The wonderful works of God (Quality: Average)

[0:00] As the Lord helps me, I would like once again to direct your thoughts again to the chapters in the book of Acts, that is chapter 2.

[0:11] And I will announce as my text the last clause, or part of the clause, rather part of verse number 11. That's the book of Acts, chapter 2, and part of verse 11.

[0:24] We do hear them speak in our tongue the wonderful works of God. We do hear them speak in our tongue the wonderful works of God.

[0:36] This morning, Howard, I tried to speak in some general way about this special day which we refer to as the Pentecost. It was a day, a memorable day, of course, to the Church of God.

[0:50] We do not have to look, and we ought not to look, as to the Lord to ever duplicate that day upon to the Church of God again. That was once. However, friends, from that time forth, the Spirit of the Lord doth rest upon to the Church of God.

[1:05] I realize in some ways, sometimes in greater measures than others. But we may well pray, friends, that the Holy Ghost might come among us, and that we might feel the unction of the Holy Spirit again in our midst.

[1:24] Now, there were some things, friends, of which I tried to point out to you, which preceded the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon to the Church of God at Pentecost. We noticed, friends, that they were a waiting people.

[1:39] The Lord bid to them to wait. And it is a mercy, friend, to be a waiting soul, waiting there at the throne of grace. Their mode of waiting, of course, as we also noticed, was prayer and supplication before the throne of grace.

[1:54] Further, in their waiting and in their prayers, friends, we noticed that they were of one accord. You know, friends, this is that of which is the work of God, the Holy Spirit.

[2:06] It makes us of one accord because we are taught by one truth. And it is a mercy, friends, when we are brought into this one accord, when we all agree that we are nothing more than sinners and unjust in ourselves, and that we need the Savior.

[2:26] Then we also notice how that they were assembled together. You know, friends, there are the means of grace. There is the place where the Lord has said, And there will I meet with thee.

[2:39] Yes, but even if two or three are gathered in my name, the Lord says, And there I will be in their midst. However, we realize there was more than two or three. I don't believe there was a great number at first.

[2:54] But when did this rushing sound was heard throughout Jerusalem? It was the means of the Lord drawing souls. It was here at this particular spot. And it was there that Peter began to preach this glorious sermon.

[3:10] Not that this sermon was any more glorious than any other sermons of which any of the apostles had preached, but, friends, it followed with God's blessing. Because later, friends, we are going to notice what effect it had upon the hearers.

[3:26] And you remember this morning hour I possibly got as far as that thought. What effect did this Holy Ghost, this pouring out on this particular day, have upon the hearers?

[3:38] I know it is solemn, as we notice there were those who did mock. There were others who were strictly only amazed and wondered what these things mean. Some have accused of them of being drunken men and women.

[3:52] Oh, how sad, friends, to be outside of the secret of the gospel, to be outside of the influence of God to the Holy Spirit. How sad to be destitute of knowing some softenings in your own soul, being brought under the convictions of sins and the want of Christ.

[4:11] But nevertheless, though there were those who did wonder and those who did mock, yet I realize on this particular day, friends, there was a great number who came under the power of God to the Holy Spirit.

[4:28] And looking upon the blessed work of God to the Holy Spirit, friends, we might then see this is how that we are going to know what it is to enter into the truth of our text. For we read, we do hear them speak in our tongue the wonderful works of God.

[4:47] Now, what is the work of God the Holy Spirit? If I really remember correctly, friends, I tried to speak a little bit upon the Trinity on our Wednesday evening, having, of course, some reference to the text that I was speaking about.

[5:02] And when we look upon the Trinity, friend, it is a glorious Trinity. In none part of that Trinity would we ever want to leave out when it comes to the salvation of our souls.

[5:14] On the first part, there is God's electing love. Yes, he did choose a people out of all of mankind. Remember, friend, there is none righteous.

[5:26] There is none man that deserves to be chosen for any goodness or merit of their own. All have sinned, and all come short. As I have said countless times, friends, there are no degrees of death.

[5:39] But here is God's electing love. There from the consuls of eternity, before man was even created upon the face of the earth, before they did any good or evil.

[5:50] And he did not choose upon knowing that they would do good, because no good can come out of man by nature. All of our righteousness is nothing but as filthy rags. Isn't it a mercy, then, that God has an elect?

[6:04] Isn't it a mercy that God should elect souls unto salvation? As I have told you before, friends, when the Lord opened up to that truth to me, all I could think at that time was, what love?

[6:18] And remember, friend, again, that election never takes a man out. It brings a man. And if, therefore, there is an elect, friend, and that elect is not yet fulfilled, not filled up, then there is hope for the vilest of sinners.

[6:36] But, oh, when we look upon to the precious work of Christ, in his receiving these elect, and to call to them his bride, to receive them as a love gift of his own father, as his inheritance, and then to see how that he would come upon the face of the earth and take their likeness, not the likeness there of angels, but the likeness of fallen creatures, and took a union to them, flesh and flesh and bone of their bones, all like unto them, only except without sin.

[7:11] And how that the Lord Jesus Christ in his great work come there upon the face of the earth to redeem such souls, to pay the price, to stand in their place.

[7:26] Oh, what a mercy, friend, when we can meditate upon the substitutional work of Christ. Again, I know I use this illustration, but I want to use it for our little children.

[7:38] Maybe you and some of the children are going to play a game, and all of a sudden you've got the sore leg, and you can't play. And so they need another person, so they bring in a substitute, and he plays in your place, or sometimes has to do something for you because you're sick.

[7:57] A substitute. Oh, what sickly things we are by nature. What cripples we are. We can't stand in our right shoes there before God.

[8:09] We've all come short. We're sinners, dead, wretched, vile things. But there comes one. In his infinite love and mercy, he says, I will be the substitute.

[8:21] I will stand in their place. But what does a substitute consist then, friends, for our king? Well, friends, remember, because we are sinners, we come under the sentence of death.

[8:37] But we find one who says, I will die in their place. I will shed my own blood. I will come under what judgment belongs unto them.

[8:48] And friends, what does it? We stand under the wrath of a holy God. And therefore, friends, he come upon Calvary. There he come under the wrath of a holy God in a substitutional way.

[9:03] Oh, what a mercy, friends, to find that it was for us that he died. It was for us he paid to the penalty of sin. So we see the glorious substitutional work of Christ.

[9:16] That payment that he paid for our sins, that is, if we see a want of him. So, friends, we see the glorious work of Christ is wonderful in all that he did.

[9:28] Oh, we can never come, as it were, to the end of the exaltation of Christ as the great representative, as the great surety.

[9:40] And oh, when we look at the many types and figures which are found in the scriptures, friends, they're glorious. when Judah came forth and says, I will be sure thee for Benjamin.

[9:54] When the lamb was found there as a substitute for Isaac. When the lamb was offered there upon to the Passover day, and was put upon the blood upon the post of the doors of that house in Egypt, and when the death angel passed through it seemed there blood.

[10:14] The justice hath already been wrought. And there to know that he passed over that house because of the blood upon the doorpost of the house, a substitute.

[10:28] And then to see him in his glorious intermediating work, the glorious high priest standing after the right hand of God to the Father. And how we can pray in his precious name before the Father, and how the Father loves to hear us to plead his word.

[10:47] Oh, friends, there's no end to setting forth the glories of Christ. And yet, what is the Father's electing love? And what is all the work of Christ there in the substitution away for sinners if there was no Holy Spirit to come and to reveal and to show these things to dead sinners here upon the face of this earth?

[11:11] Can we then bring forth, can we ever extalt and bring as it were anything of that, bring to the height as it were, the wonders of God to the Holy Spirit?

[11:24] Oh, we never want to make light of God to the Holy Spirit, do we? And with these very thoughts of speaking about that blessed Spirit, we might well take heed that we do not grieve it.

[11:38] I realize, I'm getting a little ahead in my subject because only God's people can grieve the Spirit, not to the world. May we know what it is then not to grieve the Spirit.

[11:51] To you we know something of grace. Now I realize there are the strivings against the Spirit, and the resistings, I realize that, but now I can't get into that this evening hour.

[12:04] Remember, friend, when you despise the means of grace, and when you make light of the scriptures of truth, you do strive against the Spirit because it is through the Spirit that wrote these things, it is by the Spirit which hath ordained the means of the ministry or the preaching of the gospel.

[12:24] And therefore, friends, when we make light of it, and that's exactly what they did there in the sixth there of Genesis, when the Lord says, my Spirit will not always strive with man, he removed as it were, his mouthpieces, his messengers of the gospel.

[12:45] But now let us come back to the Spirit's word. Let me listen to this evening hour, try to speak about what this blessed Spirit does, and then may we know what it is, like some of our hymns we sang, sweet hymn, especially that first one.

[13:02] It just seemed as if that was my language, I wanted that language, that blessed Spirit of Truth to come down and teach us the things of God. Now what does this Spirit do?

[13:16] I will try to give you approximately about seven thoughts of what this Holy Spirit does. First of all, friends, as I've already said, we are dead in our trespasses and in our sins.

[13:31] Dead. Therefore, friends, we need the Holy Spirit to come down and to quicken. And this is exactly what the Spirit does. Oh, to think, sent of God to the Father.

[13:47] Put it very simple. Let us imagine, there's a sinner, one who was chosen of God to the Father, one to whom Christ was going to come and to redeem.

[14:00] And God to the Father says, go down, quicken that soul, make it alive. And then the Lord comes, that Spirit comes and dwells in that heart of filth, that dead corrupted corpse.

[14:14] That is spiritually. And he quickens it into divine life. What is the result of this and quickening of this divine life, then? Then we look upon my next thought.

[14:29] The Holy Spirit, friend, is that of which is an enlightening Holy Spirit. It enlightens the soul. And it begins to show something of what we are.

[14:40] Because, friend, it is God to the Holy Spirit which shows because it is God and it is part of the Trinity as much as God is. And therefore, friend, it begins to show how we are and how we appear before the eyes of deity.

[14:57] One of our hymn writers, I believe, sets it forth very beautiful and possibly far better than I can try to express it. And now it comes to me, friends, it isn't too long ago that I quoted these lines.

[15:12] But, but since I can hardly therefore bear what in myself I see, how vile and black must I appear, most holy God to me.

[15:24] Oh, friend, we can only see in part of something of the corruptions of our heart. God sees the whole. And what a mercy when the Lord begins to unravel and unfold some of the mysteries of iniquity within us.

[15:38] And do you notice what I said, the mystery of iniquity? This is a mystery of iniquity which is only shown unto those whom God of the Holy Spirit quickens. The worldly man who follows the course of this life, and you this evening hour, without quickening spirit, you don't know the mystery of iniquity.

[15:58] when the Lord comes and tells you to dig a little deeper into the wretchedness of your own soul, you are brought to see what you are as a sinner. Oh, what an enlightening thing it is.

[16:11] And oh, again, can I talk to the children? You know, years ago, when we first came into this church, we used to heat it by coal. And I remember teaching little children in the basement of this place.

[16:22] And I said I could take you into the coal bin, with all the lights off, and I would tell you, oh, it's nice and clean in here, nothing at all. And you would believe me.

[16:34] But if I put the light on, you would see the cobwebs, the dirt, the dust. Oh, friend, what a mercy when the Lord enlightens us so we begin to see the corruptions of our soul, our sin.

[16:48] We begin to see only a measure of how God sees us. But in this enlightening, friends, it doesn't stay there. It gives us an enlightening.

[17:00] Though I am a sinner, though I am vile and based in the sight of God, yet by the enlightening of God and the Holy Spirit, I see in the gospel there's a hope, there's a Savior, there's a way of escape.

[17:16] You may not see it clearly in this beginning, but then what is my next step? Ask for the quickening and the enlightening. That blessed spirit begins to draw.

[17:28] It draws out prayer. It draws out supplication because the Holy Spirit is that which reveals the truth. No enlightening soul, enlightened by God, the Holy Spirit will ever know what it is to call upon Mary or call upon man.

[17:47] We may go to man for light, wisdom, and understanding and they may help if they know something of the truth. One time a woman in great anxiety was going to see a man who didn't really bring the truth.

[18:03] She was going to there for guidance because her soul was troubled. and the Lord told her to cease from a man whose breath is in his nostril, and she turned away. And oh, what a mercy went to this Holy Spirit begins to show you the truth, and you turn away from that which leads you astray.

[18:23] Because when the Holy Spirit begins to show you something of the enlightening of your own soul, and begins to draw you to Christ, and when anyone comes to you and says, oh, you're a Christian, all you've got to believe, you'll say, well, it didn't work that way with me, and neither do you want to know what it is to be as it were, build up with any self-righteousness within you.

[18:46] And so there is this blessed drawing, this leading of that soul out of self, out of self, and leading you in prayer before the Lord, not realizing, friend, at this time it is the God of the Holy Spirit which is enlightening you and inclining you to pray, teaching you to pray, again, friend, I can give you one prayer, I'm persuaded in my mind, is the language of all of those who are quick, to those who are enlightened, to those who are drawn, it is God, be merciful to me of sin.

[19:25] Oh, you may say, I think I prayed it sometimes with agony, but everything ceased to be gone. God, I can assure you, friend, if you ever pray to that prayer in agony, and with some liberty before the throne of grace, and so it will be gone at the time, it's going to come back.

[19:43] Here's the mercy, when God commences the word, he finishes it. there's the glory of God. The Holy Spirit never comes to us all and says, that's too difficult to me.

[19:54] That's why we need God, the Holy Spirit, friend. That's why I would exhort you this evening now, pray that God, the Holy Spirit, might come with his might and power, and quicken you, and guide you, and draw you, because it is irresistible.

[20:08] There's the wonder of it. All may be saved and like the hymn writer, blessed, here it come down. Draw my soul, because it is the language of that soul who says, draw me, and I will run after you.

[20:27] Now, what is going to be my next step? In hearing this wonders of grace, the work of God of the Holy Spirit, it works faith.

[20:39] Is this just the beginning of faith? No. But faith as it were, begins to grow. Because faith is there at the very beginning of the quickenings of the soul.

[20:51] Because without faith, friends, in one respect, I'll never know what it is to have true repentance for my God. But I'm seeking more of believing the faith. So I can give you what is faith.

[21:05] Faith is that which has the object, which is Christ. We read in the scriptures of the purifying of faith. Now, exactly what faith does.

[21:18] Once again, not that faith can be pure, because it always is pure, but that there is so much corruption, and so much evil within it, and so much misleading, and so much comprehension of truth, that we need that faith to purify it of all other avenues of escape.

[21:35] And it is that faith which sees Jesus only, and wants Jesus only. And so there is that faith even which purifies us of even some of our feelings.

[21:49] True religion is more than notions. Something must be known and felt. And I realize in those early days there is the felt of our sins, the felt of our corruption, and that feeling within our own soul.

[22:04] What a mercy, if you know, would it is to have sleepless nights, to have some convictions of your own sin, than to know what it is by living faith.

[22:16] Which even comes to this point and says, though I have these feelings, though that I feel they are not natural in my own heart, they must be the feelings of something God has given me.

[22:30] And we may ponder some of these little tokens in our own soul from time to time, and wonder what they all mean. But faith is that which says, I cannot rest upon the sweetest praying, but I must rest upon Jesus only.

[22:47] All was living faith which made the Greek say, Sirs, we would see Jesus. It was that living faith which made the woman, with the issue of blood, press through the crowd, and come to touch the path of the ham of Christ garnered.

[23:02] It was living faith which was there found in the prayer, of the blind man when he said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. The people said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, but all faith points it out.

[23:16] It is, I know it's Jesus of Nazareth, but it is Jesus, the king of kings, the son of David, the promised Messiah. This is faith. Faith points you to the Savior.

[23:31] It points you to the word of God. God, it purifies you of any other hope, of any other confidence. It makes you like Mary, who wants, oh, I know, sometimes we can, but sometimes in those early days, what a mercy to say, oh, that I could be like Mary, that I could be brought to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear him speak to my soul.

[23:56] one little hymn I used to remember, speak to my soul, dear Jesus, speak thou in tenderest tones, and he does, living faith.

[24:10] It fights against all opposition. It even comes against the accusations of Satan, when Satan would say to you, friends, you sinned too great, you sinned too deep, you sinned too long, your age is against you, faith is, God have mercy on me, and looks beyond all the impossibilities and says, it shall be done.

[24:36] But faith is also that of which says, Lord, I'm unworthy of the least of thy mercies, I have no merit of my own, I can plead nothing, but I'll plead to the name of Jesus.

[24:47] It's precious, isn't it? Faith is that which points to him as the mediator, the substitute. Faith is that which points out all of the precious names which are found associated with the person of Christ.

[25:03] Faith. Purifying of it. What is that? Further on then with this Holy Spirit? This Holy Spirit, as I said, also is that of which brings faith, because it is a gift of God.

[25:19] but it is that Holy Spirit also which comforts the soul. You remember when Christ was to be taken out of this world, he said to the disciples, I will send the comforter, and he shall lead you into all truth.

[25:37] Christ was always their comforter here upon the face of the earth, but it was needful that Christ should go away, and that the Holy Spirit would come and reveal the truth of Christ, because as I said, friends, the disciples in the church of God knew more about Christ after he ascended into glory and the outpouring of God of the Holy Spirit, than they did when Christ walked upon the face of the earth.

[26:02] Now they were brought to see his glory, his wonder, his beauty, his comfort. I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you with organs.

[26:16] And oh, when the Lord comes with some particular scriptures of truth, and he replied to your own soul, you have a comfort, don't you? Let me give you one of the thoughts that comes to me about a comfort.

[26:30] You remember there was blind Bartimaeus, and he cried out to the morn, and they tried to steal that voice, and oh, what a mercy friend, you can't steal the voice of faith.

[26:42] You can't steal the voice of God, the Holy Spirit. That's why they didn't steal it. But then remember, finally they came to him and said, be of good cheer, he calleth thee.

[26:56] Oh, what comfort to the soul. He hadn't yet come to Christ, he yet hadn't had his eyes opened, he hadn't had the full assurance of faith, but oh, what a comfort it is when we may believe he calleth thee.

[27:09] have you ever taken comfort from the scriptures, friends, that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to seek sinners? What a comfort. Sometimes there's comfort in the doctrine.

[27:22] I know we want more than doctrine, I'm not saying doctrine is sufficient, but faith can also rest in the doctrines and say, I know this is true. And therefore at times we can even plead to the promises of the word of God, coming with him and says, Lord, thou hast said him that cometh unto thee I will never cast out.

[27:44] Though I feel much drawings away from thee, but yet thou knowest my heart, Lord, I have come. I have come with prayer, I have come with supplication. Oh, what comfort.

[27:57] The word sometimes gives with a little smile, a little word of approval, a little sigh, a tear trickling down our eyes. I'm not making these all the total comfort, but they can be of help.

[28:11] Sometimes a little word can be spoken through the pulpit. That's why, friend, I exhort you to take every opportunity to come to the means of grace. Who knows that one time, unexpectedly, you might hear the Savior's voice.

[28:27] Remember, friends, there's no bars which can keep the Savior out of the heart. Lesser to look upon to the time when he came into the disciples, the doors and the windows being shut, and he stood in the midst.

[28:41] Suddenly he comes into his temple. He comes and comforts through the word of God. It is the Holy Spirit, this blessed Spirit, which comforts the heart.

[28:56] Then in this comforting, friends, there is the assuring and there is the sealing. thing. Now I realize this is what we want, don't we? You know, I do believe and I speak for myself.

[29:11] Sometimes I didn't really intend to speak this way at all. I changed everything completely out about it. Bear with me. I don't want to always come with what I feel the Lord has done for me.

[29:22] But after all, friend, I may be that I can speak out of soul's experience. There was a time in my life when I did have comfort. I had some sweetening.

[29:35] There were times when it seems as if I had a little hope at times that the Lord had begun a work of grace. Then I come to a place I wasn't so sure. I didn't really have the true lasting comfort.

[29:48] It only lasted for a while. But what a mercy when we know what it is to come in honestly before our God and use this language. Some similar language, Lord, if it's thy work, then manifest it.

[30:03] Shine upon it. But if it is not the work, then pluck it out, root and branch, and begin anew. Oh, what a mercy to come then to be honest before our Lord and say, Lord, if it's thy work, shine upon it.

[30:19] And if it is the work of grace, then he puts his seal to it. He shows you it is his work. He further manifests himself to the soul. And it is these sealings, friends, which follow the work of faith.

[30:34] Not that faith is ever finished. It's always the work of faith throughout the whole of our pilgrimage. it. But these seals. Now, there in one respect, friends, there are many seals which the Lord gives to the soul.

[30:49] One of the first seals that I believe he might seal to the soul is, you are a sinner. Now, there's no comfort in that seal, but it's a good seal. And later you're going to thank God for that time when he brought you as a sinner.

[31:05] He may seal to you the truths of the gospel. He may seal to you the truth of his free grace. But what we want, friends, is the seal to our own conscience that Christ is ours.

[31:19] That he is my portion. He is my Savior. And seal to you the atoning sacrifice of his precious blood. Seal to you that your names are written there upon his breastplate and there he stands in glory.

[31:35] With your name upon his breastplate, life. Oh, what a seal that is to the soul, isn't it? The seal of my pardon of my sin. A seal to that my name is written in the book of life.

[31:49] Those are glorious seals. I'm certain of this. This is what every child of God presses for again and again. Though David was a gracious soul, though he was a man after God's own heart, though David had many visitations and had a comfortable assurance of grace.

[32:10] Yet the time when it is came, friends, when he fell, he lost the sweetness. He lost the assurance. He cried out unto the Lord and says, take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

[32:23] Not that I believe he thought he could go lost, but he wanted the sealings, the comforts of God to the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he says, restore unto me the joys of salvation.

[32:34] Oh, friend, when the joy of salvation comes to your soul, and when a little joy comes to your own heart, friend, you can say, take the world, but give me Jesus. All its joys are but a name, the sealing, the comfort of this blessed Holy Spirit.

[32:55] Now let us look at something else about this blessed Spirit. Oh, we know not what to pray for as we are. Do you sometimes get into this position, I pray but my prayers aren't answered?

[33:12] And I read in the book of James that when we pray a myth, and therefore my prayers are not answered because I pray, as it were, I'm afraid only for the benefit of my body and not for the good of my soul.

[33:26] my prayers don't seem to be well-ordered. I'm wondering if I'm praying for the right things or what am I to pray for? Oh, how Satan harasses.

[33:39] But it is in these cases, friends, when the soul becomes honest before the Lord and says, Lord, teach me to pray. You remember on that occasion when the disciples heard about that great faith of which Christ spoke about and he says unto them, if he has faith as a grain of mustard feet, you'll say to this mountain be removed.

[34:01] What is that mountain, friend, of which you want to remove your sin? Oh, if faith removes my sin, then Lord, give me that faith. As we are brought to see the want and the poorness of our prayers, poverty of our prayers, and our utter inability, then we know what it is saying, Lord, teach us to pray.

[34:24] Marvelously. Holy Spirit teaches us what to pray for as we are, providentially and spiritually, all to our young friends, ask the Lord to teach you to pray.

[34:38] Are you thinking about later school? Are you thinking about future life? Are you thinking about marriage or thinking about buying a home or whatever the case is?

[34:51] Oh, then ask the Lord to show you how to pray and what to pray for and that he might guide you. Because this Holy Spirit indicts the prayer, teaches us what to pray for, because he has intentions to answer those prayers of which he teaches.

[35:08] That's why we've got to have the Holy Spirit to teach us to pray about it. That's why the disciple said, Lord, teach us to pray. I hope it's your desire.

[35:19] I hope it's your prayer, my friend. Lord, teach me to pray. And to our little children, do ask the Lord to teach you to pray. So we see then that there are the inviting, there are the assisting.

[35:37] Do not we need assisting in prayer? We do. Maybe sometimes we pray and pray and pray over a matter and nothing happens. What is the assisting then in this prayer?

[35:51] Because in the intercession there's going to be the assisting. How does the Lord assist? You know how he does? Very strange. He teaches us that we are unworthy of the blessings of which we seek for.

[36:09] That's assisting because we are brought then to realize that we have to pray with confession of our sins. Unworthy. Though I ask this and though I see that, I'm not worthy of it, Lord.

[36:27] Oh, that's the assisting of God to the Holy Spirit as well. Because we must again and again be brought to see the unworthiness of self. I hope you're not weary, friends, when I tell you something I have told so many times, that any prayer without confession of sin is no prayer at all.

[36:48] Let me define this a few moments, if you will bear with me. Maybe the Lord has been good to you, and therefore you come with a voice of thanksgiving and seek to thank the Lord.

[37:00] Where is confession of sin then when there's thankfulness? Because we're going to be brought to see this, Lord, I'm unworthy of it. You've given it me. And especially when he gives you a token of grace.

[37:13] Oh, grace melts the soul lower than any thing that I can think of. Because we are brought to realize our unworthiness and the wonder of grace to a hell-deserving soul.

[37:29] And also, friends, there is the encouragement to pray. Though it seems dark and though it seems as if the heavens are his breast. Oh, what a great assisting there was in the intercessory work of Jonah when he was found in the pit of the fish.

[37:47] Narrowed up, lacked, brought down in the words of the very weeds of the bottom of the ocean. Didn't know what way he was up, but all faith pointed to him, painted the place, and said, I will look again towards thy holy temple.

[38:03] What was the holy temple? The gold? The silver? No. A sacrifice. A lamb was slain there, and there for the faith of Jonah, there in utter darkness, when as it were, he was in the pit of hell, when he felt he was there to be his grave.

[38:21] Yet faith shined upon him to sacrifice, there at Kelsey. there, oh, friends, do you love to think of that thought? And they came to a place which is called Calvary.

[38:36] There was the blood of the lamb's slave, the assisting for our intercession. And even those men, what a blessed assisting they had in prayer.

[38:53] They called mightily upon God, the assistant was this, who can tell? Who can tell? And in the midst of all of our discouragement, at times when the Holy Spirit comments that God is gracious, he's merciful, he's long properly, oh, that inclines us again to seek the Lord and to call upon him even more mightily than we have in the past.

[39:21] Because if God is not a gracious God and is not a merciful God, friend, we might just well close the doors and go home, but he is. So we see there is the assistance of this blessed Holy Spirit which was poured out upon the church.

[39:40] There is the day of the God. And friends, there is also the preserving. Oh, sometimes, friends, I have to come with it.

[39:53] Oh, sometimes I think of the people knew with a wicked heart I got, they would walk out of the door. Isn't it a mercy our hearts aren't laid out there for anyone to see? Yet, friends, what a mercy to know there is that preserving.

[40:08] Have you had at times when, like in the case of Asa, my feet were almost lifted, almost departed, but the Holy Spirit came once again and preserved you from falling into sin or making shipwreck or harboring some evil thought against anyone or even against God.

[40:38] Oh, the blessed preservation of that Holy Spirit upon us that keeps us from turning aside and from falling away. What mercy sometimes when we can be so carnal through the day, taken up with the carnality of life, and then maybe come to our homes in the evening.

[40:59] We bow our knee, I hope you do this, little friend, I hope our older friends do, bow your knee by your bread, and then there's the preservation of God of the Holy Spirit which brings our sins and our shortcomings before us, and then we know what it is to confess them before our God.

[41:19] He says, Lord, I have sinned. I've been a fool this day. I've departed from thee. The preservation of that blessed spirit which keeps us from totally falling aside, so there is a preservation of God the Holy Spirit.

[41:39] And then though I have covered one already, I would just like to refer to confirm. Oh, how it confirms what the Lord hath done. It brings to our memory that of which the Lord hath brought.

[41:54] It brings us again to those things of which the Lord hath done for us. over the blessed spirit. Now can we understand why we ought never to grieve the spirit, but how that we ought to pray that that blessed spirit which was poured upon the church at Pentecost might in some measure also be poured into our home quickly.

[42:19] once reviewing some of the things which I have tried to cover about blessed spirit. It is a quickening spirit. It is an enlightening spirit.

[42:31] It is a drawing spirit. It is a faith-working spirit. It is a comforting spirit. It is an assuring spirit.

[42:45] It is a sealing spirit. It is an interceding spirit. And it is a preserving spirit. Well, may the Lord bless these few remarks.

[42:58] And use it for his name's sake and for his glory's sake. Amen. Shall we then conclude our service by the singing of hymn number 11.

[43:22] Hymn number 11. Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song, the joy of my heart, and the voice of my tongue. Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last, has won my affections and bound my soul fast.

[43:41] Hymn number 11.isenes to the song, if you girl andagen where the wife are very young, don't like him, I say, see thy body in the feet of my song That joy of my life and the book of my song That he breathed a long time to search in the land That was my love, and that was my love

[44:44] I say, see thy body in the feet of my song That joy of my song That joy of my song

[45:55] That joy of my song That joy of my song And He that first made me Then gave me a lot My burden is more than a man For my heart Be glad to believe For life may come In love, I hide through And I call to the cross And keep to my pain The mercy I've come

[46:55] That good of my mercy And I've come here The power to the king Is now a sign of free Though sin has happened The mercy has passed The power to the king Is now a sign of free For the mercy has been saved Great Father of mercy Thy goodness I hold

[48:01] And covenant love Of thy crucified Son O praise to the spirit Who's whisper divine Tis mercy and pardon And righteousness mine O Lord, we would seek For thy blessing upon all That has been administered To this day That thou would also forgive All that has been said amiss And that the grace of the Savior And the love of the Father And the communion of the Holy Ghost Rest upon all Now and forevermore Amen

[49:01] Thank you I loveás If you should have stored fossem但是 ¿I??

[49:19] It Deus Maybeıll Thank you.