I've certainly been blessed in
the study of the book of Numbers. The Lord is gracious to provide
for His children such things as they stand in need of. And
He does not spoil His children, but He always gives them such
things as they need. And He withholds those things
that they don't and He is a gracious and kind Heavenly Father for
sure. And we have been looking at Psalm 106, and if you look
and you think on a theme that is found in Psalm 106, is comprised
in two words that appear there, or the same word that appears
there twice. And that word is nevertheless.
And it is a psalm about that tells of the graciousness of
the Lord to the children of Israel and to his people in general
as Israel is the type of the people of God. He is a Jew which
is one inwardly. And those which are circumcised
in the heart are the people of God. They are those who are that
remnant which the Lord has reserved in the earth unto himself. And surely the graciousness of
God is seen over and over in his dealings with the nation
of Israel, how they rebelled against him. He delineates those
ways even as he did in Psalm 105. And he speaks about the
fact that they rebelled against him at the Red Sea. They rebelled
against him when Dathan and Abiram would take unto themselves a
great power, they thought, and the Lord caused earth to swallow
them up. And then he speaks of Phineas
who staunched the plague of the children of Israel when they
were guilty there at Baal Peor as old Balaam's prophecy and
his ways. They were led astray and ultimately
committed great sin and that sin was stopped. by Phineas as
he thrust those through with the spear. And so he goes through
this and how time and time again, even though the nation of Israel
did nothing to deserve the goodness of God, and in reality should
have been destroyed many times over and over again, yet the
Lord did indeed preserve them. And he kept them, even as he
does his people today. Nevertheless, you know, the man
that believes that he has walked faithfully with the Lord and
that he deserves the blessing of God is a man who's never been
acquainted with the truth of himself. And what the Word of
God teaches that we are by nature. And we have not deserved anything.
We deserve to be destroyed. I mean, why hasn't the Lord destroyed
us all? You know, we often look around
us and we see these terrible incidents that take place and
the politicians, they have their heyday with them, of these people
going off the deep end and shooting people and carrying on doing
crazy stuff. And we look at things like that,
or the world does at least, and they say, oh, what a terrible
thing. But the reality is that we should look at it as it is,
because this is the demonstration of what men are by nature. And
that's exactly what every man would be doing if God didn't
restrain him. So when we see somebody take
a gun out and shoot a bunch of people, we ought not be saying,
well, oh, that was an oddity. No, that was the Lord showing
men what they would be if His mercy was not extended to them.
Because every one of us is capable of doing the same thing. You
know, I mean, that old heart of wickedness is there within
us and it will come out if the Lord doesn't restrain it. Thanks
be unto God that the Word nevertheless is in the Word of God. Nevertheless,
the Lord showed mercy to them even though they did many things. And He regarded, it says here
in verse 44, nevertheless He regarded their affliction when
He heard their cry. And though we know for sure that
the Lord said, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and
whom I will I'll harden. We know that He said that. But
He also said that His ear was opened unto the cry of those
that called upon His name. And both of those things are
true. And never has a man ever perished calling upon the name
of the Lord. Any man who sought mercy at the
hand of God has not been turned away according to what the Scripture
says. I believe it. When men perish,
they perish because they desire to go their own way or they desire
to present something to the Lord and say, well, Lord, look at
me. I'm worthy of something in your sight. See, that's what
makes men mad. When you stand up and tell me
what they are by nature, the thing that makes them mad is
that they realize, well, hey, wait a minute, you're saying
I don't have anything? You're saying that this fellow
that I've known all my life has done all these good deeds and
all that stuff, that that doesn't count for anything? When people
die, you find out how much people believe the truth of the Word
of God, because it's very seldom that you ever find somebody that
isn't presented as though the Lord is just, you know, so happy
with what these people did. Well, the Lord's not happy with
anything that anybody did. He's happy with what Christ did.
And dear brethren, if we're going to stand before Almighty God,
we must stand there clothed in the righteousness of Christ and
not our own. There'll be many in that day
who've said, Lord, Lord, who shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven according to what the Lord said. Because there are
many who will say, well, Lord, didn't we do all these wonderful
things? But you see, those who know themselves
to be sinners, they stand in amazement that the Lord would
bring them into His presence. They're not thinking about all
the things that... I could think of a thousand,
million things why the Lord should cast me out. Job said, though
He slay me yet will I trust Him. But there are those who will
perish at Heaven's gate. because of the fact that they
come there loaded with many gifts and loaded with many things that
they think they have within their power to present unto the Lord.
The Lord doesn't want anything you've got. You don't have anything. But yet the scripture also teaches
us that he's pleased with the most humble of things that a
man would give glory to God in thanks for. He hears the prayer
of the brokenhearted. Now I'm gonna move on from this
because that kind of segues when it says here, nevertheless he
regarded their affliction when he heard their cry because the
theme of Psalm 107 is in many ways the same but yet from a
different perspective. because it is from the perspective
of the people of God calling upon the name of the Lord. And
so Psalm 107, we're going to read it. It says, O give thanks
unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. and
gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go
to a city of habitation. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. For he satisfies the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction
and iron. because they rebelled against
the words of the God and contend the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down
and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord. in their trouble, and he saved
them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness
and the shadow of death and break their bands in sunder. Oh, that
men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works to the children of men. For he has broken the gates of
brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder. Fools, because of
their transgression and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
Their soul abhorreth or hateth all manner of meat, and they
draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble. and he saveth them out of their
distresses. He said his word and healed them
and delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would
praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to
the children of men and let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving
and declare his works with rejoicing. They that go down to the sea
in ships that do business in great waters, these see the works
of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and
raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven. They go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because
of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Then they cry
unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their
distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so
that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad, because they
be quiet. So he bringeth them into their
desired haven. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. Let them exalt him also in the
congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of
the elders. He turneth rivers into wilderness
and the water springs into dry ground, a fruit for land into
barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He
turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water
springs. And there he maketh the hungry
to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitations. And sow
the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly,
and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. Again, they are
minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
He poureth contempt upon princes and causeth them to wander in
the wilderness where there is no way. Yet setteth he the poor
on high from affliction and maketh them families like a flock. The
righteous see it and rejoice and all iniquity shall stop her
mouth. Whoso is wise and will observe
these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness. of the Lord. Now what a glorious
testimony is that to the grace of God as He hears the cries
of sinners. They call upon Him and He hears
them. Oh, that's a glorious thing. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a glorious thing,
is it not? To a man who's a sinner, it's
a grand thing. to a man that knows himself to
be without help, that's a grand thing. When the Lord stood and
He said, come unto Me, He didn't say, come unto Me, everybody
come unto Me. Now, it's presented that way
a lot in our day and time, as though the Lord just went out
here and He said, come unto Me. The Lord didn't say, come unto
Me in a general fashion, He said, come unto Me, all ye that labor,
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Do you realize
the devil body is not heavy laden? I mean, a lot of people just
going through life, they're just having a big time. I mean, they're
going right on down, they're loving it. You see, the wicked
perish and they love to have it so. Now, if they could somehow
or other deliver themselves from the destruction that they're
unaware of, by nature, they would certainly do so. You know, but
they're not going that way. They're not desiring that way.
They're not seeking the things of God. And so the word of the
Lord comes to those that are seeking Him. Now, how does a
man start to seek the Lord? Does he just wake up in the middle
of the night sometime and say, well, you know, I think I'll
start seeking the Lord. Now, it may come to him in the
middle of the night. You know, I can't say that the
Lord has woken me many times in the middle of the night and
put a prayer in my heart to call upon His name. And so certainly
that can happen. But you see, this is a matter
which the Lord works in a man, first of all, to show him what
he is. Because until a man sees what
he is by nature, he will not seek the Lord. There's none that
seeketh after God. You can't paint heaven bright
enough or hell hot enough to cause a man to seek the Lord,
whom the Lord does not first work in that man a spirit of
repentance, to know himself to be a sinner before Almighty God. You see, that's what happened
to the Philippian jailer. As Paul and Silas sang at midnight, And the Spirit of God came upon
him. And he realized within himself
what an unworthy man he was, and he was worthy of destruction.
And he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now how does
that happen? You see, Paul, they didn't give
him some argument or they didn't set out some theological course
for him. Well, here, you need to take
our correspondence course and go and study this thing and get
back to us with your questions. No, he said, sirs, what must
I do to be saved? And they told him exactly what
he needed to hear. They said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What a glorious thing,
dear brethren. See, the message of the gospel
has not changed. And we don't care, on the one
hand, if a man ever is versed in theology. Now I say that with
trepidation because I don't really mean that in the strictest sense
of the word because I want you to know what the truth of God
is. But you don't have to learn all those things in order to
know who Christ is. Because Christ will reveal himself
to sinners. And he revealed himself to that
man that sprang in there that night. He revealed himself to
an Ethiopian eunuch riding along in a chariot, pondering, well,
what does this all mean? And the Lord sent to him a man
with the word of God to express to him what it meant. And he
said, well, why can't I be baptized? And Philip said, well, he said,
if you believe, you may. He says, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of the living God. and he took him down into
the water, the scripture says, and he baptized him. What else
did he need to know? See, that's the truth of the
gospel, is that a man must come to that place by the grace of
God where he knows himself to be in need of a Savior, and that
he believes that Jesus Christ is that Savior. and not another. See, he didn't go looking for
something else. Now, there's plenty of folks
seeking religion, and they try this one, and they try that one,
and then they say, well, you know, I like this one over here
better. But, dear brethren, when a man who's a sinner is, by the
grace of God, called to discover Christ, he's not looking any
further. He doesn't need anything else. See, that's the answer
to all the questions. That's the answer to all the
problems. Now, the world has a version of that which they
set forth to men, and they present it in such fashion as that men
have it within their power to just get this anytime they want.
Those salvations of the Lord. Now the glorious thing is that
He's still in the business of awakening sinners to call upon
His name. I don't know who they are, but
He sent me into the world to declare the glory of the Savior. And I know this, that those who
know themselves to be sinners, if the Spirit of God has caused
a man to know himself to be lost, that He, all that same Spirit,
shows a man who the Savior is. It's not a puzzle that you got
people over here wondering who the Savior is and desiring to
be delivered from their plight, and they're just, well, nobody
came over here and told them, and so, well, they just perished.
Listen, brother, nobody is perishing who belongs to the Lord, whom
he is not pleased to send what they need to them. If they need
to hear that word with their ears, he will call somebody to
tell them. I believe that with all my heart.
And those who are sent to tell them can't help it. They might
try not to. Remember Jonah? I mean, he figured,
well, you know, I'm not going down there. Now, he didn't go on a fundraising
mission before he went, did he? No, he went the other way because
he wasn't going. But the Lord sent him. And when
the Lord sends a man, he can't do anything else but go. If you
wonder whether or not you ought to go somewhere and do something,
then you probably ought not to be doing it. because the Lord
will send you wherever He would have you to go. Now, that seems
simplistic to a lot of people, but I'm here to tell you the
Lord sent every one of you here today. Now, if you don't believe
it, where else could you be right now? Now, a man, you know, in
his flesh, he'll say, well, I could have been anywhere. Could you?
No, you couldn't have, because God ordained that you be here
right now. He ordained for me to be here.
I can't be anywhere else. And so the Lord in His grace
and mercy makes provision for His people, but He stirs up His
people to call upon His name. And He is pleased, as He said,
then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered
them out of their distress. It's always true. The Lord knows
where His people are, and His people call upon Him. Those two
things are true. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. No doubt about that. Now that
part of that verse is often left out. I mean, you know, we hear
a lot today of him that cometh to me I'll know wise cast out,
which is true. It is true, it's gloriously true. But if you don't have the first
part of the verse, you can't understand what it is that the
Lord's saying. He said all that belong to me are going to come
to me. They're not gonna wake up one day in heaven and say,
what's all this? No. He's going to draw them to
Himself. He's going to cause them to have
faith. He's going to give them a heart
to call upon His name. And the glorious thing is, not
only is He going to give them a heart to call upon His name,
but He is going to answer them. That's what it says. They cried
and the Lord delivered them out of their distresses. There's
not one example in all the Word of God where a man sought the
mercy of God and was turned away. He always meets the needs of
his people. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in him. O give thanks
unto the Lord, he says in the first verse, for he is good,
for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Say what? Say just what he said.
His mercy endureth forever. I mean, we sang the song, or
we didn't sing it today, but we sang it often. Thy mercy,
my God, is the theme of my song, the joy of my heart. What a glorious
thing the mercy of God is, for He is good. His mercy endureth
forever. May the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Who are they? Whom he hath redeemed from the
hand of the enemy. Well, Brother Al spoke about
the enemy. Who is the enemy? Well, we have many enemies. I
mean, the powers of darkness, Satan, he is our enemy. He's not our friend. The world
is not our friend. The world is our enemy. But you
could put all of them aside, do away with them, and you'd
still be faced with a great enemy. Paul said, the good that I would,
I do not, and that which I would not, that I do. You see, there
is lurking within me, in my own sinful flesh, a heart of unbelief,
a heart of desire to go contrary to the way of God. But the Lord
delivers his people. Paul said, oh, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? This is a body of death. If you
don't believe it, ride by this spot right over here about a
quarter of a mile around this road. And you'll see lined up
in rows out there some stones that people have put up marking
the final resting place of various people. This is a body of death,
dear Brandon. And people say, oh, you're just
morbid. You shouldn't talk about things like that. Well, Brandon,
I'm telling you that death is more real than life is to the
man who is outside of Christ. In him was life. You see, Christ
is the life. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. And no man has true life if they're not in Christ. And who is it that He gives life?
The scripture says those that called upon Him. Now they didn't
get life because they called upon Him. They had life and they
called upon Him. Because you see there is a miraculous
occurrence that must take place and does take place. The Lord
told it to Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus, except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Oh, what
a glorious work is the Lord. performing in his people to bring
them out of darkness and into the light and to have life. They have life, a given life
according to the pleasure of God. And he gathered his people
from the lands, from the east, from the west, from the north
and the south. See, the Lord doesn't have a geographical place
in the earth which is precious to Him. For He has His people
from every kindred, tribe, and tongue in the world. And He's
drawing them to Himself, even as we speak. Now, you know, a
lot of times, and we've been guilty of this in our, we think
a lot of these so-called mission societies and stuff,
and I'm not against missionaries, okay? I'm not against that, because
the Lord sends his people, they're missionaries, they descend. But
the idea that the world is gonna go to hell in a handbasket if
people from the United States don't gather up money and send
somebody from the United States over there to tell them about
the gospel. The Lord is able to raise up
stones to praise Him, and He will send His people. And I'm
not saying He doesn't send people sometimes from the United States
to go to these places. He might do it. He might send
you there. And I guarantee you one thing,
if He sends you there, you will go. And you will accomplish that
which He has sent you to do. without me encouraging you to
do it or anything else. He would just send you. Why did
Paul go to the places that he went? Because the Lord sent him
there. Now did he think in his mind
about going there? Well, of course he did. But you
see, how did those thoughts come into his mind except the Lord
put them there? And so He will indeed call His
people. They wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in.
Is that not what we read in the book of Hebrews? That they said
they have here no continuing city? But they look for a city
which has foundations. See, we're not satisfied with
what we see around us in this world. Some people would like
for the world to just go on. You hear it at funerals a lot
of times. Oh, well, oh, so and so, he loved to fish. And I'm
sure that he's up there beside some stream up in heaven fishing
and just having a big time. They want to take the world with
them. Dear brethren, I want something that's better than this world.
I like to fish, but I don't care anything about fishing when it's
compared to being in the presence of the living God. I mean, you
know, those things don't have any comparison. I look for city. They found here no city to dwell
in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. When you have a desire for another
city, the Lord will bring you to that city. And he led them forth by the
right way that they might go to a city of habitation. Now
notice it says by the right way. It doesn't say by a way. Because
there's only one way. And the Lord said, I'm the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. That is the right way. There's
no other way that they might go to a city of habitation. Now
over in the book of, I believe it's in Ecclesiastes, Solomon
speaks about going to his long home. That is the place where
he's going to dwell. See, this world is just a temporary
thing. And I don't know what the activity
of God's people will be through the ages. I have no idea, you
know, what it is. But I know this, that it is a
place for which we have been fitted and a place which has
been fitted for us. And the glory of God, if we've
enjoyed the glory of God in this life, I mean, if we have had
the blessing of God upon us in this life, and I believe we could
all confess that we have seen the blessing of God in various
ways manifested to us in this world. If that be true in this
world, how much greater shall it be when we see Him face to
face? I mean, that's a glorious thing,
dear brethren. He will bring his people to a city of habitation. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men, for he satisfies the longing soul, for he satisfies
the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness,
such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound
in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the word
of the Lord. Now, how did we get in the shape we're in? Huh? Was it somebody else's fault?
No, it was our own fault. Now, the Scripture says, you
know, that Pharaoh hardened his heart. That's a true thing. I
mean, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. That's a true thing. But
the Scripture also says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
So you see, Pharaoh was hardened in the way that he wanted to
go. See, Jonah, His heart was hardened for a season, and he
went the way he wanted to go. Fortunately for him, the Lord
showed mercy to him and brought him to a place. He kind of softened
his heart up a little bit in the belly of the fish. But Pharaoh can't stand in the
day of judgment and say, well, Lord, you ordained me to destruction. There wasn't anything I could
do about it. That's a lie. According to what the Scripture
says, I mean, that's not true. Now we know that in the workings
of how things are, Pharaoh was Pharaoh. He had to do what Pharaoh
was going to do. But Pharaoh can't blame somebody
else, most especially God, for his wickedness. It's his own. Everything you've ever done is
contrary to the Word of God. You did because you wanted to
do it. So let not a man stand and say,
there's some reason other than myself that I find myself in
a place of estrangement from God. But nonetheless, they sit in
a place of darkness because they rebel against the words of God.
If any man perishes, He's going to perish because he rebelled
against the way of God. Simple as that. The Lord's going
to deliver His people, but all who rebel against Him will perish
apart from the mercy and grace of God to deliver them from that
way which they gladly go. See, the men of this world, they
wouldn't want to go into the presence of God. Now, they might
go if they was going to have a big time, but they wouldn't
want to go. They're not interested in the same thing the people
of God are interested in. The Pharisees, they were religious
men, but they didn't want what Christ had. They wanted to take
His glory from Him and put it upon themselves. They didn't
want to bow down before Him. The Lord hears the prayer of
the weak and the beggarly. The bruised reed, will it not
break? The smoking flax, will it not quench? Till he brings
forth judgment unto victory. And he calls his children inexorably,
effectually, with power. The word of God is quick and
sharp, is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It's a living
word. And He does indeed cause the
people of God to call upon Him. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.