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[0:00] As the Lord shall be pleased to help me, I shall call your attention to a subject you will find in Psalm 65 and the fourth verse.

[0:25] Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts.

[0:42] We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

[0:55] Psalm 65 and the fourth verse. The word blessed means, O the heaped up happiness of the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts.

[1:27] One who is assured by God that he is numbered with that vast host whom God the Father ordained to life eternal, and who, by his grace, has been taught to pray, and as the outcome, has found a home among the people of God, and goes up to worship the majesty of heaven with willing feet, wherever his people assemble.

[2:15] That is a little summary of it. And I want, as the Lord shall help me, to work out that line of things.

[2:27] And I would look at the subject from four viewpoints.

[2:39] One is sovereignty, and then supplication, and then security, and then satisfaction.

[2:55] These four characteristics are blended together to produce the heaped up happiness of the man who is so favored, or the woman, as the case may be, youth or maid.

[3:20] Blessed is the man whom thou choosest.

[3:33] I said, that brings before us sovereignty. And it is amazing, until you contemplate what the Adam Fall has done, how man, by nature, rages against against the sovereignty of God.

[4:01] And especially in regard to worship, and regarding that religion, which alone would do to live by and die by, if you bring forth the great truth of electing love, you will find there are many who resent the doctrine of it, will not receive it, and are very antagonistic to it, and sometimes make very sad and solemn comments regarding it, and God, whose doctrine it is.

[4:48] All people have been left to say, I would never believe in a God that behaved like that, to choose a number to be saved, and all the rest to be damned.

[5:01] where do you read that in the Word of God? It might be well to look into that.

[5:14] Where do you read any foundation for a statement like that in the Word of God? This is what you do read in the Word of God.

[5:29] For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[5:47] Listen, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

[5:59] He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

[6:18] And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

[6:34] Men, living as they are born, dwell in that darkness, gross darkness, and they live according to what they are by nature.

[6:52] And yet, ere I leave this viewpoint of the subject, I would point out, especially for our dear younger people, people, that people who complain about the doctrine of election, and the unreasonableness of it, they themselves, in the lives they live, behave as though they have got a right to think this and that, and do as they like, in regard to how they live, and where they live, and what they do, and if other people should comment or seek to interfere, they would say, it will be well for you to mind your own business.

[7:53] I can do as I like in this matter, it is my concern, not yours, but when it comes to God choosing a multitude which no man can number to be saved with an everlasting salvation, then man begins to arraign the God of heaven at the puny bar of his own reason, and yet when it comes to his own concerns, he demands the right to make a choice, and God likewise can make a choice, and who art thou, O man, that replyest against God?

[8:45] God I will be gracious, to whom I will be gracious, I will have mercy, upon whom I will have mercy, and now when a sinner comes into this blessedness, first of all, he may not feel, he will not feel much of the heaped up happiness guiltiness, the word contains, at first, because he will feel otherwise, when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he shall convince the world of sin, and he will know much guiltiness of conscience, and begin to learn, as Solomon tells us, which shall know, every man, the plague of his own heart, and as he is brought to have to do with

[9:48] God, he will realize, that, in having to do with God, he has got to give an account, of his own doings, and that is a very solemn business, and yet, when you weigh up the doctrine of election, well, people think it is hard, think it is unreasonable of God, so to make matters to be manifested in the word of God, yet, it might be that some of you, who do not fight against the doctrine, but desire to submit yourselves to what saith the scriptures regarding it, it might be that you have got more evidences that you are numbered with God's elect than you realize, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, and now dear friends, what do you know about approaching unto God, let your consciences tell you when you began to do that, when solemn necessity arose within you as a poor sinner with a never dying soul, and you were made aware that you had to do with

[11:38] God and while at the first in regard to God as he is revealed in his holy law, it seemed to you to be more terror to approach unto him there than the prospect of heaped up happiness, yet at the same time necessity drove you to approach unto him even as he is revealed in his holy law, and how did you approach unto him, you heard the law's loud thunders, pay me that which thou owest, you sought to sum up what was your debt, and you found it was righteousness to full perfection must be brought, lack in naught, fearless of rejection, and you found, alas, you could not produce one stitch of it, by the doings of the great eye, you had to painfully learn, not the labour of my hands can fulfil the law's demands, and yet the law still said, pay me that which thou owest, and God as he is revealed there, makes a very solemn declaration, cursed is the man that continueth not, in all things written in the book of the law, to do them, and you found you could not do one jot or tittle of what the law demands, what did you do then?

[13:47] You read in Leviticus, it is a great statement, if he shall accept the punishment of his iniquity, in such a case, there is provision made, and there is hope for such one, that he shall yet realize the heaped-up happiness of the man who is brought to have to do with God, and to acknowledge his undone state in the Adam Fall, his utter ruin, and to put his mouth in the dust of self-abasement, if so be, there may be hope in such an approach to God as he is revealed at Sinai's Mount.

[14:45] It is like the psalmist said, the pains of hell got hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow. then cried I, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

[15:07] The outcome of such an experience, whether it be by terrible things in righteousness, or going over a length of time, here a little, there a little, line upon line, and precept upon precept, the outcome of that experience is that the man whom God has chosen is tricked of all his fancied meekness to approach the dread I am, and yet he is caused to approach.

[15:42] Our text tells us, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee.

[15:55] God having led that poor sinner into a solemn awareness of his lost estate in the Adam fall, and his utter helplessness in things divine, will not leave him there.

[16:17] this word goes much farther than to do with Sinai's mount. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee.

[16:36] And now, convince us of our sin, and that is done before Sinai's mount under the law.

[16:47] What then? Then lead to Jesus' blood, and to our wandering will reveal the secret love of God.

[16:59] And this man in the text is found at length before Calvary's cross, cross, and there the Spirit of God instructs him, and makes manifest how that righteousness which the law demands is provided for poor sinners who realize they have none of their own wherein to appear before God.

[17:34] Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one which believeth. Yes. And that truth breaks in as a heavenly ray of light in a poor sinner's conscience as he realizes behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

[18:06] and when you do behold him by living faith there is this beginning of happiness. The terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do.

[18:24] My Savior's obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee.

[18:46] I'd no thought to begin in this sermon along that line but let us start afresh. Regarding the man whom thou choosest going back to the great truth of electing love there are some signs whereby you may know that you have an interest in electing love although you want God to confirm you therein but the word of God itself will help you and give you encouragement and help you to enter in a little from time to time in this heaped up happiness.

[19:38] The heaped up happiness in the full is known in the realms above but here a little there a little there is happiness that people taught of God realize in their souls and it is that which a man cannot receive except it be given him from heaven and I might make a comment there you go back over your lives dear friends each of you who hope in God and whenever you have had in your life happiness worth and I it was to do with your soul and God some encouragement you received some hope was raised up within maybe you came to this knowing brethren beloved your election your election of God for our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power you have known what it is to hear the gospel and feel blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk oh lord in the light of thy countenance blessed are your ears for they hear and that is a sign of your election in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped not only so you weigh up when you first began to pray what did you pray about surely surely it was not just to do with things of this life time things surely surely it was to do with something for your soul as you drew near to

[22:17] God did you stand alongside the publican God be merciful to me a sinner did you do what he did spiritually smite your bosom and say here on my heart the burden lies and past offenses pain my eyes then began men to call on the name of the Lord and you know I stress this in my ministry because it it is all important our text tells us blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee man as he is born does not want anything whatever to do with

[23:17] God depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thee or thy ways but you can remember many of you when you sought a secret place to approach unto God and what was your concern in doing so my soul my soul thirsteth for God you were learning the God of spirits only can fill up the vast desires of man you could not find any satisfaction worth a name flowing from any earthly source whatever because this satisfaction in the text is spiritual in its nature and you were seeking it then you must have been after the spirit the things of the spirit and there you get another encouragement as you find in the opening words of the

[24:44] Romans epistle it is a very strong evidence there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit you can remember many of you when you began to do that the things of God became to you a reality and your concern from that time on was not to live for time alone blessed is the man whom thou choosest do you remember the saviour said shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him and oft times in the early dealings of

[25:48] God with a poor sinner it is a matter to do with day and night you lie awake at night and you are not thinking of the doings of the day time things you are thinking of eternity where shall I spend it and now it produces this and causes to approach unto thee and you had to cry to God not only in the daytime sometimes in the night time and all that matters might be made right between your soul and God oh how often you said remember me oh Lord with the favour that thou bearish unto thy people all visit me with thy salvation say unto my soul

[26:54] I am thy salvation salvation this is all leading up to the heaped up happiness in the text blessed is the man whom thou choosest and remember what the saviour said blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled does not mean they will be filled altogether at once it may be but here a little there a little as you journey on there will be this filling with evidence upon evidence tokens for good helps by the way and answers to prayer and when you get to the end of the way then you will be filled beyond words to describe free and full and flowing over and that not for time but eternity blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee and remember not not only when a sinner is first led into the truth when he is born again when he finds within the aching void which the world cannot fill all all how often as you journey on you find that

[28:41] God will give you a cause to approach unto him as the sinner's friend one of our hymn writers says when much favor Christ would show to those he calls his friends he loads their shoulders well with woe and thus attains his ends you see the Puritans say much about having an errand to the throne of grace it is not just that which is called and formal approaching unto God but it is that wherein out of the abundance of the heart the mouth is speaking then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses and sometimes you will be caused to approach unto

[29:50] God like Jonah long ago when he said out of the belly of hell cried I and how did he cry though I am cast out of thy sight I will look again toward thy holy temple yes when have you felt nearness to God as you have followed on to know the Lord along life's way when trouble like a gloomy cloud gathered thick and thundered loud when your pleasant pictures were marred then then to have recourse to God and pour a prayer in time of need feel the balm of Jesus blood this is to find a friend indeed blessed is the man whom thou choosest you say

[31:01] I wish I could feel I was that man or that woman or that youth or that maid what will help you to take courage regarding it have you made a choice have you joined with Ruth thy people should be my people thy God should be my God and now that is helpful to consider we love him because he first loved us and have you come to this conclusion I choose thee for my portion Lord supply me well from mercy's board aye it works both ways dear friends if God be for us we shall be for God and if we are indeed for

[32:05] God God is for us it cannot be overturned by earth or hell the devil can do his utmost but he cannot undo it if you and I can appeal to heaven that we are for God and we desire to live our lives for God this prayer and this ambition mine living and dying to be dying God is for you you could never feel these things well enough in your breast otherwise because he has wrought a miracle a new heart will I give you a new spirit will I put within you I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh I will give you a heart of flesh what you are by nature does not feel such things well enough no no blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee and now you see this man is not only ordained to life eternal and then as the outcome of it is born again born into the world to be born again and then the time comes when he first of all knocks at mercy's door can you remember that your first approach to the majesty of heaven it was a very trembling business and it will be when it is of the spirit of

[34:01] God to this man will I look that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word and you tremble with a thought like this depth of mercy can there be mercy for a wretch like me and so you approach unto God and although the word of God is full of encouragement for you and the word of Jesus shines out like the sun in the sky him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out yet you tremble as you come and wonder if God will have anything whatever to do with such a sinner as you feel to be but this is the point you must approach

[35:03] I can but perish if I go I am resolved to try for if I stay away I know I shall forever die blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee and now you see this man has got a concern well enough in his breast that he may dwell in thy courts oh he wants to be found among the people of God and he wants to enter into the worship of God in the sweet blessed reality of it thinking of this subject pondering it it impressed my mind very much that in the book of

[36:06] Exodus you read where the Lord gave the Ten Commandments you all know that and God spake all these words but have you ever read the chapter right through there were Israel as a people before Sinai's Mount and it says thunderings and lightnings and the noise of the trumpet in the mountains smoking and when the people saw it they removed margin trembled and stood afar off and Moses said unto the people fear not for God is come to prove you that his fear may be before your faces that ye sin not and now the next thing you read God says to

[37:07] Moses an altar of earth thou shalt make unto me and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt off winds and thy peace offerings thy sheep and thine oxen and in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee and bless thee yet the law only thunders out curses but here you see the foundation truth how blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts there is an altar yes and the apostle Paul said to the Hebrews we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle and we dear friends blessed be

[38:13] God we have an altar let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need here you see the mercy of God the law is promulgated thou shalt do this thou shalt not do that and now if there are any breaches of this law made by you I have provided an altar where you may meet with me not before Sinai's mount as you were standing before me at this time but there is a place I have devised means where God and man can meet together on friendly terms if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness oh what a beautiful gospel it is oh what amazing words of grace are in the gospel found suited to every sinner's case who knows his soul's deep wounds blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts as the psalmist penned the psalm he would have in mind the tabernacle and it must be kept in mind that in the tabernacle itself as you are all aware there was the holy place and in that holy place there was the altar of incense and the show bread table and the golden candlestick with its seven branches giving light to the priest doing their work before

[40:29] God therein and there was the holiest of all where Aaron the high priest went in once a year on behalf of Israel's hosts on the great day of atonement but this is what I want to emphasize only the priests could go into the tabernacle and do that work God had appointed them to do but Israel as a host they could gather in the outer court and now in the outer court there was the altar of burnt off wind and there was the brazen laver and that was to remind them I have no doubt there were those in Israel's host when they gathered together for worship there there were

[41:29] Israelites indeed who could enter into the truth of it because in each generation there were Israelites indeed until the time that Jesus Christ was born and laid in the manger cradle at Bethlehem they could see the altar of burnt offering and as they saw the smoke of that offering rising up to heaven they would realize there was hope in God for them they would view the brazen labor and they would learn in that day there should be a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness and they would be constrained to approach unto God with encouragement that they would be made welcome in doing so blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts look at that word dwell it means and

[42:51] I hope many of you have proved the truth are we here would I find a settled rest while others go and come no more a stranger or a guest but like a child at home you see there are those I'm not fitting any caps on but I'm bound to tell you there are those who live their lives and are just chapel goers and they do not know this heaped up happiness of what it is when a poor sinner is favoured to draw near to God and worship God aright and feel in doing so this is none other than the house of God it is even the gate of heaven but this is what the man who is caused to approach unto

[43:55] God is concerned to realise in his soul's experience one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple oh you come with your cases your complicated circumstances your problems your crooked things in life's way and you come if so be you may get light in your approaches unto God blessed blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts what did David say I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my

[44:59] God than dwell in the tents of wickedness and then the psalmist sums it up and he brings in himself as it were while he has been speaking blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts we we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple and now what would satisfy you this sabbath morning is there anything that flows from an earthly source that would satisfy you to have those things which the world lends prize and to enable you to live after the flesh the things of the flesh inline your nest well fill it with earthly comforts and would that satisfy you alas if any of you should say yes it is just what

[46:18] I should like to have my fill of the things of this life I should count that happiness I tell you what you would find it a bubble and while you were looking at the pretty colors of it it would burst and leave you without it this and this alone can satisfy the man in the text nothing else can satisfy give me Christ or else I die you see you want the goodness of thy house as the psalmist states it what does that mean I must come to the amen but I will briefly tell you when you sing the songs of

[47:20] Zion you want to make melody in your heart because you can enter into the reality of what you are singing about singing praises with understanding when the word of God is read you follow it along and what will satisfy you is to feel I rejoice in thy word as one that find it great spoil the word of the Lord came unto me that and that alone will satisfy you not to read chapter after chapter no you want what Jeremiah was favored to have thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart when you approach unto

[48:23] God following the public prayer what will satisfy you only if the things that you have well enough in your soul your desires are set forth on your behalf and that you can feel one with the one addressing the majesty of heaven yes and feel there is that spot blessed spot where spirits blend oh there it is you feel the unity of the spirit when you find in your heart an amen to this petition and that because it sets forth just what you want to realize when the gospel is preached oh you want then to realize behold I bring you titans of great joy for unto you is born in the city of

[49:29] David a savior which is Christ the Lord you want the gospel to be known and felt in that power which God alone can communicate not to listen to it and think oh it was a good sermon no no you want the goodness of the gospel in it whoever the preacher may be and as you are journeying on through life each token for good each help by the way each answer to prayer each way mark you set up each Ebenezer you raise helps you to be assured we are travelling home to God in the way our fathers trod they are happy now and we hope their happiness to see

[52:00]  Amen