Just one notice friends, if the
Lord will, Mr Paul Austin will preach on Lord's Day at 10.30
and 2 o'clock. The hymns chosen this evening
are by our brother Andrew. Let us sing together hymn number
634 to the tune Adoration 528. When
saints together meet God's goodness to declare, the season will be
sweet if Jesus be but there. Of Christ they speak, of Christ
they boast, while Jesus lives they can't be lost. Hymn 634,
tune Adoration 528. The season will be sweet if Jesus
be not there. And Christ they speak, O Christ
they boast, O Jesus, live, live, and live fast. Open their hands with love, Immortals
they could wish, And of their fathers draw, fills them with
deep despair. Yet in the door they cannot hide,
United to immanent reign. Lord, in heav'n a free man Can threaten
to devour To cast their souls to hell In some unguarded palace
Yes, standing fast is he in the Lord, bending his right foot,
let him go. The Lord will guard them well,
Nor shall they ever be A greater debt than theirs. for Christ has made them free. He clothed them with faith, and
has not May the Lord be pleased to help
us to read together from his holy word in the book of the
prophet Hosea. We'll read chapters 5 and 6. The Book of the Prophet Hosea,
reading chapter 5 and chapter 6. Hear ye this, O priests, and
hearken ye House of Israel, and give ye ear, O house of the King,
for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mishpah,
and a net spread upon Tabor. And the revolters are profound
to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. I know Ephraim and Israel is
not hid from me, For now, O Ephraim, the committest whoredom and Israel
is defiled. They will not frame their doings
to turn unto their God, for the spirit of whoredoms is in the
midst of them, and they have not known the Lord. And the bride
of Israel doth testify to his face, Therefore shall Israel
and Ephraim fall into their iniquity, and Judah also shall fall with
them. And they shall go with their
flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall
not find him. He hath withdrawn himself from
them. They have dealt treacherously
Against thee, Lord, they have begotten strange children. Now shall a month devour them
with their portions. Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah
and the trumpet in Ramah. Cry aloud at Beth-haven after
thee, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in
the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel have
I made known that which shall surely be. The princes of Judah
were like them that remove the bound. Therefore, I will pour
out my wrath upon them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken
in judgment because he wangly walked after the commandments. Therefore will I be unto Ephraim
as a moth and to the house of Judah as rottenness. When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah saw his wound, they went, then went Ephraim to the
Assyrian, and sent to King Jerob. Yet could he not heal you, nor
cure you of your wound? I will be unto Ephraim as a lion,
and as a young lion to the house of Judah. Ay, even I will tear, and go
away. I will take away, and none shall
rescue him. I will go and return to my place
till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face. In their affliction they will
seek me early. Come and let us return unto the
Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us. He hath smitten
and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive
us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live
in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow
on to know the Lord, his going forth is prepared as the morning,
and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and the
former rain unto the earth. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto
thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto
thee? For your goodness is as a morning
cloud, and as the early dew, it goeth away. Therefore have
I healed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words
of my mouth, and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offering. But they,
like men, have transgressed the covenant. There have they dealt
treacherously against me. Iliad is a city of them that
work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. And as troops of
robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in
the way, thy consent, for they commit lewdness. They have seen
an horrible thing in the house of Israel. There is the whoredom
of Ephraim. Israel is defiled. Thus, O Judah,
he hath set an harvest for thee. When I returned the captivity
of my people. May the Lord be pleased to bless
to us the reading of his holy word and may help us and teach
us to pray. The most gracious and most merciful
Lord God Almighty what help we need to bear in humility before
thee that we might be given that grace to hear thy voice that
we read of in thy words speaking to thy people of old, to bring
them in the way of repentance, in their faith to look to thee,
that thou wouldst bring a blessing upon them. And that, O, that
we might hear what the Spirit speaketh unto the churches still
in the gospel day, that we may also be given that grace to turn
from our sin unto thee, to flee to thee, Lord Jesus, the refuge
that thou art for poor lost sinners. to acknowledge their need, to
pour out our hearts in humble confession of our sin, to acknowledge
indeed, as thy word declares, that we all like sheep have gone
astray, we have each turned to our own way. O thou most gracious
Lord, do cause us to come with our individual confessions before
thee, O Lord, before thee this night. We might be abased before
thee, thy feet, Lord Jesus, and given that grace of faith to
look up to thee, that in the midst of our confessions and
our groanings under sin we might beg of thee for thy great mercy
to wash and to cleanse us and to receive us graciously. Then
hast thou great need of thy spirit this evening to bring the reality
of truth into our souls that we brush it on off, O Lord, or
be careless in the truths that thy word is speaking of. that
there be much laying at your heart, most gracious Lord, that
we may be blessed with that knowledge of thee, Lord Jesus, thee, the
only true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that
thou art the saviour of sinners, Lord Jesus. We might look to
thee by faith to see thee in thy heavenly glory, and may it
please thee to pray for us, even that our faith fail not. There
it is plead, thine all-pervading name, thy precious shed blood,
that through thee we may have access to the Father, and pray
those blessings of eternal love might flow toward us, that it
bring us all the more ashamed of our sins, of our wanderings,
of our own turning aside, our own spirit that indeed is ready
to look this and that way, but never looks at thee. May thy
spirit be within us to cause us to continue looking up unto
thee, Lord Jesus, we pray thee. And by thy grace to behold thee,
the Lamb of God. May that be the blessed view
of our faith this evening as we gather around thy word, that
we might behold thee, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin
of the world. Oh, thou knowest we are in this
world, we would not be of it anymore as we once were, but
oh, thou knowest the need of our sin to be blotted out forevermore. Make it known, we pray, with
thy great power, if it could please thee, conceal the blessing
of thy peace to be present with us this evening. Gracious Lord,
could it please thee to reveal thy inner midst according to
thy word, and promise, O Lord, to be with thy people gathered
together, even the twos and the threes, and in a greater number
likewise. needy to indwell us individually
and collectively and to be the one who has the preeminence this
evening as we are gathered in thy house together and around
thy word to seek of thy spirit, to reveal thyself, Lord, to presence
thyself in our midst, to bring those resurrection truths out
of thy word, to show that thou art ever mighty to save and able
to save to the uttermost to save far-off feeling souls this evening,
that they might be gathered up in thy great love and mercy,
and given a hope in thee, the saviour of sinners, we pray thee.
To descend to own and bless thine own word, we pray. Give us grace
to hear the rod and who has appointed it, to bow unto those things
that thou hast appointed us. Lord, in the path of affliction
we might seek thee early, Those things that are sanctifying to
us, that make us know our weaknesses, that let us give renewed strength.
And to all who know those pathways of present afflictions, do bring
a blessing in it also, we pray thee. And those who walk long
seasons in their afflictions, often hidden things yet, Lord,
then as the means of grace, let us cause it to be. Lord, do come
thyself with thy strength and power, we pray thee. and give
us the knowledge of thy hand that healeth we do beseech of
thee that thou would ease it here that hath torn and that
is there that will heal. Lord we do pray for that enabling
grace to worship thee and around thy word this evening to cause
thy house to be again and again here that house of prayer for
all people. And as each are gathered this evening may they find it
even so they are giving a spirit of grace and a supplications
to be known and felt the access and liberty To cast their care
upon thee, to commit their way to thee, and to pour out their
hearts before thee, we do beseech of thee. Lord, do send answers
of peace to each petition and cry, we pray thee. Lord, thou
art often turning aside from the path of vital prayer, yet,
Lord, we must ever prove that we are always to pray and not
to faint. Often we are found in fainting
pathways, O Lord, through prayerlessness and carelessness. Lord, do bring
us again with those urgent desires, those longing cries, those desires
in our hearts to see and to know thee, Lord Jesus, and to see
that thou art leading us in the heavenward way, and that thou
would receive us at last into thy glory, we do beseech of thee.
And then, unless the ministry of thy servant, the pastor here,
as he labors, and do pour out thy spirit upon thy ministering
servants that preach in his absence, Refreshing as he is away for
a season, thy watchful care and safe return in due time. Help
to the deacons in their pathways, we pray thee. And amidst affliction,
do give renewed strength and help, we pray thee. And lest
the gathering of the church here and the congregation, we do beseech
of thee. Present ones with us and absent
ones also, we pray thee. Remembering each of thy favours
that thou dost bear unto thy people, and mercifully giving
those visits of thy great salvation, to hear those travails for souls,
and add to thee, gathering church here, those each other must be
saved, we pray thee. O Lord, you set souls at liberty
to come and tell what thou hast done for them, we pray thee,
to glorify thy great and holy name, and do shine with the light
of truth into each of our souls in that continual way to dispel
the darkness of sin and self that we carry around with us.
old nature, this old man of sin. Lord, what need we have of that
new man of grace to be that place where thy light shines, we pray
thee, and do cause it to be shining all the more in a day of darkness,
when where we look, O Lord, there is that to lead us astray. May our hearts be looking unto
thee, to thy word, and to know and feel thy presence with us,
thou art truly Emmanuel, God with us. He that hath made the
crooked things straight, the rough face plain, the good hand
of the Lord to go before us, may there be sanctifying then
of each of our providences to bring us into the blessings of
thy grace, the teaching of thy spirit, the hand of the Lord
mighty in salvation to guide us each day by day. To this end,
dear blessed young friends and the families that gather here
and help them in their pathways, open their hearts in the way
of true and living faith, we pray thee, Word of thy truth,
and command thy blessing in it for them we do beseech of thee.
Grant them to be a generation that shall follow unto know thee,
we pray thee. Help the dear parents in their
care and responsibility and many burdens, we pray, and give them
strength in all that path where they will set them in. And uphold
them and be with them. And each who walk in the midst
of life with the many burdens that they are brought into, Lord,
do strengthen them for it all, we pray thee, and cause thy good
hand to be upon them. And as those years increase,
and the infirmities of the body come more and more, yet there
might be strength and might inwardly. Lord, we do beseech of Thee that
knowledge that this body must return again to the dust from
whence it has come, and that we need Thy Spirit quickening
us, enlivening us all the more, and setting our hearts in heavenly
things, we pray Thee. That we amongst those, O Lord,
have a city that we seek, which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. Grace, and to look beyond all
things that we are given by thy providence and thy blessings,
to see that which is great and that is eternal, those unseen
things which are eternal. So may we each be given the eye
of faith to seek first thy kingdom and thy righteousness, most gracious
Lord. To put those first things first
as we may speak of them, O Lord, before thee. We've had the right
in thy sight, ready for eternity for thee. Know not what a moment
in our lives we'll bring forth, when they shall surely come again
in thy power and great glory. What need we have to be found
ready? Do then ever exercise our hearts unto godliness, we
pray thee, and lift up our souls unto thee, we devote each of
thee, and shine with this great light yet again in this our land,
we pray thee, we lament the solemn withholding of thy spirit, the
solemn truth that we have read of that thou hast returned to
thy place. There is much seeking, there is but little finding,
May the Lord give us that enabling grace to continue looking unto
thee, leaning upon thee, begging that thou wouldst come and return,
O Lord, most gracious God, in thy reviving power if it could
please thee, and cause it to be a sanctified blessing, a pathway
for many souls who know thee not, to turn to thee in troubles,
O Lord, whatever those bring them into. May it be a voice
that touches their hearts and causes them to tremble as guilty
sinners before the holy heart-searching God. May we have of these things
to soften us and to humble us, things that we cannot bring about
ourselves, O Lord, but are hardened against. That there is no power
like Thy power, and where the word of the King is, there is
power. May there yet be such power to bring sinners to conviction,
we pray, to tremble over sin and to cry out for Thy mercy,
we pray Thee. May there yet be those in this
village that they might bring in in that pathway. causing to tremble
before their holy heart-searching God. As cries lifted up, O Lord,
that there was gathering such to worship Thee here might be
answered, we pray Thee. There might be a gathering of
living souls, we do beseech of Thee. And likewise, wheretoever
the relayed service goes to, Lord, may it be a voice of truth
and of power that brings many to tremble before Thee, most
gracious God. Lord, bless each one then who
listens in a remote way, homes here in this land and other lands
likewise, those friends connected in the Netherlands, do bless
and be with them, we pray thee especially. And Lord, do shine
forth yet in the power of thy Spirit to many who know thee
not, to yet turn to thee. And raise in thy mercies with
this our guilty land, and turn us again to thee, if it could
please thee, and cause thy face to shine. Leave us not to be
hardened in our sins, and to be ignorant of thee, most gracious
God. O, could it please thee to awaken thy dead elect, we
pray, to cause thy wandering ones to be returning ones, to
hear those cries that such who are far gone from thy house and
thy ways may yet return to thee, most gracious Lord, and where
it is thy holy will to gather amongst thy gathering people.
Lord, thou dost save for the uttermost, and thou knowest those
uttermost ones that we have in our families, and the connections,
O Lord, that we fear, Shall they ever be blest to know thee? O God, thou canst bring it to
pass, if it could please thee. Or may we not plead only thy
word that is in the Scripture, O Lord, do thou it for thy name's
sake? Lord, we come from no other ground
but to plead the glory and the honour of thy great and holy
name. Thou is in mercy. Save such souls, we pray thee.
Save our souls, we do beseech of thee, for thy name's sake. Lord, thou mightest have pity
upon thine holy name, as thou didst declare through thy servant
Ezekiel, and show us thus power to save. Gracious Lord, then
do open up the Scripture to our hearts this evening. We seek
that manner. It might be found in thy house
this evening. It might be sent to us from heaven. Lord, there
might be those things that come down according to thine appointment
and thy blessing. We come with their emptiness,
but thou canst fill our empty souls. I would see thee, Lord
Jesus, know thy presence with us, be filled with thy spirit,
and be enabled by thy grace to worship thee, that thy name in
all things may have the preeminence, most gracious Lord. To this end,
we seek thy blessing in the hymns that we sing, O Lord, upon each
cry and each sigh that is lifted up to thee, that there might
be answers, and thy blessing in it, we do beseech of thee.
And the glory and honor of thy great and holy name as we gather
to worship thee, thankfulness for thy long-suffering, and lengthen
thy mercies to us, to spare us and help us to gather again at
this midweek service, and to continue in thy love and tender
fear. May all glory, honor, and praise be unto thee for the kind
ordering of many providences, the supply of those earthly needs
that we may yet see ever the heavenly hand that has made the
provision, and the purpose of that providing is to thy glory. Do I good and benefit that we
might glorify Thee in what we have naturally given, and be
sanctified to us in that each spiritual way, we pray Thee,
and to humble our souls under the mighty hand of God, we do
beseech of Thee, that could it please Thee to exalt us in due
time. So we desire to continue casting
all of our care upon Thee, most gracious Lord, for Thou dost
care for us, Gracious thou art to show that care, to supply
the need in every fear that ariseth for us. Lord, thou hast the fear
not, thou hast the comfort to find in thy word a blessing of
thy presence. Lord, reveal it with thy power,
we pray. Make it personal to us and cause us to know thee,
we do beseech of thee. In that wonder of thy saving
love, thus we seek thy glory and thine honor and all Thanksgiving
and praise may ever be rendered unto thee. That we might come
in with a psalmist, O Lord, not unto us, not unto us, but unto
thy great name, may we give glory. Gracious Lord, we seek that that
truth might ever prevail, as it shall surely do so, because
thou hast spoken it, that no flesh shall glory in thy presence.
So may thy name be glorious, Lord Jesus, amongst us this evening.
and have that preeminence, we pray thee. We beg thy mercies
now to wash us from our every sin, to cleanse all that thou
seest amiss, all that we ask amiss. It was clothed in thy
righteousness, Lord Jesus, and grant that knowledge that we
are found complete in thee. In whose name we ask these things
and to whose glory we seek them. Amen. Hymn 1033, Tune Foundation 829. In Jesus combine all the riches
of grace, what glory and grandeur I see in his face. Jehovah's
eternal and co-equal Son took all our transgressions and made
them his own. Hymn 1033, tune Foundation 829. He is not aware of the riches
of grace, nor glory and wonder I see in his face. Kiddo, could you do more than
curvy curls for us? You'll pull our transgressions
and make them peaceful. Children of Zion, now dry up
your tears. For you, the Redeemer, in glory
appear. Now he lives, now he reigns,
now he dwells in the sky. Where you'll answer the leading
whene'er they cry. A victor in heaven thy cause
he'll maintain. Though roughly thy way ill, Remind
thee of me. Heed of his sensations, His voices
still true, Come teach me to Christ His immutable love. Water thy corruption, how many
and strong. Thy gracious Redeemer will help
thee along. It's from him that surely went
to book the sale. No bound truth that I see, my
faith cannot hold. The Lord shall be pleased to
help me this evening. I seek that a retro prayerful thoughts
to a text you'll find in the book of the prophet Hosea. In
chapter six, we'll read together the third verse. The book of the prophet Hosea,
chapter six, verse three. In particular, that opening clause
of the third verse, then shall we know if we follow on to know
the Lord. His goings forth is prepared
as the morning. He shall come unto us as the
rain, as the latter and the former rain unto the earth. Verse 3 in chapter 6 of Hosea's
prophecy. Read the last verse of the fifth
chapter in these first three verses together. They set the
word of text in context. So from verse 15 in chapter 5,
I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence
and seek my face. In their affliction they will
seek me early. Come, let us return unto the
Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us. He hath smitten
and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive
us. In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live
in his sight. Then shall we know if we follow
on to know the Lord. He's going forth, he's prepared
us the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain. and as the
latter reign and former reign upon the earth. Again and again
the prophet Hosea was to bring out this gospel cry for the people
to return to the Lord. The message was solemn, it was
telling the word of God that God knew all about the sin of
Israel and Judah and that there was no place that they could
hide from God's sight or God's anger that would fall upon them
in judgments. And that there was this need
for God's spirit to be in them to cause them to turn in repentance
to the Lord. What a wonderful gift repentance
is, a God-given blessing. For the truths remind us that
we have read that though there were the sins and even the knowledge
that it was wrong that grace enlivening their hearts to repent,
to turn, they could not turn to the Lord. And yet there was
a power in what the prophet was to speak. And really these verses
that we have read, they are the word of the prophet exhorting
again and again the word of God. He felt that need to be a returning
one, to bring this message. and to appoint them to the one
that would receive them. What a mercy that the Word of
God does not only exhort us to turn or return to the Lord, but
He is a gracious God to receive the returning, repenting sinner. So much more declared by the
Lord Jesus in those truths, Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall
find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. There is a burden in the gospel,
there is a burden indeed in the way of faith, but it is Christ
who is in the beginning and the end of the matter to carry it
all. To be that one mighty to say that we have sung of Though
he sees this serenity of affliction, and we have to see that the Lord's
hand is to use even affliction being sanctified, having a voice
in it, there is no affliction alone that brings any to know
God. When the Lord speaks out of it,
he knows how to bring us away from all the love then of the
things of this earth, of self, and to ponder these things in
our hearts that we have sinned against almighty God, the great
giver of all these natural benefits and blessings that we are so
favoured with, and the people who had their herds and their
flocks and all manner of things in their day, as we have in our
day, the many benefits of providence, and yet how few consider the
hand of providence is the hand of God that giveth freely. Those providences that we have
be a speaking voice to us, May we rightly thank the gracious
God that gives, that openeth his hand and satisfies every
living thing, even bodily needs, that is much more able to open
the hand of his grace and satisfy our spiritual need. And as the
Holy Ghost may open our eyes in the scriptures this evening,
what a spiritual need we have to be put into this vital knowledge
of the Living God, the Lord, Jehovah Himself, the God of Israel. It really is the covenant God
or the blessings of that covenant with His people that He can never
leave nor forsake. So therefore must faithfully
chasten to bring His people low and give them a spirit to turn
and return to Him that he might give them hope in those promises
of restoring love and mercy, and then bless them with those
tokens of that love, and to have a greater knowledge of his great
faithfulness, that though we have turned our back and fallen
away, he waits to be gracious. He waits that appointed time.
We have a waiting time mentioned in that previous verse, the two
days he will After two days he will revive us, in the third
day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight. How
sovereign our God is in his work, even as this verse intimates
his going forth, is prepared as the morning, the illustration
given of the covenant promise of the Lord of day and night,
of the The night season coming to an end and the light of the
morning appearing, the certainty of it. And as the Lord has prepared
the renewed mercies morning by morning, and in that way they
are shown to us. And we see he has likewise prepared
this time of his appearing is going forth to give teaching
concerning himself. To bring us into this truth that
is set before us Shall we know what then this is? Because it
is needful then that the power of God bring us to the returning
ones and to see and to be given knowledge that it is the hand
of the Lord that has torn, that has smitten, that has laid low,
that has brought us into Hannah's experience, that he killeth and
maketh alive, that he sets the proud one on a low place, that
he might raise him up At his will it is time, but there is
a certainty in it that his going forth cannot fail, and because
he has declared that great faithfulness in natural things, how much more
it is to be known in spiritual things. The Lord must answer
prayer, he must come and fulfil his word, and he shall come unto
us as the ray Now if the scripture had ended there, we might say,
well sometimes when the rain comes, it comes in a tremendous
flood. It comes in a destroying way. He had sent it in Noah's
day to be a flood like that shall never be repeated again. Because
not only was the rain from the heaven, the foundations of the
deep were broken up. But it is not that which is declared
here, but it shall come as the rain that is appointed to be
refreshing in that way that Israel knew it to be an early and latter
rain. We have here the latter and the former rain unto the
earth. The rain that might come upon the newly sown seed to be
given God's quickening power that it might spring forth and
be growing up toward a harvest. There might be that latter rain
to swell the grain for the harvest or a time of refreshing of the
Lord's appointment. So in this word before us this
evening then, we'll be given God's help to view something
of this knowledge then that when shall we know that God has a
perfect time to work, that he has that knowledge to reveal
and that way that he would have us to go in, the way that we
are to follow on to know the Lord. Or that it is not just
a first knowledge that is made known, There is a continuing
truth that God must lead and guide and teach us always. Because
if we know something of this teaching, we will know how soon
we forget. We show our forgetfulness by
how quickly we turn away and sink into our fears and lose
hope in the promise he has made. The Lord knows I needed those
promises, those teachings to be renewed in their heart. Whereas in the time of affliction
becomes greatly exercised in prayer, that God would deliver
us, that God would be gracious. He won't cut us off as sinners
and be cast out forever in hell, but he would spare us and redeem
us. And where he has graciously come
in due time to give that hope in his mercy, Alas, we can be
taken up with other things and those errands for the throne
of grace, they become cold and faint and even forsaken. Those who bring us to walk and
tread the path of vital prayer, which is the exercise of the
spirit in our hearts to feel our need of the Lord, And so
that light, the Lord Jesus sends upon that truth that we are all
always to pray. Hear the great word of the Lord
Jesus Christ who gave that clear passing of prayer that as he
come in the flesh as the son of man, he showed that path of
prayer for his disciples to observe. The mountaintops in Gethsemane,
in all places he was one who showed that need of communion
with God, to lay these cares before the Lord, to ask His help,
His merciful blessing, to give Him the thanks, the glory, the
honor, to show that we live upon His Spirit, breathing into our
hearts our felt need, and that desire to ask of Him His merciful
deliverance, who is to keep us in this way, of following the
footsteps of the Master, to have a clearer view, a more often
view of his going forth, his prepared this morning. It's not a haphazard matter in
the Lord's account. He knows how to bring us to feel
a new need of the Lord to come. He'll be present with us until
we We need him to come and show us he has gone forth here and
prepared this time together as the morning, dispelling the darkness
of our unbelieving hearts, to give us the greater felt need
of the Lord, to show that he is that one gracious to know
exactly what that need is that we are in this evening, and he
is more than able to supply it from his own abounding wisdom,
glory, power and grace, to be to His glory and to get our benefit,
our eternal benefit from the Lord's hand. And what he knows,
we have the need of providentially that shall be glorifying to God. He knows what to withhold providentially,
those things that may as often sorely try us. We have not the
things that we have prayed for in providence because he knows
what we have in mind and spirit to consume for our own lusts
or desires. We come to the end of our supplication
that no flesh shall glory in my presence. Or how we somehow
think that there might be some glory, something that the flesh
might yet have in the matter. It can be nothing of our own
spirit, our own glory. We must come in all our helplessness
and weakness and lean upon Himself, Christ, the Saviour of sinners. Upon his wondrous grace, the
sacrifice he has made. And that need indeed to be in
that spirit to know it is the mercy of God that we need. We
read again in that previous chapter, the Lord commends the way of
the gospel for his dear people. That he indeed delights in mercy. not sacrifice. There will be
one sacrifice to be the open door of mercy for his people
and that knowledge of the Lord, longing to know him, him to know
his life eternal. Then the knowledge of the Lord
in our hearts is to acknowledge that we indeed are in this place
of sinfulness of ourself, our own rebellion, our own spirit,
We are undone and defiled, as Isaiah begins in his prophecy
that we are indeed those ones whose wounds and crucifixions
saw us all in every manner evil. As often read there of one's
sin and another's being defiled, that the way of sin has led another
astray, that one seemed to excuse itself by another's sin, or the
natural heart, it only looks for a lowest standard. At the
heart of God's grace it looks to that highest standard of the
Lord. It cannot rest in the Lord. It is his spirit in the heart
that looks only for holiness, perfection, and it will never
find it in self. But the Lord has revealed it
in the Lord Jesus Christ, so we must view this This evening,
as the truths were given for the Old Testament Church, looking
and longing for Messiah to appear, that he would come in their day,
in their time, if it was the Lord's will. And yet, of course,
we know in the Scripture record that it was not yet to be so.
But the spirit of lively grace was in their hearts to look for
the God-man to come, if it be the Lord's will. and the view
of faith would see him coming, though it be not in their day.
But the spirit of it would look that the Lord was a loving Father
who had chosen a people, had given it to his dear Son, who
must become the Messiah indeed, and the one appointed to come,
the anointed Saviour, be the Son of Man upon the earth in
due time, that Job spake of in his day, the prophets then had
spoken of, and we are reminded in the beginning of this prophecy
that Hosea was prophesying in the same time as Isaiah. And
Isaiah had many clear views of the suffering of Christ, the
sacrificial love that he would show, and those glorious truths
that we read proclaimed that he was given the view of, and
the certainty that they would be fulfilled. though yet there
is many hundreds of years beyond them. But in every truth that
the Lord has given to be proclaimed by the prophets, it has that
divine certainty about it that being God's word, it can never
fail. And their faith could rest upon
that all-sufficiency of their own changing God. It could not
fail to fulfill his word concerning the coming of Christ. that there
would be access for a poor lost sinner through the Lamb of God,
to provide, of course, in those sacrifices and offerings. It
was to be done in the spirit of faith, not just looking at
the literal outward thing or feeling pleased with themselves
because they had given the best of their flock and done all that
they thought they could do to please God through the law. but
to realize in all the things they gave it was still not sufficient
to gain the mercy of the Lord. They would need the Lord's grace
in their hearts to accept their desire to receive mercy, to provide
the lamb for them, to send his dear son. Their sacrifices in
their time were not to hinder the coming of Christ, but to
put before them in every generation They were guilty and could not
approach unto God or themselves. But it must be in the blood or
the death of an innocent one. In their time of course it was
a beast because no man could be innocent. Even that could
not bring it about. It was the Spirit of Grace that
viewed it would be in the Lamb of God in due time. So this knowledge
then of the Lord was to be to show the glories of God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, who was here with the
word of God, the teaching of these truths, the giving of the
grace of faith, to convey unto and for them all that ever they
needed. You know how wonderfully then
the Lord Jesus points out these glories of the Godhead, his Father,
the Holy Ghost, to follow him upon his ascension, he should
come and still bring these same truths, still show that he was
a covenant God, that having loved his people and promised them
this place that they should dwell in, if they were but to live
according to his word, he would not cast them off though they
turned away in their sins and their iniquities. What knowledge
we have then and need of to see on the one hand the great faithfulness
of God in his word, and in the light of it our solemn unfaithfulness
that we have in all things fallen short, failed, perhaps delighted
in a measure of this truth and then lost sight of it. God cannot
go back upon his word that we have gone back on so many of
our own resolutions, our own thoughts, our own resolves and
yet in the face of it all the Lord as a love far greater above
it all, because he gives that love to be dwelling in the heart,
to be revived and renewed in the feeling power of it. Then
shall we know the view then of our great need, listen to this
voice of the Lord to his servant, come and let us return unto the
Lord. You might say, well surely it
is he that we have so failed, Forsaken, everything against
us, we cannot think of coming. Come in a reception for us. The
Lord has not spoken of rejecting this people. You sent them that
word, come that they might yet come in humble hope and dependence. Come with that who can tell in
their hearts whether the Lord will be gracious or no. The expression
we read concerning the Ninevites when they heard the preaching
of Jonah. And who can tell within their
hearts concerning that matter that God might yet see their
desire to forsake their evil ways. And it did cause the Lord
to withhold his hands from that destruction of them. Though it
displeased Jonah, whom he sent to proclaim those truths. What
a sovereign the Lord is in the going forth as the morning shall
come unto us as the rain. The ordering of what is natural
there is sovereign. Who knows when to send those
showers in these hot seasons, if it is as well, and some places
it is receiving it and others it is not. All of that sovereign
almighty hand of God. So in that like manner he knows
where to bring a refreshing truth into our hearts and where not
to bring it. To bring a soul with a more deeply
exercised and burdened to know that like blessing. Those whom
we hear of that are receiving it we might also receive of it.
The Lord has that same love surely for all of his people. He has
a sovereign way to reveal it is that Knowledge that we have
to come into is indeed the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.
When the Himalaya speaks of having a sovereign right to govern me
and mine. The grace of humility that is
so vital. Without this humility then the
people did not turn to the Lord. The Lord used the path of affliction. We read in one of those earlier
chapters in the Valley of Acre to be the door of hope. That
valley named after Achan, when his heart fell in love with the
spoil of Jericho, the accursed thing, and buried it in his tent,
dwelt above it all as if it did not matter. It became such a
curse upon all Israel that they could not overcome AI. And what
despondency was in Joshua when that took place. The Lord had
to show them there was one in their midst who had forsaken
the Word of God, who had coveted what God had forbidden. What a picture it is of anyone
of our hearts, a sinner, so readily covets the things of this world,
to bury it and to possess it as it were, as if it were their
own. When the Lord has bid us not, then love this world and
the things that are of it. Love the God that has given it.
Use it rightly in his fear that he gives it us. We might glorify
his name, may it benefit one to another. Live under the privilege
of what we are given. And see it as a means of God's
hand yet providing for others as we are to walk out that commandment
of loving the Lord our God, Lord our might, our soul, our spirit,
and as our neighbour as ourself. What a standard that is. and
what a spirit is in it, then shall we know a need of this
grace that we have in our hearts to come and to return. The old deacon used to say that
in the beginnings of the Lord's work in his soul, the word come
was so precious to him. And how precious that word is,
and we are sweetly drawn by the invitations of the gospel, Lord's
voice in it and oh that we would come again and again in the sweetness
of the Lord welcoming a poor undone sinner. But as the years
went on he had to prove he found a great sweetness in that word
return. We have them both here, come
and let us return. But he had to prove that so readily
he went astray and oh do we not have to prove that our own hearts
then wander and go astray. He wants us to look away from
God, the word of God, the way of God, the simplicity of the
gospel, the truth that he has given us in his word to pray
that he will reveal to us. He wants us to look at the multitude
of other ways. All of them are looking down,
not looking up. We have this eye of faith that looks up to
their God in heaven, as long as it might be those returning
ones, seeking all that comes between us. Returning this view
then of knowledge that we see it is the Lord that hath torn
or brought low. It's appointed that we should
be smitten. He alone who hath done so will
heal, for he hath torn. In this knowledge of the acknowledgement
that it is the Lord's hand, the sovereign to cut us for the quick,
to lay bare our hearts, to cause us to be wounded, to be snarting
under our sin, under a lost condition as lost sinners feelingly, showing
that without God we must perish forever, that he might come and
reveal his forgiving and saving love to our needy souls, fresh
tokens of his love, those breathings that we often find David crying
out unto his God throughout the Psalms The language of a living
soul that lives upon the presence of God. The word of God being
heard in the heart and being given to the Lord to us. How poor we are to realize we
are in these glorious things. What a need there is in them.
To see where something comes into our path as we may view
it of a sudden. Yet in it I believe there is
this going forth as prepared of the Lord. He knows when to
cut us short, bring us low, without warning. and to cause us to ponder
the matter. He hath torn, he will heal. All the things that the Lord
hath done may we acknowledge they are of his hand. But oh
the wonder that that same hand that knows how to lay low and
where to lay us has not lost grip of the soul whom he will
then restore. That same pierced hand that must
smite and show how we have slighted his love in laying down his life
upon Calvary's tree and given his all, shed his own heart's
blood. It's that same hand that is open
to blessedly heal us. Then shall we know. It is vital
knowledge of what the Lord is doing that it is not just something
he has laid up in the word of God to teach us, but we are to
walk in it, that he does bring these things about. They're not
just historical accounts of a people long gone, but the living God
by his living word, knowing how to rend the heart of his people,
to bring to true gospel repentance, bring us in a wounded heart.
It's not saying in the scripture that the spirit of a man may
bear many infirmities, but who can bear the wounded heart? He
can brush off many things that may trouble us and trouble others
and say well that does not affect me as we see it affecting others,
but a wounded spirit, oh the Lord knows how to smite our reputation,
our own thoughts, What we become to fear what men will think of
us? Or how we can go on before any
or before God? Or how we, as it says, how then? Then shall we know the knowledge
of the Spirit given to see that the hand of the Lord is in it
to lay low and to bring up again, or to tear and to heal, speaks and we know if something
is torn it is not so much easy to mend it. It's always easy,
we might say, to mend something that is clearly cut. It has nice,
easy edges to it. You're well with us in our workplace
to cut a hand many times and bind it out with a bandage. But
if we abraded the hand with an abrasive wheel, oh, it ripped
it all apart. What rugged edges it left. What
a soreness was in the way it entered in. It did not enter
in cleanly, nor did much that needed to be cleansed from it,
until it was cleansed and it would not heal. And it is the
Lord who knows how to care, until I bear these sins and to show
the awfulness of sin, and festering it, the fact it has upon an open
wound. And yet, what a power he has to heal. What a marvel
it is, even natural healing in the body. It is the Lord. Oh, let us acknowledge this is
what we need to have the grace to acknowledge it is He that
has this power. Did He not declare to His Israel,
I am the Lord that healeth thee and forgiveth all thine iniquities. He has a power to give all healing
in body and in soul and in spirit. It was not Christ sent to bind
up the brokenhearted. comfort the mourners, to be a
light to his people in darkness. He has mission and he will bind
us up. He knows to lay those stripes
of chastening, the wounds that come with them, to bind up those
wounds likewise, to bring then what then he's described here
in these illustrations as those awful wounds and to be known
and felt that the Lord must administer because of the awfulness of sin.
There is nothing unnecessary in these truths that God is speaking
of and so that which is vital that we then shall we know. After two days he will revive
us, or in that set time. It is in all manner of things
in Scripture too in the third day, the third day of Christ's
resurrection. Two days of the clear evidence and the third
day likewise that it was a real death that he entered into. And
it was the power that he was given to lay down his life and
the power to raise it again as spoken of by Christ as that sign
that Jonah the prophet was one in the world's body. There's three days and nights
to show the certainty of it or that the prophet sent in Nineveh
was one known to have surely perished in the sea that there
was a life preaching, or that every newborn soul in the things
of grace is one brought again out of death unto life. Or that
we knew more and more that being dead to ourself and the world
and the love of it, the cleavings to it, and that we live now by
the life of Christ that is given. We profess not a spirit of life
and still live in a spirit of death. and showing you the evidence
of the love to the dead. That's what the devil wants us
to profess, knowledge of God. It is nothing but a denial of
God. God give us that clearer light and this great knowledge
of his power of life. He will rise up and we shall
live in his sight. So this knowledge is a knowledge
under the view of the Lord that he knows the clear need of He
knows how ignorant we are of this which he is to show us and
to teach us and to cause us to walk in. Then shall we know if
we follow on to know the Lord. To show the certainty of what
then we hope is our beginning by what then he brings us to
continually feel our need of to know in following or that
we are to find out this knowledge and God-given knowledge by the
close walking of the soul with the Lord. We read that in that
descriptive way in one of the Psalms that this was a people
near to the Lord. Blessed nearness is clear in
the gift of Christ, of Immanuel God with us. He is one that is
with or in his people. And the Lord Jesus teaching indeed
that he is indeed a good shepherd over his sheep that they are
to follow him. They hear his voice. He lures
them into the wilderness to come away from all that distracts
them from Christ. Sets them in a wilderness place
to be fed with himself the true manna that he is to his dear
people. And that was what the Lord would
do to his ancient people. He would bring them out of that
land and put them into a far off place and still be their
God show that he had given them those privileges of the nation,
the place of Jerusalem, the temple, and yet without faith in their
hearts he did not attribute it to the goodness of God to them,
and sought only to do things outwardly and not inwardly. God
knows what he must remove from us to bring all of our hearts
to be the following heart of the Lord, that wants to hear
him again and again, to see his Goings forth are those prepared
things that are renewing of another day. That though the sorrow endureth
for the night, as the psalmist speaks, there is joy that shall
come in the morning. Or that the times of sorrow,
they are set with their limits, or it. Because those shinings
of the daytime, those times of rejoicing and the Clearer knowledge
then of the Lord's love and mercy to us in comfort and blessing
that he is raising up and he is causing us to live in his
sight under his blessing. Likewise those pictures to us
of that forerunner of heaven itself. Yes, heaven we must pass
through death to enter into, pass out of this sinful body
and be found in that holy place, clothed in his righteousness,
but what a vital path we are to walk by faith here, seeking
that our soul be a blood-washed soul, a saved soul, that is following
on or seeking to hear the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, to
be further led into his knowledge, to be given that spirit the Apostle
Paul expresses when writing to the church at Philippi, that
I might know him, The power of his resurrection, the conquering
power of the risen Saviour. What a knowledge he desired of
it. But he knew the knowledge of
that would come upon the ground of the fellowship of Christ's
sufferings. The cost that he had passed through
to give this blessing. That there might be the power
of the Father's love conveyed through the sacrifice of the
Son. to be that revealed knowledge that the Apostle craved. It was
a knowledge of his God. Such a knowledge indeed that
so filled his soul that he saw that it would be better to be
with Christ. To be with Christ was just far
better. Being in that great state he
knew what to say in the present time would be taken. But I believe
he knew this, We must yet continue to know and follow on to know
the Lord. Then shall we know. The Lord
has a sovereign time to revive, to bring deliverance in the midst
of it, to bring about those what we will call setbacks or things
that are to come into the midst of deliverances, to show that
there is a completeness yet to be given at last. No, there cannot
be any lack of fullness or any lack of perfection in the work
of God. But He knows how to show us that we have not had in this
time of the grave, we have sweet foretastes and how blessed those
foretastes are. We still have an old nature that
rises up. The prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ in that deep and
mysterious way is a part of this following on to know the Lord.
Pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but
thou shouldest deliver them from the evil thereof. We are appointed
a place in this dark world to be found with those passions
like others, to realize the rising of old nature, but to be under
God's gracious hand to deliver us from this evil, or to be under
the conquering power of Christ's love, the grace of faith, You
see the devil is an overthrown enemy. He has such great power
and such great influence. He comes with such great temptations
and we are so weak before him. But mightier is he that is for
us than he that is against us. What a following on this is then.
It must be walked out the path of the knowledge of the Lord.
There is a certainty in the knowledge. It begins in the heart by The
Lord bring us to know something of ourself being lost before
him, and he being a holy heart-searching God that must righteously judge
us and condemn us forever. That yet a gracious God that
lovingly gives life in the soul to flee to him for safety, for
refuge, to confess our sin, to beg forgiveness of those sins.
to receive the blessing of that sin forgiven, to see the blood
shed upon her behalf, to cleanse us from all sin, to bring a sweet
peace of the Lord to our soul, and every favour in it, if we
follow on to know the Lord, to continuing then in what the Lord
begins. And what He begins, He cannot
fail to continue in, to show that we must press on in this
way of faith, You might read that also, without that word
the translators have put there, then shall we know, then shall
we follow on to know the Lord. They saw the way this word was
expressed in its original to put that word if there. As it
were to say well we cannot know anything but by following we
must find that the way of knowing the Lord will cause us to follow.
To come out of the hindrances of following in open profession,
in humble testimony before the Lord's people and before the
world, that we are not what we once were, as full of this world,
but now have another heart and another spirit given us. We have
an evidence that we have a God in heaven, it is our Father,
and that we have come under his eternal love to be his newborn
child, his sanctified child now, Though through many wanderings
and much chastening, proving gracious forbearance and great
long-suffering, it is all indeed to cause us to know Him more
and more. And all that desire then to love
and know Him more, it is to cause out the soul then to see this
greater love that He ever has, that we have not had the view
of before. that we could be brought into
that, what grace we need to bear the purposes of God, the providence
of God to lead us this way. But it must be, as the Lord's
appointment that is going forth is prepared us the morning, he
has prepared those things to bring the latter in the form
of rain as it is under the earth. Sovereignly given, sovereignly
withheld. The voice in it is God's voice. We are to long and feel the need
of that refreshing. The truth of the Lord Jesus we
often have cries Lord that says that without me you can do nothing
and how sorely we have to prove it. We live in our lives as if
we deny that truth that we can do all things of ourself. We
dispense with God or his word. The person of the Father, the
Son, or the Holy Ghost. Oh God save us from that which
is the error of the wicked one. May he give us the proof that
the Apostle proved that truth. That he could do all things through
Christ which strengthened him. So this knowledge then is to
be reviving a strength in the soul. Clearer view that faith
cleaves to and lays hold upon. and is to bring us the nearer,
that we should not be content with our far-off followings,
that seek to be a people near unto the Lord, or following fast
after the Master, placing our feet in his steps as it were,
knowing he is carrying us, showing that he is with his dear people,
and one to uphold in trouble, trial, and difficulty. to use
those very things to be what will bring us to seek him early,
or to be evermost in our hearts to be at the throne of grace,
praying that his presence might go with us and he would carry
us up hence. If that were otherwise, as Moses
sorely felt it, then it would not be that the providence might
open and we might go where the Lord is not. We'd be satisfied
with Jonah who saw those The door was opening providentially
and thought that was the way then that prospered him in going
the opposite way to the Word of God. He was permitted to go
so far and then the Lord would intervene and bring him back.
May we be given this softened heart then to hear the Word of
the Lord come and let us return unto the Lord, the Word of the
Lord, the way that that Word of God is speaking to us. A need
to know God that is spoken of. Know Him savingly as our Saviour.
Know Him that we are to cleave unto, seek to be close to, and
show Him above all that He is very close to us. He was in us
by His Spirit. We are those that we read of
by the Apostle Paul and the Spirit that we are in Christ Jesus.
In that divine safety of no separation, no condemnation, no condemnation,
no separation, no accusation. Many accusations, not one of
them can stick because of the less redeemer has died. Yea,
it is Christ that died rather than is risen again. raises up
the souls of his people by resurrection power, even at the right hand
of the throne of God, there to intercede, there to bring each
one safely to him at last. May we be blessed with this vital
knowledge, this evidence that we are following on to know that
the pathway is onward and upward, that we fear it is downward and
backward, without progress in these things. May the Lord bring
us nearer to those leaning upon him and pray that indeed he might
give these refreshing showers of his felt presence, of his
great love, that we might be revived and blessed of the Lord.
His name be glorified. May the Lord bless his word this
evening and forgive all that I speak and miss from it. Amen. Hymn 917 Tune Evening Hymn 709
Cease, O Believer, cease to mourn, Return unto thy rest, return! Why should thy sorrow swell? Though deep distress thy steps
attend, Thy warfare shall in triumph end, It shall go well. Hymn 917, June
Evening Hymn 709. O cease to move, return unto
thy rest, return Why should thy sorrows swell? The leap is fast, life steps
after me, My mortal shell, In time of pain, With thee it shall
go well. When all else fail, His help
shall stand, not like their lives in understand, but the best is
in greed. And when thy worst death, hell,
and sin. On every side shall God be hidden,
and full of power shall be The trouble broke my heart of
gold, I gave to Thee precious and bold. Thus the world shall
think of thee. Thine ankle bones, in Jesus'
cross, shall hold thy soul. Gracious and merciful Lord, we
do ask thy forgiving love and mercy to be over all that we
have seen and missed in our worship this evening. Pray thy blessing
to rest upon thine own word. Watch over us now as we go forth
in thy house. Keep us safe in our journeys
homeward this evening, and bless all who disconnect from the service
at home also, we pray thee. May the good nights rest in due
time as it could please thee, but do ever guide us each, we
pray, by thy counsel, and afterward receive us into thy glory. May
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Ghost to be with you all forever. Amen.