Whatever I had a couple weeks
ago left my voice a little weak, so I have to concentrate
on not letting it just drop off. I'm bad about that anyway, but I'll try to speak up. The one thing that jumped out
at me, and I don't know how far we'll go in this chapter, but
the one thing that jumped out at me in reading this chapter
over and over and over, I don't know how many times. I usually
do that. I like to read it and read it and read it. And finally,
usually finally, it just clears up. And the one thing that really
stood out to me is this, the necessity of regeneration. You know, not all Israel, the
scripture says, are Israel. Many of those who died in the
wilderness did not believe God. a part of the true Israel of
God, those who believe, like Joshua and Caleb. They murmured,
they complained, and one of the things that troubled me, as I
read this over and over, I could see so much of this in me. Murmuring, complaining, not being grateful. We must be, not just ought to
be, but we must be the most grateful people on earth. God has saved us from Himself,
His wrath. Think about that. God has saved
my soul by making His soul, when He took upon Him flesh, He became a man, a real man,
a real soul, and He made it an offering for sin. And He saved
my soul. And I pray, I pray that God Almighty
will enable me by His grace to be one of those who believe.
I was telling Vicky, coming back from the doctor, I think it was
the doctor's office the other day, I said, there's one thing
I want. There's one desire I have above
everything else. I want to die in faith. I want to die in faith. I want
to die believing God. Whenever that time comes, these
all died in faith. I want my name there. I'm not
after some great ministry. I'm not after some recognition. I want to die in faith. I want to die believing God.
Just that simple. I want it to be just that simple. He believed
God. Abraham believed God. Enoch walked
with God. And my desire for me and for
you is that we can do that. We can walk with God. We won't
be like the children of Israel here in the wilderness who provoked
God, who tempted God, who did not believe God, whose heart
was not right with God, who murmured and complained every time they
turned around and they wanted to go back to Egypt. On every
turn, they wanted to go back to Egypt. You want to go back? You want to go back to the life
you had? I don't. I don't want to go back there.
My life is in front of me. It's not behind me. It's not
behind me. It's in front of me. Now listen
here. I'm going to just touch on some of these and we'll see
where we get. The children of Ephraim, in verse 9, we looked
at the first eight verses, and he's talking to his children
here because he says in verse 1, give ear, O my people, to
my law, my word, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. Listen to me. This is called
the masculine instruction. This is an instructional song.
The children of Ephraim, that was the son of Joseph, Now listen,
Ephraim was where the tabernacle was, Shiloh, it's where Shiloh
was. The Ark was kept there. This is where the Ark was kept
before it was taken. And he says here, the children
of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows, that is, shooting bows,
they were archers, they were warriors. They were one of the biggest
tribes and they were warriors. But now listen, they turned back
in the day of battle. When it came time to stand, they
ran. My first thought was this, armed
but afraid to fight? Trained to fight but afraid to
fight? Are we not armed with the Word
of God? Boy, this really struck me. Armed with the sword of the Spirit,
the Word of God, armed with faith, armed with revelation, God has
made Himself known to us. Let us never be afraid to stand
for the truth when the opportunity arises. And I can say there's
been times, there's been times when I could have stood and I
didn't. I just left it alone. I left
it alone. And I look back at times that
I can remember that I left it alone, and when I read this,
I thought, you were armed with the Gospel. You're armed with
truth. Paul said, don't be ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, His prisoner. Don't be
ashamed of me. Would I ever be ashamed? Peter
was. Peter denied the Lord three times. Ephraim. being armed and trained
to fight. You and I, we had the helmet
of salvation. We had the whole armory. We read
that in the Scriptures, the breastplate, and the helmet, and the sword
of the Spirit, and the turned back. We had the truth. And the people standing in front
of us need to hear the truth. I think God Henry told me the
truth. Aren't you glad somebody told you the truth? And didn't
shut up? Oh, that's a convicting verse
to me. They turned back in the day of
battle. I tell you, how often are we
told in the Word of God to stand fast? How many times does Paul
say that? Stand fast in the liberty, wherewith
Christ hath made you free. If someone's going to challenge
my liberty in Christ, I'm going to stand up for that liberty,
because Christ died for it. He died for our liberty. And
we are not, it says, turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, look in verse
38 and 39. In Hebrews 10, 38, 39, Now the
just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who
draw back unto perdition. We don't want to go back. I don't
want to go back. You don't want to go back. We
are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that
believe to the saving of the soul. Oh, he said Ephraim being armed,
carrying bows, being archers, being trained, turned back in
the day of battle. And they kept not the covenant
of God. The covenant of God didn't mean anything to them. You and
I ought to think much upon the covenant of grace. David said,
God has made a covenant with me, ordered in all things, and
sure, God has made a covenant with me. You believe? God's made a covenant with you
in Jesus Christ. God's made a covenant with us
in Christ, and He's ordered everything in that covenant, and it's sure. Let's make much of the covenant
of God. I never heard about the covenant
until I heard Henry. That's because the person I was
listening to, he didn't know anything about it. That's why
I didn't hear anything. He didn't know anything. They
kept not the covenant of God there at Mount Sinai. When God
gave that covenant, what did they say? We will do it. We will keep it. And they didn't
do it. It says here, they refused to
walk in His law, to walk in His Word, His commandments. The Lord said, if you keep My
commandments, then are you My disciples indeed. refused to
walk in His law. If you remember, the Pharisees,
the Lord told the Pharisees, they would take what was supposed
to be a gift to the parents, taking care of parents. They
said, call it Corban. We've dedicated it to God. So
now you're released from honoring your mother and your father. You and I can't take the Word
of God and just move it around. We are not at liberty to change
the Word of God. We are not at liberty to pick
and choose. what we will follow and what
we won't, what we like and what we don't. I know this, God's
children, now God's... Is this on? God's children love
God's Word. David said that in Psalm 11,
I love thy law, thy Word. He said, it's more to me than
my necessary food. And I'm finding that as I get
older. It wasn't so much as I was younger,
when I was younger, but as I get older, I find this is far more
necessary than the food I eat day by day. Because man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God. That's why you're alive right
now. God has commanded life. And when he commands it to leave,
you're going to die. And I'm going to die. And they forgot His works. Oh, don't forget the works of
our Lord. Let's not forget. This do, He
said, and we need to do this here soon. This do in remembrance
of Me. Why did He say that? Because
we would forget it. Will a mother forget her sucking
child? That's the question he asked
in Isaiah. And the answer is yes, she may. But he said, I won't forget you.
I'll not forget you. Will you forget God? Would you
forget Christ? We have at times. How many times
we've just been so engulfed in something and just get so drawn
into something, we don't even think about the Lord. But there's
never a time He doesn't think about us. Never a time. And they forgot his works and
his wonders that he had showed them. Can you imagine, can you
forget, if you walk through the Red Sea, water walled way up
there, and you walk through on dry ground, I mean just like
a highway, you reckon you could forget that? They did. You reckon the wonders that He
did in Egypt, all those plagues and all those things He did,
and killing the firstborn, that just became... it didn't even
become a distant memory, they forgot it. They forgot it. You and I, it's important, I
can't stress this enough, it's important that we really read
and meditate upon the Word of God, and not just let it go. Listen to the marvelous work
of God that He showed to them. And this is why I say we must
be born again, the necessity of regeneration. Because by nature,
it does not matter how many miracles you see, you'll forget it, it'll
be gone. Because that does not save. It
takes the power of God, the Spirit of God to save our souls, to
make us a new creation in Christ Jesus. Anything short of that,
I don't care if you watch God create 10,000 worlds, you'd walk
away lost, unimpressed. Unimpressed. Marvelous things
did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt,
in the field of Zon, which was a city in Egypt. He divided the
sea, He caused them to pass through it. They forgot all this. God
did this right in their sight. A cloud followed them by day
and a light of fire by night. He claved the rock in the wilderness
for them to have something to drink. Oh, I tell you what, God
Almighty has has claimed the rock for us, the rock Christ
Jesus, in this wilderness. Let us not forget that. Let us
not forget that. There are some who just come
sporadically because they've never drank of the rock. Thirsty people have to drink.
Hungry people have to eat. If you're alive, these things
are necessities. And if God's given you life,
you have to have Christ. You have to have the water of
life. You have to feed on the bread of life. You just can't
have it every once in a while. Let me see you eat every once
in a while. Once or twice a week. Let's see that happen. No. He did these things in their
sight, claved the rock in the wilderness, He gave them drink
out of the great depths, He brought the streams out of the rock,
just flowed out. Can you imagine seeing that?
Can you imagine seeing Moses take a rod and strike a rock,
a hard rock, solid rock, and water gush out of it? There's probably about 2 million
people at this time, at least 2 million people. And water gushes out of that
rock, and enough water to water 2 million people. Abundance of
water. In Christ there's abundance of
grace, there's abundance of life. He said, I give you life and
I give it to you more abundantly. He gave them their natural life.
He delivered them from slavery. And they forgot Him. They forgot
Him. What we see here is the sinfulness
of men, though they be religious. Being religious, that's the worst
thing you can be. I tell you, the worst thing you
can be is just be religious, because Religious without Christ,
it just makes you mean. Look how mean these people became.
Look how they turned on God. Every time something happened,
they blamed God. Instead of falling on their faces
and instead of recognizing Him as their Sovereign and their
God and their Helper, they turned on Him. They sinned against Him
more and more. They provoked the Most High in
the wilderness. They tempted God in their heart
by asking meat for their lust. They couldn't be satisfied with
the manna. You know what they called it? Light bread. Light bread. Not the kind of
light bread we eat. But light bread. It was just
like nothing to them. Oh, when I read that, I thought,
Lord, don't ever become nothing to me. Christ never becomes like bread
to you and me. You know, in the Gospels it says
that they made nothing of Him. They turned thumbs down on Him.
They made nothing of Him. Listen, God gave them the bread
from heaven. And it fell throughout the land. It says throughout their inhabitants.
It didn't fall in one spot and they had to leave. It fell all
around them. Just like right now, the gospel
is falling all around you. The bread from heaven is falling
all around us, right now. My, how blessed we are. You see,
they had the manna, but we have, as our Lord said, we have the
true bread from heaven. My Heavenly Father has given
you the true bread from heaven. We don't just have manna, we
have the true bread. We have God Himself. God incarnate. We have the true bread from heaven. And yet they sinned more and
more. They tempted God. They spake against God. They
said, now listen to this. They walk through the Red Sea. The water is way up there. They're on dry land. They see
Pharaoh's army drowned. They watch that whole army be
drowned. This is historical fact as well. This is so. They watched the army be drowned.
And you know what they said? Can God provide us a table in
the wilderness? Can God take care of us in this
wilderness like we were taken care of in Egypt? My soul. Let me tell you something. If
God can save my soul, if Jesus Christ can satisfy God's law,
if Jesus Christ can put away my sins, if Jesus Christ can
present me faultless before God, providing me a table in this
wilderness is not a problem. God save us from this. God save us from this. Behold, he says, he smote the
rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also?" Wow! I mean, this is human nature. This is being religious, but
lost, is what this is. This is religious, but lost.
They want the benefits. They said, all right, we got
some water now, where's the bread? Where's the food at? Where's the banquet? All they
wanted out of God was benefits. They did not want Him for Himself. There were no Mephibosheths in
this group. You remember that story? When
the king came back and Ziba was, you know, Ziba wanted the land.
He wanted to divide it, and he was after the land and the material
things. And Mephibosheth said, when the
king came back, he said, let Ziba have it all. I got the king. Big difference. Here's salvation. is when all you want is Jesus
Christ. You don't want the new homes
and the finest cars and the best job and the big bank account.
As one man who called himself a believer said to me one time,
he said, if I didn't have a big bank account, I don't know what
I'd do. Well, maybe you could trust the Lord. It doesn't matter if I got a
dollar in the bank or ten million in the bank. It can all be gone
in a day. It could all be gone in a day. Oh, can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His
people? And the Lord heard this. Remember
this, the Lord hears our murmuring. We have zero, zero to complain
about. The only thing that I have to
complain about is myself. It's my unbelief. But outside
of that, every day is a good day. Because everything is working
for my good. Is that not so? Is not everything
working for your good? Everything that happened to you
today worked for your good. Well, that means it was a good
day, doesn't it? It was a good day. All that time you were in the
hospital, Doug, and sick, and that was before you were good.
You was having a good day and didn't even realize it. You didn't
feel like it, but you were. You were having a good day. My
soul. Our Lord thought like that. He
never had a bad day. Oh, He said, my meat is to do
the will of Him that sent me, and every day is His will. And
every day He was doing it. I don't know how you can be a
believer. I know there are some, but I don't know how you can
be a believer or be a pessimist. That just doesn't go together. How can you be pessimistic and
yet be saved? How can you be a Debbie Downer
and yet God has saved your soul and you're going to glory? You've
got a bright future. You know, there was Ashland where
I lived. The slogan there was a proud past and a bright future. Well, my past is not proud, but
I do have a bright future. Oh, he heard their murmuring,
he was angry, wrath. So fire kindled against Jacob
and his anger come up against Israel. And here's their whole
problem, here's the whole problem. Because they believed not in
God and trusted not in His salvation out of all that they saw. Now
listen. There's a few young ones in here,
but not many. Not many. Has not God brought
us this far? Has He not taken care of us?
Can we not raise our Ebenezer and say, hither by thy help we've
come? Can we not say that? Can we not trust His salvation?
Can we not look at our past and trust Him for the future? Because
God is who He is. He never changes. He never changes. He's going to take care of His
own. He's going to take care of His children. What kind of
father would He be if He didn't? Though He had commanded the clouds
from above to open up the doors of heaven, He rained down manna
upon them to eat, He gave them corn from heaven, manna did eat
angels' food, He caused the east wind to blow, and He brought
in all those quail." All those quail, He brought it in. I mean,
He just flew it in, so to speak. They did, they just flew, here
they, quails just flying in all over the place. And they were
just getting them and making a dinner out of them. He said, and he let it fall in
the midst of their camp, round about their habitation. It was
flying all over there, wherever they dwelt, it was falling. God was feeding them. You remember
how, was it Elijah or Elisha? He fed him with a raven? Oh, let's never doubt God. Let's
never doubt His care of us. Let us not be like this. Here's
the lesson. Don't be like this. Lord save us from this. They
did eat, they were filled, and they gave. Oh, here's something
you don't want. Here's something you don't want.
He gave them their own desire. You don't want that. Not your natural desire. You don't want God to give that
to you. You don't want Him to give you over to your flesh. Don't give me over to my flesh. It will eat me alive. It will
eat me like cancer. That old nature is just too strong. You can't resist it. You can't
do it. It's just like a master when
he whistles for his dog, that dog comes running. And when that
sin nature calls, it wants to fulfill the lust of the flesh,
there you go. They're knowing better. You think
the drug addicts don't know better? You think they don't know better?
They can't stop. When sin calls, they can't resist
it. What they are addicted to is
sin. That's what we've got to realize. We're addicted to sin. Whatever it is in us. It's just
different ones and different, you know. We all have a besetting
sin. We all do. And thank God, thank God that
when He saved us, He broke the power of canceled sin. He's the
only one who can break that power. I can't break it. You can't break
it. Society can't break it. Education can't break it. Locking
them up in prison can't break it. Most of them end up back
there. Only God can make a sinner whole. And here's another of their problems.
They were not estranged from their lust. What is one of your
prayers? Here's one of your prayers, because
it's mine too. Lord, save me from my sins. Don't let indwelling
sin have its way over me. David called them secret sins.
Don't let them have sway over me. They were not estranged from
their lust, but while their meat was in their mouth, God punished
them. The wrath of God came on them and slew the fattest of
them. I tell you what, now, you don't want God to give you your
sinful desires because here's what's coming after that, judgment.
Judgment. God's going to punish sin. The
wrath of God came on them. and I want you to notice something.
Punishment for sin does not save. You know, my parents disciplined
me, and I'm glad they did. They did. It kept me out of jail,
kept me out of trouble, but it didn't change my nature. It didn't
change me. It didn't change who I was. It
didn't change that at all. I just didn't want to get a whipping
again. I didn't want to get in trouble, you know, those things
like that, but the nature was still there. Because I still
slipped around when they didn't know it, and I still did it. Because it doesn't change you.
Punishment doesn't change. You know what changes? Grace.
Grace is what changes. Scripture says it's the goodness
of God that leads us to repentance. You can beat somebody to death,
and you're not going to do anything but bring out that old nature.
That's what God said to Israel. Why should I punish you anymore?
You just revolt more and more. They still listen here. The wrath
of God fell on them, but now listen, for all this, verse 32,
for all this, they still sin. And believe not His wondrous
works. I'll tell you why. Faith is the gift of God. Faith
is a gift of God. How many people saw the miracles
that our Lord... They watched Him raise the dead,
feed 5,000. They watched Him heal the blind,
give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf. They saw that. Our
Lord walks up to this lame man at the pool of Bethesda. Anyway, He walks up to this lame
man and He heals him. And they said there was many
sick folks there. Do you know no one asked Him to heal them
too? No one else said, Lord, what
about me? No one else. If God's pleased to save one
here tonight, if there's another one lost and He leaves that one
alone, that one will not say, Lord, what about me? They'll
just get up, go out the door, and go living just like always. Only grace makes the difference. They didn't believe His wondrous
works. Therefore their days did He consume in vanity. They just
spent their days doing nothing. That doesn't mean they were doing
nothing, but whatever they were doing was nothing. I'm going to tell
you something. Apart from Christ, every person's
life is nothing. Vanity of vanity. All is vanity. All is nothing. It comes to futility. and trouble. Listen, and their
years in trouble and they couldn't figure out why they were in trouble. They couldn't figure out why
they was always in trouble. I know some people like that.
Always in trouble, it's like if you just listen, you wouldn't
be in so much trouble. But they won't listen. So their
years are consumed in nothing and trouble. And when He slew them, they sought
Him. Yeah, they sought Him. How many
people turn to be religious when they get in trouble? I mean,
they'll get religious. When people do get sick, or they're
about to die, or something disastrous happens, they'll get religious
and then they leave. After it all blows over, they
leave. And they did the same thing.
They returned, they inquired after God, they asked about Him,
they remembered that God was a rock, at least that's what
they were told when they grew up in Sunday school. And the
high God, their Redeemer, in their mind they remembered Him,
but not in their hearts. Christ said, you honor Me with
your lips, but your heart is far from Me. But He'd been full of compassion.
Oh, I tell you, this world... Scripture says His mercy is over
all His works. How many people abuse the blessings
of God today on this earth? And yet they'll get up in the
morning and go to a good job. Well, it goes on like this through
the rest of the chapter. And I want to close this out
here. But not all of them in the wilderness were lost. Not
all of them lost. Not all. No. It says in verse 67, He refused
the tabernacle of Joseph. He moved that away from there.
Remember, He moved everything to the city of David in Jerusalem. He chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
He got rid of the old way. but chose the tribe of Judah,
that's the tribe our Lord came out of. Mount Zion, which He
loved, He chose not Mount Sinai, but Mount Zion, the gospel, the
church. He built His sanctuary. He, that
is the Lord Jesus Christ, built His sanctuary like high palaces. He built His church. Now listen,
listen. Verse 70, He chose David. also His servant." Now let me
read it like this. He chose Christ. He chose Christ
His servant. He took Him from the sheepfold,
that is, Christ became one of us. He took Him from following
the ewes, great with the young. Our Lord from a child grew up
as the Lamb of God, and He brought Him to feed Jacob. That's what
He's doing tonight. Now listen, there was an Israel
in Israel. There was an Israel in Israel,
and God always fed them, and that God is Jesus Christ. Israel,
His inheritance. So He fed them according to His
integrity, according to His wisdom of His heart, and He guided them
by the skillfulness of His hand, just like He's doing tonight.
He's guiding me and you out of His Word. Go home and read this
again. It'll make you shudder. And it
will make you thankful. Lord, keep me, keep me. My original title to this was
Lead and Cat. Lead and Cat. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Shepherd of the sheep, He will not lose His Israel,
He will guide His sheep, He will take care of them, and He will
bring them home. Lord, make me one of Your sheep.
Please, make me one of your sheep. Don't let me be religious but
lost. All right.