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[0:00] I ask the Lord to be pleased to help me. I shall call your attention to a subject you will find in the book of Gerimoya, chapter 15 and the fifth verse.

[0:17] They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces with a ward saying, come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

[0:40] Chapter 50, fifth verse, the book of Gerimoya. This is a word which is calculated as grace is given to contemplate it to be especially a help to a seeking soul.

[1:10] They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces with a ward.

[1:22] And what a great mercy it is to be a seeking soul. And once a sinner is born again, that is what he will be as long as he lives.

[1:35] Somehow, in our denominational life, there is an impression abroad that when you begin to speak of a seeking soul, that it refers to those especially in life's mourning.

[1:56] But, you never cease to be a seeking soul. Once you are made manifest as being a sinner born again.

[2:12] And this exercise of mind referred to in our subject is known and felt as long as you live. And this exercise of mind.

[2:51] And to be submissive to the will of God as to whatever the way is whereby he shall lead you to Zion.

[3:03] But it might be well, in approaching the subject, to look at this character of being a seeking soul. And now, is that what you really are as you are here before God?

[3:22] Do let your consciences tell you the truth about it. A seeking soul. Mark the word soul.

[3:32] The meaning is that you are concerned about the salvation of your soul. And you want matters to be made right between your soul and God.

[3:51] A seeking soul. And you are here in the attitude of a seeking soul. Seeking. If so be, God will grant you a token for good.

[4:08] Help you to participate in the favor that he bears to his people. And do mark the word soul.

[4:20] Our souls are never dying. And our souls, being immortal, can only feed upon immortal food.

[4:33] And immortal food cannot be found beneath the sun. Immortal food does not flow from any earthly source whatever.

[4:50] It is that which a man cannot receive, except it be given him from heaven. And so, if you are a seeking soul, you are solemnly aware your soul is never dying.

[5:08] And that when all that is mortal of you is laid in the grave, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust, your soul will still live, either in heaven or hell.

[5:21] And now that is a very solemn consideration. And that is the deep down feeling of one who is made by grace to be a seeking soul.

[5:40] And his great concern is, as long as he lives, is that he shall be assured of his soul's eternal welfare.

[5:51] And, as this word tells us, they, and they only, shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thither war.

[6:07] And you, many of you, blessed be God, have long had your faces thither war, desiring that you might be numbered with the people of God, living and dying.

[6:26] And now, I want to look at this subject from two or three viewpoints of it. And the background of it is to do with what I have often brought before you, the return from Babylon's captivity.

[6:47] But I'll not take up time in going into those details, because you were well aware that when the time came that Israel were to be delivered, that God brought a miracle and raised up a deliverer whose name was Cyrus.

[7:06] And whilst he was an ungodly character, yet when he conquered Babylon, he found it in his part to issue a proclamation that any of the Israelites who had it in their minds to do so, they were welcome to return to the land of promise, which was their homeland, and their worship God, as they had been wont to do in bygone days.

[7:40] And I like to read what is recorded in the book of Ezra about it, and you might honder it in your hearts and look at it again when you get home in chapter 1.

[7:56] This is what Cyrus, king of Persia, proclaimed. Who is there among you of all his people?

[8:06] Is God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem.

[8:22] And there was a promise of help and protection for them as many as found it in their mind to return to their homeland.

[8:37] And this is what I want you to observe. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the priest and the Levite with all them who spirit God had raised.

[8:56] To go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. These and these only were concerned about returning to the land of promise.

[9:10] All them whose spirit God had raised. And now that is the hallmark of a seeking soul. One whose spirit God has raised.

[9:25] And now let us work that out in a way that may be encouraging to you to contemplate. You can remember some of you how long you lived according to the spirit in which you were born with no concern whatever about God or godliness but you lived as you were born after the flesh the things of the flesh.

[9:59] And you may have lived quite a while through your childhood years and into your teenage life and farther on in life's journey still and then there came into your breath what you never asked God to give you a new spirit.

[10:24] It is called another spirit and that spirit caused you to feel a need you had never known or felt before the need of God to come into your life and with that need you found also a new knowledge which I have already hinted at that you possessed a soul a never dying soul and you were bound for an eternal destiny heaven or hell and then your spirit being raised you began to be after the spirit the things of the spirit your outlook in life was completely changed whereas you had been living for time alone you found in your heart a concern about eternal reality and you had a feeling like this how stands the case my soul with thee for heaven are thy credentials clear and from that time on you have been concerned to ask away to

[11:55] Zion and now let us look in opening the subject at Zion what is to be understood thereby I will tell you it refers to the church of Christ on earth the people of God who belong to it irrespective of any denominational label whatever there is beneath the sun at the present time in the midst of earth's woe and wickedness the church of Christ and it is made up of a number which no man can number you and I look on the church of Christ professing and we often lament that those who seem to be the real people of God seem few and far between but dear friends in my latter days

[13:00] I entertain a feeling and I shall not give it notice to quit that God has got many more people of his own north south east and west beneath the sun than ever you and I can visualize or realize there is a word in the Psalms I have looked at often the Psalms it speaks about thy hidden one and what is very very striking to emphasize that viewpoint of the church of Christ every now and again you get through the post some little leaflets or some magazines issued by people who desire the welfare of Zion and you read of what the

[14:01] Spirit of God has been doing and still is doing in lands afar off not just in the land in which you and I live but afar off and there seems such evidence made manifest that the church of Christ is indeed being built up every day as I have said to you often the Lord added unto the church daily such as should be saved and he is doing that this Sabbath afternoon yes and now Zion then set forth the church of Christ and you may say some of you dear young people how can it be that Zion does represent the church of Christ you will remember what Zion was at the church it was a place in Jerusalem that seemed impregnable so that when

[15:14] David was raised up to be Israel's king and he desired to dwell in Jerusalem they desired also to take the mount of Zion but the Jebusites occupied it and when Joab came with Israel's hope if to be they could take it the Jebusites ridiculed them and put the blind and the lame on the rampart suggesting that it was an impossibility that the Israelites could ever conquer Zion being the impregnable place it was and almost inaccessible from one or two viewpoints but you read a word like this nevertheless David took the city of Zion and now their

[16:18] David made his dwelling place and then you read in one psalm which will make that matter very plain for the Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his habitation this is my rest forever here will I dwell for I have desired it I will abundantly bless her provision I will satisfy her poor with dread I will also clothe her priest with salvation and her saints shall shout aloud to join you see David maybe is well in place there but the greater than David is to be understood and is referred to and all the way through the word of God itself there are many references to

[17:23] Zion and now sometimes it refers to the place the place itself sometimes it refers to the people who belong to Zion what you sing about blessed inhabitants of Zion and it was as you sing about also that to Zion the whole nation came to worship Christ a year and that was how God instituted his worship should be when David reigned as king over Israel and the ark of the covenant was in Zion and that was the center of the worship of God and you all know there were three appointed feast times when all the males above twenty years of age were compelled wherever they lived to journey up to

[18:30] Zion and worship God unitedly and see his faith there so God ordained Zion in the land of promise to be the center of his worship and it also means that if you're asking away to Zion it means that you want to belong to the people who are the inhabitants of it and mark that word inhabitants not those who just come and go no but those who have that feeling my soul shall pray for Zion hill while life of breath remains they're my best friends my kindred dwell their God my saviour reign and you have known bring it home ask the

[19:37] Lord to help you in your own soul's experience I say you have known what it is in the attitude of worship even under union chapel rules to feel the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and you have entered into this word they shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord it is that feeling the love of the brethren that makes us to be one with each other and one with Jesus Christ as the church's living head love is the golden chain that binds the favoured souls above and he's a heir of heaven who finds his bosom glow with love and so to be asking the way to Zion means that you want something for your soul and you want it every day and you want

[20:44] God to come into your life and guide you and guard you and be all in all to you something like you read where David says one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple and now as you ask the way to Zion and you come up to worship God in the means of grace as you are at the present stone you ask God for something for your soul oh that is the hallmark of being a seeking soul I seek and hope to find a portion for my soul and to be honest you have sometimes found it here a little it may be and there a little and though as yet you cannot say some things that you would like to say and which people thought of

[22:02] God sooner or later do say you were still on the stretch for these things to be known and felt in your soul experience yes much might be said under that heading and now there is just one more illustration of Zion which I want to say a word or two upon you read in the Hebrews epistle where the apostle Paul speaks about people taught of God but year come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the first born which are written in heaven and to

[23:04] God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and now there Zion is an illustration of heaven itself because when all is said and done if you're asking the way to Zion your concern is to be numbered with those who belong to the church militant and if you do then the day will dawn when you will belong to the church triumphant Jerusalem on high yes and now you find that the apostle John in the book of Revelation he says this do listen and I looked and lo a lamb stood on the mount

[24:06] Zion and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand having his father's name written in their foreheads and I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder and I heard the voice of harbors harping their heart and they sung as it were a new song before the throne and now that is what you are after if you are a seeking soul your great concern is to get to heaven and to be made meet to go there they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thither war and you know you have many thoughts about it sometimes many searchings of heart and you say prepare me gracious

[25:10] God to stand before thy face thy spirit must the work perform for it is all of grace let us look at the subject now from another viewpoint they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thither war and remember that means their backs are towards the world at large or they do not want to be in it and of it or they do not want to settle down in it and line their nest with time things and that which world lends prize no their great concern I say is to win Christ and be found in him but there are some characteristics about the way to

[26:12] Zion and it might be well to say just a little as to what those characteristics are and to begin at the beginning what did the saviour say enter ye in at the straight gate and now that is the starting point to taking the first steps in the way to Zion and the saviour said thrive to enter in at the straight gate and the original is godly scholars tell us agonise to enter in and there is something like that in an exercise unto godliness there is in the early days especially an agonising to know that you are indeed a sinner born again straight is the gate narrow is the way that lead it unto life and few there be that find it and now that qualification few there be that find it will search you if you are a sinner born again if you are a seeping soul you will wonder if you can be numbered with the few that find it and you will have a feeling like this

[28:04] I cannot bear the piercing thought what if my name should be left out when thou for them shalt call I said this way to Zion is a narrow way and that does not mean that in proclaiming such a truth as the Savior proclaimed it I say it does not mean that you are just bigoted and narrow minded in your outlook but it means that this way being a narrow way you and the world cannot walk alongside therein you must be asking the way to Zion with your face thither walk the world is behind you and the things of God are to you things of eternal moment supreme importance and you want them to be the element in which you live and move it is a wonderful mercy to be a pilgrim to

[29:23] Canaan bound to have this concern within they shall ask the way to Zion some of you are doing it every day sometimes it may be when you lie awake at night although I do not set that up as a standard I can remember in the early days of the dealings of God with me I used to hear some godly minister set up such a standard that if your religion did not keep you awake at night it was not worth much well when you have family worship and you are weary in body and jaded in mind cast down in soul and you commit your cause unto God for the evening hours and ask that you might be favored with refreshing sleep and he answers your prayer and you have hours of refreshing sleep to go on with the duties of everyday life you are not to set that aside no but there will be times when sleep will be with health and it may be then you can spend it profitably as grace is given asking the way to

[30:52] Zion way in matters up between your soul and God as to how things really are but it is not essential for your religion to be that which God is the author of that it should keep you awake at night do remember that they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces dither war and now this way to Zion is a way of life every step you take in it will cause you to be alive in your soul feelings to what you really are a poor sinner with a never dying soul journeying on with this concern that I may win Christ and be found in him and it will make you alive to what you are by nature which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and you will find that word the apostle

[32:07] Paul sent to the Hebrews is applicable to you in asking the way to Zion and he says wherefore seeing we are compassed about with such a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily be set of and run with patience the race that is set before you will find if you are in the way to Zion that you cannot skip along like the lambs do in may time no no you go often very slowly in the way to Zion and meet with much opposition from earth and hell without and what you are by nature within and sometimes wonder if you will be enabled to take another step in it and you will not be able unless

[33:08] God in his mercy grants you a gracious renewal in your soul of strength to do so they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thither wards but I would make this plain regarding this word thither wards whatever opposition you may meet you will meet it from the world as I have said you will of a truth meet it from the great adversary who will seek to undermine your hope in God and to harrow perplex and dismay and there is another thing that will sometimes much burden you and trouble you to be on the right side of this scripture take heed therefore brethren that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living

[34:15] God do you remember that Bunyan in his pilgrim's progress speaks about one man not a pilgrim although he set out as though he was to be like a pilgrim in the outward appearance but when the true pilgrims were on their way meeting much opposition they met this man returning going back his back was to the celestial city and he was on his way back to where he came from and he said there was no such a place as the celestial city he had gone a long way he had not met much opposition but he had gone a long way along the road and there was no such a place as as the celestial city and he laughed and corns the pilgrims

[35:17] Christian and hopeful because they were flooding on asking the way to Zion with their faces dither words what was that man's name atheist and he dwells inside you and the preacher too as we are born there is that in us an unbelieving heart and you need grace the devil will suggest to you sometimes how do you know there is this place that you are asking the way to what do you really know of the church of Christ you have seen many people well laid in the grave you believe their spirits are in heaven but what do you know about heaven where is it and many questions will be put and what evidence of you in your heart that you were going to heaven and sometimes that would dash your spirit and make you say oh my

[36:28] God my soul is cast down within me but here is the crucial test they shall ask away to Zion with their faces this award and you will still have your faith this award you will be found before God with whom you have to do that he will strengthen your faith and brighten your hope and grant you yet more evidence and you will be saying assure my conscience of her part in the redeemer's blood and bear the witness with my heart that I am born of God they shall ask the way to Zion and this way is a way of separation from the world it is a way of temptation and you must expect it to be a way of tribulation if it does not come from within it will come from without and it may be ere long even in the land you and I are living in a way of persecution wherein you will have to stand to many a crucial test as to whether you will follow on to know the Lord or be like those disciples who went back and walked no more within for that is what is coming in this once highly tabored land where the word of God was the foundation on which it was built up as an empire on which the sun could never set but the spirit that is now abroad from land's end to

[38:18] John O'Gro is this let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us and that for the things of God they are of no importance whatever in the eyes of the multitude but you blessedly God as a seeking soul you have eyes to see the supreme importance of these things and you want them as I said earlier to be your meat and drink yea meat and drink for your soul to feed upon they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces in a wall it will be a way wherein if you were asking the way to know if it is the right way you see it in

[39:21] Moses if now I have found great in thy sight show me now thy way and you in your concerns in everyday life whether it be to do with you your own soul or your business life the way in which you go things to do with the family circles you say Lord I want to know what is right to do and I want thy divine aid to do it at whatever cost it is to do it yes you will ask the way to Zion and you will have your faith to do the wars Lord I want matters to be right between my soul and thee for time and eternity and then there is just another thought although I must come to the amen this ask in the way much of it is done as your help to wait on

[40:23] God in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God there is asking the way to Zion too in the worship of God so that in the means of grace you desire to find grace in the means and do remember that while we in the means of sound we still alone on D depend to make the gospel joyful sound effectual to the promised end yes but that is how you will be asking the way to Zion in singing the songs of Zion in following the public worship in all details of it following the reading of the word of God seeking to hear the gospel the purpose and profit and in your everyday life is your help to meditate upon the things of

[41:36] God and use those means of grace which are usable for you there they shall ask the way to Zion the great concern is to get good for your soul they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces dither warm and now remember you dear young people especially you are asking the way to Zion some of you I know and there is a safe guide if you be in evil know how to give good things unto your children how much more shall your father in heaven give the holy spirit to them that ask him his holy majesty is ever available and is ever approachable oh you may well say as grace is given with godly

[42:37] Asa thou shalt guide me with thy counsel not only is there a wonderful guide a safe guide there is a blessed guide book one that is invaluable all scripture is given by inspiration of god and if you were helped to say in all your cares and concerns what saith the scripture concerning this you will find as you search the sacred pages thy word is a lamp unto my feet a light unto my path and you will get the way to Zion opened up before you and go on with willing feet in the way that god has made plain they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces dither walking saying come and let us join ourselves to the

[43:46] Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten and now I have no time to go into that viewpoint of the subject but I just say this as to the meaning of it it is nothing whatever to do with what is termed free will and what will make that plain is that free will it is not a doctrine it is only a dogma and it knows nothing at all of a covenant of any kind let alone a perpetual covenant free will means that you can accept the Lord Jesus as your savior today and later on you can exercise your so-called free will again and turn your back upon him and walk no more with him but it is not like that with these people in our text the

[44:50]  Israel of God they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying come let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten and this will help you to understand it who would true valour see let him come hither one who will constant be come when come whether there's no discouragement shall make him once relent his first as thou intends to be a pilgrim amenumen