In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the Bible and the ways of God. He reflects on his own experiences and acknowledges that his efforts may have been in vain, but finds solace in knowing that his judgment is with the Lord. The speaker then discusses how Jesus introduces truth to our hearts in a delightful way. He highlights the concept of being a slave of God and emphasizes that we are called to go wherever God sends us. The sermon concludes with a reminder that we are God's servants and encourages listeners to grow spiritually and fulfill God's purpose for their lives.

What a wonderful thing it is to belong to the Lord, isn't it? And know the wonder of God's great grace and provision for us. All the true children of God can find their heritage written in the book. The ways of God do not really vary. You know, he told Moses, the Lord did, or at least it's written in the scripture, that he made known his acts to the children of Israel, but his ways unto Moses. And there's a vast difference between people knowing the acts of God and the ways of God. For instance, you may read the acts of the apostles. I wonder if you know the way of the apostles. You may read the acts of Jesus Christ, compended for us in the gospels. But to know him as the way is an entirely different matter. We considered that within a little compass last evening toward the end of our service together. But you and I may know that what is true of the ways and principles and workings of God in one generation or in one age are exactly the same as they are now and will ever be. I want tonight, contrary to my usual custom, in that I believe that God has raised up the church to be a New Testament people, I want to go into the Old Testament, breaking a reference to, occasionally, here and there, New Testament contexts of the same truth. Perhaps I'd like to start reading in the Psalm 139. I hope we all know this glorious psalm. And to know also that God has comprehended our life completely. If you are a true child of God, the things that we are going to look at tonight are true of you. And you may know them and glory in them. And I hope your joy expands and grows throughout all eternity. In this great psalm, the psalmist says, O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. And it's a marvellous thing, isn't it? And yet, as you go on reading this psalm, you will find that not only does the psalmist contemplate these marvellous things of his own conscious experience, that since he has known himself as a man, he has found that God has searched him and known him. And the great lesson of his life was to discover himself as God knew him, and not as he thought he was. This is a great discovery for each one of us. This man had come to mature thought and understanding of himself as God knew him, and says, He says, Oh, you've searched me. You've known me. And he contemplates the whole sort of sphere of conscious experience. But then, that is a wonderful thing for a man to discover. After he has discovered it, he goes back. And this is what he says. Listen. Verse 13. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy works. And that my soul knoweth right will. Now you see, he's gone from conscious life and existence into his mother's womb. He's really going back now. Talking about God comprehending his life. And then he goes back further beyond this into the great mystery of creation. Linking it with his own coming into the world by the natural process of procreation. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect. And in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. Oh, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. He's gone right back now linking his own birth with what God did in the lower parts of the earth before he brought it up through the waters in the first breathings of creation. And now he's gone right back into the thoughts of God. Into the precious will of God where he was begotten before God made the earth and before Adam was formed of dust and before Jesse, his father, took his mother to wife. He's gone right back and he sees that he is a great projection from the heart, the will, the mind and the desires of God. Oh, God. He was an expression of the precious thought of God. He's not pretending to understand it and I don't know whether you do or whether you think like some people think about me that I'm a bit of a mystic to ever get this out of Psalm 139. But you see, beloved, you don't understand until God has taught you. And these are the great things that you and I have to come into. It isn't just that God has searched me and known me now that I am born. It is that he knew me before I was born and before my mother and father were born or joined in marriage. Before the world was as it is. Before he started out in creation. He thought David. Now whatever your name is, put it there. If you're a child of God, He thought you. I really think I might have said enough for tonight. And yet I've got a lot more I want to say and we might take supper at eleven. Well, how can you handle these subjects in five minutes? If I'm going to finish, here's the place to finish. And let you do the rest of it. By the same spirit. And this is how the Bible is understood. And it's never understood just, I was going to say, read over, sometimes milled over, precious gems gathered from it. But oh, to understand the great ways of God and how things are. You know, David was not alone in this. Let's take a verse, say, that we'll discover in the book of Jeremiah. Perhaps you'll already be thinking what verse it is to which I am turning. It's in chapter one of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, you read in verse one, was the son of Hilkiah of the priests that were in Amathor, in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came. And verse three, it came also, praise the name of the Lord. Verse four, then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. And then God had a little trouble with Jeremiah. He started to make all the usual complaints that men make. He says, Oh, well, Lord, you see, as though, what a shame, I mean, fancy you knowing me like that. I'm no good to you, now I'm here sort of thing. And as though God made great mistakes, and it was a pity, and all this sort of thing, the way our ignorant and insolent minds take up a revelation of God, twist it to God's disadvantage, and say, well, now you've done all this, what a mess it all is, you see. And all this kind of thinking. And that's why we sympathize with these great men of the Bible, because in them we see ourselves, especially in the mistakes and the sins, and in their inabilities. And in their great abilities, we never see ourselves. We haven't got faith for it, and all this sort of thing. But God willed, and God thought, and God desires, and God is, and you aren't. Not in the great begetting. It is normally thought that in the processes of birth, it is the mother that forms the child. But God said, I formed thee. Amen. Isn't this a glorious thing? When you know you're not in the hands of human beings, and you are not at the mercy of genetics, and all these things. Bless God for a God that's bigger than scientists. Bless God for a God that knows how to work his will in each one of our lives. Praise the name of the Lord. I had the privilege of talking to a young lady, she's in the room, I don't know where to look, if I'm going to even find her. And she won't mind me mentioning this, because I said, I'm probably going to talk about this tonight. And I said to her, you had no choice in what form you would come into this world. None at all. Hallelujah. You can't choose in what shape, size, form, or deformity you come into this world. We have nothing to do with it. Many do come in deformed. They do come in, in special ways. We know that the processes of sin, and sometimes the foolishness of men, a thalidomide, all this, does things. And how do we know how much these drugs are doing good or ill among us? How do we know? My, it wasn't so long ago that I discovered, I've got nothing against the medical profession, as you know, I owe much to them. But there are some marvellous people handling the most dangerous things in the world. Talking about the hairline job, these doctors do it. I hope you know it, you know. They really are. And they need our strong love and admiration. Almost aghast I read, not so long ago, that aspirin, upon which people nearly live, now, it's terrible to take aspirin. It gives you a bleeding of the stomach, and I don't know what it doesn't do. But when it first started out, it was the panacea for all ills. And this is the great trouble, and they didn't discover it for decades, about the most common things, the lycilic acid, that people fly to. I'm not here to give you a lecture. I'll have Jack up here saying it's only a technicality, or something like that. And it'll be a blob too, for I'm venturing into a world where I tread with fear, or else I'm like a bull rushing in where angels fear to tread. But this then, is the grey realm, beloved. We have no choice in how we come into this world. And isn't it a glorious thing, that the child of God comes back to this great knowledge and revelation that this man of God revealed for us in Psalm 139. And Jeremiah testifies to us in his great book. I want to proceed from there to other things and move through the rest of life. I'd like you to turn with me into Isaiah's prophecy. I think this is a tremendous thing. Let's read in chapter 43, shall we? We'll just touch on them at the moment, these things. Now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. Or chapter 44, Yet now here, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen, thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb. Now we are making progress, aren't we? Before the womb, way back there in the thought of God, in the womb, from the womb. What a glorious progression of even human life connoted with spiritual life, of course, as we are going to see it tonight together. God is moving in these wonderful ways and you know, if it was true of anybody, it was true of this great nation of Israel. You will know how that they liked to look back upon this, how God formed them. You know how it all is. They went down into Egypt and how that on that great night of deliverance, the Exodus night, when the Passover lamb was slain and the blood was sprinkled and they were inside eating the lamb, all ready to make their getaway, not stealing out by stealth in the dark midnight, but being led out triumphantly by God out of the death and the desolation. They had been saved in a glorious demonstration of power by God, saved from being destroyed as a nation. They were the nation of born ones. The firstborn was saved and they became God's great firstborn. What a marvelous thing it was. And God said, Now I formed you. I did this. I created you. Blessed be the name of the Lord for these marvelous things. But you see, because He has done this for us and He not only has His hand upon us way back before we knew a beginning, He has His hand upon us from the beginning. And it's wonderful when you know in your New Testament that Jesus said, I'm the beginning. Hallelujah. So when He began, He began with Christ and He chose you in Christ. Then in the beginning He formed you in Christ. In the beginning and in the continuing to. And you'll be fully formed in Christ in the ending. That's a glorious anticipation. Whether we'll get as far as that tonight remains to be seen. But it's a glorious truth that when we get this deeply into our hearts we come to understanding Lord, here I am. As you look back in your life I trust every one of us can see this. That God has had His hand upon us. When we were spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, when we were rebellious, when we were playing around with devils, when we were giving ourselves over unto the corruption of the world, God still had His hand upon us. This is the wonder of God. The wonder of God is that He just loved me. That's the wonder of God. I think that's probably the greatest miracle of God that He is love. Absolute love. And there's no exhausting His patience and there's no outwitting Him. The great love of God. I've seen it. I've seen it this very day. I've seen the love of God heal. I've seen the love of God deliver this day. The love of God. Nothing but the love of God. That's what I testify to you. Only that. Nothing but that in the end can do anything for humankind. Amen. In fact, it's the love of God that makes Him do things for Himself. He does everything in love. Oh, bless Him. And in the end, He'll have our love or else He'll not have us. And we move in this realm. Now, the great thing for us to understand is this great truth. Look at chapter 43. I created thee, O Jacob. Verse 1. I formed thee, O Israel. Now, fear not. I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. I expect you'll all agree with me that every parent has a right to call its child by the name he wants. Is that right? If there's any babies going to be born among us or have been born, I'll guarantee not one of us ever went round or ever will think of going round all the neighbors and saying, now look here, I'm expecting a baby in three months' time. Would you tell me what you'd like it called? Hmm? Amen. No. We won't. We don't do that. God says, I've called you by your name. And you know, when He deals with this great truth, you'll find, drop your eye down into chapter 44 and we'll look at verse 5 and we read about these sons, these children that are going to be born, they're going to come. One shall say, I'm the Lord. Another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel. Oh, glory. He not only names you, but He has surnamed you. Amen. He's not just called you Bill, He's called you Sykes as well. He's given you a surname. That's a tremendous thing. And you see, God brings us all unto an understanding that we really do belong to Israel. That's it. When the truth works itself out, even the Israel of God, what a marvellous thing it is that we surname ourselves there. You know that Prince, Israel means Prince. Prince of power. Prince with God. That's what Israel means by God's definition. And when we know that we belong to this marvellous family of God. Tremendous. Isn't it? And isn't it lovely to know that all through your life, dropping back into chapter 43 verse 2, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. My, they had good experience of this. They only like to look back in their history when they passed through the waters and God was with them. Amen. Even the waters of the Red Sea. They passed through the waters. They said, waters? Didn't see any. It was dry. That's right. Didn't even get my feet wet. When thou dost pass through the waters, I will be with thee. Through the rivers. Ask the next generation. How about you? Yeah, we've crossed Jordan. Was God with you? Yes. Right in the centre. That's where He was. Amen. And then, they had to go in via their great baptism into everything. What a glorious truth it was. God, beloved, is giving His revelations to our hearts. And when you go through the fire, He said, in verse 2, you're going to walk through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. And of course, your mind goes leaping forward now to three Hebrew children. When they passed through the fire, they were thrown in and came out and nothing could burn them. Nothing. Absolutely astounding that not even the ropes they bound them up with or their hoes or whatever it was. Didn't even have a smell of fire on them. Oh, if God could bring to our hearts by the many testimonies to His grace and power in the Scripture, the real life that He has for us. If only He could bring us to see it. If He could bring us to an understanding. If He could only bring us onto this plane of thinking. If only He could make you see that you were wrought down there in those lower parts of the earth. I don't pretend to understand what I'm saying to you. I only profess to believe the Bible. That's all. If we believed, understood, entered into, lived on these realms of God's sure will and perfect designs, we wouldn't become the puppets of fate. We wouldn't be made to drink, to dance on a string by the devil. We wouldn't get into panics and grumble at God and call it prayer. We wouldn't get into any of these things at all. Once we understood that we have been the flowering forth of the eternal life of God by His will in the time that He chose because we didn't choose the day, nor the hour, nor the family, nor the shape, nor the color of our skin, nor the type of hair we've got. We didn't choose a nation in which to be born. We came forth by the power of God. Do you believe that? Then why this state of panic into which you get? God help us. Here it is. Hallelujah. I'm here because God wants me here. Amen. That's it. Isn't that a marvelous thing? And the flames will never kindle on me, not if I move in the power of God. The waters won't overcome me. I make no boast. How about you? The rivers won't overflow. You, my friend, my... He says, I love you. I've redeemed you. You have been even better than ancient Israel. You've been twice born. When you're a child of God, God has not only had command over your physical, natural circumstances. He has not only had charge over the time element. You weren't born by an accident in 1952. God had charge over all this. Would you like to believe that? Hallelujah. To rest in this great knowledge of the overruling power of God, of His prevening grace in our lives. To rest there. Oh, the contentment. And then to pass on into a perfect understanding of these things. We know that Lord, Lord, we've passed into this thing by faith and by our understanding. And we're in the spirit of all things. The spirit of creation. We're in the spirit of redemption. We're in the spirit of regeneration. We're in the spirit of eternity. We're in the spirit of God. We're taking our place in the eternal spirit. Do you see it? Once the heart comes there unto that perfect place, rest comes deeper than the untouched deeps of the lowest caverns of the earth. Calm. Unreachable. Rest. Stillness. Amen. Now we're here. We'll turn to chapter 44. Yet, now hear, O Jacob, my slave. That's where we started on our first night. My slave. And Israel, whom I have chosen, thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my slave. And thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. Jeshurun is a name which means upright. It's another name for Israel. Speaking on the moral side now. Speaking on the side of character. Upright. Whom I have chosen. Do you see that? God wants us to understand so many things. Turn with me into chapter 59 now. I'm sorry, 56. Thus saith the Lord, keep ye judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this and the son of man that layeth hold on it that keepeth the Sabbath, the rest, from polluting it and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. What a marvelous thing, beloved. When we've entered into these great truths that God has for us. Now let's look at chapter 49. Listen, O Isles, unto me and hearken ye people from far. The Lord hath called me from the womb. From the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. Amen. Is that right? Oh, it's so true. You know, God calls us and each one of us that belongs to the great spiritual Israel of God is a called person. He has called us by our name. He says we're his. And he's called us from our mother's womb. We're very precious to him. And he expects this great life that he has given us to work out. Let's listen to it. He's made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me and made me a polished shaft. In his quiver hath he hid me and said unto me, Thou art my slave, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I've labored in vain. I've spent my strength for naught and in vain. Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God. Now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant. Have you let the Lord form you into his servant? Isn't this the trouble with so many of us? We can't touch the will of God. We can't touch his great desires and choices way back before the world was. We can't touch that. But there comes the time when being born of God and we enter into the great family of God that we have to see that we can touch what God does. He wants to form us into being his servant power in the earth. To serve him. Praise the name of the Lord. One of the things I've often loved to hear my brother Peter Palmer testify about. He's in the room. He won't go red. He's used to me talking about him. He always said, I heard him said in his testimony several times. He's always declared that he never had any difficulty about this life of service. He knew from the moment that he was saved, this is his own testimony, that he was the servant of the Lord. He knew it from the moment he was saved. I've heard him say so. And you see, are we really prepared to let the Lord form us into being his servants? Are you? This is so great. Let's go right on, shall we. You might say, well surely, this is a prophecy about the Lord Jesus precisely. Other things we're going to look at are precisely the prophecies about the Lord Jesus. But you see, the same things that are prophesied about the Lord Jesus were the things that God wanted for Israel. That's why you get the interchanging name. And that's why the Lord, say, when He was on earth, used a figure like this. You read it in John 15. He says, I am the vine, the true vine, here are the branches. Well now, if you read back in your Old Testament, you'll find that it was Israel that was the vine. You can read it in the fifth chapter of this same prophecy. Of Isaiah. Israel was the vine. Here comes a man on the stage, and he says, I am the vine. Oh, hallelujah. Why, that's a whole nation. That's right. And the things that Isaiah was saying were as true of him, and had to be true of himself, as they were of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ in a greater way. Take this wonderful statement in Isaiah 61, where he says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Beware of thinking he was only writing words that had no reference to himself at all. Only referred to Jesus. They refer to Isaiah. Not first, Jesus preceded Isaiah like he preceded John Baptist. But they were also true of Isaiah. He was the anointed man of God. He was the great servant of the Lord. These are our privileges, beloved. And when we read in this wonderful book of God, this is what God wants us to see. Jesus is not only the light of the world, and the light of men, but He's the light of Scripture. And unless we have the light of Jesus upon Scripture, we don't understand it. What a marvellous thing. This is written about the Lord Jesus. You think of Him being a polished shaft. Think of Him being hidden in God's quiver. Think of Him being put upon God's bowstring. Think of Him. Think of yourself. God's formed you to be a servant, to bring Jacob again to Him. Verse 5, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And He said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be My servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserves of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth. And how in the world do you think that God's going to be light and salvation unto the ends of the earth? If we don't go as light and salvation, if it isn't us, the same thing that is said of Jesus must be said of thee, friend. It must be as true of you and I as it is true of the Lord Jesus. And it's time we all came right bang out into the light and into the open and knew God's great message to our hearts. If God does nothing else in this conference, it will be a mighty eruptive thing. If it dawned on all our hearts that we are nothing else but the slaves of God and we are to go anywhere, everywhere, not that it's anywhere in the sense of any old where, but anywhere He sends, anywhere He wants. Uprootings from here, pullings off from somewhere else, moving out unto the masses and the millions of people predestined unto death by the sin of Adam. No fault of their own. We who look back and see that somehow by the mercy and grace of God were born somewhere where finally someone came and told us about Jesus. Oh beloved, where someone, we had no right to it, none at all. God has done this marvellous thing for us. And He wants you to know right from the beginning that you are His slave. Oh, He says, Amen, Amen. There comes a time when everybody I think comes to the point, I can remember when I came to a point where I said, what's in verse 4? I've laboured in vain. I've spent my strength for naught and in vain. Yet surely my judgement is with the Lord and my work with my God. There comes a plain statement and there comes a sort of consolation that springs up in our mind. You know, we like to say this thing. And then in comes God. He says, now look, I've honed you from the womb, Jacob. It's just a light thing. This sort of local kind of work, ministry that you've got. I'm going to send you to the ends of the earth. I've made you a polished shaft to be shot off a long, long distance. Amen. Have you ever thought about the delightsome way in which Jesus introduces truth to our heart? Let me take a statement, something that you know ever so well. You know, they say that it was an occasion when Jesus was out for a walk with His disciples, or whether He wasn't, but this is quite a nice way to say it to a Sunday school class. And they were walking along and they were on a nature walk, you know. They're all good biologists, or biology teachers, or whatever they like to call them at that stage. Take their children on a nature trail and they look at this and they look at that and Jesus said, now look here. He said, you see that lily of the field? We know it was a wood anemone. And it was growing there. He says, now behold this lily of the field, how it grows. It doesn't toil. It doesn't spin. And it doesn't do this and it doesn't do the other. And He says, I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like this. And here are these big apostles all listening to Jesus. And then when He got them fixed on something that grew right down there at their feet and I expect they didn't wear spectacles but I would have to put mine on. And have a look on it. And I'd get down here and I'd have a look at this lily unless I'd seen it since I was two years old with memory. And sweetness. And then all of a sudden He switches my attention and He says, Behold the birds of the air He says. He says, look at them up there. He said, they don't build barns. They don't do anything. They are constantly on the move. He said, now what a wonderful lesson. He said, your heavenly Father feeds them. He said, now that's a marvelous lesson. But don't you big disciples, you apostles overlook the thing that's in the simple lesson. He's turned us to two things. There are those who have to take root and remain where they are. There are those who have to go flying off. They're both right if they're in their proper position. Some are on the move all the time. Excuse me, I'll stand still. I didn't mean that. Just before the meeting, Norman gave me a big hug. He said, I love you, brother. And I said, I love you. I wish I could have you more than I do. But you see, here then is the great truth. But all you've got to be sure is that you are growing in the place where God wants you to grow. And if you're one that's got to have roots and stop stationary, don't try flying. I never saw a lily flying. And I never saw a bird with roots. I saw claws. They're just made that way so they can perch on a branch for a night and off they mustn't take roots. These things. We say, tell me the stories of Jesus. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm singing. You know that hymn. I love to hear scenes by the wayside, tales by the sea. You know, tell how the Spirit, lovely, lovely children's hymn. But didn't Jesus say to these grown-up apostles one day, He said, what are you arguing about? Here, come here, sonny. Except you're converted and become like this little child, you'll not be in the kingdom of heaven. That's what He said. And He teaches by the childish, childlike things where it's so necessary. The simple, plain lessons. It wasn't a sort of a wild gasp. Oh, now what shall I talk about next? He was following through the plan of God. The revelation of God. For those that have eyes to see it. You and I are God's servants. Blessed be the name of the Lord. If you'll put your roots down and grow, you'll grow nice clothes. You'll grow them. You'll grow your spiritual clothes. You'll be beautiful. And birdie, if you'll fly around, you'll grow some lovely wings. If you'll just do, if you'll just be what God wants you to be. You are His servants. Praise the name of the Lord. And you see, in chapter 50, I hope your thoughts go quickly with mine. How much I'm trying to get through tonight, I wouldn't like to say. And so, in 49, where you have been born of God and formed of Him into being a slave, He turns in chapter 50, He says, where's the bill of your mother's divorcement? Not talking about your mother now, you see. It's what Father has made you. Praise God. We come into the great fatherhood. We come into the father realm. We come into the masculinity of God. The sheer upright immovability. The determination, even though it's by a cross, to put you right out there, and He'll hang you up on it, and if you wriggle and scream and squirm and say, I'll die, He'll say, I wish you'd hurry up. You say, I thought He loved me. That is His love to you. If you see that God has mapped out for you a path of going, His love sometimes will have to just force you into it. Amen. What a glorious thing then that God does. And that is why so many tragedies happen in people's lives. Didn't you know this is why this happens, that happens, and so and so happens? To people? Because they're in the most dangerous position on earth, outside of the will of God, for their lives. They're Christians? Again, a great longing to be married to a good girl, or marry an unsaved man, just to be married. Or a Christian fellow, or marry some attractive girl that doesn't know Christ. Their happiness may outlast their honeymoon. If they are the children of God, God has the great path mapped out for them. Hallelujah. Isn't this tremendous? Do you believe this? Oh, it's so tremendous. I wish we had time to read it all. He says, I haven't sold you to any creditors. Your iniquities you've sold yourself. That's what you've done. And this was the great nation that God had created for Himself. Sold themselves out, rather than go God's way. Tragedy, tragedy, tragedy. The stories that I could stop from preaching now and tell you all. Lives that have gone the wrong way, though they turn to the Lord truly enough in the beginning. Now God is going to do a big thing. And when He sends somebody out, why, it's a glorious truth. He says, look, Thus saith the Lord, verse 8 of chapter 49, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, In a day of salvation have I helped thee, I will preserve thee, Give thee for a covenant of the people, To establish the earth, To cause to inherit the desolate heritage, That thou mightest say to the prisoners, Go forth to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. The light's come, They shall feed in the ways, Their pastures shall be in all high places, They won't hunger, they won't thirst, They won't be heatstroke or sunstroke, Nothing of that. God will lead them by the springs of waters, He'll guide them, He'll make all His mountains away, And His highways shall be exalted. Oh, Hallelujah! Don't you want to go to see these miracles? That's why people don't see the miracles. They are not God's servants. They don't go. That's where they all take place. Fancy God making all His mountains away for people to come. My, Hallelujah! If you know anything about Jerusalem and the sides of the north that we sing about in choruses, nothing to do with me, but the sides of the north of Jerusalem, you know why the emphasis is there, don't you? Because that's where Calvary is. On the north side of Jerusalem. And that's where the way of the kings is. Down the great mountains. Coming down from Lebanon. The way of the kings coming into Jerusalem via the cross. Simple as ABC. Isn't it? But you'll only see these miracles when you'll move out in the great will and power of God. That's when you'll see them. I was talking to a young man only this week. He's not here so, at least I don't believe he is. If he is, he won't mind me saying this. I said to him, he was saying this, that and the other and I said, look here. I didn't call him son, but he sort of looks at me as a father. I said to him, no prophet has any honour in his own country or amongst his own brethren. Go on. You'll have honour if you'll go. You won't get any if you stay. Jesus said it. He's made it this way. And somehow it's a psychological law too. It's spiritual fact. And so, the Lord does this tremendous thing. And then it says, listen. Verse 13. Sing O heavens, be joyful O earth, break forth into singing O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted His people and will have mercy upon His afflicted. And if you go and be His servants, you'll run up against somebody who'll talk just like God. And you'll say, the Lord's forsaken me. Verse 14. The Lord's forgotten me. You've gone out with this marvellous covenant. You've gone out with this and you've run all these people who feel absolutely rejected. God's passed them by. He didn't do anything for them. They feel God's forsaken. Hallelujah. But of course, you know. Why did you smile? A person has to come to that place where they feel God's forsaken. They all come there. That's the Nadir. The B'et Noir. You're finished. Every servant has to get there. We'll consider it a little later. Where they say, Oh God, why have you forsaken me? That's right. That's the way into divinist servitude. Hallelujah. You'll run up against them. Zion. Zion. City of our God. Saying, God's forsaken me. God doesn't do anything for me. I feel dead. I don't feel anything. I feel like a stone. I've got a heart of stone in here. I feel I can't respond. Oh, could you talk to me? You see. I or someone will say, Well, I've got devils. Or I've got this. Or I've got that. Devils? I want to tell you something about devils. But I mean, listen. You don't need to worry about devils. Nobody that wants to move in this realm. When God raised that cross at Calvary, He put up His bait. And the bait was one lone human being. Already torn. Already almost unrecognizable as a human being. And He put up the bait. Down came the devils. Down came the darkness. God attracted Satan. God attracted every realm, region, power, professional or lay, in the demonic world. They all came concentrated on this one stark human hanging on a cross. And in one glorious stroke, Jesus Christ gave them a blanket defeat. Every one of them. That's it. It was a blanket defeat for them. He lured them into the darkness and shoved a blanket defeat on them. That's right. Hallelujah. That's the glory of God. That's how demons have been dealt with. They have no power in this realm, when anybody knows in which realm he's moving. But listen. Human spirits are only dealt with one by one as they come. That said, it's the human spirit that's so strong. The undefeated human spirit. It comes and at last it says, Oh God, I'm done. And that's why the people have to go that way. No more demon trouble after that. Listen. Zion says, The Lord hath forsaken me. My Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child? That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget. Yet will I not forget thee. Behold. These aren't just words. Now have a look. There it is. I've graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me. Oh, the reward to the servant of the Lord. Listen. Lift up thine eyes round about. Hold. All these gather themselves together and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth. Wow. And I'd like to read down to the end of the chapter, but let us move on. The servant of the Lord. Whether it be Jesus Christ himself, or those by the law of God's genetics in the Spirit, and by the law of heredity passed down through the will and the desires, and the pure and perfect life of the Holy One, have come into that same life as Jesus, by His grace, to move into the same servitude as Jesus Christ. Now, this is a wonderful thing. Let's go back, shall we, into Isaiah 44. If you are a true born again one of God, if you say that you are one of God's servants, this is what you may expect. Verse 1, chapter 44. I hope you don't think it's unnecessarily repetitive. Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou, Jesuron, whom I have chosen. I have chosen the upright one. I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. It's a marvellous thing that when God pours the floods on the dry ground, there are seeds down underneath that dry barren soil. That's where the seeds are. Buried deep down there, all seed comes into life from the grave, from the ground, from the soil, in that great thing of God. You look at it. You say it is barren. There is nobody here. We work it in vain. We have laboured for years. God says I will pour water upon the thirsty one and if you are the thirsty one and you thirst and thirst and thirst till God has to pour water on you to satisfy you, it will run out through you and it will flood the dry ground and the seeds will come. The sons of the Lord shall arise. Amen. The tomb is everywhere and it will bring forth its children by the power of God. The cross is everywhere. The tomb is everywhere. It will be pictured for us tomorrow in waters of baptism. We are in the great realm of the Spirit. I tell you the seed is all round you. All God wants is some servants. Go out perhaps first and say, I have laboured in vain. I don't seem to have achieved anything. What do I do? Thirst. Oh, glory to God. When mountain walls obstruct thy way, don't sit and weep. Arise and say, Be thou removed by power of God. Be cast into the sea. You will find that hymn in the great crusading wet book. That is where you will find it. This is the tremendous truth that we thirst, thirst for God. God has to bring you down until you are associated with the needs and the cries that people never frame properly because they don't know how to cry. They labour in their death. They cry in their dark, ugly need. And He will bring you down there until you get and cry with them on your knees and thirst and thirst for them that don't know how to thirst. You are to have the thirst of the world for God nears your privilege. You are to do the thirsting. Shame on every man and woman that names the name of Christ if they don't associate themselves with fellow human beings in their effort to associate themselves with heavenly beings. God have mercy on us all that we get right down there on these two knees of ours and on your stomach and on your chest and on the floor. And there before God you lie and you thirst and you cry and you keep thirsting and thirsting and God will test you to see whether you are just taking up the words that are preached in a conference or whether there is a thirst in your heart. Whether you are truly identified with men and women to thirst for them as Jesus upon the tree who having shed out all his saline and nearly all his blood said I thirst. At last he was properly identified with the human beings to whom he had been sent. Do you wonder that God poured out the floods on the day of Pentecost then? I'll pour water on them that are thirsty he says. I'll send floods. He sends floods on the dry ground through those that have been thirsty enough to drink till the rivers run out of them. Flood every one. No shortage of water in heaven beloved. That's what the sinners found out in Noah's day. Floods. Only then it was too late for them. But then that was not Noah's burden. There was no gospel to preach as we know it. Ours is another commission. We are not the huddle all up together. All of us, Shem, Ham, Japheth, Mrs. Shem, Mrs. Ham, Mrs. Japheth, Noah, Mrs. Noah and all go out and cut down trees and build ourselves a nice little safe ark. Pitch it within. Pitch it without. Shem, God told him to do it. That's right. That was his commission in his day. It's not ours. It's not ours. We are servants of the Lord. Amen. I'll pour water on them that are thirsty he said. Pour it on you. But he hasn't poured it on me. That's because you're not thirsty. Who would you say? I am, I am. And you're not, you know. Thirst is not the repetition of the right texts. Thirst is a state of being. Nigh unto death. Isn't it? It doesn't have to continue long before you die. Not thirst. What a glorious thing. You say, then we're in extremities, aren't we? Sure. Everything's dry and barren. Thirst? Thirst? Do you know what thirst is? Let's read it, shall we? In chapter 41, verse 17. When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst. There you are. You can't even speak in tongues now. It's got beyond that. Their tongue faileth for thirst. You can't even click it and clack it. You say, they're nearly dead. Their tongue's shriveling. Their moisture's gone. Listen. I, the Lord, will hear them when they can't say anything. That's a true state of thirst, isn't it? That excites the pity of your God. That moves His heart. This is how He started this great section of Isaiah. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah starts with a few drops, lest pouring water into you in tremendous capacity will kill you. So they drip the drops into your mouth. I'm on perilous ground here again. We've got all the drip experts and everything. They're all looking at me. But I've got some common sense. I think that nursing and medical things are based on common sense. In the beginning, personally, where they are now, I wouldn't like to say. But, but, but, Hallelujah. If you learn first aid, it's only common sense. You follow common sense. First the bleeders, then the breathers. Oh, you know it all, do you? All right. God wants us to do these tremendous things, beloved. He pours the water on them that are thirsty, floods upon the dry ground. If you are a servant of the Lord, if you were known before the foundation of the world, if you were thought of before God ever planned a speck of dust, and nutrients to go circling round in it, their unending myriad patterns and forms, and unconquerable energy. If God thought of you before anything. You. He loved you. Loved you. When you were born of God, you were born of love. It doesn't matter how crippled, deformed, perverted. It doesn't matter what your mother was, what your father was, what shape you were when you came out of the womb. Hallelujah. God loved you. He cradled you in His bosom and He kept you there whilst the eons passed and whilst the millenniums went. And there came a day when you were born and first breathed God's pure air instead of taking oxygen out of your mother's blood. And you came. And you didn't know a thing. And God looked upon you. And I say to you, the words that are written in this first great hymn in the blue book. Don't turn it up. Let me read it to you. I don't really know. I don't really need to. But here it is. Away with my fears, says Wesley. The glad morning appears when an air of salvation was born. From Jehovah I came. For His glory I am. And to Him I with singing return. It was His birthday hymn. It's natural. He saw once He was born of God that gathered at His glorious hand upon Him. Amen. Oh, the mysteries of divine love. Oh, the glories of this immeasurable power. Where shall we start to commence to think about this great love and glory of God? Where do we begin? If you begin beginning God, don't start with bad luck, misfortune. Don't start with devils and witchcraft. Don't start with world. Don't start with flesh. Don't start with blood. Hallelujah. Start with God. Grace to elevate our earthy thinking. Moving us into the reality. Eternal. Amen. When God moves upon us, this is how He moves then. I'm in chapter 44 again. I'll pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring, and they shall spring. Hallelujah. They'll really be springers then. They'll spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. Won't you say, I'm the Lord. Amen. Inward consciousness. Real birth. Born in revival as we say. That's the thing. Not this scraping along the long, dark, narrow gutter ways of earth. Oh, this is God's movings upon His people. Lord, do this for us. Lord, send this. This is what we need. What a life. Are you living this great life? Oh, it covers all of life. Your life of service. I think this time we'd better drop back, shall we? Let's go back into the Psalms. In Psalm 76. I think rather I'll go into Psalm 22. We'll move on later. Psalm 22. Let's come now. This great, wonderful Psalm. You know that this Psalm, if any Psalm, is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen. Jesus in His redemptive work. My God. My God. Why hast Thou forsaken me? Why art Thou so far from helping me? And from the words of my roaring? Oh, my God. I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not. And in the night season, I'm not silent. But Thou art holy. Oh, Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in Thee. They trusted. Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee and were delivered. They trusted in Thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man. A reproach of men. Despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake their head saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him. Let him deliver him. Seeing, He delighted in him. But, listen. See what this revelation will do for your soul in extremis. Thou art He that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon Thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Do you see what sustained the Lord on the cross? Do you see where He went back in the whole range of His thinking when He hung on that cross? Do you see there are some things, beloved, through which some souls may have to go that only the knowledge of God's great will and love will be left in them as a testimony to God's righteousness and the fulfillment of His purposes, even though you hang from a bloody tree and the tree is bloodied with your own blood. You made me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. You got me there. Jesus had to come there. The confidence of God, when the mockers mock and the scorners scorn and the revilers revile, when the merciless gaze on you without pity and pierce you with thorns. See, when there isn't anything, when sometimes you find that even your cries don't seem to be heard and answered, the knowledge that God formed you there will hold you. And the only thing in the end that will hold you is the very fulcrum that moves the world of sin and sin. The only thing that will hold you to the power of God that you'll crown your life and your work with results will be that He brought you from the womb and that He's your God. And you'll be able to say in the words of another psalm, The eternal God is our refuge. And underneath are the everlasting arms. Sorry I'm quoting from the last chapter of Deuteronomy. Underneath are the everlasting arms. That'll hold you. That'll hold you when the seas roar. That'll hold you, beloved, when you're pinned down, when you can't go away. Let's go. Listen. Be not far from me, verse 11, the trouble is near, there's none to help. Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. Think of Him now. This is the crucifixion scene. His bones are out of joint. Oh, His heart's like wax, melting in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried out like a potsherd. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws. There He is, the poor and needy, seeking water, and there is none. His tongue is cleaving to His mouth. Hallelujah. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones. They look, they stare upon me. I'm a dead man. They part my garments among them. They cast lots of my vesture. I'm dead to them. I'm brought into the dust. Fear not, Adam. Fear not, Adam. I make Adams from dust. Fear not, son. Fear not, Jesus man. I make Adam from dust. There's going to be a new creation. When a man's held there, He'll my God from my mother's womb. Hallelujah. You formed me from the womb. If ever anybody was thought and willed in to be from the very Spirit of God, it's Jesus. And you and I are to be like Him. Be not thou far from me, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword and my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth. For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I'll declare thy name unto my brethren. That's it. Come a brother with Jesus, will you? Come a brother with Him there. Come a brother from the same mother's womb. Come there from Father's will. Come there into a new life, a new beginning, a new servitude, a new giving of yourself. Come there. All your work will be crowned. Everything will be right in your life, my beloved, if you let the Lord be what He wants to be to you. Now we'll turn to Psalm 71. And in the 71st Psalm, I know we've read the very point of death. Now let's read in Psalm 71. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and save me. Be thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to save me. Thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For thou art my hope, O Lord God. Thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holden up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually of thee. I am as a wonder unto many. But thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thine honour all the day. And so we could go right down a chapter. Shall we read a little lower? Let's start in verse 15. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day. I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also, when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not, until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that is to come. So you start from your mother's womb and now you're old and grey-headed. This is an old man's psalm. Amen. Lord, Lord, keep me not. I've showed thy glorious power and strength unto one generation. Now I want to show it to the new one. Isn't that a marvellous thing? From womb to tomb. Do you believe that? Glory to God. Amen. If you live under the constant moving of God in your life, my young men and young women and some of you older ones, you aren't beyond it now. I don't know what you might be saying. I've lived my life in vain. I don't seem to have done anything for God. Listen. It may be that he's hid you as a polished sharp in his quiver, kept you for now. It's not too late. It may be, but you young people, what are you going to do? You're going to live your life under this blessed outpouring of the Spirit of God. You ought to know it. Everywhere you go, there is to be this mighty, glorious flooding. I believe God wants it. What do you think? First of all, do you believe you're in the will of God and God planned your life for you? Well, He didn't plan barrenness. Hallelujah. He planned that you should come to this place. I want to tell you that if you're not in this glorious position where you are showing the power and strength of God to your generation, how will you show it to the next? If I showed it to my generation of young men who are young men with me and then my children who came forth from me and then to their children, the next generation that came forth from them, that's what it's to be. And that's what it's to be with every one of us. You ought to show it. You ought to move in this great life and power of God. God has not forsaken you. There's life for you, power for you, deliverance for you, healing for you, the Holy Ghost for you, glorious, strong, rock-like assurance that you'll be begotten of God and in the will of God and for a purpose to show His light and salvation unto the end of the world. Amen. It's not been reached yet. I wonder if it's ever reached the end of your street where you live. Praise the name of the Lord. I can remember reading in the days when I used to do more reading of other people's works than I do now. I can remember reading about a certain doctor, Blackmore. I know, I'm not quite sure his name is. He went to live in the Black Down Hills quite near us in the southwest of England. And when he went there, he got down on his knees before God. This is the testimony of him. And he claimed every soul that inhabited the Black Down Hills. And he got them. He got them. He didn't talk about the baptism in the Spirit. He got them. Amen. Isn't it blessed? And you know, I don't know that he ever talked a lot about thirsting. He talked a lot about praying. Amen. Oh, there should be an outpouring from heaven. Do you believe God wants to do that? How many of you have been living on a kind of a knife-edge experience? No real deep assurance to look back and see that you can see back down through your mother's womb and through everything else and see God. And you're like old John, though you'll never be commissioned to write a Bible or a Gospel, and you'll start off in the beginning with the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Or you'll sit down with Moses and you'll say, in the beginning, God. The more profound still, you'll sit down with whoever scribed out the Hebrews and you'll start. God. God. God begetting you. God your life. God your strength. God your new self. God pouring down from heaven. God everything. God everywhere. God beginning. God ending. God. Now that's what it's got to be. Are you looking back now then through all the ways you've come? It doesn't matter whether you've been one of the wickedest sinners that were ever born. It doesn't matter whether you've been so twisted and perverted that you dare not talk about some of these things. It doesn't matter whether you've touched such depths of darkness just to horrify anybody that you told. It doesn't matter whether the towering heavens above you have seemed nothing else but black, dark rock. It doesn't matter whether you feel you've been imprisoned in a prison cage more cold and deadly than the ribs of the fish that Jonah felt in his entombment as he went down to the cuttings off at the mountains. It doesn't matter. Hallelujah. I want to tell you that there came one voluntarily and came forth from a mother's womb who was thought of in germ thought way back there in eternity. And he was the word and he was the thought and he was the design and the pattern and the glory and the power of God almighty. And he came forth from that mother's womb and he lived his life and he went into the dust of death as the psalmist has it. And he somehow went down. He descended first into the lower parts of the earth and that's where he went into the mysteries of bonded human spirits, of cross seed, of all the perversions and twists and rottenness of Satan that one day when I sit on his footstool and listen to his exposition of the tremendous things that he did, I shall be amazed beyond words to find out where it all is mixed and whence it's come. And listen to the great scientist explaining it all in language that this poor foolish man has never heard. I'll understand that he went down there and he brought about an eternal clearance. Ah, this just and righteous and holy God, this marvelous man that from God became a seed and went down there finally from that bloodied body on the cross and moved down in the purposes of God and worked his works down there and released that multitude of prisoners and brought them all up in his life and glory and power and said go and preach this gospel, go and preach this gospel. There are those who've told us about the precious blood of the cross and the heredity and life in that blood and have never told us much about the tomb and the death and the great work he worked down there and all the putting right of everything that had been put wrong. Hallelujah for Jesus. I want to tell you, beloved, in the name of the Lord that there is uttermost redemption and complete emancipation. There is this conferred upon us by grace, beloved, that our hearts cannot understand. Someone sat with me today and said, I can't understand it. I said, you don't have to understand, love. You don't have to understand. I never said I don't understand either. You don't have to understand. All you have to know is that it's true. Bless Him. It's true for you. You can live in the glory and in the power and in the open heavens. Dust can be turned into ground and fertility. Seed can come up. The life and sons of God can spring everywhere. I believe it. Do you? The hand of the Lord is upon you. The mercy of the Lord is upon us. The word of the Lord is toward us. The Spirit of our God is here. Bless the Lord. Is it in you? Is there a great cry? Not just now, unless it need be now for you. Lord, fill me. But Lord, flood the dry ground. If you need this, to have the drippings of eternal life poured into your wasting throat. He'll give it. He'll bring you back from the dead. Move upon you as you can take more and more of the life-giving outpourings. Till your being is flooded. And everything in you floats like Noah's ark on the flood. Amen. Move in the power and Spirit of God. Let's pray, beloved. Let's move in. By God's grace.