You know, it's only by the grace
of God that a man is brought from a place of desiring
to know what the Bible says, what the Word of God is, as far
as the words on the page. to the place of desiring to know
the One of whom the Scripture speaks and to be made like Him.
And this, you know, as we gather together week after week to meet with one another and hopefully
to build one another up in the most holy faith, that we don't
look on that as just simply a time or a means whereby we might instruct
one another in the doctrines of this Bible which are precious
but that it might be that we gather together in a quest that
we might be made more in the image of Christ that we might
walk in this world as those who are the sons of God in a crooked
and perverse world. Because this world in which we
live is not our friend. There's not a thing that the
world has to offer that can help us in any way in the heavenly
journey of which we've been called to walk in. And that's why we
come together to build one another up in the most holy faith, because
a holy faith is not something that you can read out of a pamphlet. In other words, you can't get
the holy faith and give it to somebody and say, here's the
holy faith. Now, you can surely, it is a true thing that we have
an objective faith, and it is a faith which is real, but it
is a faith which centers in Christ and you know I'd rather be with
somebody who's just ignorant in a measure as to the proper
way to say things and do things but who just is taught to love
Christ with all of his heart, soul, mind and body. Now we do
believe that it is as the Lord teaches us sound doctrine that
these things are enforced in us. And we're brought that place
and that's the place we desire to be. And we certainly never
want to abandon sound doctrine. But I believe sometimes people
get so caught up in the quest to be right You know, about this
little point and that little point that they missed, it's
like not being able to see the forest for the trees sort of
a thing, you know. And so, you know, in looking
at the beauty of a forest, there's a beauty that you see when you
just look at it, and that's a glorious thing. And then there's also
a beauty that you get when you go into the forest and you see
all the parts and pieces of it. And the faith of Christ is both. But we must never get so concerned
with the bark on the tree here that we can't see the beauty
of the forest and that which God in his mercy and kindness
has done in drawing his people. unto himself in ways which we
don't understand. You know, you can't just say
this is the way God is going to bring this man to himself.
You can't say that. Because I've seen men brought
by ways that I would have never figured and see people that you
would never figure would be called by the Lord at all. I mean, and
you know, what can you say to these things? I mean, the Lord,
His hand is not short and saved by many or by few. We are blessed
to be given a love for His Word. and love for His truth, and we
need never to count that a small thing, because it is a blessed
thing that we be those who have been made the worshipers of God
in Christ. We're looking at Psalm 68, Psalm 68, and we read this Psalm
last week, so I'm not gonna read the whole thing again, but I'm
gonna begin there in verse six, or verse eight, excuse me. Well,
let me restart in verse six, we actually, Looked at that last
week, but we'll start here. And it says, God said it's the
solitary in families. He bring it out those which are
bound with chains, but the rebellious dwell in dry land. Oh God, when
thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march
through the wilderness, say law, the earth shook. The heavens
also dropped at the presence of God. Even Sinai itself was
moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Thou, O God,
didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine
inheritance when it was weary. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared of
thy goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word, great
was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies
did flee apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. Though ye have lined among the
pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with
silver and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty
scattered kings in it, it was white as snow and salmon. The
hill of God is as the hill of Bashan, and high hill as the
hill of Bashan. Why leap ye ye high hills? This
is the hill which God desires to dwell in. Yea, the Lord will
dwell in it forever. The chariots of God are 20,000,
even thousands of angels. The Lord is among them, as in
Sinai in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou
hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts from
in. Yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell
among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. He that is our God is the God
of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. Now I'm gonna stop right there,
and we might get a little further than that, or we might not, I
don't know. It says, the earth shook and
the heavens also dropped at the presence of God. Now, likely,
what this has to do with is that the heavens dropped rain. That
can kind of be read into that. But we can also understand that
what the psalmist is speaking of here, the earth shook And
the heavens also dropped at the presence of God. I mean, the
Lord is a terrible and mighty God who moves upon the earth
to do terrible things. I mean, you know, when you see
a volcano erupt, as that one did over in, where was it, New
Zealand or, yeah. And you know, those people, they
were just out on a, having a good time. you know, a vacation, probably
a lot of them saved up a bunch of money to be able to go on
that vacation, and they were out there walking around the
rocks, and all of a sudden, as, you know, old Forrest Gump said,
God showed up. I mean, you know, he showed his
mighty power in the earth, and the earth shook. Now, that's
a minor thing. You know, men look at things
like that, oh, this is the great power of God. No, that's not
the great power of God. It is the power of God. I mean,
the great power of God is that which is demonstrated when He's
pleased to awaken a sinner. Somebody who's walking in darkness
and has no concern or desire to walk in His way, who suddenly,
by some means unknown to men, is arrested on that journey like
the Apostle Paul. Now everybody doesn't have as
dramatic a situation as happened to the Apostle Paul but nonetheless
all of those who are called by grace are done so dramatically
because there is a man walking in darkness who is now walking
in light and who can say when that's gonna happen, and who
can prevent it from happening? You know, if the Lord put Saul
on the road to Damascus at that point in time, because that was
the time and the place where the Lord had appointed that he
would meet with Saul, but he could have if it pleased him
to meet with him right in the midst of the Sanhedrin. right
in the middle of all of them, and there wouldn't have been
one thing that anybody could have done to have prevented it. It could have taken place there
as well as anywhere else, and who could do anything about it?
And that's a glorious thing. It's a wondrous thing, but you
know what it does is humbles men in the dust to consider that
apart from the mercy of God. calling a man in just such fashion
as that, a man will never come. As we sang there a moment ago,
how sweet and awful is the place with Christ within the doors.
It goes on to say, you know, why was I made to hear thy voice
and enter while there's room, while thousands make a wretched
choice and rather starve then come, t'was the same love that
spread the feast, that sweetly forced us in. Now some object
to that word, in fact they've changed it in some modern hymnals
saying it sweetly drew us in. Either one's correct, you know
the Lord does draw us, but make no mistake about it, this is
not a drawing that a man can resist. This is a drawing that's
a forcing. He says, I will bring that one. Just like when the Lord went
in his parable of the ninety and nine, and that shepherd was
out on that mountainside seeking that lost sheep, and he would
not, he would not stop until he had got that sheep. And that
sheep didn't have any choice in the matter, did he? I mean
he ran as far as he could just like Jonah ran as far as he could.
But the Lord had a purpose in bringing him to himself. What
a glorious thing. The earth shook. The heavens
also dropped. The rain fell, even as the rain
of salvation does fall upon the people of God. The rain dropped
at the presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God. Now Sinai, of course, is the
epitome. It is the symbol of the law that
God gave, which was a glorious and holy thing. The law is holy,
just, and good. And if anybody doubts it, They
need to go back and read the giving of the law to Moses on
Mount Sinai. This was a terrible thing. It
was a tremendous thing that took place there, a glorious happening.
But even Sinai, even Sinai itself, even the law of God is subservient
to God. See, some people think about
the law as though it's set over here and God himself is under
the law. He has to abide by the law. God
doesn't have to do anything. He made the law. Now He will
abide by the law according to what the scripture says in so
far as dealing with men. The soul that sinneth shall die.
The sentence must be met and that's why the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. That He might be just and the
justifier according to the law which He gave. He gave the law,
not because it's some eternal force that's out there, but He
gave the law for the purpose of manifesting the glory of His
grace in Jesus Christ. If there had been no law, we'd
have not known sin. And it pleased the Lord that
He might teach us what sin was, that He might teach us the glory
of His grace. in delivering us from it. That's
a sweet thing. Now, you know, I guess it's possible
to go shipwreck on that if you go too far and you get to, I
mean, men have said things they probably shouldn't have said
over time concerning that, but nonetheless, it is a true thing
that the law itself is simply that which God has made for the
one purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ. Everything that you see
in this world, everything that will be is for that one end. That he might magnify the glory
of his grace in Jesus Christ. Because what the scripture says,
he's given him a name which is above every name. That at the
name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. and every tongue shall confess."
Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. He is a particular God with a
particular people. And he made that plain from the
very beginning that he had a people and they were pleasing in his
sight. He separated between Cain and
Abel and he was pleased with the offering of Abel. Why? Because
he was pleased with Abel. Why was he pleased with Abel?
Because he was hidden in Christ. And so it is, dear brethren,
that the Lord does have a people And men don't really like that
idea too much because they want to make men to be out here kind
of like going through the earth. And if you want to serve God
this way, it's okay. Or if you want to serve God that
way. Because men are naturally religious by nature. They're
going to, as like Bob Dylan said in the song, you've got to serve
somebody. It may be the devil or it may
be the Lord, but you've got to serve somebody. And the Lord Jesus Christ, He
came to the most religious, sanctimonious people on earth at the time. And they said, well, we're worshipping
God. We don't know who you are. He
said, well, look here. He says, if you had been a true worshipper
of God, you would have known who I was. See, men can worship whatever
they want. They can choose any religion
on earth. But there's only one true faith, and that's in Christ,
because all things, He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and all things have their culmination in Christ, whatever it may be. The God of Israel, thou, God,
did send a plentiful rain And that he did, whereby thou didst
confirm thine inheritance when it was weary. Thy congregation
hath dwelt therein. Thy, O God, hast prepared of
thy goodness for the poor. The Lord does send the rain,
he says there, thine inheritance when it was weary. Remember the
children of Israel when they walked in the wilderness and
they said to Moses, you brought us out here into the wilderness,
And now we're going to starve to death and we don't have any
water, whatever. And the Lord said, speak to the
rock. And the rock brought forth water. And they had water. And he sent the manna. And they
were fed. He is that one who does send
the plentiful rain when thou didst confirm thine inheritance
when it was weary. Because you see, the Lord brings
a man into weariness in order that he might for a purpose.
Now there's indication that Paul was in a state of weariness when
he was walking on the Damascus road. How do we know that? Well, because the Lord said,
Saul, it is hard for thee to kick against the bricks. Now
it would indicate to me that the Lord in Saul's conscience
was sticking a hot iron to him from time to time. Perhaps when
he held the coats of those that stoned Stephen. And he looked
upon this one calling on the name of the Lord. And perhaps
the Spirit of God smoked the conscience of Saul in that time.
I don't know, but it wasn't that time when the Lord would awaken
him yet. because that came later. But
you see, the Lord, He causes His people to be weary so that
He might meet that need. And that is what it says here.
He confirmed his inheritance when it was weary. You see, we
like to think, oh man, we'll worship God when everything is
going great. Man, we're just going to get
out here and worship God. But see, what happens is people don't
worship God when everything is going great. Now, it sounds like
you would. You know, people, that's where
the praise the Lord, oh man, everything's going great, I got
a bunch of money in the bank and everything's going and I'm
hopping around here and you know, everything's going good. And
you'd think that would be the time when men would be closest
to the Lord. But it's not so. The Lord brings
weariness on His people. And it's then that they begin
to cry out unto Him. You see, David, was never so
blessed as he was whenever he was brought down to the place
of repentance before the prophet Nathan when Nathan said, Thou
art the man. One of the greatest blessings
that ever came on David because the Lord brought him to weariness.
He brought him down from that place of resting along in himself. You see, I'm sure that all during
that period of time when he had Uriah murdered, and all during
that time, I'm sure David was still going to the temple. I'm
sure that he was still engaged in his religious things. You
see? But that wasn't a good thing. The good thing was when the Lord
made him weary, it brought him down, and it caused him to cry
out to Him for mercy. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein,
in that place of weariness. Thou, Lord, O God, hast prepared
of thy goodness for the poor, blessed are the poor. Now, people don't think of the
poor being blessed, do they? And in this world, and in this
world system, they are not. But see, this being about kingdom
things, and those who are made poor, blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. See, that's that which
the Lord is pleased to bring to pass. Thou hast prepared of
thy goodness for the poor, not for those who are strong, but
for those who are weak. The Lord gave the word. Great
was the company of those that published it. Now, we can learn
a lot from that one passage of scripture right there, that one
verse. The Lord gave the word. Now this is the, this right here,
an understanding of what he's saying here is really a dividing
line between the religion of the flesh and the religion of
the spirit. The Lord gave the word. Now a
lot of people say, well, here it is, God gave the word, we've
got it, and now we need to learn it. So I want you to read three
chapters a day, and go through this study course, and you're
gonna do this, and you're gonna do that, and you're gonna learn
it. The Lord gave the word. And great was the company of
those that published it. There's probably not another
book in all the world that has been published and printed more
than the Bible. I mean, just stop and think about
it. There's probably very few households that don't have at
least one Bible. It might be stuck up on the shelf
somewhere with dust all over it, and they might not ever read
it, but I'd venture to say that just about every household has
at least one Bible in it, and probably more than that. I mean,
you can't go very far in the world without coming across the
Bible. Now, the religion of the flesh
says, well, it's great, it was published. See? But the Lord said to Paul that
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and
that He said, how shall they believe in him of whom they've
not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Now a lot of people stop right
there. And they raise the preacher up. Oh man, the preacher. This
is the one, you know, we want to bow down before him because
he's the preacher. You know that? There's a thousand
preachers. See, there's so many preachers
in the earth that you can't count them. I mean, there's preachers
of every stripe and type out there. But there's not a bunch
of the type that Paul was speaking about. He said, how shall they
preach except they be sent? Now, there's a big difference
in somebody deciding, well, I think I'll preach. I'm gonna learn
the Bible. I'm gonna go off to Bible school.
I'm gonna learn it. I'm gonna spend a few years in
seminary and then I'll be able to preach. I can get me a job. I can make me some money. Pretty
nice lifestyle. Preach a couple messages a week
and go around and see a few people and everything. Get money at
the end of the week and get a, you know, put you in a retirement
fund and, you know, get all kind of benefits and whatever and
get high esteem among men. But unless a man be sent, all
that's for nothing. I mean, it's not useful. It might
help some folks along the way. I'm not saying, you know, that
people aren't benefited. by education and those things
and people that sit under the ministry of that, I'm not saying
that they can't be blessed by it. The Lord uses all sorts of
stuff, but I'm saying this, that what the scripture's speaking
about has nothing whatsoever to do with that. The Lord said
that he could of the stones raise up men to praise him. And the
fact that a man preaches the Word of God is absolutely of
no consequence whatsoever unless he be sent. And that's what it means here,
the Lord gave the Word. And great was the company of
those that published it. The Lord has sent men into the
world to publish the Word of God, to declare it. I mean, that's
all that we're sent to do. We're not sent to change men's
minds. We're not sent to try to get
folks to join the church. We're not sent to, you know,
cause great benevolent works to arise out of the things that
we do, but to publish abroad the Kingdom of God. The Lord
said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw men unto me. Now we know
He was lifted up on Calvary's cross, but He's also lifted up
when He sends men into the world to preach it, to declare it. And you know, preaching the Word,
I'm not talking about standing behind a pulpit. That's the easy
kind of preaching. I mean, the Lord does send men
to preach in that fashion. But you see, He sends men into
the world to preach the gospel that have never stood behind
the pulpit. Because that, you see, but you
can't, a man can't cause that to happen. A word fitly spoken is like apples
of gold and pictures of silver. When the Lord sends somebody
to you with a word They don't have to stand up and take a text
and call it out and give you a verse by verse exposition. When the Lord sends somebody
to you with a word, just like Nathan, the prophet came to David. I mean, David had heard probably
Nathan many times talk about the things of God. But brother,
when the Lord sent him that day, it did something, didn't it?
Because the word, the Lord gave the word. Now that's what we
desire. It's for the Lord to give the word. Great's the company
of those that publish it. because the Lord has sent men
into our thanksgiving to God that he has sent his word by
men. But the more important thing
is the Lord gives the word. And that is what makes the word
precious, is when the Lord gives it. Now we know the Lord gave
this, but you know, and I know you can read this Bible, you
can memorize it. And there's people that have
memorized the thing. And that seems like to the flesh
that that would really be a good thing. And it is a good thing
in that respect. But David said, Thy Word have
I hid in my heart. And only the Lord can write the
Word of God in man's heart. The Lord gave the Word. Kings
of armies did flee apace. and she that tarried at home
divided the spoil kings of armies that is you know when the when
the armies went out uh... you know one of the things that
if you think about it and you wonder well what was the motivation
for all these armies and what not years ago when these people
would invade these other lands and be willing to be killed and
do all the stuff necessary to do all that. What was the motivation?
Well, the motivation was that whatever they came across, they
could get. I mean, you know, if these people
had money or whatever, they were going to get that. That was the
whole concept of war, was the spoils of war. If you conquered
a people, they were your people. You could kill them, or you could
make them slaves, or you could do whatever you wanted to. And
so that was the motivation of it. Kings of armies did flee
apace. You see, kings of armies, they went out and they did these
things. They had these things. But listen
to what it says here. And she that tarried at home
divided the spoil. Now, there's two ways you can
look at that. One is, of course, it's speaking about that the
men went out and fought the battle and the women stayed home, but
the women got the benefit when the guys brought all the stuff
back. Now, that's one way, but I look at it, I think there's
something else there. She that tarried at home, she
didn't do any fighting. Isn't that a picture of the Lord
in the conquering power? in which He has gone forth, and
He has fought our battles, and we have been the ones who have
divided the spoil. I mean, we are the ones that
have benefited from that which the Lord has done in our behalf,
and so it is. Though ye have lain among the
pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove, covered with
silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty
scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon. The
hill of gods as the hill of Bashan, and high hill as the hill of
Bashan. Now I believe that you have to take those three words,
or at least those three verses together, and you have to understand
what it is that he's speaking about here when he said, the
Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon. What is the it? The it is the
hill of Bashan. Now the hill of Bashan, or Bashan
itself, that term is a country, and it's actually a pretty prominent
country in the Old Testament, especially in the first five
or six books of the Old Testament, speaking about Bashan as a mighty
nation. Now, it's amazing how these things
recur, but the king of Bichon was a guy by the name of Og.
Now, you probably never met anybody named Og. That seems a pretty unusual name. That's kind of a name you'd think
of like a caveman would have, Og. We're going over to Og's
house. But Og, the scripture says, was
the last of the giants. Now, as you read in the book
of Genesis, it talks about there were giants in the land. And
Og was the last one. Evidently, I mean, he was, I
don't, that's a mysterious part of the scriptures, you know,
when it speaks about those giants were in the land. And I don't
know exactly what all it means, but it does say that Og was the
last of the giants. And his bedstead was nine cubits
long. He had an iron bedstead. Now
the scripture, for whatever reason, makes a point to record that. So it's important. is four cubits
wide and nine cubits long. Now that's a big bed. You know the width isn't all
that wide. I mean I think that's like six or eight feet, but the
length of the thing was like fifteen feet long. So he was
a big boy. He's mentioned in the Scriptures,
I believe, and all those details are pointed out because the Lord
sent the children of Israel in there and they destroyed Og,
who was, the Scripture says, the king of Bashan. And the Scripture
specifically says that he ruled in the mountain of Bashan. And we read in the Scripture
about the bulls of Bashan. So this was a kingdom, it was
a country that was noted for the strength and the power. The word Bashan literally means
fertile, powerful. And so when he says here, the
hill of God is as the hill of Bashan, a high hill as the hill
of Bashan. The children of Israel would
have known what that meant. That Bashan, this was a powerful
kingdom. This was that which was prominent. It was mighty. And the Lord says,
the hill of God. Now what is the hill of God? Scripture speaks about the mountain
of the Lord's house. What is the mountain of the Lord's
house? The church of God. That's absolutely correct. Now,
the world and the natural religious bent of men, they would consider
that some of the prophetic experts
tell us that, you know, all these mountains, they're going to build
the temple back on this Mount Zion because this is a glorious
thing. Well, the temple of God has already
been built. There's not another temple to
be built. Because Jesus Christ has built the temple, and he
is the head of it. And his hill, his mountain, is
the mountain of the Lord's house. It's that company of folks whose
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, whose names are
recorded. The church of the firstborn,
whose names are written in heaven. What a glorious hill this is. The hill of God's as the hill
of Bashan, a high hill. Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill which God desired
to dwell in. Yea, the Lord will dwell in it
forever. Oh, what a glorious thing, the
kingdom of God. Now, I wanted to make mention
of this one thing. I kind of got ahead of myself
a little bit, but I wanted to get that and then go back to
this. It says, though ye have line among the pots, yet ye shall
be as the wings of a dove covered with silver. You know, when they would make
pottery, they would make these pots, well
then what they did was they put them in fire to make them you know, harden
them up, just like putting pottery in a kiln. They would build these
fires and put them in there. Well, you know, when people that
didn't have any, I mean, paupers and whatnot, beggars, in the
cold part of the year, they would have these pots sitting out there,
and the only place, or one place they could get warm was to go
and lay among those pots that had been taken out of the kiln.
Now you can imagine what those pots, what color they were. They were black because of the
soot of the fire. And he says, though you have
lined among the pots, though you have been blackened, though
you have been dirty, yet ye shall be as the wings of a dove. covered
with silver and her feathers with yellow gold, when the Almighty
scattered kings in it, listen to this, it was white as snow
in Salmon. I was reading a little bit as
I thought about that, white as snow in Salmon, and I thought
about Mount Kilimanjaro over in Africa, and you see the pictures
of that mountain And it's just a mountain that just rises up. There's not any other mountains
around it. It's just one mountain. It's actually a volcano that's
been there for however long. And there's snow that covers
the peak of it. And there's a contrast between
the snow. What a contrast there is between
those whom the Lord said that he would make our sins as white
as snow. And he has indeed done that.
for those who are His people, those who fear His name, those
who desire to worship Him, those who desire to exalt Christ. He
is that one who calls His people and makes them to delight in
His truth. May the Lord help us.