Well let us seek the Lord's help
once again as we return to his word this evening, again recorded
for us in the book of Genesis and chapter 22. And again we
repeat those words which themselves are repeated twice here in verse
6 and verse 8. Genesis chapter 22, the end of
verse 6. And they went, both of them,
together. In the end of verse 8, So they
went, both of them, together. Now of course as we met together
this morning, we sought to see what is actually depicted here.
That we're not simply looking at Old Testament saints as examples
to us, but Old Testament saints as types. and shadows of something
far, far greater than they were themselves. Abraham and Isaac
were just a man and his lad, and yet beyond that we see, shown
to us in that pageant that really is played out for us, we see
the procession of the Father and the Son in the Spirit. And so we see something far more
wonderful far more wonderful than merely two godly people
walking in the fear of the Lord. Well, we saw then what was depicted
here this morning, but now we want to take a look and see what
is actually delivered here, what is actually being delivered to
us in these events as they unfold. First of all, we come to take
a look at the progress, because there is a progress involved.
They're going up the mountain. They're going from one point
to another. There is progress, and I want
us to briefly explore that thought before we go any further this
evening, because there's nothing static about the Christian life,
nothing static about it at all, because there is gracious movement
under the Lord's hand. Progress, and then secondly,
the purpose of their walk. It's not an aimless walk in the
park. There is a very solemn and serious
purpose that they are undergoing here. They're doing something
very solemn and awesome at the command of God. So there's a
purpose to it. And thirdly and finally, we take
a look at the provision. And here we go on from the verses
we've given out and we begin to see something. of the grand
conclusion of it all. In verse 14, and Abraham called
the name of that place, Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day, in
the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. But first of all, the
progress that is made. There's a journey undertaken
with a destination in view, and that is the Christian life. John
Bunyan captured it so powerfully. and so movingly in that wonderful
book The Pilgrim's Progress. Here is Christian and he sets
out from the city of destruction and there's nothing static about
the rest of his journey. He's got to move on. We walk
by faith not by sight and we have to move on from where we
are. There's nothing static about
the Christian life at all. We're either We're either, as
mortal men, grinding to a halt and getting nowhere, or else
we are getting somewhere. Look at how Psalm 1 begins. You
know how Psalm, the very first Psalm, how it sets out, it sets
things out, doesn't it, so clearly in that Psalm? A blessed is the
man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. And he's making
progress. He's getting somewhere. He's
like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit. And, you know, there's a development
there. There's something going on. But
look at the other side of it, the wicked. Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
And that's the spirit of this world that's grinding to a halt
and getting nowhere. Can you see how that unfolds
there in that first verse? First of all, you see them, as
it were, walking, but then that walking doesn't carry on, but
they come to a standstill And the world has nothing new to
show us, does it? All the evil and corruption of
this world, there's nothing new about it at all. There's nothing
new under the sun. So you have them there, walking,
and then standing, and then sitting. They're stuck, and they're getting
nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. And such
is the spirit of this world. but those who delight in the
law of the Lord, they're making progress. It might not always
seem so, but you know, everything about the holy life is one of
an ongoing journey. Look at those lovely songs of
degrees, those Psalms towards the end of the Psalter, Psalm
120 through to 134, and you see that they're songs of progress.
You start off at a very low place, woe is me that I dwell in the
tents of Kadar. Here's a man below zero in darkness
of soul. But they don't stay there. I
will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.
And then in three steps you're found standing in God's house.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. There's a
progress. But the progress sometimes goes
down a bit and we come into a veil of affliction and sorrow. Look
at Psalm 130. He's down in the depths again,
isn't he? Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. He's so low. But then he rises
again. And that's the Christian life.
That's the Christian life. You know, everything that we
meet is for our eternal good in the end. Though it doesn't
seem so, perhaps, in the short term. But everything is progress
in the end. Sometimes you have to go down
in order to go up. Now friends, if I were to make
the journey from Red Hill this evening, I'm thankful I don't
have to make that long journey, but if I had to make the journey
tonight all the way to the top of Mount Snowdon, a very high
peak, my journey would involve part of that journey in going
down in order to go up. It won't be a plane sailing up
all the way. but I'll have to go down into
a river valley, more than one river valley, in order to come
up at last on that great height. And so this is the believer's
pathway that is set before us here. And an initial pathway
for the believer, an upward pathway, is as it was for Christian in
the Pilgrim's Progress. He's got to climb Mount Calvary.
He's got to come to the cross. And it's only there that he will
lose that awful burden of sin and know that glorious liberty
of the sons of God. Well then, we come to this thought
here this evening then. That's where we've got to come
to start with and then the Lord will lead us safely on. I love
that expression, you know, of the late Stanley Dells. It's one that's stuck in my mind
for many years now. And I found it actually, it's
in one of his sermons, but I found it on a tear-off calendar many,
many years ago. Most of us here this evening
are far too young to remember him, but some of us can just
about remember his manner and his way in the pulpit. And he
was saying, what a trail, what a trail of poor, hell-deserving
sinners have made their way to the cross. And none of them have
gone from there to hell. None of them have gone from there
to hell. And as he spoke, you could see this trail of souls
going to the cross and never regretting having come to the
cross of Christ. What a place to come to. What
a place of safety and refuge, health and hope there is for
sinners when we come to that cross of Christ. Calvary's cross
is where you begin when you come as a sinner to Jesus. Look at
all the progress and directions that were given to various saints
in old. But they made progress, didn't
they? I mean, there are so many samples to take a look at. One of the very first signal
believers was Enoch, who walked, who walked with God. He was making
progress. He wasn't static. who walked
with God, and in the end he was not, for God took him. He was
on progress. And I love the progress as well
of Abram's servant, and you've got a couple of chapters later
on, it's a remarkable chapter, that 24th chapter of Genesis,
that great long chapter, and how it all unfolds, and he sets
out, doesn't he? And it's a bit like Abram's journey
we were looking at this morning, we walk by faith not by sight.
He's got a special job to do, very important job. He's got
to find a wife for his master's son. You might think, well, that's
an obscure event. If you don't know anything about
salvation history, you might think, well, what's the point
of that? There's a very strong point because it's that great
red line of salvation from which Christ would come, very vital
work he's involved in. So Abraham charges him, off you
go, make sure you don't, could go wrong and if you can't find
the right woman, then you're relieved of your responsibility.
But he takes it so seriously, doesn't he? Because he loves
his master and he believes in his master's God and he's determined,
determined to try and find success in that quest. So he goes out.
Not quite as blank as Abram when he left Ur, because he's got
a rough idea of where Abram's relatives live. And so he's got
a rough idea of the direction he's got to go in as he travels
north. But it's by no means clear or
sure. We walk by faith, not by sight.
And I love that point in the story where he gets to that point.
And he says, I must be getting near here, near now to himself. And he sees this girl run across
to the well. And Summit says to him, can this
be the one? Can this be the one? And of course,
if you know the chapter, you know how wonderfully it all unfolds.
And here's Rebecca. Well, she's mentioned at the
end of chapter 22, isn't she, for the first time. Remarkable
young lady, amazing. The fact that she's able to water
all those camels is almost like a Herculean task. She must be
very, very capable at her job. But nevertheless, also this,
that everywhere she goes, she's running. Have you noticed that?
She's tearing here, tearing there. There's a purpose. There's a
progress in her life already. Her life has meaning and purpose.
And so when it comes finally, when it comes finally to that
question put to her, you know, and it's put to her, you know,
will thou go with this man? It's not an impetuous decision.
because she knows she's in the will of God, the purpose of God.
Her little life is in his hand and she says, I will go. What
a lot hangs on that doesn't it? Because if she didn't say I will
go then none of us would be sat here tonight. I will go, I will
go. But you see Abraham's servant
said this, I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house
of my master's brethren. Can you see what's going on?
He was in the way because he was in the way because he was
making progress. The Lord led him exactly where
he needed to be and that chapter has a wonderful end as Isaac
and Rebecca are brought together in blessed wedlock and the Lord
is in it in a wonderful way. So progress, progress and if
you are on the road then you are already in the fellowship
of the Father and of the Son. That's the amazing thing. Abraham's
servant, he may not have realised it, but he was already in that
fellowship. He was already learning of the
Lord as he ventured by faith in the way. What does John say
again in his first letter, chapter 1 and verse 3? That which we
have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So friends, it's
that thought before we go any further, that the progress that
is to be made, sometimes it seems that we are at a dead stand still,
but we're not if we're in the way. And the Lord will finish
that, the Lord will perfect that which concerns us. What a wonderful
thought it is that we're in the way. And the Lord will bring
us safely at last to our desired haven. The Lord is bringing us
on day by day. Sense and reason sometimes say
to us, well we haven't made any progress, we're not getting anywhere,
we're going round and round in circles. But in God's purpose
we're not. And we will be brought to that
place at last. Israel had to go round and round
the wilderness for many long weary years, but at last a generation
were brought to that blessed place, that blessed canyon and
their inheritance there. And you think of Caleb, well
he made progress didn't he? And progress he made against
a whole nation. Think what it must have been
like for him on that terrible day when the spies came back
and that great wail went up, that great mood of unbelief in
the crowd of Israel. and he stuck out alone, and he
kept on trying to persuade them otherwise. No, no, the Lord has
promised, the Lord has said to us, what's wrong with you all?
The Lord has said, look, you go in, the Lord is with us. But oh, how miserably they failed
through unbelief, and because of that they were doomed to meander
sometimes seemingly purposefully in the desert for all those years.
But Caleb was making progress, wasn't he? And the Lord said
of him, that my servant Caleb, which had another spirit in him,
and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whither
he went. So there's Caleb all those years
later. He's turned 80 now. You might think it was a bit
late, is it? Oh, no, it's not too late for him. He's turned
80. And he says to Joshua, you know what you promised me all
those years ago? Well, I'm here now, and I'm raring to go. Give
me this mountain. And so you see, friends, this
tremendous theme of progress. And may we be found in that way.
not yielding to unbelief and not losing that vision, but may
we be found following hard after. May there be that progress. Abraham
and Isaac were going up that mountain. And what a trail was
being blazed, wasn't it? If you look at this for a moment,
you know, for example, I mean there's roads out there, Take
any road you care to mention, the 825 if you like. There was
a time when it was just a rough country lane. You go back far
enough. And it hadn't been a beaten path
for very long. You know, a few people, a few
horses got trotting up and down, not much of a way if you go back
far enough. But now it's a beaten highway
of motor traffic all the time. Now think of their road up Mount
Moriah. There were trailblazers because,
as yet, you know, it was so vague that there was no settlement
there as far as we know at that time, just this lonely walk up
up this mountainside with these two, Abraham and Isaac. And it was a trail that hadn't
yet been really blazed, but oh how it got blazed as time went
by. It became the route as we mentioned
Zion earlier today in conversation. Here was the destination because
upon these peaks, destiny would be as it were realized in years
to come that this mountain, this mountain of the Lord, that's
what it would be. As yet, it was just some unknown,
perhaps largely unexplored peak The Lord had to show him where
it was but how significant and important it would be in years
to come. Look at all the people who made
their journey to Mount Zion and then that last great journey
when Jesus set his face like a flint and went up, went up
to make his soul an offering for sin. Progress there. Secondly,
purpose. You know this was no aimless
amble. Because the destination was sacrifice and death. There was something so deadly
serious about their scheme. As I said, it wasn't just some
pleasant walk up a mountain to enjoy the scenery. It was nothing
like that at all. But a terrible, serious purpose
they were on. And we have to remind ourselves
of the reason why the Son came into the world and to track the
journey that he made all the way from Bethlehem. And we can
see something of that, can't we, as we look into the Word
of God and as we read something of it even this evening. It begins at Bethlehem. It begins
at Bethlehem. It's going to be a path of intense
sorrow and commitment because, you know, even when the Christ
child is only a baby in arms, even then Simeon has to say to
his mother, you know, there's going to be incredible sorrow,
incredible grief. The sword shall pierce through
thy own soul also. Here are the first hints that
it's something, going to be something very serious and something very
terrible about this long journey. Why was he sent into the world?
Well, you know what John the Baptist said in our reading,
behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. That's what he's come to do.
Oh, it's lovely to dwell on the incarnation, isn't it? And that's
a lovely theme. You know, as we start at Bethlehem
and we see this beautiful, this wonderful thing that God has
done, that the Word has been made flesh and has come to dwell
among us and to be one with us and to have fellowship with us.
That's a beautiful thing, a wonderful thing. but we have to remind
ourselves as well the reason why he came into the world, that
he was manifested to take away our sins. Here is the purpose
involved and we see how he's introduced here by John. Go to
a later date and we see a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee coming
to Jesus by night, Nicodemus. Have you ever thought about Nicodemus
coming to Jesus by night? You know, some people have made
such a caricature of Nicodemus because the Pharisees were largely
a bad lot spiritually. They tend to plump Nicodemus
as one of them and Nicodemus is simply coming to Jesus furtively
by night because he doesn't want anybody else to see him. Well,
it's not necessarily as simple as that because who's to say
that Nicodemus wasn't coming to Jesus by night because he
wanted Jesus to himself. You know, Jesus was thronged
by crowds during the course of the day and he wanted to be quiet
and alone with the master. You see, though Nicodemus still
wasn't over the line and he got so much of his religion was wrong,
yet something had drawn him to Christ. He'd come to Jesus. You can't take that away from
him. There's no ulterior motive of self or pride as he comes
to the Lord Jesus. You look at that other Pharisee,
Simon the Pharisee, and it's all ulterior motive isn't it?
When he asked Jesus to come and dine with him. There's no love
or respect there at all. But when Nicodemus comes to Jesus,
there is initially something that's told Nicodemus, you're
missing something, you're keeping all these laws, and you're struggling
to make a great show in your religion. But there's something
missing, isn't there, Nicodemus? Something niggling at the back
of his mind. You can almost feel it, can't
you, in the words that he uses when he comes to Jesus. Rabbi,
that's a term of respect, of real respect. Rabbi, we know
that thou art a great teacher come from God. No man could do
these miracles except God be with him. He knows that much. And the reason he comes because
deep in his heart he knows that he needs something else. We mustn't
miss the point that we're trying to make here because if you go
all the way through that third chapter of John, have you noticed,
have you noticed how Nicodemus tails off from carping and from
criticizing and questioning? In the end he's not questioning
at all as you go through that chapter. He's listening, he's
listening to what Jesus is saying to him. And what a beautiful
mercy that was to hear the gospel preached as it was to him the
first time. That he was the first man to
hear John 3.16. And I don't think in vain either,
if you look at the subsequent history of Nicodemus, which is
most instructive because we meet him another couple of times.
You know, in the 7th chapter, then in the 19th chapter, by
which time there's been an amazing, gracious transformation in that
man's life. so that he lovingly tends the
body of the master. But even at this stage he is
hearing the gospel! He's under the sound of the gospel!
And Jesus has said, I'm going a long way around to get to the
point, but the point is this, even as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
There's no alternative, there's no other way! And, you know,
the awful stark reality of that is this, if I need to repeat
it again, is this, is that as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness. And what was it that Moses lifted
up in the wilderness? It was an exact likeness of the
foul, diseased sin that had been killing off the Israelites. An
exact likeness. The only difference was, of course,
is that the brazen serpent was completely harmless. But it was
an exact likeness of what had been killing the people of. And
of course, we have this thought, don't we? As Paul said, as we
quoted this morning, he hath made him to be a sin for us who
knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That was what was happening at
Calvary. That was what was taking place there. And there's no scene
like it anywhere, is there? I've often been moved by that
scene in the life of the late Dr. John Rabbi Duncan, who was
a remarkable man. A remarkably gracious man, if
a very odd and very unusual character in many ways, very eccentric.
But he, in Edinburgh, in his heyday, he held his students
spellbound as he taught them the original language. Hebrew,
he's a master Hebraist. But there was nothing cold or
academic about his teaching. He could often be led astray,
you know, as he spoke to them on some spiritual, abstruse spiritual
point, and they'd go all the way through the lesson and not
learn any Hebrew at all because he'd be waxing lyrical about
some gracious matter. That would often be the case.
But to get to the point, he was expounding, I believe it was,
the 22nd Psalm. We mentioned that psalm this
morning. And he was expounding the opening words of that psalm,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he was so profoundly
moved. Students were all sat there and
he collapsed in the chair. I thought for a minute, you know,
he's poorly or something, something's wrong. And, you know, they respectfully
looked over and he was, his face was bathed in tears because he
was totally absorbed in what he'd just been speaking to them
of. And then he finally stood up
and in an immaculate way he said, my dear young gentleman, he says,
my dear young gentleman, he says, do you know what was hanging
there? Do you know what was hanging there upon that cross? Damnation! Damnation was hanging there.
But damnation taken lovingly. Damnation taken lovingly. And only Dr Duncan could say
things like that. And people get the point. Because
that was what was hanging there. Damnation, and an awful thing
that is, but damnation taken lovingly. And so Nicodemus had
the gospel preached to him on that night. I don't think he
ever forgot that night. that amazing night when he began
to see the light, for God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, verse 16, but whosoever believeth in
him. That's why it's all about Nicodemus,
it's not about what you're doing, it's not about all your works,
which are filthy rags, and you can never please God by what
you do. But God has given to you. God has given to sinners
his dear son. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. There's the gospel. I remember my father, been dead
many years now, but he was actually preaching at the old Brixton
Tabernacle. as a very young minister when
he was first sent out from Mount Zion Chapel Watford back in 1950
and he was very new, very new to the SV pulpits, he was very,
you know, very nervous, very unsure of himself in one sense
and he stood there to preach, you know, and there was this
old lady about three pews in with a very severe look on her
face He'd hardly started the service and he thought, well,
I better be careful with this lady. She looks, you know, very
critical of this unknown minister. And he got through the service
and preached and came out of the pulpit and down the aisle
and this old lady with a fierce, fierce look came up to him, you
know, almost as if to dig him in the ribs with her finger.
Whatever is she going to say? And of course, when he got up
really close, he realized that she wasn't angry at all, she
was in tears. And she said to him something
he never forgot, simply quoted a hymn because she'd been so
moved by the sweetness of the gospel. The gospel, I love it, it is
perfectly free. But as for man's merit, it is
hateful to me. And it was something he never
forgot because that's it, that's the gospel. And it's wonderful,
isn't it? But what a terrible end for those
who reject it. An awful, awful hopeless end
for those who turn away and spurn the sweet invitations of the
gospel. what hope can be held out for
them at the end. So then, may we know what it is to obey the
Gospel and to honour Christ in our way that we take. You see,
you come to the purpose of Christ and you observe it here. and
we come all the way from Bethlehem and we come all the way through
his ministry and he's the man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief and it gets harder and harder as we indicated this morning. It doesn't get any easier, the
more he goes on in the way, it's more and more of a struggle for
him. He sets his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem and he has
to, there has to be a grim determination to complete the task that is
set before him. And so we come to that point,
don't we? The text we quoted a moment ago, after the awful
heaviness of Gethsemane. But you notice, friends, even
in there, there's no turning. There's no turning from the charge
his father has given him. Father, if it be possible, let
this cut pass from me. Is there any other? But it's
so terrible. Is there any other way? And he
answers the question for himself because he says, nevertheless,
not as I will, but as thou wilt. That complete submission to the
will of God. Just as we were looking this
morning at the sweet obedience of Isaac to his father. And how
he didn't question his father at all. How he went along with
his father's perfect will. He came to do the will of the
father. And we come to that awful point
where the breaking point that we mentioned this morning. And
my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And that is the
experience in this human soul at that point. Like Dr. Duncan's damnation taken
lovingly. Why has thou forsaken me? what
that must have been. We can only begin to imagine
reverently. And well you know Martin Luther,
remarkable minister of God in his day, you know how he wrestled
with that text. And I think he shot himself,
if my memory serves me correct, he shot himself away for two
or three days from anybody else to try and get to the bottom
of it. And he emerged two or three days later and he said,
he said, God forsaking God. He didn't mean that literally,
but he was putting it ironically like that. And he said, I can't
get to the bottom of it. I can't, but we wonder and adore
at what happened there. Can anything compare to that?
To what happened there? That awful, solemn scene, and
Every good has come to us because of that forsaken, because he
was forsaken. It means we will never be forsaken.
It means that we will never experience that outer darkness ourself.
Because he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
And when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.
He will never leave us. He will never leave us to ourselves.
He has tasted that for us, and we will never have to go down
that road. Lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world. Oh, may our faith be stronger.
May we not give way to foolish fears all the time, but trust
in him. May we lean upon him. So then,
purpose. Now finally, the provision. Come
more especially now with me to those later words in the chapter
where we come down to that particular point. In verse 14 especially,
this is after of course the provision has been made of the ram caught
in the thicket and the Lord has sorted it all out for him in
a wonderful way. Verse 14 says, And Abraham called
the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day in
the mount of the Lord. it shall be seen. Have you noticed
that the whole chapter is about providing? The Lord has been
providing all along. In fact, if you look at the whole
life of Abraham, to take that as an example, the Lord has been
providing everything. As we mentioned a few moments
ago, how a wife has been provided for Isaac, the perfect woman
Just the woman he needs? Isn't that wonderful? When the
Lord gives us just what we need, you know, he's chosen, he's prepared
that provision for us. We know it's of him and we can
rest upon it. Here is the Lord's provision
and is the Lord's provision here? Did you know that Moriah means
providing? The provision of God. The whole
mountain is symbolic of the Lord providing. This poor old Abraham,
he goes up that mountain thinking he's got to do something terrible.
And the Lord has prepared all along this wonderful provision. He prepared the ram and the fig.
It was of the Lord's doing and providing. We can go back to
Abraham's faith in verse 8, but what we're looking at especially
here, the great lesson there in our lives, that whatever our
wants, the Lord will provide it for his children, and in this
way the Lord will provide. What a mercy it does, because
where would we be without the Lord's provision? How destitute
and wretched we would be without that provision. The Lord will
provide. But you know friends, there's
an added dimension here in the word Jaira. The word Jaira in
verse 14, you know, we often perhaps confuse the word Mariah
with Jaira. And the idea behind the word,
in fact, it's got in a sense two ways of interpretation, this
particular word. That first of all, it can mean
this, that The Lord will see to it. The Hebrew can have that
rendering. The Lord will see to it. And
it's got a tremendous force, hasn't it? Because sometimes
if somebody is in some desperate, well, say a younger member of
the family needs something really important, and they've got no
way of providing it. And father or mother comes along
and they say, I'll see to that. I'll see. You leave that to me.
I'll see to it. So it can have that. that interpretation. The Lord will see to it, in the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen. But then there's another
way of looking at it as well. And the AV, as it were, puts
it more in that way. In the mount of the Lord it shall
be seen. We have a lesson here to learn.
That we've got to come in order to see. We've got to come in
order to see. You see at the bottom of that
mountain, they couldn't see it. They've got to climb the mountain.
They've got to get to the top of the mountain in order to see,
in order to witness and experience the Lord's provision. exercising any flattery. I love
the way that Paul opens his father's biography. If any of you haven't
read it yet or have only skimmed it, well I hope you don't skim
it, I hope you read it properly, but if you see the opening part
of that diary it's at a crucial point in his father's life, a
great turning point in his father's life that altered the whole destiny
of his life. that this Lancashire lad who
was so rooted to his soil and was so in love with the land
of his heritage had to be uprooted and he didn't want to be uprooted
at all. And he went to hear the late Mr Sid Garnham of Abingdon
preach in Haslingdon Chapel and he came away from that chapel
knowing that he got to come to Luton. or pretty well effectively
that. Because the text was, and Mr. Garner made this point very powerfully
and it comes out there in the opening line of the biography.
He makes this point so powerfully that he led them out as far as
to Bethany and he blessed them there. And he says, you've got
to come to Bethany in order to be blessed. You're not going
to be blessed here, but you've got to come to Bethany in order
to be blessed. And Mr. Ramsbottom knew what
Bethany meant, even though at the time he was very reluctant
to accept what it meant, but he knew it was God's word to
him. You've got to come to Bethany to get the blessing. And that's
exactly what we're looking at here. In the mount of the Lord
it shall be seen. There's places you've got to
come to in your experience, in your life, in order to see in
order to know, in order to understand. And that's what we see here,
don't we? In this Word of God, in the Mount of the Lord, it
shall be seen. The view from the top. You know,
when you actually come to the top of the mountain, it's amazing
the view, isn't it? It so broadens and enlarges your
appreciation of everything you see. And it's so marvelous. You know, David was in a very
poor place in Psalm 63, where he'd been on the run from Absalom,
his son. Very low, humiliated, dejected place. Dangerous as
well. And you know how he describes
it there in Psalm 63, here he is in the desert just above the
Dead Sea, an awful cheerless and gloomy place to have to be
brought to. And yet the amazing thing is
this, is that what happens, that in the mount of the Lord it shall
be seen. Psalm 63, O God thou art my God,
early will I seek thee, my soul thirsteth for thee, My flesh
longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. This place is cheerless. There's
nothing to comfort me where I am now. But then David has a spiritual
genius, doesn't he, given him, and he has a reflection here.
To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the
sanctuary. David says I've been there, I've
been in the Mount of the Lord and I've seen the Lord by faith
there and I've felt his glory and all of a sudden that desert
place is transformed because thy loving kindness is better
than life. My lips shall praise thee. You
see he's still in the desert, he's still on the run from Absalom
But he's having a wonderful experience because he's back reliving his
experience in the Mount of the Lord. And his heart is lifted
and sweetly blessed with the thought of that. In the Mount
of the Lord it shall be seen. And I'll say once again, before
I close, you see, you've got to come there in order to see. You've got to come in order to
see. One more illustration from the Bible, and that is the Queen
of Sheba. You know what she said to Solomon? She said, you know,
they were telling me how wonderful your court was. And you know,
everything I said was true. Nobody was exaggerating anything.
No, it was quite true what they said. But she says, the one half
was not told me. Now I see how glorious your court
is. It says there was no spirit left
in her, that she was overwhelmed by the glory of Solomon's court
because she'd come there and she'd seen it. And look at those
words, we must stop now, but look at those words of the Lord
Jesus, in John chapter 1, you notice that? And how all those
disciples are gradually brought to him. And here are those young
men, and they come to Jesus, and it's a very sensible question
they've got, isn't it? You remember that question? And
there's a good reason for it, because John appointed to him,
we want to know a lot more of this. And so they come to Jesus
and they say, Rabbi, where dwellest thou? Where do you live? That was a sensible thing to
say, wasn't it? Because they wanted to be with
him. And they wanted to learn of him. And what did Jesus say? Come and see. Come and see. And that's what the poor sinner
has got to do, to come in order to see. Come and see. Come and
see. I remember a stage in my early
experience, not having conversation this morning over very early
impressions, but I remember just coming into my teens and a visiting
minister coming to preach at our chapel and he was taking
the young people's fellowship meeting on a Tuesday night. it
looks like a proper service with a sort of a very spiritual Bible
study and he took the meeting and you know I'd never heard
him before and there was things I wasn't aware of but he took
the subject of the Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon and it was
all about Jesus it was all about him from start to finish and
what an awakening that was to discover Jesus in his word. The half was not told me. What a wonderful thought that
is. The one half was not told me. Of a wide glory and majesty. May we know what it is ourselves
to come and see. To come and see. For in the mount
of the Lord it shall be seen. May God bless his word to us.
Amen.