Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Deuteronomy chapter 3 and verse 3.
Deuteronomy 33 and verse 3.
Yeah, he loved the people. All his Saints are in thy hand, and they sat down at thy feet. Everyone shall receive of thy words.
I'd like to look at some passages this afternoon that speak about those hands. You know, as we start another year, I'm sure that every one of us feel that we don't know what is ahead, but we do know that there are those hands of love. We do know that He cares for us. And that is so encouraging to our hearts to know that the One who loved us and gave himself for us not only cares for us, but would have us to know that those hands of love.
Are upon us and that we are in his hands. There's another verse that's very comforting in this same book of Deuteronomy. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. There are times when all of us feel down, but we can never feel so low that those arms of love are not underneath us, bearing us up, that we cannot rejoice in these very words that we read here.
Could we ask?
This because those people had been so faithful all through those 40 years of wilderness journey. Oh, certainly not. We only have to read that 40 years of history of murmuring and complaining and failure and realize that it's just like ourselves. So much of that murmuring, so much of that complaining, so much of that failure. But does it not encourage your heart and mind to know that these words are spoken at?
The end of their journey, just before they entered the Promised Land. Not at the beginning. As we were commenting the other night. If John 316 was the first verse in the Bible, it would be easy to understand. But when it's after 4000 years of man's history, it's certainly the more wonderful because it hadn't in any way changed the heart of God. Indeed, we find through the Scripture that the assurances of God's love.
Are given at a time when we could have expected at the very least here it was at the end of the wilderness journey that it says yeah, he loved the people. And then again when we read in Jeremiah at the time when they had failed so grievously that they must be in the governmental ways of God carried off into captivity. And yet that beautiful 30.
3rd chapter of Jeremiah says yeah, I have loved.
Thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. I say, that was just on the verge of the time that they were about to be carried away. Had it changed His love toward them? No, His is an everlasting love. Then again we come to the New Testament, and we find the disciples.
After we think of their pathway with the Lord Jesus failing to enter into what was in his heart just about to forsake him and flee. And yet we read in that 13th of John having loved his own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. And then too, if we might step back into the Old Testament again in Malachi, at that time when there was so much failure among his people that you only have to.
Read that book of Malachi to be saddened by the things that were going on, and yet it opens with these words.
The burden of the word of the Lord by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. And then at the very last of the churches, Laodicea, where there was coldness and indifference, again, it says, as many as I loved, I rebuke and chasten. And so God would have us to enter into and lay hold of that love, not to encourage us to go on careless of his claims and of himself, but rather.
To draw our hearts back for His word says He restoreth my soul. And how lovely it would be if there was in our hearts this afternoon a fresh sense of His love that would draw us back to have a greater desire to live, to please Him. Aren't these words precious? All His Saints are in thy hand. Not some of them, not the faithful ones only, but all His Saints are in thy hand, and so those hands.
Love are holding everyone here who knows him as Lord and Savior. And then it says they sat down at thy feet. Oh, how lovely to sit down at his feet to begin this year, just to have time to sit down for an hour and think about himself. Think about those hands that are about us, that are caring for us, sometimes perhaps correcting us, but always in love. And so it says they.
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Down at thy feet everyone shall receive of thy words, and I trust that'll be true this afternoon, that each one of us will receive of His words. If the speaker is forgotten, that won't matter. But if by His grace you will receive of His words, then those words will truly sustain you, because it's His word. The word of man will never really sustain us in difficulty.
About his words. Oh how lovely.
When they lay hold of our hearts and our consciences, as the 16 Psalm says, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage. Have often said wherever and whenever the word of God comes home to our souls in power, it turns the place into a pleasant place. Whether it's the burning fiery furnace like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, or whether it's inside.
Prison with Paul and Silas, or whether it's in the ordinary trials of life. How wonderful when that word comes home to us and the Lord makes Himself precious to our hearts. Well, I just like, as I said, to look at a few scriptures that bring before us something about those hands. I certainly realize that I can't turn to all the scriptures that speak of it because they're so abundant all through the Word of God.
That's.
That we sang My times are in thy hand. It was just a circumstance in David's life. Well, let us turn then, first of all to John chapter 10.
John chapter 10 and verse 27.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
I and my father are one.
Well, surely we could say that this is the starting point. If we're going to know anything about those hands, we must first of all know that we have salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, that we have security through Him. The heart will never be at rest until we have the sense in our souls and that we have security in Him. Of course, it's all based upon His finished work. It's nothing that we have done or could do.
Because it's all that he took our place, that he bore the judgment, and that he satisfied God's holy claims, that the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. That is the ground of it all. But it's our theme this afternoon to speak about those hands and know how lovely this is. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them.
You know those who don't know the Lord Jesus, they don't hear that voice.
To them it's only the voice of a stranger. But just like the sheep, when there are many sheep at the side of the well, the sheep doesn't know all the different voices of the different shepherds, I don't suppose. But there's one voice that the sheep knows, and that is the voice of their of its own shepherd. And so God makes himself known to the soul through his word. And isn't that a blessed thing?
That many of us.
This afternoon I hope all of us can say, oh, I've heard that loving voice. I have heard that voice speaking to me. I've rested upon Christ for my salvation. Others might say, well, how do you know? Oh, but I say, how do I know The sun is shining? I can't see it, but I can see the results of it here. And if you're close to what you can feel, it's warm. And so you and I know it. God has made himself known to us through.
Word, He has revealed himself to our souls. He has made himself known as the one who is our Savior. And here He wants us to know how secure we are. I give unto them eternal life. Oh how marvelous a life that can enter into and enjoy all that's in the heart of God for every saved person in this room this afternoon.
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Already possesses a life that is able to enter into.
And enjoy fellowship with God. You and I will not have a different new life when we get to heaven. We already possess the life that is suited to heaven. That's why heaven will be home to us. Brethren. When we get there, we'll immediately feel well. I'm just in the atmosphere of the life that I possess now. I can relax now. I don't have to be on guard anymore because I'm right in the atmosphere where my life will find its fullest expression and enjoyment.
That's heaven to the believer. Oh how wonderful. Then I give unto them eternal life as the Lord Jesus said, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I say again, that we might know him. A little hymn says our God, whom we have known, well known in Jesus love. It's a, it's a God who has been made known, so we have eternal life.
And it says, And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So here we have the hand that gives security. Oh, how precious this is to the simplest believer. Someone has said, Oh, but you could pluck yourself out of his hand. Well, but the rest of the verse still holds, It says, And they shall never perish. Now, of course, I don't believe for one moment that any of us could pluck ourselves.
Out of his hand because He's the one who holds on to us. We're not told to hold on to Christ. He holds on to us. But even if it were possible, as some people suggest, why? How wonderful. God hasn't just left one part to secure us, but he has given two parts. In this verse He says they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So I say to anyone who has listened to this argument.
And even if you could pluck yourself out, you still could never perish. The other part of the verse still holds good. God wants us to have this knowledge. I say this is the grand starting point of our Christian life. He wants us to know that we have been brought into favor in the beloved, as the apostle could say, and I always enjoy the end of the 8th of Romans. It says it begins in the singular. I am persuaded that neither death nor life.
Nor angels and our principalities and our powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me. Does he say no, shall be able to separate us? Now usually in English we don't change from the singular to the plural in a sentence. But here the Spirit of God changes from the singular to the plural in the sentence. Why does he do this?
Oh, Paul said. I am persuaded. But if others are not persuaded?
It's still true. If they belong to Christ, it's still true, So he says. I'm persuaded. But nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, how delight, how it delights the heart of God to have us enjoy this security. And then he adds to it. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
And I and my father are one. So here we have the two hands, the hand of the father and the hand of the son, and both securing us like the little boy, his father put some money in his hand. And he said, now if you can get that out of my hand, you can have it. And so the boy tried, you know, and he pulled up this finger and that finger. And as soon as he got the second one up, the other one snapped down. And he tried for quite a while he couldn't get.
Out of his father's hand. And so then his father put the other one on top of it. And he says, now try. Oh, he said, if I couldn't get it out of one, I'll never get it out of two. Dad and dear friends, isn't this wonderful? God wants us to have this blessed security, this assurance. And if there's anyone here that Satan has been able to get you doubting, May God grant that this very afternoon the place that grace has brought you into.
May fill your heart and fill your soul. God wants us to enjoy these things as the grand starting point of our Christian life. He wants us to know that we belong to Him. We often sing I am His and He is mine, forever and forever. So He would have us to know this. And I trust that each one here can say thank God. I know that He has made me secure.
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In Christ.
Because of what Christ has done, because of that finished work on Calvary's cross, now I'd like to turn to another passage in Isaiah chapter 41.
Isaiah chapter 41.
Verse 10 Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yeah, I will help thee. Yeah, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isn't this lovely? In this verse, it's not so much the thought of salvation, although certainly this is true.
But I believe the thought in this.
Is particularly what we have brought before us help and strength for our pathway, and surely we need that, because just as we could not save ourselves, we're not able to take one step alone. Our little opening hymn said. Our times are in thy hand, Father, we wish them there. And don't we feel the need of this as we go on in our Christian life?
Those hands that are holding us, they are there to help.
US, and as we need help and we find the need of it so much, and indeed God encourages us to walk in that way. Dependence is what properly characterizes the Christian. In fact, it has been said that prayer is the expression of dependence and confidence in God. Dependence because we are dependent creatures.
Our very life and breath is in our His hand.
And so we need to realize that we are constantly dependent upon him. We don't want to be like Peter, who thought that he had enough.
Strength himself to be faithful to his Lord. He boasted that he would not deny his Lord. And perhaps some of us can think of how there were things that we thought we would not do, but how we found how very weak we were. We can't keep ourselves.
But oh, how often when there's been a time when we have felt just at wits end corner as it were, and some earthly friend puts his hand on his shoulder, on our shoulder and says, I'm praying for you. I just like to encourage you. Doesn't that human hand do a great deal to help us, but always infinitely more when the hand that our many sins had pierced puts his hand, so to speak, upon us.
And says, fear thou not, I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God. Oh, what a hand, brethren, to be placed upon us. And as we begin another year, just to feel that in these situations that we are going to have to face if the Lord leaves us here through this year, that there is that hand of love that is placed upon us, that hand that never, never is.
Turn against us. Sometimes earthly friends get discouraged because we don't always appreciate their the things that they they don't always appreciate, rather the things that we do and say. And in the end we might lose their friendship. But not so with this one. As I brought before you at the beginning, the times that he assured of his people of their love was at times when perhaps it could have least been expected.
And yet he assured them that his heart had not changed. So if there's anyone here and you feel utterly dismayed, listen to these words. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I will. Yeah, I will help thee. Yeah. I will uphold thee. How will he do it? With the right hand. The right hand in Scripture always suggests the hand of power. And so that hand placed upon us is to give us the help. And.
Strengths that we need. We were just reading this morning about the children of Israel when they left the land of Egypt. It tells us that everyone was to have a staff in his hand and we were speaking about.
The the staff and what it really means, how that its support. Sometimes you expect an older person who feels a little uncertain on his feet to have a cane, to have a staff in his hand. But God didn't make any particular stipulation when they were leaving Egypt. He didn't say if there's anybody that's feeble and old, he better get a staff because it's quite a journey.
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No, this command was given to all the people and so we're talking to those this afternoon.
Who are young and those who are old? Have you got a staff?
Have I got a staff? Are we facing this year in confidence in ourselves that we can handle the situations that are going to arise? I hope not, but I hope we will be. Like the children of Israel when they left the land of Egypt, Each one, young and old, was to have a staff in his hand. And the scripture says, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. But oh, isn't this lovely, The right hand of.
Righteousness, God is so perfectly settled the whole question of our sins at Calvary that it can be the right hand of his righteousness, not of ours because we often fail, but his and in that confidence we can look up. And so I say before I go on, if if there are any of us that feel that there is some particular situation pressing upon you, some decision you have to make and you're just as it were.
Throwing up your hands and saying, I don't know what to do. May this word speak to your heart, These wonderful words. Yeah, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness To know that he is there to uphold us. The dearest friend that we possibly can have. The friend who's ever true, the one who died for us at Calvary. The right hand of his righteousness to uphold us, to help us.
And strengthen us.
Now let's turn to another one in the Psalms in Psalm 139.
Psalm 139.
Perhaps we should begin at the seventh verse.
Further shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell or Hades, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.
I'm sure many of us are well acquainted with this 139 sum. Perhaps we could put a heading over it. The Lord knows all about us. He knows our thoughts. He saw us before we were ever born. He watched us the very formation of our bodies. Why, He knows every physical weakness that we have. Because it says here in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Isn't it wonderful there's not a doctor on Earth that fully understands everything about our physical makeup individually, because every one of us are so different? But isn't this wonderful? There's one who does, who knows all about us. And you say, but nobody knows what I'm thinking about. He does. It says He understands our thoughts afar off. He understands us perfectly. Then, brethren, he knows all about us.
Inside and out if I can.
The expression, there's not a thing about us that he doesn't know. Our physical makeup, our emotional makeup, just everything about us. He knows fully, and it's so nice here. We can't get away from His presence. It doesn't matter where we go. There's no place whether it's up in the heavens, whether it's here upon the earth and the uttermost part of the sea, even in death, for that's what is referred to in regard to Hades. No place could we go.
That we get away.
Away from his presence. His presence is always there watching us. And then it says in this tenth verse, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. And it seems to me the particular thought in this verse is the Lord leading us. Sometimes a person will perhaps come to you and they'll have a little problem and they'll ask you for some advice. Well, sometimes.
Sometimes we give poor advice because we don't fully understand their situation. We don't fully enter into their makeup and all about them. We haven't sat where they sat. We don't know all about everything. But isn't it lovely that in this Psalm where the Lord says I know all about you, there isn't a thing about you that I don't fully know and fully enter into?
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And now the psalmist says that's the kind of a leader I have.
That's the one who leads me, as we have in that passage, and I believe it's the 11TH of Isaiah. His name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. What A1 to give us counsel, what A1 to lead us. And so there may be some decision that is pressing upon someone here and you say I don't know just what to say.
Wasn't it good to come to someone that knows all about you perfectly, one who knows the very inmost thoughts of your heart that you perhaps are almost afraid to tell to anybody else? And yet the Lord knows all these. And after telling us all these wonderful things, then it says even there, wherever we could go, it didn't matter where it would be.
Sometimes people like to get away from a situation. They say, well, if I could just get away from here, I would get.
Get away from the situation, he says. But you don't get away from the Lord. He follows you wherever you go. And actually, we don't get away from the situation if the Lord has put us in it. It's usually best just to face up and seek His help and His guidance in it. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Oh, I think this is so lovely. Here's those hands that are upon us, assuring us of salvation.
Holding us securely so that we cannot be lost. Here are those hands that when we feel weak and helpless in situations that are there to help us and strengthen us, and then that hand that's placed upon us and says, just take my hand and I'll lead you along. Sometimes when people give us directions, why we don't just thoroughly understand the directions and we can make a mistake. We don't.
To the place exactly because we didn't thoroughly understand. But if that person was taking us by the hand and leading us, how could we make a mistake then? Oh, isn't this beautiful, brethren? This hand, this hand that was pierced for us at Calvary is the one who wants to say to us that he leads us and he holds us. And another verse says.
That when we turn to the right hand or to the left.
Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee saying, this is the way. Walk ye in it. When ye turn to the right hand or to the left. When you've turned to the right hand or to the left. That is, the Lord is so close, He ought to go before. But you know, sometimes we run ahead of Him, don't we? We get out ahead of Him, so He should be leading us, but He comes behind us.
I remember Brother Hart told a story about.
Many years ago up in Canada, he wanted to go a certain way through the Bush country and there was a guide that offered to take him. And after he had been over the path a few times, he, he thought he knew it. And so he said to the guide, it's all right, I can find my own way. But you know, this guy had usually gone with him and brought him through these paths in the forest.
But this time, he tried it out on his own.
And he came to a certain place. The first one or two turns he seemed to know, but he said, then I began to feel I was going down a road that nothing looked familiar, a path I should say. He felt quite insecure. And he thought, well, the best thing I can do is to shout out, I'm lost. So he put up his hands to his mouth and shouted out, I'm lost.
And just almost right away he got the return from.
Indian, I'm coming, he said. How did you come to be so close? Oh, he said, I was just afraid you might miss your way, so I stayed close by. You didn't see me, but I was close by. Isn't that lovely? That's the kind of a savior we have too. He says, Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee saying this is the way. Have you ever heard it? I guess we all have. We got ahead of the Lord. And then there seemed to be that voice saying, you've gone ahead.
Of me, but here I am, and so here this one wants to be our leader. Even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
And they must turn now to Psalm 32.
Well, perhaps you could begin at the first verse. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord, unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the draught of summer. Sealoth I acknowledge my sin.
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Unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto him thou art my hiding place, thou wilt preserve me from trouble, Thou wilt.
Encompass me about with songs of Deliverance.
Well, perhaps I could suggest.
Looking at this verse as the Lord having to deal with us when we have got away from Him, you know we can become very willful. And even in a home where often the father and mother delights to put their hand of love upon the child and show their affection and love to their child in a very warm and feeling way, there are times when that hand is placed upon the child in a little different way.
The hand has to be.
Placed upon the child in the way of correction, in the way of punishment. And you know the Lord sometimes has to do this with us too. It says, if ye be without chastisement, for of all our partakers, then are ye ******** and not sons. God will not allow us to go on without correction if we are truly His and those same hands of love that want to lead us, and that want to show us the way and help.
Help us and sustain us. Sometimes that hand has to be placed upon us in the way of correction. And here the psalmist seemed to feel that. He said day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, and perhaps there's someone here and you've got away from the Lord and certain things have come into your life. And in the secret of your own heart you're saying, I'm afraid the Lord is showing me that I'm going in a path of self will.
And his hand is upon me to correct me, to show me that he's displeased with the way that I'm walking. Well, it's in love. Mr. Darby once said. The worst of all chastisement is that God should leave us to our own ways. That's a chastisement in itself. Any parent who loves their child will chasten them betimes. And you know, for the Lord to leave us and go our own way would be the worst kind of.
But He does love us, and He loves us too much, brethren, to let us go our own way without correction. He has to put His hand upon us, and sometimes it has to be heavy, as it says here. Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me.
My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. In other words, I don't feel young and full of energy again. There's there's something. The Lord's hand is upon me. Well, what was the result? As that hand was placed upon him, The same hand, I say, that was pierced at Calvary, The same hand that always holds us secure. Now it is placed upon us because God would teach us. He would correct us as a father. And a father's hand will never 'cause His.
Child, a needless tear. There's something, there's a needs be. And So what is the result with the Psalmist? Isn't this lovely? He said, I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid? I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin.
I might say that there are different ways in which forgiveness is looked at in the Scripture. Every believer is judicially forgiven, and that is before God. He is looked upon as a forgiven Sinner, fit for the glory made white in the precious blood of Christ. But in God's dealings with us in the family, there is such a thing as governmental forgiveness.
And so it's very important that we realize that if we are going on.
With something in our lives that we know is dishonouring and displeasing to the Lord, that that hand is placed upon us in love May, and we do what it tells us here. Come and just tell the Lord about it. Oh, don't go on that way. And especially perhaps our thoughts run along these lines as a new year begins. And you know, I don't think there's anything more tormenting than for a Christian to go on with.
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Bad conscience with something on his conscience that he refuses to judge, and that he goes on willfully. May put on a pretense in front of other people, but you know there's no use putting on a pretense to the Lord, because He sees us through and through. He knows all about us. Thou hast set my secret sins in the light of Thy countenance. And if there's anything that is not right in your life or mine, let us remember that this hand is placed upon.
Us for a purpose. And so he says, I acknowledged my sin unto thee. And the Scripture says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not only to just look upon it lightly, but I believe the verse goes deeper than that, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I believe it means that we get down to the very root of the failure.
What is it that caused us to do these things where we walk away from the Lord? Where are we walking carelessly in our lives? Because one thing leads to another. Big weeds don't suddenly appear in our gardens. They start as little weeds that we didn't pull out, and then they become bigger and bigger until they choke out the garden. And so it is. We need to get to the root of the thing. Why did we allow this thing? Perhaps it was something that we started off.
And thought, oh, that's just a little thing, but they grow into great things. And so here he says, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. And thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. I believe this brings before us the the nature that's behind it that we have allowed for in the cleansing in the 19th chapter of Numbers.
There was not only the ashes of the heifer, but there was the cedar wood.
And the scarlet and the hyssop. And we usually find that when there's failure in our lives, it's something of that character. Maybe thought we thought we were somebody important, like the great Cedars. Maybe we were trying to show off like the scarlet. Or maybe we were discouraged like the hyssop. And this is at the root of our troubles. Very often we need to get to the root. Peter's denial of the Lord was because he was like the cedar. He thought he was better than the rest of the disciples. And there's usually something.
And so we need to get, I say to the root of it, Thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin.
And then it says here in the seventh verse, Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Oh, how happy this is, the restored soul. Just like Naomi when she returned from the land of Moab, ** *** said, I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. But when did she come back?
The beginning of barley harvest, and then she was there for the wheat harvest. Then she was brought into the enjoyment of a wonderful relationship with Boaz. But this was after she returned. And so if the Lord is speaking to any one of us here this afternoon, if that hand is upon us in the way of correction, may we profit for His glory because it's in love. And now let's turn to the next one I'd like to look at is in the Song of Solomon.
Solomon, Song of Solomon.
In chapter 2.
Verse 6.
His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me. Isn't this lovely? Now we can see a position of relaxation, and that's what the Lord wants us to do. He wants us to enter into all the thoughts of His love and of His grace toward us. And this brings us into being able to relax in His presence.
You know when we get home to glory, that is going to be what?
We're going to enjoy to the very full. We're going to be able to relax and enjoy all that's in his heart. But isn't it lovely when there isn't something special to be said? We all know what it is when there is real and deep love. A person may put his arms around you and not say a single word, but it's just an expression of love. And isn't this beautiful here?
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There are times as I say.
When we need to be strengthened, there are times we need to be LED, there are times when we need to be corrected, but there are times, brethren, when He just wants us to rest in His love. He just wants us. Someone has said a friend is someone that you can walk with or talk with for 1/2 an hour walk with or I should say sit down with for 1/2 an hour and nothing is said and yet you both feel benefited.
Each other's presence. And you know, I think this is so lovely now that we can just relax in his presence. I think that's what he wants us to do when we come on Lord's Day morning to remember him and his death. Just to sit there, not to be thinking about the problems of life, not to be thinking about other things, he says if a man examine himself.
Let a man examine himself and so let him eat. It doesn't mean that we're doing that while we're sitting at his table, but it's that we come there, everything being settled between our souls and the Lord, How we come there to be relaxed, just to sit there and enjoy His presence and to enjoy His love, you know, and a happy relationship in marriage. How often it's true 2 can just sit down together and you know, they just enjoy one another's company.
Enjoy one another's love. The Lord wants us to enter into something of this. He wants us just to walk with Him and talk with Him along the pathway of life as our dearest friend with a sense of the little hymn puts at arms of mercy. Now surround me favors these, nor few, nor small, all that we might enjoy more of this. As I say, not always looking up and making requests. Not always.
Coming to the Lord with problems.
But sometimes just talking to the Lord as to our dearest friend, having fellowship with Him, because the word fellowship means common thoughts. It just means that we can enter into His thoughts and share what is in His heart, and read a precious verse and just think of His love toward us and of the place that grace has brought us into.
Then there's another one in that 31St Psalm. It's the one that we sang in our opening hymn.
Psalm 31.
I just like to go back because there's a context to this, I think. Go back to the 30th Psalm.
It says in the sixth verse. And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst tide thy face, and I was troubled. I cried unto thee. To thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord, I made my supplication.
Now the 14th verse of the 31St Psalm. But I trust.
In thee, O Lord, I said, thou art my God. My times are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake.
In this 30th Psalm, we see that there was a danger of just sort of relaxing in a enjoyment of present prosperity. You know, that's the way it was with Job.
Job was very wealthy, he had a nice family, things seemed to come his way and he even went as far as to say I thought I would die in my nest. You know, we can get like that. Brethren, There is such a thing as we were just saying about relaxing and enjoying his love, but there is such a thing as another kind of relaxation and that is we sort of think that everything is now pretty favorable. Our job is secure, a lot of things to.
Be thankful for about our family. The assembly is going on happily and we kind of just relax and in our prosperity, so to speak, we say everything's settled now. I think everything's sort of secure for me. I think I'm over the hump now and it says thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled and these times the Lord allows when things just seem to be going on well. And I know that many have experienced this. He just everything.
Seemed to be so nice and then all of a sudden things went wrong and it just seemed like a storm of trouble and he says.
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Thou didst tied thy face, and I was troubled. It just seemed that something came in as though the Lord were hiding His face and we were troubled. But what was He trying to teach us, Brethren? I believe He was trying to teach us just what we have in this 31St Psalm and the 14th and 15th verses. But I trusted in Thee. It's easy to trust in Him when everything goes well. Even Satan said about Job. Well, no.
Wonder he feels happy and secure because everything comes his way, but just take away those things. Ah, now Job had to learn to trust the Lord even when things were very adverse, when he lost his family, when he lost his possessions, when he lost everything that seemed to make life worthwhile to him, when he lost all those of them to be able to trust in the Lord. That was the test. But this is what brings out these.
Words from the Psalmist.
My times are in thy hand, and I don't believe that we'll ever really have peace in our souls.
Until we come to that point in our souls when we are content to say, My times are in Thy hand, as we sang in our hymn. Our times are in Thy hand, Father, We wish them there. And again, our times are in Thy hand, pleasing or painful, dark or bright, as best may seem to Thee. O brethren, this speaks to my own heart.
Because when we have good health and when.
We have so many things to be thankful for and we do in this land have many things to be thankful for.
And yet we can just sort of rest on our oars and sort of enjoy the blessings and forget the blesser. But here what he's bringing before us is that even when the Lord seems, as it were, to hide his face when trouble comes, when difficulties arise, what is He teaching us to trust Him just as much on the stormy waters?
As on the smooth to trust him just as much because he is allowing both.
He sets one over against the other. He allows the trials, he sends the blessings, but it's all in love. And So what a note of triumph, it seems to me, when the psalmist could say, after an experience like this, he said, I, I thank the Lord in my prosperity. He said, Lord, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. He didn't forget the Lord, but he rested on the blessings. Now in all these are taken.
Away, and he is troubled, and now he has come to the point where he can say, But I trusted in thee. I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand. O brethren, I say this for myself as well As for you. Are we content to say that when the things come in life that are hard to understand and life is so full of hard questions, do we just look up and repeat those words with the psalmist? My times.
In thy hand do we add those words as a little song, Father, we wish them there. Oh friends, that's peace, that's blessing. That's truly what God is teaching us, because He not only.
He not only sends those times when things go well, but He also sends those adversities. And it may not be in the way of correcting us like we were noticing a few moments ago. It may be just that He wants us to enjoy the blesser and not just to rest in the blessings. O May God grant that we will realize the force of these words. Then my times are in thy hand. And now, just before I close, I'd like to turn.
One more passage in John chapter 20.
Verse 19.
Then the same day, at evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord, Then said Jesus to them.
Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me.
Even so, send I you.
Isn't this a lovely climax to it all? Here we have the Lord standing in the midst of His own faith is here changed to sight, as it were. They actually see Him. And we're going to see Him another day, brethren. We're going to see those marks in His hands and feet and side. We're going to rejoice when we see Him as the One who has accomplished that mighty work for us and now has us at home in fullest blessing in His presence.
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Oh, what a future is ahead of us. But here he stands in their midst. And it says, then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord? Can we apply this practically, that as we gather around Him on Lord's Day morning, Oh, how precious to see Him in our meds. Truly, it does make our hearts glad, doesn't it? The disciples hearts were glad when they saw the Lord, and our hearts are glad in the meeting and the measure in which we see Him.
But I just wanted to close with this little Commission that the Lord gave to the disciples. Then said Jesus to them, peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, Even so, send I you. We've been talking a lot about the things that we can enjoy, those arms of love that hold us, that surround us, that guide us, that care for us. But all brethren, we're left here in this world to be, for him to be.
Not only for His glory, but also to be a blessing to others. Of course, it is for His glory that we should be a blessing for others, but I believe it's important that we should realize this. And now from this happy meeting place where the Lord showed them his hands and his side, those wonderful hands that we've been talking about, and their hearts are full of gladness. Now He says, I am sending you out into what kind of a world was he sending them a.
Style world, a world that didn't want him, but he sent them out. And what a what a wonderful expression this is. As my father has sent me, so have I sent you. So the Lord Jesus had been sent into this world by his Father in love to tell what was in his Father's heart. He knew what was in that the bosom of the Father. He came down as the little hymn says, he came to earth to make it known, brethren.
We have such a privilege. Are we seeking to be a blessing to others in the measure in which we enjoy His love and have proved those hands of love and have been made glad by them? Have we realized that now we're sent into this world, sent to speak to those who don't know Him, sent to encourage one another in the Lord? And I'm sure that if each one of us had been present at that occasion when the Lord stood there in the meds.
And said, And peace be unto you. And showed them his hands and his side. If we had been there, wouldn't our hearts have been thrilled? And then when we heard him say, As my father has sent me, Even so send thy you. Wouldn't our hearts have thrilled that we had such a privilege that he was going away, and that now we could seek to represent him? Sent by him back into this world, taken out of it, and sent back into it as his messengers, oh May God.
That we may realize this privilege, we may feel those hands upon us all the time, we may realize that our times are in His hand and go forth to this world to be able to tell them something of what we have known and what we have enjoyed. Paul said I believed, and therefore have I spoken. May these things be made real to our hearts, and then as we speak of them to others, they will be for.
To them too.