True comfort is found not in physical ease but in one's relationship with God, rooted in His everlasting consolation through grace. This comfort is anchored by God's immutable promises and His inability to lie, providing a strong hope for believers. The sermon emphasizes that human worthiness is nonexistent, and any sense of entitlement leads to difficulty in relationships, whereas embracing God's unmerited favor brings profound peace. Examples like Mephibosheth illustrate God's gracious restoration and acceptance of the useless, highlighting that God's kindness is not based on our merit but on His own heart. Ultimately, the enduring comfort in life's trials and in facing eternity comes solely from God's grace, not from personal achievements or perceived goodness.
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On my part of this conference, I feel, should be to speak on the subject of comfort. I'm not sure that we all know what that word means. I think that the materialistic culture in which we live in this country has come to associate comfort almost entirely with the body. We say to each other, are you comfortable? That means, are you the right temperature? Is your stomach full? is the chair soft enough and all of these things. But let's get our minds away from that if we can, and remember that comfort in the Scriptures has to do with the Spirit.
The comfort that we're talking about has to do with your relationship to the Lord. I want to read from Second Thessalonians chapter two. Second Thessalonians, the second chapter, verses sixteen and seventeen. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which has loved us and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace.
comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. That's what I want to talk about this morning. Everlasting consolation through grace. Hebrews chapter six and verse eighteen. I'm breaking in at the middle of a sentence. that by two immutable things in which it was impossible to God for lie, to lie, the first immutable thing is that God made a solemn promise that he calls an oath because he could swear by none greater than himself, he swear by himself.
And the other fluke to this anchor, or an anchor has two flutes, and this is an anchor to the soul. One is that God made a very strong promise, and the other one is that God can't lie. These are the two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hopes set before us. I hope we never get to the place where we are so so proud of our development that we can enjoy the simple doctrine of grace.
I think it's wonderful if you're able to apprehend deeper things. I think it's wonderful if you're able to grasp all our blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. I think it's wonderful if your mind is able to expand to where you can take in greater and more wonderful things constantly. A brother and sister, let's always keep the simplicity of grace. Let's never forget that if we got what was coming to us, we'd be in hell or else on our way there. Let's never forget this. Let's never lose sight of the fact that everything that God does for us is by pure grace.
We deserve absolutely nothing. You know what makes us hard to get along with? Because we have an exaggerated sense of our own importance. That's what makes us hard to get along with. We feel that we're not getting quite all that is due to it. That's why you're difficult to live with in your own home sometimes. Just imagine your husband or wife not treating you with due deference. That's why it's difficult for you to get along in the assembly. Imagine that. He ignored me and just passed right by me. All of this stems from a wrong sense of our own worthiness, and we have absolutely none.
In fact, during the Depression, I heard a man preaching on the street in Ray, Colorado. I don't remember anything else he said, but I do remember this. He was evidently from Arkansas. His speech betrayed him. And he said, I hear some of you folks saying that you ain't getting very good crops. He said, I say to you, if you got what is coming to you, you wouldn't even have fodder. You know, that stuck with me all these these thirty-five years. Whenever I get to thinking, well, now the Lord is not treating me quite as well as he ought, then I remember. Johnny, if you got what was coming to you, you wouldn't even have fought here.
You and I deserve nothing. Nothing but hell. But God is so gracious. God calls himself the God of all grace. Now I know that you have been brought up to appreciate grace, and I know that you're not legalists. You don't keep the Sabbath. You're clear about the doctrine of salvation by grace. You know that you're not saved partly by grace and partly by works. But I want to tell you something. You are a born legalist, and I can prove it to you. There is something inside of the human heart that is constantly weighing things by our own worthiness, even after you're a believer.
There's something about you that says, I think God ought to do this for me because I've been a pretty good boy this week. Or negatively, we say, well, I just don't know whether the Lord would do that for me or not. I did some things that I shouldn't have done this week. We have this underlying feeling that if we're good boys, we'll get more. If we're bad boys, we'll get less. God doesn't deal with people like that. I'm not now speaking about His discipline. I'm speaking about His kindness to us. God loves you and God shows this love in unmerited favor. Kindness.
Grace. You get hold of this. It's a great comfort to your soul. The other day I was talking to a man and he said this. Well, he said, I get to all the meetings, all right. He said, I'd be afraid that if I didn't get to the meetings, the Lord might do something to my family. I said, what a horrible way to live. I said that right out to him. What a horrible way to live. He said, what do you mean? I said, that isn't, you don't understand grace. If you think that you have to get to all the meetings to keep God from doing something to your family, he said, you're living in bondage. and God is not pleased with that kind of meaning going.
We don't understand grace, brothers and sisters, whenever we think that God blesses us according to our worth. If you count on the grace of God, it'll be one of the greatest comforts that ever came into your life. I often think about Mephibosheth in the Old Testament. Mephibosheth, you know, belong to the wrong family. So do I. So do you. We were born in the family of Adam, and Adam rebelled against God. And Mephibosheth belonged to the family of Saul, and Saul was a bitter enemy to David. And then David came to the throne, and naturally you would expect that he would eradicate every member of that wicked family.
But he didn't. Because we're told that David was a man after God's own heart. He wasn't a man after God's own ways. He wasn't a man after God's own morals and God's own righteousness, but he was a man after God's own heart. He had the same kind of a heart that God has, a kind and gracious heart. So he said, is there anybody left of the house of Saul? I suppose before he finished that sentence, somebody said, here it comes, off of the head. The king now is in a position where he can get rid of all of his enemies, but that isn't what he said. He said, is there any left of the house of Saul that I may show him the kindness of God.
And so he got this poor cripple, Mephibosheth. Now Mephibosheth was not only of the wrong family, he was useless. He was a cripple. He couldn't do anything for David. David didn't bring him into his home because he could use him, because he had faith. some job for him to do because he felt it would add to his own glory or his own wealth or his own pleasure in some way to have Mephibosheth there. He brought Mephibosheth in in his complete uselessness. And then he said, I'm going to restore to you everything that belonged to your father.
And then you're going to eat bread at the king's table from now on. you're going to be just like one of my sons. That was pure grace. And Mephibosheth knew it was pure grace, too, because he said, what am I that thou shalt look upon such a dead dog as I am. Do you ever call yourself that? That's the worst thing a Jew could call himself a dead dog. What am I that thou shalt look upon such a dead dog as I am? We're dishonest. We say sometimes how unworthy we are, but just let a brother or sister say how unworthy we are and we bristle, because we really don't feel that unworthy.
We don't sincerely say, I'm just a dead dog. A man got up in the morning meeting on Sunday and gave quite a little essay on That verse that says, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. And he said that that word doorkeeper really means the slave that sits at the doorstep. He said, you might translate it freely. I'd rather be a doormat. And he said, you know, this is a great honor just to be a doormat for God's people. Oh, he expanded on this. And after the meeting, somebody said to a friend of his, why in the world didn't you open that window over there beside you?
It was beastly hot in here, and he said, I would have, but I was afraid of the door mat. Now let's don't make any pretenses of our humility. Let's be genuine in our humility. Let's say I am nothing but a dead dog. And if somebody else has it, let him say it. He can't say anything too bad about you anyway. My father was not naturally a humble man, but the grace of God did wonders in my dad's life. When he became a believer, he had been in show business, and he and mother played in the dance orchestra.
My father got saved just a month before I was born. It was a great blessing in my life, I tell you. And coming out of show business, into Christian things, my dad had an awful lot to learn, and he did learn. He did learn very rapidly. One of the things that he learned was his own unworthiness. As a common saying in my branch of the Walton family, Brother Jay belongs to the more humble branch, but in my branch of the family, there is a saying We Waldens are not conceited, we merely recognize quality. This is a common thing, isn't it?
And my father had this sort of feeling about himself. But he led a man to the Lord who worked in the same place with him. My father was a machinist, and this man worked in the same place with him, and my father led him to Christ. I never will forget that fellow. When he got excited, he just stuttered and spluttered. You could hardly understand what he had to say. And he came to my father one day, and he was very upset because he had heard some of the Christians at the building where we attended meetings. He had heard some of the Christians talking about my dad. And he said, Bill Walden, he said, then fellas, said a bunch of stuff about you.
And my dad said, well, Rad, if they knew me the way the Lord knows me, they could have told you two bushels. You see what I'm getting at? If you really believe that you deserve absolutely nothing, you're going to be comforted. You're going to be comforted through grace. Oh, I'm so glad we're not under law. The letter killeth. The law said, Thou shalt, and thou shalt not. And you deviate from that, and there is no mercy.
You put yourself under law, and you're dead. You put yourself under law, and you are hopeless. The whole book of Galatians argues, why in the world would you want to go back under law? All that law could do for you is condemn you. All that law can do for you is reduce you to a state of slavery, servitude. Why would a Christian ever want to be under law in any way? Certainly there was no comfort in law. I believe that law was never God's plan.
I believe that Exodus chapter nineteen teaches that The children of Israel demanded the law. I believe that God's way with his people was a way of grace. I think he proved that in his call and blessing of Abraham. He made a covenant with Abraham, which was a covenant of pure grace. There are no provisos. There are no ifs and ifs and buts in that contract at all. He said to Abraham, I'm going to do this for you. And he never said if. But the children of Israel wanted. law and demanded law. And as soon as they got the law, the Lord said, All right, move back. And he put a fence around that mountain where he was.
That's what the law does. The law says, Stand back. Move back. No fellowship between you and God. If you're going to be under law, he said, Even if a beast touches the foot of that mountain, he'll be thrust through with a dart. And it says, So fearful is the sight that Moses said, Now Moses was a special friend of the Lord's that Moses said, I do exceedingly fear and quake. There's no comfort in the law. I think you remember that on the day of Pentecost, the day the church began, three thousand souls got saved that first day.
Do you remember what happened when the law was given? Same number, three thousand souls died. That's the difference between the two. God's law kills three thousand. God's grace saves three thousand. Let's don't make a mistake of going back under the law, bringing ourselves into the misery of the law. After we're saved, now I'm talking about after we're saved. Galatians said, are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh? Being saved by grace, do you keep saved by law? all falling away doctrine people all arminians that's the fancy word for their theology these people all believe that you're saved by grace but you keep saved by works that's why they think they can be lost again they're right you're saved by works you can you will be if you're saved by works you're done you'll never make it but you know he tells us in Ephesians two eight and nine We've been singing one of these songs.
For by grace are ye saved. But then in Acts chapter fifteen, when they had that council in Jerusalem, they said, We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. We are saved by grace. We shall be saved by grace. The continuous salvation... is filled by grace. We are saved by grace. That's the way you're going to keep saved. That's the way you're going to continue in God's things. Salvation is a big inclusive word. We limit it. We use the word salvation to stand for the new birth.
And this is only a part of it. Salvation is a big inclusive word. The first trip I ever made to Kansas City in nineteen hundred and twenty nine, I had not yet given up my job in the jewelry store, but I took my vacation And we went to Kansas City and we stopped at a tent meeting being conducted there at the time. And the man who was preaching shook hands with me at the door and said, young man, are you saved? And I said, yes, sir. I told him how long I had been saved. I was very proud of the fact that I had been saved quite a little while, although I was still young. And he said, that's very interesting. Wasn't impressed particularly. But he said, have you been saved since? Well, he doesn't say it not.
Once was enough to leave, and I got saved, I was saved forever. Well, he said, you're very fortunate, young man. I have to be saved every day. And I went away feeling so sorry for that poor old man. He was heterodox. He just didn't understand the Bible, thinking that he had to be saved every day. But I was the one who was off my rocker. You do need to be saved every day. You only need to be born again once. Brother John Cole's grandfather meant a great deal to me. He said, very wonderful teacher of the word, Mr. C.W. Ross. He wouldn't allow people to sing that hymn. You must be born again, and the bass come in on the again, again.
He said, don't sing it that way. That's not right. Don't sing, he must be born again, again, because you don't get born again again. You just get born again once. Now, that's right. But you do get saved many, many, many times. What does he mean in Second Corinthians when he says, Who hath delivered us from so great a death, and who doth deliver, and in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us? What's he talking about? He's talking about continuous salvation. And in that sense, you and I are being saved day after day. Sometimes we put it this way. I was saved from the penalty of sin.
I am being saved from the power of sin. And I shall yet be saved from the presence of sin. You like alliterations? There's a good one. We are being saved. How? By grace. Same way you get saved in the first place. By grace. And then he tells us in First Peter chapter one, I think it's the thirteenth verse, that we are going to be saved by the grace which shall be brought unto us at the return of the Lord Jesus. It's going to be God's grace that takes you to heaven. Now, that just knocks this theory of a mid-tribulation or post-tribulation rapture.
It just knocks it into a contact. Because people say, now, if you're watching, if you were a watchful Christian, you'll go before the tribulation. Otherwise, stay here and take it. That's perfectly ridiculous. The Lord left the people here who are not worthy. We'd all be here. but we're all going to be taken because the grace is going to be brought unto us at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't think I need to labor that. I think you understand that we're saved by grace. I think you understand what grace means. I think you're sure that God is the source of all grace. One of the genitive forms of his name is the God of all grace.
He's the source. This is like himself. I think we ought to distinguish between grace and mercy. I believe that mercy is a negative kindness and grace is a positive one. I think that mercy takes away what is against us and grace gives all that we need. I think that in mercy we do not receive what we justly deserve. In grace we do receive what we did not justly deserve. Now maybe that's more confusing. than if I hadn't said it. But you think it over anyway. See if it doesn't work out right in your own mind. In God's mercy, He does not punish me.
In God's grace, He blesses me with everything that He could possibly give me. We're always asking God to bless us. Maybe we ought to thank Him a little more often than He has. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, and it's all by grace. You'll never earn anything. You got what was coming to you, you wouldn't even have thought of it. Now this is a very common word and very commonly used in the New Testament. I think you ought to maybe spend a little time just thinking about grace. Occasionally it will make you a worshipful Christian. It will comfort your heart. To remember, for instance, that every salutation in the epistle says grace and peace.
be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, or some form of that same salutation, grace and peace. And when he writes to an individual, he adds the third ingredient, mercy, because individually we need mercy. As a company of God's people, grace is enough. And then you have so much said about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I noticed in my prudence concordance, that this occurs twelve times in the New Testament. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. My favorite verse concerning his grace says, You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Isn't that a wonderful verse? To me that is the greatest reason for Christian giving. I preach on giving. Doesn't matter to me what people think about it. I preach on giving. I think it ought to be preached on. I think it's one of the most wonderful privileges that a Christian ever has. But I think the reason for giving should not be because the exchequer says that the treasury is low. I think the reason for giving ought to be because the Lord Jesus Christ is a great example of giving. He gave, not ten percent, he gave himself. Not one day out of the week. He gave himself.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of grace. In the tenth chapter of Hebrews, God is the source of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ is the manifestation of grace. And the Holy Spirit is the spirit of grace. The Holy Spirit brings the grace of God. to us. Let me say a little bit about the consolations of grace, because that's really my topic this morning. This could be divided into two sections. We could think of the grace of God in salvation, and then we can think of the grace of God in Christian growth and progress.
I've said a little already about consolation of grace at conversion. I'm sure your mind will go back to many, many verses concerning His grace. I'm sure you'll love to think about His grace in saving you. I'm sure you'll love many of you to preach about His grace or to teach it in your Sunday school class. I'm sure that you enjoy the grace of God in conversion. The time you receive the Lord Jesus, the joy that it brought to you, the blessing that it brought to you. I was glad when I got saved. And I've been glad every time I've had the privilege of leading somebody else to Christ.
Salvation by grace brings great joy to us, as well as to the Lord in the presence of the angels. This is a consolation. We are saved by grace. They tell about a preacher who had spent forty years in the service of the Lord. He got sick, and he believed it was his last illness. He said when he first realized how sick he was, he lay on his bed and thought back over his lifetime and he said, Father, I'm so thankful that I've had the privilege of spending nearly a half century in thy service.
And he said, I was comforted. So I thought back over a half century of service to the Lord. But he said the next day I was a little sicker. And as I realized I was a little closer to death door, he said, I began to think that some of those things I'd done in the last fifty years were not so good. And I didn't take quite so much consolation in thinking back over my lifetime. But he said I did take great consolation in remembering that I had accepted Christ early in life and that at least my heart was attached to the Lord. The next day he said I was still a little sicker. that somehow or other I wasn't sure that my heart was attached to him I just wasn't too happy about my own attitudes toward the Lord I didn't take much comfort in that but he said I did take comfort in the fact that God had kept me clean for himself and that I had not disgraced his name but he said the next day as I realized I was a little closer to the pearly gates I said to myself, I'm not sure that I've been kept from dishonoring the Lord.
I may have dishonored him more than I think I have, and I didn't take much consolation in that. He said, the last thing I remember was saying to my Heavenly Father, Father, I have no comfort except to know it. That's our God of all grace. When you get to where you're facing eternity, When you get to where you're just about ready to slip out into the presence of God, you'll get no consolation from any thoughts of your own life, only from His grace. Now what about our daily living? What about the grace of God in everyday life? Do you remember what he says in the sixth chapter of Romans, twice in that chapter, verses fourteen and fifteen?
He says, You are not under the law, but under grace. I'd like to talk a little bit about the grace of God in our daily life. God does not want you to do anything because you have to. I know you don't believe that, but then I want you to believe it. I want to try to prove it to you. God does not want you to do anything because you have to. Many years ago I went to a little town in Colorado, tough little mountain town. My wife went with me. I pitched a tent there in that town, preached the gospel.
And as my custom is, I went around to visit the ministries of the town because I don't want any more problems than I have to have, and I thought I would at least try to show my friend. One of them was friendly toward me and invited us in, and his wife took quite a liking to my wife. This is not surprising. She's a very likable person. And she seemed kind of wanted to talk to my wife. And so I went outside with the preacher. We were standing talking about some things. And it came time to go home. My wife came out carrying a little book. And she signaled to me that look of distress in her eyes.
And so I said, all right, we'll go. We'll get in the car as quick as we could. And we got in the car and we left the way. And she'd breathe this sigh of relief. And she said, what an ordeal. So what was the matter? Why she said that's the most unhappy woman I ever saw in my life. She said all she could tell me was that she was forced into this and had to do this. And then she said, look at this book she gave me. And the title on the back of the book was one word, H-A-F-T-O. Have to. And this was the topic of her book. It was the life of a preacher's wife. And everything that she did, she did it because I have to. I have to.
All preachers' wives are expected to do this, so I have to. And I looked the thing over and I said, burn that wretched thing before anybody else ever sees it. I wouldn't want anybody to think that any preacher's wife does things like this just because I have to. What a miserable way to live. Well, all right. Why do you go to meetings? Well, if I didn't go to meetings, people would think I was a backup. Yes, people would know that you're a backup. That's why you go to the meeting. If you didn't go, then people would find out how you really feel.
So you go. Why do you give? Well, the bills have to be paid, as the old has to be. Why do you give the preacher money when he comes to you? Well, you think we want him to stay here the rest of the fall? We've got to move him on to the next place. That may sound funny to you, but let me tell you, after forty years experience in the work of the Lord, I know that that isn't as remote as you might think. I've heard them say so. Why do you do what you do?
Why do you stay with your husband? Well, it's a miserable life, but there's the children to think about. My brother and sister, this is going on. I spend a great deal of time in marriage counseling at home. Not only people in our own companies, but people in my Bible classes. I have five Bible classes around the city. People who come to these Bible classes, members of various churches, call me up and say, can I come and talk to you? I've got a desperate problem. I don't know how I'm going to stay with my husband. I don't know how I can stand my wife any longer, but I don't want the disgrace of a divorce.
I don't want the children to suffer. What am I going to do? How many things we do because we have to? Oh, brother and sister, if we could get beyond this, and see that this is a privilege to do this for my blessed Lord. He blesses me in spite of what I am. He's kind to me whether I deserve it or not. And let me never think of doing these things because I have to. Let me accept His great grace. And then, out of gratitude, out of gratitude for all that He has done for me, let me give myself to Him.
I believe in Christian consecration. Do you know what the word consecration means? It's used a great deal in the book of Leviticus. Do you know what it means? The word literally means filling the hands. You think it means emptying the hands. That's our legal hearts. We think if I'm fully consecrated to the Lord, that means I'll have to give up this, and I'll have to give up that, and I'll have to give up that, and there goes that. It doesn't mean anything of the kind. When a priest was consecrated to God, he held out his hands, and the high priest filled his hands. He always put two things into the hands of a consecrated priest.
Those two things were the heave shoulder and the wave breast. These were two parts of the peace offering that were put into the hands of a man who was consecrated to God. And the shoulder of the peace offering speaks of the strength of Christ for us. And the breast of the peace offering speaks of the love of Christ for us. And the one who is consecrated of the Lord had his hands filled with that which stands for the strength and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see it, brother and sister? Consecration is not giving up things. Consecration is seeing all that I have in Christ. The great consolation of grace.
and this produces in us a spontaneous giving of anything, any little thing that we may have out of love for Him. Somebody says to a girl, where are you working on? She said, I'm not working on Mary. And she's probably working hard and she ever did in her life. Longer hours, and I'm sure the pay is poor. And as far as vacations are concerned, well, there might be one after the twenty-fifth anniversary, but Don't look for it much before that. What does she mean I'm not working now? She means I am now serving out of love. My heart has been one, and I want to do these things for my husband and for my children.
That's what grace does to us. Grace draws out our hearts and makes us love to do what we do, not because we have to. I'm going to be fed, I'm going to be blessed, I'm going to be cared for, I'm going to be taken home to heaven regardless of what I do. That sounds hard and harsh, but that's what the Bible teaches. But how could I want to live that kind of a life when I see what He's done for me? After all, He's done for me. After all, He's done for me. How can I do less than give Him my best? After all, He's done for me. Now, many things are given to us by grace.
I was thinking about the gifts. A great deal is said in First Corinthians chapter twelve and in Ephesians chapter four. We won't turn to them this morning, but you read them at your leisure. And you will see that God has given to every member of the body of Christ specific gifts. These are not to be confused with native ability. If you have a wonderful voice, that's just fine. Maybe the Lord does want you to preach. Maybe he wants you to be an auctioneer. Don't take it for granted that you're supposed to preach because you've got a good voice. But if you've got a good voice, consecrate it to the Lord. That's not what we're talking about. Those are not included in the gifts of First Corinthians twelve in Ephesians chapter four.
The spiritual gifts means that the specific ability which God the Spirit gives when we become the children of God. sometimes in the in the middle of the night because I've reached that stage of life when you don't always sleep at night sometimes in the middle of the night I lie and think about the grace of God to me not specifically in saving me but in giving me the privilege the honor of teaching his word of being a little help to some of his people of leading some soul to Christ.
You see, I know my family. I know my background. I know where I might have been. Suppose my father and mother had not accepted Christ when they did. Suppose that I had been born into a show family and had spent my youth traveling around from one theater to another, living out of a trunk. spending my time playing in the back of the theater while my parents were on the stage. Suppose that I had spent the rest of my days asleep every evening on a bench in a dance hall where my parents were playing a dance orchestra. Just think what could have happened.
And then when I accepted Christ as my Savior, I didn't have the advantages that many of you had. And I just marveled that God could take me up and use me, give me a little opportunity to serve Him. There is nothing compared to the honor, the great grace of God in letting us do a little something for Himself. Grace of God and your life, brother and sister, that gives you the privilege of doing a little something for Him. Thanking for it. Thanking for it every day.
This is called abundant grace. Second Corinthians chapter four. Abundant grace. I said a little while ago that I believe in preaching about giving. The classic passage on giving in the New Testament is found in the eighth and ninth chapters of Second Corinthians. Every Christian should study this section carefully. several times in this section he uses the word grace now I realize that grace is a is a translation of various words but for our purpose we just think of the word the English word grace he says I would like to have you abound in this grace also what grace the grace of giving is that a grace yes that's a grace why should God use your money If you come to Colorado Springs, visit us sometime, I'll take you around and show you a million dollars in gold.
It's lying outdoors. Anybody can have it anytime they want it. Trouble is it's mixed in with a good many thousand tons of tailings from the old golden cycle mill there. And so far they don't know how to get that million dollars out of there without costing about two million to do it. But if you know any way to do it, you're welcome to it. It lies outdoors there all the time. Nobody guards it. They've already taken ninety-nine million dollars out of that pile of dirt in the past, but there's still a million dollars worth left. Their process is only ninety-nine percent perfect. That million dollars belongs to God yet.
and then back up in the hills where that came from there are millions upon millions upon millions of dollars in gold still left doesn't pay the minus now thirty five dollars an ounce wages are too high other things are too high doesn't pay to take it out geologists tell us that they believe that the main load of the gold is still there the hundreds of millions of dollars that's come out of the cripple creek goal district have just been a few of the little pieces that run off from the main load. Maybe there's a billion dollars worth there. Maybe there's a hundred billion dollars worth.
Whatever comes after that, it's there and it belongs to God. Do you think he needs your fifteen cents? Do you think God needs anything that you have? Let me tell you something, brother and sister. When God wants a job done, he gets an angel to do it. When he wanted the Syrian army destroyed in one night, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men, he didn't send a general. He sent an angel, one angel. And as the Irishman said, when they got up in the morning, they found out they were all dead. Eight hundred and eighty-five thousand of them, dead men, one angel, one night.
You think God needs you? The Lord Jesus said, when you've done everything that you ought to do, now you haven't done that yet. But when you do everything that you ought to do, then say, we are unprofitable servants. You know what that means? That means you're not worth your salt. It doesn't pay God to support you for all he gets out of you. Then why does he let you do it? Grace. Pure grace. He loves to give you the privilege of spending a few dollars, spending a few hours, exerting a little effort to have fellowship with himself.
A mother was setting up late, doing some mending, very weary. She reached down and took a sock out of the basket, and she saw that her little four-year-old girl had been helping her. wrong color of yarn, clanged up into a knot instead of properly darned. But tears came to her eyes and she said, Thank the Lord for my little helper. It took her longer to take the threads out and put them back the way they belong. But she appreciated her little girl's thoughtfulness. That's the way most of your work is done.
It's God's grace. It's the comfort of grace to know that God permits us to have a little part in what he's doing. One more thing, the comfort of grace in the problems of your life. Paul said, I had a thorn in the flesh. I've got one. You've got one. Your thorn's bigger than mine, but mine hurts worse than yours. Hurt me worse. You've got a thorn. I've got a thorn. Paul had a thorn. We need thorn. Paul asked the Lord three times to take that thorn away.
He didn't do it. He said, My grace is sufficient for thee. Paul had the comfort of grace. And he would never have that comfort if he hadn't had that thorn. He wouldn't have needed it. It's a privilege to be sick. It's a privilege to be poor. It's a privilege to be hated. It's a privilege to be uncomfortable. It's a privilege to have difficulties. Did you ever learn anything in a good day? I never. What we call a good day. How is it that the young fellow will burn the midnight oil to study he will work his head off to get an education and then pay these professors for treating him like that.
Why? Because he knows the value of an education. He wants the education enough to subject himself to the four years of difficulty that's necessary in order to get that college degree. God put you here to educate you. He didn't put you, he didn't leave you here, he gets you ready for heaven. You were ready for heaven the split second that you accepted Christ. He could have taken you right home to heaven then. But he left you here, not to serve. I don't like that saying, we're saved to serve. We're nothing of the kind. The Lord Jesus said, I've not called you servants. I've called you friends. We're here to cultivate his friendship. We're here to learn. We're here to be educated.
If you want to call yourself the bond slave of the Lord Jesus, that's wonderful. But he never did it. We're not left here to serve. We're left here to learn. And the grace of God, the comforting grace of God, is given to us just in measure that we endure the difficulties that come day by day.