The following message was given at Emanuel Baptist Church, Coconut Creek, Florida. Romans 8 28 is a very familiar portion of scripture. You don't have to turn there, just commenting on it. Of course, you know, it comforts us because as God's people, it says that God is working all things together for the good of those who love him and for those who are the called according to his purpose. But the good that he's working for us isn't a bigger house or a better time in life, though God sometimes does that sort of thing. The good is mentioned in the very next verse when it says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. That's the good. The ultimate good that God is working for us is conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. conformity to Christ in his glorified state when we will have a glorified body with a sinless spirit. But scripture teaches that something else has to happen first before we're conformed to Christ's image in a state of glory. And that is we have to be conformed to him in a state of humiliation. In other words, just as our Lord's order of experience was suffering first and glory to follow, that's gonna be the order of our experience, suffering first and glory to follow. As in the case with our Lord, so it is with us. If there's to be a crown, there must first be a cross. There's no avoiding it. To be conformed to his state of glory, we must be conformed to his state of suffering so that Paul could say in Romans 8, 17, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. There's no being glorified with Christ apart from suffering with Christ to some degree. Suffering first and glory to follow. And I think we would all agree that one of the greatest challenges in the Christian life is responding righteously to that suffering first part, right? That's why we're exhorted in 1 Peter 2, 21, the text we looked at briefly last night, that Christ has left us an example that we should follow his steps, literally his tracks. He's left tracks in which we can put our feet step by step until we reach the shores of glory. He's left us an example. And as we continue to study how he has left us a pattern for our emotional lives, we're gonna consider in this hour what I'm calling the ballast of our Lord's emotional life, the ballast. Now what's ballast? Ballast has to do with stability. such as when heavy material like iron is placed in the bottom of a vessel to keep it steady. I guess so it won't rock back and forth so much, and I don't know exactly how it works, but perhaps even keeping it from capsizing if necessary, so you can get that ship to its destination. And in studying the ballast of our Lord's emotional life, we want to understand what provided our Lord emotional stability or stamina. I said I don't like the term emotional health, but I do believe our Lord had emotional stamina. Why do I say that? Well, as his suffering increased and reaching its pinnacle at the cross, he did not implode and he did not explode. So what was it that enabled him to have such a steady resolve to set his face toward Jerusalem as we read in Luke 9? Determined to go there, well aware of what awaited him. How could he walk into the jaws of death with such a steadiness? In the previous message, we just briefly looked at that text where our Lord said that his soul was troubled, but he was gonna go all the way with the will of God. And you see that and you think, you know, there must have been some iron at the bottom of his heart. at the bottom of the vessel that kept him steady. And then you think of Gethsemane. If ever there was a moment that it seemed our Lord would break apart and crumble into a million pieces, it's when he said that my soul is sorrowful even unto death. And yet even though he sweat great drops of blood, he made it through it, got up from there, and with a calm resolve, handed himself over to his enemies still intact. He stayed the course without capsizing. all the way through to that point under a blackened heaven when he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Even then, when the deepest strokes were upon him, he didn't capsize, but he was able to carry through his work for three more hours until he said, it is finished. Now, I would call that ballast, would you? I believe that in this too, Christ provides us an example of how we can have emotional stamina to make it all the way to the end. Because let's be honest, have you ever been at times in your Christian life where from an emotional standpoint you thought, am I really gonna make it? This is hard, this is difficult. Now I can't be exhaustive. I originally wanted to give you four things that provided the emotional ballast for Christ. I realized time wouldn't permit me to do that if I could do it quickly, but then I wouldn't be able to apply it as much, and I don't like doing that. So if I have to choose between jamming things in, and having adequate time for application, I choose to be able to have adequate time for application. I'm only gonna give you two of them. There'll be a third one that I'll just briefly mention in passing. I'll let you know what it was. And then the fourth one I might weave in as a part of my final message tomorrow night because it's one of those aspects of his emotional life that could fit under more than one category. So don't interpret this as the whole picture, okay? What I've decided to set before you, what I believe are to be, are two very important aspects of our Lord's emotional ballast. Again, what's ballast? That steadiness, that iron at the bottom of his soul that kept him steady all of the way to the end. First of all, the ballast of our Lord's emotional life was God's promise, was God's promise. Now, I wanna ask you a minute question. Is it wrong for you to be concerned about what's in your best interest? Is it wrong for you to seek what's in your best interest? You said, that's gotta be a trick question. I remember years ago Pastor Smith was addressing this issue, not the emotional life of Christ, but addressing this issue that I've just brought up to you. He was serving in South Carolina. I think he was preaching on teens, raising teens, teaching them to deny self, which is of course already embedded in their hearts when they come into the world. He said that people in this generation, maybe even Christians, have unwittingly adopted a view of ethics taught by a particular philosopher that basically, if we understand it correctly, that it teaches a view of ethics that goes like this. For something to be truly virtuous, you can only do it because it's the right thing to do. If you do it with any motivation concerning good that might come to you, then you have stripped the act of all of its virtue. It's not really goodwilled when you do that. Even if the act itself is objectively good and beneficial to others, if self-interest has weaseled its way into your motives, you've done nothing truly praiseworthy and of goodwill. Even if the personal good is only a sense of satisfaction, joy, or any other pleasant emotion that you might get from the act. In other words, even if your motive is only a positive emotional impact, the act is not virtuous. Now on the surface, that can sound very biblical. It can sound very selfless, just like Christ, right? Because Christ was selfless. Wrong, nothing could be further from what scripture teaches. Now don't misunderstand, the Bible does condemn selfishness, that proud exaltation of ourselves and to God's throne, to his place that only he should be in, and putting our interests above others. But self-interest, being interested in and pursuing what's in your best interest is not necessarily selfish or sinful. Now this is not a class on philosophy versus the Bible, but I bring this up because I'm convinced that failing to understand this can rob Christians of emotional ballast. Because it robs them of one of the most powerful motives presented to Christians in the scripture to stay the course. If self-interest is a sin, Jesus Christ was a sinner. He was a sinner. Jesus Christ was motivated to obey God to the end by reward. some of you might already be thinking of the text and it's in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. I think a very important text that reveals something concerning our Lord's emotional life and I would say in this case His emotional ballast. You're familiar with the text? Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The author plainly states that Jesus endured the shame and pain of the cross, motivated by good that would come as a result. Is that what the text says? For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Now what's the joy? I think it's identified in the text. It was the unmitigated, unmixed joy that he would experience in connection with being exalted to the right hand of God. Psalm 16's a good clue, that messianic psalm that ends in the Messiah speaking, you will make known to me the paths of joy and at your right hand are pleasures evermore. Jesus Christ made it to the end because of the joys and the eternal pleasures that would be his at God's right hand. Now is that self-interest? That's lots of self-interest. And it wasn't sinful because it was God the Father who held out that reward as a motive for his son to obey even to the point of death. God was appealing to his self-interest. And I'm arguing, men, that this promise of reward provided emotional ballast or stability for Jesus. How so? It's very simple. It was our Savior's faith in God's promise of an eternal reward that gave him the inner strength and resolve not to divert from the path of obedience, but to stay the entire course. In other words, in short, Jesus believed it was worth it and that it was in his best interest. Not only his best interest, he was certainly selfless. He became poor for our sake that through his poverty we might be rich and yet with that there was this interest in his own good. I call that ballast. What do you call it? And men, it is the testimony of scripture that we should conform our emotional lives to Christ at this point. That's even implied in the language in the text when it says we are to run the race with endurance that's been set before us. When you run a race, there's an end point. There's a prize, there's a crown. And the implication is that we are to look to Jesus as the supreme example of one who ran the race and it was worth it because he was crowned. Looking unto him as the example. of one who was motivated by reward. It's implicit in verse three when it says, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. We don't lose heart, we don't give up by considering Jesus and the implication is what? If we don't lose heart, we like Jesus will enter into eternal joy. And there's more than an implication from this text. The motivation of eternal reward is an integral part of the very gospel that Jesus Christ preached to us. You realize that the gospel appeals to what's in your highest and best interest. You remember how Jesus gave the gospel call at times. We find one example here in Matthew chapter 16, verses 24 to 26. When Jesus said, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Now listen to this. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What's the message of Jesus in that gospel call? Jesus promises us that if we sacrifice temporal comforts and temporal joys in this life, when faithfulness to him requires it, we will save our lives. That is to say in the language of John 12, we will keep our lives unto life eternal. And brethren, this is not an even exchange. Our Lord has also promised us that we will receive more than what we give up. It's not an even exchange. You remember the question that Peter asked Jesus in Matthew chapter 19 after that whole incident with the rich young ruler and he walks away sad. Jesus lets the hot prospect go. The disciples are kind of confused about what just went down. And we read in Matthew 19, 27, then Peter said to him, We have left everything and followed you, then what will there be for us? Now, it might be true, could be true, that there's some carnality in Peter's heart as he asks this question. It's possible that he doesn't yet understand the dynamics of grace as the next parable may indicate. But it's interesting to me that he does not get rebuked for asking the question. Jesus does not rebuke Peter and say, Peter, what a selfish thing for you to ask. You should forsake all and follow me simply because it's the right thing to do. And if you have any motive of self-interest, get it out of your heart. It is sinful and forbidden. That's not our Lord's response, is it? Look at his answer, verse 28. And Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, who have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for my namesake will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life. What's Jesus saying? It's not an even exchange. If you sacrifice the temporal joys and comforts of this life, when faithfulness to me requires it, you will get more than you ever gave up. Men, do you believe that? Now perhaps one reason we feel uncomfortable with attaching reward to the gospel is it sounds too much like what? Work salvation. Listen, it's not a one-to-one equivalent with Jesus. Jesus' reward was meritorious. He earned it by perfect obedience. It was still based on promise and covenant and so on, but yes, it was perfect obedience. He deserved it. Of course, we could never deserve it in the fullest sense of that term. Ours is never meant meritorious, it's a gracious reward, but no matter how you slice the pie, it's still a reward. A reward nonetheless. Eternal life in its final installment received at the judgment is a gracious reward for faithfulness to Christ all the way to the end of our journey and God uses that to keep us on course. Just like Jesus. Just like our Lord. And one very important thing this underscores is the importance of faith in your emotional life. Faith in God's promise. Men, this requires faith if it will ever prove to be ballast. Eternal reward has to be more than a doctrine summarized on a page on a dusty book sitting on your bookshelf. This has to be heart deep conviction that an eternal reward awaits you. at the end of the race. You can see it with the eyes of faith and it keeps you running all the way to the end. Isn't that the imagery of the race? Because when you really believe this, your mindset is the eternal reward I'll receive is worth all I must endure in the present to get it. Jesus believed that. And you must believe it if it will ever be iron at the bottom of the ship. And one way believing God's promise of eternal reward provides ballast is that it injects into our heart, heart strengthening joy in your present experience. It's kind of odd how it works. The conviction that unmixed, unmitigated joy awaits me, injects joy into my present experience. Remember how our Lord spoke to this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five. when he was talking about persecution and so forth. Remember his words when he said, verse 10 and following, blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great. It's the belief in Jesus' promise that can put joy into your heart in the midst of a situation where people are slandering you. Or what about Hebrews chapter 10, that same book we were just in, where this truth is hammered. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 32 to 36. We see this worked out for us. The writer, these words, but remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated, for you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully. the seizure of your property, listen, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great what? Reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. You see how the author is motivating them with reward, but do you see that it's their conviction that they have a better and lasting joy to come that's putting joy in their present circumstances? Now brethren, if anything speaks of emotional ballast, it is the ability to be joyful when your property is being unjustly seized. Imagine your car being hauled off unjustly because you're a Christian, and in the midst of the suffering and the pain that would no doubt be there, your heart would light up with joy when you think of the reward at the end. That's the Christian faith lived out. And that's just like Jesus, who endured the cross because of the joy set before him, and that was part of his present joy. Men, to conform to this aspect of Christ's emotional life, listen to this, you must be committed to delay of gratification. This is a very important principle for our emotional lives. You know what I mean by delay of gratification? The Britannica defines it this way, the act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more valued reward in the future. I'm gonna read that again. The act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more valued reward in the future. This directly impacts our emotions. Why do I say that? What makes temptation extra powerful during times of suffering and trial? It is knowing that you can circumvent or short circuit the suffering and avoid the negative emotions by compromise, right? I can make myself feel better and I can avoid the suffering by just tweaking things a bit and compromising. Isn't that the temptation? It wouldn't be tempting if it were not for the emotional relief that you got from it. Emotional relief, just one decision away, and oh, how tempting it is when things are dark. Or, if you can't circumvent or short circuit the suffering, the temptation is to numb the emotional pain with the momentary pleasures of sin. For example, when men view pornography and or commit self-terminating sin, It's not always just lust at work by itself. Sometimes men are seeking for a measure of feel good in the midst of a dark and lonely valley. I just want those happy endorphins to make me feel good for 10 minutes. And that'll just give me enough release In either case, the temptation is to take what appears to be an immediately available reward, feel better, and I will feel good right now. But when I decide I must feel good right now, no matter what, you know what I'm really saying? I must feel good right now, even if I run the risk of sacrificing the eternal on the altar of the immediate. You say, I'm not saying that. Every time we do it, we're saying it. And when I say run the risk, I mean it. This fits within the doctrine of what we call perseverance of the saints. You remember our Lord taught us in the parable of the soils that some people, when they hear the gospel, they receive it immediately, how? With joy. And by the way, the context in which he's speaking, he's not talking about easy believism gospel. He's talking about people in sound churches who hear the biblical gospel, who give credible professions of faith, and who say, yes, I want the kingdom, the pearl of great price. But Jesus says, because they have no root in themselves, when affliction and persecution come because of the word, they fall away. How does that happen? Well, I can tell you one way it happens. As soon as that professing believer realizes that the gospel will lead to a measure of suffering, he's gonna trade it off for something more immediate. That initial joy, that honeymoon doesn't last. And when that wears off and things get difficult, he says, no, I will trade the eternal for a joy that I can get right now. And men, listen, that is why we have to have a long haul mentality about the Christian life. We have to be committed that the payoff is at the end. Yes, does God bless us in this life? Yes. Does he honor those who honor him in this life? Yes. Many of us could testify of the temporal blessings and the doors that have opened that can be attached to the fact that he worked faithfulness into our lives. And God does that along the way, I think, as encouragements and that he's with us. But you have to realize that the reward comes at the end, not now. And I think this is true of men in general, but maybe it's especially true of the younger generation in our day. And that is living with only five minutes in front of you. And so I'm gonna make a decision that's just gonna affect the next five minutes of my emotional life. No, to live this way, to have this as ballast, you have to be thinking always at the end of the race. And you have to be thinking about how is this decision working for me a greater heavenly treasure that I can't tap into until then? It's kind of like retirement. It's not fun to see that money tucked away every month. You're thinking, I could have a bigger truck. We could go on Hawaii for vacation. And you know what, if I kept that money out now, I would get immediate gratification. But my kids are not gonna like it when I'm 70 and I'm living in their basement. I'm sacrificing now so that I get a better and more stable reward in the future. That's a gospel principle. And this younger generation, young men, we have to learn to think that way. More than five seconds in front of us, but we have to think of eternity just like that's how our Lord's thought of it. And we have to realize that biblical self-denial is not denying yourself of your best interest. Biblical self-denial is giving up lower self-interests for your higher self-interests. It's giving up temporal self-interest for eternal self-interest. And here's the thing, if you live with that long-haul approach and it becomes the part of your thinking on a daily life, watch your emotional life. Over time, it will get more stable. Because you're not thinking about just today. You're thinking long-term. That's how our Lord thought. You see that in the Bible. And listen, this requires us to live with the reality that immediate gratification usually produces the opposite effect anyway. I listened to Pastor Smith's messages because I was, I had preached this differently in Michigan, and so I was trying to do a quick study of the temptations, and he brought out that fact where when Jesus is tempted to bow to the devil, and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world, basically what did that mean? Bow to me, miss the cross, and you'll get the crown. But would Jesus, what would Jesus have ended up with? not the world God promised. It would have been a wicked world and something far less than what Jesus was promised. That's usually what immediate gratification does. You end up, you don't end up even in this life what you're going after. The law of diminishing returns as it's been called. The more you get, the more you want. The more you get, the less satisfied you are and the deeper the hole in your heart. But there's something about that long haul mentality that will produce a stability. And that's what I appreciate about Christian men. I appreciate Christian men that have stability. They're not always tiptoeing through the spiritual tulips. They're not always in the slough of despond. They're just like fixtures in the church. How you doing, Harry? I'm hanging in there loving Jesus, looking to the end. And they just keep plowing on. You meet them 10 years from now and they're doing the same thing because they have their eyes on the prize. Which brings me to also say that we need to cultivate the discipline of meditating much upon eternal life. Now, I mentioned the former generation last night. how maybe I was kind of born partly reared through the last part of that generation, and you can tell me what you think, and it's just limited perspective, and maybe it's just being influenced by this study, but it does seem to me, whatever you wanna say about their tendency to say emotions are nothing, it does appear to me that people from that generation have been a lot more stable emotionally. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Again, I was a child, so maybe I didn't have adult conversations. But even people I know from that generation, they don't tend to be quite so all over the place like this generation. Now, maybe that's because they were not in touch enough with their emotions. But it also seems to me that that generation of Christians thought about, talked about, sang about, and preached about Heaven more than we do. Remember what Paul said? He says, my inner man is being renewed daily. I don't lose heart. That is, I have ballast. How? I look to those things which can't be seen rather than those things that can be seen. This is a discipline to promote in your heart. If we're gonna know this ballast that Jesus had in stamina, we need to develop the discipline of thinking often, if not daily, of the reward that awaits us. We know that if this building is dissolved, we have an eternal ones in the heavens. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. To have that longing in our souls for the eternal reward, that reality that this is not our home, we're just passing through. God's promise was the ballast of our Lord's emotional life. It brought stamina. But secondly, another element of our Lord's emotional ballast was God's presence. God's presence. Turn with me to John 16 for a moment. John 16. I guess, folks, when you live on through and on the backside of a depression and you go through a world war, maybe that has some motivation to make you think of another world than this one. In many ways, we've had it easier. God's presence, John 16. Verse 32, this is on the eve of our Lord's death. This is the upper room discourse as our Savior is having some parting words with his disciples. I want you to notice what he says in verse 32. Behold an hour is coming and has already come for you to be scattered each to his own home and to leave me alone. And yet I'm not alone because my Father is with me. Jesus is painfully conscious that He is going to be left alone by His disciples. You know, He said to them on that same evening, it's recorded in Luke 22, and it's a very moving statement. He says, you are the ones who have stood by me in my trials. Whatever you want to think about the disciples, they stood by Him. 11 were true, one was a hypocrite, but the other 11 were true, they stood by Jesus. They were with him, they stuck with him when others had turned away. And that was gonna be another point I was gonna put in here if I had time, that God's people is also a part of our emotional balance. Jesus wasn't Mr. Hyperspiritual. He brought three friends to the garden and said, I need you to pray with me. He didn't have this mentality, I just need God. He had people he could throw up on. He had people he could share the inner workings of his heart. He loved John, the disciple, and they had a special relationship. That is to say, Jesus had people that he could share the deepest details of his heart and his life and his struggle. But now, as he's gonna need them the most, they're gonna split to save their necks and leave him alone. And as soon as he says this to his disciples, he says, you're gonna leave me alone, yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. Those are moving words, aren't they? I'm asserting that this conviction of the Father's presence provided Jesus with the emotional ballast that he needed. And one reason I say that is because it appears in the text that Jesus is comforting himself as he says this. You're gonna leave me alone. I'm gonna be abandoned. But nevertheless, my Father's not gonna leave me. My Father is with me. He will not abandon me. But another reason I say that the truth of God's presence provided emotional ballast for our Lord is that we have evidence from the scripture that he comforted himself with this truth as he was suffering at the hands of evil men. You say, I don't ever remember reading that in the gospels. Well, it's not in the gospel, but it is in the book of Isaiah chapter 50, Isaiah chapter 50. Clearly a messianic portion of Isaiah In Isaiah 50, when you read in verses five and six, the Lord has opened my ear, the Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient nor did I turn back. I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheek to those who pluck out my beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. This is clearly a prophecy of Christ's suffering, being struck, insults, being spat upon. He's suffering unjustly, not just physically, but he's suffering humiliating type acts. I mean, it's one thing to be hit by someone, it's another thing to be openly shamed in front of people, especially as a man. We're very sensitive to that. And yet, I want you to notice, what the text goes on to say, and I want you to notice here the emphasis on God's present help. Verse seven, for the Lord God helps me. Therefore I am not disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let's stand up with each other. each other. Who has a case against me? Let him draw near to me. Behold the Lord God helps me. Who is he who condemns me? Etc. Now of course this has no doubt an emphasis on the future vindication of Jesus that the Father would provide for Him. But it could also be speaking of the Father's present nearness to and help that Jesus felt during his sufferings. As Albert Barnes says, that is, he will sustain me amidst all these expressions of contempt and scorn. In other words, his disciples had forsaken him, evil men were seeking to destroy him, but what kept him from imploding and exploding was this, God was on his side. One of the worst feelings you can ever have is to feel all alone. I don't mean a few minutes alone while your wife's gone to the grocery store shopping and you miss your sweetie pie. But I'm talking about feeling all alone when things are caving in all around you. Even if people are not literally abandoning you, they might as well be. Have you ever gone through such a treacherous valley that no one else can go with you? So it seems. Have you ever been there? No matter how many pats on the back you receive, no matter how many times people have you over, no matter how many times they say they're praying for you, does it ever just seem hollow and ineffective? Not on them, they mean it. But you walk away from that feeling all alone. The comfort and help that people can give only goes so far. And if you've ever been there, then you know from experience what an extremely vulnerable place that is to be and how quickly the darkness can overwhelm your soul. And it's encouraging to know that our Lord knows what that feels like. Which makes me so grateful for his example that when men had forsaken him and those closest to him had abandoned him, he comforts his own soul with this truth, yet my father is with me. And we should imitate Jesus at that very point. He has provided an example of emotional ballast. And I have to say I was convicted by this. To my shame I must confess that the truth of God's constant nearness and presence has not been something that I've consciously applied very often and consistently. It's not that I've been unaware of it, that I've never thought about it, but we all have things that we just sort of fail at in the Christian life and that's been one of mine. It's not been at the forefront like it should be. And you know that's a shame because it's one of the simplest state, one of the simplest truths in scripture about God's relationship to us. Just the simple truth that God is with us as his people and as individuals. Nothing theologically difficult about that. It's so simply stated a child could understand it. It's the simple statement of Psalm 23, verse four. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why, David? You are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Hebrews 13, five and six, for he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you, so that we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? That's ballast for the soul, isn't it? Did you notice the theme in both of those verses I quoted? God's presence with us particularly shields us from another emotion, fear. Not the appropriate fear of God. But that crippling kind of fear, fear of circumstances, fear of men, unbelieving fear, we're shielded from that when we understand and we walk in the sense that God is with us. And listen, I think I heard it was D.L. Moody said it, you and God make a majority. So true. Think of the other texts we are warranted to apply like Psalm 41 10. I'll just read this to you. Just simple statements, but glorious statements of God's presence with his people. Do not fear for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. What about Isaiah 43? Verse two, when you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you'll not be scorched, neither will the flame burn you. Now such texts are not to be interpreted to mean that no evil will befall us in this Lord. Evil befell our Lord himself. Rather, because he is with me, I will not fear for two reasons. Whatever evil befalls me, He's ordained it and it has come to me through His sovereign hand for His purposes, for His glory and my good. And I will not fear, I will not cower in the face of evil because my God will give me all the present help and support I need to make it through it faithfully. Would you agree, men, that that's ballast for the soul? It's what Paul applied when he was in prison. You remember he said, all men have forsaken me. Nevertheless, the Lord stood with me. Isn't that wonderful? Paul says, if everybody else in this world, even my closest friends abandoned me, in their weakness or for whatever reason, the Lord stands with me. And that brought him comfort in prison. Men, how often do you remind yourself of that simple and comforting truth that God is with you as a believer? It's an essential part of conforming to the emotional life of Christ. Now, besides regularly reminding yourself of that truth, we do need to realize that there is a condition that we must continually meet for God's presence to be a comfort. God's presence is not in itself comforting. You read enough of your Bibles to know that, don't you? always comforting. Sometimes it's discomforting. Turn with me to John 8 where Jesus makes basically the same statement but with an additional, with an addition to it. John chapter 8 verse 28, So Jesus says, when you lift up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and do nothing of my own initiative, but I speak these things as the father taught me. Verse 29, I'm sorry, wrong verse. Verse 29, and he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing in his sight. Now Jesus might be saying it here for a different reason, but it is still the truth that the father is with him. The Father is there to bless him and to empower him and give him the grace and the power to work his miracles, the power to preach his gospel, the power to go through his time of obedience to the cross. And what I want you to notice on the last part of this verse is where Jesus says, for I'll always do those things that please the Father. Now you read a verse like that, I know you're thinking, well, that doesn't apply to me. Which of us could ever make such a statement? Not one of us, because we don't always do those things that please God. If we're believers, we do please God with our lives, by the work of grace that he produces in us, but we also displease him. However, though none of us could ever make this statement in an unqualified way, as does Jesus, personally, I believe it has application for us. He is our example even in this. And I believe one thing that we can learn from this statement is that there is a connection between a good conscience and a comforting sense of God's presence. Now why do I say that? Well according to Romans 2 validated by other texts of Scripture, conscience is that faculty of soul that enables us to pass and to make moral judgments about our actions, right? So when we hear our Lord say, I do all those things that please the Father, that's his conscience at work. He's making a moral judgment about his state morally. And he is saying, my conscience testifies that I do nothing that displeases my God, I always please him. My conscience does not convict me that there's a controversy between me and God. My conscience convicts me of no sin. He's making a moral judgment. And I would say that we learn here there's a connection between Jesus being able to say the Father is with me, he's not left me alone, and having a good conscience. Jesus' sense of God's smile and his conscience and a comforting sense of God's presence are inseparable. Now, brethren, we can't identify with Jesus completely in this text. Again, we could never make this statement in an unqualified way. However, we can live daily with a good conscience. Remember what Paul said in Acts 24, 16? I strive always to have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. You ever read that? Paul says, I strive daily in every situation to act and to so respond that I can look up in the face of my God without shame to detect his smile and to avoid his frown. He says, I strive to do that. Now listen guys, this is a man who probably knew justification by faith alone better than anybody in this room. Who understood he was robed with the righteousness of Christ, but that was how serious he was about practical righteousness. He says, I strive not to offend God and to have a conscience that says I've not done so. And when he was aware that he had done so, he made it right. He kept short sin accounts. He would take it to the blood. And he says, I strive to act in every situation. in a way that is right in my treatment of fellow man. I try my best to do right by other people. And when I do wrong and righteousness requires it, I make it right with them. Interesting, there's actually an example of how quick Apostle Paul was to keep a good conscience. The chapter before in Acts 23, you remember that he spoke poorly of the high priest? And in that text, right before he did that, he says, up to this point as a Christian, I have kept a good conscience. And then as soon as he spoke that evil word about the high priest, he made it right right there on the spot. He says, I didn't realize that was the high priest. And he quoted scripture. Basically, he made it right before the people he'd sinned against. That's how quick he was and how committed he was to keep a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. And brethren, though we could never attain to exactly what our Lord says here, it is possible to live consistently with a good conscience. To be able to say, as far as I know, there's nothing between me and God. There's no unresolved issue between me and the Father. There are no skeletons in my closet that I'm trying to hide that I haven't brought out to the blood of Christ. There's nothing between me and another person that's unresolved. And Paul was so committed to that that he could say this in 1 Corinthians 4 in verse three, I'm sorry, verse four. He says, for I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted, but the one who examines me is the Lord. He says presently, he's not saying he wasn't aware of remaining sin in his heart on a daily basis, but he's saying as far as I know, The Lord is my judge. As far as I know, there's nothing that God is putting his finger on in my life that I'm not willing to deal with. And as far as I know, there's no unresolved issue between me and another person. That's a good conscience. And it is attainable to be able to live that way in a consistent way, not perfectly, but consistently. And I would argue, brethren, that one of the most important Facts are one of the most important factors of emotional ballast in the Christian life, is to keep a good conscience. A felt, enjoyed sense of God's presence is connected to it. You ever read that text in Proverbs 28, verse one, where it says, the wicked flee when no one pursues? You know what that is? That's a bad conscience. I wonder how many mental and emotional maladies that have labels slapped on them in our day. I wonder how many of them are actually rooted in a bad conscience. I mean, if you see someone running down the road, they're running away from something you can't see, you'd say that's not stable mentally or emotionally. And he's saying the wicked flee when no one pursues. Why? They have a bad conscience and therefore they're always living with a sense of foreboding. When's it gonna get me? When's it gonna get me? Now, most people don't do that. You know why? Because they've always got something in their ear. Watching something and staying busy. Why? They don't wanna be alone with their thoughts for five seconds. It scares them to death. Because they don't have a good conscience. And they keep it buried. But brethren, listen, this can even happen temporarily in the Christian life. Listen, God is with us all the time as his people. The spirit never leaves us. But when we're not right with God and we have a bad conscience, God's presence is not comforting. It's convicting. You remember what the Psalmist David was talking about his experience before he brought his sin out in confession to God. He was not living as a man with emotional ballast, was he? Remember how he described that experience before he confessed his sin? He said in Psalm 32, three, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Listen, when you have a bad conscience, God's hand does not feel very supportive, does it? It feels very heavy. And what I'm saying, brethren, putting this all together, that a felt sense of God's comforting presence is attached to keeping a good conscience. Living with a bad conscience will drain your emotional life dry and create a host of maladies and problems. And so I'm asking you today, is there something, maybe, that the reason you're so worn out emotionally is you've played so many mind games with yourself about something that you need to get right with God about. You've spent so much time trying to justify it and look at it from whichever which way but loose. And when in reality, you just need to come out with it and say, God, please forgive me. And then take that humbling step of going to whoever you need to and saying, listen, come what may, I wanna make this right. I wanna make this right. Or maybe, It's nothing like that. But years of the bad practice of just getting to the end of the day and saying, Lord, if I've committed any sins, please forgive me. And there's never really any heart searching times in the presence of God to say, Lord, search me and try me and see if there'll be any wicked way in my heart. I wanna deal with whatever is there. And you can come out of that situation. You haven't earned his comforting presence, but there is a connection. And you can come out of that with a renewed vigor of soul. Because the Bible says, though it says the wicked flee when no one pursues, it goes on to say, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. A bad conscience will make you a coward. A good conscience will give you the ballast you need to do great exploits for the king. Where are you today in terms of your conscience? Even depression and so forth can be rooted in that. And listen, don't use excuses. I remember years ago, Pastor Smith and I, before I was a member of the church in Easley, I'd never forgotten this. We went out to sell books at the, what they called the flea market up there. I don't know if they call them flea markets down here, but they do up there in the sticks. And we were selling books at a book table and a guy came by and he said, do you believe if a person gets saved, they'll pay restitution? And I guess being the theologians we were, we said yes. And he said, well, I knew a guy that owed the grocer a bill, had a bill he had to pay off. And he went down to, I guess, to a revival meeting of the church and made a profession of faith. And he came back and told the grocer, I don't owe you the money, Jesus has paid it all. That's playing games. Listen, there is no softer pillow when going through a trial than a good conscience. Being able to say, God, as far as I know, everything's right between me and you. Everything's right between me and the other person. And Lord, even if there's a persecutor, as far as I know, I have not returned insult for insult. And if I have, I've even gone to my persecutor and humbled myself and asked for forgiveness. That's essential to enjoying the felt sense of God's comforting presence. Well, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Well, we thank you for your goodness to us and your grace. We pray now, Lord, that you would take these truths and write them upon our hearts. We pray, Lord, that we would have the emotional stamina of our Lord, that we would keep heaven before us at all times. We pray, Lord, that we would regularly comfort ourselves with the promise that you're with us. Lord, I pray that if any of us here this morning have a bad conscience that's draining us emotionally dry, I pray, oh God, today we'll have true dealings with you at the foot of the cross, that we'd be cleansed afresh, and that we would be freshly committed to walk in the ways of righteousness before you all of our days. In Jesus' name, amen. We hope you were edified by this message. For additional sermons, as well as information on giving to the ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church, and on our current building project, you can visit us online at ebcfl.org. That's ebcfl.org.