YP Address—G. Hayhoe
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When we survey the wondrous cross on which the Lord of Glory died, our richest gain, we count but loss and poor contempt on our Pride 283.
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Shall we turn to the 8th chapter of Proverbs?
Proverbs, Chapter 8.
That's not wisdom. Cry, and understanding put forth her voice. She standeth in the top of the high places, by the way, in the places of the paths, she crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors unto you. Oh man, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man.
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O ye simple understand wisdom, and ye fools be of an understanding heart here for I will speak of excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall be right things, for my mouth shall speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing forward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth and write to them that find knowledge.
Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold.
For wisdom is better than Ruby's and all the things that may be desired.
Are not to be compared to it. I wisdom dwell with prudence.
And find out knowledge of witty inventions, for the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
Pride and arrogancy in the evil way and the forward mouth do I hate. Council is vine and sound wisdom I am understanding. I have strength by me. Kings reign and Princess decree. Justice by me. Prince's rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me.
Riches and honor are with me. Yeah, durable riches and righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold, yeah, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth was.
When there were no depths I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with waters before the hills were settled. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth, while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
When He prepared the heavens, I was there. When He set a compass upon the face of the depth, When He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He gave to the sea His decree that the water should not pass His commandment. When He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.
Rejoicing in the habitable part of his Earth and my delights.
For with the sons of man now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children.
For blessed are they that keep my ways, hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the pulse of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul.
All they that hate me love death.
Well, in this very lovely chapter that we have read before, us and dear young people.
I believe we have a very interesting and important message for us. You know, in the first six chapters of Proverbs, we have a father instructing his children. You notice that almost each one of the chapters begins with my son. God intends that we, who are parents, should be the ones to instruct our children, to teach them, to warn them, to encourage them to walk in Wisdom's ways.
But when we come to this eighth chapter, then we find the voice of wisdom speaking. Not the parent here, but wisdom speaking. We know that the Lord Jesus is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And I like to think of the picture that is brought before us here, something like of a young person walking out from under the parental restraint.
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Walking out the door of his home and going to meet new friends, Going out into the paths of Concourse, perhaps. Going to business, going to school, going to college. He's no longer no longer under the instruction of his father and mother, but now there is a voice that calls to him. It is the voice of wisdom, it instructs him. It tells him the path of blessing and happiness.
It tells him the path in which God can show the blessing that he delights to bestow upon him.
And because of this, I believe it's of special interest to us who are young people.
And more than this, it's sort of a contrast with what we have in the chapter before.
For we see a young man, as he said in the sixth verse of the 7th chapter, at the window of my house. I looked through my casement. I beheld among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding. In contrast, here was a young man who started out, and he didn't intend anything wrong. He was just going to go out and see what the world had to offer.
It doesn't say that he had set his mind on something evil and sinful. He was simply undirected. He was one without any real motive or purpose or object in life. Oh, dear young people, is there someone here like that, you say? Oh, I don't intend to get into sinful ways. I don't intend to get away from the Lord. But you're going through a dangerous world. Here we find this one looked out.
No doubt King Solomon looked out the window and he saw this young man and he saw him walking aimlessly down the street. And his attention was attracted by a very promising looking young lady. And she lured him away and she ruined his life. She ruined his life. All dear young people, as I look into your faces, this is a common history. This is something that has happened thousands of times since.
Because young people have started out in life without any real purpose, without any real direction and they have wanted to see what life had to offer and they thought they were only young once and they must find out for themselves and not just go by what father or mother said.
And perhaps the word of God was a little bit old fashioned and saw they were going to try and find happiness in their own ways. They didn't of course intend to get into positive, much less to ruin their lives. But it was an aimless life. All dear young people. You need not walk an aimless life through this world. There are two particular forms of evil in the world. There is violence and corruption.
And we see them both set before us in these chapters, before our hearts are prone to those things. My heart is prone to those things. And if we don't have both positive direction and strength from the Lord, we will surely fall. We were noticing when the children of Israel left the land of Egypt. It says they were to have their loins girded, their shoes and their feet and their staff in their hand.
Why does it say they were to have their staff in their hand? It doesn't say just the old people were to have a staff in hand. We would have perhaps understood that, but it just simply makes a general statement. Their staff in their hand. Did teenagers need a staff? Weren't they steady enough on their feet that they wouldn't need a staffing hand? All dear young people, you need a staff in your hand. And we who are older, we need a staff in our hand too.
We are prone to stumble. We need support outside of ourselves. Have you got a staff in your hand? Are you walking independence upon the Lord? Or are you just simply trying to get what you can out of life? For that is the great subject in this chapter. As you will notice the way the chapter ends, it says whoso findeth me, findeth life. And I know everyone of you young people here. This afternoon you're out to find life.
You say, I want to see life, I want to get something out of life. Well, it tells us in this chapter who soul findeth me findeth life? And isn't it a wonderful thing that the one who created you and I, and who made this very world in which we live, is enough interested in us that he should give us such instruction in his word? Of course, I might say that in the.
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Book of Proverbs we don't have about redemption. God is talking to His people as His people.
The name that is used for God in Proverbs is the name Jehovah, which means which is the name God took in relationship to his people, Israel.
And so in that sense it is specially addressed to those who are in a relationship to the Lord.
And if there should be anyone here who is not saved, I know that you're not in that relationship. This has no particular appeal, perhaps to your heart, because your heart is at enmity with God. But I have good news for you just the same. God is interested in you. God doesn't want you to ruin and wreck your life. He doesn't want you not only to have a miserable life in this world, but when you leave it to plunge into a lost eternity.
Now God is seeking your blessing. The very first words that God spoke after sin entered into the world were those words Adam, where art thou? And God became a seeking God, and he still seeking He's seeking you. He's seeking your blessing. He wants you first of all to know how that although you were a Sinner, that Christ died to save you.
He wants you to know that the very fact that you were born in sin mana is not necessarily that which will ruin your life. Because the work of Christ has so completely taken up and settled a question of sin, that blessing, untold blessing, is open for you here in this life and for all eternity. You can lead a successful life. You can lead a happy life if you know the Lord as your Savior.
And seek to walk in obedience to His word. Well, again I say.
This chapter begins by not saying it's the.
Father speaking to the son. But it says, dost not wisdom cry and all. I want to say how you and I can never value sufficiently the wonderful portion that we have in this book. I know that on every hand it's being set aside today. I know that it's being attacked. It's being assailed. But you and I can't fully, we can't fully appreciate, I say.
What a wonderful, wonderful thing it is that God has taken the trouble.
To speak to us, to tell us where we came from, To tell us what is at the end of lifes journey, and in a few simple words to tell us these facts as to the origin of everything in this world in which we live. And then tell us to how he breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And then when man sinned, how did God?
Was not frustrated in his purposes of good and blessing toward man, and that through the redemption that was accomplished on Calvary, he has opened up even greater blessing than if sin had never entered. Oh, what a heart. The heart of God is all, dear young people, prize your Bible. Prize your Bible. It's the most wonderful thing that you have in your possession. You can rely upon it. The school books that some of us studied in school.
Are so far outdated now that our children just laugh if they happen to see one of them.
But here we have a book, the last part of it written about 1900 years ago.
And it's more up to date than any book in the world. It's suited to the time in which we live. It adapts itself to every community. It adapts itself to every condition. It answers all the problems of home life, of business life, of assembly life. It tells us the future with a certainty that has been proved over and over again, in spite of all the attacks of infidelity. Oh, what a privilege to possess such a book.
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What a privilege to read it. What a privilege to meditate upon it. This is the voice of wisdom to us. It's God's word and all I want to say. Never, never take one step in disobedience to it knowingly. It can't be for your blessing. If you had a friend who loved you perfectly and he gave you some advice, he was perfect in wisdom and he.
Loved you perfectly. Couldn't you rely on advice like that? If that's God's word, God loves you. And more than this, he can't make a mistake, it says. As for God, his way is perfect. He wants to bless you.
Again, I say we we have a picture here in this chapter. In the opening of it, it says wisdom stands in the top of the high places in the way of the places of the paths, and other translation says the cross paths. Let us picture this in our mind. Here's a young person. He's been under the parental restraint. He's been under the correction and instruction of his parents.
Now he walks out the door and there's a little voice inside says, Now you can do as you like, now as you can do as you like. Well, if you follow the promptings of your fallen nature, what you like will lead you in the same way. Not it LED Adam and Eve. It'll lead you into that which will only be sorrow and ruin, but wisdom cries, and hear this young person come to the cross path.
He comes to a place where he finds two roads. What's he going to do?
If he if he says, well, I don't know, I suppose I should try them both and I'll find out which one is the best. Oh no, wisdom says you don't have to do that. You don't have to waste your time and bring sorrow into your life by going down the wrong one. I'll tell you which path to choose and there where the young person stands at the cross paths.
The voice of wisdom cries and says, I'll direct you. I'm seeking your happiness.
I'm not here to spoil your fun. I'm here to give you happiness. I'm here to make a real.
Happy path for you here, and a happy eternity above. And so the young man.
Has a voice that cries in his ears. Dear young people, that voice cries in your ears. Do you hearken to it? We've all come to these cross paths. We were a little older. We're young people who sat in chairs like this once and we came to cross paths. We came to places. There was a little urge within that says, well, you never know unless you try. Thank God if we hearkened to the voice of God's word.
Oh, how many of us look back and we say, oh, it was just the sheer goodness of God?
That kept me from going down that wrong path. Oh, what sorrow I would have had. And I don't know why I didn't do it. I can only say it was the goodness of God. Dear young people, wisdom is crying in your ears. Perhaps there's a young person, a young man or a young woman, and you're right at a cross path in your life right now. Father and mother don't even know you're there. You've left the parental home. You're away from the restraints. You've met a situation your parents don't even know about, perhaps.
But the Lord knows He loves you, and He wants to give you direction. He wants to show you the path to take, and His word will give you the answer.
She stands in the places of the past. Then she moves a little farther down.
She cries at the gates. The young man has come to these partings. Now he comes to the gate of the city.
And here again he is about to enter some new situation.
He's about to come into a new place of employment, a new friendship.
And right at the gate, right at the very point of entry, the place where he's about to make in a very important step, or some young lady is to make a very important step again, Wisdom cries and says unto you, O men, I call unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. Wisdom moves a step farther from the gate.
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Right to the very door, right to the very point where you're going to enter into some situation. And again, wisdom cries, wisdom cries, and wisdom is crying to you, dear young people.
All I feel when I look into your young faces with life ahead of you, how much we need those amongst us today who will go on for the Lord Jesus, who will live for him.
Who will make him the object of life? Little hymn we sang says love that transcends our highest powers demands our soul, our light, our all. Hasn't love got a claim upon you? Hasn't the Lord Jesus done everything love could do to prove his love towards you?
Then it says in the fifth verse, Oh, ye simple understand wisdom? Oh, he's simple? He asked the uninstructed. That's what it means. It doesn't mean a person below average intelligence. That isn't a thought in the verse. You may be going to college.
That doesn't mean a person that hasn't have normal intelligence or something. The thought is the uninstructed 10, you say? Well, I I'm neglected to read my Bible and so I don't know what to do.
Well, it's as if, Wisdom said. Well then don't take a step until you know. Don't take a step until you know. Because the young man in the chapter before, he didn't know what to do, so he did the wrong thing.
He yielded. And often when we say, well, I haven't read my Bible like I should.
Then we go ahead and rashly run into some foolish path. And then afterwards we have to say, oh, why didn't I? Why didn't I know the Bible said that? Why didn't I know that warning that was in God's word. How many a person has come to that point? Well, it says, oh, ye simple understand wisdom, and ye fools be of an understanding heart.
Here for I will speak of excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall be right things. It's not just simply it's not just simply walking in the wisdom that you have, but it's rather when you come to some point, if you don't have wisdom, waiting upon the Lord for it, turning to His word, seeking light and instruction from it. Because I believe that we can say as it was mentioned this morning.
That there is an answer in the word of God to every situation that may arise.
There is not a place that you come to in your pathway to your young people where there isn't some light.
And wisdom and instruction in the Word of God for you. God hasn't left you without wisdom and instruction. It's there in the Word. And so it says here, for I will speak of excellent things. And so rather than taking the wrong step.
We're encouraged here to wait until we have heard Wisdom's voice.
Then the eighth verse says, all the words of my mouth are in righteousness.
There is nothing forward or perverse in them. That is, there's nothing. I think the other translation is there's nothing torturous. But that is, it's not a it's not something that's difficult. I know the devil whispers in your ear when you hear the word of God, Oh, but that's a hard path. That's a difficult path. Why? If you follow that path, why you're going to have a lot of trouble.
You have got to sort of make some of these decisions on your own.
Can't just follow the word of God in every detail? Well, it says in John's epistle.
His commandments are not grievous. His commandments are not grievous.
Ask any person who has sought to walk in the wisdom of God's Word.
If he's sorry that he did, ask him if he has founded a tortuous path.
Ask him if he has founded a path that was so hard and difficulty, almost wishes he had done differently.
Not so, dear young people. It's not so. There's nothing torturous or perverse in them. There's nothing that is so hard and difficult about the pathway, it says they are all plain to him. That understandeth. That is, if there is a willingness to do what is pleasing to the Lord, he'll show us. He'll make it plain, it says in Philippians 3.
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That if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. And perhaps you might say, when you come to some matter, some situation, well, I'm going to ask the advice of a few others. And so you go, and you ask the advice of certain ones about your path, and instead of going to the word of God, you go to one's.
That you think perhaps will give you an answer that will justify your careless walk. You'll find such among the people of God. You'll find Christians that will actually tell you that it's all right to sidestep a little bit. They seem like good friends. They're so agreeable, they're so nice, and you listen to them.
All how we have to be careful, dear young people, that we turn to the word of God.
That we seek our instruction from it, and from those who have sought to walk in obedience to it.
And so if there is a willingness, God will teach us. We just need to be willing because it says.
If any man will do his will, he shall know how the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Do you really want to know what's pleasing to the Lord? Well, if there's a real willingness, why he'll make it known to you, He'll make it known.
Well then it tells us here in the 10th verse receive my instruction and not silver.
And knowledge rather than choice? Gold. Well, when we come to such points in life, often it's a question of prosperity. Perhaps you're perhaps.
You're faced with a situation and you know that if you act in obedience to the word of God, it may stand in the way of a promotion. It may stand in the way of some material thing that you really wanted.
And the enemy says you can't afford to miss this opportunity.
You can't afford to do it. There are many other Christians that have done it, and you must just go along. And so you decide that it would be better to accept that better job, accept that more pleasant situation where there is more financial return. But all the time that you're doing it, you have a bad conscience. You know that there's something connected with it.
That's not just the way it should be. You come to the meeting and you find out your mouth is closed.
You like to praise the Lord, you'd like to take part, but you just feel you've lost the joy of the Lord in your soul. Dear young people, Is it worth it? Is it really worth it? Oh, you say? Well, I I got a nice increase in my pay, and I put a little more in the collection box too. God doesn't need your money. He wants your obedience. He wants your obedience isn't a little better that you should please him.
Fly if you walk to please the Lord.
When you come to the meeting, you'll be enjoying the Lord. You'll have something to give.
Perhaps you say, well, when we come to the meeting there doesn't seem to be much fresh ministry.
There doesn't seem to be much to refresh the soul.
But what did you bring? What did you bring to the meeting? Perhaps you had a bad conscience too, and you hoped somebody else would be enjoying the Lord.
Because you weren't, and you hope somebody else would. Well, they did the same thing you did. They did something that gave them a bad conscience, and that's why they couldn't give you anything for your soul. All dear young people, I'm speaking, I trust in love. I say it with humility. I trust because I know that I'm a poor failing thing myself. But dear young people, if you want to go on for the Lord and have His joy and be a blessing among your brethren.
You are coming to Crossways in the youth of your life we had in our chapter this morning.
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Here was a man who was seeking to have the oversight of the people of God.
But he needed to have a wife that was a help to a minute. He needed to have a family that was in order according to the mind of God.
He needed to have a testimony without and that was pleasing to the Lord.
And perhaps he had wrecked it in an unwatchable moment. And now it's spoiled. It's spoiled. Oh, how important these decisions are. So it says here there's something better than silver. There's something better than gold. It's to have the sense in your soul that you're seeking to please the Lord, the sense in your soul that you've sought to walk in wisdom's ways.
Oh, what a sweetness. What a sweetness. It isn't that we don't fail.
We all fail. But is it our desire? Is it our desire? It's one thing to stumble in the path, it's another to get out of it all together. And so Paul stumbled in the path. All of us confess. We've stumbled in the path, but what a sad thing to get out of it. And then to stumble where there's no one to help his fellow.
Then we come a little farther here, 13th verse.
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance in the evil way and the.
Forward mouth Do I hate this is another danger, pride self? Oh how the enemy likes to fill our hearts with pride. I suppose there have been more lives that have been ruined by pride and arrogance than anything else.
Let us test ourselves. How do we take correction? How do we take correction? Does it make us annoyed?
Do we get an upset? Well, that's because there's unjudged pride in our heart. All you say they falsely accuse me. Well, even if they did, still we could have done it. I've sometimes said this.
If someone falsely accuses you, just say this to yourself.
I could have done it, and I would have done it but for the grace of God.
Why should I be angry about it? We could have done it. There is no thing that any of our brethren could say about us that we couldn't have done if the Lord hadn't kept us.
And there isn't anything that we wouldn't have done if the Lord hadn't kept us. And why do we get proud? Why do we get angry and upset about it? Well, we're really saying I'd never do that. And that was the very thing the Lord allowed it to show us so that we would judge that pride in our hearts. Oh, let us see grace to judge that pride, the judge it when we're young. It's a lot easier to correct these things when we're younger than when we're older.
Then in the 14th verse it says counsel is mine.
And sown wisdom I am understanding I have strength.
By me kings reign and Princess decree justice.
Well, there's another question that might arise in a young person's mind.
Well, if I do such a thing.
So and soul turn against me.
If I do such and such a thing, my friends will be against me.
My employer won't like me then, so we we think we have to do wrong sometimes. Well, isn't this nice? What it says here, counsel is mine. And then it says by me King's reign. You know who holds that employer's heart in his hand? It's the Lord himself. That employer can't do one thing against you unless the Lord allows it.
He can't do one thing.
It's not one thing you say. Well, I have to go along with them sometimes when he wants them to do what's wrong.
Now the Lord says, you just turn to me because his heart is in my hand.
And we find in the case of the Abraham, one time he did something that was wrong.
And the Lord wouldn't even let even then, He wouldn't let Abimelech touch him when he wanted to. You know, dear young Christian, this is something to remember. That teacher in school, that professor, that employer, that brother in the assembly, The Lord holds his heart. The Lord holds his heart in his hand. Did you ever think that the attitude of other people towards you is caused in them by the Lord?
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It says in I think it's the 105th Psalm. He turned their hearts to hate his people.
Why did he turn the hearts of the Egyptians? To hate his people. He wanted them to get out of Egypt. He wanted them to get out of Egypt. And sometimes God makes adverse circumstances for us because he has some move that he wants us to make. Maybe we're too contented to stay in a place he doesn't want us, and so he allows something to come up. Oh, it's wonderful. Everything is controlled by him. Back to please the Lord. And why He'll control everyone's heart. The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water.
He turns it whithersoever he will to remember a certain instance of a young man who sought to be faithful, and it looked as if he was going to lose his job over it. But when he acted in faithfulness, his employer said to him, Well, he said.
He said something like this. He said, well, I shouldn't let you off with this, and I don't know why I'm doing it, but I guess I will. Well, why did he? Well, his heart was in the Lord's hands, and that person had sought to act to please the Lord. Paul, this is a grand principle in the word of God. Don't be afraid to walk in Wisdom's ways. God will take care of you. He'll provide for you. He knows just what you need.
Well then in the last part of the.
Notice the 21St verse that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance.
And I will fill their treasures. I will fill their treasures. We've had some warnings. Now here's something positive. I will fill their treasures. And if you seek to walk in the wisdom of God's Word, why he'll fill your treasures. He'll make your heart happy and glad. I don't say that there won't be persecution. Sometimes I don't say that you may not have a little less financially than other people.
I don't say that you will always have favorable conditions in this world.
But that doesn't bring happiness. A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth.
To have the sense of the Lord's approval in your soul to know that you're walking in company with him.
His real happiness. What is going to make heaven, heaven to us? Do you think it's the street of gold and the gates of Pearl?
No, that's not what's going to make heaven heaven to us. It'll be the company of the Lord Jesus, and you and I can enjoy His company here. And dear young people, there's nothing sweeter on earth than to enjoy His company here.
Now we might wonder why this sort of abrupt introduction here in connection with the creation. So it begins with the 22nd verse. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.
And then it goes down to the.
30th verse Then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable parts of it. Part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of man. While to my own heart this is most touching here, because it's though God should say to us something like this.
Everything that you see in the world, I created it. And when I created it I was thinking of your happiness. Isn't that lovely? He goes right back to the very beginning of creation. When he gave to the sea his decree, when everything was ordered in this ordered creation in which we live. And he says, when all this was made, he said my delights were with the sons of man.
When God made that place, that lot where you have your house built.
He knew that in 1964 you were going to be living on that spot. He made that spot and he knew just exactly what you needed. And he made that very place on the map, right perhaps here in Glendale. Sometimes I have said to the young people at Otter Lake, when God made this lake, he made this very Bay on here because he knew that there were going to be a group of young people. And he made a nice shore for us. And he just said it with beautiful trees. And he fixed it all because he was thinking about us.
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My delights were with the sons of man. Dear young people, I want to impress this upon you, and I want to impress it on my own soul that when God ordered everything, when He made you, when he made that young lady, you hope to be your wife someday, for that young man who you hope to be your husband someday, when he made them, he was thinking about you, and he was thinking of your blessing and your happiness.
Do you want to get out of his plan? Do you want to get away from the place where he wants you to be?
Do you want to have the wrong partner in life? Do you want to wreck your life? Do you want to work in the wrong place?
The Lord was thinking about you when He made everything. And to my own soul, it's touching here that he goes right back and talks about creation and tells us that when everything was ordered in the creation, his delights were with the sons of man all. What love, what a savior we have, what a father we have. Can we doubt love like that? Can we question that He's seeking our blessing?
Can we be so self willed and foolish as to say, well I'm going to have my own way?
I don't care. I'm going to go the way I wish. All dear young people, I beseech you for the Lord's glory and for the blessing of your soul. He wants to bless you. His delights are with the sons of man, and he's made a better place than this world, and he's waiting to bring you there. And when you get there, he's going to sit down and serve you. That's how much he thinks about you. That's how much he loves you.
He says you may have a little tribulation in this world because sins here, but he's waiting the time and he says, behold, I come quickly and he says when you enter that better home above. Then he said I'll make you sit down and for all eternity I'll minister to your happiness. Can we doubt love like this? I say.
That's why it says Here Now therefore hearken unto me.
All ye children, oh, I love this. Notice the change here. This is the first time children are mentioned. Before this it is spoken about the sons of men. But here, a relationship. Oh, he loves us. Does your father love you? Well, the Lord Jesus loves you infinitely more.
God your Father loves you infinitely more. Hearken unto me, O ye children.
For blessed are they that keep my ways, hear instruction, and be wise.
And refused it not. Oh, don't turn away from the wisdom of God's word.
No doubt we all have much to learn. No doubt we all have many things that we haven't seen clearly yet. But oh May God this afternoon open our ears to hear this loving voice that seeks our blessing, that seeks our happiness. And so the next verse says, blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors. In other words, he is saying here, and if you still are not sure of your path, just stand right here.
Just wait a few minutes and I'll give you some instructions. I'll show you what to do. And again, I say to your young people, if you've come to a cross path in your life, if you've come to a problem that your parents don't know about, perhaps your brethren don't know about it. But all there's a terrific conflict that's waging in your heart right now. The enemy is trying to pull you aside into some foolish path, some path of self will or disobedience.
The Lord says, just wait a minute, Just wait. I want you to have my blessing, and I want you just to listen and wait and watch. Don't take a step until I've told you the direction to go in. Oh, how tender, when he stops and changes from the sons of men, says all ye children, all ye young people, all ye dear young people that are gathered here this afternoon.
For whoso findeth me findeth life, Oh, you say, I want to see life, or you'll find it. You'll find it. Where will you find it? In the path of obedience to the Lord of communion with him, according to His word. All I trust each dear young person here will find life. I don't mean being saved. Maybe most of you are saved. But to find life is to find.
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Through this world where you can walk in fellowship with the Lord, and where you can have the sense that the path is obedience to His word. It's the path of blessing. But there's a little warning. It says who Saul sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul, wrong with his own soul, and if you sin against the wisdom of God's word.
You know who you'll wrong most of all.
Yourself, yourself, All dear young people. Again, I say the Lord Jesus loves you. He died for you. He loves you more than Father. Mother. He wants your company. He's going to make you supremely happy in heaven forever. But he wants to fill your treasures. He wants to direct your path. Don't go along aimlessly through life. Turn to him. Seek the wisdom of His Word for the blessing of the Lord.
It maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.