Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Psalm 30, verse 6.
And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst tide thy face. And I was troubled. I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication.
And then the 31St Psalm and the 14th verse.
But I trusted in thee, O Lord, I said, thou art my God. My times are in thy hand.
Now I'd like to turn to Hebrews Chapter 11. Hebrews Chapter 11.
Again he got the first verse. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith. Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
God testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh, passing on in the chapter and the 32nd verse.
And how shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barack, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets?
Who through face of Jude kingdoms wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens women received their dead, raised to life again.
And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, Yeah, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sauna. Sunder were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, They wandered in deserts.
In mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, receive not the promise. God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
Well, I was just thinking of this portion that we have here in the 30th Psalm, where it says by Thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. I think there are times in our lives when everything seems to go very well, when things seem to work out. And perhaps some of you, dear young people, have come to this conference and things have just worked out so nicely for you. You just feel so happy that the Lord has come in and answered your prayers and He has done things.
So nicely for you, but there may be others that perhaps have another feeling of what it says here, that it's tied thy face and I was troubled. Perhaps you prayed and you asked the Lord and things haven't worked out the way you had hope. Your plans have been frustrated. You feel sort of discouraged just now while I'm talking to you because things haven't turned out as happily as you had hoped and you just feel exactly like the psalmist felt here, he said.
Tide thy face. And I was troubled. Well, what did he do when this took place? Well, he just cried to the Lord, and he committed his whole cause to the Lord. Unto the Lord I made my supplication.
And I'm sure we've all because I can look back when I was young and think of the times when I went to meetings like this. And then perhaps disappointments and problems arose and you just felt all you could do was pray, but you didn't understand. Why was it that it seemed to work out for some people and not for you? Well, the psalmist, so to speak, finds an answer to his question, an answer that's very difficult for us to accept, especially when.
Were young because we like to feel we can paddle our own canoe, we can make our own plan that we can make things work. But sometimes the Lord does hide his face and sometimes he lets us see that things just don't go the way we had hoped. And he brings us to this point that the psalmist said, but I trusted in thee, O Lord, I said, thou art my God.
My times are in my hand and I hope that if there is someone here.
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And things haven't turned out so well and just feel feel sort of frustrated and disappointed that you will have the grace to do just exactly what the psalmist did here and just look up to the Lord and say Lord, I'll trust thee just the same as a little song says, trust him. When to simply trust him seems the hardest thing of all.
And, you know, there are times when it's really hard to trust him. There are times.
Even great servants like John the Baptist, when he was frustrated and disappointed and couldn't understand why God allowed him to be put in prison, when he had tried to serve himself faithfully and he even sent a message to the Lord that should come or do we look for another? He was really saying, Lord, I can't understand. I've tried to do what was pleasing and here everything has turned out the wrong way and I'm in prison and everything.
Seems to have come to an end. Well, this was the way the psalmist felt. And I hope the Lord will give you the triumph of faith that will be able to look up and say my times are in thy hand, Lord, I'll trust in thee. And then he says thou art my God.
Well, God is glorified in that. I believe that's the meaning of that verse that says the trial of your faith being much more precious than that gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now that is what God values, is that confidence that trusts when we can't understand.
When God, so to speak, doesn't explain to us why He's doing what He.
Does it's not a trial of faith when you can understand, but it's a trial of faith when you trust the Lord, when you can't understand. If I have to do something to my child, and I say now I'm going to explain this whole procedure to you so you'll know what I'm doing, the child doesn't need to have a great deal of confidence in me because it understands fully.
But if I have to say to my child now, I can't explain this to you now, I just can't tell you, but I hope you will have enough confidence in me to know that I'm doing what's right and best for you. And my child looks up with a smile and says, Dad, I know that you seek my good. I'll trust you just the same. You know that thrills my heart as a parent. And you know you can give joy to the heart of God when things go wrong in your life.
And you look up and say, Lord, I'll trust thee, even though I can't understand. And the trial of your faith, that is when your faith is really put to kind of a supreme test like it is at times. The Lord says that's more precious than gold that perisheth. If you lose something, a gold thing, you have a gold ring or something. If it's something precious to you, you feel badly. But the Lord says.
That your faith when it's chested like that.
Is more precious to him than the most precious thing that you could lose because he values that confidence. And he says, I'm going to make it known in the coming day. I'm going to point you out in the crowd of heaven and say that person trusted in me when he went through something that I couldn't explain to him, but he trusted me. That's what it means when it says cast not away there for your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.
And now we turn over to this faith chapter, as it's often called, the 11TH chapter of Hebrews, and we see the very starting point of faith. And I just wish to say that because if there's anyone here who's not saved, you haven't the starting point of faith. You don't have any confidence in the Lord. You don't even have enough faith to look up and say, Lord, I'll trust thee as my Savior tonight. I hope there's nobody like that.
Cain approached God.
With his own works and was rejected. But Abel approached God in the confidence of faith and it says he being dead yet speaketh. So I just want to say if there's anybody here that's not saved, I know what I'm going to say. Is this going to fall on deaf ears as far as you are concerned because you don't have enough confidence in the Lord to claim him as your Savior? But I hope tonight you will. If you don't know him, I hope you'll say yes to the Lord Jesus. I hope you'll open your heart to him and trust him.
And it'll be the beginning of a life of faith because God will at that very moment impart to you eternal life, will assure you of a home in heaven. But now the reason I read this in the end of this 11TH chapter of Hebrews, perhaps as I read it, you were noticing that there are actually two groups that are talked about here.
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Perhaps I could read part of it again, beginning at the 33rd verse. Who through face of Jude kingdoms wrought righteousness, obtain promises, stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valid in fight, turn to flight the armies of the aliens women received their dead, raised to life again.
Now you know, our Bible wasn't written in chapters and verses, but commencing with the next part of this 35th verse, there is a complete change. The first part are a group that turned to the Lord and the Lord worked miracles for them, and in the second group there's no miracles at all.
Now they were tortured, they didn't get deliverance, they wandered about, they were stoned, they were song asunder. And what was the matter with them? Did they not have enough confidence in God that he came in for the first group and answered them in a miraculous way, and in the second group he just didn't seem to pay any attention but let them suffer. No, they were both in the good report, it says.
These all having obtained a good report through faith and I think one of the hardest.
Things in our Christian life is to see your friend and he prays or she prays and everything seems to work out for her or for him. Everything seems to be grand and you pray and you say what's the matter with me? God doesn't work a deliverance for me. There must be something the matter. And you get depressed and discouraged and you say like John the Baptist, art thou he that should come or do I look for another?
Well, you know the Lord may choose to put you.
In the second group, he said, I don't like that. Well, I guess none of us like to be put in the second group. We like to see those marvelous answers to prayer. We like to read those books that tell about people that prayed and God just opened iron gates for them and did marvelous things for them. But in our case, sometimes the Lord's answer is now I want you just to trust me.
And I could mention names that you.
You know of young people who have tragedy in their life and who have learned to trust the Lord and have found him able to sustain them. But he didn't take them out of their problems. He left them in the problems so they could glorify Him. And they obtained a good report through faith. The judgment seat of Christ, dear young people, is going to bring many surprises. And what is going to count the most? Whether you've got all these miraculous deliverances or whether.
Just trusted the Lord. Well, I say that that's what the Lord is going to value. The trial of your faith is much more precious than a goal that perishes. None of us like to be put in the second group, But what I just like to say to you, and I'm talking to myself as well as to you, if the Lord says no and he doesn't seem to come in, don't get discouraged. Ask the Lord for grace to say I trusted in thee my times.
In thy hand, and you know the Lord will draw near to you, and he'll give you a sense of his presence, like he did to those three Hebrew children who were cast into the furnace. And what they said to Nebuchadnezzar was just this. Nebuchadnezzar said, if you don't bow down to that image, why I'm going to cast you into the fiery furnace. And they said, We're not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God is able to deliver.
For us. But if not, we still won't bow down. And they said we're not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God is able to deliver us. But if not, we still won't bow down. They didn't escape the fiery furnace. It's true. The Lord went with them. And he'll be with you if he lets you go through the fiery furnace. I can assure you of one thing that He'll lock with you in the fire. He'll never leave you nor.
You, he'll always be there in your life, may be a brighter and better testimony than the person who seemed to get all the answers. Well, the young people, I'm just saying this this to encourage you because I've been young and now I'm a little bit older and perhaps I've passed through some of the experiences that some of you young people are passing through is you've come to this conference and you came with high hopes that something would happen that you had been praying.
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About, but perhaps as we get toward the end, you say nothing's happened. What's the matter with my prayer is does God not hear me? He's working for my friends and I, I don't know why. Well, you have to say, sometimes my times are in my hand. Lord, I'll leave it there. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Just leave it in his hands. And this requires faith. I know that the Lord will sustain your faith.
And I've often said.
That someday we're going to meet Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego up there in glory. And I like to think of how I'm going to talk to some of those people that I read about in the Bible. I like to ask them some questions about their lives down here in this world. And I always think, I'd like to say to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, will you tell me what you would consider the best experience you had down here in this planet Earth?
And I think they'll all say the whole three of them will.
Say the best experience was that time that we were cast into the fire. And I might say, well, why would you call that the best experience? Oh, this is the Lord walk with us. The Lord walk with us. And so this is my desire for you, dear young people, that you'll experience this in the very real way in your life, that whether the Lord puts you in the first group or in the second group, whether he chooses in his perfect ways of wisdom and love to let you suffer and not.
Not give you deliverance that you'll be able to say in that triumph of faith, My times are in thy hand, thy trust in thee. And I'll tell you this, God will give you a good report. It'll give you a good report. We all know what it is to look for a good report at school, but God will give you a good report in that 10,000 times better than man's report. Well, how good to be able to commit our way to the Lord.
Now may the Lord give us all grace to do this.
May the Lord guide you and keep you. But I say again, He values your confidence, and I just want to close with that verse. Cast not away, therefore your confidence. That's what the devil is going to try and do. He's going to try and shake your confidence, but cast not away there for your confidence. That which hath great recompense of reward. The Lord will show how much He was pleased with that confidence of faith in the day of manifestation.