The servant of Jehovah is presented as the leader of praise, characterized by quietness, gentleness, and steadfastness, rather than outward show. This servant, the Lord Jesus, does not break a bruised reed or quench a smoking flax, illustrating his tender care for those who are weak or struggling. His unwavering commitment to fulfilling God's purpose, even in the face of discouragement, highlights his steadfastness until judgment is established on earth. Ultimately, the sermon emphasizes that true power lies not in a loud voice but in a quiet, gentle, and steadfast ministry, leading his people in praise and worship.
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So we'll read as well as read in Isaiah chapter seven. So now I suggest this. And so before the time he won't stand. Shall we read again? He's in the prophet Isaiah chapter forty-two. Isaiah chapter forty-two in the first verse. Behold, my servants whom I oppose, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I have put my Spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to the haired in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break. On the smoking planks shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment on the truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he hath said judgment in the earth, and the isle shall wait for his law. Thus says the Lord, God the Lord, he that created the heaven and stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walks are in.
I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and I will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentile, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and then that sit in darkness out of the prison heart. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will not give to another, neither my praise the graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare. before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth.
Ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice. The villages that Kedar got inhabited. Let the inhabitants of the rock sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountain. Let them give glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the island. During this past week we have been looking at some of the lovely things in the prophet Isaiah concerning the person of the Lord Jesus and his wonderful work in redemption. A night by night we have been pointing out that there are three great portions of the prophet Isaiah that deal with the person and work of the Lord.
The first one is in chapter seven through to the end of chapter eleven. And night by night we have been reminding you that we there we get three pictures of the Lord Jesus. First of all, his virgin birth in chapter seven, and then his eternal sonship in chapter nine. And then he's a shooter of the same objectory in chapter eleven. Three wonderful messianic passages that deal with the person of the Lord Jesus in a threefold way. And on the central part of the passage we get the king. We were speaking about the king and his view, some wonderful things not only concerning the king but also concerning his coming kingdom. We were looking at that another night.
And then last night we were speaking of the ministry of the good shepherd in chapter forty. In the third section of the prophet Isaiah from chapter forty to the end of chapter sixty-six we get seven beautiful pictures of the Lord. The first one is a shepherd. The second is a singer. The third one is a soldier. The fourth one is a scholar. And the fifth one is a sufferer. And then we get him as a savior. And finally we get him as sovereign Lord. These seven beautiful pictures in the latter part of the prophet Isaiah gives us a marvelous composite outline of the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Here he's regarded as the servant of Jehovah.
Now you notice that the passage that we read tonight, it commences with that word, Behold my servant. And what we want to do tonight is for a little while to speak of the Lord Jesus as a singer, as the leader of praise among his people. And you notice that in the passage that we have read together, we get that little expression, Let the inhabitants of the rock sing. Let the inhabitants of the rock sing. And you notice that here, for the first time in the prophecy, we get the term. the new song, the new song of redemption. Now we have been pointing out to that these three sections of the prophet Isaiah is enclosed in song. Each one of them, it commences with a song and it ends with a song.
Not only do we get it, but in the first section, in chapter five, the first song, the song of the vineyard. But then again in chapter twelve, we get the song of the wells of salvation. So at the first section of the prophecy, is enclosed in two beautiful songs. We find exactly the same feature in the second part of the prophecy. In chapter twenty-six we get the Song of the Rock of Ages. In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. And if you look at the margin of that lovely passage in chapter twenty-six where we get a beautiful song, we read, In the Lord Jehovah is the Rock of Ages. It's the Song of the Rock of Ages. And then at the end of that section in chapter...
Thirty-five, we get the song of the rejoicing desert. The place that once was a desert, it shall rejoice again, and it will blossom like the rose. Beautiful picture of millennial days, and how that the poor groaning creation today will be brought into line with God's purpose, and the desert shall blossom as the rose. Now the passage that we have read together tonight, we get the servant of Jehovah, and right in the center we get the expression, Let the inhabitants of the rock sing. And then we get the new song, the new song of redemption. And then at the end of this section, in chapter fifty-four, immediately after, we get the atoning death of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's cross in chapter fifty-three.
That magnificent outline of his atoning death, again we get the word, Sing ye Barn. And here we get the song of restored Israel at the end of the passage. Now there are six great songs, and the word that we want to put upon them is servant songs. And if we were to look at each one here tonight, we could very well occupy our time in looking at these six beautiful songs in the prophet Isaiah. Now it's perfectly obvious that we won't have time to do that at all. The only reason that I mention the songs is that they might give some fruit for thought, and that they might sit down to the study of these songs in the prophet Isaiah on the sequence of teaching that we get in them. But the idea that I want to point out and emphasize tonight is that the three great passages that deal with the person and work of the Lord Jesus, it's enclosed in each case in a psalm.
And we do get a sequence on a development of doctrine and teaching connected with them. We won't have time to look at them tonight in any detail at all, but I just want to pass on the suggestion. What I would like to speak about for a little while tonight is the Lord Jesus as the leader of praise among his people. And we get the suggestion here. It commences with the word, Behold, my servant. And then we get a threefold lovely picture of the servant. And three great moral glories connected with him before we're introduced to the song. Read, Behold, my servant whom I have called, my elect, and whom my soul delighted. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment through the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up. nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. The first moral glory that we find of the servant of Jehovah here is softness. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. And then the second one is gentleness. We were speaking a little bit about this at the close of the meeting last night. A bruised reed shall he not break. Under smoking plants shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment on the truth. The first moral glory of the Lord Jesus here is softness and quietness.
And the second one is gentleness, in the bruised reed and the smoking plex that he doesn't quench. And then the third one is steadfastness. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment on the earth and the isle shall wait for his love. Last night we spoke for a little while of the gentle character of the Lord Jesus. in connection with his shepherd ministry. You remember the fourfold character of the Lord that we were speaking about last night as a good shepherd of the sheep. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his fusa and shall gently lead those that are with young.
Here we get his feeding ministry. We get his gathering ministry. His ministry of comfort. and then his gentle ministry of guidance and leading his people in the pathways of God here below. I want to continue that tonight just for a moment or two in the moral character that we find of the servant of Jehovah here. And the first characteristic of the servant is, he shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. You know, some people get the idea today that power is in a grid-big booming voice. and somebody that goes around throwing their weight about and bawling at the top of their lungs and making themselves heard everywhere they go.
And the idea among so many people today, whether it's in preaching or praying or what have you, that power is always in a great big booming voice. Now you don't get that in connection with the Lord Jesus. I remember years ago hearing a brother speaking about this and preaching. And about a man that was continually bawling and roaring at the top of his voice when he was preaching, he said this. He quoted a little rhyme that he had found somewhere, and this was what he called it. Alas for our brother, Big Roar, his preaching, no never did score. He thought it was sound. Everyone found. It was sound.
Just sound. Nothing more. Now we find here in connection with the Lord Jesus that this was something that didn't characterize him at all. His preaching, on his demeanor, on his deportment among men was characterized by quietness. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. I suppose as far as we are concerned we feel a little bit shocked when we come home from a place like Africa and hear somebody bawling at the top of their voice when they're preaching or when they're praying. As a matter of fact, it always makes me feel a kind of hurt to hear anybody shouting at the top of their voice when they're praying to God. Some people get the idea that that kind of thing is power.
But I believe that when we come into the presence of God and speak to him, I believe we should be very quiet and very reverent. I've heard sometimes someone get up and pray and they speak very gently and then they get louder and louder and louder and louder and before you know where they are, they're brawling at the top of their lungs. as they're speaking to God. Now, I believe that that's most there ever. And I believe that in speaking to them, in speaking to God, we should be very careful of our language and very careful of the voice that we use too. And not only that, in our preaching as well. You know, the most of our preaching over and over again, it's a kind of conversation. And I suppose when I was brought up here in the north of Ireland, I'm not being critical, don't misunderstand me here.
That's not the point at all. But I've spent the most of my life out of my native land. And the most of her preaching is around the campfire at night. And we gather the people together and we sit on and we gossip the gospel and we talk to them. And it's generally conversational. It's a kind of a dialogue. We say something or maybe explain the gospel and the people are perfect at liberty to butt in on either to contradict you or else to ask a question. This is the kind of preaching that personally I'm used to. And it's always a quiet kind of a thing. And we sit down there and we talk to the people about their spiritual condition, about their soul's condition and the sight of God.
And generally, preaching is the same thing. And sometimes when we come home and hear somebody yelling and bawling at the top of their lungs, I feel a little bit, well, I just can't tell you how I feel. But I always think of this verse of Scripture here connected with the Lord Jesus, He shall not cry nor lift up. nor cause his voice to be heard on the street. His ministry was characterized by quietness. And you know, that quietness, I believe, was characterized by the power of God. Remember this, that power is not in a great, big, large, aggressive, pugnacious voice. It's not. And wherever you find a man speaking in the presence of God, to the people of God, or in the proclamation of the gospel, when it's clothed with power, you can feel that power.
I remember some time ago being on the other side of the Atlantic in a meeting in Chicago. And when I stepped up on the platform, there was a little notice on the desk. I had never seen anything like it before in any other part of the world. And the notice on the desk was this. Please don't shut. The acoustics in the building are quite good. And I stood and I looked at it. Please don't shut. The acoustics in the building are quite good. And I learned a lesson from that. And here we find that one of the first moral glory of the Lord Jesus here is quietness. In quietness, he didn't cry or lift up or cause his voice to be heard on the street. He was characterized by that quiet, gentle ministry.
And we find that so often in the Gospels and also in the Old Testament concerning the men that minister the Word of God. I know that there may have been some a little bit different. I heard Mr. Tom Ray over in Africa ministering. at a conference of workers. I had a very happy time with him there for a couple of weeks. And he gave a little address one time on Elijah. And the way he started his address was this. He said, here is a man, he said, who came in with a bind. And he said, he thundered his way through life. And he went up to heaven and a whirlwind and a chariot of fire. That was the way he started. And he gave his little outline of Elijah. I suppose he was a man like that. But you know Elijah, he had to learn a lesson.
And you remember, as he saw God revealed when he went to Harlem, he learned that the presence of God, it wasn't in this or that or the other thing. It wasn't in the cyclone. It wasn't in the noise, or it wasn't in the tempest, but it was that still gentle voice. And there the presence of God was revealed to his servant. Now this is the first moral glory of the Lord Jesus. And again, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not criticizing anybody. But I just want to point out that in connection with the Lord Jesus himself, is the first moral glory of the servant. He shall not cry, nor lift out, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. And then the second thing is gentleness.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flesh shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment on the truth. I understand that the word here for a bruised reed is a musical instrument. Apparently the shepherd As he was out taking care of the sheep, he would pick up a piece of a straw. And he would fashion that straw into a little flute. He would make some holes in it, and he would sharpen it at the end. And sitting there taking care of a sheep, he would take this reed, and he would use it as a little flute. And he would play his tune as he was sitting there. But sometimes, you know, a reed can be easily broken. And the harmony can be destroyed.
On the tendency would be, as the little flute that he has had here, this reed that he has been using as a flute, as a musical instrument. If anything happened to it that it was destroyed, the tendency would be just to throw it away. But the Lord Jesus, he tells us here, in connection with his ministry, that bruised reed shall he not break. You know, there's some of us here on where bruised reeds, all at one time when our hearts were in tune with God and harmonized with God, and we looked to sit and play our little tune. and throws a tune at our hearts, and it went up to God. I'll never forget, as long as I live, the morning after God saved me, just a short while afterwards, I went down to my work.
I worked in the shipyard in those days, and I never forget going down and sitting underneath the keel of one of these large ocean liners on which I was working. And while I was sitting there waiting for the ship to be launched, we were cutting out the keel blocks from underneath there, It was my business. It was my trade. And while I was sitting there, it was a mall in my hand, just waiting to knock the pitchfine keel blocks out from an underer. That little verse of a hymn was going through my mind. It passes knowledge that dear love of thine. Lord Jesus, Savior, yet this heart of mine, with all thy love, in all its breadth and length, its height and depth, no more and more.
My heart was in tune with God in those days. It was just like the little reed. sitting there playing it in tune with God. But you know, sometimes the reed, it becomes broken and it becomes bruised. But he doesn't throw it away. He straightens it out again. And sometimes after it has been bruised, and the song has been taken from our heart. Oh, he straightens it out again. And we're able to play that tune again in God's presence and the praise, the hymn of praise, it goes up to God. It's a delightful thing to see a person in their first love and the tune and the praise. going up from their heart to God when they're in tune with God. On the second clause we get here is, the smoking flanks shall he not quench.
I understand that the idea here was a primitive lamb. On a piece of flanks, sitting in the little earth and we're lamb, sitting in the oil. But somehow it gets mixed with water, and it starts to splitter, and it starts to go out, and it starts to smoke. But what does he do? He takes it out and he dries it and he puts it back in again. The smoking flax will he not quench. On the little lamp that is burned dimly, when mixed or adulterated with something of this world, he cleans it up and he puts it back in the little lamp so that it brightly shines again. The second ministry of the servant of Jehovah here is, first of all, its quietness and softness.
And here its gentleness. He straightens the harmony in our hearts. He straightens it out. On the little lamp that has been burning very dimly, indeed, he brightens it up again so that it may shine again. This is the second moral glory of the servant. And then thirdly, he shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the air, and the isle shall wait for his law. Here is steadfastness. You know, the Lord Jesus... when he was here on earth had plenty to discourage. There may be some discouraged heart on our meeting here tonight. I've been talking in recent days to some of my beloved brethren here in Belfast.
And everywhere we go we find people who are discouraged for one reason or another. You know the Bible is full of discouraged men and women. Read about Elijah under the juniper tree. And read about Jonah underneath the gourd. And we read of lots of discouraged men and women in the Bible. But thank God he shall not fail nor be discouraged. We get the example of steadfastness in the heart and in the life and in the testimony of the servant of Jehovah here. He went on right through with the task that God had given him to do right to the end. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. So here we get the three full glory, three moral glories of the Lord Jesus here.
the leader of praise among his people. There's so much to knock the song out of our hearts today and to take the harmony out of our testimony. But oh thank God when we look at him and think of the work that he did upon earth. Oh thank God we can lift up our heads and take courage when we think of himself. Now just for a moment or two tonight I want to think of the Lord Jesus as the leader of praise. Further down the chapter we read here about the new song. And then we get the exhortation, Let the inhabitants of the rock sing. And then there are the six songs in the prophet Isaiah. You know, everywhere in the Bible we read about praise.
I was just thinking of four of them today. Four great sections of Scripture that speak of praise. And the first one is the song of creation. Isn't it the book of Job? We read about the sons of God rejoicing. When the stars were flung into space, and those island universes and the constellations above our head at their creation read that the sons of God, they rejoice. I believe that the sons of God in that particular passage are angelic beings. And there we get the angelic song at creation. As they saw that wonderful work of the creation of the universe, we read that the angelic host they sang for joy.
There was the song of creation. As far as the Bible is concerned, the first song we get is the song of redemption. In Exodus chapter seventeen, remember after the people of Israel had been brought out of the land of Egypt, they had been redeemed by blood and redeemed by power. And on the banks of the Red Sea, they lifted up their heads and they sang. The first song of the Bible is Exodus chapter seventeen, and it's the song of redemption. But when we turn over to the Gospels, we find that the first songs we get there are songs of the incarnation. You know, if you want a song, a song of praise, or if you want harmony, you must have two men and two women.
First of all, we get the soprano, and then we get the contralto, and then we get the tenor, and then we get the bass. And to have real harmony in song or praise, you must have the four voices. the two men and the two women. And the delightful thing about the New Testament scriptures is this. At the incarnation. For the Lord Jesus, when he was born, read first of all of the song that came from heaven. The same angelic choir that sang at creation at the commencement. For the Lord of life and glory was born here upon earth. We get that song that comes from heaven. Glory to God on the highest. And on earth, peace, good will toward man.
There we get the song that comes from heaven. But in the first two chapters of the Gospel According to Luke, we get the response from Mary and we get two men and two women. First of all, the song of the Virgin Mary. There you get that delightful soprano voice. If we were to turn over to the passage tonight, again we could well occupy our time at looking at the beautiful expressions that we find in the Gospel According to Luke in that song, the soprano voice of the Virgin. in connection with the birth of her son. And then the second is the voice of Elizabeth. There you get the contralta voice. And she has her tribute of praise to the God of heaven for the incarnation, for the birth of the Lord Jesus.
And then we turn over a little further and we get the song of Zechariah. And there in that song we get the tenor. He has a lot to say about the covenants of the Old Testament that were given to Abraham and to David. and how they had been fulfilled. And then finally you get the deep-based voice of Simeon, speaking of the death of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's cross. And that sword that would pierce the very heart of the Virgin, the very heart of Mary, that would pierce in her heart. And there we get the deep-based voice of Simeon. Now these are the first four songs in the New Testament. And taking the four together you get a beautiful symphony.
You get a beautiful harmony. You get the lovely soprano of the Virgin Mary. You get the beautiful contralto of Elizabeth. And then you get the tenor of Zechariah. And finally you get the deep-faced voice of Simeon. And putting the four together on the teaching that we find in it, we find a harmony and a symphony of praise surrounding the incarnation, the birth of the Lord Jesus here upon earth, here below. Now the final great collection of Psalms that we find in the Bible we get in the Book of Revelation, I've often thought that in the Book of Revelation the key to the book is the person of the Lord Jesus.
In the Book of Revelation we get there seven great pictures of the Lord Jesus himself and I don't think we'll ever be able to understand the Book of Revelation without getting a clear idea in our mind. of those seven great outstanding pictures and visions of the Lord Jesus in the book. But alongside of the visions of Christ, we get seven great doxology. Seven doxologies of praise linked with the seven visions of the Lord Jesus Christ. And again here, we get a sequence on a development of doctrine and teaching concerning praise in the heart of the believer. So that from the Bible, from beginning to end, Praise, praise, praise, praise.
First of all, praise and glory to God in connection with creation. And then secondly, the praise connected with redemption. And then thirdly, the praise connected with the incarnation. And finally, the new song of redemption that we get in the book of Revelation and taking them all together. Here we get these great volumes of praise going up to God on account of what he has done for his people. Now what I would like to do tonight is to encourage each one of our hearts to get into tune with God and to praise him from day to day. You know, one thing that we can't help but drawing a contrast in so many of our meetings here in this country and the kind of singing and praise that we have in a place like Africa, I'm not going to draw any comparisons at all.
But all I can say is, that our brethren over there in Africa, they do know how to sing. They know how to sing. And I think that the reason for that is they've been so downtrodden through the ages and they've been so persecuted, it would delight your heart to hear an African audience sing a hymn of praise to God. Now, in our part of Africa, we don't use any instrument at all. We don't. But to hear those little boys sitting in the front seat and the little girls over here, And then behind that again, to hear the young women and the older folk, and to hear them lift their voices and praise to God, it would delight their hearts.
They harmonize. They have never had any training along that line at all. But if you were to give out of him, like all hail the power of Jesus' name, let angels prostrate fall, bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all. And you'd hear the little boys and the girls and the older folk behind, and the whole audience, the whole congregation singing that hymn. Many a time I've been so absolutely thrilled to hear the volume of praise going up to God that I just sat in the corner and just bowed my head and I've hidden my face so that people wouldn't see a tear through dropping out of my eye to hear that volume of praise going up to God.
And I believe that's just a little foretaste of what it will be in the coming day. When we get into the presence of God and hear that new Psalm of Redemption, going up to God for what he has done for us. Now just a word or two about the six different songs that we find in the book of Isaiah. We get the three sections concerning the person of the Lord Jesus enclosed in song. And the first one is the song of the vineyard. Now there we get rather a discouraging song. Read there about the vine that had been brought out of the land of Egypt. and read that the bore of the wood, it had destroyed that vine.
It was a goodly vine, redeemed and brought out of the land of Egypt, and placed in the land as God's testimony. And to hear God speaking through his people at the beginning of the prophecy is rather pathetic. And if you read the prophecy right through, you find that testimony that God had planted in the land, that testimony gradually was lost. so that when the Lord, when he was heard upon earth, he had to say, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. You know, God at every age, he has had a testimony. And wherever you find the vine in Scripture, it always speaks of testimony to the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
His atoning death upon Calvary's cross on Israel at the commencement was that vine that was brought out of the land of Egypt and planted in the land. But Santa said, on account of their departure from God and their sin, we find that that vine, it had lost its testimony. So the first song we get here is rather a song of discouragement. A song where we find the people of Israel going down, down, down on their testimony last. But here we find the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is introduced. And when he is introduced into the scene at the end, it's the song. of the wells of salvation.
I'll read about drawing water out of the wells of salvation. The word I'd like to put upon that song is the Gospel Psalm. On the one hand, it's the vine, the song of the vine. But after the introduction of the person of the Lord Jesus and his wonderful work, we get the song of the wells of salvation. You know, it's a delightful thing to hear a good Gospel song well sung. I never think of this, but I think of some people that were led to Christ through the singing of a hymn. Many a time on Shastry Square, there was a man who used to stand there preaching the gospel, and he was one of the greatest trophies of grace, I think, that ever God reached in the city of Belfast.
His name was Billy Hutton. You may remember him, the older folk at least. I have heard Billy Hutton standing at Shastry Square and lifting up his two horny hands. He was a man just about five feet tall, broad shoulder, little bullet head. And you could tell that a man, he was a terrific strength. And I've heard him stand in Shastri Square and lift up his two hands and say, these hands killed a man. These hands killed a man. That was perfectly true. He gave a man such a moaning in a fight one night that the man died. He was tried for the crime. and through some legal technicality, instead of being hung for his crime, it was judged as manslaughter.
And Billy Hutton, he was given a term in the Cumberland Road jail. And I've heard him many a time tell the story himself, sitting on the little wooden bench on the Cumberland Road and hearing singing outside, a song of him of praise to God. He stood up upon the wooden bench, and so that he could hear it properly, he took his great big horny fist, and he punched a hole through the window-glass, and he held his ear up to the hole in the window-glass, and he heard these words, In evil long I took delight, on odd by shame or fear, till a new object met my sight and stopped my wild career. Oh, the Lamb, the Bleeding Lamb, the Lamb of Calvary, the Lamb that was slain, that liveth again, and who interceded for me, and Billy Hutton, a poor ignorant, seeking so with his ear, To that hole in the window glass, he heard the gospel that day, and God saved his soul.
And he lived for many years to prove that it had been completely transformed, it had been changed, and it happened through the singing of a hymn. You know, I believe that God uses his word. It's the agency that God uses in the new birth, in salvation. But many, many times, God has used a good gospel song, a good gospel hymn, not only for conviction, but but also in leading a person to the cross. So the song of the wells of salvation that we find here, I think, to bring before us these beautiful, beautiful hymns that we have in our collection today, first of all, the failure of Israel, but secondly, the song of the wells of salvation, speaking of the gospel.
Now in the middle part, again we get a picture of the Lord Jesus as the king. And at the beginning, the song is the song of the rock of Egypt. I don't know what you feel about our hymn book, but in the hymn book today there's an awful lot of trash. And I heard Mr. William Rogers many years ago say this. He says that some of the little choruses and hymns that we sing today, and he says there's no more gospel in them than the little Jack Horner sat in the corner eating his Christmas pie. He says absolutely nothing to them. And that some of them, well, a little fancy tune, a little jingle. And sometimes the tickle the ear. But as far as any gospel truth in them is concerned, it's absolutely beside the point.
But you know, we do have some beautiful hymns in our language. And if anybody were to ask me, what do you think is the most beautiful hymn in the English language? I would find it very hard to pass by that hymn, Rock of Ages, Fletch or Me. Let me hide myself and thee. Let the water and the blood, From thy rib and side which flow, Be of sin the double cure, save me from its guilt and power. That Hema is just absolutely full of pure gospel truth. I believe the man who wrote that, he certainly must have been helped by God to put those beautiful words together. Rock of Ages cleft for me. And here we find the song of the Rock of Ages at the beginning of the second section.
And at the end, we find the song of the rejoicing desert. We get the poor pilgrim, and he's going through the desert. And mind you, we're pilgrims and strangers today. And there's a large section of the sands. And you could call them pilgrim sands. I think the eighty-fourth psalm is characterized by that. First of all, if we find the pilgrim, he is a homesick longing. He longs for home. And then in the middle part of the psalm, he's on his way home. And then finally he gets home. And I think that the songs of degrees that we find at the end of the collection in the book of Psalms, they're what you might call pilgrim psalms. or desert song. And you know, it's a wonderful thing when you feel homesick to sing a good song that speaks about heaven and home.
You know, if there's one word more than another in our English language today that I love, I love it in the very core of my being, it's that of every word home. And the reason for that is I spent the most of my life away from home. And many, many, many times, lying on the blood of my back, a sight of fire out in the middle of Africa, and hearing Africans chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter away on their own tongue, my mind was thousands of miles away. And I tell you where my mind was, it was right here in Belfast. And when it came to a Tuesday night, and I realized that it was the night of the prayer meeting, I wondered, I wonder what they're praying about tonight. And while I was lying away over there, thousands of miles away, the Lord knows that in spirit I was among the people of God here at all.
You know, it's a wonderful thing to have a home state longing. But you know it's a great thing to come home. And to me the most beautiful word in the English language is this word home. But you know sometimes we get a disappointment. I'll never forget the first time when I did come home. I had myself all built up and what a wonderful thing it would be to come home. And finally after a long journey on the old ship every turn of the propeller, I'll say well that's another turn. That's another turn towards home. I'll never forget when I got home. And everything that I had pictured in my mind, it all came through except one thing. I walked into a little place that I called home. And when I went in there, the pictures were on the wall all right.
And the fire was burning in the grave. And the place was just as I had it pictured in my mind. And up one street and down another, opened the door and walked in, it was all there. But you know there was one thing that was missing. There was a couple of empty chairs sitting there. And as I looked at these empty chairs, I said, oh, no, no, this isn't home any longer. You know, home is to be among your own loved one. And if they're not there, oh, what a longing, what a feeling you have in your heart. And as life has gone on, it has always, to me, been a delightful thing to come back to Belfast. What a feeling it is every time to come down Belfast's lot and see the Donegal Key.
and to step off the boat or step off the plane and grasp the hand of some good friend. There's nothing more delightful here on earth than to come home. But oh, thank God one day we're not going to get any disappointed about empty chair. But thank God when we get through our eternal home, the desert will be passed and the desert shall blossom as a rose as far as we're concerned and we really will be home. We'll be home there. And all our desires will be completely satisfied and completely fulfilled. I've told the story sometimes about during the war, when we were coming home in nineteen forty-five, we had been out nine years at that time. And during the war we had to be fingerprinted in every country where we passed through.
In Angola, I had a pocket full of visas and I had my passport. And then I had a document that they call Aguilla and my photograph on it. And not only the fingerprint of every one of my fingers, but actually the palms of my hands I had to print it on this paper. And I was documented and photographed and fingerprinted all over the place. On every frontier that I passed by, I had to present my document. And I got the barada habit. I had a pocket full of them in here in my inside pocket. When we crossed the frontier into the Belgian Congo, I pulled out my handful of papers and I presented them to the immigration man.
And he checked them over. And then we crossed the frontier into Northern Rhodesia, and again he did the same, checked them over. We crossed the frontier into the Transvaal, into the Union of South Africa, and he checked them over. And every place we went, it was just check, check, check, check, more photographs and more fingerprints everywhere we went. But I'll never forget the day that we landed in Belfast. After the journey, it was all over. And as I came down the gangplank in nineteen forty-five on the Donegal Key, There was a man standing there in a naval uniform. He looked an important individual. And I instinctively put my hand in my pocket. And I reached for my passport and my documents and my fingerprints and photographs.
And I pulled it out of my pocket. And I said, Do you want to see my passport and my document? He said, Man, where were you born? I said, I was born right here. Well, it says, just keep them in your pocket. Put them in your pocket. He says, Man, it is your home. Your home. You know, it's a wonderful thing to come home. And the desert will be forever past. And all, thank God, when we get home. These things that we've been reading about, in connection with pilgrimage down here, will no longer be strangers and pilgrims. And that's a word we have learned to know very, very well. You know, every time you meet an immigration man in Angola, in Portuguese territory, there's a word that's through at you all the time. And the word in Portuguese for a foreigner is Istringel.
And they just spit it out at you. and to roll it around your tongue, and to look at you and to say, you're an Ishtren Jailu, you're a foreigner, and my love to use that word, and to throw it in your face every time they meet you, you're an Ishtren Jail. And you know, unfortunately, sometimes in other countries they do the same thing. The first time I ever went to the United States, I went with my wife, and she was a citizen. And when the ship docked in New York, There was a hard-faced looking individual. He came on board and he said this. He said, citizens this way. And then he said, aliens. Aliens. Aliens. Stay right here.
And he rolled that word underneath the tongue. Alien. You know, we've just said that the most beautiful word in English is the word home. And I think it is. But I think the most horrible word in the English language is alien. It's a horrible word. And to throw this at you every time. that to see a man who doesn't carry a passport or who isn't a citizen, to say, you're an alien. And they'll love to use that word. But oh, thank God one day, we're going to leave these horrible, horrible words behind. And the desert will be forever past. And we're going to go in. And we're going to see the king and his beauty. And we're going to be with him and like him forever. So first of all, we get the vineyard.
And then at the end, we get the wells of salvation, the gospel song. And then we get the rock of ages, and then we get the song of the rejoicing desert. When the desert is passed, it blossoms like a rose. But in the passage we read tonight, we get the new song, the new song of redemption. Seven times in the book of Sam's we read about the new song. And every time you read about the new song, it's always the new song of redemption. Thank God when we get home to heaven, that new song will be sung in the presence of God. unto him that loves us, and looses from our sins in his own blood, and will be with him, and be like him, forever and forever.
May God bless his word to each one of our hearts tonight, and may God make us of praising people. Not only those that have the knowledge of God's salvation in their heart, but may the Lord give us a joy of God's salvation too, that we may be able to rejoice and to sing and to praise God for the wonderful things that he has done for us for his namesake. Holy prayer. Our God and Father, we bow again before thee in the name of the Lord Jesus, and we do thank thee for thy words. We thank thee that thou hast put the joy of the Lord in our hearts. We thank thee that thou hast shown us the work of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's cross.
How it has met all our needs and filled our hearts with joy and gladness. Our Father, while down here, we often... We feel sorrowful and very oftenly weak, bitter tears. But yet we thank thee that one day those tears are going to be wiped away and will be forever with thee and like thee. We pray that it bless thy word, bless thy people here tonight, and those that sorrow, those that go through difficulty, we pray that comfort their hearts, help them to look to thee. And our Father, we do pray thee so that they may be able to have the... garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. We ask it in His own worthy name. Amen. God willing, tomorrow night, we want to speak on Isaiah fifty-three.
I don't know of any passage that gives us more joy to speak about in this great passage that deals with the atoning dead of the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's cross. I'm just so grateful tonight to see quite a number of visitors And we're thankful to see it. If he can come back again tomorrow night on a Friday night, we'll be very grateful too. I think we'll just sing a couple of verses of the hymn and flow then. Hymn number four hundred and forty-four. Four, four, four. We speak of the land of the blessed, that country so bright and so fair. And after its glory is confessed, but what must it be to be there?
We speak of it in peace under Islam, the roads which the glorified were, the songs of the blessed above, but what must it be to be there? We'll just sing the first and the last two verses of four hundred and forty-four, and then I'll make this over. We speak of the land of the land, of the land that is so great and bright and so fair, And of her story compared, but what must it be to be there?
to be there, to be there, oh, what must it be, to be there, to be there, oh what must it be, to be there. deep on its freedom from sin, from sorrow, temptation and care, from guile to love and to shame, but what must it be to be there.
Good evening, good evening, oh one last evening, good evening, good evening, oh one last evening, good evening, good evening, I want His vengeance our whole For heaven our spirits be there Then surely our soul shall know And give what it is to be there To be
there, to be there, oh what must it be, to be there, to be there. Oh Allah, is Heberian.