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[0:00] Seeking the help of the Lord, I will ask your attention to the subject in the psalm we read together, Psalm 136, reading the 23rd verse.

[0:12] Psalm 136, verse 23. Who remembered us in our low estate, for his mercy endureth forever.

[0:31] Who remembered us in our low estate, for his mercy endureth forever.

[0:49] Very few times in the last 39 years I've turned to this psalm, but I do find that I have turned to it before, but not for rather a long time.

[1:03] But the 23rd verse came especially into my thoughts in the past week. And as I began to think upon it, it seemed to me that the psalmist had set us a very good pattern.

[1:17] As we try to consider the goodness and the mercy of the Lord, not only unto Israel, which is always good to consider as illustrative of it.

[1:29] But as, by the grace and mercy of God, we are able to look a little more closely at that mercy. And to see it toward us.

[1:43] The psalmist divides his psalm into several portions. You will notice the first three verses address God alone. God in his nature, and to see in the very nature of God toward his people, there is mercy.

[2:03] And, although as yet the doctrine of the Trinity has not been fully comprehended in the hearts of God's people, when the psalm was written, if indeed it will ever be fully comprehended in the hearts of God's people until they come into heaven.

[2:27] But nonetheless, by the gospel we are brought a little more into the comprehension of it. But the psalmist divides it, doesn't he?

[2:38] Three times. Three times. And I believe, by the Spirit, he was looking upon the three persons in the Trinity. And then, he spends another six verses with the thought of the work of God for his people, even before they were made.

[3:02] The work of creation. And how often we are brought to see the goodness of God toward his people, when we contemplate just ordinary things, as we may put them so.

[3:20] I happened to go out last night, and through the clouds dispersing, I was able to look upon stars, and a planet, and the moon.

[3:30] And I thought, hidden behind the clouds, they were there. Why? Because God put them there, and God has ordained them.

[3:44] And it seemed to me that wherever we look, we look upon that which is the unchangeableness of our God.

[3:55] Many years in my life, I have slept in a bedroom that paced toward the sunrise. And the sunrise every morning is a reiteration of the faithfulness of God.

[4:12] Even those days when we cannot see it rise, it is hidden behind clouds. It is a further evidence of God's continuing mercy.

[4:23] And we have to think of it rather specially. It is easy as we look into the world, and we see the wickedness that abounds, even in this little nation, which perhaps we used to think of as being a little special.

[4:41] But now we have to think how far as a nation we have fallen. And that there is, wherever we look in the world, that evidence of the fall of man.

[4:55] That evidence of those words that we sang a few moments ago, the seeds of evil once brought in increased and filled the world with sin.

[5:06] And yet, the faithfulness of God, seed time, harvest, day and night, his mercy endureth. Then the soundness was brought a little further.

[5:20] And he looked at Israel's deliverance in the first sense. Israel's deliverance. And in it, he went back to a thought that was given to Moses by God himself in the bush.

[5:39] I have seen the afflictions of my people. I have heard their cry. And I have come down to deliver them.

[5:50] Yes, the time is appointed. The time is fulfilled. The time of deliverance is appointed by God. A time. I wonder how much Israel had cried for it.

[6:05] They must have prayed. There must have been some praying people left in Egypt among the Israelites. For God said, I have heard their cry. And oh, my friends, to think, there is an eye that never sleeps.

[6:23] There is an ear that always hears the prayers of his people. And so it was for Israel. The time appointed had come. The prophet much later said, if it tarry, wait for it.

[6:36] For it shall come. It will surely come. It will not tarry beyond God's time. Israel had to prove it. Then, I love the next illustration.

[6:49] They went through the wilderness. And it seems to us that in every aspect of life we are able to do it. We too are on a wilderness journey.

[7:01] We too have that need of the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud by night and by day. That we might go, rightly, in God's appointed way.

[7:14] Truly, we do not look upon it, as Israel did, literally. But we are able, in a little measure, to follow what is the will of the God, or what is the will of our God, if we seek the means to know that will.

[7:31] And what are those means? Well, some of them were given to us in that very time in the wilderness. The word of God. So far as we are able to tell, much of the word of God was given in that 40 years in which Moses met with God.

[7:51] Part of it we call the Pentateuch. The books of Moses. The five books of Moses. But the books of the law, strictly. And as we look upon them, we think the Lord not only gave the word.

[8:09] You would have heard about it, I think, on your service last week. We had the same minister with us some time ago.

[8:22] And, oh, he made us think how much we are dependent on what is written. What is given to us of God. And how much it pleases God to use it for guidance.

[8:36] In a week, I had another minister come to see me. And we began to talk, as ministries do, and others sometimes when they are moved in the spirit.

[8:50] Those times in which the word of God has been made a guidance. Been made a help. Now, my friends, as Israel could look back upon that help in the wilderness, Do you have those times where you are able to look back upon a word that was given?

[9:10] At a time of need. A word that was given as guidance. A word that was brought into your heart with a gracious power.

[9:20] Israel could look back upon those things which were revealed to them so clearly as the will of God.

[9:35] And God's people may look upon such times with equal certainty. The time when the Lord was pleased to speak through his word.

[9:49] And to guide by his holy book. And to bring us into the assurance of his concern for us. And his guidance of us.

[10:02] It is something to look back upon, isn't it? And if such blessing has been given. It is a blessing to be held on to.

[10:13] We should come a little more closely to the need of it in a moment when we get to the text. We might think that perhaps in the time of entering into the promised land.

[10:26] That some of the verses are just a little difficult to comprehend. I remember as a child wondering how we could look at. Look, slew fame, jureth forever.

[10:38] O king of Bashan. Sihon, king of the Amorites. For his mercy endureth forever. It seemed to me to be rather a contradiction. There was no mercy to the famous kings.

[10:52] To Sihon and to Og. Because they had not sought for mercy. But there was mercy toward Israel. Who had proved their undeserving of the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham.

[11:08] And yet, in the mercy of God, that promise was fulfilled. They were able to occupy what was called, for so long, the promised land.

[11:21] It was the mercy toward God's chosen people. That was continuous. No, we have to say, with God, there will be mercy toward his people.

[11:34] But there will be judgment to sinners. We had, again, a little illustration of it, didn't we? The sinner is a sacred thing.

[11:45] The Holy Ghost has made him so. And you would say, it will be judgment. Yes. There will be judgment against their sins. Can we put it like this?

[11:56] In the mercy of God, if they are those who were brought into repentance, as the verse indicates, there has been judgment against their sins.

[12:07] But the judgment was to one who bore the sin for them. No, we have to say, there will be judgment with God. And has been and will be.

[12:19] But to his people, to those who were brought to hope in himself, and to hope especially in the mercy which is in Jesus. Thy mercy in Jesus, another hymn writer says, doesn't he?

[12:33] And to think of it, then that mercy will endure. But to Israel, it brought them into the land.

[12:44] It brought them into the fulfillment of God's promise. The fulfillment of God's promise. And if we can take that promise just a little more deeply.

[12:56] When we think of the first promise of God, it is a precious promise. The first evidence of mercy. The first evidence of grace.

[13:10] Yes, there had been the evidence of the goodness of God in creation. The goodness of God in his help for Adam and for Eve. We don't know for how long.

[13:22] We're not able to look into that part of the world and to say how long that they enjoyed the blessings of Eden. And how many times they had the privilege of the Lord drawing near to them in the cool of the day.

[13:40] The consciousness of his presence. But we do know this, that they heard his first promise. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.

[13:55] We might say it was cryptic, it was prophetic, it was not something which was easily interpreted. But remember, they had come.

[14:05] They had come. Just come. They were. Until that sin had entered into their hearts, in their minds, were as the mind of God.

[14:16] They took their thoughts from him. And I am sure they had a little understanding of that which would come to pass, but they had to see that it was so far off.

[14:29] It was to be in the future. But then we must continue with their thoughts. We then come to our text.

[14:41] Who remembered us? Who was the psalmist that was speaking? We are not shown, are we? We can think that from some of the contents that perhaps the psalm was not related to those in which it is among, which were sometimes, well, the next one says, by the rivers of Babylon.

[15:08] It would seem that it might have been one of the psalms of worship in Solomon's time. For some of the expressions of it are used. But we cannot say.

[15:21] But this psalmist evidently looked upon a time of low estate. Oh, how many of them Israel had. And how many of God's people come there too.

[15:35] We had to think of them again as we sung the hymn. And as we thought of that which was in the hearts of God's people.

[15:45] of low estate. God remembered us in our low estate. What is a low estate?

[15:59] It will mean one thing, I think. That we shan't have a very high or confident opinion of ourselves. we should be brought somewhat into the thoughts of the apostle when he had to look into his heart.

[16:18] And I love the thought in Romans 7 where the apostle was not Saul of Tarsus. He was not just newly brought into a hope in Christ.

[16:31] He had been brought called thoroughly unmistakably. He had been enabled to set forth the goodness and mercy of God to many.

[16:43] He had preached Christ. Many had believed through his word. And yet he himself had to be brought sometimes to look into his heart and see that although he was able to preach the grace of God in Christ he was still numbered among those who needed the grace of God in Christ.

[17:08] And so it is for every minister. No minister can set himself on a pedestal as above the need of the mercies of God. He has to say with this psalmist who remembered us not to look down upon his congregation and say who remembered you.

[17:28] No. He has to join with them. A sinner. A sinner in need of the grace of God. A sinner in need of the mercy of God.

[17:39] A sinner who looks for it. And a sinner who is given the gracious direction of the Holy Spirit as Paul was on that occasion that we mentioned to look up and to see the mercy of God in Christ.

[17:56] I thank God there is deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh my friends low estate who remembered us.

[18:11] And in just the last two verses the last three verses hath redeemed us from our enemies he seems to be going back to Israel and their natural enemies.

[18:25] But my friends we are not without enemies we may be living in a time of so-called peace. But there is never a time of so-called spiritual peace except when the Prince of Peace is with us.

[18:41] And we have the conscious realization of the enmity yes in two senses of the world I had a little conversation with one of my neighbors oh he said I don't have much to do with them they are church orientated they are very nice people actually and I thought well have I been given the wrong impression he is quite friendly to me and I hope that I am not world orientated no I meet people on their own level but I do try as grace is given to turn the conversation rightly and I have tried with these two but no they do not see the need of those things which are to do with never dying souls yet we have to see we have to be in this world but not of it we need to be redeemed from the things of time it's easy to become partakers of them we have to live in time we have to do temporal things we have to do those things for living at the appropriate age but we still have to do things when we have to go past that into the age of retirement we know that we cannot just sit back and have those things to be done and sometimes those things seem to take more of our time now than they used to when we were younger but we need still to be redeemed from being only in the things of time one of our enemies is that the things of time would try because it is part of the work of the evil one would try to separate us from the things of eternity and then we need to to see more particularly the enemy the evil one the tempter and I think how graciously the

[21:06] Lord set this before us when he endured temptation how many verses refer to it we have to see his own method and it comes back to something already we have thought of it is written he looks into the word of God God redeems his people from the enemy by his word yes written and incarnate in the mercy of God because his mercy endureth and then his temporal mercies in the penultimate verse who giveth food to all flesh and lastly the what can we call it it would have been perhaps the greatest of the music in this home as it was played I like to think sometimes we are given just a little suggestion we haven't on this one as to the nature of the music in the soul and yet we have this there must have been a lifting up of voices and of the music unto God for his praise oh give thanks unto the God of heaven for his mercy endureth forever but to come back to our text who remembered us in our low estate

[22:41] I had to come there very much I am very conscious of a low estate in present days physically mentally spiritually I have to be as one who is able to go but slowly but then who delivered us who brings us out of the weaknesses of heart mind or spirit into the strength which is of God yes who imparts his strength who gives to us who gives to us my strength is made perfect in weakness in a low estate no we do not feel the strength which is of God when in our own hearts and minds and spirit we are conscious of that which is of God to us sometimes

[23:52] I used not to agree with the word of the hymn I couldn't see how it could happen but then one day my dad in his sermon referred to it and showed that it could be so when the hymn writer said and makes the very grace a snare and we become spiritually self satisfied because of the goodness of the Lord and we begin as it were to leave off the thought of our undeserving and we have only the thought of the grace that has been given we forget that it is of grace that it is of mercy and it is of purpose of God and we have left off for a little while to come into this thought oh give thanks unto the God of heaven oh my friends what a low estate we have come into when we forget

[24:56] God and what a mercy when God reminds us of himself how often he needs to yes sometimes the ways they're always gracious but sometimes the ways are gentle sometimes we need those things which are more direct and are harder to endure I find it very hard to apply all the scriptures I read in different parts of it to the different characters which are set forth I hear of God speaking to Satan with reference to Job a man in circumstance in no low estate but he had been brought into the knowledge of Satan and Satan had as it were a work against him and was given permission and I thought how strange that God allowed it for a man who God himself acknowledged to be a man upright that eschewed evil that feared

[26:12] God only when we come to the end or perhaps we don't we get a hint of it in the middle when Job says when he has tried me I shall come forth as God it was a need and although Job resisted to his friends the fact of the need he admitted it at times indirectly in his thoughts toward God when he hath tried me I shall come forth yes he wasn't saying he'll find no fault in me no he was thinking literally of the assaying of gold only by the furnace only by the heat is the dross removed and only when the dross removed is the gold truly to be weighed if it's weighed with the dross in it it then is not so truly gold as it was as when it was weighed after the dross had been removed when it is purified it becomes more valuable and oh my friends do we ever look upon our hearts as Job had to look upon his do we come into that place that low place to which

[27:39] Job was brought no not the low place in his circumstance the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning in fact we see everything literally doubled but when we look into Job's heart we owe such a difference no self righteousness his only righteousness was of God behold the realization was given to him I am vile I have had wrong thoughts of God and therefore there is sin in my heart but all he could seek was the mercy of God and yet the mercy endured the mercy endured it was something which in the purpose of God toward him had been ordained and yet it was something which God had washed over he had limited that which

[28:44] Satan was able to do and he himself had intervened to bring the outcome to his glory and to the good of his subject and ever it will be so who remembered us in our low estate I thought a bit differently as I was coming down as I was driving through just a few minutes that it takes to drive from Brabant to here and I thought of it yes I have a relative I don't ever see them nowadays lives up somewhere in the Peterborough area who has a grandchild which at the moment is in hospital and in and out of special care and only a well barely a month old yet and

[29:54] I thought how the Lord had to look upon each one of us right from the very beginning and then I thought but Peter you're not going back far enough it was before the beginning to look at us from eternity to have in his holy mind with a grace toward one yes we might say was many generations away from conception and yet known to God what a lower state it is when there is yet many years to pass before there will be any existence and when the existence is first given it is very tenuous for a few days isn't it and then in the mercy of God as it is continued oh to be brought into the realization that even from before our childhood before our birth the Lord remembered us in our low estate he had a purpose for us a purpose for grace in the heart of God in the choice of

[31:14] Christ is it a hope that is brought into our hearts is it something that we look upon and as we think upon it we feel in our hearts the blessedness of it oh when first I was brought into a hope of grace it seemed to me it was something almost impossible to truly comprehend the greatness of the goodness of God one sinner among so many more and yet made to differ made to differ a long time ago very soon after I began to preach I went to the place won't come for a minute but it will in a few moments yes and I tried to preach who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou hast not received you see that it shows there are no estate by nature and the immensity of the privilege which is given to us if in that mercy of God we are brought into a knowledge of him and especially into a hope in

[32:34] Christ yes to be brought into that hope in Christ we first are to be brought into this low estate didn't we see what blessing can a savior not comfort can a savior bring to those that never felt their woe and it seemed to me I could go back over that I could remember a time when the things of the world took precedence but even during the enjoyment of those things I knew there was yes I have to quote another word I don't think it's in this book but we used to sing it at Beatherstone when we had Stevens an aching void within the world can never fill there was something missing still and oh my friends when it pleases God to bring us or to bring into us that aching void that need of him yes it is grace that makes us feel our need and cry to God for more for more of his grace for more of his mercy for more of that which endureth forever oh think of it who remembered us in our lowest state and then look at it like this we can come even deeper

[34:02] I think who remembered us when we were dead in trespasses and sins who remembered us when there was no thought of God no thought of Christ perhaps even no interest but then follow the way in which in the mercy of God your pathway has been directed so that you have been brought into that gracious knowledge and if indeed you have trodden the way that is most usual Christ you were brought into that place where you felt your need of him what a blessed way of leading that is when the Lord leads us into that depth of need in our hearts so that we become those who look into the sermon on the mount and we know what it is to ask and to seek and to knock and to find the blessed answer of those exercises in grace and then to have to say that it was not us it was not us it was not of my mind but it was of the mind of

[35:31] God it was of the purpose of God it was of the work of the Holy Spirit it was that which in the mercy of God lifted us from the lowest state in which by nature we were into a hope that caused our eyes yes again we have to come into that thought is not only to look within and see the need but to look up and to see the mercy of God in his provision in Jesus Christ I love that word while we were yet sinners Christ died for us it's a blessed thought to have in our hearts if the Lord puts it there I hope the Lord has put it there because yes it was the only way there are none none who have come to

[36:37] God who have come to Christ without sin all are sin have sinned and come short of the glory of God but oh the blessing of an anticipated righteousness which is in Christ Jesus the blessing of the robe of righteousness which is wrapped around no not Adam's first holy estate when sin had not yet entered into his heart but a much greater one that which is of God yes now you will say that Adam was made of God yes he was and until such time as sin entered into his heart we have to say that there was much that Adam enjoyed that we could never enjoy but sin entered into his heart it's hard to think of it isn't it the work of

[37:39] God desecrated the work of God desecrated yet think of it again how many times we have looked upon very young children very new and yes seemingly very perfect we know that they cannot yet have wrong thoughts they cannot yet show that they are sinners it doesn't take very long does it before we begin to see temper we begin to see a disposition which perhaps is well not all that it could be and then we have to think yes especially when they're our children who conceived them who begat them and we have to look and we have to see that they too although as yet in their infancy they seem to be nearly perfect yet they will be those that will need the grace of Jesus and that is what we pray for they're in a low estate by nature but oh in that low estate they can still be the subject of prayers and if in the mercy of God those prayers are heard perhaps the time will come when they too will be able to say who remembered us in our no estate for his mercy endureth forever oh may it be in your heart and in mine not only for ourselves but for those whom we love those we pray for

[39:33] I'll disclose now may the Lord be pleased to take more out of this and bring it into the meditation of your hearts but especially to rest upon this verse and if we are able to take nothing away with us this morning except this text we shall not have come in vain may the Lord bless his own world amen we will conclude the service by singing hymn number 95 to the tune number 270

[40:35] Winchester Old hymn number 95 and did the holy and the just the sovereign of the skies stoop down to wretchedness and dust that guilty worms might rise hymn 95 tune 270 but the apostolate the riches who faire the holy стр true heures theben yet those try to please To come to specially my hall

[41:39] Let falsely see my sight dice The End The End

[42:50] The End The End The End

[44:20] The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God with the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.

[44:55]  Amen. Amen.