Our mistakes and God's correction (Quality: Average)

[0:00] In the Lord's help, we will speak from the book of Job again, chapter 34 and verses 31 and 2. The book of Job, chapter 34 and verses 31 and 32.

[0:20] Surely it is meek to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more.

[0:32] That which I see not, teach thou me. If I have done it, I will do it no more. We spent this morning thinking of the, as it were, of comfort that were offered, to Job, I, his friend, deny you here, and the wisdom of this council.

[1:06] Surely it is meek to say unto God, I have borne chastisement. And mention then in the second case, the outcome of this, that which I see not, teach thou me.

[1:27] Revealing what close work goes on at the throne of grace. Although we are separated from such a scene as this by hundreds and hundreds of years, even centuries, yet, same God, same grace, same purpose.

[1:44] He does change. His purposes do not alter. His objective is to say, to bring his people down to feel their continued need, and also to agree with it, and to consent that they need, as we read in the ninth chapter, that correction.

[2:12] Happy is the man whom God corrected. And this is close work, and it's necessary, because it's the fence, the hedge, that God puts about his church.

[2:31] Keep them in hand. Keep them with matter for the throne of grace, to keep them alive, to observe these things.

[2:43] Surely it is meet and proper, the right thing to do, to say unto God, surely I have a born of chastisement.

[2:56] And then the other part, which we said before, as well we've mentioned this evening, is I will not offend any more. This is a very sweet thought, you know.

[3:11] There's a hymn that touches this in one way. The punished child relents, the parents' bowels move. Offended father soon relents, and turns with double love.

[3:26] I will offend no more. There is a hatred that those sins which are revealed by chastisement, by the refining of the Father.

[3:40] What you have said in your anger, and in your dull, dull moments, and the times when you have felt that the Lord was dealing hardly with you, you deeply repent of.

[3:55] And you will say of it, I will not offend any more. It isn't self-righteousness, nor creature strength. It's a matter of being with it.

[4:07] It's a sweet outcome of teaching. A real heartfelt desire, like the godly man at the world. That would just keep me from evil.

[4:21] It might not breathe me, but I might not fall into the same snare again, because it's the same trouble. It's the outcome of teaching that is sanctified.

[4:36] A willful child will receive correction and go and do the same thing the next opportunity. They defy correction, are determined to have their own way, and they are brought only by God's grace to see that they were following something that was contrary to its holy mind and will.

[5:08] in this, therefore, the Lord makes his way so clear that there's an outcome to correction.

[5:19] Surely, it is me, it's proper to say, I've learned my lesson, Lord. It is indeed close dealing, isn't it? God's grace and you see, we must have took upon this as the gray heads only.

[5:39] The older ones must ever bear in mind that those who are following us are constantly learning and learning exactly the same way as we had.

[5:51] Learning by our mistake and God's merciful correction of us. there's got to be lambs in the fold as I said not long ago as well as she.

[6:07] We must not think that this is something for adults only in grace. God will start correcting and chasing you early in life once it began with you.

[6:22] And it will be good, I see, to appreciate this nothing else will show it to you but the word of God and the gospel and that word preached to you.

[6:37] The rest is surrounded in carnal reasons and treated with reproach. not so as chasing begins and how happy are they who begin to learn this corrective work in the early night and are brought to say not to their friends I made a mistake but to their God.

[7:10] Lord, I made a mistake. I made a mistake. I've done what I should not have done. I've felt what I should not have felt.

[7:22] I've seen what I should not have said. I've been angry with anyone. I've said I'll not do that. I'll never go that way.

[7:36] Never. So that if you come that way and are fully determined in your own mind you will know what a reality it is to be said. And also to mark the kindness and often the gentleness that God is correcting you that he did not leave you to the heavy stroke of his rod and rather a doubt with you gentleness.

[8:09] Hear ye the rod and he that hath appointed it says the prophet and if you heard correction surely it is make as I have told it and I won't do it again.

[8:27] This isn't a fleshly promise let me emphasize for such characters learn even learning life that promises of that nature are not any use made in the flesh.

[8:43] In the spirit there is a heartfelt desire not to go that way again. not to be left to one self.

[8:57] So that if says you die you'll just be so I'm sure you just mean to say to God I will not that anymore keep me from evil that it may not grieve me.

[9:10] do it. Now these close communions and communications end with God are the work of grace.

[9:24] They're not marked as self. You may seriously be able to say that they are self. You may be in some temptation but say that that happens to everybody and the point is it doesn't.

[9:44] It doesn't because the first proof is that they do not go to God with it. This is communion and communication between God and the soul.

[9:59] God. And Elihu young as he was was able to detect his spirit in God that he had said that he was righteous that he had spoken against God he charged him the first instance he didn't.

[10:24] It's a beautiful verse isn't it? In the first chapter in all this God sin not nor charge God through this glory of this resignation under the stroke is a tribute of the divine favor.

[10:47] But see as time goes on and as they do here in this book and the keen edge begins to cut deeper and deeper you begin to realize that there's far more in it than you thought like married life you see happy in its beginning and one and all well we shall stay yet we hope it will all be like that but we do it will but you see when it comes to wearing it out treading it constantly faced with fresh thoughts trials and mercy all mixed and mingled together look how different it is and what a sobering effect it has isn't it but that doesn't detract from the happiness of it whatever that pathway may have been if you've learned lessons in it there will be a happiness some of us could look back over long years and say yes

[12:09] I was thankful for that lesson thankful for that lesson yes you hear one another relate how years ago they did so and how tempted and tried they were and how things were so difficult and yet to now they say I wouldn't have been the nature something in it that though I couldn't see it at the time was of a corrective chastening nature and unthankful for it the outcome of it is I will do it no more that is Lord let me learn the lesson the first time you would have thought Hezekiah would have learned his lesson wouldn't you and others like him you would have thought David had learned his lesson you would have thought that

[13:19] Abraham would never deny his wife a second time would you seems an astonishing thing he should ever deny his wife twice you would never have thought Peter would have denied Christ three times would you three times once surely surely the guilt sting and such a denial would surely have pierced him through and through the very first time I know not the man surely that an awful remark would have stunned Peter to the quick surely there are one of them and instead of stinging him in his conscience he denies a second time the third time what evidence therefore we have to prove to us to be very careful lest we bring ourselves by false promises and standing on a false foundation that we are so foolish and helpless

[14:52] Hezekiah promised to go softly and undoubtedly meant it after his sharp affliction and restoration that it wasn't long before the Lord left him that he might know what was in his heart it wasn't long before the Lord left Job that he might know what was in his heart what he was capable of saying and doing and what there was really wrapped up in Job himself when that age was removed by it was just one restraining command touch not his life that life was preserved otherwise be sure

[15:53] Job would have had it Satan would have had it in this therefore Eliyum brings some very gracious counsel surely surely all this sharp edge of the word of God what a point surely I said this morning didn't I it's got an inbred teaching in it something inherent in it isn't it it gets hold of you it's a word that's immense like level in your heart surely now come think the word says to us come reason this together surely surely without any doubt it's neat it's proper to be said unto God I have born chastisement

[16:54] I will do no more do you think the prodigal wanted any more of us do you think Ephraim left to his idols wanted them again read the 14th of Hosea and see how he was brought away from and this constitutes a very large part of bearing chastisement dealing with idolatry as I said on Wednesday at the prayer meeting first he and Ephraim is joined to his idols let him alone let him have the taste of them let him have a fill and second part is Ephraim is smiting upon his breast

[17:54] Ephraim is taking with him words turning to the Lord saying take away all iniquity receive as gracious you see idols don't just part like the cord comes out of the heart now you've got to have these idols dealt with by divine power and only divine power can remove them from you Wikipediafters just Hebrews and in the Psalms Matthew is the man whom God corrected despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty the very thing you're likely to do despise say yes you know what it is to despise

[19:13] I'm not going to have it I don't believe it I don't want it it's not for me I don't need chaste it's a one of those truths you see so beautifully hidden away like a violet in the head humble gracious unobtrusive and then there it is in all its beauty as regards truth I make despise not thou touching upon the very thing that you'll ever do knowing nature the Lord has put it there by the roadside of the experience of his people they're going to pass by despite but not so those whose hearts are turned surely surely it is meet saying unto God

[20:27] I have borne chastisement Lord I know the reason for it this therefore being a thing of the past as regards the sanctification of it because I have borne chastisement can refer both to the past and to the present I am bearing chastisement Job 1 is one of the greatest blessings that we can ever have look at that beautiful hymn of carepages you've just heard if ever there was gracious sacred language and language that wants some grace to sing too doesn't it no let me rather freely yield what most I prize to thee look at the height of this gracious world look at it why if you come there you may be sure of this that you will say

[21:37] Lord I will do it no more I'll despise not thy chastening again I'll seek to avoid this pitfall again who never has the good withhold or wilt withhold from me this remarkable man Cowper and a depth of experience that has been accepted by the church of God in all ages since the day at least that he rose there is a hatred therefore the outcome of gracious chastisement and an earnest desire never to go that way again and this is separation from the world this is what it leads to that deadly world that had such a grip on you and you were so fond of in your own way and had such a desire for an adaptability too or I sometimes marvel at my solemn adaptability to the world

[23:09] I've got a nature that is adaptable to the world I didn't work in it for 45 years without finding that and I still find it a nature that just drops in that modifical tenor into the world love not the world says the scripture yeah that our nature just drops into it so we're in a dangerous place aren't we especially if you've got a nature that's like that not everyone has it but if that is your particular weakness then you will find the chastisement and correction of God a sweetly separating thing and that's what it intended to do give you a hatred for sin dislike and an earnest desire to be separated from the spirit of the world because this is where the trouble lies you can keep yourself outwardly clean like the Pharisees did the outside of the place but it's inside that the greatest danger is the spirit of the world the spirit the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience this is why our young people need a careful and tender handling it's no good fencing their lives with a lot of don't don't don't don't it's not bitter good saying you shouldn't do this you shouldn't do that they know it already this is where they need the work of God to really lovingly separate them so they come out freely and not slaves but true born sons and daughters of Zion brought out from the world and the spirit of it the musts of it the fashions of it yes these cleaving fashions of the world what a deadly influence they had the pride of life that trinity of evil of which the word of God speaks but

[26:01] I would do it no more now Eli you must bring then some treasured remarks to Job doesn't it and we might go on in this train but there is a second verse which we also spoke of this morning but you will see the same outcome this is the poem I will do no more that which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more now Job didn't say this like well in I you says to him surely you ought to say this to him surely this ought to be your position Job instead of you saying

[27:03] I am righteous and God contended with me and God has set me as a mark with arrows instead of you saying all this as you have done as I heard you say and contend with God you ought surely to say I have borne just chismet and property by now take this view first of the gospel what remarkable things these are to preach and you consider the wonder working hand of God in giving us on the wall such things as these to preach what a wonderful thing it is isn't it to have such subjects as this laid before where else would you hear them do you know of anywhere else where you would find such exhortations as these that perhaps cut you to the quick that bring you to see your deformities and yet you still love them all that fallacious teaching about hurting our young people and driving them away you could bear witness to in your own soul and say well yes but it was the

[28:37] Lord's hand in it and that didn't drive me away I know the gospel spoken harshly hardly and in an un-gospel like spirit I know I know well enough that it could wound has wounded does wound not only young but old but the preacher sought out acceptable words that's the point and these acceptable words which the gospel brings to us are such words as they which touch upon very delicate points and are likely to give offense but they are God's purpose to bring true his will his perceptive word his word of commandment to his people and by these things

[29:37] I live and in all these things is the life of their soul love whether they are lambs or sheep it is this that lasts and where it falls on good ground it may not be of use at the moment it takes a long time for sea to germinate doesn't it it takes a long time for the word of God to be useful to them we used to teach the children and we taught ourselves possibly the truths that we hear we all give thee and store them away in our mind if they are there the day comes when the

[30:38] Lord brings them out and begin to really spring up in your life with an irresistible gracious power in them why you will never be able to pluck them out and never want to what I see now teach them teach I don't live on that word this morning to relate it I will do no more teach me to do thy will not mine this is the outcome of God's correct teaching and the second place in having said what excellent thing it is that the gospel should bring such counsel to us what excellent thing it is to be given the grace to obey that counsel and to fall under it and receive it and say yes that's just what

[31:48] I want Lord just what I want to be taught the vast scope of the pilgrim pathway the vast number of lessons exercises concerns to be learned teachings to be received are presented gradually to the mind that as in natural things the person that begins to learn realizes that they've got limitations there's nothing like learning to show up your limitations interest if you meet the professing man I mean in business or woman that knows it all well you can soon see can't you but they know but very little they've just exposed their own folly their boastfulness is their undoing the keen eye will soon discern that won't it very much like the saying that they that can always pray never pray those that know everything know nothing but surely it is so with divine teaching and correction and the

[33:26] Lord's leadings and guidance that which I see not let's look at the providential pathway nine times out of ten it's hidden these doors that the Lord opens how sacred they are as we look back on them in retrospect what beautiful doors the Lord opened why there no man the earthly doors with all their beauty and no match for the doors in providence that the

[34:32] Lord opened but what about those that he doesn't open and keep shut there's still his door there's open every door that is opened also is not one for to walk in some other test to face but those doors that have been opened and as you walked in how beautiful they look and are you did not see at the time it all seemed a great burden and concern at the time it was nothing further than your day by day as it is now but how remarkable and perhaps a door you didn't want to walk in and yet you look at it now and you can't say it was a wrong door you damn you look at it you look at it all the ways both sides and you see that it was the door the Lord opened as I look back to those doors in my life what cause

[35:57] I have for gratitude the overruling guiding hand of God in his providence and it shines clearer and clearer as one gets older as we saw not at the time so that this refers more particularly to doors today present day doors things that you do not see look what we read this morning he giveth none account of his matters he doesn't put a brochure in your hands and say well now this is what's going to unfold for you in the next twenty years Lord does not sigh even for the next twelve months comes to die now this is where we have to live a day at a time but can you go to the

[37:12] Lord with it that's the thing you've got access to the Lord with it if this surely touches your days and surely it is meek for you to say what I see not I want Lord you to teach me there's that childlike spirit there which is so compatible with the whole gospel but do you look at the reverse and supposing you should keep your mouth closed and say nothing and be so obstinate in your spirit that you determine not to pray about it never to ask the Lord's counsel about it well what's the outcome going to be and there are such places as this we've been in them we've fought in them we've clenched our fists in them

[38:19] I know yeah rebel bitterly against God by walking that way no simply because we did not see and had no spirit of prayer or desire to see and had not that willingness for the Lord's will to be known and understood not the language I've just read of Cowper who never has to good withheld or wilt withhold from me simply because you don't believe but there is this second part I will do no more teach thou me if I have done it so with regard to grace living providence though they are so entwined that they cannot be separated look at the remarkable work the desire for teaching the fountain room the way that

[39:45] God puts truth before you it's like a tutor you know and these children I can see that tutor's mind is absolutely full all command of the subject for me to say and yet they themselves feel they've got hardly past the letter a when you come into the kingdom of grace as I I've often said when the Lord first began with me and under the first gospel sermon I ever heard under that blessed text in Philippians 3 10 that I may know him that's as far as I got then and that was a merciful distance wasn't it after only about a 12 month of divine dealing with me but look what for the power of his resurrection yeah fellowship with him in his suffering yeah all takes its part and as some of you know that has been my favour to have some fellowship with him in his suffering and in a way that wasn't consuming but comforting

[41:24] I've born chastisement if I have done iniquity I will do it no more so that these lessons will continue according to God gracious purposes was fear them not oh let me say this at once lest there should be any undue anxiety arise in your minds the heavenly future he knows you may see as you glance that divine truth how little you know but he knows how to dispense knowledge to you and how to teach you step by step and as I often say here a little and there a little not all at once at all so today's lessons are today's lessons and sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof and this scripture therefore is for the present now what you don't see in grace you're unworthy but at last sabbath

[42:56] I was speaking about Ruth my memory fails me a little now but what didn't see and so many others like her and of course it is impossible to see and it's not intended that you should see it's intended you should walk by faith if you could see you wouldn't need faith and that would completely obliterate the grand mark upon the highway to heaven our highways today have notices on and they're different from the notices of old just in the boat and right across you can't mistake them you can see them a mile away and what does it say on the road to heaven the judge shall live by his faith that's what it says and it will never be all true so that if you could see here where all were right where the need for freedom there's a part there but it's faith today's faith for today's needs today's trouble and where is this time to be exercised in this prayer what I see not teach thou my lord teach it me this willingness to learn the wonderful thing your heart rejoices when you see it in your children don't you when you see their little mind anxious to learn what gratitude wells up in your heart that you've got children that have got a mental capacity and not like many poor children who haven't got it a willingness to learn an anxiety to learn you look at it in grace a desire to learn is it any question then where you should go on the Sunday is it any question whether if you're married you should read and pray together as husband and wife is it is it going to be the wives going to say well it's no good you pray my dear you can't pray is it any use to husband saying well

[45:58] I know I can't so I won't far far from it is it any question what course you will take when you want to do the right thing and to be taught how can it be if this teaching is from God it must be continued not something that's spasmodic you can pick up and put down at liberty so that we must feel the sacredness of Elihu's tender advice and perhaps you'll feel a desire in your heart to follow Elihu's rule as he gave this counsel to dear Job and then you'll suddenly come as you turn over to the end of the whole matter and the

[47:03] Lord will speak to Job in 38 then the Lord answered Job then the Lord answered Job no intermediary the Lord answered Job and to my mind as regards nature some of the most beautiful scripture that we can possibly find concerning creation and the creator's own words concerning it the Lord answered him but the majesty of God in creation in those days were set forth and Job found his wildness that was the ultimate and that was the outcome of it well the subject as you will

[48:08] I hope see is one that is far beyond me and yet here is a core divine truth you see in us a pathway set out for us that which I see not teach thou me and as I said this morning don't misquote it will you I don't want to play with words but it does say teach and it does not say show there is a big difference isn't there that which I see not teach thou may and the teaching is the work of perhaps many years nonetheless it is the sacred line here and line there all of which will not those things which stand us in such good stead when we come to our later days and can say that we prove them to be true and can set our seal to it that this is the right way and that there is

[49:40] God's honour and glory bound up in it and as regards the kingdom of grace and the themes that you want to be taught there as I just quoted from Philippians look how we have to walk through such scriptures as that teach thou me teach thou me a willing spirit to learn that prove a word in season or some little help somewhere the Lord give us each the grace we need to put it into practice surely it is meat it is the property Amen