The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lasser Bradley Jr. Mm-hmm. Dozen tumblers seem My great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my god and king, the triumphs of his grace. This is L'Asher Bradley Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace.
Will perform it, I will keep thy judgments right. I'm afflicted, Lord, inform it, strengthen me, Lord, with my might. Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Because the word is a lamp unto my feet, and a blood unto my path. Lord, accept the offerings of my mouth.
Teach me, Lord, thy judgments all. Oh, my soul's continually in thy hand, yet I'll not. Forget thy power because thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. They have laid a stare to bind my feet, yet I've faltered not nor strain.
Let thy heritage my heart rejoice. I've inclined to perform always because thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my feet. My path, because the thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a my heart to my path. I want to thank all of you who have taken time to write us and let us know that you're being blessed with the messages from God's word and have. helped us with the expense of keeping the program on the air.
Maybe you're one that has listened regularly and intended to write us and just haven't done it yet. We do need to hear from you. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box seventeen oh thirty seven, Cincinnati, Ohio, four five two one seven. Also, you can make a donation by going to our website At Baptist Bible Hour. Yeah.
Now today we bring you the next part of the message Blessings restored. And we're talking about how this experience in Israel's history provides a lesson for us and how important it is for us. Prayerfully to conform our thinking, our lives, our actions to the glory of God, the praise of His name. But in the weakness of human nature.
Sometimes a person may be praying. Lord, help me to overcome my sin. But they're not looking for the way of escape. With every temptation, the Scripture says there is a way of escape. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.
Now, there are some things that will come into your vision over which you have no control. But if you spend time looking at television programs. Or things that you can Bring up even on your cell phone. And there are things that Tend to stir evil thoughts and desires. How can you go to the Lord saying, Lord?
Help me to overcome my sin. When at the same time you put yourself in the way of temptation. Turn mine eyes away from beholding vanity.
So often a person will try to justify us and Activity is well, it's not all that harmful. It doesn't harm anybody else. This is just me. What I look at is just me. But Fleshly lusts war against the soul.
And if you are beholding and looking at those things that stir up. Fleshly lust. You are dishonoring God. You are disrupting your fellowship and communion with Him. You are making it impossible for you to be effective as a witness and administering to others.
And then in Psalm nineteen, the fourteenth verse. The psalmist says Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Maybe your weakness is not so much inclined toward the lust of the flesh. But maybe you've been guilty of speaking unkind words. You later thought about it and Realize I shouldn't have said that.
I shouldn't have said that to that person. I shouldn't have said that about that person. You may be prone to become a critic. And you're constantly criticizing other people. That soon becomes gossip.
And maybe you've recognized some of these tendencies and you've said, I'm going to do better. You've read some scripture, you were convicted about it. You heard a sermon. You say, Lord, I think that was for me today. I'm gonna be More cautious.
I want the words of my mouth to be acceptable in thy sight. I don't want to be guilty of gossiping. I don't want to be guilty of... Bingum. critic where I'm constantly trying to put other people down.
It might be the sin of jealousy. Looking at the success of other people. I'm thinking Why is it? I don't have what they have. I don't even think they're entitled to it.
I think I ought to have it. Jealousy is as cruel as the grave. Bitterness. Bitterness. takes its toll.
It's as a plant the scriptures describe, which springs up and defiles many. Bitterness. causes you to lose the joy of your salvation. Bitterness causes you to become ineffective in prayer. Bitterness spills out in your attitude toward everybody with whom you have any association.
Bitterness. You're discouraged. And therefore, you've allowed yourself to discourage other people. And that's a sin. At the words of my mouth.
The meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. What is acceptable? Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29 tells us this. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. I want the words of my mouth to be acceptable in thy sight.
I don't want any corrupt communication. What'd it be? constant criticisms, unkind words, gossip, whatever it might be. I don't want such words to come out of my mouth. But that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Try to think about that. Examine Your conversation. Don't just think about it today. Think about it. each day as the week comes on.
Can I say that the words that come out of my mouth are edifying. That they're building up other people. their ministering grace to the hearers. When we realize how often and how miserably we have failed in many of these categories. We have to come like David in Psalm 51 verse 2 to say, Wash me thoroughly for mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Lord, I see my failures. I see how I've wandered. I see how I've let my thoughts go down the wrong path. My words, my actions, wash me, wash me, that I may be clean. And then it may be that you're discouraged because you're listening to the wrong people.
If they Children of Israel had not been guilty. of listening to the wrong people at Katish Barnea, they would have gone into the land forty years sooner. The twelve spires were set in, They were to bring back a report. But they not only brought back a report to say indeed it is a great land. but they gave their interpretation of the difficulties encountered there.
They said the cities are walled up to the sky. They're giants in the land. We cannot take it. Only two men out of the twelve, Joshua and Caleb, said, let's go up at once and take it because God has given it into our hand. But the people listened to the majority report.
And they said we can't do it. We're not gonna go. Maybe You listen. to the wrong people. If you find somebody is constantly discouraging you and pulling you down.
You need to gently admonish them. And there's no change. Find somebody else to listen to. Maybe you're discouraged. Because you discourage yourself.
You. Play over in your mind all of the reasons as to why you can be legitimately discouraged. You may have dug your heels in. Remember the experience of Jonah? When he was upset because the people of Nineveh had repented and God wasn't going to burn the place up.
And he's out there at the edge of the city limits, hoping God might change his mind and still destroy these wicked people. And the Lord blesses a gourd vine to grow up and shelter him from the sun. And then a worm comes along and eats up the fine. And Jonah is upset. The Lord says, You're more concerned over a gourd vine than you were all the people in that city.
It says, is it right for you? To be angry? He said, I do well to be angry. Can you imagine it? God Himself speaking to him, and Jonah is crusty enough to say yes.
I'm angry and I've got every right to be angry. Things were not going his way. He was he was disturbed.
So you may say today, don't talk to me about not being discouraged. I've got every right to be discouraged.
Now I've just read to you a whole list of scriptures. From the Old Testament and the New Testament. that say, don't be discouraged. and do not fear. And you may say, well You just kind of got your head in the clouds.
If you just face reality like I do, you'd be discouraged like I am.
Well Here's what God's word says. If the Things that discourage you. Whether they concern the condition of the world in general. The condition of our own country. The condition of things in your marriage, in your home, in your church, wherever it is, if all the things that discourage you, you keep meditating on them and piling them up to add to your discouragement.
You're neglecting to do what God's Word enjoins. Philippians chapter 4, verse 8. gives us what I call Paul's think list. He says, here's the things you ought to think about. And this is a follow-up to verse 4, where he says, rejoice always in the Lord.
And again, I say, rejoice. And one of the ways that you're going to be able to rejoice is to do what he says in verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Sh Now I recognize that if there is a problem That must be addressed, you deal with it. I'm not talking about escaping reality and just going on all the time saying everything's wonderful when it's not.
No, you face reality, but in the midst of the real circumstances in which we find ourselves in life, we can still rejoice always in the Lord. Because we're making our request known with thanksgiving, and we are thinking on the things that Paul tells us to think about. It may be that you're discouraged because you're reading the wrong book. You read after some of the philosophers of our day. You read after some who are very much humanistic in their thinking.
And you can easily be discouraged. What's that? You read God's book. And that's a different story. You turn there and read about the God-halled race.
Oh, do we not need grace? Not only grace to have saved our soul initially, but grace to help it every time of need, every day that we live. And so you read God's Word and you read about the God of all grace, and you read about the God who comforts us in all our tribulation.
So you read that book and it gives you a different outlook. He's described describes himself as being the God of hope. When you're discouraged, you begin to feel hopeless. It's not going to ever be any better. What's the use?
I'm ready to give up. But if you believe in God, you believe that He is the God of hope, then you're never hopeless. You read this book? You're reminded that God is on the throne. What a difference that makes.
When things look chaotic. When things look dark, gloomy, hopeless. Remember, the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Those are the words of a baker.
After he had become frustrated because he thought God wasn't doing anything about the wickedness that prevailed in the land. The Lord Had to remind him. God is never idle. He's always at work. He's always unfolding his providences, working his purposes.
And he had to take a little time off. And when he had time to meditate, He then says, The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. It may be that you're fearful then because you're not trusting. David said in Psalm 56, verse 3: What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
Now, here's a man that showed great courage in his teenage years when he fought against Goliath. Here's a man that had led troops into battle. Here's a man who's the king, but he admits there are times I'm afraid. What I do. What time I'm afraid?
I trust. in the It may be that you're discouraged because you've forgotten where you're going. Little children can generate a lot of excitement. If they're told they're going to go on a trip. gonna go someplace that they've always wanted to visit.
Going to go someplace where they feel like there's some excitement. And they can begin to count down the days. How much longer is it? When when are we gonna leave? When are we gonna go on this trip?
Well You began the Look at all the things that are murky and dark and discouraging and disappointing here in this life. And you forget. all about taking a trip. But if you're a child of God, you got a big one coming. That time is going to come when you're going to depart this life and go home to be with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5, 1 says, We have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body. and to be present with the Lord. What a wonderful trip to think about. What a day that's going to be.
When all the battles will have been fought, all the burdens will have been forgotten, all the tears will be wiped away, and to be at home with him, a part of that triumphant chorus as they lift up the voice to sing, Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy own precious blood. Aren't you glad that those glorious days lie out ahead?
So, no matter how dark it might be at the present, there's a great day of brightness, of brilliant sunshine coming. I'm not saying that we should be careless and neglect the duties and responsibilities that we have in life now, but I'm saying that when we keep this hope out in front of us, it makes a difference in the way we live. John tells us in his epistle that he that has this hope in himself purifieth himself even as he is pure. You're preparing for that trip. You're looking forward to that day that you go to be at home with God.
The Lord. This Message. that God delivered to his people. telling them I'm going to go with you. You can you can go back to AI and and you're going to have victory This tells us that there can be a new beginning.
after failure. Warren Wearsby writes, No matter what mistakes we make, The worst mistake of all is not to try again. For the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. ⁇ This was a new beginning for Israel. They'd been defeated, they'd been driven back.
Joshua himself Was it a terrible Frame of mine. even questioning why God had brought them out there and allowed this thing to happen. Showing that in spite of the fact Joshua was such a great, courageous, noble leader, he was still a man, and in his moment of weakness, he had the wrong outlook. But how wonderful. to know that when there has been a failure, a setback, There can be a new beginning.
David's sin was horrendous. But he prayed in Psalm 51:10, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Lord, I'm ready to start over. I've sinned. He confessed his sin.
He acknowledged it before God. And he goes on to say, Lord, I want a renewal. I want a fresh start. Renew a right spirit within me. We think about the son that came to his father and said, I want my inheritance.
And the father gave him A large sum. He goes out and spends his substance in riotous living. As long as he had money to share, he had a lot of friends, and everything's going great, and he's fulfilling the desires of the flesh. But he finally ran out of money. And he's in trouble.
And if gets a job feeding the swine, which was a low place for a Jewish boy. But in that desperate state. He says, I will arise and go to my Father and say, Father, I have sinned. And in Luke 15, 21, that's exactly what he does. Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Now somebody might think, well surely that father wouldn't take him back. The sun. and made a demand which was really out of place and unreasonable, and then he wastes his substance. Father might just tell him, Go on, son, I'm not even going to recognize you any more. But before the boy even got home, the father was running to greet him.
There was a happy reunion. A happy New beginning. A new beginning. And then In John chapter 21, verse 17. Where Jesus is speaking to Peter after the resurrection.
Peter It miserably failed. He meant well. He had demonstrated great faith and courage at other times. But at this point when the little maiden says to him, I think you're one of the followers of this man Jesus. And three times Peter denied it.
I don't know this man. I'm not associated with him. No, no. And then Jesus looked at him. And Peter's heart melted.
And he was broken. He said, I'll go fishing. He was ready to give it all up. But when Jesus met with him He said unto him in John 21, 17, the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.
thou knowest that I love thee. Then Jesus said, Feed my sheep. There's a new beginning. Peter. at Sand.
Peter had failed. Peter had done what he thought he would never do. It promised, Lord, I will be with you no matter what the condition, no matter what the circumstances. I'm ready. And that again shows us the danger of self-sufficiency, the danger of boasting, the danger of assuming that somehow I'm above.
Pitfalls and snares and sins that others are taken over by. But in spite of his failure. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. Yes. The lesson here Is that there can be New beginnings.
and new successes. after past failure.
So go on with the story.
Next time we'll see that indeed they were successful. They conquered the city. God kept his promise. God was with them. No matter what the concerns about the past, what the fears might have been that troubled them momentarily, they went forward and did explicitly what God said.
They were obedient. They did things God's way, and God blessed them in the process. What about you today? Do you struggle? with discouragement.
Then look back again at these scriptures we've read and see how repeatedly God is saying to his people. Be of good courage. Be not afraid. I am with you. Says, I will never leave you nor forsake you, that you might boldly say, The Lord is my helper.
And if you failed. in other areas of life. Failed in your struggle against the weakness of the flesh. Fail in your struggle. with sinful desires.
with the inclination to hold bitterness. resettlement. or harbor jealous thoughts, whatever they might be. Remember there can be a new beginning. And this could be the beginning of that new day.
As you acknowledge before the Lord. You're saying. Your failure. confessing that he will forgive you. and renew a right spirit within you.
Or if you're one that has never. Confess faith in Jesus Christ. May you understand today. That the only one that can rescue you from your ongoing failures as a sinner is Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. In him there is hope.
It's salvation. Jesus what a friend And for sea. Friends may well be false. Help me in my Savior makes me whole. Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, is with me to the end. How good to know that there is hope for fallen ruined sinners. Sinners cannot recover themselves from this desperate state. but by the sovereign grace of God, sinners are rescued.
And those who come to Christ in faith, the very faith that God has given them, are then embraced. In his Great scheme. of saving sinners. I hope that you will write us till next week at this same time. May the Lord richly bless you all.
The same. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder Lessere Bradley Jr. Address all mail to the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45217. That's the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio, four five two one seven. Jeez.
Josh. What a help in sorrow, while the billows o'er me roll and when my heart is breaking, him my comfort helps my soul.
