Trusting that the Lord will hear our prayers, I would ask your attention to 1 Samuel chapter 30 and reading from verse 24. The first book of Samuel, the 30th chapter and reading from verse 24. As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff. They shall part alike. 1 Samuel 30 verse 24 as his part is that goeth down to the battle so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff they shall part alike the next verse tells us that this principle was made a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day And in some ways it's, I feel that that's slightly surprising that that should be said there, only because that perhaps we wouldn't expect a comment like that to have that sort of attention drawn to it.

But clearly it wasn't just, as it were, the account of someone's behaviour at a particular time, but it was the record of a principle and it draws our attention to it. I do believe that as we look at the grace that was given to David to say this, to make this division, as it were, of the spoils, I do believe that we see in there the grace of God and especially the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it might seem a strange text in some ways, but I do pray that the Lord will help us as we consider it together. It has been one, I think, that has often been with me from quite a few years ago when I first noticed it. And I think there is, to me, there has been much to consider, really, in this text. An obscure, perhaps, part of the Bible in one sense, but nonetheless, I think a very important principle. So as the Lord may help, I want to begin really by looking at what this tells us about David in his behaviour here.

So, just to really recap on the scene, as you know, David and his 600 men had been out fighting, they had been raiding the Philistines, and they had come back after three days of fighting to find Ziklag deserted and burnt to the ground, and their families taken captive. and they after their first of all giving way to their grief in verse four and then they gave way as it were to their bitter anger and turned against David leaving David alone and David was forced to turn to the Lord and in verse six there are well-known words aren't they David encouraged himself in the Lord his God I don't want to spend too much time on that tonight. I could easily get sidetracked on that really, because it is a lovely verse. But do just remember this, that David was in this place because of his own sin. He had sinned, he didn't trust the Lord, that was why he had come down to Ziklag. Earlier today I was looking at the account of David when he fought Goliath. And there we have a lovely picture of how David trusted the Lord.

But here it's different. He was down in Ziklag because he himself had said that I shall one day perish at the hand of Saul. In other words, God isn't able to keep me from being killed by Saul. I've got to go to the Philistines who are stronger than God.

I know they weren't his words, but that's really what he was saying. And so he went down to Ziklag. He was then living a life of sin, a life of deceit, double dealing and slaying innocent people. And when then he came back and Ziklag had been burned and the family's taken captives in one sense, we might say, well, it was no less than he deserved, but it's certainly no more than he deserved. And so it is, I think, very precious and very encouraging that David really having got himself as we might say into this mess by his own sin was still able to turn to the Lord and be confident that the Lord would hear his prayer and that is really what is behind this wonderful verse David encouraged himself in the Lord his God he thought about the mercy of the Lord he thought about the way that the Lord had dealt with him he thought about his sins and still he knew that he a sinner having got himself into that mess by his sin still he knew that he could turn to the Lord and believe that the Lord would have mercy on him and of course that is the account that we have we see that the Lord answered him immediately again he didn't deserve it but how wonderfully the Lord answered him in fact the Lord had already been working when we read that account of the Egyptian who was there.

I think he said he was left there before David came back to Ziklag, I believe, if I have done that math correctly. He'd had no bread or water for three days or three nights. The Lord had already been preparing that work. The Lord had already been working. And so when David prayed to the Lord, the Lord had already been answering that prayer.

So they then followed the Amalekites, led by that young Egyptian. But before they found the Egyptian, we have this verse 10. David pursued he and 400 men, for 200 abode behind, which was so faint that they could not go over the brook Besal. Now this reduced David's force to the 400 men and it's very striking really that when they eventually caught up with the Amalekites we read that in verse 17 that there escaped not a man of them save 400 young men which rode upon camels obviously able to go at a greater speed than David's men presumably on foot but it's the numbers that are interesting because it shows that there must have been more than David's army with the Amalekites because they slew many of them and there's 400 escaped the 400 were the same size as David's army and so again we have this all this is pointing towards that it was the Lord's work it was none of this was that had been done by David the Lord gave him that strength and even though the Amalekites were much greater than David's army still they fled 400 of them and the others were slain so that was the point I really wanted to make that David knew that his victory in regaining the spoils none of that was down to him it was all down to the Lord and to the Lord's grace the Lord's grace to him, a sinner.

May the Lord help us to see that clearly, and when those thoughts of self-righteousness or self-worth arise, then may the Lord, as it were, quickly beat them down again. And we do need the Lord to do that. So, that was, as it were, fundamental really, I believe, to Davey's behaviour.

Because when he came back again, the men that were with him, those 400 men, They obviously came back with the attitude that we're the ones that have had the hard work. We're the ones that have done the fighting. We're the ones that have put our lives in danger. We're the ones that have got the spoil back. So why should we give that to those who have done nothing? They came back, I believe, with a different attitude to David.

David clearly saw that it was the Lord that had done this, whereas they thought still that it was of their own strength. and they are described as wicked men and men of Belial. Well, I believe it was because David so clearly saw that it was only because of the Lord's grace that he answered them so strongly in the way that he did. And that is why he then said that when they said that we'll just give the 200 who have remained by the Brook Bezor their wives and their children back and nothing else and they can then go away David said, verse 23, ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us and delivered the company that came up against us into our hand. Now David there is clearly stating that truth that he knows in his heart, that he feels in his heart, that the Lord has done everything.

It isn't him, it isn't his wisdom, it isn't his cunning, it isn't his strength, or his abilities, or his might, or his military experience. It's the Lord that's done it. He shall not do so with that which the Lord hath given us. The Lord hath preserved us, the Lord hath delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? And then our text. But as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the staff. they shall part alike.

So I believe that this does show us as it were and also really what follows where David gave so freely of the spoil that he had been given I presume that when he overtook the Amalekites the spoil that he gained there wasn't just that which had come from Ziklag but it was that which had come from the results of some of the other raids that the Amalekites had been on And so he distributed that. He distributed that amongst, as it said, all those places where he and his men were wont to haunt, in verse 31. We have the list of them.

Again, David being willing to give what the Lord had given him, because he knew that it was the Lord that had given him all these things. So I believe that does show us that grace at work in David's heart and his acknowledgement that the Lord not only is all-powerful but that the Lord also is merciful and the Lord had had mercy upon him.

But I did want to then just look forward a little to the Lord Jesus Christ and especially perhaps lead us into those other things that have been on my mind in relation to this text if we go back to the two hundred men we read this don't we, they were so faint that they could not follow David not surprising in one sense that they had already been out on a raid and I'm sure that must have been non-stop in so many ways and immensely demanding physically difficult to think about really isn't it from our lives really as to exactly what it was they were going through but they started off on the pursuit but they came to this place where they were so faint that they could not carry on but one thing I want you to notice it's in verse 21 when they come back to those men it says David came to the two hundred men which was so faint that they could not follow David this whom they had made also to abide at the brook Bezor now you see that that shows us that in those men those two hundred men there was a willingness to pursue there was a willingness to continue with David there was that desire to continue with him to overtake the Amalekites they wanted to do it and even when they came to the brook Bezor They came there, and even though physically they were so faint, it almost reads as if they would have carried on.

But it was their comrades, if you like, who said, who made them stay there. There must have been, perhaps it was David, I don't know, the Bible doesn't tell us, but there clearly was some compulsion. They wanted to carry on, but they were made to stop. And I wanted to point that out. It wasn't that they didn't want to. It wasn't that they weren't willing. It was that they were not able to. The Lord, if you like, had taken away their strength.

And so they were made to abide at the Brook Beazel. It's very different, isn't it? It's very different between we ourselves choosing, as it were, to stop somewhere, and then not knowing that it's the Lord's will, but stopping because we want to, There's a big difference between that and being made to stop somewhere, being made to halt by the Lord. The Lord making us, as it were, taking away our ability to carry on.

And that is what happened with those 200 men. Their strength was taken away and they could not carry on. They were not allowed to carry on. They were not permitted to carry on. If they had, no doubt they would have not only slowed those down that were with David, but they presumably would have dropped out and just perished by the way.

So they were left in a place by a brook, a brook called Beasle, and they were left in a place where there was that refreshment, that refreshment of water. I know it's a bit different, but I was a bit encouraged by the last verse that we have just sung, which mentioned about that brook by the way. providing refreshment and that is where these 200 men were left they were left by a brook so they had something to drink to keep them alive they weren't going to be like the Egyptian who'd be left for three days and three nights without anything to eat or drink they were left where there was plenty of water they'd be left where they could rest and where they could be refreshed a place of refreshment but they had no choice about it Now, thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ, I do want to speak really about David's compassion. His compassion in the way that he dealt with these people. That he was not like his men. He did not, as it were, seek to punish them for what they could not do. But he had compassion upon them.

How wonderful it is just to dwell for a few moments on the compassion of the Lord Jesus. In the New Testament, I've said it in many places, I may well have even said it here to some of you before, but if you look in the New Testament, you will see that there was one emotion that Jesus was moved with. It wasn't anger. The Almighty God, in the midst of sinners, was not moved with anger. At one point, he did have anger in his heart, but he was not moved by anger, but he was moved by compassion.

And what a lovely thought that is. The Lord Jesus Christ amongst sinners, amongst those that some of whom would go on to reject him, never to receive his word. Some of whom would go on to deny that he was the son of God. Some of whom would go on to put him to death and to crucify him. But the Lord Jesus Christ was moved with compassion. He was moved with compassion when he met the leper.

We read that when the leper said to him, Lord if thou canst, Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me whole we read that Jesus moved with compassion put out his hand and touched him and just think about that for a moment moved with something when we say we're moved by something it means that whatever emotion it is it has risen up within us and overwhelmed all other considerations or feelings and just think about that of the Lord Jesus Christ I know it's spoken in our language as it were But just think about that for a moment. In relation to us, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ and your Lord and Savior, he is a Savior that is moved with compassion. That compassion as it were, that fellow feeling, that fellow suffering that rises up. I want to come back to that in a moment.

But we also read, don't we, that when he saw the multitudes that had come to listen to him, and I think it was getting late in the day and they had nothing to eat. We read about Jesus, moved with compassion, then told his disciples to provide food for them. Moved with compassion. I think it was another occasion, forgive me if I'm not getting these quite right, but another occasion where we read that Jesus Christ, looking again upon the multitudes, was moved with compassion for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. no one to lead them, no one to tend them. The Pharisees were just rebuked, reproved, condemned. No one to tend them, no one to love them, no one to rescue them as it were, no one to feel for them.

The Lord Jesus Christ moved with compassion. Now, I believe David, there was a little of that in what he said here in David, moved with compassion. Compassion for those who were too weak, who were prevented from carrying on in the way that they wanted to, in the way that they wanted to serve. the Lord's compassion. I believe it was shown just a glimpse of it in the way that David said and the way that that was made a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.

As I was thinking about this I thought about Job and often quoted words but I do just want to remind you of them if you don't mind. Job chapter 23 and Job in the midst of his groaning there. Even today is my complaint bitter. My stroke is heavier than my groaning. Although I am complaining, I'm groaning, not as much as it is hurting me. Not as much as it is causing me grief.

But what does he say after all of this? He says, doesn't he, he knoweth the way that I take. He knoweth the way that I take. And they are beautiful words. I can't put it any other way. It doesn't just mean that the Lord knows the way that we're going, what we're passing through. I was thinking about that.

I don't know where you all live, but if I were to pick somebody and say, where do you live and which way do you take? And you could perhaps show me on Google Maps and I could follow the blue line and say, yes, I know the way that you go. But I don't really.

But if I were to ask somebody in my village, for example, how do you get from your house to my house, and they'd tell me what street they lived in, I do know the way there, because I walked it, and I can walk it in my mind, and I can see the details, I can see where the edges are, the streets, where you cross the road, what the houses are, it's all in my mind, and I can truly know the way that they take.

And when Job here said, he knoweth the way that I take, he didn't mean the first sense, the directions, where you turn right, where you turn left, He knew, what he meant was that the Lord physically knows, as it were. The Lord knows because he has the experience of it. He knows what it is to walk through it. In the same way as you know perhaps your way home here, the way that's familiar to you. You can picture it in your mind. You know what it is like to drive or to walk along it. That's what Job meant. He knoweth the way that I take.

And when we put that together with the Lord's compassion, what an encouraging blessing that is, isn't it? The blessed thought that is, that the Lord, whatever we are in, and I'm thinking especially about those, if you like, who have been detained at the Brook Beazel, the Lord knew the way that they were taken. The Lord knew what it was to be want to do something, but not to be able to do it. To be prevented from doing it.

Now you might say, How would the Almighty God know that? And I was thinking about that, because I asked myself the same question. And then I thought about the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't start preaching until he was 30, did he? And why did he wait for 30 years? I can't give you the answer to that. I don't know. But all I know is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ knew what it was, because of his Father's will, not to do what he could have done.

To my mind, I would have thought, well, surely it would have been better if the Lord Jesus had started preaching really from the instant that he drew breath. He could have been able to, in his unlimited power, he could have, as it were, started speaking the moment that he was born. And that would have been words of truth. I might think, well, that would be even more remarkable coming from one so young. Surely that would have an impact.

But that wasn't the Lord's will. And that was not, it wasn't the Lord's wisdom. The Lord Jesus Christ waited. He waited until he was around 30, as I understand. And we don't know why. But I wonder what that was like. He knew what it would be. Sorry, he knows what it is to not do something, but to wait. He knows what that is because he has done it himself.

And if you just stop for a moment and consider, in the Gospels we have, sometimes we say we have the account of the Lord's life. Well, we don't. We have the account of roughly some glimpses of when he was young, just very short glimpses, and then we have an account of the three years or so of his ministry. We don't have any account of that 30 years or so when no one seemed to have said anything about him, where it seems that those who lived near him or grew up around him just thought of him as the carpenter's son.

And that's what they said when he started preaching. We know who this is. We know this isn't the son of God. We know it's just a carpenter's son. the Lord knew what it was to wait and to have to wait as it were and I believe that even in something as simple as the account that we have before us even there I believe we can see the Lord's compassion and the Lord's knowing the way that I take those 200 men which were so faint that they could not follow David It should be that we should be brought into this place.

What I was thinking of, especially on this, is the There are those, as it were, whose service, so often, is behind the scenes.

Perhaps you've read it, some of you, but there is a book about Elsie Dawson, a pastor's wife, called The Hidden Pathway. and it is a lovely read and ever since then I've often thought about those whose service is often much less visible than those who serve in more visible ways so that would take into account perhaps ministers' wives, pastors' wives, deacons' wives, elders' wives, deacons, elders, pastors, families as well And then there are many others in the church whose service is almost completely invisible. I put into that category, some of you know at Oakington we used to have a lady who attended who was partially sighted and she did, I believe, two things I'm aware of for the chapel. One was that she used to get the water for the minister and put it in the pulpit until we changed the layout around and then it would have meant she'd have to go up the stairs which she couldn't do but until that point she used to get the water for the ministers the other thing she used to do was to pray she used to pray and I know this because she's told me she used to pray for every one of the people that went to Oakington Chapel while she was alive now that wasn't visible I wouldn't have known about it really unless she'd have told me but I think I perhaps might have guessed at some point because of the answers to her prayers now that service is all behind the scenes and to others it might have seemed that well was she really serving well perish the thought perish the thought we should ever should have thought that and so as we first of all as we think about these as it were who could not pursue afterwards then may the Lord help us to remember those who serve in invisible ways.

And to speak from my own experience, from what my wife tells me, and I know what she goes through, then she's not here tonight, but she's been praying for me all day. She also gets stressed when I don't have a text, when I don't know what I'm going to preach from. She carries that burden as well. She doesn't always mention it to me, but I know that she does. And I found this out really when I first started preaching, when we considered holiday Sundays. And she said to me, I need a holiday Sunday as well.

And I realized that's just a glimpse that I have, not of the full picture, but of some of the picture. One that she doesn't, as it were, come up the front and speak to people, but she also serves in that way. May the Lord that any who are in that place as it were perhaps a role which is more less visible and that's why I always try and pray for those that do things like cleaning the chapel or do the accounts things that behind the scenes that are so necessary and yet they're not always noticed by others others may think we're not they're not actually serving But the Lord knows and the Lord sees. And that is what the Lord has given each of us to do, those different roles. May the Lord help us to serve Him in the way that He would have us to serve. Now the second thing that I wanted to say is those that, as it were, may be prevented from doing that service that they normally have been doing. I know that has been the case for some of you here.

But I was thinking about John Milton, who was a poet, as you know, who lived in the 1600s. And I believe he was a godly man, the one that wrote Paradise Lost. I have never before in my life, I don't think, quoted a poem by, that has not been out of the Bible, from the poor people. I want to do so tonight and I hope you'll forgive me.

Because when he was around 43, Milton went blind. He became completely blind. And that was a real trial to him. If you read Milton's poetry, it is beautifully crafted, but to us it can sound quite stilted but there's one poem he wrote about Samson and in that poem about Samson there's this line something like dark, dark, dark, eternal dark and it really sounds like a cry from the heart and if you think about Milton going blind you can understand that but the reason why I want to just mention him tonight is that he was tried because he felt that as the Lord made him go blind, he had taken away his ability to serve the Lord. And so he wrote a sonnet, he wrote a poem, and in that poem he said this, God doth not need either man's work or his own gift.

Who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. God's state is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed and post are land and ocean without rest. they also serve who only stand and wait." And you may well have heard that last line, it's quite well known.

But, of course I must bring that back to the Bible, but Milton was shown, I believe by the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, that his service, it wasn't necessarily in writing poems, but it was actually after that that he wrote Paradise Lost, It was bearing what the Lord had given him. To make himself submissive under the Lord's yoke, and that's why I've chosen the last hymn that I had. He realised that that was the service that the Lord needed from him. Not necessarily being able to do what we think we should do, sometimes it is, or perhaps it is always, being made submissive to what the Lord will bring upon us. Now, just to illustrate that, I want to just mention one passage first of all. I'll just read a few verses from Mark. Mark's Gospel, chapter 12, from verse 41.

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. and there came a certain poor widow and she threw in two mites which make a bathing and Jesus called unto him his disciples and saith unto them verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury for all they did cast in of their abundance but she of her want did cast in all that she had even all her living now the reason I've read that is For two reasons really. One is that in man's estimation we would say that the two mites that that widow put in weren't really worth having. Wouldn't make any difference. Wouldn't contribute towards the building fund. Wouldn't contribute towards the ministry. Wouldn't contribute towards the poor fund. Wouldn't buy much food to distribute to the poor. Doesn't really matter whether we have it or not.

But how thankful you are for those that are given lots. How generous they are. But Jesus said it completely the other way around. he looked on the heart not on the outward appearance and so he said he brought to the attention of the disciples and it actually says in verse 43 he called unto him his disciples is an important point it wasn't just a comment he made in passing you'll forgive me for saying that because he didn't make any comments in passing but I hope you understand what I mean the fact that he called them unto him showed them that he particularly wanted them as it were to understand this and to notice it He said that she only had two marks in the whole world.

From that, she might just have been able to buy enough food to keep herself alive. And instead of doing that, she'd put it in the treasury. So she's given not her surplus, not what she, not the 10%, if you like, that we sometimes we use as a rule of thumb for giving, not what she felt she could spare, not even what she felt she ought to give.

She'd given everything. Everything. All her living. Living there means what she had to live on. And that's the first point. The second point is that the Lord looking on her heart, that was what the Lord saw as that giving, as it were, that sacrifice of the heart.

It wasn't, as it were, what is done outwardly, but it's that sacrifice of the heart. And that led me to Psalm 51. In that Psalm 51, don't we, we have those well-known words of David, For thou desirest not sacrifice, else will I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

That, as it were, draws attention. What is that service to the Lord? And in the context of a text, I was thinking about this. That's if I feel that I ought to be able to serve the Lord or I want to serve the Lord in a particular way. And I've set my heart on that.

And if I can't do that, if I'm prevented from doing that, or if the Lord has led me, as it were, in a different path, and I'm rebelling against it, that isn't a sacrifice that the Lord is pleased with, is it? It doesn't matter what, as it were, in one sense, what the outcome will be. Pray that the Lord will overrule it. But as the Lord looks at me in my heart, if I'm rebelling against what the Lord has, the path that the Lord has put me in, because I wanted to be something different, then that isn't a sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart. It is rather rebelling against the Lord.

And as she perhaps gathered, I preach to myself as much as to anyone this evening. More bluntly, if you like, I think of Samuel speaking to Saul, who, Saul after he had disobeyed the Lord, and had then made that excuse, which I don't think was true, that he had reserved the best of the things from the Amalekites, that he could use it in sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel said then, didn't he, something like, that what the Lord desires is the sacrifice of an obedient heart, a heart that is obedient. The sacrifice of obedience means far more to the Lord than whatever we give outwardly.

That did give me pause for thought. Because sometimes it is so easy, isn't it, to try and measure, as it were, even, not just outwardly our lives, as it were, by what we achieve or what we do, but sometimes even our service to the Lord. To look just on the outward, as it were, work. I hope you understand what I mean. Not the inward work.

And sometimes the Lord, as it were, would have us to, not to carry on the Brookbees or, but to stop. To stop and to have to rest there and to have to and to not carry on as we would want to remember just coming back to those 200 men they were made to remain at the brook they were made to remain there now I want to come back to those then those 200 men David said as his part is that goeth down to the battle so shall his part be that tarrieth by the staff they shall part alike. Now those who remained at the Brook Beesall, I want to consider as it were the reward, if that's the right way of putting it, what they received. And that was why I read that parable that Jesus told from Matthew, the parable about the kingdom of heaven. And the parable there is the situation of men standing in the marketplace ready for hire, labourers for hire.

And so at nine o'clock in the morning, the lord of the vineyard goes out and he hires some of them. I'll give you a penny, that's your day's wages, go and work in my vineyard. And they're happy to go, they consider that a penny is a suitable wages for that.

And then he goes out, sorry, that'd be at six o'clock in the morning. Then at nine o'clock in the morning, he goes out again, and there's still some there, so he agrees with them. Go and work in my vineyard, and I'll pay you, as he says, what is right, I will give you. And then he goes out again at midday, and then again at three o'clock. And I'm sort of assuming really the day started at six and ended at six. So then at five in the day, at five o'clock in the day, when there's just one more hour left of the day, he goes back out into the market.

And there's still some people there. They've been standing there all day. So he says to them, why stand you here all the day idle? The answer is because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that ye shall receive."

And then we see, don't we, that he then instructs at the end of the day that each one should be paid. There's, I think, quite a lot in here for those who employ others, but probably not time to go into that this evening. But you notice that he says, begin at the last, pay those, and then work down to the first. the ones that were employed at five o'clock, give them their reward first and so they get a penny. And then it comes right down to those who are employed at nine o'clock, who have worked 12 hours in there as opposed to the one hour, and they also receive a penny. And they complain, it's not fair.

We've worked 12 times more than those who have only worked an hour. And Jesus, his reply to this is, Friend, I do thee no wrong, didst not thou agree with me for a penny? They had originally agreed and were happy to agree that they'd do a day's work for a penny and that's what they received.

But I do believe also that this shows us the sovereignty of God. If you think about this, I believe that the penny here also represents what it will be to be with the Lord in heaven and again we sang about that in our first hymn about being in the embrace of the Lord forever and what a wonderful thought that is. That is I believe what the penny represents, it is heaven and we can see that can't we as we look about and we see that some are called very young I know of, I'm related to one who was called, I think, I think it was in her early teens.

I was 30 when I was baptised. Recently there was a man at Brighton, I don't know anything about his testimony, but I think he's only just been baptised and I think he's over 80, I might not be quite right about that, but Keith Allen I think is the man that I'm thinking of. He'd just been baptised. But the reward we trust for those, no matter what age they are when they're called, so therefore no matter how much service, if you like, they've done for the Lord in their lifetimes, is the same.

It is that joy in heaven of being forever with the Lord Jesus Christ and seeing Him face to face. But then the second thing is the sovereignty of God.

It is God's sovereignty. In verse 15, Jesus says, speaking as the Lord of the vineyard, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? With mine own. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? And we are all the Lord's. In the other places, the Bible speaks about the pot and the potter. the clay and the potter and the clay of course cannot remonstrate with the potter and say I shouldn't be made like this or I should be made in a different way the pot owes its existence as it were to the hands of the potter and the Lord is saying can I not do what I will with mine own the Lord is sovereign it is not for us as it were to remonstrate with him or to complain and we go back to the to the brook peasel i think we have in a sense a similar situation the men who were the men of belial that wanted it to be different they didn't want it to be equal but how wonderful it is isn't it that the lord full of compassion knowing that we are but dust the lord also having imposed sometimes a period of what might seem to us a period of waiting or like the Lord Jesus Christ until he was 30 or a period of inactivity upon us and yet the Lord in his mercy and in his sovereignty still gives that same wonderful reward which is to be pardoned from our sins and have our sins taken from us to be made fit to be made beautiful as the bride of Christ and to be with him in heaven That is what has been spoken of here, and I believe that is set forth by David, saying this, as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the staff. They shall part alike.

And then the last thing that I want to end on really is this thought, is that those blessings of the Lord's presence, even when we are waiting, I again want to come back to the fact that they stopped by this Brook Beasle.

It was a place of refreshment. They weren't left, as it were, to drop by the wayside and just to wait, hoping that they would survive until David came back. Remember that they had no idea how long they would have to go, how long it would be until they came back again. In some ways it's remarkable, isn't it, that that body of 200 men They were all able, their faintness was identified so that they could stop and be made to stop at a place where there was refreshment, where they would survive until David came back to them again.

They weren't individually, they weren't stragglers, they didn't drop by the wayside. in again thinking of some armies especially of the German army perhaps in the Second World War in the retreat from Russia it was as I understand it from what I've read so many deaths were because of the cold as they retreated from Russia they dropped out and they died this wasn't like this the Lord had made that provision for those who were faint by the Brookbees or and if they'd have tried to carry it on they would have left that brook and they would have carried on no doubt to their deaths because they would not have had the strength to reach perhaps the next watering place they had to remain where the lord had put them by that brook and it always seems to me that there is that promise of blessing there that promise of blessing that promise of blessing in waiting for the Lord.

Now I know there are many places in the Bible where it speaks about the blessings of waiting for the Lord. The Lord, Isaiah 40 at the end of that chapter, where the Lord speaks about how their strength will be renewed, those that wait upon the Lord. that they shall run and not walk and they shall mount up with wings like eagles. I'm sorry, I haven't quoted that quite correctly. But you know what I mean. The Lord's power being given to those who wait for him.

And I think this is something that I have had to learn and I'm not sure that I have really learned it yet, if I'm honest. I never used to think that the periods of inactivity, the periods of waiting, periods of frustration while waiting for the Lord to work were periods where we learnt anything or gained anything from them but I've had to learn that they are and one of the things that I've had to learn was the depth of sin that there was in myself that rose up that really seriously dented my self-righteousness in those periods because I got so frustrated at waiting for the Lord I never thought I'd behave in the way that I did because of that, and yet the Lord still had mercy. And the second thing I learned was that those times when the Lord came and blessed me with his presence, he melted away all that frustration, all that anger, and all that sin, broken down because of the Lord's goodness, continued goodness to one who was such a sinner, one who was impatient, one who would not wait for the Lord. And I had to learn that.

Now, may the Lord then bless any that may feel to be, in whatever way it is, by the Brook Beesor. And we have, as it were, this promise, which I believe is encapsulated in this text, this principle, which is the principle of the Lord Jesus Christ, that even those times, even those times, the Lord will bless us. And it is part of the Lord's working of all things together for good. to bring us to heaven at last where we will share with others all of the Lord's people in the wonders of being able to see the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. I'll leave it there. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.