Address—David Mearns
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like to open our meeting.
This afternoon with 267.
267.
We trust his protection.
Will lean on his might.
We're sure his direction will guide us.
A right #267.
Ah, fullness.
Whatever you stress.
Or make such a scandal.
Start like it was great.
Me so.
I'll support.
Us and I'll start here.
To the category to survive.
We need to survive and he's brought up to die. From where? The pain on his Wi-Fi.
Will destroy.
Will drive.
We wish you the love of surprise.
All I need to say.
I don't want to touch love. Let's get her into your house.
Could you turn with me please to Ephesians chapter 3?
Ephesians chapter 3.
Paul writes here as a prisoner, as we see.
This 'cause I Paul, prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, he makes a comment in the eighth verse. He says unto me, Who am less than the least of All Saints.
00:05:02
But then he says in the 13th verse, Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulation for you, which is your glory, for this 'cause I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the full whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory.
To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to apprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height.
And to know.
The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that she might be filled with all the fullness.
Of God.
As I mentioned in my prayer, it was the exercise of the local assembly here that this would be directed to those who are younger.
I'm not younger. It's a long time since I've been younger.
Last time I was here was 53 years ago.
I was 15.
And I'm trying to think. I was at two conferences. I remember that that year, one of them was here and I.
As I was considering this meeting, I was reading this portion and I was thinking.
What kind of an impact would the reading of those verses made to me when I sat here in the conference 53 years ago? And I have to say I would have listened to the brother who would be standing here and I was sitting there at 15, that I would look at those verses and I would listen with mild interest.
If I could put it that way.
My father wisely told me when I first held my daughter in my arms, who incidentally had her third son, her third son just yesterday.
He said to me, David, when you're speaking or when you're visiting with someone, always remember what it was like to be their age. That's a bit of a stretch for me, but we trust that.
This afternoon we can do that.
The Apostle Paul here says.
In the 14th verse for this, 'cause I bow my knees.
The other conference I was at that year.
Some of you probably been there. Was the Wheaton Conference in Chicago. Something that the young guys used to do was play football in the mornings.
I was one that played football and I dislocated my knee and I sat in the front row.
I shouldn't say the front row back a few rows with my foot up on on a chair the duration of the conference, but our brother Eric Smith, he came to our row and he went down the road. He was shaking hands with everybody. He came to me and he looked at me and he said, young man.
Are you the young man that hurt his knee? I said yes. He said, oh brother, you need to take care of your needs. You need to spend much time on your knees. So we have this verse and it says for this cause I bow my knees.
It's my purpose this afternoon to look at the times in David's life that he bowed. A very instructive for me. I trust it'll be a help for every one of us. So let's turn now first to First Samuel, Chapter 20.
First Samuel, chapter 20.
This is an interesting chapter for times sake. We're not going to. We're not going to read the chapter. I'm going to take for granted that.
I'm speaking to people here that read their Bibles. So you're aware of this time in David's life where he and Jonathan, they parted ways? As it says in the last verse, Jonathan said unto David, Go in peace. For as much as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, the Lord be between me and thee, between thy seed and thy seed forever. And he arose and departed. This is a sad statement. And Jonathan went into the city.
00:10:18
You know, Jonathan died on the battlefield. It was a great lament for David. He didn't share in Davide rejection. But here we find in this portion, there's this chapter that takes up shooting of the arrows. That's what the chapter is about.
In the 35th verse it says came to pass in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed. That's an interesting state. There's many, many times in the word where we have the time appointed. It's appointed unto a man once to die after death to judgment. And he said unto his lad, Run, Find out now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the lad was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the lad and said.
Is not the arrow beyond thee? Jonathan cried After the lad makes speed haste, stay not. And Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. And the lad knew not anything, only Jonathan and David do the matter. And Jonathan gave his artillery unto the lad, said unto him, Go carry them into the city. As soon as he was gone, David arose out of the place toward the South, fell on his face to the ground.
Here's our subject.
And he bowed himself three times.
And they kissed one another, and wept one another, and David exceeded.
We were we were praying for.
The family of.
Brother John Chalua.
Appreciated you reading that.
Text to us, Brad.
On the 16th of of July I broke bread in that assembly, his home assembly in Rumphi.
The conference that has been spoken of took place this last weekend.
Conferences are different. They're in Malawi than here. They took place in the in the took place. This one took place in the in the meeting room at Karunga. There was 180 people present.
I was, I've talked to several brothers. I talked to the brother that helped take carry John into the into the Medical Center and then subsequently take him into the the hospital.
180 people that are there. All the ladies sleep inside on the gravel, all the men sleep outside. That's the conference accommodations, I think of where you slept. Pray for the brethren there.
Their their circumstances are much different.
What happened was the brother was on the back of a lorry, he's in the front of the lorry actually, which would stand the bed would be about this high and on top of that there would be.
Some racks that would be up about 16 inches and they just packed the people into there and so they're traveling. I've got pictures and videos if you'd like to see them sometime. The brother was on the front corner and the tire started to smoke and he was trying to get the driver's attention. He finally got the driver's attention and then he went to jump out of the lorry. I'm listening to this from a brother that's on the phone with me telling me that was right there. He said his foot caught on the rack.
And because it was up so high when he landed, he landed on his chest, he broke his ribs. The ribs punctured his his lungs. And and that's what took our brother.
Where I'm going with this, just prior to that he had an address.
And he spoke.
On the brevity of life.
This brother, 30 years old, is a 2 year old, a four year old, and now a widow. And he spoke on the brevity of life. You know, as I stand here, we look at the brevity of life, we hear a situation like that and we think, wow, his life was brief. But I stand here at my age and I realize that my life has been brief as well.
And I look at my circumstances different than you young people.
You young people see you all here, different places. You're looking ahead at your life. I'm looking backwards. Life is very brief. It's indeed brief. And here we find that David and Jonathan have this little scenario that takes place with a shooting of the arrows.
00:15:21
Now I would like you to leave your your finger in here.
And I would like you to turn to First Timothy, chapter 6.
First Timothy, chapter 6.
You know what? First of all, I'm going to go to First Timothy chapter one. Let's look at First Timothy chapter one.
And we'll read this.
In.
Without reading the initial verses, we'll go right to He addresses Timothy in the second verse. Timothy, my own son. Then he says this in the sixth verse.
From which?
Some having swerved.
Have turned aside.
If you look at Mr. Darby's note.
He renders that.
Some having missed.
Missed the mark?
Now turn over to Second Timothy.
Two Timothy.
Actually, you know the First Timothy chapter 6. Like I said earlier, First Timothy chapter 6.
And the very last verse of the letter.
There's an exhortation to lay hold on that which is really life in verse 19, and then he says in verse 20, some 21 which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Again, Mr. Darby's note says some having missed the mark.
Now go to the second epistle.
The second chapter.
And the 18th verse.
He speaks of those in the earlier verses and then he in the 18th verse. I'm doing this for times sake. Who concerning the truth have erred.
Again, Mr. Darby's note says.
Missed the mark?
So just back here in First Samuel Chapter 20, we have a scenario where there's some arrows that are shot and you'll agree with me.
That when an arrow is shot.
It goes and it hits the target.
At which point it might miss.
But if it misses, the problem is not when it misses, the problem is when it's let go out of the bow.
You young people are right at that point in your life.
Where you're being let go your life, it's being let go out of the bowl.
Where's it going to hit?
Where is it going to hit serious things, all I'm saying, to think of those scriptures that we've read in Timothy, of those that missed the March. As I said, last time I was here, I was 15. You know, I remember that time and I had a good time with a lot of other 15 year olds, 14 year olds, 1617 year olds.
And I notice that many of those.
That we're here at that time, they're not here.
For the very reason that I have suggested, they have missed the mark.
Many of them are the Lords.
Some are here, some no indication whatsoever that there's any life in Christ.
So where are you at, young person? You're just at that beginning. You're just at that start. Let's turn over now to the Psalms, Psalm 57.
00:20:10
Psalm 57.
We find here David.
Is.
Speaking, he says, Be merciful unto me, O God.
For my soul trusteth in thee. Yeah, in the shadow of thy wings. I'll make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed.
If you notice the heading of the Psalm, it says to the chief musician.
Edel teches Mikdem of David when he fled from Saul into The Cave and I'd like to look at that, but before so let's go on down. David says in the fifth verse it says be thou exalted, O God above the heavens, let thy glory be above the earth. They have prepared enough for my steps and now he says this my soul.
Is bowed down.
They have digged a pit before me into the midst thereof. They are falling themselves. Sila, my soul is bowed down.
Now I'd like to turn because of the connection here, I would like to turn to that portion that's referenced at the heading back in First Samuel 22. If you could turn with me there for a moment, First Samuel 22.
The Psalms start the chapter starts off. David has has fled.
Where a couple chapters from where we started, it says David therefore departed thence and escaped to The Cave Abdullah. It's a very sad chapter. We won't go through it. It's where the priests are slain. And there's this there's this discussion between Saul and a him elected priest. And in the 12Th verse Saul says here now thou son of a high tub. And he answered, here am I my Lord and Saul.
TM Why have you conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, and that thou hast given him bread and a sword, and asked inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me to lie in wait, as at this day?
And a Himalek answered the king. And what I want to do for just a few moments is look at this answer of a Himelec to Saul, because what he does.
Is he portrays the character of David at this time when he was in The Cave and was now fleeing. So let's look what it says here in verse 14. A Himalayan answered the king and said, who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the King's son-in-law, goeth at thy bidding and he is honorable in thine house. You know, I love this. There's lots of lists of David's character. I'd like to look just at this one.
There's this, there's this statement that says right off there, right at the outset, who is so faithful? It doesn't say who is so gifted among my servants, but who is so faithful?
Young person as you sit there.
If I was to speak.
With those in your local assembly.
What kind of accommodation would they have of you?
Would they say that you're faithful?
Someone that's respectful, someone that's morally upright, someone that is faithful. This is one of the characters that David had. He was faithful. It says here among all our servants. Yet that servant character, it's not a character that's promoted in this world.
Beautiful character, the servant character, that which we see in the Lord Jesus, that which he has portrayed. I see that in so many of my dear brethren. Love that character. Is that something that portrays you? That servant character? It it, it was one of Davide characters, it says, which is the King's son-in-law.
You know.
David became the King's son-in-law.
After he killed Goliath and.
00:25:05
It's an interesting subject to look at the in laws in scripture.
There are a lot of young people here, and if the Lord leaves us here, there's a very.
High chance that you young sisters are going to become a sister, a sister-in-law.
There is the chance of you young brothers that you are going to be a son-in-law. You are going to have a father-in-law. Just think of that in law relationship, you know, with with David, he was portrayed as being a faithful in law. You know, if we were to go back to Genesis, we would read there about Rebecca and Isaac.
And it says about.
Rebecca that she says.
She says it twice. I'm going to turn to it. Maybe it would be good if we just looked at it back in the book of Genesis.
The Book of Genesis.
And the 20.
6th chapter.
The 26th chapter.
The last two verses they read this way. Esau was 40 years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beery the Hittite, and Bath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebecca. Now turn over to the next chapter, the 27th chapter.
And we read this in the 46th verse.
This is 40 years later.
And Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth.
Young person.
Do you want to put your parents through this?
Because of a bad choice that you have made.
Think, think, think of the choice here. Think, think, think of this woman saying these words and at the end of it, after 40 years, she says I'm weary of life because of my daughter in laws.
Young person, be very careful, very very careful as to your choice of a life partner.
This is not unique.
There are those in the sphere of all of our acquaintance that we can look and think of a bad relationship between a son-in-law or a daughter-in-law and their father-in-law and their mother-in-law. You young people, be careful. Be very, very careful. I'm not just talking about an unequal yoke. I'm talking about being with a partner and you're not on the same.
Page spiritually.
So important, the choices that you make, David.
Was a faithful son-in-law. This is not his words. This is the words of somebody else, a Henlek saying, Who is so faithful among thy servants as David, which is the King's son. Law that goeth out, that goeth at thy bidding. He was a man that was obedient. He was obedient. You know. Brother Rob brought before us the concept of the lordship of Christ.
This morning, just saying, you know if the Lord.
It's not Lord of all.
He is not Lord at all, but when it comes to obedience, partial obedience is disobedience.
David was obedient. David went at Saul's bidding. And then it says here and is honorable.
In thine house, you know, beautiful characteristics that we find here at the time when David was in The Cave. And he makes that statement as he writes. And he bowed himself. Oh, that that would that posture would characterize you dear young people. And not just you dear young people all but every one of us. Well, let's go over now to another Psalm, Psalm 38.
Psalm 38.
00:30:06
David writes here.
The heading says Psalm of David to bring to remembrance. Oh Lord, rebuke me not in my wrath. Now they're chasing me in thy hot displeasure.
The sixth verse, he says. I'm troubled.
I am bowed down greatly.
There's our subject. I go morning all the day long.
The 10th verse my soul panteth, my strength faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes, it is also gone out from me. Now that's a desperate situation to see the light go out of somebody's eyes.
And then he says, if you go on down to the 17th verse, he says, I'm ready to halt. My sorrow is continually before me. It's the picture of someone who's ready to throw the towel in. Maybe there's a young person here this afternoon and that's your plight, that's your position. Maybe you haven't said anything to anybody. Maybe nobody else knows.
Oh, you know, I was looking at a text which I get lots of. I'll read you this one. I was reading it this morning.
Send a text to a brother.
Telling him this is my my text I sent. I spent some time this morning in Luke 24.
Walking to a mass, did not our heart burn within us, while He opened unto us the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself? I said, May it be so with us.
He says this is his text. Well, not in my case anymore. I'm sorry to tell you this says it won't be good news to you, but I finally broke down and left Christian life behind.
Brought up in the assembly, unhappiness got too hard to bear, and while I'm not actively trying to live as much chaos as I can, acknowledging Christ's salvation as all the faith I have and I can give no more, trying to follow in his footsteps has been too hard. I just wish I'd never existed or knew anything, right or wrong, So now I'm pretty much adrift. Even so, I thank you for all the help you've given me, for all that's worth. It's not gone unnoticed. Here's a man. The light has gone out of his eyes.
What about you, young person? What makes you go? What is it that makes you go?
You say yeah, I'm.
I'm Christian, I'm saved, I'm not asking much. I'm asking what is it that makes you go? You know, read about the Lord Jesus. He says the zeal of thine house hath eaten the earth. That's what made the Lord Jesus go. He said I do always those things that please the Father. What about you this afternoon? What is it that makes you go? You know, I so appreciate this posture of David.
It's a posture that kept him. It's a posture that kept him when the times got tough.
It's a posture that kept him when he got really, really low. I think of this brother that I communicated with.
For years, three or four years, and now we come to this point. He throws the towel in.
David says here, the 38th Psalm, I'm troubled. I am bowed down greatly. Maybe there's someone here and that's your portion. Oh, that you would turn to the Lord in this posture. It's a wonderful place to go. Let's go over now to first Samuel. First Samuel, chapter 24.
First Samuel, chapter 24.
It came to pass.
When Saul was returning.
From following the Philistines, it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of an Idi.
David took 3000 chosen men out of Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. You know the portion, You know what transpired. Saul's trying to get ahold of David. David comes to, to to solve at a time when he's asleep. In the fourth verse it says David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe. Privately came to pass afterwards at David's. David's heart smote him. Notice the fourth verse. The men of David said unto him, Behold the day which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver.
Enemy into thine hand. You know. We never read of that with regards to Saul. We read of that with regards to Goliath, but not Saul. And we never read of David calling Saul his enemy. He called him many things, but not his enemy.
00:35:05
Seventh Verse. The sixth verse. David said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing under my master the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth thine hand against him, seeing that he is anointed of the Lord. So David stayed his servants with these words.
Suffered them not to rise against Saul, But Saul rose up out of The Cave and went on his way. And David also arose afterwards and went out of The Cave and cried after Saul, saying, My Lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and he bowed himself. He bowed himself.
Blessed posture.
You know, there was the opportunity for David to end it all right here with Saul.
There was an opportunity, but the state of Seoul was such that he didn't do it.
And I just, you know, there was every bit of the enemy here that was encouraging David to end Saul's life right here. But David was ready to wait God's time. And, you know, young people.
You and I are bombarded every day with the enemy of our souls in so many different ways.
And I'm just going to, I'm just going to try vividly show you how the enemy works in our lives. And when I was in the Winnipeg area, I asked this question to those there. I'm going to ask it now.
I'm going to ask for a show of hands.
Has anybody ever gone fishing and caught a fish?
A lot of fishermen caught a fish. I have two. So just to make the point, all of you who have put up your hand and caught a fish.
You are master deceivers.
Master deceivers. You take that line, you take that hook, you put that bait on it. You're trying to camouflage it in such a way that you do the best job possible to deceive that fish. You drop it in the water.
You know that's exactly the way the enemy works. Exactly the way.
If if it's a big fish.
Comes along and it looks and it's probably suspicious so it swims away.
But it's in its mind.
Again, just exactly the way the enemy works. So.
He comes back again and he takes another look at that, that bait.
Still looks suspicious so it goes away again.
Comes back a third time, he grabs it right away and you've caught the fish.
If it's a small fish, he grabs it right off the bat. But you know that's exactly the way the enemy of our souls works. If you look at a tackle box, it's filled with things called lures.
The whole concept is deception. If you look at a family fisherman's box, they've got hundreds of them because they try to figure out just exactly what the trout are feeding on. And they, they keep trying another bait. They keep trying whether they're feeding on the bottom or they're feeding on the top, they try and they finally figured out what the what the fish is feeding on and they start to catch fish. You know, the enemy of our souls has had lots and lots.
Of experience. He knows what our He knows what our weaknesses are. He knows what our failures are.
But this is the way he works, you know. Remember David sitting with Bathsheba? He saw Bathsheba, he went away, but it was in his mind. He couldn't get her out of his mind. It's like that big fish that looks and swims away.
You know, every one of us are tempted.
And if there's a good state of soul and there's an opportunity.
It's not a problem.
It's not a problem.
If there is a bad state of soul, but there's no there's no opportunity, it's still not a problem even though with a bad state of soul.
But if there's a bad state of soul.
And there's an opportunity.
My experience is that is a bad day. That is a bad day for every one of us here. With David, there was an opportunity, but there was a good state of soul. You look at the scenario with with Joseph, he had an opportunity, but there was a good state of soul. Oh young people, be aware of the way the enemy works. It's by deception.
00:40:07
And he holds out that which looks so good. He has a huge buffet for us to feed at.
I'm so thankful here. David bowed himself. There was the opportunity, but there was a good state of soul. Let's go over to Psalm 145. Psalm 145.
Psalm 145. We read the heading here. It's David's Psalm of Praise.
In verse 14.
The Lord upholds us all that fall.
Raiseth up all those that be bowed down. There's our subject. I so appreciate David slipping this in. In a number of these psalms. The the posture of being bowed, the eyes of all that wait upon thee. Thou give us them their meat in due season. Now openest thine hand, and satisfy us the desire of every living thing. You know, dear young person, the Lord has your good and blessing.
Fully.
To give you but it's it's on his terms.
And oh, if you take up those characteristics that we saw of David, that we read of and we we see this, this posture that David has, it's a pathway of blessing for us. It says here that openness, thine hand that satisfies the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh and to all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. Oh young person, I trust that this would be the story of your life.
I'm not going to pretend there's not trials. Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. But a pathway with the Lord with this posture is a wonderful, wonderful pathway.
I had an experience just a month ago.
I flew into Malawi.
I was planning to be there for a heavy 2 weeks and then going to Mozambique, we arrived there.
Broke bread at A at a the assembly of Mizuzu I was traveling with with brother Harold. We we got into our car, we needed gas. We we started to drive. Every gas station has a long lineup of cars. Every gas station.
On doing some homework, there's no gas in Malawi, none whatsoever.
All these cars that were lined up, nobody even sitting in them, they just parked there and they went home, just sold it. And when the gas does come, incidentally, it's still not there.
They would be able to at least be in line.
I've got this trip that's planned already lined up all day meetings with the brethren for two weeks already couriered money to them to to have money for a fellowship lunch and and here we can't move.
And we're on the side of the road with all these cars. We're wondering what to do. We're praying and a knock comes on our window.
And a lady is there and we roll down the window and she says, are you looking for some gas? Well, yes, we were looking for some gas. And she said, well, I, I have 100 liters at my house and you're welcome to have it.
You know who else but the Lord would provide such a thing? She goes home.
She gets her son and with Jerry cans on her son's motorcycle, they bring it to our rig. We filled it up, We filled the back end with the Jerry cans and we had enough gas for the rest of the time. The whole rest of the time there was no traffic on the road.
There was diesel, so there was cars, but just think of how time and time and time again in my life, this has been my experience and this is what David is portraying here to the one.
That has this posture of bowing before the Lord would the God that it would be. So with each young person that's here, we're just looking at the time. I want to turn now to the 35 TH Psalm. If you could go there for a moment, the 35th Psalm.
00:45:19
Psalm of David, plead my cause, O Lord.
And I want to move on down to the.
14th verse Read the the rest of the verses at, at your, at your, at your leisure. You can see that David's joy was in the Lord. If you look at the ninth verse. My soul shall be joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in his salvation. And here's our subject in the 14th verse. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily.
As one that mourneth for his mother.
You know a young person.
Sometimes it's difficult for us to see the mind of God in our lives, and I want to encourage you to recognize that circumstances in our life can sometimes be a fog to stop us from seeing that which is real. You know, the people of God, they went across the wilderness. I appreciated those verses that were read in the 78th Psalm.
You know, for them to get direction, they had to have their gaze lifted up. That's that's how they could see the cloud. That's how they could see the pillar of fire. It moved, they moved. But for them to move, they had to have their gaze upward. And it's not different, young person with you and me. For us to get direction in our life, our gaze has to be upward.
And if there are going to be circumstances that come in.
And the enemy is trying to disrupt us from being able to see what his mind is. And as I said, those circumstances can be a fog. Let's turn over to 2nd Corinthians for a moment. Second Corinthians, the 4th chapter.
Two Corinthians, chapter 4.
The 16th verse. For which 'cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen.
But at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal.
But the things which are not seen are eternal. The enemy wants to have us focus on the things that are seen, not on the things that are unseen. I was impressed by a statement that I didn't read in Mr. Darby's writings, but I read it in Hamilton Smith's, and he was quoting Mr. Darby. He makes this comment, he says, for the believer.
Things unseen.
Are more real than things seem.
Because things seem bring with them a deception.
You know that's so striking because the enemy tries.
To fog our vision with circumstances and we can't see what's real in David's life about himself.
His vision was somewhere else. I want to look at one last one and it's in First Kings.
Turn with me to 1St Kings.
First Kings.
First Kings chapter one.
You can read the whole chapter at your leisure.
I'm not going to do that.
Solomon has just started sitting on the throne in the 46th verse of First Kings chapter one.
00:50:01
Moreover, the King's servants came to bless our Lord King David, saying, God, make the name of Solomon better than thy name, and make his throne greater than thy throne. And here's our subject. And the king bowed himself upon the bed.
And also thus said the king, blessed be the Lord God.
Of Israel.
You know young people. David had a good finish.
David had some wrinkles in his life.
David is called a man after God's own heart.
David continually had this posture.
And David had a good finish.
Recently I went through.
First and second Chronicles and I was impressed by so many people that had a good start but a bad finish.
In my own life, peers of mine, I've seen so many that had a good start and a bad finish.
You young people, you sit there, you're in that position where you've got a good start. You're here at a conference, you've got a Bible on your lap. It's a good start. The Lord wants you to have a good finish.
It's only going to be by taking up with this posture that David had. That is such a lovely posture. You know, I'm so thankful to see see you here. The brethren here obviously have a desire especially for you to have an address for you. Our desire is that you would not just have a good start, but you would have a good finish.
And then you take up this posture.
And realize appreciated the thoughts that we had this morning that the concept of not simply the Passover, but the the the Feast of unleavened bread and how there should be that that that condition of our souls always being in the presence of God. I'll tell this one one story.
I was visiting my wife's family out West.
One of my brother-in-law's kept some sheep.
And.
He wanted to go see some Scottish games. There were some sheep trials. I thought, well that'd be interesting. We went and if you, any of you have ever seen some sheepdog trials, it's a, it's an area of the size of a football field fenced in and they let 5 sheep in one end and a shepherd with his dog comes in the other end and there's this enclosure in the middle with an open gate. It's about 10 by 10. And the object is to get the five sheep into the enclosure.
Without touching the sheep, if the dog touched a sheep or the shepherd does, they're disqualified. So it's pretty fascinating to watch. They can do it in maybe 5-4 minutes. Very fascinating. After you've seen five or six and there's there's 40 to go. I was done. So I thought I'm going to go go elsewhere to see what else there is. I was interested because from Scottish descent there's a Scottish tartan and I wondered if there was going to be a Scottish.
In there. So I went looking and while I was searching came across.
Another competition, and it was a bagpipe competition, and over the loudspeaker all these bagpipe players had signed up. And when your name was called, you would come to this location and in front of the judges you would play your piece. And I got to the judges just as a young man was getting there with his bagpipe, and he was.
He was a young man, he was pretty sure of himself.
He was cocky and the judge asked him and said So what are you going to play for us? So the young man thought he had chosen a piece that was obscure and he told the judge the name of the piece.
And he said to him, so have you ever heard of that piece? And the judge said, yeah, I composed it.
You know, I've been to other competitions.
As someone that's played the violin, I've been to competitions and seen you can argue with the judge, you know, whether the piece should be played faster or slower or, or what kind of emphasis there should be, you know, from a piece that's that's been composed, you know, in the 1700s, you can you can make those arguments. There was none of that here, None of that here.
00:55:02
But, young person, there needs to be a sense in our souls when we get up in the morning, of whose presence we are in, not just on Lord's Day morning.
Not just in the prayer meeting, but to realize in whose presence we are in and to have this posture that David had that we've taken up this afternoon. May the Lord bless His word. I'd like to sing. Have I an object? If we could sing that this afternoon. Somebody have the number for that.
Thank you. Somebody start that too 46 in the appendix.