[0:00] And let us sing to God's praise from Psalm 107, that's in the Sing Psalms version. If you're using the Blue Psalter, Psalm 107, that's on page 144.
[0:24] Reading from verse 4.
[1:24] Let us sing these verses, Psalm 107, page 144, at verse 4. Psalm wandered in the desert wastes.
[1:34] Psalm 107, verse 4.
[2:04] Psalm 107, verse 4.
[2:34] Psalm 107, verse 4.
[3:04] Psalm 107, verse 4.
[3:34] Psalm 107, verse 4.
[4:04] Let us engage in prayer.
[4:15] the people of Israel of old, as they wandered in the desert from place to place, for over forty years, not having the comfort of a home, but living the life of those who wandered from place to place.
[5:42] And yet, as we consider the lives of these people of old, they are but illustrative of the life of the Christian, for there is a peculiar sense in which the Christian is also homeless in this world.
[6:05] Their home is in the next world, in the Father's house, where there is a place reserved for them, through the work and ministry and person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has gone to prepare a place for them, through his sufferings and death and resurrection.
[6:33] And we bless thy name today, that that place is suited and fitted and ready to receive all who are in Christ Jesus at the end of life's journey, so that they are never homeless again, but they are welcomed into the warmth of the embrace of the home of the Eternal Father, as the adopted children of the Lord, who belong rightfully to that place.
[7:12] O Lord, may we each be assured of being in Christ, so that we can look forward to that place that is prepared and is suited and ready for all in Christ Jesus.
[7:30] Bless, we pray thee, each home and family, as we are found in thy presence at this hour. We give thee thanks for the numbers present.
[7:42] We give thee thanks for those who bring their children under the sound and ministry of thy truth. And we pray thy blessing on those who give off their time and energies in the Sabbath school to instruct the children who attend there.
[8:02] May their ministry be richly owned and blessed by thee. Bless those unable to be present this day through any restraint in Providence, those who are elderly and inferior, those who are confined to their own homes, or in residential care of one kind or another.
[8:26] Grant, O Lord, thy blessing upon them where they are found today. Bless those who are involved in caring for the elderly and the inferior.
[8:38] We give thee thanks for all who are involved in this work and for all that is done to help those who cannot help themselves.
[8:50] bless thy truth wherever it is proclaimed. And bless the congregation at this new phase of their development as they await the ordination and induction of a new minister into their midst.
[9:10] Grant, O Lord, that it be a time of great blessing, time of reviving within the community, time where indeed the gospel trumpet is blown with a most definite sound, and where sinners hear the sound and are attracted by it, and are drawn to seek the Lord Jesus Christ for themselves.
[9:40] Help us as we turn to thy truth. Lead us and guide us, we pray thee. Cleanse in the blood. In Jesus' name we ask it, with forgiveness of sin.
[9:54] Amen. Well, just a word to the younger listeners. I'd like to say a little about food.
[10:06] Do you like food? Do you like some food more than others? Yeah, I thought you would. If that is true, are you picky when you're eating?
[10:18] Or when you sit down, do you leave a clean plate? Hmm, you're not so sure about that. Depends what it is.
[10:29] Well, food is such a personal thing, isn't it? We all have our preferences, we all have our likes and dislikes.
[10:42] But food is something that we all partake of every day. I have my own favorites, and one of my particular favorites is only available at this time of year.
[10:58] And I'm always one of the first into the fish shop to get my cod roe. If you're only there early, you don't get it later on in the day.
[11:11] You have to be early to get it. And it is absolutely scrummy. If you have it fried in a little flour, and you eat it with bacon, it's a delicious treat.
[11:24] I would recommend it to anyone. But the purpose of talking about food is that the Bible talks about Jesus having a particular food.
[11:39] You may remember that there is an instance recorded in the Bible where his disciples went in search of food. They went to the town of Syker.
[11:52] And when they returned, they found Jesus in conversation with a woman. And that was a kind of barrier that had been broken down by Jesus.
[12:05] And not only was it a woman, but she was a Samaritan woman. Jesus had been tired. That's why he didn't go with the disciples. And they brought back food, and they tried to encourage him to eat food.
[12:21] And his response left the disciples extremely puzzled. I have food that you do not know about.
[12:32] They wondered if someone had given him food while they were away. And then Jesus went on to explain. He said, My food is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish the work.
[12:51] Now, if you have a particular hobby, and you're very absorbed in that hobby, you know, you forget about food, don't you?
[13:04] If you are with your Xbox or whatever, whatever your hobby is, you forget about food. Because you're so absorbed in what you're doing.
[13:16] When I used to go fishing, log fishing, food was very secondary. It was more important to catch fish, to catch trout. Well, Jesus' passion was for the salvation of sinners.
[13:32] That's what gave him satisfaction. That's what excited Jesus. That was the food that satiated him.
[13:45] And so, the question for you and me today is this. And as for the adults, as well as the children, what gives you fulfillment and pleasure?
[13:57] Are you dieting? On worldly amusements, etc.? Or do you delight to do God's will?
[14:08] That's a very challenging question, isn't it? What are you feeding on? What gives you the greatest satisfaction in life? Is it doing God's will?
[14:21] Or is it something contrary to the will of God? So, you see, the talk of food has a real purpose. It takes us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[14:34] Let us again sing to God's praise from Psalm 105. This time in the Scottish Psalter.
[14:46] Psalm 105. That's on page 374 of the psalm book.
[14:59] Page 374, Psalm 105 at verse 4. The Lord Almighty unto strength, with steadfast hearts seek ye.
[15:10] His blessed and his gracious face seek ye continually. Think on the works that he hath done which admiration breed, his wonders, and the judgments all which from his mouth proceed.
[15:25] And we'll sing down to the end of the verse marked 7. The Lord Almighty unto strength, with steadfast hearts seek ye.
[15:39] The Lord Almighty unto strength, with steadfast hearts seek ye.
[15:53] His tones sing category.人到歙人不到義在下川从地 S S
[16:55] Amen. Amen.
[17:47] Let us now read from the Old Testament. From the Old Testament, from the Book of Numbers, on Chapter 10.
[18:13] Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, the fourth book of the Old Testament.
[18:24] Chapter 10, reading at verse 11 of that chapter.
[18:59]
[22:29] Amen. And may God bless to us that reading from his truth. Let us again sing to his praise from Psalm 34.
[22:41] Psalm 34, that's on page 40 of the Psalter. Psalm 34, page 40 at verse 7.
[22:53] Let's sing Psalm's version. The angel of the Lord surrounds and guards continually all those who fear and honor him. He sets his people free.
[23:06] Come, taste and see. The Lord is good. Who trusts in him is blessed. Oh, fear the Lord, you saints. With need you will not be oppressed.
[23:18] Young lions may grow weak and fed, hunger for their food. But those who wait upon the Lord will not lack any good.
[23:30] Come here, my children. Gather round and listen to my word. I will help you understand how ye may fear the Lord.
[23:42] Let us sing these verses. The angel of the Lord surrounds and guards continually. Glory. Amen.
[24:03] mow Here is and Has given Him You will not be oppressed.
[24:55] You will not be oppressed.
[25:25] You will not be oppressed.
[25:55] You will not be oppressed. Let us now turn to the part of Scripture that we read.
[26:07] The book of Numbers, chapter 10, reading at verse 29. And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, we are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, I will give it to you.
[26:28] Come with us and we will do good to you, for the Lord has promised good to Israel. And I'd like to examine Moses' conversation with Hobab under three headings.
[26:45] First, a positive assertion. We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, I will give it to you.
[26:56] Secondly, a personal invitation. Come with us. And third, a promising proposition.
[27:08] We will do good to you, for the Lord has promised good to Israel. First, then, a positive assertion. We are setting out, or journeying, as it could be translated, towards the place of which the Lord said, I will give it to you.
[27:29] In these chapters in the book of Numbers, we are told of more than two million people, adults and children, making their way through the desert.
[27:43] So, it was literally true that they were journeying. And you have to ask, why were they engaged in this journey?
[27:53] They weren't refugees from a war zone. And they weren't, in the strictest sense, economic migrants.
[28:04] But they had been an oppressed people. They were journeying primarily because God had commanded them to set out on this journey.
[28:16] As a people, they had suffered much in the country of Egypt. They were persecuted. They were treated as slaves by the Egyptian people.
[28:27] Until finally, God stepped in to deliver this oppressed and enslaved people. In the book of Exodus, we are told the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.
[28:46] Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
[28:58] God saw the people of Israel and God knew. Now, from these words you can deduce that God saves, not because of any merit that they had as a people, or even because of their suffering, or because of their crying and their groaning.
[29:24] Why else did God intervene? For the sake of his covenant promise, his solemn commitment to this people.
[29:37] That's what lies behind this massive movement of people. Israel's deliverance from Egypt, from the house of bondage, is rooted in God's covenantal commitment.
[29:54] God remembered his covenant with Abraham. God remembered his covenant with Abraham. A covenant that was initially, as it is stated there, made with Abraham.
[30:07] And you remember they were brought out from Egypt, under the shelter of the blood of a lamb that was slain. Delivered by the wondrous power of God's mighty hand.
[30:21] And you remember how each home and family was protected, where the blood sign was seen, on the doorposts and lintel. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
[30:40] And the Paschal Lamb ritual, of course, pointed forward to the time of Christ. It wasn't merely that the Passover feast spoke of the miraculous deliverance of Israel from slavery.
[30:57] It certainly did that, but symbolically, it placed before them and us the way of salvation in Jesus Christ.
[31:08] The ritual taught the lesson of spiritual and eternal salvation. Not that anyone is saved spiritually, or that they were saved spiritually, by observing the Passover, literally and physically.
[31:25] Any more than a person is saved by partaking literally and physically of the Lord's Supper. The Bible teaches, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
[31:41] In our day, we are told of the immense benefit of visual aids in teaching. Not just in teaching children, but also in teaching adults.
[31:57] And in a way, you might say that the Passover feast was a visual aid. God setting before these people and does in symbol, the way of salvation.
[32:11] The Passover lamb, symbolic of the Lamb of God. That's obviously how John the Baptist looked on Jesus. You remember the claim that he made, Behold the Lamb of God, when he saw Jesus approaching, who takes away the sin of the world.
[32:30] The Apostle Paul writing, For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Peter, in his first letter, writes of the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot.
[32:49] Christ is the Passover lamb of the New Testament Church. He is the only lamb that was able to satiate the demands of divine justice.
[33:02] So, already mentioned, the chosen Passover lamb had to be without blemish. And that was especially of huge importance to the people of Israel.
[33:14] The sprinkled blood on the doorposts on the lintel protected them from death. And in the New Testament, there is nothing more essential for myself or yourself, than that we be sheltered by the shed blood of the Lamb of God, protecting us from eternal death.
[33:39] Well, according to our text and the context, the Israelites were a people who were passing through places where they found no rest.
[33:54] Neither did they desire rest, for they were journeying to another country, the Promised Land, Canaan. And that is a description of the true Church of God to the present hour.
[34:12] They are not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world. This is not the rest. They are a homeless people, just like those in Israel.
[34:26] And their hope, their consolation, lies beyond the parameters of this world.
[34:38] They look for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And we have to ask ourselves whether we are members of God's Church, of the Church of Jesus Christ.
[34:58] For if you are, you are a stranger and a foreigner today in this world. You are an exile from your home.
[35:22] You have not yet come to your rest, but there remains a rest to you, a rest to which you shall come in due time, though you have not yet reached it.
[35:33] So, it is little wonder that it is written of this people Israel in the Bible, Happier you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph.
[35:52] Israel in the wilderness, according to our text, were a people walking by faith with regard to the future. You remember the words, We are setting out, or we are journeying towards the place, which the Lord said, I will give it to you.
[36:10] They had never seen it. No one had come back from it to tell them about it. True, afterwards, spies were sent out by Moses, 12, and when they came back, 10 of them presented a very negative report about the land.
[36:32] And you could say that because of the negative report, that the people required even more faith than they did before. If anyone had said to them, If there is a land that flows with milk and honey, how will you possess it?
[36:48] The people who currently occupy the land are strong and mighty. How can you be sure that you will ever obtain this good land?
[37:00] Their only possible reply would have been, The Lord said, I will give it to you. The Lord said, The Lord's promise was their guarantee that they would enter into the land.
[37:19] Every true Israelite had been instructed as to the covenant God had made with Abraham, when he said, I will give to you and to your offspring after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
[37:36] Every true Israelite was expecting that this people should find residence and a person in that land because of the covenant which God had made with their forefathers.
[37:52] And so in that respect, they were journeying by faith, looking for a country which they had not seen, crossing a desert in search of a land, who said, Yet they had not experienced.
[38:08] They had only God's word for their title, and nothing more. And that is true of God's people to the present are. Yes, you may get foretaste to whet your appetite, but the Bible states, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him, these things has God revealed to us through the Spirit, and the Spirit reveals them only to faith.
[38:46] If you ask me, How can I be sure that there is a heaven? I have to answer. I believe it on the authority of God's word.
[38:59] I have no other warrant to believe it but that no person has ever returned from heaven to testify that he or she has heard the everlasting song, or seen the blessed citizens as they stand in their bright array before the everlasting throne.
[39:22] And I wouldn't want any of them to return, nor would they wish to return.
[39:35] You see, God's word is enough to assure us. It's enough to assure us. We don't need the testimony of 10,000 angels or myriads of the white-robed host of spirits who might have returned.
[39:52] To tell about the glory of Emmanuel's land. We walk by faith, as Israel did of old. And so, ask yourself today, Is that how you are journeying through life?
[40:10] Are you journeying through life, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the unseen future?
[40:23] And does the hope of an unseen reward make you despise the present rewards of sin? Are you willing to experience the reproach of Christ?
[40:38] Because, like Moses, you consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt? Are you willing to take up Christ's cross?
[40:50] Because you believe in Christ's crown? Though you have not seen it yet, do you believe in it and rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory?
[41:00] Well, it is true of this people in the book of Numbers, because they are on a journey. And it is true for us too.
[41:12] We are also on a journey, a journey through life. And for some of us, the older we get, the less of our contemporaries are to be found in life.
[41:30] It is a solemn reminder of the truth that we are on a journey. The story is told of Thomas Chalmers, famous free church minister.
[41:47] He was at one point in his life teaching in St. Andrew's University for six months each year, taught maths, chemistry and zoology.
[42:00] And then for the other six months, he was a minister. warning his congregation about the dangers of evangelical Christianity.
[42:13] In the summer of 1808, his sister died after a month's illness. And the following year, his favourite uncle died.
[42:26] He was found dead on his knees in the posture of prayer. And it was after that that Chalmers himself contacted a disease so that for four months, he hung between life and death.
[42:48] What was his mathematics, his chemistry and zoology worth to him then? What did he learn from his illness? Well, he learned this, at any rate, the shortness and insignificance of life.
[43:06] I had been studying maths, he said, but I had forgotten two magnitudes. I thought not of the littleness of time, and recklessly, I thought not of the greatness of eternity.
[43:23] And so he had a new prayer. And his prayer was this, O God, fit a poor, dark, ignorant, and wandering creature to become a true minister of your word.
[43:41] And how God answered that question. Because God used this man, Thomas Chalmers, to change the face of Scotland then for good.
[43:56] Many poor people in Glasgow were later to be helped by this man. Two men apparently walking home at the end of a service which Chalmers had preached on the famous text, John 3.16.
[44:14] God so loved the world. And as they left the service, one said to the other, Did you feel anything in particular in church today?
[44:29] And he went on to say, I never felt myself to be our lost sinner till today when I was listening to that sermon.
[44:41] And his companion replied, That's very strange. It was just the same with me. God used illness to transform the life of Chalmers, brought them low, showed them the emptiness and brevity of hope in this life only.
[45:06] And so he came to look to the Lord God. Here, in this context, we see something else about those who were on the journey.
[45:17] Not only were they journeying by faith, but there is obedience. Verses 11 to 28, Moses goes out of his way to recount Israel's careful obedience of God's directions about how they were to line up, how they were to go out, how they were to march, what they were to follow, who was going to carry what, who was going to lead the tribes, all the things that had been recounted earlier in the book.
[45:48] And Moses quickly summarizes for us in a straightforward way so that we can see that Israel is obeying God's directive.
[46:03] He explicitly tells us, verse 13, they set out for the first time at the command of the Lord by Moses.
[46:13] Why is Moses recounting this? So that you and I will know that the children of Israel, and they didn't always do this, that we will know that the children of Israel in this instance, that they obeyed the Lord.
[46:29] They did what the Lord had commanded. And Moses clearly wants to draw attention to this. Why? Because if anyone is going to walk with the Lord in journeying through life, how do you do it?
[46:46] In obedience to the Word of God. In obedience to His directions. You follow the Word of God. And Moses is drawing that to our attention as he tells us the story of Israel embarking from Mount Sinai.
[47:05] Walking with the Lord means following the Lord's directions. It's so important for us to grasp this, because when you go back to the book of Genesis, to the garden, and the serpent, or Satan and the serpent, tempting our first parents, one of the things that the serpent wishes our first parents to believe is that if they want to experience joy and satisfaction, they need to disobey God.
[47:38] If they want to be like God, the serpent assures them they need to disobey. And one of the things that the New Testament shows us in contrast to that, as it sets Jesus before us, who in our place serves as Savior and mediator and fulfills the law, where we did not, one of the things that the New Testament draws to our attention about Him is what?
[48:04] that as He fellowshiped with God, He did so in perfect obedience. And that brings me back to the children's address.
[48:18] My food is to do the will of God. That's what gave Him satisfaction. The one who is closest to God, the one who experienced the fullness of God's blessing, is the one who walks in obedience to God's Word.
[48:36] What does Jesus say? Over and over again, My food, I'm back to the children's address, to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish it.
[48:51] It's not just beginning, but it's fulfilling. So, you have the serpent in the garden in Genesis saying if you're going to be like God, if you want to experience the richness and blessing of life, here's what you do.
[49:06] You disobey God. Then you have Jesus giving us all the fruits of communion with God and the blessings that flow from that by doing what?
[49:18] By obeying on our behalf. So, that sets up an important principle in the Christian life. If we're going to walk with God in the Christian life, we walk by rule.
[49:32] We walk by obedience. It's not constraining and horrible and terrible. It's not repressive and oppressive. It's liberating and a blessing to walk with God according to His Word.
[49:45] The way to happiness and delight in God's Word is by walking with Him.
[49:57] It's not throwing off the constraint of God's Word. It's walking in joyful embrace of God's Word. That's how we derive joy and true satisfaction.
[50:10] So, they're walking by obedience. Walking in the direction that God commands them.
[50:22] Following His direction because Christian freedom is found not in casting off God's Word, not in disobeying His standards, but embracing God's Word.
[50:34] Embracing His standard and walking in the joy thereof. So, a positive assertion. We are setting out for the place at which the Lord said, I will give it to you.
[50:46] Secondly, a personal invitation. Come with us. Hobab was not an Israelite. He was a Midianite.
[50:57] But he had been with the Israelites. He had participated at meals with them. He was connected to Moses through marriage. For his sister was Moses' wife.
[51:11] They knew each other well. Moses respected and admired Hobab's knowledge of the desert. You know where we should camp in the wilderness and you will serve as eyes for us.
[51:27] And it may be that you are present here today and you too mingle mingle with believers in the world. You eat with them.
[51:40] You live with them. You share much of what belongs to them. But to this moment you do not belong to their number.
[51:53] You are in a sense like this man, a child of the wilderness, out with the circle of God's people who trust in Christ alone for salvation.
[52:08] You cannot claim that you are journeying towards the place of which the Lord said, I will give it to you. Many voices, many persuasive voices are shouting to you, inviting you to come with them.
[52:24] The world has a very deceptive message. But it cannot give anything like what lies at the heart of this message, this promise.
[52:39] And so Moses urges this man to think carefully about what he is going to do next. He urges him to accept the invitation that is offered.
[52:55] And it's very personal. Come with us. You come with us. So that invitation is to you and to you and to you.
[53:07] Not an invitation for someone else, but an invitation addressed to you. It's got your name on it. You come with us. Because just as Moses urged his brother-in-law, God urges us through this message come with us.
[53:30] A personal invitation, a positive assertion, and then finally we have a promising proposition.
[53:42] We will do good to you, says Moses, for the Lord has promised good to Israel. Now notice, Moses makes no claim to be a better people than the Midianite people or a less sinful people.
[54:00] He couldn't do that because they were not. He could claim nothing like that apart from this. The Lord has promised good to Israel.
[54:12] Now listen to some of the promises in God's Word. We sang about them. The lions, the young lions suffer want and hunger.
[54:23] They know deprivation. But in contrast to that, those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
[54:34] again, the Lord God, and we'll sing it at the end of the service as sun and shield, the Lord bestows favor and honor.
[54:45] No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. And the narrative gives us a description of the Ark of the Covenant journeying in front of the people of Israel and the cloud of the Lord leading them by day when they move out from the camp.
[55:04] In other words, Israel's trust in the Lord is visibly depicted by the sight of the Ark of the Covenant and the cloud. The Ark and the cloud are symbols of God's presence with his people.
[55:19] And God's presence with his people is designed to assure them. Their trust is to be placed in him. The fact that they are visibly able to see these signs of his presence is designed to fuel their trust, their faith, their confidence in God.
[55:39] All along, their trust is to be focused upon God. And the Ark and the Cloud serve as visible manifestations of the object of Israel's faith.
[55:51] The place where Israel's faith is to be focused is God. These, the Ark and the Cloud, teach that Israel needs to trust in God.
[56:08] And by drawing attention to this, Moses is reminding us that walking with the Lord always means trusting God.
[56:19] The battle ultimately belongs to him. and therefore if we are going to embark upon a dangerous journey, a pilgrimage in the wilderness, we must trust in God.
[56:32] That's a lesson that is just as important today as it was when the children of Israel set out on their journey all those years ago.
[56:44] God's people must trust in God. a simple, simple lesson. But how hard is that often for us to do?
[57:01] Because often we think that our strength is to be found somewhere else. And God knows that the children of Israel are tempted to do that too.
[57:15] So what does he do? He puts the Ark and the cloud out there to remind them don't look anywhere else but at me. That's where your ultimate source of hope lies. Don't ignore the means.
[57:29] Use the means, Israel. The Midianite was going to be a help. He was going to tell them where to camp and where not to camp. He was going to guide you through better places than more difficult places.
[57:44] But ultimately their trust isn't to be in the Midianite but in God. They weren't just to trust in their obedience but to trust in God.
[58:03] Sometimes we're tempted to trust in our obedience but our trust must always be in Him. And so this chapter is not just for the Israelite people it's for us.
[58:21] We need to remember that walking with the Lord in the pilgrimage on the way towards the celestial city is done in obedience at His direction.
[58:34] Who knows what you may meet on that journey. who knows what will be brought into your life on that journey.
[58:46] But ultimately your trust isn't in your obedience not even in the means that God provides humanly or otherwise it's in God Himself.
[58:59] And so the invitation is come with us. That is still the invitation. Oh that there might be an answering response.
[59:09] in the hearts of those who have not yet responded. So that you might be like Ruth of old who joined herself to the people of God.
[59:21] Remember when her mother-in-law is urging her to turn back to go back with Arpah who had been married to her husband's brother.
[59:35] And you remember what she said to her mother-in-law. don't urge me to leave you. I'll return from following you. Where you go I will go. Where you lodge I will lodge.
[59:46] Your people shall be my people and your God my God. How can you say that today? are you wanting to be united and joined to those people of whom the Lord has promised good?
[60:09] Much of the good is still hidden from view. You know there are four tests in this life that you receive of the bliss of eternal communion in Christ but the fullness of that communion still awaits.
[60:32] You may recollect times in your own life where the presence of the Lord was so near and you felt almost as if you were transported to heaven and you were brought back to earth with a bump as you discovered the power of sin still at work in your heart.
[60:59] It's the evidence of that power so visible to the scrutiny of your own eyes let alone the scrutiny of Almighty God but it was a foretaste.
[61:17] It was something like the grapes of Eshkol the grapes of Eshkol that were a foretaste of the promised land and that's how the Lord how he encourages and strengthens people along this journey until ultimately they are brought into the fullness of the blessing that awaits all God's people.
[61:46] God has promised good to Israel. God never promises anything else to his church but good and that goodness is so full Lord so marvelous and so wonderful that it is beyond words to describe.
[62:10] So my friend if you haven't succumbed to the invitation and if you're something like Hobab oh will you not accept the invitation that is proffered and set out on the journey along with other sinners who are looking to Christ Jesus to are seeking the cover of his blood to shelter them from the atrocities of the power of the law that you might know the blessing that is to be found in Christ alone.
[62:53] It's difficult to know whether Hobab accepted but in verse 33 it says there so they set out from the mount of the Lord and that sort of is a clue that Hobab accepted the invitation and the question for you and me today is do we accept this invitation let us pray almighty God how gracious the word when thou dost give us a further opportunity to accept a heavenly invitation we don't know how much time we have left in this life we don't know when we shall hear the invitation again or if ever O grant grace to accept the invitation and to follow in the footsteps of thy people for the
[64:02] Lord has promised good concerning Israel and the glory shall be thine in Jesus name we ask it amen amen let us conclude by singing to God's praise from psalm 84 psalm 84 that's on page 338 of the psalm book page 338 psalm 84 at verse 4 blessed blessed are they in thy house that dwell they ever give thee praise blessed is the man who strength the word and whose heart are thy ways who passing thorough bake us veil therein do dig up wells also the rain that falleth down the pools with water fills so they from strength unwearied go still forward unto strength till in
[65:11] Zion they appear before the Lord at length Lord God of hosts my prayer hear O Jacob's God give ear see God O shield look on the face of thine anointed dear let us sing these verses blessed are they and thy house that dwell And God as the king as really as how and dealer the D.
[65:52] He done his hand and instead the ThJesus Who shan't thou on him, who star by thy wings?
[66:12] Who thou hast seen come, O make us win, when you get weary thine amis, O shoulder in your own al plot,みなさんは来てその線。 Though they from strength and weary it go, still forward and to stand, and till it's day on day of day and before the Lord at length.
[67:23] The Lord of us may pray, O Jacob's God, dearie, See God, our shield, look on the twists of thy night to dear.
[68:00] If you just let me get to the door after the benediction. Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, Fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit, rest on and abide with you all, now and forever. Amen.