Be still and know I am God pt4 (Quality: Average)

[0:00] . We will speak again with the Lord's help from the 46th Psalm and verse 10.

[0:28] Psalm 46 and verse 10. Be still and know that I am God.

[0:40] Be still and know that I am God. The whole verse reading, I will be exalted among the heathen.

[0:53] I will be exalted in the earth. So that the first part is related to the second.

[1:04] But so far we've been dealing with the first part. We still know that I am God.

[1:15] The Lord of hosts is with us, says the Psalm in verse 7. The God of Jacob is our refuge. And this has to be walked out to be known, quite obviously.

[1:32] But it is a prosperous pathway to be taught by the Lord that he is God.

[1:45] If he is God, it can be acknowledged as your creator. But to come to the closer relationship of Redeemer is no matter.

[2:03] But he is God. And as we've been trying to point out to you from other scriptures, the 132nd Psalm, for example, where he is worshipped.

[2:19] And as we were speaking this morning from the 84th Psalm, the place where he receives prayer, and we have a sample of that prayer.

[2:35] And as we say, behold, O God, our sun and shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed, we see that it is all of a path. The blessed whole, although it's in different Psalms and chapters, it's all one blessed whole.

[2:54] And this is our comfort. This isn't stretching the scripture, or making it fit, or adjusting it.

[3:06] Those that search the scripture do not render them to their own destruction. The carnal mind can and does.

[3:17] Faith loves to join scripture to scripture. And to see the connection and union between these widely scattered scriptures.

[3:33] So whilst one almost feels they should apologize to you for taking you from one Psalm to another, you're not going to be a place where you are. Yet that's only a temptation.

[3:45] And the more clearly we see it, the better for us. To what we were saying this morning, the anointed, look upon the face of thine anointed, this is where God is known in the face of Jesus Christ.

[4:06] And what could and did fit better in these Gospel days than the chapter that we read?

[4:17] The very words that Jesus commenced his ministry on. To think that the Lord Jesus knew exactly where this was in the ancient Rome, as he handed to him in the little synagogue of Nazareth.

[4:35] And this is what he opened to him. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. This is the God of Jacob, the Lord of Holy.

[4:47] This is the accomplishment of divine purposes. Not every scripture was so honored of the Lord Jesus. Although it was often his practice to quote scripture, especially to refute his enemies.

[5:09] Have you never read this editor? Many such words did he bring before them. But few, if any scriptures are so honored as this one, as to be among, if not the first, among the first of his public ministers.

[5:34] And he set out his office to give, as it were, to his hearers the authority for which he had come.

[5:48] And this is the authority, the anointing that the Father put upon him. It is wonderful therefore that David, or the psalmist in Psalm 84, whoever he was, should ask such a thing.

[6:10] Perhaps God's people in vastly different ages and circumstances have asked the same thing, confessed the same thing.

[6:24] And the Lord would expand between the centurion, you know, and good old Jacob. Many centuries, but both of them said they weren't worthy.

[6:41] A good many in between, and a good many sin. So with these blessed scriptures, we look upon the years.

[6:54] Talk about three thousand, four thousand. Really they are in sight of God, but as yesterday.

[7:06] So that when the Lord Jesus came with this authority and his mandate from heaven, he takes up the holy word which had lain dormant for so long, and yet was reverenced and preserved by the Jews, and he searched the scriptures for in them, he said, and is in the custody of them, ye think ye have eternal life.

[7:39] They are they which testify of me. One of the greatest works that the Jews ever did was to preserve the word of God in its entirety.

[7:54] And they did, very meticulously as you know. So that it was all ready for the Lord Jesus, and the subject was a vast one.

[8:09] But only Jesus could say this. This could not be taken down by any other man. John Baptist, or Peter, or John the disciple, anyone, could never take this word to themselves.

[8:27] John Baptist never did say, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Never. He rather said, of Jesus whose shoes latch it, I am not worthy to unloose.

[8:44] The same spirit as Jacob and the centurion. And these men therefore knew their place. But Jesus was different.

[8:57] This is no egotism on the part of the dear Lord Jesus. Now, this was the actual act.

[9:09] And so when we ask what is this anointing and what do we mean by it, this is what we mean and this is what we believe.

[9:20] The spirit of the Lord God was upon the Lord Jesus in his tender humanity.

[9:31] And he was there for a particular purpose. That purpose is very clear and admits of no alteration.

[9:43] And it is this face that is anointed this person. And the merits of this person in accomplishing what is set out in this anointing is, of course, the glory of Christ in the face of God the Father and by his gift.

[10:07] So that we have the Trinity before us in complete unity. Now, wholly working together for the salvation of sin.

[10:23] So that there can be no question as to the blessedness and the need of the Holy Spirit. For the understanding of this gracious anointing, this anointing of the Holy Spirit.

[10:43] There can be no question of this. This is necessary, essential, vital to real true salvation.

[10:55] This at once cuts off root and branch any sort of man being able to accomplish salvation. This is one of the first things it does.

[11:08] When we think of the insolence of creatures talking about winning souls for Christ and their impudence in putting themselves level with the Lord Jesus and speaking as if it rested with man and was the ability of the creature, whether the speaker or the hearer.

[11:34] I say when we hear such things, the wildfire of present-day evangelism, it takes the credit.

[11:46] How different when we turn to salvation from the anointed and in some measure know God.

[11:59] Now, knowledge humbles so that you mustn't be surprised if you're brought to a stand sometimes and few you don't know. And you're accosted perhaps with some of this wildfire and you feel it a loss.

[12:21] Don't be surprised. The matter is great. You're dealing with something that is divine.

[12:33] If you had ready answers to all these things, perhaps your knowledge would only be in your head. More than likely.

[12:45] Therefore, as you know, when you come to a vast subject, you've got to go a step at a time. This is one of the beauties of knowledge, you see.

[12:58] It isn't assimilated in a few days or hours. This is where the teaching of the Holy Spirit comes in.

[13:11] But this knowledge humbles. You realize in a spiritual subject as you do in a natural subject.

[13:24] Such a lot to learn. So that when you hear a person speaking about a natural thing, and they very humbly speak of their experience and what they know, you can tell they know what they're talking about.

[13:43] They know. They don't provide their knowledge for their own pride satisfaction. But they know. Though with the Gospel and Gospel truths, don't be discouraged if you feel you don't know.

[14:03] Because this is what it will do if you desire to love. And you see, the language of wise men in the Scripture is always to be admired.

[14:16] If you would ask Paul if he knew Jesus Christ, his answer would be, as in the third of Philippians, that I may know him.

[14:30] Let us therefore, he says, go on to perfection or to maturity.

[14:43] Not as though I had already attained. Well, Paul, thank you for your humble words. They might say they've been a comfort to us many a time.

[14:56] Not as though I had already attained. They were already perfect or mature. Now, I've got a lot more to learn, says the Apostle.

[15:08] Now, this is the attendance pillar of knowledge. The more you know, the more you realize there is to know.

[15:19] And this applies to natural things as well as spiritual. Oh, yeah. This is one of the wonders of creation.

[15:31] That it isn't some limited sphere where you can get to the end of it and say, well, I know all there is to know about that particular subject.

[15:43] But, men, after the flesh, have to learn that lesson. Much more so when it comes to Christ.

[15:55] So that the Lord Jesus alone would say that he was anointed for this purpose. Now, this anointing, therefore, was of God.

[16:09] The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me. So that in these three lines we have the Holy Spirit, the Father, in the word Lord and in the pronoun me, the Lord Jesus.

[16:36] Anointed me. Now, what to do? And this is so lovely. Oh, in a world of sin and wickedness.

[16:50] So much error and darkness and all this Pentecostalism that is so current today, when men talk about a full gospel.

[17:05] As if the gospel that has taken thousands to heaven is not a full one. When proud men raises up his head and says, well, I've got a little more to tell you.

[17:21] And there's this, which proves by comparison with the word of God to be nothing but wildfire.

[17:33] And this is what the Lord Jesus was anointed for to preach.

[17:46] See what knowledge there is in this. You can't take a step in the subject without you. Come to something that's worthy of meditation and acceptation.

[18:03] Truly it is worthy of all acceptation. So that this blessed person, the Lord Jesus, is none other than the Lord of hosts.

[18:18] Knowable because he is revealed. And we can, we can approach this as poor unworthy, I was going to say literate.

[18:31] So we are compared with God. Whether it be literacy or illiteracy, it makes no difference. God has taken the things, the foolish things of this world, to confound the things that are wise.

[18:50] What a blessed thing to feel, well, I can approach this subject. It is something which I can see and enter into.

[19:03] So that, like the Holy Anointing Oil in the Old Testament, that was not something that Moses made up.

[19:18] He wasn't told to make a Holy Anointing Oil and not told the constituent parts.

[19:30] And not only was he told what to mingle together, but he was told not to put another thing in it. Yes.

[19:41] This and this alone, that God to him in any faith. Not to add anything to it, Moses, don't you put anything in that Holy Anointing Oil other than what I've told you.

[19:58] And this is to be brought over to such a scripture as this, that there is none that compound such a sevenfold spirit as we have here in this first and second verses of the 61st of Isaiah.

[20:23] So that the psalmist was really upon firm ground, wasn't he, one day when he said, look upon the face of thine anointing.

[20:34] The beauty of this is seen therefore in the composition of what was needed for the preaching of the gospel.

[20:47] And how this blessed man, Christ Jesus, was anointed to that end. Now, we have not many, we have not any of his sermons to any extent.

[21:04] The longest is the Sermon on the Mount. But we have his innumerable teachings as recorded by the apostles and the disciples.

[21:18] But John even comes to say that many other things did Jesus teach. I suppose, says John, that if all the books in the world were written, they wouldn't contain them.

[21:35] This is a remarkable summing up of John the disciple. But you think of the narrow compass of the four gospels, and that God has deemed them to be sufficient, and they have proved sufficient.

[21:57] It shows how little our capacity is. Look at some of the tomes that have been written. Look at John Owen's work, for example, on the glory of Christ.

[22:12] And the innumerable other subjects that men have written. Why, the poor average man in the street, shall we say, believer, that time, ability, or understanding to assimilate all these?

[22:30] But when you come to the summary of the Lord's sermons and teachings, they're very sure, very sure that they are sufficient.

[22:43] And they have been the foundation of the gospel, and the preaching of the gospel. But the point is that this holy anointing of the Lord Jesus is found in its constituent times.

[23:04] And we know what his work was. And although this in itself is a subject of heart, you may follow with me to look at a few of them, to preach the good tidings unto the meek.

[23:23] Well, this in itself, we said of the 84th Psalm this morning, of the psalmist's desire, he'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of his God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

[23:43] Well, was this man a hypocrite when he said that? What will you say about it if we say to you, well, now look, friend, you just stand at the door there at the back.

[23:56] And you say, yes, I will. I don't mind. Or would you rather come up here? Would you come up here in the pulpit and stay? I'd rather be a doorkeeper.

[24:08] So this is a good man that wants the gospel. He doesn't mind when he's got over the threshold. He doesn't want to stand out on the pavement.

[24:21] He couldn't hear out there. He'd rather be, as another psalm says, our feet shall stand within thy gates.

[24:33] When you get home, you don't stand on the doorstep, do you? You go inside, sure. Lord Jesus is anointed to preach the gospel to such characters as this.

[24:48] And how they love him. How they love him. Look at some of the points in his gospel. If any man thirsts, let him come unto the end drink.

[25:00] And all ye that are weary and heavy laden. I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd.

[25:11] Such to all compress in a little. This is special anointing of the Father. And look what it's done.

[25:24] You can almost feel the subtle influence of the sacred oil of the gospel. You can almost feel it.

[25:36] And quite sometimes. that it is running down as deadly ointment upon ear and head.

[25:49] Right down to the skirt of his garb. Look at the second one. Preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.

[26:01] Well, who are these? You wouldn't readily jump into the gap, would you? And say, yes, I'm one. You'd be more likely to say, oh, this is what I want.

[26:16] What a high esteem the believer has of a brokenhearted spirit. He knows his own heart is hard.

[26:29] Oh, he can't break it. What a painful thing it is. Feel your heart hard. I felt mine hard this moment.

[26:42] Though I had this subject on my mind. I felt a hard heart. I couldn't break it. You know what this is, therefore. It will appeal to you to hear such a gospel as this.

[26:59] But only the Lord Jesus could do it. And he has his instruments that do it. He has appointed them.

[27:11] How shall they preach except they dissent? In this, again then, we look back to the text. Be still. Know, I am God.

[27:24] I have provided one who will bind up the brokenhearted. Why, this is a work of utmost tenderness, isn't it?

[27:39] When you come to the heart, you come to the very center of life, don't you? Anybody can bind up a finger, so to speak, or a leg.

[27:52] This God puts into such a sweet language, it makes us think. Bind up the brokenhearted. You look at natural bereavement.

[28:06] Your friends gathered round you in a time of bereavement, perhaps. And your heart was broken.

[28:17] But as well as they intended, could they help you at all? They couldn't, could they?

[28:29] Although this is right and proper, we're not saying anything against sympathy, of course. But you can't bind up a broken heart.

[28:41] Only the Lord can do this, and time can heal it, as we say, and it does. After natural manner. So that the anointing of the Lord Jesus was for a specific purpose.

[28:59] And here are two of the characters, the meek and the brokenhearted. And then you come to the captive. Now these are strange kind of people, you know.

[29:12] Because you can find these in both camps. You can find the captives in the world. You were a captive one.

[29:25] You were a captive. And then, after the light of grace had shone into your heart, you got into trouble again.

[29:42] But you were like David. And Samson, he said to Delilah, didn't he? Bind me with seven green wheels.

[29:55] And my strength will depart and I shall become weak and like another man. How often do we toy with some Delilah. And become a captive.

[30:07] Captive in our own house sometimes. Very solemn. Oh, this terrible captivity, whether in unregeneracy or in disobedience.

[30:25] Or in some prodigal pathway of deliberate walking against light and knowledge. There is the sadness feeling the door shut.

[30:40] You can't get out. You can't get out. You can't get out. You can't get out. And only the Lord Jesus can bring liberty to the captive.

[30:53] How many are bound for years? And how vast is this particular point of the Lord's work? Why, we only look at one of them.

[31:06] His disciples, I mean. Peter, for example. Look how he was bound up with prejudice. Long time after Jesus had ascended.

[31:19] A long time after he himself had tasted a Pentecostal blessing. We find him saying, concerning the matter of Cornelius, I have never eaten that which is common or unclean.

[31:37] Prejudice is only just one thing that bind them. And disobedience is another, isn't it? How many have bound all their lives through a spirit of disobedience.

[31:53] One of the greatest besetting sins. And then unbelief. Look what this does in its power. Like seven green whims indeed.

[32:06] But you can't snap them like Samson did. And the Lord Jesus is anointed. He's made able and capable of dealing.

[32:18] As some of you have proved. Some of us have proved. The Lord can break your bond. Oh, I've seen it all once in our little church here.

[32:30] The Lord has broken the bonds. Where you think they were getting tighter and tighter.

[32:41] The Lord has broken them. Wonderfully broken them. And mark you, the Lord Jesus had to go through his own pathway of suffering to meet these cases.

[32:59] Like some of us who have preached the gospel have to. We have to walk ourselves in these pathways to speak of them.

[33:11] And then have to say with the Lord Jesus, Well, who has believed our report? At the same time, he is anointed.

[33:22] So don't bring salvation down and deliverance from heathen and native darkness to the level of the creature, will you?

[33:34] And if you cannot use the language of a theologian, use the language of a sinner. That's far, far more convincing.

[33:47] Tender. Because you see, faith in the word of God. And none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good.

[34:01] This way, the proof of the anointing is made manifest. The opening of the prison to them that are bound.

[34:16] Same thing, but different. And this indicates that Lazarus was bound hand and foot in the grave, wasn't he?

[34:30] Both Mary and Martha thought it was no use going. It was too late. The opening of the prison to them that are bound.

[34:43] And when you come to the consideration of the great fact of the rising of Lazarus, why, what an astonishing thing this was to the people.

[34:57] One of those three cases where the Lord did bring a dead corpse back to life again. But he's anointed to do it. And Jesus rejoiced in spirit over it.

[35:11] And you look again to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now when Jesus took this in the synagogue at Nazareth, he stopped here.

[35:25] Here's another remarkable feature of his anointing. He didn't go on for the day of vengeance. He stopped here to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and he closed the book and handed it again to the minister and sat there.

[35:46] A most deliberate act of the Lord Jesus. And yet he knew exactly what he was doing. It was the acceptable year of the Lord.

[35:59] Now is the accepted time, says Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews. Now. Now. Now. Now.

[36:10] Now. Now. The day of vengeance isn't answered in yet. It may not be far away. Oh, that dreadful day, he hasn't taken the book again yet.

[36:25] He's anointed to do it. He's ready to do it. He will do it. But at the moment, it is the acceptable year of the Lord.

[36:40] Now, you often hear this word, accept. And it's all misconstrued and twisted.

[36:55] Paul calls it rested. When you take a scripture out of it setting and rest it out from the context, you do damage.

[37:11] This acceptance is the acceptable year of the Lord, not the acceptable year of men who are called upon to accept Christ as their Savior. Oh, no.

[37:24] It is an indisputable fact that it's the acceptable year of the Lord and that he does accept it. And he has done it.

[37:38] Of all that thou hast given me. They were accepted in covenant engagement. And this is what it means.

[37:50] They are accepted in the beloved and nowhere else. Why has this acceptation rested upon a human word and the nod of the head or the raising of the hand or going up to the front after the service?

[38:12] Where would you be? And you come to die. You might live a profession under such a thing as that and be full of pride in doing it.

[38:26] But when it comes to the acceptable year of the Lord, Jesus closed the book, sat down. And what did it do?

[38:36] You go home and read about him. The people were really furious with him. Our Lord didn't meet with much commendation, you know, and he began to preach.

[38:53] He wasn't surrounded with enthusiasts who said, Well done. No. Even in his own little village, they led him out to the brow of the hill, would have cast him down headlong.

[39:10] Yeah. If some of us had such a reception as that and we'd gone out to preach, we shouldn't have given up, hadn't we? Yeah.

[39:23] No, the Lord Jesus, he was treated in that evil way. But this is knowing God.

[39:36] Knowing him in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see, we can look at it here. We can view him here.

[39:48] We can see now because the story is unfolded to him. And who would foresee that the Lord would meet with such a reception as this?

[40:02] Why, had anyone been asked to comment on the 61st of Isaiah before it was fulfilled, surely they would have said, Well, when he does do this, commences his preaching, and when this acceptable year of the Lord comes, we shall all run after him and believe him and receive him with open arms.

[40:28] Surely that's what they would have said. And I believe did say. And they looked for the Messiah, for the poor, evil woman at the well.

[40:40] In her unregeneracy, Jesus said, when the Messiah cometh, he will teach us all things. What did she know about him coming?

[40:52] You see, she had a natural religion and five husbands. It won't do, will it? No. But Jesus goes into that lot, that crooked, evil, vile lot, and he teaches that wretched woman and saves her by his grace and he preaches to her.

[41:19] Oh, the glories of her, the riches of her, none need despair any day. But this is the way they treated the Lord Jesus.

[41:34] But this was his anointing. and by reason and virtue of this anointing, he continued. And a glorious truth continues with us today.

[41:48] The still. I hope that these few thoughts have brought a little stillness to some of your spirits.

[42:00] A little quietness. Brought you to tender consideration of what it is to know the Lord.

[42:13] What it is to go on to know the Lord. That he is knowable because he's revealed himself and that that knowledge is for sinners.

[42:28] Guilty men and guilty women and children. And it is this that contains the very essence of the gospel which he was anointed to preach.

[42:41] Well I would like to go on but I mustn't. The Lord bless it to you because I could go on till midnight nearly couldn't I? You help me?

[42:52] The subject is God. I bless what little we have said. Amen.