And we sang there that song,
majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon the Savior's brow. His head
with radiant glory is crowned. What a glorious Savior He is.
His lips with grace overflow. And I was thinking as we sang
it, how unworthy we are to declare such things, and yet
what a privilege has been given to us, not only to declare these
things, but to believe them, to rejoice in them, to see them,
to see Christ high and lifted up, His train filling the temple. You know, many who profess to
have faith in Him, have little knowledge of these things. And,
you know, we don't compare ourselves to others or among ourselves
or whatever, because whatever we have received, it is by the
grace of God. But it is indeed, if you are
a believer in Christ, it is a glorious place to be standing. And what a wondrous thing it
is to know Him who is life eternal. And that is a thing which only
the Lord can give to a man. And we fall upon our faces and
ask Him that He might pour out His mercy and kindness to us,
even this very day, that we might once again rejoice in the things
of God. You know, a man often thinks
that he can just rejoice when he gets ready. You know, I think
I'll rejoice. Well, you can't rejoice unless
the Lord gives that joy to you. Because it's not an act of the
will, but it is a work of the Spirit of God within His people.
For the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. And what a glorious
privilege we've been given to praise Him. We've been looking
here in Psalm 105, And I'm gonna try to get through
this psalm today. And we're looking in verse 27. Well, let me read 26. It says, he sent Moses his servant
and Aaron whom he had chosen. They showed his signs among them. That is among the people, the
people wonders in the land of Ham, that is the land of Egypt.
And it doesn't have to do with the type of food, but it has
to do with a person. Ham, who was one of the sons
of Noah, or actually the grandson of Noah. He sent darkness and
made it dark, and they rebelled not against his word. He turned
their waters into blood and slew their fish. Their land brought
forth frogs in abundance in the chambers of their kings. He spake,
and there came diverse sorts of flies and lice in all their
coasts. He gave them hail for rain and
flaming fire in their land. He smoked their vines also in
their fig trees and break the trees of their coast. He spake
and the locusts came and the caterpillars and that without
number and did eat up all the herbs of their land and devoured
the fruit of their ground. He smoked also all the firstborn
in their strength, the chief of all their strength. He brought
them forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble
person among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed,
for the fear of them fell upon them. He spread a cloud for a
covering and fire to give light in the night. The people asked
and he brought quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
He opened the rock and the waters gushed out. They ran in dry places
like a river. For he remembered his holy promise,
and Abraham his servant. And he brought forth his people
with joy, and his chosen with gladness, and gave them the lands
of the heathen, and they inherited the labor of the people, that
they might observe his statutes and keep his laws. Praise ye
the Lord. Now, of course, Most people who
have read the Bible at all have some knowledge of the things
that are spoken of here in this psalm as far as those plagues
which the Lord sent upon Egypt. Of course, I imagine everybody
has probably seen the movie The Ten Commandments, which is considered
by many to be a classic. It has a lot of good stuff in
it. Of course, they kind of depart from time to time from the letter
of the scriptures in some of their ways. But nonetheless,
some of these things are set forth there. And in the minds
of people, people know about this. The nation of Israel knew
about these things. It was passed down from generation
to generation, even as it is to us. The thing that we see
in the descending of these plagues, while we see the power of God
demonstrated in those things, the truth that is set forth most
clearly in them is that of which Brother Al was speaking about
earlier, and that is that the Lord makes a difference between
His people and those who are not His people. Now that's a
truth that's found throughout the Word of God. And the world,
the natural religious world, does everything within their
power to negate that difference making. We're all children of
God, all the creation of God, we're all the sons of God, and
all of that stuff. Well, brethren, that's just not
what the Bible says. I mean, that sounds good to men,
and it is a way that seems right unto a man. I mean, when you
start telling people that sort of stuff, they'll agree with
you. Oh, yes, that's true. We're all brethren and all that.
Well, the Scripture says that we're not. Scripture says that
the Lord has made a difference between His people and the people
of the world. I didn't make the difference.
I don't determine who is of those and who's not of those. The Lord
does. The Lord knoweth them that are His. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. Now, you often
hear the last part of that verse preached on and quoted by many
preachers, that the Lord won't cast out any that come to Him.
And that's a true thing. You can't overemphasize that.
I mean, if a man calls upon the name of the Lord, he'll hear
Him. The Scripture says, Whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. That's absolute truth. But the
first part of that verse must not be ignored because it defines
who those people are. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. Now, dear brethren, I don't know
how much clearer or plainer that can be in the Scriptures. And
yet man is willingly blind to it and rejects it at every turn
because it does not seem to him to be right. But the Lord showed
that He had a people in the earth that belonged to Him. And He
demonstrated, the Scripture says, that He raised up Pharaoh for
one reason. And that was the reason that
he might show his judgment in there. That he might show that
there is a difference between the people of God and those who
are not. Now Pharaoh, he thought he was
a mighty man. And he was. And that day he was
a powerful ruler in the earth. And he certainly had power physically
over the nation of Israel. But he had no power. against the way of the Lord.
And so, he showed his signs among them and wonders in the land
of Ham, or Egypt. He sent darkness and made it
dark, and they rebelled not against his word. Now, that's kind of... If you take that verse out of
its context, it's hard really to grasp exactly what he's saying.
But when you look at what he unfolds here, when he's speaking
about those plagues, those things that he sent into the world,
he said he sent the darkness He sent the plagues and all these
things, and they rebelled not at His word. In other words,
all of these natural occurrences which were in the world, which
were directed by the hand of God, they were carried out as
the Lord directed them to be. In other words, when He sent
the darkness, the darkness didn't say, Lord, I'm not going. And
the caterpillars didn't say, Lord, we're not going. The locusts
didn't say that. They couldn't say that because
the Lord Almighty created them to perform that which He sent
them to do, and they rebelled not against His Word. Even when
the Lord stood in that boat and He said to the winds and the
waves, peace be still, and the waves and the winds ceased. There
wasn't any argument about it. There was not one little wave
that kept going. I believe the sea became as glass
because the Lord said, peace be still. And it was still. Now,
you know, that must have been certainly an amazing thing. And of course the disciples said,
who is this? I mean, here we are coming in with this man and
we'd like a lot of the stuff he said, but what kind of a man
is this? that he speaks, and the oceans
cease, they're roaring, and the waves stop, and the winds stop,
they're blowing. What a glorious thing. And so
he sent forth these things, turned the water to blood, killed the
fish, the land brought forth frogs in abundance. Of course,
you know, the scientists and the Natural thinkers, they come
up with all this stuff and they tell you how all this was. Well,
it really, you know, it was just really all natural occurrences.
I mean, when the Lord turned the water to blood, that was
just the red tide, you know, and all the fish died as a result
of that. And they're happy with that because
they got to come up with something to do it. I don't know what,
maybe the Lord did send the red tide, I don't know. the natural
way in which He performed these things. But I know one thing,
that not a fish died that wasn't ordained so by the Lord, and
not one lived, but so that it was by Him. He spake, the locusts
came, and the caterpillars, he gave them hail for rain, flaming
fire in their land. It says that the fire ran along
the ground. I don't know, was that lightning
or what was it? I don't know, I've heard people
talk about ball lightning. I don't know if that's what it
was or not, but it was fire nonetheless that ran upon the ground. It
was a thing that had never been seen before. And it certainly
was that which would strike fear into their hearts. It did eat
up all the herbs of their land. These locusts smote all the firstborn
in the land, the chief of all their strength. The Lord's able
to take away the very things that we value the most. And certainly, even among the
heathen nations such as Egypt was, there was great sorrow in
that land when the firstborn of every household was taken.
even as there would be in any household. He smote the firstborn, chief
of all their strength. He brought them forth also with
silver and gold. Now here was a people that had
labored all these years as slaves, doing Pharaoh's work, and they
weren't paid. I guess they were given food
to eat. But the Lord, you see, was storing
up their wages. And the Egyptians were the ones
that were saving them, thinking they were going to pass them
down to their posterity. But you know what? They were
glad. When the Israelites left the land, they were glad they
were going so much that they just gave them all their gold
and jewelry. They said, here, take it, get
out of here. We're glad to see you go. If this will get you
out of here, we're glad for you to go. They came out with silver
and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribe. None of the diseases of that
were in the other peoples of the earth were in the nation
of Israel. Now that's an amazing thing. There wasn't one feeble
person among them. Now, of course, you know, a lot
of it's, oh, well, that probably wasn't true, you know, not exactly.
Well, it's what it says. I believe it was. I believe every
one of them was strong. Every one of them, they were
made strong. Actually, probably made strong
by the afflictions that they suffered. Do you not think? I
mean, they had to do all this manual work, so they were made
strong. Not one feeble person in Egypt
was glad when they departed for the fear of them fell upon them. You know, fear is a thing that
really cannot be controlled. I mean, when you're afraid, you
can't help it, can you? I mean, when something frightens
you, it frightens you. You can tell somebody, well,
don't be afraid. Well, that's okay, that's easy to say, because
if a man's afraid, he's afraid. There's nothing he can do to
keep that, and the Lord is the one who causes men to fear. Scripture says, who shall not
fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? Now, I've talked to
men that say, oh, I don't fear anything. I don't fear dying.
I don't know all that. And men think that. A lot of
men think that. But the thing is, if the Lord
is pleased to send fear into a man's heart, he'll turn in
a moment into that fear. He sent fear into the heart of
one of the thieves on the cross. One of them had no fear at all,
did he? No, he mocked the Lord, but one of them, the Lord, put
the fear of God in him. And he said, Lord, when Thou
comest into Thy kingdom, remember me. He put fear into the mind of
the centurion who looked on. The Lord was the earth quaked
and the sun grew dark. He said, surely this man was
the Son of God. How did that happen? You know
except God in His mercy brought it to pass. He spread a cloud for a covering
and fire to give light in the night and we've talked about
that and read how the Lord sent that cloud, a cloud by day to
shield them from the sun and that same cloud was a light by
night. Now you know the other thing
was that the cloud then showing the separation between the people
of God and those who are not His people, is that the same
cloud that gave light to the nation of Israel to go across
the Red Sea is the one, the same that put the darkness on the
other side of the cloud and kept the Egyptians wandering about
in the wilderness trying to find their way. And so it is that
the Lord said that he would hide these things from the wise and
the prudent and reveal them unto babes according to the good pleasure
of his will. The people asked and he brought
quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened
the rock and the waters gushed out. They ran in dry places like
a river. Now you know, the psalmist could
have mentioned here the disobedience of the sons of God, good or not,
because they were murmuring when they asked for the quail, weren't
they? I mean, they weren't, they wasn't kindly saying, oh Lord,
would you please do this? And they said, oh man, we're
sick and tired of eating this manna. But see, that's not even
mentioned, is it? The Lord doesn't even mention
that. Just like when the people of God come to stand in the presence
of the Lord. Now you hear all this stuff,
where we're gonna all stand in the judgment and our life's gonna
play up on a big movie screen and we're gonna see everything
we did and we're gonna feel bad and all of that. Well, that's
a bunch of baloney. Because all of our sins are covered
in Jesus Christ. And when we come into the presence
of Almighty God, we come there in one way, and that is covered
in the righteousness of Christ, or not at all. And so our sins
are hidden in Christ. And the sins of the nation of
Israel were covered in the mercy of Almighty God so much so that
it's not even mentioned here that it was their murmuring that
caused Him to send the quail. It just says they asked. They
asked. And He sent the quail. Oh, what
a merciful God He is that He remembers our sin no more. He moves it as far as east is
from the west. And we don't come before Him
as sinners, but as those who are washed in the blood of the
Lamb. Those whose garments are made white. You see, when you
read in the book of Revelation of all those who are standing
before the throne, they're not standing there covered in tattered
garments, but they're clothed in glorious garments. The righteousness
of Almighty God. He opened the rock, and the waters
gushed out. They ran in the dry places like
a river. For he remembered his holy promise,
and Abraham his servant." The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness. The Lord remembers
His promise, and His promise was made to Abraham and His seed,
not as of many, but as of one, even Jesus Christ. You see, the
covenant of grace is not between God and man, but it's between
the Father and the Son. It is that wherein the Father
gave a people to the Son, and the Son gladly took upon them
Himself their sin, and their sorrow, and their heartache,
and their grief. And He willingly came and bore
it in their behalf. And He doesn't forget His promise.
It's impossible for God to lie. Two immutable things. God said
it, and He made an oath. Now, if one was enough, was it
not? But He did it twice. For he remembered his holy promise,
and Abraham his servant. And he brought forth his people
with joy, and his chosen with gladness." You see, it was the
delight of the Lord to deliver the nation of Israel. Now, you
know, an unthankful people such as they were, disobedient and
what not, it's hard really to imagine that he brought them
forth with gladness. I mean, you know, when your children
don't do what you tell them to do, you're usually not very happy
with them, are you? But the Lord, He's happy with
His people because they're His people. And He loves them with
an everlasting love. And He loves them with a perfect
love. And he brought them forth, he says, with his chosen. Not everybody, but his chosen.
He brought them forth with gladness. And he gave them the lands of
the heathen, and they inherited the labor of the people. Now
that's unfair in the minds of men, is it not? I mean, think
of all those heathen people, all those years they worked and
labored and planted all these vines and cultivated these grapes. Remember when the spies brought
the grapes back from the land and said that it took two of
them holding a pole with a pot of grapes between them. One man
couldn't carry it so big. And these people, the Lord had
raised them up to grow all this stuff and cultivate this. And
of course, He caused these things to grow as He did in that rich
and fertile ground. But He didn't do it for them.
See, they thought, man, we're doing all this, we're going to
get the fruit of our labors. No, He took the fruit of their
labors away from them and He destroyed them. Now, I can understand
why men in the flesh think that's unfair. Don't you? I mean, but
you see, the Lord will make a difference between His people and those
who are not. And he showed, I will prepare
a land by the hands of other men's labor, and I will give
it to you as I see fit. Now, you know, men get all up
in arms. They say, well, you know, the
white man, he came over here to the to the United States and he run
all the Indians out and all that stuff. Well, that's true, but
I guarantee you that it didn't happen by chance. It happened
according to the direction of Almighty God. Now, does that
make everything that all white men did right? No, absolutely
not. But it does manifest the fact
that the Lord calls these things to come to pass. And He raises
up men and He brings men down. And one day He may cause us to
be overrun by somebody else. And what can we say about it?
Not really anything. Fall down and give Him praise.
And I would say this, and I know this wouldn't be a very popular
thing to say on the world stage, But when you think about the
slavery, and you think about men that were brought into slavery,
and slavery's an awful thing as far as enslaving other men,
and I would never advocate it, nor would I ever say that it
is a good thing, but the Lord ordained it for good, the Lord
used it for good, because there's not a person, a black person
in this world country that is not better off today as a result
of being brought to this country, even though it was in chains,
than he would have been if he'd have been left where he was.
Now, again, if I was to say that out on the street corner, I'd
probably be put in jail. And he probably will one day.
That'll be all right. You know, I can't think of anything
that would be better than to be put in jail for telling the
truth. Now the truth is not always what men like for it to be. And
like Brother Al was saying earlier, men are in the process in our
day and time of trying to make the truth be what they want it
to be. The truth of God is always going
to be true and the truths of God are absolute and cannot be
changed. It doesn't make a difference
what men say about it. The Lord makes a difference.
He makes a difference in the earth between His people and
the people who are of the earth. He makes male and female. He
created us that way. That's just the way that it is.
I might not like it. It might not suit my philosophy
or whatever, but it's nonetheless true. He gave them the lands of the
heathen and they inherited the labor of the people. Brethren, is that not a picture
of us? What do we have that we have not received? I mean, what have we got? What possession
or whatever you have, what have you got that the Lord has not
blessed you with? Not one thing. I mean, what if
you'd have been born in Bangladesh? I mean, what would you have if
you had? I mean, the Lord has given us
exactly what we have. We have to give Him praise. We can't take honor unto ourselves. Just like the people of Israel,
they couldn't boast of this great vineyard that they eat the grapes
off of, could they? when these heathen nations that
they went in there and destroyed had planted. I mean, so what
could they do? They could just give God praise.
That's all they could do, because that's what they had. They received
it. That they might observe his statutes and keep his law. No,
the Lord has chosen us in Christ, but he chose us in Christ for
a reason, for a purpose. He didn't just choose us. But
we read over here in the book of Ephesians, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Just like He
blessed them with all natural blessings in the promised land. But He has blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as
He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. He has chosen us that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love." Just like he put
the nation of Israel in that land, he said, that they might
obey his precepts. What a glorious thing. Now, we
see a contrast again between, even though the nation of Israel
serves as a type and foreshadow of the people of God, the Lord
has a remnant even among the nation of Israel. The nation
of Israel, the physical, literal, material nation of Israel is
not the chosen people of God. The chosen people of God, some
of them are included in that number. But the Lord has that
people which He chose from the beginning. And so the Lord would
make a difference even now among those people and the people of
God. And He'll separate those people
out according to His good pleasure. And He would have us, dear brethren,
as they were put in the land of promise for the purpose of
obeying Him, He has put the Spirit of God in us for the purpose
of causing us to obey Him. Now the difference that the Lord
has made is that under the law, the law said do this and live.
But you see under the grace of God that has been revealed in
Jesus Christ, He said live and do. Remember when He said that
He saw us in our blood and He said to us live. You see what
the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh
because the nation of Israel did not obey the Lord. I mean,
they brought upon themselves just condemnation from the Lord,
because they did not obey the Lord. But the people of God,
in Jesus Christ, we are constrained by love to serve Him. And that's a difference. You
see, the Lord makes a difference. He doesn't call people to Himself
and then hold the law over their head and say, you gotta do this
or I'm gonna cast you out. No, He says, you're my children,
go and act like it. I mean, that's basically what
it is, is it not? And he sends the Spirit of God
to constrain our hearts, to give us a desire to do so. A man that
doesn't have a desire to serve Christ is not one of God's children. Or at least he's not been awakened
to see himself for what he is and called out of the darkness
and into the light. Because when the Lord causes
a man to come into that land, he desires to live in that land. It's a glorious place. May the
Lord help us and may He cause us to be reminded that it is
according to His mercy, according to His grace, that we've been
called. What a glorious Savior we have.