Psalms Quality: Very good

[0:00] depending upon the Lord I will again read our text of this morning from the 106th and reading verses 4 and 5 remember me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation that I may glory with thine inheritance firstly as the Lord may help us we would look and as the Lord may help us speak a little of the favour and blessing of God what it is to possess

[1:17] God's favour and blessing often we the Lord's dear people may seek the favour of God in providence in business in those various things where a man in life's journey is dependent and is brought to know his dependence upon God we have some wonderful examples in the word of God of God's favour and blessing Jacob Jacob have I loved Esau have I hated here we have the sovereignty of the love and favour of God in God's choice and how he blesses but what a wonderful mercy it is even in providence to be brought to feel and have respect to the favour and blessing of God we read of one in

[2:41] Psalm 73 of Asaph who saw the prosperity of the wicked and he coveted it it would seem to me that Asaph a man blessed with the fear of God and with that honest heart as it were in temporal mercies the Lord seemed to hold it back from any real prosperity in providence but against this he saw the wonderful prosperity of the wicked and he coveted it but what a wonderful lesson there is revealed to us friends because the Lord gave him wisdom and grace and opened his poor blind eyes that he no longer coveted the prosperity of the wicked but he saw that spiritual prosperity he felt it he experienced it he says whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee thou art my portion forever and ever oh what a wonderful end until I went into the sanctuary of God then understood

[4:32] I their head oh it was in the presence of God God revealed to him the state the true state of the prosperity of the ungodly and his and his own state that though he coveted it we are exalted to covet earnestly the best gifts the durable riches of God which are eternal blessings can know no end but remember me with the favour that they bear is what favours God blesses his dear people with I want to speak of some of those spiritual favours friends we come into the means of grace as you have come in today and what a mercy it is when the

[5:44] Lord gives a true hearing ear he opens the ear to hear and gives the grace of faith to receive what you hear and you receive it in your very heart the word of God it speaks it speaks to your soul even as the voice of God spake unto the prophets and to his dear people in those Old Testament days we read this afternoon about today God speaks unto us through his beloved son the Lord Jesus earth he speaks heavenly blessings through the sufferings and the death and resurrection of the Lord

[6:51] Jesus Christ and one of those great blessings which I feel every living soul will be seeking to know something of in reality is their own interest is that precious blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses from all sin we read in one of the Psalms for this shall every man that is godly pray for the forgiveness of sins to be cleared friends from the powers of the justice of God and his holy law and the condemnation of that holy law to be brought to know the sweetness of that wonderful word in the opening of the eighth chapter of Romans there is therefore now is there a now friends in your and my heart there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in

[8:22] Christ Jesus and to know to be brought to know by the grace of God by faith you're in Christ Jesus in him you live and move and have your being that will be your desire to walk as it were circumspectly to his word and to walk as it were in his commands and in the precepts of his word I delight says the psalmist in the law of the Lord and that will be by the grace of God the delight of a child of God so to walk in God's ways to feel the favor and blessing of God and what are those favors one of those great favors is to have a hearing ear a desiring heart another blessed favor is to have the favor of prayer are to be blessed with liberty freedom access at a throne of grace what a wonderful blessing prayer is that blessing

[10:00] God has bestowed and given to every living soul to call upon God call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shall glorify me God by these favors and blessings God brings hold into the hearts of his dear people it draws out of their very soul glory to God he gets to himself glory and honor through the favor of blessing another great favor in the reading of the word of God to trace out your own experience to have the witness of the spirit with your spirit of a work of grace a learner in the school of

[11:08] God's grace having those urgent desires those cantings those wrestlings at the throne of grace all my desires before thee and my groaning says one is not hid from thee that great high priest the Lord Jesus he waits to be gracious it's a wonderful word he sitteth at the right hand of God there to intercede and there to receive the prayers of the praying people of God but what a favor to come and plead with God friends I can truthfully say when those many years ago when we joined the church became a member of the church of

[12:17] God here below one of the great trials was prayer prayer praying in public and yet one says prayer is a weapon for the feeble weakest souls can wield it best but my fear was this friends a guilty sinner Lord how can I come a sinner vile to approach the heavenly majesty a holy holy God to open my mouth to plead any favor and blessing but I have a hope the Lord showed me a wonderful way that God had made a way and says fear not little flock but it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom and he gives it to his dear people through his beloved son who said

[13:31] I am the way the truth and the life and then this reads no man no man cometh unto the father but by me I am the way the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the father but by me oh if that opened the door of mercy to my poor trembling soul friends the door of his mercy seemed to stand open all day we have something to plead we have a name to plead we have his merits to plead I who am the way the truth and the life and no man white race it seemed to shut out everything else but

[14:40] Jesus Christ the way the truth the life and it seemed to give my poor soul access liberty freedom to come and seek the Lord to seek his blessing to receive his favor and blessing but what what a divine favor it is God gives to all real sinners called by grace he gives them that wonderful blessing real prayer to call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shall glorify me he will have all the praise and all the honor but

[15:44] I say what a favor friends in all your troubles in your distressing circumstances whether in providence in the business in the family if you're a child of God there will be times of distress times of your own helplessness times when you cannot move times when the door may seem shut no prosperity no going forth and he shuts the door you have to come to him to open the door and he will as sure as he has shut the door to a praying soul he will open the door and he will open your heart in prayer that he may open the door and make a way to you where there seems to be no way yes friends he will he's a faithful

[16:57] God who hears and answers prayer oh my friends the Lord gives sweet liberty sometimes in prayer and whether it be prayer in asking or prayer in thanksgiving and glory to the God of all grace there are many as it were figures and features in true prayer friends there will be the prayer of acknowledging the goodness and mercy of God to be thankful for mercies temporal spiritual in the home in the family in the business or whatever it may be as concerns you but to feel the favour and blessing of

[18:04] God and if you don't feel that it's something that you will want to feel you will want to feel if a child of grace that the Lord doth not withhold from you true he does in his own purposes of grace we may often see blessings that are not for our good even Asaph there we feel that hand of God that preserved him from prosperity was for Asaph's eternal good for the blessing of his own soul in the standing in the gracious fear of the Lord he was established strengthened settled in that wonderful word that was drawn out of his heart when he said whom have

[19:10] I in heaven but thee and there's none upon earth that I desire their great words friends great words the Lord has given us dear ones and help me in the wilderness for our natural good but sometimes we use them further friends we're apt to lean upon them and the Lord will have his own people not leaning upon a fellow creature but leaning upon it coming up out of the wilderness of your own heart and the wilderness of this world leaning upon the Lord Jesus and what a divine favor that is friends look unto me oh we quoted this morning did we not looking unto

[20:25] Jesus as we are exalted so did that epistle to the Hebrews running in that race which is set before us the race of life oh my friends to feel that God has set your feet in that race you don't know how long or how short it is some of us have come almost to the end of that race we know it must be so what we know not what a day may bring forth the Lord calls young in life sometimes to cause to himself what a sovereign Lord he is in the way that he brings his dear people to endless life here below to eternal life in the presence of

[21:39] God the sovereignty of God is so manifest their friends in the length of their days here below makes those best days of your life your last days to be your best days spiritually so in the wilderness here below remember me oh Lord with the favor now there is another favor

[22:43] I speak this on behalf of our dear young friends here this afternoon I remember so blessedly friends in the singing of the hymns how the Lord may draw your soul your affections the very love of your heart and have the witness in your breast of the work of the Holy Spirit in the language of the hymn you may be singing to be brought truly to feel as you sing the language of the hymn God has written by his spirit the same blessed language in your heart it's not something you've attained in your own strength or in your own will and purpose but the

[23:48] Lord brings you to feel the language written in your own soul and you can sing with the heart and with the understanding also bless the Lord our friends there's been times when we have found the witness of the spirit are with our spirit that the Lord hasn't left us but he has taught us the same blessed language that by the spirit of God was written in the heart of that dear hymn writer years ago and God has written the same language in your heart and it will make your heart rejoice it will strengthen your faith and hope to feel ah

[24:55] I know my hope is strengthened I have a hope that if that dear soul has gone to heaven why not for me why not for me friends a child of grace remember me oh Lord with the favour ah that thou bear is unto thy people again in the reading of the word how the Holy Spirit may bring into your very souls being friends what God has written what is left on record in the word of God ah I quoted a very blessed word this morning several times dear dear dear people friends but now you sometimes were far or made nigh and if the

[27:03] Lord bring that into your heart to feel that nearness friends that God is near you you are not a stranger not a foreigner but there is a nearness found ah the apostle said this in that epistle to the Ephesians he said but now you are no more strangers than foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and or the household of God what a different language there friends and then to feel it in love and faith in your own breast no more stranger but like but like a child at all and to have it in your heart in the means of grace you're in your right place as if the

[28:14] Lord would conform as it were in your own soul's feelings that you're in the right place where the Lord would have you where he would speak unto your heart and say as David says say unto my soul I am thy salvation do you long sometimes for these things friends you may hear of others you know there are longing times there are days of expectation David said my expectation is from thee as if David would say I look to no other source no other givers all that I want all I need must come to me through

[29:17] Jesus Christ brought to see the source from whence all these mercies flow every mercy every favor flow to us through Jesus Christ the father has put all into his hands and he has the sovereign right to give to whomsoever he will the sovereign right to withhold therefore we are exalted ask and ye shall receive not and it shall be opened unto you that I may see the good of thy chosen Lord or perhaps you have looked upon some of the

[30:19] Lord dear people with covetous eyes friends just as much as Asaph looked upon the prosperity of the wicked with covetous eyes I remember a dear old lady when I was a young man. Actually she was my grandmother. And of all the poor afflicted souls, she was. But the pleasant expression that appeared on her face-fresh.

[31:06] No sufferings, no pains and everything as it were to upset old nature and yet there was a pleasantness expressed upon her countenance. And as a boy I was amazed.

[31:35] It was another one of those secrets that was hidden and is hidden from the wise and prudent.

[31:47] Grace to endure, friends. Endure. There was enduring grace. The grace of submission and the grace of to endure.

[32:01] What God has seen fit to lay upon her. But to me as a lad, a wonderful, was the blessing, friend. I say wonderful. But I have a hope, friends. The Lord has shown me a little. The secret of the Lord. Which is within the theory. It's a secret. A secret holding up, friends. Maintaining grace.

[32:53] My grace shall be sufficient for thee. And my strength shall be perfected in thy weakness.

[33:05] It's the gift of God. It's the gift of God. The gift of God. One of those great blessings.

[33:17] We don't see a lot of today. But, ah, which the Lord secretly, blessedly bestows, beneath the sufferings of the body. Oh, friends, it was to me as a lad. I used to look amazed.

[33:43] And wondered and wondered and wondered, perhaps. Hmm? And we live to prove these things are hidden from the wise and prudent. But it's only as God reveals, hmm, sovereignly reveals and makes known secretly, hmm, hmm, there was, hmm, there was, hmm, there was a grace, hmm, that was in that dear woman's soul, friends, hmm, hmm, strengthening her with might, hmm, in the inner man, hmm, bringing her, I believe, to see the suffering Lamb of God, hmm, hmm, that had gone before, hmm, hmm, and she was supported, hmm, she was strengthened, hmm, from the suffering, hmm, of the dear Lamb of God, hmm, hmm, hmm, faith, hmm, faith in Christ Jesus, hmm, oh, what a gift it is, friends, hmm, hmm, that I may see the good of thy chosen, hmm, hmm, no goodness in her, hmm, hmm, ah, I'm sure if you'd asked her why, she would say, hmm, hmm, she would say, there's no goodness in me, no, hmm, no goodness in me, but the goodness of God, hmm, oh, well, great is that goodness, hmm, hmm, and if you watch the goodness of God, hmm, I say, child of grace, hmm, oh, it has followed you, hmm, all your life long, hmm, hmm, if the Lord has brought you into those trying circumstances, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, ah, not only to see, hmm, hmm, to feel, hmm, hmm, to feel, hmm, hmm, hmm, something that was hid from you, hmm, hmm, hmm, and yet, hmm, hmm, hmm, was so wonderfully manifested, you had to save this, hmm, hmm, it is the Lord, hmm, it is the Lord, hmm, hmm, hmm,

[36:04] The Lord said he would bring his people out of Egypt. Pharaoh, with all the power that was bestowed upon Pharaoh, and would not let them go.

[36:21] But God reigns. God reigns. He's an almighty God. We read this morning. And we read in God's word, they sank the stone.

[36:37] The Egyptians, as they followed on, they sank as a stone into the sea. They were no more.

[36:50] Israel were brought safely through into the wilderness. The Lord reigns.

[37:02] The Lord reigns. We look sometimes today, at the troubled waters, at the low state of Zion, in this hour day, friends.

[37:17] The triumphing of the world. The world today has all its desires. Plenty. And when Jehoshaphat grew fat, he forgot the Lord.

[37:34] And we're there as a nation, friends. We're there as a nation. But, in looking sometimes, we have to say this.

[37:47] And I feel the blessedness of it, in some of these dear sounds, it says, the Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth.

[37:58] And they're wonderful words, friends. They're a blessed truth. God reigns. And God can bring poor sinners down.

[38:12] With all the pride and lifting up of man in this our beloved land, in the prosperity of the wicked, my dear friends, how the Lord can bring down, if his will, and bring poor sinners upon their knees, to cry unto him for mercy.

[38:36] Well, he will his people, in his own time. They will. The Lord will not leave his own, no.

[38:48] He will take them out from among them, and he will bring them out, friends. There are the world we know not. We often may speak of the Lord's chosen people.

[39:02] Today, there may be those in the world. Naturally speaking, they're in the world. But God has his set time to favor Zion.

[39:14] The appointed time rolls on the pace to propose and call by grace. And we do pray for many of the little churches in Zion today that if the Lord's will, he may raise up among the young and rising race a seed when many of us are no more, friends.

[39:46] No more. I often look upon the little causes of truth and the growing old, friends. Not many lands appear in the fold, but the Lord reigneth.

[40:04] And we have to look. God is able. He is able to make all things work together for good.

[40:16] To the good and profit of his own church of God, the church Millicent here below. And I believe the Lord will ever have a people if it's only a little remnant.

[40:34] Well, time shall last, friends. And we have to thank the Lord. We're not to despise the day of small things.

[40:44] That word often reproves me. Despise not the day of small things, but to bless the Lord for a little remnant.

[40:56] If he has just a few souls, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there will I be, saith the Lord.

[41:08] And if we approve sometimes, friends, there'd be some of our best spots. With just a few souls gathered together, united, as it were, in spirit, united to that living head, the Lord Jesus, a little family.

[41:33] I have felt sometimes in our little winter meetings in the vestry, a little family, friends, one mind, one heart, one desire to worship God.

[41:51] And it's a blessing, friends. It is a blessing indeed that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nature.

[42:07] well, it gladdens our hearts. We do occasionally hear of another soul raised up, brought into darkness, into light, into the glorious light of the gospel.

[42:28] And it draws out a spirit of thanksgiving, out of our hearts, friends. Thus, we rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.

[42:49] What an inheritance! A glorious inheritance! Men, how often we find men looking, waiting, for the death of someone that they might come into possession of some earthly inheritance.

[43:14] And what disappointments they get sometimes, friends. but, the Lord's dear people, they're brought into a glorious inheritance, reserved in heaven for you, says the apostle Peter, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

[43:47] He says, an inheritance that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept.

[44:00] What a glorious inheritance, friends. Eternal blessings in the eternal presence of the glory of God.

[44:12] in a peace which passes all understanding, resting in the everlasting love of God.

[44:48] They shall rest from their labors as God did from his. I leave it here as I say the time is gone and may the Lord add his own blessing.

[45:03] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.