Taking our hard causes to the Lord (Quality: Good, beginning missing)

[0:00] The first chapter of the chapter is the conception of one thing, and that is of course at the close of the chapter, at the close of the book rather, the death of Moses is recorded.

[0:19] And this first chapter we read really the content of it in that chapter in Exodus, how that in the wisdom of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, that they, or Moses instituted this help that was given in that he raised up righteous men, those that fear the Lord, who heard the various complaints and arguments of Israel and dealt with them, and thus relieved Moses from these tasks that he undertook every day.

[1:07] But with this exception, that the hard causes, those difficult things which only he was given of God the wisdom to deal with, these hard causes they shall bring to him.

[1:26] Verse 17 reads, Now, throughout Moses' 40 years in the wilderness, He very often showed the office of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2:05] He was a type of Christ in many ways. And particularly, of course, in this that Moses stood between Israel and God.

[2:17] Israel was God's national people, his love was placed upon them, and they were his sons and daughters.

[2:30] But there was one raised up in Moses who was to be the mouthpiece of God to them, and to whom they should also seek to bring their grievances and their troubles to Moses, for him to speak to God concerning them.

[2:51] So in that respect, he was a type of the Lord Jesus. He interceded many a time, and the justice of God was turned away from his sinful people many a time.

[3:05] One case particularly comes to mind. You remember when they built an idol from their riches that they had taken out of Egypt, Moses said, If the Lord did not have mercy upon his national people, that he should blot Moses' name out of the book of life.

[3:27] How solemn was the argument and the exercise of Moses concerning God's national people, that the wrath of God should not be poured out upon them.

[3:41] But as he was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, in this occasion that we have read this morning, so may our exercise be, and may our eyes too, the eyes of our faith, be drawn away from Moses unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:00] And to see that this clause that we have read, this 17th verse, may be sweetly and preciously written upon your heart and mine in these gospel days, and that we, I trust and believe, may be found amongst the spiritual Israel of God who has this provision granted to them and this way of escape to be given them, that they may bring the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it.

[4:37] And in the provision of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, both as the office bearer of the church, he bears the office in glory of one who stands between, he mediates, he is the mediator before God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

[5:03] Now, it is also a great mercy, my friends, when you are able, as the Holy Spirit so enables you in your pathway to see this truth and to lay hold of the truth and indeed plead the truth of that precious name of the mediator as you pray.

[5:24] Now, if you are a child of grace, if God has granted you his divine grace, you will have in your walk and pathway those things which are too hard for you.

[5:40] I know the world has its troubles. We must never forget that, my friends. Trouble is, man is born unto trouble.

[5:51] I believe it says in the book of Job, man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. we cannot differentiate between a child of God and the world in this respect that because of sin there is trouble where the sin is always suffering.

[6:08] But there are those special troubles and particular troubles and singular troubles and personal troubles of which a child of God only is to know.

[6:22] now these are the causes that I hope the Lord will so bring us together around his word today or at least this morning to speak of.

[6:33] These are the causes that I want to refer to. They are causes that are too hard for you. And whether it is in providence or whether it is in grace, my friends, they will be too hard for you.

[6:49] And it is a great mercy when you are unable to rest your trouble and your burden and your care upon the mediator upon one who stands between the calls that is too hard for you.

[7:08] We might also say this and it would be true, would it not? My friends, how many of us if our lives were somewhat smooth and uneventful and there was no hindrance or crook in the lot, if it was all peaceful and smooth, well, what sort of prayers would we offer unto our God?

[7:33] Not that trouble in itself will teach you and I to pray, that cannot be so. There is only one that shall teach and that's the Holy Ghost. But it does indeed come to pass that the life and walk and pathway, tribulation or affliction or cross or loss, being sanctified of God to our soul, brings us to the throne of grace and enables us to cast the burden of these things upon him.

[8:05] Now, what then are these causes that is too hard for you? What are these matters? I would say this without indeed disowning the scriptures of truth that you know, there was various hard things that must have come to Moses.

[8:26] But there were some things that even Moses couldn't deal with. And the provision of those hard things which Moses couldn't deal with was in this that God had provided the means of a sacrifice.

[8:40] because there was one higher than Moses. There was one who dealt wisdom and justice and judged righteously and that was Israel's God.

[8:52] My friends, though we have read in Exodus of the provision of delegation that Moses made to these judges that would help him, my friends, Moses himself was but a sinner and he was limited in his wisdom and he was limited in his ability and he was limited too because of what it might have been was brought to him.

[9:19] They were things of time that were brought to him. They were disputes, hard disputes between perhaps the children of Israel from one family to another or from one tribe to another, shall we say.

[9:34] My friends, the things of the soul, those spiritual things which those that feared the Lord would know and walk in and understand.

[9:45] My friends, Moses couldn't deal with those. There is a provision in the old covenant, you know, for the sins of a sinner and you may read it as you read the way in which the law of Moses and the Levitical dispensation was understood.

[10:09] A sinner was to bring his sins unto God and through the sacrifice he should make confession and repentance.

[10:21] I want to be clear on that because we must not look upon Moses as being the last result to the troubles of Israel. In the certain sense, of course, he was, but not concerning the sins of Israel.

[10:37] And we read in the first book of the Leviticus, if his offering, that is, any of the children of Israel, if his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish, he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, and he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

[11:07] Now, my friends, atonement is only needed where sin is confessed. Now, Moses couldn't do that. My friends, you can't take your sins to whoever you may feel is God's provision in Zion.

[11:25] You know, there's many a foolish person that would take their sins to the priest. I've heard it said, you know, and it's one of the most solemn, deceitful things to say, that the priest has this responsibility of God that he can give absolution.

[11:46] My friends, he never can. He never can. My friends, he's deceived and so is those that come to him. There's no place in the church of Christ for a priest, not here on earth.

[11:59] we have a great high priest which is ascended into the heavens, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, that blessed place is the place where sinners may come and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it.

[12:17] Now, you will not know this cause unless and until grace is so given to your soul.

[12:28] The free gift of God is grace. In that chapter that the apostle wrote into the Ephesian church, he makes it abundantly clear concerning the gift of grace.

[12:46] As he so simply and so graciously writes to the Ephesian church respecting the grace of God and the effect of the grace of God, he says this, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

[13:10] Now, a God given gift of grace in the soul will be life giving, in itself it is life giving. A soul without grace is spiritually dead, a soul with grace is spiritually alive, and a soul that is spiritually alive is made aware of burdens and cares that the world know nothing of, and are brought to know this cause that is too hard for you.

[13:43] My friends, do you know that cause? Do you know that burden? What does the effect of that burden have on you? My friends, the effect of sin upon the Saviour was that he groaned being burdened.

[13:59] The effect of sin upon the Saviour, and I want to be very, very careful and very reverent in what I say of the Lord Jesus Christ. It didn't make him a sinner, my friends, but when he bore the sins of many, he groaned under that burden.

[14:14] and it was this too that so affected the very spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ in his groanings under the burden of the sins of his church.

[14:27] he cried unto his God, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? When under the burden of the sins of the church in Gethsemane's garden, my friends, he sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

[14:45] and under the burden of the sins of a soul, you know, we read, we can read the words of sinners in the scriptures.

[14:59] My friends, aware of the cause that is too hard for you, my friends, it brings them to this one place and one place only for relief.

[15:10] And we sang an opening hymn, that hymn that's based on the publican's prayer, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. My friends, there's hope, there's hope for such sinners.

[15:24] Let us keep to the scriptures and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it. I said last Sunday, those who seek shall find. And that's not words of false comfort, that's the word of truth.

[15:40] My friends, a seeker will, a spiritual seeker, a seeker is a one under divine grace that seeks for mercy through Jesus Christ. My friends, they will find it and they will find it to the joy and rejoicing of their heart.

[15:55] But this calls, it is said by the poet, here on my heart the burden lies and past offences pain my eyes.

[16:06] Do you grieve over past offences? Is it a cause too hard? Do you say in effect to the Lord as did the public? Do you draw near like the jailer?

[16:19] My friends, these prayers of God's dear seeking ones are left there because they shall teach us and they shall indeed be the expressions of our own prayers.

[16:31] What was it the jailer said? Sirs, what must I do to be saved? My friends, he was aware of his sinnership. He knew what it was to be burdened with sin.

[16:42] Think again, I believe I said recently that the woman in the Pharisee's house, if this man was a prophet, he would know what sort of woman this was.

[16:53] Think of the woman who sat at the well of Samaria with the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, who was to know this, who was taught by the Lord Jesus Christ the cause that was too hard for her.

[17:08] Think of the remedy, my friends, the cause that is too hard for you. Bring it unto me and I will bear it. I will hear it. What did she say to the men of the city?

[17:20] Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Could you say that? My friends, could you testify to that truth?

[17:32] There's been that sweet conversation, sacred conversation, the prayerful words of your very soul as you pour out your sins before the Lord that calls that is too hard for you.

[17:47] You know, I've often said, my friends, and they are words of truth, I trust, you can't mend your ways to suit your old nature, and you won't deceive the judge either at the judgment day.

[17:59] My friends, reformation comes from regeneration. It's not before, you don't get a bit better before you're regenerated into divine life. My friends, there's no getting betters of old nature either.

[18:13] If you know what it is to have a sinful nature, you will live with that sinful nature, till it's dropped into the grave. The cause that is too hard for you.

[18:24] My friends, who can deal with sin? My friends, it's no good saying, well, I can give this thing up and that thing up because the underlying root of sin dwells within us.

[18:36] We sin in thought or word or in deed and the mercy is if God makes us conscious of it. My friends, it makes us feel ashamed. The depths of iniquity that our heart comes into and our thoughts and our walk and our pathway the cause.

[18:55] My friends, there is this we must say too. We would line this word up with the poet's words. Daily I'd repent of sin. Daily wash in Calvary's blood.

[19:08] I'm sure of this you know that some of these characters who came to Moses in the wilderness journey when their hard cases didn't come once. I'm sure that there would have been another time.

[19:21] There would have been another time when they would have come. And perhaps the cause there was even greater. And the cause that is too hard for you. Bring it unto me and I will hear it.

[19:33] My friends, what a mercy. Oh, if you've ever loved the gospel, my friends, this is the sum and substance of the gospel. True repentance is the gift of God.

[19:45] True confession is the work of the spirit within. But it's the mercy, my friends, in the once crucified, now glorified person of Christ, that who stands between.

[19:56] it is unto him that such characters come with their iniquities, with their slips, with their falls. Oh, you know, there's, I suppose really when you think about it, there's such a lot of emphasis made of prayer because of the hard things of life, you know, affliction or turmoil in the walk and pathway.

[20:23] things happen and trials come and afflictions come upon us and well, my friends, what a mercy is, we've got a throne of grace, but the all-important mercy and the greatest mercy of them all is that God in Christ has made a way where the burden of Israel may come with their sins and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it.

[20:51] But then the person of Christ, the sin-bearer, one who suffered in the room and place instead of all those of his church, my friends, one who suffered the just for the unjust.

[21:10] I just thought of a line then of a hymn, I think it's the 144th hymn, and he said, I'll point to his redeeming blood and say, behold the way to God.

[21:24] As we've reminded you of the sinner in Israel in the days of Moses, there was a provision made for him, he should come to the priest and he should bring a sacrifice and he should put his hand on the sacrifice and that sacrifice would make atonement for him.

[21:42] That is where your sins will be removed. My friends, the atonement of Christ, how often do you know the need of it? And might I say, how often do you have to plead the atonement of Christ?

[21:57] Because the atonement of Christ was a substitution of the atonement. It was for sinners. It was for those who come to God and the cause that is too hard for you.

[22:13] Well, how often will you have to come? Perhaps you might feel like some do, that you've only got the common ones. Perhaps there are those, even that meet in our chapels, that think that the blessing of forgiveness, then that's all you need to attain.

[22:31] And you don't need to worry about any more about sin. My friends, one of the greatest mercies you and I will ever know, if so it may please the Lord to apply such a mercy, is the pardon of sin.

[22:47] Oh, those sweet words which that woman in the Pharisee's house was to hear. And she heard them from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the case of one who was born of four that came to Christ for healing from the affliction of the palsy.

[23:07] And the first blessing that that man was to know, and he had two blessings. The first blessing that he would know, that his sins were pardoned. And all the uproar that it caused.

[23:19] The Pharisee said who could forgive sins but God only. My friends, God in Christ could forgive sins and did so. They brought him to Jesus for healing of his affliction and the Lord Jesus Christ touched the root of the affliction which was sin within.

[23:41] my friends, if you know not forgiveness and the peace of forgiveness and the pardon that follows forgiveness, may the Lord so burden your soul with the need of it.

[23:54] But let me say this, you'll come again. You'll come again. As sure as your lives are spared to continue, you'll come again my friends.

[24:05] I'm sure this, you know, those saints of God, those records in the scriptures, you remember Simeon in the temple at the approach of Christ.

[24:18] He was told that he would not see the Lord's death till he saw the Lord's Christ. He wouldn't see death, he wouldn't pass into eternity till he had this view of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[24:30] My friends, it satisfied him. And he said, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And I'm not going to put into scriptures what are not there, but I do know this, my friends, if he lived longer, when his day of his death come, it was not recorded in the scriptures, so we mustn't form any opinion.

[24:54] But if he lived another day longer, I'm sure of this, that he would want the blessing renewed. When that man who is recorded in the eighth of the Acts of the Apostles was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, we read he went on his way rejoicing.

[25:17] And again, the scriptures are silent. My friends, but experience tells us that those days of rejoicing, they need renewing, they need reviving in our soul.

[25:29] Oh, such that know then, the sweets of forgiveness and pardon, the putting away of iniquity, the application and experience of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the heart and conscience.

[25:44] My friends, they will come into times when they'll long for it again. I told you the story of one who said to me that we shouldn't keep talking about sin, it's all finished with, it's all finished and now we don't have to worry any more about iniquity.

[26:05] And sin is dead and I said, well, I must say to you this truth, if your heart's dead, mine's not, it's very much alive and it can do nothing but sin. And I must seek and I believe all believers will seek again and again for the blessing of forgiveness and pardon.

[26:23] pardon. But oh, the calls, the calls that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it. My friends, you can't take it elsewhere.

[26:36] You can't even speak about it elsewhere. There's no good talking to your fellow men or your fellow members either about your iniquities as far as to try to draw comfort from their words.

[26:51] my friends, there's only comfort when the Lord's in the matter. There's only peace and there's only blessing and there's only mercy, my friends, when the Lord speaks.

[27:03] When he who hates thy transgression, the hymn writer, one of my favorite hymns, if I may say so, is this.

[27:14] Though his majesty be great, yet his mercy is no less. Though he thy transgressions hate, Jesus feels for thy distress.

[27:29] Raise thy downcast eyes and see, numbers do his throne surround. They were sinners once like thee, but of full salvation found.

[27:41] Yield not then to unbelief, courage soul there yet his room. Though of sinners, thou art chief. Come, thou burdened sinner, come.

[27:54] Oh, my friends, if you need to pray for something in the house of God, pray that we might have burdened sinners here. They'll understand the text. My friends, they'll understand the pathway.

[28:07] Burdened sinners. They're not ignorant of what it is to have a cause that is too hard for them. My friends, it doesn't rest with your needs in providence, great as they are.

[28:19] They are hard causes. They are difficult things. My friends, but there's a greater burden and it's a greater cause than the cause of your soul. And the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it.

[28:36] Think of that, we spoke the other day too here, or just dropped in a word about the dying thief. the man who went to heaven with assurance. My friends, as he approached the saviour, not physically of course because they were each nailed to the tree, but all that approach by faith to Christ.

[28:56] The cause are just too hard. My friends, I would say this in all love and affection, if you was more and I was more too concerned with our dwelling place in eternity, then our dwelling place here it would be better, wouldn't it?

[29:12] It would show the exercise. My friends, it would show that we put first things first. The Lord blessed us with the comforts of life and he enabled us to thank him for them.

[29:25] My friends, but we should be more concerned when we're going to dwell in eternity. How stands the case, my soul, with thee? Is heaven thy credentials clear? Is Jesus' blood thine only plea?

[29:38] Is he thy great forerunner there? That should be your exercise and mine. I love to meet among them now and at his gracious feet to bow, though vilest of them all.

[29:49] And can I bear the piercing thought, what if my name shall be left out? When thou for them shalt call. The cause that is too hard. Where will you live for eternity, my friends?

[30:02] Where will your place be? On what side of the great judgment throne of Christ will you stand? Who's your company there will be your company now? My friends, if you dwell among the sheep, you'll be with the sheep there.

[30:17] If you dwell among the goats, you'll be with the goats there. My friends, if your heart's in the world, the world will be there and it will be consigned where hope and mercy can never come. But if you dwell with a few poor sinners, with grace in your soul, you'll be with Christ, which is far better.

[30:32] The cause that is too hard for you. Let me touch something else which is ever so, ever so important to some people. My friends, the importance of dress.

[30:45] Oh, what a lot of effort and time is spent on dress. What we shall wear and what we shalt wear. My friends, do you ever seek to know whether you're dressed in the righteousness of Christ?

[30:59] And that alone will be the all-sufficient seal and comfort, my friends, at the judgment day. Oh, you're saying, well, we've made a dress of profession.

[31:09] We've got a dress of profession. It'll need washing. My friends, but if you're clothed in the righteousness of Christ, it will never need washing. Because it's pure, because it's given, and because it's worked out of Calvary.

[31:22] It's imputed to every grace-taught soul. Oh, the cause. My friends, these things multiply in the exercise. What, my friends, should be a burden to your soul and mine as we approach eternity.

[31:37] How shall we be dressed? You know the parable of one who came to the wedding feast and he hadn't got on a wedding garment. My friends, he was soon put out, wasn't he?

[31:50] And there shall be wailing a gnashing of teeth. How many are exercised in what they shall wear as they stand at the judgment day? My friends, it's approaching us all.

[32:02] The cause that is too hard for you. Well, if you thought today that you might hear just providential trials, we shall mention providential trials. But far above all providential trials, my friends, are the things that your soul is in need of.

[32:17] And all that you may be in God's hands and through the Spirit so exercise us that we may seek to know these things. That it may burden us and we may bring it unto him.

[32:29] That we may stand in that great day bold. Not bold in our own self-righteousness. You should look at the case of the Pharisee and the publican. They went to the temple to pray.

[32:41] One was dressed in self-righteousness. And the other one was dressed in rags of repentance and confession. My friends, one stood upon his good works and pleaded them.

[32:53] Told everybody what he did. And there was his self-righteous self projected before men. My friends, but God sees the heart. And the poor publican who pleaded his sins before the Lord was, well, in the words of the Savior, he was justified.

[33:15] Justified. the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me. And I will hear it. My friends, these are all important causes.

[33:26] They're all important causes. Then again, my friends, let me remind you of something else which is should be a cause of a burden. A cause too hard for you.

[33:38] It should be an exercise of your soul. Should be something, my friends, may it please the Lord, so burden you with it that it may bring you to the mercy seat till you indeed enjoy and know it and walk under the sweet blessing of that gift, my friends, and that is washing.

[33:58] Washing. Do you feel to need washing? The cause that is too hard for you, my friends. If you know the guilt of sin, you'll know the need of washing. And as gracious as the Lord may so teach you and lead you and bring you on, you'll know everything you need, everything you do, my friends.

[34:18] I have to plead. I do. Before the Lord, he only knows, I have to plead that everything done in the Lord's house is to be washed, you know, because it's tainted with sin. Everything, my friends, do you need washing?

[34:33] Are you defiled in your own eyes? What was the complaint of the bride? My friends, what was her cry when she spoke before the bridegroom?

[34:44] I am black, but comely. My friends, that's how she felt. I am black. She compared herself to the bridegroom, my friends, and she got those things which distressed her.

[35:01] She was black. The cause that is too hard for you. Bring it unto me, and I will hear it. I want to talk also about the ordinances. The time's gone now, but the ordinances of the Lord's house are often more of an exercise to some than really they should be.

[35:24] And I want to be very careful. The Lord exercise us all, respecting the ordinances of his house. I looked before I came, I believe before I came away, or perhaps in the vestra, I can't remember now, but you know, in the gospel, I think it's according to Matthew.

[35:44] I believe it's Matthew's gospel. As the Lord Jesus Christ sends his disciples into the world to preach. No, it's not in Matthew, but it is an all-important word, really.

[36:01] People make, yes, in the gospel of Matthew, the Lord knows the true exercise of his ordinances. But, my friends, it's what is essential to salvation.

[36:13] Now, when he commissioned those disciples to preach, he said this, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Not he that is baptized and believeth.

[36:28] But he that believeth not shall be damned. My friends, the cause that is too hard, what it is to be a believer, it's not something that gives lip service to truth.

[36:39] It is something, it is someone who knows the truth by experience. That's a believer. And the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me. Do you, my friends, mourn before the Lord, respecting whether you stand among believers, whether you stand with those who we might call that are possessors of the grace that they indeed delight in.

[37:07] My friends, there's a great difference, you know. There's a great difference between a professor and a possessor. Oh, there is. There's a, you know, there's an eternal difference between a professor of religion, one that professes religion, and one that possesses the grace of God.

[37:25] I'm sure of this, all believers, all true believers in Jesus Christ, want it known, confirmed, and sweetly applied again and again.

[37:36] But we must leave the word for this morning. And the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. Amen. Amen. Amen. The notices are as follows.

[37:52] God willing, there's a prayer meeting Wednesday, and next Lord's Day, there's a reading service in the morning, and I hope to be here in the evening. The closing hymn 739.

[38:04] No helping self I find, and yet have sought it well.

[38:37] The native treasure of my mind is sin and death and hell. To Christ for help I fly, the friend of sinners lost, a refuge sweet and sure and nigh, and there is all my trust.

[38:53] Seven hundred and thirty-nine. Amen. Many hearts seven hundred and thirty-nine.

[39:09] Fort you Let us out it while The native church along my hand The sin that death come to us To Christ's Father Thy pride The breath of sin as lost

[40:10] The wretched sweet And shall not die But there is all I trust Lord, God, be in relaxes Until I may set side But there I say Thy darling bless

[41:15] And there my lips With my name With every age I love thee Thy love The sounding man That save me From the name of death That save me Is heavenly heaven

[42:17] And where the hour is dear That flesh of God will play Do thou in all thy grace appear And let thy grace be free Dear Lord, so teach us, Lord, these causes that are too hard for us.

[43:24] Lord, the importance of real things. Who should not be left, Lord, to be satisfied with just the tremings of religion. Lord, forgive what has been said amiss.

[43:38] Bring us together this evening in thy house and grant us more of thy spirit. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit remain with us.

[43:58] Amen.