Psalm 78. I'm not going to read
the whole Psalm. We'll read a few verses here.
Give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the
words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of
old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told
us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the
generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength
and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established
a testimony in Jacob and appointed Lalo in Israel, which he commanded
our fathers, that they should make them known to their children,
that the generation to come might know them, even the children
which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their
children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget
the works of God. but keep his commandments and
might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit
was not steadfast with God. The children of Ephraim being
armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of
God and refused to walk in His law and forget His works and
His wonders that He had showed them. Marvelous things did He
in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt in the field
of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused
them to pass through and He made the waters to stand as an heap.
In the daytime also He led them with a cloud and all the night
with the light of fire. He claimed the rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as out of great depths. He brought streams
also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.
And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most high
in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their
heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against
God. They said, Can God furnish a
table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock that
the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he give
bread also? Can he provide flesh for his
people? Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth. So a fire
was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel
because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation. Though he had commanded the clouds
from above and opened the doors of heaven and had rained down
manna, upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of
heaven. Man did eat angels' food, he sent them meat to the fool.
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by his power
he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them
as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their
habitations. So they did eat and were well
filled, for he gave them their own desire. They were not estranged
from their lust, but while their meat was yet in their mouths,
the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them
and smoked down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they
sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works. Therefore
their days did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble. When he slew them, then they
sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God.
And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high
God their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they did flatter
him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right
with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant." Now, that's... Of course, as we said last week,
this whole psalm is just a picture of man's, of the way of man. And most especially, even the
chosen people of God, as Israel is typical of God's people. And what we learn from this is
that we don't have anything which is commends us to God. I mean, the
Lord showed mercy to Israel for no reason. He had every reason
to destroy Israel. You know, if you had a dog and
you expended care and help in raising this dog up, but every
time you went out to feed this dog, he would bite you. And he'd come around the corner
and attack you when you wasn't looking. I mean, it wouldn't
take you long to get rid of the dog, you know. But that's much
the same as the Lord has done for His people. He raised them
up. They have nothing. He brought
Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Now, I've read some different
comments. People said that Abraham, he was a true worshiper of God
and he was over here in Ur of the Chaldees and the Lord saw
him and he said, I've got to get him out of there and all
that kind of stuff. But no, Abraham was just Abraham. He didn't have
any thoughts of seeking God or anything else. He was just going
along living his life. But God, who's rich in mercy,
called Abraham out and gave him faith. that he might believe
the Word of God. And of course then we see the
nation of Israel as the Lord showed mercy to them in delivering
them from Egypt. And of course that's what basically
this is telling us about, how he brought them out of Egypt. he calls the red sea to be parted,
and the water stood up as a heap. I mean, you would think, you
hear people say, man, if I could have seen some of those miracles,
man, I wouldn't have any problem believing I'd never have, I'd
just go on, I'd follow the Lord and all that if I'd have just
seen that stuff. Well, they saw it. They walked right through there.
I mean, all of those things, they weren't ignorant. of the
power of God. In fact, the heathen had more
regard quite often to the power of their God than they did themselves. Because you remember Rahab, she
was over there in Jericho and she said, we've heard about Him. We've heard about Him and we're
afraid. of this God. We fear this God.
And we want you to take care of us. You know, deliver us out
of this. And of course we know that she
was one of the Lord's chosen ones. And she was delivered out
of Rahab. And as she is in the lineage
of the Lord Jesus Christ in a natural progression of things. And what
a wonderful, amazing thing that the Lord, His hand is not short
and saved by many or by a few, but He has His people where He
wants them to be. And they're not necessarily seeking
Him. See, people look around and they
see all the religious folks, you know, going to church and
all that stuff, and they figure, well, there's the elect. Well,
hopefully and likely there are many of the elect among them.
But keep in mind that the Lord has his people scattered throughout
the earth, and in his own time, he will call them. And he doesn't
necessarily call the ones you think he'll call. You know, a
lot of times people, they'll go after a certain person because
they think, well, you know, I can probably talk him into believing
this stuff. Well, the Lord doesn't need any
help. because he'll take the strongest
of men, the most rebellious of men, he'll take a man who brings
out threatenings and slaughters against the very truth of God,
put him into death, and he will call them out of that darkness
unto himself without any aid from men whatsoever, because
it pleased him to do so. And speaking of the Apostle Paul,
of course. Now, as we look at this Psalm,
and we receive instruction from the hand of the Lord, he said,
incline your ears to the words of my mouth, and he will open
his mouth in a parable and will utter dark sayings of old. Now
the word of God is very plain. there's no reason mentally that
a man cannot read the Bible and if it were possible to follow
the Lord by that means there would be no reason why he should
not do that. I mean if the Lord said thou
shalt not kill then He can do that, can't he not? I mean, he
can see that and say, well, that's right, I shouldn't do that. He
says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. I
mean, he can read that, he can see that. He ought to do that,
should he not? But see, the problem that men
have is not in not knowing what the Lord says, but the problem
is that they have a rebellious heart against God. See, we're
not in neutral. A lot of people try to think
that man is kind of in a neutral state, you know, and you, so
you got all these people out here, and God gives everybody
a chance, and he says, well here it is, and some folks, You know,
they just say, well, you know, I think I'll do that. I think
I'll follow the Lord. And that's kind of how men look
at it. It's just like, it's just a big
open thing and God's saying to everybody, come and some will
and some won't. But that's not how it is at all.
Because men are in a neutral state when it comes to thinking
of the things of God. They hate the way of God. And
if they don't hate it openly, they hate it secretly. You know, because the secret
desires of the heart, we say, well, why can't we do that? I mean, Lord, why'd you tell
us we couldn't do that? I mean, we wanted to do that.
That's just the way of man. I mean, a man cannot do anything
that he does not desire to do. and only the Lord can give a
man a desire. See, a man can't follow Christ
unless the Lord gives him a desire to do so. And you can tell a
man all day long about the glories of Christ and the wonders of
Christ, the wonders of redemption, all of those things, but unless
the Lord gives that man a desire to walk in that and to believe
that, to want to know Christ, He can't do it. Why? Because his heart is in rebellion
against God. When they knew God, they glorified
him not as God, but became vain in their imagination. And so
the Lord says, I will open my mouth in a parable. He said that
he came speaking in parables so that those that had ears to
hear might hear and those that did not would not be able to
see it. Now that doesn't fit well with
the natural thinking of man because he says, well that's not fair.
I mean that's not right for God to show some people the truth
and not show it to others. Well, the problem with that is,
again, that's getting back to thinking of man in a neutral
state. You see, all men by nature are
in rebellion against God, and there is no moving force that
would demand that God should show mercy to anybody. But that
He shows mercy to any is an amazing thing, but He does show mercy.
And see, the Lord has revealed Himself as full of mercy. But oh, what a glorious thing
it is when the Lord gives a man a desire to embrace that mercy. When he causes him to fall down
and say, thank you Lord for that mercy. So he will open his mouth
in a parable, he will utter dark sayings which we have heard and
known and our fathers have told us. Again, The problem that men have is
that they have not heard the truth or known the truth. I mean,
how could a man live in the United States
of America and have no knowledge whatsoever, I'm talking about
an outward knowledge, of the things of God? Only way it would
be would be he just closed his mind completely up to listening
to anything. I mean, the truth of God is at
every turn of the road out here. But again, unless the Lord gives
a man eyes to see it, he can't see it. He won't see it because
he's going a different direction. See, there's nobody clamoring
to get into heaven or clamoring to enter the kingdom of God and
not being able to. Now, that's usually the picture
when we speak about God having an elect people. And they say,
well, what if this guy over here is seeking the Lord and he's
not one of the elect? Well, that ain't ever gonna happen
because men don't seek the Lord. There's none that seeketh after
God. Dear brethren, if a man's seeking the Lord, that's a good
sign that he is one of the elect. I mean, who else is going to
seek the Lord? Who else is going to desire to
follow the Lord except those upon whom the Lord is pleased
to show mercy? But it is of the mercy of God
that men are brought to that place. And what a gracious thing
it is when the Lord reveals that to a man, and the comfort that
He gives him in showing him that by nature what he is, by nature,
but by the grace of God, who is a God of great mercy and kindness. See, when we preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ, we're not trying to persuade men to do something.
We're telling them of the mercy of God revealed in Christ. And
those who the Lord is pleased to visit, they rejoice in it.
They say, I want that. That's precious to me. We have
heard and known, and our fathers have taught to us. And a good
thing, and I mentioned this last week, but it's a good thing to
teach children the word of God. To teach them the Psalms of Zion.
You know, to raise them up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord. But knowing that they can't believe
it, because their hearts were bathed. I remember as a little
kid, I've been going to church ever since I can remember. I
don't remember a time when I wasn't going to church. My earliest
memories is going to church. But I'm telling you this, I was
just waiting, counting the moment until I could hit that door,
because I wasn't listening to a thing they were saying. Didn't
have any desire after whatsoever. Only by the mercy of God did He give me a desire to know
those things. And when He did, it was precious
to me. And so it is. that I'm thankful
for the things that I was taught in my youth. Some of them was
in error. A lot of them was wrong. But nonetheless, God, He doesn't
need the teaching of men. See, the Lord's able to teach
men His truth even when somebody that's doing the teaching don't
know the truth. Now, a lot of people don't necessarily
believe that. But you don't have to have a man that knows the
truth in order for God to teach you the truth. Because God's
the one that must teach you the truth. Now, I'm not an advocate
of telling folks to go out and preach lies, because we ought
to identify the errors that men preach, and we ought to correct
them straight. But we need to understand that
men are not brought into the kingdom of God through the words
of men. They're brought into the kingdom
of God as the Lord takes His word and applies it to the heart.
And so He can do as He sees fit. That they might set their hope
in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. Now, we talked a little bit about
that last week, keeping the commandments. is more than just using the commandments
of God as a checklist and say, well, I kept that. Keeping the
commandments means that we hold the commandments. See, a man
who just, he puts the Bible out here and he says, well, I'm gonna
keep what this book says, that's one measure of keeping the commandments. But you see, keeping the commandments
is what David said. He said, Thy word have I hid
in my heart that I might not sin against thee. See, that's
what it is to keep the commandments. It's to hold them up into your
bosom. It's not just, okay, the law
said thou shalt not steal, so I didn't steal, so I kept the
commandment. That's not it. I mean, that's
okay for the men out here in the world, but that's not what
the scripture means when it says, keep the commandments. But that
is what we are. We ought to be law keepers. We're law breakers. But we keep
the commandments of God. They're precious to us. And we
have one who's perfectly fulfilled them and obeyed them in our behalf. That doesn't mean that those
commandments are not precious to us. Because Christ has fulfilled
them doesn't mean that we want to go contrary to what God has
said, does it? Now some people, they look at
it, well, oh man, if you tell people that Christ fulfilled
the law, then, well, there's nothing left for men to do. They'll
just go and do all kinds of things. Well, not if they have a desire
after the way of God. because they keep the commandments.
The commandments are precious to them. What the Lord said to
do is wondrous. We don't find any fault in that
which God said for us to do. That they might not be as their
fathers. Now, see, we're hoping that we're
not going to be as our fathers, but we suspect that we probably
will be. because that's the way of men.
But that is the purpose, you see, as we teach one another
what our fathers are, we learn what we are. See, when you look
back and you see the disobedience of Israel, you shouldn't just
be sitting there saying, oh boy, them old sorry Israelites. No,
you should be, as the Spirit of God teaches you, you say,
yeah, that's just exactly like I am. Because that's what we
learn, you see, from these things. When we read about the unthankfulness
of Israel in the wilderness, It's not just them, it's us in
the present time. We see what we are by nature.
That's what the, you know, the Bible, I mean, you know, if a
man was going to write a religious text and he was going to get
people to try to persuade people to do right and whatnot, there's
a lot of things that would have been left out of the Bible, don't
you imagine? I mean, if you wanted folks to
be good people, you wouldn't have put in there about David
and what he did with Bathsheba. I mean, that's not... I mean,
who wants anybody to know about that? I mean, we don't want people
to know all the secrets. of your family and all the things
that's going on behind the scenes. I mean, you don't want to take
a video of your life and have everybody to be looking at it.
But you see, that's what the Lord did with His people. He didn't hide anything because
He wanted men to know what they are by nature. And when you see
the corruption of the men that is revealed in the Scriptures,
you realize that this is a picture of what we are by nature. And
apart from the grace of God to restrain us, we will go into
the same extent of rebellion against God that they all did.
They forgot His works. They kept not the covenant of
God and refused to walk in His law. Marvelous things did He in the
sight of their fathers as He did, as He has done in ours.
How often has the Lord met with us and blessed us individually
in the place of prayer? and in times of trouble when
he has soothed our conscience and soothed our mind and comforted
us in times of trouble. He divided the sea, caused them
to pass through. He made the waters to stand as
a heap, piled it up. In the daytime he led them with
a cloud and night with a fire. He clathed the rocks in the wilderness. Remember he told Moses to speak
to the rock, and the rock brought forth the water. And then remember
there was another time when Moses, he was angry with the people,
and he decided, well you know, he was gonna, he'd show them,
and so he whacked the rock with his rod. But you see, the Lord
doesn't need Moses to whack the rock. With the rod, he spoke. and the waters came forth. And
so it is as the Lord is pleased to nurture them in the midst
of their trouble. He brought streams out of the
rock and they sinned yet more against him. Now that doesn't seem quite right,
does it? I mean, we look at it and we
say, well, we'd have never done that. I mean, you know, if we'd have
been with the Israelites, we'd have said, oh, wait a minute,
John, look, we, no, we were right there in the midst of them because
that's the way we are by nature. They sinned yet the more they
tempted God in their heart asking meat for their lusts. They said,
look, Lord, we know that you give us this bread. I mean, this
is a wondrous thing. See, here we are starving to
death out in the wilderness and the Lord just calls His manna
to fall down from heaven and we're eating this and this is
great. But you know, I'm getting kind
of tired of this. Lord, I mean, yeah, big deal.
You gave us some manna to eat. What we need is some meat. The
Lord said, I'll give you some meat. And he gave them meat. And the scripture says that they
ate it until they vomited. Because the Lord said, I'm gonna
feed you some meat. and they ate and they gorged
themselves on the meat. And then the Lord slew them. For while their meat was yet
in their mouths, the wrath of God came down upon them and slew
the fattest of them. The ones that ate the most, the
fattest. You know, some people wonder
why they get fat. You know, it's a pretty simple
thing. I've discovered it in my own life. And the mouth has a lot to do
with the weight, you know, that you eat, what you eat. I mean,
Linda gets mad at me every time I say, I say, yeah, you never
seen anybody from a concentration camp that was fat. You know,
why not? Because they didn't have anything
to eat. But see, that's who the Lord slew. He slew the fattest
of them and smoked down the chosen men of Israel. Those that actually
received the most, but they were unthankful. But we don't need to laugh at
them. We need to weep because we see ourselves in it. How often
has the Lord blessed us? and given us just exactly what
we wanted. But then we get to the place
where we're not satisfied with that anymore. We want a little
bit more than that. They sinned still and believed
not for his wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume
in vanity and their years in trouble. And when he slew them,
they sought him. Oh, they said, man, We need to
get back right with God because we're under this chastening and
so we're gonna turn back to the Lord. But then last, why not? Because their hearts wasn't changed.
See, it says, and they remembered that God was their rock and the
high, their redeemer. They weren't irreligious. They went to church. They praised
him. They remembered that God was
their Rock and the High God their Redeemer. It's what they should
have done, wasn't it? I mean, they were doing what
they should have done, wasn't it? But what's it say? Nevertheless,
they did flatter Him with their mouth. See, it was just an external
thing. You know, it's an unfortunate
thing, but much of what goes on in today's world, hopefully
not among us, but perhaps, is that there's a lot of outward
stuff. Faithfulness, you know, doing
many deeds and whatnot. But the heart is not as far from
Him. Nevertheless, they did flatter
Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongue.
They said, Lord, we praise you and worship you, with their mouth. But their heart was far from
Him, for their heart was not right with Him. Neither were
they steadfast in His covenant. They didn't have any real consideration
of the covenant of God, of that which He had given them. They were unfaithful. being full of compassion, forgave
their iniquity, and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned
he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. Oh, how often has the Lord spared
us. I mean, by all rights, he should have just killed us right
on the spot. You know, a man that doesn't
believe God should have killed him Hadn't really known what
he is yet. He hadn't gone far enough along
the journey and God not opened his eyes up to see what he is
by nature. God should have killed you before
now. The fact that he spared you is
a good, that's an evidence of mercy to some extent. Now the
Lord does spare some in order to destroy them, according to
what scripture says. He treasures up his wrath against
them, the scripture says. And the day of their calamity,
he will mock when their fear cometh. But his people, he shows
mercy for a different reason. He shows mercy because he loves
them. He shows mercy because he's determined to show mercy
to them. And he doesn't destroy them because
they belong to him. Like Hosea. and his wife, Gomer,
and the Lord told him to marry her. She was an unfaithful wife. Scripture says that she plagued
the harlot, because that's what she was when he married her. I mean, he knew what she was
when he married her. Now, you see, that's the amazing
thing is the Lord knew exactly what we were. By nature, just
like he knew those people. But Hosea was faithful to provide
corn and wine to Gomer. And you know what she did? She
said, well, all my lovers have been, look what all they've been
doing for me. She said, they've provided this
for me. But all the time, it was Hosea
who was doing that. Why didn't Hosea cast her off?
Because Hosea is a picture of Christ and his bride. And he
loves her with an everlasting love. And he will not cast her
off. And so the Lord forgave their
iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned he his
anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered
that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away. and cometh
not again. How oft did they provoke him
in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. How often
it was. And yet, for the great love wherewith
he loved them, he never, he didn't turn away from them. Even as
he shows in the pictures of the scripture that he will not forsake
those whom he loves. that all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. My sheep hear my voice, I know
them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish." What a glorious Savior. What
a Redeemer. You know, I don't understand
why everybody wouldn't fall down and worship Him, and they would
if they just could hear the words of the gospel. Oh, the sweetness
of Christ, the glories of His mercy, the tenderness with which
He deals with sinners who come to Him. He said, Come unto Me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He will. He never turned one
away. Never been a sinner that called
on the name of the Lord that went away unfilled. He blesses
his people. What a wonderful Savior he is.