Well, good evening, everyone. If you would open your Bibles with me to the book of James, James chapter 5. We'll begin our reading in verse 7. Be patient, therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it. until he received the early and latter rain. Be also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take my brethren the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of patience. Behold, we count them happy, which endure. You've heard of the patience of Job. and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay be nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he have committed sins, they should be forgiven. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We'll end our reading there. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnals to song number 17. We'll sing, Come Thou Fount. Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sawed me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God, He, to rescue me from danger, Enterposed His precious blood. O to grace, how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. OK, if you would now turn to page 40, song 40, sorry. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thy compassions, they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided, Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above. Join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided, Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. ♪ Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me ♪ All right, let's open our Bibles now to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15. We'll begin reading in verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in 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 it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which, when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. And they came to Elam, where there were 12 wells of water and three score and 10 palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters. Thank God for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, it is with grateful and thankful hearts that we come before your throne of grace, so thankful that you have given us another opportunity to meet together with our brothers and sisters and to worship your matchless name. Father, what a blessed privilege that you've given us this time to open the very word of God, to read it and study it, hear Christ preach from it. Father, how we thank you and how we beg that you'd send your spirit upon us tonight And Father, that you give us an hour of true worship, how we beg of thee that you deliver us from going through the motions of religion and having a religious sounding service. Father, enable us to worship thee from the heart. Father, send your spirit, enable me to rightly divide the word of truth, to preach the gospel of Christ in truth and with a heart of compassion. for sinners. And Father, enable your people to hear. Enable each one here tonight, I beg of thee, to leave here trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as our all and in all. And Father, I thank you for the many blessings of this life. On top of every spiritual blessing that you can give to sinners, you've given to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And on top of that, how you blessed us materially and physically, and Father, we thank you, knowing that we haven't deserved the least of thy mercies, but how richly you've blessed us. Pray, Father, that you'd give us both a thankful heart and a generous spirit with all the things that you've so freely given to us. And Father, for those that you've brought into the time of trouble, we pray for them. We freely confess that we are, this group is the most blessed people in the face of this earth. But in this flesh, we're a poor and a needy people. Father, for those that need you particularly at this time, that for your hand of healing and comfort and guidance, Father, we pray you'd be with them. Be with them in a mighty and special way. Father, deliver as soon as it can be thy will, as soon as the trial's accomplished your purpose. And all these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I've titled the message this evening, The Lord That Healeth. And tonight what I want us to see is something very simple. I want us to see our need of spiritual healing. I want us to see that only the Lord Jesus Christ can heal us and that he is everything that we need. Now you remember we looked at this last week, the children of Israel had just experienced God's miraculous deliverance at the Red Sea. Boy, when they had crossed that Red Sea and they looked back and they saw Pharaoh and his army drowned in the Red Sea, they sang the Moses Song of Praise, didn't they? I mean, they sang it with all of their might, with all of their heart. They were so thankful. They were worshiping God, weren't they? But just three days, all it took was three days for them to murmur and complain against God and against Moses. To my shame, I will tell you that sounds a whole lot like somebody else I know, me. Maybe it sounds like somebody you know. And if so, I pray this message will be helpful. Now verse 22 of Exodus chapter 15, so Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. After they sang this Moses song of praise, they followed Moses away from the Red Sea toward the Promised Land, but to get there, they had to go through the desert, had to go through the wilderness, no way around it. And after walking for three days, they couldn't find any water. All they could see in every direction was sand, as far as you could see. I'm sure before they left the Red Sea, people probably filled some skins with water or buckets with water or something, you know. But after three days, all their hoarded resources are gone. I mean, I just can't imagine being in the middle of the desert like that. I mean, their feet, they're burning, the sand is blowing, you know, the wind is blowing sand up in their eyes and in their nose and their mouth. They don't have any water to rinse off their face or rinse out their mouth. Their lips are dry and cracked. Their skin is starting to be sunburned and cracked. And then they look at their children suffering the same thing. Their tongues are swelling. They're so thirsty. Their cattle look like they're getting ready to die of thirst. I mean, these people are in real need. They're in desperate straits. Spurgeon said this was no holiday parade. I mean, this was a tough journey. And then, verse 23, Then they, and when they came to Mara, they could not drink of the waters of Mara, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Mara. Here they are in the middle of the desert, and they see an oasis, and it wasn't a mirage. Oh, I mean, can you imagine how excited that they were? I mean, they ran to that water. I mean, is there, you know, they could just taste it. They could just feel how refreshed they were going to be because of this water. I mean, there's just nothing like water. to quench you when you're really thirsty, are you? And your body needs it. Your body's craving. You think, oh, I'm finally going to get this water that I need. And then they get there. And the water was bitter. They couldn't drink it. I looked up. I wonder why that water was bitter. And they said there's minerals sometimes that get in the water of an oasis that makes it bitter and undrinkable. Could be plants decaying or whatever in it, you know, and making the water undrinkable. But that water was so bitter they couldn't drink it, and they were so disappointed. Now the water was bitter, and the people were bitter too. And boy, that's when the murmuring and complaining started, verse 24. The people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? Now remember, Israel had been in Egypt. They saw all the plagues of Egypt. They saw all the power of God in those plagues. Just three days ago, they walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, and great walls of water stand on either side of them, and they walked through on dry ground and saw Pharaoh and his army, the mightiest military force on the earth, drowned in the Red Sea. The Lord, by his power and grace, had delivered them. Now, after having that experience, one would think Maybe I'm gonna trust the Lord in this situation too. The Lord's proven his faithfulness to me. He's proven how gracious he is to me. He's proven his power to save. Could be maybe he'll take care of me now. Could be I could trust him after everything he's done for me. You'd think what a person would do is call on the Lord in prayer with some confidence The Lord can help me. With all confidence in this world, the Lord can help me. Now, is he going to? I don't know, but I do know this. He can. He can. I'm gonna pray for him and ask him to help me. But instead of that, they murmured against the Lord, and they murmured against God's prophet. Now, the children of Israel, I feel like I need to point this out all the time. We're not looking down our noses at the children of Israel, are we? They have the same rotten, sinful, faithless nature that we do. Any of us, if we're honest, can say, I've been there. I mean, it brings tears to my eyes to say, I have found myself questioning the providence of the Lord. Why is the Lord doing it this way? It feels like the Lord's doing something bad. Have you ever thought, you found yourself in a situation, you thought, oh, I just, I don't know what's going on. I'm going to do everything I can do to find an answer to this. Whatever I can do to fix the problem. When you would have been a whole lot better off just stopping everything and just praying. Just praying to the Lord and waiting. Waiting on the Lord. Pray and wait on the Lord. I was talking to a dear friend of mine today, and he said, what every believer knows, or either will know very soon, that the hardest thing in this world is to wait, to wait on the Lord. But to jump out ahead of him is a disaster, and to murmur against him is shameful. Well, here's three million people, I mean three million people, and they're murmuring against Moses. Now, three million people's a lot of people, Moses is in a fix. I mean three million people are mad at him. It's hard to tell what's gonna happen. So Moses did what everybody should have done from the very start of this situation. Moses prayed. Verse 25, and he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statue and an ordinance, and there he proved them. Now Moses prayed, And the Lord answered his prayer. The Lord showed Moses a tree that was beside this water in this oasis. Now, the tree was always there, but Moses didn't see it before. He only saw it after the Lord showed him. And when Moses did what the Lord said, put that tree into those bitter waters, the waters became sweet. And everybody drank. Everybody had their fill. Everybody had just what they needed. 26, the Lord says, if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. Now this is one of the seven names of Jehovah given to us in the scriptures. This one is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who healeth thee. Now I see three pictures here of how the Lord, Jehovah Rapha, heals his people. In every situation, he is what we need. Now the first one is this, and obviously this is by far the most important. The Lord heals his people spiritually. The bitter waters of Mara. That's a great picture of sin. You know, from a distance, those waters look so good. That's what sin, sin's deceiving. It is so deceiving. It looks good to the flesh, but eventually you'll find sin does not satisfy. To chase after it all you want, all it's gonna do is leave you empty. It's gonna leave you disappointed and bitter, just like Israel was bitter to find these waters of Mara that were so bitter. And for God saves anyone, he's gonna bring every one of us to these bitter waters. The Lord's gonna make his people realize the bitterness of our sin. He's gonna make me realize the bitterness of my sin nature, my sin nature. It's not somebody else's sin, it's my sin, because it comes from my sin nature. I got nobody to blame but myself. The Lord makes us realize the bitter punishment, the bitter condemnation that our sin deserves. Now seeing the corruption of our nature, That's bitter, isn't it? That's bitter. I think how often I tell my grandson, oh, you're a good boy. You're a good boy. And you hear that all your life. And then you find out your sin nature is bitter. Oh, it's bitter. And it makes us feel like we have no hope. We feel like we have no hope because all we're looking at is ourself. The corruption of our sin nature, there's no way anything about this nature can satisfy the holy God. And when the Lord brings us to the end of our ropes, we think, I got no hope. Only then will the Lord heal the bitter waters. Before the Lord gives a man a drink, he always salts him. Always. He always makes him thirsty and desire it first. Before the Lord clothes a man, he always strips him. Before the Lord gives a sinner life, he always slays him. The great physician, Jehovah Rapha, heals every disease. But before he heals, he wounds. He wounds. And the way that the Lord heals his people spiritually is pictured by how the Lord made these waters of Mara bitter, this bitter water sweet. It was done by a tree. Now I have no doubt that this tree by the waters of Mara is a picture of another tree, Calvary's tree. And when that tree was thrown into the waters of Mara, the waters became what they were not. They became sweet. That's what happened to Calvary. At Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ was made what he was not. He was made sin for his people. What does that mean? Nobody can explain it, but that's what scripture says. He was made sin for his people. Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healed thee was immersed in the bitter sin of his people. The father made the holy son of God to be guilty. of all of the sin of his people, even though he never once committed a sin. And at the very same time, the Father made his elect to be the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Christ our Savior, Christ that healeth us, our Jehovah Rapha, he traded his righteousness for the sin of his people. He took the sin of his people into his own body on the tree. And he put that sin away by the blood of his sacrifice. By his blood, he paid the debt in full. You know, in the past several years, I've gotten to know a few doctors on a first-name basis. Been around several. They're good doctors. I mean, I have a lot of confidence in them. I'm thankful that they're my doctors. But you know, I go see the doctor and the cure, you know, is, well, we're going to give you a pill or we're going to shoot radiation in you or we're going to do these things, you know. Never once did it come up that the doctor would take my sickness away from me and take it into him and give me his health. Never once did that come up. That's what our Jehovah Rapha did for us. He took our sickness, our sin sickness, and gave us his health, gave us his righteousness. He made his people to be righteous. He made them to be what they're not. He healed them. And Peter says, that's what happened to Calvary. First Peter two, verse 24, by whose stripes you were healed, not by whose stripes you could be healed. not by whose stripes you will be healed someday, by whose stripes you already were healed. That's what happened to Calvary. By his stripes, we are healed. That's what happened at the waters of Marah, and that's what happened to Calvary. Now the old writers say that this tree was a bitter tree. How they know that, I don't know, but it does stand to reason, doesn't it? A tree growing by bitter waters would be bitter. And it just does not seem logical to cast a bitter tree into bitter waters and that'll make the water sweet. But that's what happened. Now that's a picture of the cross of Christ. What the Savior suffered at Calvary was bitter. It is more bitter than we can imagine. Today, when we think, about the suffering of Christ. It's horrifying. It really is. It's horrifying. I promise you it's a whole much more bitter than what we think. He suffered all the bitter curse of sin. He suffered the bitter condemnation of sin. It does not make sense that one man could suffer for untold millions and make them all righteous and pay all their sin debt by one sacrifice. That does not make sense, does it? But that's what happened. That's what happened. And when Christ suffered all that bitterness of sin for his people, there was sweet peace made between God and men. By his blood, he made peace for his people. Now, if there's someone here tonight And you're in this wilderness, this wilderness of sin, this wilderness of despair. It's made you so tired, you need rest. It's made you so hungry and thirsty, thirst after righteousness. You say with David, as a heart pants after the water brook, so my heart pants after thee, oh God. You're hungry, you're thirsty, you're weary, you're desperate, you can't find any way out. Let me tell you what to do. You come to Christ. This is what our Lord said. Here is your warrant to come to Christ. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. You thirst for righteousness. You know, when our bodies are thirsty, it's our body's way of telling us we don't have enough water in us. Are you thirsty for righteousness? As Lord showed you, you don't have any righteousness in you. Our Lord said, come unto me and drink. Come drink, come to Him and be made righteous in Him. You go to Christ. He doesn't just have the water of life. He is the water of life. Now you go to Him. The name of our Savior is Jehovah Rapha. The Lord that healeth thee. There's not any question if He has the power to heal you. The Lord that healeth thee. He heals all of the sin sickness of his people. He heals the sin sick souls of his people by taking our sickness and giving us his health. You see, the Lord is a Lord of means. God is a God of means. Could God have just said, I have an elect people and they're all saved? Well, he could, he could have, but he didn't, but he didn't. He used means. He used the means of the obedience and the sacrifice of his son in the flesh to justify his people and to make them righteous. He used means. The second means that the Lord uses is preaching. It's the preaching of Christ and him crucified. You know, somebody has to tell us who Christ is or we're never going to know him. Somebody's got to point us to Christ or we're never going to know where he's at. We're never going to see him. We're never going to believe him. And that happens by preaching. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Now remember, God's a God of means. But could God just will the salvation of his people? I mean, could he just speak audibly from heaven or send an angel or something? Well, he could. He could, absolutely, he could, but he doesn't. He sends a preacher to show us Christ. And that's what happened at the waters of Marah. Remember, the Lord had to show Moses the tree. The tree was there all along. Moses just didn't see it. He didn't know what to do with it until the Lord revealed it to him. My friend, Christ is always there. He's always there. We just don't see him until God gives us eyes to see. And somebody tells us where to look and we see him. And when a sin sick sinner sees Christ in the gospel, the moment we see Christ, we're immediately healed of every spiritual disease. Now, do we know everything there is to know? No, we do not. We're gonna learn, we're gonna grow, but no matter how long you live, no matter how long you hear the gospel, you're still not gonna know everything there is to know. But I know him, but I see him. But I see him immediately healed of every spiritual disease, made perfectly whole and righteous. And when Christ enters the heart, that bitter sinner is made sweet. Now that's true. But I put in my notes, we should be a whole lot sweeter considering everything that God has done for us. I should be much more forgiving, considering how God's forgiven me. I should be much more patient, considering the Lord's goodness and faithfulness to me. We should be a whole lot sweeter. But there's still a change. When God takes up residence in the heart, now there's a new sheriff in town, and there's a change. There's some sweetness there in the new man. So the Lord uses preaching. And the other means that the Lord uses in saving his people is prayer. Moses prayed, and then the Lord showed that tree to him and told him to throw it in the water. Now you just can't overestimate the importance of prayer. No sinner will ever be saved until he prays and begs God for mercy. I tell all of us here tonight, Whatever it is that you're in need of, spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, pray. Pray, lay these cares out before your God for he careth for you. Pray. Don't ever think, well, I'd like to be saved. There's nothing I can do about it. You know, if God liked me, I'll be saved. If he didn't, I'll be damned. There's nothing I can do about it. If there's anybody here tonight thinking that way, or anybody listening to this recording thinking that, let me tell you something. There is too something you can do about it. There is. You can pray. You can pray. You can beg God to have mercy on you. Now, your prayer will not save you. Christ saves. But God never has yet saved anybody who did not pray. Now, that's just so. Why did Ananias feel confident to go preach to Saul of Tarsus? The Lord said, for behold, he prayeth. He prayeth. The Lord, remember, is going to bring us to the bitter waters where we have no hope. We have no option. And then and only then will we cry out to him in prayer. And that's true about everything. You know, I would tell you about coming to these services. And I hope when you come that you get a blessing from God's word. But if you didn't get a blessing, let me ask you this. Did you pray and ask God to give you one before you came? Our Lord said you have not because you asked not. You know, we read in James to open the service about prayer, prayer. Now I know that so, because the Lord made a statute and an ordinance for them about it. He's talked about it in verse 26. If you'll diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, if you'll do that which is right in his sight, and you'll give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I'll put none of these diseases, I won't put any of these spiritual wounds and bruises and putrefying sores upon you, which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. Now, when you first read that, that could sound a whole lot like a covenant of works, couldn't it? God says, if you do this and you do this and you do this and you do this, then I won't damn you, then I won't curse you. But that's not what the Lord's talking about here. The blessing is dependent upon obedience, but the Lord's not talking about our obedience to the law. The Lord is talking about our obedience to the commandment of God. to the commandment of the gospel to believe on and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And like I said earlier, if you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, you trust all of your soul to him, he will heal you of every spiritual disease. You trust Jehovah Rapha, the great physician, he'll heal every wound, every bruise, every putrefying sore, and he will make you whole. And I tell you how you're gonna see him. The Lord said, diligently hearken. Diligently hearken, diligently listen to the gospel. And you see if that's not so. All right, that's how the Lord heals his people from their spiritual diseases. But second, the Lord heals his people from trials. Now this situation where the Lord brought Israel to the bitter waters of Marah was a trial of faith for the children of Israel. See that at the end of verse 25, and there he proved them, or he tried them. The Lord tried the children of Israel, and they failed the test. Well, I know how that feels, don't you? We never pass any test or any trial that the Lord ever sends us. We fail every single one of them. See, this is why I say we always need Christ. We need the Lord to give us faith, and we need him to keep us faithful. He has to make us trust him, and then he has to make us keep trusting him. We'll fail without him every time. Now I say to the child of God, this world is a barren wilderness. Many of you have been out in it today. You've been out in it. I've had such a blessing. I did not leave my house until it came time to come here to the surface. I've been locked up in my study all day, and that's a blessing. But you've been out in the wilderness, haven't you? It's a barren, dry, dead place. And you've got to pass through it. Just like when they left the Red Sea, the children of Israel had to go through that wilderness to get to the Promised Land. Between here and glory, we've got to go through this wilderness. Now you're just passing through it. Take comfort in this. You're just passing through. This is not your home. Don't put down roots here. We're going through this place, going home. But as we pass through, you just rest assured of this, we're gonna have trials over and over and over again. Our Lord said, in this world, you shall have tribulation. But our Lord also said, you be of good cheer. For I've overcome the world. I've overcome this barren wilderness that you're walking through. When I was a young man, I used to like to sit and listen to old men. I liked to hear old men talk and see what I could learn. And I loved to listen to Cecil Roach. I loved old Cecil. And he told me one day, he said, now when I was a young man, He said, I'd have a bunch of blue sky, and there'd be a little storm come. And after that, there'd be a bunch of blue sky. He said, the longer I've lived, the shorter the blue sky and the bigger the storm clouds, to where it seems like it's one big storm cloud. He could have crushed me with a feather when he said that. I was kind of hoping I'd grow stronger and all this and be used to these things. But that's all you can expect from the wilderness. You can't expect anything better from this world. But you take comfort. The Lord's gonna send relief to his people. When the trial's accomplished, God's purpose, he's gonna send relief. And what is God's many purposes in all the trials that he sends? I guess it's varied depending on the person, I don't know. But I do know this is in every trial. Every trial that God sends to his children is to increase our trust in the Lord and to decrease our trust in ourselves. That's the purpose. When the Lord comforts us in the trial, you know what's going to happen in the future? I'm going to trust him more to comfort me in the next one too, because he's already comforted me before. When the Lord delivers, I'm gonna trust in the Lord even more to deliver me from the next one too. He's gonna send relief. Now, sometimes the Lord will bring relief just by bringing into the trial. Sometimes that happens. But you know, sometimes the Lord does something very special. He'll bring something or someone into our life right in the midst of the trial that gives us relief from that bitter trial. The trial is just as hard and as hot and as difficult as it ever was, but the Lord sent us someone to be a blessing and a help and a comfort to us, and it takes away some of that bitterness, doesn't it? Sometimes, and this is special, sometimes the Lord removes the bitterness of the trial simply by giving his child willing submission to his will. You know, it's one thing to say, this is God's will for me, I submit to it, and I'm happy with it. It's one thing to say that. It's another thing to mean it. If the Lord can make you mean it, that'll take the bitterness of the trial away, won't it? Remember, I told you about the seven names of Jehovah. One of those names is Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is there. Now you remember that, as you're going through this world, going through this wilderness, this tough, tough, tough, tough journey, you remember this, the Lord is there. Just like that tree was there, Moses didn't see it, wherever the child of God is at, the Lord's there. The Lord's there. And if he'll give us a sense of his presence, we will not notice the bitterness of the trial anymore. That's a fact. That's a fact. I've lived it. Honestly, that's true. If he will give us a sense of his presence, the bitterness of the trial, you just don't notice it. You just don't see it because his presence is so glorious. I've got a front porch light. And for years, it was too dim. And I thought, I'm tired of this. I'm tired of this light being so dim. So I went to Lowe's. I got these LED lights. And I didn't know, I grew up when you had watts. I don't know how many lumens, whatever it is. But I looked for how many ever lumens. I got the biggest number that I could get. People can see my front porch from space. I mean, woo! But the sun comes up on that side of the house. Or the sun, I'm sorry, it sets on that side of the house. And when that sun just comes over the neighbor's roof and it's so bright, I don't want to see that porch light anymore. That's the presence of Christ. If you have his presence, nothing else matters. We'd be wise to pray in the midst of trial that the Lord give us a sense of his presence more than we keep asking the Lord to take the trial away. We really would, we'd be better off. And one of the reasons that the Lord sends these trials, it says, so we'll know this name, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. The Lord that healeth thee. He's healed you. If you're a child of God, he's given you faith, he's healed you. Now you remember this, just like the Lord did not bring the children of Israel out of Egypt to the waters of Mara to die, The Lord did not deliver you from sin just to die in the wilderness before he takes you to be with him. He'll always give his people grace that's sufficient for the hour that he's putting me in. I promise you he will, and we'd be wise to pray for it. Will the Lord deliver me from the trial? I don't know. I don't know, because he hasn't promised it. If he would or not, I don't know. But he has promised grace sufficient for the hour, hasn't he? Best way to pray. is ask the Lord to do what he's already promised to do. All right, here's the third thing. The Lord heals his people from physical sickness. I don't wanna make too much of this, but you know, this is, but it's still true, and it's a blessing for God's people to know this. You know, it's our sin that causes all of the sickness that we have, body, mind, everything that we suffer, it's all because of sin. And if we become sick and then we're healed of any of these sicknesses, it's Jehovah Rapha that healed us. Now we may have gone to the doctor and took treatments and done all these things, but it's Jehovah Rapha that healed us. But I know this, that's why I say don't make too much of this because the Lord will not heal all of our physical diseases. He's not going to do it. One day something's going to kill this body, right? That's why these faith healers out here, they're preaching a lie. And don't one of you ever fall for it? They make me so angry. They're telling people, now the Lord will heal you if your faith is just strong enough. Well, now you show me somebody whose faith is strong enough. You know, if you do everything right, that they tell you that the Lord will heal you. But that's not so. From the time of Adam till now, with the exception of Enoch, something has killed the body of every single son of Adam. But if the Lord sends some disease that kills the body of one of his children, you know what he's done? He showed himself as the mighty Jehovah Rapha. He's plumb healed you. He's plumb healed you. Taken directly into his presence, made just like our savior. So if our bodies healed from some dread disease, or if we're plum healed. Either way, it's Jehovah Raphael that healed us. But now remember this, God's a God of means. That's why I say, no, you can't take this thing too far. If you get sick, use the means that God has provided to get some relief. If you get sick, don't do nothing. Say, well, you know, if I'm gonna be healed, you know, the Lord's gonna heal me and I'm not gonna take any medicine. That's just foolish. That's foolish. I like what Brother Don Fortner said. He said, faith and good sense go hand in hand. You know, these people say, well, I'm not going to take any medicine and I'm not going to go to the doctor. They do not get that idea from scripture. No, they don't. Scripture is plain for us to use the means that God has provided. James says the first means is prayer. Now you pray. Pray that the Lord will heal you. Pray that the Lord will comfort you. James says, is there any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. Pray. Pray for healing. Pray that the Lord will give those doctors and those nurses some wisdom and some compassion as they treat you. Pray that the Lord will use them as a means to help you. But also take the medicine, do these things. That's the anointing oil that James speaks of. In that day, that was oil. He wasn't talking about us getting oil and rubbing it on your head and you'll be healed. He's talking about medicine. Take the medicine that God gives you. Use the means that God has provided. Those waters of Marah would have stayed bitter if Moses hadn't thrown that tree in them, wouldn't they? They'd have stayed bitter. God could have spoken, made the water sweet. He could have just willed the waters to suddenly be sweet, but he didn't. God uses means. He used that tree. Now let's use some common sense and use the means that God's given us in every situation. In salvation, do I need to be saved from my sin? Do I need God to save me? Do I need God to have mercy on me? Well, come hear the gospel. Come hear the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing. And pray. Beg the Lord to have mercy on your soul. Beg him to forgive you. Do I need a spiritual blessing? Am I starving to death? Pray. Ask the Lord to feed you the bread of life. Come hear the gospel preached. Are you in a time of trial? Pray. Pray that the Lord will give you his comforting presence. Pray that the Lord will teach you what he'd have you to learn. Pray. Ask for grace for the hour. Lord, you promised you'd never leave nor forsake your people. Lord, be with me. Let me have a sense. Pray. Are you sick? Pray. Pray and go to the doctor. You know, it's a big joke in our family because over the years, this has proven to be true. I don't care what's wrong with any of us, any of our family. Janet has a three-fold thing. You at least start with these three things. I don't care what it is that's wrong with you. You start with these three things. Janet says, number one, you pray. Number two, you drink water. And number three, go for a walk. Well, I was at my doctor a week or two ago. And his PA came in and was talking to me. And I was laying out all my issues to her. And you know what she told me? She found out I was a pastor, so she's kind of going to get religious with this thing. But she said, she said, I know you prayed about this. I said, oh, yeah. She said, oh, keep praying. Keep praying. And she said, drink lots of water. Your body needs water. And get some exercise. And I thought, by golly, Jan was right. But in that good common sense, in everything, pray. Oh, pray. Are you in a time of need? Pray. Has the Lord blessed you? Pray. Praise His holy name. Thank you, Lord. Oh, thank you, Lord. Use the means that God's given us. And the number one thing we need is the gospel of Christ. Well, come listen diligently. Maybe the Lord shows something. Maybe. I hope so. Let's bow together. Father, how we thank you for this blessed portion of your word. How we thank you for what your son accomplished on the tree of Calvary. Father, how we thank you. How we thank you for full, free redemption in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for complete healing of every spiritual disease in the sweet balm of Gilead, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we thank you that as we go through this journey here below, you've given us the blessed privilege to look to thee, to call upon thee, to come before you in prayer, to come before your throne of grace. Father, how we thank you. Father, I pray that you would keep us mindful and faithful that in every situation to turn and pray. Ask for your leadership, ask for your power, ask for you to to take care of the situation and give us the faith to wait on thee. Father, it's in Christ's name. For his sake, we pray and give thanks. Amen. Okay, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnals to song number 125, and we'll sing Jesus Paid It All. And in my book, I don't know if it's been changed in yours, but in the chorus it says, all the debt I owe. And so if you would please stand and we'll sing Jesus paid it all with that change to the chorus. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Lord now indeed I find thy power and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all All the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I Where by thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all All the dead I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.