Go with me now to Deuteronomy
chapter 33. Deuteronomy chapter 33. I have a wonderful reminder for
us tonight. I have a wonderful reminder.
It's good to be reminded of things that we know are so. The Lord convinces his people
of certain things. But we forget them. The Lord convinces us of things
in His Word and we know things in His Word, but we forget them. Sometimes our flesh is just so
weak and our minds are just so fickle. Our minds are pitiful.
You know that? We cannot come and sit down at
a worship service for 30 minutes. and have enough control over
our minds to focus on what's going on for 30 minutes. Can't
do it. You're sitting here thinking about all kinds of stuff. I know
you are because I am too. And we need the Lord's help.
And we need the Lord's remembrance. But so often we get so caught
up in this world so caught up in the life that we're living
here on this earth. We know it's temporary. We know
it's a vapor. Done. But we're so caught up
in it. And it causes us to forget some
of the things that our God has taught us and proven to us and
convinced us of. They become out of sight, out
of mind. until we see it in the Word again. And we're reminded of it in the
Word again. And every time we see it, we
say, oh yeah, I forgot. I forgot about that. I completely
forgot about that. I have one of those things tonight
to remind us of. And it's this, I'm sure you forgot,
but it's this. Look at the first three words
of verse 29. Deuteronomy 33 verse 29 says, happy art thou. You know what that means? You're
happy. That's what it means. You are
happy. That is not a question. That's
a statement. It is not asking, are you happy? It's declaring you are happy. Is anybody like, oh yeah, I forgot
about that. Verse 29 says, happy art thou,
oh Israel, spiritual Israel. Not everybody, not everybody
in this world is happy. You know that? Everybody in this
world is not happy, but God's people are. God's people are. God's elect. That's all you got to say. God's
elect. God's chosen, selected, loved,
redeemed, called people are. Verse 29 says, Happy art thou,
O Israel. Watch this. Who is like unto
thee, O people saved by the Lord? Who is like unto thee, O people,
saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help. The Lord is the
shield of your help. And who is the sword of thy excellency. The Lord is your sword. He is the sword of your excellency. And thine enemies shall be found
liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places.
Happy art thou. You are happy. Let me remind
you of this for just a minute here, okay? Based on the word
of God, just in case you didn't know, you're happy. You're very happy. Now this is what daily life on
this earth looks like for every human being on it. Every single
human being. God's people are included in
this. God's people are not exempt from
this. This is what the life that we
live in this world is filled with. Work, stress, Problems, deadlines, difficult situations, difficult
circumstances, difficult people. It's filled with failure, loss. Disappointment. Depression. Sorrow. Sadness. Regret. Man, it is so full of
regret. Guilt. Disease. Sickness. Pain. Fear. worry. Deep, deep worry. It's filled
with envy, jealousy, hatred, anger, bitterness, pride, sin. It's filled with sin. Even the good parts, there's
some good words I can say right now, but even the good parts
of this life are touched and tainted by sin. The effects of sin make it so
that it is very difficult to get through a day of life without
feeling or experiencing some or most of the things that I
just said. Most of those things take place
within 24 hours, within a day. And that's the truth. That's
the honest truth of the life that we live on this earth. And
because of that, life on this earth tends to get the best of
us most of the time. And therefore, it's very easy
to see why we would forget this truth right here often. It's very, very easy to see why
that would slip our mind often. But if we are saved by the Lord,
if we are saved by the Lord, if the Spirit of God has revealed
Christ to us, and revealed cleansing from all
of this sin. You know, everything that I just
said, all those words I just said, we bring that on ourselves. That's not something that happens
to us, that's something that happens in us. But if the Spirit of God has
revealed cleansing from all of that sin in the blood of Jesus
Christ, Everything I just said, just think of redemption from
all of that. Redemption in the blood of Jesus
Christ. How amazing is the blood of Jesus
Christ? That cleanses us from all sin. Total salvation. Happy art thou,
O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. Total salvation through His great
work on that cross. If the Spirit of God has convinced
us of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Eternal life with Jesus Christ. If He has put a deep love in
our hearts for Christ. And I'm not talking about religion.
A lot of people love religion. A lot of people love to get that
old time religion. And a lot of people love their
self-righteousness and a lot of people love a lot of things.
I'm talking about Jesus Christ alone. I mean that man and that
person. Period. Christ alone. If the Spirit of God has put
a deep love in our hearts for Him and caused us to trust Him. Trust Him. Gabe, let me ask you
a question. Is He sovereign or not? It's
simple. Yes or no? Pick one. Does He order all things? Yes
or no? Is everything in His hands? Yes
or no? If the Spirit of God has put a trust in Him, caused us
to trust His good and perfect, His holy and sovereign providence
concerning us. His providence concerning everything
in our lives. Knowing that He's doing all things
well. The judge of the earth only does
what's right. He only leads in paths of righteousness
for His namesake. Only. And everything that happens to
us day in and day out is for our good and His glory. And it's all for the purpose
of bringing His people to Himself. Everything is for the purpose
of calling His sheep to Himself and then ultimately bringing
all of His people home to glory to be with Him. Everything is
working toward that end. If the Lord has put the hope
of salvation in us, we're happy. We are happy. No matter what
life brings our way, we're happy. This has been the case for God's
people since time began. Go with me to Job 5. Job chapter
5. This is considered to be the
first book of the Bible ever written, long before the books
of Moses were written. And Job 5 verse 17 says, Behold,
happy is the man whom God correcteth. That's an interesting statement,
isn't it? Happy is the man whom God rebukes, whom God chastens. Do you know that's true? You
know that's so true regarding God's children. That's true regarding
our own children. A child who is lovingly chastened
and corrected will love in return and will be happy. I know that you've heard that
true story about when Walter and Betty Groover first went
to Mexico to be missionaries. They brought their four children
with them, and one day a little girl knocked on their door because
she was hungry and asked, could she have any food? And Betty
fed her, and that little girl kept coming back because she
was hungry again tomorrow, hungry the next day. And finally, Betty
went and found her mother, who was a single woman with quite
a few children, and she just couldn't care for all of them.
So Betty said, could this little girl, Chela, come and live with
us? We will feed her and take care
of her. And her mother said, yes, she
can. So this little girl became a
member of their family. played with Walter and Betty's
other four kids, and got into trouble with the other four kids. But only the four kids got in
trouble. You know, they'd come in and
march them all to the back and spank those kids. And Chela would
be left out waiting on everybody to come out. And they said it
was obvious to all of them. It was obvious to the kids. And
one day, she just fell into the floor and
started kicking and screaming and throwing a tantrum. And Walter
came in and said, what are you doing? And she just kept on kicking
and screaming. He said, stop that. And she just
kept on kicking and screaming. And he said, if you don't stop
that, I'm going to spank you. So she kicked it up a notch and
kicked and screamed harder. And he said, OK, let's go. So
he took her back to the back and he spanked her. And after
that, he came out with a tear in his eye and told Betty, after
I spanked her, she crawled up into my lap, she put her arms
around my neck and whispered into my ear, now I know you love
me. Now I know you love me. That
chastening made that little girl so happy. It's it's. It meant she had a
father. That's what it meant to her.
It meant that she had a father, a father who cared about her
to claim her and teach her and discipline her. She was happy
because it came from him, and that's the case for all of God's
children. If they know that the chastening
is coming from him, They're happy. They're happy. As painful as
it can be, aren't you so thankful when God convicts you to the
point that you have to turn to Him and say, I'm so sorry? How many people does God just
let them go? No conviction. Those people aren't
happy. For God's people, they need a
father who loves them. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens.
Verse 17 right here. Behold, happy is the man whom
God correcteth. Therefore, despise not thou the
chastening of the Almighty. For he maketh sore and bindeth
up. He woundeth and His hands make
whole. Even in correcting and chastening,
we're happy because it's all coming from Him. That's really
honestly true. Turn with me to Psalm 144. Psalm 144 verse 15, Happy is that people that is
in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the
Lord. That's just stating fact. That's a happy people, whose
God is the Lord. Look at Psalm 146 verse 5. It says, happy is he that hath
the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord, his
God, the sinner, Jacob, the supplanter, the trickster, whose only hope
is in the Lord his God. That is a happy sinner. That's
a happy soul. No matter what, no matter what
the flesh, no matter what the sin of this world and the miserable
result of that sin, no matter what it brings to us, because
of Him. Because we have Him. That's what
we say at the end of all this stuff. I still have Him. That hasn't changed. That hasn't
gone away. That has not diminished. I still
have Him because the Lord is our God and our Savior still. Still. We're happy. Because He is our Lord and we
have been allowed to serve Him. We've been allowed to gather
here right now. If he didn't allow it, we wouldn't
be here. You would not be sitting right here. We ought to be the
happiest people in Kingsport, Tennessee. We are. We really are. Because he has
allowed us to serve him. We're happy. We're so happy. You know, Solomon being a picture
of Christ, everything about Solomon, many, most of the things about
Solomon is a type of Christ. And when the queen of Sheba came
and saw him, you know, she brought all of her things and she thought
she was going to do him a real favor. But when she saw him in
all of his glory, there was no more spirit left in her. And
she said it was a true report, which I heard. But the half wasn't
told me. It was all true, it just wasn't
all told. The half wasn't told me. Of your
greatness and your wisdom and your fame. This is what she said.
She said, happy are thy men. And happy are thy servants which
stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom. She said
everybody's so happy. Everybody dwelled under their
own vine and fig tree. Why wouldn't they be? There was
peace on all sides. Are you hungry? Have you seen
Solomon's table? She said, everybody's so happy.
She said, even your servants are happy. Look how happy your cup bearers
are to just carry your cups around. She said, it doesn't matter what
state anybody's in, everybody is so content and happy. That's what the Apostle Paul
said. Turn over to Acts 26. Acts 26, you know all about Paul's
beatings and imprisonments. He's in prison right here, standing
before accusers, before a counsel. He is appealing for his life. And verse 1 says, Then Agrippa
said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul
stretched forth the hand and answered for himself, I think
myself happy. I think myself happy, King Agrippa.
What do you have to say for yourself? I think I'm happy. Aren't you in prison, Paul? Yep. Didn't they beat you and try
to stone you to death? Yep. Hasn't it been revealed to you
by the Holy Spirit that bonds and afflictions await you in
every city that you're going to travel to? Yep. How could you possibly be happy? We're not going to read it, but
in the rest of this chapter, he went on to say, it's because
Jesus Christ revealed himself to me. He goes on to say, I was
headed to Damascus. I was about to kill God's people,
but he stopped me. He knocked me off of my horse. He put fear in me. And then he said, he opened my
eyes in such a way, it's like scales fell off. He revealed
Himself to me. That's why I'm happy. Everything
is worth it as long as I have Him. 1 Peter 3.14 says, If you suffer
for righteousness sake, happy are ye. 1 Peter 4.14 says, If you be reproached
for the name of Christ, happy are ye. You're a happy person. As long as you end up with him
in the end, happy are you. Go back to Deuteronomy 33. I'm
done. Deuteronomy 33. Verse 26. There is none like unto the God
of Jeshurun, that is a representative name of Israel, God's people. There is none like unto the God
of Israel, Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help and
in his excellency on the sky. You need help. He just comes. flying through the sky to help
you. Verse 27, the eternal God is
thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. That sounds
good, doesn't it? And he shall thrust out the enemy
from before thee and shall say, destroy them. Israel then shall
dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be
upon a land of corn and wine. Also his heavens shall drop down
dew. Happy art thou, O Israel, who
is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy
help, and who is the sword of thy excellency. Nine enemies
shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their
high places. He said, remember these things
and you'll be happy. There is no God like your God,
greater than all. He is the eternal God and he
is your refuge. He is holding you up with his
everlasting arms. And in the end, He will destroy
every enemy that you have, not only around you, but inside of
you. You're going to spend the rest
of your days in safety, abundantly provided for, and it's all because
the Father placed you in Christ. That's the whole reason why.
In Christ, you are happy. In the world, you may be experiencing
tribulation. That's a good possibility. But
no matter what, because you're in Christ, you're happy. That's a declaration from God
Almighty to each and every one of his people. And that's a wonderful
thing to be reminded of. That is good news. And good news
makes me happy, very happy. I pray the Lord will let all
of us leave this place tonight happy, happy that we were in
the house of the Lord. Amen. All right, let's stand
together.