Neil, thank you for that. You
know, the only difference in right now and. The days of our founding fathers,
this this has been a greatly blessed nation. And I thought
a lot about this. The restraining grace of God
that held back. For years. Things that. Now. He may not be holding back. Pray for this country. Pray the
Lord, you know, the Lord has greatly blessed this land. I'm
thankful for the privilege that we have to stand here right now
and no fear of somebody busting in here and soldiers and stuff
like this. That's the mercy of God. That's
God's grace to allow his people to hear. Pray for this country. Turn with me, if you would, to
Proverbs 10. I'd like to look at a couple of verses. Proverbs
10, verses 6 and 7. This passage of Scripture right
here just goes to me, just hand in glove with what we just talked
about on the omniscience of God. I've entitled this message, The
Blessings and the Memory of God. Proverbs chapter 10, and actually
verse 6 where I'm going to start. It starts with the subject of
blessings. Blessings are upon the head of
the just, but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. The
memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall
rot. Blessings are upon the head of
the just. And when you see the word just
there, it means the justified, the just. You can't separate
those words, the just, the justified, the holy, the sanctified. Blessings,
blessings from Almighty God are upon the head of the just. But let me ask you
this. Let's stop and realize first,
who is the head of the just? Well, it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5.23, For the husband is the head, the authority of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. And He's
the Savior of the body. So all blessings. spiritual,
temporal, all blessings that we have are ours in, through,
by and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. All of God's blessings, all of
God's reward, all of the He's the heir. We're joint heirs with Him. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. So where is the blessings of God? They're
in Christ. So knowing that He is the head,
when you read that, blessings are upon the head of the just. and being found in Him, all blessings
are ours in Christ. God's favor, God's pardon, God's
mercy, God's goodness, God's longsuffering. All of the blessings,
whatever it could ever be named. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ." He's the head. "...according as He has chosen
us in Him." He's chosen us. Yes, He's chosen
us in Him. Before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love. Predestinated us into
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. In whom we've obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. So the blessings,
the blessings are upon the head of the just. And the just are
in Him. And so the blessings of Almighty
God are upon His people as they are
in Christ. They believe Him. That's the
commandment of God. This is the commandment. This
is the will. of Almighty God that you believe
on His Son. Listen to Deuteronomy 11, 26,
28. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.
A blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God. A curse
if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God. And I know
that all of the blessings of Almighty God being in Christ
are ours Not for our sakes, not for our obedience, because man
in his best state is altogether vanity. Paul said, I see in me
that is in my flesh that there was no good thing. What am I
going to claim? Unto thee, O Lord, unto thee
all honor, all glory, all praise. Lord, I am what I am by the grace
of God. Isn't that the most secure thought
that you could possibly think? God has shown mercy to me for
Christ's sake. And as Brother Scott says, where
He puts a man, that's where He keeps a man. His name, Psalm 72, 17, shall
endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the Son And men shall be blessed in Him. And all nations
shall call Him blessed." Lord, You're the blessed One. And we
in You. Just like when the oil was poured
upon Aaron's head, and the oil ran down his beard and ran down
to the skirts. There's a picture of our great
Aaron. All God's blessing. There's the man, Christ Jesus. There's God's surety. That's
God's Lamb. That's God's salvation to His
people. And the blessing of God, the
Spirit of God without measure, God's fullness poured upon Him. And as it ran down the beard
of Aaron and on to his Scourge, there we are, his body, bone
of his bone, flesh of his flesh. All of the covenant blessings
of God, I will have mercy are ours. The blessings are upon
the head of the just, but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
Just as the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ is a reason
for God's blessings upon him and all found in him, the wrong,
the violence, that's what it means, the wrong, the wrong that is done by the
wicked stops his mouth as far as trying to justify himself
against God. The wrong, when it says it covers
the mouth, it just... God's not going to hear him.
The wrong, the disobedience of a man shuts him up. What are you going to say before
God? We've read that scripture so
many times. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied your name? We've done many works in your
name. And everything that they're trying
to plead as far as what they've done to merit a righteousness
and salvation before God, the Lord has declared it to be works
of iniquity. Depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. Remember this.
Almighty God will accept what God alone does. Whatever man
thinks that he's done, that merits or adds to or is a contribution
to, whatever you want to say, is not going to stand. Almighty God is pleased with
Himself. All without Christ is their surety. Mediator, great high priest.
They're not going to have anything to say. before God, God will
cast them out. Blessings are upon the head of
the just, but wrong, but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. The memory, verse 7, of the just
is blessed. The name of the wicked shall
rot. The memory of the just. Psalm 112, verse 6. Turn there. Psalm 112, verse 6. This sheds a lot of
light on this passage when it says the memory of the just is
blessed. Psalm 112, verse 6. Surely he shall not be moved
forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance. The righteous, again remember this, there's
none righteous in themselves. What righteousness do you possess? It's the righteousness of Christ. The memory of the just is blessed. And we are just in Him. We are justified in Him. But
before you can look and see the fullness of the just, you must
consider Him in whom they are just. Consider the source of
their justification. The first cause of all remembrance
of mercy is found in the Lord Himself. That is the first cause. The memory of the just is blessed. God remembers His everlasting
covenant for Christ's sake. The memory of Him who alone is
just, first of all, I'm going to mention concerning our memory
in just a minute, but first of all, remember this. The memory
of Him who alone is just in Himself. Oh, that's blessed. That's blessed
of God. Exodus 2, 23 says, It came to
pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died and the
children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage. And they
cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning,
and God remembered His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And God looked upon the children
of Israel, and God had respect unto them. Why? Because the memory
of Him who alone is just. I'm a just God. That's a blessing. God's memory. God's omniscience. That's why I said this one just
hand in glove with what we just looked. When the Lord is pleased
to show mercy to His people, He makes them willing in the
day of His power willing to cry out for mercy. When a man or
woman cries out for mercy, I'm telling you, God Almighty has
already done something for them. You don't find people that, no
one's going to exercise faith before the Lord gives them life,
because as we'd say down south, there ain't none. No faith there. No life there. There's nothing
there but death. and rebellion. But God Almighty
gives a man a new heart. He said, I'll give you a new
mind, a new heart. I'll take away that heart of
stone. That throne of rebellion is unmoved and unhearing, uncaring,
unloving. I'll remove that. Presence of
sin is still there, but that stony heart does not reign anymore. Oh, it wars against the law of
your mind. Believe me. And you that believe,
know that. But I'm telling you, there's
not a heart of rebellion there anymore. There's not a heart that reigns
anymore. The evidence of it's still there. Yes, it's there.
It doesn't reign. The Lord's people cry out to
Him because It gives them a heart to cry out. When the Lord God said, this
is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased, Almighty God expressed
the memory of His favor and mercy, kindness to His people. We just
sang that song, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. How
long has He seen the blood? I've always seen the blood. That's
what he says. His son slain from before the
foundation of the world. When God Almighty chose you in
Christ, and there was no beginning to that. I've eternally loved
you. We don't know how to talk eternally. Time is... We think in time and
we're starting and stopping. But God is the I Am. When you
were chosen in Christ everlastingly, Christ was slain everlastingly. God was always pleased everlastingly. He always saw the blood. He saw
the blood eternally that would be shed in time. That blood that
was slain in Egypt, when it was put on the doorpost, God Almighty
had seen that blood eternally that would be shed when Christ
came in time, and He sees it now. The memory of Him who was just
is blessed. He's a blessing in Himself. He's
a blessing to Himself. He's the blessed God. Blessed
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Boy, isn't it amazing
how we use these words so flippantly? We use the word blessed. Isn't that sad to say? That's
just a word to us. When Paul wrote those words,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The memory of the just is blessed. But how about that memory of
us who the Lord has justified? What about our memory? When He
remembers us, we behold that and see that. That thief on the
cross, he was within moments, hours, I don't know. He knew,
I'm gone. I'm not going to make it. I'm
not coming down off this cross alive. I know I'm not. That death,
that crucifixion, that couldn't give him a new heart. There was
a thief on the other side of the Lord that was going through
the same thing that this one thief was going through. And
one of them didn't have a heart. He didn't care. He railed on
the Lord. It was this other one that just, I mean, you just,
you saw it. I mean, it was so obvious. Now, how many times have I said
that in thinking, you know, a believer acts like a believer and he talks
like a believer. There was one. If you be the Christ, won't you
save yourself and us? And the other one said, Lord,
Would you remember me? I'm getting ready to leave this
world. Would you remember me in mercy and kindness and compassion? And the Lord told him, He said,
you're going to be with Me today in paradise. Can you imagine
that one that the Lord gave a heart to believe? He believed Him.
He believed God. Oh, the memory that God has for
His people. And they remember Him. They'll
admit they don't remember Him as they ought. But they remember
Him. Just this morning, we're coming
here today. Last Wednesday. Isn't it a blessing
to be able to come together and have the Lord's Supper? We had
the Lord's Supper last Wednesday. The Lord said, He said, as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do remember. You remember the Lord's death
until He comes. The world would say, well, that's not that big a deal. I'm telling you, that little
piece of bread and that little cup of wine It may be no big
deal to most people, but to those that the Lord's given a heart,
they take that little piece of bread and they drink that little
cup of wine. And when the Lord says, you do
remember, at that moment, you do. You do. And you'll admit,
I don't do it as I ought. And I don't remember as I should
or as I desire to. But I do remember. I remember
that God has shown mercy to me. The memory of the just is blessed,
but the name of the wicked shall rot. Ezra. The book of Ezra. I can read
this for you. Ezra chapter 2, and the reason
I want to read this is because, as I said before one time, the
Jews kept very, very specific records of their lineage. They
wrote down the name of the families, the fathers and mothers, the
children, the grandfathers, the grandparents, back, back, back,
back, back, back, back, back, back, lineage, lineage, lineage. And when it came time to finding
out who you were and where you were and who was your mom and
daddy and who was your grandparents and who this, who that, it had
to be in the book. It had to be in the lineage.
Ezra 2.1. Now these are the children of
the province that went up out of the captivity of those which
had been carried away whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried
away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every
one unto his city." And then it lists, it just lists who they
were. These were the ones that came
in, Nebuchadnezzar, taken in captivity, put, this is their
names, all of them. You went back and you found Your
name. Are you truly of the nation of
Israel? Can you prove your lineage? Can
you prove it? Can you prove where you came
from? Well, in Ezra 2, verses 61-62,
if your lineage could not be proven, you were taken out. You were expelled. Well, your
name would rot. You're not true Israel. Your name is not there. Ezra
2, 61-62. And the children of the priest. Now these are over time. Someone had become priest and
he had kids and I mean everybody. Everybody looked at him and thought,
well, he's he's he's a priest. He's. I mean, he got he's I know
he's got to be part of it. I mean, he's a priest. The children
of the priest, the children of Habaya, the children of cause,
the children of Barzillai, which took a wife of the daughters
of Barzillai, the Gileadite. and was called after their name.
These sought their register among those that had reckoned by genealogy,
but they were not found. Therefore were they as polluted,
put from the priesthood, because their name was not found
in the book." He couldn't prove their lineage. Now, there's coming
a day in the which the Scripture says that the books are going
to be opened. And the book, the book of life. The memory of the just is blessed. But all those found not written
in Christ. And I'll tell you this, there's
only one that writes. There's only one that writes.
They were found written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's God
Almighty. The names of the wicked are going
to rot. Why? Because they weren't found
in Christ. Look unto Him. Call upon Him. If a man or a woman has any heart
to call, God Almighty has called them. And that is by mercy and
grace and compassion. But if you do not call, do you
know whose fault that is? Ours. A man or a woman that does
not call, if God leaves a man or a woman to themselves, as
someone told me the other day, they said, well, what you're
saying, you're saying, that God elected some unto salvation and
elected others unto damnation. I said, let me clarify something
for you. Man by nature chooses to go to
hell. Man does what he does because
that's what he wants to do. Man does that. A man will try to do it, but
he can never be accused of being unjust, unrighteous. Men do what
they do because that's what they want to do. If you don't want
to come, if you don't want to worship, if you don't want to
bow, it's because you don't want to. And if God Almighty leaves
you to yourself, you will receive the just Recompense of reward. The name of the wicked is going
to rot. Why will you perish? Why? Call upon Him while He may be
found. Whosoever will. I heard old Don
Fortner say, I love that word. He said, that's a word that could
include me. Whosoever will. Let Him take
the water of life freely. Let Him come. Come. And then
when you look back, you'll look back and you'll see, you know
what? I realize why I came now. Because
He called me and made me willing in the day of His power. May
the Lord bless these words to our heart for His honor and for
our good. Amen. Okay, Gary.