Address—Steve Stewart
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Jesus.
Christ.
Please create.
A show.
Every voice shall rise, shall nation to our God.
What I'd like to speak about this afternoon.
Is the 10 what are called the 10 lost tribes?
And.
Back in Israel's history.
There came a time when in the will of God and his ways and discipline with Israel.
10 of Israel's tribes revolted from King David's house.
And it was King David's family, his house, that were to sit on the throne of Israel, and in the days of Rehoboam, who is reigning at that time.
They said every man to his tent.
David see to thine own house.
And I'm going to read a verse now in Second Kings.
And.
Chapter 17.
Second King 17.
Verse 22, Verse 21. For he rent Israel from the House of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Knebat Kane, and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them sin, a great sin, for the children of Israel walked, and all the sins of Jeroboam.
Which he did, they departed not from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants, the prophet. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
Well, that left the tribe of Judah Benjamin.
Maybe a little scattering from some of the other tribes that weren't completely carried away in that land.
They too follow the same sin of Israel of the 10 northern tribes and idolatry and God allowed them to be carried away captive too to the land of Babylon.
But in time he brought a remnant of them back to Jerusalem, to the land of Israel, because there was coming a time when his Son would come into this world and be born a man in Bethlehem. And there would need to be.
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Of people there to receive his son when he came, Judah would need to be back in the land because the Lord Jesus was born in the family of David and the tribe of Judah well, he came and we know what happened they rejected him the rightful king cast him out and put him on a cross and.
God.
Pronounce judgment on that nation because of their sin, not only in idolatry, but in that they rejected His well beloved Son when He came.
And God is going to accomplish that judgment in a coming day.
And he is going to raise up a people that he calls the Assyrian, and they have a king, and he's called the Assyrian, and they're going to come down in judgment on the land of Israel.
And looking over at Isaiah, just to pick a couple of verses out.
This is yet future and a coming day after the church is gone, God is going to bring His judgment on.
The Jews in that land where they are today.
And the instrument of his judgment is called the Assyrian chapter 10 of Isaiah, verse 50. Assyrian, the rod of mine anger.
And the staff in their hands is mine indignation. I will send him against the hypocritical nation.
Against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil, to take the prey, to tread them down like mire in the streets. But then God will judge that same instrument, this Assyrian that he's going to use and we find.
A little later, verse 25, for yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease in my anger in there that is the Assyrians destruction.
So this army.
The Assyrian is going to sweep down through the land of Israel and when they do, Joel, if we turn the book of Joel, we won't. It says before them it's like the Garden of Eden and behind them it's like a wilderness. Everything is going to be destroyed.
God is going to marvelously preserve a little remnant and.
In chapter.
Eight of Isaiah.
He says to this little remnant, verse 13, Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, Let him be your fear, let him be your dread, and he shall be for a sanctuary.
But for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel and so on.
So he's going to providentially preserve those who put their trust in him when this Assyrian sweeps down through. But those who are unbelievers, the apostates among the Jews, are going to be destroyed by this invading army. That army will sweep down through. The Lord Jesus will come out of heaven. That army will turn around to come back up through the land again, and the Lord will destroy the Assyrian.
That will be the end of his indignation against Israel for their sin of idolatry and in rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ.
What's left says when that company comes down in chapter 5 and verse 27, none shall be weary and or stumble among them. None shall slumber or sleep. Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latched of their shoes be broken. When this army comes down, they're not going to trip over their shoelaces. They're not going to bump into each other.
That everything they do is just going to be executed. Florida State.
Find everyone of the apostate Jews and destroy them.
And they're going to destroy everything around them in that land.
It says.
In Chapter 7.
Initial Verse 21. It shall come to pass in that day that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep, and it shall come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall give. He shall eat butter, for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.
And it shall come to pass on that day that every place shall be where there were 1000 vines, at 1000 silverlings. It shall even be for briars and thorns. With arrows and with bows shall men come thither, because all the land shall be come briars.
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And thorns.
The destruction is going to be so complete that the few that are preserved by the Lord, the faithful.
When they come out from the places that the Lord has preserved them, there aren't going to be any crops.
There are going to be any trees with fruit.
Aren't going to be any fields with grain. There's going to be wandering animals around and you might gather up a cow and a couple of sheep and because there's nothing in gardens or anything left, the only thing there is to eat is honey that they might gather.
They forage and the and the milk they get from the cow and butter and honeys, all they'll have to eat.
And when they venture out of whatever little shelters they might make, they're going to go out with bows and arrows. Why?
Because remember what the Lord said about Israel taking over the land? It was going to be a little at a time. He wouldn't drive all the inhabitants out way back in Joshua's day. Why? So the wild beasts wouldn't take over the land. The wild beasts are going to take over the land. If you go out, you're going to need your bow and arrow.
Because you don't know if the bears around the corner.
Put it that way.
So thorough is going to be that desolation.
That's how God is going to take care.
Of the apostates among the Jews. But what are the 10 tribes? Where are they?
Turn over to Daniel.
Chapter 12.
Daniel chapter 12 and verse one.
And at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was, since there was a nation even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. So there is a faithful remnant that he preserves.
Through that terrible time of destruction.
Time that is unequaled, unparalleled in all the history of the earth, the Great Tribulation.
Verse two gives us something else, And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.
Some to everlasting life and some to shame.
And everlasting contempt.
This isn't talking about the resurrection that we read of in Thessalonians. First Thessalonians 4 when the Lord comes, descends from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ are raised.
That's not what this is talking about. This is talking about the lost. What we call or is called commonly, the lost tribes of Israel.
They're asleep in the dust of the nations and the dust of the earth. Where are they today? No one can tell you.
All kinds of speculations have taken place, everything from the American Indians to the Japanese to the Incas to whatever. There almost isn't a nation or people in the world that it hasn't been speculated that they're one of the 10 lost tribes. There was a.
Quasi Christian religion that was popular for years. It's dwindled. Called British Israelism and they claim that the British people descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel.
That it's actually still around today.
No one knows where they are. They're asleep in the dust of the earth, but they're going to awake in a coming day. Some. Some.
To everlasting life, that is the everlasting life of the Old Testament life in the Kingdom for as long as it goes on, however long that is.
And some to shame and everlasting contempt. Let's turn over to Ezekiel.
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Chapter 37.
I know I touched on it, took this up in Hammer Bay at him saying so I maybe for some here you've heard me take this up.
Ezekiel 37 gives us a very.
A beautiful picture of this very thing that the Lord told Daniel.
I want to be dramatic, but I'd like to read this the way I think it should sound.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones.
And caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, Oh Lord God, thou knowest.
And he said unto me, Prophecy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live, and I will lay sinews upon you, and I will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
So I prophesied as I was commanded.
And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking.
And the bones came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above.
But there was no breath in them.
Then he said unto me, Prophecy unto the wind, prophecy, son of man.
And say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
So I prophecy as he commanded me, and the breath came into them.
And they lived.
And stood up upon their feet, and exceeding great army.
Then he said unto me.
Son of Man.
These bones.
Or the whole House of Israel.
Behold, they say, our bones are dry. Our hope.
Is lost.
We are cut off for all our parts, therefore prophecy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God.
Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people.
And brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you. And ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord.
In the Talmud.
Collection of rabbinical writings. One of the rabbis is quoted as saying as the day goes and does not return so.
So they have gone and will never return.
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But that's not what God says. He says yes they are. And it is going to be as miraculous as what?
Ezekiel saw in the valley of dry bones.
But they will pass through exercises of soul.
As they're brought back into that place, into blessing. Long ago they had said to every man, to his own tent. David, see to your own house.
And the Lord goes on to say to Ezekiel.
Take two sticks.
And he says right on one and verse 16 for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and one for Judah, he says, take them in your hand and put them together, and they'll become one stick. And he said, not only is he going to bring them back into that land, but he's going to unite them together and the unity that he intended them to be in from the beginning.
One in his hand.
And so the exercises of soul that they pass through on the way back are with that unity.
In life.
And the thoughts of God.
Turn over to the 120th song. 120th song begins a series of Psalms.
Called The Songs of Degrees.
Some have said they were the songs that were sung when you would come from anywhere in the land up to worship in Jerusalem. Some said Ezra compiled these. I think that's probably right and put them in order in connection with the returning remnant coming from Babylon back to Jerusalem. But ultimately they really are prophetic of a coming day.
When those 10 tribes will return.
We love to read.
The second to last in this series.
Just turn to it before we start.
Verse one of 133 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
But you know, there were steps to get there.
There were exercises of soul to pass through.
And so it begins with 120th Psalm. The songs of degrees are steps, steps of ascent to Jerusalem.
The first one, and we can only go through bare outline. The first one is their awakening.
So to speak, out of the dust of the earth.
Like the prodigal in a far country, they had gotten so far from the Lord.
And he came to himself, and he looks around in his distress, and he realizes he's in trouble. And so in Psalm 120, in my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me deliver my soul, oh Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. Verse 5 Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech. I dwell, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar.
They wake in a foreign land.
In Meshach, we turned over to Ezekiel. We'd find that really I think is Moscow or related to Moscow. It's the far north Russia, and Kedar is one of the sons of Ishmael, the Arabs. And so maybe this gives us sort of an idea where those peoples are going to largely be.
And those that they have been just dwelling with, fine. Now they awake to national aspirations.
And there's opposition. Psalm 120 and 121 are more individual exercise.
I will lift up mine eyes. 121 verse one unto the hills.
This put a little semi colon in there and the next phrase kind of stands by itself. From whence cometh by help question mark.
Oh, they look up and they realize we don't belong here. I belong back. And they think back to the hills of Jerusalem, of Zion.
But the journey is impossible.
The journey is impossible. Whence cometh my help, Oh dear one?
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That can be the experience of our souls if we get away from the Lord to wake up and realize our situation. We've been settled down in this world and we're among those that hate the Lord Jesus Christ. Hate for the Christians. True hope is and love is.
How are we going to get back? It's an impossible journey. Like the Lord said to Elijah, the journey is too great for thee.
And they psalmist says, my help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. You know, they had fallen into idolatry. They had worshipped other gods. They had denied the true and living God who had made heaven and earth. But you know, they wake back up to that one they had once long ago left.
The one who made heaven and earth.
And have the one who made heaven and earth reminds us of the millennial title of God, Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. Man's happy to have him be possessor in heaven. You can have all the heaven you want. They say to God, just leave the earth to us. But in the millennial day, he's going to come out and be possessor of heaven and earth. And that's the testimony of the two witnesses in Revelation 11.
The God of the whole earth is the one they give witness to. It belongs to Him.
Well, they find they can put their trust in him. He will not suffer thy foot again. I think this is more individual. Suffer thy foot to be moved.
The Lord is thy keeper, Lord, as I shade on my right hand, the sun shall not smite thee by dare, the moon by night. He that keepeth Israel shall not sleep or slumber. But they had long slept in the dust of the earth, but he never did. He knows where they are. He's had his eye on them all the time, and they're just waking up to the fact. And just like Israel had that long journey from Egypt to Canaan, and they.
Pillar fire and the pillar of cloud. They can trust the Lord. There's going to be no pillar of fire, pillar cloud, but they can trust Him.
For protection day and night.
The Lord shall preserve by going out, and thy coming in from this time forth, even forevermore. Now 122 is more.
A collective exercise as as they're moved individually. And that's where it has to start.
If you've gotten away from the Lord, or maybe a soul has even gotten away from the Lord's table and drifted away.
Before the exercise and collective things comes, there needs to be an exercise in individual pathway. But now they find others. You know there is a path for faith and to go on with them that call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart. And So what does he find in Psalm 122? I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the House of the Lord.
Oh, companions in the path, what a happy thing to encourage our brother and let's go.
To the House of the Lord, not calling the meeting the House of the Lord I just using the figure of speech. What a blessed thing to be in the Lords presence in the assembly meetings to encourage one another to be there. Let us go. Our feet shall stand within thy gates of Jerusalem. The wonderful anticipation.
Their feet are going to stand there. Why? Because in the previous Psalm, he says he'll keep their feet.
And he'll bring the mall safely there.
Whether Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, whether the tribes go up?
Unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to thy name. They are set Thrones for judgment, The Thrones of the House of David. Oh, there's an awakening to things they have left behind.
This was where the tribes go up, not just one or two, all of them, you know, this reminds us that fitly framed and compacted together by that which every joint supplier, this reminds us of the unity of the Church and all its members.
And a laying hold in our souls of those truths and a desire to walk in the good of them. They are set Thrones. There's a place of administrative authority. Oh, they had rejected that before. How many have left the Lords Table because they rejected?
Administrative authority in the assembly and stumbled over those kinds of things.
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If there's going to be restoration, there has to be a waking up to an acknowledgement of there are the Thrones of David, so to speak. Well, they're waking up to what they had long left behind. Peace be within thy walls. And for my brethren and companions sake, and I'll say peace be within thee.
Brethren and companions.
Relationship and friendship. You know, we have a relationship, don't we, as brethren? But we need a friendship too. Friendship too. And so these encourage each other in this anticipation. And now they wait on the Lord in the 123rd Psalm for direction.
Not going to just undertake in their own strength. And they, like Ezra by the river of Hava, with that little company that was returning from Babylon, they afflicted themselves. They prayed for a right way to know how to go and for their wives and their little ones in that journey that they were going to undertake.
And so unto thee I lift up my eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes laid upon the Lord our God, till that He have mercy on us. Oh, this isn't so much.
Looking for protection as it is for direction, independence. It's an expression of dependence.
Well, there's increasing opposition verse four, our soul is exceeding filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud. Oh dear one, you may find this experience of your own soul that when you get exercised.
About collective side of things, the truth of the Church of God and what it is to walk in accordance with that truth. You may find that there are those at ease and worldly and corrupt religion that will oppose your path and try and hinder you and say what is that worth? Just a lot of Babble. All the opposition increases.
124th Some, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side.
Now my Israel had not been the Lord who was on our side when men all it's more than speaking grows up against us.
The waters had overwhelmed us, the floods of the wicked. You know in the 69th Psalm where we get the floods overflowing the Lord.
That is the floods of ungodly and wicked men.
In the 69th Psalm.
But when we turn over to.
I think it's at the 37th Psalm. I'd have to go back and look. Now we find it's the floods of God's judgment, both rolled over the Lord Jesus. But here is the floods of the ungodly and the wicked. There is opposition.
Just because God destroyed the Lord, destroyed the King of the North when he swept down through Israel, and at that same time he also took the beast.
And the Antichrist and destroyed them. There are still enemies afoot. There is a tremendous enemy also called the Assyrian Gog and Magog.
And they are sharpening their knives.
As they look upon that land of Israel and it's out of their very territories that these ones are arising to return.
To Israel, and they're feeling that, and outside of the divine intervention of the Lord and His preserving hand on them, they'd never make it.
They would never make it.
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of a snare of the follower.
125 They that trust in the Lord shall be his mount.
Zion.
Which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. You know, in the in the 120 hundred 24 Psalm, they're on the way.
Through all kinds of opposition, but now in the 125th slam.
Those mountains that they had looked up for in the 121St Psalm come into view, the mountains of Zion.
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And they see that place that God is going to bless, it abideth forever and they say.
Were like that place.
All the blessing that God has we had earlier today for you and I is commensurate with His value for the person of Christ. And they're saying the blessing that God is going to bring us into his commensurate with His value for that place where He's placed His name, Zion.
And we're going to abide forever, just like it abides forever.
And they see themselves and their blessing intimately associated with that place.
Where he had placed his name forever.
And the mountains of Jerusalem come into view. Verse 2.
She would be better to read this way. Jerusalem exclamation point. The mountains are about her as the Lord is about His people.
The rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous. Oh, they understand that God has come in and taken care of the Antichrist and his unholy, unrighteous claims upon that land.
No, he has no claim. God dealt with him.
Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good to them, that are upright in heart. That's the God of Israel, or the Israel of God. Excuse me.
Those that are his own. Oh, there's something else we're coming across here.
There's something else we're coming across that's so solemn.
As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel, the Israel of God.
What's happening here?
Hold your place. Turn to Ezekiel 20.
Ezekiel 20 takes up the returning 10 tribes.
Verse 34 I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered with a mighty hand, with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured forth. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there I will plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your father's in the wilderness.
Of the land of Egypt. So will I plead with you, saith the Lord. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant, and I will purge out from among you the rebels. And them that transgress against me, I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.
One more scripture in Amos.
Chapter 9.
Amos 9.
Verse 9 For low again it's the same subject to the 10 tribes. Berlow I will command, and I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like his corn is sifted in a sieve. Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth? But what will the chaff?
But not the least one who's real.
Not the least true grain, but the chaff will fall. Verse 10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which said, The evil shall not overtake or prevent us.
He's gonna purge out the rebels at the border of the land.
And they're not going to enter that land.
And who's sharpening their knives and waiting to come down? The unnumbered hordes of Gog and Magog.
And they shall die by the sword. God purged out the rebels of Judah by the King of the North, when he swept down through.
And left just the faithful remnant. Now he gathers the 10 tribes out.
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And he makes them pass under the rod like a shepherd, and he examines each one. Is it one of his sheep?
And the rebels are purged out. They manifest themselves by being rebels.
In this journey back, they've exposed themselves for what they were, and there's other scriptures that take that out.
And he purges them up.
They die by the sword.
So, but the scepter of the wicked shall not rest on the law of the righteous.
Separation from evil.
Is a necessity because God is there and He will have his people around himself.
And he will not allow any evil to mar that scene.
And so they go in, but the workers of iniquity are led forth.
126.
When the Lord turned again, that word, if you look in Mr. Darby's translation, has a thought of full complete restoration. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dreams. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue was singing. Then said They among the heathen, The Lord have done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us, where we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as streams.
In the South they that so in tears shall reap, and joy, he that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Oh, it's like a dream.
3000 years. 3000 years.
Have passed by.
It's a dream.
How could this be?
They just repeat it over and over to themselves. It seems to me in this Psalm. We just can't believe it. We can't believe it. You know, when those things happen, how you tend to repeat to one another over and over. You keep telling each other, oh, you know what? Yeah, I know it happened, but I can't believe it. Yeah, I can't believe. You know what? I can't believe it. And that's kind of how they are. They're just.
So overwhelmed.
Happened, but they say a second time turn again Our captivity, O Lord, as streams in the South, they're back in the land, but there is something that the Lord needs to deal with.
And their heart, I think in this little way is going out to their brethren. You know, the self is. Then again, it's the wilderness in the South part of Judah. And they say, Lord, we need a full restoration like streams in the South. They're looking for blessing on Judah that they had left long ago. They're enjoying being brought back into the land, but they want to see streams in the South. And the desert will blossom like a rose in the coming day.
They want to see that for their brother.
They that sow in tears shall reap, enjoy. They look back at their trials and persecution.
And now the blessing that is coming in. But when it comes to verse six, he, it's singular. He, this is the Lord. What is this restoration based upon?
The sufferings of their Messiah.
If he that bore their iniquities.
It's with His stripes they are healed. He is the one that went forth as a sower bearing precious seed, and He's going to bring His sheaves with him. Not only Israel, but think about it, brethren, when He comes back in that coming day, the heavenly sheaves are coming with them too. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun and the Kingdom of their Father.
That's you and I.
We're all coming back with him.
And then the wonderful anticipation of.
Of scenes of home and town in the next two psalms as they anticipate buildings, their homes, the cities, but especially Jerusalem.
Especially Jerusalem. Remember how we looked at that little picture? What are they coming back to? They're coming back to a land that is there's nothing there. It's been totally devastated.
Oh, you know, I think what a welcome sight this exceeding great army is, as Ezekiel calls it, comes marching back to the land. There's all the help to build stuff, you know, there's all these ones coming back.
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And they're anticipating the joys.
Of that scene, and we do too, you know, these psalms, these two songs so overlap our own experiences, don't they? We appreciate those scenes of home and of the assembly, those two spheres of blessing that God has established for us, for our preservation. And so they own that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
No, it has to be built in dependence upon him. And again, I think this is especially the Temple in Jerusalem.
It's the Lord's house.
But all previous attempts in the flesh ended up in destruction. You know the Antichrist is going to sit in a temple called the Temple of God. Well, there's going to be nothing left of that when they come into the land. The 10 tribes.
Except the Lord keep the city. The watchman waketh, but in vain.
You know, in Ezekiel we read in the 38th chapter, Gog gets this thought in his mind.
And Magog, you know, down there in Israel.
All those people and they brought all their wealth as they've come in and they're living there with no protection, living in unwalled villages. Now is the time and they know that. They know there's opposition.
What about our own homes? What about the assembly? Isn't isn't Satan out to attack? Isn't it? Don't you feel like it's like an unwalled city sometimes? Like we just started defenseless? The Lord can keep us. He can keep us.
He can keep us in the assembly and in our families and we can worry and worry and worry and as one said, it's like a rocking chair. It goes back and forth and back and forth and it doesn't get you anywhere.
So they committed to the Lord for so he giveth his beloved sleep. No sleepless nights for them. Have you ever had sleepless nights? I'm sure you probably have.
Well, our trust in the Lord so little, isn't it, you know?
Though children are in heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is His reward.
And I think this is looking on to the Lord himself. Arrows in the hand of a mighty man. He's the mighty man there in the 110 saw me as a dew of his youth. And you know, after Gog and Magog come down and he destroys them, he's going to take those arrows in his hand, the children of Israel, and he's going to use them for mop up operations around that land. They're going to fly on the shoulders of the Philistines and the Moabites. And we don't have time to look in those things, but there are arrows.
The hand of a mighty man, he's going to have his quiver full and he's going to deal with them. The end of verse five. They shall speak. Or Kelly has, I think, destroyed the enemies in the gates. But you know, as children in our own homes, if we feed them with the word of God, isn't it wonderful? Sometimes if you had the experience, we're out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. They meet the enemy in the gate and they just say something so.
And it just meets the opposition right there, puts it quiet.
That's a wonderful.
Experience the confidence of little ones in the Word of God as it's fed to Him.
Remember one of our boys coming back home one time and he was laughing and telling his mom, you know what they said in school, we're no different than dogs. You know the evolution thing? He says that's so stupid and he's just laughing. You know, he met the enemy in the gate.
He was fortified with the word of God.
Well, 128 blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord.
That walketh in His ways, the blessing of the Lord and obedience to His Word. They're bound together, they're intertwined. And so the psalmist owns that, that if there's blessing from the Lord, it's going to be the obedience to His Word. Happy.
Thou shalt, for thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. You know we do. We do eat the labor of our hands, and we want it to be a happy thing.
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There is a reaping and a sewing, but you know, Scripture doesn't present reaping and sewing just in a negative way. It presents it in a positive way too. And I think here it is presented in a positive way. There can be a positive happy reaping of what we've seen.
In the home sphere and in the assembly, the Lord shall bless thee out of Zion.
You know, that would bring in perhaps more of the assembly sphere here with this returning company, the Lords in the midst.
In Zion and a blessing is going to flow out from there. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides are in the inner parts of thy house. Thy children like olive plants around thy table. Think of that land. Everything has been destroyed. The vineyards are gone, the olive trees are gone. And here the godly Israelite come back. He looks at this little family and he says, there's my vine, there's my olive plants, there's the future.
Potential.
The wife characterizes the home. She lends her character to the home like a vine that just spreads out and spreads out and covers the whole home. This from the inside, she lends her character to that home and those children around the table like little olive plants. Reminds me of putting little plants in pots, you know, getting ready to put them out in the spring. Every one of them has a potential.
You're getting them ready to put them out in the garden so they'll grow and they'll produce fruit.
And there they are, all around the table. He sees them in their wonderful potential.
And so each one of the children here, there's a wonderful potential, like little olive plants around the table.
God has been pleased in a large way to replenish the testimony through the children of the Saints.
Wonderful anticipation. Thou shalt see thy children's children's children.
And peace upon Israel.
Well, now there's deeper reflections.
As we come to the next song, Steps of Degrees and then the 129th, there's affliction. They only been afflicted off and and since their youth. So they look back at their long history and over and over and over again the Lord has had to chasten them.
They look at it in this Psalm as as themselves as suffering. And it was true, says the flowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. Plowing speaks of repentance. I'll never forget the first time I dropped one bottom plow into the ground and it cut through like a surgeons knife and neatly flipped over that sod and everything that was underneath came to the top. That's repentance.
That turning over the heart, that's how the good seed takes root.
And that of repentance in that seed bed of repentance.
Well, we know this is certainly Speaking of the Lord, but looking at them and ourselves to.
That's where good seed is produced. You know, some seed fell on Stony grounds. It had no depth of earth. There was number. Repentance sprung up quick.
Gone quick, but not this seed it's going to be.
Into plowed ground.
Well, it's not plowed ground and it's like verse six and seven. It's just going to wither away.
So are the wicked.
Well, 130th now. It's not just I've been afflicted. Look what I've suffered.
Why did I suffer?
Why? All because he was seeking to draw my soul.
Back to himself.
Perhaps back to the place where he placed his knee.
And so there's deeper soul searching out of the depths. He cries, Oh Lord, if thou should mark iniquities, who shall stand?
I find fault with my brother, the Lord marked iniquities. Would I stand? No.
No.
And so there's a looking to the Lord now there is a a drawing near the soul to the Lord, so that they say my whole my soul waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning, more than those that more than anticipation of the glories of the coming Kingdom is the person of the Lord himself.
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And that's been the work in the soul is to increase that personal affection and appreciation for the Lord, not just the coming benefits, so to speak.
131 The results of that soul searching.
Lord, my heart is not haughty.
Nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me. This is probably when Eliab accused David of being proud and naughty and coming down to see the battle. And David said, what have I now done? You know the Lord passed David through that.
Because he was going to have to face Goliath, but he passed him through a humbling time first.
And it's from this place of.
Of justice saying, I'm not going to think lofty thoughts, then the Lord can use him for a wonderful victory, but it comes from this place. Surely I behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother. Oh, no longer the agitations of of of nature and demanding and so on, but just.
Quiet. It's a self judgment. I quieted myself.
You know this ones wean from mother's milk, and nature really has no place in divine things.
Nature has no place and divine things and how often it has caused upset and trouble and agitation of spirit, just like a child fussing when it's being weaned.
No, how wonderful.
127th and 128th Psalm. But we need to understand that.
That sphere of family, though it's a building block for the assembly, can get in the way.
Those relationships can get in the way sometimes of divine things, and we need to be weaned from that.
You know I enjoy Mr. Darby's translation. Surely I have behaved and quiet myself as a child that is weaned not of his mother.
With his mother, he's still sitting there with his mother he's weaned. He's been through all of that. It was hard, but he's still got the comfort of mother. Even though he's weaned from nature. It's with his mother. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, the Lord has said.
Well, now the 132nd Psalm, the result of these exercises of soul.
They're going to give the Lord his rightful place. Other things have been dealt with. They've passed through. Now they turn their eyes to the Lord. They say, Lord, we want thee to have thy rightful place. And so it's from that time when David wanted to bring the ark up to Jerusalem.
But it's suited to the exercises of Soul of the 10 tribes and the two.
In the land. And they're really united together in this. And so they want to have the Lord come in like the glory will come in, in the coming day, we read in Ezekiel and into the temple, and the glory of the Lord will fill that temple once again. They long to see the glory of the Lord return and fill that house that they built.
And.
It says low. We heard of it at Africa. We found it in the fields of the woods.
Six Africa was Bethlehem. Judah was David's dwelling place in his youth. From his youth he had heard about the ark neglected over there in the field of the woods, Kerja, and he longed to see it back and its rightful place. And what a joy for him when that day came to return that ark. And it's the same joy that they're experiencing.
They long to see the Lord and Throne and brought back into His this rightful place.
Verse 13 For the Lord hath chosen Zion, He hath desired it for his habitation. I just want to turn back 78 time. I'm sorry if I'm going over a little bit. 78 Psalm.
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Verse 67 Moreover, he refused the Tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but he chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved, and he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth, which he hath established forever. He chose David also his servant. You know they're going to go through that exercise and own that house they once left.
This is who the rightful king is going to come from. His is the right to sit on that throne. Yes, that once Shiloh had been the place where Eli the priest and his wicked sons had spoiled everything, and Shiloh was that place. But the ark had been taken captive for long years that have been neglected. David restores it and he finds Jerusalem as the place where the Lord has placed his name. And now all the.
Want to own it this is the place it was in the failure of man in Shiloh that God marked out Zion and that's why Zion means grace, royal grace because God came in after all man's failure and marked out that place where he had chosen to place his name and they're rejoicing in that well the 133rd Psalm now we finally come to it you can't just.
To this song.
You've got to go through the ones before.
Now they're dwelling in a wonderful unity together in that land.
And.
Christ is high priest.
He's enthroned that place given his rightful place.
Ephraim and Judah are joined together.
Judah won't vex Ephraim any longer. Where? I can't remember exactly how the verse goes. Maybe the other way around.
Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, and went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of Harmon, and as a dew that descended upon the mounds of Zion for the Lord.
There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Behold, bless you the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which stand by night in the House of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord, the Lord that made heaven and earth, bless thee out of Zion.
Oh, and that wonderful unity now the Lord enthroned in his rightful place, the blessing just flows down. The Spirit of God will be poured out on the sons of Israel in that day, and they'll prophecy and the daughters of Israel in that day and blessing will go out. It flows from heaven down.
From that one who is enthroned down to the very skirts of the garment, to every extremity of Israel, and then in the 134th Psalm, praise goes up to the Lord.
And blessing goes out to the whole earth.