Bitter Into Sweet

Today, we will be drawing from God's Word a message of encouragement. A message of encouragement hope to help us face those difficult challenges and times in life. What some songwriters call the valleys. God's Word, coupled with His Holy Spirit, gives us profound understanding and reveals God's Word and His Spirit reveal an approach that we need to be mindful of as we go through life. It's an approach which will help us to cope with and benefit from life's difficult times, which we are promised will come.

Well, what is that approach? It's this. Be faithful to God, and God will turn the bitter into sweet. Be faithful to God, and God will turn the bitter into sweet. When we hold to God through the tough times, we will receive God's blessing now and at last forever. I've entitled today's sermon, Bitter Into Sweet. Bitter Into Sweet. To begin, let's turn to Exodus 15.

Exodus 15. In this chapter, we find an illustration of God's love and interaction towards those who choose to trust and follow Him. Exodus 15. In the first half of this chapter, we read how the children of Israel joyously sang praises to God. Why is that? Well, here at the beginning of chapter 15, we find that God had just delivered them from Pharaoh's armies through the waters of the Red Sea.

And so we read in verses 1 through 2, chapter 15. The children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, Moses as well, and they spoke, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider, He has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my Father's God, and I will exalt Him. And then also, let's look at verse 11. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? And of course, if you read the whole song, you'll see it's filled with more and more such glorious, wonderful praise for God.

He has just delivered them from certain death. However, the children of Israel sang a different tune only days later. They sang a different tune only days later. Let's sing chapter 15. Now let's read verses 22 through to 26. Verse 22.

So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea. That's where they had been singing. And then they went out into the wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Mara, they could not drink the waters of Mara, for they were bitter. Perhaps they were overly alkaline or too salty. Therefore, the name of it was called Mara. And the people complained against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? Now, where the New King James Version reads, The People Complained Against Moses, other translations use murmured, such as the King James Version.

The NIV, New International Version, uses the word Grumbled. The Hebrew word lun, however, l-u-w-n, suggests something a little more serious. The Hebrew word lun, l-u-w-n, suggests that they were also questioning God's abilities and motives.

Their murmuring was actually apparently questioning God's capability to help them. And that's according to New English translation editors. Now this is striking. They did this only three days after they had praised God so joyously. Continuing on in verse 25, notice who called for God's help, Moses and not the people. So he, Moses, they come to him, and he, Moses, cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree.

And when he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. What's worthy of note here is how quickly God answered. God answered rather quickly. And Moses, for his part, followed God's instructions. He did exactly what God told him to do. He tossed a tree into those bitter waters. Some translators put a chunk of wood or a piece of wood in the waters. New King James says, a tree, and the waters became sweet and clean. Now God did a miracle. That was a miracle. There is no known tree that can do that.

Some scholars try to excuse the way all God's miracles with natural situations, natural things, but there's no known tree that can do such a thing. Now God also instructed Israel to trust him and to obey him, and we see that continuing in verse 25.

There he, God, made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them. He was proving their loyalty, their commitment to him. And he said, if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, and I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.

God expected Israel to be faithful and to be obedient to his instructions and commandments. And the equation is rather simple. In turn, he would heal and comfort them. He would take care of them. God expects the same from those who would follow him today. A very simple, basic lesson and principle. The point, God intentionally led Israel to this place of bitter waters to prove them. And he wanted to see if they would trust him in difficult times.

It seems they failed, for the most part, to grasp his simple yet profound principle we must all learn. God can turn the bitter into sweet. Now, this bitter into sweet principle can be seen throughout Scripture, and we also see it in the lives of those who are faithful to God, as in the account of Joseph and his brothers. So now let's turn back to Genesis, chapter 42. Turn back a few pages from where we were reading.

And as we turn back to Genesis 42, we probably will recall, and I'm going to help us recall by summarizing, we can recall how Joseph, at age 17, according to Genesis 37.2, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and then taken into Egypt. That, you can imagine, was a bitter time for Joseph. And years later, after he'd become a trusted steward to Potiphar, Potiphar's wife falsely accused Joseph of today of what we'd call sexual assault.

And so Potiphar put him in prison. He became a victim of a terrible injustice. Joseph, we can imagine, knew the bitterness of treachery and of deceit. But it seems Joseph never succumbed to bitterness. He trusted God. And by the wisdom God gave him to interpret Pharaoh's dreams, we remember how Joseph was lifted up from prison to be second only to Pharaoh himself in authority over all Egypt. From prison to being second in authority over all Egypt.

That's quite a movement from bitter into sweet, wouldn't you agree? But there's more of this principle to discern the account of Joseph and his brothers. In Genesis 42, verse 21 through 24, we could see how the brothers sin when they had committed, when they sold Joseph into slavery. We could see how the brothers' sin had brought suffering both on Joseph and upon themselves. It's evident in the words. Now, the brothers at this point in the account don't yet recognize Joseph. But Joseph and we overhear their discussion. Let's read it here in verse 21. Then they the brothers said to one another, We are truly guilty concerning our brother.

For we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear. Therefore this distress has come upon us. They're facing troubles, as we recall. And Reuven answered them, saying, Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not sin against the boy, and you would not listen. Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us. But they did not know that Joseph understood them. For he spoke to them through an interpreter, and he turned himself away from them and wept. It's interesting, Joseph's reaction to overhearing his brothers.

At this time, it was some 22 years later. Some 22 years later, and yet the brothers were still heavily burdened with guilt for their sin. Their sin still weighed upon them. Their sin against Joseph. And Joseph, Joseph we can see, still suffered as well. Sin's bitterness can last a lifetime. And yet Joseph did not seek vengeance. He had the opportunity, but he did not take it.

He trusted God to rectify or to heal that hurt their sin it caused. Now let's turn to chapter 45, verse 3-8. To the point in the account when Joseph reveals himself to them. This is another episode in the Bible I would have liked to have seen. I'd like to have been there. Here's the time when Joseph then reveals himself to his brothers. Genesis 45, verse 3. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.

Does my father still live? One of the first questions he had to know. Is dad still alive? But his brothers could not answer him. Why? For they were dismayed. Another word for dismayed here would be troubled. They were troubled. Another word, they were terrified. They were terrified in his presence. If they had been in Joseph's shoes, sandals, they probably could imagine what they would do to them. They were dismayed, troubled, terrified in his presence. Joseph said to his brothers, Please come near to me. So they came near. Then he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here.

Again, recall, he overheard them talking about their guilt. For God, because God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting, meaning neither planting nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So now it was not you who sent me here, but God. God sent me here. So Joseph's words are profound. Again, they reveal how much he understood, how he understood that God had allowed the events to transpire exactly as they did, because God had a plan.

He had a much larger plan to save their lives and their families' lives, and lives of many of the nations, the lives of people of Egypt. And despite his life's bitterness, Joseph rightly trusted God. His brothers, we can see, his brothers, however, found it a little more difficult to trust in God's mercy. And we might say in Joseph's, too. Years later, Joseph again had to reassure them of God's goodness to them.

We see this in Genesis chapter 50. Let's turn there. Genesis chapter 50 verses 16 through 20. Genesis 50 verse 16. Again, breaking into the account. So they, the brothers, so the brothers sent messengers to Joseph, saying, Before your father died, and so this is after their father died, before your father died, he commanded, saying, Thus you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespass, the sin of your brothers, the trespass in their sin, for they did evil to you.

Now please, they said, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father, for they are approaching him with great sincerity and humility and contrite-ness. In Joseph's response, and Joseph wept, he wept when they spoke to him. And then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we are your servants.

Essentially, in their minds, they're begging for his lenience, they're begging for their lives. They fear the worst. But 19, verse 19, Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me. He understood that. But God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. He knew the brothers meant to turn his life into the bitterness it had been, or worse, but he saw that God had turned it into something much better.

And again, the point here, Joseph trusted God. Despite all the terribly bitter and unjust things he suffered all those years, he remained faithful to God, and because he remained faithful to God, he was able to witness how God turned their shared bitterness into sweet. I think we should be encouraged and cheered knowing that God can do the same for us today.

If we remain faithful and obedient to God, our bitter trials ultimately will lead to blessings from God. We just don't often see it when we're in the midst of the troubled times. Now, this principle of God turning bitter and sweet is also evident in the life of Hannah. Let's look at another example.

1 Samuel 1 Hannah suffered a bitterness that some know until this time. We can recall that Hannah was one of two wives of Elkanah. Elkanah was a husband who truly loved Hannah. But Hannah suffered bitterly for lack of a child, for she was barren. She had been unable to have children. Hannah's anguish was especially painful whenever Peninah, the other wife, who had children, would taunt her and make her feel worthless and insignificant as a woman and insignificant as a wife.

It's a very terrible thing the other wife did. Now, in her plight, Hannah still trusted God. She never gave up on God, and so much so that she made a very special vow to God. We read about that in 1 Samuel 1, verse 10. And she was in bitterness of soul. And she prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.

Then she made a vow and said, O Lord of Hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head. So she's going to give her child to God if he will give her that son she desires.

Now, we might also recall how Eli the High Priest misjudged Hannah's passionate prayer. He thought she was a common drunk. And here she was praying her heart out. Verse 12. And it happened as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli the High Priest watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.

So Eli said to her, How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you. Can you imagine what a shock that would have been to her?

Terrible. But Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have not drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now. I think we might pause here and consider that Eli's error should remind us, should mind all of us, we should be careful about rushing to judgment. We should be careful not to rush to judgment about the behavior or demeanor of others. Only God truly knows what's in one's heart, and only God knows what that other person may be suffering and sorrowing with. But the good news is, to Eli's credit, he relented. In his own way he became a helper of her joy, for he did encourage her. Verse 17, Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace. And the God of Israel grants your petition, which you have asked of him. Can you imagine the high priest telling her that? What a boost in her encouragement that would have been. And she said, Let your maidservant find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Safe to say, charitable words do help. And that is very important for us to remember, too. Charitable words do help. Now, throughout her bitter trial, what we see is that Hannah remained steadfast with God. She was faithful. And God answered her prayer. Verse 20. And so it came to pass in the process of time, according to God's will and time, that Hannah conceived and bore his son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked for him from the Lord. And then, let's look at chapter 2, 1 Samuel 2, verse 1 through 2. Note Hannah's expression of her joyous, sweet joy to God for his answered prayer. Verse 1. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you, nor is there any rock. Despite the anguish of all those childless years, she held fast to God. She never did know, it seems, why she was barren, why the bitterness, but she persevered, and trusted God. And when God blessed her with Samuel, Hannah even then remained faithful to fulfill her vow. And she did give Samuel in service to God, and Samuel served God for the rest of his life. And Hannah, verse 21 of chapter 2 here, tells us that God later gave Hannah three more sons and two daughters. Isn't that wonderful? Clearly, God turned Hannah's anguish into joy, the bitter into sweet. Whenever things beyond our control causes us to feel loss and defeat, then many things can. Anytime we feel helpless and despairing, we need to take this lesson of Hannah's and remain faithful to God. Of course, we should know that God will not always answer our prayers according exactly to our will, to our time, to what we want. But we should be encouraged by knowing that if we remain faithful to Him, He will surely answer our prayers and bless us according to His will and time, which is, I would assume, infinitely better than our own will and time. God's will and time is always for the best. It's always for the best, even though at times we may not see it. Now, the New Testament upholds the same principle of our need to trust God to help us move from bitter into sweet. We find it even expressed in Matthew 11. Let's look here. Matthew 11. Jesus affirmed this principle of bitter into sweet. Matthew 11, verse 28 through 30.

These are probably well-known words to us and many. Jesus Christ's encouraging words are here to those who would follow Him. Jesus said, Matthew 11.28, Come to me. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Again, when we look at this as we're going to, we will see that Christ's exhortation here does parallel the bitter into sweet principle. For example, the phrase, All you who labor and are heavy laden. I want to put in words of a song that is written on this, but I've got to stick to the Scripture. Labor and heavy laden. That could be equivalent to the bitter we go through in life.

What's bitter in our everyday lives? Well, you have your own, but I can speak generically. Labors of every day are daily trials. Maybe you had unexpected bills to pay or just the regular bills to pay. For some reason, they're going up. Taxes, health issues, problems of all sorts, big and small, unexpected disasters sometimes. We also have the weight of anxious cares. Yes, along with that fear and doubt, our own crazy human reasoning apart from God, as we've heard some messages on those topics, those enemies of faith. The bitter in our life can be the troubles of simply living in a world that rejects God.

Living in a world that rejects morality according to God's word, injustice and mercy. And if you feel like it's getting worse, the immorality of this world, I agree. I think so, too. The other part of bitter in our daily lives? Just battling the worldliness. We may not notice so much, but if we have children, I think we really especially notice the worldliness trying to creep in.

Disney's gone woke. It's hard to watch Sleeping Beauty. In other things, we might have grown up as children ourselves. Fifty years later, they've got to make it better and more woke. More and more, frankly. Worldliness. It's hard on us. It's hard on our children. There's always an endless allure of temptation to sin, to do the wrong thing instead of what God would have us do.

And of course, what can be very bitter, especially as we consider this time of examining ourselves prior to Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread, the burdens of our own sins, the burdens of our guilt. But of course, we know the light and that burden. We seek God through faith in Christ and seek His forgiveness and repentance.

Now, this next phrase, Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. That would be equivalent to be faithful to me. Believe me. Do what I say. Obey. And so indeed, Christ is welcoming us in these verses we just read, 28 through 30, He's welcoming us to take on His way, God's way of life, not the world's.

That is a burden. He's encouraging us to believe and follow Him as God has always intended for humanity to do. He wants us to take up His lighter burden, a lighter burden of keeping His law, commandments, His ways, to take up humility, a life of repentance, and to reject the way of pride and rebellion. And what will happen if we do these things? Jesus says here, He says, you will find rest for your souls. You will find rest for your souls. I equate that with sweet. That is sweet.

It relates to faith in Christ shed blood for our sins, God's forgiveness. The rest for our souls we find through Christ's relieves us from the futility of the suffering and sin and death. It gives us true purpose. God's calling gives us real purpose. It gives us a reason for getting up in the morning, a reason to keep pushing ahead when it can seem tough.

It gives meaning to life. Maybe like you, before God called you, you didn't really know what life was all about except the 40-hour, if you grew up on a farm, 80-hour work week.

But when God opens our minds, suddenly we see there's something much more than just eat, drink, be merry, repeat. There's something much more, and that's truly sweet. God gives us true purpose and meaning in life. Christ speaks to our heart. He tells us to take up His yoke, His way of peace, peace of a heart, of mind and spirit. And ultimately, the rest we will find for our souls. It will be in salvation that hope we have until that time, the hope of salvation, eternal life in the kingdom of God, and eternity with God and the family of God. And so, again, with these words, Jesus Christ urged those, and He urges us still, those who would follow Him to submit themselves entirely to God and to His way of life. Give up the bitter and turn to the sweet. And, of course, His meaning is symbolized by taking up the yoke Christ offers and submitting ourselves willingly to God. Now, despite what false teachers claim, despite the ways of the world, taking up Christ's yoke to find that sweet rest, ultimately, is eternal life, that means we must be keeping God's Ten Commandments. And yes, we must do that. Matthew 19. Just a few chapters down here. Matthew 19, verse 17 through 19. We must not let up living by these commandments. We must not let up instructing our children, encouraging our grandchildren, however we can, in these commandments of God. We recall Matthew 19, 17, 19, that when asked what one must do to have eternal life, here's what Jesus answered, breaking into the thought, verse 17. Jesus said to him, well, yes, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one that is God. And, of course, Jesus was the word incarnate. But if you want to enter into life, Jesus said, keep the commandments. And the man asked Him, he said to him, which ones? As if it should matter. That's mine. That's not Scripture. Which ones? Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Kind of a summary statement. Jesus made very clear that we are to be keeping the Ten Commandments, and we must be striving to live them God's way. And, of course, Jesus meant more than just keeping God's law in a Pharisaical, legalistic way. That's what the people at His day and age, Pharisees and scribes and others were doing. We know that because He expanded the law's meaning spiritually. Matthew 5.22, you can jot that down, but Matthew 5.22, Jesus said, But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. Whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council, but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Jesus took the Commandment, thou shall not murder, and to expanding it, essentially telling us, if you hate anybody, you are committing murder, as it were. Likewise, Matthew 5.28.

To lust after a woman, Jesus said, is to commit adultery. So He went beyond just the behavior, the actual action and physical behavior taking that step. Verse 28 said, But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And so He expanded it to a much larger way of living. It's a way of the heart, principle, practice. But God's law, by no means, is a burden. In 1 John 5.2-3, we are told, oh, you don't have to keep those old commandments. They've been put away. Well, that's not in my Bible. 1 John 5.2-3, the Apostle John, many, many years later, verified the words of Jesus Christ. 1 John 5.2. John wrote by this, We know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. Jesus Christ kept His Father's commandments, and so do His loyal followers unto this day. The true burden, sin is death. That's the burden. That's the bitter burden. And of course, Jesus kept God's law perfectly. Notice 1 John 3, just a page back, perhaps, in your Bible. 1 John 3.4-5.

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. Breaking God's law, it's sin. Verse 5, And you know that He was manifested to take away our sin, and in Him there is no sin. Christ did not commit sin. God does not sin. God does not teach sin. The commandments are not sin. Although if we listen to certain individuals in our society, to keep God's commandment is a sin. We need to stick to God's Bible, His Scripture.

Jesus did not sin, though He suffered and died, so we might have eternal life. Let's turn to Hebrews 12. Let's turn to Hebrews 12, verses 1-3. Through His sufferings, Jesus Christ set an example of faithful obedience to God.

Faithful obedience to God, even when we suffer difficult times. Jesus Christ suffered terribly, but He never stopped submitting Himself to God. He never stopped living a life faithfully to God, His Father.

Here in Hebrews 12, verses 1-3, we get a sense of how Christ's bitterness was made sweet. It's described in Hebrews 12, verses 1-3. The writer of Hebrews states, And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Yes, we can go to Christ. He understands how bitter and troublesome life can be. He understands because He lived it. But we can also turn to Him as an example of how we can endure, too. He did. We can. And He and the Father, with the help of their Spirit and God's Word, are there to help us through our life's bitterness. Let's also look at Isaiah chapter 53. I imagine a number of us have been looking at that chapter recently.

As we're told in Isaiah 53, Christ's suffering and death, which He willingly accepted, is a very important part of our life. And we can't just say, Christ's suffering and death, which He willingly accepted, was according to God's plan. And that was so that the sins of all humanity might be forgiven, so that all people might know God's salvation, that sweetness of God's salvation. Notice just a few verses here, verses 10 through 12. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, foretelling the coming of the Messiah, the Christ. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief. When you make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied. By His knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Now let's look at Isaiah 61, verse 1 through 3. Isaiah 61, verse 1 through 3.

As part of God's great plan of salvation, we need to understand and recall that when Jesus Christ returns, He returns to establish the kingdom of God on earth, not somewhere over the rainbow or in the clouds, but on earth. And all those faithful to Christ will experience true joy.

Isaiah 61, verse 1 through 3.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Isaiah wrote, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty. These are the words God put in the mouth of Isaiah and recorded for us. To proclaim liberty to the captives, in the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, in the day of vengeance of our God. And if you ever really wondered if God is going to move us from bitter into sweet, notice these words now. The day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. The bitterness of humanity, ultimately in time, will be turned to joy.

Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father, and there He intercedes on our behalf. And now we can flip back, and I did not hold my place. Flip back to Hebrews 4, I always forget, Hebrews 4, verse 14 through 16. Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, He intercedes on our behalf. He truly understands. And that, I think, we need to really embrace and be so grateful for. He truly understands how bitter life can be. He experienced it. And He helps us now to overcome the world in sin and to receive God's mercy so that we can persevere in faithfulness to God. So let's read, verse 14, Hebrews 4. Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And so this, I find, to be very encouraging. Very encouraging. God our Father and Jesus Christ have made salvation possible, and they will accomplish it. It's right on schedule, right on time. Things are happening exactly as God planned.

We need not fear.

We need to keep our trust in God. We need to keep the faith. We must hold fast our confession. Better life's difficulties. And I know some of the difficulties we are going through, and they're tough. But we can make it through and remain faithful and obedient to God, and all the way until salvation.

At the same time, we must never take lightly the bitter deadliness of sin. We look forward to the sweet, but we must not underestimate the bitterness of sin. Sin can suddenly happen any time in our walk with God. That's been my experience, even after we've experienced a personal victory over it.

You ever notice how, well, I better not say ask you. Maybe it only happens to me. Perhaps you have experienced this. We might experience a victory against one temptation. We rejected it. We squashed it. We cast it aside, only to turn around maybe minutes, an hour, a day later, and fully fall for another temptation. Maybe the same one. Maybe a different one.

That's bitter, isn't it? We don't like that. When we think about it, the children of Israel's experience at Mara is not so different from our own, is it? Only three days after joyously praising God beside the Red Sea, they are at Mara muttering about Moses, who they've been following, and they're out all those terrible plagues at Egypt. They left Egypt. He's leading them. Three days later, they're muttering about Him, and they're unsure about trusting God. They didn't stay faithful to God for very long. But we need not shake our heads in amazement, wondering how they could do that. I remember shaking my head, how could they do that? I did it. But it's amazing as we move along in our process of conversion, we come to understand how they did that. They tripped up. They lacked that faith they needed at that moment. Now, we may have experienced something similar this past week. Perhaps in preparation for Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread. Perhaps we examined ourselves for sin and found a little. We found a little, and we set about to put it out of our lives. And maybe we did. For an hour? Maybe for a day or two, until we gave into a bad habit, that bad attitude. Maybe we gave into that especially tempting temptation and sinned again. And when that happens, we know the bitter, the guilt, the self-loathing, the self-deprivation, the frustration. And our anger can grow within us, the bitterness, the disgust, self-disgust. And we may even think, why do I even try?

Some of us may feel that way now.

But as we noted earlier, sin is a huge source of bitter for those bearing the yoke of Christ.

But remaining faithful to God, to Christ, is the answer. We have to remain faithful to God. You know, I do find some comfort in knowing that I, and I think we should too, we're not alone with this battle against sin and bitterness. Let's turn to Romans 7, 18 through 25. I also find myself reading this chapter, Romans 5 through 8, Romans 3, all those great chapters. But this section, Romans 7, 18 through 25, gives me a little hope when I read that Paul suffered with sin, had similar experiences with sin. Of course, Paul never excused away sin, and I'm not saying just because Paul had sin and suffered was bitter that we should say, well, it's okay if I feel that way. Well, I'm just saying, all of those who follow Christ, even Paul, have to fight with this bitterness. They have to fight with sin. Let's read a little bit here of what Paul wrote, his similar experiences with sin. He wrote about it in Romans 7. We're going to read verses 18 through 25. There's more, but I'll just read 18 through 25 here. And you could think of yourself when the word says, I, and me. For I know, Paul wrote, verse 18, for I know that in me, Paul says, that in my flesh nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find? He just finds it hard to do what he really, really wants to do in faithful obedience to God. Verse 19, for the good that I will to do, or for the good that I really want to do, I do not do. But the evil I will not to do, I don't want to do, that I practice. Yeah, it's crazy. Verse 20, now if I do what I will or don't want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. He begins to see it's that sin, it's that natural carnal nature that's driving us towards sin. Verse 21, I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills, who wants to do good. Paul says, for I delight, and we do too. I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

I am convinced that Paul understood the bitterness of sin. And he also tells us what to do. He did what we must do. Humbly turn to God through Jesus Christ for help. Verse 24, again, picking up there, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Verse 25 is the answer. I thank God. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. He knows he has to keep practicing living faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and letting God help him live faithfully according to God. You know, it's interesting. It's interesting that at Mara, Moses heated God's instruction and threw a tree into the bitter waters to make them sweet for a multitude of people. And we must heed God's instruction to practice living faith in Jesus Christ, who willingly suffered and died on a tree, so that all humanity can be free from sin and death. Is that something? The bitter, into sweet. The bitter, into sweet.

The bitterness of our sin and guilt will not be eased until we repent, until we go to our Heavenly Father and humbly confess our sin, and we can't hold anything back. We need to dig deep. As we heard in the sermonette, we need to dig deep for every little bit and ask God's forgiveness by covering our sin with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His shed blood cleanses us from sin. And we find that wonderful assurance in 1 John chapter 1, 7 through 9. 1 John 1, 7 through 9.

1 John 1, 7 through 9. Again, the Apostle John wrote, But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. That's how we stay united as one. We don't want division. We stay united as one in Christ. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. In the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanses us from all sin. All sin. And if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Isn't that sweet? We must ask God for forgiveness without doubting, and God will forgive us. It's what he says. He is faithful. We must practice repentance from sin. We must practice living faith in Christ's sacrifice, which removes from us sin, which removes from us sin's penalty of death. On the other hand, if we ever have a stubborn attitude or find it growing in us, if we ever have a stubborn attitude that says what God's Scripture declares to be sin is not really sin, well, that used to be sin. Now it's not sin. That's not the way Scripture works. That's not the way of God. If we ever have a stubborn attitude that says that God's Scripture declares to be sin is not really sin, or that God doesn't really care that we sin, it's okay, or that sin itself is not important, it's no big deal, that's an old-fashioned idea. We're in a new age, baby. We don't need to worry about that. That's what I hear. It's kind of that disrespectful towards God. If we ever get those sort of attitudes, we need to be on red alert, because then we're heading in that spiritually dangerous direction towards destruction. It's the path that leads towards destruction, the broad way that Jesus talked about in Matthew 7, verse 13-17. We need to keep those two paths. We're on the path, the narrow path that leads to life and salvation. It's difficult. It can be of its own little bitterness at times, but ultimately it leads to the sweep. So the point is, if we reject our calling and commitment to God, then our lives will be most bitter, and without that real hope of salvation, which God our Father offers us, we must take great care, great care not to neglect our eternal salvation, not to give it up for the temporary pleasures of sin. It's all temporary. It's like smoke. It doesn't last. When we ask God for help, and we need to be, when we ask God for help, He will help. No matter what sin you may find yourself struggling with. So what is bitter in life? Each one of us knows personally what that bitter is in our life. And although we don't always know why the bitter things happen, as they do, God's Word does reveal how we should respond. I always want to know why. I used to get in trouble for that as a kid. Why? Why me, Lord? Why do I have to go through this? Why? Job said why, too. But we don't always know why. But what God does tell us is how we should respond. How we should respond. God would have us respond by trusting Him, by being totally faithful to Him, and being totally obedient to Him always, no matter what. No matter what. And when we sin, when we trip up, we know what to do. We repent. We repent and go to Him. God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, His Son understand our suffering and sorrows, and ultimately, they intend to make our bitter into sweet.

For us and for all those who will choose to commit themselves to God. So let us be greatly encouraged. I want for us to be encouraged today. God is turning the bitter into sweet. What will you do with this also precious knowledge?