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[0:00] As the Lord should be pleased to help me, I shall call your attention to a subject you will find in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32, and the 10th verse.

[0:18] He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness he led him about.

[0:34] He instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Chapter 32, the book of Deuteronomy, and the 10th verse.

[0:51] This word stands in connection with Moses, giving his farewell address to Israel of old.

[1:10] His great work as Israel's leader was done, and he was about to be taken to heaven to enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

[1:27] But ere his work concluded, he was inspired of God to give this wonderful address that fills up the book of Deuteronomy.

[1:40] And he was inspired to tell Israel what was the truth about their behavior. And even in his concluding words, he says, For I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck.

[2:05] Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord. And how much more after my death.

[2:21] And in this chapter 32, he gives a kind of epitome of the purposes of God in his dealings with Israel.

[2:34] His opening words are very striking. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

[2:49] My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.

[3:02] Because I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock.

[3:14] His work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is he.

[3:27] And then he goes on lower down to admonish the Israelites. Remember the days of old.

[3:40] Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father, and he will show thee. Thy elders, and they will tell thee.

[3:52] When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

[4:08] That is a great statement, and it reveals a very great truth. That in the world at large, God's great concern is the number of the children of Israel.

[4:26] For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. And then comes our text.

[4:39] He found him in a desert land. And in the waste howling wilderness, he led him about. He instructed him.

[4:52] He kept him as the apple of his eye. And now first of all, we will look at this word found. For it is very striking.

[5:06] It represents the children of Israel in Egyptian bondage. And when the time came that God purposed that they should be brought out and set forth in the waste howling wilderness to go on their way to the land of promise which God designed to give them.

[5:30] And you will find in Oseah a striking comment upon this word found.

[5:42] And it says that when the Lord found Israel in Egypt, they were to him as grapes to a dying man in a desert.

[5:57] His purposes were fulfilled. Israel had been in Egyptian bondage over 400 years. But now the time was fulfilled.

[6:09] And God's purpose was to bring them out. And it says he found him. This word found, so godly scholars tell us, has got the meaning of sufficing.

[6:23] And if I can make that plain, it means that when a sinner is found by the grace of God, when he is born again, when the good work is begun in his breast, in the beginning of it, there is a guarantee of a sufficiency that the good work begun shall be carried on and brought in the end to a God-glorifying finish.

[6:59] All that is essential to the carrying on of that good work is guaranteed. There shall be grace all-sufficient and grace all-sufficient not only to live, but at the end of life's journey to die.

[7:23] It is something like when a young man leaves civilian life to become a member of the army or the air force, whichever it may be.

[7:37] he leaves his civilian life and that is behind him. He is enlisted in army life and from that time on, the king, in our instance a queen, guarantees to give that soldier all that he needs all the while he is engaged in army life.

[8:07] uniform is provided and food sufficient and all tuition that is needed and he is carried about hither and thither in fulfillment of his duties.

[8:22] It is nothing whatever to do with him, but it is guaranteed by the king whom he undertakes to serve in his military life.

[8:34] and so it is with sinners when they are born again, when they are found. It is quite a striking word. It means all sufficing.

[8:48] As though when you are found, when you can say, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see, it is equivalent to God saying to you what he does say in the scriptures, my God shall supply all your need out of his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

[9:21] in the life you are now living, living unto God, you will find God will be all sufficient for whatever your needs may be in every jot and tittle down to the smallest detail all is included in the good work being carried on in your breast which is now being begun by the grace of God.

[9:52] He found him in a desert land and now that is what a sinner finds in his soul's experience. Hitherto he has been living in the world and of it he has been following his own bent of mind after the flesh the things of the flesh living for his own pleasure doing as he likes but now he is under another government altogether the government of God like Israel of old were a theocracy and that was very evident in the wilderness wanderings how they had to live their life they were subject to God and they had to live under the law which he gave them and while they were subject to that law Israel prospered in their everyday lives and they proved them that honor me

[10:55] I will honor and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. He found him in a desert land and now when a sinner is born again you have found it to be so if you go back over your earlier experiences in the things of God you found the world was not the same to you as it had been when you lived apart from God when you followed after the flesh the things of the flesh but now you found the world left within you an aching void and nothing the world could offer could fill it and you found the world to be a desert land and a waste howling wilderness although these words were written so many hundreds of years ago yet how striking it is as a description of what the world is nowadays a waste howling wilderness think how much there is in the world to hinder pilgrims to Canaan bound and on every hand by day and half the night too it is a howling wilderness and being a howling wilderness mess with all its din and strife and commotion and those things set afoot from hell itself to please our natural state of mind and to bring out more clearly the carnal mind is enmity against

[12:54] God and is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be are they not wasting the things that are in the world nowadays to catch the world land's feet and to be a snare to those who were taught of God and how they need to be kept kept by God kept by his grace and to say with the psalmist hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not yes it is a waste howling wilderness and there is no source whatever in this waste howling wilderness that the world is made to be to people taught of God where you can find anything that will satisfy that aching void which the world can never never fill he found him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness he led him about and now the margin reading for this is he led him about is the text he surrounded him surrounded him with mercies and loving kindnesses and I want to say most of all about that viewpoint of the subject and when you look at the map of the wanderings of the children of Israel how they were led about too sometimes they seem to be going backward and as it were retracing their footsteps sometimes they seem to be facing

[14:45] Egypt again from whence they came out and then there was another turn and again they went on their way toward the promised land but God had to fulfill his declaration that they should wander in the wilderness for forty years because of their rebellion at Kadesh Barnea when they received not the good report of Joshua and Caleb but took their side with the ten spies that brought an evil report then God said that generation should wander in the wilderness till they had all died out and now at this time that had happened hence Moses had come to the end of his leadership of Israel he has led them for forty years and it will not be long afterwards but when they will cross over

[15:49] Jordan and begin to inherit the land of promise which God had guaranteed to give them he led him about backwards and forwards with many windings and turnings but in all this leading about they had much to discourage them and they had very much more to encourage them for every day they gathered manna and every day they drank of the water that flowed from the rock that followed them and in this leading about there are the mysteries of providence emphasized and not only emphasized but guaranteed by divine protection as you read he led him about he instructed him godly scholars tell us that word means he made them to understand and that is what instruction really is as you were led about in the wilderness way as a pilgrim to

[17:08] Canaan bound there are many matters that come into your life and they are to instruct you but you need that god should cause you to understand what you are to learn thereby what is the teaching what these matters are designed to make you aware of in the things of god who so is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the lord it is good in the dealings of god to say with job show me wherefore thou contendest with me because his dealings and his ways are often very mysterious and there are things hard to be understood that come into our lives yet there is a deep underlying purpose there is an overruling providence that wisely marshals every circumstance and these things as we are led into the truth thereof and sanctified they help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ he led him about he instructed him he caused him to understand and now you go back over your life and think in earlier days there were some matters that came into your life and you could not see the why and the wherefore and yet in later life it was made plain and that which years before was to you a mystery was proved to be one of the all things which work together for good to them that love

[19:22] God to them who are the called according to his purpose and this instruction how necessary it is and how good it is I have often thought of Job when he said and that which I know not teach thou me and those of us who have been following on to know the Lord for fifty years yet at the same time we have to say that which I know not and how much there is that we know not yet we do say lead me in thy truth and teach me we do want to be taught of God we do not want our religion to be built up on theory it is possible to build up a religion on theory because you can read the word of

[20:26] God and by dint of intellectual study you can obtain what is the doctrine of grace the varied characteristics of it and you can read the books of the godly which set these things forth but that knowledge is only head knowledge and good creeds may stock our heads about and in our hearts no grace be found and that gives you many searchings of heart all my lifetime since I have been born again I hope I have been a student but you have to weigh it all up lest lest lest lest at the end you should have teak or stamped upon it all and be weighed in the balances and found wanting that which is indeed what a man cannot receive except it be given him from heaven it is good to be led about he led him about he instructed him and now how does

[21:36] God do this he has various means that he uses in instructing he instructs first of all by the Holy Spirit and they shall be all taught of God is a word in Isaiah and the Holy Spirit has that blessed prerogative to lead poor sinners into the truth of which he is the glorious author and you will find there is something special about the instruction which the Holy Spirit gives it is not learned as schoolboy learned their tasks no it is that which comes into our hearts and it comes with a special influence and you are humbled before God and you sit down at his feet to receive of his words it is a wonderful privilege to be taught by the

[22:43] Holy Spirit none of us can say very much about it but we hope we are not altogether strangers to it and then he led him about he instructed him God not only instructs by his Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit is pleased to use means whereby he conveys the instruction indirectly he sometimes conveys it directly so that when you are waiting on God in a time of testing and trial when some matters have arisen in life's journey and you wonder how they will fall out and you are waiting on God show me now thy way the Holy Spirit may be pleased to give you a word he may remind you of a promise in the word of his grace which will give you the instruction that you need and it will be well for you to heed it when he gives it and plead with him remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope and then this instruction is given in the word of

[24:07] God itself hence the psalmist says thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and whenever you are in need of instruction when you feel like Asa O Lord we know not what to do but our eyes are up unto thee do you then ask what saith the scriptures and as you are helped prayerfully to search the sacred pages you will find counsel you will find comfort you will find caution you will find correction you will be instructed thereby you will be able to say as the psalmist did I rejoice in thy word as one that find it great spoil sometimes you go to the word of

[25:08] God and you seem to get no good but then at other times there is a light that shines upon the sacred page deliverance and you will find as a rule that there is no way of deliverance but as you go forward in the trial that may have come upon you which is to you like the lion's mouth equivalent of pyah hiroth and then

[32:37] I think of Kadesh Barnea and now Kadesh Barnea the children of Israel came there within two years of their leaving Egyptian bondage and when they were there they could almost see the land of promise and what it did promise what was growing there in but it was 38 years afterwards ere they crossed over the Jordan to dwell in the land of promise and to conquer it as God ordained they should do and now it may be in the dealings of God with you you can go back to your early days when heaven seemed to be much nearer to you than you have often felt it to be nowadays it is good to have something like

[33:46] Kadesh Barnea in the dealings of God with us in the waste hole in wilderness to be near to the land of promise and to look across the Jordan with hope that the day will dawn when you will cross the river and dwell in the land of promise it is good to have experiences like that to dwell at Kadesh Barnea and then there is another place you may know something about that and that is one place was called Kibroth Atava the grave of lust they said give us flesh to eat they were discontented and you have no stones to throw Israel of old because of their behavior preacher and people alike must all plead guilty here but they said give us flesh to eat and they said what seems terrible to us to think that they did say our souls loathed this light bread they were discontented with the manner though the psalmist says man did eat angels food and it sustained them there was not one feeble person among them and how wonderful that is it was to them as bread which strengthen the man's heart but now they said give us flesh to eat and

[35:34] God sent quails and they did have flesh and they realized it was to them the grave of lust because there came distress with the flesh and many many of them died as a consequence kibra the tava you might look back over your life and find something equivalent to that when your plans were made and then God marred them something that you much desired to be or to do in your life and you were determined to do it but God determined otherwise and you were rebellious because you could not perform your enterprise and to you it was kibra the tava the grave of lust so you might go on and you will find as crudence concordance would tell you all the names where

[36:54] Israel stayed had a meaning and the meaning was a lesson which they learned in the place where they stayed though in some places they only stayed three days in some three weeks and in others it went on for a year or more but they always moved on as the cloud moved before and where the cloud stayed was where their camp was set up again with the tabernacle in the midst of it and it was where the cloud moved alone that the manor fell and the water flowed from the rock that followed them he led them about he instructed them oh how good it is to have God for our guide and then it might be well in thinking about this subject from this viewpoint to ask a few questions seeing you humbly hope many of you that you do belong to the

[38:04] Israel of God and that you hope you are being led forth by the right way yet led about and instructed and now one thing you will be instructed in it is not in man that walk it to direct his own steps another lesson you will learn is they found no city to dwell in you may come to a place in the dealings of God where everything seems much to your liking and you may feel that you can settle down there but you will find this will instruct you a thorn in the flesh they shall have their roving affections to win there is that about us we are just ready to settle down when things are easy going the flesh dislikes the way which is through much tribulation and if you come to a little plain called ease as bunyan talks about in the pilgrim's progress you soon get across it and it does not last long they found no city to dwell in neither will you be able to find a city to dwell in a place where you can settle but you will have to be instructed arise ye and depart this is not your rest if you remain here it will destroy you with a sore destruction much might be said under that heading and then another instruction you will receive it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps therefore you will want to be concerned to be sure the cloud is moving on before you in whatever alteration you purpose to make in your life you will want to know it is of

[40:20] God that he has given you permission it is in accordance with his purpose hence you will be glad to plead guide me O thou great Jehovah pilgrim through this barren land I am weak but thou art mighty hold me with thy powerful hand bread of heaven feed me now and ever more hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not and now come into the Amen Have you left Egypt behind Do you find the world in which you live and move to be a desert land a waste hole in wilderness Have you been made to feel with the Selmist I would rather be a door keeper in the house of my

[41:21] God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness Have you been helped to make the choice that Moses made choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Have you got evidence that you were being led forth by the right way and have you known the privilege and pleasure to drink of the water that flows from the rock that followed Israel and the apostle Paul tells us and that rock was Christ in other words have you been helped to drink of that river the streams where off shall make glad the city of God not only so have you ever sighted Canaan have you ever had a glimpse of heaven in your soul's experience do think on these things dear friends and do you know the sweets of sanctified affliction the waters of mar have made sweet in your soul's experience so that you could say though our cup seems filled with gall there something secret sweetens all much might be said about that line of things he led him about he instructed him he kept him as the apple of his eye you see he found he led he instructed he kept there are four salient points in the subject and now how good it will be if you and

[43:16] I are shut up in this last word kept who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time he kept him as the apple of his eye God has so ordained in our bodies that our eyes are wonderfully protected there are five or six tunics over the eye to keep it and preserve it and how valuable our eyes are how precious is sight to us in our everyday life and God has guaranteed to keep the Israel of God through all their wanderings whatever the world may set a foot against them God will overturn it undo it and overrule it and out of the eater shall come forth meat and out of the strong shall come forth sweetness he found him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness he led him about he instructed him he kept him as the apple of his eye and there is a great word concerning

[44:37]  Israel to the land of Canaan they went forth to the land of Canaan they came and if God in his mercy has found you by his grace brought you out from Egyptian bondage separated you from the world made you to be a pilgrim to Canaan bound you will find his guarantee is wonderfully sure and cannot fail to be fulfilled the weakest soul shall win the day though earth and hell obstruct the way oh the Lord grant in his mercy preacher and people each one and every one may be pilgrims to Canaan bound amen you