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[0:00] That's right, the power to be whole, that's right.

[0:25] It gives the eternal life, Take the world's world as light, Make the mercy sweet, Take the world's world as light, Take the world's world as light, Take the world's world as light, Take the world as light, Take the world as light, As the Lord should be pleased to help me, I will ask your attention to the subject in the book of the Revelation, chapter 17 and the 14th verse.

[1:37] The book of the Revelation, chapter 17, verse 14. These shall make war with the Lamb, And the Lamb shall overcome them, For he is Lord of lords and King of kings, And they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful.

[2:15] It may seem, in the first thought about it, That there is somewhat of a disconnection between the passage we read, In the prophecy of Habakkuk, And the text which comes so much later in the word of God.

[2:35] And perhaps I shall need to try to open the thoughts of my own heart, And the fears of my own mind, Which have brought these two passages of the word of God together.

[2:51] And when we come to the text, We shall find, too, That we have several viewpoints of it to consider. We shall need to look just a little at the wonder, That we have a divine revelation, Which came in so marked a way, So much so that it is, Although not unique in the word of God, It is something which is unique, In so far that the command was given, That it was to be written, That we were to have the privilege to know, Something of the things that have taken place, In heaven itself, And of the decrees of God, And of the revelations that were, Not in the sense of prophecy, By one upon the earth,

[3:53] But were revealed, As it were, Directly, From heaven itself, Into the heart of John, With the command, Write these things in a book.

[4:09] And then, We shall need to look, too, At the implication, Of the three things that are put before us. The three things are these, First, There shall be war, Made with the Lamb.

[4:30] The second is this, And the Lamb shall overcome them, For he is King of kings, And Lord of lords.

[4:42] And then, Thirdly, Something which seems to us, To be worthy of our wonder, And our consideration.

[4:54] For those that are with him, And, And, They that are with him, Are called, And chosen, And faithful.

[5:06] Three things, Three viewpoints. Many times, Lately, Especially, Especially in our national life, I have been, Very concerned, And very burdened.

[5:21] I've had to look upon, Those things taking place, Which seem to me, To be so much, The evidence of antichrist, In the nation. And, No doubt, You have felt the same.

[5:36] You have looked upon them. They have been a burden, To your heart. And, There has been some, Wonder as to the outcome, Some fear perhaps, As to, That which Habakkuk feared, The judgment of God, Against us as a nation.

[5:53] Some, Thoughts perhaps, That have spread, That have spread, That have spread, Into the world at large, And we have seen, In some places, That, There is, Without any doubt, A war, Against the land.

[6:07] In, Some of those, You know, Countries in the Middle East, Largely hushed up, So much persecution, Of the, People that believe, In the Lord Jesus Christ, Past, And then, Those things, Which take place, In, Among the nations, Where we see, Such a departure, From even, The decrees of God, Whether, Or not, A profession, Of his name, Has been made.

[6:39] Things, Which in, Past times, Were not, Although they were, Often, Were not so, Blatantly, And, Brazenly, Overturned.

[6:53] And, As we look, And sometimes, It seems to us, That things go, From bad to worse, But we begin, To fear, Lest, The forces of evil, Shall overcome, The things, Which are, Of God.

[7:11] Yes, And perhaps, Some of us, Are, In a sense, More than a little, Relieved, That because, Of nature, And because, Of the passage, Of years, That we know, That for, Several of us, The time, That is left, Upon the face, Of the earth, Cannot be, Very long, But, We have too, Those concerns, Which, Appertain to those, That are ours, We think, Of children, Of grandchildren, Who have to live, In the, Seemingly, Increasingly, Wicked, Age, In which we live, It is something, That, No doubt, Has been a burden, To your hearts, As it has been, A burden to mine, And, It has been, The, Reason for, Many, Cries, And sighs, And groans, Many fears, Many concerns, And yet,

[8:13] There is sometimes, A question, That comes into my heart, Should there be, Should there be, These fears, Should there be, These concerns, Should there be, These questionings, Should there be, These things, And then, Again, I find, That it is something, Which, Is evidenced, In the word, Of God, The Lord's people, Have been subject, To them, From the beginning, I do not doubt, That Noah, Was subject to them, And especially, As he, Too, Was made, To understand, As Habakkuk, In a national sense, Was made, To understand, The judgment, Of God, Noah, To see it, Against the known world, At that time, Indeed, Against the whole, Of the globe, But, So far, As the population, Was concerned, For the most part, It was centered, Around the Middle East, And, For, For Noah,

[9:14] No doubt, There was, A very, Great concern, In his heart, Although, The way, Of deliverance, Was made, Known to him, And, We could follow this, Through the word of God, We follow it, In the Psalms, Oh, How often, Do you read the Psalms, And do you feel, That the psalmist, Was the subject, Of a fear, Of a concern, Of a burden, Of circumstance, For the most part, Yes, Sometimes brought, Into the spiritual sense, But, Many times, We see it to be, Of a temporal nature, And, To lay the matter, Before the Lord, And to plead, Even as, Habakkuk pleaded, Oh Lord, How long, Shall I cry, And thou, Not hear, And then, To be brought, One reason, Why I love the Psalms, They are so,

[10:15] Wonderfully, Experimental, The psalmist, Opens his heart, And opens, His soul, And sometimes, We are able to see, He first approaches, Is unto God, And he makes, His complaint, And he goes on, His way, With praise, He feels, That having, Laid his burden, Before the Lord, He has, In some measure, Found the relief, From it, At least a share, A shared burden, And, Then, He can go on, His way, Resting, In the purposes, Of God, And in the grace, Of the God, To whom he has approached, And I believe, That Habakkuk, Came into just such a place, As this, And this is what, Made me, Feel the need, To come into such a part, As this, For, Habakkuk, Looked upon the things, Which were, Against God,

[11:19] He saw them in his nation, And he, Too, Saw the hand of God, Against his nation, And, We might have to think, Of whether, Some things have come, Into the lives, Of the Lord's people, As, Chastening, It is something, That we have to consider, We have to see it, As a possibility, And, And, We have to see, The evidence, And example, Of it, Many times, In the word of God, But, We do find, That when, These thoughts, Had been in the mind, Of Habakkuk, He came to this, I will stand, Upon my watch, I will take watch, I will look, I will wait, There shall be, In my heart, Awaiting upon God, And looking for him, I will set me, On the tower, That is the watchtower, And will watch,

[12:20] To see, What he will say, To me, And the Lord said, Write the vision, Make it plain, Upon tables, That is tablets, Something, That could be, Easily read, That he may run, That readeth it, For the vision, Is yet for an appointed time, The vision, Is yet for an appointed time, Though it tarry, Wait for it, Because it will surely come, It will not tarry, The just, Shall live, By his faith, There perhaps, Is the background, Of the reason, For the subject, And now, Let us look, At the background, Of the text, The setting, Of the subject, As perhaps, My father would have said, These, Shall make, War with the lamb, Now we have, Some of those things, Preceding it, Which are,

[13:21] To be, Seen as, Prophetic utterances, We are not, Permitted, To see them, In, Their particular, Manner, We cannot say, It is this, And that, And the other, As we look upon, The face of the earth, Or even as we look upon, History, We may see, Some of the trends, And yet, It is something, Which is continuous, In the purposes, Of God, From the beginning, To the end, Of time, That there has been, And that there will be, This propensity, This propensity, Of the, Evil hearts, Of man, To make war, Against the lamb, Oh, When we look at it, So often, We see it, Yes, We see it, In the world, We see it, We fear, Often, In our nation, We have to come,

[14:23] A little closer, We see it, In, The church, I use the word, In the wide sense of it, Especially in the national church, Where, It seems, That no longer, The word of God, Is the, Matter that, Is, Preeminent, But the word of men, And what is this, It is nothing less, Than war, Against the lamb, And then, We have to come, A little closer still, We see it, Yes, In, Our, Own, Hearts, We are conscious of it, Within us, How much need, We have, Of the grace of God, And of the mercy of God, That our own hearts, Are kept, Subject, Subject, To the will, Of God,

[15:24] And, Effectually, Subject, To the lamb of God, To the king of kings, Now, Now, Do you know, As I know, What it is, To have a heart, Which is, By nature, Rebellious, A heart, Which, Left to itself, Is an awful thought, But the word of God, Gives it to me, The natural heart, Is, Enmity, Against, God, And is not subject, To the law of God, And neither indeed, Can be, Oh then, Do we not see, That there is, So much truth in this, And yet, We have a hope, That we are able, To see too, That, If we follow on, In the text, As we will in the moment, We can see, That, The land, Shall overcome, Shall overcome,

[16:27] But then, When this was written, It was that, We should have, One thing, In our hearts, That we should look, Upon all the evidences, Without, And within, And we should, See, All of them, To be, A subject, In their extent, And in their length, To, The will of God, The will of God, In and through, Jesus Christ, Let's look at the, Illustrations, I have used, In the opposite sense, Begin with your own heart, And my own heart, Acknowledging, Its, Natural propensities, Oh, How good it is, To look upon, The time, When, The grace of God, In, Christ Jesus, Brought,

[17:28] Our hearts, Our souls, Into, Subjection, To him, And, We came, Into such a place, As this, The land, Shall, Overcome them, Oh, My friends, Do you know, Something about it, I'm sure you do, Many of you, When you felt, And knew, Something of the, Infinite grace, And love, Of your saviour, Who brought, Your heart, Into, Subjection, To him, I tried, To preach, Once, From that, Lovely text, To bring, Every thought, Into, Captivity, Of his will, Perhaps, Not quite, Properly quoted, But the sense is right, And, I, I defined, Oh, How far short, I came from it, Of it, It was, Something that, I had to say, It is high, I cannot attain to it,

[18:30] And yet, I have a hope, There are those times, When by the grace of God, And by the work of the spirit, Within me, That, At least I understand, The desire, And, Sometimes, In a little measure, The, Power, Of God, To bring, Every thought, Into captivity, Unto him, But, Do you not see, As I have to see, How utterly dependent, We are in this, For, The power, Which comes, In and through, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, And, We may perhaps, Build a little upon it, And just look at it, For a moment, And then we will, Approach the subject, From a little different manner, But do we not, See that, Even although, We have to look, Upon so much, In the,

[19:31] National church, And in the nation, And in the denominations, Which are so, Contrary, To the word of God, Yet, We may believe, That according to, His will, And in his own time, That the power, Of God, In and through, Jesus Christ, Will overcome, So that, All, Who are, The, The subjects, Of his grace, Will be brought, Into the true knowledge, Of the truth, I had a little insight, Of this, Some years ago, I had the, The reason, To enter into a house, Where there was a, A man, Not much older than myself, Two or three years, Older than myself, And this was some years ago, Who was dying, And he was a Catholic, And I, I felt it to be, Very much of a burden, To talk to him,

[20:33] Because, I knew that, The Catholics, They rest, Not upon the things, Of the word of God, But on the things, Of the church, But, I felt that, The conversation, Would, Go that way, That the man was ill, And I was only there, To do some work, In his house, Of something, To make it a little, Easier, For those that were, Caring for him, And as I, Went about the work, And I was on, Very friendly terms, With the man, We began to talk, And, He said it's, He was a, A very, Well educated man, A marine officer, He said something about, It was, Very, Difficult, To look upon, An enemy, That you had no hope, Of defeating, And so, He gave me a start, And we talked about, The inevitability, Of death,

[21:33] But not only in him, But in each one of us, And I said, But then of course, If there is, In our spirits, The preparation, Then, We do not need to fear death, And he was quiet, And he was quiet for a minute, He said, He said, He said, The more, The more, The days go by, The more thankful, I am, For the blood of the land, Oh, I said to him, I am glad to hear you say that, He said, All the church is meant to do, Is to bring us to the blood of the land, And, I thought, I believe that, Yes, The grace, Of God, Have overcome, The system, That, There had been the victory, Of the land, Even in the midst, Of, A system, A religious system,

[22:34] You cannot call it a faith, Which, Would, Have, Wanted to put, The, The faith, Or the trust, In other things, And yet, In the heart of this man, In the realization of the necessity, There had been, Given to him, The direction, Of that, In which, He could trust, And, I believe he did trust, And our conversation, Carried on for a few minutes, In this line, And we rejoiced together, That, The Lord Jesus, Shed his blood, And I believe, We looked upon, Something like this, And the lamb, Shall overcome, Yes, Even the things, Which seem, To our hearts, To be so wrong, Within, And so wrong, As we look, Into the, Denominations, Or, The so-called faiths,

[23:36] Yet, The lamb, Is able, To overcome, To overcome, And I felt glad, That, We could look, At such a word, And say, He is able, To do, Abundantly, Above, All that we can, Ask or think, And yet, Do not think, For a moment, It excuses, The errors, Or makes them, To be of no consequence, No, But, We see, That in, And of, Himself, The lamb, Is able, To, Subdue, He is, Able, To triumph, Able, To overcome, But now, I want to, Look at it just, A little, Differently, The, Thought, Of the, Pre-eminence, Of the lamb, Is something,

[24:37] Which is, Given to us, Again, And again, In many parts, Of the word of God, I could not begin, To put all of them, Before you, But, I do need to put, Just a few, You must know, The way, In which, We are made to feel, By the word of God, Of the, All powerful, Nature, Which is, Of the, Purposes of God, In, The Lord Jesus Christ, Take his own word first, Just think of it, In a very, Simple sense, All power, Is given unto me, In heaven, And, In earth, Now, Whenever the Lord Jesus spoke, I will say with reverence, Do not think for a moment, I am evaluating his words, But every word, Was carefully weighed,

[25:38] Because, It was a word, That came from heaven itself, It was, A word, That had been eternal, In the heart of the father, And of the son, And of the holy spirit, In the eternity, That, The Lord Jesus, Had come from, The eternal son of God, And, Every word, Was not only, Carefully weighed, But it came, With particular weight, And when we, See, Such a declaration, That comes, With the authority, Of God, We have to take it, As such, All power, Is given, Unto me, The son of God, To be, That one, In whom, All the power, Of God, Is invested, The power, Of God, To fulfill, All things, According to, His, Own will, Who does not,

[26:41] Have to seek, The guidance, Of any other, But, In infinite wisdom, And in infinite power, And through, That means, By which, It is pleasing, Unto God, That we should know, His power, His only begotten, And eternally beloved son, We are able to see, That power, In exercise, It is not something, That we can lightly, Look upon, Yet, We know, If we are taught, Anything, By the spirit of God, That one, Of those revelations, Of the spirit of God, To our souls, Concerning Jesus Christ, Will be, His power, He, Is able, And oh, What a blessing, Is the thought, What a blessing, Is the thought, That although,

[27:42] There is so much, In our hearts, And in the world, Again, I do not need to reiterate, But already I have said, Yet, The lamb, Has power, To overcome, And the word says, In due time, He shall overcome, We shall have to think, About the overcoming, In a while, But, Just for a moment, Look upon, The power, And then, As Paul, As Paul, Was writing, Those, Lovely, Words, Regarding, The resurrection, Of the dead, In the, Last chapter, The next to the last chapter, Of the first epistle, To the Corinthians, He said, Then cometh the end, When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, Even the father, When he shall have put down all rule,

[28:43] And all authority and power, For he must reign, Till he hath put all enemies under his feet, And we find, Too, That there is, Something here, Which, As yet, Although complete in the purposes of God, Was not complete in the outworking of those purposes, Till he hath put all his enemies under his feet, And, Paul brings this out again, When he writes to the Hebrews, And as he wrote to them, He, Quoted to them, That, A psalm, One of the early psalms, In which, There is, The, Evidence, Of the,

[29:44] Pre-eminence of man, And it would seemingly be in the psalm, That it is man, Because it follows, In that sense, What is man, That they were mindful of him, And the son of man, That thou visitest him, And then, Paul, In the Hebrews, Applies it, To the Lord Jesus, And, And, He says, Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet, For in that he put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him, But now we see not yet all things put under him, But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man, And, And, And, We see just another little illustration, And again,

[30:45] Paul, In the wisdom that was given to him by the spirit, Seeing the underlying meaning, That was given to the psalmist, Something like a thousand years before, So that although we can never see ordinary men, Having all the creation of God subject to them, Not since the Adam fall, Yet, We can see, That all things shall be subject to one, Who assumed, And became part of, Our humanity, And only one, It is only unto him, That all things shall be in subjection, But oh, What a blessed thought it is, Not only only unto him, But unto him, All things shall be in subjection,

[31:49] Does the thought ever come to you, That every knee shall bow, Before the Lord Jesus Christ, Of things in heaven, And things all, Wherever they can be found, Every one, Oh, I hope that because, In the mercy of God, We have been, Brought to bow before him, In spirit, That, When we bow before him, In that awful day of judgment, It will be, In a place of thankfulness, And of worship, Because, Of that infinite blessing, That he has given to us, The favour of God, In and through himself, The mercy of God, You'll say, Yes, But we're departing a bit, From the subject, But are we?

[32:46] To be brought, Into that subjection, Is to be brought, To be the vessels of mercy, The vessels of grace, Those who, Know and feel, Of the power, Of the grace of God, I do not need, To remind you, You know something, Of the, The points, Which we call, The five points of Calvinism, And we know that, Lovely phrase, Irresistible grace, And, It is by, Irresistible grace, That many, Not all, Many, Of the conquests, Of the man, Are brought to pass, But, Let us come a little further, That land shall, Overcome them, We have to stop there, Just a moment, No, It must be just a moment, Shall overcome them, And there is,

[33:48] A solemn thought here, There shall be those, Who are overcome, By the grace of God, Or are we among them, Are we among those, That have been overcome, By that grace, The first time, That I, Ever, Had to, Speak a few words, As a deacon, Not as a minister, In our, Chapel, I was conducting, A prayer meeting, And, It seemed to me, That it was necessary, To, Make some little, Enlargement, Upon, The reading, That was before me, And, Just a verse, Of a hymn came, And all I did, Was to turn aside, For a moment, And quote the verse, Of the hymn,

[34:48] And you know, That normally, I'm not very good, At quoting them, But, This one came, Into my mind, Into my spirit, And I quoted it, And it, Has two lines, And it became like this, The wicked tremble, Saints rejoice, One fears, The other loves his voice, And, As I, Made the, Quotation, I felt my own heart, Responding to it, And, Yes, It was at a time, Of blessing, It was at a time, When the Lord, Had been gracious to me, And I felt, My heart warmed, With love, And, I felt an infinite thankfulness, That, We were given the privilege, By the word, And by the spirit, Of, Hearing, The voice, Of the son of God, And hearing it,

[35:51] To, Be able to, Realise, The response, Of our own hearts, To it, And now, I could look into my heart, And I could remember, What it was to, Tremble at the word, To fear the word, And to be almost, Terrified of the word, And then, I could at that moment, And I have a hope, I can now, From time to time, Enter into the joy of the word, To rejoice in it, Because, It is the word of grace, And the word of mercy, And the overcoming, Of the lamb, Has been, By the infinite grace, Of his word, Unto, My soul, Overcome, And then, We have to look, At the other outcome, To be overcome,

[36:53] By judgment, There are some awful things written, About, All nations, That forget God, It is not popular, In many places, Nowadays, To preach, What is called, Hellfire, But I do find, That the Lord Jesus, Preached it, And I do find, That it is, It occupies, Quite a bit, Of the New Testament, And, Some, Of the revelation, And, As we think, Of what it is, For the, Awful, And yet, Necessary, Victory, Of judgment, When he shall put, All enemies, Under his feet, Oh my friends, Is it not something, That, Yes, We find, Our hearts, Moved, In several ways, About it, And the way,

[37:55] Should be this, Oh, That many more, Might yet, Be brought, By the grace of God, Into, The knowledge, Of that grace, That they might, Be delivered, From the, Awful, Prospect, Of an eternal, Separation, From God, For this, Is indeed, The essence of her, A place, Of no hope, Of no expectation, Of no joy, Of, Separation, Eternally, From all that is good, And oh my friends, To think of the, Awfulness of it, Shouldn't it, Stimulate our souls, Into a desire, That more and more, Might know, Of the grace of God, And oh, May this be,

[38:56] Fulfilled, And, The lamb, Shall overcome them, By his grace, And by the work, Of his spirit, So that, There shall be, Preeminence, In the worship, Of the lamb, Because, Of that great number, Not known, On earth, But of whom, The revelation speaks, And it speaks, Of them, In, Those numbers, Which are, Infinite, Ten thousand times, Ten thousand, And thousands of thousands, We're not meant, To mathematically, Compute that lot, Because it is impossible, But, That great number, That God, In infinite mercy, Has chosen, And has chosen, To his, Eternal glory, And to their, Eternal good, Yes,

[39:58] I think that, Every time, That we come, Into such a, Meditation as this, Our hearts, Should reach out, Yes, We have our own needs, But should reach out, For the needs, Of others, And I believe, That the, Last part, Of the text, Brings us into that, For he is, Lord of lords, And king of kings, We cannot stop there, It is one of those, Beautiful titles, Of the son of God, And in the revelation, It is given to us, Several times, We, Perhaps, See it to be, Something that is, A little out of our reach, We are neither lords, Nor kings, But oh, We believe too, That he is, A king, With those subjects, That reaches, That reach down, To our status, Wherever we might be,

[40:59] However humble, We may be, The subject, Of this, King, Of kings, And, Lord of lords, And then, The word, The word, The word, The word, The word, The word, Continues, And, They that are with him, And, They that are with him, Are called, And chosen, And faithful, We never need to, Have any, Misunderstanding, In our minds, That to fulfill, The purposes of God, God needs, No help, From man, But, In the purposes of God, He has decreed, That he will, Use, His people, In the fulfillment, Of his own purposes,

[42:02] We know that, There was, No need, Whatsoever, For the Lord Jesus, To use his disciples, Yet, When he multiplied, The food, He gave it, To the disciples, That they should, Give it to the people, He that had the power, To multiply it, Had the power, To transport it, And, It could have been, Brought to pass, In front of the people, Had it been in accordance, With the, Purposes of the Lord Jesus, And the purposes of God, Through him, But no, It pleased God, That, He would use, His people, In the fulfillment, Of his will, And in the illustration, Before us, We have, The thought of, War, The thought of, That which is, To, Be,

[43:04] In the, Army, Of the Lamb, And what thought it is, That, Yes, Perhaps, We might say, That this is something, Mystic, This is something, Which has, Some relationship, To, The things of heaven, Where somewhere else, We read, We read, That they, That they, That were with him, Were those, That had been, Kept, And they, Continually, Followed the Lamb, Yes, I believe, That is so, But I believe, Too, We have to see, That this, War, Which is, Against the Lamb, Has been, For all time, And will be, For all time, I think already, I have said so, But just follow it again, Just think, Of how many, In the, Word of God, We might see, As, Examples, Of those, Who were, Warriors, Of the Lamb, Oh yes, They might have preceded, The coming of the Lord Jesus, But they never preceded, His, Spiritual,

[44:05] Sacrifice, To them, Which was, Before, That the world was, For them, Which was, Before the world was, When he was, Slain, As from, Before, The foundation, Of the world, The purposes of God, Knew, Of that sacrifice, And it was, In and through, That sacrifice, That all, The Old Testament, Saints, Went to heaven, Yet, We can look upon them, We can see, Those who were, Eminent, Warriors, Of the Lamb, Oh, Do you sometimes, Look at Daniel, Could you look at Elijah, At Moses, Even at Abraham, Many ways, The warriors, Of the Lamb were, You can look at, Some of them, That were probably, And never lifted, And never lifted, A sword, In their lives, Yet they were, Warriors, Of the Lamb, Think of Jeremiah, Oh, What a warrior, He was, And, Sometimes to him, Like to, Habakkuk,

[45:06] How, Hopeless, The battle, The battle, Seemed, And yet, We do not find, That he gave up, No, He was upheld, I have loved thee, With an everlasting love, Was first, Directly to, Jeremiah, And then, Through him, It was the hope, Of so many afterwards, And, Look through, The whole, Of the Old Testament, And you will see, Many of them, You could think, Of Isaiah, And yet, You, You will find, In history, If not in the word of God, That he came, To a martyr's death, And, Oh, So many more, Come into the New Testament, And, We find, The Lord Jesus, Using the apostles, Using those, That followed them, As we think, Of, Stephen, And, Philip the deacon, And we look at them, We see them,

[46:07] All in their place, In their rank, All of them, Subject, To the, Orders, That came, Into their hearts, By the spirit of God, The spirit we, Find, Caught away, Stephen, Caught away Philip, And he was found, In Azotus, After he had finished, The work, To which he was, Sent to do, With the eunuch, Yes, And, We look, In many places, And what do we see, The Lord, In his, Wisdom, And grace, Uses, His people, For, The, Fulfillment, Of his will, And then, We have to see, That, Yes, How many, How many, Not named, Were, Those, Who were, Used of God, In the purposes, Of his grace, And, How many, In the ages, Since, And I think,

[47:08] As I, Remember, In my, You know, Childhood, Some of the, Ancient ministers, And do you not find, In your own hearts, That when you were very young, Sometimes the men, Seemed to be, Very, Grave, And, Yet, Almost holy, And they seemed to be able, To speak, With such authority, That, As we listened to them, It seemed that they were, Almost direct, Messengers of God, And we felt, In a sense, They were with him, As the word shows to us, Those that are, With him, But how essential, It is that, If, We are in, This army, That the Lord, Is pleased to use, That we should be, In that place, With him, I do not need to remind you, Of the parable, Of the Lord Jesus,

[48:10] When he showed, Of the, Bringing forth the fruit, Of the vine, Different illustration, Same thing, Only, When, When, It was, The branch, In the vine, If it was, If it was not, In the vine, It could bring forth, No fruit, It could, Win no victories, For, The captain, They, That were with him, Oh, When we think of it, Are we able, Are we able, sometimes to feel that nearness to him.

[48:49] I know that often we have to plead with the hymn writer's language over a closer walk, and it is right that we should. And yet, on those times of the Lord's appearing, those times of refreshment, oh how blessed is the thought that in infinite mercy he has brought us into that place where we receive, as it were, our strength, our guidance, our help, our help, all from him, that he becomes more than our captain.

[49:34] And many of you perhaps have had something to do with the logistics of war, and you know that very few are in the front line, but all those that are behind are equally essential.

[49:50] I was an airman, and I know that there had to be 30 men on the ground of every one in the air, and all were essential. And, yes, the Lord's work is like that.

[50:05] Just look at a little illustration. I need to be brief, the time has nearly run out. But just think of a revival that took place in the Isle of Lewis, some few years ago now, but it was a time of great blessing.

[50:25] And it could be seen in its beginning with a few godly women that met for prayer because they had such a burden of the need of the Spirit of God to appear for them in that little island.

[50:47] Yes, it may be big comparatively, but in population it was small. And the Lord was pleased to hear the prayers. Now, perhaps not one of us would have looked upon those women in nature and have even likened them to warriors, but what warriors they were.

[51:06] They were prayer warriors. And the Lord was pleased to use that which he had given to them by his Spirit and fulfill his will, because first his will had been that there should be prayer in their hearts.

[51:27] Never put the cart before the horse in the purposes of God. I shouldn't have used, perhaps, the illustration, but I think you understand what I mean.

[51:39] See everything, the desires of the hearts, the labors of the Spirit, all to be that which is of God.

[51:50] Because only that prayer which the Spirit indicts will be that prayer which will be effectual.

[52:02] But then, what concern in our hearts, in my heart, in your heart, is that our prayer shall be Spirit-indicted, that we shall be faithful.

[52:16] Oh, now, just look at those three words. It's called. Now, I do not read Greek, but a little book I have that separates the words one from the other, so this is effectual calling.

[52:35] And we have to see it. They were called of God. Now, I believe that every one of us that has been brought into the blessing of being enabled to not only make an outward profession, but witness a profession, we attend a place of worship, we have a hope in God, only because we are called to that hope, to that profession, to that witness.

[53:09] It, yes, one line of a hymn, election known by calling, to have heard the voice of God, to put it very simply, to have received by faith the word of God, it is to be called.

[53:31] And, a lovely expression, which used to be used so much more than it is nowadays, perhaps it was experienced more in those days, called by grace, yes, brought into the knowledge of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and made to be a partaker of it.

[53:53] And, the evidence is this, chosen, chosen in eternity, certainly. Certainly. Thank you.