All right, let's open our Bibles
to Psalm 78. I titled the message this evening, Grace Greater Than
All of Our Sin. I want to start with a statement
of fact and then look at the bulk of this psalm and show you
that this is indeed fact backed up by the Word of God. In eternity,
Almighty God chose to save a sinful people. When he chose those people,
God knew who and what they would be. He knew that they would be
fallen in Adam. He knew how wretched and wicked
that they would be. Yet in his grace, God chose to
save them anyway. Now, there is never an excuse
for sin. But the comfort for the believer
who knows that all we do is sin, our comfort is this, is our sin
will never cause God to cast off his people. We'll never sin
so much that God will be done with His people and cast them
off and take His grace away from them. God chose to save sinners. He chose to save sinners. Well,
then their sin is not going to cause Him to cast them off. Now,
God will never save the self-righteous, but He will save every sinner
who needs saving, and they'll never plumb the depths of His
grace. They'll never out-sin His grace
and cause Him to cast them off. And God showed us a picture of
that and how he dealt with national Israel throughout their history,
how they constantly sinned and rebelled against God, yet he
never cast them off. First, I want us to see this,
that the marvelous power of God's grace is greater than all of
our sin. Verse 12 of Psalm 78 says, marvelous
things did he in the sight of their fathers in the land of
Egypt, in the field of Zoan, Now the field of Zoan is the
place in the promised land where those spies who went to spy out
the land, they cut down a cluster of grapes in the field of Zoan.
And those grapes were so large it took two men to carry that
cluster of grapes on their shoulders. The field of Zoan was the place
where the spies saw truly the land that God promised to give
them was a land flowing with milk and honey. And that's a
picture of the full and free salvation that God gives all
of his people. Everyone who believes God has
a spiritual salvation that flows with milk and honey. We have
the milk of God's word flowing to us, always giving us just
exactly what we need to feed us and to sustain us. Janet talks
frequently about our life together, how often How many times, week
after week after week, she said, we just came to the surface,
Sundays and Wednesdays, like baby birds. And there's the gospel
being preached. Oh, just the milk of God's words
are freely flowing to us. And we've got the honey of God's
word. We've got all the sweet promises
of God's grace, just dripping with sweetness. We've got the
sweet presence of Christ himself. That's the land that God gave
his people. That was a picture of salvation. Well, how did Israel
react to this powerful salvation to be freely given this land
that flows with milk and honey? Were they thankful? Were they? Did they trust the Lord and not
trust on their own strength? Did they not look at, you know,
their ability and just trust the Lord? No, they didn't. They
didn't. They turned from the battle because
they thought we can't earn the victory. The Lord won't give
it to us. Look back up at verse nine. The children of Ephraim
being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. They said, God can't give us
the land. There's giants in the land and they turned back in
the wilderness to die in unbelief. And I'm not picking at Israel
here tonight. In every one of these illustrations, I want us
to look at ourselves. How often do we do the exact
same thing? It doesn't even have to be a
giant, just some Little trouble comes up, something gets in the
way, and we think, well, God's not gonna give us what He promised
now, this is just gonna end in total disaster, and we quit if
we could. How often do we feel that way?
Yet, God never has yet taken His grace away from His people.
Well, verse 13 says, He divided the sea and caused them to pass
through, and He made the waters to stand up as in heat. Now,
God provided a Powerful, miraculous deliverance from bondage in Egypt. God brought Israel through the
Red Sea. He didn't bring them across it
on boats. He brought them through it on
dry, dusty seabed. The wall stood up in waters and
they walked through on dry ground. What a miraculous deliverance. And that's a picture of God's
elect being delivered from the bondage of sin through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, do we believe God? I mean,
we know Israel ended up doubting, but I'm not talking about them.
I'm talking about you and me. Do we believe God? Do we? Is his power sufficient? Is his
grace sufficient? Or do we think we've got to do
something to make his salvation stick? We know what Israel did. Do we stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord? Do we stand still and quit our
works and just see the salvation of the Lord, or do we think we've
got to contribute something? Which is it now? Verse 14 says,
In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, and all the night
with the light of fire. God led Israel everywhere they
went. They didn't have to guess where they should go next. God
led him by day with a cloudy pillar. He led him by night with
a pillar of fire. Now we know what happened with
Israel. But what do you and me do? Do we trust the Lord? Do we trust
him that he's going to lead us right? Or do we think maybe he's
made a mistake and he's going to lead us into destruction?
Do we doubt the Lord or do I ask myself this question? Do I have
to see every step where the Lord's leading before I'll follow Him? Or do I just follow Him by faith?
Just trust Him, knowing that He's leading right. Which is
it? If we're honest, often our faith
seems almost non-existent. When we're looking for it, it
seems like we can't find it, and we want to walk by sight,
not by faith, don't we? Verse 15, He clad the rocks in
the wilderness and gave them drinks. as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of
the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. Now you
know the story when the people were dying of thirst. The Lord
gave them water out there in the wilderness from the most
unlikely source. He gave them water from a rock.
A rock, which is the opposite of water as far as I can tell,
but he gave them water from a rock. God told Moses, take your rod,
which pictures the justice of God, and you smite the rock.
And Moses, when you smite the rock, water's going to flow forth.
And that's exactly what happened. Moses struck that rock with his
rod, and water just gushed out of that rock. Enough water to
quench the thirst to supply all the need of three million people
and their animals. The one rock. And scripture does
not leave us to wonder what that's talking about. Paul told us that
rock was Christ. That rock that followed them
in the wilderness was Christ. And that showed us the power
of the sacrifice of Christ for His people. We looked at that
Sunday, His one sacrifice. He was smitten one time. Righteousness
and the water of life flows from the most unlikely source. One
man on Calvary Street. The only perfect man. And the
only perfect man who ever lived, Almighty God took the rod of
his justice and smote him. He smote his son and out flowed
life-giving blood and water. Blood to justify. Water to sanctify. To satisfy the need of a number
no man can number. From one man. A most unlikely
source. Because what do we know about
man? Well, we know by man came sin and death, don't we? Well,
what a wonder that righteousness and eternal life would come from
another man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's far more miraculous
than water coming from a rock. Righteousness and life coming
from a man. Well, how did Israel respond
to all of God's power? He just displayed his power.
He's going to deliver and and supply His people. How did they
respond to that? Did they just trust the Lord
completely knowing He's able to take care of me? No, they
didn't. First thing they did was they
did not keep God's covenant. Verse 10. They kept not the covenant
of God and refused to walk in His law. They didn't keep His
covenant. Second, they forgot all about God's power that He
showed for them. Verse 11. They forgot His works
and His wonders. that he showed them. They just
forgot all about it. What have you done? What are
you doing for me today? They forgot about all his works of power
in the past. And thirdly, after everything God gave them, how
they cried for deliverance from bondage in Egypt. And they weren't grateful. They
didn't say thank you. They wanted more. Verse 17. And they sinned yet more, more
against him. by provoking the Most High in
the wilderness. And they tempted God in their
heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against
God. They say, can God furnish a table
in the wilderness? Behold, He smote the rock that
the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He give
bread also? Can He provide flesh for His
people? After everything God did for them, after He showed
His almighty power in delivering them and supplying their every
need, They doubted that God was able to keep doing it. They wanted
more. Now, how often do we do the very
same thing? This has to be the most blessed
people on the face of this planet. Materially, physically, spiritually. Yet, how often do we want more? God blesses us so much materially. How much do we want more? Are you satisfied? God even blesses
us spiritually. And we want more gifts, don't
we? I mean, maybe that's not completely bad, but I mean, I
see a trend there, don't you? And you know, that unbelief made
God angry. Verse 21. Therefore, the Lord
heard this and was wroth. So a fire was kindled against
Jacob and anger also came up against Israel because they believed
not in God and trusted not in his salvation. Now this sin of
unbelief, they trusted not in His salvation. They didn't believe
Him. That made God angry. God is always
angry with unbelief. Unbelief is the sin that will
damn people. Now, here's the unbelief of Israel,
the people that God has chosen. God promised to give them the
land. He told Abraham, I'm going to
give you your seed, this land where you're at right now. Well,
here they all are. Look at their sin. Look at their
unbelief. Did their sin and their unbelief
make God's grace stop? Did their sin and their rebellion,
did that make Him take back His promise to give them the land?
Did the faithlessness of the people stop God's faithfulness? No, it didn't, did it? It didn't.
Because God is a covenant God. He always keeps His promise.
Look over it to Psalm 89. God always keeps his promise
and his faithfulness to his people will never end. Despite their
lack of faith, God's faithfulness will never end. Psalm 89 verse
30. If his children forsake my law
and walk not on my judgments, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, Then why visit their transgression
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes? Nevertheless, my
loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. God's grace
and his faithfulness are always greater than our sins. And this
is the comfort to the hearts of God's people. We ought to
never sin against God, especially this sin of unbelief. There's
not an excuse for one person in this room not to believe God.
Not one. You heard the gospel plenty of
times. There's not an excuse for one
of us not to believe God. But when we do, it's to our shame,
but we're going to do it. And when we do, We don't have
to doubt God's power and his love for his people. We can't
think that God has abandoned me this time because he's not
going to do it. And this is our comfort. We ought
to be a faithful people. Of all people that I know, this
congregation should be a faithful people. But our comfort is this,
that salvation is not found in our faithfulness. It's found
in God's faithfulness. That's the assurance of salvation. And you understand, I'm not making
an excuse for weak faith, but when we have it, this is our
comfort. God's grace is greater than our faithlessness. His grace
is greater than our sin. Here's the second thing. God
showed Israel a free salvation that is always greater than our
sin. You can't earn salvation. And God gives, but we have it
because God gives it freely by his grace and he'll never take
it back. We can't earn it and we can't
send so much. He'll take it back. Verse 23,
though he commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors
of heaven and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had
given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels food. He sent
them meat to the fool. Now the people, you remember
how they were out there in the wilderness, they murmured against
God. They said, well, God just brought us out here in the desert
to starve to death. We don't have anything to eat. And God just
opened the heavens and gave them manna to eat. Aren't you thankful
that God's not like us? I don't even have to wonder what
I would do if I was God and the people were murmuring against
me after I delivered them from Egypt. I would have let them
starve to death. because his love, his faithfulness,
he opened the heavens and gave the people manna. David calls
it the corn of heaven and angels food. God gave it to the people
and he gave it to them freely. All they had to do, go out there
in the morning and pick it up. They didn't even have to turn
it into dough and bake it. They just picked it up and ate
it to their hearts content. And I tell you what was going
on there. We don't have to wonder because our Lord told us. God
was giving them a picture of his son, Christ, the true bread
from heaven. That manna was wonderful, but
everybody ate that manna. They ended up dying, didn't they?
But anyone who eats Christ and eating Christ means believing
him. Anybody that believes him will never die. God gives his
son to his people freely. It's a free gift. We don't have
to do anything to make it effectual. We just believe Christ and have
joy and are filled to our heart's content. God gave them angels'
food to eat. And He didn't stop there. Look
at verse 26. He caused an east wind to blow into heaven, and
by His power He brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also
upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the
sea. And he let it fall in the midst
of their camp round about their habitations. So they did eat
and were filled for he gave them their own desire. Now, you know,
man, it was all the people needed to live, but God gave him meat
too. He just blessed, just gave him
meat too. God caused quail to fly over the camp and then just
fall to the ground dead. The people didn't have to build
a bird blind. They didn't have to learn how to shoot quail out
of the sky. God just caused them to follow the ground. And all
the people had to do was go out and pick up as much as you wanted
to eat. God gave them all the bread and all the meat they wanted. He just kept them full. Now you
know what that is. That's a picture of Christ. Our
Lord said, My flesh is meat indeed. His flesh is true life-giving
meat. In John 6, our Lord told us that
eating His flesh and drinking His blood means believing Him. Anyone who believes Him, eats
His flesh and drinks His blood, anybody who believes His life
in the flesh is enough to make me righteous. Anybody that believes
His blood is enough to put away all my sin, they have salvation. That person is saved. God's given
them faith in Christ freely. Would you be saved? Would you
be filled to your heart's content? Believe God. Just believe Him.
And if you don't believe Him, ask God to give you faith. That's salvation. Salvation is
yours freely. Just believe. Just lay down everything
you've got that you think God might be happy with and lay it
down. And come to Christ naked and empty, believing Him. He'll
fill you. Now God gave them all this freely.
Here they were, thought they were going to starve to death.
God gave them manna. He gave them quail. They thought
they were going to die of thirst. He gave them water from the rock.
Well, how did they react to that? You know they weren't satisfied.
They wanted more. And this is the sin of unbelief.
And I'll tell you what this is. It's wanting more than Christ. Now, how often do you and I find
ourselves in that same situation? Feeling like I want more. than
Christ. Verse 30, they were not, after
God gave them everything, they were not estranged from their
lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, even while
they were eating that meat, they weren't satisfied. And that's
the flesh. God's free grace will never satisfy
the flesh. The flesh always wants more than
Christ alone. Always. And every time somebody
leaves the gospel, It's because of this. They don't want Christ
alone. And you know what? Nothing will
bring God's anger faster than not wanting Christ alone, than
refusing to believe his son alone. That's what happened to Israel,
verse 31. The wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest
of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this,
they sinned still and believed not his wondrous works. Therefore,
their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble."
See, they wanted more. The flesh was not satisfied,
and God smoked them. He smoked the strongest, the
fattest, the best of them, and killed them. And they still wouldn't
believe. You know why that is? Nothing
will affect the heart of flesh and make the heart of flesh believe
God. Nothing. The flesh cannot do it. Earthly
blessings won't do it. And God sending trials and heartache
won't do it either. The only way a sinner is going
to believe God is if God gives him a new heart. Verse 34 says,
when he slew them, then they sought him in return and inquired
early after God. Now this sounds promising, doesn't
it? And they remembered that God
was their rock and the high God their redeemer. Nevertheless,
They did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him
with their tongues, for their heart was not right with him,
neither were they steadfast in his covenant." Trouble and heartache
gets people religious. It just gets people religious.
Trouble and trial makes God's people draw closer to Him. Trouble
and heartache make people, other people, unbelievers, it makes
them get religious. But it's just lip service. They
flattered the Lord with their tongues. It was just lip service.
Brethren, God's worship from the heart. He's worshiped from
the heart. And their heart wasn't right
with God. You know why? God hadn't given
them a new one. That's why. Now, all they did,
all Israel did was come and they were given a show of religion,
but it was just lip service. God saw through that. Now, Did
that show religion? Did that make God cast off His
people? Did that make Him not bring His people into the promised
land? Did that make Him break His covenant? Did the ungratefulness
of His people, did that make God take away His free gift and
change His purpose of salvation by grace? No, it didn't. No. If that were the case, people
could earn it, couldn't they? If you could, by your disobedience,
cause God to take it away, by your good deeds, you'd cause
God to give it to you, couldn't you? God's salvation is free. God gives it to his people freely,
and no amount of their sin can cause him to change his purpose
of salvation for those that he chose to save. God's grace, his
free salvation, is always greater than our sin. That brings me
to my third point. God showed his people a loving
salvation. God's love is greater than all
of our sin. Verse 38. But he, oh, I love
those phrases, but he, but God, but he being full of compassion
forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned
he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. for he
remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away
and cometh not again. Aren't you thankful that God
is full of compassion? God's infinite. The heavens cannot
contain him and he's full of compassion. God is full of love
for his people and the Lord does not destroy his sinful people
for one reason. He loves them. He loves them.
The Lord does not destroy his sinful people because he loves
them so much. You know what he did? He destroyed
his son. Oh, now there's love that God
provided a propitiation. That's God's love for his people.
The songwriter said, if that isn't love, the ocean is dry. If that isn't love, there's no
cloud in the sky and the spirit. If that isn't love, that's God's
love for his people. And aren't we thankful that salvation
is in God's love for his people, not our weak love for him. Now,
I'm sure many of you can say with me, and this is so, I love
God. I do. I love him. I know I love
him because he first loved me. I love him. But how often are you shamed
of your love for Christ? Our love is so weak and fickle. Our love, you know, this love
for Christ is a spiritual thing. And you know, that love, the
feeling of it, the heat of it, changes with the slightest bit
of pain or worry to this flesh. God's love for his people never
changes. It's eternal. The songwriter
said, could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment
made? Were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above,
or drain the ocean dry? Nor could the scroll contain
the whole that was stretched from sky to sky. God still loves
his people in all the ugliness and the sinfulness of our flesh. That doesn't make him stop loving
his people. He remembers better than we do that we're just dust. How often do we want to put our
hope in the strength of the flesh? I can solve this problem. We've
forgotten that we're just dust. God doesn't forget that. This
flesh is nothing but dust. Next time you sweep up the kitchen
floor, you get a pile of dust, you sweep it into the dustpan.
Just look at that pile of dust laying there. That's you and
me. That's all we amount to. And it doesn't even take a strong
storm of trial to blow it away. Just a little bit of weed. That won't make God's love for
His people stop. God loved His people while we
were yet sinners. And you want proof of it? How
do you know God loves His people? How do you know that He loved
them while they were yet sinners? He sent His Son to die for them
and be their propitiation for their sins. Here is living. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us. As weak and fickle as we are,
God won't cast off His people because their sin is gone under
the blood. He loved them enough to send
them a propitiation. And I tell you, it's a good thing
God's love won't change because of how often we sin against His
love. Look at verse 40. How often did
they provoke Him in the wilderness? and grieve him in the desert.
Yea, they turned back and tempted God and they limited the Holy
One of Israel. Now, let's forget about the people
of Israel for a minute. Let's just think about us today.
How often do we take God's love for granted? I mean, how often? How often do we think, you know,
sin really isn't that big a deal. God's still going to love me
anyway. Now, We may not consciously say that, but that's got to be
in our thought process somewhere, because look how little resistance
we put up to sin. And how often do men limit the
love of God? The hand of the Lord that David
speaks of here is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the right hand
of God's power to save His people that He loves. And men say, well
God, His love is infinite. So God loves everybody. Now that
is an attempt that comes from a dead, depraved mind. It's an attempt to magnify God's
love. But you know what that really
does? Now I know that sounds all good and sweet to the flesh,
God loves everybody. But you know what it really does?
It limits the power of God's love. To say God loves everybody
limits the power of His love. and to say that God loves His
people that He chose, that magnifies the power of God's love. I can
make good on that. If God loves everybody, yet so
many people go to hell anyway, then the power of God's love
doesn't mean anything, does it? See, that limits the power of
God's love. It limits it to man's decision to accept Jesus. If
we think we've got to do something to save ourselves, and we've
got to do something to make God love us, we're limiting the power
of God's love. were limiting his power to say.
And the truth is, God does not love everyone. God loves his
people. God loves his son. And he loves
everybody he put in his son. And you see that in the plagues
that God sent to Egypt. Look at verse 42. They remembered
not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy,
how he wrought his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field
of Zoam. And he turned their rivers into blood and their floods
that they could not drink. He sent diverse sorts of flies
among them, which devoured them and frogs, which destroyed them.
He gave also their increase into the caterpillar and their labor
unto the locust. He destroyed their vines with
hail and their sycamore trees with frost. He gave up their
cattle also to the hail and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He
cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation
and trouble by sending evil angels among them. He made a way to
his anger. He spared not their soul from
death, but gave their life over to the pestilence and smote all
the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength and the tabernacles
of Ham, but made his own people to go forth like sheep and guided
them in the wilderness like a flock. Now those plagues, came and destroyed
Egypt, didn't they? But those plagues that destroyed
Egypt were a blessing to Israel. It was a blessing to the people
who were in the land of Goshen, especially the night of the Passover. All the firstborn of Egypt died. How many people died that night? But all of Israel, everyone under
the blood of the Passover lamb on the door, everyone who had
blood on the door, lived. You know why? God's justice was
still going to be satisfied. There was still going to be death
every home in Egypt that night. But God has a people that he
loves. And you know how he knows which one he loves? He provided
a substitute. He said, kill the lamb, put his
blood on the door. And you eat his body, roast with
fire. Eat it with your shoes on your
feet, your loins girt, your staff in your hand. This is the Lord's
Passover. You're leaving tonight. What
destroyed Egypt? was a blessing to Israel. Because
of that Passover, they went out and they went out because God
was leading those people he loves. Verse 53. And he led them on
safely so that they feared not. But the sea overwhelmed their
enemies. They went through that sea on dry ground and what delivered
God's people destroyed his enemies. And he brought them to the border
of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand
had purchased. He cast out the heathen also
before them and divided them in inheritance by line and made
the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. God brought his
people all the way to the promised land. He cast out the heathen
from before them and gave them their tents and their houses.
The heathen were thinking, we're going to have us a good supper
tonight. We're preparing supper, had everything cooking on the
pot. And the Lord sent some horns in, drove them out. And Israel
just walked in, sat down to hot meal. They had a meal prepared,
they had a house to live in. The harvest was all getting ready
to be brought in. God just gave it to them all
freely. He brought them to the land of promise, a picture of
rest in Christ. How did the people react? Did
they go right in and take the land God promised to give them? They should have known that God's
with us. Nothing can stop it. Did they do that? You know they
didn't. Now that's Israel. Before we
go on, let me ask you something. You've heard the gospel preached.
You've heard salvations in Christ. Believe Him. Come to Him. Look to Him. Have it freely.
To not believe Him, to not come to Him, to not rest in Him is
much more wicked than Israel saying, we can't take the land.
It really is. Look here at verse 56. Yet they
tempted and provoked the Most High God and kept not His testimonies,
but turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers. They were
turned aside like a deceitful bow, for they provoked Him to
anger with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with
their graven images. Not only did the people not trust
the Lord to give them the land that He promised to give them,
they turned to idolatry. They started worshiping idols.
And how often when we find ourselves in a fix that looks too big for
us, how often do we look to something other than Christ alone? It's Christ alone. It's Christ
alone. To say to a dear loved one, We've all had this situation. Someone's in such a mess, such
a fix. And look at all you want, there's
no answer for it. There's no way out of this thing.
We can't find a solution to this thing. But tell them, look to
Christ. It's not empty religious jargon.
Look to Christ. I'm telling you, it's Christ
alone. And to not trust Christ alone, That's going to draw God's
wrath. It did to Israel. Verse 59. When God heard this, he was wroth
and greatly abhorred Israel so that he forsook the tabernacle
of Shiloh and the tent which he placed among the men. Can
you imagine a more horrible judgment of God upon a city than for God
to forsake the tabernacle, to forsake the place of worship
in that city and remove the kingdom? Can you imagine a more horrible?
That's what he did to Shiloh. And he delivered his strength
into captivity and his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave
his people over also unto the sword and was wroth with his
inheritance. The fire consumed their young
men and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests
fell by the sword and their widows made no lamentation. Then the
Lord awaked as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth
by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies. in
the hinder parts. And He put them to a perpetual
reproach. God awaked from His wrath eventually. Now God was angry. God was going
to deal with sin. But God will not stop loving
His people. He awaked from His wrath because
He remembered His covenant. And He delivered His people.
And He destroyed the enemy. Because God loves His people. And in spite of all their sin,
in spite of their lack of love for Him, He will never stop loving
his people. They don't deserve it, but God
loves them. His love is greater than all
of our sin. Our sin cannot make him stop
loving his people. And then here's the fourth thing.
God showed his people his electing salvation. Verse 67. Moreover, he refused the tabernacle
of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but he chose the
tribe of Judah. the Mount Zion, which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary like high places, palaces, and the
earth, which he hath established forever. He chose David also,
his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from following
the ewes, great with young, and brought him to feed Jacob his
people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the
integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his
hand. God gave His people King David.
And you know, they didn't deserve King David, did they? They didn't
deserve David, the man after God's own heart. They wanted
Saul. They wanted Saul because they
were impressed with all his physical attributes, you know. They wanted
Saul. And God let them have their way
for a while. But God gave them David anyway. God gave them David,
who's a picture of Christ, the King of kings. And God sent His
Son through the line. that shepherd boy, David, that
he made king. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
son of God and the son of David. That's something the Pharisees
never could figure out. But you know, he's the son of David and
the son of God. And this is the point, God chose
his king. Of all the men in Israel, God chose his king. And God also
chose the place where the tabernacle would be. He refused Joseph,
he refused Ephraim, and he chose the tribe of Judah just because
he would. because he loved them, and put
his tabernacle, the place of worship, in Judah. God would
be worshipped in Mount Zion and nowhere else. Now, the Philistines
didn't have that. The Amalekites didn't have that.
All the other ites didn't have that around them, but Israel
did. And clearly, from reading Israel's history, Israel didn't
deserve it, did they? But God gave it to them anyway.
You know why? Because he chose to. They were
his elect people. God chose to save a people. The nation Israel is just a picture
of spiritual history. God chose a people to save. And
absolutely nothing will make God turn away from saving people.
Nothing. David, the man after God's own
heart, sinned greatly, didn't he? Did David's sin make God
break his covenant? Didn't it? Now David suffered
the consequences of his sin the rest of his life. The sword didn't
leave his house. But David's sin did not change
God's purpose of election at all. God still made David the
man after his own heart. God still sent his son through
David's line. In Israel, they sinned constantly,
but God did not take his place of worship away from them until
God's time came for that picture to end. It was God's time for
the picture of the priesthood to end. It was God's time for
the pictures of the sacrifices and the tabernacle and the temple
and the ark and all the sacrifices. It was God's time for those pictures
to be over and for the gospel to go into all the Gentile world. You know why God sent the gospel
to all the Gentile world? Because God chose a people to
save in the Gentile world. Brother Henry used to say, our
relatives were bound down to idols and eating one another.
That's who God chose to save. Sinners. God will save the people
that He chose to save. And this is our comfort. I don't
know who they are, but I know this. Nothing will stop God's
purpose of redemption for His people. Satan can't stop it.
This world can't stop it. And our own sin I can't stop
them. Now, you all know I'm not making
any excuse for sin. There is no excuse whatsoever
for our sin. There's no excuse whatsoever
for weak faith on our part. But aren't we thankful that when
we sin, we have an advocate with the Father? That nothing will
change God's purpose. His purpose according to election
will stand. Those people that He loves, they
will be saved from their sin despite all of their sin. Because
God's grace is greater than our sin. Let's bow together. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. How we thank You for these clear
demonstrations that our sin cannot change Your purpose. They can't
change your covenant of grace, that it can't change your unspeakable
love for your people because of the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ who satisfied you, took away every reason for you to
be angry, brought your people into fellowship with you. Father,
how we thank you. Father, we pray for your continued
mercy and grace upon us. We don't presume to be able to
go forward from this place without Your grace, without Your mercy.
Don't leave us alone, Father, but keep us by Your grace. When we would stray like Israel
of old and we would look away like Israel of old, Father, keep
us ever near Thy side. Draw us back to Thy side. Point
us again to the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep our attention, our focus,
our hope ever in Him, in Him alone. It's in His precious name. We pray and give thanks. Thank
you.