Address—A.C. Hayhoe
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Like you to turn with me, please, first of all to the Epistle to the Hebrews. Hebrews Chapter 9, verse one. Hebrews 9, verse one. Then verily, the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service.
And a worldly sanctuary, for there was a Tabernacle made the first, wherein was the Candlestick and the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary, and after the second veil, the Tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden sensor.
Now this is the part I would like to speak about.
And the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold.
Wherein was the golden pot that had manna and Aaron's wrought that budded?
And the table of the covenant we read about 3 ark.
In the word of God, I suppose, when the ark is mentioned, we first of all find ourselves.
Generally thinking of the ark built in the days of Noah for the preservation of his own family and for anyone else who was willing to hear that message.
Sad story that although they heard it faithfully told, it was rejected. Then we also read of that little individual arc in which Moses was placed and rested upon the waters of the river Nile.
But in this 9th chapter we read of yet another ark, an ark in which there were three things. And this is the picture that is before my soul tonight, the contents of the Ark of God.
The tables of stone, the golden pots that had Manor and Aaron's rod that budded. I'll read that fourth verse again.
Hebrews, Chapter 9, verse 4.
Which had the golden sensor and the ark of the Covenant overlaid round the boat with gold, wherein was the golden poppin head manner and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the Covenant. You know, everywhere the children of Israel went in their journey, they carried with them. The Tabernacle they carried with them.
This ark of God.
With its remarkable content.
Notice please the three things.
There was Aaron's rocket butted, the golden pot that had Manor and the table of the Covenant, and every footstep of their journey through the wilderness they were always accompanied by this precious and solemn piece of furniture, that which spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You remember that when this was first given.
Moses had been called up to Mount Sinai, and there, amid all the thunders and the lightnings and the quakings of Mount Sinai, Moses received the 10 commandments written with the very finger of God on two tables of stone.
When he came down from the mountain with those two tables of stone, but upon reaching the bottom of the mountain.
He became aware of frightful sin and disobedience in the camp of Israel, and he knew that if he walked into the midst of the camp of Israel carrying these two tables of stone, there would be but one result. The holy and righteous anger of God would burst forth upon that disobedient people, and a full blaze of acclaimed of that law would have been felt among them. And he took.
Those two tables of stone and break them in pieces at the foot of the mountain. Now there are times in reading God's precious word when I stop and say to myself now if I had never read this account before.
How bewildered, how puzzled I would be to get what God might do next. Have you ever done that? It's quite interesting. Of course, having heard it from my boyhood days, having read it for myself, I find myself quite aware of what's going to happen next.
But if I see Moses standing there with the broken remains of the 10 commandments at his feet, I found the revelry coming from the camp and the voice of God calling him to come back up again to Mount Sinai, what would I expect to happen? I think this would be my conclusion. I believe I would say, well, one thing I know that God will not be able to give those 10 commandments over again.
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You have to cut them down to nine or eight or seven. He'll have to make them less severe and less demanding.
I can't see any way where by those 10 commandments which now lie broken at Moses feet.
Could ever be carried into the midst of a people like Israel, but God had a way you and I never would have thought of that way. God wrote again all those 10 commandments every one of them not one of them was toned down. Not one of them was left out and those two tables of stone containing the law of God where this time placed within this beautiful and holy ark with its covering of.
Feet sprinkled with blood, and there it stood in the mid of the camp of Israel. I believe it speaks of the matchless mercy of God's loving heart toward rebellious sinners like ourselves that have found a way whereby not at the expense of the righteous and holy claims of His own throne, but having.
Vindicated and glorified the claims of His own holy throne. Now you and I.
Who once were far off and stood in fear of ever meeting him, can now look up into the very faith of God with perfect confidence. But we know that the One whom God sent into this world has actually given Himself and taken our guilt upon himself, shed His precious blood.
That we might be redeemed. Or before I go any farther in the subject, that's on my heart.
I just must pause, for I feel at a responsibility every time the Lord allows me to privilege of speaking from this precious book, that there might so easily be someone here who doesn't yet know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You beloved parents have brought your children up tonight, and I'm thankful to see it.
I thank God to see every boy and girl that's here and all of their young people who are here.
But all I want to ask you right now, if the Lord Jesus were to come this very evening before this meeting comes to a close, would this front row be completely vacant and will now speak of the 2nd row and the next row right back to the row where you're sitting? Would that row be completely vacated?
Would you be gone? Would your seat be empty?
Or would you be left behind?
Oh, I tell you this, when I think of what God has done, when I think of the mighty work of the Lord Jesus Christ, when I think of the near coming moment when the Lord Jesus is going to call his redeemed home to share it all the joy of that eternal home. And I think of what it would mean to be left behind in my own memory trembles as I recall how this used to.
Trouble my own soul.
I look into the faces of these who are gathered present tonight. And before we go any farther, just let me ask you, if you have not yet received the Lord Jesus as your Savior. If you have not as yet thanked God for that most wondrous gift, will you not do so tonight? It doesn't have to be a gospel meeting night after all, does it? And one thing more, if you have accepted the Lord Jesus and your Savior.
Quietly, perhaps with no one hearing a word. Have you ever told anyone? Have you ever in all your life told anyone? I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Savior. You know. Back home a young man shook my hand as he went out the door. He had been to meeting a good many times before. He was at all the meetings and I thought he was really the Lord. But this night he was.
Quiet young man, and still is.
A father now of a family that sits in meeting with him.
He shook my hand and then gave it a little extra squeeze and said I would just like you to know.
That I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.
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Well, you know, that brought very, very real joy to me. But I'll tell you where there was a much greater joy than in my heart or even in his.
And that was in the heart of God himself, who sent the Lord Jesus in order that that dear young man might know the joy of being redeemed. Well, you know, his Father was out to the same meeting. His father had been a faithful man of God for many years and still is.
And his father was one of the last ones out of the meeting room that night, and I was still standing at the door shaking hands.
And as his father came out, I said, a little word of encouragement tonight, brother, He said, what's that? I said a young man, one of the first to go out, just told me that he had accepted the Lord Jesus as his savior. Oh, he said, how nice. It's so good to hear of someone being brought to know the Lord Jesus. And his face lighted up so brightly. By the way, he said, who was it? I said, it was your own oldest son.
Well, you know, I've never seen the light of heaven, but I got pretty close to seeing it that night.
The sunshine that lit up that dear Father's face.
Knowing that his son's lips had been open to confess the Lord Jesus, is there anyone here who has never confessed the Lord Jesus? Why not this very night? Well, now, the two things that accompany the tables of stone in this ark are to me, very, very interesting. There was a golden pot containing Manor. And there was.
Aaron's Rob that butted. Now I trust I may be given the liberty to apply these.
There may be others who would see different things from them, but I love to see in the golden pot that had manna which followed the children of Israel all through their wandering, the wondrous faithfulness of the grace of God that met their need all through those 40 years of their wandering. Well, you know, if it had not been for that manner, what would have become of that great company?
2 million people we might get.
Wandering through the wilderness for 40 years and by the grace of God.
The faithful, ever present grace of God, their needs were met, and they carried with them, as an emblem of the grace of God, every step of the journey, this golden pot that had manner, that very food from heaven.
That in God's wondrous grace had met their knee. And I believe it was very wondrous grace because I'm pretty sure as you and I read the story of Israeli history, we can't very well say, well, they deserve dog blessing. They were so grateful for everything he did for them. Is that the way the story reads? It just seems to me that they did more murmuring and complaining and thought.
Than anything else. And yet he didn't forsake them. He looked down upon them and he fed them.
In his matchless grace all there is a tender note in the second chapter of Jeremiah and the second verse.
Years after they had taken that long wilderness journey, the Lord says to his servant Jeremiah, go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem. Thus saith the Lord.
I remember thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness. Isn't that a beautiful thought the Lord sang so many years after. I remember thee the kindness of thy youth.
The love of thy espousal when thou wentest.
After me in the wilderness. I say again, if we were to read that story, we'd find ourselves hard pressed to find much evidence of that. But God could see it and never forgot it. The kindness of our youth. Could I just pass that verse on to you?
As something you and I might covet.
Wouldn't it be a real joy to your heart if the Lord were able to say that to you in a day that's coming? Just think of what it would mean if you were able to stand face to face with the Lord Jesus in that day and hear him say, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth. All beloved, that is a good time to give your heart to the Lord Jesus.
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That is a good time to serve him wholly and fully.
The kindness of value, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, is this true of you? Is this true of me? Oh, what joy it brings to the heart of the Lord Jesus when something of this can perhaps be seen even ever so feebly in the life of his own. He never, never forgets it. And years later he says to Jeremiah, Tell him that I've never forgotten.
Well, I say once again, I believe this golden pop containing manner carried through all the wanderings of the wilderness is a marvelous reminder of the grace of God.
Let's turn to 2nd Corinthians.
And we'll find a little text there in connection with that grace of God.
One that has been a very great comfort to many. 2nd Corinthians 12 verse nine. And he said unto me.
My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. You know, beloved, we might as well admit the truth of it. We'd like to get along on our own steam and on our own strength, not be dependent on grace.
We feel, somehow or other, that it would be much more satisfying to us if we could start out on our own and not have to fall back upon that which Paul exalts so much here. And because of that natural tendency with us, God sent this infirmity into the experience of the beloved apostle in order that he might know.
The wonder of that matchless grace, and having known it, how delightfully he rest in it and thanks God for it.
And dearly beloved, it is because he loves you so much and loves me so much.
That he have spent into all our lives that which makes us conscious that our own supposed strength, our own resources, our own wisdom, cannot seem to solve the difficulties of the day. And in our need, in our weakness, in our helplessness, and in our ignorance, we can come to the one who answered Paul in his marvelous language and find he'll do the very, very same for you.
My grace is sufficient for these, for my strength.
Is made perfect in weakness. What was it that brought this about? What was it that taught this wonderful lesson to the Apostle Paul?
There was given to him a thorn in the flesh.
A messenger of Satan to buffet me. Notice he includes Satan in that statement, I believe. As in the case of Job, so in the case of Paul, the eye of Satan rested upon that man, and he found it a great delight to bring into Paul's experience that which was a thorn in the flesh. But to whom did Paul turn, no matter what the apparent source may be?
Paul knew that above all, that was the hand and heart of God.
And so there he turns with his problem, and from that source he finds the answer, which brings him complete contentment.
My grace is sufficient for Thee. May I just pause here to say that I feel that This is why we know so little of the wondrous grace of God, because we are so very, very much inclined to look around at the natural causes for the circumstances that befall us along the way.
Suppose my neighbor bumped into my car and did quite a bit of damage.
I might not say it out loud, but I just might have a few thoughts that I might kind of keep to myself concerning my careless neighbor and his inefficient driving. I would more than likely feel that he was 100% to blame and that it was just what the world calls our pure and simple accidents.
And suppose one of my brethren caused me some embarrassment.
False accusation, if you wish. What shall I do now? Shall I turn to my brethren and begin to get a sour feeling toward them? This, I believe, is a lesson that we ought to learn right here, that those things which come into our lives, no matter what the apparent source may be. And I believe Paul knew that the devil had his hand in this. The messenger of Satan debuffed me.
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But he knew where to turn.
If lightning struck the roof of my home, I couldn't blame my neighbor for that.
I couldn't blame my brethren for that. You might at last find me looking up and saying, I wonder what the Lord is trying to teach me now.
And He was trying to teach me just as much in those other circumstances. He was trying to teach me even as He tries to teach you. Beloved, the matchless grace of His heart, the grace that has picked you up and redeemed you, is the same matchless, wondrous grace that He has pledged will care for you all the way through the journey.
Now we read also in Hebrews.
Very familiar scripture. Hebrews 4. I believe it is Hebrews 4, verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Grace to help in time of need. All dear Saints of God, when I think of the times of need that beset God's people as they went through the wilderness.
And I have a hand of God pledged to care for them and to keep them.
And how they carried with them day by day, that golden pot containing manna.
Ever continual emblem of the wonderful grace of God. I feel sure that in every life represented in this room tonight, there have been circumstances that would be difficult indeed were it not for the grace of God that has stood you in good stead in the midst of those really trying and very difficult circumstances.
You know, when we turn anywhere else, we're sure to find that which is.
A disappointment. You know as well as I do that the children of Israel where?
Dissatisfied with God's provision? Is that not true?
Take a look at the Book of Numbers and I believe we'll see that. And the language there I think is.
Very significant.
The 11Th chapter of the Book of Numbers.
And the fourth verse and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions and the garlic. How many different kinds of food is that?
It's worth taking a look at that verse and counting it for yourself, and then I think you'll remember.
There are six kinds of food mentioned there, and we're not too surprised at that, are we? It's not this just exactly what the world offers when you and I perhaps might find ourselves hiring of the rich and wondrous heavenly food that He has given us to meet our need. They fell a lusting this manner that was so abundantly provided for them.
Didn't fully satisfy them, sad to say, and they fell a lusting after the things that they had once eaten in Egypt and they recounted them.
Fish.
Cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. Six different kinds of food. I suppose that's the best number that man can present. Falling 1 short of dog. Perfect number. And I believe we find it very often associated with the very best of man's efforts, the number six.
I think there's something else very significant also about this.
Notice that the first three that are mentioned are just a bit different than the last three.
Fish cucumbers and melon.
Now we've all enjoyed these three things. At least I expect we have.
I enjoy them myself, but when you compare them with the last three you can see a remarkable difference.
The last three are much stronger, aren't they? They have a flavor that lingers for a long time. It flavors everything else you eat 4 hours after.
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And it also betrays to everybody else around what you've been feeding on, isn't that true?
But the devil doesn't start us off with that kind of thing. He starts us off with that which just doesn't seem so bad. Fish, cucumbers and melons. They don't seem to be nearly as uh.
As much of a class as the leeks, onions and garlic.
And I believe, and I just must lay my hand upon my heart as I say it, that the wonderful provision of the grace of God that will care for us every step of the journey along the way has been put at disposal. We have the Word of God, We have the Spirit of God indwelling us. We have the Son of God risen at his own right hand, up there in the glory of our High Priest and ever as our Advocate.
We have, I believe, a wonderful privilege.
At the Samaritan presented to the wounded man, he brought him to the inn, and he would like to do the same to you. He doesn't just put you adrift to fend for yourself and to end up in the Church of your choice. He will, if you will allow him the joy and privilege of guiding you. He will bring you to the end where shelter and nourishment and fellowship will be.
For you and the promise of that loving care until the moment when he who picked you up and redeemed you will come again to take you away to be with himself.
All beloved brethren, pardon me for saying this, but it does break my heart sometimes to see those who have had such wonderful privileges, who have been brought up under the sound of God's precious Word at home and in the meeting.
And they first try the fish and then the cucumbers and then my garlic, and then the leek and the onion, the leaks the onions and the garlic, and pretty soon their appetite is lost and gone for those things that they once enjoyed.
A wonderful provision that God has made for us.
I hope I may be forgiven for speaking.
Of myself.
The Lord knows that these appetites never fade away. They're there continually. They need to be kept, as we were reminded in the meeting, in the place of death.
But I'll tell you, brethren, I want to thank God.
And to thank God publicly for those dear brethren who cared enough for my soul that when they saw me going after these very things, they would speak faithfully and lovingly and tenderly to me. I remember when I was a young man in Ottawa.
Aye, well, the dear brother there.
His name was Brother Watson.
And he kept the thought of an eye on all of us young people. He was as Irish as they come, and we didn't know whether to take him seriously all the time or not. And I know this will sound very strange to you, but in those days going away to college was considered just about the most dangerous and wicked thing that anybody could ever do. Nobody in my age group ever dreamed of going away to college. And when finally I felt this to be what the Lord was.
Thing for me.
I tried to keep it a secret but this old man found out about it and he came to me after meeting.
He said. Albert, what's this I hear about you?
And I hung my head, he said. Is it true that you're going away to college?
And I said, well, yes, Brother Watson, I suppose you'll be coming back with some fancy letters after your name. Oh, no, no, I don't think so, Brother Watson.
Just want to study something that I might be able to use in making a living.
Well, I hope you do. I hope you come back with some real fancy letters after your name. I was so surprised. I didn't think this was the advice I'd get from that dear man of golf.
He said. Albert, I hope you come back with OMGB after your name.
I said, what does that mean? Go home and read the book of Daniel, he said. And I found it there.
Old man greatly beloved.
I cherish the counsel of that dear old man. He set me to work reading God's precious words, the account of Daniel that our brother Ralph Lewis brought before us, surrounded by everything that would have tripped up so many of us. And he has this commendation in that book. Oh man, greatly beloved. Oh my dear friend, when I see the matchless grace of God that picked us up in the first place.
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When I see the matchless grace of God that meets the problem that Paul was confronted with. When I see the invitation in the Word of God that you and I are privileged to get down on our knees and pour out our hearts before Him and seek grace to help in time of need. How thankful you and I ought to be for this provision. And May God spare us ever from turning from that which He has provided, that which He delights, to put it out.
To turn again to the things that are spoken out here, this is a digression, but just turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8 because it seems almost necessary to complete the picture. Deuteronomy 8, verse 8.
In this verse, the Lord describes the land to which they were traveling and the wondrous fruit of that land.
A land of wheat and barley and vine and fig trees and pomegranates. A land of oil, olive, and honey.
Would you care to count them?
That's what you would expect.
I just couldn't believe it if it had stopped at six. But it doesn't. There are seven there.
A land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates and oil, olive and honey. And not one of them ever touched the soil of this earth. What a contrast. Fish, melon, cucumbers, leeks, onions and garlic. There they came. Every one of them came from down there.
But these fruits of the land to which they journeyed came uplifted from the earth. Oh, I say once again, the privilege that is ours along the way to enjoy, to partake of, and to thank God for that wondrous provision of grace that will last us until the moment we step into the courts of glory itself, should fill our hearts with deep praise and Thanksgiving.
Well, now, the Golden Pop at Atlanta was only one thing accompanying.
The two tables of the covenant. There was also Aaron Rod.
That but it.
There are various beautiful thoughts connected with that, Robert budded.
And the one that I would like to emphasize tonight is.
I would like to liken this rod to the government of God.
I hope you.
Realize the thought behind these two statements, the grace of God.
And the government of God, everyone of us who knows the Lord Jesus as our Savior is continually shadowed over and sheltered by the matchless, unfailing grace of God. It will accompany us, beloved, until that moment when we see his face is that grace were withdrawn from a where would we be? And we, I trust, thank him continually for that great.
But what do we know and what do we speak of the?
Government of God, do we wish it didn't exist? What kind of home, what kind of family would it be in which there was number government in which the father and head of that home completely ignored his responsibilities as father and head in that home? I think I've been in such homes.
And it's not a very pleasant experience.
And God, who loved us, and who has redeemed us at such infinite cost, finds great delight in calling us His children. And I trust and I believe that you and I also find it our delight to look up into the face of Him whom once we dreaded, and address Him as our Father. But does the Word of God not tell us? Scourge us every son whom He receiveth Again, let's turn back to the Epistle to the.
Bruised Hebrews, chapter 12. Remember that.
This rod, which was so often in the hand of Aaron the priest, was that which was laid up before the Lord and put in the ark at the time of the rebellion of Cora and Dathan and of Byram. And because of its association with that disobedience, I see in it for myself a picture of the.
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Government of God. Now here we notice in Hebrews chapter 12.
Verse five. And ye have forgotten. The exhortation which speaketh unto you is unto children.
My Son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If he endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
Verse 11 Now no chastening, for the Presence seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable food of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. I feel very sure that every one of us here tonight who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior has been conscious of.
The hand of God in government upon us in our life.
And I believe that if we were more conscious of this, the voice of God would not need to be so.
Felt, severe as it sometimes is, I feel that the things which befall us are often loud and noticeable because we have paid little heed to the still small voices which we heard before and shrugged off as being part of the normal circumstances of everyone who passes a long life journey. Oh, I believe it is true, dear St. of God, that not one thing happens in your life.
Mind without the perfect overseeing wisdom of God directing it. Now I'm a father, and I know that as a father I would never, never, never bring into the experience of my children that which would cause them needless grief or pain or sorrow of any kind. But I'm lacking in wisdom toward my family. I'm lacking in the power to control the circumstances that.
Call them. I remember one time a young man came to my home with one of these wonderful programs whereby you sign your name and pay a certain amount and you are immediately set free from many fears or anxieties as to what might befall you or your family in years to come.
And I felt it only right that I should listen to all he had to say. And when he was done, I said my father.
Lived in Ottawa. He's rather an old man, But I said, I'm going to ask you please to suppose.
That my father has perfect wisdom has never made a mistake, nor could he ever make a mistake. That my father also has perfect power.
And he controls all the influences of the universe that my father has. Perfect wealth, and all the possessions of the earth are his to dispose of as he will.
That my father loves me with a perfect love, thinks about me continually with a love that couldn't be any greater than it is, and one thing more, that my father has perfect wisdom. I said. How would my father feel?
If I find this paper.
Well, he said, I guess your father would be insulted. Well, I said, I have a father just exactly as I have described him to you, and he loved me with a perfect love. His wisdom is perfect, His power is perfect, his resources are perfect. And I love to open the hymn book and sing My times are in thy hand.
Father, we wish them there. I must bow my head and sing it only as a prayer. But all, beloved, thanks of God when I read the discipline, that in the hand of God.
When I think of a government of God and the purpose of love that is behind it, I realize as a father myself how precious is the fact that the very God who loved me and redeemed me at such infinite cost, who has pledged Himself that my every need will be lovingly met all the way through the journey, has not only the golden pot that had mannered.
But has also the Rob to accompany me along the way.
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I remember visiting a dear sister back home, greatly afflicted, and she didn't seem to know the cause of that affliction, and certainly I didn't know it either on her behalf. But we quite often had prayer together and she would say, Albert, the hand of the Lord and the rod of the Lord are still upon me. And I don't ever ask him to take it away, but I ask him to teach me the lesson that he has for me to learn in it, and if he's pleased, to leave it with me.
Calls me home. That will be alright too. I feel I should just turn aside for a moment to say this.
That these things which are allowed in our lives are by number means always.
A matter of actual discipline. I'm sure it has been pointed out before, and I think it's worth remembering that we can see circumstances most definitely allowed and sent of God which were not for discipline because of some waywardness or disobedience. I think we can see in the case of Joe, the very happy picture of a man whom God had richly blessed.
But I wonder if I could put it this way. God looked down at Job and said, Job, I want to bless you even more.
But there's something in your heart that you don't know, is there?
Until this is brought to light and is thoroughly Dutch, I can't bless you as I want to bless you.
And you know, in getting near the end of the book of Job, we see that which was in Job's heart finally come out, and he's more or less caught in the act, isn't he? Lord suddenly brings to Jobs attention what's coming out of his heart and his lips. And poor Job, he bowed his head and laid his hand upon his mouth and says, Behold, I am via without any qualification at all, he completely condemned himself in the presence of God.
He prays for those who had falsely accused him, and we find our blessings of God are poured out. Well, that hand of discipline was pretty severe. He lost seven sons and three daughters in one day. I call that pretty severe. He lost all his possessions. He lost his health, and he had to sit there and listen to his three friends tell him what a miserable hypocrite he was.
That was a lot to go through for anyone, man, and it wasn't because Job had been a wicked and disobedient man.
But Dawn had a purpose. God loved that man, and God wanted to bless him even more richly. And I can only say this, no matter what your circumstances are to night, or what you or I may find our circumstances to be in the days to come, I know this, that it is a heart of perfect wisdom and love.
That plan those circumstances for us, I think some of you may know that our dear boy some years back was.
Very, very nearly taken from us. We were called into a hospital to say goodbye to him. And it was pretty hard to say goodbye and walk out and leave him there. And I came home and found a letter from our brother, Ch Brown. And in that letter he said this and it's never left me. He said, Albert, remember that every circumstance in our life is carefully.
Weighed out.
In the balances of the sanctuary before it's passed on to us. That was too good to forget.
Remember that every circumstance in our life is carefully weighed out in the balances of the sanctuary before it passed on to us. Well, a second case of that which might be considered very real infirmity and trial, was laid upon the Apostle Paul. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me.
Lest I should be exalted, not because he was exalted, but lest I should be. There was a a type of prevention involved, we would say, in that form of discipline.
And then again we find in the 15th of John every branch in me that beareth fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Oh, the love that is behind all this. And then as we get in Hebrews 12, the actual rod of discipline, because of our own disobedience.
Now, if there's any hard searching to be done about this, let it be done concerning my own situation and not somebody elses. I never have any right, do I, to look around and say I wonder what that brother has been up to or that sister. No, it's for me in the presence of God to bow my head and seek to learn the lesson that He has for us.
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But the grace of God, beloved, and the government of God go together day by day, and we'll go together until the end of the journey. Turn over, please, to 1St Kings chapter, chapter 8, verse 6.
And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, into the Oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims. For the cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark of the cherubims, covered the ark and the stage thereof above. And they drew out the stage, that the end of the stage were seen out in the holy place before the Oracle, and they were not seen without.
And there they are.
Unto this day there was nothing in the ark, say the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt. That's rather surprising, isn't it?
Here at last the wilderness wanderings of God's beloved people are ended. They have crossed the Jordan. They have entered the land. The ark is set down at last in its resting place in the very land of God's appointment. And what is found in that ark? Nothing but the two tables of stone that which spoke of Christ Himself.
In all His Majesty and His Holiness dwells there.
But there is no further need of the grace of God or of the government of God.
They're not needed anymore. They're not found in the ark when it set down in the temple, in its glorious resting place. Oh, I love to think of this dear child of God. Here we are along the journey, privileged by God's matchless grace from day-to-day, to learn that which we cannot and will not learn when we reach home. Oh, there's much that will unfold before our gaze when we see the Savior's face when we enter into the uncreated.
Of his own. Oh, what a revelation it will be. But there are some things that can only be revealed to us down here, and I believe that the grace of God and the government of God are among them.
I believe that you and I will not learn anything further of the dawn of all comfort. I will be no need for our comfort up there. A God of all encouragement, the thought of all hope, the God of all patience. These things are wonderful and happy privileges that are hours along the way. And just to think, beloved, but not for one step of that journey.
Where either one or the other of those two things lacking in Israel's experience.
Nor lacking in your the grace of God to meet your every need every day of your life. And if you and I ever feel a little extra need of grace, we know where to go for it. Come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help. Do you feel the need of it sometimes? I know you do in time of need.
And I'm sure that these circumstances which are chosen by his wisdom and his love in order that we might learn more of.
The encouragement that is to be found in him will be a precious and a wonderful memory up there.
Because I'm sure you noticed in reading this that these staves were no longer needed. I'm quite sure you've pictured the ark. Perhaps we could even call this the ark with a long pole on either side, carried on the shoulders of the priests as they went through the wilderness journey. And we may set that ark down for the last time. They drew out those days they were not going to be needed.
Anymore their wanderings were over, so they just threw the staves away.
I don't know. They didn't. They were told exactly where to put those stables. They could be seen.
In the holy Place, wouldn't that be just a pretty happy experience to be able to go in and see that ark and see the ends of those days and say, I remember when we used to wander through the wilderness and fame accompanied us day by day as we wandered through the wilderness. Oh beloved, I thought, O kindly, your face is here tonight in Buena Park. You and I are going to have some pretty wonderful memories when we get home. Yes, we are.
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It's a it's a an exceedingly happy thing to me.
To come out here and to see yours again. Graft your hand as women and sisters in Christ. These things are going to be memories that will be real and practice. I believe forever that all the memory will crown all other memories they'll obtain. God will be the memories that I see in the picture of these two staves drawn out from the Arkansas, each in their appointed place where they could be seen.
When you reach home. When I reach home.
And look into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, my Father used to say.
The first thought that will rush through my mind when I see his lovely face will be.
This man for me to die. I don't know whether any of you heard him say that or not, but I heard him say it so often that when I saw him laid out, those words came immediately to my mind.
The first thought that will rush through my mind as I see his lovely face will be this man for me and die now as he had saved me as by his wondrous grace he did many years ago and taken me immediately home. It would have been a wonderful joy. I would have seen his face already for over 40 years.
But I really feel that in his wisdom and His grace, He's left me here for a purpose that will enrich my experience up there in the glory. Surely during those years, by His wondrous grace, we've learned something of the meaning of the golden pot of manna and of Aaron's robbed and budded, and surely the rods that carried that.
Ark through the wilderness bore with them many wonderful memories of God's faithfulness.
Just a little example, the same dear sister back home that I spoke about ended up her days in a wheelchair. It was over 80 years of age and I used to visit her very often.
And she was always, of course, wanting the Lord to come and take her home.
01 day I had just attended the funeral of our Mrs. Anderson. She was 95 years of age and called with joy into the presence of the Lord.
But on the way home from the funeral I called on our dear sister in her wheelchair and she said, have you just come from Missus Andersons funeral And I suggest sister.
Why didn't the Lord stop on the way by and take me to now? She's up there with the Lord and I'm still here.
I said, you mean she's going to be in heaven a little longer than you are? Well, of course he's there and I'm here. And I said, sister, could you add a few weeks onto one end of eternity and make it a little longer?
Oh no, of course not, he said. I'll be there just as long as she will. I said yes you will. You'll be with the Lord just as long as Missus Anderson. And there's this thought for you to remember that each day the Lord leaves you, here is that much more opportunity to learn more and get more of His loving provision of grace towards you.
And of the purpose of his wisdom in the rod that he has put upon you.
And that dear sister rejoiced in that she's gone now into the presence of the Lord Jesus, and with exceeding joy too. Oh beloved faints of God, we're all going to see His face soon. In the meantime, we have accompanying us all the way through the journey the golden pop that had man of the matchless grace of God that knows our needs before ever we can see them.
And Aaron's robbed it budded the faithfulness of his love that would often withhold you and withhold me from those things which would.
Lead us astray. Oh, why does he have to use the rod so often?
You know the answer to that.
I remember one time when I was a young fellow in that wayward St.
Just seemed to get hold of us sometimes. Was pretty strong.
And I was planning something that really left me with a troubled conscience and trying all the while to persuade myself that there really wasn't anything wrong. I could go ahead and do. Anybody else would do the same thing. Just because I was eighty. Hey, ho, son was no reason why I should be deprived. And so on.
Just to make my conscience feel a little bit better at the last minute, I went up to my room. I didn't pray, but someone had given me. Instead of a daily calendar, it was an affair about like this, with a window in the front, and behind that window there was a scroll of text.
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And each day I would turn a little knob and a new text would come up, or you would turn the other knob and the text would go back down again.
I thought, I'm going to turn up. I was all ready to go out.
I'll turn up.
And see what the next text appears behind that window and I'll take it from the Lord.
I turned the knob and it said stop, turn back.
You know, it wasn't a verse. I'd come to the end of the role. But I tell you, I know, I know, I know that that was, that was the good hand of the Lord upon me that evening, a good faithful hand of the Lord upon me that evening. I don't regret now what I missed that evening. I squirmed a little bit when I saw what was written there.
And you know the same thing.
The Lord loves you so much, so much that He meets all your need and promises to do so until He has your home. But in the meantime, if you feel that rod once in a while, remember the hand that hold that hold that rod was nailed to the because He loved you so much.
And He has a purpose of blessing in it. But when you reach home, the rod will be gone forever. The pot of manna will be gone forever. But what precious memories will be ours as we look into His face up there in the glory, and praise Him for ever, for the grace that made us His, and it preserved and kept us until He had us home.