Address—R. Rule
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Like you to turn with me to the third chapter of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 3. My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments for length of days, and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy on truth forsake thee.
Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thine heart.
So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways. Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes.
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thy naval, and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase. So shall I, Barnes, be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth.
Even as the Father, the Son in whom he delighteth, happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than Ruby's, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared with her.
Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to all to them that lay hold upon her, and happy as everyone that retaineth her. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth.
By understanding hath he established the heavens.
By His knowledge, the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew. Well, dear young people, my thought in reading this chapter this afternoon is because I believe it's of great importance to our souls to realize that God is seeking our happiness and our blessing. We know that the very first way.
That sin was introduced into the world.
Was when Satan came along with the suggestion that God had not provided for the full happiness of his creature. He had, according to what Satan told Eve, held back the very best thing in the garden from her and from Adam, and so he suggested that in order that their happiness would be complete.
They would take that which was forbidden them of God.
And we know that sin, and with its sorrow and misery came into the world, and the devil has never wearied of going on in this same idea of suggesting to young and old now that God is not really interested in our happiness.
About that, we must do a certain amount according to our own wisdom and not according to that which He has marked out for us in His Word. I believe that it's the very beginning of the souls blessing to realize that God is interested in you as an individual. God is seeking your blessing. God is seeking your happiness.
He wants to bless you.
He wants to give you far more than you have perhaps ever realized before.
Four times and for all eternity in the meetings we have been talking.
How the purposes of God and His bra have brought us into such wondrous blessing in Christ. But I believe in the book of Proverbs we see how in a natural sense, particularly that God is interested in our happiness. And I suppose that when we are young that we are concerned in quite a large measure with natural things.
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Then how we can find happiness?
Even if we do know the Lord as our Savior, we still feel that we must.
And find a way of getting happiness as we pass through this world. Well, what I want to bring before you is that God himself is interested in your blessing and happiness, that it's going to be His eternal joy to have around him in heaven.
People that will share all that's in his heart for all eternity. But in the book of Proverbs we see how that when he made this world, he was interested in man's happiness here upon earth. It tells us in the 8th chapter of Proverbs.
That when God laid the foundations of the earth, that his delights.
With the sons of man. Yes, his delights were with the sons of men rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth. That is when He made those beautiful rivers and valleys and fruitful lands. He wasn't only thinking of making a fair scene for your eyes and mind to rest upon, but he was thinking of how we would enjoy.
Those things that his hand so richly provided for man.
Oh, how wonderful this is. I've sometimes said as we gather around our little place up at Otter Lake, that I like to think that long ago God planned that little Bay in Otter Lake because He knew there was going to be a group of young people gathered there who loved him and He was providing for our happiness. Yes, if we would only realize, dear young people.
That God is interested in us and He has proven it in the wonderful creation that He has made.
But the sad havoc that has been wrought is that man is trying.
To enjoy this creation that God has made in forgetfulness, and not only in forgetfulness, but in positive enmity against the very One who has provided it all. But we who know the Lord, we need to realize that He is seeking our blessing and the through redemption He has found a way.
So that his purposes of love would not be frustrated.
And that we would have even more blessing than that which was the portion of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Richer, fuller blessing has come because the heart of God could not be held back by all man's evil and sin. I've sometimes compared it.
To a little stream coming down the mountainside. And if you damn up the stream, what happens? Well, the water just rises a little higher and goes over the top. And the more you put in the way of that flow of water, the higher it will rise and the wider it will spread when it goes over the top. And every attempt of man to put something in the way of the goodness and grace that is in the heart of God.
Has only caused it to rise to still higher levels and when man's crowning act.
In crucifying God's beloved Son was shown there at Calvary.
Why? The grace of God triumphed over it all, and it says.
In a little hymn, the river of thy grace through righteousness supplied is flowing, Or the band place where Jesus died.
And you know, as we sang that little hymn together, I was thinking of that well known verse in Romans 8. It says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Did you ever stop and muse over that verse? And then you brought some circumstance in your life into it and you said, I can't see how.
Going to work for good. I just can't see how there's anything good in this matter. This trouble, this disappointment. What good could there be in this? Well, you know we've got to read on. The next verse says for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren for whom he.
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No, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he though whom he did for. No, he also did predestinate.
For whom he did for now. Well, I better read it because I'm not quoting it correctly. Romans chapter 8 and verse 30. I quoted the 29th verse. The 30th verse, moreover, whom he did predestinate.
Then he also called, and whom he called them he also justified.
And whom he justified them He also glorified. Do you notice that that last verse is all in the past tense?
Well.
I like to compare it like this. Did you ever pick up a little storybook? And when you came to a very dark and sad chapter in the storybook and everything looks so perplexing, you just couldn't contain yourself anymore and you dared to look to see how the story ended. And when you saw that the story ended, happily, you went back and you read that chapter.
With the fullest confidence.
Because you whispered to yourself while you read it, perhaps with tears in your eyes, you said, oh, it's going to be all right, because I know how the story ends. Well, that's just what God is telling us in the 8th chapter of Romans. He says, do you wonder how this is all going to work together for good? Well, he said, I'm going to tell you a little secret. Your life story has already been written.
And in my purposes, you're already glorified. The story is completed.
I see you not only he carries you back into a past eternity and he tells us how that He knew us before we were ever born. He carries us into our lifetime and shows how he called us and then how he justified us. And then he calls us, carries us into eternity. And He doesn't say he will glorify. He says then he also glorified.
Oh dear Christian, doesn't this fill your heart with rejoicing?
Could you doubt love like this? Could you ever doubt how the story was going to turn out when you knew how it ended? Well, God knows, and God tells us the bright ending to the life story. And He wants us to go through this life with the happy confidence that He is interested in us, that He cares for us, that He loves us, that He has done everything that love could do to show His love, to provide for our happiness.
And so going back to our chapter here, we find that.
The means that he intended to use was the father and the mother, my son, my son. What a great responsibility rests upon young fathers and young mothers in all the animal creation. They can exist without their parents after they're born.
They are not dependent upon them after they are born. In the same way an animal can get up and walk, it can get along in a much easier way than a human. But a human and needs not only to be fed, but to be cared for. Why? Well, God is showing us.
That he intended that we should realize that we are dependent creatures and now he has provided father and mother. Do we who our parents rise to our responsibility. All I know that the world would tell us that we are responsible to clothe our children, to educate our children and many other things they would tell us.
But they would perhaps neglect the most important thing of all.
And that is to tell our children that God loves them.
God is interested in them that there isn't a move in their lives that God isn't concerned about. Whether it's their education, whether it's their clothes, whether it's the partner they should choose in life, whether it's the Christians with whom they should go in fellowship, all these things and above all, the most important. I need hardly mention that.
Spend eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ in glory well, dear parents, I speak to many young parents here and perhaps some of the young people, our young parents I sort of group you together, if I may young parents and young people, what a responsibility are we telling our children that we.
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We need the wisdom and instruction of God's Word. Perhaps we tell them to read the Bible for themselves. Well, that's very lovely.
I was impressed in reading about the manna that it tells us that each were to go out and gather what they needed for the day. But then it says every man for those that are in his tents. Well that shows us that there is an individual responsibility, but there's also a responsibility for each one who is.
In responsibility in the household.
To provide for those that are in his tents.
So it says, my son, forget not my law and let thine heart keep my commandments. God wants as we have been having in the meetings, He wants heart obedience.
If somebody tells you to do something and you have a feeling that person doesn't like you very well, there's something inside that rises up and say says why should I do it? To please him? Because you may have the feeling, well, they're not interested in me. But if someone had done everything possible to show their love towards you and then they ask you to do something, I think that you would probably.
I'd be glad to do it. I just be glad to do it. Well. How lovely it is that God wants heart obedience. Dear young people, God has done so much for you and I, and He wants us, his parents, to impress this upon our children too. And he wants our children too, to yield us heart obedience. And I speak to myself as a parent as well as to each parent here.
Do we just demand obedience from our children because of our authority over them?
Or do we seek their heart obedience? Do we, do we act in such a way that we have won their hearts and saw that when we asked them to do things, that it's obedience that is the result of love in their hearts? Well, that's what we have here. And the parent is not to forget that every command that is given is to be given because he loves the child, not just to exercise his.
As such.
Then it says, For a length of days, and long life and peace shall they add unto thee. Well, of course I might say that in the book of Proverbs we do not have persecution for Christ sake brought in. Since the crucifixion of Christ there is a new element of things that is brought into the Scripture, and that is the world having proven its enmity against Christ.
It will be an enmity of against those who are associated with him.
But still, there's a principle here, and that is that God wants us to have happy lives as Christians. He wants us to have happy lives. Every Christian does not have a happy life. Every Christian has a happy ending, but not a happy life.
And the way we can have a happy life is what is brought before us in principle here, and that is to walk in the enjoyment of the heart of God and in obedience to His Word. And so we find even those who are, who are on sick beds, who have learned in an experimental way to find happiness even there. Some of the happiest people that I have visited have been the ones.
Had the least of this world's goods, but it was because they had found happiness in a person. They were enjoying what was in the heart of God. And God would have us to realize this length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.
Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thy heart.
Why does it say let not mercy and truth forsake thee? Why is it not worded do not forsake mercy and truth? Instead it says, let not mercy and truth forsake thee? Well, this is a very solemn thing because.
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If we leave God out of our plans, then He may give us over to the plans that we have made ourselves. Dear Hezekiah.
Very godly man in many ways. In fact, he became so proud of his godliness that he actually told God that he had walked before him with a perfect heart and soul. God added 15 years to the life of Hezekiah and it says he left him that he might know what was in his heart. He didn't feel his need of God's mercies and loving kindness. He had earned them.
He had quite a confidence in himself, and so in those last years of the life of Hezekiah, God allowed him to discover what was in his own heart. All dear young people, May God grant that you and I will always walk in confident in confidence in him, independence upon him, because if we're determined to go our own way, mercy and truth may forsake us.
Mercy and truth may forsake us, I say. God may allow us to reap the fruit of our own ways and be filled with our own devices. And poor Hezekiah had to learn this in an experimental way. And alas, we have seen true children of God, and instead of enjoying what could be their portion, they have been so determined to have their own way that God has allowed them to have it.
Our dear Mr. Darby said the worst of all chastisement is that God should leave us to our own ways. Oh, may we always look up and ask him, Lord, help me to walk in thy ways.
Bind them about thy neck. Well, I think of this in connection with the fact that the neck is what turns the head. Bind them about thy neck. Which way is your is your headset? Which way are you looking? Well, we know that King David looked the wrong way. He saw a beautiful woman.
He stepped out of the path of obedience to God.
And he brought a lot of sorrow. Which way are you looking, dear young people?
Looking under Jesus.
Oh, don't look at those things.
That would lead your heart away from the Lord. The world was never so filled with things that we can look at the most attractive things that would tend to lead our hearts away from the Lord. Have you got a? Have you got these things bound about your neck?
So that if we could put it in this way, you can just look one way, says let thine eyelids look straight before thee, but if your neck turns it looks the other way. Are you looking unto Jesus?
The little hymn says.
We'll fix our earnest gaze, so, holy Lord, on thee, that with thy beauty occupied, we elsewhere none may see. Write them upon the table of thy heart.
That's connected with the verse that says.
Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. It's what we allow our affections to go after that moles and controls our whole life. And so it says, write them upon the tables of thine heart. What are you allowing your heart to go after? Are you looking around at what this world has to offer and saying, well, I'd like to have this, I'd like to have that.
Well, God is interested in your happiness. He's interested in the girl or the boy that's to be your partner in life. He's interested in the job that you're to do. He's interested in the street that he wants you to live on. All these things are are things that he delights to take in hand for us and if we would just commit these things to him and just.
Up and say, Lord, I just want to please thee. I want my heart to be holy for thee, another little hymn says.
Take Thou our hearts, and let them be forever closed to all but Thee. That is, that we only want to love the things and the people that the Lord would have us to love, and the things that He would have us choose.
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And so it says, write them upon the table of thine heart. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Well, this was truly exemplified in the Lord Jesus. For as he grew up, it says Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.
And while the world may not like our testimony to Christ, and it certainly will not.
I am bold to say that the world will recognize a consistent Christian testimony. The world will recognize a consistent Christian testimony. And so it says. Thou shalt find favor and good understanding.
Sight of God and man and how important it is that our lives should show to others that we have a satisfying portion. Someone else has said our testimony to the world is our joy in the Lord, and if the world sees that we have something they do not have.
They all want it, but they will never want it if they see that it's just cold formality to us.
So here we have good understanding in the sight of God.
And man, your life and mine is to be lived in the presence of God.
And in that way it will be such as will commend itself to the consciences, even of those that are unsaved. Now this fifth verse. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. With all thine heart.
Has He won your heart? Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior?
Can you say that he has won that heart of yours will entrust in him with all your heart? Wouldn't you like to have a friend that in every difficulty you could go to him, and not only would he have wisdom to give you the right answer, but you would have the confidence that he loved you so much?
So that he always thought your happiness and if there was any place where influence was necessary.
He had influence everywhere. Well, that's the one who is our friend.
The high priest in Israel, there were three distinct characteristics as he went into the presence of God on behalf of the people, He carried their names upon his shoulders. That's the fact that he has all strength. He he is able to do anything.
If there's someone you say, well, if I had pull, I could get that job. Well, the Lord has pull everywhere. He's got pull everywhere. He, he knows it says promotion cometh not from the east or from the West or from the South. It says the Lord is the one who puts down. The Lord is the one who sets up. And so instead of saying, well, if I had pull like someone else, I'd be.
Remember, the Lord is the one who is over all. It says He doeth according to his own will, among the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say, What doest thou?
Well then, next the high priest had the names upon his heart. You know, I sometimes mentioned that on the shoulders they were on 2 Onyx stones, one on each shoulder, and they were graven there according to their birth. Because when the Lord saved you, he placed you upon his shoulders, and you're equally secure with every other believer.
But on his heart there were all different stones.
Different stones, all glittering in a different way. Why weren't they all the same?
All, you know, this touches my heart because we have three children and we have a different feeling toward each one of those children. They're not alike. Each one has different characteristics. Each one has different tendencies, and we have a special individual love for each one. I wouldn't say we love one more than the other, but it's a different love. And they have a different beauty in our eyes too, each one.
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And you are not lost in the crowd, dear young person. God doesn't just group you together with all the other young people in this company and say, well, or just a group of young people here, perhaps I might, but the Lord doesn't. He knows every circumstance of your life. He knows every natural tendency of your heart. He knows every weakness. He knows every triumph. He knows the home life. He knows.
Assembly you come from, he is perfectly interested and he's acquainted, I say, with all those things, and you have a glitter in his eyes that's different from any other Christian. There's a glitter that Sean, when that high priest went into the holiest of all, each one of those stones glittered in a different way.
Not isn't it precious to know that as an individual, you're upon the heart of Christ?
And he is interested in you, he is concerned about you. He careth for you. Oh, how intensely individual. Then underneath that breastplate, underneath it, there was a a Urim and thummim.
Well, that urlem and thumb means.
Lights and perfections.
Lights and perfections. I can't tell you what the Urim and Thummim is. I don't believe there's anyone that really knows. But I do believe that it means that God's ways are always perfect and that he always knows what he's doing. Light the fact that he doesn't miss any circumstance. I've given my judgment about things and then found out afterwards I didn't know what I was talking about.
Because I only knew half the facts. But not so with God. When you turn to Him in some circumstance, at the light of his presence shines upon everything in that circumstance, there isn't a thought, there isn't an action that He doesn't know all about it. And so they underneath those beautiful glittering stones was the fact that there was perfect knowledge.
And that there was perfect wisdom and every time the High Priest went into the holiest of all. Why those 3 characteristics? Strength, love and wisdom.
Were always there on behalf of the people of God.
Well, it says trust in the Lord with all thine heart. A dear servant of God was preaching the gospel one night many years ago, and he read that verse. They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee. And he made this comment. He said you couldn't help but trust him if you knew him.
You couldn't help but trust him.
If you knew him, all dear young people, you and I couldn't help but trust him. If we only knew him. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Oh, perhaps you say, but I know better. Can we ever think such a thing? Well, we do, We do. When the Lord wanted Ananias to go and.
Baptize all of Tarsus. He began to tell the Lord that he knew more about Saul than the Lord did.
The Lord said, you go because Saul is praying. And he said, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he has done to thy people at Jerusalem. He started to tell the Lord all about what a bad man saw was in the Lord. Know all about him, didn't he know all about him all how patiently The Lord answered, He said, go thy way.
For he is a chosen vessel under me.
My name unto the kings and Gentiles, and to the children of Israel. Oh dear young people, you and I can never tell God anything He doesn't know. We never can lean not unto thine own understanding. Well, I'm afraid if Ananias did that, that I've done the same thing when I started to pray, almost talk to the Lord, as if He didn't know some of the things that I knew.
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Well, you know he likes us to tell him.
All the things that burden them burden us, but He never wants us to ever have the feeling that He doesn't know all about them before. It says Your Father knoweth that she have need of these things before He asked him. Oh how precious. Then lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways.
Acknowledge him.
In all thy ways.
There's a little tendency in these days to say, well, you know, you turn to the Bible.
To get the way of salvation. And you turn to the Bible to get some instructions about how to gather. But perhaps don't think of turning to the Bible for such matters as the job that you should be working on and how you should do your job and how you should treat your next door neighbor. And about that boyfriend and girlfriend. But all I want to tell you, dear young people.
It says here in all thy ways acknowledge him.
And all thy ways, there is absolutely nothing that we ought to think that we have to take on ourselves in all thy ways. Oh, if there's anything that is concerning you, have you acknowledged the Lord in that matter? Have you turned to Him? Have you sought His mind about it?
And perhaps when you have been unable.
At once to discern his mind, just to be able to commit it to him just the same.
You know God looks upon the heart and I may have mentioned this before sometime.
But I took great comfort in this.
You know King Abimelech in Genesis, Abraham told him a lie about his wife.
He told him that Sarah was not his wife, that Sarah was his sister. And so King of Amalek took Sarah and he brought her into his house. And then the Lord spoke to Abimelech in the night and told him to be careful because Sarah was a man's wife. And he said, well, I didn't know that.
And the Lord said that was why I kept you from doing what was wrong.
That was why I kept you from doing what was wrong. Perhaps you might say all that. Sometimes you're misinformed and saw you. You can't help but when you get wrong information. Well, God kept Abimelech because He was acting in integrity of heart. I was very much struck one time in reading a little remark in Mr. Darby.
Someone asked him advice about a certain matter.
And he gave his advice in the matter, and he gave wrong advice.
And afterwards he found out his mistake and this is what he said about him.
He said well, I gave wrong advice in that matter because I had been misinformed.
But he said that doesn't excuse me because he said the Lord wasn't misinformed.
And if I had asked him, he would have kept me from giving that wrong advice.
Oh dear young people.
I want to bring this before my own heart and yours now that even if you and I are misinformed, even if we take some wrong step because we were perhaps a little bit too forward, if the Lord who looks into our hearts sees that we want to please Him, He still has His eye upon us for good. All He loves us. He loves us infinitely. He loves you.
Can you really, can you really say, well, I do want to please the Lord and I want to have his mind in my life and even when you make mistakes that you are willing that he should point out those mistakes to you all. He wants to bless you. Trust in the Lord, rather in all thy ways acknowledge him.
And he shall direct thy paths.
He shall direct thy paths all. What a gracious God we have.
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Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
We know that the reason Adam and Eve sinned is because they were wise in their own eyes. They were. They thought that by doing what they thought would be for their happiness that they would receive something worthwhile. They were wise in their own eyes and all. May I say, never take one single step in your own wisdom.
Well, perhaps someone might say, but they there are some things the word of God doesn't give you positive.
Direction. Well, that is true. There are some things that God gives us positive direction.
There are other things that God has purposely left in His Word so that we might be near Him to discern His mind. The Lord wants our company. He wants our confidence. And I'm sure if we live with a person, why we get to know the things that displease them and the things that please them just by being in their company.
And the Lord has left certain things so that we might would have to be near him.
In order to discern his mind in certain matters. Are you and I walking near enough to him to discern his mind? Well, there are many things like this in our lives, and that's why it tells us just to trust Him in in all our ways. Acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path.
I think of an instance in connection with the Lord in the temptations.
Satan came to him and said, Command that these stones be made bread.
Was there any verse from Genesis up until Malachi that said not to turn stones into bread when a person was hungry? Often young people will say, well show me a verse, show me a verse. Well, there wasn't any verse that said no, it was wrong to turn stones into bread. But the Lord didn't act just because there was no verse to say not to turn stones into Brad his.
Answer to The tempter was Man shall not live by bread only.
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, perhaps to make it simple, the point that I'm trying to make is the word of God may not actually tell us that something is wrong, but the Lord wants us, when there is an absence of a verse to condemn the thing. He wants us to come and ask Him if it's all right to do it. Isn't that love and consideration?
You know, my wife might never have told me that something displeased her.
But if I ask her, would you like me to do this? Why? I am sure that anyone would appreciate such consideration. And you know, the Lord likes to hear us come, even if there's no verse to condemn a certain thing, just to come to him and say Lord.
Do you want me to do it? Do you want me to do it? Oh, how? How tender, how loving. I'm glad that there isn't just an actual verse for everything. It would spoil us. It would spoil the precious fact that the Lord wants us to be near Him. Dear young people, it's not to make a code of laws for us. All these things are written because He's interested in us and because He wants.
Company.
Then it says in the eighth verse, It shall be health to thy naval, and marrow to thy bones. Today men are finding out more than ever before, the effect of the mind upon the body. There never, I suppose, was a time when they realized that the effect of a person's mind is so great upon his body.
Well, God has told us this in his Word, and if you and I.
Walk in quiet, simple dependence and obedience upon the Lord.
Why, I'm sure that many of the nervous disorders that we have would be eliminated because many of them come because we haven't just quietly committed our way unto Him. And I don't say this just for other people. I say this for myself.
How often we get sort of tensed up and all this. Why you say, well, I feel miserable. I think it's just my nerves. Well, that's exactly what it means here. It says it shall be health to thy naval and marrow to thy bones. God wants us to go through life in the quiet, confident enjoyment that we have, One who cares for us and is interested in us and who seeks our blessing.
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Now the tenth verse. So shall I barns be filled with plenty of thy presses shall.
Burst out with new wine. What does this mean? New wine? Well, in the second chapter of John they had a marriage feast, and there was wine provided for that marriage feast. But only the Lord Jesus could bring the new wine. And you know, there are certain natural joys in life, but only the Lord can bring the new wine.
Only the Lord can now give that which really satisfies.
At that feast, when they had well drunk, they used up all they had. It said they have no wine. Dear young people, while you have your health and while you have energy, you may drink of the old wine, but there's a time coming in your life when you're going to have to say they have no line, they have no wine, because the pleasures of this world don't last.
But the Lord Jesus.
Brings the new wine, and it says, thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Well, how is this new wine obtained? Well, it tells us that they fill the water pots with water, and Jesus turned it into wine. And I'd like to just say this little word to you, dear young people. Perhaps you say, well, when I read the Bible, I don't seem to get very much out of it.
Well, when those men that filled up those water pots with water were filling them, if you had said, well, what does it taste like? They'd say, well, it's just just water, just water. But after they had filled up those water pots and then the Lord Jesus.
Got hold of those water pots. It was more than just water. And perhaps you say, well, I read the third chapter of Philippians or I read the chapter in Ezekiel and I didn't seem to get very much out of it. Well, I, I want to tell you, fill up the water pots just the same.
Fill them up just the same, Read the Bible until you are well acquainted with it, and sometime when the old wines all spent, you'll come to that verse, perhaps that you never realized what it meant, and the Spirit of God will bring it like new wine to your soul.
Know how many of us can say that some little verse that we had read and long forgotten. It was in the water pot. We felt it was just like a water pot of stone with nothing but water in it. We felt how hard we were like the stone and we felt that it was. It was the word that it didn't seem to mean what to us what it should well fill them just the same.
And when the pleasures of this world and the natural joys are spent.
And you perhaps lie upon a sick bed or suffer some keen disappointment in your life.
The Lord Jesus will turn that water, pot of water into wine, and your personal, your presses will burst out with new wine and all. How often the Lord Jesus proves himself just wonderfully precious to us when such circumstances arise. And that's why it says not to despise the correction of the Lord.
Why did the Lord, why did the Lord allow that trial to come in your life and mine?
Perhaps He wanted to show us that He could turn the water pot full of water into wine. We never knew it before because we were well drinking of the old wine. We were enjoying the natural joys. But the Lord allowed the affliction to come so that we might enjoy what was in the water pot, the precious things of himself. And so it says.
It says here.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. Well, I just want to comment here before I close. When we come down to the 19th verse, it says here.
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The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, by understanding hath he established the heavens.
By his knowledge, the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew. That is, He's telling us that we can trust the wisdom of this one who made this vast creation in which we live in May, in the one who made your body and mind with all its intricacies, with all its wonderful faculties and everything, who made the all these things.
Who made those starry heavens? Who made all the laws of nature?
Lord was the one who is interested in you, the little hymn says. And couldst thou be delighted with creatures such as we, who, when we saw these, slighted and nailed thee to a tree? Unfathomable wonder and mystery divine. The voice that speaks in Thunder says, Sinner, I am thine.
All dear young people, let me again close with that verse in all.
By ways acknowledge him, He's given us every reason to acknowledge Him. He's done all that love could do. He's purposed eternal blessing for us. And this book of Proverbs is written to give us wisdom for our pathway through this world. He doesn't only want to make us happy up there in glory, but He wants our presence to burst out with new wine, even here and now. But we'll never.
These things unless we walk in His company. May the Lord grant that those of us who know Him may value His presence, His company, above everything else.