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[0:00] If the host is pleased to help us, we will venture to speak a few things from verses 34 and 35. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

[0:24] For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.

[0:41] Many of God's people have heard the letter of the truth in a graceless condition.

[0:51] But where God has a purpose of grace toward his sons and daughters, he comes with power and authority by and through that blessed third person of the Holy Ghost.

[1:11] And when that appointed time comes with all his people, it has an effectual fruitfulness with it.

[1:23] And it brings every child of God into this exercise condition which this beautiful verse explains.

[1:35] Some of you, perhaps, are able to speak of a time when you sat under the truth for many years, but there came a time when you heard God's voice in your conscience.

[2:02] Because when God comes first, he does not come through the gospel in that sweet substance of peace, but he comes as a God of judgment, which is most essential to bring his sons and daughters to their senses.

[2:24] And we have two verses in Proverbs. He that fears a commandment shall be rewarded, and him that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.

[2:39] And I am persuaded of this, although the free willer tells us to turn at God's reproof, when God comes with his authority and makes the place of his feet glorious, he makes all his sons and daughters turn at his word of reproof.

[3:03] Jesus speaks of the Holy Ghost and his word, and he said he shall convince of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come.

[3:16] And what a wonderful mercy, if you can trace your standard of experience in the simple words in this verse, watching, daily at his gates, waiting at the post of his doors.

[3:35] Sometimes the child of God who is called out of the world is looked upon to be a more conspicuous calling, but I do not agree with that, friends, because when God comes to his people, even in childhood, they are brought into an exercise condition.

[4:03] You will tread his courts not to fill up a pew, nor to see relations, but you will come with a conviction of sin in your soul and conscience.

[4:16] And there is much encouragement in this word for God's people who have been brought upon in ten years.

[4:27] He said, I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. So it's very definite that children do hear the voice of this wonderful God who speaks in this chapter that is to say he deals with many of his sons and daughters at an early age.

[4:53] For we do believe there are babes in heaven and there are children in heaven. And all those characters are brought to hear and know something of their lost and ruined condition.

[5:09] And it brings them into an exercise condition. and what a blessed favour it is for a young person to find grace in God's sight where they've never been left to perhaps go outside of God's earthly courts.

[5:27] I cannot speak on that standard, but I do believe there is a standard in the 119th Psalm which all God's people can lay claim to who've come right.

[5:41] and it is this that where the entrance of God's word enters it giveth light and it giveth understanding and it has this effect in every child of God I thought of my ways and I turn my feet unto thy testimonies.

[6:02] Now sometimes you will hear God's people who are more favoured with a deeper conviction work but you will find there are blessed scriptures in the Bible left on record for those who have been wrought upon in tender years.

[6:26] And God makes his people distinct by this authority. You know, God does not love everybody but he does love his sons and daughters who have been sanctified by God the Father preserved in Jesus Christ and called.

[6:48] And we hope some of us are living witnesses of the power and the authority of God who has come and brought us to our senses.

[6:59] He takes the call and he makes them wise and the scripture declares that the fool has said in his heart there is no God.

[7:11] We cannot give ourselves an understanding of God in the ruin through the ruin of the fall. None can turn to God until God turns them and I hope you will never turn away from the standard of God's truth in that because you have the free willer and the merit monger who put so much power in the lap of a creature but we've been in the ways of grace long enough to know this that everybody God's people of course including them they must be born again before they can have a possessing knowledge savingly of God as a God of judgment and a God of mercy.

[8:01] Now this watching daily at his gates waiting at the post of his doors all ministers have their own way of explaining things and myself not being an educated person I maintain and hold fast to this that this refers to the means of grace and when you come under the word whether God pulls you out of the crowd in the profane world or comes to you in the field you will have the same exercise within you because God will work in you whereby he will exercise you to give diligence to make your own calling and election sure you won't be like a lot of foolish virgins worrying about somebody else but it will be a personal matter with you it's a definite work and God speaks here blessed is the man

[9:03] I know Satan could buffet a woman here because he doesn't mention the woman but God is a God of time and order and as you know God created Adam first in his own likeness that is upright and good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners in the way but this includes the woman and also others who may be maiden and growing up into womanhood you see God is no respect of the person his family consists of all ages and we see in God's holy word his sovereignty is exercised in these things concerning his own kingdom now you should be able to speak for yourself in the exercise of your religion I can speak for mine

[10:04] I cannot speak for others but you will find if God pull you out of the world or come to you in a place of worship he will bring you into a state of exercise because of the new birth which he creates in you you see Paul speaks of a quickening power and authority and you have he quickened who were sometimes dead in trespasses and in sin and walking according to the course of this world either in a dead religion or in the profane world and our natures are no different to those who perish in their sins because our nature is the same as a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction and under this watching and waiting you will do training with God you won't come as a stony ground hearer who anon with joy receives a dead form of religion and who are so excitable that you will have a wound in your soul and when

[11:16] God works this you will be not a talkative Christian but you will be a silent one and you will need a lot of patience with the gracious teaching of the Holy Ghost and conviction because you won't gather every time under the means of grace but there will be time when the Lord will condescend as you are found under this exercise and in this watching and waiting you will find this that the good shepherd will feed you with knowledge and understanding where he brings to the birth he must feed and he has promised to strengthen weak hands and to confirm feeble needs and what a wonderful mercy it is for God's people as they increase in age where the Holy Ghost will cause them to retrace their calling by grace not with earthquake convictions perhaps but with a holy conviction which has that standard in it which

[12:26] Christ preached himself him that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds might be made manifest and that they are wrought in God and we believe God's people are wrought upon in their early childhood or teens they begin to seek the Lord early in life and they are made finders too because that is in this second part of the text this wonderful Christ you know this eighth Proverbs it deals and speaks with the eternal generation of Christ which he had with the Father as the divine word and it is he that speaks and here he says for whoso findeth me findeth life we do not believe friends that the shipwreck the save by sinking but that

[13:31] God is that wonderful holy and infinite and eternal God and creator and Jesus said in his ministry that he is the rewarder of them diligently seeking what a sad thing it would be if God put life in our souls by the quickening power of the spirit and never fed that soul but you will find this that the Lord who is the good shepherd of his sheep he feeds his people according to his sovereignty and according to their needs and in this exercise they prove for themselves from time to time not every time they come under the word but there is a set time for Zion that he does satisfy the longing soul and he filleth the hungry soul with goodness and what a mercy it is if you and

[14:36] I have been chosen by the part of in eternity and chosen in Christ Jesus in eternity and loved by the Holy Spirit you see where God imparts life in the soul there must be travail and where there is travail naturally there must be labour we do not believe friends in a dead religion if we have been dealt with by the Holy Ghost because where the Lord comes with authority and makes the place of his feet glorious he warns his sons and daughters of their sinnership and lost and ruined condition and he also warns them to flee from the rough to come you know sometimes we contact with God's people who had what we call a very deep law work well some of them have friends but they they should be very much exercised how they speak about that

[15:46] I've had my law work and I wouldn't let a free will have beat me out of it but I have observed this in my meeting together with many of God's people they far excelled me and some of them have almost been driven in the madhouse under a law work and it is wrong for that person to ridicule the weakest believer that would hang upon Christ but children have their law work you see where God comes and quickens and convinces of sin and of righteousness the law enters that the offence might abound and they are brought to understand that they've sinned against God and come short of the glory of God and solemnly convinced of this that there is none that seeketh after God and there's none understand it because there is none righteous but when God comes with authority you will find that the law is applied according to the sovereignty of God and where can you find a more beautiful illustration or word set forth for the comfort of

[17:05] God's people in all standards of experience the wind bloweth where it lists it and they'll hear us the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the spirit for now you hold fast to your own convictions if you hope and trust God has come in that remarkable way in searching you out and seeking you whereby you've been able to say when I was to thee a stranger wandering in forbidden way from the path of sin and danger thou didst call me by thy grace well now the first work of this wonderful voice of God then is a God of judgment in the conscience where sin is made exceedingly sinful according to the sovereign application of

[18:09] God through the law but without a law work there is no knowledge of sin in the conscience as it is before a holy and a heart searching God all ministers of the spirit will contend for the law but they must not set up their own criterion in it I have heard where men have been cut down in a public house and other solemn characters too have been brought out of the world who have had great pleasure in desecrating God's day well a greater measure of the law is essential but don't ever think that it needs the same measure of the law to deal with a child for a young person under the means of grace but there must be some measure of the law to convince that child of its foolishness and waverness and folly because the thought of foolishness is sin in the sight of the most holy God and without the law there is no knowledge of sin you see a natural conviction of right or wrong would never bring any body in guilty before a holy and a heart searching

[19:32] God the Pharisees have that but when God comes to do his work and it is a strange work and it is a strange act nevertheless it's a wonderful work and it is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working well now can you look back to the time in this exercise in your buddings of grace when you began to watch daily at his gates and wait at the posts of his doors when you used to watch beyond your watch tower to hear what the Lord would speak to you and God does still today work in the hearts of his people this standard of experience and what a wonderful mercy it is when God does condescend to speak to his people in this soul trouble which is a trouble which is hid from the wise and the prudent and many of God's people have been favored to testify of this beautiful work in their childhood or in their youth

[20:46] I was at the age of 30 when God met with me and as I am growing older so he gives me a sweet revival of all these demons with me but this is the greatest thing and blessing in it is this that his people have been blessed and loved by him in eternity and chosen in his son and loved by the Holy Ghost whose prerogative it is to quicken and convince of sin and lead to Jesus' blood and we hope that we can walk with God's living people as the spirit takes us back when he condescended to come through the means of grace it may have been only through him perhaps but sometimes through his living servants and sometimes in private when we were meditating and searching his word for how beautiful then is the word of

[21:57] God to those who cannot speak of a deep law word nevertheless they do the same thing they honder the part of their feet they think upon their ways and they turn their feet unto the Lord's testimony well now Christ speaks here of a finding you see there is no comfort under the law word in conviction of sin and law and terrors under conviction of sin with a child or a person more advanced in years is law and terror which hardens under that budding of grace where the spirit comes to convince us of our folly and our wrong and our shame you know we have a dreadful slavish fear of this terrible God who out of

[23:00] Christ is consuming fire and you know it's no good of a dead professor to try and convince a young person or an older person that this wonderful God won't be so strict against sin as he declares it you see the lofty looks of man must be humble and the haughtiness of man should be brought low and the Lord of hosts should be exalted in that day and it is this character that God looks upon in mercy him that doth inhabit an eternity he says to this man will I look who is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word now what a vast difference that is in the wonderful work of regeneration in comparison with that dead religion which foolish virgins are wrapped up in you know it's a wonderful mercy my friend if you and I have been dealt with by

[24:05] God because God does not love everybody I used to know a young man in our denomination and he was a most sober lad and we all loved him and important people loved him in the denomination but you know God never loved him for one important person he thought he would make a wonderful minister in our denomination he made a solemn end friend he was always under the truth he wasn't allowed to go into any other cause of truth only a strict in particular Baptist chapel and he was always under the word and if he wasn't in the Bible class he'd be in the pew under the ministry and he heard the cream of the ministry but you know God never loved him you know time proves everything in religion you and I may judge with a good will sometimes

[25:08] I couldn't help loving the lad and if you would have said to me well I don't believe he's a vessel I don't believe he's a child of God I should have withstood you and perhaps very abruptly because he was certainly no trouble and he carried all the sobriety that an exorcised child of God would but you know when the time came for God to make it manifest and I'm not speaking now something of an idle tale but I was in the company of one of his relations and she related to me the solemn issue of it and you know he even climbed in this world by obtaining a position through the prayer of the relation who prayed for him and he confessed my friend that was an answer to prayer but you know he was a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction oh it will take eternity for the church to praise this wonderful

[26:18] God for his wonderful favour toward them and working in them because if the Lord didn't work in his elect people who were dead in sin they couldn't work anything themselves but Jesus in his beautiful ministry he preaches both sides of a child of God's experience and he says this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God well now God as a God of judgment is our first experience but then the other side is and Jesus Christ and thou hast sent now here Jesus in his blessed divine word speaks to us for who whoso findeth me findeth life well there must be a finding of Christ through the means of grace that is obtaining a saving knowledge of him as the saver of the world that is his people in the world otherwise we should never have this left on record you know many of

[27:33] God's people have been able to speak of the remission of sins in tender years I don't pour contempt on young people in their experiences but this is very definite friends it must be our experience here if we have been if our names have been written in the land book of life because no person is blessed outside of the experience of these two verses and you know God brings his people into this world to know him whom to know his life eternal and he does give all his sons and daughters whatever age or case it may be the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins you cannot prove friends that you have the gospel until you have been brought to enjoy the remission of your sins you know letter men can expound the scriptures and set before you wonderful and beautiful attractive sermons in the letter but if that minister never had his sins forgiven he knows nothing of the gospel and what a solemn thing it is for a child or a youth or a maiden to be favoured with this experience and the minister knows nothing about it himself you know there are such characters like that in the ministry they can split the trinity they can preach sovereign and discriminating grace and election and adoption and everything they could set it before you better than

[29:20] I thought but as I approached one minister on one occasion in my early calling in my first love who used to preach with a yoke round his neck and I bore along with him until I could stick him no more and I approached him after the ministry and I said excuse me I said have you had your sins forgiven he said no I said I thought you hadn't the way you preached a minister of the spirit my friend he preaches what he's tasted handled and felt and God's elects speak of what they tasted handled and felt and they don't need to borrow another man's line of things ready to hand well now this God who has power to quicken and convince of sin he also has power to reveal and you know those that wait upon the Lord my friend they are made rewarders of the things which

[30:25] God has promised and it's a wonderful thing for God to come by the Holy Spirit and to glorify Christ and receive of him and show the poor sensible guilty child of God the way how God deals with that sin now that's finding Christ a revealed Christ set before you by the Holy Ghost being delivered for your offenses and raised again for your justification will bring forgiveness in your troubled breast by the revelation of the Holy Spirit you see the wrath of God never brings love and mercy you see the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and when God's people are brought into the blessed remission of their sins they possess

[31:31] Christ formed in their heart as the hope of glory he is in their hearts and affections as a living substance and you come to consider the wonderful sovereignty of God's grace abounding over us and the power of sin and Satan to bring us into this time state to know this wonderful Christ who in our unregeneracy was to us no more than a root out of a dry ground because Jehovah's Ekinu meant nothing to us how many years my friend were you treading Christ under your feet because you know you happen to stand up to my standard of preaching when you stand before the judgment seat you must stand before this wonderful Christ and oh what a mercy it is when the child of God is drawn to Christ by the

[32:37] Holy Ghost and that spirit shows to that poor guilty child or youth or maiden or child of God in more advanced in years how God has pardoned their iniquities and passed by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage by the father sending the son he gives the son the son he gives his life the spirit applies and faith puts on the righteousness of God and here in his love not that we love God but that God first loved us now hold fast to what you believe you had in your early years if this wonderful Christ the good shepherd of the sheep condescended to deal with you and meet with you my friend in this pathway which is set forth here we do we do believe what

[33:40] Christ says all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast you you will read in the second chapter of Jeremiah the first love which a child of God is brought into when they run in the ways of his commandments and also my friend their love and espousal days when they were favoured to find a wonderful Christ who loved them and gave himself for them and shall obtain favour of the Lord what sir this world riches learning on a wealth and fame in comparison to this favour it is the highest favour that God can bestow upon his sons and daughters who come into this time state because they are his elect people to possess this wonderful favour why it has eternal life in it and Jesus said I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hands you consider the world the dead professed world who have an excitable religion and the profane world with all what they live in what happiness do you think they have in that why that has eternal death in it my friends happiness thou lovely name where is thy seat oh tell me where learning honour wealth and fame all cry out it is not here well then where shall we find it in this wonderful

[35:35] Christ who loved the church and gave himself for it who condescended to be delivered for their offences and raised again for their justification and who did declare in his ministry that all manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven and if you have the mark of this wonderful favour the mark of this celestial dove Satan can never erase it you see where Christ gives life he maintains it it is your life in your soul if you possess it is hid with Christ in God and he said I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand this standard of experience we don't hear much about now but it is an unspeakable mercy my friend when God's people are in a healthy condition where the spirit works in them to speak of the wonderful work of

[36:50] God in their souls it doesn't matter what age or case it may be and I only understand this religion which has the love of God in it and where this experience is made and brought in by the Holy Spirit and the child of God is brought to rejoice in Christ Jesus they are brought to know him and love him and adore him and this wonderful love in the experience of it as a child of God enjoys it it will return to God of David it has the same language in it in substance where God says and in that day thou shall say O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me under the Lord thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me well now Christ you see speaks so clearly and what an encouragement there is in this chapter for those who have not had such a terrible deep law work for some

[38:04] I know a minister who is brought into this world for the ministry he must have some goodly measure of the law work but many of God's people he worries them when they read of this deep law work because they cannot come up to that standard but does your revision my friend bring you to do what Jesus said him that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds might be made manifest that they are wrought in God and then again you will continue with Christ in the regeneration which he brings you into and you will continue with Jesus in the path of temptation also and there is suffering in the work of regeneration and it is made clear here friends that this religion and standard of God's teaching is something more than notion something must be known and felt and though some of us have had many years in this narrow way we still are found in this healthy exercise condition still watching

[39:24] David at his gates waiting at the posts of his doors because we cannot live without his visitation and my friend it is a mercy if you and I are in this healthy condition today and not like those foolish virgins who go back and walk no more with him or do do not dread the tempestuous billows that go over your head and all the conflict which goes on betwixt the powers of grace and sin but do dread that treacherous car which has no exercise in it which has no travel in it you see God people they are taught the truth by the inward teaching of the Holy Ghost and what an unspeakable mercy if you and I are facing the grave with this wonderful Christ who is both

[40:26] God and man he always was the infinite and the eternal son of God as the divine word but when he came in the fullness of time made of a woman made under the law to redeem his people from the curse of the law for what a vast difference there is and where he has shared all his love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost immediately that wonderful Christ became the object of our faith how can it be said of you and I that we are waiting for his appearing if we do not possess this standard of experience in our soul and affections my friend you know eternal eternity it's a place of immortality and in the general resurrection the dead in Christ will rise first but the others will rise also and they will live in a state of immortality and in eternal damnation and destruction where the standard of

[41:38] Paul's ministry in Thessalonians will be made manifest and realized when the Lord shall come with his mighty angels and with flaming fire taking vengeance upon all them that know not God nor the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the Lord and from the glory of his presence when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that receive his testimony oh my friend that day of judgment no doubt it is fast hastening on you see the world and professors they put it away they say where is the promise of his coming but my friend where they die in a dead religion without this standard of experience they die cursed by the law and damned by the gospel for whoso findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favour of the Lord what do your people do when they come before your church do they come with the same ring in their soul's experience as I've set before you is it what they've done for the

[43:01] Lord or is it what the Lord has done for them how beautiful is the words in Ezekiel I will both search and seek my sheep as a shepherd's house his sheep and a clearly day for my friend it is an unspeakable mercy if you and I are facing the grave with clean hands that it was not by our fleshly might nor by our fleshly will are and born not of blood nor of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but born of God and you be thankful for God's standard of his illustration in the third chapter of John where he said the wind bloweth where it listed and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is everyone that is born of the spirit

[44:03] I was speaking to a deacon some time ago who was dug out of the world like myself and you know you just can't understand yourself when the Lord comes to you first and his wife said to him what's wrong with you he said I don't know now you would have thought that man would have had a dreadful law work wouldn't you there he was digging his garden on a Sunday and the Lord spoke twice to him and he didn't know it was the Lord until the second time and he said the second time he came to me he said I had to put me tools up in the shed and no further digging on a Sunday nor enjoying the pleasures of this world but you just can't understand yourself when the Lord does come I couldn't understand myself but I do believe I could come in with that beautiful verse in

[45:03] Proverbs I thought upon my ways and pondered the paths of my feet and turned my feet unto his testimony so there was a forsaking the things in the world and entering into a place of worship watching David's gates waiting at the posts of his doors and although it was some time before I ever received the gospel which is the forgiveness of sins the Lord did give me encouragement long before I was brought into it oh you you have God's inspired word my friend and you have a lot to be grateful for because you know Christ he contended for that very thing before Nicodemus marvel not that I said unto you he must be born again birth naturally is always in a small compass whenever it takes place it doesn't matter where it's in operation and so is the new birth in the soul and God deepens it until he brings his child into a deeper work to feel the more greater necessity of the standard of

[46:22] God's teaching where the remission of sins is entered into we must be strict of all fleshly and merit before God before we want Christ the Saviour which is spoken of in the scriptures and yet Jesus said this they shall all know me upon the least of them unto the greatest well if you can trace this standard in your religion you've got the spirit witness within you that you've been born again of the holy day and where he begins the work he will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ you see Christ my friend is to be known and he's known his people and I have envied young people who have been able to testify of being brought upon by God at the age of 11 and as their sins forgiven at 15 he has the same liberation in it it liberates from the bondage of the law it liberates from the curse and the terrors of the law and it will send a child of

[47:35] God on their way rejoicing where they are able to testify I'm dressed I'm blessed my rags are gone and as the hymn goes on with it and it is joy unspeakable it's right neck to lie where did it say oh neck to lie satisfied in favour full of the blessing of the Lord and when you find Christ in that gospel in the substance of it you can never find your sins if you trace it I could not find my sins as I look for them under the blessed sweetness of the forgiveness of sins and it is of mercy my friend that there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared but that forgiveness only comes to the church by and through the sacred blood sacred which made the saviour's garments wet when he the wine pressed

[48:38] God could not and would not forgive sins without an atone for justice people preach the gospel too cheap today they never begin with the law where God begins the conviction my friend must be of the Holy Ghost and not a natural one otherwise we shall never keep a right view of the wonderful suffering and love of God's dear Son who poured out his soul unto death to make intercession for the transgressor you see blood must be shed to satisfy the law's vindictive claim sinner or substitute must die to quench that angry claim there's no removing of the guilt curse and no removed transfer of our guilt no hope for any one of us till Jesus blood is filled Christ said this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true

[49:45] God and here he is as the divine birth and Jesus Christ whom thou hast said now concluding hymns 625 tune blockly 304 625 God is a father just and wise and reigns enthroned above the skies yet all his saints on earth shall know he condescends to dwell below 625 God is a path but just and wise and ways and forth above the skies yet how will let love his ole jones who shall come by to help him love together

[51:26] He'll make this sound a mortal light.

[51:38] Thou give them all a special light.

[51:52] He'll make them all with love and heart.

[52:06] Thou save them in the crying heart.

[52:22] Thou then he will give secret sound.

[52:36] Thou save them from the love of hell.

[52:50] But when they live, they'll spell the world.

[53:04] Thou save them all till the Lord is done.

[53:18] Amen.

[53:50]  And the sweet fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit rest upon us each. Amen.