Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the chapter we've read, 2
Chronicles chapter 34, and reading for our text, verse 27. Especially these words, because
thine heart was tender, the very first words of The verse, because
thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God,
when thou heardest his words against this place, and against
the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and
didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard
thee also, saith the Lord. 2 Chronicles 34 verse 27. I want to speak this evening
of the blessing of a tender heart. This is what Josiah, And it's
very evident that when he was come to the kingdom at only eight
years of age and come after there was the terrible kingdom, you
might say, of Manasseh, though at the last he was brought to
repentance, but over a 50-year kingdom, much of it in wickedness,
And then comes Josiah. And while he is but very young,
he begins to make reformation in the land and to take away
the idols. It appears even without the word
of God, even without reading the law, which we had this morning
referred to the covenant made as they were coming into the
land of Canaan, which was in addition to that which was given
at Horeb, the Ten Commandments. And he, before he had that read
to him as found in the house of the Lord, it is obvious that
he did know. that all of the idols, how wrong
they were, and sought to set these things right. And we are
reminded that even those who don't have the Word of God, that
they do have some sense of right and wrong and what is pleasing
to God and what is not pleasing to Him. Man can go quite a long
way with just things that they've heard or even their own conscience
bearing witness to realize that those things round about them,
that they are not right in the sight of God. And yet there is
the vital need of the Word of God being found, the Word of
God being read, and knowing clearly what is the mind and will of
the Lord, what is required, what is the Word of the Lord. With Josiah we have such an example
of breaking of the chain of wickedness. It happened several times through
the history of Judah especially, not so much Israel that had a
long line of ungodly kings, but we have the wicked king Manasseh
following his godly father Hezekiah. We have before Hezekiah Ahaz
again a wicked king and just because one king or one generation
didn't follow the Lord and was wicked, didn't mean that the
next one, even though it was a son, would follow in that same
way. And it should quite encourage
us in that. You see, especially in the Word
of God, the effect of one leader. I know we don't have in our land
the same divine right of kings, if you like. We have our governments
and we have the laws that are made. But one strong leader with
the Lord's blessing to be upon him, what a profound effect that
had. The people were still the same.
Those that made those idols, those that worshipped them, they
were still there. And it was very evident when
the kingdom changed, and especially if it's changed to a wicked king,
they went straight back to those wicked ways again. But there
is an encouragement here in that breaking of the chain, and that
one is raised up, that is prepared to go against what has been the
norm for many years before. A wonderful thing it would be
in our land if that was to be so. A real revival and those
raised up to clearly lead in a way of righteousness and uprightness. Another thing to note at this
time, this is going to be a time of revival. It was foretold Several
hundred years ago, a couple of hundred years before, even Josiah
was named as the one that should burn the bones of the priests
upon the altar. In fact, it was the time when
Jeroboam I made those first altars at Bethel and at Dan, the prophecy
was made. The disobedient prophet was the
one that was used to make this prophecy that's come to pass
in this time. And so that was right at the
beginning of the divided kingdom and this here now is right at
the end of it because after Josiah, we've only got another two kingdoms. In fact, after his reign, which
was a reign of some 31 years, then there is only another four
years and Nebuchadnezzar comes and the prophecy that is told
here of the Lord's judgment upon the place was brought about very
quickly. That would have been when Daniel
was taken into captivity and then it was some years later,
nine years later or so, that then we have the temple destroyed
and the rest brought into captivity. So we have this right at the
end. Just because there was going
to be revival here, it didn't take away that which the Lord
said he would do because of the wickedness done in Manasseh's
day and before that as well, right through the years. But
even though that was the case, it was still not a discouragement
to Josiah to actually do the reformation here. He didn't say,
well, it's a waste of time. Jerusalem will be dealt with,
the temple will be ruined, that Nebuchadnezzar will come,
or the enemy will come, and so it's no use doing this. He didn't
do that. And this is what we spoke this
morning, the secret things that belong unto God. And those things that are revealed
belong unto us. You might have thought, well,
Josiah would say, well, God has even has revealed this, that
his judgment shall come. Now, if we were told in our chapels,
well, you know, come 35 years, going to be a judgment for sins
that have been before our time or sins that are in our time.
And we think, well, there's no use repainting. It's no use repairing. It's no use doing up the seats. We'll just let it just deteriorate
and to go down because it's going to finish anyway. You know, you
find Josiah here, he is diligently getting the work done, and even
more so when he hears the words of the book. So he's not regulating
what he does, even by what he's told of future judgments, but
regulating it by the word of God. And we should do the same. That which is revealed to us
and that which we had this morning, that we may do all the words
of this law. So we don't want to be discouraged
by wondering about the future, what the future will hold. We
should deal faithfully with the word today and keep the house
of God in good order today and leave it before the Lord, what
he does, whether he revive, lengthen our days, or bring judgment,
or bring an end. The Lord knows what He will do.
And it's a better thing when the Lord comes a second time,
if He finds us watching, waiting, and diligent, and occupying till
He comes. We don't want to be like the
Thessalonians who thought the Lord would come quickly, so they
stopped doing their work and ended up with idleness. We are
not to do that, we are to fashion our lives and what we do according
to the word of God. So we have the words of our text,
when they found the book of the law in the house of God, as they
were renovating it, cleaning it out, what a solemn low position
that Israel had got, that Judah had got, that the house of God
had got such disrepair and the book of the Lord so hidden that
they didn't know what was in it came as a shock and a surprise. You wonder how much we're getting
like that in our land and how many how many even in established
churches do not know what is in the Word of God. They do not
know what the law of God is, they do not know what is right
or what is wrong. We might think it impossible
that that should happen, but if God's ancient people got to
that state and that condition, and really as well, What was
representative of their inward state of soul and their worship
was the outward condition of the buildings. Those things went
together. Some people might say, well,
it doesn't matter what the buildings look like or what upkeep it is,
but certainly in Josiah's time, he finds that two things have
gone together The actual temple had fallen into disrepair and
the people were far off from the Lord and ignorant of his
word. Those two go together. It's always
a delight as a minister of the gospel in going round the churches
to actually find, and sometimes it is the smallest of churches,
how well kept and neat they are. Before you even get into the
pulpit, before you even preach, It's an encouragement. Here is
a people that love the house of God, that take care of it,
that are encouraged and like to make the house nice. And yet the other hand, when
you go into a place and you see it all in decay or obviously
very neglected, not just the grass let go for one or two weeks
or a month but obviously of a long-running deterioration and that makes
you very, very sad. And so we have these two things
going together here and yet what made, what is the point here
when the Word of God is found and they seek and Josiah realizes
the judgment of the Lord upon this place, if these words are
right, then he inquires of the Lord and inquires, it appears
at this time that it is a woman that is the prophetess, and the
Lord speaks through her, and it is the words of our text,
is the word of the Lord through her. Because thine heart was
tender, thou didst humble thyself before God. When thou heardest
his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof,
and humblest thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes and
weep before me, I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. So I want to look with the Lord's
help, firstly, at God, the giver of a tender heart. And then secondly,
when a tender heart is evidenced. And then thirdly, the effect
of a tender heart. I want to make it clear in this
that God is the one that gives a tender heart. in our middle
hymn of a hard heart and one that really feels it and needs
the Lord to give that tender and soft heart. By nature, our
heart is a stone. We have those beautiful verses
in Ezekiel chapter 36 where some
of the blessings that God gives is another heart. a softened
heart. Here it is that changes the heart,
renews the will, turns our feet to Zion's hill as we have in
Hymn 76. We are fallen and the heart is
touched. The heart is hard by nature and
the giver of a softened, teachable heart, a heart that will hear
A heart that will listen to the word of God and not rise up in
rebellion against it and kick against it is that which God
gives. We all have different dispositions
but we all, in spite of that, are fallen We are shaven in iniquity,
in sin, and it is the heart where our Lord was very clear, precede
all the evil thoughts and adulteries and murders, and the evil thoughts
and affections, they all come not out of the fleshy heart that
pumps our blood round the body, but what is said of the, really
the reins or the moving part of us. It's not something like
with our mind, yes it is part of our mind, but our mind, we
can call it into action to either think or process things, but
when we speak about the heart, we're more about a man's or woman's
disposition and a characteristic that lies beneath the actual
thoughts. We might say a nature, an old
nature, a new nature, an old nature, a hard heart, one not
open to the Lord at all, a new nature, one that is. open to
the Lord. And so it is that that's very
deep-rooted and what must be given in the new birth, the Lord
changing that person, giving them a new nature. You must be
born again, born of the Spirit. And what is given is this teachableness
and a tender heart and it is a preparation for what follows
on from that. You know, if you get a child
that is at school and they aren't teachable, then you can have
a very good maths teacher, English teacher, geography or whatever,
but it's no use because that child doesn't want to learn,
doesn't want to listen, disrupts the class, there's no intention
of following along what is set before them, But you get one
that is teachable, one that likes the subject, one that sees their
need of it, one that thinks, well, if I want to be a doctor
or an engineer, I need to know this maths. I need to know this
English. This is vital if I want to do,
if I want to go where I want to go. And because of that which
is deep within, then it shapes how they're listening how they're
receiving the Word. And that comes as a preparation. And so, our Lord is emphatic
upon that new heart being given, a new nature, a new life. And
having got that, we may be ignorant of many, many things. We may
not know much of the doctrines, much of the truth at all, but
just to have instead of hostility, to have a willingness to learn
and to be taught and to accept those things that are told us. And so it is a gift of God, especially
where there's a real contrast. Once the heart was hard and unfeeling,
and then it is made soft and tender, we can trace more easily
then the Lord's hand and the Lord's work in it. One of our hymns speaks of hearing
about our sinnership and what the heart is by nature, nor are
men willing to have the truth told, the sight is too killing
for pride to behold. And so when we are thinking here
of a tender heart, we have a humbled heart. We have one that is made
to be humble and opposite to pride. And this is why we had
the hymns that we have sung. The first hymn, how blessed are
they that truly see their emptiness and poverty, whose souls are
humbled in the dust. and in who Jesus only trusts
and it is renouncing the pride of the heart as set forth there
in hymn 978 and then what we sung is in M905, that is based
on Ezekiel 36 verse 26, I will take away the stony heart. It is God's work. And I say to
any that feel a hard heart, feel a stony heart, feel that pride
is such an obstacle, and a hindrance in following the ways of the
Lord or obeying his voice, then to seek the Lord and ask the
Lord that he will humble us and he will give us this which we
haven't by nature and read that 36th chapter of Ezekiel, which
is lovely promises what the Lord will do for his people and give
to them. So I want to make that first. It is not the case that some
are born with a tender heart in a spiritual sense, and some
are not, we all are fallen, and the preparation of the heart
in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." And
we are told that in Solomon's writings. So I want to look then
secondly at when a tender heart is evidenced. And of course I mean specifically
in the things of God or as that which touches true faith through
religion. We might think that a person
is tender. They might have a natural tender
disposition. But when is a true heart made
tender by God, when is that evidenced? And we have that in Josiah's
case. Not really told at first though,
it would appear so in the deeds that he did even when he was
quite young. But in the words of our text,
it is when the word of God came. when thou heardest his words. Because thine heart was tender
and thou didst humble thyself before God when thou heardest
his words. It is through the word of God,
hearing the word of God, that then is it evidenced that there
is a tender heart. Be mindful of that. As we read the word, as it is
read before us, what we hear, especially what we hear concerning
us, concerning the fall, concerning God's judgments, concerning God's
plan of salvation, all of the will of God, all of the purposes
of God, the gospel of God, As that is read before us, that
is one of the times that a tender heart is evidenced by its reaction
to that word. May we remember that. Now remember
also that Josiah here, though he lived in the days of the prophets,
Yet this is not the Word of God brought to him miraculously. This is the Word of God that
was written, written right back when the children of Israel first
came into Canaan. And the covenant that was made
there set forth in Deuteronomy. And they found that. And that word is then read. And just because it was written
a thousand or so years before, more than a thousand years before,
didn't mean to say it wasn't the word of God. Didn't mean
to say that It didn't have the same authority and same power. You know, it wasn't the king
even that found the word. It was one that found it and
brought it to him. And it was then read in his hearing. Verse 18, and Shaphan read it
before the king. So he wasn't even reading it,
you might say himself. It would be like coming into
the house of God, or someone meeting us privately, or listening
to the services in your home, as some may be doing tonight,
and the word of God is read to you. And that is one of the instances
when a tender heart is evidenced. That word has lost nothing by
the fact that it is written some 3,000 or 4,000 years ago, or
in the Gospels, 2,000 years ago, and that it is being read by
someone else in our hearing, and we are listening and hearing
that. That is what with Josiah, is that's the situation that
the test is applied that a tender heart has been given by God. So may we remember that, that
it is the Word. Now, not only is it the Word
of God, there's other things as well that evidence a tender
heart. If we were to go back 230 years
from this time, we'd get back to Jehoshaphat's day. And Jehoshaphat was a godly king
of Judah, but he seemed to have one weakness, that he liked union,
and the fact that Israel was still, the other 10 tribes were
still of Jacob's seed of Israel, then he all the time tried to
have union with them. And there's some Christians like
that. And they always like to have union, too close a union,
to those that they might say, well, they're of our bone and
our flesh, or they're of our family, and like to walk with
them. But one thing that Jehoshaphat
did not take into account was Ahab and his son, they were wicked
men. They didn't fear the Lord. He
was saying that thy horses are the same as my horses. We are
one people, but they weren't one people. And when Ahab was
killed and they wanted to know, whether it was right to go down
into battle at Ramoth Gilead. Ahab had his 400 prophets of
Baal and despised, he said, when Jehoshaphat said, is there not
here a prophet of the Lord? He said, there is, he's my kind,
but I hate him, for he never speaks good for the king, but
only evil. Jehoshaphat said, let not the
king say so. And here is a godly man trying
to walk with a man that doesn't want to hear the Word of God.
He heard 400 prophets of Baal, but not the Word of God. And
God chastened him because of that. And it's a mercy that he
wasn't slain at that time, but the Lord preserved his life. But we have two accounts in the
Word. One in Two Chronicles, the same
book as we're in, and chapter 20 at the end of that chapter.
And we read, and after this did Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, join
himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who did very wickedly. And he joined himself with him
to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion-Geba. Then Elisa the son of Dodivah
of Moresia prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because
thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken
thy works, and the ships were broken that they were not able
to go to Tarshish. So God chastened him and dealt
with him in this way. And we look at in a moment the
effect of this, but under the chastening hand of God, a tender
heart is evidenced. And you can see that as well
with a child. If you chasten and correct a
child, Some will bow before it, they'll be sorry, they'll say
sorry, they'll take their punishment. Others, they'll defy you to your
face, they'll rise up against it, they'll be unhumbled and
still a stubborn spirit and still go on in that way. And under-chastening
is one of the ways as well that is a test of how tender is that
heart? Has it really come from the Lord
or not? Another way is temptation. When we get tempted and tempted
to evil, it's in that way that our heart, whether it is tender
towards the things of God or not, is evidenced. And this was
so with Joseph when he was constantly tempted by his master's wife. It was an occasion where he could
easily have fallen And yet it was then that his tender heart
was evidence. So the word of God, chastening,
temptation, another one would be in where there is seeking
direction and guidance. By nature we like to go our own
way, And one of the things that the Lord does with his people,
when he puts forth his sheep, he goeth before them. We have
the beautiful promise, I will instruct thee and guide thee
in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye. And so again, nevertheless not
my will, but thy will be done. It is in guidance, the children
of Israel through the wilderness, When the fiery cloudy pillar
moved, they moved. When it stopped, they stopped.
And they were to be subject to that. And so that again is another
occasion, another time, when the tender heart is evidenced. We are told the fire shall try
every man's work of what sort it is. And grace, says the hymn
writer, though the smallest, must surely be tried. The grace
of a tender heart, the grace of humility, it must be tried. And sometimes it will be that
the people of God fall under it and are reproved and realise
that they were under the influence of a proud heart and their old
nature. It's not a case of them not being
possessive of the new birth, but as being in a backslidden
and a fallen state and condition. And usually when that is the
case, the Lord will bring that one back and will bring that
one humbled again. But it's good to know those occasions,
and especially here where we are told very clearly in our
text that it was when the words of the Lord were heard that there
was this evidence. Well, how is it? What is the
effect of a tender heart? Well, when Josiah heard the word
of God, we read this, because thine heart was tender and thou
didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words
against this place, not just smooth words or words of blessing,
but words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof,
and humblest thyself before me, and it was in a very evident
way as well, that is, rend thy clothes, weep before me. It was
very evident. We see the case with the Ninevites
when God gave them repentance. He sent Jonah and they demonstrated
turning from their wicked ways and evil ways, putting on sackcloth
and ashes in a very demonstrative way and they fell before the
word. They didn't just ridicule Jonah
or they didn't say, well, Nothing will happen at all. It's a similar
situation to here. And so the evidence of a tender
heart under the Word of God, it falls before the Word. How
much we see today, men will have the Word of God and they'll disagree
with it, they'll pull it apart, they'll cut it to pieces, they
will take out the The gods that did not create the heavens and
the earth, they shall perish from under the heavens and the
earth. from the Word and then adding
into it all sorts of traditions and other things. If we truly
have a tender heart, we will receive the Word from Genesis
to Revelation as the inspired, infallible Word of God and humble
ourselves before that Word. My sheep, the Lord says, they
hear my voice, they follow me. I have given them thy Word and
the world hath hated them. In John 17, the Lord is very
clear of what a dividing point the Word of God is. And one of
the kings of Judah as well, taking the penknife, cutting the Word
in pieces in Jeremiah's day, and such a disregard to it and
an unhumbling before Him. And so I'd say if you, if I,
have been given the Word of God, if we have the Word of God, may
we pray to the Lord that he will give us a tender heart and that
be evidenced by humbling ourselves before the Word. We might not
understand it all. We certainly don't understand
it all. It is the Book of the Eternal
God and We had this morning, there are those things that are
the secret things of God, that belong unto God. There are those
things that were secret in Old Testament times, that are now
revealed in New Testament times. There are those that are still
not revealed, that are yet to be revealed. There are many things
we don't understand, that maybe fall before the Word, and not
make the Word, or try to make the Word fall before us. and our proud heart. We think of what effect it had
with the chastening with Jehoshaphat. What did Jehoshaphat did in the
portion that we read there in Chronicles, the ships were broken,
but when we read the equivalent passage in 1 Kings, chapter 22
and verse 48, then we read this, Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish
to go to Ophir for gold, but they went not, for the ships
were broken at Ezion-geber. Then said Uzziah the son of Ahab
unto Jehoshaphat, let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. In other words, maybe your servants
weren't very good shipmen. We've got more experience. You
let them go. But we read this, but Jehoshaphat
would not. Why would he not? Because he'd
listened to the chastening hand of God. He bowed before it. He wouldn't push through and
just do it anyway, even when it was offered. by Ahaziah, that
was an evidence of the humble heart under the chasing of God,
it stopped him, it brought repentance, a change. What about Joseph? What was the evidence with him
when he was constantly tempted? He testified to her, how can
I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Your husband's
given everything into my hand as the chief servant, except
you. You're his wife. How can I go
and lie with you?" And then when she tried to force him, he fled
out of the house, leaving his garment behind, and she falsely
accused him, and he ended up in prison. But his heart was
tender and so under temptation He not only testified to her,
but when really pressed, he fled from it. And so we have the evidence
of a tender heart in the reaction to how the Lord brings things.
What about guidance? If the Lord is directing us,
He stops up our way, He says, no, you don't proceed in that,
Maybe improvidence is taken out of our hand, or maybe our spirit
is restrained and we can't proceed. Do we listen to that? Or do we
break through a hedge? Do we force through it and do
it anyway? Or do we listen to the Lord's
still small voice in the matter? Remember when Moses was sent
to the children of Israel in Egypt And Moses was concerned
at first that they wouldn't even believe that God had sent him.
So God gave him the signs. And he said to Moses, you do,
well Aaron was to do those signs in front of the children of Israel.
If they hear not the voice of the first sign, then they'll
hear the voice of the second. The signs that Moses did, Aaron
did, were a voice. And with our Lord, the miracles
that he did on earth were a voice. They testified who he was, who
his father was, and they testified of his divinity and his power
to raise from the dead and to do those miracles. But in these gospel days, when
we hear the word of God, when we hear the way of salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ, The natural man doesn't like
to hear that salvation is not of works. All the time we want
to do something to merit and earn our salvation. The apostle
is very clear that by grace you are saved through faith, that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And the way of the
Lord Jesus Christ is a humble way. When the disciples were
arguing amongst themselves who should be the greatest or reasoning,
then he goes and he sets a child before them and he said, who
so shall humble himself as this little child shall be greatest
in the kingdom of heaven. And it is a humble way to bow
before the Lord. Nevertheless, not my will, says
our Lord, but thy will be done. And that will be or should be
our attitude as well. If we are to truly receive eternal
life as a sovereign gift, free gift, unmerited, a favour from
heaven, then it will be received by a tender heart, a softened
heart, to bow before it. You think of Naaman, and Naaman,
and you might be saying, well, I really do want salvation, but
Naaman, he was a leper, and he really wanted to be cleansed,
but he had some idea of how he would be cleansed. And it was
a nice public way that the prophet would come and wave his hand
over the matter and over the leper and proclaimed words. But all the prophet did was to
send out a messenger, go and wash in Jordan seven times. Well,
Jordan, He thought there's a lot better rivers in the country
where he came from, in Syria, than just to do something so
mean as just to go and wash seven times. And we read, he went away
in a rage. Where was his tender heart? And yet his servants prevailed
upon him, said, if the man of God had asked thee to do some
great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much more so
when he just says, go and wash? And then he humbled himself.
Then he went and did and he washed and he came again in his flesh
as a little child. And so we can at first rise up,
rise up in anger, rise up against the thing, but afterward and
maybe by the entreating of others be humbled and brought down before
the Lord and to obey and to do his will. Is it the case with
some of us that We've risen against the Lord. Our hard heart will
not bow. Maybe we feel they're not one
of the Lord's. The Lord hasn't given us a tender
heart. May the Lord, through the word
tonight, give you that tender heart. See what their situation
is. Give you sweet submission to
his will, humbling beneath his hand. As you walk in the path
of dear Josiah here, And it be said, because thine heart was
tender. There was a blessing in it for
him, a blessing in it. That wrath that was to come on
Judah was going to come, but God was going to take him away. Some would say, and Josiah was
killed in battle actually, and some would say, how is that a
blessing? But the righteous perisheth,
no man layeth it to heart, none considering that he's taken from
the wrath to come. Going right back to Jeroboam
I, where the prophet prophesied of what Josiah would do. He had
a son that was sick, and he sent his wife to make out she was
some other person to find out what would happen to that child.
And the prophet, who was blind, wasn't deceived by her making
out she was another person. God had told him who was coming
and told him to tell her that that child, as soon as she stepped
over the threshold into the city, going home, that child would
die. How hard that would be to walk
back and knowing that as soon as you came into that city, your
son would die. You will never see him alive
again. And that came to pass, but God
said the reason was that he, because he only in the house
of Jeroboam was some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel.
And it was a blessing. The Lord took him from a wicked
household, an evil family, and took him home to glory. took
him to be with himself. And we would read that different.
We would always look upon death as being a curse and something
wrong, and not considering. The Lord says, I will that they
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory. When? At 30 years of age? At 20? At five? At three? Some
of us have known Those that have been free, they're being taken
home and we believe they're with the Lord. Or 60, or 80, or 100
years of age, are we to measure when it is right for the Lord
to take home his people? Or shall not the judge of all
the earth do right? Well, the Lord ordered it with
Josiah that he would take him before he brought his judgments. Josiah wasn't to see the temple
destroyed. If he'd have lived only some
12 or 13 years later, he would have, but he didn't. If he lived
even another four years, he would have seen the enemy come into
the habitation and the captives taken away, but the Lord took
him home before that came to pass. And so a blessing, even
in death, being preserved from seeing what
was to come in the generations to come. A blessing that was
because his heart was tender and is bound up with the new
birth, with our hope for heaven. If the Lord has taught us, then
he will give us. And he will correct us when we
haven't got it, but he will give us or maintain again to us. a
tender heart, because thine heart was tender. There's one thing
the Lord often uses to make people's heart tender, is to give them
a sight of himself, what he endured for them at Calvary, his sufferings,
his death, what it cost to redeem their souls and to bring them
to heaven. May the Lord bless us with such
faith and humility before the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.