Let's go back to Exodus chapter
5. Exodus chapter 5. This morning after we left, my
wife said, you left out a point. And as she usually is, she was
correct. And it was on the subject, that
first thing that I dealt with, judgment. The judgment that God,
it came to pass that God brought judgment upon the Egyptians. And I said that judgment was
with good reason. Pharaoh deserved it after all
the wages of sin, his death. He got exactly what he deserved. I said, secondly, that judgment
never comes without warning. There are many warnings given
by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and to the rest of the Egyptians
of what God would do. God said, Israel is my firstborn. Let my firstborn go. Otherwise, I will kill your firstborn. And that which I didn't mention,
but I should have, I actually appreciate her mentioning this.
Judgment came to every house in Egypt. He said, well, it didn't come
to the houses of the Israelites. Yes, it did. Yes, it did. Judgment came to every house
in Egypt. God said judgment would come
to every house in Egypt. That was his word. Where did
the Israelites live? They lived in Goshen, which was
in Egypt. Judgment came to their houses
also. Judgment. on a lamb that was
executed by God's command, the blood caught in a basin and that
blood taken outside by the father of the house and then put on
the lentil and on the side posts. Thus, God judged in Egypt. Is that okay? All right. I really
should have brought that out. You know, sometimes I do have
notes. I don't deny that. I need a road
map. Sometimes I stick to the road
map, but I hate to be glued to notes. I think every man of God Everybody
who stands up to speak, every servant of the Lord, should have
a destination where he wants to take the people. Like, I have
some things I want to said before you tonight, and I have an intention
to take you to a particular end, and then leave you with it, and
then you go home, think about it, and pray about it, and so
forth. And I have notes to sort of keep me on that path. But we must never be so glued
to our notes that we, when we feel led to go a little different
direction or not deal with something that we had in our notes, we
should follow the leadership of the Spirit of God. And so
I got diverted this morning and left that out. But judgment,
it came for good reason. It was deserved and it went throughout
the nation of Egypt. Even in the houses of the Israelites,
God got death. The death of a lamb. just like God for our sakes.
He got the death of the Lamb, the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus,
our Lord, whose bloody redemption availed before God. And so God
says to us, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Sometimes we don't see it very
clear. There may be occasions when we
don't see it at all. But God's eye is on the blood. God's eye is ever on the sacrifice
of the Son of God. And our Lord Jesus represents
us as our great intercessor and mediator. And he bears the wounds
in his hands in his feet and all across his body, wounds that
he received as our substitute. And God sees his son and his
sacrifice and he receives us. Utterly amazing, isn't it? The doctrine of substitution
and satisfaction. Before I go into the message
for this evening, let's seek God's face again. Lord, now we
open this portion of Scripture and we seek to discern that which
is before us. And as we study this vast and
glorious subject of who is the Lord, May you give us spiritual
understanding and knowledge. May we know who you are. And
may we know you. For to know the living God is
to have everlasting life. Lord, we're thankful for that
word. the promise that came forth from
the lips of our Savior, the first verse that we read this evening,
where two or three are gathered, gathered by the Spirit, gathered
by your providence, gathered together in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Savior said, I will be in their midst. O mighty Son of God, our Savior,
our Redeemer, we welcome you into our midst. By your Spirit
dwell with us. and open up unto us wondrous
things for us to behold out of your word. And may we see your
glory, and may we magnify your name. May the Lord Jesus be our
boast, and may he be all of our hope of salvation. Bring these things, O God, to
pass for the good of your people, for the exaltation of your name,
and do it through the merits of the Savior, in whose name
I ask these things. Amen. My subject is found in
the second verse of that portion of scripture that Alan read to
us, Exodus chapter 5 and verse 2. It is in the form of a question.
Pharaoh, in response to the words of Moses and Aaron, who said,
thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may
hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And this was the response that
they received. Who is the Lord that I should
obey his voice to let Israel go? Well, that appointed time
for the confrontation between the Lord and Pharaoh begins. The deliverance of Israel is
not going to be immediate. It will be a, well, I guess we
could call it a process. And before things get better
for them, they're going to get worse. but they have been delivered,
a message has been delivered to the Israelites that God had
come down, that God had, God saw their dilemma. God viewed
their affliction and he did so with pity. He did so with great
compassion. In fact, look up in the previous
chapter, chapter four, and verse 27. And the Lord said to Aaron,
go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went and met him
in the Mount of God and kissed him. These brothers had been
separated and now they're back together. And so they kissed
each other as brothers do and they were glad to see each other.
And verse 28, and Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord
who had sent him and all the signs which he had commanded
him. And Moses and Aaron went and
gathered all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron
spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and
he did the signs in the sight of the people." And watch this,
and the people believed. The people believed. And when
they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel,
and that He had looked upon their affliction, Then they bowed their
heads and worshiped. Aaron said, listen, the Lord
has come down. The Lord has observed all that
has happened to you. And the heart of God is with
you. God is for you. And the people then believe,
they believe the word of God. Moreover, they give evidence
of believing the word of God in that they worship God and
there can be no worship of God without a sacrifice. And then
immediately Moses and Aaron enter into the presence of Pharaoh.
And they say to Pharaoh, thus said the Lord God, Let my people
go that they may go yonder and have a feast which consisted
of, according to verse three, worship, offering a sacrifice. Look again in verse three. And
they said, the God of the Hebrews. It's an unusual word, the Hebrews. It's the first time we're introduced
to that word. Hebrews, it means a people whose
origin is from above. That's because they're God's
people. They're the people of the Lord. God said, let my people go. They're my people by divine choice. I chose Israel out of every nation
of the earth. Let my people go. They're the
Hebrews. They're the people who are redeemed
people, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, as shall happen
in chapter 12. And there are people who are
unusual in this world. There are misunderstood people.
This is always true of the people of God. Those who believe God,
those who rest in His Word, those who believe the Lord Jesus Christ,
those who cease from their labor and rest in the Savior, they
rest in the grace of God, they rest in the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and their boast is in the Lord, they brag
on the Lord, they praise the Lord, they're always misunderstood
by the world. That's all built into that word
Hebrews, a people who were misunderstood by the world. In fact, we read
in the book of 1 John chapter 3, the world doesn't know us. They don't know what we're all
about because they didn't know our Savior. They can't comprehend
a group of people coming together on a Sunday evening and here
we are with no entertainment. Nothing exciting as far as the
flesh is concerned going on in this building. All we've done
is read the word of God and seek God's face and hear a musical
presentation that was honoring to our God. You mean that's all
you do? Yes, that's all we do. And the world says, we don't
get it. We don't understand it. I know you don't. Because the
world wants entertainment. The world wants excitement. The
world wants us to give them something that will thrill them. Well,
there is no more thrilling message than the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. That the Savior bore our
sins, that the Savior died in our stead. that he redeemed us,
he reconciled us to God, he has made us the very righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus, that is the most exciting, heart-stirring
story one could ever hear. But the world doesn't get it. They don't get it. You'll notice
how Moses speaks of God in the third verse here in chapter five. And they said, the God of the
heap, the God, not one of many gods. You know, the Egyptians
had something like 80 different gods. And even Pharaoh himself
was considered a god. He had a figure of a falcon. upon his crown, and then a serpent
there, and everybody treated him like a God. They thought
he was a God, and he thought he was a God, much like the natural
man always does. The natural man thinks he's God,
and he's the one who makes the difference. This was the temptation
of Satan to Eve. You shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil. You won't answer to the one true
God anymore. You'll be like God. You'll be
independent of God. Oh, independent. Yeah, you'll
have a free will to do whatever you want to do. And that appealed
to Eve. They had many gods in Egypt. And Moses and Aaron, they tell
Pharaoh, the God, the definite article, there's just one. The God of the Hebrews, the God
of this people that's unusual. He has met with us, isn't that
glorious? He has met with us. Oh, how blessed
is that people when God Almighty meets with them. How glorious is this? The God who made the world, the
God who fashioned all things, the great potter. that one who spoke everything
into existence and who governs all things, who moves all things
to the point that he himself has predestinated. Oh, how glorious
that this God meets with us. He meets with sinners. How astounding. This is one of the accusations
against our Lord Jesus Christ by the Pharisees and the scribes.
He meets with sinners. He receives sinners. He eats
with sinners. He drinks with sinners. He fellowships
with sinners. He communes with sinners. Bless
his name. Yes, he does. And that which
they thought was mockery to Jesus of Nazareth is his glory. Christ Jesus receives sinful
men. He's the God. of the Hebrews
and he's met with us. Now watch it. Let us go. We pray thee three days journey
into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God. We wanna
go worship him out of this place. And you know, there was a couple
of times where Pharaoh said, well, you can go, but you got
to leave your herds and your flocks behind. Moses said, no,
that's not going to happen. Can't worship God without sacrifice. Can't worship God without lamb.
Can't worship God without blood. We're not gonna leave our animals
with you because we're going out there to worship God and
they're going with us. And the scripture says, Moses
said, not a hoof shall be left behind. We're all going. Another occasion he said, well,
you can all go except for your kids. Well, kids are going too.
We're all going. We're going out of here triumphant
through our God. Watch this, and sacrifice unto
our God. Oh, that personal. He's our God. It isn't just the God and not
just your God. This is our God. This is our
God. And he says, if we don't do that,
if we don't worship God, now you watch this. If we don't go
worship God, He'll fall upon us with pestilence or with the
sword. There's a warning to all of us.
You will worship God by means of a sacrifice or judgment's
coming your way. God's coming after you. He's
coming after you with a sword in vengeance. Lord, don't come
after me with a sword. Come after me with your grace.
Come after me with your mercy. Come after me with your salvation. Let my people go. They're my
people by divine choice. They're my people by power. They're
my people by grace. And Pharaoh says, who is the
Lord that I should obey him? Who is
the Lord? I don't know your God, but you see this is eternal life
to know God. That's what our Lord Jesus said
in John chapter 17 in his high priestly prayer, the night before
is to be crucified. There He is in the garden, praying,
seeking God's face, magnifying God, glorifying God. And He says,
this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. And you ask, who is
the Lord? Who is this God? My friend, you
don't have eternal life. Because to know Him is to have. eternal life. Yes, this brings
it a home to us. Is he your God? Let's put it that way. Is he
your God? Is this the God you worship?
Or is this just the God that you give kind of lip service
to and that sort of thing? Is this the God you honor? The
God you relish? The God you must have? The God
of glory? Pharaoh says, I don't even know
who He is. Who is He? I know who my gods are. You know,
they worship the cobra, they worship the cow, they worship
lice, they worship gnats, they worship frogs, they worship birds,
they worship all manner of four-footed beasts, they worship everything
under the sun except God. And the thing that could be said
about the Egyptian people is the same thing that the apostle
Paul said in Athens on Mars Hill. As he saw all the religious relics
and all the statues and all the idols, he said, I perceive you're
a very superstitious people, you're a very religious people.
And then he said, I saw another statue and it said to the unknown
God, He said, that's what I want to tell you about, the God you
don't know. Pharaoh, you got all your gods. Of course, they have ears, but
they can't hear. And they have eyes, but they
can't see. There's nothing about them that
is worthy of worship or adoration or reverence. The God you don't
know is our God. and we wanna go out and sacrifice
to Him in the desert. Who is the Lord that I should
obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord. What a self-indictment. I know
not the Lord. Neither will I let Israel go. Now to be sure, There are certain
things today, let's just kind of bring it up to today now.
There are certain things about the Lord that are generally believed
and generally embraced and generally held in common by everyone who
professes to be associated with, and I'll put this in quotation
mark, Christian religions, end quote. Religion today, Christianity
I should say today, has a great big umbrella that the world just
puts in everybody who says they believe the Bible, okay, you're
a Christian, you're a Christian. That would include denominations,
Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Church of God,
Church of Christ, Church of England, Anglican, Episcopal, and many,
many more. And all of them profess to be
Christians, and they say they believe some things, at least
to some degree or to some extent, all of them believe God is spirit,
God is eternal, invisible, unchangeable. All of them say God is Trinity,
Father, Son, and Spirit. All of them say God is holy,
wise, good. All of them say God is omnipotent,
omniscient, and omnipresent. That is, God is all-powerful,
God is all-knowing, and God is everywhere. All of them would
say, to an extent, at least, God is just, God is true, and
God is faithful. All of them readily embrace the
word of God that says God is love, and that God is merciful. and gracious and long suffering
and forgiving. And all of the religions that
I've just mentioned, they all believe God sent his son into
this world some 2000 years ago, that he was born of a virgin,
that he lived a perfect life in conformity to God's law and
that he was crucified on a Roman cross and that he rose again
the third day. And all of them believe that
he's gone back to heaven, someday he's coming back. All of them
believe something about future judgment. And all of these, they profess
to believe the teachings of the Bible. And they all say they
pray to God. Now, all of these things that
I have mentioned are certainly characteristics of God's nature,
attributes of his being, works of God, which most all religious
people, at least to some degree, recognize and set forth. Both
Baptists and Methodists believe these things. Presbyterians and
Pentecostals, Catholics and Charismatics believe these things. In fact,
I believe these things, don't you? All these things that I
mentioned, I believe them. I believe them wholeheartedly.
And I believe you embrace these as well. But there's something
else, another attribute which is absolutely essential to the
very character of God, which most religious people, most people
who say, I'm a Christian, they absolutely detest. They despise it. Oh, they'll
sing, oh, how I love Jesus with beaming faces. But when they preach, when they
hear preaching, about the very core of God's being. That which is essential to God
being God, they become enraged. When I am around false religion,
which most of professing Christianity, hear me, is just false religion. That's all it is. And when I'm
around these false religious people today, here's what I wanna
ask them. Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? And they are as ignorant of God
really as Pharaoh was. They're just as ignorant. I charge
this religious generation today of spiritual ignorance, ignorance
of God, Ignorance of the mess we are in? Ignorance of what
happened in the Garden of Eden? Ignorance of what happened upon
the cross of Calvary? Ignorance of what happens in
the heart of a sinner who's saved by the grace of God? They're
absolutely ignorant. They're ignorant of what happens
in us because they're ignorant of who God is. Who is the Lord? And don't be a fool and answer
like that jokester I heard on television. God is whoever you
imagine him to be. What an ignoramus. He will find
out who God is one day, for sure. If we're to find the answer to
who is the Lord, the Lord's got to give us the answer. And He
does give us the answer in His Word. There is, you see, one
attribute of God which distinguishes Him from all the idols of men. In fact, if you read through
the book of God, you will find out it is this attribute of God
which He sets before us most often as indicating who He is. And because God has chosen to
use this one glorious attribute above all others to distinguish
himself as God, when I am asked to answer the question, who is
the Lord? It seems most reasonable to me
to answer it by setting forth this one distinguishing attribute
of God. He is absolutely sovereign. That's what men don't know. He
does as He pleases, uninfluenced by anything or anybody outside
of His own being. God always does His pleasure.
And we've heard such awful things about God. Don't you hate to hear people
say, I think God's trying to tell me something. Oh, God doesn't try to do anything.
God does. God does His will. Maybe it would
be good for us if the Lord did to some of us what He did to
Nebuchadnezzar. He made him like a beast of the
field. And all of his nails grew like
birds. And he ate grass with the four
footed beasts. Until he learned, until he found
out he was nothing. And God is everything. And then,
God teaching him, God gave his reason and his mind back to him. He said, I praised and blessed
the God of heaven and earth. who does his will among the armies
of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou, whose dominion is
an everlasting dominion? Men today say, Won't you let
Jesus be your Lord? There's another stupid statement. Let him be your Lord? Let Jesus
control your life. You can't let Jesus do anything. Jesus does his will everywhere. And he'll do with you according
to his will too. We're just covered up with stupid
religious sayings today. And we have been for years and
years. Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Let me give you a few examples
of who the Lord is in divine providence in all things that
happen. First of all, just give you a
few illustrations. First of all, the fall of man.
We're dealing with that, of course, in our Wednesday night study
in Genesis, the third chapter. And so I direct a question to
each of you. Could God have stopped Adam from
committing his transgression? There are only two answers now,
yes or no. If your answer is no, he couldn't
stop him, then Adam is God and God is not God. If the answer
is yes, God could have stopped him, then the question is, why
didn't he stop him? When the serpent came to Eve
and tempted her with the fruit from that forbidden tree, could
not God have said to the serpent, get out of my garden? Well, sure
he could have. He could have said to Satan,
go back to hell where you came from. God is God over Satan, don't
forget that. Somehow now the men today think,
you know, there's a good and evil there in a tug of war. God's
pulling this way and the devil's pulling this way and God pulls
this way. I think God will finally edge
out the fight. You just don't know who God is.
It isn't even close. It's really no contest. The devil is God's junkyard dog. The devil is God's Satan. The devil is God's evil force
that he uses to accomplish his purpose. Don't you ever, ever
entertain the thought that the devil or the demons or anybody
else operates independent of God. That's just not so. All things are governed by God. That which happened in the Garden
of Eden happened under the authority of God, according to the will
of God, and gave then God the glorious opportunity to manifest
the riches of His grace in the salvation of sinners who were
slain in the fall of Adam. We died in Adam, but in Christ
Jesus, we live to the glory of God. You see, the fall of man
had to happen. It had to happen. Do we not read in the scriptures,
all things are of God? No exceptions. Who was the dominant power in
the Garden of Eden? It wasn't the devil, it was God. It was God. You see, this glorious
diamond of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, his substitutionary
sacrifice, this glorious diamond is set upon the dark, dismal,
black background of the fall of Adam, and therefore God gets
all the glory. We just bless his name. And then there's the example
of Job's situation when his family died. God killed 10 children. You say,
well, no, God didn't kill his children. God doesn't do that. The devil did it. I beg your pardon. God sent the
wind. Whose hands are the winds in? They're in the hands of God. And God sent a whirlwind where
Job's 10 children were meeting and having a feast. Job had already
offered a sacrifice up for them because of their sins. He shed
the blood for them. And then God sees Job's ten children
gathered together and they're eating and drinking and having
a glorious family reunion. And for whatever reason, Job
and Mrs. Job weren't there. And God sent
a whirlwind and tore the place apart and killed all of his children. Well, you know it broke his heart.
Of course it did. He arose when the word came to
him. He arose, he rent his mantle,
he shaved his head, he fell down on the face, he worshiped God. He said, naked came I into the
world and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
He didn't say the devil did it. He didn't say the weather forecaster
should have sent us a warning. Now, he recognized who has the
issues of life and death in his hand? God does. And God had ordained that Job's
10 children, though born in different years, he ordained they'd all
die at the same time. And really, they all lived a
full life and lived just as many days as God ordained for them
to have. The death of Job's family. The
tragedies of the world. I want you to look with me in
Amos. And I'm gonna give you two scriptures
here. And if you don't wanna go to
the book of Amos with me, if you have difficulty finding it,
that's okay. I'll read it to you. Find Daniel,
Hosea, Joel, Amos. And I wanna read Amos chapter
three to you. Amos chapter three. And I'll
give you just a few seconds to get there. One of the minor prophets,
Amos chapter three and verse six. Shall a trumpet be blown in the
city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be, watch it, evil,
evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? This virus, this COVID-19 virus,
there are all kinds of theories where it came from. I suppose it came from China. Men argue about that. I have
to say it came from Europe. It came from heaven. That's where
it came from. I hadn't heard anybody say that.
It came from heaven. Whose virus is it? It's God's virus. Everything
belongs to God. Shall there be evil in a country,
in a world, in a country, in a city and the Lord hath not
done it? Evil here means things that are
disagreeable, things that are hurtful, things that are wicked,
things that are distressful. Things that seem to us to be
an adversary. Shall there be evil? And God
hath not done it. Well, preacher, you surely don't
believe that God has sent this virus that's killing so many
people. That's not a question in my mind.
I absolutely know it's of God. Whoever on earth he used to start
it, It's of God. Let me give you another reference,
and you really need to read this one with me. It's in Isaiah chapter
45. In Isaiah chapter 45. Who is the Lord? Well, Mr. Pharaoh, listen to what the Lord
says about himself. Isaiah 45, verse five, you there? Here's what the Lord has to say.
I am the Lord. And there is none else. There
is no God beside me. I'm here by myself. And nobody reigns but me. There aren't co-sovereigns, there's
one sovereign, God says, that's Me. I girded thee I clothed you with
honor and with strength. And of course, he's talking about
a man by the name of Cyrus, that he's going to raise up to liberate
the captive people. And Cyrus is a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Cyrus, the Lord even refers to
him as being his shepherd. And God's going to use Cyrus.
And God says, I girded thee, I clothed you, I put you in the
position where you're at. Every ruler, every king, every
priest, not priest, but every prince, every president, all
throughout the world, occupy the position they occupy because
God put them there. I'm all worried about the election
that's coming up in November. Well, you needn't worry. You
needn't worry. God'll take care of everything. Well, who's he gonna put in the
White House? Well, it appears to me to be
the one of two men. It's down to two. Which one you
think it'll be? the man he's going to use to
fulfill his purpose, whoever that is. Don't sweat it. Don't
worry about it. You can't change anything. Watch this. He says, I girded
thee though thou hast not known me. I'm going to put you in power. That's what God does. We say
we believe in sovereignty, but we don't much believe it, do
we? And I say we don't much believe
it because if we really believed it, like we ought to, these things
wouldn't worry us. Hey, in a very real sense, I'm
not a citizen of this country. Well, what's going to happen
to the United States of America? I don't know. I don't know, I
think we're going down the tubes, maybe. Don't know of any empire
that just kept on going. But I'll tell you a nation that'll
last forever. That's the people of God. Nothing negative can ever happen
to us. Hey, the children of Israel,
they're typical of the people of God. Where were they? 430
years in Egypt. And they were slaves for a good
bit of that time, building the pyramids. That was of God too. Look at verse six. That they
may know, who's they? Everybody on the top side of
God's earth. That they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord. and there is none
else. There's your answer, Mr. Pharaoh.
That's who the Lord is. He is the Lord, there's none
else. Now watch this, I form light like a potter. In fact, the word form means
to form as a potter would do, to fashion things according to
his will and create darkness. I make peace. and create evil. Is that what your Bible says?
That's what my Bible says. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these. I, the Lord, do all these. And
so you see, even for the people of God, We enjoy a light breeze in the
summertime. In the evening, it is so pleasant. And we say, the Lord is sending
a gentle breeze. Oh, we bless the name of God,
and we do, and well, we should. And then God raises up two storms
down in the Gulf. Uh-oh. Uh-oh! Here comes these
hurricanes! You don't mean to tell me God's
in the hurricanes. Well, I'm not telling you, the
Bible's telling you. And we enjoy good health. Oh,
the Lord's so good to me. I've had such good health. And then he afflicts us with
cancer. Oh no. Well now, wait a minute. If the good health is from the
Lord, so is the bad health. That's what he says. I form the
light and I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. even the tragedies of the world. Well, I got something else. Let
me see if I got time to show this to you. Go to 2 Samuel 16.
We're trying to answer this. Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Go to 2 Samuel 16. It's a really
interesting story. You know, David, his son Absalom,
oh boy, he conspired against his father And he stole the hearts
of the people and Absalom reigned in the stead of David and he
just run David out of Jerusalem. And things sure look bad. David's still got a band of faithful
followers with him. But Absalom's got the crowds
and Absalom has got the power. And so David goes over into an
area in the land of Benjamin. Verse five, chapter 16. And when David came to Behurim,
behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of
Saul. whose name was Shimei, the son of Jireh. He came forth
and he cursed still as he came. He comes out and he's just cussing
David. Verse six says, he threw stones
at David. and had all the servants of King
David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his
right hand and on the left." In other words, this man came
out and threw stones at David, even though David has mighty
men on the right side and on the left side, his bodyguards. And this guy just throwed rocks
as fast as he can throw them, and he's cussing the name of
David. And then verse seven, thus said
a man by the name of Shimei when he cursed. And Shimei was, he
was one of the sons of David's sister. And he's a brother of Joab. He's one of David's mighty men,
according to 2 Chronicles 2. Shimei, when he cursed, come
out, come out, Come out, I'm sorry, I'll get to the servant
of David in a minute, but verse seven, thus said Shimei when
he cursed, come out, come out, thou bloody man, thou man of
Belial, you're a son of Satan. The Lord hath returned upon thee
all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast
reigned, and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of
Absalom thy son, and behold, thou art taken in thy mischief,
because thou art a bloody man. Now verse nine, here's the guy
I'm looking for. And then said Abishai, the son of Zeruiah. Abishai is one of the sons of
David's sister. It's his Joab's brother, Abishai. He says to the king, why should
this dead dog curse my Lord, the king? Let me go over, I pray
thee, and take off his head. I'll cut his head off right now.
I won't think twice about it. Now watch this. And the king
said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto
him, Curse David. Who shall then say, wherefore
hast thou done so? Do you understand what the king
is saying? He's saying to Abishai, listen,
this man could not have cursed me and mocked me and threw rocks
at me unless it was a will of God. See, God does control all
things. He's sovereign. And David said
to Abishai and to all his servants, behold, my son, which came forth
out of my bowels, he seeketh my life. That's Absalom. How
much more now may this Benjamite do it? Leave him alone. Let him curse. For the Lord hath
bidden him." God told him to do it. God ordained this. You say, wow. That's what I say
too, wow. You see, everything is under
the hand of God. You know, when bad things happen
to us, when we consider bad things, we're always looking for somebody
to lay the blame on. In fact, if you watch television
very much, sure are a lot of lawyer commercials, aren't they?
Dial 1-800, let's sue. Let's blame somebody. We can
blame somebody. And that's what Abishai said,
I'll cut his head off right now. David said, leave him alone. He couldn't have done this unless
God said to him, go curse David. Go curse David. Let me tell you
something. All those religions I mentioned
there toward the middle of the message that go under the umbrella
of Christianity, they don't know the God that does that. They're
ignorant of the God who governs all things according to the good
pleasure of his will. Look at verse 12, it may be. that the Lord will look on mine
affliction and that the Lord, he will requite me good for his
cursing today. It may be God will bring good
out of this." David just trusted God. We're ready to blame everybody. Oh, so-and-so said this about
me. I guess God ordained for him to say that. This person
mistreated me this way. God ordained that too. Now, I'm not saying men aren't
responsible for their actions. Now, don't misunderstand me.
This man who dared to curse God's servant, David, whom Samuel had
anointed to be the king of Israel, he was doing wrong and he meant
it for evil. But as Joseph said to his brothers,
you meant it for evil. God meant it for good, and that's
what we've always got to remember. The motivations of men may very
well be evil, and God uses evil men, but God means no evil toward
his children. And the only one who can bring
good out of evil deeds is our God. That's what David said. And look at verse 13. And as
David and his men went by the way, Shimei went along on the
hillside over against him and he cursed as he went through,
threw stones at him and cast dirt, cast dust. And this guy,
he's no let up. Just cursing all the way, throwing
rocks all the way, throwing dirt on David. David said, don't pay
him any mind. This is of the Lord. And you
remember that next time somebody mistreats you. They couldn't
do it. They couldn't do it unless some
had worked in the purpose of God for your good. Oh, that's hard to remember that,
isn't it? Because we don't like anybody
mistreating us. Man cussing David and David says,
leave him be. God just mouthing off as David
rides by. I'll get him. My sword is sharp. I'll take care of him. No, leave
him alone. God will get vengeance someday.
Yeah. And then verse 14, and the king
and all the people that were with him came weary. They came
in weary. and they refreshed themselves. Oh, could we be refreshed this
evening knowing who the Lord is, that he's the God of absolute
providence and sovereignty? And the last illustration is
the death of our Lord Jesus. No more evil deed has ever been
done in this world than the crucifixion of the Son of God. Who did it? People are all the time arguing
about who killed Jesus. I saw a Catholic and a Jewish
rabbi debating this. if they'd just go to the Word
of God. I know who killed Jesus. The
Father dead. That's who killed Him. God took the sword of His vengeance
and He thrust it into the heart of the Son of God. And He died
for our sins according to the Scriptures. That God might be
just and justifier of all who believe on the Son of God. Yeah, who is the Lord? Nobody's got to tell Pharaoh
now. He found out when he and his armies followed the Israelites
into the Red Sea. Pursue, I will pursue. Go ahead. Go ahead. You're sealing your
own damnation. And God's people are safe, redeemed
by price and by power, safe on the other side in the waters
of judgment. Pharaoh went to hell. And God had said for this same
purpose, I raised you up to make my power known, to manifest to
all my power. We're still talking tonight about
what God did to Pharaoh. God used him, cursed him, drowned
him, put him in hell where he's been for lo these thousands of
years. That's who the Lord is, Mr. Pharaoh. He's a God of sovereignty, and
God said, I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful, and whom
I will, I'll harden. And God hardened that old boy's
heart. Oh Lord, don't harden my heart. Don't leave me to myself. Deal with me in grace and in
mercy. Who is the Lord? He's my Savior. That's who He is. Bless, O God,
the word that has gone forth this evening. Forgive us for
our sins. Forgive the sin even in this
message and in our reception of it, and
even the sin in our prayer. Because all of our efforts at
worship come forth from a heart that is polluted. We're thankful
that there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
And we bow before you and we worship. And like the Israelites,
we believe you and we worship you through the blood, the dear
Holy Lamb of God. Bless these words for the good
of your dear sheep, and may they magnify the name of the shepherd
of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name I ask these
things. Amen.