Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the book of Genesis. Genesis
chapter 22 and reading for our text a few words from verse 8. Genesis chapter 22 and verse
8. God will provide. The whole verse reads, Abraham
said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them, together. Genesis 22 and part of verse
8. This is the account of God trying
or testing Abraham, testing his faith, his faith in God providing. Isaac, as they go on their way,
God had directed Abraham to go to a mountain that he would tell
him of, and that he there was to offer up his son for a burnt
offering. Now in Isaac was the promised
seed and we read in Hebrews that Abraham believed that even if
Isaac had been slain he would have been raised from the dead
because he believed God's promise. He believed that what God had
said would come to pass and nothing, nothing would stand in the way,
not the death of his son, not the death of Isaac. He would
be raised and of course Isaac is a beautiful type of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. also is a type of the people
of God who in their place is placed the Lamb of God, our Lord
Jesus Christ, the provided Lamb. So in this account on the third
day, may we have a third day religion, the first day Isaac
in Abraham's mind was slain, was dead and the second and the
third at the beginning of it as we have with our text but
at the end of that day there is Isaac alive and we think of
our Lord the third day he rose again the first second and third
and the beginning of the third for the dear disciples their
Lord was dead as to their understanding but the way the first day of
the week ended was very different than how it began and so with
Abraham here the way this day as they went up the mount ended
was very different than how it began but as they're going Isaac
he discerns there is something missing he says my father and
he said here am i my son and he said behold the fire and the
wood but where is the lamb where is the lamb for a burnt offering
something missing vital that was missing and so Abraham answers him and it's
an answer obviously he didn't continue to ask but a beautiful
answer and Abraham said my son God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering So they went, both of them, together. And maybe then that in this word,
this short word, God will provide that the Lord gives us his word
this afternoon. Now, I want to look at three
points, but before we do, there's several points I'd like to just
bear in mind as we go through these points. Firstly, there's
God's will in the Lord's provision. Whatever is the Lord's provision,
the ways that we look at, Remember, it is according to the will of
God. It is not our dictating. It is not what we are saying must happen. All things
are subject to the will of God. It is also subject to the sovereignty
of God. He is not consulting with man,
he is doing according to the counsel of his own will, he is
a sovereign. May we remember that in all of
the provisions of God. Perhaps the devil might tempt
sometimes, oh well, because of how this provision came, because
of how it came to pass, then somehow the Lord was persuaded
into it, or even deceived into it. You know, you might have
someone give you something here below, and you think, yes, but
they've given it to me because they don't really know me, or
they've been told wrong things, or different things. I don't
really deserve this. as if there's been someone that's
influenced that person in their giving, but that cannot be with
the Lord, because when the Lord gives, He gives sovereignly,
that is not influenced by any other than His own wisdom and
counsel and purpose. The third thing to bear in mind
is God's timing. and especially we think of this
account that is before us here it was the last minute that God
provided the knife was raised Isaac was bound upon the altar
and then there was the provision and what Abraham says in our
verse did come to pass God did provide the Lamb was provided,
and of course the great antitype, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
was provided, but the timing of when, when the Lamb was provided,
when Isaac was taken off the altar, when our Lord rose from
the dead, that timing is in the Lord's hand. And then there is
the means He uses to provide. In many ways the Lord has heaven
and earth at His command. he can use many many different
means and just the account that we read of Elijah we can see
those means we'll look at that soon but we should remember of
course what Paul says to Timothy that if a man provide not for
his own household, he is worse than an infidel. A person is
not just to sit at home and not work and say what the Lord will
provide, when we know that he provides through lawful work,
through labour of our hands. Paul had the same message to
those in the Thessalonians as well. And so, we would recognize
the means that the Lord uses. So, bearing those things in mind,
I want to look at three provisions of the Lord, three vital provisions. The first one is God's provision
in the Gospel. And in saying that, really my
mind is to the account that we have here with Abraham, with
Isaac and the provided Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ, Calvary,
and that provision really from the beginning of the world, from
eternity, chosen in Christ and the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. So that's the first point, God's
provision in the gospel. And then second, God's provision
in providence, in our lives, how that he provides for our
bodies here below. And then thirdly, God's provision
in calling, in quickening into divine life through the power
of work of the Holy Spirit. If there wasn't that provision
in God, if God said, well my son has laid down his life, now
it's up to you, you exercise your so-called free will, you
bring about the new birth. If there was no provision from
God, to quicken into life, we be of all men most miserable,
and speaking reverently, his death to of no avail. The God
that provided the Lamb must also provide and give that faith in
the Lamb of God. So those are three provisions
I want to look at this afternoon. that firstly God's provision
in the gospel in his beloved son this of which Abraham he
saw Christ's day and he rejoiced at it God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering and through all of the years of the
Old Testament, right from the first promise in the Garden of
Eden until Christ came nearly 4,000 years later, then we have
the provision of not the type but the anti-type, the real Lamb
of God, and this is what I said about the timing of that provision. The Old Testament saints died
in the persuasion that that lamb would be provided, that there
would be indeed a fulfilling of the seed of the woman that
should bruise the serpent's head. but how it had to be waited for
so long, right down through the ages of time. And yet this is
the provision for the Church of God, a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, the provision of the blood, the blood
of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin. It is the provision
that is required by the law without the shedding of blood. There
is no remission. It is a provision that man cannot
provide, God only can provide. One amongst a thousand. It is
a provision prefigured in the account of David when he came
in the time of Goliath. Israel could find for 40 days
no man to fight against Goliath. But God provided David and we
think when Samuel anointed David I provided me a king amongst
his sons well he was then set before all Israel as that provision
but they had to wait the 40 days to prove this there was no other
deliverer no other Savior at all but him and so that provision
is in the gospel And in these Gospel days, the days when the
Word is preached, the days when the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted
up on the pole of the everlasting Gospel, it is a provision before
a people. God has provided another provision
that is so united to His Beloved Son, and that is His Word. The
written and incarnate Word in all things are the same. In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. And we have the Word of God,
the inspired, infallible Word of God, that faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, If we did not have the
Word of God, we wouldn't know about ourselves, we wouldn't
know about God, we wouldn't know about the way of salvation at
all. I wonder how often we think of
how much we rely upon the Word of God. In days gone by, there
were those that farmers would give a whole cartload of hay
for one leaf of the Bible. And yet we can have many copies
of the Word of God, of the Bible, in our homes and we can almost
take it for granted and not stop and think, what if we did not
have the Word of God? What if we didn't know anything
that was in it? And there are many in this world
that don't have the Word of God. And what a great blessing it
is when it is translated into the languages of the people who
then receive it in their own language. And they can say then,
thy word have I hid in mine heart. Paul says, I'd rather speak five
words with the understanding than 10,000 in an unknown tongue.
and so we do bless the Lord for his word and his word in our
tongue and even in the not only in the spoken word but if you
see Hebrew or Greek written for those of us that don't understand
those languages it is useless to us we are no better off at
all because we do not understand it and even when it is in English
It is vital that our understanding be opened to understand the Scriptures. Our Lord did that when He rose
from the dead, when He appeared to His disciples, then opened
their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. God has also promised to provide
pastors, pastors after His own heart, those that shall minister
the word and speak the word and he's also promised a people the
Lord shall never want a man to do the work that he has to do
and he shall never want a people unto him shall the gathering
of the people be and wherever the Lord must have a people,
people to be saved, then he'll have those that shall be used
to bring that about and to be his servants and to bring his
word to a people. And we have that of course in
the ministries of the apostles and as they went from nation
to nation and people to people. And it is God's provision in
the gospel. Though there is that provision
in the Gospel, until there is a quickening by divine grace,
until there is a calling, then that provision is not valued,
it is not looked upon as needed by us. at all. And I think of my early days
and bringing up at Melbourne and we had that provision a couple
of years of my life. I can't remember his ministry.
Mr. Rex Toogood was the pastor there then, my father's ministry,
and we had of course the red sermons by Mr Douglas Tugud,
and those, well I hated those, the long sermons of Mr Philpott,
and by nature I didn't like the services, I didn't have a need
of the gospel, all of the provision was there, but I didn't feel
my need of it, it is a solemn thing that by nature we are dead
and yet sometimes I thought of that which is said of Samson that the Spirit of the Lord began
to move him at times in the camp of Dan. And I remember one time
at the back of the chapel there in Melbourne, when it was all
grassed over, there was two crabapple trees, and in between the services
we used to sit under those trees. And one time there was Mr Douglas
Tugard, he was sitting there, and I'd been inside the chapel
and I saw a book and it was I think it's by Mr. Smith in the Chapel
Library and the title of it was Food for Hungry Souls and I remember
I brought it out to him under the tree and asked him did he
think that it would be a good book for me to read well he said
no he thought it would be a bit too hard for me so I put it back
disappointed In hindsight, maybe he should have said more and
pointed me to the need of Christ. And why did I, why was I interested? What was drawing me to that?
But I've never forgotten the occasion. There was something
there that obviously felt attraction to, and something of which the
Lord Servant said, well, I I really wasn't, it wouldn't suit me at
that age or able to read it. And these things that you think,
what was that then? What was that that was moving
me then? And that was, I was supposedly
only about 10 or 11, I suppose. And I think as well when I was
13, and that would have been my birthday probably in October,
so it would have been the same year that Mr. Ernie Tuga died, your husband
and father, some of you there, and I was given a Bible from
over here, my auntie Julia, she's now in Gloria Belief, and it
was a very thin one, it was quite unique, very thin paper. I remember having that, and it
was my first Bible I'd ever had, and of my own at 13, and it's Yet it wasn't read much. I liked it as a book, and it
was an interesting book, but I never had a need for what it
contained in it. So there I had the provision
of the ministry, the provision of the Word of God, the Bible,
the provision of the Lord Jesus Christ being set forth, I had
no need for it at all, didn't partake of that provision, but
it was there, and it was preached, and those blessed souls that
truly were blessed under it did receive of that provision, and
yet for me, as yet, there was the provision, and not partaken
of at all. We want to look then at a second
provision, and that is the provision in Providence. And sometimes
it is that before the Lord works by grace, that He brings His
people to realise that they are partaking of His provision in
Providence. Peter speaks of, if so be ye
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And there's a tracing
to his hand that which we are given in our lives. I can look
back to direction and to providing of employment and various things,
care and watchfulness of the Lord in unregeneracy and be able
to recognize and see that this was a hand of God this this was
the Lord's work and it may be a help to some who may be troubled
whether they are really called or whether they will be called
But it's a blessed thing if we are able to see that the Lord
is good to all, His tender mercies are over all of His works, because
even those dead in trespasses and sins, they don't feel the
need of a provision for their soul, but they do have bodies.
They know the need of a provision of the bread that perisheth,
of a job, of a home, of health, of strength, of medicine, of
means of healing, that they can relate to. And so it's not unusual
for the Lord to start awakening His people in that way, to see
actually that the Lord is providing for them in this way. Now we
read the account of Elijah and Elijah was directed to go to
the brook Cherith now all around was famine all around the people
did not have the water or the food and yet God specifically
provided for Elijah and he told him where to go where that oasis
was a natural one you would think where the stream was and then
a very unnatural thing for the ravens to be bringing him the
bread morning and evening and one that was a real miracle and
the other that seemed just a natural thing that in time it just dried
up. And we see then what I mentioned
about the means that the Lord uses, because in this account
we have both of them. We have one a miraculous, a bird
doing completely the opposite to what it would do by nature,
and then on the other brook which of course it would dry up if
there's a famine in the land if there's no rain in the land
then it is as in verse 7 there in 1 Kings 17 came to pass after
a while that the brook dried up because there had been no
rain in the land the Lord wasn't going to miraculously cause that
that brook did not dry up that wasn't part of his plan and part
of his purpose and we might look at some things that have been
a provision we've hoped and believed from the Lord and then in time
it is dried up the devil says well that never was from the
Lord that didn't come from the Lord otherwise he wouldn't dry
up but may this account rebuff that the Lord has a provision
for a time and then he'd have Elijah move away but he has another
provision a different provision and those things are to be noticed
in life sometimes it can be quite perplexing when things change
when we haven't expected them to change or to go in that way
It's a good thing to be led of the Lord, directed of the Lord. I remember when I first came
over here to the UK from Australia, and I was given a three-year
contract to work for my firm, which is still designing and
engineering in Australia. And then there came a time that
they said that that contract was going to come to an end,
they were going to terminate it. and I was seeking then employment
over here and sought it with my uncle who was in pump engineering
but I needed to learn another computer-aided rafting package
and I couldn't work out why in God's providence that I had to
learn one package in Australia and now for a new course in my
life here to learn another one. Why didn't the Lord move me to
learn one in Australia that would help me over here? But anyway,
my uncle said, you know, sometimes the Lord changes our course and
changes our path and you do need to retrain. So I did a course
and I did the course with him and trained up on the new package
And then my firm from Australia said, well, the reason why we
can't employ you anymore is because we've changed to this new package
and you don't know how to use it. And I said to them, but I'm
fully trained in it. I do know how to use it. And
what is more, I can write the programs to convert all my old
drawings from eight years back into the new package. And the
Lord gave me a whole more year's employment. with my firm in Australia
through that. But I had to walk through it,
really puzzled. Why was I having to do this training?
What was the Lord's purpose? And the Lord hid His purpose
until it was time to unfold it. I say to any that are feeling
something's dried up, you've got to go on a new path or new
training or new way and you don't know why and you're trying to
fathom out why. trust in the Lord, looks at his
hand, and Providence unfolds the book and makes his counsel
shine. And here, Elijah must have seen
that brook slowly drying up. You walk in that path, the brook
slowly drying up, provision less, and you wonder where the scene
will end. And then We read in that verse
7, the brook dried up. It stopped. And then the Lord
spoke. And then the Lord spoke. And
then, in a most strange way, go to Zarephath? Go outside of
Israel? You know how offended the Jews
were when our Lord reminded them while he was on earth of that
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah but he
wasn't sent to any but the widow of Zarephath they were very angry
about that and here is Elijah provided in that way and he goes
to the city he doesn't have to inquire where she is or there
she is she's out the front but provide she hasn't got the provision
at all And there the Lord makes another miracle, a perpetual
miracle with the meal and the oil, and really the miracle of
the woman believing Elijah and obeying him and venturing in
that way, using the lust that she's got for him before feeding
herself. And we see this provision Our
Lord warns in Matthew 6 that the people of God, that they
are not to be anxious of what we shall eat, what we shall drink,
what we shall put on, all these things the Gentiles seek after,
but seek ye first the kingdom of God. and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you." He directs us
away from that which naturally is anxious over to what the true
need of our soul is. He doesn't say you don't need
these things, He says your Heavenly Father knoweth. And may that
be a word to some this afternoon. You may be concerned about temporal
things. You may be concerned about your
job this afternoon, and your employment, and your provision,
and your future, and the providing of a wife, or a husband, or a
home, or healing, and health, and strength. There may be many
things, and they belong to the body, they belong to this world. But our Lord says, there's something
greater. Your soul. Your soul. How is your soul? How will it
be when death comes? When you don't need food for
the body, clothing for the body, a house, a home, a wife. You
must leave all these things. What then? How is it with you
then? There's a greater need. A greater providing that God
provides. He does provide these things. and may we bless Him and thank
Him for His provision and for all what He does provide in the
way of providence and see His hand in this and taste that the
Lord is gracious and may it be a word of help because often
we can get very burdened, very tried very perplexed and you
might say like it was with in Esther's day the Siddhisushan
was perplexed and you might feel that this afternoon in things
that are happening you're perplexed you don't know what to do you
don't know how you've come into this situation but the Lord knows
what He will do. Sometimes these times when we
are perplexed we must rely more upon the Lord and hang upon Him
and look upon Him for His way. We see not our way You know,
as soon as we see something naturally, and we're praying to do this,
we might pray and pray for the Lord's help and direction and
provision, and He starts to provide. And then we almost subconsciously
say, Lord, thank you very much. I'll take it from here. I'll
manage it from here. And we stop praying, stop relying
on the Lord, and start working and leaning on our own arm of
flesh. And so the Lord, often very kindly,
He doesn't allow us to see. He works and works so that we
cannot see, but we need to trust and hang upon the Lord and be
much in prayer, watching His hand in providence, using the
means, the right means, prayerfully, diligently, really the Lord's
dear people should be the most diligent, the hardest workers,
the most diligent in all that they do, the best users of their
time, the best stewards of what the Lord has given them. The
Lord's people should not be careless, lovingly or indifferent as to
how they walk here below. Those that look upon us should
see us as those that though we trust in the Lord and look to
Him, that we are also diligent in the use of all the means and
all that He does give. The Lord spoke about the parable
of the talents and the one that had just the one talent and all
he did was to bury it in the earth. He didn't use it, didn't
increase it. Well, he was not commended, but
the ones that used that which he had given. And you think of
here, what if the widow said, well, we've only got just a little
bit of oil and meal, we will not use that. with our Lord when
he worked the miracles with the loaves and the fishes. The disciples
did say, what are these amongst so many? But if they then had
said, well, it's so small, we'll just cast it away. It's just
not anything. But by using that, the Lord multiplied
it and the Lord blessed it. And so that provision in Providence
We look at these things that are natural, things that seem
a real miracle in themselves, and really all things are a miracle. They're all from the Lord's hand.
The Lord will provide in His time, in His way, in the means
that He has chosen, in a sovereign way. So God's provision in Providence,
the Lord God will provide. Abraham says to his son, my son,
God will provide. I want to look then at the third
calling, God's provision in calling. The disciples had to tarry at
Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. Our
Lord insisted in John 3 of the new birth to be called to be
born again of the spirit of water and of the spirit to be truly
washed with the washing of water by the word to be quickened by
divine life through the Holy Spirit. And that is absolutely
vital. Now, in the end of this account
in 1 Kings that we read, with Elijah, with the woman Zarephath,
she was seeing day by day this miracle of the multiplied meal
and of the oil. And yet it seemed that it didn't
really touch her. It didn't bring her to know that
the word of the Lord in Elijah's mouth was the word of the Lord
in truth. She no doubt heard the word of
the Lord at his mouth many times. while he was with her? Did he
never speak to her of the Lord God of Israel, the words of the
Lord? Did he just keep himself to himself
and never shared with her and her household of the promises
of the Gospel, the promises of the seed of the woman, Well, she refers to the word
of the Lord in his mouth, but it's not until she's brought
to this that her son dies, brought into this great trial, brought
so that she feels that the hand of the Lord and Elijah also comes
before the Lord and speaks to him of bringing evil upon this
woman with whom he dwells. Even Elijah, the Lord heard from
him what he was doing and what his purpose was for this woman
and we referred to what our Lord Jesus said about the many widows
in Israel and was not sent except to the one at Zarephath thereby
implying that that sending was not just to supply Elijah's need
it was finding her out it was like the woman at the well of
Samaria he must needs go through Samaria here was one of the Lord's
people here was one like Rahab like Ruth one of the gentiles
before The Gospel days when the Gentiles brought in in great
numbers, they were brought in and into the fold to know the
true and living God and to know the true faith of God's elect.
Remember Rahab is numbered amongst those of faith, by faith Rahab
and this widow woman as well, numbered amongst those as our
Lord spoke of her in that way. But the Lord brings this heightened
affliction, and how many times while on earth, the woman, the
Syrophoenician woman with her daughter beset with the devil,
Lord help me, the widow of Nain, her son dead, those that were
blind, those that were maimed, those that had a physical need,
a need of their bodies, And the Lord used the healing, used the
miracles, and pointed them to Himself. It doesn't always work
that way. In fact, when the Lord healed
those 10 lepers, Nine of them, you might say, did not work savingly. It did not bring them to Christ.
It did not bring them to look to Him, to trust in Him. One
returned to give thanks unto God. But where are the nine,
says our Lord? But with this widow woman, the
Lord was pleased to use this. My mind goes to that hymn, judgments
nor mercy's neck and sway. the roving heart to wisdom's
way. It is not until that time comes,
a time not to propose, but call by grace, that time had come
here. And I bless the Lord, the time
came for me as well. and what a difference it makes
when the Lord makes a change. The Lord passes by and gives
spiritual life. I pass by thee when thou wast
in thy blood and bid thee live, bid thee live. We can be so,
so near to God's provision, sit under it, hear the word, be amongst
the Lord's people and partaking of providential provision but
never needing or feeling a need or valuing that spiritual provision
at all. Now how many times outside the
chapel there in the back in the alleyway on those blue stone
blocks we played as children so many times brought up to go
to the chapel there in fact you can find a block there those
of you that there it looks like someone's got a 20 millimeter
diameter router and they've gone in from the side of the block
and there's a very distinct shape in one of those sides of the
blocks. It just goes in a couple of inches from the side and a
few half an inch deep or so and we used to play on those stones
and all that time as child, all that time growing up so near
the Gospel, so near the Word, in the house of God, and yet
never, never knowing, never needing. And yet when the Lord began with
me, then immediately I wanted to attend every service I could,
the prayer meetings in the morning, the meetings in the week. I remember many times sitting
on the Wednesday evening at the back of the chapel there next
to Laurie Seegers from at Collingwood, at the prayer meetings at Melbourne.
And that was when the Lord first was beginning with me. And I
trust that those of you that know as well, mine ear hath he
opened, first a need, an appetite, the calling of God, doing what
nothing else could do. No amount of the miracles that
were done here had any effect. And there may be those of you
They're saying, I'm in this case now, I see many things, it doesn't
move my heart, it doesn't have the effect. You might be looking
and thinking, well what will move my heart? I hear the Lord's
people being converted, being called, but I have answers to
prayer, I have things I see and yet My heart, you know there's
something missing. You may be like Isaac, and saying
the fire and the wood, but where? There is something that is missing. You know, I may have said before,
but John Raven, the pastor, late pastor of Red Hill and Smallfields,
and you probably heard some of his sermons read there at Melbourne,
I certainly have read them there. But he said, I can never remember
a time that I did not actually like going to chapel. And yet
he knew something was missing, and his pastor knew something
was missing too. And there came a time when the
Lord did begin with him, and he knew the difference. He knew
the difference. And you might be the same. You
think, well, how will I know when the Lord begins with me?
You will know. There is a difference between
spiritually alive and spiritually dead. Those that have never known
the change, they don't know any difference. But those that can
say, this is what I once was, and now this is what I am. The
Lord has made a change, a difference. I think in Mr. Rainsbottom's
book, Bible Doctrine simply explained, a little maid was asked, what
difference was there between when you were called and before
you were called? And she thought and said, well,
she said, before I was called, I only cleaned where I knew people
could see, but now I clean everywhere the same. There was that sense
of the Lord's eye upon her, and it affected her life, it regulated
what she did. There will be a change, but don't
draw lines for the Lord to run in and say it must be in this
way or that way. The Lord works in different ways
with each, but think of the provision, think of our first point. Join
that with the last point, those that are called, those that are
given the provision of the quickening work of the Holy Spirit, then
suddenly the first point, that provision will be precious, the
provision of Christ, the provision of his word, the provision of
pastors, the provision of the people of God being let go, they
went to their own people. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. The witness and
evidence of the provision of calling and the quickening work
of the Spirit will make that provision in Christ and spiritual
provision for the souls of His people to be precious, to be
valued. And we'll value the provision
of prayer, the way that we can approach to God, come to God,
bow before the Lord, we'll value that. You know, Saul of Tarsus,
the evidence that was given, behold he prayeth, a first beginning
of spiritual life, the breath of spiritual life. Now say this
in encouragement, those of you that perhaps have had a time
you've never valued prayer, but now you do. You haven't valued
the Word of God, but now you do. You haven't wanted to hear
the Word preached, but now you do want to hear the Word. You
hadn't valued the Lord Jesus Christ, but now as more and more
you see your sinfulness, you feel your own wicked heart, you
say with a hymn writer, if ever my poor soul be saved, tis Christ
must be the way. And to grow in grace and in the
knowledge of the Lord is growing less in our own eyes. He must
increase, says John the Baptist, I must decrease. And it is in
that way that Christ is made precious to sinners. Sinners
can say, and none but they, How precious is the Saviour. You
might think I'd be a lot better Christian if I wasn't such a
sinner. If I didn't so sin. The Apostle says, the good that
I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. A wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ, my Lord. And so the provision in calling
Really the seal of it is to go back to that first provision. And then though we still need
things for our bodies and temple things, there's something that
is more valuable, more precious and more needful to us. So may
we know this provision of which Abraham said to Isaac, God, will
provide. Maybe be able to put it in this
way and come before the people of God and say God has provided,
God has provided, I know by my own experience God has provided
and be able to give him the honour and glory and to have that assurance
and comfort ourselves God has provided and I, poor sinful me,
have been the recipient of this provision. His Word has come
unto me, His life has come unto me. When Christ who is our life
shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him. May the Lord
bless this Word. May it be the Word of the Lord
to your souls and to mine. God will provide. Amen.