Well, it's good to be with you this evening and to be able to spend a little time in prayer fellowship together. It's a wonderful thing to be able to come to the presence of the living God and commit this time to Him that He may be glorified in it and through our lives. We're so thankful that He is a sovereign God. He has power to move in hearts, even stubborn hearts. And sometimes our hearts are pretty stubborn. Right? If your heart's like mine it is. And I'm so glad that God does move in that sovereign way to woo us and take our love to Him, to bring us to the position sometimes that we need to cry out like the psalmist did. in the sixty-first psalm and the first three verses. I'd like to look at those this evening, principally one word from them from that psalm. But you know what's laid this on my heart, I suppose, is to look around us, things are changing so rapidly, and some things in the last few days seem like they're coming apart at the seams, principally the stock market, huh? But there's been things coming apart before that. Been a difficult year or two. Difficult for the farmers, and it's difficult for the agricultural machine manufacturers, where we live in the Quad Cities. It's got most of them there, you know. John Deere's there. Farm All was there. Farm All is no more. And International Harvester, that's no more either. That's J.I. Case today. John Deere right now got all seven of their plants closed. I think three of them in the city at Rock Island, Davenport. One of them went on strike, so they shut the rest of them down. Caterpillar tractors moved over six hundred and some jobs away from the place, taking some to France and some to Scotland and thinking about taking some more. And GI Case announced not too many months back that they're going to close their two plants in Rock Island. And somebody told me here just a little bit ago that the Quad Cities has lost twenty-two thousand jobs plus in the last two years. So we can have the sense of the instability of things when it hits the grassroots where the food come from and things like that. It's soon going to touch the rest. It's just a period of time. But you know, if we were to take and look at all those things and dwell on them, pretty soon we'd be really shook, wouldn't we? But if, on the other hand, we look at something that's sure and steadfast, then we get a focal point that our eyes can be fixed on, and we see something that stands sure. Now, prudential got a rock. And he often say, you want a piece of the rock. Well, sometimes when I hear that, I say, I have the whole rock. And that's not Gibraltar either. Because one day he's going to shake the earth and Gibraltar is going to crumble. And that rock that they feel is so sure is going to falter. But there is a rock that stands forever. And that rock is Christ. Book of Hebrews chapter thirteen and verse eighteen teaches us that Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, forever. In other words, I can look back to my childhood, to the time that I came to Christ and know that that same one that I came to when I was about twelve years old is still the same today. And when the endless eons of time roll by, he will still be the same. He never changes. Now, the gold standard is changing. It does every day. But he doesn't. He stands the same. When we look at monetary values, they're continually changing. But when we view Christ, He is, indeed, the most precious thing in the universe that God gave for His Son. He is the highest value that there is. There's no value higher than Christ. you were purchased or you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. And that has and is the highest value. It does not change. It had the same value the day of Calvary as the day of incarnation, as it has today, as it will be when Christ comes again. will be when He reigns eternally or reigns on this earth and then comes back and reigns on the new earth and we reign with Him. It will always be the same. There's no changing in that value. And beloved, if we're going to be at peace today and our hearts are going to rest, then we're going to have to rest on an unchanging value. He's the rock that stands forever. Now, in this psalm, David is calling to God, Hear my cry, O God, attend to my prayer. Now, we have done that, haven't we? Tonight we came for a little while audibly and inaudibly to our God. And we cried to him. Now, we know he hears our cry, because the Word of God tells us that. He says his eyes upon the righteous and his ear is open to their crop. So when we get things a bit shaking, we have to lift our heart to him and find the quiet place. Now I've learned by experience, the thing that quietes this heart of mind down is to go to the word of God and shut everything else out. Because as long as my mind and my eyes are fixed on the changing things that I cannot change around about me, there's disturbance in my heart. Isn't that true? And yours as well. But when we sit down with the Word of God and then our heart begins to be lifted, we come to peace. Because we're thinking on the things that are true and the things that are honest, the things of good report, we fix our eyes on him. So David is crying to God. Untend unto my prayer. Now David had lots of reason to cry, didn't he? He went through all kinds of experiences. And I would like to suggest to you today that when David made this cry, he said it was from the end of the earth, I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Now, I'm sure that while I was over there and driving along the Dead Sea and looking out into that wilderness of Judea and thinking as I did about the days that David spent there, some of them days of hiding, some of them in days of exile because of his own family. And the cry in his heart was not restored to me the right things, Lord. Give me back my throne. I wasn't his cry here. His cry was lead me to the rock that is higher than I. His cry wasn't make things right, Lord. His cry was lead me to the rock that's higher than I. And it seems to me that when we get into the difficult situations, then our heart has to cry, lead me. Have you ever been in those places when it seemed dead ends? It seemed there was no way out, no escape. And it was like a friend of mine once told me, Bill McCartney, he's in the glory today. In fact, I think I was here at a conference with Bill some years ago. And Bill told me what it was like when he went into a nervous breakdown that he had. Oh, it would have been perhaps thirty years ago now. And he said, Ray, as I was going down, it seemed to be a bottomless pit. And there seemed to be no way out and no escape. And I could only stick out my hand and cry, Oh, God, hang on. Now, the Lord does that because he promised that, didn't he? He said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Now, if I left out the italics, it's neither shall any. Mm-hmm. You got that? There's no devil, no demon, no power of man, no circumstance that happens. Not even God himself would take us from the hand of the Son. I think these are days when we need to see the security, but we need to see the cry, Lord, lead me to the rock. And that's to Christ himself. You know... If you have any doubts about that, you could go to First Corinthians chapter ten. And in those first few verses, you remember, he said these things that were written aforetime were written for our learning. He said in this particular portion, he said that in the book of Romans. But in Corinthians he says, the things that happened aforetime happened for examples for us who believe. And he had just spoken about them drinking from that rock that spiritual rock. And that rock followed them, and that rock was Christ. And so as we view the rock, we're viewing the one who is with the people of God. And David's cry here was to lead me to that rock. Why would he want to be led to the rock? Well, we could answer that because it was higher than I. And that's the only thing that can give us stability. Over I understand on the coast of Dover where the storms come in and hammer the cliffs. For a long time many lives had been lost on the reefs as ships were torn apart and men would get in lifeboats and be washed ashore, but then the boats would be hammered against those cliffs and there was no way that they could get up. So one man decided one time that if he could take and cut some steps into the cliffs, then men who came to the foot of that cliff could be brought to safety as he came up those steps. And sure enough, some man made the steps and then lives began to be saved. But through the years, the water began to wash away the stone. It was rather soft, and it began to wash it away. And as it did, it washed away the steps. And again, some stood on the top and watched people destroyed below. So some man got the idea that if we took and stung steel pegs into those rocks and dropped a metal ladder, then there'd be a way of escape and something that wouldn't wear out. And you know, when David was crying, lead me to the rock, it's kind of like the view of that, like a man in a storm. He's at the foot of that rock and he's looking up. He sees a secure place up above, but there's no way that he can reach it. And so in David's mind, I hear he sees the one who is the Lord. And so his cry is, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. When? When my heart is overwhelmed. Now these are days when hearts are being overwhelmed. And if you've done any camp work, you see how hearts of little ones are being overwhelmed. It used to be that the divorce rate wasn't anywhere near it is today. It's over fifty percent. And when you listen to the kids at camp talking about mom and dad splitting, little girl in Bible school just a month or so ago, right where we live, not far from the chapel. One day talking about her mother leaving and she's left with her dad and thinking, well, there's a day coming pretty soon when I've got to make a decision where I want to go to mom or dad. And I see those little ones with hearts that are torn apart. You know, there are family troubles today, lots of them. Children go into drugs. Children be disobedient to parents. children taking their own direction. A lot of it the responsibility of dad and mom. And I had pondered about talking to dad and mom this weekend, but I've done that before. But it's something well worth taking a look at. Because unless dad and mom's lives are straightened out, we're not going to have anything. Because if the kids are raised in a turmoil, chances are, as they go along in their lives by themselves, that's the way they're going to be. And I'm telling you something tonight. I stand here tonight, strictly by the grace of God, because I came from that. I know what it is to have a home split up before I knew anything. I can have a mind that can remember a children's home. and all the detail of it. And I say to you Christian moms and dads, if you know Christ, then take him in the reality of his love and show that love to one another and give the kids that time because that's what's going to make their lives. When you're in your family troubles and there are not many families who do not have troubles, Some people look at a preacher and think everything's supposed to be fine for him. Well, I got news for you. There are times when I buried my head in my pillow and I cried too. But God is the type of God who delivers. You know, if we have the faith and exercise that faith and give the family to him, and we did that in faith, then one day that we can rest in him, that he's going to straighten him out. And I can rejoice tonight in the fact that He's done that. In the time of storm, whether it's family, or maybe it's sin in your life. Now, I know when it comes to a group of people who come to a prayer meeting on a Friday night of a conference, there are usually people with a heart for God. But as well as a possibility that sin could be there, that separating the fellowship of husband and wife, or family and children, or fellowship within the assembly. If it's hindering that, then you need to be led to Him. Because in that storm, He brings the peace. Now I know when sin comes, conviction comes. And with conviction, it tears up the heart. And like David said in the Thirty Second Psalm, you become as the draught of summer. Bones dried, aching because of what's within. And so when we come to that time and the time of depression, lead me to the rock. Why the rock? It's higher than I. It's got the ability to straighten the life out. But now what do we find in the rock? We're going to be led to the rock. What do we find in the rock? I'm going to suggest to you that in a scripture, as far as I know, there are only four things that come out of the rock. There is one thing in the rock that is a hiding place, first of all. That does. I'm suggesting that that doesn't come out of the rock. That's in the rock. There is a hiding place. And that place God gave as a picture to Moses. When Moses said, Lord, let me see your glory. And remember what the Lord said to him? He said, well, all right, there's a place by me. I'll set your feet on the rock. I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock, and I'll cover you over with my hand. And as I pass by, you can see my glory, for no man could look upon God and live. And so he took Moses figuratively. He did it to Moses actually. But there's a figure or a picture in it for us. He was hiding him in the secure place of the sun. Because Christ was the rock. Christ was the pierced rock. Christ was the rock that was pierced for us. I understand in the Gaspay Peninsula, there is a rock out there called the Pierced Rock. It's a rock that was hollowed out. And the fishermen could roll their little dinghies in and find a secure place. And when it comes to Christ, you and I have a hiding place, because He's given us that place on the rock and in the rock, covered over with His hand. And we get to view the glory of God in the sun, Jesus Christ, because Christ was the glory of God manifest. If you want to see God and you want to see the glory of God, then sit down with His book and study Christ, because there's where His glory is shown. John says, We beheld His glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The glory of God was manifest in the Son. So I'm going to suggest to you that there's a hiding place there. But now concerning the things that come out of the rock, I'd like you to go to the book of Deuteronomy and chapter eight. Deuteronomy chapter eight. And you read in verse fifteen, who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and draught, where there was no water, who brought thee forth water out of the rock of Flint. This is the first thing that comes out of the rock is water. Now water in the scripture can give us several senses, can give us the flow of the Holy Spirit. can give us the sense of the Word of God. The Word of God is used in that simile of the water, being washed by the water of the Word. And so we get the idea even from John fifteen-three, where the Lord Jesus said, Now are ye clean through the words that I have spoken unto you. But we also get it in the book of Isaiah chapter twelve. with joy drawing water out of the wells of salvation. But you know, it was through the death of Christ the rock being struck. It was first spoken to, and then the water flowed. But then the second time, the rock, or the first time, pardon me, it was struck, and it was with that striking that the water flowed. Now, in the Gospel of John, I hear the Lord Jesus speaking to the woman at the well. And he said to her saver shall drink of the water that I shall give him. The water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water springing up to everlasting life. Salvation came through the striking of the rock, Jesus Christ. And when we go to the rock and are led to the rock, our first thing that we find in the rock is salvation. But then when the rock was struck, the rock was struck and the water flowed. And the second time we have the rock to be spoken to, but Moses in his anger struck it. He didn't do what God wanted him to do. God judged him for it, but God allowed the water to flow freely for his people. Now it was through salvation and the Lord Jesus dying on the cross and rising again and going away that the comforter was sent. He said he would go away, but he would send a comforter. He said, I will come to you. And so we got the sense of the water as it came that second time when the rock was struck. When Moses struck it, Now, that water is to be something to us. That spirit. You know, if any of us have been to the rock, we have that spirit. He says in Romans chapter eight and verse nine, He that hath not the spirit of Christ is none of His. If you've been to the rock, you have salvation, and you have that spirit. Now, His desire is that spirit would do something in us. find so many non-committed Christians. Just being blessed by the blessing of salvation and a knowledge of eternal life and knowing that they have that spirit within them that would cause us to be sealed forever as his own. Sealed to the day of redemption when that grace is going to give up this body. sealed till that day. And many have that today. And do not feel any commitment beyond that point. But you know what he says in the Gospel of John chapter seven and verse thirty-seven, thirty-eight and thirty-nine, just part of it. If he said that water was to do something, it would flow out of our inward most being as a river of living water. Something's wrong when we've been to the rock and we've had salvation so freely given and had that spirit as our seal and refused to allow it to flow. We choked it. Somewhere hindered it. It might be hindered by outright sin. It might be hindered by a coldness of heart. But it's hindered. But His desire was when we came to the rock and were led to that place, that that water would flow out of our inward most being, and that it would flow as a river of living water. I ask myself sometimes, when a day is done, and I lay my head down, how much of God has flowed through you today. It's a sobering thought, a much flow of the Spirit as there been through this being today. There is a second thing that comes from that rock, and it's found again in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter thirty-four. In this verse you get the second and the third thing. He made him ride on the high places of the earth. And he's talking about Israel. He made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the fields. And he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock. Now it gives two more things out of the rock that the people of God enjoyed that day. And what were they? Oil and honey. When we view the oil in the Old Testament, my how many times it was used for an anointing. And oil again gives us a type of the Holy Spirit. And we can see of the sense of the anointing of the people of God. Gives us the idea of something that was separated for him. Gives us the idea too. that God wanted His people to have some joy. And there is an anointing that gives joy. If you look in the book of the forty-fifth psalm, and you read in that psalm, it's quoted again in the book of Hebrews in chapter one, speaking of the Lord Jesus, that He was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellow. And when it comes to oil in the anointing, And that anointing through the Spirit, there is the sense of God's desire that we ought to have joy in it. That we should have joy in our lives. Now, if we go to Isaiah sixty-one three, he says in the nation of Israel that he's going to take one day, he's going to restore Israel. I like that. I like that because I know God's a God of restoration. He's going to restore to Israel one day all that the canker worm and the caterpillar is eaten. He's going to give back to Israel and multiply to them all their earthly blessings that he promised to them. He's going to do that when Israel falls on their knees and has gone through a terrible time of judgment. And Israel will say, the Lord is our God. He'll say, Israel is my people. And then he's going to bless them. And this is what Isaiah sixty-one three says. He's going to give them beauty for ashes. He's going to give them beauty for all the corruption and the terrible tribulation that they had. He's going to give them the oil of joy for mourning. He's going to take away the mourning from his people and he's going to give them joy. Now if you and I take and put ourselves in the place of the church, the true believer. He's already given us beauty for ashes. He gave it to us in His Son. He's made us like Him. He says, Beloved, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. That's precious. You know, it's something for this heart of mine to imagine that this character is one going to day, one day going to be like Christ. That blows my mind. I know what a fickle, hopscotch mind I got, and I know that one day I'm going to be like Him. Steadfast and shoot, unfailing. He wants us to have the joy of our salvation. And you know, we read in the Word of God, the joy of the Lord is our strength. That's taking you to three things, and I've got to do it rather quickly. The oil of the Spirit will bring the joy to replace the mourning. And when we rest in the joy, it brings the strength. That's what God wants. He wants us to be strong. We can do that in the rock. Now we're looking at the picture, Old Testament picture, the rock. Four things that come out of the rock. We're looking at the rock Christ. What came from Him? The flowing of the Spirit. First salvation, then the flowing of the Spirit. And then in that Spirit, the anointing, the anointing of that Spirit, sealed to the day of redemption. And that anointing that teaches us the unction from the Holy One. And that anointing that brings us to joy. And then that joy that brings us to strength. It's a process that follows one and the other along the way. And then the third thing that comes out of that rock was honey. And he said, honey out of the rock and oil from the flimpy rock. Now, when we view the honey, it's something with a natural sweetness to it, isn't it? Honey isn't something that's manufactured only by the bee. And he takes that which is nature. And so he gives a natural sweetness. And when we view the Lord Jesus, we view a natural sweetness in him, a natural gentleness. When we look at a person and say, my how sweet, we look at that nature, and we see the gentleness in that nature. And so when we view Christ, we see one so gentle. I believe it's in the forty-second chapter of Isaiah that he speaks of these words. in his anointing, that as he walked here, he did not cry nor lift up, nor raise his voice in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, nor quench the smoking flax. And when we see the Lord Jesus as he walked here, was he a gentle person? Oh, my. You say, yeah, he got angry. Oh, you know what? Don't forget his anger was the anger of God, because he was in his perfection holiness. And they had turned his father's place of worship into a den of thieves. Rob and the widow and the poor, they made it a house of money changers. And so he drove them from it. But you know, as you view the Lord Jesus dealing with the people, How gentle he was. Remember Matthew fifteen, the woman, the Sir Phoenician woman who was crying to him in behalf of her daughter, and he just walks along the way, walk by, and answer her a word when she cried out. And the disciple said, Tell her to be quiet. And he said, I'm not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She still cried. He said, It's not right to give the children's meat to the dogs. She said, Ah, truth, Lord, but the dogs will eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And the master turned, and he gave to that woman what she didn't have to do, the healing for that daughter when she fell at his feet, and she worshipped him. How gentle he drew her. How gentle he drew the woman in John four. How gentle he was with the sinning woman of John eight. Does no man condemn thee? No man, Lord. Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. He took some hard cases and he was gentle with him. David could say, of his God, thy gentleness has made me great. And Ray Routley has prayed for years, Lord, make me a gentle person. My kids say to me, especially my daughter, oh, Dad, you are gentle. I say, honey, you don't know what's in here. You don't know how quick that can come when it's bruised, see. And we sort of have to be like Paul. To have an earthly goal while we're here, I think he said it in Acts, verse twenty-four, sixteen. In this do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. He's saying, I want to be a gentle person. The gentleness of the Lord Jesus was manifest here. He never put out that smoking flax. That that had that little measure of light, he didn't put it out. He encouraged it in the way. When we want to find gentleness, it's in him. Comes through his spirit, doesn't it? that spirit that came because of Christ. What's the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace. What's the next one? Gentleness. Gentleness. Found in him. And the last thing that comes out of that rock is found in Judges six, thirty-one. And that is where Gideon, in offering an offering to God, to that angel of the Lord that stood there, and he saw the fire come up out of the rock and consume the offering. Now fire in the Word of God, as he's used it, often speaks to us of the holiness of God. The seraphim were the burning ones. It was the seraphim in Isaiah six that went to the altar and took the burning coal off the altar and came and touched Isaiah's lips. When Isaiah had said, Woe is me. I am unclean. He said, I dwell in the midst of an unclean people. And Isaiah could say that his lips were unclean. And so the angel, the burning one, the seraphim, got that coal from off the altar, touched his lips with that which was holy. And we see God in his holiness being jealous. Being a jealous God, jealous for our love. jealous for His holiness to be manifest through us. We read in the book of Exodus that the Lord God is a jealous God. He says in Deuteronomy, I believe it is, a consuming fire, for the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. And so when we view Him, He's a consuming fire. Remember in that book of Hebrews in chapter twelve, that last chapter is there, comes to an end. After giving the warnings of discipline and God's disciplinary action in the family, and then the warning in the last chapter of being indifferent toward it, and then that last verse says, For our God is a consuming fire. Our God is jealous, God, for our love and for the holiness manifest through us. Four things, and to my knowledge, four things only that you will read in the Word of God that come out of the rock. So now we can say, He said, Leave me to the rock that is higher than I. The full sufficiency of the Son, salvation, His Spirit, The joy of our salvation. The gentleness that is in him. And then his absolute holiness, his jealousy for his people. And if we want our lives to be a blessing for him, then we need to say, I have Christ. And if I have Christ, then salvation is mine. His Spirit is mine. The joy is mine. The strength is mine. And the holiness is mine. Lead me to the rock that's higher than I.