With Him. (Quality: Very good)

[0:00] And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.

[0:15] They that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Especially those two words, with him.

[0:33] Tomorrow, if the Lord will, you have that funeral of our late dear friend. And I was commenting that she was the last member of the church that was a member when I first took an ordinance here 30 years ago, last December.

[0:56] And in that sense, she regards you as a church and congregation, the last one of her generation.

[1:08] But though we mourn naturally the loss of those that we love, but what an infinite difference it makes.

[1:22] An infinite difference. When there is a good hope that they are with him in glory. You find this with two of David's sons.

[1:35] You read how David's first son by Bathsheba, though conceived in adultery, yet it is clear he had a good hope for the soul of that child.

[1:52] And as you know, he wept and mourned while the child was living. But when the child was dead, have you ever noticed the small print?

[2:03] Did he then ask for food? And then go into the house of God? No, he did things in the right order. Do you?

[2:14] Do I? He went into the house of God and worshipped. And then after that, he required food and they brought it to him.

[2:26] And he said, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

[2:37] But how different was his sorrow concerning Absalom? He wept and mourned.

[2:49] He said, would God I had died for thee. O Absalom, my son, my son. By Absalom's life and conduct, he showed no evidence of being a child of God.

[3:08] Indeed, quite the reverse. Well, let us look at this parable as the Lord enables. A familiar parable.

[3:20] But every scribe that is instructed into the kingdom of God bringeth forth from his treasure things new and things old.

[3:32] Things that have been said before and heard before and need to be spoken again. As well as those things not seen in that particular light.

[3:47] Then shall the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not heaven itself. In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew there are seven parables.

[4:01] Six of which begin with that expression. The kingdom of heaven. There will be no tares in heaven. There will be no bad to be cast away from the net that was cast into the sea.

[4:16] And so on. The kingdom of heaven is the gospel dispensation on earth. When sadly, many who have made a profession will be found lacking at last.

[4:34] The kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins. I have spoken at our young people's meeting of the significance of ten.

[4:48] But briefly, it is the full number of witnesses. When Boaz was taking Ruth to be his wife, he took ten men of the city as witnesses.

[5:03] I remind you that Abraham ceased to pray for Sodom to be spared when he reached the number ten. As a child in idle curiosity, I wished Abraham had continued down to five, four, three or one.

[5:23] But he stopped at ten. There were not ten faithful witnesses in Sodom. And Lot's family consisted of at least ten.

[5:35] Him and his wife, two unmarried daughters. It speaks of his sons. It speaks of his sons-in-law. So there were at least ten, but not ten faithful witnesses.

[5:46] But we cannot dwell upon the many other tens profitable, though it might be. But here we have witnesses. Witnesses to warn us.

[5:59] And as the Holy Spirit applies it to our soul, to give us grace, as it were, to examine our lambs.

[6:10] They all took lambs, the lambs of profession. Five were wise, five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lambs, and took no oil with them.

[6:29] How near and yet how far a person can be from eternal life.

[6:43] I remind you of ignorance. He came up to the gate of the celestial city. He knocked upon it.

[6:54] As Bunyan rightly shows, Knock, and it shall be opened unto you, is written over the wicked gate at the entrance to the way, not over the gate of heaven.

[7:10] And they asked him what the Lord had done for his soul. And he fumbled in his bosom and found nothing.

[7:20] And the command was given, Take him and bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. And Bunyan said, I saw in my dream there was a way to hell even from the gate of heaven.

[7:40] I mentioned at the Sunday school this afternoon how we are surrounded by parables. Some years ago, we had considerable improvements and repairs at Oakington.

[7:56] Those of us that burn wood shared the wood amongst us. As I put those joists and boards through my circular saw, this was so solemn to me that wood had been in position 118 years.

[8:14] It had heard the scriptures read thousands of times. Heard thousands of prayers, thousands of sermons. And it was as dead as when it was first put in position.

[8:31] And, and, its end was burning. It was very solemn to me. So near, and yet so far.

[8:45] And while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and sloughed. A warning there for those of us who profess his name.

[8:57] The apostle gives us that exhortation, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.

[9:13] While we are sleeping naturally, we have no appetite, no hunger, no thirst, no knowledge of whether we are in darkness or light.

[9:24] Solemn thing to be spiritually asleep. And then at midnight, figuratively the darkest hour, a cry was made, behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.

[9:45] Then all those virgins arose, and trim their lamps. Examine their lamps of profession.

[9:58] The Lord said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify not you, but your Father which is in heaven.

[10:13] As the Lord, as it were, filled your soul with that oil of grace which much might be said concerning it, you read much of the importance of oil in the gospel as it is in Leviticus.

[10:32] As the Lord put that oil in your lamp of profession, does it give a true light? At the time of the miners' strike in 1973, a week evening service in the schoolroom, just as the middle hymn was to be given out, all the lights went out.

[10:56] And after the lamps were lit in preparation for such an eventuality, I had to leave what I had thought of speaking from and speak from the gospel in John.

[11:11] Walk, while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. Does your light give light to all that are in the house?

[11:27] And then the foolish said, give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. One questions if they had ever been a light.

[11:38] But now for the first time they examine them. But the wise could not give them their oil. Much as we may have our loved ones, we cannot give them this oil of grace.

[11:55] We can pray for them, bear them up before the throne of grace, but we cannot give them this grace, only the Lord.

[12:10] Coming then to the tenth verse. While they went to buy, they had something they thought they could purchase this oil with, their own works.

[12:26] The bridegroom came. And they that were ready.

[12:39] What is it to be ready? Is it not to be prepared? We may say to our husbands, wives or children, are you ready?

[12:53] If going to chapel, have you got your hat, your Bible, or whatever you may want to take, or something else? Are you prepared? We often sing that hymn, but do we really sing it as a prayer?

[13:10] Prepare me, me, gracious God, to stand before thy face. Thy spirit must the work perform, for it is all of grace.

[13:26] In Christ's obedience clothes, and wash me in his blood. So shall I lift my head with joy among the sons of God.

[13:41] And those wonderful verses in the book of the Revelation, we read there, we may say a few more things later, these are they which have come out of great tribulation, and you must go into it and come through it, before you can come out of it.

[14:03] great tribulation, especially spiritual, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

[14:19] How often we read of the Lord's people being clothed in white. And here is something for you children to remember.

[14:30] When I was at school, I remember it being demonstrated that if you took the colours of the rainbow and mixed them in the right proportion, what seemed surprising, you got white.

[14:51] With those various colours, you might expect some unmentionable sort of grey colour, but you get white. and remember the rainbow sets forth God's covenant.

[15:06] I remember preaching here, it was made a blessing to Mr. Coe, concerning Joseph's coat of many colours, and it was dipped in blood.

[15:19] And when the brethren brought it to their father, he looked upon that coat, and he said, it is my son's coat.

[15:34] And so the father looks upon his children, clothed in Christ's righteousness, dipped in blood, and he says, it is my son's coat.

[15:50] day that were ready. In the book of Proverbs we read, the preparation of the heart, and the answer of the tongue, is of the Lord.

[16:10] Only the Lord can prepare your heart for eternity. And if we die unprepared, there is but the place to which we must go where hope and mercy never come.

[16:34] They that were ready, they went in with him.

[16:45] Now, I want to emphasize this with him. They did not go in to him. If you and I were on the path outside this chapel, and we came together through the door, we would say, you came in with me.

[17:08] If I was already inside, and you came in, you came in to me. but if you came in with me, you were in my company the other side of the door.

[17:25] Now, this door sets forth the end of our lives. There are some things in which we may abstain or adopt a neutral position.

[17:43] We may say in a national election, I cannot vote for this man, I cannot vote for that. I will abstain. But with a closed door, we are either one side, or we are the other.

[18:00] door. And when the door of our life closes, we shall either be shut in with Christ for eternity, or shut out from him for eternity.

[18:20] Before we look more closely at that, we know not when this door of our life will close. We so often hear, especially upon the roads, of those taken suddenly from time to eternity.

[18:40] Just over a week ago, that dreadful train accident, so called at Selby in Yorkshire. Those that were taken from time to eternity, going about as they expected their business for the day, their suitcases, their laptop, computers, and all the other things, no doubt said goodbye to their families, who asked what time they would be home, and no doubt they gave them an indication, but they never returned.

[19:19] We know not what a day nor an hour may bring for. what need then to pray for preparation.

[19:33] I read those words in Matthew 24 concerning two being in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left.

[19:44] I remember some years ago, many years ago now, I was standing beside the road when a so-called accident took place fifty yards from where I was standing.

[19:58] I held the dying man in my arms to prevent him injuring himself as he thrashed in his agony, and I heard later he was the same age as I was, and like myself had three children, but one was taken and another was left.

[20:21] Be ye therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not, as ye think not, the Son of Man coming.

[20:42] they that were ready went in with him. Now I want to look as the Lord enables at some of these with him's, and let us examine our own cases to see if we can see some resemblance in this mirror of the word of God to the Lord being with us.

[21:15] In the book of Genesis you read Enoch walked with God. Enoch walked with God.

[21:28] How can two walk together except they be agreed? Remember that being preached from at the annual meetings years ago and Mr.

[21:42] Frank Garston was giving out the hymns and gave out that hymn so suitable for the occasion. Oh, for a closer walk with God, a calm and heavenly flame, a light that shines upon the road, that leads me to the Lamb.

[22:03] Is that your prayer and mine? Do you long for a closer walk? Does not that speak of love? A young couple so-called in love, though we that are older still know this love of affection, do we not want to be with the ones we love?

[22:28] I sometimes fear congregations do not appreciate the sacrifice ministers and ministers' wives make in being separated from their husbands or wives, in going about the Lord's service.

[22:46] We want to be with those that we love, and if we have a love to the Lord, we shall want to walk with Him. I remind you of Joseph, what trials Joseph had, sold by his brethren into Egypt, and especially that trial of his faith in the fulfillment of those prophetic promises.

[23:19] we read in the psalm, until his time came, the word of the Lord, that promise he had been given, tried him.

[23:31] It seemed unlikely his brethren would bow down in the land of Canaan, with him in far off Egypt in prison, it seemed impossible. But as sure as it was a word from the Lord, it came to pass.

[23:46] But concerning him being cast unjustly into prison, you read, but, but, the Lord was with him.

[23:58] The Lord was with him. Better the Lord's presence than the presence of his loved father, to have the Lord with him.

[24:14] Coming to the New Testament, you read of how one of the maids in the judgment hall said to Peter, did not I see thee in the garden with him?

[24:36] Have you been by faith in the garden of Gethsemane with the Lord Jesus? Sadly, we read of Peter, James, and John, the same three favored disciples that had been on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord, had been taken into Jairus' house with the Lord, and now the same three in the garden of Gethsemane, yet their eyes were heavy, and they slept, they slept.

[25:23] Oh, how we need, I say, to pray against this spiritual sleeping. What could ye not watch one hour?

[25:36] But they were with him in the garden, they saw his sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

[25:51] But I remind you too of what we read in the epistle to the Romans. I have spoken from the sixth chapter at the ordinance of baptism.

[26:05] know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

[26:17] Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. The poet put it like this, view the right, R-I-T-E, with understanding.

[26:36] Jesus grave before you lies, be interred at his commanding, after his example, rise, buried with him.

[26:48] we naturally want to be buried with the one we love, but how much more so to be buried with the Lord, and then to be raised again, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk walk, or should walk in newness of life.

[27:25] And then again in the eighth chapter, where we read that there much there concerning predestination and election of which we sung in our opening hymn, but the apostle writes, if children then heirs, joint heirs with Jesus Christ, if we suffer with him, we shall be glorified together.

[28:08] You suffer with a person in proportion to your love to that person. you may visit the hospital to see one you love.

[28:23] Perhaps on the first occasion you do not know which bed they will be in, and you enter the ward. You see the marks of pain and weakness on one on the right hand and another on the left.

[28:41] You feel a passing wave of sympathy, but then you see perhaps at the end of the ward the one you love. And when you see their weakness and their pain your heart goes out of them and you suffer with them.

[29:00] I say in proportion to your love. But take it a stage further. I read recently of a grandfather that in reversing his car ran over and killed his grandchild.

[29:24] My heart went out to that poor man what he must have felt when we have so much love to our own dear grandchildren.

[29:36] Now consider it spiritually. Christ suffered for our sins if we are his sons if we are his children his brethren.

[29:52] We caused his sufferings. We caused his sufferings. The soldier pierced his side is true but we have pierced him through and through.

[30:06] But it was not just his physical sufferings. It was the sufferings of his soul that made atonement for sin. And the apex of his sufferings was the hiding of his father's face.

[30:26] Initially even upon the cross he felt union with his father. Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

[30:39] But now as David in the 22nd psalm prophetically spoke those words my God my God why has thou forsaken me?

[30:57] Christ did not cry my father my father father they had had that union of the trinity before time began but now he did not feel it felt forsaken of his father could not use the word father but my God my God why hast thou forsaken me if there are ever two words that cause me distress when I hear the worldling take his name in vain is the use of those two words when we think of the cry of the Lord upon the cross and why was he forsaken because his people deserve to be forsaken cast into hell and he bore that punishment in their room and in their place but he did not die when he had cried it is finished then union was restored father he cried into thy hands

[32:19] I commit my spirit now we cause that sufferings if we were his people cause him to be forsaken of his father one feels to come so short in speaking of the sufferings of Christ one sin deserves eternal wrath and he bore the punishment due for all his people's sins sins in a few finite hours infinite and eternal punishment compressed to finite hours mathematically it could not be done but faith believes it was done of his suffering so intense angels have no perfect sense now do you know what it is by faith to suffer with him in his sufferings for your sins then you will be glorified together you will be in heaven with him throughout a never ending eternity in the book of the revelation we read of the

[33:46] Lord there and they that are with him are called and called and chosen and faithful how short one feels to come in that last description that oh what a mercy we were chosen in him for ere time began they that were ready went in with him well as we have touched upon some of those things of the Lord's presence many others might be mentioned when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee through the rivers they shall not overflow when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee when

[34:48] Shadrach Meshach and Abed were in the burning fiery furnace even Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and said did not we cast three men bound into the fire and lo I see four men loose and the form of the fourth is like the son of God he was with them in the fire they that were ready went in with him to the marriage to the marriage we have a parable of a marriage dinner notice the small print a marriage dinner in the book of revelation we read of the marriage supper of the lamb the dinner was held at the midday meal you read of

[35:51] Joseph saying bring these men home for they must dine with me at noon a midday meal the work is not finished supper is held when the work is complete and in that solemn parable of the marriage dinner there was a man it was again the kingdom of heaven setting forth this life a man without a wedding garment the word was asked ironically friend how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment and he was speechless and he was cast out he was not prepared but blessed and holy are thy that are called to the marriage supper of the lamb just to touch the time is nearly gone upon that seventh chapter we read there how they shall hunger no more neither shall they thirst any more so they did hunger and thirst in the past and only a living person hungers and thirst naturally and so it is spiritually only the spiritual hunger and thirst we have that wonderful gospel invitation in

[37:25] Isaiah 55 how everyone that thirsteth come ye to the waters but it is not addressed to the unregenerate to the spiritually dead because they have no hunger and thirst neither shall the sunlight on them nor any hate for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them he will be with them now throughout eternity and lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes what must it be to be there the poet the poet the bride eyes not her gun but her dear bridegroom's face I shall not gaze at glory but on my saviour's face not at the crown he giveth but on his pierced hand the lamb is all the glory in

[38:40] Emmanuel's land then the Lord concluded the parable the other virgins returned saying Lord Lord open to us when one of my great aunts died the person with her came and told my mother that she had gone and said it's all right with her soul when she was dying she kept saying Lord Lord my mother didn't answer the person had given no evidence of spiritual life while they were alive no evidence of being with the Lord in their life but he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the

[39:41] Son of Man come well may we whether young middle age or elderly know what it is at times to be with the Lord providentially yes but more especially spiritually and we shall then be with him through a never ending eternity may that be your portion and mine amen I i alive works m even i