Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 41:1)

Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 41:1)

 

To think about the poor and let them lie on our hearts is a Christian man's duty; for Jesus put them with us and near us when He said, "The poor ye have always with you."

 

Many give their money to the poor in a hurry, without thought; and many more give nothing at all. This precious promise belongs to those who "consider" the poor, look into their case, devise plans for their benefit, and considerately carry them out. We can do more by care than by cash, and most with two together. To those who consider the poor, the Lord promises His own consideration in times of distress. He will bring us out of trouble if we help others when they are in trouble. We shall receive very singular providential help if the Lord sees that we try to provide for others. We shall have a time of trouble, however generous we may be; but if we are charitable, we may put in a claim for peculiar deliverance, and the Lord will not deny His own word and bond. Miserly curmudgeons may help themselves, but considerate and generous believers the Lord will help. As you have done unto others, so will the Lord do unto you. Empty your pockets.

Everybody knows the little song, "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know."

Everybody knows the little song, "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know." But does the Father love us? And did He love us before Jesus died for us? Yes! "God [the Father] so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).

If He so loved us before Jesus died for us, then was He reconciled to us before Jesus died? Yes! He was already in a state of being reconciled to us, not that any change in Him was at any time necessary. This reconciliation of the Father to us was not accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus. The correct word to say is that the sacrifice of Jesus demonstrated the fact of His already being reconciled to us (Rom. 5:6-11, 15-21). So let us delete the word "accomplished" by the cross and substitute the right word, "demonstrated."

But what does this actually mean to us? And what does it mean to the souls for whom we pray and to whom we want to witness? It means that the Father has no chip on His shoulder against anyone personally; He loves "all men," even "the world," sinful as it is. It follows therefore that God treats every person as though we were righteous, even though we are not.

God loves the person, but He hates the sin. The sinner (that's everybody) must learn to believe that the Father loves him just as much as the Son loves him, so much that He wants to separate him from sin.

But the problem is that the sinner (everybody) loves sin, so how can we be separated from that which we have been born and bred to love? The answer is the cross--where the Son of God built that bridge across the dark chasm of our alienation from God. He also suffered alienation from His Father when He cried out on His cross, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). No sinner has ever felt such horror of separation from God as did Jesus in that hour!

He was "made to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21). Now the message of the cross says to us, "You be reconciled to God!" (5:20). The Father has proven His reconciliation to us; now let the truth melt our stony hearts.

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shalt be delivered. (Joel 12:32)

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shalt be delivered. (Joel 12:32)

Why do I not call on His name? Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call? Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans! Why not at once roll my self and my burden upon the Lord? Straightforward is the best runner--why do I not run at once to the living God? In vain shall I look for deliverance anywhere else; but with God I shall find it; for here I have His royal "shall" to make it sure.

I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, for that word whosoever is a very wide and comprehensive one. Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. I will therefore follow the leading of the text and at once call upon the glorious Lord who had made so large a promise.

My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. He who makes the promise will find out ways and means of keeping it. It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. I am His servant, not His solicitor. I call upon Him, and He will deliver me.

Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)

Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)

Is there any instance of our Lord's casting out a coming one? If there be so, we would like to know of it; but there has been none, and there never will be. Among the lost souls that will be in hell there  will  not be one that can say, "I went to Jesus, and He refused me." It is not possible that you or I should be the first to whom Jesus shall break His word. Let us not entertain so dark a suspicion.

Suppose we go to Jesus now about the evils of today. Oh, this we may be sure--He will not refuse us audience or cast us out. Those of us who have often been and those who have never gone before--let us go together, and we shall see that He will not shut the door of His grace in the face of any one of us.

"This man receiveth sinners," but He repulses none. We come to Him in weakness and sin, with trembling faith, and small knowledge, and slender hope; but He does not cast us out. We come by prayer, and that prayer broken; with confession, and that confession faulty; with praise, and that praise far short of His merits; but yet He receives us. We come diseased, polluted, worn out, and worthless; but He doth in no wise cast us out. Let us come again today to Him who never casts us out.

But don't we have to do something?

Everyone at some time has dreams, bad dreams, nightmares. But it seems that one always wakes up just before the final tragedy. According to the Bible, since the world began no human being has ever experienced the second death, that is, hell itself, with one Grand Exception--Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second or "last Adam" of the human race.

As the Head of the human race, He "tasted death for every man" (Heb 2:9), not the first death which the Bible calls a "sleep," but the real thing, the utter God-forsakenness which is "the wages of sin" (Rom. 6:23; Rev. 2:11; 20:14). He died your second death; there is no need for you to endure it! Christ hasdone something for every human being, accomplished it, and given him the benefit.

"The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). Christ is "the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). Not only is He "the propitiation for our sins," but also "for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). A wise writer has written, "He restored the whole race of men to favor with God. ... No sin can be committed by man for which satisfaction has not been met on Calvary, ... a thorough expiation."

You and I live today because of that "satisfaction." He has lifted the heart-burden of "condemnation" which sinful Adam passed on to us and has pronounced on "all men" that "verdict of acquittal" that Paul describes in Romans 5:15-18 (Revised English Bible). That does not mean that everyone is automatically going to heaven; no, because many "receive ... the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor. 6:1), and reject what Christ has already won for them. But "for every man" there is deliverance already achieved for those "who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14, 15).

But don't we have to do something? Of course; let your proud, sinful heart be melted; "humble yourselves ... under the mighty hand of God" (1 Peter 5:6); let the "constraint" of that love motivate you to live "henceforth ... unto Him which died for [you]" and not unto yourself (see 2 Cor. 5:14, 15). Say "Thank You!" with your life.

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. (Genesis 9:14)

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. (Genesis 9:14)

Just now clouds are plentiful enough, but we are not afraid that the world will be destroyed by a deluge. We see the rainbow often enough to prevent our having any such fears. The covenant which the Lord made with Noah stands fast, and we have no doubts about it. Why, then, should we think that the clouds of trouble, which now darken our sky, will end in our destruction? Let us dismiss such groundless and dishonoring fears.

Faith always sees the bow of covenant promise whenever sense sees the cloud of affliction. God has a bow with which He might shoot out His arrows of destruction. But see, it is turned upward! It is a bow without an arrow or a string; it is a bow hung out for show, no longer used for war. It is a bow of many colors, expressing joy and delight, and not a bow blood-red with slaughter or black with anger. Let us be of good courage. Never does God so darken our sky as to leave His covenant without a witness, and even if He did, we would trust Him since He cannot change or lie or in any other way fail to keep His covenant of peace. Until the waters go over the earth again, we shall have no reason for doubting our God.

Thou shalt see greater than these. (John 1:50)

Thou shalt see greater than these. (John 1:50)

This is spoken to a childlike believer, who was ready to accept Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel, upon one convincing piece of argument. Those who are willing to see shall see; it is because we shut our eyes that we become so sadly blind.

We have seen much already. Great things and unsearchable has the Lord showed unto us, for which we praise His name; but there are greater truths in His Word, greater depths of experience, greater heights of fellowship, greater works of usefulness, greater discoveries of power, and love, and wisdom. These we are yet to see if we are willing to believe our Lord. The faculty of inventing false doctrine is ruinous, but power to see the truth is a blessing. Heaven shall be opened to us, the way thither shall be made clear to us in the Son of Man, and the angelic commerce which goes on between the upper and the lower kingdoms shall be made more manifest to us. Let us keep our eyes open toward spiritual objects and expect to see more and more. Let us believe that our lives will not drivel down into nothing but that we shall be always on the growing hand, seeing greater and still greater things, till we behold the great God Himself and never again lose the sight of Him.

It's time to seek some "eyesalve" that can impart discernment (see Rev. 3:18).

It crops up all the time--from church-goers who say they have gone to church for decades and heard legalism preached. But now they rejoice that the gospel of "righteousness by faith" is proclaimed. Thank God for any true change for the better!
But are there different kinds of "righteousness by faith"? Revelation 14 presents an "everlasting gospel" that validates itself by raising up people who truly "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." They prepare for the literal second coming of Christ.
The author of the Book of Revelation also writes a series of warnings against false claims of "righteousness by faith" in which "we lie, and do not the truth;" "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;" "we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, etc.).
Apparently the apostle John wants us to discern any "gospel" that does not produce obedience to all the commandments of God (all ten!). A preacher who says he is proclaiming the "gospel" but himself continues to "break one of these least commandments, and ... teach[es] men so," says Jesus, could be a highly sophisticated deception, yet not realize who he is (see Matt. 5:19). The true "everlasting gospel" must produce obedience to all those commandments in the one himself who preaches it.
Is this concern a reversal again to "legalism"? "The everlasting gospel" of Revelation 14 is not legalism; it is a clearer understanding of the cross of Christ than has ever "lightened the earth with glory" (see its full development in Rev. 18:1-4).
In the final crisis the opposite view of "righteousness by faith" will spin the Emperor's New Clothes, with multitudes "covered" by what they assume is a spiritual insurance policy. They will go for "the mark of the beast," which will be the most sophisticated counterfeit of "the everlasting gospel" the world has ever seen.
It's time to seek some "eyesalve" that can impart discernment (see Rev. 3:18).

How can one tell the difference between a genuine "Elijah" message that God sends, and a clever counterfeit?

How can one tell the difference between a genuine "Elijah" message that God sends, and a clever counterfeit? When God fulfills His promise to send "Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. 4:5), there will be very certain evidences:

(1) The message will be as unpopular as Elijah's was in his day. The news of what Elijah said to King Ahab about "no rain" flew throughout the kingdom like word goes on the Web today. Many far and near will condemn it while at the same time the message will "go" far and near.

(2) The message will be uncomfortable to those who love sin and worldliness, because it will be inspired by a Visitor, the Holy Spirit, whose first work is to "convict ... of sin" (John 16:8).

(3) Elijah's message will proclaim full religious freedom. To those in Israel who wanted to worship Baal, Elijah gave the ultimate in opportunity. Risking his life on Mt. Carmel, he invited the 450 prophets of Baal to do their thing before everybody. Gave them full access to the media of the day. It was a full, unhindered demonstration of Baal worship. It follows that in these last days, the true Christ will give full liberty to "Baal" to do his thing--publicity, swollen budgets. Let the people have a big dose, so they can get sick of it on their own. There might even be something to that proportion of 450 to 1. When the final showdown comes, as it was on Mt. Carmel, we read that when the storm at last begins to blow, multitudes of what we have thought were true disciples will be like "dry leaves," like in Jesus' day when "many of His disciples went back, and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66).

(4) "Elijah" will have a positive message, as he had on Mt. Carmel. He didn't spend his precious time railing against Baal worship, but re-built the broken down altar of the true God, and called on the people to see what happens when His worship is restored.

(5) The fruit of Elijah's message? A national repentance: "When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, 'The Lord, He is God!'" (1 Kings 18:39). As in John the Baptist's fulfillment of the Elijah message, so the message that comes "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" will "make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17).

It appears that "the third angel's message in verity" (Rev. 14:1-12) and the "Elijah message" are the same: repentance permeating the "body of Christ."

"Have mercy upon me, O God."-Psalm 51:1

"Have mercy upon me, O God."-Psalm 51:1

When Dr. Carey was suffering from a dangerous illness, the enquiry was made, "If this sickness should prove fatal, what passage would you select as the text for your funeral sermon?" He replied, "Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon must be preached, let it be from the words, 'Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.'" In the same spirit of humility he directed in his will that the following inscription and nothing more should be cut on his gravestone:-

WILLIAM CAREY, BORN AUGUST 17th, 1761:

DIED - -

"A wretched, poor, and helpless worm

On Thy kind arms I fall."

Only on the footing of free grace can the most experienced and most honoured of the saints approach their God. The best of men are conscious above all others that they are men at the best. Empty boats float high, but heavily laden vessels are low in the water; mere professors can boast, but true children of God cry for mercy upon their unprofitableness. We have need that the Lord should have mercy upon our good works, our prayers, our preachings, our alms-givings, and our holiest things. The blood was not only sprinkled upon the doorposts of Israel's dwelling houses, but upon the sanctuary, the mercy-seat, and the altar, because as sin intrudes into our holiest things, the blood of Jesus is needed to purify them from defilement.  If mercy be needed to be exercised towards our duties, what shall be said of our sins? How sweet the remembrance that inexhaustible mercy is waiting to be gracious to us, to restore our backslidings, and make our broken bones rejoice!

Why did Jesus tell His people in Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world"

Why did Jesus tell His people in Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world" and then in John 8:12, He said of Himself, "I am the light of the world"? Is there a contradiction?

Not if you understand how those who believe in Him are "in Him." They identify with Him; in fact, that's what faith is in its true definition, it is identifying with Christ, becoming one with Him, so that as He shines, the believer shines with reflected light from Him. If the believer has come out of darkness into the light, he appreciates how Christ is indeed "the light of the world," how it is true that "in Him is light, and no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5); how "in Him" is life, "and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). Those are very simple one-syllable Anglo-Saxon words, but what depth of meaning lies in them! "And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness overcomes it not" (vs. 5).

What does this mean? Christ is the source of all the love and light and joy there is in this world. Even the pagans who know Him not, what pleasure and happiness they have ever experienced is a gift from Him. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," which must include those who know Him not (vs. 9)!

If it were not for Christ and what He has accomplished for the world itself, not one human being anywhere would ever know anything but the densest darkness of despair. And that darkness would be the second death itself. That is why Paul says in Hebrews 2:9 that Christ has "tasted death for every man," has endured that darkness of soul that is the torture of the second death for every human being, that is, has paid the price of the punishment for his sins. That is how He Himself is "the light of the world." Something to be profoundly thankful for!

Now, Jesus says, "You are the light of the world." Tell the Good News to someone, don't block it or cover it up with legalism. And don't be afraid that telling such Good News will encourage him to go on sinning; it's the only way he can overcome sin!

"Watchman, what of the night?"-Isaiah 21:11

"Watchman, what of the night?"-Isaiah 21:11

What enemies are abroad? Errors are a numerous horde, and new ones appear every hour: against what heresy am I to be on my guard?  Sins creep from their lurking places when the darkness reigns; I must myself mount the watch-tower, and watch unto prayer. Our heavenly Protector foresees all the attacks which are about to be made upon us, and when as yet the evil designed us is but in the desire of Satan, He prays for us that our faith fail not, when we are sifted as wheat. Continue O gracious Watchman, to forewarn us of our foes, and for Zion's sake hold not thy peace.

"Watchman, what of the night?" What weather is coming for the Church? Are the clouds lowering, or is it all clear and fair overhead? We must care for the Church of God with anxious love; and now that Popery and infidelity are both threatening, let us observe the signs of the times and prepare for conflict.

"Watchman, what of the night?" What stars are visible? What precious promises suit our present case? You sound the alarm, give us the consolation also. Christ, the polestar, is ever fixed in His place, and all the stars are secure in the right hand of their Lord.

But watchman, when comes the morning? The Bridegroom tarries. Are there no signs of His coming forth as the Sun of Righteousness? Has not the morning star arisen as the pledge of day? When will the day dawn, and the shadows flee away? O Jesus, if Thou come not in person to Thy waiting Church this day, yet come in Spirit to my sighing heart, and make it sing for joy.

"Now all the earth is bright and glad

With the fresh morn;

But all my heart is cold, and dark and sad:

Sun of the soul, let me behold Thy dawn!

Come, Jesus, Lord,

O quickly come, according to Thy word."

And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)

And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)

According to this gracious covenant the Lord treats His people as if they had never sinned. Practically, He forgets all their trespasses. Sins of all kinds He treats as if they had never been, as if they were quite erased from His memory. O miracle of grace! God here doth that which in certain aspects is impossible to Him. His mercy worketh miracles which far transcend all other miracles.

Our God ignores our sin now that the sacrifice of Jesus has ratified the covenant. We may rejoice in Him without fear that He will be provoked to anger against us because of our iniquities. See! He puts us among the children; He accepts us as righteous; He takes delight in us as if we were perfectly holy. He even puts us into places of trust; makes us guardians of His honor, trustees of the crown jewels, stewards of the gospel. He counts us worthy and gives us a ministry; this is the highest and most special proof that He does not remember our sins. Even when we forgive an enemy, we are very slow to trust him; we judge it to be imprudent so to do. But the Lord forgets our sins and treats us as if we had never erred. O my soul, what a promise is this! Believe it and be happy.

"another angel"

The last rays of light that will fall on this darkened earth just before the end comes will be a revelation of God's character of love. This is Bible teaching.

That last "revelation" will obviously be the same as the light of that "another angel" who comes down from heaven having great power. The "earth is lightened with his glory" (Rev. 18:1, 2). It's not legalism gone wild, nor soft-soap emotionalism; it's love (agape).

That "glory" in turn will obviously be the same as the message Jesus describes in John 12:32, 33: "'I, if I am lifted up, will draw all to Myself.' This He said, signifying by what death He should die." That "love" which will "reveal the character of God" must be the same love that "constrains," or "compels," or motivates the ones who believe in Jesus. They are moved henceforth to live only for Him, "no longer for themselves" (2 Cor. 5:14, 15; KJV/NKJV). There is tremendous power locked away in that "love" known as agape.

Again, that revelation of love in the last days must be what Paul meant when he said that he "determined not to know anything among [the Corinthians] except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). That was not extremism; it was only a "reasonable service" that Paul saw as appropriate to the extravagant love Christ had shown for him (cf. Rom. 12:1). It was agape, not ordinary human love. Paul saw what we have not yet seen clearly.

In these last days when sin and selfishness will become so rampant, the Lord Jesus will be honored by "144,000" (figurative or literal) who "follow the Lamb [the crucified, risen Christ] wherever He goes. … They are without fault before the throne of God" (cf, Rev, 14:1-5). Whoever they are, there will be such a people who will glorify Christ! We might eventually be surprised who will end up in that group; let's walk humbly before Him.

Here are two things provided for the pilgrim: shoes and strength.

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. (Deuteronomy 33:25)

Here are two things provided for the pilgrim: shoes and strength.

As for the shoes: they are very needful for traveling along rough ways and for trampling upon deadly foes. We shall not go barefoot--this would not be suitable for princes of the blood royal. Our shoes shall not be at all of the common sort, for they shall have soles of durable metal, which will not wear out even if the journey be long and difficult. We shall have protection proportionate to the necessities of the road and the battle. Wherefore let us march boldly on, fearing no harm even though we tread on serpents or set our foot upon the dragon himself.

As for the strength: it shall be continued as long as our days shall continue, and it shall be proportioned to the stress and burden of those days. The words are few, "as thy days thy strength," but the meaning is full. This day we may look for trial, and for work which will require energy, but we may just as confidently look for equal strength. This word given to Asher is given to us also who have faith wherewith to appropriate it. Let us rise to the holy boldness which it is calculated to create within the believing heart.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:4) 

By the valley of weeping we come to Zion. One would have thought mourning and being blessed were in opposition, but the infinitely wise Savior puts them together in this Beatitude. What He has joined together let no man put asunder. Mourning for sin--our own sins, and the sins of others--is the Lord's seal set upon His faithful ones. When the Spirit of grace is poured upon the house of David, or any other house, they shall mourn. By holy mourning we receive the best of our blessings, even as the rarest commodities come to us by water. Not only shall the mourner be blessed at some future day, but Christ pronounces him blessed even now.

The Holy Spirit will surely comfort those hearts which mourn for sin. They shall be comforted by the application of the blood of Jesus and by the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost. They shall be comforted as to the abounding sin of their city and of their age by the assurance that God will glorify Himself, however much men may rebel against Him. They shall be comforted with the expectation that they shall be wholly freed from sin before long and shall soon be taken up to dwell forever in the glorious presence of their Lord.

The shape of things to come is becoming more sharply focused day by day

The shape of things to come is becoming more sharply focused day by day. Two world movements are aligning themselves for the last great conflict: the “beast” of Revelation 13 (same as the little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel 7), versus the third angel’s message of Revelation 14:6-12.

Those who accept the latter will worship the Lamb, the Christ of the cross who by His sacrifice “tasted death for every man.” And those who worship the beast and his image will worship self. The self-righteousness of the old covenant will be the worship of the beast, and the imputed and imparted righteousness of Christ will be the worship of the Lamb. One will be faith in the promises of God, the other will be the “righteousness” of human promises. One will appreciate the breadth, depth, length and height of “the agape of Christ which passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:14-21), and the other will become a false view of the cross, a counterfeit misrepresentation of the gospel which will be the worship of a false “hrist.” And so clever will the deceptions be that “if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:24).

We are told by an inspired prediction that in that final hour “a great proportion” of those who “are supposed to be genuine” will “betray sacred trusts,” and take their side with the avowed enemies of the truth. If this present generation, as many have affirmed, is the last before the second coming of the true Christ, the Holy Spirit must be calling us to sober thinking. Is it really possible that old covenant thinking can lead at last to final apostasy? Well, the answer is that it certainly did so for ancient Israel. It led them to crucify their true Messiah.

Could anything be more important than for us to learn now what it means to “worship the Lamb”? To “glory” in nothing “save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14)? How to “survey that wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died ...”? To appreciate what it cost Him to save us? Humble, contrite hearts will worship the Lamb; proud, self-satisfied ones (“rich and increased with goods”) will worship the beast and his image.

"in all points [He was] tempted like as we are [tempted]," but thank God, "yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).

Have you ever thought that Jesus was tempted to regard Himself as a total failure? As His name was "Emmanuel, ... God with us" (Matt. 1:23), He took upon His divine nature our complete human nature which involved the full extent of our temptability. That means that "in all points [He was] tempted like as we are [tempted]," but thank God, "yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).

Satan wrung His soul with that awful feeling on His cross that He had been mistaken about Himself. It was a nameless horror that prompted His shriek, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). He had to listen to the people taunting Him, "If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross"! (40, 42). That was a cruel suggestion for He could not help but realize that His career had ended with the most ignominious failure any human could experience--death as a criminal! His faith was stretched.

In fact, more than once in His life and ministry, Isaiah 49:4 had been fulfilled in His experience: "Then I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and in vain.'" And this fierce temptation comes just as the Father assures Him through the Holy Spirit, "'You are My servant, ... in whom I will be glorified.'" He gives Himself to His Father: "'Surely My just reward is with the Lord, and My work with My God'" (vss. 3, 4).

Even on the cross before He took His last breath, Jesus' hope was restored by faith: The Lord "'formed Me from the womb, ... I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, ... [to be His] salvation to the ends of the earth'" (5, 6). Though tempted to despair, Jesus ended His life in glorious triumph by faith.

Habakkuk 1:5-11

 Habakkuk 1:5-11

(5) "Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
(6) For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation
Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
(7) They are terrible and dreadful;
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
(8) Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And more fierce than evening wolves.
Their chargers charge ahead;
Their cavalry comes from afar;
They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.
(9) "They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind. 

They gather captives like sand. 

(10) They scoff at kings, 

And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
(11) Then his mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
Ascribing this power to his god."

New King James Version   

And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? (Judges 6:14)

And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? (Judges 6:14)

What a look was that which the Lord gave to Gideon! He looked him out of his discouragement into a holy bravery. If our look to the Lord saves us, what will not His look at us do? Lord, look on me this day and nerve me for its duties and conflicts.

What a word was this which Jehovah spoke to Gideon! "Go." He must not hesitate. He might have answered, "What, go in all this weakness?" But the Lord put that word out of court by saying, "Go in this thy might." The Lord had looked might into him, and he had now nothing to do but to use it and save Israel by smiting the Midianites. It may be that the Lord has more to do by me than I ever dreamed of. If He has looked upon me, He has made me strong. Let me by faith exercise the power with which He has entrusted me. He never bids me "idle away my time in this my might." Far from it. I must "go" because He strengthens me. What a question is that which the Lord puts to me even as He put it to Gideon! "Have not I sent thee!" Yes, Lord, Thou hast sent me, and I will go in Thy strength. At Thy command I go, and, going, I am assured that Thou wilt conquer by me.