And we're looking in Psalm 81. This is to the chief musician
upon Gideth, Psalm of Asaph. Sing aloud unto God our strength. Make a joyful noise unto the
God of Jacob. Take a psalm and bring hither
the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the
trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn
feast day. For this was a statute for Israel
and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for
testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt where I heard
a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from
the burden. His hands were delivered from
the pots. Thou callest in trouble and I
delivered thee. I answered thee in the secret
place of thunder. I proved thee at the waters of
Meribah. Selah. Hear, O my people, and
I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me.
There shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship
any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which
brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide,
and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken
to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up
unto their own hearts' lust, and they walked in their own
counsels. Oh, that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel
had walked in my ways. I should soon have subdued their
enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters
of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him, but their
time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also
with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock
should I have satisfied thee. Now this is a glorious psalm. And while it
is a psalm that seems to end on a note of lament, yet in reality
we understand and know that the Lord gave the nation of Israel
to be what they were that he might illustrate the greatness
of his love for the Lord did not cast them off even though
he should have they should have in so far as men would understand
it they should have had a very blessed and glorious journey
to the promised land and in the promised land, except for one
thing, and that is sin. Now, some would look at that
and say, well, the Lord was trying the best He could, but He just
couldn't do anything for them because they wouldn't let Him.
And that is how the Lord would present that to us. but he would
present that to us to show us that we the recipients of his
grace and mercy in the day of Jesus Christ we would be just
like them except for one thing the Lord said that he would write
his laws upon our heart that he would bring his people out
of darkness that he would deliver us and so The salvation of God's
people is never conditional upon what they do, but it is always
dependent on what He does. And He will withhold His blessing
from His people, not conditionally because waiting for them to see
what they'll do. Now that's the big, you know,
thing that you hear today is that God's just like He's setting
up here in heaven and He's just wanting to bless people. if they'll
just let him. But he just can't do it because
they just won't let him. And if they can somehow or other
find the key and unlock this door to heaven, then God says,
man, I'll pour out my blessings on them. That's not the case
because men don't have the key. They're not able to open the
door. They wouldn't open it if they had the key. Apart from
the grace of God to cause men to delight in the things of God,
they wouldn't have anything to do with Him. And He's showing
that. He says, I'm ready to pour out
the blessings upon you, but you wouldn't listen. And that's the way that people
are by nature. That's the way we are. I mean, if it wasn't
that the Lord just blessed us, we'd never have any blessing.
I mean just think if your blessing was dependent on what you did,
if your blessing was dependent on your faithfulness. Now isn't
that the message that you hear all the time? I mean well you
know if you'll just be faithful, God will bless you. Well brother,
you'll never have any blessings if that's going to be the criteria
by which it's going to be. Because your faithfulness is
unfaithful. The very best you can do But
the Lord said, though your faith fails, mine does not. Because he which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
So we see here the picture of what it is when men are left
to themselves. They're not going to receive
the blessing of God. He said, I would have done this, but you
didn't do it. And that's the way the law is. That's what the
Lord will teach us. You see, the promises given to
the natural nation of Israel were all conditional. Do this
and you shall live. But what happened? They didn't
do it. And neither would we except for
the grace of God. for he is our performer. And
so he says, sing aloud unto God our strength, make a joyful noise
unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm and bring hither
the timbrel and pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the
trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn
peace day. Now we've just been, Brother
Al just been teaching us about that. over in the book of Leviticus
about that blowing the trumpet on the new moon. That's what
he said there in the chapter 23. He said that in the new moon
in the month, the seventh month, that's when they were to blow
the trumpet and that's what he's speaking about here. He says
blow the trumpet. In the new moon, in the new month,
that's what the new moon is. When the scripture speaks about
the new moon, it's not talking about necessarily the sign of
the moon, but it's talking about the fact that a new moon means
a new month. because the moon and the month,
the word month actually comes from the word moon. So it's just
that we know that the cycles of the moon are on a monthly
basis, and so it is. He said, blow up the trumpet
in the new moon at the time appointed on our solemn feast day, for
this was a statute for Israel. The Lord gave it to them. He
commanded them to do this. It wasn't a thing that was optional. He didn't say when you feel like
it, do this. He said on the seventh month,
the first of the month, the first of the month blow these trumpets. He said do this. This was a statute
and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for
testimony. Now he is speaking of Joseph
not specifically as Joseph but specifically as the nation of
Israel as Joseph uh... is put here as a type of the
nation of israel because of the fact that he was sold into egypt
and was brought out of egypt or he he was uh... of course
we know that he died in egypt and the lord uh... he commanded
that his bones or joseph commanded he said don't leave me here he
said when y'all leave this place because he knew by the grace
of God and through faith in the Lord, he knew that the nation
of Israel could not remain in Egypt forever. He knew that one
day they would come out and he said, don't leave me in Egypt. And the scripture says that they
dug him up and they took him out with them. They took his
bones out. They didn't leave him there. this he ordained in Joseph through
the land when he went out through the land of Egypt. He says where
I heard a language that I understood not. Now there's one of the Psalms,
I forget what the number of the Psalm is, it says how can we
sing the Lord's song in a strange land? You know you can't sing
the Lord's song in a strange land because of the fact that
The Lord has not called his people to have communion and fellowship
with the ways of darkness. He said, come out from among
them. How can we sing the Lord's song? He says, here I heard a
language that I understood not. He said, this was not the language
of my people in Egypt, so I called my people out of Egypt. even
Joseph as the nation of Israel. I removed his shoulder from the
burden, his hands were delivered from the pots, that is from the
servitude of the Egyptians. He says, I brought him out. Now
again, Joseph was dead when this occurred, but nonetheless the
Lord brought him out, so it doesn't make any difference whether we
live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. And the Lord would
teach us that. And thou callest in trouble,
and I delivered thee. I answered thee in the secret
place of thunder. I proved thee at the waters of
Meribah, Selah. And so it is, as the children
of Israel walked through the wilderness, they called upon
the Lord, and he heard them. Hear, O my people, and I will
testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me.
Now the promise of God in the law was, if you'll do this, I'll
do this. He says, do it. But what did
they do? They didn't do it. But the glory
of God is seen in the fact that he didn't ultimately cast them
off, but he did deliver them time and time again, even though
they were unfaithful continually in their journey through the
wilderness, And who could they blame? You know, what could they
say? I mean, could they say, well,
Lord, you didn't tell us right. No, he told them right. But the
law was weak. It's weak through the flesh.
You see, the law can't deliver a man. But grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. Here, O my people, and I will
testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me,
there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship
any strange God. Now isn't that amazing how that
the Lord singled out the nation of Israel out of all the people
in the earth, committed to them the oracles of God, that is,
the prophets of God were given to Israel. There's not another
people on the face of the earth to whom the Lord sent his prophets. He spoke unto the nation of Israel
through the prophets who spoke the Word of God to them. But
what did they do? I mean, of all people on earth
that should have had singularity of worship of the one true and
living God, it should have been Israel, wouldn't it? I mean,
just the one thing of the Lord opening up the Red Sea and bringing
them through, That should have been enough right there. But
what did they do? Continually, they worshiped other
gods. How can that be? I mean, you
know, men look at that and in some ways they say, well, if
I'd have been there, I wouldn't have ever departed. I'd have bled, you know, I'd
have stayed faithful if I'd have seen those things that took place.
And in the flesh, we marvel. that they could have turned aside
from following the Lord. But yet, we can understand it
because we're the same way apart from the grace of God to keep
us. I mean, it's just not in the heart of a man to serve and
worship God faithfully, except the Lord should constrain him
to do so. But he said, don't let there be any strange gods
in you, but they did let the strange gods in. The wisest man,
the wisest man. There's not a wiser man until
the Lord Jesus Christ, one greater than Solomon, is here for sure.
The Lord Jesus Christ was wiser than Solomon, but Solomon among
men stands out as the epitome of man's wisdom. And the Lord
gave him great understanding of a lot of things, but what
was the latter end of Solomon? His heart was turned aside and
he worshipped the gods of his many wives that turned his heart
aside. Of course, that's the way that
men are by nature, the wisest of men. Men think that they can
figure this out and if they can get enough knowledge about it,
they'll walk on, but they won't. except the Lord should keep them.
But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would
none of me. They wouldn't listen to me. They
wouldn't follow the way that I said to go. So I gave them
up to their own heart's lust, and they walked in their own
counsels. And such is the way of the Lord, often to turn his
people to their own way. Now that is one thing, see the
child of grace who has been awakened to see himself for what he is,
the one thing that he fears more than anything else is that the
Lord will leave him alone. You know, the natural man, he
wants to be left alone. Lord, just let me go on and do
what I want to do. But the child of God, the man
who's born again, he said, Lord, don't leave me. Don't let me
be turned aside to walk the way I want to walk because I know
what I'll do. I'll turn away from you. And
that's exactly what they did, so he says, I gave them up to
their own harsh lust, and they walked in their own counsel,
so that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked
in my ways. I should soon have subdued their
enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. But they didn't. The haters of the Lord should
have submitted themselves unto him, but their time should have
endured forever. He should have fed them also
with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock
should I have satisfied thee. Such is the promise and goodness
of God. And the promise of God unto his
people is all of these things. We know as we see the unfolding
of his grace that these are the things that he has exactly done
for his people. Because he did bring them into
the promised land. They were unworthy men are there.
He should have destroyed them in the wilderness, shouldn't
he? I mean, by all rights, he should have just left them. I
mean, because they didn't do anything that he told them to
do. But just because of his mercy, because he would demonstrate
that he will be faithful even when his people are not. He did
bring them into that land that he promised, and he did cost
them to being a land that flows with milk and honey. And you
know, that's quite a subject there in itself. We don't have
time to go into that today. But a land that flows with milk
and honey, what a place that is. You know, there's very few
people that don't find honey to be a delectable thing. You don't have to try, I've never
had to persuade any of my kids to like something sweet. I mean,
that's what they, that's just natural, is it not? There are
very few people, I mean, there probably are some people in the
world that just don't like something sweet. But most people do. And the Lord said, I'm going
to cause honey to flow out of the rock. And who is that rock? He's that rock that followed
Israel in the wilderness. He's that rock from whence the
water came that kept them from thirsting to death. He is that
one that faithfully overshadowed them, the shadow of a great rock
in the weary land. What a glorious one He is. And
it is, as we come to this place today, to remember his death
till he comes again that uh... his place as our savior as the
rock of deliverance for the people of God is made most plain because
he gave us these things and he said this is my body which is
broken for you this is my blood which is shed and we come here
and we recognize that except he had given us this, what good
would it do if we'd have all gotten together and said, well,
I think we'll get us some bread and we'll get us some wine and
we'll make us some kind of a ritual before the Lord, like King. He said, well, you know, I'll
just bring this to the Lord because it seems like a good thing to
do. How could we have done it? We wouldn't have known what to
do, number one, but how could we have done it? But the Lord
gave it to His disciples. And He told them to remember
death in this fashion. And He said, as often as you
do it, you do show the Lord's death. That is, you manifest
it to the world. But more importantly, it's manifested
to you each time that you take of this, as you take it with
the proper consideration. that it is the body broken for us and the
blood shed. May the Lord help us.