Alright, we're going to be looking
at Psalm 77. Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? Selah. But the
psalmist, and in the Lord's words here, as he says, hath God forgotten
to be gracious? The answer is not yes, but the
answer is no. And he asked the question in
order that we might say, and we might realize how foolish
such a thing would be. I mean, how, why would it be
ever in the mind of a man? Now we know why it would be,
but why should it be? If we've been taught that the
Lord is gracious, why should we ever doubt? that he is for
why should we when we're beset with some problem or trouble
or things aren't working out like we wanted them to that we
should not acknowledge the graciousness of God even then because he is
gracious at all times and uh... you know I uh... the Lord of
course he has many ways of teaching us things and uh... As I've been working on an old
car that I've got, and I've been working on it for quite some
time, and there are many frustrating things that happen when you're
working on something, especially when you're working by yourself,
and you need something, and it's just a little bit out of reach,
and you don't want to let go of what you've got, but you need
to You know, you've got to. And so things like that, little
things that are aggravating to us. And yet, you know what a
blessing it is when the Lord causes you to recognize that
these little things such as this are brought upon us so that we
might even in that give praise to the Lord. Well, why should
anything ever work out? See, we always, when we approach
things, usually we're thinking, why doesn't it work out? But
the real question is, we should ask, is why does it ever work
out? You know, because really, if we got, if it turned out like
it should, nothing would ever work. I mean, everything would
go wrong. I know, you know, a lot of times
we say everything's going wrong, but we know better than that.
Most of the time things, you know, go right and they work
out. And we fail at those times, I believe, to give God praise
as we should. Because He is gracious. Has He
forgotten to be gracious? No. Has He in anger shut up His
tender mercies? No. He never would. He could
not. Because He said that He would
show mercy to whom He would show mercy. Now, if he will show mercy
to whom he will show mercy, then who are those who are the objects
of his mercy to ever question whether or not he would? He said
he would. He will show mercy. Say, Lord. And I said, this is
my infirmity. The Lord Jesus Christ, he was
shut up unto the Lord. with the weakness of men put
upon him. This was his infirmity. This
was his trial. This was his trouble. Because
as we read in the scripture, he came to bear our burdens,
our sins, our troubles, our griefs, the scripture says. And he said,
this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right
hand of the Most High. What a glorious thing. I will
remember those things as He could, only He could. Now you can't
remember the years of the Most High, because you don't know
what the years of the Most High are. I mean, all you can do is
remember the years that the Most High has given to you, and you
can see the glorious things that God has done, or we can see the
things that God has done in times past. But when the Lord says
this, He says this in a much fuller and greater sense than
you and I ever could, because he is that one who is with the
Father from the beginning. He remembered the years of the
right hand of the Most High. And he said, I will remember
the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders
of old. You know, John said at the close
of his gospel, he said that he had recorded these things for
us that we might believe But he said, it would be impossible
for me to have recorded all of the things that the Lord Jesus
Christ did. You know, we look at the Gospels
and we think we've got the picture of everything the Lord did. But
according to John, there's more that's not recorded than is.
And that's an amazing thing, isn't it? It's like in consideration
of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was growing up as a young
man. Now the scripture just doesn't
tell us anything about that. There's just a period of time
in his life that we know nothing about. What a glorious thing
it would have been to have known Him then. But yet the Lord didn't
see fit for us to know those things. But we do remember the
wonders of old, those things we have seen, and what a glorious
thing. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He
remembers the wonders of old because He was the one who was
the hand of God in bringing these things to pass. When Pharaoh
was drowned in the Red Sea, The Lord Jesus Christ was the hand
of God that brought these things to pass. And so it is, he remembered
the wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy
work and talk of thy doings. You remember when the Lord was
upon the earth, he said he came to glorify his Father. He didn't
come, he said, to bring glory to himself, but he came to bring
glory to his Father. And he said the Father's work,
I shall do, and I will magnify His name. I will meditate also
of all of Thy work, and talk of all of Thy doings. Is that
not what we are sent into the world to do, is to declare the
work of God? Not the work of men. Now I know
most preaching today is geared up to try to get men to do stuff.
And I'm sure there's lots of things that you could do, ought
to do, and will do, and need to do. But that's not what the
Lord sent us into the world to preach about. What He sent us
into the world to preach about is not trying to get folks to
do something, but to declare the glory of God in what He has
done. I listened to a fellow when the
radio comes on on Sunday mornings, and his whole thing is what you
need to be doing. How you can live the way God
would have you to do. And he says some good things.
I mean, I'm not saying everything he says is wrong. He just got
the wrong viewpoint of how it is that these things come to
pass. He's telling folks what they ought to do. But you see,
the Scripture is not a book that tells men what they ought to
do. The Scripture is a book that tells men what God has done.
And that is the thing that we would desire to declare. Now
surely, You know, as men learn of who He is, they are moved
in their heart by the Spirit of God to desire to do the things
that He has said to do. He said, If you love Me, keep
My commandments. And so it is that the Lord does
work His work, but we talk of His doings. We're not going to
spend a lot of time talking about our doings, because our doings
don't amount to anything, really. Because when a man has done everything,
if you could do everything, and I want to write to this gentleman
sometime and ask him, you know, when would we be done all we
need to do? Because the Lord said, when you
have done everything. And I've never known anybody
that's done everything that the Lord said to do, but he said,
when you have done everything. He said, you are but an unfaithful
servant. In other words, you can do the
best you can do and you've still just done what it was your duty
to do. You can't go beyond what you
ought to do. And so why would we want to talk
about what we're going to do when we have the opportunity?
Let us spend our breath talking about what He's doing, talk of
His doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God is our
God. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary,
or the place that's set apart. Now as Brother Al brought out
this morning about the worship of these idols, And the thing
that's in such contrast as the Lord tells men not to worship
idols is the very fact that it would be impossible for a man
to describe God or to put Him in a place or to capture the
essence of God in such a way as to make an idol that would
be representative of Him. Because He dwells in the light
to which no man can approach. He is beyond the comprehension
of men. And so, who is so great a God
as our God? He dwells in the sanctuary, that
is, in the holy place. David said, our God is in the
heavens. He said, the God of men, they
make them out of stone and wood or in their mind. Most idolatry
is not. physical things is not going
to you can say i think the heart of all our daughters i said earlier
is the worship of man's free will now does man have a free
will in a measure we can say man has a free will uh... there's there's a sense in which
man does have a free will i got up this morning and i chose what
shirt i was going to wear and my breeches and my shoes and
all that stuff i mean I chose those things. Now, the folly
of worshipping free will is when men believe that they have a
will that can stymie the will of God. And that's what most
people think. Well, you know, God can do so
much. I mean, He can lead a horse to
water, but He can't make him drink. Well, no, the Lord can
just drown him in it if He wants to. The Lord leads the horse
to water and causes him to drink. Because that is the Lord's doings,
but it's impossible for men to, in any way, by their ability
to arise up to God, because He is in the sanctuary. He's in
the holy place. He's not in a place where men
can access Him anytime they get ready. He's hidden from them. Who is so great a God as our
God? Thou art the God that doest wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength
among the people. And thou hast with thine arm
redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. With thine
arm. Now, as we read One of my favorite
passages over here in Isaiah chapter 63. Turn over there and
read that. He says, Who is this that cometh
from Edom with dyed garments from Basra, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? He doesn't need anybody else's
strength. He's traveling in his own. I that speak in righteousness
mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winepress?
I have trodden the winepress alone and of the people there
was none with me. I will tread them in mine anger
and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment. for the day of
vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeeming has
come. And I looked, and there was none
to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore
my own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld
me." So it is the arm of the Lord. It is His power. Who is so great as our God? He
has, with His own arm, redeemed His people. Now this same fellow
this morning that was saying the things as he went along and
he said that God has made salvation available unto all men. Now you know that would be a
sad situation dear brethren if the Lord made salvation available
to you. and He didn't cause you to eat
it or drink of it. In other words, the Lord, in
a measure, He has made salvation available unto the thirsty. But you see, He's the one that
made them thirsty. He has made salvation available
to the hungry, but He's the one that caused them to hunger. And
He has brought these things to pass by His own arm. Men think
that they're kind of in a neutral state. You know, that's how they
picture it. God made salvation available
and it's just men are out here in a neutral state. And they're
going along and some by their own will and ability will say,
well, you know, I think I need to do that. I think I need to
take advantage of that. But the fact of the matter is
that men are not in a neutral state. Men are in a state of
rebellion against God. He came to His own, His own received
Him not. I mean, men love darkness rather
than light. And they would not hear the Word
of God. And so if you paint the picture
as it is, and you say, well, here's a people in rebellion
against God who won't listen to the way of God, who hate God,
and He's making this available to them. What good would that
do? I mean, how could that help anybody?
It wouldn't help anybody at all because men would just continue
to go down the same road to destruction. But God who is rich in mercy
with the great love wherewith He loved us, He has not only
made salvation available to those whom He loves, but He has caused
them to embrace it. What a glorious work! done wonders, thou hast with
thine arm redeemed thy people." You see, when Jesus Christ went
to the cross, when He came into the world as our Redeemer, He
came to do it. Now, here a while back on one
of the radio broadcasts, I made the statement that, you know,
this is a simple concept about what redemption is. And you know
what redemption is every time you go to the grocery store.
Because you put groceries in a bag, or you put them in a basket,
you carry them up to the cash register, you pay a price, and
those groceries are put in your bag, and they belong to you. That is what Jesus Christ has
done. I mean, He has purchased His people. He paid for them. They belonged to Him. Now somebody,
if you put that bag in your basket and you start going out to the
car and somebody comes along and says, wait a minute, I want
some of those. What would you say? You say,
well, hold on a minute, I just paid for these. They belong to
me. They're mine. And you know, I've never There's
never been any of those groceries that are in that bag that jumped
out. Because, you see, the Lord had
them put in the bag. Job said that the Lord had sewed
up his sins in a bag, put his iniquities in a bag and sewed
it up. And so the Lord has put us exactly
where He wants us to be. By his own arm, his own arm brought
salvation. The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Now that's interesting that he
would mention Jacob and Joseph because Joseph is Jacob's son,
but yet he said the sons of Jacob and Joseph. I thought a little
about that and as you think about this and I don't know this is
exactly what it means but I see this in this at least Jacob's sons were actually they
owed their life to Joseph even though they despised Joseph and
they sold him into slavery Yet it was because of Joseph that
Jacob's sons were redeemed. And so in that measure, in a
way, you could say that the sons of Jacob were the sons of Joseph
because of the fact that he was their Redeemer. It was that one
that enabled them to not perish when they should have, and they
knew they should have. They said, you know, we didn't
do good by this. But Joseph said to them, you
meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And there brethren,
that's a glorious thing when we consider that it is indeed
that goodness of God that brought us to repentance. He meant it
for our good. He brought us exactly the way. I mean, what way in your life
could you have changed and been brought to the place where you
are? You see, every jot and tittle of our lives is ordained by God
to bring us exactly where He wants us to be. And He doesn't
have to make explanations to anybody because the groceries
belong to Him. There He is. Now another thing
that I see in this, the sons of Jacob and Joseph, you know
the Lord said when He prayed for His people, He said, Father,
Thine they were, but Thou hast given them to Me. The sons of God the Father have
become the sons of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were given to Him. Now, is that not true as well
as the sons of Jacob were given unto the hands of Joseph? Because
he was that one without whom they would have perished. Oh,
what a glorious thing it is. He has redeemed thy people, the
sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. Let us pause. That's what the word selah means.
It means pause. Let's pause and consider that.
What a glorious thing is the work of our Redeemer. The waters
saw thee, O God. The waters saw thee. They were
afraid. The depths also were troubled. I thought about when the Lord,
when the disciples were fearful and the storm was raging and
the Lord stood in the vessel and He said, Be still. Now, you know, when I was just
a young child and the principal said at school, he said, you
boys be quiet. We were afraid, were we not?
We said, buddy, we better shut up. You know, it's not time to
be joking around when the principal says, be quiet. And I'm thinking,
you know, here's these winds and waves crashing and carrying
on, and the Lord said, peace, be still. And the scripture says,
the water saw thee, O God, the water saw thee, they were afraid.
The water was afraid. Now we know this figurative language,
but nonetheless, even as the prophet Isaiah, I believe it's
the prophet in Isaiah, he speaks about the trees of the field
shall clap their hands. And I remember one day I was
walking down the road this many years ago, And it was kind of
a windy day. And I looked up in the tree,
and the tree leaves were just doing like that. And that scripture
popped into my mind, that the trees of the field shall clap
their heads unto the Lord. You know, all of nature. We don't
know. I mean, I remember reading John
Bunyan. He said in a little book he had
for children, he said every time that the chicken, you know, have
you ever seen a chicken drink water? You know, they drank water
and of course they'll pick their head up like that and let it
run down their throat. And he said that every time that
a chicken drinks water, he lifts up his eyes and gives thanks
unto the Lord. And what a beautiful thing it
is when we remember that God made the creation exactly as
He would have it to be. And the Scripture says that the
whole creation shall praise Him. I believe it's true. The dogs and the cats and everything
else. They shall praise God. How can
that be? I don't know. I don't know how
it is, but I know that it's so. The clouds poured out water,
the skies sent out a sound. Thine arrows also went abroad. The rain came, the thunders rolled. But where did it all come from?
It came from the Lord. for the Lord sends the rain on
the just and the unjust. Now, if you had it in your power
to guide the rain, you'd give the rain to the people you liked,
and you wouldn't let the ones that you didn't have any. But
the Lord, He just sends the rain according to the good plan of
His will, and some of it falls on the just, and some falls on
the unjust. And it doesn't matter which way
you look at that. Now, you know, a city person who doesn't care
if it rains or not, they think rain's a bad thing. But you take
an old farmer out here that's got a crop in the field, he's
wanting it to rain, while the people in the city don't want
it to rain. And so they probably think of the rain falling on
the unjust and the just, they probably think of it as a bad
thing, but it's a good thing. But whether it's a good thing
or a bad thing, it doesn't make a difference. The Lord's the
one that calls it all to fall right where He wants it to be.
And there's never a drop of rain ever fell on the earth that didn't
fall in the exact spot that the Lord ordained for it to fall.
Now don't ask me to define that and how that is to be, I just
believe that it's so. You know, they can't be, if the
Lord has ordained for two million drops of rain to fall over here,
it can't be one shy of that. It can't be one more than that.
It's gonna be exactly what the Lord said for it to be, according
to His good pleasure. The voice of thy thunder was
in the heaven. The lightnings lightened the
world. The earth trembled and shook. You know, it is a frightening
thing, is it not, when it's lightning thundering and lightning and
just shaking around. I remember as a kid, I used to
really get scared of the lightning and the thunder and whatnot.
And I still, I mean, you know, when the lightning hits, you
can't help but kind of, you know, draw up a little bit because
it is a fearful thing. It's an awful thing, but it's
just a little taste, just a very little glimpse into the power
of God, the voice of thy thunder. It's His thunder. Of course,
the scientists tell us that, you know, it's just one of these
scientific things where The heat from the lightning causes the
molecules to move and brings out the thunder and all that
kind of stuff. And they got an explanation for everything. And
that may well be a good way for men to understand it, but nonetheless,
it's the Lord's thunder, however he sees fit to bring it to pass.
Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and
thy footsteps are not known. Thou leadest thy people like
a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." And of course, the
reference there, I believe, would be to the deliverance of the
children of Israel in the Red Sea. And this was a big deal,
really. I mean, this is a big deal, whether
you've seen the movie The Ten Commandments or not. I remember
the first time I ever watched that as a kid, and seeing that
water, you know, come apart. And it was an amazing thing,
the way they did it, especially considering the technology that
they had at the time that they made that movie. But you see,
the Lord had the technology long before they did, and He actually
caused it to happen. And what a glorious thing it
was. Thy way is in the sea. And in the land I path in great
waters. He leads his people through great
waters sometimes, through deep waters. And there is a river
that we all must cross, as John Bunyan again would have described
it, as that water through which the River Jordan that we must
pass in death. But the Lord has already went
that way. He's marked it out. And there is a pathway through
that water. Thou leadest thy people like
a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. The Lord used Moses
and Aaron, but Moses and Aaron didn't do a thing, did they?
I mean, Moses said, stand still and seek the salvation of the
Lord. That's all that we can do, see, is just tell folks,
look what the Lord has done. and to see His hand of mercy.