Let us turn again to the Word
of God in the portion of Holy Scripture that we read, the book
of Amos. I'm reading again the first two
verses in chapter 3. Amos chapter 3, verses 1 and
2. Hear this word that the Lord
hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole
family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you
only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore
I will punish you for all your iniquities and in particular
I want to concentrate upon the words that we have here in the
second verse you only have I known of all the families of the earth
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. The theme in particular is that
that we have in the opening clause of that verse, you only have
I known. That is the theme then, you only
have I known. Now God, we are aware of I'm
sure, is one who knows all things. Omniscience is one of the glorious
attributes of God. And that is celebrated, for example,
in the language that we're familiar with in the 139th Psalm. We cannot conceal anything from
God. He knows us. He knows our down-sitting. He knows our uprising. He understands
our thoughts are far off. You're familiar, I'm sure, with
the content of that particular Psalm. So God knows everything
about each and every one of us. In fact, he knows everything
about all of his creatures. That is the glory of him who
is the Lord God Almighty. But the knowledge that is being
spoken of here is not to be confused in any way with that attribute
of his omniscience. This is a special knowledge that
he is speaking of. He is making a comparison between
the children of Israel and all the other families, all the other
nations of the earth, you only. have I known, he says, of all
the families of the earth. And so, first of all this morning
I want to say something with regards to this people in the
Old Testament, ethnic Israel. I want us to look at the verse
as it were in its historical context. We know how it was God
Himself who made Israel a nation, and that's what He is saying
here in the context, in the first verse. Hear this word, that the
Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against
the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt. God took them out of that nation
where They were subject unto the Pharaoh. They were slaves
there in Egypt. But in the days of Moses, God
brings them out and establishes them as a distinct and a separate
people. And when they come to the borders
of the Promised Land, there in the book of Deuteronomy, remember
how Moses is the one who is there to remind them of all that the
Lord God has done and is doing with them. In Deuteronomy chapter
4 for example, and there in the language of verse 32 following,
He says, Ask now of the days that are past, which were before
thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and
ask from one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath
been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard
like it. Did ever people hear the voice
of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard,
and live. For hath God a say to go and
take him a nation from the midst of another nation by temptations,
by signs, by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and
by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all
that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? He's reminding them then of that
great deliverance, the ten plagues that God visited upon the Egyptians,
how he humbled the Pharaoh, how he brought these people out,
how he led them to Mount Sinai, how he spoke to them out of the
midst of the fire when he entered into covenant with them and made
them his own peculiar people. And remember again the language
that we have elsewhere, for example in Psalm 147, And there at the
end of that psalm, He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statutes
and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any
nation. As for His judgments, they have
not known them. Praise ye the Lord. How they
are to praise the Lord then as those who are the peculiar people
of God. And God has brought them unto
Himself and had Therefore that special relationship with them
in that he has made himself known to them. Again in the language of the
book of Deuteronomy there in chapter 33 Everyone shall receive
of thy words. Moses commanded us and they received
the words of God. They were the recipients of the
the law of God when he entered into covenant. All they were
is covenant people. And of course the ministry of
the prophets, and I am a prophet of the Lord and The other prophets
together with him, they will constantly remind the people
of Israel of that privileged position that God had brought
them into when he made them his own peculiar people. Remember
the language that we have there in the book of the prophet Micah. We were looking at those words
at the end of Micah only last Thursday at the prayer meeting. Verse 20 of chapter 7, Thou will
perform the truth, it says, to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham,
which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Had not God promised Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob that He would make of them such a people, even
the children of Israel? The great work that the Lord
God was pleased to do. God being faithful to His word,
God fulfilling all those promises that ever He had given to them.
Again, in the language of the Psalms, and there in Psalm 105,
verse 8, He has remembered His covenant forever. The word which
He commanded to a thousand generations which covenant he made with Abraham
and his oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob
for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant." It
was all the work of God. He made them His own peculiar,
His own special people. That was God's gracious purpose.
And why was it so? Well, it was an act of God's
absolute sovereignty. in His sovereignty, He made choice
of them above and before all other nations." Again, the language,
when they're on the borders of the promised land, when they're
about to enter into the possession of that that God had promised
first of all to Abraham. Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse
6, Moses reminds Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy
God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto
himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because
you were more in number than any people, for you were the
fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you, and because
he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers
that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed
you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king
of Egypt. All the cause, the reason why
God had this peculiar and special knowledge of them was because
He had set His sovereign love upon them. They were His choice.
They were His own special people. And in all his dealings with
the other nations, he was ever mindful of them. Again, look
at the language of Deuteronomy. There in chapter 32, verse 8,
when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the
people according to the number of the children of Israel. In
all God's dealings He was ever mindful of that people. And all His dealings with the
other nations were in accordance with His dealings with that people.
Now, in a sense, that's what we have to recognize as the teaching
of the Old Testament. But we remember this in the light
of the New Testament, that that people, the children of Israel,
were atypical people. The Old Testament is full of
types, principally types of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also we
have to recognize that Israel, as a nation, as a people, their
ethnic Israel is a type of the true Israel, the spiritual Israel,
which is the Church of God. Remember what Paul says there,
Romans 9.6, they are not all Israel, they are of Israel. Ethnic Israel was a type, in
the midst of Ethnic Israel, there was always a Spiritual Israel.
And that Spiritual Israel was a very small remnant. The true
people of God. The doctrine of the remnant,
it was there even in the Old Testament. Again, writing to
the Church at Rome, Paul tells us, He is not Israel, or He is
not Let me turn to the passage. One
tries to remember some of these passages, but their memory, I'm
afraid, so quickly begins to fail. If I can't get the opening
words of a text, I'm afraid the text just disappears altogether.
The end of Romans 2, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly.
neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh
but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is
that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise
is not of men but of God. It's the most telling verse really
because it reminds us of what the true circumcision is. And
it was such an issue, of course, in the early church. Certainly
we see that in what Paul writes in the epistle to the Galatians.
There were those who were requiring that Gentile converts, Gentiles
who had come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there
were those who wanted to make them Jews, as it were. They were
to be circumcised. What is Paul saying? The true
Jew, the true Israel, is not one who is circumcised in his
flesh. But circumcision is that of the heart. It is that that
is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Again, Colossians chapter 2 and
verse 11, we read of the circumcision made without hands in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ. Gentiles can be that true spiritual
Israel. Gentiles are that true spiritual
Israel. That was the great mystery that
came to be revealed after Christ had come and accomplished the
great work of redemption. That was very much the ministry
of the Apostle Paul of course. He is the Apostle to the Gentiles. And remember what he says there
in Ephesians chapter 3, that by revelation He says, God made
known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby
when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons
of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets
by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs unto the
same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel. Israel in the Old Testament is
a type then of the Church of the New Testament, the whole
company of the election of Christ. That is the true Israel of God. And so, when we read the Old
Testament Scriptures, we are to recognize that these words
belong unto us, if we are those who have been brought to saving
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, it's Paul who reminds
us of that blessed truth. All these things happened unto
them for examples. And now they are written for
our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. The
ends of the world, this day, the Gospel day, the acceptable
time, the day of salvation. That's the ends of the world,
the last times. And all that's happened in the
Old Testament to that typical people, it's full of lesson and
instruction and direction to God's spiritual Israel. Again,
in Romans 15, 4 Paul says, whatever things were written for time
were written for our learning, that we through patience or endurance,
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." God's words. Old Testament, New Testament,
it belongs primarily to His spiritual Israel. And what do we have here
in this book of Amos, in this third chapter? We have God's
word to His people. And what a great favor, what
a blessing it is when the Lord God should come and speak His
Word to us. It says here at verse 7, Surely
the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto
His servants, the prophets. The lion hath roared. Who will
not fear the Lord God hath spoken? Who can but prophesy? I'm not
saying, of course, in any sense that the man who stands to preach
is a prophet. No, the prophecy is now finished. The Lord Jesus Christ has come.
We referred in prayer to those words in Daniel chapter 9, that
Christ is the one who has finished the transgression, made an end
of sin, made reconciliation for iniquity, brought in everlasting
righteousness, sealed up the vision and the prophecy. Sealed
up the vision and the prophecy. Where does God speak? God speaks
here in His words. The Lord God has spoken. Oh,
that is a lion that is roaring and we ought to feel when God
comes and utters His voice. Hear this word, that the Lord
hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole
family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You
only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore
I will punish you for all your iniquities. What a searching
word, when God comes and utters such words to us. For He showeth
His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel,
He hath not dealt so with any nation. But what do we see here
with God's ancient people, with God's typical people in the Old
Testament? How they refuse His words. How
Jeremiah is constantly reminding them of that, rebuking them for
that. They are turned back to the iniquities of their fathers
which refuse to hear my words. That's a solemn word that God
speaks through Jeremiah, Jeremiah 11 10. They refuse to hear my
words. how they closed their ears constantly
to the voice of those prophets that the Lord God raised up to
declare to the people His truth. Remember again the language that
we have there in Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 25,
Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of
Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all My servants
the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they
hearken not unto Me, nor incline their ear, but harden their neck.
They did worse than their fathers. Therefore they shall speak all
these words unto them, but they will not hearken to them. They
shall also call unto them, but they will not answer them. how solemn it is. They were shutting
their ears to the voice of God, refusing the words, the faithful
words of His servants, the prophets. And so, as in the days of Jeremiah,
it was the same really in the day of Amos. There in the portion that we
read in chapter 2, the end of verse 12, they commanded the
prophets saying, prophesy not. We don't want to hear that. Prophesy
not. That word's an offensive word. And what does God do when people
refuse to hear His voice? His faithful servants ministering
His word of truth. What does God do? He visits a
dreadful famine upon His people. And that's what Amos goes on
to speak of. At the end of chapter 8 he says,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send
a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from
sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They shall
run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find
it. Or when God withholds his words. Luther said, it is the greatest
judgment that God can ever visit upon a people. When he withdraws
his words, when he speaks no more. A terrible judgment. And there is a sense, surely
we have to recognize this, that there is upon this nation such
a famine. People are refusing the Word
of God. They don't want the Word of God.
The Word of God is there, but they won't have it. They refuse
it. They reject it. They want to
do the thing that is right in their own eyes. Those in Jeremiah's time, they
wanted the words of the false prophets, who were prophesying
pleasant things. There was Jeremiah, ministering
of course at the time that the Babylonians would appear and
come and overrun Judah and lay siege to Jerusalem and destroy
the Temple of the Lord. These things were very much on
the horizon, but they didn't want to hear that message. All
they wanted was the message of those who were speaking pleasant
words and smooth words and saying oh we are the temple of the Lord
the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord are these and they
thought all was well that's what they wanted they wanted smooth
things and yet here we see in the days of Amos that God comes
with this solemn word hear this word that the Lord has spoken
against you oh children of Israel against the whole family, which
I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have
I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish
you for all your iniquities." This was God's Word. They wanted
smooth words. But again, referring to the language,
the words of another prophet, even Jeremiah, He says, a wonderful
and horrible thing is committed in the land, the prophets prophesied
falsely, and my people love to have it so. All those false prophets,
saying those smooth things, they loved that. That was a word that
was so pleasant to their ears. And surely, we have to recognize
it is ever the same. It is ever the same with People
in general, they want smooth things, pleasant things. But
we're reminded, are we not, so that all Scripture given by inspiration
of God is profitable, and profitable for what? For doctrine, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. Oh yes, there's doctrine in the
Word of God. The great truths, the blessed
doctrines of the Gospel of the grace of God. But there's also
those words of correction, those words of reproof, that people might be instructed
and established in the right ways. When we come to God's Word,
is that how we come? We want God to deal with us according
as God, who knows all things, sees our real needs. Do we come
with that spirit that we see in King David, the man after
God's own heart? At the end of that 139th Psalm
that we referred to, which is a celebration of God in His omnipresence
and His omniscience, what does David say? Search me, O God,
and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there be any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting. Who are we? Those who want that
the Lord God should come and sift us by His Spirit in His
Word. Hear this word that the Lord
hath spoken. Though it's against you in a
sense, and yet in another sense it's for you. You only have I
known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will
punish you for all your iniquities. What a word is that, therefore? Because I have known you, because
I have a special relationship with you, and I have an intimacy
with you, you are my special people therefore I will punish
you it refers us clearly to God's chastening
of his people and what is that chastening? oh we sang of it
just now didn't we in our second hymn that hymn 623 It reminds us, Whom the Lord
Jehovah loves, He in various ways reproves, Tis He settled
wise decree, That His sons chastise shall be. Them to wean from self
and sin, Try the grace He works within, Strip them of each idol
God, Make them prize the Saviour's blood. Teach them what and where
they are, draw forth patience, faith and prayer, make them closer,
cling to Christ, and in Him alone rejoice." Oh, God's be understood
it. God's chastening of His people. That chastening, as I've said
before, it is not a judicial dealing of God with His people.
When God comes and chastens His people, it's an evidence of His
love, His mercy. It's an evidence of that intimate
knowledge that He takes in that God is altogether for these people. It's not judicial, because God
has dealt judicially with their sins in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's only begotten Son. That
is the wonder, that is the greatness of God's love for these people.
He has punished His Son in their place, in their room, in their
stead. Christ has come and has borne
all that that was there just deserts. They were the sinners.
Christ was the righteous one. And He died. And He died just
for the unjust, to bring these sinners to God. And payment God
cannot twice demand. first at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine says dear Augustus top lady how true
it is the punishment has been meted out and so we're not to
confuse God's chastenings with that judicial punishment of sins
whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons. What son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? Or the father loves his child,
and that's why the father corrects his child, for the child's good,
for the child's benefit. The child doesn't understand
it. No, chastening for the present seemed to be joyous, but grievous,
nevertheless afterwards. It yields the peaceable fruit
of righteousness to them who exercise thereby. Oh, to be that people, you see.
It's unpleasant when God comes and profit is to be found in
His correcting of us, His chastening of us. There's profit, but it's
not pleasant. But afterward, oh, there's an
afterward. There's a nevertheless, nevertheless
afterward. is to those who are exercised
or to be exercised in these things how God comes in and deals with
us the Lord's voice we're told crieth unto the city the man
of wisdom shall see thy name he that wrought and who hath
appointed it God's dealing you see his voice
cries his voice cries to the city it says We have it here, don't we? Verse
6, shall a trumpet be blown in the city? And the people not
be afraid, shall there be evil in the city? And the Lord hath
not done it. It's not speaking of moral, ethical
evil, of course, it's not. It's speaking of calamity, trouble,
distress in the city. It's all under God's hands. And
all things, all things that come, of course, God's judgments, they
begin at the house of God. We should be those who are always
comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. Those things
that come into our lives. Now we need to bring them to
the Word of God and compare them with the Word of God. That's
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. If we believe that
God is that one who is absolutely sovereign, even in a city and
the Lord, He's the one who's done it. Well, let us try to
understand God's ways in the light of God's words. That's
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Remember again the
language at the end of Psalm 107. Whosoever is wise and will
observe these things, that's God's providences. Even they
shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. All the loving kindness. I think I remarked on Thursday,
those last words of the Prophet Micah, a lovely passage, where
he speaks so much of God's mercy. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for
ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He delights in mercy. And then again, as he continues,
in verse 20, they will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy
to Abraham, which they were sworn unto our fathers from the days
of old. All God's mercy. He delights
in His mercy. which is mercy that he manifested
towards Abraham and I said then that that word mercy it's a word
so rich, so pregnant in meaning it's often translated by the
word loving-kindness and that's what we have there at the end
of the 107th Psalm the man who observes these things who compares
spiritual things with spiritual he understands the loving-kindness
he understands the mercies of the Lord It ought to be those
then who are truly exercised in all of these things. And our
comfort is this, that we know that the Lord will never have
His people to be tried above what they are able. With the trial, with the temptation,
whatever it might be, He always makes a way of escape. In all
His works, God is dealing with His people and He is dealing
with them in that special way because He knows them. He knows
them. Oh how He favours them. He favours
them with His knowledge. You only. You only have I known, He says,
of all of the families of the earth. And you know, Wasn't that
the comfort of David when he had sinned so grievously? And
Nathan comes and deals with him. Nathan is such a faithful servant
of the Lord, the Lord's true prophet, Nathan. And he tells
David plainly, oh he is the man. What had he done? Adultery, murder,
great wickedness. And yet there in 2 Samuel chapter
7 and verse 20, David says this, Thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant. Thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant. And he's not just saying that
the Lord knew all about him, that the Lord was able to see
his heart and read his heart. Of course that was the case.
God knows all things. Lord Jesus Christ needed not
that any should testify of man, He knew what was in the hearts
of men. No, when David says those words, thou knowest, we're to
understand it in the sense of knowledge as we have it here
in the text this morning, you only have I know. Or David knew
his servant. God knew his servant, rather.
And his servant knew the Lord God Himself. You only have I
know. This is how we're to understand
that word foreknowledge, you know. Whom he did foreknow, says
Paul, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son. Whom he did predestinate, then he also called, whom he
called, then he also justified, whom he justified, then he also
glorified. We know that lovely golden chain
there in Romans chapter 8 and how it begins where? With the
foreknowledge of God. And what is the foreknowledge
of God? I know the Arminian, the free willer, likes to say,
well, God foreknows who's going to believe the gospel. He foresees
who's going to respond to the gracious invitation of the gospel,
and when he foresees those who will be responsive, he predestinates
them. So really, the predestination
rest in the man. Because the man does the right
thing and embraces the gospel, God then predestinates. What
nonsense! No, God is the one who is sovereign.
It's not speaking there of that omniscience of God, the one who
knows the end from the beginning. It is speaking of this special
knowledge. You only have I known, whom he
did foreknow. or they are elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit and unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. The language that we have there
at the beginning of Peter's first epistle. There of course we have
all the persons of the Godhead. Those that Peter is addressing
in his epistle, who are they? They are those who are the election
of Christ and they are elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. He has foreknown them. He has
set his love upon them. He has loved them. It's a forelove
really. It's the intimacy of knowledge. And we can only liken it really
to what we're told concerning the man and the woman when God
brings Eve to Adam and we're told subsequently
how Adam knew his wife Eve. There's an intimacy there. That's
how the Lord knows his people. It's that intimacy of knowledge,
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. that elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the
Spirit. There's a work, the blessed work
of the Spirit of God in their souls. And what's it on to? The obedience and the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus. The Lord's obedience, the Lord's
death. Obedient in life, obedient unto
death, the Lord's righteousness, the Lord's blood. It's a wonderful
word of greeting that we have there at the beginning of that
first epistle of Peter. All the Lord knoweth him that
are his. He knows them. You only have I known. of all
the families of the earth therefore because they are his own peculiar
and special people he is their father and they are all his children
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities he says he
knows also their feebleness oh he knows their feebleness What a comfort that is! What
a blessed comfort that God knows us. Like as a father pitieth
his children, with also the Lord pitieth him that fear him. He knoweth our fright. He knoweth
our fright. He remembers that we are dust.
That's why He'll never allow us to be tested above what we
are able. Or with the trial He makes a way of escape. Now God's people, you see, they
learn that lesson, they know their feebleness, their frailty.
Oh, they feel it, they are so few also. What graphic imagery
we have here when God deals with his people. Look at the language
in verse 12. Thus saith the Lord as the shepherd
taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an
ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out to dwell
in the midst of Samaria, in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus
in a couch." What a very little remnant it is. What is going
to be left? You see, ethnic Israel, that's just a typical people,
but there's a spiritual Israel. Or what is left? two legs, a piece of an ear. The language is incredibly, incredibly
graphic. But this is the way of God. He
will preserve his people, even when he comes and he tries and
he tests and he sifts and he searches his people. it's a solemn
thing isn't it, how we have to examine ourselves and prove ourselves
and know ourselves how that Jesus Christ is in us except we be
reprobate all God's chastenings can be very severe and most trying
and how God's people you see are brought to this they're not
only feeble and frail they're also few they're so few it's
a remnant and it's a remnant of outcasts. I referred to the language of
the 147th psalm and they're at the end of that psalm. But look
at what we read previously, the beginning of the psalm. The Lord hath built up Jerusalem,
he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken
in heart, and bindeth up their wombs. He talleth the number
of the stars, He calleth them all by their names. Great is
our Lord, and of great power. His understanding is infinite.
The wonder of it, you see, the God, the God who gathers together
the outcast of Israel, the God who heals this broken-hearted
people, is the same God who tells the number of the stars and calls
them all by name. Oh, he's the mighty one, the
one who is able to save to the uttermost his people. Think of the language of the
hymn writer. Lord, spitty outcast, vile and base, the poor dependence
on thy grace whom men disturb as call. By sinner and by saint
withstood, for these too bad, for those too good, condemned
and shunned by all, all the people of God. You only, He says. These
outcasts. You only have I known of all
the families of the earth. What does God do with His people?
He favours them, He knows them, and He favours them in this way,
He grants to them such a knowledge of Himself. He makes Himself
known to them. In His words, in His ways, His
dealings, His chastings, He deals with them, He's their God. That's how He makes Himself known.
The Lord Jesus tells us it's life eternal. This is life eternal,
to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. Or do we know God? To know my
Jesus crucified. by far exceeds all things beside. Is that really and truly the
language of our hearts? That's the one thing we want
to know. And we want to know more and more and more and more
about the Lord Jesus Christ. What are all the doctrines of
the gospel if they don't center in that blessed person? Or that
unspeakable gift that God has given even given his own son
for the redemption of his people or do we desire to know and that
was Paul's desire that I may know him that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable to his death you see in a sense it's
that two-way knowledge those that the Lord knows they come
to know Him because He makes Himself known to them or hear
this word that the Lord has spoken against you O children of Israel
it appears to be utterly against them against the whole family
which I brought up from the land of Egypt twice we have that word
you only have I known of all the families of the earth Therefore
I will punish you for all your iniquities." Or the mystery,
the paradox of God's ways. Thank God He doesn't leave us
to ourselves. But He does come and He has dealings
with us. Even when He comes in His chastenings,
His correctings. Or that we might hear His voice.
And that we might submit with meekness to all His instruction
well the Lord be pleased to bless the word to us you only have
I know the Lord bless his word