As the Lord may help me, friends,
I would direct you to the last of the chapters there in the
epistle, the 13th chapter, that is the 13th chapter of the 2nd
epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and the verse 11, that is the
2nd epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 11. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort,
be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace
shall be with you. This word has been upon my spirit
from the end of the Sabbath, last Sabbath, the beginning of
the week, and we tried to preach from it up at Moden Hill last
evening. And it's still with me very strongly,
friends, and I hope thus the Lord will help us, give us a
door of utterance in it, and we may preach to you, I hope,
in love and faithfulness here this night. Finally, brethren,
farewell. To me, I feel the Lord opened
it up to me. It's not that the apostle was
saying goodbye, like we might use the word farewell. It is
an exhortation. There are the earlier exhortations
in this chapter, particularly, especially the fifth verse, examine
yourselves. whether you be in the faith.
Prove your own selves. Know you're not your own selves. And so on. And lastly, Apostle
is exhorting. In the previous chapter he was
making mention of how he would find them. His concern as to
how he would find them when he'd come to them the third time.
And even that he might not use sharpness, which perhaps he might
use if he wrote a letter or if he'd come among them, if there
was something particularly that he was very sad about, something
that had crept in of error, whatever it was. He is dealing with these
things of how he would have to rebuild, have to be solemnly
ready to be faithful make clear his displeasure over these things.
Oh, and examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith, how important
that is, friends, especially as we see the day approaching,
as we are getting nearer the Aaron article of death. Examine
yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. This is how he exhorts in this
chapter, and then coming to this word, Finally, brethren, it could
be considered he's come to touch upon the most important. Finally,
brethren, farewell. Farewell. Not saying goodbye,
but farewell. Friends, how are you faring?
How are you going on? Could it be said, by the grace
of God, you farewell? You continue. You endure. You press forward. Are you pressing toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ? Farewell. Finally, brethren, farewell. I want to try and consider what
it is to farewell. I believe it's as we journey.
Think of the theme as you journey, sweetly sing. Sing your Saviour's
worthy praise, glorious in his works and ways. Can you say this?
We are travelling home to God. In the way the fathers trod,
they are happy now and we soon their happiness shall see. Have
you got, have I, got that favour of confidence of faith? Has God
done that in us, wrought in us so by his teaching, his dealings
with us and made us to be to have a good hope, a good prospect
through grace? Are we taught by the Spirit?
Are we concerned as we were quickened into life, born of the Spirit?
Has God gone on to be gracious, to teach us, to show us what
we are, to show us what great need we're in, what wretched
sinners we are, to make us to become self-renouncing and grace-admiring? Has he been working in us, friends,
to well and to do of his good pleasure? How are we? Well, the
desire, the desire here, fare well, so that as you journey
on, you may be faring well. Oh, if we're not favoured to
be journeying, following the Lamb, we're not faring well.
What is it to fare well? It's to be living on Jesus' merits,
living by faith upon the Son of God. Oh, finally, brethren,
farewell as you go on, as you journey on. Farewell. Oh, what is the opposite to faring
well? It's going back. It's sinning and adding sin to
sin. It's wandering from the fold. It's being in a state of neglectfulness
and unconcern and all the treachery of unbelief so much in us. But if we are fair and well,
it's living by faith. It's following the Lamb. It's
walking by faith and not by sight. So I and the live brethren fare
well. Oh, as you go on. And how is
it that you can, you will? It's knowing the favour of the
graces of the Spirit given us. It's the favour of believing,
living by faith upon God, the Son of God, as we've said. And
Jesus Christ, precious Husband, Priest and King, is Jesus. My all to heaven is God. If we
are fearing well, that's what we'll be feeling, that's what
we'll be acknowledging. It will be in their testimony.
Finally, brethren, farewell. Don't trust yourself. Don't trust
in the arm of flesh. That will fail you. One of the
emirates says, you dare not trust to that. Finally, brethren, farewell. Don't seek to be going on your
own. dictates of your carnal mind.
The carnal mind takes different ways and different objects she
surveys, different from grace. Finally, brethren, farewell.
Be looking to the Lord alone, to be following Him, to be heeding
His word, heeding His word as He commands us. Oh, as He set
the example, as He marked out the path, Like our glorious leader
claims our praise for his own pattern given, while the long
cloud of witnesses show the same path to heaven, we consider a
great cloud of witnesses. You know, coming to that following
chapter in Hebrews, seeing we all so a compass about, we're
so great a cloud of witnesses. It's, I believe, profitable. I've felt it so. to sit down
and think of all those we've known who we trust are now in
heaven, seeing we are all so encompassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses. If I go back my 63 years I've
been in the way, thinking of those that we felt had loved
doing many years ago, and many are home in heaven, we believe.
Oh, we're all so encompassed about. We so great a cloud of
witnesses, we know what it states in the Hebrews 11. They all died in faith, not having
received the promise, but having seen it afar off. We, living
in gospel days, in a sense we have more light than those Old
Testament saints, but how are we? Are we seeing this light? Are we walking in light? Are
we living in this way? in the favour of what God has
granted us to be favoured with in this New Testament days, these
days of the New Dispensation. But they're the last time, friends.
Oh, are we struck with the solemnity of being in the last times. When
Antichrist shall come, we need to be on our guard. In the last
days, perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God. And we're no better, friends.
But has God's mighty grace arrested us? And are we being sanctified
under God's mighty grace? Are we being prepared by God
for that prepared place in heaven? Finally, brethren, farewell. You want to journey on. You want
to endure to the end. You want to gain the fort at
last. Oh, there's that, which is set
forth in Psalm 107, which is ever so much felt and known by
God's people. Wonderfully it states, and he
led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city
of habitation. But oh, as we come to different
parts of that long psalm, oh, I think especially that most
solemn place we come to, oh, Coles, because of their Iniquities
because of their transgressions are afflicting. His soul abhorreth
all manner of meat. They draw near unto the gates
of death. But this is a favour, friends.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. And he saveth
them out of their distresses. And he does everything. He maketh
the storm a calm that waves her rubber still. But then are they
glad because they be quiet. Oh, favour to be quiet. Wonderful
favour God grants his people, quiet in tribulation, quiet in
affliction, quiet under the onslaught of the enemy perhaps. Trusting in our God, our Saviour. Trust in the Lord at all times,
ye people. God is a refuge for us, sealer. I think of it, thinking of such,
what we've just said. I think of a word that comes. One
of God's servants came to us at Ashwell with it. In everything
give thanks. He'd come to Ashwell with it
a little while after we'd lost our son. Told me afterwards,
he was thinking, saying, coming along the road, he couldn't come
with it, he said to the Lord. I can't come with it, go with
it. In everything give thanks. But he did preach very well that
night and it was commended to my heart, friends, and to my
dear one. Oh, in everything give thanks.
It's only by grace we can. Perhaps I shouldn't say only,
it's such a wonderful thing that by grace we can. In everything
give thanks. Finally, brethren, farewell.
It will be in this, friends, that we will be faring well in
the pilgrimage journey, enduring and pressing on to perfect day. We can in everything give thanks.
We know that all things work together for good to them that
love God and to them who are the called according to His purpose.
Sometimes in the depths of sorrow and trouble. It's very hard to
say that, but when the favour of grace is granted and grace
in exercise, we can acknowledge it. We can thank God, praise
God. Nothing is out of order. It's
God's way. It's God's will. Sovereign God. Sovereign ruler of the skies.
Ever gracious, ever wise. Like my godly grandfather, When
he was coming down to his end, we'd be able to say, all must
come, and last and end, as shall please, my heavenly friend. All favour indeed. Finally, brethren, farewells. God gives thee grace, as he gives
thee the graces that is need, so much need. Finally, brethren,
farewell. Be perfect. Be perfect. You know, that which
the Lord does have to teach his people is that we are wretched
sinners. We're unholy. One of him writes,
puts it, that I'm unholy, needs no proof, I sorely feel the fall. Be perfect. What does it further
say? Christ has holiness enough to
sanctify us all. Be perfect. We must be, we must
be looking unto Jesus, looking to Him who is the perfect One,
who was the perfect sacrifice, sacrificed Himself, shed His
vital blood, the blood of God shed at Calvary. Be perfect. For this we need to know and
be in the favour of union with the Lamb. and have fellowship
with him, fellowship with God through the mediators, blah,
be perfect. Oh, the reality, solemn reality
of every one of us is we're wretched sinners. We're leprous, we have
to cry out, unclean, unclean. But here the exhortation is be
perfect. And we know we need to be. We
know we need to be made so, because nothing there shall in no wise
enter into heaven, anything that defileth or maketh alive, but
they that have their names written in the Lamb's book of life. And
they shall be made perfect in Christ, washed in his blood,
clothed in his righteousness, thoughtless to stand before the
throne of God on the judgment day. Be perfect. It's not that we can make ourselves
perfect and we won't just claim we're perfect. Be perfect as
we look away from ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ and to
Him and all what He has wrought and brought in and done for the
Church. Be perfect. Be perfect. All are seeking to know and interest
in the Saviour's blood. have pardon signed and peace
with God. Have you got exercise? Desire
to be perfect, which means also we should acknowledge means complete,
yeah, completing Him. To know it, friends. To have
the witness of it, the assurance of it. Be perfect. Oh, it's looking to Jesus alone.
He's pleasing all what He has done, in your prayers. It's believing He pleads for
you, knowing Him as your Advocate, your Mediator, your Great High
Priest, or He, your Lord and your life and your all. Let's
consider you want to be perfect. To be perfect is the exaltation. And we do need to be made perfect,
made complete in Him, washed and cleansed and clothed in His
righteousness and justified by faith in Him, be perfect. It's
the work of the Spirit of God to make application of Christ's
divine atonement to us. All will be cleansed. It's a wonderful word the Lord
spoke in John's Gospel. Ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you. For those disciples he spoke
that to. Various words, different words.
And you here tonight, the favour, as it is in you, exercise a desire
to want to know and be assured of your part and lot in God's
great salvation. That Jesus lived and died and
rose again for you and is in heaven in his offices for you. You want to know, you want assurance
of it. What words has the Lord spoken
to you in the past? I see it like this, as the Lord
said to his disciples in here, clean through the word which
I have spoken unto you. What has he spoken unto you? Hang on to several words the
Lord has spoken to me, wonderfully to me. How he so blessed me and
favoured me. in earlier days of experience.
And oh, if they are true, as we trust they are, you know you're
clean, you're washed, you're cleansed, you're clothed in the
righteousness of Christ, sin forgiven. Oh, sin forgiven, glory
and eternal Lord, be to every incarnate God. Do you have that
hope, that favour? Do you know forgiveness? pardon
and peace that flows into the soul through the blood of the
Lamb applied by the Spirit of God. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Oh, friends, we pray for this
for our friends that are afflicted, our friends who have lost loved
ones. We pray for their comfort. I try to pray for the Lord, to
the Lord that he would comfort them with the comfort of his
love. But here it's be of good comfort.
It's an experience. It's in the path of the child
of God. Be of good comfort. It must be,
can only be, the comfort of his love. Be of good comfort. Thrive, comfortable, hopeful.
that calms my stormy breast, that my Father's hand prepares
the cup, and what He wills is best. Be of good comfort. It's the comfort of God love.
Do we know anything of it, friends? Have we known it? Do we know
it? Do we desire to know it? Be of good comfort, believing
in Jesus Christ. Believing to the saving of your
soul. Not easy believing, but the true
believing of a true born child of God. Believing in Jesus, that
he is the son of God. Believing in all what he has
accomplished in his life. He's going about doing good. He's keeping the whole law of
God, making it honourable on his people's behalf. bringing
in everlasting righteousness for the church, his sacrifice,
his sufferings in Gethsemane and in the Hall of Judgment and
Calvary. Oh, what he went through, friends,
what he endured, no tongue can tell, to save our souls from
death and hell. But we know a little, friends. We know a little. Oh, is God's
sanctified suffering to you? I think of how it's been with
one another, how I had it myself when we had so many sores through
our skin trouble. Looking in the mirror and sadly
taking self-pity upon oneself. And then the Lord coming with
solemn conviction in a moment, making me feel how wrong it was
to be in self-pity. and then the words. The Holy
Spirit, as it were, spoke the word to one. His message was
mild, more than any man's. Friends, have you seen your Saviour
in such a way by faith? What He suffered for you, what
He's done for you, what He bore for you, Oh, the comfort it brings. Oh,
the peace it brings. And the Holy Spirit so reveals
Christ and makes him to be so adorable, so lovely before the
eye of faith. Oh, you can say, my Jesus has
done all things well. Wonder of wonders for such a
wretched sinner that he's done so much for us. Loved us. Loved me and gave himself for
me. Oh, friends, be of good comfort. Seek it, beg for it. Oh, may
the Lord grant it. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. What a favour
it is to be of one mind. When we're given to have friends
and walk together and love ones In families it would be God's
will to bless one another. One of a city, two of a family
and bring them under Zion. Favour, walking hand in hand.
All those that have been favoured in their souls and favoured to
testify what the Lord has done. Hand in hand we would be walking. I and Jesus knew commands of
His love would have me talking. till we reach Fair Canyon's land. Be of one mind. One mind in the
Lord. This can only be as by grace,
friends. Not unequally yoked together
as we think of marriage. Be of one mind. Live in peace. Live in peace. Be of one mind. Live in peace. How important
it is we should be Zealous for this. Exercise for this. Desirous of this. Live in peace. Oh, what peace. The peace of
God. Oh, that peace. Peace. The peace
of God which passes all understanding. The apostle was concerned in
writing to the Philippians, I think it is, where he said, be careful
for nothing. That means, I think, over-careful,
wrongly careful. Of course we should be graciously
careful for important things. But be careful for nothing but
in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests
be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all
understanding shall keep your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus. Live in peace. Oh, God teaches
his people. The way to live in peace is to
be in union, in communion, in fellowship. We can't command
that ourselves, but how blessed we are when the Lord grants it,
when he grants that favour, that we can so walk together and agree
together and live in peace. Oh, in this way. all favouring
dear, and to know God's peace, and that peace of God which passeth
all understanding, and that we'll keep our hearts and minds by
Christ Jesus, God's keeping, God's grace to keep his people,
his love, his loving kindness, his tender mercies, all the way
of God in grace, in and for his people, to favour them, to bless
them, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Is he with you, friends? Is the
God of love and peace with you? Oh, we don't want to prompt any
to presume or to make any wrong statement, but this is a question
we each should ask ourselves. Is he with us? Is he our Lord,
our God, our Lord, our life, our all? And the God of peace
shall be with you. This is a promise, friends. And
the God of peace shall be with you upon the grounds of all what
is here exhorted and the favour when it is heeded by the grace
of God in the child of God. And the child of God is an exercise,
heeding the word as it is here. These exhortations, be perfect,
be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the
God of love and peace shall be with you. Sure, this is an assurance
in the Word. It will, it's a promise. It's
God's statement through His Apostle. The God of love and peace shall
be with you. With you. And friends, that's
everlasting. It's not just for a moment or
a day, that's forever. That's forever. The God of love
and peace shall be with you. Oh, with you now. With you when
you come to the swellings of Jordan. With you when you pass
the river to land your safe home. Oh, favour indeed this is. We desire it for loved ones,
for friends and heirs. Oh, live in peace. And the God
of love and peace shall be with you, with you forever. So whatever comes, oh, it will
be well. Well, while life shall last and
well when called to die. And the God of peace. It's given
us to be enabled. Where God exhorts in His Word,
He doesn't exhort His people to do anything that they cannot
do. They can by grace. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. Proving the graces of the Spirit
given, the enabling graces, you know, to be in true believing. It's the enabling grace of faith
that gives a child of God to be in true believing, in favour
of that. And the blessed comfort of His
love is known by the way the Spirit works. As we know, in
John 14 the Lord said, I will not leave you comfortless. I
will come to you. Oh, God's people seek this comfort,
be of good comfort. Oh, experiencing the comfort
of His love, His presence, His abiding presence, Christ within
you, Christ in you, the hope of glory, with Christ in the
vessel, our smile at the storm, however fierce and heavy it is. Oh, the storms that we've known
naturally coming one day. There was a day I was coming
up from Southampton, up the Twyford Downs. And they just opened up
the downs with the new road. And there were the new bright
metal barriers going right up that hill. And the lightning
was striking the barriers. And every one of us were crawling
along. I was due to preach at Luton
Ebenezer in the evening. I thought I should never get
there. But oh, the storm passed and we got on and did get there,
but we were half an hour late. Wonderfully, the Lord had told
Alan Rayner what to read. I tried to get his son to tell
him that he may give the storm a calm, the 107th Psalm. When I got there half an hour
late, a friend was thanking the Lord for the help they were continuing
to know, and saying to the Lord, we have finished and brought
love. And I thought, he has read the 107th Psalm. But when I asked
him, his son had had no contact with him. Call me. The Lord gave
him the word. Such is our God, friends, and
such are we, the subjects of His wise decree. His will, His eternal purposes
of love and mercy for His people, His sureness of all His holy
will, in all His holy will. He is, though I am blind, too
wise to be mistaken, too good to be unkind. So, these words,
friends, I hope the Lord will give us each meditation on them,
and the God of love and peace be with you. Let us just try
to think of our God as the God of love and peace, and His purpose
is to be with His people forever, because He's formed them for
Himself, chosen them for His praise, He said he would bring
them in that way, like as it is in Isaiah, bring them to be
his people. They are acknowledged perhaps
in a way which some would not want to acknowledge. Beasts of
the field shall honour me, the dragon and the owl. I give waters
in the wilderness, springs in the desert. This people have
I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise,
how humbling it is, if we have some blessed hope. We are among
these people, the people of his holy choice, the people who he
has loved with an everlasting love and with loving-kindness
as he drawn them, and the people the Son of God came to this earth
to redeem, to suffer, bleed and die, to bring in for them, eternal
redemption, whole salvation, and all what they need to make
them right and keep them right, and that they may be taken home
to heaven to be forever with the Lord at God's appointed time,
and be in that ransom throng around the throne, singing, worthy
is the Lamb. Oh, may we be. the shores of
our prospect of it, friends. May we know, may we be blessed
to be perfect, complete in Christ, and know His comfort, the comfort
of God's love, and be in one mind, of one mind, and live in
peace. And the God of love and peace
shall be with you. With you, dear people here at
Cranbrook, You dear people who come from Lambethurst, you dear
people who come from any other cause, be with you, O may it
be so. May you have the assurance of
it. May you know the comfort of his love, the joys of salvation. In that way as the Spirit gives
witness, bears witness with your spirits, with our spirits, that
we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs,
joint heirs with Christ. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. Live in peace. And the God of love and peace
shall be with you. That's forever and ever. Oh,
forever and ever. Forever with the Lord. Amen. So let it be. It is so for God's
people, may we know, and be assured we're among his people. that
she'll praise Him forever in glory. See, Lord, sing more sweet,
more clear, and Christ shall be our song. Oh, worthy is the
Lamb that died, they cried, to be exalted thus worthy the Lamb. Their lips replied, for He was
slain for us. May the Lord and His blessing. Amen.