That which makes Israel happy (Quality: Good)

[0:00] I am dependent entirely upon the Lord. For his help I ask your attention to the chapter we read, the 33rd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy and verse 29.

[0:16] The 33rd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy and the 29th verse. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency.

[0:44] And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency.

[1:09] And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. The book of Deuteronomy covers somewhat about two months, I believe, of the journey of the people of Israel to Canyon.

[1:31] And as you know, it was the last book that was written, first before they came to Canyon, or to Jordan, and then it was the last record that Moses made.

[1:49] For in the following chapter, Moses was taken to his eternal rest, according to the word of God. And this 33rd chapter, as you are well aware by the very description, is the blessing of Moses to Israel.

[2:15] They were on the borders of Jordan. They were soon to enter into Jordan, and they shall be taken into that canyon of which was promised them.

[2:32] Throughout this book, as again I'm sure you know, Moses is able to consider the pathway of which Israel had been led.

[2:43] And these words that are here, in this 33rd chapter is the closing, they're not only of the book, but of his own pathway, and of Israel's 40 years' journey.

[3:01] And those tribes of which he pronounced the blessing. But the word in the text is not for a tribe, but it is for all Israel.

[3:13] And it is a remarkable word, really, because it is written for Israel and about Israel. And yet Israel, as the people of God, were a most difficult nation, a most sinful nation at times.

[3:34] As you know, the record of the word of God tells us that they often sinned against their God, often were found in a rebellious state, often wished themselves back in Egypt, where there was plenty, as far as the sustenance they needed for their life.

[3:59] They fought against Moses and against the God of Israel. But here they are at the end of the journey, and they were in sight of Canaan.

[4:16] Now, the word, of course, it would seem at times to be absolutely contrary to what they were. Moses said of Israel, Well, happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee.

[4:36] Well, you would say, if you look at their sinful pathway, well, there's anything but happy. They were often rebellious, often raised up opposition to Moses and to God.

[4:49] God dealt with them in judgment. Many of them perished in the wilderness. And in various ways, he dealt with them, chastened them for their sins.

[5:01] At one time, he said he would not go with them, but that he would send an angel before them. But the blessing is Israel's as a people.

[5:13] It's not personal blessing. It is a blessing for the whole of Israel that they are a people who are happy.

[5:26] Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee. Now, I want to look at one or two things which will agree with the word of God or the word of Moses in this 29th verse.

[5:45] What is it that makes Israel happy? And I believe that word happiness does not necessarily mean what we may immediately come to the conclusion that they were in a state of joy and gladness every day of their 40 years.

[6:03] We know it was not so. We know it was not so. No more than you and I can be constantly in a state of joy and gladness in the pilgrimage journey that we are embarked upon if we are of the spiritual Israel of God.

[6:19] But it is their lot, it is their blessings, it is the mercies that they are the subjects of, that would describe them as a people that are happy.

[6:33] They are not happy, you say, if their lot is so contrary to what they would want. Now, that would be so, of course. No more than you and I have a natural happiness if the lot or the pathway that we are walking seems so contrary.

[6:51] But let us look then at those things which are Israel's by the mercy and goodness and compassion of God that would indeed in the possession of them we would have to say they were a most blessed people.

[7:09] Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord. Well, the first obvious blessing which rested upon the Israel of God was that they were God's people.

[7:28] They were not God's people by their choice. They were God's people by his choice. Now, that is the privilege of the Israel of old.

[7:40] That is the privilege of the spiritual Israel of God. They are a people that are chosen of God. You may know, and I'm sure you do if you read your Bible, the Lord has caused it to be written that they are a people unto God.

[8:00] In the seventh chapter, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

[8:18] We have even in that old covenant description there, we have divine sovereignty. For the word of God tells us that it is God's choice that they were his.

[8:32] And if we had read on, and you may read that in the seventh chapter, that they were a people whom God has placed his love upon. it is obviously then that in the natural Israel, the Jews of old, there is those comparisons, and we must be careful there are comparisons between the natural and the spiritual.

[8:58] The spiritual Israel of God are a people whom have been chosen. and they are a people whom have been loved.

[9:09] God places his love upon his spiritual Israel and never removes it. The Jews today are as much the chosen people of God as they were when they came out of Egypt.

[9:25] You may trace, if you are historically minded, you may trace the nation of the Jews through various times in their existence.

[9:36] And they are still God's national people. And every land that has raised itself against the Jews have not prospered.

[9:47] And the Jews today are a special people unto God. Not in the way, of course, not in a saving way as yet, but in that covenant which God ordained for them, they still remain his people.

[10:05] Happy art thou, O Israel, who is a people like unto thee, they are the people of God. And so it is with the Church of Christ. The spiritual Israel of God, they were chosen.

[10:21] And they were chosen out of lost mankind. Israel, of course, was in bondage in Egypt under taskmasters.

[10:33] And there was no deliverance from those taskmasters. They were given to do that work which was very arduous, very serious, and very distressing because we read that they cried by reason of their taskmasters.

[10:58] They were in bondage. Now, happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people, that this God, the God of Israel, delivered them from the bondage of Egypt.

[11:13] Now, that is a mark that all the Jews have upon them that they are a people whom God has delivered.

[11:24] Now, that blessing, that mercy, that intervention, that provision, that deliverance shall be known by the spiritual Israel of God by birth and by practice.

[11:39] we are in the bondage and captivity of Satan. The carnal mind is enmity against God, the apostle wrote in the 8th of Romans.

[11:56] And, my friends, we, by nature, are in bondage unto Satan, by nature. But, God, through his only beloved Son, and through the covenant of grace and mercy, has provided a deliverer.

[12:15] Happy art thou, O Israel. Are you still in bondage? My friends, don't say no. Don't say no. Because you can be brought back into bondage.

[12:30] Sin, that iniquity within, that transgression of the old nature, can put you back into bondage. Oh, if you are left to the fall, if you're born under the fall of man, and you're born as a sinner, and born destitute of spiritual life, and through the mercy of his divine grace, and the power of that grace working within, there is a deliverance from the bondage of sin, and the bondage of iniquity.

[13:08] There is, and shall be to every grace taught soul, the time of blessing, when there shall be a bringing out of captivity. But you know, it is solemnly possible to enter into captivity again.

[13:23] these Jews of old would want to be back in captivity, because of their providential life would have been more comfortable. They lost sight of the taskmasters who so ill-treated them, rather than they would rather be back into Egypt, rather than to travel the 40 years in the wilderness.

[13:47] But it is possible to be back into bondage. Happy art thou, O Israel, who has a deliverer, who has made a way for his children, and his spiritual children, that they shall be brought out of Satan's captivity, and out of the bondage of this world of sin and woe.

[14:09] We might look, very briefly, because it is a sweet word, we might look, my friends, at the way that God delivered his people from Egyptian bondage, and he brought them out under the shed blood.

[14:26] Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord. My friends, when the world has all your heart, you are under captivity.

[14:40] When the things of time and sense are like a chain to you, you are in bondage. When you are in the darkness distress and distress of soul because of sin and Satan, my friends, you and I shall know what it is to be delivered, to need to be delivered from it.

[15:01] You know, there is one thing that Israel had, I was going to say to their credit, was that they sighed and they groaned under bondage. They desired to be delivered from bondage and their tears, their cries, their supplications entered into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth.

[15:24] It is a good mark, my friends, if you feel the bondage of Satan and you feel the captivity of sin and you are brought to mourn over it.

[15:36] Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord. O to mourn I have written to beg of the Lord.

[15:49] You know, that word in Isaiah comes in to my mind where the prophet writes, O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.

[16:07] Israel cried unto Israel's God, sinners in the bondage of Satan and under the effect of the captivity of sin, will be brought to cry unto their deliverer, Jesus Christ the righteous.

[16:23] My friends, our blessed people, you often hear it said, because our examples, and the examples and the patterns of holy writ will be the pathway and examples that you will understand if you are in Satan's captivity.

[16:40] And the publicans' cry, God be merciful unto me, a sinner, was the cry of one who knew he was in the bondage and captivity of sin, and had a cry in his heart unto Israel's God, and that means spiritual Israel's God, that he might be delivered not only from the power of sin and of captivity, but of the condemnation of sin that he was in, and we read that he was justified.

[17:09] Not justified because he prayed, but justified only in the provision that God had made, he was justified in the sacrifice of the Son of God.

[17:25] Happy art thou, O Israel, do you cry to be delivered from bondage? What bondage you say? Well, you only have to look at the world and they don't seem to be any in bondage.

[17:37] They don't know that they are in bondage. They are in the bondage of sin, they are in the bondage of unregeneracy, they are in captivity of Satan, he's gained their heart, and but for sovereign grace they live and die in that captivity.

[17:53] My friends, God will provide for his people the means of deliverance. As he provided for Israel and Egypt, it was through the shed blood, it was through the sacrifice of a lamb and it was a substitutional sacrifice and it brought them out of Egypt.

[18:12] The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are and when I see the blood I will pass over you.

[18:23] Does sin hold you in captivity? My friends, sin needs to be removed then. and you say, well there's only one thing that can remove the sin and that's the blood of Christ, nothing else.

[18:39] Oh, how often, my friends, do you plead to know the effect of the application of that shed blood. You know, there was a sacrifice made in every house in Israel.

[18:55] A life was taken and that was the life of the lamb. But that blood was taken too and that blood was to be used. And it would be of no avail, no protection, no provision if that blood was not used and applied in the way in which God said it must be.

[19:20] Because it was only the application of that blood on the lintel and doorposts that was the protection of the Israel of God within those houses.

[19:34] My friends, God has provided himself a lamb. And the blood of that lamb is the protection. But it is also the means which God has used and will use but only in the application of it to the souls of sinners that they shall then be brought out of captivity.

[19:58] Happy art thou, O Israel. For this respect, they are a people that are delivered from the bondage of sin. They are a people who are delivered from the kingdom of Satan.

[20:13] What a blessed people they are. That lovely hymn in our book, if I can find it, is very sweet, because it speaks of the way the Lord leads his people.

[20:28] The appointed time rolls on a pace not to propose, but call by grace to change the heart, renew the will, and turn the feet to Zion's hill.

[20:41] And that other hymn that we occasionally sing, which speaks of the way the Lord so works in experience in the heart.

[20:54] The more I strove against its power, I sinned and stumbled, but the more, till late I heard my Saviour say, come hither soul, I am the way.

[21:07] Lo, glad I come, and thou blessed lamb shall take me to thee as I am. Nothing but sin I thee can give, nothing but love shall I receive.

[21:19] That's a very sweet place you know to be, painful place, but a blessed place. You know happiness then, and you know true inward happiness.

[21:35] Circumstances may not change, but oh, the inward joy of a believer. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord.

[21:47] God. Now this people then was delivered from the bondage of Egypt and this spiritual people that we try to hold fast to in this text shall be forever delivered from the bondage of sin.

[22:08] But that doesn't mean my friends that you and I shall need it, need this precious blood over and over again. it was shed once for sinners.

[22:19] It is to be applied that sin may be removed, but you'll have fresh realisation of sin. You'll have fresh evidences within that you'll need the blood again.

[22:35] You'll find in the pathway that the distress of sin will bring you once more to seek for that application of the blood.

[22:46] They were delivered once out of Egypt by the shed blood. God recognised the blood. That blood was a means of protection. It was the evidence too that those under the blood were his people.

[23:03] It is a recognised truth that those under the blood were those who were safe from the destroying angel.

[23:14] Happy art now O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. Now, we would stop for a moment here and look at these words.

[23:28] Who is like unto thee? Who is there of people that you could compare with whose lot, whose present and future, is such a blessed and such a sacred mercy to them?

[23:47] My friends, if you should roam the whole wide world in your thoughts, or throughout the land in which we live, who is a people like unto thee?

[23:59] Can you find a people that are so more compatible to your exercises than the Lord's people? Can you find a people whom you can walk with and talk with more than you can with the people and children of God?

[24:16] Who is a people? Who can you describe? What can you describe of a people that is Israel of old? Who has Israel's God for their God?

[24:27] Who, under the power and authority of that God, is not only saved from sin, but delivered from bondage? happy art thou, O Israel.

[24:39] You know, my friends, there's a word that you and I must learn as we travel on, if we are gracious, and that is what it means to be kept. You know, when we hear of the slips and falls of the Lord's dear people, oh, that we might be given grace to mourn over them and to pray for them, that they may come out of the bondage of Satan and the grip of Satan, the enemy of their soul, that they may be brought again into that newness of life, that sweet assurance that their soul is in hell.

[25:19] My friends, sin can indeed captivate even a living soul. It can, it will never destroy a living soul.

[25:30] It cannot do that, but it can captivate it. You've only got to look at the scriptures of truth, my friends, and the experiences of the flips and falls of God's people, how it brings them into bondage, how it brings them into a sense of separation between their God and their soul.

[25:51] David said in the 51st Psalm, did he not, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, uphold me with thy free spirit.

[26:04] And many other exercises came out in the prayers of David, which to that end was that he might be blessed once more with fellowship and union, not only with the people of God, but to God himself.

[26:21] Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee? And my friends, I believe this, that if you are under divine grace, you'll have a view of Israel, spiritual Israel, that is, as being the most blessed people on the face of the earth.

[26:38] What are they to commend themselves to you? Well, in themselves, nothing. They are a poor people. They are often feeling destitute.

[26:49] They often feel cast down and sometimes feel to be cast out. But they are a blessed people for all that. And there's something else, you know, we must never forget.

[27:02] We often are brought to realise the state of our own souls or the state of the church of Christ and it distresses us or the state of others in the church of Christ.

[27:15] But we must never forget this, you know, something that Israel learned as they went there 40 years through the wilderness. Oh, how their sinful inclinations caused the justice of God and the chastened hand of God upon them.

[27:32] How their heart rebelled against the God of Israel that delivered them out of Egypt. But what is the blessing, my friends, that we might say even now concerning Israel that their God is a faithful God.

[27:48] That though he, though they change and we must also have to confess, my friends, that we too are changeable creatures.

[27:58] We're sometimes hot, as the poet says, sometimes cold, but Jesus is the same. My friends, Israel's God is a faithful God, an unchangeable God.

[28:11] Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. That this Israel being brought out of bondage.

[28:22] That the spiritual Israel of God are brought out of the bondage that sin brings them into. And brought out of the unregenerate state they were born in.

[28:35] You know, in unregenerate, in the days of unregeneracy, we were a stranger to God and Godliness. We were, as Paul writes to the Ephesians, without Christ and without hope.

[28:52] Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee. You know, these very words often bring a people, often bring the Lord's dear people together.

[29:05] You know, when there's a true exercise in the soul, an exercise that the Holy Ghost has begun, concerning the Church of Christ, my friends, there is a view given, and that's a view by faith, of the spiritual walk and the spiritual ways of the Lord's people and the spiritual blessings in that book of Ruth that I mentioned in prayer.

[29:33] That dear woman had a view of the Lord's people, you know. Now, she only knew Naomi, and she only knew the sufferings and the grieving of Naomi.

[29:47] She didn't know anything of Bethlehem or of Bethlehem's people either. She didn't know that there was a famine there or that there was anything that was of any benefit or blessing to Israel.

[30:02] But her own words depict or reveal what was shown her by faith. death. And it brought her to that earnest desire that she might be joined to them, found amongst them.

[30:20] Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee. When she was in Bethlehem, when she was in the field of Boaz, she complained to Boaz that she was a stranger.

[30:33] she felt not to be like unto one of thy handmaidens. She was a stranger. But in her heart there was a union.

[30:45] In her heart there was a desire. In her heart she saw that they were God's people and her one desire was to be found with them.

[30:55] Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee for whether thou goest I will go. where thou lodgest I will lodge.

[31:07] Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also of aught but death part thee and me.

[31:22] Well do you see that in the spiritual Israel? Oh I know this my friends and they know it as well that they are sinners called by grace.

[31:34] They have sadly to say they have two natures. It isn't the nature of grace you always see. It's the old nature sometimes rises to the forefront would indeed be in the forefront would be an independent nature.

[31:53] But my friends there is a bond which binds God's people together and that's the bond of love. that's the bond of grace. There are people indeed you may say of them as you have a view of them that there are people that are happy.

[32:11] I was laying awake in the night and thinking wondering and the hymn came to my mind of that people and it dropped in and I could get the words right in the night season ye are travelling home to God in the way the fathers trod they are happy now and ye soon their happiness shall see.

[32:42] And then it came like this fear not brethren joyful stand on the borders of your land Jesus Christ your father's son bids you undisped go on.

[32:56] We must come to a conclusion this morning but there is many ways in which the dear people of God and I mean the spiritual Israel of God and all the blessings which are theirs.

[33:11] I looked at going back I suppose in my words but I looked at a word in the 6th Deuteronomy Moses is looking back on the pathway of this people and he emphasises and desires so to do of a gracious and a faithful God and we read this and he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers well my friends if you have the evidence that he's brought you out it may be that those ways are clouded over at times those ways of deliverance is the ways that he used the method that he used and yet he's put you amongst his people in this respect that you have been brought out there are those that are found gathered in the Lord's house you know that could look back in perhaps thankfulness in humility to trace the mercy and the goodness of

[34:29] God in the bringing out the purposes that God used and the way which he used and to this end that he was to bring them out my friends he also will bring them in he also will bring them in he didn't bring them out to lose them in the wilderness you must look of course at this word is pronounced of Moses to the Israel of God not to individuals but to the people of God personally when he brings his people out of the world he brings them into the church of Christ he brings them ultimately and safely into glory this people Israel is to be brought into Canaan there's not anything going to prevent it there were rivers that stood in their way there was the Red Sea after they left Egypt there was their enemies there was privations there was lack of water there was lack of food and many other things their own sins and iniquities was a means of hindrance that they went back into the wilderness but ultimately and definitely they were to enter into that promised possession even Canaan

[35:45] Jordan lay in front of them oh how blessed my friends are these descriptions of the spiritual Israel of God not Jordan's wastes or waves could prevent them entering into Canaan God divided Jordan and they went over as on dry ground happy out now oh Israel who is like unto thee oh people saved by the Lord what a blessed people is the spiritual Israel of God they may not be blessed with much here well my friends what would be the point of having much here when you're on a pilgrimage when God has shown you that what we have here is a wilderness to walk through but as we've often had to say my friends what makes Israel a blessed people is what they're going to possess what they're going to enter into what they're coming into the full realisation oh my friends this is what makes

[36:52] Israel a blessed people that hope within that desire that exercise those tokens for good the Lord has granted them we might say too that this God of Israel is a delivering God but we best leave it for this morning happy art thou oh Israel who is like unto thee oh people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places amen the locuses this week arms cry I pray we will be prayer making on Tuesday this evening this means there will be no service on the

[37:55] Wednesday and I can't expect it next or stay the amount collected from the building funds across the door in November was £130 CJ subsidised 680 680 680 680 780 640 780 670 780 780 780 780 820 Jesus, cast a look upon thee, give me sweet simplicity, make me poor and keep me low, seeking only thee for no. We from my worldly self, we from the miser's power, we from the smallest waves, weed on the lost of tribes.

[39:15] Hymn 687 Jesus, cast a look upon thee, give me sweet.

[39:49] Hymn 687 Jesus, cast a look upon thee, give me sweet. Hymn 687 Jesus, cast a look upon thee, give me sweet.

[40:09] Hymn 687 Jesus, cast a look upon thee, give me sweet.

[40:23] Hymn 687 Jesus, cast a look upon thee, give me sweet. Hymn 687 Jesus, cast a look upon thee, hmie'mt 687 Hymn 687 Jesus, cast a look upon thee, give me sweet.

[40:53] Hymn 698 His Pikeman 698Angers 69 Carman 71 Thank you.

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[46:27] Amen.