Our text is found in verses 26
and 27. The Lord spake unto Moses and unto
Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation
which murmur against me? I've heard the murmurings of
the children of Israel which they murmur against me." This
is a very sad way to be recognized by the Holy Lord God. He says
here, this evil congregation which murmur against me. Now
the Lord never looks upon His people this way because He put
His people in Christ. and His people in Christ are
justified by Christ through faith. But there is an evil congregation
and Christ tells us who they are. When He walked this earth,
He spoke to the scribes and the Pharisees and He said, O faithless
generation, faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? That's the same word. How long
shall I bear with you? How long shall I be longsuffering
towards you? How long will I suffer your evil
manners? Now God is longsuffering. That's
what we're going to see here today. God is longsuffering. He suffers long. He puts up with
sinners for a long time. Now verse 27, he says here, How
long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against
me? We see how long God bore with
this congregation and we see how great God's longsuffering
is towards sinners when we use the three things that made this
unbelief greater. I'll show you three things that
God said made their unbelief even greater. And this shows
us how great God's long suffering is and it shows us how long He
suffered with the children of Israel. Look at verse 22. First
of all, He said, All those men which have seen my glory and
my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, This shows
us how great God's long-suffering is. They saw His glory. They
saw the miracles God had done, and still they didn't believe.
Then, secondly, He says, and they've tempted Me now these
ten times. They tempted Him ten times. I
don't know if that's a definite number or this is a definite
number standing for a large amount of times, but we can look and
we can see at least ten times that they did this. And then
thirdly, this is what made his longsuffering great. He said,
they've not hearkened to my voice. And still he suffered long with
them. Let's look at those three things. First of all, we see
how great God's longsuffering is in that though that they had
seen his glory and seen the miracles he did for them, still God did
not turn them over immediately to reprobation. He didn't pour
out judgment on them immediately. He suffered long. The glory,
he says in verse 22, those men have seen my glory and my miracles
which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness. The glory of God,
His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His faithfulness, His truth,
these were all displayed in the miracles that God did in Egypt. Now you remember, after the first
miracle that God did in Egypt, Whenever he did this miracle,
Pharaoh made their jobs more difficult. He took away some
of their building supplies from them so that it made them making
bricks even harder. And they came to Moses and they
met Moses in the way, right away, and told him, just leave us alone.
That's what they told him, just leave us alone. Let us stay here,
let us serve Egypt. From the very beginning they
did this. And then, but they saw God's glory in all those
miracles. And then, in bringing them out
of Egypt, God, He passed through Egypt and He smote the firstborn
child, firstborn son in every home in Egypt. But for Israel,
God provided a lamb. And He smoked that lamb. He killed
that lamb in their place, in the place of the firstborn in
the houses of Israel. They died according to the law. They died just like those in
the house of Egypt did. The difference was God provided
a lamb for those in Israel. A lamb that died in place of
all the firstborn in Israel. Brethren, They put the blood
of the Lamb upon the doorposts of their houses. And this is
what God said about that. The blood shall be to you for
a token upon the houses where you are. This is a covenant.
This is a promise to you, a token, a reminder. When I see the blood,
when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague
shall not be upon you to destroy you. The plague was upon the
firstborn in Egypt. The plague was not upon them.
because they were under the blood. And God passed over them when
He smote the land of Egypt. God has provided Himself a Passover
lamb. He's provided Christ Jesus. Paul said, Christ, our Passover,
is sacrificed for us. That's who was pictured in the
Passover, is Christ. God satisfied His own justice
for His people by slaying His own Son, Christ Jesus the Lord,
in the place of His people so that He could remain just. And
He justified us by doing that. And not one shall perish who
rests in Christ. Get under the blood. Get under
the blood of Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not one sinner that trusts in Christ shall ever perish because
every believer that truly trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ has
been called and effectually saved by God Himself, by the grace
of God. And they will not perish. Not
one will. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Then they beheld God's glory
in bringing them through the Red Sea and destroying their
enemies with Pharaoh. The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured
here too, brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ has delivered
all His children and slain all our enemies in
the Red Sea of His blood on Calvary's Cross. And then in the cloud
that led them by day, and the pillar of fire that led them
by night, Christ was pictured in that. Christ is the shepherd
of His sheep. He leads us, He guides us, He
comes between us and the enemy like the cloud came between them
and Pharaoh. He covers us, He keeps us, He
protects us. All of these things were picturing
Christ because Christ is the glory of God. When you seek the
glory of God, you see it in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then when they got to those bitter waters at Marah, now those
waters were turned sweet. A tree that was right there the
whole time, this tree was cut down and cast into those waters
and it made the water sweet. Christ Jesus the Lord willingly
gave Himself to be cut down on the cursed tree. And Christ is
the only one who could make the bitter waters of our sin sweet. When He enters in and reveals
the Gospel in our hearts and teaches us that He is all our
righteousness, all our sanctification, all our standing with God. He
told them there when He did that, He said, My name is Jehovah Rapha.
I am the Lord that healeth thee. And you know who Christ is? He
is Jehovah Rapha. He is I am the Lord that healeth
thee. Seek the Lord. This is what I'm
trying to get. The Lord's longsuffering. He
was longsuffering to them. They saw this glory. He was long-suffering
to them, though they didn't believe. But I'm telling you now, seek
the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He's near.
Let the wicked forsake His way, and your thoughts, and your vain
imagination, and come to God and believe on God. And He will
receive you, and He'll save you, because His thoughts are not
like our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. And
then they saw His glory when God rained down manna from heaven.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
didn't give you that bread from heaven, but my Father gives the
true bread from heaven. And He said, and I am the bread
of life. He came into this world to give
life to His people. And He said, all that come to
me shall never hunger and never thirst. Christ is life for His
people. And then they saw God's glory
when God gave them water out of a rock that was smitten. Why
did God do that? Why did He say, here's a rock,
now strike this rock, and out of this rock water is going to
come forth? Because it pictures Christ our rock. It pictures
Christ who was smitten by the justice of God, and from Him
flows the everlasting water of life to His people. free justification,
free righteousness to His people. Then they saw, and Paul told
us, and that rock is Christ. Paul said that in 1 Corinthians
10, verse 4. And then they saw His glory when
the enemy Amalek came upon them. Remember what happened there?
Moses held up a rod, the rod of God. He held it up. And as
long as he held up that rod, Joshua, who means Savior, went
forth and conquered their enemies, conquered Amalek. And when Moses
would let down that rod, Amalek would begin to win the victory. And he would hold that rod up,
and then Joshua would defeat his enemies. And he did that,
and defeated all of his enemies. And God said, he revealed himself
there as Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner. That pictured what
I'm doing right now. It pictured the gospel going
forth. And as the gospel goes forth, the gospel of Christ and
Him crucified, the rod of God, Christ goes forth, Joshua, our
Savior, and he conquers his enemies. and makes them his footstool.
Now what I'm trying to show you is week in and week out, brethren.
You've seen what they saw. All of you sitting here that
don't believe the Lord, week in and week out, you have seen
what Israel saw. You've seen it better than Israel
have seen it, because now Christ has come, and He's redeemed His
people, and He's gone to the Father. And we can see in all
these types and shadows now, we can see Christ. And we've
got divinely inspired commentary speaking to us and saying, that
rock pictured Christ. telling us what all of these
things mean. And now you've heard this. You have all of this in
God's Word. You've seen God's miracles too
in God's Word. This is a more sure evidence,
a more sure Word right here than anything else we could have.
This is God's Word. Brother Art was right last week
when he said, when God speaks, He's not going to speak to you
audibly. He did that while His Word was
being written. But now His Word is written,
and there's no need of Him to speak now. Here it is. Here's
His voice. Here's His Word. And this is
where you're going to hear God speak. You know when you don't call
on God, you know what you're doing? Calling God a liar. That's what the Scripture says.
calling Him a liar. How long will God bear with you
calling Him a liar? How long? How long will God bear
with the evil of you not believing His Son after He's been so evidently
set forth before you? Do you despise the goodness of
God? Do you despise the forbearance
of God? Do you despise the longsuffering
of God? I dare say if I asked around
the room, everybody here would say, I want to live tomorrow.
The only reason that if we live tomorrow, the only reason it
will be is because God's long-suffering. That's the only reason. And the
reason He's long-suffering is by the long-suffering of God,
He brings His children to repentance. It's the long-suffering of God
that leadeth thee to repentance. God of the long-suffering leadeth
thee to repentance. Alright, secondly, let's look
here now. Our text says, and they tempted me ten times, the
Lord said. We see how great His longsuffering
is in that though they tempted God, tempted God, yet God didn't
immediately destroy them. He didn't immediately turn them
over to reprobation. They tempted God with their murmuring
and complaining. As I said from the very beginning,
from the very first miracle that God did in Egypt, they said,
leave us alone. Leave us alone. At the Red Sea. You can follow along with me
if you want to. Exodus 14. I'm going to kind of go through
these. But I want you to see what they did. And as I show
you these things, I want you to think about this. Do you think
you would be as long-suffering with sinners as God is? Now watch
this. Exodus 14, 11. At the Red Sea.
They said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast
thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast
thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not
this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us
alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better
for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the
wilderness. Look at Exodus 15 and verse 24. When they came
to the waters of Marah, It says there in Exodus 15 and verse
14, it says... I'm sorry, Exodus 15, 24. It
says the people murmured against Moses saying, what shall we drink? But you know what God said? God
said they murmured against me. He said these words came up into
my ears. I heard them. at the wilderness
of Zin, look at Exodus 16 verse 2. It says, the whole congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the
wilderness. Verse 3 says, they said, and would to God we had
died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we
sat by the flesh pots and when we did eat bread to the full,
for you've brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this
whole assembly with hunger. They're saying this to God. I know they're saying it to Moses,
but they're saying this to God. Now look, Exodus 16 and verse
20. They rebelled against God's commandment
by leaving the manna until the morning. God expressly told them
not to leave it. And it says here in Exodus 16,
20, Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them
left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank,
and Moses was wroth with them. And then they did the same thing
about the Sabbath. The Lord said, I've given you
a Sabbath of rest. It was for them to just rest.
It was for them to rest, their servants to rest, their animals
to rest, everybody to rest. What did they do? If God would
have said go out and go to work, they'd have rested. But God said
rest, so they went out and went to work. And look here at Rephidim,
Exodus 17. where God gave the smitten rock.
Look at this, Exodus 17.1. All the congregation of the children
of Judah journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according
to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched and reefed them,
and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the
people did chide with Moses and said, Give us water that we may
drink. And Moses said unto them, Why
chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there
for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore
is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us
and our children and our cattle with thirst? And then while Moses
was in the mount forty days, look at Exodus 32, Moses goes
up into the mount to get the law from the Lord. And I've told
you before, this reminds me a great deal of the time we live in now. Christ has gone up into the mount.
He's fulfilled the law. He's gone up to the mount. And
this is what religion is doing in our day right now. Exactly
what they did right here. Look at Exodus 32 verse 1. And when the people saw that
Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered
themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Up, make us
gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know
what's become of him. That's what men are saying today.
We're tired of worshiping this one that you say is coming back.
He hadn't come back. Make us some gods we can see.
Give us something to do. Give us some religion that we
can see and do and play, and we'll do that. And look what
happened, verse 4. Aaron did it. And verse 4 says,
And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee
up out of the land of Egypt. They made a molten calf. They
made a gold calf and said, this is the God that brought us up
out of Egypt. Verse 5, And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar
before it. And Aaron made proclamation and
said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. You see, they called
this thing the Lord. They were talking about an idol,
but they called Him by the name of the Lord. That's what men
do in our day. They're worshipping a God of
their imagination. They say that He died for everybody,
but didn't save anybody unless man lets Him. And they call that
worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a golden kind. Look
here. And it says, verse 6, And they
rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings,
and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat
and drink, and rose up to play. Then at Taborah, for no apparent
reason, look at Numbers 11. They don't even give a reason.
Just Numbers 11, in verse 1, it says, And the people complained. They just complain. No reason
is given, they just complain. And then at Kibreth HaTovah in
Numbers 11 verse 4, it says, And the mixed multitude that
was among them fell a lusting, and the children of Israel also
wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember
the fish, which we did in Egypt, eat in Egypt freely. The cucumbers,
and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.
But now, watch this, but now our soul is dried away. There's nothing at all besides
this manna before our eyes. There's religion for you. Christ,
we don't want Christ to be all. That's what they don't, they
don't want Christ to be all. We're tired of Christ the bread. Give
us something else. Now, we come to our text. The
Lord's been long suffering with them through all this. Would
you have been? I wouldn't have been. I'll be honest with you.
I don't have that much patience. I wouldn't have been. But the
Lord was. Look here. Now we come to our text. And
the spies, they came back from going into the land to spy out
the land. And they came back with an evil report. And verse
1 says, And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried.
And the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel
murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation
said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this
wilderness! Wherefore, hath the Lord brought
us unto this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and
our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to
return unto Egypt? And they said one to another,
Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt. In all of
this, they tempted God. They tempted His power to provide. They tempted His goodness, whether
He would be long-suffering to them. They tempted his faithfulness,
whether he would fulfill his promise that he made. They tempted
his justice. They dared God. They challenged
God to pour out justice on him. All the days of our unbelief,
that's what our unbelief was doing. Tempting God. Tempting God. All murmuring is
tempting God. Now, believe or listen to this,
all murmuring is tempting God. When we murmur about His providence,
that's tempting God. Whatever He does is good and
it's right. Whatever it is, no matter how
hard it may be for us, it's right. Murmuring against God's way of
salvation, about how God saves sinners, every time a man stands
up and preaches another gospel, which is not another, The reason
Paul said, let him be damned is because that man's tempting
God. He's murmuring against the one
way of salvation with every word he speaks. Even when we complain
about the weather, that's murmuring against God. That's right. Fake question. That's tempting
God. What do I mean by fake questions?
You know how the Pharisees kept coming and the scribes kept coming
to Christ and they kept asking questions to cover up their rebellion
and to justify their rebellion and to find an excuse and a reason
why they would not believe Christ? Over and over and over, Christ
said, why do you tempt God? Fake, phony, hypocritical questions
that are coming from a heart that just wants to hide and not
believe God and justify rebellion is tempting God. And I'll tell
you something else it is. When the Judaizers brought the
believers, tried to bring them back under the law, Peter stood
up and he said, why do you tempt God to put a yoke on the neck
of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear? Self-righteousness. When you
and I stand up and we decide that we don't like how somebody
else is doing something, and we're gonna break out the yoke
of the law on them. or when preachers bring believers back under the
law and put that yoke on them, that's tempting God. Christ has
fulfilled the law for His people. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. He is the righteousness of His
people. And we establish the law through
faith in Christ. We don't make it void. We establish
it through Christ, through faith. That's how the law is established.
So, to turn around then and say, yeah, but now you got to keep
the law too. That's tempting God. I'm not saying break the
law. I'm not saying go out and purposely
break the law. I'm telling you, you can't keep
it like God demands it to be kept. That's why He sent His
Son, and His Son's the fulfillment of it. Don't turn from His Son
to think you can come to God by your law keeping. But all
through that, God gave them space to repent. He gave them space
and time to repent. Nothing was stopping them from
coming to God. Nothing was stopping them from
believing God. God was doing good things for
them. He was feeding them. He was providing
for them. He gave them somebody to lead
them and teach them. And the whole time, nothing prevented
them from believing God but them. And that's the same with you
here now, today. Now look, thirdly, We see God's
long-suffering in that though they would not hearken to God's
voice, they wouldn't hearken to His voice, still He did not
pour out wrath on them. He was long-suffering to them.
Now, from Egypt all the way up to where we are now in our text,
they repeatedly did not obey His voice. But at last, they
send those spies in there and they disobeyed God's commandment
to go in and take the land, take possession. Listen to this. This
is from Deuteronomy 121. Behold, the Lord thy God has
set the land before thee. Go up and possess it. As the
Lord God of thy fathers has said unto thee, Fear not, neither
be discouraged. Notwithstanding, you would not
go up. They would not go up, but rebelled
against the commandment of the Lord their God. Now I want to
show you how hard the natural heart is. I want to show you
how hard the natural heart is against God. They would not obey
God's voice to go into that land. Just like some sitting here today
will not obey God's voice to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and be saved. So finally, God said this to
them. Look at verse 23. Numbers 14, 23. God said, Surely
they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither
shall any of them that provoke me see it. God said they can't
go. They can't go. They wouldn't
go. Now they can't go. Look at verse 25. He says, tomorrow
turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the
Red Sea. He told Moses, take them away from the promised land.
Take them back into the wilderness. And look here now in verse 28. Say unto them, As truly as I
live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken in mine ears, so
will I do to you. Remember what they said back
in verse 2? They said, Would God we had died in this wilderness. That's what they murmured. Be
careful what you ask for. Look what God did. Verse 29.
Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. He said it just
like you spoke in my ears. That's what's going to happen.
And all that were numbered of you according to your whole number
from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me.
Doubtless you shall not come into the land concerning which
I swear to make you dwell therein save Caleb the son of Jephunneh
and Joshua the son of Nun. They had a different spirit within.
They believed God. They followed Him fully. And
then in verse 3, they said, Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto
this land to fall by the sword, that our children should be a
prey? Now look at what God said in verse 31. But your little
ones, which you said should be a prey, them will I bring in,
and they shall know the land which you have despised. How
long will God be longsuffering? If He has a rebel that He's dealing
with, And that rebel is going to give birth to an elect child
of God. God will be long-suffering to
that rebel until that elect child is born because God is long-suffering
to us, to his elect, not willing that any of his elect people
should perish, but that they all should come to repentance.
We see an example of that here. He did that through Israel time
and time again. And in Isaiah, I believe it's
6 or 7, he said, because in this leafless tree that I'm going
to break all the branches off of, there's a holy seed in that
leafless tree. And that seed was Christ. And
the only reason he didn't destroy Israel, because Christ was coming.
In the same way, the reason he's forbearing now with rebels against
him is because They're going to give birth to one of His elect.
And He will not lose one of His people. Alright, look here, verse
32. But as for you, your carcasses,
they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander
in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until
your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number
of the days in which you search the land, even forty days, each
day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities even forty years,
and you shall know my breach of promise. Now brethren, this
tells us how long God will suffer with rebels. A set time that
He has set. A set time that God has set Himself. Now verse 35, I the Lord have
said I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that
are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall
be consumed and there they shall die. And the men which Moses
sent to search the land, these were the evil spies who returned
and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing
up a slander upon the land. Even those men that did bring
up the evil report upon the land died by the plague of the Lord.
In this the Lord is showing us Those who not only sin against
the Lord, but who lead others to sin by slandering the report
of the Gospel will have the greater degree of damnation in hell. He plagued these men right away,
and they died. When you stand up to preach for
God, make certain you're preaching God's Word. Because the lowest
low of hell will be reserved for false preachers. Alright,
verse 38. He said, but Joshua the son of
Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went
to search the land, lived still. They lived still. Now seven times
they heard the Lord's Word that said that because you would not
go in, now you cannot go in. Seven times, and what I just
read you, He told them this. God commanded them to turn back.
God told them their carcasses are going to fall in the wilderness.
They would not be able to enter the promised land. He's told
them clearly. And then even before their very eyes, God poured out
judgment in the plagues and caused diseases and caused those evil
spies to die right before their eyes. And He spared Caleb and
Joshua so that no disease came to them because they were His,
because they believed Him and followed Him. Now what do you
think they'll do? What do you think these folks
will do now? Seeing their history and what
they've done up to this point, what do you think they're going
to do now that God said, you wouldn't go in, now you can't
go in? Look at verse 39. And Moses told
these sayings unto all the children of Israel, and the people mourned
greatly. Now Moses must have been greatly
disappointed too. He's going to have to stay in
that wilderness for 40 more years with them. But Moses didn't mourn. Moses saw God's glory in this
judgment. And they mourned not because
they sinned against God, they mourned because they were guilty
in their conscience. They mourned because it was their
own fault that they were in the shape they were in. That's what
they mourned for. The fact they earned this judgment
made them mourn. If they had wept for their sin
when Caleb faithfully rebuked them, back up in verse 9, then
this sentence would have been prevented. If they would have
heard the word of the Lord and repented from themselves in their
vain way and believed God, all this would have been prevented.
But now it's too late. Now, don't let that be the case
with anybody here. Now watch verse 40. And they
rose up early in the morning, and got them up into the top
of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto
the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned.
Now they want to go to Cana. Now they confess their sin. You
know what's going to happen. Let me tell you this. This is
the case. This is so true right here now.
When God brings sinners into judgment that pass from this
world, in unbelief, God's going to bring each and everyone to
confess their sin. To confess that the fault is
all their own. You might say, I'm never going
to repent and say that in this life. You might not in this life,
but you will in judgment. Listen to this. He will come,
Jude 15 says, to execute judgment upon all and to convince all
that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which
ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. So everybody is going to
confess their sin. Now look at verse 41. And Moses
said, Wherefore now do ye transgress against the commandment of the
Lord? They're still disobeying God. They're not bowing to God. Their attitude is, well we broke
it, we'll fix it. We didn't go before and God's
mad at us now, so we'll just go now and we'll fix all that.
We need a Savior. We need a Savior to come between
us and God. We can't fix what we broke. Moses
said, you still disobey the commandment of the Lord? They still didn't
believe the Lord. They still tempted God. But they
did not seek the Lord while He might be found. And now He would
not be found. Look here, verse 41. He said,
It shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not
among you. that you be not smitten before
your enemies, for the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there
before you, and you shall fall by the sword, because you're
turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you."
Do you think they heard that word? Do you think they obeyed
that word? A rebel won't obey anything God
says. When he speaks through his message,
they won't obey anything God says. This is why God has to
give a man a new heart. What did they do? Verse 44, But
they presumed to go up unto the hilltop. Nevertheless, the ark
of the covenant of the Lord and Moses departed not out of the
camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which
dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them even
unto Hormah. Now these three things show us
how long-suffering God is. They had seen His glory and His
miracles. They attempted Him, they had not hearkened to His
voice, and still God was long-suffering to them. That's the case with
every unbeliever under the sound of my voice right now. But now,
hear this. These same three things increase
the guilt of those who will not believe. They increase the guilt
of those who will not believe. The light God has given to men
justifies God in turning them over to reprobation and for sending
men to hell. What are you saying? I'm saying
this. The gifts of God are given freely by His grace. That's how
men are saved. And hell is earned by men. Men go to hell because they earn
it. They earn it. And there's no one to blame but
the sinner that's in hell. Now every sinner here, I want
you to pay close attention to me. This is it. I'm done. I want
you to hear this right here now. This is my point. This is my
point. Don't misconstrue what you're
hearing here. This is not telling you, oh,
you ought to be disappointed and afraid that your son and
daughter is never going to believe. This is a personal message to
every personal sinner in this room. This message is to say
that today is the day of grace. Today. Behold, now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. The Hebrew writer said, as the
Holy Ghost said, today, if you'll hear His voice, harden not your
hearts, as in this provocation when they provoke God. He said
it again, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation in the
day of temptation in the wilderness. He said, exhort one another daily.
to remind each other this daily while it's called a day, lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. While
it's today if you'll hear His voice, harden not your hearts
as in the provocation. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom
of God's at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Christ said this is the work
that you believe on Him whom God has sent. Paul said, the
times of this ignorance God winked at. Men are using all kind of
vain excuses like they did in Paul's day at Athens. What about
this God? What about that God? What about
this? God used to wink at that. He'd been long suffering for
a long time with that. But he says, But now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he has ordained, whereof he has given assurance unto all
men, in that he has raised him from the dead. You see, I preached
a message a week or so ago about how the Lord called some in the
3rd hour, and some in the 5th hour, and some in the 6th hour,
and some in the 11th hour. And I meant to say this, and
I forgot to say it. Some might say, well, since He calls in
the 11th hour, I'm just going to wait because maybe He'll call
me in the 11th hour. How do you know when your hour
is? This might be your 11th hour. That's why the Lord says today,
today. You see, if these men would have
been as eager in the day of grace as they were when the day of
grace was over, they would have been saved. Be diligent to seek
Christ now in the day of grace while he may be found. Provide
oil for your lamps today while the bridegroom tarries. That
way when the bridegroom comes, you can go out to meet him. Lord
bless His word. Amen.