It is a blessing each time that
we read in the fourth chapter of John that he must need to
go through Samaria. You know, there's a lot contained
in that little phrase, he must need to go through Samaria. And
this song speaks of that. To save from everlasting woe,
an object of his care, behold him through Samaria go. A sheep
had wandered there. The Lord does seek the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, and He'll lose none of those whom the Father
has given Him. What a glorious thought that
is. How wonderful it is. I was thinking there as Brother
Al was mentioning the command of the
Lord to the children of Israel to drive out or to destroy the
heathen and all of their high places and their graven images
and all of these things. And I could not help but think of
how that the idol of free will is one which is rampant in our
land. At one time, among the majority
of those that preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was kind
of an unusual thing or it was a lesser thing to hear men preach
to men of their free will ability to seek the Lord and find Him
and do all great things for God. But today, because that was not
driven out, And, of course, we know that all these things are
in the hand of God to bring them to pass as he will, to show us. It's necessary, Paul said, that
there be heresies among you, that they which are approved
might be made known. And so it's necessary that false
doctrines arise. Paul told His hearers, those
to whom he wrote letters, he told them repeatedly that these
things would come to pass. He told the Ephesian elders that
of their own selves would some arise speaking perverse things.
And there really is no more perverse doctrine. In connection with what we read
about in the scripture concerning the sovereign God of the universe
and how men are saved, there's no more perverse doctrine than
the doctrine of free will. That a man can by his own choice
in his own time, whenever he gets ready, he can seek the Lord,
he can find Him. and how many multitudes and millions
of dollars have been spent sending people out into the world to
try to persuade men to let the Lord save them. But you see,
that's a perverse doctrine because it's not true. The Lord saves His people. I
remember listening one time Brother Ralph Barnard, who was
quite a powerful preacher in his day, and the Lord used him
in great measure. He was not a perfect man. But
you could count on one thing, that whenever he preached, men
would know that if they were going to be saved, it was going
to be by the grace of God, or they weren't going to be saved.
And he said one time he was preaching in a meeting, and the people
got really upset with what he was preaching. And so they wanted
to talk to him, and after the meeting, they had a meeting,
and one of the fellows stood up and he said, Brother Barnard,
doesn't God give every man a chance to be saved? And Brother Barnard
said that was the only question that was asked because he said,
well, salvation is not by chance. See, salvation is not by chance.
God's not giving everybody a chance and a fair deal and a square
deal and a fair chance. It's not like that. Salvation
is by the order and purpose of Almighty God. He saves whom He
will. And if any of us are saved, it's
going to be because by His grace and His mercy, He called us out
of darkness and into the light, and He showed us the glories
of Christ as the Savior and Sinner. Who maketh they to differ from
another? Why does one man believe and another does not? It has
nothing to do with his free will. It has to do with the will of
God, the purpose of God. And that's an humbling doctrine.
The natural man hates that doctrine. You'll not find the multitudes
of religious people flocking to hear such a thing, because
they hate it. Because it takes all of the endeavors of men away. There's not one thing that a
man can put a hold of his hand and say, well, I did this for
the Lord. And the Lord's going to take
notice of me. The Lord said, when you have done all that is
required of you, At that time, then you just need to say, I'm
an unprofitable servant. You couldn't earn one blessing
of God if you did everything that you possibly could think
of to do. Because you'd have only done
what you should have done. Salvations by grace. Free and
sovereign grace. The glorious news is that the
Lord is the Savior of sinners. And he saves sinners. And that's
the only folks that he does save. And so, you know, we can give
hope to sinners. I can't give hope to a righteous
man at all. Man has got something to bring
to God. I have no hope for him. But the
man who has nothing, the gospel comes as a glorious message. Man who's been stripped naked
and bare before Almighty God and knows himself to be a lost
and undone sinner, the gospel is for him. The Lord said, come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. He is the Savior of sinners.
And he's in the business of saving sinners. Thanks be unto the Lord. May
we drive out the idols of men with every message that we preach.
And we have no desire to make men uncomfortable except that
it would cause them to see what they are by nature and their
inability to come to the Lord by their own power. If we can
accomplish that, we believe that that's a good thing. You know,
when men are mourning their sin before God, that's a good thing. The angels, the Scripture says,
rejoiced. There's joy in heaven over one
sinner that repented. What a glorious thing. Well,
we're looking here in Psalms. Psalm 114. Says, when Israel went out of
Egypt, the house of Jacob, from a people of strange language,
Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it
and fled. Jordan was driven back. The mountains
skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ail thee,
O thou sea, that thou fleddest, thou Jordan, that thou wast driven
back? Ye mountains that ye skipped
like rams, and ye little hills like lambs, tremble, thou earth,
at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of
Jacob, which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint
into a fountain of waters." Now, I believe that in every passage
of Scripture in the Bible that the Lord Jesus Christ is there. If we don't see Him, that's due
to our weakness, not because the truth of God does not set
it forth. And this Psalm is no different.
Now, whenever we consider the Lord's dealings with the house
of Israel and bringing them into Egypt, that was not an end in
itself. Now, of course, if you were a
Jew, if you'd been raised, a Jewish home, this would be one of the
things that would be at the very center of your upbringing and
knowledge would be the Passover. I mean, that's the highlight
of the Jewish existence. When the Lord delivered them
out of Egypt, and He killed the firstborn, but He passed over,
the first morn of the house of Israel where the blood was sprinkled
on the doorpost and lintels of the house. And so that remains
even to this day a very strong part of their thought process,
and they rejoice in it. And it was a glorious thing.
I mean, if you'd been there, if I'd been there, that would
have been a glorious thing. I mean, I can understand why
people would consider that to be a glorious thing. But all
of that occurred not so that the Lord would perpetuate or
that he would have a people that revered the Passover. All of that occurred that he
might point to the one who is our Passover. You see, all of
this was just setting the stage. Everything that happened to Israel,
the giving of the law, all of the events that occurred in the
house of Israel and the prophecies that the Lord gave to them, every
one of them were given for one reason. And that was to exalt
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer of Israel. Now blindness
has in part happened to Israel even unto this day. The natural
nation of Israel, I mean by and large the Jews because they would
go about to establish their own righteousness and they would
hold on to these types and foreshadows thinking these things to be the
substance. Blindness has overtaken them
and the veil is upon their eyes and they cannot see these things.
The Lord surely can remove that veil. He sees fit to do so. But
you see, blindness has happened to them, and that's been a benefit
to us. Because it's through the blinding
of Israel that the glories of the gospel is manifested unto
those who live in the present time. Because you see, those
who dwelt in Old Testament times, they don't have the privilege
that we had. And in a measure, the Jews as
a people, they dwell in Old Testament times. Just like a lot of churches,
unfortunately today, they still dwell in Old Testament times.
They don't understand the concept. that is set forth in the full
and free redemption that is in Jesus Christ. And they go about
through various means and practices and obligations that are laid
upon people to establish their own righteousness. Now, the Lord pointed out in
the temple They had the collection box and these, a lot of rich
men came along and they put in, shelled out the coins, you know,
they put the money in there. The Lord took no notice of them.
They were putting money in there. But see, they were pretty satisfied
with that. The Lord told the Pharisees,
he says, you tithe mint and ice and cumin You pick off the leaves
of the plants each morning so that you're sure that you give
a tenth of them unto the Lord. You do all of these things. You're
precise. You are the picture of morality. They did all those things. But the Lord took notice of one
little old lady that came along and she didn't have anything. She had a couple of pennies,
maybe even less than a penny. Now, most people probably wouldn't
stoop down on the ground to pick up a penny. You know, a penny is not worth
a whole lot. I mean, you can save pennies and you hear, you
know, well, pennies make dollars whether they do, but it takes
a bunch of them. You can have an old sack full
of pennies and you won't have much money. But this woman cast
in two pennies or less into the treasury and the Lord said that
this woman is given more than all of them because she gave
all that she had. Now religion never would have
men give all that they have because they want to save something for
themselves. But the Lord is pleased to work in His people's heart
to give them a desire to give Him everything. See, that's the
work of the Spirit of God in men. It's not just to cause them
to have a thought process whereby they want to do a little something
for God. Religious men want to do something
for God. I mean, there's churches today
that they're jacking people up right and left trying to get
them to do stuff for God. Well, the Lord doesn't need anybody's
help. Now, He's pleased to use men for His own purpose. Give men the privilege to declare
the gospel. But He doesn't need them. He's
not waiting and wondering if somebody's going to do it. You
know, He's not wringing His hands and weeping and hoping that just
somebody will go out and do something for it. Oh, He's raising up men
according to the good pleasure of His will and sending them. How shall they preach except
they be sent? Oh, the glory of God in all of
these things. But anyway, I got off my track
there, didn't I? But the Passover is to the nation
of Israel that central thing that they hold on to. And it's
something that they can do once a year. They can put on their
little hat and they can all gather around the table and they can
go through these motions and they can feel good about themselves.
Well, we did it. That's the same way a lot of
people do when they come to church on Sunday. You know, they pat themselves
on the back and say, well, yeah, we did pretty good. We could
have went fishing or we could have went swimming or we could
have did all kinds of stuff. But no, not us. We turned aside
and went to the Lord's house. You know, and they pat themselves
on the back and they go along their way. And you know what
the Lord considers all such things as that? Filthy rags. It's nothing. It's dumb. It's garbage. It's of no use whatsoever. Because the Lord is that one
who desires truth in the inward parts. That's what he said to
the woman at the well. She said, Lord, you know, we're
pretty religious people. I mean, our creed and our religion
says we need to worship down here, and you bunch of Jews,
y'all say we need to worship up at Jerusalem. Well, which
one's right? He said, woman, you don't know what you're talking
about. He said, you're completely ignorant of what the truth is.
He said, the hour's coming, and now is, when they that worship
the Father shall worship Him in spirit and in truth. And so
it is, dear brethren, that hour is here. If a man will worship
the Lord, it must be in spirit and truth. It can't be by anything
that I can impart to you. It can't be by anything that
I can instruct you in doing. See, you can't teach a man to
worship the Lord. They've got these guys now running
around that are called worship leaders. They can lead you in
worship. How are you going to do that? Keep silence, all created things,
and wait your maker's nod. My soul stands trembling while
she sings the honors of her God. Life, death, and hell, and worlds
unknown hang on his firm decree. And he asked no man, any part
of it. And so when we read here, In
Psalm 114 it says, When Israel went out of Egypt to the house
of Jacob from the people of a strange language, Judah was his sanctuary,
and Israel his dominion. Who is it speaking about? The
Lord. You see, the Lord was pleased
to dwell with the people of Israel. Now we know that The Lord has
a people in every kindred, tribe, and tongue. And there are no
doubt, as we read through the Scriptures, many of those Old
Testament saints, I mean, the book of Hebrews plainly tells
us. that they were believers. They believed insofar as they
could see. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims
in the earth and that they looked for a city which had foundations
whose builder and maker is God. Now is that not the same for
all of the saints in all ages? Do we not all confess the same
thing? But you see, we are a greatly
privileged people because we live in a time when the mysteries
of God are no longer seen in a veiled way. God who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son. Now you've got a lot of these
so-called prophets and stuff going around and writing books
and telling folks, well, you know, the last days are coming.
Well, they're too late. They're too late. Anybody that
says the last days are yet to occur has missed it. Because
the last days are now. This is the last time. That's
what John said. He said, my little children,
this is the last time. There's not coming another age.
This is it. The Scripture knows of two times,
the former times and the latter days. And the latter days have
come upon us. This is the day of salvation.
This is the day when Jesus Christ has been revealed. The Lord doesn't
have another message. There's no more mysteries to
be unveiled. Now some people are sitting around
and they listen to all these cats talking about what's happening
in the book of Revelation and they can tell you this and they
can tell you that and they just sit there with rapt attention.
What mystery is going to be unfolded? Well, brethren, the mystery has
been unfolded. Christ has been revealed. Christ
is the Savior of sinners. If you want to know what the
meaning of the book of the Revelation is, read the first verse. You know where it starts off?
The revelation of Jesus Christ. And people wonder, well, what's
the book about? Well, it tells you right there at the start,
the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is the unfolding of Christ
as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. See, any time
you go to the book of the Revelation or any book in the Bible as far
as that goes, but especially the book of the Revelation, if
you go there and you don't see Christ, magnified and glorified
in the unfolding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the redemption
of sinners, then you have missed what that book is about. It doesn't
matter if you can, as Brother Thomas used to say, you can identify
the hairs on the horse's tail. You can say all those. You can
see all these things. I'm amazed. You'd think that
by now they would have run out of of stuff, you know, to tell
you what all this stuff means. I mean, there's books, you couldn't
put all the books in this room here that's been written. I'm
talking about individual volumes of books that's been written
supposedly dissecting and saying what all the things in the book
of the Revelation mean. You couldn't put them in here.
And yet they're constantly, even at the present time, coming up
with more stuff all the time. And missing what the whole thing's
about. It's about Christ. And so, brethren, when we read
the Scriptures, we must see Christ. Look for Christ. Judah was His sanctuary. Israel,
His dominion. Now, you know when... I can't call his name... Elijah.
When Elijah went up on Mount Carmel and He challenged the
prophets of Baal to a duel, more or less. He said, you know, you're
going to pray to your God, and I'm going to pray to mine. And
the God that answers by fire, he's the God. And whenever the
prophets of Baal, they went first. And I can just imagine Elijah
sitting back over there, leaning up on a rock. He probably had
him a twig, picking his teeth, and he was watching them. And
they went about praying, and Karen said they cut their flesh.
I mean, they was really getting with it. I mean, they were getting
down, and they were serious in what they were doing. And Elijah said, well, Matt,
wait a minute. Where is he at? See, he mocked
them. The Scripture says the Lord shall
have the wicked in derision. And that's what this, as I read
this, is what it is. There's a mocking going on. The
Lord's speaking to the creation. As if creation, you see, man
thinks that creation just kind of goes along on its own. And
God, every now and then, He'll step in and intervene. Have you
ever said God intervened in something? Don't ever say that. I mean,
God doesn't intervene. God directs things. He doesn't
intervene. In other words, the thing is
not just going along and He says, uh-oh, I better do something.
No, God directs all things. And so, as Elijah's sitting there as
these prophets of Baal, and they're crying and praying and doing
all whatever they were doing, and Baal's not answering, he
said, well, maybe he's going on a journey. He said, maybe
he went somewhere, maybe he's just not at home today. Or he said, actually, another
thing he said was, if you look at the original language, he
said, or maybe he's gone to the bathroom. I mean, how we would
say it. You know, maybe he's indisposed. Maybe he's not able to hear you
just yet. Keep on going. And so finally,
they got wore out, I guess, and they, you know, nothing happened.
So he said, bring some water around here, we want to really
make this thing. Now see, he's pouring it on because he knows
who the God of heaven is. He's not dealing with some little
pipsqueak God. And so we know what happened.
The Lord sent down fire. and burned up the sacrifice. It says it dried up the water
that was in the ditch around the altar because they had filled
it up in such a conflagration. Because the Lord would demonstrate
the glory of His power. And so it is that this psalm
is like that. It says, What ail thee, O thou
seed that thou fleddest? I mean, if the earth and all
these things are so great, as the scientists tell us, oh, all
this stuff is just kind of going along in its way, and I mean,
we've got global warming, and we need to do something about
this, and we've got to figure out a way. The earth is getting
too crowded, so we're going to send people to Mars. I mean,
we're going to do all these things. And the Lord said, Thou seeth
that thou fleddest." I mean, here's the Red Sea. He said, what happened to you?
You just rolled back. Why? Because of the power of
Almighty God. You see, none of these things
that happen in the earth have any standing on their own, no
ability. And why is that? I mean, why
would the Lord Ye mountains that skip like rams, ye little hills
like lambs, tremble thou, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob." Now when was that seen
in its most stark reality? It was when Jesus Christ hung
on Calvary's cross and the Scripture says that there was darkness
that came upon the earth when the Son of God poured out
His life's blood unto me. Oh, tremble thou earth at the
presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. As brother Al said there a moment
ago, Peter's sermon, he said, ye have taken him and by wicked
hands have crucified him. But how did he say it occurred?
He said according to the predestined purpose of Almighty God. The
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God didn't just know
it was going to happen. You know, it's a terrible thing
that the word foreknowledge has been twisted in modern concepts. to mean that God knew something
ahead of time. Foreknowledge doesn't mean God
knew something ahead of time. Of course He knew something ahead
of time. Scripture says He knows in from the beginning. I mean,
He made it. Why does He know it? You see,
He knows it because He ordained it to come to pass. He doesn't
know it because it happened and He looked down through history
and He said, well, here it happened. No. He ordered it to occur. You see, before there was ever
a sinner, The Scripture says that Christ was ordained. He
was that Lamb which was slain from the foundation of the world.
The purpose of God to redeem sinners occurred before there
was ever a sinner. Now that's a glorious thing,
brethren. And when He created the world and He made the mountains
and He did all these things, He did all of that to point to
the glory of His power to redeem men. Now men look at all these
grandeurs. They go to Grand Canyon and they
think that's a glorious thing. But I'm telling you, the most
glorious thing that's ever occurred in the earth can't be seen in
the Grand Canyon. It can't be seen by climbing
Mount Everest. But it can be seen at the foot
of Mount Calvary because Christ hung there between
the Lord and his people as a sin substitute, as one who poured
out his lifeblood for those whom he loved. Not one drop of his
blood was shed in vain, but every drop of that blood was accounted
for according to the purpose of Almighty God to pay the exact
sin debt of every one of those whom he loved from before the
foundation of the world. Now that's a glorious thing.
And there ain't a place in any of that that gives a man room
to glory. And in this psalm, there's no place for anybody
to glory, even the earth. You know, men worshipped and
served the creature more than the creator, and would at the
present time. We see that in our society. It's
gone completely berserk. And there's no more, if there
ever was, at least there was in a measure, I guess, a reverence
for the order that God had set forth in the earth in things. But you know, I don't know. I mean, if things go on like
they're going in the next ten years as where they've gone in
the last, who knows what it'll be. But I know this, that whatever
men say is right does not make it right. What God says is right
is right. And so the Lord will have the
wicked in derision. even as He manifested His glory
on Mount Calvary in putting His Son to death. If any man would
ever wonder whether or not God will judge sin harshly, he doesn't
need to look any further than that, because God will hold the
wicked accountable for their sin. Thanks be unto God, though,
There is a Savior of sinners, and He saves such as call upon
Him. Not going to be anybody that
calls upon the Lord who shall not be saved. What a glorious,
wondrous Savior He is.