Let us turn again to God's Word. I'm directing you to those words
that we read in Jeremiah 45. Jeremiah 45, that short chapter
and the last two verses, verses 4 and 5. These words are of course addressed
to Barak, As we see in the opening verse, the word that Jeremiah,
the prophet, spake unto Barak, the son of Neriah, Thou shalt thou say unto him,
The Lord saith thus, Behold, that which I have built will
I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up,
even this whole land. And seekest thou great things
for thyself? Seek them not, for behold, I
will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord. But thy life
will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest."
And the theme is There at the end of the fifth verse, the life
that is given for a prey, the life that is given for a prey. I think I mentioned before that
back in 1841 in the Old Salem Chapel, Mr. Philpott preached from these
words here in verse 5. And that sermon does appear in
the volumes of the early sermons of J.C. Philpott. In many ways,
I think it's as good as the two famous sermons. The famous sermons
of Philpott, of course. I think of the sermon on Isaiah
18, where he preaches on growth in grace under the title winter
before harvest and then the other famous sermon is that on Isaiah
15 the last verses the the child of heaven, the child of light
having to walk in darkness. Those are reckoned to be the
famous sermons of his, many sermons. But I think in many ways the
sermon that was preached at the old Salem on life given for a
prey should also be put in that same category. And when we first
began the pastorate here at Salem I did intend at one stage to
produce a series of sermons called the Portsmouth Pulpit. I think
we only ever did about half a dozen, but one of them is the reprinting
of that sermon of Philpott's, Life Given for a Prey, and I
do have a copy here, I'll leave it at the back. of the chapel
if anyone is interested enough to want to take it and read it. I think you'll find much more
profit in that sermon than anything that ever I might be able to
say here this morning. But I want us to consider then
these words that we've read, verses 4 and 5 here at the end
of Jeremiah chapter 45. Life given for a cry the words
that were spoken to Beirut. But it's interesting, he's not
the only one who received such a word from God. At the end of
chapter 39 of this book we see that a similar word was also
spoken to another man called Ibn Melek. And I think on a previous
occasion we've actually looked at those words that were spoken
to Ibn Malik. But coming now to the words here
in chapter 45 of Jeremiah. Who was this man, Baruch? Well, it seems that he was a
sort of amanuensis to Jeremiah. He served as a sort of secretary
to Jeremiah. We are told in the opening verse,
the word of Jeremiah, the prophet spoke unto Beirut, the son of
Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth
of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah,
king of Judah. And of course we read that 36th
chapter where we have the record of what happened on that occasion. It is quite clear that this man
is there. The Prophet Jeremiah mentions
the fourth year of Jehoiakim at the beginning of chapter 36.
Now the word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Take thee
a roll of a book, And write therein all the words that I have spoken
unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all
the nations, from the day that I spoke unto thee, from the days
of Josiah, even unto this day. And then at verse 4, Jeremiah
calls Barak the son of Nereiah, and it is Barak who wrote from
the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord. which he had
spoken unto him upon a roll of a book. And as he wrote those
words, so he also went subsequently and read those words. In verse
10 of that 36th chapter, then read, Beirut, in the book, the
words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of
Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe in the higher court at
the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house in the ears
of all the people. He doesn't just write the words
that were inspired by the Holy Ghost himself, the words that
the Prophet had spoken. He writes them, yes, but he also
goes and he reads them, and he reads them in that public place,
in the ears of all the people of the land. And then subsequently,
as we saw, the word is taken also to the king, but the king
destroys the word. cuts it up, throws it into the
fire in the hearth, and is consumed in the flames. And now, this
man Beirut, he's obviously a man of some feeling, he feels all
of these things. It was a terrible word that was
sent to the Prophet, concerned God's judgments that were going
to fall upon the people. The Babylonian captivity was
about to take place, the destruction that would come with the armies
under Nebuchadnezzar and the people being removed far off
into exile. But not only that, he was grieved
doubtless at the way in which the king King of Judah had treated
the Word of God. And so what do we read here in
this 45th chapter, verse 2, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel,
unto the old Barak, Thou didst say, Woe is me now! For the Lord
hath added grief to my sorrow, I fainted in my sighing, and
I find no rest." What is grieving him so much? Well, it's the message
that he has to convey, but not only that, it's the reception.
It's the fact that the king is not submitting to the Word of
God. He wants to destroy the Word
of God. And the wise man tells us the
wrath of a king is as messages of death. And the king is angry.
and the king is not only bent on destroying God's word but
will also destroy God's servants such as Jeremiah and Baruch. Let us come to consider these
words at the end of the chapter. God's words to Baruch. Thus shalt
thou say unto him, The Lord saith thus, Behold, that which I have
built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will
pluck up, even this whole land. Destruction is going to come.
God's Word cannot be destroyed. But God's purpose must take place. And seekest thou great things
for thyself? Seek them not, for behold, I
will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord, but thy life
will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest."
And thinking then of that life that was given for the prey,
two things, two things this morning, I want to say something with
regard to the life that God gives. It's the life that God gives.
and then how that life that God gives is endangered. That life of God that's in the
soul of any man will be assaulted and be in great dangers. But
first of all to say something with regards to life and the
life that God gives. There is, of course, that natural
life that is the gift of God. God says, Thy life will I give
thee. And that life that each and every
one of us has this morning is the life that God has given to
us. He says quite clearly in Scripture,
I have made the earth and created man upon it. This is so basic,
really. We are creationists. We recognize
the truth that man has not just evolved out of some primeval
slime, that man is God's creature. The psalmist says, Know ye that
the Lord, he is God, it is he that hath made us. and not we
ourselves. Now, fallen men, sinful men,
men in a state of alienation from God, they don't like the
idea of a creator to whom they must be accountable. So, in every
imagination of the thoughts of men's wicked hearts, what do
they do? They devise theories and ideas which will discount
any idea of God. And so we have the great lie
of the devil, the theory of evolution. that man simply evolved out of
nothing. That all things have really appeared
out of nothing. And it's utter nonsense, really.
No, we accept that God is the Creator and the lives that we're
living are lives that we have received from God. And we have
the account, of course, in Holy Scripture of how God created
the man. the Lord God formed his body
out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, the man becomes a living soul. He's not just
a physical being, he has a soul. He has a soul, and God is the
creator of all these things, and it's the great God. It's
the triune God. Why? When he comes to that work
of creation, Remember how God actually consults with himself.
When we think of every other part of creation, God simply
speaks the Word. Time and again there in Genesis
chapter 1, the Lord said, and it was so. The Lord said, and
it was so. Let the light appear. The light
appears. Let the dry land appear. The dry land appears. God simply
speaks. But when it comes to man, God
doesn't just speak man into existence. No, God speaks with Himself.
There's a council amongst the persons in the Godhead, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, and God says, let us make man in our
image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion. All that
have dominion over all the works that God has made. He has created
all things for the good of this man. And so we recognize that
it's not just the work of the Father, it's the work of the
Son, it's the work of the Holy Spirit by the word of the Lord.
Were the heavens made or the host of them by the breath or
the spirit of his mouth? It's the Spirit who is here at
the beginning as we see in the opening words of Genesis chapter
1. But it's also the words In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of man. In Him, in the Word, was life.
Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ then is that One who is the very source
of our natural life, our physical life. Thy life, that is the life that
God gave to Barak, that is the life that God has given to every
individual who has ever lived upon the face of the earth. And
how God sustains those lives. In Him we live and move and have
our being. What would we be apart from the
great God who also sustains our lives? And how do we spend these
lives? or because of the entrance of
sin, now there is that awful certainty of death. And God has allotted man's lifespan
upon the earth. Moses says in Psalm 90, we spend
our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore
year and ten if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is that strength labor and sorrow. We soon pass away. The inevitability of these things.
Physical life doesn't last forever now because of man's sin. But God is a merciful God and
a gracious God. And besides giving to man at
the beginning a physical and a natural life, Now, in the goodness
of God and the grace of God, even to those who are born dead
in trespasses and sins, there is a promise of spiritual life,
even eternal life. Or what does the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself say? What's the purpose of His coming?
I give unto them, He says, eternal life. And they shall never perish. My Father which gave them is
greater than all. No man can pluck them out of
My Father's hand. I give unto them." All that spiritual
life is the gift of God and it comes by and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Go and have a look at the words
that we have there in John 10 and verse 10, I am come. He says
that they might have life and that they might have it more
abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good
Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. Or Christ has given
His own life for the life of His people. That is the great
truth of the Gospel, that Christ has come, and what was the purpose
of His coming? That He might redeem His people.
How was He redeemed His people? Why? He has died in their room,
in their stead. He has come as their substitute
to bear that punishment that was their just desert. He gives
His life. And He gives His life for their
lives. And so in Him, They come to enjoy
that blessing of a real life, an eternal life. I am calm that
they might have life, he says, and that they might have it more
abundantly. This is the gospel. See how John
speaks of it there in the end of his first general epistle,
1 John 5 verse 11. He says this is the record. He's
speaking of the Gospel. The record of the Gospel. This
is the record that God hath given us eternal life and that life
is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. The only way in which we can
possess That true life, that spiritual life, that eternal
life, is by being found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh yes, I
said just now, He is the source in creation of natural life. In Him is light, and the light
is the life of men. That's what we're told at the
beginning of John's Gospel. but there at the end of John's
first epistle we also read of that spiritual life that is only
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a life that He gives.
This is a life that comes into the soul of the sinner in the
new birth. All those who are dead by nature,
dead in trespasses and sins, how can they ever know the salvation
of God, they must be born again. Except a man is born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God, says Christ. Such a basic truth,
the doctrine of regeneration, the necessity of that regeneration. Ye must, ye must be born again. This then is the life that is
being spoken of here. This is that life of God that
comes into the soul of the sinner and it was there in the soul
of this man Beirut. Thy life will I give untruthly
was the gift of God. And so what is this man taught?
Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. For behold, I will bring evil
upon all flesh, saith the Lord, but thy life will I give unto
thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. Well, what is this man to do?
He's not to seek great things. He's not to be seeking the things
of the world. He's going to see the world all
about him being destroyed because the judgment of God is coming
upon Judah just as it had come upon Israel. The armies now of
the Babylonians will come, the Assyrians had come previously,
the northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed and the ten
tribes had been scattered But then, in the days of King Hezekiah,
God had spared Judah. Little Judah in the south had
been spared from the destruction of the Assyrians, but still they
sinned. And so God's judgment comes again,
and this time He comes by the Babylonians. He will see His
world being altogether destroyed. is not then to seek the great
things of the world. Or we're not to look at the things
that are seen. The things that are seen are
temporal. The unseen things are the eternal things. This is the
vital thing, surely. It's not great things we're to
be seeking after, but real things. And where are real things found?
They can only be found with gods and in gods. and we can find
them in no other place. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you says the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the first thing,
that is the thing that must have the prime position. to seek the
kingdom of God, to seek His righteousness. Or when the Lord deals with us,
we're brought to see that we have no righteousness. Or we might, when we're first
awakened to our sense of need before God, think that we can
do something, we might well fly to the commandments of God and
think a reformation of life will help us. What do men say when
they're awakened? We see it in the New Testament
so many times when men are awakened they come like those on the day
of Pentecost or the jailer that fell at Pai. What must I do?
What must I do? Surely there's something to be
done if I'm going to be saved. Quite natural for us to fly to
the idea of the Lord. God's Lord is in our hearts.
Even if you've never heard the word of God. It's in our hearts,
we fly to that, we think there's something to be done. But there's
nothing to be done. All salvation is altogether of
the Lord, it's all the work of the grace of God. But God brings
us to this, you see, that we have to see that all our hope and our only
hope is in Him. What was it that Augustine, that
great church father, of the 5th century said, Thou hast made
us for Thyself. Thou hast made us for Thyself. And we can only find rest when
we find that God who has made us for Himself. Our souls are
restless, says Augustine, till they rest in Thee. And it is God who gives. It's
God who gives these things. Thus saith the Lord, Thy life
will I give unto thee. Oh, it's all the gift of God. And it's a life that's given
our personal lives as God's creatures, our all individual lives, we
all have different personalities. But as with our physical life,
so too with any spiritual life that's in us, it comes from God.
and he deals with us in such a personal fashion. Oh, look at the pronoun here,
it's thy life, Barak. No one else's. It's that personal. Real religion is so personal
a thing, is it not? It's God's dealing with us. Yes,
there's a place for the corporate in the religious life, in the
Christian life. We're not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together. We gather together. The Lord
brings the solitary into families. There's the doctrine of the church,
the local church, the congregation of the faithful. There's the
means of grace as we come together. And amongst the means of grace,
of course, is that of the communion of saints, the fellowship of
like-minded believers. What a blessing it is. But ultimately,
real religion is that person. And this is the life that is
being spoken of here. Where does it come from? It's
the gift of God. We receive not the spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God, says the apostle. If we have
the Spirit of God, we'll know something of those things that
are freely given to us. This life is given to sinners. It's not something that's offered
to sinners. It's not something that might
be bought as if God is wanting to sell something. No, it's freely
given. It's the free gift of God. It's
the gift of the grace of God. John the Baptist says a man can
receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. That's what makes us differ,
you see. If we're saved, nothing of ourselves, it's the work of
God, it's the grace of God. Who make us here to differ from
another? and why does it say that they did not receive? Now
if they did receive it, why does it say glory as if they did not
receive it? This is how Paul has to reason
with the Corinthians because there was so much pride, they
were greatly favoured, they not only had the gift of God's grace
but many of them had wonderful gifts that might be used for
the benefit of others but it's all the grace of God, they're
not to glory in those things that have been freely given to
them. Not something that they've done of themselves or attained
by their own efforts. Of His fullness have all we received
and grace for grace. It's all the grace of God and
there's nowhere in that in which the sinner can glory. Well, Beirut is not to see great
things. You see, sometimes we might want
to have great spiritual gifts. Well, it's a great blessing if
God is pleased to give us some gift that we might use to the
honor and glory of His name. And maybe Beirut was tempted
in that way. Here he is. As I said, he's a
sort of a manuensis. He writes what the Prophet tells
him to write. He's a secretary. Maybe he wants
to be a prophet, maybe he wants to be a man like unto Jeremiah,
what a remarkable man Jeremiah was. We're not to speak to be
seeking great spiritual gifts. The great thing that we need
to be seeking really is that saving knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Or to have even the lowest place,
so long as we know Him, whom to know is life eternal. It's all the gift of God. And
it's that that comes freely in the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom,
says Paul, we have now received the atonement. It's all received,
you see. We receive what? We receive the
atonement. There in Romans 5.11. Receiving the atonement, what
does it mean? Well, by nature, We're those
who in our physical lives are alienated from God. We're born
as those who are dead in trespasses and in sins. Enemies in our minds
by wicked works. And we need to be reconciled
to God. We need to be reconciled to God.
Isn't that what it means to receive the atonement? It's one of those
words, we've said it before, it was coined by Tyndale in his
translation, and it literally means, as one meant. We were
not at one with God. We were so separated from God,
but now at one with God, reconciled to Him. All we have to receive,
the Atonement, we have to receive all that the Lord Jesus Christ
is. You think of what Christ is in His person. Think of the
great doctrine of the person of Christ, the two natures. And
yet one person. He is God's and He is man. And that's not two persons. No,
He is always in everything the God-man. In Him there is as it
were the reconciling of the Creator and the creature. It's a great
mystery, isn't it? The mystery of godliness, Paul
calls it. God's manifest in the flesh, the mystery of the incarnation.
God become man. Oh, when we think of the right
of His person, we see reconciliation there. How He is so suited to
stand between God and man. Why He has not taken upon Himself
the nature of angels, He's condescended to come and take upon Him the
seed of Abraham, it says. He's identified with man, He's
a real man. And He reconciles not only in
His person, but also in His work, the great work that He came to
do, when He took upon Himself all the sin of His people. and
made that blessed exchange when He gave them for their sins all
His righteousness. All their sins become His sins
and He dies the accursed death of the cross in their place.
And He gives them all His righteousness, that righteous life that He lived.
And Paul was brought to desire that, was he not? To be found
in Him, He says, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness
which is of God, by faith. The great doctrine of justification. And it's all free. It's all the
free gift of God, of His fullness. That is the fullness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that is fullness of all we received and grace
for grace. It's not something that we have
to purchase. No, it's the free gift of God.
Again, you know the language of Scripture, you know the words
of Isaiah 55, Oh everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.
and he that hath no money, come ye by, and each ye come by wine
and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness, incline your ear, and come unto me. Herein your
soul shall live, And I will make an everlasting covenant with
you, even the sure mercies of David." Here it is, you see,
the sure mercies of David. This is Christ. Behold, I have
given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander
to the people. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And what do we do? Ask, it says. Or you want to
know that you have that new life, that spiritual life that this
man had. the life that God gives. Ask and it shall be given you.
Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you. Oh this man, here he is Verse 3, Woe is me now, for the
Lord hath had agreed to my sorrow, I fainted in my sighing, and
I find no rest. Oh, when the Lord brings us into
that place where we have to pronounce woes upon ourselves, when we
faint and we sigh and we cry and we call, but He hears, you
see. Isn't that something of real prayer and real seeking? Isn't that what this man was
about? And he gets an answer. Thus shalt
thou say unto him. The Lord doesn't leave Barak
in that sad condition that we see him evidently in there at
verse 3. No, the Lord then sends this
gracious word to him. There's a life. And there's a
life that is given. But then also in the second place,
it's a life that seems to be so endangered. It's so endangered. What does God say? Verse 5, Behold,
I will bring evil upon all flesh. What is this evil? What is this
evil? Well, it is not moral evil that
is being spoken of. It's not that at all. It's calamity. It's great danger. It's what God visits upon men
in the way of judgments. And we see it in that 36th chapter
that we read, in the message that is to be written in the
role of the book. And verse 3, it may be that the house of Judah
will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them, that
they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive
their iniquity and their sin." The evil that God was going to
do wasn't some moral evil. It was calamity. It was judgments. It was warfare. When God says in Isaiah 45,7,
I create evil, we're not to think that God is the author of sin. again look at the language of
another of the prophets in Amos chapter 3 and verse 6 we read of the trumpet being
blown shall the trumpets 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 the blowing of the trumpet you see is a sound of
alarm there's some calamity coming, the people need to be alerted
and there in the context if you read that chapter in Amos, Amos
chapter 3 you'll see how he goes on to speak again of God's judgments
coming in the way of warfare and conflict and so here Behold
I will bring evil upon all flesh we're to understand it not in
terms of moral evil, sin, God is not the author of that but
God is a God of judgments and he doesn't wink at sins and he
visits punishment and as we've said so many times over recent
weeks and months now with the pandemic and all that's going
on isn't the hand of God in these things? Isn't this a judgment
that God visits upon a wicked world? Politicians might not
recognize it. But if we have any understanding
of the Word of God, we're to recognize that God is sovereign
in all these things, and therefore these things should have a voice.
But men will not hear, although we might be those who hear. This
is what Beirut did, he understood. When he read those words that
he had written down at the at the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah
he knew what was coming and there was great danger and
there is a danger of course that is common to all men man is born onto trouble as the
sparks fly upwards we read in Job 5.7 That's the result of man's sinful
rebellion against God. The world in which man lives
is under a curse. Man cannot avoid trouble. It
comes to all men. And God is going to bring evil,
he says here, upon all flesh. Paul speaks of temptation that
is common to man. in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. But we are more interested in
that danger that is peculiar to the elect. This danger that is going to
be the portion of this man Beirut. Oh yes, there'll be calamities,
behold that which I have built will I break down, that which
I have planted I will pluck up, even the whole land says God.
And seekest thou, mark the singular pronoun there, it's very personal
to bear it now. Seekest thou great things for
thyself? Seek them not. For behold, I
will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord, but thy life
will I give unto thee for a place in all places whither thou goest. The Authorized Version brings
out that personal aspect with the singular pronouns. Here is
danger that is peculiar to the elect. You see, when God sends
a judgment upon the nation, that remnant, that very small remnant
that's going to be preserved, is going to be found amongst
those who are taken away into Babylon. And we see that previously
in chapter 21. Chapter 21 and verse 8. Unto this people shalt thou say,
Thou saith the Lord, behold, I set before you the way of life
and the way of death. He that abideth in this city,
that is Jerusalem, shall die by the sword and by the famine. and by the pestilence. But he
that goeth out and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you,
he shall live, and his life shall be given unto him for a price."
Those who are taken away by the Chaldeans, by the Babylonians,
taken away into exile, they're going to be preserved. There
we will find the godly remnant but Barak Barak is one of those who's left in fact he's not left
he goes off into Egypt eventually in chapter 43 in chapter 43 verse
5 and the following verses Yohanan, the son of Karir, and
all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah
that were returned from all nations, whether they had been driven
to dwell in the land of Judah, even men and women and children
and the king's daughters, and every person that nebuzah Adam,
the captain of the guard, had left with Geroliah the son of
Ahiacham, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and
Barak the son of Nariah. These are those who left. they
are dwelling in the land of Judah and verse 7, so they came into
the land of Egypt for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord thus
came they even to Tarpanis so he's not one who is with those
who are taken into exile and yet it's there in those who
have fallen to the the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, it's there that
the true People of God are to be found. But what of this man? Well, here is God's word, you
see, to reassure him, all places. All places, wherever he is, wherever
he goes. God is mindful of him, but wherever
he goes, wherever he is found, there will be danger on hand.
Well, remember what David says in the psalm when David's always
being pursued by Saul, fleeing from one place to another, hiding
in caves in the wilderness. And he cries out in the psalm,
my soul is continually in my hand. Wherever he turns, his
soul is in great danger, so vulnerable it's in his hand. And, you know,
we can have something in our hand and in a sense we've lost
it. We don't know where it is. Sometimes we're looking for a
thing and, wow, we've got it in our hand. And then other times,
if something's in our hand, we can so easily lose our grip and
it's gone, we've lost it. And this was David, his soul
continually in danger wherever he was, and this was the experience
of Beirut. Those who had gone into exile,
and we see Daniel and the three young Hebrew servants with him,
Chadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they have some assurance from
the Word of God. That's where God's going to preserve
His people. But what of Jeremiah? What of Baruch? Wherever they
go, he's in danger. That life's been given to him,
but that life is under assault. And that's the case, is it not,
with the life of God in the soul of all his people. Calvin says
of the Psalms that the Psalms are an anatomy of the soul. The
Psalms are an anatomy of the soul. It speaks of soul religion.
When David speaks of his experiences, fleeing from Saul, his soul continual
in his hand, or surrounded by beasts on every hand, we're to
understand that in a spiritual sense, according to Calvin. My
soul is among lions. And that's so with the child
of God, is it not? The devil, the devil is alive.
There's a roaring lion, Peter says, he walks about seeking
whom he may devour. Oh, and how clever he is, far
cleverer than any man. Why, he's a mighty angel, he's
a fallen angel. And the subtlety of him, how
he comes, he's the tempter. How he comes to tempt. He tempts
Eve there in the garden, though she was in a state of complete
innocence. a sinless creature yet she's
tempted and then Adam also falls in with the temptation how strong
a foe is Satan and when he tempts and we fall what does he do?
why he's the accuser of the brethren and he accuses them day and night
before God he'll accuse us of our sins he'll shut our mouths,
stop us from making our confessions because we're ashamed when we
keep falling into sins. This is how our spiritual life
is preyed upon. It's preyed upon by Satan himself. But Paul says there's not only
fightings without, there are also fears within. Or when we
look to ourselves. When we look to ourselves, what
do we see there? We see so much that causes us to be ashamed,
all that is within our wicked hearts by nature. I know that
in my forces, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thief. The believer cries out against
himself, or that I had not a myself. all this self, this self and
the sins full of doubt so often and those doubts sometimes why
they become so bad we have thoughts that are all together wrong infidelity
the very denial of God you come to that you think well is there
anything at all in religion? is it all just a sham? is there a God? is there a God? are the atheists right after
all? Now the devil can come and take advantage of these things,
our doubts. Now we see the world, we were
preaching only on the Lord's Day from the 73rd Psalm you see,
and poor Asa, when he sees the wicked prospering. Now we see
the world and we're attracted by the world, there's that in
us, we want that life, we want those pleasures, we want those
possessions. so many sins within us we're
surrounded by beasts not just beasts without there's also so
much that's in our own hearts and so often we we're guilty of presuming with
God and we're proud all these things no wonder Peter can say if the
righteous scarcely be saved who are the righteous? The righteous
are those who are justified. They are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Their sins are forgiven. He has paid the price of their
sin. He has covered them with the
robe of righteousness and justified. And yet Peter says, if the righteous
scarcely be saved. And I like the comment of the
Puritan Richard Sibbes. He says that is not a word of
doubt. That's a word of difficulty.
Lord, there's no doubt the righteous shall be saved. Once in Him,
in Him forever, thus the eternal covenant stands. There's no doubts,
but there's a way of difficulty to be walked. There's a way of
difficulty, and this is what Barak knew. Thy life will I give
unto thee for a pride in all places, whither thou goest. Wherever
you go, you might think, oh, if my situation was different.
If my situation was like my friend's situation, my life would be so
much better. But I have a hard life. And we
think, well, if I go there, that will make it easier. It doesn't,
you see. Our comfort is this, wherever
we are, we'll have to look to God and depend upon Him and live
that life. That's the life of faith. That's
the life of faith. We have to continually wait upon
God Himself. And the Lord has always dealt
with his people in this fashion. But what comforts, what promises
God gives to these people, whose life, whose spiritual life is
under great danger? Listen to this word, Zephaniah
3 verse 8. You know, maybe we don't read
some of these minor prophets at the end of the Old Testament.
They're not easy to read or to understand, but What gems there
are? Stephania 3.8. Therefore, wait
ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the
prey. We have to wait upon God until
He rises up to the prey. That life that's in you, that
life that's being preyed upon, God will appear. And God will
grant His deliverances. who delivered us from so great
a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver
us. In that sense we're having to
constantly be saved. We don't live on our past experience. He's saying God there was a day
when you came to some assurance of salvation and you came and
you made your profession public in the waters of baptism you
acknowledged You had known the blessing of God, the salvation
of your soul, but we can't live on those experiences. We have
to be daily saved. And the Lord will appear for
us, day by day. And this is the promise then
that is given to this man whom we know very little of, other
than the way in which he was an assistant to the great prophet
Jeremiah. Thou shalt thou say unto him,
The LORD saith thus, Behold, that which I have built will
I break down, that which I have planted I will pluck up, even
this whole land. And seekest thou great things
for thyself, seek them not. For behold, I will bring evil
upon all flesh, saith the LORD. But thy life will I give unto
thee for a prey in all places, whither thou goest. Amen.