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[0:00] All the people unto the mountain.

[0:14] There they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they shall suffer the abundance of the seas and of treasures hid in the sand.

[0:27] The 24th of Deuteronomy, verses 18 and 19. We were considering this morning in our meditation on these words some of the great differences that are brought to light in this part of God's Word concerning these two characters, Zebulun and Issachar.

[1:04] Two brothers very closely related together and joined together by God and directed by Him and His appointments were very clear and definite in regard to them.

[1:28] The one was to go out and the other was to remain in their tents.

[1:39] We could hardly perhaps perceive of anything that is more contrary, more opposite, more diverse than God's appointment for these two characters.

[1:55] but we can see in these two characters an illustration of God's own people, His believing people, all the way through the history of the Church of God, the experiences of real believers, where there is a going out in cases, and where there is a command by God to abide and to stand still and to wait upon the Lord.

[2:36] There are many, many scriptures which bid people to stand still and see the salvation of God.

[2:48] We were saying this morning it may well be harder to stand still than to go out. When a person is going out they are occupied with something.

[3:03] Their interests are absorbed. They can well put on one side any deterrent that might appear.

[3:18] But when you have to stand still and wait and not be able to see what may be brought forth in your lot or portion, then I say we need grace.

[3:33] We need strength. And above all we need patience to wait until the Lord appears. Now you have these two opposites.

[3:48] And if you had a choice perhaps you would say I would rather be one of the Zebulun type of people. But wait a moment my friend.

[4:00] Did you notice in our reading this morning what is this evening what the Lord said? He whose heaven is his throne and dwelling place.

[4:13] The earth being his footstool. He said he dwelleth with him that is of a humble heart and of a contrite spirit.

[4:30] He dwelleth with that man. the one in another part of Isaiah with him that trembleth at my worth.

[4:44] God says the almighty God the eternal God the God that dwelleth in eternity and inhabits eternity.

[4:55] He says I dwelleth I dwell with him of a lowly contrite heart who trembleth at my worth.

[5:07] so don't run away and say to yourself your lot is a very poor desolate lot indeed.

[5:20] Don't envy the soul that has been commanded by God and given strength and wisdom to go out and to do great exploits and to do mighty things and to explore and to go far afield in the service of God you may have more of a sweeter experience.

[5:49] You may have more nearness to God in your own soul than those who go forth like Zebulun that God says to both of them as we were noticing this morning rejoice Zebulun in thy going out and Issachar in thy stands in thy tents.

[6:20] Now Jacob's prophecy about these two boys is very wonderful. We touched upon it this morning and I just want as we go forth into our latter part of our text tonight just to touch again upon it because there's a close connection.

[6:39] Jacob said about Issachar and we're dealing with Issachar now he said about him he's a strong ass. He needed to be a strong ass.

[6:54] Now an ass was not a simple or vain kind of beast. It was a very needful beast.

[7:06] Useful. beast. In the days of the Bible it was one of the most useful beasts of burden that men employed.

[7:19] And they had oft times to carry very heavy burdens. And only the strong of that species were able to serve their fellows, men or the men that employed them in a way that was real and profitable and success.

[7:44] Jacob says he likens his own son Issachar to a strong ass and he needed to be. If Issachar is to remain in the tents, he's there for a purpose.

[8:00] He's not there to do nothing. He's not there to be idle. You may depend upon it if God puts you into a place where there's a great deal of exclusion.

[8:12] If he hides you for a little time and you want to break out, let's be sure of this, you're there for a purpose. And you need all the grace of God to fulfill that purpose and to do whatever it may be God intends for you to do.

[8:36] I'm thinking of William Carey, a great missionary, went out to India, went out with little support, scarcely any means whatever to support himself, that he told the call of God.

[8:54] And he went out to India. And there were doubtless a great many young men in his time and in his day who would have gladly have gone with him, but they were unable to do so.

[9:08] They had to remain at home. Now, Carey said to these young men, he said, I must go down the mine, that you must hold the ropes.

[9:23] Now, it's the Issachar that is the rope holder. It's these sort of people, these quiet people, that seem to make no mark in life, no glamour about them.

[9:40] They're always there, they're always ready at hand. There's something solid about them. You turn to these sort of people because there's something about them that's reliable.

[9:53] These are the rope holders for those who go forth into the greater service of God and the church at large.

[10:06] Yes, you can hold the rope of prayer. Do we do? we have to look into our own hearts when we come to a scripture like this.

[10:21] Are we rope holders? Do we hold up the hands of those that are in the forefront of the battle? Do we maintain them by a constant care and thought and prayerfulness?

[10:37] Or are we just indifferent? them? Let them go on, those who will. Let them have all the glamour, all the glory. Let them have all the costs and the pains and the suffering.

[10:51] But let me, one of the great enemies of God's church, is that great enemy that is this, saving of self.

[11:03] love. Let us spare ourselves, men say. Let others work. Let others suffer, but let us not.

[11:15] Let us go our easy, quiet way, unruffled, undisturbed. Let others do the work. We will get to heaven on an easy path of tranquility and peace.

[11:34] But never was there a greater mistake ever made. Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out. Rejoice, Issachar, in thy tents, and you may depend upon it.

[11:48] There's something there for Issachar to rejoice in. Then again, Jacob says about this son, he's a strong ass, couching down between two burdens.

[12:08] I wonder what these two burdens are. Some commentators have made this, that, and the other thing about them, but I would suggest this, and I just simply, one was the burden of his own felt weakness, and the other was the great burden of the needs of those around him.

[12:34] These are two great burdens on every real believer, you know, your own incapability, your own inefficiency, and the need that there is around you for the world, and for the calling of God, and the calling of his gospel.

[12:59] These are burdens, burdens, and they are burdens that have to be carried. Issachar was couched down beneath these two burdens.

[13:12] Some have said, it may be some truth in it, that Issachar was so placed in the land of promise that they had as a tribe, on one side of them, the Sidonians, a heathen people, where there was no fear of God, no worship of God, only idolatry, all close adjacent to them on one side, and on the other side, they had Samaria, a false professing of religion.

[13:45] And you know, those are two burdens to the people of God. You see, in the world today, as we come and go through the world, we see these two things.

[13:57] We see, on the one hand, blatant idolatry, and wickedness, open shame, and sin, and on the other, we see professing people where there is no life, and no real knowledge of God, and no real worship.

[14:17] And what are we to do about it? How can we bear this burden? the Lord says to Issaacah, rejoice, and I believe that gives us the key to how to bear the burdens that we have on our shoulders.

[14:39] It's rejoicing in the Lord. He alone can bear the burdens of his people. Cast thy burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.

[14:56] And therefore, when a poor soul casts that burden on the Lord, they find relief, because he sustains, he helps, he carries, he bears his people's burdens.

[15:16] things. Now, again, Issacah, if you look into the book of Chronicles, you'll find that David had a great many people come to him to help him in the time of his great need.

[15:37] They came from all kinds of places, and there were all sorts of men, there were valiant men, there were determined characters, there were strong men who could fight and go forth to war, and do battle, and conquer, and obtain the victory.

[16:00] They came to David, and among them, there were the men of Issacah, and it says of this about the men of Issacah, they were great warriors, they were great men of strength, they could not perhaps go out to battle and do battle against David's enemies, but they were men of understanding, and they were men that understood the times, and knew what Israel ought to do.

[16:42] And I would say this, David, who had a wisdom about him that was above many, he would appreciate the arrival of that tribe of Issacah to him, and he would recognize that there was strength, wonderful strength, when they came and joined themselves today, that they were men of understanding, that's what we want.

[17:11] They were men that understood the times, now where are men today that understand the times in which we lived? Where are those who can tell us what is greatly needed in the land and in the church?

[17:31] Where are those who can rightly, clearly set forth the truth of God and show and lead the people in that right way and say this is the thing that Israel ought to do?

[17:46] We all know there are a multitude of voices and confusion is the greatest of all of them. We lack leaders, we lack those who know, we lack those who have a spirit of understanding.

[18:05] We want today, if ever we wanted anything, we want Issypress to prevail the church of God. Now we must come to the second part of our text tonight.

[18:24] They shall call the people to the mountain. I just touched briefly on this morning. This was the solid purpose of both these people.

[18:41] Zebulun, when he went out, and Issachar, while he remained in his tent. They both had a common purpose. purpose. And this purpose was ever prominent and uppermost in their minds and hearts and their work, to call the people to the mountain.

[19:07] I said this morning, this mountain represents the gospel. Why do we call the gospel a mountain? them because it's the highest, greatest, the most immovable of all things in all the world.

[19:25] God, no doubt, uses the term in his holy word to impress men with the greatest of things that they can see. When I was a boy, I lived in the fence.

[19:41] I was born in the fence. And I was quite of an age, I think it was eight or nine, before I met or saw any hill that was more than 12 feet high.

[19:55] And my father took me for a holiday one Easter time to Malvern. You can hardly say that Malvern has any mountain, but to me it was a most awe inspiring sight to see the mountains that were there.

[20:18] I remember my daughters, two of my daughters went to Switzerland and they arrived at Bergen in the darkness of one evening, found their lodgings, went to bed and retired.

[20:36] And in the morning they woke on a beautiful sunny day, and threw back the curtains of their room and there before them was the young frown, that vast glorious mountain kept with snow and ice, a sight of sights indeed, vast in its magnificence and greatness.

[21:06] they could see the mountain, and they told me, one of them told me the sight was so breathtaking, they couldn't see, all they could do was to burst out in tears, the mountain, the vast expanse of greatness, is before their hearts.

[21:29] now, God likens his gospel to that, and that is what it is, my friends, it's the mountain, and if it is not the great mountain in your life, it's nothing, you've never seen it, you've been like I was in the fens, oh, that you might be called to the mountain, this is what our great purpose is in preaching the gospel, is to call sinners to the mountain, it, we cannot do more, I said this morning, we cannot make them come, but we can call them to it, we can tell them that that's the only way, and the only thing, the only hope that they have, the only refuge that they will ever find, the only means of escape from death and hell, and utter destruction that they will ever discover, and that there's nothing else in all the world that can ever be a substitute to the gospel, it's the mountain, it's above everything, it's higher than the highest, and there's nothing to supersede it, and nothing that can ever be greater than the gospel of God's rich and sovereign grace.

[22:55] peace. Now the great purpose then of all the people of God, whether they're like Issachar or like Zebulun, is to call the people to the mountain.

[23:08] How can you do it? You can go out into the street and call people, you'll hear perhaps they will fall, your words will fall on deaf ears.

[23:23] There are ever so many ways of calling sinners to the gospel. You can call sinners by walking in the gospel way and in the experiences of the gospel in such a way or manner that people will see and will not be able to avoid seeing what a difference the gospel makes in your life, in your attitude, in your whole outlook and all that you are and all that you do.

[24:02] You people will soon take notice that this man, this woman, there's something about them that we haven't got, they will say.

[24:13] There's some secret that we have not learned. What is it? And if only you can get people on the inquiry, it's a great step to finding their way into the riches of the gospel of God's grace.

[24:35] They will call the people, they shall call the people unto the mountain. people. There's a person came to me, to my was sweeping the leaves away, and I suppose they thought I was just poor country yokel, and they thought they could browbeat me, and they came and said to me a few things about the gospel.

[25:02] I said, what do you know about the gospel? Has the spirit ever taught you the gospel? They said, oh, there's no spirit. Oh, really?

[25:12] No spirit, no Holy Spirit. No, the Holy Spirit is not a person, it's a power. I said, then why did Jesus Christ say, he shall lead you into all truth?

[25:27] He shall take of the things that are mine, and shall show them unto you. When he the spirit of truth shall come, he shall guide you, for he shall tell you and teach you the truth.

[25:45] I said, look, I'm warning you, it's a solemn thing to blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, and that is what you're in danger of doing.

[26:00] No, we must call the people to the mountain. Some may have a greater ability to do this than others, but all are under obligation, all who know the Lord Jesus, all who have tasted of his grace, and have received his love in their own hearts, are under the obligation, like Zebulun and Ishmael were, to call people unto the mountain.

[26:30] you can't bring the mountain to the people, you can call the people to the mountain. and then we find this, that here at the mountain, they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness.

[26:57] this is why it is so vitally meaningful to call the people to the mountain, for the offering of real, true sacrifices unto God.

[27:11] you know, the great thing that has divided Christianity, split it into a fragmentary condition, has been false knowledge of sacrifice.

[27:29] The sacrifice of Christ. Roman Church commits the awful idolatrous offense by sacrificing Christ every time the mass is celebrated.

[27:46] They say that their Christ is offered as a sacrifice to God. Our great reformers saw the light and turned from that terrible error and delivered our people, our church, and our nation from the awful blasphemous many of them.

[28:12] But there are many variations of these errors, but there is one sacrifice, and that is the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[28:26] And you know, my friends, when you come and experience the reality and blessedness of that sacrifice, there's one sacrifice that you can and will offer on the mountain of the Lord's holiness.

[28:49] And that will be your own body, a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ.

[29:02] That's the only sacrifice that you can bring. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ.

[29:22] And that means abandoning our own interest. That means laying ourselves down willingly in the hands of the Lord to do with us what he will.

[29:37] That he's seeking to have no will but his will, predominating and governing our lives. It means that all that we have, all that we are, is in his hand at his service and for his glory.

[29:58] so they will offer sacrifices there in righteousness. We might speak a good deal of this point.

[30:10] You see, the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice. Christ's one eternal sacrifice is at the very base and at the very heart of all the gospel.

[30:23] Take away that from the gospel and you take everything from it. And people would destroy the blood. There are versions of this blessed Bible today being circulated where blood is excluded, sacrifices eliminated.

[30:44] The redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ is hidden because man hates more than anything else the one great eternal sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ because that's the only thing that will satisfy God and only thing that will answer the great needs of the sinner who is guilty of sin.

[31:12] The only one thing that will relieve that sinner is the one sacrifice offered by the Lord on Calvary's cost.

[31:22] and there is no other. And when it says here there they offer the sacrifice in righteousness there it means to say that they acknowledge with all reverence they own with all confidence that that is the one great glorious sacrifice there by men are saved with an everlasting salvation.

[31:52] Then again in our text they shall suffer the abundance of the seas. Well the oceans of divine love are very expansive oceans.

[32:08] there's no limitation no bounds to those oceans and there's no bottom to them. They are as wide as God himself and as deep as his infinite glory in being.

[32:31] The love of God who can measure it who can exhaust it but my dear friends what an unspeakable mercy to be able to suck from that seed of infinite love love of Christ.

[32:54] This is what we want to draw into our own poor wretched hearts. This is the great potent that will rectify all our weaknesses and frailties.

[33:11] This is the great relief the great physic that will put right in the malady that is in our heart to draw from the wells of salvation from the sea of endless grace life and health strength and salvation.

[33:40] They shall suck of the abundance of the sea. Have you ever found that the gospel is like an ocean?

[33:52] Have you ever experienced what it is to really draw water out of the wells of salvation? Have you come to that mighty ocean?

[34:06] Have you seen the greatness of it? I've often said this. One of my little, my children when they were young had never seen the sea.

[34:18] War had been on and we weren't able to go to the sea for a holiday for some years. And this little one had grown into a little girl and she was very keen when we said we were going to the sea.

[34:38] She would be going for the first time. And she tried to imagine what it was like. And as we went along the road we saw a pond and she said there's the sea.

[34:52] We saw a little more water and there again was the sea. Surely that must be the sea. When we reached the destination and I carried her through the hills, the sand hills, to have a glimpse of that great ocean, her breath was taken away.

[35:15] She was amazed beyond capability of expressing. It was the sea, the sea, the real sea.

[35:27] Now sometimes you feel you come to the gospel like that, you wonder what it is. You get a little touch here and you wonder is that the gospel?

[35:39] You get a little taste, you get some sweetness here and there in your pathway and you say surely that is the gospel. But when you come to the real glorious gospel of God's grace and when that gospel comes into your heart, flows into your heart, you hardly know what to do, where to stay, where to go.

[36:05] Oh, is this the gospel? Is this the mighty love of God? Is this the great means of salvation?

[36:19] They shall suck of the abundance of the sea. And then they shall have also draw out of the treasures hid in the sand.

[36:36] What a striking figure this is. Treasures hid in the sand. If you knew that there was treasure in the sand, in the sandy desert, you would say, well, however can I find it?

[36:55] It's almost an impossibility to dig a desert. For as every spade fall you dig out, more flows in, you might well give up at the very first and say, I shall never get this treasure.

[37:20] But what is hid to you, my dear friends, is not hid to God. This is the great precious truth. God revealeth, he will show the way of salvation.

[37:33] He will bring to light the hidden things that he will reveal to his people. And then shall every man have praise unto God.

[37:45] This is the great secret. We cannot find the things of God. God will and must reveal them.

[37:56] Treasures hid in the sand. Of course, the world be mine, never attempts to find any treasure, doesn't believe that there's any treasure there, turns their back and contemptuously upon all attempts to discover treasure in the sand.

[38:18] But the believer has to plow and seek and wait upon God until his promises are fulfilled.

[38:30] And he brings out the treasures of his grace out of that which seems to be a total impossibility. This is God, you know.

[38:42] This is how he works. He works in impossibility, impossibility. When he went to Abraham and he said to Abraham when he was ninety and nine years of age, thou shall have a son.

[39:00] Sarah laughed and God said nothing is impossible with God. This is how God deals with us. What is impossible to you and will be impossible and is impossible is not impossible to God.

[39:21] And we may see this great sandy desert and we may think that there can be nothing for us in it, no treasure that we shall ever find.

[39:32] God will bring it because he knows where it is and he is only able to reveal it. He reveals Christ and when he reveals Christ what a treasure, unspeakable treasure, beyond all price, beyond all comprehension.

[40:00] To have Christ is to have everything. You may feel your life is like a desert, you feel you're going on plowing the sand, you're getting nowhere, doing nothing, achieving nothing.

[40:14] My friends, take heed to this word that is before us. Remember God's appointments to Zebulun and to Isidre and wait.

[40:30] The time will come when the Lord will show you that in the sand there is treasure, deep down, inexhaustible treasure of his wonderful grace.

[40:46] so they shall call the people to the mountain. I do want to end tonight with this word, this word to you.

[41:02] Some of you here know very well what the mountain of the gospel is and what it means. You've had an experience of it.

[41:13] It's been a mighty force in your lives. It's been a joy in your experience. And you say it's true indeed what you have said tonight, that there is nothing beyond it, above it, greater than it ever can be and ever will be.

[41:31] The gospel is an unchanging reality. I will say to you, Lord people, tonight, I would call you to the gospel.

[41:44] The most important thing for you is to be brought to the gospel, to love it, to receive it, and never give yourself any rest until you can say this, the gospel bears my spirit up, a faithful and unchanging God, lays the foundation of my hope, in oaths and promises and love.

[42:17] Amen. Gand for therito Thank you.