The seasons crowned with harvest (Quality: Average, incomplete)

[0:00] Trusting we may receive the grace of the Holy Ghost, let us venture in directing you to Psalm 65, reading our text in verse 11.

[0:18] Psalm 65, the 11th verse. Thou proudest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drunk that death.

[0:41] In a multitude of anxieties and cares, I entered the village of Appington today without a text.

[1:01] But not destitute of a grain of faith to believe that I should be supplied in that hour from a heavenly source.

[1:23] And whilst in prayer, this sweet, amazing word of divine love and covenant faithfulness and amazingness I spontaneously flowed into my spirit.

[1:53] So that I would suggest initially to every gracious hearer that here we have a subject that is unfathomed for beauty and blessedness and glory.

[2:23] The subject of a crow. And it is against the background of our fall in Adam and our complete ruin and our deserving of God's fiery, unmitigated curse forever.

[2:54] That we can only be lost in wonder, love and praise if already the Lord himself has crowned ourselves.

[3:15] And given us the glorious prospect of being crowned shortly by him with immortality and light and radiance and complete conformity to the glorious image of our dear Redeemer himself.

[3:47] It is impossible really for your mind to contemplate the wonder of God giving to a perishing sinner in himself a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

[4:12] Well, it will be my sacred delight, I trust, to work out with you something of the divine economy of God self-destiny man, when do you have a crown of glory and hate.

[4:38] We are indeed RXAMBER rahe, or even Ded IoT, and reckless. I feel that just an initial word is desirable and uncomfortable for a rally.

[4:49] you in this rural area and engaged in husbandry will know this to be the harvest psalm and song of praise and thanksgiving to God. Let us observe then the amazing wisdom and faithfulness and skill and compassion of God in the cycle of the seasons and in that wisdom that he has given to man on the earth from the most primitive times to look upon the crust of this planet the soil and looking upon it to have that wisdom imparted to him to recognize that the soil is capable of the use preparation for seed and the germination of the seed and a crop to ensue to be harvested. Archaeology itself will teach you that one of the earliest instruments ever made by man was a plough.

[6:44] When you think of it the wonder that their ancestors thousands of years ago when there were few men on the earth had the wisdom to know that this soil could be cultivated.

[7:00] Well I do not intend to dwell on God's economy in the creation and upon this planet but think of this what purpose has God in the seasons what produces the seasons the orbit of this planet round the sun and so you have your autumn and winter and spring and shana all the seasons are necessary and all the heavenly influences the dew the rain and the amazing efficacy of that mighty orb that God has set in the tournament.

[8:06] Now what is the issue what is the issue what is God's purpose why the seasons and then the whole range of activities with the soil of course my knowledge is most elementary in this the plough the harrowing the preparation the clearing of all that is poison the clearing of all that is poison from the soil the time the ripe season to sow the seed the springing thereof God's blessing upon it and as we understand and read concerning the holy land the two great seasons the seasons of rainfall the early and the latter rain so needful but what do I wish to just exhibit to you the purpose of God then in all the seasons and all the activities of his wisdom given to his creatures in the cultivation of the soil and all the influences of the atmosphere and the sun there is an issue what is it a crown the harvest is the golden crown that the Lord sets on the brow of the year in any area where you see much corn and the time of harvest is near you can look out and see that golden crown and so in this providential and necessitous matter the Lord has crowned every year right through these thousands of years with all the wickedness of man and with all the wickedness of man and with all our undeserving he has crowned every year with his goodness in the harvest for when divine vengeance withdraw in the first destruction of this earth by the element water when the holy perfection of mercy came out and the Lord made a covenant of mercy came out and the Lord made a covenant with his creatures and set the bow in the cloud he gave that word that while the earth remained there would be this seed time and harvest harvest. Summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. And so I do want to acknowledge the faithfulness and goodness of my God in setting this golden crown of the harvest on the brow of every year. Now you will immediately, with the perspicacity of faith, see something of an analogy here, the analogy of spiritual things. You will say, and I want just to develop this briefly, you will say that with every child of God, there is the work of the Spirit in that heart. There's a plough, deep conviction, the ploughing up of the fallow ground, and the breaking up and the humbling of that heart. The harrowing, and as I understand this to be so, the frost that humbles the ground and crumbles it. And this is all the work of the

[12:55] Spirit, spiritually. If you get a few young people or older people that are dead in sins, and the time comes when the Lord quickens them, in goes the plough. It's a wonderful thing to be disturbed by God, to get the plough disturbing you, ploughing you up. It's not pleasant, even the very turn. The very turn harrow cannot sound or ever be a pleasant thing to the flesh, for we're harrowed. We're humbled before God. And what a wonderful thing it is to know that divine seed of grace, that incorruptible seed deposited in your soul by the Holy Ghost.

[14:00] This is something that is invisible, just as the seed is invisible beneath the soil. The work of God is deep in the heart. It is quite invisible, but presently there is that part which is visible, the blade, then the formation of the ear, and then the full cord in the ear. I regard this as the perfect symbolism for the blade, the blade of life. Presently there's an ear, there's a formation, and that formation is when faith is given.

[14:48] Faith is given to believe in a revealed Christ. And in that ear there will be presently the full corn in the ear. Now this may cover 70, 80 years. And when there is this full corn in the ear, then he will put in the sickle, death. Presently when the Lord has finished the work of grace in your soul, he will put in the sickle. You'll be gathered into the barn. You have known the refulgent beams of the sun of righteousness.

[15:33] You have known the dew of heaven resting upon your branch all night. You have had the seasons of abundant rain refreshing.

[15:44] There has been growth and maturity wrought in your soul. And presently it will be harvest.

[15:56] The Lord will crown you. He'll crown the year of your life. So I want just to suggest to you this concept first before I speak of the crowning in glory.

[16:15] There is a crowning when precious souls are garnered into the church militant. There is a harvest. There is a harvest. There is a harvest. There is a time when the Lord will gather in because of a ripeness.

[16:39] And because he wears the crown and he will crown you. And the church is crowned and the ministry is crowned.

[16:50] And his dear servants are crowned. I do not know it years and years ago now.

[17:03] It will, if I am spared, soon be 40 years. But when I commenced my ministry, there were a number, and undoubtedly most of them are in heaven, who prayed that my ministry would be crowned, and crowned in a very singular way.

[17:31] Allow me just this personal word. What they prayed for was this, that it would be crowned in this manner, that I should take my own wife first through the waters of baptism, as my sister in the Lord.

[17:50] And the Lord did it. And when we stood at the top of the pool and went into the water, I knew that the Lord had crowned my ministry. Now this is a harvest.

[18:01] It's an in-gathering. Are any of you here about to be gathered in? We greatly rejoice in the harvest of corn and of all edible fruits.

[18:16] Because we should be in an awful state apart from this. But we rejoice greatly and abundantly in the harvest of souls.

[18:30] When the Lord had quickened and blessed the woman of Samaria, that erstwhile, sinful woman, that immoral character, when he had called her, and then she went back and said, Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did.

[18:57] Is not this the Christ? You know the word that the Lord gave to his disciples? Say not there are four months and then cometh harvest.

[19:10] Lift up your eyes and behold, for the fields are white already to harvest. What did he mean? He meant that so many souls in Samaria had been quickened and called by him, partly through the instrumentality of that woman and others, that there were such a number of precious souls.

[19:35] It was the fields were wiped, ready for harvest. So, I want to bring before you this subject. Are you about to be garnered into the church of God?

[19:51] If so, the Lord will so influence your soul with his divine love and heavenly influences, and you'll feel a delight in running in his ways, and you'll be made sweetly willing, and you will not be able to delay it.

[20:10] You will say, dear Lord, the ardor of thy love reprudes my cold delights, and now my willing footsteps move in thy delightful ways.

[20:24] Look, if the Lord has blessed your soul and favoured you, you don't deny. Give him the glory, and in this sense, put a crown on his head, for on his head were many crowns.

[20:40] So, he crowneth the year with his goodness. This may raise up, by the Spirit, faith in your soul, to believe that he will crown 1975 with his goodness.

[20:59] That not only have you harvested your corn, that you will see the harvest of souls. It may be apt, and apt as I, just to quote that well-known Catholic, if you tarry, till you're better, you'll never come at all.

[21:25] Now, another harvest, and the harvest that I have already referred to, is that of the Lord's signs being garnered into glory. I have been associated with Affington for many years.

[21:41] I have seen precious souls fully ripe for this heavenly harvest. And so, I thank God that he is that precious cornerstone.

[21:57] those in heaven and those on earth are united in him. I do not say, concerning them, I did love them.

[22:08] I say, I do love them. It's not a thing of the past. So, there is this, crowning the year with his goodness.

[22:22] You know, my friend, it will be the best year that you've ever known, when he gathers you home to glory. And there is an anointing for one's burial.

[22:37] And there are a number of sweet foretastes. And some of us, even here now, this evening, we are able to testify that even this year, we have had a few foretastes of heaven.

[22:55] When you get those foretastes, your heart will be so full of the love of God that you'll know that you're going to bliss. It's a wonderful thing to have the rich and full assurance that you're going to heaven to be with your Savior.

[23:14] So, there will be a harvest. There has been a harvest recently at Grove, at Croydon, at Rutherfield, and at the Dicker.

[23:31] Several precious souls, fully ripe, have been crowned. The Lord has crowned the year with his goodness. They now have the crown of immortality, eternal life, heavenly bliss.

[23:49] Think of the wonder of it. Ask the Lord to prepare you for this harvest when you'll be gathered into his barn. For the char shall be burnt with unquenchable fire, but the wheat is gathered into his barn, into glory.

[24:12] What is your hope? Look, it's not a matter of how much religion you know mentally or in your flesh.

[24:28] It is a matter of having in your soul the saving work of the Holy Ghost, a knowledge of your ruin and pollution, of your lost state in the fall and by actual transgression and a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[24:52] You'll be gathered. The Spirit will deepen his work and complete it and ripen you. And when he has ripened you, you'll be harvested.

[25:03] You'll be crowned. What a crown! The glory of that crown exceeds the glory of the mighty orb in the firmament, the sun.

[25:20] And let me just say this to you before I go further. Where will this take you? Because I want to show you how the Lord crowns his people here below and then at the blessed time of their departing.

[25:40] Where will this take you? This crown? I can tell you where it will take you. It will take you to the man of sorrows who is no longer a man of sorrows.

[25:56] He was not a man of sorrows after his resurrection. But to that all through his suffering shortish shit, he was a man of sorrows.

[26:08] It will take you here. Thy temples Emmanuel bled that mine might with glory be crowned.

[26:26] Is that sweet to you? His temples bled that yours might be crowned with glory. Now, I want to speak a little concerning the crown with the people of God as they know it here below.

[26:48] There are several key rudiments in the first part of the start. For instance, it opens us, praise, waiteth for the O God in silence.

[27:01] Waiteth. If you have a living exercise and if you're a praying soul, you have certain things the Lord has promised you and you believe he will accomplish.

[27:19] And when the Lord is pleased to hear your prayer and accomplish those exercises, those spiritual exercises, he places a crown on your head.

[27:32] Take, for instance, the case of our sister Hannah. She had the most distressing path of persecution and also she felt very denied.

[27:52] And then in that temple, although at first misjudged by Eli the priest, he pronounced to her as the mouth of the Lord what the Lord would do for her.

[28:12] She had already told the Lord that if he would give her a man-child, she would give him to the Lord all the days of his life. And Eli said to her, Go in peace.

[28:26] The God of Israel grant thee the petition thou hast desired of him. Praise waiteth for thee, O God inside. Now when the Lord hears your cry, and I cannot doubt this, there are some of you in this chapel tonight that are exercised souls.

[28:47] I don't know what the Lord has laid up in your heart, do I? But if you're deeply exercised praying souls, praise waiteth for thee, O God in Zion.

[29:01] And the same applies to a poor, needy sinner in adversity. You may be in a path of deep adversity and trial.

[29:15] You may have known what it is, even recently, to feel the truth of these words that may sound extreme. Thy soul full of woe shall pass us through hell.

[29:32] But I can tell you something positive. If, poor child of God, you've been walking in the depths, the time will come when he will touch your heart and you'll be able to say this, he knoweth the way that I take, when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

[29:58] Now listen, praise waiteth for thee, O God in Zion. Look at King Hezekiah, the king of Judah, he was in it.

[30:10] And what did he say? What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord? The Lord crowned him with his forgiving love, and he crowned the Lord with honor and praise and gratitude.

[30:33] Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion. And unto thee shall the vow be performed. So, let me take you up on this.

[30:44] You have a living exercise, the Lord will crown it by accomplishing it. What he speaks with his mouth, by his hair he performs.

[31:01] Solomon expresses this, that what the Lord has spoken by his mouth to David my father, he has performed by his hand.

[31:14] And when he performs by his power, what he has spoken with his mouth is crowning you, and you will crown him. Every accomplishment of a living vital exercise is a crown.

[31:30] Every answer to fervent prayer may be groanings which cannot be uttered is a crown. Do you know what it is to have a crown?

[31:43] Now, I want just to take up a few points. This is such an abundant subject. Look, do you know the first crown that ever a poor sinner receives?

[31:54] I can tell you in the canticles we have this word. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart, alluding to an eastern custom that those that were espoused were both crowned.

[32:25] And when they were married, they were both crowned. Now, the first crown that the Lord puts on the soul or head of a poor sinner is when he reveals his dear son to you and fills your soul with love.

[32:43] And then for the first time in your life, you're crowned with loving kindness and tender mercy. In the day of your espousals, in the day of the gladness of your heart, when you're espoused unto the Lord in righteousness, he puts a crown on your head.

[33:03] How many of you have a crown already? And then, the great beauty and wonder of this is, when the Lord brings that soul to all liberty in the gospel, God will by pardoning your sin and washing you so that you're whiter than snow and clothing you with your wedding garment and sanctifying you wholly and making you a righteous person in Christ, the Lord sets this crown of gold on that.

[33:42] How many of you are crowned? Why, bless you, those who know this, they would take you back to the year, to the room, to the sanctuary, to the very place where the Lord came and crowned them.

[33:58] If you're the bride of Christ, he has crowned you. Oh, the wonder of that crown. What a year.

[34:10] I make an inquiry. What year was it when the Lord crowned you? You will not need to search through a score of diaries, I think.

[34:22] You'll be able to say it was in that certain year when the Lord crowned me, when I was brought into full liberty and peace. I knew the pardon of my sin.

[34:35] Now, I want to take you just a little further. What a wonderful concept it is that Jesus wears a special crown.

[34:52] That crown is a crown of glory and honor that relates to his accomplished work of redemption, his victory.

[35:03] glory. When he rose from the tomb and ascended on high and was enthroned in glory, he wears a special crown.

[35:19] It is the crown of glory and honor and every one of the redeemed is a jewel of that crown.

[35:32] And you are a jewel in Christ's crown. And as the jewels of his crown, he'll give them honor, joy, renown, and full felicity.

[35:46] Now, in heaven, he wears that special crown. Are you a jewel in it? A jewel of grace, a jewel of electing love, a jewel of redemption, a jewel of the travel of his soul, a jewel, his very bride, the lamb's wife, an adopted son or daughter.

[36:12] They are the jewels of his crown. Now, why I've said this is his special crown is for this reason. As to his deity, God wears a crown.

[36:28] That crown is his majesty, his essential majesty and glory. He wears this crown.

[36:40] He is king of kings and lord of lords. Jesus has this crown, and the crown that relates to his glorious victory as our great high priest, our shorthy, our mediator.

[36:57] He wears his mediatorial crown. This special crown with all these jewels is redeemed people. Well, I must draw very quickly to a close.

[37:13] There is another sense wherein the people of God know the fulfilling of this word, and that is in a path of trial, the trial of faith, deep sorrow and anxiety and distress.

[37:31] And the Lord sanctifies it and blesses their souls. And let me just aside this.

[37:43] For thou, O God, hast proved us. Thou hast tried us as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net.

[37:56] Thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire. and through water.

[38:09] But thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. He crowned the year with his goodness. But there are some elements here that I must name that Lord will never crown anything apart from faith.

[38:26] Faith. whatever is of faith is honoring to him and he'll crown it. If he gives you faith as a grain of mustard saint, he'll crown that faith.

[38:45] Believe thou that I am able to do this. See, this is it. If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth.

[38:58] He said with tears, don't miss the tears. What it means is this, that dear man had a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.

[39:12] his heart was soft, melted. In love, repentance and worship, he said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief.

[39:25] He crowns whatever is of faith. He crowns everything that is founded and springs from his truth, a promise.

[39:38] He crowns everything that is of the Holy Ghost. nothing else. You can never take anything to God that is not of his spirit and persuade him to crown it.

[39:53] But whatever is of the Holy Ghost he crowns by, let us quote this, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.

[40:04] He crowns it. And he will crown this soul such as he did Joseph and David. He crowns them.

[40:16] He crowned them and he will crown you by delivering you, by vindicating your cause, by bringing you out into a wealthy place, and by granting to you some special tokens of his divine favor and rich blessing.

[40:40] Now, you can take this, those of you who fear God, you can take it as a prayer. I have been doing this now for several weeks.

[40:55] I have been asking the dear Lord to crown the year with his goodness. You see, if you're a child of God, you'll see this almost continually, the Lord crowning things.

[41:11] You have a sacred impression brought upon your spirit. he crowns it by bringing it to pass. You're in deep distress.

[41:24] He gives you a promise. He crowns it with his faithfulness and love. And in your daily life, you'll see the wonders of his fatherly love to you, as we have read just now in the lesson, who crowneth thee, with loving kindness and tender nurses.

[41:54] Now just this word, upon his head were many crowds. This was the view of Christ by John in heaven, as he saw him in heaven.

[42:10] Upon his head were many crowds. let me say this to you, every time the Lord savors you, you'll crown him. Every time his love touches your heart, you'll crown him.

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