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[0:00] As the Lord may be pleased to help me to continue, friends, I will direct you again to Psalm 13, verse 6, the last verse.

[0:16] I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. The sixth verse, the thirteenth Psalm.

[0:30] I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Can't you echo it, poor sinner?

[0:45] Can't your heart reply in just the same way? The Lord is my God, a good God. He has helped me.

[0:58] He has made a way for me. He has upheld me. Truly, surely, he will never leave me, nor forsake me.

[1:11] My friends, if we can start the evening service in this way, surely this God is our God.

[1:24] And he will help us. I remember some twenty years ago now, being in deep distress, in such a place, I didn't know which way to turn.

[1:40] And it wasn't only temporal troubles, friends. It was dark soul trouble. And the Lord said this to me, from this day will I bless you.

[1:59] He has blessed me too. There have been many dark days, many tried days, but the Lord God has never failed me.

[2:15] He won't do you. Can't you come in then tonight with our text? I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

[2:29] But it's going to be an exercise again tonight, friends. Because I dare not preach comfort, if you've got no right to it.

[2:41] I can't say whether you have or not, but I can tell you the people who have. I can show you the way, because the Lord has shown it to me.

[2:54] The character who can use this language and obtain the blessing of the Lord in time and throughout eternity to come is a sinner saved by grace.

[3:08] None other. But he is a sinner who has a manifestation of that in his heart so that he is able to say, if not to man to God, Lord, Jesus is my salvation.

[3:25] I believe in assurance, friends. Half measures won't do for me, because I know a little of what it is to be in hell. Do you? These are real things, friends.

[3:39] It isn't that fanciful hell that men talk about, even religious men. It is that hell which I believe will be hell to all eternity.

[3:52] It is to feel to be shut out from the mercy of God. It is to be in darkness without any light. It is to have a realization that one is a sinner and a hell-deserving sinner.

[4:09] My friends, there is a need to know a precious Christ. The people of God will know.

[4:21] The Lord hath said, this people shall be my people and I will be their God. That being so, he will manifest himself to them as their God.

[4:38] He will make known unto them that he cares for them, that he loves them, that they belong to him in the ties of precious blood. He will open to their understanding that he goes before them in the way.

[4:55] He will make ways where there are no ways. Naturally, he will open doors where there are no doors. Naturally, he will confound man and devil for their sakes because they belong to Christ by purchase his precious, precious blood.

[5:18] Now, here is the character. Isn't it worth knowing something about it? And so, my friends, once more this evening, the opening of the discourse must be, where do we stand?

[5:35] How did we come to the place we feel to be in? Did we come because we are religious-minded? Did we come that way because we came out of a family where there was religion?

[5:48] religion? Have we got religion based in our flesh and no further than that? Solemn things these are. Or, have we come that blessed way through Christ?

[6:04] That is, in that, the dear Redeemer, the Son of God, the eternal Son of God accepted us when God the Father gave a people to him, a people utterly ruined as yet unborn, uncreated in Adam, but given to God the Son in that knowledge, that foreknowledge of the living God that this people would utterly ruin themselves through sin.

[6:38] sin. But he gave them in that eternal purpose that they should be redeemed with an everlasting salvation, that his dear Son should fulfill all his demands, his holy law should be made holy on their behalf, that the dear Son of God should in the fullness of time walk in the body of flesh and blood without sin and satisfy divine justice in its entirety.

[7:17] This character, my friends, is called by grace. In the time state, the finger of God touches him in his heart, gives him to know he's an utterly ruined sinner, but opens up to him a need, a deep need.

[7:41] And that need is of such intensity that he cannot give up praying until he hears the voice of his God speaking peace into his soul.

[7:56] These are not myths, my friends. They are living realities. are this character who walks this way according to the eternal purpose of a triune Jehovah, finds this God to be his helper, his strength, his wisdom.

[8:19] All mercy throughout his time on earth. This character finds this God, his God, one who puts underneath him those everlasting arms, who upholds him in all the changing scenes of life.

[8:41] Here's an evidence, friends. For this character, called by grace, enters into that pathway which the Lord Jesus declared when he was upon earth, in the world he shall have tribulation.

[8:59] And there is a fulfillment too of that other word, I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, for they shall trust in the name of the Lord.

[9:11] These things are not myths, friends, are they to you? These are the evidences that will stand. For if this God hath set you, in that blessed covenant, tis ordered in all things and sure, there'll be a manifestation in your life, that this God is your God.

[9:37] Can you come in? We must have a right foundation. If you can, my friends, the word before us tonight must be sweet to you at times.

[9:52] I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Now, just let's stop for a moment.

[10:05] This God hath dealt bountifully with you, sinner. If you can take hold of my opening remarks, if you can say, this God hath separated you from those things which would utterly ruin you, that which is found in your wicked, deceitful heart, ponder about it, sinner.

[10:32] You don't have to shout it from the housetops. Ponder it over in your heart. Consider in your mind what your heart is like.

[10:46] Is it good? You're better than your fellow? Are you sure you're all right in the sight of God? Are you able to do all those things that you know to be right?

[11:01] Do you always do it? Or do you come to a different conclusion now? Sometimes wretched, undone, vile, unclean?

[11:18] And if it were not for the mercy of God, you'd be utterly lost. And you take hold.

[11:29] I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Why has he made the change in you, sinner? Why has he separated you from your fellows?

[11:42] why has he given you a knowledge of this, a wicked heart, a deceitful heart? Why has he given you a knowledge there is a God of mercy?

[11:57] why has he set in your heart at times a desire to commit your way unto him? Why does he cause your heart to ache from time to time over your helplessness to do that which is right in his sight?

[12:16] I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. He's done it because he loves you, sinner. You're not worth it.

[12:29] You know it, don't you? You who are taught of God do. Oh, it is good to find assurance, friends.

[12:40] There's assurance here. whoever would say why I'm the vilest of wretches in his own nature.

[12:53] Do you find pleasure in it? Do you find pleasure in confessing before the Lord your vileness? It's the Lord himself that has brought you into this place, this understanding.

[13:10] Why has he done it? Because he loves you, sinner. Because he set you in Christ before you were born. You must come in.

[13:22] I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. He set you among a people, a blessed people, who know the joyful sound, and the joyful sound is that precious gospel, salvation through blood, clothed in a righteousness imputed, perfect in a precious Jesus, holy as he is holy in the new man before God.

[13:56] He hath dealt bountifully with you. Now we're going to find the foundation to these things, friends. we're not going to just leave it in a poor man talking to you, but it's found in the word of God.

[14:13] And this word of God is a word that endureth forever, the word of the living God which cannot lie. We have in that chapter we read together, the eighth of Romans, the indicting of the blessed spirit in the apostle's heart.

[14:35] He set forth this glorious truth, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.

[14:51] I will sing unto the Lord because he's done this for you, he's set you in Christ. Can we leave it here?

[15:02] No, we've got this great adversary to deal with. He sits in chapel often, perhaps he's sitting alongside you now, perhaps he's in your heart. Great adversary who does his utmost to destroy you, never will be able to do it but often can harass, bring one into a great place of fear.

[15:27] The devil now says ah, you're not found in this place, no condemnation, not found as the one who's in Christ who walks after the spirit.

[15:42] How often he says this. My friends, again and again I feel led to speak of this particular point.

[15:54] The devil doesn't tell the people of God that the word of God declares the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

[16:06] He doesn't tell them the spirit indicted a poor man, the poet, to say in every believer two armies are seen, the new man of grace, the old man of sin.

[16:19] He doesn't tell the people of God, the elder shall serve the younger. In a word he does not tell them, there still remains the old man who hates the way.

[16:35] So here's the consolation, here's the encouragement to your sinner. You walk after the flesh, do you? You grieve about it though.

[16:49] You wouldn't walk after the flesh. Here we find Paul saying in that seventh chapter, for that which I do I allow not, for what I would that do I not, for what I hate that do I.

[17:10] Here's the mercy, wonderful condescending God to bring these things down to a poor sinner's understanding, understanding, not to leave him in the wretchedness that he's in when he does these things, nor to leave him in the hands of Satan with his subtle temptations, but rather to open to your understanding.

[17:36] He puts it in Paul's mind to say, if then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good, now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in thee.

[17:55] Blessed character, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Do you fall?

[18:07] You've fallen today. pointed questions aren't they friends? What a mercy it is to be willing to receive it.

[18:20] What a mercy it is to be examined in time, not by a poor man, but that the Spirit of God would cause these things to remain in the heart, to cause us to consider.

[18:35] There's mercy. mercy. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, the man, Christ Jesus. It doesn't give you any license.

[18:48] What a mercy it is, you walk after the flesh, you grieve about it. How do you walk after the Spirit?

[18:59] Why, you pray about it, you plead the name of Jesus, you seek the atonement, his precious blood, you seek his finished work to be applied, you plead with your God, your Saviour stands between.

[19:18] It is the work of the Spirit. It is walking in the ways of the Spirit. For those desires that are with you from time to time, no merit for them in you, you won't find any merit at all to please your God, but the times you read his word, not the times when the word is dead, for it is often, isn't it?

[19:46] The book is as a book of print. But when the Lord in his sweet mercy comes and opens up his truth, causes it to be as letters of gold, causes your heart to burn within you with love to Jesus, it is walking after the Spirit.

[20:10] This character, there is no condemnation. Is it you? Well, look at our word again, friends. It says, I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

[20:28] Why is there such a difference with you? We quoted this afternoon that hymn, Why Me? Why Me? But there is another one comparable to it.

[20:39] Why was I made to hear his voice, and enter wild as room, while thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come?

[20:52] Who made the difference in you? Why did he make the difference in you? Because he loves you, because Jesus died for you, because Jesus waits on the mercy seat to hear your voice, waits to be gracious, because he waits against that day when he'll gather you with his jewels in glory.

[21:23] This character then, there's such a record in this eighth of Romans, and the devil is such a wretched foe, again and again he'd cut you off, but we read in this eighth chapter the wonderful way the Lord goes about in bringing his people openly into the covenant, giving them to feel it that is.

[21:56] For Paul says, as he sets forth the way, whom he did predestinate, them he also called.

[22:10] This calling, quickening into life by the Spirit of God, manifestation in your own heart, not to others, to you, the same manifestation as the prophet made to David, thou art the man, called by grace, not the knowledge of sin, but the knowledge of life in Christ, leading out of self to the mercy seat, the pleading of the precious blood of Jesus, finding access in that inner court, obtaining the ear of a holy God, feeling the pouring out of mercy into your poor soul under the power of his precious Spirit.

[22:58] Here's the calling, and then Paul continues, well he says, whom he called, them he also justified, justification for you, wonderful mercy, you who again and again fall by the way, you do, don't you, said it once today, there are no righteous, no, not one in the flesh, you won't be any different, there'll be a fall, there'll be another one tomorrow and the next day, well let me tell you just a little story, sometimes little stories stay, don't they, although I don't like too many of them, because we're apt to listen to these and not to the more precious things that belong to Christ, but perhaps it will confirm this, what I say, you'll fall, it's very simple friends, after I was baptized the following day, as I walked along the road, and in those days,

[24:19] I must preface it with this, in those days I lived very, very close, close, I had but, sometimes I wondered where the next chilling was coming from, and the following day after I was baptized, as I walked along the road, I saw a ten-chilling note on the pavement, hand, some of you may feel there's nothing much in this, but I knew what it was, friends, the devil was very clear, very near, he said, now you're all right, you've got ten-chilling, put it in your pocket, forget all about it, it was a sin, my friends, it would have been, it's very easy to say, oh, there's nothing in that, ever so simple, you didn't know who it belonged to, you found it, nobody else should know anything about it, to me it was a very, very real temptation,

[25:21] I picked up the ten-chilling note, I put it in my pocket and I went to the police station with it and there they laughed me to scorn, which was quite normal I suppose, but sin did not have dominion over me, the devil was not able to succeed at that time, I knew it was the devil, one might say, oh, not much in that, it was sin, somebody had lost it, and the normal thing was to return it, if possible, I took it to the police station, I tell you they laughed me to scorn, but I persisted and they entered it in a book, I found a tension in note at a particular place, and that tension in note I received in due course for nobody ever claimed it, but I knew what it was to be tempted, he does that in a variety of ways, those who make profession, the devil if it were possible he would utterly destroy them, sometimes he succeeds,

[26:43] I have fallen many times since then, have you? You'll fall again, but the word of God through his servant the apostle says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

[27:04] it is God that justifieth, the precious Christ, it is Jesus stands between. When you fall, poor sinner, there is that blessed advocate with the Father, there is no license for sin, for if you fall and not concerned about it, the Lord will chasten you, he'll hide his face, he'll turn you upside down, he'll bring you into that place of deep need again.

[27:48] Why should he? Because he loves you, he hates your sin, but he loves you for your united to Christ.

[28:04] Have you not reason to use our text tonight? I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

[28:16] Let's go further, friends. Justification, Paul says, after calling, and the justification is in Christ, what he hath done for you.

[28:28] The holy law of God that he hath fulfilled in every jot and tittle, made over to you, you being united to him in the ties, the indissoluble ties of love and precious blood.

[28:49] Justification. what follows that? Paul says, after justification, glory.

[29:03] Them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. I remember my dear mother telling me just before she died, the Lord had justified her.

[29:23] Now she waited to be glorified. Wonderful that is. This people have an inheritance undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them.

[29:42] Are you amongst this people, sinner? For Paul finishes this chapter by saying, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

[29:58] Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.

[30:11] We are accounted to sheep for the slaughter, but then, nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us.

[30:22] We come back to our text, friends. There is the foundation of your hope, Christ Jesus, the Son of God who laid down his life as a man for you, a saved sinner, God.

[30:42] I say again tonight, my friends, as I say so frequently, you've got to take hold, else you'll go to hell. What does this mean?

[30:54] It means you must have this assurance in your soul. You can't take hold in your own strength, but you must give him no peace until he sears it in your very soul, loved of God and precious in Christ, washed in that precious blood that cleanseth you from all sin.

[31:20] You're going to die soon, my friends. I don't know how long do we? What if you come short?

[31:35] Seem of necessity, friends? If this dear Redeemer hath not laid down his life for you and for me, when we come to the end of the journey, it will be, depart from me, I never knew you.

[32:00] Can we bear the thought separated from God forever with all our profession in time?

[32:14] Can we bear the thought our profession here when from time to time may be we look at others and feel I wouldn't like to be in your company for long, to be in company, dreadful company of those who are cast out from the sight of God eternally, solemn things?

[32:52] What if my soul be sent to hell? His righteous law approves it well. We can't rest there though, can we?

[33:05] Give me Christ or else I die. Is this where you are, sinner? Then our word tonight is the right word.

[33:19] I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Well, we're going on a little further, friends. I can't rest short in my life.

[33:33] I can't rest in this place being a minister. I want to know again and again, this God is my God. Do you?

[33:47] How will you know there'll be some evidence of the preciousness of Jesus to your soul? people? How many times have you sung that sweet hymn?

[34:02] How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. How many times have you entered into the experience of the second part of it?

[34:15] It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear. here's the evidence of it, friends. I sometimes say one needs more than contact with a holy God.

[34:33] There is a need of communion, and that communion is found through Christ. You'll know him then, sinner.

[34:45] Do you know this Jesus? This precious man? who lived and died and rose again, and who now sits on the mercy seat and does wait to be gracious?

[35:03] Do you know this man of whom Isaiah speaks? Thou shalt call his name Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince, Peace, do you know him in those characters?

[35:26] Wonderful, in that he hath condescended to hearken to your poor cries when feeling to be at the ends of the earth, Lord, help me, Lord, help me.

[35:42] Wonderful, he whispered Peace. Be still, my daughter, let us see how the matter will fall.

[35:56] Peace, be still. I am the Lord that healeth thee.

[36:09] Has he ever spoken to you, sinner? The mighty God who's opened away. When you've come to that place, everything impossible, can't take another step, none to help, no one cares, yea, in the pathway of the psalmist, no man cares for my soul.

[36:34] The mighty God, in a moment, peace, be still, makes a way. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses, takes the bitterness out of the trial, it's still there, the mighty God puts underneath those everlasting arms, tis Jesus enables you to stand still, to wait, see the salvation of the Lord, the everlasting Father, has he made himself known to you as that, your Father, you, an orphan in this world, no relatives really, no close ones, alone,

[37:39] Israel then shall dwell in safety, alone, you're walking that way sometimes, and not feeling to be in safety, but walking alone, the everlasting Father, he considers you as his child, gives you to feel he is your father, he cares for you, he loves you, he blesses you, close things, aren't they, friends?

[38:13] it takes up the beginning of the discourse, doesn't it? Real religions, more than notions, something must be known and felt, better to have a real living religion here, friends, than come to the end of the journey and be a stranger to a holy God.

[38:33] God, you need these evidences of the Prince of Peace. I'm going to tell you something, some of you have heard it before, I believe, I speak it of the glory of my God, your God.

[38:58] There's a time in my experience, and it takes place, it has done, over the years with others, when I had church trouble.

[39:12] My dear mother used to say to me, the two great troubles in life are church trouble and domestic trouble. I had church trouble, and I had come to a place where every man's hand seemed to be against me.

[39:33] I came to the end, and I felt it. It was a Saturday night. The following day I should have been preaching, church trouble cancelled their preaching.

[39:54] That Sunday, as it was, Sunday afternoon, having had a dreadful night, near much the same in the morning, the afternoon of that day, I lay in the arms of Jesus, and the Spirit of God ministered Christ to my poor soul.

[40:20] I had not a care in the world. I knew what it was to have perfect peace from the Prince of Peace, precious Jesus, thou art precious to my soul.

[40:43] Do you know this man? He lives, he lives above his people's cause to carry on. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

[41:02] Now, friends, there's not much time left, but if the Lord hath brought you this way, given you to know him as the living God, enabled you at times to commit your way unto him, given you a touch of the preciousness of Christ to your soul, he hath dealt bountifully with you.

[41:32] And he cannot deny himself. There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.

[41:44] Time things, what do they matter? matter? Oh, I know the reply, for when one is in trouble, a deep trouble, it isn't easy then to say time things don't matter, but in the hands of your God, what do they matter?

[42:08] for that same prophet Isaiah said, the government shall be upon his shoulder, and that's the government of all your concerns for time and for eternity on the shoulder of Christ.

[42:27] You're precious to him, sinner. He won't let you battle alone. Your troubles here in time, they don't really matter, for he knows the end from the beginning, and he has recorded that word given to the children of Israel.

[42:47] The battle is not yours, but God's. He loves you with an everlasting love. He will not fail you, nor forsake you.

[43:03] He looks against that day when he shall gather together one glorious triumphant church. Your time matters then must fall into the right place.

[43:18] You never will battle alone. The mercy seat is open still, and that's where he'll have you come. When trials abound, your fears rise high, there ever lives, King Jesus, who is able to save to the utmost all that come unto God by him.

[43:49] He waits to be gracious. So if you've got time troubles, poor sinner, this word is still a living word.

[44:01] It still ought to be echoed in your heart. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. He won't leave you in the heavens of man nor devil.

[44:15] He hath recorded in his word, I will make all my mountains away. your troubles are his mountains, sinner.

[44:26] He permitted them to come. He'll make them away, a way of grace. He'll cause your voice to be heard and he'll answer you because he loves you for Jesus sake.

[44:44] Because he hath dealt bountifully with me, having brought you into this world. It didn't come on your own.

[44:56] It came according to the eternal purpose of God, a chosen vassal of mercy, who must enter into the time state, endure the pathway ordained for him, however difficult it is, endure to the end and be saved.

[45:17] What then? This wonderful rest for the people of God. The apostle says, I hath not seen, nor he heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for them that love him.

[45:39] But you know something of it, don't you, sinner? You wouldn't go back into the world, would you? Or, if never in the world, actually in the world, you wouldn't partake of the joys and forsake that which the Lord hath given you a taste of here and there, would you?

[46:00] love? Well, that touch, that taste, that evidence of his everlasting love, one day will burst out into eternal joy.

[46:18] again I see my dear mother on her deathbed as she looked upwards and said, what must it be to be there? She's there now and all the people of God, called by grace, found in Christ, upheld by the living God, will one day pass through that great door of death, but enter into the joy of everlasting bliss, swallowed up in Christ.

[46:54] Can't you enter in, sinner? I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

[47:05] What are you going to do, poor sinner, if you say, I'm not so sure? You must know have you had communion with God through Jesus?

[47:25] Then it shall be well, it must be well, while life endures, and well when called to die. I'm going to leave it.

[47:36]  The Lord add his blessing. His name shall have the praise. Amen. Amen.