Let me get this. Okay, we're
going to be in the book of 1 Samuel this morning. Let me find the page here. 1
Samuel chapter 15. And join me there if you would
to start with. 1 Samuel chapter 15. And the title of this as we look
at this morning is, What meaneth the bleeding of the sheep? What meaning the bleeding of
the sheep? And we're going to start in verse chapter 15. And we're going to we're going
to we're going to start in first Samuel. Chapter 10 and a few verses to
start with. before we get to chapter 14.
But let's start in chapter 10, 1 Samuel, and verse 17. And it says here, the people together unto the
Lord in Mizpah, and said unto the children of Israel, Thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt,
and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out
of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you.
And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you
out of all your adversities and your tribulations. And ye have
said unto him, Nay, but said a king over us. Now therefore
present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your
thousands." They saw that they had been delivered numerous times
by the hand of the Lord. And they saw some of the other
countries and kingdoms around them. They said, we'd kind of
like to be like those guys. We'd kind of like to have a king
over us. And earlier, they said, if you have a king over you,
here's going to be what's going to take place. You're not going
to like it. It's going to be, they're going to tax you. They're
going to take all your goods. They're going to do this and that. And
they said, no, no, we know that. But we want a king. And they
did do that, and in verse... Let's see. They rejected the God, and then
in verse 24, And Samuel said unto all the
people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none
like him among all the people. And all the people shouted and
said, God save the king. Then Samuel told the people the
manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up
before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people
away, every man to his house. And Saul also went home to Gibeah,
and there went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said,
How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought
him no presents, but he held his peace." Saul was chosen of
God that if they were going to have a king, He was going to
appoint that king, and He did. And they had some issues and they wanted
to be like the nations and they didn't really care that all the
things that were told them would come to pass, that Samuel told
them that kings were kings and not God. And in chapter 12, just
a little bit here, chapter 12 of 1 Samuel, starting with verse six, it says,
and Samuel said unto the people, it's the Lord that advanced Moses
and Aaron and that brought your fathers up out of the land of
Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before
the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did
to you and your fathers. "'When Jacob was come to Egypt,
"'and your fathers cried unto the Lord, "'then the Lord sent
Moses and Aaron, "'which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt,
"'and made them dwell in this place. "'And when they forgot
the Lord their God, "'He sold them into the hand of Caesarea,
"'captain of the host of Hazor, "'and into the land of the Philistines,
"'and into the hand of the king of Moab, "'and they fought against
them. And they cried unto the LORD, and said," verse 10, "'We
have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD, and have served
Balaam and Ashtoreth, but now deliver us out of the hand of
our enemies, and we will serve thee.'" And the Lord sent Jerubabal,
and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out
of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe.
And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon
came against you, you said, Nay, but a king shall reign over us,
when the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore behold the
king whom ye have chosen and whom ye have desired and behold
the Lord has set a king over you." He said when the Lord was
over them, the Lord your God was king, they said, no thank
you, we want a real king like the other nations. And he did
give them that king. and Saul reigned and was head and shoulders above
him. He was a good-looking guy and
those things, but he was still a man and he was not after God's
own heart, as we have seen what he's mentioned of David. And
then turn over to chapter 15, After Saul is there and is the
king over there, Samuel anointed the king over them, and then And he said in 15, verse 1, it
says, Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee
to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken
thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord
of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he
laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now
go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and
spare them not, but slay both man, woman, infant, suckling,
ox, and sheep, camel, and ass. And Saul gathered the people
together and numbered them in Talaim 200,000 footmen and 10,000
men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek
and laid wait in the valley." So after what the Amalekites
had done, They were told to utterly destroy them. Them, all the people,
everything they had, everything, no trace of them should be. And
verse six, And Saul said unto the Canaanites, Go, depart, you
get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them.
For ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they
came up out of Egypt. So the Canaanites departed from
the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites
from Havilah unto Thou comest to Shur, that is over against
Egypt. And he took Agag the king of
the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with
the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared
Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings,
and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy
them. But everything that was vile
and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. Then came the word of
the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set
up Saul to be king, for he is turned back from following me,
and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he
cried unto the Lord all night. And when Samuel rose early to
meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul,
come to Carmel. And behold, set him up a place,
and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal. We're going to see the setting
here that we've set him up to this spot here. And Samuel came
to Saul, verse 13, and Saul said to him, Blessed be thou of the
Lord. I have performed the commandment
of the Lord. So he said, I've done it. God said, do this, we've taken
care of it. And Samuel said, what meaneth then this bleeding
of the sheep in mine ears? And the lowing of the oxen which
I hear. And Saul said, they have brought
them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of
the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God,
and the rest we have utterly destroyed. He's still the king,
I've done this, but he said, the people have saved the best
of them out to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God." Kind of justifying
something that he did not do with the Lord God. God didn't
say, keep them. Then, verse 16, then Samuel said unto him, stay
and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, stay on.
And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast
thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord
anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey
and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites,
and fight against them till they be consumed. Wherefore then didst
thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the
spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said
unto Samuel, Yes, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord,
and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought
Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil,
sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have
been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.
And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, then, the fat
of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also
rejected thee from being king." And then we know that he's replaced,
and he begs Samuel to talk to the Lord
and not to do this, and said, the Lord's mind is, it is what
it is. He's not gonna stand for this. But also up here, he said in
verse 21, he blames the people again, and Samuel, and the people
took of this to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. He
didn't say the Lord our God in Gilgal. He shows his heart here
some, he did not do that, but he blamed the people and an excuse
here, saying, here's why it didn't come to pass because of this.
Okay, not a good spot to be in if you're in the day when you're
dealing with the man who God is speaking directly to and telling
you what It's not a suggestion when he said to do these things
and to do this. And then God had given exact commands
to what was to be done to those Amalekites and all that they
had. No doubt as to God's instruction. There wasn't any wiggle room
here to do what it felt like doing. There was no doubt in
his instructions. He does as Saul does, as all
sinners do in such circumstances. make excuse and blame others
for the wrong actions and for their sin. It wasn't just Saul
doing this. In this situation, he did the
same thing that, and people say, well, if I was in those situations,
I'd be different. Well, pray to God that you would
be different, but that's the only reason you would be different
is if God caused that. So we're gonna look in another
famous spot that these things are discussed and addressed and
dealt with in Genesis chapter 2. Go to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, it speaks
of God creating a beast and finishing up chapter one, Adam and Eve
are created. starting with verse 15, it says, And the Lord God took the
man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. And the Lord commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
of it, thou shalt surely die. I don't care what version you
are reading in. That's pretty plain what God said. The one thing of the garden that
he said, do not eat of this. He said, do not eat of it. And
it says, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die. Now, we know that we're going
to follow this on, but that's a pretty, pretty plain command
of God, the same as Saul had, that he commanded. There was
no, these aren't two things that are kind of, well, you can do
it one way or the other and you're good to go. This is pretty, pretty
one way that God has set this commandment out to him. And then, So he set that, and then it goes
on and he takes and puts Adam to sleep, takes a rib and makes
Eve out of it, and he's got to help meet there to address the
garden and those things. And we're going to move down
to chapter 3, verse 1. Verse 25 of the one above it
says, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were
not ashamed. Okay, so that's their physical situation there,
and they are what they are, as God made them in the garden.
Now the serpent, chapter 3, verse 1, now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden? He did, he did say of that tree. And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die. She understood what he said,
she said, This is what God said. God has said this. The serpent
said unto him, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband, and he
did eat. It shows here, it shows Satan. It said, more subtle of any of
the beasts that the Lord had made. Lord, he's a created being. He's not kind of the other half
of God being the good and Satan being the bad. God is 100% of
the good, and Satan is a created being of God's. So he did beguile her. He brought
up the first lie that we have record of. You're not going to
really die. Well, in one sense, not literally
that moment, no, but we know spiritually in the spirit, they
fell completely, right, as soon as they ate that. they didn't
physically die, the process started, the sin started decomposing everything
at that moment, but they didn't physically die that instant,
but spiritually they were dead, they were not the same ones as
they were before. And verse 7, It said, the eyes of them both
were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called
unto Adam and said, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy
voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and
I hid myself. And he said, who told you thou
was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou should not eat? So they, when they ate, their
eyes were open, they said, oh, we have a problem here. And that
physically naked was one thing that they understood, but they
were spiritually dead and they had a different take on who God
was now. Before, they enjoyed, I dare
say, the voice of the Lord speaking with them in the garden. That
was done away with. That was no more to be. they hid themselves. And God,
as I've said many times, God asked where art thou, Adam? That was to reveal to Adam where
he was, not to reveal where God, where he was. And not physically
where was Adam hiding in there, but he was, now he had reason
to hide from God. This was not just a small matter. This was a tremendous consequence
that they could not understand even after the fact. We can't
understand completely consequences of the fall and what that ended
and what that began in many ways. And verse 12, The man said, The woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did
eat. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
The serpent begot me, and I did eat. In my version of it, I underlined,
as I always want to do with a lot of verses in the Scriptures in
the earlier days, the man said, The woman thou gaveest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. If you wouldn't have given me
this woman, I probably would not have done this. That's how
it came about. I really would have been an okay
guy. Things were running fine. God thought you thought I needed
to help meet and look where it got us. That's kind of what he's
saying in whatever language they spoke to God in at that time,
that's what was said. And it was not And he did say,
and I did eat, but we always have extenuating circumstances
when we do something that we know is not right, and yet we
are gonna do that which is not right. And whether it's dealing
with each other, or whether it's dealing with ourselves, we can
justify almost anything we have in our mind that we think is
how we want it, one way or the other. I mean, it's just how
we are. We're just that way. And it obviously boils down to
the fall, and all of our faculties were destroyed as far as what
they originally were. And this is the same thing as
Saul blaming the people this much greater consequences,
obviously, here than than Saul. But it's the same thing. It shows
the same the same thing. Fallen man is is is that type
and is that is that way. And we from, you know, earliest days
that we can have memory of, we probably made excuse and made
excuse and shifted the blame or shifted the focus from our
parents or whoever it was that we did something that was not
correct. It's very seldom I can remember
growing up that I said, I cannot tell a lie, mom, I did that.
It was Larry probably did it. I don't know how it happened.
And That was, you know, I can't remember very many times that
I fessed up to things straight up. I might have got pushed in
a corner where you had to kind of, I mean, it was like here,
or Solve, where Things happen and you just have no place to
go. You cannot do that. But by nature, that's what we
are like. What's the scripture say? I came
from my mother's womb speaking lies. I've heard that said that babies
are crying. They don't really need anything, but they're kind
of lying about it. Well, I don't know. I don't know how to say
it, but the point being. We are we are sinners from the
instant that we are born into this world. There's no age of
accountability. It does age of accountability
is if you're born, you're a sinner. That's there's no. There's no
two ways about that. It's just the fact and that's
just how it is. And then verse 14 and down just
a few verses. It says in Genesis 3 and 14,
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done
this, thou art cursed above all cattle, above every beast of
the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. And unto the woman he said, I
will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow
thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy
husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said,
because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat
of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou returneth unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. And Adam called
his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
And unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats
of skins and clothe them. very important after what took
place up there and after the fall, and they did indeed die
spiritually at that moment, and they started to die physically,
and as it says here, dust to dust, and eventually some of
them lived a long time as we measure it, but it Nonetheless was the end of that. But two things here, and it says
16, 17, 18, 19, 20, it says that things are going
to be tough. Sin is in the world, and it's going to be hard on
mothers. It's going to be hard on the
men. You're not going to have food just off a tree that you
can just hand it to you. It's going to be tough life.
It's just how it's going to be. It's not going to be like the
garden anymore. You're not in the garden anymore.
But verse 15 here is one of the verses that we have and hold
dear to that shows that's not the end of the story. God has
a people. that he is going to deliver and
is about the business of delivering. And here it says there can be
enmity between the woman and thy seed and her seed. It shall
bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. A picture of
our Lord and a foretelling of our Lord coming to deal with
this. That this isn't the end of the story, that it's just sinful nature, bad
times, end of story. That's not it. Sin is in the
world, sin is going to be dealt with. Sin, the coming of one
of the first, if not the first, accounts we have of the Messiah
to come, Emmanuel's coming, there is one that's going to deal with
sin and take care of sin for his people. And then verse 21
where it says, unto Adam and unto his wife did the Lord God
make coats of skins and clothe them. And we know that that,
and I've seen that many times where that is a picture of God
clothing us with the sacrifice that covers our nakedness in
a spiritual sense and not just a physical sense. He did make
them coats of skins, but it was of a, and we like to think, it
doesn't say here, but it was a sheep sacrifice that was sacrificed,
that God did indeed sacrifice and make those skins out of.
And if that, at least there's a picture of that, and of that
robe of righteousness that the true Lamb of God does provide
to his people. So this account of Saul is typical. It's not, I mean, we often find
it humorous in a sense, and we use that in that way, but it
is a very real and very typical situation that sinners men my
nature are in, and that that's the best by nature that we can
do if there's not something comes along, if God himself does not
deal with this. And we're going to look at a couple of
verses that deal with this. In Proverbs, just one verse in
Proverbs, If you turn to Proverbs, Proverbs
chapter 28. And at verse, chapter 28 of Proverbs
and verse 13, It says, He that covereth his
sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them
shall have mercy. And the covering that's talking
about it is exactly the same as Saul did or as Adam's You're trying to blot it out
or make it go away, and there's no covering for that that we
can provide. But it says, but whoso confesseth
and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Of course, that condition of
forsaking and confessing to God is an act of God himself to do
it because, like I said, I can't think of a time, especially,
like I said, growing up in those situations would be more likely
to come about that that was not the first thing on my mind wasn't
to confess my sin and maybe they'd have mercy on me. covered him,
tried to, and didn't usually work real well. And it didn't work well with
mom or dad, and it sure does not work well with the Lord,
it doesn't wash. But by nature, that's all we
can do, is by works of righteousness, in air quotes, that we think
we can do, doesn't fill the bill. And then, a couple of places I'm going
to look at in Hebrews 4. In Hebrews 4. In the book of
Hebrews 4, starting with verse one. It says, let us therefore fear
lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any
of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel
preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said,
I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. And here up here. a key verse that's the complete
difference in the unregenerate and God's people that he reveals
himself to. The gospel was preached, but
the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it. And that doesn't mean they didn't
believe hard enough. That means that faith is only
that which God can give, which God can create in His people.
That's the difference. How many people worldwide today
will have heard the gospel, words of the gospel from the scriptures? Countless people. And the difference
between those who are the remnant or a remnant of all those people
that the Lord opens the eyes to, puts faith into, to believe and to have life in
them that only he can, only that God can put in. And then verses
eight and nine of the same chapter speaking about those that didn't
enter in to the promise land because of unbelief and didn't
enter into that rest. And verse eight, nine and 10
says, for if Jesus or Joshua, who it's speaking about, had
given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of
another day. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from
his. and those works speaking about
works of righteousness that we think we can do, and that's the
same works, the same situation as
Adam or Saul were in those two cases where their works or their
covering or their reasoning of those things were not sufficient. It just isn't that. And anything
that is not relying upon Our Lord and those things that He
has done, the covering that He provides, as in the Adam and
Eve, that it's all dead works. It's all dead words. It has no meaning. And only those,
as it speaks, that can enter into the rest that God provides
have already ceased from anything they could do to provide that
rest. That's not how it is gained or how it has gotten there. And then, let's see, in Romans chapter 2, two places
in Romans, two places in Romans, actually
in the first chapter to start with for a few verses, Romans
chapter one. Romans chapter one. Paul says here in verse 16, yes, chapter one in verse 16,
it says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it's the power of God under salvation. Everyone that believeth to the
Jew first and the Greek, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith that is written, the just
shall live by faith. for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness." And then it goes down and speaks
about natural man that changed those things of God into lie
and prefers those things over the Creator. And then in chapter
2 of Romans, Last couple of verses, and it
speaks in between of those things of the law and circumcision and
several things that they boast in being Jews and of their heritage. Verse 28 says, For he is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outwardly in the flesh. but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." And then, as it relates to what Saul had to say, and
Adam at that particular spot that we looked at, that those
were outward manifestations of what was not inward at that time. Their heart was not toward God.
Adam made excuse, blamed the wife for something directly opposed
to what God had to say. And at that time, there was a
problem that came up immediately there. And Saul, the same, showed
in his heart what his heart was like. His heart was not to God.
He didn't say, no, Lord said, we do this and we follow that
down the line. And he blamed the people for
something that I'm sure he had his eye on a few things too that
they brought back with him. But that's actions that show
what the heart is like. And as I say here, the true Jew
is one that's inward, not outward, one that God has done a work
in that has circumcised the heart. and not circumcised just the
flesh, but has that and changed His people, gave them a heart
to Him. In Hebrews chapter 11, we're
going to look at Hebrews one more time. In Hebrews chapter 11, In Hebrews 11, starting with
verse 1, and reading down a ways, it says, Now faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it
the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch
was translated that he should not see death, and was not found,
because God had translated him. For before his translation he
had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it's impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. by Noah being warned of God of
things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to
the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith,
Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and went out, not knowing
whither he went. By faith, he sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. Through faith also, Sarah herself
received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a
child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful
who had promised it. Therefore sprang there even of
one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky
in multitude, as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.
These all died in faith, having not received the promise, but
having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced
them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. And here these accounts,
and on in the chapter there it speaks of those by faith that
did those things. And that's the only way, as it
says, possible to please God is by the faith that He gives
His people. It's not by works of righteousness,
again, that we think we have done, or that we think… But by
that faith which is of God are these things done. All these
accounts they have, they were persuaded of this. They said
they saw these things afar off, but were persuaded of them. And
it wasn't just that some guy had a good argument to them about
these things, but persuaded was, God put that in them to believe
and to understand that God promised these things and they were so.
And that, not persuaded by men's persuasion, but by God bringing
these things about. And then Psalm 37, it talks about, we're
not going to turn to there right now, but it talks about God's
saints are preserved in wherever situation and place they put
about and causes them to have that faith and belief in Him
and those things that He has promised. And then in Ezekiel,
turn to Ezekiel, and we've only got two spots to look at for
a second in our time that remains. Ezekiel 37, and we're going to
read two places. This is down at the valley of dry bones in verse
12, speaking about this is the house of Israel. Therefore prophesy
and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people,
I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your
graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Ye shall know
that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people,
and brought you up out of your graves. and shall put my Spirit
in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own
land. Then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and
performed it, said the Lord." And then, in Hebrews again, chapter
12. And with this, we will close. It says, Hebrews 12, verse 1,
Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about, with so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
so easily doth beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy which was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. And verse 2, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. And that's where the gospel
has to be and has to point to Him. And as we looked at a little
bit the other day, when they saw Jesus only, the point being
that Jesus is the point of the gospel and is the gospel and
is the point of the scripture to his people. And with that, thank you for your
patience and your attendance to be here today and be free. And your phone is not doing anything.
It's black. Oh, there it is.