Proverbs 16 15 in the light of
the king's countenance is life and His favor is as a cloud of
the latter rain In a recent message we talked
about the Lord's blessing And this seems to be something
that most people are or at best confused about this world let's
talk about that a little bit more people in general seem to
think that anything that that happens that they consider good
that's a blessing anything that they consider bad happens it's
a trial but that's not how it is God's blessing is upon his
people It is not upon his enemies You may see something happen
to somebody that hates God and say well, you know the Lord's
blessing him No, he's not What people call good things can very
much be a curse And what people call bad things
may be the blessing of the Lord If you're one of God's sheep,
if you're one of his elect, loved from eternity and chosen in Christ,
everything that happens to you, whether good or even what you
might consider bad, is a blessing. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places are ours in Christ. And so what about earthly things?
God blesses people. He blesses sinners. Not all of
them. But when his blessing is upon
you, everything works together for your good. And we know that. Paul said we know that. But it's
important also, and Paul answered this, it's important to know
why. Why that is. So look at Romans 8 with me if
you would. This is probably one of the most
familiar passages of scripture. But the way scripture sheds light
on scripture is when you're in a text that maybe you've never
seen before. I mean, when was the last time
somebody talked about Proverbs 16, 15? Romans 8 is quoted a lot, but
we're now in Proverbs chapter 16, and we're looking at this
Take this perspective to Romans chapter 8. It's true in every
from every perspective But look at this now in the light of the
Kings countenance is life and his favor Is as a cloud of the
latter rain now look at Romans 8 28 and we know that all things
work together for good and to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to his purpose. That's who loves God. Who loves God has something to
do with his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom
he did predestinate Them he also called and whom he called them. He also justified in whom he
justified them He also glorified in other words. He saved us from
start to finish From the first time if you can't really use
the word time, but what are we gonna say? But from the first
time he set his heart upon you. He loved you before you existed
and until the day that we are what
we're predestinated to be, conformed to the image of his son, glorified. What shall we then say to these
things if God be for us? You see that? God's either for
you or he's against you. It's not God, oh God bless me
today. If you're his, he blesses you
every day, all the time. You may not consider it a blessing,
but if he's against you, you may call something a blessing.
It ain't. He's either for you or he's not,
and that's what blessing is. It's God's for you. Then who can be against us? He
that, here's why though. All of those things we took predestinated
to be what? Like Christ. Called what? To Christ. All of it's him, and here's why.
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up, if God
be what? Delivered him up for us How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things Whenever something bad happens to you,
that's God giving you something that you need. Oh My When God spared not his own
son Do you remember what was hanging over his head as he hung
on the cross? There's our text the key In the
king's countenance the light of his countenance his life The difference between going
to be with him in paradise and dying and going to hell cursing
his name is The king himself the light of
the Kings countenance He shed the light of his countenance
on that one old thief Hanging on his right hand Now what is
meant by the light of his countenance we use that kind of? Terminology
just in natural they would say that boy his face lit up. You
know the light of your countenance Well listen to number 622 The
Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak unto Aaron and unto his
sons saying on this wise You shall bless the children of Israel
and remember who the nation of Israel pictures the elect of
God Paul said it's spiritual Israel that all the promises
were given to not earthly Israel This wise shall you bless the
children of Israel saying unto them the Lord bless you and keep
you The Lord make his face shine upon you There's our text Make
his face shine on you like the Sun And all that that Sun means
there's no life without it There's no life without him and be gracious
under you The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give
you peace And most people don't go beyond that listen to the
next verse and they shall put my name upon the children of
Israel And I will bless them I Will bless that he's gonna
bless every one of his elect. He already has it's done. I It
says in our text that in his favor is as a cloud of the latter
rain. What is the latter rain well?
God sending his son to this earth And why he did and what he accomplished
and all of that is described in Hosea 6 3 Let me read that
way you're welcome to turn there, but but let me read it to you
Hosea 6 3 then shall we know that We follow on to know the
Lord His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come
unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth
He's not just the latter rain, but he's the former rain too
and There's a reason the former the latter rain is mentioned
in our text though, too so think about this the Lord Jesus Christ
came down from heaven as the rain does He came to give life
remember John hit the the life was the light of men His conception and his birth
were not of man, but of God He came down from heaven He said,
I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me. So his conception, his birth
was not of man, but of God. Christ is the free gift of God,
as is the rain. Ignorant, proud man has done
many a rain dance, but we're still waiting on God to send
his rain. It's not coming any other way
We wait on him to give us what we need Also, thanks be unto
God for his unspeakable gift Like the rain there are those
who couldn't care less It rains or shines There are those though
who are angry when it rains sometimes aren't they? There are those
who are just looking for it. They're waiting for oh, they're
there longing for it Depending on it Some have Very
little interest if any in the fact that God Sent his son into
this world. It doesn't mean anything to them
They're like those that say, well, it's raining today. I guess
I better take an umbrella with me to work. It doesn't make that
much difference to them. But then there are those who
are infuriated at times when it rains. They've got their plans,
their schedule, their agenda. And the rain can mess that up. It can interfere with that. And
they curse the rain. And many despise the Lord Jesus
Christ. They care about their own life,
their own agenda. And anybody that would impose
the will of God upon that, it makes them mad. And then there are those like
Simeon, who was looking for him. He was looking for him, Luke
2.25. Behold there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon, and the same man was just and devout,
waiting for the consolation of Israel. And it was revealed unto him
by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to
do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up
in his arms and blessed God and said Lord Now let us thou thou
servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes Have
seen thy salvation Which thou has prepared before the face
of all people a light? to lighten the Gentiles and the
glory of that people Israel He rejoiced when he saw the Lord.
He was looking for Him. He was waiting on Him. He called
Christ the salvation of God. Like those who depend upon the
rain for life, they're looking for it. They're waiting until
it rains. They stand in their cornfields
and wait on God. If He doesn't send it, we don't
eat. We don't drink. We don't live. Cannot live without
Christ and as with Simeon we can't die without him He is the former rain that is
the rain That comes when the when the seed is germinating
and beginning to sprout when you're starting seedlings the
most important things are water first and That seed, if you just
stick it down into dry ground, it's not ever going to germinate.
You got to water it in, or the Lord will water it in for you. And that's still his water, whether
you're pouring it on there or he's pouring it on there. It's
his water, isn't it? And as soon as they sprout, though,
as soon as they sprout, as soon as you see a little bit of green
coming up, you got to turn the light on, don't you? If you're
starting them indoors, you got to turn that light. It's a bright
light. They need a lot of it, don't
they? You put the light that far up above them and just shine
that bright light on them. Got to have it to live. That's our text. The light of His countenance
is life. It's life and the water, the
latter rain. So Christ is the former rain.
You can't even begin to live without Him. Life in its germination,
in the regeneration of the sinner's heart, that's Christ. That's
the Holy Spirit. And also He's the latter rain. He's the Alpha and the Omega. our salvation Toward the end
of life Christ just gets sweeter and sweeter and sweeter if you
know It's just it's just the way it is It's the way he is If everything happens right For
a stalk of corn from the very start all the way up till the
end Everything happens right the son Gets a lot of sun, it
rains every week, once a week. Perfect. Just what they need,
you know. But then if at the end, in the last three or four
weeks, it gets very dry and they don't get any water, you can
pull a cob of corn off of there and you can eat it and you can
live off of it. It's still corn. It's not going
to be that sweet. It's not going to be plump. and
mouth-watering. You can still survive on it.
It's corn. But if the latter rains have
come, and that corn is plump and sweet,
you're not just going to survive on it. It's going to put a big
old smile on your face. It's going to be so sweet. That's
our Savior. We're not just surviving. We're
not just scraping by. Brought me to his banqueting
house His banner over us is love And he gets sweeter all the time These these Allegories these types these
pictures these illustrations of the rain and the light and
what What we need to live they all are Or just simply saying
the same thing, all of it. The miracles he performed, all
of these analogies of farms and plants and growth. They're all
just simply saying one thing. We need Christ. And we only need Christ. We need him all the time. And if you have him at all, you
have him all the time. In your darkest hour, He's yours. And on a beautiful day like this,
when we're feeling good and everything, don't have a care in the world,
He's mine then too. It's because of Him. Amen. Let's pray.