It seems as though the Lord is
going to give background to the message that I have for you this
morning. I do ask your prayers before we
begin the message that God will give me liberty that I need. Power and unction of His Spirit
alone, I confess to you There is no strength in me. Nothing special about this man. May God, by his grace, cause
you to look past the man and hear his voice, hear his word. No matter how much I want you
to hear it, It is impossible for me to apply
it. This is the work of God alone. It is by the power of God alone. It is by the grace of God alone. If you have any interest in the
gospel of Jesus Christ, it is by the power of God. We praise God. We give glory
to God and none to man. No glory. There's no glory. In this matter of salvation,
there is no glory given to man. It belongs to God. It's his.
And he demands that we praise him for it. And I'll tell you
what, it really doesn't take a demand if he's talked to you,
if he's spoke to you. It is the desire of your heart
to praise him. And the message that he gives
is not one of thunder, lightning, whirlwind, but it is that still, small voice. It is the doctrine of God that
distills like the dew and the small rain on the tender herb.
And that's my prayer this morning is this gospel. God would take
it and apply it. And I confess also I need it
as much as you do. I need this doctrine, this word
as much as you do. And pray that God would give
it. Remember those that are sick, please remember them in your
prayers. Continue to pray for Carol Poole's wife, Pat, he was
a preacher in North Carolina. He passed away this last week,
and Pat and the church there will be suffering the loss of
their pastor, and she suffers the loss of her husband. I ask your prayers for those
churches without pastors now. They are multiplying. There are
more now. Ask that God would send men. We don't need politicians, we
got plenty of those. We don't need kings or rulers. We need preachers. Not just any
preachers, those that are called of God, not made by men. Those
that are called of God, who preach His gospel. This is what we should
pray for. If you desire any healing in
this nation, that's what it needs. It needs the gospel to be preached. It needs the power of God and
the spirit of God to quicken the souls of men. That's what
it needs. So pray for it. Beg God for it. Because if there's any country
that doesn't deserve it, it's this one. Think of any other country that's
been given so much and yet despises God so completely. May God be merciful, call sinners. Let's go to Him in prayer. Our gracious Father, you've heard
our requests, you've heard our desires. We plead for them. We plead for
the showers of blessings that they might fall on us today. that the gospel of thy grace
might distill on the hearts of your people, that Christ would be magnified
and honored and glorified through the preaching of this gospel,
and that sinners might come to faith in him alone. Father, we see a great need a
need of thy gospel to be preached in this place. And greater than
that, we need the power of the Spirit to make it effectual. I pray that you would do so for the glory of Christ and the
calling of thy people. Forgive us our sins and lead
us. I beg you for grace to open the scriptures to us today and
pour them in to refresh our hearts and souls. We ask this in Jesus'
name and for his sake. Amen. I take your Bibles and turn with
me to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Scripture says, Give ear, O ye
heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my
mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers
upon the grass. Because I will publish the name
of the Lord, ascribe greatness unto our God. The title of this
message is, The Necessity of God's Doctrine. The Necessity
of God's Doctrine. Here Moses sings the song, Give
ear, O you heavens, and I will speak. Hear, O earth, the words
of my mouth. Moses was merely a vessel. Now a prophet had one mission,
one purpose, and that was to be the mouthpiece of God. He was to receive the Word from
God and without any interruption, without any interjection or opinion,
declare unto the people the Word of God. This is our purpose as
pastors and preachers. We are to do the same. We are
to take the Word of God and declare it unto you. I never want to
give you my opinion of something. I want to tell you what God says. The authority of our message
is this, Thus saith the Lord. And I don't need any other authority.
I don't need. There are men that I admire who
preach the gospel and wrote many things. They're not my basis
of authority. The basis of authority is the
Word of God, the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. And so in
our text, what is it that these messengers are to preach? Simply
this, my doctrine. God's doctrine. God's doctrine. Now, the word doctrine in our
day has a disdain to it. Men say, let's not teach doctrine. They said, don't preach doctrine.
Let's just evangelize. Let's not preach doctrine. Let's
just all get together and worship. Let's not be divided by doctrine. Let's just all get along. That's
the sentiment of the world, isn't it? This is why most churches
are surrounded with only music, and a guy stands up for five
or ten minutes and says a couple of nice little things, and everybody
leaves. Why? Because he has no doctrine. They
don't want to hear doctrine. It's a dirty word. It's horrible. You know what the word means
though, don't you? Teaching. That's what doctrine
means. It means teaching. And so men
are saying, let's witness But not teach. Let's not teach, let's just worship. Let's not be divided by teaching. Let's just all get along. Now
listen. Somebody truly may understand
in their head true doctrine. They may understand sound doctrine
here. And not know Christ. There are myriads of people who
understand sound doctrine in their head. Systematically they
can write it down. But I'll tell you this, it is
impossible for men to know Christ without doctrine. You can know doctrine without
knowing Christ, but it's impossible for you to know Christ. No man can know Christ without
doctrine. How can one witness of God that he's never been taught?
Isn't that what Paul was saying in chapter 10 of Romans? He said,
those that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How
shall you call on Him in whom you have not heard? And how shall you hear without,
what? A preacher. You see, doctrine is necessary. Faith cometh by what? Hearing. Hearing what? Anything? Everything? No. By the Word of
God. That's how faith comes. By the
Word of God. Remember Jesus told that woman
of the well, He said, you worship, but you don't know what. We can
say that about most of religion in our generation. They worship,
but they don't know what. Why? Because they don't have
any doctrine. They don't have any knowledge. They worship just
out of different reasons. I'm going to go over those in
a minute. So before one can worship God, they've got to know God. We must first be taught of God. Isn't that what the scripture
says? He said they shall all be taught of God. Taught what? My doctrine. His
teaching. My doctrine. So what is the source then of
doctrine? If doctrine, God says, listen to my doctrine. Then what
is the source of doctrine? Now, Moses had a very unique
relationship in that he did hear the voice of God. God spoke to
him as a man to man. What is the source of our doctrine?
You have it right here in your hands. It is the Word of God. The Word of God is the source
of our doctrine. Now our doctrine is not just
any teaching. If the source of our doctrine
is based on philosophy, based on the traditions of man as our
foundation, then our doctrine would be mutable. Have you found
that out about religion? That it moves with the customs
and the seasons of man? Their religion is mutable. It
changes from one generation to the other generation. Why? Because
it's not the doctrine of God. It's the doctrine of men. Listen
to what Peter said about this Word that you have in your hand.
He said that this is the Word of God that liveth and abideth
forever. Wasn't this here before you got
here? It's going to be here long after
you and I are gone. Why? Because all flesh is grass,
the glory of man is the grass, and the flower of the field,
the grass with it, the flower fadeth, but what? The word of
the Lord endureth forever. This is the source of our doctrine. Why? This is the source of God's
doctrine. Many today well, are basing their
doctrine on traditions. How many people base their doctrine
on the traditions of man? I say Word of God is good, but
now we have further revelations. So when their traditions and
the Word of God conflict, what do they go with? Traditions. They cast the Word of God aside. Others look to creeds. Now listen, I know creeds have
their place and they were intended for a good reason to systematically
show forth the gospel. That was their intent. So they
have good intentions. But my doctrine doesn't come
from a creed. Why? Because when the creed and
the Word of God conflict, where do men go? They go to the creed. Example of that is infant baptism,
right? I mean, these people believe in total depravity, limited atonement,
unconditional election, perseverance. They believe in those things,
and yet their creed has stated that, well, we need to baptize
infants. Well, where do you find that?
Well, I don't, but we infer it. Okay, so you took the creed over
the Word of God as your doctrine. Other people build it on something
even less. Opinions and feelings. Experiences. Well, I think God's
like that because I had an experience. I had a dream. I had a vision. Therefore, God is like this.
And so what do they do? That's their doctrine. That's
their teaching. But the source of our doctrine
The source of God's doctrine is not my feelings or my opinions. It's not traditions. It's not
what you think about God and what I think about God and let's
just get along. No. The source of my doctrine is
the Word of God. Why? Because this is what God
says His doctrine comes from. The source is the Word of God. Go to 2 Timothy. See if you can't
see that we're in this place. I know that every generation
probably said this, but I'm just saying, I see it clearly. 2 Timothy
chapter 3. He's going to tell us the source
of doctrine. Then he's going to tell us what
to do with it. All scriptures given by inspiration of God is
profitable. What's the first thing? What's
the Word of God for? First thing, for doctrine, teaching. For reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be mature,
thoroughly furnished unto every good work. In other words, the
doctrine of God is the source of all reproof, correction, and
instruction. When you're reproved, what reproves
you? The Word of God. What instructs
you in righteousness? The Word of God. What rebukes
you? The Word of God. It's the source
of all of our doctrine. Go to chapter 4 and look at verse
1. He tells this man, he tells him
the source, and then listen, he tells him this, I charge thee
therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge
the quick and the dead in his appearing in his kingdom. What
does he do? What are we to do? What's my
purpose as a pastor, as a preacher of the gospel? What is my mission?
Preach the word. When? When it's popular and when
it's not. In season. Out of season. I think
we're out of season. So what? Should I change my gospel
because I'm out of season? Do I do something different to
excite men and try to get them in? No. Preach the Word. In season, out of season. Listen. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering in what? Doctrine. The only way we are reproved,
rebuked, or exhorted is the Gospel. This is it. This is what we're
to do. It's as simple as that. It's
not liked. It's not popular. But I'm telling
you, this is what we're to do. This is what God commands us
to do. Preach the Word. Preach Christ. Preach Christ. When? When it's popular and when
it's not. And what does that do? When I preach Christ, doesn't
it reprove you? Doesn't it rebuke you? Same message. Doesn't it exhort you, encourage
you, strengthen you? Does all that. For the time, look at this, for the time will come, this
is where we are now, the time will come. when they shall not
endure, listen to this, sound doctrine. Now they'll endure
any other type of doctrine except this, sound doctrine. What are
they going to do? But after their own lusts they
shall heap together teachers having itching ears and turn
away from the truth and be turned to fables. Fables. Traditions. Fable. That's nothing but a fairy
tale. It's a myth. Fables. traditions
of men, creeds of men, logic of men, reasons of men, wisdom
of men. They'll be turned to those instead
of what? Sound. Doctrine. The Word of God. Word
of God. What's the sum and substance
of this word? Now I said the word of God preached
the word. My doctrine. God says listen to my doctrine.
The source is what? The word of God. What is the
message of this doctrine? Simply put, it is Jesus Christ
and his perfect person and work. That's the gospel. That's the
sum of the whole book. When our Lord Jesus rose from
the dead and he was walking with those disciples, And they were
dismayed at his death. They didn't understand. And Jesus
said, Ought not Christ to have suffered? Didn't you know this
was supposed to happen? Now how were they supposed to
know? He said, Beginning at Moses. Who wrote Genesis? Moses. Beginning at Moses and all the
prophets. He expounded them in all the
scriptures. One thing, what? things concerning
himself. This book is about Christ. Now,
if you missed that, you missed the doctrine. The doctrine is
Jesus Christ. The doctrine is His person, the
Son of the living God, His work, His crucifixion and death, His
resurrection and His ascension. You know, in the book of Acts,
30 years of preaching, Every message when you go read
the book of Acts in every message the center theme is Jesus Christ
crucified and raised again in every message for 30 years They
didn't have a seminar on marriage in 30 years none of the apostles
preached on on the happiness of marriage or having a good
bank account not one time Matter of fact, when he was arguing
about giving to the widows and stuff, he said, you deacons take
care of that! That's not the business! That's not the theme! That's
not the message! That's not my doctrine! My doctrine
is Christ! And when we preach Christ, all
that other stuff is taken care of. All that other stuff is easily
discerned, if we preach Christ. He is the sum of this Word. The
mystery of the Word of God is Jesus Christ crucified. Now,
God in this text, go back to your text, He said, My doctrine,
now we got it at the source, right? Word of God. That's the
source of His doctrine. The sum and substance of His
doctrine is Christ. We're going to go into that a
little more. But notice how God says, My doctrine comes. How does God's doctrine, when
it is declared, how does God reveal his doctrine? Look what he said. My doctrine
shall drop as the rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain on the tender herb and as the showers
upon the grass. God says, my doctrine is going
to come like rain and dew. Now in that land, I'm telling
you, there was nothing more vital than rain. I mean, we get a lot
of it here, sometimes too much, we go, man, we should stop raining.
They don't say that over there. They don't say that in the desert
land. Why? Because it's vital for life.
You can't have life in there without rain. It was necessary. And God said, this is how My
Gospel is going to come to man. It's going to come like rain,
like a blessing. And the first thing about rain
that you notice, where does it come from? Above. God's telling you where
His Gospel is. He said, My doctrine comes from
Me. It comes from above. I'm going to give you an illustration
of this was Adam. Just go back to Genesis, we can find an illustration
of this in many places. But I think Adam is a good sufficient
illustration of this. When Adam was in his holy perfection,
he would walk with God, commune with God. But when he sinned,
he died. He spiritually died. And he lost
all understanding of how to commune with God. And you remember, him and his
wife determined the best way to cover their sin was to use
fig leaves. That was the best that they could
come up with. So what did they do? They ran
into the forest, grabbed some leaves, they sewed them together,
and they said, Aha! We've done it. We're now covered. Now God won't see our nakedness.
That sound silly? It was. But this is religion,
isn't it? This is natural religion. Man
knows he has guilt. He knows he's sinned. He knows
God's going to judge him. And what does he do? He tries
to gather the fig leaves of his works, of his good deeds. He
puts them together, sews them up, and makes a garment for himself
and says, Aha! God will accept me now. Well,
see, that's the doctrine of men. Adam had not yet heard of the
doctrine of God. That was the best he could come
up with. Until what? God came down to him. Nobody's going to understand
the doctrine of God unless God comes down to them. Imagine if God didn't come down.
Do you realize we'd all be in fig leaves? Still! Why? Because that's the wisdom,
that's the doctrine of men. Works! It's always the doctrine
of men, works, salvation. But God did come down, didn't
He? Now, when God came down, do you remember how He came?
What manner did God come down to Adam? It wasn't in thunder. It wasn't
in vengeance. He came in the cool of the day
and He was saying, Adam, where art thou? That's a question,
isn't it? God's asking you a question, where are you? Like he didn't
know what was going on. How tender is that? Adam, where
are you? Adam flees and God pursues. And he finds him. And listen
to what he said. What have you done? What have you done? Isn't that
the law? How God came to you, and what
have you done? What have you done? See how that
breaks our hearts? Then he gives him a message.
His doctrine. A remedy. He said, the seed of
the woman. It's my doctrine, listen to it
Adam. The seed of the woman. Who's that? That's Jesus, isn't
it? Our Lord Jesus Christ was born
in the virgin's womb. He came down and was manifest
in the flesh to be another representative. Adam, you were a representative
and you failed. The seed of the woman is coming.
Another representative is coming. Wasn't that joyful for Adam?
Adam was not in contention for this. He'd already failed. He
needed a representative. He said, I got good news. There's
one coming. I'm sending my son, the seed
of the woman. That's my doctrine. And what
is he going to do? He said he will crush the head
of the serpent. He will crush the head of the
serpent. That was his mission, wasn't
it? to destroy sin, to put away sin. God says, this is my doctrine. Listen, my son's coming and he's
going to put away sin. That's his mission. How's he
going to do it? He's going to bruise his heel by his death, by his burial,
by his resurrection, by his righteous obedience. He is going to restore
Adam's race. His elect. God's elect. And then
He gave that picture, right? Right after that. He took that
innocent animal and He sacrificed that animal's blood to cover
their nakedness. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ! That's God's doctrine! The first message of Jesus Christ
was preached to Adam by God Himself. Is there a more tender gospel
than that? Is there a more gentle gospel
than the gospel of God's free grace in Christ? Behold, John says, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. That's an astounding statement
that we should be called the sons. By what right have we to
be called the sons of God? Behold what manner of love. What
does this doctrine display? Does it not display the love
of God? Does it not display the grace of God? Does it not display
the righteousness of God? The justice of God? By the death
of His Son who bore our sins in His own body? All of that
is in the Gospel. God's doctrine. Paul says in Romans, for when
we were yet without strength, listen, Christ died. He didn't
wait for us to get better. Isn't that gracious? Isn't that
merciful? He wasn't waiting for me. He
did that before, when I had no strength. When we were without strength
in due time, Christ died for a very specific group of people,
ungodly. For sinners. God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died. This doctrine of God is so glorious. It's sweet. It's a message of
free salvation. I know that goes against the
grain of our nature, but this is still nonetheless sweet. And let me ask you this, was
he successful? What does God's doctrine say
about his success? The success of Jesus Christ? Go back to your text, look at
this. Verse 4, He is the rock. Now
we know that's Christ. Christ is the rock. Throughout
Scripture, Christ is described as the rock, isn't He? Paul said
this, that rock, remember that rock they struck and the water
poured out to Israel? Paul said that rock which followed
them was Christ. It was Christ. So what's God's
doctrine? It's Christ, isn't it? He's the
rock. That means He's the foundation.
He's the refuge. He's the shelter. He's the protection. all who are in Christ. He's the
rock. And listen to his work. He said his work is what? What's
God's doctrine say about the work of Christ? Perfect. Have you ever seen anything that's
perfect? I've not yet seen it. But I know this. His work's perfect. His work was perfect. Why, for
all his ways are judgment. He can't do anything but judgment. He can't do anything but that
which is just. God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. How can God, whose ways are judgment
and without iniquity, still justify the ungodly? If you can answer that question,
you've got the key to the doctrine of God. Here it is. The rock whose work
is perfect. That's how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. Only through the work of Jesus
Christ. That's the only way. Because
the work of Jesus Christ is perfect to redeem, perfect to sanctify,
perfect to justify, perfect to obtain righteousness, for all
His people. This is the message that God
publishes to those who are broken, to those who are without hope,
to those who are desolate in themselves, shut up to their
self-righteousness. Behold, the doctrine of God to
sinners is this, His work is perfect. Your work, we're going
to get to that in just a minute, your work's not. His work is. Here God sings to the broken,
to the weak, and to the wounded, to the tender plant. When God broke us, we were, we
were tender. When God breaks a sinner, and
bows himself before him owning his guilt, he's tender. We expect God to come in wrath. That's not how He comes, is it?
Mephibosheth. What a beautiful illustration
that is. Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
worthy of death. David ascended to the throne.
He had every right to kill all of Saul's children. And yet,
what did David say? Is there one left of the house
of Saul that I might show mercy for Jonathan's sake? He said,
yeah, there's Mephibosheth. He said, go fetch him. They grabbed
that old, that lame man and they dragged him down there and they
threw him down at the feet of David. What do you think he expected? Death. Lame on his feet, he can't run.
He can't run. Bowing his head, ready for the
sword to fall on his neck. He said, Mephibosheth, behold
thy servant. He said, I'm going to show mercy
to you for Jonathan thy father's sake. Do you not think that fell on
his heart like the rain? It fell on his heart like the
dew on the tender herb. That's how God's doctrine comes.
It comes in a gentle rain upon the heart of the dead sinner
and gives him life. That's how this doctrine comes.
It comes to the broken, coming to me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will do what? I
will give you rest. Our message is always to the
sinner. You know that? Our message is
always to the sinner. And you that believe, don't you
identify with that? You that have already received
the dew from heaven on your heart, isn't this still your claim?
I'm only a sinner saved by grace? This message is to the broken,
to those who have no hope in themselves. to those who have
no merit, to those who have no righteousness in themselves,
God descends with His Word and He tells you, look to My Son.
His work is perfect. You have no foundation to stand
on? Behold the rock. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone,
a tried stone, a precious stone, a cornerstone, a sure foundation. You realize my doctrine has not
changed since the beginning of time? The doctrine that I believe? Because it's the doctrine of
God. Hasn't changed. What does this doctrine say about
us? Now it tells me the doctrine, it's of God, it's God's doctrine,
you get it from the Word of God, the sum of it is Jesus Christ.
How does it come? It comes down in grace and mercy
to the sinner, in giving life. What does the
Word of God say about us? What does His doctrine say about
man? Well, He'll tell you. Look back at your verses. He
said this. Verse 5 tells you about you. They have corrupted themselves. Their spot is not the spot of
his children. They are a perverse and crooked
generation. Though God's doctrine of Christ
is sure and perfect, yet we read of Israel that they
have corrupted themselves. Now Israel again is a type, isn't
it? It's a picture. In Romans 9 it
tells us that that picture of Israel is the elect. He's talking
about His people by nature, what we are by nature. What have we
done? We have corrupted ourselves.
That's the best you can say about us, is that we have corrupted
ourselves. That by nature we have no spot
of His children. We have no, not one ounce of
us has any image of his children. By nature, we are as a leprous
thing. By nature, all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. By nature, we have all gone astray
and turned everyone to his own doctrine. This is what we've done. Why?
We've corrupted ourselves This is rooted in the fall of
Adam. We know by Adam we died. By one man sin entered the world,
and death by sin, and death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.
God has spoken a message of grace and salvation. Why do men not
receive that message? Why? Because they're dead. Now listen,
if it was raining a minute ago, you walk out in that rain and
you put your hands out, you feel it. You feel it fall on you. You can lift up your mouth and
open up, you can pour it in, it goes in. It has some effect
on you, right? You're living. It fell on this
building. Did this building feel anything?
No. Same rain, different effect. Why? It's dead. The Word of God,
as it comes down like the rain, has no effect on the dead. A natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God. Now, the first reason is, they're
foolishness to him. They're foolish. What I'm talking,
what I'm speaking about this morning, to the rest of the fallen
humanity is foolishness, utter stupidity. That's what men think
about the Gospel. That's natural. Listen, neither can he know them.
It's not that he thinks they're just foolish, but he can't know
them. He can't understand the doctrine
of God. It's a sealed book. He can read this book, he can
study this book all he wants to, he can get it in his head,
but he can never get it to his heart. Paul said that those men
are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth. They don't understand this doctrine. Why? They're dead. They're spiritually discerned,
Paul says. One thing about this gospel,
when God sends this gospel, It comes like the rain. I like what he says. Look back
at verse 2. He says, My speech shall distil
as the dew. Now we're all dead by nature,
but yet you hear it, you believe it. How'd that happen? Once this message had no effect,
you had no desire, you had no love for it, But one day he did. Hmm. What
happened? God said it's like the dew. You
go out in the evening, you walk on the grass, feel it, it's dry. Heat of the day, it's all dried
up. Go to bed, get up in the morning, you wake up and it's
full of water. Didn't rain last night. What
happened? The dew, in a sense, is a miracle.
It just appears. God said, that's how My Word
will be. You won't be looking for Me. You'll be listening to
your own doctrine, and God will send a man, he'll preach a gospel
to you, and all of a sudden, you believe. Wow, what happened? It's like the dew, isn't it?
It's a mystery. It's a mystery. Why you? And when God sent his gospel,
there were many people hearing the same thing I was hearing. I'll give you an illustration.
I've used it many times, but I think it is just astounding.
A young traveling nurse was coming here, and she was listening to
gospel here. She was giving me her testimony of what happened.
I said, where'd you hear the gospel? She said, well, I was
given some tapes to listen to. And I didn't believe it. I thought
it was stupid. But I listened. And she said,
I put in a tape one morning, as a custom, and started listening,
and she says, I could not help but believe. My doctrine shall distill as
the dew on the tender herb. When God, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, takes this doctrine of Christ, and He makes it effectual
to you, He gives you life. in that life you can't help but
believe. In fact, you mourn the fact that
you can't believe more. Isn't that one of the greatest
pains of the believer's life? Is that he can't believe enough.
At times I feel like my faith is
just unbelief. I believe. Lord, help thou my
unbelief. but we're born dead in sins and
trespasses. God comes and He rebukes us.
Look at verse 6. He says, Why dost thou requite
the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Isn't that the rebuke
of the Scripture? He says, Hath not the Father
bought thee? Hasn't He sent His Son to die
for thee? How should you treat the Lord
in such a way as to rebel? What's the remedy then for such?
Look at this. Remember the days of old and
consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father and he will show
thee, and thy elders and they will tell thee. Often times we still get dry. Maybe it's just me. I'll come
to the word of God and I'll seek some refreshment, some encouragement,
some strength, and it's dry. I can't. My heart is cold. It's
hard. But here is my hope that God
will do with the gospel as he's done before. He'll send it like
the dew and the tender rain on my heart. And how does He do
that? By remembering. You know what preachers are called
in Isaiah? Isaiah 62. God calls us remembrancers. Everything I've said to you this
morning is not new. You that believe. Is it new? Anything?
All I'm doing is calling you to what? Remember God's doctrine. I'm not teaching you a new doctrine.
I'm teaching you God's doctrine. I'm just telling you, remember.
You remember? You remember how He called you?
You remember how He came? Do you remember by what means
He came? The Word of God? Do you remember
what the message was? Wasn't it about Christ? You remember.
You consider these things. What does this do? It refreshes
the soul to remember. And He says, look, if you can't
do it, ask one of the elders. In other words, go hear the Gospel
preached. Tell you what, if you feel dry,
I'm going to give you something that's really good. You feel
dry and cold and you don't want to hear the Gospel, you know
what the best thing to do is? Hear the Gospel. The Word of God seems cold, it
seems indifferent, and you don't want to read it, you know what
the best thing to do is? Read it. You don't feel like praying,
you know what the best thing to do is? Pray about not feeling
like praying. Remember, what do we remember? I'm going to give you a few things
to remember here. Look at this. Verse 8, here's something to
remember. Remember your election. He said, when the Most High divided
the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of
Adam, listen, he set the bounds of the people according to the
number of the children of Israel. According to the number of the
children of Israel You know the children of Israel
in the Old Testament again a picture of his spiritual elect So then
remember this you that believe it was God who chose you God chose you Does that instill any pride in
you at all? Joy, yes. Pride, no. Because He chose me based on
grace. He chose us. And consider that
all the world and its people have their bounds and habitation
according to us. You realize what this means is
this. The world revolves around the
elect. That's what God's telling him. He said, remember, when
I divided everybody into their portion, I did it according to
you. I did it for you. I did it for you. Man, are you troubled? Are you
grieved? Remember! Remember the doctrine
of God. That I, God says, I chose you. I chose you. Go to Isaiah 43,
look at this. Isaiah 43, and look at verse
1 there, Isaiah 43. Listen, but now thus saith the
Lord. Listen, this is my doctrine, the one that created thee, O
Jacob that formed thee, O Israel. What does God tell me? You that
believe, what does He tell you? Fear not. And then he gives you
a reason. For I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. You're mine. When you pass through the waters,
I'll be with you. through the rivers, they shall
not overflow you. When you walk through the fire,
you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle on you.
Why? For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom. A whole nation for you. Ethiopia and Seba for thee. since thou wast precious in my
sight. Thou hast been honorable. I have loved thee. Now where
else can that be except in Christ? Could you say anything about
yourself being honorable or precious? If you're in Christ, you are.
Because He's honorable and He's precious. And He has loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee and people for thy life. Fear not, I am with thee. I will
bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west.
I shall say to the north, give up, and the south keep not back.
Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the
earth, even everyone that is called by my name. Remember, it was God who chose
us. It was God who redeemed us. And
everything in the world revolves around the salvation of His people.
You understand that, right? That nothing is happening except
for the purpose of this, that God would speak His doctrine
to His people. That's it. And when His doctrine
comes, it will descend like the dew in the small rain on the
tender herb and life will come out. And there ain't nothing
man can do about it. He said, I will call everyone.
Now how many of the elect are going to be missing? According
to God's doctrine, how many will Christ lose? Christ said, I will
lose nothing. Nothing. He died for His elect. He redeemed Israel. And He said,
I will call Israel. That means this, that the whole
world spins and moves for the benefit of God's children. The rise and fall of every nation,
war and peace, famine and plenty, all providences of time are moving
for that solution that God should call and give His doctrine to
His people. And notice this, go back to that
text just for a second. He said in verse 9, the Lord's
portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. In order for Jacob to be lost,
or Israel to be damned, God would lose his own inheritance. Is that going to happen? No. If my salvation is tied to the
glory of God, it sure is, isn't it? God said. I like that the way
it was put with Benjamin and Jacob, remember? Judah brought Benjamin, he said
to Joseph, he said, my father's life is tied to the lad. God's glory is tied to my salvation. Isn't that astounding? So what
is in is my hope. Is not my hope encouraged and
strengthened? God will not lose His people.
And remember how He found you. Look at verse 10. I found you
in a desert land in a waste howling wilderness. Isn't that where
He found you? Remember that? You want your
heart to break, remember where God found you. You become too proud, remember
where God found you. and found you in the dunghill
of your sin, cast out like that infant, polluted in its own blood,
that's where I found you. Now listen, He said, I led him
about and instructed him and kept him as the apple of my eye.
Didn't He keep you until the time of your conversion? Isn't
that great? All that rebellious time where you despised Him and
yet He still kept you, led you about, as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest,
and fluttereth over her young, and spreadeth abroad her wings,
and taketh them, and beareth them on her wings. So the Lord
did lead him, and there is no strange God with him. He made
him ride on high places of the earth, and to eat of the increase
of the fields. eagle with her young. She'll
feed them until there's a certain time and then she'll stir the
nest. She'll pop them up and put them
on her wings. She'll take off. Those little
eagles are all on her wings. You see, they're flying because
she's flying. See, union has everything to
do with it, doesn't it? At time the Lord stirred up our
nest and he put us on his wings and we soared We soared because of His righteousness. We soared because of His blood.
We soared because of His resurrection. The only way I can ascend to
God is being in union with Him. How many times, and then she
gets ready to fly with Him and she'll shake Him off and He'll
fall down. You swoop down and pick them
up. Isn't that our life? Isn't that our life? We fly and
we're soaring on eagle's wing. Whoo! We've fallen. He swoops
down and delivers us with what? His doctrine. His doctrine keeps
me. His doctrine sustains me. His
doctrine refreshes me. His doctrine encourages me. All
the source of my faith and practice is what? His doctrine, which
is Christ, Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my King,
my Rock, my All. Christ is God's doctrine. And God, by grace, give me breath. I want to preach His doctrine,
not the doctrine of men. I'm not here to be praised by
men. I'm here to preach the gospel. When
that gospel is preached, the Spirit promises, it will descend
like the dew. on the tender urban will. I pray
God bless us to stand and be dismissed in prayer. Gracious Father, dismiss us with
your mercies and blessings and grace. I pray that your doctrine
would distill upon the hearts of your people, causing them
to remember and look to Christ alone. In his name I ask, amen.