh our hearts before the Lord in these matters. Well, I've got some other Psalms, but we'll have to look at them later. Like I said, we're going to look at quite a few of them. Because I want you to see the balance and try to present a balance as much as I can to show that yes, we're sinful. And yes, we may sinfully question, but yet realize that all questions may not be sinful. And we do, in other words, The Lord knows our frame, that we are as but dust. And He's not sitting up there with a huge club waiting for you to mess up so He can hit you with it. These are lessons that are found in afflictions. Let's pray. Oh, my father, if I have taken too much liberty with thy word, please forgive and remove from the minds and hearts and souls of all who hear. But where there is a resonance of conformity to thy word, I pray that it would be a balm to the souls of the afflicted. And if some are not afflicted now, when they are afflicted, that they might remember such passages and that it might sustain them in those trying hours. I beg forgiveness of my sins of lack of trust and faith in you in times of trials and afflictions. But I am so grateful, my God, that you do know my frame, that you're willing to listen to the chattering of this crane. You're willing to listen to the stammering of the soul of this sinner. And yea, when like a baby, pitching his fit, that he knows not what, as the wise parent that you are. you know how to bring one back to reality and cause him to climb up into your lap as it were and to feel the caresses of omnipotent arms and the beating of a heart full of love and compassion upon a dumb child that knows not what he is doing. Oh, what a delight it will be to be in your presence without sin. The former things will have passed away and all things will have become new. And then we shall be able most likely to better understand and have a greater appreciation For the intense agony of our Lord. In that garden. When the angel was sent. To strengthen him. That he might press on to the cross. Though even still. Crying out unto you. as to why you have forsaken Him. Our theology is so, so shallow, we know not how to plumb the depth of such phrases. But for an anticipation of possibly knowing a little bit more about it, causes our heart to palpitate and to say with John, come quickly, Lord Jesus, even so come quickly. But until that time, according to the prayer of your darling son, my father, hear him. When he said, though he would not take us out of the world, but hear him and keep us, keep us, keep us from the evil, keep us from the evil one. Lead us not into temptation, but when so, bless us to know that while it is not joyous that we can trust like Job when he said that he would come forth as gold to know that it shall lead to the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby. Here we pray, O God, in Jesus' name. Amen.