Hear my cry ... Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. (Quality: Good)

[0:00] Help me to continue, friends, as I will direct you again to Psalm 61, verses 1 and 2. Hear my cry, O God. Attend unto my prayer.

[0:20] From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lord, lead me to the rock that is high alive.

[0:36] Again, I would set it forth in assurance. Such a one with a prayer like this in his heart is safe for time and for eternity.

[0:53] Again, there must be that qualification. There must be an exercise of eternity.

[1:08] The child of God will not be satisfied day after day. And yesterday's blessings. You want the Lord to come again.

[1:22] You want another confirmation. You want another visit from his Jesus. You want to be sure again and again it's going to be well.

[1:37] Where do we stand this afternoon, friend? Are we coming with an exercise? Yes.

[1:49] You who may, or I know not, who may this morning have felt the Lord was present. May I have felt to be good to your soul, reading his word, an opportunity to sing to his praise.

[2:10] Have you come in this afternoon, resting this morning to a fullness of satisfaction? Or is there still a name?

[2:24] The word then before us this afternoon, we will confirm it once more. It's the word that's found in the heart and often in the mouth of the child of God.

[2:39] And in this very sound, we have the underlying voice. Here again, friends, is the mercy to be able to look into his word and there find the confirmation.

[2:55] Amen. It is the living God. For the psalmist says, Hear my cry, O God. Attend unto my prayer.

[3:06] From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. And then we have the confirmation.

[3:19] The foundation that this character is a child of God. And that none shall ever be able to overturn that, either man nor devil.

[3:30] That the Lord hath set in his heart everlasting loving Christ. What is the foundation? What is the foundation? This language, friends.

[3:41] For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. Can you say it? Oh, it is good to take hold.

[3:55] You know, my friends, the world then doesn't recognize this God. A dead professor so often finds the satisfaction of deliverance in his flesh, in his fleshly religion.

[4:15] Child of God, he comes in true humility. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. In God, lead me to Christ.

[4:27] Thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. Thou art my God. Here it is.

[4:38] Can you speak this language, dear? And why do you fear, then? You have a will while you're in the time state.

[4:50] There will be so many reasons for fear. Fear of self. Ah, sometimes fear of man. The word says, fear of man, bring up a snare.

[5:04] It brings darkness, doesn't it? It's trouble. It takes away your hope of comfort. For comfort. For comfort. This character.

[5:15] Loved of God and precious. Though he has many fears. Thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy.

[5:28] I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the comfort of thy wings. He has confidence now, friends.

[5:40] Sweet assurance. It comes from this one who's poor and needy. This character who does know the language of the psalmist experimentally.

[5:54] For I am poor and needy. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou hast been my help and my deliverer. Now, in our text, is that same word.

[6:10] Make no tally. Oh my God. Blessed character. We're going to find the foundation again this afternoon, friends.

[6:22] And that foundation's in Christ. Came into this world to seek and to save those that were lost.

[6:34] Yea, hell-deserting sinners who feel it still. And those who cannot keep in the straight and narrow way. And no, they can't.

[6:45] Who again and again use this language. Hear my cry, O God. Attend unto my breath. Hold down the oven.

[6:56] I shall be saved. This lays the way of a child of God. Poor, needy, helpless. Yet depending upon the covenant keeping God.

[7:13] And the psalm we read together opens the way. And, oh, there are so many portions in the word of God to support these things.

[7:25] Sweet to find them. Psalmist, in that thirty-third psalm, as we read together, he starts, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.

[7:39] For praise is comely for the upright. We found that sometimes. Maybe not now.

[7:51] Maybe you're in this place. Attend unto my prayer. You've got this deep need. It's in time things. Or it's in spiritual things above.

[8:02] But it's a bad case. You've got a hard case. The Lord doesn't judge his people on where they are at any given time.

[8:15] The Lord judges his people in what he sees in Christ. That's where they are. This character, my friends, does have time when he's able to say, I will rejoice in the Lord, for he is my God.

[8:35] He's been there. He's been there. He's been there. He's been there. He says, friend. Who can praise the Lord for those who have received of his bounties?

[8:50] Can flesh, will flesh? Praise the Lord. A colonel wicked heart. Praise him who, of times, according to the flesh, turns everything upside down, makes things difficult rather than makes them comfortable.

[9:10] Takes away those things that one has to have in the world, the comforts of this life that satisfy the flesh. Would this flesh praise him, rejoice in him?

[9:21] And that is the new man, friends. Is that new man of grace? Oh, blessing, friends, for the words of our voice, in every believer two armies have seen, the new man of grace, the old man of sin.

[9:44] Will he be cast down? Will he be tossed about now on the trial, whatever he's been? Rejoice in the Lord, O ye writer.

[9:58] Sing unto him a new song. The word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done in truth. He doesn't delight in grieving the children of men.

[10:12] He hasn't permitted you to come into this destroying place to rejoice over you. The way, though it be a difficult way, though you be hanked off, it be a thawning way.

[10:29] The purpose of the Lord is love toward you. Ultimately, come see now, can you? What the Lord does is perfect.

[10:45] He hasn't called me by his precious grace, brought me out of nature's darkness into his marvelous life to make you unhappy, miserable.

[10:58] No future in everyone's hand begins to. The purpose of the God, the Lord God, is to bring you, my friends, into conformity with his will.

[11:15] Not easy is it to the flesh. Come out from among them, be ye separate. Touch not the unclean thing.

[11:29] Opposed to that? Do you always stand aside and you see those things that you know are an abomination in the sight of a holy God?

[11:45] Do you always flee from it? There's a need to be, my friends, of the chastening hand of the Lord from time to time.

[12:02] So the pathway often is a difficult one. God is a difficult one. He holds all things in his hands, your troubles, whatever they are.

[12:20] I know, friends, it is so easy to quote. The word declares, he will not lay upon you more than he can bear.

[12:34] And you're in your right mind to accept the word of God, don't you? And when the way is difficult, come to gain. Rebellious thou hast been, and art rebellious still.

[12:53] True, isn't it, too? Let's follow on then with the mercy that's found in the same words. It opens up this first verse of this psalm, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for the Lord hath said, But sing, sing, love, I took thee in, my promise I'll fulfill.

[13:18] I found thee up secure, safe from the rage of hell, the curse thou never shalt endure, for I'm unchangeable.

[13:32] The trial is so heavy, is it? The exercise of your heart is as in our text. There is a need to remind ourselves continually, so we take hold of it.

[13:48] Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. Psalmist sets forth this God as the living God, the almighty God.

[14:02] He said, Let all the earth fear the Lord, for he spake, and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast. In the beginning, he made the earth, the world, all that is in it.

[14:23] He said, Let there be light, and there was light. This God is the living God. God is able to deal with all your concerns.

[14:41] He'll bring the light. Blessed is the nation, whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

[14:52] in this language, in this language, of one who knew this God, this is God. Why bless him? Because this people are loved in Christ.

[15:08] Final foundation, James. And that eternal day gone by, God the Father, looked in his eternal mind of men, as yet unmade, uncreated in Adam.

[15:28] He saw there, in his great foreknowledge of men, a ruined people. Adam came into this world, created in the likeness of God.

[15:43] He came into this world, with a natural righteousness, perfect, from the hand of perfection, naturally. He sinned.

[15:55] He ruined himself. God foreknew, this would take place. The Lord God, in his eternal mind, and decree, had said, of this people, have I formed for myself.

[16:14] They shall, shall forth my praise. And he took of that people, and separated them from Christ. The people, ordained to eternal life.

[16:31] He gave them, in the covenant of grace, to his own dear son, decreed that in him, there should be a fullness, of righteousness.

[16:44] So that this people, are clothed, in an imputed righteousness. The purpose of God, is and ever was, that throughout time, and eternity, he should rejoice, over them in his love.

[17:05] My friends, has there ever been, such love, as that love of Christ, set upon the sinner?

[17:17] It is the sure foundation, of thy standing, for time, and for eternity. It is your trial, that matters now, isn't it?

[17:32] And of this concern, what shall I do? This morning, just as I closed, I turned away, from temple trouble.

[17:44] is this great matter, that concerns the soul, you were found together, in his earthly courts, this afternoon, where you stand, before God, this equal method.

[18:05] profession, profession, profession, you make, as soon as you enter, the house of God, profession, before men. Profession, does not stand, on one's name, a church book.

[18:22] That profession, when you enter, the house of God, how do you stand, before him? There comes, that greater matter, friends, how shall I stand, in the swellings, of Jordan?

[18:44] Death, will come, it comes, to all men. Where is your hope, fixed? Our text, speaks very clearly, lead me, to the rock, that is higher than I.

[19:07] It is their precious man, the God man. It is he, whom the Lord, God the Father, sent into this low world, his co-equal, co-etal son.

[19:23] It is he, who fulfilled, the whole law of God, and made it, perfectly holy, in his flesh. Satisfied, the divine command, of justice, blood for blood, in laying down, his holy life, on Calvary's tree, and thus, putting away, forever, as a sin of a people, laid upon him.

[19:53] Here's the hope, of this people, the living Christ, for he rose again.

[20:05] Now he sits, at the right hand, of the Father, there, while time lasts, to make intercession, for coming sinners, for those, who come, in the exercise, of that text, hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer, from the end of the earth, will I cry unto thee, when my heart, is overwhelmed, through sin.

[20:32] My sin, Lord, my sin, that time, and time again, drives me, to the ends, of the earth. God, be merciful, to me, a sinner.

[20:47] Lead me, to the rock, is higher than I, to the people, concerned, and blessed character, who has such an exercise, such a concern, in his heart.

[21:06] Return again, to those precious words, in Isaiah, I, even I, am he, that blotted out, by transgressions, for mine own sake.

[21:19] I will not remember, thy sins. Put me in remembrance, let us plead together, declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.

[21:32] Put me in remembrance, lead me, to the rock, that is high on me. Enable me, Lord, to plead, that precious name, the name, of the God-man, Emmanuel, God with us.

[21:47] Jesus, the friend of sinners, my Jesus, Lord, enable me, to plead, his one great sacrifice, to set before thee, that wondrous atonement, his heart's blood, shed on Calvary's train.

[22:08] Here it is, sinner, lead me, to the rock, is higher than I, yet, yet, can rent a limb. It is, that rock, the God-man, that dear man, holy, completely holy, that precious man, who is higher than men, though he took upon himself, that he loved, twice without sin, that blessed man, who stems between, a sinner, and a holy God, the advocate, with the Father, man, cross Jesus, lead me, to the rock, is higher than I.

[23:01] Well, friends, there's a sweetness, in that 34th Psalm, we read, it's confirmation, of this power play, a child of God, a sinner, saved by grace, the psalmist, has here, the experience, an answer, to his exercise, lead me, to the rock, that is higher than I, where he says, oh, magnify the Lord, with me, I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and this poor man, cried, and the Lord, heard him, and saved him, out of all his troubles, what reality, there is, in this religion, it's anchored, in Christ, there's no flesh, here friends, it's all, the work, of the living God, from beginning, to end, an exercise, in the sinner's heart, brought to know, his unworthiness, his helplessness, his complete destitution, brought under the power, of the spirit, to commit his all, unto his God, in the merits, the righteousness, and the precious blood, of Jesus, pleaded before him, oh, what mercy, not only, is there here, that greatest, of all favors, salvation, which ensures, eternal life, felicity, peace, forever, with Christ, but it takes, in time for him, you, who here, this afternoon, got a case in time, can't deal, with it often, perhaps, this afternoon, can't deal, with it now,

[25:05] God help me, God help me, I know, what it is, friends, to sit in chapel, with a burden, I know, how to listen, to the minister, keeps on coming up, still got to be dealt, with what shall I do, there is a friend, that sticketh closer, than a brother, leading me, to the rock, which is higher, than I am, now hear, the evidence, of the psalmist, experimentally, the angel, of the Lord, encampeth round, about them, but fear him, and delivereth them, the names, of the Lord, the eye, of the Lord, his eyes, upon his people, he sees them, in all their trials, all their dark places, bless his holy name, my friends, it is the same Jesus, he knows, what he will do, do you remember, the time, when the five thousand, when he asked, the disciples, have you any bread, knew what he would do, he knows, what he would do, in your case, he blessed the means, he blessed the means, there, a few loaves, and fishes, he fed the five thousand, he blessed the means, here, this means, that he has given you, an outpouring, of your heart, before he will, bless his own world, and your deliverance, tis for his own, great name, so, the angel of the Lord, encampeth, round about them, fear him, and deliver him, nor the wondrous, condescension of this God, if I stand amazed, often, how the spirit of God, sets forth, an example, that his people, can understand, the poor, fine light mind, to take hold, of the wondrous, will of God, in his infinite mind, and so he sets forth here, oh, fear the Lord, he is saved, for there is no want, to them, that fear him, don't go about, in fear, don't move about, in that, dreadful state, of unbelief, you can't ever, come right, everything, is against me, and the Lord, says, the young lions, do that, and suffer hunger, they, that seek, the Lord, shall not want, any good thing, the young lions, they look about, the things, that belong, to this life, they want food, for their natural bodies, to satisfy, the natural appetites, and the other, they, that seek, the Lord, shall not want, any good thing, because it comes, from an infinite source, of fullness, in Christ, the stardust, and then, goes on, the righteous, cry, and the Lord, heareth, and delivereth, from out of all, their troubles, and gives us, again, the foundation, the Lord, is nigh, unto them, that have a broken heart, and save, at such, as be of a, controlled spirit, how nigh, my friends, the spirit of God, that, the third, glorious person, in the trinity, of persons, takes up, his abode, in the heart, of a sacred sinner, always, there, and, the petition, of a child, of a child, of God, of times, is there, under the inspiration, of the eternal spirit, within, with growlings, that cannot be utter, come through, poor sinner, whatever you can see, many are the afflictions, of the righteous, for the Lord, delivereth him, out of the hole, and to believe, poor sinner, oh,

[29:45] I know the way, I know where you are, oh, could I, but believe, then all, would easy be, I would, but cannot, Lord, relieve, my help, must come from me, the blessed character, leaning, upon the precious Christ, lead me, to the rock, beside the line, you know, my friends, to the poor man, who speaks to you, that I can speak, of experience, all this way, every time, I pray, came into this chapel, this morning, feeling to be, in the text, when I finished, speaking, midday, I was still, in the text, I didn't know, what was going to happen, this afternoon, lead me, to the rock, which is higher than I, it is a continual place, give me Christ, or else,

[30:58] I'll die, there's nowhere else, to look, sir, it is a necessity, to seek, of the power of God, to enable us, to obey the exhortation, and, run with patience, the race, that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author, and the finisher, of our faith, for our flesh, again, and again, says, this is all very well, but I've got trouble, that will, the flesh against, the spirit, and the spirit, against the flesh, the word God, declares, and it is always, with authority, and power, the battle, is not yours, but God's, children of Israel, they came out of Egypt, and they came to the Red Sea, how wonderfully, they were delivered, out of Egypt, and how they must have marveled, then, they didn't come out, empty handed, they borrowed, from the neighbors, the Egyptians, and they soon came, to the Red Sea, and they were in trouble, then, that God had not left them, and you've come out, of many things, been delivered, out of many things, you, whose heart, from time to time, is in our text, calling upon the name, of the Lord, to uphold, for our mercy, to make a way, he's brought you, into this place, he's brought you, out of nature's darkness, you didn't pray, after yourself, you didn't come, into this place, of leaning, upon the living God, by any natural ability, to do it, it's the work, of the most high God, in Christ, in that eternal, purpose of redemption, to your soul, and when you come, to the Red Sea, as you do so, many, many times, it's the same, isn't it, in your experience, with no graves, in Egypt, far better, to stay where we were, than to come, into all this trouble,

[33:11] God, the Lord, said unto Moses, tell the people, to go forward, the same, my friends, you've got to press on, but lean on him, who never leave you, nor forsake you, but who has, an eternal purpose, in view, this time, it is, heavenly, came, who will be, that experienced, sinner, there, and I shall see, his face, never, never, sin, and from the, rivers of his, grace, drink, endless pleasures, and lead me, to the rock, desire that I, want a taste, of that fountain, game, that fountain, that precious, fountain, where the love, of Christ, at times, pours for, lovely Jesus, isn't true,

[34:17] Jesus, I love, thy charming name, tis music, to my ear, pain, would I sound it out, so loud, that earth, and heaven, might hear, at the echo, of your heart, and will come, and save you, sinner, and how sweet, and precious, is the name, of Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Lamb, two sinners, in distress, precious name, lead me, to the rock, that is higher than I, again, my friends, the word of God, sets forth, the game, a sweet, natural illustration, shall he bring, to the birth, and not, course, to be, for, he will come, his name, is in it, your case, you will carry it alone,

[35:18] Lord, Jesus, he said, if any man, will be my disciple, then he take up, his cross, and follow me, the big cross, that you won't carry, it all together, yourself, the Lord, will take, the heavy star, it won't, swallow you up, know, that, glorious, way, calling, upon the living God, for Jesus, sake, it's a sure door, friends, to live, he will come, whether he be, for time, or for eternity, the exercise, that's in your heart, this God, is the living God, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, able to do, all things, at all times, under every circumstance, it is because, he sees his people, in the perfections, of Christ, and they must, endure to the end, and be saved, but the way, that time is gone, here my trial,

[36:39] God, attend unto my prayer, from the end, of the earth, my triumph, of thee, and my heart, is overwhelmed, lead me, to the rock, that is higher than I, and the Lord, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest.

[36:58] So, like, and the rest, and the rest, so it happens, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, and the rest, the rest.