Open—D. Rule, L. Smith
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We sing #170.
Thy heavenly bright and spirit Jesus Lord, that Biddy come all the glory to inherit and to take thy people home. All creation travails grooms, so thou shalt come, 170.
Hello, He comes from heaven, descending for the.
Labor Sinner, slave.
Something big swollen cry. All of this dream.
All the rude.
Hallelujah, Jesus.
Come to reign.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
He was called and comes to rain.
Be the same.
Fear and the Saints by man rejected.
All the time.
Foolishness.
I can do it.
I will do.
I asleep.
It is thy heavenly brightness spirit.
Jesus, Lord, that dearly come.
On the glory to the parents.
When to play my people home?
All creation of all creatures and all creation.
All creates and all creates and progress grows. Till now shall come.
Yeah.
00:05:03
Jesus converted.
Uncles uncor Jesus.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10.
Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 35.
Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.
For ye have need of patience.
That after ye have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come.
And will not tarry now. The just shall live by faith.
But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them who draw back under perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Chapter 11, Verse 7 By faith, Noah being warned of God, of things not yet seen, not seen as yet, moved with faith, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.
Or say by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he.
Should after receive.
Verse 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same prophet Promise.
Verse 11 Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.
Verse.
13 These all died in faith.
Verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was cometh of years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Verse 27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him.
Who is invisible?
Verse 29 By faith they pass through the Red Sea as by dry land.
Which the Egyptians are saying to do. Were drowned.
It's on my heart to.
In one sense, wrap up a little bit.
Of what we had in the Reading meetings yesterday.
Brethren, we live.
At I'm convinced, and I think you are too.
Near the end of the wilderness journey.
We sang this afternoon with joy. I trust the expectation of our Lord's return.
Not only for us, but to set things right in this world.
There's one thing that is extremely important for each one of us as we leave this room, perhaps for the last time in our lives. Who knows today?
As we live the rest of the little journey until the Lord comes.
We must live it by faith.
There's no other way.
The Children of Israel left in company together from the land of Egypt.
00:10:07
And.
Of the male men over 20.
While there were hundreds of thousands of them that left Egypt, there were two only.
That landed all the way through the journey into the Promised Land. That doesn't mean there won't be many thousands of them in glory. But as to the walk of faith?
Only a handful really finished it. Well, there were many who.
Were born in the wilderness and also entered into the land. But in the Word of God, faith is largely looked at as a very individual thing. And the reason I read the verses in Hebrews 11 is not to take them up, but just to notice one point about them. Noah had his personal faith.
And he had it for himself and it was beneficial as well to his household.
Abraham had his individual faith.
And we see his son and his grandson mentioned in connection with it.
Even his wife, Sarah, needed to have her own individual faith.
I think the only occasion in the 11Th chapter where it's mentioned in a collective way is where we read in.
A verse.
29 It says by faith they passed through the Red Sea.
That was the beginning of the wilderness journey for that great company of people we know. The Red Sea speaks of the the work of Christ on the cross for us.
And its benefit to us. And in that way, perhaps we can embrace ourselves collectively as a company of faith. They all pass through. And in that sense, we've all we trust, we hope, pass through the Red Sea together in faith, and are on the journey to the Promised land for us.
But it's not easy, in fact.
It can be very discouraging and the difficulties of the way overtime tend to drag down the soul. And so I just like to look again at the verses where we started and as a way of exhortation from the Lord to us. He says in chapter 10, verse 35. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence.
I think that's a special verse in my wife's family because I think it was the last verse that Grace's father, on his hospital bed before he died, spoke to his wife.
Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense or reward. It's an important verse, and it's an important thought. Let's not, brethren, in the last little bit of the journey, castaway our confidence.
But notice verse 36, it says we have need of patience.
And it's a difficult thing to wait.
Especially when there's a tendency in waiting to be discouraged. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. And that's a tendency for us if our hope that it is to have its place in our souls is not a living daily reality to us.
But there's a promise, isn't there verse 37 yet? A little while. He that shall come will come and will not tarry. We need to have confidence in God, in his promises that.
He really means what he says and that he will come.
And that he will not tarry. Verse 38. The just shall live by faith.
But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
We noticed yesterday in the reading meeting the tendency of some He was warning them, giving us an Object lesson of things that might cause us to draw back, or things that the Lord would not be pleased with us if we did. And here's can I say one more Don't draw back. Don't give up the path of faith.
00:15:22
God is honored.
When he sees a soul in humbleness and humility going on with him, counting upon what he says.
So, he says, the just shall live by faith.
That's brought in here because it's really the introduction to the 11Th chapter. All these people in this 11Th chapter were people who lived, and that's the word you might put in bold in this connection, people who lived by faith. This verse is quoted three times in the New Testament. It's quoted in Romans chapter one. And the emphasis in Romans is being just.
And the emphasis and the use of the verse by the Spirit of God is the just.
Shall live by faith. It's also quoted. I think it's the third chapter of Galatians, where there was those who were believers, but they wanted to go back under the law and so there was the.
Contrast being made in Galatians between works.
And faith, and the emphasis in that place is faith.
The just shall live by faith, but here the emphasis is on living.
And we need that emphasis this afternoon. We need it for the rest of our days until the little while is up and the Lord calls us to Himself. The just shall live by faith. I want to go back with you. Some here have heard at least part of these remarks recently. But I want to go back with you to Habakkuk, where this verse comes from, and briefly look at that little short.
Book and apply it to ourselves this afternoon in connection with our wilderness.
Journey, you'll turn with me to the little book of Habakkuk, Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk.
Abacus is a prophet.
He lived and prophesied.
After the 10 tribes had been taken away out of the land because of the government of God on their unfaithfulness.
And he also came just a modest number of years before the two tribes were carried away by the Chaldeans into Babylon.
And so the day in which Habakkuk was called to live was right near the end of Israeli history, before God's government fell upon them to carry them away captive. And this little book is primarily a conversation between the Lord and Habakkuk.
It's this one servant of God who is interacting with his Lord and reflecting on the condition of things that his eyes saw and how he felt about them and how the Lord responded to him.
And so it begins in verse one of chapter one, the burden of Habakkuk the prophet did see Oh Lord. In other words, he looked around in what he saw caused him to turn to the Lord, and he starts to speak to the Lord and he says, oh Lord, before I go any farther, I just want to notice the middle of the book. We'll turn to chapter 2 and you'll notice in chapter 2.
Verse four, it says, Behold, his soul, which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. There's one extra word given here that's worth noting and that is in the New Testament it says the just shall live by faith. But here in this little conversation between the Lord and Habakkuk, he says the just shall live by his.
It adds the word, his faith. Again, faith is a very individual exercise of confidence between the soul and God. I can't live by your faith and you can't live by mine. We each have to live by our own faith with our God. And so it is, you know, you can run with the crowd, you can do things together, but with God ultimately.
00:20:30
You must have a personal.
Individual relationship with God.
That you live by your faith, not by the person next to you, not by the crowd of young people or older people or the gathering where you live.
But even if you are a husband, even if you are a wife, even if you are a young child, ultimately God and you must have an individual relationship.
Between you.
That involves faith.
Man's The beginning of all the history of failure in the world began when man lost his confidence, absolute faith in his God, and that led him into disobedience, into sin. It's the root cause of all failure, and it's the root cause of the failure of anybody in this room. St. you may be, but if you fail, it's a failure in your own relationship with God.
Having to do with faith.
And so.
Habakkuk starts to talk to the Lord, and he says, Lord, verse two, How long shall I cry? And wilt thou not hear, even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention.
Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment does not doth ever go forth, for the wicked doth compass about the righteous. Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
This Avox says Lord, I look around and.
It's sad, but I see.
He said. I see.
Iniquity.
Doug in the last meeting, and I'm going to add some things to what he said that the Lord is, I believe, said to me in the last few days.
He looks out and he says.
I see violence.
I see spoiling.
I don't see righteousness having its right place. I see strife and contention.
I'm really struck by this because.
Suppose Habakkuk could come to you for such a conversation.
Suppose between these meetings Habakkuk could come in the context of today, in which we live, and he started a little conversation with you.
And he says it's really a sad day in which we live and this is what I see and I'm discouraged by it.
I suppose the knee jerk reaction is what can I say to this brother to encourage him?
He needs encouragement. He's discouraged. He's cast down by what he sees around him.
Habakkuk says the law slacked. He says you've given us the law, but it's not doing the job.
It doesn't seem to change the people.
We we know what's right, we have the law, but we don't seem to live by it and so it doesn't seem to get good conclusions, Doug said. We have to make judgments sometimes and we do.
Avac here, he says.
Wrong judgment proceedeth.
Sometimes it seems like the wrong has the ascendancy or is corrupted by action and this is how he felt and I think he was right in how his judgments were right as far as it goes.
And so.
The Lord answers.
00:25:03
Verse 5.
Behold ye among the heathen in regard and wonder marvelously, for I work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall March through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves, and so on.
Verse nine. They shall come all for violence.
One of the things that I have come to admire in my God in recent times is His honesty.
God deals with situations honestly, and if we go to God and we inquire of Him, we must be willing to listen to an honest answer. God's answer to Habakkuk was Habakkuk. Things are going to get worse.
Not exactly the answer we like to hear, but that's what we got in his honesty, says to Habakkuk, who comes to him burdened about what he sees. And he says, Habakkuk, things are going to get worse, not better.
There is going, he said. You might not believe it. That is, it was hard for Habakkuk to accept and God knew it. But he says Habakkuk, there's coming a people into this land that are just going to run right over it.
They're wicked, they're powerful. And you say you see violence and you say, why don't I do something?
We use the expression in the world when somebody is going to tell us something and they say do you want the good news first or the bad news? Well in this case, gods, you might say delivering to have a **** the bad news I am going to.
Bring my hand upon this land.
It was God's governmental hand.
And we don't like God's governmental hand. That is, naturally speaking, we don't.
We would like to find some other explanation for things that happen that avoid a recognition that the hand upon us is one of government, whether it's individually in our family, in the gathering among the Saints, or in the church at large.
Now, I'm not going to take the time. I would commend it to you as a personal meditation. There are some very profitable thoughts connected with the Chaldean who comes into the land.
It says.
After he came, he was an instrument of God's judgment upon the people. But after he got there.
He made an idol out of his own power.
So often is the case the coming Assyrian in the day of the tribulation will be the same. He comes and he's the instrument of God's hand. But he's raised up in his own pride and and he gets proud about his power. In fact, here he says he makes an idol of his own power. So it is with man in the flesh. God allows him to do something, allows him to.
Excel in something and the next thing you know it's his own idol that he has made.
Don't tune out.
For what I'm going to say next.
If it doesn't apply to you.
Then don't wear the shoe.
But if it does, I trust it will be a benefit to your soul.
Chapter 2, verse one.
I will stand upon my watch.
And set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me.
And what I shall answer when I am reproved.
Abbott had spoken to the Lord about what he saw.
00:30:00
The Lord had responded to him.
Habakkuk had spoken again to the Lord. We didn't read the verses in the end of chapter one.
But after he does so, he stops and he says, as it were, now I'm going to stop.
And see what the Lord is going to say to me.
How he will, he says, reprove me.
I was talking to the Lord the other night.
Along this line of things.
And I'm going to share with you.
The Lord's reproof.
Again, I say if it doesn't apply to you, let it pass.
But take it seriously and see if your conscience is affected.
Maya the Lord brought. I believe it is of the Lord.
Some verses to me.
In Luke's Gospel.
Chapter 18.
When I spoke to the Lord.
And I trust was listening for his answer.
This is what came before my soul.
Luke, chapter 18.
To find the verse here.
Verse 10.
Two men went up into the temple to pray.
1A Pharisee and the other Republican.
They went to the right place.
They both addressed the right person.
Although it does tell us one of them prayed with himself.
I'm going to paraphrase it as the Lord applied it to my soul.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God.
I thank thee.
That I am not as other men are.
God, I thank Thee that we are not, as other Christians are in the camp.
Republican verse 13 standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God.
Be merciful to us, the sinners.
I didn't like that too much.
But when the Lord puts His hand in government upon his people.
There is a need to make right judgments.
There's also the need to make right self judgments.
And here's 2 judgments.
These two men make about themselves in God's temple.
The first one says, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are.
The second says God be merciful.
To me, the Sinner.
I was in the car during this conversation and I thought, well, what was the purpose?
I know this is applied in the gospel and so on, but why did this parable? Why was it given?
Back up. So when I got home I looked it up.
Verse 9.
He spake this parable unto certain, which trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
And despised others.
When I read Mr. Darby's translation, he spoke to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and made nothing at all of all of the rest of men.
Paraphrase in Christendom.
00:35:07
He spoke to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, they were in the right.
They trusted in that.
They were confident in that.
And they made nothing at all of the rest of men.
I leave it to your conscience. Turn back with me to Habakkuk.
Chapter 2.
Verse two and the Lord answered me and said.
Write the vision and make it plain upon the tables that he may run that readeth it.
For the vision is not yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry. Wait for it, because it shall surely come, it will not tarry.
Behold, his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him.
But the just shall live by his faith.
The Lord in answering Habakkuk.
Makes him look on beyond the present. But he also says, Habakkuk, you're going to have to wait for it. You're not going to have it now. You're not going to see it now. You must live by faith.
And he also reminds him in the same verse he says, the one whose soul is lifted up in him.
Verse 4 is not upright.
To humble thee.
To prove thee to see.
See what is in thine heart when the Lord puts his hand upon his people.
He humbles them and if the response is to separate and soul from others.
In heart from others with a sense of rightness or self rightness.
The Lord said to Habakkuk, his soul is not upright in him.
Solemn.
But the just shall live by his faith. He didn't say have a **** forget it, give it up, it's not worth it. It's not precious. Yes, it was precious to have a ****. He loved the people of God. He loved to be where the Lord's blessing was.
He valued it. That's why he had this conversation with the Lord.
But the Lord gives him an honest answer about it, to put him in his right place before the Lord, so that they could go on together in the circumstances in which He had allowed him to be, and in view of the Lord's government upon His people.
I'm not going to.
Go through the details when I leave time for others, but what follows in the next part of this chapter is the Lord then lets him see or gives him a right judgment about the oppressors.
So that he could look at them and have a right sense of them.
And what his ultimate judgment would be with respect to him. He pronounces certain woes that could be and were properly applied to those who were going to oppress the people. But I believe in those woes there was also.
A warning or Habakkuk to apply to his own soul in his own life in those circumstances. And so it is for us. One of them that he says to Habakkuk had to do with idolatry. We had that yesterday.
Danger for us in the journey of turning aside to idols. And we turn aside sometimes to idols when we get discouraged, when we don't think the Lord is doing for us what we want him to do for us and he doesn't seem to be prospering us in some way and so we get.
00:40:07
Out of sorts and we say I've got to turn to something else. I have to be happy, I have to be satisfied, I've got to have something and we what it can turn out to be is a hearts are taken with an idol that takes us away.
Chapter 3, verse one.
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. So Habakkuk proceeds in his time with the Lord, and he turns to prayer. Good lesson, isn't it? Something we all need that when the matter gets.
To that point, we talk about it, we think about it, we speak to others about it, but ultimately, if we're like Habakkuk, we've got to get right along with the Lord about it in prayer. And that's what he does. And Habakkuk says to the Lord, Oh Lord, I've heard thy speech.
He listened what the Lord was saying to him, and he said I was afraid.
Pretty strong, isn't it? You talk to the Lord.
About what's a burden to you and the Lord answers you and the result makes you afraid. That's what it did with have a car. This is honest conversation, brethren. This isn't give me a nice word that will lift me up until tomorrow and then the circumstances back and I'm just as cast down as ever. The only way that we get through these things is really getting with God.
And having it out together. And that's where Habakkuk was. He wasn't going to stop. He was going to have it out to the end until there was a result between his soul and God.
Lord. So he says. Oh Lord, I've heard thy speech and I was afraid.
And his 1St result, desire is, O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of thy year, of the years in the midst of the years. Make it known she wanted a revival.
She wanted the Lord to come back in and do what He had.
Purposed in the beginning, he says, Lord, revive us, give us something back.
That's understandable.
I was reflecting.
On something that surprised me when I reflected on it.
Bob spoke yesterday about.
Recent things, recent, anything in the last 200 years is new in this country or old in this country, but new to other countries. And he spoke about Spain and so on.
I was young once.
I went to England one time when I was a young man.
And I visited among the Lord's gathered Saints there.
I think I was there three weeks with my wife and we didn't have all her kids yet.
And in that short span of time, we visited.
Half 2/3 of all the assemblies.
Saints gathered to the Lord's name with us in that country.
One of the last places we visited was a little town down on the Atlantic Ocean, a fishing harbor named St. Ives.
There's a little gathering there, man. I got to know a brother, William Stevens.
Man, I from that point to the end of his days, we corresponded. He really touched my heart and my soul.
And in my youth and in my.
Youthful enthusiasm or ignorance too.
I said, Brother Stevens, you know, we've been in England here a couple of weeks and I've looked around and boy, this country.
Some of the way the people dress, some of the lack of interest in spiritual things on the street in London and elsewhere.
And boy, there are not very many assemblies either.
He patiently listened till I had my say.
And he said Donald.
00:45:00
The Lord brought the truth here.
Before he brought it to your land.
We've had it longer.
And you see what's happened.
He said. You're just running behind us.
A few years.
Well, like the Lord said to Habakkuk, believe it or not.
Yeah, he was true.
Wouldn't have known it then, my youth.
You know there's.
Something that.
It's worth reflecting on.
I've lived and been associated with those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For over 25%.
Of the history of such.
There are some in this room. I would guess we have done so for over a third of the whole history.
And any.
Can I say mature reflection on it?
Will bring a conviction to the soul.
I believe that says God be merciful.
To us the sinners.
And Habakkuk in his prayer had to get to that with the Lord.
As the Lord wasn't going to change the direction things were going, Abbott Cook wanted a revival. It isn't that God doesn't give revivals, but we have to listen to what He does say to us.
And.
He goes on.
With the Lord and as he prays, the Lord, I believe, works in Habakkuk's heart to produce a result. That is my desire for all of us here this afternoon.
Tremendously important result after going through this whole exercise with the Lord instead of, you might say, ending it in discouragement. Let's see how it ends.
Verse 16.
When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself that I might have rest in the day of trouble.
When he cometh up into the under the people and he will invade them with his troops.
She trembled.
He was in agony before the Lord.
But he said, Lord, if it's coming, how can I have rest in the day of trouble?
How can I go on in peace in my soul?
In a day of trouble.
We can apply this by applying it particularly to the Assembly, but it can be applied to us in our individual personal experiences of life or in the circumstances of our families.
As well as the assembly. And sometimes the Lord allows in His ways the day of trouble.
To come.
And Havoc says to the Lord, how can I have peace and rest in my soul?
And I believe he did. There wasn't. Many years later, I assume he was still living. I don't know that they were invaded, that they were cast out of the land, that the government of God had its way with them. And if he was there, I have no doubt that Hezekiah, at least as an individual, went through it with rest.
In his soul.
The secret is found in the last three verses, he says.
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall the fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the flock shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Oh, he says. I don't know how to use anything but today's slang. If everything goes to pot, if it all falls apart and there's no fruit for God in it, as it were.
00:50:10
He says I'm not going to trust him that that is not going to be the criteria that I'm going to live by. He says verse 18 Yet in spite of all that, I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will joy in the God of my salvation. God says if you lay hold of me by faith, you will find a joy that nothing.
Nothing can separate between you, brethren. God wants us.
To have a relationship with himself that no matter what happens, no matter how his government falls or doesn't.
That we can look to him and say, I will joy in my God.
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord is my strength.
Notice that parable in Luke 18 trusted in themselves.
Trusted in their own rightness and righteousness.
And I'm going to say no peace.
In the soul.
But here this dear man of God had looked through the whole matter and turned from everything, if you will.
Yes, he starts, discouraged.
Things are even worse when God's honest with him and he sees what God has to say about the matter.
But he goes through it, he prays, he gets into the presence of the Lord, and the Lord says to him.
He says in the end, the Lord is my strength. He will make my feet like Heinz feet.
What are Heinz feet? I don't know if you saw my grandson, somebody probably did over in the gym. He's got Hinds feet. He dances around with joy as he goes along playing. That's just his nature. I thank God for it, dancing around as it were on Hinds feet. Oh brethren, you and I can go from this room and go on in that little while and patient waiting for the Lord with hindspeed.
No matter what.
If our relationship with the Lord is honest and true, that we.
As he says, he make, he will make. I can't do it for myself. He has to do it. But he will. He will make my feet like Heinz feet. He will make me walk upon high places.
And he ends, you know it, it's enough, he says to the chief singer on my stringed instruments. It, you might say, it takes him right into the place when you're really happy. If any man's happy, let him sing and he ends up in that state of joy.
That produces Thanksgiving and praise.
And I trust worship, and so can it be with us.
If we follow Hezekiah's path, brethren, I wonder if we could sing together 135. I don't want to cut off a brother, give opportunity to further word, but I'd like to sing this together before and rise and sing 135.
So sorry.
00:55:36
#8.
Jesus Grace.
We are straight from his face.
I will bring our first.
Psalm 45.
We've had in First Corinthians 10.
Some of those testings in the wilderness.
And as we read in Deuteronomy about.
Him leading.
Across the wilderness, suffering them to hunger.
We couldn't help but think of our Lord Jesus Christ in the temptation in the wilderness.
We know it well.
Where?
It says after 40 days.
He was in hunger.
And Satan came and.
Tried to get him to step out of the place of being a dependent man.
We've mentioned, I think in the meetings, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, and we know those things are.
Obvious in the temptation in the wilderness that our blessed Lord Jesus.
Went through.
This made me think of this song.
We don't have time for the whole Psalm. We'll turn to verse two. Thou art fairer.
Than the children of men.
We've had something of them in the testing of those.
Whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
There some of the children of men.
Habakkuk was one of the children of men.
What a refuge.
The Lord Himself.
But thou art fairer than the children of men, Grace.
Is poured into thy lips.
Therefore God hath blessed thee forever.
Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, almost mighty with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously.
Because of truth.
And meekness.
And righteousness.
01:00:02
And thy right hand shall teach the terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee.
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy Kingdom is the right scepter.
Now love of righteousness and heedest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness.
Above thy fellows.
Each one of us that sit here this afternoon who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we're his fellows. Isn't that wonderful?
And there is this wonderful person, this outstanding man.
Who knew full well what it was to be in the wilderness?
And to be hungry.
And yet remain a dependent man.
In thy majesty, verse four, write prosperously. Think of these reasons because.
Of truth.
And meekness.
And righteousness.
The world.
Really despises those things.
Someone said honesty because it's good policy is not true honesty.
But the Lord Jesus.
Who wants to be all to your heart and mind?
He said in all of its power, I am the way, the truth and the life.
What a man to fill our hearts.
We've had before us Philippians 2.
His taking the servant's place.
Coming in the likeness of men.
Becoming subject to death.
The death of the Cross.
Satan had held out in the wilderness that temptation. Look at all the kingdoms of the world.
All this will I give thee of falling down. Thou worship me.
It is written.
Think of the contentment Habakkuk's heart as he thought of what the Lord told him.
He had something for his soul.
That went beyond.
The present.
And you and I.
Have the Lord Himself.
To go beyond the present.
To see that which is invisible.
To find deliverance.
From the things that are seen.
Jesus.
Went to the very bottom.
Who confessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate?
What a sight is that lovely man.
I couldn't help but think with this.
Him we've sung and what our brother Ruhl mentioned. Psalm 43.
Psalm 43 and verse 4.
Says God.
My exceeding joy.
Romans 5 and verse 11 is it that says.
We joy in God.
Will never go higher in eternity.
01:05:00
And we can have it now. We do have it now.
It's one thing to enjoy about what he can do, what he's created.
Or what have you, but enjoy himself. We joy in God.
Let's go back to First Corinthians 10.
Well, the time is gone, but I would like to refer and maybe it was mentioned Romans chapter 12.
We've had before us in Hebrews 10.
A body has thou prepared me.
Could we apply it?
That's true of Maine.
I have a body. He prepared me.
It's not as young as a lot of yours.
But each one of us has that body. He prepared us.
And here it says, I beseech you therefore, brethren.
You know, the preceding part of Hebrews shows how you're delivered from your guilt, you're delivered from sin, the root. You're brought to walk in the Spirit what he's going to do with Israel. He's not going to negate any of his promises to his earthly people.
And then he says therefore.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God or the compassions of God.
That you present.
Your body that he's prepared you.
A living.
Sacrifice.
Holy.
Acceptable unto God.
What am I listening to?
What am I seeing?
Is it acceptable unto God?
Which is your reasonable or intelligent service?
Jesus has left us.
Supreme example as well as.
Peerless object.
Our hearts, we have great reason to joy in our God #23.
How good is the God we adore?
Oh goodness.
#247 two 4/7 rather short before we go. That's my word. We can't be smoking right And peace on all we stole and we join the world again. May our hearts for three remain. Will direct this and protect.
01:10:20
People want no more 247.