Address—G.H. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like you to turn with me this afternoon to Isaiah chapter 40.
Isaiah chapter 40.
I will read a good part of this chapter, but just part, just part of it, but I'd like to pick out portions beginning at the first verse. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see up together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
The voice said, cry, and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, The flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
12TH verse Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?
And meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, And waved the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.
Who hath erected the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as a small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beast. There are sufficient for a burnt offering all nations.
Before him are as nothing, and they are accounted to Him less than nothing and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto Him? The Workman melteth a graven image, and the Goldsmith spreaded it over with gold, and cast of it cast the silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot. He seeketh unto him.
A cunning Workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.
Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have the Enah understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a temp to dwell in.
27th verse Why speakest thou with Jacob? Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou Israel? My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God.
Hast thou not known that the Everlast? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.
And just a few verses in Matthew chapter 6.
Verse 31.
Matthew 6, verse 31.
Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed for all these things to the Gentiles, Seek for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Well, the reason I've read this portion this afternoon to young people is because I believe that there is a constant tendency with us all to expect something from nature from the first man, and God would teach us that all comes from him.
Isn't a marvelous thing that God, who has made this creation in which we live, is interested in us? It tells us in Proverbs chapter 8 that when He laid the foundations of the earth, His delights were with the sons of man.
00:05:07
He's concerned about each person here this afternoon. He's concerned about those who are young, looking out on life, thinking of great prospects, no doubt wondering what we're here for, what life is all about. And we find more and more that young people are in quest of this, this matter. What is life about? Why am I here? What is the end? And we find them turning to the philosophies of man and to the ideas of man.
But I'm both to say that.
Now God has spoken that he has given us His precious word. He has revealed to us all that we need to know about why we're here, what life is all about, where it's all going to end. And above all that He has shown us that He does have an interest in us. He has an interest in you. And there's not one person in this room this afternoon who can say, well, God isn't concerned about my life. I'm just so small in the great universe that God is not concerned about.
Me this afternoon I want to show you that He is concerned about you, that He does care about you, that every detail of your life is of concern to him. When the Lord Jesus went to the side of the well.
In the 4th chapter of John there was a woman that came out to draw water. She had just recognized in the Lord Jesus a Jew who had come there, a stranger to her. But she was soon to learn that this person knew all about her, knew everything that she had ever done. And I spoke to her heart. She said come see a man that told me all things that ever I did.
Is not this the Christ? Well, He knows all that you've done. He knows all that I've done.
Done and knowing it all. He loves us.
But the young people, the thing that we are so slow to learn, thing that it takes us almost a lifetime to even begin to learn, is that the flesh profiteth nothing, that all that we are in ourselves is nothing. But that it's God himself who has made himself known, who speaks to us, who reveals Himself. And it is as we get hold of His truth, his Word, his will.
As there is blessing for us.
And so when God placed Adam in the garden, he surrounded him with everything that was for his happiness. But what did he want? He wanted more than what God had provided. He wanted something that God had said no. And so he reached out. He took that forbidden thing. And instead of getting what he expected, he got a great deal of trouble and sorrow and disappointment. And if you and I don't follow the word of God, if we.
Our own wisdom. If we follow the wisdom of man, if we follow the ideas and philosophies and thoughts of man, we're just going to end in disappointment. But if we follow the precious Word of God, if we have our eyes upon the Lord Jesus, then we'll learn that He wants to bless us. And He not only wants to bless us for time, but for all eternity. As we had in the meeting this morning, the Lord Jesus spoke to his.
Disciples that their joy might be full. And He has given to us these things in His words so that we might be able to have fellowship with Him. And I don't know of anything more wonderful than the fact that we can have fellowship with our Creator. Just think of this tremendous fact. God spoke of Abraham and said, Abraham, my friend, Abraham, my friend.
And I can't wish anything better for any of you here this afternoon.
Afternoon that you should enjoy friendship with your Creator, knowing Him, knowing that he loves you, knowing that he has taken up the question of your sins and settled them, is concerned about every step of your life, is concerned about your eternal happiness. I said I don't know of anything more wonderful. And if you get hold of this and if you enter into this blessed thing in your soul, you're going to begin.
Real happiness.
Real joy. But oh, it's when we get out of fellowship with him, when we decide to follow our own way, that we only run into problems and difficulties.
Sometimes as young people, I speak for myself as a young person, we get the idea that the Bible simply tells us the way of salvation, the way to gather, tells us truth about things that concern our spiritual life. But as though God were not really concerned about all the natural things of life, but he is concerned about even the natural things of life. Indeed, He has made the natural things as patterns of the spiritual.
00:10:13
Far as the relationship of a child with a father is a picture of the relationship of knowing God as our Father and that we are His children, the relationship of the husband and wife are a pattern of that which is far greater. Christ and His Church. The relationship of a Master and the employer is to be the relationship of the Lord Jesus our Master.
And that we are to serve Him so that all these natural things are given.
Assembly patterns of that which is spiritual and God is concerned about that.
Well, notice our chapter here where we read it begins with comfrey. Comfrey my people, saith your God. If we didn't understand the ways of God, we couldn't understand the setting of this verse because the next verse says her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now that doesn't sound very comforting, that.
Warfare has taken place that one has received of the Lord's hand double for all his sins. You say. Why? Is there any comfort in that?
Yes, friends, there's comfort in this. And what is the comfort? Because we don't know what real comfort is until we have come the end of ourselves. We've got to come to the end of ourselves. And until we do, we don't know what real comfort is. Because we're always trying something new and it's only a disappointment now. Every time we try it, we think we're going to get something out of it. And after a while we find out it's a disappointment because anything that we try to have.
Joy apart from fellowship with the Lord, apart from His will, will ultimately lead to disappointment. And so it's a great thing when we get hold in our souls of this fact, dear young people, I hope you'll get hold of it very young because we go through some terrible conflicts. I believe that's why it says her warfare is accomplished. Some of us go through some terrific conflicts all through our lives. And why?
Right. Well, because we think we're going to get something by our own efforts. Then we fight and we strive and we go after these things. And then perhaps at the end of our life, we come to the point that Joseph, that Jacob came to, he worshiped leaning on the top of his staff, He came to the end of himself. He said, I've trusted Jacob. I've tried all Jacob's plans and none of them had worked out.
But I see something outside of myself. He wrestled with the Lord.
He received from the Lord that wonderful name of Israel.
A Prince with God, he walked from that time on a staff, and he worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. And dear young people, are you going through some of these conflicts?
You say I'll be glad when those conflicts are over and I really get somewhere. You'll never get anywhere as long as there are conflicts to get somewhere in your own strength. But when you've come to the end of that, when you've realized that these things are going to disappoint, that they're not going to fail, then you'll be comforted because you'll be comforted outside of your own plans. You'll be comforted in the Lord. You'll see that His plan is for your blessings. Your plan was to work it out yourself.
And then it says.
Her iniquity is pardoned. Isn't it wonderful that God pardons us for all the mistakes that we make along the way in trying this out? Oh, how many mistakes many of us have made. We've tried this and we've tried that, and we hang our heads while I made a mistake there and the Lord pardoned us. The Lord pardoned us. How gracious he is that alone we do make these mistakes, that he's an unchanging God. He loves us in spite of the mistakes that we make, not that He wants us to make them.
Because it's to our own loss and we may have to reap for these mistakes through the rest of our life. Jacob did.
When Jacob finally did come to the point where he learned and when he did lean on the top of his staff, why did he lean on the top of his staff? He was a lame man for the rest of his life. Yes, he hobbled along. And you know, we have to come to this point and sometimes we have to huddle along because of our mistakes. Yes, we bring things on ourselves, dear young people. And let me warn you.
That if you go on in self will and you choose your own way.
00:15:02
The Lord will not forsake you, but he'll bring you back. But maybe you'll have to hobble along the rest of your life because you followed your own way. But he's faithful and it'll be a great comfort to your soul. When you've come to the point where, like Jacob, you lean on something outside of yourself and you look up and say the Lord's faithful. I failed, I made a mistake, but he pardoned me. He restored me for.
He is pardoned. But then there's this solemn side she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
I believe, friends, that this applies to the government of God. The government of God, How solemn.
That we do have to come under his government, not because he doesn't love us, but because we won't learn any other way, it says in Hebrews chapter 12.
That whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourge us every son whom he receiveth.
If we're chastened, God deals with us, as with sons. Yes, he loves us. He doesn't want to use this.
In fact, I've enjoyed in the 12TH chapter of Hebrews.
Where we have this chastisement brought in? The chapter doesn't begin with chastisement, does it?
Start out in the 12TH chapter by talking about chastisement. How does the 12TH chapter begin? Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. The chapter begins in an objective way, setting a person before our hearts, encouraging us by showing us one who began and completed the path of faith perfectly and says, get your eye upon him and you will be able to go on in the path of faith with happiness and joy. But then when we don't, when we get our eye off him, when like Peter, we look at the waves and.
We hear the wind whistling. Why? Then we look around, we begin to sink. And what does he do? Well, he puts out his hand and he pulls us up. But oh, what a a sad thing this is, and I can't pass over it, dear young people, without pressing it upon you that these three things here, first of all, this warfare, this conflict that we often have to go through.
Because we rely upon ourselves.
Our own wisdom, our own planning, and we go through this conflict, we're disappointed, then we make some mistake and we turn to the Lord, like David did when he made his mistake. And the Lord said to David, I have forgiven my sin. But he also added something else. He said the sword shall not depart from my house forever.
All dear young people, the Lord doesn't want to have to do this in your life. He doesn't want you to have to spend a good part of your life under His government. He wants to bless you. He wants to give you a really fruitful and happy life.
But there will be no comfort in your soul until you have come to the point where, so to speak, you come to the end of self and you rely upon the Lord. And then, as it was with David, after David had made that mistake, then he went into the House of the Lord, and he praised the Lord. He was a dependent person. He was comforted. Some of the precious psalms that were written were written by David.
Even after he had failed, God is the God of all comfort. He's the God of all encouragement. And if there should be anyone here and you say, well, I've made a mess of my life, I've spoiled it, it's over for me. No, it may not be the best part of your life may be still ahead because the Lord pardons those mistakes and he can bring you back and he can restore you. He can fill your heart with joy and you can walk in fellowship with Him even if you have.
Celine on the top of your staff to do it. Yes, he's a faithful God and saw this that we have in our chapter is what is going to happen for Israel after all their history.
Think of the Old Testament history. And then they rejected their Messiah. They've been under the government of God for these almost 2000 years, some millions of them exterminated in Germany. Just think of all this coming upon that nation. And yet in the end God is going to bless them. And he says arise, shine, for thy light is come. The glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Blessing is ahead for that nation.
00:20:02
And the Lord will never, never.
Forego his promises. But I say again, may the Lord help us to get hold of these things in youth, and be spared many a sorrow. So the third verse, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. This is a desert scene.
And here is the voice of one crying in the wilderness. What is he saying?
Make good plans for yourself. No, Prepare the way of the Lord. Dear young people, that's what I desire for you. That's what I desire for myself. Prepare the way of the Lord. How are you giving the Lord Jesus His rightful place in your life? Are you preparing a way for Him?
Well, you're from this very moment. Look up to him and say, Lord, I don't want my own plan for my life. I want to have thy plan.
It's a wilderness, and you may say, well, it's awfully difficult. I don't see any path through the wilderness. There's so many questions in my mind. You remember when the children of Israel were going through the wilderness?
And I guess poor Moses thought it was going to be hard to find their way through that trackless sand. So long came a man named Hobbad, and he knew the way through that wilderness. He was a man who lived there. He had all kinds of human wisdom. And so Moses said to him, you know the way through this wilderness, Hobab.
You lead us through the wilderness. You will be to us instead of eyes.
But the Lord removed, Holb wasn't the one to lead them. And when Hodab was gone, it says the Lord went before them to search out a resting place. The Lord went before them. Have you got your eye on some Hobbes? Have you got your eye on some person? And you say, well, that person can help me. That person can tell me what to do.
I'll prepare a way for the Lord. Give the Lord his right to his rightful.
Place in your life, look up to him right now and ask him to direct your path because there's only one right way and that's his way. His way.
And it says a highway for our God. Well, you say, I think I see a lot of difficulties in that path, though I know some other Christians who've tried to follow the Lord, and they seem to have had a lot of difficulties and troubles. The Lord doesn't promise that if you follow Him, you're going to have a smooth path.
Paul didn't have a smooth path, but you can have sorrow in a path of self will, or you can have troubles in following Christ. That's true.
It says in Philippians unto you, it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. It's true that there are troubles in the path of faith, and I'm not standing here to tell you that if you set out to follow Christ that all the difficulties are immediately going to be straightened out. Thought I say, the Lord will be with you, and He will help you through them. He will not fail you nor forsake you.
And so it says, every valley.
Shall be exalted. Doesn't say the valleys taken away, but the valley is exalted.
And it's a wonderful thing to go through a valley experience, to go down, down, down into the bottom of the valley and then find that in the valley it's, so to speak, exalted. Yeah. You find the Lord there. He's there in the valley.
Not life, that even in the valley he'll be with you. And so he says, every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain hill shall be made low. Those things that you think you can never surmount, you can never climb over. Why? He'll make them low for you. He'll help you through them. He won't take them away, but he'll make them low so that as you go through them, you'll find that he's helping you along the way.
It's something like the imagery that.
Is used in the 55th chapter of Isaiah. In Isaiah 55, after Speaking of salvation there says, Oh everyone that thirst us, and to come to the Lord, and he will abundantly pardon than in the last part of the Psalm of the chapter. Rather it says, the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Yes, the mountains and hills will break forth before you into singing.
King, I've often said.
00:25:02
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were cast into the fiery furnace.
That was a terrific experience, wasn't it?
But I'm sure it was a wonderful experience.
And I expect that when we meet Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in heaven.
If we were to ask them this question, what do you consider was the greatest experience of your whole life on earth?
That probably each one of them will give us the same answer and they'll say why it was to be in that fiery furnace because the Lord walked in us with, walked in that furnace with us. So I'm not going to be unrealistic. I'm not going to say to you that if you put the Lord first that they're not going to be any more problems in life. But I say that when you go down into the valley, it'll be exalted because the Lord will be there.
When you face the problem and the difficulty, it'll break forth before you into singing, and the Lord will make it easy. He'll make it low. He'll take you through it. He's faithful. The Lord Jesus didn't have an easy path here, and He doesn't promise us an easy path.
Sometimes we make the same mistake that Mary made.
When Mary saw the Lord after his resurrection, she supposed him to be the gardener. Did you ever suppose the Lord to be the gardener? You suppose that he was going to just make a lovely garden out of your life. He was just going to smooth it over everything and make everything bloom. While she was mistaken, wasn't she? He wasn't the gardener. And he said to her, Mary.
Don't look at the garden down here. Look up there. I ascend unto my Father and your father, and to my God and your God, and perhaps to your young person. When you got saved, you thought the Lord was going to just straighten out everything in your life and you're going to meet a friend and you're going to have a nice home and he was going to find a good job for you. Just everything was going to be wonderful. But it just didn't work that way. And you said I was disappointed.
Well, he wasn't. He doesn't promise to do that.
He does promise, though, that he has something for you up there and that he'll help you along the way.
Now all you say, but some people seem to have it easy, some people it seems to work out.
Well, perhaps you've noticed a very interesting thing in the end of the 11TH of Hebrews in the Faith chapter. For in the 11TH of Hebrews we have the faith of many in the Old Testament.
And there are two groups there that are brought before us. Perhaps we could turn to it, for it is quite interesting to notice here.
Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 32.
And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barack, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David also and Samuel, of the prophets.
Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of the sword, a fire escape, The edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed Valium in fight, turned to flight. The armies of the aliens women received their dead, raised to life again. Now there's a break here. And I want you to notice here that this first group.
Everything seemed to work out for them.
They stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire. Everything seemed to work out. But now notice the second group here beginning with the middle of the 35th verse. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourging, Yay, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, and these all having obtained a good report through faith.
Notice the second group, they didn't get deliverance. The first group when they were in trouble and they cried to the Lord, he wrought deliverance. And the second group, when they were in trouble, the Lord stood by them in the trouble, but He did not deliver them.
You say, well, some of my friends seem to be in the first group, they pray for things and things work out for them, but I pray and things don't work out for me. What's the matter? Well, isn't it nice that God puts these two groups and then makes this lovely comment? They all obtained a good report through faith and if the Lord tests your faith allows you to suffer in the path of following Him.
I don't think it's because of something in yourself.
00:30:01
Necessarily, maybe he's put you in the second group. Maybe he has said, well, that person can glorify me in suffering, just as another person has seen the answers to his prayer and has been delivered in a different way. Ah, dear young person, it's the will of God. That's the path of blessing. It's the will of God and this we have to learn. And if you struggle under the fact that somebody else got deliverance and you didn't, you're going to be unhappy. And there will be.
Comfort in your soul. Why? Because you'll be forever trying to work out a plan to get out of the problem, but when there is a submission to his will, a taking of that thing from him.
Is a blessing in it. There's comfort in the soul because we come to the end of self and we want his will. We want his company. We want to dwell in the sunshine of his faith, whether it's in the valley or whether it's in prosperity. Ah, dear young person, may the Lord give you that grace to see that he does have a plan for your life and that he knows what is best for you and if you get hold of this you'll have a happy.
Contented, fruitful life.
So it says, the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. All those things that seem so crooked in your life, they'll suddenly become straight. All those places that seem so rough, they'll seem smooth. And why? Because you're in good company, you're in the enjoyment of his company. And that gives you peace in your heart, gives you comfort in your soul.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. All if we see his glory, we have him before us. That's the answer. The voice said, cry. And he said, What shall I cry?
Well, it was a strange answer here, wasn't it?
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, The flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people, his grass, yes, all men's glory, all that in which He boasts, is just like the flower of the field.
When he was asked what shall I cry, he told to cry this.
And we're living in days of prosperity. We're living in days when the world has made great scientific progress. Men have discovered things. They've made a shot at the moon and landed on it. They've discovered so many things in the field of science, it almost makes us afraid.
Men under the hand of God have been allowed to make tremendous progress. But I ask, has it solved the world's problems? Has it made things happier?
Is there more contentment? Is there more peace? No, it doesn't come that way. All flesh is grass already, Both sins, like the flower of the grass. But what's going to stand? The word of our God shall stand forever. All young people, this book is being assailed on every hand. We're being told it's outdated. We're being told that it's a post Christianity age and that we have to.
We have to think modernly. All this book will stand. God's counsels will stand. You can take this book and rely on it in school, in college, in work, in every problem of life. And I'll tell you this, it'll never, never disappoint you. It's suited to 1970 as it was suited to AD 70. If suited to you, it's suited to me. It's what you need.
Read it, read it prayerfully, read it often. Ask God by His Spirit to make it good to your soul. And you'll find more wisdom in this book than all the books in the presidential library. This precious book, the word of our God, shall stand forever. It'll stand you, young people, And if you read it, you'll get a blessing for your soul.
And so going on and to the 12TH verse, it says, Who hath measured the waters and the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth, and a measure, and weighed the mountains and scales, and the hills in a balance?
Why does it bring this before us in the chapter?
Well, men have made these great advances in science.
But.
We're not talking about what man has discovered about it.
These verses are talking about the Creator himself.
You might make something and a clever man examines it and says, I know how that works, but he didn't make it. He found out how it worked, but he didn't make it. But the one whom we speak about is the one who made this, and what a great hand he has. It says he measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. Let's think of all the waters in this world. He measures them in the hollow of his hand.
00:35:23
And dear friend, that's the hand that holds you securely.
That hand that our brother was talking about last night that holds each believer is the hand that measured out the waters of this world and just held them in the hollow of his hand. What a great hand. That's the hand that is stretched out on your behalf.
And then it says.
He meted out the heavens with a span.
Men have.
Got very powerful telescopes, the telescope and Mount Pulisar and they've looked up and they they haven't yet come to the extent of space. The larger the telescope, the more they see that space seems to be beyond what they can discover through these powerful telescopes. But the one who put all those orbs in the sky, he just measures them with a span. My span isn't very large, perhaps 9 inches or so.
But he measures the heavens with a span, and that's the hand that is stretched out for you. Yes, when he his peoples cause defends, who then shall stay his hand?
Could you doubt that he's able to protect you if he has such a great hand as that? If he has a hand that's able to do all this?
As I say, man prides themselves that they have discovered some of the wonders of God's creation, but we glory in the Creator Himself. It says that let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, but let him glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth made. Yes, that's something to glory in, isn't it? Somebody showed you a great.
Piece of work and said isn't this a masterpiece and you examine it?
It would be really something to be able to say, well, I'm an intimate friend of that person who made that. He's a friend of mine. Wouldn't you feel quite pleased that you could talk that way that. Well, that man's an intimate friend of mine. Our friend, the one who made this universe, is an intimate friend of mine. Yes, he loves me. He's my father.
He gave his son to die for me. What a blessed thing. Are you enjoying this? Is it something that's real to your soul?
With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him?
Who was it that established the laws of nature? Who told them how to do it?
He didn't have to study, he just spoke and it was done. And that's the one who says, and don't you think I can plan your life?
If I could put all those stars in the sky, and if I could make them revolve in perfect precision and according to my plan for centuries.
Years, perhaps even thousands upon thousands of years that they have rolled around in their courses. And then to think that we should be so foolish to think, well, he just can't plan my life. My life's too complicated, too many problems. You don't know what I'm facing this afternoon.
You don't know the things that are going through my mind. You say, ah, he does though, and he cares and he's interested in you.
Says the nations. There is a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance.
The 16th verse and the Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beast. There are sufficient for a burnt offering. That is, you say, well, I'd like to give him something. Well, he says all the beasts aren't sufficient for a bird offering. A little hymn that says love that transcends our highest powers demands our soul, our life, our all. It's not what you give to him have you given yourself?
It's you he wants. It's your company he wants, dear young person. He not only wants to work your problems.
Comes out, but he actually says I want your company and nothing less than your company forever will satisfy me. Some of us enjoy this happy privilege of having three days companionship with our brethren, our friends, but the Lord says I'm not going to be satisfied with three days. I'm not going to be satisfied with three months. He says I want your company for all eternity and I died to have your company. I died to have your company. He says yes, that's the one.
That is speaking to you.
So it's not what offering you can give to him, it's just presenting yourself to this one who knows all about you and loves you.
00:40:00
He's from the 18th verse. It says, To whom will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto him? And he talks about the idolatr who made idols.
Well, I suppose we might look on this as something that was pretty well a thing of the past and something associated with heathen lands.
But I wonder if we can't apply this to ourselves. Perhaps we're making idols with our silver and our gold.
And we say, well, I have enough money that I can I can really make something that will bring me a lot of pleasure and happiness.
Perhaps this one boy here and says, well, when I get some money saved up, I'm going to have such and such a kind of car and I'm going to have such and such a home. And you're just taking your silver and gold to make an idol for yourself. And you think that this idol is going to deliver you? Deliver you from what? Well, give you a sense of security, give you a sense of peace, that now you've worked hard, you've got your education, you've got your job, you've got a companion. Now you're just.
Going to enjoy it. And what are you doing? You're doing the very thing the idolater did. He got silver and gold together. He made this thing and then he fell down to it and says, well this is my deliverer. And you take your silver and gold together and get certain material things and say this is my deliverer. This is what's going to give me satisfaction and peace.
And it says here in the 20th verse, He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooses a tree that will not rot.
Yes, perhaps you say, well, I don't have silver and gold. I don't really expect that I'm going to have all these things. I know other people have nice homes, nice cars, but I don't expect that I'll have this. Well, you choose a tree that won't rot. You have another idea of security. You have another idea of what you're going to have to bring you contentment and happiness.
And so you have something that you think is going to be secure. Notice how it ends here. A graven image that shall not be moved. This is the this is the great feeling in people's mind today. We want security. We want something that we feel that our country, our possessions, that our jobs, that is secure. Isn't that what the world wants today? Security.
And they say we must have security friends. You can't have it. Apart from Christ, there is nothing that's really secure here. Everything's going to be moved. Have you got a Kingdom that won't be moved? Have you got Christ? Are you putting your treasures up in the Bank of heaven where nothing can touch them? Where moth and rust doesn't corrupt and thieves don't breakthrough and steal?
Or are you making your graven image?
Or if you haven't got enough silver and gold, are you making it out of wood? Satisfied at least that it's something that won't rock, something that you think will give you a feeling. Well, at least I have this and at least I I can call it my own. I've heard people say, well, it's not much of A house, but at least I can call it my own.
Yeah, something that we have, that God says even our house is not our own, even our money is not our own. He says that we're only stewards. What is your own?
All isn't this lovely? What you have in Christ is your own. It's your own, He asked, Blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. That's your own. These material things were your stewards of them.
So it tells us that haven't we known this one who stretched out the heavens, that looks down on the earth, and the inhabitants of it are just like grasshoppers to him?
Brings the Princess of the Princess to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
Nations are living in fear. They're living in fear, as they say of China, as the great giant that is going to rise up and display itself.
Says here he bringeth the Princess to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
You don't need to be afraid of those things. There's one thing that you and I need to fear more than anything else.
Getting out of fellowship with the Lord, that's what you need to fear. That's what you need to fear. Fear not them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do, no more that they can do. That's all that this man in this world can do is to kill the body. They can never, never rob you of your portion in Christ and if you're walking in life and fellowship with Him.
Satisfied to have His plan in your life?
Satisfies.
Satisfied. If he puts you in the group of those who suffer, just satisfied to walk that path in his company, Then I say you've found true comfort. You've found something that's really worthwhile.
00:45:13
So that goes on in the 27th verse. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? My way is hid from the Lord, from my judgment is passed over from my God.
Did you ever say this? I suppose all of us have.
Says my way is hid from the Lord. That is when something goes wrong in your life, something seemed to whisper in your ear.
Does the Lord know about this? Why did he allow it to happen? Why did he allow it to happen? And you say to yourself, what I did try to please him, Surely my judgment is hid from him. That's what Job felt when he lost all his money, when he lost his family, when he lost his health. He said my way is hid from the Lord. He said how could it be? I sought to please the Lord and all this came upon me.
But when did he get the comfort for his soul? When he came right to the end of himself, and he said, I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes. Then God gave him twice as much as what he had before, twice as much as he had before. Why? Because he came to the end of himself. Dear young person, your way is not hid from the Lord that big trouble that came in your life.
That disappointment, that calamity, what was it for?
While we so naturally rest on our oars, we rest on pleasant circumstances, and the Lord has to stir up the nest, Job said. I thought I would die in my nest.
But the Lord stirred up the nest. He didn't die in his nest, but I believe, I can say he died in fellowship with the Lord. I believe that he was restored and blessed and he was in fellowship with the Lord.
So then he asked the question here, Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faintest not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding.
Haven't we known this? Or we have known it but we forget it? We forget it, We seem to get occupied with circumstances that we forget this. So he challenges us here. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard?
That the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. Perhaps you lie on your bed at night and you pray, and you pray, and you fall asleep praying.
So many things in your mind and you're looking to the Lord. The Lord didn't go to sleep. He that keepeth thee shall not slumber. No, He didn't go to sleep when you went to sleep, He didn't. He paid us not. He's not weary. There's no searching of his understanding. He heard everything.
Even the youths he giveth power to the friends, and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. All natural strength fails, it all breaks down.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Now this brings us to a point waiting on the Lord. Waiting. He may not commit at once, but He tests our faith. He teaches us that we have to wait. He teaches us that He not only has a plan, but He also has perfect timing.
And the thing comes at his time, not ours. And so it tells us here they wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, getting up above the circumstances, mounting up with wings as eagles.
And then it says they shall run, and not be weary.
I've noticed this spoken to my own heart. First it speaks about mounting up as it were, getting above them and then run. Sometimes we feel we just can't get above them, but let us keep running, running after him even though we can't seem to get above them. Well, you say I get slowed down though I get slowed down. Yes, so do I. We get slowed down and we just walking we couldn't get above it.
And we just couldn't run either. And we just get down to The Walking speed. But he's still there. He's still there. You're a young person. He's interested in you. He cares about you, he cares about your life. Don't let the devil whisper in your ear and say he doesn't understand, he doesn't know, he doesn't care. Yes, it says not to take thought about all those things, but take thought for this oneness, great important thing.
00:50:08
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. I want you to notice it doesn't say.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And you'll be blessed in heaven. Although that's true, but it says all these things shall be added unto you. That is all your temple needs.
God cares about your temporal needs. He cares about what your clothing is. He cares about what you're going to eat. He cares about all those things. Your Father knows that ye have need of these things. He knows what you need in life. He knows that you need friendship. He knows that you need food. He knows you need clothes. He knows all about you. And he's concerned about that too.
But he says just don't set your heart on that. Set your heart on something.
Better than that. And so that's the word that I would have for you this afternoon.
Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Put the Lord first in your life.
Now look up to Him, realize that your plans may fail, and if you try to work things out for yourself, you're going to find they do fail but all. May the Lord give us grace to realize that through all the conflicts and all that we go through, He's still the same. And the comfort we're going to come to in the end is to find that He hasn't changed through it all. But may the Lord help us to go through.
Now the light in his company, May we?
Make a way, a highway for our God through the desert. May we have the joy of walking in His company. Oh dear young people, as I look into your faces and I feel that if the Lord doesn't come, it's going to become more difficult for you. It's going to become harder to live for Christ. I want to tell you that he'll be the same if he leaves us here for 1971. He'll be perfectly sufficient for 1971.
If you face a big problem in your life tomorrow.
Sufficient for that there will never be anything too difficult for him. Is anything too hard for the Lord? All may you look up, fasten your eyes upon Him, rest upon him.
And you'll be comforted. You'll find true peace and joy in his company.