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[0:00] Depending on the Lord's tale, we'll say a few more words from the words we spoke upon this morning.

[0:11] In the 10th verse of Psalm 46. Psalm 46 verse 10.

[0:22] Be still and know that I am God. If only we could, how blessed it would be all time to take this stillness and quietness if this text then go into honor.

[0:49] There is such a place as being still, with such a circumstance, that only Divine Grace and help can give it to us.

[1:03] Because these circumstances as they have today are really thrust upon us. And our dear deacon is laid in hospital now.

[1:15] Unexpectedly, I am in this pool. So that had we known yesterday what would be the circumstances today, we should have been surprised.

[1:30] These are the things that call for the exercise of peace in our hearts. We are all subject to it.

[1:43] Irrespective of age or office, come these earth-loving seeds, of which I mentioned a little this morning.

[1:54] The earth melted. The mountains are carried into the midst of the sea. There is a tumult, an earthquake, a convulsion brought into our lives.

[2:09] And where can we go? Some find despair, the only alternative. You have got to look outside the scriptures to find those who did.

[2:25] Jonah found despair, the only alternative. Take me up, he said, and cast me over the side of the ship. So that these truths are essential to be taught us in this life.

[2:47] The younger we are, the better. Although they may not apply to you today, and don't in some circumstances, yet, who can tell?

[2:59] What the day may yet come when you look back to see that there was an emergency in your life.

[3:14] The only way deliverance was to run to this refuge. But if you know not of it, and who it is, how can you run to it?

[3:25] The name of the Lord says David is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it with his sake. This isn't cowardice.

[3:38] Men call it so, and laugh it to score. And to the deliverance. It is a place of refuge.

[3:54] Here we hope our deacon will find it in his fresh pathway. And many like him. And many like him. We ourselves have walked in this over the last few weeks.

[4:11] As I told you this morning. We spoke of knowing. Knowing him as David knew it. He was a king. In various aspects.

[4:23] Not to prolong the thought that would have set your mind working upon this train. He knew him as one that took him.

[4:35] Now to the sheep. Sovereignly anointed him and made him eventually king. In doing so he brought forth a type that no one could foresee until God's covenant promise to David was made known.

[5:00] So, now we know for a fact that David was a type of Christ. And that he is owned as David's greatest son.

[5:15] Jesus' heart referred to him. As that great pattern and type and shadow of himself.

[5:27] And so many respects still accept. But David didn't know. The purposes of God are deeply hidden.

[5:39] So that this humble Saint dear Christ Jesus who walked this earth. Was the God of Jacob.

[5:54] Of whom we read in the 28th of Genesis. Whose history is most, shall I say, fascinating. As a man.

[6:06] He was a sinful man. If you had to choose between Esau and Jacob. As an employer. And had their characters in front of you.

[6:18] I think possibly you would have chosen Esau. Because Jacob was less trustworthy at least. But not so in God.

[6:32] He had set his affection upon the unworthy supplanter. Jacob. Jacob. Jacob.

[6:43] The deceiver. And not only so. But he called himself by the name of Jacob. You see this in the psalm.

[6:55] God. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. God of Jacob.

[7:08] This is no misnomer. God of Jacob. The Lord of hosts is a sacred truth. The condescension of God was to the runaway Jacob.

[7:24] On that memorable night when he had to leave home because of his foul need in stealing, deceiving his father. stealing the birthrights.

[7:35] God of Jacob is here below upon earth. He is encouragement to say thanks to those who are among the unworthy Jacob. And he becomes a name forever. Indeed a prince. But as he leads home God meets with it.

[7:57] becomes a knave forever, indeed a prince. But as he leads home, God meets with it. And he does not defame the name of the ancient covenant promise to God of Jacob. And how this swells in our eyes now in this gospel day as we look back to the slightest trace of age or antiquity.

[8:35] Let it not see to you sometimes that God of Jacob is your great need in your present earthly troubles and concerns, the God of Jacob. And he is also classified among the most strange creatures, worm-taker.

[8:58] There's no need of understanding, doesn't there? Fear not, thou worm-taker. Says God referring to his people, well no, you may be hard-hearted enough to tread on a worm.

[9:14] In a hand you may be kind enough to lift it off the pavement and put it in a hedge. But this is the remarkable lowly state.

[9:30] God calls himself the God of Jacob. But he is also the Lord of hosts. This mighty, innumerable, heavenly host. In exactly the same way as is God of the individual of Jacob. So he is the God of the God of the hosts. And in knowing him, be still and know. And know that I am God. There is a revelation of this complex and yet blessed and divine truth that God, the God of the God. Jehovah is the God of the armies of heaven and the God of Jacob. History, beautiful history, we may well call it in the Old Testament.

[10:54] He discovers so clearly and constantly how wonderful is the unfolding of God's purpose. He joined himself in this twofold aspect to his people.

[11:14] He has set out. He has set out his condescension. And here David is a type, shadow of the Lord Jesus himself.

[11:32] He is directly related to him after the flesh. He was by birth. The Lord Jesus was by birth son of David. This long lineage, generation after generation after generation, their lives and histories and their lives and histories and knowledge only really, encompass two or three generations.

[11:46] two or three generations. How many generations have begotten years, how many generations have begotten years, and how many generations have begotten years and generations have begotten years, even in this little of heaven. How about three, I suppose.

[12:24] And yet, through the long years of the unfolding of God's purposes for the birth of the Lord Jesus through Mary, by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, the bringing together one and another under his eternal purpose is revealed.

[12:55] You have the genology in Luke and in Matthew. You have the details of one case in the little book of Ruth.

[13:07] You see that Ian Iove and Humble Ruth brought to Glyn in Boaz's field and the union between Boaz and the outcome of it.

[13:27] And Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat Doug. And all these things, there is infinite wisdom and knowledge to be had.

[13:45] You're told to search the scriptures, you're given a task that's unending. When you're given a subject, our students take one subject, that's enough for them.

[13:56] Perhaps a second to it. No more. That's one, one's enough. The person studies a particular branch of nature.

[14:08] What do they find? One branch is enough. One branch is a particular branch of nature. You shall not hear of them saying, well, I've finished that.

[14:19] No more to learn in that. I must turn to something else. And if this is so in the natural things, this knowledge of God in the scripture is unfathomable.

[14:37] And in this one particular sphere of his union with David, it would take you many, many hours of ordinary, everyday thought and study, quite apart from prayer.

[14:58] Though I would recommend that with it, of course, to see the wonderful knowledge of God bound up in the life of David.

[15:13] And the outcome of King Jesus, who is the combination of this holy, eternal, and almighty God manifested in Christ.

[15:31] So that the Lord of hosts and the God of Jacob are one. And yet, two different facets entirely.

[15:43] Like a diamond. Look at it one way, and you see one color. Look at it another, and you see another. And the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ.

[16:00] And it is this. That the exhortation in this beautiful psalm sets before us. Please do not know that I'll have dealings with you, Woke Jacob, that I'll come into your light, help you in your trials.

[16:19] Indeed, I've already been confessed in prayer today, hasn't it? At times, in the Lord's hands.

[16:33] You may not believe that there's not a single time here, or anywhere else, that is not under the direct control of Jehovah.

[16:46] How that in this, we bow before the knowledge scripture reveals to us, that the Holy Spirit seals in our hearts that we are to know Him.

[17:04] That great blasphemer, and that most excellent pattern, Paul, says one of his petitions in the third of Philippians, that I may know Him.

[17:25] You might almost turn round to Paul and say, Well, Paul, you do know Him. It's quite clear to us that you do know Him more than anyone.

[17:37] It's an insatiable knowledge, and certainly from an unfathomable fullness.

[17:48] But that was the Apostle's desire, that I may know Him. If that desire is found in our hearts, who has put it there?

[18:01] Because it isn't a natural desire, as regards nature, it's phenomenal, unusual, exceptional.

[18:12] This knowledge then of this great God is well worthy of our meditation.

[18:24] There is this great point that we must come in tonight's experiences with Jacob, to be able to look up to the majesty of heaven.

[18:39] In that chapter that we read together, there was a ladder seen in the vision. Jesus refers to it in the Gospel according to John.

[18:55] The connection between heaven and earth. The angels of God are ascending and descending upon it. A wonderful dream which Jacob had.

[19:10] It has no interpretation except that which Jesus mentions in John's Gospel.

[19:22] Faith is given to see the link between heaven and earth. And there the Lord appeared to Jacob. He said, this is none other than the house of God.

[19:38] He'd never spoken like this before. How did he know that there was such a place as the house of God? We must only answer the question by attributing it to the teaching that he received from his father Isaac and his mother Rebecca.

[20:00] But further from the revelation of the Holy Ghost. And the gate of heaven. What did Jacob know about heaven? In that, as men say, and wrongly, I'm cultivated in uneducated time.

[20:23] That this is what he says, and he's got nobody with him. He's entirely alone. He says, how dreadful is this place.

[20:36] This is God's condescension to his church. To his people in their low and lonely estate.

[20:48] At times of their trial. And they want someone. As the psalm says, a very present help in trouble.

[20:59] And you may be sure that God brings you, like he brings all his people to these places. You will want a very present help.

[21:12] You will be in dire need. And you will need it. You will need it there. You will need it there. But in life, at times, you will need it.

[21:36] And the sixth verse, the fifth verse also. That God shall help her on that bright earth. The margin says, when the morning appears.

[21:49] When the morning appears. That first light. After the darkness. And that these things are so fitting when you're in them.

[22:06] And not otherwise. Big difference, isn't there, between midday and midnight. Very big difference. And if you spend a restless night.

[22:18] A painful night, as our deacon did last night. At least. Though pain may not be easy. Nor trouble removed.

[22:31] Yet. First light is very acceptable. So with God's greatest. Immediate.

[22:43] Present help. In time of trouble. This is Jacob's great consolation there for God's great promise.

[22:56] And it is so applicable. And here the exhortation is. Is to know.

[23:08] And know that God. God. So that he is. God. Of. Worm Jacob.

[23:19] How many scriptures. Do the personal pronoun of this. My. God. Says Paul. Shall supply all your needs. According to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

[23:35] How extensive. More than we can comprehend. Is the care. Of Jehovah over his unworthy individual people. You may now. This very day. In dire need of guidance. Your circumstance may be so.

[23:46] You may now. This very day. Your need is upon you. And you may now. You may now. You may now. This very day. In dire need of guidance. Your circumstance may be so. That you feel.

[23:57] Your need is upon you. And you may now. You may now. You may now. You may now. You may now. This very day. This very day. In dire need of guidance. Your circumstance may be so.

[24:08] That you feel. Your need is upon you. It is tomorrow. It is today. Your prayers may. In fact. A being. That even today. The Lord. Will. Be pleased.

[24:19] To guide. Your footsteps. You have. Perhaps. Little conception. Of the dangerous place. Or. What trouble awaits you. Neither has I. I am.

[24:30] And yet. The God of Jacob. That. The God of Jacob. That. Do you have perhaps a good conception of the dangerous place you're in or what trouble awaits you?

[24:44] Neither have I. And yet, the God of Jacob has the next step plotted out for you.

[24:55] It may be negative or positive, we know not. But he has in his word given very clear guidance as to how he is to be known, obeyed and followed.

[25:14] It is not merely some religiousness, but it's practical godliness. The word has been much on my mind since I've been ill.

[25:32] Why call ye me Lord, Lord? And do not the things that I say. Why? These words have echoed in my mind again and again, as I told you this morning.

[25:48] Because I suppose I've grown more on my little flock here the last few weeks than even on my own family. And the deep concern that I've felt.

[26:04] And realise that changes are the foot. And as I said this morning, the serious nature of both pastor and deacon being afflicted.

[26:16] Isn't something to be merely passed off as incidentally. Why? Why call ye me Lord, Lord?

[26:29] Why, said Jesus, do you do this? And do not the things that I say. Why, said Jesus. That is a practical godliness in knowing this great God of Jacob.

[26:42] And Jacob, you see, was bound to God in this particular way, as death. It's a finding time there.

[26:54] It never left his life. It was there that God met him in a way of divine favour and blessing.

[27:07] And you see, he took up the promise that if God would be with him and bring him again to his father's house and so on. We hear not a great deal about this, of his father's house.

[27:21] We know not whether he ever went back to see Isaac or Rebekah. But we do know that he went back to Bethel. And when he came back to Bethel, he was a richer man.

[27:38] Not with sheep and goats and cabins, but in experience. And God brought him back to Bethel. And God said to him, Arise and go back to Bethel.

[27:53] There's a long time, twenty years of that. But he had to go back. And when he went back, he stripped the idols out of his hands.

[28:06] Said to his two wives, Take out the idols now. Can't let those back to Bethel. God of Jacob teaches. And he taught Jacob in adversity. And a particular kind of adversity. Which God is known to use. And that is, that what you sow, you reap.

[28:17] Human nature is so apt to think that. You, to use a rather ordinary term, you get away with it.

[28:30] You might be sure you are. Jacob deceived. And he did it at the instigation of his mother. And he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he. And he was deceived himself. What he sowed, he was so apt to think that. You, to use a rather ordinary term, get away with it.

[28:42] You might be sure you are. Jacob deceived. And he did it at the instigation of his mother.

[28:58] And he was deceived himself. What he sowed, he reaped. You wouldn't expect, if you sowed lettuce seeds, to go and, uh, cut cabbage from it, would it?

[29:16] You mustn't expect. What you sowed now will never be reaped. It will be. If you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption.

[29:34] If you sow to the spirit, you will of the spirit reap life everlasting. So that in this, God is known by his teaching.

[29:47] When we see our friends in trouble, and when we're in trouble ourselves, we sympathize with them. As it's right, we should.

[30:00] Human sympathy is a wonderful thing. A touch of human kindness is still left in this dark world.

[30:13] And those things that we seek to comfort others with, we often need to be comforted with ourselves. In this, we have to learn.

[30:30] The necessity for a comforting refuge. And we have it in the word of God.

[30:44] And truth is comforting, though it's not always to the flesh. God is known, therefore, by his take-off.

[30:56] God is known, therefore, by his take-off. In the way, he deals with a new, that I was saying. You may be in trouble today.

[31:09] Your friends may be sympathizing with you, as you sympathize with me. And as we sympathize with our deacon, too. And in one.

[31:20] And look at the trials we've had in the past year. Look at the little family.

[31:35] One after the other, were taken into Winchester Hospital. To sympathize with them. But what we did not know was why the Lord laid his hand upon them.

[31:47] And as you. Nor do you know why the Lord has laid his hand upon me. There's a secret in it.

[31:58] There's a purpose in it. And it is this. That is hidden. And known only to the individual. I can tell you, I believe, why the Lord has laid his hand upon me.

[32:15] But it is not time for me to get. But in these things, God corrects, chases.

[32:28] And to purpose. So that Jacob at Bethel, on his return, he calls it by a different name.

[32:40] He just puts two letters in front of it. That is in our English version. He called it El-Bethel. Meaning, the God of the house of God.

[32:54] There's something very enlarging about that. As if he'd heard something. And now look how God's house. To those at his first night, a Bethel to them, go back to it again, perhaps after a good many years.

[33:16] And say, oh, it's the God of the house of God that is my concern. It was so with Jacob.

[33:26] I said he was a richer man. And it's a poor pathway, isn't it? That doesn't enrich a follower of the Lord Jesus.

[33:42] It's just a great thing to come back to Bethel. The God of Jacob is to be obeyed, followed, honored.

[33:56] He is to be known as one who, as Jacob knew him, is constantly in your life.

[34:08] From Bethel, Jacob went out into many strange pathways. He was constantly reaping what he'd sown.

[34:20] But God didn't destroy him. He taught him in it. But he didn't leave him to drown in it. And all these changing scenes of his life, therefore the greatest, was when he lost his son, Joseph.

[34:43] And the bloodstained coat was brought in front of him and the brothers said, well now, see whether this be thy son's coat or no. It's only stained the blood of an animal.

[34:57] And if he lived in the 20th century, that could have soon been his color, couldn't it? But he was fully persuaded that his son, Joseph, had been slain by an evil beast.

[35:15] God's ways are very solemn. Don't trifle with the will. Don't think you can get on and pass these things by and God make some exception in your case and alter his law for you.

[35:32] or that you can afford to put it on one side and say, well, that's not me. Be very, very careful.

[35:45] Either in providence or in grace. God is mocked. Be not deceived. God is not mocked, says Paul to the Galatians.

[35:55] but is known as a God who will not be mocked. Jesus so often had occasion to reprove the Pharisees for their mockery, hypocrisy.

[36:19] He so often brought them to task because of their duplicity. And they, happy men as they thought themselves to be, were blind, leaders of the blind, absolutely deceived.

[36:41] In fact, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. You can't get anything more extreme than that, I shall say.

[36:51] be still and know that I am a correcting God and that I watch over these things and I will bring them again to your own life.

[37:06] I am the God of Jacob and the Lord of hosts. All things are in my hand but I will bring things to bear in the life of my Jacob hopes that will teach them that I am the Lord.

[37:29] And in this he also has his name to glorify. This was the ultimate of dear Jacob's life.

[37:41] this was his happy end. It was more than he could bear. He read that his heart fainted within him when he saw Jacob Joseph on him.

[38:03] My son Joseph is yet alive. Absolutely impossible at one time but now visibly before his eyes as his God.

[38:18] Jacob knew him and he knew him as the God of Jacob at the end of his life. It's all brought together in such a way that the tangled sky was fully unraveled.

[38:36] So that the end of life a wonderful time you know. The end of the journey is something in many respects to be looked forward to and God untangles the skein puts together the last few pieces of the puzzle unfolds and purposes that ripen something very blessed about the consummation of God's events in our lives.

[39:18] I've had a little of it over the last few weeks and my heart was being softened under. I wouldn't have missed it. Jacob then he blesses his son Joseph and Joseph is taken aback when his father crosses his hands over the two boys man and he plays hold of his father's hand and endeavours to put it straight showing us that even at the end of his journey there was that which he thought was wrong.

[40:03] Joseph thought that his father had made a big mistake. He said not so my father. This is the first call. the God of Jacob right down to the end you see guided Jacob's hands wittingly we're told.

[40:21] Old talk about studying the word of God. What a vast depth it is. So that we turn to David the great antitype of Christ and that blessed son of David and the deep mystery that surrounded the last three years of his life all revealed in the gospel fraught with mystery so much in it that seemed so contrary the rejection of Jesus the unbelief of the people the failure to see they would not even recognize his miracles he accomplished them in front of them but they wouldn't couldn't didn't how deeply hysteria he wasn't believed he was rejected pilot would have released him that was the open door the very man that sat as his judge would have released him he said well we can't comprehend such as seen in our courts of law can we when the judge would say well release that prisoner if he did that prisoner would be released but not so among the rabble in that day he was delivered by the determinate counsel and poor knowledge of

[42:15] God not even his judge pilot could release him what a mystery away with him away with him crucified but what do we see of him the Lord of hosts everywhere was the Lord of hosts around the cross of Calvary David's greater son bearing the iniquities of his people although it was dark and the disciples forsook him and fled everything seemed to be so deeply mysterious which of course it was yet the Lord of hosts wasn't absent for it I know these statements are well known to you but the point is they've got to be walked out in sound and wonderful measure by God's mysterious dealing with it and we do well to observe these things and to know as the psalm said who so is wise who so is wise will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord and in the little events of our service today at the earliest of our dear friends this is not something to be treated casually look at the things that have happened today look at those of us that have been pressed into service look at the

[44:18] Lord's mercy to us in giving the willingness to help so that the day hasn't been chaotic the word of God hasn't been absent no but they know it's done the day they've never done before and yesterday they might well have said well I could never do that you don't know whatever my doctor will say to me on Thursday when I tell him I don't know what I have is the answer of a clear conscience and in this we alone can stand before God but to know what he can do in the time of need means we've got to be plunged into the time of need to prove that this knowledge is a wonderful humbling blessed thing that I'm asleep on you will see the gist of these things subject is great and what little has been said may the

[45:34] Lord own and bless in the midst of weakness may his strength be made perfect amen amen 10275 tune 325 God har our our avere The End Tim 275, tune 395

[46:37] Let me thy sovereign bold war, Lord thy footstool, unbehold. And while I plead afflictions to art, Be still, and know the dark dark.

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