I'm gonna look in here in Psalm
105. I'm gonna read there in verse
10. Well, let me read in verse nine.
It says, which covenant he made with Abraham and his oath unto
Isaac and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law and to Israel
for an everlasting covenant, saying unto thee, will I give
the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance, when they were
but a few men in number, yea, very few and strangers in it,
when they went from one nation to another, and went from one
kingdom to another people." The Lord, of course, appeared to
Abraham, and Abraham wasn't particularly looking
for the Lord. He was there in a heathen land. We don't know much about Abraham.
And of course he was Abram at that time. We don't know much
about him before the time that the Lord appeared to him. But
it is from the time that the Lord appeared to him that we
do know. a lot about Abraham, and the Lord renamed him. He
gave him a new name, even as the scripture says that the Lord
gives us a new name, because a new creature needs a new name.
And so indeed, we have been born anew in the kingdom of God, and
we are not the same if we are born again. Now, it is a present
they teaching that men are born again by the activity, some activity
that they take. I would say that the vast majority
of people who claim to be teaching and preaching the scriptures
would hold to the idea that a man is born again when he believes. But the truth of the matter is,
as the Lord told Nicodemus when Nicodemus came to him, he said,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And so it is that the new birth
precedes anything that transpires in a man when he would respond
to the Lord. Man must be born again. Now John
says it pretty plainly. He said, which were born, not
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That's what happened to Abraham. He was born from above. The Lord
said, get thee out of the land. And he did, because of the fact
that the Lord performed a work in him. Because nothing would
have caused Abraham to have left that land, the land of his fathers.
I mean, why would he? That was the land. But the Lord
said, get thee out of this place. And he came out, even as he appeared
to Moses. in the burning bush. And Moses didn't go out there
looking for the Lord, but the Lord was looking for Moses. I
mean, that's a glorious thing when you think about that. I
mean, Moses, he was out there feeding the sheep. I mean, tending
the sheep. He didn't have any more idea
about seeking the Lord than anything, but the Lord appeared to him.
And so it is, the grace of God appears unto men. God who shined
the light in the beginning has shined in our hearts. Give us
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And a man cannot have that and
will not have that apart from that mercy and that grace which
is bestowed on unworthy sinners. Such were some of you, he said.
And we were by nature, the scripture says, the children of wrath,
even as others. But God, who's rich in mercy,
with the great love wherewith he loved us, he hath appeared
unto us. And he has caused us to be born
again by his grace. And so what is there for a man
to boast in? You know, men like religion because
it gives them something to boast in. They can say, well, my religion
is better than yours. You know, I know more than you
do. I've got more than you do. We did more than you did. And
all of these things. And of course, it builds upon
itself. I mean, religion is at which
men seek to increase. I mean, that's just the idea.
Well, man, we want to increase our footprint in the earth. I
mean, we want to get something. We want to gain something. We
want to build something. We want to make something that
men will look at and say, well, boy, they're really on fire for
God. They're really doing something.
And that's how men think. But, you know, the glory belongs
to the Lord. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst not receive? And if
you received it, why would you boast in it? What do we have
of it except that which the Lord gave? And the Lord made the covenant. with Abraham and his seed, as
we read in the book of Galatians, but he didn't make it with Abraham's
seed as of many. See, now here's a place where
people go astray because they say, well, you know, here the
Lord made this covenant with the Jews. No, the Lord didn't
make the covenant with the Jews. The Lord made a covenant with
Abraham and his seed. Not as of many, as Paul says
in the book of Galatians, but as of one, even Jesus Christ. So the covenant of God is with
himself because he will have glory unto himself in all things. Now men don't like that idea
because it wouldn't just be right, would it, for God to have all
the glory? I mean, isn't there something?
that we can do and say and have and whatnot, that we can kind
of stand up and be counted and people can say, well, you know,
that was great. He really did great. I mean,
don't we all want to be noticed? I mean, isn't that just in us?
Because sure we do. I mean, that's just nature. All
men have that. All men want to be noticed. But the Lord is the only one
that's worthy to be noticed. And see, that's what we learn
when we come to the Word of God and we see what He said and what
He did. And we see that all the things
that have ever benefited men in the earth have been, according
to the mercy and kindness of Almighty God, shown to us. How
would we have known to do anything? You know, men get do great things. And there's
been great men in the earth, but where did they get their
greatness? How did they rise above other men in their abilities
or whatever? How did they do it? I mean, where
did it come from? It came from the Lord. He gave
it according to the good pleasure of his will. And that's an humbling
thing because, you know, it doesn't make a difference what heights
a man reaches to. If he's not aware of the fact
that any place he has gained has been because of the mercy
and kindness of God, Joan warned him. And so it is. Which covenant
he made with Abraham, his oath unto Isaac, can confirm the same
unto Jacob for a law, to Israel for an everlasting covenant.
Now the Lord did give. There was a carnal blessing that
the Lord promised unto Abraham. Said he'd give him a multitude
of offspring that just the stars of the heaven you couldn't number
them for. and he said he'd give him a land
that his people would inherit, and they did. They have. See? Now, all the stuff that's
gone on since that, but he gave them this, and he took it away
according to the same law that he gave it to them under on the
first place. Now, remember, you just read that a moment ago.
He said if you do these things, He said, you'll keep this land,
but he said, if you don't do them, he says, I'm gonna come
to you and I'm gonna treat you just like I did the rest of them.
Well, dear brethren, that's exactly what happened, is it not? Because
he did take it away from them. Now, what would he teach us by
this? Well, what we learn from this is that the law, you see,
all that Israel had was under the law. Now the scripture says that the
law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. See, we couldn't
have ever, we'd never have been able to have come to a place
of having any understanding of the work of the Lord in His people,
that it is totally by grace if it had not been that the Israelites
were set forth in the earth under the law, and the Lord said, if
you keep these laws, you'll maintain your status with Me. Now, was
they able to do that? No, why? because the law was
weak through the flesh. Now the law is holy, just, and
good, but the law has no power to cause a man to obey it. I
mean, you can write the Ten Commandments on every sign up and down the
road that you want to, but it won't cause one man to keep it. It can't, because it has no power. But what the law can do is condemn
men in the flesh, can it not? Why? Because men won't keep the
law. They don't keep the law. I mean
it's just like you're talking about speeding. I mean the speed
limit on the road is put up there so men know what the limit is.
But I would dare say there's not a person in this room that
has not, and probably on a regular basis, disregard that law. You know, you do it. I mean,
that's just the way men are. In fact, you'd probably, if it
said, you know, you have to drive 60, you'd probably drive 50. I mean, if they put the law up
there and said, you've got to go 80 miles an hour, people would
be creeping along down the road, because that's just the way people
are. People are going to go contrary to what the law is by nature.
And so the law Israel being given the law was
a good thing. I mean, I'm glad that the Lord
gave the law, aren't you? I mean, thank the Lord. Paul
said, I had not known sin, but by the law, see, the law was
given to uncover sin, to show us what we are by nature. I mean,
when the Lord said, thou shalt not do this, And we said, well,
why, Lord? We wanted to do that. He said,
because I'd uncover sin in you. You wouldn't have known it if
I hadn't shown it to you. You'd have just went on your
way. You're thinking everything's all right. But you see, the law
was given to show us what we are by nature. The Lord does
that. And He brought Israel into the
land of Canaan. But they came there under a covenant
of law. And they could not maintain their
status because of the weakness of the flesh. Now, was the Lord
disappointed? I mean, did he bring them there
and he said, oh, no, now what am I gonna do? No, the Lord ordained
all these things to come to pass so that we might learn from them. All these things that are written
in the Old Testament and given to us as way of illustrations
given to us so that we might know the way of the Lord. These things might, they were
written for not for their sakes, but for ours. What a glorious
mercy it is as we are caused to see such things as that. They were but few men in number.
Remember when the Lord said to Israel, He said, I didn't choose
you because you were the most people in the earth. He said,
but you were the fewest. You were a weak and beggarly
people. Now, men like to think that God
shines His favor on them because they're strong and they have
faith and they do all these things. And people say, oh, well, you
know, you gotta please the Lord and you're gonna please the Lord
by doing these things. But the Lord doesn't look on.
those that have strength. He looks on those that have weakness.
Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. You see,
those who know themselves to have nothing I mean, the Pharisee
went down to the temple to pray and he said, Lord, I thank you. Now he gave thanks to the Lord,
didn't he? But now, of course, the reality was he was praying
to himself according to what Scripture said. So he wasn't
really praying to the Lord anyway, but he was giving lip service
to the fact that he praised the Lord. Lord, I thank you that
I'm not like all these other men out here. And he figured, Well, surely
the Lord is going to take notice of this. I mean, He's going to
see me. Because here I am, I went to
church Sunday. All these other peoples out skiing
and going to the, off mud bogging, and they was doing all kinds
of things, but not me, buddy. No, sir, I was at church. And
the Lord's going to see me. But the Lord said the prayer
that he heard was the old Republican. He was in the same place, but
he knew what he was. And he said, oh God, be merciful
to me a sinner. A widow cast in two mites into
the treasury. And the Lord said, this woman
has given more than all of these other men that cast in great
amounts. Why? Because she gave all she
had. She knew what she was. She knew
she didn't deserve anything. Now, if you only had two mites
left, you'd think, well, at least I deserve that, don't we? I mean,
that's kind of the way men think, isn't it? Well, I mean, this
belongs to me. I'm going to keep holding on
to this. But the Lord would show us that we don't really have
anything. That's the whole purpose of the law, is to strip us naked
and bare. When they went from one kingdom
to another, or from one nation to another, from one kingdom
to another, He suffered no man to do them wrong. Well now, he
did actually temporarily, did he not? So what he's not, he's
not saying that he didn't let anything happen to him because
he let these other nations control him. He let other nations overcome
him. He let other nations chastise
him. But he did that for their sake,
he said. And he said, I didn't let no
man do them wrong. Now, do you think that Satan
did Job wrong? Well, you could say that he did
in some ways. But you see, the Lord meant it
for good, didn't he? So while Satan intended to do
Job harm, the Lord said, Satan didn't do anything to you, Job.
He said, Satan brought you to the exact place I wanted you
to be. And so it is. That's what he
means here. He said he suffered no man to
do him wrong, but he reproved kings for their sake, because
brethren, every one of the kings that overcame Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar
went to Jerusalem, raised the temple and all those things,
but the Lord brought him down, did he not? And so it is that
every nation that rose against the nation of Israel, the Lord
destroyed. He said, touch not mine anointed,
do my prophets no harm. Now, men don't get this, and
they say, oh, well, that can't be. But the Lord ordained these
nations to bring these things upon Israel, and He ordered them
to do it, and they did it. Now they could have said, well,
we did the Lord's will. But the Lord said, while he told
them to do it, he said, you better not do it. But they did it anyway. I mean, it's the same way with
Pharaoh. The Lord said, for this purpose,
if I raised him up, that I might show my glory, my judgment in
the earth. And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart. Now, Pharaoh was glad for his heart to be hardened,
wasn't he? I mean, Pharaoh wasn't saying, Lord, no, no, don't harden
my heart. Lord, I want to serve you. I
want to love you. I want to do the right thing.
No, that wasn't Pharaoh. Pharaoh was saying, man, I'm
going to get them men's rights. But the Lord hardened his heart.
And the Lord hardens men's hearts today. That ought to cause you
to tremble, dear brother. What do we have that we have
not received? I mean, what if the Lord was to harden our hearts?
They'd be hardened, wouldn't they not? And we'd harden them
ourselves at the same time that He hardened them. Touch not mine anointed, do my
prophets no harm. You better not do it. Moreover,
He called for a famine on the land. And of course, this is
speaking about the nation of Israel. He break the whole staff
of bread. That is, He brought this upon
Egypt, but He brought it upon Egypt for Israel's sake. Now see, there was a famine in
the land. Now that was a bad thing, wasn't it? I mean, who
wants to go through a famine? That's a terrible thing. But
the Lord meant it for good. Because you see, the Lord put
Joseph in the land of Egypt at the right time. Now, did all
this stuff just occur by chance or did the Lord order it? Why
did Joseph's brothers sell him down into Egypt? Because the
Lord had Joseph marked out to be the deliverer of the house
of Israel. The Lord gave Joseph wisdom You see, when the Lord showed
Joseph to tell Pharaoh to gather up all this wheat because his
famine was coming, he wasn't thinking about the nation of
Israel. He didn't have that in his mind. He just was going by the wisdom
that God had given him. And he told, as the advisor to
Pharaoh, he advised Pharaoh what to do. But you see, the Lord
ordered Joseph's thoughts about these things in order to provide
this grain so that Jacob would hear about this. There was plenty
of grain over here in Egypt, and they didn't have any, and
they would go down there. And that was a good thing, wasn't
it? They went down there in Egypt, but oh, lo and behold, turned
out to be a bad thing. Didn't it? I mean, his men would
judge him because after a while, Pharaoh put them into bondage. And that land, which was the
land of plenty to them, at one time became a land of oppression. And that was a bad thing. but
it was a good thing because God raised up a man in Egypt by the
name of Moses and he ordained him to lead the people of Israel
out of bondage. Now, why did he do all that?
Well, he did all that that he might show us that he has provided
redemption for his people. And he will in every age and
all times, in every kindred tongue on the face of the earth, he
will provide for his people and he will call them out of those
places from which they are. And the Scripture says, as John
in his vision in the book of Revelation, he said, I saw a
people which no man could number out of every kindred, tribe,
and tongue on the face of the earth, giving praise unto the
Lord for the redemption. And you know, Joseph didn't have
any idea about that when he was sold down into Egypt, he thought
that was the worst thing that could ever happen. You think
he was happy? He didn't have a happiness for
a long time, did he? But oh, when the Lord showed
him his people, he rejoiced. And the scripture says that the
Lord Jesus Christ shall see of the travail of his soul and shall
be satisfied. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now
sat down at the right hand of the Father." What a glorious
redemption! I mean, what a glorious redemption! And who could have ever designed
it? I mean, could any man have ever sat down and figured all
of this stuff out? I mean, you know, after the fact,
we can see how it all fits together, can we not? I mean, it's just
an amazing thing. Everything that the Lord did,
you can see how it all fits together and brings it all to one place.
But who could have ever known it? Who could have ever seen
it? Apart from the Lord showing it
to us. Oh, what a glorious Savior we
have. That He has not only come and
saved His people, but He has made it known in the Gospel of
His Son. He has brought life and immortality
to light in the Gospel. And you see, that's why we preach
the Gospel. What is the Gospel? It's that preaching of the cross
of Christ. It's declaring Jesus Christ and
Him crucified and nothing else. See, the gospel is not to be
mixed with anything else. It's just what Christ has done.
And what Christ has done is that which brings men to the place
where they will worship Him. See, God's people can't help
it. They can't help it. Peter, I mean Paul on the road
to Damascus, last thing on his mind was to worship Jesus Christ. If you'd ask him when he set
out, are you gonna worship Christ? He'd have probably had you put
in jail. But somewhere on the road to
Damascus, I don't know where the spot is. It would be, of
course, superstitious people, they would probably like to get
over there and get them some sand from wherever it was. But the
Lord didn't prove it. It didn't matter where it was.
The Lord knew where it was, just like the Lord knew where Zacchaeus
was when he climbed up that tree. Zacchaeus had no idea. But the
Lord had caused that tree to grow in that spot. Some bird
or something dropped an acorn or whatever kind of tree it was
right in that spot. It was a sycamore tree, right?
And something put that seed in the ground at that time. Why? Because God ordained for it to
be so. And at the point in time when
that tree had grown to a certain size where it was able to, what
if? You know, the way men think about
what ifs and all these things just happening. What if the Lord
had come along and the little tree was still just a little
sprout? What would Zacchaeus have climbed
up? He wouldn't have had a tree to climb up. But the Lord caused
the tree to grow and be in that spot so that at the time he would
come by, Zacchaeus would be up there. And he said, Zacchaeus,
come down, for I'm going to your house today. Oh, what a glorious
Savior we have.