Alright brethren, Psalm 78. And we read here in verse 40. It says how often, speaking of
the children of Israel in the wilderness, it says how often
did they provoke God in the wilderness and grieve Him in the desert.
Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One
of Israel. And here was the chief problem
right here. They remembered not His hand,
nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy. He goes on there to show all
those plagues He worked in Egypt. They saw all those plagues. They
saw those with the carnal eye. But God has to give us faith
in the heart. give us repentance in the heart. It's not enough
to just see with the carnal eye. This stubborn and rebellious
people in Israel were unregenerate sinners. Now God had some elect
among them, an election of grace, but the multitude in Israel were
stubborn, they were rebellious, they were unregenerate sinners.
And they're given to us as an example. They're given to us
as an admonition of what not to do. They did not believe on Christ. They didn't trust His salvation. But when we look at them, we
see in them a mirror of ourselves. When we see them, we see a mirror
of ourselves, you and I who believe. It says back in verse 18, they
tempted God, they put God to a test, to a trial in their heart
by asking meat for their lusts. Yea, they spake against God.
They said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, now
this is them speaking, 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? Now that's what these rebellious,
unregenerate sinners in Israel said. But now remember what Moses
said. Turn over to Numbers 11. Moses,
we know, is one of God's elect. He's one of the chosen children
of Abraham. And let's know what Moses said
when all of that happened. Now you've got to remember there's
635,000, I believe, just men, 20 and above. That's not counting
the women, the children, the mixed multitude. So you're talking
at least 2 million people here. And they're all complaining.
They're hungry. They don't want the manna. They
want flesh. Listen to what Moses said. He's
praying to God. Numbers 11, 13. Well, let's begin in verse 12.
I'll go back up to verse 11. Moses said unto the
Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? Wherefore have I
not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of
all this people upon me? Have I conceived all these people?
Have I begotten them that thou shouldst say unto me, Carry them
in thy bosom as a nursing father, Beareth the sucking child into
the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should
I have flesh to give unto all these people? For they weep unto
me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. I am not able to
bear all these people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of
hand, if I have found favour in thy sight, and let me not
see my wretchedness. That doesn't sound like faith,
does it? Moses is laying his complaint out to God. Now listen
to this in verse 18. Turn to verse 18. God said, And say thou unto the
people, Sanctify yourselves against Amor, and ye shall eat flesh.
For ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall
give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.
Therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and you shall eat.
You shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither
ten days, nor twenty days, but even a whole month, until it
come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you, because
that you have despised the Lord which is among you, and have
wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt? Now
listen to Moses right here. And Moses said, the people among
whom I am are 600,000 foot men. That's just the males 20 and
above. And thou hast said, I will give
them flesh that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks
and the herds be slain for them to suffice them? Or shall all
the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice
them? Moses had seen all these works God did too. And listen to the Lord. The Lord
said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short? Thou shalt
see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.
Here's Moses. He's seen the hand of the Lord
in all these mighty works God did. And the Lord said, Now Moses,
you're talking like you think my hand has shrunk. You think
my hand waxed short since the last miracle I worked for you?
So you see Moses here was in unbelief too. Moses was struggling
here too. Robert Hawker said, had you and
I been present when at the lifting up of the rod of Moses, water
issued from a dry, unpromising rock, could we have thought it
possible that Israel would have again doubted God's power or
His love? He said, are we better than they?
What hath not the Lord Jesus done for you and for me, for
all his church and people? And do we not find rebellious
murmurings and unbelief and a thousand instances of a corrupt heart
breaking out continually? O precious, precious Jesus, what
would become of me or what should I do with this wicked heart of
mine had I not thy perfect righteousness to trust in and thy blood to
cleanse me? We can say that, can't we? See
a picture of ourselves in this rebellion. But we also see God's
mercy. His mercy to them. Now He's being
merciful to an elect remnant. Eternally merciful. But on a
temporal level, He's being merciful to all the children of Israel.
Look back at Psalm 78, look at verse 38. 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." Now God fulfilled to the children of Israel, the
natural children of Israel, He fulfilled every temporal promise
He made to them. and they were all just temporal
promises, a physical earthly land of Canaan, and he fulfilled
every temporal promise he made to them. And if this was so to
a people who did not keep a covenant of works with him, who rebelled
against him, who murmured against him continually. If he fulfilled
all those promises to them, how much more immutable is the grace
and love of God toward a people he chose in Christ and sent his
son to lay down his life for? This Psalm start said this is
a parable. These are temporal things showing
us heavenly spiritual truth. Israel's just a temporal nation.
There's some elect among them, but they're just a temporal nation.
And the Lord is fulfilling every carnal promise He made to them.
How much more to His spiritual children, to His elect. The grace
of our God is immutable. The love of our God never changes. Now listen, God's continual immutable
grace and forgiveness in Christ does not embolden us to sin. But it's that continual grace
and love and forgiveness in Christ in the face of our sin that is
the very power of God to mortify our flesh and keeps us walking
by faith. This is the grace of God in spite
of us that is the power of God that keeps us walking after him.
Now the problem here at the heart of everything was unbelief. And
that's always our problem at the heart of everything is unbelief.
Back there in verse 22, it says, They believed not in God and
trusted not in His salvation. And that's what it says in our
text in verse 41, Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and limited
the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand,
nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy. They forgot
His works. They forgot his works. Look back
up at verse 9. Now the children of Ephraim represent
all the unregenerate children of Israel. That's the ten and
a half tribes and they represent all of them though that were
the unregenerate children in Israel. And it says, verse 9,
the children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned
back in the day of battle. Now that probably refers to when
the Lord sent the Philistines and they stole the Ark of the
Covenant. They stole the tabernacle. Ephraim was a mighty warrior
tribe and they were well armed, but they ran in that battle.
They turned and ran. But it applies to every trouble
they came to. Every trouble they came to, they
turned back in their heart. They look to their own weapons,
their own strength, their own wisdom. And in doing so, they
turn back. And that's what we do, brethren.
We hear these blessings. We hear this great mercy and
grace of God. We hear Christ is our only power,
our only strength. And it doesn't take much at all
to make us go to the bottom, because what we start doing is
trying to use our own strength. and our own wisdom. Where'd they
get the weapons? Where'd they get those carnal
weapons they had? When God brought them to the Red Sea and Pharaoh
and his army came in and God destroyed Pharaoh and his army.
Psalm 74 says, Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces
and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
There was all those soldiers with all those weapons, and they
were able to just take the spoils. They took all the weapons right
there. So God gave them those weapons. God gave them that victory. Their strength was God. It wasn't
in those carnal weapons. But what is our tendency to do?
God gives us some victory in a trial, brings us through a
trial, and we start thinking we can stand. We think we've
grown a little bit and now we're able to stand. But what did they
do? They forgot God's works. It says
there in verse 11, they forgot His works and His wonders that
He showed them. God's works were not only forgotten
in the next generation, they were forgotten at the Red Sea. And then bringing them through
the Red Sea, He showed them many more works and they forgot them.
And it seemed like from one trial to the next trial, they forgot
his works that they saw in the last trial. Is that us? Verse 12, marvelous things did
he in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt in the field
of Zoan. That's what we read about on
over there after our text. He gives all those plagues. He
did all of that. They saw all that. He brought
them through the Red Sea, it says. Called the waters to stand
as a heap. Picture of deliverance through
the sea of Christ's blood. Verse 14, in the daytime also
He led them with a cloud and all night with a light of fire.
There's just one pillar. That pillar in the daytime was
a cloud to shade them from the sun and at night it was fire
to give them heat and light. That's Christ. That's Christ. Christ by His Spirit leads us
by day and by night. He's the pillar that comes between
us and the enemy. He's light to us. He's darkness
to the enemy. Verse 15, He claved the rocks
in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of
the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. Paul said
that rock was Christ. Christ is the smitten rock. He's
the one the divine justice smote in place of his people and Christ
said, come unto me and out of your belly will flow rivers of
living water. Not out of a physical rock, the
spirit of God he gives creates life within in abundance because
Christ satisfied justice for his people. And wherever they
went, that rock went with them. That rock followed them. Christ
said, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. He's with
his people all the time. And yet they lusted for what
God had not given them. There in verse 18 and verse 25
it says they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their
lusts. Let me read this to you in Numbers
11, 5. They said, we remember the fish
we did eat in Egypt freely. The cucumbers and the melons
and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul
is dried away. There's nothing at all beside
this manna before our eyes. Christ said, I'm the bread that
came down from heaven. God gave them angels food. They
had the bread. That's a picture and type of
somebody saying Christ is not enough. And that's always the lust of
the flesh, no matter what it is. And in temporal things, that's
what it is when we're wanting something God's not given us.
Lusting from our flesh. But God's going to keep His child
hungry for Christ. He's going to keep us hungry
for Christ. Having Him, we have the bread of life. He is our
great salvation. If we see how that on the cross
Christ put away our sin and redeemed His people and He did all this
freely for us, why do we doubt God's provision in temporal things? Why do we doubt and lust after
things God has not given to us when we have all in Christ? Shouldn't
we just be content with Christ? We should. We should. We behold Him high and lifted
up. We sing His praise. We sing His
glory. And we won't be out these doors
ten minutes sometime. Something happens. And it's like
we never even heard it. We forgot it. That's what we
see in them. Every time He brought them through
a trial, just they forgot it. They forgot it. Remember Paul's
admonition concerning these examples over in 1 Corinthians 10. He
said these are an admonition to us. They're examples of warning
to us not to do this. But here was the key in that.
There's two things that are key in that. Here's the first thing. He said in 1 Corinthians 10,
12, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall. Let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall. Let me give you something. I'm
going to preach on this, Lord willing. 1 Samuel 26 at the end. Now you know how God had come
and anointed David. And He had blessed him. He destroyed
Goliath. God had delivered him out of
all these trials. And here in 1 Samuel 26, the
Lord delivered him out of another trial. Again, He brought Saul
to Him who was His enemy. He gave David the grace and the
strength and the faith to show mercy to Saul. And listen to
David's word. His last word to Saul was this,
verse 25. Then Saul said to David, I'm
sorry, he says, Verse 24, Behold, David said, as thy life was much
set by this day in my eyes, so let my life be much set by in
the eyes of the Lord, and let Him deliver me out of all tribulation. What happens to us? Tell me if
this doesn't happen to you. The Lord brings you through something
like He went through there with Saul. And it's all by his grace
that if we do something right, he worked it in us. But how long
does it take for you and me to start thinking a little bit that
we did that, that we stood, we were able to stand? Now, I've
learned a few things now. I can stand now. I'm learning
some stuff. I can stand now. The next words
out of David's mouth, chapter 27, David said in his heart,
in that fleshly heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand
of Saul. There's nothing better for me
than I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines
and Saul shall despair of me to seek me anymore in any coast
of Israel. So shall I escape out of his
hand. The next word out of his mouth, was total unbelief. He left Judah where God told
him to stay, and again, he'd already done this once, he went
back to the enemy, to the Philistine, pledged allegiance to Achish,
and before that's over with, he's the head of Achish's bodyguard
on the way to do battle with Israel. That's David. David knew
he's anointed king. He knew he's going to be king.
Why is he scared of Saul? unbelief. It's easy for us to think we
can stand, to think we're stronger than we are, to think we're wiser
than we are, to lean on the arm of the flesh, but it is all the
lust of our flesh. We have to look to Christ alone. The second thing Paul said in
1 Corinthians 10.13 is, there's no temptation taken you, but
such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. But God will, with the temptation,
also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. That's
not what we saw David doing. That was not the way of escape.
That was David, running after the lust of his flesh. We have
no ability. And that's what God shows us
in every one of these troubles. We have no ability. Paul said,
we wouldn't, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble that
came to us in Asia. We were pressed out of measure,
above strength, in so much that we despaired even of life. Why
did God bring them there? Why did He bring them there?
He said, he won't suffer you to be tempted above your able.
Paul said, we were not able. Why did he bring you there? We
had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God, which raiseth the dead, who delivered
us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us. Christ is the way of escape.
And every one of these troubles the Lord brought them into was
to show them not to trust themselves, but to trust the Lord. And that's
what He's going to make effectually in our heart, brethren. The way
of escape is Christ. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? That salvation is Christ. He's
the only one that brought in everlasting righteousness. He's
the only one that tread the winepress of God's fury alone. He is the
one who conquered death, held in the grave for His people,
and He's the one through that gospel, by His Spirit, working
in our heart, that makes us look to Him by faith, and that is
the power to mortify our lusts. It's to see we're complete in
Him. If David would have been turned to see Him right then,
David wouldn't have feared Saul. He'd have known God's working
all things together for them that love God to them who are
called according to His purpose. I'm fine. Stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. The Lord will fight for you.
That's what Moses told him at the Red Sea. That's always what
God's going to make His child see before it's over with. That's
what humbles us. That's what breaks our heart.
When we see, we rebel. When we see our sin and how dishonoring
it is to Him, and yet God, for Christ's sake, still shows us
grace and mercy. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Can anything separate God's child
from the love of Christ? Nothing. So tribulation, There's
the trial. Shall distress, shall persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. It looks like David
was being separated. It looks like we're being separated
often. But that's just God pressing
us down above measure to bring us to the place where we stop
trusting ourselves and trust Christ. As it's written, for
thy sake we're killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep
for the slaughter. But know in all these things,
we're more than conquerors through Christ that loved us. That's
the way of escape. It's Christ. He said, no weapon
that's formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgment thou shall condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord. That's our inheritance.
And their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. There's our
confidence. Christ is satisfied justice.
He is going to save every one of His people and He won't lose
one because His justice would be a miscarriage. the very purpose
for which God created this world, the very purpose for which He
holds it in store right now, the very purpose for which He
sends the gospel forth, the very purpose for which He is working
in you right now, is to keep us beholding Christ in all His
preeminence, that He has accomplished judgment for His people and is
the righteousness of His people, because that brings all the glory
and all the honor to Christ. That is what God is going to
have given to His name. Glory. And knowing that, you
can be certain, whatever He brings you into, though you fail, though you stumble,
though you, like David, go right back to the enemy, God's going
to bring you to see. Christ is your salvation. You're
going to abhor yourself. You're going to see, I can't
put any confidence in my flesh. I have no strength. I have no
ability in me. It's not in man to direct his
steps, God's directing them. And that makes you run the race
looking to Him. Our blessed Savior shows us immutable
grace. Though we murmur, His grace still
abounds. Though we sin and forget Him,
He will not forget us and He will not forget to be gracious.
Though we fail in our love to Him, our Savior does not fail
in His love to us. Morning after morning, mercy
still comes. Day after day, His grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. It shall
come to pass that before my people call, I'll answer. And while
they're speaking, I will hear. And He brings us to call on Him. If we would escape unbelief and
sin of our flesh, there's only one way. There's only one way. We have to look to Christ alone.
The strength of our faith is not our faith. The strength of
our faith is not our faith. Christ is the author and finisher
of our faith. And the faith He gives us makes
us look to Him. And in Him we find all our strength. All our strength. And He keeps
leading us and guiding us and keeping us And that mercy is
immutable. It does not change. That love
is immutable. It does not change. It does not
change. Look here. Here's why it doesn't
change. Let me show you why. In Psalm 78. He brought them into Canaan.
And they went on in idolatry. Their children did. And it says
in verse 58, They provoked him to anger with their high places,
they moved him to jealousy with their graven images. And when
God heard this, he was wroth, and he greatly abhorred Israel,
so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he
placed among them, and delivered his strength into captivity,
and his glory into the enemy's hand. When Christ came to fulfill
all righteousness for His people, He is the tabernacle. He's the
glory of God. He's the strength of God. And
here, God let the enemy come in and took the tabernacle and
the ark and all the wrath of God was poured out on Israel
because He abhorred them for their sin. The reason God won't
do that to you who believe is because Christ came, the tabernacle
came, and He bore that in place of His people. And he gave his
people unto the sword, and was wroth with his inheritance. And
the fire consumed their young men, and the maids were not given
to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows
made no lamentation. Christ bore the sword. He bore
all the wrath and fury of God in place of his people, and his
people died in it. Now watch this. Then the Lord awaked this
one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shattered a reason of
wine, and he smoked his enemies and their underparts, and he
put them to a perpetual reproach. Christ arose from the grave,
and he conquered every enemy of his people. and put him to
a perpetual reproach. Moreover, he refused the tabernacle
of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe
of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved. The line of the tribe
of Judah is Christ. And he's seated in the Mount
Zion that God loves with all his people seated in him. And
he's built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth
which he has established forever. He's David, our king, God's chosen,
his servant. He took him from the sheepfolds,
from following the ewes great with young. He 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. That picture's Christ. Our Lord
came and bore it all in place of his people. He's risen now,
having conquered his enemies as our King David, and he's guiding
and leading all his people by the skillfulness of his hand.
And He's going to save us in spite of us. Just mark it down. Mark it down. And the rest are
going to bear that wrath without a mediator. Believe on Him. Cast it all on Him. He's our
only hope. Turn over to Hebrews 3 and we'll
end with this. We don't want to limit God. God
is able to do above anything we can ask or think. We believe
Him. Hebrews 3.8. Harden not your
hearts. as in the provocation, when they
provoke God, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your
fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40 years. Wherefore,
I was grieved with that generation and said, they do always err
in their heart. They've not known my ways. So
I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take
heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another. This is how We walk by faith,
trusting Christ has done it all. And this is how we love each
other. Come what may, we keep exhorting one another. Look to
Christ. Trust Christ. Remember what He's
done for us. Remember His free forgiveness.
Remember God's immutable love and grace in Him. We keep exhorting
one another. While it's called today, you
can't do anything about yesterday. Christ has. You know what you
need today? You need His grace today. You
need faith to believe Him today. Today. He says, lest any of you
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, for we're made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until
the end. While it's today, If you'll hear
His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. Some,
when they heard, did provoke Him. Not all that came out of
Egypt by Moses, but with whom was He grieved forty years. Was
it not with them that it's sin whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
And to whom swear He that they should not enter into His rest?
But to them that believed not. Saying, Surely blessing I will
bless thee, multiplying them that believe not. They could
not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear lest a
promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we
which have believed do enter into rest. Look down at verse
6, seeing therefore There remaineth a rest, seeing therefore it remaineth
some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
enter not in because of unbelief. Again, he limited a certain day,
saying, In David, today, after so long a time, today if you
will hear his voice, harden not your heart. For if Joshua had
given them rest, he would not have after spoken of another
day. There remaineth therefore, right now, a rest to the people
of God. For he that's entered into his
rest, trusting Christ, he's ceased from his own works as God did
from his. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. What does he tell us to do? If
you've sinned, if you've done as Israel did, what's he gonna
make us do when he speaks this word in our heart? This word
is sharp and powerful and quick Sharper than any two-edged sword.
It's going to cut to the heart. It's going to do what no man
can do. It's going to go to the heart. It's going to reveal to
us what we are. Our sin. It's going to reveal
to us our unbelief. And it's going to show us His
grace in Christ who laid down His life for His people and saved
us. And He's going to say, now come to Me. You have a high priest
that's touched with all the filling of your infirmities and he can
comfort you. He's gonna say, come to me, come
boldly, come confidently, come in faith to me. And I'll give
you grace to help in this time of need. That's what he does
in every single trial we go through. Every, whether it's big, small,
or in between, that's the purpose of it right there. to remind
us not to trust ourselves, to trust Christ only. You know where
his people are going to be found at the end? When he's worked
this, right where the children of Israel were found, he delivered
them into the land of promise. And all his people are going
to be delivered in. They're going to persevere looking
to him only. And it's going to be by his grace.
By his grace. Father, we thank you for this
word. We pray, Lord, that you would Turn us from us. Save us from
us. Chasten, correct, rebuke, admonish. Make us see that we must trust
you. Make us believe on Christ and
trust in your salvation. Lord, thank you that you continue
to be gracious. Thank you that you continue to
be merciful. Lord, we're thankful that you brought us here, and
we pray you carry us home safely. And Lord, strengthen our faith
to remember this. Don't let us go home and murmur
in our tents. Lord, help us to look to you
and know our salvation is sure. This covenant's ordered in all
things and sure. Give Your people everywhere grace
to believe You, trust You. And help us, Lord, to lift up
the hands that hang down. Help us to strengthen the feeble
knees. Help us to point one another to Christ and love each other
in spite some of us are not lovable and we don't act lovable. Make us love each other, Lord.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.