I turn to Jeremiah, chapter number 31. Jeremiah and chapter number 31. I've decided to wait until the holidays are over to finish our series on Philippians. We do have one chapter left, chapter number 4, which is many folks' favorite chapter. And I thought with all the holidays and this and that, we're going to interrupt the series many times. I thought we'd just pick it up in January. A number of weeks ago, I was reading from Jeremiah chapter number 31 for my personal devotions. I don't know what system that you use. But this year, God led me to read through the Bible. And at that portion of time, I was in this portion of Scripture on whatever day it was. And, you know, you read a little bit of the New Testament, a little bit of the Old Testament. I think it's good to read through the Bible in a year if you can. But do make sure you get something out of your devotion. Sometimes, I have found, when I decide to read through the Bible in a year, that I'm more concerned about checking a box than I am about getting something. And you want to make sure you meet with the Lord, all right? So, figure out a way to do it if God's led you to do it. Make sure you meet with God and you can say, hey, this is what God gave me today. Now, not often do I get sermons from my personal devotions. God gives them in various different ways and shapes and forms. But a number of weeks ago, while reading this passage of Scripture, a phrase stood out in the book of Jeremiah that God used in my life by way of encouragement to me. And I want to share with you tonight just from one phrase in Jeremiah, and then we're going to actually take a little trip. We're going to place ourselves in the wilderness with the children of Israel. And I want us to try to see what they faced in the wilderness. The Scripture says this in Jeremiah 31, and verse number 1, At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Verse 2, Thus saith the Lord, the people which were left of the sword, speaking of those people who escaped the cruel treatment by Pharaoh in Egypt, you know God's people were enslaved in Egypt, and God obviously delivered them from Egypt. It says, the people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. And I want us to concentrate some thoughts this evening, tonight, on that phrase, grace in the wilderness. While sitting in my recliner chair that morning, a number of weeks ago, I thought about the wilderness, and I thought about what the children of Israel faced in the wilderness. When we find ourselves in the wilderness, The first thing that comes to mind isn't grace. It's usually some kind of trouble in one way, shape or form. And I thought about this from God's perspective. He said those people found grace in the wilderness. The wilderness was not a real happy, pleasant time. It was one of growth, spiritual growth. It was one of changing the children of Israel. It was one of them seeing God meet their needs. And so what I want to do this evening, as I thought that morning in my recliner chair, I thought, well, what was it like in the wilderness? And so I thought this evening that we would join the children of Israel in the wilderness. And I want to give you five. There are many different things they faced in the wilderness. But I want to give you five things that stick out with me while they were in the wilderness that they faced. And I want us to see tonight and encourage ourselves with this fact. There is grace. In the wilderness, we'll conclude by looking at 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 8. God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. So let's take our Bibles and turn to Exodus chapter number 14. Exodus chapter number 14. And let's join the children of Israel in the wilderness. And I want us to see what they face. And then we're going to look and remind ourselves over and over again that God's grace is. It was sufficient for them. And God's grace is sufficient for us no matter what we may face. You may be here tonight and you say, you know, I find myself, I feel like I've been in a little bit of a wilderness. God sometimes uses wilderness experiences in our lives to draw us closer to Himself. And I trust that as we look at what they faced, and as we look at our lives and what we face, that God's grace, and we'll see that it is sufficient, just as it was sufficient for them, so God's grace is sufficient for us. Exodus chapter number 14, and we find the first challenge, if you would, that the children of Israel faced upon leaving Egypt. And I want to categorize that this way. Number one, they faced human impossibilities. The wilderness is often a time in our life of human impossibilities. Exodus 14 and verse number 10, And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were so afraid. And the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord, and they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians that we should die in the wilderness." They were facing the Egyptians on one side. On the other side, they were facing the Red Sea. Can you imagine the children of Israel there? Here they are at their first encounter. They get out of Egypt and they think, wow, this is great. We're finally free. And they find themselves staring at the Red Sea on one side. And they look and they see Pharaoh's army. Now here's what, a million or so people that are traveling all together with the wives and the kids. And I don't think they had any military tanks. And here they look and they see the Egyptian army coming and they see the chariots and they think, we are absolutely doomed. In the wilderness, the first thing they faced was human impossibilities. It was absolutely humanly impossible for them in this situation. And we're familiar with the story. The Bible says, if you look at verse 13, Moses says, Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. What a great phrase. Stand still. We don't like to stand still, do we? We like to make things happen and do what we can to make things happen. But in this case, he says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Verse 23 of Exodus 14, And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass that in the morning, watch, the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they draved them heavily, so that the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel. For the Lord fighted for them against the Egyptians." And what happens? Verse 30, "...Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore, And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians. And the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and His servant Moses. They found folks grace in a time of human impossibility. Do you ever find yourself there? You find yourself facing something and you look at it humanly speaking, you say, this is absolutely impossible. I remember my senior year at Bob Jones University. I'll tell you this. I've told you this before. It was absolutely, for me as a teenager, humanly impossible for me to ever stand in front of a crowd. Absolutely humanly impossible. I got the call slip in my box that day and it said, hey, you are scheduled to pray in chapel. The Bob Jones Amphitoreum seats about 5,000 people. And from the back where you sit to the front pulpit, the pulpit is absolutely just huge. And I sat out as a student and I'd think, wow, that's pretty big. Wow, look at that. This is a big place. And then I received a call slip that said, you're scheduled to pray in chapel. I couldn't get out of it. And I tried to think of everything I could to try to get out of this. And you meet all the big honchos, you know, in the back. You know, the president there, Bob Jones III, and you know, all these deans, these people that you never really want to see, you know, because when you see them, you're in trouble. And we got back there, and I tried to be confident, but I'm scared to death. Inside, my heart's beating, and my knees are shaking, and I'm thinking, this is absolutely humanly impossible. I can't believe they're making me do this. You know, I spent a lot of time there and wanted my diploma. And so I sat there and I knew at a certain point in time, you know, you're supposed to walk up there. You're supposed to walk up there before the hymn was finished. You know, and everybody, all this crowd, you know, they're singing a song and then they think, oh, look at this guy walking up there, you know. How did I know that? Because when I was out there singing, I'd see guys walk up and think, oh, look at that guy. Look at him walking up there. And then you have to get up there and pray. And when you pray, I'm telling you, it echoes. And you pray and it comes back to you, you know, and you feel like, whoa, human impossibility. But you know what I found in that situation? God's grace. It's sufficient. I tell you, the hardest classes for me in Bible college were speech classes. I liked speaking in front of people. I hated it. I tried to do everything I could, and in high school I got out of it. It was absolutely, to me, humanly impossible. But I'll tell you this, when I got my eyes off of myself and got my eyes on the Lord, my human impossibility became that which God could do in my life. His grace, folks, is sufficient. And He says that His people in the wilderness, they found grace. And I'll tell you, when we face human impossibilities in our lives, folks, I'll tell you this, God's grace is sufficient. It's sufficient. Secondly, I want us to continue on our journey with the children of Israel. I want you just to turn over. Actually, stay in the same chapter. Actually, no, turn over to chapter 15. And we're going to see the next thing they faced. Number one, they faced human impossibilities. Number two, they faced desperate needs. They faced desperate need. Look at verse number 22. Verse 22, the Bible says, Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea. And when they came out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days into the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of the place of it was called Marah. And of course, they murmured against Moses, what shall we drink? And what does God do? God meets the need. In verse 16, The whole congregation, verse 2, the children of Israel murmuring against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, would to God we had died. And the end of verse number 3, it says they brought us into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. I mean, I'll tell you the children of Israel, and you look, and you slide over to chapter 17, and you see another similar situation with regards to the need for water. Verse 17 and verse 1, And the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. What did they face in the wilderness? They faced human impossibilities. Secondly, they faced desperate need. I mean, they were without the necessities of life. You can't go for long without eating or without drinking. You can't do it. And here they are out in the wilderness having obeyed God, having obeyed God's man, and they find themselves without food or without drink. God miraculously provided for His people. Why? Because of God's grace. God's grace, folks, is sufficient for us in time of desperate need. Have you ever been there? You look in the bank and there's no money. You look in the savings. What savings? The one you got rid of a couple of months ago. I remember a number of years ago, my wife and I, it was December. It was right around the holiday season. We left the staff Christmas party and got in our car and looked at each other. It was a dark night, a cold night. Our children were at home with a babysitter, and we looked at each other as she got in the car, driving away from the staff Christmas party. And I said to her, what are we going to do? And my wife's very positive. She's positive. I'm telling you, she's optimistic. She says, oh, we'll find something. We'll find something. And the whole way home we just talked about God's goodness. We had nothing. We had nothing in the checkbook. There was not a savings account. I didn't get paid for three days. There was absolutely nothing. It was a time of absolute desperate need. We drove and talked and praised the Lord and prayed together until we got home. It was about a 30 minute drive or so from the staff Christmas party to our house. We pulled up and just before we went into the house, we did what you do. You know, we pulled over to the mailbox to get the mail. And wouldn't you know, in our mailbox, there was a check in the mail. God's grace is sufficient. We sat at the mailbox and shared tears just a little bit and thanked the Lord and thanked God for His goodness and thanked God for His grace and His mercy in supplying our need. Folks, sometimes we find ourselves in the wilderness. And when we find ourselves in the wilderness and we find ourselves facing desperate need, we can hang on to the fact that God's grace is sufficient. The children of Israel in time of desperate need found God's grace. In the wilderness, they found it sufficient. Number three, I want you to see this. Not only did they face human impossibilities and desperate need, they faced constant challenges from the enemy. Look at Exodus chapter 17 and verse number 8. Obviously, they faced many more enemies as they approached the promised land. And as they went and took the promised land, Verse 8 of Exodus 17, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joseph, Choose this out men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon, and Aaron and Hirsh stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for our memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. For he said, Because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." God's grace, folks, is sufficient. When we face constant challenges from the enemy, do you ever feel attacked? on every side. You feel oppressed and stressed. 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul said this, verse 8, we are troubled on every side. Wow, yeah, that's me. Yet not distressed, we are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find ourselves constantly challenged from the enemy. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5 and verse 8, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, seeketh whom he may devour. I'll tell you, and I've said this over and over again, Satan would do everything he can to cause people to not trust Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. You'll do what He can to blind people's minds to the truth of the Gospel and cause people to think, hey, I'm okay. I'll make it in. I'm okay. And they don't trust Christ as Savior. They don't come to Him. And He says, if you come to Me, I'll unknowwise cast you out. And they don't come to Jesus Christ and they spend eternity in hell. Satan will do everything he can to blind people's minds to the truth. But you know, Satan will do everything he can to keep God's people from serving God. You ever notice when do the biggest controversies in your home happen? You know, Sunday morning before church. That's when I've got to line them up and let them all have it. When I've got to be on time to church or it's prayer meeting. Prayer meeting time. Boy, that's when the bad news comes on a Wednesday. Prayer meeting. Hey, Satan will do what he can to discourage us. 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul was writing to this church and he said, Satan, we would have come to you. Let me find it here and I'll read it. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 17. He says this, "...but we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us." The children of Israel in the wilderness found themselves facing constant challenges from enemies. Constantly. By the way, God promised Joshua, I love it, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread, that have I given you. All Joshua needed to do was obey the Word of God. Hey, God tells us, thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, no matter how much the pressure is, no matter what comes our way, we can live victorious because we're on the winning side. Hey, we can read the last chapter in the book and see that, hey, Jesus is coming again and someday we'll be with Him forever and ever and ever. What does God ask us to do? The same thing? Just trust Me? Just obey Me? Hey, in times of constant challenge from the enemy, They found God's grace sufficient, His grace in the wilderness. Number four, I want you to see this. Turn to Exodus chapter number 32. As we continue our journey, just a little journey, we could preach for hours and hours and hours on the children of Israel, what they faced even as they went into the Promised Land. Well, we're looking at what they faced in the wilderness. Exodus chapter number 32. And you're familiar with this. Number four, God's grace is sufficient in times of defeat. They faced times of defeat. Moses delayed, verse 1 of Exodus 32, to come down out of the mount. The people gathered themselves together and said to Aaron, make us gods. But Sheol will go before us. As for this Moses, we don't know what's become of him. And Aaron says, break off your golden earrings. Those are in your ears, wives and daughters. Bring them to me. He receives them in verse 4, and fashions this golden calf. Turn over to verse number 29. God's not happy, and obviously Moses isn't happy. Verse 29, Moses said, Consecrate yourselves today in the Lord, even every man upon his son and his brother that he may bestow upon you A blessing. And it came to pass in the morrow that Moses said to the people, you've sinned a great sin. And now I go up to the Lord. Peradventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin. Boy, this is a great intercessory prayer. And Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh, these people have sinned a great sin, have made them gods of gold. Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin, And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." What a tremendous, what a tremendous prayer. And God forgives. Verse 4, actually verse chapter 33, verse 9, it came to pass Moses entered into the tabernacle. At the end of that verse, the Lord talked with Moses. Verse 11 of 33, and the Lord speaking to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. God forgives His people. I mean, this is big stuff. Moses brings the Ten Commandments down and says, man, they've broken them already. And God's grace, folks, in a time of defeat, In a time when they needed God's forgiveness, in a time when they needed God's mercy and they needed His grace, Moses goes and says, God, you've got to forgive these people. And he intercedes on behalf of God's people. And guess what, folks? God's grace is sufficient. We, as God's people, we can't let ourselves be defeated. Something happens and one of God's people, they sin. They realize, hey, I did what's wrong. What does God want us to do? He wants us to confess our sin, because He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And He wants us to get up. And He wants us to find His grace sufficient. And He wants us to keep on keeping on for Him and for His glory. Why do we get so defeated? And we think, boy, I'm not going to be right with God unless I cannot do this sin for three days. Where did that come from? And we yell at our wife or yell at the kids. The devil says in your mind, oh, you did that, that was wrong. You've got to not yell at them for three days for God to love you, for you to be right with God. That's not found in the Bible. God says, hey, I'll forgive your sin if you'll confess. God says, hey, my grace will be sufficient for you in times of defeat. God's grace is sufficient. I want you to see, lastly, they faced in the wilderness unbelief. Look at Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter number 13. They're outside the promised land. And Moses sends 12 of them in. You know the song, 10 were bad, 2 were good. Verse 16, he gives the names of those he sent in. Moses verse 17, sent them to spy out the land of Canaan. It says, get you up this day southward and go up to the mountains. See the land that is and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak or few or many. Verse 12, sent in. They're sent in to spy the land and come back with a report. Verse 25 of Numbers 13, And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word unto them and unto the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told them and said, We came unto the land where thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great, Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell there. And the land of the Hittites and Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites. And Caleb had to steal the people. And Caleb gave a good report. And look at what happens in chapter 14 and verse number 1. The children of Israel in the wilderness, for the most part, obviously there are some, for the most part, they're facing unbelief. And the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, And the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole congregation and said, would to God we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in this wilderness. Let us make, verse 4, a captain and return to Egypt. And Joshua had to steal the people and say, hey, if the Lord delight in us, He'll do it. Don't rebel against the Lord. Look at verse number 18. The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children of the third and fourth generation. Verse 20, And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. What do we see in a time of unbelief? Grace. We see God's grace. And folks, we could spend hours and hours and hours looking at the wilderness experience of the children of Israel. The children of Israel really typifies one believer of our ups and our downs, don't we? When we find ourselves as the children of Israel, when we find ourselves in the wilderness, facing human impossibilities, facing desperate need, facing constant challenges from the enemy, facing times of defeat, facing times of unbelief, we can stand, rest assured, that God's grace is sufficient. I want you to turn, in closing, to 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse number 8. I want to give you three very quick practical principles from 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 8. 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 8, the Bible says this, And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. Number one, whatever I face in my life, Even if my problem takes all the grace in the world, the grace is available. What does the Scripture say? It says all grace. God is able to make all grace abound toward you. You could take all the grace in the world and put it in a big box or put it in a big truck or put it in a big train or put it in something. All the grace that exists The Scripture says this, if my problem is such that it takes all the grace in the world, hey, that's available for me. That's powerful. Secondly, this, not only whatever I face, whenever I need God's grace, it is always available whenever I need it. The Scripture says not only all grace, but it says always and it says in all things. So if my problem, if my time, if you would, in the wilderness needs all the grace in the world, God says, Hey, I've got it. And it's at your disposal. Not only that, whenever I need it, if I need it at three o'clock in the morning, or I need it at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, or I need it at 6 o'clock in the morning, or at 2 o'clock in the evening, whenever I need it, it is always there for me. That's tremendous. And then thirdly, not only whatever, whenever, but wherever I receive that grace, wherever I receive it in my life, it is always sufficient. The Scripture says this, always having all sufficiency. So when I in my life appropriate the grace of God, the divine enablement to help me to do what God wants me to do, wherever I appropriate it in my life, whatever area it be, whether it be in the rearing of children, whether it be in being a good husband, whether it be doing what God's called me to do in my job and in my vocation, or being a witness in my neighborhood, or being a godly example to my family and friends, or whatever it is, when I appropriate God's grace in my life, God says it is always sufficient, it always, always, works, all grace, all sufficient in all things. I'll tell you, I was so stirred when I read that they found grace in the wilderness. Because when I think of the wilderness, folks, I immediately thought of the trouble, the impossibilities, the hardships that they faced. But God says, hey, my grace was there. My grace is what got them through that wilderness. And then we look at our lives and the many things, folks, that we face. And you know what's going to get us through it? God's grace. May God help us as His people to appropriate His grace and to find it sufficient in whatever area in our life we need it. Let's bow for prayer.