Our God Is the God of All Comfort

The sermon passed to Mr. Randy Del Santo.

If you were in a Delisandro household, you know that Mr. Delisandro, RJ here, has some very eclectic tastes when it comes to TV viewing. Eclectic, meaning a little of this and a little of that. And my eclectic tastes can be quite weird at times. And there are times when I teased my wife that, well, it's time for her to go to bed, so I'll turn on the military channel, or I'll turn on some animal channel, or I'll turn on the history channel. And quite frequently, you know, somebody starts going upstairs to bed. I was watching a 90-minute presentation on the history channel about Egypt. They had had one on Rome, building an empire, or, you know, designing an empire, I forget the exact title. They did the same thing with Egypt. And I thought it was interesting, as I was watching the presentation, they were looking at the various pharaohs, and more or less talking about the architecture and how they actually built the great buildings that they did. Being an Italian, being a Roman, knowing various Greeks, it was interesting, as they were discussing Egypt, how that when the people of Greece and Rome were in little villages scattered with no power, that Egypt already had a mighty empire. When people of Greece and Rome were living in mud huts, Egypt was the first nation to build stone buildings. And not just stone buildings, they were able to use math with little, you know, they had in terms of implements, but they had great, great minds, they had great designs. Things that would take us a great deal of effort today with all of our machinery and tooling and mechanization and so forth. They built wonderful things, just amazing things. Now, you know, we wouldn't agree with the religiosity behind those things, but just the buildings themselves, the pyramids and so forth, were just amazing structures.

And as I was watching that, I couldn't help but think about their culture, not from an artistic point of view or from an archaeological point of view, but from a religious point of view. And thinking about the various gods that they have or had, and their types of worship.

And it got me thinking about the various types of people that we see in the book of Deuteronomy, as we're going through the book of Deuteronomy, that God had the children of Israel displaced, the gods they worshiped. Brethren, we serve and we worship a truly unique God.

We worship a God that we can rightfully admire and love and stand in awe of. When you think about, and I just drew a couple of examples here, the national deity of the Moabites, Kebos, to honor Kebos, people that send their children into the fires and sacrifice.

The Canaanite goddess Eshtarte, also known in the Babylonian culture as Ishtar, was the goddess of sensual love and fertility. And to honor this God, you did so with licentious worship that was conducted in her honor.

Now, when you look at the true God, the true God is a God of love and outgoing concern.

A God who risked his life. Jesus Christ risked his life, eternal life, to come here for us. Who gave his physical life for us. And when you stack that up against the gods of this world, the gods' mankind is made in their own minds, in their own image. Truly, we worship a fantastic father and elder brother. Let's take a look at Philippians 2.

Philippians 2. Here we're going to see a God of true love, true, outgoing concern. And you don't see this with the Greek gods, the Roman gods, the Egyptian gods, but we see this with the true God. Philippians 2.5. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, didn't consider it robbery to be equal with God. So here you have the true deity, the true God, God the Father, Jesus Christ. Verse 7. But he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in the appearances of man, verse 8, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So here we see a tremendous outpouring of love from the true God, risking everything for you and I. But how many times have you gone through, maybe with your children or grandchildren, you've seen them hurting? Maybe they've fallen and hurt themselves? Maybe they've done something else? Maybe there's something that's happened in their life that has caused them a great deal of emotional discomfort? How many times have you looked at your sons or your daughters or other family members and you've either said to them or wished, I just wish I can take that away from you? And we mean that with all of our heart. I wish I could take that away from you. I wish I could bear it myself. That's exactly what God the Father and Jesus Christ did for each and every one of us. That's exactly what they did with their tremendous love, their tremendous compassion, truly a God to be loved and admired and worshiped. And we stand in awe of. Where you've got Ash Tarde here, or Ishtar, with all that licentious worship that was conducted in her honor, take a look at Deuteronomy chapter 4. We've already covered this in our, as we've been going through the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 4, our God is a God of holiness. Our God is a God of moral excellence. And the more I see of this world as I watch TV or go to an occasional movie or look at a magazine or a printed page or see something on the media about what's happening to society, not only in this country but around the world, moral excellence just is not around. Our God is a God of moral excellence. Deuteronomy chapter 4, starting here in verse 5, Truly I've taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. You know, God's statutes, God's judgments, God's laws, laws of moral excellence, outstanding life-giving law. Verse 6, Therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the people. Notice the fruit we get from the law of God, these moral, excellent laws, wisdom and understanding, who will hear these statutes and say, Surely this is a great nation. It's a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? For whatever reason we may call upon Him.

Brethren, look at verse 7 as a Christian, as a believer. It says that God is so near to us, His sons and His daughters. He is so near to us. And for whatever reason we want, we can call upon Him. We can, at any point we want to, raise up a prayer to Him and He will be there to hear us. Verse 8, What great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law, which I set before you this day?

So truly we have got a wonderful God. Now why do I bring all of this up? Well, as we're all very aware, we all go through our share of trials.

We all go through our various difficulties. Life is a crucible. God has a plan, and His plan is for us to be a part of His family, to be a part of the very family of God.

But you know something? To get into that family, the dudes are really high. They're very, very high. They're very dear.

Jesus Christ had to give His life, shed His blood. We've got to accept Him as our Savior. Then we have got to live a life whereby you and I purge the sin out of our lives with God's help, with God's grace.

You know, several of the themes that Steve had in his sermon, which we'll hear today in a sermon.

We don't do anything of Him by ourselves, but through God's grace, our sins are forgiven. Through God's grace, we overcome. We don't have to grasp that overcoming like the world tries to do. You know, reading self-help books and this and that. We've got God's Spirit to help us. Now, that's not to say we can't learn from other sources. We certainly can, and we should. But we've got God's Holy Spirit to help us in this process. But right now, we are in a process of going through all sorts of difficulties. In our church area here in Ann Arbor and Detroit, we've seen our share of difficulties over the recent period of weeks. And you can appreciate what I'm talking about. God has got very exact standards, but something else, and that's what I want to point out today. The God we worship, unlike the gods of the pharaohs, unlike the gods of Greece and Rome, our God, and here's my point, our God is the God of all comfort. Our God is the God of all comfort. So as you and I go through our trials in life, and we'll have them, and some will be worse than others, and some will last longer than others, as we go through those, we want to remember something. That, yes, we're paying the dues. We count it to cost. We're paying the full price right now. But the end result is eternal life. Now let's take a look at some definitions. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Now let's pause there for a moment and kind of understand some terminology. We see in verse 3 the word mercy, or mercies. Let's understand the meaning when we look at the Greek. I'm not going to go through all the Greek words here, but just take a look at the meaning of the Greek. The meaning of the word here means compassion. It means that God is going to look upon people in need, at their point of need, and meet them at their point of need, and have mercy upon them. It says that He is the Father of mercy. He's a Father, and He looks upon us as any Father would look upon... well, a good Father would look upon their children. We've had plenty of bad dads, haven't we, in this world. But a good, righteous Father looks upon His children with a loving eye, with an eye to wanting to be there for them, to be merciful, to be compassionate.

And notice that the word mercy is in the plural. God doesn't just show us mercy once, not just here and there a little at a time. God shows us mercy on us on a continual basis. It also says here in verse 3 that our Father of mercies is the God of all comfort. The word there is paracletos. Paracletos, paracletos, whichever way you want to pronounce that. It means to stand by our side. The Holy Spirit is called... that's the name of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the one who stands by our side. But there's more in the original tongue. The idea is not only to stand by somebody's side, but to be there to give them relief.

To be there to give them support. To be there to give solace and consolation. To be there to give encouragement. These are all things that God wants to be there as a loving Father for you and I.

Relief, support, consolation, encouragement. And the idea here is that God wants to strengthen us. He wants to enable us to go forward in life. God wants us to be charged up like a freshly charged battery, to go out and face the world.

Now, I don't have the time to go through all the verses here, but verse 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Here in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 3 through 7. The word comfort or consolation in the New King James. It's all the same word. It's listed 10 times. 10 times. God repeats Himself over and over. That must mean something to Him. He wants you to be comforted. He wants you to know His mercy.

In your notes, you might jot down John chapter 3 in verse 16. God, who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God wants us to live and to live abundantly. You might jot down Romans chapter 5 in verse 8. Talk about God and His love toward us, and that while we were still, when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You and I will never have a friend like we do in God the Father and Jesus Christ, our elder brother.

We as human beings, we're very conditional people. People talk about unconditional love.

I honestly don't know if there is such a thing other than with God.

If human beings, everything seems to be conditional.

A person will say, well, I love my mate unconditionally. Well, if that mate goes out and starts fooling around with everybody in town, well, I don't think you're going to love her unconditionally or Him unconditionally.

Or if you're married to somebody and they come home every Saturday night and beat you to a pulp because they're drunk, I don't know that we're going to say, well, I unconditionally love that person.

Now, we put some conditions on things. God loves us unconditionally, but even in God's situation, there comes a point where if we don't...

once we know the truth and will not follow the truth and we're rebellious toward the truth in God's way of life, our great loving God will lead us right into the lake of fire.

I think sometimes people think that if you have unconditional love, it's just always roses. Well, I don't think going into the lake of fire is any too rosy of an outcome for anybody.

But that's a point aside. Ephesians 2... Notice what it says here about God's love for us and His mercy and His comfort toward us.

Ephesians 2, starting here in verse 4.

But God, who is rich in mercy... rich in mercy... He's not stingy, it's not a little mercy here and then. You really gotta grab off as much as you can when you can. God is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loves us.

Even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ. Notice, by grace, you've been saved.

Later on in the sermon, I'm going to talk about grace. As Steve mentioned it in his message, we're going to talk a little bit about it later on today.

And raises up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

That in the ages that come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Verse 7 is a verse you and I can meditate on by the hour.

We can appreciate the exceeding riches of God's love, His mercy, His compassion, His kindness because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Now today, my sermon really is very simple. I've got only two points here for you. My overall theme is, Our God is a God of all comfort.

Point number one. We want to answer the question, well, exactly how does God comfort us? Point number one.

God comforts us with His truth, setting us free. God comforts us with His truth, setting us free.

Over the course of the last number of weeks, John chapter 8 has continually been something that's been on my mind.

Let's go over to John chapter 8. John chapter 8 and verse 32. John 8, 32.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The truth shall make you free. Now, we're not talking about man's truth here. We're talking about God's truth. We're talking about real truth.

In your notes, you might put down John 17, 17, where it says, God's Word is truth.

So we define our terms as to what truth is. Also, you might jot down in your notes, I'm not going to turn here, John chapter 14, verse 6.

John 14, 6, where Christ says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

So the Bible talks about two ways we get the truth. We've got the written word, called the Bible, and we've got the living word, called Jesus Christ.

And because of that, we have the truth, which will set us free. And this is true in every endeavor of life. This is true in every aspect of life. We've got moral truth. We've got saving truth. We've got working truth. We've got living truth.

And our great, gracious God has been loving enough to us to open our hearts and minds and set us free with the truth.

With the truth.

Those of us here in the room who have conducted funeral services appreciate the fact that we have an obligation.

We've got a duty and a desire when we perform a funeral to discuss the truth of God.

And over the years, I've been to many a funeral. And as I've told you on a number of occasions, I'll never forget going to my own brother's funeral, where he basically was preached into hell, where basically the minister looked at his casket and him laying there and said, Don't be like that guy. He didn't love God. And my mother leaned over and said, Why can't he do something that's encouraging to us?

But those of us in the ministry in this room realize that we've got the truth that sets us free.

That God has a plan of salvation for every person who ever lives.

And there are not just one, but two resurrections.

And we've got that truth that sets us free. The world simply doesn't understand so many things.

And they can't because God has not opened up their hearts and minds at this point.

But we've got that truth that sets us free and that truth that comforts us.

Let's go over to Psalm 51.

Psalm 51.

And in verse 6.

Psalm 51 verse 6.

Here you've got a psalm from David.

A psalm that he was coming to God with great contrition.

He had sinned big time with having killed Bathsheba's husband and what he did with Bathsheba.

He's coming to acknowledge his sin. And if there's anybody who wanted to see the loving kindness and the mercy of the great God, it was David.

Verse 1.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

Blot out my transgressions.

You and I, let's be honest, we all read this.

I'm sure that we all read this around Passover time. We read it all other times of the year as well.

But we all can relate to this because we feel so much like this.

You know, we all want God to give us his tender mercies and to blot out our transgressions.

Verse 2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

We want to be totally cleansed by God. Nothing left that is in any way wrong or sinful.

For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me.

We drop down to verse 6.

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.

So God wants us to have real truth and to shun any appearance of evil.

Again, in your notes, you might want to jot down 1 Thessalonians 5.22. I'm going to read this in the authorized version, the King James.

King James says, abstain from all appearance of evil.

Abstain even from the appearance of evil. Live totally by the truth of God.

God wants us to regard the truth that He gives us. He wants us to respect the truth, to believe it, to speak it, to act it, to hope in it, to rejoice in it.

And we can do all of those things. We can do all of those things.

Satan, on the other hand, is the father of lives. He's the father of deceit. He's the father of misdirection. He's the father of innuendo and trickery. He's the being that will give us 20 different roads in life and say, find one that is appealing to you.

Worship at the place of your choice. Not worship where God says to worship. Not worship the truth of God. But you just kind of go someplace you feel comfortable.

Well, is that what God says in the Bible? Just go where you feel comfortable?

Or do you say, make sure that you worship the true God in spirit and in truth?

Let's take a moment and drill down a little deeper. We're talking about how we are set free and comforted by the truth of God. How exactly? Let's take a look at some specifics. Number one, the truth sets men free from doubt.

The truth of God sets men free from doubt and despair.

Doubt and despair. You and I don't have to grasp and grope wondering about what's the answers to the big questions of life.

The Apostle Paul talks about the mysteries of God and how God has revealed those mysteries to us. Now, today after services in Ann Arbor, somebody came up to me and said, Mr. D, I don't understand everything in the Bible. And I said, well, that's not what the Bible is talking about, the mysteries. Yes, there are things God does I don't understand. There are things in the Bible I don't understand. But when Paul is talking about the mysteries, he's talking about the overall plan of God. He's talking about the sacrifice of Christ and the things we see through the Holy Days. The big picture. Why are we alive? What's the purpose of life? That's the mystery. We understand it. God's opened up our heart and mind to understand that. We don't have to be endowed in despair.

After 9-11, how many different times did you and I see people on television, some cleric someplace? Could have been a pastor here or a priest or a rabbi or somebody, and somebody sticks a microphone in their face. Why did God allow this to happen? And I was so disappointed that so many times, well, I don't know! Who can know God's mind? Well, God does have a plan. And we do know that plan of God. And prophecy is a part of that plan. Let's go to 2 Timothy 2.

Here Paul's writing to the young evangelist Timothy. And he's going to talk about what the truth of God will be able to do for the average person in his care. Verse 24, And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach and patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition. There are times you and I are in opposition to what's in our best interests. And we need the truth of God to help pull us out of that, to point us to the right direction. If God perhaps will grant them repentance, so they may know what? So they may know the truth, the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do Satan's will. This is what the truth of God will help us with. The truth of God will help us with repentance. It will help us to come to our senses. It will help us to fight Satan. And to get out of the snares that he has set for us, and the traps he has set for us. That truth of God will set us free. Secondly, or maybe I shouldn't letter these A and B, the truth of God sets men free from the bondage of sin. God comforts us with His truth, and that truth will be understand it. When we understand the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we understand the workings of the Holy Spirit. Mankind doesn't have to try to pull himself up by his own bootstraps on his own power. We can't do that. We need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to have our sins be forgiven. And then after that, we need God's Holy Spirit to help us to live the kind of life Christ would have us to live. And that's where the grace of God comes in. We don't have to struggle against the weight of guilt. There are plenty of people in this world who make a really good living dealing with people who are struggling with guilt. Horrible guilt. The kind of guilt that just stops somebody in their tracks. They can't move. They can't do much of anything. They can hardly think because they have so much guilt. Life is just basically on hold for so many people because of their guilt. Over here in Hebrews 9. Scripture we read every year at Passover. Hebrews 9.

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Cleanse our conscience. This is what the truth of God does. It cleanses our conscience from the dead works because we know, the truth lets us know that our sins have been forgiven. That God doesn't want us carrying those things around. They have been forgiven. The truth of God tells us they have been forgiven. We are repentant. We are forgiven. And so therefore our conscience is now clear. It's been erased. So far as God is concerned from these dead works, these mistakes, and now we can go forward to serve the living God. Something very positive. Very positive. Philippians 4. 13. Philippians 4. 13. Where it says, For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. By Christ who strengthens me. Again, this is a matter of understanding the truth that should comfort us. We don't have to do this all on our own. We can do this because we have the strength of Jesus Christ to help us. Now, there's our part to play. We're not robots. Jesus Christ has not wind us up and set us out. We can do the thing like robots. We've got to make decisions. We've got to enforce. We've got to use our will to do the right. But then God gives us the strength to help us to do that. And let her see. Let her see. The truth sets us free from the bondage of death.

From the bondage of death, mankind no longer needs to be subjugated to the fear of death.

Jesus Christ, by his death and his resurrection, has conquered death. We, as believers, we, as Christians, understand that truth. And we also understand that those people who've never had a full opportunity for salvation will have a full opportunity.

One of the things that I do in the background is I answer questions that come in on our email. And just on Friday afternoon, I received my next question from a person reading our literature. And they said, well, you folks seem to teach that you get a couple of bites at the apple. You get a couple of different shots here. That's kind of a neat set. That's kind of neat looking at salvation.

Maybe I should join your church. I get two shots at this. I can live whichever way I want to. And then later on, I get a second chance. So obviously, I'm going to have to write that person and say, no, that's not what we teach. We do teach. Everybody gets one full opportunity. One full opportunity.

And some people, you know, when their lives are cut short, people who've never had a chance to know who Jesus Christ ever even was, or God didn't open their minds to who Christ was and the plan of God, even though they knew about Jesus Christ as a historical figure, those people will have an opportunity, a full opportunity, their first opportunity, to know the truth.

Hebrews 2. Now, we've got our Scripture cards. I forget if this is one of them, but it should be one we keep in mind. People always want to know, what do you say when you go to a funeral? Well, you've got to be very sensitive, obviously, to the family. But, you know, if you have the opportunity, and if the time is right, if all the circumstances are just so, you might want to, if they don't know much about the Bible, you might want to discuss this fact that we see here in Hebrews 2. Verse 14, You know, when I do a funeral, I always discuss the situation that Christ had where He Himself went to a funeral.

His friend Lazarus had died, and He told the people around Him, He said, Look, Lazarus has died. We need to go over there. And when Jesus Christ went to the place where people were grieving, Christ saw what was happening, and Christ Himself began to cry. And Christ began to cry, not because of Lazarus being dead, because Christ came specifically to resurrect Him from the dead at that moment. Christ realized that man is going to be living and breathing in just a matter of moments.

But Christ was crying because He saw the people there at the grave who didn't appreciate, didn't understand the truth that is so comforting about the resurrection, about the fact of what Jesus Christ has done for you and I. And so Jesus Christ said, I weep because of the people here. And Paul said it as well, that we are to grieve, but not to grieve as those who have no hope. We've got hope. We've got comfort. 1 Corinthians 15 1 Corinthians 15 The resurrection chapter. This is a portion of the chapter we don't read that often, but it's very important.

1 Corinthians 15 and verse 23 But each one in his own order. Christ the first fruits, afterwards those who are Christ, that is coming. There is an order of resurrections. Everybody has a full opportunity. God's plan includes everybody. So point number one was that God comforts us with His truth, and that truth sets us free. Lastly, the second point, how does God comfort us? God comforts us in our time of need through His abundant grace. God comforts us in our time of need through His abundant grace. Hebrews chapter 4. You know the scripture I'm going to, but it's so packed with meaning we do want to go there and touch base with it.

Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 See, 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, who may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Brethren, Jesus Christ not only feels for us, He feels right along with us. He feels right along with us. He is our great and sympathetic High Priest, the one who meets our every need, not want, but every need as we go through the sufferings of this life. Verse 15 here, there is an interesting word in the English, talks about how our High Priest Christ sympathizes with our weaknesses.

I want to spotlight this word, sympathize, because in the Greek it has a beautiful meaning to it. It would include the idea that we have an English of sympathize, that's why it's probably translated that way.

But it also means to suffer with. To suffer with. It means to feel the other person's hurt. It means to feel the other person's pain in our hearts. The idea is that Jesus Christ actually suffers along with us when we suffer. Brethren, think about those you love most in this world. It could be your husband, your wife, your sons, your daughters, your grandchildren. You think about the people you love most in this world. And when they are going through hard times, when you see them cry, you begin to cry. But when you see them going through hard times, you say, I wish I could take it on myself.

I wish you didn't have to suffer. I wish I could take it for you. And that's exactly what God the Father and Jesus Christ had in mind. Christ came to take it for us, to take that suffering upon himself. Now, that doesn't mean we don't go through our own suffering.

We do. Again, I said life is a crucible. Life is this pot. We are pummeled. We are beaten. We go through the grinder to learn lessons. But through all of that, God is there to help us with that pain, with that suffering. He's there to be our comforter through all of that. Put a finger here for a moment.

Let's go over to John 14. John 14. In verse 1, Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. Let not your heart be troubled, not be overly troubled. God understands you and I have trials, tribulations, challenges. He knows we get down from time to time. That's the human experience. Let's be honest about that. But just as Paul told people not to be overly grieving, we don't need to be overly troubled as if we had no hope.

Notice here, verse 18. He says, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. You have a father. You're not an orphan. You've got a father. You've got an elder brother. You've got family. You've got family who loves you very much.

And Jesus Christ knows a little something about suffering. And he can help us and comfort us as we go through what we go through. We go back to Hebrews 4 again. And we notice here in verse 16, it says, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. To the throne of grace. God is sitting on his throne. The seat of authority, the seat of power and honor and glory and respect. A seat of reverence. And also what the Bible would call a mercy seat.

A mercy seat. So many times when I have some severe trials I'm going through, or had severe trials I'm going through, and I'm praying for one of you, I turn over here to Revelation 4. Let's turn over there. Revelation 4. You know, human beings, we like to visualize things. Unfortunately, on the negative side, that's what gets people into wanting to develop idols. They want to kind of visualize what they're worshipping.

And that gets people in trouble. We shouldn't do that. On the other hand, God understands our need to be able to visualize something. And so he gives us Revelation 4 and Revelation 5, which shows his throne room. And when you and I are praying, our prayers come here. And I think it's good for us to understand where they're going and who they're being heard by and the power that is here. Revelation 4, verse 1. After these things I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and a first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. And maybe I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on that throne.

Again, remember, this is the throne of mercy, of compassion. This is the throne of power and of all help. Verse 3. And he who sat there was like a jasper, a sardius stone, an appearance. Now a jasper is diamond-like. A sardius is ruby-like. One is a more crystal, one is reddish. They also happen to be the first and last stones on a high priest's plate, his chest plate.

And there was a rainbow around the throne, an appearance like an emerald. So beautiful, brilliant colors. Now I believe there's some symbolism here. You know, I'm wondering, and this is my speculation, you know, the first and the last stone there. Just, you know, we've got Christ who is the first and the last. We have God on his throne. We've got also Jesus Christ there in the throne room of heaven.

We've got the rainbow, which pictures what? Back in the day of Noah, pictured life. So here we see a picture of God the Father on his throne, Jesus Christ ruling. We've got a picture of life. Verse 4, around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed with white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads.

Our Father God, Jesus Christ our elder brother, they will get, and they will take input. Have you had prayers answered in your life? Every one of us has. What does that mean? That means God has answered your prayer. That means God has gotten input from you to answer your prayer. And if God can get input from us fleshly human beings, how much more so these beautiful, vibrant beings of all righteousness?

These 24 elders. Verse 5, And from the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices. The seven lamps of fire were bringing before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. We've speculated, we don't know for sure, obviously, but we've speculated those seven lamps may well represent the seven churches. In essence, God is looking at His people here. And verse 5, where He's talking about lightnings, and thunderings, and voices, is talking about the very power of God.

So when we come boldly to the throne, here's where we're coming. We're coming to this place of power where God can do His work for us. Now, once again, let's drill down on this. How does God extend His mercy and His grace to us? God extends His grace to you and I individually and personally. He extends it to us individually and personally. It's not just a matter that it's, you know, He has a blanket where it's kind of a blanket statement. Everybody gets the same thing. It's just kind of like showered down. He looks upon us as individuals. He extends that grace individually. There's an interesting Scripture here. Let's go over to 1 Peter, chapter 5.

1 Peter, chapter 5, and verse 7. Now, in Peter's day, the persecution of the church was increasing. The persecution on the church was increasing. People were at times being forced to leave their homes, all their possessions, their livelihoods, relatives who were not believers. That gave them a great deal of discomfort in their life. A lot of things in their life were very disconcerting. They fled wherever they found they could go that would be safe. Sometimes they would live underground, sometimes in caves, worshiping, sometimes in secret, never knowing when they would be forced to flee again. So what did this produce? This produced an awful lot of anxiety.

This produced an awful lot of worry, tension, and stress. So with that being a backdrop, look at verse 7 of 1 Peter 5.

Sometimes all we need to do to understand the Bible is look at a number of translations.

I'm fortunate, back home on my computer, I've got three major Bible programs. I don't know how many different versions of the Bible I've got on my computer. It's kind of interesting, with all the versions I've got on my computer, the one I like best on this verse is one that I don't have on my computer. I just have a freestanding book down in my library. I want to read you just a number of ways this verse, 1 Peter 5.7 is translated.

And catch some of these profound phrases here. This is from the Amplified Bible. The Amplified Bible does what it says. It amplifies the meaning, gives many different clauses to kind of amplify meaning. And here's what it says on 1 Peter 5.7. Casting the whole of your care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all on Him. For He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. Now, you might want to start jotting down some of those phrases. Affectionately and watchfully. And we begin to start building an idea as to what this verse is talking about. Affectionately, watchfully. Let's look at the Living Bible. The Living Bible translates that verse this way. Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you. So here we've got God being affectionate. He's watching. But He's watching everything that concerns you. Not just you, but everything that comes into contact with you. He's always thinking about all those things that come into contact with you. And He's looking at, this is any father what on their child, a loving father, looking upon their child in a loving way. And the one I don't have on my computer, but I've got a book. It's the J.B. Phillips version of the New Testament. And this is the one I enjoy the most. 1 Peter 5, 7. You can throw the whole weight of your anxiety upon Him, for you are His personal concern.

You are His personal concern. You know, we are touched when somebody will write us a note and say, you know, I've been praying for you, or I've been fasting for you, I've been thinking about you, I want to be there for you. And we're really touched by that. But to know that God the Father, Jesus Christ, as they are affectionately, watchfully looking at things that are surrounding you and touching your life, that you are their personal concern. You are their personal concern. Now, to me, that puts grace in a very beautiful light.

Because I can be quite a stinker. You know, you'd wonder, why does God want me to have such concern for the stinker here? Well, thankfully, God's God. I'm not there yet. So, thankfully, He is what He is. To be a person of concern, and I'm sure He shows a great deal of personal concern about me over the time. But God shows His grace to us individually and personally. But there's another way that God shows us His grace and extends His grace, and that is continually. He extends His grace to us continually. Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13.

The very last part of verse 13, where it says, I will never leave you... Hebrews 13 verse 5, excuse me. Hebrews 13, 5. I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Never leave you nor forsake you.

To be forsaken or to feel forsaken is an awful condition.

If you and I feel forsaken, we feel lonely, we feel helpless, we feel friendless, we feel not only helpless but hopeless, we feel miserable. We feel all those things and probably many more things if we feel that we're forsaken. But this verse says, God will never, never leave us or forsake us.

Will we be lonely or helpless? Well, we've got the comforter. We've got the great God there for us.

Will we feel friendless? Well, Christ said, I call you my friends, in John 15, 15.

Will we feel hopeless? How can we feel hopeless if God says we are His personal concern?

God guarantees us Himself. God is a loving God. God is a powerful God. And whatever He sets His will to do, He's going to do.

God's not going to forsake us in our afflictions, our trials, our difficulties. God's not going to forsake us when all the things we've expected in life have kind of come and gone where we don't have the life we thought we were going to have.

God doesn't forsake us when we're in times of great sadness. He doesn't forsake us when we're facing an unknown future.

There are so many different ways where God doesn't forsake us. He's there for us. And lastly, God extends His grace to us, not only the other two ways I've mentioned, but God extends His grace to us to the very end. To the very end. He extends it to us personally, He extends it to us continually, and He extends His grace to us to the very end. To the very end. Go over to that little book before Revelation, the book of Jude.

Jude, we'll start here in verse 21. There's only the one chapter. Verse 21. Where it says, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. We drop down to Jude, verse 24. Now to Him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and to present you faultless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. So here we have God extending His grace to us right to the very end. The very end of our physical lives, and we will enjoy that grace for all of eternity. We will be with God for all of eternity as believers. Now once again, we can't do this by ourselves. We need God's help. And we're very thankful He's going to extend that grace to us. Romans, chapter 5. You know, it's interesting as you go through your Christian experience, you come to see certain scriptures, and for some reason, some things just seem to hit you more than others. I was preparing a sermon for the feast here a few years ago, and I just saw the scripture. I don't know. I've read it, I'm sure, many, many times. But it just seemed to come alive to me as I was getting ready for that particular sermon. Romans, chapter 5, verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You've got peace. But verse 2 is what I want to key on. Through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

Into the grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. You and I, as Christians, we stand in the grace of God. We overcome in His grace. We grow in His grace. There's not a thing we touch in our life that's not touched by the grace of God. Grace is a part of every facet of our lives. We stand in the grace of God.

God will extend that grace to us until the very end. Philippians, chapter 1, talking about the very end, is an interesting scripture. Philippians 1.6.

Just a little further south from where Steve was reading earlier today. Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6.

Being confident, notice the word, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. We can be confident in this grace that's extended to us. That if we follow God as God outlines for us, and we use this grace in which we stand, then we can be confident that what God has started in us, He will complete.

We can be confident of that.

Last scripture for the day is over here in 1 John, chapter 1.

1 John, chapter 1, verse 9.

1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

All unrighteousness. We stand in the grace of God. If we do so, God will complete the work He's begun on us. He will forgive us of all unrighteousness. Then we go right back to Jude, verses 21 and 24 again, where it talks about how God is going to show us eternal life. He's going to present us faultless because of the grace of God that's been extended to us. Brethren, I know that you and I go through our trials in life, but we do serve and worship a truly unique and wonderful God, one that we can rightfully admire. A God of love, a God of moral excellence, and a God who does comfort us when we need comforting, which pretty much is all the time. Remember that God comforts us with His truth by setting us free, and God comforts us in times of need through His abundant grace. Let's allow God to comfort us in the trials we go through.