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Psalm 125, 125, They

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that trust in the Lord are as Mount

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Zion, Which cannot be moved, but abideth forever,

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As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, So

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the Lord is round about his people, From

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this time forth, and forevermore.

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Those of you who were here on Thursday

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night, last will have been meditating in the

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84th Psalm.

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And although I was not here, I should

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be surprised if something was not said on

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verse 6 of that Psalm, passing through the

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valley of weeping.

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Passing through the valley, the valley of

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weeping.

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After Psalm 84, with all its context in

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the history of David, of passing through a

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very deep and dark and bitter valley of

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weeping, we come to Psalm, or Psalms 120

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to 134, which as you can see, form

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a little volume of their own in the

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whole book, called the Psalms or Songs of

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Ascents.

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Going up in 84, you're in the valley.

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You reach 120 and you begin to climb

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out of the valley, and to sing as

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you do so.

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On and on, right to Psalm 134, it

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is going up, singing Psalms or Songs of

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Ascents.

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So you notice, with Psalm 121, I will

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lift up mine eyes unto the mountains, from

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whence shall come my help.

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Psalm 123, unto thee do I lift up

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mine eyes, O thou that sittest in the

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heavens.

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And Psalm 125, they that trust in the

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Lord are as Mount Zion, as the mountains

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are round about Jerusalem.

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Here then, we have the people of God,

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where the Lord always desires them to be.

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We ought to underline the two words, passing

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through the valley of weeping.

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That is not the dwelling place of the

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people of God, that's a passage, something through

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which they pass.

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But, Zion, the mountains, these are the divinely

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appointed dwelling places of God's people.

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It is instructive, surely, to note that the

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Lord established as an ordinance in Israel periodic

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ascents, that all their males should go up

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three times in every year.

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And those ordinances in Israel of going up,

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going up, were governmental in their nature.

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That is, the people were not to be

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governed by the plains or the valleys, they

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were to be governed by the high places.

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They were to be governed by ascents, or

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to be a people of the mountains.

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They may spend time, perhaps much time, down

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there.

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But the Lord would have that broken into

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repeatedly, and that they should be reminded that

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that was not really their normal life, their

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real life was up in the high places.

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Their life was to be influenced by the

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mountains.

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Influenced.

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And if you could, in imagination, join those

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caravans, those processions, three times a year, as

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they made ready and got on the march,

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leaving the valleys and the plains, going up

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to Jerusalem, you could, in thought, mingle with

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them, you would find that they did have

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a tremendous influence upon the life of the

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people.

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These songs or psalms, for instance, became the

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songs for all time, not only in the

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going up.

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They were born of the going up, they

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were provided for the ascents on these particular

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occasions, but they did not just remain the

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songs of three times a year, they are

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the perpetual songs of Israel.

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You read them through, these fourteen or fifteen

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psalms, you see how much there is that

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is of perpetual, abiding value in them.

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But I just want to emphasize this thought

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this morning, that the Lord's mind for His

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people is not that they should abide in

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the deep places and the shadowy places, though

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they may have to go that way and

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have to pass through the valleys from time

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to time, the Lord's provided ordinance, the Lord's

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thought and intention for His people is that

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they should be people of the heights, of

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the high places there should be, that governing

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all their life which is above and not

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beneath.

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I have been very much impressed with the

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very large place that mountains had in the

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life ministry of our Lord.

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You take up the gospel by Matthew, you

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will find that it is strewn with mountains.

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In chapter five, Jesus goes up into the

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mountain, calls His disciples unto Him, and then

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gives to them what Dr. Campbell Morgan has

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called the manifesto of the kingdom.

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That wonderful discourse, which in itself was on

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such a high level, a higher level than

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any other discourse or teaching in the whole

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Bible, we call it the sermon on the

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mount.

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Here was the mount of instruction.

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You pass to chapter fourteen, and He sends

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His disciples and the multitude away and Himself

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goes up in a mountain apart to pray.

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The mountain of communion with God.

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The next chapter, fifteen, we have Him going

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up again the slope of the mountain and

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the feeding of the multitude.

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The four thousand miraculously.

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The mountain of bread, of food for the

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hungry.

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Chapter seventeen, He takes His disciples up into

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a high mountain and is transfigured before them.

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The mount of transfiguration.

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In chapter sixteen, chapter fourteen, He speaks to

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them in the mountain about the signs of

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the end.

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The end of the dispensation and of His

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coming.

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That is chapter twenty-four.

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Chapter twenty-six, He speaks to them about

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His death and resurrection.

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He takes them apart and unfolds to them

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what is just about to happen, but what

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will be beyond when He is risen again.

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And then finally in chapter twenty-eight, He

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meets them after His resurrection in the great

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mountain where He appointed to meet them and

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gave them their great wild commission.

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See, all the way through this gospel, things

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are related to mountains.

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Now of course, every one of those requires

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about an hour or so for its real

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value.

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I have no intention, don't worry, of even

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starting on them.

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I am only pointing out that there was

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something about mountains that found in the very

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heart and nature of our Lord an answering,

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a response.

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When you think of it, Jesus came down

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and passed this way, this valley of weeping,

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just in order to take us up, out

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of it.

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And His whole life, in every aspect, prayer

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and teaching and walking, was a life on

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a rising plane, a life to lift, a

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work to lift.

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It was a return movement to heaven and

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to get as many back there with Him

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as possible.

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It was a gravitation upward that characterized His

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life.

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I am not surprised that mountains appealed to

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Him because this low level here could find

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nothing in Him to please Him at all.

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The very nature and life of our Lord

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was a complete contradiction to what is natural

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here.

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In spite of all that men so cleverly

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argue, the natural course of this world is

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downward.

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Make no mistake about it.

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Talk as you may about evolution and so

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on.

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The natural course is downward in every realm.

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And it is a tremendous battle to reverse

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that course in anything.

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The human body, in nature around you, everywhere

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in society, in international affairs, everywhere in everything,

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the natural course is downward.

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In spite of education, in spite of what

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is called civilization, the trend is worsened, worsened,

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down, down.

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That is nature, but the Lord Jesus is

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a complete contradiction to that.

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The whole influence and effect of His presence

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anywhere, of His life, His work, His teaching,

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is to reverse that natural course and to

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lift.

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We know that is true.

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His presence is a lifting thing.

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He only came by way of the valley

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of tears to lead us out of it.

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Now so much, as you observe, can be

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said about this matter of mountains.

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And I just would perhaps focus upon one

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or two things which are perfectly obvious.

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That mountains do suggest and represent elevation, ascendancy.

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I will lift up thine eyes unto the

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mountains to take your eyes off of what

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is here.

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Ourselves and our conditions and this world and

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to set them upon the Lord, high and

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lifted up upon His throne as Lord over

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Lord, over all, is an elevating thing.

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It is an emancipating thing.

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It is in itself a lifting thing.

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Looking off unto Jesus is something that will

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bring us out of our valley of weeping.

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Just where our eyes are, that will affect

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our life very much.

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I will lift up mine eyes unto the

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mountains from which shall my help come.

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My help cometh from the Lord.

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As the mountains are round about Jerusalem.

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So it is in every sense an elevating

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thing to be joined to the Lord in

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heaven.

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It is a morally elevating thing.

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It is a spiritually emancipating thing.

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It is a socially emancipating thing.

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Dear friends, perhaps what most of us need

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as much as anything is a higher level

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of life.

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It is a more elevated kind of life.

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We are too small.

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You know the valley is usually a hemmed

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in place, a narrow place, a limited place.

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But on the mountain is enlargement, isn't it?

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It really is enlargement.

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That is why some of us love the

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mountains so much.

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It does give us a sense of being

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liberated from the littlenesses of life.

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Freed from the smallness.

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All the pettiness.

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No one who lives amongst mountains can be

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small.

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Interpret that spiritually.

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Remember words which have perhaps lost some of

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their strength for us because of our familiarity

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with them.

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Have raised us up together with Christ.

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And made us to sit in the heavenlies

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in Christ.

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Individually and collectively, as the church, a very,

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very great deal of the present trouble, paralysis,

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weakness, and wretchedness is because that position is

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not taken and maintained in the heavenlies in

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Christ.

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We could get up higher.

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Get onto high ground and leave so much.

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Yes, leave all this that belongs to the

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place of the shadows and the miasma.

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The Lord's will that we should live on

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high ground.

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That's what he wills for us.

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Then, as the psalm indicates, not only elevation,

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descendancy, it is security.

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My health, my health.

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As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so

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the Lord is round about his people from

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this time forth and forever.

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Then the psalmist goes on with the things

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that are against the people of God.

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And deliverance or security for them is in

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the high place.

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Yes, security.

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Strongholds have so often been built in the

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heights, haven't they?

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00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,320
They're strewn everywhere over the world, the high

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places for strongholds, for refuges.

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And our strength, our safety, is to get

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00:21:20,780 --> 00:21:27,860
away from low things, mean things, contemptible things,

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00:21:28,540 --> 00:21:29,260
and to get up.

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Get up high with the Lord.

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00:21:32,380 --> 00:21:33,380
It's the safe place.

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00:21:33,380 --> 00:21:38,280
Down there we are just the playthings of

283
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:43,040
all the currents and influences and forces that

284
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:43,660
are at work.

285
00:21:44,180 --> 00:21:47,540
They rage in the low places, in the

286
00:21:47,540 --> 00:21:48,400
dark places.

287
00:21:52,210 --> 00:22:01,550
Find our strength, our deliverance, our refuge, our

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00:22:01,550 --> 00:22:11,210
security necessitates that we forsake those low places.

289
00:22:12,490 --> 00:22:14,410
How shall I best put it?

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00:22:14,630 --> 00:22:17,410
You know the evil one and the evil

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00:22:17,410 --> 00:22:22,910
forces are tremendously concerned with getting us down

292
00:22:22,910 --> 00:22:24,270
and holding us down.

293
00:22:24,910 --> 00:22:26,890
And if only they can get us down

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00:22:26,890 --> 00:22:33,330
spiritually, get us down mentally, or even physically.

295
00:22:33,890 --> 00:22:36,070
They just play havoc with us down there.

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00:22:36,070 --> 00:22:37,470
They tear us to pieces.

297
00:22:38,050 --> 00:22:40,890
They harass and worry us day and night.

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00:22:41,470 --> 00:22:41,990
Down there.

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00:22:42,830 --> 00:22:43,170
Down.

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00:22:43,370 --> 00:22:46,650
That's their drive, their direction.

301
00:22:46,950 --> 00:22:48,070
Bring them down.

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00:22:48,350 --> 00:22:49,110
Bring us down.

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00:22:51,250 --> 00:22:55,570
Our refuge is not to fight on the

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00:22:55,570 --> 00:22:56,270
low ground.

305
00:22:57,470 --> 00:23:00,470
It's to flee to the heights, to escape

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00:23:00,470 --> 00:23:03,170
to the Lord in the secret place.

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00:23:03,170 --> 00:23:09,050
I think Lord Jesus did that himself.

308
00:23:10,190 --> 00:23:13,750
A time when the pressure was great and

309
00:23:13,750 --> 00:23:18,150
he was feeling the harass and drive, all

310
00:23:18,150 --> 00:23:24,470
the down drag of earthly conditions, disappointments even

311
00:23:24,470 --> 00:23:25,590
with his own disciples.

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00:23:26,590 --> 00:23:29,230
He said, let me get away from it

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00:23:29,230 --> 00:23:30,270
all for a time.

314
00:23:30,790 --> 00:23:32,790
Up into the mountain with my father.

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00:23:33,910 --> 00:23:35,330
Came down fortified.

316
00:23:36,290 --> 00:23:37,730
Marvelously fortified.

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00:23:38,770 --> 00:23:42,570
Yes it was fortification in the heights.

318
00:23:43,170 --> 00:23:45,370
Keep your high place preserved intact.

319
00:23:46,190 --> 00:23:47,570
Your place of escape.

320
00:23:48,550 --> 00:23:53,610
Keep your mountain of communion with God preserved.

321
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:59,550
Because that is strength, that is fortification.

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00:24:00,670 --> 00:24:05,590
And I close with another obvious thing about

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mountains.

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00:24:07,010 --> 00:24:10,450
Mountains are the place of vision, aren't they?

325
00:24:11,310 --> 00:24:14,250
They are the place of the far distances.

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00:24:17,830 --> 00:24:18,450
Very true.

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00:24:19,590 --> 00:24:21,090
We come to the end of the Bible.

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00:24:23,650 --> 00:24:24,760
The end of the Bible.

329
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:27,600
The last chapters of the Bible.

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00:24:30,630 --> 00:24:33,330
We are taken to an exceeding great and

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00:24:33,330 --> 00:24:33,930
high mountain.

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00:24:34,650 --> 00:24:37,270
Shown the holy city, the New Jerusalem.

333
00:24:38,390 --> 00:24:40,790
It's a mountain seen at the end.

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00:24:41,230 --> 00:24:45,870
At last, at last the church has arrived.

335
00:24:47,190 --> 00:24:48,790
The heavenly church.

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00:24:50,410 --> 00:24:52,950
And it's the mountain of vision.

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00:24:54,090 --> 00:24:56,330
Always is like that.

338
00:24:56,950 --> 00:24:58,970
So simply, very truly.

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00:24:59,990 --> 00:25:08,100
Dear friends, again, again, the great need of

340
00:25:08,100 --> 00:25:10,840
every one of us and of the church

341
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:13,800
is an enlargement of vision.

342
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:18,320
Our vision is too small.

343
00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:21,760
Our God is too small.

344
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:24,880
Our hope is too small.

345
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,700
Our purpose in life is too small.

346
00:25:29,540 --> 00:25:32,620
The salvation which we cherish is after all

347
00:25:32,620 --> 00:25:33,380
too small.

348
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:40,280
How strange it is that we do narrow

349
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,380
things down so much all the time.

350
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:44,240
In every way.

351
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:47,860
We need the mountain of vision.

352
00:25:49,060 --> 00:25:50,680
We lose our vision.

353
00:25:51,540 --> 00:25:52,540
There's no doubt about it.

354
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:54,300
We shall disintegrate.

355
00:25:54,300 --> 00:25:55,580
We shall go to pieces.

356
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,680
The great vision that will ever save us,

357
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:02,720
but only a great vision will save us.

358
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:04,400
We lose our vision.

359
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:05,120
We are done.

360
00:26:06,020 --> 00:26:07,140
We are finished.

361
00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:08,860
We are beaten.

362
00:26:10,140 --> 00:26:15,000
You have no great vision of God's purpose

363
00:26:16,370 --> 00:26:22,670
and of God's intention and of God's ability

364
00:26:22,670 --> 00:26:23,790
to reach His end.

365
00:26:23,790 --> 00:26:30,750
And you will indeed be the defeated plating

366
00:26:30,750 --> 00:26:34,630
of all that is going on here in

367
00:26:34,630 --> 00:26:35,210
this world.

368
00:26:36,110 --> 00:26:38,350
So He took His disciples up.

369
00:26:39,110 --> 00:26:43,690
Whenever He had some big business on hand,

370
00:26:43,770 --> 00:26:45,730
He took them up into the mountain.

371
00:26:46,670 --> 00:26:48,430
And you and I need to be occupied

372
00:26:48,430 --> 00:26:49,790
in big business.

373
00:26:49,790 --> 00:26:53,570
That is, we must have large vision.

374
00:26:54,610 --> 00:26:57,870
Now you say that's all very true, all

375
00:26:57,870 --> 00:27:00,570
very good, but how?

376
00:27:02,210 --> 00:27:06,270
Well, after all, the answer is in the

377
00:27:06,270 --> 00:27:08,570
very nature of the Christian life itself, isn't

378
00:27:08,570 --> 00:27:08,730
it?

379
00:27:09,790 --> 00:27:12,290
The beginning of the Christian life is something

380
00:27:12,290 --> 00:27:12,810
from heaven.

381
00:27:13,810 --> 00:27:18,750
It is something that comes from heaven to

382
00:27:18,750 --> 00:27:20,330
take us back to heaven.

383
00:27:21,410 --> 00:27:23,630
It's life from above.

384
00:27:24,470 --> 00:27:27,670
We all know quite well that from the

385
00:27:27,670 --> 00:27:31,550
day when we really come into that vital

386
00:27:31,550 --> 00:27:36,890
union with our risen and ascended Lord, there

387
00:27:36,890 --> 00:27:43,130
begins in us a process of gravitating upward.

388
00:27:44,330 --> 00:27:47,110
Something has come in that is of heaven.

389
00:27:47,830 --> 00:27:50,770
And we know at once that we no

390
00:27:50,770 --> 00:27:52,750
longer belong here.

391
00:27:54,090 --> 00:27:56,110
It's the very nature of the Christian life

392
00:27:56,110 --> 00:27:56,810
at its beginning.

393
00:27:57,590 --> 00:28:00,570
But as we go on, we know that

394
00:28:00,570 --> 00:28:05,730
the pilgrimage of the Christian life is farther

395
00:28:05,730 --> 00:28:07,630
and farther away from this world.

396
00:28:10,210 --> 00:28:14,030
Estrangement of this world and to this world.

397
00:28:14,990 --> 00:28:19,550
Moving away from it brings many difficulties, many

398
00:28:19,550 --> 00:28:21,250
problems, some embarrassments.

399
00:28:21,250 --> 00:28:22,910
But there's the fact.

400
00:28:23,550 --> 00:28:29,230
We cannot, as we once did, find our

401
00:28:29,230 --> 00:28:32,050
home here, find our satisfaction here.

402
00:28:32,190 --> 00:28:37,490
It's the evidence that we are children of

403
00:28:37,490 --> 00:28:39,870
another, a heavenly country.

404
00:28:40,850 --> 00:28:44,770
And the confirmation of the life of the

405
00:28:44,770 --> 00:28:47,110
believer, the child of God, is upward, isn't

406
00:28:47,110 --> 00:28:47,470
it?

407
00:28:47,930 --> 00:28:50,270
To be received up by our Lord.

408
00:28:50,270 --> 00:28:53,150
It's all upward from beginning to end.

409
00:28:53,970 --> 00:28:55,710
The point is just this.

410
00:28:57,330 --> 00:29:00,910
That we have, as the Lord himself did,

411
00:29:01,070 --> 00:29:06,090
we have to respond to that heavenly gravitation.

412
00:29:06,790 --> 00:29:09,030
Not cling to anything here.

413
00:29:09,750 --> 00:29:14,210
Not allow ourselves to be bound by things

414
00:29:14,210 --> 00:29:14,530
here.

415
00:29:14,530 --> 00:29:17,670
We may have our miserable and wretched times,

416
00:29:17,930 --> 00:29:19,630
but we are not to wallow in the

417
00:29:19,630 --> 00:29:19,930
mire.

418
00:29:21,250 --> 00:29:25,230
We must react with this reaction of heaven

419
00:29:25,230 --> 00:29:28,590
that is in our very constitution by new

420
00:29:28,590 --> 00:29:28,910
birth.

421
00:29:29,430 --> 00:29:31,410
Say, this is not my place.

422
00:29:32,350 --> 00:29:33,730
This is not my life.

423
00:29:35,070 --> 00:29:36,870
The Lord Jesus did that.

424
00:29:38,770 --> 00:29:43,970
Continually, continually, he answered to the inward call

425
00:29:43,970 --> 00:29:44,490
of heaven.

426
00:29:45,350 --> 00:29:49,150
And in his physical going up into the

427
00:29:49,150 --> 00:29:53,670
mountain, he was only responding to an inward

428
00:29:53,670 --> 00:29:56,090
drawing to get up out of this.

429
00:29:56,210 --> 00:29:57,290
To get up out of this.

430
00:29:57,290 --> 00:30:04,170
And I can believe that there was never

431
00:30:04,170 --> 00:30:13,030
a more satisfied, utterly satisfied and gratified heart

432
00:30:13,030 --> 00:30:16,890
than his was when at last he ascended

433
00:30:16,890 --> 00:30:17,710
to his Father.

434
00:30:18,990 --> 00:30:21,290
I don't know, but I think as he

435
00:30:21,290 --> 00:30:25,570
went up, as he went up, the most

436
00:30:25,570 --> 00:30:30,590
perfect sense of relief and satisfaction took possession

437
00:30:30,590 --> 00:30:31,130
of him.

438
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:34,120
It will be like that with us.

439
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:36,980
It will be like that with us.

440
00:30:37,220 --> 00:30:39,840
At last, there will not be regrets and

441
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,480
sad farewells to this world.

442
00:30:43,180 --> 00:30:43,560
No.

443
00:30:44,220 --> 00:30:45,420
This is where we belong.

444
00:30:45,540 --> 00:30:47,140
This is what we were made for.

445
00:30:47,860 --> 00:30:48,980
Made for heaven.

446
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:53,300
The answer to everything in our new constitution.

447
00:30:53,300 --> 00:30:58,520
Let us now seek grace day by day

448
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:07,780
to repudiate all aboundness and to refuse to

449
00:31:07,780 --> 00:31:09,520
dwell in the valley.

450
00:31:10,380 --> 00:31:12,720
Though we may have to pass through it,

451
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:14,740
let us see to it that we don't

452
00:31:14,740 --> 00:31:15,500
stop there.

453
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:20,000
We do not make that our abiding place.

454
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:21,580
For it is true.

455
00:31:21,580 --> 00:31:26,200
Here have we no abiding city.

456
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:28,640
We seek one to come.