The Lord liveth (Quality: Average)

[0:00] The words I would venture to try and make a few remarks from you will find in the 18th Psalm, verse 46.

[0:11] The 46th verse of the 18th Psalm. The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

[0:30] The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

[0:43] It is wonderful as a psalmist David, and this particular psalm, beheld the mighty acts and works of the Almighty God, for and on his behalf.

[1:07] and how that he subdued all his enemies under his feet and how that he himself beheld God as the almighty God of heaven and of earth and that in all his acts in all his ways he was righteous and just in all his dealings with the wicked and so it is I believe in the hearts of God's people to behold his mighty power in their own pathway through his wilderness and while it was with the psalmist that God had appointed all his pathway right from the cradle to the grave as so it is now that all the pathway of God's people was appointed and is appointed for them from the time of their birth to the time of their death this we believe this we believe at all our times are his hand and that there is nothing that comes by chance since his divine appointments and appointments are so deep that for reasons lined us out yet faith believes that he appoints all things by his determined and will and that whatever man may scheme or devise

[3:42] God will in his own time and way either overthrow it or at times I believe he may leave to walk a path that is not according to his will I want to be clear here our purpose that he might make it more clear and more clearly known that he is that one alone who leads in the right path man you know we need to sort out many inventions and we might invent many things of a God who knowing all things as in our hearts I will surely come and overthrow them and that for our good our profit and also for his eternal and everlasting praise for how the psalmist David had to prove these things in the walking of the mount you know we might look upon

[5:18] David and others in the word of God and admire them and wish we were like them or more like them but you know they were like passions as we are they were born in sin and shaped in iniquity which it is perfectly clear with the psalmist David when he sinned an awful sin and caused him to cry and the lamentable cry and the lamentable cry under God on account of it while God is not the author of sin but you know there are times when we being creatures of the day being atoms of dust and had no power against the mighty enemy are liable to fall and so David fell and fell in that awful place where had it not been for the covenant of God's grace and in determined terminate will to save unto the uttermost

[6:39] David would have perished and so would you abide but God the imbirnable love suffering grating compassion caused him to suffer and you know how it was that there were three things given him to choose from and even with the the one thing he did choose he had to suffer for his sin and caused him to write that beautiful psalm heard me from wither that I may be free wash me and ask me why is it so oh my friends you see how he brought forth that confession therefore said from sin unto God that he would forgive him so there will be I believe when a sin comes upon us that there will be confession while the Lord liveth he liveth to behold those things that are equal he liveth that he might behold the sons of men on earth and he beholds all those things that transpire today throughout the universe for our God neither slumber nor sleepeth and he seeth the condition around us but you know when we come into God's earthly courts is it not that we desire to shut the door upon those things that are without those things that we shall find no encouragement in while we look upon the things of the world and the condition of it and our nation and look upon the barrenness and the darkness within us it will sink as lower but the Lord liveth he liveth though to hear the prayers of his people yes and those prayers which he himself will indict for all living prayer is not that which cometh from the lip only but that that cometh from the heart through the lip that is real prayer and it will be that which will often be broken sentences as just a few words perhaps and sometimes you've heard me say before not even that but a secret longing in the soul in our secret moments before the

[10:05] God of mercy when we behold those things that within our own wichered hearts that would seek us lower than the grave seek us lower and lower till ultimately we should perish well you know the Lord liveth he liveth to hear the prayer of his people he hears the groans of his elect says the poet he hates to put away so that if you have a case a of you with one soul we shall have a case we belong to him if we have a case he liveth he liveth to hear our secret groaning yes he hears no groan then it goes up from the soul from time to time and it will often be

[11:17] I believe at a time when we are weighted down with some particular burden and I have often thought how utterly impossible it is to forbid these groans to arise no it is utterly impossible to forbid them that gives us some hope that it's more than coming from the flesh you know there are those groans that we might have in the flesh maybe in pain the body or something of that sort but you know when it comes to the groaning of the soul we cannot forbid them to rise the Lord liveth he liveth to hear those groans of thine and though he may delay his coming though he may delay for a season he will his old time rise off and then you'll know the truth that he liveth so he liveth and to hear the prayer and the groaning of his people he lives also that they may be given that living faith for faith

[12:57] I believe is that live that which comes through the life of our Lord and Saviour faith that believes that he liveth faith that believes he liveth in heaven above that his people live through his death and because he liveth as he said himself because I live he shall live also so it is because he lives your arm lives in those things which are for our souls profit and good and these those who live through his life and know what it is to feel much death some might say well that sounds contradictory well it may only under those who have it will realize the truth of it death within thee or about thee but the remedy is without thee seek it in a savior's blood sinner you'll never find any life in your soul the old wretched flesh is dead and will be to us continually and while we look at it we shall never find any comfort

[14:40] I've been trying to do this of length trying to find some comfort but I find my flesh whatever it was it does not alter one iota only this that it is subdued I like to think of that I believe in subduing grace and I believe that flesh is subdued but you'll find it be a burden sinner if you have life it will bring you into that place where you will feel that you carry about with you a body of death you'll often cry out with the dear apostle oh the chief man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death the Lord live it I say the Lord live it he live to deliver from this body of death and what we may feel day by day he live to comfort his people he live it so that when you are in these conditions it's time when he comes in his love when he comes and softens our hearts or where are these occasions of when our hearts are softened to bring us into a condition of repentance and godly sorrow with sin while he live it to bring us into that condition or we prize these moments when he brings us into real confession here we are aware of it sometimes one had discipline the past week here one was aware he came and give us confession for sin cause us to have those sweet tears of sorrow and holy joy intermingle these are precious moments the poet is sweet the moments rich in blessing rich before the cross

[17:06] I spend precious drops my soul be doing from sinners only friends he liveth the Lord liveth and this is how we know he liveth because he comes over all our sin well I believe he liveth then to bring us to confession and it is at these times his visits of his love and mercy to us that we are brought at the spot into confession it's right to venture in confession we should do as often if we come before him in prayer endeavor to confess but my friends are something closer true confession is that when we are brought into contact with him and feel his love abound in our hearts and his forgiveness may know then we confess our sins here we say then with dear

[18:20] Job I am vile and to feel it and to know and to be able to say to with dear Job I were to be with the ear but now mine eyes see thee wherefore I pour myself in dust and ashes that's confession so then to come in confession before him and to learn this truth that the Lord live and enable us also to to have that love in our hearts toward him and to know that he is ours by divine power and the revealing of the Holy Spirit to our souls the

[19:21] Lord liveth he liveth among his people yes where the Lord liveth among our people there be unity strength love and therefore if the Lord liveth among his people there will be an overcoming of all the evils that are in our hearts overcoming all the failings and faults that we have for none are void of them all to be able to look above one another's faults and failings and to and to behold those things which are deep down in the soul that belong unto God and to prove even that he lives even amongst his people and that he not only lives but in that living among them it also means he dwells among them dwells in their midst oh what an unspeakable mercy if we have proved in this little assembly from time to time that he has dwelt amongst us that he has come and given us a little of a heartfelt union in these glorious truths and realities that so many are left to be satisfied with the open show of them be satisfied with just assembling together as it will and come as the door upon its hinges oh my friends what a wonderful truth oh

[21:25] God has made a separation that tweaks the wheel and the false but not to wonder the Lord living he liveth then in heaven above and where we may come from time to time in all our anxieties and our troubles in all the pathway through life journey if you got a path you know that seeks to be so intricate so difficult for you to manage well that's a good thing for you if it's like that the Lord liveth we attend I've had to come in days past with many a tangled skein in my experience especially in my younger life younger days all the tangled skeins we've had we've had to come knowing that he liveth with these tangled skeins and lay them at his feet as it were and tell him that you can do nothing with it you've got something you can do nothing with well you've got none other you can bring it to but to him who liveth and if you are unable to come and lay in his feet and then he should say be still and know that I am God

[23:01] I will fight for you and he shall hold your peace or how those explicit words were spoken to me once at the foot of London Bridge when I was walking over there one night from work deep in trial and affliction be still it's not easy to be still in trouble is it but when he comes and says be still you know the mighty way then become a crown in your own experience so that we know he liveth by those things he has accomplished by those things he has done well faith believes it and that living faith is in him because he liveth so then that living faith believes that he is that one that dwells above that sitteth upon no precarious throne nor borough clean to thee but that dwells there lives there and to hear the groans of his elect to hear their prayers and to look upon all their circumstances all their pathway and if he's appointed the pathway for you sinner he'll give you grace to walk in it and he'll give you the enablings to walk in it and then he'll give you light to shine upon it his own time and way while through darks and fires we go we may know no reason but we shall year after know in each in his due season the year after year on earth that is in our soul experience so if you are walking in the darks and past the earth there'll be an year after it might be in a few days time it might be yours but there will be an year after that you can see the way and be right the way he needs and there were two you know who came to a place where two ways meet and lot he chose the way that looked so so rosy as we say in our own language it looked so beautiful and there were places for the herds and the flocks and he chose it but it brought him into

[25:47] Sodom you know it isn't always that pathway that looked so good how that we should choose but we want God leading his teaching his guiding and you know how it was how that he had to dwell in Sodom until the day that he was compelled to come out of it and indeed God in his love and mercy sent the angel to fool him out of it oh my friends the depth of God's word when we see the depth there is in it that the Lord liveth and he will make rough places plain and crooked things straight and he will deliver in his own time and way according unto his own word for he's a God that cannot lie the Lord liveth he liveth in the lives of his people he guides their footsteps and those footsteps are such guided in that way which to them sometimes is mysterious if I may just mention myself here once more in coming here to

[27:27] Wiltshire wasn't that a strange path indeed because oh you know it was going to be almost one overthrow as it were many fears came down here as I did that time you know let me home at the mercy of the enemy come down here with no employment and in that condition I don't want to dwell too long on it but there was the case that God was saying the Lord liveth so the Lord liveth and so it is that the strange designs of God are so deep that we shall never have them his strange designs that it is a point to make known in due time are that whereas man proposes God overthrows it often he does indeed and well he lives then in all half way and so it is with all our trials whether it be in body or mind or soul these too we have proved that he lives and have made those trials profitable to us that we have to say as we look back upon them we will not have one thing altered in all those things he has done for us in this wilderness here below we hope we can say these are the preparing us we hope for those things that are before us the

[29:27] Lord liveth that we may see him one day where he liveth forever once it ought to be satisfied when I awaken his likeness you'll find no satisfaction here I'm sure and so it'll be so I believe the older we get the nearer to eternity the less we shall see in this time state anything whereof we can we can put our hope and also we shall be able to say with a true vanity of vanity vanity is always vanity and you'll find there you'll want it again and again and again made known in your soul that the Lord live where he live in the hearts of his people he live it within he said to the dear woman the water lies with you shall be in you and the water spring up into everlasting life he lives in his people as the living spring therefore there are times when he springs off as a living spring within so he lives within his people not in the old flesh but in the new man of grace the new creation that he hath created or how he said did he not concerning his

[31:12] Bible not that I said unto you he must be born again and therefore it is in that new birth in that new man there is a dwelling place of the Lord and he liveth in the soul oh my friends when I consider the vast unmeasurable distance betwixt the flesh and spirit surely we have to know and approve that the flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit and you know he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and the old man ever will sow the flesh and he proves day by day he reaps corruption but the new man he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life of a lasting so the new man the new man of grace sows the spirit and he shall of that spirit we life of a nasty that's the two natures so little heard of or spoken of today separated by God unspeakable mercy and he's done it made that separation it doesn't give us license to sin

[32:47] I know some would say it gives us license to sin it doesn't you know I'm sure we shall never come in that condition to sin that grace might abound God forbid says the apostle that we should sin that grace may abound it doesn't mean that at all bother the separation a line of demarcation draw but tricks the spirit and the flesh between love and death one is life and the other is death you see so then there is that that knowledge given that Lord liveth liveth in the new man of grace and also he is that one that liveth to make intercession he makes intercession for his people continually he ever interceded for and on their behalf oh yes our

[33:56] Savior rose triumphant from death and there swallowed up death in victory poured on your behalf and mine oh what a mercy it is to have even a paid view of that that death had no dominion over us you've been singing of it this morning in that beautiful hymn a rock of agents it had no dominion over us but we as creatures would tremble at it and fear it but when we know the Lord liveth and he has overcome the power of death that he had given it a mortal wound and that he could have no dominion over his people that when his people are delivered from this tenement of clay it is then they begin to live that life that shall never die all of them mercy to know that there is a life which shall know no end that we shall then never have to battle with the things we have to hear on earth but he liveth to make intercession for us before the

[35:27] Father those that were given unto him in the eternal covenant before all worlds is elect oh that word elect how distasteful it must be to those who have no hope and one day be very distasteful to those who are emanated from God those in the world left in it we're not judges here I say left in it to know that that they must experience it throughout the countess ages of eternity never to know that he liveth or to her again and again and again and through her life journey and the few remaining days in the wilderness to know that he liveth in our souls and he liveth above and to have a son hope that when the battle is over and victory won there is a crown of life which faded not away that crown which he gives unto his people that they might be among those kings that shall bring their honour and glory into the heavenly city which we read of in

[37:06] Revelation and the kings of the earth to bring their glory and honour into it all to harden this made over to us again and again then he says the Lord liveth and blessed be my rock as he liveth he is also as the Solomon beheld the Solomon David beheld him as the rock oh what a mercy it is of his our rock and that he hath built us upon this sure foundation no other foundation can be laid than that it is laid the foundation Christ Jesus and then how we read by the psalm as if the foundation be removed what shall what can the righteous do but you see while there are some endeavouring to remove the foundation that is an impossibility since he is omnipotent in power great in might that one of whom we have been reading of in this psalm he is that

[38:36] God that is good and with strength and make it my way perfect he is good and with strength doesn't mean it for psalmists didn't mean his way that is personal my way perfect who is it who was his way well Christ his way yes oh my way perfect there are no other ways perfect but Christ our living way well there is then the is our rock where the church is built the church which shall endure forever as is built upon Christ and then what does the church consist of other than the living stones in Christ which are to be gathered ultimately in their place appointed in that heavenly building above well there are those that have gone before us already gathered and Daniel will come sooner the time appointed when he'll gather all the remainder and at last the last one in his own time and way will be gathered unto himself in eternal bliss and there the end of all things both he he liveth and blessed be my rock while he desired to praise him and to bless him for all what he had done for and on his behalf and so that he be the rock

[40:43] Christ Jesus how he said when he was on earth and upon this rock will I build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it do the gates of hell seem to prevail against your sinner as he does it are there times in your experience when they have seemed to throw and they were going to overcome you well it because the Lord liveth they didn't overcome you and therefore it is because he is your rock and mercy to feel he is our rock especially when in times past and it may be present with some of us see to be in a sinking condition well he is our rock whereon he built his church and where we shall find a sure and certain foundation and so that we can rightly sing that hymn can we not to sing just no rock of ages clap for me let me hide myself in thee let let the water and the blood from thy ribbon side which flows be of sin a double cure cleanse me from his guilt and power oh what a mercy to have this rock

[42:23] Christ Jesus has a solemnness in it isn't there it's not like the sand which our saviour spoke of there were those that built their house upon the sand when the wind came and the storm came and and beaten blew upon it it fell oh what a difference it is to those who are built upon the rock sinner are you passing through some storm I say there's some mighty wind coming upon you see there's those who are going to sweep away from the rock does it well you know it won't sweep away from the rock to cause there Christ said he would like in such a manner as the one who built his house upon the rock when these things came and that's what it means the winds that blew and the storms that came upon it it's the trials troubles and difficulties have beat upon you and

[43:29] I as we go through the sea of time but having been pounded upon the rock you see we have not been swept away by the mighty waters and the tempests that have come against us we realize by these things men live and all these things provide the spirit they are those very things that give life to our religion a wonderful thing to have a living religion something that's always alive you know not in activity in religion I don't mean any activity today all around us not that sort of activity now it'll be activity within dealing with the God of heaven between our own souls and the mighty

[44:30] God above that's the activity all what a merchant is to be kept from much activity that may be around us today and be made willing even as a few people to be separated from all those things which are so prevalent day by day I don't want to wander from the truth here before us Lord be blessed be my rock so to have the knowledge given that there is a life within and that there is a blessed rock where on we hope we have a sure standing and have truth to be in the past to be our help and our deliverance and God please grant that we may have a living religion a religion that live through time and be acceptable unto

[45:38] God the Father through the Son by the witness of the Spirit in heaven above when time should be more Amen