Address—Don Rule
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254.
#254 Death and judgment are behind us.
Grace and glory are before all the billows rolled over Jesus.
There they spent their utmost power #254.
There they spent their utmost power.
First fruits of the.
Resurrection.
He is risen from.
The tomb.
Now we stand in new creation.
Free because.
Beyond our.
Jesus died, and we died with him.
Buried in his grave.
Grave we like.
One with him.
And presurrection.
Now in him.
In heaven's bright day.
Spray.
Our God, we're thankful to have a little more time to be together before they.
To have thy word open before us, and to we trust our God. Each one of us listen.
To what thou would have to say to us this afternoon.
For the good and benefit of our souls, most of all we would desire our God, that our Lord Jesus Christ.
Might truly be written upon our hearts by Thy word. And so we seek Thy blessing. We ask for it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14.
For the love of Christ.
Constraineth us.
Because we thus judge that if one died for all.
Then we're all dead.
And that he died for all that they which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves.
But unto him which died for them, and rose again.
I feel constrained to take up the same subject that for which some remarks were made yesterday, a little more slowly and perhaps a little more completely.
So we'll be saying some things that were said yesterday.
The love of Christ constrains us.
It's a wonderful thing to have His love, and that's what's emphasized here. It's not my love to the Lord.
It's not your love to the Lord that's being brought out to hear, it's rather His love toward us that constrains us.
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We'll look at a Old Testament example of a man that was not constrained by the love of the Lord.
And we see in it the illustration of the fact that in nature, that is, in the life in which we are born, man is not constrained.
By the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if in our daily lives, we are walking according to what we are in Adam.
Rather than what we are in Christ, we will not find him truly satisfying to our souls. We will not be in a practical way attracted in a a God-given way to the Lord Jesus.
As it says here, it speaks about immediately about death.
Then we're all dead. That is the point doctrinally here is that.
The Lord Jesus came and died because everybody is in a state of death toward God, not there are no exceptions to it. We were all, as it were, dead toward God in trespasses and sins. And that's why he needed to die for all, because there were no exceptions to it. And it's a tremendous thing, brethren, to recognize as we have in Colossians where we're having the Bible readings.
That the fact of our Christ's death for us but more beyond that our death with Christ that brings us is the song that we just sang brings us into a new creation. I've enjoyed recently and a few here not very many I think I've heard some of these at least before, but I recently started to make a list of some things that.
We were.
Once and now, through the Lord Jesus Christ, we are something else. So I'm going to briefly make a few set of statements that have to do with the fact that we were children of Adam.
And now in Christ Jesus.
We belong to a new creation which is the other side of death. Life for us truly began the other side of death. And so we see the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the world.
And he goes and ends his life here at the Cross.
And then he's raised from the dead, and it's when we go to the cross in faith and accept that death and what it means, it brings us with him.
As part of resurrection life and new creation. So here's a set of statements that I trust you will enjoy as to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you.
First one is.
The Son of God.
Became the Son of Man.
That through death.
We the sons of men.
Might become the sons of God.
He who had life in himself.
Came into this world.
And died.
That we who were dead.
Might be made alive.
And that forevermore.
He who had his.
Home, His existence in heaven.
Comes down to Earth.
That through death.
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We who were creatures of Earth.
Might have our home in heaven.
He who was perfectly righteous.
Become sin.
That we who were sin.
Might be made the righteousness of God in him.
He who was everlasting.
Becomes mortal.
That through death.
We who were mortal.
Might be brought into everlasting life.
Key that was eternally free.
Becomes a slave.
A slave, even to the point of death.
That we.
Who are slaves of sin?
Might be made eternally free.
He who was rich.
Rich beyond anything we could imagine.
Becomes poor.
Even to the poverty of death.
That we.
Who were poor?
Might be made rich.
He who is light.
Comes into the darkness.
In order that and through death.
We who are darkness.
Might become the children of light.
He who was near.
Dwelling with God.
Goes into the far country.
And in depth.
That we who were.
Far from God.
Might be brought near.
As near as he we sang this morning as we remembered him.
It's a wonderful thing, brethren.
To recognize the tremendous.
Act of the work, but again I say.
Every one of those things, that was the contrast.
Are on the foundation of the death of the cross. There's not a single one of those things that we just briefly commented.
Would be true.
Without a step, and without our being taken from the state of our own death into the state of life.
In which now we are constrained by His love.
Mm-hmm. Want to make a few remarks. We're not going to take the time to turn to the actual scriptures. I think we're all pretty familiar with it in this room.
But I would like to illustrate.
The fact that in nature we are not constrained by His love.
By the example of.
King Saul.
MMM, King Saul.
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And David? David is a type of Christ.
King Saul is a type of.
The greatest?
Development, if you will, or the highest place that natural man can get to.
When David was a young man.
Somebody knew that he was very good with musical instruments.
And when Saul.
Was troubled by evil spirits.
They said, and we know on that and we know a young man that he could help you.
And so David is called.
To play.
He goes from his home and he goes to the palace of the king, and he plays for the king, and he helps them.
The music that he played.
Soothed his spirit.
And gave him relief.
I don't know how long that process went on, but from the record given, David eventually goes back home and cares for his father's shape.
Later on, when there's the matter of Goliath.
David is sent by his father to see how his brothers are doing and how the battle is going.
And.
You know the story.
Of his going out to fight Goliath.
I find it surprising that I guess not surprising that when he goes out to do it and he's already had his interaction with King Saul and he, Saul has given him the armor and he puts it on and then he takes it off and says no. And he goes out. Saul turns, I think, to Joab, but not Joab. But Salt turns to one of his men and he says, who is he?
Whose son is he?
He had been in the Presence, spiritually speaking.
Of Christ that is in the person, typically speaking, of David.
He didn't know him.
He appreciated what he did for him.
But he had no knowledge truly of that person.
The record goes on to say that he loved him.
And it's possible for the natural heart to be attracted in that far to the Lord Jesus, that it might even be said in a certain sense.
That there's love there, and it says of King Saul that he loved David.
Doesn't say loved him like Jonathan did, but it it indicates that he he loves him.
Saul is taken into the King's army.
And there's battle.
And.
Trouble begins at that point between David and Saul.
Because.
Saul hears after the conflict that.
David is slain his numbers and Saul had slain his, and David was receiving a greater amount of honor and praise from the people.
And Saul is jealous.
He's angry.
And from that point on, it says he eyes David.
And, uh, six later to kill him.
That's man.
Man will accept the Lord Jesus Christ.
Up to a point.
Until there's conflict.
Between what man is.
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As it says in our anniversary started.
That we should not live henceforth to ourselves, but unto him that.
Died and rose again.
Saul lived for himself, and so does every natural man. He lives for himself.
And Jesus Christ.
It can be looked at, it can be honored even, can be loved in some certain sense of the word until.
What he is stands in conflict.
To what the natural man is.
So it was in the case of the Scribes and the Pharisees.
They couldn't deny what this man was doing among the people and the wonder of some of his miracles.
But they envied him.
Then they don't. Natural man envies when someone else receives some kind of honor, some kind of recognition that they feel should be theirs.
They were the leaders of the people. They were the important ones among men.
In religious Israel and here comes someone that is a threat.
To their honor, a threat to their authority.
And there's MV.
And V leads to murder.
And so they crucified the Lord of glory.
I say this, brethren, because it has practical application to our lives.
Sometimes.
Unconsciously perhaps, but nonetheless very real.
There may be something that comes up in our lives.
That we want.
That we desire.
But in our hearts, we know it's in conflict.
With the place that Christ is in as having died.
By crucifixion to the world.
Something of the world, something the world has to offer, something that we would like of its honour, its glory or its possessions for ourselves. And so we aspire to them. And in our our souls it creates a conflict.
Because in that thing that we want, we desire.
It's something that the love of Christ doesn't constrain us.
The moment we lust after it, we want it, we go for it. It takes our eye off the Lord Jesus, and as long as our eye is upon that thing.
Our conscience, on the other hand, is uncomfortable, is not at rest.
But we can resent it anyways.
And be uncomfortable by it.
So it creates sometimes a conflict in us that we have to recognize and, uh.
Need to be brought into the presence of the Lord that we might properly live in new creation and properly live with, uh, our eye upon the Lord Jesus so that we are truly in everyday life constrained.
By his love.
I wanna go back again to Psalm 42.
And again, perhaps a little more slowly, to go over the series of Psalms.
To see how.
In God works in our lives to teach us.
To teach us to be constrained by His love.
Just to make it easier to follow or I'm gonna again call him Levi.
And so we're gonna trace a little bit of Levi. Levi is a Jew who is living during the coming tribulation.
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And during this period in the Tribulation, Levi has been forced to leave the beloved city of Jerusalem.
And find some style outside where the temple is the place where God is to be met.
And he's discouraged.
These costs down.
By the circumstances of his life.
But he's looking to the Lord in those circumstances, and he's going through a process of learning something.
That will bring him into a state of joy, a state of happiness.
And no, we're not in his circumstances.
But every one of us in our lives.
Experiences each perhaps differently and individually and uniquely to our own personal life, but we have to go through the process of learning that.
The happiness of our soul.
Does not have to. Should not depend on.
The circumstances in which we presently are.
But many of us. Perhaps most of us.
Find very often our lives are.
Extremely Our happiness of daily life is extremely influenced by circumstances we're in.
Whatever they may be.
I look out the window and I say, oh, look at the weather.
I'm supposed to start up the road in 1/2 an hour or so.
Is my peace, my rest, and my soul dependent on what I see when I look out the window?
That that's the humanness of us. That's the tendency of our souls and here.
It starts out in Psalm 42. Levi says my heart pants.
My soul pants after the Oh God, there's a thirst in them for God. I trust in every one of us. There's a thirst in US for God. There is that within us which is attracted.
To God, we want him. I trust we all do. I'm sure we do. If we're believers, we do. We have to, because we have a life which plants for God.
He raises. Then he raises a question with himself. You know, a lot of our lives are spent.
In daily life, talking to ourselves.
We all go through every day to some measure in our thought processes, talking to ourselves.
As we think our way through the day, and so here he's thinking and he says, my soul thirsts and verse 2 for God, for the living God, When shall I come and appear before God?
Now he's outside the city.
He can't go in, in his circumstances of his life. Umm, we find him at the Jordan quite a reasonable distance away.
And but he's saying to himself, well, when is it going to be that I'm going to be able to come and appear?
Before God.
When is it going to be?
That this thing that's presently in my life.
Is going to change so that I may come and enjoy the presence of God in my soul.
My tears have been my meat day and night.
While they continually say to me, Where is thy God?
Other people observe your life and mine. They look at us. We interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ, our husbands, our wives, our children, and so on.
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And sometimes.
Maybe we feel like they're saying to us.
Why aren't you happy?
Where's God in your life?
Where is he?
Why isn't he or why aren't you?
Satisfied right now?
Well, he, he, he experienced that feeling. Levi does he, he's kind of thinking.
I know what people think.
And, uh, maybe your neighbor knows what you think.
If you talk to your neighbor a little bit, I use a practical example comes to my mind.
A few years ago I had the privilege with some of my brethren.
Of spending some time in Israel on a.
Tour.
And every morning.
On the tour bus, we sang.
And it we add a little song book we sang out of.
Jim and Lorraine House have put together and one of the songs was.
Based on this is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice therein and be glad.
And every day we sang it.
Well, it turned out there was a period of about 3 days in a row when it rained.
Well, that doesn't, that dampens the tour when you're going to have outside things you do and so on it, it doesn't enhance your opportunities when it's raining all day, what part of your day?
And so about the third day.
Somebody made some remark out loud.
Concerning the weather of the day.
And the tour guide?
Who watched and observed the whole process every day said.
You're the people that sing. This is the day the Lord hath made. We will rejoice therein and be glad.
In other words, where is your God, or where are you with respect to your God?
You're saying it.
And it's true on nice weather days.
But is it true, equally true? Do they see it equally true? And so this person's Levi's downcast and he's, he's feeling the pressure, if you will.
He says in verse four. When I remember these things.
When I think about this.
I pour out my soul in me.
He's going over it inside himself.
As we all do, thinking about himself and his life and his circumstances and and.
He's not happy, not cheerful about it, He said. For when I pour out my soul in me, I and remember these things. For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the House of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that kept holy day.
So what does he do?
He thinks back over previous times in life.
That, he remembers, is happy.
Oh, I remember that conference that I went to.
Oh, such a happy time.
I remember when we went here and we had a happy time. I remember when the assembly where I am, happy days and so on.
And uh.
That's what he's doing. He's he's going back over previous periods of life.
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I remember when my child was this or my child was that compared to what they are that I'm struggling with today and so on.
So then he asked himself a question. Verse five. Why art thou cast down on my soul?
Why art thou disquieted in me, hope in God?
Isn't that the answer?
Why? Why do I feel cast out?
I need to hope IN God.
For I shall yet praise him.
For the health of his countenance.
He's not praising him.
He's saying I shall yet.
This cast down is in that condition of Seoul that he he thinks about the past.
And remembers happy days.
He says to himself, Hope, Indiana, God.
And then he says I shall, yeah, sometime in the future.
I'll praise him.
But verse six shows he still cast down. Oh my God, my soul is cast down.
Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, from the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. This is where he is. He's at this distance from what he wants to be and have in the beloved city of Jerusalem, where he can approach the temple and go into worship God in his house, which he can't do. And so he's saying, well, I'll, I'll remember you.
I'll think about you, God.
Even though I'm cast down.
Verse 7.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me.
We all.
I've enjoyed appreciated this verse in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's its highest meaning.
In connection with the Lord Jesus.
And particularly the Lord Jesus at the cross.
But in its connection here it applies to Levi.
As well.
Levi is going through a very difficult, painful process in his personal life.
And others with him.
It's not just Levi, really, it's the godly Jew of the remnant, but nonetheless is. We're applying it this afternoon. He's he's going through it.
Brethren.
We all mean, we all say.
That we wanna know the Lord Jesus better.
And the more we get to know him, the richer.
Will be eternity to our souls.
And I want to suggest to you that some of the painful.
Experiences through which you go through in your life.
Is part of God's way of teaching you.
What the Lord Jesus?
Felt as a man, not his atonement. Feelings on the cross. That's not for us.
But as a man who had a very difficult life.
As you experience, not just because of sin that you've committed.
But just because God has allowed it in your life.
And it's painful to you.
You are sharing.
A certain kind of experience that helps you to appreciate something of what he went through in the experiences of his own life.
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And you will be forever grateful.
When you can look back.
On life in His presence that you experience that pain, that suffering, those difficult circumstances that God ordered.
In your life, not because you were doing something wrong or bad or a consequence of sin.
That brought his government upon you.
And that includes.
Going on with your brethren.
Or others in family situations which may be because of direct sin.
That has occurred in their life, but it affects shares.
The Lord Jesus was a godly Jew.
And he suffered in his life.
With the nation.
Because he was identified with them.
And lived among them.
And had a was part of a family.
And some of his family didn't understand him all the time.
In fact, none of them understood him.
Not a single one, including his mother, could fully enter in.
And so you may experience some of that, and it may tend to cast you down at that time, but when you see the end of the work of God someday, you will be profoundly grateful. We'll leave it at that.
He says here.
Yet.
God will command. He's still in the future tense here. He's saying, uh, hope Indiana God. And he thinks, well, I'll hope in God. So he thinks things he's going to hope in God. He's not enjoying it particularly, but at least he's got faith, which is essential. And he's looking at God and he's saying, well, hope and God, he's going to do something good in the future that's going to take care of this. And so he says in verse 8.
The Lord will command His loving kindness.
In the daytime.
Uh, my prayer is unto the God of my life, I will say.
Unto God, my rock. What does he kind of say? Oh, now everything is OK.
Now I I, I recognize God, my rock, and so I'm happy. I'm overcome.
This discouragement or depression that I feel, he says.
I say unto God, my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me?
I, I, I hope you're my grok.
Why have you forgotten me?
Why? Why do I go mourning?
Verse 10 They still say to me, where is thy God? Hmm.
And so he repeats where he's at and his soul in verse 11. Why are thou cast down on my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope and thou and God, for I shall yet praise him. It's going to be better somehow, some way, sometime. And when it is, I'll be able to praise Him.
From my heart with liberty, rather than maybe going through the words without the expression of my soul. OK verse chapter 43. We need to keep moving here.
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause.
Verse 2 For thou art the God of my strength.
Why dost thou cast me off?
Send out verse three, Thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me, Let them bring me unto thy holy hill. That's back to Jerusalem, to thy tabernacles, the temple.
Then will I go into the altar of God?
Unto the God, my exceeding joy. Yeah, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.
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He acknowledges thou art the God of my strength. But he goes back. He's still thinking about himself.
He still is. Everything is respecting. If you'll see it, notice that it's with respect to himself.
Umm, didn't we read in 2nd Corinthians 5 that we should not live unto ourselves?
But unto him which died for us. But in this experience in which He's learning something, everything is in reference to himself.
And when we are in that condition of Seoul that's being described here, it's always that.
The center of our focus, the center of our attention, is ourselves.
That's natural, man.
He's always centered in himself and so here he's a believer, but his life is centered at this point. His thinking is centered this way and he says.
As it were, judge me.
If I could put it this way, what have I done wrong?
Look at me, Lord. I'm trying. I'm seeking to do right. I I'm trying to please you.
Chapter 44.
Verse One We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days and times of old. How thou didst drive out the hidden with thy hand and planest them. How Thou didst deflict the people and cast them out where they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arms save them, but thy right hand and thine arm in the light of thy countenance, because thou.
Hast a favor unto them?
Thou art my King, O God, command deliverance for Jacob.
Through thee we will push down our enemies, through thy name we will tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither will I, neither shall my sword save me.
But thou hast saved us from our enemies. Thou hast put them to shame that hated us.
In God we will boast all the day long, and praise thy name forever.
He's looking at the experience of his forefathers and we could say we look at the word of God and we see how God delivered his people at different times in their history. And he could look at his people and see how they were delivered. And and he saw that the children of Israel didn't get from Egypt all the way to Canaan by their.
Strength of their army, by their power, by their own sword. They hadn't gotten through the wilderness. But he could look at the same record that we look at in the Old Testament and he could say.
You commanded deliverance for Jacob.
Umm, it's your power.
To do this.
I won't trust in what I can do. It'll be what you can do. There's progress in this, in this soul. There's progress with us when we do recognize that we're not going to be able to solve what needs to be solved in our own power, but there's needs to be the power of God and.
We are willing.
To let it be that way.
There's something in the human pride and desire that always wants to be the one that solved it and did it. But he's reached a point where he could see from the Word and so on that, well, no, we'll boast in God.
And what he does?
So it's solved, right? He's happy now, right?
Verse 9.
The Tawas cast us off.
Thus put us to shame.
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Thou goest not forth with our armies.
And the practical sense of it and his soul, he could talk about it. He could speak of it.
But that was them.
That that was Jacob, that was Moses, so that was Aaron, and so on. But me is me and.
You've put me to shame.
We're scattered verse eleven among the heathen.
Thou sellest thy people for naughty and thus increase thy wealth by their price.
You have to meditate a little bit on that verse, but.
And I'll leave it to you primarily to your own meditation, but.
Just this week got a fresh copy of.
Greet the friends.
Open it up, look through it. Particularly looking for one thing.
Particular place.
I looked down the list, a name is missing but I'm looking for.
Lord.
Lord.
Thou sellest thy people for nought.
That is, here's a soul that's lost.
To the enjoyment of collective fellowship.
In the presence of the Lord Lord, what did you get out of it? Did you gain by that?
It's a little bit of what this person is feeling.
Verse 13 Thou makest us a reproach.
To our neighbors, the scorn a derision to them that are about us. You ever felt that way?
For 17 All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten thee.
Neither have we dealt falsely with thy covenant. Remember, this is Levi the Jews.
Verse 18 Our heart isn't turned back.
Our names on the list.
Neither of our steps declined from my way.
21 Shall not God search this out?
He knoweth the secrets of the heart.
So he says in verse 23 he still.
Cast down? Well, you could say all that, but did it make him happy? Did it bring him into a state of personal enjoyment of the Lord himself? No, it doesn't. It won't.
So he says verse 23 Awake, Why sleepest thou, O Lord, arise, cast us not off forever. Why hideest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
Verse 26 Arise for help.
Redeem us for thy mercy's sake. Pretty discouraging.
He is poor Levi.
But the Lord changes it all.
In the 45th Psalm, Levi's heart has changed. Levi learned some lessons here that I trust each one of us learn that we might have a happy overcoming life.
Verse 40. Chapter 45. Verse One. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men.
Grace is poured into thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee forever.
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Say again a comment.
The brother and the Lord, Allen said to Willie.
Willie.
It's not about us.
It's about the Lord.
Levi finally comes to the point where he stops making himself the center of the reference point of his life.
And he puts his eye on the king.
For us, the Lord Jesus.
It's not about us.
It's about him.
And when he gets his eye on the Lord Jesus.
He finds something that gives pleasure to his soul.
He finds in his thought pattern that's changed from wire. Thou cast down, O my soul, and why are you asleep, O God? And I'll trust you. But what have I done wrong and whatever.
Uh, he has something good that satisfies him that he can think about and be occupied with, and he thinks about here. Levi thinks about the king. Thou art fairer than the children of men, he says. Grace is poured into thy lips, and his heart is constrained.
By his occupation with.
Someone else?
The Lord he looks in verse six. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of the thy Kingdom is the right scepter.
Do you ever worry, do I ever worry that God isn't going to come out victorious, That the Lord Jesus is not going to have the last word?
That he is going to be overcome by the complexity of the problems that he faces, still faces, with respect to this world and its rebellion against Him. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Thou lovest righteousness, Thou hate us iniquity. He is occupied with what God thinks.
God's thoughts, God's purposes, God's plan, and he can say with that we should not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him, while how's he doing for himself? Is it God doing all right today?
Is he managing the situation of what he wants to accomplish?
MMM MMM, that's 1/2.
In a few moments that are left, we see the other half.
Verse 11.
Roll verse 10, Harken O daughter, and consider incline nine year. Forget thine own people and thy father's house.
So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.
For he is the Lord, and worship thou him.
Verse 10 Listen.
Hearken listen.
You've done enough thinking. You've done enough meditation on your situation.
You've rode and toiled over it by the hour, by the day.
And hadn't changed anything, but still, why art thou cast down on my soul?
He says OK.
Listen.
Let me talk, I want to say something to you.
Now you've had all your say and all your thoughts. Now I want to say something to you. Will you listen to me?
If needs be this afternoon, will you listen to the Lord for a moment?
Will you let him have the last word with respect to your life?
Your everyday life.
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You're beautiful to me.
You're beautiful to me.
I love you.
And you're precious to me. That's what the Lord Jesus wants to say to you.
I desire I.
Find desire in your beauty, in my sight, Your treasure to me.
Your clothing is rock gold.
He provided it for you. I love you. I provided that clothing for you.
You're clothed in divine righteousness. It's my work.
You're precious.
The love of Christ constrains us.
He wants to talk to us.
He wants us to wake up in the morning.
And enjoy his love.
To us, he wants us to know that we're precious.
Were important.
Makes all the difference.
And so time is up. Verse Psalm 46. I could put it this way. Circumstances don't change yet. They do change later, but not in the 46th song. The circumstances of life don't change. What changed? The state of heart.
The focus of the heart, the occupation of the heart. Levi changed.
Not anything else up to this point.
And generally, that's the big place where change is needed inside of us, not outside of us, in order for what God is doing to be realized in our lives.
And just to finish with one last statement.
The circumstances don't change necessarily, because the happiness of the soul doesn't depend on them.
Everything that the Lord Jesus brings out in the 45th Psalm is above and beyond circumstance, and there's nothing in circumstance that can take it from us if it's enjoyed in our souls.
Our circumstances can't take it from us. It's something that doesn't depend on them.
And it's wonderful. And so in Psalm 46 and verse 10, it says be still.
And no.
That I am God.
And I will be exalted.
Blessed be God, let's pray.
Our God, our Father, we just ask that the needed work in every one of our lives to make us more like our Lord Jesus Christ, that He might truly be written upon our hearts. Our God, that thou would take another step forward.
Not perhaps consciously so in us, but Thou knowest. And we just pray that that would work in every one of our hearts and lives.
That there might be an increasing appreciation of thyself.
And of thy love to us, Lord Jesus, that we with the.
Bridegroom.
Can say I am my beloved and his desire is toward me.
Thanks, Lord, my precious name. Amen.