Never Alone - Part 2 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! Thou the rays of my God and King, thou triumphs of his grace! This is LeSaire Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. Loving the air I knew him, calling with voice so sweet. Burdens of life I brought him, knelt at his wounded feet.

Not from that love can sever wonderful change less free. Master, I'll serve thee ever, never a friend like thee. Sing of a friend so loyal, sing of a friend so true. Giving his gifts so royal, blessings that they are new.

King of the heavenly glory, lowly of earth was he. Master, we sing thy story, never was one like thee. I'm glad that you're with us for the broadcast today, and I just want to remind all of our listeners that the summer months have traditionally been the most difficult as far as keeping up with our financial obligations. If you can help us at this time, we will greatly appreciate it.

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There you can find our publication, The Baptist Witness, and both the Sunday and daily broadcasts. Today we continue our message entitled, Never Alone. We pointed out last time how the Surgeon General of the United States says that loneliness has become an epidemic. And we know that for the child of God, there is an answer to the loneliness that sometimes they encounter to be reminded that the Lord has promised I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Many people will try to defend worry. I've had people say to me, well, I've just always been a worrier, and the point is I plan to continue to be a worrier. That's me.

That's what I do. I worry. But when you're worrying, that means you're not trusting. When you're worrying, you're doubting the promise of God. When you're worrying, you're not committing your way into his hands and saying that whatever he leads and directs is good with me because I trust him.

He's promised then not to leave us in our trials. Feeling alone can be a very painful experience. I remember when I was a young boy, I was taken to the hospital to have my appendix removed. My mother told me later that she had planned to spend the night with me in the hospital. And the nurse insisted that she leave. She said, I can just tell you he's not going to be alert till in the morning.

So there's no need for you to stay here. You just go on home, you come back in the morning. Well, I don't know the exact time frame, but not long after they left, I may have still been groggy, but I knew enough to know my mother wasn't there. And I began to say, where is my mother? Where is my mother?

The nurse would say, well, she's going to come back. I want her now. I want to see my mother. Where is my mother?

And this went on all through the night. And it was a painful experience of feeling to be very much alone. And yet we find these words. Psalm 27 10, when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. And my mother hadn't intentionally forsaken me. She was just steered that way by the nurse that didn't know fully what would transpire. But I've talked to people who have felt indeed mother and father did forsake them. It's often a case where somebody will say, well, my father was an alcoholic or my mother was a drug addict and they forsook me. Well, here's the promise.

If mother and father, those dearest to you by the times of nature should forsake you, ignore you, disappoint you. It says, then the Lord will take me up. He'll not leave us in that time of old age that one might fear saying, I just don't know the outcome.

I don't know the consequences. I remember Martin Bates was a member of this church. It was always an encouragement to me. He attended faithfully when he was on up in his 90s and his usual comment when he shook hands with me going out the door.

Well, I learned something today. That always encouraged me to think here's a man in his 90s that hasn't given up on learning something. He still wants to learn. He took a trip driving himself to Florida when he was about 98 years old. I think he continued driving until he was 99. And then I visited him in the nursing home when I think he was 101 and getting near the end.

He'd always been a strong, stalwart individual. And I remember that day when he said, brother Bradley, I need comfort. I need comfort. And I put my arm around him and prayed with him.

And I said, I want to tell you about the one that'll give you the comfort you need. You know him because you've trusted him for many years. You've expressed your love for the Gospel.

For Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. He's the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He'll give you the comfort. Isaiah 46 verse 4 says, and even to your old age I am key. Even to whore hairs will I carry you. I have made and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you. So the promise is, even to old age. Not only does it say, I will not desert you, I'll not forsake you, but I'll carry you.

What a promise. When you're weak and fragile and you feel like you just can barely get along, the Lord said, I will carry you. Isn't it good to know then that the God that we worship, the God who is the sovereign creator, the God who rules over all things is also describing himself as the God of comfort. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

I love reading that. Whatever the comfort is you need, he's the source of all of it. He is the God of all comfort who comforted us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. He comforts us. He comforts us by the application of his word. He comforts us when we read and claim his promises. He comforts us by the presence of the Holy Spirit to pick us up and strengthen us as we go along the way. And he comforts us so that we then can comfort others by the same comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted. What a comfort. Never alone.

Never, never, never alone. And then courage. Courage is needed when we feel forsaken. Now God has said, I'm not going to forsake you. But the psalmist described those days when there was a deep feeling that the Lord had forgotten about me. If the Lord remembers me, why is my circumstance so difficult? Why is my burden so heavy?

Why am I going through these difficulties? The psalmist said in Psalm 77 verse 7, When the Lord cast off forever, will he be favorable no more? Have you ever been there? He said, just looks like the Lord's forgotten me. I just feel like he's cast off. Is his mercy clean, gone forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?

Selah. What a struggle. I need courage to go on. If I feel that God has forsaken me, how can I continue my onward course? But what encouragement to know that he is with us even when we do not feel that he is there, even though we're not sensible of his presence, that still the promise remains. We referred to that promise that he made to Jacob following that night where the Lord visited him. And it says in Genesis 28 verse 16, And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. So even in those dark times, you're saying, Where is the Lord? Why has the Lord allowed this difficulty to come into my life?

Lord, I don't understand this all. Even when you're having that feeling, as Jacob said, The Lord was in the place, and I knew it not. The Lord is there. You don't understand all that he's doing. But he's working all things together for your good and for the glory of his name.

You remember when we were studying the book of Hosea and it talked about the Lord said, I lifted up Ephraim and taught him to go. He wasn't aware of it. He didn't recognize it.

He didn't know that I was the one picking him up. So there are times we're not sensible that he is near at hand. But the fact is, he has not forsaken us. Courage is needed when we're going to be going forward as we think about entering this new year. We don't know what lies ahead. We don't know what we're going to have to face. We don't know how rough the path may be. We don't know how often we're going to be traveling in the dark times of the night.

But when Joshua was getting ready to lead the people, we referred to this earlier, but it was this. Be strong and of good courage. Fear not, don't be afraid.

Why? For the Lord, by God, he it is that doth go with thee and will not fail thee nor forsake thee. So what a promise to encourage all of us as we look to the year ahead, knowing that no matter what the circumstances might be, it might be a time of some of the greatest blessings we've ever enjoyed. And there's a tendency when things are going well, not to depend so directly on the Lord as we ought.

But whatever it brings, a spiritual awakening, a time of revival, a time of great blessing, or a time of trial or difficulty, we need not fear as we go into the new territory of a new year. And then we need courage when Satan, the accuser of the brethren, accuses us or our own conscience accuses us, our sin mounts up before us and we begin to question, how could God love me when I'm such a miserable failure? When my sin is so great. David struggled when he was convicted of his great sin in Psalm 51 verse 11 he says, cast me not away from thy presence. The sense of guilt was so great, he knew his sin was so enormous that he would not have been surprised if the Lord had cast him away. Why would God not cast him away? Why would God be gracious to him?

Why would God be merciful to him? So he prays, Lord, cast me not away and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. But now it says in verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise. So you come before the Lord with a broken heart. And I've had people actually say to me sometime, well, I don't know if I'm broken enough.

I don't know if I'm down deep enough. I know I've sinned greatly, but maybe I'm not grieving enough. But you see, God's promise is not based on the degree of your repentance or even the strength of your faith. It didn't say, I will never leave thee if you meet this standard, that standard or the other. He says, I will never leave thee. And Psalm 103 says in the 10th verse, He hath not dealt with us after our sins are rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.

Isn't that good to know? So you may be struggling about the fact that you see yourself to be such a great sinner, you wonder that He could love you or fearful that you haven't grieved sufficiently, that you haven't come with the kind of broken heart that would be pleasing to God. But He has not dealt with us according to our sins.

If He did, certainly it would be just to cast us off. It's only because of His mercy and the grace that's given us through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ that He can still be just and the justifier of Him to believeth in Jesus. So He's removed our sins like as a father pitieth his children. So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him, for He knoweth our frame. He rememberth that we are dust.

Isn't that good to know? He knows our weakness. He remembers our frame. He forgives our sins. Think of Peter's failure.

Peter had most fully said, Lord, I will be with Thee no matter what. Others might forsake you, but not me. And he's the very one, three times denied his Lord. Said he didn't know this man and not been his follower. How could it be that a man who had been with Jesus for three years and had been used in many capacities now is blatantly denying Him?

So you might look at that scene and say, well, it's all over for Peter. You might say he's proven himself to be a false professor after this public denial of Jesus. Certainly, he's not going to be forgiven. Jesus will not love him. But after the resurrection, instruction was given. Go tell Peter. Peter was obviously cast down and broken. But Jesus makes it a point to meet with him and talk with him and inquire about his love.

Obviously forgave him and blessed him to preach powerfully on the day of Pentecost and to continue an effective ministry and to write a portion of the New Testament. That's amazing grace. That's God's love. I will never leave Thee nor forsake Thee.

Now, somebody might be a little concerned here and say, Pritchard, you make it sound like you can just go down the wrong path and it doesn't make any difference. God loves you anyway. Oh, now, wait a minute. Do you remember the book of Hosea? I believe it was chapter 2 verse 6. The Lord was speaking about how He would deal with His wayward people and He said, I'll put thorns in your path. Yes, I'm going to be with you.

But the way I'm going to be with you is to put thorns in the path when you're on the wrong path so that you become uncomfortable and repent. Yes, He's with us. He's with us even when He chases us. Whom the Lord loves, never some whom He receiveth. And so that's an evidence of sonship. He loves you enough not to tolerate you continue going in the wrong direction.

He will chasing you. But His wonderful love and grace is such that even when we have sinned there is forgiveness, courage. When you doubt, all kinds of doubts can cross your mind. You may doubt sometimes, well, am I deceived? Am I a true believer?

Where really do I stand? Or Satan may sometimes instill a doubt in your mind and you're reading the Bible and all of a sudden you say, how can I have confidence in this book? How can I really believe that the Bible is God's book? And it may have been a brief time that just for a moment you said, I've been taught all my life that there is a God. How do I know there's a God?

All kinds of doubts can come your way. But the good news is that we have a great high priest to whom we can turn. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeding of our infirmities and all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore in view of this, in view of the fact that we have a great high priest who will hear us, therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, mercy which we desperately need and grace to help, we need help, grace to help in time of need.

I will not forsake you. When you're doubting, ask the question, how could God forsake one that he had chosen and whose name was placed in his book before the foundation of the world? How could God turn away from one who was redeemed by the blood of his son Jesus Christ? How could God give up on one in whose heart he had begun to work?

Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 says, He that hath begun a good work and you will perform it under the name of Jesus Christ. He says he will perform it. He's not going to give up. He's not going to forsake you.

He's not going to turn away. How could he forsake one that has been drawn to the power of the Holy Spirit, quick and made a new creature in Christ Jesus, born again and reverse all of that great experience? How could he turn from one who has been adopted into his family and turn him out? He's been adopted by his grace. How could he possibly turn from one that is now called his child? How could he ignore the everlasting covenant, break the promises, so many, many promises that he has made and destroy the inheritance that is reserved for you in heaven?

Oh no, our God is immutable. Our God can be depended upon. His promises are reliable. Consider some of the promises. Isaiah chapter 41 verse 10 says, Fear thou not, I am with thee.

That's what we're talking about. Never alone. God says, I am with thee. Isaiah 49 verse 15, Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget.

That seems so incredible. How could a woman forget her nursing child? But even if they should forget, I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me. Your name graven on the palm of God's hand, a way to express to you that you have a connection with Him.

He's not going to forget about you. And then he says, Isaiah 43 verse 2, When thou passest through the waters, what? I will be with thee. Never alone. You're passing through the deep waters, the cold waters. Never alone. And Psalm 23 verse 4, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Do you believe His promises?

On we could go. The Bible's full of them. How then can we sit idly by and mourn and grieve and complain and say, I feel so much alone?

God says, if you're one of His, you're never, you're never alone. And then he speaks of contentment. Contentment. No place for covetousness. No place for envy and jealousy and greed, but to be thankful for what you have.

Content with what you have because God's blessed you to have it. You pray, give us this day our daily bread. And He gives it, He provides it for you. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father above. No fear, He says, of what man can do to you.

You say, well now wait a minute, that's a pretty big promise. I don't have to fear what man can do to me. There are certain things man can do to you. Man can sue you. He can rob you. He can lie about you. He can put you into jail. He can even take your life if God in His providence allows it.

But here's something man cannot do. Man cannot prevent the Lord being with you if indeed you are sued and you are lied about and you are harmed and you are in jail, then He'll be with you. Paul and Silas in jail singing at the midnight hour and the Lord was there and they witnessed a great conversion when the jailer came to faith in Christ.

You say, but what about death? Well, think about Stephen who was stoned to death, died as a martyr for the cause of Christ. You say, was the Lord with him?

Sure was. He looked straight into heaven and saw Jesus standing up ready to welcome him. But what a way to die to see Jesus before you get there. I will be with you even in the hour of death.

Psalm 118 verse 6 says, The Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man can do to me. The fear of man is a snare. The fear of man can cause you to be incapacitated in the service of God, influence you to the point that you fail to stand firmly for the faith once delivered unto the saints to do the things that would be to God's honor because you're afraid you're going to be criticized.

You're afraid of what somebody might say and what somebody might do. He says, we're not to fear man. It's impossible for man to separate us from the love of God. Romans chapter 8 verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation? Oh, sometimes in the deepest trials, you can feel like you're separated, but the trial cannot separate you or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. As it is written, we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Now here's the answer. Who can separate us? Nay, none, no one, absolutely no one, no thing, no circumstance, no condition, whatever it is. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which has given us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Is that not enough to stir joy in your soul and say whatever the future holds, whatever may come, I am not alone and nothing can separate me from the love of God. When you're discouraged, remember, I will never leave thee. When you're depressed, remember, never alone. When you're fearful, remember, never alone. When you're doubting, never alone. When you're confused, never alone. When you're suffering anxiety, never alone.

When you're feeling lonely, never alone. When you're facing death, I will be with thee, never alone. I wish that everybody here could say, I claim that promise. But some of you have never come by faith to Jesus Christ as your Savior and you can't claim that promise.

Yet here's another promise. Jesus says, Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. You come to Him by faith and you can say, never alone. And you have to say, with grace, that He brought me. Never alone. Well, I pray that this message entitled Never Alone has been a comfort to you. We would love to hear from you. Write us this week and if you can, help us with the support of the program. Till next week, at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all.

The world's fierce winds are blowing, temptations sharp and keen. I feel a peace in knowing my Savior stands between. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder Lesair Bradley, Jr. Address all mail to the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217.

That's the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. When in afflictions valley I'm treading a road of care, my Savior helps me to carry my cross when heavy to bear.