Always There
The blessed truth is that there is another Somebody who is there. He's real. You can talk to him and He'll talk to you. His name is Jesus.
Transcript
Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends, how in the world are you? You’re doing all right today? Well, I know some of you have embarked upon a very hectic schedule, and others of you, perhaps, have just finished one. And you’re ready for a nice sleep, because this broadcast is heard at different times, early morning and sometimes late at night, sometimes midday, but wherever it is and whatever time it, you know that I’m reaching out to you in Christian love and concern as we look into God’s Word. I’ve been praying just now that God would have some special word for someone who needs it. My only hope is that the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit may take this eternal Word of God as we open it up and fashion it for your special need. Oh, may that be done this very day.
We are in first Thessalonians 5, and we’ve come just about to the end of our discussion of verse 13, where Paul says, “Be at peace among yourselves.” I did a little run down, as you recall, of that concept of peace. Paul says, live the concept of peace. The verb is a verb form with the noun peace in it, which really means live peace. Paul uses the same format in another area where in Ephesians 4 he says, “Manifesting the truth in love.” Dr. Ironside used to point out that if there were an English participle called “truthing,” that would be the closest thing to it. “Truthing” in love, living the truth, living the peace of God.
Where does it start? Well, Romans 5:1. It starts when the war is over between you and God, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And then it continues in this matter of committing everything to your Lord in prayer, “Don’t worry about anything but pray about everything,” says Paul in Philippians 4:6 and 7. And as a result, “The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” It’s God’s wonderful peace that comes from committing a situation to the person who can handle it.
All of you who go to business day by day, you’re either in a production job or a sales job or supervising or in the professions or whatever it may be, that when you strike a real problem it is a wonderful relief, isn’t it, to turn it over to someone that can really handle it. And that’s exactly what happens when you pray about a matter. You turn the problem over to God who can handle it. He knows what He’s doing. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. And so there’s the peace of God that passes understanding that comes when you pray about a matter.
Then, of course, there’s the perfect peace that comes when your mind is stayed on God, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.” What you really trust turns out to be what you think about all the time. And so, if your mind is stayed on God, if you’re thinking about God, His will, His work, His purposes, His love, His grace, His protecting power, if you’re thinking about God, you’ll end up trusting Him and as a result, you’ll be at peace.
Then I wanted also… That’s all review, then I wanted just to come to this other verse from Psalm 119 verse 165, “Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them. Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them.” It is the unruffled peace that comes from referring to the highest authority. To having in mind something greater than the exercise of the moment. I suppose one of the best illustrations of that that I know came from a trip I took one day with a doctor friend of mine, who being a psychiatrist, and knowing that I was very much interested in those matters, called me, and he said, “Bob, I’m gonna make a call on one of my patients, we’re gonna have to commit him to the hospital. He’s been in a clothes closet for three days, and I think we’re gonna have to commit him, but you wanna go along? We can talk on the way.” I said, “Oh fine doc, that’s fine.”
So, I met him out at the end of Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago and got in his car, and we went on over to where these people lived, who had this boy who was ill. Now, they came into the home, and very slowly and cautiously, the boy came out of the clothes closet where he’d been staying for some days. He was draped in a bedsheet and very wary and hostile. And so, the doctor talked with him and very kindly and lovingly spoke to him. And then he finally said, “Now,” calling him by name, he said “we’re gonna have to put you in the hospital for awhile so that you’ll get better, and we’ve got some folk here to take care of you.” And at that point, when the young man saw the orderlies that had come with the ambulance to take him to the hospital, he broke into a tirade of abuse, such as I have rarely heard. They say that sometimes the Marine sergeants can tell you off in an eloquent manner.
Well, I’ll tell you, this young man would have exceeded that. It was a torrent of invective that just absolutely shocked me. But the young men came in, wrapped him in a straightjacket and took him off to the hospital. And I was told later on that after a certain kind of treatments, he did get better and was able to go home again and resume a normal existence. But on the way back now, after all this was over, I said to my friend, “Hey Doc, I’m so sorry, that young man really abused you and told you off. I was shocked, and I’m so sorry.” He laughed heartily. He said, “Why, Bob? That didn’t bother me. He’s my patient, and I’m very fond of him really, and I just wanna make him better. What I had in my mind fixed on was to get him better.” Not offended at all. Why? Because he was working on a different level, thinking on a different level.
When your mind is full of the Word of God, you’ll find that things that ordinarily might ruffle you don’t affect you at all.” Great peace have they that love thy law,” says the Psalmist, “and nothing shall offend them.” You wanna think about that in connection with your own life? I must say that some people I know are so ready to be offended. Do you know people like that? So willing to be hurt. So willing to be upset. And they seem just to be looking for something to happen and when it does, they’ll say, “Yeah, that’s what I… I knew it would happen.” Willing to be hurt and offended, you don’t have to be that kind of a person, beloved. I’m so glad that so you don’t have to be that kind of a person. You can have a heart that is fixed on the foundation of the word of God. And so you’re not shaken. You’re not wobbly. You’re not easily upset. You don’t get offended just because somebody doesn’t agree with you, because you know that you’re standing on the eternal Word of God.
You apply that to your own life, you’ll find that it eases a lot of the situations in life that might otherwise upset you. The peace of God. Live, the very concept. Live peace, God’s peace. And then, of course, there’s the peace that comes from the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in John 14, “Peace I leave with you, my peace give I unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” He said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” The peace that comes from his presence, oh this is so very wonderful. And it is the personal experience of every born again child of God, to know the presence of your Lord. “I am with thee,” He says, “I will be with thee. I will help thee when thou passes through the waters, they shall not overflow thee, for I will be with thee.” See, the presence of your Lord. Count on it, he’s there. He never leaves you. He never is too busy to hear your cry. Heaven’s telephone is never busy, and you can call up Heaven and be in touch with your Lord. The peace that comes from knowing that He’s there. Oh, it makes such a difference.
Those of you who’ve lost a loved one know the utter sense of loneliness, and almost devastation you feel, when the one with whom you may have shared your life now is gone. And you reach out a hand in the darkness and there’s nobody there. I tell you, that kind of loneliness must be very, very hard to bear. God’s been good to me. Corine and I will celebrate our 53rd wedding anniversary in September. [chuckle] Hey, that’s a long time, isn’t it? I feel like I was born married. But, you know the Lord’s been good, and we still have each other and that’s nice. I’m saying, the feeling of aloneness, when you don’t have that somebody must be a very difficult assignment indeed. My heart goes out to many of you who are in that very position. You’ve written and told me about it.
But see, for you, the blessed truth is that there is another somebody who is there. He’s real. You can talk to him and He’ll talk to you. His name is Jesus. Your Savior is with you. I think one of the most wonderful things that I’ve discovered through the years is that when you talk to your Lord and then listen for a moment, He talks back to you in the blessed, unspoken language of the soul that the Holy Spirit of God will produce. You get a response from your Lord. Sometimes, for me, it’s a direct quote of Scripture. I’ve hidden a good deal of Scripture in my mind through the years, and just this past week, I got a direct answer to prayer in a Scripture verse that flashed into my mind just the moment as I was praying about something. It is as though the Lord said, “Hey, there’s your answer man.” And I took it as from him. I said, “Thank you, Jesus.” Yes, He’s there.
You’re lonesome. You’re alone. You’re afraid. You’re tired. You’re sick. You’re in the midst of a problem. You’re hurting. Nobody seems to understand. Maybe you’re older, and the kids tend to forget, and you say wistfully, “I wish you’d come and see me sometimes.” And they’d say, “Mom or Dad, we wish we could too but we’re awfully busy. We got the kids and the Cub Scouts and this and that and the other,” you know. Well, people are busy, I know that. If I had it to do over again I know that I would’ve gone up to Wood, Wisconsin to see my father oftener than I did. I wouldn’t get up there as often as I could, I was on the road a lot because of being president of Youth for Christ in those days and halfway around the world, and come back and stuff would be waiting for you piled up on the desk and you had to get at it. But now and then I’d go up and see him and spend half a day or so talking with him, and we would enjoy fellowship, but if I had to do it over again now…
See, he went to glory in 1954, right in the middle of July, July 15, 1954. And so I’m thinking about him in these days you may be sure, but if I had it to do over, I’d probably go and see him oftener. And you wish, don’t you, that people would pay a little more attention. You get lonesome, and you feel alone. See, no amount of my talking will make that feeling go away, but I have to tell you, if you’ll talk to Jesus, he does something about it because he’s there. Hallelujah. Let him into the inside of your life including your loneliness today, will you? Father dear, today, oh may we depend on thy presence and enjoy thy peace. Amen. ‘Til I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the king today and be a blessing.
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