Are You Honest With God?

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Yes, I wait for you to answer, of course I’m interested in how you are. And although we can’t really talk back and forth, I have a sort of an extra sixth sense that tells me that somebody is standing there by the kitchen sink, listening and saying, “Oh boy, you shouldn’t have asked.” [chuckle] “I should’ve stayed in bed.” And somebody else is up and raring to go and you’re answering, “I feel great.” Well, people have different circumstances. Not every day is the same, and that’s probably a good thing. Whatever kind of a day or night you are having, look up and trust your blessed Lord. Trust Him, and obey Him and He’ll see you through, not somehow but triumphantly.

God isn’t the God of just getting by. Have you discovered that yet? So often, before people really get any kind of maturity in their thinking, they, especially among the very young, they just hope just to get by. I asked a college boy one time how he was was doing. He said, “I try to keep my grades above C level.” [chuckle] Well, God isn’t the God of just getting by, He’s the God of triumph. “Thanks be to God who always,” not just sometimes, “always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest by us the perfume of His knowledge in every place.” So whatever kind of a day or a night you may be having, trust your blessed Lord to see you through. And He’ll make you His Godly perfume in a world that often times doesn’t smell too good. [chuckle]

Well, we’re in the Gospel of John, I want to wind up a couple of thoughts in Chapter 9, and then go on into Chapter 10. When this man who had been healed, we were talking as you know about the man who had been born blind. The Lord Jesus said in answer to the disciples’ rather stupid question, “Who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” Obviously, the little baby couldn’t do much sinning before he was born.

And so, Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest in him.” God’s purposes allow certain circumstances which constitute a need or a handicap, in order that He may work through you. You wanna remember that? God’s eternal purposes sometimes allow circumstances which constitute either a need or a handicap in order that He may work through you.

I met a person some years ago, who spoke with great difficulty and who walked with equal difficulty, but who had evidently a very keen mind and a hearty sense of humor and a warm Christian heart. Before I knew anything about him, I noted what I just told you. I noticed that he loved the Lord, that he was really out and out for the Lord, and that he had a keen sense of humor, and he was friendly and outgoing and very sharp.

What I discovered was that handicapped as he was, through an accident at his birth, he had started and was managing a whole series of homes for people with similar handicaps. God was working though him. And all across the area which he served in different cities, there were hundreds and hundreds of people who thanked God for this genial, although severely handicapped person.

It’s hard for me to learn that. I don’t know how it is with you, maybe you get it easier than I do? My father used to sometimes tell me that I was very slow to take things in. And maybe that’s true. Hard for me to learn that God allows circumstances which either constitute a drastic terrible need or some kind of handicap that cannot be overcome normally. He allows those circumstances in order that He might work through them in me. Oh, I want to learn that and I want to live it, and I want to let Jesus do His work. He said, “I must work. The works of Him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work, that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” “Made manifest” is a verb that means showing up in a human package, packaged in a human being. God’s work packaged in you. Oh, what a concept.

How does it come? It comes about through need, comes about sometimes through heartache, comes about sometimes through financial reversal, comes about sometimes through handicaps over which you have no control. Jesus said, “I wanna make my work packaged in you.” Believe Him for that today, will you? Just obey Him as He guides you to do His will. It’s a precious truth, isn’t it?

Well anyhow, our Lord Jesus healed this man, and he came back from his obedient trip to the Pool of Siloam, and it says, “He came back seeing.” Well, everybody gathered around, they said, “What happened? Who did this?” And so on. It was the Sabbath day, so the ritualists and the formalists cared very little for the man’s blindness, but oh, they were upset over the fact that some of their rules about the Sabbath had been violated, and so they got on Him about that. Finally, in some irritation, he said, “If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.” And they said, “Well, you were altogether born a sinner,” and they just threw him out of the synagogue. The equivalent of excommunication, “Get on out, you don’t belong in here.”

Well, John 9:35 says, “Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when He had found him.” Remember I talked to you a little while about the fact that God is out looking for people who are down and who need Him? God’s looking for you if you’ve got a big need today. Turn to Him now in faith, let Him speak to your heart. “When He had found him, he said, ‘Dost thou believe on the Son of God?’ He said, ‘Lord,’ he says, ‘Who is He that I might believe?’ And Jesus said, ‘You’ve seen Him, and you’re talking to Him.’ He said, ‘Lord I believe,’ and he worshipped Him.” So that was the finale of that story, but you have a little postscript. And that’s what I want to comment on here in these moments. Jesus said, “For judgement I am come into this world, that they which see not might see and they which see might be made blind.” The Pharisees knew that He was talking about them so they were, “Are we blind?” He said, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin, but now ye say we see, therefore your sin remaineth.”

The point being that the self-confident sinner is the most tragic figure of all. Now you say, “Oh, we’re all right.” Therefore He said, “Your sin remaineth.” Most tragic figure of all is the self-confident person who says, “Nothing wrong with me.” The alcoholic who says, “Well, I can take a drink or I can leave it alone.” I notice that he always takes it, he never leaves it alone. Or after having survived a terrific hangover, he says to himself, “I’ll never touch this stuff again. Just give me one more chance.” Well, one more chance turns out to be the same old story. The self-confident sinner, the self-confident victim because alcoholism turns out, finally, to be a disease.

The self-confident victim that says, “I’m okay, don’t talk to me. I’m alright.” Nobody, daughter, you’re not alright, you need Jesus. You need Jesus, and you’re gonna stay in the same kind of trouble you’re in until you admit to Jesus that you’re a slave and a sinner, and you need His saving touch on your life. When you do that, things will be different.

Man wrote me years ago now from Pittsburgh area, said, “I was offended when you said you have to admit to God that you’re a slave. I got angry at you. I said, ‘I’m not a slave.’ But then I began to think about it, and I thought, ‘Well, it can’t hurt if I do this.'” And so he said, “Mr. Cook, I said to God, ‘Lord I’m a slave, and I’m a sinner, and I need Jesus.’ And I trusted Him to be my Savior.” And he said, “I can’t say that I saw any flashing lightning or heard any bells ringing, but,” he said, “I can tell you that from that moment things began to change in my life. And now, I’m no longer a slave. I’m trusting the Lord Jesus.” His wife added a postscript to the letter. She said, “Mr. Cook, I just thought I’d add this word as his wife. Things are so different now, it’s a whole new ball game,” she said. [chuckle]

Oh listen, if you’re up against something that you’ve been trying somehow to battle on your own, what is it? Is is liquor? Is it drugs? Is it sex? Is it dishonesty? Is it greed? Is it pride? Is is bitterness and unforgiveness? I don’t know what it is, I don’t need to know. But you know and God knows. If you’re up against something you can’t handle, just tell the Lord Jesus about it. Level with Him about it.

See that verse in 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins,” that verb “confess” actually means literally, “say the same thing as.” If we say the same thing as God is saying about us, agree with God about your condition, He already knows about you. He won’t make any discoveries about you when you pray to Him, He knows. So agree with Him and pour out your heart to Him and then give Him the right to run your life. You’ve been trying to run it. You’ve been saying, “I’m okay. I’m okay. I’ll do alright. Give me one more chance.” And at the same time, Jesus is saying to you soberly, “Your sin remaineth. It’s still there.” It’s like a person with AIDS going around saying, “I’m alright, nothing wrong with me.” Well, he’s not only a threat to himself, but to everybody else, isn’t he? Don’t do it that way.

Today, wherever you are and whoever you are, beloved, listen to me. Talk to your blessed Lord, tell Him the truth about yourself. Admit for once in your life that you can’t handle things and let Jesus start to run things for you. It’s like the GI said in Frankfurt, Germany so many years ago, I remember his testimony to this day. He said, “My life was like a jeep and I was running it and always getting into trouble, and then one day I said, ‘Dear Jesus, I’m gonna get out from behind the steering wheel and I’m gonna get in the back seat and you run this thing.'” He said, “Things have been better ever since.” Of course they will be, God bless you.

Dear Father today, help us to be honest with Thee and thus to deserve and to receive Thy help by grace in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!