The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lacerre Bradley, Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the praise of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.
This is Lacerre Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. All hail the power of Jesus' name, let angels prostrate call. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all.
Ye chosen seed of Israel's race, a remnant, weak and small. Hail Him who stayed tuned by His grace and crowned Him Lord of all. Hail Him who stayed tuned by His grace and crowned Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe on this terrestrial ball, to Him, O majesty of strife, and crown Him Lord of all. To Him, O majesty of strife, and crown Him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throng we at His feet may fall, we'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all.
We'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. I'm glad you have joined us for the broadcast today, and I hope that the message will be a blessing to you. I hear periodically from people who say, I've listened for many years, and this is my first time to write to let you know about it. You may be one of those, and I would encourage you to get a letter in the mail to us and let us know that you've been listening to the broadcast. We need to have regular response to keep the program on the air in your locality.
If you can help us with the support of the program, that will be greatly appreciated. Our address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above the enemy host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen. Have you ever been engaged in a conversation when someone makes a statement that's kind of off the wall? And another party that's involved speaks up and sarcastically says, you need help.
In fact, you might have said that to somebody yourself sometime. If they had said something that was a little extreme and you thought it was off base, so your approach was, you need help. Well, I'm going to tell you this afternoon, but not sarcastically, you do need help. I need help.
We all need help. And the good news is the help we need is found in the Lord. My text is Psalm 33, verse 20. Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. Our soul waiteth for Him. We come before Him. We seek His face. We patiently wait for the assistance that He has promised to give us. He is our help and our shield, the one who will defend us, protect us, shield us from our great adversary, the devil, and from all other vicious attacks. First of all, let's consider the fact that we need to recognize our need for help. If you should have responded in your mind, and I made these introductory remarks, well, you're not talking about me.
I don't need any help. Then you are in trouble, because that would indicate that you're not keenly aware of your own weaknesses and your various needs. First of all, we need help in overcoming sin. Because by nature, we are prone to do that which is displeasing to God. If you're a child of God, you've been born again.
You have a new nature. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. But there's a conflict. The apostle Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
The conflict rages on. We read in Psalm 119, verses 35 through 37. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight. The psalmist is expressing something very similar to what the apostle said. I delight in thy commandments.
That's the way I want to go, but I'm having trouble doing it. So I say, Lord, make me to go in the path of thy commandments. Not hesitant to acknowledge that God has the power to direct my path.
I'm weak and frail and stumble along the way. But Lord, I just pray that you will make me by your power and grace to do according to your commandments. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way. In our human nature, we are prone to look upon that which is described as vanity. There's no value in it.
There's no benefit. It may be something that is displeasing to God, diametrically opposed to the principles of righteousness that ought to be pursued by any believer. And so the psalmist is praying, Lord, I need help. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. Quicken me, enliven me, move upon me by your power that I may travel in the right path.
Do you not frequently recognize that need? You need help in overcoming sin, whatever the sin might be. It might be anger. It might be pride. It might be a refusal to forgive others. It may be some lust that leads you to look at material that is dishonoring to the Lord.
It's a major problem across America today as to how many people have become addicted to pornography since it's so readily available by way of the internet. And when a person gives in to it, it becomes increasingly difficult to turn away from it. The struggle is there, but help is available. Secondly, as we think about recognizing our need for help, we need help when it comes to the matter of prayer. Prayer is a basic part of the Christian experience.
Communicating with the Lord on a regular basis, going to Him, confessing our sin, pouring out our heart before Him. There are various ways in which we need help. We need help to be consistent in our prayer life. You may hear a message on prayer or read a text of Scripture about the importance of praying, pray without ceasing and say, I'm going to do better. And you may improve for a short period of time and then other things interfere. Or even as you go through the motions of prayer, you may feel sometimes that it is a mere routine that you haven't really prayed acceptably to God.
You need help. Romans chapter 8 verse 26 says, Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. That's encouraging, isn't it? That when we admit a weakness in our efforts to pray, that we're told the Spirit helps us. He knows our infirmities. He knows it's a struggle. He knows that we're weak.
But He helps us. We don't even know what to pray for sometimes. We tend to pray for the things that are most on our mind and sometimes those matters are very selfish and self-centered. We obviously want to follow the pattern of prayer that Jesus gave to the disciples when they asked that they might be taught how to pray. And He begins that passage, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, and so on. But we have help in prayer from the Spirit of God.
Furthermore, we need help because of unbelief. Now you've come to serve us to worship God and when some of these wonderful old hymns are sung in His praise, for that moment you may feel very lifted up and very confident. Think about God who is the sovereign creator, God who is on the throne, ruling and reigning according to His pleasure, that our Savior Himself upholds all things by the word of His power.
You say, I believe He could do whatever He pleases, whatever He wants. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Preach the message not long ago on one of my favorite texts, Jeremiah 33-3. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. We're commanded to call.
We're encouraged to call. But often we waver when it comes to the matter of believing the promises of God. We say on one hand, I believe God can do anything, but whatever we happen to be praying about, we got a few doubts. Now obviously this promise of God to hear us does not include what people have attached to it. Many in this day that say you just name it and claim it. Just whatever pops in your head, you can expect that you're going to control God if you have enough faith.
That's not the case. Our prayer must be in harmony with His will, must be to the glory of His name, must be without selfishness. But at the same time, the big factor that often hinders our prayer is a failure to believe. We turn to the gospel of Mark chapter nine. First part of this chapter records Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. What a remarkable event. Peter, James and John accompany Him there. You can just imagine how they must have felt to see the glory of Jesus displayed. Peter, always the first one to speak, Lord, let's build three tabernacles and stay here. This is such a wonderful experience. I don't want it to change.
Let's just stay right here. This is great. But when they came down from the mountain, they found that the disciples had attempted to cast an evil spirit out of the young man and couldn't do it. Jesus had given them power over these evil spirits. But apparently, they got the idea that just the gift Jesus gave them was enough.
And it wasn't necessary to pray. And so they were very frustrated when the father of the young man who had the evil spirit was very frustrated because the disciples had not been able to help him when he expected that they would. So in Mark chapter nine, verse 18, the man is describing the condition of his son and says, wheresoever he taketh him, speaking of the evil spirit, he tareth him and he fometh and gnasheth with his teeth and pineth away. And I speak to thy disciples that they should cast him out and they could not. Think of the heartache this father experiences when he sees that his son, possessed of the devil, is made to foment the mouth, fall on the ground, wallow, become stiff in body.
Just a horrible, horrible sight. The man says, your disciples couldn't help me. He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And then come down to verse 23. Jesus saith unto him, that is speaking to the father, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
I believe you can do it, Lord. This man obviously had a spiritual perception beyond what many had enjoyed in that day to understand Jesus was no ordinary man. He wasn't just a great teacher.
He was one with power. He believed that he could cast out this evil spirit. But at the same time, he confesses his own weakness and says, help thou mine unbelief.
Is that not a statement that you and I must make with great frequency? We turn to his word. We believe his promises. But we have to say, help my unbelief. I want to fully embrace it. I know that God is a God of power.
Nothing is impossible with him. But I falter at this point. I may have prayed about this matter before and I saw no response. I don't want to be praying a selfish prayer.
I want to pray something that's to his honor and in keeping with his will. But doubt sets in fear and apprehension about what the future is going to hold. We tend to give way to fear and to worry. You can't be possessed with fear and be full of worry and at the same time be walking by faith. When you're walking by faith and you trust God, it casts out fear.
Perfect love casts out fear. So if you're loving the Lord and trusting Him and relying on His promises, there's no need to be enslaved by fear. May that prayer be a prayer with all of us today that we pray help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit saying unto Him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of Him and enter no more into Him. And the spirit cried and rained Him sore and came out of Him and He was as one dead inasmuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took Him up by the hand and lifted Him up and He arose. And when He was coming to the house, His disciples asked Him privately, why could not we cast Him out? What was the problem, Lord? You had given us the gift to be able to cast out evil spirits.
Why couldn't we do it? And He said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. What a marvelous deliverance that this man could see his son that had suffered such terrible, excruciating circumstances.
Foaming at the mouth, not able to speak, not able to hear, His body rigid and in such terrible contortions. And now Jesus drives out the evil spirit and though He at first appears to be dead, Jesus raises Him up and all is well. Jesus says to the disciples, this comes only through prayer and fasting.
You don't just go out and say, we have the gift to cast out an evil spirit. How important then is prayer in our life? And a part of that prayer encompass what the man said, help thou mine unbelief. And then we need help in all of our troubles, in all of our afflictions. Every person that lives on this earth faces trouble. The human race is a fallen race. It's under the curse and condemnation of sin. The curse of sin is upon the earth itself as well as upon its inhabitants. And so that being the case, there are going to be troubles, difficulties of many kinds. But for God's children, there are many additional ones because they are not of the world. They don't think like the world.
They don't live like the world. Many of the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all. And so we need help when troubles and afflictions come. Psalm 46 verse one, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. He's our refuge.
A refuge is a place that you go in the time of the storm, the hiding place, a shelter, a place to protect you. He's our strength in the midst of our weakness, recognizing our inability to do the things that we need to be doing on a daily basis in His service, in the interaction that we need to have in a godly way with our families. You need strength.
He's the source of it. And He is a very present help. Not one that's at a distance. You ever had somebody say to you, well, if you have any special needs, if you ever need me, call on me. And then that occasion arose when you could use their help, but you couldn't find them.
Or if you did, they were already occupied and they couldn't come. Well, God's a very present help. He's not off of the distance where you can't locate Him.
He's not preoccupied so that He can't take your call. He is a very present help. And He's a help in all kinds of trouble. Whatever it may be, troubles within a family, troubles that you may have on the job, troubles among friends, even in the greatest of disasters, He is our help. Verse two, therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed.
That's as big as it gets. No, it's one thing to read about these terrible fires out west or the terrible floods that have ravaged the state of Colorado. But when it talks about the earth being removed, that's chaotic. And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea and though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, see them. So God is a very present help in the greatest of troubles. Now I dare say, if we ask for a show of hands, we'd see quite a few hands go up today if we say anybody here got any troubles.
Some of you might not want to admit it, but I dare say most people here would concede that they got one kind of trouble or the other. But none of your troubles are quite as disastrous as the earth being removed and the mountains being carried into the midst of the sea. So if God is a present help under those circumstances, He certainly is a present help in the midst of your trouble, whatever it may be. And then we need help when it comes to just daily living a Christian life, to be obedient to our master, Jesus Christ, to be effective in His service.
We need help. It's not just a matter of making a public confession of faith and saying, I go forward to serve the Lord and I think I can handle it, I'm committed to it. No, you meet with many obstacles. You see the weaknesses in your own flesh and you know, I need help. Jesus said in John 15 five, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing. So if you've got the idea because I'm committed to the service of God, I can just go forward and all I need is to stir up a little enthusiasm.
No, without me, you can do nothing. Meaning you can do nothing that is good, nothing that is God honoring, nothing that is pleasing to Him. You try to do it by sheer determination. You try to do it because you've worked out some little scheme that you feel will help you be effective in serving Him. No, it's only as you abide in Christ. When you abide in Him, that affects everything. No, it affects your attitude. It affects your spirit.
It affects the use of your time, the things you say. You're willing to sacrificially give of your time to minister to others. You must abide in Him, for Jesus Himself says, without me, you can do nothing. I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord.
No tender voice like thine can peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee, every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. The text for our message today says that God is our help. So we have first considered the importance of recognizing our need for help. We need help in overcoming sin, help in prayer, help because of unbelief. We need help in the midst of our troubles and afflictions. We need help in our daily walk to serve the Lord. Let us recognize our need and understand that the source of our help is the Lord Himself.
I encourage you to write us, and until next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee, every hour, take Thou, O nearby, limitations lose their power where Thou art nigh.
I need Thee, O I need Thee, every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. Address all mail to The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. That's The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. I need Thee, every hour, grow slowly one, O make me Thine in Thee, Thou blessed Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.
