But we have been looking forward
to being with you all. If you will turn with me to Exodus
chapter 11. Exodus the 11th chapter. When the children of Israel were
in the land of bondage in Egypt those 400 years, how they must
have walked generation after generation in confusion and darkness. Because nothing appeared to be
as God promised Abraham it would be. The children of Israel were
slaves to the Egyptians. They made brick. The Egyptians
lived in the houses. They provided the labor, the
Egyptians enjoyed the fruit of the labor. And they suffered
horribly under the affliction of the pharaohs after Joseph
died, and for 400 years they remained in bondage, though the
Lord God had promised them he would bring them out, give them
the land of inheritance, and bring them out with a high hand
after those 400 years of what he called sojourning in the land
of Egypt. Let's read together chapter 11,
beginning at verse 1. Things are about to come to a
head now. Moses is going in to Pharaoh to tell him of one last
wonder God was determined to perform in Egypt to show himself
the God of Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses,
yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards, he will let you go
hence. He shall let you go He shall
surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the
people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every woman
of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. Now, lest
anyone get the idea that somehow God commanded the Jews to do
something dishonest, the word bara here simply means to receive. They received them as gifts,
just as Hannah lent Samuel unto the Lord in the book of 1 Samuel.
These gifts were given to the children of Israel. And the Lord
gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover,
the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the
sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.
And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight I will go
out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt shall die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh
that saith upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant
that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts.
And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt,
such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move
his tongue, against man or beast, that ye may know how the Lord
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all
these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves
unto me, saying, get thee out, and all thy people that follow
thee, and after that I will go out. And he, that is Moses, went
out from Pharaoh in great anger. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied
in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these
wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart,
so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of
his land. According to the testimony of
God the Holy Spirit, in the 7th verse of this 11th chapter of
Exodus, God did everything he did to Pharaoh and the Egyptians,
and did it all for one specific purpose, that you may know that
the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. I want to talk to you, if God
will enable me, about the difference. The difference God makes between
men and men, women and women. The difference God makes between
His elect and the reprobate. The difference God makes between
believers and unbelievers. The difference God makes between
vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. My purpose in preaching
this message is that you may know how that the Lord put a
difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Whatever differences
there are between you and me and the rest of the world, Whatever
differences there are, whether they're talking about social,
economic, physical, mental, religious, spiritual, whatever differences
there are, between you and me, God did it. All the differences. But particularly, I'm talking
about spiritual matters. Matters of great importance.
All the difference there is between believers and unbelievers. is
the difference that's made by God's free distinguishing grace. I heard Shelby saying to some
of you a moment ago, and some of you already knew, I went to
school out here at Springville for one year, back in 1968, and
I thought a good bit about this
place and the people that I met here and the people around this
area still that I am aware of, who know nothing about the gospel
of God's free grace, who know nothing about God, His character,
His salvation, and His Christ, and the fact that God's revealed
His Son in me. The only difference is Him. not me. The only difference is
Him, not you. Such is the depraved nature of
man that we all naturally cherish, nurture, and cling to. We promote
in ourselves and in those we influence that which is most
abhorrent to God and most certain to bring us at last to ruin.
The evil I speak of is the original sin of the universe, the persistent
sin of our race, the most abominable of all sins in God's sight, and
the sin with which I have to do battle every day and every
waking hour of every day. It's called pride. Pride. Pride. What a horrible, deceitful,
cunning enemy pride is to our souls. Pride was the sin of Lucifer
in the beginning. Pride was the problem that Adam
had in the garden. Pride raises its ugly head in
our souls continually. There's no such thing as a truly
humble man by nature. Man's pretense of humility is
just another expression of pride called an attention to itself.
It is pride that hardens the heart. and keep sinners from
coming to Christ. Listen to Daniel. The wicked
through the pride of his countenance will not see God. God is not
in all his thoughts. Nothing but pride causes a person
to reject the word of God. Jeremiah said all proud men rejected
God's word by his prophet. The root, the cause of all carnal
strife Division, whispering, backbiting, and slander is pride. Just pride showing itself in
carnal jealousy, malice, and spite. Pride is the great deceiver
of men. It makes men and women behave
in cruel, mean-spirited, self-righteousness under the guise of doing God's
service. Be warned, my friends, be warned,
oh my soul. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before the fall. Turn over to the second
Corinthians, I'm sorry, first Corinthians, chapter four. Here
is a very, very familiar text of scripture. If you listen to
me preach much, you hear me quote it very frequently, but I want
you to turn there and read it. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
7. The Apostle Paul writes by divine
inspiration and says, Who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? These
three questions may be should be and must be applied to every
aspect of our lives. Whatever differences there is
among men, God made the differences. Whatever spiritual differences
there are between you and your brother, your sister, your mother,
your father, your son or your daughter, God made the difference.
Whatever differences there are in the gifts and abilities of
one believer compared to another, of one preacher compared to another,
God made the difference. Whatever differences there are
in the ministries of local churches, God made the difference. Not
you, not me. Any differences that we think
we have made are nothing but sinful, carnal, ungodly things. and those things you can attribute
to us. The wood, hay and stubble, that's
our doing. The silver, gold and precious
stone, that's God's doing. Now let's look at these three
questions together and pray that God the Holy Ghost will burn
them into our hearts and apply them to every aspect of our lives.
The first question I'll spend the bulk of the time on and the
other two I'll use to summarize my message. Number one, Who maketh
thee to differ from another? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Understand these three things
with regard to this question. First, God's people in this world,
all of God's people in this world are sinners still. And there
is a very real sense in which God's elect do not differ from
other people at all. And we know it. By long, painful,
bitter, constant experience, we learn that we are altogether
unrighteous, altogether filthy, altogether sinful. Yes, chosen
by God the Father in everlasting love, redeemed by the precious
blood of God's dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, called, born
again by God the Holy Spirit, and yet you and I who are saved
by God's free, amazing grace in Christ are sinners still. That's a sad, sad fact, but a
fact nonetheless, and one we must never forget. God's grace
does not eradicate or even change what we are by nature. Carl,
you're a fairly young man. I'm sure you've learned this
to some degree. You've got a lot more to learn yet, I promise
you. God's saving grace does not eradicate or even change
what we are by nature. The believer's old Adamic nature
is now exactly as it was when we came into this world. Grace
subdues that nature. Grace rules that nature. Thank
God one day grace will destroy that nature. But grace doesn't
change our old nature. We know something. We know something
about the depravity of our hearts. But I promise you we know just
a little bit. Just a little bit. Thank God
I don't know more. But we know something of it.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things
that bubble up from the heart of man continually. yours and
mine. You've got that little baby,
you won't have to teach her any of those things. They're just
as natural as breathing, just as natural as drinking water
when you're thirsty. Now that's a shocking discovery for a young
believer. Shortly after God saved me, I
had a couple of experiences that revealed this raging monster
in me. I had been kicked out of high
school when I was 15 years old. God saved me when I was not quite
17 years old. I went back to high school, and
it was the first year of integrated schools in Western Southern North
Carolina. I'd never been to school with black folks before. I had
a black English teacher who liked to needle folks who were religiously
inclined, and he needled and needled and needled and needled. And I don't remember exactly
what it was he was niggling me with, but I was sitting right
up front, and he was standing right in front of me, and I jumped
up and drew back my fist. I said, damn you, and I was about
to knock him on his rear end. I didn't realize I was in there.
I didn't know I had that potential. I thought that was gone. And
I sat down and wished there was some place I could crawl away
and hide. I was in school out here in Springfield. I hadn't
been here long, and word got around things I believed, and
folks fussed and fussed and carried on. And one night I told the
young fella in the dormitory, I guess he's still standing up
there, I said, you open your mouth again, I'm gonna throw
you off this porch. And he did, and I picked him up and threw
him off the porch. And I just, how can you do this? That's what
we are by nature. I'd have shot him if God had
let me. That's just fact. That's just
fact. You and I are not in any way by nature better than we
were when God first called us by His grace. I'm every day made
increasingly aware of the depths of my depravity. And yet I know
I haven't even begun to see my own sinfulness. We know that
our best deeds of righteousness are just filthy rags in God's
sight. You know that. Just filthy rags. Just stinking, rotting, smelly,
filthy rags before God. I'm talking about the best thing
we do. If any man says, I have not sinned, you read the Bible
and you say, I haven't sinned. You come to church on a Saturday
afternoon at 4 o'clock. I haven't sinned. I've done something good.
You go to God in prayer. I haven't sinned. I've done something
good. You've met God alive. His Word is not in you. Sin mars
everything we do. Because sin is mixed with everything
we do. Because sin is what we are by
nature. I have sinned. I do sin. I am
sinning. But the worst of it is this.
Sin is what I am. Sin's my game, sin's my name,
and sin's my nature. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. I'm not talking about occasionally.
I'm talking about all the time. All the time. So that I cannot
ever do the things I would. I cannot ever do the things I
would. There had been a few days early
in my life as a believer, I was fool enough to think I had done
pretty good. And all it was was Satan blowing
up self-righteousness in me. I never am able to do what I
would. Let me see if I can say this
in such a way that you can't miss it. There's nothing in the
world more delightful to me than prayer. But before God saved me, Joe,
I never dreamed it could be so hard for a believer to pray as
I find it is to pray. Did you? There's absolutely nothing in
the world I desire like I desire to believe God. To live by faith. To walk with
God in faith. But I find nothing more troublesome
to me than my unbelief. There's nothing in this world
that I desire more than to worship Christ, to walk with Him in sweet
communion, or to live in communion with my Savior. But nothing seems
further out of my reach. There's nothing in this world
for which I strive harder than to attain conformity to Christ. Oh, to be like Him in thought,
in word, and in deed. But the more I strive, the more
elusive the goal is, to be like the Savior. The fact is, I am
a man constantly at war with myself. I know that in me, that
is in my flesh, when Paul says in my flesh, he's saying in my
nature, in what I am by birth, in what I am since the Adam fall. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing, not a scintilla of good, nothing but corruption, nothing
but evil. John Newton put it this way,
if I pray or hear or read, sin is mixed with all I do. You that
love the Lord indeed, tell me, is it thus with you? Without
question, there's a very real sense in which believers are
no different from unbelievers. We are sinners still, but understand
the second thing. Our text clearly and distinctly
suggests that God's saints are indeed different from other people.
We're sinners still, but saved sinners. We are men and women
with a new nature, a nature that is born of God, a nature planted
in us by God's grace in the new birth. The Lord doth put a difference
between the Egyptian and Israel, our text says. The question Paul
raised, who maketh thee to differ from another, would be redundant
if there was no difference. God's people do differ from other
people. Believers are different from
unbelievers. God's saints are a peculiar people. Believers are men and women who
have indeed undergone a marvelous, marvelous change. Turn back to
1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians 6, look at verse
9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you. That's where you were, that's
where I was, that's what you were, that's what I was, when
God found us and saved us by His grace. But, oh what a wonderful
word, but, ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, But ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. You are washed. You are washed. I don't think I'll embarrass
Bernina too much. She came in a little bit ago and she'll be
asking if they had just gotten here and she said, smell me.
I ain't got time to take a bath. You're washed. You're washed. You get dirty, you want to get
clean. You're washed. You and I who are gods have been
washed from the filth and the pollution of sin by the precious
blood of God's darling son who washed away our sins, who with
his own blood purged our sins, who by the sacrifice of himself
has put away our sins. what strong language the scripture
uses. It doesn't just say he's covered them up, though that
word is used. It doesn't just say that he's paid for them,
though that word is used. But the scripture says he blots
out our transgressions and will not remember our sins. He casts
them behind his back, removes them from us as far as the east
is from the west, so that for God's sakes, sin is gone. completely expunged from God's
sight. So that God says, he's not seen
sin in Israel nor iniquity in Jacob. Isn't that wonderful?
You're washed. Not only washed, but sanctified. Sanctified. I know a little bit
about your background, your family background. Some of you folks
come from these real strict reform groups, and they talk about five
points of Calvinism, but when they get done talking, all they
talk about is works, and your good works, and your holiness,
and your sanctification. And that's just a whole bunch
of manure. It just ain't so. It just ain't so. Sanctification
is not something you do. Sanctification is something God
does for you and in you in Christ Jesus. The word means holiness. Holiness. To be sanctified is
to be made holy. Holy. How are we sanctified? Before the world began, Jude
verse 1, we were sanctified in Christ by the purpose of God.
God said, never mind. That's what sanctified is. In
the Old Testament, God made the tabernacle and the furnishings
of the tabernacle, the altar and the robes for the priest
and even the And he said that's mine. That's holy. What does
that mean? That didn't change the nature
of that. God just said it's mine. That's all. Sanctified. You're
mine. You belong to God. The word sanctified
speaks of that which God did for us in eternity. Sanctified
speaks of what Christ did for us at Calvary. Hebrews chapter
10 tells us we're sanctified by the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all, once with finality. He of God has
made unto us sanctification. And then the apostle tells us
in Hebrews 12, follow peace with all men and holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. Now, if you want to read a whole
lot of nothing, read commentaries on Hebrews 12, 14. You've got
to be holy. You've got to make yourself holy.
You've got to strive to do good. No, no. That holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. It is that new nature put in
you, that new man created in righteousness and in true holiness.
And then the apostle says we are justified, justified, made
righteous, justified. I can't think of a better way
to say that than to show you. You remember when you see
things, you might not have been around to see, but it used to
be have to hit bulletins, and you'd see things a little bit
odd. This side over here just not quite making it up. I used
to write a bulletin article. I still do. I write them all.
Shelby doesn't do any of my writing or any of my printing for me.
She does the typing and the work. But I do the studying and the
writing. And Shelby would type them after I wrote them out. And this right-hand side would
be all jagged. Just doesn't even. And she'd
take the straight edge and mark it. And she'd count the letters. And then you go back and space
them out, so that you justify the right-hand margin. These
days, you hit Ctrl-J, and it's done. Now do it like that. Remember what that means. See
this side over here? You see that? See this over here? They're perfectly in agreement.
Every measurement exactly the same. Here stands God's law,
God's righteousness, God's justice, God's truth, God's perfection,
God's holiness, everything God requires. If we are in Christ, just divine,
just divine. So that in Christ, being saved
by God's free grace, that means That we owe God nothing. And we owe God everything. For
you're not your own, you bought with a price. So glorify God
in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Why did Paul
put justified after being sanctified and after being washed? because
we know nothing about our new birth and we know nothing about
our redemption until we experience God's free justification for
He has made us new creatures in Christ, giving us faith in
Christ. Grace does change a person's
life. You may change your way of life
without grace, but you can't experience grace, that grace
that brings salvation, without experiencing a change. It causes
you to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things become new. So that the believer now is different. God has put something in you. It's called Christ in you. And
a little boy asked his daddy one time, he said, Daddy, how
big is Jesus? And his daddy said, I don't know,
I guess about my size. Why do you ask? He said, well, if he
were in me, wouldn't he stick out? If Christ is in you, he'll
stick out. You stick out, because there's
a new man in you, a new nature in you. I hear sometimes that
folks say, as long as you believe in truth, it doesn't matter what
your character and conduct is. Oh, it matters a great deal.
Grace teaches men and women to adorn the doctrine of God. Grace
teaches men and women to live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present evil world. Being made new creatures in Christ,
we have a new master over our lives. Christ is key. We have
a new motive in life. Our motive is the will and glory
of God. And we have a new way of living.
It's called Godliness. So that the believer, being born
of God, has in him the fruit of the Spirit. And he bears that
fruit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
these things there is no law. Love, joy, and peace every believer
has toward God. Long-suffering, gentleness, and
goodness is the way believers live with one another. Faith,
meekness, and temperance, that is the character of God established
in the God Saints. Believers are people who, living
by faith in Christ, trusting his blood, trusting his grace,
trusting his providence, trusting his wisdom, trusting his goodness,
trusting his intercession, walking in love, one toward another,
as God has given us commandment, commandment not only in his word,
commandment by his grace reigning within. So that the believer
is indeed a man, a woman, in whom God Almighty has performed
the wonder of His grace, making Him altogether new. Believers
who have been taught of God, or continually taught of God,
to live under God. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
4. I want you to see this. Ephesians 4. I stress this because it needs
stressing. God's people do differ from the unregenerate worldlings.
Ephesians 4 verse 17, this I say therefore and testify in the
Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in
the vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that's in them, the cause of the blindness of their heart,
who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so
learned Christ." You didn't learn that from God. You didn't learn
that by the experience of God's grace. You didn't learn that
from Christ. If so be that ye have heard Him
and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus, that you
put off concerning the former conversation, That is, you put
off the filthy rags of your former way of life, the old man, which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and that you put on the new man. Get up every
morning and put Christ on. Take a breath and put Christ
on. Every moment, every day, every hour, put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness, and in true holiness. That's how God teaches us to
live, for his glory. I was talking last night with
a friend of mine, he's about to be deployed again to the Middle
East, he's a Navy SEAL, and I don't ask him what he does, and if
he told me, he would be violating his own oath, so I don't ever
ask him, but I know he's involved in dangerous ordeals. God saved
him in his first tour of Iraq. And he's going back. And we're
talking about this matter of living for God. And I said to
him what I say to my daughter. My daughter is now 40. How many,
Shelly? 45? 45. Sometimes I'll tell folks she's
48 and we've been married 47 years, that's a mistake. But
she's 45. And from the time she started
going out with friends, by herself, without us or other adults being
her company, I used to say to her, and said to her about every
time she went out the door, I still say to her pretty often, don't
ever forget who you are and whose you are. And I said to my friend
last night, don't forget who you are and whose you are. Because
everything you say, and everything you do, and everywhere you go,
and everything you wear, speaks volumes about the God we worship,
the church of God we represent, your mother, your father, and
you. Don't forget who you are and
whose you are. Children of God while you live
in this world. Doesn't matter whether you're
talking about business, or whether you're talking about raising
your children, or whether you're talking about being a husband
or a wife, wherever you are, whatever you do, you belong to
God. So honor God. Do all things for
His glory. Honor Him in all things. Now
here's the third thing. Those are facts, but the question
still remains, who maketh thee to differ? And Paul answers the
question for himself. In Philippians chapter 2 he says,
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. Who makes you differ? God does. It is the Lord who puts a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel. The difference He makes is a
difference of everlasting, eternal, free grace in election. God chose you. You've not chosen
me, our Savior said. I've chosen you. We belong to
God because He chose us. And every believer delights to
hear him say it. And we respond, "'Tis not that
I did choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be. This heart
would still refuse thee, hast thou not chosen me." We acknowledge
that. We rejoice in God's free elect
in favor. And God made a difference between
us and all other people in blessed redemption. Did you notice when
we read Exodus 11? God said to Moses, you go tell
my people. You go tell my people. He didn't
even share the news with the Egyptians. You go tell my people
to take a goat, a lamb, and slaughter it, and sprinkle the doorpost
in the middle, and put your clothes on. You fix and leave this place.
Eat the goat, roast it with fire, with your staff in your hand,
and your shoes on your feet. I'm going to bring you out of
Egypt with a high hand. Redemption, wherever it's spoken
of in this book, Wherever it's spoken of in this book is always
the redemption of a specific people. Christ died to redeem
his elect, and redeem them he did. He purchased us. I don't
understand how on this earth the men and women who even pretend
to honor God want to fuss about particular effectual redemption,
limited atonement. If Christ did no more for me
than He did for Judas, and Judas is in hell, and I'm going to
heaven for God's glory, then God owed me something. I don't
owe Him anything. The difference is not what Christ has done,
but what I've done. This notion of universal redemption
is utter blasphemy. It is utter blasphemy. It is
a total denial of the very Godhood of our Savior. That which Christ
came to do, He either fully accomplished or he failed miserably. Both
can't be true. Both can't be true. Noel Smith
over here at the Bible College made this statement. He was my
first theology professor. He wrote it down. He said, Hell
is a colossal trophy, a monument to the failures of the triune
God. God did all he could to keep
folks from going to hell, and he failed. That's no God. Such a God is utterly worthless.
The book of God says concerning our Savior, He shall not fail. Christ made a difference. He
redeemed us. He died in our womb instead.
He gave himself for us. He makes this distinction as
well. He puts this difference between us and all other men,
His wonderful providence. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. It will do you good, as often
as you can remind yourself to do so, to try to recall Things
in God's providence that you can see. Most of it you can't
see. But try to recall what you can
see and remember well what God has done specifically for you.
You know it's got there things I put my hand on. My wife and
I discussed this. I wrote a book about it. I could
do it without involving myself so much. God did that just for
me. Just for me. Just for me. You
all did this. This didn't sketch to come out
of here. And Dennis' parents are from the Soviet Union. And
God saved him right after he came here. He heard me on the
radio. And mother and dad were engaged. He was living in Oregon.
She was in Chicago. He heard a message. He said,
you've got to hear this. God saved them both. And I didn't
meet Dennis until he was about eight years old. And my mom and
dad had been married. They had these two boys. And
I met them down in North Carolina. And I said to him when Dennis
was about eight years old, right before I left, I said, boys,
You won't understand this until you're older, and I hope you
won't forget what I'm telling you. Our God literally turned
the world upside down so you could be here at your Israel
school. broke up the Soviet Union, sent
them here just at that time, just in those circumstances caused
them to hear the word. Oh, what wonders of providence.
The children of Israel murmuring and whining and griping and crying
just like us. And the Lord God said, He wouldn't
suffer even a dog in Egypt to growl at you. Isn't that something? And not one of these Egyptians'
dogs can even grab at you, let alone bite you. And Pharaoh,
before I get done with him, this man who said, no you can't budge,
he's going to say, get out of my land now! And he's going to
thrust you out. And not only that, the Egyptians
who've been afflicting you all these 400 years, are going to
give you everything you need to live and worship and serve
me for 40 years in the wilderness. You just ask them to give you
their silver and their gold. How about let me have that earring?
Alright, here it is. How about let me have that gold
chain? Here it is. Just take it. If you'll just leave us alone,
just get out of here. Take it all. Oh, God's Providence. Let me tell you what it does.
Revelation chapter 12. The dragon breathes out fire
against the woman and her child. And we read in Revelation 12,
and the earth opened up to help the woman and her child. Let
me tell you what's going on in our world. Everything going on,
everything, is only helping God's cause and God's people. Everything. everything. It's confusing. Sometimes I get
disgusted with our politicians, and I get disgusted with the
other folks' politicians, and I get disgusted with what's going
on. Oh, God teach me to read the newspaper in the light of
this book. God's providence is good. Always
good. Only good. And by his providence,
he constantly puts a The difference being that His
providence is always bringing blessedness to Israel and always
bringing judgment to Egypt. He is always preparing vessels
of mercy for everlasting glory and fitting vessels of wrath
for destruction. Always. And then God comes in
His grace and calls the believer. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach him to
thee. I suspect some of you here don't
yet know our God. And this creature and the ones
you're having in here, I know them. They're not going to try
to twist your arm and get you to make a profession of faith. In fact, if you talk
to me very much, I'll tell you there's nothing I can do for
you except pray for you. What are you supposed to do?
Wait. Wait. Because you'll try to believe,
and pray to believe, and cuss because you can't believe, and
become a rebel because you can't believe, and you stick your fingers
in your ear and say, I won't hear because you can't believe.
Because you can't believe! All it'll take for you to go
to hell is for God to leave you alone. Oh, but if God will be
pleased to reveal His Son in you, You will find it impossible
not to trust him. You'll find it impossible not
to trust him. You just can't help it. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest that callsest to approach him
to thee. Shelby and I have been dating
for just a little while, and I told her I wanted to marry
her, and she said, you're crazy, you don't know what you want.
And she was right, I was crazy, I knew what I wanted. We dated. I mean, we dated. I drive five
miles across town to carry her books a half a block from one
dormitory to the school where she's going to school. And I
did it regularly, regularly. And as often as I could afford
to, I'd take her to McDonald's and get her any flavor of milk
she wanted. Every time I got a chance to be around her, and
I didn't show her anything but good. I made sure she didn't
see anything about me except what I wanted her to see. And
I was dressed just as well as I could dress, everything fixed
up just as well as I could fix it up, for a year. And then one
night, we were visiting my relatives up in the mountains of North
Carolina, they'd all gone to bed, and we were at my aunt and
uncle's house, and I got down on my knees, and asked her to
marry me, and she about jumped off the couch and said yes. Why,
she's definitely got to marry me. How come? Because she saw
something then she didn't see a year earlier. She couldn't
see it. It hadn't been shown to her before.
And if God ever reveals his son in you, you'll jump into his
arms. You won't require any arm twisting
by anybody. It's called the call of God.
And he distinguishes his own mothers by his marvelous preservation. Oh, what wondrous grace God keeps
his own. He keeps you believing. He keeps
you believing. He keeps you believing. Makes
a distinction constantly. Others abandon. Others forsake. Judas betrays. Demas goes back. But for some reason you just
keep on believing God because he won't let you go. That's all.
That's all. He won't let you go. Or sometimes
he puts us in the sieve and has Satan run us through his sieve.
So we're reminded what we are. And even then he said, I'm going
to make you know that the Lord does put a difference between
Egypt and Israel. He said, Peter, before the night's
done, you're going to deny me three times. He said, not me,
he said, Peter, before the night's over, before the cock croons
twice, you're going to deny me three times. And the rooster
crowed. Peter must have trembled. And
he denied the Lord. Denied him again. And then rooster
crowed again after he denied him a third time. And the Lord
looked at Peter. And Peter walked out. Never to come back. He went fishing. Went back to where it started.
He thought it's all over now. It's all over now. But the Lord
Jesus made another statement to Peter. Just after he said
that. His very next word. You believe
God, believe also in man. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe God, believe also in man. And when he was risen
from the dead, he said to the women at the tomb, he said, go
tell my disciples, go tell my disciples that I'll meet him
in Galilee like I told him I would. Do you remember what he said
next? His next word just about my favorite passage in all scripture.
Mark 16 verse 7. I can see him starting to walk
away. He said, wait, wait, wait! Be sure to tell Peter too. Be
sure you tell Peter everything's alright because the Lord does
put a difference between Egypt and Israel. Who maketh thee to
differ from another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Nothing. Now that thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Let us
beg of God that he will continually break our pride, teach us to
trust our Savior, and glory in Him, our God. Will you do that
for Christ's sake? Oh God, reveal your Son in this
people. Establish your Word in this place.
And I ask that you'll be pleased to teach us by your grace ever
to look out of self to our Savior for everything and give ourselves
utterly to you. Amen.