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[0:00] So we may now consider, as we shall read, any equivalent words you will find in the portion of scripture we read together.

[0:12] The second book of Samuel, chapter 22. And we shall read again at the 36th verse.

[0:27] Verse 36. Thou hast also given me the seed of thy salvation, and thy gentleness hath made me great.

[0:46] Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, so that my feet did not slip.

[0:58] And as we have the parallel passage in the 18th psalm, we have a few words more added to this.

[1:24] Verse 35. That's at verse 35 in psalm 18. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation.

[1:38] And this is what is added. Thou thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.

[1:49] Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, but my feet did not slip. And we are told at the beginning of this chapter, that David's speaking to the Lord the words of the psalm.

[2:08] In the day that the Lord had delivered him, out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul.

[2:22] So that it is a song of praise unto the Lord for his deliverance. In the first place, temporal deliverance.

[2:35] Perhaps we are inclined sometimes to set up a false antithesis between the temporal and the spiritual.

[2:52] And the first place, the first place. But if our vision were wide enough, we could see that all deliverance is of the Lord.

[3:10] And all deliverance shows hope. And all deliverance shows hope. Is lovingkindness and tender mercies. We should overroot nothing.

[3:25] In contemplating the doings of the Lord. What he does in his providence.

[3:37] What he does in his providence. Using providence in the sense of his temporal dispensations among the sons of men. What he does in his providence shows hope his disposition.

[3:52] And that is why we ought to consider the works of the Lord. Because they are all an index. To his own character.

[4:04] We cannot contemplate them apart from the Lord. We cannot consider them a right.

[4:16] Unless we view them as being accomplished by his almighty arm. And if we view them in this life.

[4:29] Then they will also hope. His disposition. His gentleness. His kindness.

[4:41] His goodness. His long suffering. His patience. His patience. His patience. And it is. As we view them in that life.

[4:54] Including his great deliverances. The deliverances that affect. The souls of men for all eternity. It is viewing them we say in that life.

[5:06] That we would like to consider this passage. For a little disease. Thou hast given me. The shield.

[5:21] Of thy salvation. Now that means. That the Lord perpetrated.

[5:33] When his enemies rose up against him. To destroy him. The Lord was. Round about him. The Lord himself became a shield.

[5:47] And. No weapon has ever been forged. No money from the devil. Can penetrate. This shield.

[5:59] No money from the devil. Can penetrate. This shield. It is the only one. That can protect us. In the evil days.

[6:12] Now you remember that. When Paul. Cataloges. The armor of the Christian. He refers to the shield of faith.

[6:23] He refers to the helmet. Of salvation. Of course there is no contradiction. Between what the psalmist says here. And what the apostle says. In that. Particular passage. In the apostle to the Ephesians. In that particular passage.

[6:34] In the apostle to the Ephesians. It is true to say that. The shield of faith. The shield which mixes.

[6:47] Is false. If the priest is calm down ahead. Then he refers to the Macht of desire.

[7:00] It'srrr to the wicked. A-his is God himself. A-fait has no shield.

[7:14] It is not a shield in an object, because faith is with the exercise of the soul towards God. But the shield of faith is God himself.

[7:28] It is laid hold of God by faith. And the same is true here. The shield of thy salvation, thou hast given it to me.

[7:45] How did he give it to him? How was it true that he was protected by God? And what is going to the point?

[7:56] How is it that he is enabled and constrained to sing this psalm of praise to his God?

[8:08] Well, Peter explains that to us when he says of the church of God that they are kept by the power of God through him unto salvation.

[8:30] Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation. Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation.

[8:50] And that includes both God's protection, or if you prefer it, God himself, and also the save truly hold upon him.

[9:08] The man to whom God gives the shield of his salvation. He gives him faith, in other words, to lay hold of God himself.

[9:24] And this brings us on another step. It brings us to this great and glorious act that God made in this sense, through his own grace, that he may be laid hold of God.

[9:46] And that is possible, through God's grace, to lay hold of God himself.

[9:58] And that, of course, is the essence of salvation. This is how God has ordained and appointed things.

[10:10] This is the salvation which he presents to us in the word of his grace. This is the salvation concerning which the prophets and the apostles, festival.

[10:23] And there is no other salvation. Hope ye in the Lord always.

[10:35] For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. But the question might be asked, what would this last to mean?

[10:51] That in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength? Well, it would confer no benefit. It would be no cause for jubilation.

[11:04] If God in his grace did not present himself and give himself in such a way that the hand of faith may lay hold upon him.

[11:23] And this, of course, brings us to the essence of the wonder of God's grace. Just think of the great and glorious Jehovah, the creator of the ends of the earth, who is worshipped in the light of glory, the glory which is his own, in whose presence the angels built and paces shine.

[12:05] Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah, the God of hosts.

[12:16] Imagine this God coming into such a relationship with sinners as that he gives himself unto them to be their protection, to be their sustenance, yea, to be their own and in all, both here and hereafter.

[12:44] Imagine the condescension of the eternal in doing this. That on the one hand and on the other.

[12:57] Imagine the honor that is placed upon those who are thus brought into such a relationship with God.

[13:13] We might say that the gospel consists, that salvation consists, in the greatest condescension on the part of God, and the greatest honor being put upon man.

[13:41] That's the salvation. And it is that precisely to which the psalmist refers in the next clause. The word gentleness, thy gentleness, thy gentleness has made me great.

[13:56] Note the word gentleness, might be equally, whether perhaps better, translated by condescension.

[14:07] The word comes from a word meaning humble. The root meaning of the word is humble.

[14:21] Now we don't refer to God being humble. But we refer to God as drawn into relationship with men, condescending to come near them in that relationship.

[14:39] Thy condescension. And oh, what marvelous condescension this is. For you will notice that the condescension brings God himself in the person of his son into a state wherein it is said of him that he humbles.

[15:09] And he humbles himself. Condescension passes over into humility. And that presupposes the incarnation.

[15:25] And that presupposes the incarnation. It is only to God in his incarnate state, that is to Christ Jesus, as made flesh, that we can apply the word.

[15:41] And he humbles himself and was obedient unto death. Even the death of the gospel.

[15:53] Thy condescension. Now it is worthwhile to pause here. It is worthwhile to consider, yea, and to go on considering, this condescension of God in dealing with his enemies.

[16:15] Dealing with those who were enemies by reason of wicked works. Who had committed two grave demons. Who had forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.

[16:31] And had you now for themselves, cisterns, broken cisterns, that could hold no water. Yet, it was coming to the rescue of such.

[16:47] That he condescended to come into this relationship with them. And the relationship of cautious a covenant relationship.

[17:03] The ultimate, the last thing of which we can speak, by way of a transaction, in God's dealings with his people, is the covenant.

[17:21] Everything in salvation is to be considered within the ambit of the covenant. The covenant of peace.

[17:32] The covenant of peace. Made between the persons of the Godhead before the world was.

[17:44] We cannot consider the various elements in the salvation of the church. We cannot consider them in isolation.

[17:55] If we have to have a scriptural view. If we have to have a consistent view of them. We must consider them within the ambit of the covenant.

[18:10] Take for instance, the at-homement. How are we to consider the atonement?

[18:23] Which is the supreme truth. Which is the seed of God's relationship with the speakers. Now we should remember.

[18:34] Now we should remember. That we cannot consider the atonement in and by itself. We will get into all sorts of difficulties.

[18:45] We will either arrive at a universal atonement. Or else arrive at something which is no atonement at all.

[18:58] How are we to consider it? Within the bounds of the covenant of grace. It is there that the atonement finds its right setting.

[19:15] It is there we can consider it in a scriptural manner. It is there that we can see what it is and what it is not.

[19:29] And this is God's condescension. We have to trace the manifestation of the kindness of God.

[19:47] The tender mercies of the Lord. We have to trace these. As to their manifestation. Or the mode of their manifestation.

[19:58] To the covenant of grace. Made before the world was. Now this is not merely a piece of speculative thought.

[20:13] It is not something that is removed. From everyday occurrence. Something that belongs in a region.

[20:25] To which we cannot aspire or attain. It is something which is made known. In the consciousness.

[20:36] Of the believer. As he is taught of God. To the covenant of grace. That the Lord would have thought of you. In the sense of love. To the covenant of grace.

[20:47] د You know. Good necesita all he 들어 says. lCC Currentali baptism God Is notning all he says.

[20:58] 色んなología It was an unspeakable wonder of grace that the Lord would have heard of you in your individual insignificance, that the Lord would have heard of you amidst the tremendous ethics of history amidst the things that are of so much more importance than your individual face. Have you ever been made to wonder that the Lord, so to speak, hath tied, that is not a proper way of speaking, but speaking in the language of men, that the Lord has tied to think of you in your low state, not now, but that he thought of you before the world wars. Wasn't that marvelous condescension? And that condescension we say you have to find in the covenant of grace where God appointed the bounds of your habitation, where he appointed his manner of revealing himself to you, where he appointed the place where this would happen, ye were he appointed all concerning you. Thy condescension, thy marvelous loving kindness. In thinking upon such a thinking,

[23:01] God, Isaiah, we may all say, thy marvelous condescension passes the thoughts of men and of angels.

[23:13] It transcends all thoughts except God, all but God. But what has this condescension done?

[23:24] God, it has made me great. Thy condescension has made me great. In what does this greatness consist?

[23:41] First of all, we have to trace it in the line of genealogy. People trace their pedigree, the genealogy to great men of old. The men rejoice and boast of their ancestors. You can see that often.

[24:18] You can read that certain families can trace their genealogy back to, say, the 10th century, the 10th century, and further back. And they glory in this. That their four fathers had a place of importance in history.

[24:43] Now the greatest that belongs to the people of God goes much further back. It transcends history. Because the psalmist says in history. Because the psalmist stays in another place.

[25:01] Because of their genealogy. That's not the word that's used there, but this is the meaning. Because of their genealogy. Because of their genealogy. Thy people are made princes.

[25:18] And to whom do they trace their genealogy? To God himself. They are the sons. Because of their genes. Not of this mighty man or that mighty man. But the sons of God and their greatness.

[25:36] Their nobility consists entirely in this. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us.

[25:51] That we should be called the sons of God. And we are. That we should be called the sons of God and we are.

[26:03] деся han, who are so proud of how. Beat the sons of the son. The sons of God and others. Because of their Holly and others. from their 27th century. The sons of god, Him,یا, and永 How Research and Hell, were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, not of the will of man, but of God.

[26:21] God says. What an open line of27 of27 10th century. They have affinity, they have relationship with you with the great Jehovah.

[26:36] Oh, what condescension on this path brought them to be raised to such a level, to be elevated to such a height.

[26:50] Thy condescension has made me great. And we mustn't consider the one without the other. We mustn't consider the condescension of God apart from the salvation of His people.

[27:12] And we mustn't consider the salvation of His people apart from the condescension of God. And this is a fact of experience as well as a fact of revelation.

[27:26] He who has been brought to this lineage to the sovereignty of God's grace to this lineage to God Himself must consider that in the light of God's condescension.

[27:50] the Lord does not bestow His gifts upon men to make them proud. He certainly bestows His gifts on them to make them great.

[28:08] But in making them great how are they safeguarded from being proud in their greatness?

[28:22] Well, the Lord's wisdom has sinned to that. The provision of the covenant affects that. Because the Lord doesn't reveal to anyone that He is made great without at the same time having revealed to Him that it was through God's condescension that this has come about.

[28:52] And that is what balances the thought of the Christian in as far as it is balanced in a Christian sense.

[29:03] His gifts are on one side of the balance. On the other there is the manifestation of God's condescension.

[29:20] So that the bestowal of grace the bestowal of greatness on the soul is not meant who raised the soul in pride.

[29:35] But strange as it may see there is nothing that will humble the soul like being informed of its greatness through God's operation through God's condescension on its behalf.

[29:57] Do you want to be made humbled? Are you not conscious of the pride the cursed pride of your heart?

[30:10] And the cursed pride of your heart even in the things of God? What will make you humble? To strip you of everything and to leave you as it were bare naked and bare?

[30:25] No, that is not the best way. Yet that is not the way at all to make a person humble. A person may be brought into the depths of destitution spiritually speaking.

[30:40] They may have to complain that there is nothing in it from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head but wounds and bruises and putrefying souls.

[30:56] But brought into that condition such is the ungodliness such is the deceitfulness of the heart that there will be lurking in that condition a certain species of pride because one knows this is the case.

[31:25] But what will banish this at least for the moment? Nothing, my friends, but to behold the condescension of God.

[31:39] His deathliness, His loving kindness, His tender mercy, is sufficient and only that is sufficient for banishing for the time being the exercise of cursed pride in the human heart.

[32:03] If I think of myself as being made great oh how I rise up just like a balloon and just for that same reason because of being empty inside but if I am going to be stabilized if I am going to have a balanced view of things as they are I must look at salvation in the light of its cost and no man yet has been able to entertain pride looking at the name of the God that faked away the sin of the world.

[32:58] my gentleness has made me great not with the greatness that rises up in creature sufficiency and creature strength but the greatness that consists in God's grace in being brought into the relationship of children unto the Father and being brought by way of death even the death of the Redeemer the cursed death of the cross this is the place to be there he said the source to entertain cause that God magnified and self obeis that exalts God and humbles the sinner and never is the sinner greater than when he is most humble his greatness cannot be separated from the exercise of godly humility in the presence of the

[34:18] God who has made him great this then is the song of thanksgiving this is the song that is new every morning this is the song that they who are saved from the earth are unable to sing this is the song who begin to sing here they begin to sing shall we say in broken accidents but the time is coming when they shall sing it perfectly in the presence of their God even though when they try to sing it there are so many jarring notes there is this there is that there is the next thing to be concerned but those who have begun to sing it even in such broken notes have the earnest that they will sing it perfectly yet and the essence the burden of it is this and to him who loved us and saved us from our sins and washed us from our sins in his own blood be glory and honor majesty and praise world without end so let it be let us pray oh blessed one merciful unto us blessed to us by kindness grant that thy condescension would make us great and that we would be able to interpret this in the light of the word of truth and we would bless thee not only for what thou give us to thine own but the manner in which thou dost give it to them and the effect it produces on them here is thy wisdom made known not only in what thou hast done not only in what thou hast provided not only at what thou dost give but the way thou hast appointed things that thine own glory may be enhanced and that they even through thy gifts will be unable to take the place that belongs to them oh what wisdom is here grant us blessed one to wander there at that is to wander at thy sack take take away all sins and accept of us in

[37:18]  Christ and thou shalt have the place amen