May the Lord bless us tonight
as we consider his word. Let us turn to the blessing of
Naphtali, which is in Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 23. The
book of Deuteronomy chapter 33 and reading verse 23. And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali,
satisfied with favour and full with the blessing of the Lord,
possess thou the West and the South. This is a wonderful statement
that Moses, the man of God, was able to speak with regards to
this tribe of Naphtali. And yes, as we retouch a statement,
such a blessing, and as we consider ourselves, we may think, well,
surely this cannot apply to me. It really is just too high for
me, just too impossible for me. Well, we should not forget that,
of course, Naphtaliah was just one of the twelve tribes and
that he and the tribe were sinful and they disobeyed the word of
God again and again. And yet, we have this wonderful
testimony which we are able to read today, that which Moses
was commanded to speak just a very, very short time before he was
to die, before the Lord was to take his life. And yet we have
this record of these words for our encouragement. We read earlier
in this chapter, yea, he loved the people. He loved his church. And he always has and always
will love his church. All his saints are in thy hand. Each one of his saints are in
the hand of God. Our life is ordained by our gracious
God. And so may we be encouraged this
evening as we read such a verse as this, such a word as this,
to realise that although it applies to Naphtali, it does also apply
to the Church of God. It's interesting to note that
Moses here was commanded to give a blessing to 11 tribes, not
the 12 tribes. Simeon was not counted here in
this particular list of blessings. And I will not speculate on what
the reasons for that might be. But nonetheless, Naphtali was
included. He was the sixth son of Jacob. And yet here he listed near to
the end of the blessings. So we have to observe that the
Lord has a divine reason and purpose for doing these things
and confirming these things, which to our minds might not
appear to be in a correct order and perhaps We might think surely
there must have been a mistake made. Well, as for God, his way
is perfect. The Lord never has and the Lord
never does make any mistakes. And so we can be sure that it
was ordained that Naphtaliah should be listed in this particular
place in this order. But what a wonderful statement
it is with regards to him. Satisfied with favour and full
with the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the West and the
South." Now precisely what this West and the South refers to,
I'm not convinced, I'm not sure. There is comments that this West
can be also translated as Sea. And we know that Naphtali, or
Nephilim, was indeed near the Sea. And we know that that was
a place which was blessed, a place where the Lord was, and we can
read about that in Matthew's Gospel, where Matthew says, and leaving Nazareth, he came
and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the
borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim, that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, the land of Zebulun and
the land of Nephthilim by the way of the sea beyond Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles. And we know the Lord did of course
dwell in Capernaum. It was a place that was much
favoured with his presence. And yet we also read of Capernaum
and the judgments that came upon it, if they did not follow the
Lord. In the 11th of Matthew we read,
But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum,
which are exalted unto heaven, and surely this description we
read here is a question or is a statement in regard to exaltation,
a time of great blessing, and so he says, which are exalted
unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty
works which have been done in thee, have been done in Sodom,
It would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you that
it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day
of judgment than for thee." So we have a very solemn statement,
a very solemn reminder that if the Lord favours us, and if the
Lord blesses us, there is a very solemn responsibility to walk
in accordance with the Word of God, and to not turn away from
it, and to not go backward from it, whatever the cost might be,
whatever it might entail, to be found the true follower of
our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here this statement is
a wonderful truth, satisfied with favour. Well, we ought to ask ourselves
the question, do we know anything of the favour of God? Let's ask ourselves that question. Do we know anything of the favour
of God? And again, perhaps in answering
that question, we should be very careful not to deny any favour
that God has granted to us. How often we forget to consider
and to think of what God has done. It will be good for us,
as I have sometimes said, to count our many blessings and
to name them one by one, and it will surprise us what the
Lord has done. That really, of course, refers
to his favours. It would be good, wouldn't it,
to just sit back and as we go home tonight, perhaps to take
a piece of paper and just write down the favours that God has
granted to us. Well, I hope it wouldn't take
very long before we are able to fill a sheet of paper with
the favours of God. Because that has a two-fold reference,
doesn't it? It has a reference to the favours
naturally in our natural life. We only have to look today to
realise how many blessings we do have. How many favours God
has granted to us in a natural way. Health and strength, at
least in reasonable measure. Food to eat, clothes to wear,
place to live in. friends to meet with, perhaps
greater than that, the children of God to meet with and converse
together. All these are wonderful favours,
especially as we think that we may have been brought under the
sound of the Gospel, thinking that there are very, very many
in the world today who have never heard the Gospel. Many in far
off lands have never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. And many
today reject the Word of God and reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
They say in their hearts and often in words, I will not have
this man to reign over me. And therefore what a wonderful
blessing it is if we are able to consider the favours which
God has granted to us. Favours. It's a good thing to
remember the favours of God, not to just ignore them. You
know how easy it is, isn't it? To come to chapel on a Sunday,
to sit and listen to the sermon and the reading and the prayers
and sing the hymns and then go home and commence Monday morning
and we find we're engrossed with the cares of life and the concerns
about prosperity and the concerns about improving ourselves and
our own status. And what do we do? We forget
the favours of the Lord. How important it is that we consider
the great blessings which we have naturally. And then to think
of those spiritual blessings which the Lord bestows. And how
wonderful it is if again we can take a piece of paper, perhaps
another piece of paper. It would be good, wouldn't it,
to write down on one sheet, those natural blessings which we have
received, and then on another sheet to write down the spiritual
blessings, the spiritual favours that we have received. Now, let me just say this. We don't deserve any favour,
first of all. You and I don't deserve any favour.
Because we have sinned against God. Because we have offended
the law of God. We don't deserve any favour.
So let's think then of God's favours to us in a spiritual
way. Blessing us then with the Word
of God. And again as we think of that,
not just as the Word of God, but as we may have read the Word
of God, has, as it were, spoken to our hearts. I wonder if there
have ever been those favours in our spiritual life when, as
we may have read down a chapter, suddenly it may be like a verse
jumps out at us, stands out, and it speaks to us, and it is
the favour of God. And then, what a favour it is
when the Holy Spirit works in our heart to show to us what
we are. Now that is a favour of God. Well, can you write that down?
Can you write down that the Holy Spirit has shown to you that
you are a sinner and a great sinner? and that you need mercy,
and that there's been a time in your life when you prayed
for mercy. Can you write that down? Is that a favour which has been
yours? And if it has, if the Lord has
brought you to that position, what a favour it is to have come
there. But if that is the true work
of the Holy Spirit, that will not be enough. You will not be
satisfied with just understanding that you are a sinner. You will
be restless to know that you have one who can save you from
your sins. Let me cause heart-searching,
and that may cause urgent prayer, true prayer. It may be then that
you cry to God for mercy. That's a favour. Can you write
that down on your sheet of paper? That God has favoured you in
that way, and then directed you then to earnestly seek for that
personal knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ has died on your
behalf. That's a wonderful favour if
you really have a concern, an honest concern to know for yourselves
that the Lord Jesus Christ has died upon that cross at Calvary
to take away your sins. Is that a favour that you know
something of? It's a great favour. It's a wonderful
favour. Well, again, can you write that
down? Yes, the Lord has given me a
real cry. The Lord Jesus Christ might be
revealed to me. Perhaps it might be like this
in your testimony, because we all need to have a spiritual
testimony. And that's an evidence of God's
favour toward us. We all need to have a testimony. We hear, don't we? Or perhaps
not as much as we should, but anyway, we do hear of people's
testimonies. And we need a spiritual testimony.
We need the evidence of God's work in our hearts. producing
that desire to know the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is a favour indeed, and
it's something which is brought about by the Holy Spirit of God. It's not something that you can
honestly produce yourself. And as you weigh these things
up before God, and as you consider whether you know something of
these favours, What a blessing then it is to recognise that
this favour emanates because of the blessed work of the Holy
Spirit, which has caused you to consider your way, has caused
you to seek unto the Lord, has caused you to pray unto Him,
that Jesus Christ might be revealed to you as your Saviour, as your
Redeemer. Now this is a great and wonderful
favour. Now, Naphtali was blessed with
favour. My friends, you blessed tonight
with favour. And then as you look on further
in our spiritual life, to then look beyond our little life on
this earth. Now it will be a great favour
for you and me if again we are able to write down on this piece
of paper what the King Solomon was able to declare, as I mentioned
in prayer, as he had everything to try and produce happiness
in this life. and he did all that he could,
and he had to conclude with these words, all is vanity, vanity
of vanities and vexation of spirit, he couldn't really find any true
happiness in the things in this world. Now that's a favour, if
you've been brought there, and if you can't find that, then
where are you to find happiness? you are to find happiness in
looking forward to that eternal place of blessing in heaven with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that would be a wonderful
favour if we've been brought to that place, a favour indeed, because what it
means is this, we realise that this home, this
earth rather, is not our home. No, we are really living in this
world as a stranger. Now most people in the world
today live as though this is their home. And they are not
a stranger. But what are they? They are a
stranger to the things of God. Now the great favour will be
for you and me if we are a stranger in this world, but we are not
a stranger to God. And we will not be a stranger
to God if the Lord has come and spoken a word into our heart. A word into our heart. It may
be a word of scripture, it may be a line of a hymn, But whatever
it is, it will be a blessing if you can write down a favour
of God to your soul, the evidence of it, in what God may have come
to you through His Holy Spirit and spoken into your heart. Now, what does Moses say? Oh Naphtali, satisfied with favour. What does he mean? He means this,
there will be a satisfaction in your soul to know that you
are amongst those who the Lord has a favour to. And what will
this produce? This will produce in measure
a peace within, the evidence of life in your soul and it will
be a wonderful favour and that will bring with it satisfaction,
not for anything that you've done, but a satisfaction to know
that the great almighty God has wonderfully looked upon you,
come down to you through his Holy Spirit and has revealed
to you the things of God. My friends, this is something
to be coveted, something to be desired, something to be sought
for. Oh, Nathalie, satisfied with
favour. Truly, the things of this world
do not bring with them true satisfaction. I think it would be true to say
if we're really honest with ourselves, that the things which we may
be looking forward to, the things perhaps which we've received,
if we're really honest, never quite come up to the full expectation
of what we may have anticipated. There's just something lacking. It's not perfect. Indeed, there's
nothing perfect in this world. But the things of God are perfect. As for God, His way is perfect. He leads us in that right and
perfect way. And therefore there will be this
satisfaction, satisfied with favour, satisfied with the favour
of the Lord. That doesn't mean to say that
you and I will sit down and say, well now, I can rest, I needn't
be concerned anymore. The Spirit of God doesn't work
like that. The Spirit of God causes us to always desire to
grow spiritually, to know more of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
cover earnestly the best gifts, but we will be satisfied with
those things that God has revealed to us. There will be a wonderful
sense of favour in our hearts to realise that great God has
looked down upon us. Well here was this which Moses
was able to declare with regard to Naphtali, O Naphtali, full,
O Naphtali, satisfied with favour and full with a blessing of the
Lord." Again, it may seem impossible that you and I can ever come
to such a situation as this. Well, no doubt we should not
come to it fully in this life, but there will be a time when
we shall be full with a blessing of the Lord. It's good sometimes
to look beyond this life, to try and meditate and try and
comprehend what it must be like in heaven, what it must be like
in Emmanuel's land where glory, glory dwells, to ponder the situation
there and the scene there. And what it will be is, we shall
not need anything. Everything will be provided. We shall not want anything. And
that's very hard, isn't it, to physically understand in this
life. But in heaven, we will be provided
with everything that we need. We shall lack nothing, no good
thing. Everything will be provided.
Therefore, we shall be taken up with praising and blessing
our God. It's an amazing thought, isn't
it? It's hard for us to understand that we shall there be full and
totally satisfied with the favour of God. In every detail, nothing
lacking, no complaining. No complaining. We shall be full
and satisfied with the blessing of the Lord. Now that will be
heaven. So different, isn't it? From
this world. And yet how sad it is that we
so often spend so much energy on the passing things of time
rather than the eternal things of God. Well, it would be good
if we are able then to come aside sometimes and just sit down and
meditate upon these glorious truths, so that there may be
a wonderful attraction as we may view the things of this life
and recognize that there's no true blessing here, there's no
true full satisfaction, and we find things which mar every blessing,
We find the things which do not truly, fully satisfy and we find
ourselves again and again struggling on. Things come and things go. Things we look forward to pass
away and they just leave, well perhaps a certain amount of happiness
and pleasantness, but yet not that full satisfaction, not that
full blessing. but in glory there will be that
fullness and full with the blessing of the Lord. And that fullness
will be then that we shall never, never sin. Not the slightest
trace of sin, not the slightest evidence of it, but we shall
have a pure heart, We shall live a holy situation, an eternal
situation. To think that as eternity stretches
out, remember there's no days, there's no time, there's no night,
it's just an eternal situation which will continue forever. And that situation in which we
shall never want or need anything. because everything will be supplied
and we shall indeed worship the Lord, our Redeemer, without any
hindrance, without anything to detract from that perfect situation
of holiness, that holy scene. What a wonderful consideration
it is to try and meditate upon the glories of Emmanuel's land. we shall see the Saviour. Now as we travel on through life,
it will be a favour, it will be a blessing to view by faith
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. To be able to acknowledge that
we are blessed with this knowledge of the Saviour, but then to realise
there will be that time when we shall enter in to the fullness
of the blessing and full with the blessing of the Lord. I suppose in some measure, the
psalmist David leads us into this in a little way when he
wrote that 23rd Psalm and he spoke of it and said Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil. My cup runneth over." There was
a cup running over with the blessing of the Lord. Now it would be
a favour, it would be wonderful for us in this life if we know
a little of what it is. Thou my cup runneth over with
the blessings of the Lord. But you know, we won't always
live in that situation. But there will be a time when
we will be so full of the blessing of the Lord. There will be a
fullness, a fullness. So, daily goes on to encourage
us and say, surely, surely. We have the word of God in these
words to encourage us. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and he looks forward to
the eternal blessing of the Lord, and I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever." Forever. It is a tremendous thought, isn't
it? John Owen, on his deathbed, man
who had a wonderful insight into the great truths of God and was
able to write such great and weighty messages. He came down
to his dying moments. He said, forever, forever. Yes, he was departing this life
to be with Christ forever. There will never be any end to
that scene of eternal bliss. We need never fear anything else. Nothing else will be able to
destroy our peace. Nothing will ever be able to
come and separate us from that situation of purity and glory
in heaven how favoured the Church of God will be. To think of that
complete unity. It's a blessing, isn't it, for
us today when we do enjoy that unity of the brethren. When we're
thankful to possess something of that and fall within the blessing
of the Lord, to know something of this fullness and to be able
to converse one to another but then to look beyond this life
into that state of glory. We shall be in total union and
total unity. There will be nothing to disturb
it. Sometimes people say things and speak things which aggravate
us, sometimes they may annoy us, sometimes they may try us,
but look beyond that. We're just fellow sinners, travelling
along this wilderness. But we shall soon be in that
eternal state, where there will be nothing like that to aggravate
us. We shall indeed be then totally
united in Christ, in that holy place, and be found among that
sacred throng praising the Lord forever and forever. Now if you and I are amongst
these who are satisfied with favour, then I believe there
will be some little desire to enter in to eternal realities. We know that time, we know that
things of time are very powerful and are very strong in dragging
us back and dragging us down and keeping us earthbound. But
the favour of God to our souls will be to lift us above these
earthly things and to give us, by faith, a little true view
of eternal blessings, so that we are able to recognise the
incalculable difference between eternal blessings and time blessings,
natural blessings which fade away, which pass away. To think
of those eternal favours, to be with Christ forever and ever
without anything to upset us, anything to affect us in any
adverse way, but to be there forever with the Lord. Well, says Moses, O Naphtali,
satisfied with favour and full with the blessing of the Lord,
possess thou the west and the south. And this possession, well,
had a natural position, a natural place in the land of Israel,
a place given to them, a place which they were to inherit. But
that possession was a temple possession. But that which is
provided for the Church of God is an eternal possession. It's an inheritance which is
incorruptible. That's lovely, isn't it? Incorruptible
and undefiled and which fadeth not away. The things in this
world, they fade, don't they? The things that you and I deal
with, they get old, don't they? They wear out. They become rusty
and they fade. The things of glory will never
fade away. They are the same throughout
that eternal state. I was going to say the same every
day, but there's no time in eternity. It will be the same. the same,
the same. What a wonderful thought it is.
May such meditations and such favours encourage us and strengthen
us to strive to press toward the mark that is set before us
in the Gospel. The Apostle Paul's desire was
to live unto Christ. His desire was to pressed toward
the mark. There was no desire of the Apostle
to settle down in comfort in this world. His concern was to
live to Christ. His concern was to die in Christ. He tells us very plainly, for
me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now it would be a blessed
favour if you and I can enter in to such a statement as that. Satisfied with favour, for me
to live is Christ and to die is gain. Well, may we consider
these few points and be able perhaps to write down the favour
of the Lord toward us. and be surprised, just take time,
go back in your life, carefully consider the years which have
passed, perhaps the years which the locusts have eaten, perhaps
you are much to mourn over, but perhaps also you are much to
praise and thank God for, because of his favour toward you, and
therefore you may understand something of what this blessing
means and what it entails. And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali,
satisfied with favour and full with the blessing of the Lord,
possess thou the West and the South. Amen.