<TITLE>02. Par 6-9</TITLE>L-6 I want to thank those boys that just got through playing with that trumpet and singing and this Brother Johnson. I have always said to the audience, "When you want to find me when we get over in glory, you know where the--the river of life comes down by the throne of God? Well, you turn a bend to the right. And then the angelic choir's singing over on the hill, all the time, because there is no day and night. There's a little bush setting over on the other side of the hill. I want to be setting under that, just listening all the time."
And I love good singing, oh, and--and music. And trumpet is my--one of my favorite instruments, as the young man just got through playing. And I want even my girls to take up trumpet. One of them is taking piano. And--and Joseph, I don't know, I want him to be a preacher, if I can. He... I called him awhile ago but he had already taken his little nap for the--the afternoon and for getting ready for the service tonight, they are.

L-7 Now, hurry back as soon as we can get finished here just to speak some of the Lord's Words, or at least to read them. And He'll add His blessings to them surely. I wish to read from Saint Matthew's Gospel, the 2nd chapter.
 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came from the east to Jeru--wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.
This is altogether a very odd and peculiar text. It seems like it would be a Christmas text. But anything in the Bible is God's Word. And God does things peculiar. He works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform. Did you catch that? He works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform. Oh, I just love that. And how that He does it in such a--a way sometime that it absolutely cannot be explained.

L-8 And then again we wonder in the Scriptures, when it's written, "All things work together for good to them that love God." And many times when maybe the lash of His correction is laying upon us, we wonder how that it could be working for the good. But after it's all over, then we look back and we praise Him for it because He knows; we do not. We just act obedient to His Word and to His chastising. He never did chastise us unless we had need of it. And sometimes we might think that we wasn't guilty, but He knows... Maybe we are not, but He knows just how to do it to make it all work good. And what a--a beautiful thing it is just to lay your life in His hands and say, "Here am I, Lord. Just use me now; lead me, and guide me, and direct me in the way that would be pleasing unto Thee." And then don't murmur. No matter what the path is, stay with it anyhow, and God will work it all right. "The footsteps of the righteous is ordered by the Lord." And that Scripture is true.

L-9 Now, in the beginning when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea, there's a few things right there what I'd like to just settle on for a few moments. How mysterious it was, and at that day unto scholars and men who should know that His coming was drawing nigh... And there was great things beginning to heap up, like it is in each junction of time, as we were speaking the other night.
Just before great judgment strikes the earth, God always sends an angel of mercy. In the days of Noah, the days of Lot... Moses went into Egypt to call out Israel to Goshen. And just before the great advent of the Lord Jesus, angels appeared, prophets rose on the earth, great signs and wonders, which was disbelieved by the majority. But God is just to show those things: mercy before judgment.


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