Psalm (Quality: Very Poor)

[0:00] Psalm 84, verse 11, for the Lord God is a sun and shield.

[0:17] So, the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

[0:31] I'm sure it must be obvious in the reading of this psalm that it's being known is that of affection unto God, to God's ordinances, and to God's people.

[0:52] And let me just emphasize in parting, you will never have a stronger, clearer, more genuine evidence of spiritual relationship to the Trinity than that of love.

[1:13] God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

[1:24] Of course, the affection in this psalm is not that of human nature. It is nothing of a mere emotional, sentimental character, that one with weak nose can easily vamp up into an outward display of love.

[1:47] There is that prime fruit of the Spirit. The fruit, the effect of the indwelling Spirit is love.

[2:02] Love to God. Love to his ordinances. Love to his people. That is the keynote of this psalm.

[2:16] Coming to a brutable climax at the tenth verse. For a day in thy course, it is better than a thousand elsewhere.

[2:28] The devil's world is not as good as what they did appear at. God's very best to us.

[2:39] What on earth is the secret of the Graco of eternity? To occupy a parathlete of meeting, learning, or a new philosophy?

[2:53] God has a mean child in all his family. God has a bad attitude. He loves the meek. With an everlasting love. But they feel, the meanest of the meek themselves, far better to be so.

[3:10] Love will make you a mean child. That attitude, not in talk, merely, but in practice. To be nobody.

[3:21] not to want to be anybody, not to be known, not to be seen of men, no fear. Rather be a little mouse in a hole, if I may say so, unknown, unseen, unheard of men, but seeing, heard, and known of God, that's the attitude of affection.

[3:51] Now in my case we have two beautiful metaphors used of the Holy Ghost called God.

[4:02] The Lord God is a sun and shield. You will of course ever remember that metaphorical language in the Bible usually contains one leading thought.

[4:25] So each figure is not to be run on as many legs as a centipede, if I may say so, very plainly. That would help you better to understand what I mean.

[4:39] Some will take a figure of the Bible and they'll work it and work it and work it into the cross. They evacuate it of every real meaning, by the caliber of the project.

[4:55] The voice untold, the patate calf is pure, and people have made that to represent Christ. The patate calf is crushed, but of course it's wrong.

[5:10] The main feature there, as in all the creative talk of the Bible, is the point that the Father receives the Son so breathing, so glancing, so downly, he really couldn't do enough to call it. That's the point.

[5:31] So yes, the Lord God's Son and shield, I shall not attempt therefore, to run them in their foolish latitude as figures, but to take one or two of the saving points.

[5:50] I should say this, of course, that no reader can ever set forth to God, whom by searching can hide out in Christ. The times that portion of the divine word come home from us.

[6:07] There are these ways in Providence we will be looking about, trying the talents of one, the how, the wherefore, and finishing the other that happens to us in everyday life, working ourselves up into a pitch of praise, impatient, rebellion, rebellion, and even envy against God, because we cannot get to the conclusion why he does this, who by searching can find out in Christ.

[6:43] Remember how God dealt with God, when he was on that matter, where was you when I did this, that, and the other? Through one long chapter, it's a series of questions and questions, till before Job sat down and said, I've heard of these, the healing of the ear, now my eyes see it, and I'm in panic.

[7:11] And as all of us, it's such an action. That's our promise, our promise. Not to think that we can measure out every reason why this and the other could happen, but ever to remember that behind all the darkness, most mysterious entertainment of your rising mind, God is, I do fear that this reverential respect of God is far-blooding ground in our lands.

[7:56] I might say, in the church, in the church, they seem to refuse the divine teaching that there is a supreme personal God.

[8:08] They will tell you that science ignores it. I do not know whether they do or not. Whether they do or not, I know that they will care.

[8:20] I am sure there is a personal God that is not merely an attribute or an emanation, an influence, but a real, holy, just, righteous, powerful, merciful God over all, blessed forever.

[8:46] And this God is compared to the Son. The Son of God is the great awe of life. And with it is the great source of power. It is believed that there is no power that is used on earth by man, let it be by steam or gas or electricity or any other medium, the prime source of all power.

[9:19] The great source of all power used in this universe is derived from the Son. The great source of all power is given by the Son. I am sure it is so when I speak of the Son as figuring forth God, the God of all power.

[9:38] All power. All power. All power, all power, said Jesus, proving his God as an entity. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

[9:53] All power, said, light and power, belong to the Son, they belong to God. This God, oh, can you realize that?

[10:12] This God of light, this God of power, this God of power, this God, my God, my God, says the Sahaja's elsewhere.

[10:24] I don't know how people can think of calling that fanatics. It's the quinessence of real, personal religion.

[10:37] To be able to endow the thought, if not the assurance, this God is my God and will be my God forever and my God even over death.

[10:55] You know, frame the fact you're calling, you can't tabulate your spiritual wealth. You can't.

[11:06] But God's power, it does not matter. What God may ask you and me in circumstances painful and bitter to go through.

[11:21] His power is sufficient to uphold every step of the way. It is to him then that we need grace to be looking and in whom we need to be daily trusting.

[11:39] I have no mighty, no muster gave this great hope that come against me. But my eyes are up unto thee when light and power come.

[11:56] A sun for fruit, the earth would bear your fruit without the beautiful heat poured down from heaven.

[12:08] We have no fruit without God. From me is thy fruit to help. And you and I keep on sucking the ground, kicking it over and hoeing and awaiting all the rest of it.

[12:26] You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Trying to make some spiritual fruit come up. And it's all waste of bread, waste of labor. That may do in the garden, but it won't do for our souls.

[12:42] No, it is God when he sends forth the rays of the Son of Christ to hear your heart and mind, the proof comes up.

[12:55] I'm going to say automatically, you know what I mean, I mean, there's no effort to that, nothing of man is about it. No, he touches the mountains of your heart for hardness, coldness, deadness.

[13:14] They slow down at once, there's a blessing, fruitfulness, football. And if that fruitfulness is carrying on along the lines of believing in Christ, love to Christ, praise to Christ, I thought, may you back to them?

[13:32] I've had many a try, believe me all honestly, and keep on trying now, the fool that I am. I don't say that lightly, it is foolish indeed to do it, but I will keep doing it.

[13:46] But I know it's no good, not a scrap of good. Let his genial rays come down, and then spiritually, easily, and comfortably, all of the blessed fruit throw out of the soul.

[14:03] God thought, if any of you can follow me in this, let me say, you've had times when you have been just like the rocks of your boa, just as unproductive of spiritual fruit, and you have drawn the deduction that there was never a good thing to do in your heart.

[14:26] Now, another moment it may be, as quick as death, and God pours something into the soul via his word, coming into the mind like a light, into the heart like a fire.

[14:42] What's the difference? Immediately, what he says, I'm not the same creature. How can this be? It is God doing it. The precious fruits of the earth put forth by the sun as well as by the moon.

[15:00] What should I say of the sun at a mantle later? Of the difference between a cold and cheer this morning, like we've had some this week, and that immediately the sun gets so that its power is felt.

[15:20] The brightness of it, similarly with the sun. Now look at it. It is a sun and a shield. He put the two together.

[15:31] The word of God, the Holy Ghost, he put them together. The Lord God is a sun and shield. The sun, what is it? Ninety millions of miles away.

[15:44] I don't know how they measure it. A million miles or so is nothing nowadays. We'll say, ninety millions of miles away. Yet, it can be my time at the same time.

[15:59] So far away, yet so near. That must be Lord God of hope, that is swaying his sector.

[16:11] Over all nations and every individual. Yet she, to every individual child of his family.

[16:21] How wonderful it is, God said to Abraham, fear not, Abraham, fear not, Abraham. I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

[16:38] The shield used to be worn on the old Roman soldier, on his arm, above all. After the apostle has described in the Holy Ghost, the different pieces of arm that the child of God is using, in Ephesians 6, he says, and above all, over all, the rest will be a good thing.

[17:06] This is the chief piece of the arm of the spiritual warrior. Above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby you should be able to quake all the fiery dark of the dead.

[17:23] How true. How true. The almighty sun in the high heaven, and yet on my arm, in my heart, a shield to protect me from every fiery dark of the devil.

[17:41] That does not mean that the dark won't do what the devil intended to do. That's the point you want to remember that.

[17:53] If you know what real temptations are, fiery ones that set a light to hold of your fallen nature, why haven't you succumbed to it?

[18:06] Later, Paul's English agrees with, why haven't you succumbed to it? The answer is, the shield God has been there.

[18:20] The intention of Satan has been to sweep the work of grace out of the heart, to turn you and me back into his jealousy and death when he came out years ago.

[18:35] He hasn't succeeded yet, and he never will succeed. I know that's being very strong, but it's true, because God is the sun and the shield.

[18:50] He's a shield for the greatness that the Spirit gives you. Do you imagine that your profession keeps your greatness alive? Then you've got a lot to learn.

[19:02] You can go to a chapel and hear preachers and write you should, but that won't keep your greatness and mine alive. Don't rest there. It is God the shield for the greatness, if he's given a banner.

[19:17] I'm certain later the next few weeks. Faith lives and labor under many alone, though dense it never dies, but why does it not die?

[19:29] Why does it not die? I pray for thee that thy faith fail not. To once it looks as if it has failed.

[19:39] My hope and my strength is perish from the Lord, said one good man. Yet, but very soon after, he said, Lord is my portion, set my soul, therefore, but I hope in him.

[19:56] Quick change, and quick changes, God's people have. He's a shield for your persons. You do not know what the devil do to be bodily if he had his way.

[20:09] That's something he suggests there. In fact, a personal devil is very little believing in thy profession of Christianity today. Very little bit easy.

[20:21] They talk about him, but they're that's what they should be. But remember that the devil smoked Joe to those boys? And he'd have murdered him on that down here that he could have his way?

[20:34] We forget that. And how far? Even now, if Satan may be permitted of God to bring about bodily fiction, I dare say, in the light of that case of Joe, but I can say this, that he would have done it all in, years before now, his bodily manners, if he could have had his way to it.

[20:59] I'm sure he would, and why have he not? the shield of all mighty God, as protected?

[21:09] And then you think of your promises. You may not have got much. You may have got a bit. But you don't need it. Our homes, by night and by day, are not protected by us in any nature.

[21:24] And it's a beautiful thing at night to ask God for the sanctuary. You need it. Safety is of the law, and lock the doors and the windows, see that the fire's out, the electricity's turn off, right we should, and all these things are means.

[21:47] If God were to cease to be a shield to your home and mine tonight, we should go up in blazes, or we should be destroyed by something, what we should be able to do.

[22:01] And we should be able to do it. Nice to see you hang. Love draws the curtains of the night, and love walking over during the night, and love enables to get up in the morning.

[22:15] It's all love. It's all mercy. The love and mercy of a good God. Now, next, he will give grace and glory.

[22:34] Grace, here means, of course, that beautiful principle of love that he put into the heart to begin with.

[22:46] That is grace. Pure grace. But for the heart to be built into that grace, that principle is still his grace.

[22:58] Grace to pass. That's the first thing, pretty well, we begin to ask God for when he's given us grace. Any of you beginning to see the need of that garden?

[23:13] You feel it's need? Really, truly, not a passing phase, not a near will of the wish for you, a burden of the grief.

[23:24] Oh, you get rid of sin. I would encourage you. This is the language of grace. Given.

[23:35] Ah, thanks. I don't know what you will think and feel when God does give you the harm, the full harm.

[23:47] You know, it's not a real theological problem. It's not merely a preaching theme. It's not merely a she, you and I, sing in the hymn. It's all that. But to have it.

[23:59] To have it. To have got it. To know that you've got it. Here we stand at peace with heaven.

[24:11] Feel the sweets of sin forgiven. Were you ever there friends? Have you got it? What you're related to it?

[24:22] Are you satisfied to be as you are? With your indignity you are? Don't be satisfied with less of it. God's grace gives it to be earned.

[24:36] He sealed it upon their heart. Like you did that woman who was such a sinner you know. Beautiful story. Thigh sins are mad.

[24:47] Are all forgiven me. I know there are people, Father, fear and love of God who have been sad about it.

[24:59] They want help, but they want that forgiveness of sin for us. There are so many other things desirable. And they like us. They like desirable things, but this is essential.

[25:11] This is the only thing that matters that stands before the sky and get us clear of all my sins.

[25:22] See this friend, till you do it. For God is written grace to the people of God. As grace goes along all the roads, it doesn't matter.

[25:38] My grace is sufficient for the needs of the insure. It means it's ample to meet your cage and second still.

[25:50] That is why you, in the midst of the cage, you will rest satisfied in the grace of God. You want no more than the grace of God.

[26:05] He will be great and glory. Here again, we have that little word and, joining the two together. After all, it's not a big step.

[26:17] It's great and glory. Though it may be, in some cases, a man is called by God's grace and a youth.

[26:28] And he may live to be eighty or ninety or more years, and that seems a long time. But the past, you'll want eighty or ninety years to compare with the night.

[26:43] One gentle sigh each set of grace. We stare to be safe and blind. Before the willing spirit takes a man near us.

[26:57] So close the bed. Great and glory. One moment. One moment. Ringing in anguish on a bed of pain and suffering, as many of God's dearer people have been.

[27:11] And the next, God's where there will be no more pain. No more sorrow. And you do not know, Lord I, of course, we can hear your thoughts at one moment in heaven's event.

[27:27] Say to you, Lord. Grace and glory. Grace prepares for glory.

[27:39] It is, of course, in God's grace of purpose, designed that some can live for many years after he gives them grace. But in the moment he gives them grace, they're ready.

[27:53] If he calls them, they're ready. He has, is the word of the Holy Ghost, who has, not going through, but who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life.

[28:15] It's a beautiful thought. The moment a man is born again, though only an infant in the school of grace is ready for heaven, if God works for him.

[28:31] And the length of his life, of course, is by God's mission alone. But then he lived to be an obtuse of a year, which still comes to the same thing.

[28:45] By the grace of God, he is saved and anchored into glory. Grace is really glory in the thud.

[28:58] The thud has usually thud. And, given the usual caution, the thud will bring out the thud.

[29:10] Well, in the realm of divine religion, there's no doubt about it. Where God is the bud of grace, the evil time he worrisome gets there.

[29:27] There is to be opened up and blotted out in glory in God's desire.

[29:38] In this connection, we might think of the dying thief. He hasn't much time. After God gave him grace, yet there he was, with grace in the sun, and knackled out to glory in the full.

[30:02] This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Moreover, grace is glory in the thud, but the glory is the perfection of the sun.

[30:21] In other words, glory will show me all that grace has in store. It's only that it will be learned of what it needs to or for us while we have the act.

[30:34] We have not entered into the mind of man to conceive the things God has laid up for those who love him. Of course, God has revealed them unto us by his spirit.

[30:48] So we have in this world. So we have in this world. But even so, I for one, I can't grasp what it means to have glory in the blood.

[31:02] The glory of divine conformity to a single extra. Think of that. Think of that. When I shall never say, I'm wrong, I've done wrong, or I can make a wrong.

[31:18] That would be impossible. Never again could you have a nature that would lead me astray or think a wrong thing. I can't be breaking on it, cast as evil.

[31:30] Because here I'm so good. And the things I wouldn't have. And to be there, with a nature like unto his own, as impeccable as his own.

[31:43] Well, the blessing for it, he said it. He said it. He said it. Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, see with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.

[31:59] For thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. But the grace here leads toward that.

[32:11] Now, on the contrary side of the picture, one of those who have no grace. Can I let that go unnoticed?

[32:23] I must sound the alarm, the warning note, without grace, no glory. Let people say what they may.

[32:34] Let them think what they may. The reason cannot be. I must be born again here, if I am a bit there.

[32:45] I can't die in my sinnership and go to be with Christ, with his father as a. That is in Christ. Early speak, I sing of those other words of his baptism.

[33:01] These shall go away. In where the dust is touched, where their worms down. And the fire comes to his heart.

[33:13] You never find one in a hundred. It means, do you? It's hardly ever mentioned. Nowadays, it's in the last connection.

[33:25] And people get over it by saying, the word everlasting does not be in the same as the word eternal. But it so happens that it does in that particular verse and context that I have told you.

[33:41] Eternal, everlasting are identical terms as they are used by the Holy Gales. And if the eternal life that Christ mentions there is afforded his people, then everlasting I am.

[34:00] It is eternal. I know it's hard the flesh and blood to believe in that. I know it's hard the flesh and blood to talk about.

[34:13] It is real. It's very normal. I don't like to talk about that. It's not pleasant for a man to talk about. Not from moments where I talk about it.

[34:26] And if I were bloating over the lost conviction of my fellow readers is Christ's death. That's my doom but to rest.

[34:38] I've nothing to shout beyond the bow. The glory it is not mine. Yes, we must warn. Do take the warning.

[34:50] It's meant for you. If you are alive and the dead well then you are dead still in trespasses and in sin.

[35:01] great first glory hereof and now finally no good thing we behold from them that walk uprightly.

[35:15] Two things here the walking uprightly oh what a job what a job is.

[35:27] In order to walk uprightly means that I must lean to the right and I must lean to the left. God rules God's spirit level if I may talk about that is put up against you and me in his word and if I lean to the right or lean to the left I'm not walking upright in his sight for I will not think of how you feel over him I know it I feel and this part of the text seems to be to be the most severe and the count of all to walk uprightly to lean to know sin yet yet in balls up in me oh what a mystery we are what a thundrum and how we feel it and yet God knows we wouldn't lean to it we don't want to lean to it there's not a sin we'd be trying to do and yet we see we're leaning to this and leaning to that in fact we need to be a crooked house dick instead of a straight upright upright so

[36:44] God knows the heart of this well to him that walks uprightly that will relate to his God first then to his fellow man who doesn't act dumb no deceit no fraud no saying yes when he means no and no when he means yes not acting the hypocrite to his fellow man walking uprightly in the sight of God to his fellow man that's what true grace will make an aim of if we ever succeed in reaching it fully that's the aim to reach great in your heart and mind and that's what you will do if great cost ah you'll have many to blow if you do it but what do you expect of true religion do you expect to be dressed in a velvet suit and go to heaven with a brass band playing in your favour or never may or never be served may or never be served human beings expect roughness if you walk uprightly no favourites in the theme of God perfect transparent honesty as in his son then he says then he says

[38:08] God no good things without his own and that's that the second difference he says what constitutes a good thing I can't tell you I've got my own ideas on what I think will be a good thing for me and I guess no you've got good ideas of what would be a good thing for you but here's the point of saying that God decides which will be a good thing for me and to do it you see my idea of a good thing for me would prove a bad thing and I've all decided that really outwardly and so that's where we sometimes get into trouble and difficulty in mind we can't understand God allowing this and doing the other with us when we keep asking him to give us that which we feel we have in the job we simply think that God is working the long way round all together and in effect he's saying my child

[39:14] I know what's the best thing for you you don't know what's the good thing let infinite wisdom do the choosing I say let him and I ask the Lord we will be in a fear in the name of God but if we can be healed and know that he is God I use the expression very reverently let God is choosing I forget the man and now he's made a gun from me who said when how and where just as God pleases he's on his right head I can understand his saying when where and how just as God pleases I really like to be in that and just as God pleases he's left the good thing well we may be sure of this that what is good is the me

[40:21] God will not be told in the morning of God he will be turning the good thing and he will ascend the good thing in his right thank you