Certainly been blessed today
with Brother Al's study on the cities of refuge. And, you know,
when we look through the Scriptures from beginning to end, there's
the witness of Christ. And, you know, many men read
the Scriptures Used to be a pretty common thing. I don't really
read the newspaper that much anymore, but I remember most
newspapers used to have a scripture of the day that they would put
in the masthead of the paper. I don't know that that's probably
not a very common practice anymore, but it was at one time. Because
even in general, men had a regard to the Bible as the word of God.
And I remember, of course, every day in school, every class began,
or not every class, but every day began with Bible reading
and prayer. Now, that's kind of an unusual
thing, isn't it, to be taking place in school? But it wasn't
an unusual thing at one time. It was the norm. We've outgrown all of that as
a society. And unfortunately, and of course
we see the fruits that's born in our society, is there is a
complete disregard of the things of God. Men have become gods
in their own eyes. And the way that they think is
right is the way that things are. And if enough people think
something's the way it ought to be, then that's the way it
ought to be. But as we read the scriptures, we know that there
is a God in heaven who has ordered all things to occur according
to the good pleasure of his will, and he has ordered an order for
men to walk in. Now, we know that those that
walk outside of that order do so according to his purpose,
but they also do so according to their own instruction. even
as Pharaoh was a man the Lord raised up to manifest His justice
in the earth and His love of His people. But nonetheless,
Pharaoh was a wicked man, and Pharaoh suffered the fate of
wicked men. And so it is that unless the
Lord delivers us, we shall all perish. And as we look in the
Scriptures, from first to the last, there is a testimony unto
the name of Jesus Christ. Now it's not the name of Jesus
Christ was not known until that angel appeared to Joseph and
said, thou shalt call his name Jesus. Now that name was known,
but it wasn't known in those syllables and that the revelation
of his person But the Lord has revealed Himself from the beginning. In the beginning, God. And in
the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. And so we rejoice today When
we have eyes to see Christ revealed in the pages of this book, not
all men are so privileged. And of course in those cities
of refuge and in that revenger of blood, the Lord Jesus Christ
is seen, for He is both. He has slain our enemies. He
has slain those who would do us harm. And he has revenged,
he has trod the winepress of God's wrath alone in our behalf.
And he has made himself drunk with the blood of his enemies,
is what the scripture says. And the enemies of the Lord are
the enemies of his people. And anyone who would stand against
the people of God shall surely be destroyed, apart from the
grace of God. Now Saul of Tarsus, A very righteous
man by the standards of men. A very righteous man by the standards
of the law. If you had seen him, you would
have considered Saul to be a very dedicated man. He was zealous. He was not an imposter. He meant
what he meant to do, and he set out to do it. And he would have
continued on that path to his own destruction apart from the
mercy of God. But the Lord met Saul on the
road to Damascus. Saul wasn't seeking the Lord.
He wasn't doing anything but breathing
out threatenings and slaughters against the people of God. Now,
he thought in his mind, see, if you said, well, he was sincere. Paul was sincere. He was as sincere
as a man could be. But yet, The Lord didn't see
Saul for his sincerity. But he saw Saul of Tarsus as
one whom he loved from before the foundation of the world.
And he met Saul on the road to Damascus. And he brought him
down. And he caused him to cry out,
Lord, who art thou? And the Lord showed him who he
was. And I can just imagine the amazement that must have swept
over the Apostle Paul, when he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But you know, in a moment of
time, the whole manner of Paul's determination changed. And that's a miracle of grace. And how else can you explain
it? I mean, the men of the world can't explain that. Paul didn't
just come to this conclusion, did he, along the way? He said,
you know, I think I'll start serving the Lord. Now that's
kind of how the preachers of today want to picture it. Oh, you know, won't you just
decide today to just let the Lord in your heart? Won't you
just do that? Well, how can a man do that?
A man won't do that. apart from the grace of Almighty
God, opening his eyes to see himself for what he is and to
see Christ high and lifted up. But when that occurs, dear brethren,
then nothing else is ever the same. See, because Christ alters
the life of his people, just like he altered the life of Saul
of Tarsus. And so we see this throughout
the Word of God, how He's made these provisions for us and carried
them out. And as we look in Psalm 106,
more or less a continuation of Psalm 105, because actually many
of the same instances are referred to again. But one of the things
that stands out in Psalm 106 is the definition, the defining
of who the people of God are. Now we know that Israel as a
nation are typical of the true Israel of God. The Israel which
are spoken of here, that natural, national Israel, they are not
the people of God. They are not all Israel which
are of Israel. He is a Jew which is one inwardly,
which is circumcised in the heart and not the flesh. So that is
something that has to be clearly understood if we are to understand
what this psalm is about and how the Lord would demonstrate
His grace to sinners, to those who are unworthy of the least
of His mercy because He has a covenant with His Son. in the work of
redemption to redeem that people which He gave to His Son. Now
that's a glorious thing. And we could spend a lifetime
speaking of those things, of pondering those things, and never
exhaust them. And so what a wondrous thing
it is as we see them demonstrated here to us in Psalm 106. And what we're going to see is
The people of God being rebellious against the Lord, and yet the
Lord continuing in His mercy towards them, in spite of all
they had done. All right, let's look at Psalm
106. Praise ye the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he
is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Who can utter the mighty
acts of the Lord? Who can show forth all his praise? Blessed are they that keep judgment,
and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Remember me, O
Lord, with Thy favor that Thou bearest unto Thy people. O visit
me with Thy salvation, that I may see the good of Thy chosen, that
I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory
with Thine inheritance. We have sinned with our fathers.
We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers
understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the
multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even
at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, He saved them for
His name's sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also,
and it was dried up. So He led them through the depths
as through the wilderness. And He saved them from the hand
of Him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
And the waters covered their enemies. There was not one of
them left. Then believe they his words,
they sang his praise. They soon forgot his words. They
waited not for his counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness
and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request,
but sent leanness unto their souls. They envied Moses also
in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the Lord. The earth opened
and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram. And a
fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked.
They made a calf in Oreb and worshiped the molten image. Thus
they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that
eateth grass. They forget God their Savior,
which had done great things in Egypt, wondrous things in the
land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea. Therefore he
said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood
before him in the breach to turn away his wrath, lest he should
destroy them. Yea, they despised the pleasant
land. They believed not his word, but
murmured in their tents and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord.
Therefore he lifted up his hand against them to overthrow them
in the wilderness, to overthrow their seed also among the nations
and to scatter them in the lands. They joined themselves also unto
Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus they provoked
him to anger with their inventions, and the plague break in upon
them. Then stood up Phinehas, and he executed judgment, and
so the plague was stayed. And that was counted unto him
for righteousness unto all generations forevermore. They angered him
also at the waters of strife, so they went ill with Moses for
their sakes, because they provoked his spirit so that he spake unadvisedly
with his lips. They did not destroy the nations
concerning whom the Lord commanded them, but were mingled among
the heathen and learned their works. And they served their
idols, which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their
sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood,
even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom
they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan. and the land was polluted
with blood. Thus were they defiled with their
own works and went a whoring with their own inventions. Therefore
was the wrath of God of the Lord kindled against his people in
so much that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave
them into the hand of the heathen and they that hated them ruled
over them. Their enemies also oppressed
them and they were brought under subjection under their hand. Many times did he deliver them,
but they provoked him with their counsel and were brought low
for their iniquity. Nevertheless, he regarded their
affliction when he heard their cry, and he remembered for them
his covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them
captives. Save us, O Lord our God, and
gather us from among the heathen to give thanks unto thy holy
name and to triumph in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say amen. Praise ye the Lord. Now anybody reading this and
not knowing the nature of God's grace and his mercy towards that
people which he loved in Christ from before the foundation of
the world can't really make heads or tails of this. because the
Lord over and over again had reason to destroy the nation
of Israel. And he was wroth with them. You
know, the law as the nation of Israel, the natural Israel as
we speak of them, the law was that which the Lord gave to them.
He said, if you do this, you shall live. If you don't, I'm
gonna visit all these things upon you. Well, did they keep
the law? No. But time and time again,
the Lord showed unto them His mercy. He delivered them out
of Egypt. And when they got to the Red
Sea, they murmured and complained, Oh, what are we going to do now,
Moses? You brought us out here in the wilderness to perish.
Look, here comes Pharaoh in all of his arms. What are we going
to do now? And of course Moses stood there and he said, stand
still and you'll see the salvation of the Lord. And they did. The
Lord opened up the sea and they went through it on dry land.
And when they got to the other side, they were praising and
worshiping the Lord. But guess what? Not many days
later, they were complaining once again. But over and over
again, as we read this psalm, we see the mercy of God towards
Israel displayed. And time and time again, when
by all rights, He should have just wiped them off the face
of the earth and started again. But He provided a mediator. He would have killed the nation
of Israel, except for one man that stood there and said, Lord,
spare them. Moses, that one whom you sent,
who is a type of Christ, a mediator. He was a mediator between Israel
and God, and God spared Israel for Moses' sake. That's what
he says here in this Psalm. Even as the Lord has spared his
people for Christ's sake. See, there's not a thing in us,
by nature, that's worthy of receiving the blessings of God. No man
is ever worthy of receiving the blessings of God. Now some people,
they think they can do stuff to make themselves pleasing in
the eyes of God. But apart from the mercy and
kindness of Almighty God towards us, we would surely perish. Because all of the blessings
that come to men don't come because of the things that they do. It
comes to them because of the things He has done for them.
He has blessed us. He has put us in the place that
He has. He has caused us to see the truth
of His Word and to delight therein. And what a glorious thing that
is. Praise ye the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good. His mercy endureth forever. Now a lot of people read that
and they misunderstand what it is that the mercy of God entails. They consider that the mercy
of God is just a description of God in a general sense in
which All men will one day receive His mercy. The Lord is just going
to wink at everybody's sin, and He's going to make out like it
didn't exist. That's not at all what it is.
Remember when He revealed His glory to Moses? On Mount Sinai,
Moses said, let me see thy glory. He said, here's my glory. He
said, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and whom I
will I'll harden. And so the Lord is that one who's
the dispenser of mercy to those whom He loves. Now that's an
angering message to the average man because the average man thinks
he just ought to get the mercy of God. I mean, shouldn't everybody
receive the mercy of God? Now in a measure, all men have
received the mercy of God. Because if God had ever given
us one moment of happiness in this world, it came to us because
of the mercy of God, because we didn't deserve it in any fashion. But the Lord, the mercy of God
that the psalmist is speaking of here is defined in this psalm. What is that mercy? It's the
mercy of God revealed unto His people that He should have cast
off but didn't, because of His covenant love of them. And that
is the mercy of God. Praise ye the Lord. Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. His mercy endures forever. What a wondrous thing it is when
the Lord enables us to see His mercy and to rejoice in it and
to understand that His mercy is not just generally given,
but it's given specifically to those whom He said, I will show
mercy, to whom I will show mercy. What a glorious thing! Who can
utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can show forth all
His praise? How could we ever exhaust the
praise of God? He's worthy to be praised. I
mean the angels, those seraphims that surround the throne day
and night, they say, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. They
praise Him. And they've never even known
what redemption is. Brethren, we know more about
the glory that the Lord has seen fit to reveal unto men in the
person of Jesus Christ than they can ever know. Because we have
been the recipients of His grace. Blessed are they that keep judgment,
and that doeth righteousness, and He that doeth righteousness
at all times. Now, let's think about that for
a minute. Blessed are they that keep judgment,
and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Now, I don't know
of but one man that this could apply to. Who is he that keepeth
righteousness at all times? I mean, we haven't kept righteousness
for five minutes. But there is one who has kept
righteousness at all times. And He is that One who is the
Redeemer of Israel, who did no sin, neither was guile found
in His mouth, though He was tempted in all points like as we are.
He is that One who is our Savior. Blessed are they that keep judgment,
and He that doeth righteousness at all times. Because judgment,
you see, the time has come for judgment to begin at the house
of God. Now Paul said as we come before
this table to remember the Lord's death. He said, examine yourselves. And so, let a man eat and drink. Why? Because of judgment. Because
you see, we judge when we come to this and we receive this in
the right order, we judge that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. See, that's the judgment. that
we have, that Christ is both just and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus. And so the atonement of Christ
is based on the justice of God. Payment God cannot twice demand,
first at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again at mine. Oh, what a glorious thing. And
so we come, blessed is the man, happy is the man, blessed is
the man that doeth judgment, that has judgment. that keep
judgment, because it is that which is given to us, to know
that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners, and He that doeth
righteousness at all times, because we judge that He is that one.
Dear brethren, this is the testimony of it. This is His blood. His
righteousness demonstrated before us that He gave Himself for us. It's not we. that have provided
these things for ourselves, but He has given them to us. Even
as He's given us this supper. We didn't labor. Surely some put in some effort
to prepare the bread and pour the wine. Somebody grew the grapes
and all of that thing. But you see, this is the supper
that the Lord gave. And it's here for us. We didn't
earn it. Just like the disciples when
they were fishing. And they had fished all night
and caught nothing. See, that's a picture of what
it is that men by nature have. They had nothing. They fished
all night. And these were skilled fishermen.
These were men that fished for a living. And they caught nothing. Why did they catch nothing? Because the Lord was going to
teach them something. They caught nothing, but then
he said to them, cast your net on the other side of the boat.
And they did. And they brought in a net load
of fish because the Lord provided it. Why were those fish there?
Do you suppose? I mean, think of the broad expanse
of a lake. Now, John recounts that they
caught 153 fish. Now, I think about that, and
I think what an amazing thing it is that that number's recorded. Why? Because it's a specific
number. They didn't catch 154. They didn't
catch 152. They caught 153. Now do you suppose that the Lord
put 155 there and a couple of them got away? No, they caught
all the fish that the Lord ordained for them to catch. 153, that
was the number. I don't know what that signifies
except the fact that the Lord's particular in the things that
He does. But they caught those fish and
they brought those fish and I'm sure they were thinking, boy,
we're going to eat good today. But they had no idea that when
they got to the shore, the Lord Jesus Christ had already prepared
for them a meal of fish and bread. Now think if you had fished all
night and you're cold, it's the early hours of the morning, and
you're cold and weary and tired, but you come to the shore, and
the Lord Jesus Christ is there with a meal that he prepared.
I don't know how he prepared it. I don't know if he just,
you know, just made it or if he gathered up some sticks and
he built a fire. I don't know how it occurred,
but the scripture says that he was there with a fire of coals
and the fish and the bread there. He prepared it for them. And
oh, what a... A wondrous thing it was as they
came ashore to eat that which the Lord had prepared. And they
knew that it was the Lord. They didn't think that He catered
it in. They knew that by His own hands
He had prepared it for them. Oh, what a glorious thing it
is, brethren, when we come to this table to know that the Lord
has given it to us. He said, as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you'll show my death until I
come again.