All right, now if you would open
your Bibles again with me to Genesis chapter 27. Last Sunday I moved into the
book of Exodus looking at the questions, wanted to see the
questions and answers from Scripture. Wednesday night I preached from
the first half of Genesis chapter 27 and I saw a question towards
the end of the chapter that I wanted to deal with this morning. The
title of the message is Hast Thou But One Blessing. Hast Thou
But One Blessing. In verse 30, it came to pass
as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob. Now you
remember he thought he was blessing Esau, but he was really blessing
Jacob. And Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of
his father, of Isaac, his father, that Esau, his brother, came
in from his hunting. And he also had made a savory
meat and brought it unto his father and said unto his father
that my father arise and eat of his son's venison that thy
soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto
him, who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy
firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled exceedingly
and said, who? Where is he that hath taken venison
and brought it me? And I have eaten of all before
thou camest. I blessed him. Yea, and he shall
be blessed. That blessing shall not be reversed. He's been blessed and he shall
be blessed. And when Esau heard the words
of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter
cry. And said unto his father, bless me, even me also, O my
father. In verse 38, Esau said unto his
father, hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me. He just keeps saying, bless me.
I want to be blessed. Bless me. Even me also, oh my
father. And Esau lifted up his voice
and wept. Esau wanted the blessing, didn't
he? He wanted to be blessed. Here
in this chapter and throughout Esau's life, Esau didn't want
the blessor. He really wasn't interested in
the blessor. You know, that's why he sold
his birthright. The birthright wasn't just the
inheritance and the blessing and so forth. It was a relationship
with God. He said that Jacob took it from
him. Jacob didn't take it from him. He sold it to him. He sold
it to him for a bowl of beans. He wasn't interested in that
relationship with God. He just wanted blessings. He
wanted stuff. That's what he wanted. He wanted
britches and stuff and trinkets. That's what he wanted. And that's
why he asked his father Well, have you only one blessing? I
mean, bless me with something. I'll be happy with any blessing.
Just bless me with some stuff. And you know, Esau's nature and
desire there, that's our flesh, isn't it? That's our nature.
By nature, that's the way we are. We want stuff. Lord, just
give me stuff. Give me stuff. Give me trinkets.
Give me blessings. That's what we call blessings.
And that's why man's religion is so prosperous. because they
promise people what they want by nature. They promise them
stuff, promise them stuff. Now listen, you don't have to
feel guilty saying that the Lord's blessed you when he's given you
stuff, because he has, he has. There is no doubt, it's a blessing
of God to have health. Several people this week, this
very week told me, the Lord's blessed me with health all my
life long. I'm not going to complain now that it's failing. The Lord's
blessed me. You're right to say, if you have health, the Lord
gave that to you. You can say, the Lord's blessed
me. He's given me enough money to pay my bills. He gave me a
comfortable home to live in. If you have that, that's a blessing
from God. God's blessed you. There's no
question about it. It's a blessing from God. If our children are
healthy and they're happy, you know, they're doing well in life,
they're not on drugs, they're not in jail or something, that's
a blessing. I mean, certainly it is. Those
things are blessings. I'm not saying that they're not.
They are. But those things, that's what
Esau was seeking. Those things, though, are not
the blessing from God. They're not the blessing. Those
things are blessings. They're not the blessings our
soul must have. I mean, I like enough money to
pay my bills, but, you know, I can do with less. I mean, I'd
like to have health, but, you know, eventually it'll be gone. Those are not blessings my soul
must have. The blessing from God is the
blessing I must have. See, all those other things that
we call blessings, and they're blessings, but all those things,
they'll be gone someday. You may have them now, but they'll
be gone someday. You're not gonna take them with you. But the blessings,
that God gives his people can never be lost. And it can't be
undone. Like Isaac told Esau, I blessed
him and he shall be blessed. It can't be reversed. When God
blesses his people with the blessing from God, those things can never
be lost. And it's only one. We're not
talking about a bunch of different things. There's one blessing
from almighty God to his people. Esau, he just wanted any blessing,
didn't he? He wanted any blessing. The believer
can only be satisfied with one blessing. One. It's the blessing
of Christ. To know Him, be found in Him,
to be redeemed by Him. That's the blessing of God. Now
let's look in scripture and see if that's not so. First, look
over at Genesis chapter 39. Here's the first thing about
the blessing from God. They're all in Christ. The blessing
of God is in Christ. Look at Genesis 39 verse five. This is when Joseph, he'd been
sold as a slave in Egypt and this man named Potiphar had bought
him and it came to pass from the time that he had made him
overseer in his house and over all that he had, that the Lord
blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake. And the blessing
of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the
field. Now if God ever blesses any sinner,
it's for Christ's sake. And that's what's pictured here
in Genesis 39. Potiphar was not blessed because Potiphar did
anything right, did he? Potiphar was a heathen. He was
Egyptian. Potiphar was blessed for Joseph's sake. See what God
did is he blessed Joseph. God blessed Joseph. And that
overflowed onto Potiphar. got some benefit from that. I
have to give you a modern day illustration of this. A number
of years ago, I was working for a company, had a man I worked
with. I counted him a dear, dear, dear friend. He was very dear
to me. And we worked closely together. And we got, he and
I, got this opportunity to go up to the University of Kentucky
And Tubby Smith was coach of the men's basketball team. And
we got to go in and watch a basketball practice and tour the facilities
and things afterwards. And he told me, he said, why
don't you take your brother with you? And you and him go. I thought
you and I would go. And he said, no. He said, take
your brother. He said, you tell Jonathan. My love for you overflowed
onto him. That's why he's getting this.
It's not because I love him. It's because I love you. And
that's why he's going to get to go. That's what happened to
Potiphar. God's blessing on Joseph overflowed
onto Potiphar and he became rich. He became richer because God
was blessing Joseph. Now you see the picture? God's
blessed his son. The father has blessed his son.
He's given him every blessing for his people that he promised
he'd give him in the covenant of grace. And God's elect are
blessed for Christ's sake. Never for our sake, never because
of what we've done or what we haven't done. It's always for
Christ's sake. We haven't done anything right,
have we? But our Savior did. He did everything
right. He did everything right, and
the Father blesses His Son because the Son did everything the Father
sent Him to do. The Father loves the Son, and
He blesses the Son, and His people are blessed because we have a
relationship with the Son. When the Father blesses the Son,
He blesses everybody in His Son. And the Father blessed His Son
with every spiritual blessing. Every blessing that Christ earned
for His people, the Father has blessed Him with. And the only
reason you and I will ever receive any of those blessings is because
we're in Christ. When the Father blesses His Son,
He blesses His people. Whatever the Father gives to
the head, the body gets too, doesn't it? Now every other blessing
we're going to look at this morning, It's part of the blessing. The
blessing from God. Just remember this at each point.
These blessings are only ours because Christ earned it. And
they're ours in Him. We're blessed for Christ's sake.
Alright, now look at Psalm 3. The third Psalm. Here's the second
point. God blesses His people with the
salvation of their souls. Oh, we just can't even Truly understand in this life
what a blessing it is that our souls be saved. That we'd be
saved from our sin. That we'd be saved from God.
We'd be saved from God's wrath. That we'd be saved from ourselves.
We'd be saved from our sinful nature. We'd be saved from the
power of sin. God blesses his people with the
salvation of their souls. Their souls. God's blessing primarily. They're not physical blessings.
When God blesses His people, it's spiritual blessing. Psalm
3 verse 8. Ask of me. Wait a minute, I'm
wrong. Yeah, 3 verse 8. Salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Now salvation belongs to the
Lord. It's His to give. Sin has been all against God. Salvation is His to give. And
God the Son came and purchased salvation. He purchased it with
His own blood. That's His. It belongs to His. It's His by right and He purchased
it. He purchased it with His blood. That's His. He gives it to whomsoever He
will, when He will. It's His choice because He's
the sovereign Savior. Salvation belongs to the Lord. But I'm telling you, He gives
it to His people freely. You don't ever have to worry
about God Almighty holding back on salvation. It's his to give,
and he gives it to his people freely. Now let the doubting, worrying,
fearful hearts of sinners be calmed. Not one of God's elect
will ever perish. Not one. If Christ died for you,
you can never perish. And you say, oh, but I'm so sinful.
I'm just, oh, preacher, you don't know how sinful I am. I'm so
sinful. Well, that's true. But don't
let your heart fear. Christ came to save sinners.
See, I'm worried about you if you said, well, now I'm a sinner,
but I've done this and this and this right. Now I'm worried about
you. Because your sin is not what's keeping you from the Savior.
No, Christ came to save sinners. It's our self-righteousness that
keeps us from the Savior in it. We will not submit ourselves
to the righteousness of Christ. That's a problem. But if God
showed you you're a sinner, I know it's awful. I know it's awful. There's no excuse for it. Oh,
we ate it. But don't let your heart down.
Christ came to save sinners. Salvation belongs to Him, and
He gives it to His people freely. Now, I'm not up here this morning
giving you a fairy tale. I'm not up here this morning
giving you just a heartwarming story. That's not true. There's
a concrete reason that all of God's elect shall be saved. They shall be. And the reason
is this. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It belongs to the Lord. If God
Almighty has saved you, if he went to the extreme, to send
his son to this earth for you, to obey God's law, to be made
under the law and to obey God's law for you. If he went to the
extreme of humiliating his son, to make his son appear in the
likeness of human flesh, in the weakness of human flesh, if he
went to the extreme to make his holy son sin for you and to slaughter
his son as a horrible, horrible, bloody sacrifice for sin. If
He made His Son your substitute to bear what you deserve, what do you think God's going
to do with you now? Huh? Now that the transaction's done,
what do you think God's going to do with you now? If God Almighty's
put your sin away, He will never, ever allow you to perish. The Father is not going to allow
the blood of His Son to be wasted. The Father is not going to allow
the sacrifice of His Son to be wasted. Would you allow something
like that to be sacrificed, one of your children? We're just
people. We're just creatures. What do
you think about God the Father? He's not going to allow the blood
of His Son to be wasted. He's not going to kill Him in
vain. Whoever it is Christ died for, they shall be saved. Because salvation belongs to
the Lord, and He's going to give it to His people. They're going
to have it. Now this blessing of salvation, I mean, it's a
spiritual blessing, isn't it? It's a blessing that's in the
heart. But doesn't that help you as you walk through this
world below? That helps, doesn't it? God's
elect enjoy this blessing, the spiritual blessing in the heart,
the salvation of our souls. And we find, now we need money,
we need silver and gold, but the salvation of your soul is
a whole lot better than silver and gold, isn't it? Even though our own
sin and this world of sin troubles us, God's people enjoy the forgiveness
of sin, salvation from that sin that troubles us. This earth is not a peaceful
place. It's not peaceful in any way.
But if God saved you, you enjoy peace with God, even though there's
no peace in this world. You may be going through a trial
that is It's just deep. We call them
deep waters. We call them times of darkness
and trouble. We call them afflictions. But
there's peace. I said it before, I'll say it
again. It may not be well with my body. It may not be well with
my mind. But it's well with my soul. Peace. You can only enjoy that if God
saved you. If God saved you, you can enjoy God's provision
for you. when we can't provide for ourselves,
whether it's much or little, we can enjoy it. God's people
have the comforting presence of almighty God, his spirit in
our hearts, and we're comforted when there's no earthly reason
to be comforted. The pain is the same as it ever
was. The difficulty of the trial is the same as it ever was. The
worry is the same as it ever was, but there's comfort of heart. and a believer wouldn't trade
that comfort of heart for removing the trial. The comfort of the
heart is better. When God saves a man's soul,
a woman's soul, that helps us all through this life below,
doesn't it? Oh, it's a blessing. It's a blessing that's lasting.
Comfort and help to the believer. All right, now look at Psalm
32. Here's the third thing. God blesses his people with the
forgiveness of sin. David talks about forgiveness
here in several different terms. But in verse 1, Psalm 32, he
said, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. At first, David says a person
is truly blessed. This is a blessing from God when
our transgression is forgiven. Now that word transgression,
It means a revolt against God's authority. Transgression is to
say, no God, I won't submit to your authority over me. I don't
like it. I won't have it. Where do we get that nature and
that attitude from our father Adam? That was Adam's problem
in the garden. No God, I won't have you be God
over me. I won't have you make the rules
over me. If I eat this fruit, I'm going to know good and evil.
I'll be able to say what's good and evil. I won't have God to
reign over me. As Adam's problem in the garden,
it's our problem today. It's the root of every transgression.
It's our revolt against authority. It's to say, God, I won't obey
your law. You've given me that law, but
now I don't like it. OK, I like this commandment,
so I'll do that. This commandment, I can kind
of do that, so I like that one. This one I don't like, so I'm
not doing that. That's not fair. We just say, well, that's old
ancient writing that doesn't apply to today. You know what
that is? That's rebellion. That's transgression. I won't obey God's law. God says,
come to me, ask for forgiveness. Let's raise him together. Though
your sins be as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. Now come beg
for mercy. Come beg for forgiveness. We said, no, God, I won't. I
won't do what you command me to do. I will not submit myself
to the righteousness of Christ. I'm going to go about and establish
my own righteousness. Thank you very much. I can do this myself.
Now that's every one of us by nature. It's the nature of Adam. We're rebels against God's right
to rule over us. And I'll tell you what that is.
It's high treason. It's high treason. If somebody
committed high treason against this country, we wouldn't raise
a fuss if they put that person to death, would they? No, we
wouldn't. That's high treason against this country. What about
high treason against God? Huh? Every one of us is a transgressor. And that way we revolted against
God's authority over us. That's why David said, and we're
all transgressors, but blessed is the man whose transgression
is forgiven. Now, when God forgives transgression,
when God forgives this treason against him, he doesn't just
say, Well, that's okay. I mean, you won't do it again.
Well, if you won't do it again, okay, I won't punish you for
it. That's not the way God forgives transgression. When God forgives
the transgression of his people, he does it by punishing Christ,
our substitute, for our transgression. He made his son guilty of the
transgression of his people, and he punished him for it. That
brings me to this word forgiven. That's what the word forgiven
means. Or if a transgression is forgiven, you're blessed.
That word means we had in our Sunday school lesson too, lift
it off and carry it away. God forgives the sin of his people,
the transgression of his people by lifting it off of them and
putting it on Christ our substitute. And he carried it away so that
it is no more. That's how God forgives the transgression
of his people. He did it by punishing his son
fully for the transgression of his people. That's why the son
of God died. He had to die for the revolt,
the transgression of his people. And he did. And since Christ
died, he rose again for the transgression of his people. That transgression
is never coming back. It's been lifted off and carried
away. I would have to say The greatest
blessing a sinner could have before God is that he would forgive
our transgressions. What a miracle. What a miracle. Oh, how we've sinned against
God. How we've revolted against his authority. And God forgives. Tell you, the blessed person
is not the morally upright person who does everything right and
doesn't need forgiveness. The blessed person is the transgressor. who needs to be forgiven, and
God forgives them. God forgives them by punishing
His Son in their place. I tell you, if we don't have
this blessing, the forgiveness of our transgression, no other material blessing really
matters. It really doesn't. Matter of fact, all those other
material blessings are just a curse that adds to our condemnation,
because we never say thank you, God. It never makes us seek God
and thank Him for it. If you don't have this blessing
of the forgiveness of your transgression, no other blessing matters. See,
there's only one. You can have all the other stuff
in this world, but it's only one. This is the only one that
matters, isn't it? Then David says a person is truly
blessed if their sin is covered. That word sin is different than
transgression. It means an offense, a crime. Boy, that's all of us. We all
should be in those striped jumpsuits, aren't we? We're all criminals.
Criminals before God because we've broken His law. And you
know, we're not just come before the judge and they say, well,
they're guilty of this one crime. We're going to have a trial,
you know, about this one crime, sentencing for this one crime. God says
to offend in one point of His law is to break the whole law. Woo! That makes us very offensive,
doesn't it? makes us very offensive because
we've broken all of God's law. Now, when God covers the sins
of his people. He doesn't cover it up and hide
it, even though it's still there. You know, God's all seeing eye.
He'd still see it. He'd still know it's there. That
offense of sin, if he just covered it, even though it was still
there. When God covers sin. He takes it away. Takes it away,
takes away the sin itself. He takes away the offense itself.
He takes away the fill and the stench of sin by actually removing,
by covering it in the blood of Christ so that it's gone. When sin is covered by the blood
of Christ, it's gone. Now hold your finger there in
psalm. Look, look back at the second Samuel chapter 12 for
a second. Well, I'll show you how we get in trouble when we
try to cover our own sins. You know, we've all done that.
We've sinned and just tried to cover it up so nobody knows it.
That's what David did. Remember his sin with Bathsheba? He committed adultery with her.
She became with child. So David tried to cover his sin.
He tried to get her husband Uriah to come back and spend the night
with her. So everybody would think it's Uriah's child. Uriah
wouldn't go home to his wife. He's so faithful to David. He
slept outside David's door. He would not go home to his wife.
Well, his men, his other soldiers are back there. They couldn't
go to their wives. They were still on the battlefield. So he wouldn't
go to his wife. He's a faithful servant of David, slept outside
David's door. So David had this friend, faithful,
faithful man killed so he could marry Bathsheba and try to cover
this sin. I don't know how long a time
that took, but you know people. People can do math. People can
do math. Bathsheba starts showing. The
baby starts to come, they think. It hasn't been nine months since
they've been married. They may not have been brave
enough to say it to David, but I bet he didn't cover his sin
from people. And I promise you he didn't cover his sin from
God. God sent Nathan to him and said, David, you're the man.
And look what David says here, verse 12, 2 Samuel chapter 12. Nathan says to him, thou did
this thing secretly. You try to do it and hide it.
God says, I'll do this thing before all Israel and before
the Son. Everybody's going to see how
I deal with this, David. And David said unto Nathan, I have
sinned against the Lord. I've committed a crime, an offense
against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the
Lord also have put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Oh, blessed
is the man, huh? Happy is the man whose sin is
covered in the blood of Christ. His sin has been put away. David couldn't hide his sin.
David couldn't put away his sin, his sin against God, but in his
mercy and grace to his people, God did it for him. God put it
away, so he shall not die. Oh, if your sin is covered in
the blood of Christ, how blessed you are. You shall not die. You shall not die. God's blessed
you. Then look back here to Psalm 32, verse two. Blessed is the
man if the Lord does not impute iniquity to them. Verse two.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity
and in whose spirit there is no guile. Now that word impute,
you hear that a lot. People talk about imputed righteousness.
Impute is an accounting term. People, when they talk about
impute, it's just like, well, just God just counted it this
way, they just, you know. That's not what it means. Impute
is an accounting term. It means to count what's really
there. You know, you can only count.
You can only impute what is actually there. You know, you count your
money and you impute it to your bank. It's what's actually there. You can't impute money that you
don't have. I can't impute a million dollars
to my bank account. You know why? I don't have a
million dollars. You can only impute what you
actually have. That's what impute means. This
is an actual accounting term. You put on the ledger what you
actually have, what's actually there. And the word iniquity,
David uses here, means perversity and a moral evil. He's describing
us by nature in me. See, iniquity is not just what
we do. Iniquity is what we are. We are perversity. We are moral
evil. That's why we commit sin. Now,
here's the question. How can God honestly not impute
what's actually there? My iniquity is actually there.
How can God not impute that iniquity, that perversity, that moral evil
to me? How can he not do that? I mean,
it's there. How can he not impute it to me? Here's how he does
it. By making his people not perverse
and not morally evil. The father lifted the sin of
his people off of them and he put it on Christ. He made Christ
sin for his people. He imputed sin to Christ because
it was there, because he put it there. And in exchange, he
made his people the righteousness of God in him. He imputed righteousness
to his people because that's what he made them. So he made
them righteous. The only thing God can do is
impute righteousness to them, count them as righteous because
they are righteous because that's what God made them. So if the
Lord Jesus Christ, if he suffered and died for my sin, I tell you,
I'm blessed. Christ suffered and died for
your sin. You're blessed of God. You can never perish. If Christ
suffered for you, God's not angry at you. He already poured His
anger out upon His Son. Upon Christ, your substitute.
So what's God... If He poured out all His wrath
against your sin on your substitute, Christ covered it. His blood
put it away. What has God got left for you?
Huh? Nothing but a smiling face. Nothing
but mercy. grace and forgiveness. Oh, you're
blessed of God if your transgression is forgiven. Then look over page
Psalm 34. Here's the fourth thing. God blesses his people with the
gift of faith in his son. Psalm 34, verse eight. David
says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is
the man that trusteth in him. Now this thing of trusting Christ
is personal. Nobody else can do it for you.
You must trust Christ. I must trust, you must trust
personally. Now David tells us, oh, we've
got a gospel to preach. David tells us, he said, I've
tasted of God's goodness and mercy. God came to me. and said,
you shall not die. I've taken away yourself. I've
tasted it. Oh, it's sweet. I've tasted of his goodness.
I've tasted the mercy of the Lord. It's a banquet. And every
bite is delicious. Every taste is delicious. Now,
David says, now you taste it, too. I've tasted it. Now you
taste it. I tell you, there's nothing sweeter
than grace, is there? Not to a sinner, there's not.
I mean, the first taste of God's grace is just as sweet It's the
very last taste of it before we give up the ghost in this
life. God just keeps giving grace, keeps giving grace, and keeps
giving the sweet grace to his people. And a believer never
gets tired of it. How can you get tired of forgiveness?
How do you get tired of mercy? How can you get tired of the
sweet taste of God's grace? David tells us the Lord's good.
Oh, the gospel is sweet to the taste. But now you've got to
trust Christ your own self. You have to take his body and
his blood and eat it and drink it. You must be joined to Christ
by faith. You must call on God and ask
for forgiveness. You must seek the Lord. You must
come to Christ. It's not good enough to be close
now. You must come to Christ. And I'll just use food for this
body as an example. I could see a table of real good
food, and I could be starving to death, and I could smell that
food. That won't do me any good. I
might look at the food. It won't do me any good. I might
know how that food was prepared and all the healthy ingredients
that went into it and how long you cooked it. But knowing that,
that won't do me any good. I might know biology. I might
know if I ate this food, I understand the biology of how that's going
to go into my body and be digested and go to all the cells of my
body and how to help my body. I might know that. But if I don't
eat it, That knowledge doesn't do me any good, does it? I may
agree with others. This is good food. This tastes
good. It's good for you. This is what you ought to eat.
I might agree with others who are sitting eating it. But if
I don't eat it with them, if I don't join with them and eat
it, that food is not going to do me any good until I take it
and I eat it. Now the same thing is true spiritually. Knowing the doctrines of grace. won't do me any good until I
believe Christ. It's not doctrine that saves
you, now it's Christ. It's good to know the doctrine, but just
knowing is not going to help you. You must believe Christ.
You must. Agreeing with others who believe
the gospel, who believe on Christ, and they say, oh, Christ is sufficient.
He's all it takes to save you. And you tell them, I agree. But
agreeing with them won't do you any good until you call on Christ. You've got to believe Him. And
I'm telling you right now, right now, where you sit, you call
on Christ. You take, you eat, you lay hold
upon Christ. You eat and just let the gospel
roll around on your tongue. Just taste every drop of God's
grace and you'll be saved. Your soul will be fed. Your heart
will be strengthened. Now here's why David says the
person who believes on Christ like that is blessed. I told
you, you must believe on Christ. Let me let you in on a little
secret. You can't do it. You can't make yourself do it.
If you believe on Christ, you know why you do? It's because
God's blessed you with the gift of faith. So that you believe
Christ and you can't not believe Him. Do you believe Christ? Huh? Is He your all? Is He all
you need? All you want? You're blessed
with God. Do you not believe Christ? Did
that illustration I told you about agreeing that the food
is good and understanding how it would help you and it looks
good and it smells good, but it's not going to do you good
until you take and eat it. Do you understand that spiritually?
You know in your heart, I understand the gospel, I hear it every week,
but I don't believe Christ. Do you know that about yourself?
What has told you where faith's come from? Call on God and ask
him to give it to you. It's a gift of his grace. Ask
him to give it to you. Ask him. Oh, God blesses his
people with the gift of faith in his son. All right, now look
at Psalm 94. Here's the fifth thing. And as you turn, get a hold of
your seat here. I'm going to make a statement
that may get you. God blesses His people with trials. Psalm 94, verse 12. Blessed is
the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest to him out
of thy law. Blessed is the man when God tries
him. And you might think, all right,
preacher, I was with you earlier. You said we're blessed in Christ.
I am in that. You talk about the blessing of
salvation, the blessing, the forgiveness of my sin, the blessing
of the forgiveness of my transgression, the blessedness of being covered
in the blood of Christ. Oh, I am in you. I'm right with
you. You talk about the blessing of the gift of faith. God gives
me the gift to believe in Christ. That's a blessing. Preacher,
I am in you there. But being blessed with a painful
trial, I don't know about that one.
I just don't know. Well, look at Hebrews chapter
12. I understand. I understand that feeling, what
you're saying, but it's true. The Lord blesses his people with
trials. You know, the blessing is not
the correction. It's not the affliction. It's
not the pain. The blessing is the result of the trial. The
result of it. Look at Hebrews 12 verse 6. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth. He scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. If the Lord chastens you, if
he scourges you with trials, you're blessed, aren't you? That's
the evidence God loves you. That's the evidence he's made
you a son and daughter of the king. In verse seven, if you
endure chastening, God's dealing with you as with sons. For what
son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers. All of God's children are partakers.
Then are you bastards and not sons. See, the chastening of
the Lord is evidence I am a child of God. Oh, it's a blessing to
know I'm a child of God. Oh, what a blessing that is.
Now look at verse 11, that same chapter. Now, no chastening,
no trial for the present seems to be joyous, but it's grievous.
Nevertheless, afterwards, It yieldeth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. See, chastening
doesn't feel like a blessing when you're going through it,
does it? No, it's painful. The blessing is the results of the
chastening. It's what we see afterwards. It's what we learn afterwards. So there's things that we can
only learn in the furnace of trial. You just can only learn
it there. that's chastening, trials and
corrections from the Lord. It yields the peaceable fruit
of righteousness. And if you have that peaceable
fruit of righteousness, you're blessed. That's why David said,
it's good for me that I've been afflicted. It's good for me because
I learned something. I learned something I couldn't
have learned any other way. I've learned it by experience. There's
a difference between book learning and experience in there. All
my life long, I have known God's grace is sufficient. I've heard
it read, I read it my own self. You can read and memorize that
from a book. If the Lord has given any sense whatsoever, God's
grace is sufficient. You can memorize those four words.
But you know what trials teach us? Trials teach us by experience,
God's grace is sufficient. God's grace is enough to trouble
my heart in the midst of that awful, Awful, awful storm, very
great about it. God's grace is sufficient to
comfort my heart even though the storm's still raging. When
the Savior comes to you and says, peace, peace be to you, don't
fear. Trials also increase our faith
by teaching us to trust Christ more fully. Now I know the Savior
will come, that God will come and he'll deliver in his time.
Now I know it by experience. So you know that by experience,
the Lord, He'll come, He'll deliver in His time, at the right time.
Then that teaches me next time to trust Him and wait on Him.
And when the trial is over, now I see what the Lord was teaching
me. He taught me something here.
And any time the Lord teaches me to trust Him more fully, to
rest in Him more fully, That's a blessing. You're blessed. All right, now last. I want to
give you something. This is good. Deuteronomy chapter 28. This is something
you take with you everywhere you go. If the Lord's blessed
you with the blessing, like Jacob was blessed. If God blesses you
with the blessing, you're blessed wherever you go. Whatever you're
doing, whatever it is you may be going through, you are blessed. Deuteronomy 28, verse 1. And it shall come to pass, if
thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy
God, to observe and do all his commandments which I command
thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high
above all nations on earth. And all these blessings shall
come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the
voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the
city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall
be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, the
fruit of thy cattle, and the increase of thy kind, and the
flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and
thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed
shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall cause thine
enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy
face. They shall come out against thee one way, and they shall
flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing
upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest
thine hand unto. And he shall bless thee in the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee
and holy people unto himself as he has sworn unto thee, that
thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk
in his ways. The off-lords blessed you with
thee blessing. He blessed you in your soul.
He saved you. He's covered your transgressions. He's forgiven
you. I tell you, you're blessed. You're
blessed if you're city folk or country folk. The Lord will bless
you when you go out in the morning, when you come in in the evening. You'll be blessed in your family.
Whether your children all believe or not, you'll be blessed in
your family. You'll be blessed in your possessions.
Whether you have many or whether you have few, you'll be blessed.
Your enemies, They're real, but they'll not prosper against you.
The Lord will drive them out. Where it is you go, God's blessings
are going to overtake you. You're not going to outrun them,
and the Lord will establish you. Establish you. He'll make you
a holy people unto himself, and you will have all these blessings
and never lose them. Because God says, I command them
to you. I command them upon you. Oh,
if the Lord's blessed you. but the blessing. You're blessed,
aren't you? Blessed. And that's the blessing I pray.
I beg God he'd give each one of us. And that's the blessing
I pray, Lord, give us the wisdom to seek after. That's the blessing
from God. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, we thank you for this blessing. The blessing of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation, redemption, forgiveness
of sin in you. And Father, we cry out to you
as needy, Guilty sinners, we cry out to you as your children. Father, bless us. Bless us for
Christ's sake. Oh, would you bless us with the
covering of our forgiveness of our transgression, the covering
of our sin. Would you take it away from us
and bless us with your presence. Bless us, Father, for Christ's
sake. Father, would you get glory to
your name. Show forth your glory in our
day. by giving this blessing to this people here. Father,
it's in Christ's sake, for his glory, the sake of his name and
his gospel, we pray, amen. All right, Sean.