Well, like I told you yesterday,
I always have good intentions when I get up here, but it shows
what I know about it. But I need to clarify something
just because several of you heard the story that Brother Darryl
told me this morning. He was telling me that this man
was asked the success of his speaking, his public speaking,
why he was able to communicate so well with with the audience.
And he said, well, he said, I look over the audience, and he said,
I find the dumbest looking person out there. And I look at him,
and I talk to him, and I figure if I can get it over to him,
everybody else will get it. If I don't look at you this morning, that's the reason. But, you know,
I know as one who stands up before a
group of people all the time, I think most of these pastors,
preachers, will say the same thing. If you find somebody's
interested in what you're saying, you're going to talk to them.
That's who you look at. You know, it's hard to stand
up here and look at somebody that's, you know, dozing off. And you find those, you just
always hope there's more that's looking at you and look interested
than those that are sleeping. But so many times that's not
the case. I do invite you to turn with
me to Psalm 78. I told you I had that mirror.
There's the mirror. And I put it right there, so
that when I... And I'm going to leave this for
you, Brother Gene. So you'll have it there, so nobody
can ever accuse you of preaching just to them. Preaching to yourself.
And I tell you, it's so important. Now yesterday, I covered most of Psalm 78, a
little bit of Psalm 77. And I read this passage, verse
41, and I don't want to leave you
with a thought, an incorrect thought. Verse 40, it says, How oft did they provoke
him in the wilderness, the Lord God of heaven, the Holy One of
Israel, grieving in that desert? Yea, they turned back and tempted
God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand. It didn't say they forgot. That's
willful, a remembering not. They remembered
not His hand, His power. His leading guidance. Nor the
day when He delivered them from the enemy." Refused to remember
what He's done for us. Verse forty-one, that last phrase,
they limited the Holy One of Israel. Let me tell you, just
to start off, That word is the only time it's used in the scriptures.
It's translated into English, limited. And I can understand
why the translators would put that word in there, because you
use words like insulting and dishonoring God, they just don't
carry that impact. Anybody that has any idea of
who the Holy One of Israel is, You'll understand something about
that word limiting in front of it. It's the worst thing you
could say. You know, I don't know how to
describe it, but it's such an insult to turn our back, tempt
the Lord God of heaven. It's such an insult. And I'm
talking, as I said yesterday, this is written to believers.
It's written to us, those of us that are in Christ
Jesus. And to blaspheme His name, to limit the Holy One of Israel
is such a gross insult. There's a picture here, some
of you, I know you've probably done it. If you've not done it,
you've been on the receiving end of it. But to walk up behind
someone like we would do in school and slap them on the back, have
a piece of paper with a piece of tape on it, and it says, kick
me on the side. And that's the insult that has
been done to the Lord God of heaven, the Holy One of Israel. because we provoked him in the
wilderness often, grieved him in that desert, turned our back
on him and tempted him, remembered not his power, his leadership,
his guidance, how he protected us, how he delivered us from the enemy. We will not honor
God as God. We never agree with Him. I'm just telling you like it
is. I've looked into my own heart, and I know that nature's the
same, and I can look at myself, and I can see all of us. Every
one of us. We never agree with what He does,
what He says. You know, when the Lord God of
heaven gave the law. It was given to us on two tables. That's what the Scriptures say,
two tables. Two tables of stone. The first
table generally contained commandments concerning man and God. The second table deals with man
and man. All sin is against God. It all
refers to Him, but this is the way it's generally thought. Sin's against God, or sin's against
the first table. Sin's against man, or sin's against
the second table. Now what we tend to do is we'll
take this second table against man and we'll put it on top of
that first table. This is the way we think. As we cover up that table of
the law of sins against God, thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. And we just cover all that up. We constantly speak of doing
to others as you'd have them do unto you. We constantly speak
about loving our neighbor as ourselves. That's the way we
talk. Talk about thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery. And all this bickering and fighting
going on about the Ten Commandments, really you could wipe out the
first ones and nobody would ever get mad. Did you know that? That's
the way we are. That's the way we are. Because
we'll never admit to sinning against God. Somehow or another, we tend to
think that the Lord God is kinder than man is. He'll overlook things
that our fellow man won't overlook. Someone, really, we're not to
be concerned with him. Offense, an offense against the
majesty of heaven. Now you think about how the psalmist
wrote this, the Holy One of Israel. It's thought to be more excusable,
sin against Him, offenses against Him, are thought to be more excusable
than an offense against our fellow creature. And probably that which is the
most offensive to our God. is unbelief. The sin of not trusting
Him. And this is what I dealt with. I dealt with it Thursday morning. And I dealt with it Thursday
night. Dealt with it yesterday morning. The sin of unbelief. He said,
I am the Lord God. Trust me. I am the one that brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." He
prefaces everything he has to say concerning this matter of
the Ten Commandments with that statement, but we don't believe
God. We don't trust God. We don't
love Him. We give our hearts to the things
of this earth, to the things of this world, and we deny our
hearts to our Creator, deny any trust to Him. Nothing is thought
of high treason and rebellion against the Holy One of Israel.
We just don't even consider it. Now, you catch us stealing, we're
embarrassed, aren't we? Oh, I tell you, I don't know
if you ever even think about it, but I do. Those detectors they've put up
at Wal-Mart stores and a lot of other stores now. So far, I've not set one off,
but I was going in Wal-Mart the other day, and a man was coming
out, and I heard that, sir, you, or whatever it said, you have,
you know, set off our anti-theft detection system, whatever that
recording says. And I felt bad for that man. He's carrying his sacks in his
hand. Something happened. Has it happened to you? Boy,
it's embarrassing, isn't it? I go through the mag, through
the metal detector, so many times a week. And it's a challenge
to me to go through that thing and not set it off. I'd strip
down to my underwear, just about do, just to keep from setting
that thing off. And I'm amazed at how many people
go through it and will take off just as little as possible just
if I make it that time. To me, it's embarrassing. When that buzzer goes off, and
you know, And everybody else turn around and look, you know.
Why don't you set it off? I don't want to set that thing
off. It's embarrassing. But you catch us in daily distrust
of the Lord our God. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
His Son. And somehow or another, we feel
there's no guilt here. There's no evil here. You see?
You following along with me now? We just don't even consider it.
We take this second table, put it right on top of that first
table, just forget it. Oh, how we're distorted. Our
judgment's so distorted. We're so blind. This whole psalm deals with those
first two commandments. A whole psalm. It's the epitome of iniquity.
It's so full of the evil that's in us. And it's all calculated
to dishonor the Lord God of heaven, the Holy One of Israel. Every
one of us, everyone, we're guilty of tempting the Lord our God
and of limiting insulting, dishonoring, spitting in the face of the Holy
One of Israel. And there's three words that
describe this, limiting the Holy One of Israel. It has to do with
dictating, despairing, and distrust. How can mortal man dare to dictate
to his Creator? How can we command God? How can we expect the Holy One
of Israel, God the Strong One, Elohim, how can we expect Him
to bow to our fickle Desire. How can we claim to know more
than God? And we do. We do every breath we take. We
claim to do more than God. We think it was us. Our desire, the desire of every
one of us in here, we look pretty good. I can look out here, you
can look at me, and you can make your own opinion, but I think
I look pretty good this morning. I worked at it. But y'all all
look pretty good. We're a good-looking bunch of
people here. But if we could, we'd drag God off His throne
and spit in His face and trample Him in the dirt of this world. And then it'd be dog-eat-dogs
who'd get up there of us. My desire is to sit on that throne
and kill every one of you. That's human nature. Don't excuse
it, it's just fact. We've taken His judgments and
we've tried His ways in the scales and we found them lacking. That's
the way we think about God. We just believe we could do a
better job at this than what he's doing. You know how we do
that? We do it every time we pray. We've not only wrestled with
God for a blessing, that's allowed. We've demanded it. We've dictated to it. And we err when we go
beyond the bounds of asking. and we start demanding of God. It's ours to ask a blessing,
but it's not ours to define how that blessing should be. We can't
intrude. We have to pray for him to do
as it seemeth him good. And I want to give you a good
example of that, read you one, in Genesis 48, if you want to
turn over and follow. Now, Jacob is getting old. And it's been told, it went and
told Joseph that they're down in Egypt. They went and told
Joseph that his dad is very weak. So Joseph, he came. And it says in the latter part
of verse two that Jacob, Israel, strengthened himself, managed
to sit up in bed. And Jacob said unto Joseph, verse
3, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan,
and blessed me, and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee
fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude
of people, and will give this land to thy seed after thee for
an everlasting possession. And now thy two sons, Ephraim
and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt
before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine. I take them
as my sons. As Reuben and Simeon, they shall
be mine. And thy issue, which thou begettest
after them, shall be thine." They're going to be yours, but
Ephraim and Manasseh, they're my sons. and shall be called after thy
name, the name of their brethren in their inheritance. As for
me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan
in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto
Ephrath. And I buried her in the way to
Ephrath, the same as Bethlehem. And Israel beheld Joseph's sons,
Jacob looked to Joseph's sons. He realized that Joseph was sitting
there with his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. But his sight's
bad, and he said, Who are these? And Joseph said unto his father,
verse nine, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this
place. And Jacob said, Bring them, I
pray thee, unto me, and I will bless Now the eyes of Jacob,
the eyes of Israel, were dim for age, so that he could not
see. And Joseph brought them near
unto Jacob, and Jacob kissed them and embraced them. And Israel
said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face, and, lo, God
has shown me also thy seed. And Joseph brought out his two
sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, from between his knees, and he bowed
himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both,
Ephraim in his right hand, and he took Ephraim to Jacob's left
hand. He's the younger. Manasseh he
took in his left hand, and he brought him to Jacob's right
hand. That's the way it's got to be
done, Joseph thought. Want this thing to go right. So he took them, both Ephraim
in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, Manasseh in his left
hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
And Israel, Jacob stretched out his right hand, did a crossover. He laid his
right hand on Ephraim's head, who was the younger. And his
left hand he laid on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly. For Manasseh was the firstborn.
That's the way the blessing is. the firstborn. And he blessed
Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
the angel which redeemed me from all his evil, bless the lads,
and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham
and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the
earth. And when Jacob saw that his father
laid his right hand upon the hand of Ephraim, and his left
hand upon the hand of Manasseh, and he laid his right hand upon
the head of Ephraim, it displeased him." You have a marginal reading. It was evil in his eyes. It just
didn't happen. That's just not the way it's
supposed to be. And he held up his father's hand to remove it
from Ephraim's head and put it on Manasseh's head. And Joseph
said unto his father, Oh, and this is what I want to get to,
these four words, not so, my father. How many times have we said that
to our father in heaven? Not so, my father. Not so, my
father. For this is the firstborn. Put
thy right hand upon his head." And his father refused. And he
said, I know, my son. He don't just know it, he knows.
He knows. I know, my son. I know. He also shall become a people. He also shall be great. Talk
about Manasseh, the elder. But truly his younger brother
shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude
of nations. And he blessed them that day,
saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee
as Ephraim and Manasseh. And he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Joseph said, not so, my father,
not so. And the father said, I know. What do we know? What do we know? How can we make this judgment? Our prayer must be, as the Lord
Jesus Christ prayed, not my will but thine be done. We can't dictate. When you dictate
to God, you insult him. You insult him. We don't dictate,
we supplicate, we plead. The blessing that we desire may
not always come the way we expect, the shape we expect. Be careful
what you ask for. Did you know that for a believer, for a believer to say, I wish,
is prayer? Careful what you wish for. How
many times have you thought it? That's why believer prays. Praising
is hard. How many of you say, boy, I wish.
I just wish. You know, you're not talking
to anybody. You're talking to yourself. Careful what you wish for. Our pastor
used to tell us, he said, how many times do I hear people say,
oh, I wish the Lord would teach me patience. He said, you better
watch out. The scripture says that tribulation
worketh patience. How bad do you want it? There's
only one way. You ready for it? Don't wish
for it. A wish for it. I had a young man tell me the
other day, 22 years old. He said, I wanted to get away
from home. I wanted to get out from under
my parents. I just wanted to go out and live
my own life. And now I'm sitting in federal
prison. He said, I didn't want to get
that far away. Careful what you wish for. Careful
what you wish for. You know, our problem is we can't
tell the difference between good and bad. We confuse it. We call good bad
and bad good, don't we? We have no idea. We don't know
what's good for us. We don't know what's bad for
us. How can we stand and dictate in its distrust? Oh, what a way
to dishonor the Lord God of heaven. It's not trusting. We say his
ear's heavy, he can't hear. We say his arm's shortened, he
can't save. We judge the omnipotence of God
to be finite, like ours. His power, it's limited, and
we distrust Him. We say that our troubles are
greater than His power. There's not a one of us in here
that would say it in words. But we say it in our actions,
don't we? We'll trust the pharmacist. We'll
trust the doctor. But we won't trust God. Surely there's a pill to cure
me. And there is. But you're never
going to get in the drugstore. We just trust him because he
doesn't use the means that we have thought best. He's not limited
to any means. I think about there, I brought
out the other morning, when David and those 400 men were in pursuit
of that great army. Who'd he use? Remember he used
that Egyptian slave that was so sick he couldn't even follow
along. He'd been left behind. He used him to show them where
they are. They found him camping there. That's not the way we
do it, is it? How can he help me? You know, I think about there
in Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach, I've jotted down some things
they probably thought, might have thought, if they were like
me. It says in chapter 2 of Daniel,
verse 48, that the king made Daniel a great man because he
had interpreted this dream. He showed him how all this religious
stuff's going to come crumbling to the ground because it's iron
and clay mixed. But the Lord God of heaven, he's
going to set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That's
what he said there in chapter 2. Daniel told him this. The
king made Daniel a great man and gave him many great gifts
and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon. The chief
of governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel requested
of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the
fairs of the province of Babylon. Daniel sat in the gate of the
king. So Nebuchadnezzar, there in chapter three, he made an
image of gold whose height was thirty cubits, sixty cubits rather,
the breadth thereof six cubits. He set it up in the plain of
Dura, the province of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar, the king
sent together, together the princes, the governors, and the captains,
and the judges, and the treasurer, and the counselors, and the sheriffs,
and the whole shootin' match. Come see what the king's done.
The princes, and the governors, and all this whole band of people,
they gathered together to the dedication of the image that
Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up, and they stood up before
the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then a herald cried
aloud, made a declaration, to you it's commanded. Oh, people,
nations, and languages, everybody, that at what time you hear the
sound of the cornet, the flute, the harp, the sac, but the psalter,
the dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship
the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king set up. And whoso falleth not down and
worshipeth shall the same hour be cast in the midst of a burning,
fiery furnace. Therefore at that time when all
the people heard the sound of All these instruments, all kinds
of music, all the people and all the nations and all the languages
fell down and worshiped this golden image that Nebuchadnezzar
the King had set up. Therefore at that time certain
Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. They spake and said
to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. Thou, O King, hast
made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of
all this music will fall down and worship this big golden image
that you set up. You said if someone doesn't fall
down and worship, he's going to be cast in the mist, burning
fire in a furnace. Now, there are certain Jews,
there are certain Jews who now have set over the affairs of
the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, These men,
O king, have not regarded thee, they serve not thy gods, nor
worship the golden image which thou set up. No, Nebuchadnezzar,
in his rage and fury, he commanded to bring these three, and they
brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar said to
them, Is it true? Do not you serve my gods, nor
worship the golden image that I have set up? When you hear
all this stuff, you fall down and worship the image which I
have made? If you do that, good, well. But
if you worship not, you shall be cast the same hour in the
midst of a burning fire furnace. And who is God that he shall
deliver you out of his hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not
careful to answer thee in this matter. We're not going to be
politically correct. We're going to just tell you
like it is. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to
deliver us from the burning fire he furnished. He will deliver
us out of the thine hand, O King. And I think they might have been
thinking, if they think like I do, I bet they're going to
try to light that thing, and it won't light. God's going to deliver us. How's
he going to do it? Well, I got this thing figured out. It ain't
going to light. And then, whoo, it lights. Uh-oh. Well, it's going to rain. Go
put that fire out before I get there. And it's kind of like
Rescue California. I've seen it rain one time in
18 years I've been out here. I know it rains. You wouldn't
have what you got if it didn't rain sometime, but it didn't
rain that day, did it? Well, it didn't rain when it
was going to blow up, blow this sucker out? No. I know what's
going to happen. That old king is going to die.
The new king is going to rise up and take his place and forget
about this. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. That's the way we think, isn't
it? And you know what? We get distressed because things
don't work out like we think. We get it all figured out. Then
was old Nebuchadnezzar filled with fury. The form of his visage
was changed. And he spoke and he commanded
they should heat that furnace one seven times more than it
was normal to heat that thing. And he commanded the most mighty
men that were in his army to bind these and cast them into
that fiery furnace. And these men, they were bound,
went in their coats and their hoses and their hats and other
garments, were cast in the midst of the burning furnace. Therefore,
because the king's commandment was urgent and the furnace exceeding
hot, The flame of the fire slew those men that took them and
threw them in there. And they fell down, verse 23, bound in
the midst of that burning fire, a furnace. And Nebuchadnezzar
the king was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said
unto his counselors, Didn't we cast three in there? Three bound
into the midst of the fire? And they said unto the king,
True, O king. He answered and said, I see four. I see four. And if you'd asked
these three men, they'd have never thought probably that this
was going to happen. Because they had it worked out
another way. And I'm judging them by me. They have no hurt. And the form
of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came
near the mouth of that burning fire furnace. He's fake and he
said, Shadrach! Meshach! Abednego, you servants
of the Most High God, come forth, come here, hurry!" And they came,
came forth in the midst of the fire. The princes and the governors
and the captains and kings and councilors being gathered together
saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was
the hair of their heads singed, neither were their coats changed,
nor the smell of fire passed Not even that. They didn't even
smell like they'd been there. I'm sure that I'd have thought,
well, if that happened, boy, I was going to be in bad shape
when I got out. At least third-degree burns all
over. But Nebuchadnezzar spoke and
said, Blessed be your God. who hath sent his angel, and
delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the
king's word, and yielded their bodies to him." Did you notice
that? Did you read over that quickly? They changed the king's
word because their hearts are in the hands of the Lord as rivers
of water. He turns them with us wherever
he will. I wish I believed that, folks.
I wish I did. delivered them, changed the king's
words, yielded their bodies that they might not serve or worship
any God except their own God. So I make a decree, don't talk
about this God. Be careful what you say to this
God. If He said it, He can find ways
and means to do it. They just gave themselves up
to God. And He delivered them the way that He found. When you don't seem to trust
Him, keep on trusting Him. When everything seems to contradict
your faith, stagger not at the promise. Rest assured of this,
that the Lord God of Heaven would, if He had to, He'd come down
from His throne to do it Himself in person, rather than allow
one of His promises to ever fail, to ever go unfulfilled. And you
know, I think as preachers, I think sometimes we're the guiltiest
of all this. We don't expect our ministry
to be blessed, and therefore it's not blessed. Why can't we
learn to expect great things? Just always keep this on your
heart. The promise is great. The one who promised is great.
His faithfulness is great. And His power is great. And in
that third word, that despair. Another word describes that word,
limited. Dictating, distrusting, the despair. And you know, I don't know why,
but we know we're guilty. We know we're guilty. We know
that the Lord Jesus Christ is able to save. We understand something
about faith and its power. But somehow or another, we get
to the point where we feel there's no mercy for us. And we think we're
the only one like this. Remember, Mickey, you and I were
talking about this the other day. I thought I was the only
one like that. You read that Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners, but He just came I can't imagine
Him saving me. I think my kids are just beyond
hope. I just can't imagine that free
grace and sovereign love can ever have anything to do with
me and mine. That's limiting the Holy One of Israel. Are they
still breathing? That's the way I look at it.
You're talking about that nursing home, Don. I'm telling you, I preach
in one, and it's I'm not lying to you. I believe some of the
meanest folks I ever was around are there. It's sad. You know,
they talk about old folks being so sweet. That's just not always so. I
know sometimes. My boys seem to think I've gotten
sweeter. They continually say I'm not the man they grew up
with. Well, I hope. I hope. But let me tell you something,
as long as they're breathing, whoever they are, there's some
hope for them. And to dishonor God, His Christ,
is slandering and limiting the Holy One of Israel. You know,
Charles Wesley, wrote something, it goes something like this,
Lord, if there be a sinner in the world more needy than I am,
then refuse me. If there be one more undeserving
than I am, then cast me away. If there be one that needs grace
and mercy, pity and compassion more than I, then pass me by.
But Lord, You know I'm the chief of sinners, the vilest of the
vile, the most hardened, the most senseless. So, Lord, glorify
Thyself by showing to men, to angels, and to devils what Thy
right hand can do." Oh, I tell you, they turned back
and tempted God and limited. the Holy One of
Israel. I pray the Lord will bless these
words and thoughts to our hearts. Thank you very much. Thank you,
Brother Gene.