Burbank Conference: 1978
Table of Contents
History of Two Men
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Just like to read first of all to start with in Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3.
And the tenth verse.
And have put on the Newman, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Well, I'd just like to speak of that theme that we sang in our hymn with Christ. Our theme begins the Lord of truth and love. Because you know, it's often been said that the Bible is really the history of two men. Always say there are many men whose names are recorded in the Scripture, but the Bible says the first man, Adam, was made a living soul.
The last Adam, a quickening spirit, and the first man, is of the earth. Earth.
The second man is the Lord from heaven. So there was the first Adam, and he was the one that brought in all the ruin. And then there's the last Adam, because there will not be any other, the one who fulfills all the counsels and purposes of God. And so I say again, God speaks of these as two men, the first man and the second man. Whenever we think of the first man, we can't help but think of all the ruin that this world is in brought.
Because of what man is. And we're all born into this world with that same fallen nature that is productive of all the trouble that's here. Because the first man brought in ruin, and Adam begat a son in his own image and in his own likeness. But isn't it blessed to know, as I say now, that God has a second man, the last Adam, and that everyone in this room is either under the headship of the first one who was?
Adam are under the headship of the second one, who is the Lord from heaven.
And when we are brought to know Him as our Savior, God sees us in this entirely new position.
Were brought into and part of new creation, were no longer part of the creation that is under judgment, but we belong to new creation. We're part of it already. And so isn't it blessed that we can be occupied with that One who is the head of new creation? And God's purpose, as we're told in Ephesians 1 and 10, is the honor and glory of that blessed One. It says that in the dispensation of the fullness of times.
He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. When God made this world, we're told that He didn't create it in vain, He created it to be inhabited. His delights were with the sons of men. And isn't it a wonderful thing that when man spoiled it all, that God then brought in His purpose?
Have often thought like this that if I gave my children some.
Very valuable and they spoiled it. I wouldn't be inclined to turn around and give them something better when they had spoiled what I had given to them. But that's what God has done. When man spoiled this world, brought in sin and ruined and his continuing to spoil it by his selfishness and sin and all this, why, what does God do? Well, he says you've spoiled this world, but I have something better to offer to you, something better than what you spoiled.
And that is brought in through this one who is the 2nd man, the last Adam. It's wonderful when we consider the grace of God. And this afternoon I just like to look at a few scriptures that bring before us that blessed one. Because as I remarked, the the Bible is really the history of these two men. And it's refreshing to turn from all the ruin, to turn to the one who is the center of all God's thoughts.
And then to know above all things that we have been brought into association with Him into the very nearest possible place, because the nearest relationship on earth is the relationship of a man and his wife. And God has brought us as believers into this wonderful relationship, that we are now members of His body. What a place He has brought us into. What a place of association I say, and to share with Him.
Coming Glory.
Where they know if we get hold of this, it helps us to understand the Scripture. Perhaps some have heard me tell this little illustration, but perhaps it helps to bring out what I'm talking about. There was a man who was very busy in his study and he was, he was occupied with the things that he was doing. This little girl came into the room and ** *** was disturbing him, talking to him and found it hard to concentrate.
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So.
He opened the drawer of his desk and he pulled out an old map that he had there and took the scissors and cut up the map into a number of pieces and then handed it to the child and said, here now dear, put the map together. And so he applied himself to his work again. She was quiet, but not for very long. It wasn't very long until she jumped up and she said, Daddy.
It's all done well. He was amazed because he didn't think she knew very much about geography.
And she didn't know much about geography either, but she had discovered something on the other side of the map. There was a huge hand on the back of the map. She didn't try to put it together geographically. She started from the other side. And as she got that hand together and everything connected with it on the other side, it would have been possible to turn it over. Every place would have been geographically correct, because she had seen that hand.
And you know, many people say, oh, the Bible is a puzzle. It says in Isaiah, it's delivered to a man that's learned. And he said and say, with these words, read this, I pray thee. And he says, I can't. It's sealed. It's delivered to a man who's unlearned, saying, read this. And he says, I'm not learned. And isn't it true that the Bible cannot be understood by the natural man because he has no heart for Christ?
He has no heart for the one who is the theme of this blessed book about those who have been brought to know the Savior. Surely we can say He's everything to us. Christ is all and in all. And so with that in mind, I'd like to ask you when you read the Scripture to try to remember that God is setting this blessed person before us. He's seeking to honor Him. He's seeking to take up our hearts with Him.
Because his heart is taken up.
With his beloved Son, he's found his delight in him and he wants us to find our delight in him. When we think well of a person, we like our friends to think well of that person too. We speak for them because we love them. And so isn't it nice that God has such delight in his beloved Son that he said, I want you to find your eternal delight in him too. He means so much to me that I want you just to share this wonderful portion because.
He will be, He is, and He will be the delight of his Father's heart for all eternity.
Now I'd like to turn to Acts chapter 4.
And here we find a well known verse, Acts chapter 4.
Perhaps we could read 3 verses here from the 10th verse.
Be it known unto you all, and to all the men of Israel.
That by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Whom ye crucify, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was setteth not of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Well, this is the grand starting point. Surely Here was Paul preaching to a company of people who really had no heart for Christ.
This was as he says, Christ was the stone which was set at not of you builders. He had come into this world. He had done all those marvelous works of grace. He had gone to the cross of Calvary and died. He had finished that work that God had given him to do, that work of redemption.
For our eternal salvation. He had done all that, but he was rejected. The world wouldn't have him. The Jews had said we will not have this man to reign over us. They despised and they rejected him. But here Peter says there is absolutely no other way of salvation except through the Lord Jesus Christ. And if there should be anyone here this afternoon who doesn't yet know the Lord as your Savior.
Hasn't yet received him. Remember, God has no other way. It's not something that we can say Well, as long as a person is sincere in their beliefs, he will be all right. As long as he follows his religion diligently, he'll be all right. God only has one way. Doesn't it seem strange to you that people reason that way about the things of God, and they don't reason that way and natural things?
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That is, you can get on one of these through ways, and you can be absolutely sure you're going in the right direction and that you're on the right freeway, but all the sincerity in the world is never going to change it from the wrong Rd. into the right Rd. You can be ever so sincere, but it'll still be the wrong Rd.
And that's what God is telling us. Isn't it strange that people will reason this way in spiritual things?
And yet they don't reason that way. And natural things. It only shows to me what God says. The carnal mind is enmity against God. And again, the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. A person could never reason so foolishly unless he was blinded of Satan. Then other people will say, well, all that you need to be is sincere. As long as you're sincere in what you believe. Now you don't believe that in anything else.
You can drink a glass of poison, and you can be absolutely sincere that there's no poison there, but you'll die from it just the same. If it's poison, if it's strong enough to kill you, it'll kill you no matter how sincere you are. And dear friends, if there's anyone here that's unsaved, remember, sincerity is not enough to say that as long as you think you're in the right way, that that's all that's necessary.
It isn't that way.
God distinctly tells us in his word, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. There is only two men in God's account, and the first one brought in the ruin, and the second one brought salvation. And Simeon, in the 2nd chapter of Luke, when he took that babe in his arms, he said, Lord, now let.
Thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. God only has one salvation for all people. And as Simeon took that babe in his arms, he said, I see now salvation is a person. Salvation is not a feeling, it's not an experience, it's a person. And if you have Christ, you have salvation. If.
Don't have Christ, you don't have salvation. Your experience doesn't mean a straw if you don't have Christ. Your sincerity doesn't mean anything if you don't have Christ. Have you received him? As many as received him to them, gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And So what a blessed thing it is to see that God has a Savior.
And only one savior, and he's an all sufficient savior before the face.
Of all people, and I beseech you, if there's anyone here this afternoon, if you haven't received him, what better day than right today, the last day of 1978. What better day to be saved than right now so that you truly start the new year in the right way with the knowledge of Christ as your Savior. And so I say with Christ our theme begins. There's only one, and that's the Lord Jesus. What a grand thing it is to be able to.
Say Christ is my Savior, I've put my trust in Him. Don't depend on your feelings. That has nothing to do with it. It's the person that saves. It's what he has done that has satisfied God's holy claims. So there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So it doesn't matter where it is.
Whether it's out in China or whether it's in India, God owns.
One Savior, and that is his own beloved Son. People say, well, what about the heathen? But you know, God is going to gather in his elect from every kindred and tongue and people and nation. And I'll just make this little comment and that is this, that God has his own way of gathering his elect. Our brother Eric Smith once said.
And that he believed that the infant mortality rate when he went to Bolivia was probably over 60%. In other words, that have a family of 10 there would probably only be 4 would actually live. Well, isn't that a remarkable thing? That would mean that of all the children born in Bolivia, there would be more go to heaven than would grow up because every baby that dies goes to be with the Lord. Doesn't know God know how to gather.
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For his elect, the scripture says, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? It's not for us to quibble with God. He only has one Savior. And that baby doesn't get there just because it was born and didn't grow up. It it goes there because Christ died. The Lord Jesus came to save that which is lost. The scripture says it's not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. So don't. Don't.
Don't reason with God, dear friends, just accept what he says. Shall not the judge of all the earth do? Right? But I, I press this fact. God says there's only salvation through one person, and that's through the Lord Jesus. And we're not living in a heathen land, we're in a Christian land. We're living in a land where the gospel is known. And I hope each one here can say Christ is my salvation.
Now let's turn to.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
In verse 5.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus.
Every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God that which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Well, I read this portion because I believe it brings before us Christ as our example. We often get very disappointed when we make somebody else our example. We think someone else is a model Christian. We get our eyes upon that person and they let us down. They disappoint us over and over again. The psalmist said I have seen an end of all perfection and if you live long enough you're going to be disappointed in every human you know, because there's no perfection in.
In the natural, in the first man, and we all have that fallen nature within us. And alas, although we're told to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, sometimes it shows itself. Too often it shows itself. So there's only one who we can make a model. Now of course, the Scripture does say, whose faith follow. And it's good to imitate the faith of others. My father used to so often say, remember.
It says whose faith follow, not whose.
Failures follow. Isn't it natural to us to say, oh, he's a fine Christian and he does it, and so we follow his failures. But whose faith follow? If you're going to follow anybody else, follow their faith. But if you're going to have an example, let it be Christ. There's only one who's a perfect example for us. As Peter says, he's left us an example that we should follow in his steps. There's the one who's the perfect example.
And what an example he was. It says for him it was number robbery to be equal with God.
For Adam, the first Adam, it was robbery. He had no right to try and be as God. That was the temptation. You know ye shall be as gods. And that was the temptation to Adam. And by that temptation he fell. But here was one in this world, and it was no robbery for him to be equal with God. He is God, He is God the Son, and so.
It wasn't a robbery, but just think of that one. The only person.
Had a right to a reputation. I have no right to a reputation. If I look far enough back in my ancestry, I know I'm a, a son of fallen Adam. So I haven't got any right to any reputation as a natural man. But here was one who did have a right. And yet he came into this world and he made himself of no reputation. He came here. Whose reputation was he seeking? Not his own, he said. I came not to do mine.
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Will, but the will of him that sent me, we hear people say, well, you ruined my reputation. What kind of reputation did we have? The important thing is did we ruin the reputation of our Savior because we bear his name? That's actually what baptism is. It's having the name of Christ placed upon us and in this world.
As James says, that worthy name by which ye are called, we bear that precious name. And what ought to occupy us is, how is our life a testimony to the one whose name we bear? Doesn't matter, as Paul said, what people think about us, it's what they think about our Savior, Paul said to the Corinthians who had said some kind of unkind things about him.
He said, Now I pray God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. Oh, I believe that man had caught something of the spirit of his master. He said, as it were, you can think what you like about us. The thing is, we want you to go on for the Lord. Do what's right before him. Think what you like about us.
How isn't it very lovely to see that spirit?
Displayed by a servant of Christ, the Apostle Paul. Well, here's the perfect example. He came down into this world.
One time they said to him, say we not well Lord a Samaritan and hast a devil.
Did you notice the way the Lord answered? He didn't say anything about the personal insult. They said, say we not well Lord, a Samaritan, and that you know, they despised the Samaritans. The Lord didn't even reply to that, but he said, and has the devil, He replied to that because he had come in the spirit of his father. He had come and that was an insult to the one whose name he sought to honor.
His name he.
He had come to exalt in this world because he said, I seek not mine own honor, but the honor of him that sent me. And so that precious Savior was the blessed example for us. We reply to personal insults too often, but the Lord didn't. He wouldn't have his Father insulted, but he ever sought his glory He made himself.
Of no reputation and so.
The next one is He took upon him the form of a servant in all the precious Savior up there in his glorious place as God.
Why, angels served him? But just think, he came down into this world and he washed the disciples feet. He became a servant to the needs of man. He said My father worketh hitherto and I work. He said I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.
And to give my life a ransom for many. Just think of that lowly grace. Do we like everybody to serve us and do things for us? Not so Our precious Savior. It's often been said he never did 1 miracle for his own comfort. That that is one of the one of the amazing things to me because you know, we do all kinds of things for our own comfort. But here was a person that never did one thing for his own comfort. He had all power.
He wasn't when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane and they came to take him. He could have asked his Father for 12 legions of angels, but he had come to fulfill the scriptures. It wasn't the nails that held him to the cross, it was love. It was love that held him there. He had all power and yet he came to do his Father's will. He took the form of a servant, and then he took the lowest form of a servant because.
Angels are servants, but he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. He took another step downward, was made in the likeness of man. And then, well, you say, I can be. If I have to be a man, I can be a great man. I can be someone great in this world. But what about this Blessed One? It says, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.
As we've often said, He was the only person that could choose where he would be born, and he was born in a Manger. He was brought up in Nazareth. He went about and when it says in the 53rd of Isaiah, he hath no form near commonness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty. The correct translation is there is no lordliness.
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That is, the Lord didn't walk through this world displaying His personal greatness.
He walked here as the little hymn says, the lowly Jesus I am make and lolly in heart. Just think of it. We say, well, I'd like to be somebody important. Here was one who had a right to everything, who resigned it all to be the example for us. And then it says he became obedient. He was obedient in everything to his Father's will.
And not only obedient, but obedient.
Unto death, perhaps we've said sometimes. Well, I tried to. I tried to please the Lord as long as I could, but the pressure just got too great. I I just couldn't, I couldn't stand up to it any longer when the Lord Jesus would rather die than disobey. If the pressure got great, and it did in the Garden of Gethsemane, he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground, and yet he went onward. He'd set his.
To go to Jerusalem when the pressure is on you, do you give up the path of obedience? When it's on me, do I resign the path of obedience and say I can't take it anymore? Ah, how blessed to see this one who although He knew the full cost of obedience, and it cost him more than it'll ever cost us. Brethren, we'll never have to suffer for our sins. He not only suffered for one person's sins, but think of the vast number.
The redeemed whose sins he bore wondrous grace. He was obedient unto death. And then there is such a thing as an honorable death. He was given a disgraceful death. The most disgraceful death that it was possible for the Romans to give to a human was to crucify him. Just think. Here's the example. Oh, you know, you and I are natural. Snare is pride.
We saw we we like to exalt ourselves. But he's.
The example, and this one is set before us. God's answer, as we find, is now to exalt Him to the highest place in our wondrous grace. We're going to share His throne. We're going to be with him. Are we going to walk through this world proudly when our blessed Lord and Master took the lowest place? We're going to share His throne, I say. And oh, what a privilege to have suffered with Him than to reign with Him. And now just one.
More little comment, he says here.
In the this 12TH verse.
Were for my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I'm sure we all realize that this does not say work for your own salvation. It says work out your own salvation. We are saved through the Lord Jesus as we have that verse. Neither is there salvation in any other. There is no other.
Who is our Savior? Only the Lord Jesus. What does this mean? Then work out your own salvation. Well, let's put it in a very practical way. There was a problem in this Philippine assembly. There's often problems among us as Christians too. And there were people doing things through strife and vain glory. There was a little quarrel that had broken out, which created a sad situation.
In this assembly at Philippi and Paul loved these Saints. They were very.
Dear to him, and he could speak so much good about them. But he saw this thing working to spoil this little assembly. And how could it be worked out? Well, by following the example of Christ. And isn't it true, brethren, that many of our problems could be worked out if we would only follow this example? If there was enough humility about us? I'm persuaded that so many of the problems that come up could be.
Worked out with fear and trembling, that is, afraid that we ourselves might do the wrong thing. Not afraid somebody else might do the wrong thing, but afraid we might do the wrong thing. And so this is very beautiful to me, an example set before us, and this example so perfect that this problem that existed in the assembly at Philippi could be cleared up just by following the example of the Lord Jesus.
And then he says it's God that worketh in you, because not only has God-given us the example, but he has actually given us the ability to follow this example because Christ himself is our life. Just turn for a moment to Colossians chapter 3 and we'll see this now. Colossians chapter 3.
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And verse 3.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.
Now so here we're told that Christ himself is our life, and I believe this is connected with what we have read, because when he says it's God that worketh in you, it's because we have within us an entirely new life. It's true that the old man is still there, and we're told to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God that is.
Fallen nature is still liable to act within us, but isn't it very blessed that God has supplied to us this new life? And every believer can say Christ is my life, Christ is my life. Paul could say to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. So let none of us say, well, I just couldn't do.
That because if God wants us to do something, he always supplies the power that's necessary. I've often said to my wife, when we undertake something, I said, let's not ask ourselves if we can do it. Let's ask does the Lord want us to do it? Because if the Lord wants us to do it, then all the power is there because it's God that worketh in you. Of course, if we do things in our own strength, we break down if we're trying to.
Do something that God didn't intend us to do. Then we may see the breakdown of that thing. But isn't it lovely, this thought that if Christ is our life, God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure?
And call attention to that word too, to will, because when it says both to will, it's lovely to me. God will never ask us as Christians to do anything that the new man does not desire to do. Because that new man is the life of Christ. Did he want to please his Father? Yes. And God has given us that very life, the life of Christ. And so he asks us and.
That's why James calls it the law of liberty. It's liberty to do what you want to do. And God has given us a life that wants to please him. And his word is like the instruction about how we can. If you want to give a gift to somebody, it's pretty nice to know something that they like and something that they're going to be pleased with when they get it. God has given to the believer a new life, and then he's given us his word to show us what.
Pleases him and every time we read his word, the new life responds and says, oh, that's what I want to do because the new life wants to please him. It's God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So we have the life, the desire, we have the power, we have the example, and above all, we have salvation in Christ.
Now let's turn to Philippians 3 and we'll see something in connection with Christ.
As our object.
Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13.
Rather than I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, or the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. I believe in this chapter Paul is setting Christ before us as the object for our Christian.
Life in the 2nd chapter, he's the example because he's the one who has run the race perfectly. But when a person runs in a race, there's usually a prize that's offered. The scripture says, know ye not that many run in a race, but one receiveth the prize. So there's always the thought of a prize. And So what was the prize in Paul's life? Well, he had a prize.
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Before him, what was it? Well, it was to be up there with Christ that that was what was Paul's desire? He, he was just pressing on through life, just longing for the time that he was going to be with the one who was the object. For God has not only given us an example, but he's given us an object for our affections. Every heart must have an object. And if it's not Christ, it's going to be something else. If I could take enough.
With other things, it's evident that I've lost sight of the object and the object for my heart. And for your heart is Christ, a person, the Lord Jesus, not just to get a good report, although God does give a good report if there's a walk of faith, but it's a person, and that's what Paul said. Wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent. I think I've done pretty well.
Sometimes you hear people say when you come to the end of the year, look.
Back and take stock of yourself. Oh, that's, that's dangerous business. Looking back. What for? If there's anything that we've done that's displeasing to the Lord, let's judge it. But if we look back and it's going to lead to one thing or other, you're either going to get proud because you think you've done pretty well in 1978, or you're going to get discouraged because you think you made a mess of 1978. So there's not much use looking.
Back because it's going to lead to one thing or the other, either pride or discouragement. But we're told to look on. And that's what Paul did.
It's been compared to breaking a path through a field of snow.
Country where I live, there's a lot of snow. We often have to do this and you have to break a path. Well, you know, if the snow is deep, it's very difficult to break a straight, a straight path that is.
Walking. You find that as you lift up your feet, first thing you know, you find out that you're making a very crooked path through the snow.
Well, here's a person, he's walking along and he realizes that he is breaking a very crooked path. And then he thinks, now the best thing for me to do is to get my eye on something over on the other side perhaps is a tree. And I can get my eye on that tree on the other side of the field and keep my eye on that. And then.
I'll do better. Well, this is what Paul is telling us here. So, you know, some of us perhaps didn't have our eye on Christ and we broke a very crooked path. A very crooked path. Now what does God tell us? Well, he says get an object before you. And this was what Paul did. He was pressing on in the Christian race with the object before him. He had Christ as the object before his soul.
And now let's suppose that after making this very crooked path, you realize you should have an object. And then after you've gone along for 5 minutes, you decide I'm going to look back and see how I'm getting along. And so you look back and there's that crooked part that you broke, and you feel ashamed of that, all right, But oh, you think I've done pretty well for the last 5 minutes. I've really made a nice straight path.
And then you begin to realize that you got your eyes off the object. You got your eyes off the object, and so you put your eye back on the object. But when you get to the other side of the field, you look back and what do you find? Well, that little part where you were looking back, you made another break in the past. It got crooked there because you were patting yourself on the back for doing so. Well, that's always the way. If we get our eye off the Lord, that's why.
Paul says this one thing I do and so if it's 1978, you're thinking about why if there's been some failure on it to the Lord, but don't get occupied with that, get occupied with Christ in glory, the object before the soul. And Paul said there's a prize at the end and that is a person and that's Christ. And so I want to say that to myself and to.
Each one here let's have our eyes upon the object.
There's that blessed one and he's there. He's gone on high. He broke a perfectly straight path through this world. Never heard. And he's the example for us. He's the object for our hearts. And Paul desired that this would be the one thing in his life. May God make it the one thing in your life and mine to have our eyes upon the object who is the delight of God's heart. And the reason I call attention to the other reading is.
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It's not the high calling, but the calling on high that is. It's the time when the path ends when we're called on high.
When at the end of the path the Lord calls us on high, someone wrote a little poem about Enoch. The Bible says that Enoch walked with God and enjoyed the little poem. When something like this, he walked with God.
Not much of what he walked with God, not much of what he said or.
Did or said is told not where or what he wrought is even mentioned. He walked with God brief words of fadeless gold and after years long years of such blessed walking. One day God said come, come from this world a weary sin stained sadness come to the fuller fellowship of home. And that is another verse.
How many souls were suckered on his journey, helped by his words or prayers? We may not know. Still as we read words of endearing grandeur. He walked with God while yet he walked below. Well, I think that's that's certainly a wonderful thing that Enoch we're not told whether he helped anybody in his life. The word of God is silent about it. Just we're told he walked with God. He prophesied, he told of coming judgment, but.
How many people he helped, we don't know. The records with God. He had an object before him and in an evil day he walked with God. I might just add, perhaps others have noticed this point too. It was after he begat his first child that he began to walk with God. And then it says after he had begat his first child, Methuselah, then it says he walked with God for 300 years. And you know, sometimes this is so.
When the responsibilities of home life come upon us, we realize how unable we are to cope with them. They're just too much for us and how much more we need this to walk with God. I say this for the help of those who are young parents here. Well, he had Christ as his object. Now the 4th chapter of Philippians and the 13th verse.
Well, I'll read the 12TH verse here too to get the context. I know about how to be a based, and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Well, Paul had many ups and downs in his life, sometimes forgotten by his brethren and.
In prison and many trials, and he had to learn, as we all learn to accept our circumstances from the Lord. I think that's the hardest thing, those little words. This thing is from me to be in prison with his back bleeding, to be forgotten by his brethren, For only the assembly at Philippi thought of his needs.
To know that the Corinthians had said unkind things, all these things.
Things must have been very trying. And you say, how could he bear them? Well, he gives us a very simple yet profound little message here, doesn't he? I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. He didn't claim strength of character. He didn't say I'm above the average for meeting difficulties. And I I've trained myself to accept things. No such thing.
No, he could say I can.
Do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. And brethren, it's the only way you and I can never, never meet these things in our own strength. I'm sure we've all noticed how great men have broken down in what seemed to be their strongest point. But here we find one who had learned the secret of strength. I can do all things through Christ.
Which strengtheneth me, so we could say here in this lovely verse.
That Christ is our strength.
Now perhaps we could turn to a well known verse in Matthew chapter 18.
And the 20th verse.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
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Well, I think this is very blessed too. We've been Speaking of more practical things as regards our everyday life, but it's a very blessed thing.
To know that it's a person to whom we're gathered. It's not a group of people.
It's not even a set of beliefs, although the truth is very precious. I trust to us, and we're told that the assembly is to be the pillar in support of the truth. We're responsible as God's assembly to maintain the whole truth of God. But that'll never keep us. Truth will never keep us. It must be a person.
And that person is the Lord Jesus. And if we lose sight of that, we're going to get discouraged. We're going to perhaps turn the other way because we've lost sight of a person. And that person is the gathering center, the Lord Jesus. As it's often been remarked, it doesn't say we're two or three gather, but are gathered because I believe that there's an energy of the Spirit of God in this world not only gathering out.
For Christ, thank God for that, because everyone who has received the Lord Jesus as his Savior is part of that glorious bride. There is one body, but there's also such a thing as being gathered together, I believe, by the Spirit, as it says here in my name, that is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it isn't just that we.
Form some kind of.
Of a society ourselves or a gathering center ourselves. It's the energy of the Spirit of God gathering to a person. And if it is truly of himself, it will be according to his word. But I just wish to impress at this point the importance of being gathered just to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because you know.
The world will accept any name that man give.
It's amazing how man will have organizations and people ask you well what church do you go to? Well it's very easy to mention the name of some man made group or even if you say brethren the world seemingly will accept anything but just simply to say gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes courage.
It just seems as.
One brother used to say it just seems like there's a lump comes in your throat. He said when you go to say the name of the Lord Jesus reverently and don't you find it so had just something seems to make it difficult for you. You could say any other name or any other organization or you say there's sound in the faith and they preach a good gospel. Yes, it doesn't seem to take courage.
To mention the name of any organization and the work that they do.
But just quietly to say we're gathered only in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes courage, but you know, it must be a joy to the Lord's heart. It must be a joy to his heart because God has given him a name which is above every name. Every knee is going to bow to that blessed name. And just as we have Christ for our salvation, for our example, and for our object and for our strength.
Surely do we want anything less or anything more than that blessed and worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ? May we ever be satisfied to have that name as the one to whom we are gathered. And may we think too, when we come to the meeting, that we come to meet him, to meet him. I say, like Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go when you get discouraged with the.
Just ask yourself this question, to whom shall we go? Not where shall I go, but to whom shall we go? I guess we all get discouraged sometimes, but what are we going to do? How often when people have chosen another course? It isn't. It isn't to whom, but it's where. Where? And so they seek something else. Oh, May God ever make the person precious to us have sometimes.
Remarked about that expression there where Peter said, To whom shall we go?
The Lord said in reply to it.
When Peter said, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, The Lord said, Have not I chosen you? 12 and one of you is a devil? I often wondered. I meditated on that for quite a while. Why did the Lord answer Peter like that? You know, in another occasion when he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona?
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Why did he answer him that way? Well, if you read the chapter, it's the 6th chapter of John, it tells us that just at that point many of his disciples had gone back and walked no more with him. And the Lord had said to the disciples, Will ye also go away? And that was the occasion where Peter replied, to whom shall we go? And the thought that I have in it, and it speaks to us, I'm sure as though the Lord said, well Peter.
If you're here because I'm here.
Don't get your eyes on the crowd. You're going to be disappointed because Judas was there. And you know, if you get your eyes in the crowd, I'll tell you this, you're going to be disappointed. Not just past disappointments, there's going to be some future disappointments too. But not the Lord. He isn't a disappointment. He's the one who's altogether lovely. And so how important that we see no man anymore.
Say Jesus only have him as the one who is not only ourselves, but our gathering.
Sander.
Well, let's turn to 1St Thessalonians 4.
And the 16th verse.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise 1St. And we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Here we have the blessed hope of the Lord's return.
And just before we dwell on this for a few moments, I'd just like to mention a couple of other things that the Lord Jesus is to us. And that is in Hebrews chapter 4. It says that we have a great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, and that he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Then we're also told in first John chapter 2 if any man sin we have.
An advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Did you ever have a problem And you wanted very much to see somebody that you felt you could confide in? And somebody else says, well, I'll try to help you. And you said no, I want to speak to that person. They said, well, maybe I could help. You say no, there's just one person I want to speak to. And so there's just one person. And isn't it lovely? We have a great high priest. Who is it?
A person we don't have to go to some human they may and not understand this. Every human heart craves understanding and love and we have that in a person. We have it in Christ, this blessed Savior whom we know as our Lord and Savior. He invites us and he says come boldly. Isn't that a lovely word? Boldly. When I read that word, it always makes me think of the way a child comes into his own home. He has.
Problem. You can just see the door fly open. It comes in with such confidence. There's no question there's somebody there that cares, somebody that he can talk to, somebody that wants to share his burden. Well, isn't it blessed? We have a high priest. He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He was through this world before us. And then when we failed, the same person is our advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. He'll never.
Excuse our failures. Friends sometimes do. Friends sometimes say, well, I don't blame you. Our high, our advocate will never say that. But he will tell us that he paid for the sin at the cross. He will tell us that it cost him a great deal, but he loved us enough to pay for that sin and put it away with his own precious blood. And now he wants to restore us to himself.
How blessed to have such an advocate and this is the one who is not going to send someone else.
Because when the moment comes for him to return, he's not going to send someone else. He saved us himself. He intends to be everything to us, and he's not going to send someone else to get us. He's coming himself. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and it doesn't say. And so shall we ever be in heaven, but so shall we ever be with the Lord.
This person whom we've learned to know in our little way down.
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Here is the one with whom we're going to spend eternity. He's coming Himself to receive us. Oh, what a blessed hope. What a resource we have in Him. Well, as we read the Scripture, brethren, may we learn more of these blessed things. May we see them for ourselves so that He will mean more to us in our life. He wants to be everything. As it says, Christ is all and in all.
And when we get to that?
Glorious scene above. I like that verse in the 22nd of Revelation where it says and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in there for him when we get there.
Why, He's going to so fill our hearts, so occupy us that we won't want any other name if somebody had a name written across their forehead.
You couldn't mess it. It's in the most prominent place possible, across their forehead. And isn't it lovely that although we've fallen short of our blessed object here, we don't know our Savior as we should. We haven't responded to His claims like we should. When we get there, His name shall be in their forehead. Well, May God by His Spirit make the Lord Jesus more precious to us, so it will affect our lives and so that instead of.
Doing what? The whole course of this world is to set self forward. That's the whole course of this world is to set self forward, because that's the whole character of the first man. But the second man, the last Adam, the Lord from heaven, can we say he's everything to us? Well, May God grant it. Maybe so, in a practical way, in our lives day by day as we wait that moment when the Lord himself shall come.
What a Precious Resource We Have in the Lord
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Like to turn this afternoon to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.
No war should rise against me. In this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion. In the secret of His Tabernacle shall He hide me, He shall set me up upon.
On a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine, enemies round about me, therefore will Ioffer in his Tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yeah, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee Thy face.
Lord will I seek.
Hide not Thy face far from me, Put not Thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against.
Against me and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Well, we know that in the Psalms we don't have the full blessedness of Christian position, because we're not, we don't have the truth of the finished work of Christ.
The security of the belief.
Earth, knowing God as Father, our heavenly home. These things are not brought before us in the psalms, because not until redemption was accomplished could we enter into these wonderful things that are now revealed to us consequent upon the finished work of Christ. But we can say, brethren, Israel's God is ours. And as we read a Psalm like this, we can see the resource that the psalmist found in the Lord, and you and I can find the same.
Resource in him and in a much fuller way because as I say, God has now been fully revealed. There's no longer a veil that hides, but there has been the removal of that. And it says we all with open face or unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as part of the Lord. So how precious this afternoon that we can look up with unveiled face.
The heart of God has been fully revealed and we are privileged to enter into and enjoy these things. Well, in this little Psalm it seems to me that we find the different ways that the Lord is a resource for us in our whole pathway down here. Perhaps you noticed as I read the Psalm how these beautiful thoughts are brought out, light and salvation and strength and confidence.
The one from whom we can inquire, well, the whole Psalm.
Just brings before us, I believe in a most precious way, what a resource we have in the Lord. And so with the Lord's help, I just like to speak a little bit of these different points that are brought before us and they're brought before us in a very precious order too, because perhaps we could say that it gives us the order in which in many of our lives we learn these things. For it says the Lord is my light.
Well, isn't that the first experience, the soul?
Living in darkness. Yeah. Darkness itself is brought into the light. And we can look back, all of us who know the Lord is our savior. When we were brought into the light, when the light revealed just what we were, we didn't believe that we were so bad before. Just like a person in a dark room hardly can believe how dirty his clothes may be. But bring them into a bright room.
And he immediately knows how dirty they are. The light shines on him and reveals.
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And so that is what it says here. The Lord is my light. And so that is the experience that our souls had. He brought us into the light. He showed us just what we were and caused our souls to realize that in His sight there was nothing that was good, nothing that was acceptable to Him. Now that's why we often say it's impossible for a Sinner to remember all the things that He has done.
Because we.
We couldn't remember all that we had done. If a Sinner was called upon to confess all his sins before he was saved, he'd have to remember everything he had ever done. Because the Scripture says they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And So what did delight do? Well, it just showed us, like it says in Isaiah chapter one, from the crown of the head to the soul of the foot, there is no soundness. And if there's anyone here this afternoon.
Was not saved, was never been brought into the light, was never realized his or her own true condition before God. I do hope that this very afternoon the light of God's holy Presence will shine upon you and discover to you, to your own soul, what you really are in His sight. I tell you, if you find that out, you'll long to have the forgiveness of sins. You'll never have a sense of peace in your souls again, because you'll realize.
Just what you are in his presence. But as soon as he tells us the Lord is my light, he immediately says, and my salvation. Isn't that most precious to us, the very one who revealed how sinful we are, who knew about us better than we know ourselves? As it says in Jeremiah 17, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? He throws out the challenge. Who can know how?
The heart is It says I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins. He looks into the heart. He is the only one who knows just how evil we are, and yet how wonderful He has become my salvation. He himself has undertaken the whole question of my state before God as a Sinner. He's taken up the question of all my sins. He has taken up the question of the nature that produced those sins.
And all was fully met and settled at Calvary's cross. The whole question of sins and sin was all taken up there and settled to God's glory. And God is not only satisfied, but God has been glorified about it, because being glorified, He has revealed all that is in His heart in love and grace.
Perhaps someone might say, well, what is the difference between him being satisfied and him being?
And glorified. Well, I often use a little illustration like this. Supposing that I have a great debt which I am unable to pay, and some some friend comes along and he pays the debt for me and hands me the receipt. I know my creditor satisfied. There is the receipt with his own handwriting. My mind is at peace now. It's all paid and I know that he's satisfied.
But let us suppose something else.
Supposing when I owe this great debt, my creditor himself looks on his books and he sees this large amount on his books. And he says to his son, would you be willing to pay this great debt so that we can take it off our books? And his son says, well, Dad, I'll have to sell my house and it'll take all the money that I get from my house to pay that debt. But if you want me to, I'll be willing to do that.
So his son.
Sells his house, all the money that he receives is taken, the debt is wiped off the account and I receive a receipt in the mail and it's marked paid in full through the kindness of my son. Now isn't that more than the fact that my credit is satisfied? Oh dear friends, I know that God is not only satisfied with the work of His blessed Son, but it was God Himself who loved me and gave His Son.
He was the one who sent him, and that blessed Savior came in love for you and for me.
And we can say, like the apostle Paul, the Son of God, who loved me.
And gave himself for me. What are my thoughts now about my creditor? What are my thoughts about his son?
Why, I'm full of gratitude because it was His own Son that paid the debt, and you and I can have this blessed knowledge and enjoyment in our souls. I say again, God is not only satisfied, but He's glorified. All that He is, is light and love has been fully manifested and manifested in such a way that He Himself is revealed to my heart.
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So he is my salvation.
What a blessed thing. I not only have salvation, but Christ himself is my salvation. When Simeon picked up that little babe in his arms, he said, Lord, now let us thou thy servant, depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. So we've been brought into the light, but the very one who brought us into the light himself has become.
Our salvation and would to God that every one of us entered into and enjoyed.
This there would not only be peace in our souls, there'd be worship in our hearts. We couldn't help but worship. I couldn't help but go to that man, my creditor, and say, oh, I want to tell you what a wonderful son you have. I I can't tell you how fine he is and what I think of him. And that's what you and I have the privilege of doing When we come as worshippers, we bring before God the Father all the excellence of his beloved son. That's.
Really what worship is, It's presenting Christ to God in all the excellence of his person and his work. And so perhaps we could say too, the Lord is my light and my salvation, that all the light of His presence has revealed that blood has cleansed us from. We walk in the light as He is in the light. We have fellowship one with another because the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Sometimes a person will say, well are you walking in the light? Well let me say this brethren, we all have been brought into the light and that's where we walk. That's where grace has brought us. Someone said to Mr. Darby one time, but what if a Christian turns his back on the light? Well he said the light will shine on his back. Thank God it's soul. We're in the light. That's where we've been brought and we've been fitted for the light too.
Because that precious blood has cleansed us from all sin.
So he can say the Lord is my light and my salvation.
Well knowing this then.
He says, Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? We have No Fear of any charge being laid against us, because it is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? But don't we need strength for our Christian pathway? Don't we discover how very weak we are, even though we know these wonderful things, that we are saved, that our sins are forgiven?
That we have been brought into favor in God's beloved Son. Don't we feel as we face the difficulties and problems of life? Oh, I just don't have any strength. I just don't know how I'm going to meet the situations of 1978. I may lose my job. Things are in an unhappy condition in my work and perhaps in the home and perhaps in the assembly. How am I going to do it?
All the same One who is my light and my salvation.
He could say, The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Who are we afraid of?
We have one who is stronger than all the power of the enemy says in John's epistle. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And the beloved apostle Paul when he was in prison in Rome, he writes in Philippians chapter 4. I can do all.
All things through Christ, which strengtheneth me, you say, well, he was a naturally contented type of person. No, he wasn't. He had to say, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. That's the very man who said that the commandment that slew him was thou shalt not covet. He wasn't a naturally contented type of person. He was a person who coveted things that.
People had he was an overbearing person, How could he get the victory? Well, the one who was his light, the one who was his salvation became the strength of his life. And in that Roman prison he could say, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. And brethren, it's just when we feel weak that we can experience this because he said on another occasion when I am weak.
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Then am I strong? That is when we come to the end of human resources. Then, and often not till then, do we rely on the Lord. I remember a brother saying one time, isn't it strange when we get into a difficulty, we try every way possible to get out of it, and then we use this expression. The only thing we can do now is pray. Why? It's just as if what we tried everything else. Now at last there's only one resource left to.
Us all friends, it's the, it's the only thing right from the start because before we try to do anything, that's what we should do. As we were noticing during the meetings, David wouldn't even go out against the enemy until he had first prayed and asked the Lord how to do it. It's true that he did have something that he had to do himself, but he prayed before he tried those things.
And when he had the Lord's direction, then the Lord's strength was with.
With him and there was, as we know, a great victory. So isn't this precious? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Says in the end of the 8th chapter of Romans. It says about those things that come into our lives, privation and trial. For thy sake we are killed all the day long. And then he immediately says, Nay.
In all these things we are more than conquered.
They just stopped to think of the force of that. He said we're killed all the day long and perhaps that's the way some of us feel just everything goes wrong all day long. He said no, no, that's not the way it is at all. He said we're more than conquerors in all these things. Now that is that difficult day that we went through and went through it in company with the Lord and found his strength is going to have a greater reward in heaven than that easy day when.
Just went smooth, he said we're more than conquerors because to be more than a conqueror means that the Lord not only helps us through the day, but He makes the day a positive gain in our Christian life. And if 1978 is the hardest year we ever experienced, it can have the brightest reward. Because in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
Have often said when we meet Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Have them. If we were to ask them, would you tell us what you think was the most wonderful experience you had in your whole life down here in this world? I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear them say it was when we were in that fiery furnace. What you say that experience the best of all? Yes, we were more than conquerors. The Lord walked with us in the fire, and so may we experience something.
Of this not only our light and our salvation, but strength. And we need strength because the enemy is closing in upon us with all his forces. And that's why he goes on to say, when the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. No one who should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against me.
Christianity is a conflict. The 6th chapter of Ephesians shows us that we need the whole armor of God. We just can't escape this conflict. If we're going to go on for the Lord, the enemy knows it, and he's going to come out with all his forces against us. But here the psalmist could say that wicked did come. They were enemies. There were foes. They encamped against him. But he said.
My heart shall not.
Fear, he had confidence in the Lord, he counted upon the Lord. And so he could say, though war should rise against me in this, will I be confident in what? Was he confident? Was he confident that he had a strong enough character to meet all these things? Oh no, he he wasn't confident in himself.
In fact, we find his own weakness displayed that after putting up with us.
Pressure for a long time he actually came to the point where he said I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul I am going down to the philosines. I just can't keep up this conflict all the time I am just going to escape and go down to the Philistines and just get away from all this conflict that he was going through ah he he realized how real a conflict was and when for a few moments he.
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Lost his confidence in the Lord, he went down to the Philistines. Perhaps all of us have had this kind of an experience. We just thought we couldn't face up to it anymore and we went down to the Philistines. But I've been rather struck by the fact that that was just the time the Lord planned to give him the Kingdom. That was exactly the time that the Lord planned that he was to receive the Kingdom when he went down there. And isn't it?
So that very often when we think that we've just come to the end of all our endurance, that the Lord wants us to realize that He is testing us and that He's able to come in just when we come to the end of our resources. That was the time. Of course, I will say this, that this must have made David very humble the rest of his life.
And I say that because.
If any of us look back over our lives, the Lord will never let us do any boasting except in Him. David could never say when he was king. Well, I know the Lord gave me the Kingdom because I was so faithful all those years that I was haunted by Saul. I was just so faithful that finally he did come in and give me the Kingdom. No, I think every time he thought about it he would say to himself.
Oh, I'm ashamed to even think of it. The very time when the.
Plan to give me the Kingdom. There I was down with the Philistines, offering my services to the King of Gath. What a what a humbling thing it was and how it magnified the grace of God. How it brought out his wondrous grace. And as someone has said, Peter could never boast that he walked on the water. He was the only one of the disciples that did. But he could never boast about it because while he was walking, he began to sink. He got his eyes off the Lord. And remember this.
And if you ever have any victory in your Christian life, the Lord will always allow there to be something that keeps you humble so that you won't be able to do any boasting except in Him.
Both safely in Him. You can always say, my boast is in the Lord. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Self-confidence is a sad thing. Peter, on the other hand, was very confident another time, so confident that he thought that even if all the other disciples denied the Lord that he would not do that. But Peter had to learn that he was no better than the rest of the disciples, and that self-confidence exposed himself.
And he almost seemed to be the worst. There's nothing.
As sadly recorded about the other disciples as there was of that boasting. Fear all. Let's be careful about self-confidence self.
Is such a dangerous thing. Let us never, never make boasts of what we can do or what we won't do. All we can say is, Lord keep me. He's the only one that can. Let him that thinketh he standeth. Take heed lest he fall. So we've noticed light and salvation, and strength and confidence. The Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall take thy foot from being taken.
Now here's another one in this.
Fourth verse One thing of I desired of the Lord that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life.
Now here was something that Paul or David greatly desired.
There was some very important thing in his life.
Paul could say one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I am reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark. The Lord could say about Mary, One thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part. So here we find that among all the other things that David might have asked the Lord for, there was one particular thing, one great thing in his life.
And it has been said that this is so important for us, man looking on it naturally who have made a success in life have been men that have applied themselves to one thing. And if you and I are going to have a life that God calls successful, we need to have one object before us. And David had this one object.
And this was what he desired. This is what he sought after. He not only desired it.
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He sought after it. Sometimes we have good desires, but we don't have spiritual energy. My father used to use the expression, sometimes we have a good wishbone, but a poor backbone. Well, I think that's true about us. You know, we really have good desires, but we just don't go after those things. We say I'd like to follow the Lord, but, well, there needs to be not only the desire, there needs to be that energy of faith.
That seeks after it. Someone asked Mr. Edison, what is the secret of your success? And he said and and said to him, is it inspiration? No, he said it's perspiration. He had to work. He had to keep on and you and I too. There needs to be an energy and this is what David is talking about. That will I seek after And what did he desire?
We all know the last verse of the 23rd Psalm.
And I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Every saved person in this room knows that verse, I'm quite sure. But what about this, That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life. All this is something a little different than the end of the journey, when we know that we're going to be in the Father's house.
The desire of the psalmist here was something that had to do with this life that I may dwell.
The House of the Lord, all the days of my life. And to my soul it means that you and I might walk like Enoch did in the Lord's company. It says that Enoch walked with God 300 years. Now that was the habitual thing on his life. He walked with God. And so may this be our desire too, that we would never, never lose in our souls the sins.
Of being in the company of the Lord Jesus. He said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. But on our part, sometimes we don't realize His presence. We're not conscious of it. We're like the two on the road to Emmaus. The Lord was in their company, but they weren't aware of it. They didn't realize that it was the Lord who was walking with them. And so may this be the desire of our hearts too.
To dwell in the House of.
The Lord all the days of my life, and notice what he adds to behold the beauty of the Lord. He desired also that in doing this he would be occupied with the Lord. So we can go on, so to speak, walking in the path, but we can get our eyes on our brethren instead of on the Lord. But he said, that I may behold.
The beauty of the Lord as very precious when we come.
Come to the meetings to try. Sometimes it takes a little bit of effort, but we need to try that when we come, we would be occupied with the Lord Jesus to behold the beauty of the Lord. He is the altogether lovely one. He's the One who's the same yesterday and today and forever. And sometimes it's necessary for us to watch that we don't get our eyes upon others instead of upon.
The Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord. He is always the chiefest among 10,000 and the altogether lovely 1. He changes not like we do.
And then he adds another thing here and to enquire in his temple. Well, this shows us what we were Speaking of briefly a few moments ago. To inquire in his temple, that is, there were decisions that David had to make. There were problems that faced him. And instead of trying to settle these things with his own wisdom, he said and to enquire in his temple.
Now it's a lovely thing to seek to walk close enough to the Lord that when a situation arises we can just turn to Him, like to our dearest friend, and to inquire of Him. We've spoken a little bit in the meetings about this. Nehemiah is a lovely example of it and how they're in the court of the king. Immediately he could turn and ask the Lord.
Saul on the road to Damascus when he was saved.
He said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And may this be the habit of our lives that were close enough to the Lord that we don't feel well, I'm at a distance from him. I just can't turn to him spontaneously if something has to be settled between me and the Lord before I can really turn to him. No, David's desire was that he would dwell in the House of the Lord. In other words, he'd always be so close that he could just turn and say, Lord.
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What wilt thou have me to do? Isn't this a Isn't this a grand state of soul? Can't you see why this beautiful little Psalm brings before us the resource that we have in the Lord?
Now in the fifth verse. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me.
You know, there there does come times of trouble in our lives. God has never promised that we're going to have a life that is free from trouble. Indeed, we find that when Paul was exhorting the young believers, he told them that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God.
And as we notice, the Lord Jesus also said to the disciples in the world, ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So the Lord allows these times of trouble to come in our lives, and He doesn't necessarily take us out of them, but He hides us in his pavilion and there are things that are necessary that He sees fit to pass us through.
In our lives and teach us to hide in his pavilion and is to find shelter in him.
Like the story of the little girl?
And her father was the sea captain, and they were out at sea and she was down in the room below with her mother, and they were sleeping. But the storm got so bad that the boat began to be tossed about. It was very, very rough. And it wakened the little girl up. And she turned to her mother who was there and said, mother is daddy at the house.
And she said yes, the earth. She just turned over and went back to sleep. The storm didn't stop. But what was it that gave her peace? Well, she knew who was at the helm. She knew that her daddy was there and she trusted him. And isn't that sweet for us too? He is at the helm. He is in control. So in the time of trouble, he will hide me in his pavilion. He can give us that sense of peace. I believe that's what.
Referred to in Philippians 4 when it speaks about the peace that passes all understanding how a person can be peaceful when everything goes wrong is not understood by the world, but it is understood by the Christian who knows that my Lord knows the way through the wilderness. What a blessed thing this is.
So in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me?
And then and he shall set me up upon a rock, and now shall mine head be lifted up above mine, enemies round about me.
I thought of this expression here, and now shall my hand be lifted up above mine? Enemies round about me suggest the thought. When is the world going to realize that the Christian has something better than what they have? They'll never realize it as long as they see us in prosperity and everything going well, and we have good health and everything.
They'll say, well of course, just like Satan said to the Lord.
About Job, well, he said, of course Job's happy. Everything comes his way. He's got a nice family, he's got wealth. Why shouldn't he be happy? Anybody be happy when everything's going well? But take away those things. And then and then so the Lord said, well, all right, Satan, take them away and you'll see. And so those things were taken away. And Job was able to say, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed.
Be the name of the Lord. Then when he lost his health, he said, shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil? You see, the proof of what Job had was the fact that when he was in trouble, he was above it in his soul and he was able to take it from the Lord. And you know that's where the testimony comes to the world.
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When the world sees a crystal.
In sickness, when the world sees a Christian in some calamity comes upon him, and he sees a peace there. His head is lifted up above his enemies. And they say, Well, I laughed at that fellow's Christianity, but I must say he has something. I can see it now, because I really would be all upset if things like that happened to me. But he seems to have a peace and a joy. That's what he means when he says, and now shall mine head be lifted?
Up above mine, enemies round about me. So the Lord uses these things. I believe that's the force of that passage in Peter where it says.
They may despise us, but it says they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. When troubles come, then they realize that you as a Christian have something that they don't have. So it's a very blessed thing that even in the time of trouble the Christian renders A testimony to this world. We see it perfectly in the Lord Jesus.
There was always such peace in his soul as he went through all the rejection and misunderstanding of the disciples. I might just add this about Job that.
Job accepted the loss of his family, the loss of his wealth that was. He seemed to accept that very graciously. He found it a little more difficult to accept the loss of his health. But you know what really bothered Job was when his friends turned against him.
That was really what brought out what was in Job's heart. And I just want to add this little thought because perhaps some of us have had the same experience. Maybe we've lost some material things and the Lord seemed to be very near. Perhaps we've lost our health and still the Lord seemed to be very near. But how did we act? How did we react, Perhaps I should say, when someone said something unkind.
Perhaps untrue about us. Maybe that brought out something in us that wasn't very nice.
That's what happened with Job. And why did God allow things to go from one point to another? It wasn't hard enough to lose his possessions. Wasn't it hard enough to lose his health? Why did the Lord allow the other? Because the Lord was really bringing Job to the point where he would say.
I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. And you know there's nothing, brethren, that brings out what we are in ourselves like false accusations.
That really hurts and when the Lord allows them have often said we learn more about ourselves by false accusations than true ones. We only have to be honest when someone accuses us of something that's true. We only have to be honest to hang our heads and say I'm sorry, I have to admit it's true. But when someone accuses us of something that's not true.
All the self righteousness within us rises up. Imagine I never did a thing like.
That and I wouldn't do a thing like that. What's that? A very thing God wants to break down that self-confidence, that pride. You know, when these things happen, if Job had only said, well, I could have done those things and I would have done them but for the grace of God. And God has allowed these friends to say these things to help me to keep humble. Job would have got a blessing much sooner.
So I say again, God allows the time of trouble.
He allows it to teach us, to bring us to the end of our resources. What for? That we might learn that we have a full resource, a complete resource in the Lord. He's sufficient for everything.
So he says Here, therefore will Ioffer in his Tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yeah, I will sing praises unto the Lord. And isn't it often true? When the Lord has brought us down to the end of ourselves, when He has brought us to realize that we're nothing, then isn't it true that there's praise comes out of our hearts to Him because we find them?
And what a resource we have in him. God blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. Job was a happier believer, a more fruitful believer in the end of his life than he had been before.
And so the Lord sees fit sometimes to pass us through these things in order that there would be more of those sacrifices of joy, more praise to Him, and perhaps some of us have experienced.
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This, that when the Lord has passed us through times like this, why He has enabled us to take it from Him, and He has really produced praise. I've noticed even in the meeting that a brother who's been through a great deal in his life will often have more praise in his heart. He has learned the all sufficiency of Christ. So you can see the order in this chapter.
A time of trouble. He hides us. He produces something in US that responds.
Hands in praise.
And then he says in the eighth verse, When thou saidst seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face Lord, will I seek.
Theories tonight about just the words of the lips, but he's talking about what the heart says.
You know, it's, it's most important what the heart is saying.
Scripture says as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And we can often say nice words with our lips, but the Lord looks on the heart. And so it says, here My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord will I seek. And we know that the Lord is looking on our hearts right now. Are we really from our hearts, seeking his face?
As we enter this new year, is it really in our hearts?
Not just on our lips, but in our, in the inmost heart, the desire to live, to please the Lord Jesus, to seek his face, to continually seek to walk in the light of his countenance. So when he heard that expression.
Seeking my face, his heart responded. Thy face, Lord, will I seek, and I hope this will be the desire of my heart and of yours as we enter this new year.
That we would seek His face, That we would really seek to walk in communion with Him. And that's why the next verse now comes in Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither. Forsake me, O God, of my salvation.
I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that we don't have the full blessedness of Christian position brought before us in the Psalms.
We can be sure that the Lord will never hide His face and never leave nor forsake us. But brethren, I believe there is a moral lesson for us in this verse. And I believe the lesson is just this, that the thing that we ought to fear most of all is getting into the place where His face is, as it were hidden from us. Where like those two on the road to Emmaus, there was the Lord, and they didn't know it. And isn't it possible for us?
To be just like that, going along from day-to-day and while the Lord is there in all the loveliness of His grace and of His kindness and of His person. But we don't, we're not conscious of His presence. We don't realize it.
There's something that has come between.
Because if there's anything that's come between, why it's not on God's part. There can be, however, a veil upon our hearts. The little hymn says. Still sweet tis to discover if clouds have dimmed my sight when past eternal lover towards me as err, thou art bright. So I say again, the Lord is never hiding his face. But sometimes we can get a lot of things between.
We can get so many.
Many things cares of this life. We can get perhaps a little rebellion in our hearts about situations that have arisen. There can be just so many things that can come, and it can be just like a cloud coming between US and the Lord. And David said, I fear that. I fear it, Lord, hide not thy face far from me. And so may the Lord grant that we might realize.
That the saddest thing that can happen in our life.
Is not some calamity like happened to Job, but the saddest calamity is to lose sight of the Lord. It's just to be in a condition where we don't see Him right beside us. Let a little child be in trouble, and what does the child want? Immediately? It looks to see his mother close by. And the Lord wants that childlike simplicity with us.
Now that just we can look up. And so may this be desire of our hearts.
And to put it very simply, may we fear more than anything else getting out of communion or fellowship with the Lord. And if there is anything that has come between any of us and the Lord, and things do come between, little foxes are allowed, they grow into other things, and these things can come between US and the Lord so that we don't enjoy the light of his countenance.
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Let's let's have it out with the Lord. Don't let it remain there.
There's anything that any of us have in our hearts that is hindering us from enjoying the Lord. It doesn't matter what it is, but let's have it out with the Lord. Let's be like Jacob. He wrestled all night and he said to the Angel, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. No wonder the sun rose upon him 20 years before the sun had set, 20 years.
It's possible to go 20 years out of fellowship with the Lord, but after 20?
Years the sun rose upon him. Jacob, as we remarked this morning, was lame. The rest of his life he halted on his thigh every time he took a limp, he'd think that's what happened. But I'm restored and saw how lovely it is to see how the Lord brought him back. And so I just want to say that if there's anything with any of us that has come between US and the Lord.
Let's not rest until we have it out with him.
Let us be like Jacob, let us not be willing to go without the blessing of his presence. For it says the Lord, bless thee and keep thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Then in the 10th verse he says, When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
Sometimes loyalty to Christ may mean even the breaking of human ties. That is, those that we love so dearly may not quite understand or appreciate our desires to please the Lord.
We do love our those who are dear to us, and it would never be right for us to neglect the responsibilities to them.
Just like the Lord Jesus, when his mother came and his brethren and wanted him to stop his service to God his Father, to come out and speak to them, He said, Who is my mother and who is my brethren? But when on the cross his mother was in need, what did He do? There in the midst of all his own sorrow, He turned and commanded her to the care of John.
Isn't that most precious to see in the life of the Lord Jesus?
Is the perfect illustration of this how He would never allow his mother or his brethren to hinder him from doing his father's will, but he would not neglect them either? So here father and mother may forsake us, but the Lord will never. He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. He never fails.
Now he says in the next verse, Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. There are two things in this verse. First teach me and then lead me.
You know, sometimes we might teach people things, but we don't walk in the things ourselves. We can say this is the way it should be, but as the world has the saying, your life speaks so loudly I can't hear what you say.
But it isn't Saul. He desired that the Lord would teach him and lead him. And isn't that what God does in His Word? He's given us the instruction that we need.
There is all the instruction that we need in this precious book. God is able to teach us in the path in which we should go thy way. Oh Lord, are we willing to listen to his teaching? Are we willing to be like Mary who sat at Jesus feet and heard his words? Well, not only does he teach us, but like it says in the 10th chapter of John it says.
When he called forth his own sheep, he goeth.
Before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. If the Lord directs us into a path, he also goes before us in that path. And to me that's very, very precious, because I believe that's why he's spoken of as the captain of our salvation. A captain in the army might send his men into an engagement that he doesn't realize what the men are going to have.
Face. But I've often said the Lord will never send us into any engagement in our Christian life that he hasn't already gone before. He's the captain. All the path that we tread, he has trodden before. What a wonderful thing it is to have not only the path marked out, but to have the Lord himself going before. And let us not be like those in Isaiah.
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Forget the chapter, I think it's the 30th chapter it says.
Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee saying this is the way. Walk ye in it. That is, we get ahead of the Lord, and then the Lord speaks from behind, but he's still, he's still seeking to lead us. He, he sees us take a wrong turn and he's, he's behind. We should have let him go before, but he's behind there and there he says, this is the way.
Locust.
Out here in this country, I often appreciate it that people not only tell me the way to go, but sometimes if there are a few complications, they say, well, I'll lead you until you get to the Thruway or whatever it may be, and then I'll I'll put you right on the freeway. You know, I appreciate that because I found when people tell me you go this way and you turn left and then you turn right by the time they said these.
Two or three left and right turns, I've forgotten them. I get kind of a little confused and I guess they see that on my face and they say, well, listen, I'll just jump in my car and I'll go ahead of you. Well, he not only told me the way, but they went before. That's the kind of a savior we have.
And the psalmist felt this and he said, oh Lord, don't just teach me, please leave me, because even though I'm told the right way, sometimes when I come to the corner I say to my wife, did they say turn right or left? And I've lost that the Lord goes before. So he he says, teach me and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies.
Then on the 12TH verse he says, Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
I think this verse is very precious.
Here's there are times in our life when that's all we can say is deliver me. And you notice the occasion false witnesses had risen up against him. You know, when something false is said about you, it's very, very difficult to set it right, isn't it? And often the harder you try, the worse it gets. So when David thought about these false witnesses, he didn't try to set these things right.
All he did was say, Lord, deliver me.
And brethren, that sometimes that's all you can do. You just can't set a thing right. You just have to leave it with the Lord. But you can always say deliver me. And that's all the psalmist said. He said things are being said, I know they're not true, and he just committed a whole cause to the Lord. We find that most preciously in the Lord. When they brought false accusations against him, it says he answered not a word, and the Scripture tells us why.
It says, Who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, He threatened not, but committed himself unto him. The judgeth righteously in all things. Remember this, brethren, the Lord always has the record down properly. No matter what anybody says, the Lord always has the record down properly, and it's to Him we have to answer.
And you know, Job argued and argued with his friends. He never was able to set them right with all.
His arguments, all that he said just seemed to make matters worse and they just kept on piling on to him. If I can use that expression and poor job, he tried and tried and then he gave up. He stopped. And you know, that's all we can do. Sometimes we just have to say, well, I'll leave it with the Lord, deliver me. That's what the psalmist said that give peace in the soul because I say again the Lord.
Knows those precious words in the letters to.
Churches in every one of them, it says.
It says I know thy works. No matter what they said or thought about their works, the Lord said, I know thy works. Isn't that a consolation to the heart that wants to please him?
Now then He said in the 13th verse, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. That is, if you expect to see everything set right in this world, you're discouraged right now. I know you're discouraged right now. And that's what he said. He said I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. This is not the land of the living. This is the land of the dying. But we're going to the land of the living.
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We're going to that place where everything's going to be set right, where we're going to be just like him. And it says his servant shall serve him, and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their forehead, when all pain and tears will be wiped away. And he said I would be discouraged if I didn't believe that that's the land that I'm going to, that bright and glorious land.
To see the goodness of the Lord and the land of the living.
And brethren, it will be the goodness of the Lord that brings us there, and it will be his Amazing Grace if he finds anything in our lives worth rewarding because it's all of himself. And so and so getting occupied with the things I say. Again, if you're expecting to see everything set in this world, I know it right now. You're discouraged. I can tell that you're discouraged. But if you're waiting to the land of the living, if you've got your eyes on that and you're trying to miss present.
To seek to honor and please the Lord.
Then you have found what the psalmist is seeking to bring before us here, the full and blessed resource that we have in the Lord for everything in our pathway.
So he closes the little song with those lovely words. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. To me that little expression all makes me think of how something comes up and you don't know just what to say. And you have a very good friend and you say.
Well, wait, I'd like to talk it over with my friend and I'll give you my answer tomorrow.
You have such confidence in them that you say, I don't want to answer this thing quickly. I have a friend and we like to talk things over. When I've talked it over, then I'll give the answer. And so haven't we got such a wonderful friend. And so let's not go ahead of them. Let's not run before him. His name is wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, since we have such a wonderful friend.
And since we have, as this little Psalm shows us, such a full and blessed resource in himself, let's not run ahead of him. Let's wait. And this will give courage, This will give strength. We have such a resource in himself. Well, may the Lord grant that we'll prove this. We don't know what's ahead for this year, but we do know the one who has promised not to leave us nor forsake us. And may the prayer of our hearts be.
Lead me and teach me.
And lead me in a plain path. He wants to lead us. He is the captain. And soon we're going to hear the shout and he's going to take us safely home. But he knows the ways through the wilderness, and he's the only one that does.