Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Luke chapter 24 and reading
for our text, verse 21. Verse 21, but we trusted that
it had been He which should have redeemed Israel and beside all
this, Today is the third day since these things were done. Luke chapter 24 and verse 21. But we trusted. These dear disciples, they had
heard the Lord's teaching, they'd seen Him, they had drawn a conclusion
from all that the Lord had said, that he was to redeem Israel. We trusted that it had been he
which should have redeemed Israel. Well, the Lord had redeemed his
dear people on Calvary's tree. But their trust was upon the
mistaken thought that to redeem Israel, he would not have to
go to the cross, he would not be crucified, he would not die. It was a mistake on their part. And the Lord, he draws near to
them, and he, after drawing out from them their sorrow and their
perplexity. Then he upraised them, he says
to them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets have spoken, or not Christ who has suffered these
things, and to enter into his glory. The crucifixion in God's
purposes was not a mistake. Their interpretation or their
thoughts were a mistake. They'd seen all the facts, as
it were. They'd had the Scriptures. The
Lord tells them they had. But how they applied them, they
were mistaken. Now, what is upon my spirit this
evening is corrected mistakes or mistakes in the Word of God
that the Lord has corrected or some that were thought to be
mistakes and yet they were not. And when I say mistakes, what
is on my spirit is not things like you might say, well, it
was a mistake of David to commit adultery and murder. It was a
mistake for him to number the children of Israel There are
those that were clear disobedience, they were sins, but there are
other things that, like this here, it is a mistake. You don't find the word mistake
in our Authorised Version Bible at all. You read of errors, you
read of those that erred, But you don't read of actually mistake,
but you read about many things that were mistakes or thought
to be mistakes. And that is what is upon my spirit
this evening. We have this case here, really,
in this chapter, there's three mistakes that have to be corrected. we have in the very first part
of it, the first day of the week, that the disciples, they came
to the sepulchre. Well, of course you'd think that
they'd do that, and that's where they'd last seen their Lord laid
in the tomb. And so they go there, and yet
they have the angels speaking to them. and asking them this
question, why seek ye the living among the dead? You're seeking
the wrong place. This is where the dead are, but
the Lord is living. You say, well, it's a very understandable
mistake. And yet here it is, a mistake
corrected. We may ask ourselves, and this,
if we are seeking a living saviour, where are we seeking him? If we're seeking life for our
own souls, are we seeking amongst people that also have life in
their souls and are truly the Lord's people? Or are we seeking
amongst those who are spiritually dead and do not know the Lord
themselves? Why seek ye the living among
the dead? Dear Ruth, in the book of Ruth,
how she sought and claimed to Naomi, her mother-in-law, and
no doubt she saw in the midst of all her afflictions and trials,
a widow as she was, that she was a living soul. She trusted, she believed, she
obeyed. She was going back to Bethlehem,
And she had a love to her for the truth's sake. And that is
a blessed thing to do. If we are seeking life for our
own souls, seek it amongst those who also have life. The Apostle
Paul says, be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ. And Moses, he says to his father-in-law,
come with us. and we will do thee good. So may we not be reproved in
this way, making a mistake, seeking the living, a living saviour,
a living people, but among the dead. And of course we have where
our text is, where there was an interpreting of the Word of
God and anticipating how it would be brought about, and how many
mistakes are made in that way, that we feel that we have some
intimation of what the Lord will do, and we form in our own minds,
we run along a bit faster than the Lord, and think how he shall
do it and how it shall come to pass. And this is what had happened
here. In fact, even later, When our
Lord was to be taken up into heaven, they said, then will
thou at this time restore the kingdom unto Israel? And they're
still thinking that this is to be an earthly kingdom, that the
Lord says, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom
were of this world, then would my servants find. And here below
his kingdom is in the hearts of his people and to make ready
a people prepared for the Lord when he comes a second time and
shall receive them up into heaven with himself. So shall we ever
be with the Lord. But even that, we need to be
so careful that when we read the word and they had the Old
Testament scriptures here with them, and thought they were interpreting
it in a right way and yet making a mistake and how it cast them
down, how it discouraged them. Especially though that this is
a real warning to us when it would affect our lives. We think
of the Apostle Paul having to write to the Thessalonian church
that their mistake was they thought the Lord's coming was absolutely
imminent. So they didn't work, they didn't
go on with their lives at all. And the apostle had to warn them
to continue like it was with the captives in Babylon. They
were going to have 70 years in Babylon. And in effect, they
were saying, well, let's just sit it out and, you know, this
is 70 wasted years. No, says the prophet. Lord, word
is to you, build houses. marry, have children, build up,
be strengthened in Babylon, and then the Lord will bring you
back out. We can easily make mistakes that
need to be corrected, especially if it is profoundly affecting
our lives. We need to be careful at this
time that we don't say, oh well, COVID and the pandemic has so
affected our lives, we'll put everything on hold and we'll
just wait until it goes over. redeem the time, make full use
of it, make it to be a blessed time, one of the Lord's appointments,
that which the Lord is accomplishing things here. He's not put the
whole providence of the world on hold until this is over, no. May we be very careful not to
make mistakes and where we have, listen to the Lord's voice correcting
them. We have the third one in this
passage, where the Lord appeared to his dear disciples, and at
first they were terrified and affrighted. Why? Because they
supposed that they had seen a spirit. It was a mistake. Why? They said,
he's come through a locked door, a shut door. That can't be a
mistake. It must be a spirit. And he said
unto them, why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your
hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." And he corrected
that mistake. He ate before them. He proved
to them he had a real body, bones, flesh. He had risen, the same
body that was in the tomb, the same that was on the cross, was
there before them, alive, risen again. And then we read those
beautiful words that then were the disciples glad. when they
saw the Lord. What a difference it makes when
a mistake is corrected in that way. The Word of God has several places
where there are mistakes and where they are corrected. And
what I desire just Really perhaps this evening is to look firstly
at some of those corrected mistakes. And then mistakes that were not
mistakes, that were thought to be mistakes, but actually they
weren't. And then mistakes in providence. I want to think of some Maybe
not necessarily in the Word of God, but my own experience. And then lastly, mistakes that
are a blessing, and again, some things that I have proved to
be so as well. But firstly, corrected mistakes. And I want to speak first of
the Jews, and of the Apostle Paul. Our text is found in the context
of a risen saviour, but he had been crucified and slain. And we have in the Acts of the
Apostles, chapter 2, those 10 days after Our Lord had ascended
up into heaven, or 50 days after he had been crucified, at the
day of Pentecost, which equates to the distance of time from
the Passover to Mount Sinai and the giving of the law. And here
we have the Holy Spirit that was powerfully given, and Peter
standing up and he preached to the multitude there. And he testified
before them that what had happened was a fulfilling of the scriptures,
the prophecies in Joel, of the outpouring of the Spirit. He
also testified that it was the Crucifixion of the Lord was the
determinate counsel of God. In verse 23 in chapter 2, Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
behold an oven. And he preaches to them, he testifies
from the Psalms, from the Scriptures, and proves that Jesus of Nazareth
was truly the Messiah, the seed of the woman that should bruise
the serpent's head. And he says in verse 36, therefore,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And then we read, When they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do? And the word then was, Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. But you think, you put yourselves
in their position. They had believed that Jesus
of Nazareth was an imposter, that he was just a man that had
made himself God. That's what they charged upon
him, instead of God being made manifest in the flesh. But now,
Now they realise what a mistake that they had made. It's hard
for us to really put ourselves into their shoes, but you think
of them as a nation that had waited years, generations for
the Messiah, and to realise we had been alive when the Messiah
came, and we didn't believe him. We made a mistake. We persecuted
him, we killed him, we crucified him, and now we realise our mistake. What that must have meant to
that people. All of us, I'm sure, have had
things where we've made a mistake, and when we've realised our mistake,
we've been sick in the stomach We've actually felt that pit
in our stomach. Why have we done that? Why? If
only we could turn the clock back. If only we could do it
different. Have that time again. Some mistakes
you cannot remedy. You cannot go back. They couldn't
hear. They were told it was, though,
the determinate counsel of God. It didn't alleviate their wickedness
that was charged upon them. It didn't change the fact that
they'd made a terrible mistake. But there was the balancing of
it and the mercy of it and a hope raised up for them. But I bring on top of this the
case of the Apostle Paul. because he was still of the same
opinion, and so hailed men and women to prison, not believing,
not thinking that Jesus was truly the Messiah. You have it in Acts
chapter nine, Saul breathing, From verse one, yet breathing
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went
unto the high priest, desired him letters of Damascus, to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Now, as he was
journeying along, Then there comes suddenly a light from heaven
and a voice from heaven, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the bricks. Now the apostle Paul was a Pharisee,
the Pharisee, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. He knew the
scriptures. He was full of zeal for the Lord. What he thought he was doing
here, he thought he was doing God's service. He thought he
was doing good things. But suddenly he realises he's
told his mistake. The very people he is persecuting
are the Lord's people. That Jesus was truly the Messiah,
was truly the Christ. What a shock. He refers to it
in his letters many times, that he's not worthy to be called
an apostle because he persecuted the people of God. Again, what
it must have felt. What he went through those three
days that he was blind before Ananias came to him. Now maybe
with you, Many of the Lord's dear people have either taken
up with things like evolution, taken up with false religions
or sects, believed that God's people were strange people, spoke against them, persecuted
them perhaps, but then realised the mistake. realise that they
were truly the blessed of the Lord and the people of the Lord. You know, in each of these cases,
they are brought to know their mistake. They are brought to
acknowledge their mistake. And they're also given hope,
not despair. I'd say to any that hear the
word tonight, if you have been mistaken, if you've been in the
case of these Jews, or in the case of the Apostle Paul, the Lord give you grace to acknowledge
the mistake, to embrace the Word, to embrace
the hope laid up in the Gospel, and to see that the Word of God
contains those that have made mistakes in this way. and yet
have had mercy. It's not being held against them
and said, you made the mistake, that's it, there's no hope for
you, lost to eternity. You made the mistake, and now
you're damned forever. No, when that mistake is realised,
the word is to repent, to turn, to change, not continue to go
on in that mistake. and how those Jews were so blessed. And so was the Apostle Paul,
and made a blessing as well. Then we have the case of Moses. I refer to his case in that which
is in Acts chapter 7, and this is when Stephen a deacon that
was chosen, was being persecuted by the Jews and was actually
stoned to death and with Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul,
consenting to his death at the time. But he gives a brief summary
of the history of Israel and he speaks of the time of Moses,
And in chapter 7 and verse 25, we, well, perhaps if we read
from verse 22, when we read that Moses was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds,
when he was 40 years old, It came into his heart to visit
his brethren, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them
suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed
and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren
would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver
them, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself
unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again,
saying, Sirs, yea, brethren, why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour
wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge
over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst
the Egyptian yesterday? And so Moses had to flee, into
the desert, into the wilderness, and was another 40 years there,
feeding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro in the desert. How many
of the Lord's dear people have made a mistake as to the timing
of the Lord. Moses was right that God was
going to raise him up to lead the children of Israel out of
Egypt, but he thought his time had come 40 years before it had. Very many times the people of
God get the timing of things wrong. You know, when I was first
exercised on the ministry, seven years before I was sent out,
I was called to take a funeral as a deacon of a dear sister
in faith. Because I was exercised on the
ministry, I preached at that occasion. In fact, looking back,
I believe I was helped, and certainly the friends at Melbourne, they
tried to pressure me to continue in the ministry at that time.
But I came into great bondage, and I was not freed from that
for another seven years. I had to continue reading services
I couldn't preach until the Lord loosed me from that bondage.
But what was a help to me once was reading case of Fred Windridge
over here in London. And he again was exercised on
the ministry. He started in the ministry, but
couldn't continue. He felt he'd gone before he should
have, so he didn't. And he got older and older. He got to 54 years of age and
thought, well, his life was nearly spent. The Lord had waited too
long, but then the Lord called him into the ministry. And he
preached within a week of his death at 94. So he had 40 years
in the ministry. We can sometimes get the timing
wrong and are mistaken in that. And that was the case with Moses.
The Lord did send him. He did go. And when he was the
time, then he was much more reluctant to go and try to get the Lord
to send any other But him, it may be with you as well. You
have an exercise, a burden. Maybe you think it's time now,
or not the time. Watch the Lord's hand. Watch
the Lord's hand. When it is the Lord's time, he'll
make you willing, and he'll open the providence, and he'll sweetly
constrain you to go forward. Watch in that way and think again
of these examples in the Word of God where eminent men, men
like Moses, that made mistakes, but the Lord's overruled it.
It was necessary he did flee out of Egypt. It was necessary
he did have training in the wilderness because when he was sent, when
he was 80 years of age, And his life's work was 40 years wandering
in the wilderness leading the children of Israel. He needed
to be taught in that way. The Lord does not make mistakes. Then we have the cases of Naaman
and the wise men. You say we're rather strange
to different accounts You remember Naaman the Syrian who was a leper,
and the servant girl in his household, she pointed him
to the prophet that was in Samaria. But you can understand the king
of Syria sending to the king of Israel, but really the girl
had pointed not to the king, of Israel, but to the prophet
that was in Samaria. And so when Naaman goes to the
king, the king, he says, am I a god to make alive or to kill? And he suspected that the Assyrian
king or the Assyrian king was plotting and planning against
him. But Elisha heard of it. He said,
no, no, let him come to me. So Naaman had then to come to
the prophet where the servant girl had pointed him in the very
first place. But mistakenly, he'd gone to
the king. And we find the wise men, they
did the same. We have seen his star in the
east and I come to worship him. Why, he's a king. We'll go to
Jerusalem. We'll go to the city of the king. But he was not born there. He's
born in Bethlehem. And so Herod gets to know of
him. And the wise men, they don't
find him there, but Herod inquires after the Jews, where is it said
in the prophets? Bethlehem. So then they are sent
to Bethlehem. They do get to Bethlehem. But
then in a most solemn way, because Herod is then now wise to it,
he knows of it, that then he kills all of the young children
from two years old and down, trying to destroy the Christ. But the Lord escapes that. But that does fulfil the scriptures
that are told, the voice of weeping. Rama, Rachel, weeping for her
children. because they are not foretold
by the scripture. There is hope in thine end. But
the point I make in this, with both Naaman and with the wise
men, they were to go on a mission. They were sent to go, one to
seek healing, another to seek the Christ. And they made a mistake as to
where they would actually end up, where they should go. They'd
drawn a conclusion to it. And we can do that often in Providence,
you know. We can think, well, the Lord
means us to go to this place or to that place or this country
or that country. And we think, well, we know whereabouts
in that country that we are going to go. And we've got that in
our mind, but we never end up going to that part of the country. We can make mistakes in interpreting
what clearly is the direction of the Lord. We're very apt to do like I did
when an apprentice, when my employer, a fitter, was telling me what
to do, when he told me enough and I thought I'd grasped it,
I'd almost push him off and say, I'm alright now, I can do it
now, let me do it now. And we're like that with the
Lord, because when he let me do it, often I'd make a mistake
because I didn't know what to do. and it really needed the
guidance to continue. But we're very much like that.
We get enough guidance, enough hint of what we believe the Lord
wants us to do, we leave off prayer, we leave off watching,
we just think that we've got the answer, the end is in view,
we're going to go that way. And then we get a terrible shock
when actually things don't turn out as we thought. We've made
a mistake. We should have asked the Lord
more. We should have been continuing in prayer. And so we have these
two cases of Naaman and the wise man in that way. Then we have
the case of Job's friends. Job is brought into the fiery
trial where one after another things go wrong in his life. and then his health goes. And
his friends come to him and they sit down for seven days and they
don't say anything because they see his grief is so great. But then they start to speak.
And because this trial goes on and on, and they think the same
as what the Jews said when they said to the Lord about the man
that had borne blind, Who did sin, this man or his parents,
that this man was born blind? There must be some reason why.
And Joe's friends thought that as well. And so then they launched
into all of their discourse with him, trying to show him where
he'd done wrong, what he'd done wrong, adding to that dear man's
burden. Job, he says, miserable comforters
are ye all. Might have been alright, you
might say, if those friends were acting in the right way. But
you know, at the very end of it, then we find the Lord taking
up Job's case and speaking to Job, teaching him directly, and Then he has a word of reproof
to Job's friends. When Job had been humbled in
the last chapter of the book of Job, Job 42. Job, he says,
I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes
seeth thee, wherefore I pour myself and repent in dust and
ashes. Then we read, it was so that
after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said
to Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is kindled against thee and against
thy two friends, for ye have not spoken of me, the thing that
is right, as my servant Job hath. They'd spoken many things that
were right, but they were misapplied. They'd misjudged their friends.
They condemned him when he was not to be condemned. They'd laid
things to his charge that were not right. And then the Lord told them that
they're mistaken. And again, there was a way out.
The Lord said to them that they were to take seven bullocks and
seven rams and go to my servant Job, offer up for yourselves
a burnt offering. And my servant Job shall pray
for you, for him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your
falling, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which
is right, like my servant Job." And we read that his friends,
they did that, they obeyed. But what humility, what a humbling
path to go all of that way where they've spoken all these things
of Job and then they've got to turn around and they've got to
beg that he will pray for them. They've made a mistake. We can
be like that too. We can have a brother, brother
in the ministry. We can have one of the brethren
in the church or a church as a whole and condemn them and
say they've done wrong and acted wrongly, walked in a wrong way,
had many things to say, Not only to them, but everyone else round
about. Then in the end you realise the
Lord shows you you've made a mistake. You've misjudged the situation. You've laid burdens on them that
have added to what they've been going through. If that is the
case, you realise it. Then may you, may I, be given
grace to humble ourselves before the Lord and before the brethren
and actually to confess that mistake and what we have done
and that we have misjudged it. How careful we need to be when
we have these examples in scripture of mistakes in this way. We have the case in John chapter
11 of when Lazarus was sick and when he died. And we have a few
times there in which you may say there was mistakes made and
sorrows that were felt because of that. We think of in verse
11, our Lord says that Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that
I may awake him out of sleep. The disciples, they hear what
the Lord is saying. And then they say, Lord, if he
sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death,
they thought that he had spoken of taking rest in sleep. They
made a mistake. Then the Lord says to them, finally,
Lazarus is dead. Sometimes it's easy to take the
words so spoken and we interpret them in a different way. And
you could understand it here, not realising the Lord is speaking
of actually death. Then we have the case with dear
Martha in verse 21. She says unto the Lord, Lord,
if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. And how easy it
is to make them say, if only this had happened, if the Lord
had been with me, if he had been here, then this would have stopped,
this would have been prevented. But the Lord had a further plan. He was glad he was not there.
We read that in verse 15. To the intent ye may believe,
nevertheless let us go unto him. Not to the intent that I might
raise him from the dead, but that he might believe. The Lord
knew what he would do. He might be in a path denied. And you think, well, the Lord
has made a mistake. There are several things that
don't add up. But you don't know the Lord's
plan. You don't know what he will do. You lie, dear Jacob,
saying all these things are against me. The Lord doesn't make mistakes. It is us that makes mistakes. It is us that misinterpret things,
that don't look on them as the Lord looks and sees. So these
are those cases that were corrected mistakes. But what about mistakes that
were not mistakes? those that were thought to be
mistakes. We think of dear Jacob or Joseph
when he came to Jacob, his father, when he was dying in Genesis
chapter 48. And he brings his sons to him,
Jacob or Israel. His eyes were dim, he couldn't
see. And so Joseph, he takes, in verse 13,
his sons. He took them both, Ephraim in
his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his
left hand toward Israel's right hand, and he brought them near
unto him. And Israel stretched out his
right hand and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and
his left hand upon Manasseh's head. And we read in the Holy
Inspired Word of God, guiding his hands wittingly. He knew
what he was doing. He was intentionally blessing
and giving the firstborn's blessing to the younger. We read that he blessed Joseph. And then when Joseph, in verse
17, saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head
of Ephraim, it displeased him. He held up his father's hand
to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. He thought
his father had made a mistake. Joseph said unto his father,
Not so, my father. This is the firstborn. Put thy
right hand upon his head. His father refused and said,
I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people,
he also shall be great, but truly his younger brother shall be
greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. Actually, in the history of the
children of Israel, when they came into the Promised Land,
Manasseh was a divided tribe. Half was on one side of Jordan
and half was on the other. They had more land than what
Ephraim had, but Ephraim was all in the land of Canaan. I
often think with that blessing that, you know, these both were
the sons of Joseph, the people of God. We read in one of our
hymns, more happy but not more secure. the glorified saints
in heaven. And at any one time, there is
a number of the Lord's people in heaven already. One side of
Jordan, if you like, and the other, or some not yet born,
but some, they're on this earth. They are divided, as it were. That whole church in these gospel
days is part in heaven, and part on earth, but there shall come
a time at the end of the world that they shall be all together,
all delivered up, all in the heavenly Canaan, all with the
Lord. And that is the firstborn blessing. That is the greatest blessing.
But the thing is with here, here is what we call a cross-handed
blessing. Here is something that Joseph
thought was a mistake, but was not. It was done intentionally. And dear friends, there are things
in our lives as well. We may think God is making a
mistake, but God is not. He's intentionally doing it.
Jacob, Israel, no doubt by the leading of God, he knew, he could know what was the Lord's
purpose. Did he think back how the Lord
had done it with himself and he saw that he the younger had
had the firstborn blessing and believed that it would be so
and it was so for his son as well. The other mistake that
was not a mistake and yet was thought to be a mistake was by
Pharaoh. And it may be the children of
Israel felt the same as well. when they were coming up out
of Egypt. Because when the Lord brought
them up out of Egypt, he didn't send them by the way of the Philistines,
which was near, but sent them by the way of the wilderness.
And so Pharaoh, when he hears that they have gone out, the
Lord said what he would actually think. The Lord has said in chapter
14, Exodus 14, that Moses had to speak unto the children of
Israel that they should encamp before Pihairoth between Migdol
and the sea. And it was, for Pharaoh will
say of the children of Israel, they are entangled in the land,
the wilderness hath shut them in. Pharaoh thinking they'd made
a mistake, they'd gone the wrong way, they were shut in, that
was what led him. to follow hard after them. I will harden Pharaoh's heart,
he will follow after them, and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh. What the children of Israel must
have thought when they came, they got the Red Sea in front
of them, they got mountains either side of them, and Egypt and Pharaoh
coming after them, shut in. You might feel like that this
evening, the Lord has shut me in. I might feel like, dear Job,
to look on the right hand, on the left, and I cannot find him. Oh, that I knew where I might
find him. Completely shut in. Little did
the children of Israel think that they were on the threshold
of a wonderful, miraculous deliverance and blessing and their enemies
were going to be destroyed at the same time. A mistake that was not a mistake,
but one of the ordered things of the Lord. But what about mistakes in providence? I must be very brief on this. We've known what it was like
in my life when I was seven years of age and we moved from one
school to another. Because I was close in age to
my brother, they put me in the class above. In effect, I skipped
a grade because we would have both been in a composite grade.
I was supposed to be in grade two. He was in grade one. They
said, you can't be both in the same class. They put me in grade
three. Halfway through the year, they
found out. But because I was doing all right,
they left me in it. We think of the adjustment in
the scriptures where the sun stood still for a day. or in Hezekiah's day that the
sundial went back 10 degrees, adjustments in the skies. But
when we have adjustments in our lives, how vital that is. Now at this present time, many
children are having their schooling affected. And maybe it's going
the other way, it's going back, being adjusted backward. I can
look with my adjusted forward, that affected in Providence,
Things that happened right through my life, if God hadn't made that
adjustment, then nothing else would have matched in. And may
you think that. If you're a young person, if
you're a child at this time, and it seems that God has made
a mistake, and your exams are messed up, your timing, and your
plans of university or a job is all messed up, I can tell
you, that in my case, the Lord did not make a mistake and he
won't with yours either. All men's hearts are in his hand. And those adjustments, you watch
it, you watch providence. And you watch in time to come
how many things would not fit in unless there'd been some adjustment
at this time in your life. I certainly found it so. I think
also when I went to get my first job, and I really wanted that
job. It's in a hospital as an apprentice
fitter. And then I saw the job advertised
again. And so I phoned them up. I said, you know, why haven't
I got the job? Why are you advertising again?
And they said, well, you live too far away. I said, I only
live 10 miles away. They said, we thought you lived
20 miles away. And they thought I lived where I went to school,
which was going the opposite direction from the home. When they realized that that
was the case, I had the interview, a second opportunity, and no
one had applied for the second time, and I got the position. And that gave me the job for
the four years. Now, sometimes you might say,
well, I haven't got the job, just give up. But in that case,
I felt pressured. I wanted it. This is before I
knew the law. And actually asking and correcting
that mistake, I was given that job in God's providence. But then years later in another
job and unhappy in it and wanting to move, I had the car go wrong. I went and corrected it. But
instead of going right back to work, I went to a place where
it advertised and I'd applied for a job as a draftsman. And when I got there, I sat in
this foyer. I hadn't got an appointment,
so I had to wait in the personnel department. And person after
person came in, have you got a job? Someday I just got through
the door, and they shook their head and went out, and I felt
worse and worse. All these people were wanting
employment. I'd got employment. I should
have been where I was employed. I was unhappy where I was wanting
to go and I was trying to change it, force it, instead of just
leaving the application to go. Eventually, I got to see them. Well, it happened that the firm
was advertising two positions. One was a draftsman and the other
was a design draftsman. At that time, I wasn't qualified
to be a design draftsman. And they came out and they said,
I'm sorry, we can't offer you the job. You're not qualified
to be a design draftsman. Now, I knew they'd made a mistake.
I could easily have said to them, no, I didn't apply for design. I applied for the draftsman.
I am qualified. But after seeing all those people
going, the Lord has spoken to me. And I left it, and I went
back. And you know, in six months'
time, the Lord wonderfully appeared. gave me a job in a remarkable
way that even had for 12 years and linked over to here in England. And sometimes those mistakes,
you see, as I saw it then, the Lord was shutting that door.
I shouldn't have been there. And when you realize that, you
don't even bother to correct the mistake. You think God's
appointed it. God's made that mistake to shut
that door. And so we had these mistakes
in providence. And one last thing, a mistake
in blessing. When my dear mother was dying,
when I was 25 years of age, and she hadn't been blessed, she'd
been so seeking the Lord, but right near the end, a week or
so from her death, and my dear brother in the ministry, he wrote
to me from over here, and he quoted to me Romans, Romans 8
verse 28. Well, many of you will know immediately
what that verse is. And I, of course, knew what it
was as well. But I looked it up and I read
very different because I looked up the wrong chapter. Romans
8 28 is, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. But the verse I read when I looked
up the reference was, for he will finish the work and cut
it short in righteousness because a short work will the Lord make
upon the earth. And you know, I saw that. I saw
the Lord's blessing in my mother, the Lord wonderful blessed her,
and took her then home. And that mistake in reading that
text was a beautiful confirmation of the short work that the Lord
would do. Sometimes we can look up a text,
a scripture, and we look up the wrong one, but it's not the wrong
one. It's the one the Lord meant us
to read. and how the Lord directed us
to that place. May we count those as real blessings,
that in our way is a mistake, and yet the Lord's made it to
be his appointment. Will the Lord bless the word
tonight, suited to your case in your life and mine. Amen.