Pastor Mark Finley gives biblical truth and hope when you find yourself struggling as a christian with the trials of life.

<p>Pastor Mark Finley gives biblical truth and hope when you find yourself struggling as a christian with the trials of life.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

When God Fights Your Battles

Father in heaven, as we open the Word of God, we pray that you would come and speak to our hearts this morning.

Take our minds away from the wanderings of the earth and give us the message from heaven that you've prepared for us this day in Christ's name.

How many promises are there in the Bible?

The last author I read said there are approximately 8, 810 promises in the Bible.

New Testament, 1, 104 wonderful promises.

What is the chapter in the Bible that has the most Bible promises in it?

I see blank looks on the face of my congregation.

Our trust is never misplaced when we trust in the promises of God.

Since it's impossible for God to lie, He stakes the honor of His throne on His promises.

And when the challenges of life seem overwhelming to you and to me, we can cling to the promises of God.

Frances Havergill was a noted hymn writer, and that she loved the Word of God, she loved the God of the Word.

Now, Frances wrote those great hymns like, take my life and let it be, I gave my life for thee.

And she was 43 years old and she was dying.

And she asked her nurse to get her Bible and to read Isaiah 42 and verse 6.

And if you have your Bible, this is the request of a dying woman who wrote so many of the hymns that are hymnal.

And she asked her nurse, go get my Bible, Read Isaiah 42, verse 6, a marvelous promise of God.

And as her nurse read that powerful verse in Isaiah, that wonderful promise, Isaiah 42, verse 6, the nurse read, I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand.

I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles.

Her nurse read, I have called you in righteousness.

Francis said, called, I will hold your hand.

Holding my hand, I will keep you." And then she made that marvelous statement where she said, and she could hardly speak, she spoke with a whisper, she said, called, holding my hand.

Then she said, kept, I can go home on that.

I can go home on the 1 that holds my hand.

I can go home on that." Within minutes, she closed her eyes in the sleep of death and waits for the resurrection of Christ with the hope in her heart that she was called and that God was holding her hand, and that she could go home on that.

The Israelites, when they wandered in Egyptian bondage, clung to the promise of God that bondage would not last forever, that the slavery of the Egyptians would not last forever, that the oppression of the evil 1 would not last forever, that 1 day, based on the promises of God, they would go home.

Now what kind of promises did Israel have when they were wandering in the wilderness?

Although deliverance appeared impossible, although they suffered under the lash of the oppressor, although they didn't have visible evidence at all of relief from bondage.

Deep within their heart, in their fabric of their beings, They longed for Canaan.

And they had nothing but the oppressor's lash.

They had nothing but the snap of the whip.

They had nothing but bondage and slavery and oppression.

But they clung to the promises given to them by the prophets.

Isaiah 6, verse 6, rather Exodus 6, verse 6 and 7.

What kind of promises did the Israelites hang on to in the wilderness?

What kind of promises got them through their bondage?

What kind of promises kept their faith high in that period of oppression?

Exodus chapter 6, we're looking at verses 6 and 7.

God says to Israel, they're in the middle of bondage.

The Egyptians are pushing them on every hand to work more and more.

They see no visible signs of deliverance, nothing of Canaan.

And Moses says to them, in Exodus 6, verse 6 and 7, therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord.

I will bring you from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

I'll redeem you with the outstretched arm and great judgments.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord who brings you out from the burdens of the Egyptians.

He's the God that rescues us from bondage.

And when Moses proclaimed this message to the Israelites, They must have been filled with hope.

The story of Israel being delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians is the story of the point of salvation.

You and I are under the hand of the oppressor.

We have the lash of the tyrant whipping us day by day and beating us into submission.

He is the Christ that will come in our bondage and free us.

He is the 1 that will take us to the promised land.

Now God made a promise to Abraham in Genesis 15.

Of course this is before Israel goes into captivity.

But God made a promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15.

The promises of God are true, even when those promises seem illogical, even when those promises seem impossible of fulfillment.

What God says is so, even if it doesn't seem to be so, because the God that declares it to be so will make it so.

Genesis, you're looking there at Genesis 15, and we're looking at verse 15 and on and verse 13 and 14.

Back to Menu

When God Fights Your Battles

Transcript

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine