Let us commence our worship this
afternoon by singing together hymn number 832. The tune is
Dennis number 26. The men that fear the Lord in
every state are blessed. The Lord will grant whatever
they want. Their souls shall dwell at rest. Hymn 832, tune
Dennis 26. O'er the land of the free and
the home ? In every state of earth ? ? The
Lord is one ? ? From death they come ? ? Their souls shall rest
? ? Shall dwell at rest ? ? His secrets they shall share
? ? His love the world shall know ? Guide them, Thy grace
shall overcome, How heav'nly tones descend, He pitches for the hills, and
singing makes them sing. He dries their tears, He lifts
their face, And makes them trust Him. In His name, Heaven's moon, The
Saviour sets them down. A counting eagle, you will reach,
And close them all his own. This is the spirit of faith and
confidence that's strong. An anxious fighter, all that's
right, Ever haunted, all that's wrong. It gives me eternity to roam
as then and now. makes mercy sweet, salvation
great, and all God's children blessed. Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God in the Prophet Malachi chapters three and four. The last two chapters of the
Old Testament. Behold, I will send my messenger
and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye
seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of
the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of
his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire,
and like fuller's soap, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier
of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them
as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah
and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old,
as in the former years. and I will come near to you to
judgment. And I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger
from his right. And fear not me, saith the Lord
of hosts, for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers
ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return
unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said wherein shall we
return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have
robbed me. But ye say wherein have we robbed?
tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse,
for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house,
and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there may not be room enough to receive it. and I will rebuke
the devourer for your sakes. And he shall not destroy the
fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit
before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And
all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome
land, saith the Lord of hosts. Your words have been stout against
me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, what have we spoken
so much against thee? Ye have said, it is vain to serve
God. And what profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully
before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness
are set up. Yea, they that tempt God are
even delivered. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I
make up my jewels. And I will spare them, as a man
spareth his own son that serveth him. then shall ye return and
discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that
serveth God and him that serveth him not. For behold, the day
cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, all
that do wickedly shall be stubborn. And the day that cometh shall
burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts. that it shall leave
them neither root nor branch but unto you that fear my name
shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings
and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the storm and
you should tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under
the soles of your feet in the day that i shall do this saith
the lord of hosts Remember ye the law of Moses my servant,
which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the
statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest
I come and smite the earth. with a curse. May the Lord bless
the reading of his own precious word and grant us now a spirit
of real prayer. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
which is an art, an art to come, we desire to bow before thy sovereign
and eternal majesty. We're very conscious, O Lord,
that thou art holy, that we are unholy. We read of thee in thy
word, thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabited eternity,
whose name is holy. And Lord, we are unholy. We are
unrighteous. Our loins are filled with the
loathsome disease from the crown of our head to the sole of our
foot. bruises, wounds and putrefying
sores, there is no soundness in my flesh. We often have to
echo the words of the dear Apostle, Lord, O wretched man, that I
am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. Lord,
we have no hope in ourselves, we have no confidence in the
flesh, For it is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing. And Lord, we prove it day by
day, and more and more. O most gracious Lord, we pray
that Thou, in Thy precious mercy, would send the sovereign power
of Thy Holy Spirit into our hearts. That Thou would teach us Thy
ways and lead us in Thy paths. that thou wouldst graciously
guide us into thy truth, and grant that thy word may be a
lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, that we may hear
thy voice, that we may see thy countenance, that we may worship
in thy holy hill of Zion. For, Lord, without thee we can
do nothing. Without thy heavenly power, O
Lord, no sweet the gospel will afford. no drops of heavenly
love will fall. Blessed, holy, divine spirit
of truth, we pray that thou wouldst reveal unto us the precious things
of Jesus, that thou wouldst guide us unto him that is able to save
to the uttermost all that come unto God by him. We thank thee
for those wonderful words of grace, for there is one God and
one mediator between God and man. the man Christ Jesus, who
gave his life of ransom for all to be testified in due time. Gracious God, we thank thee for
that glorious mediator, for that glorious person, Jesus Christ
of God manifest in the flesh. We thank thee that he was made
flesh and dwelt among us. We thank Thee that He was made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that are under
the law. We thank Thee that He lived a
life that was pure and holy and spotless, under the law, fulfilling,
honoring and magnifying Thy righteous and holy law, that law, O Lord,
that we have minimized, set at naught, broken, O gracious God,
we are lawbreakers, but we thank Thee for that perfect life of
Jesus Christ, that glorious everlasting robe of His righteousness, His
perfect obedience to the law. We thank Thee. Most gracious
Lord, a door of hope is opened wide in Jesus' bleeding hands
and We thank thee for that precious, sin-atoning blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that blood that was shed on Calvary's tree. We
thank thee for those lovely words of grace concerning the precious blood
of our dear Redeemer, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. Oh, we do thank thee. for that
precious blood. We thank Thee that a new and
living way has been made into the holy place, reconciliation
and peace. We thank Thee for the gospel
of reconciliation, for sin put away, for divine justice satisfied,
for God and sinners reconciled. We thank Thee that He died for
our sins but rose again for our justification. that we worship
a living Christ, a full Christ, an almighty Christ, who has ascended
up on high and sits at the right hand of the Father. For such
an high priest have we, who is passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the Son of God. All we do desire, O Lord, a grateful,
thankful, adoring heart for the wonderful love, mercy and grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee that tis he instead
of me is seen when I approach to God. O most gracious Lord,
we do pray that thou wouldst bless us here as a church and
as a congregation, that thou wouldst remember us with the
favour that thou barest unto thy people, that thou wouldst
visit us with thy great salvation. that thou wouldst make bare thy
holy arm in the gospel, that thou wouldst pull down the strongholds
of Satan, that thou wouldst set up the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
in the hearts of sinners, and that the Lord Jesus may be exalted
among us as a Prince and as a Saviour, for to give faith and repentance
and remission of sins. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants and thy glory unto their children, O Lord, we beseech
thee. Remember us, Lord, as a congregation, each one present. We lovingly
commend to thee and to the word of thy grace which is able to
build them up, work mightily, powerfully and effectually, cause
the prodigals to return and thy mighty grace to be seen in this.
Lord, we long to see thy work and thy power and thy glory as
thou usest to be in the sanctuary. We long that the light and truth
and power of the gospel may shine into this village and the surrounding
villages and hamlets and farmsteads that many, many, many precious
souls may yet be found pressing their way into the kingdom of
God, into the house of prayer. Oh, do hear us, Lord, and send
us a day of real prosperity. Turn us again, O God of hosts,
and cause thy face to shine And we shall be saved. We're not
worthy of thy mercy, thy loving kindness, or thy goodness. We
leave undone things that we should do, and we do things that we
should not do. And we find a law within our
members that when I would do good, that evil is present with
me. O Lord of hosts, O God of Israel, O thou that dwellest
between the cherubim, shine forth. We do humbly beseech thee. Let
thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, the son of man. whom thou madest strong for thyself,
so will not we go back from thee. O let us see thy goings in the
sanctuary, let us see thy power and thy glory as thou usest to
be in the sanctuary. Hast thou not promised, I will
bring thy sons from far, and thy daughters from the ends of
the earth, and they shall come from the north and from the south,
and from the east and from the west? Oh, to see those prodigals returning,
and to see others, Lord, that have perhaps never been in a
house of prayer before, gathered into the sanctuary, wrought upon
by the Holy Ghost, brought to save in faith in Jesus Christ. Hear us, O Lord, we pray Thee,
and have mercy upon us, we beseech Thee, that for Thy great name's
sake, we pray. Thy blessing upon our brethren,
the deacons. Bless them with that rich grace
that is in Christ Jesus. Bless them, O Lord, in all the
duties and things that they have to do. And many things, O Lord,
that in the different churches throughout the nation that they
have to deal with. Oh, that thou would be gracious
unto them and give them guidance and direction. We pray for our
brethren and sisters in church fellowship that we may love each
other, serve each other, bear each other's burdens, thereby
fulfilling the law of Christ. We pray, most gracious Lord,
that we may esteem each other better than ourselves to be,
and that thou, Lord Jesus, would make thyself exceedingly precious
unto us, We pray that in our services the Lord Jesus Christ
may be exalted and set forth in all his beauty and glory as
the only Saviour of sinners. We pray, O Lord, that thou wouldst
bless the little ones, the children as they're brought into the sanctuary.
Put thy holy fear in their hearts and unctuous light to all that's
right and bar to all that's wrong. We pray that thou it would raise
up a generation that shall call thee the Redeemer blessed. We
pray for our young friends on the threshold of life's journey,
we lovingly commend them to thee, O that thou wouldst bless them
indeed, guide them by thy counsel, bring them to living faith in
Jesus Christ, make them true followers of thee, fulfil that
sweet promise, instead of thy fathers shall be thy children,
whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. Oh, do hear
us, Lord, we humbly pray thee. Help us continue to wrestle with
thee, that we may see thy work and thy power and thy glory as
thou usest to be in the sanctuary. Remember parents, give wisdom
and grace to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. Remember all in the midst of the journey of life.
Oh, have mercy upon them, O Lord, we pray thee. Any that know thee
not, that have no desire after thy name, we pray that thou wouldst
bless them indeed and bring them to thyself, as poor penitent
sinners, O Lord, we do beseech thee. We pray for all of us in
the evening time of life's journey, that thou wouldst remember us
with the favour that thou barest unto thy people and visitors
with thy great salvation, and at the appointed time grant us
an abundant entrance into thy heavenly kingdom. Remember all
in any trouble, trial, perplexity, sorrow, sadness or bereavement,
undertake for each one. And O Lord God, we pray that
thou wouldst now be with us as we turn to thy word. Come and
open thy word to our heart, to our understanding. Come and seal
thy truth into our souls. Come and touch one's lips with
a live coal from off the heavenly altar. We ask for Jesus Christ's
sake. Amen. Let us now sing together hymn
number 1060, The tune is A Bend Light, 905. Weary of wandering from the Lord,
And now made willing to return, I here and bow me to the rod,
For now not without hope I moor. There is an advocate above, A
friend before the throne, of love hymn 1060 tune a bend light
905 ? O come, O come, O come, ? ? O
come, O come, ? ? O come, O come, ? O come all ye faithful joyful
and triumphant O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? When world comes to an end, I'll
see my friends again. O'er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming? Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the
home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave? My soul will cry, and pray, my
God, that Thou shouldst forgive. ? And set the world ? ? At thy
footstool ? ? And let us sing ? ? The glory days of yore ? ? With thee I pray every day ?
? I know my God has chosen me ? ? And I will follow him forevermore
? greatly feeling to need the Lord's
gracious help or direct your attention to the prophet Malachi
chapter 3, reading verses 16 and 17 for our text. Malachi chapter 3, reading verses
16 and 17. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I
make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth
his own son. that service him, than they that feared the Lord. What a mercy if we indeed have
the fear of the Lord. One of the hymn writers says
concerning the fear of the Lord, it is an unctuous light to all
that's right, a bar to all that's wrong. And the Word of God says
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom. And it's a common saying, isn't
it? That this or that person's a God-fearing person. So when we look at this, they
that feared the Lord, We need to distinguish here between
two types of the fear of the Lord. The one is under the law,
and that is called a slavish fear. We fear the terrors of God. We fear his anger, his wrath.
That's a slavish fear. It comes from under the holy,
holy righteous law of God. And there is a right fear. But
you know the fear that we have in our text is completely different
to that. It's like we've said the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The motivating spirit or power
in the true fear of the Lord, which is under the gospel of
the grace of God in Jesus Christ, the motivating factor there is
love. It's completely opposite to what
we find under the law. It's a fear that worketh by love. You know, when we're under the
law and have a slavish fear, then we We greatly fear the terrors
of it in our heart. And we won't do this and we won't
do that because we'll break God's holy law and his wrath will come
upon us. There's nothing wrong in that
fear. But if that's all you have, you're not on a good foundation. I heard a minister say once,
the trouble with the churches today is the law is not preached
enough. And he said that's the foundation.
The poor man couldn't be more wrong. That's not the foundation. The foundation in the Christian
church is Jesus Christ and him crucified. His everlasting love
to poor lost man. Upon this rock I build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's the
foundation. There are many, many, many thousands
in the confines of eternal despair that knew what slavish fear was
and they died in terrors under the law. This is not the fear of the Lord
that is in our text. The fear of the Lord which is
the beginning of wisdom. This is the, that comes with
the divine and inward power of the Holy Ghost in the soul. A
person that truly fears the Lord, that they may not be able to
say much spiritually. But you can tell the way they
live and the spirit that they're of, and you can honestly say
that that is a God-fearing person. And the fear that is in their
heart works by love. Love to the Lord. They may not
have great discernment, they may not have great faith, They
may not be able to speak much on spiritual things if you can
get into conversation with them. But the way they live... You
know that's... Some people can speak a lot about
religion and have a lot to say about religion. But you know
the way they live, they do not fear the Lord. And yet they seem
to think they do. but they do not fear the Lord.
In that gracious fear of the Lord, which is the beginning
of wisdom, which comes from the inward working and power of the
Holy Ghost in the heart. Then, they that feared the Lord. Now, the point here that we have
in our text, spake often one to another. Now, those of us
that truly fear the Lord have the spirit of faith, and even
those of us that have made a open profession of the Lord's name,
we've been baptised, we come to the Lord's table, we're church
members. Don't we have to say that we
don't really sufficiently speak often one to another? Don't you
find, I do, don't you find this a word of rebuke? Do we often
speak to one another? I was only just recently reminded
of John Bunyan and that those women that were by the river
at Bedford speaking to each other and that was the beginning in
the spiritual journey of John Bunyan. He realised that he did
not know what these women knew and that was the beginning in
his heart he was a never went to church he was a swearer and
an ungodly man and yet the beginning was these two godly women sitting
by the river washing their clothes and conversing on what they'd
heard in the house of God the day before. And Bunyan, he said,
I realised that I didn't have what they had. And that beget
in his heart a longing desire. Now there is the beginning of
the fear of the Lord. The beginning of the fear of
the Lord. Not a slavish fear, there is especially if we're
under conviction of sin, we then know much of a slavish fear.
But where there is a drawing to Christ, that there is a spirit
of faith. And as the Word of God declares,
it's faith that worketh by love. By love. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he
said of these ones that they have this faith that worketh
by love, if these should hold their peace, the very stones
would cry out. Are you holding your peace? And yet you know you have the
fear of the Lord, but you hold your peace. You're afraid to
speak to anyone. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. this is the wonderful thing where
there is this converse heart-to-heart conversation one with another
and the Lord hearkened. What a precious thing that is
isn't it and the Lord hearkened. We read in the Proverbs that
as iron sharpens iron so doth the man the countenance of his
friend and I've often found this and it's sharp you sharpen each
other when you converse on the things of God when you have a heart heart heart
heart talk on spiritual things you know not only that but it's
a means of grace The Lord uses it to encourage us and to build
us up in our most holy faith. So when we do not speak, we're
the poorer for it. Because it's a means of grace
that the Lord uses. And I've known this on many occasions
when got into conversation with someone
I might have been in a really dark place spiritually under
a sense of the frown of God and also that terrible sin of unbelief
filling our hearts and minds but you have a conversation with
somebody that loves the Lord and that conversation lifts you
up out of that place where you were. It lifts you up into the
rounds of the Spirit, so that your hearts burned like those
two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They said, did not our
heart burn within us as He walked and talked with us by the way?
You see, then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. and the Lord hearkened and heard
him. It's heard in heaven. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord. What a wonderful
thing. You know, we have instances in
the Word of God where we have little children that had the fear of the Lord. Little children that had the
fear of the Lord. You think of that little maid that had obviously been taken
captive. The Assyrians used to send bands
of soldiers down into Israel and they would snatch children
away from their parents and take them into the land. There was
one such little maid, little Hebrew maid, in the house of
the king of Assyria. Or was it Naaman, the house of
Naaman? And when she heard Naaman had
leprosy, and she said, there is a prophet in Israel that is
able to heal leprosy. You see that little maid, she
had the fear of the Lord. And she knew that in Israel,
The Lord was able to heal this terrible disease, and she told
her master, and he went down. He went down to see Elijah the
prophet, and he was healed. You see, it was the fear of the
Lord that was in her heart. She was in that far off place,
away from her family, her home, and yet the fear of the Lord
was still present in her heart. We read of another son of a king,
Abijah. He had the fear of the Lord.
What does the Bible say about it? That there was in his heart
some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel. You dear children,
is there some good thing in your heart? What is that good thing? It's the fear of the Lord, which
is the beginning of wisdom. Is there some good thing in your
heart which is the beginning of wisdom? Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
him. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord. Now we read
of Nehemiah and it is said of Nehemiah when various things
came along he said this didn't he, so did not I. He didn't do something that was
wrong, so did not I because of the fear of the Lord. Now that
wasn't a slavish fear, that was the fear that worketh by love.
And he couldn't do certain things. It may be you, dear children,
you may be placed in, or young people, you may be placed in
situations, and tempted to do a certain thing, or encouraged
by others to do a certain thing, but you can't do it. You can't
do it. Why? Because of the fear of the
Lord. Because you love the Lord. because
you know that it's wrong and you don't want to do that which
is wrong. You desire to love him and to serve him and to do
what is right in his sight. It's a very great blessing, my
beloved friends, to have a tender conscience. A tender conscience so that you
can't do certain things. And you know then the language
of Nehemiah, so did not I, because the fear of the Lord. Now the other thing here which
is exceedingly precious and that thought upon his name
and that thought upon his name you know doesn't the Holy Spirit
here come so low you know with Think of people that are God-fearing
people and we say we have to have this, have to have that,
have to have something else. Maybe there's somebody here and you think upon his name.
You think on the name of Jesus Christ. You think about his everlasting
love. You think about his wonderful
grace. You think about how he went about doing good. You think upon his name. And it's a very precious thing to
be given that. You may be very young. What a
mercy if the Lord has given you the fear of the Lord and that
thought upon his name. to when you're alone, you think
on his name. You think of his grace, you think
of his love, you think of his mercy, and you desire to be a
partaker in that love, in that mercy, in that grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ and that thought upon his name. I was, one of
my aunts, my wife's aunt, going into Bethesda, she was in her
80s, and she had to make an application. Her son, who no longer went to
one of our chapels, he rang me up on Saturday and he said, could
you come and see mother? He said she's got to fill in
the form for Bethesda, and said she's got nothing to write. It's
been all her days. you knew by the very deportment
of the woman and the way that she lived that she was most certainly
a God's fearing woman, yet she could say nothing. And when it
came to filling out an experience she said, I can't, I haven't
got anything to write. So I went down and I took a piece
of paper with me and we sat for about two hours talking and when
we'd finished I got two sides of A4, full. And I said, Aunty Ruth, you said
to me you haven't got anything. There was the most precious things
that she said. Right from back when she was
in her teens under the ministry of my late grandfather, J.B.
Spiel, and how the Lord blessed her. It was very sweet to write
down. And yet she spent All her days
she was, naturally speaking, a very fearful person. She spent
all her days unable to talk about it. And yet she was most certainly,
I buried her. And it was such a sweet funeral
to take. I remember my late pastor, he
said when he buried, I think it was one of his brothers, He
said, I felt such a sweet savour of Christ at that grave, I could
have got in the grave myself. And you know, when I buried that
dear aunt, I felt exactly the same. I could have got in the
grave there myself. So sweet. The grave is but a
downy bed. That's what I felt so sweet at
her grave. The grave is but a downy bed
that's filled with love and blood, the love and blood of and that thought upon his name. She never made a profession of
religion, but she lived her religion. It's a wonderful thing to behold.
Now these that fear the Lord and that think upon his name,
as it says here, that thought upon his name, and then we go
to verse 17, and they shall be mine. What a wonderful mercy that the
Holy Spirit comes so low to speak of those that fear the
Lord and that thought upon His name, and they shall be mine. My dear beloved friends, never
despise one of the Lord's little ones. No. Those that think upon
His name, they shall be mine. They are the Lord's. He's loved
them with an everlasting love, and He will take them to eternal
glory. They shall be mine, saith the
Lord of hosts, the Almighty God. He sees every one of them. He's
loved them with an everlasting love. He sent His Son to suffer, bleed,
and die for them, and to rise again for their justification.
to shed his precious blood, to take away all their sin. You
know, these little ones, and I want to make this very clear,
these little ones are just as justified as one that has a far
deeper, greater, fuller experience. They are just as justified in
the sight of God as somebody that can say so much in a spiritual
way. But these little ones, the Lord
never forgets them. The Lord never forgets them.
He remembers them, and they shall be mine. Each one of them will
reach eternal glory, everlasting salvation, and they shall be
mine, saith the Lord of Hosts in the day when I make up my
jewels, and I will spare them. I will spare them. These are very precious, gracious
words of our God. I will spare them as a man spareth
his own son that serveth him. I will spare them. They're loved
with an everlasting love. They're in that eternal covenant
ordered in all things and sure, they are. I do pray that these
things will be an encouragement to To those of you that do think
upon his name and that thought upon his name,
they feared the Lord and they thought upon his name, they shall
be mine. What a wonderful word, isn't
it? What an inclusive word. You get some people, Christian
people, and they're so as it were elevated in their thoughts
of themselves and their spiritual mindedness, etc. And they actually
despised the Lord's little ones. And they always say to them,
you've just got to believe. But some of these little ones,
they know the language, oh that I could believe, then all would
easy be. Or like that man that came to
the Lord Jesus, he says, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. You know, unbelief, my beloved
friends, is a great trial to the living child of God. It isn't
to the wicked. It isn't to those that know not
God. But to these little ones, it's a great trial. that it causes
them many errands to the throne of grace. If only I could have
a clearer view of Christ, if only I could feel his love more
shed abroad in my heart. They weep many tears in private
over their lack of faith, over the fact that their experience
is so small, and it troubles them. And the devil will afflict
them and tell them, well, yours is not a real religion, you haven't
got hardly anything. That's what the devil will say. But the Lord doesn't. He says,
they shall be mine. They shall be mine. He's loved
them with an everlasting love. He will not let them go. Indeed,
He actually speaks to them. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He speaks
to them. You might say, what does He say?
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. Just like these God-fearing
people, I am meek and lowly in heart. And ye shall find rest
for your souls. that rest of faith in the precious
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. He invites these poor,
needy, wretched sinners to come, to come to him, to look to him,
to cleave to him. There may be times when you feel
that you're at the ends of the earth, but what does the Lord
say? Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none
else. look unto me all ye ends of the earth for I am God and
there is none else then they that feared the Lord spake often
one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance
was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that
thought upon his name and they shall be mine. I love
the divine certainty these words. They shall be mine. He doesn't
despise the poor, needy, wretched sinner. It's just the opposite. He invites them to come. To come. Come unto me, the Saviour says. Come unto me, all ye that labour. Because these God-fearing people,
they do labour. They labour under a sense of
their weakness, their insufficiency, their lack of faith, their lack
of clear views of Christ. They labour under that. And they constantly have to bring...
When you're labouring, you're praying. That's what it means.
You're praying. There's a spiritual exercise.
Why is that? Because you're alive spiritually.
Because the Holy Ghost has entered your heart. He's shown you your
weakness, your insufficiency. He's shown you your need of salvation,
of redemption, of deliverance from sin and Satan's power. And when he does that, you'll
pray. The Holy Spirit in your heart will prompt you to pray.
And as the Word of God says, ask the words of Christ, ask
and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you. That's encouragement to these
poor, needy, helpless souls. Ask, seek, knock, knock. Knocking at mercy's door. looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame
thereof, and is now set down at the right hand of the majesty
on high, and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that
day when I make up my jewels. These precious jewels that are
spoken of here my mind was very much, you see all these spiritual
children, though they are very low in their own esteem, they're
very high in the Lord's esteem. My mind in reading here yesterday
was, it went to Isaiah chapter 54, that beautiful chapter where
the Lord speaks to his people. Now listen to what he says, verse
11 of Isaiah 54. O thou afflicted, tossed with
tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair
colors. These are precious stones. And lay thy foundations with
sapphires. I will make thy windows of agates,
Very precious stones we're speaking of here. And thy gates of carbuncles
and all thy borders of pleasant stones. Speaking to Zion here. And all thy children. And you
know these little ones, they're God's children. They're being
taught of the Spirit. They're the Lord's little ones.
And all thy children. This is children of Zion. I've
often heard people claim this for their family. Now I'm not
saying that the Lord cannot speak that in a personal way, but we
must always remember this is not concerning a family here
on earth. It's concerning the Zion, the
Lord's family. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children. but he'll lay these fair colours,
these stones, these precious stones. And his people are like
a lot of jewels, precious jewels. Now there's another place where
the Apostle speaks of jewels and of precious stones etc. and that is the Apostle Paul
in the first epistle to the Corinthians And he says there about labouring,
Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. He speaks of labouring
together with God. You are God's husbandry, you
are God's building. Now according to verse 10, according
to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master
builder, I have laid the foundation, the foundation of course is Christ,
and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how
he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man
build upon this foundation of Jesus Christ, gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, Gold, silver and precious stones
are not combustible. They will not be destroyed in
a fire. But wood, hay and stubble will
be. What this represents, the work
of the Holy Spirit in the heart, is the gold, silver and precious
stones. Faith in Jesus Christ, work of
the Spirit, faith that worketh by love, trusting alone in the
finished work of Christ. But the wood, the hay and the
stubble, they're all combustible. They all burn. They all burn
in the fire. And the Lord's people have fiery
trials which they have to walk through. In one place in Isaiah,
he says, behold, I've chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
It's like a furnace. or it may be a furnace of temptation,
a furnace of great trial. He says, every man's work shall
be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's
work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which
he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall
be saved, yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are. What a mercy to be of the temple
of the Holy Ghost. And you know these little ones
are, the very reason they fear the Lord, the very reason they
think upon His name, is because they love Him. Because their
souls have been quickened. Because in some little measure
Christ has been made precious. Or that the Lord would give us
more of this gracious speaking one to another. Then they that
feared the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened
and heard it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and that sought
upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts in that day, when I make up my jewels and
I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. May the Lord add his blessing. Let us now sing together hymn
number 911, The tune is Haverhill, 343. When
to saint in days of old, their sorrows,
sins, and sufferings told, Jesus, the friend of sinners dear, his
saints are blessed, was present there. Hymn 911, tune Haverhill, you He's passed the end of days. His saints to bless Was present
there His saints to bless Was present there As members of his mystic frame,
To get a man to pass his way. God love thee and be strong in
thee. without his presence now. Let your with us his presence
now. ? How blessed be the ocean that's
near thee ? ? And spread out for those on jittery feet ? Lord, we have heard it tides
of love, ? And home sweet home ? ? Home
sweet home ? ? And home sweet fellowship with God. ? ? Peaceful again the visit
we recount, ? ? Almighty King ? ? Eternal Thou ? ? Externa
? ? Solis ? His sweetest love gives praise
to you His sweetest love gives praise Now, may the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the sacred fellowship
of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with us each, both now
and for evermore. Amen.