May it please the Lord to draw
near to us this afternoon now as we seek to worship him in
spirit and in truth. May he help his servant Rowland
Wheatley in setting forth the precious truth, the gospel, as
it is in Jesus. Hymn 136, Tune Romberg 214. Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God from Psalm 107. Reading Psalm 107. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the
enemy, and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and
from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered
in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell
in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. and He led them forth by the
right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. O that men would praise the Lord
for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children
of men! For He satisfieth the longing
soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. such as sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction
and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God, and
contemned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore He brought
down their heart with labour, they fell down, and there was
none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness
and the shadow of death, and break their bands in sunder. O that men would praise the Lord
for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children
of men! For He hath broken the gates
of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder. Fools, because
of their transgression and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner
of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they
cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saveth them out of their
distresses. He sent His Word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destructions. O that men would
praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to
the children of men, and let them sacrifice the sacrifices
of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing. They
that go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters,
these see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
For He commandeth and raiseth this stormy wind, which lifteth
up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven,
they go down again to the damps. Their soul is melted because
of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry
unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their
distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so
that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they
be quiet, So He bringeth them unto their desired haven. O that
men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful
works to the children of men. Let them exalt Him also in the
congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of
the elders. He turneth rivers into a wilderness,
and the water-springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into
barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He
turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs. And there he maketh the hungry
to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation and sow
the fields and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that
they are multiplied greatly, and suffereth not their cattle
to decrease. Again they are minished and brought
low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. He poureth contempt
upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where
there is no way. Yet setteth he the poor on high
from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous
shall see it and rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise and will observe
these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness
of the Lord. The Lord bless to us that reading
of His holy and inspired word, and help us as we come before
Him in prayer. Let us pray. O Lord God of heaven and of earth,
we bow before Thee through our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee
for that new and living way that Thou hast consecrated for us
through the veil, a voice that speaks for us in heaven's high
court for good. Lord, Thou dost fill heaven and
earth, Thou hast made all these things we cannot comprehend Thy
greatness, Thy knowledge, Thy majesty, Thy holiness. O Lord, we tremble at the thought
of such greatness and such power, but we thank Thee that Thou hast
seen fit to make Thyself manifest and known in the person and works
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for the
record that we have in Thy holy word, through many witnesses,
and that Thy word is the inspired word of God, that Thou hast come
to this world, Thou hast made flesh and dwelt among us. And
we beheld Thy glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. And O Lord, we do thank Thee
for that revelation of Thy beloved Son. O Lord, do be pleased to
grant us that personally we might know as well, as thousands, yea,
millions have, that they have seen Thee. Thou hast said that
Thy people will see Thee, that Thou, if Thou be lifted up above
the earth, will draw all men unto Thee. And Lord, there are
those of us who have felt that drawing. We have seen the beauty
In our Lord we have been attracted to Thee, and yet, Lord, we gather
this afternoon, and with confession of our changeableness, our sins,
our departures from Thee, that Thee, wood, hay, and stubble
of this poor dying world, so often takes over and eclipses
the gold and the silver, the preciousness of the things of
God, O Lord, do bless and use our gathering together for the
worship of Thy most holy name, to rekindle again that sacred
flame of heavenly fire, to draw us unto Thee. Lord, we read that
in Thy temple every one does speak of Thy glory, but in the
world they only consult to cast him down from His excellency. And Lord, we are in the midst
of this world, and the influence of it upon us is constant. And
Lord, we confess this and we pray to be delivered from the
power and dominion of sin. O Lord, do remember any that
are brought low because of their sin, that are entrapped in snares,
in habits, in thought patterns, in ways of life that they cannot
escape, that has deadened their appetite for Thy Word, for worship,
for prayer, Lord, that make it all a task. O Lord, those who
feel their spiritual life at such an ebb, so low, Lord, to
be pleased to send forth Thy Word this afternoon, and do heal
thy people, and do strengthen them again in thee. Lord, it
is our foolishness. We have sinned, we have departed,
we have not been watchful nor careful. Lord, we have been like
the mariner that sees the shelf yet strikes it to. O Lord, do
have mercy upon us for our foolishness, for our waywardness, for our
lack of heeding the warnings, for our going our own way, for
thinking that we know better than Thy Word, or our fathers
that followed us, that have gone before us. Lord, we pray that
Thou wouldst deliver us from the pride of our heart, that
should think that we know better, or have more light and more understanding
than those who have gone before. 3 Do grant us, Lord, to be found
walking in the old paths, a cast-up way. 4 And, O Lord, deliver us
from those deceivings that have deceived so many, that have felt,
or that they have, or those that their following have, greater
light than any other. godly ones have gone before.
We pray for simplicity in our faith. O do deliver us from the
so-called advantage or knowledge of the theologically sound, as
it were, or those that profess to know much of the insights
of thy word. Lord, do thou grant that the
knowledge that we have might not be used to take away from
thy word, or make thy word of none effect. We think of the
Jews in thy day, that that is testifying, that they taught
for commandments the traditions of men, and that they did make
thy word of none effect. Lord, save us from that. in our
day from those that bear a mark of religiousness like the Pharisees
and Scribes did. Lord, do grant us those simple
faiths. We thank Thee that amongst our
churches and over the years we've had those that have been very
precious to us. We've seen their simple faith. Lord, we have seen their witness. We think of those that we've
had at Melbourne and Geelong especially with Alice and Mrs
Polly and Lord Roy and Jean. Lord, we think of those who we
would think of their faith and their life and their witness
and seek to be followers of them who had such a practical, simple
and lovely faith, their testimony so adorned in their lives. O
Lord, make us to be like them and to be followers of them who
through faith and patience inherit the promises. We thank Thee for
the means that we have that we're using this afternoon. We acknowledge
thy goodness in providing this, but we do acknowledge also, Lord,
that in one way we are so impoverished in our day. We think back when
all we had was books, when we had our Bibles, when we had the
writings of good men, and oh Lord, we profited so much more
than even when we have access to so much. in the international
scene. O Lord, deliver us from the snares. Lord, do grant that we might
use what Thou hast given for good and not for the abuse. Lord, how many have thanked Thee
for fire, but others have been dismayed at the abuse of it and
the great damage that it has caused. O Lord, do grant that
we might be delivered from those things that rightly used are
a blessing, wrongly used are a curse. O Lord, do remember
those that are afflicted. We thank Thee where Thou hast
given healing after times of sickness. We pray for those who
have long-term illnesses, whether mentally or whether in their
bodies, and as our years increase, the infirmities increase, Lord,
do help day by day where we need help, which we, years ago, never
thought we would need it in that way. Lord, do be pleased to help
us to encourage one another in the Lord. leave us not to be
a discourager of the brethren, but an encourager. Do remember
those that gather and bless each soul. Lord bless the friends
at Melbourne and at Ryde, and Lord our dear friends that join
from the Philippines and from Adelaide. and elsewhere, those
that may join on the internet or through sermon audio at this
time. We seek, Lord, Thy blessing upon
all that gather with us. And, O Lord, do be pleased to
build up the churches, to grant, Lord, a real spiritual revival,
In our day do grant a real quickening. We see around us those that are
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. And Lord, we,
but by thy grace, will be the same. O Lord, do grant that we
might be renewed into our love. of Thee and of the Brethren. We pray for those that have left
the chapels, Lord, those who have been brought up under the
sound of the truth, those who have gone their own way, as many
of us have in varying degrees. Have mercy upon them as thou
hast on us. Bring them to a knowledge of
their need of a Saviour, and bring them again unto the sound
of the truth. And where thou hast done that,
and we thank thee for it. Do we please to bless the word.
Make it a fruitful word, and make it truly to bring forth
fruit to thine honour and glory. As sinners saved by grace, view
thee their dear Saviour. O Lord, may we 2 Trust in thy
precious blood that redeems from all sin. 3 Trust in thy righteousness
which makes us meet for heaven, that we might be of those who
have true tokens of eternal life, grant us a life of faith and
prayer, a life of a walk with Thee, not a stranger or a guest,
but like a child at home. And Lord, do bless us with thankfulness,
a tender spirit, a teachable spirit, to deliver us from all
bitterness, from malice, from envy, Save us from those things
that divide between brethren, whether it is different thoughts
or things or way that we are walking in our lives. It drives
a wedge between us and families and church members and makes
those that know thee not to stumble when they see our walk and what
we are going after. Lord, may all our prayer and
praise suggest come and dwell within my breast, and may our
lies bear witness that we are those that are the humble walkers
after Thee, that our faces are set heavenward, and they are
not to this or that innovation, or this and that thing that the
world is going after but may it be written upon us and those
that see us take knowledge that we have been with Jesus and that
we are seeking those eternal things above. O Lord, do bless
the dear deacons, we pray for help and strength for them, and
do be pleased to bless our worship, our gathering together, and help
us to sing thy worthy praise. Grant us food for our souls,
grant us, Lord, that which shall be used to keep us from the evil,
and to furnish us for the week that we have entered upon. Lord,
may thy blessing be upon it, and thy presence be with us.
Keep us from sin, that it grieve us not, and do grant unto us
the light of thy countenance. We pray for our governments and
those in authority over us, O Lord, deliver us from wicked and unreasonable
men, and from laws that are against Thy laws, especially those laws
that take away the sanctity of life, or those that confuse and
make our young people to be such victims of the society that we're
in. O Lord, do save us. from all
those laws that are contrary to Thine. O Lord, help us to
be in the world but not of it, and we thank Thee for the privileges
and mercies that we have at this present time. Help us now, then,
as we further worship and do help, as we turn to Thy Word,
open it up and do apply it, do bless it to our souls. We ask
through Thy Name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Before I announce the second
hymn, I'll just announce the services for the coming week,
Lord willing. Next Wednesday evening is Mr Graham Hadley.
Next Lord's Day is a reading service in the morning. In the
afternoon is Mr Alf Chapman. We pray the Lord's blessing upon
these arrangements. Hymn 673, Tune, Lennox from the manuscript. Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 107. Psalm 107, reading
for our text, verses 18, 19 and 20. Their soul abhorreth all manner
of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they
cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saveth them out of their
distresses. He sent His Word, and healed
them, and delivered them from their destructions. Psalm 107,
verses 18 through to 20 where we read of those
that were healed by what they abhorred. They abhorred the meat,
or manner of meat, and yet they were healed by the very word,
or meat, that they had abhorred. And so the three verses. I want
to make three points this afternoon. The first one is their condition
in verse 18. and then secondly what they did
that led to deliverance we have in verse 19 that they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble and then in verse 20 we have what
the Lord did to deliver them that he sent his word and healed
them But before we come to this, we need to look, of course, at
the people that are being spoken of here. And first, I want to
just have an overview of the psalm, especially to notice a
few things. The first thing is that this
is not speaking of those in the world. It's not speaking of the
unregenerate, It is speaking of God's people. It is speaking
of those who know the Lord and yet, in their pathway, they have
sinned, they've done foolish things, they've got into places
where they have lost their comforts, their joys. The right of the
Lord is upon them. Their cases seemed hopeless,
and yet they have been brought at last to prayer, and the Lord
has delivered them. I hope just the very thought
of a psalm like this that assures the people of God that God's
people do have changes They that have no changes, they fear not
God. But those that walk in this psalm,
it is very, very evident that they do know changes. They are
having those changes. They're walking through these
paths. And so I want to really highlight
this. And as well, if we come to the
last two verses, it is something that the righteous shall see. They shall see these things and
I hope the Lord does give us discernment or eyes to see as
really the picture of how the Lord deals with his people. We might hear of one falling,
sinning, being restored. We might hear of those that are
in a low place and yet they're brought up again. We might see
those in our own church and fellowship, in many different situations,
sometimes able to praise and bless the Lord, other times in
a very low, discouraged, despondent state. And we may be in these
situations ourselves, and it's those times especially we need
to be assured that this, though it may seem strange to us, Yet
it is the path that the Lord's dear people have walked and do
walk. You know, if we were going through
woods near us or walking through an area that we didn't know,
there may be times we'd be troubled, were we on the right path? Was
it the right way? And then we'd see a signpost.
And that wouldn't tell us that we're where we wanted to go,
but it would tell us that we're on the right way. And Psalms
like this, they are like those signposts for the people of God. They tell them, they assure them
that this is the path that God's people have trod before them.
They are walking in it in that right way. Also it is a way that
we can discern the love of the Lord. We've often said this,
that the love of the Lord is something that needs to be understood. when the Lord chastens His people,
when He corrects them, when He permits things to come into their
lives, the world is very, very quick to say, well, if you have
a loving God, as you say you have, and He's all-powerful,
He's able to stop evil if He wanted to, why doesn't He do
it? Why does He allow bad things
to happen? Why does He allow His people
to be treated as they are and have been? Why did He allow Saul
of Tarsus, before he was converted to hail men and women to prison,
to have them put to death? And the sovereignty of God answers
these things. The Lord is a sovereign. And
the Lord is in control. Some have sought to explain it
away by saying, oh, no, no, it wasn't the Lord that did that.
He wasn't the one that permitted this to happen or even brought
it to happen, to pass. Who is he that saith, it cometh
to pass, and the Lord commandeth it not. But in so doing, they're
virtually saying someone else is in control, not the Lord.
They're saying that Satan is, or chance is, or something like
that. There's no comfort in that. When an atheist, when anyone
against the Lord, seeks to pull the Lord down, let them find
an alternative. Let them show a different way,
a way that offers hope, because for the Christian, and especially
when we think of a psalm like this, There is hope again and
again and again in the situations that the people of God have got
into. And poor soul, if you're in a
low place, discouraged place, disheartened place, or perhaps
in a snare you don't know how to get out of and how to be freed
from, there is hope and that is set before us in this psalm. And even to be prophet in those
things that we're going through. We're thinking more closely to
the words of our text. This section of the psalm begins
in verse 17. Fools, because of their transgression
and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. What is upon my
spirit is from the point of where they are afflicted, but it is
necessary to think how did they get into that position in the
first place. Now we must make it clear, not
all trouble is brought because of our sin or foolishness. We
read of Job that he was a righteous and upright man. There was no
cause, no reason why he went into the great trials, why Satan
was permitted to do as he did. But Satan had to be proved a
liar. He thought that Job only served
the Lord for the hedging about and the blessings that he had.
And many, many in the world are like that. They serve the Lord
while everything goes well, but when it goes wrong, then they
will curse Him and go against Him. Well, Job was not like that,
and God's true people are not like that. Though He slay me,
yet will I trust in Him. But we must be clear that all
tribulation, all trouble, is not because of sin. It is because
of sin, but it's not because of any sin in us. Remember the
Jews, they said to our Lord concerning the man that had been born blind,
who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind. Their thought was that There
must have been some great sin in his life or his parents for
this to be the case. Of course, all are sinners, but
they're looking for a cause, and we can sometimes be like
that as well, or Job's friends were. they comforted him first
and then afterwards they turned and they accused him because
the trial kept on and on and because it did then they felt
there must be something some reason why and so he had to say
to their miserable comforters are ye all now Lord was very
clear in the world you shall have tribulation In me shall
her peace. This is not her rest. It is polluted. The Lord controls. He is in control. Not a single
shaft can hit till the God of love sees fit. And it is good
for us to remember what the Hebrew children said when they testified
against Nebuchadnezzar would not bow down to his image. They said that they would not
bow down to it. And if the Lord was pleased to
deliver them from the fire, then he would. But He would deliver
them out of Nebuchadnezzar's hand. And of course, if their
lives had been taken, as our Lord testified, they can take
away the body. But after that, there's nothing
more that they can do. And so, we need to be clear on
this. But in this psalm, nearly every
case, it is something that the Lord's people have done. their
foolishness, their ways where they have not listened to instruction. And in this situation, fools,
because of their transgression and because of their iniquities,
are afflicted. And that can be in two different
ways. You think, if someone was in
a motor car and they were speeding, so a young person was speeding,
They could have an accident, come off the road, they could
be greatly injured, could be killed. As a direct consequence
of their speeding, they could have terrible things happen in
their lives and to others. But then they might have a situation
that nothing happened in that way, but because they have sped,
because they have broken the law, then the authorities will
come in and they will find them, take away their license, perhaps
put them into prison. And so it's the same action,
but in one case, what they are reaping is a direct result. of what they've done, and the
other it is an indirect. The same with the fall of man.
In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. We are
under the sentence of death, the sentence of Almighty God
that has sent the curse and sent the punishment to be upon us. We're under that just punishment. We can have another illustration. Say if we were using the internet
and we were using it to look at things that perhaps were evil,
perhaps were very unprofitable. it might be religious things,
but getting our mind to go into all sorts of different thoughts
and doctrines and ideas and getting ourselves so confused and so
churned up inside that the consequence of that, it separates between
our brethren, we don't have the fellowship, the communion, that
we once had and also it's wasting time. We're using precious time
so we can't get done what we should have been doing and so
the consequences are bound up with what actually we are doing. We're bringing a rod for our
own back. But then the Lord can see what
we're doing and chasten us in other ways in our lives, other
things going wrong, the affliction being brought upon us because
of what we're doing, the Lord bringing chastening. We have
this all the time through life. In Romans 1, we have it of those
that are following with the evil practices, the sodomites receiving
in themselves the reward of their deeds, the aids coming because
of direct result of their lifestyle. But then, of course, the Lord
punishing, the Lord chastening because of that. And so here
we have fools, because of their transgression, because of the
way that they have been walking, because they have not been taken
heed, because of their sins, That is why that they are afflicted. I do want to denote this because
many times we may get into a situation and realize that we have got
ourselves into it ourselves. We can get ourselves into the
slave despond, we can't get ourselves out. We can get ourselves into
a thought pattern, we can't break it. We can get under the snare
of a teaching, a false teaching, and struggled to get out of it. And so this is, or should be,
an encouragement to any that feels in this situation, where
it is their own folly, their own sin. You think of Bunyan
in his Pilgrim's Progress, where his pilgrims went out of the
narrow way into a nice meadow, seemed good, seemed a nice place
but then they ended up in the fields of giant despair and he
locked them up in his castle and there they were locked up
and death was on the road and it wasn't until there came that
key of promise, or I think hope was raised up, and they were
delivered out of his hand. But it was their own foolishness,
and several times Bunyan pictures it, how that they got into wrong
ways. When they heeded the advice of
worthy wise men, and he sent them to the law, and then they
feared, they thought that the mountain, the Sinai would fall
upon them, and the wrath of God fall upon them. It's like one
taking up with some innovations or works or some way that we
can get more holy or walk in the ways of the Lord. But it
only be contrivance of man, it is not through faith, it is not
the Lord's way at all. But having gone along that way,
then we need to be brought back and delivered from it. And so
this is the situation of a a person that through their own works,
through their own foolishness and then they're brought into
an afflicted state. We want to look now then at our
points how it is described what their condition is when they
are afflicted. We read in verse 18, There is
soul, a porreth, or manner of meat, and they draw near unto
the gates of death. Let's just think of this in a
natural way first. Say if there was a person and
their condition was that they didn't want to eat. When they
ate, perhaps something happened. They had trouble with their digestion
system. They had pain. They had affliction. So it made them not want to eat
food. Or maybe they just had taken
away their appetite completely. And they got thinner, and thinner,
and poorer, and lower, and lower. Like those who've been on a hunger
strike, death is on the road. we must eat to live. If we don't
eat, we will die. And when we think of our Lord
saying that man shall not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, then there is a spiritual
parallel. If the Lord's people get into
a situation where they actually abhorring, they're not wanting,
they don't have a relish for, an appetite for, or really just
they have a distaste for spiritual food. So when they have, and
of course when we're, the picture here is meat, so Comparing scripture
with scripture, you might say this is not even a young Christian. This is not one that is on milk,
the pure milk of the Word. This is one that has progressed
further and that has been having solid food, meat. In the Hebrews,
he speaks when he's going to introduce about Melchizedek,
that their ears were dull of hearing. they were not exercised
their spiritual senses to be able to discern that teaching
of Melchizedek the high priest he said you have need of meat
and not strong meat and so this is even for those that are further
in the way So what is it then? We think of the meat for the
people of God. What if the children of Israel
in the wilderness, they despised the manna, they didn't want the
manna. They looked back to Egypt all the time, but what if they
didn't have any manna? That was their food, that was
what they lived upon. And so we can get so that we
are poor all manner of meat. What manner of meat does a child
of God feed upon? The Word is central, the Word
of God. By every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. So the Red Word, do we appal
reading? We start to read the Word of
God and we think, well I read that passage before. Let's see
if we can get something in the Gospels, that might be better.
No, that's stale, I don't like that. Let's go to the Psalms,
there's always something in the Psalms, but no, that seems, no
relish there. Oh, there's another book on the
shelf, that'll be nice, good. That's just a fictional book,
or something light, or something on the internet instead. And
you find no relish and no appetite for the Word of God, and the
times of reading it are less and less. And then the preaching
of the Word of God as well, you start to think we've heard all
that before. And there's not coming with prayer, there's not
coming with expectation. We're not studying the Word of
God. We're not like the Bereans who
searched the scriptures daily, whether these things were so,
therefore many of them believed. We're not meditating upon the
word, thinking upon these things, because we find it irksome, there's
no appetite, there's no relish, it's just taken away, it seems
insipid to us. When we're singing, it used to
be that we could go along with the hymn writer and love to speak
the same language, but now we don't feel anything in the Word
of God at all. We know worship, or maybe religious
books, autobiographies, profitable books that we don't feel any
relish and desire for. The magazines lay unread. The books that we once used to
love to read and learn of the lives of the people of God before
us, we don't do that anymore because we've taken the place
with all sorts of easy things. A short look at this shorts on
the internet or something nice and light to read and nothing
much to think of. The devil will always fill a
blank. There won't just be nothing,
he'll fill it with something else. And when he's filled it
with something else, then we go back to the Word and we don't
see the beauty in it. And so this is the case with
this one here. They abhor all manner of meat. And, of course, they draw near
unto the gates of death, as it would be naturally, so it is
spiritually. And you might be in this position
and think, where is my soul's life? how low I am, how little
relish I have for these things. Others might look on, and they
might see it and discern it too, but for some reason don't speak. I must remember years ago with
Alice Robinson. I used to when she was in the
Carem nursing home and she was mother in Israel to me. I was
25 when I took her funeral service. She died at 81 and We used to have times I used
to go and read through the Gospel Standard. I used to love Mackenzie's
fragments at the time, and used to have lovely times. And she
used to come down to my home on a Saturday and have times
down there as well. But she had those times that
she'd be ill, and mummy never confused. soul trouble and mental
illness. You know, Alice, she used to
go, and some of you may remember it, she'd have three weeks that
she was talking foolish things. You couldn't bring her on to
good things at all. I'd try to turn her on to it.
She said, oh, Roland, I'd like to speak on the better things,
but I can't. And she'd just go speaking other things. But it
was a mental affliction. and after three weeks she'd come
out of it and she'd be perfectly alright and she'd know what she
had been in. But one time she was in health
and I used to go in to have the times of reading with her but
she didn't want to because She was knitting, she was doing crafts
with those in the nursing home, and I thought, well, it's good,
she needs to do these things, but where's our time together? She doesn't want to read the
Word or read the Standard anymore. And you know, it so pierced me. When she went into the next time
in illness, I came in and she said, oh Roland, she says, I
had all that health and all I used it on was doing the knitting
and everything and I neglected the Word of God. And I thought,
you saw that and you never said it to her. I never warned her,
I never said, look, I can see what's happening here. Sometimes
it's hard to discern what, but I had never forgotten that. But
we can have those things that seem right, and yet they take
away from the Word, from communion, from fellowship, and especially
if we've been having that fellowship with the Lord's people, they'll
notice that. But this is a soul then, and
it is described, their poor manner of mate. And if that's the case
with you, if it's the case with me, the thoughts that go through
your mind is this, well, how am I going to be healed? If the
very Word is what I don't relish, how am I going to be blessed?
How am I going to be delivered? How am I going to be out of this
snare, change these thought patterns, and have again a desire for the
things of God? This is what is spoken of here. I think it's good sometimes to
just look, what is this soul's condition? You know, any natural
doctor, if they get a patient come in, they want to know what's
wrong, what's caused it, what's brought them to this situation,
and then they can begin to treat it. Well, for ourselves, the
people of God, and we get right through here, we don't have power
to deliver ourselves. And you know, in one sense, if
we did, if it was through our own setting ourselves some rules, strength of our own will, maybe
confiding in someone else and have a a person that we went
and confessed to every time we looked at the wrong thing or
said the wrong thing. And by those means we got ourselves
out. We never need the Lord. We never
need His redemption. We never need His blood. We never
need the Lord Jesus Christ. Our natural way is to cure ourselves. And this is why right through
this psalm, they fell down, there was none to help. What were they
doing? They were looking for help somewhere else from the
Lord. And you might be doing that this
afternoon. You might realize you're in this
position, abhorring the Word of God. You're not in a good
soul position, but you're trying to make steps yourself. And in
one sense, it is right. But if that's all you are doing,
and really it's the Lord's blessing if He makes our efforts to fail,
if we are not looking to the Lord, well here they did fail. And so they drew nigh to the
gates of death. I want to then point you, point
me, to what was, to be the leader, what was going to lead to deliverance. It didn't bring deliverance,
but it led up to it. It was a first step, if you like,
a scriptural, a biblical step, a step that is reinforced again
and again throughout this psalm. A step that will lay aside all
human reasoning, all thoughts, all efforts, And the step is this, and this
is our second point, what they did that led to deliverance.
They cried unto the Lord in their trouble. They cried unto the
Lord. This is no longer, as it were,
just prayer. This is crying. This is like
Peter, Lord, save me. It's like the blind man, have
mercy upon me. Oh, the publican, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. is crying unto the Lord in their
trouble. I do want to emphasise that.
It's not when they get out of trouble that they cry. It's while
they're still in the snare, while they're still even finding prayer
a real hard thing to do. Every effort The devil will say,
well, no use you praying. You don't even read your Bible.
You don't even relish the Bible. You don't even really, you haven't
got much faith in the Lord either. And you bring up all these reasons
why you shouldn't cry, you shouldn't pray, you shouldn't look to the
Lord. But here it is, where they fall down, there is none to help. Where they have no help but the
Lord, they're nearly in death. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble. Dear soul, may you be helped,
may I be helped to do this. May we be strengthened in the
knowledge that prayer is a weapon for the feeble and weaker souls
can wield it best. Prayer is calling down the power
and the might of the Almighty God. Outside of ourselves, Paul
told the Ephesians that their call by grace, their being a
Christian, being a believer, was the same power put forth
to do that in them as what raised Christ from the dead. Now if
it took that power in the beginning, we need that same power along
the way. By strength shall no man prevail,
but the strength of the people of God is in the Lord their God. Satan trembles when he sees the
weakest saint upon his knees. The Lord help us to pray. You say, oh yeah, but I must
really start reading again and really might move. Yes, and in
a way it's right in these paths. But again, I would say if you
succeeded to deliver yourself, you'd have no need to the Lord.
This is a path of crying to the Lord for help. saying I've exhausted
my efforts, I've nothing but sin and disgrace, I brought myself
into this pit, into this place, I'm alienated from Thee, I'm
alienated from my family, my church, my friends, from the
books of good men, even from prayer I find so hard. Lord help
me, Lord save me, Lord deliver me from this condition that I'm
in. This is what led to deliverance. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. May the Lord help us to cry unto
the Lord. Then we read of what the Lord
did, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed
them, and delivered them from their destructions. So this is
what the Lord has done. They had been in distress, and
the Lord delivered them and saved them out of it. How did He do
it? What did He use? He sent His
Word. You say, but it's the Word that
they abhorred. It's the meat that they abhorred.
He sent that Word. Yes. That's another real principle
we must really learn and really hold fast to. The Lord created
the world by the word. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of the Lord. It is the word of the Lord that
is the sword of the Spirit. It is the word of the Lord that
is life and power. The word came not unto you in
word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. There's
a difference, isn't there? There's a difference in hearing
the Word. Not every time we read the Word,
not every time we hear it preached is the same. We need application,
application. The Lord's blessing, the Lord's
power upon it, authority upon it. And that is what only He
can do. And that's what the Lord did
for this soul. Maybe the Holy Spirit will send
The remembrance of a word, home, or maybe reading that word, or
hearing it preached, and it comes quite unexpectedly, and with
authority and power, sometimes it can come very gently. I remember
before I was sent out into the ministry, well, from that time
when I first preached, when Alice was, I took her funeral and I
preached at that time. And some of their friends, they're
not there with you now, been taken home. But they tried very
hard to get me to start preaching then, but I couldn't. And I was
brought into real bondage of soul for seven years. very low
of soul and no one could convince me to start preaching at all. And I thought I was so low. We had prayer meetings with Ray
Fry and myself to try and the Lord would bring it. We both
acknowledged I was exercised about the ministry. But we couldn't. We couldn't bring it forth. And
I said to him, look, until the Lord appears, then there's nothing
we can do. I'll come to you when the Lord
appears. And the Lord appeared so unexpectedly, so quickly. And I was reading in Ezra and
those words that the Lord may give us a little reviving in
our bondage. And those words seemed to really
fast, a little reviving. I felt I was in such bondage,
I needed such a great reviving. But a little one, I felt I could
grasp. There was hope there. I could
have a little reviving. And as I started to meditate
upon this word, it grew and grew. And the Lord so blessed it. And then one scripture after
another came in and opened up so sweetly. And it was that that
brought me forth quite quickly after those seven years into
the ministry. And of course, Robert Field was
due to come a month or so after that. And he came, and I was
sent into the ministry. But I always remember that. The Lord sent his word. As I
was trying to read it, sitting at a kitchen table on my own,
and the Lord came and blessed that. This is what the Lord does. This is what the Lord did here.
In answer to prayer, He sent His Word. Probably the last thing
you'd think that the Lord would use, because that was what you
were pouring, and yet the Lord used it. He made the Word, life
and power. He made it with authority. The Word of God is the living
Word. It's the inspired Word of God. But it needs the inspirer of
it to attend it with power and to make it effectual. So he sent
his word. What a difference is a sent word.
It always struck me with John the Baptist. Remember he was
in prison just before he was beheaded. And he heard the works
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He heard about those that were
healing, and the gospel being preached, and the eyes of the
blind were opened, and the deaf ears were unstopped. He heard
that. But he sent his disciples to the Lord and said, Art thou
he that should come, or look we for another? And the Lord
then worked all these miracles these things again in the presence
of John's messengers and then sent to John he said go show
John again those things which ye do see and hear now you might say they might
have turned around said yes but the reason why John sent us to
you is because he'd heard in prison what you were doing the
difference was it was sent by the Lord and they were first-hand
witnesses. How vital it is for a minister
of the Gospel to be sent. How vital it is that the Word
of God is sent. The Lord knows what Word He is
going to use for you, for me, what He's going to use to break
the snares, to deliver us out of it. He knows. Let us not go
to the doctor and say, I want, or sometimes I do, I go and say,
I'd like an antibiotic, please, and a steroid. That's the only
thing that gets me out of this chest infection. And he gives
it to me. But it's not often a good way. It's better to say to the doctor,
look, these are the symptoms. Can you heal me? Show me what
to do. The Lord knows which way. But
we should expect. that the way the Lord saves His
people is through His Word, and it's through the Lord sending
it, applying it, making it life and power. We never go thinking,
oh we need some innovation, we need some of man's design, something
unique, something a bit better than just the plain Word of God. You know, how churches have turned
away from the plain preaching of the Word of God, like to have
all kinds of innovations. It will never work. It is the
preaching of the Word that the Lord has ordained to save His
people. And so He sent His Word. He healed
them. All of those things that they'd
got into, all of those things that were so deeply entwined
and meshed and brought them into bondage, He healed them. And
He delivered them from their destructions, those things that
they were doing, that were destructing them. All the time what is here,
He sent His Word. He healed them, He delivered
them, He saved them from their destructions. This is the Lord's
work, God's work. What is it? The Word. It points
to Christ. It points to His beloved Son.
Every blessing comes to us through Him. It comes through the only
way. Redeem Israel, O God, out of
all his troubles. It is through the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, through His putting away sin, through the
sacrifice of His own body, His own bloodshed. There is the remedy. They shall look upon him. The
word of God will always point us there. who appoint us to God's
remedy, God's beloved Son, who has made sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
I do love that last verse in Psalm 25, redeem Israel, O God,
out of all his troubles. I've just quoted it, but it bears
always remembering whatever trouble we have, Whatever place we're
in, we need to be redeemed, set free by the payment of a price. It is all because of sin. And
the only remedy in the way of escape from sin is through the
Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on Calvary. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission, no remission whatsoever. It is
Christ that died, yea, rather risen again, sitteth on the right
hand of God, maketh intercession for us, our advocate with the
Father. This way our prayer, our cry,
is to enter into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, the
One who has suffered, bled, and died for us. As much as I have
sought to emphasize the remedy as the word, may we emphasise
the remedy is Christ and him crucified alone. Satan will all
the time try to steer us away from the word of God and away
from the Lord Jesus Christ, away from faith in him and the merits
of his death. It is a spiritual battle. They
are spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They
come down from heaven. They are not manufactured by
us. They are given by God. But we
walk out this path, just like is described here in this psalm. And we feel, we feel the condition
that we're in. Maybe at first we don't groan
under it, but later when we do, and then feel our helpless condition. Here is the remedy. May we take
note then, what is our condition? What are we groaning under? What
is the path that we've got ourselves into? May we note how they began
to be delivered. What they did that led to deliverance. They cried unto the Lord in their
trouble. and then what the Lord did to
deliver them. He sent his word. May the Lord
bless the word this afternoon. Make himself precious, the Lamb
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Yes, these
sins, our sins, our destructions, saving us, delivering us, through
Him, through Christ alone. The Lord add His blessing. Amen. We just conclude our service
this afternoon by singing together Hymn 728, Tune, Pater Omnium 791 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.