Have the same prayers. Oh brother
Spurgeon did Lord put someone in a place You have a heart for
those people in that area to be saved. And if you don't you
ain't got no business doing it and I Pray that after my days
are done if the Lord has that people here He keeps his lot
here and calls them out or he moves them to where the lot is
and I'm real thankful that Old Charles wasn't allowed to see
what happened. When the Lord moves a candlestick,
he always has a witness, but it's a frightful thing when he
moves it. And we're so prone to wonder and so prone to backslide. We'll turn to Genesis 32. Genesis
32. As we've been going through Genesis,
we've been looking at the story of Jacob for a while now. Jacob's
been on a roller coaster, hasn't he? It's been spread out over
a couple of decades. He's about halfway through his
life, but he's already what we call an old man at this point. He's pushing 100. He's up there. He's been on a roller coaster.
He came from his father's house where everything was his. He
had the inheritance, he had the blessing, and everything around
him was his. He had to go find a bride, and
he was scared of Esau, and so he ran. I need a wife, up in
the 70s. Good reason, isn't it? Go run
him. And God met him. God came to where Jacob was,
and he spoke to Jacob, and he made promises to Jacob. And then
we don't hear him speak of the Lord for 20-some years. God came
to him. He worshiped God when his pillar
became his pillar. He had a pillow and it became
a pillar. We didn't hear him speak of the Lord for 27 years. He is busy. Oh, man, he had a
lot going on. Oh, he's raising kids. How busy
you get at a full time job. Business was a booming and going
vacation and stuff. And I mean, just a lot of stuff
going on. Didn't mention God one time. And he paid the price
for it. He paid the price for it. Twelve
unruly sons of Jacob's. Something didn't speak of the
Lord for that, that long. And at the end of 31, he's a
chapter 31. He's afraid of Laban and he leaves. He flees in the
middle of the night. And he says, plainly, I was scared. I was
afraid of you. Lord told him to leave. Lord
just came to him again, said, hey, it's time to go home. I'm
with you. Remember? I'm with you. As I
promised, I would be. You obviously have a happy day. I'll come to you. You're mine.
He loved him. And he said, go home. And he
said, we're going to do this in the middle of the night because
I'm scared to death. What a fool. Is he a fool? Am I? And then he worships God, doesn't
he? He says, the Lord's done this. Laban's satisfied. We've made a covenant. He ain't
gonna mess with us. We ain't gonna mess with him.
That's over. That enemy is gone. And they worshiped God. They
thought of Christ and Him crucified. And they exalted the Savior.
What a blessing that is. Right after Laban and worshiping,
we have two verses of utter confidence. Two verses of just assurance.
Do you want that? Contentment. And then immediately
following, he's scared to death again. He's on a roller coaster,
isn't he? Look here in Genesis 32, verse
1. And Jacob went on his way, that's right after they separated
from Laban, they'd worshiped God, and the angels of God met
him. And when Jacob saw them, he said,
this is God's host. And he called the name of that
place Mahanaim. In verse six, it says, in the
messenger's return to Jacob said, your brother Esau is coming with
400 men. And Jacob was greatly afraid
and distressed. You ever walk out of the church
service and the Lord blesses you and you're just, I mean,
I could take on nations. I ain't scared of nothing. One
one thousand, two one thousand. I could have got killed in that
intersection. Oh, oh, we've Worms. You worm, Jacob. That's what
I am. Just a worm. I'm a maggot. Oh, what a fool
I am. I pray the Lord's host would
be with us today. The child of God. They're going
to get lost. They're gonna wander off the
trail, and they will absolutely forsake the assembly of the saints. Hear me. A child of God will
completely forsake the assembly of the saints, and they may set
in a pew and never miss a church service. I know people that's left reformed
religion and never went back in another church, and they're
just as hard as they've ever been. I know people that send
me thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of gospel
messages, and I never heard of one of them. But God's child, sometimes it
takes a couple thousand, and then all of a sudden, when did
it say that? How long has that been there?
When he's pleased, he'll turn them on. He'll wake them up.
He'll wake them up. Jacob was a black backslider.
Men of old, 150 years ago, they'd say, keep preaching on that.
You give me an excuse. They'd say, Lord's people's going
to be prone to wonder. Lord's people's going to backslide.
They're going to have times where they won't, they can't hear nothing.
They can't, it ain't loud enough. They can't hear. They can't pay
attention. They can't find Christ in the
scriptures. That's going to happen. That's going to happen. They
say, you can't say that. People that love don't find a
reason to do the least amount. Love don't say, oh, well, we're
going to backslide. Let's hit the lake. Time to go on vacation
this weekend. No, no, no, no. Love doesn't
do that. Sin does that. That's what an old man does.
The Lord spoke to Jeremiah, and he said, why then is this people
of Jerusalem slidding back by perpetual backsliding? I'll never do that. Well, don't
never say never. Turn over to Hosea. Why should
I have no fear of saying these things? And I think I've been
pretty consistent and honest with folks. You don't want to
give, don't. You don't want to come, I ain't
chasing nobody in the parking lot. You don't want to come sit underneath the gospel,
don't. That's your business. My job is to tell it. My job
ain't to growl folks. The Lord's people backslide.
We forget and we get to where we don't want to hear nothing
and can't hear nothing. That's hard. Who's going to fix that?
Do we need to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps? No, no,
no, no. Hosea 14. There's a title in
my Bible. that says a plea to return to
the Lord. That's wrong. I should cross
that out. It's a command. It's a command to return to the
Lord because he commands it. Salvation is a command. Look
here in Hosea 14 verse 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with
you words and turn to the Lord. saying to him, take away all
iniquity. Repent, that's what it is, isn't
it? Save, cleanse me, purge me, plead my case, and receive us
graciously, so we will render the cares of our lips. Lord,
do this, let us praise you. Make us praise you, save us,
give us a new heart that praises you. The Lord commands that to
his people. It's gonna happen. Asher shall not save us, We will
not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work
of our hands, you are our gods, for in thee the fatherless findeth
mercy. We're not looking to the way
that we did things, we're not looking to the way that man has
said that things are done, we're looking to you, because those
that have no father, those that have no life, they're only going
to find mercy in you. Not in an idea, not in a confession,
they're going to find it in a person, in you. And the Lord says, I
will heal their backsliding. Well, we perpetually backslide,
right? How am I going to fix it? Now, you guys, I'm going
to guilt you all, and that's what I'm saying. Anytime I ever have
something to say about a tenant, it's the people that's sitting
here, right? You're looking at me. I can't
do nothing. The Lord will heal their backsliding,
and I will love them freely. Well, I'll heal their backside,
and if they quit backsliding, no. He's going to heal their
backsliding. What would they do? Nothing. He's just going
to love them. Freely. Freely. For mine anger is turned
away from him. Does that mean that, well, we
got a license now. Do what you want. I'm gonna go
rob banks and I'm gonna move to Hawaii. No! No, I was saying to get out of
jail. We ain't playing Monopoly here. God loved us and saved us. Gave
us a new heart. There's a new creation if he's
done a work in you. It's new. It's like him. I will
be as the dew unto Israel, verse five. He shall grow as the lily
and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and
his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell of Lebanon. It'll smell good too, sweet smelling
savor. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return and they shall receive as the corn and grow as the vine
and the scent thereof shall be the wine of Lebanon. When he
heals us, here's what we'll say. That's what we said back in verse
two, wasn't it? We'll render the calves of our lips. Verse eight,
Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols? The
things I backslid to, I don't want to touch that no more. There
might be a new one next week. We're going to turn from idols.
What do I have to do anymore with idols? I have heard him
and observed him. I'm like a green fur, from me
is thy fruit found. I don't, you bear fruit, you
fed me when I was hungry, you'd come visit me when I was in prison.
Lord, when did we ever see you in prison? Didn't I always say
that? The other one said, we've cast
out devils in your name. Well, we've handed out more tapes
of gospel preaching than you ever heard. He said, I don't
know you. I said, Lord, when did we do these things? He says,
it's your fruit, isn't it? When I've heard Him, when I've
observed Him, that's what those people, they came to church.
That woman at the well, she went and told everybody, said, come
hear about a man. Told me everything. And they said, they told her.
They said, I'll tell you the truth. Now all of a sudden they're
witnesses. They're gonna tell the whole truth and nothing but
the truth. They said, we came because we liked you. We came
to this well to hear about a man just for you, but now we've heard
Him. Lord, speak to the souls of your
people, your salvation. I pray that, I earnestly pray
that. He will, he will. Verse nine says, who is wise
and he shall understand these things, prudent and he shall
know them. for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just
shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein." He'll do
that, he'll perform it, and what he does is right. I want you
to pay attention to me, I got something to tell you. If somebody
leaves the gospel, they've heard this, they've heard the preaching
of the gospel, and then they don't come to hear the gospel
no more. They was in the fold, and then they ain't in the fold
no more, because they went out from us, because they're not
with us. You know what I mean? Easy words. If they're not under
the sound of the gospel anymore, if someone lives as a person
that does not know God, do not assume that they're the Lord's
and they're just erring. Well, now, no, no. Assume they're
lost. Assume they're lost. Does that
mean we cast away and burn the bridges and don't? No. Pray for
them as one that's never known Christ. That's the same either
way. Reveal Christ in them. Lord,
save them. Speak to their souls. Speak to
them. You have to do this. You have
to heal that backsliding. Speak to them. If they made a
profession of faith and they've went turned clean to the world,
assume they're lost and pray that God calls them and heals
them and turns them. from their idols. If you turn
from something, you're turning to something, right? If I turn
from this wall, well, now I'm facing something else. Pray that
he turns them from their idols and the gods of their own hands
to him and they see him and they observe him. That's what to pray. How will we know if they've been
turned? They'll repent. They'll repent. They'll render the calves of
their lips. That's what that prodigal son of Luke 15 did,
didn't he? He left and it said, and when he came to himself,
he had heard all these things and he went running. I've done that. I knew the Lord
and you know the things I've done. and willful rebellion. And you
forget these things and you turn from him. I slid along. Just
doesn't go days without thinking about him. What a dark, horrible
place that was. And then my pure mind was stirred
up. He stirred it. That prodigal said when his mind
came to himself, he said, how many servants of my father's
have had bread to spare? The slaves in my daddy's house,
they got bread coming out of their ears, and I'm gonna die
of hunger? He's laying there eating corn
husks with the hogs he's feeding? He said, I'm gonna go to my father,
and I'm gonna say, father, I have sinned against heaven and before
thee. I've sinned against God. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, and you saw me do it. And I made him rehearse that
a whole lot, didn't I? And he said, I'm no more worthy
to be called your son. We have to see our unworthiness
to see his worth. You get that? We have to be made
low so he's made high. We must decrease, he must increase. It's gonna have to happen. We
always think we're sliding down, don't we? We're sliding up when
we slide away. We're getting high on our hog
and our head's getting puffed up with how much we know. And
I got a handle on this now. What's God say? Right? He said, I'm no more worthy to
be called your son. I just want to be one of your
hired servants. If I could be a doorkeeper in
the house of God. And he arose and he came to his
father, but whenever he was a great ways off, that father saw him. And he rehearsed, he had his
prayers and all his doctrine was just right in the line, wasn't
it? Didn't even get a chance to say it. The father saw him
and ran to him and fell on his neck and kissed him and hugged
him. And he said, father, I've sinned
against heaven and in thy sight. I'm not worthy to be called your
son. That's true. That's right, isn't it? But the
father said to his servants, didn't even acknowledge what
he said. He said to the sir, bring the best robe, put a ring
on him, put shoes on his feet, he's barefoot. Clothe this one
and kill a fatted calf, a good one. Let's eat, we're gonna have
a party, because my son was dead, now he's alive. Who makes alive? Who quickens? Lord does, doesn't
he? That's his work. For those backsliding Jacobs.
Those that are loved, they shall be saved. And the Lord sends
a host of angels to guide us and to welcome us home. He reveals
his power. He reveals his will. He reveals
Christ to us again. That's day by day. People say, well, that was a
long time ago when I grew out of that. Well, wait till tomorrow morning. Those angels are messengers.
They're servants. They're not chunky little white
blonde-headed babies flying around. We looked at that last hour,
didn't we? Two of them took on all Sodom
and Gomorrah like it wasn't nothing. These are the Lord's servants.
They accomplished what he sends them to do. And Jacob came there,
and they'd worshiped God, and he just saw a whole host of angels,
God's host, surrounding him. He says in Psalm 91, he shall
give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.
He's got to keep them angels too. I thought about that often.
If there's a whole host of angels, this week's just been horrible
for me. If there's a whole host of angels looking at me and they
can see my thoughts or see what I do or hear what comes out of
my mouth, you'd think they'd slay me right then. This one
can't be a child of God. Kill him. Why, we've got bodyguard
in this one. That's what happened to Satan,
wasn't it? He said, you mean they're gonna act like that,
and that's what they are. That's the feminine noun they
are. They're sin. Not something they
did, not an idea. That's what they are. And you're
gonna send your son to die for them, and you're gonna make all
them just like him, and they ain't gonna do nothing for it,
and they didn't earn it? He came like a lightning bolt
from heaven down, didn't he? Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation? Those that he sent to have charge
over his people, watch them in all their ways, they're sent
to minister to serve the people that are heirs of salvation.
And he says, shall be. shall be from birth. I'm completely
immortal until the Lord decides to take me off this earth. A
bullet can't touch me. A germ can't touch me. A car
wreck can't happen. I can't wreck on ice, come to
church and die. Nothing can happen until he's pleased for that to
take place. Those that haven't heard him
yet, they can't die. until they hear him, his children. That's why we pray. If there's
breath in their lungs, there's hope that he might be pleased
to make that they're one of his. So we pray for them, don't we?
Pray for our enemies. Some of those angels, they look
like us. Them cherubims, they got two that cover their face
and two that cover their feet. Two, they fly and they cry, holy,
holy, holy. But some of them look like us. How could I know
such a thing? Well, I don't, just what the
word says. Hebrew writer said, let brotherly love continue.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Who's strangers? The checkout person at Ross.
You hear me, children? If you pump a gas, if you're
getting groceries, or somebody cuts you off, that's strangers.
You don't know who they are. Don't forget to entertain strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. What would they be doing here?
Turn over to 1 Peter, I'll tell you what to do. We got something
precious, Bob prayed for that, and it's so, and I pray we could
know it. There's some, I could tell you
a whole lot of places where I think the gospel is and where I think
the gospel ain't, but if it's here, we ought to take heed.
Right? It might be there, it might be
there, it might be there. I know it's here. We ought to support it where we
know it is. Those that know it's somewhere else ought to support
it in that area. Here in 1 Peter chapter one, Verse 10. Well, Matthew Henry said, when
God designs his people for extraordinary trials, he prepares them by extraordinary
comforts. When he's going to design an
extraordinary trial for you, he's going to prepare you for
that trial by giving you extraordinary comfort. And that's so. Here
in 1 Peter 1, Jacob had those hosts come to him to see that.
Peter writes these things. First Peter 1 verse 10, of which
salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you. Those prophets of old,
they wrote these things and I was like, I know the Lord wants me
to write this, but boy, how's this going to play out? Searching
what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ, which was in
them did signify. when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow."
We know this is going to happen. We know Christ is going to come,
and this is going to physically take place on this earth, and
He's going to rise. We don't know when, and we don't
know what that's going to look like. They searched those things. They wanted
to know. "...unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves,
but unto us they'd administer these things." You was writing
that, Isaiah. That wasn't for you. That was for me to read,
and for you to read, and an Ethiopian eunuch to read. That's why. which are now reported unto you
by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy
Ghost. Sit down from heaven. God's ascension gift comes to
a place, and they tell you what this word says and what it means.
They give you knowledge, because you can read the English language,
and they give you understanding. They tell you what it means through
the gospel. Which things the angels desire
to look into. God says so, I don't understand
that. If angels had, they got a day off, right? They had time,
they had free time. They would want to come hear
us preach the gospel out of this place. Can you imagine? They want to go to rescue and
go hear John preach this morning. Just peeking in the window, like,
I want to blow, I want to hear, he's going to say something. Isn't that amazing? Which see,
it's things that angels desire to look into with that in mind.
Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind." You think if the angels want
to look into it, you reckon we ought to? Gird up the loins of
your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that
is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
They're good servants and bad servants, aren't they? For us,
they're ministering spirits. That's what we read in Second
Corinthians, it said no moral Satan himself transformed into
an angel of light. And it says he has his own angels
that were cast out with him. A third of the heavenly host
was sent out. Even those minister to us and
for us, not to us, but for us. They're for our good. Turn over
to second Kings. What about us? What about believers
in the days of old and days now? We have these words, second Kings
chapter six. These are true stories. Did you
know that? The Lord recorded these. It's true. This happened. This happened. These angels were
looking into something, and then they got exposed. I know we've
looked at this recently. Do you want to read it again?
It don't bother me none. Is it alright? 2 Kings 6, verse
14. They had that king of Syria,
which always a picture of the world and Satan and our enemies
and pursuing one man, Halasha. There's a fellow preaching the
truth and a whole nation said, kill him and get him out of the
way. He's ruining stuff for us. Does that sound familiar? What
a picture of Christ, huh? It's hot on his heels. God's
prophet standing out there saying, here's what God says, and everybody
wanted to kill him. Did he go hunkered high in the
corner? No. Verse 14. Therefore sent he thither horses
and chariots and a great host, and they came by night and compassed
about the city. They cleaned and surrounded Elisha.
And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, that's
a good thing to do. That servant of Elisha got up
real early and went out, and he saw that they compassed the
city both with horses and chariots. The servant saith unto him, Alas,
my master, how shall we do? That little young fellow went
and woke Elisha up and said, What are we gonna do? We're clean
and surrounded. And he answered, Fear not, for
they that be with us are more than they that be with him. That servant's seen with
his eyes, isn't he? There's two of us. I don't know
how you count to good. I don't know how you learn how
to add in school, but there's two of us and there's a host
of them. We're surrounded. And Elisha prayed. The prayers
of a righteous man availeth much, don't they? Elisha prayed and
said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes. He's scared to death. I could tell him not to fear.
That don't matter. You got to speak to his heart, not to fear.
And you got to prove your word to him. Open his eyes, because
his eyes are shut. Open his eyes, that he may see.
And the Lord opened his eyes to the young man, and he saw,
and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him,
Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said, smite this people, I pray
thee with blindness. And he smote them with blindness
according to the word of Elisha. Angels camped round about. Wouldn't
that be a spiritual comfort to us if we could go out and see
that? It's so, we just can't see it. Isn't that right? God's on his throne. and his
ministry spirits are sent to watch over his people and keep
our paths so we're drawn to him and we're healed from our backsliding.
It's so, it's so. It's a frightening thing to not
have, be aware of that. Physically, I've experienced
this. A couple months, worldly-wise, a couple months into being here
in San Diego, you know, COVID's going on and this having to draw
down in Afghanistan and all this stuff, I got a job offer. We
wasn't meeting in public. And I got a job offer, and it
was for six months. I could have done 12. It was
a very lucrative job offer. And I mean, like, pay the house
off, fund the kids' college, and I don't ever have to work
again, lucrative. Very lucrative. Several thousand dollars a day,
lucrative. And they said, you want to take it? And I said,
nope, I ain't going to do it. I don't ever have to work again.
Well, you could have used that for the furtherance of the gospel.
Yeah. Nope. There's two main reasons I didn't
do that. spiritually first, right? First and foremost, that's not
what God called me to do. I had those experiences, that
day's over. It's gone. I'm getting too old. God called
me to preach. I'm to study the word and preach
to this generation in this location, in this locality. That's my job. I don't have another job. I got
this job. He gave it to me. Spiritually, that's so. Can't
do it. I'm not interested. I'm dead to this world. Carnally,
too. This is a good lesson I learned.
I wouldn't have had the full support of the U.S. military. I've been third party. You get
hurt, they may come to help if they can, they may not. They
may send a black hawk, they may not. They may not be able to
you might be surrounded by the enemy or gravely wounded. And
I would have had that protection. I would have had that concentrated
effort for them to recover me for them to save me for them
to keep me. And you start working without a net. And I don't want
to play that game that we carnally we understand that. Spiritually,
we're surrounded with a whole host, two hosts, and how much
more so the hosts of God are able to keep those that the Lord's
purpose. His angels sent to keep me in
all my ways. That's what Moses said, said,
Lord, if our presence go with us, we'll rest. And he said,
if our presence not go with me, carry us not hence. How are we
going to know that we're your people if you're with us? How
are you going to know if somebody preaches the gospel if they preach
the gospel? How are you going to know if they preach Christ?
Well, they're going to have to preach Christ. Is that complicated? Is that
simple? He said, if you ain't going to
let us go, don't go. He said, for wherein shall it be known
here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight if you
don't go with us? So shall we be separated? We'll
be cast off the face of the earth. And Lord said to Moses, I will
do this thing that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace
in my sight, and I know thee by name. And that's when Moses
said, show me your glory. Weak, wasn't he? The Lord just
told him. Mahanim, two hosts. Jacob called that place Mahanim.
So I've seen the Lord, these are the Lord's hosts, and there's
two of them. Two hosts is what the word means, two camps. Two
camps. What two camps could he be talking
about? I tried to think of every way that could be. First, he's
camped with two enemies, isn't he? I've seen the Lord's salvation,
I've seen his hosts come for me, and they needed to come because
I got Laban behind me and I got Esau coming up in front of me.
I got double enemies, and I need double protection, and the Lord's
provided that. That's one way, isn't it? Another way, there
was a wicked host. Satan's ministers, Posen's ministers
of light, isn't it, and Laban, or Esau, they're chasing him,
and now the angels of the Lord are there to take him home. I
see that evil, and I see this good. I see that wicked, and
I see this holy. I see those two things. That
could very well be the case. We're surrounded by Both our
enemies and those that minister to us, ain't we? And we're doubly
surrounded by the mighty servants of the Most High. To the front
and to the rear, we're surrounded. To the left and to the right,
above and below. Isn't it? The Lord's messengers
that's been called home already. The scriptures say they rejoice
in heaven over one sinner that repents. In fact, we peel back
these eyes of death and see that the hosts around us and the host
that's already home praying for us and rejoicing and celebrating
in sinlessness and being made just like our Redeemer. That's
what we're going to. That's the end of the race. And
in this earth, too, those times I've run away and I've left and
I've backslid and I've went and lived like a heathen in this
world, I thought there's no way I could go back to that church.
There's no way I'd go back to see those people of God that
stayed there faithfully. They won't have nothing to do with
me. They may not make fun of me, but I'm gonna get some bad,
dirty looks, ain't it? I went back and there was hugs. When
you gonna cut my grass? You gonna cut this summer? Just
one cut for anything. Angels of God ministering to
me, looking after me. There's a host in heaven. His
messengers and his servants and his host here is on earth. That's
true. But it's the seen and unseen things too. Turn over Psalm 23.
Psalm 23. Jacob got through worshiping
God. Laban had departed, his enemy was gone, and he saw the
hosts of the Lord, the two camps, the two hosts, and he praised
God for it. And I thought of this, Psalm
23. David wrote, the Lord is my shepherd, who shall not want. He's brought me through all those
things. We went through some mud holes. to get here to this
pasture, but he brought me. He's the shepherd. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. That's what he promised. Jacob,
I'm gonna be with you. And he comes to him again. Jacob,
I'm with you. I ain't gonna leave you. And he comes to him again.
Jacob, I'm gonna be with you. He's long-suffering, ain't you
thankful? I am. I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. That
punishment, not punishment, that chastening that you give me,
that's a comfort, I'm thankful for that. You know what Solomon
said? This is God's word, and so people
don't like it that's between them and God. He said, you beat
your son with a rod, he won't die from it. He ain't gonna die. Take a switch to him, good and
hard. He'll be all right, he'll live.
Because I know that with me. The Lord sent me through heavy
trials, and it was good. It was a comfort. Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. This whole time,
completely surrounded by enemies. What do you want for dinner?
We can worship. We can be fed on the gospel.
That ain't the time that we get surrounded by enemies. That's
not the time you forsake the assembly of the saints. That's when you
draw near. Need to hear it more, don't we? Thou preparest a table
for me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head
with oil, and my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. His old brother Spurgeon called
the Lord's watchdogs. Surely goodness, that grace goes
before us, leading us, guiding us, paving the path, and mercy
comes right up behind, covering that sin that we've committed
every day. It's attached to our feet. That's two hosts, isn't
it? Grace and mercy. I hate them. We're completely surrounded by
the almighty God, and he's good. He can do no wrong. Back in our text, Genesis 32,
Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. They came
to where Jacob was, and Jacob saw them, and he said, this is
God's host, and he called the name of that place Mahanim. He was surrounded by the Lord. Walk across the hot coals, buddy. Ready to go. I ain't scared of
nothing. I won't fear. Next week, we'll
look at verse three. Oh no, Esau, I forgot about him.
We're a fickle people, ain't we? So prone to wonder, so prone
to leave the God I love. And he's so faithful. We're so
unbelieving, and he's so faithful to draw us back to himself. To
draw us back to himself. I don't want to go away. Right
down the road from our house this whole week, there's three
sheep that's got loose. And I'm not as I don't keep sheep. You don't keep sheep that I know
of. None of y'all do. But there's three sheep and that
one was standing in the middle of the road when I was getting
up to go to work the other day. That's somebody's sheep. You get that?
And it was what must have been, maybe it's Jack's, that's his
house. Well, no, they're out front. He ain't got them. Well,
didn't he call the people down the road? Didn't they come looking
for him? They're walking on, they're gonna die. Like, that's
just good common sense to people, right? We understand those things.
I'm the sheep. And I'm owned by somebody. And
he shall get his people. He's gonna gather all of them.
He's the good shepherd. All right.