Our pathway ordered by the Lord (Quality: Poor)

[0:00] Gideon, I would desire to draw your attention to the words you'll find in the 2nd Corinthians, 12th chapter, 7th, 8th and a part of the 9th verses.

[0:15] And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

[0:36] For this being I besought the Lord Christ that it might depart from me, that he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for me.

[0:53] Those of you who are unable to be here this morning will remember that we based upon these words by way of the text. But we felt that there's so much contained in them, and in and of ourselves it is impossible to enter into the depths of God's word by any means of our own, or by any of our own thoughts.

[1:25] I did think while reading, just before coming to chapel, those two chapters in Revelation, and how we become so miserably sure for puny creatures compared to the omnipotence of him that sitteth above, that dwelleth between the cherubim and is holy and undefiled, and yet he permitted puny man to approach.

[2:03] That's a death, isn't it, that we are permitted to approach unto the great I Am. Well, he hath opened up that way whereby we may approach, and also as we read, how that the lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed to open the seals.

[2:29] Even did John, you see, said he wept much, because that there were none on earth or in heaven that was able to unloose the seals.

[2:42] As so that all preeminence must be unto under the lamb that he hath prevailed thus to do.

[2:54] Well, we mentioned this morning just a little of those things which are brought to pass in our pathway to keep us from being exalted.

[3:10] Indeed, I feel having one or two more thoughts perhaps here that God in his wisdom does agree things to pass with us.

[3:28] And also, I believe this, that according to our own exaltation that is of the flesh and all those things that we may be in possession of, the more we have of them, which I believe some are possessed with it and troubled with it more than others, so God will balance it.

[3:56] does thou know the balancing of the clouds of him that is perfect in knowledge so that he balances those things for each one of us according as he sees that you and I individually need.

[4:19] in my own case I feel I needed much chastening, much ballast, much pulling down of those things of the flesh.

[4:35] He knows how to pain lions. He knows how to bring down what he looks. He knows how to make the rebellious as suffer and he brings them into those places of purpose to accomplish his will towards them.

[4:59] It's a mercy if you and I can look back to life's journey and see where he has so dealt with us that he brought us into subjection perfection and yet as you've been singing the cane in ice stood in the land to harass perfection his mind and we find that though these things are subdued though they are brought down we find that they are altogether dead.

[5:40] One says my dead foes rose with awful power so that there are those things that are not dead those things that rise again and again in our experiences that not I feel and I believe I'm a witness to this not I feel to the same awful state as once they did for they are subdued and they are subdued by the mighty power of God that when these things which become a fall in our flesh show their haughty hand God in his love and compassion lest we should have so above measure subdued it so that we find that all our pathway is by divine appointment and under his divine control that not one step of our pathway here on earth has been what Satan would have us believe and have told some of us that it has been a mistake

[7:04] I was only thinking just recently that my life seems to be a failure have I gone wrong here gone wrong there done this done that and so on taking a view of the past and we've seen like many do say if I if I go my way again I should be different you wouldn't you know the pathway we believe it is ordered by God not that he's the author of sin God forbid not that he is the author of those things that are wrong in us but he is that one and that points our pathway here on this earth or how some of us have had to trace our every step from our birth under this moment of time why am I here tonight do you think by chance

[8:14] I didn't seek I didn't ask for it and surely if we take a retrospective view of the past when I used to come here when quite a young man before I was married he said judge that backseat there how little did I know God's purpose toward me when I did not know a word hardly concerning the truth and was done as a bat before both God and man now as a greater way I remember when my dear father was at Hilperton and a friend came to see him occasionally and he began to speak to me as a young man on religion and he spoke so long that

[9:16] I began to feel very uneasy my friends it's not always wise to trust religion to young people if they are exercised and worried in many things you only might trouble them more and at last after some time being done as I've already said my dear father said well he says the day will come when the dumb will speak so you know that in the time when the dumb speak the deaf ears and the poor have the gospel preached unto them not always as some would have us have believed but by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven in the soul why the time came when God opened his tamarind tongue and unstopped their ears and gave his eyes to see and blessed on his holy name he comes and he preaches the gospel the

[10:28] Holy Spirit I said and he brings us into those places where we see though we had a fall in the flesh even in those days when but a child we had a fall in the flesh some of us that none knew anything or but our souls and so it have been through life's journey one poor year and another year and yet it has been the means to bring us even as far as we have come up to now to be able to say he hath done all things well would no one thing altered we would not have anything changed as though we have many bitternesses of soul as true our forgiveness of him and his kindness toward us through life's journey even when we were in a terrible condition although it fell in against him with his dealing toward us my dear friend might say that one year coming to a rebellious power you're in for a very terrible time while that rebellion lasts you're one of the lords we will deal with it he will indeed and he'll bring you into that condition where you'll be absolutely helpless before him he'll lay the rod again and again and heavier and heavier until your queen have a soul in a subjection he will he must reign till all his enemies become his footstool and he will reign and those enemies of yours and mine will indeed be brought into subjection that he will reign for is there one poor sinner here tonight saying reign all us as king accomplish thy will and powerfully bring us forth more to falling before thee we acknowledge and admit our sins and acknowledge thee too to be supreme in all things oh what a mercy it is to bear the chastening of the

[13:17] Lord and to see that it has been his love and compassion toward us when we have these thorns in the flesh and all to keep us from becoming exalted in our souls and thus being brought into that state of humiliation and nobody did and little we hope to exalt him in our heart affections exalt him upon the throat in heaven well there's just a few more thoughts added to those things we spoke this morning and then we were speaking concerning how there was prayer as the apostle had prayer in his heart that these things might be removed these thoughts this fall well you see this is probably evident in his case as well as in yours and mine there is a need be for these forms in the flesh for they bring us into the real path as I said this morning of prayer prayer was appointed to convey the blessings God designs to give long as they live would Christians pray but only while they pray they live that means you know

[14:58] I believe there's never a time when there's any more death once they've quit in the divine life I believe the poet means there that only while they pray they live that means in the experimental knowledge of it that there's life in the soul through living prayer ascending art unto God and how we read too in revelation just now how these are the prayers are as sweet odors coming up before the throne what from poor sinners yes sinners of the deepest dark sinners power of hell if so can it be possible that your poor prayers are like odors coming up before the throne well worse is it never mind how many forms in the flesh we may have and how many messengers from Satan may come to buffet us even on this very ground why I believe that he will have his messengers come to buffet us even at the throne of grace sometimes well God's servants know something of it

[16:31] I believe when they come into the pulpit sometimes in the midst of speaking he will he will puff his poisonous breath he will indeed but God says now will I rise set him on high from him that puffeth at him Satan can't stand God's word you know if God will if God will if God will bear upon him his truth as he declared in his word he cannot stand before the power of God's word so then though he don't come and puffer at us from time to time though I believe it is first and foremost applicable unto our Lord and Savior that the Father sent him upon high from him that puffeth at him that is

[17:31] Satan how he puffed at him through life during here or her the man Christ Jesus so that he suffered at the hand of Satan and all his agents that were on the earth in those days and all those things that came against him so that our Savior walked this far and shall you and I my friends shriek to walk the path that our dear Savior walked shall we shriek to walk that path that he in his love and compassion went before us and led us into that precious groove of his love and compassion to us all that love that love of his that was shed abroad in our hearts in those things which he has revealed to us from time to time lest I should be exalted above measure you see he was given us all in the flesh a message of a saint above him that he might also be brought into the true path of prayer and that you see how he asked him thrice it seems to me to be a very sweet year to look for a moment how that

[19:09] I believe Paul had a little fellowship with Christ in the garden of Gethsemane our dear saviour though I went and prayed thrice I let the cut my cross from backwards and forward said the dear poet thrice he ran if those seek some help from man sinner may I say don't expect to receive any help from man in thy extremities they may be helpful to us I don't misunderstand me kind friends may be helpful to us to relieve our necessities and all those things of this time state that they cannot relieve us in those things that pertain to our never dying immortal souls there is but one and you know it is here that

[20:15] I believe we are led to take a little of that cost which Christ drank in the garden of Gethsemane but most we do has take the cup that he alone has drank it of his souls his trials his difficulties as he passed through and in those sorrows that he fought as we behold him as a man of souls and of quaint with grief and none of the world would have a believe he was his visions we read was marred more than any man's yes you see there was some would have us believe that our dear saviour was a man of rejoicing and always and even some have said he was humorous why we don't want to speak of those things in dishonour to him who was the king of kings and lord of lords mighty in word and in deed oh may we never be left to belittle our dear saviour and to speak lightly of his christly power as he was here on earth so then there was

[21:47] I believe or there is in our soul's experience sometimes a little evidence through in prayer that we are compelled to go again and again unto him to pray unto him that he might remove those things from us that are of born in the flesh well that answered in eager here from God on this particular occasion you see though it is in the mind of God to remove some things from us that we ask him to it may be in our bodies sometimes things that we've prayed that for years that he would remove yet he sees fit that we have to carry still those infirmities well there is a cause and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee so that though he afflicts us in love though he brings us into those paths where we need him to hear our prayers as we feel and to answer according to our own minds it may be if I may use a natural figure we might come to a person who have said they would like to make us a present of some kind and then to us to start and dictate what we want we usually leave it to them do we not to give what they feel that their mind is disposed to do and that in love but as a poor figure about you know we are not to come and ask

[23:54] God in prayer for those things and then dictate as to when and how we should like them you see if he did that for probably they will not be for our good they might leave a score snare to us unperceived by us that God in all wisdom withholds them and he says no my child you can't have this or that or the other out with all that God thing and in exchange he gives us all times something far more than we thought he gives a precious promise as he did here to the apostle Paul that thy grace is sufficient for thee well that grace then is made perfect in weakness that grace that is bestowed upon his people by the express will of the father and through and by the anointing of the holy spirit grace is a charming sound that runs although it is to the earth and so it is to those who feel they need it grace a grace that was poured out by Christ as he in his love and compassion came here to suffer bleed and die the just for the unjust when he came to fulfill all the commands of the father all the purposes that he had designed toward his people that he might return unto the father again and present his church holy and complete and undefined without sin it's your mercy and mine if we have any interest in that well if we have we shall have many questionings we shall prove again here that the cany night still in the land from day to day there will be many many times when we shall be brought into a place of questioning well that will be profitable if we question those things as we search ourselves and see how these things are with us examine yourselves says the apostle in the next chapter examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves not someone else's prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that

[27:26] Jesus Christ is in you except ye be retrovites so that there is an examination of our own selves and there will be so much to do here to examine our own selves when I begin to examine my soul I can find nothing sometimes but flesh as you get on I say when I begin to examine my soul sometimes I see so many things seem to come so miserably short seem to be so unlike God's people and I begin to say well can I ever be among them or is it that I am just a part of the scaffolding to be pulled down when God brings the topmost stone of the building complete in heaven it's well to have these searchings of heart well if we have these searchings of heart we have a promise my grace is sufficient for thee that grace that was poured out beyond measure which we can never fathom to redeem the vilest of sinners to redeem his people from all their fears all their questionings all those things that came come against them and also to revive them oh my friends have you known a little of the reviving cordial of the precious gospel of peace when you come into

[29:31] God's house in a condition of much fear and trembling and wondered where the scene will end and you found that the canion is in thy heart and that you have a thorn in the flesh and he's come come in his love and soften your spirit and you have been able to say this is my beloved well there are times when he comes over all our fears and sets to flight the armies of the aliens these messengers have dropped Satan to buffet us and you know they're only permitted to come thus just so far as shall be even in God's hand for our good since he has said all things shall work together for thy good not that he's the author again

[30:45] I want to be perfectly clear he's not the author of sin or evil but I believe he permits these things to come to drive us to anchor home solely wholly and completely in him that we may have no other refuge a refuge for sinners the gospel makes known is found in the merits of Jesus alone none other so that the precious gospel which is by his grace proclaimed under sinners is proclaimed by the Holy Ghost to none other in the soul and the same Holy Spirit has opened the heart before prepared of him to receive the truth so that the gospel enters into the heart and then there are the precious groups that attend it even praise and adoration and love unto the

[31:59] Father love for all his love and compassion his grace toward us his grace shall to the end endure his grace shall be known through the rest of life's journey notwithstanding all our fears I wish I could have felt this in the week a little but it's a mercy to have even if it has some little revival some fresh tokens some fresh evidences that we may face the coming week again unless we may have some more buffetings from Satan it's nice to have a little whereby we can feel we have a sure standing that when he does come we're not swept away like many poor things are left it's not for your sake for my name's sake

[33:12] I do these things and because he had thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end not in an afterthought but in eternity before all worlds that's why so you see he is ever he is ever by his grace around his people are there no no no daunting of the of of of Satan can in any wise prevent those these coming to pass that God unappointed for you oh how he says the dear poet says here again the appointed time rolls on a face not to propose but call by grace to change the heart renew the will and turn the feet to Zion's ill

[34:25] I wish there was more sinners who could hear that truth and have it enter into the heart oh how we do mourn because there seems so few well there are a few isn't there who really know these things look at us here tonight a few among the multitudes even in this town of Trowbridge just a few of us here gather together who want the fundamental truth want those things that shall land us safe in eternity while so many poor creatures are lent to perish if grace prevent not and I always put that in there because you know God is a sovereign and there's no character too foul or too blank or too far off even around us day by day but what his wisdom can call if indeed they are among his elect oh may we ever remember these things but in them may we be kept humble and may we indeed realize too that it is by his grace my grace is sufficient for thee so then there's no other sufficiency but only in his grace that grace which is made known in and through his love and mercy to us

[36:08] I don't know if I have mentioned it here but I remember in the 1940 war when one was coming to England across the Irish Sea when the before the boat left Ireland how I trembled how I feared because you know I feared that I should never know how to as a part of my sin and I stood on the deck at that time trembling at the thought if I should perish in the mighty waters it's not an easy path when we come there and you know how Satan says yes well you know the Irish sea is full of two feet of boats and you're sure to go down and I believed it all allies told him what would have been possible without a innocent billion I said I'd come off this ship you see there I was in that condition and this word was over by grace is sufficient for me it's alright you know no more fear no

[37:16] I've never known fear to go so quickly since that died that did on that time safe in the hands of him who asked all things that he commands both in heaven and in earth these things are real and do you know that same boat the following journey I was torpedoed and some of our men lost upon it here we raise our believer in the body help we've come and we hope by him to good pleasure safely to arrive and hold his watchful care for how unmeasurable and how deep they are you know one night he deserved it not that at all it was by his own determined will and his counsel deep are his deep design they are indeed toward men so that his grace is such that he watches over us even through life duty it preserves us and keeps us and also here it is through his grace and bursting how we receive every blessing here on the things he has provided for us providentially oh

[38:54] I say aren't they how to be seen in his hand are wonderful and also how he has enabled us how to hold them with a loose hand though he has given it to given these things to us that they haven't become a snare you know riches can become a snare if riches increase since the word does not find heart upon them so that whatever God has given us here on earth as it belongs to him he's only lent it to us and so he gives us does it not to see that it is by his grace we are recipients of all his verses and his blessings and as we enjoy them here on earth they will be thankful if you know I have them to him I don't mean just a set time no don't misunderstand me here it's right

[40:00] I totally believe to thank God for his many mercies and blessings to us at certain times it may be family worship or whatever we may say but you know my friend has come to force and you have found that the greatest thanks has risen from your heart spontaneously when you've been alone when you've thought the goodness of God towards you and all his mercies towards you when that silent tears fallen down your cheek how thankfulness under him as more thankfulness in one tear falling down the cheek and many words that are spoken maybe in public don't misunderstand me again I say it's right of course to venture on these things but I'm speaking about personal experience how we find that in our hearts that's very sweet and very blessed when for a few moments we can bow our head before him in thankfulness and adoration when we observe his grace toward us and how it has been to us most blessedly sweet well this grace

[41:31] I will be the song of his people in eternity there will be there will be that when the topmost stone is placed seeing grace grace unto it so that grace to the angel endure his grace shall be witnessed in eternity yea when we may be favored to participate in those things which we read of in revelation this night concerning those before the throne worshipping the king of kings and lord of lords oh I love some of those things in revelation when it speaks of the heavenly city though there are the very solemn declarations in the separating of the precious from the bond in a revelation and yet you know there are some blessed promises and there are those things which give us to have some humble hope that when the battle is all and victory won we may be found among those kings that he has made kings and priests and priests and to God that we may reign with him forever and ever and then be favored to have adoration in our hearts to cast our crown before him in heaven above oh I know this seems high ground well

[43:24] I'm not here very often I speak of it often but I'm not there very often but when I speak of it there is in our hearts we hold a desire that we may have fresh evidences of it in our hearts and when we come to that time you see I thought once and twice of late how there has been those gathered from amongst us here who we believe are in eternity who have won the battle not in their own strength but in the strength of him who have fought their battles and they are landed safe beyond the flood the cure lies with Meshach we're still battling against principalities and powers we have still that knowledge that we have formed in the flesh from time to time and these messages from Satan above it are but we have another knowledge according unto

[44:39] God's word are that grace is sufficient for us and so we hope and trust that it will be sufficient for us when we come to the swelling of Jordan while grace we said before his evil will to the end endure that grace how that first brought us out of nature's darkness that grace that hath been with us in the tomb that grace hath brought dear Jacob to Bethel again so are we hoping and trust that where we have been brought to a Bethel in our experiences we hope we should be brought again into that place where we shall be able to rejoice in him and one day be able to reign with him in eternity oh you know

[45:40] I believe it is a very powerful way that we are walking in that endears our savior to us is precious indeed precious to us through life's journey precious to us in affliction exceedingly precious to us when we experience something of these thoughts in the flesh and also exceedingly precious he will be when we come to the hour and hour of death then to be given the hour of faith and that good hope through grace that we may cling unto him and have everything else obscure from us that we may see none but Jesus and be able to say we see Jesus and him only and that if stuff been able to speak we may be a dire living witness unto him that I delivered us from our sins pouring them away by his own blood upon the tree delivers from the power of death having swallowed up death in victory and now reigneth in heaven above he carnally there to receive one day the church complete and present them before the throne as such without blemish that the father may behold as a son and the church and his determined counsels and will fully accomplish in heaven above well may

[47:36] God grant that you and I my dear friends may have a fuller knowledge of these things that we may be living witnesses to them that we may cleave to them and may grant us to the few remaining days in the wilderness we may live in them I wish I could live in them you see I have to find as I believe you do we are empty vessels we cannot hold these things above so then that we are brought into places where we need again and again a revival a reviving of his spiritual ends a reviving of his love and all those things well may God grant that and may forgive anything that I may have said amiss here today and grant to that you my dear friends may reap the benefit if indeed one word have been spoken to your comfort and above all give him all the praise for man is nothing oh may we never look for these things from man but that we may thank

[48:57] God who is worthy of all praise while man may be may be amazed and that he may be poor of nothing all among men amen to that you