Now it's a pleasure to be back with you once more, Minneapolis. I'm sorry I couldn't come last year as invited. I'm happy to be back here again. Now I think every time I come back to Minneapolis, I remember the first time I was here, over forty years ago. I had been preaching in North Dakota. And Mrs. Bysaker said, I'm going to write for the Minneapolis Brethren, have you go there. I said, you are? She said, yes. I owe a great deal to that lady. And so do many. It was she that said to me, you ought to go over to Herdsfield and break there. And I did. And the assembly was start and still continues. She invited Mr. Harold Harper to come to North Dakota, where he had some of the largest meetings and most fruitful he ever had. It was a pleasure to come. I remember on the way down here, we were traveling in the old type of car that had their suitcases out on the running board and facing the elements. Some of you will remember those cars. But on the way down, the rain started. And I got to Minneapolis. Most of the things in my suitcase were wet, including my sermon. And Mr. McPree, with whom I was living, said, Well, no doubt the Lord knew they were rather dry. I'm happy to be back. I'm happy to be associated with Mr. Kirk. I think on one occasion in the past we have been together. Now he has been telling us about a man who walked with God. I want to speak about a man who confesses that his steps had well nigh slipped. Let's read in Psalms number seven to three. Just when I was sitting in the living room this morning, then I was looking at Psalm seventy-three, I got a call for breakfast. And after breakfast was over, our brother Dan Leverett said, I will read the word. Let's turn to Psalm seventy-three. I said, what made you turn to that? You said, well, that's a daily reading this morning. So I took it as a token for good, that God might want us to look at this portion. And then our brother Kirk told us about walking. And when he said that sometimes the adverse things in our lives make us cry, why, why, why? I was reminded that Asaph, who wrote this song, confesses that he was crying, why, why, why, at the things which were happening to him. and he had no solution until he tells us that he went into the sanctuary of God. So I trust these messages will run together this morning and we shall discover how not to slip as we are walking day by day. Now the Psalm seven through three is the first of the sanctuary song. From earliest times the Jews divided the Psalter into five. And these divisions are clearly marked in our Bibles today because each of those divisions ends with the words, Amen and Amen, or Amen, Hallelujah, or Hallelujah. And there are five divisions. From earliest times the Jews likened those five divisions to the five books of most. That is to say, they called Psalm one to forty-two, forty-one the Genesis portion, because they seemed to see that God was revealed in his work as creator and benefactor to the world in life. From Psalms forty-two to seventy-two we have the Exodus portion of the Psalms. And six or seven times over there you come across the word redemption. It's the Exodus portion. The redemption portion of the Psalms. Psalm seventy-two ends with the time when Israel's Exodus will be complete. Israel's exodus was never complete in former days. Because of six hundred thousand men over twenty years of age who left Egypt only to enter the promised land. The carcasses of the others were strewn across the wilderness. The exodus was not complete as far as they were concerned. And even those who entered the land, The two who were left and the generation born in the wilderness never completely finished their exits. When you get to the end of the book of Joshua, you'll read that there were still much of the land still unpossessed. They never fully succeeded in driving out the enemy. But when you get to Psalm seventy-two, you discover that in the age to come, the millennial age, that redemption for Israel will be really complete. And seventy-three begins the Leviticus section. Now while it is an Exodus that God said, Let them build me a sanctuary, it is not until you come to Leviticus that the sanctuary is complete and is beginning to function for God. And in the first of these sanctuary psalms, In the first of these we read, I have no explanation of what I saw around me until I went into the sanctuary. So let's read this together, shall we? Psalms number seven is ready. Truly God is good to Israel. Oh, by the way, how would you like just to let us read responsibly this morning? I shall read verse one, and you'll read verse two. and will go down to the end. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My step was well-nighed. It wasn't walking very well. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their day. but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they played like other men. Therefore pride encompasses them about as a shame. Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth. And therefore his people return to them, and waters of a full cup are renounced for them. And they say, How is of God now? Is their knowledge in the most high? Behold, these are the unbelievers, who prosper in the world, and make free the living. Verily I cleanse my heart and faith, and wash my hands in innocence. For God will take on my heart and praise, and be changed every time. If I see I will speak us, behold, I should offend the generation of thy children. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, Then understood I therein. Surely, how they brought into desolation as in a moment they utterly consumed with terror, as a dream when one awaked, so, O Lord, that thou awaked. Thus my heart was grieved. and I was pricked in my rays. So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was with a beast before me. Nevertheless, I am, continually with thee. Thou hast hold me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards ye be born. Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart fail. For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish, and thou hast destroyed all them that go ahorring from thee. Thank you. Now this Psalm gives to us the test and the triumph and the testimony of faith. It begins in verse one with a testimony and it finishes in verse twenty eight with a testimony. And in between we have the trial and the triumph of faith. And the turning point is verse seventeen. Now the private faith, of course, is the unbalanced state of things that Asaph, who wrote this psalm, saw around him. Asaph was a man appointed by King David for the praises of Israel. And he wrote some of the psalms. Now Asaph confesses a great perplexity. As he looked around him, He saw the apparent prosperity of the wicked and the undoubted, painful flight of the righteous. And the unbalanced of things which he saw so preyed upon him that he confessed that if I give utterance to the thoughts of rebellion that are in my heart, I should offend the generation of my people. He says, I had, my steps had well nigh sleep. Notice what he says about the wicked. First of all, their prosperity in verse three. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. There are no bans. That word bans means tans. The word that describes a woman in childbirth. There are no tans in their death. Their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other people. Neither are they played like others. Therefore pride. Their prosperity has led to pride. Pride compasses them about as a chain. That word chain means necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes stand up with fat and they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak wittedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. Their pretension. They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue, water through the earth. Therefore his people return hither. The waters of a full cup are run out to them. That's a difficult verse. It means one of two things. It means, according to some, that God's people turn to them and they're ready to swallow their philosophy as a thirsty man swallows water. On the other hand, it may mean that the waters of a full cup is a metaphor for full pleasure. It's apparently given to them so that they are popular. So you have a number of things here. The prosperity and the pride and the pretension and the popularity of the wicked. Now that's what Asaph saw as he looked around him three thousand years ago. Now this message is relevant for us today because the same condition obtains today and ever has in the history of men. The apparent pleasure and prosperity and peace of the witness. I say apparently, because they're not having the good time that we think they are. When I was down in Florida last winter, I saw a picture in a newspaper of the new chief of the Mafia. The Mafia is the great crime syndicate of the United States, whose leaders are well known to the government, but they're never apprehensive. And they had a picture of the new boss of the Mafia, an Italian, as so often the leaders in that Mafia are in nationality. But the picture showed a man's thin face, sober, solemn, unhappened. And the article said that this man was supposed to be extradited to his native Italy three years ago. But because of his heart condition, it was considered unsafe to send him out of the country. So we have to preserve his heart at all costs so that he becomes a leader in the mafia in the United States. That's how far we've come, friend, from integrity and righteousness in our country. And the Bible says that righteousness is exalted by nature. But sin is a reproach to any people. And we're living in those days today. So I use the word of terror. Nevertheless, as we look around, we see conditions. As Asaphat saw them three thousand years ago. So the message is relevant for us today. Now notice what he says in verse thirteen. He says, Verily, I have cleansed my heart and faith. I have washed my hands in heaven. I'm ready to confess that life isn't worth living. What's the use of trying to live for God? If the life of the child of God is constantly plagued by sufferings and trials, on the wicked, apparently, go Scott free. He says, for all the day long have I been plagued, the plagued condition of the people of God, and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus, that is, if I give utterance to what's in my heart, I should offend the generation of the children. And I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. until I went into the sanctuary. Then understood either end. Asaph was brought into the sanctuary, and God gave him a glimpse of what lay beyond this present transient life. And Asaph learned, as we have to learn, that the justice of God is not to be estimated on the basis of his long suffering with evil in this present life. But can only be estimated in the balance of the sentient. For in the verses which follow, he says, Thou did set them in slippery places. They are slipping too. They are on their way to fall. Though casteth them down into distraction, they are brought into desolation in a moment, they are utterly consumed with terror. In other words, this is all the heaven, if you can call it, heaven that the wicked has. And when the long suffering of God ends for them, the long suffering of the wicked begins, when the long suffering of God ends, the long suffering of the wicked begins. And he says, then, I discover that the justice of God is not to be estimated in the light of his long suffering towards the wicked today, not willing to any should perish, that all should come to repentance. And by the same token, the love of God towards his children is not to be estimated in the transient circumstances in which they now live. For when they depart, to depart the present life is to be ushered, as he said here, received up into glory. That's what we need to learn. Now it was a sanctuary that supplied the solution. And the sanctuary ever supplies the solution to our problem. And all problems that relate to this present life as to the suffering of God's people can only be truly estimated, as we remember, the transient character of this pleasant life and the eternal character of the life to come. We must not estimate, we must not balance things in the scales of this present life. We must balance them in the scales of eternity. And Asaph said that the wicked in the moment are in utter desolations and consumed in tongues. And that forever, while the people of God learn to estimate life, shall I say in the terms of the New Testament, for our life afflictions, which is but for a moment. Worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, which are temporal, but the things which are not seen, which are eternal. Notice the contrast in this verse. You have the contrast between a weight of glory and a light of riches. Now you may say my afflictions are not light, Mr. Fraser, I assure you. But the apostle says they are light in comparison with the weight of glory that the witch is. And we must learn to live now and consider our afflictions light in comparison to the glory which shall afterwards be revealed in us through divine grace. The next contrast is a light affliction which is but for a moment, working for us an eternal weight of glory. We must make those contrasts day by day. Now look what emerges from the sanctuary experience as given to us in verse twenty-two, twenty-three and twenty-four, where we have a past, a present, and a future. We have his humbling pets, and we have his heartening presence, and we have his happy future. Notice the pets. So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was, as a beast before me, his humbling pets, the confessions of his pets. He says, you see, I got to be just like the witch. I think as if I were what? A beast before me. A beast is happy to have something to eat and someplace to lie. A beast has no future. It doesn't look for a future. It's content like the dog or the sow. If it's fed, if it's something for it, barely. And someplace body, acid has eaten. That's all that matters. Now the wicked don't like that, said they. They just live for the present. Give them the present. And they have no heart for the future. I would like that. God's people are quite apt to get like that if they're not careful. Give me my job. Give me my home. Give me my money. Give me my possession. And you can have your eternal riches. I won't. ignorant and foolish. And there's a beast before me, his pets, his humbling pets. He confesses it now. But look at his heartening dress, the calm of his press, contrast to the confession of his pets. Nevertheless, I am, go with the change in the tense. Nevertheless, I am continually with Thou hast holden me by my right hand. I can walk, as we heard, because, Lord, you've got me by thy right hand. I hadn't been long preaching when I was in Alexandria, Minnesota, do I remember? And a man attended my meetings night after night, a man from the Free Methodist Church, dear child of God. But he said to me one evening, Mr. Fraser, I've been enjoying your message up till now, but I couldn't quite follow you tonight. I said, why? He said, because you said that we have eternal life, you can never be lost, we're eternally secure in grace. He said, I couldn't follow you there. He says, to me it looks like a child holding its father's hand. and they're walking along a slippery street. And the child lets go and falls and gets up and ruefully rubs it to the sore spot and walks on again, taking the father's head. And then it forgets and lets the father's head go and down it goes again. Finally gets up and says, Daddy, I can see unless I hold on, hold on, I'm lost every time. He says, that's how it appears to me. I say, well, brother, I'm not a father. That was years ago. I've got three daughters now. The man's got three daughters. No wonder he gets gray hair. I said, I am not a father, but if I were, I'd be very careful my daughter did not hold my hand on the slippery street. He said, why? I said, I'd hold her hand. I'd hold her hand. Now I said, a difference between you and me is this. You think you're holding on to God, and I'm thankful he's holding on to me. Now give me scripture for it. I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. You shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father is greater than all, and none shall pluck them out of my father's head. See, I'm in the Savior's head, and then I'm in the Father's head. But he said, what about that verse in Peter? About the dog returning to his plummet, and the sow that is washed with wallowing in the mire? How about that? I said, well, brother, Peter was a Jew. And Peter knew what were clean animals and what were unclean according to Jewish law. And you would never find him using a sow and a wash to describe a real child of God, I assure you. He knew better than that. When Peter refers to a child of God in his letter, he calls them sheep. But in his second letter, when he's talking about me of professors who are not possessors, he talks about God himself. And the fact that he uses the terms he does should assure you he's not talking about real children of God at all. Amen. One man agrees with me. Thank you. That's really sad. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You know what? With God. Thou hast hold of me by my right hand. How about the future? Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. And afterwards, afterwards receive me the glory. This present life is not to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. This present life is treasure. This present life is a training ground. as we heard. But it's so very brief, comparatively. And our affliction is a light affliction, comparatively. And you and I must live in the light of that afterwards. Now, I want you to turn now, please, to Hebrews twelve. Now, Hebrews twelve, I think, is built up on the word afterwards. If you write the word afterwards in your thinking, about Hebrews twelve, and I think it will do you good. For in this context, you have the afterwards of the Savior, the afterwards of the Son, and the afterwards of the sinner in this portion. Let's read it together. wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. That's the men and women too, thank God, who are walking the path of faith in chapter eleven. Chapter eleven, for your study, is divided this way. By faith we understand. Verse one. By faith we undertake, in the verses that follow, until you come to the sufferings, and by faith we undergo. And it's only by faith we do all prayer. By faith we understand. By faith we undertake to do what those men and women did long ago. And it's by faith we undergo. The trials of life. We can only do so by faith and in the balance of the sanctuary. Now when you come to chapter twelve, those who are in the arena are now witnessing our deportment in the arena. I'm not suggesting that those who have gone before are, quote, gazing over the battlements of heaven. and observing our conduct on earth. God wouldn't allow that. I'm sure. It would fill them with dismay. I'm sure. If they did, I say dismay because of the poor way that we represent the Lord down here in earth. But the simile, the figure, if I understand it, is that those who in chapter eleven were in The arena are now elevated to the stand. You and I are in the arena now. We are doing the running now. But as we do our running, we are not told to lift our eyes to the stand. No. Let us run the race, it says here, verse one. The race that sat before us looking unto Jesus. You dare not look at the stand. Otherwise you won't run well. For all those men in the sand fail somewhere, although it may not always be written that they do. Hebrews has a way of minimizing the errors of their own, especially in chapter left, because in chapter ten it says their sins and their iniquitous letter memory no more. We read chapter eleven to see how they distorted themselves in the arena. What a chapter it is. But when you come to chapter twelve, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about the so great cloud of goodness, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which also easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. The word run instead of walk is used because we are to be impressed with the urgency of this present period. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him, that was his afterwards, for the joy that was set before to endure the cross, that was his path? despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God so that in verse two you have the path the presence and the prospect of the Savior notice that his path he endured the cross and he despised the shame as to his presence He is set down at the right hand of the throne of God and to his prospect for the joy that was set before him. You see, the Lord Jesus did what he did because of the actors. I don't say he did it completely because of them. His supreme joy was to do the Father's will for the present. But we are told here that for the joy that was set before it, because of the affluence for you and for me, as well as for himself, he endured the cross. He was prepared to go through the suffering and the sweat and the smiting and the tears and the loneliness and the forsakenness because he was living in the life. of the afterwards and we must do the same. Now let us say in verse three, For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, his pets, lest ye be weary and faint in your mind, ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against him. You forgot the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, my son. Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint hath rebuked to him. For whom the Lord loveth he chastened, and scourge every son whom you receive. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom no father chastens not? But if he be without chastisement, we are of all our partakers, and are you bastards and non-sons? Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which correct to that. and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father who stirs and lives. For they verily, for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure. That means, that seemed good to their city. But he, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holy days. Notice that, after their own pleasure, the earthly fathers, he for our crops. I said to my second daughter the other day, I said, you know, Betsy, you got twice as many spankies in my other church. But sometimes, half times, thank you, I said to myself, you spank her not so much because of what she did but because you were angry at what she did are you ever like that you young fathers and mothers be careful oh I was so glad however that every time I came home from being away she was the first to rush out on the door come to me in the car and say, Daddy, I'm so glad to see you back. And the day before I left home, all three daughters were home, one from Florida, one from Eugene and one on the island of that moment. Within five minutes, the elder one passed me by and I was working in the garden. She kissed me on the cheek. She said, I love you, Daddy. She walked up. She's about thirty-three years of age now. Five minutes later, the second one passed by, and she came and whispered something in my ear that I passed by. Equally. And when they were gone, I just stood and thanked God for them. And I strive, dear friends, I hope you do too. To be like Abraham, of whom it was set, I know him. that he shall command his children after him. In the ways that God has the highest ambition you can have. So they've already chastened us after their pleasure, not with what they thought was ethical. Though sometimes I have said, we have gone beyond what was made. But he, for our prophet, that we might be partakers of his holiness, Now no chastening for the bread was seamless to be joined from him. Nevertheless, after, under lightness, afterness, a yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. My verse from second Corinthians fourth says, While we look at the things which are not seen, while we do it, it's working its purpose. And here it says, to them who are exercised thereby, we've got to get something out of this. We are not to be like those further down in the chapter of which it says, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet as you walk, lest that which is laid be turned out of the way. but let it rather be you. In other words, here we have to see that our afflictions are kept in proper perspective. We're not to be like Asa, who says, if I give utter what's in my heart, I should stumble on it. And here it says, you and I must be careful. when we are tried, lest we give utterance to what we are feeling, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. The worst thing you can do is to give utterance to your lack of confidence in God to some other believer, especially one who is weak in the sight. Don't give utterance to the unbelief and distrust of your heart under affliction to your children in the home and to the children of God at large. You may stumble them and turn them out of the way. Looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, you are not to let some other brother or sister's conduct towards you or result in the root of bitterness. That looking diligent, if I remember right, the Greek language, is something you do with, is connected with elders, if I remember right. Blessed there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, for you know how that Esau, when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he started carefully with tears. What was wrong with Esau? Personality? No. He'd have better personality than Jacob than my judgment. Esau loved the open space. He didn't know that if he had, he'd have gone about singing, or give me a home with a bushel or a rope, and the deer in the antelope play. He loved the open space. He didn't like the house particularly. For as Jacob went about the house, he was so ham, his mother loved. He was so good at the church. He went about with his head's dad. He saw had his head up. Jacob had his dad. He was going about wondering how he could improve the quantity and quality of the herds. His mother loved Jacob. His father loved Esau. What was wrong with Esau? He had no heart for the afterwards. He came in hungry after hunting. He had taken no business. And Jacob was bending over the fire, cooking something in the pot. And Esau said, give me some of that. Give me some of that. What a nap. Jacob says, I'll give it to you if you give me your birthright. And the birthright brought the greater blessings in the times to come. And Jesus says you can have it. I'm at the point to die. He didn't mean he was that much exhausted. He meant I'm going to die someday. And if you give me something from my belly now, you can have your birthright with all its spiritual importance. He had no heart for evidence. You and I, dear friend, must have a heart for the eartheners. We must weigh our present life in a balance of centuries. We must remember that we're dust, as we said last night. But we'll do as the will of God, abide in forever, forever. And we must live and we must invest in time our treasure in view of the essence. We must be prepared to be called foolish in the expenditure of our energies and possessions for the life to come by the world to have no heart for the present. And I want to ask you fathers and mothers today who have got young teenage sons and daughters. What is really your ambition for you? Do you want them to be something in the world? Or do you want them to be counted for eternity? A man said to me in Chicago one time, I learned afterwards that he was a very rich man. He said, Brother Fraser, I'd rather have my son sweeping the streets of Chicago for a living. with a hold upon living God than holding down the biggest job in Chicago with Adam. I said, brother, amen to this. How about you? How about you? After this. After this. After this. Let's put it up in our homes. After this. You know, the man in Philadelphia... who after years and years saved up two thousand dollars. And he announced he was going to spend the two thousand dollars in one day. And he did. He hired a special car on the train from Philadelphia to New York. He put up at the biggest hotel. He gave tremendous tips away all day. He bought expensive proof. and finally got into his special car, going home after he'd given away his last penny. And people said, what a fool, taking them years to amass two thousand dollars, and he spends it in one day. What has he got? Well, immediately the man's telephone began to ring. A number of theaters called up from New York. Will you come and show yourself on our stage for five minutes and tell us what you did and we'll pay you so much per night? Another called up, will you appear on our stage and we'll pay you so much tonight? Somebody said, will you advertise our program and we'll pay you so much? And he found themselves with endless jobs and a possibility of ten times more than he expected. So people change their opinions and say, well, he was a very wise man after all. He was prepared to be called a fool for the present because of the afterlife, his eyes for the future. And you and I must be prepared to be called fools for Christ. Fools by the world. But we are fools for Christ. We're going to live this present in the light of the afterlife. We're not going to slip by the grace of God when we look at the world. We'll finish our course of joy. God granted.