Shadow Hills Conference: 1986
Table of Contents
New Life In Christ
They Began to Be Merry
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to turn to the Gospel of Luke and the 15th chapter.
And the 21St verse.
And the Son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the Father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hit her the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again he was.
And is found and they began to be merry.
Well, since this is the first day of another year, I was just thinking, brethren, of that little word began. And this passage, I'm sure, is well known to each one of us, this 15th chapter of Luke. And here we have brought before us a boy who had run away from home, who had turned his back upon his kindness, the Father's kindness, and all that he had done. And now we see.
The boy is returning home and if there should be any one in the company here this afternoon.
Known who has not yet received the Lord Jesus as Savior? What a welcome awaits you if you would just come to him. Oh, how willing he is to save and to bless. I think the Father's heart is brought out in such a wonderful way in this well known story as we think of this boy and how he had despised all his Father's goodness. He must have had a very kind father to have divided his living to him.
Very often after loved one's are gone.
They leave what they have to their family. But this took place beforehand. Now this boy was surely very blessed that his father had actually divided the living, giving half to him and half to his brother. But he went off and he wasted his substance in riotous living. A picture of the way we lived when we think of all the goodness of God, even looked at in the natural sense in this world.
It says he left not himself without witness.
That he did good, sending rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness. Well, how much good he bestows upon humanity, and yet how unthankful many are, for all his goodness to them. But as he came to himself in the far country and realized what he had done, then he comes back to his father. He had some sense in his soul that his father would receive him, but he didn't know the welcome that awaited.
He didn't know that his father had no intention whatever when he returned, of receiving him as a servant, but as a son. And so when the boy returns, he has his little saying all made-up how he planned to say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son. Make me as one of Thy hired servants.
But when he came and his father threw his arms around him and kissed him.
And then when he started to say what he intended to say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son, his Father interrupted him. That was enough. He did not say anymore. God doesn't require servants in that way. He wants us to enjoy the happy liberty and joy of relationship. And so.
What a lovely thing a son comes to this point.
I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, you know, he said to the servants here, the boy didn't have to do anything. I've been struck by this. He didn't even have to put on the best robe. He just needed to be willing to receive it. He just was all provided for and done by his father. And you know, that's the way God receives the returning Sinner.
And oh, I say again at the beginning here.
Or if there should be anyone here, if you haven't yet, come to the Lord Jesus. Oh, there's a welcome awaits you. He's not looking for you to become a servant, although I'm sure you will happily serve. We have children in our family, and we never call them servants, but they did serve. But they didn't serve as servants. They served in the enjoyed relationship in which they stood with us. And so that's what the Father wants this boy to know.
What is this best robe? Well, I'm sure we all know what it is. Brethren, we're not only forgiven, but we are made the righteousness of God in Christ. We could not have a better standing before God than we have if we truly know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. Because every believer is not only forgiven but accepted in the beloved.
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Holy and without blame before him.
In love.
That beautiful verse that we all know so well in first John one and seven, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
When it says if at the beginning of that verse it is not that some Christians walk in the light and some do not, it's a contrast there with believers and unbelievers. Every believer has been brought into the light and every brother, every believer has been fitted for the light. We were sometimes darkness, but now are we light in the Lord? Someone said to Mr. Darby, But what if a Christian turns his back on the light? Well, he said the light will shine on his.
In fact, that's where we are, brethren. We may not be walking in the good of it, but we have been brought into a place, and it's a marvelous place, that we can have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and that we can have fellowship with one another. The last thing a Sinner wants is to feel that he is in the presence of God. That makes him uncomfortable. But once we have been saved, we can say thy presence is our.
And then more than that, too, we enjoy the fellowship of other believers. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. We have been brought into a place where we enjoy the fellowship of one another. That's why we're here today. Many people have thought of an entirely different way of spending New Year's Day, but because we have been brought into this place.
By it gives us joy to be here. And so it says, and the blood of.
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. That is all that the light makes manifest. The blood cleanses from perfectly fit. And more than that, having a new life, as it says, so that we can have this kind of fellowship, it says in John 17, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Eternal life is not just simply that.
For all eternity, because even the lost will exist eternally. It's not called life, though. It's called death, because it's eternal separation from God. But for the believer, it's eternal life to be forever in the enjoyment of the life that God has given us down here in this world. We're out of our element. When we get to glory, we'll be in our element.
If we had a fish here on the floor and it was alive.
It has a fish life, but it's in an element that's not at all suited to its life. It doesn't enjoy itself because it's out of its element. And if the fish could talk, it would say, please put me in my element. I love to be in the water. And you know, you and I in this world are sort of out of our element. That's why Jude says, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. That is the life that we have.
Will find its fullest expression and enjoyment in the father's house. Well, a boy is brought home. He's clothed with the best robe. He's not only brought into the house, but he's perfectly fitted. Now his father's arms have been around him. He knows he's accepted. And it says put, put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. Just think of this boy. Father didn't say again. He didn't say now you.
Get the best robe. You get your shoes and put them on. No, he does it all. He says the servants are to do that. And isn't it blessed? The work of salvation and what fits us for the presence of God is all outside of ourselves. It's done by another. And all the promises of God in him are. Yeah, and in him Amen to the glory of God by us. Then they had food too. They killed a fatted calf.
And they were to eat it and be merry. That's our enjoyment, brethren. After we have been saved, our enjoyed portion is to think about the Lord Jesus, what He is to the heart of God the Father, and what He is to us by grace. And so there was a feast prepared here for this boy and others to share, and it was to be in the Father's house.
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Well, God wants us, brethren, to be enjoying the Lord.
And I say again, if there's anyone here who's not saved, you might say, well, I'm just not that kind of a person. I don't enjoy those kind of things. Well, you won't be that kind of a person until you're born into the family of God. And then immediately when you receive a new life, the new life has new joys, new affections, new appetites, and you will enjoy the things of God.
Many of us here today can say that there was a time in our lives when we didn't.
But now by matchless grace we do. And this boy now had been accepted, and now he could enjoy these things. And so it says, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.
As another has commented, it never, it doesn't ever say that it ended and the joy that we receive in the Lord Jesus, the position that grace has brought us into, the standing before God, the ring on his finger, endless love, and the shoes on his feet so that he could be in the presence of the Father in the Father's house.
Oh, how lovely it all is. And they began to be merry. But you know, brethren, the enemy.
He will try all he possibly can to hinder our enjoyment of these things, but God has given them to us to enjoy, shall I say, 365 days in the year. He wants us to enjoy what we have in Him constantly, all the time. Well, he began, and if there's one here who hasn't come, may the Lord work in your heart by His grace and cause you to come. It'll be a moment of blessing.
As our brother said the other night, it will not be thing you'll ever regret. Some decisions we make in life we regret making we we don't think they were wise decisions, but no one ever received the Lord Jesus as his or her Savior. Who would say I'm sorry I did. The present joy, the eternal joy is ours. Well, this was the portion of this prodigal certainly not one who would naturally have.
Have expected all this welcome and neither would you and I.
If God had asked us, I believe that's the meaning of that verse that says unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
So often the verse is applied to answered prayer, and that's very beautiful too. But I believe in the context in which the verse is given, the thought is this, Would you and I have ever asked for such a wonderful place as God has given us? If God were to come to any one of us and had said, now what would you like me to do for you? I suppose we might have had a few feeble things we would have asked for.
By the heart of God will never be satisfied.
Until everyone of His own are supremely blessed. And He is not only willing to do it, He's able to do it. Often friends are willing to do things for us, but not able. But my precious Savior is both able and willing. So they began to be merry. How could we turn back to Second Chronicles?
And the 29th chapter.
I have to read a few verses here beginning at the 27th.
Verse. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar, and when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments ordained by David, king of Israel.
And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. And all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with them bowed themselves and worshipped. Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the Princess commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their head and worshiped.
Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near and bring the sacrifices and thank offerings into the House of the Lord. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were of a free heart burnt offerings.
And the number of the burnt offerings which the congregation brought was 3 score and 10 bullocks, 100 Rams and 200 lambs. All these were for a burnt offering unto the Lord. And the consecrated things were 600 oxen and 3000 sheep. But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings. Wherefore their brethren the Levites did help them till the work was ended, until the other priests had sanctified themselves for.
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The Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves and the priests, and also the burnt offerings were in abundance with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the Lord of the House of the Lord was set in order. And Hezekiah rejoiced and all the people that God had prepared the people, or the thing was done suddenly.
Well, I'm sure you noticed again in this passage, here in this.
27th verse The word began is mentioned twice, and this is a scene of praise. This is a time of great blessing in Israel. It wasn't, shall I say, as bright as some previous days in Israel's history, but it was a time of restoration. If you recall the reign of Hezekiah, there was a great restoration and many people that had left God's center at Jerusalem and had gone off and worshiped at the.
Place where Jeroboam had set up down in the 10 tribes, they came back and there was a wonderful time of blessing there in Israel. And you know, we're living in the last days, brethren, and I'm sure that our hearts ought to be more stirred in Thanksgiving and praise. And somehow I feel, too, if there were more of that in our souls, others would be attracted.
I believe that someone else has said our testimony is our joy in the Lord. The world is looking for pleasure, and they're trying every means possible to find pleasure. But you and I who know the Lord Jesus, know the source of it all. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And so we find here, although it wasn't as it was in the days of Solomon, there was weakness. Division had come in.
Nevertheless, there is a beautiful picture brought before us here of restoration and of blessing and of joy.
And we might mourn as we see the condition of the Church of God, and we have to acknowledge our part in it too. It isn't that we lift our heads and say, well, which is a better group or something? We have to hang our heads and say we're part of the common failure. But nevertheless, the Lord does delight to bless. And I believe here that where we began here this offering of the burnt offering, it says when the burnt offering began.
And then the song of the Lord began. And I think, brethren, if we enter more fully into the true meaning of the burnt offering, there would indeed be more praise in our hearts to the Lord.
I think most of us are aware that there were five different offerings. There's also the drink offering, but that was poured over some of the other offerings. But there were five different offerings. The first one recorded in Leviticus was the burnt offering. Then there was the meat or meal offering. Then there was a peace offering and then the sin and trespass offering. There were five different offerings.
And I believe that the sin offering and trespass offering bring before us particularly.
The meeting of our need by the work of the Lord Jesus upon the cross.
And then in the peace offering we have communion, in the meat or meal offering we have the perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus, the one who came into this world and became a man. It says the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, not to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. But why does the burnt offering come first?
And what is the real meaning of the burnt offering? Well, I believe it's something that we tend to lose sight of, brethren, the real meaning of the burnt offering. And I believe if we lay hold of that, it does deepen our notes of praise. It makes us more thankful. And so this is where it tells us here, when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began.
I'm sometimes used a little little illustration that perhaps helps to understand what the burnt offering really is in the scripture.
Supposing I have a great debt and I'm not able to pay that debt and a friend comes along and says Gordon, just give me those bills and I'll pay them for you. And he goes and kindly pays this great debt, brings back the bills to me and they're all marked paid in full. Well, I'm very, very grateful that this person has done that for me a great.
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Lord has been taken off my shoulders to know that my debt has been paid. But let us suppose it another way, Supposing when my creditor himself sees this huge debt on his books, he has a son whom he loves very much, and he says to that son.
I love that Gordon Hayhoe. And would you be willing to sell your house so that we can raise the money?
And take this debt off our books. And if you will do that, then I'll send the receipt to him and I'll mark on the receipt paid in full through the kindness of my son. Well, to my amazement and surprise, this is just what I get in the mail one day. Here is this huge debt that I was totally unable to pay. And I get this receipt and it's marked paid in full through the kindness of.
Of my son, well, isn't that a lot more than just knowing that my debt is paid? In the previous case where a friend paid it for me, I haven't learned to know my creditor at all. Maybe he likes me, maybe he doesn't. If he has a son, I don't even know whether his son likes me. All I know that he has had a satisfactory payment. But if it's he himself who planned this in his own son, who pays my debt?
Oh, how different my feelings now toward my creditor, why I want to go to him. And I want to tell him how I'm so thankful for the love that was in his heart. And I tell him what I think of his son, what a wonderful son he has who would be willing to do that in order to shell his love to me. And brethren, perhaps we can see now why the burnt offering comes first.
Supposing I went to my creditor.
And all I had to say to him was, well, you don't know how wonderful I feel that I'm out of debt. And I never particularly talked about his love or what his son had done in obedience to him and in love. I just talked about the grand feeling of being out of debt. Wouldn't there be something lacking in my Thanksgiving and praise? But if I go to him and make much of his son and so thankful for his heart toward.
All how much deeper that kind of praise would be brethren, I believe this is very important for us too and I believe that's why the burnt offering comes first. I believe that's why here that it tells us when the burnt offering began the song of the Lord began. I'm saying this because I had the privilege of being brought up in the meeting and I heard it commented at times that.
I heard a commented that we worshiped in the burnt offering character and that was just words to me. I didn't know what it meant. And so sometimes we use expressions and we don't stop to think of what these things really mean. And perhaps there might be someone here and that thought has never laid hold of your soul and I'm sure it hasn't fully laid hold of mine. What a blessed thing it is to come into the Lord's presence on Lord's Day.
Morning we're thinking of that Father's love as we sing sometimes about hymn by thee, O God invited we look unto the sun. For again in 155 what was it, blessed God LED thee to give thy Son. And then in the second verse, what led thy Son, O God, to leave thy throne on high, to shed his precious blood, to suffer and to die?
Well, this deepens our notes of praise, brethren, when we get hold of the true meaning of the burnt offering. And so that's why the song of the Lord began, and it was instruments ordained, ordained by David.
In other words, David, as we know, is a picture to us of the Lord and how precious we we hear an expression sometimes, well, every man should worship in his own way, but no, we need to come in God's way. And God has a way that he would have us gather. He has a way that he would have us to worship. And it's most important that we follow the divine plan.
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Sometimes said.
Cain believed in the same God as Abel because I've heard people say, well, we all believe in the same God and we all worship him in our own way. But Cain believed in exactly the same God as Abel. But Cain was rejected and Abel was accepted. And we need to realize that God is a holy God and that if we are going to approach him, we must approach him in his way and his only through that which speaks of the work of God's beloved Son.
You and I can come into His presence. There's no other ground of acceptance. There's no other way in which you and I can be in His presence and accept, offer acceptable service.
Philip tells us then in this 28th verse, and all the congregation worshiped.
No, sometimes a brother might get up and give thanks and we say that brother and I gave thanks, but isn't a nice thought when we all do. That's why the brother who stands up to give thanks, he doesn't say I thank thee, he says we thank thee. He actually is only the mouthpiece of the assembly, and it even says.
In First Corinthians 14 that how can a person say Amen unless he understands what has been said? And so the brother who gives thanks becomes the mouthpiece of the assembly. And as we were noticing the other day, God in his wondrous goodness has given to us in saying a way of blending our voices together. Just think what a marvelous thing this is. We were saying the other day, there are no two birds that.
And sing in harmony. It's not possible. God hasn't made them that way, but He has made it possible that you and I can blend our voices together to make one sound in praising and thanking the Lord. Now we know that there were instruments that God used in the Old Testament here in connection with the Jewish worship because they were an earthly people and God was, as it were, putting man to the test.
Would all these outward things.
Do anything for man. Well, sad to say, the people who had the grandest building the best music.
And surplus choir, if you want to speak in that way, because they were all arrayed in white linen and robes and all that. They rejected the Lord Jesus. They didn't. They wouldn't have him. And now the Scripture says, and the first woman, the first person to learn what true worship is, is the poor saved Sinner in the 14th chapter.
At 4th chapter of John. And she comes, and the Lord says to her, The hour cometh. And now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. That is, unless you and I are worshiping in spirit that it is from our hearts, and that it is according to the mind and will of God, then there's no true.
Acceptable worship. It isn't how well we can sing, but it's what comes from the heart produced by the Spirit of God. That is true worship, where we have a little picture of it here because the Bible tells us that the law had a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things. And now we worship or can worship in spirit and in truth. I'm sure you've all noticed the absence of musical instruments in all the worship in the New Testament.
Because God is wrought in our hearts now by the Spirit, and it isn't how well we can sing, it's whether it comes from the heart that has value before God.
But they continued on this until the burnt offering was finished. I think this is lovely. It went on. It wasn't just, it wasn't just at the beginning. It says when the song of the when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began. And you know, some of us can think of times when we have come together with the Saints of God and what a happy occasion it was.
When right from start to finish in the meeting, there was a warmth.
From start to finish, hearts were taken up with the Lord Jesus and just overflowing in praise and Thanksgiving to Him. So I think it's nice here that it not only began, but it went on until the burnt offering was finished.
Then we see how there was gladness in the end of the 30th verse, it says, And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. Then we read of other sacrifices too here.
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It says in the.
End of the 31St verse. Thank offerings and as many as were of a free heart. Burnt offerings. Perhaps there was some and maybe they weren't able to bring a burnt offering, but there was thanks in their heart.
You know, this is lovely because you might say, well, unless I can express myself as well as another brother, I don't think that I have anything very much to offer. But there were thank offerings and there were burnt offerings. The Lord values even the smallest little bit of response in our hearts. They've always enjoyed that. What is said about Jonathan? We often think of poor Jonathan and how he didn't follow.
David into his rejection into The Cave, and so that he died on the fields with his father.
Out in the mountains of Gilboa and it seemed a very sad end that Jonathan came to. But I've always enjoyed what David said about Jonathan. He made this comment about him. He said thy love to me was wonderful.
I've heard people quote that verse as though it were the Lord's love to us, and I can certainly agree that His love to me was wonderful. But I think it's more overwhelming almost to think that the Lord would think that my little bit of love to Him was wonderful. And here, Jonathan.
This one, who perhaps didn't seem the most faithful one, and yet when David commented about him, he appreciated even the smallest return from his heart. And brethren, shouldn't us encourage us? I believe that when we come together, we may not all feel we can offer a burnt offering, but we can have thank offerings in our hearts.
And then it goes on here to speak of other offerings.
And in the 35th verse it mentions.
And also the burnt offerings were in abundance and the fat of the peace offerings.
Well, the peace offering, as we mentioned before, is the communion or fellowship offering. And no, it's very precious that we can sit there and have communion. I, I used to have a little difficulty about that word communion. As I said, I was brought up in the meeting and you often hear expressions and don't lay hold of them. And when they spoke about being in communion and out of communion, I can remember.
I wondered what that meant. To many people it means.
Partaking of the Lord's Supper. But it's not just used that way in Scripture. Communion means common thoughts. And even when we break bread, we don't take communion because you can't take common thoughts. You can have common thoughts, you can have the privilege, and we do have the privilege of breaking the bread and drinking the cup, but the communion is in the heart. Do we, when we do it, just go through it?
As a ritual or do we really enter into the thoughts of God as to what that loaf means and what that cup means? That's that's having communion, that's entering into his thoughts. Isn't it lovely to sit at his table and meditate upon the fact that He gave himself? He bore my sins and his own body on the tree. He shed his blood to put away my sins. Not that one unbroken loaf tells me that I am in such a place of nearness as.
Member of his body, and that includes every other true child of God in the whole world who is a member of that one body. Oh, how precious. And so there was a peace offering too. There was the communion offering. And you and I can not only praise the Lord, but we can enter into and enjoy His thoughts. We know how we like this with a friend.
And we can talk over something with a friend and feel that they enter into and that we're enjoying something in common.
If you go on a trip and you take a friend and the friends not enjoying what you're doing, you'd say, oh, it wasn't any fun today because I guess I was the only one enjoying it because my friend with me didn't enjoy what we were doing at all. But how much nicer when you enjoy it together. You know, the Lord wants us to enter into and enjoy things in harmony with Him. He takes pleasure in us and He wants us to find our joy in Him.
That's the force of that verse, the joy.
Of the Lord is your strength. What will give us strength to go on in a day like this? Well, I believe it's the knowledge that the Lord finds his joy in US. And when you have that, then you also can find your joy in him. Some have a little difficulty and understanding how when it says the joy of the Lord is your strength.
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What that really means when it's his joy in US. But let's put it this way.
Supposing you had planned, you've been invited to someone's place for an evening.
Then it turns out to be very bad weather.
And you say, oh, let's see if we can't.
Go some other time instead of going tonight because the weather is so bad. And when you're talking about it, the phone rings and your friends on the other end of the line and says, oh, I sure hope you're coming tonight. We're looking forward to it. We're really going to find a lot of pleasure if you'll be with us tonight. What happens? Well, you get a little extra spirit of strength, don't you? You say we've got to go.
They want us and you go, and there's a mutual joy.
They want a Jew and you enjoy being with them. That's the peace offering, brethren. The Lord finds His joy in seeing us gathered around himself, and we find our joy in response. And I believe that's something of the thought in that verse. Herein is love with us made perfect. You can love somebody and not get a response, but it's grand when there's love with us, when the person you love responds.
Kind of a flow of love that goes between them. That's the peace offering. So it tells us here the fat of the peace offerings and drink offerings, they were poured over it and for the burnt offering.
And it says so. The service of the House of the Lord was set in order. And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people that God had prepared the people for the thing was done. Suddenly. I think this is beautiful, the way this all ends. The service of the House of the Lord was set in order. But does God desire whoso offereth praise glorifieth me? Don't we often feel that there's a lack of that praise? But here we see this beautiful picture of it.
Hezekiah rejoices and all the people and it wasn't something that was planned by human arrangement. It seems it was just done suddenly, spontaneously and that's what God delights in spontaneous praise from our hearts that was just rises up in spontaneous praise and Thanksgiving to him for all he has done.
Now I'd like to look at a couple of other scriptures, One in Ezra 5. Ezra is right, the next book.
After this Ezra chapter 5 and verse one.
Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of idol, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.
Them rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealdiel, and Joshua the son of Jahzadak.
And began to build the House of God which is at Jerusalem. And with them were the prophets of God helping them.
And if you'll turn over to the end of the Old Testament third last book, Haggai chapter 1.
Verse 2.
Thou speaketh the Lord of hosts saying this, people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? No. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.
The 12TH verse.
Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealdhiel, and Joshua the son of Jazadek the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. And the words of Haggai the prophet has the Lord their God had sent him. And the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stood up, stirred up the spirit.
Irrevocable, the son of Shealdiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jazadek the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and did work in the House of the Lord their God in the four and 20th day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
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Here we see another beginning. Some previous time they had begun to build this house. It was just a little remnant, very small in comparison to the number in the nation of Israel. But this little remnant had come back and they had started to build a house. But there was a lot of opposition, and some of their enemies laughed them to scorn. And the people got discouraged and they all gave up.
It's very easy, brethren, to get discouraged. There's a lot of those who find fault. There's a lot of people who say things that perhaps are hurtful, and we're liable to say, well, my efforts are not appreciated, I give up. I'm afraid that's in all our hearts at times. But here we find the service of these two men, Haggai and Zechariah. They come along and they try to stir up the people. The people were saying, oh, it isn't the time, some other time.
But not just now.
But there is a time, and God's time is now. Now is the accepted time. And you and I ought to be stirred up, as the Scripture says today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Well, it's very commendable here that when these prophets stirred them up, that the people did respond and they came together.
They had time they they really thought it was time to look after their own interests.
And it seems to us that that's very natural. We see many things that we want to do in our own homes and for our own interests, and it just seems that's always the time to do those things. But.
Are we taking the time that we might be looking after the Lord's interests and that which has to do not so much here with service among the lost, although that is very important, but here among the Lord's people. So they listened, and there's a nice commendation here in the 13th verse about this man Haggai, that he was the Lord's messenger.
In the Lord's message, isn't that a lovely common day?
For one who seeks to serve the Lord, the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message. That's why Peter says if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. It isn't that we just think, well, we all should have something to say, but we ought to be before the Lord about any part that we take among the people of God, that it might be something not just from ourselves but from the Lord. And if so, it'll be a blessing.
It was a real blessing here because as a result of their words to the people, they came. But notice what Haggai says. First of all, I am with you, brethren. We'll never, never have the courage to go on in the things of God if we lose the sense of His presence with us. That is the thing and the only thing that will sustain us.
Especially in a day of ruin.
I am with you, saith the Lord says in another place, that it was according to the Word that He covenanted with them when they left the land of Egypt. Long, long before the Lord had made that promise. And in spite of all the years that had passed by, all the ups and downs of God's people, God still loved His people and would not forsake them.
Oh, how encouraging to our hearts. So the Lord.
Stirred up these hearts, the prophets did their little service in trying to stir them up, and God used their message and they came and they did, it says in the end of this 14 verse, the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and did work in the House of the Lord of hosts, their God.
Well, I think this is very beautiful. And perhaps now, as we, as I said, are beginning a new year and we think of how perhaps we have become slack in the things of God. It's so easy to find time for our own things and to neglect the Lord's things. In fact, I don't think we ever really have time for the Lord's things unless we take time. We take time.
I think you'll find that anytime.
That you want to do something for the Lord. The devil will make sure that a whole lot of things come into your mind that should be looked after. And you say, oh, I must do this and I must do that. And the enemy brings them so that we wouldn't have this time for the Lord. I really believe that's the force of things in connection with.
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In connection with Martha and Mary, I think sometimes people have a little wrong impression about Mary and almost speak as if she wasn't as active a person and doing the necessary things like her sister Martha. And I think that's not the true picture that's presented there at all because when the Lord came to that house, I believe the 2 girls were both working.
And I believe that because when Martha complained.
Notice what she said, Carest thou not that my sister hath left me to serve alone? I believe the 2 girls were working and when the Lord came to the home, Mary said we can't miss this opportunity. The works got to go, we got to leave the work because the Lord's here and we want to hear what He has to say to us. But Martha thought keeping on with those things that were necessary.
In themselves was more important than sitting at Jesus feet.
And I, I want to call your attention that the Lord didn't say that, Martha, that Mary had chosen a better part. He just said she's chosen the good part because there are necessary chores. We should look after temporal things. It's right and proper. But there are times, and we all find them, when you have to leave things to have time for the Lord, a little song says.
Take time to be holy, and these people had come back and kept the whole.
City of Jerusalem was in shambles and you can understand their feelings. They said, oh, we've got to get our own houses straightened around and they were working on these and said we'll, we'll do the Lord's house afterwards. Haggai, yes, we will do that. But not just now, but through the stirring up of the prophet. They left those things and they attended to the Lord's house. Well, brethren, may the Lord's claims come first. I'm not just talking to you.
I'm talking to myself. It's so easy to find things to do. And we find perhaps afterwards that things that we could have done for the Lord have been neglected. And as we were saying to the young people last night, we can never, never recall past time. If a thing has been forgotten in the past, we can never, we can never bring back the time. But we do have the rest of our time. I'd like to just turn.
Aaron to Matthew, chapter 21.
In verse 28.
But what think he?
A certain man had two sons, and he came to the 1St and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not. But afterward he repented and went, And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, Sir, and went not.
Well, perhaps we've been talking first of all about the Lord's joy in receiving the Sinner, and they began to be about the joy of being worshippers. And as those God's people were gathered back to his center at Jerusalem, and then to that little remnant, how they might have got discouraged and not put the Lord's claims first. But here, it seems to me in this passage, it has particularly to do with service.
I think the thought in the Lord's vineyard is.
Service for him, reaching out to those who are lost. And I believe that's a very important thing. And the Lord said here, son, go work today, not tomorrow, but go work today. And I believe that as we think of the brevity of time, the nearness of the Lord's return, perhaps every one of us can hear that little message to ourselves. Go work today in my vineyard today there is something.
Little song that's sung sometimes by the young people lead me to some soul today. Teach me, Lord, just what to say. We don't know what to say very often. But you know, I have found, I'm sure you've found that when you've asked the Lord to lead you to some open door, some opportunity that he leads you, He gives you an opportunity. And there's a real joy in that too. I've heard it said that next to the joy.
Of your own conversion is the joy of leading someone else to the Savior. And so there is a joy. And the first one, he said no. But afterward he repented and went well many times. I guess in the past, although we haven't said it in so many words, in our hearts, I'm afraid we have said no. I have other things to do. I'm just too busy. And we have said no. But perhaps today.
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It says about this boy. He afterwards repented.
So we're not calling for pledges, we're not asking to hold up hands or anything like that. No use in that boy saying I go, Sir, and not going says in the 27th Psalm, when my hearts, when thou said seek ye my face, my heart said thy face, Lord will I seek What God's looking for is the answer of our hearts, not just what we say with our lips. So here we have perhaps a call to begin.
A little service.
That we can do for him and daily to hear him saying, son, go work today in my vineyard, He gives us these grand opportunities that we can use for him. Well then just last of all, before we close, would you turn to 2nd Corinthians 5?
Verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all. That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Well, here we have that little word henceforth we've been talking about began, but this verse brings before us henceforth, and it tells us that what it is, what it is that constrains us. Brethren, it's not a sense of duty. It's not because we're under law, because we're under grace. But what is it that really constrains us? Well, it's his love. And I'm quite sure that if you and I are feeding upon Christ as we.
Had in the beginning for really enjoying him. The fatted calf was provided for the enjoyment of that returning boy. And if we begin with the enjoyment of the Lord in our own souls, I'm sure there'll be more worship. There'll be more desire to help out among the people of God in all their needs and in all their discouragements. And I believe there will also be a desire to be used of him, the telling forth of the gospel, because I like to think.
Gospel is kind of an overflow. Our hearts just are so full that they overflow and they overflow reaches out to sinners around us. Well, I don't know how long we have, brethren. It might be only a few minutes, it might be an hour, it might be days. I don't know how long the Lord is going to leave us here. But the apostle says we were once dead. Just like the prodigal. He was dead and is alive again. We were once dead, but now we have life.
And.
It says that we should, that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves. So as we begin this year, 1986, we have henceforth we have a little time maybe left to us. And oh, how precious the privilege given to us to serve, so worthy a master to serve one who gave himself for us, who did everything that love could do.
That our hearts might be one, well may that stir our hearts too, that the love of Christ will constrain us, draw us like a magnet after him, not to live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again.
Assembly Conduct
Lessons From Nehemiah
The Good Shepherd, Great Shepherd, Chief Shepherd
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to turn to the book of the Psalms and I'd like to read 3 Psalms 22, three and four.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou it inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in Thee, They trusted in Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in Thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man.
A reproach of men and despised of the people.
All they that see me laughed me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope. When I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.
Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax that is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet.
I may tell all my bones. They look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
But be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise him all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him, and fear him all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him he heard.
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek Him. Your heart shall live forever.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee, for the Kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. All lay that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none shall keep alive his own soul.
A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord. For a generation they shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yeah. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Now prepare us to table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof the world, and they that dwell therein. He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully?
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He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of them that seek thee, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory.
Selah.
I'm sure the Spirit of God arranged the order of the Psalms, and so we find them very often in groups. And I believe in the case that we have just read, the Spirit of God has arranged these three psalms together in order that they might bring before us a certain order, beautiful order of truth. We find this quite often in the psalms. We find the 43rd, 4th and 5th Psalm brought together where we see a discouraged heart, a heart lifted up.
Heart counting upon God. And so very often we see these series of psalms because undoubtedly the Spirit of God was not only in the inspiration of the whole Word of God, but also in the arrangement. And I believe we can learn something by looking at these together. And that's why I read these three psalms together. Brethren, someone has said they bring before us the Lord Jesus.
Is the Good Shepherd as the Great Shepherd?
And the Chief Shepherd also, the comment has been made that we have the cross and the crook and the crown. And I think you can see this as we read these psalms. And of course it must be in that order, because there could be no crown if there had been no cross. There could be no help for us in our pathway if it were not for the cross. And at the end of life's pathway for the believer is the glorious future ahead for if we suffer with Him.
We shall also reign with him.
But as I say, the Lord makes himself known in those three different ways. First of all, as the Good Shepherd. That is, we needed to get to know him as the One, the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. And I hope each one of us in the company here this afternoon can say he gave his life. He gave himself for me. The apostle Paul could make that intentionally personal in Galatians chapter 2.
When he said.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And so how precious for us to know him in that way. The one who gave himself for me, entering into it as though I were the only Sinner, yet the Lord loved me enough to take my place and bear my judgment.
And then two, we have life's pathway before us. And so, as I said in the 23rd song, we have His present care for us. We have that brought before us in Hebrews 13, where it tells us that He is the Great Shepherd, caring for us according to the blood of the everlasting covenant, to make us perfect in every good word, to do His will.
Working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight and I think we can see in the.
23rd Psalm. Just that, that as we read that Psalm together, we can see life's history portrayed to us and how the Lord, as the Great Shepherd is seeking to produce those things in us. That would be for his glory and praise.
Perhaps in the thought of the Chief Shepherd that's brought before us in first Peter chapter 5.
The Apostle Peter was talking of the time when the chief Shepherd would appear, and he speaks of the crown of glory that fadeth not away.
And I like to think about how the Lord Jesus is the one who is the Chief Shepherd, That is, he has more interest in your soul and mind than any mortal on earth.
There is no servant of the Lord, no matter how devoted he is, that has such a care and interest in your soul as the Lord Jesus Himself. He is the chief Shepherd. But rather than we have the privilege of being as one brother used to call it, under shepherds. Now that is seeking to have a care for the people of God with always in view the day when all would be presented in that glory above.
So that the apostle could say.
That he rejoiced those Corinthian Saints, that he would be presented with them.
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He also says in Thessalonians.
He says, what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming. He had something at the heart of Christ for the people of God. And so he was looking forward to the day when they would be rewarded, when that those Saints at Thessalonia would be rewarded. And he said, that will be my crown of rejoicing.
Sometimes thought of it like a.
Feature teaching in school and puts a lot of extra effort so the class would do well and at the end of the year feels very rewarded when everybody in the class passes some with honors. She feels oh, my effort was worthwhile. The class has done so well and brethren, do we have that care one for another so that when that coming day comes that it will be our rejoicing that we had the privilege in some little.
Way of contributing to help others along the pathway of faith. And that's why it speaks of a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
It may be that when you try to do something for the people of God, you may not get much glory. Perhaps they may forget to thank you. But the Lord takes notice of a cup of cold water given in His name. He said, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. So all these things encourage us. And so I just like to look at these psalms in bringing before us those three different lines of truth.
Shall I say, I'm sure that all of us can easily see how the 22nd Psalm brings before us the Lord Jesus as the Good Shepherd, giving His life for the sheep.
It's given, of course, in far more detail than the others, because that work is the center of two eternities. The whole of a past eternity looked forward to it. The whole of a coming eternity is going to look back to it. There is nothing in comparison with that glorious work accomplished by the Lord Jesus at Calvary. A little hymn says Center of two eternities, which look with wrath adoring eyes.
Onward and back to thee.
And so this first verse, this 22nd Psalm, is something that you and I can never really enter into because as believers, we will never know what it is to be forsaken of God.
Now the Lord has promised to us as believers, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
But all what the Lord Jesus had to endure, He was the only one that always did His Father's will in every step of His pathway. It was a sweet fragrance to God, and He offered Himself to God as a sweet smelling savor. His whole pathway was a fragrance. How could it be that He was forsaken? Well, as we aptly say, He was forsaken that we might never be forsaken, but that cry that run out in the darkness.
Misunderstood by those who stood by is the most marvelous thing and I'm sure that everyone of our hearts.
When we read it in the Bible, when we hear it, why, it can't help but stir our inmost affections to think.
That the Lord Jesus was forsaken there now that is, God is of two pure eyes to behold evil, and cannot look upon sin. And so when that blessed Son, when that blessed one was made sin for us.
The one who knew no sin, then God must turn his face away. He couldn't look upon sin. And 2nd Corinthians 5 in verse 21 Says He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
I've heard some try to define that, but I think it's best to leave it just as it is. You and I can't be finite. We can't enter in fully to what it means that he was made sin, but we know it was so. We know that he stood in our place, condemned and bore our guilt when he was there. As the one, as the scripture says, thou shalt make his soul.
An offering for sin.
And then it says in the second verse, O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and have not silent.
This is remarkable because we all know that those hours of darkness were in the middle of the day, so that it actually was daytime. But it was also the darkest night this world ever knew when, as the hymn writer said, the sun withholds its rays of light. The heavens are clothed in shades of night, while Jesus wins the glorious fight on the cross.
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And so it was day and it was night.
The darkest night that ever could be. I sometimes like to put in contrast with that. If you turn over to the 42nd Psalm.
The seventh verse.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me.
Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
When we read that seventh verse, we think of the Lord Jesus when deep called unto deep, when all those waves and billows of judgment rolled over him. And the psalmist in this 42nd Psalm is greatly distressed. He's cast down. He's going through trial.
And when he thinks of the Lord's suffering, then, shall I say, he makes a comparison with what happens when we go through suffering? It says there in that next verse, Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime. If you ever go through trial, you're not going to be forsaken. This very Psalm says He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him.
And so when you go through trial.
And it seems as if billows of trouble are rolling over you. Remember, you're not forsaken. The Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime. It may be a very precious time in your life when the Lord draws near. But it was not so with him. He was forsaken. And it says there, and in the night his song shall be with me. And so he gives songs in the night, and in our nights of deepest trial and sorrow He gives songs.
And the access of prayer is always open, but to him it says that he was not heard. Oh, what a contrast. I believe the Spirit of God would bring before us just what it meant in some measure to the Lord Jesus.
For he answers his own question here and says, thought thou art holy, but thou art holy. What is holiness? Well, it's the abhorrence of evil with delight in good.
And there was a person who abhorred evil and delighted in good God.
God abhors evil, and He delights in good, and there was the One who D always done His will, who was offering himself as a sweet savor. But God is holy, and so the whole issue of light and love were brought together at the cross. All that was in the heart of God in love must come out, but all that He is as light must be fully vindicated in order that there would be no hindrance to the outflow of that love.
And then he says, Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
And then he says in the sixth verse, But I am a worm and no man. Think of the humble place the blessed Savior took.
As we were saying the other night, he took a body capable of death not subject to death.
You and I have bodies that are subject to death, and if the Lord doesn't come, they're going to wear out. They're going to have to be laid away as our dear sister was just yesterday. These bodies of ours are there in that sense, subject to death. But the Lord Jesus had a body over which sin had no power. Death had no plane. He would, He must dismiss his own spirit.
Because it says.
No man taketh it from.
I lay it down of myself to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. Now this commandment have I received, and my father.
And his body never saw corruption, because corruption is the result of sin.
Third day when he rose, that body saw no corruption. He was the holy, sinless, blessed. 1 Yet how marvelous he takes this low place. A worm. Scripture says man is a worm. And the Lord of glory came down to this world and walked through this world as it was read to us this morning, though in the form of God.
It was not robbery for him to be equal with God, yet he made himself of no reputation. He emptied himself and came down into this world. And did man appreciate that? No, they didn't. He was. He took that lowly place and he was despised of the people. People despised him. They laughed him to scorn. He shot out the lip, they said.
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Let God deliver him if he delights in him.
Just think, this one who could have called for a myriad myriads of angels and have destroyed every one of them. This one who stood in the garden and when he said I am, they all went backward and fell to the ground. And yet why didn't he display that power? Friends, he was on his way to Calvary if he had.
If He had smitten them dead and not gone to that cross, where would you and I be? There would be no glory for us. There would be no home above for us. He must bear that. And he was laughed to scorn. As it says, they shake the head.
And they are on that cross, and they said, come down from the cross, and we will believe on thee. But what would have happened if he had come down?
I say again, you and I would have been lost forever if He had come down, because on that cross and in those hours of darkness, there and there alone was the question of sin settled. I think it's important that we see that it wasn't the Lord's sufferings at the hand of man that put away sin. It wasn't Pilate that put our sins upon the Lord Jesus. It was what He endured at the hands of God.
I think most of us are acquainted with the 69th Psalm, and in the 69th Psalm the particular theme is what the Lord suffered at the hands of man, while here it's what He suffered at the hands of God.
I might say, however, that in this Psalm we have something of what he suffered at the hands of man brought in, and in the 69th Psalm we have something of what he suffered at the hands of God brought him. And why is that?
Well, I believe something like this.
If you went to do an act of kindness for somebody.
And while you were trying to do that act of kindness, they were laughing at you and spitting in your face. And you still went on and did that kind act for them. Even though they were punching you and hitting you and laughing at you. I would say that would only bring out your love in a much fuller and deeper measure. And so while the Lord Jesus was there as the sin bearer, man was showing his heart, and it only brings out to my heart.
In greater and fuller measure.
The love that not only bore the judgment, but in the face of all that man was doing. And my heart was no better than that crowd. Your heart and mine was the same. And then when we turn over to the 69th Psalm, we have him suffering at the hands of God, but the other the hands of man rather. But we have the other side brought in just to show us that it was. It only made man much more guilty when he was there.
The one who was to pay the debt of sin and man would have prevented him as he could if he could have. And it only brings out more of the guilt of man. If you were trying to do a kindness to somebody and at that time they were hating you and showing you unkindness, wouldn't it make their guilt far worse in the face of kindness?
It has been said.
Jerry Taryn Good for good and evil for evil is human. To return evil for good is divine, but to return good for evil is of Satan and man was led on of Satan and he returned evil for man's for God's good.
So this Psalm brings in primarily the sufferings of Christ, but also the attitude of men. And so we find these things brought out here. The 12TH verse. Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I believe this represents the leaders of Israel.
Now that is the ones who ought to have known, for they had the Scriptures says in Romans chapter 3. What advantage then hath the Jew, and what prophet is there of circumcision? Much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. They were far more responsible than the Gentiles, because they had the Scriptures, and the Scriptures had foretold about the coming of Christ. They had this 22nd Psalm, They had the 53rd.
Of Isaiah, they ought to have known who he was, but there were the strong bulls of Bashan, the leaders of the people. It says they stirred up the people that they would ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus, and says they gaped on me with their mouths as a raveling and a roaring lion. That is, they were led on of Satan because you know, that's what Satan does.
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Satan's greatest opposition is to Christ.
Sometimes he's presented in the Scripture as a roaring lion, sometimes as an Angel of light, but always in opposition to Christ. Always in opposition to Christ. What concord hath Christ with Belial? And so we see here.
These leaders that ought to have known better just standing there and looking on, saying it's not lawful for us to put any man to death, but calling upon the Gentiles to carry out what they wanted to do.
And we find a little in the 1415 and 16th verses of what the Lord Jesus suffered there at the hands of the Roman soldiers, because, as we often know, the usual way for the Jews to put a person to death was to stone them. That was the manner in which they killed someone who was guilty. But.
Here we find another way by which the.
Was put to death long before there was a Roman nation. We read about they pierced his hands and his feet. That wasn't at that time a way that when the Psalm was written, that wasn't the way that they normally would put a person to death. But God is looking on to the time and he knew that they would deliver him over to the Roman power. That's why it says.
Dogs have compassed me in the 16th verse.
You know that the Gentiles, outside of the covenants and promises made to Israel are looked upon as dogs. The Lord said it's not meat to take the children's bread, cast it to dogs. Dogs in the Bible are a figure of shameless evil, and the shameless evil that went on in those Gentile nations was absolutely horrible. And so here we find the whole picture brought before us, the Lord Jesus there.
The very tree on which he was hung up he made to grow himself.
The very nails that were driven into His hands, He made the iron from which the nails were made. He was the Creator of all things, and He allowed His creature to do all this to Him. Did the Lord feel it? Yes, He felt it perfectly.
Oh, how marvelous to see. Even when they came and would have given him then he had a drink mingled with gall. He tasted their oven, wouldn't drink anything that would in any way lessen the suffering that he was to endure. Usually when we have to face suffering, we want something to lessen the suffering. But the Lord Jesus had come to bear the full penalty of sin.
And so he wouldn't take it at the very end when they offered him vinegar to drink.
It showed out the hatred of their hearts, but we find that the Lord Jesus felt everything perfectly and fully, it says here.
My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. Perhaps there's a little thought there when you and I.
Face some difficulty or something like that. Well, we try to harden ourselves, hitting ourselves so that we won't feel things. But the Lord felt everything fully and perfectly. He felt the hatred. He said Reproach hath broken my heart. I am full of heaviness. I look for some to take pity. And there was none for comforters, but I found none. He felt everything perfectly.
And then?
To know that these people whom he had come to bless, were rejecting Him.
Well, we have a picture here of crucifixion, and of how fully the Lord felt it. And then in the 18th verse they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But being out thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. Well, these things are just brought before us to show us how fully the Lord felt.
All that man did, and above all, being forsaken of God.
But I have only, when we come on to this 20th verse, Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. When man has done his very worst, the Lord Jesus has exhausted the judgment. Then he cries. It is finished.
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And it wasn't Satan's victory, it was his. It was his victory, Thy weakness and defeat. He won the Medan crown, trod all our foes beneath his feet by being trodden down. And so the very last act of man's hatred, in putting the sword into the dead side of the Savior only, as the hymn writer said, drew forth the blood to save.
Never again will they be able to heap any indignity upon that Blessed 1. He finished the work. He has shed his blood. The victory was not Satan's. The victory was his.
And it says in resurrection he announces that I'd like to think too about the apostle Paul when he says that going from city to city, he said the Lord leads us in triumph from place to place and makes the manner manifest the.
Of his knowledge by us in every place. It was apparently the custom, when there had been a great victory run won by a Roman general, for him to lead a March of triumph through the streets of Rome, and people could look on and see the fruit of the victory that he had won.
Now Paul went from city to city in these heathen places, and he also suffered being despised and beaten and stoned and so on. He suffered at the hands of man. A believer will never suffer at the hands of God. But he faced all that rejection. But he called it a March of triumph.
He said the Lord is leading us in triumph, just as that general, whether people blamed or whether they applauded. That's why it says we're unto God, a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish. He, he considered his going through these cities was a March of triumph. And brethren, I think this is a nice thought for us as we announced the glad tidings of the victory of Calvary. It's a March of triumph.
The Lord Jesus won a victory there and we have the privilege of saying I'm one of the results of that work that he has done and I want to tell others of that great victory. He was heard.
And so he goes into death as the triumphant 1. He dismisses his own spirit. The work was finished, and now he says, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
So goes on here.
In the 22nd verse.
Passes on to resurrection. I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation. Will I praise thee in resurrection. The Lord could say to Mary, Go tell my brethren, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your God. Yes, He could announce the victory that he had won.
He could tell them of that name that they could know God as Father. A new thing, because it's only resulting.
The result of the finished work of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit that we can enter into and enjoy this relationship. And no, God is our Father. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Then He stands in the midst and shows His disciples his hands and His side. Then I believe that now, as we gather around Him, if our hearts are in harmony with His brethren, I believe He's leading the singing. He's drawing out our poor cold hearts in praise and Thanksgiving. What a what a privilege We sang in a little hymn. He who knows, He who knows it leads the singing loud to God.
Our voice is raised so.
He leads at our hearts in those triumphant praises to Him as a result of what He has done.
So he says, in the midst of the congregation, in the midst of the congregation, I will praise thee.
Yeah, ye that fear the Lord, praise him all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all the seed of Israel.
It's nice the thoughts that are brought together here.
When it says the seed of Jacob, we think of what we were by nature. Jacob was just a little example of what human nature is. And so he could say, he that all ye the seed of Jacob. But where has grace brought us? Says here, Fear him all ye the seed of Israel. Israel means a Prince with God. So God has brought us, who were once so far away into such a place of blessing. Now he assures us.
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In the 24th verse that will never be forsaken, that he hasn't despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, rather than He doesn't hide his face from us. The Father's face of radiant grace shines now in light on me and you, and I can look up. Another hymn says, If clouds have dimmed our sight when past eternal lover towards me.
As ere thou art, bright clouds may come between.
You and I sometimes look up and say it's the sun isn't shining today. It's not exactly accurate because we've got it above the clouds. The sun is shining just as it always was. It's only the clouds that dim the site. And so isn't it blessed that that face of radiant grace looks down upon you and I?
And the Lord is looking forward to that great congregation. He's looking forward to the time when he'll be in the midst of the whole redeemed company of Israel and in the midst too, of ourselves as the heavenly company in that glory above, and our hearts will break forth there in eternal praise.
Then the 26th verse the meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever.
We know that this is the characteristic of the godly remnant, the meek and brother, and I believe it ought to be characterized. It ought to characterize us too. We don't have any rights in this world.
The Lord Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. What is a meek person? A person who doesn't show resentment when he's put down?
You know, and we show resentment, we get ourselves all upset and angry and everything about things, but the meat person accepts it from the Lord. The Lord Jesus accepted everything from his Father. He said Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. And he says take my yoke upon you and learn of me. You've got to expect in this world that we're going to share his rejection.
And the characteristic of the of the godly remnant and what I.
Characterize us as meek and lowly in heart, like our blessed Lord and Master. But this is beautiful, isn't it?
It says eat and be satisfied.
God in His grace has arranged a great privilege for us that we can gather and as we partake of the bread and drink of the cup, we're reminded of what the Lord Jesus did. That's the only satisfying portion is knowing Him and what He's done for us. And So what a privilege to gather around him and remember Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. And truly, as I say, there's no satisfying portion apart from Him.
And then this little expression too. Your heart shall live forever. You know, if we set our heart on things down here, our hearts are not going to live forever.
If I set my heart upon a new house or a new car or a better job, why, that's all for this life. I'm not saying that we don't need houses and cars and things, but if we set our hearts on them, brethren, they're all going to pass away. The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.
Isn't it blessed, as we had in our chapter at the conference?
Set your mind or your heart on things above, not on things on the earth. Our hearts by thee are set on brighter things above.
And I even think about the Lord's people. You may meet you. Maybe you've got a nice neighbor, maybe you meet a nice person in business and you say that person's nice to work with, but you know that person doesn't know the Lord. Why? That's a friendship that's going to come to an end no matter how nice that person is. But when you and I make links and form friendships with the people of God, that's forever.
Everyone in this room who knows the Lord as Savior, I'm going to be your friend.
Forever. And if I allow my heart to go out to you in love, it's not going to come to an end because that love will flow for all eternity. Your heart shall live forever. Oh brethren, may our hearts be set on those brighter and better things for down here. Too often we allow ourselves to get attached to the things of this world and even the people. Maybe I say they might be nice people, but if they're not saved and have no heart for Christ.
Them it's all.
Just a temporary thing, and so here it tells us.
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All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him. The Lord is going to have His rightful place.
And the 29th verse All be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him. The Lord Jesus is going to have his rightful place.
As we gather, we often delight to sing our beautiful little hymn. Christ of God, our souls confess Thee, King and Sovereign, even now.
But everyone's going to have to own him as universal Lord. Every knee is going to bow every time he's going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But brother, and I say again, isn't that a great privilege that says all that be fed upon the earth shall eat and worship?
Now in connection with that word fat Chanel, in the sacrifices, the fat was to be offered to the Lord. It says the fat of the sacrifice was to be for the Lord. And so if you and I are really for the Lord, what are we going to do? What we're going to give the Lord Jesus his rightful place. We're going to want to worship him and praise him and thank him for what He's done for us. So all to be fed upon the earth shall eat and worship.
And then a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord. For a generation They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people. It shall be born that he hath done this.
Tell the Spirit of God so beautifully brings before us what we mentioned briefly this morning worship and service worship and service. It's a great privilege to be worshippers, but let's not forget we have the privilege of declaring to others what the Lord has done That's that's our blessed privilege going into all the world preach the gospel to every creature. And so after telling us in this chapter.
The Good Shepherd giving his life for the sheep, the resulting blessing to ourselves, the praise that ought to fill our hearts. Then it says, let's tell others. Let's tell others that is.
They were the one generation living now. Maybe, maybe doesn't know these wonderful things, but we have the privilege of proclaiming it.
Now we come to this 23rd Psalm, and as we said, this has been spoken of as the crook that is the Lord leading us through the wilderness.
Scripture tells us that we're pilgrims and strangers, and we often sing This world is a wilderness. Why? We have nothing to seek or to choose. We've no thought in the waste to abide. We've not to regret nor to lose. We're just passing through. The world has taken on a new character. To us it's a wilderness. It doesn't have anything to satisfy the longings of the new man.
But isn't this beautiful? The Lord is my shepherd, and as I mentioned, we won't take time to turn to it. In Hebrews 12 it says He's the great Shepherd. It says that God brought him from the dead according to the blood of the everlasting covenant. And then He's the great Shepherd. To make us perfect in every good work, to do His will working in us what is well pleasing in His sight.
And we might ask, what more do we need than Christ? It says here, I shall not want.
I don't mean that we have to be at the meetings all the time, but God cares about your business life. He cares about your home life, He cares about your health. He's concerned about everything. There is no detail of your life and mine that isn't a concern of His casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you so he can say the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
I'm sure you've noticed in this Psalm that it's divided into 3 parts. You have a new translation. You'll see there are three separate paragraphs. In the first part he's talking about the Lord. That's verses 1-2 and three.
Then in verse four and five, he's talking to the Lord, and then in the sixth verse he's talking about the result and how it filled His heart with thankfulness and praise. This is very beautiful. So you and I first begin by talking about the Lord. He made with me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He wants us to know that He is caring for us and just as.
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Shepherd, the sheep doesn't take the responsibility of providing the necessary pasture or the water for it to drink. The shepherd is the one who takes the responsibility for this. And isn't it blessed to know that the Lord Jesus there up on high is caring for us, and He is the He is, I say again, the great Shepherd who's caring for us, seeking to make us perfect in every good word to do His will.
He wants us, as we have in the 14th chapter, in the 15th chapter of John. He wants us to enjoy and prospect his home, his peace, his love, his joy, his companionship. He wants us to have all these things. And so he leads us and makes us lie down in green pastures.
Leads us beside the still waters because it says.
Says My peace I give unto you. And then again he says, he restoreth my soul. You don't always keep as close to the Lord as we should. But aren't we thankful that the one who died for us lives for us? Our great High Priest and our advocate? Is there anyone here you've got away from the Lord?
You've let things come into your life that you know are dishonouring to him. Isn't this lovely?
He restoreth my soul. He wants to bring you back. Don't go on another day.
With those things in your life unconfessed and unjudged, get them out and have them right before him. We know that even in natural friendships we can let things build up between friends, between husband and wife, between father and children. We can let them build up in the assembly. I know how good it is that we seek to correct these things when we possibly can.
Well, how much more that we shouldn't allow anything to come between us?
And the Lord, he restoreth my soul, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. Brethren, we can never enjoy the Lord's company in paths of self will. We can't enjoy it because how could we? When the two were going on the road to Emmaus, they didn't recognize, even though the Lord walked with them. And it wasn't until He had stirred their hearts to their depths that they they recognized him.
And they go back to Jerusalem. Oh, how gracious is our blessed Lord. But I say, if there's any of us walking carelessly, we're losing the best portion in life. We can't enjoy His company. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. So that's talking about Him, and now He talks to Him.
Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. He doesn't. He doesn't say for he is with me. He turns and talks right to the Lord and says for thou.
Somebody I could talk to. But you have one, and he invites you to come. You can never get lower than his everlasting arms. They're always underneath. Underneath are the everlasting arms. So he's talking about the Lord. Here thou prepare us the table before me in the presence of my thine enemies. Isn't it wonderful that the Lord did that just before he went away?
He instituted that table.
Spoken of in 1St Corinthians 10 as the Lord's Table. What a privilege in a world where he was rejected and cast out, that He has prepared for us. A privilege. You know how forgetful we would be, and so He prepared a table for us.
And then thou knowest my head with oil.
You know there were two in Israel that were anointed was the high priest and the king, and he has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. What a place is ours. And then he says, My cup runneth over, that is, he talks to the Lord. Now thou prepare us, thou knowest my head. Now he begins, as it were, to think a little of what he has in the Lord, and he said.
My cup runneth over.
He says surely goodness and mercy not talking to the Lord, and in a certain sense he's not talking about the Lord, he's just talking of the happy result in his own life. He says my cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. He's enjoying His portion. In other words, brethren, are we enjoying our portion in Christ? Are we? He went to Calvary. He was forsaken for us, but now He set this pathway before us, and He's everything that we need for the pathway. And this is beautifully brought before us, I believe.
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In this 23rd Psalm. And now we come to the 24th.
This and we find here that the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.
That is, the true Christian recognizes the rights of the Lord here in this world.
Man talks about our world, our country, but for the Christian, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And we never will feel right until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and we shall reign forever, and he shall reign forever and ever. And then it tells us the 24 elders in that 11TH chapter of.
Revelation. They fall on their faces and worship him.
We delight to look forward to that time when the Lord will take what is rightfully His.
Perhaps I could just suggest here, when it says this from the third verse to the end of the fifth verse, that this was only imperfection in the Lord Jesus.
He was the one who had a right because his life was perfect, always glorifying his father.
But Brad and I believe that God sets before us a perfect example. The scripture says that the Lord Jesus left us an example that we should follow in his steps. We will never be perfect. We need constantly the restoration of our souls. But God always sets before us a perfect example. He said to Abraham, walk before me and be thou perfect.
He said in Matthew.
Be therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven is perfect. God doesn't say as long as you're 75% like the Lord, that's very good. Now he says, I have set before you a perfect object. I've given you a power to live to please Him. I've made provision for your failure, but never lose sight of the perfection of our blessed object. Now I believe when we apply this to the Lord Jesus, He's the chief shepherd. But in that 5th.
Chapter of First Peter. It speaks about those who feed the flock of God and it says there are to be examples to the flock and you know, we need to be careful, Paul said to Timothy.
He said, Take heed unto thyself, and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in so doing thou shalt save thyself and them that hear thee.
And so I believe that it's very important for us to remember that God has given us this. You know, the older we get, the more.
Young people and others are going to be looking to us as to whether we are examples to the flock. This search is our inmost hearts, doesn't it? But if we're going to seek the blessing of the Lord, it's not the blessing of our brethren, I should say. It's not just what we say with our lips. It's what they see in us that really is a testimony to them that I believe, brethren, that that's very important. And so this Blessed 1 is set before us.
But lest we should think that there was anything in ourselves, there is a beautiful thought that's brought out in the end of this 24 sum, and I just like to call attention to it beginning at the seventh verse.
Perhaps I should just mention the sixth verse. This is the generation of them that seek the hymn that seek thy face, O Jacob or O God of Jacob is the margin says, and that is we're conscious of what we are, but we seek his face. But now this seventh verse, lift up your heads, O ye gates be lift up ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in.
Who is this king of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts? He is the King of glory. Notice this is mentioned twice. Perhaps you wondered why it's repeated in this way at the end of this beautiful Psalm.
Well, I like to look at it and add it in this way, brethren.
It says in the end of the eighth verse, the Lord's strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Isn't it beautiful to think of when the Lord Jesus had accomplished that mighty work of redemption that fully glorified his Father, had shed his precious blood?
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Then he went back to glory. He was the one who is mighty in battle. He was the one who the victor who rose and went back there in all the triumph of his blessed work.
And this afternoon he sits there at the right hand of God, a Prince and a savior. But he's there alone. He's there alone. Heaven opened to him as the mighty victor who glorified God, who had accomplished the work. But what for? So that there might be others? Enter the glory too.
He was like the Hebrew servant who didn't want to have his freedom and the enjoyment of his freedom alone. The Hebrew servant said, I love my master, my wife and my children. I will not go out free. So he goes to the judges and he becomes a servant forever. And the Lord Jesus is up there. What is he waiting for? He's waiting for the fruit of his toil and victory.
To be with him. Isn't this lovely?
It repeats these words, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in you. Notice the different response now in the 10th verse from the 8th. In the eighth verse it says the Lord strong and mighty, but here the Lord of hosts. How does that make you think about what do you think of a host of people? Don't you how when you think of hosts, you think of a host of people? Do you know heaven is going to open again? And who is it going to open for?
It's going to open for a host of people to enter. The one who won the mighty victory is going to enter again, and he's going to enter as we have in the 2nd chapter of Hebrews. It says, I believe He'll introduce us to the Father's house. Behold, I and the children which God hath given me. Oh, how wonderful. The future that's ahead for us.
And brethren, perhaps they could suggest again that this 24th chapter, this 24th Psalm, brings before us the Lord Jesus as the Chief Shepherd. And we could ask ourselves how much we are seeking the good and blessing of the others who are going to enter that home with us, because it's going to be a vast company. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
How much the Lord loves his own, speaks of them as the excellent of the earth, and cares for them. And we could ask ourselves, how much do we care? How much do we help them? You know, when that Samaritan brought the man whom he picked up in the ditch and brought him to the end, he gave, he gave to the innkeeper 2 pants, and he added something. He said, Whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again.
I will repay.
You know, I've heard different thoughts about the two pens, but I like to think of the two pence as the two days of the Lord's absence, because we know that the present period is often spoken of in that way.
This present period and the Lord has provided for everything that's needed for this present day as we go through What then is that whatsoever thou spendest more?
Well, the innkeeper there, he could have easily said.
Well, this is all right to bring a man in. This is an inn, and we're willing to give him his bed and his meals and his breakfast and all that, but this man's going to require a little extra care. He's a sick man, he's got a lot of sores and wounds, and you're expecting us to take care of this person and look after him?
Well, you know, sometimes, brethren, there are those who require little extra care, a little extra interest, a little bit of extra help. And isn't it nice that the Lord says, I'll repay you if you do that, I'll repay you for any little more that you do. You say, well, why should I care? But the Lord cares. And so isn't that wonderful? He said, you just do that for this man. And when I come back.
I'll repay you for the extra I've made provisions.
For the two days, but there may be some extras. The Lord says a cup of cold water given to the least of His own. He says in Matthew 25, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Well may the Lord stir our hearts. Brethren, we have a wonderful portion in Christ. He's the Good Shepherd who gave His life for us. He's the chief Shepherd, and has made all the provision necessary for our pathway.
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But he gives us a little bit of privilege too, to have some part.
And caring for his own. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, he's not going to forget it. And there's going to be a mighty host that entered in that day, and he's going to joy over his own with singing everyone, even the one who perhaps seemed to be a little careless. It says he shall see as a travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. While we're waiting for the heavens to open again.
To receive that vast company of the redeemed. What a privilege to be.
Among that company, according to his own matchless grace, it's because of the God of our salvation.
Wisdom Hath Builded an House