I'd like to give you all a warm
welcome to our worship here this evening. Let us ask the Lord's
blessing and prayer. O Lord God of heaven and of earth,
we ask thy blessing upon our worship, the power of God that
brings salvation. Do grant us thy Holy Spirit's
aid and help us to sing thy worthy praise. O Lord, do grant us while
in thy house to have those helps that Thy people have known, and
we have known, from time to time. Lord, we know that thy word never
falls to the ground. It shall accomplish that which
thou didst purpose it, and Lord, do so tonight. We ask, Lord,
this blessing through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Hymn, 979. Tune, Wavertree 433. Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God, Paul's epistle to the Romans and chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. If you have
one of our free Bibles and joining with us, that is page 1047, 1047. Romans 5 from verse 1. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience
and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh
not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly, for scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peraventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of him that was to come. And not as the offence, so also
is the free gift. For if through the offence of
one many be dead, Much more the grace of God and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences, unto justification. For if by one man's offence death
reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. Therefore, as by the offence
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall
shall many be made righteous moreover the law entered that
the offense might abound but where sin abounded grace did
much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Lord bless to us the reading
of his holy word and help us in prayer. Let us pray. O thou most merciful and long-suffering
Lord God, we see, Lord, thy help as we come before thee in prayer. And Lord, do help each here in
their private prayers, their closet, in their seeking of Thee. The many things that draw our
minds away, that stop up those times, that threaten that communion
and fellowship with Thee. Oh Lord, do be pleased to hear
prayerful prayer and that Thou hast grant that aspect of a daily
walk with Thee, and that we might know the benefits of receiving
from Thee those answers to prayer and hearing Thy voice. O Lord,
do be pleased to speak to us through Thy Word this evening,
to grant, Lord, that Thou hast given us hearing ears. We read
that he that hath an ear Let him hear what the Spirit saith
unto the churches, and that thy sheep, they hear thy voice, and
they follow me. Lord, do grant that we might,
through thy word and thy servant, hear thy voice, and that there
might be that obedience, and that following, and that action
that attends thy voice and thy word. You grant that we might
be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving our own
selves. O Lord, do be pleased to grant
to each that has life that continued teaching of Thy Spirit. Remember that Thou hast said,
They shall all be taught of God, and Thou hast said, It is line
upon line, and hear a little and there a little. And Lord,
there's none that teaches like Thee. Lord, we know in a natural
way, every one of us learn in different ways. Some need to
have one instructor, and some can teach ourselves from books,
some from visual, some from words. Lord thou knowest our frame and
thou knowest how to teach us and how to cause us to understand
the things of God that we might be able to say mine ear hath
he opened. You grant that that which the
eunuch found on that desert road might be the case often that
through the ministry We find what is written in thy word and
understand it, and that it is a blessing to us. O Lord, open
thine hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing tonight. And as thou hast said that we
are to seek for that bread which endureth unto eternal life, in
fact, labour for that bread. Lord, do grant us that bread
that shall endure unto eternal life. O Lord, we thank Thee where
we have in review those times when we can say with Jeremiah,
Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and they were to the
joy and rejoicing of my soul. O Lord, do grant then that Thou
hast blessed us with Thy Word. We thank Thee that we can gather
around it this evening and do help us in this day where Thy
Word is despised and laid aside. It is not read, it is not preached. In so many places it is entertainment
and not preaching. And Lord, we do pray that we
might be kept, kept in the old paths, kept to thy word, that
thou hast leave us not to gradually slip away from the pattern. We think of David and how he
came to follow the Philistines in putting the ark upon a cart
instead of on the shoulders of the Levites. And thou didst teach
him his wrong, And Lord, do teach us our wrong, where we do those
things that are not commanded, where we pattern the divine worship
upon what those who do not know thee, do not fear thy name do. Oh Lord, do grant unto us that
we might be followers of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We do pray that Thou hast blessed
each here, grant that we might together be those that experience
the truth of God in our own hearts and lives, and that that does
lead us to hope in Thee and hope in Thy mercy. O Lord, remember us as we start
another week And we do commit the week unto Thee. We thank
Thee that we begin it on the day when Thou didst rise. Thy
finished work, O help us to work out what Thou hast wrought in
as we go forth to our labours and to the week. We thank Thee
for answers to prayer and help in the last week. And we do commit
unto Thee the unknown way, unknown to us, Bless our young people here and
favour them in their souls, and that they might be called early,
and where thou hast quickened into life, to teach and lead
on in thy ways. O Lord, we do pray for those
blessings of the joy of the Lord, the blessings of the liberty
of the sons of God, of thy spirit to bear witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God, the spirit of adoption, that
we might know what it is to have the blessing of the Lord that
maketh rich and addeth no sorrow within. Those spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Do forgive and pardon our many
sins. We do pray that where we have
been hardened and where sin is not as evil to us as it once
was or should be, that thou hast make it so again. Do grant unto
us to be mourners over our sins and after thee. We do pray that
we might be given repentance and remission of our sins. and
that Thou hast blessed us through our Lord Jesus Christ in this
respect, that those sins that we have striven against, that
are too strong for us, that we might prove once more that they
are not too strong for Thee, that Thou art able to overcome
the strongest habit, the most evil sins, and those things that
are too hard for us. O Lord, do appear for each one
then, hear prayer, give prayer and hearing, and do send deliverances
and helps that we might know, as the psalmist did, that our
help is in the name of the Lord, which made heaven and earth. O, do appear for us and build
us up and strengthen us as a church and people. Continue to bless
the ministries of this church. Do fill this house of God with
hungry and thirsting souls. We pray for the people of Cranbrook. We pray for those who have received
Bibles. Do bless thy word to them. And
we pray that those continue to incline the hearts of thy people
that they might ask for a Bible, that they might seek after Thee,
and that thou hast be pleased to hear prayer for this. We pray for those in authority
over us. The laws that are made so often
have a profound effect upon our lives. We pray especially at
this time that those overrule their designs to bring in the
assisted dying bill, to bring in bills that shall have a jurisdiction
over homeschooling and those families that teach in that way. Oh Lord, to save from government
interference those that decide to teach their children in thy
ways. We do seek, Lord, that thou deliver
us from wicked and unreasonable men. We thank thee for freedoms,
liberties that we have at this time, and we pray that these
might be continued. Remember those in other lands
that are persecuted or do not have freedoms as we have. And
when we think of our homes, our warmth, our comfort, those in
this land, that do not have these things, and those in other lands
as well that have lost their homes in the fires or in other
ways, O Lord, do remember them. Do be pleased to bless our friends
and brethren in Ukraine and those who are delivering the supplies
that were gathered over here. Lord, do keep them safe and make
that which was given a blessing to those receiving it. O Lord, we do pray that Thou
wouldst help us as we turn to Thy Word, to shine upon it and
shine in our hearts. And as we make plans and engagements,
Lord, do be pleased to grant, Lord, Thy blessing upon arrangements. We think of the coming Creation
Ministries International meeting in Cranbrook here, and we seek,
Lord, that Thy blessing might be upon that occasion and that
Thou hast give the journeying mercies to those who are coming
to us and one ministering at this time in New Zealand. We
commit them unto Thee and we do pray that Thou hast move many
in this town to come and hear Thy word and the evidence of
creation. O Lord, do help us now when we
do pray that Thou would shine in our hearts, that Thou would
grant Thy Holy Spirit and help us to speak Thy Word. Make the
Lord Jesus Christ precious to us, He who suffered, bled and
died on Calvary's tree to put away our sin, who rose again
for our justification, He who is interceding in heaven. Lord, we do Bless thee for that
provision for the Church of God and seek that help through him
this evening. We ask through thine own Lord
Jesus. Amen. The announcements, God willing,
I'm expected to preach here on Thursday evening at seven o'clock
and next Thursday morning at 11 a.m. As Mr. Seymour is still recovering from
a minor operation, our preacher next Thursday evening, God willing,
is Mr. William Arrowsmith. I will be
preaching at Uckfield. The Lord bless these arrangements. Hymn 295, Tune, Pemberton 389. Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Romans chapter 5, and verse
four, but it is only one word in verse four, and that word
is experience. The whole verse reads, and patience,
experience, and experience hope. Experience is vital in the things
of God, it is vital in our normal secular lives as well. I always remember when first entering
into engineering design, And when I was looking at the job
adverts, they always asked for someone with five years experience. And I thought, well, how can
I ever get into it if you won't give me a chance to even get
any experience? But once in design and also being
in a position to employ other designers, I knew exactly why
they asked for that experience. Just the theory of design did
not make a good designer. And you can apply that to your
gardening, to your farming, to your sewing, to your secretarial
work. It's one thing to learn the theory,
it's another thing to actually experience and work in that field. There's things that are learned
in experience that cannot be learned from a book. And that
is the case in a spiritual way as well. But, as in natural things,
that experience is only good if it actually is used to teach
us something, and it is used in a right way. There are those
that will insist on experience in the things of God, but it's
not a right insistence, it's not a right kind of experience,
or it is the experience that is looked for, not what actually
is taught in it. If we were to say to someone
that had never flown in an aircraft, you try to explain what it was
like, what the experience was in taxiing, taking off, landing,
turbulence, you try to explain it to them, But if they had their
first fly, then they'd immediately, they would say, we know what
it is by what we've actually experienced ourselves. But apart from just experiencing
that, there may not be much that could be joined to it as actually
teaching. If we were perhaps to equate,
some people have said, well, they're intending to fly over
to Australia, but rather than wait for a 21-hour flight, they'd
rather just have an experience of a one-hour flight and see
whether they could stand it, see whether they could cope with
it. If they do, then they're using that experience for good,
having had that short flight, they then feel that they can
do the longer one. And there are many things in
the Christian's experience, the things that they go through,
the things that happen in their lives, that gives them that help. We think of the word Ebenezer,
he that has helped me hitherto. It's the experience of God's
help in the past we can say will help me all my journey through. It's the experience of the Lord's
goodness and mercy. Now, I want to think of the context
that is here to get a right understanding and perhaps before we come into
some points to To think of how much through scripture there's
a linking together. If we go to a couple of chapters
on in Romans 8, then we have a joining together, not just
a one thing, but several. We know in verse 28 that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
that are other called according to his purpose. Four, whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified." And you see,
Those things are not isolated. If I was to speak to you this
evening on calling, it would have to be joined to whom he
did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called them
he also justified. And the calling can be looked
at on its own, but it must be looked in the context as what
it's joined to in the word of God. And so then going back to
our text, we have the first verses that are speaking of the peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we have access
by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. And then the Apostle speaks of
tribulation. Now the Lord said that in the
world ye must have tribulation. In me ye shall have peace, in
the world ye shall have tribulation. Now the Apostle is taking that
which we must go through because of sin in the world, because
we are sinners. Tribulation is great trouble.
And he's taking this great trouble and he's joining it in a chain
in which is this word experience. He's saying not only this but
we glory in tribulations also. How can we glory in great troubles? How can we look at those and
think there's any good in it at all? The troubles that we
go through, the sicknesses, the trials, the things that we suffer
at the hands of men, the things that we suffer because of our
own sin, those things that we go through, how can we rejoice
in them? How can we glory in them? But then he explains and he says,
knowing that and he begins this chain, this link together. Tribulation is the first. Great
trouble worketh patience or endurance. We have to endure that. We have
to walk through that. If you have get the flu and you
have it the first day and you start to get the symptoms, then
it's likely you'll have one or two weeks, or even more, that
you're ill with the flu. You've got to go through it.
You've got to work right through it. All of what you experience,
all of what you feel, and how you're brought out of it at the
end. And in many things in life, you start to go into it, and
it's not something that is just of a day. It is days, and sometimes
months. The children of Israel, you might
say, had 40 years experience in the desert. There are many places where,
like with Job's affliction, you've heard of the patience of Job,
or the endurance of Job, that he had to pass through this. And whenever we think of experience,
it is joined to endurance to patience, and so it is here,
knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope
maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. There is this joining together.
It's one vital thing in the scriptures. Keep it in context, look at what
the context is, look at what is joined to the word. Never
get trapped into it where someone will tell a text and say, will
you explain that? It seems to go against the sovereignty
of God or it seems to be contrary to the nature of God. Always. So let's sit down and
let's read the context first. Let's see what the real message
is that has been spoken of here. And then we won't fall into traps
and just jumping in to answer something when we really don't
know what the Spirit's intention was. Remember, Very often with
Satan, in Satan's temptations of our Lord, in the pinnacle
of the temple, cast thyself down hither. It is written that the
angels shall bear thee up in their arms, lest thou dash thy
foot against a stone. The Lord said, it is written
again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And comparing scripture
with scripture, bringing it together, we'll hear we have this link,
and these things join together. So I want to look then firstly
at that which God brings out of tribulation, and then look
at experience, good and bad. And thirdly, the experience that
leads to hope, and that is what is set forth in the chain context
here. But that which God brings out
of tribulation, great trouble. We need to just, as it were,
cast our minds right back through scripture. And we see what God
has done out of great trouble, great affliction. In personal
ways, we think of the promises to Abraham, and yet no child,
and Sarah was old. It's easy to pass over that,
but when you think of what was hanging and the promises that
were hanging on Sarah being with child, no wonder that Abraham,
that went into Hagar, tried to get
a child that way, only caused trouble. But it was, it was a
great, great trial. And yet from that did come Isaac,
did come the promised seed, did come the children of Israel,
and eventually did come Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We
think of Jacob and Jacob's troubles, especially with regard to Joseph. And for 20 years, feeling that
he was dead and not knowing that he was actually sent before into
Egypt. All these things are against
me. It seemed to come to a head right at the end. They're wanting
to take Benjamin as well. But out of that, their lives
were saved, they were formed into a nation in Egypt, and then
they were brought out. We think of the path through
the wilderness, the path through the Red Sea. Before that was
made a way, what an obstacle in front, the enemy behind. impossible situation. We think
of Balaam coming to curse the children of Israel and the Lord
turning that curse into a blessing. We think really of the fall itself,
falling to sin, death entering in, the creation all marred,
but then the Lord coming. and the Lord turning it to a
blessing, an innumerable multitude to be in heaven, praising the
Lamb of God and for His salvation. The great tribulation of the
sufferings and death of our Lord, that the greatest blessing, the
redemption of the people of God was brought about by wicked hands,
taking and crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Right through the Word of God,
you have the Lord able to take things like even David's sin
of adultery and murder and making it to be a blessing and to bring
into the line to Christ, or David's numbering Israel and 70,000 dying
by the plague, showing where the temple should be. We must
have tribulation. Sin enters and therefore there
is trouble, great trouble where sin is. But it's God's prerogative
and God's way to bring good out of it. As we read in Romans 8,
we know that all things, including these tribulations, work together
for good to them that love God, to them that are the called,
according to his purpose. We are never to sin that grace
might abound. We are never to deliberately
do things that are bad, that good might come, not cause trouble
to others, thinking, well, it will work for good for them. But God does. bring good out
of tribulation. May the knowledge of that be
a help to us. When Satan comes in and says,
if you were a child of God, you wouldn't have all these troubles.
You say, you must have, we must have these troubles. Man is born
unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, but my God will bring
good out of this. Could even remind Satan of what
he did and was permitted to do with Job, and good came out of
it too. We can also be encouraged that
those things that seem so against us, that the Lord does actually
use those for good. That which God brings out of
tribulation. And you might have this evening,
I might have, those things that are trouble, a trial to us, things
that come may be unexpected to us, or something of a long-running
nature, because that is the context here. And that the Lord will,
through that, work patience and experience and hope. I want to speak secondly on experience,
good and bad. There are some that will look
upon experience as a thing in itself. We might be used to the
term, or someone came before the Church of God and they gave
their experience. And we think, well, what did
they do? What did they tell? Where it is just an experience
on its own, we cannot look upon that always
as a right experience or a right token or something that has the
blessing of God upon it. Some have asked foolish things
of the Lord, that He'd either do something for them, or if
they were a child of God, that when it was raining outside,
if the Lord would suddenly stop that rain, then they'd be a child
of God. And He did, it happened. And
they might say then, well, we've had this experience, we've had
this that's happened. And he's just looked at that
experience on its own, in isolation. And very often they can be unscriptural
things. They're not things that we need
to look for. And the Apostle is very clear
on this when he comes to Romans 10. And he's speaking of the
righteousness, which is of faith, And he says, it's not saying
thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is bring Christ
down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is
to bring up Christ again from the dead. It is not heights of
experience, of blessings, it's not depths of experience, it's
not the experience itself. It's what God does with it. That is the important thing. And perhaps if we use the examples of Paul and of Peter,
the apostle Paul had an experience that was like his speaking of
in Romans 10, in 2 Corinthians 12, where he says that he knew a
man, whether in the body or out, he couldn't tell, caught up into
paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for
a man to utter. Now he's relating that experience. He's relating a spiritual blessing,
a vision. And then he said of, And when
will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. He did not want to glory in that
vision, And he says that God sent him, lest he was exalted
above measure, he sent him a messenger of Satan to buffet me. And he relates this whole experience. This is now tribulation. So he'd
had this vision, that's not tribulation, it's a wonderful spiritual blessing. But then God would not have him
to glory in this spiritual blessing on its own, to raise him up in
pride. So then he gives him tribulation. And he seeks of the Lord three
times that this messenger of Satan be taken from him. But God said, my grace is sufficient
for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, persecutions, distresses
for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong." And
he lists all these tribulations, lists all of these things. And what he sets before the people
of God is not to be looking for these visions and for these blessings
in that way, but for the grace of God in tribulation. That is what he points them to.
And Peter is the same. Peter had that great vision. of the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration,
they saw Moses and Elias speaking with their Lord, speaking of
his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, a great
blessing. But then, he says, we have a
more sure word of prophecy. We're unto you to do well to
take heed as a light that shineth in a dark place. That is the
word of God. And two of the apostles, they
had these blessings and is a blessing and an experience that was a
very blessed experience. But what they point the church
of God to is what is a help to them. in tribulation, in affliction,
and that is a help on the long run. You think of how short that
blessing that Paul may have had, or with Peter, just minutes or
hours. And there are some of us we've
had very sweet, sacred blessings. The hymn writer says, sweet the
moments, rich in Blessing which before the cross I spend. And
they are very sweet blessings, but they're very short. And what
is pointed to, and what is in the context here, with regard
experience, is that which is in tribulation and that which
goes on and on. It stays us in life, day in,
day out, through trials, through trials that have a duration to
them. And it's dealing with the very
thing of sin, sin entered into the world. Our Lord's salvation
is to take sin and deal with sin in such a way that there's
a blessing. He turns it the curse into a
blessing. He takes away the curse, takes
away the bitterness, and brings the sweetness. And that is to
be the experience of the people of God. And though we may speak
of some blessings that we've had, for the most part, the experience
that is spoken of will be of what is done in the way, what
has happened in our lives. And it's how that we have been
taught and instructed through it. The Lord has used that tribulation
to give us patience, endurance, and in that experience, he's
raised up hope in us, and that hope then has led us to see the
glory of God and to hope in the glory of God. All that God does
will be for an end for his honour and glory and be for the good
of his people. Our Lord entered into this world
and though he had those times where the Father spoke to him,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, or the Mount
of Transfiguration. For most of that time of his
life, he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. He
walked through this world, suffering along with all others in weariness,
tiredness, hunger, tempted by the devil, and all the Jews and
the Romans threw at him, and then the crucifixion. He walked
that path. His people must walk that path. And in walking through it, they
experience it. And in that experience, where
it leads to the hope of glory of God, there's seen the real
stamp of the Lord upon it. Were we able to see Like the
psalmist said, it is good that I was afflicted. Before I was
afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept thy word. And
you see tribulation and say, there is teaching in that. That
was a good experience. And I want to look in our third
point at experience that leads to hope we actually sung in our
first hymn of those that hunger for his righteousness and we read in the fourth verse of
that hymn hymn 979 by samuel medley May this, my blessed experience
be, to hunger, lord, and thirst for thee, and on thy righteousness
to live, which can both food and comfort give. And the experience
is not separate from the Word of God. In fact, it is experiencing
The Word of God, that hymn based on the Beatitudes, our Lord's
words of blessing in Matthew 5. Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Remember, Paul Washer, speaking
of this, when he was in training in the minister that he was under
ministering or mentoring him, he came to him one day, very,
very dejected and very low, and he said, he said, I don't think,
he said, there's really any hope for me. He says, I feel so far
off, I don't, feel at all right, that all my works are bad, that
sin is mixed with everything. I do, I want to be holy, I want
to be useful in the Lord's work, but I'm not at all. And he spoke
of all the feeling of sin and unworthiness and everything that
was in him and that he did not want and he wanted the blessings
of God and to be sanctified and more like the Lord and more holy. And the minister came and he
laid his hand on him and he pronounced a blessing on him. And he said,
you don't know what I've done, do you? And then he explained
to him this verse. He said, you are blessed because
you hunger and thirst after righteousness. And it's possible that we can
be experiencing the truth, experiencing this, what the hymn writer speaks
of, and what our Lord speaks of, and not really realize it. All we see is what we are. We're
so unholy, unrighteous, unclean, And there's that longing for
holiness and longing to be like the Lord and not see that the
Lord has pronounced not a blessing on those that are righteous or
feel themselves to be righteous, but a blessing on those that
hunger and thirst after it. And so the truth is actually
to be experienced. We can read about sin. But when
you experience sin, Paul said this as a Pharisee, that he was
alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin
revived and I died. He is brought into conviction
as a sinner, that he was guilty of this. Joseph's brothers were
like this. For 20 years, they, it would
appear, hadn't been troubled about what they had done with
their brother. But then when Joseph started
to deal hardly with them, all what they had done and all that
they had said and all what he'd said, all comes back to them.
And they said, we are verily guilty. They were under the conviction
of sin. They experienced what it was. They spoke it, they felt it so. The republican, God be merciful
to me a sinner, he experienced what it was to be a sinner and
it to be a real trouble and a trial to him. Sin's guilt and filth
make known God's great salvation. I gave out and we sung together
the hymn by John Newton. The heading over that hymn, over
295, prayer answered by crosses. The prayer was that he might
grow in faith and love and every grace, might more of his salvation
know and seek more earnestly his face. But then John Newton
was given the experience of feeling the hidden evils of his heart.
He actually experienced sin and instead of getting more and more
holy to his own feelings, more and more sinful and far off and
guilty in need of a mighty saviour. And so the experience of sin
is something, it's not something we just learn about. It's something
that we painfully experience day by day as it works in the
heart. And with the Apostle Paul, for
a long time he hadn't been conscious of it, wasn't mindful of it at
all, didn't know that he was a sinner. but when given to actually
experience it, then he knew it. And sometimes it can be in the
way of experiencing the consequences of sin as well. If we think of
David, when he sinned with adultery and murder, it wasn't until Nathan
came with his parable It appears that David didn't think this
parable is speaking against me until Nathan said, thou art the
man. And then he was brought in guilty.
Then he said, I have sinned. But then he had to know the consequences
of sin. And that is one experience as
well that we will have as well. Sin is a bitter thing. The child
that Bathsheba had died. The sword did not depart from
David's house. He knew what sin was. You try coming to someone like
that and say, oh, sin's not a bad thing. It's not too bad at all. Say, no, I've known by experience
that sin has bitter consequences. We sin against the Lord. And
the rod is there. And we reap what we sow. Jacob,
you asked Jacob, is it all right to lie? Is it all right to deceive
your father? Would he say, yes, I got the
blessing? Or would he say, well, I reaped it multitude times. Laban deceived me and my wife,
and he changed my wages 10 times. And my sons deceived me regarding
Joseph. And all of this I've reaped.
For my one lying, I was lied to all of these times. And I
read this through. And no amount of arguments and
reasoning from scriptures would ever convince Jacob that lying
was not a sin. And you find that the experience
of the people of God reinforces the scriptures themselves. It makes them to be lived out. We mentioned about the Apostle
Paul, the experience of the grace and help of God. We might look
at others and think, how do they endure that trial? They have
a painful affliction that goes on year in and year out. How
do they cope with that? How are they cheerful in that?
How can they bless God in that? Paul will say, by the grace of
God, I am what I am. And I continue by that grace. Sometimes we might be tempted,
is it the grace of God or is it just me? The Lord then takes
away that help, takes away that support. And then we know it
was him. You might be tempted, as a minister,
well, I just go to the Bible and I just get a text and I can
just preach and preach until the Lord says, shut the Bible
up, I'm not going to give you any text. And you labour and
labour for it and cannot get one, or you cannot speak of the
word. And then you know that that help
was from the Lord. The Lord knows how to use experience. With Paul, it was that he should
not be lifted up. You think of the Apostle Peter.
Peter says, Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I, not I. And the Lord said, Satan hath
desired to have you, to sift you as wheat, but I pray for
thee that thy faith fail not. Before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice." And Peter, he did. Peter had to be greatly
humbled and laid low. He says in his epistles, if need
be, ye are through heaviness, through manifold temptations
or trials. And needs be for an experience. You think of experience of being
strengthened. You think of Gideon. Gideon had
been told to lead the children of Israel against the Medianites
that filled the land. And he said, oh my, I'm my father's
house, we're poor. And then what's more, the Lord
reduced his army, told him to tell them, there are too many,
that those who fight can go home. 23,000 or so. And then he said there were still
too many, so he tried them with the water, whether they lapped
or drunk the water direct, and reduced his army just to 300
men. But then the Lord gave him an
experience to strengthen him. He said, if thou art afraid to
go down, you go down, you take your servant, you go down to
the camp, and you listen to what they say. So he goes down, and
one of them is telling a dream to another that this cake of
barley bread tumbled into the camp and knocked a tent over. And his fellow said, this is
none other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, into
whose hand God hath given all of the host. Can you imagine
how that, was to Gideon, listening to that. How his reaction was
to return and say to those men, up for the Lord hath delivered
the host into our hand. And the Lord used that experience
in that way. The Lord can use experience in
teaching us his will, what to do. The first job I had after
my apprenticeship, the Lord gave me that through an experience. In my mind, I wasn't going to
work for a small firm, but a large firm. Then when I had this interview
with a small firm, I agreed to it, to go to it, but I didn't
want it because that's not the type of job I wanted. But the
Lord arranged that the teachers offered to take me, and it turned
out the day before my interview, up to Melbourne to see a great
big drawing office. And I saw all of them doing a
little bit, handing to another one, doing a bit more. And when
I'd had that experience, just a little while, just seeing that
office, I thought, that's not what I want to do. And it changed
my whole outlook. So when I was offered the job
the next day, I took it. And the Lord knows how to use
what we go through, use experience, to teach us his will, make us
go in the path he'd have us to go, to stop us up in ways, but
especially to reveal his truth to us, to open up the things
of God, to bring us into fellowship with
the Lord. to bring us into fellowship with
his people, to raise us up to hope. You think of the Psalms,
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him. How did he know that? At other
times that the Lord had appeared. Other times that he'd learned did appear and did help. And
so with this chain, it's a good thing when we realize what is
said in Isaiah, thy teachers shall not be removed into a corner
anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers and thine ears
shall hear a word behind thee saying, This is the way, walking
in it, when you turn to the right hand, when you turn to the left.
And the Lord often uses tribulation, the experience, the things we're
passing through, to speak to us. He did that with Jehoshaphat,
he did that with his son as well, when they made ships to go to
Tarshish. The prophet came to him, you're
joining yourself, to wicked Ahab, to Ahab's son, thy works are
broken." And those ships were broken. And then the Israel,
Ahab says, we'll send our shipment with yours. We will help you. Have another go at it. No. No,
says Josaphat. He wouldn't do it. He learnt
by experience. The thing that had happened,
he'd had his warning, he wouldn't do it again. And there are things
that happen in our lives the same. And it's a good thing where
we see this. It might be a bitter thing, might
be a hard thing. We say, the Lord brought it for
a purpose. There was a lesson in it. There's
this experience I won't forget. And it rises up in me this hope
that the Lord is my father. He's my heavenly father. He's my shepherd. He's my guide. He's my teacher. That my life
is in his hand. My life's minutest circumstance
is subject to his eye. And it is especially where what
we go through make us think of the Lord and his sufferings.
Tribulation. because of sin, our Lord's death,
his crucifixion, all that he went through, all that he suffered
because of sin, not his own, our sin. And it's as we go through
that and have fellowship with him in his sufferings that then
we understand a little bit of the cost. Hymn writer says, we
do but taste the cup, he alone, has drunk it up. But it's a good
thing, where our experience is not an isolated experience on
its own, but we can see it has come through tribulation, it
leads us to the Lord, makes us understand more of His sufferings,
brings us to love Him for what He has done and suffered in our
place, and to bless Him for using experience to show this to us,
to open it up to us, so that we understand it in a way we
could never understand from the Word only. We are to experience
the Word of God. A lot of the Word of God is actually
speaking of the experience of God's people. We've spoken of
it with Paul, If the eunuch was to be asked his experience, he
would tell how he'd been up to worship, how he was coming back
in his chariot, how he is reading in the Prophet Isaiah, how he
didn't understand that reading, and he'd explain how this minister
came to him and his first question was, understandest thou what
thou readest? and how that he came up into
the chariot and began at that same scripture and preached to
me and he showed me that it was Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, that
was being spoken of and prophesied. He would speak of all that he'd
heard and what he'd done. There's another aspect with experience
as well. Where experience is joined with
spiritual blessings and teaching, we can be tempted whether we
were deceived in the blessing or deceived in the teaching,
whether the Lord has done it at all. But where it is joined
to an actual experience and event, that reinforces it, it seals
it. You think of the Apostle Paul.
When he rehearsed what had happened on the Damascus Road to Festus,
Festus says, they are mad. Much learning hath made thee
mad. But Paul knew he'd been through that experience. It wasn't
much learning at all. What his life was before that
time and after that time, something must have happened on that Damascus
Road. And he knew it, he remembered
it. And so when you get a spiritual blessing, joined with something
that's happened, maybe you've gone to a special service, you've
gone to hear a minister, that minister's been sick, another's
come in his place, you might remember the circumstances, what
has brought you there or brought that minister there, and then
that word has been blessed. and it's not just the blessing,
it's what the Lord has done to bring it about. Like with Philip
and the eunuch, the two were brought together, preacher and
hero. And so, experience, vital that
we be living Christians, that it's not just notions in our
head, but it's our whole life. Paul says, Christ who is our
life shall appear. And our whole life will be here
below as it's not our rest, it is polluted, it will be a tribulation. But if we can say in walking
through this tribulation, walking through this often painful path
and needing grace and experience and patience and endurance, that
experience in what we've gone through, The Lord has used it,
he's taught us, he's brought us to know him, he's brought
us to know the gospel, he's brought us to know the saving from sin
and the bringing of good out of evil, changing the curse to
a blessing, and to see not just providence in other people's
lives, but are working together in our lives as well. So may
we know something of Christian experience, experience that we
can relate to another, but experience that brings us to have hope in
God, a scriptural experience, a experience that is joined in
the chain that is set before us here. Blessed is that soul
that can join with the children of Israel where the Lord said,
thou shalt remember all the way, or all what thou hast experienced,
that the Lord thy God had led thee these 40 years in the wilderness
to try thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou had served the Lord or not. Typical Israel, they
walked it out. You and I will walk it out as
well, a Christian experience. May the Lord grant it to us and
bless us with that good hope through God's grace. Amen. Hymn, 397. Tune, Pentonville 488. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all now and evermore. Amen.