Numbers chapter 23, and we're
going to try to get through chapter 23 and 24 by making some comments
that cover it all. As we go through here, Just remember
that the last time we met together, we looked at God's omnipotency
and how he over-directed everything that was taking place here at
this time, just as well as we find him over-directing everything
that has ever happened from before the foundation of the world,
after the foundation of the world, in eternity. He is the one that
has the directorship. He is omnipotent, He is all-powerful,
and He's ever demonstrating that power. He is demonstrating that
power even today in our lives, our assembly, and in this world. He is the Director of all things. And you know, as we went through
there, we noticed that there was a man by the name of Balaam
that's been hired to curse the people of God. And to me, it
was not the nature of a dumb donkey to talk. That's not their
nature. In fact, if we were around a
donkey and he began to talk to us, how would you react? I don't know. Just the sound
they make is enough. But, you know, it was not the
nature of Balaam to give blessings to the people of God, but God
moved on a dumb donkey and God moved on a lion prophet and he
performed his absolute sovereign will over both of them. And they're
going to move around. That Balak, who is the king of
Moab, he's going to ask him to move three or four times to different
places to see if this place won't be better than that place, or
this place will be better than that place. And you could curse
the people of God instead of bless them. Well, you know, the
place made no difference. God moved upon Balaam to bless
the people of God. God does that just exactly as
he has purposed. And we find that probably a lot
of people in reading the book of Genesis would say that Sodom
and Gomorrah are just the worst places in the world. I mean,
there's no place worse. In fact, it was so bad that God
had those places consumed. And yet in the midst of so badness,
was one man that God had justified. Just law justified law it it
hurt it bothered him every day where he was living and then
we find a Publican living in the holy city. Oh my goodness.
I hear so much about Jerusalem. That's the holy city That's where
all the things take place and how many people want to go there
and visit and see the places where Jesus was and see this
and see that right there in the midst of the holy city was a
sinner man. He was a publican and he would
not even raise his eyes to heaven and said, God be merciful to
me, a sinner. And that man went home justified,
just like Lot living in the worst place possible place he could
ever live. That's the judgment call of most
people. Well, we find out wherever we live is just like both of
those places. God has his people, and he will
bring his people to their knees. I was thinking, as Brother Mike
was teaching this morning, about those soldiers bowing down before
Jesus. You know, they pretended there.
They played there. They mocked there. But the day
will come when every knee will bow and every tongue confess
the Lord Jesus to the glory of God the Father. Now, I pray that
somewhere in those soldiers' lives, the gospel was brought
to them and they actually bowed. But if it did not happen, they
will bow. At that day, they will bow before
him as the sovereign king that they pretended and mocked. Just
like we find so often people are just mocking God in their
religious activity, but they will bow. They will bow. Well,
as we look here, we find that God works all things after the
counsel of His own will. We heard that read there in the
book of Ephesians this morning, that He is working all things
after the counsel of His own will. He does not ask us for
permission, and He does not ask us for counsel, because we find
the scripture says, who counseled God? Who did He bring into the
contract? There were three that counseled
together. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, they counsel together. And without that good counsel
before the foundation of the world in creating an eternal
covenant of grace, there would not be one bit of hope for anybody. Now as we go through here we
find out that the people that Balaam wanted to curse but could
only bless were some of the most rapscallions of the world. We
just follow their lives for a little bit and we find out they were
really wicked people. they were wicked against God.
They were wicked against Moses. They were wicked against Aaron.
They were wicked against each other. And we find this out,
that we find while Balaam trying to earn the wages of unrighteousness,
Israel is perpetrating such terrible sins. Now we're going to go through
chapters 23 and 24. You get to chapter 25 and we
find out that they are in the pit over there. Whether this
is happening all the time over here and they don�t know what�s
happening. They�re kind of at parade rest. They�re in their tents. They�re
waiting to go into the promised land and we find out what they�re
doing and over here God is blessing them by causing a prophet that
knows nothing about God and nothing about the Gospel, causing his
mouth to speak glorious things about the people of God. I think
I mentioned last time, and I was just thinking about that, what
a pill that was for him to swallow, that he had opened his mouth
with the hopes of earning the money of unrighteousness, the
wages of unrighteousness in cursing the people of God, and when he
started to speak, God got in there and overcame him, and all
he did was speak blessings to the people of God. And over there,
we're going to find out, that's a bunch of the most wicked people
on the face of the earth. These many all died in unbelief,
and yet God protected them, God blessed them, because He had
an interest in them. There in the midst of them was
the line that would bring our Savior. There in the midst of
them was the generations that would bring the line of the Lord.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from
between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall be the
gathering of his people. There's gonna be a scepter, there's
gonna be a ruler, there's gonna be someone in charge of Judah
until Jesus Christ is born and you know what? No longer need
it. He's been delivered unto us. We don't, it doesn't take
us very long in the scriptures to find out what a sinner Adam
was. But you know, he also had a very sinful son. Now most of
us would immediately think of Cain, that guy was a bad guy. You know, if we had the privilege
of visiting with Seth, who is right in the line of the Lord
Jesus, you know what he would admit to us, just like every
believer would admit? Oh, wretched man that I am. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, I would be just like my brother Cain over there living
like the devil. All the generations to Noah were
great sinners. Noah was a great sinner. You
know what the difference was? Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He was not better than everybody
else and therefore God blessed him with a special blessing.
He was just like all those generations prior to him They had all fallen
in Adam. He was a sinner, a sinner, but
a sinner saved by grace. Noah was only blessed because
of grace, and all the generations from Noah to Abraham were great
sinners. Abraham would have continued
in his ungodly worship, except we find the God of glory appeared
unto him. Now, there's 20 generations between
Adam and Abraham and there's not been one step in there that
improved the line. Nobody could get this problem
taken care of. Recently, I heard about they
needed to take care of some wolves over in Eastern Oregon because
of stock animal depredation. And one of the people that's
in charge in the Bureau of Fish and Wildlife was over there saying
that it's going to take five or six generations of these wolves
before they get over wanting to consume sheep and cattle. And one of the farmers said,
are you just stupid? You can never get that out of
a predator's life. Never trust a predator. People
want to have lions for pets. Oh, it works sometimes. And then
you got the guy that's been working with one for many years killed
by his own pet lion. So we have predators here in
the line. They just cannot improve themselves.
There's no hope for them at all until the God of glory appears. Twenty generations from Adam
to Abraham, and all were in the same condition. They all died
in Adam. And Adam all died. And there was no discussion about
that by the believers. Now the unbelievers, there's
always a discussion about how dead is dead. And we've talked
about that many times. Now there's generations come
along as we travel another 2,000 years from Abraham to Mary. Did you know what? Mary was the
chiefest of sinners. That's her admission. She would
admit that. She was not so special that she
had to come into this world in a special manner and then she
brought the Lord Jesus Christ into the world in a special manner.
She was just like everybody else in that line. The glorious thing
about it is when she bore her firstborn son, that son did not
inherit the fall of Adam. That's special. First person
that's ever been born into this world. The Lord Jesus Christ
did not inherit the sin of Adam. Now he was made in the likeness
of the children of Adam, like you and I, yet without sin. We have such a special person
that's been born into the world. For no one is like him, and he's
the only one that has ever had that happen. An instance Adam
and his fallen state was not represented in this one. God had great reason to watch
over these sinners that are in the community of Israel that
Balaam's attempting to curse. All right, would you turn with
me to the book of Numbers chapter 23? Numbers chapter 23. We're
actually going to get into the book of Numbers. After Balaam
does his mouth—he has these words already in his heart about how he's going to curse
the children of Israel, and he gets ready to speak, and like
that dumb donkey that's not accustomed to speaking, In human language,
God overrode that brain that they normally do and out from
his mouth came the words of a man. And here we have another dumb
donkey We have Balaam, who would give anything if he could just
curse the people of God, and he is overridden, and his mouth
is stopped, and God uses it as a spokesman for him. He overrode his very nature,
and it tells us there in verse 23 and verse 11, Balaak's reaction
to this. And Balaak said unto Balaam,
What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies,
and behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. You know, the
scriptures share with us, turn with me to the book of Isaiah
if you would. The book of Isaiah chapter 54. Isaiah chapter 54,
and we just find out what a blessing it is that God has the overriding
omnipotency over all things so that nothing, Nothing, no weapon
of any kind in Isaiah 54 and verse 17. The scriptures share
with us this, Isaiah 54 and verse 17, it says, no weapon that is
formed against thee shall prosper. Well, the Lord told his disciples,
don't fear him who can take your life. Fear him who can take your
life and your soul. Now, God's people have died since
the very beginning. Adam was 960 years old when he
died. I looked at that online, they've
got a graph, and you can see, oh my goodness, he just missed
the flood by a few years. He lived so long, he just missed
the flood by a few years. He had this, I think it was seven
greats in his line. My goodness, you get three together,
that's a miracle. You know, we were up there in
Victoria Island, and in that swimming pool were three generations
that asked to be baptized. Ed, his daughter, and his granddaughter.
I've never had that happen in my life. I don't know very many
people that ever had that happen. One here, one there, one here,
one there. But here is seven greats. that Adam knew from his very
time he was created to down to the time he passed away he could
have known seven greats. And not one of them changed their
nature. Not one of them was any better
off because of his fall. And here in the book of Isaiah
he said, Now all the people of God, no weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord. Nothing is going to prosper.
No condemnation to them that are in Christ. Shall anybody
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? No, it's God that
justifies. I'll not permit it. He has a
wall about His people. He has a hedge about His people,
and not one thing can prosper against them in that way to condemn
them. Now, we may condemn ourselves,
but God's not. He has much on the line. As we
look back here, we see that these first two chapters, that though
great riches was promised to Balaam, the soothsayer, he cannot
curse Israel. Turn with me, if you would, back
to the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers, chapter
23. And verse 5. The Lord put a word in Balaam's
mouth and said, return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak. The
Lord put a word. I'm convinced that he did that
for Judas. The Lord put a word in his mouth.
He went out with somebody. He was a preacher with somebody,
two by two. And nobody came back and says,
Lord, let me take you aside for just a moment. I think you made
a mistake here. In verse 16 of that same chapter,
it says, and the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and
said, go again unto Balak and say thus. The Lord put a word
in his mouth. How he does that is beyond our
ability to figure it out, but he has that ability to do that
very thing. what must have been a bitter,
bitter pill in the mouth of Balaam. And he lost great wealth over
it, and was not much more than a donkey speaking. And yet we
find that he said four times blessings upon the children of
Israel. 23 verse 7 of the book of Numbers. Let's read that. And he took
up his parable. Now, when we read this originally,
we found out that that word is generally given to soothsayers. Most of the prophets are never
given that type of word in the original language. It's translated
in my translation, parable. other places itís different language,
itís simile or prophetic statement or discourse or oracle or incantation
or whatever. But anyway, in verse 7 it says,
ìAnd he took up his parable and said, Balak the king of Moab
hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east,
saying, Come curse me, Jacob, and come defy Israel. How shall
I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks
I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people
dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who
can count the dust of Jacob? the number of the fourth part
of Israel let me die the death of the righteous and let my last
in be like the his then Balak said what have you done what
have you done all right chapter 23 and verse 18 we read these
words and he took up his parable and said rise up Balak and here
hearkened to me thou son of Zippor God is not a man hmm we read that say thank you Lord
God is not a man that should lie, neither the son of man that
he should repent. You know, one of the blessings
to the church is God does not change. Oh my, I know what it
is to change. It's changed based upon how other
people respond to me. God is not changed by how we
respond to Him. He is ever straightforward. He has a purpose and He shall
carry it out and nothing shall move Him to the right hand or
to the left hand. I am God, I change not, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. If he had changed, we get to
the chapter 25 of this, we'll find out he had every right to
change and consume them. What about when Adam sinned? He had every right to consume
him and all that there was and start all over. But do you know
what? Before the council, in the council halls of eternity,
before the world was ever created, He had already chosen the people,
already had a covenant laid out, He already had a lamb slain,
He already had it all worked out. So when Adam sinned, he
just went ahead with the plan, and people were going to be born
into this world, and some would be born into this world that
would be objects of His grace, and some would be born into this
world that would be the objects of His wrath, and He's going
to go ahead with the plan. because he had a Savior already,
a surety. He had a Savior that was already
a Redeemer, and he was going to take care of it just as he
had always planned. So, here in verse 19, God is
not a man that he should lie, neither the Son of Man that he
should repent. Hath he said, and shall it not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall it not be made good? Behold,
I have received commandments to bless, and he hath blessed,
and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob. Can you imagine this false prophet
saying that about Jacob? He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. Now this, he's talking
about Spiritual Israel. He's talking about the elect.
Same name, different members. There were many in national Israel
that were never saved. There were many in national Israel
that never trusted God. The gospel was preached unto
them as well as unto us, but it did not profit them because
they were not given faith. The Lord, his God, is with him,
and the shout of a king is among them. God, who's that? Who's
shouting kings? God brought them out of Egypt.
He hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. Surely there is
no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination
against Israel. According to this time, it shall
be said of Jacob and of Israel, what hath God wrought? Isn't that interesting? That's
the first words that Alexander Graham Bell put across the telephone.
What hath God wrought? What's God done? Well, we find
this man speaking like that. And then it says, behold, the
people shall rise up as a great lion and lift up himself as a
young lion. He shall not lie down until he
eat of the prey and drink the blood of the slain. And Balak
said, if you're not going to curse them, please Please do
not bless them. All right, let's go to chapter
24. Chapter 24 and verse 3. And he
took up his parable one more time. Now they keep moving around.
Balak says, well, let's go over here and see if that won't work.
I'm having trouble connecting to the internet. We'll move over here, maybe that'll
work. You know, I've had people say, if I just moved over there
and got away from all the people that are influencing me, I'd
be better off. You know who's influencing us? Me. I used to go home and my dad
would say, if my brother could just get away from those folks
that he's having the parties with, if he'd do that, he's being
influenced. No, you talk to my brother, he
was the influence. He had the money and he'd buy
the stuff for them. You can't get away from yourself,
never will. Not in this life. We're the problem. It doesn't matter where we are,
we're still the problem. We move somewhere, we're gonna
have the same problem. All right, here it goes. Take
Balaam in verse three of this chapter 24, it says, and he took
up his parable and said, Balaam, the son of Beor, has said, and
the man whose eyes are open has said, he has said, which heard
the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling
into a trance, but having his eyes open. How goodly are thy
tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are
they spread forth, as gardens by the riverside, as the trees
of the lee alone, allos, say the Lord, hath planted, and cedars
beside the waters, He shall pour the water out of his buckets,
and his seed shall be as many waters, and his king shall be
higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. My goodness,
he's prophesying. We have the kingdom of God mentioned
here. We have the kingdom of the Lord
mentioned here. He's going to be higher than all the kings.
In fact, the scriptures say he is king of kings and lord of
lords. No one is over him. He couched
down, he lay as a lion, and as a great lion, who shall stir
him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth
thee. And Balak's anger was kindled
against Balaam. What have you done? And in the
same chapter, down in verse 15, He took up his parable, and said,
Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open
hath said, he hath said which heard the words of God, and knew
the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty
falling into a trance, but having his eyes open, I shall see him,
but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh.
There shall be a star out of Jacob. Oh. What a statement this
guy, after money of unrighteousness, has to say. And a scepter shall
rise out of Israel. You know, as we get to the New
Testament, we find some of the same things are brought out.
Pilate, Jesus before Pilate, and the Lord Jesus says, when
Pilate said something, he said, don't you know, you'd have no
power over me except it be given you. And he said, Pilate said,
when they came back, he says, don't you dare put on the cross
that he's the king of the Jews. Put on the cross he said he was
king of the Jews. And Pilate would love to have
spit out, yes, I'll agree with you, but you know what he said?
What I have written, I have written. End of statement. Who had his
hand on the back of him and going like this? God Almighty. Talk about puppets. The question
is, who's the puppeteer? Almighty God. All right. It continues there. Out of Jacob,
it says, shall come a star out of Jacob, the Lord. A scepter
shall rise out of Israel, the Lord. And shall smite the quarters
of Moab and destroy the children of Seth. And Edom shall be a
possession. Seir also shall be a possession
for his enemies, and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall
come he that hath dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth
of the city. And when he looked upon Amalek,
he took up his parable and said, Amalek was the first of the nations,
but his latter end shall be he perisheth forever. And he looked
up on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong
is thy dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. Nevertheless the Kenites shall
be wasted, until Asher shall carry thee away captive. And
he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God
doeth this? The ship shall come from the
coast of Shittim, and afflict Asher, and shall afflict Eber,
and he also shall perish forever. And Balaam rose up, and went,
and returned unto his place, and Balak also went his way. Psalm 76. Would you turn there
with me? Psalm 76. As we've read these
very quickly, and not spent much time on them, but they are filled
with the prophetic statements of Almighty God concerning Israel. concerning the blessings of God.
He is omnipotently overriding all those that would oppose them.
In Psalm 76, Psalm 76 and verse 10, we read this about this passage
of scripture. Psalm 76, and there in verse
10, and it says, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. The
remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. The wrath of man. You know, we've been watching
that in the book of Esther. Oh, Haman, he is so, he is so upset
and so mad at the Jews, and Mordecai specifically. And you know what? His wrath honors God. The wrath of man shall praise
thee. Haman is going to come out and
find out, uh-oh. The very night that Ahasuerus
cannot sleep, Haman shows up with the plan to hang Mordecai,
the very man, and the next thing we know, he is leading Mordecai
in the royal apparel, royal crown, royal horse around town. The
wrath of man shall praise thee. In the book of Acts chapter four,
we read this and we've heard it many times here from this
pulpit as speakers, brother Mike, brother Mike, Lauren have referred
to this passage. Our guest speakers have referred
to this passage, the book of Acts chapter four, book of Acts
chapter four. We read this blessed passage
of scripture, Acts chapter 20 verse chapter four, verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. Now, if Balak had got his way,
this line would have died. But the wrath of man shall praise
thee. All that they determined to do.
The kings of the earth stood up. The rulers were gathered
together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a
truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed
both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together. Now read this with me. For to
do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to
be done. Oh, they had a pill in their
mouth too. God overrode all that they had
planned to do. They say we're going to get rid
of this troublemaker, we're going to get rid of this religious
fanatic and we can get back to business collecting those monies
from the people that sell those animals and all the stuff that's
going on. And yet God had purposed beforehand
what exactly was going to happen. And now to do for whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. God's salvation
is so determined that we read about it. Go with me to the book
of Romans, if you would, chapter eight. Some wonderful lessons
were brought from this passage of Scripture in my absence, and
I appreciate that so much. But it just kindles a fire, you
know, reading these passages of Scripture. It builds us. It
shares with us the great glory of God. And here in the book
of Romans, chapter 8, verse 31, what shall we say to these things
if God before us? Who can be against us? You know,
before the Lord saves us, we don't even know that that's being
applied to us. We have no idea in the world.
Now, God has never looked at us with His anger. He's never
looked at His elect with anger. He's never looked at us at the
church, those without Christ. He's never looked at them with
anger and malice. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. But from our standpoint, what
did we think? I will not have this man rule
over me. We were angry with him. We are
enmity with him. We had all malice against him.
But he, it tells us, even while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. So it tells us here, if God before
us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. Notice the rest of that. How
shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If he's given
us the only begotten Son, isn't he going to take care of the
rest? That's what he's saying. I'll take care of the rest. I'll
give you sanctification. I'll give you righteousness.
I'll give you peace. I'll give you hope. I'll give
you all these things because I've given my son for your sins. I've paid the price. You're now
free. goes on to tell us here, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, it is God that
justifieth. Those who would attempt to, as
Balaam was paid to do, to curse the people of God, cannot do
it. Now they may speak words, but
you know what? The blessing of God overrides
all of that. Who is he that condemneth? Well, verse 33, who shall lay
anything to charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? God's great salvation is the
covering for great sinners. A star has come. That's what
Balak said. A star is going to come. A star
has come. A scepter has risen. Christ has
risen. Not the scepter shall not depart
from Judah until Shiloh come. He's come, Shiloh's here, and
he that has dominion is here. Every prophetic statement that
Balaam brought out as God moved his lips has been fulfilled in
one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. All things are done for his elect.
I will never, never, ever, ever, ever leave thee nor forsake thee.
Now, you know, it doesn't take much to move in the scripture
to get over to the next chapter and find out that those people
are living like the devil. They're worshiping idols. They've
gone after Beor. Their immorality has broken out. All the things, oh my goodness,
how could that happen? God saves his people from sin. He's never saved anybody that
wasn't a sinner. He saved us from our sins. Here we read there in the book
of Romans, it goes, who shall condemn? Who shall separate? Who shall do any of this? Nobody. God's great salvation is covering
for great, great, great sinners. As we find in the line of the
Lord Jesus, there was not one of those people in the line of
the Lord Jesus from Adam down to Mary that were not great sinners
before God. None of them had anything going
for them except grace. There was nothing that stood
out. Mary was just like all the rest
of the people that had ever been born. Born into sin, born, as
David said, In sin did my mother conceive
me. I came forth from my mother's
mouth speaking lies. And that was about Mary, that
was about Abraham, that was about Noah, that was about David, that
was about everybody that has ever been born into this world.
And without Christ, there is no hope for any of those people.
None of us. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Matthew, chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. In the book of Matthew chapter
11, we have these words left for us to enjoy and appreciate,
to consider. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, isn't it wonderful to hear the words of the Lord?
I like my red letter edition. I have a translation that has
all the Old Testament times when God spoke in red letter. It's
amazing. Here in this verse of scripture,
in that time, Jesus answered and said, who is this Jesus?
We have to come to a conclusion of who he is. The Lord will reveal
to all His people that He is the only Savior, and that He
is sovereign over our salvation, and He will work all things after
the counsel of His own will, and He will do things that we
may not appreciate, but He's going to do it because it's for
our best. Here it says, I thank thee, O
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. All things
are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son.
Uh-oh. Only the Father knows the Son,
and only the Son knows the Father. And how are we going to get around
that? And He, to Whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. We heard a word used over in
the book of Isaiah chapter 53 this morning. Who is the arm
of the Lord revealed? Talking about the same thing
right here. To Whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. You know, so often when I was in religion, I never heard
a word about what preceded verse 28. Never heard. Oh, come, come,
come. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. Well, then you find out when
you're saved, there's a verse of scripture or two before that.
And in the verses of scripture before that, you find out how
you're able to come. The arm of the Lord has been
revealed. The new birth changes everything. Being born again changes everything.
God, when He reveals His Son in us, as Paul mentioned, when
it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, when the new birth
comes, when there's something that we have no participation
in, we're only the receptor of it, When we talk to people, and
they talk to them about the new birth, and they say, well, I
have that. And I say, well, how much did
you have to do with your physical birth? Nothing. And I said, that's
how much you had to do with your spiritual birth. Nothing. You
had nothing to do with it. You weren't looking for it. You
weren't intending to have it. Paul or Saul of Tarsus headed
down to Damascus with evil intent in his heart when God met him
and gave him the new birth. And then he was able to say with
emphasis, Lord, my King, my Sovereign, the One
who has given the Gospel, the One who revealed the Lord unto
me. Then we find, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. No, the Bible tells us that whoever
the Lord or the Father reveals, we will learn of Him. We will
not have a problem when we read the scriptures of giving Him
all the glory and all the praise. Everything about it is in His
hands and He's done it all for His people. For I am meek and
lowly in heart and shall find rest unto your souls. For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light. What a statement. I'll never
leave you nor forsake you, which is found in the book of Hebrews
chapter 13 and verse 5. Now, when we get over there next
Sunday, Lord willing, to that next chapter, we're going to
wonder why in the world did God ever deliver these people from
what they're going on. I have a people. I will deliver
my people. It doesn't matter who raises
up to curse them. I will deliver my people. Turn
with me, if you would, to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 12.
1 Samuel, chapter 12. 1 Samuel, chapter 12 and verse
22. For the Lord will not 1 Samuel 12, verse 22, for the
Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake, because
it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. You know, during this time of
chapters 22, 23, and 24, It appears that Israel didn't
have much knowledge of what God was doing over here in protecting
them. And it was during this time, some of this time, that
we find that Moses, before he died, he's not going to live
much longer. Before he died, he's given Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy by the Holy Spirit
to write down and let people have the Word of God, the first
five books of the Bible. all the time that God's taken
care of His people from on this side, we find the Holy Spirit
working over on that side with all of His people. And one of
them we know has been given the task of writing down as it was
given to His ears to hear. the word of God. And in that
word, we find out that there was a man that was paid, would
have been paid great money for cursing the people of God. And
instead, instead of that happening, God took his mouth and all he
could do was say, praise be unto God. And did you notice there? Then he went home. And it won't
be long. We're going to read that he was
killed in battle by Israel, by the sword. He was not one of
God's prophets, but he was used as a mouthpiece. We thank God
for preserving his people, because without that, there would be
no preservation. We thank God for keeping his
people, for without that, none of his people would be kept.
And we thank God for saving his people, because without that,
none of us would be saved. Brother Mike, if you'll come.