Union Baptist Church

God’s eye is upon His people: their eye is upon Him. In waiting upon God, our eye, looking up to Him, meets His looking down upon us. This is the blessedness of waiting upon God, that it takes our eyes and thoughts away from ourselves, even our needs and desires, and occupies us with our God. We worship Him in His glory and love, with His all-seeing eye watching over us, that He may supply our every need. Let us consider this wonderful meeting between God and His people, and mark well what we are taught here of them on whom God’s eye rests, and of Him on whom our eye rests.

“The eye of the Lord is on them that fear Him, on them that hope in His mercy.” Fear and hope are generally thought to be in conflict with each other, in the presence and worship of God they are found side by side in perfect and beautiful harmony. And this because in God Himself all apparent contradictions are reconciled. Righteousness and peace, judgment and mercy, holiness and love, infinite power and infinite gentleness, a majesty that is exalted above all heaven, and a condescension that bows very low, meet and kiss each other. There is indeed a fear that hath torment, that is cast out entirely by perfect love. But there is a fear that is found in the very heavens. In the song of Moses and the Lamb they sing, “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name?” And out of the very throne the voice came, “Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him.” Let us in our waiting ever seek “to fear the glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD.” The deeper we bow before His holiness in holy fear and adoring awe, in deep reverence and humble self-abasement, even as the angels veil their faces before the throne, the more will His holiness rest upon us, and the soul be filled to have God reveal Himself; the deeper we enter into the truth “that no flesh glory in His presence,” will it be given us to see His glory. “The eye of the Lord is on them that fear Him.”

“On them that hope in His mercy.” So far will the true fear of God be from keeping us back from hope, it will stimulate and strengthen it. The lower we bow, the deeper we feel we have nothing to hope in but His mercy. The lower we bow, the nearer God will come, and make our hearts bold to trust Him. Let every exercise of waiting, let our whole habit of Waiting on God, be pervaded by abounding hope—a hope as bright and boundless as God’s mercy. The fatherly kindness of God is such that, in whatever state we come to Him, we may confidently hope in His mercy.

Such are God’s waiting ones. And now, think of the God on whom we wait. “The eye of the Lord is on them that fear Him, on them that hope in His mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.” Not to prevent the danger of death and famine—this is often needed to stir the waiting on Him—but to deliver and to keep alive. For the dangers are often very real and dark; the situation, whether in the temporal or spiritual life, may appear to be utterly hopeless. There is always one hope: God’s eye is on them. That eye sees the danger, and sees in tender love His trembling waiting child, and sees the moment when the heart is ripe for the blessing, and sees the way in which it is to come. This living, mighty God, oh, let us fear Him and hope in His mercy. And let us humbly but boldly say, “Our soul waiteth for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. Let Thy mercy be upon us, O Lord, according as we wait for Thee.”

“They came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedest them to do; therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them.” (Jeremiah 32:23)

THE history of Israel’s experience in the Promised Land is given in capsule form in this verse. It speaks of the conquering of the land, the corruption in the land, and the chastisement in the land. This history is a warning lesson to all people. But, unfortunately, few heed the warning.

Conquering of the land. “They came in, and possessed it.” The word “possessed” involves conquering in its meaning. It can mean to dispossess someone of something, to seize something, or to occupy by driving out the previous tenants. The Israelites did indeed dispossess the Canaanites of the land. They drove out the Canaanites from the land in order to occupy the land. All of this was done by the Lord’s help. God enabled the Israelites to conquer the land, for God gave them the land (Jeremiah 25:5). So the history of Israel in the land starts out in a glorious way. However, it did not stay that way; as we will see next.

Corruption in the land. “But they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law.” After the Israelites got into the land, they soon ceased to obey the Lord. How often it is that after a great victory or great achievement of some kind, a person falls into sin. After some great success will come our greatest battle—let us not let down our guard after victory and ruin the blessing of victory. Do not be so taken up in celebration of some success that you forget to maintain your consecration to the Lord of blessing.

Chastisement in the land. “Therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them.” Because Israel disobeyed God after they got into the land, God eventually brought judgment in the land. He chastened the Israelites for their wickedness. Enemy nations invaded the land and brought great destruction and hardship to the land and then carried many away captive. Sin brings judgment upon any land. And history will confirm that fact again and again.

“Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.” (Jeremiah 5:1)

This verse speaks about the supremacy of righteousness and about the safety in righteousness.

Supremacy of righteousness. Our verse indicates that God is very interested in righteousness. He does not inquire here about riches but about righteousness. The fundamental attribute of God is holiness and so it is not surprising that righteousness has a supreme place in God’s interests. But men are seldom interested in righteousness. In fact if you want to impress people and move up in society and politics, you must be unrighteous. You must learn to drink and gamble and dance and do drugs and live immorally. That makes points with the world, but being righteous does not. But with God it is a very different story. With God it is righteousness that is important.

Safety in righteousness: “And I will pardon it.” Our verse indicates that if one righteous man was found in Jerusalem, God would spare the city of destruction. Sounds like the situation with Sodom back in Abraham’s day. God told Abraham that Sodom would be destroyed by God. Abraham pleaded with God to spare the city for the sake of the righteous in it. Abraham requested that if fifty righteous were in the city, would God please spare the city. God agreed that He would spare the city for fifty righteous in it. Abraham kept praying and finally ended at ten righteous. God said He would spare the city for ten righteous. Unfortunately for Sodom, there were not ten righteous in the city and so Sodom was destroyed. All of this points to the fact that the most valuable citizens of a nation are the righteous citizens. The greatest safety a nation can have will be found in righteous citizens. You may be an obscure nobody as far as man is concerned. But if you are righteous, you are more valuable to the well-being of your country than all the unholy politicians put together though famous and powerful they may be.

K. E. Harris

“I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done; this is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 8:10)

THE wicked here are the ones who through wicked means have prospered in this world. Our text puts perspective upon these folk which will encourage the righteous who are troubled by the prosperity of the wicked. From this text we note four things about the wicked. They are the death, the departure, the demotion, and the destiny of the wicked.

Death. “I saw the wicked buried.” The wicked may have been able to escape many things through cheating, lying, payoffs and other evil means; but they will not escape death. They have a Divine appointment with death (Hebrews 9:27). All their prosperity will not keep them from this appointment.

Departure. “Who had come and gone from the place of the holy.” This sentence suggests apostasy. These wicked folk used to go to church (“place of the holy”), but they left it. When they became prosperous through their evil ways, they left the holy place; they departed from the faith. Evil prosperity does not promote piety.

Demotion. “They were forgotten.” Once the wicked die, they are eventually forgotten by the world. But worse, they are forgotten by God. God warns evil men that “I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you . . . and cast you out of my presence” (Jeremiah 23:39). These wicked people forgot and forsook God; now in the end, they are forgotten and forsaken of God. In contrast, the thief on the cross wanted to be remembered by God and was (Luke 23:39–43).

Destiny. “This is also vanity.” The epitaph of these wicked folk who prosper in the world but forsake God is “vanity.” The word “vanity” means empty, useless, waste, worthless. A life lived only for this world ends in vanity. When one is ushered into eternity, the gains of this world will be found to be losses and not gains. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul” (Mark 8:36). In contrast, Paul gave himself to the Lord and so could say, “To die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) not vanity.

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“Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.” (Psalm 111:1)

PRAISE for God is the theme of this verse. The command for praising, the consecration for praising and the crowds for praising are all included in the verse.

Command for praising. “Praise ye the LORD.” We are to praise God. The world is not so sure as they put limits on where God can be honored. But the world is run by Satan. It makes no difference what the world thinks, we are to praise God. Spurgeon said, “Do it now, do it always; do it heartily, do it unanimously, do it eternally.” Let us praise God with our lips and our lives. Much of the world only mentions God in profanity; God’s people are to mention God in praise. The ailments of the world and our own lives can be traced back to failure to praise God.

Consecration for praising. “I will praise the LORD with my whole heart.” The Psalmist exhorted others to “Praise ye the Lord.” Now he sets a good example by doing it himself. The best way to teach is by example. We need to practice what we preach. And our example needs to be an excellent example. This one was, for it was praise from the “whole heart.” It was not just empty rhetoric, or words without sincerity, for the Psalmist praised God with sincerity. It is the only kind of praise that counts.

Crowds for praising. “In the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.” The two different crowds here represent two different situations for praising God. The first crowd (assembly of upright) represents a small group while the second crowd (congregation) represents a large group. The lesson is that we should praise God no matter where we are or how many people are present. Just because you are in a small church with few in attendance should not stop your praising God. And when you are in a large crowd where some may oppose your praising, you still are to praise God. Some folk only praise God where it is acceptable to do so. Our text says to praise God everywhere regardless.

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“The LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11)

THREE sentences compose this verse which tells us something about the character of God. In these sentences we have the work, wisdom, and wonderfulness of God.

Work of God. “The LORD God is a sun and shield.” God provides us with both light and protection. The sun speaks of light. God is the great enlightener. Jesus is the “light of the world” (John 8:12). Leave out God and you will walk in darkness concerning the most important matters of life. The shield speaks of protection. The greatest protection God provides for us is the protection of our soul through Jesus Christ. This will protect us from eternal condemnation. No work is greater than this work of God on our behalf.

Wisdom of God. “The LORD will give grace and glory.” That which emphasizes God’s wisdom here is the fact that grace comes before glory. Grace speaks of character. To learn grace and to grow in grace, we often have to experience many troubles and trials. But this will build up our character. Then it is safe to bring the glory. If glory comes before we have the grace of character, it will ruin us. Character is all essential to be able to handle the glory well. Mankind, however, wants more glory; but God says we need more grace. God is right, for God is wise. Grace must come before glory.

Wonderfulness of God. “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” This is a wonderful promise from God. It is such a wonderful blessing. But some doubt it, for they complain they do not have all the things they want. There are two reasons for this complaint.

First, the nature of the blessing. Our verse did not say all the things we want; it said “good thing.” But many things we want are not “good” for us.

Second, the nobleness of the blessed. Our verse did not make this promise to everyone but only to those who “walk uprightly.” If you are short on God’s blessing, check your walk. If you want Divine blessing, concentrate on your walk and let God take care of the blessing.

Pastor Kary

“Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:12)

HERE is a great testimony regarding the Word of God. The speaker is Job, and he is answering one of his critics who has just charged Job unjustly with evil. In the midst of Job’s speech comes this declaration about the Word of God. In it is the esteem for the Word, the essentials of the Word and the endurance of the Word.

Esteem for the Word. “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” Job so values the Word of God that it is more important to him than physical food. Many despise the Word of God, and others simply ignore it. But Job saw its real value, and he gave it the honor we all should give it. This sort of attitude in people will make them really faithful to church attendance at a church where the Scriptures are faithfully proclaimed. They will not be off doing other things if they so esteem the Word of God.
Essentials of the Word. “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” Job shows the essentials of the Word in that he says it is greater than “necessary food.” Job did not say he thought the Word more important than just some other non-essential thing, but he went farther and said it was more important than even the most essential things of life. Food is indeed very essential. It is “necessary” or our physical body will die. But the Word is even more important. For it feeds the spiritual being, and the spiritual is more important than the physical!
Endurance of the Word. “Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.” In spite of his great troubles, Job had not junked the Word of God. In spite of his great troubles, Job still obeyed the Word and still esteemed the Word above even the essential things of life. Obviously then, the Word of God had not failed Job in trial. Many other things fail us in our darkest hours, but the Word of God will not fail. The Word of God will endure all our troubles and trials. It will never let us down. It will always be of help.

Rev. Dr. Kary E. Harris, PhD.

“So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof; for the people had a mind to work.”
(Nehemiah 4:6)

THE rebuilding of the walls in Jerusalem during Nehemiah’s time ran into some stiff opposition. Daniel had prophesied that the walls would be built again “even in troubled times” (Daniel 9:25), and they surely were. In our verse we have a record of the building during troubled times. This building succeeded because there was persistence in the work, progress in the work, and passion for the work.

Persistence in the work. “So built we the wall.” Too often when opposition comes, the resulting “so” is more like “so we quit.” But Nehemiah and his fellow Jews did not quit working on the walls in Jerusalem when opposition raised its ugly head. They persisted in their work. One scholar translated this statement, “We still built the wall” which expresses the persistent well. One of the most effective ways to defeat the enemy is to keep doing God’s work. Don’t quit when ridicule or other opposition attacks. Keep going.

Progress in the work. “All the wall was joined together unto the half thereof.” During this time of opposition, the people succeeded in getting the wall completely joined together and halfway finished in its height. They made great progress in spite of the opposition. We can make progress even though difficulties abound. God is not weak but can help us in times of trouble as well as good times (Psalm 46:1).

Passion for the work. “The people had a mind to work.” Having a mind to work was another of the important keys to the success of the people in building the wall. Having a mind to work will keep one working regardless of how difficult the task is or how great the opposition is. One of the great needs of our society is people who have a mind to work. Much of the poverty in our land that politicians make so much over is because people do not have a mind to work. The welfare bunch are often lazy, immoral sluggards who spend much of their time lounging before TV, eating junk food, and drinking booze. A mind to work would stop all this nonsense.

Rev. Dr. Kary E. Harris, PhD.

“And prayed unto him; and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.” (2 Chronicles 33:13)

Manasseh, was one of the most wicked kings to reign over Judah. And he reigned fifty-five years which was the longest any king reigned over Judah. Because of his great wickedness, God sent judgment upon him in the form of captivity. He was bound in chains and taken to Babylon as a prisoner. But that is not the end of the story. In an amazing turn of events, Manasseh was eventually restored to his throne in Judah. Our verse tells how it happened. It is a great picture of the work of the Gospel.

In our verse is the supplication, salvation, and sanctification of Manasseh.

Supplication. “Prayed unto him.” Affliction did its work on Manasseh, and it humbled him before the Lord until he prayed and sought God’s help. This prayer should encourage any sinner to seek God’s help. It makes no difference how great your sin is, you can still pray to God and seek His deliverance.

Salvation. “Heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.” Two features of Manasseh’s salvation immediately arrest our attention. First the greatness of his salvation. It was a most astounding change for a king hauled off in chains to Babylon to be set free to be king again in Judah. But it happened. God is able to do great wonders. And the greatest of wonders is soul salvation. Second, the grace of his salvation. If ever a man did not deserve to be restored to his throne, it was Manasseh. But God’s grace abounded. It works this way in salvation, too. The worst of sinners can be marvelously saved by God.

Sanctification. “Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.” Salvation increased Manasseh’s spiritual knowledge. It always does. When you experience soul salvation, your knowledge will become sanctified with spiritual truths. You will grow in the knowledge of the Lord. The Bible will no longer be a closed book.
Dr. K. E. Harris