Let us turn to God's word and
I want with the Lord's help to direct you this morning to words
that we find in the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy chapter
8 and reading verses 2 and 3. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee, and to know what
was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee
know, that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness. Here we have the children of
Israel then on the borders of the promised land after those
wandering but came of course as a result of the disobedience,
the unbelief of the previous generation who when the spies
had gone in to search out the land instead of embracing what
those faithful men Joshua and Caleb said believed the evil
report of the other ten spies who spoke of great fenced or
walled cities and jails in the land and how the children of
Israel, embracing what those faithless men said, were therefore
unable to enter into the land of promise. The generation, the
unbelieving generation, were to pass away during those wilderness
wanderings and now the next generation are about to enter into the land
that God had promised. In the next chapter, Moses says
here, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in
to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities
great and fenced up to heaven. They were to go in. In fact,
this is of course the situation that pertains in what is recorded
in this fifth book of Moses, the book of Deuteronomy. We're told in the opening words
of the book, these be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel,
on this side Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plains, in the plain over
against the Red Sea, between Paran, and Tophan, and Laban,
and Hezeroth, and Nizahab. They were on the borders of the
promised land as Moses recounts to them the Lord of God. Deuteronomy simply means second
law and in chapter 5 we have that recounting of the Ten Commandments
that God had given to them first in Exodus chapter 20. But here,
throughout the book of Deuteronomy, there is this recounting. Moses
speaks of the past, as they are to recall God's dealings and
God's ways, they shall remember all the ways which the Lord thy
God led these 40 years in the wilderness. But he also seeks
to set before them what is to come as they enter into this
land of promise. In verse 7 he says, the Lord
thy God bring us into a good land, a land of brooks, of water,
of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills,
a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates,
a land of oil, olive and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat
bread without scarceness and so forth. There is then here
that looking back, that remembering, but there is also that looking
forward, that anticipation of the future. And how apt then
are these things when we come to the turn of the year, as we
do now of course. We think of 2013 as that year
that has now passed into history and we enter into another year
of our Lord even the year 2014 we can look back we are to look
back but we can also in faith look forward and we should desire
that we might be those who are truly walking by faith as we
see with the eye of faith him who is the invisible God But
the importance here we have in our text of remembrance. We're so apt to forget, are we
not? We know that two of the Psalms
have in their title a reference to remembrance. Psalm 38 and
Psalm 70 are Psalms to bring to remembrance. We forget so
many things, so much of God's goodness. dies in sad unthankfulness. In one of the hymns Samuel Mesley
says, my memory bad but what is sad can folly still retain. We remember so many foolish things
and yet forget so many good things. We need To be prompted do we
not with regards to our memories the Lord Jesus Christ himself
of course instituted the Holy Supper for that very purpose,
with regards to the broken bread, with regards to the cup of the
new covenant, he tells us quite plainly this too in remembrance
of Mary. There are a number of things
that we are reminded that we should be remembering in the
words that I read as a text this morning. And I want to mention
three particular things from these two verses in Deuteronomy
chapter 8. First of all, we should be those
who would remember the Lord's provisions. It is good for us
to recall God's providences, God's providential dealings with
us during the last year. I know that Last Lord's Day,
of course, we were considering that refrain that we have in
the 107th Psalm, and we just sang it, of course, in the opening
part of the metrical version of Psalm 107. All that men would
praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to
the children of men. It is good for us to remember
God and the good hand of God that has been upon us and the
provision that he has made for us even throughout the past year. Look at what we read here in
the third verse and particularly the end of this third verse.
Moses tells them how God humbled them and suffered thee to hunger,
and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did
thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Man doth not live
by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of the Lord doth man live. Now surely here there is some
reference to that spiritual provision that God makes for us. When God
created man he made his body out of the dust of the earth
but he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life. Man became
a living soul and God is mindful of the needs of our soul. The Lord Jesus Christ in the
Gospel says, what is a man's profit if he gains the whole
world and loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? It is important that we are mindful
then of the needs of our souls and therefore those who would
be careful with regards to all that provision that God has made
in the means of grant we should desire that we might fill our
place as we come together in this fashion we're not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together as we seek to worship God in
this corporate way sabbath by sabbath and then also the importance
of course of the weeknight service and the time that we give there
to prayer that we might be those who are truly a praying people
but not only with regards to the public means of grace we
have to attend to Our souls meet in the private place, day by
day, to be those who would be diligent in the reading of the
Word of God and praying over the Word of God, desiring that
our souls might be fed, seeking to read that literature that
will be good for our souls. We are to attend to these things
because we are mindful that we have never-dying souls. Man doesn't
live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of the Lord. There is some reference here
then to the soul and to spiritual food. But we have to do justice
here to precisely what is being said in this verse and I am persuaded
that the primary reference here in this text is not to spiritual
food. but rather it teaches us this
lesson that we are to look beyond all external means and we are
to look to God himself, we are to remember that God is the great
first cause of everything and we see it of course in the New
Testament and we see it in the experience of the Lord Jesus
Christ after his baptising, after his baptism when Christ, you
remember, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. And we have
the record there in the fourth chapter of Matthew's Gospel. In the opening four verses of
Matthew chapter 4, then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted
forty days and forty nights, he was after wood and hungered,
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the
Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he
answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The
Lord Jesus himself is quoting then from the words of our text
as he resists the tempter. And it is in what Christ says
and the context there that we have the key whereby we can understand
precisely what is meant back in Deuteronomy chapter 8. We
are told here that Christ is led into the wilderness to be
tempted and he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. And then mark
what it says afterward, after the period of fasting, after
40 days and 40 nights, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ was
hungry. What does that indicate? Well,
Christ was sustained miraculously during that period of fasting
for 40 days and 40 nights. He was able to live without bread
because he is looking to him who is the Great First Cause
of all things. The Lord Jesus Christ then teaches
us that we are to see beyond the means. We are to see that
God is the one who is able to sustain us in strange, trying
situations and circumstances. So we have it here that he might
make the know that man doth not live by bread alone but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. does man live
every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes
from the father of lights in whom there is no variableness
nor any shadow of turning that's where we're to look this is the
one that we're to recognize we're to see beyond the means yes God
has appointed means and we recognize that if a man doesn't work says
the apostle he shall not be This is the way in which God has ordered
his creation. But we look beyond these things
and we recognise the hand of God in providing us with all
things. And we have to learn, of course, from that patterned
prayer that Christ himself taught to the disciples. Give us this
day our daily bread. It's interesting to observe The
slight difference is we have that pattern of prayer not only
in Matthew 6 but again in Luke 11 and in that latter portion,
Luke 11 verse 3, it is give us day by day our daily bread. Give us this day, in Matthew
but give us day by day in Luke. How from day to day we are to
look to God and we are to recognise the hand of God, we are to watch
the hand of God, we are to be those who would see that we are
completely dependent upon Him. And was not this so with regards
to the experience of the children of Israel during those wilderness
wanderings? Verse 16, Who fed them in the
wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that He
might humble them, and that He might prove them. to do thee
good at thy latter end. He fed them with manna. We read
that account as we have it there in the 16th chapter of Exodus. Interesting, isn't it, that in some four chapters later,
chapter 20, that we actually have the giving of the Ten Commandments,
the law that was promulgated on Mount Sinai. But previous
to that we see that there was a Sabbath day to be kept. They
kept the Sabbath. There were those who were disobedient.
They went out to gather on the seventh day. But there was to
be no provision on that day. Because that was a day that was
already recognized. Even before God's day of the
Ten Commandments. To remember the commandments
is to remember the Sabbath day. to keep his hold. It was something
they were already familiar with, they were to remember it. But
how God would from day to day make provision for them by sending
the manna. There in verse 15 of that 16th
chapter we have the name manna and the margin tells us the significance
of the name. It literally means what is it?
What is this? Or, in some margins, it might
say that the meaning of the word is, it is a portion. It is a
portion. It's the Lord's provision. And
I like the way the psalmist speaks of it in Psalm 78. Man did eat
angels' food. He sent them meat to the full. Or they were satisfied, were
they not? Whatever be their appetite, there was sufficient to satisfy
every man's appetite. When God made that provision,
it was a portion. It was appointed to each and
every one of them. And of course, the remarkable
thing is that once they come into the promised land, there
is that cessation. The manna ceases to appear. as they are able now to eat of
the increase of the land in Joshua chapter 5 verse 10 we are told how the children
of Israel encamped in Gilgad and kept the Passover on the
fourteenth day of the month at Eban in the plains of Jericho
and they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after
the Passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn in the south
same day and the manna ceased. on the morrow after they had
eaten of the old corn of the land neither had the children
of Israel manna any more that they did eat of the fruit of
the land of Canaan that year. It was the Lord's provision,
it was the Lord's portion and it was appropriate to them as
long as they required, as long as they needed to be fed in that
remarkable way God himself fed them. Here we see then God's
provision and we have to remember friends, we are not to forget
these things, we have to remember the provision that God makes
for us. And how God has made provision
for us, not only through that pasture but through the years. The constancy of His care, His
many kindnesses to us. Yea, the Lord shall give that
which is good, our land shall yield her increase. says the
psalmist in Psalm 85. Doesn't God grant to us even
this wicked nation in which we are living? He grants to us such
abundance obviously. And over these recent holiday
seasons we've gone maybe to the shops we just see the shelves
laden with good things. An abundance of good things.
God is faithful in spite of our unfaithful dealings with Him.
While the earth remaineth, he hath said, sea-time and harvest,
cold and heat, summer and winter, shall not serve us. And we are
to give God the glory as we remember all his ways. Thou shalt remember
all the ways which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness. Again at verse 18, Thou shalt
remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power
to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he sware
unto thy fathers, as it is this day. How striking this is. It
is God who gives man power to get wealth. And we are to remember
that. Even when we make use of the
means that God has provided for us, It is God who gives us the
house and strength to do all that is necessary to fulfill
our daily tasks. We are not to forget the children
of Israel, certainly we are not to forget. Remember how, as we
saw in the reading, there was to be a portion laid up. That was the commandment that
God gave to Moses. Moses conveys that to Aaron. There at the end of that 16th
chapter in Exodus, Moses said unto Aaron, take a pot, put an
omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord to
be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses,
so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. It was kept, the pot of manna,
a constant reminder of God's provision. We are to remember
God's provision. But then secondly, There is also the remembering
here of God's proving. God will prove his people. Thou
shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these
forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee,
to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments or no. The way God proves us, friends.
And how does God prove us? He makes us to know. To prove
thee to know what was in thine heart, it says. And again, in
the next verse, in the middle of verse 3, that he might make
thee to know that man doth not live by bread alone. How we have
to come to know something of ourselves. This is why God proves
His people. We have to know who we are. and what we are, and where we
are. Doesn't Calvi make that telling
point right at the beginning of that great work, his Christian
Institutes? How the true wisdom consists
in these two parts, the knowledge of God, yes, that's the primary
thing, the knowledge of God, but also the knowledge of ourselves,
these two great areas of knowledge we are to know, God we are to
know ourselves. And I was very struck by the
sentence in one of the little pieces of John Kay. John Kay
was one of those seceders together with Philpot and Tiptoft seceding
from the ministry of the Church of England and several of his
pieces appear in the Old Gospel Standards. And he makes his point
as Kay knows, manifested, elect, soul, knows one hand grets more
of Christ than he knows of himself. And he struck me. We can only
know Christ as we know ourselves. That's the point he's making.
And what do we have to know of ourselves? We have to know what
we are. As sinners. Because Christ is the saviour
of sinners. What comfort can a saviour bring
to those who never felt their worth? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made himself,
ought to be a sacred sinner. brought to that saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God proves his people. And how
does God prove us? By his reproofs and by his chastenings. Even as we reflect on a year
that has passed, do we not have to remember that there were those
times when we stood in need of God's chastening hand, God's
correction? We're so foolish. We're so bent on sinning, how
often we backslide, we can be regular in our attendance on
all the means of grace, always filling our place and yet, do
we not have to confess that we are guilty of many backslidings
of heart? That others know nothing of us. We can sit in chapel and
yet our thoughts can be a thousand miles away. But the Lord sees
us, the Lord knows us. And what does God do with His
children? He shows them Himself. He brings them to that knowledge
of their real need. Whom the Lord loveth and chasteneth,
and scourge of every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons. What son is it that the
Father chasteneth not? Those are the most telling words
that the Apostle quotes from the Proverbs. in Hebrews chapter
12. Here is the mark of our sonship.
The Lord will chasten us. The Lord will correct us. And
why? Because we need it. Afflictions
make us see what else would escape our sight, how very foul and
dim I were. And God, how pure and bright.
We learn the truth about ourselves and our sad condition as sinners,
our fallen natures. But we also learned the truth
about God. It's this two-fold knowledge
which is through wisdom. The knowledge that we have of
ourselves and our needs brings us to that knowledge of God. The God who is good, the God
who is gracious. To know what was in our hearts. What is in our heart today? Do
we have a heart religion? Is our heart really in the things
of God? Is our heart in the service of
worship? Is our heart in the scriptures? Or is it just all outward, just
an external show? Or are we those who do want real
religion? We want something wrought by
the Spirit of God within us, so that our affections are truly
set upon those things that are above, where Christ is, at God's
right hand. That's what we want to be really. That's our longing, to be where
Christ is. And we want to know Christ here
upon the earth, we want to be where Christ is. You see why
we come to the Word of God, we want to find Christ. This is
why we attend the services. We want something of that spirit
of the Grecians who came to the disciples of Christ and said,
Sirs, we would see Jesus. Is our heart really in these
things? To know what was in thine heart. Verse 5 he says, Thou
shalt also consider in thine heart that there is a man chastened
of his son, So the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. And then again
if we go over to the next chapter, to chapter 9. Look at what we read here in
chapter 9 at verse 7. Remember and forget not how thou
provokest the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness from
the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt until
you came unto this place, you have been rebellious against
the Lord. Also in Horeb, you provoked the Lord to wrath, so
that the Lord was angry with you, to have destroyed you. All the foolishness of these
people, the folly of this nation of Israel. Day in verse 24 he
says, you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day
that I knew you. It's not a pleasant thing when
God causes us to know ourselves and to see ourselves and to remember
what we are. These people, Israel, of course
is a typical people. Ethnic Israel, a type of the
spiritual Israel, a true Israel, a church. It is a bitter experience,
I say. When God comes to us, when God
corrects us and He does it, why? Because of our sins. That's why
God has to correct us. He doesn't treat us as mere playthings. There's a reason for all His
ways, all His dealings. There's nothing capricious about
God. Why does He scourge His children? Why does He chastise
His sons? Because they stand in need of
it. They have to see what they are. He's proving them all the time.
I said there are those two Psalms 38 and 70 to bring to remembrance. Psalm 38 is a remarkable psalm
because in it David confesses there his sin. And it's very graphic the way
in which David speaks of his sin in Psalm 38. And we have
to remember that, you see. The awfulness of our sin. And
these people, the children of Israel, they have to remember.
how foolish, how perverse they had acted. Remember and forget
not how thou provokest the Lord thy God to walk." We are not
to forget the folly then of our ways. Remember that godly king,
Hezekiah, what a character. Remarkable man and most gracious
king in Israel and yet the son of a sinful father. And yet even
Hezekiah was left of God. And in leaving, Hezekiah did
not God's proving. We have it recorded in the historic
books, in the second book of Chronicles, in chapter 32, and there at verse 31 albeit in the business of the
ambassadors of the princes of Babylon who sent unto him to
inquire of the wonder that was done in the land God left it
to try him that he might know all that was in his heart all
this godly madness who prays that remarkable prayer in Isaiah
38, the man you remember who was the king at the time that
the Assyrians came into the land and it seemed that Jerusalem,
the little kingdom of Judah were going to be completely overrun
and yet God heard that man's prayer and there was deliverance
from the Assyrians And the prophet Isaiah tells
him he's got to set his house in order, he's going to die,
he's not going to live. And he turns his face to the wall and
yet immediately the prophet is sent back to the king, his life
is going to be extended by 15 years. And then he makes that
remarkable prayer. By these things men live. In
all these things he says he's the life of my spirit. He knew
something of his own heart already and yet here we have it subsequent
to that. the business of the ambassadors
of the princes of Babylon, this empire that has come after the
Assyrians, who sent unto it to inquire of the wonder that was
done in the land, God left him. Oh, God left him to himself and
his own foolish pride, left him to try him that he might know
all that was in his heart. God will make us to know what
we are. And we should desire that, that God would make us
to know ourselves, our real selves, and the greatness of our need. This is why God proves His people,
is it not? He will manifest what we are. Today, when we come over
to the New Testament Scriptures, we have Paul's writing there
in the first epistle to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13,
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. God tries his people, God proves
his people, and we should remember that. We should remember that. And what should be the outcome?
Examine yourselves. Where did you be in the past?
Prove yourself. says Paul. No, you are not your
own selves. How that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reproductive. Or do we desire to prove ourselves?
We profit when we consider and remember God's ways, when we
reflect upon His dealings with us. We want to prove ourselves
and know the reality of what it is that we are professing.
Are we real Christians, washed in the Redeemer's blood? We are
to remember them. Not only the provisions that
God makes for us, the great first course. We are to remember the
way in which God will prove his truth. And then thirdly, and
finally this morning, we are to remember God's purpose. It's
a good thing to remember that sovereign purpose of our God. Thou shalt remember all the way
which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart,
whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or not. And he humbled
thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna which
thou knewest not. Neither did thy fathers know
that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread
only, that by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
the Lord doth man live. He not only proves his people
but he humbles his people. This is his purpose, is it not?
To humble them and to prove them. When we learn our complete and
our utter dependence upon God the Great First Cause, it's a
very humbling experience to learn that we're creatures, feeble,
frail creatures of the dark and yet what sort of creatures are
we? We're sinful creatures. We are the children of Adam and
Eve. And what do we see in our first
parents? Do we not see In Genesis chapter
3, the way in which sin comes into the world, and that pride
that is bound up with the unbelief. Pride is the root of our sins,
is it not? When the serpent comes to Eve,
what does he say in the temptation? Ye shall be as gods. Ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. Oh, here is something to
be desired, to be as God. The folly of men, the pride of
men. Paul refers to it when he writes to Timothy, 1 Timothy
3 and verse 6, he calls it the condemnation of the devil. Pride. The condemnation of the
devil. It is devilish. What is the devil?
He is a proud angel, he is a creature. And Satan, of course, is that
angel that would desire to be as God, to exalt himself. And so, when
he comes to our first parents, there's pride in that temptation.
And it's an accursed thing, this pride. It's pride accursed, pride
that spirit by God abhorred. Do what we will, it haunts us
still. and keeps us from the Lord. What keeps us from God?
Is it not our pride? We don't want to go that way.
We think we can manage of ourselves. We don't like the idea of our
complete and utter helplessness, our dependence upon another.
Or how it permeates our souls so often, this accursed pride.
against its influence pray, it mingles with the prayer, against
it preach, it prompts the speech, be silent, still it's there.
You know the preacher can preach against pride and yet be so pleased
with himself and his discourse, think he's done so well, whilst
he's preaching against that very thing, he's guilty of it. Oh, it is such an evil thing
the pride that's in our fallen nature and here is God's purpose,
you see, to humble His people to humble them and to prove them
to know what was in thine heart whether they would escape His
commandments or no. Now The believer is a partaker, of
course, of a new nature, a partaker of the divine nature. When the
sinner is born again, born from above, there is that blessed
work of the spirit, and that that is born of the spirit is
spirit, and that that is born of the flesh is flesh, and there
is his conflict. Pride is bound up with the old
nature. But the new nature is created
after God in true holiness. It's the divine nature. Though
the believer is to grow in grace, there is to be growth in grace,
we deny progressive sanctification, the
idea that the old nature somehow or other grows weaker and the
believer advances. No, we say the old nature is
ever the old nature. But we want to see that growth
in Christ, that development. We are born again and when we
are born again we are alive but we are to grow and see young
men and young women and then we are to be fathers and mothers
in Israel. But what is growth in Christ?
Grow in Christ, says Peter, and in the knowledge of our God and
Saviour Jesus Christ. It's a growth in that new nature,
is it not? And it is therefore a downward
growth. It's a growth in humility. It's downward. It's the very
opposite of what's in our foreign nature, the very opposite of
pride. It's a growth in humility. I will be as the Jew unto Israel.
He shall grow as the lily, says the Prophet, and cast forth his
roots as the Lebanon. those great seeders of Lebanon
with their deep roots is to cast forth his roots as a seeder in
Lebanon and yet, what is that upward growth? It's the middle. There's much downward growth. The Puritan Thomas Watson says,
the right manner of growth is to grow less in our own lives. to grow less in our own eyes,
to be humble. Not a growth in conscious goodness,
but in felt necessity and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. That's the words of our article
twenty years ago. Not a growth in conscious goodness,
but a growth in felt necessity, feeling more and more our need
of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I say we're
to remember. We're to remember that God has
a purpose in all his dealings with us. Not only to prove us,
but God will also humble us better. He says he's the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. I know the thoughts that I think
towards you, he says to Israel, thoughts of peace and not of
evil, to give you an expected end. God has a good purpose in
view in his dealings with us so often times to us those dealings
seem to be so contrary and so hard for us to understand he
will do us good in the end look at verse 16 who fed thee in the
wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not that he might
humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at
thy latter end all God's dealings with his people are good, all
things work together for good to them that know God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose and we are not
to forget but we are to remember, we are
to remember all our dependence upon Him verse 11, beware that
thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping His commandments
and His judgments and the statutes which I command thee this day
we're not to forget we're to remember and we're to remember
we're creatures, we're to remember we're dependent upon him as creatures
we're to remember that we're sinners and we're to know what
we are as sinners and our great weakness and our complete inability
of ourselves our utter dependence upon him Oh, to remember the
pride of our fallen nature and our need then to be humble before
her? Oh, the believer so often, you
see, as God deals with him, is tried and tormented even by what
he learns of himself, what he learns of his fallen nature. We see it in a chapter like Romans
chapter 7. I hardly need to direct you again
to that great chapter and what the apostle says there concerning
himself and his own experience as a child of God. The good that
I would, I do not. The evil that I would, not that
I do. All wretched man that I am, it's not pleasant. And yet here
is the believer, you see. God has a purpose in the lives
of his children, does he not? and He will bring them to this,
that they desire that they might know Him and as they know Him,
what do they long for? That they might be those who
are careful to walk in the ways of His commandments, to walk
in obedience to all His holy precepts. This is the purpose
He has in view at the end of verse 2, whether they would keep
His commandments or not. whether they would keep his commandments
or not. Or are we those friends who desire
that we might, as we come into this new year, walk humbly with
our God? A desire to walk in all the ways
of his holy precepts, delighting in his Word in its entirety,
not only loving the promise of the Word of God, all but loving
the precincts, to be an obedient people. And as we seek to live that life
of obedience, to bring glory not to ourselves, but to the
God who ever watches over us and provides for us and fulfills
in us His goodwill and pleasure, all His gracious purpose. shalt remember all the ways which
the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness
to humble thee, and to prove thee to know what was in thine
heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or not.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee
with manna which thou knewest not. Neither did thy fathers
know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by
bread only, that by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of the Lord doth man live. Amen.