Address—Bill Brockmeier
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Share the fellowship with our brother and enjoy the Word of God together.
Let's sing 117.
Not to ourselves. We owe that. We owe God our lying. Jesus the Lord our Knight broke through and gave us light Divine 117.
To ourselves.
We are all.
But we don't ride my heart.
Uh.
We shall begin.
Wherever my life.
Again.
Umm God bless you in prayer for God and our Father we.
I'd like to turn to a couple of verses to begin with. The 1St is in Psalm 16.
Like 3 three sets of two verses each.
To umm lead into the subject that I have before me, but the first verse of Psalm 16 and verse 7.
I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons.
Next verse Psalm 17 and verse 3.
Thou has proved my heart, Thou has visited me in the night. Thou has tried me and shall find nothing. I am purpose that my mouth shall not transgress.
The Darby right, as if my thought goeth not beyond my word.
Like to consider a little this afternoon something of the night seasons.
And perhaps look at them, and particularly in in in one way. But I'd like to notice a few ways in which this expression is used as we have in verse 7.
My reigns also instruct me in the ninth season, the reigns of kidneys, the renal failure, and so on. The kidneys, my reigns also instruct me in the ninth seasons. And in that verse, and also in the verse in the 17th Psalm, they bring before us the Lord's, uh, working and his testing us.
And those private, uh, seasons in our lunch, you know, most of our life is, is, uh, strictly individual before God through there is that interaction with one another, with our brethren, with our family. And yet by and large, most of our, our life is intensely personal before God. For instance, how much of your thought life, uh, do your, do your, even those closest to you know, it's strictly that which is primarily that which is known and known entirely of God.
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And there are, there's that which is, as we say, off the radar. There's that which is not open to public view, but it's very important. Now the Lord Jesus, of course, is spoken of in the 16th song. He was the perfect dependent man.
And we know one of the marks of the new life that God has given us is dependence. And the Lord Jesus took that path of dependence, perfect dependence on his Father when he came into manslaughter. Now for us, the path of dependence is even more important.
Because we have a fallen nature within that can lead us into all sorts of mischief. So not only is the life that we have dependent upon God, we also have the danger of the flesh within us that will lead us into sin if we're not dependent upon the Lord. And yet in the ninth season, the psalmist could say, because we recognize these songs not only as messianic, as we say some of them in reference to the Lord Jesus himself, but they also apply practical application to the Saint of God. And he says.
My reins instruct me in the ninth seasons. You know what?
At the end of the day, you're in bed and you're waking up and, and the thoughts come to your mind and say, well, the way you spoke to so and so really wasn't, uh, characterized by meekness and gentleness.
You really didn't, you didn't really didn't mean to say that what you said, the tone you set it in. And you know, it's one thing to argue against somebody that may correct this, but it's another thing when the Lord lays something on your heart and there you are before the Lord. Since the Lord is speaking to you, there's no sense arguing because he knows it through and through. But how important it is that we have these this instruction of the night season.
And I'd like to focus a little bit on that subject of the ninth seasons.
In the way of what God would instruct us in those those those personal moments with himself. Some examples from Scripture and so on the 16th and 17th Psalm, I would describe it as the nine seasons of our personal inward life before the Lord. Now turn over to the 30th Psalm.
And the night is broke. This raw before a shear in a little different way. Psalm 30.
And verse 5.
For his anger endureth at a moment.
His favor is life leaping may endure for a night, for joy cometh in the morning. Permit me again when you do that in the Darby translation for a moment. His past in his anger, a life in his faith.
Turn over to Joel.
35 I believe it is for another verse to go along with that.
You know the story of Job. Unprecedented calamity came upon him. God himself allows Satan to touch Job.
In a tremendous way, perhaps none of suffered in so many ways within a short period of time as Job suffered. And through it all, Job and even makes claim that he retained his integrity. He did not curse God. He did not blasphemy God.
But he was a man. Job's problem was not sin, the problem was self. At the beginning of this chapter even says the lie view that one messenger among 1000 says you have said your righteousness is greater than God's.
And that ultimately was your problem, not his matter of integrity. He was a righteous man. And not only a righteous man. He was a good man. He was a man. He says. I made the widow's heart to sing. Think of it. What a man he must have been for that grieving widow.
The sense of loss and devastation, and here comes Joel and her heart is lifted up with joy because of that man and the comfort of solace that he would bring. That was the kind of man Joe was. Righteous man, a good man, an honorable man in every way.
And in this chapter, why you have to deal with Job and he operated from the premises that good things come to good people.
And when bad things came to a good person, he couldn't reconcile.
His friends couldn't reconcile it either.
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And so, his friend said, Joel must be a fraud.
There must be a double life here because if he was the man that we think he is and that we have seen him to be, he would not be in the mess that he's in now because God would reward one that lives right and does good.
And he is. He is being afflicted as none of it, so his three friends quote.
Which made him all the more angry because one thing he knew is he wasn't living his double life. He wasn't a hypocrite, he was true.
But a lie who comes and lays the problem? And Job was operating from the same premise as his friends. His friends said well, these bad things happen to this man, therefore he must be a hypocrite. And Toth knew that wasn't the case. What other conclusion could he come to? God must be unjust.
Based on all he knew, that's the only conclusion he could come to is it God is sovereign. God is all powerful. There's nothing I can do but accept it. He wants to throw me in the ditch there. I must lie because he's God and I'm man. But allow you puts his finger on and says he said you said your righteousness is greater than God's. And so the light begins to speak to him. I took a little more time on that than I intended, but it leads up to verse 9 talks about those that have run into trial and problems.
By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry, or the oppressed cry, they cry out. By reason of the arm of the mighty, but none set. Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs to the night? Now the psalmist said that weeping may endure for a night.
And sometimes maybe we focus on the fact that we can landure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. But it does say weeping endures for a night. That night may be decades. It may be a long night. And you know what night is. It brings before us the thought of trial, of suffering, of sorrow, of uncertainty, of doubt, of not being able to explain why this has happened. And that was her job was he couldn't explain what happened to him. Oh, his friends explained it fine, but they were wrong.
In their explanation, So job he, uh, he was in his real mind, but a lie. Who says if there's many that cry for oppression because they want the oppression lifted, but he says none say where is God my maker who give us songs in the night? This goes beyond just waiting for joy in the morning and for every believer we can say joy does come in the morning.
For the Lord's return to come and take us to be with himself. What joy that will be. But I think of those like Paul and Silas there as they were imprisoned for their preaching the gospel and their backs were beaten. And at midnight, the darkest point of the day, they lifted up their voices saying how could they do that? Because God can give songs in the night. And there are those times of sorrow. And in measure, I'm sure we all have that measure of the night seasons in our life.
This afternoon, so I'm greater than others. Maybe it's a real intense trial in a certain period of time. Others may be drawn out along and during trial. But night is very real, those nights of sorrow. But our God can give songs in the night. Now turn over to Romans chapter 13, and this will be the third set of the, uh, of the three I mentioned that bring before us tonight.
Again, the night that bring before us our inward personal walk before God, and our thoughts before God. Then the night of sorrow. But in Romans 13 we have the knight brought out a little different way.
Romans 1311 and then knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe the night is far spent, the day is at hand, but is therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let's put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and lasciviousness is the thought of sexual sin. It's done in private and wanting this not in stride and ending, but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ to make not provision for the flesh.
To fulfill the lust thereof.
Night is far spent.
How soft works of darkness. And then one more person first John chapter 2.
First John chapter 2 and verse 8.
Again a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness has passed, For the darkness is passing, and the true light now shineth.
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The South is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now, but the darkness is passing the true light now shines well, what we have in Romans 13 is really moral and spiritual darkness. What is characterized by a life of sin is darkness, moral darkness. And as Paul writes the Romans there he says night is uh is far spent the day in Japan soon this night of unchecked.
Sin and wickedness in this world.
It's going to come to an end. The Lord is going to come to take his own, to be with himself, and then he's going to come back a day of the Lord and then righteousness will dwell in every high look will be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. So the night of moral and spiritual darkness, and that's the night that we live in here, but we're to be characterized by those that.
Says here, let's put on the armor of life that are characterized by light and holiness to righteousness.
In a practical way, they also read there in first John that the darkness is passing. You know, first John, we are brought these for us. Uh, there is some of the great attributes of God. Chapter one, God is light. Chapter 4, God is love. But you know, it says in the first chapter, if we walk in the light as he is in the light. Think about that for a moment. Not only is God's light and love, God is in the light. And Solomon's day, God dwelt behind thick curtains.
I think the verse was quoted this morning that God didn't speak in times past and diverse ways and diverse manners and deposited by the prophets. They had a partial knowledge of God, a partial revelation of God.
And God was not made known, as Solomon says that God would dwell in thick curtains.
But after the veil has been rent, God has now come out in the light. God has now made himself fully known in the sun. The darkness is passing, the true light now shining. And so John writes here.
A new commandment I write into you. But he says if I read verse seven, I write no new commandment in you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. What's that? Mount Sinai? Oh, that's the beginning of the Lord's public ministry here on earth. We think of the commandments given the sign of the 10 commandments, but this old commandment that he's referring to is not. That commandment is what the Lord Jesus said there in John 13. This commandment I give you that you love one another. So John is saying I'm giving you a new commandment, but it's not new. We already heard it from the lips of our blessed Lord.
It's this new commandment I'm giving you, but as these things were true in him.
Now they're to be true in you, and that's as the darkness is passing, as the light of that life is lived out in the light of His people. God is in the light we know Him as revealed in His Son. So there are still three ways of darkness to mention that of that personal inward life, that of the night seasons of sorrow, and then a moral and spiritual darkness. And I would just add this too, I think of Judas Iscariot when he took that favorite salt from the hand of the blessed Lord Charlie. Before he betrayed him, the plans had already been laid and he took that favor.
Uh, favored gesture from the blessed Lord. And it says he went out and it was night. Literally it was night. But it's a picture of the moral and spiritual darkness. And for one like Judas Iscariot, a lost eternity forever in the language of the Thistle of Jude, the blackness and darkness forever, eternal judgment. But as I say, I'd like to spend the rest of the meeting this afternoon on looking at a few examples of those that the Lord worked with in private and in the nice seasons. So let's turn to First Samuel, chapter 2.
Or for Samuel chapter 3.
Samuel is the fruit of his mother Hannah's, his godly mother's, and his intercession.
And the Lord granted her the son that she devoted to the Lord.
Chapter 3 In the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious or rare in those days. It was infrequent. It doesn't mean, like he said, that's very precious, very valuable. It's true the word of the Lord is valuable, but that's not the meaning of the word here. God was not openly communicating with His people.
There was no open vision, and it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see, and there in the lamp of God went out of the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down asleep.
That the Lord called Samuel and he answered, Here am I, and you ran into Eli and said, Here am I, but I'll call us me. And he said, I called not lie down again, and he went and laid out.
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The Lord called yet again Samuel, and Samuel rose with EUI and said Jeremiah without his calming any answer that I called not my son, lie down again now. Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him.
Understand. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I without his Coleman. And he life received that the Lord had called the child Deborah, Elizabeth and Samuel. Go lie down and shall be, if you call thee that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place, And the Lord came and stood, and called it at other times Samuel, Samuel and Samuel answers, Speak for thy servant heareth.
And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone that heareth that shall tingle that day. I will perform against the oil all things which I have spoken concerning this house, when I begin.
I'll also make an end drop down to verse 15.
Samuel lay until the morning and opened the doors of the House of the Lord, and Samuel feared to show Eli a division.
Stop there. What a tremendous.
Incident this was We know that this is the first time that the Lord appeared to Samuel. Certainly wasn't the last. God communicated frequently to His servant.
But this is what we might speak of is the call of God.
The call of God.
And it may be that.
And any here came to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior early in their days. Some of us really don't remember a time when we positively rejected the gospel, did not accept it, would not accept it, and finally God in His grace saved us.
There was a time when we came to peace, but we perhaps had received the gospel as soon as we heard it, never fought against it.
Samuel was raised in an up in a in a in a in a godly environment. But there is a coming a time in everyone's life. That is a question that not only owning the lordship of Christ and salvation where we can't know him as our savior, the one who delivered us from that coming wrath of eternal hell and eternal demon. But the question is, am I going to live my life for Christ? As many believers that have lived their lives for themselves, they're fine as far as eternity is concerned. They'll be with Christ or sheltered under the blood of Christ.
But the great question is the call of God comes for service and for devotedness to Him. And it's often in the nine seasons, I suppose if we went through the room and talked to different people as to what was it that really stirred your heart to follow the Lord Jesus, what was it? There will be many different ways. Perhaps it was a quiet word that someone said to us.
Perhaps it was not being able to sleep some night and you knew Brevard was speaking to you.
It may have been different things, but the Lord said I'm calling you and I'm calling you to serve you. And when I speak of service, I I the service of God is following God. I think one of the greatest services that one could render, which is excluded all brothers and that's that calling them a mother, but a great service that is to impact lives in a particular way. So I'm not Speaking of any any single thing in terms of the service of God, but it's how do we do what we do?
And the call of God now came to Samuel. Now there's a couple things that are very striking about this. Should the call of God come? Uh, should have, shouldn't have come to Samuel. Eli was the functioning priest.
And it must have been a very difficult thing when Samuel continues to interrupt this older man.
Getting to sleep and this kid comes in and wakes me up, get back to sleep and wakes me up again and finally he figures it out.
What a thought that must have been the Lord's not speaking to me.
But you know, Eli said, Eli recognizes now that God is not speaking to him. He's speaking to this young boy and tells him when he says speak Lord for thy servant here. That happened three times. And it was until Eli had that instruction, he gave it to Samuel, that Samuel responded in the way that he should. But I thought of this too, and.
You know, President Lincoln used to. He made the comment about one of his cabinet members that he would go around kicking over beehives.
You get the analogy. Some of us sometimes in our life have gone around kicking over beehives and the bee starts during getting worked up. But you know, sometimes when God works in the soul, we don't know how to respond to it.
Maybe you did, maybe I did. We didn't know how to handle a situation, saw something that wasn't right. So we go and ask about it. What's what's up with this? And uh, perhaps it unsettled some people just like Samuel unsettled Eli from the slumber. But yet the Lord was working. And again, Eli recognized here is a young man that God had called. And So what is the great advice that he gives me? Says speak Lord for thy servant here. Do we have a hearing here?
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Says in Proverbs at the C9 and the here and here. The Lord hath made even both of them, And we hear the Lord's voice, and as Lord calls us.
And then whatever form that may take, but we have a sense that God is speaking to us, speaking to us through his word. You read that verse 100 times before and now that verse comes like a lightning bolt in your soul and say, now God is speaking to me through that verse, that Scripture. May we have an attentive here to hear. Furthermore, what Samuel heard was tough news for a young boy to break for an old night. It was a message of judgment and he didn't want to say it. He wasn't running off. Say guess what, he lied.
Now He recognized the gravity of what he had to tell you by of the judgment of God coming upon His house. But this is the call of God. And may we have that that tender heart that would hear His voice when He speaks to us. I don't know how he's going to speak to you, but God is not incapable of communicating to your soul that He is speaking to you through His Word. He's speaking to me through His word.
Now let's turn over to.
First chronicles the call of God in those night seasons in our life.
First Chronicles.
Chapter UH-17.
Now we have this passage in the second sentence, seven. I think it is as well, but it's really just a little different here in Chronicles. That's right. I'm not suggesting we visit passage.
So we have the follow up on.
Now first Chronicle 17 and verse one. Now it came to pass as David said in his house, that David said to Nathan, the prophet low eyed well in the House of Cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains. And Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in my heart, for God is with me in the Kingdom. Pass the same night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell David, my servant, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not fill me in house to dwell.
So I have not dwelt in the house since the day, but I brought a visual unto this day, but have gone from 9:50 and from one Tabernacle to another.
Or so ever I have walked with all Israel speak I word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people sane. Why have you not built me in House of Cedars?
And, umm.
I'd I'd love to read this whole chapter over time. I will. Let's drop down to verse 11.
And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired, that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his Kingdom. He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.
This is the corruption of God, and I'm thinking in particularly, in particular of Nathan the prophet.
The relationship between Nathan and David is a remarkable little study.
No, Nathan was a true friend of David, his whole 40 years of being king. Actually a little bit beyond this was at the beginning.
You know, later on, when men went out to battle, David lingered behind.
So I saw on Bathsheba he lusted after in his heart, and he took her head of adultery with her.
Covered up everything.
That the Lord saw and the Lord sent his messenger, did Nathan, who was really a friend of David, to approve him. And we know the story, the parable.
Of the youth plans that David took or this man took and killed, and the anger with which David responded because of the the gross injustice of it all. The man that had done this thing shall restore portfolio.
You know, that's versus often struck me that David used the word of God that wasn't provisioned in the Old Testament. You kill, you restore fourfold. The only thing that David did wrong is he applied he was applying the verse to somebody else that has applied to him.
An agent says our food, but that was Nathan. That was one who was a friend of David that was used in his restoration. And later on, at the end, just before David dies, overthrow is in the air and Adonai is trying to take over. And who is it that delivers the Kingdom? It snakes in the prophet working with David. So Nathan was a lasting friend of David through thick and thin.
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But this is at the beginning and we find with Nathan here, he was a real encourager.
David has his thought.
He says it's not right. I dwell in the house and the ark of the Lord is in curtains. What's wrong with the picture here? I want to build the Lord a house and he shares that with Nathan and maybe Nathan. Nathan said to me they will not commence himself to me. That's a great idea. Go do all this in my heart.
What a nice to have someone that encourages you in the right way.
Well, that night, Nathan and Manigault that he was.
Large composition said anything you're going to go after and go go to day of tomorrow and reverse yourself and what you said go and do you're going to have to tell him don't build a hospital not to do it. But I find this not as a not as a review to Nathan. I find this something very charming. If I can use the word here was a man in so such close proximity to the Lord that the Lord could quietly come to midnight and just say no, you can have to reverse yourself on what you just said.
There are such things as mistakes and failures, but they're not all moral equivalent.
You know it says in Proverbs that reproofs of instruction or reproofs of correction are the way of life.
Correction, everybody needs it.
Most people don't want it.
And many people resent.
Do I love correction? Well, maybe I don't make a fuss if I'm corrected. That's not quite the same. The same. I love it. I love correction, I love instruction. But it's something we all need and we don't outgrow it. And we're so thankful that the Lord in his gracious ways here, it wasn't anybody else that corrected Nathan, it was the Lord himself. And again, those nine seasons, why it's so important that we just wait in quietness before the Lord, because the Lord might have something to say to us in the way of instruction, in the way of correction.
Nobody else comes and corrects us. It's the Lord himself with the correction of God. And so Nathan the next morning after the day before telling David, green light, go ahead, build the house, the Lord.
Now I need to have to say, you're not going to build the house. The Lord. Well, what does he say? Your son is going through that film.
In that almost a higher privilege.
You're not, but your son is.
You see what David's response to this, He's overwhelmed to think that my son, but we chosen to build the house, the Lord, the Father's in David's heart, but God said no, it's going to be solid. David, you're a man of war. I'm going to give it to Solomon, the man of peace. I think that's an instructive principle just there in terms of edifying the people of God. You need to be a man of peace and not a man of war.
I don't mean we don't earn a six intent for the faith delivered to the Saints, but that character of peace.
And as a result of that, you read the end of this book of First Chronicles. And what does it say? David prepared abundantly with all his might for the affection of the House of the Lord. We speak of Solomon's vast wealth, and how I used it to ordain that to ordore in the House of God. Where did he get it?
Most of it you got from his father who laid it up and stored up and said it's yours. Use it for the House of the Lord.
But it all hinges on this visit in the night that the Lord had with Nathan, he says.
Tell David he will not build the House of the Lord. So the correction of God, how important that is in our life. There are times we've come to and if we speak of the watershed moment, we can either accept correction and get the blessing or we can refuse it and it's a downed response, the correction of God. Now let's turn over if you go to Genesis chapter 20.
I'd like to read this entire chapter.
And uh, I will say I'm primarily reading it.
Not so much that the focus be on Abraham, but that we consider Abimelech in the 20th chapter of Genesis. So maybe a passing reference or two to Abraham.
Genesis 20.
And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the S country as well, between Kadish and Shira sojourn. And Girar neighboram said, as Sarah's wife, she is my sister, and Abimelech king of Gerarsent. And to Sarah. But God deemed to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold our but a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation, said he Not unto me She is my sister.
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And she, even her, she herself said, He is my brother, and the integrity of my heart and infancy of my hands have I done this.
God said unto him in a dream, Yeah, I know that thou justice and the integrity of thy heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is the prophet, and he shall live, and he shall pray for her, and thou shalt live. And if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die thou in all bit of money. Therefore Vimala grows early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their ears, and the men were sore afraid.
And Abemoli called Abraham, and said to him, What hast thou done unto us, and what have I offended thee, that thou is brought on me, and on my Kingdom a great sin. Thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.
Abemoloxide and Abraham, let's sauce thou, and thou hast done this thing.
Abram said, Because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake. Yet indeed she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.
The king of powers, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, This is my kindness which thou shalt show unto me in every place, whether we shall come say of thee, He is my brother. And then looked at sheep and auction, and then servants and women's servants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him. Sarah his wife and abandoned, said, Behold, my land is before thee, dwell. We're pleased with thee.
Under Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother 1000 pieces of children. Behold, he used to be a covering of the eyes unto all that are with thee, and with all the other. Thus she was reproved, the thought of being set straight corrected.
So Abraham prayed unto God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, and they bear children. And the Lord had fast closed up all the wounds in the House of Aimwear because of Sheriff Abraham's wife.
But a story for the man who's spoken of as the father of the faithful.
This wasn't at the beginning of his life either.
Sounds more like Jacob in this chapter than he sounds like Abraham, and it wasn't the first time he made this mistake. Quote UN quote.
Remember in the, uh, the twelve 13th chapter, a little before he was in Egypt and he said the same thing about Sarah and uh said she's my sister. And the Lord stepped in there as well and Pharrell sent him away. There's not much detail as we have in his 20th chapter with respect to Abimelech.
Someone said that making mistakes is not the it's not the real problem. It's making the same mistakes. And some of us have made the same mistakes over and over and over again. Abraham made the same mistake, if we can call it that.
It does seem a little bit troubling. I don't know how it was for their marriage relationship.
When Abraham first floated the idea to Sarah, say you're my brother.
And the second time he says it again, you think there might have been a little whimper of protest.
And Abraham, we've gone down that path before and it didn't work out too well.
Seems like she was. She went along with it and so.
Share is taken by Abimelech and now they're focusing on what the Lord, says Abimola.
The Lord comes to Abimelech in a dream.
To think of the care that the Lord has for his servants and his and his people, even when they're not faithful, even when they're not stating the truth. He said I'm gonna protect Sarah. I'm gonna protect Abraham, he says development. You give that man his wife back or you're a dead man.
That's some kind of a dream then, like said, he said she's my sister and I asked her. She said he's my brother.
It's in the integrity of my heart. Have I done this? I wasn't. I wasn't trying to cause problems here. Lord says I know it. That's why I'm telling you now, because if you had that killed you.
But even the devil that spoke of the integrity of his heart.
And here we have the preservation of God.
Why is it, you know, it says in Ecclesiastes about that woman whose hands are like knits and and and and bands that, uh, would captivate and bring someone in that says he that pleaseth God shall escape from her?
You know, there's this matter of personal integrity. Why does the Lord allow some of us to fall? We don't know in every instance, but here's a case of man. He said he walked in the integrity of his heart. You know, you think of David and we know, uh, the sad failing in his life. I think I can find it only to turn into it. Umm.
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It just comes to mind.
I thought it was some 140.
One, I don't see it, but he speaks of UMM towards the end of the psalms about walking in his own house and the integrity of his heart.
I'm not fine. So some of them, why is it that's fine. Just go ahead and call it out. But I thought of this. David had come to that point where you walk in the integrity of his heart within his within his own house. That is that we're honest before golf.
You know, sometimes it's hard to come to terms with our own failures, but we need to do it.
And we need to do it in the nice seasons of our life. And so Abimelech is preserved of God because he acted and walked in the integrity of his heart. And furthermore, there we find that he, umm, he, he brings before Abraham said, why did you do this? And it was used to the Lord. I believe in real restoration to Abraham and in Sarah too, because what a zinger that must have been when he says thy brother in reference to her husband. So the preservation of God. Well, let's turn to one more in Nehemiah chapter 2.
Nehemiah, as we know, he lived in the days following the destruction of Jerusalem.
How that's city was ransacked ransacked cloud under in Ezra's day, the altar was put upon his bases, the temple, the House of the Lord was restored and the Nehemiah Davis city the wall and the environs were restored and Sonia Maya comes later than Ezra. You might say 2 just isn't aside Aggie I and Zachariah and their prophecies. They prophesied together as we read about in in Ezra, but umm we find that Hageai's ministry mainly focuses on.
Temple, the house, the Lord and Zechariah, His ministry more focuses on the city of Jerusalem, which is more in connection with Nehemiah. So Nehemiah has heard a report, umm, from one of the ones that had come from Jerusalem and speaks of the awful conditions that was Jerusalem. And we see Nehemiah just going about doing his everyday duties. What it what it burned this, this was laid upon him. And so we see the Providence of God.
And we're so thankful for the Providence of God because there's things we come to and we say, I don't see any solution here. I don't see any way out or through the situation. And we committed to the Lord and his providential way. Circumstances move, things change.
Perhaps people that we least expect it from come and provide some encouragement or some help in the way we can't explain it. Because God is sovereign, He will use who He would to accomplish His own purpose, and we see this with God working behind the scenes and bringing Nehemiah to Jerusalem.
And in verse 10 he arrives there when San Balat before night, and Tobiah the servant, his servant, the Ammonite.
Uh heard of it and greet them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of God.
Now we just say this too, that the Lord has laid something on your heart and you're stirred do what you know to be right before the Lord, whatever that might be recognized. There's someone that's not going to be happy, going to be grieved with it, and that's the enemy of our souls. And we find here, just as Nehemiah is engaged in LED of the Lord to begin a mighty work. There's a couple of men with their arms crossed, not happy about it at all. And so we do need to realize there will be opposition.
It's the enemy that's that's ultimately behind him. So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days, and I rose in the night, I and some human with me, neither told by any man but my God, and put in my heart to do with Jerusalem. Neither was there any beast with me save the beast that I wrote upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well of the Jackal fountain, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates throughout were consumed with fire. Then it went on to the gate of the fountain, into the King's pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me, the past.
And when I up in the night by the brook, and view the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned, and the rulers knew not whither I went or what I did, neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers.
Or the rest that did the work, and said I unto them, Ye see the distrust that we are in how Jerusalem Wyatt waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem. That would be no more of her approach. Then I told them of the hands of my God, which is good upon me is also the King's worth, that he has spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build, so they strengthen their hands for this good work.
00:45:27
Just a couple of points here I think are destructive that Nehemiah went out to survey the situation. He heard the report and now he goes out at night. He's not making a splash. He's not making a show of it. He's going out at night to survey the devastation of Jerusalem. A few men with me. You know, it's something too, how important it is that we that we walk in personal and individual conviction.
You know, if if you begin to share too much what the Lord is working in your soul, it it, it can tend to get minimized to to act in his personal faith before the Lord. And so he went out at night to survey the situation.
Anyone else in the valley gate it says.
And he comes back by the valley game yeah verse, uh, verse 13 and I went out by night by the gate of the valley. This suggests humility and loneliness. It wasn't one that was looking down on his brethren. A man broke and going down to survey the havoc that had been wrought on Jerusalem and he sees no the Jackal found. I take it that's where the jackals went to get water. You see something seal. I mean, picture of a lion even in in a zebra and there's a hyenas and there's the jackals and they're the last ones to the.
Banquet to to fix up what's left. They hang around where there's death.
And that's Nehemiah speaks later on. They speak of the foxes push foxes and the wolves just roaming over Jerusalem. It's just a rubble. It's just a mass. And he sees always Jerusalem has become, you know, it says in Lamentations that.
The kings of the earth and all the nations would not have believed that the Adversary would have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
Was staggering Jeremiah the probably said if you would tell the cities the nations around Jerusalem that the enemy is going to breakthrough the gates of Jerusalem and destroy it. They will say we won't believe it. It's impregnable God is with them, God is for them won't happen, but it happened and now Nehemiah is coming back to size things up and as he sees this distress the wall he said he sees the wall lying down he comes back verse 17.
He doesn't sugarcoat things. He doesn't gloss over and say that things aren't as bad as you think they are. No, he he calls it out for what it is.
Gates burned with fire, but he said let us build up the wall. That's the rooster.
But he goes more than that. This wasn't just some.
Some unrealistic Daydream that he has. God has called this man.
And he says I told them of the hand of my God, brother read in the, uh, hermit in the other night. Or Paul could say that my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus, my God. What is the thought there? God is God, my God. It has to do with uh, we seem to him our God when we have known, well known in Jesus name. It's my God, it's the God I have known.
Is the God I've come to trust. It's the God I've found to be worthy of my trust. It's my God and that God that I know he will help you Philippians in your need or he tells you brethren, my God, which his hand was good upon me.
And from experience the empire knows I got from here to here. God has brought me the eye of the whole. All the King's horsemen carry me and bringing me here. And he sees it. He said He told them the hand of God that was upon him, and the King's words. And he said, let us. And they said, let us rise up and build. I believe here we have the encouragement of God. You know, when he went out and saw things, and the devastation and ruined, he waited up, he sized it.
But he knew the hand of his God and he was well able. And the people said, rise up and go. I like what they say, Let us not give up, but let us rise up and build. So they strengthen their hands for this good work. It was a good work in order to build up ourselves and our most holy faith to seek to encourage. You know, it says in Proverbs that death and life and the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the good thereof. What a what a great blessing that we can be with our thumbs, our mouths. Sometimes I think that all children's song, one little tongue.
Speak his truth. One little heartburn now in my youth.
One little time to speak His truth. How good that we can use our tongues for the encouragement of the people of God. And so here we see a man that had walked with God and had learned from God in those nine seasons, and now he comes out.
00:50:13
And what happens, his encouragement, that which he knew from God in his own experience. Now the people of God rise to the occasion and they say, let us rise up and build smooth ceiling from there and on. Of course not the next verse we find San ballot, Tobiah and Gisha. Now you got three of them thereafter. And they're gonna, they're gonna be, uh, pestering them the whole way through. So it's not that there will not be trials and setbacks and things that will cast us on the Lord to help us, but it is a result of the blessing that we can, can have in hearing, uh, the voice of God in the night seasons.
So just a few considerations for us. You know, we're we don't outgrow these things that are older, but it's such a happy thing when we hear the call of God when we're young. And then two, we accept the correction of God.
Says veteran Ecclesiastes. Better as a foreign wise child in an old and foolish king that will no more be admonished.
To get to that point where I feel I'm beyond corrections is is not a good thing, but to own the correction of God and I'll have you can be too if the Lord can quietly correct us like my dad used to say to me says isn't it a nice little listen with a large idea rather than having to hit you between the eyes of the two by four. God is faith when sometimes he'll do that if it's needed, but it's not his first desire and then to realize the preservation of God and in order to do that to walk in integrity of heart to walk in self judgment.
Walk in honesty before the Lord, and if we have messed up, don't it to it, and then see grace to go on, and then the encouragement of God, that encouragement that we ever see from His hand directly, that we might take that and share that with others.
Perhaps you could just sing a little hymn and closing #15.
All that we are is Saints. Honor all that we hope to be.
When Jesus comes and glory to us, we owe it all to the number 15.
All that we were worn.
All right, that's all. I'm alone.
All around me I'm getting the old beginnings and all the pressure.
All the time. I appreciate you.
And thank you all the merrier. Uh-huh.
We'll go together.
And get it out of town. Now we're getting on.
God and Father, we do thank you for the encouragement of this.