I Must Tell Jesus - Part 1 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace!

This is LeSaire Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. In shady green pastures so rich and so sweet, God beats his dear children of all. Where the waters will flow with the way everyone speaks, God beats his dear children of all. Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the flood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long. Sometimes on the boundary the sun shines so bright, God beats his dear children of all. Sometimes in the valley in darkest of night, God beats his dear children of all.

Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the flood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long. Though sorrows befall us and stage our faults, God beats his dear children of all. Through grace again, God really beat our faults, God beats his dear children of all. Away from the fire and away from the flame, God beats his dear children of all. Away up in glory, church each day, God beats his dear children of all. Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the flood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long.

In the night season and all the day long. A few years ago we used a message on the broadcast entitled, I Must Tell Jesus. I feel like that's very appropriate for the difficult times in which we're living at present, and so we're going to share it with you again today.

I hope it will prove to be a blessing. Sometimes when my heart is heavy, I feel great burden. An old song that I've known since childhood comes to my mind. I Must Tell Jesus. It's a reminder of where to take our troubles and find comfort. It's an expression of Bible truth. First Peter chapter five, verse seven says, casting all your care on him for he careth for you. The song was written by Elisha Hoffman, a Presbyterian minister. Those who knew him said that he truly loved the Lord and showed it by working to help people whom others would call the down and out. One day he was visiting a woman who was in great pain and very discouraged. Hoffman reminded the woman that she needed to tell Jesus about her problems. For the moment, she had forgotten that simple truth but started repeating the words, yes, I must tell Jesus. On his way home, those words rang in his ears and would not go away. He promptly wrote the words and the tune to the hymn, I Must Tell Jesus.

It was first published in 1894. I must tell Jesus all of my troubles. I cannot bear these burdens alone. In my distress, he kindly will help me. He ever loves and cares for his own. I must tell Jesus all of my troubles.

He is a kind, compassionate friend. If I but ask him, he will deliver, make up my troubles quickly and end. Tempted and tried, I need a great Savior, one who can help my burdens to bear. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, he all my cares and sorrows will share. Oh, how the world to evil allures me. Oh, how my heart is tempted to sin.

I must tell Jesus and he will help me over the world the victory to win. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. The word care means anxiety.

The state of being pulled apart. The word can include discontentment, discouragement, despair and suffering. Casting all your care upon him. If we think about that text, we are going to consider four things. First, oft times a hindrance. Secondly, sometimes a question. Thirdly, always a promise.

And fourthly, never a failure. Oft times there is a hindrance when it comes to this admonition to cast our care upon him. And the hindrance is that pride gets in the way. God hates pride. According to Proverbs chapter 6 verses 16 and 17, he hates even a proud look. These six things God hates and one of them is a proud look. A proud look may indicate that the heart is lifted up full of pride.

We're not able to read another man's heart but God certainly knows what's in the heart. God hates pride. In order to cast our care upon the Lord, we must put pride away. We must come in humility. 1 Peter chapter 5, the verses that precede our text. Say in the fifth verse. Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. May all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility.

Covered with it, like putting on a mantle, putting on a garment. It's not just to be something that is of little significance and importance in your mind. But to be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Life is indeed challenging.

The problems are often great. Would any of us want to go forward dealing with our difficulties with the understanding that God is resisting us. That God is not for us. If we walk in pride, he resists us. But in contrast, he gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.

And then the text is part of that sentence. Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. God requires humble submission. A humble submissive spirit.

And we must meet that condition here in order to claim the promise of verse 7. What does it mean then that pride gets in the way? We get the idea that we're strong enough to handle whatever comes our way.

We forget that there is a warning. Take heed that one who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. We can be filled with pride because we think we deserve more than what we have. We become critical of others. We want to put other people down so it will make us look better. Pride is the very heart of most every sin.

It was so with Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Satan tempted her that you partake of this fruit and you become as gods. There was pride.

I'm not satisfied with the position I occupy. I want one that is greater even though in submitting to that temptation she was rebelling against God. James chapter 4 verses 6 and 10 say, But he giveth more grace wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. So oftentimes there can be a hindrance in casting our care upon him because of pride. Secondly there can be a hindrance because the cares that press us down are sinful.

It may be a desire for riches, a desire for popularity, a desire for some better position in life. It all stems from a greedy spirit. And because your care, that which is burdening you is a sinful desire. You can't expect to cast that upon the Lord and say, Lord relieve the disappointment, the stress, the burden that I carry.

Because the very source of it, the very base of your care is a sinful, selfish desire. It may be that you are envious of others. You see what they possess. You see their position.

You'd like to be where they are. Psalm 73 3, the psalmist says, For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Have you ever looked around as the psalmist did and seen some who by every indication are wicked? They don't acknowledge God, they don't love God, they don't serve God.

And yet they are prosperous. You say, it just doesn't seem fair. I try to serve God, I go to church, I worship Him, I work hard. But I have such difficulty getting ahead. So this becomes a sense of discontentment, anxiety, it's a burden. But can you take that to the Lord? I say, Lord, I'm not happy where I am.

I'm discontented. Indeed you can go to the Lord and confess that as a sin. But you can't take that to the Lord as a care that you want Him to assume for you. Thirdly, there is sometimes a hindrance because your solutions to problems are sinful. The person wants to get ahead, they are not making it. So they begin to do some things that are dishonest. They cut corners in their business dealings.

They are not perfectly straight forward on their income tax report. They begin to do things that dishonor God because of their greed. They are now resorting to methods that are sinful. You can't take that care to the Lord. You become guilty of making a cistern while you have left the fountain of living waters.

We read in the book of Jeremiah chapter 2 and the 13th verse, For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Why would anybody leave a fountain of living water? Water that satisfies, water that refreshes. And go over here and begin to dig a hole. Dig down into the mud and the cistern is broken.

It can't retain any of the water that is poured into it. Oh, how some work so diligently on the cistern that they have chosen. They decide that I'm going to get rid of this empty feeling in my heart.

I'm going to get rid of this frustrating sadness that I feel. And so they turn to worldly pleasures. They turn to some vice that certainly never satisfies.

It's a sinful activity that puts a barrier between them and God and drags them down to the consequences of their sinful actions. How often I see that as I talk every week to people who are suffering because of a drug addiction. A man the other evening was describing the terrible, terrible circumstances of his life. He'd just been out of prison a short time. His two brothers had recently been killed. He was accused of killing one of them and was in prison for some period of time. But rather than receiving readily the counsel that was being given him, he was blaming all of his problems on his parole officer. David Wessel, who is a part of the ministry in Cleveland, said later, it's not the parole officer.

The parole officer is very cooperative, very willing to help the man. This man, although he was hearing the gospel and hearing what help and hope there is in Jesus Christ, he was focusing on the cistern to which he had resorted and admitted that he had been high just a couple of days prior to this meeting and was in desperation. He said, I've got to turn somewhere. I can't stand life like it is. He's got to try to drown out his sorrows.

And while it may give somebody a momentary relief, the long-term effects are indeed devastating. And then sometimes a question. A person says, I hear what the text conveys. I hear the admonition, casting all your care upon him.

But it seems he doesn't really care for me. My troubles are so great. Jeremiah said in Lamentations chapter 3 in the 12th verse, He hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. It felt like God was sending the arrows of affliction to him.

And when God bends his bow, he certainly will hit the target. But the afflictions were so great. The burden was so heavy.

The time was so dark. Obviously Jeremiah is expressing the thought that God must not care. And when you reach that place in life, that it seems everything is going wrong, one trouble follows another.

That people say, I don't know how much worse it can get. And somebody will say, well if God really loves me, why did he let this happen? Why did not God protect me? Why did not God give me a smoother path to travel on? And so a person draws back. I don't think God really cares.

How can I go to Him and unburden my heart? Because as John says, it seems that God doesn't answer my prayer. I pray. I call on His name. I pray in sincerity. I pray zealously. But He just doesn't hear. And Jeremiah said in Lamentations 3, 8, Also when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer. What a difficult time.

A person is pressed down, feeling that they are being pulled apart. Anxiety, stress, disappointment, frustration. And they try to call upon God, but it seems that He doesn't hear. I prayed, but my heart is empty and I see no answer to my prayer.

He shuts them out. And somebody else may say, The question they raise is, how could God care for me? It seems He couldn't possibly care for me, when I'm so unworthy.

I've failed so many times. I've been back to Him repeatedly, confessing my sin, admitting my wrongs, and yet I fall back once more. I see myself so full of sin, such a wretched soul. How could I cast my care upon Him?

I can't imagine that God cares for me. Job chapter 42, verses 5 and 6. After all of His suffering, after all of the extended time when the friends came and only agitated the matter by giving Him unsound counsel. He then said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.

Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. He said, I'd heard about God. I knew some things about Him. But I have a different perspective now. I see Him. I see the Lord. I see His greatness, and consequently, I abhor myself. I'm a sinner.

I'm undone. And I repent in dust and ashes. But when you read the verses that follow, you find that God rebuked those friends that came and spoke words that were not sound and correct. And the Lord accepted Job.

He did hear his prayer. And when Job prayed for his friends, God blessed him and restored to him what he had lost. The point is then, that though we recognize our unworthiness and have to say with the patriarch Jacob, I'm not worthy of the least of thy mercies, we're still encouraged to come. As unworthy sinners, we come acknowledging, Lord, I don't deserve a blessing, but I desperately need it.

I don't deserve your help, but I can't carry this burden. And I come casting my care upon you. And then, always a promise. His promises are true. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and the 20th verse, For all the promises of God in Him are ye, and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of God. All of His promises are ye and Amen, which means they are yes, yes.

God cannot lie. So when He makes a promise, you can count on it. It will always be fulfilled.

It may not come to pass at the time that you would like to see it fulfilled in your life. It may not be in the manner that you had expected, but God will keep His promise. Always a promise. The Bible is full of promises. To encourage us, to trust Him, to depend upon Him, to cast our care upon Him. Psalm 9 and verse 10, And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee, for Thy Lord has not forsaken them that seek Thee. Is that not an encouragement to come to Him?

To cast your care upon Him? He will not forsake those that seek Him. A psalm with which you're very familiar. Psalm 23 and the fourth verse, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. It may be a dark time, the very valley of the shadow of death, but I'm not going to fear any evil, for Thou art with me. And by rod and by staff they comfort me.

Always a promise. Psalm 50 verse 15, And call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver Thee, and Thou shalt glorify me. Notice so often the end result is that God will be glorified.

Anytime our requests are selfish, self-promoting, and we've lost sight of a desire for God to be glorified, we can't expect Him to respond to our requests. May we pray as we cast our care upon Him, Lord, as I trust Thee to get me through this valley, through this dark time, through this difficult place, help me by my attitude, by the things I say, the things I do, to give a testimony to others that Your name will be glorified. Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 4, Trust ye in the Lord forever. The Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. His promises are always true and can be relied upon.

And His record confirms that He cares. The Bible is full of examples that display God's love and care for His people. The children of Israel groaned under the whip of the taskmaster as slaves in Egypt. And God by divine providence spared the life of a little baby whose name was Moses and raised him up to lead them out from this place of suffering. Soon they came to the Red Sea. The people were fearful. The sea was in front of them.

They could hear the rumbling of the chariot wheels as Pharaoh set his host in hot pursuit after them. But God cared. He rolled back the waters of the sea and the people marched across dry shod and they sang the horse and its rider hath he thrown into the sea. They had a great victory.

But it wasn't by their scheme, their plan, their ingenuity. It was by the power of God who cared for them. I must tell Jesus of my trials I cannot bear these burdens alone In my distress He kindly will help me He ever loves and cares for His own What an encouragement it is to review the mighty works of God in days gone by to see His abundant mercies upon His people and to be able to confirm I must tell Jesus I can bring Him my burdens and cares today and find relief in the help that He gives. I hope that you will write us and until next week at this same time may the Lord richly bless you all. That's the Baptist Bible Hour Cincinnati, Ohio 45217 I must tell Jesus I...