I'll just say by way of announcement that tomorrow morning we will be working in chapter forty-one. Another message along the same line, the words of hope come from here. But this morning's message we hope will begin to see that chapter forty is really a section by itself and come to a wonderful climax as we will see in the last verse. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, than speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might. He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. The earthly career of a child of God has always been a difficult one. And that is because of two things. In the first place, a child of God in this world is in a hostile scene, even a scene that is contrary to him. And strange as it may sound to some of us who have always lived in what we call a Christian country, the children of God have always been in the minority. We are plainly in the minority today. we are hopelessly outnumbered by those who do not know God. You take the so-called professing Christian population of the world and compare it with a total population and you'll see exactly what I mean. If we are to win out simply because of sheer force of numbers, we may as well give up because we can never win on that basis. And then the second reason why the career of the child of God is a difficult one is because it is an upward climb. It is an upward trend, an upward path. It leads up. And therefore, he can never move under his own momentum. It's not like going downhill where all you need is a foot and you'll keep on going. That's not true, the child of God. His path is an upward one, and he requires fresh spiritual impulses to keep him going. That's one of the real purposes of a conference like this, and of our church services, as well as of our personal devotions, every day that we need these fresh spiritual impulses in order to keep us moving upward. Otherwise, we'll drift like the world. Now, I say these are the two reasons why the path or the career... the earthly career of a child of God is a difficult one. And it is because of these things that we are frequently discouraged and despondent, even to the point where we question God himself. And that is where we begin this morning in our studies in verse twenty-seven, where God turns to his favorite nations, addressing them under the name of the patriarch Jacob. and says to them, Why sayeth thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord? Now that's a strange statement, isn't it? For anybody to think that there's anything hidden from God, that there's anything that he doesn't know. In other words, to charge him with ignorance. That's what it means. If you and I say in our hearts, God doesn't know what I'm going through, We're actually charged in God with ignorance. My way is his and the Lord. But there's something even worse than that in the latter part of the verse, and it says, My judgment or my justice is passed over from or by my God. Think of that. Charged in God with injustice. What do you say to me? That sounds terrible, and it sounds very terrible. But I believe these are the implications of these two questions that we have here in verse twenty-seven. That these people, either in their very words which they use or otherwise in their actions, they have charged God with ignorance and what is worse with injustice. And I want me to put it that way, dear friends. And I believe that if you're honest with yourself, you'll say to yourself, yes, and I believe I've done that more times than I dare to confess. I have actually God, God, in my thinking, with this, that he doesn't know what I'm going through, and what more he hasn't done right by me. Especially when I compare my luck with other people in the world and see how prosperous they are. And you get a perfect illustration of that in the Seventy-third Psalm, don't you? Where the Psalmist goes through just as an experience as I. He sees the book, Prosperity of the Wicked, and sees how healthy they are and so on, And he wonders whether he's made a mistake in taking the side of God. He says, Lo, I have washed my hands in pain and innocency, and so on. All my faith is for nothing. And there's nothing the enemy would delight more in than just that, to get you and me to the point where we mistrust God. That's how he began in the Garden of Eden. He didn't come with a direct denial of God's word. He comes with a question. If you remember he came to Eve, he says, yay, half God said. He doesn't say God didn't say it, but I'm merely asking, raising the question. Just as we can instill doubt in the heart of anybody by raising a question about it. I remember when I was just a little fellow at school, we were learning our two-time table. There was one little fellow there who was never sure of himself on his two-time table. He would count his fingers whenever the teacher would try to teach us that two and two make four. But she made him put his hands on the table where she could see them. She says, now tell me this. How much is two and two? Two and two is four. He wasn't too sure. And in order to press it upon him, she said to him again, I don't know the good pedagogy or good psychology, but she says, how much is two and two? just by repeating questions. And so the enemy raises questions in our minds concerning God. Now what is God's answer to all of this? I believe we have it now in the verses which follow. Where God asks some questions which are similar to the questions which he raised in the portion which we had before us last night. Remember last night when studying verse twenty-one we noticed there were four questions. which God puts to those who doubt him. He says, Have you not known? That is, he should know by intuition that I exist. Have you not heard? There is a communication concerning me. Has it not been told from the beginning? What about the traditions concerning me? And have you not understood from the foundations of the earth by setting creation around me? He should have come to conclusions that I do exist. But you'll notice in addressing his secret He raises only two questions. He says, hath thou not known, and hath thou not heard? So here was a people, where did it get? Direct revelation from God. Of all the peoples in the world, they were the most inexcusable. And St. Paul, you remember in these epistles of Romans, he makes a point of that. He says, what advantage then has to be why he says, he gets much every way, particularly because to them were committed the articles, that is the spoken words of God. they had this communication. And so God doesn't have to ask more than two questions here. Has thou not known and hast thou not heard? Surely if anybody had reason to know, if anybody had reason to hear, it was Israel. But now notice what God says in connection with it. And this is something he didn't say in the questions which we were considering last night. But he's dealing now with the people who should have known. And here you get four important facts concerning God. four important facts. The first fact is that he is the one who is everlasting. And if ever there was a people under the sun who had death, spoken to them it was Israel. Remember Moses in that wonderful song of his. He includes this wonderful song. The eternal God is thy refuge. And underneath are the everlasting arms. Here is a God who never had a beginning. Here is a God who is not like the gods of which we were hearing last night, who were made of gold and silver or wood that would not rot. Here is one who's everlasting. As Moses puts it in his psalm, the ninth year psalm, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Oh, you say that sounds like theology, right? It is theology, but we need this fact. Our God is the eternal God, the everlasting man. The one who never had a beginning had he will, never have a name. That's something that you and I let our poor finite minds can't even conceive what he's saying nevertheless. God has given us this great thought from sending himself to him eternal. Then the second great thought is included in that name, the Lord. You'll notice if your Bible makes the distinction in the printing that the word Lord is spelled in all capital letters there. That means, and is the translation of the Hebrew word, and I give it the old pronunciation. I know the modernist would use it in pronunciation Galway, but I give it the old pronunciation of Jehovah. And I believe it has been well stated that the definition of Jehovah, or shall I say an equivalent statement, is, it's the one who was and is and is the one. The self-existent one, the one who alone had the right to say, I am, but I am. I will remember how when a certain man on the West Coast took to himself that right, and he was the great I am. Then one day the news came that he had died. The late president, Dr. Houghton, president of Ruby Bible Institute, commenting on the death of this man who had taken the title, The I Am, and says the great I am is now the great I am. And that was true. And yet he's got followers in Chicago right down in the loop. He still had some of his followers, St. Germain. But there is only one who has a right to say, I am that I am. Not only that, but this was also the covenant name of God. This was the name by which he revealed himself to Israel as the covenant-keeping God. Not only is he the eternal God, the self-existent one, but he is the God who keeps his word. And friends, that's an important thing for us today, is that our God is a God who keeps his word. If he's made any promises, you may be sure that you'll keep them, if he's made any threats, he'll carry them out. The one side is just as true as the other. The threats, the awful threats of punishment and the word of God are just as solemn and just as irrevocable, just as in music, as any promise that God ever made. Because he is Jehovah. Then we come to the third verse fact concerning God here in this verse that he is the creator of the ends of the earth. And here we get something of his omnipotence. Here is the one who brought everything into being. And immediately you find that you are face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ of whom it is said in the first chapter of John, that all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Here is the creator of the ends of the earth, who neither faintest nor his will. He not only made everything, but he sustains everything. He keeps it moving. That's why this old world has been moving along at the terrific speed, while you and I are sitting here upon it, walking upon it, God keeps it moving, and the creation moves on, because he not only brought it into being, but he also maintains it in all things are sustained by the word of his power. And then we come lastly in this twenty-eighth verse to his omniscience. There is no searching of his understanding. Or you say, these are all theological terms, yes, but they are terms that I believe every intelligent Christian ought to be conversant with. We ought to know something about the eternity of God, the omnipresence of God, the omnipotence of God, the omniscience of God. These ought to be terms that we are fully conversant with, that we know the meaning of them, and rejoice that we have a God of whom all these things can be shared. What a God we have. But now you notice that he's introduced in an entirely different way in the verse which follows, and this is the burden of our message this morning, and which justifies our title that these addresses should be called Words of Hope, Comfort, and Fear. For in the next verse, you'll notice the twenty-ninth verse, God is introduced as a giver, a giver. And this we find is so true of him, all through the word of God, in that marvelous text which Dr. Eyre is teaching from time to time, or in his hour of his study. God so loved the world that he gained his only begotten son. That's how we're introduced to God. He did. St. Paul's speaking of him in that marvelous sermon that he is on Mars Hill. He says he'd give us to all life and breath and all things. God's a giver. He's a giver. Not only does he give us life and breath and all things and give us his beloved son is our Savior, but he's given us his blessed Holy Spirit. Think of that. God the giver. And then James tells us that he'd give it more grace, God the giver. And the psalmist tells us in Psalm IV that he will give grace and glory to his God-giver. Never think about that. He's not a generous giver, one who hasn't anything to sell, as it were, but who's giving without money and without money. He'd give it. But in this particular text of scripture, you notice it's the gift of power. He says, the gift of power. And who is there that there hasn't at some time or other perhaps, even now as I say to you, you said, oh, that I had that gift of power. Oh, that I had the power to be this, and I had the power to be that. Well, it may be that you haven't qualified for this gift. number some years ago speaking to a lady about the wonderful doctrine of election. She said, oh, if I could only know that I was one of the elect, I said, that's very simple. Very simple to know whether you can qualify as one of the elect. Oh, she said, is that so? I said, yes, right? So I took you to the first chapter of First Corinthians, where you had the word God chose, and you could easily substitute the word God elected. And you read in that chapter that God told or elected people that had no strength. They were weak. They were foolish. Yay, kings of Arna. I said, you see, ladies, it's a question of qualifying. Are you dumb enough? Are you weak enough? Are you poor enough? Do you want to be the last one? That's all it takes. And so here in this passage this scripture this morning, notice that God gives his power not to those who claim that they've already got some and all they need is a little bit more in order to get over them. God gives his power to the saints. And for them that have no mercy, he increases strength. Isn't that of it? What it takes to qualify for this gift? come into the presence of the Lord as one has to come again and again and say to him, Lord, I can't bow my eyes. I just can't do this in my own trust. Lord, I'm nothing but a defeat weakling. I come to him and he loves to have me get lean on the arm of his face. Friends, that is how simple it is, isn't it? If you would omit those words which are in italics in my Bible at any rate, In verse twenty-nine, it will read like this. He give us power to the faint and to no might. To no might, he entreats us. I grant you that the pronoun should be there, if you want to fully translate the Hebrew. But I thought it was rather interesting to drop out those words in italics there and repeat, that it's to no might. Remember, some years ago I was standing alongside of an old medicine man other than Abihu, he is now a Christian. And his name in the Navajo meant many goats, Abraham many goats. We were having our picture taken, and somebody said to me, what are you going to call this picture, Amadine? Well, I said, we'll call this picture many goats and two goats. So this medicine man, this converted medicine man, wanted to know what had left him said. And they told him that they were looking for a title to this picture, and that I had suggested we call it many goats and few goats. I was clearly using the word fuse and antonin for many, you see. So he said, Abraham, what would you call it? He said, they call it many goats and no goats. He said, he hadn't gotten goats. You see, out there a man's wealth is negative in the number of goats and sheep he has. I didn't have any of that, so I was a man with no goats. And praying... when it comes to your presence of God on a man with no strength, no money. But it's with that kind of people that he gives power. He gives power. But you say, how do you get it? Well, in the first place, let's notice that God eliminates all human strength. In that courteous verse, he says, even the youth, that man of his death, shall faint and be weary unto young men so utterly fall, as it is in the Hebrew, stumbling they shall stumble. In other words, isn't a question of serving the Lord in your own physical strength? Are there many of us who wish we had more physical strength? I can remember the first day the doctor told me, you're not running for any more training. He said, you're taking it easier from now on. And I didn't like that because I was a man who liked work. I left. He said to me, now you fool me as much as you need to do. And that was hard to say. But maybe, dear friend, that's the way the Lord had the teaching me, that it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit set the Lord. So he rules out even young men with all their strength in the flower of their youth. He rules them out. But in the last verse he tells us how he does. He says, but they that raise upon the Lord. shall renew their tongue. Not only does he give it and give it in greater measure, but he also renews it because they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their tongue. Now this is an interesting expression, they that wait upon the Lord. This might have been translated, they that wait for the Lord. Or we could take the English word upon and just separate it into a syllable, and I think we'd have a pretty good colloquial way of expressing it gave that grace up on the Lord. You ever wait up on somebody? St. Paul uses exactly that word in the first chapter of Thessalonians. Where he's speaking of the Thessalonians, how they turn to God the might of she serves the living and true God, and to wait. The word in the Greek really means to wait up for the Lord. Like somebody waiting up at night for a loved one to come back. Or how one own heart has thrilled at this when he's been off on some visit, visiting a sick person late at night. You come back in the wee small hours of the morning, wearyed in body and mind, except you've already helped to close the eyes of this one who has closed his eyes for the last time upon this world, Charles. Now you come back weary, and you get right into the backyard, you'll see the light is still on in the kitchen. You say, isn't it wonderful? She left on a light. But when you put your key in the door to unlock it, you found the door opening of itself on the inside. And there she was. Looking at you tired of the world, he said, will you light the cup of sleep before you come? Friends, that's what I mean for waking up. You know, waking up for our blessed Lord, have our home on the light so that you sleep when it comes time to death. And I don't know of anything that so renews my strength as to be engaged with the truth, the glorious truth, that is coming back. While a lot of Christians are wasting time these days, arguing about this and that particular point, some of the dear brethren actually getting into the darkness of awaiting for the tribulation instead of the Son of God, I just go on my simple way, waiting for God's Son from heaven. I ain't awaiting for the tribulation. I'm waiting for God's Son of Man. Amen? It's for you. I'm waiting up on the Lord, and it is that that is the secret of the renewal of one's trust. Now I want you to notice three ways in which this is manifested in the close of this chapter. You know, some of the commentators, at least one of them I should say, tell us that what we have here is a descending climax. A descending climax. In other words, the food goes slower and slower and finally peepers out at the end, as though there was any comfort in that. No, friend. What we have here is not a descending plan. What we have here is three different modes of action. Three different modes of action. It's not a question of faith. It's a question of faith. I'll show it to you. The first thing it says here about these people that wait upon the Lord, who are waiting for him to come, is that they live on a higher plane than other folks. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. And that's exactly what St. Paul is adorning us to do, for example, in such epistles as he's epistle to the Colossians. Set your mind on things as well, where Christ did it at the right hand of God. That's how you mount up with wings as eagles. And dear friend, unless that has been your experience this morning, unless it is one of the results of being here at Maranatha Conference, that you and I will learn to live on a higher plane and to breathe a heavenly atmosphere. That's the reason why some of us never seem to enjoy good physical health, spiritual health, is because we're constantly breathing the initiated atmosphere of this wicked, sinful world through which we move. You can't expect the gospel critically if you're breathing the officiated atmosphere of the things that come over the radio and the television and through the magazines and the newspaper. That's not the way to enjoy good spiritual health. Planted that we have to have a certain amount of that in order to keep up, as it were, keep abreast of the time. But don't let that be your breakfast in the morning. I well remember the remark of a young man down in New Zealand, very fine Christian young fellow, was looking over my shoulder one morning as I was reading the newspaper. The chief newspaper there was printed like they are the chief newspapers in England. The advertisements, the advertisements are on the front page. The news is inside. You have to buy the paper, you see. They don't put these big flashing headlines on the set of papers in England, nor do they in New Zealand. And I had opened my newspaper, and this young fellow was leaning over my shoulder to share the news with me, and this isn't what he said. He said, what the devil's been up to overnight? And I never heard a better summary of the news than that. You know, that's just about it, isn't it? Whether you have it in the headlines on the front page, or whether you have it inside as the British is doing, otherwise it's pretty much what the devil's been up to overnight. That's a poor spiritual breath of God. If you and I are going to mount up with wings as eagerly, dear friends, as those who are like men and women waiting for our blessed Lord to come back again, they're going to have to be occupied with things above where Christ lives. And there is no better way of doing that than to read the Holy Word of God and have your mind trained, as it were, to chase again about things above the sword it sees through which we move. Oh, how refreshing it is, isn't it? If you get occupied with those things, which abide when those things which are pure. And St. Paul puts it in the last chapter of these officials of the Philippians. Then notice what comes next. They shall run and not be weary. You see, having mounted up with these wings as eagles and having spent time in the presence of God, now they're ready to go out and run and do his bidding. They can't run till you're done. There's no descending climax, I repeat. These things are in their proper defense here, dear friends. If we are going to run to do the Lord's work and run without weariness, without dissenting, as it were, we're going to have to spend time in the Holy Spirit. That's it. These things are in their proper order here, in their proper defense. And then lastly, it says they shall walk and not walk. And this probably is the most difficult of all three of these things. is this matter of walking. It so happens in the original language of the New Testament, we have two words for walking. We have one word, which means to walk around. That's the daily round of things. But we have another word, short echo, which means to keep stuck with somebody else, and probably that's the more difficult of the two. Or it's easy enough to keep running around and walking around. But the deep step with the children of God, that's something else again, isn't it? How much discord there is among the people of God simply because they're not in step with each other? He's a man who's never in step with anybody. But when you call your attention to it, why, he says, they're all out of step with me. And I think that's what the trouble with most of these people who have not become a justice who don't know what it means to have real fellowships. in the things of God. Friends, these, I believe, are the results of waiting on the Lord, that we shall renew our strength as we mount up with wings as eagles to spend time with holy friends, to be occupied with the things that he has provided for us, who is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So run and not be weary, all to be energetic in the service of the Lord. And that leads me to make this remark. Sometimes people say that we who are waiting for God's Son from heaven, then it kills all missionary enterprise and endeavor. Nothing is further from the truth. I've been around the world, not as often as Bob Jones seems, but I've been around it. But friends, I'll tell you this. I've been around the world, and my observation is that the most energetic people that I know anything about are those who are waiting for God's Son from heaven. And then it is to this matter of walking. How much, how many exhortations we find connected with that in the epistles, especially the epistles where you see them? You just need to reach through that epistle and underline the word walk, and you'll see how important this stuff is. But you say, isn't it a rather difficult task? You started out by telling us that the path of the child of God was a difficult one. Yes, but the beauty of this is, dear friend, that it gets brighter to go along. Proverbs four eighteen, the path of the just is as a shining light, that signeth more and more unto the perfect day. And the perfect day is not what Harry Jacob Bond said it was, it is unto. The end of a perfect day is hanging with you. That's what the Lord is leading me on today. He says, you that followeth me shall not walk in God's name, but shall have the light of life. If you want the light of God shining on your path, wait for him. Same time in his presence, run unto him and walk and step with his children. I believe you'll discover that you're a child, even though it is a child of one, who is a writer every day. and his way. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that it is possible for us to encourage each other's hearts as we move along this upward climb, up, up, up, and still up, higher and higher yet, leaving that same life's life, knowing that grace that knows no less. We thank you, our Father, for such resources. Now we pray that the blessings and