My glorious friends, this flaming
world beneath the rain with joy shall I lift up my head. He knows I shall withstand every
day, For who but to my charge shall lay. Holy and sovereignly,
I am from sin and fear, from guilt and shame. And from the dust of death I
rise To claim my mansion in the skies In Him this shall be all,
my Queen Jesus Jesus. for me and made an everlasting ransom
pay. O let the dead now hear Thy voice, Now bid thy banished ones rejoice,
their beauty this, their glorious strength tease us, thy love and
righteousness. And I have more than heart to save thus far. In mercy took my guilt on Him,
then shed His precious blood. Now clothed in His own righteousness,
I stand redeemed complete. in His worthy name before the
mercy seat. Accepted in the Lamb who died,
I stand forever justified before God's great eternal throne. the sinner saved by grace alone. The Father looks not at my sin,
but on His Holy Son. His glory overshadows me before
the judgment throne. For he hath full atonement made
for all my guilt and shame. I am accepted in the work of
his redeeming name. Accepted in the Lamb who died,
I stand before God's great eternal throne,
a sinner saved by grace alone. God's justice has been satisfied
upon the cruel tree. And he can welcome all who come
by way of Calvary. In Christ's perfection I am seen,
a sinner saved by grace, accepted in His Word alone, who suffered
in my place. Accepted in the Lamb who died,
I stand God's great eternal throne, a
sinner saved by grace. Oh, how good it is to be in the
house of the Lord today. What a blessed message we just
heard. There's one thing about growing
in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
it always gets better. It is better and better. I am
so thankful to welcome this morning a dear friend of mine, that used
to live in the Dalles, Oregon and attended Sovereign Grace
Baptist Church there that moved to North North Carolina, Brother
Gene, where I'm so glad he drove up, sent him a text and here
he is. So I would like to introduce
him to you after the services. And then I got to meet on fellowship
with Brother Roberto today. He knows my daughter. She spent a little time in the
Dominican Republic. It was one of the worst experiences
she's ever had in her life. While she was there in her worst
experience in her life, she heard about a couple of men through
me that were holding services where Brother Roberto was. She just wanted to find somebody
that she could fellowship with, and she didn't know the gospel,
but she found them. She came home different. She
came home different. Every opportunity she has, she'll
drive 90 miles to come to church. So I was thankful. Good to meet
them. This morning, if you'd turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy,
Deuteronomy chapter 11. From the very beginning of scripture,
we have examples of the controversy between human works and the grace
of God. As soon as Adam had sinned, he
covered himself with fig leaves, and God covered him with the
skins of animals. I don't know how much longer
it was, but there was some time later, there were two young men. One was Cain, one was Abel. I
don't know how much instruction they had, but they've had some.
The last recorded words we have in the scriptures with regard
to Adam is he was blaming his wife for the condition he was
in, and from then on, we don't have a word. I can't help but
think though that he had something to say to his sons about the
problems they were in, what caused it. I have no proof, but that's
just to my own surmising. But it wasn't too much longer. We have Cain brought some vegetables
and Abel brought the firstling of the flock. He desperately
needed a substitute and it was far beyond his ability to do
something about it. He turned it over to a substitute.
I just appreciated so much those words about Abraham this morning.
He looked at that, he looked to faith, to the Lord Jesus Christ. He looked at this, he looked
in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where we are. There
is controversies all around us in the same fashion. I've been
there. I was in a great controversy
when a man from this church traveled to Oregon in 1986, and I was
pretty satisfied with the religion I was in, and I was moving up
the steps of the ladder. It wouldn't be long, I thought
I'd be in a big church with a better salary. This man came to Oregon, He preached
and the next morning, I told my wife after hearing one message
from that man, I hate that man. Now, the problem was he knew
something out of the Word of God. He knew something. I've heard a lot of preachers
and they didn't know anything. But this one man knew something. God had revealed the truth of
the gospel to him, and he preached it unflinchingly. God was so
pleased to reveal Christ to me. I discussed with this man three
great religious questions, and every time I asked him, he answered
them the same way. Norm, that's not the issue. And
I said, what is the issue? And he said, Christ is the issue.
Well, after answering the three very religious questions the
same way, I finally turned around and said, there's no need to
ask him anymore. I didn't say it to him, I said
it to myself. He's been in the ministry 35 years, I've been
in the ministry 15 years, and I'm smarter than he is. But I went back, I couldn't keep
away from hearing him. And I heard him. And when the
Lord gave me peace, I called him up and I says, brother, I
know what you mean. Christ is the issue. Here in
the book of Deuteronomy there is another example of how God
demonstrates to us, through the scriptures, the difference between
the works of the flesh and the sovereign grace of God. He brings
it in two verses of scripture. He's talking to the children
of Israel about what they had behind them and what lies ahead
of them. Deuteronomy chapter 11. If you'll
turn there with me, Deuteronomy chapter 11, and I want to read
verses 10 and 11. For the land, whither thou goest
in to possess it, Deuteronomy 11, verse 10 and
11, for the land, whether thou goest in to possess it, is not
as the land of Egypt, from which ye came out, where thou sowest
thy seed, and waterest it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs. Now I might put that verse in
this language. the land of Egypt, where you
planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in
a vegetable garden. Or I might say, this is also
in that verse, in this part of the world, they still use foot
wheels to raise water up to irrigate their fields. It happens all
over the world, but it's brought out in this place in the land
of Egypt, where you just came from. The only way you could
irrigate your vegetable gardens was you had to do the work. And the work was never done.
And you could wear out your feet digging ditches and wear out
your feet on these water wheels, these foot wheels that would
raise the water up, but the need was never finished. Those plants
continuously needed to be watered and you had to do it. Now, that's
the land of Egypt. Now, it reminds me, my wife's
parents and grandparents came from Colorado, and I had the
privilege of going back there and visiting Grandma and Grandpa
Harding one time, and I went with Grandpa in a World War II
Jeep with a big tank on the back, down into town. He put his quarter
in, put the hose in the top, filled it full of water, and
brought it back and dumped that into a cistern. When they got
low on water, he had to go back into town, fill his tank up,
and bring it back and put it in a cistern. God Almighty shared
with Israel that you're putting your water in cisterns that can
hold no water. He's not meaning that in a physical
sense, he's saying in a spiritual sense. Your work is never done. It's just like you living in
Egypt. It was all your effort. Now,
where's Egypt to us today? Boy, that's in our lost religious
state. We're really in Egypt. Did you
know that every one of those millions of bricks that those
Israelites were required to make, not only did they have to provide
the mud, they had to provide the straw, and someone had to
wield the water. The work was never done. The
Pharaoh was never satisfied. And I remember when I was in
my religious world that the work was never done, the preacher
was never satisfied, there were still weeds to pull around the
church, and they called that spiritual growth. Everything
you did was spiritual and it was never finished. The work
was never finished. I appreciated what Brother Gary,
he read several verses that I don't have to read this morning. But
he mentioned there in that tabernacle, there was a piece of furniture
missing. It was not only in the holy place that it was missing,
it was missing in the holy place of the holy of holies, but it
was also missing all the way around the tabernacle. There
was no chair. There was no place for those
priests to sit down. There was no place to take rest
because the work was never completed. In religion, it is not completed.
It is never completed. You are never told it's finished.
It is always work, work, work, work, work. You're not reading
your Bible enough. The church I grew up in, they
tried to have services every night of the week. If you weren't
spiritual, you weren't there. But if you were spiritual, you
were there. and it was just that controversy all the time that
you never got the job done. Turn with me if you would to
the book of Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 16. In Isaiah chapter 1
and verse 16, we read these words that the prophet, excuse me,
Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 16. The prophet Jeremiah was reminding,
he was a gospel preacher. He was reminding Israel of the
problems and the solution. He was reminding them of the
controversy. You're caught up in this natural condition of
trying to cover yourself with your fig leaves. Your natural
condition of trying to provide vegetables when God requires
blood. God requires a covering, not your covering, but his covering.
And here we think we've got it all nailed down and we're gonna
do it our way. And God is gonna be so loving, he's gonna accept
it. Well, God is a loving God, but he'll only accept Christ.
That is it. Here in the book of Jeremiah
chapter one and verse 16, we have here, you worship the works
of their own hands. It says, and I will utter my
judgments against them, touching all their wickedness who have
forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods and worshiped
the works of their own hands. of their own hands. Those fellas,
ladies, boys and girls that were down in Egypt In slavery, they
worked, they worked, and they worked, and the next day they
had to go to work and work some more because the work was never
finished. Someone wore out their feet.
I shook hands with a friend today and he's got calluses on his
hand. Can you imagine the calluses that were on the feet of these
people that worked on those water wheels just to raise the water
up so they could make the tally of bricks that was required?
just to do all the necessary things to irrigate the gardens
that they were in, and the work was never finished. And God said,
here you worship the works of your own hands. You ever been
there? I've been there. Oh, this is so good. Turn with
me, if you would, to the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7,
we have that wonderful Sermon on the Mount. In this chapter
6 of the Book of Matthew, we have the Lord dealing with the
three most religious things that the Egyptians could perform,
or the Israelites could perform, or religious people perform even
today. It is just the way we are. We
want to give, but we want to let people know about it. This
last Christmas, I had a man tell me, he says, my family and I,
we just decided that we weren't going to spend any money on each
other, we're going to send it to the poor in some country.
Why did he have to tell me that? Because he wanted me to acknowledge
it. A friend of mine, I was one time with him, he says, Norm,
have you ever tried fasting? No. Well, here we read the Lord Jesus
Christ is dealing with the three most religious things that they
practice down in Egypt. The Israelites are practicing
religion today. You and I have practiced it,
maybe not in the physical form, but in the way that it's thought
we're going to do it for show. Here, the Lord says in Luke,
excuse me, John chapter six, and there in verse one, Excuse me, Matthew. If I could
read my own writing at times. Matthew chapter six, here we
go. He said, and take heed, Matthew
chapter six, verse one, take heed that you do not your alms
before men, for to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward
of your father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when you do us thine
alms, do not sound a trumpet before. Why did he say that? Because that was the practice.
This is religion to its highest point. Don't sound a horn. And it goes on here, don't toot
your trumpet. Thou doest thine alms, do not
sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But when thou doest thine alms,
let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. And then
it tells us here in verse five, and when thou prayest, thou shall
not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners and in the streets, that
they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But when thou prayest, enter
into your closet. You know, we pray out loud, we pray in public,
but our real prayers are in private. And it might be at our steering
wheel. It's in private. That's what
God does for us when he gives us Christ and we're born again.
He takes away this desire to be so showy. I know we're all
recovering Pharisees. We are. But he takes away the
bent on that a lot. And then the next thing that's
mentioned here, when you fast, nobody's supposed to know about
it. Don't paint your face and let people know that you're fasting,
as the hypocrites were doing, but it's a private thing. These
three religious things that the Lord Jesus spoke on, he said,
you're going to wear yourself your feet out pumping the water
because it is never done. You get a crop up and we find
that the hail comes along and knocks it down and all your work
is insufficient. You get a crop up and the pigs
get turned in on it. You get a crop up and it burns
up. You get a crop up, nothing ever
satisfies, and there is no satisfaction whatsoever when it comes to Christ
in our religion. I was so upset with that preacher
that told me that Christ and Christ alone, and I wanted to
mix in my foot water. Now, as we go back over here
to the book of Deuteronomy, now he says, now this is the way
it's going to be when you get there. When God takes us out
of Egypt, when he takes us out of our religion, when he takes
us out of our practice, when he takes us out of where we are
by nature, when he takes us out of that practice of bringing
the vegetables or pumping the water, trying to raise a garden
on our own as we find here. My parents raised a garden. There
was ten kids in my family. Now we were never all home together
at one time. Nine of us made it at my dad's
funeral. One of them had already passed
away. So we never were all there together. But we still required
a big garden. And in those days, we pumped
water out, and we had ditches along the rows of corn and ditches
along the rows of beans and ditches along the squash and ditches
along. And it was our job to keep those
ditches from breaking out and keep that water going because
our winter food was based on that. And it was work. And it was hard work. And we
had to take care of it. And we'd say, whoa, that's over.
Well, three days later, guess what? We're back at it. Irrigating again. Just think
of what it was down there in Egypt when they had to use foot
power to raise the water out of the ditch and put it in the
ditches. I've done a lot of construction
with bathrooms that have dry rot, and there's nothing about
dry rot that's dry. Why they call it that? But I'll
tell you what, I want water in my faucet. All right, notice here, in the
book of Deuteronomy, there in chapter 11, verse 11, But the land, here we go, from
one where it's all work, Egypt, to the other, the promised land,
to being in Christ, to having all spiritual blessings. He says
here, but the land, whether you go to possess it, is a land of
hills and valleys. Now that means exactly what Brother
Gary was preaching about last night. Our Christian life is filled
with hills and valleys. That's the land. We're here.
Things happen. We have those issues in our life. But it's in the land. Notice
this though. and drinketh the water of the rain of heaven." Are you telling me that I'm not
going to have to use my foot on the foot wheel again because
it's going to rain instead of I need irrigation? That's exactly
what Moses was led by the Holy Spirit to share with the church
that when God places us in Christ, in the promised one, in the promised
land, when he places us in him, all the blessings come down.
There is only one thing that we send up, that's our prayers. When we read in Romans Chapter
8 about our prayers, we know not how to pray as we ought,
but the Holy Spirit takes them up and produces them before God
in an acceptable manner. Everything else comes down. Would you turn with me to the
book of James Chapter 1? In James chapter 1 we read these
wonderful words that James had to share, these truths of grace,
every good gift. James chapter 1 and verse 17,
here's the rain. It's not produced by us. We don't
get involved in it. It's just God's richest blessings
poured out on us and it's symbolically said or metaphorically said,
I'm going to send rain when you get into the promised land and
the irrigation is over with. I will send my blessings from
down. It will not be your activity
that will be accepted, but it will be my blessings upon you. James chapter 1 and there in
verse 17, the scriptures share this, every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above. God is from above, the Holy Spirit
is from above, Christ is from above, every blessing that is
in God is from above. It is not of this world, it is
from the heavenlies. You must be born from above. You must be born again. You must
be born from above. It is not possible. Nicodemus
had the most logical answer. He was an honest answer to that
question. Are you telling me that I must
enter my mother's womb a second time? He's just being logical. He had no idea what he was talking
about. But when God gives us Christ,
we have an understanding of what that means. That is life from
above. It descends on us. It's not something
we create in ourself. It's impossible. Nobody can create
life. But God is life, and he is light,
and he is glory, and he brings all that and gives to us. Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down. Oh, the sweet rain. This, what
day is it? Is it Saturday? Friday morning.
Yesterday morning was raining. It's just an illustration that
you didn't have to water your lawn. That water came down from
heaven. We love it. Out there in Oregon,
in Eastern Oregon, there's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
acres of grain grown. And those farmers depend upon
the winter rains and the spring rains because there's no irrigation.
And if it doesn't come, there's a failure. If it comes, there's
success, generally speaking. They're dependent. The orchardists,
we have 6,000 acres of cherries right there around the Dalles,
big industry for us. and they irrigate every tree.
It takes days to get all the irrigation systems set up. Used
to be sprinkler systems, now it's drip systems that were brought
in from Israel. They have the design out because
they don't have much water. Well, here when it comes to spiritual
things, there is no drip system, there is no irrigation, it comes
down from heaven. Every good gift and every perfect
gift cometh down from heaven. What does it go on to say there
in James Chapter 1 verse 17, from the father of lights with
whom there is no variable as neither shadow of turning. God
does not change. We're thankful or you sons of
Jacob will be consumed. What if God changed his mind
about us? Boy, some brother just shared
with me, the older I'm getting, the farther I'm walking in Christ,
the more I see that I am so unworthy. The other day I was talking to
a man and he was trying to convince me of progressive sanctification.
Brother Gary met him this summer, he had some questions for him.
Progressive sanctification, I used to hold to that. When God saved
me, I found out he's my sanctification. I was talking to him and he says,
Norm, how do you measure success then? How do you measure success
in your Christian walk? Are you telling me you're not
getting better and things are better with you?" I says, I'm
just going to have to go to the scripture and share what the
scripture says. Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am. That's
his measure of success. Christ is greater, I am less. Job. Isaiah, Peter, Paul, all
of these saints, as progress was made in them, they, woe is
me, I am undone. That's progress, when God lets
us see Christ more glorious and we ourselves in a less than we
thought. We're worse than we ever could
consider, but he is greater than we could ever think of. So this
wonderful blessing, the rain, the sweet rain of heaven, every
blessed, every spiritual gift, every blessing, is from heaven
as is every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and
cometh down from the Father of lights. We read in the book of
Ezekiel, the I wills of God. I will take you out of the land.
Let's just go over there and read a few of those. Ezekiel
Chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36, and these are all from God to
us. They're not from us up. We don't
appropriate these things. He gives them to us. We are not
participants. We are recipients of this grace. So in the Book of Ezekiel, it
tells us here in Chapter 36 of the Book of Ezekiel, the number
of times God uses the word, I will. Verse 24, the scripture share
this, for I will take you from among the heathen. Thank God. I was among the heathen. I still
live among the heathen, but I've been taken out of the heathen.
and gather you out of all countries, out of every nation, kindred,
people, and tongue. Then it goes on to tell us, and
we'll bring you into your own land. I'll bring you where the
rain falls. I'll bring you where you don't
have to work. I'll bring you where every spiritual blessing
comes down from the Father of lights. Then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you and you shall be clean. What a wonderful
statement that God makes you this great preacher, you will
be clean. You know when God says you're
clean, you're clean. Every spot and every wrinkle,
I'll present you spotless, and all your filthiness from all
your idols will I cleanse you. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians
in 1 Thessalonians 1, he said, you've turned to God from worshiping
dumb idols. That is true repentance. God
changing us, turning us from this world to Him. I'll give
you, and I'll put a new spirit, will I put within you, and I'll
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will, I
don't know how many I wills in here, spend some time counting
them sometime, but this is the rain that comes down from heaven.
What God said, I will do. This is what God gives us when
he takes us out of darkness and puts us in his marvelous light.
This is what God does for us when he takes us out of the world
and puts us into the kingdom of heaven. This is what God does
for us. He sends us the sweet rain from
heaven. Every spiritual blessing, all
the things that count for us now have come down from above. He has brought us, I will do
this, I will do this, and I will do this. Over in the Book of
Romans, it says in, move with me, Ephesians, we'll stop in
Ephesians first. Ephesians 1, verses 3-12, we
read in that passage of scripture that in Christ Jesus, we have
every spiritual blessing. Where do they come from? They
come down. They come in Christ. Jesus said,
I am the bread that came down from heaven. I am that one that
was promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and was
promised by all the prophets. That preacher that brought me
the gospel said, you can take the Bible and say these three
things about it. The Old Testament, someone's
coming and coming down. The gospel, someone is here.
The rest of the Bible, someone's coming back. Christ is coming
again for his sheep, the lost sheep that he found. Here in
the book of Ephesians chapter one, verse three, we read these
wonderful verses. I cannot tell you how many times I didn't read the book of Ephesians chapter
one in my religion. Anathema Maranatha. I just couldn't
get in there. Couldn't read Romans 8, 9, 10,
11. Never heard a message on them. They were left out. But here in Ephesians 1, verse
3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in
Christ. Talk about a rainstorm. Every spiritual blessing fallen
out from heaven to us, given to us in Christ Jesus, according
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
That used to be real problem for me, but when he saved me
by his grace, I understood that it had to be that way because
I left to myself would have never turned into him. I was opposed
to him. I love playing with magnets. It doesn't take, I'm from the
Dalles, it didn't take much to entertain me. Hand me a couple of magnets. You watch those magnets, and
you can push another magnet around. If you get poles opposite, it'll
just push all over. You turn them around, and they're
drawn, and it's difficult to pull apart. I'm thankful God
Almighty turns us around, and we're attached to him, just like
we heard this morning. We're attached. We have been
predestinated unto us the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. Verse 6, To the praise of the
glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted unto beloved,
in whom we have redemption through his blood, forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace. having made known unto
us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. And this is one area the church
absolutely rejoices in. we'd go crazy. It's no wonder
people go crazy when they have, only depending on their finances,
their position in life, but the church is able to say, this has
fallen out for the furtherance of the gospel. The book of Romans, chapter eight,
we could go through there. all those blessings that God
sends down upon the people, upon God's people as they enter the
land. In Egypt, the work was never
done, never accomplished, never finished. In Christ, one of my
favorite passages of scripture is written in the book of 1 Kings,
and it was during Solomon's reign. It says there in Solomon's reign,
they had peace throughout the land and every man dwelt under
his own vine. Jesus says, I am the vine. You
are the branches. He's accomplished the work. It
is finished is the most wonderful thing that we can hear and understand. The work is finished, the rain
falls, we sit under our vine and enjoy the sweet peace of
liberty in Christ Jesus our Lord. Egypt, you wore your feet off. In the promised land, in Christ,
it's all done. I'll send you rain from heaven. Brother Jim. Thank you. Let's go to 258. 258. So thankful to God for the messages. And we look forward this evening
to listening to the Gospel once again. We start this evening
at 6 o'clock. 6 o'clock. A little early. So get your quick nap this afternoon
and come back. Now before that, after we have
this song, we'll go back and have some lunch together. Hope you'll stay and have fellowship. We look forward to enjoying whatever
the ladies have for us back there. And then we'll meet again this
evening at 6. Let's go to, what did I say? 258. Have to look at the schedule. 258. Let's stand together. a wonderful Savior to me He guided my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my aid. He hides my soul in the gladder
of the rock. that shadows the dry, thirsty
land. He hides my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me then with His hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns and filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O Glory
to God For such a Redeemer as mine He guided my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. Behind my
life, in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His
hand. and colors me fair with His hand. When clothed in His brightness
transported I'd rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, How shall, with the millions on high, He hideeth my soul in
the cleft of the rock That shadows the dry, thirsty land? He hideth
my life in the depths of His love, And covers me there with
His hand. And covers me there with His
hand.