Do You Have Faith Through Trails?

Let’s pray…

“Father in heaven, You know of the trails of Your beloved saints.  Revive us in Your Word and give us strength to pray through these trails.  Let us understand that when trails happen we seek to rely upon Your Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Give us the spiritual understanding of resting upon Christ.  Give us the grace that enables us to stand firm in the faith of Christ and His blessed and loyal followers.  Enable us to be unmovable for You and to stand against the attacks of Satan.  We need Your blessed grace to continue on.  We need encouragement and spiritual pride; the holy pride that knows that You have chosen and blessed Your people by bestowing Your blessed grace to us by Your Blessed Spirit.  We commit our lives to You, Holy Trinity; and we beseech Thee to enables us to give You the most glory in our trails, and magnify You, and honor You with what we say, do and think.  Bless Your Word as it pleases You to spiritually enrich our souls for lasting comfort.  Amen.”

Psalm 40:1-3…

 1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
         And He inclined to me,
         And heard my cry.
 2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
         Out of the miry clay,
         And set my feet upon a rock,
         And established my steps.
 3 He has put a new song in my mouth—
         Praise to our God;
         Many will see it and fear,
         And will trust in the LORD.  (NKJV).

            Psalm 40 is a psalm about preserving through trails with faith.  It takes faith from above to go through trails.  It is nothing less then the faith of Christ.  The faith of the world does not last.  It is worthless.  It only provides the hopeless sinner with the appearance of faith but such false faith will not save anyone.  This appearance of true faith ends in spiritual ruin.  Appearance never lasts and the true colors of one’s own heart will emerge.  False faith comes from a depraved heart.  It is really nothing at all.  God sees it as something He hates and abhors.  He hates the ways of the world.  The false faith of man’s religion end in spiritual destructiveness, and faith that is false cannot endure trails.  Trails come from the world; trails come from Satan and his army of reprobate angels; trails may come upon us because of our own sin and because of our sinful flesh; and trails come from the hand of God.  There is nothing that does not pass the hands of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He ordains everything, and everything He ordains is right.  The believer has the confidence of knowing that God has appointed and ordered and ordained all the events of His life.  There is nothing that can befall a true believer that will show he has worthless faith.  Rather he will be strengthened and he is able to endure the hardest of trails.  The question is, why? And how is a person who has true faith any different then a person who has false faith?  The believer is able to preserve because he has been born from above; he has the fruits of faith and repentance.  These fruits of blessedness can only be because of regeneration.  That is, being born again or born from above.  This is the reason why true believers can endure trails.  It is because their heart has been changed by the Word of God and the Spirit of God.  This is how a stony heart is changed.  After God changes the heart, the heart bears much fruit in lasting obedience to the Sovereign King. A person who is born again is vastly different then a person who is not born from above.  The difference is vital and eternal.  The Lord Jesus did not play with words in John chapter 3.  It is clear:  You must be born again.  No human being can enter heaven unless he or she is born again.  It is a necessary perquisite to enter the royal and heavenly city.  God does not make things up nor does He ever say that we believe because of something within us.  It is God’s sovereign choice. 

            The Psalmist has remaining problems, and He goes to the Lord.  He declared, “I wait patiently for the LORD…”  The statement is a statement of true faith.  How many of us wait patiently for the LORD?  This sermon is as much as for you as it is for me.  To wait for the Lord is only done by being patient.  Do you wait patiently for the LORD?  Have you submitted to His holy will, and do you seek to obey Him and sin not?  When there are trails, it is more difficult to wait for the Lord.  It is no easy thing to wait for the Lord.  But His people learn obedience by His beloved grace.  When we think of waiting patiently for the Lord we should look to the Lord Jesus.  It is proper to look to Him in all things because He is the Perfect Example.  He is the One who the Father is well-pleased with.  There is no greater example then Jesus Christ the Lamb of God.  The Lord Jesus was the God-man who waited for the Lord.  Turn to Jesus to understand how to wait for the Lord.  He prayed in solitary places.  He taught His people how to pray.  What a picture!  He was never a Person who was impatient.  CH Spurgeon says in Treasury of David,

...Patient waiting upon God was a special characteristic of our Lord Jesus. Impatience never lingered in his heart, much less escaped his lips. All through his agony in the garden, his trial of cruel mockings before Herod and Pilate, and his passion on the tree, he waited in omnipotence of patience. No glance of wrath, no word of murmuring, no deed of vengeance came from God's patient Lamb; he waited and waited on; was patient, and patient to perfection, far excelling all others who have according to their measure glorified God in the fires. Job on the dunghill does not equal Jesus on the cross. The Christ of God wears the imperial crown among the patient. Did the Only Begotten wait, and shall we be petulant and rebellious?...

We must wait for the Lord because He desires it, and it is only right to say, “Thy will be done, Lord” or “Have thine own way, Lord.”  Let us sing together:

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit ’till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

When we do this we honor Him and submit in joyful obedience to His blessed will.  We must submit to His will because it is true, right and honorable.  Wait patiently for the Lord.  If we wait patiently for the Lord, He will answer, because it is His matchless Word that says, prayers according to His will, are never rejected, but they are always answered.  Let wait for the manifestation of His will.  He indeed uses means to accomplish His will.  Prayer is a means that He uses to accomplish His holy purposes.  Sometimes we do not know the purposes of His blessed will but there are always reasons for it.  God’s reasons for something happening—it does not matter what it is—His purposes are always just and holy and good.  So know this trouble soul: the Lord knows why it is happening and He ordains whatsoever comes to pass.  You must remember that the mere fact that He ordained it to be, it enough to say, “Amen, Lord.  Have You way with me.”  So, then, may we submit joyfully to His holy will and blessed ways, for if we say that it is not enough, we dare to question Him, and such only leads to heinous sin.  We indeed as believing people of the blessed doctrine of predestination can say with true assurance.  “My God works everything out for my good for I am called to His blessed purpose.”  So, then, we wait patiently for the manifestations of His answers to our petitions.  He loves when we ask and wait.  He wants loyal followers, and determination to say, “My God will answer.  I shall wait for Him for His ways are always true.”  But how many times do we stumble, and lo! How many times we sin by not waiting for the Lord.  We want what we want when we want it.  But we must remember it is not in our timetable.  It is not our man-made timetable but it is the time timetable of God.  We should not say, “Lord, I want it in my terms.”  Rather we must say, if we are true to the faith of Christianity, “Lord, in Thine own time.”  If we learn this blessed truth, we will lean more on the Lord, and depend on Him.  If we depend on Him, we trust Him.  If we trust Him, we rely on Him, and what a sweet fellowship it is!  Think of this: why would you want to rely on your own ways?  Isn’t the ways of the Lord far better then your feeble wisdom?  Do you not want to submit to His wisdom?  Isn’t it all-wise?  If it is all-wise, what error can we commit if you submit to His will?  It is His will that should be the focus of your life.  Yet sometimes we can become obsessed with His will, but we need to only keep in mind this simple understanding:  The will of God is manifested in His blessed and holy Word.  It is in the written Word of God that we find the will of God.  Simply submit to the Word, and live by it, and we will not go astray.  Even when we commit error, God can use a crocked stick to make a straight line.  It is in the Word that we find His mind, and what a wonder it is to have it in our possession.  It is nothing less then a divine artifact of God.  So, then, let’s wait patiently for the Lord, for it is good and true.  When we do this, I am sure God is pleased, and what greater joy can you imagine then pleasing the God of Jacob?  Can you say with the Psalmist, “I wait patiently for the Lord?”  Let’s seek more and more to rely on the Lord.  Who is better then the Lord to rely on? Dependence shows who you trust. Trust the Lord who made the heavens and the earth.  Trust Him with your very lives.  He will not fail you because He always does what is right.  When we fall short, and fail, God bids us repentance by His blessed kindness, and we are restored.  The Lord listens to us; wait and see His answer.  If you can prayed according to His will, it is surely time to wait according to His timetable.  He is faithful and true.

            Spurgeon observed these similar things in that the divine Savior waited patiently through His sufferings.  He endured it prayerfully and patiently.  Yes, the Lord Jesus waited for His Blessed Father through His ministry in joyful and happy reliance upon Him.  The Lord Jesus expected help from Jehovah, and we see the Psalmist who expects help from His Beloved Lord.  The Psalmist waits and the verse suggest that everything depends on it.  We must wait when the Lord wants us to, and we must be faithful to wait.  The “waited patiently” part of verse 1 suggests fervent concern.  The Lord Jesus waited in suffering and it sufferings His perfection of His work.  The Lord Jesus did not grow impatient and sin.  He waited and went through His sufferings.  There is abundant glory in His sufferings.  We can rejoice that the Lord Jesus, the very Son of God, endured temptations by Satan, and was victorious over it because He was Incarnate Perfection, and He never abandoned His Father’s blessed that He experienced.  Again may I suggest to you that Jesus endured His sufferings prayerfully as well as patiently.  This is seen in the very life of the Lord Jesus.  Our part is waiting and praying to our Lord.  It is a crucial part in the Christian life.  Do you know the hardest thing to do when we pray?  It is to wait for God.  Let us depend on Him and look for His manifestation of His ways in life.  When we look in faith for the future, He holds us in His hand, and we are safe and secure.  He will never fail a faithful Christian.  He will never fail a true follower of God.  No, He grants us to wait because He desires our trust, and dependence.  When we think of the Lord Jesus, we can see when Satan tempted Him.  Why did Satan do this?  He did it to get worship and adoration.  He desired that the Lord Jesus serve him.  He desired that Christ abandon His righteous road of suffering and pain.  Satan offered the Lord Jesus a sinful way of not enduring suffering.  This is the way of the world.  It is contrary to everything that is right and good and holy.  It is foreign to Christ and His ways.  If the father of lies tempts the Impeccable Christ (the sinless God-man), he will surely tempt you, Oh you of little faith!  He goes to the sinner offering him the world.  Some take his way, and they perceive that they have escaped suffering.  The wicked prosper in their way.  Yet has not this sinner traded his soul for the world, and Oh, what lies in eternity for this poor soul!  Such is eternal torment and hell.  Remember the Lord Jesus who stood against Satan and was victorious over him.  Imitate the Lord Jesus, then, and be victorious.  Do not take what the devil offers you.  Reject it with all your soul, and embrace the road of righteous affection, because as you participate in His humiliation, and will surely participate in His blessed exaltation!  Is this hymn in your heart?  Could you respond this way?

My God and Father, day by day, far from my home in life’s rough way, O teach me from my heart to say, “Thy will be done.”

Though dark my path and sad my lot, let me be still and murmur not, Or breathe the prayer divinely taught, “Thy will be done.”

What though in lonely grief I sigh for friends beloved, no longer nigh, submissive still would I reply, “Thy will be done.”

If thou shouldst call me to reign what most I prize, it never was mine; I only yield thee what was thine, “Thy will be done.”

Let but my fainting heart be blest with thy sweet Spirit for its guest, My God, to thee I leave the rest: “Thy will be done.”  (Hymn 575, Trinity Hymnal, Baptist Edition). 

            Let’s briefly see what the divine Scriptures say about waiting on the Lord. 

We see in the Word that the king questions the Lord: 

2 Kings 6:33, “And while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger, coming down to him; and then the king said, “Surely this calamity is from the LORD; why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”  NKJV

We see God’s command to wait on the Lord, and that it compasses of being of good courage.  What is the faithful expectation of the Psalmist?  It is to strengthen his heart and, again he says to wait…

Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!”  NKJV

It is their mind set to wait for the Lord because He is their help and shield….Psalm 33:20, “Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.”  NKJV

Here we see the command of resting on the Lord and how it is tied to waiting for Him…It is related to not fretting over the wicked who prosper.  It is a contrast between those who are His who rest in the Lord and those who bring wickedness to pass.  Psalm 37:7, “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”  NKJV

The wicked shall be cut off.  Those who wait on the Lord have the promise of inheriting the earth. God’s people will inherit the earth when Christ comes and judges the world in truth and righteousness. 

Psalm 37:9, “For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth.”

Those who wait for God, He will save…Proverbs 20:22, “Do not say, “I will recompense evil”; Wait for the LORD, and He will save you.”  Are you His blessed servants who waits for the Lord?  Isaiah 30:18 says, “…Blessed are all those who wait for Him.”  God gives a promise--Listen carefully:  Isaiah 49:23 says, “…For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”  Finally…The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, and it is good for those to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 

Next we see what the Psalmist said, “…and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.”  The experience of the Psalmist is one of petition and answered prayer.  The phrase “He inclined to me” means “He turned to me.”  God hears; God lifted; God set.  The answer of prayer may not be immediate.  We must preserve in prayer.  Prayer is a humble submission to God’s sovereignty.  God’s part, seen in verse 1, is His condensation and reply.  He will answer His people.  We must pray according to His blessed will.  The Lord, again, is faithful, and He answers His people.  God never turned a prayer of Jesus away.  All His prayers were answered.  Let us pray like the Lord Jesus who prayed in accord with His will for He does everything in accord with His will because He does everything well and He always does what is well-pleasing to His Beloved Father.  When we pray according to God’s will, we ask in faith, and as we ask in faith, we must accept it in faith.  So, then, whether we ask or receive it is in faith for it is pleasing to the Holy Trinity.  No man can approach God in the absence of faith for He is pleased with those who ask in faith.  We must always believe that He is, and that His ways are good and holy, and we shall have abundance of blessings because He will not leave a prayer unanswered that is prayed in accord with His holy will.  Pray, then, His blessed and will. 

            We see that God turned to the Psalmist and God heard or answered Hi prayer.  When we are impatient when we pray we commit sin.  This means we need to strive to be patient and not impatient.  By God’s grace we need to frame our minds and hearts by the Spirit of God through grateful reliance on our Lord to enable us to wait patiently: to wait, wait and wait.  We should be eager to receive the answer from the Lord with our hearts.  May I suggest to you that we should be an example to the world and to the church that we indeed will wait for the Lord!  Have you not understood that God is always right?  If He is always right, we can be assured that we will not wait in vain; He will respond.  When we ask and wait and receive of Him, let’s have an ambition that gives God the most glory.  Let’s have an ambition of prayer that is most pleasing to God.  I suggest to you that it is important in the Christian life to understand the truth of having pure motives.  May we never ask amiss, and may we never ask in prayer and sin.  Sometimes God could grant a prayer for purposes of judgment.  This should provide us with a sober reality of the proper way of prayer.  If we ask in faith, we should receive it in faith.  Sometimes people are shocked and astonished when our Lord answers prayers.  We ask in faith, and receive it in doubt.  We are feeble and frail.  But by God’s prevailing grace we cane become enabled to receive it in faith.  Be like the Psalmist who did that very thing. 

I pray and wait for Your blessed answers

Turned and heard my supplication

Committed to Your holy will, oh God

Troubles, trail and tribulation beset my soul

Now I pray and summit, and say,

“Accomplish Your own purposes for the sake of thy glory.”

Do what You will with me, oh God

Prayer blessed, sanctified distressed and glory awaits

No prayer in accord with Your will ever unanswered

Amen. 

Let us turn to verse 2…

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
         Out of the miry clay,
         And set my feet upon a rock,
         And established my steps.

First, “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit…”  As it is noted by Gadsby, the pits were prisons.  There were no openings except a hole at the top of it, and the bottoms of the pit were filthy.  When we think of this verse we should think of the Lord Jesus.  The Lord Jesus bore for His people the terrible curse due to us for sin.  His atonement was all-sufficient.  He propitiated the Father’s wrath and removed our sins as far as the east from the west.    Spurgeon wrote, “…he was so cast down as to be like a prisoner in a deep, dark, fearful dungeon, amid whose horrible glooms the captive heard a noise as of rushing torrents, while overhead resounded the tramp of furious foes. Our Lord in his anguish was like a captive…forgotten of all mankind, immured amid horror, darkness, and desolation. Yet the Lord Jehovah made him to ascend from all his abasement; he retraced his steps from that deep hell of anguish into which he had been cast as our substitute. He who thus delivered our surety…will not fail to liberate us from our far lighter griefs.”

            Second, “Out of the miry clay…”  This describes the sufferer.  He is unable to find a foothold.  He slips and sinks.  The character in Scripture shows as Spurgeon said was “positive misery.”  As he says, once again, “Reader, with humble gratitude, adore the dear Redeemer who, for thy sake, was deprived of all consolation while surrounded with every form of misery; remark his gratitude at being born up amid his arduous labours and sufferings, and if thou too hast experienced the divine help, be sure to join thy Lord in this song.”

Third, “…and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.”  Again, I think Spurgeon says it in the best way, “The Redeemer's work is done. He reposes on the firm ground of his accomplished engagements; he can never suffer again; for ever does he reign in glory. What a comfort to know that Jesus our Lord and Saviour stands on a sure foundation in all that he is and does for us, and his goings forth in love are not liable to be cut short by failure in years to come, for God has fixed him firmly. He is for ever and eternally able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing that in the highest heavens he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Jesus is the true Joseph taken from the pit to be Lord of all. It is something more than a "sip of sweetness" to remember that if we are cast like our Lord into the lowest pit of shame and sorrow, we shall by faith rise to stand on the same elevated, sure, and everlasting rock of divine favour and faithfulness.”

How many of us think of the goodness of God when we pray?  I suggest to you four true understandings of His goodness that we learn from these verses:  1.) Let us understand the depth of God’s goodness.  He finds us in the lowest pit.  The enemies of David tried to get him to fall into a pit.  Has God found you in the lowest pit, and has He not delivered you?  When have the righteous been forsaken?  2.) Let us understand the height of His goodness.  He brings His people out of the pit.  He sets our feet firmly upon Christ.  The Lord Jesus is the rock.  We need the feet of faith and hope.  Have your feet be set upon the Lord Jesus?  3.)  Let us understand the breadth of His goodness.  God restored His own to His own love.  God acted the same to His people, and yet, it did not seem like that.  God loves His people the same at all times.  This refers to His past, present and future.  4.)  Let us understand the strength of His goodness.  It established his goings, and it made him stand ever firmer.  Are you firmly planted to stand for Christ through trails?  Do you have the faith to get you through trails?  Has it not strengthened your faith?  As you suffer trails; I suggest to you, to mediate on the goodness of God. 

            3 He has put a new song in my mouth—
         Praise to our God;
         Many will see it and fear,
         And will trust in the LORD. 

            The song of the Psalmist is a song of praise.  He praises the Lord, His God.  His God is the reason why He sings.   God is so good, and is so righteous that He puts a new song in his heart because He has answered His prayer.  The Psalms are replete with praises to the Lord our God.  We should praise the Lord because He delivers His people and He answers the prayers of His people.  Many people would see what God has done through the Psalmist and to the Psalmist, and they shall fear.  God grants His people prayer because it is pleasing to Him.  May the people around us fear because God has delivered us, and He is most faithful and true!  People will trust in the Lord because of what the Psalmist prayed for, and what God has accomplish through His beloved friend and servant.  Have you praised our Lord when He has answered your prayers?  What about when He says, “no”—have you praised Him?  Has He not put a new song in your heart?  Praise Him; join the chorus of angels, and say as Jethro did…”He said, "Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly."  (Exodus 18:10-11 NKJV).  Or will you say as David did, “…David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, "Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting…”  (1 Chr. 29:10 NKJV).

Let’s pray…

“Father in heaven You have showed us how to pray, and You have shown us to wait.  You have shown us that You answer prayers.  We bless You, and we commit our lives in Your hands.  Protect our lives and shelter us from the ways of the world.  Give us hearts to pray and wait.  Give us minds that think of biblical ways to exalt Your Beloved Son and to speak with boldness Your Word.  May we pray Your Word in prayer for You delight this.  You have delivered us from the eternal pit of hell.  Your Son, whom we bless, delivered us from Your dreadful wrath.  We bless Thee, Oh Son of God, we bless Thee.  Thank You for dying for Your people.  We thank You and we bless You.  You are truly a blessed God Who is faithful and true.  We love You and we trust in You.  Give us hearts that depend and trust on You.  Give us strength to stand in the day of trail and pain and sorrow. In Your Son’s precious name, Amen.”