The Spirit & The OT

[0:00] But if we could, this evening, for a short while, and with the Lord's enabling, if we could turn back to that portion of scripture that we read, the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 11.

[0:17] Numbers chapter 11, and if we read again in verses 24 and 25. Numbers chapter 11, verse 24.

[0:53] Now this evening we're continuing our study on the Persian and work of the Holy Spirit.

[1:07] And as the title of our Bible study suggests, we're seeking to understand his work in our lives. And what we've come to understand already is that the Holy Spirit is a person.

[1:21] He is the third person of the Godhead. But more than that, he has a purpose, a purpose in our lives. Because when the Holy Spirit begins to work in the heart of a sinner, when he begins to work in your heart, and when he began to work in my heart, he brought form out of formlessness.

[1:39] He brings fullness into our emptiness. He brings order into our chaos. And the Holy Spirit, he also reconciles and he restores fellowship with our fellowship with God the Father.

[1:54] And the Holy Spirit does that, as we saw last week. He does it through the Word, the Bible. The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God to make the Word of God a living Word.

[2:06] Because the reality is that when the Holy Spirit wasn't working in our life, the Word of God meant nothing to us. We hardly ever read it. And if we did read it, it was maybe out of routine or we did it out of ritual.

[2:21] The Word of God meant nothing to us. We didn't seek to live by it. We didn't love it like we do now. But the Holy Spirit, he made the Word of God precious to us when he breathed life into us.

[2:34] The Word of God came to us with power. There was conviction. Because that Word, as we saw last week, it's God-breathed. It's Spirit-filled.

[2:45] It's the divine breath of God the Holy Spirit. And because this Word is God-breathed and Spirit-filled, it's living and active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword.

[2:57] And you know, the amazing thing is that no one can make this book precious to us. No one can make us understand the simplicity of the Gospel except the Holy Spirit when he works in our heart and lives.

[3:13] Because it's the Holy Spirit who works through the Word and it's the Holy Spirit who imparts wisdom from the Word. But you know, this is all very good and well for us living now in the 21st century.

[3:27] Because as the New Testament church, living in the light of the new covenant, we have the Word of God in its entirety. God's revelation has been given.

[3:38] The canon of Scripture is closed. We have all the books of the Bible we need. We have Genesis to Revelation. And we even have it in our own language. But more than that, more than even having the Word, we're blessed to have all the creeds and confessions and catechisms and commentaries to help us understand the Bible better and more deeply.

[4:00] And as we study the Word of God together, and as you do it in private as well, the Holy Spirit is always ministering to us. That's the privilege we have as those who are part of the New Testament church, living in the light of the new covenant.

[4:16] But this evening I want us to think about how did the Holy Spirit minister to God's people in the Old Testament church? How did the Holy Spirit minister to God's people during the days of the old covenant?

[4:30] And how did the Holy Spirit prepare God's people for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? So we're thinking about the Spirit and the Old Testament.

[4:43] And you know, I'd like us to think just about the Spirit and the Old Testament under three headings. A spiritual promise, a spiritual person, and a spiritual people.

[4:53] So there are three headings this evening. A spiritual promise, a spiritual person, and a spiritual people. So we look first of all at a spiritual promise.

[5:05] A spiritual promise. Look at verse 16 of Numbers chapter 11. It says, Now there's this wonderful illustration of how the Holy Spirit ministered to his people throughout the days of the old covenant.

[5:51] And the illustration is given in the writings of the 19th century American theologian B.B. Warfield. Because as Warfield says, the God of the Old Testament is the same God as the God of the New Testament.

[6:03] But he says that there's a sense in which God's people who lived during the period of the old covenant. He says that their experience can be compared to that of a darkened room which has lots of furniture in it.

[6:19] And Warfield, he describes this room that's in darkness. And he says, well, there's just enough light coming through, you could say, the curtains. Just enough light to make out the silhouettes and the shadows of all the furniture that's in the room.

[6:36] The room is full of furniture, he says. But you can't quite make out the furniture. You know it's there, but the furniture, it's only shapes and shadows. Nothing is clear. There's no detail, he says.

[6:47] It's difficult to make out what the furniture really is in the room. Nothing is clear, he says, until the light is switched on and everything is revealed.

[6:59] But, says Warfield, the introduction of the light into the room, it doesn't add any furniture into the room. Rather, it just brings into clearer focus what was already in the room, but not fully seen before the light went on.

[7:16] And, you know, with his illustration, Warfield states that the Old Testament revelation, it isn't corrected by a fuller revelation of God in the New Testament. No, he says the God of the Old Testament is the same God as the God of the New Testament.

[7:30] But the revelation of God, it's only, you could say, perfected or enlarged or extended in the New Testament. So that when we come into the New Testament, and when we stand under the light of the New Covenant, and we see then that everything that was once in the shadow of darkness under the Old Covenant, it's now been brought into the light and seen clearly.

[7:56] And, you know, that's often, this progression from darkness to light, that's often what we refer to as progressive revelation, where God gradually reveals himself to his people.

[8:08] And he gradually reveals his plans and purposes for salvation for his people. It's a progressive revelation. And because it was a progressive revelation, the people of God, under the Old Covenant, they didn't really, well, they didn't have the Word of God as we have it today.

[8:28] They didn't know, you could say, they didn't know the whole story. They couldn't see the whole picture. They only saw a shadow of it. And, you know, when you come to a passage like this, you can sort of understand why the children of Israel grumbled in the wilderness.

[8:44] They grumbled because they couldn't see the full picture. They couldn't understand everything clearly. And yet what we're reading here in Numbers 11 is that the Lord brought the children of Israel.

[8:57] He brought them up out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage and slavery. The Lord has delivered them. The Lord has brought salvation into their experience. And the Lord has promised to provide for them daily.

[9:10] And yet we see the children of Israel, they're murmuring and moaning against the Lord's provision. And foolishly, they're longing for what they enjoyed in Egypt.

[9:23] We see down in verse 5, the children of Israel say, We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing. The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic.

[9:35] But now our strength has dried up. And there is nothing at all but this manna to look at. The people are grumbling against the Lord. And they're grumbling against Moses. And all they can think about is how good it was back in Egypt.

[9:49] But the thing is, it wasn't good in Egypt. Egypt meant slavery. Egypt always meant bondage. Egypt meant death.

[10:01] But the children of Israel couldn't see that their past was so dark. And they couldn't see that their past was so dark because they couldn't understand what was going on in the present. They still felt that they were in darkness.

[10:14] And they couldn't understand what the Lord was doing. And because they couldn't understand what the Lord was doing, they grumbled. They complained. They moaned and murmured against the Lord and against his servant Moses.

[10:27] And you know, what they needed most was God's revelation. And when we look at the children of Israel, I don't know about you, but I can see myself quite easily.

[10:43] We can see ourselves so easily in them. Because sometimes, well, we grumble and we complain. We complain at our circumstances. We moan and murmur against the Lord and his servants because maybe of the situation we're in.

[10:56] And it seemed, our situation seems nothing but darkness. And you know, we, sometimes we don't understand what's going on and why this is out providence. And why it has to be this way.

[11:08] And in those situations, what we need most, just like the children of Israel, what we need most is God's revelation. We need God to reveal himself to us through his word and remind us and reassure us that he's in control.

[11:23] That he's sovereign. He's sovereign in every situation. And we are under his care and keeping. And that despite all the darkness, his promise still stands. He's working all things together for good and ultimately for his own glory.

[11:39] But you know, it's in the darkness that we need the light of God's revelation. And that's what the children of Israel needed here in this passage. They needed the light of God's revelation to shine into the darkness of their situation.

[11:55] And that's what happened. But God's revelation, it was to come to God's people, not only through Moses, but also through these 70 elders.

[12:07] Because Moses, he confesses in verse 13. He says, when the Lord promises all this food, he says, where am I to get the meat to give all this people?

[12:19] For they weep before me and say, give us meat that we may eat. I'm not able to carry all this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. It's too much for Moses.

[12:30] Moses says to thee, he can't do it on his own. He's not a one man band. Moses confesses he needs help. And he needs the help of elders to come alongside him and support him in the work of ministering to the Lord's covenant people.

[12:46] And so, the Lord commands Moses. He says to Moses in verse 16. Then the Lord said to Moses, gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them.

[13:01] And bring them to the tent of meeting and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them.

[13:12] And they shall bear the burden of the people with you. So that you may not bear it yourself alone. You know, this was a key moment in the wilderness journey.

[13:24] That Moses was going to receive help. He was going to receive help in speaking, leading, directing and ministering to the Lord's covenant people.

[13:34] But you know, what we must notice is the role of the Holy Spirit in all this. Because in the Old Testament and under the Old Covenant, there was a special blessing of the Holy Spirit given to some, but not to all.

[13:53] And the Holy Spirit, he would come upon the Lord's chosen vessels and he would enable them to speak, to lead, to direct and to minister to the Lord's covenant people. In other words, the Holy Spirit, he would come upon different offices, you could say, or people who were put into different offices.

[14:11] The offices of prophet, priest and king. And by coming upon the Lord's servants, the Holy Spirit would make the Lord known. The Holy Spirit would reveal the Lord through his servants.

[14:26] And you know, we see this time and time again throughout the Old Testament. As the revelation of God is progressing towards the New Covenant, towards the New Testament, we see this time and time again.

[14:40] During the wilderness wanderings, as we read even in this passage, the Holy Spirit was upon Moses. And then the Holy Spirit came upon the 70 elders. The Holy Spirit was also upon Joshua to lead the people into the promised land.

[14:55] When you come to the period of the judges, the Holy Spirit came upon all the judges. He came upon Gideon, Othniel, Jephthah, Samson. The Holy Spirit came upon them.

[15:07] Then you come to the period of the kings. When the kings were anointed to their office to lead the Lord's people, the Holy Spirit came upon the kings. King Saul, King David, King Solomon, all the kings.

[15:20] And even the prophets, they spoke by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was upon Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah.

[15:33] The Holy Spirit came upon them. And so under the Old Covenant and in the dispensation of the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon the Lord's chosen vessels.

[15:45] And the Holy Spirit would enable prophets, priests and kings to speak, lead, direct and minister to the Lord's covenant people.

[15:58] And all this was so that the Lord, the covenant king, would be revealed and made known to his covenant people. It was all about revealing who the Lord was to his people.

[16:11] And so what we see here is that the Holy Spirit ministered to God's people because of a spiritual promise. And that spiritual promise would be fully and finally revealed with the arrival of a spiritual person.

[16:29] That's what I want us to consider secondly. A spiritual person. So we've seen a spiritual promise. But then secondly, a spiritual person. Look at verse 24.

[16:41] We're told. So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent.

[16:52] Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the 70 elders. And as soon as the spirit rested on them, they prophesied.

[17:04] But they did not continue doing it. And so as we were saying, in the Old Testament and under the Old Covenant, there was a special blessing of the Holy Spirit that was given to some, but not to all.

[17:19] And in this case, the special blessing of the Holy Spirit was given to these 70 elders whom Moses had chosen to help him and serve the people of God with him.

[17:31] And as we read this, the Spirit came upon them and rested on them. And as soon as the Holy Spirit rested upon the 70 elders, the evidence that the Holy Spirit had come upon them was that they began to prophesy.

[17:46] They began to prophesy.

[18:16] In the Old Testament and under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit came upon certain individuals for a specific task. But as our passage suggests at the end of verse 25, the Holy Spirit didn't rest upon them permanently.

[18:34] Now that doesn't mean that because the Holy Spirit came for a short time and then went again, that doesn't mean that they were saved one moment and then lost the next. That's not the case.

[18:46] Because the Holy Spirit not only came upon the Lord's people, enabling these chosen vessels to carry out their God-given role. This Holy Spirit not only came upon the Lord's people, the Holy Spirit also dwelt within the Lord's people as believers.

[19:05] Because as, you could say, as men and women who lived and served the Lord by faith, the Holy Spirit dwelt in them. If anyone is saved, whether they're living under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant, they must be saved, as the Bible says, by faith.

[19:24] Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And so they're saved by faith because the Holy Spirit has worked faith in them. He has regenerated them. And he's brought them from being dead in sin to life in Christ.

[19:39] And so someone is saved, whether they're saved looking forward to Christ, being in the Old Covenant, or looking back to Christ, living as we are in the New Covenant.

[19:50] But whether in the Old Covenant or the New Covenant, we're all saved by faith in Jesus Christ, by the power and the enabling of the Holy Spirit. We're saved by the indwelling, the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.

[20:08] But for the specific task of leadership, speaking, directing, and ministering to the Lord's covenant people, the Lord, or the Holy Spirit, came upon prophets, priests, and kings.

[20:24] And you know, it's when we understand that the Holy Spirit was in believers and upon certain individuals. He was in the saints and upon the servants.

[20:36] It's when we understand that. It's then that we understand what David was actually praying about in Psalm 51. Because, as you know, and as we were singing in Psalm 51, it's David's prayer of repentance.

[20:52] David has committed adultery with a married woman. He's lied about it, then he's gone and murdered an innocent man. And remember, David was king in Israel at the time.

[21:04] David was God's appointed and God's anointed leader. That was his God-given role. And he was being enabled to fulfil his role by the Holy Spirit.

[21:15] He was being enabled to lead and direct the Lord's covenant people to be faithful to the Lord. But following his sinful actions, David prays in Psalm 51 that the Lord would have mercy on him and forgive him and create within him a clean heart as we were singing.

[21:31] But then David prays in verse 11, Cast me not from thy side, nor take thy Holy Spirit away. Now what we have to be absolutely clear on is that David is not speaking about his salvation.

[21:47] Because David knows that his salvation is sure and steadfast. David knows that he can't lose his salvation. David knows that no matter how many times he faints and fails as one of the Lord's people, the Lord will not cast him off forever.

[22:04] But what David is concerned about is that the Lord will take his Holy Spirit from him, from resting upon him, and that he will be removed as the covenant king over the Lord's covenant people.

[22:18] That's why he prays in Psalm 51, Cast me not from thy side, nor take thy Holy Spirit away. He's not worried about the Spirit in, but he's worried about the Spirit upon him as the king in Israel.

[22:35] And you know, it's often said that large doors swing on small hinges. And you know, when it comes to the Bible, major theological truths, they all swing on small words.

[22:47] And you know, that's what we're seeing here. Because in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit dwelt in saints and upon servants. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit dwelt in saints and upon servants.

[23:05] And you know, I want to stress this point, because people have often misunderstood David's prayer in Psalm 51. And it caused them to worry about losing their salvation.

[23:18] And you know, a misunderstanding of Psalm 51 would inevitably, it might, cause a believer or someone who's seeking the Lord to think that if they ever sinned like David, or if they ever sinned against the Lord, then well, they've lost their salvation.

[23:36] And the Lord will just cast them off forever. And you know, the outcome of that, of misunderstanding Psalm 51, is that they have fear.

[23:46] They live in fear. They lack assurance. But my friend, what we have to remember is that our God is a gracious God. And that's what Psalm 51 is all about.

[23:58] It's all about God being a gracious God. That he's a gracious, merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. And the wonderful thing is that his covenant promise assures us that there's nothing we can do to make him love us any more than he already does.

[24:16] And there's nothing we can do to make him love us any less. And so as a saint with the Holy Spirit permanently dwelling in him, David was praying in Psalm 51 as a servant, that the Holy Spirit would continue to rest upon him.

[24:35] Because as we said, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit dwelt in saints and upon servants. In saints and upon servants.

[24:46] And you know, there's actually an incident in the Bible where the Holy Spirit didn't dwell in a person, but upon a servant. And that person, or that incident, would be with King Saul.

[25:01] I don't believe that Saul was a saint with the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. But as the appointed and anointed king of Israel, he had the Holy Spirit resting upon him.

[25:15] But the Spirit only rested upon King Saul until David was anointed as king in his place. We're told in 1 Samuel 16, that when Samuel anointed King David, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him.

[25:33] And then we're told in the following verse, that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. And so I want us to always remember that in the Old Testament and under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit dwelt in saints and upon servants.

[25:48] In saints and upon servants. And it's important to remember because, as we said, the Holy Spirit came upon individuals for this specific task of speaking, leading, directing, and ministering to the Lord's covenant people.

[26:04] The Holy Spirit would come upon prophets, priests, and kings. You know, as we consider the progressive revelation of Scripture towards the New Covenant, it's always moving towards the New Covenant, the New Testament.

[26:21] As we move towards the New Covenant, we particularly see in the prophecy of Isaiah, we're presented with one individual who has the Holy Spirit resting upon him as prophet, priest, and king.

[26:38] And that individual is, of course, Jesus Christ. Because Isaiah, it's a wonderful, wonderful book. It's all about Jesus for Isaiah.

[26:51] It's often described as the gospel of Jesus Christ according to Isaiah. But Isaiah says in chapter 11, he says that this Emmanuel, this God who is to be with us, he describes him, and he describes Jesus.

[27:07] He says, the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. And then when Isaiah comes to give his first servant's song, there are four of them.

[27:23] The first one is in Isaiah 42. And he writes, behold my servant, whom I uphold, my elect and whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.

[27:35] He will bring forth justice to the nations. And then you move, you progress through Isaiah. And you come to those wonderful prophetic words in Isaiah 61.

[27:46] words which Jesus actually confirms to be true about him when he stands up to preach in the synagogue in Luke chapter 4. Jesus says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

[28:04] He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.

[28:16] And you know, what I love about this progressive revelation of scripture, I love it because as we move out of the darkness of the Old Testament and into the light of the New Testament, we're actually enabled to see that every prophet, priest and king whom the Holy Spirit rested upon and used to serve the Lord in the Old Testament, they're all a type and a shadow of the prophet, priest and king, Jesus Christ, who would have the Holy Spirit resting upon him as he came to usher in the new covenant.

[28:56] And you know, the progressive revelation of scripture, it affirms, it affirms this to us because when the light of the New Testament, when the light of the New Testament is finally turned on, we're told right at the beginning of the Gospels, that Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.

[29:22] And then as we progress a wee bit further, we're told that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism. That was him being enabled to minister. The Spirit descended upon him and rested on him.

[29:36] And then Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. Just like the children of Israel were led through the wilderness by the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

[29:48] But then more than that, the Holy Spirit rests upon Jesus all so that he will fulfill his God-given task as prophet, priest and king.

[29:59] The Holy Spirit is upon Jesus so that he will fulfill his offices. The offices that have been given to him of speaking, leading, directing and ministering to the Lord's covenant people and he does it as a prophet, priest and king.

[30:18] And you know, there's so much that could be said about the offices of Jesus that were enabled by the Holy Spirit but time will not allow. So as we've seen from the progressive revelation of scripture, the work of the Holy Spirit ensured a spiritual promise, a spiritual person and lastly, in a word, a spiritual people.

[30:42] A spiritual people. Look at verse 26 of Numbers 11. Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad.

[30:54] And the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered but they had not gone out to the tent. And so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.

[31:09] And Joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, My Lord Moses, stop them. But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them?

[31:27] Now these verses, they alert us to the fact that out of the 70 elders whom Moses had chosen to serve alongside him, two of them weren't present at the tabernacle when the Holy Spirit came upon the elders.

[31:41] But even though these two men, Eldad and Medad, even though they were not at the tent, they were in the camp, even though they were there, they still received the Holy Spirit.

[31:55] And the evidence that they received the Holy Spirit was, as it was with the other elders, is that they prophesied. And you know, it should affirm to us that even though they weren't at the tent, they were still in the camp, it should emphasize to us that, well, God is omnipresent, he's everywhere, whether we're at the camp or outside the camp, whether we're in church at the tent or not in church, the Holy Spirit is able to minister to us.

[32:24] And it should be a wonderful comfort to those who can't make it to church, that whether we're in church or at home, the Spirit is able to minister to us. But as we said, in the Old Testament and under the Old Covenant, there was a special blessing of the Holy Spirit given to some but not to all.

[32:43] And here the Holy Spirit, he rests upon these 70 elders and the elders immediately begin to prophesy. They begin to make God known. They begin to reveal God's character and God's person to the people of God.

[32:59] But when Joshua questions what the Lord is doing, Moses says in verse 29, would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them.

[33:12] Would that all the Lord's people were prophets. And you know, whether Moses knew that he was prophesying there or not, that's exactly what happened. Would that all the Lord's people were prophets.

[33:28] Do you know, when the darkness of the Old Covenant finally passed away and the light of the New Covenant was brought in, the Lord did as Moses says here.

[33:39] The Lord put his Spirit upon all people. He put his Spirit upon all people so that they would be his prophets. And that's what happened on the day of Pentecost.

[33:51] As we were seeing on Sunday morning and as we'll see in more detail as we, as the weeks go on. When the Apostle Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost, when he stood up to preach, he said that this is what was promised and prophesied by Joel the prophet.

[34:08] It shall come to pass, he says, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. My Spirit on all flesh.

[34:19] And it's exactly what Moses had said. Would that all the Lord's people were prophets. And so, as those who are living in the era of the New Testament church, we're living in the power and the presence of the New Covenant.

[34:35] Which means that all the people of God have the Holy Spirit in them as saints and upon them as servants. All of the Lord's people have the Holy Spirit in them as saints and upon them as servants.

[34:52] And so tonight, we all have the Holy Spirit in us and we all have the Holy Spirit upon us. But that tells us one thing.

[35:05] We have the greatest responsibility as the New Testament church of Jesus Christ. And our responsibility is to fulfil our great commission.

[35:16] To go into all the world and preach the gospel. We're to make Jesus known. That's our... We're to make Jesus known to all nations.

[35:28] Because we have the Holy Spirit in us. In us as saints and upon us as sermons. My friend, we're to reveal the wonder and glory of God's salvation to those who are still sitting under the power of darkness.

[35:44] And that, as Jesus said, you're to be my witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. And so by our witness and by our work, the Holy Spirit will use us because he's in us and he's upon us.

[35:59] He'll use us to reveal the light of the knowledge of the glory of God through the face of Jesus Christ. So tonight, the Holy Spirit is in you as a saint and upon you as a servant.

[36:15] And we have been commissioned to go to all nations with this wonderful message of the gospel. So may the Lord bless these few thoughts to us.

[36:26] Let us pray. O Lord, our gracious God, and Lord, the more we study, the less we understand.

[36:39] But we bless thee and we praise thee that thy spirit is one who has been sent to teach us all things and to bring all things to our remembrance. We thank thee, Lord, for the reminder this evening that the spirit not only dwells within us but that he dwells upon us and we thank thee, Lord, and we praise thee that he has come.

[37:01] He has come to enable us and to give to us that power to go out with this glorious gospel, to live lives that are worthy of the calling to which we have been called, to be lights in darkness, to be living epistles seen and read of men.

[37:18] And Lord, we pray that we would be faithful, that we would not grieve the spirit but that we might walk with him day by day being led by him and always looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

[37:32] Lord, remember us, we pray. Remember those, Lord, whom we've mentioned, those who are laid aside, those who are struggling, all those who are in hospital tonight. We bless thee, Lord, and we praise thee, even being reminded this evening that thy spirit is able to minister to them because thy spirit is one who is everywhere present.

[37:53] And Lord, we thank thee and we praise thee for that wonderful assurance that wherever we go, as the psalmist says, that even if he ascends to the heaven or even to the depths of hell itself, Lord, a God who is there, a God who is with us in the light and even in the darkness, Lord, keep us then, we pray, to know thy promises that are great and precious, that thou wilt never leave us and never forsake us.

[38:20] Do us good, then, we ask, take away our iniquity, receive us graciously, for Jesus' sake. Amen. We're going to bring our service to a conclusion by singing the words of Psalm 143.

[38:37] Psalm 143, the first version of the psalm. It's page 438. Psalm 143.

[38:49] We're beginning our singing in the middle of verse 7. And we're singing down to the verse, Marty 11.

[39:01] Psalm 143, at the beginning of verse 7. Less like to them I do become, that go down to the dust. At morn, let me thy kindness hear, for in thee do I trust.

[39:13] Teach me the way that I should walk. I lift my soul to thee. Lord, free me from my foes. I flee to thee to cover me. Because thou art my God to do thy will, do me instruct.

[39:26] Thy spirit is good, me to the land of uprightness conduct. Revive and quicken me, O Lord, in for thine own name's sake. And do thou for thy righteousness my soul from trouble take.

[39:38] So these verses of Psalm 143, to God's praise. Psalm 143, Teach me the way that I should walk.

[40:19] I lift my soul to thee. Lord, free me from my foes.

[40:30] I flee to thee to cover me. Because thou art my God to do, thy will to me instruct.

[40:50] Thy spirit is good, be to the land of a brightness on time.

[41:04] Revive and quicken me, O Lord, in for thine own name's sake.

[41:19] And do thou for thy righteousness my soul from trouble take.

[41:31] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore.

[41:42] Amen.